For one to be good, one must first witness pure darkness.- Unknown
The night was quiet, the only sounds that were present being sounds of the cicadas singing their songs through the night. Though it was a pleasant night for some, for others it was a dark and cold night, filled with the peril of a Grimm invasion, for many so this was their worst fear. Especially for the small village of HacHaka, a village filled with farmers, fishermen and merchants, all silently working in harmony with each other to keep their town operating. The continued amount of Grimm attacks in other towns bringing fear of a attack to any town or village that hadn't seen any Grimm activity, HacHaka being one of those villages. Slowly, the villagers had started to see the dangers and correct them, from having people set up alarms to the perimeter of the village to set areas where only few could go. Tonight though, was thought to be a quiet night for a family of two, a mother and her fifteen year old son, the quiet night getting cut short when a rapid and loud knocking was present on the door to their house, ringing throughout the house.
"I got it mum!" Shouted the boy, walking to the front door of the house, opening it to see who was there, he saw a ungodly sight. In front of the boy, leaning on the doorframe, was a woman. The stranger was dressed in a long purple shirt and a pair of torn purple jeans, her purple hair in a mess, covering her left eye, her right eye covered by a white eye patch. The woman was clutching her abdomen, hand covered in crimson blood.
"Oh god." Said the boy to himself as the woman collapsed off of the door frame, the boy catching her before she hit the ground, putting her arm over his shoulder.
"Mum! Get the medical kit!" Shouted the boy to his mother as he walked with the semiconscious person into the lounge room, gently placing them on a small wooden table.
"What's wro-" Said the boy's mother as she walked into the room holding the medical kit, her sentence stopping when she caught sight of the person laying on the table.
"What happened?!" Asked the boy's mother to her son, her voice filled with fear as her son grabbed the small box out of his mother's hands and quickly opened it and began digging through it.
"I have no clue, she just showed up at the door!" Answered the son as he tore open one of the packets of alcohol swab, taking the swab and running it over the woman's wound, not even causing her to recoil at the sting.
"Argh!" Groan the boy, trying to rub the swab over the woman's wound to disinfect it, but her clothes were stopping is from making contact with most of her skin.
"Dammit." Said the boy as he held one of his hands over the wound whilst opening another packet of swab with his other.
"Ma'am! I'm going to have to get you shirt off okay?" The boy said loudly, groaning when the woman didn't show a sign of hearing him.
"If I can take you shirt off, hold up your left hand." The boy said, followed by the woman raising her left hand.
"Mum! I need clean scissors!" The boy said to his mother, who then ran off at her son's request and returned with a pair of clean scissors, who took them and started to cut the woman's shirt from the bottom to the top.
"Do you have a bra on?" Asked the boy as the scissors reached her chest, the boy wanting to make sure that she had no cuts above her main wound, to which the woman raised her left hand to confirm.
"Alright." The boy said as he cut to the top of her shirt, ripping if off once he had cut it in half down the front.
"Oh god." The boy muttered as he looked over the woman's battle scared body. The immediate cuts that she had were a open wound on her chest and a small cut going across her stomach.
"This may sting." The boy said to the woman as he got the piece of swab that he had opened and held it above her wounds, warning her of the coming pain, to which the woman raised her left had, telling the boy to do it. He sighed as he put the swab against her wound and ran in over all of her wounds and cuts, awe clear on his face as the woman didn't flinch or grimace at the stinging sensation on her body.
"Okay, gotta dress it." The boy said as he put down the swab that he had been using, picking up a roll of bandages, which he unraveled and and wrapped around her body, asking his mother for help when he needed to wrap the bandage around her back. After nearly finishing the roll of bandages, he had successfully covered all of the woman's wounds that were present on her body.
"Are you in pain?" Asked the boy once he had put down the roll and picked up a small packet that was in the medical kit, to which to girl answered that she was.
"Alright, I'm going to give you some medicine to help that pain and make you sleep, okay?" Asked the boy, once again getting the okay from the woman.
"Okay." The boy said to himself as he got two tablets out of the small box of medicine and put them in the girl's open mouth, the girl swallowing without water. After a minute the girl had fallen asleep on the table that she was laying on, as she was probably exhausted the boy guessed. The boy then stood up and looked at his clothes that were now covered in blood.
"Okay then. I didn't think yellow was your colour anyway." Said the boy's mother jokingly, making fun of the boy's shirt, making both of them laugh.
"What are we going to do with her?" Asked the mother, looking at the woman.
"She can sleep in my bed tonight, I'll sleep on the sofa in my room." Replied the boy as he picked up the woman bridal style, taking her to his room where he layer her down onto his bed gently, before taking off his bloodstained clothes and putting on a pair of pyjamas.
"Night lady." Said the boy as he lay down on the sofa that was present in his room, smiling to himself knowing that he had helped someone that day, falling asleep soon after.
For one to be good, one must first witness pure darkness.- Unknown
As she woke up, she felt sore and tired, but at the same time she felt good after a nights rest. "What has it been… A week?" The woman thought to herself as she lay where she was. "Wait, since when are trees bouncy?" The woman questioned herself, jumping up out of her sleeping state, reaching for her weapon. But, she was startled to see that she was laying on a comfy bed, in a nice and pleasant room with a boy staring at her. "Wait..." The woman thought to herself, looking at the boy who was sitting on a sofa and looking at her.
"Hi." The boy said as he waved at her, a smile on his face.
"Where am I?" Asked the woman, knowing that the boy couldn't have kidnapped her, and if so definitely wouldn't have given her a bed.
"Your in the village of HacHaka, you knocked on my door last night, I opened it and you collapsed, I treated your wounds." The boy answered, pointing to the bandages on her abdomen and chest.
"Thank you." Said the woman as she ran her hand over the bandages.
"You want a shirt?" Asked the boy, gesturing to how she didn't have a shirt on.
"Yes please." The woman said, the boy going to a drawer and pulling out a spare shirt, tossing it her direction, the woman catching it and putting it on.
"What's your name?" Asked the boy, seemingly curious to know about the woman.
"I don't have a name." Replied the woman as she stood gently to test her strength.
"How come?" Asked the boy as he stood by the woman's side, helping her stay steady as she walked.
"I don't tell people that. All I know is that I never had a name." Answered the woman, clutching her abdomen in pain as she took each step.
"Huh. Last night you looked like something had squashed you." Said the boy, making the woman chuckle lightly.
"That's what I do, I go around and kill Grimm." Said the woman, smiling as she recalled what she had done for countless places.
"I got it." The boy announced proudly, opening the door to his room and walking out with the woman.
"What?" Asked the woman, curious to know what the boy had figured out.
"Your name. Why not Squash?" Answered the boy, causing the woman to go into a deep train of thought.
"Squash… I like it." The woman said, smiling at the idea of having a name.
"Well, it's nice to meet you Squash." The boy said excitedly, the two walking into a kitchen area were the boy's mother was cooking.
"Oh, your awake!" Exclaimed the woman once she saw her son and the stranger enter the kitchen.
"How are you feeling?" Asked the boy as he helped Squash into one of the chairs that surrounded a table.
"Better." Answered Squash as she gently touched each of her wounds through the dressing on them.
"What's your name kid?" Squash asked to the boy, who had also taken a seat at the table, his seat directly opposite of her seat.
"Mick. Mick Key." Said Mick as he held his hand out over the table, Squash shaking it happily, Mick silently screaming at the woman's grip.
"Nice to meet you Mick." Replied Squash, letting go of his hand which he gingerly retracted.
"And what's your name young lady?" Asked Mick's mother as she put down a plate of pancakes in front of her and Mick, before getting herself a plate and taking a seat.
"It's Squash." Replied Squash, who sounded distant while she was looking at the plate of food in front of her.
"What's up Squash?" Questioned Mick, seeing the way that Squash was staring at the plate of food, his voice bringing her back to reality.
"I get to eat this?" Squash asked hesitantly, looking to her feet that were under the table.
"Of course!" Exclaimed Mick's mother, taking a bite of her own pancakes.
"Uhh, I don't know how to use cutlery." Squash said shyly as she tried to hide her face as much as she could by looking down.
"It's okay Squash, just pick up the fork." Instructed Mick, Squash following his instructions.
"And know pick up the knife." Said Mick, Squash picking it up.
"Cut through the pancake." Mick said as he cut off a small piece of his pancake, Squash following his example.
"Now stab it with you fork, and eat it." Mick said, Squash following his instructions once again, before having her face light up as she eat more of her pancakes, finishing after a minute.
"Damn." Said Mick as he looked at Squash's empty plate, the woman smiling happily, her smile turning into a frown when she heard screaming from the street.
"What the?" Questioned Mick as he rose from his seat, rushing to the door with Squash on his tail. Opening the door they were greeted with the sight of people in the street running from a pack of Beowolves, the animals mindlessly slaughtering people if they got close enough.
"Oh shit." Mick said out loud as he looked onto the far side of his street, seeing a little girl that was getting surrounded by Beowolves.
"Get ready." Squash said as she set her jaw and took of her eye patch, placing it on her left eye, staring at the small group surrounding the little girl whilst doing so.
"Wha-" Started Mick, stopping mid sentence when Squash reached over her shoulder and pulled a deep purple recurve bow out of it's sheath. Squash then reached her unoccupied had back and pulled a arrow out of a quiver, she then loaded the arrow into her bow, pulling the string back and letting loose the arrow, effectively killing one of the Beowolves, while also drawing the animals attention to herself, forgetting about the little girl.
"Come at me." Snarled Squash, causing the Beowolves to rush at her, to which she flicked a switch on her bow, making it change into a bolt action sniper rifle, firing high caliber rounds into the animals skulls, mowing the beasts down.
After Squash had killed the Beowolves, she changed her rifle into the bow and ran to the little girl who was sitting on the other side of the street.
"Little girl, we must go, it's not safe." Squash said calmly to the small girl, the girl rising a bit but falling back down to the ground.
"My leg hurts." The girl said, causing Squash to pick her off of the ground and rush back over to where Mick was standing.
"Take care of her." Squash said as she put the small girl into Mick's arms and turned around, hearing more screams.
"What about you?" Asked Mick, confused by the look on the woman's face, who turned around to answer the question.
"I'm a vagabond. I'll figure it out. Tell your mother I said thanks." Squash said as she turned fully, giving Mick a look at what her eye patch had been covering. In place of right eye, was a lifeless orb glowing pure white. Squash turned around just as Mick got a good look at her eye and ran towards the screams from the other side of the village, disappearing from sight once she had expertly scaled the side of one of the buildings.
"Let's get you inside okay?" Mick said to the scared girl in his arms, who nodded their head against his chest.
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