"Are we there yet?"
"For the last time, no."
"Gaah! It feels like we've been walking for years, though!"
Kagami and Winda were walking casually down a deserted road in the country, both bored out of their minds. Kagami was fighting his boredom by doing what he did best; annoy Winda, who was actually bored enough to put up with it. The sun was blaring down on them, and Kagami kept adjusting his backpack to try to stave off the heat. Winda on the hand was feeling surprisingly comfortable, barely feeling the heat under his Teigu.
Kagami had expressed shock at the ancient weapon, genuinely surprised that the village elder had something so powerful hidden away, and quite a bit jealous that such a weapon had not been passed to him instead. The prospect of traveling to the Capitol, however, quickly distracted him, and he began to list off all the amazing Teigu he would find once they arrived.
"I'm just saying," Kagami repeated again, much to Winda's annoyance. "I just know there's Teigu in the Capitol way better than that Phantomhive of yours. Like, yea, you get to be intangible and shit, but what if there's a Teigu that can teleport you to a volcano or something? Or maybe a gun that NEVER misses?" He began waving his arms in the air, as though he was firing a bunch of guns. "Blam blam, you're down for the count. But don't worry bro, I got your back." He said, preparing to clap Winda on the back. Winda activated Phantomhive, feeling slightly disoriented at the sensation of going intangible, and watched as Kagami's arm went straight through him. Kagami, unbalanced after hitting nothing but air, fell to the ground.
Chuckling, Winda pulled Kagami back to his feet, who was now covered in dirt. "Just for that, you're on your own, asshole." Kagami swore, brushing himself off.
"If you keep talking shit, you're gonna get hit." Winda remarked, continuing down the path even as Kagami swore obscenities under his breath. The two quickly stilled when they heard rustling from the bushes, and Kagami was quick to leap just as an arrow flew at him, barely glancing his sandals. Another arrow nearly hit Winda, who managed to dodge it by juking to the side instead of activating his intangibility. A group of men and women jumped out, a few brandishing knives, and a few holding bows and loading up another set of arrows.
One man walked forward, missing an eye and wearing rags. He held up a hand to command the other bandits to hold. "I'll make this clear." He said to Kagami and Winda. "You're outnumbered and outgunned. Give us all your valuables and we'll let you leave here alive. You have my word."
Kagami laughed. "Pretty funny way of offering to spare us, trying to shoot us before even offering the ultimatum." He cracked his neck, and pulled out his sword. "Let's switch up the deal a bit. You guys run along, and we'll let you live." Winda backed up to stand near Kagami, pulling out his own sword and giving a short exhale as he put some focus on activating Phantomhive.
The bandit leader sighed, and brought his hand down. Immediately the archers fired their arrows, and the other bandits rand forward with their knives. Kagami and Winda were swift in their response, moving like a well oiled machine. Kagami swung his blade, knocking the arrows out of the way, then ran forward to engage the archers in close range. Winda followed him with a frown and knocked aside a bandit that was about to stab Kagami's blind spot.
The bandit leader pulled out a curved sword and and went to stab Winda, who activated Phantomhive with but a thought. The sword went through Winda with no damage to him, stabbing a bandit that had attempted to sneak up on Winda from behind. The sword ripped through his left shoulder and he screamed in pain, and the Bandit Leader recoiled in horror at his opponent's seeming immunity to being stabbed. Winda shifted, allowing the blade to move out of his intangible form, and shifted back to reality. He thrust his sword forward, stabbing into the bandit leader's throat, a grim face as he took the man's life. The bandit leader stumbled back, his throat opening up and blood spraying onto Winda's face.
Winda wiped the blood off his face, and looked over to where Kagami was. Kagami was currently engaging one of the archers in combat, who was using the broken remains of their bow to try to hold the white haired swordsman off. A few archers were on the ground, covered in sword wounds. Kagami was casual in his strikes, and Winda knew his friend was clearly toying with the last bandit. The bandit finally overextended, and Kagami brought his sword up in three quick slashes; the bandit fell to the ground, her hands now separated from her body, and a gash across her chest. She was crying at the sheer pain, and Kagami stabbed her once in the chest to silence her.
"Way too easy." He said, totally uncaring at the fact he had brutally killed her. He ran his hands through his hair, leaving bloody streaks in his white hair, and used the now deceased woman's clothes to clean the blood off his blade. He looked to Winda and grinned. "Good job, bro. We taking their shit or what?"
Winda looked at the assorted bandits, and shook his head. "No. Just leave them. We need to hurry up if we want to make it to the Capitol by tomorrow." He said, turning his back on the bandits. Kagami walked up beside him, and they continued walking. The bandits were barely shadows in the distance before Kagami spoke up.
"Hey Winda..."
"Yea?"
"We there yet?"
"Hey hey! Look over there, Winda!" Kagami shouted, excited, holding a hand to shade his eyes from the sun. The two were on top of the hill, and the view in front of them was absolutely gorgeous.
The Capitol was, to put it simply, massive. Kagami was pretty sure they could fit over a hundred of his village in the Capitol and it wouldn't make a dent. He could see a large building in the distance, beautifully framed by the rising sun. "It's...incredible." Kagami whispered, stunned. "The First Emperor...chose damn well when he picked this place."
Winda nodded, adjusting his pack and began walking forward. "We can sight see more inside," he said. "It's probably even more amazing when you see it up close."
The two walked in excited silence for nearly another hour, finally reaching the gates of the massive city. A few guards were lazily signing off on the people entering the city, and checking carts for contraband. One guard waved for Kagami and Winda to come to him, holding up a clipboard and a quill.
"Papers?" The guard asked, motioning for their identification papers. Winda and Kagami supplied them quickly, and the guard wrote down a few of their details. "Alright, carry on." He said, waving them along. Winda and Kagami entered to see a crowded street, and looked around in amazement at the tall buildings surrounding them.
Kagami began laughing, drawing strange looks from the citizens around him. "This place is fucking amazing! Where to first, Winda?!" He exclaimed, looking at Winda for an answer. Winda couldn't his smile even in the face of Kagami's exuberance, and he laughed in response.
"Honestly, Kagami? Whatever we damn well want." He said with a grin. "I say we find some kind of jobs, then we can find an apartment or something. Once that's covered, we can start our search."
Kagami nodded in agreement and Winda's plan, perfectly fine with going along with it for now. "Sounds good." He stretched his back a bit, and looked around at the citizens still staring at them. "Oy! Go fuck yourselves!" As the citizens scattered from the clearly deranged country bumpkin, he winked at Winda. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to go off on my own for a bit. Not that there's anything against you, but we spent over a month together and I'm in desperate need for company of the female persuasion."
His brown haired friend waved him off, already walking in his own direction. "Just make sure you don't catch anything." He said, heading over to the merchant district. That would likely be the best place to find a decent job; it would likely be degrading, but Winda assumed that it would be quicker than applying to the army-and far less dangerous. Maybe a nice, cozy book store?
Kagami flipped the one finger salute to Winda's back, then turned to walk along on his own. He kept looking around at the sights as he walked, still in awe at the buildings and the people. His little village was the only home he had ever known, so he was undergoing a bit of culture shock at the different sights. So enamored by everything, he barely noticed as he wandered into the slums, and little hands slipped into his pocket and grabbed his money pouch.
He finally felt something off, seeing a street urchin running off with his money pouch in his hands. Kagami's hand immediately jumped to where his money pouch used to be, and feeling its absence, he growled and took off running after the kid. Kagami was pretty fit, but the kid had the advantage of being small enough to quickly maneuver around the crowded streets, and knew the area far better than Kagami did.
The newcomer quickly lost sight of the brat, and slapped a hand to his face. "God fucking dammit!" He yelled, pissed. Not even an hour into his first day and he loses all of his cash thanks to some brat. He dragged his hand down his face, trying to desperately think of a way to either find the kid that stole his money pouch or somehow raise back all the money before meeting up with Winda. He clutched at his head and yelled again in fury, the citizens of the slums taking him for some kind of addict and staying away with well practiced ease.
"Excuse me, sir! Do you require assistance?" A woman's voice broke through Kagami's fury, and he stopped pacing around to turn his head and look at the woman who was brave enough to talk to him. Kagami's breath hitched as he looked in at the beauty standing in front of him.
Long auburn hair done in a ponytail, matching eyes, and wearing an Imperial Police uniform, the woman looked at him with well-meaning interest. She smiled sweetly, and spoke again. "Are you alright?" She asked, looking worried.
'C-cute!'. Kagami laughed, trying desperately to control himself and not say anything stupid. "Course I am! Just, you know, got pickpocketed. Nothing serious to worry a beauty like yourself over!" He said, kicking himself at how lame that sounded.
The woman immediately became serious, gazing at Kagami with a stare that made him stop laughing. "Pickpocketed?! That's terrible! Did you get a good look at the perpetrator?"
"I-it was just a kid, I think, no big deal-"
"On the contrary!" The woman interrupted him, straightening to her full height. "If it was child, that makes it even worse! We have to stop him from picking up bad habits and growing into criminal scum!" She declared, slamming a hand on her chest. "Koro and I can track him down, then we can get you your money back!" She said, pointing to a small...dog, thing, that honestly looked unlike practically every other dog Kagami had ever seen before. He assumed he must not have noticed it, having been so entranced by the woman's appearance. The dog looked up at him, standing on two paws, and barked.
At least, Kagami assumed it was a bark. Seriously, what the fuck is that thing...?
The woman motioned for Koro to begin sniffing Kagami, then perked up as she realized something. "Oh, I totally forgot to introduce myself!" She exclaimed, quickly snapped into a salute. "Imperial Police, Seryu Ubiquitous! And my partner, the Teigu Hekatonkheires! But I call him Koro." She smiled at Kagami. "And you are?"
Kagami nodded, extending his hand to Seryu. "Kagami...Just Kagami. At your service." Seryu shook his hand, amazing him at her grip, when Koro suddenly took off running in a random direction.
"Oh! Koro must've caught the scent!" She yelled, quickly running after Koro and still holding Kagami's hand. "Come now, Kagami! We'll catch the thief yet!"
Kagami, trying to match Seryu's pace and trying to handle her crushing grip, did not respond.