A/N: Welcome to the next installment of Assassin in Remnant. Last chapter was not so great. Not too much detail. But this one is more complete. Let's go.
Proofread by Thatguywhowrote.
-II—II-
(Hit's POV, Border of Vale)
I arrived at some kind of giant wall, I estimated its height to be over 50 meters. Looks like the humans in this planet are crafty. Good, they are quite an intelligent race. This much is expected. But humans are more fragile than most races out there in other planets. Even a peak level human is still fragile compared to any of my previous targets. But of course, I did not underestimate them. As an Assassin, you must not hold back and kill with swiftness whenever there is a chance.
I entered the other side of the wall by flying over it. But of course, guards who stood watch were present since this was the border between Utopia and Dystopia. With Time-Stop I flew slowly through them while in time stopped state.
This Time Stop ability of mine proved to be unbeatable when used against someone weaker than me. But the effect lessened when fighting stronger opponents like Son Goku and his other friend called Vegeta. Goku is even immune to my Time Stopping ability.
I landed gracefully into the inner side of town without any of the guards ever realizing there was an intruder. I walked slowly while pocketing my hand in my jacket, looking at the surroundings. First, I needed to find a source of information.
I wondered what language these citizen use? Would they be startled by my appearance? I remembered there were intelligent species here that weren't fully human. There was another race that also bore animal traits.
Ah, that one. Let's ask her. I touched her shoulder from behind which startled her. She looked like a Fox Demi-human. When she turn around, she was shocked even more from seeing my appearance. My deduction was right, I did not appear as "normal" in this planet.
"Umm... yes? May I help you, mister?" She said out of nervousness. So they speak English, looks like Earth and Remnant aren't much different from each other.
"Do you know where I can find archives in here?" I said which made her sigh in relief over something. Was she afraid that I would hurt her? Good, caution was the most necessary thing when confronting someone like me which is an Assassin.
"There is a bookstore there if that's what you mean..." She said pointing towards the north. Bookstore, huh? Not bad, let's try that place then.
"Thank you," I left her right away and went straight to the place she mentioned. In order to grasp the world better and understand the surroundings, information was needed. Bookstores should be equivalent to a library which was usually had something regarding this world's current affairs and rules. Understanding the structure and common sense of this world was a must.
She said I just needed to go north, after sometime walking I found one. It was Tukson Book Trade. I entered it right away.
The place was quite clean. I went straight to the receptionist, a guy in his middle age according to humans. He wore a short-sleeved quarter-zip burgundy and black shirt with a visible white undershirt. His hair was cleanly cut, and he had noticeable sideburns, along with hairy, muscular arms. But from the looks of his appearance, he was not human, but a demi-human.
"Welcome to Tukson Book Trade, hmm? I've never seen someone with your appearance? Are you a faunus? No offense. If you are a faunus, can you tell me your animal traits? You can choose to ignore that of course, I won't force you." He said. Faunus, huh? Is that what demi-humans are called here? Unfortunately I wasn't demi-human, my race was already wiped out. I was the last remnant of my race. But I still have a relationship with Arcosian race like Frost by the way, the different is I lack tail.
"There is no need. Is there a book about the common sense of this place? Like rules and trivia about this town?" I asked him which made him ponder a bit.
"Wait here," He left towards the back area as he retrieved a couple of books. Not too long, he returned and presented them to me.
"Here, these books have trivia and anything you need to know about our beloved Remnant. From civilizations, humans, faunus even grimm. Please take a look." He commented while grinning. I accepted and read them one by one.
So, they called those dark beasts "grimm?" Faunus is really a term for demi-humans and aura... Aura? Looks like it's the term for here. But semblance? A special power born from one's personality. It was said to be hard to develop one's semblance. I was not familiar with this but it should be similar to Ki, with some differences. If this book was right then my target will probably had some kind of protection that might hinder my Flash Fist Crush attack which my tool to assassinate my target.
I needed to learn this aura thoroughly. Looks like it was vital for my mission.
"Can I read these all?" Just to confirm if I was annoying, even though I don't care since it were just trivial matter.
"Read as much as you like! But, may I know your name? It's kinda awkward when I'm going to call you." He said, tilting his head.
"..." I'm on a mission so I couldn't afford to give my real name. It would be a hassle if I left one speck of my existence. I used my other initial then.
"Call me Ansatsu" I said to which he just nodded. Ansatsu is just a term of my other name Assassin in Earth's language (1). I learned it a little when in a mission to kill Goku.
"Then Mr. Ansatsu. Read to your heart's content. Books are good food for thought, right?" He said, trying to be friendly.
"...yes" I just flatly replied to him.
After sometime it was already night, looks like I got caught up with these books. But well, it was already enough. I got the gist of it mostly. The owner of this store called Tukson approached me.
"Wow, you really like books huh? You already read over 20 books non-stop! And all of them were so thick since most of the books you read were encyclopedias. To think there was someone with as much passion as yours in reading." He said with tears of joy. Well, all of these were just for the sake of my mission. There was nothing to praise for.
"But it's already late and I have to close this shop. If you want to read some more, you can swing by tomorrow. And make sure you buy some too, since this is a store." He said, which was true. It was late and I didn't have any lien to buy some of these books. But let's see if he can accept this.
"Hmm? What is this?" he said as I showed him a jewel with a brilliant luster.
"I am buying these books, would this suffice?" I said which shocked him. Well, this jewel was worth a lot. But I couldn't find a place to sell it. Maybe I should find some kind of pawnshop for this to be traded for lien.
"No, please no! I can't take that. This jewel is too much for me. You can take all those books and pay for them next time. How about that?" He panicked. Did he really refuse my offer? If he insisted then alright. I will pay him once I have exchanged some of my goods for money.
"Then, I will come again soon." I said, taking some of the books I bought. I placed them in my chip interspatial storage. It acted like Earth's Capsule storage and can store virtually anything as long as the memory of the said chip can accommodate it.
It's getting late, the pawnshop must have closed right now. Maybe strolling around will give me some information? Let's see if there were people nearby. Once I exited the bookstore I headed east. I stumbled onto a wider shopping district and then found a shop who sold items called dust.
Based from the book's knowledge, dust was the energy of the planet condensed into a crystal. It could be used as a source of energy for many purposes.
The name of the shop was From Dust Till Dawn. Since I was to deploy for my mission tomorrow, I thought it was okay to investigate this shop first and see what dust is actually like.
When I entered the shop I was greeted with all kind of goods. Crystals, dust and even armed weapons. It was like I entered a military armory merged with jewelry shop, only more colorful. The guy who owned the shop was just an old human. There were no other customers, huh? Oh wait, there was one other.
It was a human girl listening to some music. She was dressed in a black blouse, a black waist cincher with red lacing and a skirt with red trimmings, complete with a red hooded cloak.
Hmm? Wait... She was my target, wasn't she? To think it would be this early.
She still had her guard down, with a relaxed posture and no focus on her surroundings. She was easy prey. I prepared myself to kill her but the unexpected happened. A group of humans began entering, and from the looks of it they were hostile.
Looks like the plan would be delayed for now.
END
A/N: Done, phew! I stopped it here since I was on a roll. Till next time.
(1): Ansatsu mean Assassin by the way