The civilians in the town watched with curiosity as the ebony rider emerged from the dusty road behind the lawmen as if watching the two prisoners. They were curious of the individual having never seen someone quite like her before. Eventually they started to fan out and move about their business helping those that were injured in the gunfire. There had been quite a few casualties as a result of the outlaws attempting to run out of town but it would seem they would be paying the price.
"Small town without much action. I suppose they've seen enough to last quite a few months." murmured the gun woman smoothly.
She dismounted off her horse and took the time to check his hooves before tying him to one of the side posts. Against her better judgment, she wanted to see first hand just what those lackeys of Jackals had done to the town. The woman took her time walking the streets noticing the sound of her spurs but ignored them as she turned the corner of the saloon to walk to the back alleyway. She stopped in her tracks watching as an aqua haired woman attempted to try and help two injured men on her own. It seemed an impossible task as the woman only had enough strength to hold one of the men.
"You look like you took a bit more than you can handle, ma'am." murmured Haruka.
Michiru turned on a dime and in the process allowed Dale to move on his own to lean against the building wall nearby. With her arms free, the rancher raised her rifle aiming at the unknown individual in the black hat and duster.
"Whoa there, I ain't aiming to get shot with that. Go ahead and put it down. I ain't one of those low life assholes." exclaimed the gun woman firmly. She also didn't feel like killing a beauty either.
"Who are you?" snapped Michiru not lowering her gun. "I'm not lowering this until I know you aren't going to do anything!"
"Hey now, why the hell would I shoot you? You've done nothing to me and from the looks of things, you could use the help in taking care of those men."
The rancher didn't exactly look too thrilled but she allowed herself to lower her gun in order to help Dale with his injured shoulder. Her blue eyes never left the odd figure who emerged to help her. It was strange seeing someone like her take an interest in someone she never met before. After a while, Michiru sighed and walked Dale across the street up to the doctor's office to be looked at. Lucky for all of them, Mamoru Chiba was in and could handle the multiple wound case that the woman brought to his door step.
"I really do hate gang violence like this." he grumbled soon washing out Dale's wound with a bit of alcohol to sterilize the mess a bit more.
The injured man hissed out in pain. "Easy there, Doc! It burns."
"Just shut your mouth and deal with it. You're lucky you didn't get shot a bit more to the left." he chided firmly.
Dale promptly shut his mouth allowing Mamoru to continue with his work. The ebony haired doctor eventually stitched some of the injury closed with a needle and sewing thread. It made the young ranch hand twitch a little and curse up a monstrous slur of words before he was done with his work. Afterword, Mamoru washed his hands and wrapped up the man's shoulder placing his left arm into a sling.
"Now, you are not to use that arm for a good two months to let the injury heal. You will clean the injury every other day and change the bandages each time. If you don't, it'll get infected and you very well could join the others that weren't so lucky." murmured the doctor.
Dale gave a nod and went to stand only to stop spotting someone he didn't recognize at the door with Dwight slung over their shoulders. He merely looked stunned as the individual walked in to drop Dwight into one of the free chairs as if he was nothing but a bag of feed. It was after the elder male was placed in the chair that the young man took into account that Michiru had been injured.
"Miss Kaioh, you need to get that looked at." he chided ignoring the odd person in the room with them all.
Mamoru looked up from checking over Michiru's arm as he heard spur sounds enter the main room. He glanced up with an eye wearily before noticing it was someone helping Dwight up to his office. A faint smirk crossed his face before he moved to work on Dwight. His injury was more severe than Michiru's was at the moment and therefore held the most need. Stepping to him, he got to work on the man's injured left leg. The bleeding has slowed from a bandanna that had been tied around the injury seemingly from the stranger.
"You don't often help others do you?" murmured the doctor smoothly toward Haruka.
The gunslinger merely shrugged shifting to lean against the wall.
Dale glared toward her having no idea how dangerous it was to mess with her. "You're just going to keep you damned mouth shut? Who the fuck are you?" he snarled.
The blonde closed her emerald eyes trying to not let the idiotic blabbering of the injured bother her.
"Answer me, damnit!"
"Why should I waste my breath on someone who seems ungrateful for the help of a stranger, eh? You're damn lucky those outlaws didn't gut ya with a knife blade when they had the chance." she snapped firmly.
"What would you know? You just rode in after everything happened. I could have taken care of th-"
Michiru cut him off before he could dig himself into a deeper hole with Haruka. "Dale, that's enough. She did happen to stumble into town at the oddest of times but you should be thanking her for helping your uncle out when he needed the help."
The gunslinger raised a brow before looking toward the elder man being tended to. He had long since blacked out from blood loss but he would survive if the wound was kept clean from infection. She knew that much from her years of experience tending injuries of the sort. Nonetheless, it took a lot to handle the pain until the wound could heal properly. It was excruciating to be shot and survive it from time to time. The blonde had scars no one could see unless she allowed the to get close to her. The scars would show she knew what it was like to be shot multiple times and come out alive in the end.
Grumbling, Dale looked away from the stranger and watched as Mamoru tended to his uncle's injuries. It unsettled the young man that he had easily been over powered by a runt of a gang. He had the skill with a gun to defend himself but with Colton's fast pace, it set the tone for everything to unfold so quickly in front of his eyes. Closing them, he cursed faintly gritting his teeth knowing he had lost a good friend because of those outlaws.
"Colton's dead and there's a good chance other people died today too because of those two dirty rats." growled Dale sharply.
Michiru sighed gently looking up to listen to him. Her left hand softly clasped the graze wound that was still bleeding on her right arm. The pain was bareable but more so annoying than anything else. She closed her eyes remembering Colton was in fact dead by now. His injury had been life ending but it would have been a slow death. She didn't even think of trying to find him only having her mind surrounded with trying to help Dwight and Dale.
"He probably is by now. I should have helped him." she sighed.
The gun woman glanced over toward her a moment and shook her head. "There wasn't much you could have done, save end the pain with a bullet."
Dale sent a cold glare toward the woman for a second time. "Who the hell are you to go telling us what we could and could not have done? I'm really not liking you."
"I suppose that goes two ways, runt." growled Haruka moving off from the wall. "I don't often help people on my travels. You should shut you dirty mouth and be thankful I helped you and your boss over there at all."
"Will the both of you just shut your traps already?" came the grunt response of a rather annoyed doctor. The two bickerers silenced themselves allowing him to think clearly to tend to his patient in peace.
Michiru had to stifle a chuckle from the behavior of the two. They seemed to be bantering like children but she could understand the reasoning behind why Dale was being such a pain. She moved her arm slowly only to glance to the injury. It was not too deep or wide luckily; all thanks to her quick reflexes of course. As she lost herself in thought, she didn't notice the stranger moving closer to her until she heard Dale yell toward her.
"Michiru, you better watch that fella. I don't trust him." growled the ranch hand.
Haruka merely chuckled before taking a moment to look over Michiru's injury. She softly reached out with a calloused hand to brush away the torn blood stained fabric from the gash to inspect it.
"It's not bad at all. As long as you keep it clean, it will heal up and not leave a trace of a scar behind." remarked the blonde before reaching into her coat's inner pocket.
Michiru watched her carefully as if expecting a weapon to be drawn on her. She let out a soft sigh at the realization she was being silly. Haruka removed a small roll of white bandages and took the time to tend to her wound while Mamoru was busy with Dwight. The ranch owner blinked a bit watching the woman tend to her though couldn't help from laughing a little.
Hearing the laughter, the blonde raised a brow. "What?"
"It's just I didn't expect you to know how to tend to a wound like this. I don't even know you and yet you're helping me."
"I don't often help others because I'm too focused on my own agendas. Truth is, I came to this town after hearing Jackal was here. I intended to take him on but; since he obviously left, and two of his goons remained behind to end up in jail, there's no worry of me being in such a rush of things."
"Why are you hunting him? I know he has a large amount of money on his head as do others of his damnable gang but that's not the reason. Something else is your aim."
"Indeed it is, ma'am. Let's just say I have unfinished business with him and I intend to get to him after killing every single one of his gang members first."
Dale glanced back toward the gunslinger and felt a shiver go down his spine. "You do realize that's suicide right?"
"Yes, I do. However, I got nothing left in this world that is of any value to me except going after that man and ending his terror with a single bullet from my gun." growled Haruka.
Michiru shook her head. "It doesn't settle anything in the end. It only brings about more violence and a continuation of a demonic cycle of life."
"You might be right, and yet you could be wrong. It would finish off the demon from doing more dastardly deeds anymore." retorted the blonde.
Dale sighed. "All I know is that the killer of my best friend is in that jail house and I can't help but feel a bit obliged to shooting his guts out on the street."
"You best let those feelings go, Dale. I don't want them plaguing you." murmured Michiru firmly. She seemed against the idea of revenge which the gunslinger didn't understand.
"Your boss is right, runt. Not everyone can handle the black mass called revenge. It'll eat you alive til you think of nothing else and breath for nothing else but to get even with the bastard that did ya wrong." commented the gun woman smoothly. Her fingers carefully tied off the bandage on Michiru's arm before she rose from her position off of the floor.
Dale watched Haruka closely with his cold eyes. The woman held a savage air about her when she first spoke to him. The wind was perhaps warning him to stay away from the temper of the gunslinger. Many had fallen as a result of that particular personality fault to her guns over the years. Looking away, he moved to sit down awaiting for the doctor to inform him of what to do with his uncle.
As Mamoru finished his work, he took notice of the conversation that had been held the entire time he had been busy. His eyes flashed from one person to the next before finally settling on the back of Haruka. Something about her seemed familiar and he was certain he remembered her from somewhere in the past. He couldn't place the date or exactly where, but he recognized her voice and her jacket.
"This man will have to stay off of his feet for two weeks. After which, he can move around only with a cane to aid him in movement. I want the weight off of the limb as much as possible so it can heal without hindering itself from unnecessary stress. As for the rest of you, I suggest you stay in town overnight in case complications arise with your injuries. Your friend here will have to stay here for a few days initially anyway before I can allow him to travel." remarked Mamoru calmly. "As for you, gunslinger. I do want your name in the least for helping my patients as you have. You owe me that much."
Haruka smirked faintly and adjusted the ebony hat upon her head a bit. "I suppose you'd be right with that, Doctor Chiba. My name is Haruka Tenoh."
"It will be a name I certainly remember."
'As will I, doctor. As will I. There's something this Haruka woman isn't telling us and I want to figure out what exactly it is. I doubt she'll be leaving anytime soon which should give me enough time to try and get her to trust me even just a little.' thought Michiru. The woman did want to get to the bottom of what was fueling the woman called Tenoh to go after such an infamous and dangerous gang alone. If it wasn't for the money, and it wasn't for protecting the innocent lives, could it possibly be linked to revenge? If it was, the ranch woman had to figure out for what purpose the blonde was hunting the Devil down for.