Disclaimer: Yo no concedo Namco o Klonoa personalidades. c:

Chapter 3: The Base

"My name is Kyuui!"

"That's a weird name."

There was no one else around and it was unusually quiet. I was still in central Volk, though much closer to the outskirts now. Last time I'd looked at the clock tower it was three in the evening, and that was about an hour ago. I really didn't like staying here for this long. In a few hours this whole city would become that of a war zone. Thugs and gunmen would wake from their hiding places like nocturnal predators and have themselves a little killing spree amongst each other.

At times like those I stayed in the safety zone of Volk, at the outskirts. I had no interest in such things like death and murder; not anymore. At the moment I was walking through some unfamiliar roads with this annoying, talkative brown, pink haired bunny girl. I was supposed to be following her, but for most of the way I kept a step in front. I still wasn't content with the fact that I was about to accept help from another.

The girl slowed down a bit as she explained, "Well, it's not my real name. At least, it probably isn't. I got amnesia and—Hey! Where are you going?! Are you listening to me?"

Instead of slowing down to stay at pace with her, I'd sped up as she was speaking. "You're not walking fast enough," I complained, not looking at her. She caught up to me, glancing pensively at my bloody shoulder. "Does it hurt?" she asked, her voice lower. "Of course it hurts." My voice had a faint sharp edge to it. The pain was making me irritable.

"Well… we should be there in a short while." There was something about the way she'd said it that made me think she was lying. I was getting impatient and I let my aimless thoughts be heard. "This is pointless. I don't even know why I'm bothering with this," I grumbled childishly. "Because I have to return the favor. You helped me!" Kyuui replied quickly.

"No I didn't. I was just passing through when—"

"It looked to me like you came there on purpose."

I didn't reply. There was no point in arguing about this now. But this was what I got for defying the natural laws of order and helping people out; a bullet through my shoulder and an irritating little girl.

"I don't care what you say. I still think you're a nice guy for what you did. I've never even actually seen a nice adult before. Everyone at the base is convinced that all adults are heartless and cruel. But I knew that there had to be some nice people around. I mean, when there's a world filled with darkness, there's gotta be some light, right? Or else this everything would fall apart. I think—"

"Shut up."

I wasn't trying to be rude this time, though she could've been talking to herself for all I cared. I stopped short, listening. "I heard something." I kept my voice low, trying to give Kyuui the same hint. The road we were on at the moment was narrow, and the last alleyway we'd past between two tall, crumpling buildings was quite some distance behind us now. But there were plenty of places to hide. We practically had to hike across the debris of broken road and scattered building remains.

Kyuui was staring at me with interest and I was afraid she was going to speak again. "Be quiet," I shushed. She spoke anyway. "See? You're helping me again!"

"Did you hit your head when you got amnesia?!"

"So you were listening!"

"Shut up! I'm not helping you. In case you didn't notice, you're idiocy is going to get me into trouble, as well. I'm only telling you to be quiet so that I can figure out what it was I heard for my own sake!"

I hated the way this girl wasn't easily intimidated. "Okay," she replied simply, completely at ease. We began walking on again in silence. I heard the distinctive noise of hushed footsteps behind us. "Someone's following us," I warned, convincing myself that I'd only said it aloud to make her stay quiet. "I know."

I had to stare at her with a stupid look. "What? How—?" She made a small smile, satisfied that she'd caught me off guard. "I heard them a while ago. There's probably about five of them. Big men… heavily loaded," she informed confidently. I hadn't even gotten to estimating how many were there, let alone if they had any weapons. I had to ask myself if this girl was just lying or if she was much more than she seemed.

Sure enough the latter was realized. Without warning five men suddenly jumped up into view from their scattered hiding placing. We were only partially surrounded before the men spread out a bit to face us on all sides. Each one had a pistol pointed toward us. I recognized two of them from earlier that morning. The one I'd kicked only had a bruise under his chin and I was suddenly wishing I'd given them more damage.

One of the thugs stepped forward, the appearance of a leader in both his posture and his voice. "So I heard you like helping people, eh?" he sneered at me in a gruff voice. He then looked at Kyuui, who held his gaze with impressive bravery. "What's this, bunny girl? Are you taking in adults now, too? I thought your little club had strict adult prohibition." She didn't reply, her expression stripped of all preference.

"What's the matter? You upset because we followed you to your little base? Now we're gonna storm the place and steal all your supplies!" the leader laughed hoarsely. There was only one thing missing from this man's plan, and he seemed to finally realize that as he looked around. "So where is it?" he asked, trying to make it sound more like a demand than a genuine question.

I thought I caught the ghost of a smile on Kyuui's lips. Much more than she seemed. The gang leader was getting impatient as she stayed silent. "Bring me to it or I'll shoot you!" He threatened, lifting his gun toward her. She was unfazed. "That won't do you any help," she smiled easily. He seemed to understand what she meant.

"Then I'll just kill your friend here! He's the one who humiliated my men, anyway." I curled back my lips reproachfully as the gun was now aimed at me. This Kyuui did not seem to expect. She hesitated. I wasn't about to let myself be the damsel in distress in this situation and was about to tell her that I really didn't care if he shot me or not, but a sudden war-cry cut me off.

Before I or the thugs could even react, a bunch of shorter figures shot out from the surrounding ruined buildings and swarmed around us. They grabbed the men, throwing them to the ground and disarming them. They were easily outnumbered and overcome within moments. And then all of a sudden I too was jumped and tripped forward to the ground.

"Wait, he's with me," I heard Kyuui say calmly, a hint of humor in her voice. The people holding me down hesitated for a moment, as if unsure, before finally releasing me. I quickly got myself to my knees, almost falling over again at the sudden jolt of pain in my shoulder. I heard someone walk over quickly an stop beside the girl.

"Are you all right, Kyuui?"

It was a boy. I didn't even have to look to tell that he was young. I slowly got to my feet, looking around at the rest of the teenagers holding down the thugs in pairs. I suddenly felt foolish for doubting Kyuui's story about her "band of kids". I looked over at her inquisitively. She smiled and held up a black remote-looking object with several buttons and an antenna sticking out of the top.

"It's a transmitter. Everyone in our band has one. We press this little red button when we're stuck in an emergency."

I noticed the boy who had come over staring at me intently, but I didn't look at him just yet. Kyuui was ignoring him, as well. "I was purposely leading you away from the base when I first noticed them following us. Sorry, but it's still quite a ways away," she smiled apologetically. I was too reluctantly impressed to be annoyed by her misleading me.

"Why isn't he on the ground like the rest of them?" The boy finally spoke up rudely. I looked at him with a frown. He was quite shorter than me as well, naturally. But he stared up at me with potent defiance. I scowled and was about to tell him off before Kyuui stepped between us, facing the boy.

"Don't be rude, Yuji, this is my friend."

The word caused us both to twitch in surprise. The boy grimaced, his face tight with disapproval. "'Friend'? Are you insane, Kyuui?" he asked, glaring past her at me. "He's an adult," he spat, as though the word was a gross bug. Kyuui stayed innocent. "So? He helped me. Just because he's an adult doesn't give me the right not to return the favor."

The boy stared at her skeptically. But instead of asking for an explanation he gave me one last glare and turned away to face the rest of the group. "Come on! Let's get going. Make sure they're completely disarmed," he called, his voice strong with authority. The teenagers stood up, artillery filling their arms. They smiled at one another successfully, a few even laughing.

They wasted no time following the boy as he started leading the way down a narrow alleyway almost in the complete opposite direction we'd been heading. "Let's go," Kyuui invited, smiling up at me as she followed the kids in the back. I glanced over at the once proud thugs for a moment, who were just starting to recover from the ambush.

They moved slow with humiliation and defeated and I figured they were no longer a threat for now. I sighed quickly and followed after Kyuui into the dark alley.

--

"Welcome to our base!"

We'd been walking down the long, narrow, suspicious alleyway for quite some time now. It'd been very quiet the whole way, aside from a few kids whispering to one another, and I'd felt rather awkward following these teenagers to who knew where? The pain in my shoulder hadn't subsided for a minute. The blood stain was all over my already dirty and ripped jacket.

My internal clock told me it was probably about six now, much past the start of hell-time in this city. Yet our surroundings had been very quiet. I had to guess that we were somewhere deep in the city—hard to find and get to, where no one else went. It seemed out of nowhere when Kyuui finally stopped in front of me and spread out her arms, suddenly having the room to as the alley ended.

The buildings spread out sharply in a wide box-like formation, creating a large clearing where another short but very wide building sat. The surroundings were tight and damaged very little, looking much like a protective wall. Only a few more narrow alleys and broken windows revealed any other way back into the city.

The base itself looked more like a warehouse than anything else. The outer walls were obvious constructed upon for better protection and security. A few gadgets were scattered across the flat roof. I also couldn't help up notice the artillery hooked up there. I wouldn't let myself believe that these kids had created this thing all on their own.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Kyuui was asking. I watched as all the kids stopped and the boy from before stepped up to the door of the base. He pressed a button on a little machine to the right of the doorway and a voice from an intercom asked something I didn't catch. The boy kept his voice low deliberately, but I managed to hear his answer.

"Opstand."

There was a moment of silence before the sound of mechanical unlocking from the door was heard. The door then opened on its own with an electrical whirr. The boy stood to the side as the rest of the kids and all of their rewards entered. I saw the boy looked at us eerily as we stayed in place. "He's gonna want an explanation," Kyuui sighed.

I knew he would. Anyone with a common sense—let alone a base this secure—wouldn't want a stranger around without an explanation. Kyuui walked forward and I followed her slowly not before looking around once more. This was the kind of place I almost expected booby-traps to be planted. The boy had stepped in front of the door, as though I might suddenly run inside.

He opened his mouth as we got closer, but Kyuui cut him off. "This is Yuji. He's our leader," she explained. He glared at her disapprovingly. I didn't know why I was surprised that a kid would be leading a band of kids. He looked to be around 15, 16 maybe. He seemed to manage to keep his fur the pure white that it was despite all the dirt he probably went through on a daily bases. Random brownish-orange blotches marked his face and I guessed the rest of his body. His ears were short and fluffed in tuffs at the tips. His muzzle was only a bit shorter than that of a dog's and I was pretty sure those were two long tails I saw behind him. His tense green eyes never left my face.

"Explain this," Yuji said, his voice reluctantly controlled. "Well…" Kyuui bided her time as she looked for the right words to choose. Yuji twitched his ears impatiently. "You see, there was this lady and her kids… and she was being attacked by these big mean guys. So I tried to stop them. But it was only after I showed myself when I remembered I was out to pick up that thingy and hadn't brought anything to defend myself with me. So then this guy showed up and saved us."

"I didn't—"

"But he got hurt. So, as thanks, I invited him over to get treated."

Yuji said nothing for a moment as this all sunk it. "Obviously you were looking for something in return." I blinked in surprise as he looked at me again. This was the first time he had spoken to me directly. Though his discourteous tone of voice hadn't changed one bit. "Maybe I was," I frowned, returning the same amount of respect.

"Then why did you leave so quickly?" Kyuui asked genuinely. I didn't look at her, but my ear flicked in annoyance. If I could really get something out of this, it would be stupid of me not to take it. Before, I'd known that that small family would have nothing to give. I'd assumed the same for this girl. The thought of asking for more hadn't crossed my mind until now. But my foolish pride wouldn't allow me to say it out loud.

Yuji was still glaring at me and for a moment I thought he was about to turn me away anyway. "He saved my life, Yuji," Kyuui pointed out steadily. For the first time I saw him faltered, looking away to think. "You…" he started finally. "You can come in to get treated and… eat." Then his voice quickly regained power. "But I want you gone by morning."

"Aw, c'mon! Yu—"

"Fine."

I cut Kyuui off as she started to complain. "I'm only here to avoid a problem with my shoulder. I don't need anything else," I frowned. His reluctance was obvious, but somehow Yuji still managed to persist. "Well, you're permitted to our food—But nothing else. I don't want to wake up in the morning to fine that our artillery vault has been assaulted," he added quickly.

"Artillery vault? I'll keep that in mind," I joked humorlessly.

Yuji curled his lips back angrily. "Don't worry, Yuji. I'll keep an eye on him," Kyuui assured, stepping forward with a smile. He seemed to relax slightly when he looked at her and sighed. "Please do," he said quietly before turning around to enter the base. His figured disappeared in an instant inside. There were no lights to show me what was beyond the door; and all of a sudden I wasn't so sure I wanted to go in anymore.

Kyuui suddenly grabbed my arm and I had to resist impulsively snatching it away. "C'mon! I'll show you to Ms. Claire!"

O sigh. I've been delaying... But I've been on vacation for a week so there's my excuse. I certainly haven't been working on this for a while... Not that it's popular enough to need a rush. (-.-)