I ran as fast as I could, hoping that Blake could hold off the Hunter until I arrived. My and Yang's aura was at 70% and 96% respectively. Already I could hear the cacophony of their fight and I was still a few blocks away. I bullet jumped up to a nearby two-story building, hoping to get an eye on their fight as I approached. Three short hops from building to building later, I finally saw Blake. It didn't look good.
She was laying on the ground, barely moving. The hunter was a few feet from her, a flail hanging loose in his grip. I didn't see Adam or Ilia anywhere, meaning that they were probably inside. The ground around them was pockmarked with craters, some of which were too large to have come from the hunter's weapon directly. It was likely that he either used his semblance or had an alternate form to his flail.
Having seen enough, I dropped down off of the roof. When I was halfway to the ground, I planted my feet on the brick façade and kicked off, propelled by twin discharges from my gauntlets. The hunter dodged my hit and slammed the head of his flail into the small of my back, sending me rolling across the ground. I barely managed to land in a kneeling position, idly rubbing the spot where his weapon had hit me. It hadn't hurt much, and was more than likely meant to simply create distance between us.
"Wait, you're the Huntress that sent my men running for the hills? You're just a kid!" The hunter said with an easy chuckle. Now that I was closer, I could see that he was about Qrow's age. He had the beginnings of a five o'clock shadow, and a scar along his right cheek going from his ear to his nose just under his eye. He had on a grey, knee length sleeveless coat and black pants, bearing numerous cuts, some of which were bleeding. It seemed that Adam and Blake put up more of a fight than I thought.
"I think that says more about your men than it does about me." I retorted.
He gave a single laugh. "So it would seem." He spared a cursory glance at Blake as she was helped by Ilia towards the warehouse. With a twirl of his flail, he started towards them.
That wasn't happening. I fired off a slug towards the hunter that he deflected with practiced ease. "Your fight with them is over. It's my turn." He paused a moment longer before turning back towards me, his flail coming to rest at his side.
"Very well." He hmphed in resignation. "If you insist on defending those terrorists, that's fine by me. You've already cost me too much money by making me come out here." Faster than I could track, he rushed me and slammed his flail into my side. On instinct alone, I grabbed the chain and pulled, following it up with a left handed punch to his gut empowered with a slug. I heard the shot crumple against his aura. He countered by grabbing my wrist and headbutting me, which loosened my grip enough for him to retreat a few paces. The whole exchange took less than half a second. I blinked a few times to clear my vision and continued my assault.
I switched to blanks and propelled myself forward. The chain of his weapon retracted into the handle, drawing the head of the flail flush. I feinted a right hook, grinning internally as he took the bait and batted away my hand with the head of his weapon. Grabbing a fistful of his hair, I slammed a knee into his gut. My satisfaction was short-lived, however, as the head of his weapon rapidly ejected and caught me square in the face. Bolts of electricity suddenly began to dance along the chain and head of his flail. In the brief moment of distraction, he whipped his flail into the side of my head, sending a shock through my system and pain blossoming all along my body. I felt the spikes on his weapon bite into my skin through my aura.
I landed heavily a few feet away, residual jolts of pain wracking my body. My vision blurred at the edges, and the hunter stepped into my field of view. "You've got skill, I'll give you that." He grumbled, an annoyingly smug grin plastered on his face. "But you can't beat experience." At this moment I wanted nothing more than to punch his face in. "Before I end your little Hunter career and go clean out that zoo back there, I wanna know somethin'." He knelt down next to me, getting uncomfortably close. "Why throw your lot in with a group of animals?" His callous dismissal of Faunus fully ignited my rage.
"They're more human than you'll ever be." I grit through my teeth. The shocks were gone, but I still had trouble moving. If I wanted to catch this asshole off guard, I had to wait until I could freely move before I struck. "All you care about is money. You don't care who you have to hurt or kill to get it." He let out a low chuckle at my words.
"Well you got one thing right at least." He retracted the head of his flail and hefted the weapon over his head. "I'm in it for the money." Right as he swung his weapon at me, I fired a pair of blanks. I winced as I felt my aura grate against the rough concrete. His weapon impacted with a huge explosion of dust and rock-turned-shrapnel. Several chunks hit me, taking even more off of my aura.
With an opening I could exploit, I tapped into the power of my semblance and rushed him. I landed a devastating hit on the side of his head with as much force as I could muster. The effects of my semblance wore off a moment later as I lost my balance and fell into the newly made crater. I pushed myself up to a kneeling position, my breath coming in heavy, ragged gasps. The hunter lay on the ground a ways away, barely moving. Good. I didn't have a prayer in matching him in a battle of attrition. Hopefully my attack had done enough to put him out of commission.
"Okay, I'll give you it to you. That was a solid hit." He called out, clutching his jaw, bloody spittle leaking from the corner of his mouth. My hopes that he was down were dashed as he rose to a standing position, clutching his flail tightly. "Whoo, that was a really nice hit." He chuckled after spitting out what looked like a tooth. "It's a real shame, that it's the last one you're ever going to get." His voice suddenly turned menacing as he assumed a combat stance again.
His attack came instantly. All I could do to defend was raise my arms and hope to block it. I felt something break and I was sent flying backwards, slamming heavily into the metal wall of the warehouse. Yellow aura flickered and died, that hit broke Yang's aura rendering me defenseless. I fell into a coughing fit; the impact having knocked the wind out of me. When I moved my arm to wipe my mouth, I noticed something wrong immediately. The gauntlet that was supposed to be on my left arm was missing. In the area between where I had landed and the hunter was littered with loose shotgun shells and chunks of yellow metal, the largest of which appeared to be part of the foreguard. My gauntlet was broken? The one on my right arm was cracked in several places. Any attempt to fire it would surely result in total destruction.
"That's the nasty part about my semblance. It makes anything I touch fragile. Not so effective against Grimm plating, but against human opponents with human made weapons," He gestured to the remains of the left half of Ember Celica "it has boundless applications."
The horror of what his semblance could do if used on a person settled over me. "You're sick."
"Aren't we all? And uh," He let out a soft chuckle. "It's a shame about your weapon, but you won't need it where you're going." The hunter was suddenly hovering over me, poised to deliver a final blow. A cold pit settled in my stomach. Was this how I would die: being lorded over by some punk gangster with a hard on for trash talking? I'd sent men like him to death row on Earth. As his weapon started its descent, my hand brushed against something I recognized as the hilt of a sword. A plan formulated in my head instantly as I fired my remaining gauntlet.
The blank propelled me forward aided by a passive activation of my semblance. Sword in hand, my attack pierced his weakened aura, stabbing straight through his gut. Over his shoulder, I could see the tip of Wilt sticking out of his back. His weapon clanged loudly to the ground. Wilt slid easily out of him as he fell backwards, a slowly growing bloody patch forming on the ground underneath him.
I glared at his form, the only signs of life was the slow rise and fall of his chest. Gripping the hilt of Adam's weapon tightly, I moved to stand over his head. Unable to help myself, I let out a laugh. "You know, you were right." A drop of the hunter's blood fell from the tip of Wilt, landing next to the wound I had made. "We're all sick. I mean right now, I should be freaking out, screaming, or crying that I killed someone. But when I look at your face, and think about what you've done, I just can't bring myself to care."
"You know, you don't-" he let out a series of wet, bloody coughs. "You're a lot more mature than you look." He rasped, and what could barely pass for a chuckle came right after. "You- you-" With that he fell silent, either dead or unconscious, I couldn't tell which. Now that I had a moment, I could fully inspect the damage to my weapon. The left gauntlet was completely unsalvageable, I'd have to rebuild it from scratch. The right one had a massive rent down the middle where the barrel would be, and there were pockmark cracks all over it as well. It was unlikely I could repair it without completely rebuilding it like the other one, though at least this one had a general framework.
Ember Celica could wait, for now. I still had to make sure that Adam, Ilia, and Blake were okay. With every step I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. Hopefully it was only a bruised rib and not something more severe. When I finally got inside, the warehouse was devoid of people, likely having been evacuated before the fighting started.
"Hello?" I called out, wincing at another spike of pain. Something was definitely bruised at the very least. After a few seconds of not getting an answer, I carefully made my way down the stairs. About halfway down, a particularly powerful pulse of pain in my ribs made me lose my balance. I fell face first, bracing myself with my arms instinctively. Wilt clattered to the ground in front of me. Eventually, I managed a sitting position at the lowest step, holding onto the railing with a death grip.
For the moment, I was content to simply lean against the stairs and rest. My scroll told me that Yang's aura was at 3%. Three. That was the lowest that it had ever gotten. I'd learned that your aura's ability to passively protect your body became spotty at 10%, which was why pretty much every regulated spar or tournament match stopped when someone's aura was at 25%. Thankfully, my aura was still at 60%. Which didn't really make sense since I had lost control of my semblance when fighting that hunter, but I guess I still needed to practice with it in combat situations.
I allowed my aura to spread across my body, already feeling the pain relieving effects of it. After about half a minute, I felt infinitely better, and the pain in my abdomen had all but disappeared. I stood once more and grabbed Wilt before heading further into the building. "Ilia? Blake?" I yelled out, hoping that one of them would hear. I eventually found my way back to the room that I had gotten the change of clothes from. It was there that I found Blush, and what appeared to be an opened secret passageway behind the dresser full of fancy clothes. The hall behind it wasn't lit up, likely because they didn't need a lot of light to see. The whole setup practically screamed 'secret White Fang base', but I was in too deep to stop now.
"Hello?" I called out once more, hoping that I wouldn't have to actually go down the creepy hallway. After still not getting an answer I headed down the hallway, Wilt and Blush in one hand and my scroll acting as a flashlight in the other. The further I went, the more unnerved I got. The entire hallway lacked paint, its façade a stark, concrete grey. My footsteps echoed loudly, unnerving me further. After walking for what seemed like minutes, the path split off three ways: one that went to the right, and beyond that at the end of the hall in both directions, the left path was illuminated by an unseen light. I slid my scroll closed and pocketed it, before moving forward.
As I got closer, I heard hushed whispering. I couldn't make out anything specific, but it sounded like two people talking: a man and a woman. The next thing I knew, a large form eclipsed the light from the room. They, who I now saw was a very large man, picked me up by the collar of my shirt, menacing yellow eyes glaring into mine.
"Zumeya, let her go." Blake spoke from the doorway. The hulk of a man shot me one last glare before dropping me unceremoniously. I adjusted my shirt and continued towards the door. Inside was what appeared to be a sparsely furnished bomb shelter, with a powered down TV hanging from the wall across from the couch where Adam was sitting. A partially bloodied bandage was wrapped around his exposed torso. Gone was his eyepatch, leaving his scar open to the world. Ilia was putting things away in a first aid kit, and Blake was now resting beside Adam, her head leaning on his shoulder, a similar bandage adorning her leg. The man called Zumeya, who I now recognized as the infamous White Fang Lieutenant from the train ride, was leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the room, trying to set me ablaze me with his eyes.
"I beat him." I told them plainly as I set Wilt on a nearby table. "Here's your sword back."
My remaining gauntlet chose that moment to fall apart, as the crack on the barrel finally snapped, causing it to fall to the floor and break. I could only stare, dumbstruck, as I bent down and picked up the remains of the right half of Ember Celica. A deep-seated feeling of loss flared up at the sight. Seeing such an integral part of Yang reduced to little more than scrap metal hurt.
"What happened to it?" Ilia was the first one to speak.
"It uh-" My breath hitched in my throat. "His semblance. He said it made things that he touched fragile. If you can believe it, the other gauntlet is in worse condition." I gently placed it down on the table next to Adam's weapon. "It's in a few dozen pieces outside."
Ilia frowned, before turning to rummage around in a drawer. "Here," She pulled out a navy blue duffle bag. "To carry your gauntlets in."
The gesture brought a smile to my face, "Thank you." I placed the duffel next to my gauntlet and gently placed it inside.
"What about the hunter?" asked Blake. I grimaced at the thought of what I had done. Despite it literally coming down to kill or be killed, it still felt wrong.
"He's probably dead." I replied somberly.
"'Probably'?" echoed Adam skeptically.
I tapped Wilt once. "I ran him through with your sword, in the gut. He was bleeding pretty heavily and passed out before I came down here." Adam seemed mollified by that. With a grunt of effort, he stood and grabbed a plain white shirt from the table in front of him. Blake moved to help him, but he held out a hand to stop her.
"Let's go take a look." He started for the door. "Zumeya, contact Olen and tell him to bring a clean-up crew. Ilia go give the all clear signal. Blake come with me." He clipped Blush to his waist and exited the small room. After considerably less time than it took to get here, we arrived at the secret opening that lead back to the warehouse. As we got closer to the door that lead back to the battleground, the feeling of nausea in my gut grew. As much as I wanted confirmation that he was dead, I was loathe to actually see the results of it.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when my scroll started ringing. Adam and Blake were already up the steps and heading outside, thankfully. "I'll be out in a bit." I called out to them as I checked who was calling. It was Qrow. "Hello?" I answered in what I hoped was a neutral tone.
"Hey, the last ferry is leaving in five minutes. Where are you?" His tone conveyed concern.
"I'm staying at Blake's tonight. I was about to shoot Dad a text letting him know and then we were going to go somewhere for dinner." I had no plans on going home tonight, instead I would be going to a hotel and staying the night there. I didn't have the patience or energy needed to explain what happened to Tai or Ruby, the latter of whom would probably explode at what happened to Ember Celica.
"Oh right, the terrorist." I cringed, hoping that Adam and Blake hadn't heard that.
"Yeah them, remember. With the super hearing?" I whisper-yelled into the phone.
"Yeah I do." He was silent for a moment. "Well, since you're not coming I guess I can go to a bar or something. Oh, by the way. You left your book and your meal at the diner. They're still open until ten tonight, so if you wanted to go grab them from Indigo you could." Oh crap. I had completely forgotten about my book. The book was important, but all I wanted to do was find a room by myself, curl up with some comfort food, and watch some mindless television. It seemed like today had drug on forever.
"Alright. Hey uh, we're getting ready to head out." I told him as I started up the steps that lead outside.
"Okay. And uh, keep that conversation we had at the diner a secret, alright?" I blanked for a moment before remembering what we had talked about: the first time I had killed someone today. A cold feeling settled in my chest at the thought.
"Alright, talk to you later." I told him half-heartedly and hung up. Once I had sent a quick text to Tai, pocketed my scroll, and opened the door, I reluctantly got my second look at the now corpse of the hunter. The puddle of blood beneath him had nearly doubled in size, the sight of it set my stomach churning. Adam was knelt next to the body, uncaring of the blood that was undoubtedly staining his pants.
"You got him right through the aorta." Adam remarked without looking at me. There was a modicum of respect in his voice, as if my attack had been something other than a desperate ploy. My eyes were transfixed on the glassy, baby blue eyes of the hunter. I had been angry, even enraged earlier in the heat of the moment, but seeing the look of pain, of helplessness in his eyes. It was sobering.
There was one thing that I had to do before I left: pick up the shattered remains of me left gauntlet. The process took a considerable amount of time, but after searching several of the craters I finally had every piece of my gauntlet. Or at least I hoped that I did. I stowed the remaining shells in a pocket separate from the remains of Ember Celica. Once that was all settled, I turned to Adam.
"Well, I think I'm gonna head out." I adjusted the strap of the duffel. "And I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner." Adam didn't answer verbally, merely giving me a single nod and then heading back inside the warehouse. Blake had done the same sometime when I was collecting the scraps of Ember Celica. I gave the contents of the bag one last dismayed look before zipping it shut.
The trip to the hotel I had picked out was thankfully boring. It was close to the industrial district, so I managed to get a fairly cheap room and settle in quickly. The duffel with my gauntlets in it rest in a cubby in the nightstand. Now that I had a moment of peace without any looming task I had to accomplish, I could finally relax.
It was over an hour after I had left the warehouse, the sun just barely having sunk below the horizon. My luck in picking hotels sucked, given that I had seemingly picked one of the few without complimentary television, leaving me with basically nothing to do. I was exhausted, but not tired. There was also no scroll charger in the room, meaning I couldn't play on my scroll until it was time to sleep.
In lieu of moping about the lack of amenities, I decided to attempt to catalog the pieces of Ember Celica that I had, not holding even the slightest bit of hope that I could place them all in their proper spots. Just looking at the shattered remains of the weapon built my frustration, and after another twenty minutes of fiddling with it, I gave up.
With a huff of annoyance, I grabbed my scroll, my hotel key, and headed out the door of my room. My stomach was rumbling, but I didn't feel like eating anything. Back on Earth, after a day like this, I'd have gone to a bar or a club and gotten wasted. Given that I was technically only fifteen on Remnant, and that the legal drinking age for Hunters was seventeen, I was unlikely to satisfy that particular vice for the foreseeable future. At least legally. A trick I picked up in my delinquent years was that if you acted like you belonged, you could get into pretty much anywhere.
Fifteen minutes later I arrived at an upscale looking club, complete with bass music that you could feel in your bones, flashing neon lights, and a surly looking bouncer. I did my best to look dead inside, only part of which was acting, and the bouncer waved me past. Inside, the place was fancily decorated yet sparsely populated: only about two dozen people in a club that looked like it could fit well over a hundred. Everything reminded me of something you'd find in the secret underground part of a dystopian future movie: basically everything save for the tables and chairs was made of glass, the music sounded like your stereotypical drum and bass song, and there were enough flashing lights to induce seizures. I headed down a short staircase into the club proper and plopped down at the bar, a deep sigh escaping my lips as the bartender walked up.
"Sheesh, you look like shit." The bartender drawled in a deep, gravelly voice. "Here," He slid a fancy looking glass of what appeared to be sangria towards me. "On the house." I eyed the bartender suspiciously, causing him to add "It's perfectly fine."
After one quick sniff, I determined that I had no way to know if it was safe or not, so I just shrugged. "Fuck it," I took a sip from the glass, surprised at the crisp flavor.
"So what happened?" Came his voice again. "You lose a fight?"
I scoffed, but I was unable to help a small grin. "No, I won a fight."
The bartender let out a quick, hearty laugh. "Shit, well I hope you at least made 'em pay for it." Yeah he had paid for it alright. With his life. Wordlessly, I downed the rest of the fruity drink. The bartender gave me a sympathetic look. "Well, guess that answers my question."
I slid the glass towards him. "No offense, but I didn't exactly come here to make small talk. I came here to drink until the world fades away into a nice, multicolored blur." The alcohol sat in my gut warmly. It felt nice, but it wasn't nearly enough. "You got anything stronger, but not too expensive?" The bartender shot me a wide grin.
An hour and a half and about a thousand lien later, I had built a profound buzz. The club was way more populated now, more than twice the number of people than there had been when I walked in. Shortly after I had started drinking, I learned that this was none other than Junior's bar. The bartender that I had been talking to was Junior, and holy shit hadn't that been a surprise. He looked completely different without his beard. Though it mostly may have been the cheap animation in the early parts of RWBY that didn't do the man justice.
"Hey Junior, I think 'm gonna head out." I downed the last of my third sangria and stood. Or at least that had been the plan. What I did was hop off of the stool and immediately fall backwards towards the bar, thankfully not falling over in the process. "I'm okay," I called out instinctively. Junior was leaning against the bar, a stoic look on his face.
"You ain't gettin' home by yourself in that condition." Junior noted.
I rolled my eyes and said "What, offering to take me to bed?" while shooting him a cheeky smirk.
He just sighed heavily and waved a hand dismissively. "Melanie, see that she makes it to her place in one piece." I glanced behind me to see the green twin, wearing a less revealing version of the outfit she had on in the Yellow trailer, giving Junior a flat look.
Turning back to Junior, I leaned on the bar. Partly because I wanted to look cool, but mostly because my sense of balance was off right now. "You know, you're doing an awful lot for me despite us having just met."
Junior shrugged. "I pride myself on being a good judge of character. I can tell that you're someone I need to keep an eye on, both for your sake and mine." After that he disappeared through a door behind the bar, leaving me alone with Melanie. Relatively speaking, of course, as there was still a multitude of people doing their own thing in various areas of the club. He did have a point though, after all it was Yang that trashed his club in the Yellow trailer.
"So uh, let's-" I was cut off by Melanie grabbing my wrist and dragging me towards the door of the club. "Okay, I guess that this is happening now." I added as she pulled me up the stairs that lead outside.
"Where are we going?" She asked in an angry tone. Okay, definitely not friendly. I pulled away from her and rubbed my sore wrist. Oh right, I guess that my aura would still be pretty low from today.
"Follow me!" I called back as I walked with as balanced of a gait as I could manage. Less than five steps later, I tripped and nearly fell flat on my face. Thankfully there was a street sign right next to me that I managed to grab onto. "Okay, maybe I do need some help." I admitted softly.
Melanie let out an exasperated sigh. "Just tell me where you're staying at." She definitely sounded less angry, so that was progress.
"'m sorry. I don't mean to be difficult. 's just that today sucked and I wanted to get shit-faced." I told her as I stood up. "It's the hotel a few blocks away. With the big picture of the star." It seemed like a really nice hotel, if a bit lacking in amenities.
"I know where that is. Come on." She grabbed my hand and guided me down the sidewalk. I felt a little embarrassed that I had to be led down the street like a child. With Melanie leading the way, I reached the hotel in no time at all.
As I stood outside the door to the room I had rented, I found myself unable to enter. That doing so would bring reality crashing down on my head. I reached for the card reader with a shaky hand. The closer I got, the harder I had to push myself. It seemed that my reluctance had drawn Melanie's ire.
"What's the matter with you? You don't know how to use your card?" She spat sarcastically and snatched the card from my hand. Less than a second later, the door to my room clicked open, revealing the duffel that I had been digging through shortly before I left. A forlorn sigh left my lips as I slowly strode towards the mess. Before I got even halfway, I was nearly bowled over by a bout of nausea. Bile rose in my throat as I made a beeline for the toilet. Seconds later, the contents of my stomach were being ejected in a terrible rainbow. In the brief interlude between when I was vomiting, sobs wracked my body, all of the thoughts and emotions that I had repressed being let out at once.
I understood that there probably wasn't a semblance on Remnant that could match the power of mine. It would be so easy to use it to solve every problem, and that's what I had been afraid of. Afraid that I would grow too accustomed to using it, that I would be useless without it. I had tried to match that hunter on skill alone, not realizing just how big the gap in power was between us. That fear had forced me into situations that ended with me having to kill two people today.
After what seemed like hours, my stomach had been thoroughly emptied, and my vision had been reduced to a tear-stained blur. I honestly didn't know if Melanie had stayed or gone, and didn't really care either way. All I planned on doing was clearing off the bed and laying down for a week. After finally mustering the energy to stand, I moved towards the sink to wash the nasty taste out of my mouth. It was here that I got my first look at myself after today.
Junior had been right about one thing, I looked like shit. The blood that had come from a wound on the side of my head had dried, leaving an ugly red mark along the right side of my face. Dirt covered pretty much everything that the blood didn't. Had I really gone into Junior's looking like this? My face wasn't even the worst part. My shirt, while dirtied and torn in a couple places, was mostly intact. There was a large, still tender, bruise on my back. Thankfully, it didn't seem like anything other than a bruise.
I used a washcloth to clean my face as best I could. After that, I could see that the wound on my head had already scabbed over, thanks to my aura. I gently dabbed a clean part of the cloth directly on the scabs, wincing at how tender the area still was. Once the wash cloth was mostly cleaned and wrung out, I exited the bathroom.
"It's about time. You've been in there for twenty minutes." Melanie deadpanned from the couch that lone luxury chair in the room. I swallowed nervously. There was no way that she hadn't heard everything.
"I didn't expect you to still be here." I told her as I began to pack away the mess on my bed.
"What's that?" Melanie asked, completely ignoring my remark.
I stared at the largest piece that remained of my left gauntlet. "It's-" I breathed a dejected sigh. "Was, my weapon. A pair of shotgun gauntlets named Ember Celica. I fought some guy today and his semblance destroyed them." I tossed the hunk of metal into my duffel with the rest of it and placed the bag back in its spot. "Today has just been a complete mess."
Melanie fixed me with an inquisitive look. "Is that why you were wailing like a banshee in there?" My face burned red with embarrassment.
"Partly." The bed creaked as I sat down. "I don't really feel like talking about it." Melanie's pointed look told me that she wasn't going to leave without an explanation. I sat in silent thought for a moment, until that was interrupted by my rumbling stomach. From hunger instead of nausea this time. "How about I tell you over dinner?" Standing up proved to be a challenge as I still felt more than a little tipsy from the alcohol. Despite being seemingly reluctant to do so, Melanie acted as a crutch for me.
"You smell awful." Melanie deadpanned as we went down the stairs to the first floor.
"This is my second change of clothes today." I told her. "The first had blood on them, not from me."
Melanie's mask briefly broke, conveying undisguised interest, before reforming into a dull, almost bored look. "So, where did you have in mind for dinner?" She asked in an almost monotone voice.
"I don't really know much about the area, what would you recommend?" I asked as she readjusted her grip, moving her arm from gripping mine to around the small of my back. It seemed that Melanie noticed my inquisitive look.
"It's the easiest way to keep you from falling on your ass." She huffed indignantly, before adding "There's a good seafood place called 'Golden Chef' about a block from here." On the walk there, I tried several times to walk on my own without support, but every time I nearly fell over. Now thoroughly embarrassed, I resigned myself to using Melanie as a crutch. Not that I was really complaining. She smelled nice.
Ten minutes later, we reached the restaurant. It's logo was, appropriately, a golden frying pan. Inside, the atmosphere was what could be considered upper middle class. Not really extravagant, but without a bit of spending money you likely wouldn't go there. We seated at a table near the corner, and a waiter approached us almost immediately.
"The usual, miss?" He asked Melanie. Usual? She must come here often.
"Yes, Merle." She replied with a short smile, not even bothering to look at or hand me a menu. The waiter then turned to me, giving me a disdainful once over in the process.
"And for you miss?" He asked with faux politeness.
I floundered for a brief moment, something that the man took notice of, before saying "the same as her." He nodded once and walked back towards the kitchen area. "This doesn't exactly look cheap." I noted as I looked at the menu, wincing at the prices, most of which cost in the upwards of 300-700 lien. I had about 1500 left in my account, and I hoped that I hadn't just condemned my wallet to death.
"Relax, I'm paying for it. I have credit here." She waved her hand dismissively.
I frowned. "Are you sure?" Despite being almost broke, the idea of not paying for my own food didn't sit well with me.
"It's fine." Melanie insisted. "I come here all the time. We could probably eat for free if I wanted." She cleared her throat and leaned forward on the table. "So, now will you tell me?" Her vivid green eyes seemed to bore into me. Before either of us could say anything further, the waiter came back with two glasses of ice water and a pitcher for refills. After downing more than half the glass, I figured that there was no putting it off any further.
The way I had it figured was that Melanie had been ordered to gather information on me for Junior. It seemed the only plausible reason for someone of Junior's nature to do so. Especially given the paying for dinner part, which I doubt she did out of the goodness of her heart. Giving them some information now might buy me favor for later on when I started searching for Roman and Neo.
So I told her, save for stuff that I felt that she didn't need to know, basically what had happened today. I omitted everything involving Adam: him killing the woman, replacing Adam's sword with a long shard of metal, and leaving out everything that happened after I killed that hunter. It took about twenty minutes during which our food, which was an amazing salmon filet and a side of steamed vegetables, arrived about halfway through. Melanie seemed a lot less nonplussed than I figured someone would be considering exactly what I was telling her.
"So yeah," I said after finishing my third glass of water. "Today sucked."
"I don't really see how you could have done anything different." Melanie commented. "He was trying to kill you after all." A point that I hadn't missed.
"Yeah, but I just can't help but feel that I could have done something different. Something more." I rubbed my temples in a vain attempt to soothe my slowly building headache. It had been just over an hour since I left the club and, between the fresh air, the food, and the half pitcher of water I had drank, the effects of the alcohol were starting to wear off. "Sorry, I just-" I let out a sigh. "I'm just not used to this kind of stuff." We sat in silence for a moment more, before I added. "Do you wanna get outta here?" Thankfully, she agreed.
Now that I was able to walk without assistance, we made the trip back in a couple minutes. I stopped at the doorway that led to my rented room. "Um," I swallowed nervously. "I know that I probably annoyed you a lot, and uh-" I stopped, almost uncertain of what to say. "What I'm trying to say is thank you. For putting up with me while I- " Any further conversation was cut off when Melanie kissed me, full on. My brain blanked as it tried to process what was happening. A moment later she pulled away, hand still cupping my chin.
"You're cute when you're flustered." She commented with a small smile, turned towards the hall, and walked away. By the time I composed myself, she was gone. What the fuck? I took a couple steps back and slammed the door of my room shut. I felt completely blindsided by this. Had I missed some sort of cue from her during our outing? It all seemed fairly standard, aside from the snooty waiter. I could practically feel my brain oozing out of my ears as I tried to comprehend what just happened.
"I'm too fucking tired to deal with this." I sighed exasperatedly and kicked off my shoes. Before I went to sleep I felt that a shower was in order. As I entered the bathroom and started the water for my shower, I finally noticed just how filthy I was. Several, irreparable slash marks cut lines across my shirt, exposing the skin beneath. Blood stains were speckled everywhere, though the way they contrasted with the shirt made it look like by design, rather than murder. The tan colored slacks were, thankfully, mostly blood free save for a couple splotches that were in an area covered by my shirt.
I practically melted once I stepped into the water as it, both literally and metaphorically, washed away my troubles. Parts of the water turned crimson as the dried blood was pressure washed away. What didn't come off I managed to removed with a loofa that was hanging from the shower head. It took three small bottles of shampoo and conditioner before I felt my hair was clean enough. The last five minutes of my shower were spent basking in the flow at the hottest possible setting. Once that was over, I dried off, put my underwear back on, and collapsed into the bed. My scroll was resting on the nightstand, no notifications from anyone.
As soon as I got comfortable underneath the covers, it seemed like the weight of everything I had done today came crashing down. I was asleep within moments.
