By the time the group exited the forsaken shrine and returned to the eastern gate, the sun had lowered into the west. Natsumi looked at the other three and nodded.
"Alright, let's call it a day," Natsumi said.
"But the other keys-," Hajime tried to say.
"Relax, we'll find them, but not if we're dead from exhaustion," Natsumi said. "Besides we gotta make camp for the night before it gets dark."
"She has a point," Cain said
"Fine, but first thing tomorrow we're hunting shades to find those keys," Hajime said.
"Sure," Natsumi said.
"So where are we camping tonight?" Makoto asked.
"Follow me," Natsumi said.
…
Outside the village gate, Natsumi led the group to a small cave in the canyon. There scattered amidst a fire pit were animal bones picked clean. Beside the pit was a smelly pile of animal pelts. No doubt Natsumi was here before.
"Alright, I usually do most of the prep myself, but I guess you guys can help out," Natsumi said. "Hajime, Cain, you're on fire wood duty. Meanwhile I'll hunt our dinner."
"Ooh, what can I do?" Makoto asked eagerly.
"Uh… why don't you clean this place up," Natsumi said.
"Got it!" Makoto nodded his dragon skull.
"Gathering firewood, huh," Hajime said. "That shouldn't be too hard."
"Especially when I have the power of fire," Cain said.
"Make sure you get a good amount of small and large wood," Natsumi said. "And nothing wet."
"Got it," Hajime said. "I know just where to look."
…
Over in the forest where Makoto's manor was, Hajime found a good amount of sticks lying on the ground. However they were rather small, leading him to try to cut down a tree with his own sword.
"Careful!" Cain shouted. "That sword's five years old."
"Relax, if it can stab a shade it can cut down a tree," Hajime said as he kept hacking at the tree.
"That's not how that works-," Cain said before the two heard a bad sound.
Hajime's trusty sword was now firmly lodged in the tree. In an attempt to get it out, Hajime pulled as hard as he could and seemed close to getting it out. Then the handle disconnected from the blade causing Hajime to fall backwards.
"You imbecile," Cain growled. "I told you-"
"I know!" Hajime growled back. "Can you just help me get it out, please?"
"Fine," Cain sighed and summoned his tail fists.
Using the fists, Cain snapped the tree from its trunk like a twig. The blade pitifully fell out, leaving Hajime to mourn.
"I suppose we could ask Natsumi to slice this trunk into suitable logs for the fire," Can said as he held the trunk with his tail fists.
"Looks like we'll have to go to the scrap yard tomorrow to get a new weapon," Hajime said.
"It's been a while since we've seen that strange one armed man and that annoying little brat," Cain said. "And yet it doesn't feel long enough."
"They weren't that bad," Hajime said.
"I suppose Masaru was rather annoying when we first met him," Cain said.
…
Back at the campsite, the place was all tidied up thanks to Makoto. Somehow it even smelled better, despite the dead sheep.
"Welcome back!" Makoto wagged his tail. "Wow that's a lot of firewood."
"Unfortunately it came at a great cost," Cain said as he and Hajime prepared the fire.
"You didn't get hurt did you?!" Makoto asked.
"No, we're fine, I just broke my sword is all," Hajime said.
"Oh, so can you fix it?" Makoto asked.
Cain lit the fire with his breathe.
"No, I gotta go to the scrap yard to get a new one," Hajime said as he hung the sheep over the fire.
"Scrap yard?" Makoto asked.
"Basically a junkyard for old world stuff," Hajime said.
"Cool," Makoto said. "Sounds exciting."
"Are you talking about that place with the killer dog things?" Natsumi asked as she came in.
"You've been there?" Hajime asked.
"Yeah, I thought that tiger shade was hiding out there once, but all I found were those weird half metal dogs," Natsumi said.
"The old world seems to have had its fair share of monsters," Cain said.
"Sounds like they experimented on the poor doggies," Makoto said. "Just like me…"
"No those dogs are not like you at all," Hajime said.
"It's true, they don't feel any pain and their brains are completely machine," Cain said.
"Oh," Makoto said.
"Don't worry, we'll be in and out so fast we probably won't see any of them," Hajime said.
"And if we do, I'll kill em nice and quick," Natsumi said.
"Okay," Makoto nodded.
Suddenly a bolt of lightning followed by booming thunder stuck out in the meadow catching everyone's attention.
"Woah!" Makoto said. "That was close."
"Shit," Hajime growled under his breath.
Cain moved closer to Hajime and looked at him.
"What's wrong?" Makoto asked.
"Kana's afraid of storms, isn't she?" Natsumi said.
"It's not just normal fear," Hajime sighed. "If I'm not there… damn it!"
"Calm yourself!" Cain said. "We'll find her. Besides she's not around here therefore she won't hear the thunder."
"The mutt's right," Natsumi said. "The thunder came pretty fast after the lighting so the storm is right here."
"Okay," Hajime sighed.
"Here," Natsumi tossed him a roasted leg. "You can't save Kana if you're malnourished."
"Thanks," Hajime softly smiled and ate.
…
...
It was winter. That day all the windows were shut and all the candles and furnaces lit. Hajime tended to the fire in the main room while Kana petted a dog on the bed. The big dog was black with lots of silver hairs on his face and paws. While Kana petted it, he could hear the dog beating its wagging tail on the bed. It was hard to believe how normal the dog felt in their home even though Kana rescued it just a month prior. Back then the dog terrorized the beach, yet somehow Kana managed to tame it.
"Are you and David warm enough?" Hajime asked.
"Yep," Kana said. "He likes the bed."
"You sure have a way with animals," Hajime chuckled and patted David's head.
"I just listen to them," Kana said before frowning.
"What's wrong?" Hajime asked.
"David is going to die soon," Kana said, catching Hajime off guard.
"You don't know that for sure," Hajime said. "He's pretty tough for an old timer."
"Why does he have to die?" Kana asked.
"I… well…," Hajime struggled to find the words. "It's so he can go someplace better, where he can be a young dog again."
"Will I go there if I die?" Kana asked.
"Yes, but that won't be for a very very very long time," Hajime said. "And when that day comes I'll be there with you."
Suddenly Kana leapt out of the bed and hugged him so tightly.
"Papa, please don't die!" Kana cried.
"Kana…," Hajime hugged her back. "It's okay. That won't happen for a very long time and even when it happens I'll always be watching over you in spirit."
"Promise," Kana sniffed.
"I promise," Hajime held her close and kissed her forehead.
...
…
As soon as Hajime woke up the following morning, he ran out to the scrap yard with everyone. Hajime headed into the small shop with Cain in his eye while Makoto and Natsumi waited outside. Inside, a teen with familiar green hair was tending the counter. She wore a stained puffy jacket with black leather gloves and combat boots.
"Monica?" Hajime asked.
"Oh, hey," Monica replied. "Been a while. What do you need?"
"Well my sword broke so I was hoping to get a new one here," Hajime said. "Where's Nagito?"
"Oh, he's dead," Monica said.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Hajime said.
"So you want a new sword," Monica changed the subject. "I just so happen to have the best weapon you could ever want."
"Oh, how much?" Hajime asked.
"I'll give it to you for free on one condition," Monica said. "You remember those metal monsters? Well there's one that I really want to harvest parts from but it's pretty fast. So if you help me catch it the weapon is all yours."
"Okay," Hajime said.
"Great," Monica smiled. "I'll get it from the back and then we'll head out."
Once Monica came back she had a long golden spear that was bigger than her. When she offered it to Hajime he couldn't help but admire the balanced weight and sharpness. The handle was thin but sturdy and the sphere holder was carved into the shape of a phoenix.
"Wow," Hajime said.
"You like?" Monica grinned. "I made it myself."
"That's incredible," Hajime said.
"And it's all yours once we kill the machine I'm looking for," Monica said. "It's usually in the lower depths of the factory, so if we can corner it then it'll be good as scraped."
"My friends can help with that," Hajime said.
"Friends?" Monica asked.
"Let me introduce you," Hajime said as he opened the door.
Outside Natsumi and Makoto looked at Monica but she didn't seem bothered by them at all.
"This is Natsumi and Makoto," Hajime said. "They're really good fighters."
"Cool," Monica said, surprisingly disinterred in the flying dragon skeleton.
"Do not forget your greatest asset!" Cain shouted as he sprung out from Hajime's eye.
"Agh!" Monica grunted and jumped back before quickly drawing an extendable metal mace from her jacket.
"It's okay, Cain's on our side," Hajime said.
"What is he?" Monica growled. "A dog!"
"I am a proud and noble fox," Cain said. "More than that I am the slayer of despair."
"Okay…," Monica relaxed a bit and lowered her weapon.
"Wanna tell us why you brought this teen to meet us?" Natsumi asked.
"She wants us to hunt down a canine automata in exchange for my weapon," Hajime said.
"Well aren't you the little deal maker," Natsumi said.
"Don't belittle me," Monica growled.
"That's just how she is with everyone," Hajime said.
"Ugh… if you don't mind…," Makoto awkwardly spoke up, "can I sit this one out? Just this once."
"Sure-," Hajime said.
"What, you think those machines are actually dogs or something?" Monica interrupted. "Cause they're not!"
"We'll catch the machine you want, just not with Makoto," Hajime said.
"Fine," Monica sighed.
…
While Makoto waited outside, Monica led the other three down into the factory. Inside the air was as stagnant and cold as ever, but there was no immediate attack by canine automata. Like she said, Monica knew her way around the factory and managed to lead them through secret paths Hajime and Cain had never seen when they first came here. The deeper they traversed into the factory, the more Hajime noticed lots of singed blood stains on the floors and walls. It looked like the aftermath of an explosion but there was no debris. Just the faint scent of something burnt and rotten.
"This factory sure is a treasure trove for metal and other parts," Monica said.
"Look's pretty barren to me," Natsumi said. "Isn't this place supposed to be crawling with machines?"
"It was," Monica said. "But I took care of it. I'll admit those machines make great material for my weapons."
"Was my other sword made with machine parts?" Hajime asked.
"If it was made by my brothers no," Monica said. "They were never able to kill a single machine, so that's why they died here."
"I'm sorry-," Hajime tried to share his condolences.
"Ah! Here we go!" Monica interrupted him and ran ahead to a strange looking door. "This will take us right to it."
Monica pressed a few buttons near the door before it opened to reveal a small windowless room.
"This thing must be super tiny if it's hiding in there," Natsumi said.
"No, this isn't a room, it's a form of transportation from the old world," Monica said. "Just get in and I'll show you."
Taking her word for it, the tree walked into the small room. Instantly they felt claustrophobic. Then the door slid closed behind them and the whole room felt like it was descending.
"Are we falling?!" Hajime asked.
"Relax," Monica said. "The mechanisms are just taking us down a few levels."
"The old world is so weird," Natsumi said.
Soon after she said that, the room stopped moving down and the doors opened. A cold blast of air filled the room sending a shiver down Hajime's spine. Natsumi was the first to leap out of the elevator, clearly happy to have space again.
"So what's the plan to catch this thing?" Natsumi asked.
"Simple, this area has one main circular room connected to this hall by four doors," Monica said. "If we can chase the machine into the center room and block the doors, it can't escape."
"Okay then," Hajime said. "And it's just like every other machine, right?"
"No!" Monica shouted. "I mean it's a lot faster and smarter because some tiny shade is controlling it. If we seperate the two, it'll be much easier to kill."
"Surround the machine dog, kill the shade on it, and then kill the machine," Natsumi said. "That sounds good to me."
"Good," Monica said.
The group divided in two, Natsumi and Monica going left while Hajime and Cain went right. Once he turned the corner that's when he saw the machine. An abnormally large canine automata with fur like snow and eyes as cold blue as winter. Based on its biological components, it appeared to be a shiba inu. Yet instead of a curly tail, it had five whip like tails with bladed gums on the ends.
"INTRUDER DETECTED!" A robotic voice blared from the machine's mouth despite it not moving.
"So this is the white canine automata," Cain said. "No matter, we shall dispose of it like the others five years ago."
"Yeah," Hajime raised his spear.
Upon Hajime lifting his weapon, the white canine automata bolted. Just as Monica said, it was fast, not even Cain could keep up. Luckily it didn't take long before the two groups intersected and forced the machine to flee into the main room. There in the center was a scrawny cat shade. It mrowled upon seeing the machine, calling it to its side. The machine ran and allowed the shade to leap onto its back. At the same time all four of them surrounded the pair.
"SCANNING… SCANNING!" The canine automata spoke.
"See!" Monica shouted. "That puny shade controls it!"
The cat shade made a distorted hiss commanding the canine automata to attack. Swiftly it raised its tail guns and started rapidly firing shots of electricity. Hajime, Natsumi, Cain, and somehow Monica dodged, the latter leaping at the machine afterwards. The canine automata raised its metal claws and tried to cut her only for Cain to drag her out of harm's way.
"Hey!" Monica shouted.
"A moment later and you'd have no face!" Cain shouted back.
"EXTERMINATING… EXTERMINATING!" The canine automata spoke.
"Time to slice off some tails!" Natsumi summoned her shadow claws. "Hajime help me out!"
"Got it!" Hajime shouted back.
"I suppose I should distract this steel creature," Cain said before running up into the canine automata's face.
At the same time Natsumi and Hajime ran to the back of the machine. Natsumi leapt up into the air with her shadow legs and managed to catch four of the tails in mid air. The stray tail gun aimed but only managed to scrape her right arm surrounded in shadows. Once she landed, she stretched the tails out allowing Hajime to slice them in one clean slash. Enraged the shade cat mrowled getting its puppet's attention. Swiping Cain away, the canine automata turned around to face the two responsible for its lost tails. Using its remaining tail, it wrapped it around Cain's neck while lunging at Natsumi.
"Gah!" Cain began struggling to breathe as the metal tail wrapped tighter around his neck
"Cain!" Hajime shouted, running to his partners defense.
Natsumi raised her shadow claws to shield for impact. The canine automata attempted to bite her arms clean off, but the shadow claws were too thick for its fangs to pierce through much. Swiftly Natsumi retracted her shadow claws to slip her arms out. Then while the machine was up close, she resummoned her shadow claws and slashed through its metal face. It's grip on Cain loosened, allowing the spirit fox to slip out. In response the cat shade began mrowling again. The canine automata slammed its front paws down creating two waves of electricity around it, that Natsumi narrowly dodged.
"EXTERMINATING… EXTERMINATING… ING… ING!" The canine automata's voice started to break.
Regardless of the electricity waves, Monica charged in with her metal mace.
"Take this you bastard!" Monica yelled as she swung her mace into the canine automata's biological side.
Blood gushed out upon impact, yet only the cat shade mrowled in pain. The canine automata turned its head towards the teen before flicking her to the wall with its remaining tail. Once again it slammed its paws onto the ground sending out more electric waves than ever while the cat shade mrowled more.
"MUST… DEFEND… MY… MISSION!" The canine automata said and was met with more distressed mrowling from the cat shade.
"No! Damn it!" Natsumi shouted. "That's a shade. It's a shade!"
Suddenly, the canine automata froze. Then metal wings shot out from its back giving it the ability to fly off the ground.
"This thing can fly?!" Hajime shouted.
"Doesn't matter," Cain growled. "We'll just shoot it down!"
"Yes!" Monica said. "Knock it out of the air and smash it to the ground!"
Once in air, the canine automata flew right up to the ceiling and started knocking down debris. The group scrambled to dodge it while also looking for an opening.
"ESCAPE, ESCape, Escape!" The canine automata spoke.
"I don't think so!" Natsumi growled and used her shadow legs to launch herself up to the machine to pull it down by its tail.
"GO… see the WORLD... LD… LD... LD!" The machine said.
The canine automata flapped its wings as hard as it could to stay in the air, only for Natsumi to pull its tail and slam it on the floor. Cain summoned a tail lance and shot it clean through the machine's chest, pinning it to the ground. In retaliation for its subdued puppet, the cat shade lunged at Cain only for Hajime to intercept and slash it. The cat shade, knocked back by the strike, hit the machine. The canine automata struggled to stand back up only to fall back down. In its final moments, the cat shade struggled to produce a soft distorted meow before fading away
"Jataro… together…," the canine automata spoke. "Kibou alone… Kibou cry?"
The group stood in silence until Monica staggered forward, dragging her mace behind her.
"You stupid machine," Monica growled and raised her mace. "ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Then, Monica slammed the mace down into the canine automata's neck.
"Because of you, the only true brother I had died!" Monica shouted and bashed the mace into the machine's side. "You and all you're wretched kind know nothing but killing and making my life a living hell!"
Once she bashed her mace into the canine atomata's face, it's blue eyes turned dull.
"Monica, it's dead," Hajime said and tried to approach her.
"Shut up!" Monica swung her mace and almost hit him before going back to hitting the canine automata. "Hitting it… makes me feel BETTER!"
More and more Monica hit the canine automata sending blood and metal flying. Her eyes were focused only on the damage she caused. It made Hajime step back. Natsumi put a hand to his shoulder.
"Let's… just go," Natsumi said.
"Yeah…," Hajime said as he stared at Monica now laughing and crying uncontrollably with a demented smile on her face.
The three turned away and started walking.
"What do we tell Makoto?" Cain asked.
"We got the job done and that's it," Hajime said.
Natsumi looked back at Monica as she kept bashing away at the canine automata.
"I can't wait to pick your pieces apart and make weapons out of them!" Monica laughed. "THEN ILL NEVER BE POWERLESS EVER AGAIN!"
"Good call," Natsumi turned back and said to Hajime.
"Some people are just destined to go insane," Cain said.
"Not us," Hajime said.