He was silent in his thoughts. He always is.
Walking through the thick forest, his view completely overwhelmed by trees and insects alike. He was careful in his steps, avoiding every sharp rock, every fallen branch, every rotten fruit, as if he was going on some sort of stealth mission.
He wasn't. He was just used to walking like this.
He heard a rumbling sound, a sign that it is time for lunch. Speaking of lunch...
A fraction of a second was all it took. The headless corpse of a bird that just happened to fly by him kissed the ground,fresh red liquid oozing out.
He sheathed his crimson blade without even moving his head, and began picking up some fallen branches nearby to prepare a bonfire.
A bird isn't much, but it'll do for him. He never eat much, usually only until his own stomach had received its hourly demand. A simple bowl of soup would suffice as dinner for someone like him. He had however, met people who can eat a lot, like A LOT. He once met a hunter who can eat 5 bowls of noodles without breaks. Truly a monster. He couldn't imagine anybody being able to eat more than that. Except maybe a Danger Beast.
Speaking of Danger Beasts, he wondered why they were named that way. What kind of person thought "Danger Beast" sounded like a suitable name for identifying a species? He may be a silent person, but he does have his iwn opinion on certain things. "Danger Beast" just sounded...unoriginal, cheesy perhaps. Why not name them Xenomorphs, or Kaijus, or anything more unique.
He just made those names up.He had no idea what they meant, but they did sound cool.
A suspicious sound broke him out of his thoughts. A sound coming from beneath the ground he was on.
Acting on instinct, he gripped the hilt of his sword, preparing to strike. His face remained passive as always,but every single fibre of his body was tense.
The sound becomes louder, and louder...until it becomes weaker again, and eventually faded away. It could stil be faintly heard getting farther away from his current position.
Guess the Beast changed its mind. That, or it found a more suitable prey.
His feet sprang into action, his eyes focused on where the Beast will turn up. The Beast was fast, that was for sure. But it can't run forever.
A few seconds later, he detected the faint sound of a horse, which usually meant there are people as well. His suspicions were proven correct when he heard the voices of a couple of men, merchants perhaps, screaming for their lives at the sight of an earth dragon, the Danger Beast he had been chasing earlier.
He sheathed his sword, its crimson blade menacingly glowing as if seeking blood, ready to dismember the Beast and decapitate it.
Or at least that's what he thought he was about to do. Turns out he never needed to do anything.
A young boy with brown hair and a sword in his hands cut off one of the gigantic arms of the Beast, before uttering some words about meeting a worthy opponent and proceeding to cut the Beast apart.
The boy was skilled, he will admit that. Too slow, perhaps, but skilled nonetheless. Given a few more years of training, and he will be a truly fine warrior.
As the corpse of the Beastfell to the ground, the two merchants earlier praised the boy in front of them for saving their lives. The boy deserved at least that much after the fight, as short as it was.
The boy replied with a prideful tone, his face and body posture obviously trying to show off a bit of ego, hinting at a slight arrogance. Even the two merchants earlier seemed like they wanted to take back what they said.
His eyes widen just a little bit when he heard something interesting, regarding the boy's destination. He wanted to go the capital, just like he is. Then something else caught his interest.
The two merchants suddenly held a serious expression, and told the boy about how there were far worse monsters in the capital. The boy was confused, mistaking what they were implying that there were also Danger Beasts in the capital. Ah, he's naive as well. Probably had been sheltered all his life in the countryside. He of course knew what the merchants meant. Now he was even more interested in going to the capital.
Of course, the boy disregarded what the merchants said and continued his path, saying some stuff about saving his village or something, obviously clueless of what he was going to face down the road.
Poor boy, perhaps he should follow him, just to make sure he could at least make it to the capital alive. But then again, the boy does have skill with a sword, so maybe he could handle himself.
Come to think of it, the boy looked like he actually knew where he was going. He on the other hand, had been wandering around for a while, just looking for something interesting to do.
He probably should've asked the merchant he saved before for directions so he didn't get lost like this. But he was never quite the talker. He could count on one hand the number of times he had actually talked the whole week he's been traveling.
So in the end, he decided to follow the boy. By walking behind him without the boy realizing it, in his ever so quiet footsteps.
...minutes passed, and the ignorant boy suddenly fell to the ground. It appeared he tripped on a conveniently placed rock in the middle of the road. Fate can be so cruel sometimes.
"Oww...what the heck...Eh?" The brown haired boy looked back to where he was walking before he tripped, and saw him.
Black hair, red scarf, dull grey trenchcoat, dark blue trousers, grey sandals, a suspicious looking sword, and yellow eyes.
Those cold, menacing, yellow eyes.
The boy eventually broke out of his stupor, and vocally announced his surprise.
"W-wait, who the HECK are you!??"
His question was answered with the same lifeless stare.
He simply pointed to himself, and then to the direction that they were both heading.
It took a few seconds for the boy to finally understand, which was impressive for someone like him. Not a lot of people could actually understand him, since he rarely, if ever, speak at all.
"Ohh...you wanted to go the capital too? Wait a minute...have you been following me all this time!?"
And five minutes later, he was now walking beside the naive boy, heading towards the same place.
"...so uhh...anyway, my name's Tatsumi! What's yours?"
Silence.
"...umm, ok. Well, can you tell me why you wanted to go the capital? Are you trying to join the army? I mean, you looked pretty skilled with that sword."
"...well, I wanted to go because I needed money for my village. Our village was experiencing lack of food because it was winter there. It wasn't just me though, there were three of us initially. There was Ieyasu, and Sayo as well. We were best friends, and we all wanted to set out to the capital to earn money and save our village, but then we got attacked by bandits and we've been separated ever since...come to think of it, it's been a while sinceI last saw them...I wonder if they're okay...um, I'm getting far off track, am I? Heh heh~, anyway-HEY! Are you even listening?"
The whole time the boy named named Tatsumi was telling his life story, he merely kept walking with his eyes forward, never looking anywhere else. It's like he was ignoring him.
Tatsumi was getting weirded out by this guy. He walked like a robot, every step in uniform motion. Even his breath was steady and silent, so silent it doesn't sound like he was breathing at all. And his eyes. Nuff said.
This guy is really creepy.
And Tatsumi was getting annoyed by it too.
"...well, FINE!! If you want to play the quiet game, then it's fine-"
"Kai."
"-by me! I don't want to talk-wait what?"
"My name is Kai."
So he CAN talk? Tatsumi was beginning to think his vocal cords might be broken.
"So..uh...Kai, then? Okay..."
And that was the only sentence "Kai" had uttered throughout their trip. The duo went silent from that point, contemplating in their own thoughts.
Though one thing's for sure, things are going to get very interesting.
Author's Note
So, uh...this was originally supposed to be a one-shot. The idea for this story came to me one day, and I couldn't get it off my mind since.
To be honest, I don't really have plans for this story. I don't know which direction to go from the original storyline, and how I'm going to finish this story, if possible. Assuming people actually liked this story, I'll keep posting new chapters whenever I can. But don't expect me to update frequently. I'll only write a new chapter if I feel like it, and even this one just came to my head by sheer luck when I decided to re-read the first chapter.
Sorry if there were some grammar mistakes here and there, English isn't really my first language. And I also apologize for any spelling errors or ugly formats, I'm currently writing this story on my phone, so it's kinda hard to get used to the interface.
Hope you enjoyed my story so far, and ciao.