"Wooaaahh!! AWESOME!!! So THIS is the imperial capital!?"
Tatsumi vocally expressed his awe and excitement, gathering attention of some bypassers who weregoing about their daily lives.
'Must be a village kid', they all thought.
"It's so cool! Cooler than I first thought!! Hey Kai, are you see-"
Tatsumi turned to his only company throughout his whole trip to reach the capital, only to be met with, you guessed it, the same emotionless face.
'Yep, this guy cannot be human.' Tatsumi thought to himself.
Kai was impressed by the architectural design of the whole city, but that's it. He wasn't paying attention to the authentic look of the capital.
Instead, he was rapidly scanning at the buildings to look for anything that signifies the word "restaurant".
It took a while before reaching the capital that Kai realized he hadn't eaten anything since this morning. The bird that he was busy roasting at the bonfire earlier and then forgot about since he was busy chasing a certain earth dragon before, had probably been eaten by some other lucky animal or wanderer that stumbled by.
So Kai took off abruptly, looking for a nice place that serves good food, leaving Tatsumi in the dust.
He didn't even say goodbye.
Tatsumi was left speechless at what had transpired.
'Did-did that guy literally just DUMPED me!?'
Tatsumi was offended, but kept his thoughts to himself. That guy, Kai probably had some more important things to do. After all, he himself had his own goal for reaching here.
"I'm gonna make enough money here, and then I will save my village! But first, I need to look for the barracks. Once they saw my swordmanship skills, they'll surely give me a high position in the military." Tatsumi spoke to himself, a bit too loudly perhaps, since a certain blonde woman who happened to be sipping a drink nearby had probably heard him, and have begun hatching a rather nefarious plan to trick this unsuspecting outsider.
Meanwhile...
Kai was busy convincing a red haired waitress that all he wanted was a bowl of chicken soup, and a glass of water.
Of course the waitress thought his order was a bit absurd, since this was a five star restaurant after all.
Everyone came here to experience luxurious, exotic cuisines that mere peasants would never be able to taste, and then there's this guy, asking for soup.
"Um...of course, thank you for you order, sir." The waitress just assumed that he was probably on diet and took his order.
After his soup and water was finally served, Kai indulged in his meal.
Except the way he eats made even some of the customers there stare in curiosity.
Dip the spoon into the soup. Take a spoonful. Put it in the mouth. Swallow. Repeat for one minute. Reach for glass. Take a sip. Swallow. Put the glass back. Repeat from the first step.
That's the most accurate way to describe it. He eats so, normally. A very active person with lots of caffeine in their system would go asleep just watching him eat.
He walks, reacts, and eats like a robot.
After finishing his meal, Kai paid the waitress some coins while nodding, and walked out of the restaurant, with his usual uniform footsteps.
He spent the rest of the evening wandering around the city, just looking at random things.
He was getting quite bored of watching the same looking citizen walking by, or the same looking shop lined on the streets, until he noticed something peculiar.
Three wanted posters on a brick wall, each with three different names. From the way the posters look, it's aparent the people displayed in there were criminals wanted by the government. But each one of them share the same title.
Night Raid.
"You're new from around here, are ya?" An unknown voice came from behind where Kai was facing. It was the voice of an old man, possibly just passing by earlier and saw him staring at those posters.
Kai rose an eyebrow, the first time he had shown some form of emotion since coming to the capital, seemingly prompting the old man to continue.
"Night Raid, that's what the government calls them. Don't know much myself, but I heard they're very skilled assassins. Well, that's what I thought since their presence had alarmed the entire capital. Been seeing more and more of the police patrolling around here everyday. These are troubling times indeed." The old man continued. Kai was intrigued, to say the least. But then, the old man spoke once more.
"However, I wouldn't say Night Raid is bad. They seemed to be on the Revolutionary Army's side, since all that's been targeted so far were government officials. Those corrupt scum. I say they deserved what's coming for them. But don't say that out loud in the public. The police might think you're a rebel as well."
Rebels? Revolutionary Army? Now Kai had more questions than before. The old man somehow realized what he was thinking, as he continued again.
"You...must've been living far in the countryside, haven't you? There's a civil war going on right now. A group of rebels calling themselves the Revolutionary Army wants to overthrow the leadership. Though they ain't much of an army, really. At least not compared to the imperial army. But ever since Night Raid's been around...well the government is getting quite concerned that the capital isn't as ,"peaceful", as it used to be. Though if you ask me, it wasn't that much better before anyways. So don't be surprised if you see a lot of patrols here in the capital."
Feeling he had heard enough, Kai simply nodded to the old man, and walked away in a steady pace.
The old man however, was busy thinking to himself. 'Those eyes...they're the eyes of a killer. I've seen plenty of those in my younger time. And that sword...it doesn't feel like an ordinary weapon at all...could it be...a Teigu?'
...it was nighttime.
During this time, some have already closed their shops and went to their beds for a good night sleep. Others still hanging out at bars, drinking with their buddies to their hearts' content, and then there are certain people silently moving through the night, possibly for some shady business.
And there was a lone wanderer, lying on the top of a roof. Looking at the night sky.
More specifically, the stars.
He always liked looking at the stars.
From what his father said, each of those stars have their own stories, and he believed stars represent those who have passed away, who then became fixed celestial objects on the sky, their lights staring back down on the earth, as if watching over those still alive on this world.
Of course, he didn't actually believe in all that. He just liked watching stars because they made him feel...at peace. Like there's nothing to worry about in the world.
But if his father was actually right about what he said, then he would still feel sort of...happy about it. Because that would mean his father was watching over him now.
Come to think of it, it's been a while since he left Tatsumi alone this afternoon. He wondered how the kid would take care of himself.
He didn't mean to leave the kid behind just like that, he was just so focused on finding a way to quench his hunger that he completely forgot about his companion.
'Eh, he'll be fine.' Kai mused to himself.
He was about to fall asleep, until he heard the muffled sound of a woman, down below.
He quickly sprang into action.
Speaking of the woman...
"Hm-mph!! Hmmph-mph!!" The young lady with red hair was trying desperately to shout for help, but the massive hand covering her mouth wasn't letting that to happen. Two sinister looking guys were admiring her looks, and the large man holding her still held a large grin on his face.
"Heh heh heh..the boss is gonna reward us big time for this. Just look at this little doll." The big man spoke in confidence.
One of the men responded," Yo Jiggs, we should be careful with the girl. The boss said to bring the chick unharmed, didn't he?"
"Yeah he did, but he never said we couldn't have our own share of fun, did he?" the man's grin widen some more, while one of his hands started to run down the girl's figure. The two men started to laugh,agreeing on what the man named Jiggs had just said. The girl however, could only whimper in sorrow, tears forming in her eyes, thinking about how she was going to lose her virginity to these ravenous monsters. Her watery eyes were closed shut, as she could feel the man's hand slowly unbuttoning her dress.
As you could already expect at this moment, the most unexpected thing(for the rapists anyway) happened.
The man named Jiggs now had a sharp piece of metal sticking out his forehead between his eyes, blood dripping out of the wound. A second later, the metal removed itself, and his face was filled with his own blood, as he fell down backwards to the floor, no longer breathing, letting go of the girl he held hostage earlier.The girl backed up to a nearby wall, also shocked at what had transpired.
The two remaining perverted scum set their gazes on a stranger with a red scarf, and yellow eyes. He was holding a sword, its blade strangely red in colour.
Wasting no time, the two quickly drew out their knives and dashed towards the stranger. To no avail.
She felt a gush of wind, and the two men fell to the ground, their heads no longer attached to their bodies. The stranger was moving so fast, he seemed like a mere blur. Then he sheathed his sword, even though the blade was still stained with blood.
She was too afraid to say anything, simply staring at the stranger in front of her. Time passed by, and it eventually dawned upon her that she knew who this stranger was.
It was the weird guy she served in the restaurant earlier this afternoon.
It's as though fate decided to play with her, how the peculiar weirdo she tried to stay away from, ended up becoming the person whom she now owed her life to.
And just like that, he jumped to the rooftops, and left. Not even a goodbye. Not even looking back as a sign of acknowledgement. He just dumped her there after seemingly saving her life.
Honestly, she felt saddened. She couldn't even thank him.
Back on the rooftops...
Kai watched with his usual blank expression from afar as the redhead he saved earlier rushed to her home safely.i
Good. He was a bit worried she might encounter more problems. Though he didn't show it.
He looked at his sword, silently.
'You really wouldn't let me rest for one day, huh?'
He had held onto Shinku for so long, he felt as if he had it his whole life. It was a gift, or a curse, depending on one's perspective. Though in his eyes, it were much more of a burden, a responsibility he had to bear with for the rest of his life.
He had not lived a single day without killing something, or someone, with the blade he gripped in his hand.
Feeling that his eyelids were starting to feel heavy, he decided to finally settle on the rooftop.
Kai was used to sleeping like this. He stll had the money to get comfy in a bed, mind you, but he had always preferred to sleep under the stars.
He started to analyze his current situation.
Right now he's in the capital of possibly the most powerful empire in this continent, where a civil war is going on between the government and the so called "Revolutionary Army", trying to overthrow the former's grip on this country, with a band of assassins simply called "Night Raid" as their greatest weapon against them.
Night Raid.
He's interested in meeting them, wanted to further understand their cause. Why they are taking part in this war.
And if the old man was telling the truth, then he might actually have a role in this war. Which meant it wouldn't be boring.