Pain, pain is good, makes him feel alive. He's dead if he doesn't feel pain. Pain helped him know something is wrong and how to fix it, and now the pain is telling him to go find some aspirins for the pounding migraine he has now.
A low growl escaped his lips as he massaged his head. He cursed Suika's liquor-infused drinks and his own stupidity for actually accepting the meal. How was he supposed to know how high the damn alcohol content that boar meat has?
Slowly, Alex opened his eyes and winced at the needles poking his brain inside out. His vision was hazy for a moment, it was dark, perhaps its still night? One way to find out.
The first thing he did was to check for his pistol of course. His hand thankfully grasped a familiar shape instead of nothingness, so he drew strength from it as he slowly swings his legs around. He was lying on a bed, his bed to be precise. The room was dark, so he goes to the window and opened the heavy curtain.
If he was a vampire, the sunlight would've killed him three-times over and spit on his corpse for good measure. But he was human, so it only makes his retina suffer. "Motherfucker" he then closes the curtain, effectively saving his brain from further torture.
But he was now left in the dark. As he turns around and saw the gloom that has taken over the room, Alex decided to open the curtains again, letting in precious if not painful sunlight into the room. He fought back the bile that rose to his throat as he walked toward the small table beside his bed. Panadols, not strong enough for his pain, but it'll do for now.
After swallowing the pills dry, Alex checked his pistol again, hoping that it was loaded. It was, the forty-five calibre shines brightly from the top of the magazine like gold. He then loaded the magazine back at the pistol, savouring the metallic click-clack of his sidearm. He softly caresses the slide of his pistol, feeling the familiar weight of his faithful friend in his hand.
"Old, but gold, hundred years of service, and ready for a hundred more"
Now that he has done admiring his weapon, Alex slides the pistol back to his thigh holster. He then walked toward a mirror attached to a wall besides a large ornamental dresser. He took off his goggles and noted how red his deep brown eyes are. He can count the veins that runs through the white of his eyes, noting with slight alarm at how brilliant scarlet it was.
He remembered what happened yesterday, and it was…embarrassing. He got drunk somehow, and he probably made a fool of himself again. He tried to remember anything beyond getting his ass kicked by a boar, but he drew a blank from there. What the hell happened? Did that boar exist? Did he kill that boar? Unlikely, considering that he's using a forty-five.
His eyes widened in panic as he remembered something even more important. The girls! Are they safe? Are they wounded by the boar? Did he accidentally hurt one of them in his battle? The devil knows that he'll never forgive himself if he shot Alice between the eyes.
Realises that he was properly dressed, Alex rushes toward the door. he opened it and almost slammed his face to Sakuya's bosom.
"Fuck!" Alex cursed as he took a step backward from the sudden encounter. She was as he remembered her to be; tall, elegant, and beautiful like a shining edge of a knife. Alex observed her grey eyes, sharp and piercing like a dagger. In her hand is a tray of food and a note. He recognized the smell of bacon and egg, a staple American breakfast along with his sweet coffee.
"Language" She said with a teasing tone.
"Sorry" Alex replied back as he returned to his previously relaxed posture. "what happened?"
"You got flat-out drunk and proceeds to kick the life out of the air with the same gracefulness of a cripple trying out on a high-rope circus show"
Alex chuckled at the words that came out of her mouth albeit uneasily. "And the girls?"
"I'm afraid their sound asleep by the time you started your…drunken style showcase" Sakuya replied. "then again, it was all fun and games until you pull out your piece and tries to shoot the donation box"
Alex softly nodded, realising that she wasn't really disappointed, only mildly amused by what happened. "Wait, where's my manner? Come in and put the meal on the table there!"
She bowed as she passed Alex and placed the tray upon the coffee table. Alex notices the garter belt underneath her skirt, noting the second holster on her left thigh. Her thighs are full and soft, the flesh deliciously wrapped by a soft layer of pantyhose and guarded by a small row of knives.
Sakuya didn't notice his admiring gaze, but she can feel his gaze upon her posterior like how a deer would detect a possible predator. "The meal is right here sir, not where you're looking at"
"Sorry, can't tell the difference" Alex replied with a particularly shit-eating grin.
"Enjoy your meal sir"
"Thanks, Sakuya, I appreciate it"
Now that she has done her duty, she slowly walked down the hallway leaving the man to his breakfast. Alex smiled with pride as he closes the door, his other hand caresses the handgun on his thigh out of nostalgic expression.
"She actually carried my gift"
Feeling a little bit better, Alex then proceeds to sit down and have a nice breakfast. His head was pounding, but the pain no longer bothers him. Living in Gensokyo does wonder for your overall toughness.
Alex then pulls out his smartphone and scanned his to-do list. So far, it has been packed. Being the commander for basically an army of militia tend to make his life busy. Gensokyo's modernization pace is pretty slow and Alex is annoyed at the cost he has to pay for all of that.
The road is almost fixed, but almost doesn't equates to complete. The police force asked for more guns, but they ain't trained enough to actually use them and the last thing he need is a trigger-happy militia. He was happy that David can give them training, but he gonna need to grab in more specialist to get things moving. Problem is, he needs to keep the secrecy. Gensokyo cannot be revealed at all.
Engineers, architects, mechanics, teachers, policemen, people with actual skills are needed for this revival. He can't rely on the locals as they kept using the same old adage despite their equipment constantly updated in a very erratic manner. All the people that are spirited away are useless; hence why they are forgotten.
Says a lot about yourself
And the society itself.
So far, all of the important one is in the process with the appropriate leaders taking care of each project as they see fit. Eirin has been doing a good job with the new vaccine machine Alex have smuggled in for the village, he expected the mortality rate for SARS to disappear completely without resorting to shrine visits. The old shotguns he smuggled in a month before should've settle the police force down a little. History now has been updated in the school's curriculum, now people can know why the big earthquake that happened 70 years or so before happened. Last but not least, the village's library has its content almost fully backed up in a massive memory system maintained by both kappas and humans. In a catastrophic event of the books either burned away or the knowledge of Youkais starts to disappear, the memory drive serves as a mean of preserving the knowledge of their existence in PDF form.
The SDM's library is too big and it'll take a few hundred years to scan and compress every book in the library to PDF forms. A small notation was placed beside the title; get several teams of computer expert from the outside to try and speed up the process.
Alex swiped the note until he saw the most urgent one. He smiled at the word that was written on it, still chuckling at the sheer ridiculousness of his current assignment. "Prepare an American dish"
Two weeks ago, he was asked to bring some cuisine from the outside world, or rather, meals that daily people usually eat. Alex is no Gordon Ramsay, so his idea of a cuisine is simply a nice greasy McDonalds. Then again, the people of Gensokyo never have the luxury of modern American fast food.
Alex looked at his notes. Tomorrow the shipment he asked for will arrive at night at the same place. It should be a very easy job. The karaoke machine is by far the hardest between the two, considering the fact that he doesn't even need to make a false paper for the pizzas he's smuggling in.
"God, I miss Domino's"