Me and Mokou entered the market place. I was stunned...no more like surprised how many people was right now on it. Mokou was slightly surprised, but she quickly was annoyed, because we couldn't walk around freely. Mokou was getting annoyed and start moving people on her own just to move freely. I, on the other hand tried to squeeze between them. It wasn't easy.
People were ass. Jabbing, cursing and other that kind of things were probably routine here. Finally I manage to walk out of mob and breath deeply. I said to myself.
"That's why, I hate crowded places..." I straighten myself and took finally deep breath. I looked around and didn't saw Mokou. I grimaced.
"Don't tell me we lost each others… No, no For sure we lost each other...great. Good Job Matuesz. You're great." I complained to myself about myself. I looked to my right and saw barrel, near wall. I walked on it and looked around trying to find Mokou. It wasn't easy. So much people wearing different colors, moving and to addition, the sun was getting out of the clouds, which didn't helped me either. Also stalls with their tarpaulins cover a lot of people heads. I muttered angrily.
"I would hate myself and everything for 10 minutes if I won't find her… Where are you... Mokou..." I keep looking around. This is pain in the ass. It's worse because it's market. At least in my times you could just pull out the phone and call someone. Here, you're on your own. I sighed angrily to myself and cursed. I keep looking, before something caught my attention. Big red ribbon. It must be hear, no doubt.
I jumped from barrel and start again squeezing through mobs. Fuck it, it's tighter that in black men ass. I keep squeezing, but people were throwing me on the sides and I lost direction I was walking in. Then I felt something grab me by my collar and pulled be back. Landed on the ground in nearby alley. I grimaced a little before I saw Mokou behind me. And she was annoyed. I sighed with small smirk.
"I can't leave you out of my sight, do I?" She asked bending to me. I waved her of saying.
"That's makes two of us. But in all seriousness, the crowd is massive and be honest, everyone would lost themselves here." I pointed my finger at people. Mokou sighed knowing I was right. I clapped my hand changing topic.
"Ok, we found ourselves, I think we should either look for those guys, or we can earn some money. And I'm saying I'm not good at pick pocketing." I warned her. Mokou rose eye brow but she shocked her head.
"No, no, no. For now I would like avoid stealing, especially when we got guards on our necks." Mokou said. I grimaced and said.
"I guess you're right. But we will need food and water. Maybe not now, but soon for sure. Or at least water. Or fruits, they will be good as well." I shrugged. Mokou nodded.
"I agree. I… really don't know what to do right, to be honest. In Gensokyo, I either makes sure people weren't lost in Bamboo Forest of the Lost, or I escort people to Eientei. But I guess you don't know what I'm talking about." Mokou said. I chuckled and said.
"You would be surprised, but I do." I said with big grin. Mokou looked at me surprised.
"Wait, are you from Gensokyo? I never saw you in Human Village? But I hardly ever visit it." Mokou said. I chuckled hard.
"No, no, no. I guess we know what to do right now. Let's find some quiet place to talk." I said. Mokou nodded but she wasn't sure about that. We walked slightly deeper into the alley and stopped. Mokou rest on the wall, while I sit on the ground. I sighed and start talking about myself.
"Ok, let be clear about one thing. What I now could be different from your perspective so if something is different, tell me, ok?" Mokou nodded.
"Ok, So to be honest I know quite a lot about you and Gensokyo overall, but I got feelings what I know might be or completely wrong or be something different. Oh, and by the way. The way I learned about Gensokyo, might be bit a little unbelievable. But that's my side and I will try explain as best I can but I got feelings will fuck this up anyway, because I suck and explanations so if you won't understand something, you can easily blame me." I said flippantly. Mokou looked at me and deadpanned.
"I would do that anyway..." She crossed her arms.
"Good, now we got that behind let's get this thing start. Ok, you know what games are? Bet you do, so let's say that from where I come from, there is that one, always drinking beer guy, who, mostly because of beer probably, created a game which got more than 20 parts already. And these games are about Gensokyo and about everything what this God damn man thought, name vampire covering whole Gensokyo in mist because she wanted to go outside, drunk in four ass loli Oni who wanted to bring her kin on the surface so she mad everyone party at shrine because of that. Or a bird brain youkai who got power of nuclear fusion, or to say it simply, she could throw suns at you. Not lost?" I asked Mokou who got her eyes bulged in surprise. I guess she is… or maybe not…
"Mokou, you there? Earth to Mokou, Huston we got problem..." I said waving my hand. Mokou soon shocked her head hard to get herself together. She grabbed her head and said.
"I get it all, but… it's a surprise you know about those events." She said slowly, surprised about my knowledge so far, which was just a tip of an ice berg of the of the mountain. I continued in sarcastic tone.
"Ohhhh, just wait. It's get better. There was probably even the incident about flying ship which later turned into temple, a spirit outbreak, which leaded to resurrection of few Taoists hermits, battle between different religions in Gensokyo because one girl with always neutral face lost one of her mask, and rebellion of weaker youkai because of some mallet which power went rampage because someone used it not like it should be used, or something like this." I said. Mokou nodded and said.
"There were other incidents as well, but I got pretty good feeling that you know about them. Ok, let's test you a little." Mokou said with small smirk. I felt scary.
"Oh dear, please no. I hate tests! Because of them I always got bad time, so please spare me those!" I begged in mocking voice. Well I still didn't wanted to have test, but I just couldn't answered her normally. I just couldn't.
"Don't worry I won't grade you for that...probably." Mokou smirked. I pointed at her.
"You're doing this on purpose! I'm sure of that! You smirked! You just smirked right now! I clearly heard and saw that!" I accused her. Mokou waved me off and resting her arms on her hips said.
"Stop whining… are you a men or not?" She asked. I huffed with small smirk.
"Sorry but I'm not like everyone else. I will do what I want how I want wherever I want! I don't care about people opinion about me." I said and crossing my arms I turned my head from Mokou with huff. She scoffed slightly but didn't said anything.
"Anyway, here is first question. Who was mastermind behind Geyser incident and youkai from the underground?" Mokou asked. I looked at Mokou and eyed her. Even if you didn't took part in some incident, there is no way you wouldn't heard about them from gossips or from others. Especially in small place like Gensokyo where everyone would know each others, more or less.
"Kanako, the God who took Youkai Mountain for herself. She gave power to Hell Raven from the underground giving her power to literally throw suns at you." I said. Mokou nodded, surprised.
"I thought you would say that the bird was cause of this incident." Mokou looked at me. I smirked.
"Trying to beat Extra stage is pain in the ass." I said before I said to myself. "Not that I cleared it anyway, only mange to reach Koishi." I whispered quietly. Mokou rose eye brow but didn't said anything.
"Ok, second question. Who is and what type of youkai is Gap Hag." Mokou said. I coughed surprised at her tone. I felt saliva went somewhere where it should not. I start coughing trying to throw out it from my lungs. Moku wanted to say something but I waved her off.
"I'm fine *cough* *cough* just… just saliva went *cough**cough* where it should… not *cough*" after another half of minute I finally manage to breath normally. To some degree.
"But seriously...Gap Hag? Does everyone *cough* call her that?" I asked surprised. Mokou shrugged.
"Some do. She is just great pain in the ass. Always bothering and appearing when she should not." Mokou sounded irritated. I sweat dropped. Does Yukari really bother everyone so much. I didn't knew that. But it sound like her. Totally like her.
"Hurry up, answer the question." Mokou hurried me.
"Ok, ok calm your fire, damn it." I said. Mokou rolled her eyes. "Did I just maybe make a pun?" I wondered for a second before answered Mokou.
"Yukari Yakumo, aka Gap Hag, don't know exactly what kind of youkai, one of the kind maybe, power: manipulation of boundaries. She got two shikigami I know so far, Chen a bakeneko and Ran, Kyuubi, or nine tailed fox. She like to sleep a lot, especially in winter and like to bother everyone is she is bored." I said. Mokou looked at me with wryly smile.
"You sure know a lot..." Her smile was cracking. I sheepishly scratch back of my head. Mokou sighed and scratch her head like she didn't know what to do. She gave deep sigh.
"I don't know. You seems to know quite a lot. It's terrifying to be honest." Mokou said. I chuckle.
"I would be terrified if some completely stranger would know a lot about me." I admitted. Mokou nodded and fall on her but holding her head in thought. I can tell she don't know what to do with me.
"I don't know. I'm trying to think a logic explanation to your knowledge, but I can't think of any. You're one..."
"Big pain in the ass. I know." I finished for her. Mokou looked at me surprised. I got small smile on my face. "I was always such person. I'm like one big paradox and one big hypocrite. But at least I'm aware of that and can admit that. I think that is the think which separate me from the rest of the humans." I chuckled. Mokou sighed with small smile.
"You're hopeless." Mokou admit. I laughed.
"Right?" I said back and keep laughing for a few seconds. After that we talked about ourselves but only basic was covered. So from Mokou I didn't get anything I didn't knew. Few information were different. Mokou didn't knew a person called Sumirenko and other persons from Taoist group. Not in person at least. She heard about them. She also didn't knew about any revolution. But she heard about religion was, which surprised is still in Gensokyo. Keine invited her one time to village to watch one fight, but someone needed to go to Eientei, so Mokou missed the fight.
"So Gensokyo is right now in 13.5 history. Well, that's...something. I don't know what to think about it, shame a little. I would like to see if Mokou could use blue fire. That would be nice." I thought to myself. I played Urban Legend in Limbo, still didn't finished the story mode. Oh well, I will think about it later.
Mokou and me decided to look for a quick money. She didn't wanted to steal anything though. I quite have the same feeling, but at the same time it's all about survive. I don't wanna die just yet. That would be lame.
"Totally lame, I can already tell." I said to myself.
"You said something?" Mokou asked. I shocked my head with sigh.
"Just talking to myself. Get use to that, I will do it quite often." I responded. I Could feel how Mokou looked at me, like I grew a second head. No matter. We keep walking around, trying to see, if someone needed help or something, but we couldn't find anything. We stopped and sit on the barrels near one alley. I sighed, feeling my feet start burning. The road is not easy to walk on and the boots keep rubbing my heels. I can already see I will have blisters. Whatever, they will heal over time. But for some times this will be pain in the ass.
Mokou was resting her head on her arm, which was resting on her knee. She was slightly tired, but I guess more like she is irritated. Well, nobody said this will be easy. The Captain of Guards in city didn't mentioned about time limit, so it's fine. We need to get water or food. And just thinking about water, it makes my mouth dry. I sighed loudly. Mokou just give me quickly glance before she sighed as well.
Yep, living here won't be easy. I knew this, Mokou, I don't now, maybe. I can guess. But I knew this wouldn't be easy. Well, enough this break we need to seek for some small job and maybe earn some, just a little bit of money. Just for a dinner at least. Not to fancy of course, but to fill out stomach. I'm not too worry about Mokou dying from hunger, but let be honest. People would freak out if they saw that Mokou would die from hunger and then stood up, like nothing happen, probably still hungry. I jumped from the barrel and turned to Mokou.
"OK, time to continue seeking for a job." I said with small grin. Mokou looked at me and sighed.
"I wonder how can you be so optimistic." She said standing up from the barrel.
"I'm not. But I guess being depressed won't help us either." I stated. Mokou could only stare at me knowing it was true. And when we wanted to walk away someone stopped us.
"Hey, friends. Are you perhaps low on money." Men said. We looked at him and I knew immediately that he would be a trouble. A fairy tall person who was slouching walked to us. He was wearing large coat with hoot, covering his whole body except legs. He got wide grin across his face. He got scar on his chin and got quite long nose. He looked like wicked person. I felt how my mouth was trembling, in nervous manner.
Mokou looked at this person with wary eyes. She also didn't liked him. Well, new thing we agree on. Mokou felt like she would like to punch him in the guts but she stopped herself. But she still glaring daggers at him. He looked at her, from the hood and said.
"How scary~. Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you. Even more, I'm here to offer you a job." He said. I rose eye brow and asked, grabbing her by shoulder.
"And who ask?" I said to him. He chuckled and gave mock bow.
"I'm Michał(Michael in Polish), and I saw you look slightly… not happy. And there are two options in this town why people are not happy. Lack of money or some family problems. And I can tell which problem people have." He said with smirk. Just listening to this guy makes me just smack him in the face. For fuck sake, I'm feeling like I'm drowning in his lies and sarcasm.
"Is that so?" I asked. He nodded.
"Of course. I can promise you I'm not deceiving you." He bowed again. I sighed and said to Mokou.
"He offer us a job, but I got urge to smack his face. He is lying about something. I don't know about what, but I can tell he is lying." Mokou nodded and said.
"You and me. But I'm feeling like to burn him to crisp." Mokou spatted. I sweat dropped and looked back at men who was rubbing his hands. He is quite suspicious. Then maybe? I smiled. Mokou rose eye brow and asked.
"What gotten into you?" I chuckled and said to Mokou.
"He is quite suspicious, right?" Mokou nodded. "Then maybe, he is part of something bigger. Maybe gang. Maybe luck is on our side, and the gang he is in, is the gang we need to find. What do you think?" Mokou eyes widened slightly before she start thinking. I looked at me and said.
"Wait a second we need to think about your proposition." he nodded with smile and said.
"But of course."
I turned back to Mokou was said.
"This might be a trap, you know." She said. I nodded.
"The traps stinks for kilometer from him, but do we got a choice. If we will be lucky, his gang is just what we are looking for. And that straight… well, maybe not so straight, road to be free from that Captain. I think it's worth risking." I said. Mokou looked at me and then at guy. He pinched her nose with frustration and sighed deeply.
"Fine, whatever! But If he attack ass, I gonna kill him no matter what!" Mokou said. I rose my hands defensively.
"Be my guess. I won't stop you there." I respond to her and turned to Michał.
"We accept. So, what is the job? Bring something, clean trash, beat someone" I asked with sarcasm. The guy must catch it and chuckled.
"Maybe, who knows. If you fallow me, you get your answers." He said and motioned us to fallow him. I looked at Mokou and shrugged. We fallow him in alley next to us. The way he lead us, was giving impression he don't want us to remember the way back. But this could be also some save method. Or maybe he wanted to irritate us? Or Mokou at last? I don't know, I want to drink. I'm thirsty.
After about 15 minutes or something like that, I couldn't tell we reached some old looking building, which was surprisingly loud inside. I looked on it and it was written "Under
Black Horse" with Black horse painted on the, barely hanging signboard. To be fair, the horse was also half-black. Most of the pain was already gone, if it was paint to being with.
The building was old, some placed were damaged, looking at those placed, like chopped with sword or axe. The guy, I already forgot his name, lead us inside. When we entered, I felt how scent of alcohol and sweat hit my nose. My nose felt like it was gonna unplug from my face and run away. So I tried to breath with my mouth, but then I taste the smell in the air. I gauged and covered my mouth with my hand.
Mokou got similar reaction, she hid it slightly better. But got annoyed expression on her face. Not even two day has passed and the amount of annoyed face she made is too damn high. Also in the inn there was a lot of men and surprisingly women talking and drinking. And they were looking quite dangerous. I could feel they are starring at me, but I'm not sure if that's just me being paranoid or something. I couldn't tell how Mokou was feeling, but she was on guard. Or I could guess at least she was.
Michał lead us upstairs and then to the farthest room, at the end of the corridor. We stopped in front of it and he turned to us.
"Wait here for a second. I need to inform a Boss." He said and entered the room. I sighed and dropped on the floor sighing. Mokou rest on the wall, hand in the pocket.
"I'm tired… I wanna go home, I wanna sit down and play the game. I wanna eat chocolate and drink tea. I wanna listen to music and rest for god sake..." I whined under my nose. Mokou looked at me and said.
"What? Already soften?" She mocked slightly. I responded not bother by her small remark.
"I'm lazy ok? I just want to rest. I want to sleep in soft bed. I just want to take it easy and rest." I responded in whining voice. Mokou rolled her eyes.
"You know, you won't got much of a chance to lazy around. I got feeling we will be quite busy from now on." Mokou said to me.
"Thank you, Mrs. Obvious… I know that, on the one hand I want to live and well live. On the other hand I'm feeling like not doing anything. Like just lay on the ground and just lay." I said and lay on the ground face up. Mokou sighed while looking at me. Fortunately, the smell from the before wasn't so strong here, but still I could smell it.
I was looking at wooden ceiling and got my mind blank. Then thoughts just sunk my whole mind.
"What to do? What should I do next? Not a bad ceiling. Maybe I could write a fiction. This is nice idea. Wonder what weather is in my city? What is life? What's the meaning of it? How death feel? How it is to kill? Kill. Got new idea for story. My back is feeling numb. I could use some fresh air. Or fresh apple. Apple would be nice. Juice and chill. Or fresh breeze of the morning air. Wonder how morning will feel here? Probably the same as always." And many other senseless thoughts were flying through my head.
I felt tired for some reason. I want to sleep. Nap would be nice. I felt how my eyes were closing. I tried to make them stay open, but then they were twitching, like I was annoyed. My eyes felt as if they wanted to move deeper in my skull to rest. But I tried my best to stay awake. The door opened revealing Michał. He looked at me surprised but he smiled. I SWEAR, His smile remind be of Gin's one. Is he snake as well. He is for sure!
"Ohh, feeling tired already?" He asked. I wanted to respond but I didn't feel like to do it. So I just nodded. He chuckled.
"Well, you will do it later. Boss want to see you." He said. I felt like groaning but I need to get up. So after standing up and wiping whatever dust I got on my back, me and Mokou entered the room.
The room was fairly large, with wooden table on the end, with bookshelf on both side. There were also commode with two swords crossed above it and documents on it. Table was also filled with some kind of documents. And behind it was boss, as Michał said. He was muscular, tall, standing 190cm, got messy black hair, scar on the left side of his lips and one across the face on right side of it and brown eyes. Also his face got short, near his beard
He was wearing brown coat, leather armor with metal fragments there and there. He got strapped sword on his hips and small leather bag on his left side and one across torso. He also got throwing knives on his belt. He looked at us with his eyes and grinned. He rose from the chair and made gesture like he welcome old friends.
"Welcome, Welcome to my office! I'm Janusz. Pleasure to meat you!" He said warmly. I cringed mentally but tried to smile on the outside.
"Oh dear, he is more eccentric that I thought he would be. I expected someone intimidating." I felt how my eye brow twitched. But I quickly regain posture and said.
"Hi, I'm Mateusz and This is Mokou." I said. I motioned to Mokou and said to Janusz.
"She is foreigner so she can't understand our language. So I'm helping her understand it." I said. He chuckled.
"Don't worry about it. If I can talk to at least one then that's enough. Anyway, my friend here, Michał found you looking for a job." He said and walked closer to us.
"Yeah, we are a little bit of financial problems." I chuckled lightly. He eyes us and said.
"Well, I think I got job for you, but..." His voice turned cold. Oh dear. I rest his arm on the handle of the sword.
"How Am I suppose to know you're not a spy." His voice was cold. Mokou crossed her arms and frowned. Ok, he was intimidating. Why I must deal with such persons. I gulped.
"Now, now. Do you think Me and her are looking like a spy. If we were spy we wouldn't look for a job, now would we?" I asked nervously. Come on, but this. He looked at us with deep frown. He scratched his beard and said looking at the floor.
"True." He mussed to himself, he make few steps closer to table before he say again with shrug. "Even if you were, this wouldn't matter. Fine." He said now more warmly, like his previous cold aura vanished.
"I got few jobs which require more… delicate approach. If you will do them I will allow you to join me, if you fail, well… you will die." HE said nonchalantly. My eye brow twitched. Mokou was looking at him still with frown. He turned to us and asked.
"So, are you taking the jobs?" He asked with grin. I really, REALLY didn't want to deal with him. More over I want to kill him, just slice his neck with knife and be gone. I don't know why I just want. But I stopped myself, I would probably easily get killed, especially he was holding his guard. I looked at Mokou who didn't said anything.
I scratched my head furiously, knowing I would regret this in one way or another.
"Fine! We will take the jobs..." I shouted but calmed down. He looked at us and laughed healthy.
"Good, good! I knew you wouldn't turn down my offer. So here is what you will need to do..."
Ok here is chapter. God I don't have time to write, I only finished this chapter because I found some few minutes to write. I'm not dead, for now at least. So my stories aren't dead. I just don't have time to write them and when I do got time I'm to tired to write anything.
Anyway here is the chapter so enjoy it fellas.