"Miku. Where are we even going?" Rin asked as the four of them trekked through the woods.
"Where are you going." Miku said pointedly, "we're not going anywhere."
"But-" Rin protested
"I'm just following Miku." Piko said sheepishly.
Len glared at Rin and she could tell it was taking all of his self-restraint to not say 'I told you'. There was a loud roar and that broke Len from his intense glaring.
"Where is it?" Piko cried out.
Everyone looked for Miku and the fact that she was scrambling up a tree was enough of a clue to get everyone to a safer place.
"What type of grimm is that?" Rin shrieked when the large rhino like grimm made its appearance.
"Clearly a rhino-type." Len explained from his own perch, "we'll take it down, or else it'll terrorize someone else." He then took out his black handguns and proceeded to shower the grimm with bullets. This caused the grimm to roar in protest and swat at the tree that Len was sitting in. "Incoming!" he yelled before jumping down to land on the grimm. In midair his gun transformed into a deadly looking ninja star and he immediately stabbed two of them into the grimm's eyes.
"Readying a fire dust arrow!" Rin called out as the fan released two bars to the side and a string was strung in between. She then took out a small red pellet and loaded it into the string. She pulled back and the pellet turned into an arrow. "Firing in three, two, one!" Rin let go of the string and the red arrow flew through the air into the grimm. Len used the momentum to shoot himself into the air and grab onto another bush.
"I'm calling a joint attack with Rin and Piko! Piko you're shooting, Rin, go wild!" Len called out.
"You got it!" Rin grinned as the two bars that stuck out of her fan returned to the fan and it opened. She then jumped down and landed a hefty blow onto the grimm's head.
"There's a second one coming up! Miku and I will take care of that!" Len yelled as he jumped down from the tree and ran towards the second grimm coming their way. Miku followed him and jumped from tree to tree to the grimm.
"I'll take care of the close combat!" Miku commanded, "you keep it distracted!" Len nodded before leaping up into a tree and releasing a rain of bullets onto the grimm, which effectively caused it to stagger and lose balance.
Miku let out a yell as she stabbed her bow into the grimm. It had transformed so it was like the original bow, but doubled so it was symmetrical in two ways instead of one. Her hand held onto the center part and the ridged and pointed edges proved to be a force to reckon. She then proceeded to twirl around and batter the grimm at it's legs to cause it to fall.
"Head shot!" Len yelled as he fired a powerful shot at the grimm's head. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get through the hard skeleton protecting the head. "I lied!"
Miku scoffed before jumping on top of the grimm and pulling the bow around the grimm's neck. "A little help would be nice!"
Len responded by running to the front of the grimm with his two guns out in front of him. "On three! One, two three!" Len shot the grimm and Miku used the momentum to force herself backwards and sever the head of the grimm.
"Almost!" Miku shouted.
"I've got it!" Piko called out, "switch!" Piko ran towards the grimm that Len and Miku were fighting as Len ran to support his twin. Piko then took the curved end of his staff and pulled it across the rest of the grimm's almost severed head. With a final yell the head was cleanly cut off. He and Miku then returned to the grimm that Len and Rin were fighting only to see Len shooting the grimm one more time before Rin flew down from what only could be described as the sky and landing a powerful blow on the grimm's head. The grimm fell forwards and the rose petals that were coming off of it were the only indication that it was dead.
"Hah! Competent." Len scoffed to Miku as he wiped his brow.
"Whatever." Miku scoffed in return as the bow returned to a singular bow and she returned it to the holster on her back.
"Nobody's hurt?" Piko asked worriedly. He received two scathing glares from a certain ponytailed blond and a twin tailed teal.
"Nope, no one's hurt!" Rin responded cheerfully. "Are you?"
"Of course not." Piko answered as he dusted off his white trench coat.
"Then let's get moving." Len commanded as he straightened his baggy and honestly hazardous sleeves. Mostly because they were only connected by two clips to his shirt.
"Who died and made you leader?" Miku asked savagely as she referred to the same words Len had asked her hours ago.
"Nobody died, but nobody's taking the role, so I decided to take it so nobody does die!" Len shot back with an extra emphasis on the word 'does'.
"Well news flash." Miku yelled back while throwing her hands up in front of her as if putting a text box, "nobody asked you!"
"Guess who doesn't really care about everyone else!" Len put his hands up mockingly and almost pointed to himself before fully pointing to Miku.
"Well my sincere apologies." Miku said caustically, "I didn't realize that you actually needed me to care about everyone else, because it seemed like you had it all under control."
Len opened his mouth to respond but was stopped by his sister, "okay, let's stop. You both have too much fire in you, any much longer and the two of you will be breathing fire at each other." Len gave a fiery glare to Miku who responded with her own icy glare. "Len." Rin once again used her warning tone on her brother.
"Rin." Len said using the same tone she had used on him.
"Just let it go." She uttered quietly under her breath as she reached out to sooth him.
Len nodded but Rin could still see his was tense, and the dark blue of his eyes clearly stated that this was not over. "Fine. Piko. Lead the way."
"Right." Piko nodded before taking out his scroll and letting it pop open. He examined the map on the holographic screen before deciding, "okay, the closest town is a small one a few miles from here. We'll go there and gather information."
"Lead the way." Len stated again as his voice bordered on menacing.
"Right." Piko nodded before taking a step to lead the way.
"Um, Len." Rin slowly walked next to her brother after Piko and a sulky Miku.
"What?" Len snapped.
"What were you talking about when you said Piko's not natural?" she asked quietly. Len seemed to falter in his step for a moment after he heard Rin's question.
"I've never entered a human before." Len muttered quietly, "I don't think that's even a part of my semblance."
"So, Piko's not a human." Rin stated firmly.
"No. Well, yes. I mean, I don't know." Len stuttered, "what I saw wasn't a computer. It was something completely foreign."
"What do you mean?" Rin asked.
"It was almost like those myths where your life flashes before your eyes before you die. There were so many things that I was seeing, but something that seemed to be a theme was that they all seemed to be a thing experiencing slow internet connection. One moment it'd be in one place, it'd flicker, and be in another place." Len seemed to be a bit more calm because his eyes no longer held a fierce, dark blue gaze, but was now a confused cloudy blue.
Rin blinked her own crystal clear blue eyes, "what?"
"Look, I don't know either. Is he a person, is he an android, is he both? I don't know. But I have come to one conclusion. Piko doesn't see those images."
"And how do you know that?" Rin asked confusedly as her own eyes took on a confused cloudy blue as she got caught up in Len's web of confusion.
"Does he look like he has problems of randomly flickering near death sights?" Len asked in disbelief.
Rin looked at the leader of their little quad and the little skip in his step seemed to completely go against what Len had just described, "okay. Point taken, but maybe he's just really good at hiding. Really good."
"Really? Piko?" Len asked in disbelief once again.
"Yes. You don't know. It's always the people with the brightest smiles who have the darkest past." Rin said quietly as she took on a depressed aura.
Len seemed to pick up on what she was talking about and put an arm on her shoulder, "I'm sorry. But it's all in the past."
"Len, you can't just brush that off!" Rin said incredulity as she pushed his arm of her shoulder. "Do you realize how much that affected all of us?"
"Isn't a sorry good enough?" Len asked.
"It'll never be good enough." Rin said coldly, "a sorry won't fix how much you crushed me. How you crushed us." She emphasized the word 'us' and pointed to the two of them, "how you've forever crushed and dismembered everything!" she then walked away angrily in a huff away from her beloved brother.
"I'm sorry." Len said quietly, but of course it was heard by noone.