Monster Hunter Memoirs: Wolf and Red
Chapter Nineteen.
"Welcome to Japan!" the woman who carrying a sign reading 'Welcome Wolf and Red' sighed as she greeted them.
"I expected Akira or somebody," Red noted a bit warily. Not that they thought someone might try to kidnap them or something, but...
"Miss Tobina is busy getting ready for the wedding," the woman bowed slightly, "Chief Azuma sent me, I'm Yoshi Shiroe."
"Yoshi?" Wolf looked amused.
"I HATE the Mario games, as you can imagine," she shorter woman noted dryly.
"And I bet all the guys make 'riding Yoshi' jokes?" Red guessed.
"Oooh, yeah," the woman growled.
"Do you have a nickname you prefer?" Wolf asked as they collected their bags.
She looked relieved, "Anne."
"Well, Anne, what's the situation with the wedding?" Red asked as they each got their garment bags too.
"Oh god," Anne rolled her eyes, "the Mothers are not speaking with each other, the Fathers are pissed it's not a Shinto weading, and several ex lovers are bridesmaids."
"So pretty much as expected?" Wolf chuckled.
"Well, yes," Anne admitted as they headed out to a waiting unmarked police car.
"The Chief authorized a unmarked?" Wolf asked mildly.
"He expected there might be trouble," Anne shrugged slightly as they all climbed in.
"Can you take us to the Inn we arranged?" Red asked, wishing she was armed. Not being able to bring in guns made her feel naked!
"Will do..." Anne nodded briskly.
"Then we'll go check on Akira and Catherine and see what's happening," Wolf nodded.
"I'm HOPING we can just watch the chaos and hit up the couple for free booze," Red offered cheerfully.
Anne smiled wryly, wondering what, exactly, would go wrong this time...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"INCOMING!"
"Shit fuck damn of hell..."
"GET TO COVER!"
Dolores Clark brought her shotgun up and blew the nearest giant slug away, as the city workers scrambled backwards.
"Swear to god this city is nuts," Nic Carter agreed as she used a pump backpack to spray salt on the critters, making them retreat.
"Seriously, GIANT SLUGS?!" Gail Ward groaned.
"Back us up from the tunnel entrance," Delores ordered. Shge looked at the lead worker, "Do these things come out regularly?"
The man looked at her like she was crazy, "Are you nuts?"
"I'll take that as a no," Dolores said.
"Oh god that was so gross!" a woman groaned.
"You should have quoted 'They slimed me,'" Nic joked.
"Could you NOT be a Ghostbusters nerd?!" Gail scolded.
"I can never not be a nerd," Nic teased.
"LADIES," Dolores sighed. "Could we at least try to look professional?"
"Sorry," both women chorused.
"Thank you for rescuing us," the third worker sighed.
"Is this everyone?" Dolores asked briskly.
"Yeah... they don't move that fast. One kind of dropped on poor Beth there," he explained what happened with a sigh.
"Okay, we're going to get all of you out," Dolores said seriously, "then we'll check with the city about what they want us to do."
"You're not going to kill the fuckers?!" the slimed woman demanded.
"There are ecosystems involved," Gail pointed out, "we don't want to kill something then have something worse arrive."
"Like...?" Beth wondered.
"Huge snails or something?" Nic suggested, shrugging.
"Just... get us the fuck out of here," the other worker sighed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Holy shit there's been a lot of 'Monsterous Magical Girls' anime and manga," Red noted, frowning.
"You think it's connected to that thing we whacked?" Wolf wondered.
Chief Shiro Azuma was drinking some sparkling water at the pre-wedding party as he noted, "It's certainly possible. Some survivors might have talked about it."
"The Japanese Government didn't step in?" Red wondered.
Shiro shrugged, "And we know that the elder Vampires have paid off mangaka to do 'warm and fuzzy' series on them."
"Bastards," Wolf grumped.
"I thought 'The Vampire Next Door' was cute, at least," Red offered.
"You just like it because it's yuri," Shiro teased.
"Guilty," Red laughed.
"You made it! I'm sorry we haven't talked," Catherine hurried over, the slightly older woman smiling at them warmly.
"I know everything must be crazy for you," Wolf smiled as everyone hugged hello. "Where's Akira?" she asked.
"Negotiating with our Mothers," Catherine admitted, "they want a BIG ceremony and we're talking them down."
"Well, the fathers are paying, yes?" Red wondered aloud.
"Yes," Catherine admitted, "but still..."
"Did I hear right, that several of your various exes are bridesmaids?" Wolf had to asked.
"Well, I couldn't leave them out," Catherine shrugged.
"I REALLY hope this doesn't become a problem," Wolfd mused, looking around at all the attractive women in the crowd.
"It'll be a problem," Red predicted.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Thank you for the slug fighting advice," Dolores said to Mimi later. She had suggested the salt water spray to repel the slugs, as well as using shotgun. Now, a few hours later, they were meeting in a pub in New Westminister.
Mini Johnson nodded as she remembered, "Yeah, we tangled with 'em once, when they out grew their cave."
"You said not to kill them...?" Dolores asked a bit questioningly. She didn't care THAT much, but they were kind of gross.
"If you wipe them out of an area, they tend to get replaced by a huge leech," Mimi explained. Grimly she added, "Which are man-hunters."
Dolores visibly paled. "Leeches are bad enough on their own, but BIG ones? Eeew," she shuddered slightly.
"Agreed," Mimi nodded.
"You've been in Vancouver awhile... you and Wolf and Red knew John Bishop pretty well?" Dolores asked her after a moment.
Mimi gave her a curious look, "Sort of? I can't say I liked the man. Why?"
"His ex, Susan, has turned up. Apparently she needs work," Dolores admitted. "He was apparently paying her alimony, until he died."
"Well sucks to be her," Mimi mused, but she looked thoughtful.
"What?" Dolores asked.
"You could have her do the stuff I do," Mimi shrugged. She mused, "You could use a driver, aide, ammo mule, etc etc."
Dolores blinked as she admitted, "That's not a bad idea."
"And you can afford it, considering how much we make on bounties normally," Mimi added mildly. She paused, "Hold on, I got a text..."
"Wolf and Red over in Tokyo?" Dolores guessed.
Mimi was looking at the screen, "Holy shit."
"WHAT?" Dolores demanded.
"There's a goddam KAIJU..."
To be continued...