At the sound of a clinking bell, Evan entered the cafe and closed the door behind him.
Spotting Saffron at a nearby table, Evan walked toward the front counter to see Joe raising his head up in interest at the young teen.
"Oh, it's good to see you back here! It seems like my little concoction has worked its magic on you. Please tell me what you thought about it." Joe inquired with his arms resting on the countertop.
"I don't know what you put in that thing, but it sure does taste good! It was just so rich and flavorful…Speaking of which…" Evan began to say.
"Already on it!" Joe interjected as he turned on some of the various machines behind the front counter.
"Hey Evan, you've got to see this." Saffron said with a slight giggle in her voice as Evan sat down at the table.
"While you were in town yesterday, my little baby Adrian got a glimpse of you. He was talking all about you, or what few words he did manage to babble out, I think were about you. And look, he even drew a little picture of you." Saffron elaborated as she sipped on her own drink.
The "drawing" was barely more than a collection of scribbles. Aside from the black and blue head of the stick figure, which Evan believed to be his helmet, the other limbs of the person twisted and stretched on to different parts of the page.
"It…It's certainly got all of my best features." Evan added.
"I think it's just adorable. I know he's just a toddler, but it's good to see him scraping that creative itch you know!" Saffron stated with a smile.
Approaching the two, Joe quietly places Evan drink on the table. Removing his helmet, Evan lets the headpiece float about in the air as he starts to sip on the beverage.
"That brings me back…Growing up, my parents always told me that I was a bit enthusiastic when it came to music. They made a bunch of home movies with me where I would "play" on this little drum kit. I wonder if it's still back at my parent's place." Joe explained.
"Oh that's so nice! When I was young, me and my sisters would do these little tea parties. Sometimes, we'd even bring our little brother Jaune in on them, though he probably doesn't remember any of them do to his age at the time. But hey, that's what scrapbooks are for!" Saffron said aloud.
"Jaune…Hold on, your last name wouldn't happen to be Arc, now would it?" Evan questioned.
"Of course! Why would that…" Saffron replied back as the two sat in silence momentarily.
"Wait…You're Jaune's sister?!" Evan yelled out.
"You know Jaune?! I could swear I remembered that face of yours! You're Evan Anderson, from the Vytal Festival Tournament, right? You and the other out-of-Kingdom students were staying at Beacon Academy before the Festival began! Oh, you must tell me how Jaune was doing at Beacon! He never writes back often, although we do live in such a busy world…But nevermind that, how is he?" Saffron exclaimed quickly afterward..
"I didn't get to know him long. Like you said, I was a transfer student so my time at Beacon was limited. He was fairly nice, and his teammates respected him well enough I'd say. After Beacon fell though, I haven't a clue as to what he is doing now…" Evan said as he savored his drink.
"That's a shame…But how about you?" Saffron muttered out before turning to face Evan.
"Me?" Evan asked, almost choking on his drink in surprise.
"Yeah! What did you do when you were younger?" Saffron questioned with a curious look.
"Heh, well I didn't have the most…conventional childhood." Evan explained as his brain started to understand the words leaving his mouth.
"Really? Why's that?" Saffron replied back with a confused and interested look.
"Crap! I can't let it slip that I'm an alien, but I can't drop the subject now! That would just be suspicious…If I bend the truth a tad, I shouldn't raise any alarms." Evan thought to himself.
"Ummm…I guess to start, I…didn't really get the chance to know my parents all too well…" Evan elaborated, trying his best not to let anything too revealing slip past his lips.
"Oh…I-I'm so sorry about your loss…" Joe muttered out, causing Evan to shake his head in response.
"What?! No, no, no! They're not dead, well at least they weren't when I was born. They just…weren't around in my life all that much." Evan stated as the two adults listened on with interest.
"Dad always spent more time around my older brother. He definitely had a lot more potential out of the two of us. Dad wanted my big bro to…take after the family business and helped train him to be as strong as he could get. The two of them would spend a lot of time at the local tavern talking about…their latest job developments." Evan added.
"Sounds like he wanted your brother to be a huntsman from the sounds of it…Just like Jaune did." Saffron said aloud.
"Yeah…Point is, my childhood wasn't exactly like yours. My Dad was more focused on my brother than me, and I never really got the chance to know my Mom. The relationship between my parents was…very on and off." Evan continued.
"Sounds like you had it pretty rough." Saffron replied with a sympathetic tone in her voice.
"No, I certainly wouldn't say that." Evan stated with a shake of his head.
"Really?" Saffron added with a confused look on her face.
"While my parents weren't around much, my big bro was there for me. We had each other, and that was enough for me. He helped to train me to get to the point where I am today." Evan explained.
"That was just how Saiyan culture was. It's not like I hate or resent my parents for doing what they did. Toma had the bigger power level, especially for a low-class Saiyan, so Dad always cared more about him. So when Dad saw how low my power level was, he just didn't really care about me. It's as simple as that. I might've done something similar to my kid if I had managed to live my whole life on Vegeta. The only reason Saffron and Joe are confused is because they're viewing what happened from a human perspective, not a Saiyan one." Evan thought to himself.
"The two of us were practically inseparable. We'd spend whole days together out in the wilderness. It was amazing. Eventually, I was able to join his team too. You should've seen some of the places we traveled to." Evan continued with a smile.
"My muscles are just aching at all those training sessions that we spent together. Such good times…" Evan contemplated.
"Well that's good to hear at least. Is your brother still in service? Where's he working now?" Saffron inquired.
Evan said nothing as he lowered his head.
"Oh…" Saffron muttered out as the room filled with silence. Looking down at his scroll, Evan finished his drink as he stood up.
"Listen, don't sweat it. Things like this happen in our line of work. I don't really want to talk about it…My shift starts pretty soon, and you know…I have to head…out…" Evan said as he tried to break the somber air in the room.
"Thanks for the coffee, Joe." Evan stated as he tossed the cup into a nearby garbage can, the barista giving a small nod of acknowledgment as the teen approached the door.
"I'll see you around, Saffron. Stay safe." Evan concluded.
"Y-You as well." Saffron muttered out as Evan quietly left the cafe.
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As Evan continued to soar high into the sky, Evan looked out into the vast forests around him.
"I doubt I'll see much action today. Not after the last time I toured through this area…Hold on, is that?" Evan thought to himself as he narrowed his gaze.
To his surprise, he managed to spot a sizable horde of Griffons flying toward him.
"That's weird…I thought I cleaned out this part of the forest a couple of days ago. How are there still Grimm lurking around?" Evan contemplated.
As the monsters took notice of Evan, the young Saiyan powered up and charged at the Grimm.
Expertly dodging claw swipes and fireballs, Evan weaved through the attacks before proceeding to crush each beast with one swing of his gauntlets.
As the Griffons faded to dust, Evan put a hand to his chin.
"How did I miss a pack of Grimm like that? Do they have a nest somewhere in these mountains? Did they move from another part of the continent all the way to these forests? If so, why? Whatever the reason, Cordovin will want to hear about this…" Evan concluded as he continued to examine the vast area.
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As the sun began to sink down toward the horizon, the lone Saiyan looked to the sky as he saw heavy clouds rolling in.
"That should be it for today. I better hurry on back. A snowstorm's rolling in." Evan determined as the first few snowflakes started to fall.
Flying back toward Argus, Evan spotted a few Atlesian airships leaving the city, their spotlights constantly moving and shining down on the snow covered forest floor.
"Where are they heading off to in this kind of weather? Those storms will tear through those airships like their wet tissue paper." Evan thought to himself.
Activating his communicator, Evan tuned into the airship's signal.
"This is Evan Anderson. Where are you heading off to at this hour? Don't you see that storm coming in?!" Evan questioned.
"We don't got a choice. Some kid apparently snuck past the main gates and he's out in the woods somewhere. We got orders to find him before this storm goes from bad to worse." A male voice explained through Evan's speakers.
"If that kid's out here, then I should be able to find him if I can track his Ki." Evan concluded.
"I'll do what I can to help. You guys go and search the southwest. I'll head toward the southeast and see what I can find." Evan stated
"Understood." The voice replied back as Evan turned off his communicator.
Closing his eyes, Evan concentrated on the environment around him as he flew through the air. Feeling the Ki of the trees and the animals moving about, the young Saiyan felt a differing Ki that stuck out in his mind.
"That's got to be the kid!" Evan thought to himself as he opened his eyes and blasted off in the direction of the energy signature.
As the snow began to pelt down ever faster, Evan could just make out the kid. Covered from head to toe in dull, puffy winter clothes, the kid looked more like a monochrome beachball than an actual child. More importantly, the kid had his back facing a large tree as three Beowolves stalked and approached their prey. With nothing more than a long tree branch as his weapon, the boy held it out against the beasts, his arms shaking wildly in the process.
Slamming down onto the ground, Evan crushed the Beowolf's skull with his foot. Before the other two could react, Evan blasted both of them away with expert precision.
"You ok kid?" Evan asked aloud, only for the child to give a hesitant and scared nod in response.
"Good, then we'll…" Evan began to say as he heard a tree branch snap. Looking out in between the trees, Evan noticed small subtle movements in the snow as the storm continued onward.
"Kid, don't move and stay behind me." Evan said as he kept his back to the child.
Holding his hands out, Evan released a concentrated, almost invisible, Ki explosion which proceeded to not only halt the snowstorm momentarily, but also melted all the snow and ice in the surrounding area, revealing four more Beowolves hiding amongst the snow.
In that brief moment, Evan stayed close to the child and picked each of them off, one by one with a series of Ki blasts.
As the snowstorm began to fall down once more at its original intensity, Evan turned toward the child.
"What were you thinking, coming out here by yourself? These woods are dangerous. You could've gotten yourself killed out here!" Evan said with a harsh demeanor.
Any attempt that the kid tried to speak was replaced with a quiet whimper followed by a loud sniffling.
Composing himself, Evan took off his helmet and looked at the child with a concerned and empathetic look.
"Listen, I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. Just calm down…Look, everything's going to be ok. The Grimm are gone for now. How about we start over and we each say our names. My name's Evan. What's your name?" Evan asked as he gestured to the kid.
"A-Alex." The kid muttered out, the voice then causing some bells to ring out in Evan's head.
"Say, you were that kid who wanted to talk with me when I showed up to Argus." The young Saiyan replied back, causing the boy to nod along.
"Well Alex, would it be ok if you told me why you decided to come out here?" Evan kindly asked.
"I-I wanted to…to prove that I was just as tough a huntsman as you were. That the Grimm d-don't scare me…" Alex stated.
"Alex…there's more to being a huntsman than being strong and fearless." Evan explained, causing a confused look to form on Alex's face.
"What do you mean?" Alex questioned the teen.
"If you just charge into situations like that, you're going to get yourself, or others hurt in the process." Evan said as he opened the armor up slightly to show off his bare left shoulder, which still had some slight scarring on it from the incident at the CCT Tower.
"You need to know how to analyze a situation and determine how to react both quickly and efficiently. Facing off against a human opponent will require different strategies than fighting a Beowolf." Evan continued on.
"B-But what if you aren't able to react fast enough? What if I freeze up in a fight?" Alex asked aloud.
"That's what teammates are for. They'll be able to cover your slack and your weaknesses, just as you'll have to cover theirs. When you're able to truly work together with your fellow teammates, there's no one that you can't beat." Evan elaborated as he recalled the times where he fought alongside his brother's team or the Ace Ops.
"I…I think I get it." Alex stammered out, his tone changing to a more relaxed and happy one.
"I'm glad to hear it. Now we got to get you home before it gets too dark out here…Here, take my hand." Evan stated as Alex approached him.
Lifting the kid into his arms, Evan held him close as the two raised into the air.
"Woah…It's so cool being up this high! You get to do this every day?!" Alex exclaimed as he tilted his head to look out into the forest and surrounding mountains.
"Yep. Now just don't move around too much alright? We'll be back to Argus before you know it." Evan said aloud.
"Ok." Alex replied back as he looked on in quiet amazement.
Flying through the air, the duo approached the brightly lit city.
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Hello! I'm back! It took a while, but Christmas Break's helped to recharge my batteries.
Thank you as always for reading. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the chapter and the story so far.
With how my schedule is unfolding, I think I will be uploading a new chapter every two weeks moving forward.
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