Shinonome Momiji, Level 1 Adventurer, Soma Familia
"Are you sure about this, Momiji-chan?" Her long-time friend whispered at her as they followed in the footsteps of another party. Yellow eyes, white hair, and a pretty voice. Simultaneously the bravest person Momiji had ever met and also a huge scaredy-bunny. Which made sense, because she was a bunny-girl, indicated by her long floppy ears and puffball tail.
"Absolutely! If in foreign lands, help your countrymen. That's what granny taught us!" Momiji replied with a firm conviction. Honestly, if she wasn't here then Kaede-chan would probably be completely lost already, she was clueless that way. Adjusting her miko dress once more, and checking the bloodstains that were now in the nice pretty fabric, she made sure that she was presentable looking for the upcoming warning.
No one would listen to a shrine-maiden-in-training unless she looked the part! How else would her dire warnings be heeded?
Kaede pressed her lips together and sent a worried look forwards down the red-stained hallway, past the charming red-haired ronin with a zanbato, past the trio of pallums in adorably proportioned armor, past the white-haired cutie with ruby eyes. All the way at the very end of the long red-stained hallway and the ash that held footsteps like snow.
At the very end, and the giant, blurring, black-clad figure that making monsters explode with his punches. Efficient and flowing movements that ended with explosive power against hordes of enemies. The first time she had seen it, she knew that it was martial arts! Grandpa moved the same way.
Well not the same way, but he could make monsters explode by punching them too, so it was basically the same thing! He was a fellow countryman, and a martial artist, so they had to stick together all the way out here.
"I don't think he really needs help…" Kaede replied, looking at their fellow Easterner make short work of even floor seven monsters with his fists and feet. This was quite a bit further down then they had ever been, but the halls were mostly cleared along their way, and teaming up on any monster that did show up meant they were able to get by.
Still, it was really scary! The shadows were really quick, and the frogs grabbed her butt at one point! She still had slime on her legs! Totally gross!
She took vicarious pleasure in seeing them get smashed by a martial artist, serves them right for laying hands on a shrine maiden (in training)!
"Um… Please don't forget me." The small voice of their local friend and little-senpai spoke out in Koine from behind them. Momiji turned an apologetic smile towards her and mentally switched languages. Koine was tricky.
"Ah… Sorry Coco-han. I keep forgetting you can't speak Nihon." Momiji lied. She didn't keep forgetting, it's just that Coco-han was entirely too cute when she pouted! Everything about her was cute, but her pouting face was especially the cutest. Every time she had to remind them that she couldn't speak Nihon, she pouted, so Momiji and Kaede made a pact to do it as often as they could get away with.
Perfectly on cue, Coco puffed her cheeks and pouted. It was all Momiji could do to not squeal and pick her little-senpai up.
"Looks like they're about done up there." The voice of their temporary bodyguard spoke up, hair a beautiful foreign shade of red and eyes a bright blue, wearing a delightfully familiar blue kimono but speaking with an exotic accent. "What brings you three here, anyways?"
Everyone out here was so exciting to look at!
"Ah… Crozzo-han?" Momoji tried, receiving a 'tch' and a wave of the hand.
"Call me Welf." Ah! That was so forward of him! They had just met and he wanted her to use his first name. Her face tinted pink and her heart made the same kind of pitter-patter than rain on clay bowls did.
"W-welf-han?" How thrilling! "We came down to warn a fellow countryman, Bushi-han. He's been targeted by a rogue!"
"A tanuki!" Kaede added with a growl. Neither of them liked the Tanuki, he had a habit of taking things that didn't belong to him. "He's a big bully, we overheard him talking about how he was going to find and rob someone down in the Dungeon. A really tall adventurer with poofy blond hair and a grumpy face."
"And there was only one adventurer we knew with that description, our fellow countryman!" Momiji finished with a determined raising of her fists, clutching her Onusa. "So we came down to warn him!"
"Oh? Tanuki?" Ronin-han questioned, clearly not a fellow countryman, but still pretty cute!
"Racoon." Kaede clarified.
"...Ah, short, fat, brown hair, a bit of a beard?"
"Yes! You know of him?" Momiji asked, leaning forwards as they walked, ears flickering and tail swishing.
"Yeah, he tried to lord over Adam up there a day or two back. Issue is, Adam's quite a bit taller and quite a bit meaner, and ended up humiliating the guy so badly he had to run away." Ronin explained, zanbato hefted over one shoulder.
"Hah! As expected of our countryman!" Momiji smugly declared, ears standing straight. Kaede nodded in equal satisfaction, hearing of the Tanuki getting bullied and having to run away was definitely a good thing. She could imagine his fat legs waddling like a duck as fast as they could to carry him away.
"He has a magic sword." Coco interrupted quietly, in the same timid tone that she always used. The reminder dampened the mood.
"Tch. I noticed." Ronin-han responded with a hot growl and a steadfast glare forwards. "Looks like they're finishing up now, come on." He jerked his head forwards, ushering the three of them towards the rest of the group.
They approached, the three Supporter-Pallums in their cute armor kneeling next to monster bodies and expertly carving them up, like tuna-masters from back home. Little people in metal armor that covered them up performing chores was really cute!
The white-haired boy with the plate and chain armor used his strange string-weapon again, sending a rock flying through the air and hitting a Purple Moth out of the sky. He looked around seriously again, before turning and smiling at the three of them. She smiled back, bowing briefly before turning her gaze to the final figure.
Their countryman, Bushi-han, rose from a kneel next to a corpse. He had a lot more gear now, almost unrecognizable in it all. Pure black metal armor that covered everything, a huge bag probably big enough for her to use as a sleeping-bag on his back, a big crossbow hanging by a hook from his belt and another type of crossbow mounted on one of his arms. The most familiar feature being that he was covered in monster-blood.
It was really cool! Like a scroll-scene depicting a famous warrior after a long battle. Her countryman was the spitting image of Kintoki the first time they met! Red skin and a grumpy face. The only thing he was missing was some great golden horns for his helmet, and a coat of black scales.
"You followed me-Niku." Bushi-han growled out, voice rumbling like a giant catfish through his dark helmet. He rose to his full height, towering over them like a mythical Oni and undaunted after a long fight against a whole bunch of monsters. He also had a really cute verbal-tic! "How and why?"
Wasn't it normally 'why' first? She blinked, realizing the opportunity to make herself look good, and drew back into a smug stance. Hands on hips, chest out, ears up. "I may look like a cute, everyday shrine-maiden-"
"In training." Kaede interjected, causing her ear to twitch in irritation before she continued.
"But I'm also a Kitsune, you know? I'm quite the formidable magician! I used a spell to find you!" She boasted, raising her Onusa and twirling it once.
Bushi-han stared at them from behind his helmet for a moment, before growling out again. "Show me."
Momiji blinked, nodding in acceptance. It didn't take up too much mind to cast. Raising her Onusa and holding it in both hands, she closed her eyes and concentrated to keep her internal and external energies balanced. It wasn't a Falna-spell, so it was really tricky to cast.
After a moment, her tail stopped moving, and she took hold of the proper form in her mind's eye. Then, she began to chant.
"Turtle-shell, deer-shoulder, bean-gruel, living-bolt."
"Eight-banner spirit, lord of war and doves."
"Protector and fish-giver, guide my arrow to my vision."
"Lead me onwards, lead me to victory."
"Hassetsu Ukehi."
The chant completed, her control over the magical energies undisturbed, the spell activated. Her Onusa began to glow with a soft blue light, floated slightly out of her grip in a transparent azure orb, and pointed in Bushi-han's direction. Opening her eyes, she looked up and grinned, moving her orb left and right and up and down, her Onusa moved to maintain its pointing at her target.
"See! I can find anything if I've seen it before. We used it to find you so we could warn you!" She explained, letting a more serious look overtake her face, tail flickering, and lowering her new glowing orb. "A big fat Tanuki is planning on robbing you!"
Kaede-chan nodded with her, ears flopping and expression grim. Coco-han was still wary of Bushi-han, so she was being quiet and staying halfway behind them.
Bushi-han's helmet stared at them for a few moments longer, before tilting up and growling out in Koine. "Support Squad, are you done yet?"
"Seven more corpses left!" One of the super-cute Pallums in armor called back, carving through a rabbit with a horn as he spoke.
"We'll move out once you're done, early lunch today." Bushi-han commanded, being met with nods and smiles. He then turned to them and spoke again. "You'll finish explaining then, meat." Momiji grinned, he was heeding her warning, despite her dress being covered in frog blood from earlier!
—
They eventually arrived at a somewhat large room with two entrances, both of which were on the same side. The walls were darkened, which meant that it was safe for a little while, she thinks. Moving in the center of the wider group, the trio was well-sheltered from the occasional group of monsters that came across them.
Said groups of monsters lasted less than thirty seconds, being quickly torn apart by the rapid, bounding movements of Bushi-han.
Once they reached the room, the Supporters pulled off big bear-traps from the sides of their bags, setting them up at the entrances and moving to a more defensible corner of the room to unload meals and water for the group. While they were doing this, the three warriors were briefly scouting the hallways leading from the room, checking for monsters, before returning and likewise beginning to unload bags and gear for a brief rest.
"So how do you know Senpai?" The white-haired boy asked, removing his helmet and loosening his chain coat. His sword and dagger were set carefully down to let him grab them quickly, as was the string-weapon.
"We met him in the Dungeon the other day-" Momiji began.
"Last week." Coco-han corrected quietly, looking around at the walls nervously, rubbing one of her arms.
"-and realized that he was an Easterner too! So we explored the upper floors together and came out with a whole lot of loot!" She boasted.
"I told you to fuck off and you offered to carry my loot." Bushi-han growled out, removing his helmet and moving onto the shoulder-plates. His voice was much better when speaking in Nihon, but it wasn't bad like this either. "None of you killed anything. I was doing all the work."
"Did you give them a chance to kill anything? If it was just Goblins and Kobolds, I'm not surprised they couldn't get anything with you there." Ronin-han said with an amused smile, only needing to loosen his kimono slightly and put his zanbato down to be finished 'settling down', pulling out a lunch-box that smelled delightful.
It was at this point that she realized they hadn't brought any food down. Kaede-chan's stomach growled, seemingly in agreement, and both of them looked despondently at the floor.
"Here, did you forget to bring food down?" The cute and handsome and generous white-haired boy smiled at them, offering three delicious-looking fried potatoes to them. "I can share, we have plenty of leftovers."
"Don't feed the strays, they'll never leave." Bushi-han growled again, acting like he didn't want them around.
"We spent all our money on Soma, and forgot to buy food again…" Kaede mumbled out, already biting into the offered potato. The supporters exchanged glances with each other.
"And Soma makes you hungry too, so it's doubly bad…" Momiji agreed with downtrodden muttering, already chowing through her own potato. Ears flat and tail limp. It wasn't fair that Soma tasted so good! It was ginkgo seeds and sunshine in a bottle!
Coco didn't bother talking, instead greedily devouring the offered food without pause. It was really cute the way she ate so fast! It was like watching a mouse devour a great nut, chewing with rapid intensity and holding it with both hands.
Inhaling deeply to smell the potato, she froze, detecting another scent. Lowering the potato, she looked across the room.
Bushi-han had removed his breastplate, revealing a padded underlayer practically drowning in sweat, which he was in the midst of peeling from his equally drenched torso. Wet and sticky layers of cloth pulled from hard, glistening muscles, the heavy musk of exertion reaching her nose and filling her head completely.
She followed a bead of sweat as it made its way down from the collarbone, over the pectoral, across the abdominals and hip-bone, and disappearing into the pantsline. She swallowed, suddenly feeling quite nervous to be here.
"...miji-san, Kaede-san, Momiji-san, Kaede-san!" There was an arm shaking her, she blinked, turning to see Coco currently gripping onto her and her childhood friend's shoulder with firm hands.
"Wha-?"
"What is it?"
She and Kaede replied simultaneously. Coco-han swallowed nervously.
"Mr. Smasher asked you a question."
She blinked, did he? Turning her gaze over again and looking up, she met the annoyed blue eyes of Bushi-han. He was glaring at them, holding up a strange bread-and-meat meal in one hand and rapidly munching through it while waiting for them to respond.
"Have your sexual awakening later, brat. I asked you a fucking question." He growled out through a mouthful of meat and bread and vegetables.
She sputtered, bringing her hands up to bury her face in her palms and flattening her ears across her scalp. Her tail came around to partially cover the front of her body. She wished she had a spell that made her invisible, that would be way more convenient to have.
"Be embarrassed later, brat. You're wasting my goddamn time here. Tanuki, robbery, explain."
"Senpai, blasphemy!"
Eventually, she managed to recompose herself and sat in a more dignified manner, doing her best to avoid looking at the stranger she had just leered at like a red-light woman and not a proper shrine maiden (in training).
"Tanuki-han is the name we call a bully, he steals stuff if he can get away with it, and likes pushing around everyone smaller than him! We overheard him talking about how he was going to steal from an adventurer with poofy blond hair, blue eyes, and a grumpy face!"
From the corner of her eye, she saw Bushi-han's face get even grumpier.
"We only knew one adventurer by that description, so we came down to warn a fellow countryman of the danger!"
"One meatbag isn't a danger." Bushi-han growled out confidently.
"He has a magic sword." Coco-chan spoke out again, despondent. "If you don't give him what he wants, he might use it on you."
"And? So does Scrappy over there." Bushi-han grumbled. They had a magic sword too?!
"Different kind, Adam." Ronin-han corrected, shaking his head with a frown. "Bell has a sword made by a high smith. A Magic Sword is something else."
Leaning back on his hands, he practically spat out the next lines. "A Magic Sword is what you get when you fill a blade with an absurd amount of elemental energy. You swing it, and it'll unleash all this energy at once in a super-destructive attack."
"But it's fragile garbage." He snapped his fingers. "You might get one swing, you might get two or three swings. Rarely you might get five or six swings. But a Magic Sword will always shatter soon enough, breaking under its own power. It's something you can't rely upon at all."
Bushi-han took that in, taking another bite of his handheld meal, chewing, and swallowing.
"The naming scheme is fucking stupid." He rumbled out, annoyed by something.
A pause. Ronin-han blinked at that. The boy named Bell took a bite of his own potato, apparently he had brought a whole bag full.
"What?"
"Generic and easy to confuse with all the other swords with magic powers. Magic Sword is a dogshit name. Whoever came up with it should be fucking embarrassed." He took another vicious bite of his meal.
Unexpectedly, Ronin-han slowly started chuckling, before escalating into a full-blown laughter. It was such an amused and delighted sound that she couldn't help but chuckle along.
"Y-you're right! T-they don't even have to be swords, thinking about it! It's any blade. M-magic Sword is a s-stupid name!" Ronin-han struggled out between laughs. He clearly found something deeply funny about that, but she wasn't quite sure what.
"Settle down, swordmeat. I ain't done interrogating them yet." Bushi-han growled out, before turning an intense gaze on her that made her tail poof up. "Tanuki. Short, fat, brown hair, puffy sideburns, slight beard?"
She nodded enthusiastically, matched by Kaede-chan.
"He normally operate alone, or with some other meatbags?"
"He has a partner, we call him Kamaitachi! He's tall and quick, and uses a one-handed straight-sword! He has black hair and a ponytail." Kaede-chan was quick to elaborate.
"There's a supporter, Lili-san, that they drag around… They don't treat her very well…" Coco-chan timidly got out. "P-please don't hurt her, if you end up fighting. She can't stop them from doing whatever they want, she's a Pallum like me."
"...They give a timeframe for when their little ambush is going to happen?"
"They were going to try waiting for you to come back up today, but I don't know where exactly…" Momiji answered.
Bushi-han took another bite of his meal, almost finishing it off, and thinking for a moment.
"Was wondering when the corporate sabotage was going to start." He gave a confusing line, then moved on. "Alright, info on a potential ambush is valuable. I'll pay you each ten-thousand after today's run is done."
Momiji dropped her half-eaten potato. Kaede-chan choked on air. Coco-chan fell backwards.
"We're going to finish up our regular shifts, then head up. If they decide to fuck off before we get back, we head to their headquarters and give polite warnings to their boss. If we run across them, we'll beat them to a pulp, head to their headquarters, and leave them strung up as a warning."
"...Senpai, that's really violent."
"They're trying to rob us, brat. They're lucky that I'm not killing them outright, if only because they're more useful alive to help build rep."
"That's the only reason?"
"You have to start somewhere, kid."