"I never did ask for your name," Satoru said, approaching the duo. The father was hard at work, while his daughter just kind of squatted by his side. Satoru expanded his senses. If anything with Cursed Energy approached them, he'd know. Thus far, there didn't seem to be anything for several kilometers. Not even the Astartes were coming towards them, contrary to his expectations. Still, he couldn't let his guard down; he'd made that mistake before, after all, and it killed him. He held out his hand. "My name's Gojo Satoru – or just Satoru. What are your names?"
The father stopped... whatever it was he was doing with a bottle of oil and incense on the vessel's power generator and Satoru honestly didn't want to know. The man's eyes widened in shock, briefly, and even his daughter, the little girl, seemed unsure of how she was to respond. After a moment, however, the father spoke and shook Satoru's outstretched hand. "I am Larkin and this is my daughter, Tanya. Forgive me, Satoru, it's just that... well... no one really asks us for our names. Very few people ever asked and it was not on the same terms as we have now."
"Hmm, that must suck a lot of balls," Satoru sighed. He understood, though, why people instinctually steered clear of them. Being in the presence of True Negative Cursed Energy would be incredibly uncomfortable for just about everyone. That honestly sucked, since these two didn't ask for their power; they were just unlucky enough to be born with it, cursed by fate and destiny. Satoru grinned. "Still, you two don't have to worry about things like that with me. I'm not an asshole – usually."
"Thank you, truly," Larkin said, smiling faintly, even if the grayness that enshrouded him did not abate. "Your kind words mean a lot to me."
"I'll leave you to your work." Satoru said, smiling as he took a step back, placing his hands in his pocket. Any minute now and they'd be flying off this rock. Hopefully. Maybe. Probably. Honestly, if the ship flew at all, then he'd be surprised. The vessel was awesome, right out of an action-packed space opera, but it also looked... really old, like probably a thousand years kind of old, covered in so much dust it was a miracle it wasn't buried under it. "How long until you're done, by the way?"
"I should be finished appeasing the machine spirit within five minutes, Satoru." Larkin answered, smiling faintly at the very simple act of saying someone else's name.
"Awesome," Satoru smiled. "I'm gonna walk around and look for something interesting."
There wasn't anything interesting down here; at least, nothing he hadn't already seen before when they first came inside. Much of it was junk machinery that Satoru definitely did not recognize, a ton of dead bodies in red robes, and a bunch of skulls with cool hats and cyber implants all over the place. Still, sitting around in one place didn't really suit him, not when there were actual threats that were probably – definitely – coming for him. And, if nothing else, looking at all the random stuff was kind of cool. After all, the fact he was here now, in the future, somehow, was still incredibly freaking cool. There were a bunch of weapons here too and those were awesome, rifles that shot freaking laser beams.
His childhood dreams were finally coming true. Now, the only thing that would make it better was it said rifles were attached to giant robot sharks. Grinning, Satoru reached out and grabbed one of the futuristic-looking rifles and held it up close to his face. It was a boxy thing, rugged and durable; clearly, Satoru mused, this weapon, more than anything was built to last, meant to be manufactured in great quantities, the basic rifle of every single soldier – likely trillions of them, considering this was the future, a heavily-militarized variant of it, at least. "Yep, I'm going to keep this."
Fortunately, despite being from a futuristic civilization, the rifle itself still maintained the typical design he'd find back in his time, in his earth – a handle, a grip, a trigger, a large batter that was shaped like a magazine, and iron sights to aim with. And, with Six-Eyes, Satoru would never miss a single shot. Not that he'd ever used a gun before, to be perfectly honest; he never needed to. But, if he was going to use one, it seemed only proper that his first firearm was a laser rifle. Hell yeah. Suguru would be so jealous of this. A lot of people would be jealous of it, Satoru mused.
He slung it over his shoulder and pretended to march around like an army man for a while. He was pretty sure he was doing it incorrectly, but it was the feeling that counted and it felt right anyway. There were several other laser rifles, though most of them were in varied states of disrepair. As tempting as it was to start a personal collection of sci-fi weapons, there was no point in gathering a bunch of useless toys. However, he did take the charge packs from the ones that were not so broken, since a battery was bound to run out of juice eventually. Though, the solar panels told him that they could be recharged, but – in the heat of battle – it was better to just replace it, instead of standing still and waiting for the sunlight to recharge the battery.
By the end of it, he'd collected about six charge packs, all of which he placed in a pouch that he might've borrowed from one of the red-robed skeletons on the floor, made from a cool, scaly red leather that looked like it might've been taken from a dragon, because damn it was cool, which was precisely why he took it.
His senses detected nothing. No one was coming for them. There were a few Astartes that strayed into his range, but none of them came for him or went anywhere close to the hangar, which was... good, but also suspicious. Based entirely on how quickly they found him the last several times, Satoru was reasonably certain that the Astartes were aware of where he actually was. But, again, there was an unknown variable there, since Satoru still wasn't certain what method they used to find him each time. So, he kept his guard up. Still, Larkin was likely already finished with... whatever the fuck he was doing with those oils and rosary bead-looking things, which meant they'd be leaving very soon.
There were a few sealed doors here, made of incredibly thick plates of metal and likely further enhanced by technological mumbo-jumbos. A part of him wanted to rip open the massive doors, but another part of him wondered if doing so would cause a bunch of alarms to start going crazy and they might just end up with a rave party down here with Astartes and that did not sound nearly as good a time as it might've otherwise seemed. Could still be fun, though. But he can't imagine the Astartes dancing with that bulky armor of theirs.
Ugh... what was he thinking about again?
Right, as tempting as it was to use Red to blast the closed doors apart, it was too risky. So, he didn't. Besides, Satoru was certain, at least, of the fact that he'd soon encounter all sorts of wacky shit across the galaxy, alien creatures and crazy technological marvels he'd never otherwise encounter on Earth. Sure, Daemons were apparently real and Curse Users were persecuted, but that wasn't anything he couldn't deal with; he just discovered an entirely new aspect of Cursed Energy, after all, something no one else had. Satoru grinned; he was still excited about that, but also a bit apprehensive and maybe a little scared.
He reached the vessel and found the little girl, Tanya, waiting for him by the entrance. Her eyes were more lively than they were when Satoru first saw her, but she was still grayer than her dad; likely, it was a difference in experience and tolerance. Tanya, Satoru figured, still hadn't fully acclimated to the True Negative Cursed Energy that writhed within her. "Dad says you should get inside, Mister Satoru. He's about the start the ship."
Satoru smiled and nodded, ruffling her hair messy as he stepped right through. "Let's go see your dad, yeah? He's probably waiting for us in the bridge."
Tanya nodded and followed him inside, the entrance door closing behind them with a soft hiss. The interior of the ship was... weird, Satoru admitted, despite seeing it for the second time now. It wasn't the sci-futuristic type aesthetic he'd expected, though that might've been his fault, since very little about this world's architecture and overall design choice was, in any way, similar to the high-tech stuff he'd seen in movies. Instead, the ship's interior was... similar to the buildings he'd entered. Candles and grand arches, religious iconography, and skulls everywhere; it felt more like entering a gothic church than a space ship. Still cool, but nowhere near as cool as he would've liked. If anything, everything he'd seen thus far has been a mix of sci-fi and old-school fantasy, which – weirdly enough – worked quite well.
The ship's bridge was dusty – really dusty. And old. But it was also sterile. Nothing survived in this place, not even microbes, until the three of them walked in, of course, but that was already a given. The space was... quite dead, silent. Strange. But ultimately a good thing, Satoru mused. Larkin sat on a large chair that, Satoru assumed, was the captain's seat; before him was a mess of high-tech gadgets and controls and other things that he did not recognize. Not that he'd recognize any of the controls in an airplane cockpit from the 21st century, either, so this was probably even more complicated.
Shrugging, Satoru sat down on one of the empty seats that was probably reserved for an important guest of some sort as it clearly possessed no controls of any kind. Larkin turned and nodded at him. "The engine's primed for ignition. I'm only waiting for the orbital scan to finish, just in case the Astartes have left anything to... dissuade us from leaving. This ship has stealth capabilities, but a Battlebarge is no trifle. The God-Emperor must be on our side, however, as most of their vessels are on the other side of the planet. There's a window there that we can use. This ship is not powerful, but it is... very fast."
Satoru nodded. "Even if they attack, you don't have to worry. Their weapons won't reach us. So, don't worry about damage or anything like that. You make a beeline for the nearest world, wherever it is, and leave the defense to me."
Larkin's eyes narrowed for a moment, before he nodded. "Very well, Satoru; I will trust you. I will ignore... their attacks."
"Damn right you should trust me," Satoru flashed a grin. "I'm the strong- wait, no. I'm the coolest sorcerer you're ever going to meet!"
Larkin smiled faintly. "I believe you, Satoru. But, I'm activating the Void Shields, just in case."
The ship wasn't so large that a full-output Infinity couldn't encompass its entirety. And his reserves... not full, but they were pretty close. He'd had plenty of time to rest, after all, enough to recover bunch of the Cursed Energies he'd expended. At worst, he'd be able to sustain Infinity to shield the entire ship for... oh... about six months? At best, he'd be able to shield it for a year – at full output. So, really, there was nothing to worry about, unless Sukuna appeared and started blasting them with that space-cutting cleave of his. But, since that probably wasn't going to happen, then they'd be safe – maybe.
"Then, let's go." Satoru said, grinning. And, this time, his grin was borne of childish dreams. Ever since he saw that one episode from Star Wars, Satoru had always, even after he became an adult, wanted to travel through outer space on a cool ship. Sure, he'd actually been to outer space a few times, using Blue to send himself up there, but this... this would be different. And the best part was that they wouldn't just be floating. They'd be traveling to another world – another planet. How fucking exciting was that?!
The ship rumbled as the engines activated, roaring loudly like a mountain giant roused from its slumber. A bunch of lights activated from the outside, though Satoru wasn't sure what they did or meant. And then, the ship levitated off the ground. Larkin did... a bunch of other stuff on the console, things Satoru did not understand. Still, as exciting as this was, he had his own role to play. And so, briefly, he closed his eyes as he pumped Infinity to full output, which then rapidly expanded to cover the entire ship.
And then, when he opened his eyes, they were already headed for the clouds.
AN: Chapter 14 is up on (Pat)reon!