CHAPTER 3
A Gray Wildflower
The long night gave way to the third of the Seven Days of Death, yet the clouds above remained as gray as ever. Only the sky’s tears had finally abated.
Lyra dropped her gaze to the ruined streets and sighed.
“Where the hell’d Leon go? We’ll have searched the whole damn city at this rate…”
Beside her walked a woman with long black hair as smooth as silk—Kaguya. Without breaking stride, she scanned the ruined streets.
“We’ve been at this all night,” she agreed. “We know she talked to Shakti, but where could she have gone after that?”
Lyu had made her dramatic exit from the Starlight Garden almost a full day ago. The girls were asking around about her, taking the opportunity to gather information while out on patrol, and their search had led them here, to district eight in Orario’s northern quarter. Freya Familia had been in charge of its defense on the night of the Great Conflict, and it was the most heavily damaged portion of the city after the southwest district, where Zald and Alfia had appeared. Fire and magic alike had leveled entire city blocks, leaving nothing standing.
Naturally, the streets were empty, and there was nothing left of the city the girls had sworn to protect, just an eerie silence that pervaded everything. Kaguya and Lyra, however, didn’t let that silence bother them. The two were similar in many ways—one of them being their rational and mature response to calamity. Lyra was the one who usually maintained the party morale with her gallows humor, and against Kaguya, she didn’t see a need to hold back. Sometimes, to understand people, you had to make them talk, even if they didn’t want to. Kaguya knew that as well, and that was why the two made such a good match and why they were well suited to supporting Alize as deputy captain and prum strategist.
They were both pragmatic souls. They’d both seen the worst life had to offer and come through it bent but unbroken. Now, it was Lyu’s turn.
“Hey,” said Lyra.
“What is it?” said Kaguya.
“First time she’s ever done this, ain’t it? How long do you think ’til Lyu comes back?”
“She might never come back,” offered Kaguya. “She’s a delicate girl, even for an elf. And with things like they are, I wouldn’t be too surprised if she went and got herself killed.”
“Man, that’s cold, even for you,” smirked Lyra, pretending to be surprised. “You’re allowed to be a little optimistic, you know. Come to think of it, I’ve always wanted to ask. What did they do to you in the east that turned you into such a stone-cold bitch?”
“Lyra, in the spirit of our companionship, I’m going to be frank. I’ve always hated your company. You just have to poke your ratty nose into every last thing.”
Unlike her pink-haired partner, everything Kaguya had said was sincere. Only their goddess, Astrea, knew of her painful past, and the girl intended to keep it that way. Besides that, she found the prum’s attitude nauseatingly similar to her own. Unsurprisingly, however, her harsh rebuke left no mark on Lyra’s pride, and the girl continued grinning, undaunted.
“Damn, so you love Leon so much, you’re willin’ to put up with me to search for her,” she said. “That’s touchin’. It really is.”
Kaguya scowled at Lyra’s quick-witted response. There wasn’t much she could say to that, and she felt foolish for entertaining the prum’s comments in the first place.
“This is precisely the sort of thing I mean,” she muttered, causing Lyra’s smirk to widen. The prum girl decided it was prudent to push her compatriot no further and thoughtfully closed her eyes.
The two were both pragmatic souls. That was why Astrea had saved them both, why Alize confused and fascinated them both, and why both of them saw fit to look out for Lyu, their newest arrival.
Kaguya wore a stiff expression of frustration, while Lyra crossed her arms contentedly behind her head. Considering the former towered over the latter in terms of size, they made for a very odd couple indeed, but there was no mistaking the connection they shared.
Then Lyra stopped.
“Ah, snap. I remember that place,” she said, spying an evacuee camp filled with demi-humans. “Those are the guys that threw all them stones at us.”
Some of the faces in the crowd were ones Lyra’s keen mind remembered from the previous day. They didn’t seem to have noticed the girls yet, but once they did, a response was all but certain.
“Let us not overstay our welcome, then,” said Kaguya. “We’ll find out if Lyu came this way and then make a swift…hm?”
Just as she was scanning the population, thinking there was no chance in hell Lyu would have come anywhere near this traumatic place, she noticed a sight that made her pause.
Right in the middle of the camp was a lone girl, serving up steaming bowls of soup to a crowd of people.
“Here you go! A nice, hot meal to warm your belly!” she said.
“Give me some, too!!”
“Hey, don’t push!”
Grown men and women who had lost their homes fought to be the first to be fed, but despite their unruliness, the girl smiled sweetly.
“Don’t worry,” she said in a strangely sonorous voice. “There’s plenty to go around!”
Her eyes and tied-back hair were both light gray, and she wore a dress and purple cape, like many of the city girls. Anyone who came to her received the same welcoming smile along with their meal.
“She’s handing out food…” said Kaguya in disbelief.
“And at a time when everyone’s busy lookin’ out for themselves,” said Lyra. “I don’t see the Guild around, either. She doin’ all this by her lonesome?”
After running all over the city trying to save people’s lives, the two Astrea Familia girls were keenly aware of what a pitiful state it was in. Any free adventurers were busy securing the borders or placed on medical duty, and no one was left to hand out food. It was inspiring, then, that there was someone out there willing to devote their own time and resources to making sure everybody was fed. Especially just a regular, run-of-the-mill city girl with no connection to the guild or any familia.
An old man approached the girl and expressed his thanks.
“You don’t know how grateful we are… To give out your own food when there’s so little to go around.”
“We’ve all got to share the load at times like this,” the girl replied. “Besides, don’t worry; this all comes courtesy of a tavern called the Benevolent Mistress.”
She struck a proud pose with one hand to her chest. Off to the side, not speaking, was an unsociable-looking catgirl who seemed to be the girl’s assistant, dressed in a green waitress uniform with a cloak over the top. She stirred the pot grudgingly.
“It seems really scary at first,” the first girl went on, “but it’s actually the safest place in Orario. If you need help, you should stop by the shop on West Main Street!”
Her bright words were the gods’ honest truth, but the people seemed ill inclined to believe her.
“I’m happy you would tell that lie to make us feel better…” said an animal woman.
“…But we all know there ain’t nowhere safe in Orario these days,” agreed a prum man, the pessimism creeping into his voice.
The people were so mired in their despair, even a goddess would have a hard time teaching them hope.
“Oh…it wasn’t meant to be a lie,” said the girl to herself, pressing a finger to her cheek, “but as long as everyone gets fed, that’s the most important thing.”
She smiled. No matter how glum the people around her were, she refused to let it affect her smile.
“And then once your stomachs are warm, it’ll spread to your hearts and faces, too! Is there anyone else who hasn’t—!”
“Stop! Stop this madness! Why bother handing out soup when we’re all gonna die?!”
A ruddy-faced young man came storming out of the camp, screaming and yelling. The smell of alcohol lingered on his breath.
“If we don’t starve, the Evils’ll get us instead! What’s the point?!”
“That’s not true,” said the girl. “The city’s adventurers are working very hard to make sure you—”
“Adventurers? I wouldn’t trust ’em to wipe my ass! The Evils made ’em look like a buncha crybabies! Loki, Freya, all of ’em got their asses kicked! What bleedin’ good are they gonna do us, eh?!”
The man’s ceaseless attack made the fearful townsfolk exchange worried looks. His words were an unwelcome reminder of what all of them—what all of Orario—was at this very moment trying their damnedest not to have to think about. All that remained in the space between his words was a chill air that threatened to snatch away all the warmth their soup had brought them.
“I’m gonna die, we’re all gonna die! The adventurers ain’t gonna save us! They sure as hell didn’t save my little sister…!”
The despair refused to leave his voice as it became more and more fragile. In the end, it felt like he was about to cry.
“…I think I preferred it when they were throwin’ rocks at us,” said Lyra, watching the commotion from a distance.
The townspeople’s weeping voices were more painful than any stones. Kaguya simply stood beside her, saying nothing.
“It’s over… It’s all over,” groaned the man. “Adventurers, this city, everything!”
All around him, people hung their heads. Even the catgirl stirring the pot stopped to look over. The gray-haired girl paused and placed her finger to her cheek once more, trying to come up with something.
“Hmm…”
Then, like a child, her eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands together.
“In that case, should we just all kill ourselves?”
“What?”
The young man froze.
““What?””
Lyra and Kaguya were aghast.
“““What?”””
The people couldn’t believe their ears.
“Well, if life’s so tough and painful and sad all the time, then why not kill yourself? Then you won’t have to feel sad. You won’t have to feel anything at all!”
The girl continued speaking merrily, heedless of the horrified stares she was receiving. She looked innocent and pure, like a holy priestess conveying the word of her god.
“Perhaps you’ll even see your sister again in heaven,” she went on. “And if what the gods say is true, you’ll be reincarnated someday and get to live again!”
She clenched both her fists and leaned forward in excitement. The young man recoiled from her.
“Wha… I… But…”
“Excuse me!” she called out over the crowd. “Is there anyone else who wants to die along with this gentleman here? It’ll bring an end to all your hardship and suffering!”
Nobody was quite sure how to react. It was as if a smiling tavern waitress had offered them a flagon of arsenic to wash down their ale.
““………””
Lyra and Kaguya were both slack-jawed. It took a lot to render them both speechless, but the girl’s bizarre comeback had somehow done it.
““She’s a psychopath…”” they both muttered.
Meanwhile, the young man finally opened his mouth and managed to string together a coherent response.
“I…I didn’t really mean…”
“Oh, I know,” replied the girl, playfully sticking out her tongue. “I was just teasing. But you know who else doesn’t want you to die? The adventurers!”
“!!”
The girl’s statement shook the man to his core.
“They’re out there as we speak, fighting for you, you know? They’re trying to make sure nobody else has to get hurt. Of course, they can’t always save everyone, but that’s not their fault. And nobody blames them more than they blame themselves.”
Nobody could speak out against the girl’s flowing words. It was the truth that none of them wanted to hear.
“It’s not nice being misunderstood, is it? I hope you’ll all understand that these brave men and women are doing everything they can for you.”
None of them could bring themselves to look at her bright, sunny smile. They stood staring at their feet, their voices caught in their throats. Lyra saw the parents of poor little Leah standing among them.
The young man clenched his fists and choked out one final protest through his streaming tears.
“But…you shouldn’t tell us you’re gonna protect us if you can’t do it! Like Astrea Familia! They’re nothin’ but lyin’ hypocrites, makin’ promises they can’t keep just to make themselves look good! They deserved what we did to ’em!”
He had to say something—anything—to confront the guilt in his mind and justify the stones he’d thrown, but the girl answered him with a calm smile.
“So what?” she asked.
“What?”
“We need people who look out for each other, whatever the reason. Especially at a time like this. It doesn’t matter if their goodness is just for show or not.”
“!!”
The young man was speechless. The townspeople stared in shock. Lyra and Kaguya looked on in wonder. What the girl was saying was that there was value in something less than perfect justice. Placing a hand to her breast, she glanced off into the distance with a look of respect and awe.
“In days like these, anyone who makes an effort has the right to be called a hero. They’re all fighting out there, so we need to fight, too, against the cruelty and depression that’s trying to take over our hearts.”
“………”
“Even if we can’t all be heroes, the least we can do is stand by them, and not against them.”
Those words struck a bitter blow to the hearts of the drunken young man and all the people in the crowd. They suddenly felt awful for having lashed out against the people fighting on their behalf. Her truths were like knives in their chest, but their verity was unquestionable. Anyone could see that.
“Rgh…”
After a while, the young man hung his head. He could have screamed out, said he and his fellows were powerless and weak and couldn’t be expected to do such a thing, but it seemed he finally realized that he possessed neither the right nor the cause to throw stones at the people standing up for him.
One woman in the crowd found that truth particularly difficult to accept.
“I just… I just wanted…”
It was Leah’s mother. All she wanted to do was shout—that she had it the worst, that no one else could possibly understand her pain—but she couldn’t, because deep down, she was a good person, and she realized how foolish it would be. No matter how much the resentment and the grief warped her, she was still the same person who had thanked the adventurers alongside her beloved daughter.
“Oh, Leah! Leah!!”
It was easy for people to tell themselves they deserved safety—that they were entitled to protection—but it wasn’t right. And she knew that if she put herself in the adventurers’ shoes, she wouldn’t want to fight for people like that, either. To be so overcome by bitterness that she lost sight of that and attacked the very people who swore to protect her—it was cowardly, base, and evil. Whatever form justice took, this was certainly not it.
The townsfolk were all silent as they thought about what they’d done.
“Everybody’s just lost,” said the catgirl helper, who had been silent up until this point. She stared at the townsfolk with vacant eyes, seeing in them a reflection of her former self, trapped with no way out.
“………”
Kaguya watched on from a distance, silent, while Lyra scratched her nose, impressed with the young city girl’s words and actions.
“Hey, you hear that? We’re heroes, apparently.”
“Stop that,” replied Kaguya. “Just the thought of it makes my skin crawl. I can’t think of a word that suits me less.”
But Kaguya didn’t elaborate on this, because at that very moment, an explosion rocked the camp.
The two girls looked over, just as a scream filled the air.
“It’s the Evils!!”
People fled in all directions at the sight of the milk-white robes, now deeply associated with death and destruction. One cultist stood and laughed as smoke rose off his magic sword.
“Looks like this place is totally unguarded, even in the middle of town,” he said. “Hah-hah-hah, stupid sheep!”
As evidenced by their treatment of Astrea Familia, this camp was a gathering of people who had lost faith in the adventurers’ protection. They had ignored orders coming in from Central Park and settled in the northern part of town, unwittingly making themselves an easy target for the Evils.
“Yes, yes, flee in terror! Let the adventurers hear your dying screams, and despair!!”
The apostles of evil licked their lips and descended on the crowd. Only a few didn’t immediately turn and run like everybody else.
“Syr!” cried the catgirl standing by the soup stall. A flickering flame suddenly returned to her eyes, as if a completely different person had taken over her body. She snatched up her weapon, which was wrapped in a white cloth and lying nearby, and stood in defense of the gray-haired girl, but the latter refused her protection.
“Anya!” she cried. “Go and help everyone!”
The catgirl scowled in response to this request, but ultimately did as she was asked. Just as an Evils blade was about to reach its mark, she stepped in with feline grace, pulling off the cloth and unveiling her weapon—a gleaming golden spear.
“Waargh!” cried the enemy cultist as the sweeping spear knocked him off his feet.
“O-over there!”
“An adventurer?!”
One corner of the camp descended into melee, sending into the air the sounds of clashing metal. Meanwhile, the city girl stood firm, crying out advice to the fleeing citizens.
“This way, everybody! Head south! Hurry!!”
A cruel Evils cultist kicked over the cauldron of soup, causing the girl to clench her fist in rage. But this didn’t stop her from calling out over the chaos. Her clear, loud voice carried far, guiding the people away from the Evils’ clutches.
“You should be worrying about yourself, girl, not other people!!”
“Ahh!!”
The man who was the instigator of this attack came up behind her and caught her by surprise. Her escort was engaged with the enemy elsewhere and could not reach her in time. The girl turned, his sword reflected in her pupils, when…
“Not so fast!”
“Wurgh!”
A cross-shaped slash, one part katana and one part boomerang, cut the villain down where he stood.
“You got grit, girl,” said Lyra with a roguish smile. “But it ain’t gonna do you any good if it gets you killed.”
“Adventurers…?” asked the girl in wonder.
“Oh, hardly,” said Kaguya with a smile. “We’re just regular old hypocrites, I’m afraid.”
With that, the two leaped into action. They moved quickly, even through the chaos. Through their day job, the girls were well accustomed to working with crowds, and they swiftly picked out the Evils from the innocent townsfolk.
Kaguya let out an incredibly unladylike war cry, stunning friend and foe alike, and just as attention gathered on her, Lyra’s boomerangs flew out from the shadows, disabling the hapless cultists before they even saw what was coming.
Angry and fearful screams filled the streets. Lyra’s spinning blades feasted on the enemy cultists, splattering their blood onto the cobbles. They looked around, unsettled, but couldn’t spot the prum girl responsible for the onslaught, and while they were busy looking for her, the far-eastern girl made her move.
Kaguya was far more adept at martial arts than any of her peers in Astrea Familia. Her attacks were not just graceful—they were divine. While the Evils scrambled around trying to find the lesser of the two threats, Kaguya‘s blade cut them all down one by one.
Their leader—the one who attacked Syr—had already fallen, so there was no one left to call for a retreat. By now, the raiding party was reduced to a mob of wild animals. Meanwhile, the two girls had already picked out their enemies from the crowd and could be as rough as they liked without worrying about hurting bystanders.
Kaguya made bold, sweeping movements without minding her back, but Lyra was there to keep an eye on her. Similarly, the prum’s attacks lacked power, but Kaguya’s blade more than made up for it. Even though it wasn’t planned, their respective styles made for a fearsome combination.
“A-Astrea Familia?! Waagh!”
Kaguya cut down the last cultist, completely eradicating the enemy in under two minutes. The catgirl adventurer could only look on in complete and utter shock.
“That’s the last of them,” said Kaguya, resheathing her sword. “Ganesha Familia should be here soon. We’ll let them handle the arrests.”
“Yeah,” said Lyra. “Looks like Lyu’s not here, either. Let’s go—”
But just as she was about to turn around, the young man from before and Leah’s mother both staggered out of the camp toward them.
“Y-you guys protected us…”
“Even after the way we treated you…”
They both wore stunned looks of surprise, bewilderment, guilt, and pain. They each tried to say something more but couldn’t find the words. Lyra stared at them for a while before turning away.
“Let’s go, Kaguya.”
“Ah, wait…”
The far-eastern girl silently followed her associate, leaving the two townspeople without a single word. With utterly distraught looks, they watched the girls leave.
“Are you sure you didn’t want to give them a piece of your mind?” Kaguya asked after the camp was no longer in sight. “You haven’t forgotten what they did to us, have you?”
Lyra looked around to make sure no one was watching, then burst into a devilish grin.
“There wasn’t nothin’ I could say that hurt them more than sayin’ nothin’,” she answered. “Did you see the guilty looks on their faces? Oh, man, you can’t pay for satisfaction like that.”
“Oh dear,” said Kaguya, lifting her kimono’s sleeve over her mouth. “You really are the most ill-natured prum I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing.”
However, the two were truly alike, since behind her sleeve, the far-eastern girl wore a smile just like her compatriot’s.
“Besides,” said Lyra, stopping in her tracks and placing a hand on her hip. “Ain’t it way more heroic that way?”
This time, the smile on her face was an altogether more wholesome one.
“True. Not that it suits you,” said Kaguya.
The two shared a grin, then set off once more in search of their wayward junior. Their faces were just a little brighter than they had been when they arrived.
Back at the camp, the girl with light gray hair and eyes stood and gazed in the direction the two girls had left.
“…Stay strong, familia of justice,” she said with a smile.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login