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Bloodlines
Chapter 4 - "The Capital"

Chapter 4 - "The Capital"

People line every street, and the buildings stand tall with not a single crevasse of the city going unlit. The capital is unlike anything that Hiro or Isamu have seen before. Lanterns run parallel alongside the paths hanging from buildings. People all wear expensive looking clothing, and some even walk alongside creatures with leads around them. One brushes past Isamu giving her a scare and the owner scowls as he walks by. Hiro looks around with eyes full of awe as he stares at the one beautiful building standing above all. It’s branded with a large logo right in the centre of the city.

“Isamu…” Hiro points towards the huge building, “What is that?”

Isamu looks towards the building as shivers run down her spine, “Probably those asshole Yoshida’s building”. Isamu looks at the building in disgust completely opposite to Hiro who stares on in pure amazement.

Isamu looks around as the people stare at the two of them and mutter under their breath. Her eyes try and avert their stares, but she can’t help but see the eyes and hear the insults.

“Why the hell are those two here?”

“Wow they really let trash like that into the capital?”

“Lord Kenji should lay traps for the rats…”

Isamu begins to feel the pressure of the comments weigh on her,

“She’s a girl? They both look disgusting…”.

“Isamu grabs Hiro’s shirt and pulls him into an alley,

“What’s wrong?” Hiro looks at Isamu as she slowly sits on top of a crate.

“Don’t you hear them all?”, Hiro looks at her confused as she slowly lifts up her goggles and fidgets with them.

Hiro places his hand on her shoulder and leans down, “Who cares?”

Isamu looks up at him as he stands there smiling, “Don’t you have a job to do? Wouldn’t want to disappoint your dad, right?”

His wide smile and a hand reaching towards hers beckons Isamu to trust him,

“Let’s go”

Isamu stands and sighs trying to hide her smile. She puts her cracked goggles on her head once more as she looks at Hiro’s smile,

“You really don’t let things get to you huh?”, They both make their way back out onto the main street.

Once again murmurs and whispers follow the two as they walk through the crowds of people. Isamu becomes more and more bothered as they walk as her face grows more and more angry.

“That’s it! I have an idea Hiro”, Isamu pulls Hiro along into a small store on the main street. Clothes surround them as they enter, and they look completely out of place with all the expensive prices plastered all over the walls. The people within the stores have the same faces as those outside as they all glare at the two although Hiro doesn’t let it bother him as he walks around with his eyes sparkling at all the expensive clothes and accessories. Isamu on the other hand has a scrunched face in frustration as she stomps around the store. She pulls down a few pieces of clothing before grabbing Hiro by the arm and dragging him across the store all the way to the changing rooms where she slams the door behind them.

“What are you doing?”, Hiro sits staring up at an angry Isamu in confusion.

Isamu gives him a devious smile in response as she holds up two expensive looking sets of clothes. Hiro stares back at her confused as she rolls her eyes and chucks one of the sets over him. She begins undressing in front of him as he slams his hands over his eyes, yet Isamu only chuckles maniacally.

“They want criminals? We’ll give them criminals”, Hiro stares as she changes into the dress before she freezes in place.

“Do you mind?”, her face is flush with colour as she hides herself. “HURRY UP AND CHANGE HIRO!”, he quickly jumps up and begins changing,

“So why are we changing?”

Isamu leans in with that mischievous look in her eye once more, “We’re gonna steal them”, she begins chuckling prompting Hiro to match her energy and giggle alongside her as they change.

People walk by and give strange looks at the noises coming from the changing booth as they are both intrigued and disgusted seemingly.

Hiro eventually spins around as the two of them show off their new clothes and they somewhat fit in with the expensive clothing of the people in the capital.

Hiro leans in and whispers “So what now?”

Isamu smiles and grabs his hand, “We leave…”

The two walk across the shop past all those that are staring at them either for the sounds from the booth or the fact they just seen them mere minutes ago in completely different clothes. Everyone stares as they try and act completely natural on their way towards the door. They both feed off one another’s energy as they cackle together as they see the exit in sight.

“The door is right there…”, The two of their eyes widen the closer they get to freedom. Their less than convincing natural act is seemingly paying off as Hiro’s hand reaches for the door.

“So, you would like to pay for both the sets?”

A voice they didn’t want to hear makes them both freeze as the store owner smiles from the desk. The silence lies for a few seconds before Hiro and Isamu gives each other a look and the second Hiro turns the hands everyone jumps into action.

Hiro and Isamu burst towards the large crowds of the capital as the store owner jumps over the desk and begins shouting after them. They dodge and weave past countless people as they both laugh out loud. Isamu looks back to see that the owner is getting further and further away, and in that moment, she turns to Hiro and cheers out. Hiro turns to her and just as he goes to cheer back to her,

Bang. Hiro crashes into something and falls to the floor.

His eyes slowly move up the white armour standing in front of him. Scratches and dents compliment the slight gold within the white armour. A large blue crest sits on the chest plate as Hiro stares up towards the helmet of the suit. It stares back at him although the slit is too dark to see anything within. He can feel an intense glare coming from within the helmet.

The surrounding crowd goes completely silent. Not a sound is made as Hiro stares upwards at the person in the armour and the person doesn’t take their eyes off Hiro.

A gust of wind blows through the scene as a man reaches his hand out towards Hiro and for some reason he looks familiar to Hiro. His emerald eyes that glimmer in the sun certainly seems familiar to him along with his long black hair as it blows in the wind.

“Are you ok?”, His voice is soft and calm as he reaches out to Hiro and helps him up.

Hiro smiles again as he pats himself down, “Sorry…”, he redirects his smile towards the suit of armour and ruffles his hair until he stops and realises what it was he was doing.

Just as Hiro goes to start running again a hand slams down on his shoulder. The shop owner looks down at him with rage and growls towards him.

“Is there a problem?” The familiar man looks at the shop owner and with one look the shop owner bows her head,

“L-lord I didn’t know you were there I-“, The man smiles at her and as he lowers his head towards her a scar below his eye running across his nose becomes visible to Hiro.

“What’s the issue?”, slowly the shop owner stumbles her way through explaining what Hiro and Isamu did. Hiro is preoccupied with the pressure from the intense glare he is still receiving from the armoured person. Just as Hiro goes to talk to the armour the man talks to him sternly.

“You stole that suit from this woman?”, Hiro swallows nervously in response.

The man sighs and pulls out a small bag of coins. “Here”, The woman’s eyes widen as he places it in her hands, “Thank you!”, she glares at Hiro one last time before happily skipping off down the street with more money than she could’ve sold five of those suits could’ve sold for.

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The man’s emerald gaze then slowly falls back on Hiro as he still sits on the ground. He places his hand on his shoulder and slowly leans in until his mouth is practically touching his ear.

He whispers, “I have no need for trouble like you in my city… so you and that girl in the alley should leave pretty soon…” His eyes soften as he backs away and waves to the people before heading off.

The knight in armour still stands staring at Hiro until the man shouts, “Zero! Leave him” The knight known as Zero then slowly backs away before taking one last look at Hiro and leaving.

Isamu slaps Hiro in the back with a sigh of relief, “Wow that could’ve been bad huh?”

Hiro is left stunned but more by the knight than anything else, “Who was that?”

Isamu watches as the two mysterious figures walk towards the large building in the centre of the city making her face stiffen up, “That asshole is either super rich or he knows the Yoshida personally”

Hiro finally sighs as he gets up, “Well what now?”

Isamu smiles smugly as she poses in her dress, “I’ll tell you one thing… free suits baby!” she dances next to Hiro as he digs in his bag.

“This too…”, Isamu looks up confused until he pulls out a pair of new goggles. Her face lights up and her eyes widen along with her jaw dropping as she can barely speak, “W-what… No way?!”

Isamu looks touched as he pulls her old ones off and fits the new ones on. Why?” her voice is quiet and soft as she looks up at Hiro.

“Yours were broken right?”, She looks at him completely taken aback.

“Anyway, you said you wanted to do some scouting right… well me too”

Isamu can only manage to mutter, “Uh… yeah” through her shock.

Hiro points to the large building standing above everything else, “Well let’s go to that big thing then”

As Hiro begins walking away smiling Isamu blushes ever so slightly before running after him.

Large doors swing open as the man and his knight burst through. His stern face is backed up by the strut in his walk. The knight strides closely behind as the symbol on her cloak is plastered all around them. The man sighs as he walks into a large room with a huge table in the middle alongside a tall window that overlooks the whole city.

The window stands tall behind the man as he sits down at the table. He looks over at the knight, “Where is Gou?”

The knight stays silent and is seemingly deep in thought before being snapped out by the loud piercing voice of the man, “Zero!”

“H-he was outside the last I heard my lord”.

The man rolls his eyes as he leans back, “And my youngest? Is he back yet?”

Just as he finishes the question a voice answers from behind him, “I’m back”.

The man stands as he smiles ever so slightly, “I heard you did pretty good… minus a fountain”.

He smiles back at him, “Thank you father…”, the man nods in response.

“Well done... Asahi”

Asahi can’t help but smile ever so slightly as the man turns and walks over to the large window.

“I have a new assignment for you…”, Asahi perks up.

“Where to?”

The man turns and looks towards his knight who stands against the wall, “It’ll be the two of you”

Zero is taken aback whereas Asahi looks her way confused, “Your knight?”, The man smiles as he looks way,

“Yes…. You’ll be visiting two locations where reports of rogue subjects have arisen.”

Asahi gives him a confused look, “Couldn’t I do it myself?”

“She needs some proper experience… don’t worry she’s been training for a while now”, Zero stares forwards in acceptance as Asahi just gives in and excuses himself. Zero joins Asahi in leaving until the man calls her back.

He looks at Zero with a curious glint in his eyes, “What was it about that boy that hit into you?”.

Zero pauses for a second before answering, “I was… annoyed after he crashed into me. The man looks at her for a second before nodding and allowing her to leave.

The door quietly closes behind her leaving him in the room alone. He stands tall as he looks down on the people walking the streets. He watches as a family walk bellow and his eyes sullen. His gaze slowly moves towards a painting that hangs on the wall of a woman with long brown hair as she sits alongside a man with long black hair and green sparkling eyes.

His eyes fixate on her smile as he places his hand on the window in front of him. He places his forehead against the window.

“Soon…”

Asahi’s head hits the mattress as he lets out a deep sigh. His eyes are heavy as he stares at the ceiling, “I wonder what he’s doing right now…”. Just as he begins to fade off into slumber clanging from outside wakes him. He scrunches up his face as he gets up and saunters over towards the small window looking out to the training grounds.

The woman known as Zero trains outside. Her armour is slim, and her movement is fast. She holds two swords and swings them like she doesn’t have any armour on at all.

“She’s fast”, Asahi is surprised by the way she moves as the glowing light of the lanterns shine off the white of her armour.

As she finishes with a flurry of strikes towards the dummy she pulls back and the two swords she had in her hand evaporate into a red mist. She sprints towards the dummy and as she jumps a large broadsword forms in her hands and she slams it down splitting the dummy in half.

Asahi watches on impressed as she showcases her ability to create weapons out of thin air and the ability to swap them at will intrigues Asahi. He watches as she slices with swords, stabs with knives, smashes with hammers and crushes with maces as the night slowly ticks on. Dummy after dummy she destroys each one with anger in her movements.

“What drives you…?” Asahi thinks to himself as he watches Zero finally take her last swing and destroy the last wooden mannequin. As she swings her final swing Asahi catches a glimpse of a red glow from within her helmet. He sits back down on his bed as he sighs once more,

“Guess I didn’t have to worry about her keeping up after all…”, finally he fades off into slumber as his head hits the pillow.

Zero breathes heavily as she watches her final sword evaporate in her hands. Sweat drips through the gaps in her helmet as she drops to her knees in exhaustion.

”You know you aren’t graded on your training, right?”, a voice shouts from a nearby pillar. Another set of emerald eyes peer through the shadow of the pillar as he slowly reveals himself. He has short black hair and he’s taller than Asahi and wears similar clothing displaying his importance.

Zero slowly stands to face him but she stays silent.

“Still silence huh?”, The man walks towards her and places his hand on her shoulder. “Y’know now is the time to rest… I mean this whole power thing comes at a cost”. Zero lowers her head as she steps back,

“I know…”

The man nods while sighing, “Well I guess we don’t really know for sure right… just a rumour”, Zero begins walking away from him.

The man smiles awkwardly, “Nice talk…”, Zero stops and turns to him slightly,

“You really think we pay a price?”

The man is taken aback as he scratches his head as he laughs, “I mean have you ever heard of a chosen making it past fifty?” Zero walks off after his answer leaving the man left standing alone chuckling as he watches her leave,

“Most I’ve heard her talk since she got here…”, She smiles as he heads back in towards the building.

The moon sits alongside the stars as night falls. Hiro walks the streets as the orange glow of the lanterns light the capital streets leaving Hiro’s eyes to sparkle at the sight. People in expensive clothing begin to walk the streets and the noise begins to rise around them.

“Why is it louder at night?” Hiro looks around confused.

“There’s a lot of things you can only do at night around here…”, Isamu begins to grow nervous at the sheer amount of people beginning to line the streets.

The pair continue to walk around the bustling capital until a man stands before them clearly drunk as he sways from side to side. “Oh, hey pretty lady!” Isamu looks behind her confused, “You want to take this party back to my place?”

Isamu looks around more before pointing to herself confused.

“Playing hard to get, are we?”, his smile gives away the creepy thoughts swirling in his mind as he undresses her with his eyes.

She grows disgusted looking at him, “The hell are you looking at jackass?”

He tries to get closer before she pushes him away, “Damn girl you’re a feisty one…”.

Hiro runs up to Isamu excited to show her something before he looks at the man, “Who’s this?”

The man looks at him annoyed, “This your boyfriend?”

Isamu grabs Hiro’s arm, “Husband actually”, she gives a mean look towards the man as he scoffs.

“Huh?” the second Hiro speaks Isamu jabs him with her elbow, “Yep… That’s me… Mr husband”

“Screw you then!”, The man throws his arms up in the air as he stumbles away from them.

Hiro looks at Isamu confused, “What’d I do?”

Isamu pulls him closer, “Can we get off these streets I don’t like the way men are looking at me… I don’t think I want to wear this dress anymore…” Hiro looks down at her as she clings to his arm and her eyes begin to water,

“Sure”

They walk up to the nearest inn as Hiro looks up at the sign on the wall, “Is this it?” He goes to reach for something in his bag before Isamu pulls him towards the door, “Yes now hurry up”

They both stand in front of a woman as she looks down at the one copper coin that sits on the counter in front of her. Hiro and Isamu smile back at her with innocent smiles.

“And you want a room?”. She looks at them with an eyebrow raised.

Hiro nods and smiles.

“With one copper coin… You want a room in the capital?”. She looks at them almost in disbelief that they think this is enough.

“One room please!”, the woman looks down at the singular copper coin once again as she looks back up at Hiro.

“And where’s the rest”

“What do you mean?”, Hiro looks at her with a tilted head in confusion.

“One room is three gold coins…”, Isamu slams her hand on the counter in shock.

“Who has that kind of cash for one night!?”

The woman scoffs and grins at the two, “This is the capital baby… get used to it”

They both hang their heads at the news as the woman watches them slowly walk towards the exit before groaning and rolling her eyes,

“Fine I might have one room available…”

They both jump up and sprint towards the table, “Really!?”, They both stare at her with faces bursting with excitement as Hiro near enough jumps up and down.

“Follow me…”

Isamu shakes Hiro as she jumps up and down with joy, “So there really are nice people here…”, Her excitement is quickly destroyed as her face completely drops at the sight of the room.

A toilet stands before them as the sign stares her right in the face. Hiro still completely unaware dances beside the door. Isamu just stares at the toilet sign with sullen and dead eyes. The woman smiles back at her as she slumps forward. Hiro continues to dance behind her.

Back in the large building sits Zero in a dark room. Her reflection in the mirror is split by cracks clearly created by a blow to the mirror. Her helmet sits by her on a small bed in the corner of the room. She looks to her feet as she hangs her head. The room would be too dark to even see your own hand let alone her face. A necklace dangles from her neck as the little moonlight peering in from the small window glimmers against it.

She slowly raises her hand and grasps it pulling it close to her chest, “I’m sorry… that’s him isn’t it”, she slowly gets up and places her hand on the window as the rain obscures the outside. She can just about make out people running to get shelter from the rain.

She takes a deep breath before sitting back down as she tucks the necklace back into her chest plate and lies down. The moonlight shines against her silhouette outside of her armour as she slowly falls asleep with her hand laying atop the necklace.