The "Grand City of Raymond" was bathed in rare sunlight. Why was it rare? Because Raymond was in the most southern region of the empire, it was rather dark for most of the year. This meant that by the time daylight was there it was either raining or snowing, one of the two. Rarely can one see the sun like today.
Towering over the slums and with a rather picturesque view of the city was an old-dilapidated watchtower. It had long since been abandoned due to the vast and expansive slums that had grown around it. Even the city watch wouldn't want to get in here if they wanted to keep their pants on. The slums were full of cutthroats and other evildoers. There was an expansive red-light district as well, and on the edge of it was this tower.
She was on top of the tower, wearing rags, her feet and arms bandaged up, her face dirty and her hair nasty. A street urchin, as you would often see in these parts. The only thing that differentiated her from the others was that her hair was not brown or black but dirty gray. She might even be white if she washed it properly. The girl looked to be around 4 or 5, no age to be climbing this dangerous tower that was for sure, and she did not look healthy at all, but her other defining feature was a pair of almost golden eyes with cat-like pupils.
Staring down at the crowded market area she was looking for today's prey. She had had no luck for a couple of days now, so today really was a do-or-die moment. She was hungry, and if she did not get any food soon she would not be able to move. As a child, she was tougher than other children, and she was also much faster, even faster than adults.
She also had amazing eyesight. She could spot things others could not and find patterns where others could not. However, this did not help her much. She was still a small child, and could not do much except steal things, and for once she found a rather tasty-looking meal! Or rather someone's bag that probably held such meals.
It was a young man in distinguished clothing. Until now she had never seen him at the market. Her first thought was that he was probably a merchant. Hey, he was probably the same age as her. Maybe a bit older? She couldn't quite tell. Anyway, this boy had this bag with him. It was a large bag with a weird sign on it that he seemed to flaunt, much to the awe of everyone around. This young Master was accompanied by a pained-looking young man in Daoist robes. Probably his teacher or bodyguard? Something like that.
He looked a bit scrawny and scholarly so it would be easy to run away from him. As quickly as she could, she made her way down. She had saved her energy for this and was fully focused on them for quite some time. In the busy market area, the young boy walked around ordering his servant around. She stalked them with the grace of a predator, her concentration focused. Nobody minded the dirty girl. Quite quickly, she found an opportunity to strike.
The boy was entranced by one of the artists who had set up a stall on this street. This particular one was creating paintings with sugar, handing them to customers to eat. The boy and girl were both intrigued by this. Luckily for her, she managed to slip out of it. Focusing again on her actual target, the bag! The boy still held on to it, but after he stepped forward to receive his own sugar painting of a large dragon he had dropped it to the ground. At this moment she dashed forward at such a rapid pace that her appearance was almost blurry. It only took a blink of an eye for her to snatch the bag and be gone.
However, what was different from now and all the other times was that the boy actually looked at her as she dashed past him. He was fast enough to react to her! And he quickly turned to his servant calling him out to follow her. The young man seemed flustered for a moment but then followed her. At a speed that was similar to her own! In fact he might even be a bit faster, green strands of energy flying around his body. It scared her half to death, and she could feel adrenaline pumping through her body.
Her mind was racing at this point. "Why was he so fast?" She was running at her top speed, running in between hundreds of people, taking sharp turns and all! But this man was always at the edge of her vision. His face wasn't even sweaty in fact he looked like he was bored?! Did she pick the wrong target today?
Their frantic chase continued for about 15 minutes and she managed to gain a little bit of distance. However, her stomach was turning at this point, her legs were burning and she could barely breathe anymore. Meanwhile, the young man seemed barely winded. His expression now showed a sense of surprise. As she attempted a last sprint, she chose a route around the main street, narrowly avoiding a large carriage carrying pumpkins. She heard a loud crash and the scream of a horse behind her.
She didn't even look back at this, she was too exhausted to look. However, she could not feel or see him anymore so after a few rounds around corners she made her way back home. Her home was her pride and joy. Deep in the red-light district, between a couple of buildings was a small alleyway where lots of trash had gathered. Behind a small wall was a space between multiple buildings. She had found it while running across the roof tops away from an angry man whom she had robbed.
The spot was simply a dirty spot of soil. A large crate that was used to hold building materials had been discarded here. Unless someone climbed the wall or found the crack nobody would ever be able to find this area. The Crate was her home. It was rather large and made for a comfortably sized room for her. She had spread a large waxed tarp over it.
She stumbled into her home. There was a large wooden box that held dreadfully scarce food inside it. Inside it was some moldy bread, and a single piece of dried jerky... her water bottle was empty too. But right now she didn't care about those things. Her body was in pain and she felt completely drained. She was so weak that she could feel the fever invading her body already.
With a cough she rolled up in the back of her crate, in some sort of nest, a pile of stolen blankets, cushions and clothes. She then pulled a very heavy woolen blanket over her body, throwing off her sweaty clothes. She wrapped herself in a blanket. It was rough and itchy, but it was the warmest blanket she had.
Looking at her loot she simply grasped the bag, opening it and emptying everything into her supply box. A coughing fit overcame her as she felt nauseous. Her consciousness was waning, but she had to get something into her stomach before that, otherwise she might die. At least she felt that way.
Luckily the bag was full of fine food, cheese, fruits and even meat, lots of it prepared in fine small boxes. There was even another bag, which seemingly held a large amount of food and water! It was small but what was inside it was so vast! How strange!
She was flabbergasted but her body would not allow her to feel any kind of happiness right now. It was already clear that her eyelids were sinking, so she grabbed some of the food as soon as possible. Munching away at it greedily, before emptying an entire bottle of water.
This food! This water! It felt so great. She was huffing and stuffing her mouth full devouring the food and gulping down the water in large heaps! But then .. after a while she could no longer keep her eyes open, slowly falling asleep in her cozy nest.
She did not wake up for another two days. And once she finally woke up she felt amazing. It was weird actually. Her body was full of energy! Cleaning up was the first thing to do. She dug around in the pile of clothes to find something to wear. Her gaze fell on the bag. She had only focused on food before but there was more than just food. There were clothes, very expensive looking robes. Touching the fabric almost made her swoon.
"So soft!" Like a worm she wiggled her way inside one of the robes. They were a bit too big but she didn't mind. It was so comfy! Rolling around in these robes a bit, she gave a stretch before her attention was brought back to her main motivator, food. Quickly she grabbed more of the strange looking oblong fruits and that tasty meat. Her first instinct was to grab some foods that seemed likely to spoil first, such as fruits and bread, leaving the meat for another day.
Munching away her gaze fell on some other trinkets, two small booklets. She of course had no idea how to read. However one of them was basically a picture book so it caught her attention. She had a few of them here actually. Little scrolls and booklets for children she had retrieved from the garbage. She loved looking at all the pretty pictures. In spite of her harsh life, she still held on to some sort of childishness.
But these booklets seemed a bit off to her. The one without pictures was discarded quickly. It was not very thick and only had complicated-looking characters neatly stacked together. The other had pictures of a humanoid sitting in different positions. Green and red streams of energy coalesced around them. As she stared at the pictures she suddenly got a headache as her mind was filled with information. She herself could not see but her pupils had turned into slits at this point giving her a little savage look as she stared at the pictures intently.
What did this whole mess even mean? She was wary even scared and for now she decided to put the booklets away and forgo further exploration of the bag. She had learned quite quickly in this city to stay away from strange things she did not understand. It would often end up with her getting hurt. Letting out a small sigh she glanced outside. "Rain..." She felt very energetic right now, but the rain was falling. The rain in this city was not something you would want to experience. It was dense and cold, so one wondered why it had not turned into snow. When it rained, and that was quite often. Nobody would be outside, except the poor soldiers that had to man the wall and patrol the outskirts.
Luckily her place was dry, thanks to the tarp. Closing it after taking a look outside she leaned back rolling around just a bit. She had lots of food, but nothing to do. Usually she would go out at this point and find someone to play with in the streets or sneak around. But she did not feel like doing that in the cold rain. At the moment, it was late at night. On dry days that means nothing. Her house was in the red-light district there would always be something going on and something to watch.
"Mh.."
Creak~ ..Bang!. Bonk...
Noises. She was wary at first but then she seemed rather happy as she looked out. A small window on the side of the building had opened. "Psst~ You cooped up in your cozy hideout?" A playful yet sultry voice could be heard from the small window. She opened the tarp enough so she could look out and see the young woman peeking out of the window.
She was one of the whores working in the building. She was also someone she had lived with for a brief while before, before she ran away from the orphanage. Her name was Mimi - just that. The dirty little girl looked up with a scrunched nose "Mh.. Rain is bad..." She replied and Mimi gave a giggle "Rain is bad! Bad for work that is. But sometimes it's not so terrible not to work. The biggest problem is that we get less food." Mimi let out a sigh before squinting her eyes looking down at the girl.
"You look better this time! It hasn't been two weeks but you seem to have gotten something good?" Mimi would sometimes share food with the girl and in exchange she would give Mimi coins or other things she had found. It was a business relationship built on mutual trust that neither of them wanted problems
The girl gave a small grunt. She had not even looked around for coins in the bag, she was focused on the food. The girl looked up towards Mimi - She was somewhere around 14 to 16 years old - pretty with pale skin and large eyes. Her hair had the color of peaches and her eyes had a faint purple sparkle. Mimi would sometimes sit near the narrow window that was located at the back of a stuffed storeroom to have a moment of peace and quiet. And that way found the girl living down there.
But instead of shooing her away she recognized the girl from the orphanage and simply kept quiet, just so she had someone to chat with when it rained. And the girl did not care about it as long as Mimi did not rat her out. It was also pleasant to have someone she knew a bit to talk to. Mimi was actually the main reason the girl ran away about 2 years ago. Always having been mature for her age the girl had realized that the older girl was sold off to a brothel and that the same thing would probably happen to all of the girls.
And she sure as heck did not want that so she made a run for it. Concluding her brief flashback the girl took a moment to formulate what she wanted to say in her mind. She rarely spoke, so she was really poor at it. The girl grabbed one of them and threw it up to the other because, at the moment, she had a surplus of fruit. "Here, Got... Kou, got lots of fruit, don't tell anyone."
Fruit would turn rotten quickly even in this area, so Kou did not mind sharing. Oh, yes. Kou - that was her name, because that is what she was called from a very young age. It means bandit? Something like that. Not that she cared.
Mimi caught the fruit and made a stifled noise for a moment before whispering down. "Where did you get this from, Kou?" She asked. Kou became agitated as she stared at her hands. "Stole." Mimi huffed heavily and looked down. "You should not leave this space for a while, Kou. These are precious fruits. According to travelers, these are eaten by immortals. So be careful. Thank you tho." And then she munched away at the fruit. "Mh~ these are sweet! I heard if you eat them you become prettier and healthier, no idea how that's supposed to work." She gave a laugh.
Kou sat cross-legged at the edge of her box, looking up. "Prettier? Mimi... already pretty enough." She grunted while munching on fruit herself. Kou herself wasn't pretty at all. Her nose was broken in the wrong way. She was covered in dirt and grime, her skin was unhealthy and her hair was thin. "Eh? You think so? My My, what a charmer! You should take a bath or two more and you'll be pretty too. Well..I guess you don't get enough food." Mimi's voice became more quiet.
"You still don't wanna come in? The Madam would totally hire you as a servant if I asked you know?" Mimi timidly offered once more but Kou quickly shook her head. "No... Kou likes it here...maybe later." Kou had no trust for adults, and working as a servant would just chain her down and she did not want that at all.
"Kou can take care of herself, found food, Kou will be good until it stops raining."
Mimi gave a shrug. "It won't stop for a while. Don't tell anyone else about the fruit, okay?" Mimi thought Kou only had a few. She had no idea she had a whole food box full of fruit and meat. "Take care, I got to get back out, the Madam wants us to still be out and about in case a client comes in."
And so Mimi closed the window waving good-bye to the small girl quickly banishing the thought of the fruit to the back of her head. Still she felt pretty satisfied after eating it, so that was great! However, the following day's things became rather tense. Soldiers of the Lord scanned the entire red-light district, looking for a dirty little girl that stole a bag. Giving a rough description that Mimi at the very least could link to Kou, there was even a bounty for the girl 50 gold pieces! That made everyone frantic, and the entire slums and red-light district was in a buzz for an entire month.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The rain wouldn't cease for a long time, and Kou's hiding spot was almost perfect, so she hadn't been found. Mimi was however still rather anxious. The girl had no intentions to rat the other out. 50 gold pieces was a huge sum and enough to live comfortably for a long time. However, Mimi valued the little girl that shared money and food with her a lot more than any of that.
It was in the middle of the night when Kou got woken up by a rock thrown at her little home. It was Mimi, who quickly explained to her what was going on outside. This frightened Kou to the bone and she backed up further into her hut. She would not be able to venture out again. There wasn't anyone else with dirty gray hair like hers, so everyone would be able to tell right away.
But the older girl had something. Hair dye. Of course this was something she could easily get. Prettying herself up and such was something important, so getting her hands on some simple dark dye to hide the gray of the girl below was easy. "Rub that into your hair if you want to go out." Kou nodded towards Mimi. "Wait Mimi."
Kou quickly rummaged around. The backpack she had stolen came with a coin bag, with common silver and copper coins. But there were also a couple of gold coins in there. Gold coins were something Kou had no use for, neither silver really, nobody would sell her anything if she tried to pay with anything but copper coins. So Kou exchanged the hair dye for a couple of silver coins and a few gold coins.
However Mimi let out a high-pitched meep as she saw the gold and quickly waved her hand "J..Just dig a hole and burry those there! I can't take those. It's gonna get me into trouble... If you don't want the silver, I'll take some. But don't give anyone gold not even me. It's gonna be disastrous!" Kou grumbled at that, but followed the older girl's advice, digging a small hole next to her home to bury the golden coins.
Watching her bury the coins Mimi let out a sigh. "Maybe when we are a bit older we can dig them back up and buy a house, eh?" She gave a faint giggle and Kou... did not seem to dislike the idea too much. Mimi was her friend for all she knew. "Kay" She replied nodding intently - which made Mimi laugh.
"Anyway... stay down there for a while and don't go out. You got enough food, yeah?"
Kou nodded slowly "Yeah. " Mimi let out a sigh. She would still buy some food with the silver she had just been given and hand it to Kou in a couple of days. "Good...well I got to work, see you later." And with that the window was closed.
For the next 3 days Kou just sat at home, playing with the toys she had stolen or drawing with coal sticks on the wall. There was not much to do and she felt very bored. But her boredom was dwarfed by her fear of the current outside. She knew that if she stepped out now she would be hunted down and caught no matter how fast she was. And so on another rainy day Kou once more found herself looking at the small booklet with pictures. It had scared her before, but now she was curious about it. Ready for the flood of information she opened the booklet again - looking at the pictures. And again her mind was filled with instructions.
Elemental breathing technique? That name rang in her ears, and she knew exactly what she had to do. Driven by curiosity and boredom she followed the instructions. Sitting down cross-legged, in a position called a lotus position, closing her eyes she concentrated. The booklet had told her she had to " perceive " spiritual energy in the air. This was barely a problem. She instantly felt it. In fact she had always felt it. There was always this energy in the air she could tap into. This was what kept her alive and given her the speed she used to outrun people.
But she was never able to use this energy properly. Now she felt like she could. Breathing in deeply she felt how some of the energy around her was absorbed and pulled into her body. This was where she became aware of a vast void inside her. The feeling she had now was akin to hunger, but a bit different in that it was less pressing. However, with each breath she could feel the void being filled slightly.
However, it was instinctively clear to her that if she just used breathing it would take many years to fill this void. Clicking her tongue she reached over to munch on one of the fruits. This was rather frustrating! However, as she bite into the fruit, she felt a lot of energy rush into her, filling the void quite a bit. In an effort to keep the energy inside, she began to practice the breathing technique again. When she followed the instructions the booklet had given her she was able to retain almost all of the energy the fruit had. Still, the void inside her was still massive. But she did have a lot of fruit and meat she could fill it with. The fruit would go bad otherwise anyway, right?
Over the next few weeks, Kou began to absorb the energy of the food while breathing. Keeping her head down. Every now and then she had a conversation with Mimi, sharing some of the things with the older girl, but mostly she focused on her new "Training." It was strange, her whole body felt great when she did it, as if it was starving for this kind of development the entire time, it felt natural and as if it was something she should've been doing.
Weeks turned into months and months turned into half a year. It was quite surprising how much food and water the small bag held. Unlike what Kou had initially anticipated, it was far more than she had imagined. As a result, it lasted quite a while. There were even some bottles with bitter medicine in the bottom of the tiny bag, and Kou drank two of them. Simply because she could feel lots of energy from it. There were a total of 4 of these bottles, and one of them she had shared with Mimi. Leaving Kou with just 1.
But unlike Kou, Mimi had drastic changes. The fruits were already good for her, and had made her skin look purer and her hair more lush and pretty, but after she had consumed the small medicine bottle, Mimi fell ill for a couple of days. Mimi had been taught how to retain energy by Kou, but she clearly was not able to hold it for that long. However something inside Mimi seemed to have changed, and when Kou saw her the next time she was even prettier.
"I don't know what happened, but I can now feel energy everywhere! And I feel super energized - I'm also super strong! I can lift my bed easily. It's amazing! I almost crushed one of the customers too... that was pretty ugly." Mimi laughed awkwardly, telling Kou of her experiences. The changes in Mimi did not happen to Kou. She still looked as hangered and sickly as before. The only change was that her hair seemed to have thickened a bit. This made her look less like a sick dog.
"Mh.." Kou could see how the energy had formed into a small ball inside Mimi's belly, meanwhile the pit inside Kou was not even half filled with the energy. She only had a few fruits and a little meat left at this point. She also had only one of the medicine bottles, so she wasn't super confident that she would be able to fill the pit up. Still. The majority of her time was spent at home these days, but she occasionally stalked at night.
However, she had a need today. And that need was a proper bath! Mimi would sometimes give her a bucket of lukewarm water. But it was just not enough. She felt so grimy and sticky, and she didn't like it. So today she rubbed dye into her hair. This made it look black instead of gray. She took meticulous care to properly dye it, before throwing on some of her rags and pocketing the dye for later.
She jumped up and in one solid hop she landed on a nearby roof. This was one of the benefits she had gotten from the energy. She was stronger and faster! She preferred that to being pretty. Mimi had given her a small piece of soap for today, and had urged her to be careful. But Kou was having fun instead. Dashing over the rooftops before jumping over the small wall that protected the slums from the outside.
The area around the city was mountainous and there were many wild animals here. But Kou was able to outrun most of them in the past, and now she was a lot stronger. Or at least she felt that way. Nobody bothered her. She just looked like any other normal street child, covered in dirt with dirty black hair. Nothing to worry about. And so she made her way further and further up the mountains, following a hidden path she had found some time ago.
The trail led to one of the many natural hot springs in the mountainous region. It was a small steaming pool and there were currently 4 monkeys sitting in a relaxed position with red faces. As Kou approached, they looked more wearily, but seeing her throw off her clothes, get in the water, and ignore them made them passive as well. Everybody wanted to enjoy the hot water after all, and the monkeys were far too lazy to bother fighting.
"Aaaah..." As Kou dipped under the mineral rich water she let out a soft sigh... all the grime and dirt from the last couple of weeks was rubbed off, and after a brief moment she took the soap and started rubbing herself down with it all over the place. In fact one of the younger monkeys came over after she was done with it and did the same! Loudly calling out to his friends they all started to wash each other with soap, much to Kou's amusement, turning the entire pool into a soapy mess for a little bit!
She wouldn't fight the monkeys for soap. If it was gonna get used up that's just how it was gonna be! Instead she sank down to her nose into the water closing her eyes for a little bit, relaxing and letting her mind wander. However about 5 minutes later she felt something, a weird buzzing sensation down in the pool. It was energy similar to the one she was absorbing when breathing. But much denser!
Taking a deep breath she took a dive. It was not very deep and she saw a lightly glowing crack in the ground. Touching this crack, she felt a constant spring of energy slowly trickling out and dispersing into the water. Blinking she sat down under the water, realizing that her need to breathe was not very strong. She could probably remain here for a short while. Putting some rocks on her legs to stop her from floating up she concentrated on the energy, trying to take it in.
It... felt pretty nice! But at the same time she got a rather heated feeling from this energy that seemed odd. This energy was more difficult to absorb than the energy that was in the air. Having no idea why that was the case, she remained there for about half a day. Every couple of minutes she would come back up and remain at the surface for a bit to catch her breath and relax, while she took in the energy. It felt very wasteful to her, as she could barely manage to absorb 10 or 15% of the energy. However, it was still far more vast than doing it the normal way.
After she was all pruned up she gave a small giggle waving towards the monkeys and throwing her clothes back on. The monkeys grunted lightly. She rubbed dye into her hair to make sure nobody caught her. It was already dark out but she never had problems seeing in the dark. In fact she felt much more at home in darkness than anywhere else. Like a shadowy embrace, it was comforting. Dashing back home she was unbothered by anyone.
For the next couple of weeks, Kou would return to the spring every couple of days to absorb more of this energy. Whenever it rained for a couple of days she would do the breathing technique. Having used up all the fruits and only having 1 medicine bottle left, Kou found that the "Void" inside of her was almost filled. It was about 70 or 75%? Somewhere around there. She would usually gain a % after spending 2 days at the spring.
Her situation was far better now than it had been a couple of months ago. She was faster and stronger - stealing food was no problem as nobody could catch her and often people would even fail to notice her. Her bloated belly had returned to a normal flat state, making her look less horrible, her hair having become much more thicker and the constant bathing she was doing these days had cleaned her up and she looked more like a healthy young child now, she was still very small for her age however.
Mimi was doing great as well, her "blooming" into a beautiful flower had made her the poster girl of their establishment, and she did not have to take common jobs anymore, instead she was taught to play instruments and conversation skills... whatever that meant, Kou wasn't quite sure, but Mimi seemed thrilled about it, so it was fine. They still talked every other day or so, and Mimi was doing the breathing technique every day for half an hour before heading to bed. The energy ball inside her was pretty dense but it felt very small to Kou. But for Mimi it was giving her an enjoyable life so it was fine!
"Be careful out there." One day Mimi told her "You have been spending time out a lot. Your bounty is still active, but most people have given up at this point since nobody found a gray haired girl in so long. But 50 gold pieces is very enticing. So just ...be careful." Mimi's words had become a lot more tender over these last few months, she was clearly thankful to the other girl and was thinking of her dearly, like a little sister even. Kou herself also was very found of Mimi so she took her warning seriously.
Still. On this day her luck had run out. She had visited the hot spring again, absorbing the power inside. She was relaxed. Nobody had ever come here except for the monkeys who did not bother her. So when a sharp pain drilled itself into her left leg she was surprised and cried out in pain.
About 150 ft away from the spring was a small hunchbacked man with a large broken nose. "See.. See the white haired child! I saw her. Nobody would believe me! But you did, Sir!" He was talking to a handsome young man holding a long bow in his hand. He was the one that had loosed an arrow towards the child in the pool, sending the monkeys off into the bushes in a panic.
He was called Joe. He was a bounty hunter. A somewhat renowned one that had brought in a few named criminals. His expression was empty. "Yes you did good, I will pay you old man." There was a light sneer on his face as he threw 2 gold coins at the ground before making his way to the pool.
Kou had managed to climb out, and was currently rolling in pain. Her leg hurt so much! Still she pulled the arrow out of her leg, with a pained scream, tears in her eyes. Breathing heavily she glared at the approaching man. "They said they preferred alive. I guess I'll just bring you along as you are, no?" The man said tauntingly.
Kou growled at the man like a savage animal and grabbed a rock to defend herself with, which made the man laugh out loud. "How scary! Listen kid I am just doing my work here. If you are obedient I won't need to hu.." With one throw Kou chucked the rock. With all of her power, she expected this to hurt the man. However, she heard a very loud crack, as she broke the man's nose and disabled one of his eyes.
"Y..You.." He dashed forward. Even in his current situation, he managed to keep his cool while trying to get closer and overwhelm the child. Kou had no combat knowledge and tried to throw another rock, which the man dodged, grabbing her by the arm, twisting it. She screamed as she heard a crack. It wasn't quite broken but he had certainly dislodged something as he pulled her.
The man on the other end was surprised even shocked. His grip strength and power were very high! He had even done some external cultivation before, and could break arms with a touch. This girl was so durable! In his moment of surprise, Kou smacked him with a rock. It was simply a moment of surprise that sealed his fate as she caved his skull in with the rock. However that was not all... with one mighty swing she hurled the rock towards the old man nearby, putting all of her power into it. She hit him dead-center and his head exploded like a melon.
Breathing heavily she let out a loud growl and then a whimper as she held her bleeding leg and pained arm. Looking at the man that had hurt her she kicked him in the groin, just to make sure he was actually dead... before she started to look through his things, he had a sturdy long bow and a quiver with 15 arrows. A small pouch held 15 gold coins and 23 silver coins. In his pack was a small map of the area as well as some bottles. There was a strange wooden box that contained something like a pruned root. And there were some bandages! She let out a sigh and started wrapping her bleeding leg.
She kept the man's longbow with her as well as his arrows. Slinging his backpack over her shoulder she looked at the old man. She did not bother looting him. He did not look like he would have anything valuable. Grunting she limped back to the city. There was a lot of discomfort with the wounds she had, and the one on her leg kept bleeding through the bandages, staining them.
Still she made it home without too much trouble. Luckily her body was very tough so she could stand it. Having arrived home she sat down inside her box. Realizing what had just happened... until she arrived at home she was fully in fight mode, but now... she started to sniff. She had just killed two people. Arguably they deserved it, but it still hit her somewhat. Killing did not feel right. And being hurt did not feel pleasant either. However she felt nothing thinking of the two people she had just killed. They had attacked her first. For the future she would continue doing it that way. If someone wanted to kill her she would just kill them first!
"Are you okay?" There was Mimi, her tone worried. With few words and few details, Kou explained what had just happened. "Oh..." Mimi was speechless, and after a moment, she closed the window. Kou was confused about this... but about 5 minutes later the pink girl suddenly arrived in her little hide out, squeezing through the crack in the wall, her round rump somewhat stuck for a brief while until she pulled herself through with a "Plop"
"I snuck out!" She said quickly, having brought with her some fresh bandages and some medicine. Kou... was weary still. While she liked Mimi, she had never been in close contact with the girl. She had only been a face and voice behind the window. Still she did not lash out at the other, instead letting the older girl treat her leg.
"Okay... I learned this from one of the other girls, cause some customers like to get rough... grit your teeth." She said. Kou did so and Mimi quickly relocated her arm, sending the bone back into the socket. "Urg.. ah... " Kou huffed and backed off into her box. Making Mimi laugh. "You are like a animal sometimes! Kind of cute!"
"Alright.. I will give you more bandages later, for now I got to go back... quickly before anyone notices!" And then she ran away, after waving goodbye. Leaving Kou somewhat lost for words. She was here so quick and disappeared so quick...she couldn't even say anything. Shaking her head she took a deep huff.
"Weirdo.."