When it came to Thousand Cuts, I knew she meant not to harm me. I needed some time to be alone, to have figured out what she was to me.
Thousand Cuts took heed of my discomfort. She sharpened her blade with a whetstone while sitting at the other end of me. Nothing better to do, I fished out a deck of playing cards, the very same my mentor gave me.
Thousand Cuts finished polishing up her sword, she looked at cards lying on the table. I decided to let her forward with caution to the way I glanced.
“This is an unusual deck that you have here,” she hopped over to the table.
“I wouldn’t say that this is mine. More of one that my mentor lent to me in his infinite wisdom,” I answered her inquiry.
“Mentor? That’s strange, who could you be talking about?”
“Donovan,” I stated.
She rubbed her chin with her finger, “Donovan huh? Well this set is weird, .” The woman picked up the deck. She took one of the cards and examined the illustration.
“Well, these aren't supposed to be used for playing,” I said. After some thought, it wouldn’t hurt if I told her the truth, “What I’m supposed to do is to train my vision; to get the clear picture in a way. All I can see is blank scraps of paper.”
“Is that what it is? What are you supposed to do with them?”
“Find the odd card in the bunch,” I responded.
“Let me see here… Oh, nothing but a parlor trick for Thousand Cuts. The odd one out is plain to see.”
“Really? That fast!” My mouth was wide agape.
“Yup, I can tell you exactly which one it is and what the odd card’s supposed to be,” she grinned.
I stop to think about her proposition. Me getting the task done early would get my reward, with the admiration that I need. But, “I can’t have you interfering. This is a task that my mentor entrusted to me and one that I must do alone,” I shook my head.
“I couldn’t have said it any better.”
*Buzz*
[The 1.05 Serpent Railways will now arrive at Mamba Station.] A female voice resounded on bulky loudspeakers.
Huh?
“We’re almost here,” she claps.
“You never did say where we were going,” I said.
“Look out and see for yourself.”
Okay I’ll bite, I did what Thousand Cuts suggested. My palms pressed against the glass while my eyes adjusted to the lights.
Wow! My eyes dilated from the spectacle outside.
While most cities were giant, they had a moment of relapse. This however never ceased to expend energy. Lights spreaded across the sky to an endless sea of colors. Green, red, yellow, white; I haven’t kept track. They stretched on into the abyss, into the unknown.
“I haven’t been thoughtful, the location we are going to is Snakewater,” she told me. “I wanted to bring you is to Mamba Market, the heart of the slums,”
“You got me into the center of the slums?”
“The heart of the slums,” she corrected me. “It’s a relatively safe place, with tons of security. Although, It might be best not to stray too far. Besides, everyone and their dog goes here. This is all nothing for Thousand Cuts to handle,” she puffs out her chest. “Here take this,”
The woman threw a vile full of blue liquid. I caught it mid air.
“This will mask our appearance of being IMPERIAL,” she continued. “It is for the best that nobody questions what we are doing here. Confidential business,” she put her finger on her mouth.
“There’s no way that I’m going without you telling me where it is first. You made a promise.”
“Oh yeah, I did make a promise… Now did I?”
“You’re not going back on your word, are you?”
“I never take back my word!” she said defensively.
“Then tell me where we are going, I need to know what you are planning before I can decide if I want to follow you.”
“We are going to the amusement district,” she muttered.
“We are going where? Speak up, I can barely hear you.”
“We are going to the amusement district beside the machinery and music,” she averts her gaze.
“You have to be more specific. I don’t know if I can trust you right now,” I glanced up to her direction.
“We are going to the amusement park to go on the rides!” She squirms before calming down, ”It was my personal dream to come here, I never did until now.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I stare at her, puzzled. This was the most nervous that I have ever seen her.
“You made up an excuse to come see me. You betted your dignity on a wager, and made a whole spectacle at that. All for me to come to the amusement park with you?”
“...”
Her silence was all the answer I needed. “Sure, I would love to go to the amusement park with you,” I stifle a chuckle.
“Really?” Thousand Cuts face brightens up. “Ha! I knew my apprentice would accept my initiation. To go in the shadows is to be unseen. We will be blending with the crowd. Unknown to what lurks beneath.”
“Here I thought that we were here to go on rides.”
“Please White Shroud,” she used my pet name at that, “ We are here to test your subterfuge. Everything I do is a plan within a plan, and if that means that we’re going onto rides, then we shall.”
The woman took a gulp out of the vile. The swordwoman’s black-as-void hair changed to the mundane, her eyes turned from black to brown. She got out another eyepatch to replace her previous eyepatch, to a much cheaper, more ordinary look. I went along with her example, I took a gulp out of my vial. My face scrunched up as if I was sucking on a lemon.
Ah, so bitter! I resist the urge to spit out the vial liquid as it moves down my throat.
“I never said that it would taste good,” Thousand Cuts responded to my displeasure. “Look at you, I never thought that a catboy would make such a face before, although I had never seen a male nyancan before.”
“Can we go now?” I deliberately ignored her teasing.
“This should be our stop. Take your first step and we should be on our merry way,” She walked beside me. She moved her head to focus on me, “Weird on how the potion affected you. You kept the same white hair, there’s no surprise there. It is your eyes that I can’t put a finger on. They are still white, although not glowing as brightly. I can chop it up to a recessive trait to genetics, possibly linked to nyancans perhaps?”
“Is that so?” I rhetorically asked.
It is disappointing that there is no way to hide my bestial traits. It's going to be a pain to never hide who I am, I sigh to myself.
I never wanted to go out with the crowd, rather preserve my dignity. A shadow loomed overhead as I paused at the exit.
Thousand Cuts noticed my behavior, she grabbed my hand to get me off. I can only meekly reply.
The music blared to life and mixed with the multicolored lights. With the size of people this big, it could be said to be misanthrope's nightmare.
My heart was pounding as I was getting second thoughts, but I already backed myself into a corner. I couldn't go back on my word, that’d be the dishonorable action to do. Thousand Cuts kept her promise, I had to act on mine.
What might she think of me if I don’t?
“Mekiko, you seem pale, are you okay?” she stopped to ask.
“Yeah, it might have been the bitter concoction that is getting to my head, that’s all,” I lied through my teeth.
“Uh, yeah, of course. Must be the energy that you have expended today. I get that nobody can be as amazing, except for me of course. We can stop over there.”
“Huh? Yeah, yeah, we can go there,” I almost choked under my words.
She pointed at a stall housing various glass jugs containing juice. The man who ran the stall, I had a bad feeling about him. People passed by the busy streets, yet he stared at me. Although I couldn’t put my finger on it, this guy gave me an overwhelming sense of dread. His gaze was heavy, trying to bring us both down.
“Thousand Cuts, I think that we should be going to another stall,” I hastily said her name.
“Nonsense, we should get something quick to eat before we go, this seems like a nice place.” Thousand Cuts shifted her head. “Hey you there,” she said without missing a beat.
“Welcome to Mamba Market young lady,” announced the rotund man. He was intentionally not addressing me.
“I see that you have made amenities with this place,” she said.
“Only the freshest fruits of all of Pland, nothing less,” he said in his most 70’s sleazy used car dealer’s voice.
“I’ll take the watermelon then,” she said.
“Sure, here you go, miss. Say is that Beastkin With you by any chance?” he scoped the drink with pudgy fingers.
“Yeah, he’s with me.”
“Oh nothing, here, have another one for your Beastkin friend,” he used his ladle to pour out purple liquid into a paper cup.”
“It’s grape,” she glared at the man. “Are you trying to poison him?”
My heart dropped. It was another food that I learned I can't eat and now I was getting into trouble again because of it.
“What’s wrong,” the obese man said. “I eat grapes all the time, and my liver is fine as the day that I was born. Unless that beastkin over there has a genetic defect?”
“Drop it,” she said.
Of course,” he puts the grape juice back inside the glass jug. “That will be one shilling.”
“Your fruit isn’t worth a shilling, it’s not even worth it to mix it in with cheap booze!” she retorted back.
The racist fruit guy and Thousand Cuts argued back and forth while bystanders listened. Out of apathy, they quickly lost interest.
“You want me to call the guards?” the racist fruit guy asked.
Thousand Cuts held onto the hilt of her sword, she glanced at the racist fruit guy, narrowing her unbandaged eye. I looked at the paper cup on the stall to focus on something more distant. The cup was over the edge. My instincts were already committed before I could have processed.
The paper cup fell to the ground, and a puddle of juice forms on the ground. Both the rotund man and Thousand Cuts ceased their arguing.
The Swordswoman promptly let go of her sword. She bundled the glass jars and threw off the stall. They shattered into shards.
“Guards! Guards! This bitch is destroying my property!’ The racist fruit guy screamed so hard that I saw out from his gullet.
“The guards won’t be here until 5 minutes, asshole!” she yelled back, but ran before the pogy man could yell back.
I booked it with Thousand Cuts as a mob was chasing us.
“You will pay! You and that dirty cat, mark my words,” we took no heed to his words as we sprinted past.”
— — —
I panted heavily while on a roof. Distant voices reverberated away. They won’t be getting us, nobody ever looked up while searching.
I realized that Thousand Cuts been holding my hand the whole way. To have her behave like this, It was both reassuring and disheartening to see.
“Sorry about what I did back there,” My head hung low. “I didn't know how much me being here would have affected you.”
“Don’t you dare say sorry,” she turns to face me. “Forget that idiot, we were supposed to go to the amusement park, remember?
“I don’t think that I can forget. Everyone was apathetic at best, and were quick to take his side when everything turned to be the worst. Nobody is going to accept me, I can see that now”
“I accept you, does that matter to you?”
“It matters to me a huge deal,” My mouth closed. I am saying the silent part out loud again, aren't I?
“See, everyday can be great when you have people that care for you. So, how about going to the amusement park?”
The corners of my mouth tug into a slight smile, “Sure let’s go see what this place has in store.”
We jumped off the roof to go into the entertainment district. Where the lights were brighter, the music louder, and the people rowdier. I forgot my worries and was caught up with the thrill of the night.