“Shiryu! Chief!
I’ve never been more elated to see someone in my life!” Claude slumps to his knees
“Was it just you here alone?” Shiryu gazes around the dimly lit room,
It is bashed up and battered as if a beast had been on a rampage, the walls filled with punch holes and the furniture crushed and scattered about
…
(What the hell has been going on up here?)
“It’s just me right, I was brought here with someone else but they jumped off a while ago.” Claude says under his breath
“I see you have still kept your training.” Aki who isn’t one for pleasantries makes an observation on the young man’s more toned lean body
“All I could do up here is train my body really hard.” He replies in a somehow gloating fashion
“Do you still have food left?”
“Since it is me alone here now there is a decent amount of supplies, hut I don’t know how–”
“–Which way is the kitchen?”
“That way.” Claude points his left and Aki follows suit
“I see the chief is still the same.”
(Understatement)
“Are you Claude?” Shiryu eyes his bruised knuckles
“This place looks like crime scene,”
“That’s my fault, I’ve been frustrated alone up here,
Every time I get close to being at full strength it gets sapped away,
I can’t do anything, I’m weak, I’m helpless,”
“The same happened with us too Claude.”
“But you managed to escape on your own
Me, I couldn’t even muster the courage to see what’s down there”
“Well it isn’t anything nice I promise…”
“oh thanks Shiryu I wouldn’t have been able to guess that…” Claude gives him a blank faced stare
(…)
“Aki and I managed to regain our strength, we’ve been trying to navigate through the city to get to the dragon, after that hopefully we can get everyone out”
“hhhh” Claude sighs
“That’s the thing Shiryu,
You guys can think about going back home if or when this is all over,
I can’t,
This is my home,
You call it Furlheim City, I know it as Sweepstake City, my home my friends that may or may not be dead or alive right now,
Even Kage and the others who were supposed to return and be here with us right now, they went off on their own and died”
“What about your sister?”
“…
Amelia is the reason I haven’t jumped off this thing yet,
I can’t leave her here alone, not after everything we’ve been through,
I love her more than anything in this life.”
(Love again)
“Claude….”
….
“Hey…?”
…
“Get off, what are you trying to patronize me?” Claude pushes Shiryu who had suddenly embraced him, back,
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“Do you feel stronger now?”
“No, what are you talking about?
You can’t hug strength into someone”
…
(I guess it doesn’t work like that
What’s the difference between him and Aki then?)
“what do you feel right now Claude?”
“I don’t know…
Annoyed, weak, vengeful…”
“Why vengeful?”
“Is it not obvious already?
The dragon, Ginobelucci, he is responsible for all of this.”
(Ginobelucci?)
“I gather that you knew the dragon before then?”
“Ginobelucci is, was just a regular guy not long ago, deep down he was probably always a monster…
My sister and I lost our parents young and we were taken in by Giichi, a former warrior of Tonbo, he was the master of the adventurer’s guild in this city at the time, Ginobelucci was also a member, no one really knows why he changed but he just did one day and went against the master creating his own faction within the city called the hunters, officially the were hunters of beasts but behind closed doors they hunted us the adventurers….”
….
Claude pauses for a while clenching his fist in a sullen rage as he rethinks the events…
…..
“The whole time they were ‘hunting’ us, killing us out, there wasn’t any real purpose behind it, just a façade a distraction to keep us on guard while they–he plotted his real motives, to isolate the unbeatable Giichi from the guild so he could steal the last remnant of all the dragons, their requiem,
As you can see how things turned out, Ginobelucci succeed, Giichi is dead and so is the mayor and probably all my friends....
Now do you understand why I’m vengeful Shiryu?
Why I haven’t jumped off…
I still have plenty to die for.”
“I have better context of things now, but–”
–pheww♪
Aki’s whistle interjects, she’d been listening to a bit of what Claude said,
“I like your conviction, Claude, don’t worry that dragon will definitely be slayed,
That fool Ginobelucci or whatever is name is, murdered one of the strongest warriors that ever came out of Bakufu, and also my great uncle, in Giichi, his actions will surely not go unpunished, and the damage caused to this city he will suffer tenfold because of it.”
“I want that more than anything chief, but as things are with the draining, I’ve tried and tried and tried an there’s no way to keep my strength, we’re all sitting ducks here.”
“That may be true, but there just might be other tactics for us to use.” Aki sends Shiryu a glance
“What kind of tactics?” Claude eyes open wide transitioning from frustration to Intrigue
“We have a dragon of our own to fight against with.”
…..
…..
…..