SUNSET

Shopping with Somnia had gone by just as quickly as she suggested it would. The first store we found was an unmarked electronics store deep in the red-light district. They sold everything from batteries to high-end smartphones. Somnia had me buy one, and she had me buy her one, too. In fact, she had me buy her a lot of things; clothes, jewelry, more weapons… It’d become clear why she wanted to help me blow my money. Not that it mattered either way.

The two of us walked along the outskirts of Saikou. It was quite serene. The red-orange sunset made everything look so beautiful. Small bonsai trees and rocks lined the gravel path we walked down on either side. We’d been walking, but we hadn’t been talking. It wasn’t like I was avoiding conversation, but she’d insisted on inviting me to the group chat the Seekers were in. It’d taken a few minutes to get that set up, and once I was in Somnia asked for a sitrep. It was difficult to text with so many bags in my hand, but I had enough [STRENGTH] to tough it out.

Archie: Futakuchi-Onna deserves whatever’s coming to her.

Yugo: I AGREE. YOU GO FIRST, THO. WHY ARE YOU MAD?

Archie: $20 per pound of bloody lavender? $80 a pound for matcha? This tea better taste like the tears of a Phoenix, yeah?! Whatever. It’s Shuten Douji’s money, not mine. I’ll get over it. What about you, though? What’s going on? Is it time to fight?

Yugo: YES IT IS. THESE GIRLS ARE ROBBING ME BLIND 😡

Somnia: NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Yugo: RIGHT??? I’M GLAD YOU CARE.

Rui: What happened

Yugo: THEY’RE USING HAND SIGNALS WHEN THEY APPROACH ME. THE HISTORIAN CAN DECIPHER THEM AND THEY'RE SIGNALING EACH OTHER TO UPCHARGE ME AND FLIRT THEIR WAY INTO FREE STUFF! I’M A WALKING PAYCHECK TO THEM!!!

Rui: K

Yugo: THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY??? JUST “K”?

Rui: Yes

Yugo: YOU THINK YOU’RE FUNNY???

Somnia: he’s new to texting yugo stop being annoying

Somnia: we’re gonna head back soon. it’s getting dark, so we should start making our way back

Archie: I’m gonna head to the post office to have these sent to my family then I’m heading straight for the Tiger Lily.

Somnia: you sure you wanna put their address on postage here?

Archie: We have a ton of P.O. Boxes. They’ll be fine.

Yugo: If I knew how to teleport long distances I’d have left forever ago🙄 I’m gonna stay tho. The Historian senses someone strong here so I’m gonna endure this torture a little longer.

Rui: K

Yugo: 😐

We decided to walk around the perimeter of Saikou to get to the Tiger Lily Hotel. It was a short walk from the western entrance as opposed to cutting through the city. Not only was it riskier now with sunset being the time the Honor Guard started to make their appearance, but we’d be sacrificing this lovely view.

The conversation as we walked ended up turning into an interview. Just like Archie, Somnia wanted to know why I joined the Seekers and what my goals were. More specifically, she wanted to know if killing the Horsemen and removing Fallen Star was the extent of my vision. She’d asked me what came after that, and I told her honestly that I didn’t have a thought-out answer. Mrs. Perrow wanted me to find honest work and live a quiet life, and I’d done just that in Miyafokuu working as a Bounty Hunter. There was great money in it, so odds were I’d just go back to that.

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Somnia didn’t approve of that answer, though. She told me that life had more to offer and that “mere survival” wasn’t enough to live a fulfilling life. As I saw it, it was just what I wanted. I’d lived in excess my entire youth. I had every need met and every desire catered to. Returning to that would put me in a place I didn’t want to revisit. I didn’t want my life to be exciting. I wanted it to be normal. I wanted it to be boring. And that was something I’d earn. Somnia’d changed her tune when I’d explained it like that, but she still came off a tad judgmental.

Things went like that for a while longer, the conversation now shifting to what she’d do after accomplishing her goals. As she put it, tons of cleanup work. Missions like the very one we were on, expanding the Galerose Family, forming partnerships with other nations across the world. She’d given this a lot of thought, and the amount of passion she had for Minashire made me envious. Somnia loved Minashire, maybe even more than the Fallen Star Cultists loved me, and that passion was infectious. I’d started to ask her about that when she stopped me with a hand. She was tense, all traces of joy having vanished.

“I smell something foul,” She said suddenly.

I sniffed myself. “Do I offend?”

“Not literally. I mean we’re being watched. Followed.”

“Ah. I see.”

Our phones went off at the same time. Archie and Yugo both messaged us to tell us how things were starting to go left on their ends. In Archie’s case, the person he’d been buying herbs from started getting loud and argumentative with no real prompting. Somnia and I had assumed he was trying to signal someone, and we knew we’d been right when Archie noted that a moderately leveled man was eyeing him from outside the store. In Yugo’s case, the Cabaret Club he’d been in started to clear out while the women attending him insisted he stay, dragging him back down each time he motioned to leave.

Yugo: I think it’s about time. Remember: Do what you have to do, but keep collateral damage to a minimum. If you can take your fights outside of the city or in an unpopulated area, do that. Considering what Shuten Douji said about Futakuchi-Onna, the Honor Guard will more than likely allow this.

Somnia: Got it.

Rui: K

Archie: I’ll try, but this street’s pretty packed. I’m gonna stay in this store and see if we can settle things in here.

Yugo: That works. Try not to draw too many eyes, though. If you get outnumbered, we might not be able to get to you in time to save you. I’ve sent a message to Shuten Douji to keep an eye out, but his subordinates here are spies, not fighters. They can get you out of there, but they won’t be your backup.

Somnia grabbed the bags out of my hand and made for a tree in the distance. She hung them on a branch, cycling through the black fabric bag and settling on a pair of bejeweled brass knuckles. She shook her head as she put them on, complaining about how subpar they were.

“You go on ahead, Rui. I’ll take care of these two guys by myself.”

“First off, how do you even know there are two people following us? Second, why would I leave you alone knowing you’re being targeted? Splitting up right now is dumb.”

“My father taught me Sensory Manipulation before he taught me to walk. I know where they are and I know they’re weaker than me. All without a ‘System’ might I add.” She opened and closed her hands. “Also, there’s three of them. All of them Honor Guard. The two behind us have been scanning me for the past few seconds, and the person hiding behind the wall has been scanning you for the same amount of time.”

“So they already picked us off…”

“Pretty much,” Somnia nodded. “They’re weak, though. If I had to give them Levels, I’d say they’re no higher than Level 60.”

“That isn’t weak.”

Somnia laughed. “One Wraith Strike to the throat and they’ll go down. My mother would call that an ‘instakill condition’. It doesn’t matter how strong people are, they go down all the same.”

“That works, then,” I allowed. I gathered my aura as I made my way back to the gravel pathway. Before I left, I turned back to Somnia. “Go to the meeting spot after the fight, alright?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll only be a few minutes. You be sure to call Yugo if things go south, alright? He’s a dunce, but he’s dependable.”

I snorted. “I’ll be fine. One [WRAITH STRIKE] to the throat, right?”

Somnia smiled. “That’s the instakill condition.”