The male who was thrown stood up in front of us and dusted himself off. He wore the same uniform as us, hence the Black Wolves jacket. The only difference was that he sported black leather pants and a distinct mask over his face that was almost mech-like; it covered his facial features entirely, leaving no skin to be shown from behind it. His hair was a bit long and shot out behind him like spikes waterfalling down and was a grungy gray color. The rest of his skin was covered in a skintight black that sheened and appeared to be metal wrapped all around him—again, not a single part of his skin from his neck to his hands was shown. The colors of his mask were a combination of red and white, layered on the edges of it, and the eyes of it shone red and glowed digitally as if being projected off a screen—which was the entire face of the mask. He glowered at the woman from inside the castle, Wolves Den Manors.
But, as if forgetting and then remembering something important, the male quickly whipped around, "Captain Greed! Vice Captain Code! Second Executive Ra—"
"Would you can it, Brand. We don't need your damn introductions!" Code snapped at him irritably. "And what the hell are you two doing? I step outside for just a moment and the two of you are already trashing the place!"
"I'm deeply sorry, sir! I'm deeply sorry, sir! I'm deeply sorry, sir!" the male—Brand—replied, repeating himself over and over like he was glitching. Bowing stiffly each time. His voice was a combination of human and robot due to the mask on his face. Upbeat, unbothered.
"Ugh… okay, okay!" Code said, facepalming.
"And you over there, you crazy bitch—"
"HAHAHAHA, you wanna go again, you weakling! I'll pummel you into oblivion!" the sinister female voice interjected from inside the Den through the open double doors. Her voice was light and carried a rippling tone. She was like a barbarian princess talking down to her subjects.
She finally stepped out from inside the castle and onto the dirt path. Unlike the rest of us, she was not wearing a Black Wolves jacket. Instead, she only wore a white cropped tank top, exposing her petite and toned waist, pink short shorts, and was barefoot. Her long hair stopped right at her butt, and it was the color pink. Slender, shapely, she sashayed dramatically into the gleaming sunlight, revealing herself fully.
Her fingernails and toenails were painted a dark maroon red, matching her ferocity, and one unique feature she had was the dark gray—almost black—horns on her head. They were small but curled, with the sharp part ending upward to the front of her as they flashed from the sunlight, obviously having just been polished, perched nicely over her long pink hair like a crown.
Code ground his teeth and held a fist up slightly in front of him, silently cursing at her all the while.
"Please, Captain, if I may…" Brand politely asked, facing me now.
I looked at him and then to the girl who stepped out silently, then responded, "If you two are gonna fight, do it out here. Not inside."
"Of course… Then it is settled," Brand confirmed, not thinking twice as he locked in his stance. He positioned himself in a fighting form, starting from his right fist and then reeling it back slowly, locking it in place next to the right side of his metallic face. Left fist in front and right fist just behind it. His legs squatted, ready to pounce as his fist revealed parts of his arm that were noticeably mechanical, sheathed like black metal. There wasn't a part of him at all that human skin had shown; it was as if he were entirely robotic or, perhaps, a cyborg. With the way he stood—this was his signature fighting stance.
He dashed toward her, and so did she, rushing into each other in what seemed like sonic speed.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Wait, wait, wait!" Havoc panicked, still between the two of them, scrambling to get up from the ground.
As if in slow motion, the three of them met. The world became so much slower to this pink-haired girl and the cyborg of a man. With the girl's left foot down and right hook ready, Brand, at the same time, went for a direct right jab. And Havoc, caught in between the two wickedly fast anomalies, trying to get away with tears flying out from his eyes—a comedic scene. They all met.
You could have seen their fists slice a drop of water between them. In this case, it was Havoc's sweat and tears.
But then, like a child who was quickly distracted, the girl swiftly withdrew, casually dodging Brand's attack as if it was nothing. Eyes closed and holding a cheerful expression, she passed by him, noticing something else past him that grabbed her attention more than the current situation at hand. As the expression on her face changed, so did the mood. She was no longer menacing or aggressive as she darted toward my direction.
Back in normal speed, as if the world finally caught up to the two, the situation concluded anticlimactically when she finally arrived.
"Teddy!" the girl said lovingly as she crashed into me, wrapping her arms around my neck, spinning us both. Her grip was so tight, I could have passed out from it.
She rubbed her head on mine and made purring sounds like she was feline.
"St-ar… pl-ease… I can't…" I choked.
She gasped sharply. "Teddy! You okay? What's the matter?! Who did this to you?! Where are they? I will kill them!!" she said as she loosened her grip and started shaking me back and forth.
Then kill yourself, the rest of them thought as they watched this comedy of a situation unfold.
I finally got a hold of myself. "Star, babe…" I said to her calmly, my shark-like teeth faintly revealing themselves to her, hinting at my unspoken dominance that I held over her.
"Yes, Teddy?"
"Why are you fighting Brand?" I said finally, calmness in my voice.
She was silent. Like a pet that trashed the house when its owner came back home.
"He… He took my last choco bar!!!" She pouted.
If 'hang me now and feed my body to the crows' was a facial expression, that was Code's face at that moment. Ophelia giggled hysterically, to the point she almost dropped the cigarette in her mouth. Brand was silent, as if you could see the bland expression on his face. His eyes even took on a disinterested look through his screen-like mask that seemed to be for his eyes and eyes alone. And Havoc finally got up, looking like he just survived a near-death experience.
I sighed and reached into my jacket to get something. My hand pulled out a choco bar from the inner pockets, and Star's face glowed. Her eyes sparkled as she gasped excitedly.
"CHOCO BAR!!" she shouted happily, snatching it from my hand.
I had gotten it from LeHarla at a vendor near the outskirts of town before we'd left. Choco bars were only sold at these types of vendors in towns or villages, as they're locally made. Cities like the Kingdom wouldn't have them because they had better goods. Star, however, didn't like the ones the Kingdom sold. She preferred these, as it was somewhat… nostalgic for her…
"I got more. Here. Don't eat it all in one sitting. And stop making a fuss," I said to her, pulling out more choco bars.
Tears of joy ran down her face as she ate the first one and gathered the rest into her small shirt.
Choco bars, unlike other candy bars, didn't melt. The locals that made them put their hearts and souls into it, infusing even their own mana into it, making the perfect candy bar that also replenishes one's mana. Star was obsessed with them.
"You spoil her too much. It's no wonder she's out of control." Code jabbed at me.
I shrugged at him and crouched down to pat her on the head. She seemed to have turned smaller as she munched on her choco bar, sitting there on the ground in front of me.
"So, how much was your take-home from the mission? That was a pretty good reward for slaying that Grade 3, yeah?" Code added.
I winced and said, "Well… we had to accommodate for some… damages…"
"By the Keeper, of course you did. Why am I not surprised?" he replied.
"And then there were some fines and fees from the locals…"
Code silent now, waited for more.
I couldn't tell the expression on his face, so I continued, "And then the W.M.A. fined me for resisting arrest or some bullshit like that…"
"YOU GOT ARRESTED?" He boiled.
I nodded nervously, and his ears steamed.
"Ryo bailed me out, don't worry."
"So what does that leave you??" he spouted as if only caring about the eterna and already knowing that fact, I obviously wouldn't be here if he didn't.
We did the math, and I handed him what was left of the eterna I had earned…
"Fifty fucking—wait… You said fifty eterna. Why is this only twenty?" Code interrogated, counting it over and over, hoping he was just counting wrong, even though he knew he wasn't.
He then looked at Star and her clump of choco bars that she was carrying in her shirt.
He put an arm around me gently, and a blank smile formed on his face. "Are you shitting me right now?" He turned to speak to me, his voice seething as my neck creaked when I turned to view his face. It was almost demonic as I looked at him. I was sweating profusely.
At this moment, I was mentally checked out. Code choked me in a headlock and let me have it, "TWENTY FUCKING ETERNA FROM A FIVE-THOUSAND ETERNA REWARD. YOU KNOW HOW FUCKING RIDICULOUS THAT SOUNDS WHEN I SAY IT OUT LOUD? AND THEN YOU GO BUY FUCKING CHOCO BARS FOR THIS LUNATIC. YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE CHOCO BARS ARE? I KNEW YOU WERE A DUMBASS, BUT ARE YOU JUST GETTING DUMBER EACH DAY? DO I HAVE TO BABYSIT ALL OF YOU?"
Code was usually the most level-headed and cool-toned out of all of us. Even in battle, he never once let his adversaries get the better of him. His IQ was about 200. Incredibly smart and collected.
But it seemed the only thing that could get under his skin, ironically, was all of us.
Me especially.
We were met by barking from a large wolfdog. The wolfdog's fur was gray, with the tips of its fur a blueish tint. She was the same height, on all fours, as one of us standing, as she ran around us playfully. She had a scar on her face, obviously from a claw left for a story to be told another time. She went by the name of Yuna, and she was the Black Wolves' shared pet.
The lot of us continued on inside our edgy, metal steampunk of a castle we called a home. Code proceeded to rant at all of us at once now as we were all his problem. When we made our way to the dining hall, he unequivocally made us breakfast still, and we bantered together, spending away the day.
To others, this would have seemed dysfunctional or stressful, but to me… I couldn't have asked for a better good morning.