A Journey Across Terra

13

"Yuki. I don't know what to say to that..." Quercus looked conflicted. "You were the one who did that?" She gestured to Susie.

"I don't know."

"...He did part of it...But most of it was from that mercenary." Susie spoke up, trying to defend him. "Y-You weren't there when he went into his frenzy. He tried to get me to leave. He knew this was going to happen..." Susie's voice began to trail off.

"Go on."

"It was my fault. I almost died because of that. I was lucky to only have a knife through my hand. And yet I still got in his way..." Her voice became shaky. "He had to force me to stop. It was my fault...That all this happened."

"No it wasn't." Yuki interjected. "It was my fault. It's my fault for hiding such a thing. Susie would have died if it weren't for one of her drift beacons imploding." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the shards of Susie's drift beacons.

Quercus's eyes widened in surprise before nodding her head as she finally got the full picture.

"So that's how it is eh?" Quercus said quietly as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault. It's not Susie's fault. It's all of our faults."

"What? No, I-" Both Susie and Yuki were cut off by Quercus.

"Yuki. You're at fault for not telling us about this...Susie, you're at fault for not listening to both if us and for sneaking off on me. And for me..." Quercus looked at the shards of the drift beacon. "I'm at fault for not listening to you."

"...Fine." Susie relented.

Then both girl's attention was focused on Yuki who was still anxiously patting his tail.

"... I guess I'll have to accept it." He said slowly.

"Good." Quercus smiled.

"Are we still good? Like as friends?" Yuki said with hesitation in his voice. "I dont-"

"Don't worry...We won't hold it against you. It must have been hard to keep all that to yourself for so long." Quercus gave him a comforting smile.

"Thanks." He gave her a soft smile. "I'm just gonna take a breather outside."

"Take as much time as you want."

*Click*

In no time, Yuki found himself back into the chair that sat outside the Green Spark. He looked onto the mostly empty street as the sound of the rain filled the empty streets.

One particular person who was completely obscured by their black umbrella began to walk towards the entrance of the Green Spark.

"We're closed." Yuki called out to the approaching person. But they seemed to not care as the continued to walk towards the pub.

Yuki narrowed his eyes as this person just ignored him. But something from behind the person had caught his attention. A red devil's tail was swaying in the air as they stopped right in front of Yuki.

"So, you were in Victoria." The person spoke. "Long time no see Yuki." They lifted their umbrella, revealing their face as two golden orbs stared at Yuki's Black eyes.

"W?"

{ - Adventures Across Terra - }

"...Ya good their bud?" Calliophis leaned on a rock.

As for the group's leader, he sat down in front of the campfire as he stared at the burning flame.

"That idiot." He said quietly to himself. "And here I thought I actually talked him out of it."

"Ya still gonna take this bounty? I mean, you saw how messed up your buddy got from him." Calliophis hid a smirk from her employer.

"No. Now I just want to kill him even more." He continued to stare at the fire. "Caliophis, your contracted time with me is over, correct?"

"Yes, that would be correct." The Snake girl nodded her head in affirmation.

"Hm. Alright then." The man takes out a bag of coins. "Now shoo. I'm sure you have other things that you'd rather do."

"Pleasure doing business with you." She takes the bag of coins and begins to walk off. Once Caliophis was out of earshot from the Mercenary, she laughed to herself. "Play with fire and you get burned, Hehe."

{ - Adventures Across Terra - }

"W? Why are you even here?" Yuki had a confused expression on his face.

"Weren't you the one who called me?" The Sarkaz smirked.

Yuki raised an eyebrow in confusion before coming to a conclusion. "So, I take it that you were the one who put a bounty on my head." 

"C'mon. I'm not that crazy. Why would I do such a thing?" W replied as she took a seat next to Yuki with the umbrella in between them.

"...You're W. What do you mean 'I'm not that crazy?'"

"Yeah yeah I get it. But no, I didn't put a bounty on your head." W leaned her head back onto the headrest of the chair. "But I did see the bounty on your head. And I suppose from the call you gave me, they're already on your tail?"

"You could say that again." Yuki said softly.

The Sarkaz girl let out a light sigh as she looked over to Yuki. "Did you turn again?" she poked him on the cheek.

"Since when were you the one to care about that?" Yuki lightly swatted W's hand away. "Last time I checked, you were completely fine with me going on a rampage."

"Look I was curious okay."

"..." Yuki simply glared at the cheery Sarkaz. "So, why're you here? Surely you didn't just come here to check up on me."

"No. I just heard that you were in the area. So, I decided to give you a little visit."

"Riiight." Yuki gave her a sceptical glance.

"I'm serious. I don't even have my squad here."

"That's what you always say."

"Geez, cant a friend just check up on their bestie?"

Yuki only shrugged as a reply.

"Good." W smiled. "By the way, your buddies in that pub good with me hanging with you all for a bit?"

"Why?"

"Because you still have mercenaries on your tail." W stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "Wouldn't it be better to also have me as a safety net to deter certain mercenaries? I do have a reputation in that world." W proudly puffed out her chest in pride.

"I suppose you're right. But no exploding."

"Roger that no explosions." W said with a little less energy than before. "Alright, so how's about introducing me to your friends?"

Yuki hesitated for a moment. "I mean, you can do it yourself. Right?"

W had a confused look on her face as she saw Yuki's hesitation. "Okay? I guess I can do it on my own."

Just as W's hand was going to touch the doorknob, the front door to the pub opened, revealing Quercus.

"Look Yuki, I just wanna talk-huh?" Quercus was cut off mid-sentence as she came face to face with W.

"Good day to you missy." A wide grin grew on W's face.

{ - Adventures Across Terra - }