My back hurts.
That is to be expected, sleeping in a tent isn't exactly the most comfortable experience.
I open my tent and look around to see if anyone had interacted with the camp.
Fortunately, nothing was out of place.
I'm an outlaw now, so I want to make sure that nobody had been poking around, searching for us.
Horikita is still asleep, seeing as she hasn't left her tent.
Our horses are hitched to a nearby tree. They were hitched there for the entire night.
I go up to Horikita's horse, but for some reason she starts to get a little agitated.
She does not look happy, I probably shouldn't get anywhere near it. She might kick me.
I approach my horse, now that all the commotion is over, I can see that my horse is slightly smaller than Horikita's horse.
He has an almost fully black coat, with a big white spot on his face.
"Should I name him? I'm not very good with names though."
Not that I have any experience with naming anything.
I hear Horikita's tent open.
"You're awake? Do you always get up this early?"
The horse probably woke her up, it was quite loud in it's dislike towards me.
"Yeah, I wake up at around this time. Say, should we name our horses? We're going to be riding around a lot, so we might as well give them a name."
I would like to refer to them by names, it's surprisingly irritating to refer to them by gender.
"I guess you're right."
Horikita approaches her horse, the horse didn't seem nervous at all, contrary to how she acted when I approached her.
"That horse has a strange liking for you, when I tried to approach it, she got nervous."
"Did she now? ...Ok, I've decided now."
She starts running her fingers through the horse's coat.
"Your name will be Janus."
"Janus? That's nice, now what should I name my horse..."
I decided to just choose the first thing that came to mind.
"Priceless.."
"Priceless? That sounds like a war name."
"It's just what came to mind, there isn't really any meaning to it."
I take out a map from my satchel.
"A map? Does it have anything useful written?"
"No, when I woke up there was a group that dumped a body out. I saw his gun and took it, along with his satchel. The map is empty, but it can be useful."
Horikita looks disturbed, but she quickly dismisses it.
I start writing on the map.
"This looks like a nice and secluded place, we can set a camp here."
The camp was set deep into the woods, if we weren't chased by the law, we wouldn't have found the camp. It's best to use this as our temporary home until we can figure out what to do.
"Indeed, are you going the map out the area with the map?"
I nod my head. "Yes, the camp will be in the middle. When we go around to search for anything useful, I will be writing in this map."
Though I am basically a human gps, it wouldn't hurt to make a map.
When I finish sketching the camp, I watch Horikita pat Janus.
Does the horse just like Horikita? Or does it just not like me?
"Hey, let me try something."
"Hm? You mean with Janus?"
She moves away.
"Yeah, I just need to know...."
I quickly climb onto Janus.
Without any delay, Janus immediately bucks me off.
"Oof."
"Ayanokouji-kun, are you okay?"
"Yep, I landed on my back, I'm fine."
Even if I landed on my head, I'm sure I would relatively be fine.
It seems that Horikita has obtained herself a very loyal horse, Janus bucked me off in a second...
Horikita approaches Priceless and disappointingly, Priceless was fine with her presence.
"Well, at least this means that nobody can steal your horse, though I confess that I wanted Priceless to buck anyone that tries to ride him."
Horikita giggles. "Maybe they just like me more than you?"
I pick myself up. Unfortunately, I landed on dirt, so my white shirt was dirty.
"I really need something else to wear, should we go looking around for a store that sells clothing?"
Horikita nods. "We should, I also need to get food for the horses, say Ayanokouji-kun, I thought you didn't have any money?"
"You are correct. Which is why we should find a way to get money, they use USD here. Do you know how much that is in yen Horikita?"
She nods her head. "Yes, I assume that you also know, so how is that we should get money?"
She stays silent for a few seconds. "Ayanokouji-kun... surely you're not implying that we should rob people?"
"Horikita, I should apologize to you. You were seen with me when I was next to those 2 dead men, so you are now an outlaw because of my actions."
It's not really my fault, but it did drag Horikita into this.
"Now with that, do you really think we can find any honest work around here?"
At this point, there should be posters with my description on them, if there was a drawing then it's unlikely that it's accurate, since there was no chance for them to get a clear view of my face.
"Can't we just find another town? Though there are fewer laws in this time, my morals haven't changed at all."
"Horikita, I'm not even sure how far the next town could be, if there was a way to obtain money through honest work, I would've done so, but we're outlaws now. I'm pretty sure that the punishment for murdering 3 people isn't a slap on the wrist. I'm sure that they will just hang me."
Horikita still seems reluctant.
"Horikita, I have a plan."
"What do you mean?"
"As we are right now, we may starve to death. We need food, water, and money. We're in a desperate situation, at the very least we should survive long enough to decide what to do."
Horikita ponders a little, I think I understand what she is worried about.
"Are you worried about everything that was left behind? Our class? No, Horikita-senpai?"
Laying out the bait, the fish bites. Now it should be easy to reel her in.
"This may not be the best method, but if we gain enough money, and notoriety, there is a possibility that others who also came from ANHS could hear about us."
And with those words, I finally caught the fish that is Horikita. ".... Fine, I'll trust you, I don't think I could survive by myself anyway."
I let out a sigh of relief. "Good, we should find a way to sustain ourselves, could you go around and see if you find anything?"
"I can, but I think you should come along, this place is dangerous, people here kill without a second thought."
"Yeah, let me unhitch my horse."
Once I unhitched Priceless, I brought him next to Janus.
"So.... Now what?"
".... I honestly have no idea."
We come across another dilemma, horse riding.
We still have no idea how to make a horse move, accelerate, or stop.
"I assume that pulling the reins is how you make them turn and stop, but how do we make them move?"
"Well, they had previous owners right? Maybe they were already taught commands."
Horikita climbs onto Janus. ".... Go?"
Janus doesn't respond.
"Try telling her to giddy up."
Horikita stares at me with a blank expression.
"What?"
"... I'm not going to say 'giddy up'."
"Fine then, try saying something else."
"... get?"
Janus still doesn't respond.
"Maybe try it in a more commanding tone."
"... get!"
Janus finally starts to move, though at a slow pace.
"Ok, so do I...?"
Horikita tries pulling the right rein, which works, Janus turns to her right.
"Oh, that actually worked, now how do I stop?"
Horikita then pulls the reins, which works, but Janus looks agitated.
"Ok that worked, but maybe I shouldn't use it too much. Isn't there another way?"
Janus starts moving again, this time Horikita tries to make her stop without pulling the reins.
"Maybe it's a command? Janus, easy!"
Janus doesn't respond.
"Mmm.... Maybe she responds to a pattern?"
When Horikita gets on her horse, she squeezes her thighs into Janus, it could be that Janus recognizes that when Horikita wants to get off, her thighs loosen up.
"Try loosening your thighs."
"Okay..."
Surely enough, Janus slows down when Horikita loosens up.
"That actually worked, though I'm still not sure how to make her accelerate. Maybe I just have to say anything in a commanding tone."
Well, now we know the basics of riding a horse.
"Ayanokouji-kun, aren't you going to get on your horse?"
"Oh yeah." I approach Priceless and mount him.
"Ok, now you try."
I'm pretty sure I understand, after observing Horikita, I can understand how to control Priceless.
"It's fine, just go, I can match your speed."
She gives me a confused look. "Are you sure? You don't even know how to ride a horse."
"To be fair, you didn't know until now."
Though still confused, Horikita rides through the forest, in which I follow her.
"Ayanokouji-kun, are you sure you've never rode a horse? It looks like you have done this before."
"No, I just did it the way you did, I am a fast learner."
I'm not lying at all, through my observations, I was able to grasp the knowledge of riding a horse, though it's only the basics.
"I guess it isn't that difficult, I was able to do it with little difficulty."
"Yeah... anyways, let's go search around."
"Sure, could you write in the map instead? It's more efficient if you were to write it, your sketch of the map is neatly done."
"Sure." Horikita hands me the map. "Now, let's move, get!"
Though my voice didn't increase in volume, Priceless starts to trot anyway. Which is good, since I can't make my voice louder than what it is right now.
We leave the camp and head into the forest.
Horikita and I explore the area, the sound of birds and animals surround us.
It's unfortunate that in about a few decades, this will all most likely be gone.
Further up ahead, a river can be seen.
"Ayanokouji-kun, I see a river, we can collect water from it."
Horikita goes faster, in which I do the same.
We reach the river, Horikita dismounts Janus and approaches the river with a flask.
"It looks clean, I doubt that there will be much pollution at this current time." Horikita collects the river water, and hands me a flask filled with water.
The river goes a long way, this could a nice spot for fishing. Well, if we ever get fishing rods.
As my eyes wander across the terrain, I spot some plants along the river.
"Horikita, do you see those plants?"
Horikita squints her eyes, then points her finger in the direction of the plants. "Those? Are those berries?"
I nod. "Yeah, they might be safe to eat, let's go check."
Eating berries will make sure we don't starve, but we can't live off of only berries.
We arrive, I dismount Priceless and pick the berries.
"Blackberries, they should be safe to eat. Horikita, there are more of them along the river, can you pick those?"
She nods her head and walks along the river.
"Ok... what type of flower is that?"
Nearby, I spot a pink flower, it looks familiar.
I take a closer look.
"... huh, these are poisonous flowers."
This might be useful, I'll collect them.
"Ayanokouji-kun, I collected the berries."
Horikita returns, she holds out both of her hands, which are filled with berries.
"Looks like there was a lot more than I anticipated, store them away. Janus should have a saddle bag."
*Crack*
I turn around quickly at the sound of a stick breaking.
"Is that a deer?"
The deer runs away as soon as it stepped on the stick.
"Looks like there are deer in this place too, we could hunt them for food."
Though we don't exactly have anything to skin the deer.
"Wouldn't it be a bit difficult to hunt? The sound of gun fire might scare off all the other animals."
Along with the sound of a gun, they would also run away at the smell of gunpowder.
"Probably, we could use a bow, though I'm not sure where we could get one."
I think one of the stores were selling arrows, but I don't think they were selling a bow.
"Ok, let's keep looking around."
After 2 hours, we covered a lot of ground, I continued to chart out the area.
Though I still had canned food, I decided to eat the berries instead.
There were a variety animals such as rabbits and squirrels, we can kill a rabbit and cook it, but we still need a bow to kill it without driving away any other animals that can be hunted.
"Ayanokouji-kun, do you know what horses eat? Janus and Priceless are looking skinny, we should feed them something."
I take a look at Janus and Priceless, and as Horikita said, they do look a little skinny.
If our horses aren't fed often, then their performance will be a lot lower. I need them to be at top performance. The law could find us again, and we will need to escape quickly.
Back in town, the stables sold not only horses, but saddles and horse provisions, I would like to go back, but we have to lay low.
"I'm not sure, maybe carrots? Apples? We don't have any means of gathering either of those."
Though we can't buy apples, there is another way....
"Horikita, I need you to stick with me on this."
Horikita turns to me. "Starting it off like that? This already sounds bad."
"Just listen to me, you know how sometimes people pass by us in wagons? Sometimes they carry things, like clothes, tents, or food."
Horikita looks even more worried. "Ayanokouji-kun, you're not implying that we should rob wagons, right?"
"I'm implying that we should do what we can to survive, and it just so happens that stealing is one of those options."
At that moment, we arrive at a dirt trail, marking the end of the forest.
"Horikita, if you're worried about killing someone, then don't. Robbing a wagon doesn't mean anyone has to die, or even get hurt."
"Still, how would we even go about it? Wouldn't they just go to the law and inform them about our location?"
I shake my head. "Who said that we would have to point our guns at them? I can cause a distraction, then you can sneak into the wagon and steal anything that you can find. Besides, have you seen how some of those wagons carry a tree's worth of apples? They won't remember 5 or 6 apples missing."
"Wait, I have to sneak onto the wagon? Why can't you do it?"
"Well... this is the late 1800s, society's view on women aren't exactly the best at this period."
I'm not sure what they would say to Horikita, who is wearing men's clothing, a repeater at hand, and riding a horse.
"True.... Wait, what rights do women even have at this point?"
"That's irrelevant, the point is that I will distract the wagon driver, and you will search the wagon. Simple as that, nobody has to get hurt."
"Still... I want to keep my morals you know? You can't just expect me to switch up."
"Listen, we have to survive, I know you don't want to do any of this, but we will be fine. You don't have to lose your morality, but you can suppress it. Look, if it makes you feel any better, after all this, we can settle down somewhere. We just have to stick through this."
"..."
"Horiki-"
"Ok! Fine! We just have to do this enough times until we are good on resources right? I can handle this then."
"Good, I'm glad that you understand. Now, we should wait here until a wagon or something comes up."
"How is this going to work? Wouldn't they hear Janus behind them?"
"Yes, but you won't ride Janus, I will get the driver to slow down, then you can climb onto the back."
If we spot a wagon, I will get her to travel further ahead and hide somewhere. I will then follow the wagon as it passes by.
I will have a conversation with them, then Horikita will climb onto the wagon once it passes her.
If anything goes wrong... well, let's just hope that doesn't happen.
A/N:
Test over, if anyone feels confused as to who is speaking, then know that they take turns. If anyone still has trouble, then I will try to make it easier to understand who is speaking.
The next chapter will be their first job, though it can't exactly be classified as job, but they have to start somewhere.
Character Count: 15222