Rondel
Y/N POV:
After driving around and evading attempts on our lives we finally return to Rondel. Lelei drives us back now we need come up with a plan to strike back against the one orchestrating these hits on me and Lelei.
Itami: Been a while since we were here in Rondel.
Lelei: Do we honestly need to come back particular city Itami?
Itami: Well yeah of course we do. You have your conference.
Lelei: If I were to give up on my degree, we could be avoid deal of trouble.
Rory: But there's no guarantee that the assassins will stop looking for you.
Tuka: That's right, even is we go back to Alnus they would still be coming for you.
Y/N: True, and the last transmission we got from Command said that there's a bunch of multi-national dignitaries and press there. If head back there now and put the base on high alert just for the two of us. It'll be a diplomatic and media shit storm.
Itami: Exactly Lelei, let's go.
Later that night after he came back to the hotel we decided to set a trap for the assassins. We do this by stuffing our beds with pillows to make it look like we're sleeping. I hide in the closet with my weapon at the ready with Itami and the others. We hear multiple foot steps coming from the hallway.
Itami: *whisper* Okay Shandy...whatever you do, do not open your eyes.
Shandy: *whisper* O-Okay...
Itami: *whisper* Because if you do, then you're gonna be in big trouble.
Shandy: *whisper* Right. Okay!
Y/N: *whisper* Itami, hand me the banger.
Itami hands be a flash-bang as I peer through the closet door at the same time the front door opens. Three silhouettes enter the room Shandy hides in the corner covering herself with a blanket. I pull the pin on the flash-bang as the assassins draw their knives and leap onto the beds and start stabbing.
???: Gotcha!
???: It is done!
Itami: *whisper* Not this time fellas.
Y/N: *whisper* Banger out!
I toss the flash-bang into the room and close the door.
After it goes off the assassin are disoriented and Rory comes through the front door and quickly knocks out all three of the assassins. Shandy unfortunately didn't cover her eyes and is also disoriented and stumbles into the closet to goes into the fetal position. I come out with others with my rifle pointed the assassins. Grey also come through the front door.
Y/N: Grey tie them up. Tuka check the hallway.
Grey: On it.
Y/N: Lelei, can we get some light please?
Lelei lights the room up with her magic. Grey ties up the would be assassins who turn out to be the hotel porters. Those multi-colored gremlin lookin' mother fuckers. Tuka peeks out the door and clears the hallway and comes back inside.
Tuka: I think we're safe now. No one else seems to be coming down the corridor, Darling. It's all clear.
Hearing that sends a shiver up my spine, as Grey finish tying up the porters.
Itami: How are the preps doin?
Grey: Fine, they're still alive anyway.
Itami: Wait, don't I recognize you guys?
Y/N: It's the god damn porters!
The porters sit there tied up sniffling and groveling. I walk up to them, squat down, draw my K-Bar and point it at them with an evil smirk on my face.
Y/N: So...who's ready to talk first?
The look of absolute fear appears on their faces. Later we dragged the three into a storage room and brought in the inn keeper the red skinned humanoid named Harmar.
Yellow Porter: We were tricked into doing this I swear!
Harmar: Then tell us about it.
Red Porter: We met someone at the bar who told us about these guys! They're not really who they say they are!
Green Porter: That they are really monstrous murderers, out to take the lives of any merchants staying at the hotel!
Yellow Porter: And we were told that they're felons wanted by the police! Especially that one, *looks at Y/N* he's a blood thirsty barbarian!
Everyone looks at me and I look around.
Y/N: Who me?
Green Porter: He's indiscriminately kills scores of men, women, and children! He has to be stopped!
Y/N:.....
Itami: You're not gonna refute that?!
Y/N: Well...I mean....They're partially right. I have killed a lot of men.
Harmar: You just believed whatever they told you?
Green Porter: We saw the warrant ourselves, and we were given part of the gold bounty placed upon their head!
Harmar: Oh and just like that...you sneak into their room and try to kill them?
Yellow Porter: But we didn't actually do anything!
Green Porter: We got caught and everything's fine, no one died right?
The porters start crying and I get pissed
Y/N: "Everything's fine?!" You sneak into our room with the intent of murdering us in our sleep! AND YOU SAY, EVERYTHING'S FINE!!
I pull the charging handle on my rifle and try to point it at the porters. Itami, Tuka, and Yao hold me back. And the porters begin shaking in fear.
Y/N: YOU LITTLE FUCKIN' OOMPA LOOMPAS! I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT A BLOOD THIRSTY MARINE'S LIKE!!!
Porters: WE'RE VERY SORRY!!!
Itami: L/N will calm the hell down?!
I struggle for few seconds and calm down and sit on one of the crates.
Y/N: I-I'm sorry, I need a minute.
Grey: Hmm. This sounds like something the Piper would try and pull.
Rory: Can you tell us what he looks like?
Gery: Well sometimes he's a human male, other times he's been an elf woman. He's even been known to disguise himself as a dwarf every now and then. But what's most scary about him, is how he can somehow get inside people's heads and turn a regular person into an assassin. Even the sweetest most harmless child, or an elderly person who can barley get around.
Itami: So the Piper doesn't like to get his hands dirty.
Y/N: Great, he's a ghost with a sliver tongue and has plenty of fall guys to choose from. Fan-fucking-tastic! The CIA would love to recruit him!
Grey: Unless we can get rid of the Piper once and for all, his assassins will never stop coming for us.
Rory: So they were just his pathetic pawns to use in his sick little game.
Harmar is on his hands and knees with tears in his eyes.
Harmar: You must forgive me for what has transpired here! Your Holiness, and her wonderful friends! I know what they did was horrible, but all they wanted to do was to protect the customers and the reputation of the hotel! I'm sure you've lost your trust in the Hotel Shokai, but these little guys are still young, please allow them to change their ways!
Porters: Oh Harmar!
Harmar: Oh please forgive them!
Rory: We forgive them. But you need to better educate them of these sorts of things. This cannot happen in your establishment again.
Harmar: Ohh! Thank you, I promise you, it won't!
Porters: We promise!
Itami: Yeah well it's the least we could do, y'know. Right L/N?
Y/N: Yeah whatever, just quit groveling I hate that shit!
Harmar: I will speak to a very good friend of mine who runs an inn. It's just down the street. You can move your things over there right away!
Lelei: There's no need for that, sir.
Hamsel: Huh?
Lelei: Once some has been manipulated, they are more careful the next time. Your hotel is now safe.
Harmar: Are you serious?
Lelei: We would like to continue staying here, please.
Itami: If that's all right with everyone else...
Harmar: I am humbled to serve her Holiness and her dear friends.
After Harmar and the Porters leave Itami walks up to me.
Y/N: What?
Itami: Are you gonna be okay? I've never seen you like this.
Y/N: You try going 36 hours without sleep and not have a short fuse when someone tries to kill you. You know in Iraq, we had this problem of not knowing who the enemy was. You march a patrol through a crowd and you never know who's gonna try to kill you today. Every man, woman, and child in that crowd was a potential target. And you couldn't do anything about it until they've already started shooting at you. It's why a lot of us don't like crowds. And now we have an assassin that can be anyone, anywhere, at anytime.
Itami: It's okay man, just go get some rest. We'll talk tomorrow.
Y/N: That's...probably a good idea.
Rory walks up to me props herself up and leans into my ear.
Rory: *whisper* I would've let ya done it. *giggles*
I have a little chuckle at that.
Tuka: We'll escort you back L/N.
Yao: Yes, let us help you.
Y/N: I'm fine.
I try to leave on my own but I nearly trip over my own feet. Tuka and Yao catch me and hold me up by both of my arms.
Tuka: Don't be stubborn. You would've tripped and fallen if we weren't here.
Y/N: I'm having a lot of deja vu right now.
Tuka and Yao escort me back to my room I put my rifle and helmet on the desk. And sit down at the foot of my bed. I take out my smokes I see that I only have one left.
Y/N: *sighs* You gotta be shitting me.
Tuka: Kurokawa told me those thing are bad for you.
Y/N: You're sounding just like her...I know I need quit but it's the only thing I got stress relief. I'll save this for last occasion and I'll give this up.
I put the pack away and begin to take off my armor.
Yao: Here let me help you with that.
Y/N: I got it.
Yao: I insist please.
Y/N: Fine.
I reluctantly let Yao help me get my body armor off and she places it on the desk as well.
Yao: This is quite heavy.
Y/N: Yeah, all that plus my pack is 100 lbs of gear...I'm sorry I blew up back there. I haven't slept in almost 2 days now a-a-and I...
Tuka: It's okay, you just need to relax Darling.
Y/N: The problem is Tuka...I don't how to right now.
Yao: Then let us help you...Please.
Yao sits next to me and begins unbuttoning my jacket. Tuka sits behind me and helps pull my jacket off. And they both begin massaging my shoulders.
Tuka: How does that feel?
Y/N: That...That feels nice, thank you both of you.
Yao leans very close to my ear and puts her hand on my thigh.
Yao: *whisper* I know another way to help you relax Husband.~
Y/N: Wha-
Yao grabs my face and starts passionately kissing me. Tuka not wanting to be out done pulls me away from her.
Tuka: Hey no fair! I-I want to do that too!
Tuka proceeds to do the same a bit more forceful than Yao. So forceful that she pushes me onto the bed and Yao puts her hand under my shirt feeling up my abdomen while kissing my neck. It all felt so good. Then Yao slithers down to my waist and begins undoing my belt. Then I finally come to my senses and push Tuka off me.
Y/N: Stop...please.
Tuka: What's wrong?!
Yao: Were we too forceful?!
Y/N: Look, I still don't know how I'm going to explain this to Kuribayashi. I appreciate what you're both trying to do. But, could you two restrain yourselves until I figure this out...Please.
Yao: Very well.
Tuka: Okay....But can we still stay with you tonight.
Y/N: Sure, that's fine.
I fell back onto the bed pillow and felt instant relief and felt Tuka's arm rest across my chest and Yao's across my stomach and their heads resting on my shoulders and just felt my self doze off.
Time Skip Morning
Y/N POV:
I got a good night's sleep, Itami explained to me that he sent Shandy to tail the Porters since they hadn't seen her face when she ran and hid in the closet after we sprung our trap. Hopefully we'll get some solid intel on the Piper. Itami and I started heading down to the lobby to meet up with everyone. There's a large crowd gathering in the lobby and outside the hotel with the Innkeeper on crowd control.
Itami: What's going on?
Grey: Earlier this morning, one of the bridges was fixed allowing a messenger to arrive on horseback. He told stories of the flame dragon's head being hung in the Imperial capital. The rumors have quickly spread that you were the ones that defeated it.
Yao: Not only that, but I have heard some stories about Alnus as well. My behavior has been grossly exaggerated. The whole thing is very embarrassing.
Tuka: And I was insane at the time. I can't be held responsible for my actions.
Rory: I don't like that the story says I played a major role in killing the dragon, when I actually did next to nothing.
Lelei: The story is getting rather twisted.
Y/N: How so?
Rory: According to rumor, Lelei is the one that gave the dragon the final blow.
Grey: The people of the Empire are in desperate need of a strong human hero that everyone can rally around.
Itami: I can see that. On the one hand they want to give Lelei all the credit.
Y/N: But on the other hand they also want to kill her.
Gery: There something bothering the both of you?
Y/N: When you came to Rondel from the Capital, you already knew we had killed the dragon. But only now are people finding out about us. That's way too much of a coincidence Old Man.
Grey: Like I said, a messenger crossed over the bridge just today.
Itami: Is there only one bridge crossing the river between Rondel and the Empire?
Gery: No, there are at least three others. And if you count small ones there a few more.
Y/N: Someone must have destroyed those bridges to suppress the information.
Grey: Something must have at the Capital. Something that they don't want to spread throughout the entire region.
Rory: Have you heard anything from the SDF?
Y/N: No we've had no comms with Alnus. We're out of range.
Itami: But I'll try, I'll do what I can to contact 'em.
Y/N: Better make fast Itami, I sense a shit storm coming.
A/N: Sometimes I just can't believe I've come this far. I'm getting close to the end of this and I'm looking forward to writing that I hope you are too. So you know the drill! Vote, share, follow me if like have a great day or night and I will see you next time! LATER!!!