The three of us made our way through town with all of our hoods on. Sheele seemed to be having a good time, but Mine seemed slightly unhappy with something.
"Are you ok, Mine?" I moved close to her and asked in a quiet voice.
"Huh? Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She said, turning away. It was clear that she was not, in fact, fine, and that something was bothering her.
I wasn't quite sure what to do. I stared at Mine for a moment and reached out, placing my hand on top of her head which was a bit lower than mine. Then, I gave her some head pats. She blushed wildly in response and tensed up, before backing away from my hand.
"Wha- What are you doing!" She said rather loudly. I backed up a bit, thinking that I might have bothered her or something.
Sheele turned around and moved over to us. "Is something wrong, you two?"
"Oh, it's nothing." I responded. I turned to Mine. "Sorry."
Mine's expression was one of embarrassment. She was holding the top of her head with a blush on her face. "Y-You can't just... pat... pat my head like that...!" She muttered, wary of Sheele and the other citizens around us.
"Ooohh... Are you two together?" Sheele suddenly asked.
"What?!? Of course not..." Mine muttered, looking away. "Not right now, anyways..."
"'Not right now'? What does that mean?" Sheele asked, tilting her head.
"Ah, god... why are you two so airheaded..." She muttered. "Whatever, it's nothing. Let's keep walking so we can buy Najenda's crab or whatever."
Sheele paused for a moment, hesitating and walking forward ahead of us.
I continued walking too, but Mine walked close to me and pushed herself against my shoulder a bit. "Hey..." I looked down over to her near my shoulder. She was clinging to me, maybe just a bit. "You can pat my head... just warn me before you do." Her voice was soft and lacked the edge that it did when she was flustered. I thought Mine was cute while she was embarrassed, but this was even better.
"Ok. I'm petting your head then." I said, feeling a swell of excitement coming up inside of me. I reach over and pet her head once more, this time slow and gently. She kept close to me while avoiding eye contact
"...Thanks..." She said quietly while we walked.
Eventually, we stopped what we were doing and started shopping again. However, before we could even enter a store to buy our first item, we saw something that stopped us in our tracks.
Just ahead of us in the shopping area we were in, there was a girl with light armor and long brown hair tied into a ponytail. At her side below her, there was a small dog-like creature.
"Is that..." I started to quietly mutter to myself. Mine and Sheele had clearly already picked up on the girl.
It wasn't like it was hard to do so. She stood out for various reasons. Other than her dog weapon that stood by her side, she had no hands or arms. In place of where they would be, there were two stumps wrapped in bandages.
There was one more thing that made us notice her fast. Standing right next to her was a man with blonde hair and blue eyes, standing about 6' 3".
It was unmistakable, looking at him and the girl. "That's Seryu Ubiquitous," I said quietly. "And, perhaps more importantly... Benjamin Morrow."
"Did he always have blue eyes?" Mine asked.
"I don't know," I mumbled. "I remember green eyes. Stay hidden, you two."
"I already planned on that..." Mine said. Sheele was doing the same, turning away but glancing back at the pair of enemies every now and then. "What are they doing here?"
Seryu looked... tired, and a bit sad. After her fight with the three of us, she had lost both of her arms. She still had her imperial arms, but even that dog looked a bit sad. It was hard not to feel a little bad for her.
More importantly, Benjamin had a grin on his face, one that appeared innocent on first viewing. But as someone who's lived for 150 long years, I can say with certainty that his grin was not an innocent one.
He began to walk in the direction of an alleyway out of town. Seryu followed behind him, along with her small dog imperial arms.
"They're going away. Should we go after them?" Sheele asked.
"I don't know. Benjamin Morrow is strong enough that he can take on both (f/n) and me." Mine said.
"Right. And while Seryu isn't much of a threat as she is, she still has her imperial arms." I added. "Can the three of us take Benjamin and Seryu's imperial arms?"
"How about this: we just don't fight them." Mine said. "Quite frankly, we're not getting anywhere with Benjamin by avoiding him. Let's see if we can find something out about him by following."
Sheele and I thought for a moment before nodding in agreeance. Standing about 20 feet behind the two, we began to trail them through the town we were in. They wandered into an alleyway with a few people in it. They watched us pass by with some odd glares being cast our way. We ventured further and further into the winding alleys. Fewer people came into view and soon enough, there was no one in the alleyway except for the five of us, a fact that we just barely noticed in time. Benjamin flashed his killing intent at us from afar, turning around with a sickening grin on his face.
"Back up. Both of you." I told Sheele and Mine. Mine's weapon is too heavy on long-range, and Sheele's weapon is too large to work well in this alleyway.
"Oh? Think you can fight me alone, boy?" He asked. Seryu looked up at us in shock as she recalled the fight we had, the one where she lost her arms.
"We should get out of here." I muttered to the two behind me. Mine and Sheele slowly backed up, seemingly recognizing that this is a bad matchup for us.
"If we were in the open, this might be a battle we can do. But in this situation..." Sheele said, trailing off at the end.
Benjamin reached behind him and started to pull on the weapon sheathed on his back. He began to draw it out and reveals it to be a bow. It seemed to be compressed but mechanically opened itself up as he drew it.
"A bow? He's been fighting us with a bow all this time?" I said, muttering my incantations and summoning my blades in hand.
He drew back an arrow with Seryu watching from behind him. I could see the arrow tip pointed at me and was prepared to slash it out of the air. He launched his arrow right where he was aiming, making it an easy target to hit. I dodged out of the way and swiped at the arrow with my blade of destruction. However...
"I missed?" I mumbled to myself, trying to analyze the situation. No, that's not possible. I looked back and the other two hadn't blocked or dodged the arrow. They were standing the exact same.
Seemingly in less than a moment, I suddenly felt a feeling like several arrows hitting me. I heard Sheele and Mine shout in pain. Looking back, there was blood from an arrow wound coming from both of them. But... no arrows in sight.
I landed back on the ground, clutching my arm in pain. I had several arrow wounds all over my body, but none seem to have made fatal wounds, thankfully.
"How interesting. You survived my first attack. Although, I suppose you've done it multiple times." Benjamin said a grin on his face.
"So, your bow can launch multiple arrows. Is that right?" I asked, trying to work out his ability. If that really was the case, then we were in trouble in this tight alleyway.
"Yes! Not only that, but they're invisible! How wonderful this bow is!" He said, practically shouting with excitement.
"Great... Your ability certainly is annoying." I gripped my blades and stared off with the man standing across from me.
He drew more arrows on his bow and quickly prepared to shoot them at me. I dragged my blade of destruction through the ground and stole up some concrete. Then, with my blade of creation, I ejected it out as a wall to block the arrows.
I turned back to Sheele and Mine, hearing the thunk of the arrows hitting the wall and cracking it ever so slightly. "We're going, you two!"
"Right! Let's go!" Sheele said, turning back and starting to dash. Mine and I followed suit. All three of us were having trouble escaping because of the injuries we had taken.
"I'm not done with you three yet!" We heard him shouting behind us. "Come on, Seryu!" I turned and saw Benjamin pursuing us with Seryu struggling behind him alongside her imperial arms dog thing. She looked... sort of pathetic, physically. And her face showed an expression of sadness.
It made me feel... something. At the time, I had no idea what the emotion was. I felt a pit in my stomach; a feeling like I was doing something wrong. It felt like I was being held back, by both Benjamin and the world.
It was frustration; the feeling that I relearned that day was frustration.
Using my right foot as a pivot point, I turned around in the busy town, kicking up dust behind me. "You two go back to base! I can't stop here! Something feels off inside of me!" For the first time in a while, I was shouting. My heart was screaming too, screaming for me to stop and fight.
"What?!? Are you gonna fight him?!? In your injured state, you don't stand a chance!" Mine shouted, stopping a bit.
"Yes, I'm gonna fight him! My mind is telling me something that I can't ignore. And besides, I have a trump card!" I brought my sword of destruction up into the air, pointing it to the sky. "With the power contained in my blade of destruction! I bring upon my blood as a sacrifice!"
I shouted the incantation once more, "By the blade of destruction, I summon thee at the cost of my soul... Imperial Arms Faker!"