Archer
Day 0 - Night (3/3)
Nishi Ward - Crossroads

"This here, this is, Kagamihara. My first time here as well. So I know about as much as you..." He trails off here, unable to complete the obvious lie. "I may." He grimaces. "I have been to other places, many others, much like it. The difference is not much between them. All cities are alike. These days. Fundamentally. But you know this. I am sure. You know something of this kind. I suspect. Therefore you are asking, I think, "where" in a different - sense. Yes? This, here, this is Japan, of course, which is in Asia, which is in the World, which is in the Universe, which is in the Reality, which is whatever the fuck it is. You will notice this by its distinct...distinctness." He sniffs.

Archer had never remember visiting a city herself, had never heard of Japan, and only vaguely heard tales of Asia, and so she nods, understanding only one thing— that she was somewhere far, far away.

He mentions distinctness. That makes her frown. Despite the unfamiliarity of this place, strange spires of metal and stone and glass and light, she can almost feel it. As if this landscape had been painted over something else, but it flaked away in places, leaving that something exposed. Something familiar, like home. Was it comfort, or fear, or excitement that she felt?

"- never mind. Tell me what you want. But before you do that I want you to tell me another thing. Important thing. You are Archer, so you say. Archer is a fighter, a killer. We do need to kill people. Perhaps some, perhaps a lot. I said that to you before. You know this. That is what we are here for. That is what you are here for. At minimum you "arrived" with this understanding. So I believe. So you are okay with this I assume. I surmise. Now I want to know the important, the only important thing about this."

"You can as I see it fight in two ways. Through strength and endurance. Or through speed and secrecy. Which of these is you? I ask that. I ask only one thing. The rest - we will figure the rest out on the way. Just tell me that."

Strength or speed.

Endurance or secrecy.

Hunter or prey?

She puts a finger to her mouth, frowning as if lost in thought, to what should be a simple question. For a while, she is silent.

“Hunter, or prey?” She smiles, as if making a joke. “Prey, maybe.”

—An obtuse answer to an otherwise simple question, but this, she supposed, would be the best way to describe it.

“But I guess that’s not a reassuring answer, is it? Don’t worry if anyone comes after us. I can deal with them in my own way, and even prey can kill. But for now,” she says, clapping together her hands, “Donuts!” Did she pronounce that correctly? She had never heard of a donut until now, and did not know what they were, but as that borrowed knowledge told her, they were something sweet, right? Loaded with more sugar than she’d probably tasted in her life? The scent agrees.

She presses her face against the glass, peering into the store, the display cases filled with a dizzying array of colors and shapes, pinks and greens and reds and golds. Someone in the store shoots her a quizzical look, but she ignores it. “Have you ever had one of these?”

A proper meal can wait. Time to ruin her appetite.