Trifas, Romania
City Streets
July 29th, 2015
Morning
Scathach has a point.
We still don’t know much about Donny’s situation. Perhaps even more importantly, we don’t much about Donny himself. Even though he looks like a stuffed animal, he does seem pretty intelligent and he is capable of speech, so he’s basically a person, I think. That means there’s still a lot we can learn about who he is and what kind of person he is. We should take this opportunity to get to know him a bit better.
“So, Donny…” I begin in a casual tone.
“Yeah?”
“You’re a familiar, right? So, what’s that like? I don’t really know too much about mage stuff.” I ask him, partially to get to know him better and partially out of genuine curiosity.
“You’re not a magus?” He asks somewhat surprised.
“Is that what they’re called? But, uh, nah, I’m not. So, I’d be happy if you could tell me more about it.” I respond genuinely.
“Well… basically I just do whatever my master tells me to. If she says jump, I ask how high, that kind of thing. It was part of our contract after all.” Donny explains.
“Huh, that sounds pretty strict. You really have to do whatever she says?” I ask.
“Mhm. Basically. My master can force me to obey with magic too. I think that’s just what it means to be a familiar.” Donny confirms.
Oh wow. I didn’t know mages and familiars had that sort of relationship. Since I was thinking of witches and black cats, I was kind of imagining a more affectionate pet-like relationship. Compared to that, it sounds rather shitty. Are all familiars like this too?
I glance at Scathach in wonder, and she somehow seems to know exactly what I’m thinking.
“I can’t say for sure how it works in the modern era, but from what I know, there are many different types of mage-familiar relationships. It all depends on the contract forged between the two.” She explains.
I see, so Donny just got a bad master, huh. I guess that’s how it usually goes. I’ve watched enough pokemon episodes before school to know that there’s a world of difference between a good trainer and a bad trainer. This must be the same thing.
“In that case, what kind of orders did she give you, Donny?” I ask him, somewhat concerned.
“Hmmm… to be honest, I didn’t really do much.” Donny admits, almost a little ashamed. “The others basically did all the work.”
“The others? There were other familiars?”
“Yeah. There’s three of us. But my body’s not really strong, see? And I’m small too. So, the others more or less had to do everything.” Donny explains a little meekly. “They once joked that my only job was to just sit there and be cute. Hahaha…”
Oh wow, so he really is a complete mascot character.
Honestly, having your only job be to just look cute sounds pretty nice. Kind of like a panda at a zoo. I wouldn’t mind such a life myself compared to all the long hours I have back home.
Well, then again, I suppose such a life comes with its own frustrations. From the sound of it, it seems like Donny’s not too happy about the fact that he’s not being treated seriously.
That makes me wonder…
“Say, Donny.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Do you… are you sure you wanna reunite with your master?” I ask him as gently as I can.
“… huh?”
His response is one of blank surprise. It seems like he really didn’t expect or understand what I was asking.
“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I go back to my master?” He asks, his confusion evident in both his expression and voice.
“W-well, just from how you were talking, you didn’t seem very happy to be with her. So, I was wondering if you might be happier by yourself without her. Maybe this is actually your big chance, ya know?” I explain.
“By… myself?”
Donny blanks at the words as if he just can’t comprehend them. For a brief moment, he makes a silent, contemplative expression that gives me the impression of a computer momentarily freezing as its flooded by a bunch of new, unprocessed data.
At the same time, Scathach shoots me an intense look as well, one that I can’t exactly decipher. Whatever it meant, I get the feeling I might have said something wrong.
“Mmm… I don’t really know about that. I can’t really imagine being on my own.” Donny finally responds after his tense pause. “More than anything, I just wanna be with the others again. I’ll miss them.”
“Oh, I see.”
I guess that does make sense. Even if he doesn’t like his master, if he has a good relationship with the other familiars, he wouldn’t want to leave that easily. Either way, I’m sure he must have his own complex web of emotions regarding his situation.
Thinking about it, I might’ve jumped the gun a bit asking him such a personal question.
“Sorry. That was a rude question. I didn’t mean to stick my nose in your personal affairs or anything.” I apologize, reflecting on my insensitivity.
“Oh, it’s okay. I don’t mind.” He quickly responds, proving to be quite nice about it.
While my question was a bit out of line, I do feel like it helped me get to know Donny a bit better. He seems like a pretty timid but nice guy. I don’t think he’s up to anything bad.
“Anyways.” Scathach interrupts smoothly. “What are you planning to do now, little one? Go look for your master?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess. I don’t really know where to start, but I still have to try.” Donny confirms. “I’m sure the others are worried sick about me.”
“In that case, do you wanna come with us?” I suggest, seeing the chance. “We have our own business to tend to, but we’ll be moving around the city a lot. There’s a chance we might run into your master too. Either way, I think you’ll be able to cover more distance with us than if you try walking around the city by yourself.”
“Eh? Are you sure that’s okay?” Donny gasps. “I won’t be a bother, will I?”
“Yeah, of course. We’ve gotta help each other out at times like this.” I smile. “I can’t promise we’ll find your master for certain, but if you’re okay with that, you’re free to tag along. No skin off our noses.”
“Then… yeah! I wanna come with!” He declares excitedly.
“Great. Then, welcome aboard!”
I smile and lightly shake his little paw.
All right. Now we have a party!
Trifas, Romania
City Center
July 29th, 2015
Afternoon
After that, some time passes and the battle for our lives continues.
“Scathach! At 10 o’clock, there’s two of them. I mean, uh, left, left!”
“Got it!”
As we zoom down the road at super speed on our silver steed, two undead monsters appear from a street corner and immediately jump at us with bared fangs.
Without missing a beat, though, Scathach throws her spear at them, miraculously piercing both in the heart with a single throw. The perforated people immediately drop to the ground as if their strings had been cut and return to being corpses. Once the targets are immobilized, Scathach’s spear immediately flies back to her hand, having completed its mission flawlessly.
“Phew. Nice one, Scathach.”
“Don’t relax yet. This area is full of them.”
As she says, we’ve really run into the belly of the beast now. Right now, we’re having the fight of our lives.
Going back a little, after adding Donny to our team, we headed out once again back into the city in search of other survivors. Partially inspired by the thought of finding Donny’s master, we figured that time was of the essence and we should find as many people as we can before everyone got wiped out by the vampires; we could figure out what to do with them afterwards.
Luckily, when we returned to the carpark, we found Scathach’s precious motorcycle unharmed so the three of us hopped on and zoomed off into the city. I had suggested driving so that Scathach could focus on combat if the time came, but she quickly pushed me to the back of the bike for two good reasons: one, it would be more efficient if she was the one driving and fighting instead of us clumsily trying to coordinate without practice, and two, my injuries might impede my ability to drive properly. They were both such good reasons, I couldn’t object whatsoever.
As we made our way through the city of Trifas, though, we quickly ran into an increasing number of vampires. Perhaps it’s just because we’re nearing the more urban areas with higher population density, but it feels like we’re running into more and more vampires every block.
“Donny! How you holding up, buddy?” I yell to the familiar hanging desperately onto my shoulder throughout this joyride through hell.
“I’m okay! I’m starting to get used to the speed too.” He replies. “In fact, it’s kind of starting to feel fun, moving through enemies.”
“Seriously? What part of this is fun!?” I question.
“Um, the speed? The danger? It kind of feels like we’re on an adventure.” He explains, his voice dancing with excitement.
“I guess it is kind of like a roller coaster.” I nod. “I don’t think the amount of blood is up to regulation, though.”
“Ooh, a roller coaster? Those big loop-de-loop things, right? I’ve seen them on TV. I wanted to try riding one.” He says.
“Well then, you can consider that one dream complete. I think Scathach’s riding is even crazier than a jet coaster. At least in the danger department, it can’t be beat.” I laugh.
“Ooooh. Th-then, on a roller coaster, you’re supposed to raise your arms in the air and scream, right? Can I do that?” He asks, his voice filled with anticipation. Faced with such a boyish hope, there’s no way I can say no.
“Haha, yeah, sure, go ahea— wait. Wait, no, if you let go of me now—”
“Weeeeeeeeee— AAAAAAAGggggghhhhhhh!!....”
My warning is too late as Donny lets go of my shoulder to try raising his arms in the air, only to immediately get hit by the turbulent winds.
“Donny!!”
I quickly grab him out of the air just before he fully flies away.
“Abwabwabwabwa… I think I saw my life flash before my eyes.” The lion says as it lies limp in my hand, its life drained from its body. “… but that was still pretty fun.”
“Dude, you’re gonna get yourself killed at this rate.” I tell him, somewhat apologetically.
“Hey!”
All of a sudden, Scathach’s voice abruptly interrupts us.
““Y-yes!?””
Both Donny and I immediately snap out of our silly mood and listen attentively, as if we were boys about to be scolded by their mother.
“There’s three up ahead. Hang on tight!” She commands as a few more vampires appear out of the mist, blocking off the street ahead.
“Got it!”
We do as she says without a single peep otherwise.
And just like that, our trek through the streets of Trifas continues.
“Here, have some water.”
I offer a bottle of water to Scathach, but she quickly shakes her head.
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine. Save it for yourself.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. You need to replenish your fluids more than me. You’ve already lost quite a bit of blood after all.”
“I see. That makes sense.”
I take her words to heart and start downing the water myself.
Right now, we’ve stopped for a while to take a short break and also to plan out our next move. At the moment, we’re resting at a gas station a bit away from the main roads. There doesn’t seem to be any vampire roaming about in the area, but Scathach put up her ward thingies just in case so we should be safe for a bit.
Like many other buildings we’ve checked today, there were no survivors hiding about in the building. Unlike some, though, there weren’t any vampires lurking in the dark either. While that’s good, the broken glass door doesn’t make me feel any better about the fate of whatever station attendant was on shift when everything went down.
That said, while one of the shelves was knocked over, most of the stuff inside the gas station was unharmed, so I was able to get some water to recharge.
“What about you, Donny? Want some water?” I ask the familiar who’s currently still sitting on the bike.
“No, I’m fine. I don’t need to eat or drink.” He answers.
“That so. More for me, then.” I shrug and keep drinking.
“Human, what’s the status on the motorcycle’s feeding? Has it eaten its fill yet?” Scathach asks, pointing to the pump that I’m currently holding with my other hand.
“Oh yeah, it’s almost done. It’ll stop by itself once it’s full.” I tell her.
“I see, what a clever steed.” Scathach giggles happily as she starts to pet the bike. “Yes, eat as much as you want, Dullahan. Eat lots and grow big and strong, okay?”
She named the bike!?
Naturally, by feeding it, we’re talking about filling up the motorcycle’s fuel tank – half the reason we chose to stop at the station for our break. Though perhaps, Scathach still has the wrong idea about how motorcycles work. What a doting owner…
Anyways, it’s a good thing that the pump still works, even with the city in shambles. I don’t know exactly how the pumps work, but I guess that means electricity hasn’t been completely cut off. We still needed money for the gas, though, so we had to borrow some from the cash register inside. I do feel bad about it, but it can’t be helped in this kind of situation.
“Still, I’m shocked we haven’t found even one survivor…” I lament as I reflect on the last few hours.
Although we haven’t exactly covered the entire city, it’s haunting to think we haven’t run into anyone else after so much driving around. The only things we encountered on the streets were more and more vampires, their amount increasing as we got closer to the city center.
At the same time, I hadn’t noticed until just recently, but the sounds of chaos I first heard when I woke up have more or less diminished. Every now and then, I might hear a distant, muffled scream, but it’s so rare and far that I can’t tell where it’s coming from or even if it’s not just my imagination. Eerie as it is, it’s almost like the city has now gone silent.
“Maybe… maybe there’s no one left?” Donny suggests hesitantly.
“N-no way. That can’t be it.” I immediately disagree, more out of emotion than logic.
There’s no way there aren’t any survivors left. There are thousands of people in this town. There’s no way they’re all… no, I refuse to believe it!
“Mm, though there’s no way to be sure, the Human is probably right.” Scathach agrees. “If it were easy for us to find people, it would be just as easy for the undead creatures to find them too. Such people out in the open would not be survivors for long. By that logic, the ones who still are alive must be in a place that is difficult to find or reach then.”
Right, that’s what I was thinking too. The fact that the city’s gone quiet means that the initial wave of fighting and running has passed. Which means those who were able to find shelter are safe and those who didn’t are gone…
“I see. So, they’re somewhere out there hiding then…” Donny nods solemnly and then looks out into the misty city with pensive eyes.
Seeing him like that brings a morbid thought to my mind. I quietly scoot over to Scathach and whisper into her ear.
“Hey, Scathach. Do you think that maybe his master is already…”
“No, it’s unlikely.” She answers quickly. “Although it varies between different types, most familiars similar to Donny cannot survive without their master. The fact that he’s still alive strongly suggests his master is too.”
“Oh, that’s good.” I sigh in relief, only for another bad thought to appear in my head. “Wait, but what if… if his master turned into a vampire, would that count as her dying? How would that affect Donny?”
“That… hmmm, I’m honestly not sure. It would depend on how the undead work exactly. I haven’t had time to analyze them closely, so I can’t say for certain right now.”
“I see…”
Dammit. I don’t know where you are, Donny’s Master, but please stay safe. For Donny’s sake!
Staying on task, though, I wonder where everyone’s hiding.
The first thought that comes to mind is some sort of emergency shelter, but I’m not from this town so I wouldn’t know where that is or if there even is one. What else could there be? Originally, I thought that heading towards the city center would increase our chances of finding someone, but that clearly didn’t work. Looking back, I guess it makes sense since more densely populated areas would mean that the vampires can spread more quickly and easily.
Let’s see, since vampires create more vampires, we can approximate that the number of vampires will grow exponentially. If we take into account the population density of the town, then we can estimate that the ratio of vampires to humans at the moment might be—
“Ugh!”
My head throbs just as I try to get deep into thought.
Ahh, dammit, this headache is still killing me.
Come on, come on. Think. This shouldn’t be this hard. This is just a basic calculation. I’ve done this a bajillion times. It’s just math. I’m good at math, right? Right? My job does a lot of math… I think. It should, right? I mean my job is… my job is… what was it again? What do I do for a living? It was… something in a big building… I was… everyday, I… I…
Fuck, I can’t fucking remember this fucking shit.
Whatever. This isn’t time to be crunching numbers anyways. I’ll leave that for when I get home.
“Oh, looks like the pump’s done.” I snap out of my daze and realize that the tank is full. I quickly move to put it back, shaking off the sensation of drills piercing my head from every direction.
Just as I’m finishing the pumping process and messing with the finicky touch screen, though—
“Human.”
Scathach suddenly calls out, her voice immediately changing the atmosphere.
“Huh? What is it?”
“Something’s coming.”
“Eh?”
My body immediately jolts into action and I stand at attention. Donny does the same, jumping onto his feet and glaring at the direction Scathach is looking towards.
“What is it? Another vampire?” I ask her warily.
“No… it’s something powerful. I can feel a strong magical energy nearing us. It’s… similar to the archer we fought earlier.” She states as she grabs her spear.
“What? You mean they’re back for more?” I gasp, dreading the rematch I knew was coming.
“No. It’s something else. It’s similar but different.” Scathach declares, taking a protective stance in front of us. “For now, stay behind me and be on guard.”
“G-got it.” I nod, before turning to Donny. “Donny, come here. Stay on my shoulder and hold on tight, okay?”
“Mhm.”
The three of us get into our positions and wait patiently with bated breath as the unknown entity nears us. Our eyes are peeled towards the corner of a street just in front of us, barely in view through the thick fog.
And then, in a flash, there is a sudden burst of bright light, coming from just around the corner.
“What the hell!?” I exclaim.
As if being pushed back by the light, a humanoid figure suddenly falls onto the street in front of us. It is a gangly male shape scrambling around the ground like a rabid dog. Only after the initial shock wears off do I realize it’s crawling around the pavement because it has lost both its legs. And also that it’s not a human survivor, but instead yet another undead vampire.
But before I can sound the mental alarms and prepare for the vampire’s potential attack—
She appears.
Like a bolt of lightning emerging from thunderclouds, she leaps out of the fog with tremendous speed and charges the vampire. Her flowing clothes trail behind her speeding silhouette, resembling the cape of a superhero. In her hands is a giant object that immediately grabs my eye, some sort of large stick resembling a thick pole vault.
The vampire, with movements that more resemble desperation than aggression, leaps towards the woman by pushing itself off the ground with its arms, but the result is already foregone.
“HIIIYAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
With a girlish warcry, the woman swings the stick like a baseball bat and smacks the vampire right in the head.
But instead of a gory sight of blood splattering everywhere, what follows from the collision is another explosion of light. And the moment that light touches a part of the vampire’s body, it starts to melt away as if it were being burned by a violent inferno. In seconds, the entire body is turned to ash, leaving no trace of its existence but the memory of its brief battle.
“Phew…” The woman sighs heavily in relief and quickly lowers her weapon.
Meanwhile, those of us watching are rendered speechless by what just happened, me more than anyone.
The sight of everything that just happened is in no uncertain terms shocking. However, what really rattled my mind was the fact that I recognized that girly shout.
I had heard it not too long ago, even though it feels like an eternity after everything that’s been going on. It was only just last night that I spent an entire evening hearing that sweet, gentle voice. There was no way I could mistake, especially not when I also can just barely make out the shape of her body.
There’s no doubt about it. She’s—
“Laeticia!”
I call out at the top of my lungs and start to run towards her, only for my bad leg to immediately fail yet again. Scathach quickly catches me before I faceplant on the pavement, but I don’t have to composure to thank her.
“Huh? That’s…” The woman hears my voice and slowly turns towards it, finally noticing our presence at the same time. “No way…”
“Laeticia! Over here!” I shout, waving towards her to grab her attention.
“Oh, Father in heaven…” She gasps before running towards us with an ecstatic stride.
Just as Scathach finishes pulling me back to my feet, the woman finishes crossing the street and we’re finally face-to-face once again.
There she is. The same pretty blue eyes and gentle expression that somehow almost feels nostalgic now.
I can’t exactly say I know her that well or that we’re especially close, but just seeing a face from a time before all hell broke loose fills me with an unexpected emotion.
Perhaps she’s feeling the same way as little tears begin to form in the corner of her eyes as she runs towards me. Rushing past Scathach, she stops just in front of me and immediately grabs me by my arms with a sincerely tearful expression.
“Oh, thank the Lord you’re okay. I was so worried about you. When I went back to the hostel, you were gone and I didn’t know where you went and I thought the worst might have happened to you.” She rambles rapidly, her voice clearly filled with all sorts of worried emotions. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone. I thought you would be safe in the room, but but but I’m so sorry—”
“H-hey. Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay.” I quickly say in order to calm her down just as she starts to shake me by the shoulders. “Look, I’m fine. I made it out okay, so it’s fine.”
“Oh, r-right. Sorry, I didn’t mean to shake you.” She squeaks and quickly retracts her arms, her demeanor completely different from the thunderous warrior from before. “Umm… by the way, who is this person?”
She glances warily at Scathach who seems to have not even noticed earlier due to being focused on me.
“Uhh, she’s Scathach. Sorry, it’s a long story, so I can’t really explain it all right now.” I tell her, not sure how to start talking about the warrior queen from another dimension. “More importantly, what’s with those clothes? And that weapon? And the fact that you just melted a vampire!? Like what the heck?”
“Uhh, it’s… a long story. Sorry.” She shrugs apologetically.
“Seriously…?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
For a moment, we just silently stare at each other, taking everything in.
And then, out of nowhere, the two of us suddenly just start laughing.
“Hahahahaha, I guess we’ve both been on some weird adventures. I didn’t think there’d be anyone going through wackier shit than me today, but I guess I was wrong.”
“Hihihihi, yes, it seems it’s been a very long day for both of us.”
Our hearty chuckles break apart the gloomy darkness surrounding the city, enveloping us in a strange sense of jubilee. At the same time, Scathach and Donny trade looks as they wonder what on earth the two of us are laughing about.
Once the laughter starts dying down, Laeticia slowly wipes away a tear and then gives me a proper, warm smile.
“Anyways, we can talk about that stuff later. For now… I’m just happy you’re okay.”
And then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she pulls me in for a hug.
Her arms wrap gently around my waist and her body softly presses against mine, filling it with tender warmth.
And at that very moment, everything becomes clear.
My headache is gone.
All of a sudden, just the very moment Laeticia embraces me, all the pain and confusion battering my mind fades away. Like a dark, gloomy mold being dried out by the sun. The warmth coming from her body penetrates my soul to its core and washes out every dirty stain in it.
The fog in my head lifts and the sunlight finally pours in once again.
I remember now.
I remember everything.
Where I live. What my job is. What my mother looks like. Where I went to school. What my favorite food is. What my first car was. What sort of nicknames I had. It’s all coming back to me.
I finally remember who I am.
My name is…
Originally Posted by SleepMode
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