Chapter 281 - Day CMLXXVI, Part I
I did my daily routine and went to the city center to watch as hunters prepared themselves for departure. There was something uplifting in this view. People were working hard for a brighter future. The sky was blue, and the sun was shining. Like everything was trying to tell us how bright future we have ahead of us.
Maybe the whole process of hunting wasn’t like it used to be, dangerous, but it still took a tremendous amount of effort, and also discipline, to make yourself go out there every single day. I felt proud of those people. About what we created out here.
Probably the whole situation with traveling to another world like ours gave me a new perspective and appreciation of what we had here. Maybe it wasn’t as big as the cities back on earth with skyscrapers and all of that, but we had something. A little resemblance of civilization.
– What you are looking at? – Will’s voice took me by surprise.
– Oh… Just looking. At people.
– At people, huh? Did you develop some kind of hunter fetish or something? – he sad with this irritating grin on his face.
[0)ᴠʟ – No, but I have on for kicking your ass. Always feels great.
He laughed.
– How about we spar then? Nobuo has this new little training ground. We could test it.
– I don’t want to sound like an asshole, but you just can’t win with me, so what’s the purpose?
– How about ‘to have fun’? Don’t know about you, but that’s good enough for me.
– Ok, fine – I gave up and shrugged my shoulders. – Let’s have fun then.
– Let me first ask Nobuo. I don’t want to just burst into his place like that – he said and was about to go, but I grabbed his shoulder. – What?
– We fighting with fists, or?
– No. Bring your weapon. I want a proper fight.
– You sure about that? I don’t want to hurt you.
– Relax. The device is close, I can patch myself up.
– Ok.
– I’ll find you after I’ll talk with Nobuo – he said and left.
I sighed, watched him walking off for a moment, then I went to my room, to grab my weapon. To be honest I didn’t really know where the hell both Bushido and Bratstvo had their headquarters. I had a vague idea from the times we were planning to have our own district, but that was it. This led to me waiting for Will’s return, so he would guide me a few minutes of walk from the city center.
There was a few distinct building in Japanese style. Just as I expected. Wooden structures, with elevated floors and tiled roofs. In front of the biggest one was standing Nobuo, with both Ryuu Otis, and Hideaki Miyajima. All in traditional Japanese wafuku, black.
– Good morning, Peter-san – said Nobuo, and politely nodded.
– Morning – I mirrored him, to give the respect back.
– Follow us – he said and started walking to the back of the building.
His disciples followed without a word, just like us. They had a big roofed plaza, with those wooden pillars supporting the construction. The floor was covered with big stone plates. Several weapon racks with bamboo swords and spears were put in a bunch of spots all around. Just like the heavy wooden dummies with rope wrapped around them to practice your punches. I even noticed a few of those pulled straight from kung-fu movies. That place could easily fit few dozens of people practicing their combat skills.
Then something else grabbed my attention. There were a bunch of Bushido members clearly waiting there for us, and among them, Boris, Nil, Hatta, Amit, and even Hailwic with Martin. All there, waiting. In casual clothing, which was actually a rare view.
Hailwic had nice curves when she was not obscuring them with the leather armor.
– I told few people – Will said tilting his head slightly towards me like he was sharing an inappropriate comment.
– When the hell did you manage to do this?
– I’m fast on my feet.
– You can use the whole place – said Nobuo after turning to face us.
I noticed a slight smirk on his face. They are were very eager to see us clash.
– Let’s say hi to others – said Will, and slapped me in the peck with the back of his hand.
We all went closer to the big group of observers. I shook hands with all the people and exchanged greetings. I didn’t know half of them, and the rest barely with those few times we hunted together in the past.
It was funny, as Will did the same, and everybody was making fun of him for the whole idea. It was a refreshing view. Group of friends having fun in the midst of this shitshow that was happening to us. As I was having those thoughts, for a moment with my imagination I saw Nadia, standing among them, laughing, having fun.
Then both of us walked to the empty plaza and assumed the positions. Will summoned his weapon in the form of a two-handed claymore. He looked kinda noble with such a majestic weapon in his hands. He actually never got a weapon made by Rishi. Maybe he didn’t need to, since his blade was already magical. To tell you the truth, I had no idea, so I quickly searched my mind for such information, and I found that I wasn’t wrong.
The holy sword summoning skill was indeed creating a magical weapon, that would eventually turn to dust. Now I didn’t have to worry about cutting him accidentally in half along with the blade.
– You ready for getting your ass kicked? – I asked him, resting my pudao on my shoulder.
– No, but I’m ready to kick yours – he replied with a big grin and swung the claymore a few times.
I started slowly walking towards him. Casually to not show what I was going to actually do.
– No teleporting! – he shouted to me.
I nodded, and the battle started.