4Training
"Okay newbie, there is a lot you need to know", Alwin said. Roiyaru and Alwin were in a large room. It had a black matted floor with gray walls. The walls were decorated with white rectangles in various sizes. Alwin had taken Roiyaru to a public training facility. "Kotori was a natural when she first started. Apparently she had some training in her previous world or whatever."
"So, um, what exactly are we training for?" Roiyaru asked looking nervously at the sword hilt on Alwin's belt.
"Well, we got to figure out what weapon you should use, how you will fit into our guild, what you need to know. All of that stuff" Roiyaru fell to the floor. He stared at the calm and thinking face of the man in front of him.
"What the hell!?" He called out to him. Alwin smiled at him. Then he offered his hand to help Roiyaru back up.
"Don't worry about it I will teach you everything." He helped the blonde boy up and took out a small rectangular device. He opened up a thin screen from it and opened something like a webpage up. He signaled to Roiyaru to come closer. As he did he could make out the words "The Whisper of Truth" in bold, fancy, red letterings.
"This is our information page", Alwin said. "I will let you read up on us as I think of how to start." He handed the device over and walked off. Roiyaru held the device in his hands. Well, um, how does this thingy work now? He thought as he glanced at the page. He remembered some sci-fi movies from back home and decided to try using his finger to move the page. This type of things were always touch-screen in the movies, and apparently in this world too. As he swiped his finger along the screen, it responded and moved. He scrolled down past the guild name and read a section of words underneath it.
Welcome to the Whisper of Truth page!
Do you have questions that need to answered?
Rumors that don't make sense?
Truths that need to be discovered?
Then come down to our office!
We will look into these questions for you and seek out the truth. The truth may be well hidden, but we will work until at least of whisper of it comes out.
Disclaimer: The truth is not always pleasant. Sometimes it is best to not know the truth. Call us at your own risk.
Roiyaru held the device up for a bit longer, looking at the page. The rest of it was some contact information and locations and prices for the service. Alwin came walked back to him and took the device back, closing it and putting it away. "Any questions?"
"So you guys are like detectives?" Roiyaru asked.
"Kind of," Alwin scratched his head. "We deal with a lot of different requests, so we tend to just say we are truth seekers. You know, since the word detectives kind of makes people think of crimes and such. We do much more."
Roiyaru nodded, "Okay, but where does fighting come into this?"
Alwin smiled at the clueless boy. "Kotori wondered the same thing, though she was much shyer about asking. In this world, we tend to have to defend ourselves or fight. There are monsters roaming the open, other guilds or people that either just want to pick a fight or are in our way of our mission. Just various things that pop up here and there."
He was so calm about it that Roiyaru didn't think too much about it. It was so routine to these people, maybe it wasn't a big deal. Alwin walked over to a section of the wall. He pressed on a white square there and the bottom section of the wall moved. It formed a counter like surface and on that surface was a large supply of various weapons and other things. He turned back to Roiyaru and smiled. "Okay newbie, now to see what you can do."
Roiyaru was sitting down in front of a counter full of weapons. A brown haired, fairly built man was in front of him, sitting down on the counter. To Roiyaru, it felt as though a lecture was beginning.
"Okay, so there are six of us already in the guild. There is still one member you haven't yet met. So let's go over everything. First off, there are two main types of weapons. The first is a laser weapon. They can pierce through a lot of different materials. They are good for hitting armored things or whatever else you may want to pierce. The other type is an energy weapon. These have a lot more power than laser weapons, but they can't pierce through things as easily."
Roiyaru nodded to show his understanding. "So you have piercing weapons and damaging weapons."
"Correct. Now I will go through what we already have in our guild." Alwin grab the sword hilt from his belt. It was nothing more than a hilt from the look of it. But then he flipped a switch and a bright light came out of the top. A blue laser-like blade formed on top of the hilt.
"I am a blade user. I primarily use laser blades like this one so I can cut through almost anything. I tend to be the lead of the attack most the time. Next we have Freya." They both felt a shudder at the name.
"She uses an energy whip." Roiyaru gulped at the thought of that crazy lady with a high damage whip by her side. "She is the other person in the front lines." Roiyaru felt bad for the man in front of him. But he also knew to avoid front line weapons at all costs.
"Next let's talk about Kotori. She apparently had experience with archery before she appeared here. So, we gave her a laser bow. She tends to be like an assassin for us, since she had range and bows tend to be quieter than guns.
Arashi, the guy you don't know, is our main gun user. I swear that guys has more guns of him than Freya has beauty products time fifty." Roiyaru, not knowing how much beauty products Freya had, assumed that meant the guy had a ton of guns. "But he primarily uses his two laser pistols. He tends to be in place right with me and Freya.
Then, there is our leader. Totsu has a laser sniper and energy rocket launcher. She stays back and calls the shots for us." Made sense to Roiyaru. As a leader she would be best suited to tell the others what to do.
"Lastly, we have Elise. She is our medical person. She only has a laser knife of her. She main job, obviously, is to heal us if we need it."
And that was the whole team. Roiyaru wondered where he would fit into it. They seemed to have various points covered between the six of them. Alwin jumped of the counter. "So can you do anything?"
"Well, uh, no, not really", Roiyaru answered plainly. He never played with weapons before. He was more interested in his school work.
"No problem, no problem", Alwin said back to him. Then he tossed him a sword of the table. "Try that one first." Then, a bunch of practice dummies popped up from the ground. And thus, Roiyaru's training began.
After flinging a sword around, shooting at everything that was almost a dummy, including Alwin, and failing at various other weapons, Roiyaru returned to the office building with Alwin. It was pretty dark outside at that time. They opened to door to find only Freya and Totsu remaining in the building. "How'd it go?" Totsu asked the tired boys.
"Um, not terrible?" Alwin answered, not sounding to sure.
"Oh great, the boy is more useless than I thought." Freya flipped her hair as she said this.
"No, not useless. He just needs practice. He almost hit me a couple of times, and I was moving." Alwin said defending the boy next to him.
"But I was aiming at the dummies, and you were just trying not to get hit by me", Roiyaru responding, very disappointed in himself.
"So, you're not a natural with weapons. You will learn and we will find somewhere for you." Alwin patted his back.
Freya gave him one pat on his head. "Don't worry, if Alwin can be somewhat useful, so can you". With that she waved goodbye and left the building.
Totsu packed up a couple of papers and headed for the door. She opened it and signalled for the boys to follow. As they left, Totsu locked up and turned to the boys. "Show him where he will be staying. I got a couple more errands to do." She left them.
Alwin and Roiyaru got into Alwin's red, flying car and flew to the outskirts of the city. They landed next to a wooden building. It wasn't larger or anything, but it wasn't a small little place. It was about the size of a decent house back on Earth. Roiyaru followed Alwin into the building. "This is our living quarters", Alwin explained. "Elise, Kotori, Totsu, and myself live here. And now, so do you." Alwin gave him a quick tour of the place. There was two bathrooms, separated for the boys and the girls, There was also two bedrooms, again separated for the boys and the girls. There was also a living area with couches and a screen and a working kitchen. It was like a normal house furnished for multiple people living there. There was extra beds, so Roiyaru already had a place to sleep. Alwin explained that Arashi and Freya lived elsewhere, but visited from time to time.
"Want something to eat?" Alwin asked Roiyaru as he opened the fridge in the kitchen. Roiyaru nodded and Alwin pulled out four cold slices of something similar to pizza. They ate the cold pizza together, both too tired to talk, and headed into the boys' room. The girls were apparently already in bed when they got there. Roiyaru didn't even bother to look around. He fell into his bed and instantly fell asleep.
The next morning, something strange happened. When Roiyaru woke up he could smell the sweet smell of food. He heard the sizzle of cooking. He shot up out of bed in excitement. A nice cooked meal in his place of residence. That hasn't happened in many, many years for him. He ran out the door and rushed over to the kitchen. However, before he could make it all the way there he came to a complete stop.
Sitting calmly on the floor of the blue colored living area, wagging it's tail, was a fox. It stared into the kitchen. Roiyaru stared at it in disbelief. What was a fox doing in here, and why was it staring into the kitchen. Either way, Roiyaru knew one thing for sure. Foxes were wild animals. He was not going to be attacked by this thing. He slowly stepped away and tip-toed back toward the rooms.
However, his balance gave way on his toes and he fell with a thump. The fox turned it's head back to look at him. Sweat began to form all over him as he met the gaze of the fox. The fox stood up and glared at him. It moved to face him and look as though it was defending the kitchen. Roiyaru scooted backward as slowly as he could. Any wrong move might mean the end of his life.
Then, he heard the door behind him open up. Alwin was walking out of the room while yawning. He took another step forward and ended up kicking the sitting boy and tripping over him. He groaned as he rolled around and sat up to see what had happened. He looked up to see the frightened newbie cowering on the floor. "Hey, you okay?" He asked, sleep still filled his voice. The newbie shook his head and pointed in front of him. Alwin turned his head to see a fox glaring at the boy. No wonder he seemed scared. Alwin sighed. "Kotori!" He called out.
The silver-haired fox eared girl poked her head out of the kitchen doorway. Alwin stood up and walked toward her and the fox. Roiyaru was still freaking out on the floor while watching the two guild members. Alwin was the first to speak. "Your fox here is scaring the newbie", he said pointed down at the fox. Kotori blushed and she quickly squatted down next to the fox and whispered to it.
Roiyaru could not believe his ears and eyes. She had a pet fox, a fox out of all animals! That thing was ready to attack him and she just whispers to it while comfortably sitting next to it. This was not something he would see on Earth. Maybe it wasn't unusual here.
"She says sorry that her unusual pet scared you", Alwin said walking back to help Roiyaru up. Okay, so it is apparently unusual here too, good to know. Once he got up the fox walked up to him and sniffed his leg. Roiyaru instinctively moved back again. "She's just getting your scent. You shouldn't have a problem with her anymore." As Alwin finished explaining, the fox finished sniffing and moved back to it's place watching the kitchen.
Alwin patted Roiyaru's back and said, "Man, I am starving. Let's get some food." With that said, he walked past the wolf into the kitchen. Roiyaru followed, still keeping his distance from the animal. Once past that he was finally in the kitchen. It was a cream colored room with brown counters. There were paintings of landscapes Roiyaru never seen before hung on the walls. Kotori was placing food on four plates. "Okay finished", she almost whispered as she grabbed a plate for herself. Immediately the other three plates were tooken by Alwin, Totsu, and Elise. They all grab their plates and headed toward a white colored table.
Roiyaru stood there awkwardly for a bit. Then he saw Kotori's ears shoot up and a reddish blush came back to her face. "Oh no", she said, "I forgot that he was going to be with us now." She almost got up, but Totsu stopped her.
"Don't worry about it Kotori", she said. Then she turned to Roiyaru, "You can fix yourself a plate if you want." Roiyaru nodded and fix himself a plate of what looked like eggs and sausage.
As he joined the table, Alwin spoke up. "Can you believe it. This girl is a goddess in the kitchen!" Kotori turned even more red with the compliment, but Alwin kept speaking. "I mean I never heard of turning monster eggs into food before. Oh and they way she prepares this meat is fantastic."
"Monster eggs?" Roiyaru asked as he looked questioningly at his food.
"Yup, who would have thought?" Alwin answered.
At the same time Elise spoke up. "Before three days ago, when Kotori joined us, we never had a breakfast like this. Alwin cooked and it was either some sort of bread or meat or a combination of them." She pointed at her eggs, "Nobody here had ever heard of cooking eggs before she came."
"Really?", Roiyaru asked. "Back where I come from we made meals out of eggs all the time. Of course they were not from monsters."
"That's what Kotori told us the first time we saw them", Alwin explained. "After seeing my meals she mentioned that she knew something about cooking from her books, so we let her at it." He patted the embarrassed girl on the back. "And she blew our minds away."
Roiyaru snapped his fingers, "Oh right, they said that you were like me." He was speaking to Kotori this time. The fox girl nodded. She could be from Earth too. Just like me. Roiyaru thought to himself. Of course he could not just assume that, since nobody said that there were just two words. But it was a good to know that others like him seemed to be stuck here. He couldn't get any other information out of the girl at that time due to her shyness, so the rest of the breakfast went on with random conversation.
Shortly after breakfast they all found themselves back in the Whisper of Truth office with Freya and a guy Roiyaru hasn't seen before. He had long blue hair and wore a white button down shirt that was not buttoned all the way and black pants. He accessorized this outfit with bright blue, purple, and green belts and bracelets. He had headphones laying around his neck. He leaned up against the wall without paying much attention to the room. Alwin told Roiyaru that he was the last member of the guild, Arashi. Apparently while he worked for the group, he was also a popular pop star.
Totsu sat in a big black chair by her desk. "Okay people. We have a job request that was submitted to Arashi before the rest of us arrived. It should be simple enough, so the new kid will come with us."
Roiyaru found himself standing atop a rooftop with a pair of binoculars in his hands. He was overlooking a residential area of the city Valadia. It looked like it was a wealthy section of the city. The homes were more like mansions rather than houses. They were well painted in colors of red, blue, and white. Many of them had gardens with fountains and bird houses. It looked rather peaceful. Roiyaru really felt out of place on top of one of those buildings.
Next to him was Totsu. She was dressed in a pair of black shorts with a black shirt that ended at her waist. She wore a grey shirt underneath. He was dressed similarly, in only blacks and greys. It was most likely to help them blend into the darkness a bit better. She decided that Roiyaru, Alwin, Kotori, and herself would be the ones to go on this mission. The others were sent elsewhere doing something Roiyaru didn't know. Totsu spoke up, "Okay Roiyaru, this is your first time on a mission with us. Just stay here and watch. Since you don't have any experience it would be best you just stayed out of the way."
"Works for me," Roiyaru responded. He was quite good with that idea. Totsu pulled out the rectangular device that Freya and Alwin used to communicate with each other or to pull up information. I got to figure out what that thing is, Roiyaru thought as Totsu pulled up communication with Alwin. She spoke into the device. "You in position?"
"Yea, me and Kotori and all set up."
"Okay, good." Roiyaru felt a little nervous even though he was not really part of the actual mission. He thought back to what their mission was. According to Arashi, a young lady had came into the office to submit a request. Apparently, she heard rumors that her mansion was going to be attacked by a rival guild. Rather than just defeating the guild, since she could have handled that herself, she wanted information on who they were and why they were attacking. Being that she didn't want to scare away the attacker, she went to the Whisper of Truth.
"She says that asking a small group not connected to any party involved was the best way to not arouse suspicion", Arashi had explained to them. The lady wasn't sure if the attackers were watching her or her guild for any signs, so she went to them figuring that it was the best option for capturing them. Not sure how walking to a building that to ask for help isn't suspicious, Roiyaru thought to himself. Maybe she pretending to be asking about a lost cat or to wander into the wrong building. Either way, here they were, waiting for an attack.
Roiyaru brought his binoculars up to his eyes. He looked for any signs of the attackers, but being that he had never done anything like this, he wasn't sure what those signs would be. He glanced at the spaces between buildings, figuring that if someone wanted to do a surprise attack, then they would not use the main pathways. Suddenly he saw a group of men waving at each other behind one of the gardens. Roiyaru quickly pointed it out to Totsu, who told Alwin. This was it, the mission was about to begin.
Alwin was told that the attackers were in the garden of the house two houses down from his location. He used hand motions to tell Kotori to go around the back of the houses to surround them. She nodded and headed off with her fox. He moved to go in front of the houses. He quietly moved while crouching behind fences and hedges for cover. After walking for a bit he heard the sounds of rustling. They must be on the other side of this bush, he thought to himself. He wasn't quite sure if Kotori was in position or not, he hadn't had to chance to work with the new girl enough to know, but he didn't want to end up behind the attackers like she was suppose to be. So he jump out of the bush and in front of a group of five men, all of which were shocked to see a guy jump out at them.
Alwin quickly turned on his blade and stood in front of the group, blocking their way. Two of the men turned on their own blades and began swinging at Alwin. They seemed to be from a pretty good guild, because they were quite powerful and it took all of his might just to keep them busy. He would have to depend on Kotori and Totsu for the rest.
Kotori ran out from behind the houses to see Alwin facing off with two of the attackers. The other three were running around the fight to continue on their way to the mansion. She shot an arrow accurately at the spot where the other men were heading. They jumped back as the arrow flew right in front of one of their toes. As they panicked and ran for cover behind a car. Kotori ran toward a tree that she could use to climb atop a nearby mansion. Her fox, which she name Ori, ran ahead toward the hiding men.
Kotori climb the tree with a lot of skill. She had been working on methods to get a height advantage ever since she found herself in this world. Climbing trees was by far one of the easiest methods. Quickly she ran across the roof until her target was in sight. She found them still behind the car. They were trying to move on, but a certain fox was swiftly preventing them while dodging their attacks. Ori was a fast fox, must faster than she had been on Earth. She moved like lightning around the trapped men. Kotori could of finished them off, except she was told to capture them, not defeat them. She sighed as she ran toward their location. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop to do so.
Totsu watched the scene from another rooftop. Alwin was holding back two attackers and Kotori had pinned down the other three. Now all they had to do was capture them and bring them to their client. She smiled as she ran off the roof to finish the mission.
During all of this, Roiyaru did as he was told. He stayed on the roof and observed. Totsu ran off to help Alwin with the two he was struggling with. Well that was easy, he thought. He put his binoculars down and stretched a bit. Then something caught his eye. There was a large flying van-like vehicle heading toward the mansion. As it flew by Roiyaru could see a large group of people sat inside, each holding a weapon. Roiyaru's heart stopped for a second. This was the main group attacking the mansion. The others were scouts or a decoy or something. Totsu and the others may be able to capture the group of five, but this group was going to fly past them and attack the mansion head on.
Alwin swung his blade down at the man in front of him. He had been fighting these two guys for a while now, but they still persisted. He felt himself beginning to breathe heavily. He was getting tired. These guys were well trained and seemed to be taking turns attacking and backing off.
Suddenly, just as the man Alwin swung at backed off, the other one lunged forward. His attack didn't get to Alwin though. Just as he moved forward, a laser bullet hit his leg. He fell over both from pain and shock. Alwin smiled. These guys were all but captured now.
He took the opportunity and sliced at the other leg, injuring it as well. Then he ran toward the other guy who was still recovering from the surprise attack. Totsu must have been help Kotori out now, because there was no more shots from here where Alwin was, but he didn't need them. He sliced the man's legs and watched him fall. His arm was hit by the other man's blades, injuring Alwin a bit. But compared to not being able to use their legs, Alwin was in good condition. He quickly tied them up and ran toward Kotori's battle.
He ran past the car where the men were hiding from Kotori to see that they were also tied up. Totsu and Kotori stood there waiting for him. "We need to get to the mansion fast", she told them as she took off running. Without questioning her, Kotori and Alwin also took off running.
"What's going on?," Alwin asked.
"There are more of them," Totsu replied. "They are taking a van, so they are probably already there. We can't stop the attack on the mansion, but we can still do our job and capture them." They ran together, determined to get there fast.
The mansion quickly came into view. It was the largest on the street. It had tall blue walls with tall windows. The mansion had a magnificent garden at the entrance, and a black van parked in front. The three guild members ran into the doorway, stepping on the knocked over door. Totsu motioned for them to follow her lead. Before the mission began they put a device on their client so they could find her if the worst were to come. Turned out that the device was needed.
Totsu lead them up a flight of stairs. When they got there, they saw ten men run out of one of the rooms. In one of their hands was a woman dressed in white. Her young features and blue hair matched the picture of their client Arashi showed them. "Crap!" Totsu shouted as they jumped off the railing of the stairs. Alwin quickly ran back down the stairs as Totsu set up her sniper and Kotori aimed her bow.
An arrow flew past Alwin as he charged. He swung his blade at the legs of one of the men. He man stumbled a bit, then turned and dove at Alwin, knocking him to the ground. Alwin hit the floor with a grunt as his injured arm struck the ground first. Ignoring his pain, he rolled over and began to stand. The guy that dove at him was pinned down by Ori the fox. He ran toward the group again, but most of them has escaped. Besides the guy Alwin dealt with, there were three others that the girls had stopped. Unfortunately, the man with their client has escaped. Alwin joined the girls in running after them, but they were too late. The men had gotten into their van.
They ran to try and catch the van before it took off, knowing that they would not make it in time. But they did make it in time. Actually, the van didn't even take off. It just sat there. Alwin quickly broke open the door and a dragged a man out throwing him at the pavement. Kotori and Totsu quickly went to help Alwin take care of the now trapped men and free the client. This was done quickly. Soon all fifteen men were tied up and left in the client's front yard.
"Thank you!" The client chimed.
"You are most welcome", Totsu told her. "We will be back once we questioned these fools." With that the guild departed, dragging a group of fifteen tied up men on a wagon. As they walked back toward their own transportation, Roiyaru joined them. Totsu stared at him, then spoke. "I thought you were still on the rooftop." Roiyaru shook his head and shrugged.
"Okay guys, how did that work?" Alwin asked, no longer able to hold back. "Why the hell did they just sit there in that car?"
A smile appeared on Roiyaru's face. He then proceeded to explain the chain of events that lead to the end of capture mission.
Roiyaru watched the van fly by him. Crap, he thought, there going to attack that lady's mansion. He looked around, but Totsu, Alwin, and Kotori were busy with the other guys and he didn't have a radio or anything to contact them. It is up to me to stop them.
Roiyaru stood up and began heading to the van. He thought about jumping from roof to roof, but knew that if he tried he would just end up hurt. So he made his way off the roof and ran toward the van from the ground. But by the time he got to the van, the riders inside were gone. At first he thought he could charge into the home and be a glorious hero, but he realized that he would end up making things worse.
How can I stop them? Then he thought back to the mission. The lady was part of a big guild, so she should be able to handle herself. That left capturing the men to him. He ran toward the van thinking that there had to be a way to make it so it would not fly. He didn't know much about flying cars, but there was a hood. So he lifted the hood and looked inside.
Unfortunately, Roiyaru knew nothing of cars. He stared at the mess inside the hood and sighed. How was he going to break this thing? He looked around him. Suddenly he heard sounds of people running toward him. He felt his heart begin to try to jump out of his chest as he hid behind the car. He sat there holding his breathe as the sounds of a small group of people ran into the building. Once the sounds were gone he left his hiding spot and went back to work.
He knew nothing of cars, but he figured if things were messed up then it wouldn't work. He grab the first aid kit attached to his belt and opened it to grab an emergency laser knife out of the kit. He then proceeded to cut through everything in the engine. I hope this kind of thing doesn't explode, he thought to himself. However, after a short amount of time, he heard the sounds of footsteps from inside the house. That was his sign to leave. He closed the hood and dove into the nearby bushes. The rest is history.