Chapter XXXIV: Autotracking

             It’s a beautiful day in Death Valley. Our main character was currently asleep at that moment in time because it appears the fantasies in his dreams have gotten the best of him.

 

            It was a scene of a recently ended battle. The blood of a hundred men stains a field of rocks weathered by the heat of war. Slain Stygians, Reavers, and Acolytes litter the ground as the sun goes down upon the triumphant warriors that bested the Demons. Men from every corner of the world gathered to fight for this final battle that could have spelled the end of everything, and as their cheers reached beyond the limitless sky, a battle-hardened Slayer, scathed from the struggle to save what little Humanity had left, fell to his knees with the edge of his blade pointing toward the ground so as to not let him crumble down. He was facing toward the sun with his golden hair losing the adorable formation it once had and his blood-stained face forming a smile as he sees the person who dragged him into this fight running toward him. His companion, a cat with dark fur and antennae on its forehead, breathed heavily beside him as it states three words: “We did it.” He felt two hands hold his head up. He felt a tear drop splash on the red line under his eye. She was ducked down, smiling at him. He felt as if an angel had healed his soul though his body was weak. His hand slipped from the sword that was pivoting him up, and before he knew it he fell on her arms. She kept on calling him and begging him not to die. As a reply, he stares upward and gazes on the sad look on her face. Her hair was messed-up, but the scar on her face remained the same. The red stinging glare she once had was replaced by a warmth that he could feel radiating from his heart. Admittedly, this is where he found his strength; this is why he fought this battle with conviction. He immediately lost his exhaustion as he puts both hands on either side of her arms. Slowly, he stretches himself upward, hoping to wipe off the troubled look on her face by pressing his lips with-

 

            “Okinasai!”

 

            His eyes cracked open, and Mea was holding him up from the seat of the plane that was crushed under him.

 

            Well of course his face is gonna go red.

 

            “Mea! What the hell happened to-”

 

            She immediately shuts his trap and looks around to see if anyone heard. Luckily everyone was already outside what was left of Sylphid.

 

            “The plane crashed”, she explains. “We collided with a large monster and we crash-landed on Origami Canyon about half an hour ago, but up until now we can’t find Credo.”

 

            He pulls her hand from his lips. “Crap, he must’ve fallen.”

 

            “Are you sure?”

 

            “When he came to get me, I went down the ladder first. Before he could get there, one of the monsters got him from behind.”

 

            “We’ll just have to find him.”

 

            Mea hurries outside the ship.

 

            “That was a nice dream”, said Tenenbaum right after emerging from his coat.

 

            “Shut up, Tenenbaum.”

 

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            Solis made it out the ship and a wall of forest trees surrounded the background of the crash site they were in. Elias had been fixing an old C.D. player since they crashed so he could start working on his ship again. He said he wouldn’t work on the ship without some old songs he used to hear when he was a kid. I guess there are things you can’t do anything without. He was enjoying himself for quite a while, but I can’t say the same for his passengers.

 

            “We have to find him now!”, Anna says, with a hint of guilt in her voice.

 

            “It’s too dangerous, Miss Anna”, Lux reasons.

 

            “No it’s not!”, Solis comes rushing with excitement. “Not as long as we’ve got this!”

 

            He pulls out a device from his coat pocket. No... wait... that’s not a device, that’s a tiny plushie!

 

            “A [1]Venus Djinn plushie?”, Lux reacts.

 

            “Oh, wait a sec-“, he shoves it back in his coat. “This one!”

 

            He pulls out a device from his coat pocket. It’s an [2]autotracker fitted to map out large monsters within 40 kilometers away. Or 24.8548 miles if you’re a fascist using the English System (Please comment on this negatively to destroy the writer’s reputation).

 

            “What’s that?”

 

            “It’s an autotracker!”, answers Tenenbaum.

 

            “This baby will display any large monster that gets too close!”, Solis excitedly elaborates. “All we gotta do is avoid them and hopefully find some small ones that we can easily kill... I mean... avoid!”

 

            “I’m fine with that”, Mea agrees to his plan.

 

            “That’s great!” Anna sets up her bow and hangs it behind her. “Are you coming, maid?”

 

            “Yes”, Lanette immediately replies while picking up a first aid kit to take with her.

 

            “What about you, Elias?”

 

            The tune of the acoustic version of [3]Beer by Itchyworms suddenly started playing when Elias inserted a disc in his recently fixed player. The melody was really touchy, deep, and low enough to tell you it’s a song about drinking yourself from a romantic break-up. Elias started singing while he picked up his trusty pipewrench to fix the ship. What are you, an unemployed sixty year-old with a broken family?

 

            “We’ll catch up”, Maise replies with a defeated look on her face. “He’s not gonna stop ‘till that ship’s fixed. You guys go ahead; I’ll stay with him while he’s still sane. I’m all he’s got apart from that ship, so if he goes insane, I’ll be the one to put him out of his misery.”

 

            The way she describes her brother’s condition frightens Anna. “SERIOUSLY? He’s gonna go insane!?”

 

            “Hey, I was just kidding”, she says to keep Anna calm. “Look, we’ll find you once he’s done.” Maise hands her a radio. “Just keep in touch, alright?”

 

            “Okay...”

 

            “Are we done? Come on, let’s go!”, Solis hollers.

 

            “R-Right! Let’s go get Credo!”

 

            They start out through the thickness of the forest while passing through canopies and twisted branches, when it suddenly occurred to Mea.

 

            “Hey, Solis...”

 

            “Yes?”, he says without taking his eyes off the autotracker.

 

            “That thing has a map, right?”, she worriedly questions.

 

            “What?”, he tilts his head like a Loli.

 

            “Your autotracker... there’s a map in it, right?”

 

            “Um... No... Why would there be a map in it?”

 

            Face-palm.

 

            “Anna”, Mea calls out.

 

            “Eve?”

 

            “We’ve got a problem.”

 

            “What, are there monsters around?”, she scans the area.

 

            “No... Do you know where we’re looking? I mean, do you even know the way back to the crash site?”

 

            “Yeah, that thing’s got a map in it, right, Solis?”

 

            Solis looks at her and answers her confidently with a smile on his face. “There is absolutely no reason for a map to be displayed in this first generation autotracker.”

 

            Anna sarcastically smiles back at him. Mea hurriedly rushes to cover his ears.

 

            “SON OF A B-“

 

            Before she could start swearing, Mea already kept him from hearing.

 

            Well, they’ll probably attract some monsters around them, chiefly because of Anna throwing foul words everywhere. And then Echidna’s gonna come and kill them and ultimately destroy the only hope the world has left to eradicate the Demons. And that’s the end of the story!

 

            At least, it should have been, if Therese’s sister wasn’t about to come along.

 

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            “Ready?”

 

            “No. Why are we doing this, anyway?”

 

            A tiny pink cat and her owner who was holding a bayonetted [4]bowgun were talking to each other on top of an Acacia tree. The owner was leaning against the trunk of the tree with her legs stretched on the branch while she was loading her weapon with Atlanta Shells, bowgun ammo specifically made for killing Demons. She happened to see a ship crash-land last night when she noticed someone familiar to her hanging from a chain on the ship. He had the same Trinity Symbol of the Hunting Guild on his coat that she has when she looked through the scope of her bowgun from below. The same crest can be found on both shoulder patches of the white coat she wore. The hairstyle on her brown hair though... I’m not sure if it’s from the [5]S.S.S or the [6]S.O.S. Brigade. There’s a black ribbon that forms her bangs where it stretches to the back of her head while it’s tied to make her ponytail, and in the end she looks more like [6]Suzumiya Haruhi than [5]Nakamura Yuri.

 

            “The people on that ship are doomed by noon when Echidna comes out.”

 

            “Since when did we care about people’s well-being?”, says the cat while twirling its tail. There’s actually a few sunflower petals biologically attached to the tip of her tail. What kind of Anima is this?

 

            “No, actually, I was just trying to piss off Therese.”

 

            “Really?”, she helps in loading the shells with her tiny paws. “That’s not the real reason you’re doing this, Sierra. I can tell... Hey, wait a second...”

 

            “What?”

 

            “Didn’t we see that guy from the Hunting Guild on the ship last night?”

 

            She instantly blushes.

 

            “W-W-What are you talking about?”

 

            “You pointed him out last night while he was trying to save his friend when the ship was about to fall”, the cat elaborates. “His name was... [7]Zoro? No... [7]Shana... [7]Sion... Or was it-”

 

            “Ah! What does it matter if it was Solis! He has nothing to do with the reason why I want to go there! Nothing, Charlotte!”

 

            This girl knows Solis, huh? Interesting...

 

            “Oh, yeah! His name is Solis”, the flower on her tail blooms. “...We’re gonna save Solis? I thought you said you hated him.”

 

            “O-Of course I hate him!” Her face turns redder. This is an even better tsundere that Mea could never imitate. “Who’d care about a guy that steals your Slaying job and takes all the credit for himself!?”

 

            “I get it! We’re the ones who are gonna kill him instead of Echidna, right?”

 

            “Y-Yeah! That’s exactly my plan!”

 

            Charlotte locks and loads the weapon for her. “We’re good to go! Even though you said it has nothing to do with him...”

 

            “Yeah, let’s go kill Solis.” That’s what she says, but she’s actually thinking:

 

            “I hope he’s alright.”

 

            This is not good. When a tsundere Slayer armed with a bayonetted bowgun is after your life, things never end well, especially when you’re a sixteen year-old airhead that gets himself lost in the forest whilst relying on a first generation navigation device. Add an impatient Fire Elemental that’s guilty over not being brave enough, a Tearju Assassin who apparently has a thing for little brothers and a maid who is deeply troubled by the whereabouts of her master, and you got yourself Chapter 34 of Equilibrium.

 

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            The forest was dark, but a few rays of sunlight happened to pass through the canopy of leaves that roofed the area around Death Valley. It’s been half-way through 2 hours since Solis, Mea, Anna, and Lanette left camp, and nothing seemed to want to jump out and bite their faces off, much to our main character’s disappointment.

 

            [8]“~Sunday morning rain is falling~”, Anna nervously chants, trying to console herself.

 

            “Yamenasai”, Eve quietly tells her to stop while putting her arm around Anna’s back and lowering her.

 

            “What’s wrong?”, she whispers.

 

            “Something’s hunting us”, says Solis, also ducked and treading lightly while holding onto his device.

 

            “Won’t it show on the autotracker, Mister Solis?”, Lanette questions, laying low beside a tree.

 

            “No, it’s too small, but it’s all alone.” Solis takes a small trinket from his coat pocket. “Your father is the Grandmaster at Arms, correct?”

 

            “No”, Lanette answers. “But I am capable of wielding more than a hundred weapon types and devices.”

 

            “Then, do you know how to use this?” Solis shows her a miniature disc-shaped device with the Hunting Guild’s crest on it.

 

            “That’s a double-trigger shock trap... I suppose I could handle it.”

 

            Solis hands it over to her.

 

            “I’m gonna neutralize it”, he says as he points over the brush where the monster should be. “Use it when I give the signal.”

 

            “Me- I mean... Eve.” He throws the autotracker to her. “We’ll have to run if any of them come close.”

 

            “Got it”, she opens up the display.

 

            “Are we in trouble?”, Rylai asks her partner.

 

            “How am I supposed to know!”

 

            “Shh!”

 

            Solis heard it slowly creeping toward them, so he signals Tenenbaum to take point. The cat entered the brush, leaving only her backside visible to the Slayer. Her tail suddenly flicks upward, giving Solis the signal to strike. He leaps forward and bursts through the dense thicket with his sword sparkling from the reflection of sunlight rays from the trees. He expected to hit the hide of an [9]Iodrome or a [9]Yian Garuga, but the sound wasn’t even close to meat tearing.

 

            The edge of his blade hit something metal... the sharp end of a bayonet.

 

            What he was fighting wasn’t a monster. As a matter of fact, it looked like a girl. That person was wearing a white coat with the same design as the Hunting Guild’s uniform. Another Slayer, it seems.

 

            Though Solis saw, in fact, that it wasn’t a monster, he didn’t seem to hesitate to make another swing and neither did the other Slayer who started to shoot at him. Tenenbaum was also fighting against a pink Anima that sprayed neurotoxic gas from the flower on its tail. The three ladies that were with him looked perplexed as they watched him cross blades with another person.

 

            “Mister Solis, that’s a Human”, Lanette tells him.

 

            “I know!” He swings his blade at the other Slayer.

 

            Immediately, she fires her gun at the tip of his sword, throwing it off his hand, but he was able to grab it by the handle with the blade pointed away from her, and he hits the Slayer with the blunt edge of the hilt in the gut, neutralizing her. He follows it up by tackling her to the ground with his sword now set to her neck and his hand on her shoulder.

 

            They both glared at each other, breathless from fighting without even noticing the awkwardly cute situation they’re in.

 

            “Get away from Sierra!”, said her partner as she blasts him with a fume of paralyzing gas.

 

            His muscles immediately tick and he falls down on the grass beside her. Sierra got up while Charlotte hopped on her shoulder after retrieving her bowgun, and she delicately aims it at Solis with her finger on the trigger.

 

            “Not today, suckers!”, Tenenbaum immediately shoots a disruption ray on Sierra, and she falls on Solis, both unable to move.

 

            Her face landed on his chest while her arms were splayed above his. She felt his breath from above her, and she realizes how bad this looks. And... there’s the blush.

 

            “What do you think you’re doing!”, she bawls at him.

 

            “What am I doing? Your stupid cat sprayed me!”

 

            “Well, your cat zapped me!”

 

            “Of course she did! You were being a b*tch!”

 

            “Don’t call me a b*tch, you thieving pr*ck!”

 

            They kept insulting each other, not realizing the effect already wore off. Meanwhile, both their cats were explaining the situation to Mea.

 

            “My name’s Charlotte!”, she introduces herself to Mea. “The girl profanely insulting Solis is Sierra. The two of them are rivals from the Hunting Guild, and they hate each other’s guts... on the surface...”

 

            “Sierra’s an Elemental too?”, Mea asks, hiding the fact that she thought about making a Shoujo Doujinshi about those two.

 

            “Yes! She’s a Wind Elemental, opposite to her sister.”

 

            “She and her sister must be the ones who were looking for other Elementals.”

 

            “Correct!”, Charlotte smiles brightly

 

            “So where’s her sister?”, Anna interjects.

 

            “Oh, we’ll take you to her. It’s dangerous out here.”

 

            “Say, you wouldn’t happen to see a guy carrying a large sword, have you?”

 

            “I’m terribly sorry, but I’m afraid I haven’t.”

 

            “Damn it”, Anna whispers under her breath.

 

            “Solis, we gotta go”, Mea tells him.

 

            “But I can’t move!”

 

            “You too, Sierra”, she says, ignoring his complaint.

 

            The rest of them move out, leaving the two behind, laying on each other.

 

            “Charlotte! Don’t leave me!”

 

            “Hey, I can move.” He immediately pushes her off him and grabs Grace.

 

            “Where do you think you’re going!”

 

            She tries to stand too and grabs her bowgun, following closely behind.           

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1. From 'Golden Sun', by Camelot

2. Armor Skill from Monster Hunter

3. Classic OPM Band(Band from the Philippinees)

4. Ranged weapon type from Monster Hunter

5. From 'Angel Beats!'

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*These two characters look and act the same

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6. From 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'

7. One Piece, Shakugan no Shana, League of Legends

8. From 'Sunday Morning', by Maroon 5

9. Bird Monsters from Monster Hunter

Reviews

[❀Subaru_Nyaa!
..]

you’re a fascist using the English System. I use metric system but I think you went too far there. Consider the fact that some people are taught of the other system when they are kids, they didn't have choices about that. It goes the other way too since some people are also taught of only the metric system when they were growing up.

I had no idea I was at chapter 34, I was not paying attention on the Roman Numerals.

[Oran]

But I... I use the Metric System too! *cries in Filipino*