Gun Elf

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Damsel in Distress

The night was greasy, the summer evening and Leronte’s humidity giving the air a sticky feel. It was a night like hundreds of others Mamoru had suffered through. He hated the heat, but in a town like Leronte, which was located on the southern tip of Aegis, such hot nights were a regular occurrence. He only wished that he had enough bits to afford to buy a jacket with a temperature regulator as a feature; it would certainly make meeting clients during the summer much more tolerable.

As of right now, Mamoru had just met a client, one who insisted on meeting in a sleazy bar in the middle of the red lights district. The man had hired him to catch his wife in a compromising position so that he could divorce her without having to pay up the wazoo. It was an easy enough job; the wife was probably banging half the city in her off hours. Mamoru had followed her on several errands, most of which ended with a roll in the hay for the missus. Needless to say, he had taken enough photos of the wife breaking her marital vows for the husband to be more than pleased. He was so pleased, in fact, that he insisted on buying Mamoru a drink.

That was six drinks ago.

So here he was, walking through a shitty neighborhood on the way home. (Which was, in all honestly, located in an even shittier neighborhood.) Although he didn’t feel drunk, Mamoru knew himself well enough to know that he was just maybe the slightest bit tipsy. Thus he had foregone driving his crappy sedan in favor of walking, as he didn’t really feel like adding to the machine’s numerous dings. He had just gotten paid, after all, and he wasn’t about to waste the money on fixing up his car due to his driving under the influence.

And so he walked. Thankfully, his boots were of the comfortable kind. Expensive as hell, but tough and easy on his poor feet. His head ached and his stomach was twisting in knots, but at least his feet were fine.

He was in the middle of lamenting the massive hangover he was going to have in the morning when a scream from nearby caught his attention. The Freelancer sighed, not at all in the mood for whatever life had just suddenly dropped in his lap.

Mamoru continued walking and then turned a corner. In front of him was a girl who was being accosted by a gang of orcs. The girl was stunningly beautiful. She was wearing a long purple dress, one that looked more expensive than his car. She had long blonde hair the color of straw, as well as sharp, pointed ears that marked her as an elf.

Mamoru frowned. What the hell was an elf doing in this shithole at so late a night?

The girl was wielding a long, thin sword in front of her. Despite the weapon, she seemed utterly terrified. The three orcs besieging her didn’t seem too frightened of the weapon, either. Two of them were laughing to each other as they approached her while the other had a piece of luggage (from the style it had to be hers) and was searching through its contents. From the colors of their clothing, Mamoru recognized the orcs as members of the Hunters, a local street gang.

“Leave me alone!” shouted the Elf as she waved her sword at the two approaching orcs.

“Oh, come on, sweetheart. Don’t be like that,” smiled one of the hoodlums as he approached her.

“Yeah, we’re only tryin’ ta be friendly,” said the other.

The third orc, who was digging through her luggage, grunted. He found some type of silky garment which he then held up to his nose.

“Stay way from me!” the elf shouted once more.

The fact that she hadn’t blown them away with magic by now was very telling.

“You don’t need to get involved, kid.” said a voice from inside his head.

“I know,” Mamoru sighed.

“But you’re gonna do it anyway.”

“Yep.”

“Typical. One of these days your weakness for damsels in distress is gonna get you killed.”

“That’s the curse of having a conscience.”

“I’m sure the fact that she’s drop-dead gorgeous has nothing to do with it.”

“Goodbye, Duke.”

The voice in his head grew silent.

Mamoru approached the four figures on the road. When he was close enough, he let out a cough. “Ahem.”

The elf and three orcs looked in his direction. From their perspective, a tall, lanky human had just stepped into the light from the street lamp. He had messy black hair which was graying at the temples, and thin stubble growing on his tanned face. He wore a dark suit, one that was wrinkled and had numerous stains from various alcoholic beverages on it. Hanging from his hip was a brown leather holster which held a strange black device in it.

“What the hell do you want, manfilth?” growled one of the orcs.

“What do I want?” Mamoru asked back. “What I want is to go home and get to bed. It’s been a real loooong day, ya know? What I don’t want is to be walking home and coming across you three bothering some poor girl who just wants to be left alone. Know why? Cause then, I have to get involved.”

The second orc laughed. “Check this fucker out, yo. Guy thinks he’s a hero or something.”

The first orc laughed. The third continued digging through the elf’s belongings, occasionally stopping to sniff at something. The elf just stood there trembling, still terrified at what was going on.

“Nope, I’m not a hero,” Mamoru said. “I’m just a Freelancer working pro-bono.” His lips twisted into a frown as his hand went to grip the strange device in its holster. “Now, are you boys gonna leave, or will I have to get violent?”

The orcs laughed. “Fuck off, old man. My buddy, Virk, here is a mage.” As if to illustrate the point, the second orc took off his backpack and removed a large clunky device from it. It folded open and soon green holographic letters and numbers began scrolling above it.

A grimoire. Mamoru was impressed. The Hunters having a mage would definitely change the power dynamics of the street gangs in these neighborhoods. That is, if the Family lets that happen. In the criminal underworld, it was the bigger fish that let the little ones know where and if they were wanted.

“Maybe I should burn this geezer, eh?” Virk said while tapping some holographic letters on his grimoire. “Or maybe freeze his ass, ha ha.”

“Freeze him,” the first orc said. “We can’t search him for money and shit if he’s burnt up.”

“Got’cha,” Virk began to type something on his device. It was most likely that he was casting a spell.

Mamoru wasn’t about to let him finish. He swiftly drew his weapon and aimed it in the orc mage’s direction. The revolver’s black edge shone dimly in the lamplight. There was a loud explosion as he pulled the trigger, and soon Virk’s boot exploded into messy chunks of blood and meat.

Damn, Mamoru thought. He must be more tipsy than he thought. He had been aiming for the grimoire.

The orc mage screamed and fell to the ground, dropping his expensive grimoire. Its screen shattered on the concrete, quickly followed by the power supply exploding into green sparks.

“Holy shit,” the third orc finally spoke up. “He’s the Gunman!” He picked up the luggage and ran off with it.

“Damn it! Verk!” The first orc helped lift the mage up to his feet, then began to back peddle as well. “You’re gonna regret this, manfilth!” The two quickly ran off, with Verk all but being carried by his friend.

“Thank the gods that’s over with,” Mamoru said as he reholstered his gun.

“W-wait!” the elf girl spoke up for the first time since he had entered the scene. “You can’t let them get away! They took my money! And all my things!”

“What?” Mamoru had a closer look at the elf. She looked young, though that didn’t really tell you anything about elves; she could have been 20 years old or two hundred.

“My things!” The elf shouted angrily. “And my money! That’s all I have left in the world, and you just let them take it!”

Mamoru rolled his eyes. Typical. After saving her from gods-know-what, here she was being ungrateful. This girl definitely was an elf.

“And what would you have me do?” he asked her. “Go after them and kill them?”

The girl opened her mouth to say something but froze. “N-no. Of course not.”

“Good, cause I don’t do assassination jobs,” he told her. “Are you hurt?”

“Hurt? Oh, no. I’m not.” The girl sighed, then rubbed at her head. “Thank you. For helping me. I was in dire straits there.”

“I’ll say. What were you doing walking alone in this neighborhood at this hour? Were you planning to get robbed and killed?”

“Of course not!” The elf turned red and she looked away. “I… my father has an old, ex-employee that lives in this area, I was trying to find him.”

Mamoru frowned. “You know, you could’ve waited till morning.”

“I know, I just thought I’d save some money on a hotel room if I saw him immediately.” The elf laughed. “I thought I was being smart. How utterly dreadful.”

“Yeah. Well, what’s done is done. Look, I live in this area so I may know this guy you’re looking for. What’s his name?”

For the first time, the elf smiled. Yikes. And he thought she was pretty before. She could kill a man with a smile like that.

“Really? Fantastic! His name is Taro Richards. He used to work for my father as a bodyguard.”

Mamoru frowned. “Taro Richards. As in the Freelancer?”

The elf’s smile grew wider. “Yes! Do you know him?”

“Of course. Every Freelancer in this town knew who Richards was.”

The elf’s relief was tangible. “Well, then you must know where he lives.”

“That’s the thing,” Mamoru rubbed the back of his head. He really hated himself for giving her this bad news. “He died about four years back. The guy was pushing 80; everyone’s amazed he lasted as long as he did in this line of work.”

The girl’s smile vanished. “No. Nol, no, no! I flew here all the way from Pfeil! What am I going to do now?” Tears began to fall from her eyes.

“Oh boy. Now it’s the waterworks. You really had no chance of winning this, did you?”

Mamoru ignored the spirit in his head. Instead, he put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Well, can’t you call your father up? Explain what happened.”

“No! I can’t. He’s… he’d never… it’s complicated.” She said, continuing to cry. “Oh gods, this is awful. I was supposed to go here and meet with Richards. He owed my father a favor, he was supposed to let me stay. I can’t go back, I have nowhere to go back to!”

Damn. She really was in a pickle.

“Look, Miss,” Mamoru said. The elf girl looked up at him and he almost cursed at seeing her big, tear-stained eyes. He would have suspected her of being fake, but his instincts were good. And so far, his gut was telling him that she was genuine. A genuine damsel in distress.

“I live in a big house,” he said. “Much too big for one person to live alone. I have a few empty rooms, and you’re welcome to one of them. At least until you get back on your feet.”

“A-are you sure?” the girl said. “I would hate to impose, you’ve already done so much!”

Mamoru smiled. “Well, then allow me to do more. It’s really no problem.”

She wiped at her eyes, then smiled. “Thank you. You’re the first kind soul I’ve met since… in a while.”

Well, there was obviously a story there. Maybe she’d tell him in due time.

“I’m Mamoru, by the way. Mamoru Smith.”

“Oh. I’m A-” she paused, then continued. “Edelweiss. My name is Edelweiss.”