Kin! Kin!

"Mmm...."

As I stretch upon waking up from a long rest, I let out a loud yawn. With the wind today, it seems the sound of the star pendant pieces attached to my sword is louder than I thought.

(One week.) I think to myself. (To think it's been one week.)

I look up to see a clear sky dotted with the occasional bird and large flying animal tones. I hear people in the street and creatures in the air, but louder than that, I hear the sound of ocean waves.

One week after begging Crystal and Yamiso to have me join the Keisetsu, Sueka and I arrived here in Tokiport, the capital of the continent of Angelia. And what a sight it is to behold, even now! Many of the residential buildings are similar to those of various First Age European structures, while the buildings directly associated with businesses are similar to those of Japanese and American design. Much of the metalwork is dwarven, made in a style that matches the grandeur of Third Age towns and halls, while the landmarks decorating the city have designs contrasting between majestic Second Age elven artwork and boisterous yokai statues. Tokiport, as it sounds, is a seaside city; its main draws being its large port for transportation and a culture smelted from all the races who have chosen to live here.

One of the two biggest draws to this magnificent city is the "port" itself. It's a towering, dome-like structure that easily takes up about two fifths of the city. However, it's not your typical port. While it's true one can travel by boat or by seafaring animal tone, it also is the only connection to the sea train that unites all the continents at high speed. There are also methods of flight, but they are all flying animal tones, we currently haven't been able to replicate First Age flight technology yet. Honestly, I've been in there a few times, and what I've seen of the interior was like an international airport in the First Age. I've never seen so many people, including elves, dwarves, and yokai, be out and about in one place!

However, this drawing point isn't what brought me here...

What brought me here...was the Keisetsu.

Many don't believe the Keisetsu to be here in Tokiport, but large numbers of people with requests and vendettas come here to look for the Kyusen's military branch. However, like many of the other branches, it's not open to the public, and is kept mostly hidden. Where is it, you might ask?

Well, I'm waking up on its rooftop.

After finishing my stretches, I put my hands on the worn-out roof tiles and push myself up onto my feet. Although this city is relatively modern, many building, most of them former factories and businesses, are vacant and run-down. The Keisetsu resides in one such factory. From the outside, it's a former mill that is so dilapidated that many fence signs surrounding the building state that the site is condemned.

And that's what we want you to think.

I strap my sword's scabbard to my waist, go over to the edge of the roof, and jump backwards. Falling, I grab the roof's edge, shift my weight, and swing through the open window to my room. I then land on my bed, push myself off of it, and jump to my feet.

As I walk towards the door to my room, I look around again at what I've been provided. A nice bed that I'll likely never use so long as the weather permits. An elven-made wardrobe for clothes I don't have. A fancy mirror atop a few drawers. And very flamboyant carpeting with colors First Age people might associate with Christmas.

I open the door and look down the corridor with many rooms lined up for a good distance on both sides. Reminds me of what I pictured dormitories to be like. To think all these rooms were filled at one point, and some housed multiple people!

"Hello, Oren!" I hear a familiar voice say.

Looking down, I see Seppe Chiru, Crystal's little sister. She wears her usual cheerful smile and her ahoge, bobbing back and forth. The white dress is a nice touch though. She is around 5 and a half years of age and has a stature of around 110 centimeters. But what makes her stand out most in comparison to her older sister is her boundless amount of energy.

(Wait...Is she holding a...?)

She can try to hide it all she wants, but I can see the air horn she's holding behind her back.

"...Hiro's idea?" I ask.

"Mhm!" Seppe replies, nodding her head.

I know what is to come next, but I still manage to crack a faint smile.

"Just play nice, okay?"

"Mhm!"

The two of us go our separate ways, with me going towards the stairs to the main hall...while Seppe enters her sister's room.

PPPUUUUUTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As soon as I start walking down the stairs, the whole corridor behind me becomes frozen in ice.

This...is actually common.

But the day doesn't start until...

"KU-KU-KU-KKKUUUUSSSSHHHUUUU!!!!"

BBBBBBBUUUUUUWWWWWWAAAAAA!!!!!!!

"DAMN IT, CLAIRE!!!!!!" I hear Yamiso cry out.

The day doesn't start until Claire sneezes and Yamiso swears.

I come to the bottom of the stairs to the grand hall of our hideout. Much of the design could be likened to a First Age European ballroom with First Age African wood decor, courtesy of Sigka, and dwarven metalwork for our lights and tables.

And before me, all doing their usual routine, are the majority of the other Keisetsu members.

(Guess I slept later than I thought.)

To think I'm still so groggy that I fail to see the shadow of a large spider beneath me! I only begin to notice it as the spider jumps down from the ceiling to...

"Gggooooddd mmmmoooorrrnnniiinnngggg!!!!"

Give me a hug.

"WHOA!!!"

As soon as she gets a good grip on me, I slowly take deep breaths to calm myself.

"Please don't do that, Yuri."

Before any misunderstandings occur, she is hugging me with her human arms.

You see, Yuri Silva is an arachne yokai.

Her upper half, which is also her only human part, is basically your average teenage girl of about 16. A short asymmetric cut of brown hair. Green human eyes. Average...bust for those who are wondering. In most cases, she's your ordinary girl, save for the two obvious features. The most notable detail is her lower, black widow half. Her second real difference is her sense of fashion, focusing on First Age miko designs. Ironically, her miko clothes reflect her personality more than her arachne body, as she is as cheerful as she is innocent. She and Seppe are the only people here in the Keisetsu that don't officially fight. Yuri is simply here working as a maid, and her extra legs actually help quite a bit with that. As for her subtone, she says she's an animal tone to justify her "transformed" lower half, but I'm not so sure.

"Come on, I'm not that scary."

"It's not your appearance I'm talking about here."

"Yyyyuuurrrrrriiiiii...." I hear a more...sinister voice proclaim.

I look behind me to see Yuri's panicking expression with her face drenched in sweat.

And there's Sueka, putting her hand on Yuri's shoulder.

"What are you doing with my brother?" Sueka inquires threateningly.

Yuri quickly lets go of me and starts sweeping the floors distractedly, saying "nothing!" between every few sweeps with an unconvincing smile on her face. I haven't seen Sueka get this defensive in years.

As Yuri darts back and forth between the tables sweeping, she barely misses Ripperu, who was walking among the tables while working on what I assume to be another BL novel. The only reason Ripperu was hit was because of their water subtone, "liquify", which allows for her to turn any of her body parts to water and to stretch in abnormal ways. Oh, and despite her choice of attire being mostly First Age high school Japanese uniforms for boys, Ripperu is a girl.

Ripperu, who is about 19 years old, has long silver hair that is usually in a ponytail when in public, but right now that isn't the case. She has blue eyes and a stature of around 158 centimeters. She's also one of the few girls I know that takes her flat chest with pride as it makes her look more like a boy. Why does she care? Well, she has a wild imagination, especially when it comes to BL, so she has a tendency to reenact some of her scenarios out of the blue while spurting out her fantasies, hence her preference in attire. How Hiromu can handle all this is beyond me. Then again, almost nobody can handle Hiromu, so they work well together after all.

"KKKUUUSSSSHHUUUU!!!!"

BUUUUWWWAAA!!!!

"Confound it, Claire!" I hear Tamashi and Yamiso yell.

I look in their direction and see Claire Blossom and Tamashi Kabe doing what they usually do. Tamashi is eating probably three meals in one sitting, including tons on...urgh...meat..., while Claire is doing her usual succession of bows, apologizing before she sneezes again. Yamiso is probably only there because he needs an excuse to blow off some steam.

Tamashi is, in more ways than one, a giant by human standards. Towering at around 220 centimeters in height in his 30s, he's taller than Doryoko. And then he's large in...other areas...as he is arguably the most obese individual I know. Though I have yet to see it, his fire subtone, "magma armor", benefits from any excess calories he has in his body, as most fire subtones do, but the fact that he almost never fights makes it seem more like a lazy excuse to binge eat. Couple that with his bald head and dirty attire covered with food stains, and you can see how he isn't exactly the best role model. To think he was a professional boxer before joining the Keisetsu.

And then there is Claire, a young plant tone in her 30s with arguably the most unique problem in the Keisetsu. In terms of her appearance, she's a beautiful woman of around 170 centimeters with, as expected with from plant tones, a slightly large chest only smaller than Sueka's. Again, are these bust size descriptions really necessary? Anyway, her long, light green hair, oval glasses, and cherry blossom motif cheongsam would normally give her an air of sophistication, if it wasn't for the last detail... She always wears one of those face masks the Japanese during the First Age would wear to prevent the spread of any sickness. As for why she does this, her subtone allows for her to disperse spores and, ironically...

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm soo...Ku....Kuuuu...KKKUUUSSSSHHUUUUU!!!!!"

BBBBBBBBUUUUUUUWWWWWAAAAAAA!!!!!

And more spores disperse from her covered mouth.

"Sneeze away from the food, Claire!" Tamashi retorts.

And again, Claire starts apologizing.

The irony is that she's allergic to her own subtone.

Whew! That's a good number of introductions already! And that isn't even the full roster! Perhaps I should take a break from the character descriptions for a little bit.

I sit down at one of the tables furthest away from Tamashi. Not because of Tamashi himself, just away from the...meat he's eating. Sueka immediately sits down at the same table.

"Good morning, brother!"

I smile faintly. "Good morning."

While I'm beginning to move on from the tragedies that were Terraz and New Vegas, I cannot say I've been as cheerful as I used to be. When I got to the Keisetsu, I couldn't really bring myself to talk to anybody aside from Sueka. Now, I've befriended practically everybody to the point of not having to address them as "sama", but I still cannot maintain a conversation very long aside from a little small talk. What surprises me still is how cheerful everybody is here. It's almost as if they've never witnessed any of the suffering they've been forced to live through and sometimes even be the cause of!

I hear Yamiso get up from his seat and walk past my table.

"If you're going to see Hisao," Yuri remarks, "you should expect the same answer. If she's found, he'll let you know."

"That doesn't make it okay for me to sit around waiting! Who the fu...!!"

"Language." Crystal says tiredly from the stairs.

And in that same instant, Yamiso's mouth is frozen shut.

"Language!" Seppe cheerfully repeats.

Normally, Yamiso retaliate with a profane gesture, but it's pretty clear he has something else on his mind.

Most likely, it's Mydrea.

Crystal yawns and is pulled by the arm towards the food by Seppe. As Crystal gets Seppe's food for her, I see Yamiso scratch at the ice around his mouth with his Devil's Claw. I'm surprised any is coming off at all, though it's either because Crystal is too tired to create her strongest ice, or she just doesn't want to hurt him that much.

Kin kon!

"Trainee Oren Tsurai," I hear a voice say over the loudspeaker. Katsumi's voice, specifically. "Please report to the headmaster's office as soon as possible."

"Oh, stop trying to be so punctual," I hear headmaster Hisao say over the speaker. "Let the kid have a little fun."

"You know, it's that attitude that makes the Keisetsu financially unstable. We're barely breaking even as is!"

"Cheapskate."

I hear Katsumi cough. "And stop smoking! You're too old to be doing that!"

"Who's old!?"

"GGGAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

Before the loudspeaker is cut off, I swear I hear flames dispersing in the background. I look around the room and see everyone aside from Sueka going on as if nothing had happened. I'm still not used to the "usual" routine yet. I look around and see that Yamiso isn't here. Even so, I've got my orders.

As I walk in the direction of Hisao's office, I look at the wall lined with pictures. Pictures of former Keisetsu members who either retired or died in action. Hundreds upon hundreds of small pictures, with the current Keisetsu members' images on the end closest to the edge of the room towards Hisao's office. As I walk up the stairs, I wonder...

(Will I...have my picture on that wall?)

This reminds me of an important fact: I am not yet an official Keisetsu member.

Upon leaving the room, Sueka looks away from me and towards the wall I was looking at.

And spies one unique picture.