Caccia
After school, Lixdite is wandering around the city. It's earlier than his usual convenience store visit, he decided to explore today, so, with a bag of premade food in hand, he walks along the streets, occasionally taking pictures of interesting places to remember later. The serpent already took pictures of three arcades and two parks; he even took a photo of the view from the roof of a tall building; the forest looks really good from there. With the nice weather and the abundance of time, he considered eating outside on some roof with a nice atmosphere, so he bought more food.
The serpent stops in front of a small cafe. "This is a nice place; everyone keeps telling me to eat stuff other than junk food, so I could eat something here." He takes out his phone to take a picture.
"Hey you, stop right there!" A sudden shout from his side.
"Maybe I can upload these to that AI thing Reiji made; it could find it on the GPS."
"Hey, don't ignore me." The shouts get louder; the source seems slightly closer.
"What could cause so much commotion? The street was empty until a moment ago." Slightly annoyed but mostly curious, Lixdite looks up from his phone and around the street; on one side, a huge figure with clear mutant features stands with an annoyed expression; on the other... nothing? "Wait, what?" He turns back around, locking eyes with the mutant woman, and makes an unsure gesture pointing at himself.
"Yes, you! Do you see other shady characters around?!"
"I could point out at least one more, and there are only two of us. But if she was talking to me, why did she ask me to stop? I wasn't moving, and I am pretty sure I didn't misunderstand." "Sorry? I don't understand."
"You are clearly up to something; I can feel it in my gut!" The woman is now much closer; she kept striding forward as she spoke.
"That's my aura; I guess she is more the fight type then. Now that I look at her properly, she looks really familiar. Those wings and that tail combined, I think I know that mythical animal." "I am... sightseeing? Researching? Sorry, my Japanese is not good."
"Oh, me too—wait, no, you were taking pictures; you are casketing the joint to steal later!"
"I think there was something wrong with that sentence, but I can't correct her; I don't know the right term either." "No, just taking pictures of... pretty? places. To visit later, see?" Lixdite opens the gallery on his phone to show her the rest of the pictures.
"Those look good. Are you a professional or somethin?"
"I guess I do take a lot of these, but she doesn't look like an expert, so I shouldn't let it get to my head." "No? Just a student, Shiketsu." The serpent remembers something and pulls up a photo of his student card on his phone.
"You're a hero? You don't look like one. But that means you are reverse casting the joint! Don't worry, this is my turf; I take care of it."
"I can't keep up with this; I can feel my grasp of Japanese slipping the more I talk to her." "I am a foreigner, from Italy. I just like seeing places, it's new to me. Who are you?"
"Noriko Oki! I protect the people, and I don't need a stupid license."
"A vigilante, I had a feeling a common thug would not worry about a robbery like that. She looks pretty young, but I can guess she had problems being accepted at school. I don't know what the protocol is in these cases." The serpent stands on his tail, coiling the end of it for support, until he stands at about eye level with the vigilante. "Aquila Lixdite, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." "I prepared that one in advance."
Noriko looks confused at the strange display. "I don't get the fancy speak, but nice to meet you. If you really are not a criminal and you are not casting, then what is the bag for?" Suspicion still creeps into her voice, even if she shows a more relaxed stance than before; her spiky tail swishes from side to side nervously.
"I think I can read her pretty well by now; still, she doesn't seem very deceptive to begin with. Knowing her legend helps; at least it seems to match so far." "Food, I forget to eat often, it was for a picnic? Want some?"
The suspicion is gone in a flash; her eyes sparkle at the mention of food. "Yes! Please!"
"That was a stronger reaction than what I was expecting." The serpent goes back to the ground and locates a bench to sit on while he searches in the plastic bag from the convenience store. "Let's see, I have a bunch of pizza ingredients; maybe I should have bought a bento."
"Do you have meat? I think I smell meat."
"Or not? Must be a quirk thing." "Sure, here." The serpent takes out a whole chain of salami; he was planning to use it as pizza toppings, but it should be safe to eat raw.
"Thanks!"
The food is disappearing at a rapid pace. *"That does seem like manticore behavior, but it could just be her personality. I would like to study this, but I feel bad thinking about people like subjects. There sure are a lot of myths around here. I was under the impression they were supposed to be rare; maybe it's just Italy that has less of them."
"Do I have something on my face? You keep looking at me strange."
"Sorry, just curious. You are a myth. I study those, kinda."
"Wow, thanks. I didn't think I was that famous."
"I am starting to think the language barrier may not be the problem here. I need to choose my words carefully." Lixdite stands up and spins around with surprising grace, then bows in a way more fitting of a theater play than a Japanese greeting. "It was a pleasure; may we meet again." He then starts walking down the street, ready to put this strange encounter behind him.
The sun is getting closer to the horizon, and the serpent approaches the end of his tour for today. "That was sure a strange meeting. I am glad I managed to defuse the situation. My aura seems to affect her in a strange way. I just don't understand something." Lixdite glances at the towering figure walking beside him. "Why is she still following me?"
"So where are you going?" The cheerful tone of the question breaks the strange silence that formed when Noriko started following the serpent.
"Nowhere. Just random wandering, sightseeing."
"Cool, like patrolling!"
"You are supposed to have a set path when patrolling, I am pretty sure." As Lixdite thinks about a way to explain the intricacies of patrolling, or if it's even worth it to try, an impact sends him off balance; a rough-looking man dressed in leather with a bandana on his face ran into him.
"Out of my way, fuckface!" The man shoves the serpent out of the way.
*"He did not apologize. Blood must be spilled" Lixdite's eyes glow red, pupils turn to slits revealing their draconic nature. Wind swirls around the serpent's fingers; with a sudden motion, a blade is let loose.
The man doesn't even look back; unaware of the danger, he runs to a second similarly dressed man on a bike and hops on. The wind is faster. "Fuck, what was that?" A slight scratch on the arm, just enough to bleed, the man is confused, but at the urging of the driver, he simply ignores it, and they speed away; they are gone in a moment in a mess of side roads.
"That was rude." Noriko seems unbothered by the events or didn't notice.
"The price has been paid." Lixdite calms down, his eyes go back to normal, and he takes in the situation as if for the first time. "Wait, something doesn't add up here. They were in too much of a hurry, and that bike, I am not an expert, but it seems faster than it should be."
As the manticore looks confused at the serpent after those strange words, some hurried steps can be heard from the same alleyway the thug came from, accompanied by some shouts. "Thief, I have been robbed! Someone call the police!"
By the time the old woman gets to the end of the alleyway, the supposed robbers are long gone already. Noriko seems furious. "Damn, they got granny's stuff."
"What?" Lixdite is confused by the reaction; he was expecting some of it but not her to take it personally.
"She is the nice granny at the store; she gives me meat sometimes. I need to get them"
As the manticore is about to sprint away in a probably random direction, Lixdite wraps his tail around her leg and almost gets pulled along anyway. "Wait! What is your plan?" "What is this strength? I get that she is big, but it seems still too much."
"What plan? I just beat them up and get the money back; it's not hard."
"Too slow; you don't know where they go. I do."
Shock appears on her face as she comes to a hasty conclusion. "So you are a crook! But you gave me meat; you tricked me!"
"So this is one of those days, huh?" "I am not a... crook? I can track them; it's... part of my quirk." "Let's not mention the part where I need to make them bleed for it to work."
"You are like those dogs the police use? The bloody hounds?"
"I guess that works; it's quite literal in my case." "Sure, whatever. Can you fly?"
"Of course, who do you take me for?"
"Then follow me." The serpent takes off with a current, then floats held aloft by the wind, waiting for the vigilante to follow him.
"Don't worry, Granny, we'll get them." With a big flap of her wings, Noriko takes to the air, displaying a surprising amount of grace.
Two figures glide through the sky; the sun is almost setting. "Curfew is getting close; this is taking way longer than I hoped." The serpent follows the feeling of his sacrifice; it's still bleeding, still untreated. The only sound for a while is the flapping of wings from his current company; she is more reliant on that method of generating lift than he is.
"Hey, we're getting close, right?"
"Yes? How do you know?"
"Your feathers are getting more red since we started flying."
"Why is she noticing that? Is she just bored?" "Close, not right." Lixdite signals the manticore to stop; she takes a bit longer than expected to notice and almost crashes into him. "We are in place. Dive." A sudden movement and the serpent is gone.
"Ah, wait!" Noriko follows suit; they both reach the ground at the same time. Lixdite gracefully lands as if defying gravity. A nearby metal fence is flattened as the manticore lands not as gracefully; she seems unharmed at least. "You could have warned me."
"I did; you just didn't notice." The serpent gestures for her to be quiet, then makes a series of hand gestures signaling that the robbers are in the building in front of them, a run-down wooden house, closer to a shed in size.
"What are you doing? Is it your quirk?"
Lixdite facepalms. "Of course she doesn't understand. Plan B then." "The robbers are here. The one that hit me is here." The serpent whispers as he points directly at the wall.
As Lixdite thinks of a plan to solve the situation smoothly, Noriko takes a running start and smashes through the wall. "This is for being rude to my friend." The thugs are too stunned to react; the fur-covered fist impacts the first thug right on the chest, and he is sent smashing into the wall on the other side.
Lixdite feels a rush of power hit him as the thug crumples to the ground. "Wait that counts as a sacrifice?"
"And this is for stealing from Granny." The second thug manages to raise his arms to block the second punch; it doesn't help much, and he soon finds himself crumpled on the wall next to his accomplice.
"Well, that happened. She is effective, I will admit, but what would have happened if either of them had a dangerous quirk or just a gun? I shouldn't be talking, all things considered; I guess this is how Mochi felt." The serpent advances into the building; a wirlind clears up the rubble around him as he walks. "Good job, we should hurry. Police is moving, probably." "And if it's not, I will call it soon." Lixdite glances at the crumpled forms of the robbers. "Maybe I should call an ambulance instead."
"Sure, I got the money already; we can go." She was holding a big duffel bag, partially open, revealing some banknotes inside.
"Close the bag before you fly." Lixdite is interrupted by an alarm sounding on his phone; ODA was reminding him of curfew. "Out of time. I need to go, be careful."
"Thanks for the help! And for the meat, see you around." The manticore waves at him enthusiastically as he prepares to leave; the wall crumbles some more as she hits it by mistake.
"I guess it's more likely than not; we are technically collegues." "Goodbye."
Lixdite takes flight, moving faster than usual; he is racing against the clock now. The sun is gone already.
On the side of the dorms, the window to Lixdite's room remains open, curfew passed by a couple of minutes. *"I left that closed; Yuudai must have opened it." The serpent enters the room with practiced ease, landing almost silently on the tatami floor.
"You are later than usual." His roommate is sitting on his bed reading a book, looking out the window.
"Still awake, but more relaxed. We don't have school tomorrow, so maybe that's the reason." "Sorry, a lot happened. Did you keep the window open?"
"It is routine at this point; it is harder for me not to follow it. Try to not make this routine as well; it's problematic for many reasons that I don't think I need to explain."
"I..." "I can't promise him that; it's too broad, too unpredictable; it would feel fake." "I will do my best. Today was... special. I would prefer if it did not become a habit too."
"You will have time to tell me tomorrow. I do believe that something out of the ordinary happened to you. But now you should prepare for bed, even if it's a holiday tomorrow."
"Yes, I should." The serpent starts his preparations for bed while replaying the day's events in his head. He discovered that vigilantes are active in the city; the manticore is probably not the only one. He also discovered how long it takes him to fly back from the other side of the city; if he had planned his time better, he could have made it before curfew. Settling in for bed, Lixdite lets out a sigh, his last thought of the day haunting him in a now-familiar ritual. "I forgot to eat. At least I don't have any perishables in that bag."