A Hero's Return Today is not a good day for Sally McCathy as she sits in Shiketu's library going over some Japanese homework. Everyone in the class except for her got to be in a tournament to prove their mettle, a way to show off to Heroes, teachers, and the rest of the school. A chance that Sally was told she was too dangerous to be allowed to take. They were all getting a special hour to train for their matches. She was given a study hall in the library, which... she kind of needed.
She tries her best to focus on the scribbles of random lines that the Japanese called Kanji and forget about the hidden meaning behind her exclusion: Last Rite was still considered a hazard, even after busting her ass on the difficult schoolwork and following almost every rule that was thrown at her like a dirty pitcher in a baseball game. If God was giving her a trial, then decoding this language of random lines, which she has to memorize and reproduce on command, was the most infuriating part of it all.
It didn't help that her usual study buddy, Noah, was out on extracurricular work for his rescue course. Rescue wasn't her thing. Her quirk took lives and hurt people as indiscriminately as any man with an automatic handgun, but the ability was always there in all four of her limbs. She taps her foot nervously as she worries for her boyfriend, even if she did her best to avoid the gossip a kiss or other slutty show of romance would bring.
Hell, Hoge would probably use it as a way to make her do more class duties or help out in the cafeteria.
She closes her notebook in frustration as she goes to idly browse the shelves for something to guide her mind away from the moon runes, which even Bobby had some proficiency with. She adjusts her ribbon as she stands up and walks toward the fiction section, filled with classics from both abroad and in Japan. She finds something she can barely translate, but it has a cowboy on the cover. Maybe she could figure this one out if it was a western instead of another Samurai story.
The gun nun opens the book and yawns, mouthing the Japanese characters to herself as she sight translates slowly...
[Music: https://youtu.be/iV3bDlIJjEw ]
The Outlaw, a girl in dirt-stained men's overalls rolled up to remotely fit her and a shirt that seems at least designed for her body by the flower embroidery lowers the brim of her wide-brimmed stetson hat, her loose, long, messy braided brown hair and prominent chest the only clues to her gender. A worn single-action army rifle rests on a hip holster as she enters the dusty, smashed-up church of a ghost town. Three figures wait by the altar.
In the center of the three is a man with a thick mustache wearing a lawman's suit and a sheriff's badge. A Colt Walker lies at his hip as he looks at the Outlaw with equal parts sorrow and disappointment. He does not want to do what he came here to do, but it must happen all the same.
To his left are two girls with Asian features dressed in long, elegant gowns with high collars and corsets. They both give off an air of nobility as they simply fan themselves and look upon the Outlaw like she is trash to be swept away. The two girls stare down at her from their heeled shoes, one having medium-length white hair and a pair of snarling dogs on a leash attached to her dress, the other looking hazy and non-descript like a bad photograph.
To the man's right is an angel in white robes with six wings and red eyes. He smiles as the sunset highlights his short white hair and stands in a welcoming and polite way, carrying a bible and nothing else.
"{So you showed.}" The Lawman says to the Outlaw as they both hover their hands around their holsters, seeming ready to draw. "{Don't even try it. I don't have to kill you here.}" The Lawman says enough to make the impatient Outlaw release the grip on her gun.
"You haven't improved one bit. You're still reckless, stupid, and thinking you can blast enough to lead into anything that gets in your way to win by default." The white-haired woman says as she folds her fan up.
A buzzing noise, like air hissing out of a sealed bottle, appears behind the Outlaw's right ear, causing her to jump, only for her hand to be grabbed and a blade pressed against the base of her spine. "You're a millstone around our necks. A loose cannon too stupid to keep herself in line and too gutsy to be scared of her betters."
"Give me one reason not to save us the trouble of ending you now before you hurt more people." The blurry girl says with malice in her voice.
The Outlaw elbows where the blurry girl used to be, hitting nothing and drawing her gun the next second. She fires two shots into the blurry girl's previous location before shaking her head and whispering to the Lawman.
"{You stand guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, irresponsible use of a weapon, and the aiding and abetting of armed extremists. How do you plead?}" The Lawman asks. The two girls grin in sadistic glee, and the angel looks toward the Outlaw with a look of faint hope.
The defendant of this informal court draws her weapon, only to be met with Lawman's barrel aiming toward her gut. "{Don't make me do this... please.}" He pleads to the confounded criminal, who fidgets like a cornered animal despite the exit right behind her. The Outlaw tries to stare him down and beat him at the intimidation game as her hands sweat. She bites her tongue hard, drawing blood.
The angel steps forward: "{You are not damned. Any soul may be redeemed as long as the bearer of that soul is willing to offer themselves to the teachings of God, our patient Father, and his kind Son. The Son sacrificed his earthly form to give mankind forgiveness for their ignorance of his father's teachings, for perverting them to their own ends, and for setting up shops in the temples.}"
"{You have the same chance, but you must truly repent. You must fight the wicked demons that dwell in the finger on that trigger not with steel and acrid powder but with resolve and patience. Your trials will be great, but your reward will be infinitely greater once you come out of it.}" He says as the Outlaw's gaze is firmly shifted to the angel. Her once solid right arm shakes in mental conflict as the angel places a hand on her wrist and slowly guides it down while using his other hand to wipe the blood dripping down her lower jaw from her self-inflicted tongue wound.
The Outlaws drops her guns. It goes off accidentally and scares off some birds outside, but does not scare the angel as he hugs her with open affection.
The scraggly girl cries into the angel's shoulder as the tension diffuses, with even the girls seeming happy with the outcome.
Sally awakens, snoring softly on the table she was reading at, as a familiar face stands over her: Nyoro Hoge. She looks disappointed.
"McCathy-san, if the situation were not personal for you, we would be going to talk to the guidance counselor about your sleeping habits." The class rep says with irritation apparent in her voice under a bundle of nerves she desperately did not want to show to Sally.
"Am I late for class?" Sally asks bluntly as she starts collecting her things.
"No. Noah has overexerted himself and was injured while helping to rescue some children in a village with Myoga. I... simply thought you would like to accompany me to see them."
Sally contemplates all the venomous things she could say right now, all the insults that have built up in her like bile. Did it matter if Inigo really had Hoge as a sweetheart? What would hurting Hoge now give her?
Catharsis?
Relief?
Or just an empty gun and another strike against her?
"Let's go then." Sally says calmly as she follows Hoge.
[Music: https://youtu.be/t0LNpZdPuDY ]
Sally recoils a bit when she is allowed to see Noah alone. A large bandage is wrapped around his head as his wings wrap around his small body to preserve warmth in the already steamy room. The nurse closes the door behind her as Sally pulls up a chair.
His legs are pretty hurt too; they are in braces until The Doctor comes back in to heal them fully. Sally kneels beside the bed and starts praying in a mousy, muttering voice.
"{Dear God... please give me the strength to help Noah... in his future battles against unjust death... in whatever way I can...}"
"{Your strength is peaceful... It is kind... I lack that... and humbly beg to be given it from your endlessly charitable hands...}"
Noah's eyes flicker open as he looks over to Sally and listens to her mutterings to God, joining her without a second thought in her request for inner strength.
The couple sits in silent prayer for a moment before Sally opens her eyes and blushes with embarrassment.
"{Thank you... Noah's flattered you're missing classes to visit him...}"
"{Hoge... said you were handling an evacuation... and helped Inigo save some kids from a flood that consumed a village...}"
Noah nods. "{They looked to us for rescue, and we saved the people of Gawa Village. Noah-}" The boy is interrupted by Sally hugging him and crying into his shoulder.
"{The gory details can wait... please... You did righteous work; that's what matters. Lets... just enjoy the moment we have now... please...}"
Noah returns the girl's hug as he tells her to ease up on his sore chest. The two sat in silent embrace as a different side of Sally came out fully into the open. She let her baggage down for a moment and let herself enjoy something about this trial for the first time outside of her apartment.
And even if she wasn't sleeping, she felt better rested than if she had had a week off of school.