Chapter 57- Freya

Chapter 57- Freya

[Keeno POV]

Pram and I were approaching the capital of Vanir after five days of walking. It hasn’t stopped raining since the day after we arrived. Me being me, I heated the area around us enough for rain to not get close to us, though in return the humidity around us was high...I hate Vanir.

{Keeno, your inner monologue is strange today.}

“I don’t care. My hair and tail are messed up, no matter what I do I can’t fix it, and this damned rain won’t stop, but I don’t want to get wet, so I have to keep the heat going and the humidity is only increasing. I’m slowly losing my mind. I mean, it’s so bad even Huginn and Muninn’s feathers are starting to get affected.” (Keeno)

Looking back at the two birds that haven’t left my tail since we got here, they were about two sizes bigger than normal due to the severe humidity I was making poofing their feathers up.

“Honestly, I didn’t think birds could be affected by humidity like this.” (Pram)

“I didn’t either, but Pram, you aren’t any better.” (Keeno)

“I’m trying not to think about it. I’m just happy I have it easier than you.” (Pram)

{And once Keeno starts getting more tails, things like this will get even worse.}

“AMA! WHY!?” (Keeno)

{...Tee hee?}

“NO!” (Keeno)

Just as I was about to continue questioning Ama about why she would wish horrid humidity upon me with more tails, a woman appeared in front of us in a flash of blue and orange light before falling to the ground, passed out and clearly very injured. This snapped all us out of our casual mood and we became on guard. Pram knelt down next to the woman.

“...Okami, we need to heal her, and soon. She won’t last much longer if we don’t.” (Pram)

“Ok, but let’s get her off the road first.” (Keeno)

I looked around and saw a small copse of trees.

“I’ll carry her, you watch my back.” (Keeno)

“Already on it.” (Pram)

“Huginn, Muninn.” (Keeno)

The two hopped out of my tail and started to fly around above us. I gently picked the unconscious woman up and we moved to the treeline. When we got there we looked around for a few minutes until we found a big enough flat space. I heated the area up a little more to dry it and placed her gently on the ground. Pram then came and knelt down next to the woman to examine her.

“Hmm. Left arm broken and dislocated at the shoulder, internal organs injured, some ruptured, ribs cracked or broken, sprained ankles, some teeth missing, large gash over right eye, also swollen shut. Probably more injuries under her clothes, but it’s too dirty for me to properly check here...Keeno, help me with her shoulder, that has to be fixed first before I do anything else.” (Pram)

She then summoned her bell and rang it twice. The unconscious woman glowed briefly before Pram’s bell disappeared. I moved over to her left arm and grabbed it in the spots Pram told me to.

“I’ve numbed her senses, but she’ll probably wake up when we get her shoulder back in place. I don’t know what her reaction will be but be prepared for her to struggle.” (Pram)

“Heard. Ready whenever, Pram.” (Keeno)

“Do it now.” (Pram)

I moved the woman’s arm and, after some resistance, a crunching, popping sound was heard.

“AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!” (???)

The woman tried to jump up, but I held her down as Pram looked down at her with a stern face. The woman was glaring at both of us with her one good eye and a pained grimace. A low growl coming from her throat.

“Quiet. We’re trying to heal you, so cooperate.” (Pram)

Pram’s statement confused the woman but she stopped growling, though by the look in her eye, she kept her guard up. Pram then got to work healing her. She started with her internal organs before moving on to the broken bones and, after a good while, her minor injuries. Once Pram was done checking over her work, she nodded and I released the woman. She immediately jumped up and tried to grab for Pram, but I conjured some flames in front of her, forcing her to stop.

“Now, now, that’s no way to treat the one that just spent almost two hours healing you from near death.” (Keeno)

“Who are you people? What Family do you work for?” (???)

“Who we are doesn’t matter right now, and we don’t work for any Family, whatever that means.” (Keeno)

“We were just on our way to the capital here when you just appeared in front of us all injured.” (Pram)

“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you just heal someone like that?” (???)

“Because that’s just the type of Pure Soul Pram is. Now, why don’t we all calm down and have a nice, relaxed conversation?” (Keeno)

“...” (???)

I pulled on the chains and the swords returned to my hands. My remaining opponents, now extremely cautious of me, started to widen the distance between them so that I had less of a chance to hit multiple of them at the same time.

“*Whistle*” (Keeno)

At this signal, Pram’s bell rang loudly and the ones in front of me winced as they flattened their ears to their heads. Huginn and Muninn also followed the signal and started attacking and driving my opponents closer together. Once they were all pretty much in a straight line in front of me, I channeled a lot of mana into my blades until they were glowing an incandescent cerulean blue. I flicked my wrists, tossing the blades out on the chains at either side of me before bringing both arms together like I was clapping. The glowing blades and chains followed along and when they met with a metallic clang, the remaining enemies in front of me fell to the ground, being split where the chains and blades burned through them. I once again retracted my weapons and moved back to Pram. When I turned to look at Freya’s side, I saw her looking over at me with an uncomfortable expression that was mixed with what I thought was a slight bit of admiration.

“In all my life of living in this den of wolves, I’ve never seen someone kill people like that and not have an ounce of emotion on their face while doing so...You’ve earned a little respect for that.” (Freya)

Pram glanced over at me, and I could feel one of my ears twitch a little at that because Freya’s statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. I was actually really feeling horrible right now, it just didn’t show on my face due to me currently being in ‘princess mode.’

“Huginn, Muninn, anymore!?” (Keeno)

Deciding to just ignore it and think about it later, I called out to my two avian companions. They both cawed on response, letting me know that there weren’t any more enemies around. They then landed on a branch slightly above us.

“Well, now that this is done, time to clean it up before we move.” (Keeno)

While the ones I killed were already purified, Freya’s kills weren’t, so I was going to move over and purify the bodies when I saw the souls start to float out of them.

“O-Okami, what are those?” (Pram)

“So, you can see them?” (Keeno)

“Never seen a soul before? You must have never seen someone die this close to a Dead Zone then.” (Freya)

As the souls silently floated there, their murky dark colors almost dripping, I summoned my Soul Weapons once more. Instantly the souls started to float toward me and, once they touched the blades, the murkiness vanished and shortly after, the souls did as well. Once all of them were gone, I started to get unsteady on my feet, the purification having taken a lot out of me.

“...Never seen that happen before...Hmph. Anyway, I’m a woman of my word, I’ll answer your question, but we need to get to a safe place. I happen to have a few safehouses in the city that even they shouldn’t know about, we just need to make it to one.” (Freya)

“Didn’t they all just come from the city? Wouldn’t that just invite even more trouble?” (Pram)

“Yeah, but your friend there is a kitsune, right? All I need is a bit of illusion magic to make me look different.” (Freya)

“Hmm.” (Keeno)

I snapped my fingers and Freya’s appearance changed, now she looked like someone from Solheim.

“Chantless...Anyway, let’s go.” (Freya)

While I was still a little unsteady, it was enough for me to walk on my own. Huginn and Muninn flew down from the branch and landed in my tail again and we left the little copse of trees. A bit later we made it to the wall of the city and after Freya bribed the guards, we walked inside. The city reminded me of picture I saw of European cities from around the industrial revolution, minus all the toxic mist and factories, though for all I knew there could have been some somewhere else in the city. Like the first city we were in, everything was monochromatic, even the people. They all had clothes of varying shades of black, white, and grey. Freya was the only one so far I’ve seen with any sort of color, aside from us.

After about a half-hour of walking, she led us down a small alleyway that ended in a dead-end brick wall. She went up to the wall and tapped on several bricks. The wall then made a rectangular indent the size of a door and swung inside.

“Get in.” (Freya)

We went is as she asked and she followed behind us after making sure no one followed us. When the door shut, everything was dark, the only thing anyone could see would probably be my eyes, due to the fact that they glowed. I was about to conjure a fireball when I heard a tapping sound and soon small glowing stones lit up above us. We were in a small hallway that led to a somewhat large room I assumed was underground.

“Don’t just stand there.” (Freya)

Pram and I nodded, and we went further in. When we got into the large room, the musty smell of abandoned building hit me. I wrinkled my nose at that but decided not to voice any complaints. I moved over to a dusty wooden chair and sat down, letting out a tired sigh. Pram moved another chair over and sat next to me while Huginn and Muninn hopped out of my tail and started to explore the room. Freya also pulled up a chair in front of us and rested her arms on the table between us.

“So, ask away. While I don’t completely trust the two of you, you’ve both shown me more goodwill in the last few hours than anyone else has my entire life, so I believe the least I can do is answer any questions you have.” (Freya)

Chaos Realm:

Luna: ...Brutal.

Tamamo: I agree.

I’ve seen worse.

Luna: Really?

Live as long as I have, and you’ll see worse as well.

Luna: ...

Atmos: Hmmm.

Tamamo: Wha...I see, I think I get where your thoughts are going, Atmos.

Luna: Hmm? ...AH! Fufufu. Same.

Hehe.