04 Town, Backroads / Banishment Night

Hikage, driving them down a dark and empty road.

Nothing beyond what the low beams show. Intimation of trees on either side.

Trying to ignore the three gazes boring coldly into the back of his skull. (In addition to a lone gormless, bemused one …)

An awkward attempt, now, at breaking the ice.

"… I mean, I'd say that went better than expected. Right? Target secured. None of us died. (Great driving, Sakaki! Really. To think you don't even have a license … A-and Rina! Great gunwork! Pew! Pew! So cool. … And of course, Misa, with the claws … You all handled yourselves well against—well, you know who …)"

The cowgirl (… Rina, was it?) stands up, unsteadily at first. Then, hands on her hips. Revolvers holstered, tassels swinging. "Now wait just a doggone minute here! You don' gone and taken us three for a ride! We weren't never told we'd be facin' off with that there Himekawa Hikari!"

She turns to her two friends, the gyaru, the kendo girl, sitting in the back, next to the transfer student, on the side bench of the camper van. "Ain't that right, ladies!? Had we known about this right hornswoggle, we damn well never would've taken no contract with this here rascal!"

The skewer gyaru, with the side ponytail tied up in a pink scrunchie, flip phone clicking idly in one hand, snaps her gum. For the moment, nothing between her knuckles. Rolling her eyes, she assents, "Ughh, totally. Real grody. Leaving out the details of who your sister is? Slipped your mind, old geezer? Like, gag me with a spoon."

"(… 'Geezer'? I'm twenty-one …)"

The last girl, clad in the hakama, nods sagely, bamboo sword resting on her lap, her chin nestled in the crook between her thumb and forefinger, and says, "Shorn of all pretensions, the perils of the night are laid bare. … (Actually, I wasn't even aware Himekawa Hikari had a brother.)"

The driver protests, defensively, "Well, no, hold on now—I briefed you all before you took the job. I told you, clear as mud, that this was a protection racket."

"You didn't say from whom, dagnabbit! (Also, do you know what 'clear as mud' even means …)"

Hikage scratches the back of his head. "… You never asked, 'from whom'. … You know. Uh. 'Caveat emptor' and all."

"('Caveat emp'—… That don't make no sense! … You're the one buying from us …) Now see, this here ain't what I'd call a fair deal, pardner. … Matter of fact, I daresay we're entitled to more than the agreed-to amount."

The driver's listening. "So …? What'cha proposin', cowgirl?"

The camper van goes over a bump. Or possibly a pothole.

"We want more. Every one of 'dem shadow gems you fixin' to wrangle from here on out—it's ours."

Hikage considers this post-handshake altering of their deal, turns it over in his head. (Or, at least, pauses long enough to make such a supposed deliberation seem credible.) "… Done," he says.

For a split second, a flash of surprise on Rina's face. Quickly replaced, by a look of smug, deserved triumph. "Darn tootin'."

The cowgirl turns back to her two friends. Silent fist pump. See? she mouths. The gyaru, the kendo girl, impressed.

She sits back down, on the side bench, with the rest of the camper van's passengers.

~

The three girls turn their attention now, to their underclassman.

The cowgirl tips her wide-brimmed hat. "Howdy there, blondie! Nice ta' meet ya'! Don't got no idea what you done to piss off ol' Hikari-senpai back there, but can't say I envy ya! … Ah, I reckon ya don't got no darn clue what I'm saying, so, um …"

Clumsily, in his own tongue, or at least some attempt at it, "Ah, you—like—ham-bur-ger? You—like—cola? My name … Ri-na. Yo-ro-shi-ku. Etto, … I like pizza. … And burger. Nice. To. Meet. You. … Ano … Thank you. And you?"

(Hikage, from the driver's seat, "… Rina, please. He can speak Japanese.")

Next up, with an exaggerated smile, "Ya-hho! Name's Misa, da-yon~." Sideways peace sign, lashes winking. Then, back down to her flip phone, decorated in rhinestones. Reverting back to her default look of being perpetually annoyed. "Anyway, don't get the wrong idea, okay, gaki? We're not your guardian angels. We're stone-cold, hard-boiled mercs, hired to do a job. That's it, okay?"

Lastly, engaged in the careful maintenance of her wooden sword, examining its surface for imperfections, "Despair not, shounen. Our aim is to protect you throughout the duration of Banishment Night. Rest assured that until the rising of a new dawn, you shall be in the safest of hands. Such is Sakaki's promise to you."

The transfer student nods back to the mercenary trio, diffidently.

~

Banishment? … Night?

The transfer student doesn't understand.

"Aberrations, shounen. Creatures native to Fuyu-no-kage-machi. Nocturnal and tenebrous, they live in shadow. They prey on the helpless. Stalking those weak in body and in spirit, and those whose faint hearts can no longer persist. And tonight the Aberrations, they are at their vilest. Congregating in their terrible, fuliginous convivialities about the entire town. … Naturally, these trespasses are not to be suffered. For tonight, the hunt is on. All Banishers take up their weapons. A competition, of sorts."

… Aberrations? As in, the shadowy tendrils that attacked him in a dark alleyway a month back?

"They're not just tendrils, gaki. They take on many different forms. The tendril-type Aberrations are actually kinda the weaker ones. … Also, you got attacked? Uwaa-aaa. That's so totally gnarly. I mean, like, how did you even survive?"

Himekawa Hikari was on patrol that night, and saved him.

"That sounds like my sister, yeah," says Hikage, from the driver's seat.

Even though Hikari is hell-bent on killing the transfer student now? Her exact words being, '[his] head on a pike'?

Very long silence. Then, "My sister's … complicated."

Wait, so … 'Banishers'? Everyone in the van, save for the transfer student, is a Banisher?

"Sure are, pardner. Ain't like there's some kinda license you gotta apply for. Anyone's allowed 'ta just go out and do it. Only thing stoppin' ya is how good you are at it! … Or bad. Sink or swim, catch me?" Rina unholsters her revolvers, spins them. "Ya just pick up a weapon, and there ya go!" Then re-holsters them.

The transfer student wonders what a 'shadow gem' is.

"Ah, that's simple, gaki." Misa snaps her flip phone shut, and reaches into a nearby satchel. From within she pulls out a handful of what look like obsidian tokens, roughly flat, vaguely circular. Uneven, jagged surface. Iridescent, at the right angle. Clinking together in her hand, a glassy kind of sound.

"The Aberrations crystallize into these," she says, "when they're Banished. Ugh, if you think about it, it's kinda like dead Aberrations in my hand. Totally grody stuff, to the max. Yabakunai?" She puts the shadow gems back in the bag, disgusted, tongue out. "Totally, maji yabai. I mean, didn't you like, see the tendrils shrink, and turn into shadow gems? When Hikari saved you?"

The transfer student wrinkles his forehead.

Did he see something like that? He doesn't remember. Perhaps understandable, given how much was happening that night.

(And for whatever strange reason now, a chomping floats through his head. Crunch. Crunch. Involuntarily, no visual accompaniment. Crunch. The munching of some tempered dark glass he cannot see. Crunch. Brittle shards between her teeth. Crunch. … 'Her'? … Yes, 'her'. Crunch.)

The transfer student shakes the noise out of his head.

He can't help but wonder, what happens now.

~

Hikage laughs from the driver's seat. "'What happens now'? Well, what happens now is that we make sure my sister doesn't cross the one line that puts her soul at hazard."

The transfer student blinks.

"Oh, and uh, yeah. … And keep you safe too, I guess. … B-but first! To that end! We must repair this ol' thing." Eyes still on the road ahead, he reaches beside him, and grabs his broken sword, and waves it up and down.

The stub blade.

Hikage frowns. "'Stub blade'? Listen, transfer student, if you're gonna talk about my weapon, you best show it some respect, got it? This thing is the Vernal Blade. Or, I mean … What's left of it, ever since I left town three years ago, and scattered its fragments all over Fuyukage."

Vernal Blade …?

So then, wait, Hikari's matching blade. Is that—

"My sister's in possession of the sister sword, yes. The Autumnal Blade. All the more reason we must restore mine. My sister's only going to get stronger through the night. That was nothing, what we faced in the courtyard. A shattered sword's just not gonna cut it anymore, at some point."

Rina scratches the back of her head. "I mean, not to be rude or anything, but the shattered sword already doesn't cut it …"

Hikage chooses to ignore her. "Five fragments. Ooh, our itinerary for tonight." He runs his palms up and down the wheel, breathing heavily, pupils narrowing. "And what a night it's gonna be."

Misa, eyes glued to her flip phone, chimes in without looking up, "Don't forget! We're gonna Banish every Aberration we come across tonight, too! And every shadow gem goes to us! You promised, geezer."

Sakaki nods sagely. "Many trials yet await us tonight, indeed. However: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Nothing Adjudicated. Such is the way of Sakaki."

Then, in sync, the mercenary trio, fists raised, punch the air once and (Se, No—) cheer, simultaneously, "Yee-haw!" "Ra-aad!" "… To victory."

Rina grabs the transfer student's arm, pulls him toward them. "Come on, blondie! You join in on the fun too!"

… H-hooray.

~

The way ahead is dark and the road is long. No lights follow as no lights approach. Save the travelers' own what stills the transfer student's growing fear that there is not another left in all the world?

The sky black.

The absence of trees lining either side blacker still.

Tonight within that Winter's Shadow they ride on, the five occupants of the camper van.

A mercenary trio of Banishers, speaking in patterns as idiosyncratic as the weapons they wield, make three.

The neotenous driver, the sibling, the transfer student's keeper, that's four.

And the nameless transfer student himself, does the quintet complete.

~

The camper van rolls to a gentle stop.

"What'cha doin'?" asks Rina. "What's the matter?"

"Yeah," from Misa. "What's the hold-up, geezer?"

Hikage points out the windshield, straight ahead.

Black shape, down the road. On all fours, back hunched. Bestial and gibbous.

The crew's first Aberration of the night.