Gone Camping (2)

“I’m… gonna be by myself?” I asked, although I already knew the callous answer these ladies would give me…

“Don’t worry, Oliver,” Marion said. “I know you can do it, you’re very powerful.”

“And you’ll also be with the Armored Ground Titan,” Jessica said. “You’ll likely just be a second thought to that kaiju.”

“And if I’m not?” I asked.

“If not then in a worst case scenario, all you’d really have to do is survive one hit,” she answered as though that was supposed to ease my worries. “Then I’ll swoop in, pick you up, and carry you high above the fight while the princess heals your wounds.”

“I think this is a good plan,” Marion said. “With your speed and strength, you shouldn’t even have to worry about the kaiju being able to hit you. You just have to dodge it’s attacks and Miracle Punch it from the side.”

“Don’t mock my special moves…”

“I’m not mocking your special moves,” Marion said.

“By the way,” Jessica said. “It’s customary for adventurers working together to exchange their codenames.”

“Oh yeah, I guess we haven’t done that…”

“I’ll go first,” Jessica continued. “My codename is TitanCraft. Named after my flair of course.

“Now you go, my man.”

“Sure,” I said. “My codename is Captain Miracle. Please don’t ask why, it’s a very long story…”

“Well, I’d like to hear that story one day, Captain Miracle,” Jessica said.

“If we survive this, then remind me to tell you, TitanCraft.”

“And now you, Princess,” Jessica said.

“Oh,” Marion said. “Well, about that… I don’t really have one…”

“You don’t have one?” me and Jessica asked at the same time.

“Yeah,” Marion answered.

“Well, why not?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah, I mean, didn’t you ever imagine yourself as a superhero growing up?” I asked. “Surely you came up with something that you might be able to use. Even if it’s a little childish.”

“Not really… I’ve just never thought of it…”

“Well then we should help you choose one,” Jessica said. “I think we should do something that builds off your power-”

“Or we could… not…” Marion interrupted.

“I’ll have to disagree with you on that front,” I said. “I already have the perfect codename picked out for you.”

“Oh… well, I mean… you don’t really have to…”

“Your codename will be…! Oni!”

“Oni?” Marion said. “But, I don’t really want to be called a demon…”

“Well that’s just it,” I said. “An oni isn’t a regular demon. It’s a good type of demon.”

“It is?”

“Yeah! An oni is the kind of demon that fights it’s murderous instincts and helps people!”

“Oni, huh? I think I like it!” Marion said. “Oni it is then!”

“Wait… does it really mean that?” Jessica asked.

I smiled at her.

No.

No it does not.

But since Marion isn’t caught up with her earth studies there’s no way she’ll be able to tell I’m blatantly lying to her. Oni is just Japanese for demon. Thank you, interplanetary travel plus thousand year language barrier! Now the royal pain in my ass doesn’t know I’m still just calling her a regular demon.

I truly am a horrible person.

Hopefully she doesn’t look this up anytime soon…

…

After a few vain attempts at changing my location from the front lines to anywhere else, we actually got to the strategy part of our meeting. The plan was to go hunt for the kaiju after dinner, which was the next thing in our schedule.

We didn’t really have all that much food, just some sausage and fruits. It didn’t really mesh all that well together, but food’s food. Despite that though, I learned something about Jessica. She has quite the ravenous hunger.

In the amount of time it took me to realize I didn’t really want to finish my food, she ate her’s, got seconds, thirds, and then just finished the rest of it before asking for the rest of mine, which I gave her, but even then her stomach was still rumbling.

After dinner, we decided to roast marshmallows. I feel like we’re leaning too much into the “camping” part and not enough into the “hunting a monster” part, but whatever.

As we sat by the fire roasting marshmallows, Marion’s stomach began to rumble, but not at all like Jessica’s. It was more of a gurgle.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” Marion said as she held her stomach. “I just don’t think that sausage is sitting well.”

She took the marshmallow off of her skewer and quickly ate it before setting the skewer down. Then she stood up.

“I’m gonna go… you know,” she said.

“Alright, but are you sure that it’s safe to go into the woods by yourself?” I asked. “What if you get lost or something happens?”

“Don’t worry, Oliver, I’ll be fine,” she said while grabbing a bag of marshmallows. “I’ll use these to create a trail so that I don’t get lost.”

“Yeah, but… what if you run into the kaiju while you’re out there all alone?”

“I think I’ll be able to tell if a kaiju’s coming for me,” Marion said. “And if it does start to attack me I’ll just run back here while yelling at the top of my lungs.”

“And what if it’s a kaiju shifter and they get the drop on you?” I asked.

“Well, if I take too long then you two can just follow the trail and come find me,” Marion answered.

“Fine by me, Princess,” Jessica somehow managed to articulate through her mouthful of marshmallows. “Just don’t do anything stupid till you get back.”

“I shouldn’t be gone long enough to do something stupid in the first place,” Marion responded as she walked away, leaving a trail of marshmallows behind her.

Recalling what happened last time I let Marion out of my sight, I’m not sure letting her wander off again is such a good idea. That being said, I am not going to go watch over her while she’s taking a shit.

I’ll just leave her be for a few minutes and if she’s not back soon I’ll follow the trail and check. Let’s say about five minutes.

But now with her gone, I’m alone with Jessica.

I looked at Jessica, and she stared back at me for a while. She then smiled and gave me a thumbs up before going back to eating marshmallows.

Strange, but I need something to pass the time before this big kaiju hunt…

“So, Jessica…” I said.

“Yeah, my man?” she answered.

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“Well, why not?”

“Well, I guess I don’t have any reasons why you shouldn’t…” I said before we both went silent for a moment. “So… You never really told me much about yourself.”

“I guess it just never came up.”

“Well, I’m bringing it up now…”

“I guess you are, my man, but what do you wanna know about me?” she asked. “I mean, if you look at us, you’re the one who’s much more interesting.

“A human from earth of all places? That makes for quite an interesting story…”

“I guess it would be here, but where I came from a human from a place like Thloria would be much more interesting,” I said. “A human from earth is just par for the course.”

“So I guess that just means we’re both equally interesting to each other, Oliver my man,” Jessica said.

“I guess so,” I responded. Another moment of silence fell between us. “So… what’s up with your jacket?”

After hearing that, Jessica stopped plopping marshmallows into her mouth. She swallowed them down before she spoke.

“If you really must know, you remember when I told you I was too poor to afford food?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “That was today after all…”

“Well, it also stands to reason that I’m too poor to afford proper clothing.”

“But didn’t you say-”

“I got this jacket a couple years back,” Jessica interrupted. “I was seven at the time and still just learning how to properly use my flair. I wanted to look cool so I saved up a bunch of money and went to the clothing store. I found a cloak that looked cool, so I went up to the store manager to ask if I could buy it. He took a look at the money I had brought and jokingly said I could buy two-thirds of it. So I did.”

“Wait, he let you buy two-thirds of a jacket?” I asked.

“Not initially,” she answered. “But after some prodding and a little blackmail coupled with the sullying of his good name, in a few weeks that two-thirds of a cloak was mine.”

“Wait, you did what?” I asked, only to be interrupted by a low growling sound.

“O-Oliver my man,” Jessica said, visibly shaken. “It appears our guest has arrived early.”

I slowly turned around and saw what could only be described as a terrifying beast.

It had a huge body reminiscent of a grizzly bear, except it was far larger in size. It had three pairs of legs, each one easily as huge and meaty as an oak tree. On its back were bony plates that looked as though their durability could rival that of a steel battleship. On the undersides were huge tufts of fur that looked as rough as sand.

The bones extended towards a long tail, at the edge of which was a cluster of the thick bones, making it a natural hammer. There were also bones covering the top of its head, making a natural helmet that looked as jagged as a broken glass cup, although there was no doubting the protection it offered.

Its eyes looked down at us from at least twenty feet up. Its gaping maw was filled with sharp teeth, and from it a low grumble emitted as saliva as viscous as slime came pouring out.

“Wh-what the…” I started, but I don’t even know what to say.

So this is a kaiju…

How the hell did this thing even sneak up on us? It looks like just walking would make the ground shake beneath it.

“Looks like it’s not a twenty footer,” Jessica said. “Although it’s not exactly thirty feet, but dull it… did it have to be a skrullbear kaiju?”

“A what!?”

“Don’t you see how that thing looks like a freakishly large skrullbear with rabies?!”

“What’s a skrullbear?” I asked.

“Right, you’re from earth,” she said as she clapped her hands and her eyes began to glow. “You just have to know that this thing is the kaiju form of a very dangerous pecus!”

The Skrullbear Kaiju then let out a massive roar that shook the entire area, almost pushing me over.

With an amount of speed that could only be called incredible for its size, it raised one of its front paws and slammed it into the ground, creating yet another shockwave that extinguished our campfire.

I might actually die this time…

…

\\\ Marion ///

“I think I put down too many marshmallows,” I grumbled as I continued to pick them up off the ground.

Maybe if I had staggered the line of marshmallows then retrieving them all wouldn’t be so monotonous. Well, actually it was always going to be monotonous, but it definitely wouldn’t have taken as long. I’ll just have to remember that for the next time I end up making a marshmallow trail… or any trail really…

As I continued picking up the marshmallows, I heard a deep sound coming from the direction of our camp. It sounded like some kind of roar. I should hurry back.

But before I could start, I heard a voice.

“Hey!”

“What?” I said as I turned around.

Standing a few feet away from me was… a boy. He was about my height and had dark skin. He wore a yellow button down shirt that was completely unbuttoned and the sleeves were ripped to make it a short sleeved shirt. He had sandals and dark grey sweats with white bandages wrapped around his ankles.

He had two swords hanging from his waist and each sword had some sort of loop at the ends. He had a tail covered in grey fur, and his head was like that of a wolf with similarly colored fur and yellow eyes. But… I can’t tell if that’s his real head or a mask of some sort…

A low growl came from him as he put his hands on the hilts of his swords.

This might be troublesome…