The Sound Of Chains (1)

We were sitting at a table in the tavern. Me and Marion on one side, Jessica and Tyler on the other.

Like upset little children, no one was looking at each other.

Am I even allowed to begin a day in this world without being somehow inconvenienced?

I don’t know how I didn’t realize this would be the case, but… they are all so HIGH-MAINTENANCE!!

Everything began when we got back to town. Fenrir had to go back inside Tyler to rest or whatever… which was fine. Me and Marion have super strength so we easily pulled the Cart Titan the rest of the way.

But then… Tyler throws a fit once he found out we were planning to sell the skrullbear kaiju’s body because he wanted to eat it since as the victor of the battle it was his duty or whatever.

Jessica heard this and initially took Tyler’s side for no reason other than he was talking about eating! She didn’t even think about the fact that we need to turn in the kaiju to get the reward to pay off her debt!

Anyway, Tyler said she couldn’t eat it with him since he killed it and not her. And then, instead of explaining to him that she should be able to because she helped, you know, like a normal crazy person, she summoned the Armored Ground Titan and challenged him to a fight for it!

WHY!?!

By that point I had to step in to make them stop acting like children, but then they turned on me! Why did they turn on me? I don’t even understand the thought process! What had I done?!

Somehow I managed to turn them back on each other and then me and Marion went off and sold the Kaiju. We collected the reward and even divvied it evenly between the four of us.

I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly Marion had agreed to give Tyler an equal share, but this story isn’t over yet.

So then we went and found the other two, who were still in the middle of fighting. Naturally, or rather should I say as disappointingly suspected, they didn’t react well to the fact that we had gone off and sold the kaiju. But it’s not like I was expecting anything else to happen.

I dealt with Jessica and gave her her share of the reward. I let Marion deal with Tyler. I should’ve been more vigilant.

After I finished dealing with Jessica, I realized that Marion and Tyler had left the area. I didn’t know why at the moment, but it felt as though I had made a mistake. So me and Jessica decided to go find them.

First we ran into Marion, who seemed awfully pleased about something. I ask why she’s so happy, but she just dances around the question. I then left Marion and Jessica together so I could go find Tyler.

When I find him, Tyler’s holding a bag of marshmallows and he’s looking pretty happy, too. Or at least I think he was, he was at least making joyful grunting noises.

I ask Tyler if he bought the marshmallows and he happily says that Marion got them for him. But right before I can be proud for even a moment he follows that statement with the words: “It’s part of our deal.”

Suspicious that I’m about to be upset, I ask about this deal and Tyler explains the whole thing to me. Marion promised to buy his meals and even his snacks… for 90% of his income. AND HE ACCEPTED THE CONTRACT!!

What the hell?! She was supposed to be the good one!!

With a surprising amount of trouble I explained to Tyler that he had been tricked. Although I’m still not sure he entirely understands exactly how.

So now I’ve gathered these Problem Children into the same place.

“So,” I said, breaking the childish air of silence. “Where should I begin?”

“I think we should begin by addressing Tyler’s issues,” Marion said. I can’t believe she has the nerve.

“Shut up!” I yelled. “You’re worse off than he is right now!”

“I don’t have to take this,” she said as she stood up.

“Sit. Down.” I commanded as I activated Miracle. The very air around me shook, probably infused with my vast irritation. Marion sat down with a nervous look.

For some reason, it feels as though Miracle is stronger today than it was yesterday…

“Do I even have to explain how what you did was messed up?” I asked without looking at her.

“N-no…” she said quietly.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“No… I understand,” she answered at an acceptable volume.

“Yeah! How could you trick me like that!?” Tyler asked completely out of turn.

“Well it’s not my fault you’re stupid…”

“Seriously!?” I asked in unbelief as I turned to Marion.

“How rude,” Tyler said. How unnecessary. I turned to him.

“You shut your trap! She is right, you know!” I said. “It’s your fault she was able to trick you so easily! And where was Fenrir during all of this? He doesn’t seem like the type to fall for such a thing.”

“He’s resting,” Tyler whined. “And how was I supposed to know I was being tricked!?”

“In the future, if someone’s asking you to make a contract, CONSULT FENRIR!!”

“What does consult-?”

“Just make sure he’s awake and aware whenever you try to make a contract!” I interrupted.

“And you,” I said, turning to Marion. “Call the deal off and give Tyler his money back.”

“Humph.” Marion slumped back in her chair and crossed her arms, pouting like a three-year-old. “Fine…”

“Now.”

“Okay… Tyler, the deal’s off,” she said before taking out a coin sac and tossing it across the table. I went into bullet time and made sure it was the right one. I can’t believe I even feel the need to do this…

“Thank you,” I said.

“Great,” Jessica interrupted. “Now onto lunch!”

“Don’t even think about it!”

“And why not?”

“Because you caused problems, too!”

“When!?”

“When you fought Tyler to see who was gonna eat the kaiju!”

“Nonsense…” she responded. “We sparred.”

“The point is that you shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place! Especially since you needed the money from selling the kaiju to pay off your debt! Or did you somehow forget why you wanted our help in the first place!?”

You were supposed to be the reliable one, dammit!

Jessica slumped back in her chair with a “Humph!”

This entire situation is stupid!

“I shouldn’t have to talk down to you all like an adult to a group of naughty children!!” I said to the table.

No one responded.

It’s not like I wanted them to respond anyway. This is annoying…

“Well what do we have here?” A familiar voice said. Even though I recognized it, the voice didn’t put me at ease, quite the opposite in fact. I felt my body instantly become more alert and saw Marion tense up as well.

I turned my head and saw Trigger Happy approaching the table.

“I ask you not to get involved with these two delinquents and the next time I see you you’re enjoying a nice lunch with them.”

“And right off the heels of a successful kaiju hunt,” Jessica responded. “But as you can see, Trigger Happy, we’re not eating anything.”

“Hey, who’s this guy?” Tyler asked. “Is he strong?”

“Don’t even think about starting something, Tyler,” I said. “This guy’s a bounty hunter that me and Marion encountered the other day.”

I then turned to Trigger Happy.

“And who are you calling delinquents? I haven’t done anything remotely deliquentish, unlike her,” I said while gesturing to Jessica.

“Well, I guess Jess is a bit of a delinquent herself,” Trigger Happy admitted.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Jessica yelled. “And stop calling me ‘Jess’! I’m not a little kid anymore!”

Ignoring Jessica, I asked Trigger Happy a question, “So, what are you doing here?”

“I’m just checking up on my niece,” he said. So that’s how they know each other…

“By the way, Jess,” Trigger Happy continued. “Shouldn’t you be heading towards Dragons Hollow for those entrance exams? They’re in two days, aren’t they?”

“Oh yeah,” Jessica said. “Oliver my man, if we are going to be travelling together then we’ll need to head in that direction soon.”

“Yeah,” I answered. “In fact, I think the plan was to go to Dragons Hollow around today, right Marion?”

“Uh, yeah it was, Oliver…” she answered.

She seems a little distraught, probably because seeing Trigger Happy is reminding her of the little incident two days ago. Heck, it’s reminding me of that incident…

“Welp, I got things to do,” Trigger Happy said as he began to walk away. “Don’t exactly have time to watch you kids all day.”

“That’s too bad,” I said. “I could really use the help…”

Even though I suspected part of the reason he left so soon might’ve been because he noticed he was making Marion uncomfortable, I still would’ve appreciated some help managing this group…

Marion let out a small sigh once Trigger Happy left, and Tyler stretched before sprawling his arms on the table.

“Hey, Oliver, who was that?” he asked.

“Didn’t you already ask me that?” I said, annoyed. “It’s just someone that we ran into the other day.”

“Hmm… I won-”

“Don’t even think about it.” I don’t need him to finish his sentence to know that he wants to fight Trigger Happy. I personally don’t want to go up against him again. I barely managed to “defeat” him, a word I use in the vaguest sense, because I barely managed to not get shot and he was already heavily injured at the time.

Since Jessica’s his niece, her being part of our group means the chances of us having to fight him again are small enough for me not to have to worry about it. So at least there’s that.

Luckily, it didn’t seem like Tyler was going to pursue Trigger Happy, but I should probably keep an eye on him in case we run into anyone he thinks is strong. Actually, it would probably help to get out of town before he has the chance to cause me more problems. Even though that’s only a temporary solution.

“I think we should start heading towards Dragons Hollow today,” I suggested. “As soon as possible. Maybe even immediately after lunch.”

“I didn’t know you were so excited about FuzzyCoats, Oliver,” Marion said.

“Huh? Oh yeah… sure.”

…

“Ah! It’s good to be back home again!” Tyler said.

“This isn’t our home,” I replied, “We were born on earth, remember?”

“R-right! I knew that!” he quickly retorted before changing his mood. “Where are we now again?”

Sigh.

Me and Tyler were on the outskirts of the town, once again looking into the forest road that led towards Dragons Hollow.

How many times have I been here?

This marks the third time if I’m not mistaken, but I doubt the number will go up anymore. I don’t exactly have any reasons to come back to this place after we leave.

Marion and Jessica were both getting their things ready and checking out of their rooms. I decided to split off and isolate Tyler from those two for a bit. He’s been the one at the root of most of the group’s current squabbles, so I just need to make sure to keep him around me so I can control him, at least a little bit…

“So we’re going back into the woods?” Tyler asked.

“We’re going through the woods to a city called Dragons Hollow,” I said. “Weren’t you listening at all when we talked about it during lunch?”

“So that’s what you guys were talking about!” Tyler said as though he had undergone some massive revelation. “I thought something else was happening.”

“What else could’ve been happening-!?”

“Since we’ll be going through the woods again, I have something I need to warn you about.”

Strange, Tyler’s not the kind to be thinking about things like “warnings” most of the time.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Beware the sound of chains,” he said in a serious voice. “If you hear it then that means we gotta start running.”

What could be in that forest that spooked Tyler so much?

Before I had a chance to ask him, the girls arrived. I guess it’ll just have to wait till later…