It was a bright and sunny day as Caius finally arrived on the outskirts of Hosenka Town. The lush green forest lined the road as he headed up the mountain to get closer to the main city. The trip had been a pain in the ass. Not because of the walk. It was a short trip on foot. The reason he was hauling a giant cart of young kids the whole way. There was a lacrima that kept the cart afloat for easy travel and it was covered up by a magic blanket so nobody could see inside without moving it. The problem was the kids wouldn’t shut the fuck up. Hosenka was a big vacation spot so he knew the people there had money. These kids would fetch a pretty penny


“I want my mommy!” One kid screeched. Caius was at his breaking point. He was about to dig a bunch of tiny graves and just start blasting them. However, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Then he let the ‘calm rage’ out. “SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU LITTLE BITCHES. DON’T MAKE ME GET THE SPRAY BOTTLE” Caius reached in his side pouch to pull out a spray bottle full of chemicals. The liquid inside was harmless long term but it did cause a slight burning sensation when hit by it it. Caius lifted the blanket and waved the bottle menacingly at the kids as they all huddled up in the corner of the cage. “That’s what I thought you little hob goblins.” Caius then put the blanket back down and sat down on a nearby rock. He pulled out a cigarette and started smoking to take a break.

Juni frowned as she recounted the jewels she had on her from the last job she picked up. No matter how many times she counts these jewels the result was the same. Motherfucker... Juni placed the jewels back in her pouch and began to rub her temples. She had been shorted, again, by the same motherfucker who she had done some dubious shit multiple times during her stay here. What upset Juni the most was that she knew better but what she couldn't figure out is why the money always came up to the right amount when she counted them in front of him but never when she was away. She just couldn't wrap her head around it but she wasn't going to sit around and keep stressing over it, instead, she was going to take care of the problem personally. It was unfortunate however that the sun was still high up in the sky, she would have to wait to carve out her own brand of justice.

“I want my mommy!” The voice snapped Juni out of her own fantasies of the many ways she was going to turn a small rat-like man's insides right out. Now more times than none Juni would just mind her business, had this perhaps been another time she would rush to what was clearly a child's defense but now she just didn't give a shit. She was tired, hungry, and upset that she had gotten played for the umpteenth time by a man who looked like he couldn't see his dick when he stood up or sat down. It was only as Juni was walking that she noticed a man sitting on a rock with a cart. Having just come out of the forest she might have looked suspicious to the average joe but probably no more suspicious than the man and his cart. Juni didn't plan on saying anything to the man but as she passed the cart she heard small voices crying for help once more, right next to her.

Caius stared at the sky as he watched the smoke rise up to the clouds. Finally a moment of peace. It was short lived as the kids started to whimper like wounded puppies. This prompted Caius to grab a rock. He stood up and prepared to throw it at the cart when he saw a women staring at him and his cart. She had red eyes, long black hair tied up into twin tails with two black ribbons. A real looker that probably would sell for top dollar. However, that wasn't his concern now. He had a hot crate of merchandise next to him and this chick might rat him out. It was time to improvise.

Dropping the rock, he walked over to her to introduce himself. "Hey there pigtails. The name is Caius. What brings a fine lady like you over to Hosenka town." Caius slowly walked behind her and put his hand on her bare shoulder. "I know what your thinking girl. You want to know what's hidden in the mystery cart. It comes with my business. Go ahead and take a look I don't mind." Caius smiled at her to reassure her and took his hand off his shoulder. After all who could resist the temptation of the mystery box? If she did look it would give him ample opportunity to blast her from behind.

She didn't have time for this sort of shit. She knew she fucked up the moment she stopped next to this bastard and his cart full of people. She wasn't stupid, she knew what she heard but it was none of her business so why oh god why did she stop. I'm sorry I don't think that's really any of your business. Moving when he did she made sure to keep some distance from him. She wasn't about to let this devilishly handsome but hella suspicious man get near her. If the people in the cart were any indication of what could happen if he did get near her then she wasn't about to trust him no matter what he said to her.

Also I don't need to see what's in there to know what I heard. I just stopped when the noises in your cart got louder...Anyone would stop over that, so keep that shit under control and don't come near me I don't trust you. Flipping her dark locks over her shoulder she had full-on bitch face, the kind that made you wanna slap the shit out of her. Juni wasn't about the man's next victim but she also wasn't about to possibly put her life on the line for a bunch of kids? At least she thinks kids were in there from what she heard.

This girl had some fight in her. Caius liked it. She didn't care to answer his questions and wouldn't let him near her. The suspicion hurt his feelings. He was just trying to be neighborly and show her his life's work and maybe shoot her a few times. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Caius raised his hands up in the air like a thief caught in the act. It looks like she knew what was going on here. "You're a feisty little thing aren't you. OK you got me. There may or may not be people in the crate."

Caius reached under the blanket in the cart and pulled out some shackles. On the shackles were smiley faces with the phrase "Life is good". Only the highest quality ones for his slaves. With his left hand he pointed his finger at the woman and it was shaped like a gun. A purple magic light would light up on his finger aimed at her face as he jingled the shackles at her. "Unfortunately for you I don't trust you either. I don't know if you will snitch or not. So you can either put these on and hop in or you can lay in the ground here. What's it going to be sunshine? "

Her day was going from bad to worse and she knew that it could end completely if she didn't play her cards right. Her options were limited as she was basically held hostage by this psycho and she raised her hands in a surrender sort of gesture. She had to turn this situation in her favor and playing submissive would probably by her a few seconds to lower this dickhead's guard. Listen I don't care what you do to these people, There's gotta be some other way to let me walk freely right? I mean I'm not even in a guild that cares about the laws of Fiore I've no reason to snitch. Honestly, I'm hardly in a guild at all I don't even care about the laws of Fiore.

She really played up her affiliation just to find some common ground with this guy. Maybe if he thought she was at least in the same realm of affiliation he would let her go or at the least not try to kill or shackle her the hell up. Maybe I can even help you with whatever you are doing? And that was the hammer in the nail of her survival tactics, she would place herself first in order to save herself nowadays, her self preservation was her priority currently. She still didn't trust this asshole but it was better to be on his good side at the moment.

The woman raised her hands up in surrender which kind of disappointed him. Caius wanted some way to release his stress from all these stupid ass kids crying so he hoped she resisted. He listened to what she had to say and was intrigued. It seemed she didn't really care about what he was doing and went so far as to offer to help him out. Caius didn't really believe her so he went to cuff her and add her to the collection. However, before he did he heard another little brat start crying. This broke him at this point. At the same time, it gave him an idea. Caius flipped the blanket from the cart and unlocked the cage. He pulled out the little boy that was whining the whole trip and dragged him out by his arm. Then he slammed the cage and and covered it back up. He had a test for her.

Caius knelt down in front of the kid and whispered to him. "Ok little buddy you're free. Go run away now!" Caius undid his chains as the kid slowly ran down the path away from them. Caius trained his still glowing finger on the woman in front of him as a threat.. "Alright girl I'll make a deal with you. I'll let you go if you can do one thing. Murder that child before he runs away. Otherwise you are going to take his place.

She watched the scene play out before her like she was in a sort of badly written movie. There was too much open space for her to run away safely and she began to internally panic as she watched Caius's every movement. At first, she thought she was going to be cuffed and thrown in with the rest of the lot. Of course, she wasn't about to go with that and began preparing to quick draw her magic as soon as he got close enough to put the cuffs on her because she knew it would take both of his hands to get those things on and as soon as he let that momentary guard down she would blast his ass all over the road.

This is her mind was just one plan and she was already working up to more until someone making a fuss in the cart caused Caius to stop moving toward her and start pulling a little boy out of it. Something was wrong with this scene, Juni's face began to show some sort of concern as this turn of events wasn't expected. Uh... Titling her head ever so slightly as her brow furrowed she watched as Caius whisper something to the boy and then out of nowhere gave her an ultimatum. Fuck. She couldn't kill a kid. She was a lot of things but this? This was crossing a line that not even on her worse day she could do.

Looking at Caius and then the boy she sighed all she had to do was murder the boy before he ran away right? Smiling at the boy who was frozen in fear even though he was allowed to run she lunged at him and grabbed him up in her arms. Even if he did run he wasn't going to get far but the fact that she closed the distance between them made it easy for her to get him even if he did run. The kid in a panic began to cry and basically fight her but she would just hold tight to him and rock him in her arms as if she was trying to calm down a baby which she might as well have been. Calm down, calm down it's ok. I'm not going to murder you, child. because you aren't going to run away now are you? Come on you can cry but calm down, it's ok. Her words were soothing and an accent she hadn't heard herself use in a long time slipped right out tying to her Icebergian roots.

The child would at least stop squirming in her arms and instead just hold onto her and cry and whimper. This placed her directly next to Caius, directly in the danger zone. Smiling she looked up at him and into his eyes. Murder that child before he runs away. Well, he's not running away now, is he? So where does the leave us? She was playing a dangerous game as she quickly stuck her accent back into the box she kept it in for so long. She was willing to let these kids be taken by this man, but she was not about to murder some kids. There was bad and there was evil, on some level throughout her life she had grown to become hardened, bad, doing things for herself, but she could never travel down the path that was evil. She couldn't murder without it being to protect her self or others she gave enough of a fuck about to do it for. With each moment that went by the child got quieter as she kept sort of swaying and rubbing his back. It really does look like you need help, if you didn't we wouldn't have had to do all this in the middle of the day in the middle of the road which we might wanna get out of. My offer is still on the table you know. Whatever happened now she wasn't about to let this man see fear, she smirked like she had all the cards in her hand and really she could only pray that whatever came next would at least leave her alive.

Well that didn't take long. Before the boy could even start running, the woman jumped towards him and snatched the kid up. Caius didn't know if it was to save him or to quickly kill the kid so she could go free. Either way, Caius watched in anticipation. Ultimatums like this were made to make people squirm for his amusement. However, his dream was dead when he saw the woman rocking the kid like a baby telling him it was all going to be alright. Spoiler warning, at this rate it probably wasn't.

The red eyed woman tried to find some loophole by saying the child wasn't running anymore and offered her help once more. Caius just shook his head at her and let out a long drawn out sigh. "Yes you stopped him from running. Good job. You forgot the whole 'murder' part of the deal though. Unless..." Caius snapped his fingers on his non glowing hand like he just discovered an idea. "You said you wanted to help so you're holding him for me. Clever girl.  Well shit let's get this done.He used her words against her because it didn't seem like she was going to go through with it. Caius would fuck with her some more.  With her right next to him, he pointed his glowy finger at the child in her arms. A purple magic circle formed and blasted a darkness beam at the two of them. The magic bullet would smash into the child killing him instantly from the piercing and blunt damage of the spell. With the child absorbing most of the impact, it would probably only push back the girl holding him and leave her unharmed. At least physically. She would have a mangled corpse in her arms. That's rough on the mind.

Caius raised his finger and blew on it after a job well done. Killing product was bad for business but he could chalk this up as collateral damage. That kid had his chance but decided not to shut the fuck up the whole trip. Even a business man like him can only take so much high pitched screeching. Caius pointed his finger back at the woman ready to attack her if necessary. "So now that we got that out of the way. What's the plan partner?" He said sarcastically.

SPELL:

She thought herself clever she was in the green all was good. She was wrong. Her smug little attitude was shattered instantly at his words. She couldn't move fast enough, her body was basically rooted in the spot she stood in as his finger aimed itself at the child and herself. She was going to die anyway? All that for what? And this dickhead was still going to kill the kid? Why? Her mind swam in her thoughts and as she was knocked off her feet a few feet away from him as her body slammed into a tree.

They say it takes one bad day for a person to drive a person right down the street of the crazy lane. For some, it takes a little more. In her years of being alive, Juni had her fair share of bad days. She could always find the silver lining or an excuse for while the world was so...Bleak. But time was a dangerous and long mistress and with each day hope for what she saw around her whittled away. She didn't know it but she was on a thin line and it threatened to snap every single time she had a bad day.

Juni didn't know how long she had been holding her breath but when she decided to breathe it was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders. She couldn't hear herself at the moment but she was laughing. The tone of her voice was a higher pitch than it had ever been and it was very unsettling as tears flowed from her eyes without her ever meaning to cry. Her crimson orbs looked down at what was once a child in her arms. Bits of flesh, meat, and bone covered her body as she was drenched in sticky blood. Her clothing choice didn't help that the managed body parts of a child were stuck to her skin.

People hardly ever snapped in front of another person, they usually kept together in order to run from the public eye as they held onto some sort of last bits morale. Even at the edge of falling from humanity's favor they still wanted to be able to stand by it's socially constructed rules until they wouldn't be able to anymore. Here Juni sat her laughter coming down to a chuckle, wiping the tears from her face with her blood-stained hand. It was a sight to see, that someone who previously wouldn't hurt a child was now sitting here going through a whole mental breakdown of an episode. Throwing the body at the feet of Caius she stood up a smile on her face as she took him all in. He really was a handsome devil...

The string that held her to some morals and standards in order to give herself a reason to hold some sort of high ground over others was now gone. Just like the dead boy in the road between them was shattered and gone so was her mental state. It felt like she was being freed from some sort of mental confinement and she had this man to thank for it. She giggled at his question. Of course, she did because what the fuck else was she supposed to do in this situation, it was so ridiculous. Well I suppose I need to get cleaned up. I can't go into town wearing last season's dead child collection by Caius. I'd be stoned to death for such a fashion faux pas She tried to stifle a giggle but in the end, she couldn't. It was just so fuckin funny to her at that point.

Caius watched with his hand over his mouth and wide eyes as the black haired girl just realized what he had just done. In her arms, she looked in horror at the now mangled child and started to laugh and cry at the same time. Now Caius had no regrets on his choice. This reaction was worth his price alone. It was something he had seen before in many of his of his slaves before. They refuse to accept the reality of what just happened and which causes them to break. This woman looked like she had reached her limit. People rarely see death in person let alone a child in your arms. This would scar her for sure.

Once she came too she threw the body over at Caius. He quickly side stepped out of the way. "Hey damn watch where you are throwing that thing. I don't want blood on my 100k jewel boots." Caius walked to the forest and pulled out a big stick. He slowly pushed the body into a ditch into the forest where the animals should take care of the rest. Finally she spoke with a new giggly tone that was different than her previous haughty one. She mentioned wanted to get cleaned up for obvious reasons. She even threw in a joke about. Caius appreciated the dark humor. He pointed to her in appreciation. "Nice one. That's what I'm talking about. That's someone I can work with. Do some down right evil shut but at least have some fun with it. Fine a deal is a deal and you can go if you want. Or you could follow me to a river where you can clean up. What's your name anyway girly?"

He was giving her more choices but he really didn't need to. At this point, there was obviously only one choice. Lead the way and I'll follow along. Grabbing the spear off of her back that she kept wrapped up in dull cloth she began using it as a walking stick. Once again she was asked about her name and this time she wasn't about to be so tight-lipped about it. Juni, but please feel free to call me anything you like. The last words came out in a " matter o factly " sort of tone. Any guard she had up before was instantly taken down by the little display of fucked up dominance on Caius's end. Juni was subconsciously trying and failing to pick up the shattered pieces. Her mind was trying to repair her but she didn't want to be fixed, she was too far gone and nothing was going to change that. Irreversible damage was done but she didn't feel damage she felt liberated.

Do you usually go around killing kids and trying to enslave people you meet on the road? Her question was innocent enough, something to fill the small gap of silence in the air between them and something to anchor her as she tried to get to know a little bit more about the man. It was harmless questioning.

Hot damn that thing was huge. What he assumed was some type of stick or staff was actually a full fledged spear. Caius was surprised a little thing like her could even lift that thing. She must have been drinking her milk to get extra strong. The red eyed woman revealed her name to be Juni but said he could call her whatever he wanted. Oh boy was she going to regret that. He had no nicknames at the time but he was sure to think of something.

"Juni huh? Well to answer your question, No I don't kill kids.......most of time. They fetch a fine price. That one just annoyed the fuck out of me so he got what was coming to him. As for other people, I only stop for the cute ones." Caius winked and pointed some finger guns at her. It was kind of a morbid compliment seeing as what fate actually awaited those 'cute' people. He felt she was broke at this point she would see the good side of it. He dragged the cart down a a dirt path that led into the forest. When they emerged from the clearing, a sparkling, still river waiting for them. It was calm enough where you could swim in it without worry about the current.

Caius turned around and pointed his fingers at the trees behind the path. Using his magic eye, he could see the trees in the distance. He fired off a few bullet shots at the base of the trees causing them to fall all along the path which blocked it off. Nobody would be interrupting them now. Caius walked over to cart and looked in one of the pouches on side. He pulled out a small cloth that she could use. He tossed it over to Juni. "Here go clean yourself up twintails."

His comment about stopping for the cute ones and his stupid finger guns made her wanna match his energy as she shot her own set of finger guns in his general direction. Purple magic circles formed right in front of her right-hand finger and just barely missing him a dark bullet shape shot out, missing him by a too close of a mark. She quickly put her hands behind her back as a little " Oops "Slipped from her pretty little lips. She had honestly thought she was well trained enough for that not to still be happening but she guessed she still needed some work. I'm still working on that. It's a little hard to control magic you wake up one day with. Scratching the back of her head in a sort of embarrassed way as her face flushed pink. Juni continued to follow Caius until the two came to a clearing that held a wonderfully clear river that she wanted nothing more than to dive into. She may be going crazy but she wasn't crazy enough to not want to be clean.

Approaching the river Juni would catch the cloth that Caius threw her way. Making a cute face as she stripped bare and giggling at the little name he gave her while removing her hair from the twintails he decided to coin her as. Will you still call me that mouthful if my hair ain't in those twintails? Walking backwards into the river as she removed the cloth from her spear, sticking the glorious artifact deep into the mud of the river so that it stood upright, creating a makeshift anchor of sorts. Her shoes stayed on the grass but the clothes she had taken off her being put over the spear in order for them to clean in the river but also so they wouldn't float away. Dropping her whole body in the river and coming back up she took the cloth and began to wipe herself down, not caring if he saw her in her birthday suit or not.

Magic circles were forming on her fingers. That wasn't a good sign. A purple beam surged passed by his head and grazed his cheek. His demon skin was dark resistant so it didn't hurt him physically but it did mind fuck him. Caius sat there dumb founded for a bit with his mouth agape. That was mother fucking bullet magic. It was a very rare magic that very few could master. This random chick on the street had it? It was his lucky day. Juni was as red as a tomato and stated that she lacked control at her magic. He wish he knew that before she pointed her fingers and prematurely ejaculated a bullet at him. Once she washed up he would have plans for her.

His thoughts were interrupted when she straight up stripped down in front of him. If only he had a camera. For now, he would perv on her and keep a mental image for later. "It's not my best nickname but it will do for now until I get something better" It seemed she didn't like the one he gave her too much. Once she got into the water and started to wash herself off he would finally address the elephant in the room. "So nice tits and all that but where did you learn bullet magic? I don't know if you noticed but that's my magic too. Since you almost blew my head off I can show you the ropes." As an example, Caius shot a bullet just in front of her that smashed into the water. A huge splash would overtake her and get her soaked. It was his way of helping out.

It wasn't hard to get fresh blood off of her body as it came off as soon as she got in. The problem area was her hair, of course, it was. Wiping herself down and picking bits of bone from her locks she nodded her head at his words while making eye contact with him, listening as he spoke. She had no qualms about being naked around him, embarrassment was not something she was even familiar with to care, not after what happened with that kid. Who could even give a fuck about anything else after that little incident? Juni furrowed her brow because even though she did notice their magics were the same she couldn't focus on it until now. She could now see he was probably better suited to help her learn how to control her bullets from prematurely coming out of her fingers but she felt that this was the sort of man that would want something in return and if she wasn't careful she would just be signing more of her soul away to this devil.

Once Caius was done speaking he decided to flex his magic a bit, probably to remind her of it. A bullet was shot in her direction and a big splash overtook her, pushing out some of the bone and meat bits from her hair with its' force but also causing it to stick to her face. I didn't really learn the magic. One day I just woke up with it. I used to have a pretty potent healing magic. It's a little hard going from one magic that's so drastically different from these bullets. Its fun don't get me wrong but it's a little hard to explain why I can't control the magic sometimes..I guess people hardly just wake up with new magic Shrugging she dipped under the water, letting her hands comb through her hair to get the final bits and pieces out. She would need to get to an inn for proper cleaning with hot water and soap but this would do for now so she wouldn't scare the masses and have authorities taking her in for questioning. Popping back up she grabbed her clothes from around the spear she gave them a good scrub and wrung them out before removing her spear and climbing out of the river. Crimson orbs bore into brown ones as she stood in front of Caius, her eyes holding just a hint of something unhinged before she slipped on the tank top and short shorts that hugged her body. She was so much shorter than him it wasn't even funny. She hated it. Sure you can teach me, under the condition you take me with you.. Deal? He broke her so now he was going to be responsible for this mess he made. She didn't want to be away from him and rather have his company over anyone else at her current state of mind. Placing her hands on her slim waist she let a smugness come over her.

Weird. She didn't learn her magic like he did. It seems strange to just wake up with a new magic one day. Maybe a small magic lacrima somehow got slipped into her drink or something. He had Void magic previously which was a darkness type magic like bullet. After training, he learned to manipulate it so it would fire faster and at long range while still maintaining it's powers. The downside was the size just had to be adjusted to be smaller than most normal attacks. Since he could only fire it from his fingers he dubbed it bullet magic.

Juni finally got out of the water and put on her clothes. "Aww the show is over?" Caius said frowning at her. He missed the curvy view already. For now he would have to settle for the wet white T shirt. She tried to act tough standing before him but it was almost like she was a child compared to him height wise. To his delight, she would agree to let him train him on the condition that she was allowed to follow him. Caius smiled and put his hand on her head and gave it a little noogie mess up her hair again just to stress the difference between the two of them. "Then we got a deal my little bullet apprentice. I'll show you the ropes and you can follow me. First couple lessons will be free out of the kindness of my heart. For the rest, I'm sure we can work some type of payment out."  Caius hit her with a little wink implying what he wanted. "For now come with me to Hosenka. I got to drop these little bastards off and have a place you can stay. We can start shooting whenever you are ready."  

EXIT

Yes the show is over Her tone was a mocking one yet it matched the light-hearted and joking tone his did. It wasn't lost on her that he was ogling her while she was bathing, she honestly didn't care though especially since she had hardly any shame left. She even allowed him to touch her head though she backed out of his space when he noogied her which caused her to slick her hair back in one ponytail rather than it's usual two. He really was friggen tall and on one had that was great on the other fuck him how dare he be taller than her. Juni felt a bit of a short gal complex coming along but didn't let it outwardly show. Instead, she smiled when he winked because she knew exactly what he meant. Well then lead the way. Grabbing up her spear and quickly grabbing her shoes she followed Caius to Hosenka and in the process, the tattoo of her former guild seem to vanish as a new one appeared in it's place. She would indeed follow this man until something drastic changed or until death perhaps.

- exit -