Twelve man gathered, for the first time in centuries. The reason for such a setting is that they had caught wind of a cruise ship that is planning to intrude upon their territories, something that they cannot accept.
They had vowed upon the promise that they will not disrupt the human's flow of time and not bring harm to anyone. However this is now impossible with the arrival of the cruise ship that threatens to disturb the peace they had been maintaining for so long.
Foolish humans simply do not understand the wrath of them, and now they will have to pay the price for their ignorance.
After all ignorance is not a blessing, at least to them that is.
Hachiro pulled off of the dirt road in his cruiser. He had just got off from work from his last disturbance call as a detective. It turned out that it was nothing major other than an elderly woman who is complaining that her son was a fat, lazy slob. Often days like this make him grateful that he does not have a troublesome family, his own family members are self-reliant-most of the time. Who would want to go through all that trouble every single day?
The small country road led back towards the town, a bright flash of light covered his vehicle, a sign that he had just left the humanity behind him. Hachiro was glad to be finally done for the day. That had been his last call of the day. His eight hours shift as the detective was done with, and there was the gathering and a glass of cold beer waiting for him at the family’s house.
He had received news about the gathering from one of his siblings, apparently the humans are getting too full of themselves and had decided to challenge them. If only they knew, those ungrateful brats, he laughed at the thought of it.
A few miles down, he noticed a small, rattletrap of a car on the side of the road and a woman with her head struck under the hood. Hachiro sighed, took a quick peek at his watch, he is a way beyond the schedule and can afford to stop his car to see if his help is needed by the stranger. Hachiro sighed and pulled over behind it. Ignoring a lonesome female stranded in the middle of nowhere wasn’t in his genes, but he will have to settle this as fast as possible, been late for the gathering is considered to be a huge taboo in the family.
“Good day, Madame,” he greeted the back of the woman after emerging from his cruiser and cautiously walked up to her. Although with his ability, he can easily disarm any potential threat does not mean that he should let his guard down. As he got closer, he noticed her flowing hair that was touching her waist. It was weird describing her hair, it was in a strange shade of brown color with even lighter streaks of brown highlights in it, added in with a strong hint of red shades in it. The color meshed together, yet surprisingly it actually looks suitable for her.
Her head came up in response to his greetings and she turned to him. Hachiro swears that his breath got caught in his lungs. Old, faded scars were all over her neck area before disappearing underneath her black blouse. Gosh, what in the world happened to this woman?
“Hi,” she replied and nodded in acknowledgement. Grunting because she took him by surprise- an element Hachiro hated, he weaved a hand at her car. “Broken down, huh?”
The stranger nodded, her eyes darting back to the engine. They were beautiful, astounding even, green, wide, open, innocent and polished. Even with all the scars scattered on her body, she was indeed a beauty. He experienced an unwelcome sense of protectiveness for her, and he didn’t even know her name. Add in the fact that she is human does not help any better.
“I think today’s the day it finally died on me,” she answered, with a sigh
while staring down at her broken vehicle with helplessness.
“Did you call a tow yet?”
She laughed a little and says that she does not have a cell phone. That was the second surprise for him, and he can’t help but voiced it out, although it sounded a little rude. “Are you certain about that? That’s rather unusual in this day of time.”
“I was having some money issues, so I’ve been living from hand to hand,” she commented and kicked the tire of her broken down car as if to make her point clear. Raising her eyes she asked, “Would it be alright for me to use your phone? And I’ll pay you for it, of course.”
“Didn’t you have money issue?” he asked, his brows raised a little.
She blinked rapidly and looked off down the road in the direction she’d been heading. “I’ve recently received a few extra dollars.’’
Now, normally, something like that would certainly please a person. Extra money was almost always a good thing, but when she says it, it sounded like the price for it is death sentence.
“No charge,” he offered, taking his phone out from his pocket and handing it to her.
“Thank you,” she murmured and made her call. Hachiro walked around to the front of her car and peeked under the hood as she talked to a towing company. He wasn’t a prime mechanic by no means, but he figured pretty quickly her problem. Oil splatters dotted the entire engine, and it looked as though most of the hoses were just about rotted through. There was no saving this heap of junk.
She ended her call and returned his phone. “Thank you,” she said again.
“It was very gentleman of you to stop and help me out.” Hachiro lowered the hood as she retrieved her purse from the inside, leaving the keys in the ignition. Then she nodded and started to walk.
“Hey, aren’t you going to wait for the tow truck?”
She paused in her tracks, and bites her bottom lip. “Afraid not, I don’t really care what happens to it.” She looked up at the darkening sky. A spring rain was coming. Hachiro could smell the extra moisture in the air.
“I’m meeting someone, so I need to get going.”
“You’re planning to walk?” He glanced down at her shoes. She is wearing plain black heels that had seen better days, but they were still heels nonetheless.
“It’s not very far from here,” she pointed it out. “Thank you for your concern.” And she walked away, stumbling on the gravel alongside the road. Hachiro frowned at her. She obviously didn’t want to wait for a ride to wherever she was going, but he wasn’t in the habit of playing taxi with his cruiser.
Looking at his watch, he decided that he had wasted enough time and is now slightly behind his schedule. Hachiro will have to drive faster to catch up the lost time that he has used up.
Getting into his car, he took one last look at the lonely woman who has now started on her journey. He exhaled heavily, he is certain that Lashey must have reached the venue and he have to arrive there soon before he falls victim to one of his pranks.
