#furcillo

(He supposed he couldn’t criticize too much. He was trying to help Ray win, too, after all.)

The streets seemed quieter here, as he neared the bridge, almost eerily so. It felt oppressive, suffocating; he had the vague, creeping sensation that the buildings around him were watching him. Unnerving. It reminded him of playing “tag” with Krone, and being uncertain, just for a moment, of where she'd gone. Or...something else. Almost the same uncanny calm that had pervaded from the gates on that night, before everything had...

But! A feeling was just a feeling, he reminded himself; he shook it off, examining the surrounding area for any fragments that may have gone overlooked. Definitely not looking out for whatever bogeymen his imagination had dreamed up from the uncanny situation. That would be ridiculous.

By the end of the street, still encompassed in eerie silence, the smell had grown too pungent not to notice anymore.

Though he would have preferred the privacy of one’s own courtyard, beggars could not be choosers. He opted for the midst of the park, furthest away from the sharp light of the lampposts that ran along the outer rim - where the runners and cyclists hastened their paces. The grass yielded beneath his steps.

Lancer, she called him. And Lancer, he would be.

Takumi spun upon his heel and brought the naginata crashing down upon the wrist of some imagined foe. Disarm, retreat, find another target. The kata gave him an opportunity to sharpen his technique as much as it did a chance to strengthen his legs. Wielding the bow placed less emphasis on the lower body; he had to catch up.

He stopped. Something rustled over by the bushes. Instinctively, he raised his weapon and called out, “Who’s there?!”

“Oh!”

There was not other way to describe it, from the buckles on his boots to his blindfold, the jacket and every marvellous stitch; she was in love. “Attention grabbing yet modest, a simplicity belying the master craftsmanship. Suave yet adorable!”

“2B.” The normal silence between Pod and android was broken, and without looking back at the floating robot, 2B acknowledged him with a short hum. She was following whatever objective came to mind: and of course she wanted to find out more about the humans, about the GRAIL, about whoever put her back together and took out the logic virus... But when Pod 042 stopped following her, 2B halted her step as well. Turning slightly, she looked back at the small bot, waiting for it to speak again.

“I have confirmed presence of another YoRHa unit’s black box.” If she had a heart, it would have stopped beating, but her breath did catch. Pale blue eyes widened behind her visor, and immediately 2B stepped closer to her assigned pod.

“Can you confirm whose it is?”

“YoRHa Unit 9 Type S has--,”

“Mark it on the map.” She spoke with a sense of urgency, one she hadn’t felt since handing over her sword to A2. As soon as a marker was placed on the map displayed on her HUD, the android started to run. People around her gasped and stumbled away out of her path, completely surprised at her hurried pace that sent her nearly completely against the flow of traffic.It didn’t matter. More important things were at hand... But through the throngs of people, tall and short with red and brown and white and black hair, it was hard to pinpoint her companions location.

This seemed to be quite a tricky situation. The two agendas on Karna’s mind would be to secure as many of these shards as possible, mitigating some of the damage that may be done to the terminal, and making sure that these infected citizens do not harm his Master, or any other innocent civilians.

He was surveying the main city street when he heard in the distance a mixture of a snarl and what seemed to be distorted white noise, and a yelp of shock after that. He rushed to the source of the noise to find a regular citizen, albeit limp and with a ferocious expression on his face, slowly making his way towards a young man dressed in black. 

He instinctively leaped in front of him and held his lance at the ready.

       ...Huh?

             “Um... Mister...?”

       This was kinda weird. The boy in front of her was blindfolded, for some reason. At first, she thought it may have been because he was blind. She heard something about blind people wearing sunglasses to block light from harming their eyes. But he didn’t have a walking stick, and he was walking around just fine, almost like it didn’t even slow him down. Maybe it was a prank, or a dare? But... that didn’t fit either. 

       Maybe she’d save herself a headache if she just asked him.

An additional oddity was not so strange.

“Did... Did something happen to your eyes?”