Futuresex / Red Dragon / The Judgement
五
Maybe it could be him?
“ You’re that man,” I could not help but say, though I had not confirmed it.
“ Yes, so is yours truly,” He procclaimed confidently, even if it was more or less a generic nickname. “ That lady has done quite a bit of pimping to upgrade my status.”
“ So you know a Nana?” I asked to make sure.
“ Why of course,” He replied. “ It’s our codename, really, ‘ that man’ and ‘that lady’, though she might deviate at times to ‘that guy’.”
“ I see,” I nodded. That made sense.
“ You did well on that, for an in-training,” He commended me, though up till now hinting no exorcism background, and proceeded on stating observations on my performance. “ Executed swiftly and cleanly, my favourite kind indeed. One could see you have become much attached to it skills had become more of a habit, but it continues to amaze me on how the living corpse did not turn into dust.”
“ Undeads are not living corpses,” I gently corrected. “ They are humans without memories.”
“ Well, it’s a matter of opinion,” He said, brushing the matter aside. “ I, for one, had seen priests around this area use acupuncture to achieve complete physical annihilation of evidence. To not perturb human relations, I assume. You don’t look old enough to study medicine as a secondary fighting style.”
“ They assign me for front line fieldwork,” I told him.
“ And so you are meant for it,” He commented. “ Newly-made acquintance, do you happen to know anyone in the Sora no Kage?”
Sora no Kage, or as historians referred it as, The Sky’s Shadow, was what they named all fourth districts as one unit. Anything involving the supernatural aspect would have much to do with them, with or without mutual approval.
“ Fourth district?” He prodded further. “ The battle division?”
“ Ezra Van Goven,” I answered. “ The vice-captain, she just highlighted that I should know about the pressure points.”
His face darkened visibly. I stared.
“ Yes, I’m no knight,” He broke the silence. “ I do fight fair maidens that are not neccassairly neither fair nor maidenly, thank you very much.”
“ Anybody in the Sora no Kage automatically gain many opponents,” I stated, making polite conversation.
“ You have no idea,” He said, then all of a sudden, gave me the once-over. “ Newly-made acquaintance, I think I know what you need.”
“ Sorry, I don’t have any money to buy fancy goods,” I told him my pratically nonexistant financial status.
“ No fret there, I’m not a misering salesman,” He assured me and held out a hand. “ The name’s Regan Luxkreuz, a freelance freelancer, currently assistant of a museum curator.”
It was understood that it was introduction time. “ Zhen Shenlong,” I introduced myself and shook his hand. “ Student, priest-in-training.”
He unexpectedly pulled me into a hug and kissed me on both cheeks, the traditional way of saying ‘hello’ in Bellestia. Used to mantaining distance between other bodies, I was fairly uneased.
He released me, swept his fringe out of his eyes and took something out of his frayed denim jacket’s pocket. It was a flyer he handed to me.
“ I’m not pimping anything,” He told me. “ But I do propose you to examine the feature picture closely.”
And so I did. It was of a mythical beast about to devour a woman with half-unfurled wings.
“ The great red dragon and the woman clothed with the sun,” I recited from my memory, being the only one who actually payed attention in art class. It especially left a deeper impression on me, for in the sect, ‘ red dragon’ was otherwise known as the top gun exorcist.
“ The dragon affects,” He pointed out.
“ Yes it does,” I agreed.
Another new period of silence and this time, he stared back. Neither of us blinked, it had turned into an unofficial competition.
“ Well, I better be off then,” He declared and turned in another direction, holding up a palm as a gesture of farewell. “ This episode is over. I’m not sure if you could look me up for further enquiries though, but to try your luck, you could go to yer local museum. For one, my wanked driving skills apparently is not proportional to the motorcycle.”
I could not help but query, “ Are you going to live?”
“ You could speculate,” He suggested while walking away. Not very polite not to maintain eye contact there. “ In the meantime just ask this to you, am I a person who seeks terror?”
I did not exactly see how this relates, but I asked myself anyway.
My answer was: Hmm. I could be.
“ You’re that man,” I could not help but say, though I had not confirmed it.
“ Yes, so is yours truly,” He procclaimed confidently, even if it was more or less a generic nickname. “ That lady has done quite a bit of pimping to upgrade my status.”
“ So you know a Nana?” I asked to make sure.
“ Why of course,” He replied. “ It’s our codename, really, ‘ that man’ and ‘that lady’, though she might deviate at times to ‘that guy’.”
“ I see,” I nodded. That made sense.
“ You did well on that, for an in-training,” He commended me, though up till now hinting no exorcism background, and proceeded on stating observations on my performance. “ Executed swiftly and cleanly, my favourite kind indeed. One could see you have become much attached to it skills had become more of a habit, but it continues to amaze me on how the living corpse did not turn into dust.”
“ Undeads are not living corpses,” I gently corrected. “ They are humans without memories.”
“ Well, it’s a matter of opinion,” He said, brushing the matter aside. “ I, for one, had seen priests around this area use acupuncture to achieve complete physical annihilation of evidence. To not perturb human relations, I assume. You don’t look old enough to study medicine as a secondary fighting style.”
“ They assign me for front line fieldwork,” I told him.
“ And so you are meant for it,” He commented. “ Newly-made acquintance, do you happen to know anyone in the Sora no Kage?”
Sora no Kage, or as historians referred it as, The Sky’s Shadow, was what they named all fourth districts as one unit. Anything involving the supernatural aspect would have much to do with them, with or without mutual approval.
“ Fourth district?” He prodded further. “ The battle division?”
“ Ezra Van Goven,” I answered. “ The vice-captain, she just highlighted that I should know about the pressure points.”
His face darkened visibly. I stared.
“ Yes, I’m no knight,” He broke the silence. “ I do fight fair maidens that are not neccassairly neither fair nor maidenly, thank you very much.”
“ Anybody in the Sora no Kage automatically gain many opponents,” I stated, making polite conversation.
“ You have no idea,” He said, then all of a sudden, gave me the once-over. “ Newly-made acquaintance, I think I know what you need.”
“ Sorry, I don’t have any money to buy fancy goods,” I told him my pratically nonexistant financial status.
“ No fret there, I’m not a misering salesman,” He assured me and held out a hand. “ The name’s Regan Luxkreuz, a freelance freelancer, currently assistant of a museum curator.”
It was understood that it was introduction time. “ Zhen Shenlong,” I introduced myself and shook his hand. “ Student, priest-in-training.”
He unexpectedly pulled me into a hug and kissed me on both cheeks, the traditional way of saying ‘hello’ in Bellestia. Used to mantaining distance between other bodies, I was fairly uneased.
He released me, swept his fringe out of his eyes and took something out of his frayed denim jacket’s pocket. It was a flyer he handed to me.
“ I’m not pimping anything,” He told me. “ But I do propose you to examine the feature picture closely.”
And so I did. It was of a mythical beast about to devour a woman with half-unfurled wings.
“ The great red dragon and the woman clothed with the sun,” I recited from my memory, being the only one who actually payed attention in art class. It especially left a deeper impression on me, for in the sect, ‘ red dragon’ was otherwise known as the top gun exorcist.
“ The dragon affects,” He pointed out.
“ Yes it does,” I agreed.
Another new period of silence and this time, he stared back. Neither of us blinked, it had turned into an unofficial competition.
“ Well, I better be off then,” He declared and turned in another direction, holding up a palm as a gesture of farewell. “ This episode is over. I’m not sure if you could look me up for further enquiries though, but to try your luck, you could go to yer local museum. For one, my wanked driving skills apparently is not proportional to the motorcycle.”
I could not help but query, “ Are you going to live?”
“ You could speculate,” He suggested while walking away. Not very polite not to maintain eye contact there. “ In the meantime just ask this to you, am I a person who seeks terror?”
I did not exactly see how this relates, but I asked myself anyway.
My answer was: Hmm. I could be.