Two Sabers Hunt for the Mercenaries [Job | Kenshi and Raven]

Kenshi sighed, a plume of his signature purple gas escaping the confines of his mouth. The swordsman quickly waved the gas away before someone inhaled it. The gas was deadly toxic when it was concentrated, but dispersed as it was, it wouldn't hurt anyone. Kenshi sighed again, this time careful to not let any of his toxic gas escape. Being the Poison Dragon Slayer, Kenshi had to be very careful, in order to avoid accidentally hurting anyone. That's why he was surprised, shocked even, when the new guild master, Raven, asked him to go on a job with her. Raven had taken over when Marick, the previous guild master, left. Why the guild master of a powerful guild such as Sabertooth should seek assistance from the guild's weakest member was beyond him. For Kenshi was a mere D-rank. His desire to avoid hurting people had prevented him from taking most jobs. Though, now that he thinks about it, that might be the reason Raven had chosen him instead of one of the many better-qualified members. Perhaps she chose Kenshi because she wanted him to advance.
Kenshi sighed yet again. Whatever Raven's reasons, Kenshi had to wait for her to show up. He was waiting in the guild bar, the Ace of Spades. Of course, he couldn't expect her to show up perfectly on time, guild master duties and all. Things such as that got tedious and time consuming, and typically made the person late. This, Kenshi understood, and empathized with. He couldn't hold it against her. Raven had only been the guild master for a very small amount of time. No doubt, the paperwork was overwhelming. As Kenshi ruminated on this, he realized that perhaps Raven had wanted to go on this job in order to escape the duties of a guild master, even though it was temporary. Kenshi leaned over the bar and caught the bartender's attention. The man quickly brought the Dragon slayer his usual meal: a glass of wine with a dash of hemlock (Which the bar stocked just for him) and a meat pie, made with pork. Kenshi smiled and nodded his thanks to the bartender before handing the man a small quantity of Jewels. Kenshi then dug into his meal happily. If he had to wait, he could at least wait while eating.

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Word count: 388/250
Post count: 1/10

Raven closed the door to her office with a loud bang as she sighed heavily, resting her head on the rather large handle of it. Raven had forgotten the one thing that came with responsibilities...paperwork. ‘I’m only 18, dammit!' she yelled at no one in particular inside her head as she raised a string of curses at the people that took up her desk’s space with stacks and stacks of papers that had to be analysed and approved. She had wanted to escape the whole thing for a long time, but though she tried, it always resulted in someone dragging her back for the more “important” stuff. However, she had bid farewell to the problematic pieces of papers for that day since she had promised Kenshi that she would take him on a job.

Letting go of the handle, she threw her hands back and stretched, yawning as she did so. Scratching the back of her messy hair, Raven took slow steps towards her room, evading the numerous looks of concerns and amusement that was clearly aimed at their new Guild Master who looked like she hadn’t seen light for years.

By the time she reached her room, she was half sleeping and if someone walking by hadn’t pushed her up to prevent her from falling, Raven probably wouldn’t have noticed she was standing in front of her room already. The door squeaked as it opened and squeaked again when it was closed. She threw her small bag down on the bed before moving straight to her bathroom.

After the bath, Raven dressed herself in a black tank top, covering it with a simple white shirt and paired them off with her favorite black jeans and converse. She made sure she had all her items and began to head out, reaching for the wallet on the table before doing so.

She found Kenshi at the bar, eating as she walked towards him with her hands inside both of her pockets. She smiled at the man and nodded at the bartender who nodded back with a smile. “Hey Kenshi,” she greeted, stopping beside him. Her eyes wandered to his plate, feeling her own stomach burn for food. Good thing Raven knew how to control herself though. She would eat as much as she wanted after their job. For now, she just needed some fresh air.

"Ah, Raven-sama. It is good to see you." Kenshi said, rising smoothly to his feet, then bowing as his guild master greeted him. He then cast a look at his almost-finished pie, and said "Please excuse me a moment while I finish my meal.", then sat back down and finished the meal as fast as he could while still maintaining decorum. Upon completing his repast, he rose to his feet once more, grabbing his sheathed katana from underneath the bar as he did so. With a short bow in the direction of the bartender, who was collecting Kenshi's plate, glass and utensils, he turned back to his guild master. "My apologies for making you wait, Raven-sama. That pie was far too tasty to leave. But now, we may depart for the capital." he said as he clipped the sheath of Setsudan to the left side of his white belt. Once he had done so, his hand wondered up to the matching band of white cloth around his brow and unconsciously tightened it. When it was sufficiently tight, his hand returned to his sides as he waited for his guild master to respond.
As he waited, his mind wandered backwards in time to when he first joined Sabertooth. Raven had greeted him upon his entrance, back before she had become the guild master. Back before Kenshi had traveled to a jungle in the land of Seven on an innocent trip. With this thought, Kenshi's mind went further back in time.
He remembered the job, which was to find the rare cure to an equally rare disease. He remembered gathering mushrooms in the jungle. He also remembered tripping over a vine, falling headlong into a dank, dark cave. He remembered the rumbling laughter that shook the ceiling of the cave... He remembered Venelogia, the Poison Dragon and his mentor. He remembered learning the magic of the ancient, purple dragon. He remembered Venelogia's last words to Kenshi before the dragon, died three years later. He remembered leaving the cave, tears pouring down his face. He remembered his anguish.
Then, Kenshi shook himself, both literally and figuratively, and rid himself of the dark thoughts. He had a job to do, and he was going to do it to the best of his ability, using his magic in the best way possible to honor the one who taught it to him. A faint smile hovered around Kenshi's lips as he remembered Venelogia's patient, humorous teaching.

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Word Count:410/250
Post Count: 2/10

‘Sama?’ Raven thought, not knowing whether she should cry or laugh. Somehow, people forgot the fact that she was eighteen and gave her the respect her title deserved. SHe wished they would go back to treating her like normal. But, she also knew that she would have to live with it for a long time. She would have to adapt and get used to people calling her sama and being unnecessarily well mannered around her. She remembered how stiff Riley was on the job they went on a few days ago and she didn’t loosen up till Raven showed her she was a mage much like her who loved fun and excitement.

Lost in thought, she almost forgot to reply to Kenshi who was waiting for her reply. Giving him a pat on his shoulder, she said,”It’s alright. I’m sure that pie was delicious”. Of course it must have been good. She wanted a pie too with apples and cream and everything nice in it. How many days had it been since she got something sweet anyway? It was one of those things that came with responsibility, she nodded at herself with a sigh.

“Well, let’s go,” she said after recovering from her thoughts. “Our job location is Royal Castle. I don’t think it’s somewhere we can teleport to. So, I guess we could fl….”Raven stopped, noticing one small problem with it. Kuroe was no longer there with her to carry Kenshi which meant she would have to do that and flying while carrying someone was difficult; especially when the someone was a strong poison slayer mage. “Hey, would you be able to fly or should I call for one of those pegasus carriages?” she asked, turning to Kenshi with a smile.

Kenshi winced slightly when Raven asked him if he could fly. He had a spell that created dragon-esque wings out of his element, but the wings were too small to lift his body. It was a bit of a blow to his pride.
"Well... I am afraid that I lack the ability of flight, Raven-sama. Though it pains me to say it, I will need a pegasus carriage." Kenshi said tightly. Here he was, a lowly D-rank, making a fool of himself in front of his guild master. He wondered how he would ever rank up. He then imagined Venelogia's disappointment in Kenshi's inability to fly, and felt horrible. Kenshi's face tightened as painful memories resurfaced, but he fought them down. He couldn't afford his memories or emotions to cloud his mind and interfere with the job. To keep his mind clear, the swordsman withdrew a tiny vial of clear liquid from within his kimono, unstoppered it, and drank it in one go. Kenshi grimaced as a hot feeling raced through his body, then relaxed as the feeling dimmed to a warm glow. He then placed the stopper back in the vial and replaced it in his clothes. The bartender noticed this, and gave Kenshi a disgruntled glance. Kenshi looked back and gave a tiny shrug of apology. The barman rolled his eyes and went back to cleaning a glass. The glass was already sparkling clean, but the bartender needed something to do with his hands. Kenshi then turned back to Raven and awaited her response.

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Word count: 256/250
Post count: 3/10

Raven nodded, completely understanding Kenshi. Well, not everyone was born with the ability of flight like she was. She nodded understandingly and smiled. "It's alright. I'll go call a Pegasus carriage for us," she said and walked away, leaving Kenshi before she could see what he would do next. The violet haired girl went out and took out a piece of paper from her left pocket. It was two tickets. She had made arrangements for transport in case Kenshi was not able to fly with her by having bought two tickets for a pegasus carriage earlier. The ticket was in a pale lilac color with golden border on it. In the middle was the picture of a flying horse and to the sides, the instructions and date of expiry was mentioned.

Not wasting much time on staring at it, Raven started tearing the tickets in two. Just as that was done, the tickets started burning in violet color and sprang up into the air. The fire grew out like branches, forming a circle in the sky. Out of it, as Raven watched, came a carriage pulled by two pegasuses. One was light golden in color while the other was white. They both looked incredibly beautiful to the violet eyed girl though.

The carriage came to a stop in front of Raven, the flying horses declaring their arrival with a loud cry. She nodded at the driver and went back in to call for her companion. "Kenshi. The carriage is here. We can go now," she told him, standing at the door to the bar. "Let's go" she called again and went back to the carriage, getting in before Kenshi as the driver opened the doors for her.

At Raven's words declaring that their transportation was here, he walked to the edge of the carriage and clambered in, after making a short bow in the direction of the driver. Just after he took his seat, one of the pegasi tossed it's head, sending trembles through the carriage. Instantly, the legendary, and dreaded, motion sickness of the Dragon Slayers hit him, and he fell over the side of the carriage, struggling not to puke. A piteous moan made its way through Kenshi's lips as his face turned a comical shade of green. The carriage hadn't even left the ground and he was already violently sick. Kenshi mentally berated himself. How could he have forgotten about his motion sickness? Now he looked like an idiot in front of his guild master. There wasn't a way out of it now, however. The pegasus tossed its head again, making the carriage wobble ever so slightly from side to side. Kenshi heaved, falling over the until he was hanging halfway over the edge of the carriage, moaning and groaning. The carriage driver was looking at him concernedly, wondering why he was so sick when the carriage hadn't even moved yet. The driver decided to take action, and climbed into the cab of the carriage, setting it to wobbling more than ever, unknowingly causing Kenshi even more pain. He leapt back as Kenshi heaved, his internal fluids splattering the ground, fortunately on the other side of the carriage from him and Raven. Kenshi moaned, thinking about how awful this trip will be if the stationary carriage was so horrible.

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Word Count:265/250
Post Count: 4/10

"Maybe I shouldn't have," she thought, watching Kenshi from the corner of her eyes. She wasn't expecting it. In fact, she had completely forgot about the common weakness for all dragon slayers. Motion sickness. Basically, they hated any and every contraption that moves...especially when they are on them. Why? Well, the answer was right in front of her in the form of a Kenshin that looked like he was going to die any second. And they haven't even took off yet!

"Ah ah...can't be helped," Raven thought before chuckling to herself. Producing a small portable MP3 player out of nowhere, Raven secured the earphones on her and leaned back to place herself more comfortably against the red seat of the carriage. 'I'm such an evil guild master,' she thought, amused by her own actions till she finally closed her eyes and waited for the carriage to land soon. Hopefully, her dear guild member wouldn't throw up on her. If such an event does take place, she wouldn’t guarantee anyone's safety.

So the carriage twisted, turned, jerked, tilted and shook as it made its way towards Raven's and Kenshin's destination. All the while, Raven seemingly kept sleeping with her earphones on and hoped that Kenshin would keep a hold of himself till they arrived. Around twenty more minute before they make their stop, Raven counted in her head as she opened one of her eyes to peek out the carriage window. "This should be fun".