Retrieving The Package

The poor girl hadn’t had a chance and as the kitsune knelt down and turned her over, a frown crossed Menka’s features. The wounds on the unfortunate girl were nasty and clearly those who’d done it were scum. Who else would attack a helpless girl for no reason? It was a sad sight and as the usually peppy brunette ran a hand through the deceased girls hair, she made a promise to herself that she’d handle the trouble makers. Normally, she wouldn’t have been quite so eager to get into a fight but those who’d attacked the delivery girl definitely had no sense of anything other than greed and nastiness. If the girl’s wounds weren’t enough, Menka could smell something else too, a scent that she was all too familiar with. Normally, it would bring a rather dirty and flirty smirk to her face but here, it just caused her expression to darken further. Her senses were incredibly sharp and she sensed more than one trace on the figure, giving her just another window into the mindset of those who’d killed the dead teenager before her.

Her reasons for coming to the forest were simple enough. The guild had received a message that a village of Neko had not received their vital supply of cooking supplies and were willing to pay quite a large amount of jewels if Fairy Tail could help solve the problem. So, Menka had quite happily taken the job in order to not only gain a nice reward but also to meet the Neko villagers herself. After her encounter with Tabitha, the brunette had become quite fond of the species as a whole and was quite looking forward to meeting with an entire colony of the beautiful people. There was also the chance of perhaps developing a bond with the villagers and maybe even the chance of further work for the guild in future, which would no doubt be a boost for the members of Fairy Tail.

She’d honestly been rather hopeful that the reasons behind the missing delivery were simply a misunderstanding but sadly, any chance of that had been blown well and truly out of the water now. The kitsune was going to be able to give her developing abilities a work out here. In truth, her three slayer magics were still a bit of a jumble inside her and hadn’t completely melded together yet but she knew that it would just take time. Adronica, the vampire who’d given the brunette her third lacrima, had been pretty forceful in her training of Menka and her new powers, giving the kitsune an experience that she’d never forget. A sentiment that Menka was pretty sure went for the vampire too, as they had done far more than just fight in their short time together.

The sound of rustling from the bushes nearby suddenly caused the kitsune’s ears to twitch and a figure soon came into view. Wielding little more than a crude dagger, the man would simply ogle the vixen, “Oh wow! You’re one hot chick! I’d hate to kill you, so how about you just come with me willingly and I’ll make sure that you get sold to a nice buyer?”

“What in the heck are you smoking?” The kitsune replied, her eyebrow rising, “You think I’m going to go anywhere with you after what you did to this poor girl? You’re out of your fucking mind.”

“You’ve sure got a mouth on you,” answered the bandit, “Guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way then."

With that, the bandit would snap his fingers, causing another five of the dagger wielding bandits to appear from the bushes. They all looked pretty much the same and they didn’t seem all that strong either, judging from the clumsiness of their movements and the fact that none of them seemed to want to attack her first. They just kept looking at each other while slowly surrounding the kitsune, whose fists clenched and tails started to swish. She didn’t even tap into her magic yet, confident that she could handle this bunch with just her normal skills. In a way, it was kind of funny to see them just watching her, some afraid, some bemused by her appearance and she could have sworn that at least two were just leering at her. Nothing new there then.

“Are you guys going to attack or just stare? I don’t have all day, you know,” she finally said, a little bored.

Finally and with one last look at each other, the group would finally move in, swinging their daggers wildly. None of them seemed to know what they were doing and the tall vixen was easily able to evade and dodge their attacks. Using their own shoddy footwork to her advantage. A scream was soon heard as one of the peons managed to hit his own partner, causing a sudden burst of blood which actually set Menka off. Ever since that last lacrima had been placed inside her, the vixen had become rather stimulated by the crimson liquid and just the sight and smell of it was enough to cause a rather drastic change in her demeanor. Going on the attack, she’d start hurling fists and feet at her opponents, her physical strength easily enough to overwhelm this hopeless lot. Her attacks were launched with a surprising amount of force behind them, knocking her foes down with a single strike each. Being a slayer had its perks and the natural boost to her physical powers were certainly handy today. Their daggers did so little and in what seemed only moments, the group lay unconscious all around her, battered and bloody.

Her crimson orbs shining, Menka would lick the blood off of her fist, before starting to search the bandits for anything useful. She was hoping for a few jewels to be honest but as the kitsune started to search the leader of the little band, she’d instead find a little piece of paper, containing what seemed to be a crude map of the first that surrounded her. It wasn’t much good and the kitsune could hardly make anything of it but it did at least seem to say that there was a base, deeper in the forest. It made sense, she supposed and after searching the rest of the group, unfortunately not finding any jewels, the vixen figured that the next point of call was to try and find the base…

“Excuse me, Miss Kitsune? Are you the one who beat up these men?” Another voice suddenly said nervously, a large pair of eyes soon appearing from the undergrowth behind Menka.

Jumping slightly, caught off guard, the brunette would spin on her heel, “Yeah. That was me. They tried to attack me.”

“I see. Well, I guess the fact that you took them out so easily means you’re from a guild, right?” The voice asked, the owner of which soon came into view. A pretty young neko, with bright blue eyes and blonde hair.

“That’s right. I’m a member of the Fairy Tail guild and I came in answer to the flyer. I’m assuming you come from the village?” The vixen inquired.

“Yes and we’re most thankful that you came. We really do need your help.” With a sigh, the neko would then approach the bodies and kneel down besides the delivery girl. “Poor Esmee. She was a dear friend of mine and the third delivery girl that’s been attacked recently. I don’t know where all these thugs came from but they’ve been nothing but trouble for us. I hope that you can clear them out for good because I’m not sure how long we can hold out for without our supplies.”

“That’s the plan,” Menka answered assuredly, “They can’t just get away with all of this mayhem. You can count on me. Name’s Menka, by the way.”

“I’m Delia,” replied the neko, “Nice to meet you, Menka. I just wish that it’d been under better circumstances. Don’t worry about any of the bandits that you knock out, as the villagers and I will drag them back to the village and lock them up tight.”

“I appreciate that,” the Kitsune quipped, before turning her gaze back to the map. “Time for me to move on, I guess, before these goons are missed.”

“Take care, Menka,” Delia responded, before turning back to the bodies.

As for the kitsune, she wasted no more time and darted into the undergrowth.

(1419 Words)
(1419/2500 TWC)

With the useless map not being an awful lot of use, Menka just instead focused on her keen slayer senses in order to try and find the base. Her senses were such that she could easily make out the scent of other humans and it didn’t honestly take all that long for her to detect something moving through the undergrowth. Activating her lightning magic, the kitsune would start to increase her speed and tear towards the figure, the lovely electricity building up as she sprinted. He didn’t have a chance and just as he raised his sword and turned to face her, she smashed into him at full speed, hurling him backwards and crashing against a tree. Rolling through, she’d quickly knock him out with a kick, before getting straight back on the trail. He hadn’t been much of a challenge either but she’d started to think that perhaps that was going to be a running theme for this particular mission.

Well and truly warmed up now, the vixen would dart through the undergrowth, eager to let loose on the bullies who’d decided that it was wise to kill the innocent delivery girl. Menka had never really cared about aiding the innocent as such and there’d always been another reason behind it but there was just something that bugged her about the fact that the targets had been Neko. She’d always had a special fondness for human hybrids, as they were similar to her and the brunette felt a certain kinship with them. That was what pushed her on, as well as the image of poor Esmee who the bandits had attacked. Such scum.

Another movement caught her eye and changed direction slightly, the kitsune honed in on it, sensing the odor of yet another human. They seemed to just be wandering through the forest at random and seemed to lack any real sense of cohesion or teamwork. Should she have expected such from a bunch of bandits? Perhaps not.

Anyway, this bandit at least seemed to be a little more aware, as he was able to roll to the side of her and draw his axe. He was quite a bit taller than the other too, standing at about seven feet and as he approached her, he began to shimmer with magical power with his axe gaining a covering of ice. With a laugh, he’d slam the weapon down towards her, unleashing a wave of cold that was enough to cause Menka to shiver a bit. However, she simply shrugged in response and shook her tails, before activating her lightning claws. She was prepared for him and as he charged in close to fight at close range, she met him with a powerful claw attack, causing ice and lightning to cover the region around them. He was strong but not particularly fast and the kitsune definitely had the advantage of speed, dancing around his attacks and striking him several times to the body. Every strike excited her more and as her attacks became more accurate, the damage began to take its toll on him, before a powerful double slash finished him off, knocking him off his feet. He wouldn’t be getting up for a while and leaving him for the Neko scouts to take into custody, Menka was off once again.

Not that she had to go far as only minutes after defeating the large bandit, she came across a large clearing, absolutely crawling with goons. It was mostly just tents and huts but what caught Menka’s eye quite quickly was a large cage, containing at least a dozen neko. Irritated by the sight, the vixen would start to creep her way into the camp, stealthily moving from bandit to bandit, stabbing them in the back with her claws or charming them by use of her blood magic. Their minds were like putty in her hands and she was easily able to start cutting down the numbers, none without the slightest sound. It was just too easy for her and as the bandits kept dropping, the sounds of the camp began to quieten, the atmosphere becoming tense. Things would come to an end soon enough, that much she knew.

Sneaking around to the large cage, the brunette would quickly take out the two guards who were defending it, before opening the prison with one slash of her claws.

“Quickly now,” she quietly said, “There’s no time to lose and you’ll find the scouts from your village dealing with the bandits in the forest. Move!”

Not wasting any time, the grateful neko would quickly sneak their way out, vanishing into the forest to return to their kin. As for Menka, her attention would turn to the largest of the tents and entered without a moment's notice, knowing that all there was left to do was to take out the leader and any remaining cronies.

Waiting for her would surprisingly only be one bandit although judging from the size of him, he was definitely the boss. Covered from head to toe in tattoos, he’d eye her for a moment before standing up, even dwarfing the last bandit that she’d battled. This one, however, wielded two swords, which soon caught fire. He didn’t utter a word at all and simply charged forwards, unleashing a barrage of slashes with his flaming blades. He was a lot faster than any of the others and Menka had quite a tough time getting her claws in the way of her blades but she just about handled it. It was an intense contest and eventually it came down to trickery rather than pure power. Turning to blood, the vixen would suddenly vanish and slip behind her foe, before stabbing both of her claws into his kidneys, followed by an almighty kick, charged with lightning. A fierce combo, which knocked him backwards and before he could recover, she fired her charm attack to force him towards her, before delivering one massive uppercut to send him up into the air and crashing towards the ground.

He didn’t move a muscle after that and as the kitsune walked over and then looked down upon him, she briefly pondered about whether to finish him off. In the end though, she thought better of it and simply stood guard, until she was soon surrounded by the neko guards, who hauled him off to join his pals in their prison. Fortunately, the delivery that the job had all been about was sitting at the back of the hut too and was quickly retrieved. The job was a success.

With a happy smile on her face, she’d leave the tent to find herself face to face with Delia, whose grin matched hers, “Well, looks like you found them, after all. Thanks a bunch for helping us out, Menka.”

“My pleasure,” the vixen replied, “Come to see me off personally?”

“Oh, you’re not going anywhere just yet,” came the reply, “Not until we’ve thanked you properly anyway. Come with me and my village will show you a good time.”

Chuckling, Menka would take the hand that Delia just outstretched and the two of them would head for the neko home, for a party that the vixen wouldn’t forget for a good long while.

(1209 Words)
(2628/2500 TWC)