Her Mysterious Smile

[Zach Kaiser]

"I see." That...actually sounded pretty reasonable. If he could just show Etsu for an instant that he wasn't the creep she thought he was, then perhaps he could help make her stay here more tolerable. How he would that he wasn't sure yet, but he supposed he had to take things one step at a time.

"Thanks. I think I even know who to ask." There was only one person around who might have any idea what Etsu might like that he knew of.

"So...what brings you around here?" While he wasn't exactly sure where Remmy was from, he did know that he'd never seen him around Hillcrest before.

[Nayt]

A fair question--and one that deserved a fair answer. Not like Remmy was the type to hide anything, anyways. Maybe he had a bit of a mysterious air about him, but that probably had less to do with raw mysteries and more to do with wonder. After all, who wouldn't be-- if only briefly --painstakingly intrigued by a man that lived out in the woods with a genocidal wolf that he, himself, had tamed, and could communicate with just like any human being, regardless of the fact that the wolf in question wanted to kill all humans on sight?

"Supplies. Memories. Pals," Remmy answered rather matter-of-factly and with a casual shrug of his shoulders. It took only a second before he further explained the otherwise self-explanatory. "I used to live here. Really loved it when I did. Food here's a ton better than the corporate sorta shit they put out in Galaens. This sorta small town--everyone really puts their all into their job. Makes for a great product. S'why I stock up on as much shit here as I possibly can."

Remmy took a long moment to look up to the old oak tree. This tree had to be thousands of years old. It was surprising it wasn't rotted and falling all over itself. Remmy cracked a grin once, but soon shook his head, shut his eyes, and opened them once he was looking down at Eld again.

"Anymore, I'm livin' out 'tween Galaens an' Hillcrest. But . . . well, ya know how it goes: I do a lot'a travelin', so I don't have the chance to come 'round these parts too often."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld nodded dimly in agreement. In truth he hadn't seen enough of the world to draw that conclusion, as Galaens was the largest city he'd ever been to, but the idea didn't sound far-fetched in the least. He rather liked the idea that the people of Hillcrest had more heart than city-folk, actually.

...Wait, between Hillcrest and Galaens? There isn't anything there...is he really living in the woods? But rather than comment on that (he thought it might be rude, especially if the problem was he couldn't afford a home), he asked something else that interested him.

"What kind of places do you travel?"

[Nayt]

Remmy was the type to live in the woods. He was a man's man. He was the kind of man of legends. The type that'd beat a bear down with just his fists alone and befriend it the next day. He was rough around the edges and simply did not give a shit about what others thought of him.

Living in the woods was just the next logical rung in the ladder of mythological masculinity.

"All over the place," Remmy nodded sagely.

He waved his arm as if trying to motion all around him. All over Hillcrest? All around the Galaens area? The continent, maybe? Or perhaps the whole world . . .

"Really just depends on the job. Sometimes I'll be local, sometimes I'll have to go overseas. Speakin' of, never take a job overseas that don't pay your travel costs. That shit is rough."

[Zach Kaiser]

"O-Oh." That was a slightly worrying thought. "How bad is it? I'll, uh, probably be going to Greoul in a few years. For school, though."

Which would mean a big, long boat ride. He hoped they weren't terribly rough; he didn't like the idea of finally making into a good university only to have his ship sink at sea and drown, or wash up on a deserted island or some other terrible fate.

[Nayt]

"Expensive," Remmy replied.

He went silent, as if recalling a distant memory. The silence lasted for a good several seconds, before he furrowed his brow at this old memory.

"Way back when, early in the business an' all-- see, I wasn't too experienced yet, so I didn't know the ins an' outs an' when someone's just bein' a chintzy prick," Remmy said with a heave, though he didn't seem too upset about it anymore. Maybe he just didn't like looking back on his own failures-- or his own moments of accidentally overlooking something that probably should have been pretty blunt and obvious at the time. Everyone makes mistakes, though, right? "Guy sends me off to this place overseas. A city-state kinda place. Meridian-- ever heard of it?"

Didn't matter if Eld had or not. Remmy had a whole backstory about that place he could have told right now, about how it sank into the ocean hundreds of years ago during that big ol' great cataclysm, then how someone reconstructed it over the ruins and all that jazz-- Remmy just didn't feel the need to say all that. Eld was a smart guy, anyways. He probably knew all that junk already.

"Didn't give me a penny for travels. Took me months t'get there. Had to take all kinds of small jobs from here to the sandpit. Stop in one town, take up a small job to get to the next town, an' so on. Shit sucked. Finally got there and the guy already had another fixer in. Refused t'pay me."

Chances were, Remmy broke that man's nose. 100% chances.

[Zach Kaiser]

That sounded...pretty bad. But while he felt for Remmy's experience, he was a little relieved that he was only talking about how expensive it was. That, Eld wasn't worried about; by the time he left he'd most likely have more than enough for the trip in addition to the cost of tuition.

"Fixer?" he asked. While he was indeed familiar with Meridian (at least academically; naturally, he'd never been there), he was unfamiliar with this term. "Err...what's that? What is it that you do?"

He figured that either Remmy must have had something he was amazing at, given that he was hired to travel overseas (even if the guy refused to pay him). Either that or he was a mercenary.

[Nayt]

Remmy eyed Eld with mild suspicion-- not that Eld had done anything to make himself a serious suspect in anything in particular, but that Remmy was honestly surprised Eld had never heard of the term. Well, he was just a kid. That probably had something to do with it.

"Yer 'rents probably know," Remmy thought out loud.

That was the logical conclusion he would have kept confined to the contents of his skull, but he wound up saying it out loud. This was met with no regrets. Remington was not the type of man to experience regret over something silly like that.

"Eh, ya know-- a fixer. a "repairman." Someone that goes in to a bad situation an' makes it all better," Remmy tried to explain.

In actuality, the definition of this job was pretty hazy to begin with, making it all the harder to actually explain to someone who'd never heard of it.

Remmy tried again. "A repairman that ain't limited to mechanics. Social ills, political tensions, family fallouts-- an' of course, broken hardware. Ya name it, I've fixed somethin' like it."

[Zach Kaiser]

"Aha..." Eld said slowly. He gave Remmy a critical look; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't picture him embroiled political debate or any other delicate social situation.

"You fight a lot, don't you?" It was more of an observation than a question; while he could certainly see Remmy simply intimidating people into backing down, he suspected that the man's modus operandi was to find whoever was causing the problem and punch them until they stopped wanting to cause problems.

While he did have some reservations about that, Remmy didn't seem like a thug who would take any job without question. He imagined he probably only beat up people who probably deserved it. Probably.

[Nayt]

"Eh?"

Remmy seemed genuinely surprised that Eld would come to such a preposterous conclusion. He folded his arms over his chest and acted hurt.

"What, don't think I can talk people outta trouble? That hurts, kid. Cuts real deep."

He dropped his arms to his sides and flashed a grin Eld's way, before shaking his head and letting a bit of a chuckle pass by his lips.

"Nah. I fight when I got to, but sometimes punchin' a guy's lights out don't fix a problem. A lotta times, it makes more." A reasonable enough deduction. "The trick is to work toward a point o'makin' all parties involved happy with where they are. Sometimes that calls for fightin', but not always. Most of the time, it's all just a matter of sayin' the right thing to the right person, an' everythin' just falls into place."

[Zach Kaiser]

"I see." He cocked his head to the side, trying to decide if he believed that or not. Well, he had no real reason to disbelieve it, he supposed. Remmy looked like he didn't have much going on upstairs, but he certainly didn't act like it. He was larger than life, maybe, but not dumb.

"Sorry, you just look like the kind of person who talks with his fists, so to speak. Er, no offense." Though he wondered if he wouldn't actually take pride in that.

[Nayt]

"None taken," Remmy shrugged his shoulders, "Though, it's kinda funny when I do got to solve a problem with bare hands. Real short lived, though."

He had many fond memories that dealt with breaking the noses of many an ill offender. It almost had a superhero like theme to it, the way those things happened. Sometimes a police force just wasn't going to take down a mob on their own without someone giving them an example to go by.

Those were often the most enjoyable jobs.

"Anyways," he cleared his throat, "I should let you get back to your thing. Good luck with the 'cuz an' all."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld chuckled nervously. He didn't like to fight, period, but if for any reason he had to Remmy was definitely one the last people he'd want to fight. He could probably bench press him with one hand.

"T-Thanks. Umm...hey, I don't know how long you're going to be around, but..." He shifted nervously. For some reason, asking this felt kind of dumb, but he had to. Remmy wasn't some local who would be here forever. "But...if you want, feel free to stop by to visit. I actually live at the clinic."

Remmy was...someone different. People like him were not common in Hillcrest, and if he didn't (as he was reminded) have something else he should be doing, he would have loved to hear about his travels around the world.

[Nayt]

Well, that was certainly an odd request. Odd enough to make Remmy stop before he could fully turn around and away from Eld. He paused to think it over.

"Aw, hell," Remmy grinned, "Why not?"

Really-- why not? If Remmy was going to be around town or whatnot and had free time on his hands, he really had no qualms hanging out with this kid. He'd have even fewer qualms if there was a good meal involved, but that was optional. A nice gesture, but optional nonetheless.

"I'll drop by one'o these days," Remmy said, immediately before turning away from Eld and casually making for the two trees that marked the beginning of this clearing. He raised his hand and waved casually, though without turning around. "Take care of yerself til then, kid."

[Zach Kaiser]

"You too!" Eld called after him. He was disappointed to see him go; there was so much more he wanted to ask him! What his travels were like, where he'd been, the kinds of people he'd met...

But he had someone to visit.

******

"Well, well...what brings you all the way out here today? Or have I gone so senile that I've forgotten what day it was?"

In a small, Cizokian style house on the edge of town lived an old Cizokian man. He was about average height for Cizokian men, though perhaps a little short compared to the primarily Algerothian folk of Hillcrest. His hair, once dark, had long ago gone completely white and receded to the point that he was bald in all but the very back of his head. He made up for it with a well trimmed mustache and beard, though. To those who knew him, he was the embodiment of everything right about the culture: he was polite, humble, and even though he'd been long retired he believed in at all times setting a good example for the younger generation. He was not an intrusive person, but rather would give his advice or opinion to any who asked for it.

Kiyotaka Tsukimono was one of Eld's most favorite people in the world, and probably would have been even if he hadn't been his grandfather. "No, you're not going senile, sensei," he replied with a smile. "I came by to ask for your advice, if you don't mind."

"Of course not; that this old man can be of any use still makes me quite happy. I was just about to sit down for some tea. Care to join me?"

"I would be honored." Slipping off his shoes at the door and putting on his indoor slippers, he followed his grandfather inside. The house was quite small, but Kiyotaka was a man of very little worldly possessions. Most of what he owned was either the bare minimum of practicality or had some sentimental value to him.

Once he'd served his grandson tea, Kiyotaka joined him at the small table. Despite being well into his seventies, he had no problems sitting cross-legged on the floor. Of course, given that he'd spent much of his life practicing martial arts as a form of exercise, this was no surprise.

"I suppose you are here because of Etsu-chan?" Kiyotaka asked.

Eld fumbled for a bit. Of course his grandfather would know of the situation; Kyoko was his daughter, and Etsu was his granddaughter. It had slipped his mind. "Y-Yeah."

"How is she adjusting?"

Eld wondered if he was just making conversation, or if he already somehow knew what the problem was. "It's...tough on her, I think. It doesn't help that she, uh, doesn't seem to like me. At all."

Kiyotaka nodded. That was a shame, though perhaps not unexpected. Eld was a nice young boy, to be sure, but he was not always aware of how he influenced those around him, for better or for worse. "I see. You seem like you've been very stressed recently." He could tell from his muscles; something must have upset enough that he'd gone to practice his katas.

"Yeah. I...well, it's not that I blame her for not liking me, but she is kind of being unfair. But I'm trying to put up with it, because I know she--I mean, it's been rough for her," he corrected himself.

However, he was too late, and Kiyotaka was too sharp to miss it. "Aha...so you saw. That explains much."

Eld remained silent for several moments, before deciding to confess. "Forgive me, sensei. I lost my temper, and at father of all people."

"That you could feel that way on the behalf of someone you yourself admit you do not get along with is a sign of your pure heart, Eldridge-kun. But remember that even the purest heart, if it acts rashly in anger, can cause ill."

"Yes, sensei," Eld replied, both embarrassed and ashamed at the same time. That his grandfather spoke highly of him made him hate disappointing him more than anyone. There were a short pause in the conversation as they drank their tea before Eld continued. "Sensei...I...want to help Etsu-san. Even if I can't get her to like me, if she could feel comfortable around me...well, perhaps it would make her stay here more tolerable. You know her better than I or even my parents do. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Hmmm..." Kiyotaka mulled over the question while he drank his tea. Eld was an honest boy; he had little doubt that sooner or later Etsu would see that regardless of what he did. However, as Etsu was living with him as family it was important that she accept him sooner rather than later, for the sake of the household.

"Etsu-chan is not a person who is not swayed easily," he answered at last. "She is a strong-willed girl; if her mind is made up about you, it will take a long time to change." Eld's face fell a bit; he'd known it wouldn't be easy. But then Kiyotaka continued. "That said, Etsu-chan loves to fish. Even if she refuses to spend time with you otherwise, I am sure she would let you show her a good fishing spot."

He couldn't help but smile when Eld's face brightened instantly. "Thank you, sensei! If I may be excused...?"

"Of course. Oh, and please tell Etsu-chan that she is welcome to come practice with us if she's interested, and that she can visit me anytime."

"Yes, sensei." Eld wasn't sure how he felt about Etsu training with him, but he would deliver the message dutifully. Finishing his tea, he put cup by the sink and bowed to his grandfather one last time before leaving.

******

Upon arriving home, Eld was surprised that there was no sign that Etsu had gotten up yet. She was not in the living room, and the door to his room was still shut tight. He knocked on it a little louder than he had the previous day; it was now into the afternoon, and he'd feel rather less guilty about waking her up if she was still asleep.