Weekend.

"Dang, this place is a Christmas workshop!" Rumble exclaimed like a sugar high 5 year old entering a candy shop, except it wasn't the candy shop; it was a knife shop (different one from last one).

"Go ahead and look as much as you want." Isa paused, then after Rumble happily ran off, she turned to me and said: "Which reminds me, fresh meat; you haven't gotten your own personal survival knife?"

"No sir." I replied.

"You are off duty right now, I want you to address me by my name." Isa's reply caught me off guard, though I swore I heard a similar line like this before.

"Oh...ok..." I said awkwardly with tight lips, and the rest of the crew had about the same reaction.

"Whatever," Isa brushed off, "since you have no knowledge in the field of knives, then it is my duty as senior to help and guide you in this field." Isa said with all seriousness as she plucks out a knife from the knife rack.

"When choosing a survival knife there are 4 things you look for." she said holding up the knife and examining it.

"First, is the knife a fixed blade? Because a fixed blade is only one piece of metal and is much more versatile in the wilderness and is far less likely than the joint blade."

Isa said, as she puts the knife back to its original spot and picks up a new one:

"Second, you want to look at its size. In my opinion a good size is about 26 cm, with the blade being about 12 cm, and the handle the rest."

"Third, you want a knife with a full 'tang'. The 'tang' is the part where the knife extend into the handle. In almost all case a full tang is better, because partial tang may is far more likely to cause the handle become loose and wiggle, or even break off of the blade."

"Fourth, is knowing what material you want for your blade. Generally most blades are either made of carbon steel or stainless steel. Carbon steel, like this one here are easy to sharpen, but can rust easily. Stainless steel however, is much more resilient and doesn't rust easily, but is tough to sharpen."

"Fifth, which is more of my personal opinion, the blade should have a straight edge and sharp point."

To make her point, she began to walk towards me. And by then, I already had this vague sense of Deja-vu of where this was going.

​I subconsciously backed off a step, but it was no use. One moment Isa was still in front of me holding the knife, and before I even knew it, she has somehow gotten behind me with one hand pinning my arm, as her other arm coiled around my neck like a boa constrictor.

"A straight edge can be easily sharpened, and carve any material easier..." she hissed in a low voice, as she gently pressed her knife against my throat.

​Holy crap! Holy crap! ...Someone get me out of here!

​Although I knew, Isa was just 'teasing' me, but still, the threat is real. And who knows, she might just accidently sneeze and slip her hand or something.

With that panic thought in mind, I looked around desperately for help, then I realized Kuro was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Kuro?" I blurred out plainly.

"Way back in the store, in the shuriken section." she replied, as I feel slight added pressure from the knife.

"When was she gone?" I said, with me still being held 'hostage'.

"Right when we came, that rebel meat disappeared like a shadow." Isa said, as she finally let me go from her grasp.

"Yeah, I am just gonna buy that knife you are holding. And let me just quickly grab her and let's just head out to lunch now."

Silence. Just as I thought I made her angry and she was going to crush my skull inwards, she finally said:

"You guys go first, there is this new blade I haven't checked out." She then turned and left without a word.

Huh? I did not expect that...

***

In the end it was just me and Kuro, the two of us sitting at the food court, since Isa was still busy picking out knives at the knife shop and Rumble, moved onto the explosives or something. The cafeteria as expected was pretty crowded itself, since it was the weekend, through the two of us managed to secure a table for ourselves, and took turns at buying food. I got myself some pho noodle while Kuro got herself some yakisoba. It was by the time we were both sitting down and eating, it finally struck me:
This is the first time we been alone together since inside the caves...
I looked up from my food and saw her eating, the way how she took little nimble bites.

Dang that's cute...

"Is there a problem?" Kuro looked up and snapped at once.

"No..."

Then I realized this was my chance to open up a conversation. Since that battle, we barely got any time to spend with one another, mostly it had to do with her being in court and stuff. Then again, given her silent nature and reserved personality, it was pretty hard to strike up a conversation with her in the first place. But it was now or never, better fail then never have tried; so I decided to go with the first thing that came to mind:

"What did you get at the knife shop..."
She paused and stared at me for a moment, and just when things were beginning to look sour, she reached for her bag and took out a case.

"My previous Tanto was broken by a barbaric foe." She gave me a look, which I pretended not to see.

"So I bought a new one, along with several shrunken." She said as she took out a small black sheath about a foot long, and cracked open the sheath slightly, revealing a slim silver body of steel.

"Ok, I get it, I get it! But it's probably better if you don't show it in public..." I said nervously, as I glanced around to see if there was anyone looking in our direction.

"I see, the people here are strangers to weapons then." Kuro let out a small sigh, as she puts her blade way.

"You could say that. People here well...they just live peaceful lives, go to school, find a job, get married, and raise kids..." My voice trailed off, as the circuits in my brain switched to a different route: "Actually to be honest, everyone may seem free here but they are not."

"So they are prisoners then?"

"In a way yes. As a member of society, you owe obligations to your work, your family...etc. Your time becomes restrained and you can't do anything without money, and everything seemed to a price tag on them these days. All these advertisements, this false sense of materialism, have become the new societal standards. Remind you, this is a society where people worship money to the point of insanity, where money has become the new god, and capitalism, its religion. It's quite sickening and disturbing if you think about it, and it's just all too fake for me. And I know I sound like a hypocrite for saying this cause I am. But I just can't help myself away from it." I finished off my speech by taking a sip from my Stardelight Frappuccino.

Kuro looked at me then down for several minutes. And after what felt like an eternity of silence, she spoke in such a soft voice, that I almost missed it:

"Pity."

"Indeed, people's heart these days are made of gold, they can't breathe anything else in, but gold."

"It seems neither worlds are better than one another then." Kuro closed her eyes and leaned back.

"The other world?" I said, as subconsciously inched to the edge of my seat.

"Yes, the one I used to live in." Kuro drew in a deep breath then opened her eyes and continued: "before the war with the government even started, we were a nameless small village in the mountains. Ironically, our goal was to strive and become like the big cities."

"We were orphaned to begin with, my father died during a hunting, my mother shortly after. So my younger brother and I were raised by my grandmother. A decade ago an incident was triggered between the villagers and the government, leading us to form a rebellion and we all took up arms. Women and children fought, it was a slaughter." Kuro looked down, but went on:

"During the one week of fighting, hundreds of villagers died, houses were razed, and my brother, I, and few others escaped to join the Iron Fist. And because I was girl, I know if I didn't do something, I would be made into a housewife, so I willing took up the surgery...you know the rest."
The surgery she mentioned was the one about having one of her human eyeball removed for robotic eye implant, and another one removed due to infections.

"I am sorry to hear that." That's all I could think of to say.

Kuro looked at me confused for a moment, then replied:

"There is no reason for you to apologize. You didn't commit the act, and even if you did it doesn't matter. This is the world of the strong, there is no room for the weak."

Though what she said was a little cold, but I have to give it to her that she was right on that one. It was then, a name began to surface in my head, a name she muttered from her past, and right then was probably the best opportunity to confirm it:

"Kuro, I was just wondering, is your brother's name Ha-"

My last word was cut off as a wave of glass shattered from below.

Not again...

Curses.

Q: Do you consider yourself an outdoors person?