Chapter 44: Village
Hiro watches the insistent falling of snow. He stands up looking at the sky with the luggages on his back, with a black haired girl sandwiching his right hand between her hands and chests, while being surrounded by five girls. Ivanna on his left walks, hugging her body while glaring at him.
The smallest girl, Mirai is walking in front of him, glancing at them from time to time and the breath that emerges from that girl, Mirai fogs white before drifting up towards the leaden clouds.
Among the girls, only Kurotsuchi who seems happy holding to him. It isn't as though she has any special feeling about snow. The things her master and her grandfather had taught her on snowy village are too brutal to be called cherished memories. Behind the smiling face, Kurotsuchi is thinking about the difficulties of an armed party like them traveling through snow, about the potential dangers, about the orcs and about the ghoul. She would have to protect him, Mirai and possibly other women. She also is still concerned about the ghoul.
"Should she get help from those in the hidden village after all?" She ponders.
Having thought that, what is happening now is a forgone conclusion. There us nothing she could do to reverse the time.
"Hey, clingy girl!"
She looks over to see the weakened Clementine racing towards him and call her.
The skin of her exposed belly and cleavage is red, warm with the blood summoned by the cold. The originally yellowish blond girl put on an overcoat to help shield herself from the elements, pulling up her hood as she strides.
"If you are not cold is fine." She directs her words to the clinging Kurotsuchi.
"Yesss." Kurotsuchi seems to be having fun showing off her white thighs to him, spinning in from if him after letting go his hand. She is the only one who wears skirt here, although her feet until knee is fully covered.
"Your legs. You are fine like that?" He ask, noticing how cold the exposed thighs are feeling now.
"Oh, this skirt. Do you want to me to expose my chest more?"
"They are both fine." He answers low and gruff.
"Right." Kurotsuchi weaving her fingers together as she thinks, "I guess it leaves my legs a little colder."
Ivanna suddenly gets in between Kurotsuchi and Hiro. Ivanna's hand- a bit large and muscular for a woman's find its way into Kurotsuchi's gloved palm.
Ivanna implores, "Behave..."
With her firm, silent grasp, Ivanna pulls the smaller girl to the front.
The man is now staring at Ivanna's rather large rump and two nice but much smaller curved bodies.
"How about the packed meal I made?" Mirai interjects.
"Those are tasty." The main praises.
"I made them too." Clementine puffs out her half-exposed chest proudly, patting him on the arm.
The snow continues to fall. The hard breathing and crumpling sounds from stepping on dense snow are the only sounds as they move through a world gone white. Snow is piling on their hairs and they feel a shiver run through their body.
Sekrit, the worst affected by the cold weather is already the closest to the man. She glances away from him, up into the sky. She sees white flakes if snow dance down from the heavy clouds, as if coming straight for them. She notices her breath turning to steam, mingling with the snowflakes as it floats away.
"I was awake when you fuck the barbaric girl." Sekrit talks about his sexual moment with Clementine in a hushed voice.
"You listen only, or watch?" Hiro just teases her to kill time, to remove the dreariness.
Sekrit blinks as she looks up the taller man.
"I peep." She couldn't talk too much about her embarrassing action.
He show off his smirk as he purposely show off their intercourse to titillate the girls.
"I am not a virgin. I am experienced, you know. You could have done the fucking better if ....." She speaks continuously about how sexually experienced she is and various way of love-making.
She sounds like she is bragging to the boys next door. Her talk wander aimlessly. Her excited voice bounds off the snow, disappearing into the sound of wind. It is just as cold as ever but Sekrit no longer bothers. To her, the journey is no longer hard even with the land covered in snow.
They went past the slope, and on a journey interspersed with short breaks, they finally reach a plain although still in a highland.
"Oo.. that's ... Brisk." Clementine exclaims. It isn't that she has underestimated the weather, or that she lacks the endurance. This is a blizzard. The snowstorm has abated somewhat, but the chill of the wind an snow howling down the mountain is still intense. Holding their overcoats shut tight with their hands, leaning into the wind, they veritably crawl on the plain. Behind Clementine, Sekrit couldn't longer get a single word out, struggling along using Hiro's larger body to shield her from elements.
"See. I told you. It's still going to be cold " Kurotsuchi tells them, pointedly puffing out her chest. Sylvia doesn't quite get that joke. She does know that her ability to deal with this march is the fruit of what she has experienced since a month before.
She realised it is much more than getting stronger, it is the accumulation of experience. Having thought that, she is still clueless on how she suddenly gain magical ability since the hidden village. She also feels her body has become stronger and faster. Her sixth sense has been telling her that thole sudden empowerment has something to do with Hiro. The man did come out a lot of out of the world but useful things like toothbrush, toothpaste, lighter, torchlights, flask bottles, and the portable toilet.
Holding her overcoat shut fast, and resumes the arduous stride.
The sun is hidden behind a leaden sky, as if it is hardly shining at all. The hanging gloom is like a mist that lead people astray, one careless footstep could spell the end. Still, Sylvia keeps walking. Taken by a thought, she looks back.
So far. She is amazed she had covered such a distance on foot. She looks up again, to see the top of the mountain covered in clouds. It doesn't seem possible to get there by foot. She let out a breath and watches it fog in front of her. Her hands clutch her rapier that is functioning as a crutch, subconsciously.
"Oh, lord. Why is this so difficult!" Sekrit groans, as she has been struggling with brutal temperature. The way she complains, clinging to luggages, doesn't suit the tall woman. She is amazed on how she still doesn't slump to her knees despite all the handicaps.
"Look ahead everyone. There it is." Mirai points to behind a hill in the plain.
They belatedly look beyond. "Oh, wow!"
There are houses. The wooden houses are scattered all over the plain..
"Finally, a place with human!" Clementine shouts.