Bara Bara no Mi

The source of the phenomenon that caused the death of five bandits and the ocular paralysis of the entire town followed by the town's subsequent captivation and awe was a single girl appearing to be around the same age as Tetsuya, starkly defined by the strange implements upon her body. What was she?

It was a question on the minds of the most, for she appeared to be inhuman with emphasis on the left side of her body, metallic enhancements defining her mass with a strange chest implement at her center. Artificially blessed, the ability she displayed, though confusing to navigate through the chaos that occurred, was met with fear. Nobody made a sound, only staring at her.

The bandit boss himself, the leader of the perpetrators and by far seemingly the strongest physically out of all, was scared straight by what unfolded in front of him. Five of his men were effortlessly and silently slain by the occurrence of a levitating hand unloading knives of their own unto them. Most of all, he was unaware of where the hand had even come from, indicating that things were beyond him in the moment. Things were already failing to sail his way. His men appeared to be insufficient against one fifteen-year-old, and he was at a loss for words at the turning of events, expression unfurling with pure shock.

When the realization that the girl was human set in, there was some visible anger on the face of the boss. He wanted things to go his way. His operation of asserting authority over the land had been met with inconveniences quite a number of times such as the fifteen-year-old boy he was presently faced with showing more resistance, skill, and power than he believed possible to the point where his men were disposed when he sent them forth to detain the boy. Though outnumbering him more than ever was a possibility, it hurt the pride of the boss, reducing his standard of achievement in the operation.

The pit of silence created by the unexpected arrival of the girl was interrupted by the girl herself as the aura of mystery she introduced was broken by a collection of curt, cutting and coy words.

"You. Big guy. You must think you're something threatening so many defenseless people. But can you take a cannon?"

She asked rhetorically as if she already knew the answer to such a question. The metallic portion of her body appeared to suddenly spark, carrying out a function of great value. Appearing to possess a chest cannon of some sort, the eyes of many concentrated on such a foreign figure could only bear little idea as to how her partially cybernetic body functioned. A spherical, round and solid ball comprised of metallic alloy was ejected from the gaping hole within the chest of the female, mechanical output directing the ball towards the boss of the bandits.

"OUMPF!"

The spherical, round ball produced from the female collided with the center of the boss's chest, knocking him off his feet and sending him plunging into the grass. Accompanying such collision was a cratering of the ground, body wasted from the unpleasant force he was exposed to. Steam emerged from the chest cannon embedded in the mysterious female after the recipient received his share of pain. She seemed confident in her ability ― and rightfully so, able to do what Tetsuya couldn't at an improbable range away from the bandit boss without even having to get involved in close quarters of combat.

Townsfolk gasped in amazement of what the girl had done. Not only had she swept the bandit off her feet, but she had done what they couldn't. Fight back. Only few like Tetsuya had shown such impressive resolve against the bandits, resisting in a situation where they were outnumbered. Tetsuya watched in shock and many of the bandits were quick to cosign shock in some form or another with defiant looks acknowledging apparent danger at the fall of their boss while others were perhaps ready to ditch.

The resolve of the bandits conversely dropped as low as could be as they teetered in fear, indecisive, remaining still. The men were captivated by fear over the power of the chest cannon embedded in the chest of the lone female with the resolve and ambition to confront them by herself. To make matters worse, she seemed to have abilities that they didn't quite understand, making the act of fighting her as hard as could be. The bandits were frozen still, all fearing the sight of one girl. They'd never seen anything quite so supernatural before ― anything so openly defiant of the natural laws of the world as far as possibility went. They'd never seen someone split off their hand as a levitating, independent object from their body and retract it to the part from which it came as if it was no big deal. The girl was of average build, average from beginning to end ― until that came to the department of her body supplemented by cybernetics. To her left, her arm was metallic from every inch that classified her hand to her very shoulder, giving her strange characteristics departing from the known and transitioning into the unknown. Her chest? A flat, round gaping hole of darkness, seemingly methodically arranged and designed to act as an attacking mechanism of some kind as demonstrated by what she did to the bandit boss in a single fluid motion.

Wrapping one's head around what procedure ― what method one could possibly employ to make the hand of a person levitate and scoop up knives from unsuspecting bandits made the head of Tetsuya and bandits upon bandits hurt. Vexed by the presence of the mysterious figure, Tetsuya called to her at last after staring at her wide-eyed like everyone in proximity did, his openness outshining the dumbfounded environment of clueless townsfolk.

"Hey... that was super cool! How'd you do that? Who are you?"

He seemed to be absolutely numb to what happened in the context of bandits falling dead, regarding none of the negative. It could be very well that he could meet the same fate, but Tetsuya's curiosity overpowered any grip of fear.

The figure was unresponsive.

Nobody said anything for quite a while, seemingly absorbing the irregularities of what transpired.

It seemed what occurred was out of a dream. Not consistent with any reality anyone in the area knew of, the new arrival was bizarre. Female and cybernetic, she possessed a cannon in the middle of her chest.

The bandits seemed to lessen in their resolve. There was something off about the new arrival. Not only did she appear to be out of this world, but she was defined by her unusual features.

At last, she finally spoke once more, her words laced with finality.

"...That takes care of that."

The threat had been dealt with in a manner that seemed terse. The man Tetsuya himself struggled to dispatch of was decommissioned it seemed, for the collision that ensued with his core produced an audible crack in the succeeding moments followed by the behemoth of a man's collapse into the barren ground.

The blow delivered left the entire village silent. The withdrawn girl seemed to assert her presence further, approaching the area with nothing to fear ― nothing to lose it seemed. Tetsuya and the rest of the town seemed to watch in disbelief. Even the bandits were paralyzed by fear, struggling to mobilize themselves and act.

"...What the hell is she?!?" A bandit uttered amidst the crowd.

"...I'm not sure, but surely not anything good. Shit, shit, shit... this can't be good at all!" Another bandit said, panicking as the girl got closer.

There was a sense of mystery as to what she would do. A sense of mystery as to what she was. A sense of mystery as to what she had done to achieve the effect that everyone in the proximity of the spectacle witnessed. The ominous sensation she introduced to the area was unsettling. As she indulged deeper and deeper into the town herself, the crowd of bandits surrounding their fallen leader seemed to disperse. The girl was finally at the site where she had collapsed the bandit boss with the release from her chest cannon.

She looked down on the fallen leader of the bandits, shaking her head.

"How the great have fallen..."

In her words, she brandished a sharp knife from her side. She was ready to do the unspoken. She lingered indecisively for a moment as if contemplating her subsequent actions.

. . .

Taking the life of the man responsible was tempting, but in the end, she desisted from such course of action.

The surrounding bandits looked as if they were about to do nothing, still frozen by fear despite the very man they were led by being threatened and taken down by an outsider. It seemed she had single-handedly collapsed their will to fight it seemed, something Tetsuya himself failed to do in his effort to provide hope to the town in his valiant defense cut short by inconvenience given to him by the bandit boss.

She was too hard to understand. Too hard to get a finger on and precisely pin down as far as her abilities went.

But alas, a conclusion had finally been reached. Tetsuya's eyes trailed after the quietly spoken and phrased female whose mystique was pronounced by her tendency to utter small phrases and deliver on them as far as he knew up to the moment. She was pronounced with red hair on closer analysis with hazel eyes, and seemed to be on the skinny side on close analysis with the exception of the metallic alloy plating on her left.

In the approximation of Tetsuya, she was about the same age it appeared, facial features pronounced with young, developing features that would usually be commonplace on a young woman around the same age as Tetsuya himself.

He was left breathing hard in the aftermath of the events that occurred, still trying to get a grip on all that happened and restore himself after his struggle with the towering commander of the barbarians known as bandits.

"...Who are you?" Tetsuya said, trying to get a word or two out of the figure.

She said nothing, her eyes looking up to focus themselves on the bandits ahead of her. She seemed to have interests of her own; interests foreign to Tetsuya and the entirety of the village populace.

"...Give me all you have." She demanded to the bandits, asserting her dominance with the knife she held despite being outnumbered. They were silent for a moment, but one of them piped an aggressive response back.

"No... we don't have to give you anything... screw that. What the hell did you do back there? You don't seem to be human." An overstated bandit said, shaking his head.

"Forget what she is! We need to get the boss up. Shit... knocked him out with whatever that was. She must be... she must be some type of damn cyborg." Another bandit said, scrambling over to the bandit boss.

The bandits seemed to collectively reinforce their defense after a few moments of dwelling in the sheer shock of what occurred. Eyeing their collapsed comrades and their leader on the floor made a few shrink back, preferring to spare their lives against the female whose prowess seemed beyond their understanding and comprehension. The female cyborg did not back down an inch despite the unveiling of knives and muskets from the bandit population.

"Surrender now, cyborg girl, or else we'll shoot. You musta been pretty confident with whatever you did back there, but 'ere, we run the show. We'll take you down a peg if we have to." One of the more dominant bandits said, holding a musket in hand with a finger taking priority on the trigger.

There were about five to six bandits with muskets, each with their finger trained on the trigger.

Despite their numbers being slightly depleted from the previous efforts by the cyborg and Tetsuya, they possessed more firepower than the two. Some of the muskets appeared to be trained on Tetsuya as well, firmly divided between the two individuals as they had proven to be quite the trouble for the bandit population.

"...Shoot." The mysterious girl said, a smile on her face.

"...What?" One of the bandits of the crowd replied, a brow raised.

There was hesitance, but in the heat of the moment, the hand of the girl popped off, curling itself into a fist and thrusted itself forward as if it had a will of its own ― a mighty will at that ― covering ground in the blink of an eye. The fist collided with two ― three, four, five bandits, using its momentum in its linear trajectory forth to clear them all off their feet.

. . .

A pile of bandits were on the floor. The leftover bandits, defenseless, were left standing there with their mouths wide open, speechless at what occurred. There were no words to describe the manner in which they'd been dispatched. It seemed unreal ― uncanny, even, at the second display of the profound ability the girl initially displayed that left the spectating town in shock.

People stared at her in disbelief.

"...What did she do?" A townsfolk in disbelief asked, watching the separated, formed fist of the girl do work that grown men would've struggled to perform by themselves.

"...I'm not s-sure... what type of voodoo is this?!?" Another townsfolk spouted, eyes navigating the scene sporadically.

Tetsuya, the closest to what occurred as opposed to the far off, remote spectators of the spectacle, was amazed. He watched bandits cleared in heaping amounts by the supernatural capabilities of the girl before him, mouth agape.

"...How... how did you do that?" He excitedly asked.

There was no response.

"If you'sa not tha' type of person to talk, then I'm sorry I asked, but... I ain't ever seen someone..." Tetsuya trailed, watching the girl walk her way to the remaining bandits. Her gait was that of a person who had nothing to lose.

"...Show me where you have your Peli and I'll be enthusiastic enough to let you and your pitiful population of low-life thieving bandits go elsewhere. Refuse and I'll kill all of you." She threatened, mimicking a slicing motion across her neck with her unoccupied hand while holding a knife in her mechanical hand.

"...What? Kill us...? O-okay... okay, okay! We'll show you where our Peli is and everything... just... just... don't overreact or anything, alright?" One of the bandits spoke up, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face.

"Good. Now get to showing me. Or else."

No further words were exchanged. She trailed along after the bandits as they were led by one of their own to the spot where their money was owned. Tetsuya looked after, eyes widened in shock from the commanding nature of the girl. She was able to do what he couldn't in a time that seemed impossible and improbable, and with all odds stacked against her. She didn't even appear to be normal or conventional by any sense of understanding.

She appeared to be around his age, but yet appeared to be grander than anything he'd ever seen. Judging by her unruly, free way of addressing the bandits, she must have been experienced.

More than anything else, her inhuman qualities told him that she was not to be messed with.

Turning his head over, he found the village to be staring at him; the only thing leftover, accompanied by the surroundings of unconscious and some dead, barely functioning bandits from the destruction reckoned by the single girl earlier.

Amongst the crowd, he could see Tetsuro and his uncle and aunt's worried eyes. The town was in stasis, silent.

. . .

Still, there was mystery on Tetsuya's mind about what the girl had done earlier. He didn't even know her name. Suddenly, he remembered that he had to get Sarah back, and that two bandits had escorted her elsewhere.

"...Dammit! I've gotta get her back..."

Without saying a word to his family, he dispersed from his position and went running off in the direction he remembered the bandits went. He ran off and off for as long as he could until he approached a nearby forest with long, overarching trees. The sun was beginning to settle and he could feel an ominous pressure in the area. He had to get the girl back. It was his only way of repaying her.

"I've gotta..."

Click.

TO BE CONTINUED.