Hansel and Gretel
Shoutout to Victor Weismann for patron support!
***
[Hoot-and-Heavy: Yo, assholes! I’m not the only one pissed about being paired with a shithead from Transmigration Paradise, right? Anyway. I suppose I know what ‘world’ we’re in. But it’s probably an alternate verse. Hit me up if you want my side of the info. I’ll take 5 AP as compensation.]
Nik glances at the general tab of the chat module before ignoring it. It’s been a day since their arrival, and he’s pleased to say he’s getting along with others just ‘fine.’ Spending time with others in his Personal Space helped a lot, but hearing the description of the city dampened their interests a fair bit since they weren’t so keen on exploring lawless land even if they could leave his personal space.
“Does it happen a lot?” Nik helps the stunned woman, but she doesn’t seem shaken up as she recollects herself and adjusts her clothes. “Well, putting it inside me would have meant his death.” The blonde exhales, wiping her hand against her cheek before wincing. “That’ll leave a mark,” she grumbles. “Anyway. You’re the new guy under our establishment, right?”
“Hmm? Yeah,” Nik smiles at the woman while placing the wanna-be assaulter in a trash bin.
“You saved that man. He must be suicidal and thought to have a last hurrah before madam put a price on his head,” the woman dons her jacket again, leaving her ‘nightshift.’ “But I still appreciate the help, hero.”
“Hero? I thought a place like this didn’t know about the word,” Nik chuckles as the woman rolls her eyes. “No need to be coy. And ask around for me if you plan to visit us upstairs. My name’s Donna. It’ll be on the house the first time.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Nik nods.
The woman chuckles. “You would think patronizing me would be annoying. But it feels a little kind when someone saves you from the trauma of a one-pump chump.” She pats his chest with a smirk before leaving without saying a thing.
Exhaling, Nik returns to the pub as Ray leans forward with interest and sparkling eyes.
“So? Did she pledge her undying love for you?”
“I would have helped her even without you egging me on. But aren’t you being a little over-the-top about playing the ‘savior?’” Nik shakes his head as he wears the apron again.
“Excuse me for trying to bring light to people’s lives!” Ray huffs. “So,” she returns to the topic, “You struck out?”
“More like I didn’t have the heart or the energy to ask a woman, who probably spent the entire night exhausting her body and will probably love a shower more than anything else, to sleep with me.”
“No need to be sassy.”
“I wasn’t.”
They get to work after their interaction until a peculiar figure pushes the door open with her brown bangs covering her bandaged forehead.
“Oh! Hey!” Ray grins brightly, waving her hands as Revy walks past Nik and settles beside the bar, glaring at the silver-haired brat. “Can it!”
“Aye,” Ray snickers as she leans against the counter. “What would you like to drink?”
“Your mother’s blood!” Revy snarls before crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes. “Dutch says my guns are still around.”
She continues to stare at Ray as the latter returns the stare until a nerve pops on Revy’s bandaged temples as she turns around, yelling, “I’m talking to you, you exhibitionist freak!”
“They are around. What of it?” Nik smiles. “I figured you’d try to kill me a few more times before becoming diplomatic.”
Revy downs the glass of rum appropriately set beside her by Ray as she frowns at Nik. “About that. Why the hell am I still alive?”
“Simple,” Nik returns to the bar before picking two bottles of beer for the customers. “You didn’t piss me off.”
“A gun to your chest doesn’t piss you off?” Revy staggers.
“Well, not on me,” he shrugs. “It was also an appropriate chance to test a few things.”
“You’re saying you don’t value your life?” Revy smirks. “What are you? A pussy and an idiot?”
“An idiot pussy,” Ray mutters, humoring the words on her lips as Nik tosses her a deadpan before bringing the beers to the paying customers.
“I’m saying I don’t feel threatened by you,” Nik calmly returns. “And there’s no pride in being an asshole over little things. So? Do you want to purchase those guns?”
“I do. Name your price,” Revy snarks. “Because that’s what a woman wants—to purchase the guns from the thief.”
“We didn’t steal it,” Ray hums. “We looted it. You were pretty defenseless, you know?”
The words get a rise out of Revy as the woman’s eyes twitch with anger. “The price,” she seethes.
Nik glances at Ray, mentally ‘typing’ a message to Ray.
[Nut-Cracking-Messiah: Anything particular in mind?]
[Smexy-succu-succu: Not really? We could— ah! Wait, I have an idea.]
[Nut-Cracking-Messiah: Does it involve me doing the muscle work for you?]
[Smexy-succu-succu: More like a chance to do some good for poor souls. Wouldn’t you want that?]
[Nut-Cracking-Messiah: How poor are we talking?]
[Smexy-succu-succu: Poor enough that I would still shed a tear in my lonesome.]
Nik blinks in surprise as their chat takes little to no time to conclude as Ray clears her throat.
“Ehm, we’ll sell it to you.”
“For?” Revy cocks her head sideways.
“I want you to find someone for us. If alive, I want a location. If dead, I want the location of the cemetery or dead bodies.”
“Just give the names,” Revy scowls. “And if it costs extra than the original price of my guns, I’m charging you fuckers.”
“Fair enough,” Ray narrows her eyes. “Their names are ‘Hansel’ and ‘Gretel.’ And if you want a hint, they ‘starred’ in an illegal video due to their age. You should have enough connections to procure the video and start from there, right?”
Revy frowns before snorting and walking away. “Put the drink in Dutch’s tab.”
“You’re too focused on saving others,” Nik sits in the spot where Revy sat.
“I get why it feels like that,” Ray smiles. “But there are infinite tragedies that create infinite degenerates. I suppose I can get fixated on a few and try to help them when I get the chance. Maybe that’s why I envy your way of life a little. I wouldn’t have those tragedies in my mind and the urge to change that if only I stopped devouring every interesting crap I saw. What about you? Would you be the same as me if you knew about a likable person and how someone would assault them in some ditch?”
Nik contemplates for a moment before sighing with a smile. She was right. He wasn’t all too different about it. He cannot help everyone, but it’s also damn hard for him to look away from things happening in front of him—he hopes it stays that way.
“If you two are done, we have customers to tend,” Bao glances at them with an unimpressed stare as Nik gets up from his seat, complaining, “You know, my previous employer let me rest.”
“Is that right?” Bao smirks. “Were you sucking them off, or what?”
Nik blinks before muttering, “Huh. Never thought about it that way.” Maybe no living individual is capable of an ‘unselfish’ kindness in this existence.
---
“Oh? You’re back. And alive,” Dutch notes, looking up from his porno magazine as he notes the plastic bag in Revy’s hand and her dirty scowl. “You visited Jackpot Pigeons? I hope that work doesn’t interfere with your contract in Lagoon.”
“Asshole, I was an S&M Dancer, not a whore,” Revy scoffs, settling the black-plastic bag with boobs printed on it on the table before taking out an old cassette. “VHS is still working, right? Haven’t used the damn thing since we bought our DVD player.”
“It should work. What is it? Porn?”
“A job,” Revy replies. “For my guns.”
“Ho? I thought you’d try to kill them a few more times. Did you hit your head? Ah, you did.”
“Will you shut up?!” Revy snaps, feeling her head throbbing as she settles on the sofa since Duth was lying on their couch. “That little bitch wants to know about some ‘Hansel’ and ‘Gretel.’ She knew these two had some illegal videos. Turns out Rowan still had some unsold stock from his underage section, saying this is a rare gem from years ago.”
[A/n: The series isn’t set in the late 90s as in canon to accommodate the other half of the volume, so there will be a few changes. For instance, Hansel and Gretel might be older than their original counterparts. But that doesn’t mean all the events take place in the same manner since this world also has the ‘Hightable.’]
“A rare gem?” Dutch scowls, not liking the sound of it, as Revy turns on the TV. “Let’s see how ‘rare’ it is.”
The video showed grey-haired twins being assaulted, something Revy hates to say she is ‘used’ to, but that alone wouldn’t make it ‘rare.’ The worst kinds of scums fill Roanapur to the brim, and stuff like this happens daily. There’s no savior in the filthy streets of the town where a child may as well learn target practice before learning to talk.
Dutch sets his magazine aside, solemnly watching Revy replace the cassettes. The twins’ abductors beat and raped them, sometimes both at once. It was a gruesome sight, but things worsened when the twins’ assaulters brought other kids. They handed the twins weapons to beat other children, or else they would hurt the twins.
It didn’t matter if the twins cried or begged for mercy. Of course, it didn’t. The twins resisted torturing others at first before paying the price for it.
And as they kept changing the tapes, their moods dipped at the very end—a climax, even.
“H-Hahahahaha!”
She laughed the same way as her abductors took joy in raping her and her twin while she butchered a boy with a bat until his blood and brain matter splattered all over her face.
A ‘rare’ gem showing the corruption of brittle innocence in the depths of human depravity, turning others like them—turning the innocent into their corrupted ‘comrades.’
Revy exhales a plume of smoke, jabbing her cigarette in the ashtray. “I want to find those two.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to try using an RPG before?” Dutch scowls, feeling distaste fill his mouth as Revy narrows her eyes. The thought of using an RPG sounds incredible, but it would blow up Bao’s pub and add to her tab. She glances at the paused frame of the girl laughing without remorse. To some, the girl looks more beautiful than before. But Revy can’t claim the title of such depravity. Yet, an ugly part- well, the truly hideous part beneath her ugly whole feels okay. At least the girl can finally laugh.
“Nah,” she snorts. “Finding the twins will be quicker than trying to kill those two freaks until we have more information.”
She feels Dutch’s stare as she snarls, “What?”
“You’re paying for the cost.”
“I know!” she grumbles.
“Well,” Dutch smiles. “Then let me go make some calls.”
---
“Man!” Ray huffs. “It’s already the end of the second day!” She stretches her hands with a strained sigh before grinning and wrapping her arms around Nik’s arm. “So? Should we prowl the streets? We can make quite the name for ourselves.”
“And maybe that will lead us to learn more information. Isn’t this place a trove of information?” Nik hums. “Getting to know, no, saving the right people will let us build connections and prepare for whatever our mission is.”
“Basically,” Ray affirms. “Since our mission is supposed to be extremely hard, chances of completing it on our own are unlikely. But there aren’t any impossible missions, and if personal power is not the way to achieve it, it’s to build connections and wait for our chance.”
They walk the bright streets of Raonapur, taking in the sights as Nik questions. “Hey, remember you said something about a magical compass?”
“It points in the direction of what you want the most,” Ray smiles. “And since I bought it from Paradise’s store instead of a vendor, it works in every world.”
“Why didn’t you use it to find those twins?”
“Because that’s not what I want the most,” Ray sighs before glancing at him. “Aren’t you interested?”
“Not really,” Nik mutters. “You aren’t really the silent type, so you’ll speak about such things when you feel like it.”
“How blunt!”
“Oh,” Ray stops in front of an electronics store. “I almost forgot. We should get a prepaid cellphone while we can.”
“Sure,” Nik shrugs.
Purchasing such cell phones is easy enough in Roanapur, and the duo leaves the store a hundred-something dollars short and a new cellphone meant for this world in their pockets.
“There you are!”
“Oh,” Nik blinks. “It’s Revy.”
“I know my damn name!”
“And she is angry,” Ray muses. “I wonder why.”
“You wonder?” Revy chuckles in anger. “Fuck it. I found what you wanted.” She waves the slip caught between her fingers as Ray blinks with interest. “Let’s talk elsewhere.” The white-haired girl drags Nik. Revy follows them until they find an empty and relatively peaceful spot.
“That was a quick job,” Ray mutters, glancing at the slip between Revy’s fingers. “Are you sure you’re not duping us?”
“No, I’m not,” Revy lights her cigarette before sighing to calm her nerves. “But those twins are something.”
“They are alive?” Ray questions.
“Who knows?” Revy snorts. “It’s all in this slip. Now, my guns?”
Nik pushes his hand inside his flat pocket before taking out a familiar modified Beretta 92F.
“My other gun?” Revy raises an eyebrow. Nik pushes his left hand into his left pocket again before taking out another gun, making Revy momentarily speechless.
“There you go,” Revy hands the folded slip to Ray as Nik hands her the guns. The second she holds them, she sighs. “And the magazines?” How could she not know the weight of her guns without a single bullet in them?
“There aren’t any,” Nik shakes his head as Ray reads through the content before shoving the slip in her pocket. “Thanks.”
“Fuck you. And don’t show your faces again!” Revy snorts, leaving the dark alley.
“So?” Nik glances at her as Ray grins brightly. “They are top-of-the-line assassins. I also know what our real mission might be! Say, Nik. Life in a pub is boring, and it’s only been two days. Want to become one of the worst assassins with me? The kind that isn’t keen on killing?”
“It sounds alright as a night job,” Nik smirks. “I probably need to work on my shooting skills to aim at the non-lethal parts of the body.”
***
Alternate Title: Savior Complex; Ray’s Imagination is Frightening; Free Ride Ticket; A Suicidal Assaulter; Junkies All Around; The Dancer’s Choice; Ray’s Urges; Shared Notions; Selfish Saviors; The Twins; True Face of Corruption and Depravity; The Rare Collection; Revy Can’t Possible Increase Her Debts!; The Trade; Guns and Info; Strangely Diplomatic; An Assassin; Ray Knows Something; The Untold Hansel and Gretel; Orphaned Depravity; The Laugh of Despair
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