Ragna awoke, and his body throbbed in pain.
The soft sound of wind blowing in his ears did nothing to lessen the headache that drummed at his brain, nor did the cool grass on his bare back. His chest and body burned with the pain of fresh injuries, but he was functioning well enough otherwise.
The last thing he could remember was facing down the cyborg girl called Nu-13 at the bottom of the NOL base in Kagutsuchi, dressed in her strange blue-and white armor. He had just saved an NOL officer by the name of Noel Vermillion from being eviscerated by Nu's flying swords, and had gotten into one final battle with Nu. However, right on the cusp of victory, Nu had stabbed him and pulled him down into the Cauldron.
After that, everything went white.
Before he could think over his position in particular, his thoughts were completely interrupted by a rough male voice. "Shorty, Fatso. Let's check him for goods, then grab that sword next to him and scram."
Two voices replied, one sly and sneaky, the other slow and ponderous. "Yes, Boss."
The moment he heard those words, Ragna opened his eyes in shock, and found himself staring into a beautiful sky. Cursing under his breath, he sat up as quickly as his body would allow, glaring at the three men standing a few feet away from him.
They were dressed in odd clothes, with brown leather armor at their waists, blue sleeveless shirts, brown pants, and yellow scarves around their heads and necks. One was short and skinny looking with a weaselly face, the second was a little shorter than Ragna and had a wispy black mustache, and the third was huge, at least a good foot taller than Ragna and twice as wide. Behind them, he could see quite a few hills, and there was a mountain in the distance, though none like any he'd ever seen before. It had a thin, slim profile in comparison to the sturdy mountains that he saw most Hierarchical Cities built into, and seemed to be surrounded by foothills instead of the stiff upward climb that most mountains would have. In fact, he couldn't even see any traces of a City on that mountain in the first place—no ports, no airships, nothing. It was just there, like it was out of an old picture book or something.
There was something really strange about all of it, but he had no time to sit and figure it out.
"Any of you assholes come one step closer and I'll punch your head off your shoulders," Ragna said flatly. He clenched his black-gloved right fist. The rest of that arm was covered by black bandages that were clasped by a golden buckle just below his shoulder. It wasn't actually his real arm, but a mass of concentrated seithr called the Azure Grimoire that was acting like an artificial limb. He frowned and shook his head after a few repetitions of clenching and opening his hand; the arm as a whole still moved and felt right, but at the same time, something about it felt off. "If you tell me where the nearest Hierarchical City is, and do it quickly, I won't kick the shit out of you for trying to rob me."
The thief that had spoken earlier, "Boss", spoke up again. "Hier what now? What are you talking about?" He pointed his sword directly at Ragna's face and came closer, with the other two flanking him. "Quit babbling and give over anything valuable you've got, or you're gonna die!"
Ragna grunted, then looked to his right. He saw something solid and black in the grass, and he quickly wrapped his hand around it. He got to his feet and shook his head, dislodging a few blades of grass from his wild, spiked-up white hair. The object he'd grabbed on to was the handle of a black, rectangular piece of metal with a shining white blade attached on one side and a thin red revolver cylinder running the entire length of the grip. This was Ragna's personal sword, Blood-Scythe, and as soon as he was fully on his feet, he shifted it into his preferred reverse grip.
The bandits gave Ragna a wary glance at this point; he wore no shirt, only a bell-shaped pair of pants, with a pair of belts crossing over his waist in an X, and metal-toed red boots. This exposed Ragna's slim, muscular upper-body build, as well as a number of scars and wounds, the most prominent of which was a brownish star-burst scar on his sternum that looked as if it were still healing. His eyes—the left green, the right red—glared angrily at them.
"This sword's all I've got, fellas," Ragna said. "If you want it, I'll give it to you—but you'll be bleeding like a bitch afterward!"
"Shorty" looked at Blood-Scythe and immediately went pale. "H-hey, Boss," he said, "I think we picked a bad mark this time. I don't like the look of this guy."
Boss scoffed and moved closer to Ragna, keeping his blade at the ready to attack. "What are you afraid of? It's just some shirtless guy with mismatched eyes and a giant butter knife. There are three of us and one of him!"
"Yeah, and one of me could kill fifty of you shits with his pinky finger and have enough energy to do the same to a hundred of you after that," Ragna said. He stepped toward Boss, cracking the knuckles of his left hand by clenching it into a rigid claw. "Last chance to run, boys. I'd listen to the shrimp, though, he's the one with the most sense."
Boss replied to that by snarling and glaring at Fatso. "Fatso! Pound him! I'll follow behind you!"
"You got it, Boss," Fatso replied. He took three lumbering steps toward Ragna, drawing a blade roughly the size of Blood-Scythe from a sheath on his back, and swung down with a grunt. Ragna immediately hefted Blood-Scythe upward, and blocked Fatso's strike. Then, he punched Fatso in the gut, jumped upward, and slammed Blood-Scythe's hilt into Fatso's nose; instantly, the large bandit fell onto his back, completely unconscious. Ragna landed, then cracked his neck and looked at the other two.
"Still want it?" Ragna asked, waggling around Blood-Scythe with a bored frown on his face. "You look like you don't anymore."
"Boss, we can't take him," Shorty shouted. "We gotta leave right now or we're gonna bite it! Seriously!"
Boss' response was to kick Fatso a few times. When the massive bandit woke up and stumbled to his feet, Boss immediately turned away from Ragna and ran off without saying another word. However, in their haste, they didn't notice the sound of someone else approaching them from their right side until a female voice rang out across the plains like a clear bell.
"Hold!"
The bandits, and Ragna as well, turned to see who had spoken to them.
It was Ragna, though, that saw her first.
A young woman, probably no older than 20 or 21, was walking in their direction. She had long, black hair and sharp amber eyes. Some of her hair was tied into a ponytail on the left side of her head, with a golden bangle and a pink ribbon keeping the ponytail in place, while her bangs spilled over the right side of her face. She wore a sleeveless white top with a green collar and a purple-white checkered tie. A black skirt with dark leggings—and a longer, green-gold skirt over that, as well as white sleeves detached from her suit—completed her look. In one hand, she carried a halberd, topped with the head of a dragon. A curved blade emerged from the dragon's mouth, and just below the head of the dragon, a pink cloth wrapped around the shaft of the weapon and fluttered in the wind. Ragna could tell from the way she was holding it that she knew how to use it and wouldn't hesitate to, either.
"You there," she said, continuing to step towards Ragna and the bandits with an infuriated expression. "How dare you assault the Messenger of Heaven so casually—and when he is wounded, on top of that! Truly, you are shameless indeed!"
Ragna and the bandits blinked at exactly the same time. "Messenger of Heaven?" they all asked at once.
Ignoring the puzzlement on their faces, the young woman kept walking until she stood next to Ragna. Once she was there, she shifted her halberd into her left hand, then grabbed the rear end with her right, and shifted into a stance that seemed maximized to allow explosive movement. "I will not abide this insult to the Youzhou province, nor to this man," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Prepare yourselves!"
Boss looked the girl over very carefully, then snorted. "As if a walking pair of breasts is going to scare me at all."
Shorty and Fatso immediately looked at Boss, then back at the girl. Her face was flushed red, but her brows were drawn together and her head was lowered just enough for her eyes to be veiled in shadow. "A walking pair of breasts, you say," she said slowly. Ragna took a large step to the left, not wanting to be anywhere near her when she started to swing her weapon around. Even with what little social graces he had, he knew that cracking jokes about a woman's bust was just asking for trouble, even if they were true. "Then allow this walking pair of breasts to cut your tongue out of your head!"
The moment that threat came out of her mouth, she jumped forward, bringing her halberd down in a clean vertical strike. Shrieking in fright, the bandits continued running off, except twice as fast as before; Boss in particular barely avoided having his head split open by her attack. Ragna whistled as the blade of her weapon gouged out a significant chunk of earth when it landed. She kept glaring at the backs of the fleeing bandits, but eventually let out a heavy sigh and stood up, switching back to the casual one-handed grip she'd used as she was walking over. Then, she turned to Ragna with a warm, sunny smile, though he could tell that she was looking at him with a fair amount of concern. "Your injuries aside, are you well?"
Ragna nodded, and moved Blood-Scythe behind him. The grooved metal plate on the back of one of his belts immediately locked the sword into place, and he let the handle go. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing a little rest won't fix." He looked at Kan'u with a raised eyebrow. "So what's all this you were saying about a Messenger of Heaven? And who the hell are you exactly?"
The flush on her cheeks overtook her whole face. "A-Ah, yes, I'm sorry, how rude of me." She bowed at the waist, then straightened up. "My family name is Kan, and my first name is U—Kan'u. My common name is Unchou. I have traveled here by the word of the oracle Kanro to greet the one that would descend from Heaven." She bowed again, but this time, more briefly. "I apologize for being so late to assist you. Might I ask your name, my lord?"
"The name's Ragna. No need for that 'my lord' crap," Ragna said. "And really, it's fine. I could've taken them if I had to, but the help's appreciated anyway." Though he was outwardly calm, inwardly he was seriously confused. He had never heard of a Youzhou province. On top of that, the bandits didn't seem to know what a Hierarchical City was, and he'd never seen plains like these while passing through the more treacherous lowland areas between the mountains where the Hierarchical Cities were built. The only way to find out was to ask. "Right, so… where the hell are we? Where's the nearest Hierarchical City?"
"This is the Zhuo district of the Youzhou province," Kan'u replied. "In the distance over there is Mount Wutai." She frowned. "I don't know what you mean when you speak of a Hierarchical City, but not far from here is a village that serves as the seat of the district."
Kan'u directed her gaze squarely at Ragna's sternum, and he looked down at the scar there when he realized that she was no longer looking him directly in the eyes. The phantom memory of being stabbed by Nu-13 briefly shot through his mind, but he ignored it as quietly as he could. The girl's face had been way too familiar for him ( way too similar to Saya's face, his brain said) to be comfortable remembering it.
His thoughts then shifted to what Kan'u had just said, and his stomach churned. She's never heard of a Hierarchical City either? What the hell is going on here?
"At any rate, we should leave for the village as soon as possible, my lord," Kan'u said, drawing him out of his inadvertent reverie. "After your wounds are treated, we can discuss the matter of how to proceed."
She began to walk off, and after a moment of stunned silence, Ragna quickly moved to keep pace with her. "I already told you just to call me Ragna," he said, overtaking her and standing in front of her. "And what do you mean about 'how to proceed'? I still don't get what the hell a Messenger of Heaven is supposed to be, and I'm pretty sure that even if I did know, I'm sure as shit not it."
Kan'u stopped walking, and looked up at Ragna's face with a perplexed frown. "Kanro did say that you would not know of your purpose when you came. My apologies for not explaining it." Her expression lightened as she closed her eyes. "'A man with a red right eye and hair as white as snow shall descend from the heavens to the plains of Mount Wutai, bearing a gleaming blade. His clothes are beyond the make of mortals, and he shall be the one—the Messenger of Heaven that the people shall rally around as this war-torn era begins to move toward its end.'" She looked at Ragna again and smiled at him. "That was the oracle given by Kanro. When I heard it, I decided that I would find the Messenger and pledge myself to his service—that is to say, your service, my lord."
Ragna raised an eyebrow. Her memory had to have been pretty impressive to recite something that long off the top of her head, and she was looking at him with such conviction that she was either crazy enough to believe her own lies or completely serious about what she'd said. He would have said the latter, but frankly speaking, nothing made sense right now, and he didn't want to alienate someone that actually had some idea of what the hell was going on.
Ultimately, though, whatever he was planning on saying next was cut off by a cheerful girlish voice coming from in front of them. "Kan'u!"
Kan'u jumped in surprise and turned her attention forward. A young girl with short red hair, dressed in tight navy shorts and a high-collared yellow half-jacket, was dashing toward them with a large grin on her face. Her feet were covered in navy socks that exposed the front of her feet and her heels. A red scarf with two tails was wrapped around her shoulders, and a golden ring around the collar of the sleeveless navy shirt gleamed in the sunlight. She wore red fingerless gloves, and she carried a halberd similar to Kan'u's. However, it was much less ornate, and the head of the weapon did not have a smooth, curved blade, but a zigzagging one; a cloth was tied to the shaft just below the blade, like Kan'u's, but the cloth was navy instead of pink. Ragna blinked in disbelief, as the weapon was literally twice the girl's height, yet she carried it easily.
The girl came to a stop right in front of Kan'u, and grinned, violet eyes sparkling. Strangely enough, Ragna could have sworn that the circular tiger-head hairpin in the girl's hair was smiling as well.
"Chouhi, there you are," Kan'u said. In contrast to the girl's joyfully carefree expression, Kan'u was frowning sternly. "What took you so long? The Messenger was being attacked by bandits when I found him. Were they not so weak, they might have overcome him because of his injuries."
"I'm sorry, sis," the girl replied, scratching the back of her head. "But that cute doggy distracted me, and then by the time I looked up you were already gone." She then looked in Ragna's direction, and her sheepish smile grew back into a wide one as she examined him. "Wow, it's just like old man Kanro said, Kan'u! The hair, the sword, the eyes… he really is the Messenger, isn't he? And he looks really tough, too, like he can fight!"
Kan'u nodded, and her severe expression gave way to a smile. "Undoubtedly." She then turned to Ragna, and said, "You should properly introduce yourself, Chouhi."
The girl saluted and stepped back, then bowed quickly, looking back up into Ragna's face as soon as she was done. The twin brown belts at her waist shifted slightly as she did so. "Great to meetcha, big bro! My last name's Chou, and my given name is Hi—Chouhi. My common name is Yokutoku." Her smile grew wider. Ragna grunted for a second as he tried to figure out what he could possibly say to make these two understand that he wasn't who they thought he was. Bah, it's no good, he thought, shaking his head. They're both totally convinced that I'm this so-called Messenger, and if I keep trying to deny it they're only gonna get more annoying. And even if I try to leave them behind, they'd probably chase me down. And I don't even know where the hell this is. He ran a hand through his hair, then shrugged. Screw it. Might as well go along with it for now. Maybe this town will have a map for me to check out and I'll be able to figure out where I am after all.
"All right then," he said to both of them. "Let's go to this village and talk some more, I guess. I kind of get what you're saying, but I don't know if that oracle of yours really knew what they were talking about if they thought I'd be the one to do this job."
"You still doubt that you are the Messenger," Kan'u said sadly. She frowned, but this time it was more an expression of soft disappointment than anger or sternness. "Why are you so uncertain of this? You match the oracle's description perfectly, and your body states that you are a seasoned warrior. I truly believe that someone like you is best suited to be the Messenger. You can most definitely change this land for the better."
Ragna sighed. "Chouhi was right when she said that I knew how to fight, but that's pretty much all I know how to do. I'm not made to be a leader and shit. I just do what I gotta do, and if people get in the way, they get out of it or get stepped on. I ain't cut out to save people."
Kan'u's frown deepened, and she took a breath before she continued speaking, her head lowered. "Please don't trod on my faith any more."
"Huh?" Ragna asked. "The hell are you talking about?"
"If you do not believe that you are the one that can complete this task, then neither I nor Chouhi will have the strength to do what must be done for the people of this land," Kan'u said, raising her head. Her eyes were clearly sad, but her face was set in a determined glare. "The conflicts have been going on for years, as the armies of Go and Gi have been massing their forces and expanding their territories. And here in this province, the Yellow Turbans are taking supplies from whoever or wherever they can so that they can challenge the emperor and the Imperial Court. If the people have no one to believe in, then this spiral will continue on, and even if Chouhi and I fight to save who we can, we aren't enough."
Ragna immediately figured out what she was trying to say. "So the Messenger is supposed to be someone for people to believe in."
Kan'u nodded, even as her lips crunched together into a trembling white line. "I know it's a tremendous responsibility. But I believe in what Kanro said about the Messenger of Heaven, because more than anything, I want to see this land find peace so that no more children have to live through the pain that I lived through. Even if the world falls back into the old pattern after I die, I want to say that I did my part to try and stop it."
The silence between the two of them stood for several moments before Ragna finally let his shoulders slump. "Fine, then. You two seriously think I can do this, don't you? Then I guess I might as well give it a shot."
Kan'u's eyes widened slightly. "Then you'll do it?"
Ragna folded his arms and winced when he accidentally rubbed the wounds on his chest and arms. "Said I was gonna, didn't I? Don't question me, damn it. Just get me patched up and I'll take the field with you guys." He patted the hilt of Blood-Scythe with a small grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I've got this damn thing and these scars of mine for a reason, you know?"
Kan'u let out a small laugh, then nodded her head. "Very well, my lord. Chouhi, let's move."
"Happy to, sis!" Chouhi replied.
As they walked, Ragna looked up into the sky again and let out a quiet sigh through his nose. He didn't know what was going on, nor did he know how the hell he'd gotten wherever he was. All he knew for sure was that they were relying on him to do something, and that they were more than willing to help him manage in this place, wherever it was. Maybe he would figure it out in time, but for now, he saw no harm in trying to help them while trying to get acclimated to where he was now.
And it's nice to have people believing in me just a little bit, his traitorous brain added, instead of hunting me down like a dog.
2The walk back to the village itself was uneventful, but things quickly escalated once Kan'u, Chouhi, and Ragna arrived there.
The moment they approached the gates, a desolate scene greeted them. Doors were kicked down and buildings were stained with scorch marks. Corpses were strewn about in the city, lying in pools of their own blood. The only place that seemed relatively untouched was a large, tiered building that was enclosed by the wall surrounding the town; the massive black gates that protected it were untouched. With a snarled, incomprehensible curse, Ragna drew Blood-Scythe and held it ready to strike as he dashed forward. Both Kan'u and Chouhi, however, remained frozen in place, though Chouhi soon snapped out of it and followed after Ragna.
"...The Turbans," Kan'u whispered to herself, taking a few shallow steps further into the village. "They must have done this. While I was finding him, perhaps...?" She pressed a hand to her face, grinding her teeth together. "Damn! This is… this is my fault."
"Bullshit," Ragna said as he walked back toward her, stowing Blood-Scythe again. He could tell that the stony look on her face was mostly put-upon, a front to stop herself from letting her real emotions show. "Besides that, if you had been here they might have overwhelmed you. Even losers can be dangerous in numbers." He watched Chouhi go farther up the street, then sighed, wincing when the action caused his chest to burn. "The squirt thinks that anyone left is hiding out somewhere around here. Come on. We've gotta help her find 'em and figure out how we're gonna counterattack those Turban assholes."
"The people here aren't warriors, my lord." Kan'u said, slowly shaking off her malaise to look Ragna in the eye. "And after a defeat like this they may not want to even try to fight back. We'll have to convince them into it."
Ragna snorted. "Good thing I'm here then. Isn't that exactly what this Messenger of yours is supposed to do? Rally the people to kick some ass, end the war-torn era or whatever? Don't tell me you don't believe the shit you told me just a while back. If you don't believe it, you can't expect anyone else to."
Kan'u's gaze firmed as she rapped the butt of her halberd on the ground. "I very much do believe in what I told you earlier. However, I would prefer that you not dismiss my ideals so flippantly, my lord. I merely had a moment… of doubt. This village was thriving earlier today, and now… it's been reduced to this." She gestured around loosely with her free hand, and her lip trembled.
If Ragna felt more comfortable, he might have put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but touching people had never been something he'd been big on even before he'd started toughening up. "And getting choked up isn't going to bring it back. The best you can do for the people that died is kick some Yellow Turban ass. Now, let's get going already."
Kan'u took another look around the destroyed village, then nodded and followed behind Ragna as he went after Chouhi.
As it turned out, Chouhi's intuition was correct. The building that she entered as Ragna and Kan'u followed behind her was the tavern, and a number of villagers were holed up there—sons, daughters, old and young, anyone that had managed to escape the attack. Chouhi was talking adamantly with a middle-aged man, and Ragna and Kan'u caught the tail end of the conversation as they came up behind Chouhi.
"... there were about four thousand of them," the man said to Chouhi, his shoulders slumping. "They just swooped in and hit us. Those bastards..."
Chouhi's expression was surprisingly thoughtful, though it soon enough broke into the smile that she always wore. "Well, you don't have to worry, Chief. Me, Kan'u, and big bro Ragna will take care of all those Yellow Turban jerks!"
The man blinked, then looked at Ragna and Kan'u standing right behind Chouhi. "I'm guessing that you're the two that this girl was talking about," he said to them. "My name is Gan. I'm the village chief. Who are you people?"
Kan'u nodded. "I am Kan'u, and this man is Ragna, my current lord." She gave Chouhi a gentle rap on the back of the head. "This is Chouhi. As she said, we are more than happy to assist you all, but we cannot do it alone. We know that you have lost many people dear to you today, but if you are willing to fight to the bitter end, then you will triumph."
Another villager sitting in a chair, a young woman holding a child in her lap, looked up at Kan'u, a weary expression crossing her face. Her eyes were red and puffy. "We were completely defeated, though. What can the three of you do against the Turbans?"
"It's not just the three of us," Kan'u said. A faint smile graced her lips. "We have the heavens on our side, as well. In Luoyang, there has been a rumor of a white-haired Messenger from Heaven, graced with a red right eye and a large blade. He is said to be the one that can end the turmoil in these lands. I, Kan'u Unchou, swore my loyalty to this man, and so too did Chouhi. We knew that he could change this world as prophesied if we were to lend him our power."
As the villagers all looked up at her in wonder, her description made them all look over to Ragna. He returned their curious gazes with an impassive, calm frown, then took a quick glance in Kan'u's direction. She nodded once, though he saw a brief flash of guilt written all over her face, and Ragna replied by doing the same to the audience at large. A quiet buzz began to spread amongst the crowd as they looked back and forth between Ragna and each other, and Kan'u continued where she left off. "So long as you all have the desire to fight, you can claim our aid, and we will in turn fight until the Turbans are wiped out to a man. Heaven shall stand with us. You can count on that."
The murmurs grew louder, but stopped when Gan stepped up and looked Ragna straight in the eye. "Are you truly the Messenger of Heaven? Can you truly save us from this endless period of war?"
Ragna could feel Kan'u's eyes on his back, and he sighed in his mind. "I can at the very least help you pay back those Turbans for screwing with your town. But it's like she said. You gotta be thirsty to win, no matter what. Otherwise you're not gonna avenge anyone, and anything I do for you ain't gonna mean shit. The rest of it is up to you all after that."
Kan'u looked slightly mortified by Ragna's choice of words, while Chouhi just watched Ragna with a serious frown that seemed extremely misplaced on her face. Gan closed his eyes and rubbed at the stubble on his sun-marked chin, then nodded. "You seem young for a Messenger of Heaven, and you're pretty plain-spoken, but you're an honest lad. If you'll lend your power, we'll take it."
Ragna felt a dull burn sweep over his body, and he sighed to avoid flinching in pain. "Long as you're serious, yeah, I got no problem with it. Though getting some bandages for all my cuts—and a new shirt, if you can spare one—wouldn't be a bad deal either."
"Our doctor made it through all right," Gan said. "I'll have him patch you up. The Turbans said they'd be back sometime tomorrow, so you can at least rest before you attack them." The deep lines on Gan's face grew shallower as he cracked a wry smile for Ragna. "We'll pay back what they gave to us tenfold."
Ragna nodded, then looked at the rest of the villagers gathered in the tavern. He could see Kan'u smiling broadly at him, encouraging him to go on, so he cleared his throat. "I don't think we're in a position to do too much waiting, though. We got no clue when they'll hit tomorrow, or even if they'll actually hit tomorrow. We stand a better chance of kicking their asses if we jump 'em when they don't expect us to." He scratched his hair, closing his eyes for a moment, then looked to Kan'u, who was slightly shocked by the boldness of his statement. "I ain't really good with this battlefield tactics stuff, though. You think we might be able to take down 4,000 guys with what we've got on hand if we march in an hour or two?"
"If we're careful about how we engage them, we should be fine," Kan'u replied. "It will be a daunting proposition regardless. We should definitely confirm their numbers first. After that, we can counterattack effectively." She looked over at Chouhi. "Chouhi. You're the fastest one we've got here. Do you mind taking a few volunteers to go scouting?"
"Of course not, sis!" Chouhi replied, grinning wide. "Just leave it to me."
"Works for me," Ragna said. "Once we find 'em, we crush 'em. Simple as shooting fish in a barrel." He rolled his right shoulder, and looked down at Gan again. "So, about that doctor and that shirt...?"
"While Lady Chouhi's out scouting, we can get you fixed up," Gan said. "Don't worry about it.
As he said that, another middle-aged man approached from another corner of the tavern, with a roll of bandages in one hand and a pot of something foul-smelling in the other hand. His brown hair was arranged in a bun, and he wore small glasses and plain white robes.
"The doctor, I presume," Ragna said.
The man bowed. "Chen, at your service, my lord."
Ragna would have told Chen to stop calling him "my lord", but he figured that it would be a lost cause with him as much as it was with Kan'u, and shook his head. "We don't have much time. You got anything that'll keep me together for the next couple of hours?"
Chen nodded. "I'll have to rub you down with an ointment before I wrap your wounds. It'll feel a bit unpleasant at first, but between that and the bindings, the wounds will seal and your body will start to feel better than it ever has before."
Ragna arched a white eyebrow and gave the doctor a suspicious look. "How unpleasant is 'unpleasant'?"
Rather than reply directly, the doctor put the pot onto a nearby table and dipped a hand into it. When he pulled it out, a daub of yellow oil was on his fingertips. He rubbed his hands together, coating it in the ointment, then moved around to Ragna's back and rubbed it directly on the spot where the Nu's last stab had come out of Ragna's body. Ragna winced more from the contact with his injury than anything else, but as soon as the doctor stopped spreading the ointment around, Ragna's body became a board before he bared his teeth and let out a roar that shook the tavern like it was in the middle of an earthquake.
"SON OF A BITCH, IT BURNS!"