#005 - "Claustrophobia"
Chapter 1: Trial by Fire
“Beryl” Anna says, the air thick with tension.
For whatever reason, I can basically feel Anna screaming to me internally, saying “Please Master, let me handle this.”
Okay Anna, this is all you.
“Funny place to see you with a customer Anna.”
“Strange place to see so many gold tags as well. Why aren’t you with your master?”
Anna takes the blue haired woman’s suspicion and throws it back in her face. From just the brief tone of this conversation, I can already tell the two of them aren’t on friendly terms.
“Master Berrick and Mr. Hellman are currently celebrating in the Auroria, he asked me to fetch something from his room. More importantly – Why are you here with this man, and not in the Auroria assisting in the festivities?”
Is she supposed to be there? If so, that would be a good question. I don’t know who this Berrick is, but if he’s celebrating with Hans, he’s probably pretty high up.
“I work in the Cerro Gordo, not the Auroria. I had prior obligations with this gentleman. Besides, I tended to Master Hellman the other night, I’m certain he’d want to have someone different tonight.”
“Hellman outranks all other priorities. You are one of Hellman’s favorites, and one of the only therians symbiotically bonded with him – In what world do you think you’re not expected to attend?”
“This will be quick, I will be there shortly.
The woman’s eyes narrow. This isn’t even about the shortcut, but the fact Anna isn’t at a party? If she was expected there, then why was she watering plants of all things? Also, she was symbiotically bonded with Hellman?? I thought she was bonded with me!? I genuinely don’t understand how this bonding thing works. Anna said that symbiotically bonding with one’s master is normally done through learning their likes and dislikes through trial and error. But with one’s “destined master”, you are able to feel every emotion they feel. Is she saying her bond with Hellman is the normal kind, or the destined kind? I am missing something here.
“Who is he anyway? I don’t remember seeing him with you before.”
The violet haired woman asks, her face not betraying any emotion.
She walks up to me in a graceful stride. Though shorter than me, she’s tall for a woman. Something about her is different from the other two. While the blue haired woman gives off an aura of authority, the red the aura of a delinquent, this woman feels… Dangerous.
I’m not just thinking that because she’s the only one with a sword at her hip, which looks like some sort of long katana.
I don’t know what it is about her, it’s something about how she carries herself. Perhaps it’s her cool and calm dimeanor. Or the way her movements seem polished and honed.
No – It’s her eyes.
Her violet eyes feel... Sharp. Piercing even. I feel like she can see right through everything we say and do without saying a word.
She stands there, and thoroughly looks me up and down. I feel like she has X-ray vision or something, and can see right through my disguise. Something about this woman is terrifying. Anna is stone faced, but I know she’s panicking inside.
The woman bends over and sniffs my chest, scrunching up her face.
Oh fuck, please no, no, no, no!!! I heard jackals can smell better than wolves. Please dear God, don’t tell me she’s seen through my disguise already!
“You smell like…”
My hand is twitching, ready to grab my pistol at any given moment. I can visibly see Anna perspirating, her eyes widen slightly, the edges of her lips curling, and tips of her ears flick.
The woman, leans in closer, putting the palm of her hand on the hilt of her sword. She's less than 15cm from my chest, which is pounding furiously. My fingers are already forming a gun grip shape. Are DEW weapons silent!? Is everyone going to hear this!?
“Absolute shit.”
She pulls away, and promptly walks back to her group.
Eh? Eh? Ehh? What just happened!?
“Rubrum, it’s rude to speak to a superior like that, even if you are a gold tag,” Beryl chides.
“I just kept getting a whiff of something foul, and I didn’t know what it was. I’m sorry for my rudeness sir.”
Huh? Did… Did Tony’s stank-ass bag just save me?
“W-Well y-yeah you should feel sorry! I’ve never been treated so rudely by a slave before! Learn your place bitch!”
Rubrum gives a faint smirk, and bows to me.
“Yes, that was very rude of me, and I am deeply sorry for my impudence.”
Her apology is completely empty, she doesn’t feel sorry at all. Not that I really care.
The red hair cat girl yawns in boredom.
“Anyway are we done here? I would rather not have my meals docked because we took too long. Let Anna deal with her own problems.”
“Yeah okay Fey, but before that, I’m curious – Why are you two here anyway? You know that this alley is a dead-end, right?” Beryl asks, looking at Anna with her eyebrow raised.
“Ah-uh that’s, uh-“
Shit, she’s freezing. I need to change this topic before things take a turn for the worse. We’re almost home free. If I just blatantly say she’s taking me through the secret passageway, that might cause a rapid cascade of rumors about Anna among the therians here. While they might not have any real power, having extra eyes on us is exactly what we don’t want. No – We need them to not WANT to look at us. Or at the very least, consider us not worth a second glance. I could say that my sickness was causing me a lot pain, so Anna had me take this route to avoid potentially spreading it. That might make these girls shy away from me for fear of getting sick themselves. No, if they’re immune to STDs, then they might be resistant to common illnesses as well. Maybe I can try and scare them? No, these girls are sex slaves for a violent mercenary group, they’ve seen everything you can imagine.
But if they’re privately owned… Then that means they’re most likely sheltered. Anna did say gold tags tend to get a big head, and big heads come from a place of comfort and entitlement. It’s possible that… No - *Probable* that their master is vehemently unwilling to share them with other people. Which means they’re probably not used to the degeneracy of men. It’s a longshot, but if this works… They’ll want to leave this alley as quickly as possible.
“Outdoor play!!!” I exclaim.
“Huh!?!?” Anna jerks to look at me, face red as a tomato. The other three women have a look of shock mixed with a hint of disgust.
“Yeah, I wanted to do some public play, and this alley seemed like a great spot.”
“I-I see…” Beryl sputters, looking at Anna with an expression filled with pity. Anna is damn near in tears from shame.
“A-anyway, um, w-we’ll leave you two to it then I guess…”
Success!!!
The three begin to leave, but Rubrum stops short beside me, while the other two continue on.
“You’re an interesting man ‘Tony’, I’m certain we’ll meet again.” Rubrum says with a sly smile before leaving.
She knows. She 100% knows something is up. But then why did she…?
I wait until the women completely disappear from sight, and turn to Anna.
“Hey, what was-”
Anna’s face is bright red, her cheeks are furiously puffed out like some kind of chipmunk. She must still be mortified by what I said.
“Hey, it worked didn’t it?”
“Yes, but!-“ Anna stops herself, and heaves a large sigh.
“Yeah… I suppose it doesn’t matter. Let’s keep moving.”
Me and Anna continue to walk down the dark, empty alley. The sounds of drunken debauchery slowly fading into the distance.
“Okay Anna, who were those people? What did she mean when she said you are symbiotically paired to Hellman?”
Anna’s ears twitch at my question, but her face is expressionless.
“Those were privately owned slaves of Daylin Berrick, the second in command of the Hellman Mercenary Company.”
“So it’s fair to say that was an extremely volatile situation.”
“Yes, that was pretty much worst case scenario. It’s a miracle we got through that in one piece. I’m sorry I suggested this route, I never expected us to encounter them of all people.”
“Why do you say that? Are they strong?”
“Daylin Berrick is a dangerous man, and a collector of rare and unique slaves. Rubrum, the woman who smelled your chest, has been genetically modified to an unprecedented degree.”
“Modified how?”
“Starting off, she’s an Anubis. While Anubi definitely aren’t common, they also aren’t considered rare. They can smell and hear better than regular Lycanthropes, but tend to be physically weaker. She is an exception. She can smell and hear better than any normal therian. She’s also faster and stronger than most non-military cyborgs, and her instincts are second to none on this station. Why she decided to let us go is beyond me. Thankfully, since this station is considered Hellman’s property, and not Berrick’s, we didn’t trigger her CS.”
So had she not decided to let us go on a whim, we would have almost certainly died there. Good to know.
“Do you think she’ll talk? What about the other two?”
“Doubtful. Rubrum is a tight-lipped person, and someone I’ve never been able to fully understand. As for the other two, from what I understand, Fey was an experimental Nekozoku who was gifted to Berrick by the Akasha Corporation for his help protecting one of their facilities from pirates. I don’t know what makes her special, but she has never struck me as the brightest bulb. As for Beryl, she’s not a type of therianthrope, but rather a Wyvix.”
“What’s that?”
“Wyvix are a subjugated race of dragon-like people from the planet Wyrim. They are physically strong, sturdy, and can breathe fire. But because they are naturally born, and not cultivated, they are considerably harder to procure due to their limited offworld supply. While Beryl is quite intelligent, she’s too serious about her duties to keep her mouth shut. Had she suspected anything, she almost certainly would have confronted us about it.”
So Beryl has a stick up her ass, huh? Good thing she’s so sheltered then. To think the DRAC government conquered and reduced an entire race of people to the status of slaves though. At this point, this “Democratic Republic” is sounding more and more like a oligarchy run by the rich elites.
“Why did she say you’re symbiotically bonded to Hellman? I thought you were only bonded to me?”
The edges of Anna’s mouth tighten, and curl down into a guilty expression.
“For years now, I pretended that Hellman was my destined master. But in reality, I just got used to predicting his feelings from context clues, and occasional whiffs I got from his emotions. It’s what has kept me from being retired, despite being nothing but a normal Nekozoku.”
Considering Anna’s the third oldest therian here, I’m guessing “retired” means taken out to pasture - Permanently. While I understand her position, this makes me more than a little wary as her “destined master” myself.
Perhaps sensing my unease, Anna’s gaze drops, as her ears droop. Her tail wraps around her, as she anxiously holds it in her hands.
“Master… I promise you from the deepest parts of my heart – You truly are my destined master.”
“…Okay, I’ll believe you. But Anna, what did you mean by you caught whiffs of his emotions? I thought you could only do that with someone you considered your destined one?”
“Yes and no. The closer we are with our owner, the more we can feel their emotions. Hellman was simply my owner - Not my master, and not my destined one.”
“Does that mean that a regular master can eventually become your destined one?”
“I’m not sure Master, I’ve never heard of that happening. But theoretically it might be possible, but personally I doubt it.”
“What makes someone a ‘Destined One’?”
“Our ability to feel every one of your emotions in real-time, rather than occasional brief sensations. Along with some other phenomena exclusive to our type of relationship. The reason therians get a ‘Symbiotic Synthesis’ response, which is the highest form of Therianthropic Symbiosis, from only some Masters isn’t well understood. Some have hypothesized it has to do with genomic compatibility. Others say it has to do with immuno-compatibility. Like how humans can instinctively tell if their partner has a different immune system than them simply from kissing. Which in turn draws you to different mates in order to strengthen your offspring’s immune system. But some even say it’s because the therian’s personality is perfectly suited to supplement for their master’s shortcomings. In any case, all attempts at forcefully imbuing therians with the ability to sythesize with anyone has universally ended with failure.”
I could definitely believe that last one. Anna is confident, perceptive, level-headed, and incredibly intelligent. While I am definitely not dim, and fairly good at deductive reasoning, I tend to doubt myself constantly, overthink myself into a hole, and am prone to shutting down in response to stress. Anna exudes the qualities of a leader. She makes you want to follow her. She seems organized like she has everything figured out already. That said, she also seems to struggle with sudden, unforeseen variables which she hasn’t planned for. In which case, I seem to be our saving grace. If left on my own, I will think myself into the ground. But fly by the seat of my pants analysis’ is what I do naturally, so it makes sense I make up for that flaw in her personality. We make a good team.
Me and Anna eventually hit the dead end of the alley, a solid brick wall. I look around and I see a dumpster, some weird looking garbage cans, some boxes, and that’s about it. On the other side of the brick wall, we’ve hit the edge of the fake cliff wall carved from the asteroid – Is this secret path *through* the asteroid??
“Okay, now what?”
“This way, follow me.”
Anna turns to a door on our left and opens it. I hesitate for a moment to enter, the room is pitch black, I can’t see a thing. But Anna grabs my hand and pulls me in.
“Don’t worry Master, this building was made to be a therian tenement for one of their many future expansion projects. It has yet to be completed and is basically an empty shell, so nobody lives here. I’m a Nekozoku, so I can see in the dark. I got you Master.”
“Why didn’t we just go through the front door then?”
“That would be against the unspoken rules between us therians. We can’t do anything that would arouse suspicion to this property. People would definitely see us enter in front.”
There is absolutely zero light in here, not even a tiny indicator light or something. Anna pulls me along through the pitch black room. Her hands are soft and small compared to mine, but incredibly cute.
“Okay, just one moment Master, I need to remove this plate.”
She lets go of my hand, and I can hear the flexing of a metal sheet. I hear her pop it off the wall with a *Fwong* and set it aside.
“Okay Master, just bend down and crawl forward. I’ll go first.”
I hear the flexing of metal, and then the crunching of rock as she crawls into the hole. I get on all fours and begin to crawl in.
The entrance way just past the metal wall is barely big enough to crouch in, probably so you can turn around and put the plate back. So I might as well just in case those three come back this way. I slide the plate back into position.
“How do I fix this back to the wall?”
“You don’t really need to worry about that. If they’re going to get something from Berrick’s room, they won’t come back this way. But if you really want to, it’s just a half-turn screw.”
I feel around for the screw tips, and give the top 3 a slight turn with my fingers. It’s basically impossible to get the bottom 3 to line up from this side, so I just leave it. They’ll probably just think they forgot to do it. I turn around in the small, now enclosed space, and manage to get on my hands and knees, and crawl into the tiny stone tunnel.
Now I’m not a claustrophobic person. Or should I say – I wasn’t a claustrophobic person until this very moment. I’m 195cm tall, and this tunnel was clearly not designed with someone like me in mind. This tunnel is pitch black, and I can’t raise my head even halfway without smashing it into a jagged rock ceiling. I maybe have 8-10cm of clearance at my sides at best.
I feel something fuzzy brush past my face. What the fuck was that!?!? I swear to God, there better not be such a thing as space bats, because this tunnel is already bad enough.
About 10 minutes later, it brushes past my nose. At this point I’m imagining hairy tarantula like spiders hanging from the ceiling. Oh God, please get me out of here, I hate this so much.
When it brushes past my eye, I grab it with lightning like speed.
“NYAAAH!!!” Anna shrieks.
Wait. Is this… Her tail? Also – Nyaa?
“M-Master, p-please be gentle with my tail. I-it’s very sensitive.”
“Ah- I’m sorry. I kept feeling it brush against my face, and I didn’t know what it was.”
“What do you mean ‘kept feeling it’? I only touched you once!”
Say what now?
What seems like an eternity later, we eventually reach the end of the Tunnel of Unknown Horrors. Anna stops and undoes another metal plate. I hear it pop open and slide across the floor.
Light! I can see light! Oh thank the Lord, I can see again!
We craw out of the nightmare tunnel and into another empty house. This house is faintly illuminated by the outside windows. I can hear the rushing of trains go by, and music in the distance. This house has absolutely no built in lights, or even carpet or furniture for that matter. The ceiling is just exposed metal beams with unfinished wiring hanging from it, and some of the walls are missing their metal plating. I look outside the window, and find we’re in another alley. While this alley is also unlit, the adjacent street it’s connected to has actual streetlights. The design of these buildings is different. Instead of looking like a historic European town, it’s like a cleanly designed, fashionable downtown area.
“We are currently in a planned staff residential district a short distance from the Fortune District. We’re very close now.”
“The Fortune District?”
“It is the primary entertainment district within Junis-12. While all the mercenaries here are on Hellman’s payroll, he manages to get about half of that back through mercenary’s time spent in the Fortune District – You’ll see.”
Author's Notes: I debated on what measurement system I should use in this series for a while now. Max, as previously stated, is an American character (so is his author) - So he should be used to the Imperial measurement system, not Metric. But I realized that the vast majority of readers will only be familiar with the Metric system, so despite going against Max's origins, I chose to use the Metric system going forward in this series.
