Mercenaries and Manners

It was quite a nice and sunny day but the people in the Nedlay District where as violent as always, she could see some boys beating up another one.
In case Mitsuo wanted to do something against it she quickly said, "It's okay if you leave them. That happens all the time."
She kept on walking, "Do you want to visit the black market? I grew up here. I know nearly everything!", she grinned.

Mitsuo glared at boys, knowing he would only make it worse. He sighed, "Yeah sure... I heard you can find interesting things there..." He chuckled. It was nice to be walking with Cora. He hasn't said anything to her about how she makes him feel... he doesn't really know how to explain it himself. "You grew up here? What was it like?" He asked, trying to distract himself from his feelings.

Cora didn't really want to answer this question, "I will take you to the black market, you can see there how it was!", she entered a house and went down the staircase. It was longer than you would have expected. As she reached the bottom she made her way further trough the dark tunnel, constantly running her fingers on the wall to keep the direction. Suddenly it was getting brighter and you could see the whole beauty of the black market.

"Tadaa!", she said, grinning.
It was one of the nicer parts but you could still see some merchants trading with people.
"Follow me, that's not the part I grew up in!", she said and went deeper into the black market, she reached another staircase leading even deeper and took it.

As Cora reached the bottom a smell of blood and sweat surounded them. This was the part were mercenaries were active. A man beating up a kid to show what it could endure, boys fighting against eachother. Merchants trading people like they were animals. Humans kept in cages or leashes like the were animals.

A smile appeared on Cora's face and she turned around to Mitsuo, "That's where I grew up."

Mitsuo looked around. He was speechless. Tears started forming in his eyes. "H-Here...?" He mumbled, not being able to believe what he was seeing. This proves his childhood dream wasn't real amd he just wanted to punch every one in sight, every one but Cora. Instead he just fell to his knees.

Cora looked speechless at Mitsuo, "Hey...Hey...it's ok. I wasn't here all the time...", she didn't really know what to say. Why did he react like that?
She kneeled next to him and placed a hand on his head, "Hey, stand up again. I turned out pretty normal, you see? It couldn't have been that aweful if I'm still normal, right?"

Normal? Uh? You got two other persons inside your head! You aren't normal!
Oh shut up! I'm trying to calm him down!
Just saying, you know...

"I was raised as a mercenary, that's why I joined the military, I didn't want to miss fighting"
She took his hand, "Come on...want to stay up again?"

Mitsuo slowly raised to his feet. He needed to distract himself, he needed to do something that would make him feel better... that's when he noticed people beating up another person again. He stormed over to them and pulled the victim behind him, he glared evilly at the bullies until they backed off. That made him feel somewhat better, better and stupid. He looked around at the merchants to see if they were selling anything that could be of use to him.

Cora followed him, "Let them be, that's normal here. They need to learn that.", she had learned it too. But she was in the pact, the punishments and teaching methods there were the most violent. But they also turned out to be the best warriors.

Suddenly Cora was feeling a hand on her shoulder, she quickly grabbed it and forced the man it belonged to to kneel on the ground.
"Valkyrie...Valkyrie, stop it! That hurts!", the man said and Cora realized who it was.
"No fucking way! You are still alive?", she said happily and let him go, "Dang it...thought you would be dead by now. How's your brother?"
The man stood up. He was taller than Cora and had a huge scar going all over his face.
"He got killed."
"He was always the weaker one. Who was it?"
"Me."
"Obvious. Just if you're wondering.", Cora pointed at Mitsuo, "That's my friend, be nice to him. Oh I nearly forgot to tell each other your names. Mitsuo, that's Cetus. I don't know what his name was before...but he is called like that now. And Cetus that's Mitsuo. If you try to hurt him I will kill you."
He nodded and grinned at Cora, "As fierce as always, aren't you?"
"Like that would ever change. I see you are not in the Pact anymore.", she ran her index finger down the huge scar in his face. He nodded, "They sold me for quite a high price, I'm with the gryphons now."
"I never understood why they had to place their mark in someone's face.", she shook her head.

Mitsuo looked over to the man named "Cetus". He must admit he wasn't amused. He scoffed, "Whatever..." slipped from his lips and he carried on walking around, looking for anything that stands out to him. He was unimpressed for what the merchants were selling. 'Finding interesting things at the black market appears to be a lie...' He mentally criticized.

Cora followed Mitsuo not caring for Cetus, "Hey! Where do you want to go? That's the part where you can only buy huma- Oh look! That merchant is still existing! He tried to buy me...but the price for me was too high!", she grinned and started quietly singing a song, nearly not hearable for anyone but her.
"I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die. No I don't wanna die, so you're gonna have to..."

Mitsuo growled, "THEY HAVE NOTHING OF USE HERE!" He was annoyed at how bad this black market seemed to be, "FOR A BLACK MARKET IT'S CRAP!" He stormed all around the market until he saw a 3DMG. "Oh..." He walked over... suddenly interested. He looked at the merchant's stall, a lot he had was scrap metal and mechanical parts.

Cora was confused why he had reacted like that.
"Like I said that's the floor where you can only buy humans...to get the weapons and the more illegal stuff you have to go on floor up.", she whispered and silently followed him.
The merchant looked at her, she looked angryly back, "That's not the one we are looking for. Bring us the real one, not this shit!", she said.

Mitsuo looked at the merchant then back at what he was selling... "How much do you have and how much will it cost?" He asked, ignoring what Cora said.

The merchant looked at him, dropping his look from Cora. "Eh? You want to buy all of it!?"

Mitsuo just nodded in response,not letting his eyes pry away from the metal before him.

"W-Well, um, th-that would be about 100 coins," the merchant stuttered.

"For scraps? I don't buy from cheaters." Mitsuo left after his last comment, leaving the merchant scowling, "Upstairs you say?" He asks looking over to Cora

Cora nodded and went to the same staircase they came from.
This was the floor where you could find anything, really anything. There were even some merchants who sold 'titan flesh'.
The last time she had been on the black market was to join a different group of mercenaries. Together with Auth. And the time before Severin had shot her in her leg. Very unpleasant memories.
"What do you want to buy, I think I know all the places to buy stuff.", she said. She knew not all but alot of them.

Mitsuo shrugged. "Metal..." He could only think that as a good enough answer. "I have some major blueprints at home that could change the entire war!" He said the words "major" and "entire" with an astonished tone. He wanted to tell her but he also wanted to keep it a secret so he said no more. He just chuckled at the thoughts of his blueprints and what they would be like when they're made. "Of course they're not going to work straight away but... I have high hopes for them!" He talked about them as if they were his children.

Cora grinned and took his hand, "Follow me scientist!", she went to a small stall. The merchant was old but friendly.
"We need some metal. I don't know which but he knows it, of course!"
The stall was filled with all kinds of metal. Different shapes, kinds or colours. There were some metal toys Cora didn't understand.

! Itsuo blushed at her grabbing his hand and hoped she wouldn't realise. He looked at the stall vendor, "I'll need everything you have, how much would it cost?" He asked, somewhat inpatient. He tapped his foot while waiting and glanced between Cora and the vendor.

The vendor looked surprised, "Everything? Really?", he seemed to add the sums up in his head and told him his price (I have no idea of the price...)
Cora looked around, there were alot of new things and some more merchants selling 3DMG. Some even looked usable and not damaged.
A man who had five kids on leashes passed them and Cora made eye contact with one of them.
It looked a bit like her, except that his eyes were hollow. There was nothing inside anymore.
Cora got scared by the look, could that have happened to her too? Could she be the same kid? She proably would have been if Nec and Vex weren't there. She promised herself that she would never let them down. No matter how much trouble she got into, she would do everything to protect their existence.

Mitsuo nodded at the price and pulled out a money pouch. He counted the coins inside that seemed to add up to the total. "There ya go, 150 coins! Can you please put the stuff in a crate so I can carry it?" He looked around, 'this isn't that bad of a place... when you take away all the bad stuff..' he thought and chuckled. He looked at Cora and smiled, "You alright? You seem out of it..." he asked, concerned.

Auth was talking to a merchant when he quickly drew a dagger and placed it on the man's throat. He eyed him through the crow mask.

"You bastard, when a Crow comes shopping, you say very fast the true quality of your goods. Now I've wasted my time here for your junk. Say thank you I'm not gutting you here and now."

He sheathed the dagger back into his cloak, and left while a cared merchant mumbled a "thank you". Auth smirked underneath the mask. He started to get used to this place, given how often he had business here lately.

Right now, he was looking for a merchant having more than 20 quality rifles. Hard to find something like this here, really, but if you didn't look, you never knew. It was on his way to the next stall he spotted Cora and her companion. Obviously enough, he headed straight there.

"Well hello there" he said as he entered earshot. "Been a while, hasn't it?" Auth had used his own voice, as to let Cora recognize it.

Cora had zoned out a bit, "Just thinking about something...", she said, not really wanting to tell him.
"The kid down there looks like me...like I used to look...", she whispered and smiled again to shove the thoughts of her past away.
Suddenly she hearda familiar voce from behind.

Cora turned around and recognized Auth. "You bastard!", she said happily and did something she normally would never do,it was probably Vex's fault, she had missed him really, she hugged him, "There happened hellalot of things! Way too many!", she said fast. She let him go and inspected him with a wide grin on her face. "You look the same as always!", she joked.

The merchant handed Mitsuo the crate full of everything. Mitsuo grabbed a hold of the crate and turned around to see Cora hugging a stranger. When he saw this he had to fight back an envious blush. 'Damn it... what the heck is wrong with me?' he mentally questioned. "Friend of yours?" He asked nonchalantly with a raised eyebrow.

Cora grinned at Mitsuo, "He is! Can't tell you so much here...I will tell you later.", it wasn't so great if anyone either knew the identity behind black crow or that just this stranger was in the military.
The black market people hated the military, just giving someone the slightest idea that someone was a soldier would end up in the soldier getting killed. Or selled. Or worse.

"Let's just say he is Black Crow okay?", she turned around to Auth again, "How's buisiness? I'll have to tell you something later, it's very important.", she looked at him sadly.

"Business? Shady, as usual." he answered on a half-amused tone.

Quickly enough, he changed to a much more serious one. "I also have to tell you some things. Important ones." He once again switched to the amused tone he usually has, turning to face the interestingly-dressed companion Cora had. He managed to catch a blush fading away from his cheeks. This was going to be fun.

"Your boyfriend?" Auth asked Cora, gesturing towards the man.

Mitsuo nearly dropped the crate at the man's last words. 'What did he just say!?' he internally screamed, 'what the actual heck is wrong with this guy!?' He shifted his feet and looked at the mechanical parts in the crate. He knew he would have a deep blush planted on his cheeks now and so he tried to avoid them seeing his face. He coughed nervously, he didn't really want to find out what Cora's reaction would be.

Cora blushed, "Like I would ever have one! Noone likes me if he knew about-", she stopped, "You know who.", she didn't tell Mitsuo about the other Coras and she had no intetion of letting him know. Not yet at least. Cora hoped that Auth understood that Mitsuo knew nothing.
She shook her head to get the blood out of her head.
"Can we go somewhere else to discuss anything like that? Mitsuo you can come with us, the thing I have to tell you, Black Crow, might interest you too.", she just started walking hoping they would follow her.
She reached a small stall with a falcon on it. "Can we use the back room?", she asked the merchant. He nodded and Cora went in. A small table with some chairs was inside. Cora sat down.