A Meeting to Remember
Jack stood in front of the Mayor’s desk along with quite a few others. Jack stood to the far left from his perspective. Right beside him was Taro Tanaka, his best friend. The two of them were supposed to fill in for Tea Shertz since he was injured. Five more people stood to the right of Taro. Jack didn’t know most of them, but he did know that one of them was the only other professional hunter of the town.
A forty-something year old man with thinning hair and a curly, but not unkempt beard that reached all the way to the top of his abdomen. Jack believes he might have a wife, based on both hear-say and the ring that was on his finger. He didn’t know much else other than his name, which Tea Shertz told both of his students with a chuckle. The other professional hunter of this town went by the name of Chai Tea.
Yes, yes, laugh it up. We’ve all heard of that one specific scene from the Spider-Man (Men?) movie. According to Tea Shertz, though, the man was an equal to Shertz in marksmanship despite the fact that he was getting old enough for body problems to start occurring.
Jack could only assume that the other four people were the man’s students, like he and Taro were to Shertz.
However, the group of hunters were not his focus right now, because behind the desk were two people. The one sitting was the Mayor himself, still looking as sweaty as the last time Jack had seen him. The young man standing beside the mayor was new, though. He looked to be around the age of a Senior in high school, maybe 17-19 years, and dressed up like a punk deciding to become a camper.
The top of his head could reach Jack’s nose, perhaps, making him slightly taller than the average man. He was very skinny, with his clothes not hiding just how little muscle and fat was on him. He appeared to be freshly cleaned, even though Jack could tell that his clothes have been through the wringer of hard travel with how many tears and stretch marks there are all over it.
His hair was incredibly orange. Like, the color of part 1 Naruto’s outfit, orange. His face also seemed to be somewhat serious and… Wait, the kid’s face was tickling his memory. He kind of looked like… Ah, what was the guy’s name again? His show’s name was some kind of product. Soap? Detergent? Bleach? Yes! Bleach. The kid looked like the main protagonist of Bleach, except sleep-deprived and exhausted with hints of some European traits coming in rather than being full Japanese like that Bleach guy was.
Other than that, the kid was incredibly tired and haggard, but his posture still was straight. Jack wondered why he was here.
“Gentleman,” Mayor Meyer spoke up, grabbing everyone’s attention and beginning the reason for why they were here. “I’m sorry for having you all get up so early today.” Jack didn’t mind, and he was pretty sure the others didn’t, either. Last night, the Mayor called Jack’s household to inform him that he needed to be at the mayor’s office by 7 in the morning. Jack was used to getting up by 5 and leaving by 6 for hunting these past few weeks. Jack practically slept in today!
No one told the mayor this, though, so Jack didn’t speak up.
The man continued, “Suffice to say, thanks to this young man here,” he gestured towards the kid, “Ralph Wrecking, he managed to bring some warning of an imminent threat headed our way.” There was a slight pause as the mayor breathed in for his next sentence, while the tension in the room rose. “A bandit group, led by an infamous bear-man named Moon Shine, is plundering and taking over previously World Kingdom-protected towns as the new ‘Bandit King’ of the region. He has already fought and killed the entire Sheriff Department for Wasabi Village, and will soon come upon us.”
A pause as the mayor wiped his head and made a quiet sigh while the rest of the adults were taking in what was said, and the danger inherent in this surprise. Before the mayor could speak again, Chai Tea stepped forward and asked the question they all had, “How is it possible? How did this bandit group even so much as beat the Sheriffs of Wasabi?” His voice was flat, with a hint of incredulity. Jack couldn’t blame him.
Even with all of his training, Jack had no doubt that a bullet was faster, and that it would pierce his flesh. How the hell did a group of lawlessness, of no discipline, manage to beat professionally trained cops?
The mayor cleared his throat, “Ah, a-apparentally-” he didn’t get to finish his sentence as the kid, Ralph Wrecking, stepped in with his words, “The leader, Moon Shine, is somehow bullet proof.” One of the students of Chai muttered “Bullet proof?” under his breath while the teacher, himself, asked further, “What do you mean bullet proof? He had some kind of fancy bullet proof armor or-?”
Ralph answered, “I mean, his skin, hide, whatever, is able to stop all bullets.” Seeing everyone’s disbelieving faces, Ralph shook his head and sternly told them, “I watched him stand in the middle of the street, while every deputy fired on him from both the ground and the roof. They all crumpled or bounced off him to hit something else.”
His face took on some dread, “And, somehow, he is able to use his swords to cut through metal and wood like meat.” Another of Chai’s students stepped forward, “Wait a second, are you saying that your town was taken over by one man? I thought a group of bandits were the problem?” Ralph’s eyes lowered a little. “After he killed all of our deputies, his group of bandits came with some weapons of their own. Our town surrendered after that.”
Immediately, Chai asked, “How many bandits are there?” Ralph snapped out of whatever was going on in his head and replied, “A-About 40, maybe 37 or so. Apparently, they were supposed to be a group of 50, but Sheriff Smith, Deputy Wesson, and Deputy Remington managed to kill a scouting group of 10 or so. Unfortunately, they all died after one of the members were able to call for help, and then Moon Shine showed up.”
Jack gulped, and from the corner of his eye, he saw Taro do the same. Looking down his body, Jack could see that Taro’s clenched fists were shaking slightly. Surprisingly, Taro managed to say something. “Ar-Are they all bulletproof?” Ralph turned to Taro and shook his head. “No…” Ralph took a pause as he realized something, “But, I don’t think Moon Shine is as invincible as he turned out to be.”
Everyone turned to Ralph in surprise at that answer, even the mayor couldn’t help but look at him. The mayor spoke up, “Didn't you tell us that he was bulletproof?” Ralph’s mouth inched up into a smile bit by bit as he answered, “Yes, but I also remembered him getting to Wasabi with wounds all over himself. Bullet wounds, at that! Maybe, maybe it requires time for him to become bulletproof? Maybe he needs to prepare! Maybe-!”
Chai Tea cut him off, “Did you say that he fought a ‘Sheriff Smith’ before getting to your town? The Sheriff’s first name wouldn’t happen to be John?” Ralph’s escalating tirade stopped in its tracks at this question. “W-Well, yes…” Chai let out a deep sigh through his nose as he groaned at that revelation and closed his eyes as he crossed his arms. Ralph asked, hope desperately fighting to stay alive, “... Why did you do that? Sigh, like that? It can’t be that bad, right?”
Chai simply shook his head, “It probably is that bad. John ‘Saint Gun’ Smith is known throughout the hunting and gun competing folk as the best in all of guns.” Chai opened his eyes and uncrossed his arms. “I was part of his last regional gun shooting competition somewhere around a decade ago. When people came to the clay shooting competition, we used shotguns. I got 5th in that competition. That 18-year-old Smith won it with 1st place, tied with another guy.
“Everyone knew that Smith won that competition, though. They may have both hit every clay target, but the other guy was using a shotgun, like the rest of us. Smith used a revolver.” Silence hung in the room at that revelation. Jack couldn’t believe what he had heard. He knew the difference between a shotgun and a revolver. Shotguns used special ammo that shot out a bunch of pellets at once to hit an ‘area’, with the more pellets in the cartridge increasing the chances of hitting a target in the ‘area’. A regular gun like a revolver only used a single bullet.
Was Smith some kind of Chakra Expert or something?!
Chai’s beard moved as he sucked in his lips at the response around him. “Yeah, needless to say, if only Smith was the one who hurt him, our guns won’t either.” Everyone paused before panicking.
Jack could only stand there, wide-eyed at what Chai just said. This Smith was like some kind of hidden ninja! Like all of those filler characters in Part 1 Naruto after Naruto fought Sasuke at the Final Valley, but before he left on Jiraiya’s journey. A tragic character for Naruto to learn of before helping the filler character of the week because, “He’s just like me! Believe it!”
Then Naruto would go on and use the power of friendship to beat the bad guy of the small filler arc…
…But this wasn’t Naruto. This was real life. This was a dangerous person coming to this town with the express purpose of killing everyone in the vicinity who dared to fight back… Maybe Jack could fight back, but he didn’t know if he could actually kill a person, much less a superpowered bear-person.
Hopefully, none of the towns-folk try and fight back. If the Moon Shine bandit has killed people after taking over a town, then maybe the people won’t try and fight ba-
“Hey, Irah, how’d you do at school today?”
“Well, uh, I fought a guy who was beating on some kid.”
“Really? That’s good! I’m glad fighting with me taught you how to protect someone else. Remember, you only fight when someone is fighting you or someone else. Protection is one of the most noble causes for fights.”
“... Yeah, thanks, Jack. Just, uh, don’t tell Mom or Dad about this. Hopefully, I can make sure that both of them don’t realize this happened. The school didn’t punish me for it or anything.”
“Alright, I promise not to tell them about it, unless they figure it out, then you’re on your own.”
Merci would proceed to bring it up, ruining Irah’s night.
… No, if they didn’t fight back, Irah would. He may be brash, hard-headed, and a bit of a jerk to his friends, but Evil like Moon Shine would just push Irah to fight back and get killed for doing so.
Jack would have no choice but to fight, to make sure his charge… His little brother was okay.
Jack snapped out of his thoughts as a loud THUMP jolted him. He looked to see the mayor’s big book having slammed onto the desk, quieting everyone.
“Alright,” the man said, “Up next, what do we do when Moon Shine comes?”
Jack opened his mouth…