This Thing Don't Look So Tough

[Clownpiece]

Shouts and screams, a sound that had once been music to Clownpiece’s ears, the beautiful melody of madness and mayhem, now only filled her with dread. These weren’t the cries of pathetic, terrified humans fighting desperately for their lives, nor the enraged shouts of maddened bystanders, desperately trying to fight anyone that so much as looked at them funny. These were the well-organized yells of a relatively skilled monster-hunting force, barking out commands to each other and threats towards the beast. This beast, of course, being her beloved pet.

The star-spangled girl yelled out protest after protest in a high-pitched, distraught tone, her small hands desperately clawing at Dane’s outfit in a vain effort to rein him in. Her wings fluttered frantically as she tried pulling him back with all her might, but all her pleas fell on deaf ears, ignored by the swordsman, and unheard by the Darkshire Guards, drowned out by their own shouts, as well as the various other sounds of strife. Crossbow bolts tore through the air and shattered ragged holes into the panicking Afrátos’ body, before breaking the glass of the window behind him, providing the ceramic beast with the perfect escape.

And yet he didn’t feel just yet. Perched atop the windowsill, in the small lull whilst the guards quickly reloaded their crossbows, Afrátos turned back, his expression as stony as ever, his head and bright orange eyes swiveling from one object of his terror, the swordsman, over to his only solace, Clownpiece. An almost pleading gaze glinted in those glassy eyes, one last hope for the fairy to put a stop to this madness. But stopping madness had never been the little girl’s specialty.

In an instant, Dane tore himself free from his friend’s grasp, surprising strength surging through his normally human body as he shoved her roughly to the side. The hell fairy barely managed to catch herself before crashing into the bloodsoaked floor, floating just inches above it, turned on her side, her wings beating furiously. Caught off balance, there was nothing she could do as the swordsman hurled himself forward, sword at the ready, towards the already-battered form of her pet. The beast’s body tensed in panic, though there was still no fearful glint in his unexpressive eyes, and immediately he whipped around, trying to wriggle himself out of the half-open window. Too late, unfortunately.

The sound of ceramic shattering overpowered the rest of the mayhem, and for a brief moment following that tremendous crash, everything fell silent. Afrátos’ fragile form fell right out of the window, one half, his legs, shattering against the ground inside, while the other suddenly found itself floating, of all things, just outside. A development all of them, including the floating beast itself, found very surprising. Quiet exclamations, likely about how demonic Afrátos seemed, escaped several of the guards, who had, for the most part, stopped in the middle of reloading their crossbows.

Of course, the almost silent shock of this new development didn’t last all that long. The ceramic beast’s fight or flight response kicked in almost immediately, and with little more than a shocked glance towards its missing lower half, it spun around in the air and took off. More frantic shouts rose up from the Darkshire Guards, orders and demands to chase down the hellspawn, and without further ceremony, two of the guards split off, barrelling out the smashed door, crossbows at the ready as they chased down the fleeing Afrátos, leaving in their wake the other two guards. Likely to stick around, perhaps question and congratulate the fairy and the swordsman for taking down the shapeshifters. A task they never got to.

“Dane..?” The moment even the briefest silence fell over the broken and blood-soaked inn, Clownpiece took full advantage of it, her childish voice falling into a low, seething growl. Her expression contorted into one of almost perfectly pure fury as she righted herself in midair, the dread and hopelessness she felt as she’d been unable to save her pet replaced only by a deep-seated rage. At the mention of his name, the blonde-haired swordsman slowly turned to face her, face bearing the mark of his usual uncaring demeanor. If he heard the outrage in the little fairy’s voice, he didn’t show any sign of it.

“Yeah?” Dane asked. In direct contrast to the child’s irate tone, his was calm and level. Infuriatingly so. Here he was, not more than a minute after having tried (and succeeded, to a degree) to smash Afrátos to pieces, and he was being so nonchalant about it? As if he didn’t even hear her tone?

“Y-You just...” Clownpiece stuttered out through clenched teeth, bright purple eyes narrowed in a sharp glare, her tiny body shaking with fury. 

“Well, yeah. What’d I tell you?” Hidden in his uncaring voice was a small hint of condescension, almost as though this was her fault and not his, and he casually sheathed his sword again. “You couldn’t keep it under control, so it had to be put down.”

“Th-That’s not...” Her voice trembled, both of her small hands now clenching the smooth wood of her torch, knuckles turning white with the strain. “Y-You...” Her voice fell to a whisper for just a moment, before she sucked in a shaky breath, still meeting Dane’s eyes with a black look. “I can’t believe you!” The fairy shouted indignantly, screwing her eyes such as she desperately swept her torch down in front of her, its lunatic flame flaring up brighter with her surging emotions. A wave of brilliant, maddening light surged out from the fire which, though Clownpiece couldn’t see it with her eyes shut as they were, washed over Dane and the two guards, leaving them all wearing vaguely confused expressions as the star-spangled girl vanished not only from their sights but their memories, and without a moment of hesitation, the little fairy shot off, right back the way she came.

In such a small, cramped hotel, it wasn’t long before Clownpiece was back up on the second floor. Though she slowed down for a moment, enough so she didn’t ram the door full-speed, she didn’t so much as hesitate in opening it. All the anger she’d felt earlier, at her pet and at Cirno for tearing her hat, had been overshadowed, replaced only by a deep seed of betrayal. A tremendous crack echoed throughout the room, the worn-down building shuddering as the door, flung violently open by the hell fairy, slammed into the wall. The two residents of the room that weren’t Yuuka jumped in their skin at this sudden surprise, heads whipping around, eyes wide as they turned to whatever had decided to join them. Only to immediately relax, not quite breathing a sigh of relief as the aura of madness faded away from the star-spangled girl, revealing her to their minds once again.

“Jeez, where have you been?” 
“Wow! Yikes! What happened to you?”

Two voices spoke up simultaneously, talking over each other. One from the ice fairy sitting at the foot of the bed shared by her, Yuuka, and Clownpiece, the other from the college student laying over in hers across the room. Both of them, having been tensed at the sudden intrusion, were casual once again. The first had been that of Cirno, leaning back against the bed with her hands behind her head, the broken (and hastily fixed) hat of her friend perched atop her head. Had the hell fairy not been consumed by anger at a certain other someone at that moment, she would’ve stormed over there and ripped that hat right off Cirno’s head. Renko, on the other hand, simply returned to laying on her back on her bed, tablet held aloft over her head, though rather than screwing around with it, her eyes were fixed on the blood-soaked fairy.

“We’re going.” The blonde, hatless child growled, not bothering to answer either of their questions. She dropped to the floor, her drenched tights squelching a little bit as she landed, but if the sorry state of them bothered her at all, it didn’t show over her pissed expression.

“Going? Is it time already?” Yuuka asked, yawning a bit as she regretfully lifted her head from her pillow, rising to a sit in her and the fairies’ shared bed.

“No, we’re leaving,” Clownpiece answered rather unhelpfully, crossing her arms impatiently over her chest as she stayed right in her spot just in front of the door.

“Alright. Where do you want to go, then?” For what it was worth, the flower youkai caught on to the fairy’s unhelpful addition quickly, not questioning why she was saying what she was saying.

“I-I don’t know!” The hell fairy stammered, not having really thought any of this through. “The Shrine? Anywhere but here!”

“What about DA?” Renko chipped in from the side, returning her gaze from the fairy to her tablet. “Unless too much death is why you’re uh...” Though her eyes were focused on her device, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was referring to the child’s rather gruesome appearance.

“DA?” Clownpiece asked, turning her attention towards the college student, a little bit of curiosity creeping into her voice, but not even to even come close to overshadowing her ire.

“You know, Dante’s Abyss? The death tournament you and Cirno were in last year?” She prompted.

“Oh, that? It’s back already?” At the mention of that, the fairy seemed to calm down a bit, interest creeping across her face as she remembered the excitement of last year’s event. “Alright! We’re going to DA then!” Without really anything in the way of deliberation or consideration, Clownpiece made her announcement, energetically spinning around right back towards the doorway, paying no mind to whether anyone else agreed with her impulse.

“Woah wait a second!” It was Cirno who raised the first objection, halting the hell fairy mid-step. “What about the Ta... Tass...”

“Tarrasque.” Renko finished for her.

“Yeah, that!” The ice fairy cried indignantly, a small thump sounding behind Clownpiece as she leaped to her feet. “I didn’t come all the way over here just to leave!”

“Well I am leaving!” The lunatic fae shot back, spinning right back around to face her friend, ire once again back in her voice. “If you wanna stick around and get eaten by some dumb monster, then be my guest!”

“Maybe I will!” Cirno too took up an aggressive stance, staring down her fairy friend with a piercing glare.

“Well I wanna get home before DA starts, so you can have fun with that.” Renko cut in, bed groaning as she slowly eased herself up and off of it.

“W-Well, me and Yuuka will beat it up then!” Though she started off uncertain, it didn’t take a moment for her defiance to come right back.

“I don’t know...” Next came the flower youkai’s opinion, spoken in her usual, dangerously casual tone. “A death tournament does sound fun...” A pout appeared on Cirno’s face with those words. 

“F-F-Fine!” It took a moment and a few stutters, but even with everyone against her, the ice fairy continued on as stubborn as ever, crossing her arms over her chest and spinning around til her back was towards the rest of them. “I don’t need you guys anyway! I’ll just take it down on my own!”

“Sure you will,” Yuuka said calmly, almost silently laughing, ruffling the fairy’s short hair as she rose to her feet and passed by her. “Make sure to cheer for us~” To this, Cirno offered nothing more than a half-hearted protest, still turned defiantly away.

“Alright! Let's get going!” Clownpiece cheered, her voice a mixture of smug and excited as she spun about, ready to lead the way once again. Though where exactly she was going to lead was a mystery. She didn’t know where the sign-ups or whatever it was she needed was, but like hell she was gonna show it. Instead, she just confidently skipped forward, for all of a step before stopping right in her tracks. Again.
As if forgetting just how boisterous she’d been for the past few minutes, the little fairy crept forward the last inch she needed, peering suspiciously around the doorway and out into the empty hall. First one way, and then the next. Other than the faint outline of dust floating about, there was no movement. Perfect.

“Looking out for someone, Clowny?” And suddenly Yuuka was right there. Clownpiece just about jumped in her skin, her heart skipping a beat. In an instant, she pulled back from the doorway.

“No! I’m just...” she began denying energetically, flailing her arms a bit and turning to look up at the looming youkai. “Uh... There’s danger down the stairs so er... let's sneak out the window?”

“Danger, huh?” Yuuka’s eyes narrowed, a thin smile appearing on her face as she studied the fairy. Clownpiece smiled nervously, almost immediately realizing that was the worst possible excuse she could have used around Yuuka. “Sure, why don’t we do that.” But instead of reacting how she expected, the towering youkai almost seemed to realize what she was getting at.

“Uh, we’re on the second floor?” Renko chipped in once again, from the side, but her words went ignored by the mystical duo.

“Great! Thanks mo-erh...” The fairy cheered, once again having forgotten what an inside voice was. A cheer which quickly devolved into a nervous cough as she slipped up. “... Yuuka...” she corrected after gathering herself again. To that, Yuuka simply smiled.

“Do you guys at least have a ladder or something?”

“There’s one right out in the hallway here!” Clownpiece said, slipping out into the hallway, all pretense of being sneaky gone. The two accompanying her quickly followed suit.

“Great, let’s just grab that and...” Of course, what Renko thought was the fairy telling her there was a ladder out in the hall was, in fact, her talking about there being a window. Almost as though Clownpiece hadn’t heard her in the first place. A fact she didn’t realize until the star-spangled girl roughly threw open the decrepit window, grabbed hold of her and, with a strength unbefitting of her size, promptly jumped out the window. If the early morning sunlight, just starting to wash over the somber city, hadn’t woken up the residents of Darkshire yet, the college student’s scream certainly did.