HSR: A Passing Crimson

Prior to Merris' inevitable revelation, just right after he bid fare well to Acheron to buy some groceries for her.

Standing not far from a particular building, he stood while holding the briefcase that was given to them by the staff earlier. From his appearance, it would be easy to assume that he was some kind of employee of a company. Of course, there was no such thing.

"That should be the place..." He mumbled to himself, looking at the familiar infrastructure at a distance.

"A peach or something sweet for Acheron... That should be easy enough. As for me, something meaty should also be enough to satiate my hunger for a while." After going over what he would buy, he nodded to himself and entered the supermarket.

Once he entered, the interior looked no different from the supermarkets he used to see back on Earth. Really, despite the alien differences and cultures, every race in the cosmos found this particular layout efficient for consumerism.

Going to the fruit and vegetable aisle, Merris was a bit surprised to see a variety of alien produce he never saw before. There was one where it looked like it was made entirely out of glass that had an oval shape, while there was another that looked like there were swirling horns growing from its cubic shape.

'Whoa...' His eyes gleamed, relishing the alien experience. Looking at the unfamiliar food in front of him, he unconsciously gulped. 'I wonder how they taste...?'

You can't blame him for wanting to try those new foods out. It wasn't enough that he was a curious scifi nerd, but he was also a voracious alien creature now— one that would stop at nothing to eat more.

After pondering over his mind for a good minute, he made up his decision. '...Well, if I'm going to be a voracious monster, I might as well be a civilized one.'

Having thought of this, he grabbed a basket nearby and placed two alien produce inside, intending to have a taste.

After doing so, he went and looked for something Acheron would want. He looked around for a good minute, and, surprisingly, he found something that fits the bill.

'Ah... That is...' Spotting a particularly familiar shape, his eyes widened. Walking over and grabbing the fruit, he couldn't be any more sure of it. 'This... this is a peach, isn't it?'

The plump peach sat in his hand, its soft, golden skin kissed with a blush of rosy pink, as if the summer sun had painted it by hand. The scent was ripe and floral— almost honeyed— and was enticing him to have a bite.

He gulped, entranced by the alluring fruit. 'No wonder Acheron likes these... Even I might not be able to resist the urge to have a quick bite...'

Having been enlightened, he decided to take a couple of them just to make sure. He could never know if his employer wanted more of the thing, after all.

After that, he went to the meat aisle and picked a couple pounds of meat for himself. Finally feeling satisfied with his grocery, he then went to the cashier to pay them all.

Having made his purchase, he then left the supermarket with a bag of goods in his one hand and his briefcase on the other.

Standing outside, he heaved a soft sigh. "That's done... I wish I could contact Acheron and notify her I'm coming back, though."

Having just woken up recently with nothing on his person, something like a phone was something he did not have the luxury of at the moment.

"Man, I really need a phone..."

But alas, with his limited money, he could only patiently wait for his employer to pay him.

Since Acheron was a drifter, it was natural for her to amass quite a bit of wealth under her from traveling from one world to another. In fact, the card she gave him contained a lot of credits— enough to buy several-fold of what he bought in the supermarket— but of course, he didn't buy anything excessively and limited his purchase to a small amount.

Beginning his walk back, Merris continued to observe Trace, his eyes gazing over the structures and people around him.

Just then, while he was walking, he felt something akin to goosebumps crawling up his skin. No— it was more like something underneath his skin was startled and was notifying him of it. 'What the...?!'

It took him a moment, however, he soon realized that this feeling was something similar to when he felt like he was being watched. It was like an enhanced version of scopaesthesia.

'...I'm being watched?' Realizing this, he began to walk cautiously while simultaneously looking around for who was watching him.

His eyes narrowed and looked at the other people walking alongside him. However, unlike him, they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. That meant that whoever or whatever was watching him was watching solely him.

He then felt the crawling sensation gather and intensify on the back of his neck. 'The sensation on my nape... Is it pointing me to whoever is observing me?'

Hesitating briefly, he gathered the sufficient courage for a moment before turning his head and looking at the particular direction that his body was being wary of.

However, he saw no one looking back at him.

'...huh?' Taken aback by the strange situation, he momentarily stopped and stood at where he was. 'Was I mistaken? But—'

"Get out of the way!"

Just then, before he could continue his train of thoughts, he suddenly felt something bumping into him, causing both him and the perpetrator to topple over on the sidewalk.

Taking this encounter for some kind of ambush, his body got alarmed and suddenly moved on its own. His arm's muscles contracted quickly before swiftly lashing out and grabbing the person that just attacked him, pinning him to a wall nearby and locking him in place.

His other hand, meanwhile, started to change back to its monster form and was preparing to take a bite out of his attacker.

Everything happened in less than a few moments.

'Wait! Stop, stop stop!' However, before his hand could fully transform, he willed his body to stop, causing it to refrain from doing so. 'Don't cause a scene out here in public... If I kill this guy, I'm doomed...!'

At his command, his other hand slowly calmed down and started stitching itself back together, preventing his exposure to the public. After confirming that it calmed down, Merris' eyes then looked at his supposed attacker.

"Wh-what are you doing?! Let me go!" The person that attacked him wailed as looked at Merris in fear and frustration.

The person, who Merris was holding, was an anthropomorphic person that had animalistic features. Specifically, he had swirling goat horns stemming from his head.

Other than that, he looked no different from any other human. He appeared middle-aged and was wearing a ragged suit as if he had been running around for quite a while.

However, Merris wanted answers. Ignoring the eyes of the people around them, he spoke with a baleful tone. "Let me ask a question first. Why did you do that? Isn't it quite rude to bump into someone a second after notifying them? I think I deserve an apology at least, yes?"

"Argh... Damn it, it was an accident! An accident! Now would you let me go already?" The goat-person struggled in his grip, his voice laced with haste and frustration.

"Well, that's the oddest form of apology I've ever heard." Merris smiled. "Care to try again? Or would you prefer for both of us to continue this farce?"

Visibly angered by Merris' manner of speaking, the goat-person gritted his teeth as his eyes looked at him with visible vexation. However, with his hand on his neck keeping him pinned on a wall, as well as his inhuman strength, his struggles were meaningless.

Swallowing his pride, the goat-person then apologized with agitation. "Damn it... Fine! I apologize, and it was my mistake! Now would you let me down?!"

"...good enough. See? Being civilized isn't so bad." Accepting the half-assed apology, Merris loosened his grip over the person's neck. However, not before venting his frustration with a comely smile. "Next time, if you're going to be an archetypical battering ram, do notify your target at least five seconds before your attack, alright? It would save both you and your next target the trouble. Wouldn't you agree, dear sir?"

"Tch... hah... whatever." Ignoring Merris' sarcastic comments, the goat-person heaved deep breaths after escaping from his grip. He then avoided him and dropped to the floor and picked up the briefcase he was holding and quickly left, visibly in a hurry.

Watching the goat-person leave just like that, Merris stood idly for a moment. "...well that was anticlimactic. I thought he'd call himself a young master of some clan or something... Or at least mention someone powerful backing him and threaten me..."

Alas, reality was not fiction.

Picking up his groceries and briefcase that were also sprawled onto the sidewalk, he sighed softly. "Seriously... What an odd fellow... Look at the mess he made."

"Hm? Strange... That feeling of being watched vanished..." Looking around him, he noticed that the creeping feeling he had been feeling earlier prior to the accident disappeared without a trace.

He frowned slightly. "...I have a bad feeling about this... I should lay low."

Remembering the masks inside the briefcase that could conceal his identity, Merris stealthily walked inside an alleyway to wear it.

After making sure he wasn't followed and there wasn't anyone nearby, he decided to open the briefcase.

"...huh?"

However, what he found were not masks, but rather, a bunch of papers as well as a lot of identification cards... and money.

"This isn't... No way..." Baffled by the contents inside, Merris speculated something.

He took a handful of IDs inside and, sure enough, all of them had the same picture of the goat-person from earlier. Not just that, but all of his identification cards had different information!

"The Calliope star system... The Ymiro galaxy... The Tamar nebulae..." Reading each of the cards he had in hand and their origin, a cold sweat began to form on his forehead. "What the... Is this guy some kind of intergalactic criminal? Why need this much forged identity...?"

He then changed his target to the papers inside. Dropping the cards, he took one of the papers and read it. Instantly, upon reading the contents inside, all the answers he had been searching for were instantly revealed.

"...are you serious?" He chuckled wryly. "What are the chances... To think that I'd stumble on someone from that organization here."

"Japella Brotherhood... Top Executive Johan, eh?"

Japella Brotherhood. A name that was briefly mentioned in the main story of the game yet had a big impact on a certain someone.

"The way he's in haste earlier... Is he being hunted down? If so, then 'that' event should be happening right now...' He mumbled to himself, piecing together what he knew.

The Japella Brotherhood was a sub-faction under the Annihilation Gang that serves the Destruction. Although it was not an important aspect in the main story, the fall of this sub-faction opened the path for another sub-faction to take over their position and for a particular person to enter the stage and be part of the main cast during the Penacony arc.

"Ms. Acheron..."

That's right. The fall of the Japella Brotherhood would give way for Acheron to enter the main story.

"If a Top Executive is being hunted down... That could only mean that..." Suddenly, he remembered the creeping feeling of being watched earlier.

Although he wasn't able to see them, from the pieces of knowledge he had accumulated so far, he was now able to make an educated guess.

"...a Stellaron Hunter is here... Isn't there?"

A Stellaron Hunter. If Merris was a cheater who knows more about this universe than a normal person does, then the members— especially the leader— of this faction are literal hackers who manipulate the stage to their liking.

Since, like him, their leader too knows the future. And he sends out his members under a script for them to follow.

"The Stellaron Hunter here should also be on a mission to hunt down Johan. Now, the big question is... Which Hunter came?"

The Stellaron Hunters were the ones who orchestrated the fall of the Japella Brotherhood. If they're currently in the process of this plan, then it would be natural to assume that they're currently weakening the Brotherhood by chipping away its leaders— such as Johan.

He pondered idly for a while, his gaze never leaving the briefcase. His instincts were telling him to return to Acheron at this very moment to be protected under her wing. However, since the Stellaron Hunter gazed at him earlier, there's a chance that they'd come back and observe him again, which might put Acheron and him in danger.

Moreover, it might disrupt the proper course of events if Acheron were to kill that Stellaron Hunter. Each member was important to the main story, after all. He couldn't allow such a thing to happen.

After contemplating deeply for a while, Merris stayed silent for a few moments before heaving a long sigh.

"...I'm sorry, Ms. Acheron... But I think I'd have to go rogue for a bit... I'll make sure to drop the groceries by later, though."

He plans to meet that certain Stellaron Hunter and build some kind of connection. And the only way to make contact with them is by...

Looking at the briefcase on the ground, he smiled softly.

"As a proper gentleman, I can't just leave things as they are, right? As such, I should return this briefcase..."

Time to pay Johan a visit... wherever he was.