Chapter 8: Chapter 8 – Welcome to Summerstar

Chapter 8

I heard some commotion from an establishment named the “Yummy Treat Cafe”. The sounds of screaming and crashing piqued my interest. I approached the window, and I saw a girl in a waitress outfit standing terrified as a couple of guys yelled at her. The woman’s hair was blue and draped halfway down her back. She had a long tail and a couple of blue, bushy ears. Usually a person would be surprised to see a cat girl, but I had already met a purple kangaroo that could talk. There was a cat race of people in FFO that were part human and part cat, but the name escaped me.

“Cat bitch, you owe my employer a 20% cut of your revenue for the week. Hand it over!” yelled the gruffy jerk on the left.

“We can’t afford that!” exclaimed the blue-haired cat girl.

“You’re saying no to the boss, then? He’s gonna be real angry, eh, Jerry?”

“Damn straight, nobody says no to him and lives to tell about it.”

The cat girl shook her head frantically. “We don’t want any trouble. We can’t pay 20 percent. You’ll put us out of business.”

“The boss demands 20%. You should be happy and appreciate his generosity, you selfish whore.”

I fumed at the way these two douche bags bullied this poor girl. My attention switched quickly to an old lady charge from the kitchen with a cast iron frying pan.

“Get out of my cafe! Now!” The old lady smacked the skinnier bully on the side of his head. The man screamed in rage, then viciously backhanded the lady. She slammed the side of her skull on a table nearby.  The sound was sickening. The cat girl wailed and dove beside the old lady to offer aid.

My fists clenched and blood boiled as I opened the door and stormed into the cafe. 

“What the fuck are you supposed to be?”  the bully chuckled.

“Get the hell out of here.  What the hell do you think you’re doing hitting a woman like that?  You’re a genuine piece of shit.”

“What did you call me?”

“I called you a piece of shit.  Get the wax out of your hairy ears.”

The man unsheathed a dagger from his belt and charged toward me, catching me off guard.  I figured we would throw insults back and forth a few more times before things escalated.  He spun counterclockwise and slashed my gut.  To everyone’s surprise, the blade snapped off at the hilt and clanked across the floor of the cafe.  The bully looked at his broken dagger, then at me with wide eyes.  I struck him with my right hand hard, which resulted in a loud crack from the shattered bones in his face.  He flew across the room and crashed into a table, breaking it in half.  Blood poured from his nose and mouth as he laid in the pile of broken wood.

You have killed a thug asshole!

A radiant essence orb appeared and floated over to my half naked body.  I absorbed it like before.  My eyes widened and stomach dropped at the realization that I had just killed a man. Fuck, I meant to just knock him out.

“John!”  the other man hollered as he looked at his broken and battered friend lying in a growing pool of his own blood.  He turned back to me as I stomped forward to teach the bozo a much-needed lesson.  He held out his hands in front of him and shook his head frantically.  “No, no, I’m leaving. Please don’t!”  He sprinted to a nearby window and dove through it, shattering glass all over the place.

I walked over slowly to the cat girl and unconscious elderly lady.  I held my hands out in front of me. “I’m not going to hurt you.  I’m here to help.  What can I do?”

The blue-haired girl nodded.  “I don’t know.  She’s breathing, but she hit her head hard.  Thank you for helping us.  Thank you so much!”

“I wish I’d gotten here earlier.  I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.  You saved me.  There’s no telling what they would have done to me.  I’d probably be dead or kidnapped.  I should have just given them the credits.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  This is my fault.”

The old lady stirred, which caught our attention immediately.  She coughed, then placed her hand on the side of her bruised skull.  She cringed and moaned in pain.

“Grandmother, thank the Nine!”

The old lady’s eyes scanned the room.  “Where are they?  Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.  This man killed one, and the other fled.”

She looked at me and blink her eyes, clearly trying to focus. Her eyes looked me up and down.  She had to wonder why a muscle man with a makeshift wolf's pelt kilt knelt beside her.  “Thank you. I’m in your debt.”

“Not at all.  I just wish I’d gotten here sooner.  How’s your head?  I’m sure you have a concussion.  We need to get you to a doctor.”  I then realized medical care worked much differently on Solaire.  There weren’t 911 dispatchers or ambulances, there would be healers involved, not doctors.

“Betty!”  a voice screamed from behind us at the door.  

“Koshiro!  Please come help my grandmother, she hit her head hard,” the catgirl replied with relief at the arrival of the girl.

This Koshiro lady looked to be part fox, which was called kitsune in FFO, if I remembered correctly.  She ran over and gasped when she saw the asshole’s bleeding corpse.  Her attention came back to Betty a split-second later.  She glanced at me quickly, but that was it.  “Give me some room. Betty, close your eyes for me”

The amber-haired kitsune placed a hand on both sides of Betty’s head and closed her eyes. A couple of seconds later, her hands began to glow a bright white color.  I knew immediately that this girl was a healer.  She wore attire that looked like a waitress, so this didn’t appear to be her primary job.  I made the assumption that she was an employee at the cafe just arriving at work.  It was a blessing from the Nine that she got here when she did.  Betty could have had some sort of brain bleed that would have killed her in minutes. After ten seconds, the bruise on Betty’s head disappeared and her color went from pale back to normal.

Koshiro pulled her hands away, and the glow stopped.  “That should do it.  Luckily, the trauma wasn’t too severe and my skills could handle it. I was worried that I wouldn’t be strong enough.”

The cat girl ran her fingers through the old lady’s gray hair.  “You’re all better, grandmother.  Thank the gods.”

I exhaled in relief quietly.

Koshiro looked at me, clearly wondering who and what I was. “Who are you?”

“I was just passing by and heard the commotion.  I helped the best I could.”

“Thank the Nine he came in.  I think we would have been killed if he had not,” the blue-hair cat girl added.

Koshiro nodded and rubbed my arm.  “What’s your name?”

“Umm, Chad… Chad Stone.”

The cat girl responded first. “Thank you, Chad.  My name is Muni.  It’s wonderful to meet you. I wish it would have been under better circumstances.”

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“Thank you, son, but tell me why you’re dressed like that,”  Betty whispered.

I looked down at my body and chuckled.  My cheeks grew pink. “You’re going to think I’m crazy if I tell you.”

“Try me. I’ve heard it all over my many years,” Betty replied.

“I’m from another world.  I was brought here by the Nine.  I was placed outside of town buck naked.  Thank God, I could kill some wolves and cover myself some.” I shifted my wolf kilt when I realized my dick had to be visible to Koshiro.  She definitely saw my goods.  She placed her hand over her mouth and giggled.

I blushed and cringed.  “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s fine.”

“My gods, is John dead?” Betty asked with wide eyes.

“Yeah, the bastard deserved it for what he did to you,” Muni growled.

“What a mess.  Blood everywhere.  Did you do this Chad?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.  I’m still trying to get used to my new strength and skills.”

Koshiro rubbed my arm again. “You said that you were from another world?”  

“Yeah, I know I sound like a lunatic, but I’m not crazy.  It’s the truth.”

“I’ve heard legends of people arriving on Solaire from other worlds, but I always thought they were just stories,” Betty said.

“I’m from a planet called Earth.  I have no clue what I am supposed to be doing.  I’m just here.”

“Well, thank the Nine you were here.  You saved us from the Big,” Betty replied with a smile.

“The Big?”

“The Big is a group of criminals that think they deserve money from all the businesses in Summerstar.  They’ve required 5% for what they call protection.  I don’t know what we need protection from.  They’re the only people that cause us trouble.”

Muni kissed her grandmother on the forehead and looked at me.  “We’ve paid them so we could avoid this kind of stuff from happening, but they came in this morning wanting 20%.  We can’t afford to give them 20%.  I should have just paid it in hindsight.  This wouldn’t have happened if I had. I’m so sorry, grandmother.”

“Muni, I’m proud of you for standing up to those thugs.  We’re not paying them 20%!  We’re not paying them anything ever again! Those sons of bitches can go to the Shade and burn!”

“Aren’t there any lawmen or police that can stop these jerks?” I asked as I stood.  My legs were going numb from kneeling for so long.

Muni shook her head and frowned. “Summerstar has a sheriff, but he can’t stand up to the Big.”

I crossed my huge arms across my chest. “He can’t or won’t?  Does the Big pay him off?”  

“Artemis, the sheriff, is a good man.  He tries to help, but the Big is just too much for him. He can only do so much on his own.”

“Well, something has to be done.  This type of shit can’t be tolerated,” Koshiro demanded.

******

Muni contacted the undertaker down the street at the local mortuary, who came and picked up the corpse.  Koshiro sent word to this sheriff guy to report what had happened, and he arrived shortly after.  Muni explained to the sheriff what had happened.  There was a mixture of concern for Betty and fear of retaliation from the Big.

“Am I going to be arrested?” I asked, not wanting to know the answer.  My first day in this new world, and I was going to be sent away to some fantasy cell to rot away.

“Absolutely not!” Betty snapped. “Artemis, you better not arrest this man.  Muni and I would be dead if it wasn’t for him.”

“I understand that, but I don’t think killing Jerry had to happen.”

My stomach dropped when I heard the sheriff say that.  My fucking S-Rank strength was going to be responsible for my demise in this new world.  Fuck my life.

Artemis looked at me and sighed.  He was clearly unsure of what to do in the situation. He knew deep down that I didn’t deserve to be arrested and put away.  However, he was the sheriff, and he had to do things by the book.  I could also tell that he was extremely worried about what the Big would do after they found out about what had happened.

Koshiro spoke up.  “Artemis, you let these thugs get away with anything.  You can’t throw someone in jail that actually did a good thing.  What kind of message is that sending?”

Artemis rubbed his temples and exhaled.  “Alright, I will not prosecute him for this.  At the same time, I can’t guarantee his safety from the Big.  They will not let this go.  They’re going to come here to kill him.”

I scratched the back of my head. “I understand. I’m just afraid for Betty and Muni.  What if they decide to punish them for what I did?”

Artemis shrugged. “I’m not gonna lie. It’s a possibility.  You never know what Bubba will do.  He’s never been challenged like this before in Summerstar.”

“Bubba?”

“Bubba Franks is the boss of the Big. He will not take this lightly.”

Betty sighed and slammed her fist on a table. “I love you Artemis, but you are going to need to grow a pair of nuts and do something about these hoodlums.  Your job is to protect this town!”

Artemis’ face turned a bright shade of red.  “I’m just one man, Betty.”

“I’ll help out.  I’m S-Rank and that’s supposed to be a big deal I’ve heard.”

Everyone’s mouth stood agape as they stared at me, speechless.

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