After arriving in Springtown Ajax and his friends decide to explore the city and find out as much as they can about the constantly shaping black Hollows.
"Wow this is a city in the Black Hollows! It's so cool. Like I'm walking in the future!" Ajax says skipping down the street.
"Hey hold on Ajax we can't just bust through the place! We need a plan and a meet up spot." Rumi says.
"Ladies got a good point. Last thing we need is for you and the shitty swordsman to get lost somehow." Ishida says.
"Hey what the hell did this have to do with me!!" Ryizen yells into Ishida's face.
"Can it moron and back up before I kick you into next week." Ishida says.
"Okay here's the plan." Rumi says ignoring Ryizen and Ishida's antics. "We'll split up all the money we have and we'll go shopping and figure out how we can navigate through this place." She suggests.
"Woah you're gonna allow us to use the money! Aw you're so sweet Rumi!" Ajax says, trying to swipe at the money.
"Pretty smart idea. I can see what kinda food they got here. Maybe even bargain for another suit." Ishida says.
"Yeah I guess I could go for a new sword. I've used this one for almost 4 years now." Ryizen says.
"Alright then it's settled we'll meet back here in half an hour." Rumi says handing each of them their split of the money.
"Man, I'm glad we let Rumi handle the money. Ajax is really a reckless spender." Ryizen says followed by an "Am not!" by Ajax.
"Alright, half an hour let's go!" Ajax says as the group splits off.
Ajax walks down the main path continuing the path that the group had started.
"Man I thought we had a cool interesting path but I guess not oh well. I wonder if everyone else is having such a boring path." Ajax says as he continues walking down the path and what looks to be an abandoned building.
"Hmm, a weird building." Ajax says still walking.
Ajax was going to continue to walk past the building when Jwiler bursts out the door battered and bloody.
"Wait isn't that Jwiler?" Ajax says to himself.
Jwiler practically jumps out his skin as he hears Ajax's voice. "A-Ajax!? What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here!" Jwiler says frightened.
"Oh? Well me and my Kabukimono decided to split up for an hour so I thought I'd just walk this way." Ajax simply states.
"They split up!? Damn, how am I gonna tell them about Master Nagama's plan?" Jwiler mumbles to himself. "Hey Ajax w-wait up!" He says as he chases after Ajax.
"Oh Jwiler you didn't tell me you had guest over." A voice sounds from the abandoned building.
"Shit uhm." Jwiler starts. "Uhh just a second Master Nagama!" He pleads.
"Master? So you're also a butler like Ishida?" Ajax says, picking up on the voice.
"I uh well. Yes! Yes of course! Yeah I'm just a butler." Jwiler says.
"Oh cool, so where is your suit? Where is your master? Is he cool?" Ajax immediately starts to question at Jwiler in excitement.
"I well. The Black Hollows do butler stuff differently y'know?" Jwiler makes up on the fly.
"Ohhhhh. That makes sense. But tell me about everything. Ishida doesn't speak much about his butler life." Ajax says grinning.
"Uhhhh yeah sure thing." Jwiler says fidgeting with his fingers.
Meanwhile across town Ryizen has ended up lost in the rather futuristic city that is the Black Hollows.
"Damn this city. It's so big and without a real idea on how to navigate it getting lost is almost guaranteed." Ryizen grumbles to himself yet continues walking.
As he walks he recalls his fight in the train with the strange rogue train bandit. More specifically how his sword was able to clash with Ajax's sword even though Ajax had a charm and the bandit didn't.
"That's still insane. It doesn't add up. I feel like the rest of the world would know about that loophole. Speaking of swords, I guess I should buy a new one. This one getting all chipped and stuff." Ryizen says.
"Hmmm. There's gotta be a shop around here somewhere." He groans to himself looking around.
After not too long he does find a swordsmith shop.
"Jeez finally, I just hope I got enough money for a new one. Wonder if they use a different currency here?" Ryizen mumbles to himself as he enters the shop.
"Hello, welcome in just picking whatever sword you'd like." The shopkeep says looking at his paper.
"Wow such caring service." Ryizen says before looking at the swords on display.
"Jeez, these all suck. What am I meant to do with these? They're all just like this one. Just in better condition." Ryizen thinks to himself.
"Hey mister shopkeeper you got any more swords besides these?" Ryizen asks.
"Nope that's all we got." The shop keeper says not missing a beat and continuing to read his paper.
"Hey! At least look like you care for my service!" Ryizen says walking up to the shopkeeper.
"Why should I? You clearly are just passing by just like all the other ones who come here." The shopkeeper sighs, putting the paper down. "So what's your story? You're bounty hunting or something or even better you're looking for Kimmegona's sword?" He says uninterested.
"For your information I left bounty hunting in the past. And yes I am looking for the sword. Why does it matter?" Ryizen says.
"Just saying you should turn back now is all." The shopkeeper says.
"Hey dammit! Listen here I need to know about a sword. A sword that lets you attack a charm using swordsman even if you don't have a charm! So answer me!" Ryizen yells.
The shopkeeper's eyes go wide. "Wait a second, how do you know about that?" He suddenly asks.
"I've had encounters. Now answer my question." Ryizen says glaring.
"Oh so you want to know about Cursed Swords do yah?" The shopkeeper says, smirking finally looking at Ryizen.
"A w-what?! A Cursed Sword?" Ryizen stammers.
Before Ryizen can get his answer a woman comes from behind and smacks the shopkeeper in the back of the head. "Oh sorry about him he's always so stingy. But you said you wanted to know about cursed swords did yah? My names Momo and I'm the girl you're gonna need to talk to." The woman says introducing herself.
"Alright fine then miss Momo. Now tell me everything about these Cursed Swords." Ryizen says.
end of chapter