World of the Kokkaku

The figure above us was hunched down, sitting atop the street light as he looked down on us with brimming blue eyes. And then he jumped down from the light, landing on the other side of the alleyway. My eyes flashed with shock as I saw who-rather-what the man was.

Another Kokkaku.

He was tall and his Kokkaku Exida was thin. He had his ribs jutting out from his back in a fan of bones, almost like wings, and the skull head of what appeared to be a crow covered over his face. His bones along his arms looked almost like they had been completely shattered, serrated bone spikes jutting out the side of his arms. His knee joints were bent strangely as spikes jutted up from each knee, and his feet had claws jutting out of the shoes. Bone plates covered his shoulders and his fingers ended in claws.

Yamari ran towards me, stepping between me and the Kokkaku.

"Who are you!? What do you want?!" She asked, a defiantly look on her face.

The man's head tilted. "How strange. A human who defends a Kokkaku. Never seen that before. But…it's pretty obvious you are scared."

I looked down at Yamari's hands. They were trembling. I reached out, grabbing her shoulder. Without realizing it, I'd grabbed her with both my normal and my bone hand from my back.

She turned to me, trying to shake my hands off. "I'm fine! Get back!" She said.

I ignored her, pulling her back and behind me.

"What are you doing?!" She asked, furious.

"He can kill you easier than me. I.. should be the one to protect you.." I said.

"Very brave of you, especially since you are still in the rigidity stage of transformation. Meaning you have a hard time moving, right?" The man asked.

"Are you here to kill me..?" I asked. I tried acting tough, but I was honestly scared too. I found that fact so strange. Not too long ago, I'd been ready to kill myself, and now, I was scared of death. How strange.

"No, idiot. Kokkaku do not often kill their own kind.. unless you are part of THAT group, but, that's besides the point. I'm not part of that group, so yeah. Also, you have a canine class Exida, so if we fought, I might be faster than you, but as an Aves class, one hit from you would put me down and out." He shrugged.

"What? Canine..? Aves..?"

"Yeah. Look, don't worry about it, not right now. I'll tell you all about it later, but, for now, we need to get out of here." He said. "Look, my name is Finch, and I'm here to help you. My Chassis has a goal-to help, protect, and guide new Kokkaku. That is all there is to it."

"Chassis..?" Yamari asked.

"Yeah. It's the word we use to classify groups of Kokkaku, there are many different Chassis in this city, think of them like packs. Though, this city has four main Chassis. Ours is one of them." He man, Finch, explained, then shook his head and waved his hands, "but-okay-look, we need to get going. I can tell you all the rest once we are safe, alright? If the Ops catch us out here, it will be bad. So we need to hurry."

"Hurry? Where?" Yamari asked.

"Well.. I don't think I should bring you… but fuck it. I'll make an exception this once, I'd rather not separate you lovers. Just follow me." Finch turned and began walking down the alley towards a ladder that led to the roof of the building. He began climbing it, then looked back at us. "Well?"

"How can we be so certain we can trust you?" I asked.

Finch sighed. "Look. You can't be certain of that, and trust is hard to come by in the world of the Kokkaku, so honestly it's your choice. But, that also means you are choosing to take your chances with me… or… take a chance with the ops, who will shoot you down, take you alive, and experiment on you endlessly. Your choice."

"Well, when it you put it like that it's not much of a choice.." I mumbled.

I looked over to Yamari. "Maybe we should…?"

Yamari looked irritated and reluctant, trembling with fear. But then she sighed. "Fine, we will go with him, but we need to be careful."

"Yeah, I know that much." I said.

"Good, you've all decided. Well then, with that, let's get going. Oh! Wait!" Finch leapt off of the ladder, soaring down to me and landing in front of me. I backed away and Yamari let out a yelp, both of us startled.

"Here." Finch reached into his pocket (he still had jeans on, though they were torn) and pulled out a small vial of green liquid. "This will speed up your Exida's progression, meaning your rigidity phase will end and you will also return to human form sooner."

"Human form?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah? Have humans not figured that out yet? Kokkaku can switch between human and Exida forms. Once you get it under control, you can do it at will." Finch explained.

"Well that explains why they all hide so well." Yamari said, then she snatched the vial. "How can we be sure this isn't some kind of poison that will kill him?"

"Jesus Christ, are you his mom or something?" Finch asked, "You act more like his mother than his girlfriend, goddamn. It won't kill him, poison doesn't work on us Kokkaku. So no. It won't hurt him. All it does is help him get out of Exida state easier, at least until he can control it properly, he will have to take these vials often. Also, it will get rid of his rigidity, which is what happens when you transform, your muscles and bones all tense and tighten making it hard to move. That only lasts a short while after transforming. The marrow will help with that, so he will be able to move faster, thus run away.. from the ops. Ya know, the guys trying to capture him? Yeah. So let him drink it."

"Marrow?" I asked, taking it out of Yamari's hand, who reluctantly let me.

"Yeah, it's literally just marrow mixed with some other chemicals that speed up the process of the the Exida phases. That is all it is. Now hurry up and drink it, we need to get going and I'd rather not have to kill any cops tonight to save your ass."