Do Unto Others

Outlaw and Angel's Apartment

(Music: https://youtu.be/szXJTwDNYOU )

The Outlaw looks at herself in her finely fitted, laced, and frilled eastern-style dress. The impractical heeled shoes are hard for her to walk in as the dress billows down to her ankles. It all looks white to her, but the lady at the shop insisted on a difference between Ivory and eggshell. An overskirt of fine yellow cloth is tied on and layered over the skirt. She had refused to take her stetson off or leave her rifle at home. Because of that, the gentle dress she's wearing contrasts with the long hip holster on her side. The girl's angel brushes her hair out while she does her best not to fidget.

"Your parents will be proud you've adapted and made something of yourself here. Even if it feels wrong to you, our perspective is limited. To let another guide you and reserve judgment is a virtue," the angel says as he lets the girl look at herself in the hand mirror. She had never seen herself as pretty or, in particular, needed to be pretty until today. She and the angel had cleaned the whole apartment before this to make it presentable and show that she is a responsible lady who has put her life together.

The Outlaw stands up and lets the angel steady her as she walks down to the street, awaiting the arrival of her parents with a lump in her throat.


Sally McCathy wakes up with her alarm blaring, despite it being a day off for her. Her apartment is as it usually is: A mess of unsorted laundry, empty cans, and layers of dust around the parts of the living space she seldom checks on.

What causes her fear is the text related to the alarm: "PARENTS ARRIVING AT AIRPORT AT NOON."

Sally gulps and looks at her mess of an apartment. She needs help from someone who is fast, precise, and willing to work for a favor.

After throwing some clothes on and tying her hair up, Sally hovers her finger over Noah's number before she remembers something.

He's at the tournament.

Likely doing some final bits of training so he can show off his skills to secure a future where "Archangel" is a household name. He even gave Sally one of the picture books he wrote and had made as merchandise he was giving out for free to any kids who came to the event. She flips through it despite having read the simple story of an angel returning someone's lost wallet and being given heartfelt thanks for it multiple times already. The art style was charmingly simple, like a bright and engaging impressionist painting depicting simple and comfortable scenes. It always made her smile that the angel had hair like her own, even if the angel wasn't given a name.

She looks over the other numbers she had gathered from her classmates, most of whom were also at the tournament.

She groans as she notices a number that might work. She calls Takara Tame, the android of the class who was excluded from the tournament due to transferring in late.

"{Sally! Are you at the tournament today?}" the girl cheerfully says in her best English, being roughly on par with Hoge's well-studied and accented English.

"{H-Hey, I actually slept in; do you mind... helping me out with something today?}"

"{Oh, I was just about to head out for the day... but I'll do it if we go to the arcade again!}"

"{Ok, ok, I'll send you my address. Bring cleaning supplies if you can.}" 


Takara arrived at the American's apartment in a timely manner with a bag full of cleaning supplies, as Sally had only cleared the floor to vacuum so far. Sally looks a mess, wearing a pair of jean overalls and a white undershirt as she welcomes the robot into her home. The mechanical girl seems intrigued by what little decoration Sally has put up over time: A small American flag pinned to the wall of the kitchen, some family photos in her room, a few old bullseye paper targets that were in frames hanging around as she still had not moved her TV back to her room, and a bunch of soundproofing foam in her room.

The place is fairly dusty and messy. Bags and wrappers only recently put into trash bags sit on the floor, and only a small vase of fragrant flowers in the main room stops the whole place from smelling like snack foods and greasy meat.

Takara takes her shoes off at the door and takes stock of the situation: "Where would you like me to start, Sally?"

"Dusting: I'll handle trash and vacuuming."

Takara nods and gets to work, starting in Sally's room.

"Sally, are these your parents in these photos?" she asks politely while Sally plugs her vacuum in.

"Yeah, they couldn't get visas to stay in Japan with me... even with my circumstances."

Sally looks forlornly at the photos before vacumming the small main room, remembering the goodbye party that was held in her honor before she left and the desperate smiles her parents held, trying to make it a fun experience rather than fully showing how much they were worried for their daughter.

The gun nun watches as Takara is already in the kitchen, dusting the cabinets and neatly disposing of them while seeming surprised at how little food Sally seems to keep in her home. The android notices Sally's wandering eyes and turns to face her: "I finished my research into the militias you spoke about before, Sally. It seems really dangerous to encourage people to fight villains with just guns, not to mention it breaks many vigilantism laws that the US Supreme Court has upheld, meaning precedence does not favor militias."

"But we'd be getting robbed daily and nightly if we didn't do something," Sally says as she starts putting her main room back together.
"Maybe if we had money, or publicity, or were some kind of historically important town heroes that could earn a name for themselves by rescuing people... but we aren't. We were just an out-of-the-way little town built on old factories and farmhouses," Sally says scornfully toward a whole group of people not even in the same country as her.

"Can you not ask the government to send heroes your way? It's quite common for even rural areas in Japan to-"

"{Just drop it!}" Sally says loudly before sighing toward the surprised Android.

Takara goes back to her work, having the emotional sensitivity to at least tell that she said something that upset Sally. The American worked in the kitchen, making some blueberry muffins for what were likely guests coming over. She cautiously goes to help the girl, stirring the batter on the second batch while Sally watches the home-made mix rise in their cups.

"Sally, I wanted to ask about your hometown. What is it like?" Takara asks in a respectful tone, seeing the Gun Nun's irritated face as she rushes around her tiny kitchenette.

"...It's a quaint town called Conrad. There's not many stores... and most of the restaurants are family owned... along with most of the stores..." Sally starts, seeming to soften a bit as she reminisces about home.
"The church was a Lutheran one. It's... how I was raised, going to Sunday school and getting my lessons outside on nice days... Sometimes we'd even get a chance to sit in on the sermon the adults were listening to and have our teacher help explain it to us... It felt... nice."

Takara does some quick research on the town of Conrad, Montana: A small town with an outdated website and, besides hosting a small pioneer museum, a town that could easily be considered dying. The way Sally paints it is as a tight-knit community that didn't sell itself out and was self-reliant.

"...We'd still go to Great Falls if we needed new clothes or appliances or to see a doctor, so we weren't totally self-sufficient." Sally closes out, seeming disappointed that her town couldn't do everything on its own.

"Do you miss Conrad?" Takara asks the other girl as she puts an oven mitt on and takes the first batch of golden-brown muffins out of the oven.

"...Yeah, every day..." She says quietly, blushing with embarrassment as she opens up to the excitable android.

The two work silently but more agreeably as Sally teaches Takara her mom's lemonade recipe, a comforting memory for her to share as the time seems to go by quickly. They enjoy a cold glass of sweet lemonade before Takara heads off to watch the tournament, reminding Sally of her promise to head to the arcade with her and getting a slight smile out of the usually gloomy girl as she goes.


Sally waits anxiously at Kyoto's main airport; the noise of coming and going people is almost overwhelming to the country girl's ears. Her parents were likely feeling it more than her, or maybe less since they didn't subconsciously try to translate everything that was said around them from moon runes to English. She had let her hair down as she fanned herself with her skirt, feeling the heat of a Japanese Summer in her light white sweater and bright grey maxi skirt.

"{SALLYYYY!}" A short, almost worringly thin lady in jeans and a leather jacket says as she runs toward her daughter, causing a scene and some embarassed looks from the Japanese coming and going from the airport.

Molly McCathy

"{MOM!}" Sally says as the two hug closely.
"{Was the flight bad? I know it was a long flight, and the food probably sucked..."

"{No, no. It was fine; Fred's grabbing the luggage,}" the woman says as she sits down by her daughter.
"{I can tell they haven't changed your usual style; Thought I'd see you in one of those crazy lookin' doll dresses.}"

"{You know how expensive those are? They aren't even in my size cause, you know, they're designed for Asian girls.}"

"{Well... hate to say you inherited your mom's height. But at least you got my "assets",}" she says with a chuckle, fond of crass jokes.

"{I missed you a lot, mom...}" Sally says as she shares the laugh.

"{It's a bit too quiet at home without you. But... I'm glad you've found friends. And I really hope we get to see the boyfriend you were asking me about!}" Molly says a bit teasingly, causing her daughter to blush but smile.

Fredrick McCathy

An American man puts his cigarette out as he walks away from the smoking area. Her dad was allowed one a day, a limit he gave himself as a matter of course and because a lot of the animals disliked the smoke. He approaches with the couple's two suitcases. Packed lightly to avoid additional fees that the family couldn't really afford.

He prepares a hug for his daughter, smiling as he leans into it. "{It's been too long, Sally,}" he says.

"{You've still got that rat tail,}" Sally says with a giggle.

"{Just savin' money,}" he says with a smirk, his usual excuse for growing his hair a bit too long.

"{He either looks like a jackass or a drowned rat,}" his wife says as she follows her daughter's lead.

"{Ah... can it. You let Sally have a whole forest on her head just because she gives you puppy-dog eyes,}" Fredrick says.

Sally does a stylish hair flip that gets her mom to give her a thumbs up. "{You always called me your little princess. Figured I could grow my hair like Rapunzel to make that come true.}"

Her parents smile as they make small talk on the cab ride back to Sally's apartment to drop off their stuff. They hear about the tournament that her student body is participating in and joke about their daughter being "too efficient for the Japanese", causing Sally to laugh nervously. Of course, Sally can get them in, and she notices she still has more than enough time to go and see Noah.

"{Ok, but please let me do the talking. My Japanese is good enough, and not everyone... gets English here,}" Sally says as they head over to the stadium the school rented out, an incredible feat in the USA.

"{Ok, ok. Our globetrotter will handle things. Fred, make sure to watch her work and take notes,}" her mother says.

Sally blushes as her dad remembers the nights he spent helping her study the very basics before she moved over to Japan. Sally was not a quick learner and often unloaded a .22 into the floor when she got mad trying to speak moon runes.

"{I'll be excited to see it,}" he says as he puts a protective and affectionate arm around Sally, her mom laying her head on her daughter's shoulder.


Rented Stadium

As Sally walks around the tournament grounds with all the merchandise around her, she helps read the signs and prices for all the merchandise. Her parents are impressed that she's friends with so many of the future heroes of Japan.

"{Friends... is a bit much...}" Sally says

"{You don't get along with them?}" Her father asks

"{A lot about Japan pisses me off... but I have to do this, and... Noah makes it better... tolerable even.}"

"{Yeah... the toilets here bother me." Her dad agrees as her mom shakes her head with a smirk.

"{I quite like their style of waste disposal so far. And in public restrooms! Makes the restrooms at our gas stations look like biohazards.}"

"{...I just see how they get those results. School is hard here, especially Shiketsu's hero program,}" Sally starts.
"{I see my classmates in the hospital; I see my boyfriend in the hospital... and all I'm good for is hurting people...}"

Fredrick lays a hand on his daughter's shoulder and says, "{But you're no instrument of the devil; you're a good soul; you just need to prove that to the world. You're already on that path. Not a path of redemption, but a path of righteousness.}"

Sally smiles as her mom takes her hand, spotting a stand selling Gigan plushies. "Uhm... Uhm..." she tries to speak to the clerk in Japanese, looking through the free phrase book she was given. Sally quickly steps in.

"Sorry..." she says to the clerk as her mom asks how much one of the plushies is.

The price is 2000 yen, something the notoriously cheap Molly McCathy makes herself pay for since she thinks it's too cute to pass on.

As her parents walk off, Sally takes a look toward the stand. She wasn't in need of redemption but was seeking righteousness.

She approaches and wrinkles her nose, buying one of the pervert's plushies. Inigo was irritating, rude, inappropriate, annoying... the list could go on as long as Sally has insults. But she remembers the 4th of July party and the first date with Noah that he made her go on. She stares at the little green dragon and swears it winks at her. It believes in her, even if she doesn't believe in herself sometimes.

She sits down to watch Noah's high-flying fight, her parents impressed by his abilities despite mistaking him for a girl when they see him fly about blasting. It helps her redouble her thoughts. If she was seeking righteousness, she found the person who could be a teacher and partner without hesitation.

Edit Report
Pub: 09 Jul 2023 02:37 UTC
Edit: 15 Jul 2023 08:06 UTC
Views: 873