Tautology

"Rest and leisure." - Truth the Sunmaker, in her book: A Simple Guide for the Inheritors of Earth, on Generally Retaining Your Sanity in Dire but Not Immediately Time Sensitive Situations

Perched on roof of the abandoned fast food store, the dawn rising behind him, Ranpo began his morning contemplating the logistics of genocide. He thought it was, to put it mildly, a terrible fucking idea. But the gull territories happened to overlap where the crows could not scout, and the home base of Ya could be found there. If he were even somewhat successful in driving out the gulls, the crows would owe him on a level that could not be bought.

It was the third benefit he did not expect.

"I suppose there are few that could direct this mob to greater purpose." Startled, Ranpo turned to find the raven Myself behind him, stood within the long shadows of an ancient air con unit, so that only his gleaming eyes shone through the darkness.

Irritated, Ranpo scoffed, "Is it funny to scare people?"

"Yes," Myself answered immediately. "Hilarious even." The raven stalked his way out of the shadow to stand beside Ranpo. "You seek a weapon."

Ranpo shuffled a step away from the raven. "We aren't going to beat those gulls without arming ourselves."

"You aren't looking to kill gulls," Myself stated. "The Rain That Beholds The Morning Grass will not be an easy enemy to fell, she was infamous in her own dimension as a great warrior, and ours does not restrain her enough to strip her of that title."

"You sure know a lot," before Myself could answer, Ranpo interjected, "Yeah, yeah, ate Thought and Mind. You speak of those two as if they were people, or Living Concepts?"

Myself stared far off into the distance, "Or perhaps they were Memory and Will? It has been a long time, and names are fragile things." The raven shook his head and turned to him, "I know you are not loyal to crowkind, yet you are one of the precious few who could help us through this. So I offer you a secret if you are successful in this task, the location of a weapon."

Ranpo frowned, "Can it kill her?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Such a thing cannot be determined until it is actually used." Myself turned away, and stalked his way back into the shadows. "But it is a better chance than you currently have."

And the raven was gone, leaving only a trail of black, oily footprints.

<I>|<I>

"Are you sure this is ok?" the robber asked Ranpo for the eleventh time that minute.

"We are buying things with money," Ranpo answered from on his shoulder as they browsed the brightly lit supermarket. "The crows didn't even steal most of it."

Their shopping cart went over a bump, rattling the stacks of guns and ammo they had accrued. "It's still kinda sketch boss."

"You faked giving up to get out of jail, how is this 'sketch'-" they passed by an aisle of rocket launchers, "Oh! Stop here, RPGs and recoilless rifles are on fifty-percent special."

The robber obediently began filling the cart with rocket launchers.

"They have mortars…" Ranpo continued to browse the supermarket, "Cannons…"

The robber raised a hand, "Boss, a suggestion?"

"Yes, minion one?"

"Can crows even operate these?"

Ranpo pecked his hand, "No, that's what you're for. Now help me grab that grenade launcher."

The newly named minion one sighed as he picked up the grenade launcher, "The things I do to get rid of debt. Anything else, boss?"

He turned to find Ranpo intently staring at an armoured tank on display.

"Boss, we need a permit for tanks."

Ranpo scoffed, "Fine, but that belt fed machine gun doesn't need a permit."

"I'll call a store person to bring a trolley."

"Good minion. Now what other weapons can we buy over the counter?"

<I>|<I>

"We aren't giving this to the crows, are we boss?" Minion one asked as he stashed a gym bag full of weapons into an abandoned building.

"Obviously not," Ranpo scoffed."They have no idea how much firearms cost, and we're against seagulls, a few bird shot shotguns is enough. This is for a rainy day."

"This is embezzlement boss."

Ranpo looked out the window, and scanned the outside for any spying crows. "You get half."

Minion one made a show of considering it, "I want the machine gun."

"Deal." Hand and crow feet shook. "Now there a few more locations I want to make stashes in."

<I>|<I>

"And that's why he's weird now," Jun explained as Aiden vibrated in place. Despite the recess, the courtyard was uncharacteristically sparse in students. Other than them, only a few people were hanging out.

"The paintball war is literally next week!" Darius stressed, "Did you guys at least finish the document?"

Jun shrugged, fox mask placed on the side of his head, "Well I did, but…"

"I got bored!" Nightcore Aiden said. "I'll just figure it out as I go along. Planning things have never worked out for me!"

"There's going to be dozens of different powers, and the complex interplay between them-"

Jun raised his hand, "Yeah, already told that to him."

Aiden shrugged, "Darius, the greatest folly of man is to believe they have any control over their own life and fate. It's all pointless, so might as well be a hedonist."

"I liked you better when you were depressed," Luther yelled in the background.

Aiden laughed, "Why would I ever be depressed? How would I enjoy life that way?"

"Is no one taking this paintball war seriously?"

"Fear not!" Josh slapped Darius on the back, "I shall take this seriously enough for half a dozen men!"

"We better," Darius murmured. "How's the booking going cuz?"

"Bad news cuz," Luther showed Darius his phone. "All the practice rooms are booked out."

Darius rubbed his brow, "Of course they are."

"Oh that's not a problem," Jun chimed in. He gestured for them to follow, and they did to a lone teacher sitting on a bench. His cane placed to the side, a sandwich in hand, and wearing a bright neon green high visibility jacket, Grian Gry was the textbook example of a teacher on yard duty.

"Hey Mr Grian!" Jun waved, "Can we borrow your keys? We left our pencil cases in the art room."

Grian wiped a bit of sauce from his lip, "All six of you, including the ones not in my class?"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Yeah just all the mates, lads, and sheila," Jun answered.

The teacher shrugged, and tossed the keys towards their general direction. "Don't be long."

"Thanks, you're my favourite teach!"

Like that, they waltzed into one of the empty classrooms and began to practice. Wren uncharacteristically made the first move, and asked Aiden on tips on how to walk on walls. She found a blueprint for a sticky shoes, which she awkwardly utilised to follow Aiden up onto the ceiling.

Wren stumbled, one leg falling down towards the floor while the other stuck firmly to the ceiling. "How do you have so much core strength?"

Aiden, who was on his way down, pulled up his shirt, revealing the tattoos holding his abdomen straight. "Cheating. Duh." He leapt off the wall and somersaulted into squat position beside the other group. "You guys done with the plan?"

Luther turned the laptop to him, "Yeah, this is the general gist of things."

He skimmed it, "Yeap, looks bout right-" Aiden spun towards the classroom door. "Who'sthere?"

There was the sound of something falling. Jun exchanged a glance with Aiden, then grabbed the door handle and slowly pushed it open. He poked his masked head just an inch outside, an inch too much as a bucket of water splashed onto him.

Jun pushed up the bucket, revealing a few giggling girls who hurriedly scurried away. "...What?"

He felt a weight as Aiden leapt onto his back, "Woah… Jun, I think we're getting bullied."

Wren let Darius catch her, before she passed a towel to Jun. "Why do you sound excited about that?" Darius asked.

Aiden giggled, "I've never been bullied before! I am going to enact TERRIBLE VENGEANCE ON THEM!"

"Wait-" Jun couldn't get a word out before Aiden disappeared out the door. He glanced at everyone else, "Is that what I'm like? Actually, don't answer that." With that, Jun rushed out of the classroom, slamming the door shut behind him, which automatically clicked.

"Did he take the keys with him?" Luther asked. Darius nodded with a sigh.

Jun had no trouble finding Aiden, as he only needed to look outside to find a massive number of crows congregating, Aiden had his hand raised like a sock puppet, miming a mouth as a tattoo of a crow head cawed out something to the assembled murder of real crows.

"Pretty neat huh!" Aiden grinned. "By splicing together the memories of Ranpo's previous conversations I can get pretty close to communication!" Then he pulled up his phone, which had the school photo album zoomed in on the three girls that had pranked them, then all the crows flew off.

"Aiden," Jun put his hand on Aiden's shoulder. "What did you tell them do?"

Aiden beamed. "I told them to poop on them!"

Jun facepalmed, "That's nice that you would do that for me Aiden, but it really is no big deal, it's just a bit of water, and they're just kids. There's no need to sic like three dozen crows onto them."

Aiden grabbed Jun by the shoulders, "Exactly!"

"Huh?"

"It's no big deal, that's exactly why it's a big deal!" Aiden declared.

"Allow me to repeat that: Huh?"

Aiden pushed Jun off, "Ever since I came here, it's always been serious and responsibility and you have a duty to your family." He seemed to spit out that last phrase, "But I just want to know what a normal life is! How am I supposed to do that if I'm constantly focused on the annoying stuff! I spend so much time doing my responsibilities that I'm failing to live my life!" He leapt onto Jun again, "You too! You want to beat your families ass, but they're winning! They're living rent free in your head, as is my family with mine. You severed ties and that made you so much happier!"

"That's different!" Jun yelled as he threw Aiden off. "And what about your sister?"

Aiden landed on his feet, silent for a moment before he answered. Gone was the energy that had permeated him before, instead, his voice was simply sad and melancholic. "Please give me this Jun." Aiden did not turn to face him. "I realise now I've been trapping myself in a self destructive spiral, one that I did not care to rip myself out of. Your ability finally gave me a new mindset, and it let me realise…" he wiped his face, "That it is rather sad to write myself off like this, without learning what it is I have missed, and am missing with every moment spent on my quest."

"Aiden…" Jun slowly approached his friend, "I- thank you for opening up with me like this." He rested a hand around Aiden's shoulder, then leaned in for a hug.

Only for Aiden to whip around, grab Jun's pants and pull them down. "Gotcha!"

"Huh?" Aiden disappeared from Jun's embrace, suddenly caught out of balance, Jun could only flail wildly before he fell face flat on the ground. Aiden fled while blowing his tongue at him, and Jun could only impotently shake his fist, "Oh you're going to get it!"

<I>|<I>

Lutrin Aya did not have many friends. She ate alone at lunch, went straight home after school and played with no one. She had a team with Sterling and Tusk, but that was different, they never said they were friends. There were however, three people who said that they were her friends, and all three of them visited her that lunch. They were covered head to toe in bird poop that could be smelled from a mile away.

One of them with long and elaborate blonde pigtails, Emily, stood in front, looking down on her seated form. "Hey Luna."

Lutrin Aya shuffled backwards, the rank of bird poop almost a physical barrier. "It's Lutrin, actually…"

Emily shrugged it off, "Who cares," then loomed in closer to her. A drop of bird poop slipped off her shoulder and into Lutrin's lunch. "I need you to do something, I heard you have a meta artefact that can let you talk to animals."

"Yes…"

"Good, I need you to talk to some birds for me."

"But…" she protested. "The artefact is my family's, not mine…"

One of the other girls placed an arm on Lutrin's shoulder, holding her down. "Aren't we friends?" Emily asked. "It's just a little, tiny favour among friends."

And that's how Lutrin found herself at the docks after school with slumped shoulder's and a lethargic gait. As a were-otter whose body was physically affected by her meta powers, the endless ramblings and seals of the Wanderer's Code littered around the docks held a suppressing effect on her physical state, even so, she found what she was looking for; a seagull rooting around a garbage bin.

It had a fresh bloody scar that ran the length of its beak to its crown, as if someone had ripped out all the feathers in a brawl. Dirty and scruffy, Lutrin Aya had the distinct feeling that the seagull could beat her in a straight fight. Nonetheless, it was the first and only seagull she had found.

She held a golden locket close to her mouth, "Um… Hi. Testing? Testing? Can you hear me?"

"Hargh?" The seagull's head poked out of the garbage bin and scanned the area.

Lutrin Aya made a small wave towards it, "Umm, hello, I'm Lutrin Aya. I need to ask for a favour."

"Harghn? How are you talking to me?" the seagull's voice was deep and nasally, like he had never taken a clear breath in his entire life.

"Well that's because of this pendant," Lutrin displayed it to him, "it's a memento from my great-great-"

The seagull waved her off, "Never mind, I was interested in what you had to say until you opened your mouth."

"Oh… I'm sorry," Lutrin Aya bowed her head.

"Now fly off unless you have something else to say," the seagull bobbed its head back into the trash bin.

"I uhh…" Lutrin Aya raised a hand, and the seagull turned to glare at her. Her voice only became quieter and quieter. "I uhhh… actually do. Can you help me do something? Well, help my friends do something."

"Your friends huh? I sure wish you have more in common with them than me."

Lutrin Aya recoiled at the barb, then took a deep breath and mustered all her courage, if she could do this, she may no longer need to keep giving her friends her lunch money, they might even eat lunch with her. "If you help us do this small thing, I can get you anything you want. Whatever it is your hearts desire!"

The seagull answered instantly: "A gun."

"Huh?" Anxiety and newfound courage faced blank surprise and were both overwhelmed.

"I want a gun," the seagull repeated.

"Why?"

Feeling the fresh scar on its crown, the seagull elaborated, "Larry has many enemies."

"Okay, a gun isn't so bad. You know those crows?"

The seagull seemed to grin, "Ommrrhh, Larry knows all about those crows."

"That's good!" Lutrin threw her thumbs up. "Some of these crows attacked my friends, and I want you to protect them, and maybe attack the crow's friends!"

The seagull seemed to think. "Hrrrnnn, that is a difficult task, if you want me to do this you need to give more guns."

"How many guns do you want?"

"Enough to arm every seagull this side of the seaboard."

"Umm… I don't think I have enough money for that…"

"Money, what is money?" the seagull seemed to latch onto that word.

Lutrin pulled out some notes and coins from her pocket. "It's this stuff."

"Hrrrnnn, the crows play with this as well," the seagull was in deep thought, "What is this 'money'?"

And Lutrin Aya spent her afternoon explaining what money is to a seagull.

"Hrrrnnn," Larry the seagull nodded, "I understand, so this money is valuable to you and the crows."

"I guess? I don't know what the crows would do with money," As she said this, Ranpo was embezzling tens of thousands of dollars.

"But you like money right?" Larry the seagull asked.

Lutrin nodded, feeling like she had finally connect with the seagull, "Yeap, it's good to have a lot of it."

"Okay, okay," Larry bobbed his head, "I want you to go over to the ocean, and throw five hundred of your money into the sea!"

Lutrin Aya was shocked, "What? Why Larry?"

Larry the seagull stared at her with his black beady eyes, "To prove to Larry that you are loyal to Larry! And then I will do your tasks for you! Do we have a deal?"

"But…" Lutrin whimpered, "I've been saving this money for a long time…" All the rest had been taken by her friends after all.

"Eight hundred into the ocean!" Larry squawked.

Lutrin Aya panicked, "Okay deal!"

The seagull then flew up and landed on her head, "Then what are you waiting for? To the sea!"

Lutrin Aya thus limped to the ocean, her head hung low, holding eight-hundred dollars in cash over the port and letting them slip out of her hand and straight into the sea, a small tear fell with them.

"Oh wow, you seem greatly affect by this, was that a lot of money?" Larry asked.

"It was a lot of money," Lutrin Aya said, thoroughly defeated.

"You know, now that you've proved your loyalty to me, it would be pretty funny if I just flew away right now?" Larry laughed.

Lutrin Aya fell to her knees and begged, "Larry! Please! I want to keep my friends! I am so alone!"

Larry laughed again, "Oh you won't be alone! Larry likes watching you suffer, and will be with you forever!"

She raised her head slightly, "Do you really mean that Larry?"

"Of course!" Larry squawked. "Now about that gun."