Gunsoul: A Xianxia Apocalypse

Disarming an explosive collar demanded a certain degree of dexterity.

“Hold still,” Yuan told the girl as he rewired the cables. The Hitobashira didn’t move an inch, nor did she speak a word. She instead looked at her feet dangling from the dead car’s backseat. “Almost done.”

Yuan had taken the liberty of shoving both of Maurice and Gru’s corpses into the spirit-train’s oven before freeing the girl. Killing those two shitstains and searching through their possessions proved to be a very lucrative choice. Gru carried a top-notch 12 gauge shotgun, semi-automatic, with twelve shells left. The ceramic armor fit Yuan like a glove too, and his canisters held enough booze and water to last a week. As for Maurice, Yuan found a small and fully loaded .357 revolver alongside a first aid kit hidden on his person.

The two stashed their treasure trove in their car, however. A portable radio, cigarettes, inhaled drugs, a purse of silver coins bearing the Flesh Mansion’s symbol… and a pack of condoms.

Yuan tried not to think too hard about that last one.

His body tensed up as he removed the collar’s key cable with his fingers. A slight click followed. Yuan froze in fear for a moment after half-expecting the device to blow up in his face, only to sigh in relief when it opened.

Yuan had encountered a few slave collars during his years of wandering, but this model appeared more advanced than the norm. Namely, it included a locator and an emitter that could trigger the explosive with the right radio signal. The girl never had a chance to run away.

Whoever paid for her delivery didn’t want to take chances.

At least Yuan could repurpose the explosive collar into a portable bomb and the radio into a detonator. He would always find a use for them.

The girl didn’t answer. She didn’t even dare to look at him. She still had her tongue, so either she didn’t understand the common language or she was simply too terrified to answer his questions. Yuan could hardly blame her after what she went through.

“Do you want a name?” he asked her.

The girl answered his query with silence. Yuan suddenly realized that he was now in the middle of nowhere with a mute child under his care and no idea what to do with her. Did she even have a family to return to?

Yuan Guang didn’t know how to talk to kids. He hadn’t been one for years and he hadn’t grown up into a sociable person. Yuan always found it easier to shoot people rather than charm them, so he left the talking to Mingxia.

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Yuan pondered how to earn the girl’s trust. He used to be in her situation once, an orphan picked up by travelers. True, his first guardians had been a band of marauders looking for child soldiers to throw at their enemies, but they were very good at making him lower his guard. Yuan recalled very well how they first broke the ice.

“Do you want a gun?” he asked his new charge. “It’s a magic wand that spews death. Pew-pew.”

Yuan presented the girl with his new .357 revolver the same way his guardians once offered him his first firearm. This time, she dared to look up at him in surprise. She appeared utterly confused by his gift and stared at him as if expecting him to change his mind. When Yuan did not, she began to examine the weapon with what could pass for childish curiosity.

“Let me show you,” Yuan said as he began to explain the basics of firearms. “See that part? That’s the hammer block. You must pull it back or else the gun won’t fire at your problems. Keep it on otherwise, so you don’t blow your own foot off by accident.”

Revolvers, so simple even a child could use them.

The girl followed his instructions with dutiful focus, pulling back the hammer block and then pointed the barrel at Yuan’s head. Her eyes narrowed at him with wariness. She seemed distrustful of why Yuan would entrust a loaded weapon to her.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“It’s best if you target the torso,” Yuan advised, a finger pointed at the bullet stuck in his head. “As you can see, headshots don’t always stick.”

The girl nodded dutifully and then pointed her weapon at Yuan’s heart.

Aw, she picked it up so quickly.

Whatever the case, the girl appeared excited about her new revolver. Maybe she would develop a passion for firearms? Yuan’s own began the moment he received his first handgun. He provided the girl with Maurice’s holster to go along with the weapon, which she hesitantly accepted. She was clearly unused to kindness of any kind.

The sight of his new charge holstering her revolver inspired Yuan.

“I’m Yuan, a Gunsoul,” Yuan introduced himself. “I’ll call you Holster until you decide on a better name. A gun and holster fit together. Get it?”

Yuan suddenly realized that he probably shouldn't use this wording with a child, but the girl nodded shyly nonethless.

She understood him.

“I’ll teach you how to aim once we find more ammo,” Yuan said after helping the girl attach her holster to her waist. “Do you have any family? A tribe? A sect maybe?”

Holster shook her head. Yuan expected as much. Creating a human pillar involved some nasty rituals. Considering her age, the girl was probably born and prepared for the express purpose of being sold off as a living sacrifice.

“Stay close to me for now,” Yuan advised his new charge. “I’ll drop you off somewhere safe once we leave the Thunderlands. Try to preserve ammo if possible, but don’t hesitate to shoot anyone that threatens you.”

He shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a guardian for the girl. Many communities welcomed any new female members that could help them grow over time. He would have to entrust her to Scraps and hide her status as a Hitobashira though.

Yuan banished these thoughts from his mind. The question of Holster’s status could wait until after they left the Thunderlands in one piece.

The girl nodded at Yuan and proceeded to follow him as he began to check over the nearby building. Maurice and Gru had already ransacked the place of anything valuable, but a few posters on the walls inside piqued his interest. Their faded ink showed trains driving into the sunset towards verdant mountains and wealthy lands. Others showed a map bound by lines connecting points together.

“Could it be…” Yuan muttered to himself. He quickly compared this map with the one he received from Kyung-sun. The two differed drastically, but a few of the landmarks matched. From what he gathered, this building used to be connected by rails to the radioactive city to the east. “These must be spirit-trains migration routes.”

That explained why the one that brought him to this spot stopped here. It was waiting to meet up with its kindred.

If I trust these two maps, the spirit-train’s migration route will take it further west. The old railroad traveled near Fleshmarket and continued beyond Battletown. I wouldn’t need to tame a lesser spirit-car.

However, Yuan had no guarantee that the spirit-train would wake up anytime soon. What if its kindred never showed up, or weeks later? Yuan neither had the time nor the supplies. Taming a lesser spirit-car looked like his safest bet.

“We’ll search the spirit-train in case I missed anything and then move on,” Yuan decided. “Did you hear me, Holster?”

No answer. Yuan glanced around himself, only to realize that his charge was gone. A whistling sound echoed outside.

The spirit-train.

Yuan immediately grabbed his new shotgun in alarm. How foolish of him, he hadn’t anticipated how the creature would react to a Hitobashira’s presence!

His bullet-core pounding in his head, Yuan immediately rushed outside to find Holster standing next to the machine. She looked up at the spirit-train with her big blue eyes and boundless curiosity.

To Yuan’s surprise, the spirit-train appeared to have woken up from its slumber. Faint smoke rose from its chimney and its front lights lit up on their own.

“Step away from the spirit-train, Holster,” Yuan ordered the girl.

Holster looked at him with what could pass for confusion. The spirit-train blew its whistle, but it didn’t try to drive away. Neither did Holster back away from it. She simply faced Yuan with a shy expression.

“Do you want to board it?” Yuan asked Holster. The child nodded meekly. “You understand that this could be dangerous?”

Holster nervously chewed her lip, but didn’t step away from the vehicle. The spirit-train let out another whistling sound far louder than the last. It reeked of… impatience? Yuan wasn’t sure how to qualify the vague feeling coming from the steel titan.

“Is it…” Yuan squinted at Holster. “Is it waiting for us?”

Holster nodded shyly.

Did she commune with the spirit-train somehow? The Hitobashira possessed a strong connection to the world’s flow of qi and feng shui abilities. Perhaps commanding these creatures was one of her powers?

Yuan decided to give her intuition a chance. It wasn’t like he had a better option on his plate for now. After stashing everything he could carry into his bag, he walked closer to the spirit-train. Holster meekly followed after him, but suddenly froze in hesitation when they were about to board the vehicle. She likely never entered one in her life.

“Do you want to take my hand?” Yuan asked Holster before offering her his palm.

The little girl stared at his fingers with hesitation, then gripped his palm with her tiny fingers. His touch gave her the courage to board with him.

The spirit-train began to move the moment they stepped on it.

I’m in the middle of nowhere, Thunderlands, Yuan summarized his situation. I’ve got weapons, drugs, one hell of a grudge to settle, and I'm riding a spirit-train through hostile territory with a mute child whose powers I don’t understand.

“This is gonna be fine,” he decided.