To Be A Scrapper (Suzuya Juuzou)

Chapter 22

"Hey! It's over here!" I called out, my head tilted to the sky as I looked up at the tall tree.

"Where?" a voice boomed. It wasn't long before I saw a familiar head of snow white hair emerging from the bushes, a trickle of blood running through his left hand. It took me no time to realize the blood wasn't his, it was coming from the medium sized bird held tightly between his fingers. 

"Nice score." I grinned at him and he raised the dead animal in the air. The blood was coming from the bird's beak, it's head twisted in an inhuman way as it practically dangled from it's body.

"I know," he smiled as he eyed it briefly before turning to me. "So where is it?"

"It's up there," I pointed to a high branch of the tree. Sitting on top of it was a fairly big squirrel, it's hands moving fast as it stuffed a piece of fruit inside its cheeks.

"Right," Rei said as he stared at the squirrel with furrowed eyebrows. "How are we gonna get it?"

"Throwing rocks at it?" I suggested.

"No, if we scare it off it'll just run down the tree and we won't be able to catch it." he answered.

"I think if we throw rocks at the trunk we can scare it into moving further on the branch until it's sitting on the thin part. Then I can climb it, since it won't be able to run away," I said and he nodded.

"Alright. Lets do that."

I looked around me, trying to spot a fairly sized rock while Rei did the same. I walked around the area, collecting four of them and returned to my previous spot where Rei stood with three more.

"Remember, don't let it climb down." Rei told me as he juggled a rock in his hand.

"Yeah," I answered while getting closer to the base of the tree. I looked up at the animal who seemed oblivious to everything around it.

Suddenly a loud 'thunk' ran through my ears as a rock collided against the trunk of the tree, right next to the squirrel. The animal produced a squeaking sound, but before it had time to react Rei flung another rock at it, successfully making it move further along the branch.

I started climbing the tree, grabbing nearby branches and digging my nails into the bark as I moved toward the branch where our target sat.

"Move faster. I'm running out of rocks." Rei called out and I pushed my muscles to work faster than before. I was halfway through the trunk when I felt my limbs start to burn. My hands were scraped from gripping the tree and my muscles shook from carrying all my weight.

"Almost there!"

My exhausted hands finally caught grip of the branch I was aiming for, using the remaining of my strength to pull myself up. On the farthest part of the branch stood the squirrel, it's beady eyes watching me and it's body frozen in place.

Suddenly I felt something hard colliding with my arm, almost making me lose my balance. My arms flailed as they searched for steady grip, my eyes shooting a glare at the boy as I finally grabbed the trunk. The rock knocked against the branch before falling to the ground.

"Sorry!" Rei's voice came from the ground, a hand covering his mouth and muffling his laugh. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he'd done it on purpose.

"Idiot."

I turned my attention to the animal in front of me who looked ready to bolt. Letting go of the trunk, I tried to balance myself as well as possible and started taking slow steps towards it.