Attacked Right After Landing? Sampo Was Asking for It

The little leather shoes came to rest on snow deep enough to reach the knees.

There was no dull thud of heels sinking in.

Su Chen stood on the soft snow as if suspended in midair.

An invisible gap separated his soles from the ice and snow.

The storm slammed toward him like a raging wall.

Hailstones like shards of broken glass flew within it.

They struck the train's armored hull with sharp cracks.

But a centimeter from his thin black high-collared uniform, every sound vanished.

The wind split around him.

Ice fragments struck an invisible barrier, shattered into finer powder, and shot off to either side.

A translucent sphere of absolute stillness formed around Su Chen.

Not a strand of his white hair stirred.

The train's passenger door opened fully.

Its hydraulic struts gave a piercing metallic shriek in the bitter cold.

Himeko, bundled in heavy winter gear, stepped down the ramp first.

The nonslip soles of her tall boots crushed the crust of ice over the frozen ground.

She opened her mouth to speak, and a gust of cold air rushed straight into her lungs.

Her throat stung as if scraped by a blade.

She hurriedly pulled her high windproof collar over half her face.

March 7th followed her.

She wore yellow goggles, and the wind plastered her short pink hair against her scalp.

Her teeth chattered without pause.

"Th-this snow is way too heavy."

Her words came out in a stammer. Her breath instantly froze into white frost along the edges of her goggles.

All she could see was white.

Xingbao brought up the rear.

Her thick, heavy gray polar suit made her look like a clumsy penguin.

She stepped into a hole buried beneath the snow.

The snow swallowed her leg to the upper thigh.

She tried to yank it free.

But she lost her balance and pitched forward.

Her face slammed into the snowbank.

When she lifted her head, her mouth was full of gritty ice.

Xingbao spat out a mouthful of dirty snow.

Her lips were purple from the cold, and her fingers were too stiff to bend inside her thick gloves.

Dan Heng walked off to one side.

The portable heater at his waist flashed red.

In the extreme cold, its battery drained as fast as water through a leak.

The beeping low-battery alarm disappeared beneath the howling wind.

They struggled through knee-deep snow.

Every step was uncertain.

They had gone less than ten meters.

A mound of snow beside the path suddenly moved.

Bang.

Snow burst outward and filled the air.

A man popped out of the drift like a groundhog.

Frost coated his short dark-blue hair, freezing it into near-solid spikes.

He wore thin leather armor wholly unsuited to the weather.

A faded red scarf was wrapped around his neck.

The man rubbed his hands together, the rough leather rasping against itself.

He brought them to his mouth and breathed a great cloud of white vapor into them.

Then he shook the snow from his shoulders and broke into a broad smile.

On his cold-reddened face, the smile looked eager to please.

But there was a hustler's greed beneath it.

He looked like a shady dealer who had spent years hawking used parts in underground markets, always ready to fleece someone.

"Well, hello there, big spenders!"

Sampo shouted at the top of his lungs.

The wind was so loud he had to raise his voice until it cracked.

A living person had sprung up out of nowhere in this desolate wilderness.

The Astral Express Crew jumped.

Dan Heng reacted first.

The muscles in his right arm tightened.

Moisture gathered rapidly in his palm, and the Cloud-Piercer spear took shape in an instant.

Its tip cut through the freezing wind with a brief hum.

In the bitter cold, vapor froze into a thin, sharp layer of ice around the spearhead.

Dan Heng pressed his wrist downward.

The spear pointed straight at the blue-haired man's throat.

Xingbao had just pulled herself out of the snow.

At the shout, she reached back for her baseball bat.

Her winter gloves were too thick; she could barely feel a thing.

A slick film of ice coated the metal bat's grip.

Her fingers slipped, and she lost her hold.

The bat fell into the drift behind her with a clang and vanished.

Xingbao spun around in a panic and dug through the snow, her backside sticking up.

March 7th yanked off her fogged goggles.

She grabbed her Six-Phased Ice Composite Bow.

Her thumb hooked the string.

She pulled, drawing the bow halfway back with the faint creak of taut fibers.

A crystal-clear ice arrow rested on the string, ready to fly.

Sampo completely ignored the weapons aimed at him.

Or perhaps his skin was simply too thick to care.

He raised both hands in fingerless gloves, palms out, in an exaggerated show of surrender.

"Easy, easy!"

His leather boots crunched through the snow.

He edged closer against the knife-sharp wind.

His greasy grin spread wider.

"You folks from out of town just landed, huh?"

Sampo rubbed his hands, sounding as familiar as if he had found long-lost relatives.

"Jarilo's blizzards don't care who you are. Without a guide who knows the ropes, you'll be an ice sculpture before you've gone a mile."

"I'm Sampo Koski, the most reliable friend you'll find in the Underworld. Spare a few Credits, and I'll get you through safe and sound."

His sales pitch never stopped.

Meanwhile, his green eyes darted over the group.

He glanced at Dan Heng's spear, then Himeko's tall boots.

He was sizing up what they were worth.

Finally, he looked past the others.

His gaze fixed on the white-haired little girl at the front.

A black uniform, but no winter coat.

Not even gloves or a hat.

To a local hustler like Sampo, who made a habit of picking easy targets,

she looked like a defenseless rich kid separated from the adults.

She would be the easiest to handle, and the easiest to charm.

If he won the kid over, the adults would have to cough up the money, wouldn't they?

Sampo made up his mind.

He stepped across a trench in the snow and skirted Dan Heng's spearpoint.

A few quick steps brought him right up to Su Chen.

Less than half a meter separated them.

Su Chen stopped.

He stood within that utterly still vacuum barrier.

An unfinished mint candy bulged in one cheek.

Sampo bent down with a grin.

He reached out his right hand.

His rough hand, clad in a worn leather glove damp with melted snow, went straight for little Satoru Gojo's head.

"Aw, what a pretty little girl. You must be freezing out here!"

Su Chen did not dodge.

His small round sunglasses slid slightly down his nose.

His pale blue eyes appeared above the lenses and fixed Sampo with a cold stare.