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Duncan was the first to realize he wasn't exactly acing his little stealth mission, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He tried; made his steps lighter, hunched lower, even held his breath as if [i]that [/i]had been what did him in, but nothing could mask the sound of his approach. All he could realistically do was hope he wasn't nearly as loud in the ears of normal humans as he was his own. Heightened senses made it difficult to judge. It was like wearing noise cancelling headphones and not realizing how loud you were, except the exact opposite.

Having fixated on the sounds he was making, it took Duncan a good while to realize that he could no longer hear Haruko and Akito talking. It wasn't [i]quiet[/i], it never was anymore, but it was quiet[i]er[/i], and that was honestly pretty suspiciou—

A shout so loud it made Duncan's ears ring pierced through the forest. He recognized the voice and the panic first, already bursting into the scene by the time his mind registered the words.

[color=0099aa]"Get the [i]h—[/i]"[/color] his body was faster than his thoughts, and certainly faster than his words. Duncan hadn't factored that in, hadn't even gotten out half a warning before he'd already closed the distance between him and Akito, one hand thrusting towards the wannabe delinquent. 

He grabbed the guy by the front of his shirt, hoisting him up. Higher, faster than he'd meant to, his other hand pulling back to prepare for a punch — only for his mind and his senses to finally catch up. To remember his punch felling a tree and realizing what it would do to the squishy face of a human. To see that Haruko was unharmed, if startled — and to understand that the startlement likely had nothing to do with [i]Akito[/i].

[color=0099aa]"I, uh. Came... to tell you guys you're missing out. The water's nice."[/color]

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The water [i]had [/i]been nice, and it would've been nice to continue swimming, but once Masato showed up with fresh meat in tow — had the guy [i]really [/i]killed that thing alone?! — the waterfront was hastily transformed into a butchery instead. Not that Duncan minded, really. He was starving, and had high hopes that in the midst of handling guts, Haruko would forget about what had happened. Duncan himself was quickly starting to, the process expedited by a trip to a literal monster den — be that he'd apparently missed out on the action itself.

As he looked at the more handy students making tools out of monster parts, he swore he would not miss out on the next bout, though. Not in a million years. 

Duncan was practically inhaling his dinner, idly wondering whether they'd be able to somehow make their own alcohol out here to go with the meat, when Asahi suddenly stood. Duncan wiped broth off his face and looked up. The dude sounded serious. So much so that although Duncan grinned at his gorilla comment, the grin didn't last long. 

Reflexively, Duncan turned to look towards the mountains. As expected, he didn't feel shit.

[color=0099aa]"Did you land on your [i]head [/i]or something back there? Bro, come on, you're talking crazy. You really think we're about to let you wander off alone cause you think you felt some... presence at the mountains?"[/color] He didn't stop eating to talk, so half his words were muffled by bites of meat. [color=0099aa]"And no offense dude, but if there really [i]is [/i]something deadly out there, you sure as shit ain't going to be able to deal with it alone."[/color]

He swallowed and threw up a dismissive hand. [color=0099aa]"What's the rush, anyway? We're doing [i]fine [/i]out here. We got food, water, shelter... hell, for all we know, everyone could "Awaken" or whatever eventually. Just chill, have some meat, you got time to rush into certain death. Doesn't gotta be first thing in the morning."[/color]
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