"Let me join you!"

"Haha. Sorry, kid. We're not looking for new members. And besides, you're way too young." I said to the kid.

"I'm 10 years old! I can swing a sword see." he said before swinging a rusted sword with too much force causing him to fall over.

"Whoa there. You'll hurt someone swinging it around like that." said Ciri before holding out her hand to help the boy get up.

"Hm, thanks." he said looking at Ciri before blushing.

"Besides, why do you want to join us? We're mercenaries. There's no guarantee you'll live to see tomorrow." I asked.

"I want to see the world and fight and become famous. Famous enough to become a knight, so I can come back here and show everyone how great I am." he said with stars in his eyes.

"Okay, that's a good enough dream. But why us?"

"I saw you guys fighting earlier. You swung your axe one time and cut down all the bandits. That was so awesome!"

"That explains why you asked us. But sorry kid, we'll have to decline. Maybe once you're older." I said before walking into the tavern.

We were currently in the midst of traveling all over Midland in search of work and adventure. As we were approaching the town we are currently in, we were surrounded by bandits who wanted our possessions as well as the girls. Unfortunately for them, I took them all out with just a swing of my axe before continuing to walk to the town to rest.

But before that small encounter, the past year had gone almost identical to the first. Training our skills, bodies, powers, etc., and taking jobs. Of course, the taking jobs aspect was a little harder to do in the beginning because no one wanted a six-man mercenary party, but we still got some jobs. At this point, we were more like adventurers than mercenaries.

Nonetheless, it's been fun to be able to travel and do jobs on our terms rather than Gambino's, who speaking of which, I heard stepped down from being the commander. Probably lost his arm like in the story, except his story wouldn't end with him being killed by Guts, or at least I don't think.

Anyways, there have been two notable things that happened over the past year. The first was a job where our name became somewhat more well-known than before, and the other was of a new mercenary band in town, the Band of the Hawk.

It was a brand new mercenary band that came about just a few months ago but had already gained some fame for being efficient. Of course, it's nowhere near the level of fame it can be in the future. I say can be because Guts is now unsure of his plan to just kill Griffith and get it over with. I can still remember that day.

~~

We had just finished a job for a local town that had a bandit problem. The bandits had extorted them for months but suddenly demanded women, more specifically virgins. So, after two extortions, they decided to secretly pool together money and hire a small mercenary party. Lucky them we were walking into town when they decided to hire a party.

Long story short, we killed the 20-man bandit group who were also amateur cultists. Turns out the bandit leader found a book that said something along the lines of sacrificing virgins and becoming immortal. Obviously, the book was wrong. Unfortunately, we weren't able to save the girls that they took, and the sight of their mutilated bodies was not pretty. Still, though, we were tasked with recovering the bodies if possible so we tried to wrap them up in sheets,

After receiving payment and thanks for the job, we went to the tavern to relax and wind down for the day. As we were drinking and eating, one of the townsfolk who helped pool together money, came over to thank us again.

"Thank you, again. I fear we would have lost more people if we had not chanced upon you today." said the middle-aged man.

"It's no trouble at all. And I imagine you would have lost more people while traveling to find a mercenary party that would take the job and then having to come back." I said.

"Yes, I agree. That's why many of the townsfolk were reluctant to do so. But we had heard of a new mercenary band that had just started and they were doing a job not far from here, so we had hoped they would take the job." he said.

"Oh? New mercenary band? Don't hear rumors about new bands often." said Ciri, curious.

"Indeed. Most new mercenary bands are too small or too inefficient to get any sort of fame, but this one made a name for itself on its first job. Of course, it's still a small mercenary band so compared to the big ones, it still lacks drastically." he said, which got me even more curious if it was the Band of the Hawk, which should be up and running by now.

"Did you happen to hear of its name by any chance?" I asked him.

"What was it again? The Band of-"

"The Hawk." finished Guts.

"Yes, that's it! The Band of the Hawk. Oh, I'm sorry but it seems I must leave you now. Thank you once again." he said, before walking over to what seemed to be his wife.

I turned to look at Guts, expecting him to be angry or ready to go cut Griffith down, but he was calm.

"What, did you guys expect me to get angry and rush to kill him?" he said looking at us.

"Yes." x5

"I don't even know if I'm going to kill him anymore." he said which surprised us all.

"Why not?" asked Amelia.

"Because, as Matt said in the beginning, we are now outside of fate and we are going to see worlds beyond our wildest dreams. And if we're going to continue to get stronger and stronger, then I don't have to worry about Griffith anymore. I could just get strong enough to kill him later." he said.

"Not a good idea." I said.

"Why?"

"I get where you're coming from, but we also don't really know how strong they really are. All we know from the stories is them being casual, none of them have ever gone all out. So, it's best to nip it in the bud." I explained to him, and it was true. In the manga, even in my past life, Kentaro Miura had never shown the upper limits of the God Hand's power.

"I agree with Matt." said Yoruichi, "If everything in the story is correct, then that man is destined to become that person in the future. And for his dream, he is willing to plunge the world into chaos, so it's best that we get rid of him now. That's what I'm planning to do with Aizen."

"Well said. But in the end, it's your choice Guts. This is your world after all, but no matter what you choose to do, we will stand by you." I said to him.

"Thanks. I need to think about it."