It was there that it was decided we would be grouped in secret and try to keep a low profile. With the issues of powerful magic users, it was best for me to lay low. Tyrell would stay in the walls for any information we can get. As for the rest of us we were to to get quest related to outside the walls. However before we could do that, we needed to stop by the guild association building. The guild association building was where people from all guilds come to get request and temporary jobs approved by the Cletus government. There was one guild per each section. Where we were heading was the one located at the Trium section. We were guided by Gram, Magna, and Richard. They gave us information on the several quest given by the guild association. A quest was a temporary job given by the guild association that pays once the request was done. There were many types of quest but there were few that were recognized and taken. The most popular types taken was delivery and gathering request. Most of these request were given either by shops, merchant, or craftsmen guilds. Some guilds have specific request and missions to them if they're harder for regular quest takers. Since it's dangerous to get supplies outside the capital, some guilds would pay good money just to provide for even a few kilos of scrap metal.
In our party for today was Gram. Even with Gram's experience, it would have been best for us to start with an E rank mission. The five of us started to look around and decided to take a gathering mission. It was suggested to salvage some scrap metal. It was actually a quest given by the Gentle Hand, Tyrell's guild. "Our guild has been low on metal this week. Maybe my guild may pay a lot for it." Tyrell told us. Mr. Williams then takes a good look out of bill. "It's not a bad job." He says, "Two silver per kilo does sound like a good deal." Gram then looks at the bill and he seemed impressed. "You can take this job but you need to take other ones." He tells us, "Try to get another job you can do along the way."
"We can do more than one?" I asked.
"Tier ones can take a maximum of two jobs each. But they have to be part of their tier." The lizardman told us.
He wasn't wrong there. Almost everyone here was new. Tyrell was a fiddler at the Craftsman class, and Rebecca was beginning as a Urchin as her first tier as Rogue. Even with Mr. Williams' experience in the military, he was still put as a tier one with the title of Tracker. As for me I was still ranked as wayfinder no matter how many past lives I had. "The main goal you should aim for is getting more experience not get more money. The more experience you have, the more you are able to jump into tiers and gain a higher level." He explained to us. You weren't actually just paid to do these. The class system provided a point system that gave participation points that resembled their experience. These points were called Merits. These are used for a numeral ranking systems known as levels. It was much like an RPG. The higher the level you have, the higher the ranking job you can get. You can check your level at your guild card. It also provides information and stats. If you are in a party then the number of merits will be split evenly amongst each other.
Because Tyrell was ahead in getting into a guild, the guy managed to reach level seven. Rebecca was the lowest with a level five. However me and Mr. Williams became the exception. I managed to reach level eighteen and Mr. Williams managed to reach level twenty. We were kinda lost on this. Gram explains further about the point system. Even if the ranking system made us low on rank, the level system ran differently. Once you develop an official guild card, it calculates points with the amount of experience you have in the skills you have. To be precise, skills that can be used to survive in this world. This can be from martial arts, knowledge of weaponry, academic knowledge, survival knowledge, physical capabilities, etc. Points can also be counted on whatever has been done or learned outside the walls. The more you spend practicing or using the skills that you have learned, the higher level you get.
Given that information did bring a few points. Pretty much whatever we did at the world made us what we were based on our guild cards. "Yet why are our levels so different?" Rebecca asked. "Probably because the basis of our experience. I was after all in the military and Rin was the one who did most of the slaying. Plus most of his skills from his past lives and his time as a martial artist would have also been calculated." Mr. Williams said.
"Oh.... I thought my prepping skills would at least be counted." Rebecca said disappointed.
"Maybe because they weren't really used that much. Even if you practice prepping, it doesn't change how many times you used those skills." Gram told her.
"That kinda makes sense...I barely killed anything when were out there. Plus most of the stuff I did before I joined the guild was gather, lockpicking, and studying." Rebecca put out.
"I guess that means we might as well stock up on jobs." Tyrell said, "But I won't be of any use if there's hunting and all."
"There's one you might need to go to. You're gonna need locations to find materials if you wish to make some good stuff." Gram told him.
We decided to go the next day. Our group made a decision to check into a room at an inn. It was an easy way to keep watch of me. For all the five of knew, we didn't know what to expect. However we weren't exactly lucky in terms when it came to money. It was because of the haul on the bear that I managed to pay most of my loans that I owe my guild. Rebecca and Mr. Williams on the other hand weren't actually looking so good on fares. They still owe their guilds money. We still had to pay back our guilds back with interest after all. The training was needed but it didn't take care of the price. Hopefully taking these jobs can clear our debts. Most of our supplies may have been in Hanami but money wasn't one of them. The only money I had left was the dollar bills I got from the raiders from that initiation request. I managed to exchange them but I only got we're a few silver coins from it. However fifty shillings was still good for a couple of meals for a few days.
The room that we stayed in only had one bed available. The group drew straws and Rebecca was the lucky one. Me and the rest of the group ended up sleeping on the floor. It wasn't an easy night but we managed to pull it off. But it was only a shaky morning when I started to scream. Nightmares happened again. But this was different. Instead of the random wars, it was all voices. Different languages kept on spamming all around me. I could understand them all. No matter what language, they all said, "Help me! Have mercy!" All of them cried for help. But my mouth couldn't move, neither my limbs can even function. Was blind and paralyzed. Only to hear the sorrows of the innocent. I was yet again scared out of my mind with bad dreams. Again it was dreams of wars and bloodshed. But my eyes opened as I saw a gruesome sight. Bodies all around from being shot, stabbed, burned, or collapsing. All were of different origin but at same time. It was memory of an old dream from World War 2. It was of all the innocent that died before me. Man, woman, child… there were tons of bodies piled from all around the world. All of them crawled towards me and were gripping onto my body. All of them kept on saying in different languages, "Why didn't you save us? You were already there!" I was soon drowning in an ocean full of corpses. Bit by bit I was being smothered and squashed by the pressure. The dream itself made me run out of breath. The dreams have been getting heavier by the day as cold sweat was all over my body. My group was looking at me with the fear in my eyes. This was out of the ordinary for them to see. Come to think of it, this was the first time my group react like that other than Gram.
All of them looked at me quite oddly. I went to the bathroom to wash my face. At the mirror I was already as white as a sheet. "You doing alright, Rin?" Mr. Williams asked me. I looked at the window and see that dawn was appearing. "We gotta get going if we need to keep things under wraps." I told them. I disregarded the question as I didn't know how to answer it. To witness such a dream was something that I would rather not go into.
Dawn was about to come and we were already out from Petra. There wasn't any people around so I took gave us good cover to head out. Our group managed to walk out there with no questions asked. Our group decided to take on gathering missions. They were lucrative and can be passed without any limit. Cletus was always open for supplies so as long as it's one of the items requested by the guild association then you can collect your merits and shillings. The only issue now is where to head to. "So where will we be going?" Mr. Williams asked. "Detroit has a good few hiding places, maybe there?" I suggested.
"Detroit has too much activity. Plus I don't think the newbies would be able to take it." Gram disagreed.
"Then where are we supposed to go?" Rebecca asked.
"We're gonna head to Tondo." Gram told us.
"...Tondo?" I asked.
Tondo was located in the Philippines in a part of Metro Manila. It was considered home to the slum area of the country's capital. I've had a neighbor once who was Filipino and had many jobs as a voluntary nurse back when he was a college student. He told me that it was an inhospitable place to live in as trash and pollution all over heavily in this location. Many amongst the population get ill because the bad living conditions made it a hotbed for diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, and many other types. Even if my neighbor would love to vouch for them and go to medical missions there, he just didn't understand why people would even bother living there in the first place.
"Damn...I saw that place in a documentary. That place is disgusting." Tyrell said.
"I went there for a relief mission when I was at the UN." Mr. Williams said.
"Oh yeah, you were there before. Was it that bad?" Rebecca asked.
"Yeah. Trash was almost everywhere. They even had a hill made out of trash called Smokey Mountain. When Typhoon Ondoy hit the place, all the trash there went to the streets. There dead carcasses of animals and people around the streets after that." Mr. Williams said.
"I get the dead animals but why people?" Rebecca asked.
"Sometimes gangsters dump them in the landfills. Tondo has been a place where drug labs have been found." Mr. Williams told her.
"Reminds me of the south. My cousin back at Louisiana told me sometimes they would find a couple of meth labs hidden in the swamps." Tyrell told them.
"How does he know that?" Rebecca asked.
"He owns a crawfish boat and sometimes fishes at the swamps for extra money." Tyrell says, "Sometimes he would find some guy dumping some waste at some of the rivers."
"I'm surprised that he isn't dead." Mr. Williams said.
"Well...some of the stoners and dealers don't really mind. If he minds his business then they'll mind theirs. That and he gives some of the fish he caught." Tyrell replied.
The Tondo sect wasn't really that far. It was really five miles away from the southern part of the Cletus. However once there we were greeted to a rather awkward sight. The location was a dry wasteland but what surprised me the most was there were boats of various sizes almost everywhere. Judging by the sand, we were actually sitting on the ocean floor…what was left of it that is. The dry black sand made it hard to walk around as our feet were sinking down past our soles. The five of us eventually reached a pier. We were about to climb on the ladder but Gram stopped us from going up.
He instead tells us to wait under the pier. Gram then gets some stones from the seafloor and started to throw them on the pier consecutively. We hear something walking on the wooden planks of the dock. Gram then whistles to it. The thing then started to run and jump off the docks. But before it can land on the sand, the lizardman launches a crossbow bolt to the head. It laid dead at the ground and that creature turned out to be a ghoul. But it was odd. It was a male, dried up like a raisin, and very old ragged clothing. "Some say during the appearance of Tondo came during a humanitarian crisis after a large super typhoon." Gram tells us, "Because of the massive death count, almost everybody turned into wild ghouls."
Mr. Williams then gets a knife and tears off the clothing. He looked rather satisfied with his answer. "I guess I know why this one is a lot thinner than the rest of them… looks like this guy died of starvation before succumbing to the Lazarus curse." Mr. Williams hypothesized. "Don't all undead look like that?" I asked.
"Not ghouls. Ghouls come back the way they die. They only undergo the first few stages of rigor mortis then their bodies eventually change symbolizing their death." Gram told us.
"But don't corpses decay? Don't they change physically over time as they degrade?" Rebecca asked.
"They have an odd way of maintaining their image of that of a human being. But that I rather not talk about in the open." The lizardman replied.
Gram then climbs up the ladder and gets his crossbow ready. "We're gonna lose daylight if we keep standing here. I don't wanna be here when it gets dark." He said. The four of us then followed the lizardman as we start to head into town. The place itself even looked post apocalyptic before this dystopia even started. "It's as crummy as I remember." Mr. Williams said. He wasn't wrong. Most of the houses made looked like huts made out of driftwood and dry wood. I was rather surprised myself on how sturdy they were. No matter where you went there was always gonna be trash.
As we got deeper into the slums and away from the shore, we were brought to a different type of area. The farther we went out of the shore, the less we see trash. I thought we skipped an area or something but there was a very thin line on how different both locations were. We reached the residential area. It was full of apartments, houses, and buildings purely made out of cinder block and cement. The ages of the buildings were quite different as some of them just happen to connect and overlap between each other. Some had extra floors built on top of them and you can tell how old each floor was on the dark shade each floor had and the moss growing from the lower floor. It was only the deeper you got into the city, the more modern it started to look. "What are we doing?" I asked. "There's an apartment building around here. It makes as a good vantage point." Gram told me.
"I can use my bird shikigami to get a view of the city, you know?"
"Not in your condition. It's best you use less magic as possible. As easy as this place is, it'll be harder once the ghouls swarm into hordes."
We finally reached the city area of Tondo. But as we went inside, the harder it was to find anything to sneak behind. After crossing through a few houses and buildings, we thought we got the slipfrom some of the ghouls. But it was only there that we heard loud voices coming from somewhere. It sounded like people. We hid into a small house and into a shop. We peaked out of the windows and heard a commotion outside. "Quite the loud ones." Mr. Williams said. "Yeah, they're gonna get themselves killed if it gets any louder." Tyrell said.
"Mr. Williams do you understand what they're saying?" Rebecca asked.
"I may have been in the Philippines but I don't understand the language that much." Mr. Williams replied.
"But do you understand why they're fighting?" Gram asked.
"I'll see what I can do." Mr. Williams replied. The five of us decided to move to another building and head to the second floor. Gram brought out his periscope and Mr. Williams tried as best he could to translate the conversation. "Looks like it's a group of five and they're chewing it out on each other." Gram told them. "From what I can tell...It sounds like a fight about a man..." Mr. Williams said.
"So a lover's quarrel?" Rebecca asked out of assumption.
"Nope...just a man that got caught and killed in general. From the word 'patay' and 'nahuli'." Mr. Williams said.
"So he got kidnapped or by somebody?" Tyrell asked.
"More of 'something'. They're saying that something attacked them and is now after them. They keep on saying some kind of word. I can't make it out." Mr. Williams replied.
We then hear from the distance a deep, large moan. It didn't sound human at all. The sound was like a lion and a camel in hunger. Gram started to shake as he looked afraid. "Was one of those words did you hear happen to be 'kapre'?" He asked reluctantly. Mr. Williams nodded his head. Loud footsteps started to be heard at the street we felt the vibrations at the floor. We all then hid behind the walls as it passes by the house. I then summon a bird shikigami and took a bowl of water to observe the view above. It was a large hairy giant around two stories in height with a wooden cigar. This was the kapre. It blows smoke from its mouth and roars. As the group started to run, the monster spits a giant loogie and throws a fireball ahead of them. Their path was blocked by a wall of fire and he does the same behind them. All the group can do was scream in peril as they were trapped.
As I was in a hurry to check what was happening, the bowl of water accidentally toppled from my hand and spilled on me. But as I blinked I saw something. I closed my eyes and saw whatever the bird shikigami was seeing with a view above. It was hopeless. The group was paralyzed in fear. One of the woman kept on screaming and it started to hurt the monster's ears. So he threw the woman from a distance and it went through the window of the house we were staying in. I heard a crack next to me as I saw the body of the woman splattered at the wall. There was nothing to recognize as the head hit the wall first and exploded once it hit the wall. Rebecca was about to scream but just in time, Mr. Williams got her and covered her mouth. I then prepared another bowl of water and put a paper charm in. There I splashed the water on me and went back to the bird shikigami's view. The hairy beast already grabbed one of the people in the group and started using him like a club to beat the living hell out of everybody. Everyone was down except the human club, barely breathing and a petite girl hiding near the corner. The monster then bites off the head of the guy he used as a mallet and eat him. The woman screams. It was there the beast dragged the woman by the legs and smashed them, using his own fist like a mallet. Her legs were permanently mangled and she screams in agony. The giant then puts her around his shoulder and comes out of the flames unscathed. All the woman could do was shout for the names of her companions. There were six names out of five as she moaned in grief. The giant passes us without noticing our presence.
It was soon gone by the next turn. Gram takes out his periscope and looks around. "Looks like the kapre is gone." He said. Gram goes up the roof and grabs a pair of binoculars. The lizardman then swings back to our floor and puts his stuff back in his pack. "There's a junk shop a few meters opposite the direction of the kapre. We can get a few scraps there." He told us. Gram grabs his bag and started to walk down stairs. "We don't got all day." Gram said from behind.
The group started to walk to the area carefully. As usual we weren't gonna have an easy time. It was shut with a master lock. Took time but I managed unlock the gate. None of us spoke a word after what happened back at the apartment. Nobody would be even comfortable if a person would randomly be thrown like a ragdoll only for her head to break open like an egg. We started to look around for things such as metal scrap and plastic. I was then handed some rubber gloves by Gram to get the stuff that we need. There were some rice sacks that were good enough to carry our loot. But with all the silence it started to become tense. Rebecca became troubled as her eyes spoke of fear. "Why didn't we take the kapre on?" She asked out of spite.
"There's nothing we could have done, that thing was too powerful." Mr. Williams said.
"But together we could have done at least something." Rebecca insisted.
"That's the problem… we could but none of us are ready for that kind of monster." Gram told her.
"I had pipe bombs in my pack. For sure we could have killed it." She told them.
"The kapre are immune to fire. Even if we to injure it, he would still come back at us by fire or pure strength. There's nothing we could have done." Gram told them.
But then Rebecca took off her gloves and threw them to the floor. "How could we just sit there and let them die?! Those were just people that just got killed!" She exclaimed.
"Even if we did, we'll still be dead!" Gram talked back.
But that phrase alone sent chills down my spine. The words made me remember about the dream I had. They soon became visions of all the people that died in front of me in world war two. All the innocent lives taken that didn't need to die those days. The feeling of blood splashing on my face, the sound of bloody screams, the sight of people dying in a variety of brutal deaths...they all came at me at once! The emotions I felt hit me ten times harder. I screamed loudly and fainted at the floor. People started to call out for my name. My eyes closed as my body hit hard at the floor.
I was stuck again in that same presence. It was another dream. My memories started to move on their own as my body suddenly synchronized to the dream. I was there again, in Nanjing. The troops were at it again. All I could do was pass back and forth as I was giving the Intel division information found about the Americans and my reports I did when I was at Southeast Asia. Some of the higher-ups were planning to invade but it was still under process. By that time I was already done reporting to my superiors and about to head back to the barracks. Documenting of the whole thing at the battle of Nanjing was already something that I didn't want to think about.
But sadly my day was about to get from bad to worse as another sty in my eye came in front of me. It was one of the captains of my squad. Orders were given to me to be part of documentation. One of the generals wanted me to get his good side when he lofts off the heads of the remaining survivors. Another thing I dreaded to see. I was up for pride for one's country but it was starting to get ridiculous. I really didn't have a choice here either. This guy was drinking too much of the local alcohol and when he gets drunk… you might as well give the guy what he wants. You better have a death wish if you refuse a request out of a drunken Japanese military officer at that time.
The city of Nanjing was in ruins. Honestly I couldn't tell whether or not there was a point to even go hunting for survivors after that massacre. It's not like there would be even be anybody else living after either the shells exploding the city or the bloodshed. It would be most likely that if there were even survivors of the massacre then they would be already out of Nanjing since its been already a few years since the bombing. But then again I was wrong. There was a scouting party that passed us with a couple of Chinese guys being chained and bound single file. The general stopped by to see the captain. "How's it going captain? You look lucky." The general asked. "Yeah but no girls. I wanna my big dog to chase some kitties." The captain replied proudly as he taps his crotch.
Everybody started to laugh. The whole thing made me cringe in disgust. But all I could do was maintain my poker face as I waited for the conversation to be over. It was there we approached a stone brick house in the area. The house wasn't small but it was good to fit at least a family of four. The roof was partially blown off with some shrapnel of the bombs bursting a whole through the wall. It was being home to a newly-wed couple and they were as scared as hell as on of the guys kicked the door open. One of the guys of the group knocked the husband over and were plundering with whatever they can get from the house.
From what I can tell this was actually from the warehouse bombed eighty meters away from here. However it didn't really matter though. Most of the squad was focusing on raiding whatever they can from the house. One of the soldiers managed to find opium under the sink and fought over it with the others like monkeys over bananas. Others ended up looking for things worth of value such as jewelry and gold. If we ever found any alcohol then we were supposed to give it to the generals. But where was I? I was at the balcony, watching my squad acting like barbarians while eating a tin of almond cookies. Some were even making fun of me behind my back. "What a plain kid." one of the soldiers said. "As expected of the School Boy." Another soldier agreed.
'School Boy' was the nickname given to me at my first few months here. I was baby faced and did what I was told. The name rather fitted me well even if at times it grew annoying. The troops were indulging on whatever that they can find in the house. Whatever we were doing wasn't gonna get us anywhere. So it was there I decided to salute the general and asked for a request. "Permission to scout the perimeter. Sir?" I suggested. The others started to laugh out loud. "What a kiss ass!" One of them shouted. "Better than getting your hard on a bunch of pin-up girl magazines." I talked back.
This made the soldiers pause in silence. The insulted soldier then wiped out his pistol. By the time it was pointed at my face, I disarmed the man and threw him at the floor with his very own gun behind his head. Everybody reacted out of shock and draw their guns at me. "That's enough!" The general shouts, "At least Schoolboy here is moving his ass!" The general then nudges his chin, signaling me to let go. I helped the fellow soldier up and cleaned him up a little. I spun the pistol and sheathed it at his holster. The hard motion made him twitch. The general hands me a rifle. It was bolt-action but good enough. "Don't go farther than two hundred meters. Don't expect much, kid." He told me.
With special permission I was able to head out. But as I went to load my bullets outside, The general started spouting something. "Idiot! Best if you don't start off a fight with him!" He whispered out loud. "Why? The guy's never one to share out. Better off dead." The soldier told the general. The general then grips onto the man's face. "Better on our side than the enemy's." The general told him.
Honestly those words were something that I didn't want to hear. The whole group just laughed. As their laughter grew louder I was already gone in the distance. I started walking as it soon lead me to narrow streets and alleyways. It was cold and at the death of winter. I'd wish it would just snow over already as all the colors I see was gray, red, and black. Bloodstains were almost everywhere and the sight of it was brutal. Bodies were still piled up and the odor was still there all because one asshole from the army got too trigger happy in a shop. For me at the time, this was a waste of human life. I couldn't actually believe how close it was to Christmas.
Hope just went to the trash and became a dumpster fire. It was just a few weeks being stationed here and it felt like decades. I still saw piles of bodies still at the streets as I scouted the streets. It soon lead to narrow passageways and I didn't find a spec of human life. A part of me was rather relieved not to see any.
But it was only there when I heard a tumble of trash and a few whispers. I thought I just heard the Chinese word for 'hide' in the wind. I then crouched and snuck inside a shop next to me. It was a medicine store but inside was room full of dead bodies. It was a scouting party composed four infantry and one captain. They were ambushed and shot to death by a bullet storm. There were dead soldiers but no weapons. The only weapon there was a katana, an old relic that shouldn't be in wars anymore. From what I can tell, a rebel force must have taken them down. I then took a few stones from the rubble and put the katana at my side as I heard them coming. I then threw them at the street. They bounced off the street and into a shop. The sound alerted the group. I soon see rebels in into the shop and checked it out. There I made my move by making a few Molotov cocktails out of some grain alcohol. I then took two of them and threw them into the second floor of the shop across. The store started to catch on fire and the rebel troops started to run outside. By that time I took my rifle and started shooting at them one by one. After shooting three of them down, the rebels started to aim at me. I took my third Molotov and threw it at the group. As they were distracted with the fire, I already jumped towards the roof at the other shop. There I put on the bayonet and shot away. But I soon realized that was my last shot. So once they aimed their guns at me, I leap off the roof and landed with a dodge roll. I threw my rifle like a spear and started firing with my pistol. Once the rifle pierced one of the rebels, the remaining two were already shot dead. A stubborn rebel then tries to get up with his rifle and cocks it. But before the man could even stand, I cut his throat with my bayonet after pulling my rifle out of one of the corpses.
Everybody was down. After a few minutes, my group finds me with dragging all the bodies I just killed either burned, slashed, or shot. All were in shock as they saw my kill streak. "There's a dead scouting unit in the shop over there. Get the bodies there for identification." I told them. But the commotion attracts another scouting group. The general goes up to them and explains the situation. I was already tired so I sat and took a flask from one of the dead bodies and drank. But it has barely been a few minutes and I hear woman scream. I didn't wanna believe it at first but as it paired with perverted laughter, it was enough for my eyes to take a gander. It was a woman being dragged out of the building with a toddler at her hands. One of the soldiers then dragged him away from his mother. But one thing went to another and one of the prisoners from the other fraction managed to cut away from his binds and shot everybody near him with a machine gun. The prisoner then goes for the pistol and aims at us. I then drew out my pistol and shot it off his hand. "There doesn't have to be any more violence, just give up before anybody else gets hurt." I told him in Mandarin.
We managed to bind the man again with handcuffs. The woman and child turned out to be his. The prisoner then was brought to the ground and sent for interrogation at the base. Knowing we got leverage, he could be used as a way to get information. I was hearing out the interrogation as part of intel with the general. It was mixed with water torture and many other things. The rest of my group was told to keep the mother and child at bay. The mother was to be interrogated as well by the other members of my group.
But at the middle of the interrogation process, I heard the child scream. It came from the other side of the hall. It was where we kept the mother for her own separate interrogation. The prisoner wouldn't cooperate with us no matter what he did. Only if the prisoner saw his family was safe, he would continue to cooperate with us. The general then told me to alert the group to bring the wife. But as I opened the door where we kept the hostages, I stood in shock as my jaw dropped out. The woman being put at the ground with torn clothing and being treated like a ragdoll. She was being assaulted by my group with the child forced to watch. The child couldn't stop screaming for her mother and this annoyed one of the rapist. "Shut that little shit up!" One of the soldiers ordered. The man in charge of the kid then cracked his neck. The woman then screamed. The noise drew everybody where I was standing. I knelt on the floor exposed to horror. Unknowingly, the prisoner was right behind me by a few meters. Rage just filled within his eyes, the man just breaks the chains out of pure force. He grabs an officer's sword and charges straight for me. But by the time he was two feet away from me, I quickdraw the katana out of my superior's belt and the prisoner slows down and passes behind me. The man just sat there quietly and didn't say anything. The general then looked at the group furiously. The men get up and pull up their pants. One accidentally knocks the prisoner down to be only greeted with a surprise. The Chinese prisoner's head falls off and spews blood like a fountain. The Chinese wife screams in hysteria. She screams so hard that it broke all the glass windows around her and the scope on my rifle. The woman dies out of breath.
But where was I? I was covered in blood with my head down as everybody else was screaming. Exactly how many times did I act so composed to the point I forgot to act normally? The dream becomes black after that. Just what was that memory?
But then a boy appears to me. It was that one guy with the fox mask. The one that they call Furukizu. I knew him somewhere...who was he? He then lifts me up at the neck with his eyes at me. All I can hear from him were a few words. It was, 'Toughen up'.