---Tatsuki's POV---
When I stealthy reached the place where the scream came from, I saw something that made my eyes wide open with surprise and a falling jaw while instinctively protecting my family jewels with my hands.
'Holy shit, what a fierce girl' I thought with a bit of admiration.
Although I didn't see what happened from the beginning, but when a bunch of ugly men gangs upon a girl you can already guess what transpired here. That's why I feel a bit of admiration when a girl can stand up for herself and don't need protection from a man, like in my previous world where in most cases women were weak physical.
Now I understand why that scream came about, the man got his balls busted to a puddle of blood, flowing on the ground by the fierce girl.
Then she continued killing the other men slowly by piercing their limps with a rapier and let them bleed to death.
While all this transpired I was just spectating from a bush, with no intention of showing myself, so when she killed the last man, she just straightforwardly left without cleaning up and followed the road to the Capital.
As I waited 5 minutes before coming out of hiding for safety purposes, afraid of getting my nuts cracked by the girl.
But as soon as I stepped out of the bush, I felt danger like no other from above, so I immediately threw myself forward rolling on the ground.
*BANG*
A high heel landed on the ground still with blood on and making a little crater half a meter in diameter.
"So you finally decided to come out of your hiding, tch," she said clearly with dissatisfaction, maybe from waiting 5 minutes?
"Hold on, I'm not your enemy, and I'm certainly not with those men before," I explained while waving my hands, trying to stop her from attacking again.
"Huh, you are just a child, but my instincts are telling me you're strong!" she stopped and told herself.
"Well I don't know about that, but I do know that I have something else to do, so goodbye" I quickly said and tried to leave, but before I could, a punch was sent my way.
I quickly turned around fully opening my eyes and locking her arm that is nearing me in between my armpit, then I sent my own punch to her face without mercy, but she locked my arm the same way I did. As we both locked an arm each, we lifted our knee and sent it against each others stomachs.
"BOOM"
It resounded when our knees met each other halfway, then we just stared at each other in the eyes, then her little sadistic smile turned into a frown and my eyes turned cold.
'If she doesn't stop now, I'm forced to kill her because she's just as strong as me, if not stronger so I can't afford to hold back. My kneecap can't take an exchange like that again.' I thought while still looking into her eyes and frowning face.
"Who are you, and how old are you?" she asked me while pulling her arm and knee away and creating some distance between us, still dissatisfied with something.
"Tatsuki Zen, 8 years old." When I told my age she clearly showed surprise for a second, but it quickly returned to a frown.
"You are telling me I just tied with an 8-year-old? Although I didn't use all my power, you clearly didn't either right?" she said while stomping her heals a little on the ground.
"Yea" I just replied lazily with my usual bored look, not interested in her depressing thoughts.
"Where are you from?" she asked me this time, and I just truthfully answered, while thinking that we will not meet each other again so no harm will come telling her.
"The Capital" I again replied, getting a little irritated of felling being interrogated by her.
"Great, it seems we can finish our fight another time because I also have something else to do," she said while walking by me, but stopped just behind me.
"I'm Esdeath, you better remember that Tatsuki Zen, until next time fufufu" she continued walking away while laughing with that sadistic smile of hers.
--- Sometime later---
Right now I'm looking at 30 bandits setting up roadblocks and getting their weapons ready, so they can loot the next merchant coming by.
'I can't use my sword to kill them, so I have to break their necks while they are off guard. 30 men are too hard killing without spilling their blood on the ground in a direct confrontation.'
To unlock [Kagune Lvl 1] it's required to bath in blood, so those bandits are going be my stepping stone, so I can't waste their blood.
When I got my plan ready, 2 guys went away from the group and took a piss, and my hunt finally started.
I sneaked up behind them, and quietly strangled the first person while holding my hand over his mouth so he couldn't scream. When he died the other man seemed done with his business and just when he turned around, I punched him in the throat, silencing him, before breaking his neck.
I used tricks like sounds as whistling, animal sounds, and stones to distract them and get them close to where I was hiding before swiftly killing them.
Now they seemed to have discovered that almost half of the bandits are missing, so they banded together and called out to me.
"Show yourself, don't think you can get away after messing with us." they rambled trying to lure me out, but I waited to make them nervous, and it worked.
"Fuck this shit I'm out of here," one bandit said running away, but before he could.
*DONG* *THUD* he was hit with an apple-sized stone to the head knocking him out, and falling to the ground.
While the others where stunned I threw a few more stones at some heads, and proceeded to close-combat with my bare hands, disarming them while knocking the rest out.
"Well that went better than expected, guess it's all thanks to these guys low IQ," I said to myself while collecting and finishing those that were just knocked out and not dead.