Chapter 3 - Hoods

(Past the branches and into the depth of the forest towards a lost soul)

"Shi-," Kai looks at his right forearm as he runs into the, now third, thornbristle bush. Another interesting fact as he moves through the forest. His memory is coming back, albeit slowly, whenever he experiences something. That's part of it at least.

Some things he'll just remember on his own. Only minor things though. The forest for example? He knows he loves it. At least he feels like he does. Shaking his on coming headache inducing thought of whether he still actually likes those, he stops near a dead tree on its side. Probably struck by lightning in a storm.

A sense of uneasiness creeps upon Kai's neck. On instinct, he ducks beside the dead tree and put his head on a swivel as he looked around. A beat of silence passes. Seconds ticked by as the sense of uneasiness kept persisting.

Then just when Kai was about to get up and keep moving, he sees five-no seven figures dashing through the surrounding trees. They were fast, nimble, and all moved as a single unit with hoods over their heads.

'Death squad,' was the term that came to mind when he was trying to describe them. Only after a couple of minutes have passed, when Kai was sure that they had passed far enough, did he stand up. Kai really did not know what to make of them. Standing and staring in the same direction for a moment, Kai runs through everything he saw in the past few seconds about the group.

Taking note of the fact that they didn't have any hunting bows on them. Two of them had crossbows, four had short swords, one had a dagger, and two more of them were too far away from his sight for him to notice anything on them. They all definitely didn't have anything to bring back any game with them, so they definitely aren't a hunting crew.

Silently looking down the direction they had left in, Kai just stood there besides the dead tree. "People are dying today," he whispers to himself. They didn't have anything that showed they would capturing anyone either.

Logically speaking, even if they were capturing just a person or a group, the fact that they need nine people suggested that they needed a force of that magnitude to do so. In that case, there would definitely be a struggle. The very fact that they had a composition of five close quarter combatants shows that they are probably trying to go against people with range capabilities as they would be weaker in close combat.

Staring in the same direction for a moment or two longer, Kai shakes his head side to side viscously before turning the opposite direction and marched off in a huff.

"Moron, what are you thinking? You don't even know what they are going against. Nor who they are going against. They might even just be going off to kill criminals," Kai reprimands himself. Even though he says this, the scene of them passing through the forest, pops in his head again. In that scene he remembers the feeling of uneasiness that came to him. A gut feeling told him, they were up to no good.

"What can you even do anyways? You don't even have anything to defend yourself with, much less defend others that might be in trouble," He shakes his head as he walks away.

Going through what he has in his head, he knows for a fact that he can't do anything. It would be stupid to even try. It wasn't any of his business. Yeah, that made him feel better.

It wasn't any of his business...

He made it all of 20 feet in silence before he yells, "Stupid stupid stupid!" As he turns right back around and starts running. Continuously putting himself down for how idiotic this is.

That feeling of knowing that something is wrong and walking away from it, made him feel awful. Did he have a conscience before he lost his memory? Is that what is determining his moral judgement for turning away from something bad that is going to happen.

All Kai had to say to that, was "how bothersome."

Even though he says that, he feels a lighter weight on his shoulders as he heads towards the direction that group of people was going towards, when he hears, "SHOW YOURSELVES!!!"

A loud thunderous voice that shook the surrounding. Almost as if there was a giant that was angered.

The voice was so loud that Kai saw birds, flying away from the forest all around him as he headed towards the voice. Looking in the same direction, Kai couldn't help but say it again.

"Stupid."