"How much can I pay you to stop harming those children?" asked a strange voice coming from afar.
The merchant simply ignored the voice as he scourged them.
"Okay, I believe I asked the wrong question," admitted the voice.
"For how much would you be willing to sell those children?"
The merchant still ignored the voice as he whipped the twins relentlessly.
"Okay, how about I pay you to double the standard price if only you stop harming them immediately?"
Now the merchant stopped and turned to face the person now bargaining with him.
The person was a young man donning a white cloak with a strange symbol crested on it.
"Who are you?" asked the merchant.
"I am just a wandering traveler who loves children and simply cannot pass by after witnessing something like this."
"Alright, I'm listening..." responded the merchant with a sceptical look.
The stranger came closer with a bag full of coins, handing it to the merchant.
"This should be enough for the both of them, I believe."
"Perhaps," replied the merchant as he took the bag, impressed by its bulk and authenticity—these were real gold coins, perhaps worth three times what they had bargained for.
From the look of things, the stranger had no experience buying slaves, so he sought to take advantage of that.
"I'm afraid this wouldn't be enough to exchange for these rug rats," he said.
"Really?" asked the stranger.
"Give me another bag of coins, and maybe I'll reconsider your offer, young man."
"Very well then," responded the stranger without the slightest hint of skepticism as he brought out another sack of gold coins.
On receiving the second bag, he signaled the other merchants to hand the girls over to the stranger. One of the merchants came to the stranger, handing him the keys to the shackles on his new slaves along with the leash.
The stranger, instead of taking the keys and the leash, brought forth his sword, swiftly cutting off the hand of the merchant handing them over to him.
The man screamed in horror as he watched his hand fall to the ground with blood everywhere.
On seeing this, the other merchants reacted instinctively, drawing out their weapons and running for the stranger to kill him.
The stranger ran with full speed, skillfully slaughtering every one of them with ease before finally getting to the lead merchant, who was the last of them.
The man stood there with fear in his eyes, frozen in disbelief at what he had just witnessed: This young man had just slaughtered all of his subordinates—all twelve of them—in seconds!
"Give me one good reason not to end you right now," he said, pressing the tip of his long sword against the merchant's throat.
"B...but we had an agreement!" he said, "Why are you doing this?"
"Because I detest abusive and opportunistic scum like you!" he replied right before decapitating him, sending his head rolling from his body down to the ground.
The stranger swung his sword to the side, getting rid of the residual blood before putting it back in its place.
Then he walked towards the children and knelt to talk to them. They were so weak, struggling to even sit down with their backs hurting like hell.
He brought his face closer to theirs and whispered,
"I do not know any of you, and neither will I claim to, but I am assured that both of you are strong girls who can survive anything." I can see the hatred in your eyes and sense the bitterness in your souls, and I can teach you how to make good use of it. "As you can probably guess, I'm about to set you free, but I will offer you a choice," he said as he unshackled them.
"You can return to your old ways of life and continue living as outcasts, or you can follow me and get a glimpse of life with purpose and meaning." If you choose the latter, I promise to give you life—more than you have ever dreamed of. If you choose the former, you would both spend the rest of your lives being hunted and abused by the world you despise. Your "defect" is a gift that many people like myself could only hope to attain, and I can teach you how to use it. "The choice is yours," he said as he turned to leave.
But as he did, the twin sisters held on to his cloak, giving an obvious answer.
The stranger nodded his head. Then, for the first time in a long time, Genta (one of the twins) spoke up,
"What about them?" she asked, pointing at the caravan of slaves as some of them managed to crawl out while shackled to one another.
"I came for the both of you, not the rest of them." "It was never my intention to free all the slaves," he answered.
Still, Genta ran to the body of the beheaded lead merchant and pulled out the bundle of keys from his belt and threw it at the slaves in the caravan.
One of the slaves looked down at the keys and back at them.
"Thank you," he said as he took up the keys to free himself and the others from their heavy chains.
"Was that necessary?" he asked rhetorically.
The twins looked behind them, straight into the eyes of their liberator, with respect, before kneeling before him.
"What are your names?" he asked.
"Enji," said one,
"Genta," said the other.
"I see; please get up." "You are not my slaves; you are my disciples," he said.
So they both stood up without saying a word.
"My name is Drey Matsumoto, and I thank you for choosing to follow me. "For making this choice, I will give you meaning, purpose, and a right place in the world you despise."
Then came other strange voices from the thick forest.
"Oh great! "Now Master Drey has adopted rugrats for us to babysit, and here I thought this team couldn't possibly get any weirder," one complained.
"You don't have to worry about that, Izuku," assured Drey. "They will be valuable assets to the team, I guarantee."
"Hmm..." hummed a female voice.
"I don't know, Master Drey. "Do you know why they both look like this?" asked Urahara, the female voice.
"I believe their parents may have gotten involved in some forbidden magical alchemy that worked primarily through an equivalent exchange. Perhaps it took one of their eyes in exchange for whatever it is that they were looking for.
Urahara looked confused.
"I'm sorry, Master Drey, but can you elaborate on that?"
"I can't, because I'm not sure exactly what it was their parents were after, but these children are the result of that, and I will help them find out for themselves."
Izuku shook his head, feeling skeptical about his explanation.
"Not to question your knowledge or anything, Master Drey, but how could you tell it came from a forbidden technique like alchemy?"
Drey answered...
"Because it is only forbidden alchemy that works by this principle, and that is why it is a taboo that should not be committed by anyone, as it undermines the value of life." "It's just tragic that these children are the ones suffering the consequences instead of their parents."