My mind was so clouded by the anger that swirled inside me. My body felt hot and heavy like every movement was deliberate and difficult. I instinctively knew that what was happening had to be, and I accepted it. Willingly.
The truth that I had accepted for most of my life was proved false and my whole world was crumbling down. I couldn't trust any of the memories that I had made with Obaa—
I couldn't trust any memories that I had made with that vile, evil woman.
Before I really knew what was happening, I realised that I had grabbed her throat and had the strength to easily lift her up off the ground.
Incredibly, she still chuckled through the chokehold at the question I had asked.
I tightened my grip.
"Oy…" she wheezed out. "…oioi, how can I answer you if you kill me right now."
I loosened my grip. Ever so slightly.
That leeway was enough for her to answer.
"Old Saizo-kun. Always bogged down with his morality and ethics." Some blood dripped out of her mouth as she grinned at me.
I was shocked at how frivolous she was acting.
"Because of that, I never really trusted him. What would happen if his guilt grew too big that he decides to rat me out?" She growled out.
"Did he have anything to do with what happened to my family that night?" I grew from a chilling, calm voice to a near-scream.
"Not…really," she chuckled cruelly.
Her laughter suddenly stopped when I tightened my grip on her throat once more. She started to beg me to loosen my grip, but in the heat of the moment, I didn't hear her. The wrath that I was experiencing completely took over my whole body.
It wasn't until I saw her eyes had started to roll back that I realised that I went too far and dropped her to the ground.
Her body fell loudly and she gasped desperately for air.
"Answer clearly," I threatened. My own voice scared me, but I tried not to show it, "was Saizo part of my parents' deaths?"
I could see a visible shiver from her, before she finally answered, "no…he didn't know about the kill order."
I could feel a sense of relief wash over me, but that relief was cool and the heat from my wrath overpowered it quickly, "good."
"But he was there that night." She quickly added after she realised that my intensity had reduced, "he was going to keep watch outside thinking it was just a shakedown job, but when Mobito attacked your father, he quickly caught on."
An even colder dread started to counteract my wrath, "he was there?"
Her voice croaked as she chuckled at my shock, "he was the one who ended up saving you!" she looked like she was reminiscing about a fond memory, "he was so shocked at the true nature of the job. He tried to save your parents, but it was already too late."
I had taken a step back away from her at this point. "He didn't tell anybody?"
"Tell anybody, like the authorities?" she half coughed, half laughed, "do you think he would rat on the ones who saved his life so many times before?"
My vision fogged up at that point. The hot wrath swirled around inside me, mixed with shock and disbelief. It felt like it needed an outlet, but I was too preoccupied with the mind-blowing, earth-shattering truth that I was just told.
"Do you know how dangerous it is to be an adventurer? Saizo would do nearly anything for those two." She continued.
"No," I mumbled.
"That's why it was never solved."
"No, you're lying."
THWACK! The shock and dull pain snapped me out of my fogginess. I could feel a cool, wet trickle of blood start to run down my forehead from where she had struck me with her staff. My vision cleared and I could see her in front of me in a defensive stance. She grabbed her stick and attacked me while I was in shock.
"What the hell?" she mumbled. She swung her weapon at me once more, but this time, I managed to block it with my left arm. The staff broke in half from the impact, and with her weapon finally broken, she probably lost her Strength buff.
My mind started going fuzzy again, but not from confusion or shock. The warmth that I had been feeling in my left arm all this time started to spread through my whole body, and when it reached my head, it felt like a warm embrace. It felt like somebody you trust covering your eyes softly.
I could hear her breathing heavily as she realised that she couldn't overpower me anymore, especially since the Strength buff that she relied on had disappeared. She started whimpering.
"What's wrong with your arm?"
As she started trying to back away, I looked at my left arm. Even in the low light in the abandoned orphanage, I could see that my left arm had transformed. It changed to a deep, dark grey colour and the once-mottled pattern on the arm now resembled something like scales. My fingers had elongated and changed form to something that looked like thin but deadly talons.
Before I realised it, I followed her movements and kept her within arm's length until she backed herself up into the corner. When I answered her question, I couldn't feel or hear any fear in my voice. It was as if everything was normal.
"I don't know."
I grabbed her by the throat and pivoted on my heel and threw her out of the room. She struck a door frame with her shoulder and one side of her back and it broke in two as she hit the floor a metre away.
I took calm, deliberate steps as I made my way to her. She was gasping for air and I could tell that at least a few of her ribs had been broken from the strong impact.
A Window popped up in front of me as my vision started to blur, and the darkness started to encroach the corners of my vision. Only the Window was clear.
It wasn't a normal Window though. Instead of the usual dark-turquoise colour of the Paradigm Windows, there was a slight tinge of maroon mixed in. It brought out the text of the message even clearer, and even through the heavily glitched writing, I understood what it said perfectly.
[Ḇ̴̢̤͈̻̟͉̅̀̎̚L̴̢̛̛̠̭̩̫̲̉͌̌̚e̶̡̨̟̙͕͒ͅe̸̩̮̱̠̩̲̓̐͛d̸̫̲͖̹́̉ͅ ̶̛̫̟̀̋̈̐͝͝H̷̡̘̘͚̺͓̰̋̂͛ę̸̡̯̘̃͘͠R̵̼̹̱̙̦̣̮̉]
The System wanted me to bleed her.
A wave of Windows started to appear and cover my whole vision. All saying the same thing. I don't know where these prompts came from, but at this point, as I welcomed the darkness that was taking me away from the orphanage and the awful truths that I had uncovered here, I shrugged as I answered the Windows out loud.
"Okay."