It told me, < "It was just my sister and me, but one day a woman and a man came here. They were humans just like you, and they befriended us. We were small, but they were very kind to us. They lied to us. They said we were like their children, but they deceived us." >
< "Why? What happened?" > I asked him, slightly intrigued.
< "When that monster appeared out of nowhere, the two of them sacrificed my sister to save themselves. If they had loved us, they would never have done that. And no! It wasn't a misunderstanding; I saw it with my own eyes." > it told me while holding back its anger.
< "She was innocent and couldn't transform like I can, so she was helpless against nature, and they exploited her weakness and just sacrificed her like that." > it continued.
It went on, < "I didn't see my sister, but I saw the man push her away and try to flee, but then it got him back, and he was caught and eaten while running. Then it chewed on both of them, and I heard my sister's screams coming from the monster's mouth, and suddenly, they stopped out of nowhere. The man's wife tried to help him, but I was small and ran away because I got scared. I think she died too. Since then, I've hated humans because they use others for their own purposes. They only pretend to love you, and when it's time to prove that love, they betray you, and you're left alone." >
< "If that's how you feel about humans, then why are you telling me this?" > I asked him, turning over to face away from him.
< "Not because I trust you, but because I finally want to end that monster, and it can only be done with your help. I don't like the thought either, but I saw how strong you are. That's why I'm asking you, please help me." > and bowed down before me.
I then responded, < "Stand up and never bow before anyone again. No one in this world is worthy enough for you to lower your head to. I'll help you. I don't know why, but I've liked you from the beginning. It feels like I've seen you before. I feel very comfortable around you. But even so, if someone asks me for help, I will help them." >
Then I added, < "No matter how strong and terrifying that monster seems, I came here to become stronger. That means I'll either get stronger and defeat the monster, or I'll die here." >
It then said quietly, < "I don't have any." >
I asked it, < "What don't you have? Balls? Neither do I, but that's not unusual against a monster like that, it's just nor…" >
It interrupted me and said, < "No! I don't have a name." >
< "Oh, that's not a problem. I'll just call you hmm... let me think. What would suit you? Bente! I don't know why, but that was the first thing that came to mind when I was looking for a name for you." > I named it.
< "Call me whatever you want. It's not like it matters to me." > said Bente.
< "Oh, come on. Bente is a cool name; you should thank me." > I said to him as I got closer to him.
< "Don't get so close to me. And what's your name, anyway?" > Bente asked me.
< "Deez," > I replied.
< "Deez? Why are you trying to hold back your laugh?" > Bente asked, annoyed.
Laughing out loud, I told him my real name, < "Just kidding, my name is Jun." >
< "Don't mess with me!" > Bente scolded me.
After that, we slowly got to work.
Bente explained a bit about the island to me, showed me around, and introduced me to a few routes.
In the process, I learned that the place where I had slept was Bente's home.
When I found out, I said to Bente, < "That's really remarkable, it must be fate. Do you believe in fate, Bente?" >
< "No, of course not. That would be like someone sitting somewhere writing all of this. That seems pretty unrealistic to me." > Bente replied.
Then Bente began telling me about his preparations and his plan to defeat the monster.
Bente had spent the last few years preparing, gathering everything needed, and setting it all up.
The only thing he was missing to put his plan into action was another person.
More specifically, a decoy.
That decoy was supposed to be me.
Once my role became clear, Bente thought that our cooperation would end here since no one would willingly play the decoy for this monster.
But instead, I laughed and said to Bente, < "I'll probably shit my pants, but what needs to be done, must be done." >
Bente thought I would expect something in return or that there must be a catch to why I was taking on this role, but I didn't mention anything.
After all the preparations were made and the D-Day arrived to finally take down the monster, I took my position and mentally prepared myself to fulfill my part of the plan.
I took a deep breath and tried to control my fear and excitement.
Then I made loud noises to attract the monster.
As soon as the monster was within my sight, I said, before running to lighten the mood for myself a bit, < "Damn! It gets uglier every day!" >
Despite my supernatural speed since childhood, I was only slightly faster than the monster, and it almost caught me several times.
I lured it right to the trap, which Bente had to activate manually at the right moment.
Once we had it trapped, it was supposed to be burned.
When I finally lured the monster to the trap, Bente activated it in time, surprising the monster and causing it to fall into the trap.
To keep it under control, Bente had produced an excessive amount of sedatives, which he threw all at once onto the monster to knock it out.
Luckily, it worked, and the monster grew calmer until it fell asleep.
Then came the moment when Bente was supposed to set it on fire, but it seemed Bente had other plans.
< "Jun, thanks for your help, but I've changed my mind. I'm going to take control of this monster, and then I'll wipe out humanity. No matter what I do, my thirst for revenge won't lessen, and no matter what I do, I can't get it out of my head how my sister had to suffer, and I'll make you humans suffer for it, just like she did." > Bente explained to me as he stood on the sleeping monster.
I shouted to Bente, < "Bente, don't be foolish, how do you plan to tame this beast? It's not like the others; you should know that better than anyone. Don't do something stupid. Besides, you can't just drag innocent people into this." >
Bente replied, < "You'll see how I tame it, and I don't care about people. Just like they didn't care about my sister. That's why I'll…" > but then the beast woke up and freed itself from the net in a split second.
While Bente just stood there in shock, not expecting the monster to wake up so quickly, I jumped directly to him and saved him at the last second from a blow from the beast.
But I took part of the blow and suffered an injury to my mouth, causing the left side of my jaw to hang loose as my skin was ripped off.
The sedative, which should have sent it into a coma, apparently only gave it a 5-minute nap.
Fueled by adrenaline, I ignored my injury, tore off a piece of cloth that we had used to store the sedatives, and tied it around my head so that my jaw wouldn't hang freely anymore.
< "PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!" > I screamed at Bente, hoping he would snap out of it, but Bente couldn't move a finger because he had already given up on life.
Bente no longer believed that we would survive, and this threw him into a state of shock.
But instead of complaining or giving up, I tried to save us both and, after a failed attempt to escape, was ready to face the beast one-on-one.
But when all seemed lost and Bente and I were on the brink of death, a bright light appeared, and the next thing I saw was that Bente and I were in a strange bed and an unfamiliar place.
Not only had we somehow escaped the monster, but we had also survived and were well taken care of.
Bente seemed to be doing pretty well at first glance, but I had scars all over my body that could have been fatal without treatment.
< "I have to admit, though, these scars looked pretty cool, but I could have done without them." > I said humorously, but it caused me pain, so I decided to stay quiet for now.
Since I couldn't get up yet, Bente wanted to get up and take a look around to see where we were.
But then an old person entered the room, and Bente recognized her at first glance.
It was the wife of the man who had killed Bente's sister.