"Heh~ another hound, this is going to be hard." The figure spoke as he crouched down low, his chin touching the ground as he stared lecherously at Arisu.
"Are you all right, Kazuichi? Sorry for throwing you all of a sudden. I was caught by surprise so I couldn't control my strength." Arisu apologetically said, her eyes filled with worry and anxiousness as the figure contorted its legs and arms while crouching low.
His stare was fixated on Arisu while he licked his lips. "A hound, I've never tasted a hound before... do you taste good? I wonder hihhihi~" The man creepily laughed under his breath as a sinister smile formed on his face. Well, he had been wearing a sinister smile all this time so nothing really changed in his expression.
The figure belonged to a man who seemed to be in his early twenties. He looked like a typical Japanese, except his appendages were so thin that they couldn't be compared to any other humans. While his appendages were like sticks protruding out of his body, his main body was large and it's on the shape of a pear. It didn't look that weird though since he looked like a typical guy experiencing malnutrition. Nevertheless, the way he crouched was creepy, it almost resembled a spider ready to spring up on its prey before it spun its web around it.
'That's gross... is that a human? Do humans look like that nowadays? No, I shouldn't judge. Even though I haven't ventured out of my house, I shouldn't assume that he looks ugly. To be fair, he does look ugly to me, but I don't think Arisu has the same notion. She seemed more nervous than disgusted.' Kazuichi muttered to himself as he gently rubbed his back. A huge bruise ran from the bottom of his spine up to the nape of his neck, thanks to being thrown away by Arisu out of nowhere.
"What do you want?!" Arisu almost blurted out that they didn't want any trouble but she decided not to. Just from one glance alone, Arisu could already conclude that the man was there to hunt them, and negotiations won't be necessary.
The creepy man walked, or rather, ran on all fours as he charged toward Arisu and Kazuichi. Before Arisu could even react in time, the man swiped at her arm with a clean sweeping motion.
Arisu's arm was severed in an instant!
"GAHHH!" Arisu screamed as excruciating pain shot through her head. Blood started spurting from the stump that was left when her forearm was perfectly cut in half. Both she and Kazuichi watch in horror as Arisu's lifeless arm plopped on the ground like a piece of a chicken drumstick.
Out of instinct, Arisu gritted her teeth and clutched her remaining forearm so she could stop the bleeding. It didn't help, and dizziness started to plague her.
...
...
What?!
...
... What just happened?! Kazuichi asked himself as he froze in place. One moment, they were having a leisurely walk together, the next moment, they were attacked by a hybrid who was obviously intent on killing the two of them. 'I... I shouldn't have gone outside... here I was thinking like I had manned up by now, but I'm still a coward. I... I wanna go home. I don't want to die... please, not like this."
In a snap of a finger, Kazuichi's mind was then filled with the memories he had repressed for a long time. They resurfaced in an instant, overwhelming his mind as he stared at Arisu who grunted in pain. He remembered the times when he was bullied and when he was stabbed by his classmates. He remembered the time when his adoptive parents said their final goodbye, only to be met with disaster when their plane crashed. He remembered the sinister smiles that his relatives wore when they tried to take advantage of him.
All his traumas— he remembered all of them.
His atmosphere started clouding up, and his vision blackened as the airways through his lungs constricted. It didn't take long before he gasped, struggling to breathe as his vision blurred. He was slipping into unconsciousness.
At this rate, he was going to die along with Arisu.
"Look at that coward. Is that really your boyfriend, hound? I think you should take a really good look at him. Doesn't he look pathetic? And what's this..."
"... he's not even a HYBRID! HAHHA! Seriously, how can you associate yourself with a lowly human? You're way too behind the times, HOUND!" The man screamed, grabbing Arisu by her hair and pulling her head up. He used an extensive amount of force, causing Arisu's head to snap up as the bones on her neck almost cracked.
SLAP!
Before Arisu could recover from her severed arm, she received a slap on the face, causing her to spit out blood. Helplessly, she stole a glance toward Kazuichi.
"Kazu-ichi... help... m—" Wincing, Arisu tried to call for Kazuichi. However, before she could ask for help, the man slapped her on the face for the second time.
SLAP!
Arisu felt her lips bleeding.
SLAP!
Arisu tasted blood going down her throat. Her face stung.
SLAP!
Arisu was on the verge of losing consciousness. At that brief moment, she happened to see Kazuichi's reaction before her eyes completely closed.
With his pupils dilated in an eerie manner, Kazuichi clutched his throat as he hyperventilated. "Mom... dad..." He muttered as he hoarsely exhaled. "Mom... dad..." He repeated, his grip on his throat tightening as the seconds passed.
"Come on! I thought you're a hound?! Fight back! FIGHT BACK! FIGHT BACK!" The man continued slapping Arisu on the face, adding more force with every slap. He seemed to be enjoying the entire scene, especially the look of Kazuichi as he helplessly watched his girlfriend get beaten up in front of him. "Splendid! The two of you are in total despair! Hahhaha!"
Extending his hands in the air, the creepy man enjoyed beating the living daylights out of Arisu. It was a one-sided fight, but that didn't affect his mercilessness. The more he hit Arisu's face, the more delighted he became.
And in the midst of it all, Kazuichi was losing it, literally.
From the depths of his mind, Kazuichi suddenly remembered a certain memory that he had hidden for a long time. It was a memory he suppressed to the point where he forgot everything that transpired that certain year. It was one of the worst memories that he had cultivated in his childhood and reliving it again in his mind was pure torture.
And yet, at that moment... the memory seemed like an extended hand that reached out to him while he was trapped in a deep dark pit. The hand was warm, and it helped him escape his despair regardless of how twisted and cruel that memory was. Kazuichi reached out to the hand, and the darkness that surrounded him disappeared in an instant.
Click.
...
...
Something in Kazuichi's mind click as he breathed in a lungful of air. There was a knife in his hand... and in front of him was a child, the girl... the girl that tried to stab him.
Unlucky for her, Kazuichi grabbed the knife with his bare hands and proceeded to stab her with it.
She cried.
Mommy. Mommy.
Help me, mommy!
MOMMY!
But Kazuichi kept on stabbing her out of anger. He was angry at the world. The unfairness of it. Kazuichi stabbed and pulled and stabbed and pulled until the cries of the girl were no more. She had fainted, her arms and legs perforated by the knife.
He was angry at everyone.
He was angry at his classmates who cornered him.
He was angry at the girl who brought the knife.
A sigh left Kazuichi's mind as he clutched his head. "Sigh~ this is why I repressed that memory." He muttered to himself.
This time, his scenery changed. In front of him was a man, bullying a woman. He was slapping her again and again and again, without reprieve. He took great satisfaction with every slap he made, and the woman silently cried, begging for help.
With her weakened self, she tried to fight back, but the man pushed him down and continued slapping her face.
"Ahhhhh~ I see..." Kazuichi muttered to himself with his head hung low, almost drooping down from his shoulders as he stagger-walked towards the creepy man. "So you wanted to get slapped?" Kazuichi muttered to himself, grabbing the golf club from his back.
The hybrid man wasn't the least bit scared at the sudden shift in Kazuichi's aura. He was a hybrid. There's no way a human could fight back against him. That's simply ridiculous!
"You think you could hit me with your club, you mere human? I'm a hound! You hear? I'm a—"
WHACK!
Before the creepy hybrid of a man could finish his sentence, Kazuichi swung the golf club in his hand after effortlessly balancing it.
The swing was slow, and yet the man couldn't dodge it despite his speed. A split second later, the man had inadvertently let go of Arisu and he was rolling on the ground, his jaw dislocated from the strike he suffered from the golf club.
"What... how... he's a mere human... he shouldn't be faster than me..." The man muttered to himself. He totally saw the swing of the golf club coming but he couldn't dodge it!
WHACK!
"Were you saying?" Kazuichi monotonously asked as he took a step forward, engaging his core before swinging the golf club a second time.
This time, the man's dislocated jaw flew a couple of feet from where they were, landing on the ground as flesh and blood splattered on its path.
"You were saying something?" Kazuichi repeated, slamming the golf club on the man's face for the third time. Sending a chunk of his cheek flying like a piece of bloody sushi. "Speak. You're a real talkative one, right?" Kazuichi continued, his eyes staring into the soul of the man as if he was looking at a lifeless body of a person.