Beautiful boat
The talk with the old man Hayashi still left me in much confusion. What was the cause of the great white mist a year ago? How did I get so far from my original location? Why and how was I asleep for a whole year in such a grave situation? and finally...The southern region was "taken over"...Reo...Sakura? By..wh..? However, the questions faded away slipped through my head. Was there any point of me wondering such, even after a year?
"Satori, why don't you stay with us and help me do the farming?" Old man Hayashi had disturbed my thoughts at the moment.
"What this guy!?… I expect he's going to live in the barn, right Grandpa?" the grudge girl... I mean, Mai interrupts in a repetitive and arrogant voice.
Upon close inspection, the area was actually really a farm. The place I walked from seemed to be a barn on the opposite side of the house.
"Yeah...sorry, Satori, it seems... wait, Mai, can you not just use your architectural skills and your power as you did for ourselves to craft a suitable house for Satori?" The old man came to a realization, and by that, I failed to notice that all these buildings, every one of them, were manifested by this arrogant girl.
"Satori, I will take a blanket for you, and is a single pillow alright?" Mai being nice for the first time … and with this, the old man's "realization" was ignored.
"Looking forward" to my stay in my new barn, but I wondered, does this not suit a character like my own? Peace alone in the natural world, no disturbances, no arrogant girls, No society to control my very existence and judge my very persona.
Or so I thought...
Every morning was a bucket of water... The farms always needing care. If not done so, it triggered you to go through the beating and nagging of an arrogant girl... The food was hmm...food. The barn was left out in the sun, increasing the kinetic energy of every particle of manure from the very few horses living in it to be gathered around my place of rest. In short, it was not ideal! However, this all was also a natural movement of matter. As frustrating it was to state at the time.
Three months had passed I felt I was what you would call a farming master, the greatest farmer out there! NOT! what is this life? , three months of me following civilizations ways of life.
In these three months, I also noticed a few changes. My stamina had seemed to increase, my muscle mass, also in the same way. Well, it has not really increased by much, but I was not scrawny no longer; I was just about above average.
"Satori, come here, my child..." as I was working on the farm digging out sweet corn and harvesting wheat, I was called by none other than old man Hayashi.
He sat me down and talked to me for the first time in a much more proper manner than he usually does. "Satori, I don't have much time, you see I am getting old as you can see, hahaha" The laugh was way too awkward as I was not following on to what was the "Joke" in this scenario. However, the statement was nothing but fact. I could state no opinion on it as time is a concept that brings forth the movement of countless masses under its laws.
"You see, Sumiko is still ten years old and Mai at age sixteen; their parents had left them not too long ago during the first conflict after the great white mist, and they left me to look after them both." the serious atmosphere did not halt. Still, it intensified as the old man was further getting into it. I could do nothing but offer my ears at that moment...
"My son in law was sent to a camp to train and assess his abilities by a group we call "the dark army". Upon the showing of his ability, he was massacred on the spot, was what I learned from my only daughter who witnessed the same." Mai and Sumiko's parents were mentioned by the old man, and the atmosphere became colder and colder...
"The dark army, you see, Is one of the strongest, and I predict that one day, they will take over this world. The main reason is their leader whose powers, is said to be so deadly and godly that naturally, people around yielded to serve out of fear."
"To further add on, he has been looking for the strongest ability users to add to his army, to fasten his process of taking over the new age...his name is..." The biggest shock was yet to come...
I thought to myself, can the natural movement of matter comfort me in this harsh reality...
"Reo Uchida, "The Dark God" as people like to call him"...
Silence in the room...
"Satori, that face your making what?..." the old man was probably bewildered by my expression as it was, an expression I had never shown before... but I laughed, I laughed to myself...why did I do so?
"Having said that, Satori, I Hope you can protect them two and all three of you can live a full, quiet, and peaceful life, sorry for being such a useless old man, sorry..." the old man was in tears. However, I was still in a moment of shock. Everything I built up, the very micro signs of life in me, faded away these last three months seriously. What were they for? Why did I spend my time here doing something such as farming? Oh, and I happened to forget I am also one of the so-called victims in this world.
I left the house, and the discussion was ended as I walked out of the house, I was approached by Sumiko "Big brother! Big brother!" I wondered to myself, "big brother", how so? We were not biologically related, nor were we under "legal" obligation to do so, and yet I'm being called it.
"Sumiko... why do you call me big brother?" I naturally asked in my confusion towards the ten years old Sumiko.
"because your my big brother and also my future brother-in-law like grandpa said, hehe," she stated in her cheerful mood with her same jolly persona.
These simple acts of considering people as family in such a world where your real family was either massacred to me felt like an act of desperation to find peace, to find happiness. As twisted as I may sound after witnessing this world's harsh reality, these were my thoughts upon the matter.
"Hey, Sumiko, enough with that!" Mai, the sixteen-year-old, former arrogant girl in such a small time frame she had changed. Now instead of anger, she feels embarrassment towards most words.
"Satori, we need more firewood for the evening. I also need your manpower to carry the firewood, so please come along if you can." Mai had explained in reality. I could see she was showing symptoms of embarrassment, a bright red face, words that jumbled up. Is it because of who she thought was as weak as me, and how she treated me does she feel regret in her actions, I wondered?
I wanted just to go back to those days before the white mi... Reo.. this was my last thought before...
horses sounding at a distance a small army of men from the distance heading this way to the direction of our farm...
Hayashi and his two granddaughters were also able to stay hidden for the past year due to living on the edge of a deserted terrain that proved no use nor interest to acquire by any sovereign power. I think Hayashi always knew this day would come and that his escape would be futile, so that's what his words were mainly telling me. To forget him and move on with his two granddaughters.
I feel the day I showed up showed Hayashi hope that he can leave in peace. It triggered my frustration, not the fact I was used as a pawn for his relief but his loss of will towards this new world.
"Satori, get grandpa, and let's go right now! I will use my wood architectural skill to craft a giant barrier between us. Meanwhile, you Sumiko and grandpa should make a break for it while I stall the enemy, ok!?" In that desperate moment, Mai had already schemed her plan.
"No, sister, I want to live together with everyone! I don't want you to leave. Please don't leave me!" The little voice of Sumiko rises for the first time.
I was frustrated. Why are these individuals who I only interacted with three months acting like I have been their eternal family?
"Not any of you...not any..." I failed to speak at first, having re-discovered my near-empty self, "NOT ANY OF YOU GET TO DECIDE MY FATE!" these words were much opposite towards my personality, but they were needed at the time...
I swiftly grabbed the oil canister and covered the nearby area with it creating a barricade away from both Sumiko and Mai. "What are you planning? What is this? Satori, this is not like you!" Mai's voice in the background I ignore with great determination in my current actions the nearby torch I used to light the trail of oil, creating a flame barricade between the sisters and me.
"Why, Satori, Why!" Mai's voice in tears of sadness
"Take Sumiko and craft a boat to escape using the open sea. You have no choice in the matter, as it's your only way out."
"also.."
"If you stay any longer, all that will be left is despair. If you value Sumiko's life and future, then get the hell out of here!" again, all words that are unlike me.
"Your too cruel, your too cruel, Satori!" Mai is in tears while having no choice but to escape from the island with Sumiko in hand.
Sumiko, being young, refuses to go and tries to hold Mai back. "No, I don't want to, I don't want to let go! Let go! Let go, sis! Grandpa and Satori are going to die!"
As they leave, I thought to myself and realized Mai's crafting is remarkable, an outstanding performance of beauty just as the boat I saw her leave in.
My next act was simple: to face this new threat head-on, ignoring what the old man wanted. I will not follow his wishes. I want to join him.
But to my distraction, an individual of the heading army already arrived, and the old man...grandpa, was on the floor in front of me with several stabs to the heart.
Also... my hand was severed before I knew it; the symmetry of my two arms was no longer there...one missing and slashed to bits so fast...that it felt like a bolt of thunder.
The pain was not there... until it was...
I felt pain...
I hated it. I hated it. I hated it. I screamed in pain for the first time in my life...
Who was the slasher, and how can they be this powerful? What was this army? ...The dark army? Is there any point in thinking about this upon my designated death...
-do you believe?-
To be Continued in the Next Chapter...