If I had not saved her, would I still have a peaceful life?
Would I still be under constant pressure to be normal, inconspicuous even? Is it wrong of me to let that happen to her; letting that man do whatever he wished?
...
If it weren't for her, I would have been living the same boring days I lived long before....
But, why?
Why did I rescued her that time? What was going through my mind?
....
It happened so fast, yet I remembered vividly.
That night was my seventeenth birthday. I left the mansion to do my usual evening stroll around the city, looking for something to practice my power without attracting unwanted attention.
The blue moon is high without clouds obscuring it's vision. The city lights is bright enough to overpower the stars and the noise of traffic piercing the ears. The summer air is fuming and it's hard to breathe.
I went to my usual route to Dialove Alley, a place that is hardly seen by vibrant onlookers and tourists; a place that is connected to the slums and the city's underbelly.
After I arrived to the entrance, the same putrid odor invaded my senses. The smell of iron, gas and rust overpowered me and my heart began to race in excitement and anticipation.
A malicious smile slowly spread across my face.
"I wonder what I'll find...."
I walk down the path as it head downward, spiraling towards the hell that the average people fear most.
As I walk, the city lights began to dim and disappear, the traffic noise slowly fade and the aroma grows stronger, causing my senses to increase into pure joy.
Two hours pass by in a blink of an eye.
I arrived to my destination.
The area is off limits to outsiders because of the crimes committed. However, the government did not care in the slightest and let the rats do whatever they wanted.
Dialove Alley is rundown and the street crooked. The street is jagged and in disarray, covered in glass and wine bottles. The walls of the buildings is stained with vomit and covered in graffiti. The windows are broken and the doors hanging on the hinges. There is no one normal here but a few who led unfortunate lives. The homeless lay on the side, clearly in their final stages and ready to depart to the dead.
I walk down the street with a expressionless face, looking for my target.
I came to an intersection and turned right.
I found a interesting shop. The shudders is closed but the door is wide open. Two people came out with a shocked face, as if saw something terrifying. They both carry items that clearly did not belong to them. They saw my face and shiver.
"W-we did not do anything!"
"We a-a-are just passing through!"
They scurry along like rats from the sewers into the shadows to a nearby alley.
"Fascinating..."
I say those words quietly.
I walk to the building and step inside.
The empty shelves is apparent and few knocked over. The floors is covered in dirt and feces. On the concrete walls is holes and old propaganda posters. I survey the area and came to a realization that the holes in the walls is from not to long ago, but a few minutes before I came here. In fact, I still feel a hint of power lingering, as if the one who did this is still here.
"Tch..."
I was about to leave when suddenly, I smell something sweet. Something thick like syrup and liquid iron.
Blood.
"Irk!"
A shock is sent up my spine and my senses peaked. Euphoria overpowered my mind and I began to shake.
"I might as well."
*Bump!*
A sound broke in the darkness.
It's coming from the upstairs.
Being overrun by my instincts, I ran up the stairs and went to the nearby room with the door closed.
With my strength, I open the door in full force.
My eyes flash wide and narrowed.
He was on top of her.
She has a pained expression and tears run down her eyes.
"Hey! What are you doing!" yelled the old man, "Close the door and get out!"
He looked no more than fifty years old. He looks homeless. How dull.
"Did you not hear me?! Get the hell out!"
I broke into laughter. A blood-chilling laugh.
He got up to his feet and glare at me.
The young lady who looks around my age drag herself to a corner and hide behind the bedside. She must have sense danger.
"What's so funny?" asked the man.
"You'll do."
"Stupid kid! Get lost!"
He pull out a knife and launch himself at me.
He's aiming for my chest.
I dodge to the side. I grab him by the neck and throw him to the wall.
"Aaag!"
I launched at him and was about to pierce his heart when he did something unexpected.
"Take this!" he screamed.
"?!"
A blast of purple light escape his hands that was aimed to my face. High pain and blindness invaded my vision.
I flew back and hit the wall behind me. I collapsed to the ground.
"Hahahaha, did not expect that did ya?! That is what you get!"
Fury boiled in my heart like a tiger escaping it's cage.
I just wanted something to practice my might. Am I about to lose to him?
"Hahaha-Eh?"
He suddenly stopped laughing and noticed something odd.
"What the hell? What's wrong with ya?"
My blood began to boil as magma as I got up to my feet. Red rays escape my body and pain surge through me as blood pour out of my pores.
I gaze at him furiously though my blood red eyes that is glowing ominously.
I want to kill him!
Sensing danger, he quickly scream and head for the door.
"Aaaaaaaaaa! Someone save me!"
I raise my hand and a whip of blood painfully escape from my hand and grapple him by the neck. Steam rise from it and burn marks seared on his exposed flesh.
"Ak!"
I slammed him to the wall and approach him slowly.
I want to destroy him!
"Let me go you devil!"
He struggle to release himself from it, but it is only met with severe pain. His hand sizzles and the smell of burnt flesh escapes into the air.
"Aaaaag!"
I approach him and met him eye to eye.
"Does it hurt?" I ask him.
I said this as I lift up his shirt and touch his chest with the top of my index finger.
He winsed.
"You freak! I'll kill you!" he yelled.
I smiled at him wickedly and scoffed.
"You say that now, but you can't use you power, can you?"
His eyes flashed open in fear.
"Now, go to hell you, leech."
Once I said those words, Blood pour out of him like water, as if a sink is turned on.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!"
A blood-curdling scream escape from him. His corpse is nothing but drained of his blood. It dried up as a raisin and is limp like a dead animal.
Disgusting.
I let go and let it fall to the floor. The heat of the blood subsides as my anger cooled. It slowly dissolve like mist after the rain.
"How you do that?"
Damn, I forgot about her.
I turn to her and glared.
She looks around sixteen or seventeen years of age. Her vibrant gray eyes stare at me in wonder. She is not afraid of me in the slightest.
I sigh and took of my jacket and give it to her. "Wear this and head home. Don't bother returning it."
She ignores me and come closer. I step back.
"I sense no magic in you. Yet, you can use it. How you do it? Answer me."
Her eyes is cold. Cold enough to send me chills.
I am already not liking her. At all.
"Can you drop it? Take it. I'm going home."
I toss the jacket to her and turn to leave.
"Isao Hirose."
I stop dead in my tracks.
How the hell...
"It's dark. You can see, can you? Animal...."
I felt a sharp touch on the side of my neck.
She breath to my ear and spoke.
"If you don't answer me, I will kill you. Monster...."
That voice, it sounds familiar.
"I'll talk. Can you put the knife down?"
"You won't kill me?"
"No."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
After a brief moment of silence, she free me. I look at her.
....
Of all things, why does it have to be her?
"Rika Matsushima. Why are you here?"
This beauty queen should not be here. Yet, here she is.
"That's what I like to know."
Her cold voice echo throughout the room.
Even though it is dark, I can see her as if it's daylight out. Her dyed lavender hair is messy and her pale skin covered in dirt. Her gray eyes had never showed kindness to anyone.
Her lean and slender frame hold a terrifying magical power. I really do not want to face it.
Not because I'm afraid, but because she is of a famous and wealthy family. If they found their daughter not being able to use her power, she'll tell them it was me. I hate to go through the hassle.
"Well? Talk."
I sigh and open my mouth.
"It's a Curse."
"A Curse?"
"It's different, a alternative."
"...I see... you are one of them. The Cursed Bloods..."
After that, she became a thorn in my eye.