As Kazuki raced through the shadowed streets, his frantic footsteps echoing in the stillness of the night, he collided with an unexpected obstacle, sending both him and the other person tumbling to the ground in a tangled heap.
As he scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding with adrenaline, Kazuki's eyes widened in disbelief as he beheld the figure before him—it was Arashi, the hesitant boy from earlier. "A-Arashi?" he stammered, his voice tinged with both surprise and relief.
Arashi, too, looked up in astonishment, his eyes widening as recognition dawned. "It's you again? Kazuki, right? How do you know my name?" he queried, his brow furrowing in confusion.
Realizing he had no time to explain, Kazuki brushed off the question with a quick wave of his hand. "Oh, well, when—wait, that's not important! Nice to see you again, but I've got to go!" he exclaimed, his urgency palpable as he scrambled to gather his fallen belongings.
But as he reached for the blood-soaked knife, dread coiled in the pit of his stomach, his heart sinking like a stone. The weapon lay at Arashi's feet, its blade gleaming ominously in the faint moonlight, a silent testament to the horrors that had unfolded just moments before.
"I-Is that... a knife?" Arashi's voice trembled with uncertainty, his eyes darting between Kazuki and the ominous weapon at his feet. "W-What is that on it? Speaking of which, what's on your face? It's kinda dark out here, so I can't see, but there's something on your face," he continued, his tone tinged with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.
Caught in the tangled web of his own deception, Kazuki's mind raced as he searched for a plausible explanation. But as he met Arashi's gaze, the weight of his guilt threatened to consume him, leaving him teetering on the brink of revelation and ruin.
As Kazuki stood before Arashi, his mind raced with frantic desperation as he struggled to concoct a plausible explanation for the blood-stained knife and the haunting shadows that danced across his features. His eyes darted nervously, betraying the turmoil that churned within him as he scraped his thoughts for an excuse.
"I... um... It's just..." Kazuki's voice faltered, his words trailing off into uncertainty as he grasped for a semblance of coherence. With trembling hands, he snatched up the knife and hastily stuffed it into his bag, his actions betraying the facade of composure he sought to maintain. "Don't worry about it!" he insisted, his forced smile a feeble attempt to assuage Arashi's mounting concerns.
But even as he turned to leave, Kazuki's heart ached with a profound sense of gratitude towards the one person who had shown him a glimmer of kindness in a world filled with cruelty. "Hey, this might be the last time I ever see you, so I'll say this," he began, his voice tinged with sincerity as he addressed Arashi. "You're the only person who has ever done anything remotely nice to me. Thank you," he said, his words laden with genuine appreciation as he offered a grateful grin before making his departure.
But as Kazuki turned to leave, Arashi's hesitance stopped him in his tracks, his heart skipping a beat as he faced the unwavering gaze of the boy before him. "Kazuki, are you okay?" Arashi's voice was gentle, filled with a genuine concern that pierced through the layers of Kazuki's defenses.
Slightly turning back to face Arashi, Kazuki found himself unable to ignore the bombshell of a question . "I don't mean right now," Arashi continued, his voice gentle yet insistent, "you're acting weird, yeah, but I mean in general. Are you okay?"
For a moment, Kazuki was frozen in place, his mind racing with a torrent of conflicting emotions. Arashi's words struck a chord within him, awakening a longing for understanding and compassion that had long lain dormant within his fractured soul. And as tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, threatening to spill forth in a torrent of emotion, Kazuki felt a dam within him begin to crack, the weight of his loneliness and despair threatening to overwhelm him.
"You wouldn't understand... No one understands," Kazuki's voice was barely a whisper, choked with the weight of his unspoken pain as he struggled to contain the flood of emotions that threatened to consume him whole. In that moment of vulnerability, he longed for nothing more than to pour his heart out to Arashi, to find solace in the warmth of another's understanding.
Suddenly a voice shattered the fragile semblance of peace that had settled between Kazuki and Arashi, both boys froze in place, their hearts seizing with dread as they turned to face the source of the venomous words. "Are you stupid? Of course nobody understands you!" It was Erion, one of the tormentors who had plagued Kazuki's existence with his relentless cruelty.
"Erion? What are you doing here? I told you—" Arashi's voice faltered as he attempted to intervene, but he was swiftly cut off by the venomous tirade that spilled from Erion's lips like poison.
"Nobody could ever understand a demon like you, Kazuki 'Demon Child' Akuma," Erion's voice dripped with disdain, each word a cruel reminder of the stigma that had shadowed Kazuki's every step since birth. With calculated malice, he strode toward Kazuki, his eyes gleaming with malicious intent.
"Seriously, you should just die already," Erion's words lashed out like a whip, each syllable dripping with contempt and scorn. "You're nothing but a burden to everyone else, just ask your parents!"
As the weight of Erion's cruelty bore down upon him, Kazuki's resolve crumbled like sand slipping through his fingers. Tears streamed down his face, silent witnesses to the pain and despair that threatened to consume him whole. In the darkness of the night, his anguish went unseen, hidden beneath a veil of shadows that mirrored the darkness within his own soul.
And as Erion's words echoed in the stillness of the night, Kazuki stood rooted to the spot, his heart heavy with the crushing weight of his own self-loathing. In that moment of profound vulnerability, he longed for nothing more than to disappear, to escape the relentless torment that had become his daily reality.
As Erion's hand closed around Kazuki's shoulder, a shiver of revulsion coursed through him, his skin crawling at the touch of his tormentor. The whispered words cut through the air like a knife, their insidious tendrils worming their way into the depths of Kazuki's fractured psyche. For a fleeting moment, the darkness threatened to engulf him, the allure of escape beckoning like a siren's call.
But as quickly as the temptation came, Kazuki's resolve hardened, a fire igniting within him as he swatted Erion's hand away with a violent gesture, his eyes blazing with a fierce determination. With a swift kick, he sent Erion sprawling to the ground, the impact reverberating through the stillness of the night.
"S-Shut up! What do you know about me?" Kazuki's voice rang out, raw with emotion, each word a searing indictment of the injustices he had endured. "Since birth, I've been treated like shit, and for what!? Just because my hair is a little different?! Because my eyes are a little different?! Because I like smiling?!" His voice cracked with pent-up rage, the weight of years of oppression bearing down upon him like a suffocating blanket.
"I've done nothing to you people, but all you do is hate me!" Kazuki's words echoed in the silence, the bitter truth of his existence laid bare for all to see. "I'm tired, I'm tired of being treated like this. I AM A GOOD PERSON!"
But as the echoes of his declaration faded into the night, a sudden wail pierced the silence, the shrill sound of a siren blaring in the distance. Panic seized Kazuki's heart as he realized the implications of the piercing alarm—a storm was brewing, and he was at its epicenter.
As if in response to the impending chaos, a voice boomed through the streets of Rinera, its words carrying on the wind like a harbinger of doom. "Attention, residents of Rinera!" The voice, amplified by some unseen force, reverberated throughout the lower-class district, its message chilling in its clarity.
"Ladies and gentlemen of Rinera," the voice boomed, its words echoing off the walls of the narrow alleyways and crowded tenements. "It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Akuma have been discovered, brutally murdered in their own home. Kazuki Akuma is now a prime suspect in their deaths. A manhunt is underway to apprehend him. I repeat, a manhunt for Kazuki Akuma is underway."