In the dead of night, just before sunrise, everyone was tucked into their thin blankets and lying on their skimpy mattresses across the desolate town.
But somebody arose, raising only his upper body first. Mahito stared around the room at his sleeping family.
Kouta had passed out earlier and slept like a dead body, and Liane and Gerald had hit the hay, with Gerald emitting an audible snore.
As Mahito verified the sleep state of everyone, he slowly slid out of his sheets, standing to his feet on the wooden floor.
Mahito quietly dug into his trousers. He withdrew his hand from the drawstring and raised an item into the air.
He dug into his trousers and pulled out something he'd been hiding—a small wooden knife he'd stolen from his father's curio shop. He held it up, inspecting the smooth grooves with both his eyes and fingers, a glint of excitement flickering in his gaze.
Lowering his arms to his sides, he inspected the coast once more and slowly tiptoed toward the open doorframe.
Each step was exaggerated as he raised his legs chest-high. Mahito had to selectively step on boards; otherwise, they would creak loudly, and he wouldn't want anyone questioning what he was doing now because he had no excuse.
His path to the door was unimpeded, and on the last step, he launched himself out of the door onto the city's stone-cracked streets.
As he crouched, a wide smile crept onto his face, his eyes alight with mischief. The night breeze ruffled his hair, and the dark clouds rolling through the smoky, starlit sky cast eerie shadows on the town.
For the first time, he was outside alone. The stillness of the night stirred a mix of excitement and trepidation in him. What should he do? What should he explore?
Both directions down the street were deserted, with only the occasional scurrying of rats breaking the silence. Mahito chose the right path, skipping lightly, his eyes scanning the buildings and the fading moon.
He had intentions of finding a certain group; he didn't quite have a definite lead, but he thought he'd find something before everybody awoke from their huts.
He peered into alleyways, sometimes glancing into homes where people lay fast asleep. With each house he checked, his frustration grew. Time was slipping away, and he wouldn't be able to sneak back into bed unnoticed.
Each house frustrated Mahito a bit more as it was taking a long time, and he wouldn't be home in time to sneak into his bedsheets again.
As dawn began to break, Mahito dragged his wooden knife along the ground, his head hanging low. Defeat weighed on him as he turned toward home, the rising sun lighting his path.
He hadn't found them and was now on his way home again before everybody woke up.
"Hehehuh! And did you see when I punched him and he slid back like 1,000 feet?"
Jolly cheers and laughs erupted right in front of him. His head originally hung low, raised alongside his eyebrows, and his mouth agape. Were they coming this way?
A burst of laughter echoed ahead, making Mahito stop in his tracks. His head, which had been drooping, snapped up. The voices were familiar.
The big one was directly in the middle, and all his lackeys spread like a web behind and beside him.
As Mahito's eyes widened, he couldn't control himself as he breathed through his mouth in a static spree. Slowly raising his knife, he kicked the blunt edge of it for no apparent reason.
As they approached, the big kid looked ahead, squinting his eyes at the sound of bare feet clasping against both stone and dirt.
The waving of blue hair caused him to question reality as he spoke the fatal words.
"Hey, isn't that the kid from that curio stand?"
All the other kids, totaling five beside him, looked ahead, squinting their eyes in unison as they saw the running Mahito, his small body a mockery.
Everybody laughed in unison as one of the lackeys, the skinniest of them all, was especially confident and giddy as he stepped forward.
"Oh, boss, should we shave his head and leave some at his family's door like a bouquet?"
Some of them chuckled as the skinny one looked back at the big boy, but his laugh was a little more reserved.
"Hmmm, yeah, yeah, but what does he have in his hand?"
As the skinny one looked ahead, he was the closest and only a couple of feet away from Mahito. It took him a while to analyze exactly what the latter was holding as he muttered under his breath, "A wooden knife?"
*Twoosh*
Mahito leaped from where he ran like a long jumper; he reached an amazing height and distance considering where he jumped from toward the skinny boy.
His hips reached the boy's head, and the boy, instead of his confidence, showed a bit of fear as he looked up at Mahito, his eyes widening as he took a step back, second-guessing his approach.
But it was too late as Mahito reeled back his blunted wooden knife like a slingshot, bringing it forward and placing it between the boy's eyebrows.
*Thump*
The skinny boy was knocked over as Mahito pelted him on his way down until he landed on his back.
"Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
The boy's defense was short-lived; Mahito struck him so quickly and powerfully that he couldn't even raise his hands to block his face.
All the other kids reeled back in shock at Mahito's assault. He was so little, but they were afraid; they had never met someone so adamant to attack them.
The big boy reeled back in shock as the skinny boy was unconscious, stuttering under his breath.
"Is he smiling?"
while the attack was occurring both the commotion and rising sun caused people to exit their homes, and whilst this was happening a certain household a street corner away was awakening