"Liwei! Liwei! Wake up, Liwei."
A familiar, gentle voice echoed in Liwei's ears as he felt her chilly hands softly patting his face that coated with blood, feeling nothing but numbness throughout his body.
The heat from the blazing fire burned his skin, making the air thick and suffocating. The village he once called home got engulfed in roaring flames, and the scent of burning wood and charred remains clawed at his throat. Groans, cries, and pleading voices resonated over the crackle of fire and the clamor of gunshots.
It's a fleeting faint sound that pierced through the fog of his mind. It was as if the world around him was falling apart.
Liwei tried to open his eyes, but the brightness of the flames only blurred his vision. And again, the trembling voice of a woman full of worry, calling out his name in desperation, rang in his ear. He turned his gaze beside him and saw a woman with blue hair, identical to his own, and eyes like the color of a deep ocean. But those eyes quivered in fear, and tears streaked down her face as she called out his name.
"Liwei... wake up. You can't die here, not like this. Please!"
He wanted to speak, but his voice caught in his throat. His body felt cold, numb. A blood continues to drip from the wound in his side, pooling beneath him, and his strength draining away little by little. Every inch of his being screamed for him to stay awake to reassure the woman who's clinging to him.
With a little energy left, Liwei reached out to her. His hand trembled as it brushed against her face, wiping away the tears she hadn't even realized streaming down.
A faint smile tugged at his lips as his vision blurred once again. He felt his hand slip and body going limp as the world around him faded to black.
"Liwei! Come on, wake up, man!"
A man's voice echoed in his ear. It was kind of rough and urgent, not the soft, desperate cry of the woman from before. It's filled with annoyance, maybe even a hint of confusion.
Amidst the confusion from the noise, Liwei jolted when he felt a sudden sharp splash of cold water against his face, dragging him back to reality. His eyes shot open, but the scene before him wasn't the burning village or the woman in tears. The place was dark, cramped, and if he wasn't mistaken—stench-ridden.
"I guess he's alive." Another voice of a man said, sounded dismissive and almost bored. "You really beat the hell out of him, didn't you?"
"Not my fault, man." A man from behind chimed in as the sound of his boots scraping on wet pavement resonated. "We only just touched him. He's just a weakling."
Upon realizing the situation, Liwei's senses flooded back to him all at once. The striking pain in his stomach along with the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, and the dampness of cold water on his skin made him realized the cruel reality he was already facing in the hand of those men.
He blinked twice and tried to focus, roaming his gaze around the area. But he finds himself in a narrow, filthy alley somewhere in Gray District. The harsh glow of distant streetlights flickered at the alley's end, but they did little to cut through the oppressive darkness. The air was thick, and the stench of rotting garbage goes along with it as the rats scurried in the shadows.
He tried to push himself up, but his limbs felt like a lead. The earlier beatings had broken and bruised his body. The pain surged, threatening to overwhelm him again, but he fought against it, unwilling to sink back into unconsciousness twice.
"Gray District is my turf, do you hear me?" A voice snarled from above him. Liwei looked up and see a man, wearing a plain black hoodie, looking down at him with a cocky, sneering expression. His eyes were cold, his face hardened by years on these streets. There's also a distinctive tattoo of a black snake coiled around his neck. "Don't mess with my territory ever again, okay?"
Liwei wanted to respond, but his throat was dry, his breath ragged.
As his gaze flickered to the men surrounding him, he couldn't help to feel hostile. They're thugs through and through, the kind that ruled this crumbling district—people who didn't hesitate to stomp out any threat. They were just as indifferent to pain as they were to life.
"Look at this," the man behind the leader muttered with a grin, counting a thick stack of money. "This guy took more than we do in a day."
"Yeah," another man chimed in. "Maybe we should recruit him to the group. He got the skills."
The leader snorted, turning away. "You think he's worth the trouble?" He kicked Liwei's side, causing the young man to gasp in pain. "He's a joke. I've seen more life in a corpse. Besides, who would recruit someone who passed out in a simple beating? He's such a weakling lad."
Liwei groaned as he tried to sit upright, but his head was too heavy to keep up. Even his thoughts seem hazy, trying to make sense of what was happening around him. His body screamed for rest, but his mind was still alive with questions. Sure, he went to their turf to do his deeds, but to ask himself, 'Why was he here? How did they get him?' still lingered in his mind.
He glanced at those men bickering around and talking about "recruiting" him, but their words were kinda like a twisted form of humor in his ear. If he could just laughed right now, he will do it.
Amidst their nonsense conversation, they got interrupted by the sudden appearance of an unknown voice that caught their attention.
"G-Guys!" a man gasped as he stumbled into the alley. His breath became ragged and fearful while holding onto his knees. "T-the red shinigami... they're coming for us... W-we need to get out, now!"
"Red shinigami?" The leader scowled, his eyes narrowing as he flicked his gaze to Liwei. "Why is he looking for us? Is this kid part of their group? Did you call a backup, Liwei?"
"I-I think it's about another matter. I hear from my source that one of our members targeted his friend. We should get out of here before they come." The man who came said.
"D*mn. It's the last thing we need to encounter right now." The leader said, sneering at Liwei.
In a split of second, Liwei felt himself being lifted by his hair. His neck screamed in protest as the thug yanked him in his stomach by his feet. A loud gasped left in Liwei's mouth as he fell on the ground, holding onto his aching stomach. Through half-lidded eyes, Liwei glanced to those men surrounding him. Some of them were already running away from the alley, but others remained along with their leader, who's still standing in front of him.
"You're lucky," the leader muttered, his eyes glinting with menace. "We're leaving, but this isn't over yet."
After saying those words, the men turned and fled into the night, leaving Liwei on the cold, wet ground with his body shaking from the blows and the chill. He couldn't even find the strength to fight back as his hands dug into the grimy cobblestones.
The air around him stank, and the eerie silence was almost as suffocating as the pain.
When he thought everything was over, Liwei heard another footstep. Unlike the loud stomping of those men's feet from earlier, the footsteps coming by were kind of calm and deliberate. Even the way their conversation flower was the same.
"Are you sure they came this way?" one of them asked.
"Yeah, the vendor from earlier said so," another man replied, but his tone was dismissive. "Let's check this alley. We might find them."
A panic rushed through Liwei's body as those footsteps became louder. He wanted to escape, but he barely had the strength to even lift his head.
Not until a low and authoritative voice of a man came, sending a chill down his spine.
"Oh, there's no one here beside that man. Is he one of them? I think we're still lucky."
Liwei's blurred vision settled on the newcomer—a man with scarlet hair, a topaz colored eyes that glowed with a fiery intensity, and a presence that immediately made him feel like prey.
The man's gaze locked onto him, and for a moment, everything seemed still. He could sense the danger. This man was no ordinary thug. He was someone who had seen violence, maybe lived by it.
"You," the man said, taking a step forward. "What are you doing here alone? Where did your thug friends go?"
Liwei gulped and moved back a little. He forced himself to stand by using the wall as a support, turning his back to him and tried to flee. But his attempt to stand failed. His legs buckled beneath him, and he collapsed to his knees before he could take a step, as a weak groan escaped his lips.
However, it didn't make him give up and stood again, taking a step forward.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked the man behind him. His voice was a tad sharp with authority.
Liwei didn't respond to him and continue to step ahead, not until he felt a hand grabbed the hood of his jacket and jerked him backward with brute force, making him bumped into the man's chest.
"Hey, where are you running off without answering me?" The man growled. "Where's your friends? Where's the red painite cross brooch you stole from my friend?"
A wave of dread surged through Liwei.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about. T-they... they also took my money from me."
The man wrapped his arm around Liwei's neck, tightening the grip on it as he felt a weight in his chest.
Exhaustion prevented him from fighting anymore. His mind was too clouded with pain, and the pressure on his neck was making his vision blur again. He could taste blood on his mouth and even hear the men behind them laughing, but all of it felt distant. Like he was falling into a pit from which he might never return.
"Do you think I'll believe someone like you?" the man said. "You're a pickpocket man like them, aren't you?"
Liwei's throat tightened. "N-no... I—"
"Blue hair, blue eyes, and wearing all black," the man said, interrupting him as his gaze darkened. "Sounds like someone I know, so don't play dumb. You're the notorious pickpocket man in Lacuna town, am I right? You've been causing trouble all over, disturbing random civilians."
Liwei's thoughts were hazy, but he knew he was in deep trouble. The street wasn't safe. The people weren't kind. And he was too far gone to save himself. He couldn't even do something to the person, almost strangling him to death.
"Byron," the man called to one of his companions before letting go of Liwei and pushed him towards Byron. "Take him with us. We'll figure out what to do with him later."
The man named Byron, a hulking figure with full of scars on his body, stepped forward, and caught Liwei, who's catching his breath and coughing from the aftermath. He didn't have the strength to resist anymore.
As his vision finally went dark, the last thing he felt was the cold, unyielding grip of the man carrying him on his shoulder like a sack of rice.