Chapter 25: We’re Alive! (LOL)

They're alive. Shocking, I know. Could better math have prevented the duo from getting absolutely smacked with a surprise tidal anomaly? Maybe.

But will they be able to progress forward in their mission after getting battered by the sea?

What was it that caused the massive wave? And what did Benishi have to do with it? Will he survive Shogo's wrath?

Shogo POV

*Squawk! *

*Squawk! *

*Squawk! *

*Blergh!!*

Scratching and clawing at the shore while pulling Benishi by his collar behind me. I proceed to puke out a shit ton of water and a bit of seaweed I swallowed onto the warm sand. Of course, here I am washed up on another random fucking beach. At least this time I don't seem to be terribly injured.

In fact, my left arm isn't leaking anymore despite having a gaping hole being put in it a few hours ago. Of course, it still hurts like a bitch though.

I slowly stand to my feet and finish dragging Benishi's unconscious form onto the shore of some incredibly small island.

A primordial roar rips from my throat as I lunge at Benishi's downed form. I grab both of his narrow shoulders roughly and shake his person rigorously,

The sound his head made against the bottom of the boat when I pulled him off didn't sound too good admittedly, but I was more preoccupied with making sure we didn't get pulled to the bottom of the ocean than being careful with this sick bastard.

"Wake the fuck up asshole! What in the shit did you do!? You almost got me killed and then you make me swim your ass who knows how many miles to safety!!?? You have me all the way fucked up if you think I won't rip off one of your goddess damn limbs right now!!!!"

I am absolutely foaming at the mouth, demanding answers from Benishi's still form in my hands. Expecting his eyelids to open any second to reveal the condescending intelligence that is behind them. But they never opened and shortly after I realize that Benishi's chest isn't rising up and down.

He wasn't breathing.

"Holy shit…"

I quickly lay the teen down on his back and put my left ear on his chest. The slow rhythmic beat of a heart echoes back to me, faintly.

Immediately my right arm starts to sizzle and my chest gets tight.

'Shit shit shit shit……'

Panic clouds my thoughts as I try and figure out how to save this useless waste of space that my very life is unfortunately linked to currently.

Finally, a memory of one of the lessons the priestesses forced all the kids to learn at the temple, even me.

Benishi POV

"AASDCHHBJJNHYHJJBGHJJHHH!!!!!"

I open my eyes only to shut them as blistering light from the sun forces them closed. After blinking the stars out of my eyes, I look up only to meet angry dark pupils.

The face of the angry person standing over me is dripping wet and they're not very amused with me given their increasingly hostile body language.

Then it dawned on me. I know this person!

Feeling the warm sand beneath me, I use my arms to prop my torso up a bit with a wince at the tenderness of body to get a better look at my savior.

"Shino-ack"

Two hands wrapped around my throat quicker than I could get out my first word and lift completely off the sand.

Shogo POV

Just as the tattoo stops sizzling from Benishi nearly drowning, it slowly starts up again as I choke the life, I personally breathed back into him.

"I lost my fucking sword and my pouch because that shitty wave. What the fuck did you do!?"

I release Benishi's neck and shove him roughly on to the sand.

*Cough! * *cough! *

Benishi sputters on the ground trying to gain some composure in the face of my fiery rage. If I see one fucking smirk out of him, I honestly might kill him with my bare hands and not even care that I'll soon follow.

Instead of an infuriating smirk, Benishi turns to me with a rather impressive snarl,

"You brute! And to think I was going to thank you for saving my life!"

He proceeds to stand up and put some distance between us. Once Benishi  is about 10 feet away, he starts to brush off the sand on his body.

I quickly close the distance and grab the front of his silk robe with my right hand. Benishi is quite a bit taller than me so I have to yank him down to my eye level.

"Listen you pampered piece of trash. I want answers and I want them now! I just lost some pretty important tools for my continued survival and you're the main reason! Tell me or I'll scoop your fucking eyeballs out with my fingers!!!!"

Benishi feebly tries to push me away from him, and fails miserably as I don't move an inch. Finally, he gives up and takes a deep breath then exhales away from my face,

"Ok Shinobi-san, I'll admit that us getting caught in the wave was indeed a mistake on my end. I initially planned for us to be at the edge of the blast radius from the explosion, but I didn't account for you only being able to row with one arm."

*Cough! *

"On the other hand, had you used your injured arm which appears to be working fine now, our boat would have been pushed safely toward my home island. We would have been placed roughly a couple miles from the coast by my calculations."

A thoughtful look washes over the frail nerd's face as he looks at the shoreline.

I feel my fingernails digging into the palms of my balled-up hands at his reply. He had the fucking balls to blame me for getting caught in a damn tidal wave!

I take a shaky deep breath to calm my rage,

"What blast are you talking about? And how did y-"

My mouth stops working as my brain arrives to a horrifying conclusion,

"What is wrong with you!?"

I stomp up to Benishi and look deep into his eyes, seeing for the first time how monstrous of an individual he really is. My gaze is met with a deep confusion,

"Have you forgotten about my lung condition already? I promise you almost drowning hasn't made it any better for me-"

"No! I'm talking about you killing all those people with those fucking tags! They were harmless and had nothing to do with any of this shit! All they needed to do was bring that boat across the sea and you fucking murdered them for it!"

A look of shock spreads on Benishi's face,

"You left people alive on the boat!? I forsure thought that you would have personally dispatched any and all witnesses on the boat before coming to me. It seems you're more of a rookie than I initially took you for…"

I throw a quick haymaker that collides with Benishi's left cheek and puts him on his ass.

Before I can get to him and continue a much overdue beatdown, Benishi scrambles to his right side and picks up a small broken tree branch lying in the sand.

Instead of pointing the sharp end of the stick at me like I expected, he places the point right on his neck where his jugular is, putting an immediate halt to my wrath and forward movement.

My disgust and shock from the absolute worm in front of me has reached an all-time high,

"Do you even value your life at all?!"

Benishi spits a glob of blood and saliva out onto the beach,

"I would rather die quickly than suffer half at the hands of a morally misguided shinobi!"

Benishi shakily rises to his feet making sure to keep the point near his jugular vein. He faces me with a rage filled expression I didn't think him capable of.

"Their lives were forfeit as soon as they stepped foot on that boat!"

Benishi steps forward and throws down the stick in his hand with enough force that it cracks in half.

"That boat would have never made it to the first port let alone Rock Country! Those tags are rigged to explode as soon as they get within 10 miles of Bear Country, so I made their deaths to our benefit!"

All the wind abandons my sails at that shocking revelation. So, the Wutarui didn't set that trap to prevent Benishi from being used against them, they planned to kill him from the start.

I sputter in confusion for a second,

'I'm so fucking confused right now! Why the fuck is everybody in this dude's family trying to kill each other?! He has to be trying to pull a fast one on me…'

I snarl at the trickster,

"Now you're just spewing bullshit to cover your ass! I don't believe for a second your loaded parents would touch a hair on their pathetic only child's head."

Benishi's face goes dark with rage, both his hands ball into tight fists. His anger is so potent, I feel the air around us heat up a bit.

"THOSE MONSTERS DO NOT CARE FOR ME NOW AND THEY NEVER FUCKING HAVE!!! THEY KILLED MY REAL MOTHER AND HAVE HELD ME CAPTIVE EVER SINCE!!!!"

The raw emotion in the Benishi expelled seems to erupt from his body all at once. A visible wave of exhaustion washes over his previously furious face and he collapses to a knee in front of me on the sand.

The shocking revelation leaves me figuratively floored and Benishi very literally left heaving, trying to catch his breath on the ground.

I am at a complete loss of words as I patiently watch the sickly teen recover from his verbal explosion.

'This shit is getting out of hand…this motherfucker has two mothers! What the hell is even going on anymore?! I guess an orphan can't really assume shit about how a family is supposed to work huh?'

My contemplation is broken by Benishi's ragged voice,

*Cough! *

"Very sorry for my unsightly outburst, Shinobi-san. It's unfair of me to shout at you for information only three living humans are privy too. Despite my cheerful demeanor, I too have triggers of irrationality."

Benishi inhales deeply through his nose and exhales through his mouth. He shakily struggles to his two feet; his threatening presence fades away just as quickly as it came.

He lightly stretches then smiles at me, with his eyes closed…. like a fucking creep.

Benishi claps his hands together making me flinch a bit as I'm still a bit frazzled from that brief but thunderous display of insanity.

"Don't just stand their Shinobi-san! We're burning daylight! We need to go scavenge some useful wood and debris from around this tiny island so I can build us a seafaring raft!"

With that Benishi trots away humming a tone of some sort. Meanwhile I'm still numb from the absolute whirlwind of raw emotion blasted my way. It was like I stepped on a goddamn mental landmine. 

I've seen someone with a look of unbridled hatred on their face only once before and it was directed at me. Shortly after, the head bitch in charge put a kill on sight order out for me to the whole fucking village.

While I still felt Benishi is definitely a slimeball that would stab me in the back as soon as he could benefit from it, this dude is definitely out for blood against his mom and pop.

I look around me and start picking up wood scraps from the sand. Midway through I glance over at the thin trees toward the middle of the island.

'I'll use all this pent-up anger at stepping in yet another huge pile of shit while trying to chase down just one of my fucking targets!'

I crush the wood in my hands then watch it crumble to the sand.

By the time I'm done blowing off steam, there won't be a single fucking tree left standing on this shithole island.

A/N: Holy Shit! Three months have flown by and I will make no excuses. Sure, I’m adulting now but I’ve had all the opportunities in the world to write these last few months. Writer's block does suck and not writing at all for weeks at a time definitely made it way worse. I can honestly say becoming an Elden Lord was way easier than writing this one chapter for three months. Reevaluating my process in writing this story is an absolute must. The two-year anniversary of when I first posted has passed and the fact that I’m just now getting to chapter 25 burns me.

I can’t make any promises production wise cuz I’m an admittedly lazy writer but I know one goddamn thing. I’ll finish this fiction even if it takes me ten years!