Takemura Itsuki

“W-What’s going on here?” Haruto asked me as he worriedly looked outside the window in front of his wide open eyes.

“I wish I knew,” I replied, staring at the window just like him. The window in front of us had a packed mob of werewolves in front of us, all of them struggling as they growled and tried to break through that invisible shield in between the house and them. I turned my head rightward at Haruto, and he turned his head leftward at me.

“W-What should we do now?” He asked with the same shocked and scared expression.

“E-Even I can’t think of anything now, man.”

“Pal… it’s because of your plans that we’re here,” He said. “S-Save both of us this time too.”

I gulped in as I looked into his scared eyes, and turned my eyes right and left in embarrassment, and then turned my head down, held my head with both my hands, and replied, “L-Lemme think of something.”

“When he said that it was because of me that we’d come this far, I really was speechless. I didn’t really know what to reply back so that I can console him or calm him down. I knew I had to do something now, there’s pressure and an overwhelming sense of responsibility upon me now. I gotta get through this.”

I took in breath, and then exhaled it out. “First of all, we don’t really know that for how much time we’ve been given this protective shield. Secondly, I think that whatever the case may be, we have to run outta here as soon as possible to get food to survive. On top of that, we don’t have any weapons or such, so we might have to struggle to get our hands on them too. We’d need money too. And thirdly, this dumbass told us that he’d send his men to carry our asses, and I ain’t seeing that statement being fulfilled.”

“We still don’t know what he’s up to, and why we’re here,” Haruto commented with his eyes scared.

“And all this shit is going on one after another,” I completed his sentence. I then turned my head rightwards onto the window again. I looked at those growling figures which were pushing each other. “Let’s… search this house and find an exit. If this test too is set up by this guy, I’m sure that he must have given us a slight opening here to run away.”

“Last time…” I turned my head at Haruto, who was looking at the beasts. He tilted his head downwards. “Last time, we were saving the city, and this time, we’re saving ourselves. What will we be saving next time?” He turned his head up left at me, and I looked into his neutral expressions, and a little scared and confused eyes.

“I don’t know what type of mood swings this guy used to have, but I’m damn sure I wanted to have those too. He can fight his own emotions and can be calm the next second. He can be scared, like about to pee his pants off, in the first second, and then in the next second, he can look absolutely calm.”

As I looked into his eyes, which tried to look calm, he turned his head left and looked at the end of the corridor. “Let’s get to work, pal,” He said as he started running towards that door at the end of the corridor. I turned back at him as I looked at him running away. I turned back too and walked quickly to the inside of the room.

***

Haruto opened the window in front of the bed inside the dark room. He pushed up the window, and moved his right hand outside. Outside, it was evening time and the sun was just some distance away from the horizon below. As he moved his right hand out, his middle finger then stopped and was bent a little, like something was not letting it go further. He moved it a little back, and then pattered on it again. He then turned his head backward. “Itsuki! This side’s covered too!”

He moved his right hand out, moved the window down again and shut it off, and then turned back. He moved out of the room, and turned right at the room adjacent to the one where he just arrived out of, present in the same corner. He stood on the doorframe, and looked at me touching my whole palm on that shield to examine it. “This side is covered too.” I turned my head back and looked at him. “Every side is covered. And the distance between this shield and this house is just some centimeters. What are we gonna do now?”

Haruto took in a breath, and turned his head downwards. “Pal… This day’s been so stressful.”

I exhaled breath out of my mouth as I looked at him with pity.

KNOCK KNOCK! Someone knocked at the door, and Haruto turned his head backward, where the door was. “Who could this be?” I asked.

“M-Must be a human!” Haruto’s eyes turned wide open and he dashed through the sofa set on his right down the whole drawing room and stepped at the corridor.

“Wait! Haruto!” I shouted as I dashed behind him. “Don’t open it until you confirm it!”

Haruto turned his head backward at me as he stood just in front of the door, with his both hands at the handle. I walked to the right side of the corridor, opened up the window, and turned my head leftward towards the outside of the door. SWOOSH. A sword, out of nowhere, slashed its way from the ground to right in front of my right eye. My eyes turned wide open as I, with horror in my eyes, looked at the bloody red tip of the sword.

“Open up NOW.”