Shiratori Haruto
“Ichika!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. My eyes were wide open as I looked at the front of my eyes.
“W-W-Wha…” Airi, who stood on the right of Ichika, with Ichika’s arm on her shoulders, turned to her left as she looked at her slender body falling towards her back. Airi moved her left hand down Ichika’s waist and held her in her arm. Ichika’s back was tilted backward as she lay on Airi’s arm. Airi moved her left arm towards herself and held her body in front of hers.
I started to run towards the three. As I ran across the street and turned my head to the right, from where the man on the horse came running, and looked at the soldiers on horsebacks, running straight as they occasionally slashed the doors of the houses. I looked at one house on the left side where a soldier in red and black uniform slashed the door, got off the horse, walked angrily inside the house, and then after a second, what came out of the house were the red blood streaks. I turned my head at Ichika, got hold of her left arm, and moved it up my shoulders as Airi held her back. We turned to the left—my back—and started to walk towards the street. As we walked some steps inside the street, I turned my head to the back and looked at Itsuki standing like a statue, looking at the path from where we just walked by, with his wide open shocked eyes. He remembered the four of us walking—he at the front, Ichika and Airi behind him, with Ichika’s arm on Airi’s shoulders, and me at the back—just some seconds ago. He then blinked and looked at the street now, from where soldiers in red robes came running towards him on horses, swords in their right hands, and some buildings on fire or broken down on both sides. He then remembered all the people around the fighting arena, raising their fists and shouting on top of their lungs, “ITSUKI! ITSUKI! ITSUKI!” Itsuki’s mouth opened a little. “I-Is it… because of me…?” He then frowned, moved his right hand on top of his scabbard on his waist at his left, and shouted, “IMMA BEA—”
“Itsuki!” A feminine voice shouted and he turned his angry eyes to his left. Ichika looked at him with her frowning eyes as she said, “Retreat for now!”
“Ichika! They’re killing the whole village, just because we wo—!”
“I know,” She replied in a low voice, narrowed her eyes in despair, and moved her eyeballs down. “But… just we four can’t save the whole village now.”
“C’mon, Ichika!” Itsuki shouted. “We just beat this shitty bastard! I know we can do some shit and take him d—”
“Just retreat,” She commanded, and turned her head to the front. “We first need to group together, and then we’ll decide what’s supposed to be done. C’mon now.”
Itsuki turned to his left, looking at the group of horses who’d now stopped and were slashing their swords at every house beside them, and then turned his head to the front at us. He started to walk dejectedly towards us, his head tilted down. He slowed as he reached us walking and silently walked behind us, his head tilted down. As he walked, he murmured in a little anger, “This shit’s gone insane, and here we are!”
I heard him, turned my eyeballs a little to the left back at him, and continued walking. We turned to the right towards the house, Airi moved her right hand to the front, opened the door, and we all four went inside.
***
A group of about half a dozen men and women, with children in the women’s hands, were running through the silent street lighted with a house burning on their right. They turned their head to the right at the house burning and looked at it with shock and sympathy. They turned their heads down in guilt. A woman, with a little kid in her arms, turned to the front and asked, “What’re we gonna do next?”
A man from the front turned to the back as they walked hurriedly. He then turned his eyes a little down in dejection. “I-I think we should just focus on leaving this place and saving our lives.” He then turned his head to the front, where they could see the exit of the town and the path between the trees cutting to the forests. “This shall take us to the near city of—”
SLASH.
“AAAAAAAGH!!!!” The woman suddenly shouted. The heads of the men and women suddenly sliced down into two as they fell on the ground, their corpses spilling blood all over. She turned her head at the front and looked at the figure in front of her. In front of her stood the figure of a man in a green robe and black pair of pants. He had a sword in his right hand, and his face was covered with the darkness of the night around him. The woman stepped back, tripped, and fell on her butts on the ground, her legs spread out towards the figure, with the kid sleeping soundly in front of her. She turned her head to the left at the back, and looked at the same burning house some steps back. She then turned her horrified eyes to the front. The figure moved his head up and tilted his eyes down at her as a sign of dominance. He moved his left hand up, spread his forefinger, middle finger, and thumb like he was holding a ball, and then slowly twisted the fingers around the imaginary ball. As he twisted, the purple streaks started to rise up from his palm and shaped up in the form of a ball. “That’s called raw kazi, miss,” The soldier said in his devilish dark tone. “And when it’s thrown at things, it…” He flicked his hand towards the front. “… explodes.”
BOOM.
