Takemura Itsuki

“It was you who left me in the first place, Itsuki.”

My eyes were wide open as I heard those words from the black silhouette. The silhouette stood in front of me, silently looking at me with its black shadow face. My eyes were fixed on it, my mouth open, and then I turned my head down in guilt. The silhouette was not in the place anymore. I stood alone in my room. “Yeah, it’s because of me.”

“And I gotta do it right.”

***

Kabata Katsuki

“It all was my fault at last,” I said as I stood in front of the white bricked railing, looking at the glamorous beauty of the garden in front of the castle with the crescent moon shining at its brightest. The water of the fountain shone brightly as it reflected the light of the moon. The water was sloshing as it rained down in beautifully bent lines.

Ayato turned his head at me. “Whoever’s fault it is, pal, just stop thinking too much.”

“I lost to a kid, and lost my respect as a sinner in front of hundre—”

“Who cared for the sinners anyway?” Ayato asked. I turned my head at him, looking into his eyes. “Who did?”

“We had some respect when—”

“That’s history, pal. In this time and age, no one wants a king upon them.” Ayato turned his head to the front, like being irritated at this whole scenario taking place in the country. “I know what it used to be for the soldiers, but the sinners… Akira and others have already kicked the reputation we had as the best soldiers and the protectors of right.”

“So what do we do?”

Ayato turned his serious gaze at me. “Do something good for the people. Make them trust us again. Defend the lands. That’s what we’re good at. Just playing the right people won’t make us earn respect. Being the right people will.”

I turned my head to the front. The sloshing of the waters touched my ears. “… I just want Ishida-sama to be happy.”

“Me too.”

***

“So, what are the rest of the sinners doing?”

“They are preparing for something. Seems big, but everyone’s being confidential about it.”

“Who knows what these filthy people are up to…”

***

Suzuki Tadashi

The sun was shining brightly in the sky. The stables were filled with sunlight all around. I opened my sleepy eyes once, closed them again, and moved my body up, sitting up on the hay beneath me, my right hand rubbing my right eye. I opened my other eyes, looking at the wooden wall. I turned my head to the back. I moved my right hand from my face to the ground, pushed up, and stood upon the ground. I walked a little frontward from the right of the hay, and looked at all the heads of the horses coming out from the little opening on top of the doors of the stables. All of them were brown and black in color. I turned my head to the left, looking at the end of the stable, and then turned to the right, looking at the open entrance from where I could see people coming from the front street, and then turning right. The street had no left turn, and just at the front of the street was the stables, so the street only had a right turn. I started to walk to the front of the entrance. I stood at the entrance, looking at the lavish bricked buildings at the front, and then turned my head to the right at a little pathway between the two shops’ backside at the left, and then turned my head to the right, looking at the road of soil with cows standing on the edges, more stables on both the sides of the street, with people walking here and there looking at the stables. I was looking at a man in a violet robe and pair of pants and black facial hair talking with a fat guy in a white sleeveless shirt and black torn pair of pants. The fat guy then turned to the back, and the purple guy looked at his back walking inside. The purple man then turned at me with a smile, and then turned to the front again, looking at the fat guy walking toward him with a horse with whips on its nose. The man pulled the whips as he walked, and stood in front of the guy, saying something nice about the horse as he patted its head with a smile. The purple guy then nodded with a smile, turned his head down, put his right hand inside his right pocket, took out a bunch of coins, counted them, and then extended some of the coins to the fat guy from his left hand while keeping the rest of the money in his right pocket back again. The fat guy with the smile took the money in his right hand, and extended the whips to him. The man in purple took the whips, walked to the right side of the horizontally standing horse, sat upon its saddle, and then whipped the horse a little. He then turned the horse to the left, coming directly towards me. The horse’s hooves patted on the soil ground as he walked toward me. The hooves then stopped right in front of my black boots. “What do you want, you little guy?” I turned my head a little up, looking at the head of the rich man in his thirties or forties.

I looked into his eyes for a second, and then shook my head.

He then turned his horse to the right at the bricked street, walking away with his back facing me. Suddenly, someone patted my back. I turned my head to the right up, looking at the man who had given me shelter. His hands were at his waist, and he was frowning at me. “Who the heck are you waiting for? Go in and clean all the shit of the horses!”

I turned my body to the right, turned my head to the right inside the stables. I then walked inside. Inside my dull eyes, I thought, “What the hell do I have to do now to survive!”

“I guess I was kinda out of my mind back then. The first day in the city… felt so surreal. Really. It was just astonishing to think that there were other people there too, living their lives while interacting with others, and just doing their own thing every second of their lives. This world too was real, with real people and real things. Living isolated in the forests had completely robbed me of that feeling, I guess that’s why it felt so, so much more real this time.”