Shiratori Haruto

“But… I need one day…”

“One day…?” He asked back. “Why?”

“Just give me one.”

“O-Okay…”

***

Isekai’d

Written by Dhruv Pabreja

***

Kabata Katsuki

The white castle made of dazzling marble was shining brightly as it stood strong in the middle of the city, filled with a light yellow hue of the sun rising up in the back. The wide white bricked streets of the city were filled with carts run by workers in the middle and the women walking on the pavement. It was the usual hustle of the city on a bright morning. However, at one place, the entrance to a street was completely blocked. A thick chunk of the street was blocked, with people standing at the entrance of the street, gossiping and murmuring among themselves. In front of the crowd was a wooden barrier placed to keep the masses away. On the other side of the congested barrier, policemen in their usual black uniforms stood on top of the streets, some with their heads tilted down and writing something on their notepads, some walking here and there, and some going inside the café. It was the backside of The Bar, which was filled with stains of blood on the street alone with big depressions. The building on the backside of the restaurant was torn heavily, covered with fire, and exposed the damage to the corridor inside. The whole street was covered in blood and destruction.

“I can’t even work today because of this!”

“What is even happening here? Are the people of The Bar safe?”

“Was The Bar attacked?”

“I wanted to go on the other side, but now that it’s blocked, I’d need to travel a mile extra walking around!”

“What… is happening here?”

Some were frustrated, and some were shocked as they stood in front of the barrier, looking at the street inside and policemen working on it, coming inside and out after intervals and conducting their investigation. There was a huge commotion at the outer side of the barriers.

I stood on top of the terrace of the castle, glaring at the beauty of the gigantic garden of the castle in front of me. The sun was on my left, and on my back was the dome of the castle. My arms were on the railing of the empty terrace. I was smiling.

Suddenly, from the corridor of the castle just three steps back, another figure emerged, walked to me, and stood beside me slowly. He stood beside me on my right, his right arm on the railing, and his body tilted at me. I turned my head to my right, looking at the face of Ayato smiling, who was wearing the same green robe with a white shirt, black pair of pants, and black boots. “I wanna ask you something, Katsuki.”

“Ask it, then.”

Ayato turned his body to the front, moved his left arm at the railing too, and with both his arms crossed on the railing just like mine, he looked at the fountain beneath between the shining wet green lush at the center of the garden, and asked, “Why did you take that girl with you?”

“To save our asses, fucker.”

“How?” He asked in his questioning voice.

“Our mission was a complete failure, just like my mission last time at Surfurine.”

“Oh, so the consequences were gonna be hard.”

“Yeah. But, kidnapping her had two advantages,” I narrated. “First, I was able to show the king that it was not an absolute failure, and that we can use her to contact The Bar and trade her for the life of the hero, and second, I was able to show Ishida-sama that it was Akira’s mission, so all the fault goes to her. And I did well in making the best I could out of it, at least better than Akira.”

“So, was he convinced?” Ayato asked.

“Yeah,” He replied. “Though he threatened me.”

“Obviously he will,” Ayato replied.

“But at least I was able to show that I was tryna fix all the shit that they fucked up.”

“Yeah, it’s a win for us, perhaps.”

“Yeah, this one was a win,” I smiled. “But… only one thing is left in this story.”

“Ishida-sama is one step closer to death…”

“Right… We betted heavily on this gamble.”

“And even though we’ve won, we might have lost a real chance to kill the hero,” Ayato commented.

“Yeah.” I turned my head down. “We broke the oath to the Ishida dynasty.”

“To protect them and work for them… right?”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “We gotta regain our loyalty now, don’t you think?”

“Rightly said,” Ayato replied, moving his head down in guilt too.

“We gotta be the ones to kill the hero now.” I turned my head up, looking at the buildings beyond the grand garden. “We gotta be the ones to protect him.”