Kabata Katsuki

“The Seven Sinners Program… used to be a dark program… where we all were taught a variety of things… and brainwashed like fuck… so that we can become the world’s strongest kazi controllers. We were given harsh treatment, we were tortured, we were beaten, and… that’s how we were taught the shit of this world. But… But there were some of us good guys, who… unlike others, were not interested in fighting or anything, but rather, we… we planned of running away.”

The five year-old blonde figure of mine sat on the ground, my legs beside my butts, with my right arm covered with bandages. I had my head tilted downward at the marble flooring. Another guy in front of me sat in the same position, his head tilted to the ground too. I asked him, “Running out from the window on top of the basement truly is a wonderful idea, Kurayami, but what if we get caught?”

The figure, scratched the white onesie frock-like cloth by his thighs, turned his head to the front, and replied, “I don’t know. We just have to do it, Katsuki.”

“O-Okay,” I nodded hesitantly. I turned my head down to the ground again. “I hope everything goes on just fine.”

***

I remembered my tiny body running away through the small pathway between knee-long grass that surrounded the meadow all around me. Beside me was the figure of Kurayami in black hair and the same white onesie as me. We both had the white marble building behind us and a fence of metal wire in front of us.

“BHOW! BHOW!” I turned to my back as I heard the barking. I looked at two deadly brown dogs tied by a brown leather strap around their neck. The other end of the straps were held by two men in black thick pants and shirts with rock solid ankle-length boots on which they ran toward us.

I then turned to the front. “Run, Kurayami! The-The dogs are behind us!”

“Y-Yeah, Katsuki. Whatever happens now, just don’t trip dow—”

Just as he said those words, my right foot hit a big rock—just as big as my fist—and my face started to glide front and down. My eyes opened wide as I looked at the view reaching slowly toward the grass.

THUMP!

“Jinx…”

Kurayami stopped and turned to his back, looking at my figure on the ground. He quickly stepped toward me from the front, held my arms, and started to pull me up.

“BHOW! BHOW! BHOW!” The barking dogs reached the two of us. One of them opened its mouth up wide, with drool coming out of his mouth, and then moved it down quickly on my right leg on the ground.

“AAAAAHHHH!” I screamed on the top of my lungs in the middle of the wide meadow surrounding the tiny castle in the center.

The second one bit the left shoulder of the little Kurayami.

“Luckily, the dogs didn’t kill us that day, but if we were unlucky, I’m sure they’d have let the dogs eat up both of us. At last, that’s how it works in the program. People get killed easily.”

***

My eyes were wide open as I looked at the sword cutting through the flesh. Just as the sword got deeper and deeper, streaks of blood jerked out of the body.

THUMP.

The child, wearing the same white onesie as all of us, was lying dead on the ground, with blood leaking out of his cut chest, the pool of blood around his body rising rapidly.

“Well done, kiddo!” An old man said.

PAT-PAT!

“Everyone should be like him—not scared to kill!”

The hair of my arms had risen up as I looked at that dead body lying on the ground, his chest moving a little up and down. I took in a breath from my open mouth, glaring at the figure with my scared eyes. I was frightened to the core of my heart. I had goosebumps. Scared to hell, I held the frock of my plain white onesie and stood there, my legs and arms trembling.

“Life was not really a valued commodity inside the castle. And… we were never allowed to go out. We had windows at high heights, so we kids were unable to see the outside world. We didn’t even have terraces or roofs. We were completely locked in. And… all of that made me feel like…”

“I… I wanna be free,” The little scared figure of mine murmured inside my lips.

“I wanna be happy and peaceful too.”

“And, it was something all of us wanted—peace, happiness, and a stress-free life, away from this death game where we were dragged in.”

“So, what do you feel like now? Are you happy? Are you content? Are you in peace?”

“I… have learned that… all throughout his life, one is never happy, or content, or peace. But… I don’t have to fight to survive like I had to back then. Those fucking asses… really were the worse.”

I opened my eyes. I was lying on top of my soft white bed—appearing in shades of black due to darkness and faint lights from the moon outside—with wrinkles of my white thin blanket all around my figure. The blanket was on top of my body and covered it up until my chest, exposing my muscular flesh of shoulders, collar bones, my thick muscular neck, and my face, filled with my narrowed streamlined semi-closed eyes and my blonde hairs scattered all over the white pillow.

“I should just sleep.”

***

Suzuki Tadashi

Hiroko and Sasaki-senpai were standing in front of the broken debris of what used to be The Bar in the middle of the night. He looked at the top, looking at the burnt wall and destructed wood exposing the corridor inside. His eyes were wide open as he looked at the destruction of the restaurant in front of his eyes.

“Am I late?” Sasaki-senpai thought as a drop of sweat ran down his forehead. “I just hope Tadashi is okay.”