Unconscious, Takeshi was riding the tidal waves of the river his body limp and unmoving. It wasn't until his body slammed into the edge of a rock with such a force it startled him awake. Just then Takeshi noticed he was being dragged downstream by the river and unable to balance himself, he was flailing in all directions while trying to keep himself from drowning.

Being spun and whipped around in the water was making it harder for him to stay afloat. As time went on he eventually started to hear the sound of something eerily similar to an object crashing against a hard surface. When Takeshi turned around to see what was making that noise he started to panic trying to swim to the edge of the river to reach the riverbank against an immeasurable amount of pain in his torso.

When he realized that he wouldn't able to make it Takeshi did his best to prepare himself for the fall. But he didn't even get a few seconds before he suddenly flipped over the edge falling in motion with the waterfalls' current.

A few seconds later Takeshi was greeted with a hard impact against his back after colliding with another layer of water. Yet this time an excruciating stabbing pain coursed through his abdomen making him scream out in pain followed by the effect of being winded, huffing and puffing his breath started to quicken.

Unable to move for the time being Takeshi resorted to laying upon the body of water as he slowly floated further downstream. He used this time to think about what had just happened, in particular with Gin and what made him turn into such a psycho to be with. Images of his time in the Royal Capital of Avozinia, the heart of the Azov Kingdom flooded back to him.

Of all the times, why now do I have to have these memories? Soon the images moved to that of his old home back in Tokyo, Japan.
It feels like some sort of recollection of my life before I die...damn I guess...I really am going to die here in the end.

Being overcome by the need to close his eyes, Takeshi with all his might tried to keep them open afraid that this would be the last time that they would open. And thinking about it scared him he had so many things that he wanted to do not in this world, but back home and so because of that he desperately wanted to get back there. With every ounce of willpower, Takeshi tried his utmost to not fall asleep, however, his body had other plans as with each passing second his eyelids slowly inched closer to shutting.

Before Takeshi knew it he had already blacked out completely.

 

***

 

"Takeshi are you listening to me?"

Suddenly waking up Takeshi looked around confused he could have sworn he was in a totally different place right now than before, but for some reason, right now he was on a subway train bound for downtown Tokyo. Confused he looked around as if thinking there was some sort of hidden message engraved somewhere on the walls of this subway carriage. When he looked down at himself he recognized the all too familiar attire he was used to wearing, the typical casual clothes he had grown accustomed to. Distracted Takeshi didn't hear the unknown person calling for his name.

"Hey, Takeshi!"

Feeling a hard jab to his arm Takeshi looked to his left, and to his surprise it was Ren. His childhood friend, had a look of concern on her face as she looked directly at Takeshi. As for him, he was enamoured with the beauty that he was looking at, deep in thought, Takeshi stared at those large golden auburn eyes full of kindness and sincerity and her long brown hair tied in a single ponytail. What brought out her features even more spectacularly was the bright summer dress that she was wearing.

"Takeshi!"

Hearing her voice for the third time jolted him back to reality or at least that's what he presumed everything around him was, but he wasn't quite sure what to make of all this.

"Y-Yeah, sorry" Takeshi felt nervous just being around Ren not to mention he was still confused, did he die before being sent to heaven? Or was he and his classmates being transported to another world just was all just some elaborate dream he had over the course of a year?

Looking at Ren reminded him of his elementary school years up to high school. When they had started high school he was starting to develop feelings for her, but he was too afraid to come clean about it not wanting to ruin that precious connection that they already had for all these years since they were little kids. Plus it seemed awkward in his mind talking to Ren about something like that considering most of their time together was very much similar to being a type of brother-sister relationship between them.

"Jeez, I've been talking this entire time and you didn't hear a word I said." Takeshi saw the admittedly cute pouting face that Ren was making and couldn't help but laugh out loud. Ren turning red was unsure as to why Takeshi was suddenly laughing.

"W-What's so funny?"

Still laughing Takeshi had trouble at first putting his thoughts into words. "S-Sorry the look on your face, I couldn't help but laugh." Again Ren's face turned back to that classic pout that Takeshi loved so much.

"I-It isn't funny!" Ren exclaimed making a few heads turn towards them. Realizing this Takeshi looked at Ren noticing that she was getting more embarrassed by the situation. With Ren realizing that Takeshi was looking at her she awkwardly burst into a fit of laughter with even more heads turning to look at them this time.

It only took a few seconds for the both of them to calm down. Sitting there in awkward silence neither of them knew how to proceed from here. Ren, however, pulled her smartphone out of her handbag scrolling through her notifications. A few moments passed by when Ren suddenly spoke wanting to ask Taekshi a question.

"Hey, Takeshi do you remember the promise we made as kids in elementary school?"

Hearing that question confused Takeshi it wasn't that he had no clue what she was talking about per se, but from what he remembered the two of them made so promises over the years most of them ended up having no real significant meaning at the time.

"I-I can remember a few of them I guess" Takeshi nervously replied to Ren's question desperately trying to think about the answer to her question.

"We promised to be together forever, remember?" she looked toTakeshi who in turn saw that beaming cheerful smile plastered across her face. Feeling embarrassed Takeshi looked away his cheeks turning red.

"O-Oh yeah, I remember." Suddenly the memory of both he and Ren in the playground after an elementary school day had finished the memory returning to the forefront of his mind. He could remember the pinky promise the two of them made at the time, but he couldn't understand why she would bring up something like that out of the blue.

Right then, he noticed that the sky outside the subway carriage turned to a murky grey and a second later it was followed by the thunderous sound of torrential rain, at least, that's what he thought at first until he started hearing the hail striking the windows like there was a crowd outside throwing pebbles at them.

"Ren, are you seeing this?" Turning around Takeshi's eyes laid upon a Ren standing upright slightly slouched forward. He thought he could see an unusual aura surrounding her, but he wasn't a hundred per cent sure if it was actually real or just a figment of his imagination.

"R-Ren?" Takeshi could feel the uncertainty building up in the back of his throat, he knew something was wrong, but he couldn't quite figure it out. Standing up slightly above the seat he reached out to her with one of his free hands.

Answering his call Ren twisted her head to look at him without moving her body. The sight of it reminded Takeshi of something similar looking out of The Exorcism. Almost instinctively Takeshi jumped out of his seat onto the subway carriage floor quickly crawling backwards away from Ren.

"Ta-ke-shi," she said slowly without a shred of emotion on her face. Takeshi didn't know what to do before he could even react Ren had slowly begun walking towards him.

"You need to wake up"

Takeshi hadn't a clue what she was talking about in his mind he was already wide awake. As she walked closer towards him he noticed that her eyes were hollow with blood pouring out of them the same was with the corners of her mouth. Seeing Ren like this complete broke Takeshi he was frozen unable to move too scared to even say a word.

Ren continued to walk towards Takeshi this time arm outstretched in front of her trying to reach for him.

This time she spoke with more urgency in her voice while also cracking in places, "Wake up Takeshi, you need to keep your promise!" Before lunging at Takeshi screaming, in response, he lifted his arms up covering his face when everything suddenly went pitch-black.

 

***

 

Inhaling heavily Takeshi spurred awake from his unconsciousness still feeling the same fear that he had in his dream just moments ago. As he moved his body he felt an immense jolt of pain go through his torso when he looked down to see what was causing the pain. That's when he noticed the floating dead body in the water by his feet.

He immediately scurried backwards awkwardly as the pain continued to course its way through his torso until his hand suddenly planted itself in something sticky and mildly warm. When Takeshi turned around to see what he planted his hand in that's when he saw the cleaved in half body with all of its innards sprawled out across the riverbank.

Jumping back he immediately collapsed to the floor this time, the stabbing pain throbbing in his stomach had reached the point of being unbearable. Placing a hand over where the pain was emanating from Takeshi looked down to see blood pouring out of an entry wound, and the metal-plated armour that was strapped around his chest revealed a larger shattered hole around the bullet wound.

Reaching behind fighting back against all the pain he tried to feel for whether it had gone clean through luckily for him that wasn't the case. However, on close inspection, he noticed shards of his metal-plated armour embedded around his entry wound. It was hard for him to see the damage that was done considering most of the embedded shrapnel fine smaller pieces of metal.

Maybe I can pull them out so the wound doesn't get infected.

Taking in a deep breath he place his fingers upon one of the small metal shards in his skin, then pulled.

"Urgh!! Damn it!" He couldn't the pain was so unbearable for him that when he tried to pull it out he almost passed out from the pain it caused. Lying there he was looking out at his surroundings when he noticed that the bodies were a combination of Azov Kingdom soldiers and the natives of the kingdom that they had attacked, both civilians and soldiers.

Some of the bodies were obviously victims of what happened after the Azov Kingdom Army stormed the capital. Women with either all their clothes ripped off or partial torn had injuries ranging from stab wounds, bullet wounds and blunt force to the body. The sight of it all made him sick to his stomach having to witness such a scene before him.

Takeshi heard rummaging somewhere behind higher up the riverbank. When he tried to peer his head around to see what was making that sound there didn't seem to be anything there at first glance, but he could still hear that same noise this time though it had gotten closer.

Looking around desperately Takeshi tried to find any kind of weapon that he could use after losing his sword upriver. His eyes laid upon a dead Azov Kingdom soldier in the distance who still seemed to have a holstered musket pistol attached to his belt. Crawling, the pain in his stomach had risen back up to tenfold once again, but Takeshi didn't care he needed to get that weapon if he was to survive longer than a minute outside these walls by himself.

Reaching for the pistol he suddenly heard the low sound of growling behind him. Without hesitation, he wrapped his fingertips around the grip of the barrel yanking it out of its holster. Against his better judgement Takeshi with gritted teeth, spun around causing more pain and discomfort in his torso.

Pointing the pistol in the general direction of where the noise was coming from Takeshi's eyes was met with a hideous sight.

Standing upon a mound a dozen or so feet away from him was a quadruped-like dog, however, this one smelt of death as you could see the puss and black sticky blood dripping from open wounds. Its mouth had four lips and each one of them was rigged with its own set of razor-sharp teeth with glistening white saliva dripping out of its mouth.

Lowering itself the creature looked ready to pounce on Takeshi it looked as though it was looking for a bit of challenge for its next meal.

Will I be able to kill with this thing? Takeshi thought to himself as he eyed the pistol briefly before returning concentration on the monster before him. He wondered if the thing would even fire having been in the water, but he knew that if he showed in hesitation the creature would most likely smell it and immediately attack.

Suddenly the monsters' body perked upwards as if hearing something far in the distance, however, Takeshi didn't hear anything as he continued pointing the gun at whatever this thing was. The dog-like monster looked at him briefly before looking behind it. The creature let out an ear-piercing howl as it started running in the opposite direction.

What the hell was that about? Takeshi was generally confused he was certain that he would have had to fight his life right then and there, but for some reason, the creature had lost interest in him before running off.

Breathing heavily Takeshi still kept the barrel of the musket pistol pointing at the last spot where the creature was standing. Not knowing how much time had gone by eventually Takeshi lowered his arm resting it against his leg. He felt relieved to be able to rest for a little bit, his body was aching all over and the bullet wound was still mind-numbingly painful when he moved even a little.

"I-I have to get out of here..."

He reached for the same body that he got the musket pistol from checking the pouches of gunpowder and metal pellets unfortunately they were unusable. Both of them were covered in water, the metal pellets were still salvageable, but the black gunpowder itself was nothing more than a bag of wet grain at this point and wouldn't even ignite. Takeshi figured that no matter where he looked it would be the same outcome regardless.

Takeshi then slowly started to ready himself "...Gin isn't going to leave nothing by chance, he'll make sure I'm dead one way or another." With all his might Takeshi picked himself up while pain coursed through his entire body, but his perseverance paid off as he eventually got himself standing upright admittedly in a less than ideal way.

Feeling unsteady on his feet it took Takeshi a few seconds to gather his bearings before he felt stable enough on his feet to even walk anywhere. Taking a few limping steps forward he purposefully stepped around the bodies littered across the shallow river bank, he nonchalantly gazed back upriver. In the distance, he could see the blazing fires that was the city and a sudden wave of regret came over him knowing full well what just transpired there.

Not wanting to think on these thoughts Takeshi pushed himself forward using that pain in his body to motivate him to keep moving no matter what. Once he reached the mound that the creature was standing atop he noticed the sprawling darkest of the forest before him. Just looking at the place sent a chill down his spine, but he had no other choice but to go this way, after all, the only other place he knows is the city which is the last place he wants to be right now and the Azovinia capital which even if he knew how to get back he wouldn't even survive the journey in the state that he was in right now.

Walking forward he inches ever closer to the forest, the ominous feeling it gave off was making him more unsettled by the second, but he tried his utmost to push those thoughts aside. As Takeshi entered the forest he felt as if everything around him was a mirage as the leaves and branches swayed side to side almost hypnotic in their motion.

As he continued walking he couldn't help but fall against nearby trees partial using them as temporary support so he didn't fall to the floor as his body continued to get progressively weaker. Each step he took was scratching away at his consciousness, and he feared that he would collapse in the middle of this forest unable to protect himself from any kind of danger that may be lurking in these woods. His breathing was getting hoarse and he started to feel parts of his body slowly getting numb due to the blood loss.

When Takeshi looked ahead he could see a dozen or so lights dimly gleaming through the forest wood followed by the sound of multiple voices shouting in the distance. Takings a few steps forward Takeshi threw himself behind the cover of a large tree surrounded by thick foliage as a patch of blood from his soaked upper garments rubbed off against the bark of the tree leaving a dark stain in its wake.

It wasn't long before the sounds of voice got closer almost on top of Takeshi. Just on the other side of the tree where Takeshi was hiding a platoon of Azov Kingdom soldiers were searching for both him and the girl.

"Found them?!"

"There's nothing here!"

"Keep looking!"

Far off in the distance, Takeshi could hear the slight sound of rustling deeper in the forest immediately one of the Azov Kingdom soldiers started to shout out to the others.

"Over there! Open fire!"

On cue, a volley of musket rifle fire-cracked through the forest as small plumes of light and smoke left the barrels of multiple rifles revealing those that weren't within the fire torches and lanterns range of light that some of the other soldiers were holding in their hands. It was followed by the sounds of multiple screams and metal clanging from the soldiers wearing armour chasing after them.

Sitting there for a few moments more Takeshi eventually began to move again through the foliage it hadn't been ten or fifteen seconds before he spotted another source of light coming from behind, but when turned he was met with a strike from the butt of a musket rifle. Takeshi fell to the ground delirious, but still able to make some details out in his blurred vision.

One of the soldiers belonging to the Azov Kingdom was standing over him aiming his rifle at Takeshi's face.

"It's a shame that I have to kill you, but at least, you won't have to see what we do to that girl when we find her..." he's cocks the latch on the side of the musket rifle "...don't worry we'll give her your regards." He chuckled.

Still unable to do anything Takeshi tried to move away from him, however, he was still dazed by the hit he had just received to the face. That's when he made out a shadow moving behind the soldier. Without warning, someone cried out with an object over their head before slamming down hard with it into the back of the Azov soldier's back. Who in turn grunted in pain and annoyance before turning around and striking them in the face.

The unknown person fell to the floor outside of Takeshi's field of view before the soldier suddenly picked them up throwing them in the general direction of where Takeshi was laying. And to Takeshi's surprise, it was the girl he saved from before her face wincing in pain from being hit and thrown.

"What are the chances that you would be here" throwing his rifle to the floor he starts walking over to the girl undoing his lower garments willing to rape her here regardless of the circumstances. The girl was hunched over ever so slightly on all fours after hitting her head hard when she was thrown to the floor.

Kneeling down having already taken his belt off the soldier started tying the girls' wrists together having finished when she started to scream while also trying to scurry away from him. He grabs her long white yanking her backwards hard before slamming her head into the dirt, the girl letting out a short cry of pain.

"Now shut up! And stay still!" The soldier started tearing at her thin blouse partway from the back making it looser than before when he suddenly decided to go for her lower garments trying to tear her long skirt apart while the girl kicked at him whilst continuing to cry.

Takeshi was still awake while this was all happening.

F-Fuck, w-where's the pistol? His vision was blurring in and out of consciousness as he weakly looked around trying to find the pistol. It took a few seconds for his eyes to suddenly lay upon that said pistol. Seeing it Takeshi went to reach for it, but he didn't have the strength to twist his body over.

Heart racing Takeshi tried a second time and then a third time while still hearing the commotion next to him. From what he could tell the girl was putting up a fight, but he himself knew it would end badly either way. Either the soldier will eventually overpower her and then have his way with her or just outright kill her then and there.

C-Come on, move Taksehi. He tried a fourth and again he couldn't reach the pistol. Come on! Move it you useless piece of shit! The fifth time he muster as much strength as he could inching ever closer to the grip of the pistol, after a few seconds he grabbed hold of it before falling back onto his back grunted in pain.

Readying himself to use the pistol he hoped that it was indeed loaded, after all, he never checked to see if it was before leaving the riverbank. Looking over towards the girl and the soldier, he saw that the latter had overpowered her, and the girl was simply sobbing unable to do anything while weakly trying to beat him away. The soldier in turn started to laugh.

Takeshi raising his arm went to aim at the soldier, but due to how weak his body was his arm was swaying all over the place and he had difficulty trying to aim with his eyes alone. At first, Takeshi was worried about hitting the girl, but in the state, he was in if he missed the soldier and hit her in Takeshi's eyes it was probably better than having to go through such an experience before being killed.

Breathing in heavily one last time Takeshi tried his hardest to lift the gun back up almost out of his remaining strength. Screw it! I only have one chance I have to make it count either way!

"Urgh!!" Takeshi screamed out using that force to lift the gun with an enormous amount of pain whilst doing so. The soldier looked at him and his face quickly turned to fear, he immediately lost that gratifying look in his eyes when he realized what was being pointed at him.

Slowly pulling the trigger all that rang through the forest was the sound of a single gunshot.