After buying some food from the stall owner I walk across the streets and head to the outer edge of the city.

The incident with the Widow’s house and the merchant Caravan are both on the outer edge (south) and out of the city (East), respectively.

Luckily, it is not around my corner, where I live in the Western corner of the city.

Because it is still the 1800s, even though technology has advanced sufficiently to where we have things such as electricity and telegraphs, they are still in their infancy and expensive, so most families go to sleep soon after the sun goes down.

As I walk closer to my house passing by the Nagayas (longhouses), I notice that many people are already heading on to sleep and closing their homes.

Honestly, this gives me the creeps, it makes me feel like I’m in some sort of horror movie about to come in contact with my murderer.

I finally reached the door to my house, against my better judgement, I opened the sliding door, only to see nothing.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Just my father lying on the floor blacked out from drinking and my mother presumably in her room.

“Just my imagination, huh.” I mutter to myself unsurely.

Skipping over my unconscious father I headed over to my room and went inside.

Once inside, I open a secret compartment inside of my floor tiles and take out a bag. Inside the bag is all the Mon (old Japanese currency) I have managed to gather from stealing from my parents.

My plan right now is to steal here until I’m old enough to survive on my own and then escape with all my gathered funds.

As I grab the bag to begin taking account of my funds, I am suddenly overcome with an instinctual fear.

I am frozen, not literally, but I cannot move, I feel that if I move so much as an inch I will die.

I managed to turn my head to look at the source of my troubles.

“Hoh, you can actually sense me, no wonder I felt a bigger than average Reiryoku coming from around here.” A monster that looked like a giant spider with a mask said in amusement.

“A hollow.” I grimly state.

Although I still can’t see it I can at least hear it and barely sense it. And from the looks of it, it’s one of those rare hollows to manage to retain some sanity, fuck.

“Oh, you are pretty knowledgeable brat, but it looks like you’re still just a kid, by the looks of it, you did not expect to meet me, looks like you can’t even sense presences properly.”

“Then again, what would I expect from a brat who’s still wet behind his ears, still, your Reiryoku smells so delicious, maybe you’ll taste better than that couple in the other room, you’ll have a better use as my dinner tonight.” The Hollow states while licking it’s mask.

It took me a second to process what he just said, but then it clicked, he must’ve just eaten my parents.

Honestly, they were bad and abusive parents, I don’t feel much attachment to them, especially as I was preparing to run away in the future, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth that my parents were killed without my knowledge.

On a side note, it seems this pressure is stimulating my Reiryoku because the hollow is becoming clearer.

“You ate my parent’s?” I nervously ask him, though it seems stupid to ask, anime logic dictates a villain answers the protagonist’s questions, so I’m aiming to distract him for a bit as we talk.

“Yes, though they tasted rather bland, must’ve been because neither of those two were happy with their lives to begin with.” As expected, the hollow let it’s guard down and answered me.

Letting his guard down isn’t as easy as it seems, part of it is because I am showing him I am nervous, which is both an act and the truth, before any of this, I was just a normal human. I had no prior near death encounter, nor do I have any battle experience, so my emotions I am showing him are actually my true emotions, though I am forcibly keeping myself in check to not fall into despair or anything.

“Were the other 2 incidents with the Widow’s house and the merchant caravan your doing as well?” I asked him while secretly mobilizing my Reiryoku to gather into a ball.

Grinning he replies, “Yes, that bitch was my wife, we promised to stay together in life and death, but she started to forget about me and raise our children, she deserved to be eaten for breaking her promise.”

Terrible, fucking bastard ate his whole family for the sole reason his wife was a strong woman.

“Then what about the caravan?”

“Oh, the caravan I ate simply because I felt hungry, no real motive really.” He states nonchalantly.

“Anyways, enough talking I want to enjoy my meal now.” He says as he slowly approaches me.

As soon as he leans over me and opens his mouth wide to swallow me whole, I throw my gathered energy into his mouth and hurriedly jump to the side.

“Aaaah.” He screams in pain as the energy ball exploded inside his mouth.

“Good, struggle, struggle until you fall into despair you little rat and I eat you.” The hollow angrily roars.