Posted by ‘It’s getting dark. What happened to the lights?’ The nameless scrawny boy felt the right side of his neck increasingly warm up. He subconsciously put his hand to feel where the warmth was coming from. His body became lighter, and he couldn’t help to lay down on the soft, colorful grass with the shade of the leaves over his head. ‘Was that a knife? Where did he get a knife from?’
⏳
Lucky for Hiroto, Sho told him to grab a knife.
During the fight with the 17 people, he found something similar to his previous knife, putting it in the same holder as before and with the remaining top half of his clothes, concealing the holder to the best of his ability, bunching all of it around his waist, making him shirtless.
After the death of the nameless scrawny boy, Hiroto dashed through the forest without a second to spare. Angled away from where the boy was walking, he held his knife in his right hand, constantly changing angles within the forest at random points.
“Brush” With all his legs could muster, he followed the tree branches that were shaking and occasionally bushes that raddle. Going off hearing he was constantly chasing noises, cutting, looping, running straight for a couple of seconds, anything to catch whatever causing them.
However, his fruitless chase seemed to be pointless after running around like a headless chicken. ‘What happens if they gave me a false time limit that it would take for me to arrive?’
For example, they told Hiroto that he had 10 minutes to arrive at his given point, but in reality, the time was 8 minutes. Then wouldn’t they kill Sho even if he showed up at 9 minutes or more?
‘This is taking too long, and he’s not trying to fight me,’ Sho had already been in the chase for a minute, and he was getting nowhere. Too many variables are in play. How long would the fight last if he managed to catch the person?
“Sen! Stop.” The only person who could make Hiroto run around like this without giving him a speck of sight could only be Sen. At the beginning of the treatments, Sen would periodically hide away from everyone; he didn’t speak much; however, his tendency to run made him very profound toward not being seen. His tiny figure compared to peers made him seem weak and fragile in a place where he needed to be strong and fierce.
Over time as he progressively changed to adapt to his environment, he became to the point where jumping to tree branches became child’s play for Sen. Hiroto imagine that if he really wanted to, he could completely conceal the noises. But why is he not?
However, what enemy would stop from just asking? Wouldn’t that be an absurd thing to do? Hiroto’s mind was running on full; he didn’t know what to do. Would his best hope turn around and save Sho? Then he would have to worry about his back, but if he kept chasing Sen, he could run into a trap or waste time.
‘Would he chase me if I were to run, or would he somehow give a signal that the deal went wrong?’ What was the point of aimlessly wandering around?
Without thinking further about it, Hiroto put his foot down and sprinted in what direction the boy was initially walking. Luckily, Sen seemed to be running right behind him; he could hear the tree branches shake.
‘Now the question is if he will attempt to attack me or keep his distance?’ Hiroto constantly kept glancing behind him, yet he still couldn’t grasp Sen’s position well enough just yet.
……..
“Don’t you guys find it funny; they have this whole playground to be in, yet they stay within one corner. Seems a waste, doesn’t it?” The fat older man from before had his mouth open, breathing intensively, watching the kids play, pushing his belly pressed against the window. If he were to step back, the steam would leave an indent on the window.
“Now that you mention, it does seem to be a waste.” Someone agreed while holding his gold cup of wine to his mouth.
“I had the same thoughts.” Younger slender woman said, while her eyes felt slightly disappointed watching the kids play around.
“It’s because it’s the most strategic move. They would all be in the open if they were to fight in the rock square. Making no ambushes or diversion with their large numbers would be more of a disadvantage. If they were to be in the desert, they could ambush perhaps through hiding in the sand; it’s still unrealistic. The greatest disadvantage is still fatigue, and why would you make your army tired over one person? Then lastly, the swamp would be more advantageous toward a single individual. They could do guerilla warfare, through the tall grass, easily escaping after a swift kill.” Doctor Shiro Ishii’s seemed displeased by such a question. The fat older man looked behind, giving the Doctor Shiro Ishii a glance, showing a hit of anger.
”I know that much. I just wanted to see how they would play in other areas. Must I have to explain myself to everyone that we all came here for entertainment?” It was a quick remark but hearing it, everyone was slowly agreeing.
“I hope I don’t have to explain how these kids were raised to be analytical and the advantages over the ground they fight on.” It was a snappy remark; however, the fat old man’s eyes this time didn’t try to hide how angry he was. He stepped away from the window, leaving an imprint on his belly, while his steps were heavy on the floor, showing amount of weight he carried to move. He made his way to Doctor Shiro one step at a time, making a scene for everyone to notice. This was mostly caused by his weight of his steps.
Doctor Shiro looked more irritable rather than scared, his work has been insulted how could he not! His 10-years working on this project, only to be insulted at the end, Doctor Shiro mind was already thinking insults for that fat behemoth that was walking toward him. However, he sustain himself to his work environment changing irritable expression smiling at the fat older man.
Yet, this only made that fat older man madder giving his face a new tent of red, almost like the top half his head was a tomato. His steps became heavier, as if he was taking some of his anger on the floor before he got to the main meal.
“That’s enough! Don’t you think it’s already enough of all the shows that Doctor Shiro Ishii has displayed for us? Stop your childish remarks, or do you need this old man to make a move.” The older man who has sat in away from the widows kept to himself until just now. However, watching TV, would you like if someone were to talk during your favorite TV show? He was showing obvious irritation over the actions of the fat older man.
”Of course! Don’t mind the remarks I was saying, and I was just speaking out loud. Nothing to take to heart.” Like a 180-degree turn, the display fat older man went away. He slowly made his way back to the window and acted like everything before didn’t happen. Everyone else who agreed with him did the same; some even looked like they had a hairball stuck in their throat.
Doctor Shiro went back to his distasteful look toward that fat older man, but he didn’t stare long. Looking at the TV, his smile was once again apparent.
……..
‘Sho, just stay alive. Like you said let’s see the beach and wildlife with trees and grass. Don’t forget the animals.’ If Sho were to see Hiroto he would probably scream in excitement, watching Hiroto face showing a brief hit of emotion. His hands had blood dripping off them, while the blood on his body showed hits of drying up. Cracks already began to shape around the joints, giving a darker tent showing what was still fresh. When watching paint dry on a wall if the light is just right the wet parts will shine brighter than the parts that have already dried. The same could be said with Hiroto making parts of him shine brighter at times.
Occasionally, he would step in a puddle of his fallen classmate, showing a brief hit of his location, and the shaking of the branches and bushes was apparent as ever. Hiroto already deducted that it has to be 10 feet away from him. He would stop every couple of seconds waiting to hear Sen stop as well, next he would count within his head to give a rough estimate where he was.
He could only guess this would work, he remembers Sho saying, ‘when lighting strikes count in seconds to see how far it is.’ Of course, that would be miles apart, and this is just a couple of feet. Could it be used in the same manner? Most likely not, but Hiroto couldn’t think of a better way for him to guess where he’s at.
But through this he has not once turned around to fight Sen. It’s Sen were talking about! Even if he were to turn around, Sen would just run away, and throwing a knife wouldn’t do anything. If it did, then he wouldn’t have lived this long.
Hiroto kept his pace steady while advancing; he was already past the point where his back was exposed to the enemy, and the front was going to be in a full-frontal attack.
Luckily for Hiroto hints of Sho fight started to show itself. Arrows spread throughout the forest were in display stuck within the trees and a little further what seem to be dead bodies laid on the corrupted grass field. ‘Is this the point?’
“Shit!” Hiroto voice was monotone, yet still showed the urgency.
“Brush”
“Brush”
The sounds of the branches and bushes wasn’t even canceled this time, it was much louder and was moving toward Hiroto’s right. ‘He’s going to where Sho at!’
Hiroto tried to run even harder than he already was, but if it were that easy than he wouldn’t be in this situation. Going a couple seconds faster is incredible in its own feat, but when someone else already knows where to go and you don’t, than wouldn’t it be useless?
Hiroto went straight hoping to cut off Sen, but in doing so he was in the middle where Sho fought seeing dozen arrows spread everywhere. Luckily, he found a curved sword right by the three bodies stacked on top of each other.
Hiroto reached down grabbing the curved metal sword, ‘Arrows!’
An idea came to Hiroto, he ran up to one of the arrows stuck within a tree just a couple a feet away from where the pile of bodies located. He used the arrow to leverage himself up to reach the branch pulling himself up to a standing position all this within a second.
Sen finally started to cut in from where he was at, all Hiroto had to do was run straight and he should just barely meet Sho. Hiroto twisted his left wrist throwing the curved sword in a similar manner as a boomerang.
“Whoosh”
Its curved throw and odd shape made the trajectory hard to predict.
Sen stops standing on a tree branch, watching the curve sword go through the air, not daring enough to have his back to it. He was holding a combat knife in his right hand, positioning it over his chest, and pointed downward toward his arm. With his left hand, he supports his right wrist, ready to take on the sheer force the curve sword would bring.
Compared to a combat knife, a curved sword is vastly different. The mass of a curve sword to a combat knife could not be equal. He could not handle the curved blade’s sheer force with one hand. Particularly with Sen’s tiny figure compared to that of the other 9-year-olds.