(Ace Katsuro)
My mind was unsteady. Memories were piling up and I tried my best to rearrange them and place the moments accordingly. While I was doing that, my mind started to clear up. We were heading to the council building. We had a plan. However, we were stuck… smoke filled the air. I went through it… following her… Mira…Mira! 70Please respect copyright.PENANA3uaqC3TuzO
Just then my eyes shot open, but I wasn’t on top of the building anymore. I was in a dim room. In a glass cage. I charged at it, but something was pulling me back. Huge chains that lit up in red. There were two of them, keeping my arms raised up and apart. I had a feeling where I was. Uneasiness grew inside me. It was then confirmed when I saw Fred walk in the room with a woman next to him. They were both in formal clothes. Her hair was mostly covered by her hat, which was almost identical to Fred’s. I then saw another woman. However, she was muscular, and had a slit on her eyebrow. I tried yanking my arms free.
“Ace, don’t try to struggle,” I heard Fred say. “These chains are strong, you don’t want to hurt yourself, right?”
Like I haven’t already been through pain,I thought in anger. “Leave me alone!” I extended my leg out to kick the glass but I couldn’t reach it. I can’t give up. I kept trying. I was desperate. It didn’t matter how much pain I was in, or how tired my body was going to be, I’d be okay if I was as far away from them as possible.
“I know you’re unsettled with us,” Fred tried again, walking slowly, closer and closer to the cage. “But trust me, we’re not going to hurt you. At least, not anymore.”
I stopped kicking. “Then let me go!”
He shook his head, his voice in a calm manner. “Not yet. We’re trying to see a new perspective since demons are rarer than most creatures and humans. If I’m being honest, it was Kasumi’s idea to start this. It gives a sense of justice. In order to do this, we’ll need you to speak about your parents death and the woman in the dead forest. We’ll need to hear what you saw and felt with the addition of your actions due to those feelings.”
What is this? I thought in panic. I could feel my heart thrashing against my chest. Just hearing the words: parents, family, makes me want to plug my ears. “I didn’t do anything! Let me go!” I began yanking at the chains again. It hurt my wrists, but I didn’t care. I needed to leave. Mira was probably in danger and I was just stuck here.
“Ace, we know you don’t like this,” Fred started, taking another step toward the glass. I backed away. “But if we obtain a better perspective, we can find a way to help you instead of murdering you.”
I tried slowing my breath, although my heart felt it was going to burst, but then it started to calm down. Still, I didn’t want to talk about it. I hated it. I hated talking about it. Talking about it starts to make me lose my sanity.
“My assistant, Kasumi, is very empathetic,” Fred began, filling in the silence. He motioned his hand to the woman next to him. “She has also experienced trauma. So she will try her best to connect with you. I’ll leave her to it.” He then left the room.
She waved. “Hello.”
I turned away.
“It’s okay,” She replied, with a soft laugh. “I’m Kasumi Nakamura. The assistant Fred described before. I know you’re afraid, and you don’t want to talk about such heavy subjects, but we do want to learn more about you. How about we start off with the woman in the forest, because it was the most recent?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I snapped.
“Please. I would like to understand the minds of rare creatures such as yourself.”
Her voice was soft. Gentle. I was starting to feel like I was being too harsh.
“I didn’t do it,” I said too quickly. Then I slowed down my pace in speech a little to calm myself or else they'd never get me out of here. “I was getting firewood, and I just saw it there. Then I ran away. That’s all that happened.”
She frowned. “Were you afraid?”
“I-uh-” I darted my eyes side to side. “Well, it was a dead body. I don’t see those often.”
She nodded. “And… your parents?”
My lips parted. I couldn’t get the words out. I couldn’t say it. There had to be a way out of it. I have to be as bland as possible. I took a deep breath. “I don’t know. It just happened. I was okay, but then the next moment…they were dead.”
“I see,” She replied after a pause. “What was your relationship with your parents?”
I looked down at my hands. Red scars all over. “Difficult,” I choked that word out. “One of them would hurt me…the other, afraid.”
“It seems… like you take these types of situations seriously.” She finally said.
“Of course I do,” I replied, almost instantly. “Let me out!”
“You even saved another wanted person.”
That caught me off guard. “What do you mean?”
“Mira,” She said, blankly. “She almost died in that forest and you saved her, correct?”
I crawled back in horror. “H..How do you know that?”
Her eyes didn’t change, but her mouth curled into a menacing grin. “I was told. You two also fought large worms together.”
Someone was watching us!?
“That’s why we decided to run a little experiment.” I heard her say.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Experiment of what?”
The buff woman at the back waved. “I’m Astrid.” She then turned her right arm into a large blade. I suddenly realized. The dead woman in the forest. Wound was a large slice on the stomach. “It was you who killed that woman!?”
Astrid turned her arm back to its original form before crossing them. “It was for the experiment. I was told to murder her to see if our hypothesis was right about your reactions to such things. Also, I was hiding among the worms in blade form. I mean, who else could’ve screamed to attract you two?”
“Th-That’s-” I glared. “That’s not possible! I mean, if you really were watching us from the forest. How did you find me in the city?”
“Tracking.” Kasumi answered.
“What?”
“In the forest one night, you were searching for herbs to cook with, right?” Astrid asked. “Well, you happened to prick your finger on something in the bushes. You did end up bleeding a little, but you didn’t think of it much. However, what you really pricked on was my blade! So, all I had to do was turn back into my original form, and keep that blood in a jar, which I had next to me.”
I was stunned in silence, but it seemed like Kasumi had more to say. “You know, it was a handmade tracker. Made by me. It can track creatures' locations based on a unique part of their body. I figured for you Ace, it was your blood. It’s much darker than regular blood. So finding you wasn’t so hard.”
I tried putting it all together. “Wait-so your experiment was seeing if I had feelings? What kind stupid shit is that!?”
“Now that I told you some information, it’s your turn to share some,” Kasumi started, remaining in her calm voice. “Tell me Ace, did the woman in the forest look like someone?”
“Wh-What?”
“Did the woman in the forest look like someone?”
What is this? Do I lie? Should I face the truth? Or keep running away with lies?
“Yes.” I finally forced myself to say.
“Does she look like someone who is also deceased?”
Why is she asking me this? “Yes.”
“It’s your mother, right?”
I nodded.
“Did you wish it weren’t so?” She asked after a pause.
“What?” I asked, weakly.
“That you never murdered them? You know you murdered them. Right?”
I clenched my teeth. This is a trap. This is a trap. Don’t listen to what she says.
“Even if you don’t know how it went down, it was still you, wasn’t it? Based on your explanation, they died because of you. Because you were doing your purpose.”
“P-Purpose?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“The purpose for creatures like you is to murder. There’s no good in you. You’re going to hurt everyone you come across and that’s why you’re always alone. Who’s going to forgive someone like you?” I could see my mom’s dead body on the floor in my mind. Her hand was reaching towards me. “F-Forgive…me…”
“Stop it!” I shouted. I could feel cold tears running down my face.
“And that’s why you take these things so seriously,” Kasumi continued. “Because you’re afraid of not being able to control yourself, so you end up hurting others.”
“Shut up!” An immense panic sunk in, and flashbacks flooded in. She’s hurting me again, she’s hurting me...and what did I do in return? Her hung body instantly appeared in my mind.
“You’re afraid of hurting Mira, right?” I heard Kasumi ask. “You’re afraid of losing control and killing her the exact same way.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!” I was filled with guilt, rage and fear. Tears poured down my face like a waterfall. I then felt the chains unclip before I found my mind in another realm.
70Please respect copyright.PENANA6lbvm8JBgS