Blood Spills in the Dead of the Night
I ran.
Past deserted hallways, and blood stained walls, I ran into the night, a certain urgency in my stride. My mind was racing. My heart was palpitating. After 2 weeks, he finally made a move. I knew it was coming, I knew eventually something would happen, but still, when it actually does happen, it still caught me off guard.
Earlier, when I was leisurely making my way back, I recieved a message from the girls.
Through the walkie talkies, they told me about what had happened back at the base. The situation with Emiko. I didn’t ask how she had known where we were. I never told them, but I guessed that they had already known a long time ago. Either way, an attack by Satou- that crazy deranged pyscho, finally happened. Emiko didn’t know much, mostly because they sent her away the moment they realized what was happening. The only information she could provide was that Satou had attacked, and that the situation was dire.
As expected, in the face of such a situation, the girls wanted to help. I felt that that was a natural reaction. The altruistic nature that most humans possess, even in a situation like an apocalypse, that sort of thing won’t easily crumble. In truth, I also wanted to help. After all, it would leave a bad aftertaste if 50 or so people were to die and I didn’t do anything to prevent it. Still though, despite my own feelings, caution was still important. I told the girls to wait for my return, but they insisted on rushing ahead.
The urgency and the fear of not making it in time was something understandable, so I eventually conceded.
That’s why I’m rushing there now. To the cafeteria, to the battlefield. I compromised and told them I’d meet them there. My legs propelled me forward. There was a slight limp in my step, caused by the weird dissonance in my left thigh. I couldn’t feel anything, but the limp still persisted. It made my overall speed much slower, and ate up more of my time.
“Damn leg,” I cursed for the nth time as I took out a pale red vial from my pocket. After some slight hesitation, I downed the vial in mid stride before I powered through.
While staring at the darkness ahead of me, a low mutter escaped my throat. A hushed jumble of words that I inwardly spoke to myself conveyed the swelling emotion and intentions that boiled around in my heart.
“Wait for me.”
Grounding my teeth, and feeling the effects of the health potion kicking in, I once again ran.
*****
Pov Change
In the dim of the night, the cafeteria was illuminated by the faint traces of florsecent lighting while all around, a chaotic chorus of painfilled groans filled the room.
Within a partioned of section of the open space, Hokusei stood. His body felt sluggish, while his mind buzzed unevenly. He could hardly think straight in his current condition, but he knew that something bad was happening.
He had just woken up after what felt like an eternity of restless sleep. When he awoke, he was greeted by the chorus of pain that resonated all around the cafeteria. What was even more surprising was the condition his own body was in. Sluggish, slow, uneven, an uncomfortable feeling of lethargy had spread all throughout his body.
He wanted to sleep, to just lie down, close his eyes, and quell the painful buzzing in his head. He almost did so, if it wasn’t for the persisting wails that surrounded him.
Hokusei pushed the desire away from his mind, and glanced around the space. Around him, were 3 out of the 4 people he usually fought with. Their figures leaned heavily against the wall while their throats let loose a series of haggard panting. The pale hue of their skin gave off a sickly feeling.
The other one, the former library committee member named Emiko had left a short while ago, sent off to call for back up the moment Hokusei felt the impending preminition of danger. Honestly speaking, he would have felt more comfortable having the 5 of them here together, but sending anybody else wasn’t possible.
This was due to a two reasons. For one, nobody else in the cafeteria knew the way to Hide’s base. And two, there was nobody else in the cafeteria, aside from the rest of Hokusei’s group that were physically capable enough to move- let alone make the trip.
In truth, despite the sickly faces of everyone present - Hokusei included, they were among the better of the Cafeteria group. Everyone else was either unconcious, or moaning in pain while stuck in a semi-concious state.
Even that brat with the witch hat, alongside the group she hanged around with, were all unconscious. Right now, their sweat drenched bodies were propped up against a certain corner of the room, within a partitioned space especially created for them.
Feeling the sluggish state of his body once more, Hokusei had a dim understanding of his current condition. In truth, it wasn’t all that foreign of a sensation. In fact, it felt familiar in a sense.
It was the same type of sluggish feeling he got when he had cluelessly encountered the Wisps for the first time. Back then, the deterimental effects which did not show themselves on the status window had caused his body to ache and dull. He had luckily escaped before anything bad or serious happened, but the physical memory still lingered in his mind.
Now, he was feeling those same effects all over again. No- these effects were more severe. The dull ache in his muscles were more vivid, the buzzing in his head was more pronounced, even the lethargic feeling was more overpowering than before. Back then, he had only been exposed to the Wisps with no prior protection for close to 30 minutes. If this effect really was due to the wisps, then he had no clue as to how long he had actually been exposed to.
What made this even worse was that he did not see any Wisps around the Cafeteria. Rather, those things should have been confined back near the corridors leading up to the gymnasiums. Under normal circumstances, the current situation should be impossible.
While covering his face with a nearby by piece of cloth, he called out to the three in front of him.
Hearing his voice, the three craned their necks in his directions, their heavily bagged eyes conveyed the unatural fatigue they were currently feeling. A feeling akin to wearing winter clothes in the middle of a flowing river. The weight that constantly dragged them down as the current swept them away, with no rhyme nor reason.
“Something’s bad’s about to happen.” Hokusei muttered slowly. His instinctive gut feeling stemmed from the unnaturalness of this situation. ‘The Wisps aren’t supposed to be here!’ No matter how long he wanted to scream this fact out loud, it did not change the situation.
“We’re the only one’s that can move right now - probably either due to our higher level or higher vitality. Maybe both. So, I’d like to-”
As he spoke, suddenly, from outside the partioned space, he heard a noise. From among the cries of pain and low moaning that filled the room, a heavy thud and the sound of opening doors could be heard.
Hokusei, along with the rest of his party, staggered into the open space, both driven by curiosity, and the need to protect the others within the Cafeteria.
There, a few meters away from them, was a familiar silhouette who brazenly walked into the cafeteria with ridiculing smirk plastered on his face. The figure had entered from the Library, and was currently willfully swinging around a night black sword as if he had not a single care in the world. Behind the figure, about 8 or so people followed behind.
What was the most striking out of these 8 people, were there stick like figures, which went rather well with their hollowed out cheeks and bloodshot eyes. Their expressions were savage, and carnal, as if the last specks of humanity in them was on the verge of collapsing.
Hokusei turned his attention back to the one who lead the group of 8. The man with the ridiculing smirk. The man with the droopy eyelids and the long mess of unwashed black hair. The man he had instantly recognized.
“Satou…” He reflexively grimaced the moment the name leaked out from his lips.
Truthfully, he had guessed Satou was the one behind this incident. In fact, he had sent Emiko away on the premise that Satou was attacking the base. Now, after confirming that his guess had been spot on, he wished he had been wrong.
Having noticed his name being called, Satou turned around to look over at Hokusei. The instant he did, Hokusei noticed that the man had the same sunken cheeks and red shot eyes as the group behind him. Although, despite their similarity, he felt as if Satou was just a bit more… excitable. Even now, those red eyes gleamed mischievously, as if it had found an interesting long lost toy to play with.
“Oho~ If it isn’t the Prez! How long has it been?” Satou lightly remarked as he walked slowly to the center of the room, ignoring the crying shrieks around him. His lackeys followed suit, keeping a respectable distance away from their leader.
In response, Hokusei merely glared. He didn’t bother asking why he was here, nor did he bother asking him to leave. He felt that deep down, nothing he said would make a difference.
Satou ignored the glare, and instead continued lightly trotting towards the cafeteria. Each one of his strides were filled with vigor, with unhinged excitement. Satou looked as if he had more energy now than when he had last seen him.
As the youth got closer, Hokusei was able to more clearly see those red eyes. Eyes filled with scarlet blood that seemingly glowed in the darkness. In addition, Hokusei saw traces of black wisp emanating off of Satou’s body. He questioned whether or not those strands of smoke were real, or whether it was just a figment of his overactive imagination.
“Ara? What’s this?”
Satou suddenly uttered as his advance came to an abrupt stop. His eyes slowly glared at Hokusei and the others.“Haven’t your numbers decreased a bit? I was pretty sure you had 4 underlings, Prez.
Did one of them die?”
Satou uttered the last line with a widening smile, revealing a set of yellow canines. He was truly relishing off the possibility of their death.
Hokusei brusquely laughed. In response, he sardonically replied, “I should be the one asking you that. What’s with that amount of people? Weren’t there twenty or so of you guys? Now there’s less than half.”
Satou laughed. He laughed so hard, little traces of water leaked out from his slit eyes. “Aha~ Well, you know, things weren’t going the best for our little group.” He once again laughed, as if the distant memory was somehow amusing. “ We had a seriously shitty time you know. No food, dirty water, even my game console ran out of battery. It was a seriously shitty time.
Isn’t that right guys?”
From behind the man, a rustling could be heard. The eight other people all shuffled forward in response, except none of them actually replied back. Instead, an increased inhalation could be heard, as if they were greedily sucking on the contaminated air around them.
“Man, it’s annoying when these idiots don’t respond back. I feel like I’m always talking to myself lately… Well, no matter. Anyways, like I was saying, the only thing we’ve ran across these past few weeks were these damn smoke monsters.”
As if to emphasize, Satou thrusted his hand around him, indicating to the whole of the Cafeteria. This confirmed Hokusei’s earlier guesses as to the involvement of the Wisps, but before he could say anything, Satou was once again talking.
“With no food, we were on the verge of starving to death. I played around with the idea of attacking you before hand, but I wasn’t ready yet.
In the end, I- we had no choice.” He shot a glance behind him and smirked, as if sharing in a little personal secret with the others. “Well, you know, we did that, you know, that - Cannibalism~”
“W-wha-!”
Hokusei’s expression shifted into shocked disgust, but before he could dwell any further on that emotion, the throbbing in his head worsened. He wanted to stop, curl up in a ball and go to sleep, and hearing about what Satou had done did not help at all, but he had to stay conscious. He had to keep the youth in front of him occupied long enough for reinforcements to come. This seemed relatively easy enough though, as Satou himself was in a rather talkative mood.
And as if on cue, Satou once again spoke.
“It was a seriously unfortunate experience. The meat tasted disgusting and if you started eating while they were still alive, they make a hell of a lot of annoying noise… Man, just remembering it makes me want to…” Satou shivered slightly, his expression morphing into a look of disgust. But just as quickly as that expression appeared, it once again changed, this time turning into one of complacent delight.
“Well, even though it was a seriously serious shitty experience, I did gain a few good things. For instance, this new title of mine, [Cannibal].”
He laughed slightly as he stared off seemingly into nothing. His eyes refocused a second or so later after having seemingly regained himself and turned back around to face Hokusei. “Oh right, I forgot, you can’t see my window panel. Well, let me see… What it basically does is-”
Satou abruptly stopped himself. His gaze shifted to the right while a mad glint entered his eyes. He was looking over at a partitioned section of the Cafeteria, where 10 or so people currently slept.
“Oi, you there,” He motioned to one of his lackeys closest to the partitioned section. “Knock down that annoying thing over there and bring me one of the people currently ‘napping’”
The indicated man promptly did as he was told, and not a second later, the wall, created using stacked chairs and tables was instantly deconstructed and destroyed. The man who did the destruction had seemingly abnormal strength, as the construction toppled rather effortlessly.
A few of the knocked down chairs and tables pinned down a couple people, prompting another round of wails, but the man ignored that and grabbed a slightly conscious girl by the hair before he dragged her towards Satou’s waiting figure.
Hokusei wanted to move, he wanted to rush ahead to stop him, but the energy in his body was simply not there. In addition, Satou, who had noticed the President’s intentions, playfully wagged his sword, while mouthing, “That’s a bad idea, y’know~”
In less than 20 seconds, The girl who was incapable of resisting from the very start, was brought forth and tossed on the floor directly in front of Satou. Shortly after, the man who had dragged her, returned to his original spot, all the while the vacant expression on his face never changing.
Satou lightly stepped on the fragile neck of the girl, who only replied back with a glassy gaze. He raised an open palm towards the blade of his sword, and whispered a noiseless incantation, before the sword wielding hand instantly blurred.
Shortly after, the severed head of the slightly conscious girl rolled helplessly away from its main body. There was a slightly acidic smell that wafted through the air, while the newly created wound on the girl's neck slightly bubbled.
“Wha-!” Hokusei’s eyes widened as his haggard body momentarily stiffened in shock. The sequence of events had happened so fast, that nobody- not even the girl who was killed- could react.
A maniacal cackle broke Hokusei and the others back from their stupor.
“Hahaha! Did you see that, did you see how easily she died?! When I’m up against a human, my stats increase by 1.5 times the max. In addition, I gain triple experience from killing humans, so even though this bitch was probably hardly level 3, I still gained plenty of experience. And if that wasn’t enough, killing humans regains a fair bit of my stamina as well. Seriously, this deprived title of mine is a bit too overpowered, don’t ya think?”
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Satou continued to gloat and laugh as he freely swung the sword in his hand. Every now and then, the sword would pierce or cut at the dead girl’s body, but nobody could do anything about it. Hokusei and the others simply glared while their faces contorted into anger.
After a few more seconds of cackling, Satou finally regained himself, and after taking a deep breath, he once again resumed, “Well, it’s not like everything about this title is beneficial.
Like the fact that regular food tastes like shit to me now, or this stupid voice in my head,” he playfully tapped the base of his skull with the edge of his sword. “It’s a convenient title, but the demerits are pretty annoying.
Agh, really, so annoying, so annoying! It's so annoying it makes me want to pull out my hair, rip open my stomach, and do all kinds of nasty shit! Well, I can’t really do anything like that without dying, so I’ll settle for killing again.”
Out of nowhere, Satou’s figure suddenly turned around. Without so much as a warning, his sword pierced the nearest lackey’s abdomen. The man went down with a groan, but he did not instantly die. Instead, he helplessly looked up at the his boss, only to be met with a cold and psychotic glance. In less than a second, the man’s head cleanly separated from his neck, bringing an end to his life.
The rest of Satou’s lackeys did not even so much as blink at the spectacle, instead, they did something rather forthcoming. The seven remaining lackeys instantly jumped on the man’s corpse the instant Satou turned back around to face the President.
The new sounds of chewing and the ripping of flesh masked the precedent sounds of pain filled wails. Satou ignored all this, and calmly conversed with the wide eyed Hokusei.
“Ahh~, that felt better.” Satou lightly sighed, before his content expression shifted slightly into a frown. “Although killing in general feels good, and helps placate my hunger, as expected, killing those crazy bastards isn’t nearly as satisfying. Plus, it just puts me in the mood for more killing.
Oi, you guys,” He once again turned towards the hunger crazed cannibals behind him. “Enough messing around, go bring me a couple more people. Let’s see, I want at least two girls. Cutting female flesh always feels the best.”
After lightly shooting off commands in such a brusque fashion, the cannibals instantly reacted. They shot off into the area with broken tables and scattered chairs as they began dragging more people towards Satou. They moved fast, and with a certain sense of urgency, as if the faster they moved, the sooner they could eat again.
“S-s-stop it! You bastard, I said stop!” Hokusei’s desperate screaming was met with a ridiculing smirk. That expression only further angered Hokusei as he took a step forward, his body radiating with killing intent, and with the sole intention of cutting down Satou buzzing in his mind.
Before he could get any further though, he staggered and helplessly fell to his knees. His continuingly dwindling strength was obvious by now, as he could barely stand upright with the help of his sword.
“Damn it! Fuck!” He cursed while his blood continued to boil. “My body’s feeling more and more sluggish! The damn gas is everywhere, and I can’t move properly! Damn it, move!”
No matter how badly he wanted to will himself, he could only helplessly stare as a massacre unfolded in front of him.
Satou’s lackeys had gathered the 9 other people that had been present when the Partition wall collapsed. Most of these people were unconscious, while a few were in a similar half-conscious state like the girl from earlier.
Satou looked over the group with greedy eyes. His eyes scanned and examined them all thoroughly, although they did linger more on the females present. Finally, after what felt like an excruciatingly long amount of time, Satou let loose a helpless sigh.
“Ah Ahh~ Although it would be better if they were to put up resistance, I guess this sort of thing will have to do.”
Simultaneous to his unsatisfied remark, the black sword in his hand blurred once again. A noiseless massacre. The people before him were all cut down with no exception. Blood splashed everywhere, while the satric smell of acid continued to intensify.
After a minute or so of resistanceless slaughter, Satou finally looked up from his life’s work. His face was red with blood, yet he sported a child like expression of glee. Those bloodshot eyes as red as the blood on his face curved into slim crescents.
He sighed contently, while he licked the corner of his lip.
“Man~ I haven’t had a slaughter like that in a while. How refreshing, how really refreshing!” As he stared dazedly at the ceiling above, he finally turned his gaze back over to Hokusei.
“Ara? What’s with that expression, Prez? You look seriously scary, dude. Are you angry? You can’t seriously be angry man, lighten up dude.
Why’re are you so angry? I mean, you watched me kill all these people, but didn’t even move to stop me. Aren’t you partly responsible for their deaths?” Satou's spoke with a deliberately clueless expression on his face while he prodded the dead bodies around him with absentminded motion.
“Y-you…” Hokusei gritted his teeth as the glare in his eyes intensified. In contrast to the raging emotions he felt, his body only continued to lose strength. At this point, he could not even move, let alone stand.
[If only this damn gas wasn’t here, I’d have already killed that guy…]
As if reading his mind, Satou playfully grinned, as he spoke, “Ah? Are you thinking about those Gas monsters?
Aren’t they convenient? Just a little bit of exposure, and look what happens. Truthfully, I’m kind of surprised that you haven’t passed out yet. If I remember correctly, I snuck those things in the ventilation shafts around 9 PM, so it’s been about 3 hours already, huh? 3 hours and you’re still conscious… how high is your damn level Prez?”
Satou sighed in mock admiration, as he walked lightly towards Hokusei’s fallen figure. In contrast to the President, Satou’s own body seemingly radiated exuberance and energy, a phenomenon that greatly confused Hokusei.
“Well, you look pretty pathetic right now Prez. You have the same expression as that one guy I killed, what was his name again? Ah, I already forgot. You were there too Prez, so you probably remember.”
The face of Tanimura, Satou’s first victim, flashed before Hokusei’s eyes, and filled him with uncontrollable rage. “You bastard!”
In response to this, Satou merely breathed out another exasperated sigh, before a sudden kick was sent flying towards Hokusei’s fallen figure. The base of Satou’s foot sunk deep within the Prez’s rib cage, causing a painful cracking sound to resonate while the Prez’s body was sent flying back a good 5 meters or so.
Hokusei came to a stop after his sliding body hit the base of a table. He spat out a mouthful of blood, while his mind momentarily blanked out for a second.
“You see Prez, I am different from you.” Satou coldly spoke while he brandished his sword in the air. “Unlike you, who has struggled and will continue to struggle in this new world, I will rise. I will flourish. Evident of that is this gas here.” He once again thursted his hands out to indicate at the room around him. “This gas, does not hurt me. It was a shitty experience getting used to it, but in the end, I managed to turn this demerit into my strength. Can you believe that? Aren’t I amazing?”
As he lightly spoke he breathed in deeply, his eyes momentarily glazed over from pure euphoria. In an instant that euphoric expression of his disappeared and his face once again morphed into a ridiculing smirk.
“Let me teach you something else, Prez.” Satou continued as he walked, his body getting closer and closer to a member of Hokusei’s party - the male twin who used slingshots. By this point, the twin - Virgil Bernard - had lost consciousness, the gas overtaking his system.
“You see Prez, I actually have two titles. My second one’s kind of a shitty sounding title, but it's pretty useful if you know how to use it.”
He squatted down besides Virgil’s unmoving body. The tip of his sword was now directly besides the twin’s exposed neck.
From somewhere close by, the sound of hysterical sobbing and desperate plea could be heard. It was Virgil’s sister.
“[Addict].
Like the name implies, it’s something that has made me rather dependent on this gas. I probably couldn’t live past a day without it. Its also the reason why my skin is so pale and my eyes are always red. Despite that though, like I said, it’s pretty convenient in its own right.”
Without much fanfare, Satou suddenly severed the man’s head. He watched it roll about helplessly with lifeless eyes, prodding and poking as if he were kindling a fire. The girl’s hysteric scream instantly rose in volume, as she began spouting curses and threats. In the end though, Satou ignored all that and continued to one sidedly talk.
“ The convenient thing about it, is that it curbs hunger to a certain extent. It's what allowed me to survive this long on minimal food.
In addition, the best part about it is that it also doubles my stats whenever I take in the thing I’m addicted to. Of course, my stats shrink down to a fourth of their original if I don’t have any of it for more than 12 hours, but that’s a different issue.”
Satou stood back up, and marched complacently back to the center of the cafeteria. For a moment, he stood there in the center of the pile of recently killed corpses, his eyes slightly glazed over, while his lungs constantly inflated to take in the foreign substance around him.
That transient moment lasted for less than a second, before Satou suddenly laughed. While maintaining eye contact with Hokusei, he suddenly took out a red iridescent ore from his bulging pocket.
“The reason why I was able to turn this gas into a title, is because of this baby right here.”
The ore emitted a black smoke as dark as the night itself. Satou, with no hesitation whatsoever, immediately inhaled those wisps of black smoke, before he sighed complacently once more.
He held the core obsessively in his hand, slightly trembling at the mere presence of it. Around Satou, his underlings also showed reaction, there legs shaking while their once absent minded nature disappeared, only to be replaced by a mess of hollering and pleading.
“Boss, Boss, let me take a wiff of it, Boss!”
“Just a little bit Boss, I’ll do anything! Boss!”
“Agh, I really need it, Boss! I’m dying here!”
Shout upon shout, desperate plea upon desperate plea, Satou ignored all this as he continued talking in a soft whisper. Hokusei had to strain his ears in order to hear what he was saying.
“This thing is the Elite Wisp monster. Unlike regular Wisps, the gas it emits is black, and several times more potent. When I first found it, it almost killed me in less than 5 minutes.” He laughed nostalgically at the memory. “In order to get used to it though, I had to take it in little by little. Eventually, after 1 and a half weeks, I gained the title, [Addict].”
He flashed an ugly smile as purple bulging veins began to appear underneath his eyelids and all around his cheek. Those cracked, yellow teeth of his beamed brilliantly as he pronounced each and every letter with implicated importance.
A-d-d-i-c-t.
Satou then gently placed the ore carefully back in his pocket before he once again, strode across the hallway, this time, he was moving in the direction of the other twin. The girl who was lying prone on the ground, in a puddle of snot and tears.
“Well, I’m telling you all this, but it's not like, it’ll matter. I kind of just wanted to gloat a little while you guys were still alive. You know, you guys won’t be alive for long. After all, even if I don’t kill you, the gas surely will.
Ahh! I can’t let you die like that though, after all, I still need the experience.”
Satou’s march abruptly stopped in front of the remaining twin, who hardly showed a reaction in her state of distress.
Hokusei, who watched all this with half closed eyes could barely remain conscious. He wanted to yell, to stop the crazy junkie and end his killing spree, but his body simply refused to move.
Satou raised the sword in his hand rather ceremoniously, his eyes glinting with unhinged greed. He was about to strike, he was about to kill when suddenly, a searing ball of flame shot out towards him from deep within an adjacent hallway.
Satou was able to barely dodge, by craning his neck to the side, before immediately, he jumped back, covering a distance of 3 meters in his leap.
“Who the fuck-” Satou’s words were left unfinished, as the fireball that he thought he had dodged instantly swerved and changed directions. It flew towards him, with unmatched accuracy. Satou, in response sidestepped, and leaped out of harm’s way, but no matter what he did, the searing ball of flame continued to follow, like a homing missile intent on its target.
Eventually, Satou grumbled in dissatisfaction, before he landed near a set of corpses. As the ball of flame approached him, Satou immediately bent down, picked up a nearby corpse, and used it as a shield. Shortly after, the fire bursted upon impact, and Satou once again threw the inflamed body onto a pool of blood by his feet.
The blood was enough to dampen and kill the fire before it could continue to rage any further.
“Fucking hell, what the fuck was that?” Satou cursed and grimaced as he turned to glare at the hallway from which the ball of fire had originated.
Instead of the pitch black darkness he had seen before, there now stood 4 girls, panting heavily while beads of sweat trickled down their faces. In front of their mouths and noses, was a layer of cloth that acted as a pseudo filter to the gas around the room.
Satou briefly squinted his eyes as he glared at the newcomers. He recognized two of the four people. One was the President’s underling - Emiko. The other one… the other one was someone Satou vaguely remembered.
“Oho~ Is that you Cher?”
Upon being called out, the redheaded newcomer’s shoulders instantly stiffened as she took a reflexive step back. She avoided the man’s stare and instead focused in on his blood stained feet.
“What’s wrong Cher? Why are you here? Actually, don’t tell me, let me guess…. You didn’t come to stop me, now did you?” Satou’s questioning expression instantly morphed into a wicked smile as he licked his lips in delight.
Cher did not reply, instead, opting to just stand stock still in front of the other girls, the two distinctly different shields in her hand held alot and in front of her.
Cher gulped once, before steeling herself, and meeting eyes with the man she had once feared. The fear itself hadn’t diminished, what had changed though, was Cher herself. She had lived through 4 weeks of hell, and had met both despair and hope. She had met friends she could rely on, friends who had helped her. And now, she confronted what had led her down the path of destruction before.
To Cher, and also to the others behind her, Satou’s cold smile as he stepped forward towards them, had signaled the start of the night’s battle.
*****
Author's Note: With the start of this scene, we are now nearing the end of the First Arc. Buckle down and get ready folks, from now on, it'll be a vertical drop down this figurative roller coaster.
If you liked this chapter, or this story in general, rate or review, it motivates me.