"Kill...Kill...Kill."
"Who are you?"
"Kill...Kill...Kill."
"Why are you saying that? Kill who?"
"Kill...Kill...Kill."
Kazuki woke up in a cold sweat shaking from the nightmare he just endured. He looked around his room to see if anyone was in it with him. The bedroom was very simply put together and bare to say the most. There was one window and a dresser with multiple pictures of Kazuki an adult dark-skinned male with hazel eyes, dread-locked hair tied into a top knot, and a Goatee alongside his daughter Nyx who was pale-skinned, with straight white hair, and sea-green eyes. He paused as he felt something like the soft brush of a hand against his hip. At first, he stayed still and held his breath, wondering if this was going to be the end of his life. When nothing came to pass, he slowly moved his hand to lift the covers up and over himself. There he finds his daughter curled up against his leg. Kazuki gave a big sigh of relief, he then turned over to his nightstand and picked up the communication slate that sat by his bed, and turned it on.
"3 in the morning?" he complained. The sound was enough to make the girl readjust and kick him softly.
"shut up daddy." She said in a soft and yawning voice.
Kazuki smiled and tugged on her ears softly. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be a big girl now? You said seven was supposed to be the big number" he teased. Nyx grabbed her ears and woke up immediately giving him a pouty face. "Awe the poor baby regrets her words now."
Nyx punched him softly in the face. "don't laugh at me."
Her hands were too small to do any damage, none the less Kazuki took cute damage, and acted as if his face would cave in from the pressure. Nyx chuckled gently in response/
"So, sweetheart why is you in bed with papa?"
"Because I had a nightmare daddy." She said, lovingly wrapping her arms around her father. "I was alone in the rain all alone and then the thunder woke me up. Please don't send me back" She cried softly.
Kazuki pet his daughter on the head and soothed her crying by wiping her tears. He then put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry sweetheart, I know how much the rain scares you. You can spend the night with me."
Kazuki kissed his daughter on the cheek and laid her down to put her back to bed. He then hummed a lullaby gently to her so she would fall asleep. As he sat there gently playing with his daughter’s hair until the audible sound of a frog croaking caught his attention. He looked over to his nightstand to the left. There, sat a fairly sized frog, with red and green skin, and the eyes of a toad.
"Kill..." it croaked at him.
"No"
"Kill..." it croaked once more.
"You want me to kill, her?"
"Kill..."
"GO AWAY!" Kazuki threw a punch at the nightstand in an attempt to hit the frog. However immediately after trying. He woke up once again in his bedroom in a cold sweat. The bedroom was empty save for him and Cody, a twin tailed pure black cat that laid at the foot of his bed, waving its tails, and staring at him with his green eyes. It was currently morning, and the sun was shining through the curtains. Kazuki got out of bed and walked out of his bedroom. Cody meowed in protest and hopped down the bed, as he passed by the living room which was adorned with pictures of Kazuki and his daughter at libraries or at his university. Kazuki walked over to his daughter - who was in the kitchen making herself a peanut butter sandwich - passing the tv which was playing Saturday morning cartoons.
"Good morning hun."
"Good morning daddy, how did you sleep." Nyx took a short break from making her sandwich to hug her dad.
"I think I slept real good thank you for asking. How about you princess how did sleep" he said in a doting tone.
"I slept like a big girl last night all on my own."
Kazuki gave a soft laugh and kneeled down to give his daughter a fist bump which she accepted. Kazuki then swooped over to the remote control and picked it up. "Hey baby, do you mind if I watch the news for a little bit?"
"Yeah, ok but only because you asked me nicely." She said finishing her sandwich and walking over to the couch to sit down.
Kazuki made a smoochie face to his daughter changed the channel over to channel news 5.
"This is channel news 5 in the morning. It's currently 8 a.m. And our first story this morning the island of Rolent just off the coast of Leiss has had an odd visitor at its port for the past 2 days and the citizens are becoming curious."
As Kazuki listened to the news, he took a seat on the couch right next to his daughter.
"Hmmm" Kazuki mumbled to himself.
"What's up daddy whatcha thinking about?" Nyx said.
"Oh, nothing baby girl, just about how cute you are" Kazuki messed up his Nyx's hair making her complain. He picked her up like a plushie and sat her in his lap hugging her as he watched the news.
The news anchor passed the segment over to a field reporter who explained the current situation. "The Ship that has been docked at the port is completely pitch black and no one knows why it's there."
"It looks really mysterious you know we dunno where it came from, and nobody around here knows why it's here. It's normal for ships to come here from Leiss to bring meats from the mainland but they are never solid black." The interviewer then switched over to a random child.
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"I dunno I think it looks really cool, like a batman boat."
This made Nyx laugh to herself "Of course, nick would say something like that."
As the news continues to the citizens, Kazuki is alarmed by the sound of croaking once more. His face becomes pained as he looks slightly upward. His face then becomes horrified and tortured as he shakes his head furiously.
"No! Why? please no not again"
“Daddy? Are you ok?” Nyx looked up at her father who looked as if he wanted to vomit.
"Kill..." The sound was more horrifying than ever to him.
"Go away go away go away." Kazuki holds his head in his hands having a mental breakdown crying as he realizes the history he is reliving. "No, No, No, No, No, NO, NO, NO!" As everything around him faded into black. Kazuki found himself alone once again. He curled up into a fetal position waiting for the torture to end. "What do you want from me?"
When he asked that, the Frog appeared in front of him. Its eyes piercing deep into Kazuki's broken soul. "Kill..." it croaked.
Kazuki woke up violently which forced the stool he was sitting on to fall over and in turn making him hit the ground with a loud thud. The only other person in the all too familiar bar with him was Vaush a rotund man in stature who was wearing a graphic tee, of a suit and tie, and faded jean shorts. The man looked almost completely normal, save for the fact that he had an elongated face and tusks protruding from his face on either side and his boar-like snout. On the TV just at the corner of the bar, Channel News 5 was playing going over recent events that had been taking place in Leiss for the past week.
"Well good morning their frogman, you seemed to have had a bad dream. Breakfast is on me buddy what do you want."
"Just gimme the usual and Vaush please don't call me frogman," Kazuki said as he picked himself up from the ground. He then picked up his stool and sat back down on it.
Vaush, laughing went over to the stove and pulled out a small pot before opening up a pack of ramen and dumping the noodles into the pot. "But I call you frogman out of love. Ever since you started living here you've handled the cockroach problem, the spider problem, that one time with the mice, and then when the fuzzy caterpillars came -" Vaush shuddered as he spoke.
Kazuki croaked cutting him off as caught a fly with his tongue. "I hate reminders of my own curse call me anything else just not that."
The broadcast then changed going from Channel 5's 1 o'clock news to Channel 5's 2 o'clock news.
"Welcome to Channel 5 at 2 o'clock, bringing you the latest news The murder of the Rolent is one of the most horrifying cases of human loss in recent memories. In a single night, the 350 citizens mysteriously died. After thorough investigation, we at channel 5 news found that there may be 1 survivor, the scholar Kazuki Kazama..."
Once Vaush heard Kazuki's name on the TV he laughed sliding over a bowl of ramen to Kazuki. "Hey froggy boy you're on the news," Vaush said behind a snicker.
"Goddammit, that name is even worse!" He said as he pulled out a small baggie containing mealworms and mosquito larvae, which he dumped into his bowl of ramen. Vaush turned up the volume on the TV and took a seat on a stool on his side of the bar.
"You know, I dunno how you eat that stuff, it's really gross."
"Vaush, I like to think of us as good friends if you wouldn't mind not referring me to any kind of frog person that would be great." Kazuki didn't pay attention to the news even though they were talking about him. He was more focused on satiating his craving for worms and flies that were buzzing around the room.
"...whose body was unaccounted for, his daughter's body found buried in his back yard." The Anchor continued. If anyone has any information on this man or his whereabouts, please call this hotline so that this mystery can finally be solved."
Once Vaush heard the rest of the news broadcast he was pale-faced and
"You consider us friends huh?" Vaush said in a stern voice.
"Yeah of course good friends" Kazuki smiled directly at him making putting his hands under his chin to imitate his daughter looking cute.
"Ok then if you call us good friends then is there anything you need to tell me that may be important about your past? Maybe mighta happened 2 years ago?"
Kazuki pondered the question wondering why he was asking about something he barely remembered. "Anything I NEED to tell you? Uh, no not really why?" As Kazuki spoke, he picked at his ear with his left pinky finger, making Vaush give a visibly frustrated face.
"Would good friends" Vaush made quotation marks around good friends, "Not be in the know about each other's past?"
Kazuki looked at the balled-up ear wax on his pinky and flicked it away "you know buddy I'm gonna be real straight with ya," He croaked. "I have no idea what you are talking about."
"Were you not paying attention to the news?" Vaush said in a grunt.
Kazuki shook his head slowly. "Nuh uh"
"You know Kazuki, they call you a scholar and you don't act the least bit like one."
"Hey, don't push it! I didn't get those to look smart-"
"Tell me what happened 2 years ago, what happened to your daughter."
Kazuki looked up at Vaush slurping his ramen the larvae and maggots clearly visible. However, before he is able to say anything, a rotund man with brown hair, big eyes, and wearing a tunic, barged into the bar, ran up, and jumped onto the stool between Vaush and Kazuki.
"I'm here to become a contractor!" Silence befell the bar and soon Vaush made a face that implying this was the last thing he needed in his bar. On the other hand, Kazuki was completely, and holly interested in this new random visitor.
"What’s...a contractor?" Kazuki asked.
Vaush interjected before the new visitor was able to answer "Kazuki we were talking about s-"
"There's no way you don't know what a contractor is. Isn't this the place to take the exam?" The man interrupted.
"No this isn't the place to take the exam go somewhere else," Vaush grunted making steam came out of his nose as he had had enough of this already.
Kazuki, however, was even more curious about his earlier question now that vaush was doing everything in his power to get the new guy out. "Vaush, what's a contractor?"
"That's not something you should worry about we were talking about something else-"
"Yeah, we were and then I wanted to find out what a contractor was." Kazuki interrupted making Vaush screw up his face.
"Do you really not know what a contractor is?" Tonpah asked as if there was no possible way this man has never heard of one.
Kazuki let out a deep and loud sigh. "Apparently no one wants to tell me what it is, either."
The man scratched his head completely confused. "If you really don't know, maybe you should come with me and find out. I'm not gonna sit here and explain everything to you. Takes too much brainpower."
Kazuki croaked and then starts laughing. Before Kazuki could respond however, Vaush interjected.
"So, as I said before I was rudely interrupted. We were talking about something, and you were leaving." Vaush pointed directly at Tonpa directly at Tonpah however Kazuki thought it would be funny to get in front of his finger.
"Well then sure I guess I'll go with you since vaush just said I was leaving."
Vaush immediately tried to speak out "Not you Kazuki we were talking about-"
"Yeah, until I was interested in this and now, I'm leaving just like you said," Kazuki replied.
"Great maybe I'll pass this time. My name's Tompah, nice to meet you friend." Tonpah outstretched his hand to Kazuki with the intent to shake his hand, but Kazuki outstretched his fist to give a fist bump. Tonpah could not resist the urge to and Turkey'd Kazuki."
At that moment Kazuki looked down and slapped his forehead thinking to himself about what he has gotten himself into. "Well, if it gets me out of this then I'll do whatever I guess." He thought to himself. "Alright Tonpah, let’s get going, before Vaush changes his mind about me leaving" Kazuki joked.
"Yeah, hell yeah, let’s go!" Tonpah replied before bolting out of the bar with Kazuki.