As the two ran out of the library, Tompah couldn't help but notice the fact that the trainmen were starting to close the doors to their cars.

"Kazuki, I thought you said that it was only going to be a quick stop?!" he complained; stuffing his froggy book in his tunic as he ran.

"I would have been a quick stop if you didn't fuck with me in the library!" Kazuki yelled back, stuffing his books in his pants.

"I wasn't-" Tompah simply shook his head and grunted, knowing that there was no way to get to him at this point. As they made their way to the station the train started to leave the station. It was at this moment that Kazuki took the initiative to start hopping in increments of ten feet instead of running. He then grabbed onto Tompah's tunic, pulling him along so that Tompah could run faster than he already was. Luckily enough, Kazuki found a suspiciously open train car which he helped Tompah climb into by making a step ladder with his hands so that Tompah could pull him up.

Once Tompah and Kazuki pulled themselves into a car, they noticed what seemed like someone sleeping in the corner of the car, covered in a tarp. Tompah without hesitation started walking to it, but before he could say anything, Kazuki shot his tongue out at Tompah, getting his arm, and swinging his head making Tompah turn around.

"Tompah" He whispered "Leave em’ alone, they wake up when they wake up, let's just relax, we almost didn't make it, take a break man."

Tompah sighed "you're right, ok, fine ill just chill I guess" Tompah went and sat against the wall perpendicular to the car door as Kazuki started to close it. "Wait Kazuki, don't close it yet"

"Wah? Why not?" Kazuki asked confused.

"Come sit with me and you'll see. This is your first time on a train, right? You should relax too."

Kazuki shrugged and walked over to sit down next to Tompah, as he did, he pulled out one of his special cigarettes and lit up, taking a long drag before looking directly out the door and exhaling.

"Kazuki why do you smoke those so much?" Tompah asked waving the smoke away from him.

"It makes everything more bearable" Kazuki croaked as he took another drag.

At first, the view was nothing more than the trees that rolled slowly by as the train started to speed up. Kazuki could catch sight of a lot of the wildlife in the forest pointing each one out to Kazuki was fascinated already by the fact that the floor beneath him was moving. For the moment Kazuki felt like a kid again and started to crawl closer to the open door, sitting at the rim of the train, nothing could've prepared him for the view that came soon after.

The view opened up to them as the trees started to subside and as The Sun rose over the summit of the grand Liesian mountains, revealing their white caps. They practically gave the mountains a crown that would bring light down to the forest beneath them. Kazuki thought it looked as if the sun purified the land with its light.

"Tompah!?" Kazuki turned his head a hundred and eighty degrees directly at Tompah as he yelled.

"Wah!?" Tompah replied.

"How often do you see get to see this view?" he yelled.

"This one specifically? This is like my second time, but every view is different"

Kazuki was suddenly jealous of Tompah. Here he spent twenty-something years in universities and book learning and for what?

"Tompah, how many different sights have you seen" Kazuki inquired.

"Hundreds maybe, I’ve been traveling around Liess for a long time" Tompah Replied

"You're so lucky" Kazuki Croaked

"Lucky? Maybe but I think I'd be luckier if I passed the Contractor exam the first time." Tompah muttered.

"Oh right, speaking of which, we should probably start learnin ya how to read, want your first lesson?" Kazuki moved away from the side of the train as view disappeared and the rolling trees reappeared.

Tompah Nodded his head and yawned which in turn made Kazuki yawn and rub his eyes.

"Hey, no yawning I’m trying to stay awake, now let’s get started" he yawned again.

"Yeah, let's get started." Tompah pulled out his

Unluckily for Tompah, learning how to read wouldn't be something that he would be able to learn in the span of a few hours. Luckily For Tompah, however, Kazuki had a lot of experience teaching people how to read. So, for the first few hours, while they stayed up, Kazuki was able to complete Tompah's broken alphabet.

"Tompah? How old are you by the way?" Kazuki Asked at this point only staying awake with a thread of willpower.

Tompah scratched his head and yawned "I dunno why you bother to ask now, but I'm twenty, at least I'm pretty sure."

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"I'm just curious" Kazuki yawned before realizing "Wait did you just say I'm pretty sure?"

Tompah looked directly at Kazuki "Yes"

Kazuki face palmed himself "Ok, Tompah let's make a deal ok" he croaked.

Tompah entertained Kazuki "what are the terms?"

Kazuki connected his together as if to be a coconut salesman "A simple, trade you see, I'll educate you as much as I can, but in return, I want you to travel with me"

Tompah held out his hand to Kazuki immediately "You know this is a pretty sweet deal for me, right?"

Kazuki yawned hard "I wasn't trying hard to make it a sour one." As Kazuki's consciousness drifted and his eyes started to close, he started to hear a subtle whisper in his mind.

"Kill..."

"Kill..."

"Kill..."

Kazuki woke up in a dank room, with a single light bulb being suspended by a cord, sitting down in front of him was Vaush who was staring and laughing at his communication slate. On sight Kazuki lunged at him but was pulled back as he choked on a metal ring that was sitting on his neck, connecting him to the bed.

"Good morning sleeping beauty" Vaush laughed "I know it's a little inhumane on my part to chain you up like this but-"

Kazuki growled and reed like a frog, his only goal to kill the boar man in front of him, a goal that got harder to reach as he choked himself pulling the metal ring into his throat until he eventually stopped having almost passed out from a lack of oxygen.

"Are you done?" Vaush asked in a half-joking tone.

Kazuki only lunged at him after catching his breath stretching his arms out as much as he could to grab the man and failing due to Vaush’s outstanding micro-spacing. In his head a soft voice whispered, "please kill him for me, could you do that for me, Ka-zu-ki?"

Kazuki continued attacking vaush until he almost choke out. Eventually, blood started to leak from the sides of his mouth.

"How sad, you might not be able to come back" Vaush went under the bed and pulled out a lighter and a cigar, as well as Kazuki's wallet. He opened it and started looking through his belongings all while Kazuki continued to try to attack him. "Kazuki? That's a weird name for a Liesian" Vaush lit the cigar and started taking hits as Kazuki continued to damage himself on the metal ring. "Kazuki, you really need to calm down, going to die if you keep at it."

Kazuki shot his tongue out at vaush trying to get his head, but Vaush slapped his tongue away. On Kazuki's second attempt Vaush duck his head to avoid it, and on the third, he missed completely.

"two for three, not bad" Vaush chuckled. "You know it would be really sad if you died like this, not even to the curse but self-suffocation, you would be the first"

When Kazuki heard that he hesitated to attack again "No, Kazuki please you have to kill him for me" The voice whispered Kazuki started to growl again, but before he could attack, Vaush stuck his cigar in Kazuki's mouth, as Kazuki tried to ree at Vaush, he inhaled almost half of the cigar before he pulled away from it, which caused him to break into a coughing fit rolling in the bed in pain.

"First time huh? Maybe this will get you to calm down enough for me to paint the seal" Vaush stated as he studied Kazuki.

Kazuki coughed and reeled in the bed, holding his chest tight and trying to recover from this new experience. He laid in the bed for a little while, eventually noticing that he couldn't hear the whispers in his head anymore. Kazuki sat up in the bed and wiped his mouth clean of the blood "where am I? And what was in that cigar "

Vaush gave a sigh of relief "Finally you've come to your senses, I would've had no place to put your body. Anyway, the cigar has medicinal happiness in it, and as to where we are, a guest room in my bar, and as to

"Medicinal Happiness?" Kazuki pried

"You got your answers, now listen I have to ask you a bunch of questions answer as best you can; understand?

Kazuki nodded his head.

Do you know you are?" Vaush inquired.

Kazuki nodded his head "my name is..." Kazuki's mind went blank for a second

"Where are you from?" Vaush moved from the bed to the small desk that was sitting next to Kazuki. Kazuki could see that he was working with some painting set.

"I'm from..." Kazuki's mind blanked again.

How old are you, Kazuki? "I'm..." He couldn't answer.

"Last question" Vaush stated "How long do you remember being a frog person"

Kazuki scratched his head watching Vaush work on something as he puffed on his cigar. "As long as I can remember” He answered. "Why am I here" Kazuki questioned.

Vaush walked moved over to the bed revealing a piercing set and a gauge plugs with pretty floral paintings on them. "I found you strangling a man outside my bar and knocked you out. You’re welcome for the favor" Vaush stated half-seriously.

"I did what?!" Kazuki replied in disbelief.

"You can't remember that either, huh? Well, now I'm gonna do you the favor of sealing your curse for you. So, you're welcome for that too"

"And how are you gonna do that?" Kazuki asked nervously

Vaush simply gave Kazuki a wide grin.

As Kazuki fell asleep Tompah noticed that whatever was under the tarp was starting to move. He stood and walked slowly over to the tarp before noticing an off smell coming from the tarp. Upon further inspection, he noticed that the tarp had blood spots all over as if the person under it was wounded. As he got closer now more worried than curious, the person under it started moving unnaturally. It wriggled around in its covers making an odd gurgling and moaning sound. Tompah looked at the tarp disturbed no longer wishing to satisfy his current curiosity, nor wanting to help whatever was under the tarp, and instead moved over to Kazuki who was twitching in his sleep. Eventually whatever was under the tarp started to get out of it, and the sight of it made Tompah want to gag. It looked like a giant 6-foot parrot with Human skin for wings and eyes covering the entirety of its face save for the beak, not to mention the fact that half of those eyes had been popped and it was missing an entire arm, the wound constantly dripping blood onto the ground as it turned to face Tompah. Tompah, scared shitless, slapped Kazuki in the face to wake him up before they both died.

Upon Kazuki waking up, the beast screed and squawked at both of them and started limping slowly towards them, blood flying out of its beak as it squawked at them. As it got closer, squawking and screeching, blood splattered onto both of them. "Kazuki, c'mon let's go!" Tompah attempted to try and pull Kazuki up but before he could, the beast grabbed him by the tunic and threw him aside, making Tompah slam into the sidewall of the train car, with a loud thud and knocking the air out of him. It was at that moment Kazuki could feel time slow down as the beast turned toward his friend to finish him off. In his head, he could hear the sound of a familiar voice, whispering to him.

"Kill for me," the voice croaked gently "I can take away your pain" it nudged "I will grant your wish" the voice teased. "Kill for me, Ka-zu-ki" the voice croaked out a chuckled softly as it whispered. Kazuki's sleep deprivation made it hard for him to fight back from the voice's influence. The blood that smelled foul to him began to smell sweet and intoxicating to him. Slowly, he started seeing everything around him become red and before long he started to growl.