In a world where human-like cats and dogs ruled the world. They stand on 2 legs, have 10 fingers, and can hold objects, behave and act like humans. In short, they are a human but has dog ears and a tail, and a good sense of smell, and they refer to themselves as, “people”. This is the kind of world where this story began.

The great non-ending war between cats and dogs; cats and dogs have been mortal enemies since the dawn of time. Wherein millions were inevitably killed.

And this war doesn’t seem like it’s ending soon.

Hundreds upon thousands of terrifying weapons were made; of which the dreaded Arcgeomedons of the cats ravaged the dog army.

In the past few years, the dogs had been on the defensive, while on the contrary, the cats, are cranking up their attacks.

Brutal attacks were made by the cats, this changed the lives of many dogs, including me.

Ah yes, I still remember what had happened as if it was yesterday, it was one sunny day in my village.

The children were playing; the streets were bustling, Birds were chirping, and the colourful flowers were blooming.

It was an ordinary day, or so I thought.” A voice told a story.

A young boy walks downstairs and greets his mom with a smile.

“Ah, Katsu,” as the boy’s mother prepares a basket for him. “Can you buy me some bread?” she lovingly asked while giving the boy the basket.

The boy replied “yes! I can!” he leaves his home, and blissfully walks downtown to the bakery.

While he is walking, he notices flocks of birds flying in the sky. He wanders to himself of the reason for the distress in the sky.

He continues his walk, marvelling at the birds along the way.

After walking to the main town square, he saw Hiroto an air force pilot looking up at the birds with a puzzled look.

“Good morning!” he exclaimed while waving his hand out.

“Ah, Katsu. I didn’t see you there.” Surprised as he didn’t notice him coming. The two of them walk up to each other.

“What are you up to today kiddo?”

“I'm off to buy some bread again today.”

“Oh? Want me to go with you?” he humorously responded,

“Hmpf! I'm not a little kid!” and grumpily walks away.

Hiroto says “suit yourself then!” and chuckles while Katsu is walking away.

Katsu arrives at the bakery; he starts looking around but the baker is not there.

He then sees the baker sleeping next to the entrance.

“Ehm...” he mumbles “excuse me, sir!”

The baker wakes up startled,

“Good morning, sir!” he greeted as he places his basket at the table.

“Ah, it’s you. Well,” stands up and stretches “good morning, need the usual?”

“Yes sir!” he answers.

“Ok then, wait right there. I’ll go get them for yah” the baker enters his shop to get the goods.

Katsu waits outside the store, looking around while waiting. The garrison guards seemed troubled.

Katsu stares as the guards were running around. “Something is not right.” he thinks to himself. But he brushes those worries away.

“I didn’t know what was happening at that time. I didn’t have a care in the world, how foolish of me back then” an unknown voice reminiscing about the time.

The baker returns with several loaves of bread “getting pretty busy out there, it’s like something big is happening.”

Katsu snaps back startled and replies “huh? Oh, yeah…” before staring back towards the distance.

The baker places the bread in Katsu’s basket, “well, it’s probably someone just got caught stealing again.”

Hands the basket back to the boy “well, here you go, the usual”

He grabs the basket paid him the usual amount he pays for and then heads home.

“I was too young to even understand what happened back then.” the voice lamented once again.

Katsu was called by his friends while on the way home. “Katsu!” they yelled “wanna play!?”

He turns around and declines “sorry everyone! I'm busy today! Maybe next time!” he replied.

“I had a good life, a great future ahead of me. And unfortunately, it all changed that day” the voice silently stated.

Walking back on his way home, the atmosphere of the situation has changed. Fewer people were on the streets; the cold dead street gets on Katsu.

“I need to head back home, today seems weird.” He thought.

He starts walking twice as fast, eager to reach the safety of his home.

But a black crow dove in and snatches a loaf from the basket, Katsu shocked at what happened chases the bird in an attempt to get it back.

“Ah! Wait! Come back here!” he says, struggling to catch up to the bird. “You’re not getting away from me!” he desperately pleads as he runs as fast as he can.

Soon after that, he trips and fell. All the bread falls on the cold asphalt road. “Ouch, ouch, ouch.” He painfully says after tripping.

Struggling to stand up, he gazed up at the bird flying away. But it was then followed by hundreds of birds flying in the same direction as if it was trying to run away from danger; of course, Katsu did not realize this.

He stands up, brushing dirt from his legs. He starts taking note of the bird’s unusual flight. “Huh, that's weird, why are there so many birds flying?”

Then, he sees the garrison guards panicking and alarmed, something is happening that is so serious that even they are frightened and in disarray, Katsu frantically looks around at what is going on. Then he sees something emerging from the clouds above. The air-raid sirens go off never before heard by villagers, people start to run amok, everything is happening too fast, Katsu is piecing everything together to better understand the situation he’s currently in. Then it clicks…

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The terrifying sirens of several k-38 strategic katzbombers ring around town as the planes fill the sky. Katsu, in disbelief, falls over as he gets overwhelmed by the terror that has befallen him.

“Huh? But how…” he mumbles to himself. The sounds of bombs whistling as they fall to the town below are terrifyingly mesmerizing. Katsu snaps back worrying about his parent’s safety and makes a run for his home. He dashes through the town streets, the sounds of buildings collapsing, and explosions surrounding him.

As he neared his home, an explosion detonated a few meters away from him, he was knocked out from the blast.

At that moment he thought to himself, “am I dead?” it is as if his life were balancing between life and death, slowly, it loses its balance.

“That day is the day I will never forget.” The voice sorrowfully remarked.

Suddenly, rubble and rain start to fall; a high-pitched sound fills Katsu’s ear.

The sound of rain starts to intensify.

“I knew I couldn’t give up so easily back then, so wake up!” the voice shouts to his past self.

This encouragement rang in his mind, and it was enough to wake him up.

Katsu jolts up, desperately gasping for air.

He looks around to see his beloved town destroyed, barely unrecognizable.

The rain intensifies, and the sounds of gunshots echo in the streets.

Katsu remembers what had happened and exclaimed “that's right! I need to get back home!”

He mustered up his strength and continued to run to his home.

However, his running attracted several cat soldiers, “hey you there! Stop!” they yelled to the boy whilst aiming their guns

Katsu doesn’t stop running and he just hopes he doesn’t get shot.

Bullets whiz past his head, narrowly missing him.

Hiroto notices the soldier shooting at the boy, and shoots the soldier trying to help Katsu.

Hiroto watches as Katsu runs in the general direction of his home, and then Katsu attracts 3 more soldiers and follows him towards his house.

Hiroto worried about what may happen, follows them.

Katsu arrives at his house and barges through. “Mom!!!! Dad!!!” he screams.

A dark silhouette behind the door holding an ax prepares to cut Katsu in half.

Katsu is scared; he tries to block the attack with his arms.

But the ax stopped at the last second, the dark figure is revealed to be his dad.

“Katsu!” his dad relievedly exclaimed.

His mom comes out of hiding and quickly hugs him, “Katsu! I'm glad you’re safe” she relievedly said while shedding a tear.

His dad looks over and sees the 3 soldiers that followed them, aiming and fingers on the trigger.

He immediately told everyone to duck.

Bullets fly past their heads, as the loud bangs seem to never end.

But then it stopped, the high-pitched sound begins to sound in Katsu’s ear once again.

“Private, stay out here and guard us, we’ll check if they’re dead,” the captain said to his troop outside.

“Yes, captain!” the soldier replied.

The two soldiers walk towards the house.

“Surely, we got them, right?” the soldier asks the captain.

“Let’s check to be sure.” He replied.

They proceeded to head inside.

“Huh? Where are they?” the soldier said,

“They must have escaped, but how can they escape in such a short- “the dad comes out behind the counter and swings his ax, but the captain dodged it, and it narrowly misses the captain.

The captain whips out his pistol and shoots his dad in the abdomen.

His dad screams in pain and drops on the floor.

The captain kicks him, further intensifying the pain.

“Hehehe, you think you can hit me by surprise? Think again!” he says while kicking him.

Katsu runs out from hiding and says “dad no! stop it! stop kicking him you dirty cat scum!!”

“Shoot him,” he tells the soldier.

“Yes, captain!” the soldier says, aiming his rifle at the boy.

“At that point,” the voice says “time began to slow, as if it was my end, well it was my actual end. I couldn’t back then, I couldn’t stop it, I was young and too weak to fight back. If only I was stronger”

In the boy’s eyes, time begins to slow down, making the experience a lot more agonizing.

The soldier pulls the trigger, and Katsu watches as the bullet draws closer.

“This is my end,” he thought…

But he saw someone in front of him, someone jumped in to save him... and that someone, was his mother.

His mother was shot…

Katsu horrified of what had happened, yelled out with utter pain and sorrow. “MOM!!”

His dad mustered up his strength, picked up his ax, swung it at the soldier who shot the boy’s mother and killed the soldier.

The captain quickly shoots him at the side and prepares to shoot him at the head.

Katsu is scared, fearing he might lose his dad too, his heart is pumping fast, and he begins to lose his vision.

“Fight, fight, fight! You must take up your strength and fight! You must not repeat the same mistakes as I did!” the voice pleads to the boy.

Katsu’s hands are shaking, vision is darkening, as he sees the inevitable doom of his father.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Never give up! Whatever you do, don’t give up! This choice will lead to a change in your life forever!” the voice continues.

As the voice pleads with the boy, unknown energy is surging within him, with each heartbeat it grows stronger.

“FIGHT” the voice pleads for the last time.

The energy grew stronger, an unknown power kept brewing inside him.

And, as if his body moved on its own, leaped onto the soldier tackling him.

The soldier falls on the floor “ugh! You little brat!” the soldier punches katsu and pushes him to the side.

The soldier stands up and says “I should have taken you out sooner.” And starts beating katsu.

“You can do it! You can win!” the voice cheering him on.

Katsu kicks the soldier and the soldier fell on the floor.

Katsu sees the rifle on the floor, an opportunity, he rushes towards the weapon.

“How dare you…” standing up looking at katsu with an irritated look on his face.

Katsu grabs the gun and aims at the soldier’s head.

But wait, he knows what this weapon can do, it can kill, like what he saw happened to his mother.

He puts his finger on the trigger but is reluctant to pull the trigger.

“I can’t kill someone…” he thinks to himself.

The soldier saw the opportunity and takes it.

He raises his hands and provokes the boy. “Hehe, useless pup you are, come on, shoot.”

Katsu is shaking, he can’t bring himself to shoot.

“Hehe, you can’t shoot me, can you? You’re too weak, just accept your fate already” as he continues to provoke him.

“Prove him wrong, I know you’re strong, you can do it. Pull the trigger” the voice encouraging the boy to shoot.

Katsu still doesn’t know what to do.

“Heh, give up,” he says as he walks towards the boy.

Katsu shakes as he is scared and is confused about what to do.

“Do it.” the voice once again says.

The soldier reaches his hand out.

“Do it now!!” the voice pleads.

Katsu gets provoked, steps back, and yells “GET AWAY FROM ME!!!!”

Katsu shot him.

“Good job son.” His father tells him while grunting.

“Dad, what should I do? What do I do?” as he desperately tries to help him.

“You need to, you need to escape, ugh!” as he crawls to the boy.

“I need to do what?” kneels to him.

“You need to… escape.”

“What! What about you!? I'm going to save you! I'm not going to leave you!” desperate to save his dad.

“Don’t worry about me, gah, there is another one outside, he might come inside, escape while you can.”

“But I need to help you!” katsu starts to cry as he doesn’t know what to do next.

“Don’t worry,” he reaches his hand out to him, “I know you’re strong.”

“You don’t know that.” The voice adds.

“ha-ha, sorry kiddo.” His dad knocks katsu unconscious, and then katsu falls on the floor. His dad died right after.

The soldier waiting outside wonders what had happened inside. “I wonder what happened inside… I should go check”

The soldier gets Shot by Hiroto, as Hiroto despairingly walks towards the house. “don’t be dead, don’t be dead.” Muttering as he is hoping that everyone is not dead.

He opens the door and see’s the massacre inside. “No! I was too late!” he punches the door in frustration and begins to tear up. “I will never forget the kindness you showed me.”

As he is about to walk away, he notices katsu still breathing. He reached down and checks his pulse. Surprisingly, he’s still alive.

“Still alive huh? Well, at least you survived.” Relieved that katsu survived he carries katsu.

But while the pain hasn’t hit him yet, he turns before he leaves, shedding a tear, and clenching his fist, he faces his friends one last time.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, I will repay you for every single one. Sadly, it’s goodbye for now,” he says farewell to the boy’s parents, Hiroto is close to them, they treated him like family, when his own didn’t.

Hiroto carries katsu to the riverside.

“I'm so sorry kid, I couldn’t save them. But, if you're alive then, I’ll support you all I can. That's what your dad told me when you were firstborn. A promise is a promise and I cannot break one.” He says to katsu although he’s still unconscious.

Hiroto finally arrives at the river. He places katsu inside a barrel and places the barrel on the river. “I know you will survive. Be careful out there. There are a lot of corrupted people, but. I know we will meet again. I can feel it if it’s not in the streets of the city but on the deadly battlefield. And I will be there to support you in the air.”

He says his farewells to the boy and sends him off.

Katsu in the barrel goes down the river.

“Until then I guess… see you there!” he says as he walks back to the destroyed town.

TO BE CONTINUED.

END OF CHAPTER 1