“Hashi, you okay?” Fuyuki casually said as she went to Hashi.

“Help…” Hashi weakly said. His legs were shaking as he tried to stand up.

“You’re childhood friend can’t really leave you, huh?” Fuyuki said as she helped Hashi to stand up.

“Fuyuki…”

“Hey, are you really okay?” the worried voice of Fuyuki made its way to my ears.

That caught my attention and I went to them.

I saw Hashi looking at me weakly as the sound of his heavy breaths got the attention of the others.

“Terrin…”

What’s happening? Why is he not moving? Did his fall hurt more than it looks like?

“Was there anything wrong with him when you were healing him?” I asked Kihana.

“There wasn’t anything serious, he lost little blood but aside from that, I healed all the wounds he took from the attacks.“

“Isn’t he just resting?” Takana’s voice sounded a bit annoyed. “I’d be annoyed if I were disturbed like that.” Takana started to return to the tree where he was sitting before.

“Huh, coming from the one who’s annoying.” Merry said coldly.

He’s right, I guess.

I turned around, going back to what I was doing earlier but then I heard a gurgle and a cough.

“Hashi!” Fuyuki’s scream was so loud and intense that the birds in the tree became startled and flew away. The same thing happened to me except I looked at the source of the sound.

I naturally looked at the cause of the scream to find out that Hashi had blood on his shirt. To be precise, the blood came from his mouth down to his shirt.

That was when the gravity of the situation weighed on me heavily. He wasn’t resting or anything like that.

He was dying.

“Kihana!” I shouted loudly and immediately that it startled her. “We need your heal!” she understood what was happening, so she quickly regained her posture.

“Fuyuki, lay him down and search for any wounds.” Kihana said in a calm and serious voice.

Fuyuki gently laid him down and unbuttoned his shirt. There were no signs of cuts or wounds. His pants didn’t show any damage but I still looked and there wasn’t anything there, too.

Then what is the cause?

“Get out of the way!” Takana pushed me aside. “I’m not letting you die after all you did for us.” he put his hand on top of the other and started to pump Hashi’s stomach.

The moment he pumped, more blood came out Hashi’s mouth.

“What are you doing!?” Fuyuki shouted. She removed Takana’s hands on Hashi’s chest and pushed him away. “You’re just making it worse!” tears fell down her cheek and her shoulders trembled as she saw Hashi in incredible pain.

“I was just trying to help!”

What can I do? What should I do?

“Good job…Takana…” Hashi said slowly and weakly. “Listen… I can’t… speak much…” he slowly moved his head in my way and looked at me intensely. Then he put his hands in the air, I took it and tightly held it. “I’m leaving them to you…Terrin.” He said as he coughed up blood.

What did he mean by that?

“What do you mean, Hashi?” I asked him but no response.

Everyone didn’t know what was happening or why it was happening. Kihana and Merry was crying while Merry’s eyes were cold and dark, it was as if she had experienced this before.

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The hand that I held tightly started to lose its grip, the face that I was looking at turned its head involuntarily and his body stopped moving and breathing.

All we did, right now, at that moment, was watched him. Watched him as he slowly died.

“Kihana! You have to heal him!” Takana shouted. He was usually gentle with Kihana but this time, he was shaking her and shouting at her.

“I-I already healed him. If it was a physical injury, he should have been already cured but if it was because of other things like toxic or poison, I’m sorry but I can’t.” Kihana said as she cried.

“Why not!?”

“I don’t have any other ability!” Kihana shouted.

“Stop blaming her, Takana!” Fuyuki hugged Kihana. “It’s those kasaks’ fault. I’m going to make them pay for this.” Fuyuki angrily furrowed her brows as she cried. She stood up, picked up her staff and headed back to the house that we fought in earlier.

“That would be unwise, Fuyuki.” Merry stopped her.

“I can’t just let them live for what they did!”

“If you go there alone and something happens to you, doesn’t that mean Hashi’s death was all in vain?”

Fuyuki stopped walking and stood still. She must have been fighting inside on whether to do it or not.

Merry slowly walked to her and gently hugged her.

“I…I…” Fuyuki stuttered while Merry smoothly caressed her hair.

I put my hand on the top of the other and placed it on Hashi’s chest. I pumped it. After that, I pumped it again.

One more.

One more.

You’re not going to die, Hashi.

One more.

I pumped on his chest for about ten minutes.

Nobody stopped me. Their eyes were only focused to see if Hashi would be okay as I pumped on his chest.

But nothing happened.

As every minute passed, the shell of my friend didn’t move nor respond.

His dead. You have to stop and respect his body.

My mind understood what already happened and I was in a state where I could think properly again but my body wouldn't stop pumping his chest. It just wouldn't listen to me.

Merry came close to me and said, “It’s time to stop, Terrin.”

She’s right. My arms are also getting tired.

Unsurprisingly, I still continued what I was doing, not paying attention to Merry.

She pushed me aside when I didn’t listen but I just went back and kept doing it. Only Merry was stopping me.

But I did stop. Not because I listened to Merry but because I heard footsteps.

I knew this sound. This was the sound I heard when we were in that house.

Those bastards don’t give up.

“We need to get out of here.” I said after not speaking for a while.

“What?”

“Those kasaks from earlier are coming here. We need to get out of here and go to town.” I said while standing up.

My hands are really tired from that.

“Those shitheads are coming here?” Takana said. He almost sounded happy. “Good, I’ll kill them all.” He picked up his shield and huge sword, readying for battle.

Merry smacked him on the back of his head. “Ow! What was that for?”

“Didn’t you hear what our new leader said?” Merry looked at me.

Leader? Me? That didn’t sit right with me. I didn't want to replace Hashi. Never.

“We…we should listen to Terrin, Takana.” Fuyuki surprisingly said as she tightly bit her lips. I thought she would agree with Takana.

“Y-Yeah, we should, Takana.” Kihana said.

Takana understood why they didn’t want to fight. If we couldn’t defeat them with Hashi, who was our best fighter, just what would happen if we fight them by ourselves?

We would certainly die. The same fate as Hashi.

“Fuck,” He put his shield and sword on his back. “I’ll let them get away this time but I'll kill them someday.” he said with an intense glare towards the trees.

“How about Hashi?”

“Takana, can you carry him?”

“Yeah, it’s my duty as a friend and as a man.”

I nodded. “Then let’s go.”

We ran towards zone one and then make our way to town. The footsteps were getting closer as we ran. It might be because we were running in the pace of Takana. He carried his equipment and Hashi, so he would naturally be slower than usual.

Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

“Merry, can you carry Hashi?”

“Yes, I can. They’ll catch up to us if we keep this pace.”

“Takana, you heard her.”

“No! This is the last thing I’ll do for him. Just let me do this!” Takana was stubborn.

Out of nowhere, an arrow came, flying at us.

“Whoa!”

Luckily, no one got hit. I can literally see their silhouettes. Takana quickly but gently gave Hashi to Merry.

I hate that we’re passing him like he’s some kind of thing.

With Takana now running fast, we were somehow able to outrun them.

We stopped at a safe place in zone one and rested for a bit. No one talked during our rest. After that we made it into town and a soldier saw us.

“You people okay? Looks like you’ve seen something horrible.” The soldier said.

All of us just kept walking, not knowing what to do.

The soldier saw the body of Hashi and immediately understood why we were like that.

“So this is your first time, huh?” the soldier then pointed at a building. “You’re not allowed to bring dead people in the town. That’s the morgue. You can store him there.”

Store. I guess we have to do that.

“Thank you,” I said nonchalantly.

We made our way to the morgue. There were only few people here and they had the same face like us. Others had the same face as Merry.

We went inside and asked someone.

“Okay, place him there.” We placed him in a stretcher. The worker then covered his body in a white sheet.

And just like that, we couldn’t see him anymore.

“That would be one silver each day.” The worker said.

“What?” Takana said. He sounded angry and confused which was understandable.

We had to pay. That was just how society worked. But still, it made me angry. But there was no point blaming this worker, he was just doing his job. And just like us, he needed money.

“Wait a minute,” I checked my bag. I didn’t have enough money with me.

“Here, Terrin.” Fuyuki gave me money. “He’s our friend, too.”

All of them gave me money and together, we paid the worker.