Chapter 2

Blazing flames at her back, the nauseating feeling of dysphoria in her heart, the stony-faced princess prepares for a new beginning.

The harsh thunder of gunshots rang out through the night as Eri Sawachika crouched behind a wall. She took a moment's breath to reload her pistol before firing three shots back at her pursuer. Hearing the cry go out, she knew she had connected. She quickly ran around the corner and up the steps of the building, knowing her grim mission. Hurriedly gathering the scraps of clothing off of the body of her pursuer, Eri piled the clothes in the middle of the dark room. She slowly soaked the clothes with a bottle of gasoline, took out a match, and in one fluid motion, ignited it and tossed it onto the pile. Without even checking to see if it caught, she dashed out the door and hopped onto her bicycle. Speeding away, she heard a loud boom, the product of her anger. She slowed her pace, and without a look back, rode off into the distance.

While riding, Eri took a little time to think over the past few hectic days. She vividly remembered her mother's screams as she pushed Eri out of their burning mansion. She remembered sitting for hours in a daze. She remembered the grinding of machine guns following her everywhere, even in her dreams. With a long sigh, Eri slowed the pace as a tear rolled from her eye. "No, it's not fair…" she began, but then rethought her statement. Was all of this really not fair? Or could it have been karma, coming back to haunt her? Slowing down even more, her thoughts drifted to her classmate, Harima Kenji. "Hmph… I envy him. Probably living a simple life, riding around carefree on his motorcycle…" She began to weep bitterly, beginning to cough. "I- I'll never see him again… not him or any of my other classmates. But I can't start to think back. I'll start a new life, far away from any complications. Th- the world is probably better off without me." Wiping away her final tear, and donning a grim mask, she concealed her emotions and rode off towards the mountains.