The first thing I wanted to do when papa said he was going to become a civil officer was to join him. He seemed worried about me fighting, but I kept bugging him every chance I got. I couldn't remember what my mama looked like anymore, and I didn't want him to die and forget what he looks like. After days of this, he finally agreed to let me be his initiator when he got his licence. We spent weeks training together, and whenever he was at the promoter classes, I was practicing on my own. I kept counting down the days until we would become civil officers, and I could fight with him. After months of doing this, we were finally able to get our licences. Papa took me to look for a store to sell us weapons, and after two hours we found one. As soon as we entered I ran off to find their swords. I liked the wooden practice swords I used for training, so I wanted to get real ones. After a few minutes, I ran over to where papa was to find out what he was doing. Looking at the pistols he was holding, I suggested he attach bayonets to them. I wasn't sure whether he liked the idea, but he asked the shop keeper about it, who liked the idea. Quickly growing bored of waiting for the person to finish their sketches, I ran back to the swords. A few minutes later, papa came over and let me swing around some swords. After twenty minutes of trying different swords, I chose a pair of short swords. Papa took them to the counter and bought them for me. After he purchased them, we went home together.
Once we were home, we did some mock battles against each other. I chose the wooden swords as I didn't want to hurt papa, and because I was accustomed to their weight. After a few hours of this I started getting hungry, so papa started making dinner. While waiting for it to be ready, I tried to decide on my favourite battle of the day. They were all fun, but I still thought that his repulsion shield was cheating to use, as I couldn't get through it. After a lot of thought, I finally decided that I liked the capture the flag one the best, although that was more of a game than real battle practice. Hearing papa call me over for dinner, I ran to the table to eat. After I finished dinner, he told me to wait at the table while he got something. A minute later, he came over with something I didn't recognise. Hearing that it was some kind of shot, I bolted for the door. Papa got me before I could open it, but I resisted going back. After struggling for a few minutes, he told me that I could have ice cream if I took it. Knowing that I would have to take it eventually, as he told me it was to slow down the virus's corrosion, I reluctantly agreed to take it. While eating the ice cream, I noticed that papa seemed sad. I tried asking him what the problem was, but he wouldn't tell me. Giving up, I went and did my own things, hoping that he would tell me what he was thinking soon.
We had just ate breakfast when papa decided to take me outside the monoliths to kill some gastrea. Although he claimed it was for practice, I was sure that he was only taking me outside because he was getting paid well. He was usually against going outside the monoliths, so I wondered if we were short on money. Deciding that I didn't really care, I grabbed my swords and followed him out the door. The train was filled with a lot of people when we got there, but quickly grew empty as we neared the outer districts. After getting off at the outermost station, we walked towards the barriers. I grew uneasy the closer we got to them, but I tried my best to act brave. Although papa claimed his shield was invincible, I still worried that it might fail to protect him. Once we reached the barriers, I was given instructions on what to do in different scenarios, but I tuned him out. The only thing I needed to know was that I would protect papa. Shaking his head, he reprimanded me and repeated himself, forcing me to listen. Once he was done lecturing me, he took out his pistols. Following his actions, I unsheathed my swords we went into the Unexplored Territory.
It wasn't even an hour since entering the Unexplored Territory when we engaged a gastrea. Although it was only a stage one, a second one jumped in to help it. I ran towards the closest one while papa took the further one. Dodging a blow aimed for my head, I thrust my swords into its stomach before jumping aside. Glancing at the mark it left at my previous position, I figured it to be a strong but slow type. Readying myself for another attack, I charged straight at it. Right before its attack hit me, I changed my direction and ran behind it. Jumping onto its back, I slashed twice into its nape before jumping off of it. After landing, I threw my whole body at it, burying my swords as deep into it as possible. Feeling it shift, I jumped away, pulling both my swords out. When it turned to face me, I stared into its eyes, shocked that it didn't die. I didn't know how it survived my attacks, but I was forced to put those thoughts aside as I rolled underneath a swipe from it. Glancing at the other battle going on, I saw that papa was going to kill his opponent soon. Although it wasn't a competition, I wanted to kill mine first. Crouching low, I sprinted straight towards it again. Although it was strong, I was right about it being slow. Before it could adjust to what was happening, I had jumped towards it. Burying my swords into its neck, I quickly twisted and ripped them out. Jumping off, I started to celebrate my kill, when a feeling of dread overtook me. Turning my head, I didn't have time to realise what happened before I felt a sudden pain in my head. Letting out a scream, I was sent skidding across the ground. Forcing myself to my feet, I watched in shock as another gastrea charged me. Before I could react, I saw it swipe at me, and everything went dark.
Several months later, we were fighting a stage three gastrea. It was our first time fighting one by ourselves, but I wasn't worried. Between now and the time I was almost killed by a stage two, we had gotten a lot better. Dodging a swipe at me, I thrust my sword into the offending arm before running off. Turning to face it, I felt a sense of dread go through me again. Looking around, I couldn't figure out why I felt like something bad was going to happen. Dodging another attack, I readied myself to charge it when I noticed movement at the corner of my eye. Turning my head towards the direction, I let out a scream and sprinted towards papa. Even though I ran as fast as possible, I could only watch on horror as another gastrea attacked papa from behind. Before it could attack him again, I attacked it, forcing it to focus on me. In a blind rage, I tore through the gastrea who had hurt papa, making sure to cut off any limbs that came near me. Before it could attack me again, I thrust both swords into its eyes, making sure to reach the brain. Hearing heavy footsteps coming from behind, I rolled to my side, narrowly avoiding the attack from the stage three gastrea. Looking to where papa had been, I saw him lying on the ground unmoving. My vision seemed to grow red as I stopped caring about what happened to me. Charging the stage three, I cut it everywhere I could. Stepping to the side, I felt my cheek get sliced, but I continued my assault. Although I was getting hurt, all I wanted to do was kill and inflict pain to the gastrea. The battle seemed to last seconds as I mercilessly inflicted as many cuts as I could. Stabbing the corpse one last time, I dropped my weapons and ran towards papa in tears. Throwing myself into his arms, I let out all my feelings of fear, happiness, and sadness over what happened.
We were walking through the outer districts when I saw two people. I wasn't sure what they were doing out here as nobody goes out here if they can avoid it. Watching them from the corner of my eye, I saw them walk towards us. Although I wasn't expecting anything good from them, I was still shocked when the man spat on us. Both of them started ranting about people like us, and how children like me were monsters and deserved to be killed. Clenching my fists together, I slowly reached for my swords. I knew that killing civilians would get us into trouble, but I couldn't stand these people any longer. Before I could make up my mind on what to do, papa turned to me and told me to kill them. Smiling wide, I pulled out my swords and attacked the woman. She didn't even realise what had happened before I had cut her right arm off. Sadly, I misjudged how much the woman could take and accidently killed her earlier than I wanted to. Crying out in frustration, I hacked away at the body, sending her blood everywhere. Taking some deep breaths, I waited for papa to finish, leaving what remained of her corpse. He walked over to me and enveloped me in his arms, making me break down again. I didn't understand why people had to treat me this way. Both of us worked so hard to kill the gastrea, but it seemed people hated me for being born.
Six months before my tenth birthday, we got into an argument with another civil officer pair. We had just killed a civilian who we thought may have been infected by the gastrea that we had just killed. Although it made sense to me, the other pair was yelling at us that the person wasn't infected, and we had made a mistake. Even if they were right, I didn't really care as I enjoyed the screaming of the person as I cut them down. Turning towards papa, I asked if I could kill the other pair, to which he agreed. Launching myself at the initiator, I drew my sword and sliced at her neck. Jumping out of the way, she unsheathed her sword and charged me. I blocked her attack with my left sword while stepping to the side. Before she could get back, I buried my right sword into her shoulder, leaving her with only one useable arm. Quickly stepping back, she seemed to realise the difference in our skill, but it was too late for her to do anything. Running towards her, I brought both swords down on her. With her injured arm she was unable to lift her sword in time, leaving her head to take the blow. Before her body could fall, I chopped off her left leg while burying my other sword into her stomach. Looking around, I noticed a random person watching us from an alleyway cowering in fear. With a large smile on my face, I ran behind them. Turning around, they had a look of horror on their face as I decapitated them. I knew that would get us in trouble, but I decided that there wouldn't be a problem if there were no witnesses.
I was taking a bath at home when papa called me to come to the table when I was finished. Quickly scrubbing myself, I hurriedly dried off and changed into a clean dress. Running over, I noticed that he didn't look happy. Before I could ask what was wrong, he informed me that our licences were revoked. Apparently, the IISO finally had enough of us and decided to revoke our licences. Staring at him in shock, I had trouble comprehending what he was telling me. I understood a few things, such as the different things we did that they claimed were problems, but I didn't understand why. Even if we killed a few civil officers every now and then, it wasn't as though we were the only ones who did it. Papa guessed that it had to do with our latest battle earlier today, and that someone witnessed the two civilians we killed. Although we were no longer civil officers, papa assured me that we could still kill things and get money. Listening to his reasoning, I slowly nodded in agreement. Although we were no longer civil officers, we were still highly skilled, having held an IP rank of 134. Even without licences, it wasn't as though the police could take away our weapons, as they would have to be suicidal to attempt that. Moreover, papa was sure there would be someone who could use trained killers who needed work, and that we would just have to be patient. Also, papa still had his day job, so we would be okay even if we didn't get another job soon. Smiling, I agreed with him, already looking forward to whatever job we would get next.
Even though I excelled in fighting, papa still thought it was important for me to learn other things. Glaring at the paper in front of me, I vehemently disagreed. I would never need to know things like multiplication and division, but papa seemed to think it was good. Staring at him, I silently begged to be allowed to leave. Sadly, he just shook his head at me and told me I had to finish this before leaving the table. Although I hated doing this, as I didn't consider an education to be very important for me, I was lucky that he made me do less than other kids did. Groaning in frustration, I took another look at the clock. Sensing my annoyance, papa came over to help me with the questions he assigned me. After several more minutes of torture, I finally finished. Giving him my paper, I ran off to go hide from him, knowing that he'd make me correct any mistakes. Hearing him call me name, I cowered in my hiding spot, knowing that I did something wrong. Hearing his footsteps nearby, I covered my mouth to try and hide the sound of my breathing. Suddenly, he was looking directly in my eyes with an evil smile on his face. Resigning myself to another torture session, I followed him to the table to correct whatever I did wrong. Expecting to be stuck for another few minutes figuring out the problems, I was pleasantly surprised when he went over everything I did wrong, helping me correct the mistakes. Although I hated this, I knew he was only making me do it because he thought it was good for me. Because of that, I would always do whatever schoolwork he assigned me, no matter how much I hated it.
For my tenth birthday, papa decided to bake me a cake. I couldn't wait to eat it as I always liked whatever sweets papa made. Dancing around the kitchen, I tried to snatch some of the icing away, albeit unsuccessfully. After multiple attempts of this, he sent me outside so that I wouldn't bother him anymore. Smiling happily at the thought of cake, I giggled as I went outside, dancing around again. Even though I was outside, I could still smell the cake through the window, which only excited me even more. After a few minutes of waiting, papa came outside and took me to the park. During the walk to the park I hummed the opening of Tenchu Girls, which I had learned about a few weeks ago. It was my favourite show, and I really liked the opening song. Continuing to hum the opening theme, I started thinking of all the things we could do at the park.
Once we reached the park, I dragged papa into a game of tag. I ran across the park, heading for the group of trees. As soon as I reached them I began weaving between the trees, trying to lose him. Papa may have been one the best promoters, but even he was no match for me in tag. After a few minutes of this I noticed that I hadn't seen papa for a while. Sneaking through the bushes, I tried to find him. Finally, I spotted him with his red coat on. He was lying on the ground with his face in the dirt. I felt a surge of anxiety come over me. Running over, I tried thinking of what could have happened to him. I tried calling his him to no avail, furthering my worry. Stopping next to him, I reached out to shake him. However, before I could touch him he leapt up and grabbed me, lifting me into the air. I erupted into laughter, realising that I had been tricked. Papa ended up laughing with me for a minute before putting me down. After a few more rounds of tag, papa decided it was time to go home. Grabbing onto his hand, we started leaving. I noticed him glance at a patch of grass and shake his head. I had notice him do this a few times whenever we came to the park, but I never had the courage to ask him about it. Squeezing his hand, I smiled at him. He shook his head, seemingly getting rid of whatever he was thinking about before smiling back.
When we got back home I immediately rushed towards the TV. Turning it on, I sighed in relief as I had made it back in time to see the latest episode of Tenchu Girls. After the episode, papa called me over for dinner. Papa had made my favourite foods for dinner, which I was grateful for. After dinner, papa cleared the table and brought the cake over. After he sang to me, I tried thinking of a wish. After a minute of thinking, I decided upon wishing for me and papa to be together forever. Blowing out the candles, I helped take them out. After receiving my slice of cake, I started devouring it. I waited for papa to finish his slice of cake, growing impatient to see what he got me. Once he finished, he went and brought me a box wrapped up with a pretty ribbon. Tearing the wrapping paper open, I let out a squeal. Thanking papa for the present, I dragged him to the TV to watch my new DVD's with me. We watched Tenchu Girls until it was time to go to bed, but after getting ready, he watched one more episode with me.
Our job for Lord Tendo was supposed to be simple, get the Inheritance of the Seven Stars and cause problems. However, the person who was supposed to give it to us transformed into a gastrea, leaving us to hunt down the case. While papa went to the site of a gastrea attack, I tried to cut off any escape route. Walking through the park, I noticed a man on his phone with a young girl beside him. Mildly interested, I walked by them to see if I could hear his conversation. I stopped in my tracks at the mention of a stage one gastrea. It seemed that they had some information regarding the gastrea we were hunting down. Glancing at the trees blowing in the wind, I looked back to see the girl missing. Before I could question it, I felt a knife at my throat. I paid no attention to the girl, instead choosing to watch as the man finished his conversation and walked towards me. When he was around 3 metres away, I jerked my head back, temporarily stunning the girl. Rolling to my side, I unsheathed my swords and thrust one through her ribcage. Pulling my sword out, I stepped the side while closely watching the gun pointed at me. Firing off a shot, the man stared in shock as I cut the bullet out of the air. Grabbing my chance, I charged him and cut his right arm off while tripping him. Kneeling beside him, I held my sword to his eye and gave him a smile. After a minute of interrogating him, I left both bodies to bleed out, choosing to go into the bushes. Once I was sure I wasn't being followed, I pulled out my phone and dialed papa's number.
Pulling my sword out of the initiator's chest, I turned around and skipped over to where papa was interrogating the promoter. It had been two days since I revealed that Enju was a cursed child to her school, and in that time her boss had tried to find out who was helping us. I didn't really care what her boss did, but we were ordered to kill Rentaro. Engrossing myself in the thought of seeing Enju again, I was startled by a gunshot. Papa grabbed my arm and started running, telling me that the case had been found. I started mentally preparing myself for the fight, knowing that we'd run into others who were after it. We encountered more civil officers on our way through the forest, around ten pairs in total, before papa grabbed me again. I was confused for a second before I heard what sounded like fighting. Creeping through the forest, I peered through a bush to find Enju finish off the gastrea. Snickering as I watched Rentaro go over to comfort her, I circled around to get closer to Enju. As papa threw Rentaro away, I attacked Enju. After what felt like seconds of trying to kill her, a voice called out for her to run. Taking advantage of her distracted state, I leapt and swung my swords down, barely missing as she jumped out of the way of a bullet. Seeing her run off, I turned and cried for permission to go after her, to which I was cruelly denied. Crying out in frustration, I ran behind Rentaro and rammed my swords through him, pulling and pushing them through him. Jumping away from his attack, I let papa finish him off. With Enju's head denied to me, I sulked through the first part of our trek to the town outside the monoliths.
The town we were in was eerily quiet. Looking around, I couldn't help but frown at the lack of trouble we had run into. Other than a stage three gastrea along the way, the journey had been uneventful. While sitting around waiting for the stage five, I heard a large amount of people heading towards us. Perking up, I listened to try and establish where they were coming from. Upon getting a good idea, I ran off and started circling the group of people. Papa would give me about a minute before beginning his attack, which I hoped would give me enough time to get behind them. Counting down the seconds, I reached a good spot where I could see them with twelve seconds to spare. Quickly adding them up, I counted ten pairs heading towards the centre of the town. Before I could ready myself, I noticed another smaller group of ten circling around. Growling in annoyance, I thought of going after them, but the sound of gunfire interrupted my thoughts. Seeing them split up, I went after one of the groups, leaving the other one to die to papa's guns. Running through the streets, I sliced anyone who got in my way. Within a minute, what little people that had fled the initial ambush had turned into a bunch of dismembered corpses, leaving me to track down the third group.
Before I could decide on how to find the third group, I heard my name be called. Rushing back to our original position, I saw a large man with a giant sword heading straight for papa. Screaming at him to leave papa alone, I charged between him and papa, blocking his swing. Throwing my body into him, I forced him away from papa and towards an alleyway. He kept swing his sword at me, but I was too fast for him to hit me. He was quicker than I expected, jumping out of the way before I could cut his throat. Before I could pull my sword back, he knocked it out of my hand. Realising what he was about to do, I jumped back towards one of the buildings. I ran up it and jumped off, flipping over him. Putting all my strength into my swing, I broke his sword before he could react. Grabbing the piece that came off, I launched off the ground and forced it into his back. Readying myself to finish him off, I spun and blocked a blow from an initiator that showed up. Reaching out with my empty hand, I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards me, tripping her in the process. After impaling her with my remaining sword, I looked around for the promoter, but he had disappeared. Frowning, I retrieved my other sword and made my way back the pier, not wanting to waste time on someone who would bleed out and die.
A breeze blew through my hair while standing on the pier. Across from me stood Enju and Rentaro. I was astonished that he was alive, as I was sure that I had killed him earlier. I wasn't bothered when he revealed his varanium limbs. No matter what tricks he had come with, he didn't stand a chance against us. Looking over at Enju, my lips curved upwards. I couldn't wait to cut her head off, as our last fight had been cut short. Unsheathing my swords, I crossed them in front of me in preparation for out battle. Papa went and engaged Rentaro first, but to my shock, his shield seemed to break in front of my eyes. Watching the blood come out of his mask made something snap inside of me as I felt rage bubbling up inside. Letting out a scream, I charged at the offending person. Nobody was allowed to hurt papa, and I would kill anyone who tried such a thing. Swing my swords, Rentaro and Enju blocked my attacks. Drawing his pistol, Rentaro aimed it at me before being rammed by Enju. Watching as they hopped around, I ran after them. Seeing Rentaro get dropped behind a shipping container, I was about to go after him before he jumped out and fired at papa. In an instant, I was beside papa cutting apart the bullet. Growling quietly, I continued to cut apart the bullets he shot, intending to make sure papa wouldn't be hurt.
I could feel the tears reaching my eyes but I refused to let the fall, at least in front of the enemy. We had been defeated, with Rentaro sending papa into the ocean with one final kick. We should have won, so I couldn't wrap my head around how papa was in the ocean with Enju and Rentaro up here with me. Some part of me wanted to give in and cry, while another part wanted to kill them. Peering into the ocean, I stifled a wail as papa didn't come out. All of a sudden I felt a sense of calm envelop me. Standing up and wiping my eyes, I started making my way down to the shore. Although the chances of papa surviving were slim, I still wanted to find him and make sure he actually died. No matter what happened, I would always be loyal to him. If there was even the slightest chance of him surviving, I would go to the ends of the earth to find him. With grim determination, I took one final breath before plunging into the ocean.
Author's Note:
Chapter 2 is finally done after way too long, thank-you everyone for your patience.
I'm not too sure about my formatting, as I've seen other people have much larger spaces between their lines, along with not having their stories split up into such large chunks. However, since I didn't include any dialogue in this I decided to try this format. I hope it's not too bad, but I would like to try the more standard writing format for future stories.
I hope you guys like this, as there aren't very many stories featuring Kagetane and Kohina, so hopefully this will provide some content for us Hiruko supporters to enjoy. Until next time.