Vol.1 - Chapter 4: Laying The Foundation (2/9)
"This is going to take a while, Shin."
A group of three people were talking amongst themselves as they ran away from another group chasing them.
"Why?"
The chestnut-haired boy at the back of the group asked curiously. As the sound of a pair of footsteps behind them grew louder, the auburn-haired young man leading the group spoke with a shaky voice.
"These are the guys from the other day. They must have noticed us."
"Hoo..."
The chestnut-haired boy reacted as if he had encountered something interesting. Unlike the worried man in front of him, a strange smile formed on his face.
'I guess people here like to squeeze people and pile on them. How amusing.'
He gritted his teeth, as a malevolent expression formed on his face. Despite his smile, the veins in his forehead and his frowning eyebrows gave away his anger.
'Let's play another game then, I'm bored with the chase.'
Suddenly, the boy left the young man he was chasing and entered another street. The short woman and the young man in front of him were arguing at the time and did not realize that the boy had left them.
'Let's play hide and seek for a while. I can try out my new knife.'
As his group moved further and further away from him, the boy pulled a knife from his waist and began to examine it. Since they were underground, there wasn't much in the way of light apart from the torches hanging around. It was pretty well-lit everywhere, though, so it was not much different from the city above.
Of course, some of the deserted streets were left in pure darkness because they didn't have the benefit of natural light sources like above.
'Rina will watch over Minato. It's really good that she has her own equipment.'
He took one last look at the group he had just followed. When they turned into another alley, he was left alone in this quiet, narrow, and dark alley.
"Which way did they go?"
"They went this way, hurry up so we don't piss off the boss any more!"
Unfortunately, his solitude was interrupted by these voices. A group of three thugs were running towards him, talking anxiously among themselves.
'Those are indeed the clowns from the other day. Fortunately, today will be the last day of their circus act.'
All the mixed expressions on the boy's face disappeared in the pure darkness. Neither his strange joy nor his excitement nor his anger was there. There was only a calm and soulless person.
"What do you think will happen if the boss catches that little girl?"
"Is that a question? If we want to have some fun, we have to be fast."
The men didn't realize it, but they were right in front of the boy in the shadows. Of course, because they were running, it took them only a few seconds to pass him. But those few seconds were more than enough for Shin.
"Ghh..."
"Eric, come on! The more I say fast, the slower you get-"
The man at the front shouted angrily and looked back. When he did, to his great surprise, he immediately grabbed the sword at his waist.
"Ahh!"
A few meters behind him, one of his friends lay bleeding on the ground. Screaming in pain was his other friend, who was right behind him. This friend, who turned around almost at the same time as him, was shocked by the pain of the knife stabbing him in the eye as he turned.
"AHH!!!"
"Roman, watch out!"
The man in pain reached for the knife in his eye and hesitantly pulled it out, hoping to relieve the pain. In his shock, he did not understand a word the man had said to him.
He couldn't even hear him, but after a few seconds, he managed to grasp the situation as a figure entered his bloodied vision. He managed to push the pain aside with difficulty and grabbed the sword at his waist with his other free hand.
"You bastard!"
Unfortunately, it was all over for him too before he could draw his sword. Shin threw his knife at his next target, who had turned to him after the man whose throat he had slit, and charged towards him after taking the sword of the man he had killed.
The second thug, too slow to react due to the sudden attack and the knife in his eye, ended up getting his head blown off.
The man at the front, who seemed to be the leader of this group, saw his friend's head flying towards him, his eyes bloodshot and he went berserk and rushed towards the boy in front of him.
"I'LL MAKE SURE YOU SUFFER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
He laid his sword horizontally to his right, not even letting the boy in front of him make a move as he lunged at him to mow him down. He didn't really want to kill him, he wanted to inflict pain slowly, but in just a few seconds he lost control of himself in a sudden turn of events.
"How weak..."
The emotionless expression on the chestnut-haired boy's blood-soaked face slowly began to disappear. It was replaced by disappointment.
"Let's at least clash swords for a while!"
Shin cross-handedly shielded the sword held in his right hand against the sword swung with great force from his left. The other man had gripped his normal-sized sword with both hands as if it were a gigantic thing, channeling its power into a single attack. He was apparently aiming to finish the boy off in one fell swoop.
Shin, on the other hand, took a simple guard with his sword held in one hand. The swords clashed against each other and the empty streets, which should have been silent, were filled with a loud noise. As the bandit's two-handed sword lost all its power, the sword slid sideways and the ringing sound of steel was heard.
"Ahh... It's been a while since I heard that sound."
The man looked at the boy in front of him with great surprise and was unexpectedly punched in the stomach and staggered backward a few steps.
"Uhh... Koh-oh... What the hell did you do?!"
"Stop talking and get your sword up, you dumbass!"
The chestnut-haired boy, wearing a devilish smile, leaped at the man. If the sword he raised reached its target, it looked like it would end everything in one blow.
"YOU ARE JUST A LITTLE BRAT!"
The man roared, straightening his body and getting back into the fighting mood. He defended the attack aimed at his neck by raising the sword in his right hand. That was not the only thing that came at him.
Even though he had recovered a little, his balance was disturbed by the punch he had just received. That's why he couldn't get his stance right and the boy in front of him must have known that because he tried to kick him.
But the off-balance man dodged it by lifting the foot that the kick came from. Of course, this made him even more unbalanced. Shin thrust his sword and broke through the man's defenses, giving him a big scratch on his chest.
"Gohh."
The man staggered backward once more, coughing up blood. This time it seemed certain that he would fall to the ground, but he was able to stand thanks to a building supporting his back.
"Huhh... I guess I won't be able to test myself like this. At least my strength is still intact."
Shin quickly swung the sword in his hand into the void and washed the blood off of it. He stopped attacking the man and just stood there, letting him catch his breath. The excitement had drained from his face again and he looked bored.
"I guess you won't get up again. It would have been nice if you could at least fight for a few minutes."
Although Shin was being rather slow, barely a minute had passed since all this had happened. He threw down the sword he was holding and started walking, ignoring the wounded man. He turned his back on the man and headed towards the corpse he had beheaded.
At that moment the wounded man called out to the boy who was walking away from him. His voice was very hoarse. Something seemed to be blocking his throat.
"You, the Minato bastard hired you to take us out? Neither of you will get away with this! Boss Kali will feed you to the dogs!"
"Huff..."
Shin sighed as he bent down in front of the headless corpse and picked up his knife from the ground. The man's words ended with him coughing up a mouthful of blood. Shin took out a piece of cloth from his pocket and started wiping the knife. He didn't seem to care that the man behind him was still alive.
He nonchalantly cleaned his knife and then began to examine it, turning it over and over. At the same time, he opened his mouth and began to mutter.
"I've been tried to be robbed twice in the past two days. I guess you're also saying that more men are going to come after me, right?"
He closed his eyes and started twirling his knife in his hand.
'I'm going to leave anyway, but I don't want Minato being chased every day. I think eliminating all the witnesses will be enough for now...'
"AAAA!"
The wounded man had been approaching the boy who had been talking to himself for a while, taking advantage of his inattention, he brandished his sword.
"Ghh..."
He was stunned for a few seconds by the knife piercing his heart, but then he succumbed to gravity and fell face down on the ground. The chestnut-haired boy had already stepped aside, knowing that he would fall on top of him.
When he fell, the knife in his heart sank even deeper.
"Hmm… Kahh... I had polished it so well, and now look at it..."
The boy unhappily turned the man's body and retrieved his knife. He took the cloth out of his pocket again and started cleaning his knife. At the same time, his eyes were fixed on the man lying next to him. Or rather the bag in his pocket...
"If you made me work so hard, at least pay for it. What would I do with your life?"
Even though he had killed all the bandits, he was saying these words now. After he finished cleaning his knife once more, he got rid of the blood on his face too, and started to search the pockets of the bandits one by one.
With the little loot he had found, a satisfied expression settled on his face again. Thinking that his work here was done, he happily left the alley he was on.
"Actually, if it's going to be like this, they can come every day. Anyway, let's go and find the guys."
He slowly entered another street while tossing the full pouch in his hand into the air and catching it. The street where his group had turned a while ago...
"I hope I don't get lost..."