7 Hope?

"Huh? The lord fell asleep?" The blonde tilted her head, her eyes oozing off a strange feeling.

She slowly got up the ground and went towards the bat, after silently staring at for a full minute, she bent down and grabbed it. She clenched it tightly between her hands before smiling strangely. "I am coming, to murder you in hell."

Thud!

The blonde heavily smashed the bat on her head, causing her to stumble backwards. But despite her avid desire to die, her instincts held back her strength and didn't allow her to use her full strength. Which only caused the blonde to feel as if a horrific magnitude earthquake had arrived.

"Seilo!" One of the dark haired girl sprung to her feet and ran towards Seilo, she supported her wobbly body and snapped hard on her, "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING SEILO?! HUH? YOU WANT TO DIE SO BADLY?"

Seilo could barely hear Aoci's words but she could roughly make out what she was saying.

Under Aoci's ferocious gaze, blood started coming out of Seilo's head and started dying her face in red.

"STOP BEING A FOOL! WE WERE MERELY STOLEN FROM OUR INNOCENCE! THE WORD FITS PERFECTLY HERE, WE WERE TOO INNOCENT AND NAIVE TO HAVE NOT SEEN THROUGH HIM WHEN HE SO DASHINGLY CAME TO RESCUE US ALONE! WE DESERVED ALL THIS! WE..." Aoci's eyes became wet, "We deserve this for being idiots and having been fooled. This is how the world works, the greater remains great while the lesser becomes gets pushed even lower!"

"We should have realised that something was wrong when the boss started caring a bit too much for us." Tears fell down from Seilo's eyes, mixing with the blood on her face and ruining her beautiful facial features.

The two girls sitting behind also came towards Seilo and hugged her.

"But... but that doesn't mean we have to die! Especially when we did nothing wrong, that beast was the one to die and look, he's dead right now. Now that we have even gotten our revenge, why must we die? Huh? We... we need to live." Aoci's tough expression cracked down, her already moist eyes began to flow, "WE NEED TO LIVE! YOU HEAR ME? I AM NOT LETTING YOU DIE! YOU TOO, FICKO AND ANO, HEAR ME RIGHT NOW THAT I AM NOT LETTING ANY ONE OF YOU DIE!"

Sniff! Sniff!

"Hmm!" Ficko and Ano nodded in union.

Seilo weakly wiped away the tears from her eyes and pointed towards Aria's and Ferrin's direction. "Sa-save h-her!"

Hearing Seilo's meek voice, Aoci's eyes shifted towards Aria. "Hmm! Let's do what we can." Aoci wiped away her tears and headed towards Ferrin.

"Ficko, Ano, search the lockers for useful things." Aoci squatted squatter next to Ferrin, her heart throbbing madly as she gazed at Ferrin's serene face as he slept soundly next to his mother.

'This kid... is he a monster or a saviour?' Aoci gulped nervously, remembering how swiftly he disposed of that wretched animal. 'No, anything that kills scum like him... anything that can do that is no monster in my eyes.' Aoci's eyes became resolute, she gently took off Ferrin's hand from Aria's head and flipped her on her back. She could see the wound that still kept oozing off blood. A frown appeared on Aoci's face, "That wretched beast... he didn't hold back in the least."

Seilo slowly got up and walked towards her, "How is she?"

Aoci gazed at Seilo before replying honestly, "Not good. I am no professional either? All we will be able to do is bandage her up and pray."

Seilo's eyes squinted slightly, she gazed at Ferrin and a strange glint flashed in her eyes, "How is the lord?"

"Lord?" Aoci gazed at where Seilo was looking at and frowned slightly, "He has no visible injury. I think he just lost consciousness from the shock."

Seilo sighed heavily before moving towards Ferrin and caressing his face, "That wretched animal, harming the lord in such a disgusting way."

Ficko and Ano came towards them with some items, "We found badges, iodine and some pain killers in the first aid kit and... some clothes in the lockers."

Aoci gazed at the clothes, a bitter memory of her own being torn flashing in her mind, her face morphed in disgust as she glanced at the corpse laying in its own pool of blood and spat at it.

Aoci grabbed the iodine and started cleaning Aria's wound with using cotton applied with iodine, after doing all she could do, she rolled the iodine cotton inside a net and placed it next to her wound before wrapping her head with the bandages.

After doing that, Aoci also wrapped Seilo's head as a precaution despite the latter telling her it wasn't important.

After doing all that she grabbed the set of clothes that the girls had brought and went to the bathroom to wash up. The other three just sat down silently, waiting for Aoci to come out of the bath before going in themselves.

"Lets search for a few more clothes to create a comfortable place for her to put her face on." Seilo got up and started searching the lockers.

Ficko and Ano followed suit behind her and started searching.

As opened the tap besides the sink and squatted down, letting the water flow down her body. The cool water felt good, helping her wash away the Aria's and Seilo's blood from her body.

As she was rubbing her hair, her hands moved down to her face and she started rubbing it thoroughly, applying a lot of force. She opened her mouth and cleaned the inside from every corner before rubbing her lips extremely fiercely. 'It won't... it won't come off... I can still feel that disgusting beast from myself.' Aoci lowered her head, tightly piercing into her arms with her long nails. Admits the water, it was difficult to know whether it was water or her tears that began to wash her at some point.

After a whole half an hour of cleaning herself, Aoci finally came out of the bathroom with a polite smile on her face, "Who's next?"

The three girls gazed between themselves before Ficko stood up. Her eyes still contained a deep fear and disgust, not at anyone other then her own self for being. She could've been stronger, she could've reached out her hand and squeezed that beast's neck... so why didn't she? She was afraid... of taking a life.

Ficko didn't take as long as Aoci to come out. She roughly dried her hands with her hands before letting them hang free. She didn't say anything and just quietly sat down on the ground.

"I guess you won't be able to bath right now, with that bandage I mean. I will go in then." Ano silently looked at Seilo for confirmation. Seilo merely smiled slightly before nodding her head.

As Ano stepped inside the bathroom, Seilo touched her head, gauging her own injury. Aoci blinked her big eyes before saying, "If you want to bath I won't stop you but I will recommend you to not do it. And if you are still going, then at least protect your head from making contact with the water, I will help find you a plastic bag, I bet there will be one in these many lockers." Aoci got up to her feet and started searching, not even waiting for her to agree.

Seilo sighed heavily before walking towards Ferrin, who the girls had gently lifted up from the blood and placed next to one of the lockers. She squatted down and placed his head on her lap before leaning against the locker.

Aoci peeked at Seilo from the corner of her eyes but didn't do anything but going back to her searching.

As Seilo sat there silently, tears welled up from her eyes, sliding down her cheek to her chin and falling at Ferrin's face, she couldn't help but mumble again, "Thank you. Thank you for saving me and everyone. Thank you very much!"

"Here, I also found this towel." Aoci stood next to Seilo and gazed at Ficko before saying, "Do you need it Ficko?"

Ficko raised her chin before shaking her head, "No."

Ano also came out of the bathroom at the same time, her hair all entangled up. Maybe due to the water.

Seilo placed Ferrin's head gently on the ground again before taking the plastic bag and opening up her bandage.

When she came outside, her hair were finely wet. Appearing to have been neatly and thoroughly cleaned.

Aoci's eyes flickered bitterly, she knew this would happen hence she didn't fret about it too much and went towards Seilo with the towel. "Let me dry your hair before bandaging the wound again." Seilo didn't say anything and sat down silently near Ferrin.

***

Meanwhile, Ferrin was enshrouded inside a dark place. He felt cold here, despite there being no icy wind or snow, his body shivered consistently.

"Fate will once again allow us to meet again. I can sense your presences. You are coming. You are near. This time... this time for sure, I will not allow you to be deceived by him. I just need some more time before I can completely awaken, then I will finally be able to hold you in my arms. Wait for me! I will save you from his evil grasp. I will... definitely make you mine A-"

A frown appeared on Ferrin's face, his eyes twitched before slowly opening up. Gentle light appeared in his foggy sight, entailing his escape from the darkness's clutches. In his vision, he could see somebody's face above him, 'Mom?' As Ferrin's eyes cleared up, he could clearly see that it wasn't his mother but some other female. 'No, it's not mom. She's... she's one of those girls.'

Ferrin squinted his eyes before gently twisting his head and glancing around, fearing waking up the girl who had unknown motives. He could see the other three girls as well, they were all laying silently but they were awake. His eyes shifted towards a severed corpse, his calm hazy eyes had no emotion as they slightly dimmed down in acknowledgement of what he had done.

'Human... I killed a human! He hurt mom and I... killed him, wait... WHERE'S MOM!?' Ferrin hurriedly pushed aside Seilo's hand which was covering his head and got up. His eyes scanned the whole room, at the first sight of Aria he jumped to his feet and ran to her side. "Mom!"

Ferrin gulped nervously, his whole body trembling as he reached out his hand and touched Aria's face. 'Its... warm. She's alive!' Hope flashed in his eyes, he scrunthsed her body, seeing the bandage on her head, his eyes squinted as he gazed at the girls who were up and awake due to him, gazing at him with mixture of fear and apprehension.

His eyes squinted sensing the fear inside them, 'They are weary of me due to what happened to them... right?' Ferrin's heart beat slightly faster. He had realised the other factor as well but he didn't have the guts to admit it just yet.

"Lord, you're awake! Wonderful!" The blonde smiled beautifully while gazing straight into Ferrin's eyes. She had no fear or apprehension, despite Ferrin being a boy and not a trap in any way.

'...? Its her.' Ferrin realised that she had been the one in whose lap he had slept in. "U-Um, a-are you the one who treated my mom?"

Seilo smiled widely before shaking her head, "No, Aoci did it, she also helped me as well." Seilo pointed at her own bandage.

"Oh!" Ferrin shifted his eyes towards the dark-haired Aoci and glanced at her in a momentary daze, "Uh! So rude, th-thank you for treating my mom! I am very sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused. Please, if there's anything you need, I will try my best to complete it as long as it is within my capability!" Ferrin bowed his head slightly after shaking off his daze, his heart felt warmed by her action.

Aoci silently gazed at him, 'He's not what I thought he would be like. I considered him to be an extremely arrogant and cruel person like that monster but... it seems he was merely angered by him. Though if I the power to become a monster, hehe! I would've given him a death that even his soul would've shivered.' Ferrin felt his spine shiver from the dangerous glint flashing in Aoci's eyes.

Aoci snapped back to her senses and smiled embarrassedly, "N-No need for you to humble yourself, we only did what should've been done and besides," Aoci's smile lost all color, "We should be the one thanking you!"

Ferrin felt as if he had judged her too quickly, "N-No, no! You saved my mother, you deserve my most deepest gratitude."

"No, I did not save her. I merely bandaged her wound. Her life is still in peril!" Aoci turned serious as she glanced at Aria, her actions had only prolonged her life not secured it.

"What? Mom is still in..." Ferrin's eyes trembled in pain. He turned his head and held Aria's face gently.

Seilo's eyes flickered as she gazed at him, "Lord, if I may dare say my mind out-loud, why not we head over to the hospital?"

Aoci blinked her eyes before glancing in her direction and saying, "What use will that be? The world outside is... destroyed!"

"Indeed. Most of the doctors and even many patients might have died but their would definitely be at least one survivor right? Maybe... that one is all we might need? It's worth a try." Seilo laid bare her mind.

Ferrin's eyes flickered, he nodded his head and said, "Its indeed worth a try! But," He gazed at Aria again, "How are we going to take mom there? The outside is very dangerous? What if we encounter more monkeys' with special abilities like the one in here?"

"Then we simply leave her here and go, bring the doctor over here!" Seilo replied with a gentle smile, seeing that Ferrin had liked her idea.

"That is... possible but there's still one problem. I can't leave mom all alone here, what if a monkey barges in here?" Ferrin frowned, his mind erupting in turmoil of what to do.

"Who says you need to leave her all alone? Won't we girls be here?" Ficko smiled embarrassedly and spoke up for herself.

Ferrin's eyes gradually regained there colour. "Yo-You will protect my mom in my absence?"

Ficko smiled helplessly, 'I wish all men are like him. Then I wouldn't have any concern.' Among the four of them, she had recovered the most. She knew what needed to come upon her had merely came. She couldn't change the past and she couldn't kill herself because she had things she loved and many things she wanted to do. She smiled and nodded her head, "Leave her to me! I will repay your debt with my life if I have to!"

Ferrin's eyes burst out with joy and gratitude, he lowered his head to the ground and spoke out sincere words coming straight from his heart, "Thank you very much!"

"L-Lord, please don't do this!" Seilo frantically waved her hands, her face expressing her great worry.

Ferrin raised his head and wiped away tears of joy coming from his eyes. "I sincerely thank all of you! You are the greatest people I have ever met!"

He was speaking the truth, gratitude was something he didn't know at all. He was an abnormal person, he barely went to school and came back half-alive. He was even bullied when he was younger. The students had nicknamed him fat sloth. He didn't have any friends, none besides his mother. So this act of kindness was... something fresh in his life and he cherished it dearly. It came when he truly needed it the most.

"Thank you a lot!"