Come With Me

"Where are you~"

That haunting voice echoed through the empty town.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

To Alec, that voice was the beginning of the end. The nightmare that he'd never escape from.

Until 'that person' came. His savior, his idol, and the person who he wishes to serve.

Venator Sova. The Hunter.

...

Venator let the wind decide his destination, as he had no maps with him, and sailing in a straight path would be boring.

The wind did not disappoint, as it took him to an island bustling with human life, Rockwell Island.

He docked on the shores of the island, and was welcomed by the locals there.

"What brings you to Rockwell Island?", an also visiting merchant asked him.

Venator carefully considered his answer before replying, "I'm on a sight-seeing trip. By chance, do you have any maps of the sea?"

The merchant rose his eyebrow at the odd request, "No, but that guy," he pointed to a man selling fruits, "should have some."

"I see, thank you. Have a good day."

Venator bided farewell to the merchant before heading in the direction that he pointed in.

The man saw Venator approaching him and asked with a smile, "Good day, lad! Would'ja like some fresh fruits, or do you need something else?"

"Someone told me that you would have a map of the seas. I'm here to trade for them."

Venator deliberately used the word 'trade' as he had no money on him at the moment.

"No need, I have many extras.", the man replied as he handed Venator a map, free of charge.

Venator had a pleasantly surprised look on his face, "Thank you for your generosity. I hope that you have a nice day."

"No problem. Just be careful 'round here at night, will ya? Recently, there has been a string of murders on the island, wouldn't want a bright young man like ya having their destiny ended early."

"I see. Thank you."

Venator walked away from the fruit-selling merchant and headed to nowhere in particular, when something caught his eyes.

'WANTED'

'DEAD OR ALIVE'

'SLASHER'

'$20, 000, 000'

A/N: I'm using the $ symbol to represent beri because I don't know if webnovel will actually let me put the beri symbol in the story

He didn't know how much a single beri was worth, but 20 million seemed like a lot.

'This is a bounty poster... likely for the criminal that is responsible for the murders across the island, mentioned by the generous merchant earlier...'

Normally, Venator wouldn't have bothered with this, as it was a crude and unsafe way to get money, but he is in a desperate need of money, and he'd like to test his powers out on a human being as well.

This was the result of his arrogance after having attained a devil fruit, one that he doesn't even know the name of.

Venator snatched the wanted poster off of the board, and headed for another town on the island.

'It's unlikely that he would be in this (his current) town because the Marines are stationed here.'

As he was walking on the road to the nearest town, he encountered a problem; one that he was not very familiar with due to his lack of human interactions with anyone outside of his family.

Bandits.

They threatened him, "Hand over yer stuff, unless yer want me to kill ya!"

Venator replied, "No, thank you. I don't think I will."

Then, he ignored them, leaving them dumbfounded and allowing him to continue down his road.

That was when his head moved to the left, dodging an arrow.

He turned around and found bandits, armed to the teeth, looking menacingly at him.

He unfolded his bow and created arrows, something that the bandits clearly did not notice, with the way that they're charging at him.

"Have a good day, gentlemen."

He let loose the arrows nocked on his bows, which split into even smaller ones that found their targets at the bandits' heads.

They were all dead within 5 seconds. He looted their dead bodies.

He then continued on his merry way, and arrived at the next town fairly quickly, before the sun set.

Venator headed for an inn to stay the night, paying with whatever money the bandits had on them prior to their unfortunate encounter.

That was when his instincts told him to continue on his way to the next town.

...

Every hunters learns to trust their instincts, no matter how ridiculous it may be.

That was especially the case for the Sova family, as every member were born with an increased perception compared to others.

From a young age, they are trained to trust and follow their instincts, and that has rewarded them multiple times.

This time was no exception, as Venator immediately packed up and left for the next town.

On the road, in the darkness of the night, he encountered no problem at all, and his short journey to the next town was smooth.

There was a board that revealed the name of the town; Tragoedia.

A fitting name for what's about to happen their; a tragedy.

Venator entered the eeriely quiet town, and utilized his base instincts to the maximum.

He sensed death.

A lot of deaths.

In the town of Tragoedia, there were so many deaths that he could smell the iron in the air.

He entered every houses and tried to find a single person that was still alive, but failed to each time.

They all had their neck cut out.

Even though he have had his fair share of death in his life, this still shook him to his core.

An entire town was dead because of one person.

Venator wouldn't call himself a hero, but in this case, he felt fury boiling inside him. He was set on killing whoever massacred an entire town, regardless of their intentions.

He unfolded his bow and prepared to head out, but that was when he heard the killer.

"Where are you~"

The voice echoed through the empty town.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are~"

Judging from the killer's words, there should be at least one person alive.

Venator entered a house and walked up the stairs to a window, opening it without noise, while looking for the murderer.

"Ah! Lookie lookie, guess who's there!"

The killer headed into an alleyway and grabbed the shadow of a young teenager.

The boy was clearly afraid, trembling - not from the cold of the night, but from his fear of the lunatic in front of him.

"Mmh, hiding like a little rat, are we? Did'ja like it when you watched me kill your entire families? Your father? Your mother? Your sisters?"

The boy remained silent, but now, a fire lit itself in the boy's eyes. A fire that Venator has acquainted with. The fire of wrath.

"Tch. Your sisters were more fun."

The insane killer raised his weapon; a chainsaw, into the air, and prepared to cleave the boy in half.

Venator concentrated energy - a lot of energy, quietly into one singular arrow, intent on killing the madman with 1 hit.

Now, he was waiting for an opportunity.

The opportunity came quickly when the killer started cleaving downwards, and Venator let his concentrated arrow of energy loose, sailing through the air and finding its target in the killer's head.

The killer sensed that something was wrong, and turned his head around to see an arrow of blue light heading towards him, but he couldn't quite react; his body was already in the motion of cleaving.

The light pierced through his head cleanly, not leaving a wound at all, and he fell onto the ground, motionless like a doll whose string has been cut.

Belatedly, blood starting flowing from his head, and the unfortunate recipient was the young boy, who was right underneath the killer.

Venator jumped out of the window and headed for the boy who looked shaken, but pleasantly surprised with the twist of the situation.

He put his hand on the killer's shoulder before easily lifting him off the young boy and putting the corpse to the side.

Venator looked down at the boy, his blond hair swaying in the air, and his blue eyes shining in the night.

Venator extended a hand to the boy.

"Come with me."

The boy took his hand.