Unfolded The Letter

"AGHH!"

Pain shoots up my arm, blood starts gushing out of my hand.

The impact makes me fall backwards onto the riverbank, the muddy ground slightly breaking my fall.

"Oof!"

Some of it drips down into the ground.

The muddy water with a reddish hue.

"Damn it that was close, I barely blocked with my hand in time to save my head."

"Ahh.."

If I don't do anything, at the very least I will lose a lot of blood.

I blinked.

There she was, with a knife to my throat.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Her red eyes with a piercing stare gave her an intimidating look.

"Not much, just –" I tried to answer.

"I don't want no BS so give me the real answer!"

I slowly started to reach towards my pocket with my right hand.

"No you won't!" She shouts, crouching down and grabbing my right arm.

The knife moved slightly closer.

No I will not die like this, its too stupid to die like this.

The blood started to form small puddles.

Pain slowly creeped up my arm.

"ARGG"

My whole body was shaking.

Slowly, I started to raise my left hand.

The arrow penetrated my hand, but it was stuck.

It is a good thing the arrow is there to restrict more blood flow.

"AHG!"

I needed to keep my cool.

Blood dripped into my face.

"Think!"

Yeah that's right!

"Hmm you are pretty tough, I bet you could be useful for the military…"

She stated, "However, you are still committing a crime that is possibly punishable by death."

"Answer my questions or die."

"First off I will ask you a question." I responded.

"Go ahead, because this is the last chance you get." She forcefully stated.

"Who are you, and what the heck do you do?" I asked.

"Idiot, you think I will give away info that easily?"

"Well yeah –"

"OW!"

She Smashed her elbow into my face, while I was talking.

"Ok, keep talking," I said.

"You shall not hold up our mission any longer, I will kill you so I can make it back to my group."

"So are you a Soul And Weapon holder?" I asked

"Of course I am not a Soul And Weapon holder!"

"Quit lying!"

"Wait what?" Her eyes narrowed, "How did you know? Answer me!"

The knife moved closer.

"Uhm…"

Damn she looks like she wants me dead.

"For one thing, I have Mind Pierce, and another thing is I am also an SaW holder."

"You are lying! There is no one that can have 20 skill units."

"There has been, in legends supposedly…"

"Wait, how the hell do I have 20 skill points??!"

She looked a little shocked, but tried her best to hide it.

"Fine I will not dispose of you yet. If you turn out to be lying, I will kill you. Due to rules in my job, we need fair evidence that you are lying and you entered the forest without permission."

She used her high speed to be able to catch up with the others in the group.

The whole time I was tied up with blood dripping from my left hand.

A trail of blood… That may be a problem.

The arrow was still impaled inside of my hand.

Hopefully they have a surgeon in their team.

She stops running and skids across the ground to a halt.

"Oof!"

I was dropped onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

The soil was hard and dry in this area.

"Whoa, your speed is insane, we are already near the edge of the forest."

"How do you know this place without a map?" Asked the second in command.

"Experience."

"Looks like this guy definitely knows this forest well, however it is illegal to go there without permission." The girl said.

The highest ranking officer looked at me.

"Him?"

"Correct." She answered, "He is also the one who claims he has Soul And Weapon like me."

"My superiors," I cough, "Why are you all here?"

"None of your business." Shouted the second in command.

"We are here on a priority mission to alert the people of the village and also tell someone about the death of some important people, though I doubt they have anything to do with you."

"Huh…" I decided not to question them any further.

"Alright lads," The highest ranking officer shouted, "Do a search for any weapons."

"Yes Sir!"

A weapon mage that had a metal detecting skill walked to me and started to move his fingers in the air.

A blue trail of energy followed.

He was writing out an incantation.

In a couple of seconds he had finished writing his incantation.

"Weapon cast!"

He shut his eyes and started concentrating.

"He has a knife and a couple of needles."

Suddenly everyone looked tense.

Everyone was suddenly focused on me.

"Needles… What is on them?!"

The weapon mage looked at me as if I suddenly became a threat.

"Third level hazard neurotoxin, the standard issue immobilization needles." I say, "For partially immobilizing muscles in a body."

Soldiers started quietly chatting with each other as the mage started to pull my weapons out of my pockets.

"What the hell is going on?" I thought.

←→

"We are all on edge, squad 2 and the Soul and Weapon 1st group was destroyed by a single assassin who we have not identified yet. According to the people that recovered the bodies, they were killed with poison from a needle." Said the Soul and Weapon user

"The higher your rank the higher the chance you have of dying."

I look at the arrow that shot through my hand.

There was still a little bit of blood dripping out.

"W-what??" I shout, "Is Reed still alive?"

"Does that have to do with you, huh?! Do you have anything to do with sensei's death??"

She raised her fist and started to tremble in frustration.

"Sensei?" I asked.

"Yes, I was his apprentice…"

"You must be Ki Kaiya."

"What relation do you have with Reed Chuan?"

"I'm his brother, Ivan Chuan."

"I don't believe it!" she cries.

A tear runs down her cheek.

"Tell me, are you serious?!!" She shouts.

"Yes I am."

I let my head flop onto the ground.

Staring at the sky, I gave a shaky sigh.

"Why does this have to happen?" I whisper to myself.

A little bit of the undried blood rolls down the side of my face

"I have an ID card as well, you can take a look at it."

I nodded to my right.

The commander saw the card inside the pocket in my muddied pants.

Taking it, he announces, "This ID needs to be checked."

He pulls out a magnifying glass and starts to check the ID.

"This ID is legitimate, the microtext and picture is correct." He says.

"Soldiers, the ID states his skills, name, and age."

"It says his skills include Soul and Weapon.

I kept looking at the sky, I felt deeply worried about what was going to come next.

"Untie this man at once, we do not want a Soul and Weapon user to be prosecuted for trespassing onto uncharted territory. That would be a political setback if things were to get out of hand." The commander ordered.

"Also keep out of the forest until you officially have joined the military."

He pointed to the military patch that he is wearing on his chest plate.

This is what you will receive after you have proven yourself.

"Now we must carry on, we have wasted too much time already. The sooner we get word out, the better. There has to be something going on."

The rest of the way to town was a quiet one.

No one talked that much, and everyone seemed very tense.

It seems even the tenth squad will be in danger.

"So we also almost forgot to tell you." the commander said.

"Reed seemed to have left a letter for you. You can read it when you get back to your home." His voice became deeper than when we first met.

"What is your name sir?" I asked.

"Luki Ionen."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir."

He was a tall and muscular man and I just noticed his hair was not entirely black.

There was a little bit of dark brown.

Now that I am standing up, I can finally measure how big he is.

"As you know my name is Ivan Chuan, I am 16, I live where Reed used to live and–"

"Spare the details young man." he pats me on the head.

A black hair of mine floats down from my head.

"You remind me of my younger brother." He says, laughing. "A criminal."

"Good to know I guess." I grumbled.

"Hey why is Ki so quiet?" he asked me.

"I will go check it out." I said without hesitation.

I slowed down and put my hands behind my head.

Ki was, as far as I have seen, always in the back.

She was pretty dark and gloomy.

"So what is bothering you?"

"REED DIED AND YOU DON'T SEEM TO CARE HUH?" She snapped.

"Whoaaa…"

"Sorry about that" She coughs.

"Thing is, I do care that he is dead, and I am very sad. But he keeps telling me to 'promise me that you will not cry or be depressed if I die. I am in the military and death is normal here. Stay chill, everyone dies, and learning to move on is the most important part of it.' ARG!"

I seemed to have forgotten about the arrow that was in my left hand.

There was still pain even after they removed the arrow and bandaged my hand.

"I should not have attempted to move my left hand." I sigh.

"Sorry about that."

→←

After a while, I took the letter they had for me, and I headed home towards the outskirts of the plains.

It was pretty late in the evening now.

I finally can sit down and read the letter:

*Dear Brother,

This message is written in case I am to be killed. Remember if you see

this, you must remember the words I said before. Stay cool. However I am here

to talk about my death. Right now as I write this, the 8 great powerful soldiers

that make up the 1st group are dead. Assassins are after all high ranking

soldiers. Some people speculate this must be the doing of ghouls. Even though

many people deny it, our research into the deaths of higher ups only prove more

and more that ghouls are after us. The ruler of the empire is safe, but this only

shows that ghouls are more probably associated with these turn of events. In the

legends, They all leave the ruler of the country last so that they can have a duel

to the death. Not only that, an ancient artifact that was allegedly what brought the

Ghouls to this world had become active. Strange activities had been reported

such as suddenly not being able to breathe if you stand near it. Thus far this is

not true yet. I will say a few more things.

Life has been awesome and I am grateful that you are my brother. We had

some great times together didn't we? We all are going to die one day, but making

most of your life is what is most important. No one cares if you die early, as

as long as you have already achieved what you are most capable of achieving.

Do more and experience more than any person in this world. Remember

everything is impossible until it becomes possible. Lastly as a farewell gift I will

give you my timeline shift push daggers. You have inherited your first ever

weapon, hopefully you train extra hard.

Don't fall behind, ok? When you go to military academy you must be top of your

Class. I know most people already have a few skills and you don't. Do not be

discouraged, just try harder. Ok goodbye bro, hopefully your new adventure will

be the awesome continuation of my journey that has come to an end.

Stay True and Stay Sharp.

No one will stop you.

→ Reed (your dead bro)*

I look up through the window and see the sunset.

"I will be better than you!"