Benimaru's eyes tore away from Tomoe's body, dragging upward as if moving through thick mud.
The square had transformed into a complete hell hole in the matter of seconds.
Men he'd never seen before moved through the celebration cutting down each villager with no mercy. They wore mismatched clothes, some in tattered coats, others shirtless with scarred chests. Cutlasses hung from their belts or were already drawn, the blades catching the lantern lights.
A fisherman Benimaru recognized, Takeshi, who always complained about his bad back, was on the ground screaming for his life. His intestines spilled across the dirt like rope, his hands moved to try and push them back in but to no avail. His mouth moved but no sound came out anymore, as he laid there dead.
A woman screamed somewhere to his left. Children were running, their bare feet slipping in pools of blood that reflected in the light. Their parents tried to grab them, shield them, but they were killed either way. A mother clutched her daughter's headless body, before she was then beheaded by a pirate from behind.
Old Man Hideo swung his cane at one of the attackers, but the pirate caught it, and yanked it away. The blade went through Hideo's stomach and out his back. The pirate twisted it before pulling free. Hideo looked down at the hole in his body, at the parts of himself that were suddenly outside, then fell to his knees. He stayed that way for a long moment, swaying, before finally collapsing face-first into the dirt.
The music had stopped as the musicians ran for their lives, but they were killed too.
Benimaru knelt beside Tomoe's body, unable to move. "Pleas-..." Her blood had spread even further now, mixing with the dirt, soaking into his pants where he knelt. It was still warm as he tried to rub the blood out, but his hands wouldn't stop shaking.
BANG!
A gunshot cracked through the air.
Then something massive slammed into Benimaru from the side. He hit the ground hard, with the air forced out from his lungs.
"Beni!"
Daichi's voice, rough and desperate screamed at him.
His father pinned him down, shielding him. But he could feel something warm that splattered on his face. He looked up and saw the entry wound in his father's stomach, a ragged hole the size of his walnut, with blood pouring out like a water slide.
"Dad—"
"Listen to me." Daichi's hands gripped his shoulders. Blood ran down his father's chin from where he'd bitten through his tongue. "You need to run. Find your mother and Yuki, and get them out of here."
Benimaru tried to form words but nothing came out.
"Beni, please." His father's voice cracked. "I need you to do as I say."
Benimaru managed a nod.
Daichi started to pull back. His shirt was completely soaked now, clinging to his body. When he moved, more blood poured from the wound.
"You're—"
"Run!"
Daichi shoved him backward, then turned and charged toward three pirates cutting down villagers. He had no weapon, but he threw himself at them anyway.
He tackled the first one, his fist connecting with the man's face causing his face to indent. He then grabbed the cutlass from the pirate's grip and swung wildly at the other two.
For just a moment, he held them back.
Then one of the pirates moved behind him.
The blade went into Daichi's back at an angle, punching through ribs and coming out the other side. The pirate then wrenched it sideways before pulling free.
Daichi's legs gave out and he dropped to his knees, then forward. His face hit the dirt and he didn't move again, with his blood spreading out beneath him in a pool.
"Dad!"
Benimaru's voice broke.
One of the pirates kicked his father's body over. Daichi's eyes were still open, staring at nothing as his mouth hung slack.
Benimaru gasped for air and turned around and ran.
His legs moved on their own, carrying him away from Tomoe, away from his father's body, away from everything.
Tears blurred his vision as his breathing came in sharp gasps.
He dove under a table as a pirate swung at him. He scrambled out the other side, his hands slipping in something wet, but he just kept running.
An alleyway opened to his left and he ran into it, pressing against the wall as footsteps thundered past. His heart hammered so hard he thought his ribs would crack.
He kept going, weaving through narrow paths as fire and smoke started to fill the air. 'Their burning down the village!' he thought, trying to swallow the large spit building in his mouth but it wouldn't go down.
He turned a corner and stopped.
Kaito was on his knees in the street, his hands pleading as tears ran down his face. "Please," Kaito begged. "Please, I'll do anything! I won't fight! I won't—"
A pirate stood over him, grinning. The man was tall and broad, with a scar running down the side of his face and his neck. He twirled his cutlass lazily as he decided on what to do with him.
"You'll do anything?" The pirate's voice was flat. "How about you shut up."
"NO! PLEASE—"
The sword went into Kaito's chest. Straight through the sternum with a sound like cracking wood. Blood erupted from Kaito's mouth, pouring down his chin. The pirate twisted the blade, then pulled it free with a wet sucking sound.
Kaito looked down at the hole in his chest. At the blood pumping out with each heartbeat. His hands came up like he might catch it, hold it in. Then he fell sideways and didn't move.
The pirate spat on Kaito and then kicked him.
Benimaru's hand instantly flew to his mouth. He bit down on his palm to keep from screaming.
The pirate's head then turned toward him.
Their eyes met.
The man then started to grin as he started walking toward him. Just walking, like he had all the time in the world. "I see youuuu!" he sang out, the blood dripping from his cutlass.
Then he broke into a full sprint towards Benimaru.
Benimaru gasped as he turned and ran back the way he'd come, his legs burning, his lungs screaming. Behind him, the pirate's footsteps pounded against the dirt, getting closer.
"Come back here, you little rat!"
Benimaru ducked into another alleyway, narrower this time, barely wide enough for him to squeeze through. He heard the pirate slam into the entrance behind him, cursing.
"I'll gut you when I catch you, boy! You hear me?!
He dashed down the other way and he burst out the other side into a different street.
He could see his mother up ahead, kneeling on the ground with her side turned to him. A house blocked Benimaru's view of whatever she was looking at, but he could see her shoulders shaking violently.
She was shaking her head over and over, desperate sobs tearing from her throat that even the distance couldn't completely muffle.
"Please," she said. Her voice was hoarse. "Please, she's just a child. She hasn't done anything. Please don't—"
Benimaru couldn't see who she was talking to.
But he could hear the terror in her voice.
"Mom," Benimaru whispered, as he took a step forward.
Then as he did something punched through her from the other side.
Something massive and white, like bleached driftwood. It punched through her from the front, coming out from the back, up close it looked like a bone shard, thick as a man's arm. Blood poured down the bone like shard, in thick pools of blood that trickled down to the floor.
The bone grew further lifting her into the air.
His mother's body went limp as her arms hung at her sides, with her head tilting forward.
The world went silent.
Benimaru tried to breathe but nothing came in. His chest wouldn't move. The air wouldn't enter his lungs. He stood there, frozen, watching his mother's body suspended in the air like some grotesque puppet.
Then a scream shattered the silence.
"MAMA!"
Yuki came running down the street from where their mother was, her little legs pumping as fast as they could carry her. As streams of tears streamed down her face.
"MAMA! MAMA NO!"
She ran toward Benimaru's direction, as she kept looking back, but it didn't seem like she noticed him yet.
Then from behind, a figure stepped out from behind the building where their mother hung suspended.
He was enormous. Easily seven feet tall, maybe more. His frame was built like something carved from stone, he had broad shoulders that seemed wider than doorways, and a barrel chest that strained against the remains of a shirt hanging open. A long, tattered pirate's coat draped off his shoulders, the fabric so weathered it might have been white once but was now the color of old blood and smoke.
His limbs were thick as tree trunks, corded with muscle that shifted beneath his heavily scarred skin. His hands were massive, with each finger as thick as a grown man's wrist, the knuckles split and calloused from years and years of fighting.
But it was his face that made something drop in Benimaru's gut.
A scar ran across his left eye, it was deep and jagged, like someone had tried to split his skull but failed to. The eye itself bulged grotesquely from the socket, pushed forward by old damage to the bone beneath. It didn't move the same way as his right eye. It just stared, fixed in just one position.
Another scar cut through both cheeks, carved so deep it had split the flesh down to the teeth. Even with his mouth closed, Benimaru could see his teeth and dark gums through the gaps. When the man breathed, air whistled through the holes.
His head was shaved clean, revealing more scars across his scalp, some thin and precise, others wide and ragged. He had a thick beard, streaked with gray and matted with old blood.
He took a singular step forward and the air around him instantly grew thick and heavy, pressing down on Benimaru's chest like a physical weight. His knees nearly buckled. Breathing became even harder, like trying to pull air through wet cloth.
Everything felt heavier. His arms, his legs, even his thoughts seemed to move slower. 'No..no' he thought, but for some reason his body wouldn't move.
Yuki was still running, her head down as she bit her bottom lip. Endless tears flowed down her cheeks, blurring her vision. Then she looked up and saw Benimaru ahead. A small, weak smile appeared across her face despite everything.
"Beni—"
She stumbled, nearly falling over, but quickly caught herself. She reached a hand out toward him desperately.
Behind her, the massive man raised his own hand.
Benimaru's face fell and every nerve in his body screamed at him to move.
"YUKI!"
He lunged forward after her.
The skin around the man's index finger started to split as it peeled back like a torn parchment, revealing white bone beneath. The bone extended, growing, sharpening into a point.
Then it fired off from his finger.
WHOOSSHH!
The bone bullet punched through Yuki's back going through her completely, and coming out from her chest in a spray of blood, before slamming into the dirt in front of her. It kicked up a cloud of dust, as it embedded itself deep in the ground.
Yuki stood there for a moment, her gaze drifting downward to her chest where blood had begun to pour freely, soaking through her clothes. She stumbled, catching herself with one foot while reaching out toward Benimaru with a trembling hand.
Then she tipped forward, about to collapse, but Benimaru lunged and caught her, pulling her into his arms. "No, no, no... stay with me. It's going to be okay." His voice cracked as he pressed his hand against her chest, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. "We're going to patch you up just fine. Don't worry, it's just a small wound. You'll be fine."
But the blood kept coming...
"Beni... I-I'm starting to... to feel cold." Yuki's voice came out barely above a whisper, rough and strained as she struggled to breathe.
Benimaru forced a shaky smile. "Don't worry. I'll warm you up."
Yuki's hand reached up, her fingers weakly grasping at his face as her skin started to turn pale. "I-I don't want to die... please, I don't want to die." Tears slipped down her cheeks, trailing toward her ears.
Then her hand went slack, falling limp to the ground.
Benimaru's forced smile vanished instantly. "No, no, no... wake up, please wake up." His voice broke as he gently shook her, as if it could bring her back alive.
"She's dead, it's pointless." A deep voice rumbled from above him.
Benimaru's entire body went rigid. Slowly, he tore his gaze away from Yuki's face and looked up to see the giant man looming over him. Around them, the once-peaceful village had erupted into screams, flames, and blood.
"Why..." Benimaru's voice came out hoarse, barely more than a whisper as tears streamed down his face. "Why are you doing this!?"
The man stared down at him with cold, empty eyes. "For fun," he said flatly, as if it were the most natural answer in the world.
Benimaru's head dropped, his arms tightening around Yuki's lifeless body as the weight of it all came crashing down.
Kill them...
Kill them... Kill them all... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them... Kill them...
KILL THEM ALL.
The anger he'd tried so hard to suppress suddenly erupted, boiling over like a dam breaking apart. A wave of pure rage washed through him, fueled by the bitter sting of his own helplessness. He hated it, he hated how powerless he was, how utterly worthless he felt in this moment.
Everyone he'd loved, everyone he'd cared about, they were all dead. And he hadn't been strong enough to stop it. He'd known the world could be cruel, but he hadn't expected this to happen to him in this way. They were a peaceful village, minding their own business, and these pirates had come and slaughtered them all anyway.
The children, the elders, the women, everyone killed. For what? Gold they didn't have? Money they barely scraped by with? The only thing they had was fish. Fucking fish. They all died over fucking fish.
Benimaru bit down on the inside of his cheek hard until he tasted blood. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" The scream tore from his throat as he gently laid Yuki on the ground and launched himself at the giant man. His fist slammed into his stomach, but the man didn't even flinch. Benimaru didn't stop as he kept swinging over and over again, as his knuckles were splitting open from punching the man.
"I'll FUUCKINGG KILLL YOUUUUUUUU!" Benimaru screamed once more on top of his lungs.
The man reached down and grabbed Benimaru by the face with one massive hand. His fingers wrapped around Benimaru's entire head, engulfing it completely. He then lifted Benimaru off the ground like he weighed nothing.
Benimaru's legs kicked uselessly in the air as his hands clawed at the man's wrist but there was nothing he could do in the mans iron grip.
The man held him there for a moment, then threw him.
Benimaru hit the ground hard, tumbling across the dirt as his vision blurred. He pushed himself up anyway, spitting blood, and charged at the man again.
His fist came up—
But the man caught it.
His massive hand closed around Benimaru's entire fist and squeezed. Benimaru felt something crack. "GAGHAAAHHHHHH!!!" He screamed, trying to pull away, but the grip was absolute.
The man looked down at him. His face was still expressionless. "It's pointless." His voice was deep, flat. "You're too weak. Just like how you were too weak to stop this from happening."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Benimaru swung with his other hand, putting everything he had into it. His knuckles connected with the man's jaw.
But the man's head didn't even budge.
Benimaru hit him again, and again, but punching this man felt like punching a wall of diamond. The impacts sent shockwaves through Benimaru's arms but did nothing, it was like a fly bumped into him.
The man let him and just stood there and let Benimaru destroy his own hands.
Finally, Benimaru's arms gave out. He slumped forward, breathing in ragged gasps, his battered hands hanging at his sides.
The man then let go of him and Benimaru dropped to his knees.
"Do you know why the strong rule the world?" the man said, his voice carrying no emotion whatsoever. "And the weak rot at the bottom to suffer?"
Benimaru looked up at him, with blood dripping from his chin.
The man stared down at him with his bulging eye. "Because strength is the only truth that matters. Everything else..justice, fairness, morality..these are stories the strong tell to make the weak accept their place."
He tilted his head slightly, studying Benimaru like he was something curious.
"You believe in a world where good people are rewarded. Where hard work and honesty mean something. Where the Marines protect the innocent and pirates are punished."
The gaps in his cheeks whistled as he breathed.
"That world doesn't exist. It never has. There is only strength and weakness. The strong take what they want. The weak suffer what they must."
He gestured toward Yuki's body without looking at it.
"Your sister was weak. Your mother was weak. Your father was weak. Your entire village..weak. And so they died."
Benimaru's hands clenched, blood squelching between his fingers.
"You think there's justice in this world?" The man's voice dropped lower. "There is no justice. There is only power. The World Government, the Marines, the pirates..we're all the same. We all serve the same masters and we all dance to the same tune."
He leaned down, bringing his face closer to Benimaru's.
"The world you think you live in is a lie. A performance. And you're too weak to see through it. Too weak to do anything even if you could."
Benimaru tried to speak but his voice wouldn't come.
The man straightened up.
"I was like you once. I believed in things. I thought strength could be earned through righteousness. Through following rules."
He looked at his own hands, turning them over slowly.
"Then they broke me. Taught me the truth. Showed me that the only thing that matters is whether you can force the world to bend. Whether you're strong enough to take what you want."
His bulging eye fixed on Benimaru again.
"They turned me into this. A tool. A weapon pointed at whoever they choose. I do their dirty work. I kill their enemies. I destroy their problems. And in return, I get to live."
The whistling in his cheeks grew louder.
"That's what justice means in this world, boy. Obedience. Service. Becoming a monster so someone stronger doesn't have to get their hands dirty."
He turned away from Benimaru, looking at the burning village around them.
"Your village was chosen. Someone wanted it gone. The reasons don't matter. Maybe you had something they wanted. Maybe you were in someone's way. Maybe they just needed to send a message—"
"W-what the fuck are you talking about..." Benimaru's voice shook cutting him off with a barely contained rage as he struggled to his feet. "I don't give a fuck about any of that. You killed the people I love, so I'll kill you even if it's the last thing I do."
The man stayed quiet for a moment, just watching him with those empty eyes. Then he hummed thoughtfully. "People usually break after that..."
A slow, grotesque smile spread across his face, stretching wider and wider until it looked almost inhuman. "Ohohohooo... I guess I'll have to do it myself then."
Without warning, a massive bone-like scythe burst out from his forearm with a sickening rip of flesh and a wet, tearing sound. Before Benimaru could even process what was happening, the jagged shard pierced straight through his stomach, lifting him off the ground and into the air like a fish on a hook.
"GAGGH!" Blood erupted from Benimaru's mouth in a thick spray, splattering across the man's face and chest. The metallic taste filled his mouth as the world spun around him, the pain so intense it felt like his entire body was being torn apart from the inside.
The man didn't even flinch as the blood dripped down his face. Instead, he grabbed Benimaru with his free hand and yanked him off the bone spike with brutal force. Benimaru's body slid off the gore-slicked weapon, and the man dropped him carelessly to the ground like a piece of trash.
Benimaru hit the dirt hard, his vision going white with pain as more blood pooled beneath him.
Everything was starting to fade. The world around him grew distant and muffled, like he was sinking underwater. Cold crept through his limbs, spreading from his fingertips inward, and darkness began closing in around the edges of his vision.
Then, through the haze of pain and approaching death, a crystal clear memory surfaced
Yuki...
Tomoe...
Haruka...
Daichi...
Kaito...
The villagers...
Their faces...
Their smiles...
He'd made them a promise. He'd sworn to live and die for them, to protect them no matter what. That promise was supposed to mean something. It was supposed to mean everything.
His eyes, which had been sliding shut, suddenly snapped open. They locked onto the figure of the man walking away, his back turned. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Benimaru screamed with every ounce of strength left in his broken body. "I PROMISE YOU THAT!"
The man stopped in his tracks. For a long moment, he stood perfectly still. Then, slowly, he looked over his shoulder, those empty eyes finding Benimaru one last time. There was no fear there, no concern, just a mild curiosity, like he was observing something slightly interesting.
Then he turned back around and continued walking, his footsteps echoing against the ground as he disappeared into the distance.
Benimaru tried to keep his eyes open, trying to hold onto consciousness, trying to hold onto that burning rage that was the only thing keeping him alive.
But his body had reached its limit.
The darkness swallowed him whole, and everything went black.
. . . . .
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