Burning Bright

Pyramid

As Yarai approached the pyramid, he could hear sounds of chaos. People were yelling, and there was smoke everywhere. One voice was becoming clearer.

"And then I'll torture you slowly! Torture you, until you die! I'll make you regret the day you were born! First, the face!"

"Hii!" a girl cried. Yarai could see them better as he drew closer. A man with a cut on his face was holding a girl and threatening her with a sharp piece of wood.

"I'll give you the same scar as me!!" the man told the girl.

"Ah!" she gasped. Tears were running down her face. She was terrified.

"I'll ruin this face of yours!!"

"Augh!"

"Hey, stop it!" Yarai said, pulling the girl free from the man's grip.

"Eh?" the girl said, looking up at him in surprise.

"Damn! Who's the bastard who started this fire?" Yarai asked.

"Ah... isn't that Yarai!?" a boy in their school uniform said.

"That blonde hair! It's him!" another boy in their uniform said.

"Why's he here?" asked a girl who was also clearly from their school.

"... Who are you, you bastard?" the man asked, furrowing his brow.

"... I'm Yarai Kouichi," Yarai answered. "I heard there was a doctor here. I wanted him to take a look at one of my sick people."

"... Your sick people?" the man asked, looking up at him because of their height difference.

"..." Yarai stared back at him.

"..." The girl stared at Yarai, not believing her eyes. 'He's lying! Is he lying? I know this person!' She remembered an image of Yarai fighting, violent and bloody. 'I've seen what he's capable of!'

"What... what happened?" another man, who had a beard, asked. "That arrogant bastard!"

"Ah... That's Yarai! Yarai Kouichi!" one of the boys from his school said.

"The weirdo who single-handedly killed the military guy!" another said. He must have heard an exaggerated account about his fight with the soldiers on Guam. "Ah... Why would that bastard be here?"

"And where did he go? That doctor?" Yarai asked.

"..." the man with a cut on his face stared up at Yarai. "Hmm! So Yashiro's even told your group about it? Let me hear what happened..."

"!" Yarai said. "Unless you're...?"

"... Hmm," the cut man said, pulling out a handkerchief.

"Ah, you are..." Yarai said.

"I am Nishikiori Takashi, a surgeon at Tokyo University Hospital."

"Tokyo University?" Yarai said. "Huh. So you were an elite. Anyway, your wound looked pretty bad, and there's all this rubble here. What on earth happened?"

"It's none of your business!" Nishikiori said, wiping his face. "Anyway, you have someone who's ill? They're not here?"

"... They're not far away, I'll bring her over," Yarai said, turning to leave.

"..." the girl who was being threatened stared at him.

"Hey you, come here," Yarai told her.

"Eh? Ah! Yes..." she said, following him. 'Maybe, he saw the danger I was in just now, and decided to take me along because he was worried. Although he looks like a bad person, he might actually be very caring. But... this person... when I foresaw images from the future... Why? Why would this person be against Sengoku-kun?"