Nick of time |NARUTO|

The System [3]

Recap:
The akatsuki has finally located Tenshi to the "pit" a place I think no one expected Tenshi to be.
The woman who don't thrive in the system either stay in factory as servants for the men who run black market slave trade  or  die in the pit."
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Shackles restrained my wrists as i fought the itching feeling on my cheek. Alertness washed over me in waves. It's been 3 years since I've been here. A week from now the plan will commence and if everything goes as planned, I'll have succeeded, they'll be free...I'll finally be free from this hell.

I'm broken out of my thoughts as my cell is opened along with the sounds of whimpering.
My gaze shifts up to the shaking form of a small bruised up girl.

I usher her terrified form close as she runs into my open arms.

"O-one-San!!"

I sigh in sorrow at the trembling girls form. She had been thrown in the pit for the first time...and the worst thing about it was that it was her 9th birthday. It made me feel guilty that I could do nothing to stop the selection. This wasn't the first time she'd been picked to be thrown in the pit, but the other times she was spared because I had volunteered in her place. She was only a child after all and the pit was no place for a child let alone any person.

"Gomen Ami...You know I can only volunteer but so many times for you."

"S-she-c-Chan i-it was s-so h-horrible..." Her timid hoarse voice comes a second later.

"I know...know." I soothed.

My grip on the small girl I've come to consider a little sister tightens as memories from the many times I've been thrown in the pit emerge.

"What matters now is that you're alive now. You survived the pit, you know many do not come back from it."

I feel her form tense in my arms at the mention of the others who never returned from the pit. When it comes to the pit it's like an all out battle royale. You're either the last person alive standing or you're not. If you do somehow end up surviving aside from the victor then you go back to the factory and become a dirt licker which are the servants who clean the factory and do the heavy lifting. The victors of the pit are kind of upgraded but not by that much of anything; we get more food and it makes us one step closer to being bought. Ami was a victor by luck. She had hidden throughout the whole match until it was just her and another woman. Before the woman could even take a step forward to hurt Ami, I had persuaded Daiki my master to let the hounds out. The hounds weren't your typical dog they were these monstrous creatures that the masters had incorporated into the pit to make it more entertaining. We all knew it was a means of weeding out the weak and lowering our numbers.

Before the woman was able to end Ami, a hound had gotten ahold of her arm and next thing I knew all the hounds were on her, dragging her away from the crowds eyes.

I felt bad that I was the reason behind the woman's death but if I hadn't done anything, Ami would've died and quite frankly the woman was a bitch anyway. She had the tendency to form alliances with other competitors then sacrifice them when it came down to last person standing.

Ami was the only one left out of the alliances formed in the pit since she was new and I had warned her to stay away from alliances.
I learned that the hard way when I first got sent into the pit...granted I came out the victor but it wasn't under my circumstances. I didn't want the same thing happening to her.