the sun is shining and I'm already wake, didn't get much sleep yesterday after all. My mood isn't good obviously. I barely got any rest and to top it all off I'm without the love of my life by my side,so I think I have the right to be at least a bit grumpy in the morning.
still I better get out of bed and start making some breakfast unless I want to spend the morning tossed on the bed like everyday since the past month... I really don't but it's hard to have the will to do anything.
"It doesn't matter if I'm motivated or not today the world shall see my unmatched cooking skills!" after saying that i managed to let out a weak smile,even if it was only filled by sadness.
just some bacon and eggs are probably enough for now,I forgot to buy new ingredients for a while so that's all I can make at the moment. really anticlimactic honestly.
even though I was supposed to be focusing on the cooking I was completely absent minded. I didn't even realize that I accidentally burned one of my fingers in the process. nothing that my regeneration can't fix but still... I made sure to pay more attention this time,don't need to worry about my well being but if I don't pay attention the food won't taste great in the end.
after finishing cooking I got a plate,opened the window and started looking at the Sky while eating. which quickly proved to be an awful decision,since some memories started to haunt me...
* one year ago *
" go ahead (Y/n) as your older brother I'm 99% confident that she will say yes! you know I'm never wrong right ? c'mon what do you have to lose ? the worst she can say is no!" this Damm smirk never leaves is face. "I can lose a friendship I highly value brother... but i guess you're right... if she says no I can just end everything." he doesn't understand my pain... "even if that's what you really want I won't let you end everything. I promised to keep you safe from any kind of danger,I would never be able to forgive myself if i let you do this to yourself..." even if he's concerned I won't change my mind. "It's truly a shame then. since I plan to do it whether you like it or not. better hope she says yes..." I simply leaved my brother and went to meet Kiriko in a restaurant. it's now or never. as I entered and approached her I can't help but feel nervous...
"You finally decided to show up ? I've been waiting here for quite a while." she's beautiful as always. I was the one who invited her to this restaurant and still made her wait all this time... I just keep messing up. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting.I was... discussing some important matters with my brother" I can only give an awkward smile in this situation. "more important than me ?" she doesn't know my real intentions but her teasing sure as hell is effective. "I apologize again but I have a really important thing I want to ask you..." "Oh do tell me then!" "please forgive me... but can't hide it anymore. I- I... l-love you... Kiriko. would you accept to be my girlfriend ?" honestly I think this is the end she's simply to good for someone like myself. I better leave before I embarrass myself even more.
"I'm so sorry. forget I said anything. have a good night Kiriko..." as I quickly get up from my seat and was about to leave the restaurant Kiriko grabbed my hand and made me look straight into her eyes.
"You can't just confess your love to me and simply leave without hearing my answer." she's smiling at me I don't want to get my hopes up but maybe this time thing's will work out for me ? "so what's your answer Kiriko ?" "of course I accept it silly! you made me wait years for this moment. you better make up to me~" looks like I succeed... I can't believe it... did she actually said yes ? "helloooo earth to (Y/n) ? you're just going to stand there motionless ? c'mon I demand at least a kiss I've been waiting for so long" I approached her,a little shy as I was preparing myself for the kiss Kiriko on the other hand just aggressively but still passionately kissed me. "That was great! the wait sure paid off,now let's go back to my apartment so we can have a eventful night unbothered by anyone shall we ?" she's way more straightforward than I thought... "You're blushing that much ? how cute! I'm going to enjoy teasing you everyday hehe! now let's go we have 'business' to do tonight!" she's definitively the boss in this relationship... well no complaints from my part "Y-Yes miss!" my face is completely red this is so embarrassing! but I'm somewhat enjoying this. I have no dignity...
8 hour later after nothing inappropriate happened...
As I got back to my parents house I was greeted by my brother who was waiting for me by the door. "look who finally decided to appear! oh is that a hickey mark on your neck ? looks like someone had a fun night yesterday! "
somehow is usual smirk is even more obvious I'm so embarrassed! "don't worry I won't ask about the details... for now.
but I'm so glad everything worked between you two! now let's go to the kitchen Yuki needs to congratulate you too! besides she's doing the breakfast today and as you know everything she cooks tastes great! c'mon before she changes her mind about the cooking!" as I was basically dragged to the kitchen by Hayato we found a deeply lost in thought Yuki there. "Hey Yuki! how you're doing ? still thinking about what to make for breakfast ?" "Precisely... I want to make something " unusual " for breakfast honestly I'm thinking about making a pizza. what do you two think ?" "Do it Do it ! make it in commemoration to our little pogchamp for finally confessing to Kiriko and scoring her as a girlfriend In the process!" I didn't even had time say that Kiriko accepted to be my girlfriend,but i guess it is really obvious.
"Oh congratulations it was about time honestly." even if she sometimes looks like she doesn't care I can easily see that she's smiling. that morning I enjoyed my life again after so many years I could never forget that day...
* present *
"WHY ? WHY ? why...do these painful memories never fade ? i know how much I lost in this last month I don't have to be reminded every single freaking day specially with a memory so painful like this one... pain regret anxiety and fear is all that plagues my mind everyday... I'm tired... of living. I don't have the strength to carry on I never had... I'm the end all that is left was me. A stupid and immature person who just tossed all my future into the trash with a single bad decision and I have no one but myself to blame... after that I had a mental breakdown i just couldn't handle it anymore...
after some hours of uncontrollable sobbing I stopped not because I wanted,I just didn't had any tears left to fall... I want to die but I can't,so living is my penitence my punishment... and there's nothing I can do about it but keep on living. "I think it's a good idea to go for a walk around town,I need to get some fresh air and hopefully recompose myself."
after wandering around for about one hour even an idiot like myself can realize that nothing I do can really distract me from what happened,from those that I lost and from the one I abandoned. I have to learn how to live with my mistakes and sins until the end. there's no escape from what I did...
I was so lost in my thoughts that I somehow ended in the front of a bank. since I'm new to this city I'm obviously a bit lost,still I wandered way to far from my apartment. as I was about to make my away back I heard someone screaming from the bank.
this can't be a good sign.I better go see what is happening there I just can't leave knowing that someone may be needing help.
as I opened the doors and entered I could see precisely what was happening,a bank robbery. and of course everyone inside was being held hostage. "hey if you don't want to get your head blown open you better get on the ground and hand over all your belongings to us!" ugh looks like I'm being threatened since y'know he's kinda aiming a gun at my head how scary indeed!. "Uhh how about no ? I'm not going to follow the orders of scum such as yourself" that seemed to have hit some nerve since he unloaded all of his bullets into my head. "How about that you fucker ?" he said proudly before getting scared,I always enjoy seeing these type of people panicking after they realize that I'm basically unharmed. "you can continue shooting If you want I can do this all day!" doing a smirk in the end was just the icing on the cake for him to be really afraid of me. before he could scream I just knocked him out cold with a single but effective punch into his throat. unfortunately the commotion alerted one of his friends thankfully I had time to hide myself. "something is not right... this idiot would never waste that many bullets into nothing." as he inspects his friend body he doesn't see worried at all, maybe because he knows they aren't Dead or does he just doesn't care ? I don't have time to think about this stupid question I'll just take this bastard out before someone else appears. and so I did, whoever there are probably many more of them scattered around here.
one thing is bothering me,if only one person noticed the gun shoots then it must mean that the other robbers are quite far in the bank compared to those two if I have to take a guess the majority of them are probably in the vault. I haven't found any hostages yet I'm worried I might have arrived to late...
thankfully as I proceed further I found some hostages. still I need to take down the robbers before I can save them. "I hate to babysit these stupid people why can't we just kill them ?" "boss orders,if you have a problem with it you can confront him directly." I summon Kazhan before cutting both eyes of the first one. "such a shame that I won't allow you to lay a finger on the innocent!" before his friend could react I already cut his rifle in half surprisingly that was enough to make him faint from fear.
as I make sure that the now blind guy was unconscious before tying him and the other robber together. "I'm deeply sorry to have taken this long to get here. now please call the police and return to the entrance of the bank, don't worry I've already taken care of everyone there." they quickly ran way to the entrance it works well for me since I have no time to wait. I quickly made my way to the vault I could see 5 robbers outside looks like they didn't open it yet. they weren't able to put much of a fight,in less than 5 seconds I had already taken out 4 of them now it's only one left... "d-don't get any closer or I'll s-shoot!" he's obviously panicking. "go ahead be my guest then!" before he could shoot I already kicked him into the wall. he probably isn't going to recover from this one anytime soon.
"now before I lose my patience say to me where is your boss !" I put my sword close to his throat. "he's in the manager room I swear! please spare me !" "good answer. this won't kill you,but it will hurt quite a lot!" he flinched before I hit his head with my sword hilt. before I start going towards the manager room I better make sure that these 5 are properly tied. don't want to be careless and let them scape.
(5 minutes later)
as I reached the manager room I could hear a man talking inside.
"You asked to be shoot ma'am. you just had to give me the password for the vault. otherwise this wouldn't need to happen! now while you bleed to the death I wonder what should I do to your daughter. eh I'll probably just sell this little shit in the black market for some quick cash." "M-Mommy ? p-please wake up!" that was more than enough reason for me to open the door and see what was happening. and inside I found a woman on the ground bleeding a little girl crying by her side and a men pointing a gun to them. I waste no time as I toss my sword at the guy's arm piercing it making him scream in pain which gave me enough time to pin him to the ground. "I've already give your friends the beating they deserve now... the last bastard left is you !" "so what ? are you going to kill me ? then by all means go ahead I'm not afraid of death hahaha!" "no, someone like yourself deserve to rot in prison!" "please someone wake mommy up !" what I'm witnessing simply broke my heart the little girl is crying her eyes out while pleading for her mother's life, luckily I can do something about that. in this last month I noticed that my Yokai powers are mostly focused on regeneration and healing in general. Whoever it comes to a cost to heal others,I have to drain the blood from someone to be able to access my healing powers. thankfully I have a "volunteer" close to me at the moment. "don't worry I will save you mother! just give me a second please!" I tried my best to reassure the girl before dragging my "friend" outside the room a I tossed him to the ground as I
extended my hand towards his direction to start absorbing the needed amount of blood. he won't die from this but I'll make sure that nobody else will have to worry about him anymore. 2 minutes was all I needed to absorb his blood,and after the process was done I broke both his arms and legs.
"sorry for the wait! it'll just take a moment for you mother to wake up!" as I said that I put my hand on her and started transferring the blood. quickly her mother started to move a little. I'll take that as my hint to leave since everything has been taken care of. before I could exit the room the little girl surprisingly hugged me I don't know how to feel about this... I'm not used to people thanking me,so it's a new experience for me,I tend to always run before they can properly thank me and yet somehow this little girl managed to caught me off guard.
"Thank you! thank you so much for saving my mommy!" it's kinda hard to not feel at least a bit of joy upon witnessing her genuine happiness. "you really don't need to thank me. I don't deserve such praise... I was just in the right place at the right time." "you're now my favorite hero!" it's kinda funny to be called a hero... I'm quite the opposite of that... "now please can you let go of me ? everyone is safe and I need to get out of here before the police arrives..." despite hesitating a bit she released me, right on time since her mother started to get up from the ground. before she could even see me I already vanished.
(7 hours later)
this was an eventful day to say the least. didn't expect to stop a bank robbery today. thankfully everything ended well and all I have to do now is cook something to eat and go to sleep, well try to sleep at least.
I'm a little tired so I think I'll turn the TV on just to make some noise to maintain me wake for at least enough time so I can make something to eat,this isn't a healthy way to keep living but oh well I can't do nothing about it for now. Kiriko would be disappointed but she isn't here with me is she ? as always I keep thinking about her and getting depressed in the end. I can only chuckle a little at my own misery. "It never gets easier does it ? maybe one day it will... I hope that day isn't that far..." and everytime I think about her I end up crying i just can't... I miss her so much... as I wiped out the tears I noticed that I forgot to clean the blood from my left eye. it's really annoying that this happens every time I use my powers.
as I cleaned up the blood something on TV caught my attention.
"today on the news we have an interesting history to share with everyone. around 11 pm our local bank was invaded by 8 heavily armed criminals. since it was a surprise attack everyone inside the building was caught off guard and quickly turned into hostages. but then what happened next is the interesting part, apparently someone entered the bank defeated all the robbers,rescued everyone inside and left before the police arrived. unfortunately we don't have images of this mysterious person since all cameras where disabled after the criminals got access to the security room." thank God the last freaking thing I want is to have the entire city know I was the one responsible for what happened earlier.
"and everyone we tried to interview said they were too scared to notice and give specific details about how this person looked". okay I can rest easy then,and to think I was worried about nothing! "whoever one little girl apparently got a glimpse of them! let's see if she has any interesting remarks that may help us out in finding who this person truly is!" my soul leaved my body as I heard that... I hope that girl didn't had a good memory otherwise in completely screwed. as the journalist started to interview the little girl I was trying my best to remain calm.
"do you remember anything unusual about that person's appearance ?" "They weren't just a person it was an angel! sent by god to protect me, mommy and everyone else!" what is this stupid girl talking about an angel ? I'm basically the opposite of that, still I can't help but let some tears fall as she said that,I just get really emotional sometimes "the angel had a cool red glowing left eye and their left arm also had a beautiful red fish drawn in it!" I need to start using glasses then if I don't want to get recognized,and since I always cover up my tattoo when I'm not fighting it's not something that I need to get used to. "interesting,do you perhaps know their name ?" "I don't... but I'm calling them 'The scarlet protector'!" after she said that the interview ended "as you all can see today the bank and many lives were saved all thanks to the scarlet protector! we don't know who they are but looks like we are witnessing the rise of a new hero!"as he finished speaking I just turned the TV off and started to process all that happened today. "the scarlet protector ? such a stupid name... I... Kinda Like it!" I can't help but smile a little bit. If they want a hero I can play that role! but even if life itself will forgive me for everything I've done... I won't.
*author's note*
imagine taking 9 days to update a single chapter couldn't be me. as always I'm sorry for taking so long to update.