CONTENT WARNING: MINOR DESCRIPTIONS OF GORE, JUST RECAPPING WHAT HAPPENED LAST CHAPTER.
Hours passed, with Y/N just stuck in the same place, left with his own grief. He was safe, sure, but what was the point? His parents were dead, his brother was missing... the true gravity of the situation hit him like a truck.
"Where... where am I meant to go? What am I meant to do now?" He thought.
All Y/N had with him was his sketchbook and his sword. His sword before felt like security to him. A way to protect himself from everything that could possibly throw itself at him. But now, after seeing his father, his neck ruptured and his sword lying on the ground uselessly, was it really all that effective at all? Maybe that man, Gyomei, was right to pick an unorthodox weapon like that mace and axe, if a sword could be defeated so easily.
But then there were the creatures themselves. Y/N hadn't the foggiest idea what they were. Sharp fangs, long claws... they looked almost like mutant humans. Yet not human at all. They couldn't be, not with the way that they massacred everyone, and ate their corpses.
His mind flashed back to disturbing images from the attack. People screaming as they had their throats ripped out by fangs, guts spilled out onto the floor, and his father. Neck crushed.
The moment replayed itself in Y/N's mind. The crunch of bone being vapourised by the creature's grip. The spurting of blood from the collapsed jugular veins. It was a moment that would never fade away. It made Y/N want to throw up right there.
And there was his mother, her state unknown. Y/N thought she was definitely dead. But how mangled her corpse would be... the thought of it haunted him.
And Satoshi. Is he dead? Or was he able to escape like he was? Would he ever even see him again?
Y/N didn't move from his spot on the forest floor. It was all just too much for his brain to handle. All he could do was keep thinking about what had happened in the village, and his family. Still, Y/N didn't know what to do. He had no money; how would he survive? By foraging and hunting? It was possible, but he'd still have no place to go, or live. He needed... somewhere.
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As the sun's rays glanced upon the forest floor, seeping between tree branches. Y/N made a decision. He needed to just drag himself along. His mother told him to keep living, living a life for her and his father. The situation was bleak, and Y/N wanted nothing more than for it all just to end, but he wanted to keep going.
For the lives of his parents, which had been cut too short.
He pulled himself onto his feet, legs still aching from running so far into the forest for his life. He began to walk forwards, into the unknown that he was so unsure of doing a few hours before.
Y/N decided that he would first try and find a village. Just some sort of civilisation would show him that he isn't alone - that other people still at least were there. In the village, he would try and get some money. How? He had no idea. He thought about asking for work, but the rate would be way too low for what he wanted to do. The only possible way he saw... was stealing. It would be terrible, sure, but... he needed it. To rebuild his life.
The idea of stealing money loomed over him as he continued to skulk through the forest. "Just how big is this place anyway?" He found himself thinking.
Occasionally, he heard the rustling of a bush near him, causing his hand to dart to the hilt of his katana. After what happened so randomly in the village, he was so paranoid that any small movement in the forest made his palms sweaty and his breathing rate increase.
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Y/N continued to walk throughout the day, and finally decided to get some rest when the sun began to creep down in the sky. After all, he hardly got any sleep last night, and he had been walking through what seemed like an infinite forest during the day. Maybe everything was just a lie, and there really was nothing out there. Just a bunch of trees and stupid crows.
He decided to build a makeshift bed out of leaves, because of a lack of anything else. It was the most uncomfortable way that Y/N had ever tried to sleep, but he needed to, somehow. As he lay down to rest, he saw something next to him.
It was a flower. Just one lone lily plant, with a few flowers on it. Reaching forwards, he put his hand on the petals and caressed them softly. One figment of nature that he always adored was a flower, even the simplest daisies and buttercups. He found it incredible how such a beautiful thing could sprout out of the ground, out of seemingly nothing. It wasn't much, but the flowers that he was feeling now gave him hope. Hope, that beauty still existed in this world.
With this one calming thought to soothe his scarred mind, he drifted off to sleep after significant effort on his part.
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He woke up a few hours later, or at least he thought it was a few hours later. The sky was still lit only by the full moon and twinkling stars, with everything else as dark as ever. Knowing that it would take too long to fall asleep again, he decided to get going through the forest again, and just try and find something, anything that resembled civilisation.
At long last, Y/N saw what looked like the end of the forest. He sprinted towards it, a smile appearing on his face, until he reached it. Only to find it was a dead end. Just a bush. He collapsed to the ground once more but rose again quickly. This time, he was just angry.
In frustration, he sliced at the branches of the bush using his katana. To his surprise, he was actually able to cut through. And what he could see, was the top of a hill, and below it, a group of houses and what looked like stalls.
Tears burned his eyes at the sight. Not sad ones like the huge amount that he shed before, but tears of joy. He clambered through the bush, not caring how many times he was scraped by the branches. When he emerged, he looked at the village from above. The breeze kissed his hair and drifted past him. Everything was green, except for the village and its buildings. There was something that looked like a trail to Y/N in the distance, which stretched out into the unknown. With his breath stolen away, Y/N took out his sketchbook and began to draw the lovely scene before him.
He didn't spend too much time on this drawing this time, but it captured the true beauty of what he could see, nevertheless, as well as granting him small relief by taking his mind off his parents' deaths, still unable to wipe the scenes out of his memory. Pocketing his book, he made his way down the hill, glad to finally see more signs of life at last.
As he made his way through the gates of the village, what calmed him the most was hearing the bustle of peoples' daily lives. He saw children holding hands with their mothers, salesmen advertising products at stalls... it was like a different world compared to what he had faced two nights ago.
Soon, however, the reality of everything came crashing down on Y/N once more. He was intending to steal from people for himself. It was necessary though, right?
Before this, he opted to go and explore that trail-looking thing that he saw from the top of the hill, going up to the small shelter that it started from. On the trail, Y/N could see something that looked absolutely huge. It was puffing smoke from a tube at the top, and the front was painted black. It seemed to have wheels, and large boxes that trailed behind the main black part.
He stayed wary of it, especially now that he had no idea what kind of creatures lurked in the world. There was a man wearing what looked like a uniform on the concrete platform, so Y/N approached him.
"Um, excuse me sir, what is this... thing? And this trail, too," he asked tentatively.
The man looked at him with a confused expression, but answered his question, nonetheless.
"I... assume you're not from here. This is called a train. You can use it to quickly travel to different places. There is a map that shows where you can go over there," he points at a map. "It costs money to buy a ticket, though."
Y/N looked at the map and saw Tokyo on the map. He knew it was the biggest city, so he thought it would be best to go there. He saw a place called the Yoshiwara District, which was in Tokyo and had a train station to it. Surely it would be fine to go there.
"How much for a ticket to the Yoshiwara District?" Y/N questioned, this time more confidently.
This time, the man had more of a surprised expression than a confused one, due to what the man knew of that district, but he still answered the question.
"That would cost 1500 yen from here," he said.
(A/N: obviously this is set quite a long time ago, so I decided to just go with modern day currency values to make things easier, rather than trying to estimate what things would've costed 100 years ago.)
Y/N winced at the price. If he wanted to go to the city... he would have to get 1500 yen from somewhere. Not only that, but he would have to get a bit more so he could buy something to eat from the village. Either way, he needed to get money to survive, so he'd better get stealing...
He thanked the man on the platform, before making his way out of the train station. The train would prove very useful to Y/N, since he wants to build himself a better life, which he felt that he could do the best in a city like Tokyo.
For now, he had another problem to overcome, and it was actually getting money. He had accepted the fact that he would have to steal, but now he needed to find a proper target to steal from. He made his way back to the village, looking around at different stalls there. Y/N would need to wait until one was empty and not being watched by anyone, before going in and stealing as much money as possible.
As he roamed through the streets, he saw one man running a stall selling dango leaving his stall. Y/N waited for a while, before going behind the stall himself, acting like he was working there. He looked behind the stall, and saw 2000 yen there, which would be enough to buy a train ticket and some food. Just as he was about to leave, a little girl came up to the stall.
"Hello Mister, can I buy some dango please?" She asked innocently, her eyes gleaming with excitement at what she could be eating soon.
Y/N hesitated and decided to act normal. "Of course you can," he said, grabbing a stick that was luckily already made in front of him. He handed it to the girl, who gave him 150 yen for it. She thanked him, delighted, and left, most likely to go back to her parents.
After that slight scare, Y/N didn't waste any more time, grabbing the 2000 yen behind the counter and the extra 150 that the little girl had bought her dango with. Luckily for Y/N, no one saw him since everyone was busy with their day and the stall owners just didn't seem to notice. He acted casual as he left the stall with all the money.
As he walked away, the guilt of what he had done hit him. Someone's hard work to make that money... gone. All because of him. Doing his best to shake away this feeling, he went to a different stall that was in a different part of the village, that was selling bread. He bought some for now, and some for him to eat later. With the food problem solved, he now needed to go and buy the train ticket.
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Y/N made his way back to the train station and walked up to the man who he spoke with before.
"Hello again, can I buy that train ticket to the Yoshiwara District?" He asked, offering 1500 yen.
"Of course, here you are. The train for this ticket will depart at 6pm," the man told him, taking the 1500 yen and giving him a ticket. "I assume it's your first time on a train, so make sure to show this ticket to the inspector that will ask to see it sometime during your ride."
Y/N thanked the man, and went to go and board the train, waiting for its departure. It was around 5:50pm according to the clock that was in the station, so it would go in ten minutes. He walked through the train, marvelling at these metal boxes that could apparently travel at high speeds. He found an empty compartment and sat in it, waiting.
Y/N used this time to reflect on all that had happened these past few days. It had been the worst time of his life, yet the most eventful. His entire life had been turned upside down, and now, he was left to rebuild it and turn it the right way round again. He felt bad about what he had done today, with stealing the money... what would his parents be thinking right now, watching over him? Y/N looked outside of the window of the compartment, looking at the different people also boarding the train. Each one of those people had their own story that was being written, just like his own. Yet, for their sake, he strongly hoped that none of them would have one as tragic as his.
As the clock outside the train struck 6pm, it began to drag along the tracks. Y/N took a bite out of some of his bread, looking out at the landscape shifting before his very eyes. His eyes widened as he realised that this "train" was moving, seemingly without any sort of support whatsoever. As it picked up speed, Y/N felt himself also moving, moving towards a new life, towards a future not yet known.
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That's chapter four done. This one was mostly about Y/N's thoughts and his actions after his parents' deaths. Relatively slow-paced, I know, but we'll see what happens as Y/N drifts towards a "new life" in the city? What will await him there? Stick around to find out...
For those who forgot, the Yoshiwara District is the Entertainment District. So yeah, our boy's in for a nasty surprise when he finds out where he's going. I have a lot planned for what happens next, and in the next couple of chapters or so, you can expect Y/N to finally know the truth about what lurks in his world...
Drop any suggestions or questions in the comments!
(2478 words)