Karasuma Kumiko wa Miko de nai - 2

Karasuma Kumiko is not a Miko
Chapter 2

One cherry blossom
Why, she seems to turn her back
On the coming spring

===
“Far away in a little street there is a poor house.  One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman seated at a table.  Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress.  She is embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen’s maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball.  In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill.  He has a fever, and is asking for oranges.  His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying.  Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword-hilt?  My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move”, - Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince.
===

When I was still in elementary school, Dvorak’s “Going Home” used to play in my town every evening. It was the music used to tell children to go home, like in any other place. Whenever that song began to play, children would head home. Boys. Girls. Kids playing with their siblings. Single kids. Rich kids. Kids from poorer families. All of them would wave to each other, say their goodbyes and head home. It made every fiber of my being itch with hatred.

It wasn’t because I felt “sad” or “wanted to play some more”, no. “Everyone doing the exact same thing” is what disgusted me. And, since a child left by herself has quite a limited amount of ways to play, I would eventually head home as well.

How revolting.

I was disgusted by the others for doing the exact same thing, and by myself for conforming to them. It made me want to puke.

One day, I talked a close friend of mine into staying to play even after it got dark. I wanted to dispel my disgust at everyone taking the same course of action at least a little. It had gotten completely dark when my friend and I parted our ways, smiling.

The next morning I got a slap on the face from that girl. When she got home late the previous evening, her parents really let her have it.

“Kumiko-chan, it’s because you tricked me! You liar! Meanie!” - the girl resentfully yelled at me.

I thought that I’d done something bad. It wasn’t my intention to trick her, neither was it to set her up to get scolded by her parents. I didn’t mean to hurt her.

After a thorough apology, she finally forgave me and we made up.

But in the end, our friendship didn’t last very long from that point onwards. At some point, we drifted apart from each other and ended up playing with our other friends more.
I was always reasonably decent at dealing with things. I wasn’t bad at reading the mood, either. So there were always people around me, I was never alone. But nobody continued to interact with me for a prolonged period of time.
Looking back on it, I’m not sure if I have ever had a real “friend”.

===

The microbus journey Yuuna and I had set out on was anything but a smooth ride. Roads destroyed and blocked off with abandoned cars had us repeatedly taking detours and turning around when we hit a dead end.

The fastest way to go from Gose, Nara to Shikoku was to go through the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in Hyogo to Awaji Island, then through the Oonaruto bridge to Tokushima. In good conditions and with the shortest route the trip wouldn’t have even taken five hours, but over half a day had already passed since we left Gose.

Our bus drove through vistas of hell. Destroyed buildings and houses, corpses scattered all over the road, a blazing pillar of fire dying the dark sky red, somewhere in the distance - a fire that occurred in some industrial zone, perhaps? Although the pillar of fire was unnaturally strong and large.

Seeing the bizarre hellscape that made one think reality had collapsed, the passengers of our bus were silent.

There were 19 people on the bus, including myself, Takashima Yuuna and Yokote Matsuri. The bus was designed for twenty people, so it was pretty much filled out. The age range was broad, ranging from an elderly citizen in their 70s to a kindergartener. We had injured, too.

We stopped our bus at a roundabout near a destroyed station. Sitting all the time had to have been hard for the injured, elderly and children, and people needed to use the toilet too. Frequent stops for resting were required.

Meanwhile, I was in the bus, changing the gauze on Yuuna’s leg injury. She sustained it while fighting the white monsters. We got the medical gauze and ointment from a store we drove by on the way.

“Thank you very much, Kumiko-san.”

“First aid is the best I can do. But the doctor said your wound isn’t anything serious, so you should be fine.”

One of the people travelling with us was a man in his mid-thirties who said he was a doctor. He was at the back of the bus, checking up on the elderly couple to see if they were okay. Having a medical professional on board was the silver lining in our disastrous situation.

Matsuri took a wristwatch out of her bag, looked at the time and murmured, “Weird… The sky would normally be bright by now…”

It was still dark as night outside.

A world where the sun doesn’t rise.

Something was fundamentally broken about the world, after all. It was possible that common sense no longer applied after the 30th of July.

“I’ll go to the toilet”, Takashima Yuuna said and got out of the bus. Her movements were nimble and it seemed like the injury had no lasting effects.

She left, leaving Yokote Matsuri and me alone with each other.

The two of us had barely talked to each other. She hadn’t said a word to me after our exchange shortly after we departed from Gose. I didn’t have much to say to Yokote Matsuri either. We had barely met to begin with, so there were no common topics for us to talk about.

But for some reason, I got the desire to talk to Yokote Matsuri. She seemed like the shy type to me, so she probably didn’t want to talk to an unfamiliar person like me. Normally you wouldn’t bother a person like that, but I felt like irritating her.

“Hey, Yokote Matsuri. Has Takashima Yuuna always had the kind of power that lets you fight those white monsters?”

“Uh… I don’t know, but… probably not?”

“What do you mean, don’t know?”

“Yuu-chan and I have just met each other. Yesterday... Well, the sun doesn’t rise so I’m not sure if it counts as today or yesterday… When the big earthquake hit, we met at a shrine. Right before the earthquake happened, I suddenly got this urge to go to the shrine no matter what, so I went out…”

According to Yokote Matsuri’s awkward explanation…

Earthquakes and heavy rains were forecasted all over the country, and many small-scale earthquakes occurred in Nara too. TV and radio informed the citizens of emergency shelters, and the shelter for the neighbourhood Yokote Matsuri was from was the nearby high school.  No serious disasters had hit Nara by then, but Yokote Matsuri still felt like she had to verify the shelter for herself and sneaked out at night to visit the school alone. She said it was as if she was pulled along by something. Looking back on it, what had a pull on her must not have been the school itself, but the nearby shrine.

When Yokote Matsuri reached the school, a strong earthquake hit and the white monsters appeared. The monsters were chasing an elementary school girl… Takashima Yuuna. Takashima Yuuna and the monsters entered the shrine premises, and Yokote Matsuri followed them, going inside the shrine. She found a pair of ancient gauntlets that were enshrined there, which Takashima Yuuna then put on and vanquished the monsters.

After the monsters fell, an image of sorts flashed through Yokote Matsuri’s head. She could instinctively feel the locations where those monsters were. She also noticed that there were people in a supermarket near the shrine, getting assaulted by the monsters.

“Let’s go save them”, - said Takashima Yuuna, and Yokote Matsuri nodded in agreement, if reluctantly.

“We went to Yuu-chan’s house before going to the supermarket, but… Yuu-chan’s family wasn’t there. Either they had already evacuated, or…”- Yokote Matsuri was being vague.

The worst-case scenario was that Takashima Yuuna’s parents had been slaughtered by the monsters.

“What about your family?”

“Basically the… same...” - she said with a grim face.

Break time was over, and we resumed our bus journey. We encountered no cars or running people aside from us, at all.

Then we finally reached Kobe, approaching the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge.

I took a look in the rear-view mirror and saw Yokote Matsuri drawing something in a sketchbook. She got the sketchbook and stationery at a store we passed on the way. She ripped a page out of the sketchbook and showed it to Takashima Yuuna. After taking a look at it, Takashima Yuuna showed the page to me with a stern face.

I stopped the bus on the highway and took a look at the page. A map was depicted on it, and a black blotch was drawn halfway through the Maiko tunnel on the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto expressway.

“That black spot is where the monsters are, she says”, - explained Takashima Yuuna.

You couldn’t get through the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in a car without going through the Maiko tunnel.

“That’s bad. If we can’t use that road, getting to Shikoku via Akashi-Kaikyo is impossible. Are those monsters gonna stay there forever?”

Yokote Matsuri answered me, without any confidence, “I don’t know… They could leave right away, or they could stay there without ever moving…”

“...Right.”

When I lost myself in thought, voices began to come up from inside the bus.

“Hey, why did we stop?”
“Did something happen?”

The murmur kept growing louder, and a man in a black shirt stood up from his seat and approached the driver's seat. It was the guy who took charge and had people put up a barricade when the monsters attacked the supermarket.

“What are we sitting around for? Get going already.”

Black Shirt was clearly frustrated.

“Looks like the monsters are blocking the way through Akashi-Kaikyo. We can’t use this route to go to Shikoku.”

“Are they? How do you know?”

“This girl can sense where the monsters are.”

Black Shirt cast a sharp glance towards Yokote Matsuri.

“Hey, is that true? How do you know that, huh?”

“I-I… just do.”

Yokote Matsuri was scared of the rowdy Black Shirt, her voice weak.

“The hell’s “I just do” supposed to mean, huh!? You don’t know shit, then! So, are they there or not!? Answer!” - shouted Black Shirt. He raised his voice intentionally, as a way of making himself seem threatening.

He did, however, have a point. We had seen Takashima Yuuna defeat the monsters first-hand, so we could believe her ability. None of us, however, had witnessed Yokote Matsuri’s supposed ability to detect where the monsters were. Not even I was certain she had one to begin with.

“Got it. So, should we continue going this way?”

“Eh!?” - Yokote Matsuri loudly whimpered in surprise.

“We’re not gonna get too close in case they’re really there. We’ll check from afar.”

I drove the bus into the Maiko tunnel and stopped part of the way in. There were no other vehicles, so I turned the bus around so we were ready to dash back towards the exit at a moment’s notice. I stood up from the driver’s seat and addressed Black Shirt.

“Yokote Matsuri says that those monsters are somewhere further in. I’m going to go and check. You’re coming too, aren’t you? You’d need to see it with your own eyes in case I lied, right?”

Black Shirt seemed frightened for a second but nodded. Backing down there wasn’t an option for him.

“You shouldn’t do this… They really are there…”

Yokote Matsuri’s voice was weak and was powerless to convince us.

“I’ll go too”, said Takashima Yuuna.

“Yuu-chan, that’s dangerous!”

“But if the monsters attack, I have to fight them!”

“But-!”

“It’s settled then. The three of us will go - I, Takashima Yuuna and that man”, I stopped Yokote Matsuri’s protests.

The three of us exited the bus and went further in.

We walked for a few dozen minutes. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed partway along the tunnel, and the surface was visible. The Maiko tunnel was built directly underneath a living area, and at an extremely close distance to the surface, too. The layer of ground right above the tunnel was broken, whether it was the monsters’ work or the work of some other factor.

I used my phone flashlight to look around and found no presence of the monsters. But the road was impassable either way, what with the pile of rubble blocking our way further.

I climbed the mountain of rubble. The area above us should have been Maikodai, Tarumi ward, Kobe city.

“Where are you going!?” - Takashima Yuuna called out to me.

“I’m going to try getting to the surface. I can’t see the monsters around here. But if Yokote Matsuri’s senses are right, then…”

The mountain of rubble provided adequate footholds to reach the surface. I came out of the tunnel and saw the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge a stone’s throw away. There were a school and a police station nearby.

Takashima Yuuna followed me up to the surface, and Black Shirt, loathe to be left alone down there, followed suit.

“...There they are.”

Several white monsters were bunched up on a road next to the school. Yokote Matsuri’s ability to detect monsters appeared to be the real deal. We hid behind a nearby building. The ground around the monsters was dyed a bloody scarlet, with torn limbs and bits of human bodies scattered around. There was a chunk of flesh in a police uniform and a handgun on the ground too - likely what was left of a police officer from the nearby station that tried to protect the people.

One of the monsters headed in our direction, while we were still hidden. Did the monsters have a human-sensing organ too?

“This is bad. Let’s run.”

I grabbed Takashima Yuuna’s hand and immediately ran back into the tunnel. Black Shirt let out a miserable shriek and followed suit. So did the monster, chasing us down inside the tunnel.

Between me pulling a little girl along and Black Shirt, the latter was obviously faster. He overtook me and tried to run away further. We’d be feed for the monster at this rate.

“Wait!”

Black Shirt paid no attention to my call for him to stop.

“Wait, please!” - I miserably screamed, chasing him. Black Shirt paid no mind and kept running.

I grabbed his collar from behind. Pressing down with all my weight, I dropped Black Shirt on his back. Black Shirt, lying on the road, had a confused look on his face, the kind of face that made it clear he had no idea what just happened to him.

The monster would’ve probably caught up soon and gobbled up the fallen Black Shirt. Even if he got up immediately and started running, he wouldn’t have made it.

Just in case, I pretended to “accidentally make Black Shirt fall because I was afraid I’d be left behind”. Even if he died, if Takashima Yuuna explained to them how things went down when we returned to the bus, the rest of the passengers probably wouldn’t have blamed me much. It would’ve been an unfortunate accident, and he would’ve been the one at fault for trying to leave a woman and a child behind to begin with.

I cast a sideways glance at the fallen Black Shirt and passed him. Goodbye.

But the man wasn’t killed. Takashima Yuuna stopped, shook off my hand and stood in front of the fallen Black Shirt, looking straight ahead. She clenched her fists, preparing to fight the chasing monster.

“Uoooooh!”

Takashima Yuuna extended her fist. The monster’s body broke on impact, but its momentum sent the girl flying. Takashima Yuuna rolled along the ground, but quickly recovered and stood up. She landed properly and didn’t suffer any serious injuries, but the girl’s face and arms were scratched up and bleeding.
“Not done yet! Teiyaaa!”

The girl sent another punch flying, her entire weight behind it. It shattered the monster into countless pieces that disappeared in the air.

“Haah, haah… You’re safe now.”

Takashima Yuuna extended her hand towards Black Shirt, still on the ground. He averted his eyes in frustration and stood up without taking it. I let out a sigh.

(Takashima Yuuna, that was completely unnecessary. I finally had an opportunity to get rid of Black Shirt. He’s a disruptive element in our group. If we don’t kill him now, he could cause even bigger harm down the line. That was why I wanted him to die here.)

(Well, whatever.)

I felt like seeing how the goody-two-shoes Takashima Yuuna and Yokote Matsuri would react when Black Shirt became an issue.

We backtracked down the dark tunnel road.

Takashima Yuuna was carefully wiping her blood off with her clothes. It must’ve been for the sake of Yokote Matsuri, who couldn’t handle blood.

We reached the bus and told the rest of our group that Yokote Matsuri’s ability to sense the locations of the monsters was real. We also told them about the fact the Maiko tunnel had collapsed and going via the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge was impossible.

“We’re going to have to give up on the Akashi-Kaikyo route to Shikoku.”

After hearing my words, Yokote Matsuri let out a sad, apologetic “I’m sorry”.

“Matsuri-san, don’t apologise! It’s not your fault those monsters appeared!” - Takashima Yuuna tried to encourage her.

“There are two more routes from Honshu to Shikoku. Through the Great Seto Bridge or through Shimanami Kaido. The Great Seto Bridge is closer than Shimanami Kaido, so let’s go there.”

We headed towards the Great Seto Bridge.

On the way there, we stopped our bus at the parking lot of an abandoned convenience store. Yokote Matsuri and I decided to get some sleep there, in shifts of three hours each. It was a total time loss of six hours, but it was necessary. Both of us had barely slept at all since the previous day. We had to go to Shikoku on our bus, and the two of us, me the driver and Yokote Matsuri the radar, were no less important for that task than Takashima Yuuna who had the ability to fight the monsters. Without me, there would’ve been nobody to drive the bus, and without Yokote Matsuri we would’ve encountered the monsters frequently. We had to rest properly and be in the condition to actually put our skills to use.

I went to sleep first. I told Yokote Matsuri to kick me awake immediately if she sensed monsters while I was asleep. I reclined my seat and closed my eyes. I often had to sleep in the laboratory, so I was able to fall asleep anywhere.

After exactly three hours had passed, I woke up. It was still dark outside the bus windows. The sun had seemingly abandoned our world.

I took a look inside the bus and found that most of the passengers were outside. Some went to get some fresh air, some went to get things from the convenience store or go to the toilet. The only people still in the bus were the seventy-something-year-old couple, the doctor, the kindergartener with a ribbon in her hair and Yokote Matsuri.

Yokote Matsuri had her sketchbook open and was drawing something for Ribbon Girl. I peeked to see what was drawn on the page and saw a humorous, fuzzy creature.

“What are you doing?”

“Eh!? Ah, nothing…”

Yokote Matsuri awkwardly hid her face. The answer came from Ribbon Girl.

“Onee-chan is drawing me a picture book!” said the girl happily.

“A picture book?” I asked.

“Yes… I thought it’d cheer her up…”

“Huh, you’re pretty good at drawing. So it’s not just maps that you can draw well.”

“...Yes.”

Yokote Matsuri definitely had issues speaking with me. Judging by the lack of restraint she showed when talking to Takashima Yuuna or that girl, she might’ve just had problems talking to people older than her. Or perhaps she just found me threatening.

“Onee-chan’s gonna be a picture book person when she grows up!” Ribbon Girl said as proudly as if she was boasting about herself.

“Really?” I asked, and Yokote Matsuri awkwardly answered “Uh… yes…” and nodded.

“Sounds good to me, Yokote Matsuri. It’s good to have a dream. You’re good at drawing, I’m sure you’ll make it”, I smiled and tapped her shoulder.

“We might be in a mess right now, but I’m certain you’ll manage to become a picture book artist when we finally evacuate to a safe place and can live normal lives. I want to see what kind of picture books you’ll draw.”

Yokote Matsuri was a little surprised, her cheeks dyed a bashful red.

“Thank you very much.”

“Looking forward to it. Okay, your time to sleep now. Get some rest while you can. You’re the only one who can tell where those monsters are.”

I was heading towards the exit when Yokote Matsuri called out to me.

“Karasuma-san, about Yuu-chan…”

“Takashima Yuuna? What about her?”

“Yuu-chan… I don’t want to make her fight the monsters, if possible. Sometimes it isn’t, though…”

“Why’s that?”

“Yuu-chan’s body… is covered in injuries. She has the power to fight the monsters, but she… gets hurt when fighting. I don’t think it’s okay to make a little girl like Yuu-chan fight and get hurt all over…”

“...You’re right about that.”

A child putting her life on the line, fighting monsters to protect not even her family or friends, but total strangers was something abnormal. Yokote Matsuri’s concerns were justified.

“Got it. I’ll try to make sure Takashima Yuuna has to fight as little as possible.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Okay, Yokote Matsuri, now go hit the sack already. I’ll wake you up in three hours.”

“Ah.”

“What? Is there something else?”

“Karasuma-san, you keep calling me and Yuu-chan by our full names… Just thought it was a little weird. Isn’t it a pain?”

“Didn’t pay it any attention, really.”

Calling people I hadn’t known for long by their full name was a habit of mine.

“Just call me Matsuri.”

“...Right. I’ll be calling you Matsuri from now on, so you call me Kumiko too.”

“Okay, got it.”

A soft smile ran across Matsuri’s lips. It was the first time I’d ever seen her smile.

I went out of the bus and pulled a cigarette out of my pocket. Then I lit it on fire and sucked the smoke in. My thoughts, still muddled by sleep, were becoming clear.

I was pretty good at getting along with people to a certain degree, after all. A few conversations with Matsuri, and the girl opened up to me somewhat. But it couldn’t go further than “a certain degree”. To begin with, I wasn’t a good match for Matsuri and Takashima Yuuna. They were good people, and I was far removed from that concept.

“Haa! Teiyaa!”

I turned around in the direction of the sounds coming from the edge of the parking lot and saw Takashima Yuuna practicing martial arts.

“Practicing, Yuuna?”

She had a surprised look on her face when she saw me approach, though I hadn’t done anything to surprise her.

“You called me Yuuna.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve kept calling me Takashima Yuuna before, but called me Yuuna just now.”

Oh, yeah. After switching to calling Yokote Matsuri just “Matsuri”, I naturally ended up calling Takashima Yuuna just “Yuuna”.

“You don’t like that?”

“No, it’s fine! I call you Kumiko-san, after all!”

“Right.”

I sucked the cigarette smoke in.

“Don’t smoke too much, okay?”

“Sure.”

I put the cigarette away in a portable ashtray. I was a smoker, but I didn’t have much of a nicotine addiction. My smoking habit, just like my habit of wearing a lab coat, was a remnant from my rowdy days of old.

“Kumiko-san, have you done some kind of martial arts?”

“Yeah. I have self-defence skills. You’re trained in martial arts too, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, just a little.”

“Right.”

“Kumiko-san,  you’re awesome! When I fought the way you told me, beating the monsters got a lot easier!”

“I’m just older than you and spent more time learning martial arts, plus I have real fighting experience outside of matches, so I’m better at adapting to the combat situation.”

I’ve said earlier that I was good at dealing with things throughout my life, but my lifestyle was one that made me a lot of enemies. I might’ve started learning martial arts in order to protect myself, but I’ve also gotten myself in plenty of quarrels and streetfights over the years.

“Oh yeah, Matsuri was worried about you. Said she didn’t want to make you fight too much. She has a point. When you think about it, a child putting herself in the way of danger to protect adults isn’t that good of a thing in the eyes of society. Adults are supposed to be protecting children, not the other way around.”

“But it doesn’t look like anyone else can defeat those monsters except me. I’m afraid of fighting too, but I’ll do it if it protects others.”

Was the kid in front of me really a child?

“How did you end up such a strange kid?”

“Strange… That’s a mean thing to say”, Yuuna sulked, “Am I weird?”

“Sure you are, weirdo. Normal children wouldn’t do the kind of stuff you do. You got separated from your parents and monsters keep coming at you… Normal kids could only cry and scream, that’s about it.”

“Moving my body is the only thing I can do”, Yuuna thrust her fist in the air. “Weird things are happening, ghosts are appearing and all sorts of trouble is going on, but I’m not smart enough to try and figure things out. The only thing I can do is move my body, non-stop.”

“...”

“There’s a shrine next to my house. And the head priest there said this before. People die at some point. Sad things happen to everyone. It doesn’t matter if your life is long or short, you should live every day to the fullest so that you don’t have any regrets. I can’t really explain it well, but fighting is how I live to the fullest. Since I can’t drive the bus like you can, or feel where the monsters are like Matsuri-san does.”

Yuuna’s mental state was out of the ordinary.

“...Yuuna, you don’t have many friends, do you?”

“Eh? Hmm, do I? I don’t know.”

“Well, I do. A brat like you couldn’t make any friends. I’ve got zero friends myself, so I know.”

“You don’t have friends, Kumiko-san?”

“Yeah.”

Yuuna went silent with thought for a moment, then said, “I want to be your friend, Kumiko-san.”

“Huh, I see. Thanks for that. Let’s settle it with a handshake then.”

I extended my hand to Yuuna, and she shook it with a smile.

I’ve never been able to stay friends with someone for a long time. My relationship with Yuuna and Matsuri would likely be short-lived, too.

But on a second thought, being on a trip with friends for several days was a first for me. Was I about to build a new kind of relationship with Yuuna and Matsuri that I had never experienced before?

“Kumiko-san! Yuu-chan!”

Matsuri ran out of the bus, panicking.

“The monsters are coming! We need to run, right now!”

Before Matsuri even finished speaking, the white monsters appeared at the end of the road.

“Hurry back inside the bus, please!” Yuuna shouted towards the people at the parking lot and in the convenience store. Everyone rushed back to the bus. I sat down in the driver’s seat and turned on the engine, ready to floor it at a moment’s notice.

I saw one woman who had fallen behind running towards the bus through the front window. The monsters set their sights on her. The woman tripped because of her panicked running and the monsters attacked.

“Haaaaah!”

Yuuna came running and smashed her gauntlet-equipped fist into one of the monsters. Matsuri might’ve told her not to fight, but in the end, Yuuna still fought.

She took down one monster and started walking back towards the bus with the woman. Matsuri was anxiously watching over Yuuna from inside the bus.

“Yuu-chan!”

Matsuri jumped out of the bus, about to start running towards Yuuna, but was interrupted by the latter’s panicked shout.

“Matsuri-san, don’t come here!”

The woman Yuuna was pulling along had a bad scrape on her leg. The skin was torn and blood kept flowing even when she wiped it.

“Ah…”

Matsuri went pale and began to shudder.

“Aaa, haah, aaa… Urgh! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s all my fault, all my fault! Haah...”

While Matsuri was crouching down next to the exit near the driver’s seat, pale as a ghost, I was getting intensely stared down by some of the people in the bus. They came from the man in the black shirt and his cronies. Those stares were dripping with anger, frustration, anxiety and irritation.

Black Shirt was probably more stressed out than any of the other bus passengers. Not only was he frustrated about the bus’ slow pace, but he also encountered the monsters three times. And during one of them, he nearly died.

Black Shirt most likely hated me for what I did that time. He had likely figured out that I tried to kill him on purpose there. Well, whether he caught on to my killing intent or not, it was true that he nearly got killed there, so he definitely hated me.

He was so high-strung that his emotions would’ve probably exploded if poked even a little.

Intentionally provoking people like him was a bad habit of mine and the reason why I got into fights easily. But it wasn’t the time for that. We still had a long road ahead of us.

I began to hum Dvorak’s “Going Home” in my mind. I had heard before that the song was inspired by the spirituals genre.

“Going Home” was playing in my head, but there was no need for us to go home anymore. No way to return there, either.

Where, exactly, were we going?

Hero History Apocrypha - Part 3 Chapter 2 - End.