Chapter 2:

First "Game", Several Years before the Final Assault

To start this off, let me tell you I also had an older brother, Daiki, though he was very different from Hiroshi. Mine was selfish. A major flaw, if you ask me, but it didn't keep him from having a couple of friends, and believe me, he had the right ones. For him, I mean. I could sometimes hear him talk with them through the door to my room in our apartment. He had a friend who was in the middle of an internship. She was with policemen who worked at the mansion. The girl was quite curious, from what I know, so I guess she browsed in some desks and found the list of chosen ones. Of course, she told him what she had found. I understood only the next day that he had been on the list.

I still remember that night. I'm not sure why, but I went to see him that night. He was making his luggage with her. Go back to your room, you're supposed to be asleep, he kept saying. He was far to be the best guy in the world, and I have to agree he seemed to be doing suspicious things sometimes, but I still respected and maybe even admire him, so I preferred to obey and not cause any trouble. I was maybe old enough to ask myself questions, but I was still too young to doubt him, so I fell asleep anyway. The following morning, he was gone with her. They had taken the car and fled while I was sleeping. Never got any news from him since then.

Of course, when he got named, policemen entered the apartment, ready to take him away, but he was nowhere to be found. They asked me where he was, and I could only tell them I had no clue. I was ten at the time, and they didn't have a back-up list either, so they took me instead. I was terrified, everyone was. I was one of the youngest this year. Three others were around my age, the remaining ones were teens.

The second we were in, the beast appeared. I guess this thing now knows people are coming, but at the time, it was just too excited to have some food to let us even get used to the scent of old rotten wood. There was a small space under the stairs. Happily, it chased the older ones first, so it didn't notice where I ran. Even when it was gone, I didn't move from my spot. I was too scared of the beast to move. After a while, a large shadow approached the stairs. I thought I was done for. It's only when I saw a boy's head poke in that I understood I had mistaken the shadow of twins for the monster. Their name, their faces… I'll never forget anything about them. They were Arata and Rikuto. They were eleven, and from an infamous town. Just from their clothes and faces, they were obviously beggars. From what they told me, their mother had lost everything when her husband left, and they ended up in the streets. They were used to sleep with only one eye closed and being chased from their spot next to shops. Because of this, they were extremely alert and could hear things I wouldn't have even considered important. They ended up in the mansion because of the amount of food they kept stealing. When we say life is unfair, I think this is a good example.

We sticked together for the whole first phase, except the end. When the beast appeared, I ran a different way than Arata and Rikuto. I ran in a sort of kitchen and decided to hide behind a counter at the other side of the room. I didn't run fast enough, because this thing saw me and followed me. This girl... If only she had been hidden somewhere else... Aside from Rikuto, Arata, and I, she was the only child, and the youngest: eight years old. The second I saw the beast's hand above us, I changed sides, making a perfect target out of the girl. She tried to run, but it took her by the legs. She grabbed my ankle at the last second before it would lift her from the other side of the counter. It lifted her with me so fast that I bumped on the counter, and… well… that's where I got my scar. A nail was sticking out. It pierced through my cheek, and passed through my eye when I got pulled up. You think that ends here? Of course not. I kicked her in the face so she could let go of me. Can you imagine this!? I organized myself to get a girl eaten, and when I was about to get what I deserved, I kicked her in the face! And her scream… I can still hear it.

You know, there are a few reasons why I keep this story for myself. This is one of them. When I said I'm not a hero, that's what I mean. I'm the opposite. Anyway… I ran out of the room, but I didn't make a long distance. Do you have any idea about how much it hurts to have your eye almost split in two? At least enough to make me faint once I was in the hall.

I woke up in the second phase with a handkerchief tied on my eye, that hateful maze. Arata and Rikuto had taken me there when they found me, because you know what? That girl was the last kill we needed to move to the next phase! Happily, Rikuto had already explored the whole thing and had left marks only he and Arata were able to understand, so we were out of there before I was even fully alert.

I recall a lot of dead people too while we were moving around. Not just half-eaten people, they mostly had stab wounds. Well, it was a good thing, because almost everyone was already dead to let us go in the last phase… I guess… I think there was one person left to kill… Oh dear god, I wish it had been me… The beast found us, and of course, I had to trip and twist my ankle. Arata got back to get me, and Rikuto noticed how fast it was coming toward us. I can still see him… running straight toward it, yelling at us to go. I'll find you back later, he said. You think he did? Of course not. The second he was close enough, this thing grabbed him and began to eat him. Thinking of it… I actually did one thing good inside this damn place. I pulled Arata back to his senses to get him away from the beast, but that's pretty much it.

It's when something like this happens that you realize how much you appreciate someone. I cried, of course, I knew him enough with the time I spent with him, but Arata… He was inconsolable. We stayed on the same spot for at least an hour, because he was shivering so much he couldn't stay on his legs for more than ten seconds.

We had spent so long finding the next phase's door that we arrived just in time to see these lovely fire boulders. He took the lead, and he actually led us to the right place. Does a room with a high-pitched noise sounds familiar to you? Yeah? Well, it was the same for me. We were with a teen who had his hands soaked in blood, and he hadn't noticed the codepad. He thought he had to kill us to make it stop. Arata didn't hesitate to remove his hands from his ears to fight him, even if the guy was two times taller, while I remained on my knees covering my ears. Talk about a hero, huh.

The teen surely had a better ear than us, because he fainted quite fast. It gave just enough time for Arata to mess around with the codepad until he got the numbers right. When the door opened and the beast arrived, we ran a few meters toward the rope ladder in front of us, and then he collapsed. There was a quite wide distance between us, but I could still hear him. Hiroto, I can't hear anything, he kept repeating. The beast was already done with the other teen and was going straight for us. It was still far; I could have easily run back and pulled him up, but no… I took the easy and selfish way. I abandoned him. I ran toward the rope ladder as he was desperately crawling toward me, calling out my name… calling out for help. I ignored it, and turned away.

It's only when I was halfway out and heard him yell my name one last time that I looked back at him. Just in time to see his body splited in two; just in time to see this monster pull his legs away from each other. If the loud thunder hadn't been there, I swear my arms would have given up, and I would have fallen back down. I was shivering so much; I had difficulty to pull myself up. Against all odds, I got out, and I was taken to the hospital a few minutes later.

"I'm still waiting, you know… I'm still waiting to get a chance to repay my debt to all those people I abandoned. And I'm seriously starting to believe there is only one way to do it…"

Kazuya remained silent, unable to find something worth saying. Even though he had to admit Hiroto had actually been selfish, the boy couldn't blame him at all. He didn't recall saving anyone either, or even trying, except when he had taken Hiroshi out. Hiroshi had tried saving lives, but Kazuya hadn't really done anything.

Hiroto avoided his look, staring at the coffee table between them. The adult's jaw was contracted, his arms were tightly crossed on his chest, and his gaze seemed to hide a lot of emotions.

"I'm… not better than you…" Kazuya finally said. "I killed someone. Directly. It was an accident, but… I was still holding the plate shard that killed him."

Hiroto looked up at him.

"How did it happen?"

"He fell on me."

The adult seemed in a shallow reflexion. He was probably thinking about an answer. Kazuya glanced at the time, and then got up.

"It's late. I think I'll go."

He headed to the door, soon followed by Hiroto, and put on his shoes.

"Look, if you need anything, just come and see me. I do my work here, so I'm almost always here."

The boy nodded and turned toward the door. He stopped his movement when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"And please, don't blame yourself for an accident."

Kazuya glanced at the adult and lightly smiled as an answer before opening the front door and heading back home.

Hiroto's story with some light changes, yay!

Small update about my work in progress: approximately half of the first part! I don't really have anything else to say, except that the story might be longer than the original one, because I got a lot of ideas that are quite cool, and I got some stuff that will make character developpment or something... We'll see :P

As always, please leave a review and see you in the next chapter!