It's so quiet now...

  Since I came back, there was always a degree of background noise. At home, it was the various conversations of Mother, Father, and Yui. At school, Chika's and Denki's voices almost sang to me along with the voices of countless others. Even in the Cirsam apartments, the walls were so thin that I could often hear my neighbors living their lives less than a few meters away. Now, the only sound that filled my ears was the deafening silence of an empty building.

  Through that silence, the grinding of metal rang out as I sharpened my new blades. My memory of the remainder of that night was foggy, but I did recollect picking an old military-style knife and a newer sword than what I had used to finish off their boss. Thankfully, gangs throughout the country still held somewhat to the old traditions enough to have them around to look tough. As a last resort, I stashed a pistol in the small of my back as well as a couple extra magazines.

  As I continued sharpening the blade, my memories began running wild. My previous life and my life before this, everything placed on display all over again. Mundane lives and bloodbaths. Love and loss. Joy and sorrow. Triumph and defeat. Each more emotional than the last. With each episode, I fought off the trembling.

  What the hell was that?!

  We don't kill people!

  YOU don't kill people!

  If YOU had just done what was necessary...

  The boy I knew before is gone...

  I just wanted to protect you.

  Please give us a chance.

  If you don't, I will...

  So much for no blood on your hands.

  I threw the blade down and clasped my hands to my head, unable to contain the trembling anymore. My breaths became shorter and shallower with each draw. My gaze was fixed on the ground, but it looked as though I had opened my eyes underwater. My ears rang as if I had just been blasted. My arms and legs moved on their own, and I found myself curled up in a corner rocking back and forth.

  Look at you, and here I thought you were a cold-blooded killer. Get up!

  My eyes flew open to see that I was still alone. My breathing was under control once again, and I was as still as a calm pond. I dragged my hands down my face, feeling my skin being pulled and my eyes rolling back. At the moment of release, everything snapped back into place. I picked up the blade and resumed my work.

  * * * * *

  My stomach growled like a caged beast pulling me from my working trance. I looked around to see the darkness surrounding me with only a singular candle keeping it at bay. It was well into the night, and I had failed to eat anything in almost two days. I made my way to the room that the Suzuki twins had repurposed as their bedrooms to rummage through Saiki's clothes since we were roughly the same size.

  For all the horrors he and his younger brother had unleashed, he at least had a good fashion sense. My own clothes were effectively ruined from the complete red wash they had received during my rampage. Thankfully, the scarf and shoes that my parents had gifted me were mostly spared. After a few minutes of sifting through dozens of almost identical articles of clothing, I found a dark pair of pants and thigh-length jacket.

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  I had no real idea of where I was going in the Sonder District, so I wandered from street lamp to street lamp. Not unlike Cirsam, Sonder was a dangerous district, but I felt confident that I could handle just about anything that it could throw at me. After about an hour of almost aimless wandering, I found a neon lighthouse in the sea of uncertainty, a Super Duper Mart. Even better, it was still open despite the hour.

  Once inside, I pulled my scarf from my face slightly so as to not be suspicious even though I likely would go unnoticed. I had looted a significant amount of money from the now extinct branch of the Suzuki crime family, so I was on a mission to stock my new home with enough to live off of until I figured out my next move. One hand-basket full of non-perishables later, I was almost ready to check out, but I had one more item to purchase.

  As I went to the cosmetics aisle, I heard the door open again, and the cashier greeted the new customer. After a couple of seconds of silence, a nervous voice sounded off.

  "P-put your hands up!"

  My eyes instantly gravitated towards its origin point. Standing across from the counter was a lanky man in blue jeans and a dark green jacket. He wore a black ski mask that likely was pulled down shortly after he entered the store. His stance was somewhat wide, but his knees were clearly shaking along with his arms. Whatever he held in front of him avoided my gaze just as I avoided this would be robber.

  "T-the money, g-give it to me!" he tried to sound tough.

  "O-okay," the cashier nervously replied. "Give me a moment."

  He could just have a metal pipe in a paper bag… then again this cashier is scared out of their mind... this guy poses no real threat otherwise.

  At that time, the door opened again, and the robber frantically turned towards it. Without a second of thought, he fired the pistol in his hand, and a grunting cough resounded from the doorway. As quickly as the robber turned away from the cashier, he turned back just as shaky. In that instant, I froze time, replaced my scarf, and moved closer to the scene. Anger washed over me as I rounded the corner to see the victim.

  An elderly man, likely unable to sleep and just out to stretch his legs, had walked into what should have been an empty convenience store in the small hours of the morning. He was met with a stupid lucky bullet above the just right eye and laid dead on the ground. My anger boiled inside as I held his corpse, but before everything went red, I felt something familiar: the sensation I had felt before hunting down the Suzuki twins.

  I’m so tired of it all… he didn’t have to die, especially not for the pocket change this store has.

  I stood up, walked over to the robber, and disarmed him. I could have stopped there — I should have stopped there — but I refused. I took aim at his own head and resumed the flow of time. The initial confusion hit, and as he turned to the side to see where his weapon had gone and why the cashier was still terrified, I let loose a single round. His head snapped to the side as blood splattered on the nearby wall and floor. He fell back and twitched before sprawling out in the growing pool of blood.

  I pulled the magazine and tossed them both onto his body before slowly retrieving my items and returning to the cashier. They were still in shock, and I was unable to pull them from their panic long enough to say more than two words to them. Left with no other options, I estimated how much my items were worth and left that amount bundled up on the counter before leaving.

  As the distance between the other survivor and I grew, no sirens split the night. Just like the Cirsam District, the Sonder District was all but abandoned by the authorities which allowed the various crime families to operate freely. I got lost trying to relocate my new lair, but I eventually found my way back as the sun was rising once again. My stomach growled once again as I began making something to quell my hunger.

  * * * * *

  I held the white bottle in my hand as the water filled the sink. The directions were simple enough: gently rinse, apply, wait, repeat until bleeding stops. I had no idea how it would turn out, but I began the process all the same. The sink was slowly stained with the black ooze of my sins as I did my best to cover them up. After several rounds of this, I stopped and held my hands on the sides of the sink.

  "I have to say that I’m a fan of the new look, Kazuma." Damien's voice slithered in from the door. "Black is definitely your color."

  "Ishigami Kazuma died in that fire... No, he was dead long before that." I looked up into the mirror. "I am all that's left..."