A mysterious feeling took over the boy as he walked to the door and placed his hand on the knob. His chest felt tight and his hand trembled, not understanding what he was feeling at that time, causing his breath to become ragged before backing away from the door.

His legs were acting on their own, his instincts taking control over them. The source of the feeling seemed to be behind the door, making him wonder what it was.

A chill ran through his whole body as he questioned this. It was as if he could feel an overtaking presence. This caused his whole body to tremble, while clearing all his doubts about whether he was scared or not. His body wouldn't respond, making frustration take over him.

Desperation started preying on him as his thoughts became clouded. He realized he felt like a cornered prey. A jump from the second floor would make death certain, and running through the door meant facing whatever was in the corridor. Either way, the result was the same.

He couldn't feel or control his own body and breathing had become difficult. A puddle of liquid crawling from under the door caught his attention.

After gazing around the room, he realized that the stars and the moon were gone. But... despite being in total darkness, the liquid was still visible, despite no glow coming from it at all.

The contents of his stomach tried to make their way out of his body as the fear grew. He closed his eyes and drove a hand over his mouth in order to stop himself from throwing up.

The hopes of everything being just a nightmare started fading away.

He opened his eyes to look upwards. His urge to throw up stopped. He didn't have the words to describe what was in front of him... Its presence, the way it moved and the pressure it exerted made it seem as if it was something out of this world. The door was intact and never opened at any point, it was as if the creature just manifested itself into the room

2: Danger

My back hits the floor after I lose balance. I let go of my sword and let out a sighof defeat.

"Heh. Seems like I win this time."

Haruna extends her hand to me with a big grin on her face. I take her hand andstand up with her help."It always feels like you only get serious when I'm close to your victory record."

"Are you saying you can only win when I go easy on you?"

"It does feel like that sometimes."

"That's only your imagination." Hina shrugs and approaches us. "You always start slacking as the victory count between you and Haruna starts closing.Sometimes it feels as if you do it on purpose." She says with a smile.

"You say that as if there was a sane person who enjoys losing." I scratch myhead, a bit frustrated.

"It really doesn't feel like I'm actually closing the gap."

"Think fast!" I hear Goro's voice coming from the right.Before I realized, I had gotten ahold of my sword and stopped Goro's attack before it hit me.

"Those don't seem like the reflexes of someone who isn't just as much of a monster as her." Goro backs away and lowers his sword.I can't help but let out a snicker after that.

"I guess there's some truth to that." I say.

"I really hope this is where it stops this time." Before I can say anything else,Haruna speaks, looking my way.

She's probably tired of our usual arguments, but why do I have to be the one receiving the glare? I sigh and scratch my head.

"Heh, defeated on the sparring match and defeated outside of it as well by the same person. Pathetic." This guy... You really give me a hard time having to hold my breath against him, Haruna.

"You're one to talk." Haruna smirked at him.

"Ugh..."

"A-anyways, let's go get something to eat, shall we?" Hina waved her arms to drag our attention to herself.

"Usual place?" I ask.

"Yes!" Hina nods, excitedly. "I gotta get my share of buns after training! Warmbuns, yummy buns." She said, letting out a laughter as she goes on to daydream about buns.

"And there you go again, off to your own little world." Goro snickers.

"Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuns."

"Let's get going then." Haruna says.

***

"Ahhhhhhh that was soooo gooooooood." Hina is still affected by the after taste of the buns.

"You're hopeless when it comes to this obsession of yours." Haruna lets out a sigh.

"Can you help it? That's just how good they are! I bet there are more people like this."

"I'm pretty sure it's just you." I shrug.

"Ah, I almost forgot."

Here we go again. You never give up, do you?

"Do you want to go somewhere tomorrow? It always feels like you and Haruna are the ones who get closer. Goro and I can feel left out at times, you know?"

"You're right." I try to show a smile, I'm pretty sure the end result is awkward,but this really gets tiring at times. "Sure, let's try tomorrow, I guess."

Even though you know, regardless of my answer, it's not going to happen. It always ends up getting awkward like this. I scratch my head and turn away to avoid her look. It's a feeling I'll never get used to.

"Hey, did you guys hear earlier?" Goro speaks up.

I might hate when Goro tries to pick up an argument, but he's pretty handy when it comes to breaking moments like this. One day I'll just randomly thank him.

"About what?" I ask.

"Seems like there was another murder last night."

"Another one? The timeframe between each of them gets way shorter each day."Haruna said with a concerned look.

"It's been almost a year. It's hard to believe they haven't caught the culprit yet...Aren't they holding like 3 suspects on death row so far, though?" I let out a sigh.

"Seems like they haven't been on the right track with the investigation." Goro slams his fists together. "Sometimes I feel like we should take our weapons and go hunting at night."

"If only it was that easy." Haruna says.

"Guys, I'll see you all tomorrow!" Hina says and waves as she takes the street to the left.She always makes it seem like she's leaving in a rush.After watching her disappear in the crowd, we continue our way forward.

"Hey, I know this might be stretching it out too far but... Have you thought one of us might be struck down?" Goro says.

My heart shrinks just by the thought of it. I have thought about it but... I try to ignore it and live life as if nothing has been going on during the past year.

"There's no way that will happen. After all, none of us goes out at night. As long as we're careful, we should be fine." Haruna waves her hand as if to dismiss the thought from our heads.

It really is a terrifying thought, though. Through the year we've heard about the deaths people we may not have known, but used to see while walking the streets basically every day.

"Well, catch you guys tomorrow, don't get killed on the way home." Goro snickers and walks towards his house. Haruna and I start walking towards our homes. We still have a long way to go.

"Hey, Riku."

"Hm?"

"Did you think about what we talked the other day?"

"Ah... Well, it kinda slipped my mind, but I'm not really sure whether I should accept or not."

"Why not? It's our opportunity to strive for greatness." Haruna grins and lifts her fist. "We can be unstoppable together."

"But... are you really willing to leave all we have here behind for that? I'm not unsatisfied with life here. Wouldn't it be fine to just... stay here?"

"So you don't want to leave your comfort, huh." Haruna sighs.

"I'm not sure about that yet. Why don't you take Goro or Hina with you? They'll work just as well."

"That's gonna be a no from me." Haruna shakes her head. "If I'll have anyone next to me when I become a general after climbing up ranks, it has to be you. Goro would probably get us killed by charging forward during an ambush, and Hina can be too much of an airhead for the military."

"I don't really see why me...I'm sure if you gave them a chance they can definitely improve on those aspects." I say and let out a sigh. "But, I guess I'll give it some more thought. I don't think I'll be able to give you an answer from night to morning though."

"That's fine, this is something I can't achieve in a short period of time anyways."Haruna shrugs. "You really can be dense when it comes to the reason, though."

"Well, I can't really get it if you don't tell me."

"I don't think it's that hard to figure out, but I'll leave the thought in your head for a bit." Haruna says as she lets out a playful laughter.

As we walked towards our houses, there were less and less buildings, and less people as well, since we lived on the more rural side of town. The sun started to set, and the orange light from it started flooding the street. Sometimes it's hard to believe how just a few minutes can turn this town from being so friendly to being a dangerous beast.

I just wish they caught the murderer already, so we could go back to not having a threat everyday of our lives.

"Do you think this will ever stop?" I ask.

"What?"

"The murders."

"Who knows." Haruna shrugs.

"It kinda sucks. I wish I could just be oblivious to the situation."

Even if it hasn't affected us directly, it is a tiring situation overall.

We finally make it to the foot of the small hill at the end of town.

"Ah, finally home." Haruna exclaims.

We climb up the small hill and take a right, so we can reach her home first. Haruna's father is outside waiting for us.

We wave our hands and walk towards him.

"Hey kids, sorry I couldn't make it to train with you today, but I hope you didn't slack off." He pats our heads with a grin on his face.

"Of course we didn't, I beat Riku's ass today." Haruna smirks.

"Yes, yes, o' great Haruna, I can't never achieve such great deeds as you have." I let out a sigh and smile.

"I'm glad you had your fun today, but you shouldn't brag that much about your victory count Haruna, if it's turned around one day it's gonna have a much bigger impact." He says and pokes Haruna's forehead playfully.

"There's no way this guy will ever go above me." Haruna shrugs.

"Ha, I hope you'll remember my words if it happens. By the way, Riku, care to stay for dinner?"

"I'd love to, but I have to go and make dinner. My parents are still out of town,so I need to go and prepare dinner."

Joe lets out a sigh.

"You turn me down like 99 percent of the time. And I wonder how much longer will it take you to finally call me Joe, and not sir." I let out an awkward laugh when he says this, and give an apologetic look. "Well, you shouldn't keep your sister waiting. I'll try to make it tomorrow to train you guys."

I say my goodbyes and turn around to go back to the road before, and head to the left this time.

"I'm home."

"Welcome home!" Himeko says and waves at me from the table.

She's still working on her homework, it seems, from the amount of utensils out there. I wave back and move to the kitchen to make dinner.

"How was your sword training today?"

"It was mostly sparring matches, because Haruna's dad couldn't make it. But it was definitely fun."

"Did Haruna kick your ass again?" Himeko lets out a small laughter.

Out of all the phrases from her, she decides to pick that one...

"Well, you know I'm barely able to beat that monster when I win. Today I got utterly destroyed. It's always a hit to my confidence when I think I'm finally closing the gap." I let out a sigh.

I wonder why Haruna wants me to go with her. I don't really dislike this routine, I think the only downside is that I still have to do homework after all the training, but I skip that some days so it's not even that bad... I wonder if life outside would be just as fun. The one thing that makes me have second thoughts about that is this whole murderer situation. I wonder if she's really going to let me off the hook that easily though.

***

As the door opens, I let out a sigh of relief and my mom comes into the house.

"Where's dad?"

"He's still unloading some things from the carriage. But we're both fine, no issues encountered on the way home." She approaches me and kisses my forehead.

"You didn't have to stay up so late."

"Well, with this whole murderer issue going on, I couldn't help but worry."

"Come on, have you seen the strength of those horses? I don't think just one man can stop those babies." My dad says as he comes into the house.

"Well, you never know. I can't be as carefree as you." I let out a sigh. "How did the trip go?"

"Everything went smoothly, and we got a fair amount of cash for the wheat grains. Are you sure you don't want to get involved in the business? It's pretty profitable."

"I've told you, I don't think traveling around is my thing." I say and smile.

His expression always shows concern when he brings up this conversation. But I don't think taking goods to other regions is something I'll enjoy doing, so I can just shrug it off.

"I'm heading to bed now, I left some dinner in the kitchen, so you should eat up."

They both wish me good night as I head upstairs. I sit on my bed and pull up a book from under the covers.

"Hopefully they won't notice this is gone."

I open it up and start reading it. I go through the first few pages once again to refresh my memory. According to it, the magic is not limited to blessed soldiers,as popular beliefs go, but anyone can use it. However, this is something I have yet to test.

I gotta go through all the implications to ensure I'm not getting myself in danger by trying it. Getting blown to pieces or just dying out is a pretty scary thought,so I have to take this slowly.

Honestly, how did they get their hands in a book like this? I definitely won't be joining them with their trading business now, this is like playing with fire