Capítulo 38: Hope and Wishes

The horde was coming in.

All of her weapons had either been destroyed or depleted. There was no way but forward.

It was a scenario that had transpired countless times soon after the outbreak started. There were plenty of chances wherein one would find himself cornered, with the horde of infected coming in from all possible directions. And then, it's only a matter of time before one would be bitten, inevitably joining the pack.

"You'd have to do better than that if you want to take my life." Tris spat a mouthful of blood as she got on a bus. Her heart almost skipped a beat when one of the infected almost got her by the ankle, fortunately, the infected in question was slower than she'd had expected.

Finally getting a breather, Tris decided to lie down, impulsively putting his hand against her eyes as the sun shone down on her with a draining heat. If there had been an Aberrant in the horde, or maybe a Hybrid behind the scenes, she would've died right then and there. It's as if luck was on her side since she managed to escape the horde and its dangers by the skin of her teeth.

"We have a lot of catching up to do once we see each other again, my dear little sister." Tris exhaled, grabbing the last bottle of water from her backpack and drinking it in three gulps.

Once again, she marked another x on her map. Her little sister was still nowhere to be found.

.....

Back at the Scarlet Blood Stronghold

"I see..." Akayuki's red lips curved upwards as she turned away from Jurou. "Fret not, Jurou-san, you hardly need to look for him. He's a legend amongst the Hybrids so I don't think he'll be that difficult to find."

"Huh?" Jurou let out.

A smile appeared on Akayuki's face as her warm gaze mesmerized Jurou. She covered the lower part of her visage, letting out a chuckle before she pulled something in her pockets.

Jurou had no idea what to expect from the leader of the Scarlet Blood Stronghold. Nevertheless, he became curious as to what was written on the parchment she had in her hand. "Hmm~" He uttered.

He was somewhat expecting her to hold a map of some sort. That's why it didn't come as a surprise when he saw that she was holding a map identical to what he had in his inventory. The only difference was, the map had different x's and o's written on them.

"The o's are the location of the nests that exist nearby. You might notice this place as the Undeground Stronghold where the Hybrid Auction took place a few days ago." Akayuki began. "And as for the x's, well, they correspond to the nests that were brought down by a single person. I think he's the person you're looking for. He goes by the name Kazuichi. As for his family name, I have no clue."

Akayukis' words hit Jurou like a truck. If what she was saying was true, then he'd already found the young master. He'd been looking for him for a few days— only to stumble upon a lead in a snap of a finger just because he so happened to stop by a certain stronghold. "I guess that's worth checking out. Thank you so much. I hope the Kazuichi you mentioned is the same Kazuichi I know... but I doubt it..."

"... after all, young master would rather hole himself up in a dark room somewhere instead of going out of his way to annihilate infected hordes. Still, there can't be that many Kazuichi in the country, right?"

Clinging to his newfound hope, Jurou said goodbye to the Scarlet Blood Stronghold and made his way out of there.

"I hope you're doing well, young master," Jurou muttered to himself, smiling as he walked away.

Tug.

Before Jurou could take another step, he felt a tug at the hem of his shirt, causing him to stop short in his tracks. Because of his domineering stature, he was sensitive when it comes to the littlest of disturbances. After all, he might bump and injure someone if he weren't careful.

He was right on point. The moment he turned around, he saw a little kid clutching onto his shirt, tugging at it before letting go.

The kid was no less than five or so years old, and she fidgeted in front of the towering figure in front of her. It took all of her being to ask her question and even then, she had to close her eyes. "Are you friends with big brother?" Eguchi Amaya asked, almost as if she was screaming at Jurou.

"Eh? Er, you're talking about Kazuichi, right? Yes, he's my young master. I can't say for sure that I'm friends with him, but I serve him, and will gladly lay down my life for him if need be." Jurou continued.

"T-then... please bring him here! Big brother is... he's alone..." Amaya continued.

"Amaya!" A sharp voice hissed at Amaya from afar as two familiar figures rushed towards her. "Sorry about that mister, she didn't what she was— "

"— Jurou-san?!" Izanagi Lina exclaimed. "Eh?! What are you doing here?"

"Lina? Sano? What are you two doing here?" Jurou asked, bewildered. After all, he came from the same orphanage as them. He couldn't believe that they managed to reach all the way to the Scarlet Blood Stronghold when the orphanage was a significant distance away.

"We're staying here, for the meantime," Sano responded since his younger sister was too flabbergasted at the sudden reunion.

"I see, by any chance, did you meet the young master? Is the Kazuichi they call the legend... is he the young master?" Jurou can more or less guess by now that the Kazuichi he knew was the Kazuichi who was running rampant nearby, destroying nests upon nests of infected. However, he still wanted to hear it to believe it.

"Sir, if I were you... I think it'd be best if you don't look for him anymore... there's no saving him." Sano mumbled as he pursed his lips. "He couldn't control himself... in fact, no one can control him..."

Lina and Amaya guiltily looked away from Jurou as they remembered what they saw that day.