✔ The Hunters | Garou

THIRTEENTH HUNT

BASTARD

"You can romanticize me all you wish, but the devil wrapped in silk is still the devil."

"Tenrou! I must get back to her!" I exclaimed over Zenko trying to get me to stop fighting.

"No! Don't go! You're gonna die!" she screamed back, pulling at my pants as I started walking towards the centipede, dragging her along in the process, "Tenrou onee-chan is strong enough to fight on her own! She can even call for backup!"

"Go home, Zenko, I must finish up this stupid bug and protect that father and son." I said adamantly.

"Stupid onii-chan!" I heard her say and I felt a hard smack on the back of my head.

The smack rattled me enough to make me conk out at that very moment.

I really wanted to tell her that the man she housed was a good for nothing, ungrateful, and disrespectful bastard.

"I don't understand why monsters always lose in the cartoons!" I heard Garou say as both of us were drawing on the sand with sticks in the school playground.

"That's because the people who make the cartoons want us kids to be good." I replied.

"But it's not fair to the monsters." he said with a quiet whine, "I remember seeing the crab monster fighting Justiceman all by himself to protect the sea. But Justiceman killed him. What will the crab monsters in the sea do without their leader? It's not fair to them."

I paused for a long time. I didn't know what to say. I was only eight years old... What do I know about fairness and justice in this world? Mommy told me that the world is not black and white.

"I don't know the answer." I said honestly, "But I know what we can do."

Garou looked at me. "What's that?"

"We can play a different game. I will be the hero, because I like heroes. You will be the monster," I paused to see his reaction, and as I expected, he grimaced. Seeing this, I smiled and said, "But in this game, I lose and you win."

He blinked. "I win? The monster wins?"

"Yeah! And I'll be the hero that loses to you!" I exclaimed.

A dream?

I opened my eyes.

Where's Garou?

Where am I?

The sterile smell of disinfectant filled my nose, and above my head was a white ceiling. Right next to me were translucent blue curtains, through which diffused light from the window to my right passed through.

My entire body felt stiff. When I rolled my eyes downwards to have a look at myself, I was in a hospital gown, my hands, arms, legs, and body bandaged firmly.

Oh right. I was fighting the centipede with Bad.

It was a long and hard battle and my last conscious moment was when it whacked me so hard, I flew far away and hit a building.

The thought of it made my back and neck ache and throb. I painfully raised my arm to touch my head. My head was bandaged too. My hand slid down to my jagged hair.