Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

Reap What he Sows

The building collapsed with Seiryo inside.

"Seiryo!" I yelled, "He's still inside! We have to get him!"

"I will," I looked behind me to see Carlos. I barely knew him, but I knew he and Seiryo fought in the sports festival. It was the event everyone talked about. Until the war hit, anyway. I remembered him mostly by the scar that popped out on his tan face.

"You healed me, Ryker," he told me. "You helped me. Let me help."

He ran into the building, and I saw him transform. It was a werewolf looking creature, if I was seeing it correctly.

Minutes passed by. We could only stand idly and hope neither of them died.

Carlos did eventually come out with Seiryo in one piece. He looked small compared to Carlos' werewolf form.

Maxwell and Naga did not hesitate to send Lolana and Seiryo both to the nearest hospital. We kept Carlos with us. We could use a tank like him.

A couple days passed with not much action. The Shirokages seemed to calm down, but Toronto was still burning. Dead bodies littered the streets, the ones who didn't or couldn't leave the city. It was straight out of a horror movie, almost.

I got to know Carlos a bit more. He was from the Phillipines and was just starting to learn English. I could tell from his short sentences. He came to Toronto to become a hero, as there were not many good schools back where he was from.

"I know how it is to be thrown in an unknown place and learn a new language," I told him. "It's hard. I had to stay in Japan for a few years. I was young, but it was still overwhelming to get used to the language."

"English is hard," he said, "Pilipino is easy. I know some English from my mom, she speaks it, but too many words. Ang dami."

I couldn't catch the last bit of what he said, assuming it was in his native language. I assumed it was a curse, though. I couldn't help but feel bad he just got here and all of the sudden there was a war that threatened his life.

Maxwell was meditating, trying to withhold his full psychic power to find Izora, Coda, or any of the others that disappeared. He said we'd be lucky if they all weren't dead.

I spent my time simply writing. Writing about the many experiences I had, in hopes of publishing a book or article on the matter. This would go down in Canadian history for sure, and I wanted to be a first source.

"How's your memoir coming along?" Milo asked me, sitting down and leaning over my shoulder. I rolled my eyes playfully.

"It's coming along good," I said. "This is the most peace we've gotten."

"Just means they're planning something worse," Milo muttered. "I don't think their goal is to destroy the city of Toronto just to destroy it. I think their goal is to tear it down in order to find Kenichi, then maybe restore it. I think they're trying to scare him."

"Kenichi..." I hadn't thought about Kenichi in a while. The war has taken my mind over, so much so that I forgot the very guy who started it. No, it's not really his fault, I thought. It's the Shirokages.

Astaroth had been fairly quiet without Kingo around. They clashed a lot, since Astaroth saw nearly everyone as annoying, and Kingo was the definition of it. But he was an oddly amount of quiet, dazed, almost zombie-like...

"Ryker?" Milo broke my train of thought.

"Oh, sorry, were you saying something?" I asked them.

"Are you alright?" They asked, "You know... with all the pressure and everything?"