From a distance, they spotted a lady walking with a basket clutched to her hips. Kogoro recognized her. She was one of the ladies they were looking for.
"Hey!" Kogoro shouted to get her attention.
The woman turned around to see who had called out to her. Upon spotting the two boys, she quickened her pace, evidently scared of them.
Flustered, Yukimura and Kogoro exchanged stares before going after her. As they were chasing her, they heard rumbling from the east, as if something huge was running toward the village.
Suddenly, a huge, black object crossed the road in front of them so fast that they had no time to make out what it was.
It took them a few seconds to realize that the lady they were chasing was gone. Whatever had crossed the path seemed to have snatched her away.
Then, they heard a scream. They followed it anxiously. From the side of the road, a trail of blood went deep into the village, and at the end of it, a horrific sight.
A corpse with almost all its upper body gone was lying in a pool of blood. Not far from it was a village curled up in a corner. She was the one who screamed.
"What did you see?" Kogoro asked her frantically, but she was too shocked to answer. Yukimura walked over to the corpse and crouched down to examine it.
Its head was gone, along with half the chest and abdomen. Judging by its wound, he could tell the part that was gone hadn't been cut off with a katana but rent by something dull and pointed.
He didn't want to think it was bitten off by a large animal because that wouldn't make sense. No animal was large enough to leave that kind of bite mark.
"Let's go back," Yukimura said, still staring at the corpse.
"Heh?" Kogoro said, lost in his own thoughts.
"Let's go back," Yukimura echoed as he walked back to the path. Kogoro followed him. Unable to shake off the shock, the terror built up within them rather slowly.
It had only sunk in when they heard another scream. This time, it was from the hut they were staying in.
They started picking up pace, their worry growing as they advanced. When they reached the hut, it was almost torn apart.
Half the roof was gone, the door ripped open, and two bodies hanging from the side of the deck, both headless. They hesitated to approach. It seemed like fear had finally caught up with them.
They knew none of their friends had survived, and they might not stomach the sight that would greet them if they went in there. But they had to. They needed their katanas.
Whatever they were dealing with was unnatural and could only be killed with violence. Fear and rage battle within them.
Eventually, the reality that nowhere in the village or on the mountain was safe had dawned on them.
There was nowhere to escape to. They were going to die there. Somehow, this thought had fueled their rage, giving them the courage to stand up and confront their fears.
If they were going to die anyway, they wanted to die with honor.
YOU ARE READING
Saving Touma
Mystery / ThrillerWhen the past and the future collide, chaos follows. Lives from different worlds intertwine and dance in a perpetual loop. The victim? An innocent child whose future would remain uncertain and cost many lives to retrieve. The key to all of this is a...
