Ghosts of Wonderland

Kazuto

Halo Seven: Kazuto:

Would you kill to save a life?

My great-grandfather worked in Unit 731. I found his journals two years ago in my grandma's shed. It was by accident, to be honest with you. We were cleaning out her house. My grandma had passed away. Mom and my aunt were going around the upstairs room. Dad and my brothers cleaned the downstairs. I got the key to the shed.

"I'm going to the back," I said. They didn't answer me. I just walked out to the back. When we were younger, we were never allowed in the shed. Grandma never explained why. She would scold us for getting close to the building. Remembering all of that made me want to look even more.

I unlocked the door while looking around. I don't know why I did that. Grandma wasn't around anymore to stop me and the family was too busy inside of the house. In fact, I could see my dad cleaning up the kitchen from my vantage point. He hadn't even looked up once. I was free to look inside. And that was what I did. I pushed open the door and went inside.

Dust particles floated around in the air. There were so many boxes inside. The shed looks so much smaller from the inside. Somehow, I felt underwhelmed when I took the first step in. I took a look around me. Where should I start?

I spotted a filing cabinet in the corner of the shed. Of course I had to take a look. It's only human nature. Oh good, the drawers weren't locked. I pulled open the top drawer. When I looked inside, I had a confused look on my face. Two dark red journals sat inside. I couldn't see anything else. It seemed like a waste, really.

I reached inside and pulled out one of the journals. I opened it up. The smell of dust and old paper made my nose itch. I took in some breaths before I started reading. At first, I couldn't tell what I was looking at. There were just so many random Roman letters, numbers, Kanji, hiragana, and katakana. I turned the book around and around many times. My eyes were starting to hurt from all of the squinting. Still, I was transfixed. What was I looking at? I blinked as I tried to put together what I was reading.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I came out of the trance and pulled it out of my pocket. Oh, it's mom. She wants to know where I am. Looks like I will have to get back to work inside the house. I stuffed the journals in my pockets and closed up everything. After I made sure that everything was in place, I headed back into the house.

I was going to have to come back to the shed later.

Rena was the one who found Byakko all those years ago.

This happened about forty years ago. The goddess had just given birth and was still healing. She was wandering around in a barren garden of what was once the Jade Palace in the sky. Time had not been kind to this place. The deities had long since abandoned this once beautiful palace. Rena couldn't fathom the reason she was brought here.

She walked over the cracked yellow bricks and little bits of grass growing through the cracks. Her eyes slowly shifted left and right. Rena didn't have a purpose that was in her conscious mind. Still, she wouldn't allow herself to leave. There was something that she was supposed to find first.

Suddenly, she froze when she heard a chomping noise. Rena's eyes trailed forward. A figure sat on weathered broken steps with something to its mouth. The goddess slowed down her steps. She cocked her head to the side as she got closer. A being with a feminine appearance and cat ears on her head was eating on some form of bloody meat. From what Rena could tell, that was a still-beating heart. But the goddess wasn't afraid. Quite the opposite. She couldn't look away.

"Hello?" Rena asked. The creature paused and turned its head. The blood around her mouth was a sharp contrast to her pale skin. Her short white hair looked like it hadn't seen a brush in years. The goddess kind of smiled at her. She held out her hand.