[ON HIATUS] Player #003 | Naruto

>18<

You chose: <Help Sukachi Ai>

You make a split-second decision and rush towards Sukachi, who stays still, eyes wide and unseeing.

"DUCK, SUKACHI!" You scream, tackling her just as the rock goes soaring past where her head was.

There is a moment of silence. Then:

"DEMON-LOVER!"

"TRAITOR!"

"KILL THE DEMON-LOVER!"

More people pick up rocks. You grab Sukachi's arm, trying to drag her away.

"Sukachi! Snap out of it!" You hiss at her, adrenaline completely destroying your previously shy personality. She blinks, staring at the flames.

"You shouldn't have helped me. . . " she murmurs, as if in a trance. "Now they'll hurt you. . . too. . ."

Her eyes abruptly widen and she whirls around, pulling out a kunai just in time to knock a rock that was whizzing towards your head away.

"Don't-" Sukachi grits her teeth. And then, she holds the kunai to your throat.

"THROW MORE ROCKS AND SHE DIES!" She screams. Your eyes widen in shock and betrayal.

"S-Su-" The kunai presses closer to your throat. You go silent.

"PUT THE ROCKS DOWN!"

The villagers don't move.

Sukachi's hands are shaking, you notice. You gulp.

Then, one of the men laugh. "Ha! As if I'd fall for that stupid trick! That girl is a demon-lover, through and through. Don't try to save her with your idiotic lies, witch." He hisses out the last part, and you physically recoil.

Sukachi was trying to save you?!

The kunai falls away from your throat, and she steps in front of you. "I won't let you touch her."

"KILL THEM BOTH!"

"KILL THEM! KILL THEM! KILL THEM! KILL-"

Your breath hitches in your chest, staring wide-eyed at the villagers who you've seen around the streets, selling small products and smiling with kind faces.

They're monsters in human skin.

"This is what fear does to people, Mizu. Take a good, long look."

You do.

And you are terrified by what it does.

The villagers close in, throwing rocks and jeering, some pulling out pocket knives and crowbars or shattered sake bottles.

Sukachi deflects the rocks, whirling around and kicking a man that gets too close to you. But her foot wavers slightly, and the man only stumbles away, not falling over.

And it is then that you come to a realization.

Sukachi, at her full power, should be able to defeat all of these civilians with ease.

However,

1) She is emotionally unstable because of the death of her family,

2) She's weak and exhausted from crying, and

3) She has to protect you, a mere civilian child. Therefore,

Sukachi Ai will not win.

You come to this realization in a span of seven seconds, by the time of which Sukachi is bruised in three different places by rocks, has a nasty cut on her forearm from a shattered sake bottle, and is panting heavily. One of the villagers is out, but the rest have converged, enraged, at the "heinous act of the monster, to attack a civilian!".

You want to scream at their stupidity, but you're too scared.

They fight, and you stay to the side, doing your best not to be a liability.

But as every second drags by, the villagers drive on while Sukachi is forced back, until at last, she is whacked in the temple with a crowbar.

"SUKACHI!" She falls, bleeding, and you rush to her. Blood runs down her face, and she opens her eyes, coughing up a bit of blood.

"SUKACHI! ST-STAY AWAKE, HOLD ON- I-I'LL-" Her hand closes around yours, and she smiles up at you.

The same smile she had when she first introduced yourself.

"Heh. Looks like. . . I finally. . . got you. . . to. . . drop. . . th. . .e. . . ni. . .ckna. . .me. . ."

". . ."

". . . Mi. . .zu."

Her hand goes slack, eyes sliding closed.

"S-SUKACHI! SUKACHI!! D-DON'T- YOU CAN'T-"

You hear laughter. "We finally got the demon! Now, for the demon-lover. . ."

You feel rage boiling inside of you, and you pick up Sukachi's kunai from where it has fallen. You turn, and you launch yourself at a man weilding a crowbar, screaming with rage.

You don't remember much, but at last, you're standing over the villagers, an expression of pure hatred on your face. One of them coughs, trying to drag himself away.

"M-Monster. . ." Your eyes light up with fury, and you raise the kunai, fully intending to end his pathetic existence.

Instead, the last thing you see is a hooked staff with a large green flower flying towards you.

<Sorry, you died! Please go back to >HOME< and restart.>