RE : OVER

10 || Kill or Be Killed (2)

Goro Honda did not know what had hit him as he slumped to the ground and began to choke on his own blood.

Mayu immediately dashed to reach Fumihiro, who had taken the short knife out of Goro's neck and was about to stab it again. She decisively swung her sword upwards, instantly severing Fumihiro's knife wielding hand. If not for Daisuke who had immediately restricted Fumihiro's vocal capability, the latter would have screamed with all his might and potentially attract numerous monsters.

From his previously agile move, Mayu knew that during the time they had been apart, Fumihiro must have awakened his trait.

And from the way he decisively singled out Goro with uninhibited killing intent, Fumihiro must have found out about the bonus trait that could only be gained by killing his first human. Remembering how Fumihiro Hada was, she could more or less guess his way of thinking: the female students were too pretty and would be a good bed-warmers for Fumihiro, that the latter chose to target his own past classmate. Or perhaps, the female students were also aware of the [First Kill] trait; or even had obtained the bonus trait themselves.

Fumihiro Hada's eyes widened as he clutched onto his severed hand. His lips moved, mouthing her name silently.

Mayu frowned as she saw the disbelief in his eyes.

What did he expect? For her to take his side and pat him in the back? She raised her hand, seeing that Fumihiro was still weaker than her, despite having awakened his innate trait. Her fingers subtly waved, and Yumiko immediately responded.

During their time together, they had worked on simple battle codes and commands. Daisuke's previous quick decision to restrain Fumihiro's vocal was from his quickened trained reflexes as well.

Three arrows flew in succession from Yumiko's bow, squarely hitting the three female students who were running away. The arrows shot through each of their pair of legs cleanly, the pointed heads jutted off their bleeding calves. The three still tried to hobble away, despite the wound. They had decided to abandon Fumihiro Hada just like that. 

From their strength, Mayu immediately realized that the three senior students had also awakened their trait, and most likely not only the basic innate one.

In fact, the three only came along because they were convinced by the past school committee leader that he would be able to kill Goro Honda quite easily. Fumihiro Hada felt confident that Goro was still a useless burden to Mayu's group. He wanted an easy kill. Fumihiro was handsome and quite charismatic amongst his peers, and the three had always wanted to be in his good books.

Even more, Fumihiro Hada had awakened his first trait not long after he and Mayu's group split ways, and had proven to be a valuable team member. He was also smart, noticing one of the three girls had gained a bonus trait when she accidentally killed someone. The person she had killed was a middle-aged man that had harassed her while they were walking, even went as far as trying to grope her. 

In Fumihiro Hada's sense of righteousness, and to which all three agreed, the rest of them sought for non-trait users for their First Kills. Fumihiro argued that the people who had not awakened their first trait by then would just die sooner rather than later, they might as well be put to good use. Besides, trait users would undoubtedly be more valuable to dispose monsters that roamed around. This was when the four of them decided to keep this information to themselves and separated from their previous group.

Yet, the further they went, there was hardly any non-trait user. Fumihiro let his two female companions dispose of two unlucky civilians they came across, but he could not find any other for himself. That was when he was reminded of Goro Honda. Thus, the four of them backtracked and searched for Mayu's group to find Goro.