Chapter 108.1 (Alternative): Hierarchy of Power

The group crowded over the glass door with captivated focus. Behind the transparent surface, haphazardly taped on with a heavy layer of duct tape, a piece of paper, stained with an odd mixture of red and brown, stood motionlessly, like a solemn monolith of a once prosperous civilization.

For what felt like an endless period of time, nobody moved nor spoke. Within the quiet world of concrete and gasoline stained handles, nothing but silence and the slight sound of blowing wind and rustling grass existed. Everyone’s full attention was completely concentrated on the thinly etched black words marked onto the paper.

“S-survivors to Kagetaka Port…” Cher’s whisper like mumbling broke the silence as she read aloud the words in a daze.

“This… Is this really real?” The President leaned back with crossed arms as he narrowed his eyes in scrutiny. His brow furrowing and his expression contorting in doubt as he questioned with an air of inquiry.

“It could be,” Hina’s hopeful words immediately responded, an enlivened tone unmistakable in her quiet tenor. “It really could be, there’s definitely a possibility. There are other people out there who survived and they’re waiting for us, for people like us, for survivors to gather together.”

“Ah, my grandparents lived near the port!” A high-pitched voice loudly exclaimed with bubbling excitement. “My parents too— they were visiting my grandparents before the start of summer! They could all be still alive, they could all be at the port!” Kido’s friend jumped up with eager enthusiasm, her shoulders slightly trembling as her eyes watered with sparkling hope.

“Then, let’s go.” Mindy echoed with the same sentiment as the others. Her usual despondence and dead eyed expression slightly loosened as she gazed over at her friend with a gentle glint in her eyes. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Mia’s parents…”

“Wait,” I abruptly spoke, cutting in between everyone’s growing eagerness with a slight frown on my face. “I don’t think we should just outright believe everything that’s on here.”

Although I wasn’t completely ruling it out, there were a lot of other possibilities and less than favorable alternatives to what the others were already imagining. Rather than looking at it with eager, hopeful eyes, it was better and invariably safer if we viewed it with a “worst case scenario” type of mind set.

“There might not be a survivor base there…” I spoke slowly, the words leaking out from my throat at almost the same time my mind struggled to formulate them. “There are a lot of other possibilities out there, plus we don’t know how long this flyer has been up for. If there really is a base at Kagetaka port, we don’t know if it’s still there. For all we know, something could have happened during that time span. It could have gotten destroyed a long time ago, or overrun by bandits. In the end, we just don’t have any evidence as to what exists out there in the port.”

“But at the same time, we don’t have proof that there’s isn’t a survivor base there.” Cher chimed, stubbornly shaking her head as she looked up at me with a pleading expression. “A place full of people, a place where we can relax, a place where we don’t have to be on guard 24/7… isn’t this what we talked about back in the dungeon?”

A memory surfaced in my mind. It was recent, yet at the same time, felt as if it had occurred ages ago. My conversation with Cher on the night after we got to the east building of the school caused a seed of hesitancy to form within my mind.

“I know, and I’m not saying we won’t check it out.” I responded after a moment’s pause, “Finding a safe place is important, just that, it’s better to assume that the guys waiting for us over there want to kill us, rather than take us in.”

“I think that’s too negative of a view point.” Hina spoke, her tone low with disagreement. “Even if the world is like this, good people still exist out there, people who are willing to protect the weak, people who can stand up for what’s right… at the very least, I want to be like that…”

“Hina… that’s…” I looked at Hina with a complicated expression on my face. Once again, her naivety was showing, once again, I felt a foreboding sense of danger from her almost untainted outlook. Even after all that’s happened, I don’t know whether her unchanging mindset expressed strength or stupidity.

“Besides,” Hina immediately continued as she averted my gaze and turned her face back to the flyer. “We were heading towards the port in the first place, it won’t hurt to just check it out. Sis, what do you think?”

The focus of attention suddenly turned towards Cielle due to the promptings of her sister. For a moment, she stood there, unmoving and silent, her eyes focused completely on the paper flyer taped to the door. After a passing gust of wind blew through the air and ruffled Cielle’s unkempt hair, she finally spoke, her words quiet in an almost whisper like tone, “… I agree with Hide. We don’t know if it’s safe… and if it isn’t safe, then that can only mean it’s dangerous.”

Just as Hina opened her mouth to argue, I abruptly spoke, my words slow, and deliberate, “Look Hina, I know you want to find a place with more people, and I’m not saying we should completely give up on that idea, but…” I sighed as my gaze shifted to peer over at the undisturbed fields of grass that expanded beyond the road. The sun that set over the horizon gave the scenery a glow of shimmering orange that tinted the landscape like spilled paint. “I just want us to be prepared, to be ready for whatever’s waiting for us there. I don’t want to recklessly run straight into a trap and lose someone I don’t want to lose.”

Hina’s frowning lips parted, but no words came out. She furrowed her brow, wanting to speak, but in the end, she silently closed her mouth and tilted her head to the floor. Her hair cascaded over her eyes, and hid whatever expression she was currently making.

“Then, if that’s the case, I think we should wait until you recover before we head out.” The President suddenly chimed in before another long silence could consume the surroundings. While his free hand patted Hina’s back in a reassuring manner, his face turned towards me, an appeasing expression smeared onto it as he adjusted the rim of his glasses. “Hide is our strongest fighting force, and having him weakened right now is really detrimental to us. We can clearly see this from our last fight. Luckily, none of us died, but we barely managed to survive through the skin of our teeth.

“Since a few of us want to check the place out, then at the very least, before we go there—heck, before we even decide something as important as this, we need to be fully prepared for whatever’s waiting for us.

“What do you think, Hide?”

I frowned and tilted my head to the ground. My eyes were locked onto the tiny pieces of rock scattered across the concrete, while my mind buzzed with activity. After what felt like a painfully long time, I looked back up and responded, “Fine,” I hesitantly nodded. “As long as we go after I finish recovering, then I guess it’s alright.”

“Great!” Hina suddenly exclaimed, clapping her arms together as she jumped up into the air, inadvertently pushing the President back due to her boisterous excitement. Amidst a background chorus of excited voices, her pure and hope filled words rang out, buzzing through my ears like a swarm of flapping gnats. “Then, our next stop will be Kagetaka Port.”

****

In the meanwhile, while we had decided to wait out my recovery, the group also unanimously decided to use the convenience store of the gas station as our temporary base.

After the President finished fueling the car, everyone went and helped clean up the convenience store, an excited and energized atmosphere lingering through the air like a faint scent of daisies. We moved all the shelves within the convenience store to the side, and cleared out the floor space. We also assorted all the products within the store, from the nonperishables, consumables, medicine, and threw away all the perishables. Going through all the products, which included the supplies from the back and from the storage room, took a considerable amount of time, but since we were going to be free for a while, we had plenty of time to waste.

The store was obviously looted, so there were some things missing, but there were still some valuable things left over that the previous looters had looked over. For instance, while all the drugs (medicine), cigarettes, alcohol, and canned goods were gone, things such as potato chips, and other snacks were kept mostly untouched. We gathered whatever we could find and put them together with the supplies we previously picked up from Cielle’s apartment building.

Out of everything, the most annoying part of the cleanup was undoubtedly the perishables that had long since rotted due to the two months’ worth of summer heat that cooked the building like a French baking oven. We had done a similar process back when we occupied the east building, but back then, we had more people helping out and there wasn’t as much grime or dirt everywhere.

All in all, the whole process took up most of the day, and by the end, it was well into the night, with the half crescent moon floating high in the sky like a silent beacon of light. After laying down the sleeping bags, and finishing our makeshift base, everyone prepared to end the long day with a nice and hope filled sleep.

Meanwhile, I decided to volunteer for tonight’s night watch duty, due to two primary reasons. For one, my mind was too preoccupied with wandering thoughts for me to get a good night’s sleep. The other reason was because I finally decided to confront a problem that I’ve been putting off since I first got back together with everyone.

Through the small square space of the convenience store, my voice rang out as I called out for Narise, and asked her to help me throw out some of the garbage that we had collected throughout the day.

After a moment of pause, I heard an excited yell respond back. “Boss, I’m coming!” She entered the room, a head full of braided hair and round rimmed glassed, and grabbed a few trash bags before she followed me out through the backdoor.

Through the corner of my eye, I noticed that Narise was struggling with her grip, especially on her right hand, where she voluntarily hacked off two of her fingers. I slightly frowned, but did not do move to help her or lessen her load.

I lead her behind the store, where the dumpster was located. Without protest, Narise obediently followed, while besides her side, the Gila that she had been raising followed along, its jade white scaled tail swinging through the air in excitement.

When we reached the back, the Gila immediately bolted forward, its head zooming towards the dumpster. It leapt off the ground with agility reminiscent of the monsters I encountered back in the basement, before it dove head first into the dumpster.

Narise’s faint laughter rang throughout the quiet night as she walked up from behind me. The light of the moon glinted off of her glasses, glossing over her eyes, as she chucked the garbage bags into the dumpster. She stretched out her arms and called out to the Gila.

“Weiss, don’t eat from there, that’s unsanitary.” Her words were light, almost conversational, but in less than a few seconds, the Gila’s head popped out from within the dumpster. It’s all white exoskeleton was covered in pieces of garbage, and stained with dirt and grime.

The Gila opened its mouth as a soft whining noise, similar to a baby’s cry, echoed through the air, before it leapt out of the dumpster and sprinted to Narise’s side, where it then nuzzled its head against her pants leg. Grime stained her pants with a dirty color of brown, but Narise paid it no heed as she bent down and nuzzled against the creature.

Her eyes narrowed into two satisfied crescents, while her lips curved into a content smile. Through the faint moonlight that blanketed the night, I could see the slight blush of red on her cheeks, as a genuinely happy expression plastered itself onto her face.

Looking over at her, I could not help but frown. Truth be told, I wasn’t very good at dealing with Narise. Her personality and the certain character traits she possessed conflicted with a lot of my own. What made it even worse was the fact that my traditional methods of dealing with people didn’t seem quite compatible with her. Yet, for some odd reason, her own oddness, even that over the top personality of hers, I could not help but find that at least some portion of it was fabricated.

This left me at odds, especially since the line between truth and fiction regarding Narise just got even blurrier.

After thinking things over, and eventually coming up with no reasonable solution, I sighed and decided to hell with it. Without any pretense, I straightforwardly asked, “Narise, what skill did you get back then?”

For a moment, Narise stared at me blankly, a confused expression on her face, before her eyes widened. “Ah, are you talking about the time when we were in Miss Cielle’s room?” Her expression lightened, her eyes shining with astounded glint. “As expected of you, Boss. Even without telling you, you still knew I received a skill”

I maintained my stare on her face as she continued to talk, my eyes sharp as they scrutinized for any sort of change in her appearance. Be it hesitation, or unwillingness, I watched with hawk-like attention.

In contrast with my focus, Narise continued to speak nonchalantly, “I got a really good skill called [Matriarchy]. At first, I was kind of confused, but after I found out that it lets me be closer to Weiss, I was really happy to get the skill.”

“Get closer? What do you mean by that?” I inquired, my natural curiosity tainting my original caution.

“It lets me communicate directly with him, something like telepathy, but a bit more emotional. It’s really useful because now, Weiss has been listening to me more closely than ever before, although it’s unfortunate that there’s a maximum range that I can’t exceed, but that’s beside the point.” Narise paused for a second, as she tilted her head in thought. “I know! Rather than explain it to you, I can show you! Watch this, Boss.”

“Weiss, go!” With a little shout, Narise pointed to the open field. The Gila immediately bolted forward, a streak of white lightning against the black landscape as it ran straight into the underbrush before disappearing amidst the stalks of tall grass.

I could see occasional rustling within the field of long grass that stretched as far as the eye could see, before I heard a soft whine from somewhere deep in the bush. A few moments later, Weiss leapt out of the grass, its exoskeleton now stained in deep splotches of vivid red. In its mouth was a ball of brown. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was a dead rabbit, its neck snapped off as its limp limbs swayed with the wind.

With a hearty laugh, Narise beckoned the Gila over, before she rubbed its scaled exterior, completely ignoring the blood on its body. “Weiss is pretty clever,” She spoke earnestly as the Gila dropped the dead carcass in front of her feet. “Although it’s unfortunate that I can’t do much except tell him to go bring some food, but still, he’s really nice to have around.”

Her eyes narrowed happily as she lightly smiled, her hand continuously moving back and forth against the white Gila’s exterior.

“I see…” I quietly muttered as I maintained my gaze with Narise’s current appearance. The silence persisted for a long time, before, prompted by sudden impulse, I suddenly asked, “Why do you like monsters so much?”

Narise was quiet for a second. Her expression was blank, and I got the feeling that the silence wasn’t due to hesitation nor unwillingness to answer the question, but rather, she was deep in thought. After a few seconds, she responded, shaking her head abruptly. “That’s not quite right, Boss. It’s not that I particularly like monsters, but rather, I like things that are weaker than me.”

“Weaker than you?” Caught off guard by her sudden statement, I could not help but raise my brow in surprise.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Narise confirmed, as she sat down and closed her eyes. The Gila before her leapt into her open lap as it snuggled gently against the crook of her legs. Narise’s hand gently stroked the crown of its head, as she continued to speak, her words quiet and soft like the strips of cloud that hovered over the night sky. “I like things that are weaker than me, things that are stupider than me, things that I can control.

“Weiss is the perfect example of that. He started off as a baby, he was vulnerable, weak, fragile. He practically had to depend on me in order to survive.” She laughed as she contently sighed. “That feeling that you get, knowing someone out there is reliant on you, that they need you, and that they’ll do anything you say… I can’t get that feeling easily from other people.”

“… You’re not normal Narise.” I mumbled, my lips curving down into an unconscious frown. All my interactions with Narise have left me feeling perplexed and puzzled. It was like with every conversation, a new side of her was revealed, one that I had no clue existed beneath the façade she adorned prior. This time was no different, another layer was currently being revealed, like the insides of some twisted Matryoshka doll.

She laughed, her soft chuckles disappearing with the gentle late summer night breeze, but she did not refute nor respond to my statement.

Regardless, I sighed, and shrugged my shoulder. In order to continue unraveling this new layer, I decided to humor her.” But even then, isn’t there a big problem in your obsession? When he grows up, that Gila will get stronger. He’ll keep leveling up, he’ll mature, he’ll eventually reach a point where he’s far stronger than you. What will you do then?”

Narise shook her head in disagreement, her eyes slightly opening as she threw a side long glance at me, before turning back around and facing the Gila before her. “Even if Weiss does get stronger, even if he grows up, even if he keeps leveling up, even if someday he manages to become strong enough to the point where he could kill me with one swing of his tail, that still won’t be a problem. They key matter is, Weiss will never, ever do that.

“He’ll stay by my side forever, and I’ll make sure he’s obedient to a fault. Even if he does get stronger, in the end Weiss will still be weak. By the time he grows older, I’ll have taught him all that I’ve known about the hierarchy of power.”

“Hierarchy of power?” I repeated in puzzlement.

“Yeah, the hierarchy of power…” Narise’s voice was soft, almost transient. “That’s something my dad taught me a long time ago… It’s like how gangs work. There’s always a leader, but underneath that leader, there’s always a group of people whose combined strength far out strips the leader. The question is, why don’t the other gang members kill the leader? Is it because the leader is valuable? Is it because the gang members need him? How can the leader control everyone to not kill him?

“The answer that my dad taught me was that it was because of power. The leader punishes anybody who tries to rebel, he emasculates everyone else, he makes them weaker. He enforces the hierarchy of power through force.

“The hierarchy of power is important, it’s something everyone eventually finds themselves in, both you and I…”

“You… then, the relationship between the two of us,” I paused and hesitated for a second, before I continued, “Is it the same thing that you are referring to?”

Narise adjusted the frame of her rounded spectacles, before she turned towards me and smiled. “That’s right. Hide is the Boss. The Boss is someone who stands above other people, someone who has more power than anybody, and someone who can lead. As someone who can only follow, it’s only natural that I’d be underneath you, Boss.”

After hearing Narise talk, I caught a slight glimpse of the madness behind her recent actions. The motives she kept in her mind as she did what she did, the way she talked, the way she handles the situation, it all stemmed from this twisted logic that pushed and supported her throughout the apocalypse.

“Then, is that why you cut off two of your fingers? To maintain the hierarchy that you spoke of… to enforce it?” After a while, I questioned, my words slow and deliberate.

Narise silently nods her head. “It’s always better to enforce these things as quickly as the problem comes up…

“Can I tell you something, Boss? It’s a quick story, a story about my father. He was a small-time gangster. He used to be part of a tiny little gang, and was one of the lowest members of the group. In truth, he was nothing but a gopher. Every time they made a mistake, they’d punish him, beating him until he was black and blue or put out their cigarette butts on his face, that sort of punishment.

“Whenever he came home, I’d always ask him, ‘Why are you injured?’” She paused for a moment, her lips slightly curving into a nostalgic smile. “Every time, he’d reply the same way; ‘I made these myself,’ he’d say, ‘because I did something that the boss didn’t like, I made these myself.’”

She looked up and smiled up at me. “At first, I did not know what he meant by that, but eventually, I discovered something… it hurts less when you’re the one hurting yourself, rather than letting someone else do it… I guess in a way, I did this to myself so that you wouldn’t have to.”

She brought her right hand up to her eyes, slowly clenching and unclenching it, as she moved around her three remaining fingers.

“In the end, my dad wasn’t a good person, and he was an even worse father, but he taught me one thing, which was discipline and order through whatever means necessary. In the underworld, subordination is the most important aspect of surviving. In that dungeon, I learned that the rules of the underworld applied to everything… So, in order to survive, I needed to submit myself to people stronger than me.”

So, all that “Boss” business was because of her past, huh…

After some silence, I looked up at her, and through the darkness of the night, my voice lightly floated as I asked, “Then, what about the President? When you were in the cafeteria group, were you willing to submit to him?”

With no hesitation, Narise immediately shook her head. “No. The President, at the time, he was indeed physically strong. He was higher leveled than anybody, and he tried his hardest to protect the whole group, but in the end, he was weak. In a world where the strong eat the weak, he was too weak willed to last. For a person amongst the weak, it’s important for me to be able to identify between those pretending to be strong, and those who are truly strong.”

“Then you think I’m part of the strong?”

She looked up at me and nodded, her eyes sparkling with an invisible glint. “Boss is different. I don’t know how I can explain it, but I can tell. You are the type that will protect the people you care about with all his might, while at the same time, being someone who is able to willingly through away the people you deem useless.”

I stood silently as I pondered over Narise’s own interpretation of my character. Whether I was the type of person she described, or whether I was someone different, I could not tell myself.

Regardless of my own inner dilemma, Narise continued to speak as a slight smile curved her lips. “For example, I feel that Boss has thought of killing me several times. Am I right?”

“…” I did not answer, but merely looked at her with an emotionless façade.

In response, Narise laughed without reservation. “Now, compared to me, who is clearly on the side of people who the Boss deems useless, someone like Miss Cielle… the thought of abandoning Miss Cielle never once crosses your mind, does it?”

“…”

“There’s a simple reason for that.” She spoke with false clarity, “That’s because a Boss who can send Miss Cielle out to die doesn’t exist, a Boss who can send the people he cares for to die doesn’t exist.”

Seeing my subsequent reaction, Narise heartily laughed as her smile widened. “Someone told me a long time ago that it’s that sort of leader that can reach the highest potential, a finely mixed concoction of loyalty and pragmatism… Within the hierarchy of power, the job of the lackey is to find a way to get into the group that the leader is willing to protect.

“Now, can I ask Boss, how well am I doing in that regard?”

“Terrible.” I spoke without hesitation, carefully observing Narise’s expression for any sort of reaction.

Unfortunately, beyond my expectations, Narise’s expression did not change at all. The smile on her lips stayed the same as she narrowed her eyes and sighed. “Bummer, I guess cutting off my fingers wasn’t enough, huh?”

Hearing her reaction, I could not help but derisively laugh. “Didn’t you say it yourself, hacking off your fingers of your own volition is akin to simply trying to escape responsibility. Why would I protect someone like that?”

“… Then, what should I do to get in your good graces, Boss?” She smiled lightly as she spoke, her words fluttering through the wind like a loose strand of paper. “Should I get stronger? Level up until I can fight like Miss Cher? Or do you want something else? Like my body or…”

“No, nothing like that.” I immediately responded, cutting her off before she could speak any further.

Narise was someone who I was beginning to understand more and more. Although her earlier façade portrayed someone who had lost a few screws in her head, in reality the real Narise was someone completely different. She was careful, pragmatic, you could even say calculating. She was someone who viewed everything with a certain system which she imposed on everything around her. Even the fact that she suddenly started talking like this, I don’t think this was just due to some whim that suddenly over took her.

She probably felt it too, my growing paranoia, my growing desire to fix the problem before me through whatever means necessary. Whether she somehow orchestrated this scenario, or whether she was just desperate, and used my own intention to craft herself a life boat, I was clear on which of the two she had done. Whatever façade she wore, it was apparent what her end goal was.

How genuine her intentions were, and how far she was willing to go for her declared “leader”, were the two things that I now needed to determine. The issue now was how would I go about confirming these two things.

I thought long and hard, struggling to come up with a solution, but in the end, I could not think of anything. With a heavy sigh, I decided to change directions, as I metamorphically turned the steering wheel, and spoke, “Prove to me that you are someone worth protecting.”

“How will I—”

“Kill your Gila.”

Since I had no way of confirming how genuine Narise was, nor how far she was willing to go for me, I came up with another option, that is to use her until her expiration date expired.

How far could I push her? Could I temper her mind into that of something that would benefit me? Narise was someone with the mindset of hiding under the protection of someone stronger than her. While she made it sound a bit more whimsical and fanciful, in the end, it was a typical weakling mindset, and while it was an effective strategy for the weak, that wasn’t quite the case for the strong. For the leader, for the shield that Narise would invariably latch herself onto, this was a terrible compromise. The instant someone stronger comes along, the instant something that the leader can’t protect against comes along, then she will run away with her tail packed between her legs.

The idea of self-preservation was deeply in rooted to the incomplete hierarchy of power that Narise spoke of, and the only way to form a true hierarchy of power was to uproot that concept. Rather than struggling to protect one’s self, the ideal outcome was a relationship based on mutual support. That was the type of unspoken deal Cielle, Cher, Hina, and I had.

What I wanted from Narise wasn’t that. All I wanted to do was uproot her self-preservation instinct and replace it with one of self- sacrifice. And to do that, I needed to destroy the very foundation of her ideal.

Was this a good method of handling this situation? I didn’t think so. A more capable leader would have probably found an easier, better solution than what I had concocted, but to the useless me, this was the one I came up with.

“That…” For the first time since our conversation, Narise’s eyes shook. She hesitated. She hesitated for a long time. The hand that held onto the Gila in her lap froze, while the Gila, who had sensed something odd, looked up at its master and whined.

“Are you unwilling?” I asked with a stoic façade.

“N-no, I’m not,” She stuttered out through a broken string of words. “I can do it, I will do it.” She could not mask her quivering voice, as she spoke with forced determination.

Even if Narise was someone who valued herself more than others, believing that she had not grown attached to the creature before her was a complete lie. This was also another facet of her hierarchy of power.

“Then, do it.” I uttered.

Narise did not reply, but her hands suddenly snaked its way around the creature’s throat. The Gila, who had sensed something, suddenly let out a sharp cry, as its legs jerked forward in an attempt to run. Unfortunately, its escape was met with failure. Its exoskeleton clad body suddenly spasmed as an invisible force held it down with forced obedience.

Judging from the perspiration on Narise’s brow, I had guessed that this was an effect of her skill, [Matriarchy]. The Gila’s head, helplessly shook from side to side as it struggled in Narise’s lap, but it was completely powerless, restrained down by whatever godly power kept it in place.

Narise’s hands enclosed in on the Gila’s thin throat. Her whole body trembled, both due to her skill’s exertion and due to her own unwillingness. Her own body seemed as if it were physically rejecting her current actions, yet at the same time, was forced by her own conscious self.

Unfortunately, even if Narise wanted to choke the Gila to death, she did not possess the strength necessary to do that, especially at the face of the Gila’s tough exoskeleton. Thankfully and to my surprise, suffocating it to death wasn’t Narise’s intention.

Her fingertips dug deep into the crevice of one of the Gila’s scales located on its neck. After some work, she managed to wedge her finger in-between the cracks. A squeaking sound resonated through the air as she forced her finger deeper into the crevice before she pulled out the scale with difficulty. Blood slowly trickled down from the wound, a mixture of bright red and vibrant green, but Narise ignored it as her shaky hands continued to pull more and more scales from the Gila’s neck.

I don’t know whether her ability to “skin” the Gila while it was still alive was due to her skill, or due to all the time she had spent with the Gila, but the bloody process was long and arduous. After the Gila’s throat was completely exposed and free of any scales, the Gila’s earlier screeching had been reduced to mere whimpers. Narise’s own hands were stained with a thick layer of freshly coated Gila blood. Due to the Gila’s prematurity, going by how unaffected Narise was, it was safe to assume that a premature Gila’s blood was not yet acidic, unlike the matured versions that I had previously battled with.

Version 108.1 change starts here:

Narise’s body shook, and while her expression struggled to maintain its neutral façade, tears welled up within the corners of her eyes. She took in a shaky breath of air before she grabbed one of the pulled-out scales and pushed it up against the edge of the Gila’s throat.

I watched the whole scene from behind her, my eyes tracking every movement and change in facial expression with undisturbed focus and attention.

The Gila light whimpered upon contact with its own scale, its body shivering from the sudden touch. Narise’s hand trembled as she hesitated before the final act. Her solemn façade was ruined by the continuous tears that fell from her face like a cascading waterfall. For a painfully long time, she remained unmoving, before all of a sudden, her shoulders jerked, and the scale in her hand pushed hard against the exposed neck of the Gila.

Just as the knife-like object was about to break through the thin layer of exposed skin on its throat, my hand suddenly jerked forward. I grabbed Narise’s thin wrist, just as the tip of the scale penetrated the surface of the Gila’s throat. The tiny edge drew a thin line of green, viscous blood that slowly dripped down the Gila’s neck and fell to the ground, before it formed a small puddle of liquid underneath.

Without speaking, I silently bent down beside Narise and slowly clasped onto the scale with my free hand. With a little push, the scale fell limply from her hold, landing on the hard concrete with a noticeable clang.

Narise, whose pale complexion sported a surprised expression, looked up at me with hollow, confused eyes.

“W-why?” she hoarsely whispered through a croaking sob that left her whole body heaving heavily in mental exhaustion.

“Why what?” I spoke simply, getting up and dusting myself off. “This was a punishment for cutting your fingers off without my permission.”

“…” She did not return my response, but rather turned back around to face the tiny, half dead creature in her lap. Her eyes were blank, lifeless holes as they bore through the creature with rapt focus.

Meanwhile, I stared at the mess in front of me. Narise was soaked in green blood, her once neatly styled braids, coming undone at the seams while her glasses were foggy and crooked. In her lap was a quivering Gila, whose neck had been completely skinned. A soft, almost malleable surface of skin was exposed, vulnerable to the point where even the slightest touch could injure it. It breathed in a shallow breath of air, as it struggled to raise its head, before it lightly nuzzled up the end of its mouth to Narise’s chest.

A soft whine escaped its weak throat, before it morphed into an ear shattering series of pain filled coughs.

This final action, which Narise had watched through tear soaked eyes, was the last straw in maintaining whatever façade had kept Narise’s true emotions in check. Her shoulders heavily trembled, as she doubled over, curling over with the Gila in a careful, yet tight embrace.

She sobbed a fit of dry tears, her chest heaving as the words, “Sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” repeatedly escaped her trembling lips.

“Remember tonight,” I solemnly spoke in-between her cries with a firm tenor in my voice. “The thing you described as the hierarchy of power… this is another facet of the system you seek out.”

I did not care whether Narise could hear me through her continuous rounds of sobbing, regardless, I continued to speak, my voice growing softer and softer the longer I progressed, “If I am the one at the top, then that means you fall somewhere in the middle of the pyramid. Underneath you are the things you care about, and every mistake you make will not only affect you, but the things beneath you as well.

“Think of it as a form of collective punishment… and remember tonight whenever you do anything that might endanger the group. Killing you might be easy, but I won’t do that. Whether or not I would like to admit it, I think you have a lot of potential Narise. Since I can’t kill you, the easiest way to break you is through your toys… through the things you love the most. With each mistake you make, I’ll slowly strip away the feeling of control that you have, crushing it, stomping on it, before ultimately destroying it.”

I paused for a second, took one last long look at Narise, before lightly stating, “Take care of the Gila or else it’ll die from all the injuries it has.”

Without a doubt, I wanted the Gila to live. The injury to its neck may never heal again, and it may cause its overall strength to drop significantly, a drop that it may never recover from, but I did not care. I did not want it to live because of its fighting ability, I wanted it to live as a reminder to Narise, as a permanent reminder to the consequences her actions can have.

“Then, I’ll be heading back first.” I stated, turning my back to Narise’s curled over figure and facing the back door of the convenience store. “I hope you don’t forget what happened tonight.”

As I walked away, through the heavy seas of summer night winds that blew through the air, I could hear Narise’s faint voice speak out. It was a soft, almost inaudible voice that was further muffled by the sound of the rustling grass and quiet silence of the night. “… I won’t forget.”