Chapter 4: Downtrodden

What’s my name? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where is here? A dozen questions appear in my mind but as expected, only silence awaited me.

I am surrounded by darkness and strangely enough, I feel like emptiness itself. I cannot feel my limbs nor can I voice out my anguish as I float in this mass of darkness. The silence is deafening and I can only be helpless. I realize that I must have died, that my mortal shell is no more and strangely enough, I don’t feel bad about it at all. There’s a sense of fate to all of this and I feel as though this was bound to happen and the only question was when. I humbly accept this cruel fate and resume meekly floating around in this pit of nothingness.

As if.

I recall vague memories of people suffering and dying by the hands of the lords who swore to protect them. I recall a woman’s sickly face. She’s paralyzed from the waist down and she requires the aide of someone to attend to her every need or else she cannot survive. I cannot recall her name but even in sickness and despair, she remains a light to the darkness that has formed in my heart. I do not remember my name and in my life, I am sure to have forgotten the majority of my childhood but one thing I will never forget is the feeling of hope that Woman has instilled in me.

A feeling of longing replaced the despair in my heart and in that moment, I feel the darkness being swept away by light. I see a figure in the distance walking towards me. I realize that the figure belongs to this beautiful red haired woman and when she reaches my side, she unfastens the binds that connected my body and soul to the darkness. Just who is this woman? As I gazed into her eyes, I recall a life I must have lived in the past. I remember everything.

“…it’s you.”

“Yes, it’s me. You’ve always been an unlucky bastard weren’t you?”

“I’m only unlucky because I’m your best friend. Didn’t you once say that the people closest to you are cursed?”

“No, I said that the people I fall in love with tend to die.”

“So how many legions of Men have perished due to your love, Chief Warlock?”

“Only one..”

She sends me a gaze filled with an entire lifetime’s worth of longing. I can only smile wryly at her as I shrugged my shoulders.

“You really are a despicable Man..”

“Yet we’re friends.”

“The best of friends.”

“So…is my current life over?” I asked her honestly.

“It is, and it isn’t.”

“Huh?” I can hardly hide the shock in my voice. Well, duh. What the hell does that even mean?

“Your life ended only because of a stupid decision that you made, you idiot.”

“Well, in this life, I am powerless but I still do have my pride as a Soldier.”

“Only weak dogs have barks as loud as yours, Hero.”

I cringe at her brutally honest retort and seeing my face, she heartily laughs. I am captivated by this woman but for now, I need her to get to the point.

Sensing the change of atmosphere, she drops all signs of playing around. She inaudibly casts a spell of complex origins but my ‘Eye of Alchemy’ recognizes it as a resurrection spell of the highest order.

A contract appears in my heart.

“Oops. Before you do so, Hero, I would just like to tell you that I will unlock 1/1000th of your original power so that you may use it in your human form. Is that agreeable?”

“1/1000th? Seems a little low. Can’t I have more?”

“Of course you can but I will not grant you that power. The Golden Age War has passed and we now live in the realm of the mortals so you can either re-train yourself or find a way to unlock the rest of your power yourself.”

“But seriously, that amount is too small.”

“Do not underestimate yourself, Hero. That much is enough to start a change in the world.”

“Ugh. Stingy. Fine.”

“Conditions set. Contract amended.”

The contract appears once more and I haphazardly accepted the contract. What did I just agree to?

“Well, I will see you very soon but for now…..”

She comes closer and I can intimately feel her push her body against mine and our lips meet. It’s probably part of the contract signing or whatever so I don’t push her away.

“be satisfied with just that..okay? I’ll see you soon, my hero.”

As she says those words, a flash of light surrounds my body.

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Huh? Something soft is pushing against me. It smells nice. I wake up and my eyes meet a woman’s eyes. They’re pretty but I sense a deep sense of duty burdened by hatred behind them but I shrug that feeling away.

“H…huh? Mr. Tonkatsu?!”

“Huh…where am I? Rather, who are you?”

“Well, my name is Yuriko and I saved your life. What’s your name, Mr. Tonkatsu?”

“My….name…I don’t know..”

I can see her looking at me with pity. We’re inside a small hut and from the inside, I can see that we’re surrounded by trees and to the north is a beach. I can see some old geezer waving his sword around and I can smell the sea water from here. So we're in an island huh?

“Hey, how far is the beach from here?”

“Half a day’s walk.”

“That’s impossible. I can see it from here.”

“You jest. Even with an Exo-Armamental suit, we can only see half of the distance that you claim to see.”

“Well I can prove it. Right now there’s an old man swinging his sword there like an idiot. Again and again and again.”

“Oh you mean Marume? It’s time for his training so he’s doing just tha… Wait. What did you just say?”

“Yeah, I can see him swinging his sword from here. I can even tell you the inscription on his sword.”

She looks at me with surprise, disbelief and apprehension in her eyes.

“Just..what are you?” She inquires.

“I don’t know that myself…”

I wake up without knowing anything. Not my name, where I came from or why I am here.

“Well, help me make new memories, will you, Yuriko?”

The woman gasps and gazes into my eyes. Heh. I’m really good at making friends, apparently.

“Of course, Mr. Tonkatsu.”

She places her hand over mine and as she leans in closer, to whisper something to me, I presume, my stomach grumbles.

“Oh, you haven’t had your lunch yet, have you?”

With that, we rise up from the bed and I begin my adventures on this island. I’ll figure out who I am eventually but right now, I wonder what’s for lunch.

I have a lot of questions I need answered. I probably have a home and I probably have some people worrying for me.

I’ll get through this. You’ll see.