"ALL RISE!" The sun had barely begun to rise, bleeding a purplish orange into the sky as the village chief spoke in a low and pronounced voice that was much different than his usual amiable self. The glint in his eyes as he glared at the man chained to the black pole in the center of the crowd made his animosity clear to everyone present in the square. Casting my gaze toward the now standing men and women of the village around me, I saw there were many confused expressions as they looked down upon the man who sat, hands tied, in the mud. Of course, I was in the same boat as I stared in puzzlement at the plump-stomached Galvin whose eyes darted cautiously between the sea of people surrounding him.

"I knew it." I heard my mother gossip in a hushed tone with another woman behind me. "I told you didn't I Gerdel? That man is nothing but bad news. I wouldn't believe it if you told me he didn't have a few skeletons in his closet I said, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember, it's the same thing you said about every other man you talk about when you're drunk. You do have a knack for knowing these things. I'd be surprised frankly if there were any future crimes that I didn't hear about from you first." Gerda responded in a tone oozing with sarcasm as she picked her nose absent-mindedly.

"Of course! You can feel happy knowing you'll always be safe in my hands." My mother responded, only hearing in her mind what she wanted to, as usual.

"What's going on?" I turned to ask my mother as there was never such a time before when everyone in the village had been called together so suddenly without a clear reason.

"It's a trial, dear." My mother immediately turned away from Gerda and began to lecture me with an educational tone as if a completely different person. "When a man commits a crime-" "-Or Woman." Gerda interrupted her from behind, still picking her nose as she did so. The woman did it so often I wondered whether there was a lurkworm hiding in there sometimes.

"Oh hush Gerda, god knows no woman would ever commit a crime so heinous to warrant a trial like this." My mother rebuked in a matter-of-fact tone before turning back to me once again. "Like I was saying, when a man commits a crime so terrible to a degree where the village chief cannot afford to schedule a trial for a later time, the whole village must come to a stop and a spontaneous trial like must be held to immediately determine his punishment." My mother finished. I looked back towards the bound man once more as he sat upright with his back against the black pole.

"But usually, the trial is held at night, so the farm work doesn't get affected. Who knows what he did to make the village chief want to get him convicted so quick."

"We gather here today to hold trial in hearing of Galvin Bricklayer." As the Village Chief spoke the man's occupational name the expressions of the other brickmen in the crowd grew visibly tighter, evident of their shame in having one of their own put himself in such a situation. "...who has been accused, convicted, and condemned of the crime of unjustified assault and attempted rape." The Chief spoke out in a monotonous tone and the crowd, some who, earlier, even tried to speak out against the treatment of the man, froze up at his announcement. My eyes trailed towards the white-haired Elvi that stood timidly completely unlike her usual self, her head facing the ground, a few feet away from the village chief as Usra held her, whispering words I couldn't quite make out. My blood started to boil.

"I call now Elvi Healthmender, the victim of the crime, to come forward and speak on the matter." The crowd quickly broke into an orchestra of gasps and exclamations at the village chief revealed the victim of the crime to be the very same woman who saved the man's infant son. All eyes now watched the skittish white-haired girl as Usra lifted her hand off her shoulder and she walked up next to the village chief before raising her head to speak.

"..." Complete silence enveloped the village square that was filled with countless murmurs just moments before. And my face stiffened up, too, as I saw the large bruise that had spread across Elvi's face, swollen enough to cover a third of her eye and branded with the red imprint of knuckles.

"L-Latht night..." Elvi started, her missing tooth causing a sublte lisp in her speech. She rushed through her words as she scrambled to give a full account of what happened after I'd left her on her own last night. 'I was right there...' The thought sprung up in my mind. 'I was right there but I couldn't do anything.' The thought of her being taken advantage of as I lay down idle in my bed less than a hundred feet away spread like a weed through my head as she recounted the night in front of the entire village.

"Do you have anything to say in your defense?" The Village Chief asked the idle-sitting Galvin whose eyes remained set on Elvi.

"V-Village Chief sir I'm sure she's just misremembering things." He started in a slobbery voice, saliva dripping appallingly from his mouth as he spoke. "I was waiting in her room to surprise her when she got startled and hit her head at the door. After that, I immediately put her back in bed when my wife found me leaning over her and misunderstood the situation." The man scrambled together a story of fish flying through the sky as he looked sympathetically at the Village Chief glaring down at him.

"You... After that story she told you expect anyone to believe you? You were waiting in her room to surprise her!? You rarely leave your room other than to eat food or bring me to bed where... where you beat me!" Usra shouted from behind the village chief in a vindictive tone.

"Shut up about that already bitch! I get drunk sometimes and can't control myself we already talked about that with the village chief!" The man shouted back in an obviously worried tone as he looked set his eyes straight back to the girl victim herself. "I didn't mean to do anything wrong... you know that right? I was just a little drunk is all. You don't blame me for this... do you?" Elvi looked down and away at his gaze, grabbing her arm with her hand in another unusually fearful manner as her mouth quivered but she didn't speak a single word. I clenched my fists and ground my teeth together as the rage gripped me harder than ever before.

"Heh..." I felt my mind go blank and my ears start to ring as I heard Galvin's ill-contained chuckle from the center of the square. Before I knew it, I was halfway across the dirt field throwing a kick directly at the man's face. The first barely felt satisfying enough as it barely skimmed the side of his cheek before flying through open air. Remembering her gashed face, I lifted my foot once more to plant it directly on the bridge of his nose sending his head backwards onto the black pole behind him. Moving my boot away, I saw a small crack of red on his face start to spread and pour down his face.

'Not enough.' I sent down a fist to follow where my boot had met skin and felt the fracture of bones on my knuckles. I remembered her smiling face as she left back to her open window last night and grabbed his head to deliver a knee to his temple before sending yet another kick, this time to his gut. The man curled up in pain, coughing out blood... but I wasn't done with him yet. I raised my fist once more when I felt two arms wrap around my shoulder to stop me.

"TETSU!" The low whistle of wind returned to my ears as the ringing faded away and I was pulled back into reality by the shouts of my mother who had ran up to stop me.

"Tetsu, stop, please..." I felt the ache of my knuckles and trembling of my hand as the adrenaline slowly began to leave my body. The groans of the man finally reached my ears as I felt the warm blood and saliva drip down my fists onto the ground below. I turned to see the distraught face of my mother who looked intently at my quivering hands. The villagers surrounding us wore their own troubled expressions that were almost all directed at me.

"Please, back away from the accused." The Village Chief was the only man who seemed undisturbed as he continued to speak in his collected and monotonous tone. As my mother pulled me away, back towards the crowd. I looked back only to see the changed expression of Elvi which I couldn't quite make out as being shocked, or fearful.

"Anything else you'd like to say in your defense? Galvin Bricklayer." The Village Chief asked once again. Galvin didn't even lift his head up to look back at him, instead continuing to cough and whimper as it was now him who looked down at the ground below him.

"Good. As Village Chief, I declare Galvin Bricklayer undoubtably guilty of his charges. And as a result, sentence him to execution by beheading." The Village Chief spoke authoritatively before gesturing towards two men who brought forward a guillotine from the outskirts of the circle, placing it in the center of the village square before forcing the now begging Galvin into it's restrictions.

"WAIT! YOU CAN'TH DHO THIS, ALLH I DHID WHAS GET A LHITTLE RHOWDY WHITH SOME VILLAGE GHIRL THATH ALL! WHO CHARES ANYWHAYS? AREN'T I SUPPHOSED TO BE ENTITLED TO THE WOMEN UNDERNEATH MHY ROOF!? MHY ROOF." Galvin cried out, all manner of snot and saliva dripping from his mouth and nose as he did so. The villagers around him simply watched in acceptance as he succumbed to the fate he had put upon himself.

"I trust you have no problem with this?" The village chief asked Elvi in a more hushed tone as she remained unresponsive, her eyes staring directly at the man being put to death in front of her.

The men had finished securing the man into the guillotine and looked back towards the village chief who simply nodded towards them, sealing the fate of the animal who had once been Galvin Bricklayer. As most of the women looked away from the scene, herding their children away or simply covering their eyes as they themselves held their breath in anticipation. Elvi continued to stared blankly at Galvin her blue eyes glossed over as the man begged and screamed until the final reeling of the guillotine was heard and his head rolled lifelessly leaving both his body and the village square bathed in blood as the scene returned to silence.