Chapter Fifteen—The Start of Something

Nearly three years ago…

He had no guns.

Ichiro needed no guns—especially not to kill a man.

But he hadn’t needed to kill anyone else before leaving Eastern Crescent, and now he avoided doing such things. He wanted to keep a low profile—stay out of the limelight so to speak.

As an ex-Imperial Assassin, if word got out that he was hiding out, he would wake up one night suddenly alarmed at an approaching Special Forces platoon sent to capture him.

And Ichiro didn’t want that.

I wonder where Yuki is right now?

Was I wrong to leave her?

At times it weighed on him, but her entire family lived in Capri Asuna. She would be all right. During times like these, friends and family was important.

Unless you were a loner.

Like me.

It was night now and he glanced at the army headquarters across the street. The building was in a more urban part of the district, but because this area was so rural and sparsely populated, their presence wasn’t high and the measures taken to safeguard the headquarters wasn’t very optimal.

He ran across the road, his sandals silent across the road as he jump and ran up the wall high enough to catch the lip. Pulling himself up, he sat on his haunches.

The moon was gone, making the night particularly dark.

He jumped off the wall and into the grounds.

Glancing up, this building was clearly a residential building that had been converted to a military outpost. If Ichiro ever joined the resistance, bases like these would have trouble reckoning with him.

They would never know who had attacked them.

He snuck through the yard toward the trucks offloading supplies. The driver glanced down at something in the cab and Ichiro took the opportunity to silently slip by between the other parked trucks and armored vehicles.

The warehouse had been converted from an old pool house. He bent and picked the lock with his makeshift tools, then opened the door.

The pool was emptied of water and filled with sacks of food—mostly grains. It couldn’t be consumed fast enough and was full of bugs—so he had heard. He stepped in, crouching low between the shelves of canned goods and boxes.

It was dark inside the warehouse except for several lights positioned overhead, giving off an omnipresent yellow haze. In the isles were brighter spots from the more directional overhead lights. Ichiro opened his sack and filled it as the soldiers unloaded the food from the truck four shelves down from his position.

If he had stolen a uniform, he could walk freely while he stole from the soldiers. He was only stealing from the warehouse now because he had heard that security would start to toughen up around food.

Governor Madison knew people were going hungry.

And yet security concerning food would tighten.

How long would it be before the common folk went out onto the streets to change their situation?

It seemed the governors were parsing out just enough food to keep the people complacent from rising up—despite the active resistance pockets throughout Paradaisu.

Even now, the empress still hadn’t given any explanation to the people about why she was doing these things.

With his bag full, Ichiro left the warehouse, the cans and other goods rattling quietly within the bag. He glanced back once, then jumped back over the wall. Because he had to swim across the river, most of the goods were water proof in sealed bags or cans.

Walking back into his camp, he saw that the fire coals were still red as smoke wafted up through the trees.

But Ichiro came up short when he realized someone had been in his camp again.

Are those children still stealing from me?

Upon a close inspection he realized nothing was missing though.

Instead, he saw something that hadn’t been in his camp before. There was a small box and inside of it was an assortment of items. There were three candles, some books and a folded piece of paper.

Ichiro pulled out the parcel and unfolded it. On the paper was a handwritten note, clearly written by a child.

Thank you for the bread, stranger-san.

We didn’t know if you need these things, but we decided to bring them to you anyway in case you can find them useful.

Please don’t be mad at us for coming back to your camp.

He lowered the paper, both angry that they had indeed come back to his camp, but also surprised.

An unbidden smile came to his lips as he shook his head.

When had been the last time Ichiro smiled?

I can’t truthfully say.

He emptied his bag on the ground near the fire, then put some more wood atop it. Among his stolen provisions were canned goods and some dried nuts and fruits in the sealed bags.

Ichiro would leave some of these items on the porch again.