Whoever was left within the swamp by the time every groove was claimed would have to use the leftovers by Gozu. It was the essential Old Maid situation and no one wanted to be dealt such a fatal hand. Mezu was bad enough, but Gozu was still an unknown variable. Sada had yet to see what it was capable of, aside from using its axe to clear the area of interloping humans.

Step by step, Sada and her tentative companion Jimmy made their way to the wall. It neared closer and closer, with the duo stopping every now and then; ducking into the muck whenever Mezu would scream in the distance.

With the grooves mere meters away, Sada was practically guaranteed her absolution from this hellhole. However within her peripheral vision, she spotted something moving. Whatever this was, it was shifting within the sanguine ooze.

Sada stopped and signaled for Jimmy to do so as well.

Jimmy raised his hands as if to question their sudden halt. Sada pointed at the spot in question, which after focusing her gaze could define what it was.

Several humans, maybe five or six at the most, were crawling on their stomachs and nearly upon the wall’s location. They were going after the same area, something Sada couldn’t allow. This was her survival and that mattered most.

Jimmy’s eyes widened and began motioning for them to hurry.

Sada and Jimmy waddled through the swamp with as much haste as they could afford, quickly reaching the group of survivors. Roughly five meters away from the grooves, the leader of the group raised their hand in the air, signaling for the others behind them to stop.

Whoever this was, they were coordinated.

The person in front slowly got up out of the mud. As they did, the others behind them followed and stood. Their legs wobbled and some clearly required help.

Their leader walked to each of the followers and wordlessly helped them onto their feet, then to her surprise, pointed them to the grooves on the wall and watched them walk towards freedom. The leader instead began walking toward Sada.

Despite being slathered in blood and filth, Sada could tell from the leader’s slim figure and large chest they were likely female. The woman was slightly taller than Sada and had medium-length hair that was plastered to her shoulders and neck by the coagulated blood.

Wiping off her face, Sada could now see more features on the leader’s face. A pair of slim green eyes starred at Sada, but with a look of worry instead of aggression.

Before Sada could ask her anything, the woman beat her to the punch.

“Are you injured? Is your friend okay?” the woman asked with a whisper.

“We’re fine, but nevermind that, we have to get to those grooves. Now!” Sada quickly replied, taking the woman’s wrist.

To her surprise, the woman pulled away.

“You leave, I’m not going anywhere until I’m positive the elderly and young are safe.”

Sada’s eyes widened in disbelief, then narrowed in.

Elderly and young?! What kind of martyr was this woman trying to be? There were literal demons within eyesight of them both and see was playing the role of some action hero?

—This chick thinks she’s something out of Skyrider! Whatever, if she has a death wish, that’s her prerogative.

Sada's sight darted from the woman to the grooves before her, now close enough to see a chain hidden in each gap. The woman’s followers had already grabbed ahold of several chains in the area and were quickly taken up to safety in the blink of an eye.

“Just hold on a second,” Sada finally caved. “Me and my partner here aren’t going anywhere until we get some answers.”

The woman simply smirked.

“I think your partner feels differently.”

Sada looked behind her to see that Jimmy was missing. She spotted her companion within one of the nearby grooves of the cliff: tightly clutching onto a chain. Looking directly at her, he waved at Sada with a cocky smile.

“You bastard!” Sada cursed under her breath as Jimmy was catapulted up to safety.

The woman next to her smirked and shrugged her shoulders.

“Everyone only looks out for themselves around here. I’m just trying to be the exception. The name is Natsukawa. Chizuko Natsukawa.”

Natsukawa bowed shortly to Sada, who paused in shock at someone who’d remember societal customs in such a crisis.

“My name is Sada… Sada…”

—My family name… What is it? I… don’t remember…

Sada shut her eyes, as if trying to remember. In a quick flash, an image of light filled her mind. The figure from her nightmare: the Cindered Waif.

The flames danced around the child’s charred corpse. Instead of revolting her, it began to intrigue her.

“You are Sada... Shuiro,” the child spoke, her voice raspy and stretched yet still maintaining a youthful pitch.

Sada’s eyes snapped open, her vision broken by Natsukawa’s fingers snapping in front of her face.

“Yoo-hoo?” Natsukawa said, waving her hand in front of Sada’s face before Sada pushed it down.

“Sorry… My name, it’s… Sada Shuiro.”

Natsukawa nodded slowly.

“You sure about that? Took you a few seconds to remember something that simple? Then again, that’s a pretty bizarre name. Sounds like a name belonging to my grandma.”

Natsukawa snickered, prompting Sada to jab her side.

“Just because you’re likely my senior doesn’t give you any authority here, got it? Go off and finish your noble crusade, Saint Natsukawa. I’m done jerking off with you assholes.”

Sada angrily strolled off from Natsukawa and toward the grooves in front of her. There weren’t any chains that she could see, but people that acted all high and mighty really pissed her off. Traitors like Jimmy were another matter entirely.

—Does she think she’s better or something, I mean what the hell! Now where the hell is a chain at?

There wasn’t one at the groove she had walked towards after her dismissal of Natsukawa. A little embarrassing, sure, but no matter. She’d just find another.

Quickly walking to the next groove a few meters ahead, she looked inside and found nothing. This was quickly becoming more humiliating by the second. Yet she didn’t dare look behind her to see if Natsukawa was watching.

—That goddamn piece of shit, Jimmy. I’ll kill him if I ever see the guy again, only thinking of himself! Drop dead, you stupid son of a bitch!

Clenching her fists, she began walking to another groove only for a hand on her shoulder stopping her.

“Come on, we’ll find another,” Natsukawa smiled with a laugh.

Sada growled and rolled her eyes.

“Fine, whatever. No more tagalongs though. I only look out for myself.”

Natsukawa raised her eyebrow at the comment.

“Sure, that’s why you had the American with you in the first place.”

“I never invited him, he just followed me. Like a stupid-ass puppy.”

Natsukawa chuckled.

“Like you’re following me now, right?” Natsukawa said, looking back at the pouting Sada.

“Shut up, idiot. We both need to be quiet. That thing—”

“—Tracks you by echolocation. I figured it out after some idiot blew my location screaming back at it,” Natsukawa finished.

Sada flashed her teeth in a snarl. Kindhearted, charming and smart? Well, Little Miss Perfect just got better by the second!

“Tiny problem though…” Natsukawa uttered quietly. “Look.”

Sada followed Natsukawa’s gaze and quickly saw the aforementioned problem. All around the quarry, along the cliff walls, were survivors. Waves of them being rocketed up to the top of the gargantuan construct hovering overtop the quarry. Nearly every chain was being snatched up and taken. In fact, practically all of them had. The only section that still had plenty of chains was the area Gozu had been guarding.

It truly was her worst nightmare come to life.

“The only ones left are by Fatass over there,” Sada quipped. “So, how are we gonna get past him, senpai?”

“I’m working on it,” Natsukawa muttered. “It’s too quiet now… There’s like, what, twenty of us left? Even worse, the chains are disappearing.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“I counted before I met you. There’s one-hundred grooves around the circumference of this quarry exactly. One for each of us. You’d think that with all the folks that died so far, there’d be more leftovers right? Yet, that isn’t the case.”

“So with every person that dies, their respective chain is gone too…” Sada said despairingly.

“That’s my guess anyway. But don’t worry, we’ll find a way out. Call me... the eternal optimist! From here on out though, no talking. Got it?”

“Roger...” Sada uttered sardonically.

Mezu meanwhile began skulking around the swamp, painstakingly stalking and hunting down those remaining in. With the enduring survivors aware of his weakness, they weren’t going to make it easy for the demon to locate them.

All the while, Gozu sat where he had been all this time. His beady eyes scanning for life.

Sada and Natsukawa got onto their bellies and began to crawl through the gory bog. It was painfully slow and sickening, but the safest option. Sada followed closely beside her newfound comrade, hopefully one that wouldn’t up and abandon her like Jimmy had.

Natsukawa raised her hand and pointed at a large tree in the middle of the swamp. Sada looked to see why and easily spotted rustling within its hollow trunk. A man stood next to the trunk, hidden from Gozu’s line of sight. He was seemingly looking at something with his back pressed against the dry withered bark; peeking around the corner of the tree.

Sada looked in the direction the man was watching and saw another man in the far distance who was now hiding behind a fallen log. The log man must have been a scout, searching for a way to get behind Gozu to the precious chains located there.

The scout wasn’t in the range of Gozu’s axe, which protected him from that at least. Mezu was also far away from his location, another plus.

While still crawling toward the large tree at the center, Sada and Natsukawa watched the scout’s movements.

It wasn’t long before the scout stood up, beginning his trek over to safety. He motioned for whoever was watching him behind the tree to come over to him. Presumably, he was like Natsukawa: another leader in these dark times they all found themselves in.

The man behind the large tree nodded and signaled for the others hiding in the tree to come out. Four others rushed out and rushed over to where their leader was. Sada’s sixth sense told her this was all going too well however, and sure enough, she was correct.

Gozu’s gaze turned to the leader behind the fallen log and his eyes widened. Without a noise, the obese demon grabbed ahold of his axe’s handle and began to raise the axe into the air with both hands.

Despite being the length of a school bus, Sada was positive it wouldn’t reach the scout and his party; something the scout noticed and was confident of too. He stood his ground, either from fear, assertion or the knowledge that running was futile here.

With surprising speed, Gozu slammed the blade of the axe down in the leader’s direction. The impact launched a thin wave of blood throughout the air and sent reverberations scattering throughout the remaining swamp water.

As she had predicted, the blade didn’t have the reach to even split the leader’s log barricade. It was close, but not close enough.

Then it dawned on her. Unfortunately, the news didn’t reach the leader’s brain in time nor those of his four followers closeby.

Sada and Natsukawa watched as the men within the tree trunk stopped moving and quickly ran back inside to safety. Just as they had, Mezu howled in a rage and leapt several stories into the air.

Mezu launched himself across the battlefield and landed directly at the position Gozu’s blade had fallen. The leader was frozen in fear at the stag-horned demonic hybrid before him. Mezu had no such reservations though and snatched the man up into his clawed paw as his followers scattered.

Its slender fingers gripped the man’s body like a vice as he struggled and screamed for help. A moment later, Mezu squeezed and Sada saw a torrent of blood burst from the man’s neck. His intestines had no doubt been crushed and the remaining pulp jettisoned up his gullet and out his throat.

Blood leaked from the gaps between Mezu’s clawed fingers and with a full stomach, the beast threw the remains at one of the fleeing followers. The mangled corpse of their leader smashed into a screaming woman, obliterating her body beyond recognition. With a blood-curdling howl, the remaining three who followed their leader out froze and clutched their ears in pain.

Mezu raked his talons across the swamp and caught all three men in its path. Impaled on Mezu’s claws, Sada turned away as they were torn to ribbons.

Any remaining men in the tree were now leaderless and trapped. But Sada had witnessed something far worse.

She now knew Gozu’s true purpose. Sure, he was there to guard the last remaining chains to freedom. But his reason for existing was to serve as Mezu’s eyes and guide him to the remaining survivors. That axe of his wasn’t just for keeping away survivors. It was a compass. A makeshift sonar that served to point out where anyone was.

While horrifying, she knew that such an advantage could be reversed to their favor. She just needed to think up a way to disable it.

With several more minutes of somber quiet and trying to keep back throwing up from the stench of the swamp goo in her face, the women reached the centermost tree where the survivors were hiding out. Out of Gozu’s sight and Mezu’s prowling direction, they carefully stood up and crammed themselves into the cramped tree trunk; much to the surprise of the others inside.

“More women? God has sent us a small pleasure in this time of horror, it seems...” one Middle-Eastern bearded man whispered longingly inside.

“Hey man, as long as they aren't as annoying as the last bitch that came through here...” a black man said quietly.

Natsukawa held out a finger over her lips with a cold glare, staring down both men with confidence in her emerald eyes.

“If you want us to save your asses, I suggest you shut up and listen close. I know how we can escape this swamp.”