Takemura Itsuki

I peeked out my head from beneath the little dark lane and turned my head right and left, looking on the streets. On my right was the empty street with narrow homes, and on my left was the empty street with narrow homes. I turned my head right again, towards the ascending side, and whispered, “It’s clear.” I turned my head in little angles looking at the right side of the street, and found another narrow lane a dozen steps away from us. The tremors of the punches of those beasts a lane back were still being felt here with a little bit amount of tremors. I quickly came out of the lane and started dashing to the lane on the other side of the street. After some steps, Haruto dashed out too and followed me as we ran to the other side of the street. We both arrived on the other side of the street and quickly crouched inside the little dark lane.

“Our strategy was simple: run while saving energy without getting caught.”

We walked quietly to the other side of the lane to the other street. “Assistant, show us the map,” I commanded.

“And we were going pretty fine. We were reaching closer to the little red dot. I noticed that it was just some three to four lanes away from us, and kinda towards the upper side of the village.”

“There’s a problem,” I said as I seriously looked at the holographic map in front of me.

“What?” Haruto, who stood on my right, asked.

“The market.” I pointed at the front of the white dots on the map and said, “In front of us, about some lanes forward, lies the market. The market’s wide, and…” I turned my finger a little to the right at a triangle of three dots. “… there’re at least three beasts here.”

“It-It’s a lot of them at once…” Haruto’s scared voice replied. He turned his eyes at me and said, “Can’t we like, first climb up this street and then turn left to the market after we cross those three?”

“Can’t happen,” I replied as I moved my finger down and pointed at the yellow dot just on the other lane, some steps forward than the other ones. “This one is alone, so there’s a higher possibility that he might see us.” I turned to him. “Whereas the other three might be fighting, so we might run off uncaught.”

He looked into my eyes, thought for a second, and then nodded. “Okay then. I’d like to trust you.”

“Then let’s do this,” I said and turned my head on the other end of the narrow path. I started walking to the other end of the pathway. I peeked out my head right, and looked at the beast standing. He was three to four dozen steps away from us, and he looked smaller than usual too. He was very far away. I then turned my head a little left and noticed the wide four-way intersection in the front of the two of us just half a dozen steps away. As I stared at the wide intersection, I thought, “It might be too wide to be caught. Isn’t there any other way out?”

“My mom…” Haruto suddenly commented as he looked at me with his dark eyes. “I hope she’s safe.”

I turned my head back and looked at his horrified eyes. “D-Don’t worry,” I whispered back. “Everyone’s evacuated out of the village safely by now. There’s no one.”

I then turned my head to the front and looked at the street again. “I hope she’s okay too. She’s helped me a lot.”

“I—”

“Come!” I dashed out on the street and started running to the other side of the street.

Haruto stepped front and looked at my back running towards the other side of the street. He stared at me with his narrowed dead eyes and thought, “Yes, it might be a game for him, at last.” He then tightly closed his eyes. “No! What am I even thinking?!” He opened his eyes and started running behind me. He looked at me turning left at the intersection and soon after some seconds of running turned left too and followed me as we both ran through the wide empty street. Haruto could look at the markets in front of us which had their shutters closed and had some people still running towards the left side of us on that street. We started feeling tremors under our feet again as we ran. We even heard some hard punches as we ran down the street. We both entered the T-intersection and turned right, looking at the whole bunch of people running toward us. We both turned our shocked eyes a little up and looked at the three white furry beasts fighting each other. One of them jumped on the other one and bit him on his shoulder. The third one punched the two of them and the two fell down on the ground. A strong tremor hit us. I turned right at Haruto and Haruto turned left at me. We both were scared, shocked, and felt helpless as we both looked at each other. Haruto then turned his head frontward, and looked at the front to the fight. He breathed in and out. “Haruto…?” He heard a feminine voice and he turned right.

A woman with red lipstick on top of her yellow tight coat and pant stood on his right as she moved her right hand at him. “M-Mom?” He said as his eyes turned wide in surprise.