Two years after the historical tragedy that happened to Ark Village, the people of Okou tried to move past it and develop its military power. The people may look like they’re OK but deep down everyone is terrified of where or who is next. 

In the capital city’s busy streets, Sen is covered in ragged old and torn clothes with multiple bruises and cuts all over his face and body, his hair reaching past his shoulder. Ever since Sen lost his home he has been living on the streets barely managing to live off of scraps and begging almost every day.

“FRESH APPLES. Come get five fresh apples only for 2 silver coins.” At the center of the capital city of Okou lies a shopping district where you can find different street vendors selling different things from food to jewelry and other goods. The shopping center is home to different cultures and new experiences but also home to con artists and scammers. Sen is eyeing down a collection of apples that is being claimed to be fresh by the vendor selling them, and from Sen’s point of view they’re far from fresh but that doesn’t matter to him when he hasn’t eaten in days. Sen waits for when the vendor is distracted to grab the apples.

The vendor turns away to talk to a customer and swiftly and quietly like a mouse, Sen grabs the apples and discreetly disappears without leaving a trace and leaving the vendor confused. In a dark alleyway, Sen furiously eats the apples and leaves only the cores before wiping off his face. 

“Hey, kid. What are you doing here, you’re stinking up the place. So we’re gonna need you to leave.”

Sen had heard those words multiple times before when he started living on the streets to the point where he didn’t even give a reaction to the hurtful words. Instead, he just leaves without causing a problem.

Sen stands up and starts walking to leave before he draws more attention to him. 

“I guess your parents didn’t do a good job of raising you if you’re eating scraps and living as a peasant rat.”

Laughs can be heard from the group of guys as they try to antagonize Sen. Sen abruptly stops in his tracks from hearing them laugh at his mom.

“Hey why’d you stop, get out of here and go back to the barn that you sleep in, and hell maybe even your dad will come back with money to buy you a better house.”

The laughter grew louder and more intense as Sen tried to remain calm and remembered his mother’s final words.

“I guess with the fact that you’re eating scraps from the trash that you grew up in the slums. Which makes you an actual peasant rat. If you want food that bad I think you should sell your little sister off as a slave to make money, but even that wouldn’t be enough.”

The laughter from the group was so intense and out of control that a crowd of onlookers formed to see what the commotion was all about. Sen looks around with such animosity in his eyes from all the people just watching and not doing anything, all because he’s from the slums. To him, all those people are no better than the nobles who claim to help the people but only want money. 

“Hey what’s with that look for, I’m only trying to help.”

“Hey it looks like he wants to kill you.” Said one of the goons.  

“I think you’re right.” 

He walks right up to Sen and looks down on him whilst being inches from his face.

“I don’t like the way you’re looking at me, so I suggest that you fix it before something happens to you.”

Sen glares at the guy unfazed as he threatens to kill him in front of the massive crowd of people that’s now there. 

“Didn’t I just tell you to fix that glare of yours you punk?”

Sen continues to glare up at him without uttering a single word.

“THAT’S IT!”

A swift and concentrated punch is thrown towards Sen’s face and as it’s thrown a loud gasp is heard from the crowd followed by a smirk from the guy but it is quickly overwritten by a look of utter shock and confusion not just by him but by everyone that just witnessed a 12-year-old Sen that just not only blocked the punch but caught it. 

“What the hell?”

The man pulls his fist back and massages the pain out of his wrist. He looks around to see the crowd of people and his group is just as shocked as he is and gets filled with embarrassment that Sen caught his punch.

“You’re lucky I held back or you wouldn’t have been able to catch my punch. But now I’m not holding back.”

The man runs up to Sen and starts throwing a flurry of punches and jabs at Sen, but is deemed useless because Sen is blocking and dodging them all effortlessly. The crowd is filled with excitement seeing Sen dodging all the punches and it aggravates the man more and more, making all his punches fall short and leaving him open. He swings a big right hook and fails to hit Sen leaving him wide open, Sen takes advantage and ducks down and throws his palm into his chin pushing his face up making him stumble and fall on his back in front of everyone. 

The onlookers are shocked in silence as the man’s body falls to the floor with blood coming from his mouth and Sen standing unfazed and without a scratch.

“Boss…are..you OK?”

“Do I look OK you idiot?” 

‘“What do we do now?” 

“What do you mean what do you do? Get Him!”

The 5 men all run towards Sen swinging and throwing punches and kicks with full effort now seeing what Sen did to their boss. Even with the numbers against him he still manages to dodge and deflect their attacks at them with ease. One guy charges full speed at Sen to tackle him but Sen spins out of the way, grabs his arm and throws him at the others. Even though to the people watching it seems that Sen is winning, but he can’t ignore the fact that he has barely eaten and they just keep coming at him. Lost in his thoughts, one of them manages to sneak up behind Sen and throws a heavy punch square on his face leaving Sen disoriented and making him fall. As Sen is stumbling to get back up the boss pulls out a dagger and takes the opportunity to try and kill him.

“Die, you RAT BASTARD.”

A loud audible gasp is heard from everyone as the sight unfolds, at the last second right before getting stabbed, Sen grabbed the blade of the dagger. Blood is pouring out of his hand from the dagger cutting deep in his hand. The men, and everyone watching are beyond stunned that he stopped the blade with his bare hand. As the blood is dripping from his hand, Sen grabs the boss by his shirt and wrist and throws him over his shoulder up in the air slamming him on the hard floor breaking his shoulder, and throwing the dagger in the air as he smacks the floor. As his body hits the floor Sen grabs the dagger mid-air and swings it down full force at the boss’s face.

“ I SURRENDER.”

The dagger comes to a stop right an inch away from his eye. The dagger falls and clatters on the floor as Sen gets up and walks past the crowd of shocked people leaving behind a scene of unconscious bodies and blood splatters all over the place. Guards are placed all through the shopping center hours after people report the fight that happened. After Sen had defeated the attackers he had to use the sleeve of his shirt as a makeshift bandage wrap for his hand. Another scar was added to his body since he had started living on the streets he thought to himself as he slept on a pile of trash. 

Another day arrives as the sun rises over the kingdom of Okou and everyone has already opened their shops, vendors setting up their carts. Everyone is ready to live out their life, but for Sen, it’s just another day of trying not to die from either someone killing him or him starving. The mornings for Sen before he lost his family were filled with the sounds of birds chirping and his sister’s body slamming him to wake him up even after countless times he told her to stop, but now it’s just filled with emptiness and sorrow. As the morning hours progress, Sen has to stay vigilant with the influx of city guards swarming the shopping center after multiple people reported the fight between Sen and the thugs. 

“Damn it! Now I need to find somewhere else to go. And I need to get something for this cut.” Sen said. 

Sen moves to relocate further back into the lower parts of the kingdom. Blending into the crowd of people in a rush, Sen moves in a way that can only be described as a snake moving through the grass for its prey. Dodging and avoiding the people as he moves to not cause a scene that would alert the guards to his position. Although he could deal with the one or 2 guards on his own, with his injuries and the mass number of guards the odds of him winning and getting away are close to none. After annihilation of Ark village, every gate into the lower and higher regions have seen an increase of knights guarding them waiting for the day another region is to be attacked.

“I can’t just walk through the gate, the guards probably already have the details on what happened and are looking for me. I need something to get past.” 

Looking around, Sen spots his way to get out. A delivery cart shipping crates of food to lower sides without food.

“OK let’s get this cart moving before we’re late”

Not wasting anytime Sen dashes towards the back of the cart and gets in before they move to the gate. As the cart approaches the gate the knight blocks its path from moving further.

“Why are you stopping us”

“We have to do a full inspect, that’s means take the crates out the back and let us have a look.”the knight said. 

“Better not make us late.”

“Damn it, just my luck for them to check. I have to do something before it’s too late.” Sen said.

“Alright open it up and take out everything.” said the knight

As the delivery man emptied the cart, Sen had to make a bold choice to avoid being seen. The knight used a torch to inspect the cart and the contents of the crate. 

“Alright everything looks good you can head on through.” 

The cart starts to move on though the gate. As the cart moves and gets a distance away blood drips from it with every bump and hole in the road. Sen’s escape plan to not be caught was to hold the bottom of the cart as it passed through each gated checkpoint. Arriving at the lower region, a whole new atmosphere is felt from when he was in the shopping district. The air around him seems to be darker and polluted, the people dressed in more old clothes with some having torn holes in them and the market is nothing compared to the shopping district. 

“Well I guess this is my home for now.”