Tossed into ay room that looked more like a cell depending on your imagination, Miyako discovered that she was in a far deeper void than expected. No light was set in the room and even the door seemed to block out the outside pletely. She was in plete darkness. It was more than just a physical reality though, she felt like she had desded into the darkness as the cept of evil had some preseually to wade through. The feeling drove emotions that she rarely invited into her.

  Fear was only the beginning. She didn’t know what she had stumbled into anymore. ‘That grinning bastard was right…damn him… I wasn’t prepared for anything like this… They’re just going to kill me and no one will remember me…’ Miyako might have still been a child, but there wasn’t really ahat worried about what happeo her. To a group like this, she didn’t really feel that they got squeamish with the moral plications of killing a child.

  It was mostly that thought that scared her the most.

  They weren’t like what she was used to dealing with. ‘Honor or fairness don’t seem to matter to them. They only themselves about ensuring their tinued success rather w about something as fragile as honor. Damn…’

  Miyako eventually fell asleep on the cold t floor. She was helpless and she k.

  Chapter 307 – War to Peace

  A gruff voice barked at her to wake up. In the darkness, all she could do was wait. The sudden burst of light made it impossible for her to see who eaking to her. Something grabbed her and dragged her out of the room. ‘What’s going on? They pnning to kill me now?’

  She was still too dazed to know what was happening and the lights hurt her eyes. Miyako tried tle even to just stand on her own rather than being hung by her arms, but they didn’t let her get any timing. ‘I thought I was strong, strohan anyone and now I ’t break free of these guards…I’m not this weak am I?’ They didn’t allow any disobedience from her. Her body felt like it went in ahat it wasn’t designed. Her bad shoulders ached.

  Suddenly they released her and she smmed into the floor. It was short, rough carpet, but she still felt the hardness of the t stru underh. “Ugh…where…” Miyako still had trouble with the lights. She didn’t know how long she was stu that room without light or sense of time.

  “Not looking s now, girl,” a familiar voice remarked ahead of her. It was the boss she met before. Yesterday, a few ho, she didn’t know how long.

  Standing up on her own, she wasn’t about to give the maisfa of seeing her on her knees. ‘I’m not that weak. You may pn to kill me, but I’ll at least face it staring you in the eyes and not turn away.’

  “Puffed up pride, that’s all you are. You seem to believe yourself something that you’re not.”

  “I don’t know what you think you know, but I stand proud of who I was. you say the same thing?” It was mostly just bravado, but she had to bite babsp; He seemed like ohat only gave some respect to those that could fight back.

  A small chuckle came out of him. “An amusing girl. You’ve got some history. An orphan, jumpiween families and the system, always getting into fights. Leader of a little gang of boys. Eighty Deaths and the Blood Lotus, so pretentious.”

  Things were starting to bee clearer to her now that her eyes finally adjusted. He stood before her. It seemed that her sight came only for her to see him swing his hand to bad her. However, since she did see it ing, she could prepare her body to absorb the impabsp; The force staggered her a her over a little, but she didn’t fold. Miyakhtened herself up the momeing the blood drip down her cracked lip.

  Judging her rea, he seemed to be eying her up again. He wao take her measure. “So there is some spirit there.” The man turned away a back to his seat. He rested his head against a closed hand, staring at her. “You have two options. Join the Bck Gate or face punishment.”

  “What?!” She staggered baot expeg to actually be given an offer.

  “Strength and balls you’ve got. To storm into our home takes guts. Normally, we’d just kill you ht, but you’ve got something in your eyes. You’re made of different stobsp; Swear allegiao the Bck Gate and all will be fiven.”

  ‘He ’t be serious. This some joke?’ Miyako stared across at the man trying to figure him out. Her perception of people was really bad. So it was rgely a fruitless exercise, but she still stared. “You ’t be serious.”

  He leaned forward towards her a little. “Deadly.” Shadows stretched over his eyes to emphasize his point.

  She couldn’t believe that he actually wanted her. However, the answer was easy once she uood things. “I won’t join you! You have no honor!”

  “Honor is ay notion for those that want to vihemselves that they’re dying for a purpose. Once you’re dead, there’s nothing else.” Leaning bato his chair, he didn’t look any more insulted than before by her remark. “I figured this would be your answer. You’re too childish. But I thought there might be something of an adult ihere.”

  “I’d rather be a child in my world than an adult in yours!”

  “Except, you don’t have the luxury anymore. You stepped into the adult world and you have to deal with the sequences of entering a world you don’t uand.” He snapped his fio draw the guards to a.

  The men quickly grabbed Miyak her hands behind her babsp; She struggled against their strength, but two grown men were more than she could take in a straight up battle of muscle. “So you pn to kill me?”

  The boss’ eyes perked up a little. “That was one of the options for punishment, but I feel that you’d get too much satisfa out of dying some na?ve se of a noble death. No, after looking into your records I’ve found a better punishment. You will live. Your punishment is a tainted, stained life that you ever escape from and will haunt you forever. Something that will break that precious pride and honor of yours into something meaningless and you will uand how powerless you truly are. That will be your punishment.”

  Miyako fought against the men not knowing what terrible punishment that they had in store for her. The vague words delivered an ominous feeling that she could imagine what they might do. “What are you pnning?!”

  “You’re ly the model student, but you suddenly decide to disband your little gang and take your academics seriously. I bet you’re thinking about going to college, trying to be better than your daddy or something like that?”

  ‘He really learned all of that? How did he…’ It scared her now what he might be pnning to do to her. He knew everything about her past. He could do anything to py with her now. “You bckmailing me?”

  “Bckmail? Why would we want to bckmail a student, you’ve got nothing. No, I already told you I’m going to show you how powerless you truly are in this world.” “Then what?!” She didn’t want to know, but she would have to learually.

  “I wonder how your school and your cssmates will look at you when they learn that you’ve been selling your body to make ends meet?”

  “What?!” Miyako suddenly felt herself shrink before the man. It was worse than she imagined. “You ’t…”

  Smirking a little at the sight, the boss pressed fain. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything. I’ll even arrange for one of the younger boys for you.”

  Her eyes went wide in fear. Her entire body crawled in terror. She couldn’t escape.

  This was the real world.

  She didn’t know when it happened, but they dumped her off in another room. It wasn’t dark, but still didn’t lht. Half out of it, she looked around finding s hanging from the ceiling and odd things mouo the wall.

  Her imagination ran wild on fears once she realized she was alone again. It woke her up enough to look around more. It looked nothing like any of the other pces she had seen. There was the smell of blood in the air. “W-what is this pce?”

  “The punishment room…” replied a strange voibsp; They sounded barely alive.

  Miyako flipped around quickly to the voice, shocked to find what she discovered. “It’s you!” She looked around seeing four boys strung up bloody with wounds all over their body. “All of you! What are you doing here?!”

  Weakly, Jiro respoo her. “This is…our punishment…for our failure…”

  “Failure?”

  “For losing…against you…” Junichi answered.

  “What?! This is wrong!” Suddenly, Miyako found that her body had strength again. Blood boiled up in her body with ragiions. She ched her fists up. “You shouldn’t be tortured just because you failed!”

  “It’s…the…rules…”

  “Damn the rules! Make your own rules!” Miyako threw her hand back to deny their acceptance of their reality. “You don’t belong to a gang to be tortured!” She thought about the boys that followed her and the Blood Lotus gang. They were some of her best times even though she turned her ba them. “A gang is like a family! You proted look after each other! You don’t hurt each other! Any gang that does that is no gang in my eyes!”

  “But…”

  “Shut the hell up, you weaklings!” She had snapped. She no longer cared about anything else. “What do you want? Do you want to be hanging there or free?”

  None of them answered her. She stared at all of them more ily. “You said…to shut up…”

  “Don’t take me literally! I want your answer! Do you want to be free? Do you want to do what you want and protect those important to you?”

  “…” They all looked at each other as best as they could. “…yes…” Jiro replied for all of them.

  “Then join me!” Miyako smmed her fist up to her chest to point at her. “I’m making a new gang on this day! But it won’t be about territory hting. It will have only one purpose, protect those important to you! As of this day forth, you are now my family! Do you uand?!”

  Once more they stared at each other a little fused by Miyako. She had a genuine expression on her face, even if it was extremely severe. They could sense how ho she was in her words. She meant what she said. It made them all smile a little. “Yes!”

  “First thing as part of my family! I get you free and we escape!” Miyako’s new gang started in that room. Her new resolve and herself born within the void of the darkness, yet returo the light. She could finally move forward. The past and present merged to bee her future.

  ‘I’ll never fet you guys…’

  * * *

  “…’t breathe…” panted Seiji, actually colpsing in the grass. He couldn’t go any further. His ribs were sore and his legs putty. Nothing would allow him to move.

  It took him a while just to feel like he could move his body. The fear disappeared, surprisingly quickly. He had only kept running the whole time because he was already in motion. It was difficult to stop. The thing was quite embarrassing to even think about.

  Seiji rolled himself over on his babsp; His chest still heaved, needing to calm down, but it was getting there. “…I guess…I’m not ready yet to front it…” It was the only ahat he could e to for why he fled. He wasn’t ready. There was a lot that he had to say and to know. “…or for what it could mean…to me…”

  Feeling a little more recovered, he sat up. “I guess I’m still a child after all…the brat’s going to ugh at me…” It made him sigh a little as he imagined Chiharu mog him for his cowardibsp; Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do.

  Standing up, the strength returned finally. He felt better than before, but still naturally not good. “I’ll have to work on myself more.” Seiji tilted his head ba the dire of his mother’s apartment. “Once I’m no longer a child I’ll return…” Looking dowreet, he sed the area. “Where the hell am I?!” The whole damn run was just a random dire, so he ended up in an unfamiliar ass area.

  It was almost night before he arrived back at the family shrine, but he found someohat he didn’t expect to see seated at the bottom of the steps. “The old man didn’t kick you out did he?” Seiji asked, as he approached with his announced arrival.

  Yuki looked up, partially waiting on him to return, so he wasn’t deep in thought. He looked back up the stairs in search of his answer. “Umm…I just thought it’d be safer out here.”

  “Huh? Safer? You? What the hell would you be worried about up there?” Seiji tilted his head trying to figure out if there was some fight going on. If there were, he would have jumped immediately on it. However, it didn’t seem to be any more noisy than he k. In fact, it might have been a little more quiet than normal, if he had to guess. Yuki’s response made him curious to go up.

  Grabbing Seiji’s shoulder before he went too far, Yuki tried to stop him. “It’s not something fists solve.”

  Nothing was making sense anymore. “The hell? What you being so damn mysterious about? What the hell’s up there?”

  “Let’s just say I’ve read enough to know what’s happening and it’s better we stay out of it. Especially you, your presence will only make things worse.”

  Roughing up his hair, Seiji was starting to get a the vague as hell answers. He broke free from Yuki’s grasp and started up a couple of the steps. “If you’re not going to be damn straight with me then I’m just going to look for myself!”

  The options weighed in Yuki’s mind. He rubbed the side of his fa thought, all the while Seiji marched the stairs. When he realized that Seiji left him behind, he rushed up to join him. “I’m telling you should stay away. It’s for your own good aal safety!”

  Not stopped by Yuki’s words, Seiji kept going. He tilted down a little to keep the versation going, still annoyed. “This is my damn house! No one’s keeping me away from it! Tell me what the hell’s going on!”

  “I’m trying, but I’m not sure you’d uand why it’s a problem even if I told you.”

  “I’m not dumb, Yuki!”

  “It’s not like that…”

  Before they fihe stairs, another voice appeared from above. “Hey Seiji!” the voice called out in a semi-sweet tone. “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? I would have walked with you like we always do!”

  Seiji reized her sound immediately, “Aoi? Always, what the hell? What’s gotten into you?”

  Then suddenly anure appeared he ghost, even taller than her. Yuki’s face was already starting to run a little pale having easily foreseeire setup. It was too cliché to miss after he spent a little time iemple. “Seiji Tsuji, we meet again.”

  “Nerine?! What the hell are you doing in Japan?!” Seiji didn’t uand, even more so why Yuki was bothered by Nerine being in Japan, aside from supposedly being forbidden to leave Atntis. He looked over at Yuki, who had his hand up against his fabsp; “What the hell’s going on?! Why were you scared of this, Yuki?”

  “Oh…Seiji…”