Heroes to Hunted

My hands loosened, and I felt Nakamura's fingertips brush against mine.

He was near the point of no return when Agawa dove next to me and seized him by the forearm. Pulling hard, she screamed loudly as she lifted his and the dog's weight.

"HIT THE DAMN THING!!!" she shrieked with frantically wide eyes staring in my direction. "HURRY!"

"Wha? Oh, I got it!" I stood up and gripped the first thing within reach, the torch Kamida had tossed aside, and jabbed it into the mutt's snout. A sizzling sound accompanied the dog's pained yelps as its face was seared beyond recognition.

"Yeah! Take that you fucker!" I shouted triumphantly, jamming the torch further into its face.

Defeated and locked in the misery of its broiled skin, the dog loosened its jaws and howled back into the abyss below. It wasn't long until the pack of darkened hounds retreated after seeing one of their own become so disfigured.

I released my hold of the torch, knowing we still had another in reserve, and again took hold of Nakamura. By the time it clattered with the floor, Nakamura had already been thrown back onto the bridge.

After he was rescued, I collapsed on the spot, completely overcome by stress and exhaustion.

My muscles were still involuntarily spasming, and I felt utterly dazed, unable to recover. With nothing else to do, I focused on where the torch had landed.

As expected, there were multiple bodies surrounding it. This time, however, they weren't horribly decayed. On the contrary, they were in peak condition barring the numerous bite wounds and lacerations of claws, as well as a strange, dark green webbing of veins that snaked across their bodies.

'Wait...' I focused my eyes with a squint and was hit with an alarming reality. 'I...I know them!'

Though their bodies were gnarled and broken, it was unmistakable that they had all been members of the cowardly group that abandoned us in the manor.

I promised to kill them if I saw them again...but actually doing it? That wasn't at all what I intended. I was only referring to a pleasantly brutal beating with maybe a concussion or two.

Intentions aside, after seeing their lifeless corpses, I somehow felt a pang of guilt about it. Like the act of my cursing them was the trigger to their deaths.

'I can't believe they're dead...' The feeling was surreal. People I had just seen alive not thirty minutes ago were reduced to being chew toys for a group of hell dogs.

Interrupting me from my thoughts, Nakamura shouted in relief at his survival. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" tears of relief and pure euphoria welled up in his eyes.

I sighed and picked myself up. Then, I turned and grabbed Nakamura's shoulder. "Don't do any more falling, you idiot!" I reproached, even though I knew it wasn't his fault.

"Of course," he bowed his head, "I swear! I swear I'll be more careful!"

Still stuck in a frenzy of rapid breathing, we all limped away from the bridge and onto the solid footing of the other side. While we sat and soothed our battered muscles, Agawa walked over to Sato and lifted him back onto her back.

"Come on, guys, we need to keep moving. It wasn't THAT bad," she sneered at Kamida and me.

"Heh, you're only saying that because you got the easy part," I grumbled.

We began snarling at each other when I noticed that Nakamura had been using my torchlight to inspect his new wound. Although the pierce marks were deep, burrowing nearly to his bone, it was still what concerned me the least. What most alarmed me was the frothy green pus that oozed from it.

Like me, Agawa detected the unsettling condition of Nakamura's leg. "Are you okay?" she asked concernedly while walking toward the doctor. "Can you walk?"

He quickly hid his wound beneath his hand and shifted his gaze toward Agawa. "Y-Yeah…thank you," he replied, but his agonized face suggested otherwise.

Grimacing, Nakamura took deep swipes at the bite with a bit of cloth, splattering the strange discharge across it. Once he'd cleaned up as best as possible, he sacrificed his bandana as an impromptu bandage.

"Well, shall we go?" he said nonchalantly. Though he tried concealing his discomfort, it was apparent that his nose had crinkled from the smell. He then stood up and attempted a slow march, limping and quietly yelping with each step.

Seeing Nakamura's pathetic attempt at bravado, Agawa's face gave way to what she'd most definitely been thinking. However, she couldn't possibly act as a support and carry Sato too.

It was tedious, but I wouldn't let her take care of everything. "Here." I reluctantly offered my shoulder to Nakamura.

He saw my gesture and frantically tried to refuse it. "Oh, no…no, I'm oka-"

I growled ferociously, more so than any of the beasts below. I offered the guy help; I wouldn't let him refuse it so quickly. If he insisted on declining,  I'd put him in a condition where he couldn't.

"Yes, please, and thank you," he graciously bowed to my intimidation and attached himself to my shoulder.

Now that we'd survived yet another perilous situation, I couldn't shake off the feeling of invulnerability. I began reminiscing about all the fights I'd won thus far and grinned.

I thought we could easily take the world, as Kamida once suggested!

Unfortunately, remembering previous events also renewed another sensation. I was reminded of her, the woman I'd left in a solution of her own brains and blood. It still felt too surreal for what I'd done to be true.

While we walked, I pulled my free hand to view and shivered; splotches of dried blood still covered it.

Images of the kill were endlessly replaying like I'd been rewound into the past and abandoned there. I could almost feel the heft of the wooden handle within my hand, how it felt to slam it into her head. It was all ingrained into the deepest depths of my soul.

I'll admit I've dealt with anger issues all my life, but they were always accompanied by good intentions. For every misdeed I committed, I did three times its weight in good to repent. It was a lesson my mother instilled in me.

'Is there really anything I could do to atone for this, though?' I grimaced, dreading that I now knew what it felt like… I knew just how much pressure I needed to cave someone's skull in…