Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Yuzuru

Yuzuru aimed down the sights of his crossbow, lining up the crosshairs with the bunny grazing twenty yards away. It was too far. He inched forward from his hiding spot on his arms and knees.

The bunny stopped what it was doing. It stood, ears prickling.

Yuzuru squeezed the trigger. A flash of silver twanged from the crossbow, pinning the bunny to the ground.

He rushed out from the bushes, tucking his crossbow under his arm. The bunny was still alive, its feet twitching as if wanting to run away. The bolt kept it locked to the ground, red seeping from the wound and staining its white fur.

“Sorry about this,” Yuzuru said, sliding his knife from his belt. “But I’ve got hungry kids.” He knelt and stuck his knife through the bunny’s neck, making sure to end its misery as quickly as possible.

After he pulled the bolt of the bunny and dumped out its organs, Yuzuru contemplated how he should go about skinning it. Truth was, he didn’t think he could. He was used to pressing a button and having the whole process done for him, so faced with a real carcass and a knife sharp enough to shave with, he was lost.

Not to mention the fact that gutting a rabbit was one of the last things he ever wanted to do. He wasn’t sure he had the stomach for more.

He decided to go back. Tying the rabbit to his belt, he started making his way out of the woods. He followed the markings he’d made on the tree trunks while keeping his focus on anything else that moved. It’d only been half a day since the Blight Beasts attacked the shack, and while no more showed up after the sun went up, Yuzuru wasn’t about to take chances.

Not when Taiga and her orphans needed him.

The shack was in ruins. Only one wall stood erect and half the roof had collapsed. The only furniture which remained was a single bed, which Taiga was currently resting in.

Leona was in the yard, kicking a tin can with the lizard-boy. She rushed up to welcome Yuzuru.

“A bunny!” she said.

Yuzuru twisted away to shield her from the sight. “Didn’t mean to make you see it.”

Leona clapped her hands. “Yay, meat!”

At the mention of meat, the other two kids emerged from the rubble. In the blink of an eye, Yuzuru was surrounded by four excited faces. It made him feel like Santa.

“Settle down,” he said. “I need to skin this thing and get it cooking. I’m thinking of making stew. Anyone found a pot?”

The kid with the leopard spots raised a four-fingered hand. He announced that he was going to hunt for one before diving into a nearby junk pile.

Yuzuru could almost feel himself getting tetanus from just watching. He turned to the other three kids. “Why don’t you all go and play? Preferably in a safe-ish, clean-ish spot.”

The bird-girl took the lizard-boy and they walked off, leaving only Leona.

“You’re not going with them?” Yuzuru asked.

Leona shook her head, fluffing out her mane-like hair. “You don’t know how to skin a bunny.”

“Sure I do,” said Yuzuru. He walked onto the floor space of the demolished shack. Using his feet, he pushed out a place where he could sit. “I’ve watched… others do it.”

“But you haven’t,” Leona said.

“And you have?” Yuzuru asked.

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Leona shrugged and held out a paw.

Yuzuru ignored her. He wasn’t going to let a kid do this, no matter how much she looked like a tiny predator. He set down his things in the cleared space and stepped around a pile of splintered furniture, heading deeper into the shack where the root was still intact over it.

Lying on the last remaining mattress, Taiga was shivering, her chest rising and falling quickly under the dirty blanket.

Yuzuru knelt by her side.

“I think she’s going to die,” Leona said quietly.

Yuzuru plucked the cloth off Taiga’s forehead. “Don’t say that. It’s bad luck.”

“Taiga said we should always be ready for death because it will come for all of us one day,” Leona said.

"That’s so morbid," Sato said. "You’re only like, five?"

“Six.”

Yuzuru soaked the cloth, wrung it out, and returned it to Taiga’s forehead.

“Taiga told us what to do if she died,” said Leona.

“Let me guess," said Yuzuru. "Tuck yourselves in cute little baskets and ring some rich couple’s doorbells?”

“No, she told us to steal as much as we could and then run very fast away.”

Yuzuru sighed. “Let’s see about that rabbit, huh?”

The rabbit was gone.

“Fuck,” said Yuzuru.

“We have hawks around,” said Leona.

“Fuck!” Yuzuru found a slab of the bookshelf and sat down on it. “This goddamn place, man.” He supposed it could be worst. The Blight Beasts had broken everything. It was a miracle none of the kids were hurt.

“It’s okay,” Leona said. “We’re used to being hungry.”

Yuzuru buried his head in his hands. “I could’ve at least traded it for a health potion or something.”

“The nearest village is five days away,” Leona said.

“Oh my god.”

“And Taiga gave you the last potion we had.”

Yuzuru looked up into Leona’s dark brown eyes and frowned. “That’s something I really don’t get. Why did she save me?”

Leona clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on tiptoes. She grinned cheekily. “She told me kids don’t understand, but I do.”

“Uh-huh," said Yuzuru. "Is it because there won’t be a game if all the players die?”

“It’s because she likes you.”

“I prefer that reasoning.”

“She liked Honoka, too.”

There it was, the name Yuzuru managed to not think about since last night. He still couldn’t think about it. Waking up in a trash heap, being attacked by a creepy bat-man, crushed by roofing, and fighting literal monsters… it was enough to deal with. He didn’t need to consider whether his long-lost girlfriend went through the same things.

Yuzuru looked up at the sunny skies, watching the clouds drift by.

“I can look after everyone,” said Leona. “I can hunt.”

“Now that’s an idea, leaving a kid to watch a bunch of kids.”

There was a triumphant shout as Leopard-boy came running. He held a misshapen pot over his head. “I got it!”

Yuzuru’s heart sank. He got up and steeled himself to break the rotten news, that Santa Clause had just lost this year’s stash of presents, but then from the other side of the shack, the other two kids appeared with their arms full of wild berries.

“Wow,” Yuzuru said, helping them unload their findings. “You’re all amazing at this.”

The bird-girl shrugged. “We’ve had a lot of experience at it.”

Everyone took their places around the pot. Yuzuru hacked some of the broken furniture down and stacked them in what he hoped would be a campfire later tonight.

Then came time to burn. The kids looked at Yuzuru expectantly. He took a deep breath. “Sorry everyone, I left the rabbit out and a hawk must’ve taken it.”

There were groans, but Yuzuru was quickly forgiven.

“We need a fire still,” Leona said.

Yuzuru nodded. He had the ability. He might not want to revisit the scene of last night, but he couldn’t let the kids down again. Leaning in, he stuck his hands out at the pile of wood and focused in the same way he did when saving Taiga.

“Flame Touch.”

Heat blasted out of his palms, igniting the wood.

> Chaos Total: 3/100

Yuzuru looked across the gathering. “Did you guys hear that too?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Never mind," he said. "Let’s start cooking!”

Water was added, berries tossed in after. Yuzuru stirred the pot with a stick. Soon, everyone was enjoying a hot lunch.

As the sun began its slow descent, Yuzuru picked up his crossbow and the quiver of bolts.

“Are you going to go?” Leona asked him, looking suddenly very sad.

“I’ll be back,” Yuzuru answered. “I want to hunt some more, get a few good items to sell.”

“There are goblin people very deep in the forest,” Leopard-boy offered.

“Taiga said never to go that far,” said Leona. “It’s dangerous.”

“Danger means rare loot.” Yuzuru reached down a ruffled Leona’s hair. It was what he used to do with Sara when she was this little and the action made him think of her.

Could she be here as well? There were two cubes in that envelope, so it was possible she found the other one if she ever went into his room.

He could only pray she hated him enough to not try and go in.

“Wait,” Leona dug into her tattered trousers and pressed something into Yuzuru’s hand. He opened his fingers. The familiar face of his watch glinted at him.

“It’s magic,” Leona said in a hushed voice. “And very powerful.”

Trying not to laugh, Yuzuru carefully clipped the watch on his wrist. “Thanks, Leona.”

“So you have to give it back,” said Leona. “I’ll be waiting for you to come safely back. Okay?”

Yuzuru couldn’t help it then. He grinned and messed up Leona’s hair again. “You got it, boss.”