The End? Hiroshi's Self-Hatred - Another World Arc

Hiroshi burst out of the tavern in a hurry. He had to get away from all their praise. He just couldn’t take it. A young woman, around Hiroshi’s age, watched from the crowd, concerned for his safety.

“What the heck was that Hiroshi? Shouldn’t they have been scared of us?” Kuro-Yami blurted out, to which Hiroshi replied.

“I’m not sure! I have to get away!”

Hiroshi ran down the path that took him out of Lightley. He must have run for five minutes straight. He eventually stopped to catch his breath. He collapsed beside a tree, completely exhausted. After a few minutes of relentless panting, Kuro-Yami picked up.

“Hiroshi? Why are you so scared of praise?”

“Me? No, that wasn’t it at all, Kuro-Yami. If that fool was the General, he must have a squad around here somewhere. I need to eliminate them before they report him missing and send out a search party to keep the village safe…I mean, to keep us a secret for a little while longer,” Hiroshi gasped in between breaths.

He was lying through his teeth.

Hiroshi hated human beings. He thought they were the scum of the earth. There was no saving the human race. He thought that they were hopeless. Selfish. Weak-minded. However, there was one human that he couldn’t stand the sight of. One that made him gag when he seen them in the mirror.

That person was himself.

Hiroshi thought that he never deserved praise, or love, or attention. Despite wanting it all, he always pushed people away. And that was something he could never tell Kuro-Yami. His own failure made him think this way. It was his burden, and his alone.

Hiroshi was just about to curl into a ball and rest, when he heard distant voices behind him. He picked himself up off the ground quickly and straightened his back against the tree. He listened closely. It was, without a doubt, the squad he was pretending to look for.

“Do you think General Hiawatha is still looting Lightley? He’s taking his sweet ass time,” one of the soldiers mumbled under his breath.

“He tries to get every single penny from them. If its man, woman or child. It doesn’t matter. I’m sure he is just enjoying every second of it,” another solider responded with a sigh.

Hiroshi gulped. Kuro-Yami began yelling at him in his mind, but he wasn’t listening. He already knew what he was saying. If he attacked those soldiers, there was no way his manna would keep up. His energy would be completely drained. Then, he would die.

“I don’t trust it. I’m going up to the village. If he chews me out, I don’t care,” the first soldier said to the group confidently. Hiroshi thought it was odd that not one of the soldiers seemed scared of or respected their General. Was Hiawatha really that weak?

Hiroshi, in his fatigue of everything that happened in the past hour, slipped against the tree and grunted.

“Hey, did you guys here that?” one of the soldiers grunted, to which the rest of them nodded in agreement. They rushed towards the tree, surrounding all sides in a matter of seconds. Hiroshi got back to his feet and stood his ground. All the soldiers were armed with muskets. They took aim at the tree.

“We know you’re behind there! If you do not come out in five seconds, we will shoot at your position! Five…Four…Three!” yelled the first solider. Hiroshi assumed that he was the second-in-command of this squad.

“Do we have any manna left we can use, Kuro-Yami?! Any at all?!” Hiroshi stuttered, desperately looking for any option of escape.

“Absolutely none, Hiroshi. Those bullets will go right through your flesh. I’m afraid that this is the end if you don’t step out.”

Hiroshi listened to Kuro-Yami’s advice and stepped out from behind the tree. The soldiers laughed at him instantaneously. They didn’t even bother asking him to drop his sword.

“You’re such a runt! And what are those weird clothes you’re wearing?! Hahahaha!” the soldiers laughed at him. Hiroshi got on his knees and looked down to the floor in despair. He knew it. The tavern in Lightley was just a fluke.

All humans were despicable.

“Well, we would have let you go, but you overheard us saying some things about our boss, didn’t you? That just won’t do at all. I guess we should just kill you now and leave your body in a ditch somewhere. Nobody will ever find you, and nobody will care,” the first solider spat in Hiroshi’s face.

“I’m sorry, Kuro-Yami. I’m so sorry. I never meant for this to happen!” he yelled out. He was in so much pain. So much suffering. And yet, after all that, he was still just as useless as he was in his old world.

“It’s alright, Hiroshi. This was one of the best days of my life, meeting you,” Kuro-Yami said softly, metaphorically smiling at him in his mind.

The first soldier took a step back, stunned by this weird man’s outburst. Hiroshi looked up at him, tears in his eyes.

“I’m glad I killed that bastard General Hiawatha,” he grinned, an evil smirk on his face. If he was going to die, he was at least going to put on an evil act.

“W-What?! You lie! Don’t shove such filthy words at me!” the first soldier gasped at Hiroshi’s blade in his hand. “That’s…The General’s…Everyone! Aim your guns at this man and fire when I say!”

Hiroshi closed his eyes.

“Thanks, Kuro-Yami, my only friend.”

“The feeling is mutual, Hiroshi. See you in the afterlife, friend.”

The soldiers aimed their guns at Hiroshi.

“Ready! Aim! Fi-!”

“Wait!” came a female voice from afar.

Everyone stopped and looked past Hiroshi. He turned around slowly and rigid. And that’s when he saw her.