CHAPTER 02

The fifty-seventh monster-hunter faction of the Royal Guard under the new rule of captain Miyu suddenly came to life with her contagious compassion, the rest of the soldiers all slapping backs and cheering about how they were going to tackle the mission they were set. It was not as if it was something that had not already happened hundreds of times, it was all of their jobs, their duties, but hearing Miyu that morning gave everyone that much needed reassurance that what they were doing was right.

And always had been.

Seidon observed, saw how Arataki had even clad a crooked smile, and Arataki was dancing to and fro in between everyone, fluid like water. Arataki was the newest member of the fifty-seventh squad and maybe it was because of that fact that he thought he had a lot to prove but Seidon did not think he ever saw him say no to anything, gregarious in nature through and and through. There was not a terrible age difference between the two of them but Seidon being an only child, he could not help but imagine Arataki as someone akin to a little brother.

He found himself reaching out, armour timidly shrieking as he dove his fingers into the nest of Arataki’s unruly curls. “You’ve got on your shirt inside out.”

Comically animated, Arataki’s dark eyes bugged out, cheeks flushing and he slapped a palm to his chest, the thump resounding like a drumbeat. “Oh my– why didn’t anyone tell me sooner?!”

Watching as Arataki spun around, Seidon was about to head back to his bench when Keisuke held out an arm, an unobtrusive barricade.

“I gotta talk ta ya.”

With a prompting arch of his eyebrows, Seidon waited for the silence between them to fill but Keisuke only turned, “not here,” and Seidon had no choice but to follow like a puppy. Keisuke had around two decades on him, his muscles thickened with the kind of experience that was not empty with just protein and hard work but time. He had a limp that was almost undetectable except when he had been on his feet for too long, and Seidon could envision through his trousers the mess of scar tissue that ran from Keisuke’s left hip and curled around the arch of his foot, coming to a halt to an empty space of where his big toe once was. Seidon remembered him saying that it served as a reminder of what happened when he was young, dumb and not strong enough.

The world had suffered gravely from the monsters and humanity evolved to fight back even though the prophecy deigned them to be conquered. Adhering to the story already written by the Creator was all that they could do and Seidon, as he followed the shorter man through a tangle of trees and bushes, thought back to how Keisuke was always one of those who did not seem to wholly accept that fate. And perhaps that scar on his leg was the reason…

“Taking me out so far away will get everyone talking,” joked Seidon because he did not want to let the sudden wave of apprehension colour his tone, the deeper they went into the woods, the further they went from everyone and the realisation that he was practically defenceless, his sword left ownerless on the table… “Keisuke?”

Even though Seidon held Keisuke in the highest regard, his wisdom boundless, he did not consider the both of them to be rather close in the sense of friendship but mutually respected comrades in arms. Seidon presumed Keisuke to hold a preference for the older men of the faction when it came to conversation or advice, and he could count on one hand in the last year the amount of times when it had just intimately been the both of them alone.

Narrowing dark eyes along the pathless journey they were on, Seidon dragged the heel of his boots through a patch of unearthed soil, looking as if a small animal had either burrowed itself under or dug out treasure, momentarily slowing down his pace as he swiftly glanced behind himself, gritting his teeth when he realised that he could no longer catch the fingertips of buildings but only the arms and legs of trees. And they all seemed to be wrapping themselves around him, hugging him from every which way the further he delved into their land, their home– Seidon stopped.

“This should be far enough, no?” Seidon yelled over the increasing distance between himself and his temporary partner, who paused in their stride. “I’d bet even He couldn’t hear us, this far out.”

A sound, gruff and deep, and perhaps because Seidon had never actually heard Keisuke laugh before, did it take him a second too long to realise that that was what he was doing and he felt his shoulders deflate, incognisant that they were even roused.

“Don’t be daft, boy. They don’t exist a place like that here. He sees everythin’.”

The winds abruptly picked up as if they suddenly remembered their purpose and Seidon squinted as dust buffeted his gaze, his sight blurring until it coalesced into a single point of view.

Keisuke.

Keisuke seemed to be studying him, his beady eyes glinting underneath the bushes of his eyebrows, crows feet lines deepening the longer the observation went on. Seidon found himself mindlessly reaching for his empty scabbard, gloved fingers grazing against the worn-down leather belt and catching on a buckle, sending a spark of realisation that he was displaying his consternation as clear as writing it in capital letters on his forehead now. Doing exactly what he did not want to be.

But before Seidon could speak, Keisuke raised a hand towards the sky and Seidon was compelled to follow the trajectory, how it tore through the atmosphere and froze with his pointer finger up like an arrowhead, ready to shoot at its opponent.

“What do you see, boy?”

Startled, Seidon looked up and then down, wondering if there was something he was missing, and felt the back of his neck moisten with trepidation. “Umm, er…the sky?”

Uncharacteristically, Keisuke huffed a puff of amusement and following that he brought his hand back down, wiping away any sense of threat or unexpected actions. “Exactly. The sky. That’s all that’s there.”

The silence followed behind his words like a shadow and Seidon looked back at the sky, almost bare with a few stratus clouds painted here and there, a flock of birds like flying ants as they migrated. And yet even from here, he could see the Four Eyes, unblinking and staring, watching everyone’s every move, acting like the Creator’s own personal closed circuit television. There was no escaping them, there was nowhere in the world where the Four Eyes would not be able to see you.

Perhaps that was why Seidon liked to sleep. If he could not see them, then it was the childish belief that the Four Eyes could not see him.

“This is ma last mission. I’m done.” Keisuke stretched, popping old joints back into a semblance of new, rolling his shoulders as he spoke, adding cricks and cracks as background noise. “And I’m done pretendin’. To hell wit’ it all I say.”

“Wait, what? Wh-what do you mean it’s your last? Pretending about wha–”

“Shuddap, boy. I know yer brain ain’t been washed too hard. It’s still a… little dirty, amirite?” Keisuke began to walk towards Seidon, the glint of his pickaxe catching the skylight in a way that illuminated him, until he found himself at Seidon’s feet, close enough that their chests grazed each other. Up this close, Seidon could count the white hairs that peppered Keisuke’s moustache, and could see just how deep the lines in his forehead were drawn. “Yer pa made sure of that.”

The sudden mention of his father had Seidon choking on a breath, had his heart thrumming strings to a different tune, so loud and pulsating it was as if someone had carved out the organ and stuffed it into his own ears. He was alone in the forest with Keisuke with no idea about what they were doing there but…father.

“You knew my…dad?” Seidon’s voice sounded distant to his own ears, young and prepubescent as if he was transported a decade into the past. “I don’t understand…I.”

“There’s more to this than we will ever know, at least for me. Hell knows, I’m tired. And I’m tired of that too.”

“But I still don’t get it? What are you talking about, Keisuke? How did you know my father?”

Keisuke simply looked back up to the sky and Seidon forced himself to do the same, but not ignoring the expression that twisted Keisuke’s face, all distaste and contempt. A soft breeze ruffled Seidon’s hair from its coif, an errant lock tickling his cheek and momentarily blinding him so that he could not see anything.

“When we get back today, I’ll tell you all that I know.”