Chapter 4

…

After everything that had happened, Jason chose to lie on the ground and rest. He allowed the snow to fall on his face, melting against the warmth of his skin.

In less than five minutes, he had abandoned the idea of rest in favor of doing something 'efficient.'

His first hour in Naraka was spent bashing rocks together in order to craft something that could pass for a knife. Despite not being a wilderness expert, he knew enough about survival from doomsday prepping to fend for himself.

‘They called me crazy when I spent a week learning how to make tools out of rocks, but who's laughing now!’ he chuckled to himself.

With his sharpened rock, Jason began to cut through the leathery, greasy meat of the swine-man, severing a leg from the swine-man as rations. With the exception of the nauseating black blood, the meat looked perfectly fine to eat. Even if it was poisonous, it seemed to be all that was available.

The following hour was spent foraging. Jason, despite his lack of familiarity with Naraka, made every effort to discover anything at least half functional. By some miracle, there were some plants nearby that grew long and were fibrous—great for making rope.

The odor was sticky and sap-like. He ripped them from their roots and mangled them with his hands. This’ll work fine; I got lucky.

Although the procedure was brief, the resin had left his hands dry and numb by the end. Jason finished with roughly seven feet of rope.

After failing to find a high and sturdy tree branch, he decided to change his strategy.

“I can make a meteor hammer. They’re pretty useful and efficient weapons, and something to protect myself might come in handy out here.

Even if it's just to make me feel better.’

…

Finding the rock he had thrown into the pig’s head lodged in its skull, Jason reached into the eye cavity, recoiling at the feeling of blood and bone coating and scratching his hand.

The feeling was that of pumpkin guts, but the smell was distinctly of fish.

After fishing it out and rolling it on the ground desperately to remove as much of the blackened blood as possible, Jason tightly wrapped it in twine.

For a moment, his spirits improved. He remembered making makeshift hammers as a child, much to his mother’s irritation when he would spend hours hitting himself in the face with them by accident.

‘Hell yeah. meteor hammer.’

Jason decided to use the dead swine-man as a target.

The test swing was successful; rocketing out of Jason's hand and into the stomach of the pig, the blunt stone lodged itself deep into its stomach. Tearing the stone out of the flesh, a smile grew on the corner of Jason’s mouth.

Maybe I'll be alright out here.

After a while of mumbling while walking around the pig corpse, trying to decide whether to leave or not, the wind around him picked up just subtly, towards the east.

Taking a breath, Jason looked one more time into the empty socket of the swine-man before walking away. As he slugged through the white canopy, his mind was quiet enough to allow him to think about home for the first time since arriving in Naraka.

…

About a week before the finals, Jason had been called into the office of Scott Takada, the most famous sports recruiter in the country, on recommendation from his coach.

Takada’s office was dingy. While he was supposed to be the most professional in the country, the walls were lined with nude magazines, a stack of them sitting on the pool table behind Jason.

After reading over Jason’s file, Takeda flashed the boy a toothy grin, his teeth covered with bronze grills. “Well, kid, you have solid records. I’d dare to say spotless, even. But I have to say, it's looking bad for you going into the pro leagues.”

Jason, unlike Takeda, couldn't be bothered to fake a smile.

“What the hell are you talking about? My physical stats are on par with the greats, my technical play is immaculate, and on top of all that, I have the most points scored for the season out of any rookie in the whole league! I am the first of the first draft pick!”

Takeda tapped his cigarette off onto his table.

“Look, kid, if I'm being honest, I agree with you. You’re a damn solid player, a big tuna. But you swim without a school. And you’re going to be up against sharks in the water. When sharks smell a lone tuna, they'll eat you alive. You're not a team player, kid.”

Takada sighed before leaning in to make eye contact through his glasses, but Jason didn't meet his gaze.

“Your understanding of marine biology sucks, and I'm leaving.”

Jason left the office, kicking the leg of Takeda’s pool table as he walked out.

…

Jason rolled his prized silver chain in his hand, fiddling with the ‘Y’ pendant around in his palm. His eyes fell dark. To him, this was just one more link in a long chain of hurdles preventing him from providing for his brother.

Clutching the pendant in his hand, he resolved that, like all the rest of them, he was going to blow right past them too.

As he approached a cliff's edge, Jason snapped back to focus. He had come to a clearing; vast snow and mountains covered the horizon as far as the eyes could see. The smell was fresh, with a trace of pine in Jason's nose. A great swath of woods lined the basin of the mountain.

The path down was steep, bordered with boulders, and plainly intended for climbing up rather than down.

‘Oh, great. More walking.’

However, Jason's heart skipped a beat looking further; in a clearing to the northwest, he saw a large city constructed into the slope. The sight was remarkable, but Jason quickly blew past it; it wasn't the time for sightseeing.

As Jason slowly descended the mountain, his eyes started to fall heavy. The weight of the meat on his shoulders began to feel like he was carrying the whole pig.

His legs screamed at him, as if he had just played four quarters of basketball straight.

Welp.

For Jason, this was a first; he had never had winning become a pain in the ass. His energy was beginning to bottom out, but he continued to focus on the task at hand, allowing himself to autopilot down the mountain. Eventually, he made it to the bottom without collapsing.

As he started walking into the forest, Jason heard something he hadn't expected in a million years:

voices.

Then the snapping of twigs. He stopped for a moment, trying to listen for the sound's location.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning sped straight towards his chest.

…

Loba complained to Biji about his disagreements with Panka for what seemed like the hundredth time as they made their way through the woodland in search of the Scorched.

"I'm telling you, Biji, she is completely unreasonable. She’ll say something insane like, ‘There's no point doing jobs when there's energy to harvest and a roof over our heads,’ or ‘We don't need the gear we took off the Scorched,’ and when I systematically dismantle her arguments, she just says, ‘You know what, you’re right, I never thought about it like that.’ It's infuriating! And another thing—" Biji started moving faster as he seethed, mainly because she didn't want to be beside him any longer.

"... That doesn't sound like a bad thing. To me it sounds like you're whining about nothing.” Biji casually weaved through branches as they broke against her horns, wincing with each snap.

“You wouldn't get it, Biji; you’re a Raksha. Stuff like that doesn't bother you. But as an intellectual—”

Suddenly, Biji’s ears perked up. Somewhere ahead in the forest, there was an inch of movement.

“It’s about 150 feet away. That has to be it.”

With the flick of her wrist, Biji’s Crest flared to life with cracking blue light, her body evaporating into energy, whirring and fizzling before blasting off towards the noise. In an instant, she had vanished from Loba’s view. Reaching out his hand, he then sighed, putting his hand to his forehead.

“It looks like I’ve got some walking to do.”

…

Biji bolted through the trees, shattering twigs and branches with startling speed.

For a brief moment, it appeared that she was about to strike something solid, but she dismissed it as her imagination as she crashed into the mountain, solidifying her body upon impact.

As she made contact, the stone from the mountain vaporized, leaving behind a steaming hole.

Despite her hitting something solid, she was confused; she knew she had passed something else before making the landing.

Climbing out from the crater she had created, she turned her head to look around. From behind her, a loud, high-pitched wheeze could be heard.

Biji had seen Manuyan humans before, but this one was… different.

He was large compared to what she expected from a human, about Loba’s size, with a wide build and long arms. Weirdest of all, he was able to get out of the way of her moving at top speed.

“Freaky.” She thought to herself.

Attempting to greet the stranger, Biji swiftly moved in front of the man before putting her hand out; she didn't quite remember how humans greeted each other, but this was her best guess.

“Hi, Human. I'm Biji. You alright?”

Jason’s face contorted into a mixture of confusion and shell shock.

“...What?”