Itadaki no Hecate Second

Something Lost

He was a boy, no older than fourteen years of age, and already he had seen more than he ever should have.

His village burned around him, raided in a ruthless attack by Native Americans. Everyone he had ever known, everyone he had ever formed a bond with in his short life, all dead, just like that. In a single day, they were all dead.

All around him, everything crumbled into ash, and the heartless bastards at fault for all of this destruction were preparing to move out, oblivious to the one sole survivor hidden underneath an overturned horse trough.

His cowboy clothes were in tatters. His skin was covered in bruises and soot. His right eye was bloodied, and it still dripped red. Scared out of his wits, he could do nothing but hide and weep, doing his best to keep from being heard lest he be slaughtered just like the rest.

He could not understand the language of the raiders, but there was one word they continued to repeat. It was this word he assumed to be their leader, and he carved it into his heart with all of his hatred.

Flame Haze... Flame Haze... Flame Haze...

Episode 15: Something Lost

Kazumi Yoshida entered her classroom, just as she did every day. What met her upon setting foot inside was a grim and heavy atmosphere. In spite of the cheery event just the day before, her classmates were unusually quiet, as if bearing the knowledge that their whole sense of reality was a lie.

Cleanup was still ongoing, as expected, but it went at a snail's pace; really, no one seemed to be in the mood to do anything today. There was even word that cleanup and classes might be suspended for a good while.

Seeing one of her friends put away some of the costumes in a cardboard box, Kazumi beckoned her to a corner of the classroom.

"Ogata-chan, do you have any idea what's going on?"

The tomboy shook her head, just as troubled as her friend was. "Your guess is as good as mine, everyone in the school's been like this all morning."

"I believe I can answer your question, Yoshida-san," Ike said as approached them, oddly serious and straight despite being racked with fatigue the past week. "But you're not gonna like it."

The girls studied his expression for a moment. It really did seem to be something grave, to see such a pained and conflicted expression on the bespectacled male.

"Yoshida-san, it was all over the news last night," Ike informed them with saddened reluctance. "Hecate-chan... was declared guilty of international terrorism."

Anxiety gripped the hearts of the two girls tightly, but not for the same reasons as their oblivious friends. The two of them knew the real truth behind the Supreme Throne's affiliation, but with word spread that she was against humanity in some form another, then her happy days might truly be over.

And what saddened them most was that they may never see their dear friend again.

"To think all this time, we were this close to a terrorist."

The other students in the classroom began to speak their minds amongst themselves, unable to bear the weight of their own anxiety any longer.

"It made sense though, didn't it? No wonder she was acting so distant and suspicious since the first day."

"Yeah, she was just too weird!"

"Nobody should be that stone-faced."

"I knew she was hiding something!"