Kuni no Senso

Chapter IV: Which Tells Of A Terrible Night

Yukan and Ite began to leave the restaurant, continuing the conversation they were having before they had left the facility. The two continued and began to drive back to Yukan's house. As they get closer into the more populated part of Shirotaun, Ite catches the glimpse of a flame in the distance.

"What a strange time of night to hold a bonfire," she said. "Should we go join them?"

"We could-" Yukan began to speak before taking a look at it and making a realization. "Wait. That's not a bonfire!"

Ite, confused by the situation, began to question this. "What do you mean-"

She's cut off by Yukan. "We have to go help them, now!"

"Uh...right." Ite agreed, still somewhat confused. Yukan began to high-tail it to the area caught within the inferno. When they arrived about two minutes later, Yukan began to realize that it was his house that had been lit ablaze.

"Why are so many people in a panic?" Ite asked, even more perplexed by the chaos that had ensued. "Why is your house on fire?"

"No," Yukan was in disbelief. "No, this can't be happening! Mom! Dad!"

He began to rush into the house. Ite attempted to stop him, but he was dead-set on rescuing his family. He broke through the front door, but before he could make it into the kitchen, a burning beam obstructed his path. He gazed into the room where his mother, father, and brother were being held hostage by Shirei.

"Listen here, bitch boy!" exclaimed an enraged Lars. "I'm going to hit you so hard your grandchildren's great-grandchildren will feel it because you won't be able to reproduce, you eggplant!"

"Shut up and be quiet you pathetic fool," demanded Shirei. He was completely unphased by Lars's attempts at intimidating him.

"You're the fool! Your boss doesn't even have the balls to come and face me!"

Just as Lars said this, Kunshu arrived, penetrating the roof of the house. He glared down upon the three of them, as he became the oppressor. Lars felt his blood run cold as Kunshu arrived, ready to dish out his punishment. "Well, it seems like we have a feisty little doggy," the tyrant king said.

"This puppy is all yours, my liege," Shirei said in response, handing over ownership of the three hostages to his leader. "I believe he needs a muzzle."

Lars knew what would come next. Yukan began to try more desperately to enter the room and stop the two of them but to no avail. Not wanting to let his fear be seen, Lars yelled out "I'm not scared of you! Do you even know who you're messing with-"

Kunshu had had enough of Lars's nonsense and one flick of the wrist later, Lars had been silenced. The heads of Lars, Oto, and Hana, fell back like the top of a Pez dispenser, except that the delectable candy within was instead their blood, spewing out from the plateau upon which their skulls once rested.

Yukan was overwhelmed by this sight. His memories with his family began to flash before his eyes. He remembered all of the great moments that shaped him into the person he was. Those endearing moments eventually began to mock him and he felt that they would haunt him for as long as he lived. Ite came in and tried to console him to get him to calm down, but his anger overpowered any attempt to calm him down.

"DAMN YOU ALL!" Yukan cried out in a burst of unadulterated rage. "I hope all of you are listening. I will make sure that your cruel empire burns in Hell! Especially that tyrant of a king you have!"

Just as he said that Yukan's rage gave way for fear, as Kunshu turned his gaze toward him. "Well, there will always be more cockroaches that need to be dealt with," Kunshu said, with a feeling similar to the feeling one gets when their mother tells them to do another chore when they'd just finished the previous one and had begun to relax. "I'm too bored to stay here any longer. You may do as you please with him, Shirei."

"I will, my great leader." As these words hit Yukan and Ite's ears, they began to make an escape attempt, but to no avail. Kunshu left the building and Shirei kicked Yukan into a wall which, with the deteriorated state due to the pyre and his body hitting it with such great force, caused it to collapse onto the front yard. Even after that, Shirei continued his onslaught.

"You're useless!" he yelled at Yukan as he continued to beat him up. "A pathetic excuse for a man."

Yukan was utterly defenseless, left to his rapid-fire thoughts. He felt that every single punch and kick that Shirei landed broke a bone within his body. One strong punch to the sternum later, and Yukan collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious. Ite had grown enraged with what was happening. She felt anger boil inside of her to an extent she hadn't seen before.

Shirei halted his fury for a brief moment to pull out his revolver. "I should just kill you now and put you out of your misery." Ite knew she would likely die if she intervened, but she knew that if she didn't, then Yukan would die. That's why, without any hesitation, she ran to Shirei and delivered the strongest right hook she could manage, putting all of her strength into her right arm as it connected with his jaw. The blow was enough to make Shirei lose his balance, but not enough to deal any substantial damage.

"Get the hell away from him if you know what's good for you!" Ite yelled at the powerful beast before her. Shirei diverted his attention to Ite.

"If you weren't a girl," he said in a threatening manner, "I would kill you where you stand." He then went back to Yukan. "And you," he began. "You're a lucky bastard that she's here." With that being said, Shirei, Aotoshi's lead commander, walked off to return to Aotoshi.

As soon as he'd turned to go back, Ite began to tend to Yukan, whose tears could still be seen on his face. She held him close to herself to try to get him to regain consciousness.

"Come on, Yukan," she began crying as she feared the worst had happened. "Hang in there, please. Please don't leave me here." She tried to begin resuscitating him, frantically giving him CPR in an attempt to start his breathing back up. Fortunately, his breathing did start back up and he did not suffer any brain damage, at least not from oxygen deprivation. Ite was relieved by this, but her tears did not stop, for she did not know if he would make it.