A Day

*PAK*

*PAK*

*PAK*

Shoki couldn't help but sigh as he saw Yamura getting his ass smacked by Fubuki. And from that girl's biceps, that probably hurts. Seriously, that girl has that toned but full muscle kind of arms. Anyone getting hit by that might as well say goodbye.

Watching indifferently, he said, "That's probably enough, don't you think?"

While he was used to getting spanked by his older sister, Yamura still felt really embarrassed whenever she did this. So when Shoki said that, he decided to chip in, "Y-Yeah, aniki's right! Haven't I suffered enough? It's been more than thirty minut—AAH!" He was cut off when Fubuki spanked him again but this time, harder than before.

"Shut up," She coldly said.

He immediately shut his mouth, scared of getting his ass smacked as hard as that again.

Shoki felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned to see Kazuki gesturing towards him to go outside.

Seeing that he has nothing to do in here at the moment, he followed him.

Outside, it was raining heavily. The sky was darkened from all the black clouds covering it, and many people had already gone inside their houses.

Standing just at the edge of the door, Kazuki said, "Shoki, what happened to you? It's been a month, and only now you've returned to us," He looked outside of the door with his back turned against him, and he continued, "I saw you, you know? How you easily and mercilessly killed two men that were trying to kill you, and then you ran away. It was only for a few seconds but I saw you."

He was suspicious, and he knew it. Shoki immediately knew he had to be careful with his words. These children have just lost everyone they called family, and if they ever knew he had taken the body of one of their beloved, they'd stop at nothing to kill him. With the irregularities in his body happening to him at the moment, it's better to be safe than sorry.

"I forgot to tell you earlier but I don't remember anything. The only things that I know are the things Yamura told me. I didn't even have any clue when I saw everyone around me being slaughtered. I just acted based on my instincts," He explained.

"So you have amnesia?" Asked Kazuki.

"Basically," Shoki's simple reply.

The pale teen narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

"He's movements, speech, and habits are way different from the Shoki I know. This Shoki is perfect, too perfect. He's like a trained shinobi, cautious but calm, cold yet approachable. He has this certain touch of charisma in him, just like the Shoki I knew," Kazuki analyzed in his thoughts.

Shoki immediately knew that he was being observed by the boy in front of him but he didn't care. No amount of observation will save him if he decides to kill everyone here. At the moment, he's just being civil but they better not piss him off. With all the metal around this house, it would be easier than flipping a pancake to kill them all.

If only he didn't have this hesitation inside of him, he would've ditched them a long time ago.

Feeling a bit hot, Shoki decided to take the skin of the tiger off his body, and when Kazuki saw it, he seemed to have forgotten everything from earlier as he asked, "Is that a real tiger hide?"

Raising an eyebrow, Shoki said, "Yes, why?"

Kazuki suddenly went near the tiger hide as he crouched and inspected it. That surprised Shoki, almost triggering him to pull out something sharp to stab the boy with. But thankfully, he was able to control himself.

After a few dozen seconds, Kazuki said in awe, "Wow, this thing could fetch for a good price within the wandering merchants. It looks like the hide of the WetLands Tigers, one of the biggest and strongest of its species."

"Wandering Merchants? Do they come here often?" Shoki asked, a bit interested.

He turned to look at Shoki, and said, "Come here often? Lady Mei owns them! In fact, Fubuki and I work as laborers there. Though we often disguise ourselves in case someone recognizes us, that doesn't matter right now. If we could sell this tiger hide in the next village, we could make thousands of ryo!"

"Ryo? Is that the name of the currency of this world?" He asked himself in his thoughts.

"How much exactly?" He asked the teen.

"This thing could fetch us around fifty-thousand ryo! If the buyers are generous, we can even raise it to eighty! No, wait, maybe if we performed an auction we could sell it for even higher than the original price!" The serious and analytic teen he just saw earlier was all but gone, for in his place was a greedy money grubber, not even considering the fact that the tiger hide belongs to Shoki.

The intensity in his eyes intensified as he stared at Shoki, asking him, "Can I borrow this?"

With a short and quick move, he put the tiger hide back on again, and shortly said, "No."

It was like he was shot by a musket in the stomach, only realizing now that the hide belonged to Shoki. Kazuki immediately cursed himself for being all cool and mysterious earlier, he should've tried to curry favor with his little brother. It didn't matter where he got the hide, the only thing that mattered was the fact that he has the hide.

Seeing this, Shoki couldn't help but feel a well of disgust and disappointment rising from inside him. Mostly disappointment. How shameless can this guy get?

Noticing that Shoki won't give him the hide, he decided to just settle for this now and convince him later.

"A-Ahem, I'm sorry for that. Oh, would you look at the time? I think I need to buy some vegetables for dinner later. I'll head out now, bye-bye," It was quick. Kazuki immediately went out of the door-way, opened the gates, and ran outside under the pouring rain. Embarrassed, probably.

"Well, that's a way to ruin your appearance," Shoki mockingly thought. Even then, it was obvious that the teen is smart, way smarter than others his age. He's just greedy, though there must be a reason for it.

Looking at their living conditions, they must've earned a bit from working as laborers. But clearly not enough if they have another objective than living in this place.

He then closed the door, and turned around to walk towards the other two.

When he saw Yamura he couldn't help but sigh.

He was huddled in the corner of the room, saying things such as "I'll never be married, ah~."

Then he turned to see the girl massaging her right hand. Probably tired from spanking the child. Though the sight that she shows certainly shows a different message, seeing that she has this cold posture and icy eyes.

"The antics of these children… Are all children like this? Well, my cousins' children were definitely worse than them but that's beside the point," He thought to himself.

"We can talk tomorrow, Shoki," She started, "Rest. It's been a long journey for you, after all."

He nodded, but before he rested, he asked, "Can you point to me where I'll stay for tonight?"

Glancing at Yamura, Fubuki said, "Lead him to the guest room. We'll sort your lodging tomorrow, though we won't be able to return 'till evening. So, Fujiwara-san will clean the room you'll be staying in until we're able to move to Konoha."

He nodded again, and Yamura grudgingly led him to their guest room. But as they were climbing the stairs, he only now realized what she said.

So he asked Yamura, saying, "What's Konoha?"

He seemed to brighten up a little, and said, "It's one of the five major shinobi villages, and the most peaceful out of all of them. I heard that in Konoha, children are able to run freely on the street without worrying about anything. They can even play all day around! That's why Kazuki-nii and Fubuki-nee want us to move there but we don't have enough money to start our journey."

A peaceful place? That's not for him. It's definitely not for him. This war-filled place is the happiest place he's ever been to. Where ninjas, literal ninjas, famed for their stealth and quick assassination techniques, act dumb enough for him to kill them before they even realize it.

Those 3 ninjas he first met back then were an example of that. They underestimated him to the point that they completely deemed him as not a threat but more of a target practice, which ultimately resulted in their deaths.

If he liked humor, he would've laughed at their dead faces for the sheer irony that they displayed. But unfortunately, humor is out of his emotional range. He'd like to see countless dead bodies in front of him rather than a person, on a stage, making jokes that he couldn't possibly relate to.

"Here it is," Yamura said, introducing him to his room for tonight.

It was small, smaller than his cave. But it was nice. It has a nice cushy tatami mat rolled in the corner of the room, with that soft-looking pillow right beside it. There was a couch on the right side of the room. He frowned when he saw no windows but he just shrugged it off. But the best thing about this place? It was clean. Unlike his previous living condition, in his previous life or this life, he never really lived in a clean room. It was either the floor or not sleeping at all. He would at least be decent enough to cover the floor with a blanket or something, though it never eased his back pain.

He then removed the tiger hide after feeling the heat, along with his t-shirt. If he could, he would sleep naked but it would be dumb of him to be so vulnerable in a stranger's house.

Just after he spread the tatami mat and put the pillows on it, he smelled something. It was… bad. He wondered what that smell was, when he realized it was coming from him.

"Fuck," he cursed as he smelled his arm pit.

Though this made him curious. When was the last time he washed his body? It's been a month, if he remembered correctly. Though the rain always washed the dirt off of him, it was not enough to wash the smell away.

He frowned. He didn't know the way to the bathroom in this house. After a few seconds of consideration, he decided to sleep for no—wait, wasn't it just 4 PM?

It's still early, so why is he trying to sleep?

He just shrugged. The sky was too dark earlier to notice the difference between dawn and the afternoon. Either way, he's going to rest for now. Smelling nice is the least of his worries right now.

The deity told him that his mission in this world is to cause as much chaos as possible. With the orb in his possession, that is certainly possible. But then what? After doing that, what's he going to do? Is he just some pawn of a mad deity; a marionette? That is a harrowing thought but, even then, should he care? Yes, he absolutely should.

And yet, that deity can kill him within just the blink of an eye, or maybe even less.

He'll do the deity of death's bidding… for now.

Unknowingly, as he was thinking, he started to slowly fall into the deep abyss of unconsciousness. He might not have realized this but he was tired, really tired. Not physically, no, but mentally.

Unlike back then, when he was just a mere serial killer on the loose, when his brain functioned differently from others due to his psychopathy, WHEN he was nothing but a normal man; now, he has emotions. They are starting to surface, slowly but surely.

It will either be his end, or his new beginning… of suffering.

(9 Hours Later)

It was in the middle of the night. The rain outside was almost deafening to him. Even after hours of raining, it never stopped. But in a way, it was relaxing. Something about rain just seems to comfort him.

He got up to open the door when he noticed his dry throat. Even though he didn't know the layouts of this house, he still decided to blindly look around for the kitchen so that he could get something to drink.

It was a short hall; his door is literally 5 meters away from the stairs. Though, at the end of it, there was another door. He heard something from inside, and he got curious. His steps were silent, and as he neared the wooden door, he heard muffled sounds. No, they were not just sounds; it was a voice. They were saying something.

"Sorry… I'm… sorry. I… didn't mean it. Please… leave me alone."

He paused on his tracks. He knew that voice. Even though they only exchanged a few words, he knew who that was.

It's the old man. The caretaker. But why was he pleading like that? And who was he asking forgiveness to?

Seeing no point in investigating this further, he turned around and left. Maybe the old was going senile. Who knows? He didn't particularly care, or more accurately, he doesn't see the point of caring about it.

After a few minutes, he found the kitchen and had his very delicious glass of water.

Then, he narrowed his eyes. He sensed them. There were metals around the house shaped like kunais, huddled in several pocket bags. No, they weren't in the house, they were outside of the house. He didn't realize this earlier because Kazuki and Fubuki also had them, and along with so much metal around the house, it was difficult to sense them.

But now he knew; there were ninjas surrounding the house. He didn't know whether they had malicious intent towards them or not, but he should be able to kill them in this range.

Although, he realized that they were not moving. He sat on the chair in the living room, and for half-an-hour, he didn't move, and neither did they.

That proved his theory. These ninjas were just spies. Probably from the red-haired woman.

Killing them would just upset that woman, and doing that will kill him since he is surrounded on all sides by her ninjas. These spies are easy to kill but the thousands of ninjas in this village are the problem.

It'll be near-impossible to escape thousands of magical soldiers, and so, he decided not to attack them.

He sighed.

It was just one thing after the other.

But he wondered. Who were they spying on? Was it him? Probably. Yet, what if it was one of the people in this house? Except for him, who are the most likely to be spied on.

He tch'd, and blamed himself for not reading some history and geography books about this world earlier. Either way, he should be able to do that later in the morning.