[Ch. 2] What Was In That Incense?!

Ryu rubbed his head and sat up panting hysterically. He looked to the woman beside him with an anxious expression, "Madame?! Just what was in that incense?!"

Ryu didn't understand what just happened. Why did he suddenly have such a detailed vision of the future? And why did he see the complete past and future of a man he had never met before?

The number of questions swarmed in his head giving him quite the headache. Madame Hime looked at him in concern, "Ryu-kun. Are you alright? Do you not like this incense? I received it from Elder Hiro-san."

Ryu only shook his head. How could he explain the truth? He didn't really understand why he even remembered such things. He looked down at his trembling hands. Several tears rolled off of his cheek and landed on those fine small hands.

He wasn't crying because the future would end so poorly for him. He didn't even care about how often he had been betrayed. He wasn't even crying from all the pain he could still remember when he had been tortured.

No. The one he cried for wasn't himself.

It was for Panzram.

The very person they call the Grim Reaper.

Panzram was a dangerous and bad man. He killed and attacked men regardless of their age. Even though it's true that he did such awful things, Ryu felt his heart squeeze in his chest when he thought of him. He couldn't help but pity this man.

It's true that he did despicable things. Ryu wouldn't argue against that. But he had learned his story from that book.

Panzram had a hard childhood. He never knew his own parents, let alone his own name. He grew up in an orphanage that wasn't equipped to deal with such a rambunctious child. He was hyperactive and had a hard time focusing. Really, he was just a normal young boy.

However, they didn't have any patience to deal with this. They had far too many children to deal with. So, they disciplined the boy harshly. He would be beaten and tortured. Unable to stand the abuse, he ran away at the age of 12.

That was the age when he learned the hard truth of the world. While he traveled, he came across a group of wandering bandits. They took a liking to the boy since he was so small with handsome features.

He was unable to defend himself as the men beat him and forced themselves on him. After being left for dead, he vowed to never trust humanity ever again.

He attempted to find a job, but due to his young age and weak build, he had trouble finding anything. He eventually succumbed to stealing. After all, it was better to steal than it was to starve to death. At the young age of 15, he was finally caught for stealing and forced into a high-security prison.

There, he was subjected to even more torture and attacks from men. He would only get to eat rotten food and be forced to sleep on the cold concrete ground. During the hot summer days, the guards forced him to smash rocks while carrying around a fifty-pound ball chained to his leg.

He cursed them with all his might. Even though he was brutalized and forced into such harsh labor, he could only laugh. Although he was being punished severely, it only helped in making him stronger.

He was released three years later.

He no longer looked like the same young man who entered that prison. Instead of his charming and enchanting looks, he had a harsh expression with penetrating eyes full of distrust. He no longer had a small body, but instead, his muscles were bulky and he easily towered over the average man. Anyone who took one glance at him would know that he was trouble.

Because of what the system did to him, he was filled with overwhelming rage and endless hate. He came across a river crossing where a 12-year-old boy waited for a ferry to take him across. Panzram was filled with resentment when he looked at this boy. He saw too much of himself in that child.

He snapped and attacked the poor child, killing him cruelly. Others stepped in to stop him, but he killed them without hesitation.

As he looked at their corpses, only one thought crossed his mind:

Too easy.

That was the start of his killing spree.

He was nicknamed The Grim Reaper for his senseless and bountiful murders. He was eventually caught and thrown in prison. Everyone expected him to face the gallows, but he only received life in prison. This was because he had only killed the poor and the beggars. To the ones in charge of sentencing, he seemed to have done them a favor.

Thus, they went easy on him.

That prison was even more torturous than the first one. On the first night, he didn't try to fight the guards when they brought him downstairs. They tied his wrists to the ceiling and hoisted him up as they whipped him senselessly. Then they'd leave him to hang by his arms until early morning.

After that night, he started fighting back. However, he was no match for them. The guards enjoyed beating him unconscious. Some nights, he would hang for so long that his shoulders would pop out of socket.

He was tortured by water.

Tortured by scalding fire.

Tortured by needles.

He was tortured so much; callouses grew across his body to prevent any more pain.

His heart grew even colder towards humanity.

One night in the prison cell, he vowed to destroy all of humanity.

After a few years, he attempted to break out and was successful. He spent the next day's killing and doing onto other men as those bandits had done to him. However, his rage spree didn't last long. He was soon caught and deemed too dangerous to keep at that prison. Thus, he was transferred to another prison.

This one had a large wall surrounding it that no one could ever hope to scale. Its security was much stricter than the previous one. As he was escorted to his cell, he waited for the guards to come in and torture him.

Yet, they never did.

Although he was confined to one small cell, there was one guard he seemed to see almost daily. It was a short and smaller man. He looked so frail, Panzram was sure he could easily kill him.

Yet, he never tried.

This man seemed to be overly interested in Panzram. He would bring him delicious food and snacks. Eventually, Panzram relaxed and opened up to him.

He was shocked to see such a man cry for him. It was almost embarrassing. The man said he would help him in any way he could.

Panzram's heart started to open up.

However, the prison found out about their friendship and the man was transferred out. His only confidant was now gone.

Panzram was frantic in trying to escape to find him. He constructed a ladder and attempted to escape but fell down over thirty feet in his attempt. He shattered his legs and lay on the ground screaming in pain.

The guards didn't care and threw him in a prison cell, refusing to give him any medical attention. His bones eventually healed. They stuck out oddly giving him a haunting appearance.

Now he truly did look like a grim reaper.

One day, a guard decided to verbally and physically abuse him. Panzram warned him that he would kill him if he kept it up. He had lost the only other person he had called a friend and he was in no mood to listen to the ravings of a nameless guard. The guard only scoffed at him and continued.

Panzram strung him up by the neck, killing him with one flex of the arm.

The other guards descended on him to attack, but he easily fought them off. He managed to kill his way out of the prison. He heard about a battle between the Taira clan and the Minamoto clan not too long after his escape and changed identity. He seethed with anger at the sound of their names.

Those two clans were the ones he held the largest grudges against.

The Minamoto clan had fought endlessly against the strong Taira clan. One outskirt region had been forced into famine by their greed and desire for power. This was the exact region where the runaway Panzram had lived. It was for this very reason that he had to start stealing in the first place!

That region was eventually taken over by the Taira clan.

The Taira clan was the leading samurai clan in the country. They almost held as much power as the Emperor himself. Arguably, they held even more. In fact, they were the sole clan that oversaw the succession of Emperors. They also had their own states to govern, one of which had been in charge of Panzram's imprisonment.

This was why Panzram despised these two clans more than anything. In his desire to destroy all humanity, he decided this battle would be the perfect place to start. So he made his way to the battlefield and the rest was history.