Chapter 13 Slaughter At The Warehouse 2

New Chapter, New Powerstones.

.....

Bang!

'Huh?'

Be it the Crowd of onlookers, The Garrison soldiers, or Ren herself, all turned towards the direction of the sound.

Especially Ren.

The moment she heard it, she stiffened instinctively.

'That … Was a gunshot ...'.

The entire street fell silent. "That was …."

Bang! Bang!

More appeared before they could process the first. In an instant, The female MP had her face turn pale. In Paradis Island, weapons were forbidden, from the highest Omni Directional Mobility Gear to the lowest dagger.

Only military soldiers had that right. Even then, that Permission only extended to The Military Police.

Guns were strictly regulated, with the only exceptions being Bar Owners who were allowed to keep similar weapons for self-protection in case of the high likelihood of a Fight erupting in their establishment.

A gun going off in public could only mean Two things.

One, a bar fight. Two, an MP had fired their weapon.

For one, long, stretched moment, nobody moved.

Then—

Murmurs …

In the crowd, The frozen tension snapped, and the streets burst into chaos.

People scattered. Merchants grabbed their goods and ran. Civilians bolted in every direction, desperate to get as far away as possible.

Nearby Garrison soldiers fumbled, trying to maintain order—shouting at people to stay calm, to stay put. But fear was contagious.

Ren barely registered any of it.

Her body was already moving.

Her feet slammed against the ground as she broke into a sprint.

The Warehouse.

That was where the gunshots came from. Processing this, she knew that things were bad. Due to the Nature of their Task, It had already been settled upon as a rule that none of them would fire their weapons to avoid dooming the operation.

Now, someone had fired. More than once at that.

Her feet pounded against the dirt path as she pushed forward, the evening light casting long shadows around her. Something was wrong. The moment she had left, everything had been normal. Yet in just a few short minutes, something had happened—something that sent a gunshot echoing through the air.

'No… No, no, no. Please don't let it be what I think it is.'

Her chest tightened as she approached the warehouse. The moment she did, her breath caught in her throat.

The warehouse door was slightly ajar, swaying just barely from the earlier disturbance. Laying motionless on the floor not far from the entrance were Two MPs.

Lina.

Scot.

Her mind blanked. Her stomach churning at the sight of what she saw.

They were dead. Both of them. Blood seeping down their skulls, forming a puddle on the dirt beneath them.

She had only been gone a few minutes. What in the walls had happened?

Her stomach twisted, nausea creeping up her throat.

Then—

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The eerie silence of the warehouse district was broken by the frantic sound of footsteps. Ren tensed instantly. Something was coming from the inside.

Without thinking, she swung the shotgun off her shoulder, raising it toward the entrance. Her hands were steady, but her breath was ragged.

The warehouse door creaked open slightly further, revealing a shadowed figure rushing toward her.

Her finger nearly tightened on the trigger—

But before she could fire, the figure stumbled, crashing face-first into the ground just at the threshold.

Ren froze.

The man didn't stay down. He scrambled up immediately, twisting his head back toward the warehouse entrance, his face a mask of sheer terror.

Then, in a desperate, breathless voice, he screamed.

"No… Stay away…!"

He bolted past the door, throwing his full weight into his escape. Short, balding, clothed in tattered dark garments—Ren recognized him instantly.

'Him…?'

One of the traffickers. The ones responsible for bringing in new slaves every day.

Her mind reeled. Why is he running? From what?

Then—

A sound.

Something whistled through the air.

A sharp, slicing sound, too quick for the eye to follow—

Then a sickening thud.

The man's desperate sprint halted instantly.

A single, gleaming object protruded from his skull—lodged perfectly between his eyes.

He didn't even make a sound. His body simply went limp, momentum carrying him forward as he collapsed, sliding across the ground—

And stopping just at her feet.

Ren's breath hitched.

The corpse at her feet was still warm. His face was twisted in frozen terror, his lifeless eyes still reflecting the horror of what had pursued him.

A cold, suffocating dread seeped into her bones.

For a moment, time itself seemed to hold still. Then, her pupils constricted to the extreme.

'He … Just …'. Her body stiffened, a momentary chill flooding her nerves at the sight at her feet. It was one thing to see a dead body, and another seeing a living person die before your very eyes.

Instinctively, the girl took several steps backwards. Her gun firmly in her grasp and her terrified gaze shifting towards the darkness of the warehouse.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound of clear footsteps, not as hurried as the last one fell into her ears.

Not long after, the vague yet unmistakable silhouette of a human being emerged from the darkness

"… It seems I missed one."

It happened then. Under her gaze, Two glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness, frightening the female MP out of her wits.

Causing her to fire reflexively.

'Genjutsu'.

Or at least she tried to.

The next moment, however, Ren froze. Her body stiffening as her finger hovered over the trigger, remaining motionless. Her pupils shrank, her eyebrows fell and her tense facial features all relaxed as her expression grew dazed.

Instantly, The gun in her hand lowered.

Inside the Warehouse, Seiji rubbed his brows and stepped out of the building.

'A Teenager, huh?'

Looking at the immobilized female, The young Uchiha raised an eyebrow. Logically speaking, he should already be on his way To Orvud district by now. Unfortunately, life had a lot of ways to get you sidetracked.

Now, he was here instead. Led by what he had seen in Gregor's mind, Seiji had delayed his journey to Wall Sina to do one extra Task.

To put an end to this Trafficking Ring.

The world was an inherently dark place, and Trafficking wasn't a new concept. Seiji had seen the same thing and worse in The Ninja world.

Entire Clans being slaughtered, small villages being destroyed, bodies of Ninjas sold, and backstabbing and betrayal between people of the same village.

The higher ups of Konoha sacrificed the entire Senju Clan for a wood release experiment.

Itachi slaughtered The Uchiha for the peace of The Village.

Fourth Kazekage Rasa sacrificed Pakura for Diplomacy reasons.

And The Third Hokage Sacrificed Hyuga Hizashi for the stability of The Village.

In the War Torn Shinobi world, the strong preyed on the weak. It was the same here. No more, no less. 

These Military Police had used their ranks to bully, rob and exploit those weaker than them, all because they could. He didn't like it, but In Seiji's eyes, this was normal.

In life, the line between right and wrong was usually very blurred.

Shinobi Villages were organizations that Mass produced heartless Killers brainwashed from a young age.

They waged war every few years For completely nonsensical reasons with No care for the innocent people their actions hurt.

They sacrifice thousands of lives in each war Just to obtain more benefits for the ruling class in an endless struggle for power, and they brand all those who they see as a threat to their rule as Rebel Nin.

As a Chunin, Seiji had killed dozens of people, many of whom didn't deserve to die. In the eyes of The Village, he did the right thing. In the eyes of others, he might be no worse than these MPs and those they worked for. Claiming otherwise would be hypocritical, so no. Seiji's reason for doing this didn't stem from some misled sense of Justice.

No.

He wasn't Uzumaki Naruto. Rather, he was self-aware.

The strong made the rules based on their personal principles, and the weak followed. Seiji's disgust stemmed not from the act itself but from the people carrying it.

The strong lead the weak, but be it The Nobles or The Military Police, they were far from strong. Especially the nobles.

Reading Gregor's memories had given him a clearly cut impression of the so-called Nobility class.

Lazy, weak, arrogant, stupid, pathetic, Hypocritical … and worst of all, Useless. Every single one of them, Trash Of The Highest Order. The Military Police were no better than the nobles they served—corrupt, complacent, and abusive, hiding behind authority they had neither earned nor deserved.

Just from The Memories and his own understanding, Seiji had seen enough to know that the difference between them and the root was that they weren't brainwashed, but did things of their own volition.

The same applied to him.

There was no Plan, no goal, and no aim here that benefited him. He had simply seen something vile, and he had chosen to end it. No more, no less.

Now, Five minutes later, Everyone else was dead.

In a moment's thought, Seiji's eyes glowed. This lasted for several seconds before dimming again.

"I see …" he thought. He had used The Sharingan to look into her memories. Naturally, his intent to kill vanished after seeing her inner thoughts.

Ren Dover. 18 years old, 15th rank Graduate from the Southside Region 103rd Cadet Corps. Joined the Military Police Nine months ago, and joined Gregor's squad Four months after.

"Now, what to do with you." The girl was different from the others. In the sense that she hadn't been engulfed in the Police Brigade for long and as a result, wasn't worth killing.

Not yet at least. Perhaps that would change in the near future, but Seiji didn't bother enough to care.

For now, she still had some humanity left in her. Hence in his eyes, killing her was pointless and unnecessary.

Seiji sighed, rubbing his temple as he pondered the situation. Killing her would be the simplest course of action, but unnecessary bloodshed had never been his style.

In that case, Seiji decided to just leave her here. Even if no one caused her physical pain to make her up, The Genjutsu would wear off eventually.

The rest wasn't his concern. He had spent enough Time in Trost anyway.

Thinking of this, he lost all Interest and turned to leave.

'Alright Then, let's just …'.

It happened then.

From the far end of the street, a wired projectile shot over at rapid speed. Heading straight for his legs.

'Huh?'