After what seemed like an hour I finally arrived at the Runasi Haruhiko Portable Arena, where he hosts an opportunity for anyone to come and kill him in a battle. There was a front gate where you had to register to be added to the line. There were so many guards there I couldn't even get an exact count of how many there were. This place is more guarded than the school. Also at the front gate there was a sign listing the rules of the place, if you didn’t follow them you will be shot and killed. The rules were as follows.
NO WEAPONS ON THE GROUNDS
EMPTY YOUR POCKETS AT THE FRONT GATE
NO FIGHTING INSIDE OF THE PERIMETERS
NO KILLING ANYBODY INSIDE THE PERIMETERS
NO SKIPPING THE LINE
PLEASE REGISTER HERE
GIVE YOUR FULL NAME AND AGE
YOU WILL ALSO HAVE TO DO A FINGERPRINT SCAN TO MAKE SURE THE I.D MATCHES
THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING THESE RULES
The rules were very clear that it was stupid to not follow them. Luckily, the entrance gate didn’t have that long of a line, so I can ask if Eric has registered. If he has, then I need to get in there and tell him off. I waited in the line and I was pretty inpatient, which is very understandable. It finally got up to me and the receptionist asked.
“Name and age please”
“I’m not here to register, I need to know if a person named Eric Pulpis has registered here. He’s eighteen.”
“I’ll check”
The lady looked over at her terminal and typed in the name Eric Pulpis.
“Yep, he checked in about a minute ago”
Shit, he’s already checked in, I was hoping I would get him before he went inside. Now I have to go inside, I owe it to my family.
“Actually, I’m gonna register.” I said back to her.
“Alright, name and age please.”
I told her my name and age. I did my fingerprint scan and she let me in. When I walked in, or should I say I ran in the place that looked like a prison courtyard. People all around, mainly males, some females they all looked around the age of 20-30. I looked around all over the place to find Eric but I could not find him anywhere. Did that woman lie? No, that wouldn’t make sense she has no reason to. Finally, after a minute I saw him. Time to talk him out of it. I ran all the way up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders.
“What the fuck are you doing!?” I yelled, shaking him.
“How the fuck did you find me!?” He responded back, pulling my hands off of his shoulder.
“I got home and heard from mom you went here. Why!? Just why!?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“I don’t need to understand, I just need you to come back home!”
“I can’t”
“Yes you still can! You can come back home and apologize to them.”
“There’s no way they’ll ever accept me again!”
“You don’t know that!”
“I do, Lee! Ever since i’ve graduated from school is the day I was officially disconnected from the family. They’ve looked at me differently ever since, as the monster I'm currently am today.”
“Come on Eric, you’re not a monster.”
“You know that I am better than anyone else! You saw what happened in that alley yesterday, I saw that look on your face. You were scared of me, so don’t act like I'm not one. I know what I am!”
“Eric just-”
A scream echoed throughout the courtyard as everyone looked over as two men were fighting and one of the men stabbed the other. The man was screaming as he fell down to the ground with his stomach stabbed. The man who stabbed him was shot in the head by one of the guards and a group of them arrived on the scene. The guards took the body and the guy who got stabbed away.
“Go home Lee, tell everyone that I'm coming back with government protection.” Eric said, turning away from me.
“No! I’m not leaving without you!”
“I told you to leave, you're not changing my mind!”
God, he’s just not listening, why won’t he listen!? This just doesn’t make sense! What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? I need to come up with something fast!
“If you don’t leave with me! I’ll stay here and die with you!” I said knowing that’ll shake him up. If he really still cares about me, he’ll leave. I know he doesn’t want me to go through with this, whether he’ll think i’ll die or not doesn’t matter. He doesn’t want me to get hurt. So no matter if he thinks he can take Runasi on, he’ll still leave to make sure I won’t die.
“Great, we’ll have double the chances.” He said, not even looking back.
No! He’s really serious about this! I can’t stop him, I just couldn't save him, I'm so sorry. My arms slumped down and I looked down at the ground. There’s nothing else I can do, I would hit some sense into him, but I would get killed.
“I’ll tell them that you died as the failure you were.” I said angrily back as I turned away and began walking. I wanted that to be the last words I said to Eric, to reinstate that he’s making a bad decision, so hopefully he’ll back out. The moment I started walking away when an announcement was made on a PA system.
“Back outs are now no longer allowed, you cannot back out anymore and the gates will be locked. Hopefully you all have come to terms with your situation right now, we wish you all good luck. Start forming a single file line at the door please.”
Wait, the gates are gonna be locked? No, I need to get out now! I ran to the gate and banged on it and begged for them to open it. Until a guard threatened me to stop. This can’t be happening! I need to get out now! I’m not dying here, there’s no way! I’m not going out the same way my brother did. I started hyperventilating, my thoughts were rapid firing, I was sweating like bullets. Get me out of here! I yelled in my mind thinking any merciful god would hear me and grant my wish. But, of course, help never came, only the reality of the situation slowly settling in.
“Looks like you're not leaving at all. Now get in line” Eric demanded me as he walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. I felt nauseous, like I needed to throw up. This is where I die. My whole world is falling apart at the seams, every single thread is being loosened and ripped out. I stumbled into line behind my brother, we were the people near the back. I could barely stand up, I was trembling, my knees have never been so weak. The guards opened the door and we all went inside of the building.
Inside was a long hallway with the walls surrounding us made of pure steel. I couldn’t really see anything down the hall, but I could see a hint of light. Waiting in the line was the most stressful thing ever. I wasn’t thinking about my strategy, I was thinking about what my family would think, that i died the same way my brother did. Would they think ‘Why did he go fight Runasi with Eric? Was he also delusional? Didn’t he go to try to stop him? Why did he join him?’ So many questions but no answer.
My thoughts were overwhelming to the point that I didn’t know that I was close to my turn to fight. It was getting closer and closer as I could hear the screams and yells from the people who went before us. Now that I was closer to the light, all I could make out was that the room was bright and the walls were also white. It looked like an endless void of white from how bright it is.
The time has come, the person just in front of Eric was now up for his turn, the plexi glass between the arena and the hallway opened up. For a brief moment, I saw the man himself, Runasi Haruhiko. A guy with brown hair and an emotionless face. The plexi glass closed and I expected the usual, a scream and a yell then silence. Instead an audible gasp from my brother, I looked up to see what was going on. The guy had a gun, a fucking gun, aiming directly at him. Was this guy about to kill Runasi right here, right now. The loud bang from the gun echoed throughout the whole arena. My heart shook as I thought this guy was gonna be the first one to kill him. My brother probably felt the same way, but instead a shocking revelation happened.
Blood splattered onto the plexi glass. I was confused at first as it didn’t make sense, it wasn’t Runasi who had the gun, and the gun didn’t have explosives. No, the guy holding the gun was dead on the ground. One of the guards must’ve shot him right? The next second the guards came in. So who shot him? If it wasn’t the guards who was it?
“He ricochet the bullet.” Eric said in disbelief.
“What?” I said back.
“How did he- It’s just impossible”
It took me a moment to realize that he must’ve blocked the bullet with his bat and then it ricochet off the bat and hit the guy in the head. That has to take inhuman speed to even pull off, hell years and years of practice.
Now’s not the time for that, with that guy dead, it’s Eric’s turn, the moment I dreaded is finally gonna happen. I couldn’t control my panic, I grabbed Eric by the shoulders and hoped for their to be a way out at this point. Please! Don’t let this happen. Eric pulled my hand off of his shoulders and took a deep breath.
“Don’t worry Lee. This may be our last moment together, but this is all gonna be worth it. I promise! No matter if he goes down by my hands or yours, one of us is gonna take this fucker down. No matter what.”
After Eric said that, the plexi glass in front of him opened up and he stepped inside.
“Please keep your promise!” I yelled into the room, and the plexi glass closed in front of me and I was now in the front row seat of this fight that would change everything. There was no way I could contain my tears, they were pouring out like a waterfall and I put my hand on the plexiglass. Eric gave a thumbs up and Runasi charged at him.
Runasi came in with a big swing but luckily Eric was able to dodge, and the next attack he was able to dodge. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them, I know the chances weren’t really high, probably even zero, but I believed in Eric, he was so strong and I knew that. Maybe he did have it in him.
Attack kept coming faster than my eyes could keep up, but Eric was still dodging. The problem is that Runasi is not gonna give Eric an opportunity to strike, not even gonna let him think about doing it. Come on Eric, you’re clever you can do this! Just got to catch him off by surprise.
It felt so long until there was finally a point where Runasi was kinda slowing down, his attacks weren’t as fast, maybe Eric can get a hit in, take his bat and kill him. He can actually do it, if he keeps this up maybe he’ll have a chance. I also didn’t realize that Eric was slowing down as well, dodging like that for prolong periods of time is very exhausting, if they keep going like this they’re gonna be at the same level until one of them slips up.
Then, as that thought appeared in my mind it soon popped like a balloon. Runasi swinged but he was bit off, he completely missed Eric. Eric, doing the same thing as I would do, took this opportunity to actually try to land a hit. He rushed forward and pulled his fist back. This is it! He’ll be the first to actually land a hit on the infamous Runasi Haruhiko.
Eric swung, and he missed, Runasi dodged his attack. He’s now right behind Eric, it was all too much of a blur but the next moment I knew, Runasi swung his bat down
“NO!” I shouted.
Eric’s body flew against the plexi glass and it startled me and I jumped back bumping into the guy behind me. Runasi then beat Eric right next to plexiglass, hitting him over and over in the head, just like Eric had done to those guys in the alley. He kept beating him over and over and I was forced to watch in horror as his blood began to spread all over the glass. I screamed as it was all unfolding in my eyes.
Eric is dead, he’s dead. He’s fucking dead. I hit myself to make sure this all wasn’t a bad dream, I didn’t want to accept what was happening right now. My own brother is being beaten to a pulp in front of me by the most dangerous person to ever walk this earth.
Runasi stopped beating but i was too busy crying and screaming to even notice, I looked at the lifeless body of my brother, hoping that he would just get back up. But that wasn't going to happen, I'm just refusing the reality i’m currently living.
Guards came in and cleaned up the body, next thing that happened was the glass opened up and I was forced to walk through the glass. I felt nothing, no thoughts were going through my head, only the horrific image of my brother’s body engraved into my brain. My body moved on its own and stepped into the arena, I tilted my head up and saw the figure of Runasi Haruhiko staring directly into my soul. His face is the most emotionless and deadpan face i’ve seen in my life, the lack of humanity is terrifying. It’s the face of a man who has lost everything in his life and is still living on for no reason.
It is now my turn, to avenge my brother, and to be the first person to kill Runasi Haruhiko131Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBElVrB9POp
