Heroes to Hunted

The next hour was spent dodging between the traffic of frantic guards while traveling to the service tunnel.

Oddly enough, there was always a clear way forward. Whenever the hallway split into varying branches, we'd always find the other sections crawling with opposition.

'It's like they're leading us,' I scowled. Though I made that realization, I had no choice but to be a puppet to their whims. There was no time for hesitation, and escaping this hellhole was the only thing on my mind.

Eventually, we came upon our first landmark. Within it were our few living countrymen. They were huddled together, forming four-person partitions, with each being secured inside moldy cells that weren't unlike the ones I'd found Agawa in.

Upon seeing Takagi and me, they turned to desperate begging and threw themselves against the bars. The masses clamored loudly as they reached out toward me for deliverance from their fates.

"Please! Please help me!" an unkempt man begged.

"Oh, thank god! You're here! I knew you'd come!" a girl smiled ecstatically.

"I was starting to lose faith!" a woman said while covering her mouth with teary eyes.

"Always leave it to the soldiers!" a grizzled man grinned. "You're one to be counted on! Now let us out!"

However, rather than freeing them, I motioned to proceed forward. I didn't have time to be weighed down by so many liabilities. I couldn't afford to babysit a horde of potential weaknesses.

I took several steps past when they'd realized my intentions. When that happened, dozens of voices cried out in despair. All attempting to halt my advance.

"No, NO! WHERE ARE YOU GOING! PLEASE!"

"Don't leave us!"

"I'm begging you, please... I have children! Don't leave me here!"

"Where the hell are you going?! Get us out of here! It's your damn job!"

With each panicked plea, my resolve to abandon them was shaved away, bit by bit. It wasn't long before I stopped in place entirely. My mind was at war, caught in an internal conflict between morality and self-preservation.

'There's no time! Don't be a fucking idiot, Katsuro!' I clenched my hands and teeth as I reasoned with myself. 'You have no obligation to them; there are no heroes. Just keep going.'

Meanwhile, their hands clawed desperately toward me through the bars of their cell.

"PLEEEEASSSEEE!!!"

"DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE US!"

"C'MON! JUST LET US OUT!"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"

Their incessant bawling formed a tether, a ball and chain that wrapped around my legs. I couldn't move forward, even if I wanted to. Eventually, Takagi spoke up from within the anguished shouts.

"Hey, soldier guy," he rubbed the back of his head and rolled his eyes, "we should probably help them. I'd lose sleep if we left them here."

'If even Takagi is showing them concern, I guess I can't leave them behind.…' From that, I made my decision. I cast my gaze to the floor and muttered a single phrase that summed up my situation. "...I'm so fucked..."

Finally, I took a deep breath and reached for the keys I'd stolen from the manor's security. Fortunately, there were no guards around, presumably because of the chaos that Takagi caused at the mess hall. Otherwise, they would've been upon us like a swarm of hornets from all the shouting these damn civilians did.

I unlatched each cage one by one, during which my countrymen gave their sincerest thanks. When they were all released, they formed a herd behind me. As I collected more of them, I performed a mental headcount. By the time we'd reached the last cell, I realized we'd been missing over a dozen people, including the suspiciously friendly Kamida.

"Where do you think the Conman ran off to?" Takagi asked with an irritated growl, then looked around and grunted. "Maybe he's dead already," though his tone sounded indifferent. I could tell he felt a degree of worry by how restless his body became.

"He's around here somewhere," I attempted to ease Takagi's worry with fake optimism. "We'll find him," I said while checking my map. 'And die trying…' I  cynically added.

The captives now freed; our next order of business was to search for the service tunnel. It was honestly a stroke of luck that the tunnel was so close to here.

Thinking of that luck, I felt a queasy feeling in my gut. It was the kind that told you to stop and reflect on what you were thinking. Complete and utter self-doubt.

'This is all...easy. Too easy,' I ground my teeth together in frustration. I hated playing into my enemy's games..

Despite feeling that, in my heart of hearts, I shouldn't trust something as suspicious as the good luck I'd been blessed with, I had no choice. I had to take the risk. My options were between the uncertainty of a skepticism-inducing tunnel and the certainty of death if I stayed here.

I took a deep breath and trudged forward, my heart pounding with a mix of fear for the unknown and my determination to live.

When we passed the cells and reached the harvesting wings, what greeted me were dozens of more cries.

I looked at Takagi, and he nodded back with a serious expression. 'Guess that means we're saving everyone. Whatever, I already drank the poison, might as well lick the bowl clean.'

When we came to the first room, I whispered to Takagi. "Stay here; you don't need to see this."

He grunted at me in disapproval but clicked his tongue and followed my orders.

His compliance genuinely surprised me, but I guess even he knew now wasn't the time to argue or make a scene. We had to be as quiet and efficient as possible.

When I peered inside the chamber, I was glad to have sent Takagi away. It was a sight that took a lifetime of therapy to alleviate. At least to a normal civilian. Though it shocked me at first, I was confident in my ability to adapt to the sights of pure evil. In the end, a picture depicting dozens of corpses was just another Tuesday for me.

As expected, the cadavers were strung up from the ceiling, with one still stuck to the operating table. A pool of blood was draining down the slanted table into a large collection bucket.

Though it was too late, I dashed into the room and, like how I did with that young girl, I knocked out the harvester with a single blow. I couldn't afford to leave anyone conscious to alert the manor's security of our plans. If they didn't already know, that is.

After that, we resumed moving at a steady pace, and I apprehended each harvester as we went, with some more capable of fighting than others. I managed to knock out a few more, but most were frenzied with an unnatural zeal. Sadly, their unyielding nature added even more marks to my total kill count.

When all was said and done, I ended up saving very few of my countrymen from their harvesters. Most were already drawn and quartered, left in multiple bloodied pieces to greet me. Most rooms contained the same scenes I'd witnessed within the first harvesting room.

The bodies of my countrymen were stripped down to the basest portions of their flesh and hung by blood-caked hooks. Their various sliced and bent appendages were tossed in a bin, and their blood was dumped into another.

We finally reached the last room of the wing, and our momentum slowed as we approached.

Knowing they were liabilities, I sent the civilians ahead with Takagi and the map toward the service tunnel I'd marked for him earlier.

"Just be careful," he grumbled. "You're about the only competent person here. Aside from me, of course," he finished with an arrogant smirk.

"I'll be fine, just get going," I replied flatly.

He snorted at me, and led the herd of panicked civilians like a shepherd with sheep. I took one last look and felt a degree of confusion. 'Is there one more among us?' I thought with curiosity. 'No, I'm probably just tired,' I sighed. 'Besides, I have bigger problems right now.'

Without the herd to worry about, I began creeping to the door to not startle any inhabitants who might be inside. It was challenging to maintain such a slow approach. My leg muscles were spasming lightly from fatigue, and my awareness was corroded by delirium, which didn't exactly paint a picture of a master prowler.

When I came to the entrance, I thanked myself for tolerating the discomfort and remaining patient. After I heard the conversation within, I readied myself to breach.

"You lucky bastard," I silently chuckled.

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