Chapter 1: A Living Nightmare

"Kill...Kill...Kill."

"Who are you?"

"Kill...Kill...Kill."

"Why are you saying that? Kill who?"

"Kill...Kill...Kill."

Kazuki woke up in a cold sweat shaking from the nightmare he just endured. He looked around his room to see if anyone was in it with him. The bedroom was very simply put together and bare to say the most. There was one window and a dresser with multiple pictures of Kazuki an adult black male with hazel eyes, dreaded hair tied into a top knot, and a Goatee; alongside his daughter Nyx who had olive skin, wavy white hair, and sea-green eyes. He paused as he felt something like the soft brush of a hand against his hip. At first, he stayed still and held his breath, wondering if this was going to be the end of his life. When nothing came to pass, he slowly moved his hand to lift the covers up and over himself. There he found his daughter curled up against his leg. Kazuki gave a big sigh of relief, he then turned over to his nightstand and picked up his communication slate that sat by his bed.

"3 in the morning?" The sound was enough to make the girl readjust and turn her back.

"shut up daddy." She said soft and yawning voice.

Kazuki smiled and tugged on her ears softly. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be a big girl now? You said seven was supposed to be the big number" he teased. Nyx grabbed her ears and woke up, immediately giving him a pouty face. "Awe the poor baby regrets her words now."

Nyx punched him softly in the face. "don't laugh at me," she said sobbing.

Her hands were too small to do any damage, none the less Kazuki acted as if his face would cave in from the pressure. This made Nyx chuckle gently.

"So, sweetheart why are you in bed with papa?"

"Because I had a nightmare daddy." She cried as she lovingly wrapped her arms around her father. "I was alone in the rain all alone and then the thunder woke me up. Please don't send me back."

Kazuki pet his daughter on the head and soothed her crying by wiping her tears. He then put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry sweetheart, I know how much the rain scares you. You can spend the night with me."

Kazuki kissed his daughter on the cheek and laid her down to put her back to bed. He then laid there before the audible sound of a frog croaking caught his attention. He looked over to his nightstand to the left. There, sat a fairly sized frog, with red and green skin, and the eyes of a toad.

"Kill..." it croaked at him.

"No"

"Kill..." it croaked once more.

"You want me to kill, her?"

"Kill..."

"GO AWAY!" Kazuki threw a punch at the nightstand in an attempt to hit the frog. Yet, immediately after trying, he woke up once again in his bedroom in a cold sweat. The bedroom was empty save for him. It was currently morning, and the sun was shining through the curtains. Kazuki got out of bed and walked out of his bedroom. He passed by the living room which was adorned with pictures of Kazuki and his daughter at libraries or at his university and passing the TV which was playing the amazing world of gumball.

Kazuki walked over to the kitchen where he found Nyx making herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Oh, Good morning sweetheart."

"Good morning daddy, how did you sleep." Nyx took a short break from making her sandwich to hug him.

"I think I slept real good thank you for asking. How about you princess how did sleep" he said in a doting tone, hugging her back in the process.

"I slept like a big girl last night all on my own."

Kazuki gave a soft laugh and kneeled down to give his daughter a fist bump which she accepted. Kazuki then swooped over to the remote control and picked it up. "Hey baby, do you mind if I watch the news for a little bit?"

"Yeah, ok but only because you asked me nicely." She said finishing her sandwich and walking over to the couch to sit down.

Kazuki made a smoochie face to his daughter changed the channel over to channel news 5.

"This is channel news 5 in the morning. It's currently 8 a.m. And our first story this morning the island of Rolent just off the coast of Leiss has had an odd visitor at its port for the past 2 days and the citizens are becoming curious."

As Kazuki listened to the news he took a seat on the couch right next to his daughter.

"Hmmm" Kazuki mumbled to himself.

"What's up daddy whatcha thinking about?" Nyx said.

"Oh, nothing baby girl, just about how cute you are" Kazuki messed up his Nyx's hair making her complain.

The news anchor passed the segment over to a field reporter who explained the current situation. "The Ship that has been docked at the port is completely pitch black and no one knows why it's there."

"It looks really mysterious you know we dunno where it came from, and nobody around here knows why it's here. It's normal for ships to come here from Leiss to bring meats from the mainland but they're never solid black." The interviewer then switched over to a random child.

"I dunno I think it looks really cool, like a batman boat."

This made Nyx laugh to herself "Of course nick would say something like that."

As the news continues to the citizens, Kazuki is alarmed by the sound of croaking once more. His face becomes pained as he looks slightly upward. His face then becomes horrified and tortured as he shakes his head furiously.

"No! Why? please no not again"

"Kill..." The sound was more horrifying than ever.

"Go away go away go away." Kazuki holds his head in his hands having a mental breakdown crying as he realized the history he is reliving. "No, No, No, No, No, NO, NO, NO!" As everything around him faded into black. Kazuki found himself alone once again. He curled up into a fetal position waiting for the torture to end. "What do you want from me?"

When he asked that, the Frog appeared in front of him. Its eyes piercing deep into Kazuki's broken soul. "Kill..." it croaked.

Kazuki woke up violently which forced the stool he was sitting on to fall over and in turn making him hit the ground with a loud thud. The only other person in the all too familiar bar with him was Vaush a rotund man in stature who was wearing a graphic tee, of a suit and tie and faded jean shorts. The man looked almost completely normal, save for the fact that he had an elongated face and tusks protruding from his face on either side and his boar-like snout. On the TV just at the corner of the bar, Channel News 5 was playing going over recent events that had been taking place in Leiss for the past week.

"Well good morning their frogman, you seemed to have had a bad dream. Breakfast is on me buddy what do you want."

"Just gimme the usual and Vaush please don't call me frogman," Kazuki said as he picked himself up from the ground. He then picked up his stool and sat back down on it.

Vaush, laughing went over to the stove and pulled out a small pot before opening up a pack of ramen and dumping the noodles into the pot. "But I call you frogman out of love. Ever since you started living here you've handled the cockroach problem, the spider problem, that one time with the mice, and then when the caterpillars came -"

Kazuki croaked cutting him off as caught a fly with his tongue. "I hate reminders of my own curse call me anything else just not that."

The broadcast then changed going from Channel 5's 1 o'clock news to Channel 5's 2 o'clock news.

"Welcome to Channel 5 at 2 o'clock, bringing you the latest news The murder of the Rolent is one of the most horrifying cases of human loss in recent memories. In a single night, the 350 citizens mysteriously died. After thorough investigation, we at channel 5 news found that there may be 1 survivor, the scholar Kazuki Kazama..."

Once Vaush heard Kazuki's name on the TV he laughed sliding over a bowl of ramen to Kazuki. "Hey froggy boy you're on the news," Vaush said behind a snicker.

"Goddammit, that name is even worse!" He said as he pulled out a small baggie containing mealworms and mosquito larvae, which he dumped into his bowl of ramen. Vaush turned up the volume on the TV and took a seat on a stool on his side of the bar.

"You know, I dunno how you eat that stuff, it's really gross."

"Vaush, I like to think of us as good friends if you wouldn't mind not referring me to any kind of frog person that would be great." Kazuki didn't pay attention to the news even though they were talking about him. He was more focused on satiating his craving for worms and the flies that were buzzing around the room.

"...whose body was unaccounted for, his daughter's body found buried in his back yard." The Anchor continued. "If anyone has any information on this man or his whereabouts, please call this hotline so that this mystery can finally be solved."

Once Vaush heard the rest of the news broadcast he was pale-faced and almost shocked enough to fall off the stool.

"Careful there buddy, it's not a fun fall" Kazuki croaked.

"You consider us friends huh?" Vaush said in a stern voice as he balanced himself on the stool.

"Yeah of course good friends" Kazuki smiled directly at him making putting his hands under his chin to imitate his daughter looking cute.

"Ok then if you call us good friends then is there anything you need to tell me that may be important about your past? Maybe mighta happened 2 years ago?"

Kazuki pondered the question wondering why he was asking about something he barely remembered. "Anything I NEED to tell you? Uh, no not really why?" As Kazuki spoke he picked at his ear with his left pinky finger, making Vaush give him a visibly frustrated face.

"Would good friends" Vaush made quotation marks around good friends, "Not be in the know about each other's past?"

Kazuki looked at the balled-up ear wax on his pinky and flicked it away "you know buddy I'm gonna be real straight with ya," He croaked. "I have no idea what you are talking about." Kazuki's tongue shot out of his mouth to catch a fly around Vaush's ear.

Vaush had to dodge, because Kazuki's shit aim almost hit him. "Were you not paying attention to the news?" he said in a grunt.

Kazuki's tongue shot back into his mouth and shook his head slowly before swallowing. "Nuh uh"

"You know Kazuki, they call you a scholar and you don't act the least bit like one."

"Hey, don't push it! I didn't get those to look smart."

"Tell me what happened 2 years ago, what happened to your daughter."

Kazuki looked up at Vaush slurping his ramen the larvae and maggots sliding up into his mouth as he did. Before he is able to say anything, however, a rotund man with brown hair, big eyes, and wearing a tunic, barged into the bar, ran up, and jumped onto the stool between Vaush and Kazuki.

"I'm here to become a contractor!" Silence befell the bar and soon Vaush made a face that implying this was the last thing he needed in his bar. On the other hand, Kazuki was completely, and holly interested in this new random visitor.

"What's...a contractor?" Kazuki asked.

Vaush interjected before the new visitor was able to answer "Kazuki we were talking about s-"

"There's no way you don't know what a contractor is" Tompah said facing Kazuki, Isn't this the place to take the exam?" The man interrupted.

"No this isn't the place to take the exam go somewhere else," Vaush grunted making steam came out of his nose as he had had enough of this already.

Kazuki however, was even more curious about his earlier question now that Vaush was doing everything in his power to get the new guy out. "Vaush, what's a contractor?"

"That's not something you should worry about we were talking about something else-"

"Yeah, we were and then I wanted to find out what a contractor was." Kazuki interrupted making Vaush screw up his face.

"Do you really not know what a contractor is?" Tompah asked as if there was no possible way this man has never heard of one.

Kazuki let out a deep and loud sigh. "Apparently no one wants to tell me what it is, either."

The man scratched his head completely confused. "If you really don't know, maybe you should come with me and find out. I'm not gonna sit here and explain everything to you. Takes too much brainpower."

Kazuki croaked and then began to laugh. Before Kazuki could respond, however, Vaush interjected.

"So, as I said before I was rudely interrupted. We were talking about something, and you were leaving." Vaush pointed directly at Tompa directly at Tompah however Kazuki thought it would be funny to get in front of his finger.

"Well then sure I guess I'll go with you since Vaush just said I was leaving."

Vaush immediately tried to speak out "Not you Kazuki we were talking about-"

"Yeah, until I was interested in this and now, I'm leaving just like you said," Kazuki replied.

Vaush gave up and started to make a drink to ease the headache he was getting from this nonsense.

"Great maybe I'll pass this time. My name's Tompah, nice to meet you friend." Tompah outstretched his hand to Kazuki with the intent to shake his hand, but Kazuki outstretched his fist to give a fist bump. Tompah could not resist the urge to and Turkey'd Kazuki."

At that moment Kazuki looked down and slapped his forehead thinking to himself about what he has gotten himself into. "well if it gets me out of this then I'll do whatever I guess." He thought to himself. "Alright Tompah, let's get going, before Vaush changes his mind about me leaving" Kazuki joked.

"Yeah, hell yeah, let's go!" Tompah replied before bolting out of the bar with Kazuki.