1.4 : Meeting Spike!

"Huh?" Tedashii came back to his senses as Martin finished explaining everything to him. 

"Wait, I don't understand! Sensei, how do I not remember any of this?"

"That's the whole point of a Reviver. Once you recoup your body, you won't remember anything. But in your case, what happened was that you split your house and everything below it. Your grandfather was outside when all of this happened. When we reached there, all we could do was save a little girl, a woman, another guy, your father, another girl, and your sister. You caused what we call a 'Calamity'."

Tedashii began to cry. He couldn't believe what he did without even being attentive.

"Everything that wasn't inside the house was split in half. Giyora, Izanami, Yuri, Konami, Sasha, and Sanji were all found in the house. But the man named Sawashiki was found in two pie-"

"NO!! I WOULD NEVER KILL…Kill…my own…family…right."

"Tedashii…are you asking me that…"

Tedashii stopped speaking and kept wailing. The one man who always loved him and his sibling, the man Konami was so close with. Tedashii was the one to terminate the small fraction of life he had left. Martin held him by his hair and asked him.

"Tedashii. Are you a Fushigiri?!"

"I DON'T KNOW, I DON'T F*CKING KNOW. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH ME!! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!!"

Martin stopped pulling and looked at Tedashii's head. The light kept glowing blue, which confirmed he was not lying. All that existed was despair and tension integrated within him. Martin then sighed and told the guards to let his chains loose.

"I'm sorry, Tedashii. I'm only doing my job." As Martin left the room, they removed his chains and left. Tedashii sat upright on the bed, glaring at his hands with disbelief against Martin's statement; he hoped it was all a lie.

"Don't get all worked up, Tedashii." Tedashii stopped spacing out and looked up. Gaiyato came by to sit beside him, but Tedashii had no sign of joy in his eyes. All he wanted was to hear the truth from kin.

"Uncle, is what that guy said…true?" Tedashii asked, hoping Gaiyato wouldn't say what he didn't want to believe. He sighed and then took off his mask.

"Tedashii, what are you talking about?"

"That I turned into a freak. I injured my family. I hurt Sanji…Sasha…and…and…I"

"You did??" Gaiyato acted surprised.

"Did I… kill Grandpa?"

Gaiyato's expression went back to disappointment as he heard what Tedashii said. "No, it's the truth. He is gone."

  Tedashii stopped sobbing and looked up. "Wait, what?"

  "Tedashii, everything Martin said was true, but you didn't kill anyone (UNLESS HALF A GROUP OF BANDITS IS NO ONE). Sawashiki is in the hospital with the rest of the family (he is as GOOD as dead). Yes, he is in critical condition (He's dead). But his death is just what Martin wants you to believe (... it's true). He tried to lie to you (Telling the truth), hoping you'd break down and say something that would have gotten you in trouble (He's dead…)." Gaiyato tried to cheer Tedashii up...with his inside voice whispering in his head.

Tedashii sat there in complete silence with a revolting emotion against Martin. He clenched his fists as hard as possible before slowly turning to Gaiyato. "What does he want from me?"

  "What any interpreter would want, to be right (he..already is). He wants you to lose the apprehension today, the sad thing being your death is his prediction. You have to prove him wrong."

Tedashii got up from the bed. He looked around at the bruises from the tight chains and the battle he had, but they didn't bother him that much. On the bench, he saw the snow goggles his grandfather gave him. He wore it around his neck, took the clothes on the desk, and then walked to Gaiyato.

"Where are we, uncle? I was supposed to head to the Meadow town apprehension with Sasha. Where is she?"

Gaiyato stopped smiling. "Tedashii, you are at the exact opposite place. Welcome to the Codification Reckon. It's almost like the event you should have attended, but your life is at stake now. If you take longer than the time limit…I might be forced to…" Gaiyato then made a decapitating gesture, but Tedashii didn't faze. All he did was clench his fists and walk toward the door.

  "Thanks, uncle. I know now what I have to do. I will make it out alive, beat Martin to a pulp, and see my family again!"

Tedashii walked out of the interrogation room and went straight down the corridor. As he saw the light, nothing he'd expected awaited him on the other side. Suddenly shocked, he was in a room with many people staring at him from the entrance. They all looked formidable, for not a single one of them seemed human. The moment Gaiyato walked in next to Tedashii, all returned to normal.

"Uh…who are all these scary-looking freaks?!" he whispered.

"You know it isn't whispering if everyone can hear you," Gaiyato replied with a smile.

Tedashii looked at everyone, and they all stared back. He then took Gaiyato to the corridor.

"They will be your friends and enemies for the next three days. They are all Revivers (they're not...or BELIEVE they are) like you, but they're not as kind, so be careful."

"Alright, I'll just try not to catch any attention then…"

Tedashii then walked back into the room but then. "ALRIGHT, YOU GUYS! I PRESENT TO YOU THE CALAMITY OF QUARTS 1, KATSUNO TEDASHII. MAKE HIM FEEL WELCOME BECAUSE HE GETS IMMUNITY TO ANY CHALLENGE OF HIS LIKING!! (you're welcome)."

Tedashii asked for no attention, and Gaiyato gave him the exact opposite. Knowing Tedashii didn't want this to happen, all the attention went to him again. But this time, people stared from different points of view. Some smiled while others were surprised, and a majority still had their killing-intended glares at him. "Gulp…Uh, hey there…guys. I hope…we can all…interact…without wanting…to kill me."

  There was silence in the room, but thankfully, everyone began to laugh. Thinking that all calamities were big and dangerous, Tedashii set an irony to their thought.

"WHACHYA STANDING THERE FOR LITTLE MAN?! COME ON AND SIT DOWN!"

One of the men joyfully called Tedashii as his fear laid low again and walked to them with a smile. They made space for him to sit while laughing non-stop. Tedashii didn't know what they were laughing at, so he also decided to laugh with them. But that caused the humor to die out and set him back into the spotlight again, with the silence and the stares.

"So you're the calamity of this quarts, eh? Hope you don't look down on us, little boy. You'll die if you even try!"

All the men departed from that table, leaving him alone in the center of the room. He began to get mad as he could feel all the spiritas flowing in the room. They all detested him.

"They're not joking. Their spiritas in the room are weaker than mine, but they all would be enough to end me." A young man then sat on the chair across from him. He was dark-skinned and had blonde dye over his black hair. Yellow eyes glistened with excitement, and a confident smile on him.

"Yo, Spike! Hope you don't mind me sitting here~!" With such a sensual accent, he kept smiling at Tedashii. Tedashii felt annoyed by his overconfidence but was glad someone associated with him.

"Hey there, pleased to meet you. My name is…"

"(Tuts)!!!!" He interrupted Tedashii.

"Hold your horses spike; we aren't close at all~! Don't think we're friends or anything." The man stopped smiling. "You're the type of ronins I despise the most. Franco Cassoule, but its Franco to you. And just so you know, calamity or not, I'll make sure you lose here."

He slammed his hand on the table as he said that and walked away. People kept their distance from Franco, for it wasn't only Tedashii that notched the scent of his spiritas. He didn't understand why he was the sudden target of all these individuals, and they didn't want to repel their hostility. And with that, he stayed there, still trying to keep his composure.

A while later, Sanji walked into the room, but just as Tedashii waved and called to him, he frowned and walked to the opposite side. Tedashii was left disastrous now, so he decided to lie in his arms and stay calm.

"EVERYONE SETTLE DOWN. THE INTERPRETER HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING."

A guard said as they marched in with Martin and Gaiyato behind them. All the people standing found a place to sit, but everyone avoided Tedashii's table. Martin took a microphone and began his presentation.

"I'm sure you guys must be questioning each other regarding what you're doing here. Well, it's simple. You guys have been chosen as Legon City's special line of hope. The government has decided to use you fierce ronins… and calamities. This test will determine whether you are useful to us or just an ineffective corps."

All the ronins in the room darted around at each other. They understood the message behind his words; not everyone would leave here alive.

"There are ten quarts, where the other ronins are also located. And in each, there is what we call a calamity. In the case of this quarts, the calamity is none other than Tedashii Katsuno."

Everyone grunted as Martin mentioned his name. Tedashii didn't even dare to look anyone in the eye.

"As the calamity, he gets to decide your fate. You earned the spot for being the hardest one to restrain. Some of you came by free will, others picked a one-sided fight…but Tedashii put us to our limits. That is why he is the calamity of quarts 10. You shall leave this place as a team, solo or duo. So you better choose your allies wisely. You wouldn't want to be dragged down."

Gaiyato then walked in front of Martin. "And remember, you can't fight a member of your team. That leads to automatic dispatching unless it's to settle on the captaincy. And lastly, please don't cringe at each other; we'll kill you if you are. Modest teamwork and personal space are also nice. Good luck with survival, everyone."

They all got up and made their way to the exit. To not fall behind, Tedashii followed them.

They were making their way outside of the room. It was a deserted setting, with an edge facing opposite their direction. When one of the ronins tried looking down, he fell to his back as he witnessed pure horror. The other ronins also came to see, as all they saw was unexpected. A pit separated the ronins from the other side of the cliff. And when they looked closer, a rock was thrown at one of their faces.

SPLAT!!

His headless body fell to the edge of the ground right before it fell off the cliff. They all slowly looked closer and saw some lizard-looking creatures. They swarmed the bottom of the cliff as their terrain.

"What you see down there is what we call 'Demoniacs, the beasts swarming Legon City as we speak. Your survival term is simple: Either you go down the cliff, kill them all, then make it to the other side." Gaiyato said. "Or you try your best to make it over without dying. But if you just sit here and wait for the timer to hit 0…then we'll kill you ourselves."