Inmates Ballad: Beginning

20 Years ago, Bangladesh

A young boy with white hair and white yellow eyes levied himself on his teeter-totter. Parallel to him was a young girl with dark hair, purplish eyes, and barely any teeth.

The young brother and sister ran to the front of their house with a firm warning from their parents to wander only in the neighborhood.

The mother dressed in white. Her dark eyes were like a dragons, and her skin was pale. A bleach blonde, whose appearance contradicted her playful nature.

The father was a fair man, pretty tall, with dark skin, a pair of bright yellow eyes, and short brown hair. He was a gardener and a stern individual, but a loving father and husband.

This was life without Aragami barking at your door every day of your life. Not to say there were no Aragami at this time, but as they spread it was harder and harder to find safe places to live.

City or town life was a blessing that you could lose yesterday or tomorrow.

God-eaters hadn't been around that long either.

Over half the world's Capitals and Nations would cease to exist in the coming years.

This Haven would be no exception.

"Janna, Janna!" the younger sibling said pointing to a bed of flowers around a fence.

"Janna, we're not allowed to pick those!" the older brother warned.

"Janna!!!" The younger sister pulled her barely older brother towards the garden.

Despite only being able to say one word, her brother completely understood her.

"We'll get in trouble again!" the brother tried to argue. The sister ignored him and continued to harass him.

"Hey you two, come here Dad has a job for you!" the mother called.

"Janna." the brother said.

The younger sister pouted and was drug away by her brother to the house.

"Got another delivery for you two, say hi to the Gupta's for me, and no clowning around." the father said giving a small box of flowers to his young son.

The boy nodded and grabbed hold of his sister's hand and walked out of the house. However not without a quick peck from his mother, and a nuzzle on the cheek.

"Be good." the mother said.

The older child proudly walked down the street with his little sister like a soldier. To emulate her sibling the little girl did the same.

For the past year, It was the boys' duty to deliver plants to the neighbors for his father. The 5-year-old ever eager to please his parents never shirked the duty, since he did it on his own.

Whenever he made a delivery it brought relief to the receivers' faces, be it crops or flowers.

This community was placed just outside a FENRIR outpost, and in doing so didn't outright annul the aragami protection they offered, but it didn't qualify for a share of resources. Not without a price.

FENRIR took many things as compensation when the governments fell out of power. Land to develop their branches, transportation they could loan out, or registration to the Draft listing.

The way FENRIR's draft worked was if your DNA made a hit for god-arc you would immediately be signed up in the military.

Specifically the god-eaters.

Worse, the draft age was 13. Provided you weren't a ward of FENRIR already, then you'd practically be sent to battle at the start of your life.

The young child's father made a point to cultivate the usable land not only for himself but for others around him. To give people more options other than to be in FENRIR's pocket. The man knew in those times anyone and everyone would give up everything if it meant keeping away the aragami.

Not that he blamed them, but the price of survival wasn't always consistent.

As the child delivered his father's flowers, he saluted the middle-aged couple with his sister.

This would be the last delivery he'd make to them.

The Sirens came without warning

As the older sibling hummed to himself his own thoughts were drowned by the ensuing masses scrambling to and from their homes.

The sirens, the footsteps, then the screams...

The aragami weren't big, but many in number.

They came in like hordes of raptors. Sniffing out the inhabitants and wasting no effort in pursuit of their 'food' and not just the people.

The unfortunate inhabitants who encountered a beast face-first were quickly mauled, other aragami would instead focus on the buildings themselves to gnaw at the brick and concrete.

The boy took hold of his sister and ran for their home.

BOOM!

Debris began falling when the aragami ate through the weaker homes. When they struggled with devouring the hard material they would hurl a piece of it towards another hard surface.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The smoldering chunks caused a dustup, and so the young child pulled his sister closer. He couldn't see anything clearly, but he could hear the horror ensue around the town.

Passed the echos, passed the rumbling, and passed even his little sisters shuddering, the boy made his way to his house.

But to his shock, a piece of debris blocked the front porch to the door.

"MOM! DAD!" the boy screamed, making his sister start whimpering.

"San-ghko! Can you hear u-gs!?" a woman's voice yelled from in the house.

"MOM!" the boy screamed as he ran for the window.

"Son, we're inside! Is your sister okay!?" the boy perked up hearing his father's voice.

"Janna's here!" the boy said, holding his crying sister.

The boy frantically started thinking of how to get them out. They needed help, they needed a god-eater.

Looking around the boy could only see aragami and turmoil. To which he could not guarantee his sister's safety. With a trembling jaw, the boy took his sister's face in his hands.

"Janna listen to me, I"m gonna find a god-eater and I'm gonna come back with them, ok?" the boy said fearfully, feeling tears build up in his eyes.

The younger sibling shook her head in protest, whimpering Janna constantly.

"Mom and Dad are inside, hide under the house! MOM, DAD, I'M BRINGING HELP!" the boy screamed as he hid away his sister, and ran back into the dustup.

The pain he felt ignoring his sister's cries, would haunt him for years to come.

Run

Find help

Run

Find help

Though he could barely see two inches in front of him due to the smoke the boy kept moving.

A blessing in disguise. The child wouldn't see his neighbors fall victim to the Aragami, and the Aragami wouldn't see him.

It didn't last though. When it finally cleared, the child would see all the chaos laid bare.

More residents running for their lives or trying to vainly fight back.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The white-haired boy flinched hearing the cries of not people, but Aragami.

Upon finding the source, the child's eyes landed upon a red armlet.

"It was a God-Eater!" he thought.

This was a Generation 0 God-Eater. Compared to any Gen-1 god-arc theirs were tiny comparisons. Gen 0 uses god-arcs the size of pistols and other handguns.

He made a bee-line for the god-eater, his heart full of relief.

The god-eater in question, reloaded his god-arc, taking in the surroundings, or lack thereof. When they felt tiny arms clutch their legs, they almost shot in a panic.

"Please you have to help them! My family's over there!" the boy screamed, pointing back at the path he took to get here.

When the god-eater realized he was about to shoot a child they immediately pulled back their weapon.

"Please help them!" the child begged.

The god-eaters initial reaction was to comfort and aid the innocent. But it was not meant to be.

Just as the god-eater was about to take the child's hand to seek his family, the screams for help intensified around them.

Nearby was a building with numerous people trying to barricade the door. Aragami were about to break in any minute.

There were similar situations ongoing with only some able to find opportunities to run.

Meanwhile, the child begging them to save his family's lives was nowhere in sight.

The god-eaters heart sank. The building had 10s of people at least and the surrounding structures were still trying to evacuate.

They couldn't be everywhere at once, that was a simple fact.

But that didn't stop the god-eater from looking away. That didn't stop them from doing what they were going to do next.

The god-eater pulled away from the child, startling the boy.

"I'll find a way to get to your family, you need to head inside the compound, until then." the god-eaters tone betrayed their warning. They didn't look the boy in the eye as they ran to the nearby building under assault from the aragami.

The moment they were gone the child barely took in what happened.

They said they would find his family, that's good, right?

They'd go to them and bring them back to him. His mother, his father, and his little sister too. All safe and sound. Right?

He just had to go where he was told and everything would be fine right?

But if that was true, why did the god-eaters words sound so empty???

The yellowed-eyed boy ran back to where he came.

Through the screams, he ran to his house.

Through the roars, he kept running to the house.

Through the destruction and death, to see his family he kept running for the house.

When he finally arrived, he screamed for them.

"MOM! DAD!" the boy went to the crawl space where he hid his sister. She was not there.

The boy looked around the house and saw a section of the wall broken down near the debris blocking the door.

"JANNA!" he screamed, as he ran inside.

Room by room I looked all over the house. No one was in there. But after being lied to by that god-eater, I thought the worst. After I failed to bring back help I was surprised to find them all gone. My sister wasn't where I left her and my parents weren't in the house. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Was the opening that I went through man-made or did the Aragami get in?

When I got up to my room, all I could hear was the Aragami rampaging. Eating. The sounds of the people became fainter, and I could only hear the stampede of the swarm.

If I tried to go outside…I wasn't getting to my family even if they were alive. Not to mention there was an opening in the house big enough for people to get through, so the Aragami could very well be coming as I thought all this.

That's what I thought anyway…

Clamming up in my bed, I just lay there shuddering, whimpering for my parents over and over again.

...….

How long was I in there?

Hours at least…?

When I finally stopped and just stared at the walls of my room, I finally noticed something.

Nothing.

No sound.

No screams.

Just silence.

Aragami weren't in the house either.

How could this be?

The child looked through the window and saw no signs of disturbance. Not a soul in sight.

He warily exited his room and not a thing was out of place upstairs or downstairs.

No signs of Aragami.

Once outside the child could see nothing left in the neighborhood.

Not even fence posts were left. Except for the ones around his house.

The child was confused. They instinctively marched out to find answers.

There were splotches of blood on the ground, but no bodies. The houses that led to the FENRIR compound were all dust.

The Aragami did what they did best.

Hunt, kill, consume.

Down to the last microbe.

As he found the compound, he saw a wide gap in the wall, and numerous prints, both human and Aragami.

Deeper as he went in, it was clear tragedy had its way within the compound. A lot of blood and still no bodies.

Not even the god-eaters.

The boy saw a lone pistol arc on the ground but gave it little to no attention.

But when he saw one lone doll he dropped to his feet.

This doll was his sister's. His parents must've come here with her.

But of course, that would mean, they were among the victims?

The compound was in shambles, and the only reason there was one left, was due to a battle.

A battle FENRIR terribly lost.

With a frown, the boy clutched the doll and returned it to the earth.

There was nothing left for him now.

This outpost was planned to become a Bangladesh Branch of FENRIR, in cooperation with the populace. A haven for the coming hordes of Aragami to come, with its own Shield Wall.

A shield wall that didn't last a damn day. Something big ran at the wall and tore it in two for the smaller Aragami.

At least that's what I thought happened. Even if the smaller ones were the only threat, the god-eaters were massively outnumbered.

That god-eater who told me to leave my family behind. They didn't live long enough for me to hate them.

There was only 1 remaining Gen-0 god-eater who lived for more than a decade. The rest all over the world died, before Gen-1 god-arcs were made.

Along with my family…

The entirety of Bangladesh and any hope for a Bangladesh Branch were extinguished.

All that remained was one house...