Kannagi looked at the rats as they squeaked past him.
That meant the restaurant was discarding the leftover food early tonight.
Gulping and suddenly feeling the pit in his stomach again, the 11-year-old urchin fell into line with the rats.
He was wearing something like a shirt, but it was too filthy and torn to tell its origin.
Under the shirt, he wore half pants, brutally torn at the edges, his bare feet sliding over the slimy concrete.
He grabbed the edge of the wall, the light from the bulb over the restaurant's back door falling on his dirty nails.
Yes.
The bald, fat staff member, oddly wearing a black suit, was already there today, throwing bags of leftovers into the dustbin.
The man kicked a few rats away and then, suddenly, his eyes snapped toward him.
Kannagi hid himself behind the wall, his breath quickening involuntarily. The dread on his face was so much that it made his extremely thin face even thinner, his small chest rising up and down like a deflated balloon. His sunken, black eyes fell inside his skull even more, and he planted his bony back deeper into the wall, trying to sink into it, if possible.
"Who's there?!" the man shouted. "Bastard, I will kill you if I see you here ever again! You hear me?! Some slut's fucking leftovers… Tch!"
A bam reverberated as the door slammed shut.
But Kannagi didn't move. Not until he heard the sound of squeaks again. Now that was a sound he trusted, meaning the man had actually left, unlike the last time.
You don't have to eat, drink, or sleep…
"I know…" Kannagi mumbled, leaning his head out. "But…"
The door opened again.
Kannagi was about to snap back to the security of the wall's shadow when he heard her.
"Kan…" it was a small, hushed voice. "… are you there?"
A brilliant smile blossomed on Kannagi's face.
He walked out of the shadow and looked at her. "Eri…" he said, approaching the girl. "I thought you wouldn't be here today…"
Now that's a lie…
Kannagi ignored the voice and patted the little girl's head.
After years of… surviving the streets, he had finally made a friend. A friend! He was happy… Now, he knew why people in pubs made so much fuss about that word.
Eri looked over her shoulder at the slightly opened door.
Then, she looked back at Kannagi, her eyes falling to his hands. "Where's the doll I gave you…"
"It's safe!" Kannagi hurriedly told her, remembering the small Mecha robot she had given him. "I am using it for… well, for something very, very important."
Eri nodded, smiling. "Oh, wait…"
With little steps, she went inside and came back only moments later, carrying a comic.
"Is this the one you like?" Eri asked, showing the image of a white-blue Mecha on the cover.
Kannagi's eyes lit up. "Whoa…" he reached out to grab Space Mecha Volume 3 as if it were a holy grail. "You… how did you… this is very, very pricey…"
"It is?" Eri asked, puzzled.
Kannagi nodded. "Look…" he showed it to her, flipping the pages. "It's only torn a little and has all the pages. Must have cost a lot… Restaurant people sure are rich…"
"But…" Eri hesitated before she lifted herself on her toes.
Kannagi brought his head down and gave her his ear.
"… It's not a restaurant," Eri whispered.
"It's not?" Kannagi hissed, shocked. "Then, what…"
The boy was about to ask, straightening his head, when he noticed the shadow that had fallen upon the two of them.
In pure silence, Kannagi continued to raise his head and looked at the person who was standing at the threshold of the open door.
It was a tall man, wearing a large, black cape. He had a hat over his head, and on his face… There was a crow-like plague mask.
"So you are our Eri's… mysterious visitor," the man said flatly. "Who sent you here?"
Haha…
Kannagi didn't find anything funny. His face had gone so pale, and his heart was beating so fast that he didn't even know he had the strength to say something. However, as if his mouth didn't belong to him anymore, he opened it and answered… truthfully.
"A God," Kannagi said, his eyes popping out of his skull in absolute shock.
Silence.
The man continued to look down at the boy from behind his strange mask.
In between the two of them, Eri had begun crying, brokenly sobbing and pleading not to hurt her friend.
"A God told you, you say…" the man said after a while, two massive men appearing behind him. "What is your God telling you now?"
Kannagi didn't want to say it.
Not with the two bald men, one of them being the same person who had brutally beaten him last time, eyeing him down as well. Yet, the urge to answer… truthfully… had never been stronger inside him, especially for all the lies he had spoken over the years to survive.
"He's saying…" Kannagi tried to clench his teeth, but failed. "… I am powerful enough to kill all three of you…"
The two burly, bald men broke out in a fit of laughter.
The masked one… didn't. He bent, grabbed Eri's hand, and dragged her inside. Before he could disappear behind the closing door, though, he looked over his shoulder and said, "… kill the boy."
Earth gave way under Kannagi's feet.
Before the two men could even process the kind of order the masked man had given them, Kannagi turned around and bolted.
Years of beating had taught him to never think before hiding himself from the… eyes.
No family. No friends. No Quirk…
If he were killed, no one would even come to look for him, he knew.
So, Kannagi ran for his life, clutching the comic tightly in his hand. That's the only way of running he knew anyway. It was the fear of losing his life that had made him so fast, despite his lanky, malnourished physique.
Sadly, he was small.
Sadly, the two men chasing him weren't ordinary citizens.
If it had been before, then Kannagi would have lost all hope.
Now? Now, he had a plan.
Why? Because God was on his side.
The same God who had appeared to him two weeks ago.
The same God who had given him powers and… a name.
"I…" Kannagi panted. "Can I… really defeat them?"
Of course… The God agreed. As long as… I am on your side, Kannagi.
********************
Note: Up to 60 more chapters are available in advance across three Tiers. [Use the link in my webnovel profile to access all options]
You can even subscribe Trial Tier for just 1.99 dollar to have an experience of exclusive chapters for an entire month, along with all the Exclusive Images. I hope a few of you will consider supporting the work.
100 Power Stones/day: +1 Bonus Chapter next day