On this very day, Salt-Salt —the Tsuki Slave— dared to raise his voice at the Tama-Artists:
"Why are you treating us like criminals?! You're the ones who told us to kill that beast, yet you shifted the blame to us to save yourself! That I can understand, but why do you have to keep punishing us for it?!"
Katsura walks over to the young man with a dark glint in his eyes. Grabbing him by the hair, he grins malevolently.
"Why am I doing this, you ask? Because I feel like it."
It's the grim reality of the situation, even animals have more rights than them... especially, the right to flee from danger.
Before the young man could say, 'that's unfair,' Kastura slaps him square in the face, yelling: "Bring me the wheel!"
They were oblivious about what is the 'wheel,' but they knew it was something horrifying... Soon enough, their fears were confirmed, as ten Bushi rolled a giant metal wheel in their direction.
Some had guessed what was going to happen... mostly, Salt-Salt, who frantically fought for his life only to be beat by wooden clubs.
Without wasting time, katsura tied him up on the circular side of the wheel, before pushing him down the evergreen slop.
Ahhh!!
The young man screams echoed in the air, more so, the sound of his bones breaking apart from the weight of the wheel pressing against his fragile mortal body... those in his way dodged to the side, praying that the wheel shouldn't fall over.
Seeing the weapon of torture go over to the horizon, everyone sighed, thinking, 'my his flesh rest in peace,' they couldn't say soul after witnessing such a brutal method... also, the poor guy might as well be alive.
Satisfied, katsura and his gang clocks in for the day.
"See you tomorrow, it's going to be a long day."
The group were in an ineffable state after seeing the haunting experiences that happen to our beloved backdrop character, Salt-Salt... The hunger they had endured all day had vanished.
However, to those like Lucien and Shinji who had darker expectations saw this as a chance to rush and get food first. The two ate three pieces of bread each, and thanks to Shinji's big mouth, they received a generous share of porridge unlike those who followed. The amount was more than that of the others, generally because the old cooking ladies knew their struggles, and showed compassion.
After dinner, they headed to the sleeping shed. The lucky ones had the seniors save them a spot near the middle, like Tsukino, who had somewhat connected with the other girl in the camp.
Sora chose to sleep at the far edge of the shed, where the harsh night winds blew. She slept on her belly due to the pain in her back. Bored, she decides to strike up a conversation with Lucy, who slept at the end of the shed, where the blanket couldn't reach.
"Derniere-san, how do you manage to stay calm all the time?"
Lucy kept his head buried in his arms and replied:
"I don't argue with stupid people. I just shrug it off and say, 'You're right'."
Sora scoffed:
"But that's completely irrational and wrong..."
"You're right."
Sora's face twisted in rage:
"Did you just call Sora stupid?"
"You're right."
Sora's words caught in her throat, and she could only puff out her cheeks before looking away, tucking in the giant blanket, as she drifted off to sleep.
***
After a few minutes sleep, Lucien woke up. Clearing his mind a little, he walks away from the sleeping shed, picking his weapon. He met Shinji on his way out. The two didn't say a thing to each other, even though they were going in the same direction.
The training camp is equal in area to some of the largest plots in the reader's world. Filled with fields, gardens of different vegetables and flowers, together with orchards. Furthermore, these places were developed by the mortals' blood, sweat and tears, but they weren't allowed to touch a single fruit.
The two 19-years-old boys didn't care, —this is nighttime; anything could happen, even a Tama-Artist losing his life to mere mortals— picking up tangerines on the way, they headed past the slope to wash themselves in a river.
Upon removing their clothes, soft wood barks could be seen attached to their backs —the Tama-Artist were duped.
Dipping into the clear river which supplied the Bushi with drinking water —different from what the mortals drank from—, they discussed the Martial Arts they were working on.
Once done, they left in different directions.
Lucy into the forest to fight profound beasts as training.
Shinji to develop his art.
Upon reaching the forest, jade monkeys —red head, white body fur and amber eyes— jumped over at Lucien who disturbed them from ganging up on a poor kudu.
'I have guests already,' he thought, placing his giant hammer to the ground.
Lucy takes a fighting stance —closer to that of taekwondo; his limbs were enameled with a silver tincture.
As a useless stage 2 jade monkey approaches, he sidekicks it, twisting its red-head 360 degrees.
Crack!
Thanks to lacking intelligence, the profound beasts continued their assault. Rising his leg to form a 180 angle, Lucy kicks another one of the monkeys, sending it to the moon. Performing an X-kick, he pulverized one of the white fur-balls into broken bone and flesh.
Bam!
Slightly crouching, the young man with similar eyes to his opponents throws a barrage of punches. His accuracy wasn't 100 percent spot on; however, his mistake was covered by his rapid speed.
Finishing the match, Lucien performs a series of side-back kicks, twisting in the air to a point one could mistake him for someone flying.
Without breaking a sweat, he takes his otsuchi. Walking into the forest, he met a wood puma, which growled at him with clear malevolence.
He had faced such a beast on his birthday on the 13th day of the second month called Suna the previous year.
Memories played in his mind; then he was somewhat frail and got pulled a lot by the hammer he had. Now, he has a lean-balanced physic like a soccer player. Slender, yet his muscles are pronounced, not too much. Moreover, his scarlet hair had grown to his bellybutton.
His apprehension stoic, he rushes over to the wood puma doing the same, their speeds slightly matched.
Reaching, Lucy swings his silver otsuchi, aiming for the puma's side.
Bang!
The puma became wood and meat paste!
Somewhere in the sky, an angel of beauty with emerald eyes looked at Lucien's actions indifferently, crossing her arms.
"That's the half-brother of mine they want me to kill, because he is no longer a useful experiment."
—Does that mean, I need to kill everyone in the regiment camp?
'This is going to suck.'