The tears of despair vanished behind the faint sparks of hope that appeared in Koji's eyes. He stood up, staring at Rasten as he shouted:
"Really!! Please tell me!"
Rasten didn't reply to Koji, ignoring him as he walked out of the hut. Even so, Koji didn't give up and followed him outside, his eyes fixed on his sick sister.
"Wait, sir!"
The moment he stepped out, he saw Rasten standing there, staring at the clouds hanging in the sky as they blocked the sunlight.
Koji gathered his courage and asked:
"Excuse me, is there really a way to save my sister—"
Rasten turned toward him, cutting him off:
"There is only one way… money."
Koji tilted his head in confusion, but before he could speak, Rasten continued:
"If life were fair, no one would get sick, and no one would be too poor to afford treatment. Life isn't fair, is it?"
That truth struck Koji's pure heart, filling it with painful memories—how his parents died from Shird disease, how they lived in cursed poverty, and worse, he began imagining what would happen to them in the future, and what might happen to his sick sister as well.
"But I can compensate for what you lack in money. All you have to do is work for me."
Rasten interrupted Koji's spiraling thoughts. He stepped closer, his hand slowly reaching for Koji's neck as he said:
"Join my gang, boy!"
The spark in Koji's eyes turned into disappointment. He had thought the world finally opened its doors to him, only to find a barbed wall blocking his path.
"Are you kidding me?"
Koji spoke, his voice shaking with a half-stifled gasp, pulling away from Rasten's hand.
"You think I'll accept filthy money from a gang? You want me to steal and kill for a handful of coins?"
Rasten pulled his hand back and shoved it into his pocket. He took out a hand-sized pouch and extended it toward Koji.
"If you think you'll get this for free, you're wrong…"
He pointed toward the hut's open door, where Hana's weak, suffering silhouette could be seen.
"You will join my gang for her. Or… do you want to lose your sister over foolish principles?"
Koji's eyes widened as he struggled to choose. He took a shaky breath while staring at the ground. Rasten tossed the pouch to the ground. It burst open from the impact—silver coins spilling out, with a few gold ones mixed in. Rasten turned to leave and said:
"If you take even one coin from that pouch, you save your sister… and you join my gang, boy."
Rasten walked away, disappearing from Koji's sight. Koji stared at the pouch, breathing heavily as greed started crawling into his core.
'What am I doing? Why are these filthy coins pulling me like this? No… I don't want to be one of them! I'd rather die than join a gang!!'
Koji fell to his knees, gripping his hair tightly, clenching his teeth. He tried to steady his breathing, but the pressure inside him only grew heavier, leaving him with no choice but to scream.
"Daaamn it!!"
He was about to shout more, but a far stronger scream cut through his voice from behind him.
"AGHAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
It was his sister, Hana. When he turned, he saw her thrashing on her bed, screaming violently. This was one of the symptoms of Shird disease—sudden panic attacks.
He tried to stand and move toward her, but her blood-curdling screams filled him with terror.
"Dammit! If it were about me, I would rather die than join them! But my sister… she's the exception!!"
He reached out toward the pouch, grabbed it quickly, and just as he lifted his head—Rasten was standing right in front of him, staring down at Koji with those sharp eyes behind the mask.
"So, you changed your mind?"
Rasten snatched the pouch from Koji's hand and tossed it back to him. Under Koji's frantic breathing and Hana's screams, Rasten continued:
"We will take care of your sister. As for you, from this moment on, you're part of my gang… the King Skull Gang!!"
"It wasn't just me. Most of us at the bottom of the hierarchy were exploited the same way—sick loved ones forced into suffering so we'd serve them."
***
At the present time, the sun had set and darkness settled in. Koji had just finished telling Takeshi his story, giving Takeshi a clear reason behind Koji's current goal: bringing down the King Skull Gang.
'Exploiting the sick and their families for their own interests… damn them.'
Takeshi thought for a moment, scratching the back of his head, then said:
"Sorry for the strange question, but… how much does the gang benefit from one member?"
Koji's eyes widened, baffled by the odd question, but he still answered:
"Every ten days, we must pay 220 silver coins."
He sighed, then added:
"And if the amount is even slightly short, the missing part gets added to the next payment ten days later. If the debt piles up—or if the missing part is big from the start—they kill the person who failed to pay. As for the loved ones they joined for, like my sister, they leave them without care. They call this cursed process… ransom."
Takeshi placed a hand on his chin as he listened, staring at the Cloud River reflecting the moon's silver light.
'That's strange… only 220 silver coins? That doesn't even cover the cost of treatment… damn it, I can't understand what's going on!'
Koji opened his mouth to ask Takeshi something, but the question dissolved into pitch-black darkness as a gloomy, ominous aura swallowed both of them. This aura blocked the moonlight and radiated terror and disgust. It felt… cold.
"This aura?!"
Its pressure wasn't like Orvin's aura he released against the Revarge beasts. It was lighter, but far darker and more terrifying.
Both Takeshi and Koji turned toward its source. Someone stood in a dark alley, barely visible under the oppressive black aura.
Messy black hair, a pale face like a corpse, empty—no, dead—eyes, a fragile body, and a white robe marked with a bare skull emblem. It was Shido.
"What do you think you're doing, Koji? Answer me!"
Shido spoke with a harsh, deep tone. Because of it, and because of the aura, Takeshi tightened his grip, ready to attack Shido—until Koji spoke, looking at the ground in regret before Takeshi could move.
"Wait, Shido! I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but… but you'll listen to me, right?!"
Shido stepped forward, tilting his head as he asked:
"Oh? And how can you guarantee that?"
Koji raised his head, his eyes gleaming with traces of pain.
"Because you're not like them! You're not like the boss, or Graid, or even Yamikaji and the others in white robes! You always listen to us—the ones at the bottom—and you ease the pressure in our hearts."
Takeshi's guard loosened slightly when he heard Yamikaji's name. He didn't want to ask about him to avoid drawing suspicion, following Orvin's advice about not asking too many deep questions.
After Koji spoke, the dark aura around Shido faded. His pale face relaxed into a faint smile.
"You've convinced me, Koji!"
Koji finally felt his anxiety lighten—until Shido continued:
"I can forgive you and bring you back to your senses, but…"
He lifted his finger and pointed at Takeshi.
"I can't forgive outsiders meddling in our affairs!"