⚠ Warning!! There are mentions of depression, mental illness, and other things related to violence. You have been warned.
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Previously:

When the word 'start' left Nine's lips, [Name] smirked to herself knowingly and whispered, "let the torturing games begin."

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E/c orbs stared onto the people who ran the test. Her eyes were locked on the testees, who seemed to be having a hard time even though twenty minutes only passed by when the test was started.

"Hey, Nine. Do we uh, train them after these tests?"

"Yeah, but the King said we have a day off tomorrow. So, no training yet."

"Ohhh, okay."

After having that conversation with Nine, the h/c haired girl was feeling sleepy so she decided to lean against Isamu and closed her eyes, before drifting off to a small nap.

Meanwhile, Theron was watching Kazu struggle with his problem. Theron, as mentioned in the previous chapter, was one of the people who conducted the test.

"You traitor! How dare you come back with a proud look on your face!"

"N..no... I'm.. I'm not-"

"Get lost, you demon! You don't deserve to be here!"

"Even after you killed her, you still have the guts to show your disgusting face around here?!"

Those were the voices of a mob, throwing rocks at Kazu's previous self. The boy had blood dripping down his forehead, his arms and legs covered in bruises, and lastly his eyes were widening in fraction, a look of horror pasted clearly.

The boy tried to talk, but they still didn't listen to them. "No... That's not.. That's not true-"

Then suddenly, a girl with dark brown hair emerged from the mob, looking at Kazu disgustingly. "You know what Kazu, I've regretted the day I got to know."

"Eina, please don't.. Don't believe them... I did not kill anybody..!!" His younger self pleaded.

The current him looked at the girl with sadness, and closed his eyes. 'I knew that Eina. I always did.' He thought.

The memory of his past self when he was still innocent, being beaten up and traumatized kept going on but just stared at it with a single thing on his mind. People had blamed him for the death of Eina's younger sister, who didn't even knew what the real incident looked like.

He turned to face Theron, who was staring back at him with a smug look on his face.

"I get it. I get what the test is all about."

"Oh?"

"I'm sorry, General. But it won't affect me. Not like it did to my past self." He paused, closing his eyes for moment and reopened them with a determined look on his face. "I've changed for the best."

"I see." Theron closed his eyes, before crossing his arms. Then he opened his eyes, with a smile on his lips. "Congratulations, Kazu. You pass my test."

°°

She only saw darkness at first. But it wasn't unusual to her anymore.

Luna felt the cause of the darkness was because her eyes were closed and she opened them, confirming her theory. Though, it didn't make much of a difference.

The world she stared at was the same. Black, void and lifeless.

The lifeless void she was standing on, was beginning to take color. No wait, scratch that. It was only two shades. Gray and Red.

And the memory began to play.

There, her family was lying on the ground, pale, cold, and dead. She stared at them with a look of horror plastered on her face.

"N.. No... I...I didn't want for this to happen..."

Luna covered her ears, preventing the noises that were echoing throughout the space. Her brother's body began crawling towards her with a lot of blood on his face. Then he uttered, "why? Why did it had to be me? Luna-nee, why?"

"No.. It wasn't you, Hiro.. This isn't real.."

Just before she could reach towards her brother's body, another body crawled towards following another and another.

"Why did you let this happen?"

"Where were you?"

"How could you do this to us?"

"What kind of sister are you?"

They didn't give her a chance to answer back because they uttered something that struck her the most.

"Are you even the Luna-nee that we used to know?"

It was like her heart was stopped, her eyes were wide from the shock and it made her lose her mind.

"W-what.." She somehow managed to utter.

From a small distance, Naoki shook his head in disappointment. He placed a minus sign at the right part of the paper he was holding and flicked his right hand to stop the test he was handling.

After stopping the enclosed space they were at, Naoki saw that Theron was already done with his test and the boy he tested had passed.

Naoki looked over to Nine and shook his head. Nine got his message, and signaled [Name] to move forward.

Seeing that Nine made his move, she squinted her eyes at him and pouted. "But-"

"Do it before I punch your head."

"...okay."

Meanwhile with Divya, her eyes stared at the boy who was also reliving his pained memory. And his was more tragic than the two.

"You little brat! Why can't you already familiarize the things I taught you?! It was only three days for your older siblings to memorize it!" A voice of an older man shouted. By the look of it, Divya assumed it was the boy's father.

And beside the father stood the boy's mother, with a worried look on her face. "Tetsu-chan please, just do it already. I don't you to suffer any longer."

"....suffer? Then why did you force me to do this in the first place?" The younger version of him spoke up. It didn't have a hint of anger or disappointment, it was raspy yet it somehow implied that he was disgusted by them.

That was all it took for Tetsu's father to explode. He let his anger out by whipping the younger boy again and again with a whip that had sharp thorns on each side.

But the boy didn't scream or complain. You could say he was used to it, so he just kept quiet until the anger of his father ended.

Then it went black.

But after a few minutes, light came back except it was a different memory.

It was the memory that he didn't want to remember again.

"Tetsu, what... What happened here?" His mother questioned, hands quivering as she looked into his eyes scared.

"It's exactly what it is, Mother." Tetsu answered monotonously, picking up the axe he dropped earlier.

"But.. But how--how could you do this..? Why would you murder your own family?!"

Tetsu fell silent at first. Then he replied, "why not?"

The eyes of his mother widened in horror. She saw a disturbing look that was placed on her son's face and couldn't believe what he had turn in to. What came next was unexpected for her. The boy had swung his axe at her, blood gushing out of the area where had cut her, and is mother's body laid dead on ground, cold and pale.

He did it, Tetsu did really did it.

The young boy dropped the axe, his legs becoming weak and soon he plopped his knees on the ground. He took one deep breath and exhaled.

"Finally... I'm free..." He mumbled, his head looking down at the dead bodies of his family.

The older Tetsu who just watched at the scene in front of him, closed his eyes and gave a long sigh. He turned to the General who was tasked to accompany him, with a lazy look on his eyes but it wasn't out of arrogance, or anything. It was how he always look at people, friends or foes, he always looks at them with a tedious look on his face.

"I know it was my fault, but I don't regret anything. Their way of training me, was beyond human comprehension and I snapped, not wanting to do it anymore."

"Your point is..?"

"Blame me all you want, but I don't intend to say my sorry because it was their fault for putting all of that into a young boy who's supposedly enjoying his life with his friends but didn't because of that shitty training." He said, taking a step forward. "I don't regret that I killed them, it was for their own good anyway. Until now, I still despise them."

Divya stared at the boy cautiously. He was saying it honesty, his voice not even lacing a hint of sorrow or regret. Then, her lips formed into a smile and chuckled.

"Sure, I accept it Tetsu. You pass my test." With the snap of her fingers, Divya removed the memory bubble and they were now in the room with the other generals.

Nine's attention was caught by Divya and Tetsu returning to the room. Then he checked the data of Tetsu, placing a stamp below with 'clear' written on it.

"Good job, Divya. And also you Tetsu, you did your best not to panic or get affected by the memory."

"Thank you sir, it was nothing."

"Sir? Please just call me General Nine, but you can also call me General Greed."

"Yes, General." Nine nodded and gave Tetsu a pat on the shoulder.

Divya's eyes noticed that there was someone missing in the room.
"Where's [Name]?"

"Oh, she's currently hosting her test with Luna."

"Wait, I thought Naoki got a hold of her?"

"He did, but she failed. Now, [Name]'s the one doing the other test with her which is probably more dangerous than what Naoki did."

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[Word count: 1637]

'Nee' is something younger brothers or sisters call their older sister as a sign of respect in Japan ^^