I lay on the charred reef of Koji Island and watched the stars.

My ears were filled with the whirring breeze and the crashing of the waves against the cliffs. The nasal passages were filled with the pungent and unpleasant smell of the burning of sulfur and gunpowder, as well as ...... The smell of spoiled and rotten blood.

I felt the icy dead silence.

The breath of death rose in this vast world.

Tokokum Island is actually a very beautiful island. It is like a place forgotten by the sun, and it is in darkness all year round, hence the name "Everdark Island". Perhaps to compensate for the darkness, the sky above the island is always shrouded in a brilliant layer of auroras. The aurora envelops the island, making it a true place to behold.

Unfortunately, however, Tsukoku Island became the main battlefield of the Great War. Gunsmoke and war permeated every corner of the island. It's night, truce. The island of Tokom regained its tranquility for a moment, and I was able to breathe and reflect for a moment.

I don't know who I am.

I am a person who has no past, and my memory begins from the battlefield. As mentioned earlier, Tokokum Island is a battlefield, and yesterday was the first battle I experienced.

I vaguely remember that I don't know which side of the army dropped shells into the corner where I was hiding, followed by a dense strafing of guns. The sound of the shells exploding was deafening, and rough stones mixed with dirt burst into my face and body. The heat hit me, and I was swept into mid-air.

I was blown out.

Half of my body had been blown off, leaving only the other half, which was still connected to my heart and brain, and I could still think slowly and sluggishly.

The fighting ended quickly, and it was essential to clean up after the war. The soldiers are busy bringing their disabled teammates back to the base who are still alive. No one cared about me lying in the corner, only half of my body was left but I was still alive.

Half of my body was repairing at an extremely slow pace.

I am hungry. Maybe the energy needed for my body to recover was too much, and my stomach was cramping involuntarily - it made me feel like retching uncontrollably.

I need to find food.

I struggled to turn my head and look around. Luckily, on the reef not far away, there was a mangled corpse. I crawled in the direction of the corpse, the new, tender flesh grinding against the rough stones, leaving a mark of bright red blood.

But it doesn't matter, the mental pain of hunger has long since outweighed the physical pain. My pain had disappeared long since the moment my body was blown away, and now the slight sensation from rubbing the ground only made me feel a kind of excitement stimulated by the pain.

My pain seemed to be activated.

This gave me the idea that "I'm still alive".

I unconsciously increased my breathing.

I crawled up to the body.

I took his hand, which was a mixture of blood and mud.

His hands were stiff, cold, lifeless.

I'm hungry and I want to replenish my energy. I will not refuse any piece of meat that will fill my stomach, not even human.

I'm crazy to stay alive.

I want to dispel the bone-eating hunger that pervades everywhere.

I pulled the corpse's arm with all my strength, and took the cold hand to send it to my mouth—

"Is there a lone soldier here?"

An eerie, flat voice reached my ears. The pace of speech is a little slow, but every syllable is clear, with a strange sense of rhythm. The tail note rises slightly, revealing a little doubt and interest.

This sentence successfully made me forget about hunger for a while.

I lay on my back and looked weakly at the sky. The next moment, a shadow appeared overhead. Immediately after, my gaze crashed into a pair of translucent purple eyes.

He was probably born extremely beautiful. The slightly sunken eye sockets make his brow bones look high, and the shallow shadows cast down his purple eyes to look deep. Further up is a pair of slender eyebrows, faintly hidden in the fine hair.

His hair hung down a few strands because of his bowed head, blocking my view from meeting with his.

"What is your troop number?"

He seemed interested in me. He asked me questions, and his fingers gently opened my eyes and rolled over my inner eyelids. His fingers were so soft, with a shallow temperature, they stroked half of my body more or less lightly, and finally pressed his fingers to my neck artery.

[I'm so hungry, I'm crazy about eating...... If his finger wanders to my mouth, then I must bite down without hesitation, so that the hunger can be dispelled. ]

I thought so.

“…… I don't know, I'm not a soldier. I muttered.

My brain was screaming frantically to bite his fingers. He didn't notice my greedy desires in the slightest, and he was still looking down to check my physical condition. While the hand movements did not stop, they did not forget to chat with me.

"Not a soldier but on the Isle of Everdarkness? It makes people wonder if you are a military spy sent by a certain country. I heard you speak Japanese, are you Japanese? ”

"Maybe."

"It's an aesthetic Asian face......," he said slowly, "but the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and you are here at this moment...... It was a harmless mistake. ”

The last half of his sentence was very light, drowning in the sea breeze.

His soft fingers ran across my neck, the warmth of his fingertips mixed with a hint of coldness. I just felt a sudden chill on my neck, and his face was suddenly sprayed with bright red flowers.

The silver scalpel blade was caught between his slender fingers, and blood slid down the blade and his fingertips.

Suddenly, his face seemed to be a little more flamboyant. The blood splashing on his face made his smile a little more happy and crazy. Blood dripped down his sleek jaw and onto my eyes, and my eyes were bright red.

In my sight, the stars and the aurora vanished. The last impression was a cool smile on the corner of his mouth.

＊

I regained consciousness again.

As you can see from the stars above Everdark Island, it took me less time to regain consciousness than the first time. The sound of the waves breaking was still in my ears, but this time it was different that there was an extra person next to me.

He hadn't gone yet, and sat down next to me.

He bent one leg at random, and his state was very relaxed.

“…… You're still there. ”

My voice was a little hoarse, and the expansion and contraction of my vocal cords inevitably brought pain. His presence made my heart inexplicably rise with a faint joy.

I was not abandoned.

By someone I just met.

"Your abilities are interesting." He said calmly, "I was just convinced that you were dead, but your body ...... But it's repairing itself all the time. ”

He didn't shy away from killing me just now, and just said it calmly. He looked down at me and frowned, a faint puzzle and curiosity between his eyebrows. But soon, it was replaced by excitement that I couldn't understand.

"What's your name?"

"Kazama, Kazama."

"Where are you from?"

“…… I don't have those memories. ”

"Perhaps, I was born of war." After thinking about it, I told him with certainty, "I was born in war, and my name is my only memory." ”

"It is indeed an interesting saying that it was born in war." He rubbed his chin as if he was thinking about something.

From my point of view, his slightly long hair was tucked back into a short braid that fell into the back of his collar. I suddenly felt a little itchy and wanted to touch it, but I didn't have the strength to lift my arm.

I don't care what he killed me before. Compared to the fact that he had been injured by a bomb and had to die of blood loss for a long time, his quick and ruthless methods were much gentler, at least I didn't feel the struggle and pain of being forced to lose my life.

"Kazama Hunting." He chewed on the name, "What about your age?" After asking, he replied to himself amusefully, "If you were born in war, you are still just a newborn...... Although he looks to be more than ten years old. ”

"What about you?" I asked him, "Your name." ”

I lifted my arm slightly, pulled it next to his hand on the ground, and firmly grasped the soft fingers that I had been thinking about. He looked at my hand in surprise and moved his fingers, but he didn't break free.

"Mori Ou Wai."

"Okay, Sen."

"Sen? It's been a long time since I've heard such a straightforward name. You can call me Dr. Sen. As you can see, I'm a military doctor. ”

"Dr. Sen." I took his hand and sent it to my mouth.

It is true that my body is constantly repairing itself, but this does not mean that these superficial levels of physical perception can be avoided in the process of body repair. It was only during the short period of time that I was killed by Dr. Mori that I was able to get rid of my hunger.

He watched my movements for a long time, trying to analyze and study my inner thoughts in this way. Unfortunately, I just want to have a quick bite to eat.

So it wasn't until my teeth bit his finger out of the blood that he hurriedly pulled his hand back in shock.

"I'm hungry and I want to eat." I told him sincerely. But because he had broken free a little bit just now, I asked him again, "Are you angry because I want to eat you?" ”

The blood briefly rested on the tip of my tongue. I smacked my lips, and the sweet smell permeated every corner of my mouth.

"No, you can't eat people." He chuckled, "Now I'm starting to believe that you're new. ”

Maybe some of my words inadvertently touched his heart, and although his smile was still on the corner of his mouth, his eyes were a little dark.

"Although humans are essentially a bunch of cunning creatures who can use intrigue to calculate their fellow kind, they will eventually put on a fig leaf of 'civilized' hypocrisy, and use high-sounding excuses to cover up their vile and ugly desires. They talk about civilization and progress, but in fact they do cannibalism. ”

"Actually, what they do is not even as good as a simple ......," he pointed to my lips, "if you want to eat people, you have to be cuter." ”

"I don't understand."

"I'm sorry." He wiped the blood oozing from his fingers onto my lips: "Do you want to go back with me?" ”

I licked my lips and nodded.

"In that case, then—" He stood up, condescending.

"Kazama, thirteen years old, enlisted in the army three days ago. Yesterday I went to the battlefield for the first time, was seriously injured, and was accidentally left on the island of Changdark. Later, he was found by the military doctor Mori Ouwai and brought back to the base. His tone was flat, "Remember?" ”

"Okay."

"Can you stand up on your own?" He was satisfied with my obedience and continued to ask me.

I looked at the half leg that was still exposed, and shook my head silently. The body doesn't repair that fast, I can be alive, but I can't get back to good condition quickly.

He crouched down in front of me. In the next second, his arms were through my armpits. By the time I reacted again, I was already lying on his back. He effortlessly carried me to the seaside base, and my cheek rubbed against his pigtails.

It may be because of the short and stiff hair, and the small braids are a little tied.

It tickled my cheeks.

After thinking about it, I quietly stretched out my arms and wrapped them around his neck. At the same time, I smelled disinfectant at the collar of his back. Like him, it has a somewhat cool taste.

He seemed to chuckle, and the laughter dissipated in the night breeze by the sea.