The blade girl: Nightray Sayaka's story

Panic, screams, people running in fear...All these were caused by the greed and bloodthrist of the bandits and pirates who attacked that little town with a twisted smile on their face.

 ”It’s happening again...” 

For unknown reasons, this became very common. The bandits leaving in the montains would come down to attack the town. The same goes for the pirates who arrive in the port. Sometimes they would clash, involving innocent people in their fight. That’s why every single inhabitant learnt self-defense moves, even the children.

In this chaotic town there was a family, the Nightray family, which seemed somewhat different from the others. The parents worked as detectives to make a living. Small cases like the disappearance of an object or of a certain person, a robbery or a murder were enough. Their daughter was rather shy and bad at making friends, but still polite. Her name was Sayaka and she was 8 years old.

One day, another pirate ship arrived, but they didn’t seem to have any business in town since they went straight to the nearby forest.

Mother: Something is odd here. It’s been 6 days and the pirates still didn’t return to their ship.

Father: You have a point, but still, pirates can be very unpredictable. Who knows, they might have found something in the forest.

Mother: We all know that except for an abandoned mine, there’s nothing in that forest. I’m worried…They seem to be quite famous. The captain has a bounty of 23.000.000 beli. Who knows what they might come up with to attack the town…

 

Sayaka would sometimes overhear this kind of conversation. She wasn’t interested in following on her parents’ steps. That’s why she goes outside for a little walk every time her parents start this kind of discussion.

The town was quite peaceful. It’s been a while since the last attack after all. But still, it was too peaceful. A few children were playing. They were pretending to be pirates and fight each other. Suddenly, one of them stumbled and he almost hit Sayaka. Luckily, her reflexes were faster and she was able to catch and throw him.

Child 1: Ouch! What…what happened?

Sayaka: I…I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to throw you.

Child 2: Wow, that was pretty cool! I can’t do something like that, yet.

Child 3: Wait, aren’t you detective Nightray’s daughter?

 

 “Damn…I should have run away…” 

Sayaka: Y…yeah, I am.

Child 2: Awesome! I didn’t see you around here very much. What’s your name, by the way?

But a gunshot interrupted the conversation. They went to see what happened and were shocked to see a corpse lieing in a pool of blood. Everyone was shouting in panic “Who did this?”, “Who is the victim?”, “Take the children away from here”.

Sayaka’s parents started looking for clues, but no luck. A day later, another person was shot. Again, no clues were found. Something still looked weird:

September 23, 9 AM – first murder.

September 24, 12 AM – second murder.

It was a wild guess, but the next murder was most likely to happen on September 25, 3 PM. But who could be the next victim? The time was exactly like they predicted. If they could only find out how the author chooses his victims…

Three days later, the investigation notes looked like this:

September 23, 9 AM – western part of the town.

September 24, 12 AM – northern part of the town.

September 25, 3 PM – eastern part of the town.

September 26, 6 PM – southern part of the town.

September 27, 9 PM – western part of the town.

September 29, 12 PM – northern part of the town (?)

The last line was the prediction for the next murder. Since the victims from the 23rd and the 27th were killed in the exactly same place, it was most likely to be the same this time as well. It was September 28, 10 PM. Sayaka’s parents were preparing to leave and catch the culprit. But they never returned.

The next morning she was really troubled. She went out in order to find out what happened the previous night. It seems like the culprit was stopped and ran away in the forest. Her parents followed him. Remembering the discussion between her parents right before the first murder, she decided to go there as well. The forest wasn’t that dangerous, but with a group pf pirates residing there this wasn’t a certain fact anymore.

Sayaka could feel that someone was following her. At first she ignored it, but after a while she started to feel uneasy.

Sayaka: Who’s there?

The bushes were rustling and the three children she met that day came out.

Child 3: Sorry, we didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just…

Child 2: We wanted to come as well! This seemed to be so exciting, just like a real adventure.

Child 1  *sighs*  : That’s not the reason why we came. To tell the truth, our parents went missing as well…We want to find them!

Child 2: Tch, why do you have to be such a softie?

Child 3: Acting cool won’t do anything.

Child 2: Fine…fine. So you know the reason. Mind if we come as well?

Sayaka agreed and they continued to walk. After some time they reached the abandoned mine. There was no other place where their parents could be, so they started exploring it. But there was a trap, and they fell right into it.

Pirate 1: Hey, captain! Look what I’ve found! Four little pests came for their parents.

Captain: It’s seems like that. Now, what shall we do with them?

Child 3: Hey, we did like we were told, so let us out of here!

Captain: Indeed, you did very well. You may go, your parents are waiting.

Sayaka: What? What’s the meaning of this?

Pirate 2: Heeh, didn’t they tell you? Poor little girl, you were deceived all this time.

Sayaka: H..how…?

Child 1: Everyone in the village agreed with this. We provide shelter to these pirates and they won’t touch our village. Moreover, they will kill anyone who wants to attack it, as long as we don’t say a word to the marines and follow their orders. But your parents were the only ones who didn’t agree so we decided to eliminate them.

Child 2: They were never trusted to begin with. They suddenly moved in this town and started playing detective. We don’t know whether they’re really helping us or not. And you are less trustworthy than them.

Child 3: So these pirates come up with this plan. Detectives can’t resist this kind of puzzle cases, can they? We should get back.

 “Why…Why did they lie?” 

Captain: Kuhuhuhu, now that they’re gone, it’s time for you to meet the same ending as your stubborn parents!

 ”That smile...It makes me sick...” 

The two pirates pointed their guns at her. But she picked up the closest stick and hit their hands, making them drop the guns. The stick was three times longer than them, but she didn’t seem to have problems handleing it.

Captain: Hmm, so the little brat wants to live? What’s the point in living when no one accepts you? The only ones who did are already dead and you must be dead as well!

'' ”I should be... ” ''

 

The captain attempted to stab her with his knife but she uncounsciounsly dodged it.

Captain: Tch, looks like you’re just as stubborn. But there’s no way a little girl like you can defeat me and my crew!

More pirates started showing up. All of them had the same twisted smile she hated so much. It was hard to descriebe what she was feeling at that moment. Fear? Anger? Both? Whatever it was, Sayaka couldn’t fight against it and started running away. She was using the stick to deflect the bullets if she couldn’t dodge them. But the stick broke and there was no way to face a whole crew. They would eventually catch her. But Sayaka found dynamite. At the exit of the mine she lit it and run away. Because of the explosion, the exit was now covered with boulders. It’s not like it will stop them, but this way she could buy some time to escape. But where? It’s clear that returning to that town means suicide. But where is she supposed to go?

'' ”Why did I run away? Why am I so desperate to live? I don’t even have a reason to live...I should be dead.” ''

 

As these questions were appearing in her mind, tears started to come out.

And this marks the beggining of Sayaka's journey, a journey to find her reason for living.