Chapter 1
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My name is Kiva Moraku and I am twenty-three years old. I am an orphan with no parents and no job. Any passerby might think I'm just a stupid bum, but perhaps it's because of my twisted childhood and its dark shadows, specifically the horrific accident that brought me together with my father, whom I killed, by the way, and then I went to juvenile detention, where I learned a lot about the world and its cruelty.
When I was finally released from juvenile detention, I was a young man supposed to be full of hope and life, but the first thing I did, following the example of my favorite TV hero, Lucas Hood, was to look for a woman. Well, you know exactly what happens in those heated moments, so let's skip the trivial details and continue with my darker story.
Two years after my release, I was running down a deserted street, my heart pounding after stealing a fat purse from a grumpy old lady with a wrinkled face. As fate would have it, a huge truck appeared out of nowhere like a black beast coming out of the abyss and hit me with a force I had never felt before.
All I saw after that was total darkness, and for a moment I thought I was finally going to cross over to the other side, where there is no pain or despair, but...
Yes, just as you would expect, the same old nonsense.
Someone appeared out of nowhere and called himself a savior or something equally ridiculous and said he would give me a chance to live again in another world full of magic and great powers... Blah, blah, blah, but you know what?
I arrogantly rejected his ridiculous offer. All I wanted was to die.
The truth is, I had tried to kill myself several times before that incident, but every time something happened to stop me.
.…
At the age of ten, I tried to jump from the second floor of the orphanage, hoping that it would be a quick and decisive end, but I ended up breaking my thin legs and my right arm and did not die.
After that, the orphanage guards watched me around the clock as if I were a dangerous criminal who had to be restrained.
This was because of a stern warning from the orphanage's financier. Despite my young age, I remember his warning that day well:
"If any child dies, I will throw all of you out onto the cold street!"
And so, I couldn't do anything, not even escape from this prison, not even commit suicide by holding my breath or refusing to eat the bitter food or anything else that could end this torment.
...
A few slow, heavy months passed, and the harsh winter arrived with its bitter cold. At that time, the guards began to grow bored with their strict routine of surveillance, and their vigilance slackened slightly.
One cold day, I cautiously sneaked into the orphanage kitchen and stole a sharp knife.
But, as luck would have it, the evil owner caught me at the last moment, and the next morning, the lax guards were fired and the orphanage owner punished the maids violently.
New guards arrived who were even bigger and more muscular with faces full of rage and mercilessness. And so I spent my life continuing to live without any purpose, just a shadow moving through the corridors of the orphanage.
When I finally reached the age of eleven (late in the eleventh month, to be precise), I managed to escape from the gloomy orphanage and returned to the same bridge from my past at three o'clock in the morning. I made sure no one was watching, then jumped into the cold river.
After a few minutes, I found it extremely difficult to breathe, and my eyes began to blur and gradually lose sight, but alas, I had not tied a stone or anything heavy to my feet, and my body floated until another stranger found me.
Maybe it was fate or destiny. I don't know. Maybe it was just bad luck. It turned out that the person who saved me was the former guard who had been fired by the owner of the orphanage a year ago.
In fact, even I didn't know that the stranger was the guard until many years later, because on the day he saved me from the river and saw my face after pulling me out, he left me lying on the muddy riverbank and left without a word. What a terrible guard!
Fortunately, for the first time in my miserable life, luck smiled on me a little.
After the guard saved me, I woke up shortly afterwards and saw that no one from the orphanage or any passers-by had seen me, so I ran as fast as I could, as if my life depended on it, and left the orphanage behind me.
After that, I decided to live for a while to see if luck would continue to smile on me or if this was just a temporary respite in my eternal darkness.