Haruto's Bitter Sweet Rebellion.

Haruto was getting very sick of being hunted.

His pursuers were relentless, and he was running out of places to hide. The forest around him was dense, a mix of pine and maple trees that had given him some cover in the past, but now it seemed like he had been caught in a net. Every branch, every shrubbery led his hunters closer to their prey. He could hear their footsteps on the leaves, the rustling of foliage from where they pushed the thick branches away. They were closing in.

Haruto looked back at them with fear and despair. Three men, tall and burly with rifles and shotguns held at ready. At the head of them all was a man who looked like he could snap Haruto in half without even trying. His eyes glinted in red, his face shrouded by shadow casted by the light of dawn behind him.

Haruto turned and ran again through the underbrush, but he knew that this escape would be short-lived. He had already been chased for three days straight across the country from west to east, jumping from one town to another ever since he escaped from Kainaso—the Capital City where he lived as a citizen of the Empire of Japan. He had only one objective: reach Chitose-shi where there was said to be an underground network helping those who wanted to flee Kainaso's grasp. But Haruto failed to reach it, and his pursuers had picked up his trail once again despite his best efforts to lose them in the side streets and alleyways of cities along his way.

The Japanese man stumbled through another patch of brambles towards a clearing ahead. As he reached it, he saw something that made his heart stop beating—a cliff edge sharply dropping down into a river flowing beneath it. It was too far down for him to jump without breaking any bones if not dying altogether, especially when the current of water was so powerful right beneath it. What's worse is that there wasn't any tree or rock nearby that he could use as an anchor point while scaling down the cliffside because they all ended at the ground level just before reaching the cliff itself!

Haruto's mind raced as panic took over him once more. All he could think about was how stupid he was for thinking that fleeing Kainaso would be easy after seeing so many other people do it successfully—fleeing what seemed to be an impossible city to leave behind with its massive walls surrounding it and its watchful guards keeping watch on every single person within its borders! Yet here Haruto stood before a cliff edge unable to run even further because there were three men pointing guns at him from behind! He turned around slowly with regret filling his heart, knowing full well what fate awaited him now...

Then suddenly...