"Blade aura..."
Brandon's dilated pupils reflected Roy sheathing his sword. As his consciousness faded, a montage of memories flickered to life.
Scene after scene joined together like frames of film, slowly playing through his mind... Brandon saw the opening title, The Last Movie. In a daze, he returned to the past—to the bleak childhood he had never wanted to talk about.
It was a dilapidated apartment block, crammed with hundreds of residents. The corridors were narrow and poorly ventilated. The smoke from coal fires, the garbage piled outside doors, the stinking shoes and socks left by the door curtains... The stench made people pinch their noses as they passed.
Brandon drifted over... He found the familiar little iron door. Before he could get close, he heard his father yanking his mother by the hair again, slamming her head against the wall with all his might...
"You worthless bitch! If you don't have money, go sell yourself!"
"I told you I'd win it all back on the next hand! How the hell can you not understand that?"
The woman wailed as she grabbed the man's arm, pleading, "You can't take it. That's next month's living expenses..."
"Fuck the living expenses! Once I win it all back, you'll have all the good food and drink you want!"
"Bang!" The man kicked the iron door open. Clutching a few bills in his hand, he spotted Brandon and slapped him. "Useless brat! You're the reason I got dragged down in the first place!"
Brandon covered his face and said nothing as he watched the man stride off... Then he suddenly thought of his classmate Aaron. Aaron wasn't some bastard born by accident to a gambler and a prostitute. He had loving parents, grandparents who picked him up from school every day, pocket money to