[SDU] [Chapter 67 –
Zenith – Atomic City]
The Hashihime clenched
her fist and raised it to the sky. She spins around her fist and went toward
me. I braced for impact as the fist went right through me. It only went right
through because I changed my body into snow just in the nick of time. I started
to disintegrate into the ground and moved the pile of snow over the Yokai’s
hand and went to her shoulder. I turned back solid and ice punched the Yokai
face. The Yokai tumbles down as I jumped away from her shoulder and landed
nicely on the bridge.
“That was a close
one…” I let out a sigh of relief.
Hashihime tries to
properly stand up after that blow, “Interesting…you’re not just any other
human.”
“I guess my disguise
doesn’t work against you, huh?”
“Of course it doesn’t
work. You’re not the same as a Yuki-onna at all. You are more cheerful than
her.”
“Cheerful?”
“You don’t see that,
girl?” She laughed at me, “Are you trying to be cute or something.”
“I’m not trying to be
cute…” I was annoyed by the Yokai for some reason.
“Your punch was kind
of strong, girl. I think I can respect you for that.”
“I…uh…thanks?”
Hashihime then grabbed
her candles and told me, “You said that you wanted to go to The Atomic City,
correct?”
“Um…yes…”
She nodded her head
and gave way for me to get through the bridge.
Hashihime then said,
“One more thing, little girl. The Yokai over there aren’t the same Yokai as the
Yokai at this village. I’m sure your friend would realize that this was a
village full of innocent Yokai, right?”
“Um…I think so?”
“Don’t worry about
them. I got news that they have been caught by the villagers and they were
tended well. The Yokai villagers meant no harm to you humans.”
“Then…what happened at
the Koi Dragon Invitational?”
“That one? That’s just
Kitsuneki and his loyal Yokai army. We are only civilians and we’re already
fine living like this. We don’t need much if the humans aren’t causing a huge
trouble for us.”
I was a bit nervous
about that because I believed that Lin and the boys had killed some of the
Yokai just now…I hope things go well for them while I leave them on my own. I
honestly shouldn’t be leaving them behind but since those guys voluntarily
killed some of the Yokai, I rather just not get myself involved with them for
now. Yes, I sound like a bad friend. But what am I supposed to do when I said
that I wanted to go to the other side of the bridge from a titanic Yokai like
Hashihime.
In any case, as I
crossed the bridge, my backpack suddenly rumbled which could only mean one
thing.
“Recordia is back!
Announced Recordia as she flies out of the bag!”
I smiled at her and
said, “Welcome back, Recordia.”
She looks around and
asked, “Where is everyone? Where is White? Recordia asked Zenith in a very
curious manner.”
“Well…White is with my
sister right now and everyone else is…”
Then out of nowhere, someone
else appeared and surprised me, “Everyone is caught with something at the
hotel, little fairy. Don’t worry about them.” Yumiko appears through her
teleportation bullet.
“Yumiko? Recordia was
a bit amused to see Yumiko here.” That’s what Recordia told Yumiko.
“What are you doing
here, Yumiko?” I asked her.
“Is something wrong
with me being over here?”
“No…” I shake my head
and tried to get closer to her, “Where were you throughout the day? I haven’t
seen you after the invitational. Lin said you teleported out of the arena.
Where did you go?”
“I didn’t go anywhere
far; shorty…I’m only just cleaning some stuff…” Yumiko walked pass me toward
the entrance to Atomic City and said, “Let’s forget about that and let me ask
you the question this time. What are you doing over here?”
Now that she asked me
that, I didn’t really have a solid reason of going here other than being
curious of its name.
I simply replied to
her, “I was curious about the city name…Why it is called like that?”
“You’ll understand
once you’re there…” She said so in a rather…melancholic tone.
As I followed her from
behind, my head was filled with ideas to why the city was named like that. I
thought it was called the way it is because of how amazing the people that
lives there or something. But that wasn’t the case from what I was about to
experience.
“This is Atomic City…”
Yumiko introduced to me the city as Recordia flies by her.
“Woah…What
happened…here?”
It was like no other
place I have seen before. The road was all crumbled up. Most of the buildings
were just a pile of rubble for some reason. The signs were old and rusted. It
was almost like something out of a recent disaster.
“The city was named
because of an event that happened here years ago during The 2nd
Great War.”
“The 2nd
Great War…? I remembered that the Nihon force had a pretty big influence across
this side of the sea…which even includes our country, Crestia…are you talking
about…”
“Yes.” Yumiko cuts me
off and finished it for me, “The name Atomic City was based on that one Nuclear
Bomb Attack that happened years ago. This is the remains…This place is too
dangerous for any other human to be step inside because some experts believed
that there are still nuclear reactions all over the city.”
“So that’s why the
city haven’t changed after all these years…”
“That’s exactly what
happened and this all happened just to make sure The Nihon force surrendered
and stop the war. Billions of innocent lives were taken in the name of war.”
Tear started to travel
down my cheeks as I said, “Why does it always have to lead to this?”
“It’s war, sweetheart.
The Nihon had it coming for not surrendering when they should of. They were the
only forces left still standing strong at the time. It was only a matter of
time until the winners of the war took drastic actions.”
I added, “And not just
that…they gave Nihon two bombs instead of only one…” I fell to my knees as I
said that.
“It was quick…and
brutal…” Yumiko was holding on to herself as she said that.
“Knowing that my
family actually has a business related to making weapons scares me right now…”
Yumiko looks at the
pathetic side of me and told me off, “Listen, sweetheart. It’s not directly
your fault or anything. This is just a terrible reminder from the past. You
shouldn’t think too much about it.” She then added on, “And besides, looks on
the bright side of things. Nihon has become one of the fastest growing lands in
the entire world for the past decade. Their defeat only brought them back up,
economically.”
Recordia flies to me
and said, “She is right, Zenith. Without this event, Zenith might not even be
able to experience all the wonderful things that Nihon currently has. Recordia
said so as Recordia tried to calm Zenith down.”
I wiped my tears and
said to Recordia, “I think you guys are right…” I proceeded to hug Recordia
right after that which he fully accepts it.
After finishing
hugging Recordia, Yumiko looked at me and with a weird look.
She told me, “I’m not
hugging you.” She crossed her arms and looked away.
I smiled and forced
myself into hugging her to which she responded by forcibly pushing myself away
from her.
I heard her saying to
me, “Get off of me, shorty. I said I don’t want a hug! You aren’t like this
when we met the first time…”
“That’s probably
because of how much we’ve known each other, Yumiko.”
“I’ve killed you six
times already, how does this justify to me getting a hug?”
“Does it even matter
when we’re talking about something as terrible as what happened with this
city?”
“Well…if you say it
that way…” Yumiko sighed and reluctantly accepted the hug. “I never expected
White would have some sort of widespread virus that spreads to you.”
I finally let her go
after a few moments have passed. Yumiko was still fumbling from that hug I gave
her.
Yumiko then reminded
me, “Everything is good and all but might I remind you that this place reeks of
dead bodies and Yokai?”
“I know that. I was
just wondering about the origin to Atomic City. I didn’t know it would be that
one specific city.”
“Well now that you
know…what’s next for you and your little friend?”
I tried asking her for
something she might know, “Do you know where White and my sister are?”
“Those two? I saw them
last night near a shrine somewhere…They left the shrine since then.”
“Where did they go?”
“I’m not sure…but if
you think about it…White might be chasing Kitsuneki.”
“Kitsuneki is here?”
“Yes, The Chaos Champion
is here and I believed that guy is heading to The Yokai Graveyard…”
“Then White must be
there as well!” I got too close to Yumiko who pushed me back just a bit.
“Well if you really wanted to go there then we can
cut through by crossing over this city. The graveyard is basically at the end
of the city over there…”
“Then let’s go! Come
on, Recordia!” I went on without thinking anything else but White and Ethereal.
Yumiko simply shakes
her head in disbelief and made a weird smile to herself. I didn’t really know
why she smiled like that but I simply casted that aside and forced her to go
with me to The Yokai Graveyard…Little did I know of what’s about to happen
there…
TO BE CONTINUED
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