VILLAGE
Jun remembered what Melanie used to say after she took every single sip of the sodizu. The house light was a bit dim as it was lit by a candle. The Izuzunians sat around, resting.
Jun got up and walked to the window and looked outside.
"I miss them," Jun said.
"Miss who? Oh.." Kyle understood. Jun misses the ones who are gone and not with them right now. He wonders if there are other ways to avoid their deaths. Maybe the Izuzunians should've taken Nugget's threat more seriously.
"I miss them too.. and my parents," Eungi said.
"I honestly thought that me and George... could've taught Melanie how to fight with us when she grew up," Mikey said.
Everyone looked depressed.
"I kind of... really wanted to be friends with Tidus and Collin," Kyle said.
"Roselyn sounded like a very kind girl," Chloe says.
"We all lost someone important yesterday... but.. we have to kill this oshir before we can cry our faces out," Jun says.
Eungi gets up "Yeah, no more crying until this is finished!"
"Yeah," The rest got up from the ground and wiped their tears.
"Let's go kill the oshir" Jun said.
The rest put on their helmet "Everyone ready?" Jun asked.
"Yes," Kyle answered as he walked to the door.
"Ready?" Kyle asked.
"Yes!" They all shouted.
"Then let's go kill that son of a bitch!" Kyle yelled as he kicked the door open and aimed his bow at the oshir.
Everyone else joins "Ready! Let's go!" They let go as the arrows flew through the air and hit the oshir one by one.
The oshir screamed and turned its head around.
He spots them all on the ground.
"Alright, I have a plan! Every time someone shoots the oshir, if the oshir aims for you, run into the house so we can attack the oshir without it hitting you! Then after that, the oshir should focus on one of us instead of the person it was currently focusing on!" Jun explained.
"Got it!" they yelled.
The oshir starts charging at them. Nobody knows who it's going for until it shoots at George.
"George! Run into the house!" Eungi yelled as George quickly dodged and ran into the building.
They continue shooting their arrows as the oshir gets weaker and weaker.
"We're doing it!" Eungi shouted.
The oshir tries to take out all the arrows off of him but he can't. Then the oshir aims for another person, Eungi.
"Eungi run in the building!" Jun screamed out as Eungi did what he said.
Eungi enters the building as George runs out attacking the oshir.
"He's almost dead!" Eungi yelled out.
"Yeah, I know!" Jun yelled back as he shot an arrow into his eyes.
The oshir screamed louder than last time as everyone covered their ears.
Kyle jumped "Aaaah!!" And slices the oshir's wings off as it falls to the ground. It cannot fly.
"Attack it with your swords!" Jun shouts.
They all grab their swords as Eungi also comes out of the building.
"Attack!" Jun yelled as they charged at the wither swinging their swords left to right.
Damaging the oshir more and more and more until it suddenly stops screaming and closes its eyes.
"Is it over?" George asked.
Jun slowly gets up "Yeah, I think"
"We did it guys! We did it!" Kyle shouts.
Everyone else was tired and wanted to go back to sleep.
"I'm ready to go home!" Kyle says as he jumps around.
"Yeah.. same," Jun said.
"This marks it!" Eungi shouted "The end of the war!"
Everyone smiled as they began walking back home happily.
They left without helping out the villagers though, they all died. Jun turned around and faced the village "I'm sorry"
"It's finally over... the war," Jun says in his head "It's been... two days... but we finally won the war. We won with only six survivors... it's not a lot of people. But it's still good. We lost a lot of people yesterday and... honestly.. we were weak.. but we weren't weak enough to lose. If I ever fought in another war... I'll prepare more.. and plan out stuff instead of it coming out of nowhere.. I'll fight whoever wants to come at us again!"
IZUZUNU, MODERN CITY, JUN'S HOUSE
Jun takes a sip of water as everyone sits on their chair at their own house.
"I can't believe it" Jun says to himself "We lost... so many people"
Everyone's tears begin falling as Eungi gets on the ground and starts crying, this time, a full on cry.
They can finally let their tears out as the war ended.
Chloe cried, George cried, Mikey cried, Eungi cried, and Kyle cried.
Jun sat there, drowning in his tears. Jun walks all the way up to his balcony and stares at the new world. Izuzunu looks like hell. The destruction of Izuzunu hits Jun as he becomes even more emotional.
Jun screams as loud as he can "Aaaah!!" and cries as he falls to the ground.
This was too much for everyone to handle. As the sun slowly rises higher in the sky as they've lived... to see another day.
IZU CEMETERY
Jun and the rest stood there in the cemetery looking down at every gravestone. Jun stood there at Coen's gravestone "I'm sorry I couldn't save you, all of you. Sorry, Coen... I didn't treat you like a friend" Jun said out loud.
Everyone looked sorrowful. It's a very bad day... and also a good day for them.
The silence broke in as they just looked at the gravestones. The day was cloudy as the sun was barely visible. The clouds are dark gray and white. The wind blows as the Izuzunians feel the breeze. The leaves are orange, red, and yellow. Suddenly a footstep was heard at the entrance of the cemetery.
"I'm sorry" Edison walked into the cemetery and apologized.
Edison knows the mistake he has made for the past few days.
"Where were you!? Edison!" Jun yelled as he dropped his flower on Coen's grave. He walks toward Edison and slaps him on the face.
Edison looked down as everyone else watched Jun.
"You could've been there for us!" Eungi shouted, "But you.. were having a fun time with your girlfriend or whoever she is!"
Edison then looks at everyone and begins walking around the cemetery. He looked at every gravestone and read the names.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for y'all... I didn't know that this was going to happen" Edison says as he puts flowers down on each gravestone.
"As president... I don't think I can take this role" Edison surprised them "I'm no longer president" Edison walked out of the cemetery and turned back at them "I'm truly sorry" He walked away, about to go home when suddenly "Aah!!" He screamed out while falling; falling through the ground and into a hole.
"Edison!" Jun shouted as he ran toward the hole. It was a hidden hole covered with grass and leaves. Everyone else checked on Edison.
"I'm good" He puts his thumbs up as he slowly gets up, but sees the most terrifying thing ever.
"Jun..." Edison mumbled.
"What is it?" Jun asked.
"This whole entire underground hallway system... is filled with..." He finally gets up and looks around "tnts"
RISE OF IZUZUNU
VOLUME 2, CHAPTER 18, SORROW AND THE TNTS
MINUTES LATER
A few minutes later Jun and the rest jump down into the hole. They see all the tnts Edison was talking about. They were all aligned against the walls and had wires connecting to each one. The tnts are dynamites all wrapped into one to make a tnt.
"Who did this?" Jun asked.
"I don't know... but.. maybe they were gonna use this for the war" Edison answered.
"They lost and forgot about it, huh?" Jun says.
"It's connected by a metal wire... If you make too much movement onto it, it will definitely explode. And when it explodes, the blast radius will make the rest of the tnts explode" Eungi explained.
"How does that even work?" Kyle asked.
"I don't know... Just trust me and be careful with them" Eungi said as Edison tried to take the tnts out of the wires.
"Be careful, Edison" Jun says as he takes out the tnt. He grabs the tnt and holds onto the wires, not trying to make sudden movements. He finishes.
"Alright... next one," Edison says as he goes to the next tnt.
"Kyle... I have a favor to ask you" Eungi said.
"Sure, what's up?" Kyle asked.
"Follow me" They both climb back up to the surface.
They walk into Eungi's house and he shuts the door. It was quiet as Eungi turned around and faced Kyle. Kyle was confused, this is not something Eungi would do if he wanted to share something.
"I want... I want you to kill me" Eungi says.
Kyle's eyes widened in shock as he asked "What did you say?"
"I want you to kill me... I'm tired... I can't live without.... my parents" Eungi explained.
Kyle stood there for a second thinking what to say next "Eungi... no.. I can't"
"Kill me!" Eungi yelled.
Kyle flinched and took a step back.
"I'm tired of this world! The war! I don't want to.. remember it anymore"
They both just stood there staring at each other.
"Trauma..." Kyle whispers in his mind.
UNDERGROUND
"We're almost done!" Edison shouts as he wipes a sweat.
"Yeah, no, we're only halfway," Mikey says as he walks around the underground hallway system.
"So this was their plan, huh?" Chloe asks.
"Yes, unless we accidentally built Izuzunu on top of an underground nuking system," Jun said.
"How did they have enough time to do this?" Edison asked.
"I don't know, but I think these were placed like... maybe a month earlier," Jun thought as Edison stopped "So, while we were building Modern City?" He asks.
"Yeah, sort of" Jun replied.
"That's... impossible," Edison said as he continued taking out the tnt.
"Wait, what month is it anyway?" Edison asked.
"Huh? Month? It's the second month" Jun said.
"No, aren't there twelve months with names?" Edison rephrased his question.
"Uhh... I don't know, I have no memories" Jun answered.
"Hmm..." Edison thought "The trees are red... so... it should be fall... so it's either August, September, or October"
"Yeah, I never heard of that" Jun laughed nervously.
"Yeah," Mikey agreed in the distance as he tried to take out a tnt.
"Mikey stop! Don't do that-" The tnt starts to spark as everyone quickly ducks to cover. Mikey grabs the tnt and throws it across the hallway system.
"Everyone! Duck!" They all duck and cover their heads on the ground as the tnt explodes.
"BOOM!" The tnt went off.
Everyone slowly opens their eyes and looks around, seeing that it hasn't set off the other tnts.
"Mikey!" Chloe shouted.
"That was my bad" Mikey scratches his head as he walks out of the hallway.
"We almost died," Edison says as he looks in shock.
"Yeah, at least it didn't trigger the other tnts to explode" Jun replied.
"Get out" Edison points at the hallway where the entrance was.
"Aw man" Mikey walks away from the rest.
A few hours later they're finally done with the tnt "We're finally done!!" Edison shouted as the whole hallway echoed.
"Yeah... let's get the hell out of here though" Jun suggested.
After getting out of the underground system, Jun asks Edison "Hey.. so.. you said you are giving up the president's term?"
"Yes" Edison answered "I don't think I have the guts to be a president" Edison explained.
"Oh... I understand"
Jun then looks at Chloe "How about you?" Jun asks.
"What about me?" She asked.
"You become... our new president" Jun suggested.
"Are you sure about that?" Chloe asked.
"Yes... we don't really need one, but.. I want to give people a chance to be leaders" He said.
She gladly takes the offer and thanks Jun.
"Don't thank me, thank Edison" He said.
"You're welcome," Edison says back to Chloe and smiles.
Jun's smile quickly turned back to a frown and he headed back home "I'm going to bed" He says.
"Oh.. okay" Edison walks away from the moment.
Chloe does the same and leaves as no one is there now.
DOOM BRIGADE PRIME BASE
Lord Piller holds a picture of his daughter.
"Do you think we made a mistake starting a war against the Izuzunu Empire?" He asks his guards.
"You never make a mistake, Lord Piller" They answered.
"I don't think my daughter would've liked what I just did the other day," Lord Piller says as he puts the picture down.
"I'm leaving," Nugget says as he leaves the building.
He quickly turns his head back at Lord Piller "I'm going back to Izuzunu" Nugget said.
"Why?" Piller asks.
Nugget spoke "I want to apologize"
As Nugget left the room, Piller felt a little off. He felt like Nugget was gonna do something like betray them.
So he decides "I'm gonna kick him"
IZUZUNU
"There's no way! I won't kill you!" Kyle screamed at Eungi.
Eungi looks down at his hands and then he walks to the kitchen.
He grabs a knife "If you won't do it! Then I will!"
"No!" Kyle runs into Eungi and grabs the knife "I-.. I don't wanna lose another friend!" Kyle's tears fall onto the floor as Eungi pushes Kyle away.
"You already lost another friend.. I'm tired of thinking about the war.. it- it's stuck in my head! It won't get out!! All those dead Izuzunians... those bodies!!" Eungi explained "I can't live like this anymore!"
"If I kill you, I'm gonna be traumati-"
"You won't... please... just do one last favor for your best friend" Eungi interrupted his sentence.
Kyle watches as Eungi's tears up.
Kyle walks up to Eungi and grabs the knife from his hands.
He hugs Eungi "It'll be okay" He said while crying "It'll be okay"
ZARUZARU ACADEMY, A MONTH AGO
"Today! We'll be talking about what we wanna be when we grow up!" The teacher says as all the students screamed in joy.
It was the first day Jun launched a new school system.
The school consists of six classes. Each class will be a different subject.
"What do I want to be when I grow up-" Edison was rudely interrupted by a student "But you're already grown up!" She laughs as the whole class joins along.
Edison laughs back as he tells them to be quiet.
"I want to be a brave hero that will help and protect the country! And all of you guys too!"
"Wow!" The students were amazed and he kind of changed some student's minds into wanting to become a warrior.
"Me too!" The students yelled out loud.
"I want to become a teacher!" Melanie shouted as she smiled.
"Yes, that is a good one!" Edison smiled back.
"Jun! What do you wanna be?" He asked.
Jun is sitting in the back of the classroom. He's basically the principal of the school.
"I want to be stronger," He said as he looked out of the window.
"You're already strong! You're the strongest person I've ever met!" Melanie says as she laughs.
Jun smiled "Really?" He laughed along.
"You may not realize it.. but you really are a strong person," Edison said.
"Oh," Jun said as he looked back outside to see the view of Diamond Valley.
"I'm... strong?"
IZUZUNU, DIAMOND VALLEY, PRESENT DAY
"This place is in ruins," Jun says to Edison.
"Yeah," He said.
"Remember that day at the school when you were talking to the students about what they wanna be when they grow up?" Jun asked.
"Yes," Edison remembered.
"I still want to be a strong person," Jun said.
"You are strong" Edison assured as he patted Jun on the shoulders.
"No... I was weak, this all would've never happened if I was strong enough to kill Lord Piller... they kept knocking me down on the ground again and again and again. I cried each time someone died... I'm such a weak person" Jun said as he covered his face.
"That's just the beginning," Edison says "You'll become a lot stronger in the future, this is what it takes to be a strong person"
Jun's looked at Edison with a smile.
"Thanks, Edison" He thanked as he glanced at the town.
EUNGI'S HOUSE
"Please" Eungi pleases Kyle as they both stand there "Kill me" Eungi hugs Kyle.
Kyle stood there with tears falling onto the ground.
"This is how I want to go out" Eungi assured Kyle "By your hands"
Eungi took a few steps back and hit the door.
"Do it, Kyle" Eungi says.
Kyle stood there frightened as ever "I- I- I can't" Kyle said "I'm no murderer"
"It isn't murder if I asked you to do it," Eungi says as he smiles.
Kyle held the knife in his hands and gripped it very tight "I'm sorry... Eungi"
Kyle finally looks at Eungi and points the knife towards him "I'm sorry" more tears fall.
"Do it, Kyle!!" Eungi yelled out loud as Kyle charged at Eungi "Aaaah!!!" Kyle stabs Eungi in the chest.
Eungi hugged Kyle one more time and thanked him "Thank you, Kyle," He said as he fell onto the ground.
Kyle stood there watching Eungi die. Kyle kneels down and looks at Eungi. He's already dead. Kyle closes Eungi's eyes and gets up from the ground.
"Aaaah!!" Kyle screams as loud as he can from all the pain that he's caused.
"What is all this ruckus!?" Chloe enters Eungi's house and freezes.
"Aaaaah!!" She screamed.
"This is not what it looks like," Kyle said in fear as he turned to Chloe.
"Chloe!" Kyle yelled as Chloe ran out of the building.
Kyle looked at Eungi on the floor and sat there crying "I just... committed... Murder"
IZUZUNU, DIAMOND VALLEY
Kyle stood there in front of Jun "Kyle! You murderer!" Jun punches Kyle as he falls onto the ground.
"Why'd you kill him for!!?" Edison backs Jun away from Kyle.
"Jun! Chill!" Edison shouted.
Jun's eyes felt watery as he dropped to the ground "Why did... you kill him?" He asks Kyle.
"I had to... he had to go out," Kyle said.
"What?" Jun asks.
"He said... he asked me to kill him, okay!!?" Kyle yelled at Jun.
He stood there angry at Kyle but then changed his mood "What do you mean?" He asked.
"Eungi wanted to die... I tried to stop him from killing himself, but then he asked me to kill him. I didn't want to... But he kept yelling at me to do it and- and... I did it.." Kyle explained.
"Kyle... as an Izuzunian, it's our duty to keep each other safe, and protect one another, that's the reason why all this started; Izuzunu" Jun said.
Kyle then grabs a sharp object from the floor and tries to stab his neck.
"No!" Jun runs into Kyle as he kicks the object away "Don't go out like Eungi!" Jun yelled as Kyle looked at everyone in tears.
He pushes Jun out of the way and smiles "I feel... so guilty.. every time I think about what I did to him!"
"Kyle... it's okay" Edison says as he tries to comfort Kyle.
"I'm guilty," Kyle said "I'm better off dead" Kyle quickly grabbed the sharp object back and stabbed his neck.
The sharp object goes through his throat as he falls to the ground.
"No!! Kyle!!" Jun shouted as he ran to Kyle.
"Kyle!" They all shouted as they ran to him. Jun grabs Kyle before he falls to the ground.
"Kyle! Kyle! Someone get bandages!" Jun yelled.
Kyle gently grabs Jun's face "It's..... Okay" blood gushing out of his neck like a waterfall.
"Jun!.... " Kyle spoke yelling out loud.
"Take care.... of everyone for me, okay?" Kyle said as he dropped his arms and his whole body rested.
"Kyle! Kyle!" Jun tries shaking Kyle to wake up.
"Kyle! No! Kyle!" He shouted louder.
Everyone looked away and covered their eyes. Edison stood there and just watched.
He didn't know what to do. Kyle finally dies.
IZU CEMETERY
"Why?" Jun and the rest are still crying "Why did it have to end this way?... Why does everyone have to kill themselves after we've won!!" Jun slams his fists against the walls of the cemetery.
"Stop! Jun!!" Edison grabs Jun's arms and hugs him "No more... no more!" Edison clenches his teeth. Jun watches his tears running down to his chin.
"It's just how life is" Edison explained "We get born into the world, and grow, get stronger, get weaker, and then die"
Jun stops hugging Edison as he crouches at Eungi's grave and gently puts down a flower.
Then he went to Kyle's grave and gently put down a flower.
"I think that's enough for me," Edison says as he leaves the cemetery.
Jun still stood there looking down at the gravestones.
"Together forever, Summer. Gone, but not forgotten, Kyle. Loved by all, Eungi. My friend, Coen. The hero, Tidus. The hero, Collin. Rest in peace, Roselyn. Rest in peace, Kayla. and until we meet again... Melanie" Jun read each of their gravestones out.
Jun pulls out a mask that'll cover his whole face. The mask was painted white and red and is the flag of Izuzunu. A circular white mask with a red dot in the middle of it and four half squares at each corner of the circle's mask.
"This is.. the symbol... of Izuzunu" Jun said as he finally masked himself.
He stops his tears and he slowly walks away in his suit and mask on. His suit was all white and red. Which symbolizes Izuzunu.
"See you later... everyone"
Jun slowly walks away from the cemetery as the sun finally sets.
TO BE CONTINUED IN VOLUME 3.
Volume 3!! APRIL 2, 2022!!