CHAPTER 1
... AT INCEPTION...
Narrator:
Pain and comfort, monsters and mabeasts, divisions and insurgence, evil haunts, explored frontiers… A world surrounded by creatures of doom, creatures that mysteriously spawned about a thousand years ago. Humans have been fending off these creatures for generations. Then a sort of miracle happened if it can be called that. A group of cities during these battles gathered their resources as one. They came up with a grand capital called Zyron, the capital city, and in all their glory protected 6 other major cities from the monster attacks by creating a force field that demarcates the capital and its cities from the deso) although just 6 cities, the union has been working throughout the years to expand its reach to other places.
Zyron the grand capital exists outside the other cities, it was a city unlike any other. This capital already shows that it's more all-rounded than the rest of the cities. People living here get the best of things.
A mansion is spotted towards the southeastern part of the city, let's take a closer look. It belongs to the family of Minami, two girls are seen in one of the mansion's basements engaging in a gun practice. The practice lasts for about 15 minutes, the girls dropped the weapons safely and head out of the room. While they walk out of the room. On their way back into the mansion they stopped by a room. The room was an aquarium, with walls made out of transparent glass leaving only the floor as concrete. It was a marvelous sight to behold. A large glass room is divided into sections with various types of sea creatures. The younger one goes closer to the largest part of the aquarium, while the other one walks quietly behind her. The younger one was shown to put her face on the glass and stare happily at the creature, while the older one stands crossing her arms with an irritated look on her face.
"Wow, the scales below its belly glow!" The younger one said excitingly.
"Haven't you been warned to stop coming in contact with the glass? What would happen if it fails?" The older one sternly questioned her sister.
"Come on Elle, we both know it isn't possible, you just don't like it here"
The younger sister replied smirking while looking back at her sister.
"Tch... I just want to put a bullet in that thing" Elle changes her stance with her index finger pointed toward the creature - "Bang"
"Stop talking like that, you know how much daddy loves to fish for creatures like these. I mean he spent a lot of money during the black market auctioning so I heard"
" This creature was said to be the….~blah blah blah blah blah~" with beaming eyes, the sibling continued to talk more about the creature while the elder one had one of her pinkies in her ear as she looked away.
"It's okay, I get it Retsu, I get it, we should cherish daddy's collection"
Elle shuts her sister before she ends up passing out due to her long speech.
"This is the part of daddy I like, getting to keep and enjoy these marvelous babies, you know I'd rather stare at them all day than practice how to wield guns, I'm not as skilled as you are big sis, I've tried convincing father to let you succeed him but he's adamant and says his old quote.."
"Everyone's fate is determined the moment they are born, whether good or bad both chorus but with these hands, we do not wait for fate's fortune but we fight for what we want to be"
RETSU:
They both start laughing, then a servant comes in and hands Elle a phone, the servant says it's from her father
"gotta go Retsu, it's time for the weekly reports" Elle waves her goodbye as she leaves the aquarium.
"Ha ah! Sometimes I'm jealous of her, sometimes I'm happy I ain't like her, being an older sibling has its own toll" Retsu sighed.
"Right Toraume?" she asks looking at the fiery creature.
"Gee, I wonder how its flames burn underwater and the temperature doesn't still change, I'm sure everyone has had that same thought since they came in contact with it" she kept muttering while holding on to the glass.
THE AUDITORIUM
Somewhere in the city, a bit close to the center of Zyron, an orchestra performance was being held in the auditorium. It was a beautiful sight to be seen, a lot of important men gathered to witness the legendary Fiasco Moore perform on stage.
While the performance went on, a blue-haired girl blended with the crowd, she apparently didn't like this type of music, why? She was from the "countryside" (a term used to refer to people living in the suburbs). Months ago she moved into this city to stay with her uncle and help out. She adjusted to the crowd's movement and praises whenever it occurred during the performance. She had her eye sighted on a man on the right wing of the gallery. She was sure not to let others notice anything out of the blue.
She got up immediately after the guest in the gallery left, and she excused herself politely as she left the auditorium. She perfectly worked her way through a group of people trying to follow her target. "Don't lose sight of him" the voice echoed from the com.
"Roger" she replied.
She asked the com if the coast was clear and he replied yeah. It seemed the person behind the com had a unique visual feed of the artrium. She kept on tailing him like 25ft away. The man turns left and enters a room, just before he did, he swiped his card into the access point of the door and it allowed access. Just before the door shut, she threw a marble which placed itself in between the door and prevented it from closing. She then asked the com if the target was still on the move to which voice behind the com replied positively. She entered the room and then heard a gun pointed at her head, right in Infront of her was the target sitting comfortably.
"That was easy, right guys?" The man burst out laughing. The bodyguards had their guns pointed in Aozaki's direction.
"You're probably wondering how come, aren't you?" The man leaned forward smiling childishly.
"You sent an amateur after me, Ohmasa" the man spoke loudly for the com to detect. The girl had her hands slightly raised in the air.
AOZAKI:
"Shit!" That was the last sound that echoed in the room from the com.
Towards the western part of Zyron, In a certain district, loud noises could be heard coming from a particular building. It seemed surprising that the neighbors haven't revolted, or maybe they have gotten used to it.
JADE'S WORKSHOP:
A mini screen pops out of the wall of the garage, an incoming call from Ohmasa.
"Ohmasa huh"
She clapped once and the music stopped then she picks the call.
"Jade san, the mission has been compromised!" Ohmasa shouts.
"What mission?" Jade cleaned her hands as she walked toward the corner of the room.
"Don't play dumb, telling you or not telling you anything won't stop you from knowing what I'm talking about" Ohmasa retorted.
'Pim pim pim pim!' sounds of buttons being clicked, all of a sudden a door in the corner of the garage opens up and jade walks inside.
The room is nothing like the garage.
TV screens almost cover the upper part of the room with supercomputers and a lot of high-tech gadgets all over the place.
Still, on a call with Ohmasa, she sits on the chair closest to the main computer.
"Send me her coordinates" Jade orders Ohmasa as she works her way to the computer.
JADE: https://twitter.com/visionofviii/status/1605091539054915584?t=eq5XFcfaD5AGV6FQAq7Wlw&s=19
"On it… Done" the reply through one of the screens echoed. The main screen changed scenes and what was shown was the blueprint of the atrium. A red dot indicated Aozaki. She then continues gaining administrative access.
She could hear the conversation or I should say interrogation happening in the room.
"You owe me one," she says
"Yes ma'am, now do your thing," he said to hurry her up.
She pressed a key on the board, in response to that, all the lights in the room and the hallway next to it went off.
The shocked guards looked around for a second, this gave Aozaki time to escape, thanks to the marble still left at the door, she didn't have trouble running into the hallway. The hallway wasn't completely dark so they could make out her figure. One of the bodyguards pointed his gun to shoot but was stopped by the Boss.
"I need her alive! After her!"
While Jade worked on the computer to aid Aozaki's escape, the entire system shuts down, this was quite shocking since no power outage had ever occurred before. She stood up briskly and walked over to the side of the room when she felt it. Beneath her feet, it felt like the earth was moving, and she lost her balance and collapsed a few seconds later. After a few minutes, she woke up and saw the state her fortress was in. With some monitors on the floor and a few cracks over the walls. She checked her phone and saw it was down.
Curious to know what happened, she activates an emergency backup system. The room and screens were lit up again. Brushing the dust from her desk, she operated the computer.
On some of the screens, different parts of Zyron could be seen. She pressed a key on her board and suddenly on one of the screens focusing on the city hall, a massive beam of light came down destroying parts of the hall. Jade paused the video confused then all of a sudden it clicked on her. "Zyron's defense. It's been compromised!" She gasped. She continued the video and then a sound can be heard. It was the Earth vibrating. A bright blue light flashed instantly as the earth ceased to vibrate. It was so bright the screen was covered with it. After the light subsided, the ground started splitting, buildings started collapsing. She switched to another screen and with just a click, it displayed the outside of the atrium. She squinted, she could make out a strange figure slowly approaching the direction of the atrium.
"You can't be kidding me!" She got up, left the room hurriedly and climbed one of her bikes, and zoomed off.
Aozaki was running with her might while asking for directions from the com. More bodyguards poured from different entrances trying to capture her. She was a very acrobatic girl so she used it to her advantage to get away from them. Panting heavily as she ran down, she tried talking to the com but couldn't get any response,
"Hello, hey! *Huff huff* what's happening?" The men were still tailing her, she thought that she should mix with the crowd. But before that happened, they all felt the vibration. So they stopped running and looked around, suddenly a blue light flashed In front of everyone and they all collapsed. Aozaki collapsed just before she could enter the crowded room.
She wakes up some minutes after the event. To her horror, she saw crushed body parts, chunks of metal, and concrete scattered around her. Some bodyguards were crushed, some were injured, while some luckily didn't get grazed. They got up almost at the same time as hers and found themselves confused. It was like a dream. Some refused to accept reality and ended up crouching where they were, while some put on brave faces and carried out their chivalrous duty of capturing her.
"Why bother, our boss may have been killed," one of them says hugging his knees.
"Once you're given a duty, you fulfill it to the end," said another one struggling to get up.
He continued "Besides, Boss can't die from something like this"
"Just as he said!" The boss said holding the shoulder of a man behind them.
"Now we have more reasons to get the girl, you can't let your fellow comrades die for nothing can you?, Others who can move, continue to pursue!" The boss commanded.
"Yes sir" about six guards who were up, started to walk toward the moving girl.
Aozaki's plan failed, she was all alone. The mission failed, she was being targeted, and she started to regret taking this mission. She walked while holding the walls of the atrium. Her plans had changed, she wanted to get out of the building as fast as possible. She started to pick up her pace and walked towards the exit of the building. She could see a large hole around the entrance/exit. She smiled a little. She ran holding her tummy and made her way outside the building.
She was outside, it didn't look like what it did some moments ago, "what the heck happened?" She cried out. She looked back and saw the guards, with some of them already outside. She kept on staggering away from the building towards the roadside, the men started to spread out to encircle her.
"Shriek!!!"
they all froze and turned around, they couldn't believe their eyes! They all stood terrified. It was hideous, a beast? A giant? It was a gigantic creature with mouths all over its body. The creature peaked over the atrium. It had 8 legs and 3 tails, with a face like that of an alligator, and scales like that of a dragon. It approached them, slowly.
"Bakemono!"(monster in a different language)
"Stay back!" The guards yell as they brought out guns and started firing at the creature. The guards were moving back slowly as they sprayed all the bullets they had on it.
"It's working! Can't you guys see? It's backing off! Bullets do hurt i-"
One of the guards who stood in front of the said while looking back to assure them. Unfortunately, he was torn in two. This was done by one of the tails of the creature.
"Ahhhhh!!!" The rest screamed as they ran and shot bullets at it. The monster used one of its tails to cut a large chunk of the atrium, with its other two, it wrapped up the bolder-sized chunk and tossed it their way.
It was a horrible sight to behold, the aftermath led to a bloodbath. everybody crushed, torn, and wallpapered.
She woke up and saw a manifestation, another monster using its body to stop the rock from crushing her. She screamed! and the monster pushed away the rock. The protector of Aozaki was a white monster that took the form of a cat, it had a colorful face and large fangs. It left her side and walked towards the larger creature. The creature caught sight of the small monster and it started to send attacks toward it. The Cat monster looked back at Aozaki and tried to fend off most of the alligator's attacks. The monster cat could easily slash at the tails of the creature and deflect the attacks, but it wasn't as powerful as the alligator creature, so it got tired after a while. Aozaki got up and began to move away from the fight. She had reached the road when she heard her name. She turned in that direction and saw a Red haired woman who had parked not far from her.
"Hop on and hold on tight!" Jade yelled.
"O-okay" she hopped on and clung to Jade with all her life.
They zoomed off
Aozaki turned around and noticed the cat monster had disappeared, that wasn't good enough for a diversion she thought. she then yells at Jade, "it has noticed us! it's coming!". crunch Jade crushed her popsicle, flipped one of her hands to the side and three cards appeared. She looked around, rode into a small corner, and threw the cards separately.
The monster was gaining ground, it was directly behind them. As soon as it turned with them to enter the hollowed place, an explosion happened. Aozaki turned around and noticed it was not tailing them again. She breathes a sigh of relief.
.... AT THE GARAGE...
"What's the matter? you don't look well," Jade asked while opening another popsicle wrap.
"Let's get in, we can talk after you've freshened up," She said patting Aozaki on the shoulder.
Even though the hidden lair opened up, it was a bit messy, but still was breathtaking. The downcast girl didn't react at all but walked in like a zombie. "I've got some old clothes that might fit, the shower is over there, in case you're hungry, I've got some snacks in the fridge, help y-"
"They are all dead, aren't they? everyone is gone, please tell me it's a dream" Aozaki clung onto Jade's shirt like it was her last hope. She couldn't accept reality. she ran out and puked. The horror of what she had seen that day haunted her.
"there there, let it all out," Jade said rubbing her back. She offered her water and then took her in.
"I'll hear all your requests if you do what I told you to" She scolded Aozaki, [NARRATOR: in this scene, she was more like an elder sister? mother? perhaps an aunt]
Aozaki came out with a neck towel, holding some old clothes. She could see Jade working on the computers and her sending reports, trying to get answers. From afar Jade looked like an office worker, her red hair was nearly packed into a bun, she wore a suit jacket with the sleeve slightly rolled up, wore a pair of glasses. Aozaki stared at her lost in thought until she turned back and met her gaze. She quickly adjusted herself and walked over to her side.
"I...I was supposed to tail an important figure today 'Tenma' he was going to meet someone, I was to gather information, I screwed up the mission *sobs* everything went wrong from there, I couldn't contact Ohmasa… What the hell is going on?"
Jade showed her the video of what happened, how the city hall got struck by a beam of light, Aozaki watched while sobbing,
"so this happened? Today?"
"Wait a minute.. how's this place running? My phone is down, basically, everything is down. My com isn't working, and I can't reach Ohmasa, but you can do all these" Aozaki was confused and stared at Jade suspiciously.
"Oh you mean these, it's a secret, you've been saying Ohmasa this Ohmasa that.. who is he?" Jade asked hiding her intentions.
"Oh sorry, it's not like you know him, Ohmasa took me in, he played the role of an uncle, he sent me on missions, now I'm just worried," Aozaki said looking down at her feet, with tears in her eyes.
Jade leaves her seat and approached her, staring at her intently, this makes Aozaki uncomfortable.
"Can I call you Zaki? Your name sounds a bit too long" she said grinning.
"What the hell?! I don't even know you, now you're trying to act close all of a sudden?!" She replied with a question.
"Fine call me Zaki, I mean, you did save my life," she said shyly looking away.
"Hahahaha… Come on, you don't need to be all stiff, I was just pulling your legs. By the way, Ohmasa asked me to help you out. I was the one who turned off the lights earlier and messed with the doors to buy you time to escape yunno"
"Wha-"
"I did everything from here.. that's right, praise me praise me, without me, you would have been tortured" Jade raises her head as she spoke of her accomplishment.
"Arigatou Jade San" (thank you Miss Jade) Zaki bowed meekly after hearing what was said to her.
"But I didn't tell you my name, how did y-"
"Ohmasa speaks highly of you, to meet Jade Sama in person…"
She said with admiration written all over her face.
Sigh "Ohmasa-kun, I hope you're alright," Jade says staring at the ceiling.
The air got heavy for a bit, till zaki's stomach broke the silence.
Jade laughed at Zaki and offered her food.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2