Honomura, Rexymax, sits alone in the hospital bed, waiting for a nurse to issue him in. His mind is a wreck, soldiers surround his emergency room. The atmosphere is heavy, there's no room to think about anything, and the mind has been beaten to a pulp.
The electricity is being repaired, the maintenance crew sits outside, and powerlines are being restored to their former condition. Their eyes, they stare at Max intently, trying to guide him to consciousness, yet he wouldn't follow. He thought he had died, his mind was convinced that he had entered the afterlife.
All of his endeavors have gone to waste, his imagination manifesting into a world of his own. Touching another surface that is not from his own, visions of his past, visions of his trauma, visions of everything he's experienced. For at that very moment, he was the past, he was present, and he has become the future.
Max continues to fight himself, but his consciousness was trying to grab hold of him. The soldiers are on high alert, for every little movement he takes, they follow. His arm raises, and the lights flicker, but nothing happens after. He wakes up, the white room was blinding, and the lights hurt his eyes.
His head throbbing, voices telling him to sleep, voices that kept him looking around.
"Why, no... I am alive?! Why did I survive... Military, keep calm Max, you lived. Reincarnation is not real, this can't be another world, those things aren't real, this is the same..." he talked to himself, inside his mind, the voices had no effect, the will is fighting back.
"Honomura, we've identified you as the person behind the back of the creature, kindly nod to the intercom if you can hear us."
Max nods to the unknown voice, obeying their commands.
"Good, do you remember anything? Do you know what happened? Do you know when it happened?"
"I remember being in the sky, above the houses, I don't know what happened. If it's still dark out, then it must've happened earlier."
"Noted, we must inform you that you've been comatose for over 24 hours now. Your vital signs are weak, but you were persistent, a bullet hole was identified in your parietal bone. A suicide attempt judging by where the entry point was, yet the hole is no longer present."
The soldiers kept their interrogation in a manner the young man could understand, yet he answered everything with pure honesty, he didn't know.
"What?! The Tetsu Kabe is shutting down? All 4 domes?! Evacuate all the patients, we're clearing the way, use the combat vehicles as ambulances!"
Instructions were made in the event that all their functioning turrets shut down, and the power usage was too much. The mass evacuation had begun, and Max's room was unlocked. Soon, airstrikes began to land, the power cut was prominent, and the gunfire was no longer present.
The buildings have begun to get hit.
More and more pieces of debris filled the corners of each ceiling, glass could be heard all around the town. Half empty, the city could not hear screams, everyone entered indoors to their designated bunkers. Empty streets were now filled with broken rebar and dust, after the dust settled, they continued evacuations.
A strike hit the hospital, a war crime had been committed, and their foes were not backing down. The power died yet again, providing the last remaining bastion of power to the closest functioning dome. Airstrikes were hitting more consistently, Max was left behind as a result of countless patients being prioritized.
"Whatever I've done, they sure wanna kill me for it... I didn't even do anything..." Max was tired, he opened the door, and gunfire could be heard outside, personnel trying to evacuate.
"Hey, come down, we have to go!" a military official had come back for him, Max denied the request.
"I was the priority yet it shows that's not the case..." Max was not willing, he stared at her, knowing what was about to happen.
As personnel left, an airstrike hit the roof directly, the stairs collapsed the woman had been crushed under rubble, and screaming continued downstairs.
"Am sorry... Am- you should've left, my head! I can't think! My head is aching so much..."
Their collected efforts have been transferred to save the remaining civilians outside, completely abandoning Max. He took the phone of the officer, browsing about, finding news of himself. He fell to the floor, grabbing the back of his head, trying to scroll past the useless posts.
"Oh... That's what happened... My friends, I want them to be safe, but, I want myself to be safe too. I just wanted to leave, why? Why? Why can't they let me?..." Max took a break, his fear had died out long ago, and his will to think was long gone.
Moments later, he recovered, watching the window as they shined with lights from helicopters passing by, the fire from the strikes was evident. There was no turning back anymore, he knew to himself, that everything was his fault. As things went south, he only took accountability for what he wanted to do.
"My machinery, something within, destroyed it? What am I? What was I supposed to do, when I have no control?! They blame me, but I never knew, I never knew anything!"
"But now the world knows, hehe, I just wanted to keep my family safe, to make sure my mother has somewhere to go when I am gone... Kenji, I've done it, not because I wanted to, but because my body turned against me, and so did the media, so did everyone..."
Max continued walking, trying to find a way down. There was no sign of anything, he wanted to get back to Dairue, he wanted to see his friends for his final moments, but he knew that death wouldn't come anytime soon. He walked, opening the sliding windows, trying to climb out to the field.
The medical center was half destroyed, he tried to slide down the pipes, his head was still caving in, and his skull was trying to fight itself. He ignored the pain and kept going, hitting his knees on the grass below. His floor was not high, there was enough room for him, he crawled.
"I didn't want this... Fires, this feels like true war, almost like the things I wrote down..."
"I think, I will sleep... Tired, hungry, dehydrated... I need a fucking bath too..."
He laid his head on the grass, the insects were turning away from him, avoiding his limbs. The world itself wanted nothing to do with him, doing everything it could to run away from the wrath he was capable of committing."
The day was no better, the night hid his scars, and the day took its light from him.
"God, so itchy, Max, you have to change clothes and find Dairue."
"Next, you find your mother..."
He wrote everything he had wanted to fulfill that day, knowing he had no choice. Max ran to a nearby neighborhood, his leg had healed, and bruises on his forehead from the bullet hole were still visible.
"I need makeup for my bruised forehead, a cap to hide this hair, maybe dyeing my hair a different color..."
The boy finds a building, the boards on the windows and the door which was locked signified it had been empty, he tried to look around for an entrance, the only viable one being to break a window in the second floor that connected to the roof of an outcrop. He stood on top of the window, carrying a rock, and he knocked it multiple times.
The glass broke and Max entered the house, the buildings had clothes that barely fit his weird proportions, but he wore them anyway. He tried to find longer sleeves to bulk up, and finding a pair of pants to keep his torn ones away. He hid his hospital gown in one of the drawers.
He found out that no woman lived in the house, he went up to another house and broke down the exposed window, trying to find makeup. The boy checked the windows, trying to see if they had mirrors that only women would use, after a lengthy search, he found one. Problematic solutions were present, the house was hard to break into.
"Fucking hell, I had the ability to break 2 out of 4 domes but can't break into a house that's a fraction of its size"
Max tried to find a different house instead but was too exhausted, he chose to climb from a different house to enter through the bathroom of the former home he found. Sure enough, he kicked the ventilation fan while sitting on another roof.
"Ahah! Man, I should really stop talking to myself, but I have no choice, entertaining myself is the only thing I can do to keep this worthwhile..."
He tried to find the right technique to apply the makeup, however, he was only successful in spamming the foundation and trying to dab it with a sponge. The color barely matched his skin tone but his desperation didn't care about it, he just needed to get it done. The cap hid the shadow, and the back of his hair was still visible so he stole a hoodie and kept it on.
"Okay, that works, this worked... It worked! It worked, now where the hell is Dairue?"
Max kept entertaining himself, there was nothing there to hear him, and his peace had been restored in the most absurd way possible. He took the phone and tried to find Raiden's profile, expecting no answers, Raiden accepted the call anyway.
"Hello, is this the right person you called?" Raiden sounded like he had just woken up, Dairue's yammering with his friends was audible in the background, he was talking about Max.
"Hello, this is Honomura Rexymax, not a recording. I need help trying to find Dairue, well, he might be with you right? That's him at the back?!"
"Dairue! He called, your friend is trying to find us. Max, tell me where you are, I will do what I can to find you, stay put." Raiden was excited to bring the news forward, his voice had enlightened from his dead tone.
Max looked outside the window, trying to find where he was, he couldn't determine anything except the Nagoya medical center. He turned on the device's locations, luckily it had exposed itself. He copied his whereabouts and hit inside the room where the makeup was on.
A clean house that wasn't broken, the rockets hadn't hit. Tiles on the floor of its first story, wood on the second floor, the house had plenty of decorations which made it look all the more valuable. He stole as many items as he could, knowing they would never be in use again
In the sea of black tar, Max had found news of the "Its" remains. The thing had melted to a sticky black fluid, it had a form, but he couldn't determine if it was the same he found in the "Arc". The carcass was massive, the houses under its wake were crushed to powder, and so was his house.
Clean-up was trying its best to repair the roads that lead to the bunkers, the air strikes were worsening, and a potential nuclear threat was looming. Perhaps only a matter of time from their day.
Raiden was allowed permission to go out, he hadn't expected the surface to be ransacked, the pile of concrete walls, and the road was barely drivable. He took his keys and made a tough call for himself. Thinking about where he'd end up incase the car was left for a prolonged period.
Weathering was already present in some of the walls, yet they still tried their best to fight it. Raiden saw the lack of electricity in all the houses, thanking himself for putting Sachibana into a safe space. He had entrusted her freedom to the military, knowing they'll do a much better job at keeping her safe.
His tires were nearly flat, yet he drove nonetheless.
Max turned the phone down and waited patiently, staring at the window frames, he looked at some houses and saw no marks. The skyline was foggy, the gray fog could not permit him from seeing anything past the line.
"The view is still beautiful from here..." Max took a photo of the sky, the sun has risen completely, and the yellow lines of clouds were a sign for him. A sign to keep going, to document more sunsets.
Raiden arrived at the scene, their bunker's location was not too far away. The city was visible from where he was. Max left the door of the house, closing it as a form of respect after stealing.
"You tried to hide? Get in the car first, what that thing made you do, will forever be in the memory of those who lived to experience such a monstrous being." Raiden questioned his new outfit.
"I did hide, am not yet exiled, but am sure the public will shun me." they both entered the car and drove as quickly out as they could.
"Public transport would've been quicker, it was still open Raiden."
"Yes, I know, there's something you have to see later. I know none of that was in your control, but I've read similar accounts in older articles, the three of us have to dig them up. They're all pretty much fossils under your news at this point." Raiden had found older situations that were similar to Max, he wanted to uncover them to a significant value, to make sure they gain more insight.
They talked as the ride went on, Dairue did not come with Raiden, he stayed behind to guard over their belongings. Something was awaiting him on his return.
Public prints of what he's done, public news, everything was public media. He had succeeded in his objective, yet without his control. His remaining humanity was not part of the equation, the public didn't care, the public only knew how to point their fingers at the blame.
Max was being hunted by the media.