Part 3: Awakening
The moment the meteor appeared in the sky, everything shifted. The wind picked up, howling through the trees, and the atmosphere grew heavy, charged with an energy none of them could explain.
Zoruto felt it first.
A strange pull. It was like something deep inside him had been activated, like a voice calling from a far-off place. His heart began to race, and his legs moved without his control, drawn towards the crash site.
"Zoruto, stop!" Hiroshi shouted, but his voice sounded distant, like an echo fading in a dream. Miyuki grabbed Hiroshi's arm, panic clear in her wide eyes. They watched helplessly as Zoruto moved further and further away from them, deeper into the forest.
"What's he doing?" Miyuki asked, her voice trembling.
"I… I don't know," Hiroshi replied, his face pale. "We have to get him back!"
But no matter how loud they called, Zoruto didn't stop. He couldn't. It was as though his body was no longer his own.
The air thickened with tension, and the sound of the meteor's descent grew louder, rumbling through the forest. Zoruto could feel the heat from the meteor before it even touched the ground. His feet moved faster now, pulling him closer to the impending crash.
As the meteor got nearer, Zoruto felt something else—something dark and powerful reaching out to him. It wasn't just the force of the meteor drawing him in. It was something ancient, something alive.
A shadowy figure, barely visible in the swirling air, seemed to emerge from the dark. It called to him—not with words, but with a presence so overwhelming that Zoruto couldn't resist. His body felt like it was moving on its own, being drawn toward the source of the mysterious power.
I have to see it… I have to…
The meteor blazed across the sky, its fiery glow illuminating the entire forest in an instant. The ground began to shake violently, and Hiroshi and Miyuki screamed for Zoruto to stop, but they were too far behind. They could only watch as their friend disappeared into the heart of the forest.
And then, with a deafening roar, the meteor struck the ground.
The shockwave hit like a tidal wave, crashing through the trees and sending debris flying in all directions. The force was so strong that it felt like the earth itself was splitting apart. The forest, once dense and dark, was reduced to rubble in seconds. Trees were uprooted, rocks shattered, and the ground cracked open.
Hiroshi and Miyuki were thrown back by the impact, their bodies skidding across the forest floor. They braced themselves for the worst, expecting to be crushed under the weight of the destruction, but then… something strange happened.
A sudden warmth enveloped them, and the world around them seemed to freeze for a moment. They felt a presence—a great, ancient presence—surrounding them. It was protective, powerful, like the wings of a colossal creature shielding them from harm. They could feel the power but couldn't see its source. The sensation of something massive, like wings, hovered over them for what felt like an eternity.
Hiroshi's breath caught in his throat as he struggled to make sense of it. "What… what is this feeling?" he muttered under his breath.
"I don't know… but it's protecting us," Miyuki murmured, her eyes darting around. They couldn't see anything tangible, but the invisible force was undeniably real.
The aura lingered around them, pulsing with energy that kept the devastation at bay. It felt like a barrier, a presence shielding them from the destruction.
As the dust began to settle, the warmth faded, and the overwhelming aura dissipated. The devastation around them continued, but they remained untouched, saved by this mysterious power that they couldn't understand.
Miyuki's legs gave out beneath her, and she collapsed onto the ground, trembling. "Zoruto… where is Zoruto?"
Hiroshi, still dazed from the impact and the strange protective aura, snapped back to reality. His eyes scanned the landscape, searching for their friend. The debris and the smoke made it difficult to see anything.
"Zoruto!" Hiroshi shouted, his voice hoarse.
In the distance, just at the edge of the massive crater, they spotted Zoruto lying on the ground. His body was still, surrounded by the wreckage, with faint flickers of energy crackling in the air around him.
"There he is!" Miyuki cried, pushing herself up and running toward him, with Hiroshi close behind.
Zoruto lay unconscious, his face peaceful despite the chaos around him. His clothes were singed and covered in dust, but his body was unscathed.
"We need to get him out of here!" Hiroshi said urgently, crouching down beside Zoruto. "Come on, help me lift him."
Together, Hiroshi and Miyuki hoisted Zoruto up, carrying him away from the crater. As they made their way through the devastated forest, their minds raced with unanswered questions. The aura they had felt, the strange pull that had consumed Zoruto—it all seemed connected to the meteor crash, but none of it made sense.
How did we survive? What was that presence? And what happened to Zoruto?
Before they could ponder these thoughts any further, the overwhelming exhaustion caught up to them. The adrenaline wore off, and both Hiroshi and Miyuki began to stumble under the weight of their unconscious friend. Their bodies, already battered from the shockwave, gave in to fatigue.
"Zoruto…" Hiroshi whispered weakly as his knees buckled.
Miyuki didn't even have the strength to respond. The last thing they both felt before collapsing to the ground was the faint sound of sirens approaching in the distance.
Darkness overtook them as the faint, distant aura of wings seemed to hover just beyond the edges of their consciousness.
Part 4: Awakening (Dream Sequence)
As Zoruto drifted into unconsciousness, he felt like he was floating in an endless void. It was neither dark nor light—just an empty, weightless space, with no ground beneath his feet and no sky above his head. He felt disoriented, unsure of where he was or how he got there.
"Where... am I?" Zoruto's voice echoed around him, but no answer came.
He looked around frantically, hoping to spot something—anything—that could give him a clue. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it. Far in the distance, barely visible through the swirling mist, stood a shadowy figure. The figure was still, its features hidden in the darkness, but it radiated an undeniable aura of power.
Zoruto's heart raced as he instinctively started moving toward it. His legs felt heavy, like he was wading through thick air, but he pushed forward, driven by a strange need to reach the figure.
"Who are you?" he called out, his voice filled with urgency. But the figure didn't respond. It remained unmoving, watching him from afar, like it was waiting for something.
Zoruto quickened his pace, determined to reach the figure. The closer he got, the more his surroundings changed. The mist thickened, swirling around him like a living force, and the air grew colder. A low hum filled the void, vibrating through his body, making his skin tingle.
Just when he was within arm's reach of the shadow, it vanished—disappearing into thin air as if it had never been there at all.
"What the—?!" Zoruto's voice cracked with shock. He stumbled forward, his hand reaching out in vain toward the spot where the figure had stood. But there was nothing—just the swirling mist and that haunting hum that seemed to grow louder by the second.
Suddenly, the ground beneath him shifted. He looked down to see the mist swirling faster, forming a massive cyclone around him. The winds whipped at his clothes, pulling him off balance, and before he could react, he was sucked into the eye of the storm.
Zoruto felt himself falling. The world around him twisted and spiraled out of control, the force of the wind tearing at him from all directions. He tried to steady himself, to fight back against the pull, but it was no use. He was completely at the mercy of the cyclone, spinning helplessly as he plummeted deeper into the void.
Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the cyclone stopped.
Zoruto felt himself falling through the air, the world still spinning around him, but this time, there was no wind. No mist. Just a long, endless fall. His body felt weightless again, and all he could see was the ground rushing up to meet him.
And then—nothing.
Zoruto's eyes shot open, and he found himself staring at a ceiling—white, sterile, unfamiliar. His body felt heavy, like he'd just woken from the deepest sleep of his life. He tried to move, but his muscles ached with fatigue.
"What… happened?" Zoruto mumbled under his breath, his voice weak and hoarse.
As he glanced around, he realized he was lying on a hospital bed, his body covered in bandages. The rhythmic beeping of machines filled the room, and a dull ache throbbed in the back of his head.
"How did I get here?" Zoruto whispered, his mind racing to piece together the events that led him to this moment. All he remembered was the crash, the meteor, and… that presence. That shadow.