Chapter 5-12 - How To Fix The World
12 - How to Fix the World
“The first time I saw you wasn’t in school. It was after the Global Soul Event.”
“I was alone, walking in the park. I had to take a walk outside, I had yet another argument with my parents.”
“And I saw you there.”
“You were with your friends, but you looked like you weren’t having fun. You looked like an outsider. It was a warm day, I glanced at your group and thought you were just a bunch of friends doing whatever friends do.”
“But for some reason, I caught your glance. I saw your eyes, and I felt something special within them. They were gray, but there’s beauty in gray too. It’s a color, just like all the others.”
“But your eyes looked truly empty. There was something within them that was suppressed, and that phenomena created this...special thing about you.”
“I didn’t approach you, nor did I remember your face or appearance. But that glance is still stuck in my mind.”
“When I saw it again, after we truly met each other, I saw there was much more in them. I fell for that special thing, even. I got attached to you and that thing. We had all of that chemistry between us, all this time.”
“But now...I don’t even know.”
Ichika and Ausra, catching their breath, stared at the semi-conscious body laying in front of them. They were both rather heavily wounded, but Ichika herself looked like she had something else bothering her completely.
“Seeing you barely alive in that hospital bed...”
“And worst of all, having seen you actually dead before...”
“Every time I can’t help but blame myself for everything.”
“It feels kind of nice.”
“You’ve probably gone through all sorts of awful stuff, and all of this just makes things worse for you. And I’m scared.”
“It’s just how things are supposed to be.”
Ichika approached Hermann, ready to finish him off.
“It’s all my fault.”
“Just knowing that...makes things so much easier.”
“W-wait...” Hermann pleaded, extending his hand. “Wait!”
“Silence, scum.” Ichika said, not having any of Hermann’s ramblings. She prepared a small frozen cluster bomb in her palm, ready to bash it into Hermann’s already half-destroyed face.
“You’re...on the wrong side...” Hermann said, coughing up some blood. “The least you can do is listen to me...”
“Ichika, I can do it if you want to.” Ausra said.
“No, I can do it myself.” Ichika coldly replied, preparing the killshot.
“I don’t deserve any of his emotions. I’ll cost him his life.” Ichika thought, her presence flaring up a little. “I’ve already done too much.”
“That’s how things are supposed to be, right?”
“I said wait, damn it!” Hermann yelled. “You...you don’t know! You don’t know who your leader really is, do you?!”
“Leader?” Ausra asked herself. She placed her hand on Ichika’s shoulder. “What’s this guy talking about?”
“Your leader...” Hermann said, starting to fade into unconsciousness. Blood dripped out of his mouth, his nose, and the large piercing wounds on his chest, painting the ground a crimson red. “Kaito Kamiki...”
“And what’s there to know about him?”
“Hah...” Hermann chuckled. “Hahah...”
The bomb in Ichika’s palm grew a little in size.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Just...listen to me...that’s the least you can do for humanity...” Hermann pleaded. “He...he’s not just a soulful. He has access to a divine power that is a...a...” he coughed up more blood. “That is above anything that any other soulful in this world might possess...”
“He walks on this God forsaken planet, he acts like a human, like...like a soulful...but he’s something far beyond that.” Hermann tilted his head upwards a little, staring the girls into their eyes. “He’s closer to a god than a human.”
“What is this nonsense?” Ichika asked herself, starting to lose her patience.
“Has he ever told you anything about his power?” Hermann asked. “The reasoning behind everything? Behind his existence and the existence of soulfuls altogether?!”
“People don’t go around telling their strength levels to everyone.” Ausra said. Unlike Ichika, who was annoyed, she seemed a little concerned.
“Oh no, this isn’t about strength levels.” Hermann smiled.
“His power is insurmountable. His presence is divine. He can tamper with the deepest layers of the soulful realm...”
“And once his power is fully realized...”
“He will use it to erase every single soulless from this world.”
The chunk of ice didn’t even detonate - it just pierced his throat and killed him.
“Ichika, what the hell did you do?!” Ausra asked, still trying to recover from that information. “He...he could’ve told us more!”
“Nothing more than he already did.” Ichika said, looking confused. She didn’t share Ausra’s concerns that much, her own worries were tormenting her mind more at the moment. She didn’t have enough attention to allocate to the soulless.
“Do you...” Ausra slowly spoke up. “Do you think that’s true? That he’s going to...”
“I don’t care.” Ichika said. “I...”
“How am I going to look Sakuto in the eyes?”
“With content. Because you know that he’ll be better off without a bitch like you.”
“I mean, this could be some type of propaganda, right?” Ausra asked herself. “You know, this guy could’ve been making stuff up to maybe get us to switch sides...”
“Ausra...” Ichika asked in a quiet voice. “I...”
“What is it?”
“Do you think...I deserve to live?” Ichika asked.
“Pffft, that’s a no brainer. Of course you don’t.”
“You do. What’s gotten into you?” Ausra asked her. “Ichika, what’s going on?”
“I just...”
They were interrupted with a loud explosion.
“Ah shit, this area’s getting bombed.” Ausra said. “Let’s get the hell outta here.”
“God...”
“Please, hear my prayers...”
The little boy clasped his hands, closing his eyes. Faint tears were present on his face. He and his family weren’t targets of the soldiers exterminating soulfuls, but they were in a dangerous battlefield. Explosions struck the ground like the drumsticks of a desperate drummer playing not for leisure, but food and water.
“Please, let this war end.”
“Let papa return so that mama isn’t sad anymore.”
His father was a soldier, conscripted to Sheller’s military forces that were ravaging D.C.. Whether he was dead or alive depended on how lucky he got, although this could also be said for any other soldier. He was a kind family man, he served many years in the navy and joined the forces to make some more money,
The boy’s family wanted a new home for a while. They thought of moving to Maryland, where some of their relatives lived, and a few nice job opportunities existed. They were saving up as much as they could to abandon their old apartment in D.C..
Many families fled the state as it was the epicenter of the war. But a few of them stayed, either because they had nowhere else to go, or because they promised themselves to protect their household against anything that attempts to destroy it.
“I don’t want to hear mama cry anymore.” The boy quietly sobbed. The hopeless sunlight entered the untidy living room through the old windows. Behind the boy, behind his apartment block, a large building collapsed. He flinched a little from the thunderous sounds of the debris falling, and he was scared to turn around and watch the catastrophe unfold.
“Please, God...”
“Put a stop to this.”
“I don’t want mama to see all these things.”
The boy, despite being so young, was full of courage. His request to God was the only thing he could do.
He wished for an end to the devastation. However, all of his prayers were responded to with destruction and suffering. He couldn’t hear them over the explosions and collapses, but the wailing sirens and the terrified screams of the evacuating masses devoured the streets.
The crowds were running for their lives. The soldiers tried taking aim at whatever soulful they noticed in the crowd, and ultimately ended up accidentally shooting other people. The shells either missed them or ripped them apart, the jet engines howling in the sky signified the forthcoming of even more destructive force.
“God...”
“Why do you let these things happen?!”
His building was destroyed by a bomb falling right next to it. It’d probably take months for the family’s bodies to be even recovered from the rubble.
And that wasn’t even the epicenter of the war.
With almost all of his allies slain, Otto Richter unleashed his superweapon onto the battlefield of D.C..
Against someone who swore to keep going no matter what hardships struck him.