Chpter 6: ReUNION

The room Taro let them stay in was fancy, or maybe it was normal? Akira wasn’t sure, he rarely stayed the night outside his apartment so this was all new to him. Fortunately, Akira brought an extra pair of clothes, in case the ones he was wearing were destroyed he’d have something to change into. The next day he makes his way back to the main area to find only Taro, “ Morning, breakfast is this way,” He says placing his hand over his shoulder and leading him through a different hall, the conversation they had last night lingered in the back of Akiras mind, he tried not to think about it too much. They arrived at the dining room, except it looked like any ordinary dining room, not sure why but Akira was expecting something grand, this was still fine, it felt…familiar? Eh, whatever the feeling was disappeared as quickly as it had appeared when he noticed Lily staring into his soul again, he flashed a brief smile before scurrying to his seat, Taro fortunately had him sit close to him and nobody else, which probably wasn’t intentional but it worked well for him. This was also new to him, eating new foods. He’d usually prep something quick to eat or grab something from Ms. Yue’s store, so this was somewhat new to him, like whatever this was. It was sliced into slices, a thin layer of red layered the bottom, on top sat a yellowish white…thing? Akira wasn’t sure how to describe it but he’d never seen anything like it, since it was at the table it meant it was safe to eat. Hopefully. Even if it wasn’t curiosity that got the better of him, he would reach out and grab a slice, inspecting it before taking a bite, surprisingly it was crisp and sweet. He’d never had anything like this before, well he has but nothing like this, it tasted more…natural?

“ There apples,” Taro says, which put a name on it but that was pretty much it,

“ Apples were a fruit that we had in abundance during the golden age, but it seems when Ethernamhall disappeared the apples went with it. Fortunately, our village was able to keep them alive, we were able to recreate other fruits using alchemy, so take as much as you like,” Taro explains gesturing for Akira to eat as much as he liked, which was the plan. He was given some time to go back to his room before they set out, Akira returned to the main hall with his bag, before he could go Taro called him over, he kneels and attached a device onto his waist, it was similar to the one he had attached to himself, the same device that held the sword. Thanks to Cleo the metallic sheath fully integrated with Akiras mind,

“ These blades are made from a metal found within the mountain, it should help you combat anything you find out there,” Taro explains patting him on the shoulder, they say their goodbyes before heading out. They finally began their expedition, after an hour or so of walking in and neither of them have said anything to the other, Akira thought back to what Taro had told him about the apples, “What's alchemy?” He thinks, directing the question toward Cleo only, that was one of the few good things about having an A.I in your head, you can have private conversations without looking like a weirdo by talking to yourself.

“ Alchemy is turning something into something else, that's what it used to be, but now it can do more. Like turning nothing into something, or making something immune to another, it used to be a thing during the days of Ethernamhall but when it fell so did Alchemy. It seems the people of this village use it,” Cleo explains. “ The Union seems to be the only other group to use it in this age, they got a branch that specializes in it, if I remember correctly their strike team is referred to as “ The Horsemen”, consisting of four people, they were good, no idea if the Union kept them considering how mentally insane they were,” Cleo finishes. From what she just said it's a good thing if they're gone, having been immersed in his conversation he finally notices the large structure looming in the distance, Cleo rematerializes next to Lily, startling her slightly. Cleo was squinting her eyes as if trying to get a better look at it, she looked…confused?

“ Huh, that's new,” She says scratching her holographic head. “Let's keep going, something might jog your memory if we get closer,” Lily says speaking for the first time. Without saying anything else they change course for the large ominous building. From within her bag, Lily pulls out a pair of binoculars and sets her sights off into the distance, Akira looks around in that general direction but whatever it is she was looking at, it was too far for him to see, and then his eyes zoomed in, he spots a group of people headed toward our general direction, Akira lets out a frustrated sigh as his eyes readjust, completely ignoring that fact that his eyes can zoom in, “ You know them?” Lily asked putting away the binoculars, “ The 4th Seraph unit, an elite group from the Union,” Akira explained. The Seraph units had different uniforms than regular Union soldiers, they also had stripes of color to indicate which unit they were in, red was the 4ths color. As he remembered facts about the Union a certain one pops up into his mind, which made him Instinctively draw his dagger and frantically look around to see if he could spot any movement. Normally Seraph units move with the Seraphim, which would be Alice and she was missing, which was very bad. A prickle of electricity jolts down his spine, as if warning him, which it was. He whirls around to get kicked right in the chest by a flaming foot, sending him back a few feet. Alice landed on the ground gracefully, the flames settling around her, Lily kept her distance with her blade drawn, Akira could now hear the sound of the Seraph unit getting closer. They were outnumbered, “Unless you could do that thing where you take over and fight for me?” he asked Cleo, he didn’t really know what happens when she takes over but he can only assume she fights a lot better than him.

“ Hand over the Astra, now!” Alice yells aiming her blade at him, now he knew for certain that Astra is Cleo, and the Union knew about her, which sucked. But if her real name was Astra why’d she introduce herself as Cleo? “ I would love to but I have no idea what that is,” Akira responds making sure not to mention anything else like last time. Cleo still hadn’t responded to his call for help, in fact, he couldn’t feel her presence inside his conscious, like she shut herself down? Whatever he could do this on his own, well not all on his own he still had Lily. Akira carefully tenses his legs getting ready to move, At the same instance he throws his dagger at Alice's head forcing her to either dodge or block it allowing him to move out of the way, he smacks the metal sheath on his leg which fortunately works, the hilt pops up as he drag it out. Akira didn’t have much experience with the blade but he could make something work, using his boots to dash forward allowing him to bring his sword down on Alice's arm, the blade embedded into her armour, it was merely a surface cut nothing serious. Alice swings her blade trying to get Akira but he manages to dodge, well it was more like he lost his footing under the shifting sand but it still counts. Before the fight could escalate any further the ground, and from beneath the surface a large monster appeared, this one seemed to be hostile, judging from its menacing roar as it examined the little people sprawled out under it. Let's call it Jimmy, for now, Jimmy was huge, only the upper half of its body was sticking out of the ground, it was kinda like Suzuki, except it wasn’t a dragon, cause it was huge. Scaly arms with three sharp-looking fingers, its face was dragon-like, rough looking, sharp red eyes, teeth that could rip through buildings perhaps even fire breath, who knows? The current situation before Jimmy arrived was not looking good, now our chances of survival have dropped to 0, if the union doesn’t get us Jimmy will. Lily was keeping the soldiers away by pointing her blade at them, it seemed she already proved how dangerous it can be as one of the soldiers was unarmed, his gun lay in the sand cut clean in half. Jimmy lifted its arm to slam down on the closest person to it, which would be Alice, Akira's body moved before he could think of a good reason as to why, he scrambled through the sand and managed to get within range before the fist could slam, he tackles Alice while triggering his dash, allowing the two to barely dodge the attack, but the impact created from that hand slamming into the ground threw them further than Akira planned. He ended up pinned under Alice, whose head was bleeding a little and she seemed to be out, Jimmy was glaring right at Akira before it grunted? Was it mad? Who knows, it slams its hands into the ground again, causing tremors all around before it eventually submerges underground, except it didn’t end there. When Jimmy went under he must’ve hit something cause the sand had begun to sink, dragging the Akira and everyone else in, and they fell.