Arrival

„Say, that blade. Is it the same one? As last time, I mean.” I tried switching topics, since this one laid heavy throughout the entire train car.

“No, I haven’t found the other one yet. Maybe it’s out there in space right now, floating around. I’ll have to pay for it, too. Such a pain, let me tell you. This one’s my father’s. He inherited it some time ago. Apparently, my family killed each other with it back then.”

Yikes, that’s not much better. And I tried so hard. Wait. There’s someone else here. Please save me, young one.

“Ai, what did you do before any of this? Any hobbies of note or something? Aren’t you still in school? I don’t even know how old you are. Would you mind telling me?”

“Fine, whatever. After this is done, it’s not like we’re gonna talk much anymore, anyway. I’m 18, and no, I’m not going to school anymore. I actually tried getting into the Olympic swimming team, but didn’t quite make the cut.”

“The Olympics, huh?” Araki interjected. “You must be mad athletic then, right? I didn’t even notice when you tried to tear me into pieces back then. Maybe because I was distracted with trying not to die.”

“Look, I already apologized. What else do you want me to do? Kowtow? I won’t do that. I wasn’t quite myself back then, alright?” Ai retorted. I needed to stop this before the train got caught in the aftermath.

There is still a little less than five hours left of this train ride, and it only just begun. Why couldn’t they just sleep like Takako?

“You know what? Forget it. Maybe we should all just rest up until we make arrive at our next stop, right? I can’t imagine that fight will be easy, after all.” I put my all into this, so it better work.

“Right, Hideki? Ai? No need to argue over the past, is there? We should focus on the present, and present is telling me to take after Takako and just fall asleep. But maybe without clinging to each other, unless both parties agree.”

“I don’t dwell on the past; I just wanted to get a proper apology. Sorry, kid. I don’t know all details, but that little girlfriend of yours is somehow involved, right? I’ll restrain myself, then. And you there, little one, better kowtow to me when all of this is done. You’ve barely even ended high school, so at least a little respect for your elders should be expected.”

“Sure, if that’s what’ll shut you up, old man.” Ai clicked her tongue.

“I heard that.”

“Enough, already! Aren’t you over fifty? Why are both of you this petty? I can understand her, but you too, Hideki? You’re no different to Takako, I guess.”

“Alright, I get it. Sorry, little one. I got carried away a bit, I guess.” He slightly bowed as he finished his sentence. “I’ll still need that kowtow, though.”

Finally, the argument broke up. I quickly fell asleep after that, leaning my head against Takako’s, probably for a while.

When we finally arrived at our first transfer, she was beaming with happiness, at least.

Only a few more hours, and we’d be in Nagasaki.

The rest of the drive there went by in a flash, with Takako still clinging onto me the entire time.

When we finally arrived in Nagasaki, the glistening, glassy scales of the massive beast had already wrapped around half of the city.

A rift identical to the one in Tokyo shone bright above the clouds, slightly illuminating the night sky. We barely managed to get the last train. At least she didn’t start ravaging the city yet.

“That’s her? There’s no way I can compete with that.” Takako said, defeated. She really was serious until now.

“Is it bigger than last time? I swear it wasn’t this large two weeks ago.” Araki yelled, in complete disbelief. “With its tail alone, it could probably wreck the entire city. I’ve never seen anything as large as this.”

Yet still, she’s somehow inside that thing. There’s no other way to explain what Satoru said. Wasn’t it capable of speech last time? Maybe we could just try to negotiate before it tore the entire city and its inhabitants with it?

From the distance, I could hear a loud screech resounding through the entire city. A giant orb of darkness, surrounded by a faint purple hue appeared somewhere on the outskirts of the city. That must be where its head is at right now.

“We need to get there. And fast. Maybe we could still negotiate with it? It did talk last time, after all. And it doesn’t seem like it killed any civilians so far.

Its massive tail wrapping around every large building in the city, reaching over the entire bay and back around multiple times, it all led to that seemingly random location.

Maybe, if we can lure it near the bay without casualties, Ai could harm it enough to release Yuri from its grasp.

“We need to lure it near the bay, somehow. Can you control your Traumata again, Ai?”

“Barely, I guess. I don’t think I can even remotely square up to that thing, though.”

She was right. We couldn’t possibly kill or even severely injure that thing without killing ourselves in the process.

There was one thing we could do, though. Or, I could, at least. If she really was somewhere in there, I just needed to reach her. I knew I could save her if I could do that. I doubted that anyone of us would even consider that an option, so I kept quiet about it for now.

The entire reason for my adult life was just within grasp to reach for again, after thinking it lost forever for what already felt like an eternity. I simply had to try. One last time.

Ironic, since that thing was the first to have told me to live on in the first place. It would almost be funny to die by its hand, if the stakes weren’t this high.