Kamakura

Shosuke and Nobu had left Yokohama some time ago and were now well on their way to Kamakura.

Once the de facto capital of Japan, it was a city with a rich history and one of the last safe havens in the darkness, at least as far as Shosuke knew.

“Now this place is a lot smaller than Tokyo, and they’ve got some odd customs, so just follow my lead and we should be fine.” Shosuke was laying down the ground rules for Kamakura to Nobu

But Nobu wasn’t too concerned about that. He was just excited. For his entire life he had lived in Tokyo, and now he would be one of the only two to ever leave, to ever visit another city.

Shosuke stopped immediately and held up his arm, commanding Nobu to do the same.

Nobu hadn’t noticed anything off about their environment, and Shosuke’s demeanor was completely different from before, so that must’ve meant…

It was an entity…

Shosuke was listening closely, but Nobu hadn’t heard a thing. But without warning, Shosuke slid down a guard on the lantern that partially covered it, completely cutting off the light from one direction.

Before Nobu could even question this, the lantern was thrust into his hands.

“Hold this and do not move,” Shosuke commanded.

Nobu nodded, taking the lantern and standing as still as a statue.

Without waiting another second, Shosuke drew his shotgun and aimed it at the darkness.

The seconds passed like hours. Nobu could feel his heart beat like a drum.

But the silence was interrupted by the slightest creak from the darkness, and Shosuke immediately responded by firing.

The gunshot was ear-splitting, and the flash illuminated the surroundings for a split second.

As the buckshot landed, an inexplicable screech even more grating than the gunshot was heard.

Immediately, Shosuke fired again.

The same ear-splitting gunshot, the same flash, but this time, Nobu was able to make out an image in that split second.

He didn’t see much, but he saw something… Claws or perhaps teeth that were longer than a foot and curved.

As the shot landed, the entity screeched yet again, this time even louder and accompanied by gurgling.

But Shosuke didn’t stop.

He pumped his shotgun and fired again and again and again.

He fired until the magazine tube was empty and the entity was silent.

As Shosuke reloaded his shotgun, he looked over at Nobu. “We should be good now. The small ones never come close to a light, but it’s a different story with the big ones.” The shotgun fully reloaded, Shosuke grabbed the lantern, taking off the guard. “Since they can withstand a lantern like that, they can attack from any direction, so I covered up part of the lantern to bait it.”

“I see…” Nobu responded.

Nobu was about to look back over at the body, but Shosuke held him in place.

“Trust me, you’re better off not seeing that thing,” Shosuke said.

Nobu was morbidly curious, but… There definitely were things you’re better off not seeing…

***

They had finally arrived at Kamakura proper. Unfortunately, once Nobu and Shouske saw the first broken sun tower, they knew they were too late…

“Damn it!” Nobu yelled. “What the hell are we supposed to do now!?”

“What are you talking about? We keep going!”

“Keep going where!? You said Kamakura was in great shape!”

“Yeah, it was. But just because one city fell doesn’t mean we stop.”

“Where even is the next city supposed to be!?”

“Shizuoka.”

“And how far away is that!?”

“Maybe a few days.”

“A few days!? We barely made it here!”

“Look, I never said it was going to be easy or that we’d even succeed! Now if you want to lay down and die then be my guest! But I’ll keep walking until I lose my legs, and then I'll crawl until I lose my arms too!”

Nobu clenched his fist. This result was to be expected, but… He just couldn’t stand it… Maybe Shosuke was fine with failing, but Nobu had to find something.

“Anyway, why don't you pause your freak out until after we look around? Who knows what we might find.”

Nobu took a deep breath. “All right.”

Not much remained of the city. There weren’t even any bodies, but that was likely because of the entities.

But it was clear that whoever had lived here put up a fight.

They had a shortage of parts, but they’d manage to repair the lights again and again with whatever junk they had.

When the lights went out and the entities attacked, some staged a last stand, firing off whatever weapons they had before the end. Unfortunately, that meant there was almost no ammo left which greatly disappointed Shosuke.

However, their most interesting find was in the mayor’s office. There, they found a map. At a glance, it just seemed like an ordinary map of the surrounding area, but closer inspection revealed something much more interesting…

Nobu pointed to a shaded part between Tokyo and Yokohama. “Isn’t that around where the anomalous zone we went through was?”

Shosuke looked closely. “Yeah, you’re right.”

There were shaded areas across the entire map, each marked with a number. After Shosuke found the legend, his suspicions were confirmed. “This is a map of anomalous zones.”

“Seriously!?”

“Yeah, and they’ve got it written down what each one does.”

According to the legend, the one they went through was described as “repeating scenery and appealing visions.”

One stood out among the rest, however.

Anomalous Zone #2-26 was described as “contains an artificial sun, no negative attributes confirmed.”

“That’s impossible…” Nobu said in disbelief.

Even Shosuke was shocked, unable to speak. But he shook himself and started searching the rest of the room until he found a large binder and started flipping through it. It was all the information they had gathered on Anomalous Zone #2-26.

Not only did it have a sun, but it was large and habitable. According to the binder, they had even started a colony and had managed to grow crops.

“No way…” Nobu’s mouth was agape as he read.

Meanwhile Shosuke’s heart had practically stopped beating.

Nobu looked over at Shosuke nervously. “D-do you think it’s real…?”

Shosuke didn’t answer immediately, but he soon said, “I’m still skeptical, to be honest. I mean, colonizing an anomalous zone? It still sounds insane. But… Whether it’s dangerous or outright fake, it doesn’t matter. I have to see it with my own eyes.”

Nobu nodded. “Me too.”

Anomalous Zone #2-26 wasn’t close, it was out to the Northwest in a rural area. In fact, it would be more of a pain to get to than Shizuoka, but that didn’t matter.

Nobu’s resolve had returned even stronger than before.

And Shosuke was as ready as ever.

***

“What are we doing here? Aren’t we supposed to be going the other way?” Nobu complained.

“There’s something I wanted to see,” Shosuke replied.

“I swear, you’re treating this like a vacation…”

Shosuke laughed. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

It only took a couple more minutes of walking to reach their destination, however.

“Here it is!” Shosuke held up his lantern, showing that they were in front of a massive statue, but the lantern couldn’t illuminate the entirety of it. “Damn it, give me a second.” Shosuke dug around in his bag and pulled out a bulky flashlight. “Now this baby is powerful.” Shosuke clicked it on, a blinding beam thus emerging from it, lighting up the statue as if it were under a spotlight. “This is the Great Buddha of Kamakura.”

The bronze statue was absolutely massive at over forty feet tall. It was a truly impressive structure, but…

“It’s cool, but what exactly are we doing here?”

Shosuke sighed deeply. “You really are difficult sometimes…” Shosuke clapped his hands together. “You know samurai would sometimes pray to the Buddha before heading off to battle? Well, if we pray to a Buddha statue this large, our own victory is practically guaranteed, don’t you think?”

Nobu thought the idea was ridiculous. What would praying really accomplish? But then again… It would hurt either, would it?

“All right then…” Nobu resigned.

Shosuke smiled.

The two prayed for luck on their journey and a better future.

They still had a long way to go, but in that moment, it was as if the darkness had disappeared.