The dawn of a new reality

The rain eventually came to a stop throughout the night. Shizune was the first one to wake up, not because she had the habit, but because she has been feeling uncomfortable for a while. She noticed, then, that Raiko fell asleep hugging her. Her expression spoke for itself, last night was hard for her.

In an instant, everything they knew was destroyed. The people of Aomura were massacred, leaving only the two girls and the magical creature that escorted them. What matters now is that they survived and they need to do something about it, leaving the village was a reasonable idea under these circumstances.

It would be pretty hard with the sleeping girl treating her as her personal pillow, though. Whatever hardship she might have faced last night, the Sun was already out, it was time to wake up.

“Raiko... hey, Raiko.”

“Huh?”

Raiko barely opened her eyes, not understanding why Shizune was talking to her in her sleep. She felt kind of warm to be a dream, she thought, she also smelled like dirt and sweat. In the kindest tone she could muster, Shizune greeted her.

“Morning.”

Then Raiko noticed what she was doing.

“Ah! sorry!”

Raiko pulled back from Shizune as fast as she could, almost falling on the process. She didn't know at what moment she hugged Shizune, but felt naturally embarrassed about it. Shizune, however, helped her to get up and took her from the shoulders.

“It's okay, you looked terrible last night.”

“Yeah...”

Raiko clenched her fist so hard her nails seemed to want to pierce through her hand. It was different from the feeling of emptiness from last night, right now thinking about what happened filled her with anger.

She remembered what happened, and her talk with Shizune. It’s just the two of them now, they had to be together. Most importantly, she realized she had something very important to do today.

“Cheer up.” Shizune pulled her out of her thoughts. “We can't beat that apparition if you're depressed.”

“You're right, I didn't stop to think about what kind of power I obtained yesterday.”

Taking the gem she obtained last night, Raiko transformed. "Transform" was a dubious term as she didn't change at all, physically speaking. It was more like an instant change of clothes that gave her access to her new powers, whichever those were.

“Oh, so you woke up.” Iblis appeared floating on the stairs.

“I want to ask you how to use my magic.”

“You don't have to ask me anything, each purifier knows how to use their powers unconsciously, why don't you give it a try?”

“As easy as that? Really?”

Raiko opened her hand and focused a little. Almost instantly, a small flame appeared floating over her palm, she could feel its heat, but somehow fire wasn't burning her. The moment she closed her fist again, the flame disappeared.

Turns out that Iblis was right, her power was indeed fire. Maybe she was a fire type from the start. How did he know, though?

“You can create fire? That's gonna be useful for the camp.” Shizune noticed.

“I also feel much lighter when I'm transformed.“ She said while hopping on the spot.

“That's simple.“ Iblis intervened. “It seems that being under those debris caused you to develop physical enhancement powers, it's a pretty rare form of magic, but as you noticed your strength is significantly higher than the average human.“

“That is convenient, isn't it?”

At least, she wouldn’t have to undergo any more boring training sessions just to learn how to use her new powers. Previous training should suffice to find ways to use them against apparitions, and that’s all Raiko cared about.

“The best of it is that it is a passive form of magic, so you don't have to spend concentration when using it.”

“Well, I might have no magic.” Shizune incorporated alongside her assault rifle. “But I have this.” She added, exhibiting an accessory below the gun.

“A grenade launcher?”

“Yup, I heard bullets aren’t enough for large apparitions, but one of these will come handy against them.”

“Wow, cool.”

“At any rate, we should go back to the surface.”

Above, the Sun lighted up the surface of this new reality. Mud roads with water grooves extended all over the place, debris, personal belongings and bodies or body parts scattered no matter where the girls looked, along with dogs and other animals running around the area.

The girls were paralyzed at the sight of what used to be their home just a day ago. Shizune was the first one to react, pressing her fist against her chest to focus on what they had to do.

“We can't stay here forever, let's search the ruins for anything useful.”

“Useful for what?”

“For our travel, of course.”

Raiko, however, had different plans.

“We're gonna leave everyone rotting here?”

“Raiko, we're just two.” Shizune gestured to emphasize. “Even if you're a purifier there is no way to bury so many bodies before they start to smell bad.”

“Do you think Hana will accept that excuse when you meet her again?”

Summoning her mother’s name seems to have had the effect Raiko wanted. Of the two, Shizune was always the most contemplative; thinking was her role in this relationship. Or at least it should be if she wanted to prevent Raiko's bursts of impulsivity from getting them into trouble they could avoid.

And so, she quickly came up with a solution that could realistically fulfill Raiko’s desires.

“I heard that it's common to pile up bodies and burn them when a lot of people die at the same time, we could use the temple's ruins as firewood.” Shizune stopped to think about what she was saying. “I mean, it's spacious.”

“No, I get it, you want to cremate everyone together.”

“It’s the most efficient way, I would have suggested burning the ruins of each house, but…” Shizune looked at the bodies on the streets with discomfort.

“If that’s the case...” Raiko tried to summon motivation into her as she spoke. “We should start with the temple itself, to make room.”

As they walked towards the temple in the center of the village, they took mental notes of the bodies they were finding on their way. Raiko’s was already brought to a halt at the sight of a particular corpse.

Even though he was lying on his stomach, Raiko recognized the lumberjack Tito in a second. Even if she knew he was dead she couldn’t help but to feel both pain and anger when she actually saw the body. He was almost family, after all.

“Raiko…” Shizune placed her hand on Raiko’s back.

“I know what you’re going to say, that I don’t have to do this if it is too painful.”

“We have been friends for long enough to know I can’t convince you out of this.” Shizune sounded conflicted. “Let’s start by clearing the temple, then we can move into each individual house.”

“Got it.”

Being a purifier, she was able to lift the man’s corpse with relative ease. Raiko was surprised because it didn’t really take her any effort, and began to wonder how much she could do if she actually got at it. With the body on her shoulder, she began to walk under Shizune’s gaze.

“I can’t stop you, but if you need to talk about it, I’m here.”

Raiko stopped again and turned towards Shizune.

“Thanks.”

There was no ill intent on the purifier’s voice, even if it lacked its usual energy. To Shizune, it seemed that Raiko had shut herself down so that she could remain focused on the job, which was probably the best thing to do. After all, she herself blew up when she found her mother’s dismembered corpse scattered on the street.

As the girls arrived at the temple ruins they realized that the debris was not placed in a way that facilitated accommodating the bodies, quite the contrary, the structure collapsed on itself. Raiko stopped on her feet, contemplating the obstacle with doubt. It was going to be a long day.

“Looks like you’ll have to get the debris out of the way.”

“Good thing I have super strength now, huh?”

After placing Tito’s body on the ground as carefully as she could, Raiko jumped on top of the debris and began to move the wooden beams out, placing them around the main structure so it would burn easily when they were done. At the same time, Shizune began to drag the nearby corpses into the entrance, to get them inside once Raiko was done.

Progressively the insides were cleared up, revealing the statues of the divinities worshiped in the village, and eventually the priestess that managed it. Raiko bowed in silence to her body, and placed her carefully in front of the statue of the divinity she followed; Zion, goddess of the helpless.

As Raiko moved outside to gather the nearby bodies on the streets, Shizune got inside to check the ruins. She raised her eyebrow at the sight of the dead priestess’ mostly intact body; she never got along with her, or with the cult. It was all irrelevant now, though, she probably found the answer to their disagreement by now.

Shizune walked through the now cleared door carrying the lumberjack's body and placed it next to the priestess. She stopped to touch the wood and search on the surroundings.

“I hope the wood can burn after the rain, at least the clothes are dry, that should help.”

Shizune found clothes around a destroyed bed, those won't be of use. She also found money along with other valuable objects the priestess liked to show off. With a click of her tongue, she left everything on the place, she didn't want to have anything from that woman after all.

At the same time, a black mass began to gather behind her, slowly but steadily getting a deformed aspect and rising up. The birth of an apparition was something nobody wanted to witness.

Realizing what was going on Shizune turned around while moving her rifle to her hip, firing as soon as she could take aim. The still forming creature disintegrated and collapsed like a wet sand castle. Shizune stayed in silence, looking at its rests for a while, pressing her rifle's grip and breathing heavily. Clearly it wasn't a moment to lower her guard.

“Shizune!” Raiko rushed through the door. “I heard gunshots, are you okay?”

“I just killed an apparition.”

“What? Where did it come from?”

“This is bad.“ Iblis spoke, getting closer to the rests. “The attack must have agitated the energies in the zone, it is acting as a catalyst for the formation of apparitions, you must leave this place quickly.”

Raiko clenched her teeth, as if everything that already happened wasn't enough she would also have to deal with apparitions getting in the way. She unsheathed her sword without thinking too much about it, what had to be done, had to be done.

“Then let's kill them, I'm not gonna let them ruin our final goodbye.”