Side Story 2, Chapter 8: Supply Box
[Side Story 2, Chapter 8: Supply Box]
On me and Meriku's trip from the Wide Walkways to Entrance D, there was no one there, but I found a note.
[ TIME: 3:51PM C;N17 UP]
15:51, Entrance C, Naiko Street 17, Up.
"This thing isn't even well-encrypted, I expected those attackers to be at least good at encoding something. Ugh… It's somewhat a nice clue." I said.
"W-what does it mean?" Meriku asked.
"They're telling us to look up at exactly 15:51, at Street N17!"
After some conversation about what there could be, I noticed that there weren't enough deductions to confirm what it was.
We walked back to the car, and we noticed an injured Yuguwa sitting in the alleyways!
I ran to him, and asked "Yuguwa! What happened?"
"I-I almost obtained the crystal, and then someone slashed me and took the crystal away…"
[Meriku seemed concerned]
"Who was it!?"
"It wasn’t the attackers!"
"Wait a second, what do they look like?"
"G-gimme a second to remember… They wear black capes with hoods, face masks, and… They have fancy clothing… Gah…"
[Meriku got Yuguwa to stand up, and I sighed]
"I'll try to contact my friend about this… Let's go to our place first."
After some minutes, we safely returned to Luca's food truck. I contacted Kazai on who they are, and they seem to be part of the same organization.
When people were having conversations, I approached Ariel, who was the only person who wasn't talking to anyone… For now.
"Hey Ariel!" I greeted.
"Hiya! Got any intel?"
"Well, about the attackers… I think they're assigned one goal. Their goal was to take the crystals away and destroy Mokkato along with everyone who lives there!"
"Oh no! Would we be okay if they manage to destroy Mokkato???”
“Of course not!”
“I guess they are a threat to us. If we try hard enough, we’ll be able to defeat them!” Ariel smiled. “But… Why are children involved? I thought they were loyal to this region or something?”
Sephine looked at us. “Well, there’s been a few children who complained to me about wanting to destroy Mokkato… That appears to be the bullies who were tormenting that deaf kid! Luckily, Suki managed to save him from them, but I have no doubt that children were forced to do this. Adults, too. Poor them!”
Ariel frowned. “Why don’t we try to rescue them, then?”
“It’s probably a better idea to just arrest them.”
“I mean, yeah.”
Suddenly, Luca shouted. “It’s 7AM now, time for breakfast, everyone.” Meriku was surprised, and she thought there was danger! Sephine quickly walked to her and comforted her.
I wanted to say ‘Isn’t that my job?’ but I didn’t want to say it at the same time. I’m so bad at comforting people, but I still try to volunteer to comfort somebody. I feel like I wanted to have the skill to be able to comfort everyone with just my words, but I knew I could never have that, even with the help of Sephine.
The world is a sad place. I feel like crying all the time, along with everyone in this world. Just like a city with everlasting rain, the rain clouds, the emotional troubles of everybody, will never clear up, and we had a choice, to drink it, to let it drain, or to sink in the rain. Drinking the rain is accepting the sadness, draining it is ignoring it, and sinking means ending your life because of it. Drinking and draining the rain seems to be one of the many ways to live with the rain without having to die.
Of course, if I were to really be in this city, there would be so many choices on what to do with the rain. It’s really hard to drain someone’s flood while they decide to sink into it, and it’s hard to just drink it. If I lived in that kind of city, I would’ve always wanted to hold an umbrella.
I decided to stop thinking about it, and walk to the outside, where there’s tables outside with food on it. Honestly, it’s always been there. And, there’s steak and omurice on the table! Those are my favorite foods, and they even labeled that it’s for me!
We’ll have to get our meal in a confined room soon, so it’s best for me to appreciate it. Seems like everyone is enjoying their food, so I’ll enjoy mine too! Ariel got a pancake, steak, and strawberry milk… I’m kinda jealous.
“Ariel, did you enjoy your food?” Luca asked Ariel.
“Yes, I do! Thank you very much!” Ariel replied.
“Was it better than the food you ate right back in your old dimension?”
“Well, I don’t quite remember, but it’s better. I think.”
“Do you miss your friends there, though? Where are they now?”
“Oh, they are at school. I don’t see them much, but it
I know much about Ariel, honestly, but Raiyumi knows more about him.
How Ariel came into this world was nothing to be surprised of, since there were many dimensional travelers in this world, some of them who chose to permanently reside here. But, he came from a kingdom of darkness, which has a bad king! Ariel said his name is Ray Cronos. Sounds like a cool name, but also sounds like an all-powerful god wannabe…
“How many ingredients do you have left?” I asked Luca.
“Enough for a month.”
“Great, since I don’t think Naiko will have their crystal missing for long!”
“Considering how long it took for Natoruyo’s crystal to be recovered, I doubt it’ll go one month with the crystal missing. Where’s Naiko?”
“Oh, she’s behind the food truck. Don’t worry, I fed her well!”
“I thought spirit guardians don’t eat?”
“They DON’T HAVE to eat. They only eat to gain extra energy, or when they want to.”
“Right.”
After we all finished our breakfast, we trained, ate lunch at noon, and trained again.
[Later at 15:45]
It’s almost 3:51 P.M… I should go to Street N17. I shouldn’t worry if there are attacks because I have my magical cards… But I still think I’m not powerful enough to defeat that many…
I’m with Sephine, so I should be safe… I guess.
I waited a bit, and it’s finally 3:51PM. Time to look up…
"Woah…"
"What do you see, Kasuri?"
“There’s so many drones with boxes…”
The boxes fell down and had a parachute on it. There's boxes marked with several colors… And Sephine used levitation magic to carry all of them! Not a cool magic, but it's a helpful one.
"Uhhh… Can you levitate us to the food truck, too?"
"Sure, I-"
[Someone walked towards us]
"Dang. Why won't anyone share anything with me? Wasn't one of those supposed to be mine?" That person said,
"Well… Do you want to go to the food truck to take some of those boxes and maybe team with us??" I replied.
"I don't like to team up with anyone. Well, I… just don't like teams in general."
That person is a cool woman… She wears a white-blue tracksuit, cool hat, and nice pants… I want to have some clothes like her. Well, I have more than a billion yen, so I could just buy them, can't I… That woman also has demon-like features, which is kinda scary but cool at the same time!
I have no idea how many times I've said the word "cool" in my head today… But it's cool, I guess.
"About the boxes, just give them to me. I don't care if it's already opened or some shit, jus-"
"BAD WORD!"
"I knew you would warn me about that, since you're a dumb, short child."
"I'M NOT DUMB, YOU'RE DUMB! But yeah, I'm short…"
"Well, what's your name?"
"I'm Kasuri Mano."
"Kashort."
"SEPHINE!!!! GIVE ME A POTION THAT MAKES ME TALL IMMEDIATELY!!!"
"Nah, keep it that way. You're cute, Kashort.
"Thanks, but PLEASE, STOP CALLING ME KASHORT! THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"
“Fine… Just give me one of every color of those boxes. I don’t care if the things in there are bad.”
“What do those boxes mean? Why do you need every color?”
“They’re boxes sent by the government to protect ourselves and survive, since some aren’t lucky enough to be protected by the military, like us. There’s more normal people here than soldiers and knights, so we’re kinda screwed, but those attackers are just annoying instead of dangerous to me… I’ve heard about those boxes before, the stuff inside are from Mokkato’s Survival Department. They’re being dropped all around Naiko. Green is food, yellow is utility, and red are weapons.” The woman explained. That kind of help is fascinating!
“Woah… So that’s a nice way for the government to help us. The attackers only attack at night, so they prepare survival items before night! But how are those attackers just annoying?”
“I can easily take on most of them. Some of them are actually a problem for me.”
“If you can beat them easily… Why won’t you join our team? You’ll be a great help, and if people team up together, they’re stronger.”
“I… I just don’t feel like it.”
“Why?”
“...” The woman walked away. I felt bad, so I asked Sephine to give me 1 box of every color, and I handed it to her.
“I’m sorry, are you alright?”
“I’m alright. Thanks for the boxes, but I have to go.”
“Hey, before we part ways, what’s your name?”
“It’s none of your business. But, if you want, refer to me as Strife.”
Hey, that’s the name of one of my favorite songs!
“Alrighty…”
Me and Sephine walked back to our food truck, and had each of us open our boxes, 3 boxes for each. There’s some boxes left, so we can donate them to people in need.
I opened the green box, and I found 4 lunch boxes in there! There’s different meals for each of them. Yellow box, and there’s a flare gun with ammunition. In the red box… There’s a M1887 shotgun!!! Isn’t that the gun my mom has?
…
Mama… I miss you…