Turritopsis dohrnii / immortal jellyfish

 

→ found in the Mediterranean Sea

   And in the waters of Japan.

 

※ Through reversing its body cells to a younger state—the polyp stage, over and over again……… The key: Transdifferentiation

 

……(Stem cells).....

   “ Cas, I found it.”

 

  Standing up from the bricks and broken furniture, he brushed the dust gently off the cover of a dark blue leather notebook, gazing at it with relief and awe.

 

   “ Found what ?”

 

  A hoarse voice called out from outside of the room coming from under, the old man’s rough coughing seemed to vibrate the dust off the floor.

 

   “ My notes !”

 

   The young man called back, flipping over the fragile pages excitedly, without looking up for his companion.

……..※ Infra-Sound……

  “ Cas! It's all here! My researches…My works !”

 

  Infra-Sound : 

  sometimes referred to as low-frequency sound, sound lower in frequency than 20HZ.

 

  → Hearing becomes less sensitive as frequent lowers, so…………. Possible to feel Infra-Sound vibrations through various parts of the body.

  He flipped quickly as the familiar handwriting flashed across, words he knew and read for years popping out as if they floated out of the passing papers before his eyes.

 

  " Cas! You must see this! Cas !"

 

  The young man finally looked up from his own notebook, eager to share his precious findings with his companion downstairs.

   Yet, no answer.

 

  But Silence filled the wreaked room he now stood amongst, cloaked under thick grey dust and mold, furniture tumbled and bashed open, insides spread across, a circle of chaos surrounding him, paused at its most violent moment, sealed out of time forever left in a state of anarchy.

 

   Alone.

 

  He stood, his gaze panning from the innermost ruins of his old abode, clockwise, traversing his sight across the wallpapers, newspaper cutouts, and equations of importance in his profession, all torn and rotten, like scratch through by vicious beastly claws, leaving deep apertures within the brick walls.

 

   " Cas…?"

  The young man lowered his voice immediately, slowly lowering his body as his vision slides slowly to the doorway behind him, checking his surroundings vigilantly for any signs of unnatural movement.

 

   There came a small snap outside his room at the end of the hallway to the right, then constant clicking, paddling, and silence. 

 

  From what he heard, the young man surmised the eerie clicking sound came from his old lab now storage room to the right next to the flight of stairs where he used to pile his equipment, broken lab tools too expensive to discard, and of course, 

 

  inventions he had created in his long forgone past.

   

   Hiding his notebook cautiously into his dusty get coat, the man gingerly moved again, back leaning close to the ravaged wall as he slid one step at a time toward the storage room, where the door was already pulverized, leaving the hinges swinging morbidly with the shattered wooden parts attached.

 

   Instantaneously, he scanned the room with his keen eyes left to right.

 

  Metal hand-built shelves leaned against one another, slanting to a side, crashing into the wall at the far side, the machinery they once stored now but a mass of scrap metal and wires entangled altogether in piles of forlorn waste.

 

   His old desk, standing at the innermost side, still intact yet filled with piles of broken parts and gears, all covered with a thick layer of dust. 

 

   The blueprints that used to hang the walls now lay on the ground, leaving blank squares over the mottled walls.

   

   The clock broken, its insides scattered around the bulbless lampstand.

 

   The window, sealed behind wooden planks pinned deep at the edges.

 

   Light, coming from above, 

 

   Where the roof used to be.

 

   He came to the books scattered all over the friable wooden floor and discerned for useful volumes to add to his collection, stuffed within his backpack bulging downward behind his back.

 

   He bent down, and there it came again. 

 

  The clicking, mechanic snaps, with an addition of low engine humming in the background. under the pile of waste under the tilted shelves.

 

   A dim light glowing from underneath.

 

   Remembering suddenly something he regret not recalling soon enough, the young man scurried forth to the ashen pile of scrapped parts, kneeling down as fast as he could and looking down, with a smile on his dirty sweaty face, pushing the objects aside to have a better look to marvel at his old creation, still working on its own over these years, 

 

   the pride of his imagination humming a small distance away, as if waiting for his return.

 

   The young man reached out his hand

 

   “ Come on…” he whispered, containing his boiling excitement to the resounding matter before him.

 

  “ Come… It's me, Your Father Caesar !”

 

   With a sudden loud whoosh and a snap, the glowing machine flew to his palm automatically, powered by strong unseen traction, beeping as its parts began to rebuild and cover the man’s rough fingers and skin under a thin nanoparticle film, glimmering under the shafts of light like metal.

 

  He pulled back with an awed jolt and watched, as his hand, now sheathed under pale white ceramic armor of hybrid Nano iron lined in gold and blue and black, still humming with power the longer the armor sank into his grip.

 

   “ Good girl….”

 

  This young man smiled, touching his old creation with admiration and Longing.

   But a sudden clash of glass pulled him back to the uncertainties in this house, of this world he yet resides and he stood back up, holding out his gun with his other hand, the armored one pointing out like a glooming flashlight at the doorway.

 

   He exited the room carefully, back still closely adhered to the wall, and heard down in the hallway right outside his door,

 

   a slithering sound, like liquid, like a living creature.

   His heartbeat quickened.

 

   To get to the stairs downward and leave the house, he has to pass the corridor, right where the ominous entity was now lurking closer.

 

  There shouldn’t be any of them here, the man cursed at the truth that his scanners had shown no sign of the ‘enemy’ before venturing into the area, but here it is, hunting the last portion of dwindling humanity in its monstrous wake.

 

  Like tentacles, darker than black, they slithered out of the corner, emerging at the foyer inches away from his feet.

  

   The man mustered his courage, pausing and ceasing his breath to conceal any sound. Calling for his friend for aid is no more an option.

 

   He dare not look out the hallway. Just through the edge of his eye, he knew it was there and what it was.

  The dark smudge slithered onward, with its tentacles reaching slowly into the room. Like darkness swallowing the room into its world.

 

  He moved into the room as slowly as possible, dodging where the black mass might invade next, holding his breath as his heart pounded above his throat, dropping a sweat inadvertently onto the wooden floor.

   'It' heard.

   Quickly realizing the Entity of dark was upon him, the man lunged, grasping for the door and dashing out to the hallways diving straight down the stairs, crashing and tumbling to the first floor, smoke and dust smothering the air all over. Standing up immediately, and racing to the exit when he saw the dark tentacles were already all around him, engulfing the whole house behind him into a void of lightless black, devouring his surroundings and past whole, even the floor he stepped upon turned dark.

 

   He then decided in that split second, he have to make a dangerous move, instead of rushing out to his car parked outside on the lonesome street and escaping the ever-reaching entities, he turned around with Lo, aiming his humming armored hand that glowed with radiating light towards the enemy.

 

  The Darkness screamed and cowed at the Light to his utter surprise.

 

   “ Woh !!!”

  The voice of an old person uttered behind him outside the house as the young man crashed out off the front porch.

 

  “ Blimeys…!!”

 

  “ Go! Go go go go go!”

 

Shouting as he scrambled to his feet, pushing his old comrade into his old-time truck as the old man quickly started the engines and the two sped off,  towards the desert outside the dilapidated city buildings, the engines roaring along the way, echoing across the deserted land of hollow civilization.

 

  “ Seriously, where were you ?!”

  Young physicist, teacher, and inventor Caesar Skyman panted, gaining his breath after a life-and-death encounter with the Dark Nano ‘Enemy’that spawned out from beneath as he glanced at the smog of grasping matter from the rear window of the truck, dragging the old house down to the sandy undergrounds, all vanishing in a cloud of dust.

  “ I thought you were….”

 

  “ I went to pee.”

  Old man Castiel, the physicist’s loyal friend and janitor replied candidly, turning the steering wheel as the truck swayed loosely to a side and hit the iron fence open as it pass through to the protected zone, the area basked under warm light cast from high above a building far away situated at a hill afar.

 

  “ Your house’s restroom was destroyed, so I peed outside.”

  

   The iron fence closed back slowly behind them.

 

   “ You see, the water here isn't right for me bladder.”

   Mumbled the old man, while drinking from a dirty bottle as he drove.

 

   “ You didn't hear 'Him' in the house ??”

  Caesar asked, still recovering from the shock.

 

   “ You mean 'It'? No. Neither did you.”

  Old Castiel shrugged, trying to have control over the crumbling truck that shuddered upon the sandy rocked path.

   “ We wouldn't have stepped a foot in there if we’d heard.”

 

   Caesar Skyman nodded curtly, too tired to argue over the usage of nouns to describe if the Entity of Dark should be addressed as a living person of will or just a calculating gathering of sentience, touching the sleek surface of his armor sheathed upon his hand.

 

   The ‘Enemy’ has already evolved, according to Caesar's observations of their behavior and mechanisms, 'Their' existence already proved to have surpassed 'it' long ago.

   But still, while nearly lost their lives, it was worth the venture back to his previous abode.

 

  “ Hey, see what I found.”

  Caesar Skyman showed old Castiel the armored overhand, which disassembled into particles by itself and swirled into a watch-like gadget comfortably perched around Caesar’s wrist.

 

  Old Castiel shrugged, mildly amused.

  “ Better not let the children touch that.”

  He mumbled with a chuckle.

  “ They will destroy it in no time.”

 

  “ I know.”

 Caesar Skyman chuckled as they drove towards the white building on top of the lone hill.

  Their School.

BEFORE LIGHT

<Ⅻ>

  

 

  “ Wrong turn, Cas. Wrong turn.”

 

  “ oops.”

…

……….

  Tuesday / Cloud, little rain

 

  I went home.

 

  Found the notes kept safely in my room, where I used to study, 

  like the old days, 

  before the Fall.

 

  Though the world may have plunged into dread fate, 

  The Lord still blesses us in his own ways.

 

  Nothing much has changed since I left.

  Mother had kept it neat.

  As if she was still there.

  I even thought she was next door.

 

  She was not.

 

  But something of the past did remain.

 

  Sora.

 

  Humming in the lab, calling as soon as I got close.

  All these years, she had been waiting, operating still.

 

  She remembered.

  The shadow was then by the door and sneaked in on us, like sand, like water, slithering towards us like

  “ Ahem.”

 

  With quick reflexes, Caesar Skyman slammed his hard-covered diary shut and looked up from his seat in surprise.

 

  She jumped back as well.

 

  Standing before his equipment-piled, paper-jammed desk seated in the back of the room, was a young woman, mid-twenties, with curls of hairs twirling freely down both sides of her shoulders, reflecting wine reddish glow from the orange setting sunlight shafting in from the arched window panes circling the rear half of the chamber; her astonished gaze of his overreaction focused on the notebook clasped in the man’s palms, observing the book like discovering a new star per her profession with her scientific grace of vigorous curiosity, yet at the same time elegantly apologetic towards her interference to Caesar’s work.

 

  “ Oh...Sorry to interrupt…”

 The young lady backed a few steps further abashedly, twirling the edge of her reddish hair uneasily.

  “ Should have knocked on the door first…”

 

  “ No, no, it's alright, sorry for not noticing….”

Caesar Skyman stammered awkwardly, not having full eye contact with the fellow scientist that has volunteered to aid their wreaked school, only to lay his eyes upon the thin velvet ultramarine coat overflowing upon her laboratory garbs. Knocking a few items off the already stuffed desk, Caesar stood up to greet the lady after fumbling his wrinkled lab coat straight, to no avail. 

  “ Thought it was Cas….”

  Caesar chuckled, trying to look up slightly, his sight reaching the woman’s pale fairly curved cheeks, stopping there at a short pause.

  “ Thought…... you've left….”

 

  Caesar Skyman had no idea why he said that, but it was too late to grab the words he had said back to his mouth to swallow them.

 

  She was here only for following Solar Industry’s orders, Caesar reminded himself, a project to spread out resources for weak yet thriving schools, nursing homes for orphaned children to be exact, providing aid and defense evaluations and much more assistance.

  As the contract of the deal had stated, as Caesar remembered, it was temporary cooperation.

 

  No doubt, there are many nursery headquarters out there that gravely seek Solar Industry’s opportune aid.

 

  Considering the long months she has been here, helping set up the surveillance systems, water pumps, all sorts of constructional duties they had to accomplish together, and even giving the children some classes in her spare time, Caesar is more than grateful for her timely help, and wished her best of luck when she moves on to the next base in need. Yet, something of an anomaly, an interference in his heart of which he had never experienced before, ached inside of his chest like a throbbing sore, as if a yearning, a craving for her to somehow stay.

  Blinking hard, Caesar put those queer thoughts to rest, looking straight up one last time to greet this resourceful young scientist approximately of the same age as himself before she leaves.

 

  Yet, those wanting thoughts only grew stronger the moment his eyes met hers, those purplish diamonds, sparkling a universe likely grander than those she studied her entire career, gazing back at him, along with the enchanting dreamy countenance radiating confidence and erudite splendor, mesmerizing his sense, and depraving his capability of simple communicative vocabulary and reasonable reaction any affable gentleman could perceive instead of himself.

 

  Speechless, Caesar Skyman yet attempted to push forward from the silent stalemate.

 

  “ Not today... actually.”

 The young woman answered, twirling her other stroke of red hair with her fingers still, the frequency slightly accelerated.

  “ Well, to be honest with you, Principal Skyman, for an establishment designed for children, especially in times like this After the Fall, this place is still… below acceptable. I mean, aside from lack of resources, there's still… much to be desired.”

 

  The two young scientists both looked down at the disorganized desk in silence.

 

  “....... I understand….”

 Caesar Skyman scratched the back of his head apologetically.

 “  I will do my best for the children…for civilization, I’ll do my part…It, It's still a great honor for you to be here, Miss Celeste these past weeks… on Solar Industry's behalf. It's getting late now, How about I drive you back to the industry headquarters—."

 

  “ No, wait.”

  Miss Celeste stopped the young man from fumbling in his coat pockets in search of the keys to the old truck.

  “ I think you didn’t understand…”

 

  Caesar looked up in surprise, the keys in hand. By the way she described, Caesar was sure Miss Celeste hates to even stay in this repulsive establishment any second more, as to what she just said implied, is it not? Caesar wondered.

 

  “...What?”

 Caesar asked stupidly, putting the truck keys back in his pocket.

  “ Then…umm… I beg your pardon, but I thought our cooperation with Solar Industry has ended…no?”

  

   Claudia gave out a long impatient sigh, her face slightly redder than before.

  “ On the contrary, no. As you can see of this place, the restrooms aren't working properly, the cooking is…not the best—for the children of course, and the Lights would go off from time to time… I wish to change that, for the better…Caesar. Caesar Skyman.”

   She spoke, her finger twirling her hair quicker than before, like a nonstop twisting gear the moment she uttered his name.

 

  His full name, for the first time.

 

  “ It's for the children...to build up a better, more sustainable construct for them. That’s why I have prolonged the Assistance Project and got permission with the Industry’s consent.”

  The astrologist reported, her words pushed fast in an anxious manner, stiffly stood as she stated clearly of her stay, slightly relieved as soon as her words were spoken.

 

  “ It seems that…the children, they need me more than I thought—”

 

  " Not... Not just the children."

 Caesar Skyman blurted out, mustering all his courage to form the words he had involuntarily uttered with reverence.

  “ …They…are not the only ones that needed you here……Miss Cla…Claudia Celeste.” 

  The two young adults looked away at first in separate directions, then slowly converged their gazes, to one of the opposite sides.

 

   Time seemed to stop as their eyes meet, one more time.

 

  The universe dazzled before his presence.

  “ I…I need a new quilt by the way.”

  Claudia finally broke the silence.

  “ The old one has been substituted as the classroom curtains.”

  As they went to find the things required for her longer stay, heading down the dilapidated corridors toward the storage room, where a pack of mischievous children was passing by at the exact moment, eying the two adults with googly eyes of jeering curiosity.

 

  “ Woo~ it's principal Skyman and Claudia sensei~ entering the same room~~”

   The boys crooned playfully.

 

  “ Rio, Finnir! Go play somewhere else! The teachers are busy right now !”

   Caesar hustled the kids off, but the boys only lingered longer, watching and sniggering at the far corner.

 

   “ Apologies, the boys do talk, don’t they?”

  Caesar tried to ease the atmosphere yet Claudia was calmly silent about it all.

  As they edged into the dusty stuffed storage room, Claudia, searching at the front, opened a large cabinet, where large thick quilts and other large instruments all tumbled down upon her in a bulking sea of matter with dust and debris like foams of the waves devouring the young teacher whole.

 

   “ Claudia!!” 

  Crying out by sheer instinct and rushing in time to break Claudia’s hard fall, Caesar tried to push all that cascaded down back, to no avail, largely underestimating all the lab instruments he had stuffed in these cabinets in the first place, now raging back out onto him and Claudia, forcing them to to the floor.

  With her arms, Claudia supported her upper body up from the untied floor, while Caesar Skyman lay underneath her, as they stared, face to face,   

 

   In the dark.

 

  Seconds after, as time slowed once again to a near halt, Claudia whispered as Caesar listened, and she let herself down slowly, closer, closer down to Caesar on the floor, until their bodies touched, more and more, her weight resting down upon him.

 

   Caesar Skyman wasn't sure, whispering back yet silenced quickly as their lips were but inches apart. Unsure where to place his arms, he let her guide him, up yonder to her waist.

   Caesar Skyman understood.

   And his morals, he last thought,

 

   Which seemed minuscule before the End of the World, 

 

   yielded as the night commenced.

…

………

  Wednesday / Cloud. No rain.

 

  For the first time in many years, 

  We finally had a decent breakfast.

  Not that I am blaming Cas’ culinary skills.

  Caesar Skyman sipped the coffee from his laboratory flask he brew with his alcohol lamp, sitting in his office, his wrinkled dusty lab coat cloaking over his pajamas.

  Claudia sat opposite him, sipping the same coffee with another flask, also in dark purple pajamas with Caesar’s spare lab coat perched upon her shoulders. 

 

  As Caesar wrote in his diary, he couldn’t help but notice the astrologist’s suspicious gaze upon his morning routine.

 

  “....What?”

  Caesar decided to ask, wondering if it was his poor grasp of chatting vocabulary that had been squandering her pleasant morning and dimming him a boring person to be with.

 

  “ Nothing…”

  Claudia answered looking out at the newly wiped window pane with a slight frown, twirling her long stroke of wine-reddish hair with her fingers once again, looking to the side with placid dismay. 

 

  “ I'm… Just noting down things in my diary.”

  Caesar Skyman clarified himself, trying to make a conversation on the topic to break the awkward silence.

  “ It helps me clear things up…remember some things that might seem ordinary, but may come in handy in the future, inspiring thoughts, whatnot…It makes me eager to explore the rest of the day. That’s all…”

  Caesar forced a wry chuckle, regretting the cheesy dialogue he just made which might haunt him forever in the middle of the night every time he recalls this part of his memory.

 

  “ I know.”

  Claudia replied with a slow acknowledging nod, the hair-twirling finger stopping as she continued.

  “ It's not that your writing bothers me…But……

 

  …Who is Sora?”

 

   Caesar Skyman's eyes lit up with enthusiasm the moment she uttered the name out of her rosy lips. Standing up with an exhilarating jolt, leading Claudia by the hand as he motioned her across the hallway to the lab next door. 

 “ Come, Let me Show You to her!”

 

  Reluctantly, Claudia followed him into the lab where the Children had science classes before, but they went even further, opening the wall leading down a narrow winding staircase that led all the way down to a secret foyer before Caesar's real lab.

 

  “ Caesar, I don’t like where this is going.” Claudia stated her concerns, mainly due to her fear of the dark as there were barely any lights within the spiraling tunnel when as soon as she finished, Lights flashed and beamed down all over the place asudden, illuminating the long cavernous space before her as she stepped uncertainly into the shimmering walled basement.

 

  Yet, as shining as it was, the lab was still a mess, empty canisters, broken turbines, tubular tanks full of bubbling water with sparkles floating within… and even a single-cockpit aircraft the size of a smart car, shrouded under a cobwebbed damp leather cloth, all stuffed along the walls of the room, leaving just a narrow space to walk in the middle of the lab where a metal desk sat like a lonesome high ground amongst a sea of garbage. Claudia nearly fainted at the disorganized placement of things around the parameter.

 

   “ I'll just stand here…”

 Claudia whispered, standing at the foyers to the chaotic laboratory, closing her eyes to bar the thought and urge to clean this chaos up with her own hands.

   

   “ Then we’ll stand right here.”

  Caesar stood close to Claudia with a grin, holding out his hand toward the wreaked compartment, raising his palm at the lone desk miles away in the middle.

 

   “ Sora.”

  Caesar Skyman summoned, straining his excitement.

   “ Come to father.”

 

  What?! Claudia winced in utmost shock at the notion of this man having a daughter secretly hidden in this subterranean space without her knowing when suddenly the metal high table started rocking the moment Caesar spoke. That was when the astrologist noticed a wired charger seated on top of the table, where an object glowed with blue luminesce, humming in low vibration as if in answer.

 

  And out of the charger, soft mechanic pieces shrinking into specs of metal, like shimmering liquid, flew out altogether and immediately adhered upon Caesar Skyman's hand up to his arm, encasing further up to his shoulder, forming a set of a futuristic plain armor that yet needed additional designs for its outlooks.

  Lights underneath each part of soft flexible metal, humming and glowing like alive.

 

  Claudia calmly contained her surprise as she touched Caesar Skyman's armored arm, feeling the texture that seemed not like any other substance she knew of this earth.

  “ This is… Sora ?”

 She asked, trying hard to figure out what element the armor was based on.

 

  “ Synchronizing Offence Reflex Armor.”

  Caesar Skyman introduced victoriously, speaking proudly of his own work.

  “ It was my college presentation years ago. Nano-fied pure crystalline Tungsten, iron alloy, and carbon webbing in between to form a malleable yet tough sheath.  It was just the hand then, and the professors aren't amused by it. Now…imagine their faces when they see it become full-on armor…with spare time and resources from Solar Industries, I can make a difference in the world.”

 

   “ Make a difference? With….”

  Claudia touched the armor again, realizing something else he hadn’t explained the ingredients to this armor. The Light.

  “ This…Gauntlet… it can deflect...Nano Scourge Infiltration?!”

 

  With an assuring smile, Caesar nodded confidently.

 

  “ Yes. It is the reason why I made it out of my own house yesterday.”

 

  Claudia gasped and in his radiant gaze, she saw hope.

  “ We can win this war, Claudia.”

They finally met.

 

Claudia seemed skeptical at first, but she is willing to help.

 

 She helped me in various ways, I was very lucky to have her by my side.

 She can be hard to understand sometimes.

 

 But I can try.

…

………

  “ Alrighty, children! Gather up! Time for class.”

 Old Castiel announced in a gruff holler, knocking the desk to gather attention from the loud chattering, playing children below, still engaged in their games as the old teacher and janitor went on his second holler.

  “ Sit down. Sit down, Rio, you’ll fall one day if you climb onto the desk again like a monkey for sure.”

  The children sniggered as they hustled back to their creaking wooden handcrafted seats they made months ago with the teachers.

 

  “ What's a monkey, sensei…?”

 Asked the timid child Neliya, sitting in the front row, always the most attentive in class.

 

  “ Well, that's why we are here.”

  Old Sensei Castiel began, opening his thick book of stories and lessons.

  “ We are about to learn about Animals! Creatures, you know, like our friend Elza—”

 

  “ Woof!” The huge long fur-coated canine sitting on three children’s laps barked in answer. Being the guard dog the children found at the school the first day they arrived, they had tamed it through leftover treats and hugs that eventually the large wolf-like creature stayed, acting as their guardian to fend off the Nano Scourge that roams the lands outside the school fence.

 

  “ Yes. Elza, and aside from you, there once were millions, or trillions if you count in the interesting insects, a lot of them species of the Kingdom Animalia that used to roam by our side!”

  And with white chalk, the old janitor and teacher drew upon the slanted blackboard wild beasts the children had never seen before, swimming, flying, digging the earth, rushing the plains, 

 

  Living entities that the children had lost from this dying world, not even given the chance to catch one last glimpse of their prime.

 

  Staring in awe, the children listened speechless to old Castiel retailing with vivid detail tales to astonish the legends of the Kindom Animalia, how animals first came out of the sea in small sizes, gaining the ability to breathe and crawl up onto land, and then evolve into various shapes and sizes, adapting powers that seemed impossible, but had all happened before when Sensei Castiel was still called young Castiel.

  For hours the old sensei lectured, permanently absorbed in his storytelling, rambling on and on about the marvels of nature.

  “ The birds, a swarm of them, swirling above my head when I first saw when I was at your age, as if a mind of their own, across the lake, up the mountains… and the fishes too, without words or teachings, they know through their instinct, a calling in their soul, of how to navigate the dashing sea currents together…

  …They may be unable to talk, to build stuff and drive cars or planes, but the way they understand the earth, through their memory that has been there, rooted from the start of the first cell…It is a calling that we have lost. One that we need desperately now in these trying times—wait. Where is everyone??”

 

  Old sensei Castiel looked around the empty classroom, glancing down eye to eye with the shy Neliya who remained at her seat, listening still despite the whole class leaving the classroom without a trace.

 

  “ Sensei…They are already outside…It’s already time for PE class...”

…

………..

Placing down the armor back onto the high desk after a long look, Claudia circled her eyes slowly around the hectic lab, her eyes stopping at the tubular water tank that ominously stood at the middle end of the hall, bubbles gurgling out from underneath.

 

  “ I’ve been wondering…” Claudia spoke, leaning closer to the water tank curiously, squinting to look closely at the faint sparkles floating around the bubbles.

  “ Is there anything in there?”  

 

  “ Yes.”

  As if waiting for her to ask, Caesar swiftly turned off the lights like he had planned for this for long.

 

  “ Caesar?!” 

 

  “ Look.” 

  

  Caesar motioned her to lean closer, pointing at the luminescent specs drifting, grasping.

 

  “ Jellyfishes??” Claudia whispered in surprise. Odd choice for pets.

 

  “ Turritopsis dorhnii.” Caesar explained proudly. “ Many like to call its other name—The immortal jellyfish. They are already rare in numbers years back, now these are the last of them on this earth.”

 

  “ I never thought you’re also a biologist.” Claudia bantered, gazing at the bluish hues swimming down and up and at all directions leisurely, following with her eyes along their slow pace.

 

  “ I wasn’t.” Caesar admitted. “ It’s…my Mentor’s. A gift…an inspiration, as she would say.”

  Claudia nodded in deep remembrance of this Mentor Caesar had unintentionally brought up, a paramount figure in the science field of the Post-Earth Century, ringing far away bells in her sea of memory.

  “ What did it inspire?” she curiously asked, as Caesar tilted forward to the glass vault to gladly share.

 

  “ Actually, the light you see in those Jellyfishes, they empower them with a force that permits them from perishing, fixing everything inside of them, keeping them…Forever the same.”

  Caesar explained with a proud grin, receiving but a doubtful glance from Claudia.

 

  “ That’s…not how Turritopsis dorhnii works.” Claudia reasoned with a frown.

“ These jellyfishes live long enough because they revert back to their infant stage, thus living again.” 

 

  “ Well, I never knew you were a biologist as well, miss Celeste.” Caesar bantered back as the two grinned at each other.

 

  “ But seriously Caesar, how does it work.” 

 

  “ I don’t know all of it. Yet.” Caesar admitted. 

“ You are right. Turriropsis dorhnii doesn’t require this Light to reverse its life cycle. But these, should I say…Hybrids. They act differently from the other dorhniis, they simply…fix themselves. Regenerate at the speed of decay, without producing malignant gene codes to give rise to neoplasia. As long as this…Light within their bloodstream, Light-blood, stays inside of them, they are truly Immortal. Unless you kill them of course.”

 

  Processing the information she just heard, Claudia quickly formed a series of questions to counter this surreal claim.

  “ If I cut one of their tendrils off, what happens to these…mutant dorhniis?” 

 

  “ Good question. They grow back, in approximately a day .” 

 

  “ And this Light-blood, does it pass down to the offspring?” 

 

  “ That is also an interesting question. It does pass down to the next generation, but…the parent dies.” 

 

  “ Really…” Claudia mused in awe. “ Are there any other living beings that possess this kind of Blood? Are they radioactive?”

 

  “ No. And no. Not radioactive, But…”

 

  “ But?”

 

  Caesar looked up mysteriously at the astrologist eager to hear what he had in store.

 

  Yet he hesitated.

 

  “ Caesar, what is it?”

 

  “ I am not sure if it's an error or just a random anomaly, but…Their Light, I used a drop of that Light-blood to power Sora years ago, and…it still works, and the Light it emits…it repels Nano Demonry.”

 

  Claudia’s mouth gapped wider slowly.

 

  “ That…gauntlet’s Light…is from this Jellyfish?” a slight tremble evident in her rushing cadence.

 

  Caesar nodded silently.

 

  “ And it repels…the Nano Scourge?!” 

 

  “ I still need scientifical proof and experiments to back this hypothetical up, yet…it is very likely...”

 

  “ Caesar, this is huge,” Claudia uttered, her heart pounding in excitement.

“ If we replicate this, it will become a better defense mechanism than the hazardous one we currently have! This could change everything! You are right…we can win the war!” 

 

  “ It’s not that easy, and time, resources…” 

 

  “ But you did it! You made an arm, a hand at least that protects you from the Nano Scourge!” 

 

  Caesar nodded slowly, his dubious expression hinting at something else.

  

  “ What? What is it?”

 

  “ Just wondering…if this is what my mentor meant—”

 

  “ Caesar, This is what your Mentor Wished to see! She left this to you to see it work! It is your destiny, Caesar. Your Calling! You can do it. I believe you can.”

 

  Claudia and Caesar exchanged looks, both of them looking at each other with great hope and joy, all thanks to the young inventor’s mentor, who was a prominent figure in the field of science, and also, an outstanding presence in the struggle to save Humanity.

 

  The one person who started it all.

  

  “ And besides,” Claudia added with a secretive whisper.

  “ That’s not the only thing she left behind, am I right?”

 

  In the dark lab, save for the twinkling blue glows of the hydrozoans, 

 

  Her voice sounded clearer close to his ear with charming clarity.

…

……….

  Glancing up at the circular clearing outside the shattered classroom windows, old Castiel saw them, children, boys, and girls all, running around outside, enjoying the sunlight, chasing each other with a rough inflated ball they tossed around for the big dog to fetch.

 

  Among them, a hue of blue dazzled under the sun rays, of long hair to the shoulders, tied to a ponytail to the side, running at the front, joyously leading the children running and sporting along the dusty diminishing running lanes.

  “ Oh my, why didn’t you stop me then…??" Castiel asked, pushing his thin fragile glasses into place, and checking the time on his broken watch.

 

  “ We did…Yuri did. But Sensei didn't hear us, so…”

  And there she was 

 

  Her light blue hair like the skies that were once pure, 

 

  Running across the field kicking a dirty soccer ball, like a bright beacon to which the children would definitely follow.

  With a sigh, slapping his forehead, the old janitor ushered the remaining child in the classroom out to the field.

 

  “ Oh dear, it's PE class already…Children gather up, line up outside, and….. we do stretches….."

  Sensei Castiel bade and all but one good Neliya heeded Castiel's call.

 

  The rest have already finished their warm-ups and were in the middle of their games now.

 

  “ Nah, forget the warm-up, Neliya. Just go and play with the others.”

 Old Castiel sighed, stretching his stiff back, deciding to sit back and watch.

 

  But the young girl wasn't sure

  “ Really...Sensei…?”

 

  An idea popped out of Castiel's mind then and there. 

 

  “ Hmm… Why not we learn a new sport called golf today, hmm, Neliya? I haven't don't it in years…”

   Sensei Castiel suggested, heading into his office and soon returning with a queer long pole-like weapon with a huge hardened head at the top.

 

   Neliya was afraid of the weird bat and hid behind sensei Castiel, shivering.

 

   “ No no, this is just a golf bat! Golf! Golf is fun…You put the ball like this here…. And I'll stand back here and do this…..Ho!”

The children,

 

They are bright, they are smart, they are charming

 

They are like Stars in the night sky

 

They are Light, 

 

They are Hope.

   And the ball flew off with a sounding ping, catching all the sporting children's attention as their gazes followed the tiny white sphere flying high up to the skies and then hitting the fence far away with a resounding smash.

 

They are our only chance to go back,

 

To the loving, kind world that once was,

 

The children teach us, lead us,

 

Like Stars in the night sky.

   “ Sensei! Can we play golf too ?!”

 

   “ Sensei! Teach us! Teach us!”

 

  Soon the children swarmed around sensei Castiel and Neliya was pushed far away.

 

  “ Momo… Want…!” The youngest of the children too wished to have a grip of the long metal bat as well but was stopped by the girls taking care of her lest the infant hurt herself. 

 

  “ No, Momo.” The red-haired Lucky carried the blond infant away from the eager pack of children. 

  “ You stay with Elza. She will play with you. ”

 

  “ Woof.” The docile full-grown wolf grunted in agreement,  letting the dismayed Momo ride on her back. 

 

  While the other children rushed forth to have a try on this brand-new entertainment. 

 

   “ Sensei, let us try !”

 

   “ Sensei, Me First !!”

 

   “ Me! Me! Me!”

 

   “ Sensei… Yiii….”

  Neliya squeaked as she fell to the back of the crowd as more and more kiddies and Lollies gathered around old Castiel's knee, circling him enthusiastically.

 

  “ Ho! Ho! Wait Ho!”

  Castiel hollered, holding the bat high away from all the groping hands around him.

  “ Neliya came first. Be good! Neo, help me line up the children, please. Thanks. Be good, kids! That’s more like it…”

 

  The boys and girls lined up as per the eldest boy’s orders and were good while Neliya came to the front.

  “ Now, Neliya, hold the bat like this…”

  The old janitor helped Neliya grab the golf bat in the right position and posture, but the bat was taller than Neliya and she was still afraid it will fall and drop on her head.

   “ Yes. Now you turn it up behind you, aim at that ball right there.”

 

   “ But Sensei…The ball is tiny…”

  Neliya said nervously with watery eyes.

 

   “ Ho ho, that is alright. The length of the bat will hit the ball if you swing it as I did. You just have to swing with confidence.”

 

   “ Just do it, Neliya!”

  Lucky encouraged the timid one from behind the line along with the other girls.

   “ You can do it!”

 

  “ Oy! Just do it already!”

  Rio and the boys taunted impatiently and were glared at but the girls.

  

  Neliya looked up at Castiel's gentle gaze, his eyes telling her she could do it.

  So the child took a deep breath, 

  Closed her eyes, 

  And swung the bat!

 

  Hitting not the golf ball on the ground, but old sensei Castiel's crotch!

  Howling in sheer agony, Castiel fell to the ground, holding his broken parts while panting feverously as if to cease the pain through his grieving exhales.

  The girls screamed and the boys gasped in mutual pain. But soon the boys began to laugh.

 

  “ Castiel sensei !!”

 Hearing the loud forlorn cry of the school janitor, Caesar and Claudia both rushed out of the secret lab located under the warehouse next to the main school building and hurried to the injured old fogey rolling on the playground, surrounded by the distraught children.

  “ Sensei, are you alright? Can you stand ??”

 

  “ I am fine…fine….”

  Old Castiel whispered in answer, trying to stand up on his own with his trembling wobbly legs wearily.

  “ I... I think…I am fine…”

  But Caesar and Claudia still helped carry the broken old man in their hands to the infirmary right away.

  Neliya just stood there, crying terribly.

 

  “ Rio! It's your fault !”

  Lucky scalded the laughing boys.

  “ You were rushing Neliya! You should apologize!”

 

  “ Hee hee! But how about, NO!?”

 Rio asked sheepishly.

 

  “ You were!”

 

  “ No, I didn’t!”

 

  “ Rio!! You'll say sorry to Neliya!” The girls demanded furiously.

 

  “ Rio, just say you are sorry.” Neo bade his younger brother restlessly.

 

  “ Why?! I did no Wrong! It’s Neliya who hit sensei, at the balls!!” Rio argued, laughing halfway at how funny it all sounded. And the boys tumbled in ranting laughter, pretty entertained by the whole thing.

 

   “Woo woo…” Neliya wept tragically, fearing she had killed the old man through her clumsiness.

  

   The boys went on laughing, but the girls were angry, and a quarrel is inevitable.

 

  But when a fight was about to ensue, when the gravity of conflict weighed down upon them children, someone took the golf bat and swayed the bat behind her back before swinging down with a wide powerful strike. 

 

   “ Hoyah ! ! !”

 

  A sound of metal hitting straight at its target, loud and clear, bright and echoing, sending the white ball flying up higher than the school facility, a force so strong it sent the white sphere far off to the heavens in but mere seconds.

 

  The children, stopping their quarrel that very instant, gazed at the ball above all, soaring across the vast blue. 

 

   Up, Up it flew, 

 

   The children followed the ball’s trajectory in awed silence.

  before cheering out in loud unison.

 

  “ Way to go, Yuri!!”

  The children praised the young girl, holding the golf bat and chuckling proudly.

 

  “ How did you do that ?!”

  They all asked excitedly, eager to do the extraordinary feat themselves.

  “ Teach us the way !”

 

  The bright child giggled cheerfully, giving the bat to Neliya alone.

  “ Neliya taught me how to do it!”

 

  “ Really?! Teach us too, Neliya!”

  “ Teach us, please!”

   The children gathered together once again in harmony around Neliya as the timid child passed down the way sensei taught her one by one they had their turns swinging bats and hitting the golf ball here and there.

  Sometime after they began playing all kinds of sports around the school, the PE class lasting for a long long time.

Let them play,

Let them learn,

 

Let them be merry and joyous,

 

As long as they can be.

  “ Yuri ??”

Let them sing, 

Let them laugh,

 

Let them shine.

 

We are their night, 

 

So they could shine.

  “ Yuri ??”

 

  After a long while of sports and games, Yuri sat alone on the rock close to the fence, facing the world outside, feeling the wind while resting, humming a song to herself.

 

  The boy who called, standing behind her still, decided to listen and with his all, mesmerized by the charming song.

  Long had he, like many other children, was captivated by her blooming confidence, her bright radiance, but it was that mysterious aura behind that outgoing aura that pulled him onward, appealing to the boy from the depth of his conscious, a sheer curiosity to know more, to reach out to her, 

 

  to see her, clearer from the shadows.

 

  The girl stopped the moment her song came to an end and realizing footsteps behind her, she spun around quickly.

 

  “ Ver… Vernui?! How... How long have you been standing there?”

  Yuri asked shyly, realizing she had been singing without realizing someone else was listening.

 

  The boy too, realized how rude he was for sneaking on her and stood back steps away apologetically.

  “ I am sorry..!!.... But….. Yuri, your voice…is very Beautiful.”

 

  Yuri paused, and hopped down from her rock.

  

  The two children stood, close apart, face to face, gaze to gaze.

 

  Behind the rock.

  “ Hey…Vernui?”

 

  “ …Yes?”

 

  “ Can I…ask you something…?”

 Yuri asked, her face coming close to the blushing boy’s.

 

   “ Anything…Yuri.” Vernui whispered in answer, his face turning redder and redder the second passed.

 

  “ …Why is the sky dark while the stars are shining?”

  The boy was at a loss.

 

  “ What?” 

 

  “ Do you know? Why is the sky dark while the stars are shining?” 

 

  The girl asked again, with an expression not one of playful chicanery, 

 

  But of yearning for an answer.

 

  One that she depends upon.

  “ …I don’t know.” The boy admitted after a long moment of deep brooding.

“ I don’t know, yet. But we can look for answers, perhaps ask the teachers—”

 

  “ Not the teachers.” The girl shook her head sadly, her expression darkened by the thought.

“ It can’t…I can’t ask the grownups.”

 

  “ Why not?” 

 

  “ ……My mother…she told me so……”

 

  “ Oh…” The boy nodded, not fully understanding, wondering why the strict rules for such a difficult question,

  “ So, your mother wishes you to find the question all by yourself?”

 

  The girl half nodded, and shook her head a little unintentionally, unsure how to answer.

 

  “ It…It’s a song. A story in a song. That I have to find.” the little girl tried to explain.

“ It is…important to me…”

 

  That is all she could say.

 

  And the boy understood.

  “ Can I help you find it?”  the boy asked considerately.

“ I don’t know what I can do now but I am willing to help. I won’t tell the grownups, I swear, and see if we can find any clues…”

 

  “ You would…do that for me?”

 

  The boy paused at her question, to which he answered calmly.

 

  “ Anything, Yuri.”

  Two young children, blushing at each other's presence.

  Silence.

  Far behind, among the boys that were kicking soccer over the sandy field, one boy of red fiery hair stopped to a halt, looking at the two standing by the rock, 

 

  hand in hand.

  “ Firren, the ball!!” 

 

  The soccer ball rolled off in front of the phased-out boy as the opposing team snatched it away, striking a goal before the boy could return to his senses.

 

  “ Firren, what’s wrong?! You got hit in the balls? Like Sensei?” Rio asked as some boys started sniggering. Neo rolled his eyes.

 

  “ Nothing…” kid Firren responded, looking away from the rock by the fence.

 

  But then hollers from the other group of children caught the others’ attention.

  “ Yuri!”

  Some kids came calling for her in mild distress.

  “ The golf ball!! The ball you just hit, It’s outside the fence! We have to get it back before Sensei come back!!”

 

  “ On it!”

 Yuri called back and turned to leave.

 

  “ It’s a promise then, Vernui.” she smiled, letting go of the boy’s hand as she followed the others away.

 

 There, the boy stood, under the shadow of the boulder next to his side, the setting sun drawing the shadow longer upon his elated wake.

…

………

  “ Thank you, Caesar, Claudia.” 

 Old Castiel thanked the two young teachers as he sat down onto his bed, where they brought the old janitor to his cabin to rest the day off.

  “ But seriously, someone needs to keep an eye on those children. They destroyed the seesaw while I had a pee last week. Who knows what they are up to next.”

 

  Claudia chuckled, passing a cup of cooked water to the old man’s rough hands.

  “ They are curious children, sensei, but clever as well. I am sure they know what to do and not do.”

 

  “ I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Caesar sighed, glancing out the window to see the children gathering together as they scurried away out of sight. What are they up to now, Caesar wondered.

 

  “ That reminds me, Caesar, have you got mail from Solar Industries? Any from them?” the janitor asked gruffly.

  “ I haven’t heard from Reina for some time now. She should have called back a week ago…”

 

  After the short journey back to his old home the night before, along with many unexpected occurrences between Claudia and herself, Caesar hadn’t checked the internet mail Solar Industries had established through their network, being the only current safe Wifi connection that remained across the whole wide globe of dwindling civilization. 

  

  “ I’ll check the mail right away, and notify you if your daughter had responded.” Caesar made his way up to his office.

 

  “ Then I’ll look after the children.” Claudia volunteered.

“ Sensei Castiel, you need some painkillers?”

 

  “ Nah.” the old janitor waved her suggestion off.

“ A sleep would do.”

  Lying back, alone on his bed, Castiel’s mind led him to his daughter working far away at the headquarters of Solar Industries, being one of the pilots of the military company vowed to restore humanity back to its previous glory and fight back the Nano Scourge.

  Reina would write to him once a week to report on her situation, letting him know that she is fine, and he too would write to her nearly every day, sending mail through the industry network daily.

 

  But she had not responded in weeks, nearly a month.

 

  In days of uncertainty, where unwanted situations pop up and wipe out countries indefinitely in but seconds, old Castiel couldn’t help but feel afraid, trepidated by the thought of losing yet another loved one.

…

………..

  The children were soon all gathered around the metal fence wall.

 

  while The golf ball, sat a short distance away, yet far enough out of their reach.

 

  “ If we find a long stick,”

 Finnir suggested.

  “ It might work.”

 

  “ It's too far for a stick, brother.”

 Feira disagreed.

  “ But maybe if I build a stick with a rope attached…”

 

  “ We won’t get the ball on time if we wait for you, sister.” Finnir stated.

 

  “ How about climbing the fence?”

 Kai suggested, brooding with his fingers tapping his chin.

 

  “ It’s too high. Who’s gonna climb it?” Lucky looked around at them all, just children before a tall metal fence three times higher than their height.

 

  “ But, the teachers said we shouldn't... ”

 Neliya claimed, responsibly. Yet her voice was too small and drowned by others’ discussion.

 

  “ Rio, stop shaking the wall, it's no use.”  Neo called disdainfully at his brother's idiotic actions.

 

  “ Hoh hoh! I can bring down mountains and rivers!” Rio cried like an idiot.

 

  “ But sensei said….”

   Neliya squeaked and sighed, knowing pretty well no one’s heeding her ideas.

  “ What to do, Neruko?”

  Neliya asked the wild cat they kept in school that was now snuggling by her legs, just here for treats and head pats.

 

  “ Nya…” Neruko the cat replied, and Neliya hugged it up, Before Elza the wolf scared it away.

 

  “ It's just a ball, forget it.”

  Neo was about to leave, leading the children with him.

 

  “ But it's sensei's golf ball. We can just leave it out there.”

  Kai suggested and some children agreed. 

 

  “ We dig from under ?”

 Finnir suggested another scheme.

 

  “ I have a shovel.”

 Treize the chubby kid held out his toy shovel.

 

 And Rio, Finnir, and Treize started digging while the others think of a better plan.

 

  “ I'll call sensei for help.”

  Spake Firren who had been silent for most of the time, headed back to the school building to find the teachers.

 

  So the children waited without action.

  Up until Elza, the canine started growling at the fence.

 

  “ What is it, Elza??” Momo asked curiously, following the wolf’s gaze and gasped aloud.

 

  “ Cat!” Momo pointed at the others too gasped in shock.

 

  “ Nya~~”

 

  “ Neruko !!”

 Neliya squeeked in horror, trying to fetch the cat back down to no avail

  “ Neruko, come back…!”

 

  Yet, Lo, the cat climbed, up to the very top of the fence and leapt down gracefully to the other side, landing successfully on the beige gravel on its four skinny feet.

 

  The children stared with eyes wide like saucers.

  Before any of the children could react, someone had responded, getting the tools she needed from Feira, a thick long rope with multiple hooks tied to one end, and raced up to the slide that stood not far away from the fence, the slope facing towards the outer world beyond.

 

  That someone stood, high at the top of the slide, rope and hooks in hand, staring at the fence, at the point which she would aim her leap.

 

  “ No way…” the children gasped, inadvertently parting to the sides to make a path for the brave child, the one with the courage and planning to do what others wouldn’t conceive and brave through.

 

  But Yuri was not like any other child.

 

  She was special, and Vernui knew that.

 

  Closing her eyes to inhale one last time, Yuri opened her eyes once again, rushing down at full speed like the wind down from the top of the slide she ran, dashing onward as fast as her sprint could take her, before jumping at the opportune moment right before the fence, throwing the hooked rope, her grappling hook high, as the hooks gripped to the holes between the wires as she slammed right atop the fence, shaking it all, sending vibrations around the facility. To all their surprise and awe, the hooks actually helped cling the girl up in the air, and Lo, she climbed, up to the top of the fence, amongst cheers of children.

 

  Vernui, though inspired and proud of Yuri’s strife, was still worried for her. He doesn't care if Yuri got the golf ball back or not.

 

   He cared about Yuri.

 

  

   “ Oy~~~! What does it feel like up there?”

 The children asked Yuri who sat on top of the fence, looking at the horizons where the sun slowly sank down yonder away, painting the skies with orange violet hues spreading over to the deep blue end smeared with cotton clouds leisurely afloat.

  The wind swirled in many different directions above, here and there, caressing her blue hair, resembling the gentle hands which ruffled her hair years back.

  Those same warm hands that used to embrace her in times when the world outside was dark and filled with deafening explosions across the lands.

  Those comforting whispers in her ear telling her that everything will be alright.

 

  Those same eyes that turned away when they part—

  Down below, the Land, so wide and endless without borders, stretching out across her imaginations.

 

   “ It's… Awesome ! ! ! !”

 

  Yuri yelled back, looking forth at the vast beyond, her gaze riveted to fill all the infinite possibilities and secrets the unknown world could provide.

  She used to sit on the rock and sing while watch the barren lands ahead, thinking it was the best scenery she had ever witnessed. 

 

  But the view here was different entirely.

 

  Grander, 

 

  more hypnotizing.

 

  bright,

 

  endless.

 

  It was a New, new world,

 

  Outside her small universe,

 

  Lies a greater, mightier 

  Future.

  “...Come on, everyone!! You should all really see it! It's Awesome !”

   Yuri called out to the others, inviting them all to sit with her and admire the grand splendor, but the children were reluctant.

 

  “ Uhh… But Yuri, we're supposed to get the ball.”

Reminded Lucky from underneath.

 

  “ Ah, that's right! I almost forgot. Teh heh~”

 Yuri chuckled, scratching her head.

 

  Once more, Yuri grabbed the grappling hook and slid down the other side of the fence.

 

  Large pieces of metal unbeknownst to whom or where stabbed out of the sandy earth around her. To Yuri, they seemed like barriers the boys would use in their fighting games.

  There were also many strange dirty objects large and small that Yuri had never seen before.

  A seat connected with strings to a large round-tattered cloth, large iron wheels, and many cracked boxes and large tin canisters, all scattered randomly over the darkening soil.

 

  They all lay, motionless.

 

  Yuri suddenly stopped, sliding along the rope midway, halting her moves as she looked carefully one more time. She wasn’t sure, but a second before, amongst all these immobile objects, 

 

  Something moved.

 

  Thinking it was Neruko, Yuri called the cat by its name when the Something moved again, rushing from one object to the other. This time she was sure it wasn’t Neruko.

 

  It was something bigger.

 

  Yuri stared below, hanging onto the grappling hooked rope, tensing her muscles as she stared in a riveted gaze among the field of wreck.

 

  “ Yuri, what's wrong ??”

 Lucky asked, sensing something wrong through Yuri’s long focused gaze.

 

  As the children tried to see what Yuri had saw, only Vernui noticed something no one could. Something even Yuri herself didn’t realize.

 

 “ Yuri ! ! ! !”

 

  Vernui shouted as quickly and as loud as he could.

 

“ Your rope ! ! ! !”

 

  Yuri looked up, the snapping of the tip of the rope she heard for a split second, and before she knew it, her six grappling hooks attached to the one end broke off.

 

  She was falling.

 

  Girls screamed out loud.

 

  Boys uttered a gasp.

 

  But Yuri, with her quick reflexes, grabbed the fence with her tiny fingers just in time to save her own fall.

 

  The six hooks scattered down to the sand below, at least she still has her rope, Yuri realized, which she grabbed tightly in hand. Quickly she tied it to the fence and slid down, earning applause from the children.

  “ Heh heh~”

  Yuri chuckled along, but only Vernui saw her trembling hand, tightly holding to the rope.

 

  Once again, she turned to face the world beyond, 

 

  Where No child has faced, 

 

  Yonder.

 

  It was vast and barren, but Yuri believed, 

 

  Past all that she saw of the dire state of the earth, She believed there is something splendid, something extraordinary out there, waiting for her to find.

 

  And people, especially Someone out there, protecting the world she knew and loved, defending her from afar from all that wiped clean of the past.

 

  She believed.

  “ Mother…” Yuri whispered as she stepped forward and picked up the ball.

  “ Meow~~”

   Neruko the cat snuggled across Yuri’s calf, asking for some back rubs even outside the fence, out in the wild.

  Yuri knelt down and patted the cat but suddenly stopped and looked up.

 

  Standing up slowly, her eyes fixed on the stagnant objects and junk before her.

 

   At the large Iron pieces,

 

  The metal shards and wheels, 

 

  The dead trees, like brown stakes, piercing out of the sand.

 

  “ Yuri, What's wrong ??”

 the children asked again with worried cries.

  “ Come back! You got the ball! Head back now!”

 

  Yuri turned around to everyone, and instead of moving back, she simply asked her friends excitedly.

  “ Did you see that ?”

  No one replied, not even Vernui.

 

  “ ……. see what, Yuri ?”

 Neo bravely asked, starting to feel scared as the others.

 

  “ Someone!” Yuri pointed yonder towards the outspread masses. 

 

  “ Someone is out there. 

 

  And I saw Her!”

  But all the children saw, was the dark smog, covering half of the skies.

…

……….

  Caesar noticed the wind blowing stronger as the Lands outside the school fence slowly entered dark. The sun had fully set, Caesar thought, checking the mail through his laptop.

 

  Sure enough, there was mail from Solar industries. One for him, and the other for old Castiel. Both came in late yester eve.

 

  A different label flickered atop Castiel’s mail, shaped as a cone facing the right with curved lines emanating out of the wider side. A voice mail, Caesar Skyman realized, avoiding opening Castiel’s mail, not a big fan of intruding on other’s privacies. Perhaps his daughter Reina has some wonderful news she would want to report to her father, Caesar thought as he clicked his mail open with his mouse.

 

  His gaze stopped at the very first line of the letter.

  [Headquarters Under Attack]

  [Send Help Immediately]

  He dared not read on.

  

  Feeling his intestines twisting and screwed amongst each other into a tight knot, blocking his hand to push the nausea back down his throat, Caesar struggled to sit still, yet his vision swam as if his office was a water tank, and he was unable to make it till his next breath.

  

  The lights in his office started to flicker, but that too could not pull him back to his senses. 

 

  Not until the loud gruff shouts of the old man reverberating from the speakers in his coat pocket rattled Caesar back to his office.

  “ CAESAR!!! ‘IT’ IS HERE!!!!”

  Caesar looked back out the window, his blood running cold the instant he realized the darkening of the sky was not that of the setting of the sun. 

 

  But the Entity, the Nano Scourge, darker than black, ebony smoke, 

 

  shrouding the skies and casting death and destruction upon the world.

 

   

  Knocking his gadgets to the ground

 

  he rushed out to the lab opposite his office urgently.

 

  The radar upon his monitor, flashed madly.

 

  ‘The Shadow' is coming.

…

……….

    “ Umm… Yuri…?!”

  Vernui stammered while the children shuddered in speechless fear.

   “ You got to come back…NOW.”

 

  

  Yuri turned around, slowly, her back facing the faltered children.

 

  And looked up.

 

  Like a million waving hands thrashing lifelessly above, 

 

  Like a whale with no tail nor body, but a grotesquely wide mouth larger than the radius of the earth swarming up its one humongous gulp upon them all.

 

  Yuri could but stare., 

 

  She wanted to know.

 

  She wanted to see.

 

  She wanted to understand,

 

  

  of the world that has been devoured by this ever-starving beast.

  The sky slowly, sank in upon her.

…

………..

  “  Caesar ! ! ! !"

 Castiel’s voice boomed out of the speaker with Caesar gripped tightly with whitened knuckles.

  “ Caesar !! It's Coming !!”

  

  “ I know !”

  Caesar Skyman shouted back, pulling out the gears that had been stored close at hand in situations like this, a case he opened to reveal half a helmet, resembling more to a crown with wires protruding out of the circular sides.

 

  “ Caesar—!!!”

  Old Castiel hollered, but the young scientist’s thoughts were focused on the creation before him.

 

  He had never faced this amount of darkness coming toward his facility before.

 

  And the more he saw of the darkness closing in on all sides, a word flashed across his mind…

…. Infra-Sound……

  It is time. 

 

  It shall be done!

  The notes in his old notes, the simple words that stood out to him like an amazing grace, like a mantra of power, an answer to the equations of doom.

 

  The protocol that had been in his head for years since he established this facility, the process he reviewed every night before he dove to slumber, each step he would reenact in the back of his head any time his mind was at ease.

 

  He knew each step to fend off the Scourge like the back of his hand.

 

  Now just reviewing it again, steadily, step by step.

 

  The answer to deflect the pending destruction is carved deep into his nerves and muscle responses.

 

  He just has to do it. 

 

  Switching on the dials, turning on the engines, activating the crown within the case before him. With a hand outstretched, he remembered the other power that he had excavated and upgraded from his past, that too could repel said entity of demise—Sora.

  Answering his call, the Self-operating gauntlet armor flew up from the basement and attached to his hands firmly, humming and glowing with immense power and Light.

 

  Caesar is ready.

  With Infra-Sound… And Sora… This…this Swarm of Nano Scourge can be— 

 

  —annihilated!

 

  He had to do it now…Not now than never—

  “ CAESAR—!!!!!!”

…

………

  “ YURI ! ! ! !

  COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANCE ! ! ! !”

 

  Stunned by the sharp scalding cry, the children turned their heads, to see miss Claudia Celeste stomping her way toward them and the fence, shrieking angrily at the top of her lungs as she marched forward at full speed.

 

  “ How many times have I told you, 

 

  Never! Never! Never !!! 

 

  Get out of the fence ! ! ! !”

 

  The wind grew stronger, 

And their shadows began to fade.

 

  girls began to weep, begging Yuri to turn back.

 

   But Yuri, instead of heading back per the furious teacher’s say, stepped forward towards the coming storm of black ash.

 

   “ YURI !!!!!”

 Claudia Shouted again, as loud as ever, hurting her throat but still, she must. The children huddled all behind her now, seeking refuge and comfort which Claudia too now desperately needs.

 

  “ But… There's someone Out There, Sensei!!” Was all Yuri said, as she edged forth, into the storm, 

 

  Not turning back.

…

………

  Placing the crown of wires and electrical vines atop his head, one had he held up a button to release the defense mechanism he had invented and prepared for this moment, and the other, his armored hand, palm facing down placing atop the receiving end of the defense mechanism, the Infra-sound projector, that was seated on top of the school belfry, attached through the wires that were attached to his head and now his humming armored hand of luminance. 

 

  The clock on the edifice of the building opened, to reveal a proliferating dome facing outward, towards the Nano Scourge that drifts menacingly nearer the facility grounds.

 

  Caesar took a deep breath.

 

  His fingers upon the last switch.

 

  It is time.

  But before his fingers pressured down, a loud ear-piercing boom roared out of his coat pocket, and ruthlessly bombarded his eardrums, halting his actions as Caesar heard the gruff voice shout.

  “ CAESAR, STOOOOOP!!!!!!” 

  Gasping in horror did Caesar Skyman utterly realize that among all the technical steps that he had prepared and done right, 

 

  He missed the most pivotal step among them all.

  “ CAESAR!! THE CHILDREN!!!!!!” Old Castiel’s voice wouldn’t stop.

 “ WARN THE CHILDREN!!!! WARN THE CHILDREN FIRST!!! WITH THE BELLS!!!!!"

 

  It was all in his notes.

   

  Infrasound, as potent as it is to repel the demonic swarm of Nano Scourge, 

 

  It too, is as harmful to humans if without barrier protection.

  In a fit of rage and spur to exterminate the enemy, Caesar had nearly forgotten what his cause was.

 

  To protect the children!

 

  “ Thank you, Cas!”

  Caesar bade with utmost gratitude before quickly pressing a button on the side of his speakers.

  The bells, on top of the school belfry, 

 

  started to chime.

  Coming from behind the large old clock, as it echoed and hummed in deep choir, 

  Yuri stopped in her tracks and looked back up.

 

  The children also, all looked up, their gazes wide and clear, not of fear, not of trepidation.

 

  But of memory, of what they have learned, and trained for, of the most important lesson that was passed down to them years back when they first came to this school.

  Claudia looked around, noticing the change in the children’s morale, sturdier than before in but seconds time.

 

  “ The bells…. “

The children whispered to one another.

  “ The bells, it's time!”

The children nodded to each other firmly, their riveted gazes all upon Yuri now.

 

  “ YURI!!!”

  The children called out to her, who now faced them all, looking back at the children that awaited her call. For the start of the game—the Protocol.

  Yuri took a deep breath.

   “ EVERYONE ! ! ! 

 

  TIME TO PLAY———————— ! !

 

  HIDE AND SEEK ————— ! ! ! ! !”

  “ YEEEEEEEESSS———!!!!”

 

  Quickly the children scattered in all directions, vanishing behind objects, walls, playgrounds, and tunnels all,  any kind of construct that could conceal them they snug in at remarkable speed.

 

   Claudia was amazed, having heard of Caesar’s protocol many times but seeing it reenacting before her eyes for the first time. The children’s well-organized, quick precision to action in this routine, astonished the young astrologer much as she turned to check on Yuri———

 

   Who was gone.

 

   Hide and seek.

  That was when Claudia remembered, she too have to find a place to hide.

   “ Pss, miss Celeste~~”

  Claudia spun around but saw no one.

 

   “ …Over here~~~”

 The voice came from the thick cement tubes longitudinally lay at the playing ground which the children used as secret bases and resting places to chat during recess. Claudia hurriedly peered into one of the cement tubes and saw Neliya alongside other girls huddled within.

  “ Miss Celeste! You must hide too! Principal Caesar said everyone including the teachers must play Hide and Seek when the bells start chiming.”

     Neliya explained quickly.

 

   Without second thought of dirtying her skirt and velvet purple coat, Claudia squatted in and crawled into the tube with the children inside.

 

  “ Why do we have to play this game though?”

The girls huddled in the tunnel asked each other curiously.

  “ Is it really just to hide away from the monster in the sky?”

 

  “ It's to protect you,”

  Claudia answered gently, her expression dark yet hidden within the shadows of the cement construct.

  “ From what we do, to the dangers outside.”

 

  

…

………..

  

  Castiel checked the school parameter with his binoculars from his cabin window.

 

  No children in sight.

  Castiel waited for some seconds more until he replied to his speakers.

  “ All clear.”

 

  “ All clear.”

  Caesar Skyman repeated and activated it all, pressing his hand down as the armored palm began to emit light into the wires up to the machinery.

   Out of the opened school clock, the wave generator started its work. 

 

  The swarm of Nano Scourge crashed in above the school, its dark tentacles dancing about in an epileptic-like frenzy, nearing the machinery perched on top of the school edifice that uttered a low moan before it silenced abruptly.

 

  All turned silent.

 

  The bells above the generator shivered, but without sound.

 

  The whole school shook ever so slightly as if the world was blurred.

 

   Everything vibrated, on and on, 

 

   and on and on,

 

   And on and on and on…….

 

   Like an old documentary movie deprived of sound, old Castiel watched from his cabin window as the gigantic smog of pitch-black ash slowly fumbled the moment the shockwaves and blue beaming Light hit its formless husk, dispersing it like the wind across the sands, blowing the black Nano particles away, scattering each spec off their bonds, its whole black mass vibrating with the invisible force as the tentacles stiffened to a seizure before shattering under the wind, vanishing slowly to the night. 

 

  Evaporating the Scourge off the face of the earth, 

  Temporarily.

  

  The lights on the fence lit up minutes later, signifying the coming of the night and the subsiding of the emergency. Caesar Skyman's voice could be heard around the facility, echoing aloud.

 

   “ Fellow Teachers, students, the Scourge is over. For safety measures, please stay where you are for at least five more minutes. Roll call will commence in ten minutes at the school grounds, I repeat……”

   Slumping back to his seat, Caesar Skyman sighed in relief, yanking the wired crown-shaped device of his messy hair before he massaged the temple of his head, to soothe the pain throbbing from inside his brain.

 

  The humming still in his head.

 

  And also, the news of the happenings over at Solar Industries…

  The sky cleared, and the Stars started to shine.

 

  The air was pristine once again as if the land was revived from its moribund fate for a short moment.

 

  Five minutes precisely after, Claudia crawled out from the cement tube and came to the center of the school clearing.

  “ Alright, Everyone,” Claudia called out to the children emerging out of their hideouts, circling his sight to make sure all of them were present.

 

  “ Roll Call !!——— Lucky !!”

 

  “ Here!”

 

  “ Neo!”

 “ Here!”

 

 “ Rio!”

 “ Heyoh!”

 

 “ Feira! Finnir!”

 “ Here!”

 “ Here…”

 

 “ Neliya!”

 “ He...Here…!”

 

 “ Kai !”

 “ Here.”

 

 “ Vernui!”

 “ ...Here!”

…

…

………

……………..

  Then the last came was called.

  “ ——— Yuri——— !”

    No response.

  “ ——— Yuri——— !”

 

  “ Yuriー?” The children called also, their voices echoing across the school grounds, in search, in longing.

 

  “ Yuriー!”

 

  “ Yuri〜!”

 

  “ Yuri—”

 

  “ Yuri—?!”

 

  “ Yuri-! Where are you?!”

 

  “ Yuri—?”

  “ YURI! ! ! !”

  “ HE———RE———!!!!!!!”

  From the dust, the fog, and debris, a small hand waved, her silhouette under the lamp lights slowly cleared.

 

  Claudia stared, tears around the edge of her eyes, as the dust slowly cleared.

 

  There, by Yuri's side, Claudia could clearly see someone else, coming towards them.

 

  The children too were shocked and astonished in silence.

 

  Yuri beamed to all at the other side of the fence, her one hand pulling the figure behind her who shivered, hiding behind Yuri's back.

 

  “ It's okay, come on,”

  Yuri whispered gently to the one behind her.

  “ They are nice. Come, say hello to everyone!”

 

  “ Yuri..!”

  Claudia asked, opening the gates, her voice stern but shaking, afraid of who or what it might be that was behind Yuri.

  “ Who is behind you…?”

 

  The figure behind Yuri gave a jolt and hid deeper behind, shivering and too afraid to face their wide curious daunting eyes. Firmly, holding the shivering child's hand in hers, gripping it tightly as she lead the one forward to all the curious souls, Yuri smiled back at her classmates and teacher, and answered, loud and clear.

“ —————Her name is Lima! Everyone!”

  Her Name Is Lima.

 Walked out slowly, her twin light violet ponytails swinging freely with the night breeze, her golden pupils dazzling uncertainty, darting left to right under the lamp lights; Her hand held tightly to Yuri's, though shaking, but the grip firm.

  Those beautiful Golden eyes, looking back at the crowd innocently, teary, her lips twitching but chose to remain silent. Finally, resorting to looking down at the sand, the new girl was too shy to look back up again.

  Claudia sighed in relief, seeing it was a human child, and smiled, approaching slowly to the frightened child’s presence.

 

  “ .... Lima.”

  Claudia called out in her tender compassionate cadence.

  

  Lima looked up at her blankly, not knowing what to say, how to respond.

  Knowing what miss Celeste had in mind, Yuri quickly whispered to the dumbfounded girl’s ear.

  “ Lima, when the teacher calls your name, you must reply loudly 'Here!'. Like we all did, remember?”

 

  Realizing at once, yet hesitant, looking back at them all standing under the light, their kind compassionate expressions meant one thing to her. 

 

  She is safe now.

 

  Taking one trembling deep breath, the new child answered, timidly, as loud as she could with her shaky voice. 

 

  One sound, to remind her that she still exists. 

 

  She is.

  “ H...H...He...HE...——HERE! ! !”

  And the children awed, cheering and clapping as Yuri hugged her from behind, welcoming her to the large family with warm embraces.

  “ Nice to meet you, Lima.”

  Claudia led the two children back from the other side as the whole pack looked at Lima up and down curiously, asking tons of questions that the overwhelmed newcomer could but nod and whisper in short terse words.

  “ Oh my! What is that?!"

Asked Lucky, pointing at something sparkling near Lima’s chest, to which Lima sprang back asudden, terrified, hugging the sparkling ornament close to her, shielding it from the startled children.

  “ It's…it’s beautiful…” Lucky commented, not expecting such a big reaction from the golden-eyed girl, as everyone else.

  “ Sorry…if we scared you.” the children apologized sincerely, backing a few steps away to give Lima space.

 

  “ Alright, children, it’s time to rest.” Claudia announced to all as she led the silent children, hand in hand, Yuri holding Lima’s, as they headed back to the school building, the run-down slanting establishment. Across the exterior were but shattered windows none intact; crooked wooden planks nailed upon the floors of the corridors to seal only half of the jarring holes; lights that flicker without stable electricity.

 

  Yet still, the children here seemed to have smiles of joy always on their faces.

 

  The glitter of hope radiating out of their eyes. 

  To which Lima slowly understood.

 

  They meant no harm. They were the same, they were like her. 

 

  Small, young, scared, curious, 

 

  longing.

  “ Wa…Wait!”

  Claudia and the school of children stopped and turned around in surprise.

 

  Never would they expect this timid new child to have such a bright powerful voice.

  “ I…I am Lima…! I come from Solar…Industries! But it is…I ran away, and came here…and found you…….Wha, what I meant to say is—

 

  —Thank you, for Having Me…everyone…!!”

  So low a bow from the lost child that has finally found a new home to stay, around warming hearts and kind souls that welcomed her to their warm embrace.

 

  The children’s cordiality, 

 

  and their bright hopeful spirits, 

  like Stars in Lima’s eyes.

 

  

  

…

………

 

   

  Not long after dinner, Claudia sought out Caesar who was silently brooding in the corner of his lab, sitting before his messy operating desk instead of his office across the corridor.

 

  “ Caesar…” 

 

  Through the young man’s grave ashen expression, Claudia knew that he had known of the truth.

 

  Solar Industries has fallen.

 

  The last pillar supporting the revival of humanity and civilization, has crumbled. Networks have stopped working, and resources, likely all been demolished.

 

  The age of man, nearing its end.

  “ …Does Castiel know?” Claudia asked, having heard of the old janitor speaking proudly of his daughter’s exploits in the industry.

 

  “ …He is listening to the mail.” Caesar replied shortly, unable to elaborate anymore.

 

  Till then did Claudia realize the muffled sounds from within his office, behind the shut wooden doors, were the sobbing of the old man.

  Silence, enveloped the lab like the air turned solid.

  “ That child…”

  Caesar Skyman spoke in a weak sigh, frowning at the utensils scattered upon his desk with his elbow leaning down, pressing the temple of his head with his fingers still to ease the humming pain.

  “ Is she… contaminated…?”

 

  “ No,” Claudia replied, her voice clear, sounding with inner strength.

“ She is physically stable, gravely traumatized. But…Caesar, there is something, something that needs to be done that Solar Industries has fallen...”

 

  “ What are you talking about…?!” Caesar immediately knew what Claudia was trying to say, but his fears rejected the thought.

  

  “ …We have to get That Project back on track.” Claudia exclaimed, adamantly.

 

  Caesar was at a loss.

 

  “ No…” Caesar turned away from his rotating seat, his voice shaking.

  “ There is no more project—”

 

  But with her hands she swung him back to face her aggressively, towering her shadow upon his darkened countenance.

  “ You know pretty well that project is still there, Caesar.” Claudia leaned forward, both hands pressed onto the sitting young inventor’s wrists.

  “ It’s why I am here in the first place. Solar Industries have been collaborating with you because of that one reason, sending me here to make sure this place is secured, and She is safe. They let Her stay here because they trusted you in case this day would come, Caesar, and I trust you too! You built an armor that could withstand the Nano corruption! You have the knowledge and the power to do it, to protect everyone, and restore Humanity!!”

 

  “ I can’t! I tried, Claudia! And that Project has failed! Millions of times!” Caesar volleyed back aloud, denying Claudia’s claim.

 

  “ Failing doesn’t mean it is time to give up.” Claudia pressed on, with all her effort to persuade him.

  “ You are an inventor, certainly you understand failure is never a thing to halt progression.

 I know you have been doing your best to protect Her, starting this whole school, trying to crack the code…continuing Your Mentor’s Legacy…Here, Right, Here! We are the only ones that could finish it now!”

 

  But Caesar Skyman shook his head dismally.

  “ Claudia, I’ve tried. I really have. I may be able to build this suit of Light, but…My Mentor’s secrets…They are beyond me! They are beyond even her own daughter! I just can’t…I used everything I could get but I—”

 

  “ Not yet.”

 

  Leaning down, their faces an inch apart, staring deeply into each other’s souls, reflecting their ideals through the spark of their pupils.

 

  “ You haven’t used everything…Yet. Solar Industries have been looking into the documents, blueprints, everything She has left behind as well. And I am going to get them for you— the Things you need, are in Solar Industries.”

 

  “ Wha—” Before Caesar could react, Claudia had let go, heading out of the lab.

 

  Caesar raced after her down the corridors as fast as his fumbling legs could take him, grabbing her by the hand to stop her midway.

 

  “ Claudia, I can’t let you go back!!” 

 

  “ I have to. I know where the Equations and blueprints are stored.”

 

  “ Then tell me, and I’ll get it!” 

 

  “ Caesar, let go—”

  “ Stop, both of you.”

  The two young scientists halted mid-stance as the burly figure of the old janitor stood steps away from them, out of the office foyer and in the middle of the corridor, looking at them both with red swollen eyes.

  “ Claudia, you should stay.” Old Castiel spoke at length.

“ Caesar, we are setting off before dawn. Get your things ready, and bring your metal arm with you.”

  Turning away after giving the orders like a Captain, the old janitor, once general of the air force turned away to pack his things for the mission.

 

  The young couple stared at the old captain’s leave, speechless.

…

……..

 

  Saturday / less cloudy, half sky

 

  We waited for the sun to rise.

 

  Where the skies were still dark over the industry.

 

  We were lucky.

  We always were.

  Reminding us of the luck we have cost,

 

  And how less remained.

 

 

  Solar Industries was our last hope to build a new home,

  Outside our atmosphere.

 

  They had numerous headquarters all over the globe, 

 

  None of them remained.

 

  The truck came to a halt, before the shattered gates that swung along the wind.

 

  Sound itself, died.

 

  “ Go on, Cas.” Caesar whispered, holding the detectors high. To his surprise, the signals were weak, contradicting the dark cloud lurking above. Are those just residues? Has the main Scourge left?

  Better safe than sorry, Caesar thought, putting on the SORA gauntlet upon his right arm along with the anti-Nano gears all over himself, clad in robust armor fused with all kinds of creations from other universes, like a hybrid of all the machinery that has ever existed and clambered together to form this one hulking suit.

 

  They drove down what should have been a wide clan boulevard, now but cracks of cement spread across powdered sand. The foundations and outlooks of what should have been a glorious citadel of bleeding edge technology, now but empty long husks of walls and leftover scaffolding like skeletons of a dead giant.

 

  “ Caesar, look!” 

 

  Castiel’s uttered whisper pulled Caesar’s gaze back from the hollow obelisks to the wrecked low-tiered buildings near the barged entrance.

  Following the old man’s fingers, Caesar saw through the shattered window panes of the pale tainted apartments within were wide empty classrooms filled with tumbled desks and shattered seats. The broken blackboards hanging on one side of the wall gave it away.

 

  They had a school too, in Solar Industry Headquarters.

 

  It should not have come as a surprise to where the new child came from yesterday, but something else bothered him more.

 

  Where are the children? 

 

  Where is everyone?

 

  Where is the Nano enemy?!

  As his mind convoluted among the mysteries of the fall of the company, His body swung forward with a jolt by the halting of the truck that abruptly skidded to a sudden break.

 

  “ Cas?!” Caesar spun around to check if the old janitor had got a stroke, and it sure looked like the old man had one, stuttering with his mouth ajar, eyes wide with his pupils constricting, pointing with a shaking finger at the horrifying scene before his eyes.

  Raising his armored hand to repel the Entity, Caesar glanced at the front of the truck to see nothing. No enemy, no dark tentacles. Nothing.

 

  Just the dust and sand cloaking the floors of the establishment, lumps of dirt or rocks situated across here and there. Wait…Caesar Skyman leaned forward for a better look. What seemed like bulges and small mounds of sand, all having shapes of similar form, one that sent chills up the young scientist’s spine.

  Caesar’s mouth dropped low, uttering a toneless gasp.

  Men, 

 

  Women,  

 

  Children, 

 

  

  The faces pale, innocent, pure, and peaceful

 

  No wounds, no pain.

 

  No hope.

  Feeling his stomach churning, flipping inside out inside of him, Caesar quickly blocked his mouth and turned away from the scene.

  Old Castiel just stared, mortified by the truth.

 

  “ …The Nano Scourge didn’t take them…” the old man stuttered, tears rolling down his cheeks.

  “ Their own weapons…Their defenses…Infra-sound…Took them…Oh Lord…”

  groaning into silent sobs, Caesar let the old man have his moment of silence, fighting back the surge back down his throat.

 

  Infrasound, or some may refer to as low-status sound, are sound waves of frequencies lower than 20 Hz, sounds that cannot be heard, but felt. Signs of nausea and nerve reactions have been documented early before its development, and it was only when researchers discover their affinity to vibrate at similar frequencies as the Nano Midst, shattering the swarm of the ultimate enemy did they start to produce and weaponize these infrasonic waves, only to realize too late that these same sound waves, also shatter the organs of living beings, of Humans.

 

  A double-edged sword, Caesar remembers his mentor reminding him of the uses of the weapon, one that should not be used wantonly.

 

  But there is not much option against this formless, invasive, devastating enemy, is there? Unless...Caesar looked down at his armored hand, the blue glow beaming into his eyes. 

 

  If there is time he could advance this armor, duplicate this tech, this Light, in time…!

  Looking back up after the shutting of the truck doors, Caesar watched as the old janitor went forth, to one of the motionless bodies, caressing the hair of the child, closing her lifeless gaze.

 “ We have to bury them.”

  Old Castiel spoke, straining his anger and sorrow. 

  “ To rest their souls…”

 

  Caesar silently agreed, stepping out of the truck before covering his head under the round heavy loaded helmet, and marched forward in his chunky engined suit into the dilapidated headquarters.

  Checking the map of the facility on the neon screen projected upon his murky visor, Caesar recalled the first time he had set foot on this establishment at its prime. He remembered his mentor introducing him to all the benign scientists here that are giants in their respective fields, professors, and pioneers that sought to bring Earth back to its glory with the cutting-edge technologies that still remained at their disposal.

 

  Now but dirt and rubble.

 

  Down the dark corridors, bodies lay scattered across, piling among one another in heaps of motionless carcasses. Caesar wished he had company, aching to ask if Castiel could join him on his trails, but fearing the scene and the fact that his daughter lies among them might break the old man, Caesar dragged onward, focusing his gaze upwards at the path before him, his heavy steps quickening but unable to accelerate due to the crushing weight of all his defensive gears upon him. If there is a way to decrease the mass of the armor…

 

  

  Making sure that the detectors caught no sign of Nano infiltration, Caesar yanked the metal doors open, revealing a pitch-black room stacked with metal shelves lined up row after row to no end. 

  It should be here, in this data storage…Caesar mused as he quickly moved forth in soft steps, aiming his feet to not step on the bodies lying across the dark floor, ultimately leading his foot to accidentally kick the side of the shelves, the clanking of metal echoing across the room. 

  Gosh darn it, Caesar cursed, pointing the Sora armored palm left to right hastily, fearing the Enemy would assault out of the shadows while he wasn’t looking.

 

  The blue glow only made the horrible truth more evident to his already dreaded senses.

 

  Surrounding him across the floor, were countless human forms, mangled in their final pose of struggle.

 

  His blood turning cold, Caesar pondered if he should just run for it, crash through all the obstacles, get the data and rush back out. 

  Not a great plan, Caesar stopped himself, deducting his loud incursions might summon the Nano smog somehow and he would never be able to outrun anything in this suit of armor.

  Sliding steps ahead with his side edging forward, the young scientist managed to squeeze his way through, to the depth of the data storage engine situated at the far back the size of five bookshelves lined up end to end leaned across the wall. One prominent screen squared the middle, like the rest of the buttons and electronics alongside it, all dark without a power supply.

 

  Claudia had expected the storage device to be either pulverized or deprived of power sources and suggested he prepare his own devices there to retrieve the data, luckily, the system controls were intact, and batteries Caesar had in the form of his designed arm. Attaching additional wires from the armored hand to the computer storage, Caesar activated the glow upon his armored palm and immediately, the storaging device flickered and the buttons dazzled with life. Well, that worked, Caesar thought, as he started to replicate all the data, all of his past Mentor’s works stored within the device through the wires back Sora.

 

  But only when he believed his mission was about to succeed, a faint whimper did his ears locate right next to his presence.

  Heart sinking, dread like knots strangling his insides, 

 

  Caesar felt time stop all around him, save for the sobbing of children coming from the left side of the pitch-black room.

 

  “ …He…Hello?” Caesar awkwardly, terrified by the situation he is now in.

 

  It’s a person, a child! 

 

  A living child! Sobbing for attention, begging for help—

 

  —wait.

 

  Putting his fears aside, Caesar sensed how surreal the circumstances were before him. Is it…a trap…?! Pieces of evidence of the Nano Scourge exhibiting human behavior have long been proven and he himself is a staunch believer of the Nano Enemy being more than just a lifeless threat, but evolving to sentience. 

  Can it be…a scheme to lure him to his demise..?!

 

  Raising his sensors in the direction of the sobs, Caesar activated a scanning search.

 

  Results returned immediately, into computerized sentences popping out of his visor screen.

  [Heartbeat Detected]

 

  

  …The child is alive???

 

  Having his fears get the best of him yet again, Caesar quickly prolonged his wires to set foot towards the left side to save this poor child who might be at the verge of death stranded in this hellish darkness waiting for help.

 

  “ Hello!!! Can you hear me!!” Caesar shouted frantically, stomping forth to the left side of the narrow storage room, flashing the lights above his helmet around the wall.

 

  There, two bodies were, two young girls, closely interlocked in a tight embrace, one kneeling idly with her back facing Caesar, and the other, squirming, trembling, curled within her sister’s arms.

 

  The sobbing, grew louder the nearer Caesar was.

 

  “ It’s…it’s alright…! I’ll get you out of here…!” Caesar breathed, panting just by rushing to the side under the weight of his handcrafted armor. With his left free arm, Caesar gently pulled the deceased sister away, yet her stiff arms clinged relentlessly.

 

  “ Rest…my child…” Caesar begged, sweat sliding into the edge of his eyes, forcing the tears out easier than before.

  “ You are free…rest now…”

 

  The sister let go.

 

  And Caesar quickly reached out his hand, to the huddled trembling child shrieking in terror the moment Caesar pulled her sister away.

 

  That was when Caesar saw, 

 

  the younger sister, thin and emaciated, cringing within her sister's embrace in the dark,

  Was missing a hand.

 

  Her right arm, ending at a ripped orifice, dripping viscous liquid, tackier and darker than crimson blood Caesar thought he knew well about.

 

  And he was sure, under the lights shafted down atop his helm, 

 

  The child’s blood was pure Black.

  Stepping one step back, Caesar panicked, for something else popped up of his visor screen that halted his every move.

  [Nano Residue Detected]

  

  Shit. Caesar quickly pulled up the armored gauntlet to defend himself, only to realize he had attached all the wires to the data storage device to the wall, unable to defend himself.

 

  “ ……stop……”

 

  Among the sobs, Caesar could finally make out that one word from the child, and another.

 

  “ …Don't...take...my sister...away from...me.......!”

  The hand, 

 

  The dark hand, 

 

  desperately, grasping.

 

  Lo, dark liquid tentacles burst out from the orifice where the younger sister's missing arm should have been, snaking out all at once, coiling everything in its wake, her sister, the shelves, Caesar, and all.

  Capturing everything within Dark matter.

 

  At the end of his struggles, Caesar saw nothing but darkness, his failures flashing before him, none as jarring as the current one which he forgot that Nano Entities have been reported to adhere into sentient hosts, snatching their will to serve their bidding. The child was alive, but polluted, corrupted.

 

  But even so…Caesar pushed the tentacles off his right arm, the hand on which Sora shielded, letting all the darkness swallow him instead.

 

  Somehow…the data, the Secrets, the blueprints of the future, his Mentor’s hopes and dreams—they must live on!!!!

  Before he was about to eject the wired hand gear off himself, his body felt a new vibrating sensation, an upcoming surge of stinging force that ensued quickly into loud buzzing howls, waves so strong that seemed to become visible in the dark shattering the ebony tentacles whole as the corrupted child screamed within the tormenting infrasound bursts.

  Caesar felt the tightening grabs loosen as the Darkness crawled up to the ceiling like a spider provoked, skittering away to the shadows only to be addressed by another stream of shock waves spuing out of the metallic hose of an Infrasound wave gun loaded onto Old Castiel’s back, earmuffs over his ears.

 

  “ BE GONE WITH THEE!!!!” Castiel shouted with tantamount wrath, spurring all the humming and buzzing across the storage room, blowing everything aside, rocking the compartment tremendously, ushering the metal shelves and the fallen bodies to the side with such force at the same time.

 

  “ Caesar, Go!!” Castiel shouted, pinning the squirming corrupted child and its Nano smog onto the wall with the nonstop thundering waves.

 

  “ I can’t!!!!” Caesar shouted back, relieved that his helmet shielded his ears from the detrimental wave attacks.

  78%, just a few minutes left of transmission.

 

  “ I need more time!!” 

 

  With the earmuffs and his declining hearing, Castiel didn’t hear the young man’s shouts.

 

  “ TIME!!!!!!” Caesar shouted again at the top of his lungs, pointing at the back of his left wrist, motioning a gesture of a watch to indicate the need for more time.

 

  “ Huh?!?! Caesar Are you deaf?!?! I told you to RUN!!!!!” Castiel growled one more time before the whole Solar Industry Headquarters shuddered with a violent jolt, knocking both Caesar and Castiel to the ground.

 

  The wave stream teetered and pointed away from the Dark Entities as the tentacles shot out from all sides at the next instance, like a million hands pulling the whole wide establishment down into the abyss.

  Caesar felt the ground sinking and the ceiling caving in.

 

  84%. Faster, Caesar prayed, turning on his left arm wave shield to repel the grasping darkness to little effect.

 

  Old Castiel, with his courage and affability of a military general he had never discarded from his soul, roared triumphantly as he restanced his poise and shot out overpowering waves at all the Nano tentacles bursting out at him. Yet his wave shotgun, pointing one direction at a time, was soon overwhelmed by the swarming tentacles all-out attack, dragging Castiel into the deep.

 

  “ Cas!!!!” Caesar screamed, reaching out his left hand as soon as possible, only to see the old man vanish into the dark.

  And soon he will too.

 

  92%.

 

  No more time. NO MORE TIME—————————

  With one tenacious cry, Caesar pulled the wires off the Sora gauntlet, activating it fully to its grand extent, lighting the room, lighting the whole compound in a ball of blue light. The world hummed alongside his glowing armored hand.

 

  Darkness screeched and cowed, dancing furiously about, piercing forth only to vanish the nearer they reach Caesar’s illuminating presence.

 

  “ Be gone…” Caesar hissed furiously, filled with anger and hatred towards all the massacre and torment the Nano midst has inflicted upon humanity.

 

  “ Be Gone…BE GONE, ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!” 

 

  With a tremendous smash onto the ground, sending shockwave after shockwave of blue rings of sheer Light slicing through the thrashing tentacles, the grasping hands, the vengeful entities, eliminating all of Dark in that one fell bloom of nothing but

 

  Light.

  When Caesar came to once again, all he felt were the searing hot steam enveloping all over him within his yet humming armor that was hardly intact, about to crumble to pieces if he made the slightest of movement. Yanking off his helmet, letting the lights of the orange-red setting sunbeam in through the shattered walls to his eyes, as the dark silhouette of the old janitor stood, battle-ravaged before him, facing the side, looking down at the smoking black pulverized storage device across the wall.

 

  The rest of his Mentor’s secrets, no more.

  “ …Did you get it?” Castiel asked after a long silence.

  92%.

  “ …Yeah…” Caesar sighed, leaning back to the remaining wall of the blown-up room.

“ It’s stored in Sora’s USB hardware…”

 

  The two men, resting their senses, speechless for long.

 

  “ …Ready to go?” 

 

  “ …sure…” Caesar grabbed hold of the old janitor’s arm, climbing back up to his feet when he saw a faint glow through the edge of his eye.

 

  Stopping his steps inadvertently, with his eyes staring at the weak luminesce before his eyes, bending down to the floor to have a closer look.

  “ …….Cas…?!”

  The old man turned around.

  “ Need some help here…”

  There, within the first child, the older of the sisters entwined in heartwrenching embrace, 

 

  was a slight yet steadying glow, 

 

  beating accordingly, to her weak heartbeat.

…

…………

  “ Beer?” 

 

  Caesar looked up as he closed the iron doors to the warehouse, where his real lab situated underneath.

 

  In the old man’s hand, were two cans of iced beer of an ancient brand. Those were the dwindling last cans stored in their flimsy fridge, saved for ceremonious events, times of celebration. Though the moment may not be one to call for a drink, Caesar agreed to the offer, craving to have a short escape from all that had happened, and will happen later on.

 

  “ Sure.”

 

  Caesar Skyman never liked any kind of booze, but right now, letting in the bitter stuffy foam and cold sparkling liquid drain down his throat, sure did help relieve him from all stress and trauma.

 

  The stars, twinkling in thousands, alongside the stardusts and galaxies, among the milky ways and universes, lighting a path ahead that was too obscure to read, and could just be admired.

  “ Tell me, Caesar.”

  The old janitor asked after downing half his beer and burped.

  “ Will we win ?”

 

  Caesar looked at the old man, wondering if it was a drunk question or a sensible argument.

  “ Win or lose… we still need to survive.”

  Caesar replied, stirring his eyes onto the thousand stars.

 

   “ Well said…well said…"

  Old Castiel mumbled dreamily, while Caesar thought of a way to comfort his old friend from the grief of the passing of his daughter. But before the young man could come up with words of comfort, the old man began with things like—

 

  “ Caesar, you see… the universe, turning to its own rules——

—Logos. With the Logos, the Grand Order of all things, The universe will still be moving, even after we were all gone. Time will still go on, when there is nothing left to grow…Is there time then?

  Even after our lifetime,

 

  And the children's lifetime,

 

  After…all existence......when all is meant to be, to abide by the greater Power…is there, supposed to be something to struggle for…?”

 

  Castiel gazed at young Caesar seriously in the eyes, the old man’s stare watery.

  “ What defines existence? How do we define survival, Caesar? Is there.... a way to Surpass Life, and Death. To be Beyond?"

 

  “ Cas, you're…”

  “ No. Think about it, Caesar.” the old man denied his drunken state quickly with more words of esoteric meaning.

  “ Somewhere out there, there is a form of life existing in a way unlike ours, through another way of Being. A different… Life, the question is… how does it exist?”

  Caesar could not follow, but the old man continued.

  “ It doesn't live. Because to them, 'Living' is not the only way to 'Survive'.

 Somewhere, out in the vast universe, a world in another dimension with life, but unlike our 'Living form', it's... Somewhat... To Exist without the concept of life, but still a way to Be...

..... How, Caesar... How…? How can I Live…when my existence, my purpose in Life…is no more…Caesar…?”

 

  Forcing his tears back, Caesar cleared his throat to sound natural to answer his friend’s questions.

 

  “ To remember….Cas.” Caesar managed to reply.

“ To remember, always put them close in our hearts…so that through us, They, All of them, existed. It is only through us that they can exist beyond living and forever be…It is through memory…Memory…Cas. Memory.”

 

  Existing, and surpassing life and death, 

 

  is to be remembered, by those you dear.

  With that in mind, Caesar helped carry the old drunk crying janitor back to his cabin and watched him douse into snoring slumber. Caesar too, in his swirling thoughts and drunken stupor, dragged his own body atop those wobbly legs up to his lab, to continue his unfinished works.

  He came across a dim light at the end of the corridor where the children's bedrooms were, with the sounds of a minor commotion echoing down the hallway to his already buzzing ears. following the sounds, Caesar finally made out what the commotion was. It was the girl, the newcomer, the one survivor called Lima, crying sadly among the gathered children, all trying their best to soothe her desperation.

 

  Must have been she remembered, Caesar made a peak inside as he wondered.

 

  Memories of the lost…to remember the sorrows and the trauma. It is not all blessings. But also…a Curse.

 

  There Caesar saw Claudia there surrounded by the children, as she hugged Lima close, caressing those light purple long hair as she sat in the middle of the room, trembling candlelights waving their shadows upon the classroom walls, shining the glows in their eyes.     

  Caesar stood back, focusing on Claudia’s gentle gaze, though uneasiness of the future did the candlelights reflect, there also was courage, and determination to live on and protect, to be a beacon that the children could look upon with hope. 

  

  Yet, from what he had encountered earlier that day, Caesar didn’t find it hard to imagine that this young girl, this sole survivor, must have faced tremendous terror gravely more than she could ever process, of her school destroyed, classmates perishing before her eyes… things that would traumatize any person if they were faced the same. No matter what Claudia whispered, how many caresses she gives, the girl remained sobbing desperately, tears like streams flowing uncontrollably, wetting her pajamas.

  

  Nothing could possibly erase those wounded memories. Nothing could, not even time. Caesar thought before his ears were met, with the voices, melodious humming that instantly halted the girl’s sobs, 

 

  And soothed the throbbing within his buzzing head, erasing the constant noises and clearing it all with but simple 

 

  Song.

  “ Close your eyes —————

 

     Don't you cry —————

 

     Let the Sorrow within you subside——

 

     Don't despair ————

 

     Have no fear ————————

 

     Give the weight to me when you hear———

    —This Lullaby ———”

  Without himself knowing, Caesar found himself legs bent to a kneel, on his knees outside the classroom, tears nonstop as his heart in echo to Claudia and the children’s singing chorus, to comfort the crying child, and rest his trepidations and fears of tomorrow.

 

  Hand in hand, together circling among the dim lights of candles, the children followed Claudia’s song, singing together, in healing, in comfort.

 

  In reconciliation, in forgiveness towards oneself.

 

  “ Close your eyes——

 

     Don't you cry——

 

     Let the Darkness within you feel Light—

 

     Don't despair——

 

     Have no fear——

 

    You'll find comfort in me ——

    —with this Lullaby————

  ———This Lullaby——

“  ——— Close your eyes———”

  Footsteps.

 

  Went further away from the classroom, walking down into the dark,

  Wait, 

 

  one child sitting nearby the wall thought.

 

  Walking past her friends, new and old,

 

  Passing by the teacher and out of the classroom secretly,

 

  out of the candle lights’ reach,

 

  Only to follow the footsteps.

 

  Down the corridors, stairs, 

 

  across the yard,

 

  Where the rock was.

 

  But the rock was moved to a side,

 

  A doorway with a flight of stairs leading down, 

 

  down to the abyss, 

 

  where Light seemed to glow beneath.

  “ Hello ?”

 

  The child called, nearing the depth, 

 

  nearing the light, until she saw them.

 

  Swimming, floating, grasping, whispering,

 

  Glowing, in answer.

  There, 

 

  Headmaster Skyman stood before a million screens,

 

  of floating grasping Light,

 

  of a world full of flying ships with cannons,

  

  of Armored Beings, shining like Stars,

 

  and Blueprints, many many Blueprints over the screens on the wall,

 

  All of one place, The Place,

  The Land of Light,

  The Herunis Carna———

  “ No...Yuri, what are you doing here ?!

  You are not supposed to be here !! Yuri !!”

 

  Light, swimming in wide jars,

 

  Grasping the glass walls with its floating tentacles,

 

  Alongside naked dead children behind the glass vaults.

 

  “ Yuri....!!”

 

  “ I…I am sorry......!!”

  Yuri stepped back terrified by what she saw, of the flying ships, cannons, armored beings, blueprints, The place—

 

  And Light moved back with her, gathering to her, 

 

  looming all around her.

 

  She could hear the voices in the Light,

 

  The voices of those soft, swimming Light behind glass

 

  Calling to her—

 

  “ YURI ————”

 

  Closer, and closer.

 

  Swimming towards her.

  “ YURI ———! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !”

 

...

.......

.................

 

  Yuri thought it was her alarm clock ringing, reminding her of the morning training that she usually was late to.

 

  …Must wake up.... Or Commander Firren will.....

 

  …Wait...

 

  

  Yuri looked closely at her surroundings.

 

  This wasn't her room.

 

  Looking sideways, Yuri blinked hard, looking at the bed she now lay, one that was of the softest beds she had ever slept upon among all her memories, her remaining memories. 

  Turning to the window larger than the one in her room among the Betelgeuse ship, now situated next to her, Yuri expect to see the dry lands or abandoned hollow buildings scattered across the rocky desert, 

 

  Yet her eyes beheld shimmering silver skylines of sharp piercing towers, jets, droids, and sky pods dashing through the air amongst the dazzling horizons of endless obelisks and monuments.

 

  A City sitting among the clouds. 

  

  Underneath, streets lined with golden tiles extended and winding to no end; bridges reaching afar held up by steel strings leading to all sides, all coming from one particular mountain, the gathering of protruding turrets supporting the one main edifice touching the heavens in the middle.

  And all over the city, on the streets, in the air, everywhere, 

 

  were Starbreakers, of all shapes and sizes, of all kinds of peculiar armor and many colors, 

 

  residing in this grand Utopia of 

 

  Light.

 

  A world beyond her imaginations, always only spoken and mentioned by Firren and Reina as the Capital, now, before her own eyes.

 

  The Citadel of StarBreakers,

 

  The Capital of The skies,

 

  Sky World.

 

 

  Yuri stirred up, leaning close to the window to feast all the glory and triumph of the Magnanimous Powerful Capital of Light into her eyes, only to be stopped by a sudden stinging pain upon her arm.

 

  “ Ouch…!”

 

  That was when Yuri saw a thin tube patched upon bandages hung in front of her eyes, where they were attached into her veins a moment ago, now accidentally ripped off and a dew of light blood popped out of her skin slowly and flew to the wall straight in front of her bed.

 

  Yuri blinked, hard, surprised by how the drop of Light blood defied the natural rules of All-things-fall-down rule according to Grandpapa Bradson’s teachings and flew straight forward instead. As she wondered, More drops of light blood started dripping out of the minuscule wound dot, into a thin streak of light blood that went on flying straight to the other end of the room, dirtying the pallid wall on the opposite side.

  And the tubes too,  that were once hanging down close to her face, now started to dangle upwards, pointing forward as the drops of Light-blood went.

 

  What is happening?? Yuri looked around, startled by her surroundings, and decided to jump off of the bed, when her body, her waist, and ankles, were pulled back onto the bed in a sitting pose. Yuri threw the quilt off, which also glided onto the wall before her, to reveal to her utter shock, her waist and legs, cuffed to the bed by restraining devices wrought of Starbreaker steel!

 

  And shocking her most, were the towers and turrets all over the city outside her window, 

 

  All started to tilt to a side.

 

  Sky world is teetering, colliding, collapsing—

 — No.

  Yuri quickly adjusted her spacial cognition and came to a confounded realization.

 

  It was her bed, the place she was in, the whole room she was trapped within onto the bed, that was tilting.

 

  Adding more travesty to the confusing circumstances, the alarms, ringing madly, all started to cry out in monotonous haste, stating—

  “ ATTENTION! !”

  “ ATTENTION, STARBREAKERS! !”

 

  “ SKYWORLD IS UNDER ATTACK ! ! !”

 

  “ REPEAT,  ALL STARBREAKERS, SKYWORLD IS UNDER ATTACK ! !

   TO COMBAT POSITION IMMEDIATELY ———! ! ! ! !”

  Mustering all her strength to her body, Yuri pulled, heaved, and yanked as her world slanted nearly upside down.

 

  Her muscles tensing, Yuri made one last effort to escape which she suddenly could not.

 

  Her powers, her senses, her consciousness, all negated and failing, 

 

  before that one piercing pain erupting all of a sudden, deep down inside of her.

  Her world flipped, upside down.

 

[.............To be continued]

 

 

Art source: https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/102230037