Chapter 2

A vibrant orange hue blanketed the sky above, the city aflame below.

Rubble scattered around the city made it difficult to wander the streets. Regardless, I kept pushing forward. Though, I didn’t necessarily have much of a plan.

Waking up, I just had this sudden drive, and it gave me this sort of urgency. And with Sora filling me in on our current situation it only made that drive all the more powerful. But what was I longing to accomplish? The more I walked, the less I understood what was driving me. Was it to defeat an Original? That seemed like the most logical answer.

“Kanade? Is that you!” A male voice said ahead and to the left of me.

Glancing in the direction of the voice, a young man holding a box of supplies called out to me. Eiji, a new young recruit of the Front Lines Regiment.

Flailing his right arm in the air, accompanied by a grin, he greeted me. Walking towards his direction, I greeted him with a simple wave.

“Hey, good to see you’re alright! Should you really be out here?”

“Yea, I think I’m fine.” Scanning our surroundings as he spoke, I noticed there was no one around but him and me. “Hey, where is everyone?”

“Huh? Oh! We were just ready to leave, a bunch of newbie recruits like us can barely stand our ground against one MechaBeast, let alone an Original?”

I nodded.

The kid blushed in embarrassment, “B-But now that you’re here, you’re going to defeat it? Right?”

I shot him a frown. Can I really defeat an Original? Especially in my condition?

I wasn’t entirely sure if I could pull it off myself. But with someone like Sakura by my side, the odds felt more in my favor. 

“Do you know where Sakura is?”

“I think he’s being treated by Sora. He was hurt as well, but not completely out of commission like you were.”

“I see. Say, I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“First, do you know which Original we’re up against?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t.” He sighed in disappointment.

“That’s okay. But do you know the location of it?”

My decisions from this point on depended on their location. If it was within proximity, there was no time to call for backup, but we might have time to get back up if it was further away.

“I’m not sure.”

Unfortunately, the answer I got was the only one I didn’t want to hear.

“Okay, one last thing, can you find Sakura and tell him to come to me?”

“Is there a specific location you want him to meet you at?”

“I’ve got my locator on, you'll be able to track me.”

The joyful Eiji saluted me and ran off to find Sakura as I began sprinting through the city.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure exactly what I’m up against. But I’ve seen what I’m up against, haven’t I? If only my memories didn’t have holes in them, I would already know. I felt like a book with missing pages, unable to fully understand the story. The answers were so close, but just barely out of reach. I grew slightly agitated.

The identity of the Original wasn’t the only thing I had forgotten. I had also forgotten the reason behind my sudden driving force. The thing that pulled me out of bed regardless of my injuries. It was something I was fighting for, but what exactly was it? It was something I promised to someone, yet what was it? I longed to accomplish this goal I didn't know anything about.

My head began to spin as I continued walking down the deserted streets of the city. The smoke from the fire was suffocating, making it more difficult to traverse by foot. 

Wandering a little further, I found most of the buildings far northeast were still intact. Unfortunately, the air was still thick, and I hadn’t the slightest clue where the Original was hiding.

“Ugh,” I sighed.

Finding myself near a bus stop, I seated myself. My head had been thumping as if someone had been beating it like a drum set. I felt nauseated, and I could hear my heart pounding as if it were about to burst out of my chest. Sitting down, my nausea subsided just slightly.

Although I’ve only been looking for about thirty minutes, the city isn’t that large. Where exactly could they be hiding?

Gazing up towards the building directly in front of me, I sigh in disbelief. “You’re kidding.”

My vision was blurred. Most likely an effect of my head injury. Hindered me from seeing any details of the building’s third floor and above. At the most, I knew that there were many windows, and the building was a mix between orange and brown.

Looking down into my lap, I felt defeat. Ready to keep searching, I paused.

“Huh?” I muttered with my head still looking down into my lap.

I recollected what I saw when staring at the building. All I could remember were the blurred windows on the tall brownish building.

But there was something else. Atop the building, on the left-hand side, was an unknown figure perching. I couldn’t make out any other details as it was all in a blurry instant. But it might have had four wings.

“Four wings…”

A memory flashed across my mind. Large metallic moth-like wings. 

Huh, what was that?

Another memory flash occurred. A circular mouth with razor-sharp metallic teeth, dripping saliva. A large hairy insect-like body, but only four limbs. And a pointed stinger with great width. These characteristics were unique to the thirteenth Original, Teras Skoros.

My memories flooded back into my mind like water flooding from a faucet. Including the memories I had lost from my conversation with my younger self.

So that’s what’s been driving me?

I recollected the words of my younger self, “Do you remember what you have to do when you wake up?”

Subconsciously I was driving myself to fulfill what my younger self asked me. Now remembering, the answer was to defeat Teras Skoros. But, with my physical state, I’m not sure I can do it alone. Regardless, it feels like I owe it to everyone to do so. 

Rising to my feet from the bus station, I peered towards the top of the building, finding nothing.

Maybe I was just hallucinating.

Taking a right, I treaded the quiet streets again until the sound of a sharp humming rang through the road behind me. The sound was similar to glass rubbing against a sharp object and was high-pitched enough to pierce my eardrums. The sounds of the Original’s four wings rubbing together.

It seems like they’ve been watching me.

Turning to face the creature behind me, they floated just fifteen feet above the ground. Their long worm-like neck peered down upon me disturbingly.

My face scrunched up at the sight of them. 

Sighing, I tugged the handles of the blades strapped onto my torso. Swiftly unsheathing them, revealing my dual swords, Elucidation. Twin black blades the same length as a typical single-handed sword.

Standing parallel to each other, I waited for them to make a move. 

Their fangs began turning clockwise within their mouth, and bright orange light began sprouting from the base of their mouth. Swiftly I dashed forward, with my blades parallel to my sides, performing the start-up for the sword skill, Current.

The beast thrust their neck forward and opened their mouth three times as wide. Its fangs began spinning counterclockwise as the fiery orange light began traveling out of its mouth. However, I was too late to react and found myself facing down a ball of flames hurtling towards me.

***

“Kanade, I told ya they’re not coming from the sewer!” A masculine voice groaned.

“Where else could they have come from, huh, Sakura?” I raised my voice.

Huh…why am I remembering this?

“I don’t know! But it wouldn’t be a sewer.” The spiky pink-haired man pouted.

“There’s no other place we haven’t checked. We’ve even seen a few of the smaller ones crawl back down the street drains.”

"Who would have thought the sewer would be so large? Not to mention putrid.” Sakura peered down at the jelly-textured water.

The two of us carried on walking down the dark grimy sewer with nothing but two flashlights and a hunch something was down here. Faint metal clanging echoed in the distance from all directions, and I felt something constantly beaming on me as I walked. Yet nothing was in sight as far as I saw. 

“Look, we’re coming up on a fall-off.” 

About fifteen feet ahead of us, the main sewer path split into a fall-off. From there, most sewers lead to a drainage area. If MechaBeasts are down here, then perhaps they crawled up from the fall-off and into the city.

The two of us glared at each other, saying nothing for several minutes. Although Sakura was at least two inches taller than me, it was evident he was uncomfortable with our silent staring contest.

“What ya want to go down there?” He broke away from my gaze.

“Well, I don’t think it’s the worst idea,” I implied.

“Tsk.”

Continuing forward, we made our way to the fall-off and took a knee. The massive waterfall-like area was strangely calming. Although it reeked of a public restroom and the water was chunky, something about the sound of water pouring put me at ease. But we soon ran into a problem, and my calmness wore off.

“Kanade,” Sakura clutched both of my shoulders and faced me. “I can’t fit through those small metal bars.”

The fall-off was closed off by metal bars. Someone slim, like me, could fit through them just fine. But Sakura was much more muscular than I was and would have trouble squeezing through the bars. Not only that, but the behemoth of a weapon he carried on his back just made it near impossible to go down the fall-off.

"I'm just scouting. I won't be long. It's fine. If I find anything, I'll come back up, and we'll find a way to go down together."

“I doubt you’ll find anything. I’m telling ya there’s nothing down here. Let alone behind those bars.”

Sakura may have had a point. Most MechaBeasts were much larger than the average human. Regardless, it could never hurt to be thorough in our search.

Placing my flashlight in my mouth, I pulled my climbing gear from the inner pocket of my trench coat and clasped it firmly onto a metal bar.

“I’ll be off.”

Squeezing myself through the metal bars, it was a tight fit, but I just barely made it through. I highly doubt Sakura could go through them no matter how hard he tried.

He sent me off with a salute.

Descending, I realized there was no wall for my feet to climb on. Meaning I had to stick my feet into the putrid water falling downward. Unfortunately, the wall was much farther than expected, and the water reached up to knee length.

Finally making it to the bottom of the fall-off, the water swirled down a massive drain. My body was submerged just below my torso.

Ugh, it reeks.

Shining my flashlight around, I glanced at my surroundings, finding I was surrounded on all four sides by fall-offs. I also noted that two of the four other fall-offs had their metal bars bent out of shape, making an opening in them.

About twenty feet in front of me was a large circular tunnel with water running down its sides from the fall-off above, but it was not blocking its entrance.

Splashing up and down in the thick water towards the tunnel was difficult. But, finally making it towards the base of the tunnel, I grabbed onto the ledge and climbed in.

The concrete floor became soaked in filthy green water as I got up. Taking a breath, I checked myself to make sure all my gear was still in place.

Shining my flashlight forward, I revealed a massive cocoon-shaped structure that hung from the ceiling. The cocoon itself was pure metal and seemed to reflect my flashlight.

Keeping an eye on it, I drew my left sword, slowly pacing myself towards it.

When getting within five feet from it, the structure began shaking. Backing up, I tossed the flashlight to the ground and unsheathed my second sword. The flashlight beamed onto the metal cocoon from the floor as it began trembling. In an instant, the structure warped itself, revealing a large winged creature. Their wings expanded, crashing into the walls and sending debris flying everywhere.

This thing is going to level the whole sewer! Out of all the things I could have found down here, I never expected to find an Original!

The entire tunnel began shaking as the hideous beast released an ear-piercing screech, and the view straight ahead was captivated in flames rushing towards me. The vibrant orange light of the fire reflected off my eyes as I felt the warmth rush towards me like it was a scene from a movie.

With the fire pulling closer, I snapped out of my trance and jumped into the pool of filthy water behind me. Thinking I avoided the roaring flames, I peered my head up from the water only to be blasted upward like a geyser at a hot spring and…

Ah…I don’t know what happens next. I think I was knocked unconscious after hitting my head on the ceiling of the sewer...