We Find Comfort In The Apricity

Measure 83: The Most Patient Man In The World

TW: violence & excessive cursing and sensitive topics so please be careful 

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Anzu walked then ran all the way from her estate to the cave where the preacher was hiding out. When she arrived she looked through the entrance and tried peeking in but then she felt a dark aura stand behind her. When she turned around, someone suddenly bashed her head and she was immediately knocked out.

Meanwhile, at the party Senku was trying to get away from all of these people interviewing him about marrying Anzu. He was starting to worry when Anzu hadn't come back in 30-40 minutes. So he managed to escape from the crowd and went to her office, he knocked but he didn't hear anything. So he tried again and noticed the door was slightly ajar.

He opened it ever so slightly and noticed the room was empty. He looked around to see if either Erin or Anzu were there but he didn't find anything. It was quiet. He pressed his lips together and frowned. As he was about to leave he stepped on something crunchy. He looked down and saw a letter, the same letter Anzu had seen before.

He also determined it was from the preacher and immediately ran out from the estate. He ran all the way towards the Perseus and gather a few things. He remembered Anzu said the cave was close to where they docked. And remembering the first night they arrived, he saw an actual dock a few ways behind a huge cliff.

So he ran by the beach and reached the cave but—

It was blocked.

What should've been the entrance to the cave was no longer there. In fact you could barely even tell there was a cave here. In the entrance's stead was a large flat rock.

Senku immediately sunk into despair, he was ten billion percent sure Anzu was stuck in there with the preacher and her daughter. But still, he ran straight towards it and patted it around trying to see for a way to move it.

There was no time, he noticed another rock off to the side in between some bushes with blood. If he didn't know better, and right now he really didn't, that blood must've belonged to Anzu. That was in fact the rock the preacher had used to knock her unconscious.

He started panicking more, there didn't seem to be a way to move this rock. He pressed his ear to it to try and hear anything at all.

"ANZU!!! DOI ANZU ARE YOU IN THERE?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! ANSWER ME ANZU!!" But there was no response.

Inside the cave, Anzu had been awakened by ammonium carbonate smelling salts. She coughed and normalized her breathing. Right now she really hated that she couldn't see a damn thing.

So she paused and held her breath. She heard two other people breathing in the same room as her, one was ragged & struggling, the other was exhausted. She noticed her hands & legs were tied behind her back. Her clothes had been ripped a bit and her head smelled like blood.

Then she remembered she was in the cave, the other two people here were the preacher and her daughter.

"Erin? Are you here?"

In response, Erin only whimpered. She was also tied by her hands and legs, she sat a few ways away from Anzu, "Mom, I can't breathe!"

Anzu inhaled deeply and noticed the smell of smoke, it was the preacher!

"Could you please turn out whatever trash you're smoking preacher? Isn't smoking bad in the eyes of your god?"

"I am god. Smoking is how great leaders made their money, now that I know there are other civilizations out there alive. I'll have 'em all. I just gotta get rid of you first." -Preacher.