Queen of the Pirates

Respecting History

"Mountain Punch!" Yama slams his fist down to where Robin was, but she quickly jumps out of the way. His fist luckily keeps away from the important statue.

"Can you run, Akari!?" Robin looks over at me. Her eyes are wide with fear swimming within them. "We need to get going before any more damage is done!"

"Lead the way! I'll follow!" I firmly nod.

She takes off in the next second, deciding on a direction without a word to me. Not that her little head start will be much for me to overcome.

I take a deep breath, pushing off the side of the building I'm hidden behind and chasing after her. My legs burn with ever step that I take, but I push through that in order to catch up with the one person I don't want to lose now that I've found her.

"BAA!" Yama lets out a frustrated scream not even a minute later.

I look back to see he's not that close to us, but he is running as fast has his body will allow. The frustration at not being able to catch us is coming out on the ruins that get in his way, though. If we don't get far enough away soon, these ruins aren't going to survive.

"How far do the two of you plan to run!?"

I grin, feeling the burn in my lungs starting to get more intense the longer we have to run. The sun is beating down on us, and the air is a lot thinner up here which is making breathing like this difficult.

Robin is heavily gasping for breath with dirt and sweat covering her. I'm sure that I don't look much better.

Yama grunts, slamming his fist into another ruin.

"Damn it," I grumble.

"Don't...stop..." Robin puts her head down in anguish.

Each step we take is getting Yama farther away from the ruins that he doesn't respect, but it also taking him right by them. Each loud crack of stone is a harsh reminder that he is destroying this place that Robin finds so dear. Every time he damages something, I can see the pain slash across her face. I've never been one to really think about history but seeing how Robin acts around this long-gone city gives me a new perspective. If we want to understand anything about the world we live in, history helps us do that.

It doesn't take much longer for the ruins to stop appearing, meaning we've made it back out to the forest. There's nothing here for Yama to destroy that either of us care about. The trees are only trees, so he can punch them as much as he would like. Not that he's going to be much of a threat once we get down to actually fighting him.

Robin and I come to a stop in a fairly open area, panting for air that can't fill our lungs quick enough. The lumbering fool of Yama still a way behind us, so we have a moment to figure out our next move.

"I have some words I want to say to him, if you don't mind," Robin says. Her breathing having evened out a bit quicker than mine.

"As long as I can fight him a little bit, I don't care," I reach my hands to the sky, hoping the new position will help relax my hurting muscles. "I'm sick of these Eneru followers, so if I can knock them down, I have to."

"Don't worry, he's not getting away with what he did."

"Is this...where you stop running?" Yama huffs out as he finally makes his way out of the ruins.

"Yes," Robin nods. "It's no use." She tosses her backpack to the ground.

"No use?"