Chase a Starlight

Crippled

Azel, Masuyo and Alita had been walking for a very long time, so long that the environment around them was completely different than what they previously were in. The trees didn't look the same, they were slightly more orange, with bright red leaves, the temperature was much more warm, and the plant and animals they were seeing weren't the same. And not once had they crossed another person. Azel and Alita were given the task of making sure to be ready if they were to be attacked, as well as cutting a path through the dense vegetation, when need be. Masuyo had been looking down at plans and stocking things in his void safe for a long moment now. The plans he was looking at seemed to be for some sort of bird like creature, Azel had no clue what it was, but Alita thought it looked familiar, so familiar, and throughout most of the walk so far, she was trying to find what it was. It was around 11:00 in the morning, but the temperature was already extremely hot. Masuyo spoke up and pointed to a small area where there were no trees. They all sat down there and took out some food and water.

- "You two have been working like crazy for a while now, let me take over for a bit, but let's take a break before. You must be exhausted."

- "Oh, it's fine." Said Azel. "I'm honestly a bit glad to be doing the work, otherwise it's boring."

- "Just like it won't be boring when you drop dead from exhaustion." Masuyo said with a smirk.

Azel chuckled and started eating her food, Alita thought Masuyo must really be tired if he went to the point of eating, not once did she recall seeing Masuyo eat or drink water. Masuyo had put his plans besides him, he was drawing with a piece of coal on a comically large leaf he took from a tree. The lines weren't perfectly straight, but Alita could still very clearly recognize the shape, but what was it? And all of a sudden, she got extremely dizzy. And felt herself like she was being lifted from the ground, by instinct, she looked down only to see dirt, she looked around and saw more dirt, she appeared to be hiding in some kind of long line that was dug in the ground, and some wooden structures were holding the "walls" and preventing the dirt from entering the lines, there was nobody else. Alita was growing extremely confused, she called for Azel and Masuyo. She looked down again, and saw that she was wearing Masuyo's clothes, what was happening?! She was also holding some weird mostly wooden object with a few small parts, it had an opening on one end, and the other end looked like it was made to steady the object, by pressing it against something. It also seemed to have a part where someone could slip their finger in. What was this thing?! What was happening? Of course, she got no answer. Except a droning noise, which seemed to grow louder, she got out of the lines in the ground and looked around, she could see them. The things she saw in Masuyo's room, she looked at them in shock. They were moving slowly, but shockingly fast for something this big. And it clicked in her head, it was the thing on Masuyo's plans, and she remembered.

- "SWORDFISH!" Alita screamed "IT'S A SWORDFISH!"

- "Uh, are you okay?" Azel said in a confused and slightly judgemental tone. "You kinda spaced out there, and now you're screaming swordfish?"

- "Uhm, indeed. This is a swordfish." Masuyo said. "It's an airplane that has enough space for three people, it's slow, and requires a small distance for takeoff and landing, for my world's standards, at least. How did you know it was a swordfish?"

- "I saw it! I don't know what happened I- I was in some kind of long line dug into the ground, and I was holding some sort of wooden thing, and I heard loud noises, and I saw them. They're majestic." Alita was panting, still a bit shocked that this was happening.

Masuyo smiled for a few seconds, usually Alita didn't have any problems understanding smiles given the context, but this one was frightening. She couldn't understand,d and it scared her. Masuyo simply nodded, and Azel shrugged, they finished their improvised picnic and started walking again, the next hour or so was pretty uneventful, until they heard footsteps, footsteps that weren't theirs. They stopped to a halt and looked around frantically. It didn't take long for Masuyo to spot the person that was lurking. He ran towards them and disappeared into the bushes, Alita and Azel looked at eachother, confused. Except that Azel had a terrified and shocked expression, which only increased Alita's confusion. A loud scream was heard, a scream that made Alita feel like her heart stopped. It was a scream of pain, but not physical pain. The kind of pain that haunts you until your death. Both girls rushed to where it came from to see Masuyo crouching on the ground, he seemed to be holding someone. He was sobbing loudly, very loudly. His screams were heartbreaking, Alita didn't even know what was going on, and she fell like her world was falling apart, like nothing made sense. Azel quickly understood what was going on, even if she hadn't really gotten an explanation yet. Alita got a few steps closer to Masuyo only to realize he was holding someone, someone who appeared to be dead. She recognized her rather quickly, she had light blue hair tied behind her head in a ponytail. Her eyes were slightly opened, it was a bit of a terrifying sight. His body was shaken up and down by his sobs, tears kept falling off of him and onto the body. But all of a sudden, the cried stopped, his eyes red and shot with blood, he turned towards Alita quickly that she could process, and made a movement with his head. "Come here", it meant. She rushed over to him and crouched as well.