edelweiss - &team

31

Euijoo gave the order that none of them would go out alone to the temple and do anything "stupid and reckless", which was seconded by their oldest. In the meantime, Euijoo had been sending out animals created from his energy to scout the temple as well as the nuclear power plant zone. Yudai was allowed to go against the order and he too patrolled the area himself, more looking for suspicious activity than thinking of starting a fight. Additionally, Harua had left briefly at Euijoo's request to retrieve his beloved animals.

The unwilling but docile members begrudgingly stayed put, Maki and Yixiang wiled away time sparring, engraving markings into nearby trees and kicking up heinous quantities of dirt.

Yudai extracted Jo from the house arrest order to patrol, since Jo was reliable and Euijoo was well-assured Jo was the least-likely to act impulsively. And so they did exactly that. However, Yudai didn't mention how far they'd go to patrol.

"Why are you hailing a taxi," Jo asked in a low voice as he and Yudai stood at the edge of the small, quiet town, waiting for a taxi to arrive in this secluded area. Yudai wore a lopsided grin, and Jo was reminded that Yudai was not the kind that liked sitting put all pretty and still. "Aren't you going batshit insane in there?" Yudai asked, dragging his hand through his hair, which was slightly tangled since he had been fidgeting with it for ages.

"Euijoo thinks it's the safest for now. I respect and agree with his decision," Jo replied simply. Yudai nodded, then said, "I can't do that. I get where he's coming from but...I agree with Riki. Staying locked up in that cabin, I'm going crazy thinking of what we could be doing in the time wasted." Yudai was restless, transferring his weight from one lanky leg to the other, then back again.

Jo tried to release as silent a sigh as possible, his shoulders sagging slightly, before saying, "Then can I know where I'm being abducted to?"

Yudai's smile grew a little more, but there was a grimness to it, "The city. I have a hunch. It's a terrible one but...A taxi can bring us to the city Riki lives in."

"Why all of a sudden-" Jo's words caught in his throat as he came to the realisation. "You want to try and stop them?"

"It's something," Yudai exhaled, tilting his head to gaze up into the wonderfully clear blue sky, "Maybe it'll be enough to save Riki some pain."

And the duo fell silent, just as a little taxi came swerving through the unpaved road to stop before them. Jo noticed Yudai has subtly adjusted his features, his nose a little crooked and his lips less full, his hair now a lighter shade of brown, probably to avoid recognition from others. They slipped into the taxi, and continued to maintain their silence, consumed by their thoughts.

-

Riki's hometown was as dilapidated as expected. Snubbed by all politicians for any welfare efforts and coined one of the most godless areas, it was incredibly hard to believe this was the place an all-powerful immortal would choose to settle in.

Yudai evidently felt a mild sense of disgust, having been exposed to the finest of lives. But still, after paying quite the hefty fee to a disgruntled taxi driver, the two bounced out of the taxi, eager to stretch their legs and look around.

The streets were littered with garbage and dust, but devoid of people. Some shops stood in rows, signages hanging off, some bordered shut, others bearing notices of late rent. But there were some decent ones, an old grocer, a sterile convenience store, a hardware shop, some empty, small restaurants...

"Are we gonna walk around until we see something?" Jo asked. Yudai shrugged, "Sure. Maybe we can even pop by Riki's place, give it a visit."

Jo was busy eyeing the first human encountered in the town, a clearly malnourished man, face haggard and eyes slightly unfocused as he stumbled about. A faint stench of alcohol trailed after the man as he staggered past them, after he shot them a look of curiosity. "It's like a ghost town," Jo remarked, unnerved. Yudai shrugged, then beelined for the convenience store, looking to buy something to drink.

A cashier greeted them listlessly in a monotonous voice, returning her attention to a cheap rubix cube in her hands after that. Yudai browsed the limited options slowly, as though he had all the time in the world. Jo followed behind closely and wordlessly.

Then the bell strung at the door rang, as a group of people entered. The cashier was evidently shocked, not used to such a large amount of customers. The people headed to the shelves, tearing off loaves of bread and bottles of drinks, pushing past the two immortals aggressively, almost as though they weren't there.

As packets of snacks fell to the floor, the startled cashier hurried to retrieve the items, completely overwhelmed by the behaviour of this crowd. Jo, the ever-kind soul, bent down to help, but flinched when the sound of breaking glass was heard. The cause of the noise was, surprisingly, a bottle of wine flung towards the store window, which shattered but amazingly, the bottle remained relatively intact, enough for people outside to swarm for it.

Yudai suddenly tugged Jo away from the floor where he was collecting fallen products. The cashier began screaming, out of fright and some anger. Yudai whispered urgently, "Something's off. There's suddenly so many people outside and they're weirdly violent." Jo nodded in agreement, then, through the broken window, more things were hurled out. The cashier had ducked under the counter, presumably to contact the police. The two pressed themselves to one side as the unruly bunch continued to toss things out of the shop, or literally lifting whole shelves out of the shop.

Jo frowned, confused as to why his multiple attempts at regulating the wild emotions in the room were unsuccessful, before raising his hand as he contemplated summoning an illusion. Yudai grasped his arm to stop him. "This is the event," He said, absolutely convinced. "Junwon?" Jo asked, saying aloud exactly what Yudai had in mind. "We can't hurt them," Yudai muttered, sounding more disappointed and frustrated than anything, before the duo were rudely shoved by the people for blocking a shelf.

"We have to get out," Jo urged, "I don't know what we could do to help this. Nothing I'm doing is working." Truthfully, the two were not gifted with the ability to tackle the current situation, they couldn't telepathically persuade everyone to go home like Yuma or perhaps manipulate the ground until the people were sunken neck-deep into it like Yixiang. And Yudai hated feeling this helpless.

There was absolute chaos outside. They were presented with the horrific site of people raiding any open store, taking anything of value, food, clothes, valuables and cash. There were people, dressed in ragged clothes and literally brawling for possession of certain items. Helpless, helpless, helpless.

Just then, a glimmer of hope in this mess, was the arrival of a couple police vans. Yudai and Jo's hopes were lifted, before crashing down again when they realised those were riot police, armed with weapons.

They managed to take cover in an alley when the police started to open fire. "Shit, shit," Yudai hissed, peeking from behind the wall as he watched. "Fuck, what if I shift and go out there-"

"Are you crazy?" Jo nearly shouted, for the first time, at Yudai, pulling him back so violently Yudai slammed into the wall, "And get punctured with a hundred bullet holes? You're not invincible. You may genuinely find out how much blood and pain it takes for us to die."

"There are dead humans out there."

"Get another taxi. We need to get back."

"What? Are you seeing this? I-" It was alarming to see such a switch in personalities, Yudai being the more emotional one and Jo apathetic and logical.

"Yudai. I've been someone working with people for centuries," Jo said as he looked Yudai dead in the eye, "I've seen worse deaths." As Yudai shakily pressed his phone for a taxi, Jo closed his eyes as he leaned against the wall, the sounds of screaming and the moans of the injured dying down while engines started and vans drove away.