This is a multimedia webnovel with giant city-crushing monsters, a valiant man who dares to fight them, a hero who loses himself on a righteous path, and a darkness which conceives a profound love. But I suck at descriptions, so I strongly encourage...
"I, um, I don't exactly remember a lot about before, you know, before the fire. At least, I, I don't remember much about myself... not much at all. But I remember my parents. They were a unique kind of wonderful," she explained, and as she spoke, Hatasuko could feel her lips forming a sad smile.
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"My dad, um, he realized early on that I love learning. He and I spent many afternoons together, just investigating, experimenting with the world. He was a very smart man. His smile... he smiled so widely when we learned together. And my mom was always so proud of me. She was a quiet woman, I think, I guess I may have borrowed that from her. But not back then. This may, I mean, this probably sounds silly, but I used to be a social child. I had many playmates at school, but Harvey was always my favorite. Harvey... Harvey would even come play with me after school. We were all so happy then.
"I think that it's amazing that so much can change in a single night. I think that... I think that might just be the saddest thing about our world. Someone can build so much, they can have so much, and then just lose everything so quickly. That night, the night when the demon... the night came when the Interfectus attacked our city. I, uh, I didn't know, I hadn't heard, I guess, um, it wasn't supposed-"
Vaida stopped herself mid-sentence. Hatasuko could feel her fingertips digging through his thin shirt. Her eyes were slammed shut, her breaths were fast, and her body trembled once again. Hatasuko wrapped his arms around her as a silent message that she did not have to tell the story. Despite the invitation to stop, Vaida opened her eye again and forced herself to relax.
She said, "The Interfectus changed the world. That whole section of Bones City was basically blown away. My parents, my parents and I, we lived in a house very close to where... to where the Interfectus appeared. Running... we could not run. It would see us. It would kill us. Eventually the Interfectus, it eventually learned that people were hiding, people were hiding trapped in those houses. It probably heard, it surely heard me crying, or somehow sensed my fear. Our whole block was leveled, the whole thing, the whole block, it was destroyed, it was, the scattershot, the third weapon, the-"
Vaida stopped again so that she could fight through her tears. As Hatasuko held her closely in his arms, he felt like his whole body went numb except for the parts which touched her. He tried to count her rapid heartbeats as a way to distract himself from his own sadness, but he knew that this was pointless.
"That night, my world ended in fire. I was so disoriented by the blast that I couldn't see or think. I was so disoriented. I knew that there were flames all around me. The sound of the crackle, the stench of smoke, the blue pressing on my eyelids – I knew that the fire had caught us. I couldn't find my mom, but I could feel the weight of my dad on top of me. He was covering me, um, he covered me with his body. I could smell his breath, I could see his face, I could hear him yell... as the fire took him away from me," she whispered, her voice breaking again.
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