Magnus Sekai

Chapter 1.2 - The One That Sees It All

2018-08-29; Midnight

2K/m away from Koshoji Temple, Nagoya Ruins, Japan.

In the middle of the deserted roads of a previous prosperous city, two headlights traveled through the pitch black of Nagoya. It is no surprise that it has become an empty, rubble-filled war field, after all, it's just one of the dozens, hundreds of other towns and provinces that have succumbed to the ceaseless battle that birthed from the chaos era. One could say it looked in better form than expected, seeing as it was, theoretically empty. The United Nations swears on its abnormally low numbers of 'criminals' (for I prefer to call them survivors) still living outside of the boundaries of their territories, but it isn't as if living as an outsider is impossible. Supplies, albeit scarce, would be plentiful for few, and UN's Intel unit couldn't possibly scan earth so picture-perfect to spot every anomaly on their radars. There's something quite poetic about roaming through a soundless, lightless world, for traveling our ruined earth could be the closest we'd get to sight gazing our space, our universe, our own insignificance.

Max's car was equipped with an engine muffler so advanced, it silenced sound entirely on command. Miharu had everything planned when she developed her soldiers' set of equipment, for men this brave were something she could not replace. The headlights, in the other hand, were quite simple, but technically, to avoid being spotted, he just turns them off.

"Making it to Nagoya from Sonhos in seven hours is record timing, Max." Inside the vehicle, things were more lively, with Ranmaru starting off chatter, with unimaginable cool that you wouldn't expect from him. That long of a travel would make anyone allies.

"Eh, Rammy boy. Finally someone givin' me credit for once." And even more unusual was having our pilot speaking this calm. Darkness is such strong tool in making people change, even if in this case, just a literal darkness.

"Trust me, we both like speed. I just value safety a little bit more." Reader, this is our decimal-loving general, after all.

"You just say that because you had the record time in the Royal military camp." Maximus, of all the Liberators, was the closest to the nobles than anyone else, thus he's seen and been a part of such circle of families. I'd be getting ahead of myself if I revealed any more than this.

"We all have something to brag about after all. Thanks for acknowledging it." These two actually had a long and old record of bickering and fighting, for seemingly unknown reasons.

"If swimming wasn't part of the training, I could beat you in no time, boy." Perhaps, it was just an ego thing, as Maximus so quickly responded, raising his tone of voice.

"You just say that because it was my best split, dude..." The ultimate battle of the loud and violent, versus the calm and rational.

"Hah. Don't bother Maximus, ya remember who was watching?! Iroha! Bro he had to put on a show, haha. Oh, by the way, where did she go?" Image would obviously be on the side of his fellow comrade, speaking nonchalantly, which followed the trends of unusual behavior that night.

"Got me there, Image. We stopped talking a while back, all I remember is that she left. Nothing else." For those curious, Ranmaru used to date Iroha at his younger years, not that he's too old himself now.

"She went back to live with her family, no?" Image continued.

"Like I said, It's been so long I don't even remember how I met her. She's nothing but a memory now, a foggy one." You'd expect his tone of voice to transmit sorrow, but in his words, all you could hear was genuine confusion. Like fragments of his memory were erased.

"Wow, did things go sour or is it Cecilia who wants you to keep shut?" Indecency was that goth girl's strongest weapon. It disarmed every social interaction she wanted. She had a 'end conversation' button installed inside her brain.