Eros. (Benimaru Shinmon)

零 ❀

Year 197

Long ago, the world used to be a beautiful place. But everything changed when the Great Disaster took place. With the world mostly consumed in flame, many nations destroyed, and most of the planet rendered uninhabitable, survivors took refuge in the Tokyo Empire, which remained mostly stable during the period despite Japan losing some of its landmasses.

The Tokyo Emperor Raffles I established the faith of the Holy Sol Temple as it and Haijima Industries developed the perpetual thermal energy plant Amaterasu to power the country.

Someone once told me and I quote that:

"Your light is unmatched; your soul radiates a love so pure that most people have never even felt before. You are absolutely mesmerizing. The universe can't fathom how someone with your magnetism actually exists."

"But...Who am I in this world?"

I asked myself as I rode this silver cocoon over the earth, my eyes were on the trees that grew in their infinite patience, leaves breathing out our oxygen, bathing in the same light as we soon will. I felt the movement of the wheels over the road, following the curves and greeting each slope in its smooth way. These bus rides and the many before it was my meditation, a chance for my thoughts to greet the horizon, salute the clouds, and ready my feet for the day ahead.

"But...Who am I in this world?"

Within that moment of asking that question,..an ear-splitting explosion, and the force of a tremendous impact sent me flying. The bus spun and rotated wildly, my body continues to be tossed into the air as it lurched erratically. I was only vaguely aware of the pain as I hit and bounced off the seats and the sides of the vehicle; it was the fear that was worse at the moment. As the bus tilted once more, time slowed to a hideous crawl. Reaching out, pleading for help, I felt someone grasp my hand. I looked up and saw a man with short unruly brown hair, barely hanging onto the side of the bus himself, trying desperately to hold onto me. But then my fingers slipped away from his, and I knew I was about to hit another hard, unyielding object, and that I was helpless to stop the chain of events that were inexorably unfolding before my eyes.

Then there had been a brief period of merciful unconsciousness.

I awoke, to the sound of people crying and moaning. The universe seemed to have compressed into a single dark, smoky, pain-filled room, and when I tried to move an agonizing jolt ran through my body, beginning somewhere in my left leg.

I looked down and could not suppress my own cry of despair as I saw the jagged metal sticking up through my thigh, knowing even before I had turned to head to look at the other side that my leg was skewered, my slim, muscular limb transformed into a bizarre shish kebob.

There was another sound now. A soft, almost scraping sound.

It was the man. He was crawling towards me through the shattered glass and metal, his eyes still bleary from the smoke and yet focused on my thigh.

As he neared me, I could still smell the faint smell of smooke on his clothes as he reached up to tug on my scarf.

"I need to tie this around you." he stated, "I'm a m-member of the Fire Defence Agency-AKEH!" he coughed.

The smoke waltzes in with an odor as rancid as sewage, depositing its micro-layer of jaundiced tar around us.

I could see that it was taking all his powers of concentration to wind it around my leg and tie it into a knot. I was going to tell him that it was much too loose, that it wouldn't stop the precious blood from pumping out of my body. But then he drew back and cinched it taut, sending another wave of pain through me.

"Stay with me. Just stay with me."

Even though he uttered those words, I couldn't help but feel this blackness desire to come over me. Like a blanket, but not a blanket of warmth but a blanket of coldness making me shiver. But somehow it's making my eyes feel heavier and heavier. I finally close my eyes finally sending me into a dreamless sleep.

"Ma'am!" he yelled out shaking me but his efforts went in vain as my consciousness ebbed, my mind went into free fall, swirling with the beautiful chaos of a new dream.