Chapter 19: Back To Earth

Ishiki slowly opened his eyes.

And the first thing he noticed was a somber smile pulling at his lips—Unbidden and wrong for what he was witnessing here.

Everything was in ruins…

As it was supposed to be, it would be a problem if it wasn’t.

’Feels good to be home…’

Then he looked up, at the impossible. Well not so impossible now… Neo-Tokyo, the city that had stretched impossibly high into clouds, lay broken like a child’s toy smashed in a tantrum.

Concrete and steel twisted into sculptures of destruction. Buildings that once pierced the sky now sprawled across the ground like corpses. Glass glittered everywhere—on streets, in rubble, catching the light that fell from the actual sun that now glistered over the ruined world.

Eleven massive pillars had once held the floating city aloft. Monuments to human engineering and hubris. Now only three stood, cracked and shattered.

Most of the once-pristine artificial island that hovered over the old country on the ground was simply gone. Just a portion remained, hanging at a dangerous angle, threatening to collapse at any moment.

It was… beautifully disturbing.

’Ah… guess this is earth now. How utterly broken. All of our marvels gone in the face of destruction.’

Ishiki’s smile dispersed, his face turning into a silhouette of doubt and regret.

But then his expression changed again. His face split into a jagged grin that felt manic even to him.

There was sky above him.

Real sky. Gray with ash and pollution, but real. The same kind of open sky he’d seen in his trial, stretching over medieval forests and what not.

He’d seen the moon there. A real moon hanging in darkness, bathing blood-soaked grass in cold light.

And now, tonight, he’d get to see Earth’s moon for the first time. Wasn’t that just wonderful.

Maybe not for the people who lived on that damned floating city, but for someone like him who has stared at the artificial bottom of nothing but concrete it was a big… big deal.

Then looking down… he frowned.

He expected bodies. Hundreds of them. Thousands, even. The streets should have been carpeted with the dead, proof of the massacre he’d witnessed before being ripped into his trial.

But there were… none.

Just bloody trails smeared across shattered pavement. Drag marks leading into darkness. A few mangled body parts scattered here and there. An arm still wearing a watch, fingers curled like they were trying to hold onto something. A leg bent at angles that made his stomach turn.

’What the hell happened here?’

He shrugged… ’Who cares? sure i don’t…’ then after a long pause he sighed and added.

’…Maybe I somewhat do.’

Then he gritted his teeth… he needed to go check his apartment and he hoped… he really hoped that more than anything else. Maybe… just maybe he would find someone precious waiting for him.

Still… in this desolate hell.

“SHRIEEEKKK!”

The thoughts died violently.

His head snapped toward the sound. His blood went cold as his eyes widened to such a extent that it was just unbelievable… comical even.

“For god’s sake… no, no, no, no… this can’t be.”

A green-skinned abomination was sprinting toward him from maybe thirty meters away. Its body was bloated, twice the size of a normal human, skin stretched tight over swollen muscle. Too many teeth crowded its gaping maw. Its eyes burned red with mindless hunger.

It was the same kind of mindless demon’s he had seen in his trial-A Xenon.

’Oh, Oh! you’ve GOT to be kidding me! Why the fuck is that thing here?’

Ishiki spun around and ran.

He jumped over the rubble. The debris populating the broken parchment. He ran for his life from a something, he had somehow avoided in a dimension full of things explicitly designed to murder him.

’Not fair! This is NOT FAIR!’

Then, though the growls of the demon changed to those of pained howls and shrieks, growing farther and farther by the second. Ishiki brow furrowed, curious—what was happening behind him?

Suddenly, something… or someone came in front of him. Ishiki scowled trying to slow down but he failed and crashed face-first into something soft, warm, and bouncy.

The impact sent him stumbling backward. He pressed his nose which turned red from impact and looked up, dazed.

There, stood a woman—Tall, athletic and very lively. She wore a simple army suit, with a bit of weapons strapped to her thighs, a little green blood splattered on her shoulder and pretty face, that looked very appealing to Ishiki, if we remove the fact that it stared at him with pure annoyance.

’Curses!’

She glanced past her, towards the shrieking abomination. Ishiki turned too and looked at the ghastly sight of what one can call uncanny.

The Xenon was suffering and thrashing here and there, probably crying from pain. The body was starting to turn into ash slowly and slowly… it was dying.

Then a realization struck… the Xenon it had been in a shadow before. But as it lunged towards Ishiki, it had inevitably run into the sun rays and now it was slowly burning down.

SWOOSH!

A blade whistled past Ishiki’s ear so close he felt displaced air ruffle his hair.

THUNK.

The Xenon’s scream cut off like someone had hit the mute button. The sword hit the demon and pinned it to a collapsed wall by its skull, the Xenon twitched once before going completely still.

’That was… she just… she threw her sword like a dart and killed it without even—’

“What do you want?”

Ishiki shivered and turned around, scratching the back of his head. The woman looked at him with a scowl, arms closed under her chest.

His brain stammered to form appropriate words… what to do? Apologize? or say thanks for saving my skin? or anything acceptable at least.

He looked up once again… she indeed had a very impressive chest, where Ishiki headbutted at full speed.

’Uh… shut up, moron!’

He opened his mouth with a very innocent smile and said.

“I… uh… I want to see those breasts without the clothes.”

Ishiki froze…

Silence… dead silence.

The woman looked at him with her brows twitching. Even the dead Xenon seemed to be judging him from beyond the grave and that in utter disappointment.

Ishiki’s eyes went wide. Horror flooded through him.

’OH NO! What the fuck did i just say? Why did i say that? What the hell is happening?’

His eyes traced up to the pristine lady standing with an expression that promised violence.

He thrashed his hands around and started awkwardly… “I didn’t—that wasn’t—I mean—”

The fist came out of nowhere.

WHAM!

Stars exploded across his vision. Pain detonated on top of his skull.

“kids these days are so perverted…” she said flatly, already walking toward the dead Xenon to retrieve her sword.

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