Akemi's body was in a bad condition but based on her status, she won't die. But that doesn't mean I should be okay about this. I tightened her body near mine as I started wondering to myself. Akemi could have watched from a distance as my skill would destroy everything, but instead she decided to help me, even though that might have costed her life

"Hatsuko!!" ( Chloe )

Coming towards us were all of the other girls in which Chloe was on the front.

[Masteeeeeeer!!!] Shiro immediately jumped and gave me a tight hug as she called out my name. Her eyes were teared to the point of crying but she held herself back while rubbing her face on me.

"That's the real you… right?" Ichika asked as she was looking at me with a worried face. Somehow, I could feel that she had changed a lot from the last time we saw each other. Her eyes were really similar to mine when I used to live in Sakuru school. Did she...

.

.

I left Akemi's body in Shiro's care for a bit as I was getting up. I couldn't feel Kenji’s presence, so that means, I…

"Yeah, this is me…" I replied to her question but her expression didn't seem to change. But the moment I tried rubbing her head, she burst into tears, relieving herself from all of the stress she had built up.

"I was so worried about you." She could barely talk from the way she was crying. But I don't want her to cry like that anymore. Even if it takes hundreds of years, I will find a way to fix all of the things I had done to her.

"Ichika..." I was expecting her to yell at me, but instead of replying, she came closer and wrapped her arms around me as she leaned her head on my chest. I was a bit surprised because I killed her own father… It's as if she was ignoring what happened in this city.

[Hatsuko…] Suddenly I heard Akemi's voice inside my head. Huh, is she conscious?

[Are you alright?] I tried asking her telepathically to see how she was since her body wasn't moving.

[I'm fine, my body is recovering for the moment but anyway, I wanted to let you know something important!] She sounded really serious as she said to me.

[It's about Ichika... I erased most of her memories.]

Wait, she erased her memories? Is that the reason she was acting like that?

[After seeing what really happened, she couldn't grasp what to do anymore, her mind was slowly breaking from your aura, that's why i had no other choice but to erase her memories of her family.] She explained to me as I looked at Ichika. It made sense why she was much more relaxed about everything that happened. I'm really a bad person… If I had never come back here, this wouldn't have happened to her. But what has been done, I won't be able to undo it anymore. That's why I'll try and fix this if it's possible.

[I see…] But another thing that was going around my mind was what happened before I came here.

[Akemi, are you still conscious?] I asked her while Shiro was supporting her head.

[Yeah, I will be able to move in a bit. Did something happen?] ( Akemi )

[ What happened before I came here?] After I asked her this, she showed me some visuals through her mind, explaining everything that had happened to this point. Right after I was teleported away from Akemi, Ichika and Hina, they formed a team in order to find me but because of Kenji, they were put into some kind of 'sleepwalking' effect through the food which was prepared by Kenji. Since I ordered her not to harm any other humans while being in a city, she decided to suck the sleeping effect as well. She was half conscious the whole time, listening and preparing information for me when I would return back, that's why she didn't do anything for the moment. Kenji had a plan set up for me if I was going to return to this city. He thought I was trying to brainwash his daughter in order to do bad stuff to Ichika and her friends. He decided to take care of Akemi and Hina as he thought that those girls were victims as well. Haruto did try to get connections with Kenji in order to get closer to the girls but Kenji didn't let him. Haruto only managed to get close to Akemi as he thought she was fine with him being near her. But still, Haruto was nothing else but another guy who didn't know what he was doing. But he was lucky he didn't try to do anything funny, since Akemi might have broken him apart…

Even though those were everyone’s true feelings, this was a part of my fault as well. My aura had influenced all of their minds to this point.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Thankfully, none of the girls were harmed by my skill. I wouldn't forgive myself if I actually killed any of them. But that doesn't make me less guilty by the fact that I destroyed a whole city. From within my range, I could barely feel any life coming from this city. I guess they really were right about me being a monster.

After Ichika calmed down a little, Chloe came towards me and stretched out my cheeks.

"So, What do you plan on doing now?" She asked as she kept playing with my face. I could feel that she was a bit worried and angry at the same time because of what I had done. And thanks to that, my goal of going back to Sakuru was gone. I'm sure that I would be considered a dangerous criminal if I went back there. If my parents and my sister are safe in Sakuru, then I don't want to cause them any trouble by going there.

"I have done so much damage to this city, and I don't think that I will be able to go back to Sakuru…" I said to them as I was trying to think of something about this. Everyone here probably realises this, that's why they need to make a decision right now.

"I'm going to leave this place and go somewhere far from any other city. That's why I want everyone to stay here until a rescue team arrives. If you come with me, you will be considered criminals just like me." I'm not proud of calling myself a criminal, that's why everyone would be much better without me. Everyone stayed quiet for a few seconds before one of them reacted.

"Do you really think that I can just go into another city?" Chloe stopped stretching my face as she asked me that.

"My whole family is dead. All of the kids that I tried taking care of are also dead. I don't have any relatives, so going to a city without you would be really lonely for me. So don't say stupid stuff like that." She wryly smiled at me, but deep down, I could feel that she was really sad.

"You are everything I have now, so please... don't leave me like everyone else." Tears were sliding down Chloe’s face as she grabbed my hands.

[Shiro is with master!] Even shiro telepathically said to me while she was with Akemi on the ground. On my side also came the twin sisters and grabbed a piece of my cloth without saying anything. I could already tell their answer as well. And in the end, I saw Hina getting closer to our group.

"You may already hate me, but--" Hina averted her eyes away from me as she was trying to say something. At first, I didn't really like her since she was acting all mighty and strong in front of everyone she met. Honestly, I don't know how to feel about her, but one thing is for sure. She was much different from before. Her arrogance, hate, and the way she abused her status were completely gone. Her eyes looked broken but determined at the same time.

"--You have done so much for me. If we had never met you that day, my life would have been much different than before. I realised that everything I had was nothing else but a fake Illusion. So, if it's fine with you, please let me come with you. Even if you want me to do labour work for you, then I will do it!" Saying something like that mustn't have been that easy. Somehow I could understand why everyone didn't hate me, which made me a little happy.

"Are you sure you want to come with us? There's no going back if you join." I asked Hina one more time in order to make sure she wasn't rushing her final answer.

"Yes, my answer won't change." She said as she finally looked at me with determination on her face. That also included everyone else who were waiting for my final answer.

"...thanks for not hating me…" were the words I wanted to say out loud, but somehow I felt embarrassed, that's why I said it underneath my breath. Everyone wondered what I just said as they kept looking at me.

"Then, we probably should leave this place. We won't know when the rescue squad might come." I said to everyone. There wasn't anything that we could get from this place since everything was completely destroyed to ruins.

"I don't think that will be a problem." From near me I heard Akemi's voice replying to me. Did her body recover?

I went towards her to see if she was okay, also to know what she meant by those words. Her body was still a little weak, but she is a dragon so she will recover in no time.

"What do you mean by that? Sakuru might have gotten the news about this city by now." I said to Akemi but her reaction didn't change.

"No, I'm sure they haven't." ( Akemi )

"You do realise that humans don't transport information like we used to hundreds of years ago." She might think that we still use papers and old ways to share information, but humanity and its technology has advanced from many years ago.

"I already know about that. But I heard from this human Kenji that they couldn't communicate with Sakuru." ( Akemi )

"They couldn't?" ( Hatsuko )

"Apparently, their thing called satellite was destroyed or something." She stated as she finally got up. Even though she had one missing arm, that didn't seem to bother her at all. Even the wound on her stomach was already healed.

"I thought this would surprise you since humans use it every day?." Akemi wondered as she said that to us.

"We probably won't need it anymore since we're not going back to Sakuru or any other country." ( Hatsuko )

"You have the strength to destroy an entire city. Why are you avoiding that place now? With your power, no human can go against you." ( Akemi )

"..." ( Hatsuko )

Ruling the rest of the humans doesn't seem like something that suits me. There would be a lot of responsibilities and chaos if I mess up somehow.

"Well, if you don't want to do that, then why don't you start your own kingdom?" ( Akemi )

That's also another scratch for me since I don't know how to run a country. Also, no one would want to join a country ruled by a mass murderer.

"We're only eight here so I don't think we can create our own country." Akemi started thinking for a bit before saying something else.

"If you have nothing else to do. Then why don't we gather all of the artifacts around the world?" Akemi happily suggested to us.

.

.

.