Zen pushes his way through people as he starts walking towards the sound of roaring coming from the far edge of the city.
Then he starts jogging.
Then starts running as he closes in on the edge of the city. The area was basically abandoned with only animals lounging around and rundown buildings.
About 200 feet away is the base of the cliff where there is a tunnel entrance to Cave Fire and Ice and three figures pacing back and forth in front of the entrance.
As Zen gets closer the figures become clearer as they look towards him and raise up their hands to stop him from going any further.
The three figures are wearing what seems like brand new clothes that were perfectly tailored, and all have red hair with green tips worn in a high ponytail.
The people are in a row with each person slightly taller than the last, they speak alternating who says which words
‘We’
‘Are’
‘The Turnip Trio’, the tallest person finishes.
Middle Turnip continues, ‘We protect the good city from the dangers all over’
Small Turnip nods, ‘Sorry to turn you away, but the dragons in this cave started acting up recently you could get hurt.’
Thoughts flood through Zen’s mind, ‘I remember the Turnip Trio when I first visited Midnight City in the game, they are NPCs used as warnings for quests and locations that might be dangerous for lower-level players. But I don’t remember them having this much personality.’
‘I can’t leave yet; my friend has been in the cave all alone and I don’t want them to get hurt.’
Zen covers his eyes as he speaks and tries to add sniffs to sound like he is crying.
The Turnip Trio look at each other with tears streaming down their face as they start whispering and nodding to themselves.
The Small Turnip looks at Zen, ‘I can be your guide, so nothing happens to you. I can’t let a kid like me get hurt.’
Zen winces, ‘I’m actually probably older than…’
The other two cut Zen off in unison, ‘We can’t let you do that. We’ll all go together.’
Shaking his head Zen says, ‘You don’t have to do that, I’ll only be in there for a second.’
The Trio completely ignore Zen as they walk into the cave proudly with their hands up prepared for a fight.
Zen reluctantly follows looking around in this cave as a loud constant pounding traveling throughout the whole cave.
The cave is crystal blue as all the rocks and dirt is covered in a thin layer of perfectly clean ice. Waves of heat come every few seconds that provides small relief from the cold but not hot enough to melt the ice.
The cave starts off as a long, skinny tunnel so small that the Trio and Zen must walk one behind the other.
Tall Turnip asks, ‘So what’s your name? And how long have you been in Midnight City cause we only been watching that entrance for a few days. Why only come for your friend now?’
‘You can call me Kurama. I just got to Midnight City and learned where he was, so I want to make sure he’s ok.’ Zen laughs nervously
Tall Turnip starts to tear up, ‘You are such a great friend. I, Potato Root Turnip, and my brothers Broccoli Stem Turnip and Red Pepper Turnip swear we will reunite you with your friend.’
Middle and Small Turnip nod respectively when their brother called their names.
The long tunnel opens into a massive area with the ceiling almost out of sight and all around there are more tunnels and bats quietly fly throughout this giant section of the cave.
The pounding is even louder and echoes throughout the open area.
Everyone looks around trying to decide where to go next, but there are too many entrances.
Zen pulls out his Traveler’s Stone and says, ‘Sunny0133.’
The robotic voice rings through the cave:
‘Contacting Sunny0133’
At the same moment there is a faint sound, the words are inaudible, but Zen immediately knows it has to be Tsuna.
Zen starts sprinting towards an entrance, running full speed with the three brothers chasing behind.
The tunnel twists and turns with Zen slipping and tripping over his own legs.
And after a minute of running, he comes across
A dead end.
Gasping for air he slams his fist on the ground, ‘I always do this. I can’t think straight when it comes to Tsuna. I just want to see a familiar face.’
Zen looks back at the Stone and sees that it is still trying to connect.
Potato, Broccoli, and Red finally catch up and stop in front of the exhausted Zen.
‘You alright?’ They all asked in unison.
Zen nods, still thinking only about Tsuna.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Red gives a giant smile, ‘Don’t worry Kurama, we heard that sound that means that he’s here.’
The pounding is even more prominent now with the tunnel shaking causing everyone to tremble.
An incredible pressure is suddenly present as it weighs down on Zen, his breathing gets heavy and his knees buckle.
‘We gotta get back to the open area and try to listen more closely.’
The Turnip Trio agrees and follows him back to the entrance.
The closer they got to the entrance the louder the noise gets.
Zen takes a step closer to the entrance.
*THUD*
Another step.
The sound of ice creaking and cracking rings.
Zen and the boys are in the opening of the small tunnel as they see two figures blitzing around and fighting in the big cave.
A hulking figure wearing only gray trousers on with rippling muscles and long black hair the reaches all the way to the ground with some to spare. This figure is wearing a blank white mask and gold tattoos all over its body.
The masked figure is repeatedly punching down on the other figure’s shield, denting it more with each punch.
The other figure is wearing silver heavy armor that has been scratched and dented all over, he has the look of a dwarf with his short stature and red hair that connects to his bushy red beard. He is holding his shield in one hand and a small wooden box in his other.
The dwarf seems to be completely on the defensive side, as he is pushed back closer and closer to the wall.
‘TSUNA!!’ Zen recognizes that dwarf character in heavy armor anywhere, his friend of 5 years who he met through Legacy.
Tsuna looks right at Zen and gives a confused look as he turns back to keep defending himself from the onslaught.
‘He must not recognize me; this is a brand-new character I made before getting teleported here.’ Zen tries to move but is frozen with that massive pressure weighing him down still.
The masked figure voice grumbles, ‘You betray me and now you brought back up?’
The figure starts yelling and 3 rings of blue energy form around each of his forearms, more rings appear around his hair as it lifts it up straight in the air.
The figure swings his arm as a strong wind knocks Tsuna back making the shield and wooden box scatter on the ice sliding in front of Zen.
The figure swings at the fallen Tsuna hitting him straight in the face shaking the whole cave.
Tsuna weakly raises his hand in the direction of the wooden box
*Thud*
The figure slams his fist back into his face
Tsuna’s hand twitches
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Squiiish*
*Squiiish*
The loud pounding turns into a slightly quieter squish sound as the figure keeps punch with his hands drenched in blood.
Tsuna’s face is now unrecognizable with it in a bloody pulp.
But the figure doesn’t let up with his punches with him keep swinging, cracking the ice all around the cave.
‘This is real, this is real.’ The figure mutters over and over as he punches
Potato, Broccoli, and Red push past Zen as they rush towards the masked figure with them ready for a fight.
The figure turns to be bombarded by a flurry of attacks.
‘Sun Style: Root Vegetable.’, Potato delivers a strong uppercut.
‘Sun Style: Good Harvest.’, Broccoli’s hand erupts in a golden energy as he does a side chop on the figure’s neck.
‘Sun Style: Clear Skies.’, Red jumps up and does a downward kick on his head.
The figure’s head slams into the ice.
‘Get out of here!’ Potato yells, ‘There’s no way that is going to keep him down.’
Zen grabs the wooden box off the ground and runs towards Tsuna.
Broccoli looks back, ‘What are you doing? He’s dead! Leave, we will….’
The masked figure stands back up as he cracks his knuckles, ‘Those were pretty good moves.’ He stretches as 2 more rings appear on each arm and 5 appear on both of his legs.
The figure gives a swift upper cut to Potato, knocking his head off completely with blood staining the ice and the body twitch uncontrollably as it falls to the ground.
He then looks at Broccoli and chops the side of his neck faster than Broccoli can react sending his body straight into the ice creating a deep pit with his head sticking out.
The figure turns to Red, ‘That kick actually hurt so I have something special for you.’
Zen panics as he has been shaking Tsuna for a response but gets nothing and he sees the two brothers dead.
‘This is way too much happening at once. But I can’t let anyone else die.’
‘Unwavering.’ Zen’s body starts steaming melting the ice around him.
He charges at the figure swinging wildly but landing all his hits making his steam grow more fearsome.
The figure seems unphased as it continues to stare down Red, with a flick of his hand he sends Zen flying to the side crashing into a wall.
The steam subsides and the figure raises his leg up over the trembling Red, who is over the bodies of his brothers with memories of them flooding in his head.
The figure brings down his leg as….
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A blue screen appears in front of the figure making him stumble back.
‘It worked!’ Zen starts to stand up
The figure waves at the screen until it finally goes away
In that moment Zen dashes to Red and puts him on his back, ‘We’re getting out of here.’ He heads to a random tunnel.
The figure follows closely behind, Shaking the whole place with each step.
Zen sprints, jumping and ducking over rocks and making sharp turns trying to lose that man.
Red wipes the tears off his face, ‘Why did you save me? I could’ve been with my brothers in a better place, next to the sun.’
Zen says nothing, trying to keep as much energy as possible.
He sees a light in the distance as he runs in and is greeted to a dead end with holes in the wall that has sunlight coming through reflecting off the ice and icicles in the room.
Dropping to his knees Zen lets go of the wooden box as it slides on the ice a few inches away from him with the contents spilling out.
A pair of golden brass knuckles fall out, the brass knuckles are slightly different than normal ones. They have the circular rings to put the fingers and on the other side is a flat rectangular shape that is the same size of a fist.
(Editor Note: It’s hard to explain the image I’m trying to make. Imagine if you punch someone with these weapons on the mark left would be in the shape of the rectangle. It’s like those brass knuckles of Knuckleduster from My Hero Vigilantes but without the bumps. Hopefully that helps and isn’t too confusing.)
The masked figure enters and looks down at the weapon and back up at Zen and Red, ‘All this for something you don’t know about. I’ll just take that and leave; you can live another pointless day.’
He takes a step towards the brass knuckles.
Zen flashes back to Tsuna’s face being punched in over something so stupid as brass knuckles.
‘I’m not letting you touch the thing that Tsuna fought to the death for.’ Zen dives to the weapons and as he touches it a loud roar echoes and the knuckles float and fly onto Zen’s hands.
Zen then suddenly passes out.
‘Great.’, The figure sighs, ‘Another soul-bonding. I’m not waiting again.’ He pulls back his arm and swings at Zen’s head.
The energy rings around his arm disappears before making contact leaving a dent but obviously not as strong as his prior attacks.
The figure looks at his hand and laughs, ‘It really is real.’
He keeps swinging his hands down on Zen laughing with each hit.
Red screams, ‘Sun Style Spell: Radiant Body!’ His body starts to glow and the ice melts faster and faster creating more and more water.
The water rises to the figure’s legs, the figure goes to stop Red as the weight of the water breaks the ice they were all standing on causing all of them to fall.
It becomes a water drain with Red grabbing onto Zen as they travel through the tunnels like a water slide. The figure is taken a different way as they are separated.
Red holds his breath for what feels like minutes as he is forcefully flowing with the water until that spill out the main entrance where everything started.
Red kisses the ground, ‘I missed you.’ He looks over at Zen who is drenching wet and not moving. Red panics and looks up at the moon.
‘I should be able to do one more.’ Red takes a deep breath, ‘Sun Style Spell: Healing.’
A small ball of fire appears over Red’s hand and floats over Zen’s body making it glow softly.
Red smiles as he feels drowsy and falls asleep.
A minute later Zen gasps coughing up water.