-Break-
The bridges between each platform has a section for walking, and a section for gravity vehicles. Going from platform four to five, the bridge was completely packed and a very uncomfortable experience, but going from platform five to six was the exact opposite, there was almost no one here.
It was strange how baren it was, even when me and Suzuka were running all the way to the bridge the population density dropped immensely as we approached it, which started bothering me.
Still, regardless of the thoughts that occupied my mind, I still made it to the sixth platform first. “Looks like you are a stupid fox Suzuka.”
“That’s because you cheated.”
“You injured me pretty badly, so I needed to give myself a head start.”
“But you also punched me in the face, so I could say the same, and I was carrying the gravity board.”
“Whatever the challenge is over now so no haggling.”
As Suzuka growls at me I get a good look at the 6th platform: it is decrypt, with pieces of the deteriorated buildings in the sky, most of the lights look fully or partially destroyed, there is almost no one in sight, and the air here feels noticeably worse than the air in the last two platforms, it is almost difficult to breathe. “Suzuka, I don’t want to spend a lot of time here, so let's get going as fast as possible,” I say while preparing the board.
“Ok,” she says with a sigh while hopping on the board with me. As we take off like normal we immediately run into an annoying issue, the pieces of buildings in the sky still have their little gravity fields, so we get pulled each and every way.
This eventually causes us to crash into a building, and due to its gravity, we are now standing sideways on it. Thinking fast, I move both me and Suzuka to the bottom of the building and use my legacy to create enough ice that we are pushed out of the range of its field and are back in zero gravity.
After this incident, Suzuka and I land on one of the non-destroyed buildings. “I think we should go by foot from now on, and fly only when it is necessary.”
“But won’t that slow us down a lot, especially in this horrible area?”
“We don’t have much choice, we are in a dangerous situation no matter which one we choose, so I would rather deal with people than deal with nature itself.”
So, after this we continue on our path, running from place to place and building to building until we eventually come across an area with people in it.
Looking around this place it feels more like a slum rather than a city, all the people here are horribly dressed in tattered clothes, and most of them look homeless, and as we walk through they all stare daggers at me and Suzuka.
“Orb, can we get through here faster.”
Looking at Suzuka I see that she is shaking and ask her, “Are the thoughts of these strangers getting to you?”
“Yes, they are thinking lots of horrible stuff concerning us, and it is crushing my head. It feels too much like home, it hurts.”
Grabbing Suzuka I hold her tight and say, “Sorry about this, I have almost finished looking around so can you hold on a little longer.”
“Yeah, I will do my best.” Putting on her mask she says, “Please give me strength.”
So as soon as I finish scanning the area and talking to people for information, I leave with Suzuka immediately. While sitting down on a rooftop for her to recharge, I notice that her tails have gone from three to five.
Something I have taken note of recently, is the way she absorbs spirit energy. When she hears people's thoughts, she absorbs some of their spirit energy, but it isn’t a uniform rate, the amount of spirit energy she absorbs is proportional to the intensity of emotions of those around her.
So, that means that even though we were in that area for a very short period of time, Suzuka was able to grow two full tails back, while in the first two platforms, Suzuka was only able to regrow one tail. So, whatever those people are feeling must be intense if they could reform two, and the part that truly bothers me is that Suzuka had to feel all that.
“Orb, I think I am ok now.”
“You sure?”
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“Very, that place was just especially intense.”
“Then do you want to share what you heard to ease your worries?” Suzuka looks as though my words caught her off guard. “Was what I said so surprising?”
Acting like the little weirdo she is she tells me, “Well it is just that no one has ever asked such a thing, so it feels kinda weird, as you sure you want to hear such horrid things.”
“You are forced to have to hear all these horrible thoughts, and I think at the very least you shouldn’t be forced to keep them all to yourself, so lay it on me.”
As we walk to our next destination, Suzuka tells me about all the information that was forced into her head by her curse. She tells me some rather horrid stuff about what the people were thinking of doing to us, and how much our existence irritated them, which was made weirder by the fact Suzuka had a big smile on her face, it really seems she has been keeping a lot in.
But aside from relieving Suzuka, it has become clearer how a girl like her could have such a horrible vocabulary, the stuff she was saying she heard was quite disgusting.
As we are enjoying our conversation, loud screams catch our attention and we run towards them. What we see when we arrive are a group of rather ruff-looking people surrounding a dark-skinned boy, with two of them on the floor.
As we get closer, I hear one of the ruff people say, “Do you really think you’re going to get away with picking a fight with us.”
“I didn’t start this fight, all I was doing was trying to relocate my current coordinates to a different space, and in the process of doing that, 480 divided by 32 carbon-based organisms got in my way, which caused this whole silly altercation.”
“Wait, what.”
“Oh, sorry you and all your illiterate dick-brained idiots, probably couldn’t comprehend what I said, so let me break this down, you got in my way so I kicked your ass.”
“DON’T FUCK WITH ME KID, MY GANG OWNS THIS AREA.”
“Yes, and I could have known that how?”
Recomposing himself he says, “I don’t know what type of place you think Ichnaea is, but you don’t simply walk around without paying your respect.”
“Oh, I have that right here,” Reaching into his bag the boy takes out his hand with his hand with the middle finger up.
“That’s it you little shit, no mercy.” After saying this the people around the boy rush him.
Before they reach him, the boy looks up at the sky and says “God you’re my witness.” Then he dodges the blows of all of them, and knocks one in the chin.
Continuing on from that, the boy picks up the body of one of them by the leg, and uses it as a weapon to attack the others. Despite him looking our age, he is rather strong. “I guess his spirit arts must be good.”
“No Orb, he isn’t using spirit energy, that’s just raw physical strength.”
“What the hell?”
After whacking them around with the body of their comrade, he sees one trying to run away, so he grabs him and holds him by the ledge of the building saying, “The gravity around here is pretty wonky, so let’s see if zero-gravity will save you.”
As the boy drops the ruffian, I dash forward and save him, repositioning him back onto the building. “Hey who the hell are you.”
“I am just a friendly rainbow passing through.”
“Well then you should have let that guy fall before they try and shake you down for some money, it is the least that guy deserves.”
“No, you idiot, if you just kill him, he will never learn his lesson.”
“Sounds like a hassle, and I think death is the only way for idiots to learn.”
“Little boy you still have so much to learn. Watch this,” I say walking over to the man. Holding the man’s hands I say, “That must off been scary, but don’t you worry I won’t let you die.”
“Really?”
“Really.” I then rip off one of the man’s fingernails. As his screams echo throughout the area I say, “Look now I have shown him the warmth of being a good person and have given him a constant physical reminder of what happens when you’re a piece of shit.”
Rubbing his chin the boy says back to me, “I see, you brilliant bastard.”
“Of course I am, but don’t just stand there, this man still has nine fingernails left and to me, that is nine too many.”
“I see, please watch my technique and rate me out of ten,” the boy says ripping off another fingernail.
I tell him, “You went too fast, that scream wasn’t as loud as the last one, you got to take it slow.”
“I see so how is this,” He says ripping off another fingernail.
“Ahh that is good, but stop for a second while I teach you a few techniques.”
“Go ahead, master.”
“You see if you wait for a few seconds eventually the open fingernails will become sensitive again, where you can then play with the flesh.”
“You utter genius.”
“And after you have ripped a fingernail, you can do this,” I say as I break one of the man’s fingers.
“In genius a two-phase flow of punishment, you truly are revolutionary.”
“Why, why are you too doing this to me? I am so sorry.”
“You hear that, this man is openly repenting of his mistakes, and from this point on, whenever he looks at his hands he will remember what we did to him, isn’t that just amazing? If you just killed him, he wouldn’t have ever been able to change.”
“I see what you mean, I will take this to heart.”
“YOU MOTHER FUCKIN BRATS,” one of the ruffians says as a large group of them charges at us, but Suzuka quickly comes and turns all her tails into fists and punches five of them all at once.
Φ As I see Orb and the boy torturing that man, all I can think is; I don’t want to be left out. This is bad I am getting excluded, if it goes on like this I will eventually be forgotten. Come on Suzuka, you can do this, not everyone hates you here, so if I go join in, they would probably allow it, and I got to make sure to be mean.
Should I put on my mask? No, I shouldn’t, Orb told me that being face-to-face with people can help with friendship, so I just got to do this on my own.
So, I start approaching Orb and his friend as the man they torture screams for help, but as I do, I feel this weight when closing in as if I am about to get sick, I feel as though I am about to die, I am so nervous.
“DIE YOU FOX BITCH,” Turning all my tails into a hand, I grab the man and smash him into the ground back and forth, doing this helps me relieve enough stress, so I take the last few steps towards Orb and boy.
“Would I be able to join in too?”
Orb looking at me says, “Of course.” He then turns his head to the boy and says, “This is my friend Suzuka, she is kind be nice to her.”
“Hello Suzuka,” the boy says.
Hearing this I feel tears well up in my eyes, I never thought I would be able to do this so easily. So, I join Orb and the boy in torturing the man.