-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-To Tokyo(1)-

“What do you mean, ‘I don’t think so’? don’t you see what happened to her?” Joy didn’t understand what Kenshin meant and became a little livid. He treated Chiba as his own sister and thus became irrational whenever it involved her. Not only him, even Kenshin sometimes become irritable when matters include Chiba. As the brother of two little girls and a little boy, his sibling instincts are just too high. But even then, his statement startled the Zombie girl who just happened to pass by.

“Joy, don’t get blinded by love. Look at the situation at hand.” Kenshin didn’t take Joy’s shout to his heart; instead, he started to explain calmly, “the world is going into a strange direction.” As he said this, his eyes twitched, remembering the weird meteor in the sky he and Yuki saw. His wavering heart solidified once again.

“The world, as we know it, will be ending soon.” Kenshin declared. He wasn’t an oracle, and this wasn’t a prophecy. He was saying it purely based on his newly obtained quest and the meteor on the sky. He now realized that he can take these quests as a sign, it's like he was predicting the future.

“What the fuck?” as expected, Joy didn’t believe it. Even Kenshin had a hard time believing it when he first saw that mission. But his system had repeatedly proved its authenticity, there was no mistaking it. After the outburst, he calmed down, realizing that no one would joke around with this kind of matter, let alone Kenshin. Then he looked at Kenshin, “really? You mean total Armageddon?”

“Idiot, I am not talking about that kind of world ending… I am talking about Society Collapse…” Kenshin said before explaining his feelings to Joy. After a long-winded explanation, he said, “to survive in that kind of world… we must become strong Joy.” Kenshin declared, then he continued, “Chiba must become strong. Or else she would be left behind by this upcoming New Era.”

“Oi, oi… don’t say something so ominous at a time like this. Alright, I understand.” Joy finally understood. He didn’t think Kenshin to be an alarmist. He knew him too well to make an assumption like that. After a brief moment of silence, Joy looked at Kenshin before saying, “Kenshin, what do you think those things are?” joy asked, it had become a knot in his heart. He could be considered one of the few people who had seen the origin of these leathery monsters, but yet, he couldn’t understand their origin or purpose. Not only their sketchy origin and the way it attacks the hunters, but he was also largely surprised at how these things could grow exponentially by killing human hunters. These creatures transcended the common monsters he was familiar with, it didn’t make any sense to him.

“Those things…” Kenshin stopped and thought then continued, “could be said to be a type of computer virus that corrupts the particular pre-existing type of program.”

“Computer program? Dude, what they corrupted are humans, living and breathing humans for god’s sake.” Joy retorted. He didn’t understand Kenshin’s meaning and thought he was bull shitting him so early in the morning.

“Idiot, I am giving you a metaphor. Like how a computer virus corrupts a specific computer program, this black thing affects only when a specific group of people touches it… namely a hunter.” Kenshin said as he relaxed with his hands above his head and even yawned once. It was as if he was talking about a p**em*n. Seeing such a Kenshin, Joy too relaxed his stiff shoulders.

“Relax Joy, we aren’t the only ones living in this world.” Kenshin drawled out while rubbing his eyes, “and I also didn’t believe that I am the only one who realized the approaching crisis. There are people far more powerful and resourceful than me… and they must have already aware of this. That’s why Joy, you should stop worrying about everyone. Help whomever you can and have the ability to, the family must come first.”

“In future, of we come across this weird thing again, be sure to eliminate it and whoever it possesses, even if it’s an innocent hunter, got it?” Kenshin firmly warned. Then his brows furrowed as he began to contemplate if he should reveal his system’s existence to him or not. Suddenly that eccentric old man’s face flashed on his head, and Kenshin gave up the idea of revealing the system on the spot.

‘If an old man that strong isn’t revealing it, then there must be a reason for that, right? What if he somehow finds it out and comes to kill Joy to keep the secret a secret? It's better not to reveal too much.’ Kenshin’s heart was in a turmoil of thoughts. Unlike what he said to Joy, his situation was opposite to it. He had to take care of this problem, which was shoved to his throat by the system. His mind weighed heavily on whether he should switch on the Co-op or not. If he does, then it will make this mission much easier to complete, but going online means declaring everyone that he, too, possessed a system.

He also wasn’t ready to take this risk, yet. Ultimately he decided to try this mission alone. He had done everything in his life alone after his parent’s death, and he will do so for this mission as well.

‘I should go and see Akari, I wonder if she got over he slump already… that girl worries me a lot, ugh.’ Kenshin sighed with a smile. He wasn’t worried about her life, as her Map marker is still green, showing she exists in the same plane of existence like him and quite healthy too. This was a new thing that appeared after his system upgraded. He only discovered it during the assassination of the Kawakuchi family. There was one more thing new also added to it when a certain marked target exits map’s area of effect, their marker would turn grey. But now, though the map still couldn’t discover their accurate location when they are out of AoE of Map, it could still show the marked person’s general direction.

Instead of being just a function of the system, it had now evolved into the same level as a high leveled tracking skill. This was something outside of his expectations, but a welcomed one nonetheless. Hence, using this exact upgraded map, he was able to tell that Akari was fine, no need to worry about her life… period. Still, he decided to go to Tokyo to meet her and her teachers sometime during this week.

Just as he was about to drift off to a morning nap, suddenly, Yuki came out rushing of his room, trying her hard to dress with what she wore the day before. She spotted Kenshin sprawled on the couch and shouted, “Kenshin, drop me on my apartment, please.”

“Huh?” Kenshin sat up, looking at a Yuki, who was running helter-skelter. “Something came up?” he asked.

“Yes. Two esteemed elders are coming to Tokyo. I have to go and welcome them as soon as possible. I just received a call about this.” Yuki said, as she came running at Kenshin and grab held his hand to pull him out of his sofa, “come on. We have to go.”

“What? Elders? Then you are going to Tokyo now?” Kenshin asked with wide eyes. It's like he was hungry and a meat pie just fell from the sky. He was just thinking about an opportunity to go and meet Akari. Lo and behold… his opportunity came in a very strange way.

“I will be going with you as well, I have to meet with Akari there. Let’s go together.”