13Prologue: Where am I, kamo?
In the year 2019, human civilization ended.
In an instant, a mysterious ray of light spread across the entire globe. Every square inch of the surface of the planet were bathed in its radiance. Every single human being, along with a few species of animals, were instantly petrified into stone statues.
Their souls might be encased, but humanity wasn't dead in their stone prison. Despite being trapped in a limbo of sorts, some minds would occasionally awake in the darkness before ultimately succumbing to unconsciousness again. Millions were destroyed by the marching of time and the merciless elements, dooming them to a fate worse than death.
However, one mind (well two, but the other one doesn't matter at the moment) managed to keep himself awake. A genius, perhaps the smartest homo sapiens ever born on this Earth, was doing his best to track time.
One painful second at a time
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10… 117,233,855,450… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…"
His will was unbreakable, just like his father before him. He had a dream to one day reach space himself, and he refused to go silently into the night without a fight.
When he broke free of his prison, he would be humanity's salvation, for he carried almost all of their scientific knowledge in his little head. He will be the new seed to restart their civilization.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10… 117,233,855,470… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…"
Unfortunately we wouldn't be seeing him for another 13,149,000 more seconds, which was about eight months from now.
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This village didn't have a calendar system. All they knew was the fact that winter was coming because the leaves on the trees were turning red and yellow.
The memories of the last disaster were still fresh in the minds of the adults and elderly. Starvation, frigid cold, and terrible disease claimed the lives of a few families, reducing their already low population to only 39 adults and a few dozen children. They needed dried fish and fruits, piles upon piles of firewood, animal pelts and furs, alcohol… there were never enough supplies despite how hard they worked. Everyone capable was busy working from morning until dawn, all for the sake of surviving another week.
Was it any wonder that they weren't able to progress beyond the stone age?
On one chilly morning, it happened. The entire village was rattled awake by a tremor that pulsed through their land.
"Ruri! Are you alright?!" Kokuyo the village chief exclaimed, as he entered his daughter's quarters.
"*Cough* *Cough* I am alright father…" his daughter, the priestess of the village sickly replied. "W-What happened? Was it the wrath of the land gods?"
"Ruri-nee! You alright?!" Bursting in, was the chief's second daughter.
"We are fine, Kohaku," the strict father replied. "Gather everyone! We need to check if there are any injuries.."
It didn't take long for every member of the village to gather for an emergency meeting, where everyone reported on their status.
"It seemed no one was injured, thankfully," Jasper, Kokuyo's right hand man said. "Just what was that-"
Another tremor came as the villagers cried out in distress, this time the shaking was followed by noises they had never heard of before.
GROAN GROAN CREAK...
It was loud… it sounded huge and terrible, easily triggering their primal instincts like listening to the low growl of a watching predator.
"It's close to us!" Turquoise, Kokuyo's right hand woman said. "Where is it coming from?"
"Everyone come look! I see someone in the water!" Kohaku's voice cried out. Adults quickly gathered by the lake side, looking down the cliff right below Kokuyo's house.
Right on the edge of the water, there was a person stuck between the cliff and waves. A young girl with clothing that the villagers had never seen before. Her long pale white hair resembled some of their own, while some strange... thing was attached to her wrist. It didn't resemble stone at all, it's actually straight and square in ways that even their best craftsman would struggle to replicate.
The autumn wind was strong today, and the lake was surprisingly violent. One wave washed onto the girl's body, swaying her head back and forth as the terrifying sound echoed from her joints, resulting in her head hitting the side of the cliff.
The tremor spread again, explaining to the villagers the cause of their problem.
"She was causing the wrath of the land gods?" Turquoise muttered in shock. "Look at it! She was cracking the side of the cliff from just hitting her head on it! How is this possible?"
"This is not good…" Jasper said. "I am worried she will weaken the foundation of the chief's house. We need to do something about it…"
"Well then, let me do it!" A tough looking man and his lackeys stepped up. "Let the great Magma-sama handle this! There's no one else stronger than me! I will remove that girl!"
"Magma, I don't think you are strong enough to break rocks with your head, so she's probably stronger than you…"
"Tsu, just you watch! I as the future chief will handle this!"
Sailing for the people of this village came naturally as they were borne fishermen. It didn't take long for them to arrive by the unknown girl's side on rafts.
Magma grinned. Upon a closer look, the girl was just like any other girls in the village. If anything, she was one of the skinniest adults he had seen with barely any muscles. Her head causing tremors had to be some kind of sorcery and not from her actual strength, he thought.
Telling his lackeys to sail closer, he reached out and attempt to grab her hand resting on some rocks, thinking he would easily pull her out of the water.
He was sorely mistaken when he couldn't even move the resting hand.
"W-What is this!?" He struggled hard. His eyes told him he was trying to lift a limb, while his muscle told him he was lifting so much mass he might as well be moving a mountain. "All of you help me out!" he ordered desperately.
After five minutes of trying brute force, Magma and his lackeys returned to land with nothing to show for it but sore arms and strained backs.
"Fufu~ I thought you are the strongest?" Kohaku taunted, grinning.
"I am telling you! It's some kind of sorcery! That girl's so heavy she's unmovable!"
Another tremor spread through the village followed by more cracking of the rocks.
"This won't do…" Kokuyo groaned. "Kohaku! Where's Chrome?! We need his sorcery for once!"
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Inside a store house outside of the village, a young boy lay dead asleep.
Last night he was so exhausted from gathering materials that the commotion outside failed to wake him. It didn't help that he ate some unknown herbs that gave him a terrible stomach ache and left him very weak and dazed.
"Chrome! Chrome! Come out of there! We need you!"
The door burst open as Kohaku climbed into the shed. She began shaking the boy.
"Ahm… let me sleep more…"
"Chrome… Ruri-nee needs you! You need to come over now!"
The boy instantly snapped awake, panicking. "R-Ruri's in trouble?!"
"Yeah, kind of. If you mean she and Father will sleep outside tonight." Kohaku answered. "Come, we need your advice on sorcery."
Both teens headed to the village as Kohaku explained on the way. Honestly, Chrome didn't understand the situation until he saw the girl himself.
Sorcery that made you as heavy as a mountain and could shake the ground just from bumping your head against the rocks? He had never seen anything like this before! In reality he was as clueless as everyone else, not exactly sure how to remove the unconscious girl either.
But looking at Ruri's worried and sickly face steeled his resolve.
"Leave it to the genius sorcerer Chrome! I will do what Magma couldn't!" He boasted as he returned to his house for materials and tools.
In his mind he decided if brute strength, as proven by Magma, wouldn't work, then it's just a matter of throwing sorcery at her until something happened. He would go from his weakest tool to his strongest, which was rainbow colored fire. He did hope he could avoid that last option, because it would be a pain in the ass to set up on the lake.
"So… what's with that mud ball?" Kohaku asked as they sailed.
"Just you watch!" Chrome said, confident his plan would work.
Right next to the mysterious girl, the boy began scrubbing his ball like a mad man, rolling it back and forth on his palms, forearms, and on top of his head, panting all the way. His friend was just confused, wondering what had gotten into him.
"Hah… hah… Take this!" Having gathered enough tingling sensation on his skin, Chrome touched his finger onto the girl's cheek.
Unknown to the young sorcerer, while to him it was magic. What he just did was the primitive equivalent of a static electricity generator. The ball he was rubbing was created from melted sulfur, which, when he rubbed it, became charged with static electricity.
Buzz
He wasn't doing it in the most effective way possible, but the weak shock was enough. The girl felt it though her barrier.
Both teens widened their eyes when her eyelids slowly opened.
"It worked!" Chrome cheered. "Hell yeah, first attempt! I am a genius!"
"Good job Chrome!" Kohaku nodded. "Hello? Do you know where you are? What is your name?"
"... kamo…" the mysterious girl groaned.
"Oh, your name is Kamo?"
"No… that's not my name, kamo… Let me pull myself up first, kamo…"
The girl started to get up, but rather than using the surrounding rocks as support, she stood on the surface of the waves as if they were solid ground. Chrome and Kohaku were astonished that her hands and feet didn't sink below the water.
"I thought there were rocks underneath her!" Kohaku exclaimed. "But she was actually laying on top of the water the entire time!?"
"A-Awesome! Sorcery that let you walk on water!" Chrome gushed. "I want to know how to do that! It would make gathering material so much easier!"
Kohaku also noticed that the girl's joints were not making scary groaning noises anymore, thankfully, because those were creepy.
Now fully upright, the girl didn't as much walk over to their raft but rather slide across the surface of the water, with her legs barely moving.
The girl stood straight, raised her hand and made a gesture with meanings unknown to either teens, but it felt like she was greeting the two of them. "I am Seaplane Tender Akitsushima… civilians, can you tell me the coordinates? I am guessing I am in Japan water, kamo… Even though I was supposed to be over at America."
Both Chrome and Kohaku stared at her like she had just spoke gibberish to them.
"Wait a minute… I don't get what you've just said," Confusion was all over the boy's face. "Civilians? Coordinates? Japan water? America? What are those?"
"You name is 'Suijokibokanakitsushima'? That's a mouthful of a name, why would your parents pick that?" Kohaku asked.
"No. My name is Akitsushima, Seaplane Tender is what I am," The mysterious girl replied, just as confused as them. "How do you both not know what I've just asked? Both of you spoke Japanese, so I am in Japan, right, kamo…?"
"Japanese? You mean our tongue?" Kohaku muttered. "This is getting really confusing, can we talk about it back in the village? I don't want to stay on the lake under this wind."
A worried expression painted Akitsushima's face, but she nodded. She followed their raft back to the village.
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Primitive. That was the best word Akitsushima could describe everyone she had seen until now.
At first she thought she might have somehow washed up around Hokkaido and these were the Ainu people. But she was quickly disproved because none of their culture resemble Ainu as embodied by a certain fellow Seaplane Tender/Fleet Oiler. And she would be disrespecting the Ainu by comparing this village to them, because those guys were properly modernized while these people were anything but.
Everyone wore leather and pelts as clothing, with no fabrics anywhere in sight.
All the buildings were wooden with straw roofs, fastened with ropes rather than nails.
All the tools were either stone or wood.
No modern plumping.
No grids. No electricity. She didn't- or rather couldn't feel any electromagnetic waves.
Akitsushima shook her head, "Calm down… I need to gather all the information first, kamo."
In the center of the village, she met up with the chief with all the villagers looking at her, all of them curious about the mystery girl with bizarre clothing and apparently strength even Magma couldn't match and sorcery Chrome didn't know.
Kokuyo greeted her with Jasper and Turquoise by his side. "Welcome to our village… normally outsiders are forbidden to enter. But we will make an exception this one time." His tone carried unease as the three adults quickly introduced themselves.
"Thank you, Kokuyo-sama," Akitsushima answered as she did the unknown gesture again; a Salute. "I am a Seaplane Tender belonging to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, or JMSDF for short. My name is Akitsushima."
She specifically used the English abbreviation to check their reaction.
Bewilderment spread quickly. "Suijokibokan? Kaijojieitai? J.M.S.D.F?"
"I-I am sorry, I don't quite understand your words, Akitsushima-san," Kokuyo replied, trying to not reveal his utter confusion.
"No concept of English alphabet… Couldn't understand the meaning of certain kanjis..."
The girl smiled. "No matter, I will explain in due time… But first can you tell me the current year, kamo?"
"That I could do," Jasper answered. "I believe it has been 226 years since the founding of this settlement, right?"
Turquoise nodded. "Yeah, the Miko-sama kept track, should be right."
"T-That's not the year I wanted!" Akitsushima thought.
"I.. I have to check one more thing, please excuse me for a moment."
The village watched the girl raised her hand… and shoved its entirely into her own abdomen. There was no blood, because she didn't really pierce herself. To the primitive people, the act was unknowable and outright magical.
"Awesome!" Chrome through as he admired her. "What she's doing, I have no clue but I have to learn about her sorcery! It's too cool to pass up!"
They watched with caution as the girl pulled her arm back out and in her hand was now a rectangular object. She moved her thumb over it, as its surface flickered with colored lights.
Kohaku, who was born with very good eyesight, managed to sneak a peek. "Are those drawings?! They are so detailed, it's out right lifelike! They are somehow moving!"
"Accessing GPS…" Akitsushima prayed. "Please respond… please respond. Please just one piece of evidence to disprove my fears, kamo!"
No signal.
Her device slipped from her hand and onto the floor, undamaged thanks to its colorful casing. The girl slumped to the ground, her expression a mixture of shock, confusion, and despair.
"Akitsushima-san…?"
"No GPS response… This means no satellites… What happened to civilizations, kamo?" She grabbed her head in distress. "My memory was hazy… I was… That's right, the mission was to liberate Pearl Harbor. I was the flagship and leading everyone on the safest possible route… Then- Then-"
Was she sunk? No, she was undamaged and fully stocked. So why was her memory unclear?
Where were her allies? Where was the naval base? Where was her beloved, but slightly insane Admiral?! Where was the Japan she was constructed to protect!?
"Where am I, kamo?!" She cried out loud.
Suddenly everyone was alerted when the object attached to her wrist moved on its own. Something green manifested in brilliant blue fire, before being shot out by the contraption on it. Another burst of flame in mid air and everyone was astonished.
Wider than bird anyone had ever seen before, it had no feathers on its unnaturally straight wings. Its body was bulky and smooth, colored green and white. The best explanation the villagers could give was that it was some kind of avian they had never seen before. It flew around Akitsushima in circle like a loyal pet.
It made a series of beeping noises. ".-. .-.. .-. .- .-.- .. - - -.-. .- -.-. = ( "
"Taitei-chan…" Shaking, Akitsushima hugged the creature and sobbed. "What are we supposed to do now?"
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