Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Hitori grabbed the corner and pulled himself. Then he turned around and helped Reon climb the veranda.

The house was not as good as before, but the indoor team had done a pretty good job of cleaning the explosions marks, the black patches, and the damage done to other utensils and things.

The hall was empty, and no one was in his room either. Reon went to the kitchen to get water. She came with a glass in her hand. She handed Hitori the glass and said, "Where is everyone?"

Hitori drank the water, then said, "Maybe upstairs. Let us go." He waited for her to come back, then they went upstairs.

Hitori was climbing the last five stairs when he heard Akira shout, "Hitori's back!"

He was startled for a moment till he was confronted by Eya. "Hitori-san!" She ran to him, then grabbed his hand without thinking twice. "Hurry. You need to see this."

Both were confused. Eya pulled Hitori to the room and Reon followed. The master bedroom was as silent as it could be. Kakashi was on the bed, Akira was standing, and Kyoryu was sitting on the bed's corner.

Eya let go of Hitori's hand and Kyo stood from the bed. "Did you check behind the house?" he asked.

Hitori nodded, still not understanding the situation. But when his eyes fell on Kakashi, he saw how distressed he looked. His hand was dug into his long hair, and beads of water were running down his forearm from his forehead.

"You did?" Eya said in a suspicious tone. "Then did you see anyone? D-Did you see the thing?"

The 'thing'. So that is what we are calling the guardian now, cool. Hitori nodded, still not getting a grip of the situation. "I did, and it was—"

"What was it? Was it glowing? Did it attack you?" Eya asked without giving him a moment to answer any of the questions. "D-Did it tries to kill you?"

"Whoa, whoa, Eya-nee," Reon said as she raised her hands and approached Eya. "What happened? Why are you acting like this? The Spirit was—"

"It is not a spirit!" Kakashi shouted. Hitori felt the scare in his voice. "It is a haunter. A damn haunter." Kakashi removed his hand, revealing the bloodshot eyes and his sweaty face.

"Alright. So tell me what happened with the haunter?" Hitori asked.

But Kakashi grabbed his forehead again and dropped his head. As if he was saying, 'Fuck off.'

Hitori looked at Kyo, he was ready to break down it for Hitori. "He heard the haunter. That whisper again."

Hitori remembered the whisper all fine. Now he knew what the whisper thing was about. 'Bring my Tengoku, give him to me…' And what everything else it had whispered.

"And what did he say?" Hitori held his breath for hearing the final verdict.

Kyoryu sighed and said, "'You did not bring him to me, you will pay for that price. You were supposed to bring Tengoku to me, now I will have to work… I will have to go… I will have to—'"

"'I will have to leave,' That is what it said," Kakashi completed it. Then he turned and looked into Hitori's eyes. "Did you see him when you went behind the house? Was it there?"

Hitori was taken away by the guardian's words. It said it was will leave. It said that it will do something on its own. So it had gone somewhere… to hunt Tengoku? OR to help Tengoku hunt them?

The more Hitori thought about it, the more his mind messed up. The reason behind his disappearance. Hitori thought it could not move, but if it could, why had it left the first time Sengoku arrived? Why did it want Tengoku brought TO him? If it could move…

Hitori doubted it at first, but now he was sure. The guardian WAS dangerous. But the question remained the same: to whom?

"Yeah," Hitori said, "it was not hanging in the vines… it was gone."

Eya gasped, then silence for a moment. Kakashi lifted his hand and stared at Hitori. Kyoryu had the same 'what the fuck are you saying' expression as Kakashi– but Kakashi looked a little… more scared. A himbo, yes. But scared?

"Are you sure?" Kyoryu said.

"Yes, we are," Reon said. "IT was missing."

Kakashi grabbed his hair again and started murmuring under his breath. Hitori had no intention of knowing what the was saying either.

Kyoryu, too, ignored Kakashi– thinking he was overreacting to shit– and said, "Tengoku is coming back. We are not out of danger yet, and now I think this Guardian was working WITH him all along."

Reon had an objection. "Yeah, I thought the same. But then why did it not attack us when it had the chance? It seemed to have immense strength, I tell you from what I heard from Hitori and Eya-nee."

"You are right, lady, but we do not know what they are planning. Scientists can be pretty messed up at times."

"I AM a scientist," she said, but she took no offense.

Hitori glanced between Reon and Kyoryu. Then Koyryu opened his mouth– Hitori raised his eyes and tried to tell him, 'Do not do that. Do not say that.' –and said, "Maybe you are messed up, too, I do not know. No offense."

Hitori sighed. He glanced at Reon, she was gravely staring back at Kyoryu. "Now that is a stereotype you need to change, old man. I can understand how things must have been in YOUR time, but time changes just like the weather."

"Well, that changed weather does come back after a year's round. Scientists are geniuses, I have heard. That intelligence messes with their thinking and understanding of real life. They try to find logic in everything, solution behind every problem, and accept stupid theories only to introduce Exceptions later, or prove the whole theory wrong."

Reon hesitated before speaking. "Y-Yeah, we do… well— damn, I do not know shit about your spells…"

"Anyway, we need to relocate before Tengoku or Onogi or the guardian comes back."

"Relocate? To where? The Vr-cade is not safe. This house is out of bounds," Hitori said. "Do you have any place?"

"New place…" he said, then looked at Akira. "Let us know him our new place, Akira. Get ready." He walked towards the door. "And Kakashi, fucking get over it."

Hitori heard a low gasp, then saw Eya's eyes widen. Yeah, he had never heard Kyo curse– even in the worst situations. Not his concern though.

Kyoryu left. Akira was checking the wands when Hitori approached him. "What is the new place?"

Akira glanced at him, then let out a sly smile. "You will see."

Hitori pursed his lips and thought, Oh, I hate to be left in suspense. Suspense is only good in novels– since you can not ask a book, and can even get ahead sometimes– but in real life, it sucks– when you know you can ask the person, but he is not willing to tell you. Same with the games…

Just as he thought about games, his thinking froze. He remembered he has not been playing for a long time. He had not even checked in recently– he wondered what was the hot topic right now.

Still, the Trio's disappearance, or is the Onogi Empire leading the leaderboards now? Or was the duo back? Hitori wanted to get back at them… if ever possible.

Eya went to Kakashi. They talked for about five minutes, till Kyoryu called them downstairs. God knows what Eya said to Kakashi because, after the five minutes, he was good as before.

***

Atama was walking across his office with his wand in between his teeth. Although his office was painted white, it did not stop the room from getting hot, so he was sweating even with the Ice Cooler turned on.

He raced to his table, panting for some reason, then leaned over the table and stared at the same newspaper heading he has been reading for the past few days:

Murder at a Birthday Party

The Wedding Night Massacre

The Psychopath Scientist

Followed by sub-headings that pointed out the same event– an assassin who broke into Mage Prefecture through the border, and is now killing hundreds of people in functions.

Atama was prepared for the event that would go online in a few hours. He was supposed to be at the stadium, but he was in his office.

He pushed against his table and raised his wand to his lips. "Kakashi? Eya? Is anyone there? Damn it, pick the goddamn call, you fools!" He raised his arm and clenched the wand, but he could not throw it.

Including this try, he tried to reach anyone from Eya and Kakashi six times– rejected every time. He glanced at the wall clock. It was eight– late enough for those siblings to be up. Then why were not the—

Suddenly, a weird and horrible thought struck him. His mouth hung open and his arm came down. "But now could he get their address? If he followed them or if he checked Hitori's name in the log—"

He ran to his table and checked the drawer on the right. He grabbed the handle and pulled it, it budged.

He unlocked the drawer and then pulled out a thick book. He banged a thousand pages books on the table and inspected its cover. It was undamaged, but what about fingerprints?

Atama opened the drawer on the left, it was open. He opened it and took a piece of circular glass. He held it in front of his eye, closed the other eye, and leaned over the book.

The glass took a shade of light blue and revealed its true colors. Atama saw the creases of human fingers– the fingerprints– all over the book.

The glass' light turned white– the light that would hide every fingerprint on the book that belongs to Atama. He was staring at the same old cover, crumbling from the corners. He flipped the book over, holding the piece of glass. And as expected, even the book's backside was clean.

He flipped to the page with Hitori's name, yet he saw nothing. He leaned back and dropped the glass. At least one thing was sure now.

Atama threw himself in his chair and rubbed his forehead. "God, send me some help," he muttered. "I wish you were here, Hiro."

But even he knew his wish would never come true even if he uses a spell or sit under a shooting star and wish the same.