Shion's POV
Sand crunches under my foot as I take steps after steps on the dry yellow soil. Places outside of No.6 are still lacking vegetation since it isn't regularly maintained. The soils outside the broken wall isn't healthy and isn't suitable for plants to live, so it definitely lacks greenery.
I was working on a project to expand the vegetation areas all the way outside of the city so more life can be grown, but some of the authorities refused to take in the project because they thought it was useless.
I'm not surprised that still no one cares about the places outside of the wall, but it still gets me pretty pissed off every time when they refuse to expand our agriculture and vegetation.
But the city is getting somewhat better. Everything is made up of recyclables, and anything that are not compostables and recyclables are prohibited to be manufactured since it harms the environment in which we live in. Water is also filtered and reused since there are pretty limited water resources that are nearby No.6 that is drinkable.
Of course, there are still many black markets that sell stuff that are basically garbage that is harmful to the environment. They claim those materials to he needs and not wants, so they refuse to get rid of them. I'm not surprised a god number of citizens still refuse to follow the only recyclables and compostables rule since it is newly established.
I'm doing all of this for the Blocks. The West Block had been receiving all the garbage that had been thrown out from the city, so I'm trying my best to keep garbage and contaminated water out of our city.
I had tried to get all the people that had been living outside of the city to go inside and start living in the city, but many refused to move in since they still think the city is rotten. I don't blame them though. Through all of things they've gotten through... I'm not surprised they don't want to be in the "holy city".
I open the door to the underground room which Nezumi and I used to live in and step in. As I light the candles and lamp, I hear small and quiet footsteps running around the room. Tsukiyo then run and crawl up my legs, around my body and perch on my white hair.
I never decided to dye my hair in the end. The colour of my hair, the scar at the base of my neck, and the snake that wraps around my body, they are reminders that I escaped death. They're reminders that Nezumi was once here, by my side. They are reminders that I am the victor of a fight.
I lie on the bed, staring up at the ceiling covered with mold. The room is regularly cleaned because Inukashi sometimes comes here to clean it and play with little Shion, and I sometimes come to help.
This room is filled with memories of when Nezumi was still here, and it still pains me dearly that I cannot hold him.
After a while of reading stories to Tsukiyo left on the shelves, I leave the room to walk around the West Block.
Everything still seems relatively the same as two years ago, but things definitely are a lot cleaner. There are no longer dead bodies lying around everywhere since someone would always call authorities from inside the city to clean them up. The water here now is cleaner than it used to be because there is a filtering system in the gates the water goes through before it reaches the stream down to the West Block. There is a relatively small piece of land on the south of the West Block where agriculture is being produced so their produce is always relatively fresh.
Although there are still a lot of flaws No.6 has, it is getting better. I'm quite impressed with all the improvement so far since I had only started two years ago. But all of these obviously came with a heavy price.
No.6 is now a relatively poor city because of the money that was put into creating this seemingly clean city. I had also asked help from nearby cities because it is honestly too difficult to do anything without some help. At the beginning, no one had wanted to help other than Inukashi and Rikiga so I had to plan most of the work out myself with some help. Traveling between cities was also really exhausting since the city didn't provide anything better than a worn out car. In the end though, we managed to negotiate with No.9 to reach a compromise. They had been pretty reluctant to have any ties to No.6 ever since they had heard about the incident with Elyurias.
Looking around, I see children running and screaming as they play what seemed like tag. I smile to myself as I watch the children have fun. Children from the West Block is usually looked down upon because of their parents' ties to it, but knowing that they can still have fun is a good thing.
A shriek suddenly irrupted from behind me and I spun on my foot as fast as I could and ran towards the source of the sound.
I'm quite surprised since I hadn't given it a single thought before I went to follow the sound, but it just felt like the right thing to do.
As I make a turn, I almost trip over a woman that was crouched down on the ground, hands covering her mouth in horror. In front of her lies a dead man.
One look at the supposed corpse instantly tells me that this wasn't a natural death. The man's eyes are blank and lifeless, his mouth hang open loosely with scratches along his neck. What's more is that the man seem very old for the type of clothes he's wearing.
I turn to the woman to try to get her to calm down. Tears are pooling in her eyes. She seems quite confused. Her eyes are a mixture of grief and fear.
"You're going to be okay. Just turn around and don't pay attention to him." I try to get the woman to shift her body so she wouldn't be facing the corpse.
"I-I can't just n-not pay attention to him th-though! He's my h-husband!" The woman says through a lot of hiccups. "H-He just dropped on the floor and-and he just started a-aging really fast a-and then he just stopped b-breathing!"
The woman takes a look at her husband and starts to hurl. I gently stroke her back until she had felt somewhat better.
I called for an ambulance to pick up the corpse and the wife while she was sitting against the wall, sobbing quietly with her legs pulled up to her chest.
The woman had said he died from incredibly fast aging. The scratches on his throat obviously indicated that he was suffocating before his death. This is way too similar to what had happened two years ago.
If this isn't Elyurias' doing, then it's nobody's. But what business does Elyurias have to start this again? I thought she had said she wouldn't try this again unless if humans were truly past saving point; she wouldn't do this unless if humans were finally corrupted to the point of no return.
Nezumi... what is going on?
-----
A disease or virus is being spread around. The culprit of this incident is still unknown without Nezumi's confirmation.
I haven't heard from Nezumi for a couple of days already, and I'm getting quite worried.
Did something happen to him on his journey? Was he attacked by a large animal or a poisonous snake? Was he attacked by thieves? Did he get lost? Did he get hurt?
A whole bunch of questions ran through my mind as I sat in my office, staring blankly at my computer screen.
I let out a heavy sigh and a knock came from the door to my office. "Come in," I called out.
Inukashi walked in with an exhausted expression. "You okay so far?" She asked.
"Yeah... somewhat. I'm just a bit worried..." The words spilled out of my mouth before I realized it.
"Worried? Of what?"
"Nothing much. I'm just afraid that the rebels would try to do something more... not that there is much worse to do... And there's also this case of incredibly fast aging victims who have died." I say in an attempt to hide that I was worried about Nezumi, but I am also worried about these, so I'm not totally lying.
"Well, the worst that can happen is them aiming for your life... and this incident... don't you think it's a bit too similar to what had happened two years ago?" Inukashi asked with sullen eyes.
"My life... huh? Aren't I always risking my life for something though? It's not the first time someone or something is trying to kill me... with all that's going on, I wouldn't be surprised to find myself be used to this. And this incident isn't just similar to two years ago, but it's practically identical. But the thing is that no wasps came out of the victim's neck."
"You shouldn't get used to this! How can you ever get used to someone trying to take your life?!" Inukashi yells, quite frustrated with me. "And, do you think this is by chance being caused by, you know, that big wasp lady/man thing? 'Cause she was responsible for it last time, so it wouldn't be weird if she was responsible for it this time."
"We can't be sure of that..."
Inukashi let out a disappointed sigh and put the topic on hold for now. "So, what are you working on right now? Are you free?"
"I'm pretty flexible today."
"Okay, that's good. Y'know how you asked me to look into some stuff? I got Tsukiyo to look around some ghetto alley ways and other suspicious places and found some interesting things." Inukashi plopped down on the chair on the other side of the desk and placed her elbows on the wooden desk. "I also got it to go back to where the correctional facility was once, and there was a lot of unexpected activities going on around there for a while."
"Hold on, lemme pull up a document to record all this down. I need as much information as possible."
I jot everything down as she speaks.
"There were some drunkards that were talking about some experiment that was happening around the city beside No.9. I'm not completely sure because I can't send anything out as far as to No.9 since it's too far, but some rumors are traveling into No.6. I heard that some people are dying inside of No.9 too. And if I'm not mistaken, the closest city to No.9 is No.4, so maybe they're the one responsible for something? There's another rumor that a drug is being passed around in the black market, but I haven't seen it myself yet so I can't confirm what is it. If I can get my hands on one, maybe you can take it to the lab to retrieve some data.
"There's also another rumor that there are still people who live under the correctional facility that are conducting some experiments. Some people have been walking by there at night-don't ask me why they where there at night because I don't know-and have heard weird noises. Some have said they heard drilling, some have felt rumbling, some have heard screams. There are a lot of things people have heard, I'm not sure which ones are true of which ones are fake news, but that's all I have for now." Inukashi finishes with a tight expression.
I finish typing a couple of words and divert my attention back to Inukashi. "Thanks, that's actually a lot of clues. You're a great help."
"Well, now that I gave you all that, pay up." Inukashi instantly reverts back to her usual self. I actually like this Inukashi more because I know that she's back to normal. I know that nothing can bother her that much.
But I really do have to get in contact of Nezumi or else all these clues will be useless without his confirmation.
Nezumi... where on earth are you? Are you okay...?
Author's Note
I managed to write some more, but writer's block still sucks.