2 A Stranger
[July 15, Year 780]
[Planet Aquinas]
{YURA'S POV}
I opened my eyes to a brand new day. Groggy, I sat up, and swept my long, black hair out of my face, letting it fall behind my shoulders. I rubbed my eyes and looked at my clock, sitting on my old antique night table next to my bed.
[7:32 AM] It wrote.
I had gotten the clock and night table from a local trash zone, refurbished it, and made it as 'elegant' as I could.
`I might be a scavenger, but at least I am an elegant scavenger. Hehe.'
I shifted to the side of my bed and lowered my legs to the ground as my bed creaked. Its mattress, made of wood, was riddled with cracks and it groaned as I stood up and got off the bed.
My long, pale legs reflected in the sun pouring through the window next to my bed, lighting up the entire room. The room was small, just enough to fit a bed, night table, a bookshelf that only contained a few books, most of which were torn and missing pages, and a small supply of canned food and some perishables I had found yesterday while out searching through the abandoned cities nearby.
Planet Aquinas was no longer what it used to be. At one time, it was flourishing with life, with many different species coexisting on this planet. Joy could be seen from children's faces as they walked the streets with their parents. Shops were busy, restaurants were full, and parks always had cheer and laughter.
`Sigh... if only it could be like that forever.`
`I used to have a nice house, a stable job working at a local Space Travelling Agency, clean clothes and good food. Now all I have is this crappy house and some stale food.`
I had a mirror hanging on a rusty nail on the wall next to my bed. The mirror was dirty, with stains everywhere and some small cracks on the edges. Well, at least it works.
I quickly went outside my house and grabbed one of the wooden buckets I left outside. It was meant to collect rainwater for cleaning and drinking. Luckily, it had rained last night, and while that meant I would have enough extra water to wash up, it also meant I barely slept last night because of the loud pattering of rain on the roof.
Because the roof was so thin, I heard every drop of rain like it was the hooves of a horse trampling on top of me. I had felt like my roof was going to cave in any moment.
Taking the bucket of water, I brought it inside to the mirror, grabbed a spare towel, and soaked the towel I to the water.
After it absorbed enough water, I brought it to my face and began wiping.
The wet, rough texture of the towel was like a contrast to my face, my skin smooth and dry.
After a few more seconds of wiping, I took another dry towel and wiped my face again, drying off the remaining droplets of water.
I looked into the mirror, and saw my reflection. My black eyes started back at me, a piercing gaze reflected into my mind. I had always like my eyes, my mother had always told me when I was a kid, "Yura, your eyes are dark like the endless dark Universe. You are also filled with endless potential. Don't let the everyday pains of life limit you."
While I really didn't feel like I had endless potential, I also remembered the warmth and loving gaze she gave me whenever she said that.
I continues to look in the mirror, and said out loud, "Hehe, I'm still beautiful!"
With that, I turned around, got dressed in a simple outfit that consisted of a black leather Combat-Suit that was skintight, a pair of dark brown leather boots that had creases on it, a corresponding pair of leather gloves, and a Tech Watch on my wrist that could identify nearby life forms within 500 meters through a heat sensor, as well as monitor my own health and status.
Obviously, it could tell time as well. It was now 7:44 AM, and I still had 16 minutes before my usual 8 AM routine of searching for any life forms nearby.
Planet Aquinas was now a desolate place, with barely any living survivors on it. As one of the only survivors on the planet, I needed to search for others. Otherwise, it was really starting to get too boring.
I was scared pretty soon I would go crazy from this boredom. I had already started to play cards against myself with a deck of playing cards I had grabbed from one of the broken down game shops nearby.
I grabbed a can of canned peaches on the ground near me and ripped the lid open, tossing it aside haphazardly.
I was a D-Tier combattant, which meant I had more strength than non-combatant people.
Opening a can was nothing to me. Ever since I had awakened my Energy Force, I had trained for at least few hours every day, making sure I had enough strength to survive in this barren world alone.
I had awakened as an E-Tier combattant when I was 14, and had painstakingly made my way up to D-Tier through many years of training.
After slurping down a few slices of peaches, I tossed the empty can aside and looked at the time once again.
[7:58 AM]
`Well, time to look for people, and maybe grab some more peaches again. I really like these peaches and I'm about to run out, I really don't want to go back to eating canned beans. They're bland and boring.`
I tied my hair back into a ponytail, and walked out the door. Before I closed the door, I looked back into the room, and for some reason, I felt as if I was parting.
`Pfft, stupid silly thoughts. This is how you get unlucky. Stop it.`
With that, I turned around, closed the door, and started walking North. Yesterday, I had gone South, the day before, East, and before that, West. I repeated these four directions every four days, each day hoping to find new life.
It had been 4 years since I found any life signs, and 7 years since I started this way of living. The last time I found a life form, it was a rat. I had taken it in as a pet out of boredom, but it had ran away in a couple days when I forgot to close my door once and I had yet to see it again.
`I even gave it a name... sigh, Jerry, I'll miss you.`
I continued walking, into the blazing heat of a new day.
-----
A couple hours later, I had walked many kilometers North. First, I had stopped by nearby stores I hadn't checked in the past to see whether there was any new goodies I could find. Sadly, it was just canned beans everywhere.
I was now passing through a trash zone and decided to have a quick dig here as well. I found an old chair that still had a cushion that was intact.
Grasping it, I dragged it around and continued to dig, looking for any new goodies to help me.
After a while, I saw a gleam of light under some torn clothing and stopped what I was doing, attracted by the light and walked over.
I shuffled the clothes around and looked.
It was a shiny necklace underneath the torn clothing. While a necklace really had no use to me and did not benefit in my survival whatsoever, I found it to be a thing that reminded me of what Aquinas used to be.
The necklace consisted of a long, silver chain that was thin and delicate, yet strong and field together firm. On the necklace was a pendant hanging, a black, circular jade-like piece hung from the silver chain. It was smooth to the touch and about 2 centimeters in diameter.
Surprisingly, the necklace seemed to be in perfect condition, as if it weren't tossed into a trash zone.
I quickly hung the necklace around my neck and looked down, the black jade gleaming and reflecting the sun's light.
`Hehe, this makes me feel even more beautiful. Hehe.`
Giggling to myself, I continued to walk around, looking for anything that would catch my eye.
[BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! LIFE SIGNAL FOUND!]
[BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! LIFE SIGNAL FOUND!]
Shocked, I looked over at my Tech Watch. It was flashing a red warning light, as well as ringing the alert over and over loudly, making both my ears and eyes hurt.
I quickly tapped a few buttons to find out where this new life form was. After a few seconds, a holographic screen popped up from the Tech Watch and displayed a circular map, with the center of the map being my current location, and the edges of the map being 250 meters away, forming a total diameter of 500 meters.
A blinking red light was at the edge of the map, even further North of where I was. It had shown up when I had walked far enough North, coming within 250 meters of this life form.
[ALERT! LIFE FORM HAS HIGH CONCENTRATIONS OF ENERGY FORCE! CAUTION IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!]
`A life form with Energy Force! A combattant!`
I stopped moving and froze. The situation had suddenly become risky. I could approach the life form, but since it had high readings of Energy Force, that meant if could be very strong.
If it was unfriendly, and stronger than me, it could spell certain danger for me. The best case scenario would be a strong, very friendly and helpful life form.
I rand over the risks and rewards in my head for a few minutes. The blinking red dot on the interface continued to be stationary, not moving.
`Hmm... maybe it passed out? Lack of food? Lack of water? Weird though... it has Energy Force, surviving by itself shouldn't be a problem.`
After a few more minutes of consideration, I decided to carefully take the risk and approach it, hoping for the best.
I steeled my will and slowly walked North. As I approached the 50 meter mark of where the life form would supposedly be, I slowed my walk, making sure not to make any noise, and crept slowly passing through countless piles of trash, using it as cover to now show my whereabouts in case this life form was awake and aware.
As I crept, I felt sweat dripping down my face, condensing on my chin and falling off. It was both from the heat and my fear of this unknown life form with Energy Force.
Slowly, I got closer and closer until I was only 20 meters away. There was a large pile of trash in front of me. The image shown from the Tech Watch showed that the life form seemed to be buried under this pile of trash.
I slowly picked out pieces of trash and made my way towards the center. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I spent many minutes continually moving trash around to try to enter.
10 meters...
7 meters...
4 meters...
Until I was just 1 meter away from this life form. There was a pile of wooden planks between me and this life form. I shuddered, knowing that if I made one wrong move, my life could end right here if I was unlucky.
I let out a soft puff of air I had been holding in, the breath slowly fading into the atmosphere and it became completely silent.
I could feel my heart pounding, and my palms sweaty. Readying myself, I grabbed the large wooden plank.
I pushed it to the side.
BANG!
It fell over as I lost my grip on it. Startled, I immediately froze, eyes open, and placed my hands over my mouth, stifling a gasp.
Then I saw the life form. The stranger.
Lying there was a body, completely naked and seemingly male. He was well built, toned but not overly muscled, maybe about 180-185 centimeters, in height.
He seemed to be unconscious, but breathing stably, his chest rising slowly with each grasp of air.
He had a strong nose, slim lips, high cheekbones, and a strong jawline, with medium length, disheveled black hair that was slightly longer on top and trimmed on the sides and back.
Looking at the completely undressed man, my eyes widened and I panicked.
`What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Do I help him? He seems to be unconscious for some reason and stuck under this pile of trash! But what if he's dangerous? Should I help him still? Oh my god he's naked, this is so embarrassing! Wait, why am I caring about that- my life could be in danger!`
I stared at him for a while, not knowing what to do, slightly trembling. In front of me was a life form, something I had been searching for, for a long time.
But, now seeing him in front of me, I really didn't know what to do.
After thinking for a while, and gathering up my nerves, I slowly lifted him into the chair I had gotten earlier and sat him there, his head hanging softly to the side and his body sat there without any energy, looking weak.
I quickly looked around, found some rope, and tied him to the chair, binding his arms, legs, and torso. While this wouldn't do anything to a strong combattant, I could only hope he wasn't strong enough and this could tie him up for a while once he wakes up, at least for enough time for me to escape if he turned out to be dangerous to my life.
Then, I grabbed the back of the chair, learn it back, and slowly started dragging the chair back home, with my new discovery in hand.
