Chapter 6: Home at last

"Hey shin, heads up! We are finally here."

The sweet voice of my aunt felicia stirred me from my thoughts as I removed my EarPods and paid rapt attention to the towering mass of buildings and skyscrapers in the depression Infront of us. They were far too numerous and far too large to be called a mere 'town'.

The whole Lake Water town looked like a small city nestled on the base of a humongous circular depression formed by the impact of a large prehistoric meteorite. All the buildings and roads were arranged in large concentric circle-shaped city blocks and at the very center of the large depression was a small lake stretching for a few miles earning the town its keep's sake name of Lake Water town.

At the very center of the small lake was a large mega float housing the extremely large and technologically advanced Hassaikai family's third branch family manor. We were currently at the very top of the depression at its outer edges and there were multiple routes we could take to progress to the center of the lake.

If I were to describe the road network, then it would be similar to a spider's web having multiple roads circling around the circumference of the circular depression steadily inclining downwards in levels. Taking those would lead to us circling around the city below at least seven times as we travelled in a downwards spiral.

The other type of roads were those which simply went down straight towards the center at a relatively steep decline like spokes going down towards the center of a wheel.

We were obviously going to take the shorter more straightforward route and my heart couldn't help but thump in anticipation at the thoughts of how much the town and its inhabitants could have changed during my absence. I looking forward to getting another feel of this place very much.

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Numerous people went about performing their business as they slowly and steadily continued to go through the practiced motions of their daily lives. All of the inhabitants who moved about in this large 'town' had grown up in it and had lived all their lives interacting and mingling with all the inhabitants of the 'town'.

They almost never got any new visitors, tourist or new inhabitants arriving in town with the latest visitors being nothing more than a pair of affluent families which had moved in more than eight years ago. By now all the inhabitants were innately familiar with each other and news of any new visitors would spread especially fast since this was a 'small world' to them.

For an entire eight years they had lived undisturbed by the arrival of new visitors… until today that is.

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The bustling activity in the central business district of the large town was brought to an absolute stand still when the thundering sound of rotors and roaring engines of trucks, cars, armored vehicles and tanks disturbed the previously peaceful atmosphere and ambience.

Everyone for whatever reason stopped whatever they were doing no matter how urgent it was and stopped to watch the long line of vehicles thundering down the slope of one of the straight roads; barreling towards the center as attack helicopters zig-zagged overhead during their vigilant watch over the helicopter.

Some of the inhabitants grew ashen and pale fearing that an enemy nation had finally sent its army over the Empire's borders and had accidentally stumbled upon this hidden town. Others were not saddled with such fears as they watched on the proceeding procession of vehicles thunder through the CBD with curiosity filled gazes and a mysterious twinkling to their eyes.

Many even took it a step further as they stuck their faces out of the windows of moving cars, busses and buildings as they took pictures and videos of the moving convoy and sharing them live on the town's localized internet network.

When the convoy finally arrived at the middle of town with the earth rumbling underneath the mighty treads of the heavily armored vehicles. The window panes and glass of the surrounding buildings and cars rattled loudly with some even shattering underneath the onslaught of the cacophony of sounds produced by the helicopter rotors.

That was exactly when most of them noticed the golden family crest embedded onto the sides of most of the moving vehicles that they finally realized who these visitors exactly were.

Many grew ashen and some grew excited when they noticed the crests, after all, they were not strangers to that particular family crest.

The Hassaikai family was finally back!

The old gears of the town which had stopped moving since their long absence finally began to move again. Inevitable change was about to once again pay homage to this lonely and isolated town.

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The day was blistering hot as the homeroom teacher steadily droned off his explanations with a dull monotonous voice that lulled most of the students in the classroom to sleep.

Most of those who were still awake were tapping away at their smart phones whilst others were discussing about household topics totally unrelated to school. Despite the teacher noticing all this happening, he still carried on as though he was seeing nothing.

Whether they took his lessons seriously or not was of no consequence to him since they were doomed to live out the rest of their short miserable lives in this 'small town' regardless of their passing grades or the types of jobs they got. This town had a mysterious way of slowly eroding the desire to leave of all its inhabitants regardless of gender or age. It was like a gigantic hungry compost which assimilated any and all nutrients which were unlucky enough to be born on it or had unfortunately stumbled upon it by accident.

Those who lived here rarely ever left. Those who did somehow manage to leave would always find themselves coming back to this town one way or another. 

At the very moment the teacher had these thoughts, all the phones inside the room auspiciously rang at the same time. The teacher fetched his phone from his pocket and gazed upon the screen. A dark smile soon adorned his lips….

"See?"

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The same notification rang on numerous phones throughout the city at the same time.

A lone girl with her features indistinguishable from the shadows surrounding her slowly removed her school uniform and underwear dyed crimson with the blood of the numerous eviscerated and dismembered corpses surrounding her.

"Huh?!" she muttered when she heard the low vibration of a phone within one of the pockets of a corpse which had been mutilated to the point where its features were barely distinguishable from a pile of meat and bones. It was a miracle that the phone had managed to survive suffering the same fate as its owner in the first place leading to the girl checking it out of curiosity.

Her bloodied fingers tapped on the screen and a live video feed played on it. The girl watched it for a long-while in complete silence until the video feed abruptly cut off as the phone's battery died. A lovely smile which could outshine the radiance of the sun soon adorned her lips as she softly and happily giggled.

"So, he has come back, huh?" She muttered before her figure slowly vanished as though engulfed by the shadows.