Resistance

"Ryo!" Sumire's voice escaped her breath as she awakened in a delicate and plush brown fabric wrapped across her body. Her jet-black hair was no longer in her usual ponytail, and her usual black shirt and blue jeans attire was replaced with trimmed bandages keeping her wounds healed and prioritized. She wore a tattered leather skirt that appeared ancient based on its aged material.

She found herself in a dimly lit chamber by a scented candle nestled in the corner of the room. Sumire raised her right arm to pull off the brown fabric blanket, but her shoulder's bullet wound forced her to squeal momentarily after a sharp tinge erupted in her system. The wound, patched by a strange mechanical healing device, remained attached to her body.

"What the hell is going on...?" Sumire whispered to herself as she attempted to recall her most recent memory. But just as she began to think, a high-pitched euphonious voice startled Sumire's heart, making her nearly skip a beat. Something tiny cuddled with Sumire while she was recovering from her injury, and it simultaneously brought copious amounts of warmth like a cozy campfire. Without moving her head to peek at her sides, she brushed her left hand to her hip and felt her palms tingling in ardent feathery sensation as she stroked something extraordinarily fluffy.

Sumire looked to her hip and found a tiny extraterrestrial sakura-colored creature about the size of her hand cuddled in the brown fabric wrap. The creature was a pure cream and strawberry mixture colored being with sharp white pointed ears. Its simplistic design and features made it appear naturally adorable to Sumire as she watched it snoring soundly with its plain black eyes closed to form two thin slits. It had no discernable nose or mouth, and the creature constantly had a white flaming aura surrounding it to bring Sumire that constant sense of warmth.

"Hey," Sumire whispered as she stroked the miniature creature's ears gently. She could feel a vapor-like softness brushing against her finger that was overly plush to her senses. She instantly fell in love with the creature's bizarre appearance, as it was something that must have appeared from another distant planet. "Hey, little thing. You're so cute, you. You're so cute."

The creature awoke from its slumber after Sumire bothered it. The creature's black eyes opened up, revealing two reflecting pools of tired eyes looking up at Sumire's view. It began yawning without a mouth, releasing a cutesy voice in the process.

"Um…" Sumire spoke. "Can you talk? Can you tell me where I am?"

The creature looked into Sumire's eyes for several seconds before leaping out of her brown fabric blanket into a tiny slit into the chamber's walls. Its movement was otherworldly, as it had the power of flight and swift movement. The chamber's walls where the creature departed to creaked open, revealing a bigger slit into the outdoors where an astonishing ray of sunlight lit the insides of Sumire's room. She could also hear several light noises from a distance that depicted children and adults mingling with one another peacefully. Either she was dreaming or having a complete hallucination, she thought.

Sumire used her left hand to balance her body's weight without using her right arm and shoulder. She stood up from her blanket and found a hanging old-century brown leather tunic nestled in the corner of the room. She buckled it on before approaching the slit of bright light across the chamber. She pressed her hand against it and pushed it aside after discovering that it was the chamber's entrance.

Sumire was blasted by the area's transcending sunlight casting a rainbow-like reflection upon her gleaming eyes. A bright blue sky with several rippled clouds greeted her near several peculiar floating stone-like giant platform structures connected and intertwined with one another in the air. The structures, suspended in midair, floated lightly across her surroundings and potentially for miles across her current location. Large old-century tent structures with regal canopy surrounded her vision to depict an ancient settlement inhabited by a group of unknown individuals she had never met before. The surrounding area in the settlement, a vast and dense set of bright woodlands and wooden structures depicted a natural forest setting like those found in ancient fairy folktale where the nymphs would thrive in.

Sumire believed she was dreaming, for she had never experienced such a beautiful sight before. She questioned if she was still in Aries, for it appeared overly mystical and harmonic to the senses. She took a single step forward and found herself barefoot against reeds and grass. After she took another step forward, a whirring and churning sound of an engine soared past her. A flying airship built from dense bronze and copper approached one of the massively floating platforms and descended near it.

The strawberry and white-colored creature gazed at Sumire from a distance, hopping up and down to attract her attention. As Sumire locked eyes with the creature, she noticed it was gesturing for her to follow. She moved forward while keeping her right arm and shoulder elevated to reduce her wound's pain. As the creature moved ahead, Sumire found herself at the very bottom of an archipelago from where she had awakened. In the distance, Sumire found a massive wooden-built city-state pathway leading her into the depths of the area.

As she remained cautious, the strawberry and white creature eventually nestled onto Sumire's right shoulder as she moved forward. Sumire found herself in front of an embedded stone pathway with a crystalline stream of water running underneath her. Fresh soil, dirt, and compost surfaced by the side of the stream, which indicated to Sumire that the city-state's inhabitants were very old-school.

The two eventually stopped in front of a wooden sign with an incomprehensible and incoherent set of characters that Sumire could not even read. However, it pointed to the right of her position. In the distance, Sumire could see several townsfolk wandering about: men, women, children, and several more of the same creatures as the one on her shoulder. Waterwheels, windmills, and crystal-powered structures began to come afloat as Sumire wandered the area with an open mind.

These men, women, and children did not appear human, however. Several significant details about them were that their skin was flawless and almost ethereal-like. Their ears were slightly more pointy than the average human's, and they were also significantly shorter.

A majority of them wore leather and armored clothing that depicted an entire old age of humans. Their facial features were also more colorful and prominent. A young little girl's hair was pure white, and her eyes were infused with a violet topaz sheen. Other individuals had flamboyant styles and wore dresses and garments that made them appear slimmer, and some bulkier. While Sumire praised their beauty, she truly wanted to understand her current position.

For a split second, Sumire believed she traveled back in time after being unable to recall her most recent memory. She only recalled Ryo's face and the touch of his hand before all had gone into hell.

While the denizens seemed to not notice her unusual appearance in their city-state, Sumire noticed that they spoke an entirely different and intelligible language. She began eavesdropping on several citizens dwelling near small taverns and shopping areas and failed to successfully interpret their language. However, something she did understand was that many of the same flaming creatures, much like the one on Sumire's shoulder, were prominent among the city-state. Sumire caught many of them leaping into wooden devices to power them up like a portable battery with a life of its own.

The creatures were also featured in many different shapes and sizes, but none were as big as Sumire's palm. Some were wide, some were dark, and some were quite paunchy. However, they began leveraging and supporting the city-state's technology with their unusual powers, which Sumire found to be exceptional. When Sumire approached another version of the one on its shoulder, which was a chubby lime-colored one, a man operating a nearby mill stepped in front of Sumire to block her pathway.

"Oh, I didn't mean to-" Sumire began.

The man began approaching Sumire with an irritated glance. As he stepped forward, another citizen accidentally bumped into his shoulder in a hurry. Both of them began hounding insults at each other in their native language, making Sumire escape in a hurry. She wondered why the man was so defensive of such a delicate little creature, especially of how harmless they appeared.

As Sumire escaped, three armored soldiers armed with steel spears began marching through the city-state of where she arrived from. The soldiers located Sumire and began surrounding her while yelling orders at one another. These battle-ridden soldiers had history written on their faces: black tribal tattoos, scars of wars and battles passed, and mutilated skin was still clinging to the edge of life. The pink creature leaped onto Sumire's head and began making unusual chiming cutesy noises in an attempt to defend Sumire.

"Alo-ga!" A young maiden dressed in a white dress dove into the scene and called to the three soldiers surrounding Sumire. She was a pale-skinned petite individual with a unique hairstyle; her right side was a luscious blonde neck plunging hairstyle, and the opposite side was covered in braids and lightly cut beneath her neck. "Sha-ah, do!" She said, raising her palm in front of the guards as she defended Sumire's front.

The pink creature leaped on the woman as she strafed around the soldiers demanding them to cease their actions. Her eyebrows slanted downwards in desperation and pure anger as if she had complete control over the situation despite her gentle and carefree appearance. The soldiers backed down and bowed to the maiden before returning to their posts. Several citizens caught the maiden and Sumire's actions together, and they gathered around to finally behold the first human in their city-state for a long while.

"Hey, thanks for-" Sumire began.

The maiden interrupted her statement and snatched her left hand. She sprinted with Sumire and the pink creature across an alleyway and through several archways until they reached a private sector of a crystal-powered factory that smelted ore and created unknown otherworldly devices. The maiden released Sumire's hand and caught her breath before speaking to her directly. The pink creature tangled itself through the blonde maiden's hair, making the woman giggle.

"Homa-si. Ayame se." The maiden voiced out with a bubbly smile.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Sumire completely denied as she shook her head. "I don't think I should be here. Can you please point me in the right direction? Can you understand me?"

The maiden slanted her mouth in disappointment before she gained an epiphany after snapping her fingers. On the upper corner of her right ear was a silver eagle-crested earring with an amber crystal ball on top. She unhooked the earring and poked Sumire's left shoulder, gesturing her to lean in close. Sumire followed her orders, and the maiden hooked the earring to her left ear. The amber ball touched the inside of Sumire's ear and she sensed a small electric tinge circulating through her left temple and cheek.

"Oh, thank you," Sumire said, bowing in respect. "But I don't want this. I think you should have it. It looks great on you!"

The maiden placed her knuckles on her hips and slanted her mouth once more. Her eyes closed halfway in disappointment. "It looks better on you, to be honest." The maiden suddenly spoke in a language that Sumire could understand.

"What the-" Sumire jumped back. "You're… I can understand. How did you even…"

"Are you not impressed?" The maiden chuckled before stepping next to Sumire. "This is the power of the Fon, our city-state's denizens that channel the energies of the gods to our veins. We live on the Fon. We thrive from the Fon. And the Fon made us who we are today. We lavish their power for eternity so our surviving people may thrive with ease."

"I don't understand. Did you say… Fon? What are you referring to?" Sumire asked.

The maiden lifted her right hand up above her head, letting the pink creature perch on her index finger like a parrot. "I'm referring to this little fay, of course. The history of our nation would not have been successful without the Fon," She perched the creature back on her head before focusing on Sumire wholeheartedly. Her amber cat-eyes scanned Sumire's body before smiling once more. "I'm glad you are here. You have been chosen by one of our people to resolve our lingering issue. The issues unbeknownst to your noble cause, your existence, and your knowledge, I mean."

"Chosen?" Sumire asked. "But, I wasn't chosen for anything. I don't even know why I'm here."

The maiden tilted her head confusingly. "I do not understand," She said. "You came here to seek answers for Lucine Vicio Melodia, correct? The answers to bring her justice and to resist against the otherworldly invaders?"

Sumire ran through the name once more, realizing that it resembled something close to Lucia Melody's. "Wait, are you talking about Lucia? You know her!?" Sumire asked. "And by otherworldly…" Sumire slowly pieced together the puzzle after remembering Lucia tell the tale and recollection of her past history on Planet Vicious. "Wait, don't tell me… you're the survivors of Planet Vicious? Then that means… you're all alive?"

"You are correct." The maiden said, nodding in joy.

Sumire smiled in enthusiasm, feeling her wound's pain temporarily numb in tandem with the wondrous news. "No way. I can't believe it," She exhaled, placing both of her hands on the side of her head to express disbelief. "I thought you were all dead. I thought Genesis killed all of you when they took over your planet. But you all just came here instead? Then does that mean-"

"Lucine does not know we are here," The maiden explained. "She has detracted and sacrificed all of our beliefs in the Vicious planet. She has given up the hope of the Fon and created an ancient monster out of its harboring energies. She seeks to weaponize the Fon, much like the otherworldly travelers sought it out in the first place."

"Weaponize the Fon…?" Sumire wondered, reminiscing about the Melody Dragon's ancient power and its ability to absorb nanosuits. "Are you talking about that dragon?"

"Nay, we do not speak its true name," The maiden explained. "Yet in our city-state, it goes by the name of Melodia Automaton. The great nightmare built upon the Fon's ancient energy and the industrial life of the otherworldly individuals who have desecrated our planet for long."

"The Melody Dragon is made up of the Fon?" Sumire asked, looking at the pink cute creature laying dormant on her fluffed hair. "Or… whatever you all call it. Half of these and half of Genesis's creations? But how can it weaponize something as harmless and cute as that?"

"Come with me," The maiden disregarded her question to put it off until much later. "We have had several visitors wander into our home for the past few weeks. You are not the only one. We can answer your questions there. There are many awaiting our arrival."

"O-okay." Sumire accepted, following the young maiden towards a grassy plaza containing several stall-styled restaurants with butchers and chefs serving gourmet food hunted from the woodlands. Many of the citizens and the Fon mingled with one another, cheered, and laughed at each other for enjoyment during these small exchanges, and it was heartwarming to see a community thrive after being presumably annihilated by Genesis.

As much as she wanted to know where she was and who had brought her to this unknown archipelago, Sumire was easily enticed to a breath of fresh air and a new perspective on natural life after being subject to the dangerous and vehement crime of recent days. The Fon reminded her of some fairy tale childhood books, and having them come to life was extraordinary.