When Takuya finally came to, he was greeted with an immediate assault to his various senses. A sudden shock of illumination nearly burnt his retinas as he tried to opened his eyes. No longer was it the dark world he was in earlier, but instead a plane of brilliance so bright he could barely look up. Then came the notice of a strange scent.
Before, the rotting smell of death clung to him but now in the air there was a new and different smell. A sweet aroma of freshness and vegetation, a completely alien smell that stung his nose.
“Ugh…Argh!” He coughed as he struggled to pick himself up. Everything hurts. His whole body was throbbing like mad, and there was a feeling of extraordinary pressure. It was as if he was being crushed, his muscles ached, and he could barely move. Struggling to stand, he could only weakly limp before falling to the ground again as the taste of blood filled his mouth.
There he laid on the ground, helpless as he desperately tried to adjust to his surroundings.
Greenery, a breathtaking field stretching as far as the eye can see. A dazzling plane that he has never seen before. Thinking that he was just hallucinating, he furiously blinked his eyes and struggled to his back.
“Uwaah!” He cried out in pain as he fell over with a hard thud. He was not dreaming, the agonizing pain through his body confirmed that. Looking up he could see lights shining down, so bright that they were almost blinding him. The skies above him were not skies, but instead a parasol like cover that went on almost forever beyond the horizons.
It was hard to see but as he squinted his eyes, he could make out what looked to be tree leaves. The lights themselves came from the endless amount of glitters hanging high above, glimmering down like stars in a night sky.
“Where…where the hell am I?” He weakly exclaimed as his eyes slowly moved across the strange scenery. He wriggled what little parts of the body he could still move, but he was completely paralyzed by pain. Unable to do anything, he could only close his eyes again…
–
BZZT BZZT
Suddenly jolted awake by the feeling of a vibration in his pocket, Takuya opened his eyes to another blinding flash of light as he threw his hands over his face. Finally able to move again, although in a daze, he carefully picked himself up.
The stale taste of blood swirled in his mouth as he spat it out, telling him that he had been sleeping for a good amount of time. His body ached and there was still a feeling of pressure, but he was no longer paralyzed, as the pain had significantly numbed down.
BZZT BZZT
Another feeling of vibration. He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone.
“Takuya, thank god!” Came the appearance of a frantic Juntaro as he was banging on the screen.
“Senpai?! What’s going on?”
“No time for that! I’m down to less than 2% of power on this phone and there’s no place for me to jump to!” Mouth the words from his lips, a look of fear on his face.
Takuya glanced over to the power and saw that he was right. His battery was on critical and could turn off at any moment.
“Please, you’ve got to help me! I-I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”
“O-okay! What do I do?”
“Do you have any of the chargebombs I made for you?! The yellow flip phones!”
Takuya ran his hands across his clothes but began to panic as he noticed much of his equipment were missing.
“I got one!” He let out a breath of relief as he was finally able to pull out the desired item from his back pocket.
“YES! Quickly, turn it on and place it on top of this phone then step back!” Juntaro instructed.
Takuya nodded as he hastily did as he was told and moved a safe distance away. A blinding flash of electricity then burst from the flip phone, causing him to cover his eyes in surprise. Peeking through his fingers, he watched as the electricity was absorbed into his cellphone.
“Phew…” Juntaro gave a sigh of relief as he popped out from a live chat. “That was way too close for comfort.”
“Senpai? What happened?” He asked as he reached for the phone, but pulled his hand back in pain from a sudden jolt of static on his fingers. “Ow!”
“Whoa, hold on! Don’t touch me yet! I’m still pretty hot.” He warned.
“Senpai, what did you do?”
“It’s a little crude, but I manually converted and took in the electricity from the chargebomb.” He explained. “Of course, I couldn’t take in the full amount and had to disperse most of it, so it wouldn’t ruined the internal circuitry, but I was able to at least charge the phone.”
“You can do that?”
“It’s just an emergency conversion. Even now, I’m only at 56%. Damn, I’ll barely last an hour at this rate.” Juntaro clicked his tongue.
“That doesn’t sound good. Are you going to be alright? That was the only one I had.” Takuya asked with concern as he carefully picked up his phone from the ground.
“For now, it’ll have to do. I’m still rebooting my systems. They were knocked offline when we were suddenly thrown into that fiasco earlier. Although, I’m going to have to keep my energy usage to a minimum and can only run the essentials.” He sighed. “Speaking of which, what the heck happened?”
“You’re asking me? I was going to ask you the same question. The last thing I remember was everything turning white and the Prez…wait a minute.” Takuya suddenly realized. “W-where is the Prez?”
“Huh?! You’re telling me you hadn’t noticed he wasn’t with you? What the hell, man!?” Juntaro yelled at him.
“I just woke up! I don’t even know where I am right now!”
“Alright, hold on. My scanner is still processing—HOLY CRAP! What the hell Is all this?” Juntaro exclaimed as he finally started to looked around. “Is that grass? What’s with all this light from—the sky?! Wait, is that even sky? Are those stars?! And what the holy heck is that over there?!”
“What are you talking abou-” Takuya’s jaw dropped the moment he laid eyes on where Juntaro was pointing. In front of him stood a monumental silvery tower that stretched far and wide.
“Is…is that a tree?!” Juntaro exclaimed.
“A tree?!”
There were no words that could be used to fully describe the colossal structure before them. Calling it a tree was indeed the only closest description they could use. Pure silver, the surface was radiant and shining like a crystal. Its height reached so far past the skies that it almost seems as if it was part of the heavens, like a pillar that descended from above and embedded itself to the very earth they stood on.
Surrounding them was a field of flowers, too numerous to count and completely alien from any known species, that spread far beyond their sights. Like a never-ending grove along the base of the tree, they were blending together with the evergreens. Protruding from the ground near the tree were colossal roots that spread throughout the area, shining silver and reflecting the lights that came down from above like shards of mirrors. They were almost translucent as they shoot out and coiled around the tree itself, wrapping like glass hands that spiral upwards.
“This… is this thing organic?” Takuya gasped as he fixed his gaze upon the bewildering sight.
The tree did not look like it was a living being. Its sterile color and shape were more reminiscent of something mechanical yet at the same time there was a strange semblance of life.
As if the tree was slightly trembling.
BABUMP BABUMP BABUMP
Takuya felt it. A resonance, like the beating of an artery from a colossal being, was coming from the tree. It was calling to him, with each pulse beckoning him closer and closer.
“Takuya!”
The sudden vibration of his phone snapped him out of his eerie trance. He vigerously shook his head as he got control of himself again.
“Senpai, what is that thing?”
“It is a tree. I’m only able to do a limited scan, due to running at minimum power, but that is without a doubt a tree of some sort. It’s…it’s a living creature. No, maybe “creatures”, as in plural, would be more correct”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m detecting multiple life signatures from that thing. Although there’s only a single tree, it’s almost as if I’m reading the life signals of numerous others. There’s too many to count. ” Juntaro explained.
“I…I don’t understand.” Takuya exclaimed, baffled.
“Anyways, you have to find Kenjirou and get out of here! I’m getting a bad feeling from all this. This place isn’t the same place as we were before, and it definitely isn’t safe.”
“So where are we?”
“I don’t know! That’s what I’m telling you. I’ve tried checking that app we were given but it’s been disabled, and I can’t access it anymore.”
“Then where is the Prez? Can you at least locate him?” Takuya asked.
“I’m trying, but I can’t pinpoint his exact location. But he’s here, somewhere near that tree. He’s alive, at least that’s what his life signature is telling me, but it’s weak. You have to go get him.”
“Alright, got it.”
“Takuya, you have to be careful. Something strange is going on.” Juntaro cautioned him.
–
“PREZ!” Takuya called out to him when he finally found the unconscious body of the president, embedded within the roots of the great tree. Numerous thick threads of silver were wrapped around him, stringing him up tightly as if trying to absorb him.
“He’s…he’s alive isn’t he?!”
“Just barely. You have to get him out of there! I can see his life signature getting weaker by the moment.” Juntaro demanded.
“Tch! Dammit!” Takuya cursed as he ran towards Kenjirou’s body.
“Ah! Takuya wait!”
Not being able to read his warning, Takuya grabbed hold of the roots entangling Kenjirou with his hands. But the moment he made contact; an intense burst of pain erupted throughout his body.
“AAAARGH!” He screamed as he was thrown back with great force. The palm of his left hand throbbed violently, as if it had been set on fire. “Wha…what the hell?!”
“I tried to warn you! From my analysis of that tree, it’s releasing a high concentration of phytochemical. Touching it is dangerous!”
“WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT EARLIER ASSHOLE!?”
“BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T FREAKIN’ ASK!”
“Ugh…”
“Kenjirou!”
Seeing the weak stirring of their club president, the two immediately stopped fighting and turned back to the objective at hand.
“Okay, so touching that thing is a no go. But if the Prez is being wrapped up by it, that makes it all the more necessary we get him out of there!” Takuya exclaimed. “Senpai, any suggestions?”
“Huh?! W-what do you want me to do?”
“Oh for fu-! You’re useless! Fine, I’ll do it myself!” Takuya spat as he pulled out his knives and rushed towards where Kenjirou was imprisoned, plunging them into the roots.
SCREEEEEECH
“AAAH!” Juntaro screamed as he covered his ears to the sound of a horrible screech suddenly emulating from the tree. It was a blood curdling sound reminiscent of a wild animal, so loud it nearly broke the glass of the cellphone. “HOLY CRAP! WHAT THE HELL KIND OF TREE IS THIS?!”
CLANG CLANG CLANG
Takuya relentlessly tore into the tree. He could not hear the screams, even as they got louder with every cut, yet he could still feel the increasing force of the sound waves as it reverberated throughout his body.
With every stab from his knives, he could also feel his insides being crushed, from his organs down to his bones. The increasing shockwaves threaten to blow every vein in his body and his head felt like it was about to explode. A taste of blood flooded his mouth, as he felt them splurting out of his orifaces.
“TAKUYA, STOP THIS ALREADY!” Juntaro begged as the very ground itself began to shake violently.
“RELEASE…THE PREZ!” He hollered as he poured every ounce of strength into his arms and continued to mercilessly ripped into the silvery holds of the president.
CRASH
The sound of his blades shattering echoed throughout the area as the roots finally released Kenjirou. His giant body landed on the ground with a tremendous thud, as he laid unconscious on the floor.
“Ha…haa…” Gasping for air, Takuya fell to his knees in exhaustion. Every centimeter of his body was in terrible pain as he too collapsed onto the floor.
“TAKUYA! KENJIROU! ARGH! GOD DAMN THIS USELESS ELECTRONIC PRISON!” Juntaro cursed as he slammed his fist on the screen of the cellphone, watching helplessly at the collapsed body of the two.
“Heh…*cough*…so you finally admit that body of yours suck…” Came a weak snicker.
Juntaro looked up and saw the opened eyes of his underclassmen, looking at him with a sneaking smile.
“You…you dumbass! Why the hell did you have to take it so far?!”
“Senpai…everything hurts like crazy. I’m doing my best to keep my eyes open, so at the very least let me read words from your lips that won’t make me want to close them.”
“…Can you still move?” Juntaro asked carefully.
“…Unfortunately, I think I still have some strength left.” He sighed as he struggled to get up. “Ugh…it hurts so much…”
“Check if Kenjirou have his phone. If you can turn it on, I might be able to do something.”
“Tch…fine…”
Slowly dragging himself towards the body of the president, Takuya searched his pockets for his cellphone.
“Found it…” He happily announced as he turned it on. “Now if you’ll excuse me…I’m going to take…a…nap…”
Watching as he collapsed on top of Kenjirou, Juntaro let out a weary sigh. He peeked at the percentage still left on his current phone.
“1%…”
Using the last of his energy, he doubled checked the status of his two friends. Seeing their life signatures indicating that they were still alive, he let out another sigh, this time of relief, before transferring himself to Kenjirou’s cellphone.
