Unknown Month - 10019.
6 years prior to present (10025)
There were two figures wandering aimlessly through a beach on an island in an unknown Capital. The rustling of the palm trees, the small crabs waddling through the sand, the calm currents thrashing up the shore. There was also the gawking of seagulls, and occasionally the sound of animals running through the forest that hid the beach.
A little girl with pale blue hair in a depressingly colored grey patient gown was being carried on by a taller girl with long auburn hair in a lab coat. The little girl seemed to be 12 years old, with her small round glasses. The older girl had a light smile on her face, her eyes wandering through the sand. The water ran up the shore, soaking the older girl's sandy feet.
"Hey! Big Sis!" The little girl's cheeks puffed as a wide childish grin covered her face. The older girl slowly turned her head back in response, opening her mouth and replying to her call, "yes?"
"Can you tell me about the posters I found inside? I saw a big palace overlooking a weird mountain range!"
The little girl eagerly waited for her answer, even tapping on the older girl's shoulder gently.
"So those are called The Reitsune Palace, owned by the old and noble Reitsune family of the 5th Capital city!" The older girl smiled, showing her teeth in the process.
She continued, "Well, those palaces are vacant, as the Reitsune clan all left the palaces and never came back during the 6th disaster."
"I wanna live there! It looks so pretty!" The girl chuckled joyfully.
The older girl looked down, her expression was somewhat grim, before looking back up at the shoreline, mumbling in a positive attitude.
"I do too."
Back to present — 10025, August 1st.
Shizune was stumbling through the room, the scent of blood from who knows where was lingering in the air. She was clutching her stomach, still bleeding yet didn't understand why she wasn't dying from loss of blood.
She stumbled again to the area where she and Satoya fought the masked man, who she now probably realized to be a Heart Weaver from the Consortium. She tilted to the side, gazing mindlessly at the cracked wall where she vaguely remembered where Satoya was unconscious against.
He, isn't here..? I thought..
Her condition worsened, until she heard a muffled sound of several people.
"ISAAC! YOU LEFT THEM TO DIE?"
"Not my fault! That grey star was descending, of course I had to see!"
"None of us were even awake when it happened!"
Grey star descension…?
Then she heard what she assumed to be Rayna screaming "Shizune! Think fast!" Shizune glanced toward them in response, watching as a large glass potion of weird bright red liquid was thrown at her directly. She couldn't necessarily react due to her being on the verge of death, but she made a brief "H-hey wait!"
The sound of glass breaking sounded in the area, with Shizune being drenched in the liquid that somehow was freezing. The liquid immediately dried off, and yet, Shizune realized her condition became almost perfect.
What in the world did they throw at me?
She thought, shaking her head then facing up at the group. They were all holding in a laugh, until she asked again in an unusually polite tone.
"Pardon?"
They all guffawed, their laughter was honestly pretty confusing to her. Which made her feel like Satoya at that moment.
"Yeah so, Edward became a Truth Seeker not too long ago, and his Verity is literally one of those system things from Maehwan novels!" Rayna wiped a tear off her eye, still chuckling at the thought.
"Apparently he can stack potions, and the original size of a health potion is the size of a normal can of soda. Which we just discovered to be able to merge with more to turn into one large potion." Isaac smiled, slapping Edward's back.
Shizune shrugged, taking another glance at the wall where formerly Satoya was practically dead against. She was genuinely certain Satoya wasn't killed, unless of course if some weirdo decided to kidnap him.
Edward gazed at the wall, where some blood was stained below the obvious crack on the wall. He was curious, even opening his Verity's menu to try searching for some hidden "find out what happened like 3 minutes ago." Module but to no avail. Instead he figured why not ask Shizune.
"So where's Satoya?"
Shizune took an exhausted sigh, replying to his question.
"No idea."
This response was to be expected however Edward ever since he became a Truth Seeker, felt as if he understood Satoya, even though he lacked a Verity. He came to another, brand new conclusion that Satoya's Verity must probably be something that needs to be triggered in a specific event. Of course, Edward is prone to overthinking so much that even a generic "oh sorry I'm late." by his mother would result in him theorizing on all the possible reasons on why his mom was late.
With that thought out of the way, he pulled out his phone from his pocket. Although he honestly expected the phone to be dead, it wasn't.. Probably because this wasn't one of those post apocalyptic stories — okay yeah the setting is making it seem like that — to Edward. He tapped on his phone, bringing up contacts and started to text in a group labelled "Satoya gangers."
Several messages were being texted rapidly from Edward.
Edward Arbor: Satoya
Edward Arbor: Satoya
Edward Arbor: Satoya
Edward Arbor: Satoya
Edward Arbor: @Satoya
Johnathan Atkinson: I don't think he has his phone
Edward Arbor: Fair
"Why are you guys having a conversation when you both are literally next to each other?"
Rayna interrupted, slowly turning her head up at Johnathan and looking down at Edward.
Edward made a disappointed expression, the questions were becoming louder, debating whether or not he should call him, but typically Satoya would respond to any text in the driest "what" and leave without a good reason to stay.
"Isaac, Satoya was literally here right?" Edward asked, gazing up at him. His muscled arms still had blood on them, but the injuries were mostly healed thanks to the ~30 health potions he had thrown at him prior to coming here. He opened his Verity's menu again, and began coughing in embarrassment.
I thought I could buy as many health potions as I wanted.. But why does each health potion cost 5 of my influx? My influx is at 8… I think they recharge by one every minute..
Shizune snuck a glimpse of Edward's oddly bright green system menu thing, and nodded. "Oh wow, I'm not a Truth Seeker but it looks like you are running low on influx."
"No shit Shizune!" Edward yelled.