UNITY FORCE MISSIONS: GIRLS' LAST TOUR
CHAPTER 5: Footsteps
DISCLAIMER: All characters in the story are not owned by me, save for my OCs.
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[Unnamed Temple, Earth-8751]
[PLAY MUSIC: Girls' Last Tour OST - Shuumatsu no Hirusagari]
The next day in their mission, the Unity Force members, Aloy, Erend, and Shuka Hanazono later head into a giant cubic building in front of them with Kozakura, Jima, and the Saw Monster. Like what Kanazawa said to them earlier, the day before, they later revealed that it is indeed a temple. They later prepare themselves, as they go inside the huge building.
As they enter inside the said building, they are later greeted by a sight that they do not expect, as everything slowly goes dark around them, with Hina Hikawa using her flames to light up the way around them. As expected, however, around them in the pathway is nothing more than the same mysterious statue they just encounter earlier. Except, they're much bigger and rather imposing, before they reach a stairway.
"Are you sure this is the right temple?" Sayo Hikawa asked.
"Yes, but it will take at least nearly half an hour to reach the temple proper." Kozakura said.
"How could people in this world create buildings like this?" Zoro Roronoa asked.
"That's what I'm still trying to uncover with Jima-san and the Saw Monster." Kozakura added. "This world is virtually empty, and neither people nor animals are even to be seen." She continued.
"Not to mention, there's not even a trace of nature in here." Jima added.
"It's pretty devoid of anything natural." Aloy said.
"This world is sad..." Laala commented.
"This is rather tiring." Kanta Mizuno complained. "These stairs must be going at an infinity." He continued.
"Also, what is with the numerous statues?" Hayate Ayasaki asked. "Everything within that path and this whole place itself are just statues beside us." He continued.
"Beats me." Ben Tennyson said.
Thirty minutes have passed and they have left the first stairway, where they later encounter yet another entrance and a stairway, much to Kanta and Hayate's irritation. However, the stairway is much shorter than the previous stairway, as it later leads into another room, where this time they encounter a slab with mysterious hieroglyphs in front of them.
The rest later decide to use this opportunity to take a few minutes to rest, while Zoro, Sayo, Ichika Takatsuki, Rinon, Maya Tendo, Kozakura, and Jima proceed to investigate the glyph.
"These are nothing like what we have seen before." Sayo said.
"Probably ancient writing in a completely different language that we know nothing about." Zoro added.
"But only Chito-san and Yuuri-san would know what these are." Sayo replied to Zoro's response.
"These illustrations..." Maya said.
"Not to mention, an inscription of a statue is to be seen." Hayate said, as he points a part of the writing. "Does this place and possibly this world have more statues than any other place?" He added.
Suddenly, a bright light casts upon them from out of nowhere, as it shines towards the group, much to their utter shock. Without even knowing what goes on around them, they are later greeted by a much different sight in front of them, unlike Kozakura and Jima who have known most about this.
In front of the Unity Force are three giant rock statues standing within the end of the T-shaped path. One of the statues is much taller, where its top is dressed like a nun, and has mysterious interlocking metallic patterns on both left and right sides of the statue's back. The left and right statues, however, are shorter than the central statue, but they both have the same height as one another.
What stands out for the place in front of them, however, is the whole place itself. Around the T-shaped pathway is pond, or so it seems, when Laala, Shuka Hanazono, and Renge Miyauchi later touch it, revealing that the said "water" is made of glass. Around the ponds are "lily pads" and "leaves", which are both highly artificial and nature and are also made of glass.
"I'll take a picture of the writings!" Hina said in her usual cheerful self, as she takes out her tablet to take a picture of the strange wall writing. "And, Zappin'!" She said, as she presses the button.
"Everything is made of glass..." Laala commented.
"Was there a time that anything of this is purely natural?" Shuka asked.
"Nyanpasu~" Renge commented, as she examines the "leaves" in front of them.
"Boppin'? What are those statues?" Hina asked.
"Judging by the looks of them..." Zoro said. "It seems that these statues are telling us a message." He added.
"All for a half-hour walk from the entrance and all the way here, and all we see are these three stupid statues?!" Kanta exclaimed rhetorically in a rather annoyed manner.
Even the normally goofy Brook seems to share Kanta's sentiments of seeing the statues in front of them, commenting on how pointless their ascend is. Not to mention, Usopp seems to be far more annoyed.
"We're looking for Chito-san and Yuuri-san... Not to spend and waste our time here in this boring ass place." Kanta retorted.
"But what are these statues?" Sayo asked.
"Wait, I think I found something that has been overlooked on one of statues in front of us." Aloy said, as she takes out another ration wrapper.
"Ration wrapper?" Nagi said.
"Chito-san and Yuuri-san seems to have a habit of leaving their trail for us?" Sorao Kamikoshi suspected.
"That means they came in here, but I suspect that they already left before we came here." Toriko Nishina added.
"Seriously...?" Ben commented. "Are we already reaching so many dead ends just to look for Chito and Yuuri?" He questioned.
"We're also looking for Falala-chan and Garara-chan, as well!" Shuka exclaimed.
"Not to mention, those Burning Legion bastards we just faced earlier!" Hayate exclaimed.
"Okay, okay. Calm down." Kozakura called out.
The rest of the group all shared their sentiments of annoyance over going several dead ends, much to Kozakura's annoyance. Not to mention, the time they have wasted on following a rather winding breadcrumb trail of the survivors for many days to come.
But not only that, they have another breadcrumb trail that they are currently pursuing, and that is Falala・A・Larm and Garara・S・Leep's trails. Shuka, on the other hand, is confused at the sudden change of events that just transpired earlier, especially with Garara's sudden change of personality. While the things that happened in her past were bridge under the water, it's the present that has put her into this calamitous state.
But everything suddenly changed in the blink of an eye when Jima suddenly apologises from out of nowhere.
"I'm sorry for not telling this to all of you..." Jima said.
"Hold on." Zoro called out. "Why are you suddenly apologising to us?" He added in inquiry.
"The thing is..." Jima said rather despondently. "When we saw both of them, not far from where we were, which is considered sufficient for us to hide, their faces tell us that they were acting rather weirdly." She added.
"What are you saying?" Sayo said.
"Both of those friends that you are continuously looking for days..." Kozakura trailed. "They are acting rather conflicted on the inside, as if they're doing some kind of a personal goal." She continued as if everything went heavy from 0 to 100 real quick.
"You didn't stop them?! You didn't?!" Zoro exclaimed heatedly.
"Do you have any idea how much time we have wasted looking for them?" Kanta questioned rather furiously.
"Not to mention Falala-chan and Garara-chan were somehow indirectly involved in this breadcrumb trail!" Shuka exclaimed in complete fury.
"Calm down, Shuka-chan..." Laala Manaka reassured.
"I cannot disturb them, since I'm too scared to talk to them..." Kozakura apologised rather indifferently, but Zoro is completely unconvinced.
"I'm sorry if we didn't tell you about it." Jima added, as she bows her head rather shamefully.
"Goddamnit!" Usopp exclaimed. "You know what, thank you so much for being the most useless 'tour guide' we have ever seen in our entire life!" He continued.
"Wait, don't say it!" Jima exclaimed. "I know all of you are upset, but please, don't take the blame on her!" She attempted to admonish the group but to no avail.
"Whatever you're trying to do..." Kozakura suddenly spoke rather quietly. "It's not the best of our interest to interfere with your mission." She added. "But I'm doing this for all of your own good..." She continued. "It's because of your encounters with this so-called 'Burning Legion', which given the pattern they are most likely going to target all of you..." She ended.
"What do you know about them, huh?" Zoro questioned.
"Tell us." Shuka said. "Garara-chan and Falala-chan are already in this situation. so don't make this difficult!" She exclaimed.
"If you really want to find both of them." Kozakura added. "I advise all of you to not put your heads recklessly by just focusing on looking for Chito, Yuuri, Garara, and Falala." She warned, as she gives Zoro a map. "Here's a map of this layer from that Kanazawa person Jima met earlier." She ended.
"We're NOT taking any second chances away, so no thanks to you." Zoro declared suddenly, as she takes the map from Kozakura. "Whatever the case, we must find Chito-san and Yuuri-san and later directly talk to them why they're behaving like that." He added, as the rest of the group later turn their heads away from the trio, before they head down towards the temple exit.
Jima feels bad for the endless confusion the rest of the group have to deal with, but unlike Kozakura she seems far more determined to watch the rest heading on in their main objective. Deep within her, however, she felt sorry for not telling them right away.
"Isn't it a little too much, Roronoa-san?" Sorao asked.
"I knew they're unreliable to begin with." Zoro added. "They said they know about what happened to both of them, but that idiot Kozakura didn't even tell us or do a thing." He continued.
"She's usually like that." Sorao said. "Despite being indifferent, she cares... But that is largely because she is easily scared." She revealed.
"Yes. Unreliable." Usopp repeated Zoro's words towards Sorao.
"Not to mention, we're only wasting our time on such empty trails we have been pursuing." Sayo said straightly, as if she's also echoing the same disappointment as the rest of the group.
After leaving the temple, Zoro and the rest later examine the map in front of them, where they later find a red X written at a particular destination that says "hangar". Using the map as a reference, the rest of the ragtag group later follow the path.
"The hangar that is." Zoro said.
"I assume that Chito-san and Yuuri-san made a stop there." Sayo added.
"Boppin'! I've never expect those two to be this adventurous!" Hina said.
"Hmmmm..." Zoro ponders. "Ash, can you follow this location from the map and tell us what you find there and tell us where it is located?" He asked the Pokémon Trainer. "And uh, Chopper and Renge-san, you'll be going with them and survey around the area for any traces of Burning Legion." He added.
"Charizard, I choose you!" Ash takes out a Pokéball, as Charizard later comes out of the Pokéball, before he sits down on top of it.
"Got it!" Tony Tony Chopper responded, as he goes with Ash.
"Nyanpasu~!" Renge obliged.
"Also, Ichika-san." Zoro said.
"What is it?" Ichika asked.
"You, Ben-san, and Rinon should begin doing some fieldwork about this world." Zoro said. "We should know why this world is like this, in spite of what Chito-san and Yuuri-san said." He added. "And keep a lookout for any trace of Burning Legion here." He ended.
"Got it! Let's go, Rinon!" Ichika added.
"On it!" Rinon responded.
"We'll be going!" Ben responded.
Ash, Renge, Tony Tony Chopper, and Charizard later leave, as they proceed to leave and later follow the destination written from the map. Ben, Ichika, and Rinon later separate with the group to begin their examination of this world's strange nature. The rest of the Unity Force, on the other hand, will stop at nothing to find Chito, Yuuri, Falala, and Garara. But little do they know is someone is watching at one of the buildings from afar: Lord Azrethoc.
"How insistent." Azrethoc scoffed, as he later flicks his fingers, before summoning a group of creatures known as Felstalkers. These creatures are quadrupedal in nature, have garnet skin, cloven hooves, skull-like heads and black pointy hair. "All of you, follow me. I'll destroy those weaklings under my grasp." Azrethoc commanded, as he begins to set his sights towards the Unity Force group, with the rest marching their way towards them.
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A/N: This story is inspired by the ideas of someoneStupED, XP4Universe, and Tamama900.
On the next chapter of UF Missions: Girls' Last Tour: Despite the earlier misunderstanding and disagreement between Kozakura and Zoro, Zoro and the rest of the Unity Force later use the map that Kozakura gave to them and follow the said path into the hangar. But just as they are following this path, a familiar threat is unknowingly lurking behind them.