-But to where? Enmie shouted, quickly panicking the castle is huge!
-Quick! Through the balcony! I pointed to the door that led to it this earthquakes is one of the big ones! I shouted as I ran, trying to the best of my ability to maintain my balance and opening the way with a kick, I then waved at the girls come on! Jump! I shouted jumping at the same time, even if that was almost a three store fall.
-A Alright! Enmie replied running to the border, stopping instantly b b but it is too high! I can t do it! I am afraid of heeeeights! the usagimimi said, beginning to tear, when the shelves began falling to the floor and drop all the book on the floor.
-Rabbit! We need to jump at this instant! Enma shouted, looking to the bedroom and seeing that part of the celling was already collapsing so strong was the shaking damnation! We have no time to lose! that was when the kitsunemimi looked at me that had just stood up after jumping and looked at them Richard, I count with you! she then looked at Enmie forgive me rabbit, but this is needed!
-She is not going to do - I said to myself at the same moment that Enma placed one of her paws on the usagimimi s nape and the other on her shorts, with a quick movement, she threw her at my direction she did it! I exclaimed, preparing to get Enmie midair who was shouting louder than all the ruckus that was going on around all of us, all I saw next was the blond girl landing in my arms and we both falling to the ground in sequence.
-Are you alright? Enma asked, offering her paw so as to help the usagimimi standing up run! Although we are on the open now, we still are not completely out of danger as we are between the north and south part of the castle, which might crumble down any minute now! the kitsunemimi began running, followed by me and Enmie the shacking is not stopping at all!
-You are right Enma! You both run as fast as you can! I shouted pointing to the shortest path to the open gardens on the east side of the propriety.
Enma was a little ahead of me, I was running as fast as my legs allowed me to; suddenly some sounds denoted that the buildings at our sides began falling down, which was a very bad sign considering our situation right now, however everything complicated even more at the moment we hear one surprise shout, when we looked while still running, we noticed that Enmie had tripped and fallen to the ground, the last thing I had time to do was shout:
-ENMIE! WATCH OUT! at the exact moment a huge wooden piece broke from the top of the building and fell at the usagimimi s direction.
As soon as she heard my words, Enmie turned around and had her back against the ground, instinctively taking her paws to the face, I tried to run towards her, however everything happened in a blur at that moment, because right afterwards both buildings around us crumbled down, making a big cloud of dust and debris form and block my vision, leaving me with just the crumbling sounds around; slowly the earth began calming down and stopped shaking soon after, I took my cellphone and saw that earth was shaking for approximately two minutes, as the dust began dissipating a little, I heard Enmie s extremely worried shouts:
-ENMA! ENMA! ENMA! due to the usagimimi s tone, I decided to find them following her voice.
I walked for a little and finally I found the two females, the scene that presented before me would be touching and emotionally touching if it wasn t tragic, Enmie was still laying on her back in the ground, however Enma was on all fours over her, with a really big and apparently very heavy wooden log against her back, in her face the pain she was feeling was visible and she apparently needed to be using all her strength not to let the wood hit the usagimimi; without thinking twice I ran towards them and, using a muscular power I didn t know that existed in me, I took the log in my hands and slowly I lifted it in a way it wouldn t touch the kitsunemimi anymore, that was when I notice that a splinter considerably thick and long snapped from the log and, despite still being connected to the main wood body it left together when I removed the log, it penetrated Enma s back, whom as soon as she felt she was free from what hurt her, said:
-A After so much training I think I made a little mistake - she took her paw to the back, where there was a hole a little wider than a tennis ball, soaking it with blood that was already gushing out of the wound I was careless - falling to her right, laying on her side, on the opposite side where the wound was.
-ENMA-SAMA! Enmie shouted as soon as she noticed the situation was serious what happened?
-I D Don t know I didn t think straight - Enma replied I just saw the log falling over you when I noticed I was protection you rabbit - she then let a long pained groan t this time I t think I won t be able to escape isn t it right?
-D Don t be silly Enma-sama! Enmie replied, already with tears in her eyes it is just one silly wound, I will cure you right now with energy! she then kneeled beside the kitsunemimi.
-T That is good rabbit I trust in you - Enma s voice seemed like she was getting weaker.
-B But why did you do this for one so useless rabbit as I am Enma-sama ? Enmie asked, that was when I noticed she was putting way more strength than usual in the energy, I noticed that the kitsunemimi s left kidney had been completely destroyed, it didn t matter how powerful Enmie was, there was no way to stop and cure bleeding so intense like that one; Enma took her paw to the usagimimi s one, saying in sequence.
-B Because I B Batista N N N Nathalia - Enma s voice was getting weaker and lower, as if she was making an ungodly effort to speak d decided to believe in that thing that you call l l l l love - she closed her eyes in sequence, her paw fell in sequence.
-Oh no! Enmie exclaimed, looking to Enma s face I won t let you die at all! she then summoned all the strength she had and tried to expel the maximum amount of energy she had available don t fail on me now my power
However, it didn t take more than ten seconds for the light that was being emitted through Enmie s paw to disappear, with horror on her blue eyes she looked at her paws in complete state of disbelief and I could, inside my heart, feel her despair and distress that the usagimimi must be feeling at that moment My Saint Meow what a tragic way for listening to the confession of the person you love I thought, continuing I would do anything now to be able to help, even if was just a little to try to ease the pain she must be feeling right now ; at that moment I felt a lot of words entering my head and I felt that I surely needed to saw them, without even thinking twice, I told Enmie:
-Enmie, you know very well I never was a religious person, however the usagimimi looked at me with already tears rolling down her face, as if begging for me to help her there is a statement that is believed to have been said by Mewsus, which I always liked that said If you have your faith the size of a mustard seed, the smallest seed there is, you will be able to do what I do and much more I took then her paws because he tells us that we are all equally capable in case we really desire it in us; add that with what I saw in your memories, I found out that you cannot your power as you could when you were a kid because you lost your trust in others, but above all you lost the trust in yourself I looked at Enma, whose life was quickly being drained and completed, placing her paws over the wound again, along with mine if even a person that lived a life like hers can learn to trust another person, I am sure that you will restart believing again in your own talent, remember what you used to feel when you were five years old and healed little hurt animals in the streets and direct it to Enma!
-What I used to fell? Enmie said almost to herself, slowly looking to Enma, with the same look she used to have while healing when she was small I felt tenderness piety care but above all LOVE!
For some moments I became obfuscated, as if I had just looked at the sun directly, as soon as I was able to see again, I noticed a light that was millions of times more potent than what was usual for Enmie, then I noticed that the energy had the form of a Phoenix around the usagimimi! Whom kept emanating energy for around three minutes, as soon as she was done, she laid Enma with her back to the ground and waited a response, however after one, two, three, and when, five minutes later without an answer, tears began rolling down the usagimimi s face, after placing her head on her beloved s chest, cried:
-Nathalia-sama w what am I going to do - she sobbed with so much pain in it that made my heart ache as all without you in my life the world has no meaning if you are not in it - I couldn t move myself from my place nor look at the two of them, so strong was the sadness in my heart, however I heard a known voice to me, saying.
-Rabbit you are heavy do you want to diet with me? Enma then opened her eyes and smiled.
-N N N - Enmie tried to say something after taking her head out of the kitsunemimi s chest, looking her with eyes that seemed that were going to jump from out from her orbits NATHALIA-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! hugging her extremely strong in sequence.
-You Highness! Where are you? Are you hurt? I heard voice from the royal guard calling me answer to us please?
-I am here! I shouted, standing up to leave the two girls alone for a little while, because I certainly knew that they wished to talk for a little while between the north and south sections! moments later one soldier came to me, saluting and then asking.
-Your Highness! Thanks Saint Meow you escaped the building that fell down! Do we have any victims around here? he then looked around.
-We have a wounded kitsunemimi back there, ask the medical team to help the Doctor Enmie to take her to the infirmary, she has just some small wounds I then pointed to the part of the castle that was still intact I know we are going to have some chaotic days ahead of us, but I want the numbers of this tragedy brought upon us as soon as possible at my office s table, understood?
-Sir! Yes sir! Anything else I can help you now sir? the soldier asked, saluting again.
-Negative I replied, heading to the new office.
It took us almost three whole days so as we could measure all the damage caused by the earthquake, Chi had just arrived to the office to report me the status of the kingdom at that moment, because I decided that utilizing Chi to catalog, process and analyze the collected data about the disaster to give me precise and very descriptive report about what happened and future actions to be done, would be the best decision:
-The biggest damage happened in the historical and old buildings as, for instance, where your previous bedroom was located master Chi recited the report, after handing me a printed copy of it which got to the point of falling down completely, however the buildings post the years two thousand were all already equipped with their own earthquake protection systems to minimize de damage and strength of them, having just small damages and broken windows and things of that sort, which made the number of victims to be really small compared to the proportions of the event, we had one hundred causalities and most of them were heart attacks - Chi paused for an instant and continued the tremor reached eight degrees in the Richter and Veronese scale, but the epicenter was almost one thousand miles (1600km) to the east, near a place known as Mewrusal m where the power reached nine point five degrees.
-Do we have any kind of information regarding the consequences of the earthquake in the nekomimi territory? Because if I am not wrong, the epicenter was really close to their capital - I asked worried with what might have happened to my nekomimi.
-Despite not having a direct connection between my systems and the monitoring satellites, I managed to at least have a vision of what happened there, a fissure was originated as a consequence of the earthquake being almost five hundred meters wide in some points between their territory Mewrusal m and Verona which practically divided both continents apart, because of that we estimate the ninety percent of the population that lived in a near radius of the epicenter was a victim of the poor quality constructions of the place and secondary fissures that happened throughout the place, seventy percent of our army was also wiped out because of said event as well -I understand Chi-chan - I pondered for some moments, the number of people in the army that died was really big and what did you found about the meteorological abnormality?
-Regarding that master - Chi became silent for some instants, continuing in sequence despite the circumstances, I believe that it would be really opportune if we began preparing for Verona s evacuation.
-Verona s evacuation Chi? I asked astonished what do you mean?
-As you can see ahead in the report, the anomaly I found in the weather? Apparently the earth is readapting to the changes in the weather the bomb that caused the apocalypse that made the world be like it is today, that is why a new Ice Age is nearing us, everyone that lives farther than six hundred twenty five miles (1000km) from the equator line shall perish.
-My Saint Meow Chi! I exclaimed, shocked with the revelation how is that even possible? How long until that happens?
-If my sensors are correct, we have from five or with some luck six years before it begins however this winter will be much more rigorous than normal I suggest a proper preparation for both climatological events forgive me for the last minute news, it is just that I didn t have much of a contact with the outside world inside the bunker where I was created and apparently the phenomena is recent.
-I comprehend Chi, do you think you can organize the technical preparations so as said providences be made with best effectiveness possible? If affirmative, I leave you with plenty powers to act with freedom, you can ask Enmie to help you and also to Enma, as soon as she is recovered.
-Yes master! Chi replied, bowing in sequence leave that to Chi!
Chi then began dealing with every subject regarding the technical part of what needed to be done in the short and long run, while she checked as an engineer the constructions of shelters to protect from the winter s cold that in six months would befall upon us, how we would make the mass moving of all Verona s population through ships that would be constructed and adapted for transportations, as well airplanes; whereas me, I took care of the human part of all the procedures that were being done, taking care of the people s well-being and fair work division and assuring their happiness as much as it was possible, to the point of even working for some periods inside child care to look after worker s children.
I tried, without any success, contact with the nekomimis in order to propose them a truce, explaining what would happen to Earth at that moment and that probably they would die in case they stayed there, however it was useless seeing the communications between the sides had been interrupted thanks to the earthquake and we couldn t simply send helicopters to them because of the risk in losing them, which couldn t happen at this moment, I also couldn t track Akira s slave locator that was implanted in her, as the towers that receive the signal probably were also destroyed
Six months passed and the daily routine made me forget the pain I was feeling at that moment and, unfortunately, even Akira had left my thoughts temporally, since we didn t have more news about her or the extremists, nor any other attack, even more now that the continents were divided, at times I thought she might have passed away in the earthquake, but I would quickly shake those thoughts out of my mind; winter was almost at our doors and the cold was pretty intense, everything change when Chi looked for me and said:
-Richard, we have an emergency! she showed me a portable display where it showed a Verona s map and a point that was blinking because of some error or bug, the nuclear weapons were activated in the bunker where I used to stay!
-What? Those ones that destroyed whole cities in matters of seconds? I asked astonished how could that happen?
-I cannot say without accessing directly the central computer master, forgive me Chi replied, bowing but it is fortunate, there is a safety lock that won t let it be activated in less than thirty six hours, unless it is done a quick unlocking with a program only I have now.
-That is bad I quickly took the royal communicator and dialed Andrade s number Saito, this is Richard.
-Richard! It has been a long time since we last spoke! How can your humble and loyal vassal help you?
-Saito, do you know the temple where we found Chi-chan? I explained, continuing apparently some kind of serious error happened there and we need to depart immediately to there.
-But Richard, a trip to there will almost take six hours and the weather is very bad and cold, I believe it would be more prudent if we didn t go there right now, can t we go the day after tomorrow, when the weather forecast says we are going to be sunny?
-Negative, we are departing in twenty minutes, I order you to prepare an helicopter and prepare good winter clothing.
Twenty minutes later we were in a helicopter that was heading to the old bunker where we found Chi, it was snowing a lot and the cold was really extremely strong making us shake in our seats, with a delay of four hours we landed at the base, which was apparently empty; a bad feeling began running through my body when the android began the procedure, moments later she turned around and said to us:
-It wasn t an error, but the missile was manually activated! Someone tried to use this against Verona, because the coordinates match with the capital s!
-Damnation! I exclaimed looking at the mainframe s monitor who could know so much about this to the point of trying to use it against us?
-Who else could it be? someone behind us all replied, making my heart stop for some moments, there was just one person in all Verona to whom that voice could belong to King Montecchio Richard finally FINALLY I WILL HAVE MY VENGEANCE! when I slowly finished turning around, I noticed that the voice effectively belonged to that person I, Capuleto Akira, will make you pay for what you did to my father, mother and me!