Chapter 2: The Need To Become Strong

--An: Also check out my other novel: Yue Of The Moonlight--

Mai kept stealing glances at Ai as they walked down the hall to their class. She was trying to figure out what kind of alien possessed her friend. When she thought of how Ai, was able to stop Oki Renjiro's fist like it was nothing and then went on to scold them into submission, she couldn't help but find it strange and think that Ai was possessed.

Ai could feel Mai's eyes glued to her for a while now. the gaze was starting to make her feel a bit uncomfortable causing Ai to say: "Mai if you have something to say then just say it. Otherwise, staring at me like that is going to make me think you fell in love with me when I saved you just now. "

"Who would fall in love with you!" Mai quickly replied but blushed since Ai was right, she was staring a bit too much. "I was just trying to figure out what alien possessed my best friend. What's wrong with that?"

"If I was possessed I would have let you get hit back there. But I didn't which means I am still one hundred percent the same Ai I was when we first met all those years ago when you still wet the bed." Ai teased. But she could understand where Mai was coming from. The fact that she showed up to school in such an appearance was one thing. Then when you toss in the fact that she stopped a seniors fist right in its tracks with very little effort is another. It was natural for people to find someone weird when they suddenly changed so much.

After living ten years in hell even the differences between man and woman no longer mattered. They were always fighting with very little time to care about one's appearance. Hell, she even took showers and bathes with the opposite sex, along with other women as well. There was never anything sexual about this though. It was mainly because they had no choice. If they had a chance to bathe they all had to wash up at the same time ina group or else if they were separated they would become easier targets to the machinas. It had to be said that the water they used to wash in was normally rainwater or any open body of water for that matter.

Trying to take a hot shower or bath was a luxury that was basically nonexistent. So things like combing your hair or making sure you were wearing clean clothes were not something you worried about. The only concern people had was trying to stay alive. Ai couldn't even count how many times she almost died until that fateful encounter with the new type machina. But now that she had a second chance she planned to turn her skills and knowledge of what was to come to use.

Some might wonder why just because of one coincidence between real life in what she thought of as a dream made her believe that the world would be coming to an end in six months' time. Some might think she was losing her mind. But for Ai no matter how strange she acted she would not care what people thought about her. Now that she had confirmed her dreams to be a reality in her own mind, she decided that at lunchtime she would skip the rest of the day.

To her, the girl who was next to her was her best friend from years past. But now it was like they were strangers. After going through such hardships and bloodshed, one's mentality would change completely no matter how hard they tried to stay the same. Ai was no different in this aspect either. Six months from now she would not even know what had happened to Mai nor did she care too much about that.

She had to worry about herself and immediately family first. After the first day, people went insane, they ran through the streets looting and killing each other. If not for her mother and father protecting her during that time, Ai knew she would not have survived. Even after the first type machina emerged only a few people banned together. It was not until the second type machina did humans really begin to try to work together for the same goal, survival.

"Ai! Ai! Are you listening to me?" Mai reached over and pinched Ai's arm bringing her back to the living.

"You know Mai it would be nice if you did not use so much strength in pinching me." Although Ai had gone through many hardships, her fourteen year old body was not as tough as her twenty four year old body. Ai decided right then and there that she would need to train this out of shape body of hers. Thinking of this, Ai paused her steps causing Mai to run into her.

Rubbing her nose Mai looked up at Ai: "Ai?"

"Sorry Mai, but I need to leave. Tell the teacher I did not feel well and went home." Ai did not even wait for Mai to say anything before turning and running out of the school building.

"Ai!?" Mai yelled out but did not give chase. "Why is she acting so weird today?" With outputting much more thought into it, Mai walked to her classroom.

Outside the building, Ai found a tree near the school wall and climbed up it. The Physical Ed teacher was blocking the main gate waiting for the late arrivals, so she had to find a different way out. Her plan was to do some hard training in the woods not too far from the school. As far as she could remember these woods were relatively safe so she could train to her heart's content without extra worries.

This was good because her worries were already numerous as it was. At least she wouldn't be adding in any new ones any time soon. She originally planned to go to school for the day to make sure everything she had been through was not a dream. But the fight had already proved this, so now she wanted to get her training done. She needed to be strong.

In what you could now call her past life, when she crawled out from underneath the rubble she was all alone. Fourteen years of age and she had to learn to survive in a world overrun by machina, and evil people. Trudging through the murky waters of the ruined city trying to find even a scrap of food or clean water to drink. She remembered she had diarrhea for an entire weak to the point where she almost died from it. If she did not have such a strong will to live at the time and forced herself to find fluids to replenish what she was losing she would not have lasted.

It was also during this time that Ai had to kill a human being for the first time. She would remember that day for as long as she was alive. Some pervert had trapped her and tried to rip her clothes off. Luckily during her struggle, she was able to knock the man silly with a rock. She had no idea what came over her but once the man fell down she pounced on the man like a tiger and continued to use the rock in her hand to smash the man's head in. When the man went completely limp, with blood and bits of brains flowing out of his head. It was only then that Ai realized she had killed someone for the first time.

The first time was the worse. She lost her stomach right then and there making her already bad condition worse and cried nonstop. But after doing it five more times after that, whether it was to kill for food or to fight off an attacker. She became numb to the idea of murder and a new ideal of what was right or wrong began to imprint itself into her. The need to survive in this new hell she was tossed into was the only law she believed in.

The first time she picked up a gun, she was fifteen years old. She found it in an abandoned police car along with three clips. It was then that Ai felt like she held great power in her hands. She loved the feel of the cold steel that made up the gun as its coolness penetrated her skin. She had instantly fallen in love with it.

She fell in love with the gun, even more, when three days later when it saved her life and she killed her first, first type machina. She remembered it clearly. She was rummaging through the debris of a destroyed supermarket hopping to find a can of food for her meal for the day. It did not matter what was in the can as long as it was edible. She had even eaten dog and cat food as if it was a rare delicacy. Some days she even had to resort to picking out what she could from the trash.

But it was on this day when she was lifting a beam when she came face to face with a first type machina. It was already damaged but it was still very powerful. As soon as it was free from the beam it tried to lash out at her. Unfortunately, she was not quick enough and was slashed in the eye. She had lost partial sight in her left eye from that day forth. Ai chuckled to her self as she remembered not only was this the first time she killed a first type machina but it was also the first time she swore loudly over and over again. Which at that time she did not realize had become a very bad habit. Her very words were: "You want to fucking slice my eye!? I will fucking shoot you dead you fucking piece of shit scrap metal!"

Ai remembered that she had unloaded an entire clip into the thing ever after it had stopped moving. Luckily it was damaged enough that it basically stopped working after benign shot once.

Letting out a sigh as sweat dripped from her brow, Ai looked up at the blue sky and the green trees that covered the land. "To think in a few months, I won't even be able to see the sky any more… But I must take this time to train myself no matter what. The most I can do is scout out a few places that might be safe for myself and my family. As for everything else, it will have to wait until I can find weapons after the apocalypse hits. I mean who in their right mind would sell a fourteen year old a gun. But that will all change as time goes on. At least, for now, I should stockpile as many blunt weapons as I can get."

Thanking for a moment, Ai could only think of one way to get what she needed for now. "I guess tonight will be a long night..."

She planned to go out after midnight and nicely borrow a few things from the houses a few streets away. She wanted to get any kind of object she could use as a blunt weapon for defense. She could use what was in her house but she wanted to make sure she had a small stockpile. She would also stock up on jugs of water. She could even get her father to help with this by saying it was for a school project since he would not even check with her teachers to find out if it was true or not. There was still so much to do and so little time, she just hoped she will be able to get enough stock to last the first month.

"Looks like I will need to steal a shopping cart here soon to transport items around. I can also set up some buckets outside to collect rainwater. Old jugs as well. I have a feeling I will be getting yelled at by my parents soon. But at least they will not throw it all away... At least I hope they won't..." With her thoughts straightened out, Ai dropped to the ground and began doing pushups. After a set of pushups, she did situps and then continued this cycle once more. She spent a good half her day alternating between shadow boxing and her work out routine. When she felt like she was about to collapse from exhaustion she decided it was time to take a nap before continuing. Which she had already spotted a nice big tree with wide branches that could hide her well.

As the sun set, Ai sat on a swaying tree branch as she looked out over the horizon at the sunset. "This body is truly weak, just this little bit of exercise has already been difficult. But I will endure. No matter what I need to become stronger."