Mutagen

Day 313 - 7:25 AM - Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan

Chiyoda City. A special ward in the central Tokyo Prefecture. It centered on one of the most historical sites in Japan and was one of the well-known places in Tokyo to a certain demographics of people.

One of those demographics was, of course, Otakus. Some of them outside Japan might not be familiar with the name Chiyoda, but it was impossible that they had not heard of Akihabara, the so-called Capital of Otakudom.

For anything Otaku-related, Akihabara was the best destination to find it. From figurines, posters, costumes, and even anime-themed cafes, all those could be found in Akihabara. This place was also the home of one of the most popular Japanese idol groups. It was the Otaku's heaven, as some said.

Although right now, Akihabara... No, the entirety of the metropolitan area in eastern Japan had become a mishmash of ruins and forests.

The [Fusion of Dimensions] caused the lands on both dimensions to fuse, causing most known land on Earth to be altered or swallowed under the unaltered lands within the Spirit Dimension.

However, it was impossible for the Spirit Dimension to hide the gigantic skyscrapers that could be found in thriving cities on Earth. And in many metropolitan areas around the world, like Tokyo, such gigantic man-made structures were large in number.

Thus, it created a near-perfect depiction of an apocalyptic scene where nature seemed to have reclaimed the human-inhabited land. A scene where dilapidated buildings, half-buried under the soil, surrounded by trees and plants growing through their windows and cracks. It was a scene of destruction bearing the hidden beauty of the apocalypse.

Well, it sure was beautiful. If the shambling [Infected] was taken out of the scene, that was.

Since more parts of the human civilization were preserved, the casualties among the [Infected] during the [Fusion of Dimensions] also decreased significantly.

Due to these factors, there were fewer [Mechids] in the past metropolitan areas. Most of these locations were still dominated by the [Infected], aside from places where fragments from space had crashed.

***

SPLAT!

The sound of blood splattering unto the cracked walls of a ruined building echoed across the empty, destroyed street.

"Be careful with your steps. There's quite a bad amount of broken glass in the area."

Unexpectedly, the voices of people could be heard in the supposedly destroyed and abandoned streets of Akihabara.

The first one was a voice of a man.

"Yes~!"

It was followed by an enthusiastic voice of a child.

These voices were unexpected in many ways. First, very few people would wander in these dangerous areas. Second, no sane person would bring a child to this place in this apocalypse. And another thing... If ever people went here for some reason, they would not make that much noise.

Just the voice of that child answering would probably be enough to wake up a horde sleeping in the surrounding ruins.

"Shh..." Another childish but a bit older-sounding voice could be heard. "Not too loud."

"Yes..."

The child from before replied with a hushed voice.

That interaction was then followed by the growls of the [Infected] attracted by the sounds the children made. However, those growls did not last and vanished after the sounds of metal swinging through the air and the sound of splattering blood.

One would think that the growling stopped because the [Infected] lost things to growl at as the careless group of people was slaughtered. But it was the complete opposite as the musky smell of [Infected] blood mixed into the air.

The voices of the group could still be heard while they left the area, leaving nothing but traces of the small [Infected] horde with their heads either destroyed or decapitated.

***

"Oh, I found one."

The same man's voice could later be heard in another ruined building. It was not only him. His whole group was looking around the building on the verge of falling apart and screamed, "dangerous," no matter where one would have looked at it.

And what did the man find?

A dented box of an anime figurine.

After all, the ruins they were looking around were a collector's shop before the apocalypse.

***

Of course, this seemingly daredevil group was no other than Mark's family, with Emika, Spera, and Amihan tagging along.

"What's the point of looking around this place?"

Spera asked Mark, tired of walking.

"Just having a nice tour?" Mark replied while brushing off the dirt on the precious box he dug out of the ground within the ruined store. "I said before you could just wait in the camp, but you insisted on coming with us."

Spera did not reply and just pouted. Yes, she could have just waited where they camped the previous night. However, everyone else wanted to go with Mark, and Spera did not want to be left alone.

"I found one~!"

Miracle's gleeful voice entered Mark's ears as he saw the little girl, now looking like four to five years old, running towards him with another figurine box in her hand.

After a month of rest, Miracle received a proper education. She was now more articulate with her words and could now convey things better. However, while she was fast at learning things, her childish demeanor became more apparent. And among Mark's three adopted daughters, Miracle's current behavior was pretty much welcome since her two older sisters behave more like adults.

"Sshhh..." The older girl before hushed the little one again. "Don't shout too much."

"It's fine, Emika. Just let her have fun," Mark said to the green-haired girl that now accompanied his group. "It's not like we can't handle a few shamblers."

"If you say so..."

Emika sighed.

While Mark was cleaning the box Miracle found, he felt a tug on his sleeve.

"I also found one."

Abbygale said, showing Mark another figurine box.

"Thank you."

Mark smiled and patted the little catgirl's head.

Looking at the box Abbygale handed him, Mark was a bit surprised.

What Mark and Miracle found were characters he was not familiar with. On the other hand, Abbygale found a pretty large box containing an Ains Ooal Gown figurine. A good classic.

"Gege, there's a few here, but they are all broken."

Mei, who was with Amihan and Iola, called out unto Mark, looking around a fallen wall of the building. Given that it was near the wall, their finds were not surprising. After all, most intact display shelves were arranged near walls where the wall did not fall.

Unfortunately, while the display cases were intact, the displayed items did not. Most items were broken during the earthquake, leaving only a few intact.

Mark approached the three. As they said, a good number of boxes was there not buried under the soil. However, most of them were crushed under the rubble.

The group spent a few more minutes looking around. Unfortunately, there was only a handful of intact items in this store. There could have been a storage area, but it seemed to be not within the accessible area of the store.

They looked around one last time. The storage area should be under the seven-story ruined building behind the remains of the ruined store. There was no way they would dig through that.

***

"Are those toys really that important?"

Spera questioned Mark, who was diligently cleaning and fixing the dents on the Ains Ooal Gown box.

"In the survival sense, not really," Mark replied. "But finding these kinda makes me happy, I think? Besides, these things might not have value now, but they are extremely expensive for me to buy back then. And after the apocalypse began, these toys became more like historical relics. They had no use but displays, but you'll never find them anywhere else anymore."

It sounded like twisted Otaku logic, but it was not wrong. These toys might be everywhere before the outbreak, but now, there's no one to make or care about these things anymore. After some time, people would forget about these things and become items of the past.

Jokingly enough, people of the future might find these toys buried within ruins of buildings. Then think that these toys were some sort of godly idols that people of the past worshiped.

Mark's group walked around like tourists to the apocalyptic world. The sights were not as good as it was in the past. However, it was not like they could do something about it.

And while walking around randomly, killing any [Infected] they encountered along the way, Mark's eyes fell on a certain ruined building at the southeast corner of an intersection.

Mark paused on his feet with his eyes raised on the half-destroyed advertisement sign atop some destroyed first-floor shops.

Everyone looked at Mark in confusion as he approached the destroyed tarpaulin hanging on the advertisement sign and stretched it open. It revealed a barely recognizable but simple-looking advertisement with a girl wearing a red, frilly skirt posing with Japanese letters behind her. Mei and the others, except Emika, could not read Japanese, and Spera could only speak a little. On the other hand, Mark could not read the Kanji perfectly, although he could speak basic Japanese. Emika, a half-Japanese, also had basic Kanji studies but stopped when they moved to the Philippines.

Still, looking at the torn left side of the tarp, they could make out the letters KB4 just behind the girl.

While the girls were confused about what the torn tarpaulin was trying to advertise, they could see Mark looking at the building nostalgically.

Unfortunately, the building all collapsed, leaving a few metal foundations and walls barely intact.

"Gege, what is this place?"

Mei asked, both worried and interested about Mark's current state as he looked at the ruins before them.

"Akiba Island," Mark replied without looking at Mei. "You can say this is one of the few places I dreamed of going to when I was in college."

Mark then unearthed a broken purple-colored board where the girls could make out the words since it was written in English.

"AKB 48 Theater Since 2..."

Mei read the words, although she could not finish them due to the last part was already broken off.

"Oooh!" Emika remembered something. "The idol group isn't it?!"

Spera also had an inkling of an idea about it. After all, she lived here while working under the [Auraboros] for a few years. She then turned to Mark.

"Are you a creep or something?"

Spera mercilessly asked Mark.

Well, there was a such issue. After all, most idol group members were within the age range of teens to mid-twenties. Then the fans were men of all ages.

"What are you talking about?" Mark flicked Spera's forehead. "I said when I was in college. Most idols I watched at that time were around my age or just a few years younger. Some are even older than me. What's to be creepy about that?"

"And that's also just at that time," Mark continued. "I kinda lost interest when the generation I liked all graduated, and I got busy struggling with my daily life."

The girls could barely understand some of the terminologies and other stuff Mark was saying.

Mei stared at the girl in the advertisement. She did remember that Mark's laptop had a few music videos with female artists with similar-looking skirts. She did not think about it too much since it was Japanese music kind of stuff. Mark had a lot of different kinds of those saved.

"Who are your favorites?"

Emika suddenly asked Mark, who immediately answered.

"AKB? Acchan and Mayuyu."

"Wow, no hesitation, huh."

Emika said, staring at Mark.

"Well, let's go," Mark said with a shrug. "There's nothing much to see here."

Mark did feel nostalgic. It reminded him of the time he still had dreams he wanted to pursue. The dreams he lost after the reality hit him like a speeding truck years after.

With Mark urging everyone, they left the location and continued to wander around.

But Mei was awfully quiet.

"What's wrong?"

Mark asked. He could tell she was thinking about something, but he could not read what it was.

"Gege, do you still like idols?"

Mei asked back.

"Kinda? Why?"

It was Mark's turn to be confused.

"Well, I can practice. Then, sing and dance for you if you want to."

Mei's words made Mark stare at her blankly.

Yep... Mei was a bit jealous that Mark had some girls he would not hesitate to say were his favorites.

Mark found it quite tempting. However...

"Nah, there's no need to," Mark ruffled Mei's head. "Empty your head and focus. There's no need to be jealous when my only interest now is you."

"You two... Go get a room," Spera chimed in, annoyed. "Don't forget we have children around."

"I'm not doing anything bad."

Mark said while Mei kept silent. Her face was red. But, at least she stopped thinking about useless stuff.

The group went on, looking around some more, stopping by barely recognizable tourist spots, and killing different kinds of enemies along the way.

And before sunset, they all returned to camp.

That night, Mark stood guard, watching Japan's night sky while reminiscing their journey here.

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