Chapter 334 104: Forgotten

Two years ago.

Large-scale pollution disasters broke out almost simultaneously in Iki Island and Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, Japan, and even threatened the Prime Minister’s office for a time.

Based on the different details of the incidents in the two places, Takeshi Noguchi analyzed that the disaster in Chiyoda District was just a diversion, because the Mother Goddess Association had dispersed its manpower in many places in Chiyoda District, which was completely different from the way they gradually lost contact with Iki Island.

Therefore, Iki Island should be the main target of the Mother Goddess’s integration. Chiyoda’s polluters are just trying to distract the Special Affairs Bureau’s attention. They can use the police force and the Self-Defense Forces to consume them, while the main force of the extraordinary forces will be placed on Iki Island to thwart the other party’s unknown conspiracy.

However, Chiyoda Ward is a political center, and the traditionalists do not allow the Special Affairs Bureau to give priority to Iki Island, and they demand that the polluters causing chaos in Chiyoda Ward must be quelled as soon as possible.

At that time, the extraordinary faction was still under the suppression of the traditional faction. Disobeying orders would only plunge Japan into civil strife, causing the Mother Goddess to become more powerful and ultimately lead to no one being able to control her.

After weighing the pros and cons, and with the mediation of Kuroki Shinizumi as a centrist, Noguchi Takeshi had no choice but to agree to this approach, but he still insisted on sending several extraordinary troops to cooperate with the Self-Defense Forces to enter Iki Island to carry out the cleanup work.

Later, as the procrastination of the polluters in Chiyoda District became more and more obvious, and the battle reports from Iki Island became increasingly unfavorable, Noguchi Takeshi could no longer tolerate it. He finally overturned the table, threw the casualty report in the other party’s face, and demanded full command of the incident. Otherwise, he could not guarantee what his extraordinary subordinates would do in indignation.

Under Abe’s bilateral mediation, the command was officially handed over to Takeshi Noguchi, and the war to recover Iki Island, which had almost completely fallen, was officially launched.

As for Chiyoda Ward, it adopted a defensive stance, imposed martial law throughout the city, and conducted a comprehensive investigation.

Guan Junyan was temporarily promoted to team leader, and together with his apprentice Jingquan Sayuri, and four Moon Initiators drawn from other teams, they formed a temporary team with the goal of investigating whether there is a polluter’s nest in the urban area.

They stepped onto the scorched earth after a massive bombing and began searching the city for the mother nest.

It was from that time that communications on the island became intermittent and difficult.

Guan Junyan’s team searched almost all the construction areas in the south, but even after losing two people, they still failed to find the so-called mother nest.

So three days after setting foot on Iki Island, they planned to retreat to the shore as planned and wait for pick-up. As a result, one of the Moon Initiators claimed that he had found suspicious pits in the fields in the wild. There were signs of human cover-up, which could only be discovered when approaching. It was very likely related to the polluter’s nest.

Guan Junyan, who was eager to make a contribution, did not realize that they were together almost all the time and rarely had arrangements for independent action. How did that person find the hole in the wild?

So the four of them left the building and came to the fields, and then white fog appeared.

“Hetian, he seemed crazy. After I called him, he ran away. I didn’t dare to chase him too far.”

After spending a night in the fog.

Guan Junyan had just woken up from a nightmare during the day and received such bad news.

Kawada was the one who brought them to the field, saying that he had found a suspicious hole.

“It’s my fault for not considering his words carefully yesterday. Maybe the continuous nightmares in the past few days made him lose his ability to distinguish between reality and dreams, which is why this happened.”

Guan Junyan did not express his guess that the other party might betray him, as that would only further undermine the remaining morale.

It would be better to blame it on the nightmare that happens when you fall asleep. At least now he is beginning to be unable to distinguish between reality and dreams.

“So, should we look for him?”

Nan Tian Qi, who was sitting on the ground nearby, looked at Jingquan Sayuri and Guan Junyan secretly, then stopped at Guan Junyan and asked.

Guan Junyan shook his head: “We don’t understand the reason for this sudden fog, and don’t you realize that even if you sleep, the physical strength you recover is very limited.”

Jingquan Sayuri lowered her head and thought for a moment: “Did your dream last night change?”

“It’s still a nightmare, but.” Guan Junyan did not speak immediately, but looked at Nan Tianqi.

“I dreamed that you, Captain, killed me, and then the white mist dissipated.” Izumi Sayuri said it before Minamida Qi.

But Guan Junyan knew she was lying because her eyes were dim and one hand was behind her back.

Nan Tian’s tense body seemed to relax slightly: “.Me, too.”

Guan Junyan understood.

His dream was to cooperate with Jingquan and kill Nantian together, and then the white fog dissipated, and it was probably the same for the two of them.

The reason why Sayuri Izumi lied was that she was worried that Nan Tian might think too much after knowing it.

“It seems that in our dreams, we ourselves are all victims.” Guan Junyan decided to continue with Jingquan’s lie. He didn’t believe that the fog would really dissipate if he killed his teammates. It was more likely that he would let them gradually commit suicide and finally eliminate them without losing a single soldier.

“So, this is the Mother Goddess’s method of unification? She is using dreams to disintegrate us?” Nan Tian Qi resolved her inner worries and did not continue to persist in looking for the missing Kawada.

Originally, he was just worried about what the dreams of the three people indicated, so he wanted to ask Kawada to come back to check and balance them.

If everyone dreams of themselves being a victim, then there would be less to worry about.

This is also because of Sayuri Izumi’s usual image, which made her preconceived that she would not lie.

“This is most likely the case. Next, we must conserve our strength, make good plans, and try to establish external contact through means such as beacons. We must also be on guard as there may be harassment.” Guan Junyan stated his plan.

“Why don’t we find a place to try walking?” Jingquan asked.

“This is exactly what the Mother Goddess wants us to do. Once we run out of energy, we will be doomed to die. If we stay here and the news of our failure is passed back to Director Noguchi, he may send someone to rescue us. After all, don’t we still have Seniors Saga, Tashiro, and Ozaki in the north?”

“And if the opponent’s ability can trap the teams led by those seniors, then there is no need for us to escape.”

After listening to Guan Junyan’s words, Nan Tian thought that although staying where he was sounded stupid, it seemed to be the option with the highest survival rate.

This fog is definitely not that simple. They might just go around in circles in it and waste their energy.

“Nantian, what do you think? If you want to find a direction to explore, I support you. You just need to be careful to conserve your energy.” Guan Junyan looked at Nantian.

“Captain, you are right. Blind action can easily lead to a desperate situation. Let’s just follow your plan.” Nan Tian Qi didn’t have any good ideas either.

“Okay, Jingquan, you collect wood to make a beacon, Nantian try all communication tools, and I’ll look for any living creatures nearby.”

For the first three days, everything was normal. Even though they were anxious, they were still able to suppress their emotions.

Occasionally, there would be attacks from the Polluters and the Moon Filth, but they would not come when they were asleep. This was very well behaved. This was the conclusion they came to after taking turns to keep watch.

By the fifth day, it was visibly apparent that something was wrong with the mental state of several people.

This was Guan Junyan’s first time to take on an important task and he was under a lot of pressure. Regardless of whether he was misled or not, it was his problem that he made a wrong judgment. As a result, he had been quietly eroded by nightmares and began to lose track of reality. Sometimes, there was something wrong with the way he looked at Nan Tian.

Nan Tian was killed so many times in his dream, and he was filled with fear, anger, and resentment, and his mentality was unstable. Only Jingquan Sayuri was the least affected because she had her sister as a support in her heart, and she was able to balance and regulate the emotions of the two, but she gradually became more and more silent.

Seventh day.

Nan Tian finally couldn’t bear it anymore, and found her when he was taking over the night watch from Jing Quan. Her eyes were red and her eye bags were dark.

“Jingquan, since we were both killed by Guan Junyan in our dreams, I know he is your master, but can you be sure that he has no other intentions? I suspect he will kill me in the next two days. If the fog does not dissipate by then, you will be the next one. Why don’t we join forces in advance?”

Jingquan looked at Nantian’s somewhat crazy expression with complicated eyes, and finally, nodded with difficulty.

Then, at the moment when Nan Tian was delighted, Jingquan placed his hand, which had already accumulated strength, on her chest.

“you–“

Jingquan’s ability is to compress the air, creating an explosive effect.

The advantage is that it is powerful, and the disadvantage is that it needs to be charged in advance.

Facing Jingquan’s sudden attack, a hole was blown directly into the chest of Nan Tian, ​​who was mainly focusing on defending himself while sleeping not far away.

Before she died, she stared at the well with sudden enlightenment and slowly fell down.

“So you’ve been lying to me all along.”

Nan Tian is dead.

Guan Junyan was also awakened, and then looked at Nan Tian’s body in shock.

Jingquan stared at his bloody hands in a daze, trembling slightly. After a long time, he slowly clenched his fists.

Guan Junyan’s brain slowly came back to its senses and he roughly guessed the reason why Jingquan took action.

He took out his knife, chopped up Nan Tian’s body and buried it on the spot.

“You killed her for me, so I should be blamed.”

“I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

He held Izumi Sayuri’s hand, letting the blood stain his hands as well, and said firmly.

“After Nan Tianqi found out that Kawada had left in a daze, he chased after him and disappeared into the fog. We never found them again. After we got out, this is what we said to the public.”

Jingquan’s mentality slowly calmed down, and he forced a bitter smile to Guan Junyan: “Well, if there is only one chance to leave, just kill me.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Kobayashi is still waiting for you. I will take you out, definitely. Otherwise, we will die here together.” Guan Junyan shook his head.

Hearing Ringo’s name, Jingquan’s dazed expression regained some color.

At this time, the fog around began to slowly dissipate.

“Afterwards, although we still couldn’t get in touch with the outside world, at least the fog had cleared and we could see the road clearly, so we headed all the way to the rendezvous point that had been deviated from the plan by a week.”

“But I didn’t know that the battle on Iki Island has entered a new stage. The endless stream of polluters is madly consuming our physical strength. Even with the support of the air force, we can’t move forward.”

“Finally, Jingquan asked me to take good care of Xiao Lingong so that I could leave, and attracted most of the polluters away.”

“Now it seems that the target of the Mother Goddess’ unification was Sayuri Izumi from the beginning to the end. I was just a byproduct.”

“I rushed to the rendezvous point, and with the cooperation of other colleagues, I finally left that nightmare place. However, everything I experienced in the white fog was gradually forgotten subconsciously during the period after the fog dissipated, and was filled with messy memories of the pursuit.”

“Forgot that we killed Nan Tian, ​​forgot what happened in those few days, and forgot what I said to Sayuri.”

“Even if I remembered, I failed to keep my promise to take good care of Izumi Ringo.”

Iki Island.

Everyone listened to what Guan Junyan said as if they were listening to a story, and fell into silence.

“That’s not your fault. There were indeed quite a few troublemakers among the Moon Initiators in the past two years, and it was all the fault of the Mother Goddess. Even if we still remember it after we get out this time, we won’t tell the boss!”

Fengchuan comforted.

The hound frowned and thought for a while: “But according to the information I checked, there was no white fog incident on Iki Island at that time. Was what we experienced in those few days really a real experience?”

Fengchuan’s eyes lit up and he walked to the hound: “You mean, we are in an illusion?”

“It shouldn’t be. If it’s an illusion, the Soul Crow shouldn’t be fooled.” The hound pointed at the Soul Crow flying around them.

“Ang ang!” The Soul Crow shouted a few times in response.

“If the purpose at that time was to get Sayuri Jingquan, then now we don’t even have a single Moon Initiator here. Is the purpose simply to stop our investigation? Does this white fog not distinguish between friend and foe, so it is difficult to encounter attacks from polluters in the white fog?”

“Forget it. At least Guan Junyan’s previous decision to stay where he is couldn’t solve the problem. So this time we should explore outside and use various means to ensure that we don’t get lost. Iki Island is so small that we can always get out.”

Fengchuan encouraged him, “Besides, if we can’t walk on the ground, then we can fly. I don’t believe that we can’t break through the fog even if we fly as high as we can.”

Nico landed back on the hound’s shoulder, “Can’t fly high, can’t fly high, there’s something weird here! There’s no smell of fresh souls! Only that of rotten souls!”

“Nigo, can you guess where this is? Is there any way to get back to where we were originally?” The Hound begged, “Fries, one month, I’ll take care of it.”

There was a sly flash in Nico’s eyes, and he stretched out two claws: “Two months!”

“Deal!” The Hound agreed readily.

Nigo was a little hesitant, wondering if he had shouted enough.

But as a soul crow, it still has its own pride. Since it has agreed, it must do it!
It flapped its wings and flew up from his shoulder. It made a few strokes with its claws, and the soul lamp appeared on Nigo’s claws with a faint light.

As soon as the soul lamp appeared, the fog around it seemed to boil and surge.

Niko grabbed the soul lamp and flew between the three people: “Be careful! Be careful! There are bad guys trying to steal my soul lamp!”

Just as he finished speaking, a dozen green-skinned monsters holding weapons appeared in their sight at the edge of the fog.

(End of this chapter)