The Hashihime clenched her fist and raised it to the sky. She spins around her fist and went toward me. I braced for impact as the fist went right through me. It only went right through because I changed my body into snow just in the nick of time. I started to disintegrate into the ground and moved the pile of snow over the Yokai's hand and went to her shoulder. I turned back solid and ice punched the Yokai face. The Yokai tumbles down as I jumped away from her shoulder and landed nicely on the bridge.

"That was a close one..." I let out a sigh of relief.

Hashihime tries to properly stand up after that blow, "Interesting...you're not just any other human."

"I guess my disguise doesn't work against you, huh?"

"Of course it doesn't work. You're not the same as a Yuki-onna at all. You are more cheerful than her."

"Cheerful?"

"You don't see that, girl?" She laughed at me, "Are you trying to be cute or something."

"I'm not trying to be cute..." I was annoyed by the Yokai for some reason.

"Your punch was kind of strong, girl. I think I can respect you for that."

"I...uh...thanks?"

Hashihime then grabbed her candles and told me, "You said that you wanted to go to The Atomic City, correct?"

"Um...yes..."

She nodded her head and gave way for me to get through the bridge.

Hashihime then said, "One more thing, little girl. The Yokai over there aren't the same Yokai as the Yokai at this village. I'm sure your friend would realize that this was a village full of innocent Yokai, right?"

"Um...I think so?"

"Don't worry about them. I got news that they have been caught by the villagers and they were tended well. The Yokai villagers meant no harm to you humans."

"Then...what happened at the Koi Dragon Invitational?"

"That one? That's just Kitsuneki and his loyal Yokai army. We are only civilians and we're already fine living like this. We don't need much if the humans aren't causing a huge trouble for us."

I was a bit nervous about that because I believed that Lin and the boys had killed some of the Yokai just now...I hope things go well for them while I leave them on my own. I honestly shouldn't be leaving them behind but since those guys voluntarily killed some of the Yokai, I rather just not get myself involved with them for now. Yes, I sound like a bad friend. But what am I supposed to do when I said that I wanted to go to the other side of the bridge from a titanic Yokai like Hashihime.

In any case, as I crossed the bridge, my backpack suddenly rumbled which could only mean one thing.

"Recordia is back! Announced Recordia as she flies out of the bag!"

I smiled at her and said, "Welcome back, Recordia."

She looks around and asked, "Where is everyone? Where is White? Recordia asked Zenith in a very curious manner."

"Well...White is with my sister right now and everyone else is..."

Then out of nowhere, someone else appeared and surprised me, "Everyone is caught with something at the hotel, little fairy. Don't worry about them." Yumiko appears through her teleportation bullet.

"Yumiko? Recordia was a bit amused to see Yumiko here." That's what Recordia told Yumiko.

"What are you doing here, Yumiko?" I asked her.

"Is something wrong with me being over here?"

"No..." I shake my head and tried to get closer to her, "Where were you throughout the day? I haven't seen you after the invitational. Lin said you teleported out of the arena. Where did you go?"

"I didn't go anywhere far; shorty...I'm only just cleaning some stuff..." Yumiko walked pass me toward the entrance to Atomic City and said, "Let's forget about that and let me ask you the question this time. What are you doing over here?"

Now that she asked me that, I didn't really have a solid reason of going here other than being curious of its name.

I simply replied to her, "I was curious about the city name...Why it is called like that?"

"You'll understand once you're there..." She said so in a rather...melancholic tone.

As I followed her from behind, my head was filled with ideas to why the city was named like that. I thought it was called the way it is because of how amazing the people that lives there or something. But that wasn't the case from what I was about to experience.

"This is Atomic City..." Yumiko introduced to me the city as Recordia flies by her.

"Woah...What happened...here?"

It was like no other place I have seen before. The road was all crumbled up. Most of the buildings were just a pile of rubble for some reason. The signs were old and rusted. It was almost like something out of a recent disaster.

"The city was named because of an event that happened here years ago during The 2nd Great War."

"The 2nd Great War...? I remembered that the Nihon force had a pretty big influence across this side of the sea...which even includes our country, Crestia...are you talking about..."

"Yes." Yumiko cuts me off and finished it for me, "The name Atomic City was based on that one Nuclear Bomb Attack that happened years ago. This is the remains...This place is too dangerous for any other human to be step inside because some experts believed that there are still nuclear reactions all over the city."

"So that's why the city haven't changed after all these years..."

"That's exactly what happened and this all happened just to make sure The Nihon force surrendered and stop the war. Billions of innocent lives were taken in the name of war."

Tear started to travel down my cheeks as I said, "Why does it always have to lead to this?"

"It's war, sweetheart. The Nihon had it coming for not surrendering when they should of. They were the only forces left still standing strong at the time. It was only a matter of time until the winners of the war took drastic actions."

I added, "And not just that...they gave Nihon two bombs instead of only one..." I fell to my knees as I said that.

"It was quick...and brutal..." Yumiko was holding on to herself as she said that.

"Knowing that my family actually has a business related to making weapons scares me right now..."

Yumiko looks at the pathetic side of me and told me off, "Listen, sweetheart. It's not directly your fault or anything. This is just a terrible reminder from the past. You shouldn't think too much about it." She then added on, "And besides, looks on the bright side of things. Nihon has become one of the fastest growing lands in the entire world for the past decade. Their defeat only brought them back up, economically."

Recordia flies to me and said, "She is right, Zenith. Without this event, Zenith might not even be able to experience all the wonderful things that Nihon currently has. Recordia said so as Recordia tried to calm Zenith down."

I wiped my tears and said to Recordia, "I think you guys are right..." I proceeded to hug Recordia right after that which he fully accepts it.

After finishing hugging Recordia, Yumiko looked at me and with a weird look.

She told me, "I'm not hugging you." She crossed her arms and looked away.

I smiled and forced myself into hugging her to which she responded by forcibly pushing myself away from her.

I heard her saying to me, "Get off of me, shorty. I said I don't want a hug! You aren't like this when we met the first time..."

"That's probably because of how much we've known each other, Yumiko."

"I've killed you six times already, how does this justify to me getting a hug?"

"Does it even matter when we're talking about something as terrible as what happened with this city?"

"Well...if you say it that way..." Yumiko sighed and reluctantly accepted the hug. "I never expected White would have some sort of widespread virus that spreads to you."

I finally let her go after a few moments have passed. Yumiko was still fumbling from that hug I gave her.

Yumiko then reminded me, "Everything is good and all but might I remind you that this place reeks of dead bodies and Yokai?"

"I know that. I was just wondering about the origin to Atomic City. I didn't know it would be that one specific city."

"Well now that you know...what's next for you and your little friend?"

I tried asking her for something she might know, "Do you know where White and my sister are?"

"Those two? I saw them last night near a shrine somewhere...They left the shrine since then."

"Where did they go?"

"I'm not sure...but if you think about it...White might be chasing Kitsuneki."

"Kitsuneki is here?"

"Yes, The Chaos Champion is here and I believed that guy is heading to The Yokai Graveyard..."

"Then White must be there as well!" I got too close to Yumiko who pushed me back just a bit.

"Well if you really wanted to go there then we can cut through by crossing over this city. The graveyard is basically at the end of the city over there..."

"Then let's go! Come on, Recordia!" I went on without thinking anything else but White and Ethereal.

Yumiko simply shakes her head in disbelief and made a weird smile to herself. I didn't really know why she smiled like that but I simply casted that aside and forced her to go with me to The Yokai Graveyard...Little did I know of what's about to happen there...

TO BE CONTINUED