Hollow

His neighbourhood was a desolate wasteland devoid of any life. He started walking in a random direction, just to check if anything had changed within these decades and to his surprise no. But, since this was Tokyo and it got nuked..16 years after he left not much should have changed.

The Tokyo he knew was lively and beautiful, and always a hotspot of activity.

Even at night the lights would be ablazing, the shops open and the sound of cars whirring and zooming down the roads could always be heard.

But now...

It was so dark, he could barely make anything out — he activated his racial skill — [dark vision]. It was like night vision but just for demons, all demons regardless of their level had it because it was a skill which you got at level 1 – a base skill.

It was a bit dark even with this skill but he could at least move without too much of a risk of tripping over something now. He continued to walk, searching for anything that was worth the while. There were a few buildings that still were standing, but they were in the state of decay. It seemed like most of the skyscrapers were completely gone. Only some of the shorter buildings remained in one piece.

The grass in front of his house used to be trimmed short and felt refreshing. On the other hand, The trees in this area used to have leafy branches that shrouded much of the grounds in shade — all of them were now leafless dead trunks scattered across the landscape.

In front of his house were more houses, in a straight line all around him. He then saw something that took him for a loop, there was a grocery store to his right. But not just any grocery store, no – it was a family Mart.

This particular store was the one he always used to go to for a quick midnight snack before he went to bed. It's been years since he seen this place. After getting acces to the internet he just used to buy anything he wanted online — not bothering to go out.

The family mart was mostly intact, except that the windows were broken and it looked abandoned. It was also the tallest building near him.

He took a few cautious steps towards it and jumped. The building was three stories tall but for him it felt so surprising easy. He felt a surge of thrill as he leaped through the air, the ground rapidly dropping away beneath him as he gained altitude. He landed with a soft thud, the soles of his boots making contact with the roof top of the mart.

It was surprising just how easy it was to jump and fly. Like it was natural to him — His jumping ability and sight were definitely above what a normal human could do. It was a big jump that any normal human couldn't make no matter how hard they trained.

Hayate walked over and stood at the edge of the rooftop and quietly surveyed the landscape before him. Whatever he saw now was vastly different from that what it used to be.

He was looking at a gloomy night sky again. Looking at the heavens and he could not help but sigh. He shook his head, as though unable to believe his eyes.

"this is depressing… to think just one nuke could do so much… the air here is so polluted that everyone probably has asthma."

But as depressing as it was it was also quite beautiful to behold. The moonless night sky was filled with billowing clouds like curtains of the heavens. It was as if the heavens were weeping, the tears of which were the billowing clouds.

Hayate spread his wings.

Freed from the shackles of gravity, Hayate floated lightly into the sky. He rose upward in a straight line, gaining speed as he did. Before he knew it, he was several hundred meters in the air.

Only then did Hayate's body slow down. His eyes had been closed this whole time as when he had flown before a lot of dust had came into his eyes. He didn't want to experience that again. Opening his eyes, he said nothing — no, as he looked down at this world, he could not say anything.

He was above the dark clouds which shrouded the world.

He could now see the true beauty of earth.

He was above the clouds and could see all that had been hidden underneath the thick layer of smog and ash.

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The view was breathtaking.

He could see an endless ocean of clouds spread out beneath him. The dark clouds were the same as they were a moment ago but from above they just looked like a layer of black ink spilled over a dark canvas. They stretched out before him, like a inky sea of black — a sea of endless despair..and maybe..peace?

"It's beautiful"

The words slipped through his lips, so quietly it almost went unheard.

It was like a dream to him, this view.

It was hard to describe, the sight of dark, billowing clouds with a touch of moonlight peeking through and illuminating the inky surface of the clouds.

Hayate couldn't help but be filled with a sense of calm when looking at this sight — this truly magnificent beauty.

A sight no human could ever witness, right now he was jealous of birds. How could they leave human's out of such delight but he wasn't human again after all.

He looked up and saw a endless expanse of star's — the milky way galaxy.

Millions of stars shining in their glory. The stars were like tiny jewels scattered on the pitch black velvet of the night sky. If one looked closely, he could see how they twinkled against the backdrop of the universe.

Since he lived in Tokyo and his eyesight also wasn't the best — plus, he refused to get glasses he could never see star's.

But right now he could see them.

Hayate spoke softly, as though to his absent friends:

"…To think one could see so far just by the light of the moon and the stars… Earth is like a chest of jewels. One which has been dragged through mud but a chest of jewels none the less."

He sighed.

There was no one to listen to him — nor did he have anyone to share this sight with.

What will he do with this chest of jewels, alone?

There was no one to share this sight with him.

No one for Hayate to laugh with, to point at the beautiful stars and moon and smile.

No one to say — look over there. That one's Pegasus!

No one to argue with him about the shape of the stars — no one to call him a idiot for thinking that the constellation of Orion was actually just a giant cow.

No one.

All these cheesy lines made Hayate chuckle.

All of this was messing with his head.

"I don't know anything about this world — it has changed in the last 85 year's. And sometimes change isn't a good thing. I want to save this world."

The words left his lips before he could even think.

"Save it...?"

He was surprised at his own words, why had this come to be a concern to him?

He didn't know yet what the future held — what this world held and it's fate.

Was it like what one might see in a generic dystopian novel? If this was a dystopian world then it would probably suck to live in.

He looked up at the sky, at the twinkling stars and slowly, reached out to touch them as though he could grasp them.

"Save it."

He repeated to himself, still gazing up at the twinkling stars. It was a foolish idea to want to save a world you knew nothing about and a world that probably couldn't be helped.

He turned his gaze down, as he realized what he was thinking — there was no way he was going to be able to help this world.

"What am I doing? This is crazy — to even think about saving this world. There was no point in doing so, it was a stupid thought. And even if i somehow managed to save it, it would be for what? Everyone i knew, everyone i love.. everyone i was friends with — they're dead."

Even if this world changed for the better — who would appreciate it?

No, there was still someone who would appreciate it.

It was himself.

Right — he was here now and he didn't want to see this world as some sort of dystopia and live it it. Fearing for his safety. He wanted to see this world, as it once was... beautiful.

He had no idea if the situation really was that bad all across the globe or just in Japan.

It was a mystery.

No, it was a surprise waiting to be revealed.

He would find out soon.

The fact was that saving the world was not easy. And then there was the matter of keeping it safe — who would he even protect this world from?

It wasn't like he was in a fantasy world where a demon king was about to destroy the world, so he – a person from earth had been summoned to kill said demon king.

This was no novel, there was no evil demon king waiting for him to come and save the world.

This was reality — this was earth.

By saving it could mean many things ; capture all the criminals running free all over the world, clean all the pollution of this world but all of those were temporary solutions.

Humans will do it again and again.

And it wasn't like he could just start beating up people who polluted the earth, that would make him a criminal under law. No to mention that if they find out about him and how he has powers. He will definitely be used to research on and that was something he did not want at all.

He had a lot of time though – for now he could just observe the world. He had to be smart about this — this wasn't a game where he could just charge into anything like a idiot.

For now he had to observe and collect information of what had happened in the last 85 years and get to know the current state of the world — only then he would act.

He looked towards the horizon, where the sun would have been.

"Xiaosha, vampire bunny, housemasterE, juviel, Gatavas, Enclave, kind van de duivel, dark-angel.."

He muttered the in-game names of his friends to himself. He wondered what they would think of what he was doing right now.

Would they scold him on his foolishness?

Would they laugh about how dumb he was and just shake their head?

Would they tell him that he's being a idiot?

They were probably doing that right now.

He could almost hear them now in his head.

He sighed and made a beeline for the rooftop of the family mart, his wings flapping as he descended rapidly.

He landed silently on the roof of the family mart, barely making a sound as he touched the ground.

For a second he just stood there.

He should test out his magic now.