The Fallen Utopia

The next day Shitsu and the old man took there leave towards Athens, It took them 5 days and 6 nights, they were both tired, but the second that Shitsu saw the big wall surrounding a huge port city he got all excited. With out any words exchanged the old man look at him, smiled and said " Go on kid, have some fun, when they stop you at the gate say that you know a person that gave you a password: Purgatory Flames.". Shitsu looked at him confused to what that was about, but the excitement got the best of him and he rushed right to the city.

When he got there there was a long line of merchants, travelers, visitors and so on, and Shitsu noticed they all had this weird tablet that guards checked before allowing them to enter, he got scared since he didn't have one but he trusted the old man. When it was his turn the guards looked at him and asked him for his papers to what he answered " I do not have them but I was told to tell you guy that I was sent here by a man that told me to tell you this: Purgatory Flames.". As soon as he said those words the guards almost kneeled to him and let him trough without any question. He was surprised but didn't question the guards and there reasoning for it, instead he rushed to the town square and was amazed by the architecture in the city, standing in the meddle of the town square he felt like he was in the center of the world. As he looked at the gigantic statue of Athena he got some weird flashbacks, his head started to hurt and he saw a different version of the city Athens, with some weird metal carriages with four to five people in it, a weird smooth black roads with white lines on the ground that he kept on seeing in his nightmare. His head started to hurt and spinning around, he was in immense pain. He started to walk towards the fountain to freshen up. A few steps before he got to the fountain he bumped into a hooded girl. She excused her self and continued her way, but Shitsu saw something off about her, she was weak, she looked malnourished, dehydrated, she had a frail voice and she had cuts and busses around her wrists and ankles. He was wondering on what he should do, but a man grabbed his shoulder and asked " Yo kid, did you perhaps see a hooded girl pass bye, she ran away from her home and her mom asked me to find her?". Shitsu looked at the man and the moment he did he sensed something was off, this man had a weird aura around him, it was like the old mans when he got in a fight with the bandits that trayed to kill them 10 years ago for some money and they threatend a 5 year old Shitsu. After so long Shitsu couldn't' forget that event. " Yes I have she went that way." pointing in the opposite direction the girl went. "Thank you." said the guy and handed him 5 gold coins in exchange for the information. Shitsu knew something was of the second he did this since 5 gold coins wasn't a little money and giving it out like nothing just because you are helping get a run away girl back to her mom... something was off. The man went his way and when Shitsu looked at the gold coins his stomach drooped, as he saw that the coins belonged to the city of Ephesus. He ran as fast as he could in the direction the girl went, but realised he was to slow, the guy could catch up to the girl in a moment if the girl took a wrong turn somewhere. At that moment he remembered the old mans trancing, he stooped, took a deep breath, closed his eyes and relaxed. He took a minute of his time and started to breathe. He inhaled for five seconds, held it in for five more, exhaled for five seconds and didn't breath for five. He repeated that proses three times. The old man told him that its an ancient practice of controlling your breathing called perfect concentration breathing, it was a basic skill that when mastered and some help of matter or mana, you cold focuse to a point where you would be able to locate a person in 5km radius, simply knowing there scent, physical appearance or clothing. But that was not all, you could focuse it into certain muscles giving you an advantage in swordplay, speed or merely cramping up your muscles to lighten the impact or damage in what Shitsu was a master since old man didn't hold back a bit training with him. He started with locating the girl and realised she was not that far, but when he went on to look for that man that stopped him he was shocked, the man was facing the other way but the second Shitsu locked on him and found him that man looked directly in Shitsu way as if he knew what he was doing. He grinned and started running in the girls exact direction. Shitsu was scared dead, it was the first time this happed to him and it was like he helped the guy find the girl, but it was no time to overthink, he focused his breathing again and focused on every muscle and vessels in his legs, no matter the size, so that he would be able to run super fast, his legs were moving so fast that he created some friction beneath his feet, but it was nothing like the old mans, he could run so fast that flames would form under his feet. As he got to the girl he saw the guy from before moving super fast as well. He garbed the girl, picked her up and jumped as high as possible, to the highest rooftop. He ran and ran, jumping from one roof to another not looking back, just ruining as fast as he could.

He finally stopped all exhausted on a rooftop with a girl in his hands. The girl was crying because she was so scared but Shitsu managed to calm her down saying that she doesn't have to worry he got her away from that man chasing her. " Thank you." said the girl, " But you got yourself in big trouble now, and its all my fault.". Shitsu trayed calming her down saying its ok, nothing terrible will happen to her but he had a question. " The man gave me some gold coins, did you escape Ephesus?" said Shitsu. As soon as those words left his mouth he saw the terror in the poor girls eyes. " Yes..."she said, " I... I..." she tried to mumble something out but Shitsu stooped her and said "Its ok don't worry, if you will wish to tell me on day you can, but for now lets just get off the roof and get some food and drinks shall we?" he said with a big smile. The girl started crying as she said " That would be nice yes.". After that Shitsu picked her up and got off the rooftop down to the town's market. down there they went from stand to stand, getting delirious snacks and they got to trye out some new fruits and fruit juices. After they were full, Shitsu found out that they spent only one gold coin that is equal to 100 silver coins or 1000cooper coins. Thinking of that Shitsu just got confused on how can this city be so big and economically strong if there money transition had 0 sense behind it, like how can cooper be worth more then silver?. In any case he remembered that the girl had no clothes, except the hooded cape, no shoes and needed a shower. He took her to the clothing stand where they bought her some fresh clothes and shoes, as soon as they got them her face lit up with life yet again ' This must be how the old man felt when he took care of me in the same way... ' he thought to himself feeling super happy and excited in her place. After that he took to to an inn so she could take a shower and take some rest. "Thank you ..." she said. " No problem, really, I was just doing what anyone would. Il make sure that man doesn't do anything to you ok?". With those words leaving Shitsus mouth the girl blushed. " Can I ask you for your name?" she asked.         " OOOOOOOO ye we spent an entire day together and we didn't share that did we?" saying as he was laughing in embarrassment. " Im Shitsu and you?". "Im Agathe." she answered. " You do have an unusual name tho Shitsu". " Yes I know, according to the old man it means kind hearted in his language. My full name is Shitsuno, I just use Shitsu because its shorter." he answered. " O really, what language is that?" " I honestly don't know he never told me he is old tho so it might be some ancient language" he said while laughing." In any case I have to go look for the old man now, it was fun getting to know you, want to hang out more?" he asked. " Of course, I would love to very very much." she said with a blush on her face. They wished each other a god rest of the day and later some well deserved good rest. After they parted ways Shitsu left the inn but felt like someone was watching him. He brushed that feeling off and went his way, on the way he remembered that he forgot to ask the old man for a rendezvous point to what he screamed his lungs out knowing that the old man will punish him for it, and as soon as he did the old man appeared behind him and wrapped his hand around his shoulders and asked " Had fun? " with a smile on his face. Shitsu was confused to why the old man didn't start rambling on how he will punish him like usually, but for him that was some great news. " Yes in fact I did, I meet a girl that was followed by a man, so I helped her and we had so much fun.". The old man was happy for Shitsu and asked him to tell him more about it. " Well he asked me for the direction she went but he was giving of a weird aura, like you did that time when bandits attacked us, and well I told him the wrong direction but he still gave me 5 gold coins." he said. " O relay, anything else?" the old man asked. "O yes there were 2 things that were off about him as well. The gold coins he gave me were from the city of Ephesus, and when I went after the girl I used the perfect concentration breathing to check out my surroundings to find her and to enhance my speed. I found her and looked for that guy to see how far he is, but as I located him it felt like he knew what I did, and just looked in my way and grined, and started running directly in her direction." he said. As Shitsu shard this information with the old man, his face became serious and the old man told him " I see, that's weird, anyway it seems you found a good inn to stay in and we need one to sleep in anyway so why not go there?". Shitsu was happy about the news and lead the old man back to the inn.

The next morning the old man left early saying he has some busses to take care of, gave him some money and said " Have fun kid you deserve it.". Shitsu was excited and decided to go out with Agathe. He got ready and knocked on her door. When Agathe opend the door's she was excited to see Shitsu at her door, and got as specially when he asked her out. She got ready super fast and departed with Shitsu, they had some delicious food and drinks like the day before they decided to take a break at the inn, but when they got there they meet him again... "Its you… the guy from yesterday!"