A Kingdom Lost (3/10)

“She’s…” Misawa said. “I’m sorry, she’s gone.”

 

Asuka let out a strangled sob as they looked at Rei and Martin — What remained of them, that was.

 

Chronos averted his eyes. The sight of his students, skin blackened, faces still contorted in pain, was sure to haunt him for the rest of his days, however many remained. Somewhere below, between all the students who had collapsed when the monster had disappeared, was vice-principal Napoleon. How would Chronos tell him his son had died? Would he ever get the chance to tell him to begin with?

 

“I should have stopped her,” said Asuka, voice trembling. “I never should’ve let her go up there.

 

“There’s nothing you could have done,” Manjoume said. He studiously avoided looking at Rei and Martin. “If even Judai couldn’t win—”

 

He cut off abruptly. Shou sucked in a breath.

 

“We have to find Aniki,” he said, soft but determined. “Who knows what that monster will do to him?”

 

A shiver ran down Chronos’ spine. “Signor Judai…” he whispered. Him too, they had lost. He had lost three of his students and he didn’t know if the hundreds of others would ever wake up. He had failed; His students, his pride and joy, were being torn away from him and he didn’t even have the power to get them back. Only nine of his students were still in any condition to do anything. All of his colleagues had fallen.

 

“We need to get the students to safety,” he announced, overlooking the fainted students. He hoped they had only fainted. A cursory check had shown the nearest ones alive, but he hadn’t had the time to check all of them. “And signora Rei and signor Martin…” He swallowed heavily.

 

“We should bury them,” said Kenzan. Asuka had silent tears running down her cheeks.

 

Manjoume swallowed too. “First the other students,” he stated. “It’s not like… Like there’s anything we can do for them. So we should look at the others first.”

 

All his students looked at him. Chronos nodded. Manjoume’s words made painful sense.

 

“Signor Manjoume is correct,” he said. “We need to get the other students to safety.”

 

If anyone noticed the tremor in his voice, they didn’t say anything about it. Poor Ayaka, the last of his first-year students, was crying. Junko wrapped an arm around Asuka, who stared blankly ahead.

 

Transporting over 400 students to the gym with only ten people was no small task, and it had long gone dark before they called a stop. They hadn’t managed to find all the students —by Chronos’ count, they’d barely managed half— but they were practically crying from exhaustion and night in the Desert World was too dangerous to spend outside. At least they’d managed to get everyone who’d fainted outside indoors. It was the best they could do on such short notice. Chronos had never been truly stellar at first aid, but he remembered enough to know that anyone who was unconscious for more than a couple of minutes, let alone hours, was in grave danger. His students were still breathing, but none of them had so much as flinched when they’d carried them inside.

 

The night that followed was a quiet one, since no one wanted to address what everyone already knew. Finally, when almost everyone had dozen off into fitful sleep, Manjoume asked: “How long can we last on the food and water we have left?”

 

“Four days,” Chronos said. He knew the answer by heart, had counted down every day they spent in the Desert World. If they didn’t find a way out in four days, they would all die a slow death.

 

“And…” Manjoume said. He glanced at Asuka, sleeping fitfully next to him. “What if it’s just… Us?”

 

Chronos flinched. Shou, who had been nodding off, was suddenly wide awake.

 

“Water wouldn’t be a problem,” Misawa said, detached. “We would have enough water to last us for nearly half a year. The same theoretically applies to food, but the food will go stale very soon. We’ll starve long before we run out of water.” He took a deep breath. “Tomorrow we’ll go to the power station. If we get it working, maybe we can get a message through.

 

But the power station, when they got there the next day, had been infested by a horde of giant sand worms and they only barely escaped with their lives. It was an even more despondent group than before that buried Rei and Martin, together with Yoko and Takuya, two students who hadn’t lasted the night. Judging from the blue circles under her eyes, Yoko had somehow suffered a skull fracture. There was no telling how many students would follow.

 

“I’m going to find Aniki,” Shou said. Chronos wasn’t the only one who couldn’t hide his shock.

 

“Shou-kun, it’s dangerous out there,” Junko said.

 

Shou grimaced. “I know, but we have to save Aniki. We can’t leave him with that monster. And who knows, maybe we’ll find some way to go back home?” He faltered. “You don’t have to come, but I’m going. I can’t bear feeling useless anymore.”

 

Asuka flinched as if hit. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m going with you.”

 

“Me too,” said Manjoume.

 

“I’m not leaving Judai-no-aniki behind!”

 

Ah, his students, how far they’d come. The mix of pride and worry was nothing new for Chronos. He agreed; they had to find signor Judai. And yet…

 

“I shall not come,” he said. “You must go, but I must stay with the school.

 

“Sensei—!” protested Kenzan, but Chronos cut him off with a wave of his hand.

 

“It is my duty as a teacher to look over all my students, signor Kenzan, and to protect your lives with my own. But you— All of you,” he looked at Torimaki and Mototani, insecure asthey were, and poor Ayaka, who’d never wanted to go to Duel Academia but had enrolled anyway, “are brave, strong and amazing people, and I trust that you will survive and find signor Judai.”

 

He looked at them, taking in their faces, gaunt and white after several days in this hellish world. Finally he settled on Misawa.

 

“Signor Misawa, I trust you know your way around this world?”

 

“I know a few places, but sensei, I should stay here and get the power station working.”

 

The main generator in the power station had been destroyed. Misawa knew that just as well as he did.

 

“Go look for signor Judai,” he said. “And get yourselves to safety. I ask only that you tell me how to disable the dis-belts. Perhaps it will help those unconscious students.”

 

Misawa looked down and nodded.

 

“We will come back, Chronos-sensei,” said Shou. Oh, how brave he’d grown in just two short years.

 

“I trust you will.”

 

It was early morning the next day when he saw them off, with all the food and water they could carry. Even Ayaka had, at long last, decided to join them. She’d be safer with them.

 

And Chronos turned back to the school, where his students still lay unconscious. He had 400 students to take care of and try to wake up. It was his duty, after all. Students would one day leave their teacher and go out in the world, make a life for themselves. But a teacher, no, a teacher never left his students behind.