Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

A petite woman wearing tight leggings under a mini skirt stopped a few feet away from a house.

A wind blew and she shuddered due to the cold. The wind took a few dry leaves from the trees behind the house-- tall, slender, withered trees with brown color leaves.

"What is the spell? Please, I want to go inside. I can not stand this cold," Eya said.

From behind, her little brother who was a Himbo stepped forward. "Are you sure those boys are out?"

Eya nodded, and Kakashi walked to the center of the snow-covered land. A dry branch crept from the woods and crawled towards Kakashi's legs.

He raised his wand. "Flora Killer." And cast the spell. The branch snapped into two, leaving the snapped part, and the branch retreated.

"What are you doing?" Eya asked.

"You can kill them with this spell: Flora Killer." Kakashi threw his wand to the left and killed another plant. "But we can not win like this."

Kakashi turned, and before the trees would get any angry, he ran back to Eya who was standing away from the trees' current radius.

Eya stared at the burned path of plants. Due to the winter, the trees were already dried so the burned patch did not make much difference.

"We can not work this out that way, we need a proper way to calm them down," Kakashi told her.

Eya asked, "How then?"

"By forming a bond... a Protector's Bond."

Eya stopped shaking and stared wide-eyed at her brother. "No." She pulled her lower jaw together. "No way, you are not doing that."

Eya walked and grabbed Kakashi's hand before he could cast the spell. Kakashi expected this reaction so he was not surprised. Instead, he was prepared for this outcome.

"One has to do that, Eya-nee."

"Oh, I will be that one."

"I will be the one, tell me how to do it," Eya demanded, as she pulled out her wand.

Kakashi grinned, his cheeks red from the cold. He stepped close to the center and lifted his wand. "Listen carefully, okay?"

"Yeah." Eya nodded from the distance.

"You know that this bond will form only with someone with true intentions of protecting the heir." Kakashi grabbed his wand out from the side of his coat.

Branches and roots erupt once again. Kakashi moved his wand and muttered, "Oh, Guardian of the Saibai Sect! I will be Saibai Hitori's protector."

Eya nodded as she repeated the words along with Kakashi.

Light sparked from his wand. "Test me and my loyalty for the Saibai Sect, and allow me to form the Protector's Bond."

Kakashi brought his wand down and turned to Eya. A vine-- green color vine-- flew towards Kakashi and wrapped around his forearm.

"Noted?" he asked while ignoring the tight pain.

"Ye---" Eya's words faded midway. Her mouth dropped open when the vine squeezed Kakashi's arm. "I-I will kill you, Kakashi! Move aside! Pull the vine, now!"

"I am not a Himbo, after all. Ha, ha, ha!" But the pain put Kakshi's laugh to an end.

The vine moved on his forearm like a snake coiling his forearm. The pain started to decrease and gradually, Kakashi's forearm was free from the vine.

The vine disappeared into the woods after leaving a mark on Kakashi's forearm that read: 'Saibai Hitori's Protector' horizontally from his elbow joint to his wrist.

Eya rushed to Kakashi as soon as the vine left. She saw vines wrapping Hitori's name on Kakashi's arm before sinking into his arm.

Eya grabbed Kakashi's arm and looked at him, she lowered her brows and dropped the corners of her mouth.

"If Hitori dies... will you die too?" This was not a moment Eya liked personally.

"If that boy dies, I will die too." Kakashi pulled his arm and covered it under his coat's sleeves. "Come on."

Eya watched as her brother reached the porch and climbed that little stair. She bobbed her head, crossed her arms, and entered the house with Kakashi.

Eya looked at Kakashi's stretched hand. "We will need to perform that ritual."

"T-that? Two at a time?" She hesitated but finally held Kakashi's hand and pulled herself to the house's center.

"Ready?"

"Do it, Kakashi." Kakashi closed his eyes, tightened his grip on Eya's hand, and opened his mouth.

"The Lord of Time, please let us peek into the past month of this house."

Kakashi lifted his wand, and Eya did the same after the Kakashi muttered. Light sparked from the tips of both of their wands.

Kakashi broke cold sweat down his neck. "The Lord of Crimse, please let us see the past crimes that happened in his house."

The light glowed on Eya and Kakashi who still had their eyes pinched close. The bright light faded and their sights came back to them.

"Saibai-san?" she nodded at the man's inquiry, "I have a package for you then," he stretched out his arms to offer her a package, "I need your signature, ma'am," he then handed her a tablet.

The delivery man was wearing glasses.

"Thanks."

Kiku accepted the parcel and closed the door. "Is that a new trend?" She wondered.

"Tengoku Kagaku," Eya whispered.

"Why so sure?"

"He wears sunglasses to hide his eyes– uh– and you could see the katana standing on the van's front seat, by the window."

The bright light spread again. "Close your eyes."

When Eya opened her eyes, she saw a pair of dark orange eyes with vertical pupils sharp as a knife.

"Control yourself." Kakashi pushed her back.

Eya sighed when she realized it was just an image, yet she could not avoid how real they felt.

"Let us talk first, shall we, Kiku-san?" Eya watched as the man with snake eyes talked. "On second thought." He drew his katana. "I think we should directly get to the point."

The scene unfolded at twice the normal speed, still, Kakashi and Eya could understand what was going on.

This man, the man with snake eyes, was the one who killed Kiku-san and probably took the wand too. Maybe the wand is the reason why he came in the first place.

"Let me have the wand and I will make your death, well, painless?"

Kiku ran. "....how would you feel if an infant tries to put up a fight against a lion? You know that he can not win anyway."

The man clicked a device hanging down his waist and he disappeared into nothing. With a flash, he entered the storeroom closet.

Kiku trembled but pulled out the wand from its metallic case and pointed it at Onogi.

Eya and Kakashi watched as the snake eyes and his two men left the room after leaving Kiku to die from blood loss.

"Horrible."

"Just horrible."

When they thought it was over and they would snap back into reality anytime, things changed and they were transmigrated into a room. Windows closed, curtains pulled, lights off.

Eya squinted at the bed and at the person lying on the bed. Although his eyes were closed, his jet black hair was visible and so were his jaw and cheeks.

The door clicked behind them. Eya turned and stepped aside when another person, whose glasses were falling off his nose, entered the room.

"That is the Kamiya boy." Eya pointed at Kamiya as he walked towards Hitori's bed.

Kamiya's hair was a mess, his eyes were hidden behind his glasses, and the T-shirt he was wearing was sliding down his shoulder.

Kamiya stopped a foot away from the bed. When he clenched his fist, Eya noticed the wand he was holding. She thought Kamiya was carrying it just so but then she realized it was midnight and they were watching the crimes of the past month.

Kamiya lifted his wand, trembling, and pointed the slim end at Hitori's head. Eya gasped, her hand reached her mouth and covered it. Kakashi jumped back, his eyes wide.

Kamiya took his wand above his head. "Shinigami no Noroi." He paused. The trembling increased before Kamiya suddenly dropped to the ground. "I am sorry." He muttered.

Kamiya pulled himself against Hitori's bed and pulled his knees to his chest. "I can not… I-I- I just can not, this is not who I am."

Everything turned bright. Eya wanted to but could not wait and watch till the end. It was clear what was going to happen next though.

Eya and Kakashi stared blanking at the ceiling and at the sofa in front of them before turning to each other.

"But it was not a crime…" Kakashi muttered. "No one was offended, and no law or rule, from the ministry, was broken. Then why did we see it?"

Eya looked down and took heavy breaths. She could not believe that while they were trying to protect Hitori from any life threats, a true life threat had developed in his house, next to him, his partner.

"The spell." Eya lifted her head. "It is illegal to even talk about that spell."

"The Three Curses of the God of Death." Kakashi rubbed his chin. "Why and how does that kid know about those curses?"

"Exactly!" Eya did not show it but she was hurt when she banged the sofa's back. "It is impossible to find those curses anywhere. They are forbidden by the Ministry and hence, nobody has the access to them unless—"

"Unless someone who knows has told him!" Kakashi cracked the mystery. "Definitely. Someone—"

"It must be a warlock or a skilled wizard."

"Or, Eya-nee, a Weapons Engineering Professor."

"..." Eya tried to hold her lips together. She did not want to say it: "Kamiya is working with or for Tengoku?"

"And the Onogi act, where Kamiya's sister was a victim, is an act to deceive Hitori."

Eya shook her head in disagreement. "No, no, that is… I mean, that Kamiya boy is such an innocent kid!"

"Or a skilled actor." Kakashi gulped.

"It can not be…" Eya walked to the sofa, grabbed her head, and hopped into the sofa. "Kakashi, that boy, no, no, he– I thought he was—"

"How would you explain this then, sister? It clearly states the Kamiya boy is guilty. Just because he has never killed before, he hesitated, or else that boy would have—"

"We are jumping—"

"We are not jumping. Everything makes sense, every dot joined together, every loose end is tied, and every open bracket is closed.

"Kamiya boy playing the 'bully' gaming with Kuzu, Kuzu attacking that boy with an army of more than hundred men, Kamiya boy shifting to that boy's house. And now this… he almost used a forbidden spell to take that boy's life."

"Almost! Almost!" Eya stressed the word as she got up. "He almost killed Hiotri—"

Kakashi shook his head. "We can not cling to that one percent probability, no."

"Oh god. Kamiya is mixed with Onogi and Tengoku. Makes sense he has no one other than his sister." Eya accepted the truth and fell back into the sofa.

"The Kamiya boy hesitated this time, but there will be no other time," Kakashi said.

He wandered around the house in search of some evidence while Eya sat there, trying to digest and process every loose end her Himbo brother had tied.

"Nothing in the house. The first floor has not been touched in a month. Spider webs, mice, cockroaches, lizards, and whatnot! No one has even cleaned the floor."

"Kakashi." Eya got up, she smoothed her skirt. "Alright, let us say that I agree with your theory."

Kakashi's lips parted into a grin.

"But…" Kakashi's grin hesitated, Eya continued: "then why a well-established Professor, a mercenary; a mage student; and the son of a popular Guild Master trying to kill Hitori-san, a normal gamer?

"I mean, why? What do they have to gain from this? The masterminds are scientists, they hate mages but what do they have to do with Hitori-san? My question is: What would they gain from killing Hitori-san?"

And Kakashi's lips fell down. Eya's question was valid. Kakashi was too indulged in trying the loose ends that he did not think about their motives.

"The Legendary Wand." Kakashi lifted his finger and drew a wand– a black wand with navy color vines wrapping it in perfect intervals. "For this."

"That is what I am saying, they are scientists! They stay kilometers away from wands and stuff!"

Kakashi's grin did not disappear this time. "But what if someone is trying to get their hands—"

"Not everyone can control the wand's power. If an impotent user uses the wand, he will end up crippled or might even die."

"Well, then what if a Wizard of a Warlock is trying to get their hands on Hitori's wand?"

"Why would they bother to hire a top-class mercenary, a dungeon hunter, and a teenager? If they are wizards or warlocks—"

"Tengoku. The delivery man." Kakashi tied yet another end. "Onogi, scientists. Why did Tengoku deliver the package when he would have just taken it with him?"

"Obviously, Hiro-san would not send a Legendary Wand with no safety precautions…. Oh!"

"Precautions: Enchantments. Not any normal ones, safety enchantments from a powerful warlock." Kakashi bobbed his head. "Tengoku could not open it. But Hitori or Kiku would have, and she did."

"Explains it. So all Tengoku had to do was wait till Kiku takes out the wand and then kill her, steal the wand."

"Now you know it," Kakashi said. "Powerful enchantments have more effect on a warlock (who has mana running through his veins) than a scientist (who has… well, blood running through his veins). Someone tried to steal the wand…"

"And they were successful."