Ch 2. The First Night

"What type of bullshit is this!" I said while waving an old piece of paper. "Hey goat head start talking." I yelled at the floating goat head.

"I told you my name it Goatjo, and what needs explaining? All of it is explained in that."

"Humor me, then"

"Fine, Humanity was going to kill itself so a manifestion of the planets will decided to stop it. Humanity didn't like that and now the world has ended up in this state." He said beckoning with his head to what looked like a rusted oil rig

"You explained that to me when I awoke" As remebered the ruined city I climbed out pf "I'm talking about the parts with jujutsu, kaiju and there being no more humans."

"God I forgot how dumb some of the sleepers are."

"Save me the sass"

"Jujutsu is the manifestation of your will in the physical plane, to enact your will on the physical plane you have to make a barrier. You make a barrier by projecting you consciousness out onto the world."

"Okay, I understand that a little."

"Next are kaiju, cause jujustu doesn't disappear when a user dies it travels around and slowly gets absorbed by the environment. When an object gets saturated with to much jujutsu it evolves and gains an ego. The problem is that random fragments of jujutsu from different people lead to madness so kaiju just attack everything in sight."

"Okay, are you a kaiju?"

"Nope I'm something called a wraith. I died with a mostly intact body so my jujustu didn't scatter, eventually enough of my jujustu got absorbed by you which caused me to retain some of my consciousness, but also caused you to awaken."

"Okay making more sense, but what's this about no humans left?"

"That's just propaganda made by human purist, they are mad because people can change thier bodies at will and they dislike it. Very conservative mindset, it's completely gone in this day in age however."

"So you won't go crazy or anything?"

"Learning jujutsu makes you crazy whether you want it to or not, you are able to manipulate reality at will, that changes people."

"I'm not crazy!"

"Yeah cause waking up in a ruined world and the first thing you think about is your sign in streak is normal. Face it kid you went crazy as soon as you woke up that's why you haven't had a full blown panic attack and are fine talking to a disembodied goat head."

"I like to think I just have a very resilient mind set."

"Sure."

We continued to bicker until our conversation came to a natural lull as I walked forward with goatjo idily floating behind me. I had no idea where I was going and the walking helped process the new information. This was absurd and I think the goat was right about going crazy, the first thought on my mind wasn't family, friends or safety, but excitement. For years I was tired of the day to day life. I wake up, work, eat, sleep, repeat. Their was no excitement no purpose just a cog in a machine and now the entire world is gone. There is a oddly morbid feeling of liberation in realizing everything you have is gone.

I relished in the first feeling of liberation I haven't had in years as my feet carried me across the overgrown landscape. By now I should have been out of breath and tired, but I only felt better and better the further I went. Some where in my trek I stopped walking and began to run. The landscape began to blur as I ran faster and faster. A cheer of unadulterated joy made it way from my throat as I laughed the entire time. I felt nothing but child like joy as thoughts of grand adventure filled my head. A whole world to explore, with its own magic, and monsters, and alien races to explore. A grin spread across my face and I jumped as hard as I could and I began to fly. I soared high into the air, far higher than should be possible. I looked down and saw a crater where I lept from. I felt completely weightless. Then I began to fall.

I landed with a crash and a new crater was formed from my fall. It hurt but instead of a grimace of pain, I laughed. I laid down on my back and kicked my legs into the air. I rolled in the dirt as my fit of giggles spread across my body.

"Shit you really did go crazy."

I continued to laugh as goatjo watched me with a concerned look in his eyes. He could stare all he likes. He doesn't understand the joy.

"Kid if this is about your family I'm sure you can find them. You can make more-"

"I don't care about that." I spoke with a wide grin "Not important, what's more important is jujustu. Teach me."

"Kid you need to-"

"Don't care, teach me jujutsu."

The look of shock was evident on his face. His entire mind was at a stand still as. I could feel Goatjo struggle to understand, before he apparently gave up. He looked at me with a pitying look before speaking.

"I can teach ya, but first we need a place to rest and hide. Kaiju's get more active at night and it ain't safe in the open."

I nodded while listening and recording the information for the future. I looked around at the terrain but there was no vegetation and only some small rolling hills. I don't know how far I ran, but there were no old houses near by and I lost sight of the road. A dumb move, but I didn't worry. I might have to employ and ancient survival strategy I used to practice when I was younger. I will have to dig a hole. It worked for Steve and it should work for me.

The sun was beginning to set and I went to work. I went to one of the slightly bigger hills and started to tear out a hole in it. I didn't have a shovel, but that didn't seem to stop me. My hand could cleave through the dirt easily enough. For some reason since awakening I haven't felt tired. I didn't crave food, water, or any other necessities. It almost feels like I'm separated from the world. I chalked it up to a side effect of awakening.

Soon enough I had a little cubby hole to hide in. It wasn't that big but it was enough for me to sit down in. I covered the entrance with the displaced dirt making sure to leave a little gap for air. I sat and watched the sun slowly sink beyond the horizon as dusk began to settle. As night blanketed the sky my eyes shot open at the splendor. In the city you don't see stars because of all the lights drowning out the sky, but with all the cities gone nothing could hide to cosmic tapestry. It was beautiful.

I could feel Goatjo stare at me confused as my eyes began to mist over. I didn't care. I could tell he wanted to ask, but stayed silent. I don't know how long my eyes were glued to the sky for, but it didn't matter I lost myself in its splendor. I probably would have watched it all night if I wasn't interrupted by he movement of the ground.

I tore my gaze away from the sky as I heard Goatjo start cussing. I was going to ask for an elaboration, but my voice got caught in my throat. I watched the seemingly innocent looking hills begin to rise. One by one the hills grew limbs and began to lift themselves from the ground forming golems made of earth that varied in sizes.

I began to ask Goatjo what was happening, but then my hill began to tremble. I felt fear rise in my chest and my stomach drop, but strangely the fear was balanced out by excitement. I wanted to ponder what that meant, but now wasn't the time. I turned my eyes to Goatjo for an explanation while his words only got more explicit.

"Shit, Shit Shit, Shit, okay kid don't panic. These are a type of kaiju, but they are relatively harmless. These things are golems and you should be fine where you are, they can't feel their body, but they can feel the earth and hear so running is a no go. These guys seem to be the nocturnal type so we can leave when the fall asleep during the day."

Goatjo's words helped calm my fears and soon what was replaced was curiosity. How did these things move, where are they going, can they think. The questions clouded my mind and covered all my fear. All that waseft was excitement and curiosity. I couldn't help be love this world more and more, but Goatjo unaware of my thoughts continued apologizing.

"This is my fault, I should have saw the signs. Golems don't usually move in packs, but when they do you can tell by a strange grouping of hills snd lack of plants."

I tried to listen and pay attention to the Goatjo's words, but the walking to the golem was oddly peaceful. I felt my eyelids grow heavy as the rythmatic movements of the golem lulled me to sleep. I fought as best as I could, but my hidey hole was strangely warm as well, I assume the golem. I peacefully drifted off into a dreamless sleep while Goatjo continued to ramble apologies.

I think I'll like this world vet much.