East of Eden

【Memories of Sakuwa (I)】

/advent

No matter how much time passed, Shano would never forget the colossus that fell on them that day, and he knew every surviving Sakuwa did.

At first, it was small, a clean white ellipsoid with a black hole like an eye.Its bottom is curved, but it can stand firmly in the sand, like an egg sitting outside the circular city wall, staring at the statue guarding the city wall for a long time.It has existed since the time of Shano's grandparents, and it has sprung up like mushrooms after rain. At first, everyone was afraid and uneasy, but later became accustomed to it. By Shano's generation, children can already climb the city wall and sit on the tile roof to point at it. Made up the story.

Shano said that the strange egg was born by the God of the West, just like a hen laying an egg, and imitated a few chicken crows.Other children called him blasphemy, but he didn't care, because he was a special Sakuwa, a man who was chosen as a knight of the silver pigeon at the age of eight, and everything he did in this ring city was allowed. of.

At that time, no one knew what a terrible disaster was hidden in the eggshell.

One morning when the incident happened, the Sakuwas were working as usual, the men practiced knives, and the women were drying clothes on the terrace. When the wind blew, the clothes fluttered like black flags.Shano and Su An secretly climbed up the city wall again. Shano was playing with his newly made slingshot, hoping to shoot down birds, while Su An sat next to him and wrote a diary. The girl's hair was still very long at that time.

Shano aimed the slingshot at the sky, and pulled the leather rope to its fullest, until it could no longer be pulled, his fingers were sorely stretched.He closed one eye, wrinkled his nose, his expression contorted with muscle pain.While keeping his movements, he prayed for the birds to appear soon, and God seemed to hear his call, at this moment, a huge shadow covered the daylight——

Shano was stunned, and stood there blankly with his slender neck upturned.

It was not a bird, but an oval of pure black, laden with glittering towers, coming slowly towards them, like a whale that swims in the sky, devouring the light, and the air on the earth trembled.It is too huge, Shano has never seen such a huge object, and it is more shocking than the "total solar eclipse" that is staged every day and day.The light disappeared little by little, and darkness shrouded the faces of boys and girls, and then shrouded the entire surrounding city.

The giant whale stopped completely above their heads.

"This...what is this...?" Shano took a step back.

Su An picked up the diary and said anxiously, "It's so dark."

The boy blocked her behind, and silently grabbed her hand under his sleeve. Both of their hands were cold and covered with a layer of sweat.This behemoth is obviously beyond people's cognition. The Sakuwas stopped their work and looked up at the sky in confusion. Now it seems that they are like a group of lambs being slaughtered.

The giant whale stayed for a long time, and people discussed whether it was the incarnation of God, or a dark cloud floating from afar.Suddenly, a gap opened in the middle of the black oval, and then a long cylinder fell down, dragging a burning flame tail, illuminating the darkness in an instant.

"It's a shooting star!" A child shouted excitedly, pointing at the sky.

The cylinder passed through the clouds, and the clouds were illuminated one after another, and the fire flashed in the wide-open eyes of the Sakuwas.Shano's eyelids twitched wildly, and he suddenly realized that it was not a meteor, but an evil thing that would bring disaster to them.He hugged Su An tightly, pressed the girl's head into his arms, and shouted to everyone with all his strength: "Get down—! Get down—!"

Boom-!

Su Huang's F11-7 bomb was nailed into the ground, and a violent shock wave swept in. The flames instantly engulfed the entire city, causing everything they were familiar with in the past to fall apart.

/silver dove knight

"Do you know what sakuwa means?"

The white city walls, the white palaces, the white tiles, the cornices, the white birds, the white light, everything is like a light dream covered with white gauze.

The silver-haired girl wrote on the ground with a small stone: "SAKURA. SAKURA is cherry blossom."

Her voice was immature, shaking gently like a bell.

A cherry tree grows in the circular open space in the center of the city, and it blooms all year round. The petals fall all over the ground paved with white marble, forming a thick layer.When Su An wrote this string of ancient syllables, the east wind blew over, and the petals passed through her fingers, and a few pieces touched her fingers, and then stayed there, embellishing the words she had just written.

This place was not originally called Scorched Earth City, it has its own name, Yelan City.The six-story ring wall is all white, retaining the oriental classical shape 3000 years ago, and silver bells are hung under each raised eaves.In the depths of the barren desert, it inherits the Yin civilization alone. Men make knives and women dye cloth. It is a paradise isolated from the world.

"So who planted this big cherry tree? Have you asked your father?" Shano kicked stones all the way to the tree. Su An's father is a priest, and he knows everything in the world.

"It's a beautiful and holy golden man." At this time, the priest wearing a black robe embroidered with silver doves and covering his long hair with a hood came from behind, and wrapped his arms around Shano and Su'an's shoulders .Su An turned around: "Dad!"

"Hmm." The man continued with a pendant hanging around his neck, "This used to be the prosperous and rich Donglu, and it was the hometown of Zhu Siliang Shiheng. He planted this tree with his own hands, symbolizing the other side of the East."

"The other side of the east? Could it be that there is also the other side of the west?" Shanuo asked.

"Of course. It is far away from us in Xizhou, which is separated from the east land and the sea. Liang Shiheng was sent there by the emperor when he was just 12 years old, but he has always missed his hometown very much. He said that there are two roads in the world. , one is a black road from west to east, symbolizing war and suffering, and the other is a golden road from north to south, symbolizing light and happiness. We must take both the black road and the golden road.”

"He's such a troublesome man."

"Hey, Shano, you can't speak ill of Zhu Si." The man patted his head, "You are the most talented boy in the clan, when you grow up, the title of Silver Pigeon Knight will be your."

"Silver Pigeon" is the totem of the Sakuwa tribe, and the Silver Pigeon Knight symbolizes the "Guardian of Sacred Objects", which is a title that has continued from ancient times to the present.Liang Shiheng once entrusted them with a fragment of a sacred object, and made two agreements - one is that the Sakuwa people will protect the sacred object from generation to generation.

The holy relic is buried under a cherry blossom tree with a golden ribbon tied around the trunk.Shano practiced the knife day and night. Gradually, when he swung the knife, he felt many circular tracks appearing in front of his eyes. He followed the tracks, turned his wrist slightly, and the blade also rotated in a corresponding arc. The jerky movements became smooth and free.At the age of eight, his sword skills surpassed all his peers. According to the custom, the priest gave him a long knife made of precious silver meteorite to symbolize his status.

After being named the Knight of the Silver Pigeon, he can see a vision every time he holds the handle of the knife.In the vision, there is a blond boy standing under a tree, with cherry blossoms blowing all over his white robe, and standing beside him is a tall and thin Sakuwa, with a tall nose bridge and thin lips, which looks solemn and solemn at first glance.He put a cloak on the blond boy, and said: "Master Zhu Si, it's time to leave." The two stood for a while, and then walked into the hazy white light one after the other, and that Sakuwa seemed to look back at Shano.They all have the same gray eyes and the same knife.

Whose memory is this... whose memory is it?Is it the memory of the knife's previous, previous, or even last owner?

Shano was still young, at a carefree age, and didn't understand the meaning of the illusion, so he could only hold down the foam constantly surging in his mind.It was only after many years that he realized that it was a memory about the nation and the road engraved in the blood of every generation of knights.

/far way

A ragged child is flying a kite in Yelan City.He didn't have much room to run, because the alleyway between the ring walls was very narrow. When he looked up, he could see the carved windows that were opened, like butterfly wings.

"Yo, whose child is this?" The woman at the window laughed.

He ran for a long time in one breath, his dirty little feet slapping on the slate, the red kite flew out of the towering wall, and flew into the sky from a narrow space, freely.The boy attracted many other children, and they ran after the kite, and their laughter echoed in the alley for a long time.

Suddenly, their laughter stopped, and they saw the kite hooked on a clothes pole, and their heads hung down in embarrassment.

"Ah! Quickly find a way to save the kite!"

"Don't make a noise, it's stuck at such a high place that we can't get up."

"Don't pull the rope too hard, it will break it."

"Then what should we do?"

The children chattered for a long time before reaching a conclusion, when Shano, who was slightly older than them, happened to pass by.He wore a black tunic, a belt of silver satin inlaid with gemstones, and a meteorite knife hanging from his waist. He walked past a group of thin and dirty children, like a phoenix out of a pheasant.

"Hey, that's Shano!"

"I heard that Shano will fly up with a splash."

"Yes, he is the most powerful Silver Pigeon Knight, we can ask him for help."

"Will Shano care about us? He hasn't played with us since he was sealed."

"Got to try."

So, the leading child grabbed his sleeve and shouted earnestly: "Shanuo." Then he pointed to the kite above his head.

Shano stopped and looked up in the direction he was pointing. The poor kite was completely entangled in the hanger.Shano snorted, and turned his head to stare at the group of wild children with a condescending look.

"Sorry, my lord priest warned me not to play with commoners." He pushed the man's little black hands away from the ornate sleeves.

The child looked at him blankly, and said with trembling lips, "Shanuo..."

Shano crossed his arms, looked at the kite again, then looked away coldly, and walked away without looking back under the gaze of everyone.

Although he has always been a bit of a beating, everyone can't believe that he has become what he is now. The title of "Holy Pigeon Knight" must have made him get carried away.

"Hey Shano, do you think you're amazing!?" The person who was left behind clenched his fists and blushed, but his childish voice was more penetrating than anything else:

"You are just a knight in Yelan City. Yelan City is smaller than the smallest ant on the earth. You have never seen the world outside the wall!"

Suddenly, Shano felt an arrow shot in his heart, he swayed, and his footsteps became sluggish. Even so, he insisted on maintaining his proud back and raised his head high.

......

In the evening, Shano and Su An sat on the outermost wall, the yellow sand was wrinkled by the wind, and the horizon was a long arc inlaid with golden edges.

"You don't look happy today." The girl hugged her knees.

"Su An, what do you think it looks like outside?"

"Ok?"

Shano frowned, with a kind of melancholy that he didn't usually have: "The center of our world is a cherry blossom tree, outside the cherry blossom tree are six ring walls, outside the wall are four gods representing the four directions, and outside the gods are deserts. .But the desert must have an end, what is outside the desert?"

"I've heard it's 'city.'"

"City?"

"I don't know either." Her eyelashes flickered: "That's far away."

"Do you want to go see it?"

"Huh? Go to... see what?"

"Cities! I ask you if you want to see those cities!" The boy said vigorously, pointing his arms into the distance: "Yelan City is smaller than the smallest ant on the earth, of course we should go out and have a look."

"How to get out?"

"I'll take you later, let's go to a distant 'city' together!"

Su An froze for a moment, then laughed, her silver hair flying, and the old newspaper in her hand rattling.

Shano blushed in embarrassment: "Hey, don't laugh, I'm serious!"

Su An tried her best to purse her lips, and burst out laughing again.It was the first time for Shano to see Su An who was so happy and smiling, so he decided to take her out.

At that time, their eyes were full of innocent dreams, and each one was shining brightly.

/Scorched Earth

The good childhood ended here, and then they really went far away-in another way.

Next, let's shift our vision from the tiny Yelan City to the whole world, and see what other people are doing when they close civilization:

As early as 58 years ago, the Suhuang government conducted an EID nuclear test in the desert.Nuclear experts accidentally detected the existence of Yelan City and sent robot No. 213 to monitor it. That was the "egg" that the Sakuwas saw at the beginning.

"Egg" performed the task perfectly until a group of scholars established the Weaver Party. This was an important time node, which directly led to Su Huang's attack on Sakuwa.

The goal of the Weaver Party is to find holy objects to communicate with the Yin Qi civilization and to overthrow the rule of Su Huang. Obviously, the government will not let them succeed, and both sides have launched operations to search for holy objects.At this time, the data provided by "Egg" showed that there had been abnormal energy fluctuations in Yelan City. Suhuang scientists speculated that there were two possible burial sites for holy objects, one of which was Yelan City.

It can be said that when the Weaver Party members were still wandering around like headless chickens, the Suhuang government with huge data resources had already grasped the specific coordinates of the sacred relic burial site. This fact is desperate.They took the lead in dispatching and secretly dispatched the "Giant Whale" spaceship to land over Yelan City, blasting an ancient city spanning 3000 years into a pile of scorched earth.

The F11-7 bomb blasted Sakuwa's connection with the outside world abruptly.

The dream of Taoyuan was shattered, and Yelan became a city of scorched earth.Soldiers in white plastic raincoats and gas masks dug up holy relics, and cherry trees withered that day.A heavy rain fell on the desert.

Shano crawled out from the ruins, his body covered in bruises.He looked at the fallen old tree and realized sadly that he had become an empty knight with nothing to protect him anymore.