Only after registering at the quarantine zone's entrance did we enter this abandoned self-service... place, directly ravaged by darkness.
Pfft, the Old District.
"It's only been a month..."
Normally, after nearly a month without human activity, there should have been signs of nature returning: wild animals appearing in the city, weeds taking over the roads... but the entire Old District was utterly lifeless.
Darkness didn't only affect humans.
As a substance from the Other Side, this negative energy was poison to everything on Earth. Trees withered after being tainted by darkness, and even hardy weeds couldn't grow in soil it had contaminated.
"This is even worse than I imagined."
"What did you imagine?"
Thunderous Resonance slowed the bike, making conversation like this possible.
"Chernobyl? A hell overgrown with greenery?"
"Then I'm afraid all that's left here is the hell."
Thunderous Resonance probably felt this more deeply than I did. This wasn't just where she had once lived, but also one of the areas she had been responsible for as a magical girl.
"This main road was on my daily patrol route. There were a lot of elderly people around, so... I wouldn't rev the engine along this stretch."
Perhaps it was grief. Even the way she referred to herself had changed.
"There were heavy civilian casualties that time, too... did you know any of them?"
"I knew pretty much everyone. Even if we weren't close, I'd seen them around. This Old District in the North Suburbs was a grave a bunch of old fossils dug for themselves because they refused to leave. Anyone willing to go had already taken their families into the city and never come back. Those who stayed saw each other all the time. It didn't matter if you couldn't put a name to a face. Everyone