seven the youth (ultraseven for adults) #34 lost city

#34 lost city

a ring of clouds

One morning, above TOKIO, there appears
a ring of clouds six to seven kilometers
in diameter.  
The ring slowly falls down,
surrounding the whole Suginami-ku.
Then, rising up to the sky as smoke does,
it builds a pipe-shaped white high wall.

The transportation is cut off as follows:
Koenji to Nishi-ogikubo, JR Chuo Line.
Shimo-igusa to Kami-igusa, Seibu Shinjuku Line.
Eifuku-cho to Kugayama, Keio Inogashira Line.
And Eifuku-cho to Takaido, Chuo Highway.

Business persons who live outside of the clouds
have to go to work, concerned with the ring.
Every bus and taxi stop in front of nearby stations is deadly crowded with people who try to get on 
the alternatives.

About five hundred thousand people are trapped
in the wall, including FURUDA and SOMA, 
who live in Suginami.

Moreover, the wall extends deeply into the ground,
which cuts off lifelines and communications.
Sugnami-ku takes urgent action,
announcing a curfew. 
In spite of the curfew, as is usual,
a lot of people rush to convenience stores 
or supermarkets for food.
In addition, a lot of cars make traffic jams
though they cannot go anywhere.
The police, including SOMA of course,
are obliged to control the traffic caused by panic.

Cut off from outside, Suginami-ku has become
an isolated island, the lost city.

FURUDA wakes up to find dense smoke or fog
outside the windows.
On seeing the news about MYSTERIOUS clouds  
on the cell phone, he tries a call to the Youth,
but in vain, so he is at a loss what to do.

YURI deals with a lot of victims,
physical or mental, of the outbreak of clouds.

KIRIYA and AMABE watch the news on TV,
which is broadcast by every channel.
 
"Just like Komatsu Sakyou world,
Disappearance of the Capital.
We should examine the clouds."  KIRIYA

"The wall looks so high, doesn't it,
that neither helicopters of the press
nor airplanes of the Defense Force
can look inside?"  AMABE

"How about going to the outer space
by HAWK 2 rocket?
How are FURUDA and SOMA going now?
Yes hope they're OK."  KIRIYA

wall of clouds

Since all the classes are cancelled,
MOROBOSHI is on his way to the hideout,
Mt Takao, by yellow Beetle.
But both into and out of TOKIO.
most of the main roads are crowded,
Chuo-do, Ome-kaido, Waseda-dori, Mejiro-dori,
and Kanjo 7, 8.
His Beetle deadly stops on Koshu-kaido,
between Roka-koen and Chitose-Karasuyama.
He can see the clouds from among the buildings,
though he is in Setagaya-ku.

It is just as thin as a straw at the level of Earth,
but when seen from nearby,
the white wall rises as high as neck might be hurt.

(Approaching it.)

MOROBOSHI parked the car at a coin parking,
running toward the clouds.

The government begins suspecting
that the clouds are kinds of attack
from aliens, while some alien countries
wonder if they can use them as weapons,
having already begun examining them.

MOROBOSHI is now about under Chuo-do,
Kita-karasuyama, Setagaya.
Although the media repeatedly tell citizens
not to go out, lots of onlookers, or curious seekers
can be seen here and there.
Probably because the police are short of hands,
there are no notices saying KEEP OUT.

Approaching the wall, he finds dense clouds
swirling and whirling so intensely
that he cannot go into them easily.

(Just like Komatsu Sakyo's Buttai O.)

MOROBOSHI red glasses sees through the wall,
finding the thickness of wall tens of meters.

(Probable to teleport into.)

He looks up the wall rising as high as he can see.

Meanwhile, HAWK 2 gets to the outer space,
but the pipe extends as far
as if the cable connected the planet to another.

"Might be short of fuel, Professor."

"For INVADE?  What is the end?  MYSTERIOUS."

"Not direct, but indirect damage 
seems to be doing harm to citizens,
such as traffic jams or accidents.
Isn't it local phenomenon of nature 
like Kan-pachi clouds?"

"No, I don't think so,
because it's covering the artificial district
on purpose, not by accident."

The fuel and the distance oblige HAWK 2 
to return from the half way.

When SOMA is directing the traffic,
something begins to fall.

"Bubbles?"

Bubbles, or foam fall slowly and pile up
on the ground, the trees, and the roofs.
People inside the wall are terrified 
by MYSTERIOUS bubbles in MYSTERIOUS clouds.

A few people believe them to be just soap bubbles,
while almost all the people assume them
to be alkahest, which could dissolve everything.

The bubblefall has already been thirty centimeters.
There is almost nobody outside,
so Suginami-ku looks like a silent snowy region.

MOROBOSHI has just teleported, standing
on the tall chimney's top for garbage disposal 
near Takaido Station, Keio Inogashira Line.
Looking down around, he finds the tiny lights  
of streets and houses flickering on white carpet.

chimney, Takaido

The moment, suddenly,
ET radar gets a response of alien.

(Around Kami-igusa.)

It is Kami-igusa Sports Center near the station.
At the center of large outside field,
there appears a mountain of bubbles.

MOROBOSHI waits and sees what will happen,
standing on the home base of diamond.
The bubble mountain swells up to ten meters,
from which the thing covered with spines comes.
The spiny globe rolls around
to shake off the bubbles,
and open its body like an armadillo,
standing on two legs
with slant almond-shaped red eyes open.

MOROBOSHI prepares for attack.

🫧wait, YO.🫧

(Who are you?)

🫧DANCAN, not INVADE, YO.🫧

(What's this cloud pipe?)

🫧tool for observing, YO.🫧

(Bubbles?)

🫧tool for warping, YO.🫧 

(Nonmart, or humans have much trouble.)

🫧sorry, YO.  remove soon, YO.
so don't attack me, YO.🫧

Alien DANCAN is much weaker than it appears.
Curling itself back to a spiny globe, 
it rolls into the bubble mountain,
and rises up through the cloud tube.
At the same time,
all the bubbles covering the area
and the clouds surrounding it have vanished.

Kami-igusa Sports Center

(Alarmist, but the other day   
humans did the same thing 
to the planet PEDAN (#14 #15).
Exactly, bothered the aliens.)

MOROBOSHI gets into Beetle,
reclines the seat, and lays hinself.

(One's fault is another's lesson.
Be careful, myself.)

It seems to take still long 
until the traffic congestion is resolved.

#34 the end