Tetsuo woke up, sweating profusely. A cute girl dressed as a maid was surprised by the unexpected awakening of her Master.
"Tetsuo-sama? Did you wake up earlier this morning? Have you had a bad dream? Do you want me to cuddle you?"
Tetsuo Sabetsu looked at his room. He was a 16-year-old student in the "Tsuyo Kubetsu" school, a particular institute in which boys and girls affected by the alien organism called 'Tsuyo' could find a safe shelter from the hatred of the outside world.
Usually, the rooms of teenagers were the most chaotic places one could ever find on the surface of the planet: clothes scattered all over the floor, the never-tidied bed, the desk filled with schoolbooks, and pizza cartons.
However, if one entered Tetsuo's room, he would felt like he's entering heaven. The floor was so clean you could eat on it, and the wardrobe in the corner of the room was organized in color, season, and time of the day. All of this was possible not because Tetsuo was a clean guy, who mattered about the state of his room, but because of his Tsuyo.
In fact, his power allowed him to spawn from the fragments of his soul a limited amount of human girls, of which Tetsuo had the total control. He could choose whether to spawn a little girl, a busty maid, or even a cute catgirl. If you think his power was a bit sexist, don't worry, because it is.
Unfortunately, his ability was not flawless. For example, one of his main disadvantages was that you couldn't touch the girls he created. If another human had physical contact (we are talking about skin-to-skin contact) with one of his girls, they would immediately disappear.
This was the secret of his ever-cleaned room. He would create a bunch of girls that cleaned the room for him while he was attending classes and, in the evening, he would find the room as no one ever lived in it.
The girl he created the evening before as an alarm clock was watching him with concern in her eyes. All of his girls had the habit to call him 'Tetsuo-sama', a Japanese honorific that is usually used when referring to a person that has an elevated social rank than you, like a worker to his boss.
"Don't worry Okitenasai," said Tetsuo, using the name he had chosen for that girl, which meant 'the one that wakes up'.
"I just had a bad dream. It's nothing."
"I'm glad you are okay, Tetsuo-sama." said the maid, with a bright smile on her face. "Do you want to take a bath with me?"
There is one thing that we forgot to mention earlier. While other humans could not touch the girls Tetsuo created, he, because the girls were just fragments of his soul, could touch them and could be touched by them, the lucky bastard.
"No, thank you, I am late for school," said Tetsuo, while slowly getting up of the bed and dressing himself up. His school uniform had already been ironed, and his shoes had already been burnished. While he was leaving the room, all of his girls bowed to him and wished him a good day at school, before disappearing.
Tetsuo walked through the corridor, heading to his class, and he couldn't get out of his mind the dream he had the night before. To be precise, it was more of a memory of his past. His thoughts were interrupted when a door opened to his right and his little sister, Mayumi, got out of her room yawning. They were about to enter the classroom but then Tetsuo's childhood friend, Yuka, appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his shoulder before saying happily: "Ehi wassup man? You look a little pale today. Have you had a morning session with one of your girls?"
"Nah, don't be silly, the sessions are always in the evenings. I just had this strange dream."
The three of them entered the classroom all at once, but Tetsuo couldn't focus on the lesson because his mind seemed to act on its own and replayed, like in a movie, the dream he just had.
A young Tetsuo woke up in his little bed, in the house he lived in while he was still a child. At the time, he was 9. It was unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night because he had always been a heavy sleeper.
However, when he opened his eyes, he realized instantly what made him wake up. There was a strange smell in the air, almost the same smell a roasted chicken emitted while was cooking. 'Why would mom cook at this time of the night?', he mumbled to himself.
But then, something else caught his attention. Besides the smell, there was something else that shouldn't be happening at night. There was the sound of a little girl crying. And the only little girl present in his house was his sister, Mayumi.
A loud explosion, like the fireworks at New Year's Eve, scattered the silence of the night. Tetsuo almost jumped for the fright. Now he realized that there certainly was happening something strange, and he started to feel anxiety and fear for his mother and his sister.
He opened the door and the first thing he saw was Mayumi that was crying on the floor, hugging with all of her strength the pillow of her bed.
Tetsuo didn't realize at first why was Mayumi crying, but then, when he reached the end of the corridor that linked his room to the living room, he could feel a strange liquid tickling his feet. So he finally looked down at the floor, and he couldn't believe his eyes.
His mother was lying on the floor, but he could feel something was not right. He tried to wake her up, and tell her that Mayumi was crying unstoppably. But for some reason, she didn't wake up. Could it be... Maybe the red liquid that was all over her, and the reason why she wasn't moving...?
Mayumi now started to scream at the top of her lungs. Tetsuo ignored for a second his mother and hurried back to Mayumi, trying to calm her down.
"Mommy..." said Mayumi, speaking between a sob and the other, "Why Mommy i-is asleep? I couldn't wake h-her up..."
"Don't worry Mayumi," said his brother, "Mommy is just really tired. She will wake up soon, I'm sure. But now you have to stop crying."
"Is she really going to w-wake up?"
"Yeah, of course, she will wake up," she said, struggling to print a smile on his face.
After that, they heard a loud bang coming from the house entrance, and someone broke through the door. They didn't have much time to hide, so they just cover themselves behind a door.
"Are we sure there is a Tsuyo user here?" asked what seemed to be the voice of a man.
"You can bet my nuts there is one here. My spy is a very reliable guy."
"We need to get out of here," Tetsuo whispered to Mayumi, and then, with a nod of the head, indicated the window in his room.
They dashed to the window, and they opened it as quickly as possible. Obviously, the sound they made alerted the men, who hurried to Tetsuo's room, but they managed to run away in time.
There was no moon in the sky, and they couldn't see clearly where they were going. Instinctively, their legs brought them to the hideout in the forest in which they often used to go while playing hide and seek. Once they arrived there, they calmed down a bit and tried to figure out what their next move was.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps approaching them; Tetsuo protected Mayumi with his body, but they had nothing to worry about: it seemed that another child had had the same idea as them. The face of that boy was filled with bruises, and he had a black eye. Tetsuo couldn't be sure about that, but he thought he also had a broken nose. After talking with him for a while, they discovered that his name was Yuka and then they found out the three of them all had a strange birthmark somewhere on their bodies.
Tetsuo and Mayumi immediately established a bond with Yuka, and they lived in the hideout for some time, stealing and pickpocketing some food and money. They hadn't discovered their powers yet, and due to that, they couldn't figure out why those evil men wanted to kidnap them or kill them.
In that way, two years passed. Tetsuo and Mayumi were always hungry, and they barely cleaned themselves or washed their bodies. They would remain in a hideout for a maximum of three weeks, and then they would be forced to leave. They both know Yuka was loyal and trustworthy, but he hardly spoke to them. They didn't know anything about his past, but they never asked him to tell them something.
One evening, though, Yuka finally unlocked his heart to his two misfortune companions. While they were roasting on the fire a little meat they managed to steal from the market in town, he began to narrate his life from the very beginning.
"Until I was 8 years old, my infancy had been pretty normal. But then, there was that conference incident."
"What was that incident?" asked Mayumi.
"Three years ago, a scientist called Gabriel Wayne exposed to the entire world an alien parasite that he called 'Tsuyo'. When the Tsuyo entered in contact with the human body, it is said to give unnatural abilities to the host."
"Now that you mention it, those guys that came to our house said something about that 'Tsuyo'..." mumbled Tetsuo.
"I think they said they wanted to find a 'Tsuyo user'."
"Yes, that's it," confirmed Yuka. "In the conference, apparently a Tsuyo user lost his mind and started killing everyone in the auditorium. Because of that, people started to fear and hate those with a Tsuyo."
"My mother and my father were part of those people. Every Tsuyo user has an iconic birthmark on his body. They knew I had one on the left arm, and they started beating me, calling me 'monster' or 'demon'.
So, one day, I couldn't take it anymore. One night, while my parents were asleep, I ran away from home and tried to hide in the woods. That is how I met you two."
Mayumi stood up from the ground and got close to Yuka to hug him. Both she and he didn't say a word, but those weren't necessary to express their mutual feelings.
Life went on like that. Tetsuo didn't really mind that kind of lifestyle, as long as Mayumi remained safe. However, one summer evening, that troublesome, yet relatively peaceful life, came to an end.
Yuka and Tetsuo went out of their hideout to steal some food, while Mayumi waited for them. The two were hiding in the shadows and avoiding all sorts of lights. Moving like that, they were able to reach the market completely safe and sound.
When they reached their destination, they found out the narrow streets of the little town were filled with crowds of people. There were at least 200 people in those streets. Tetsuo and Yuka got as close as they could to the nearest market stall, but then Tetsuo heard something that made a shiver run down his spine.
"We are looking for Tsuyo users." said rudely one of the men of the crowd.
"They are usually children, with a birthmark on their body."
"What the hell?" asked the merchant, "Why are you looking for children?
Moreover, you are disturbing my customers."
"Yuka," said Tetsuo, panting heavily, "We have to get out of here now."
Yuka, at first, couldn't understand the gravity of the situation.
"We can't return to the hideout without any food. I'm sure we can outsmart those guys. I mean, we are pretty fast."
"We can't risk that much, we have to get out of here now...", repeated Tetsuo, hasty. He couldn't wait for Yuka's response, so he grabbed him for his arm and ran away.
"Ehi, look, guys, it's the monster!" exclaimed a voice behind them. They quickly turned and saw a bunch of boys the same age they were approaching them. Yuka's face immediately became pale and he almost stopped moving. Tetsuo had to yank him, hurting his arm, and he started running again.
"Death to the Tsuyo user!" shouted their chasers. Their screams reached the Tsuyo hunters. As if they were a single human being, they all started to run at once to follow the Tsuyo users.
Tetsuo did the only thing he was capable of: running away. While he was rushing from the mob that was following him, he tried to find a solution to settle down the threat. Returning to the hideout was out of the question. If they managed to find it, by following them, Mayumi's life could be put in danger. They firstly had to sow the hunters, and then they would be able to hide safely.
Tetsuo bumped into another person. He managed not to fall, and he quickly stood back again, and he almost started to run again, but then he saw the person he had bumped into.
A girl was standing in front of him. They looked like they had the same age. Her hair was colored in a dark shade of crimson red, and they stopped at her shoulders. For her age, she was really mature, and she didn't seem to have hostile intentions.
"Oh my, I didn't see where I was going. Are you okay?" she said.
Tetsuo didn't answer, busy at catching back his breath. Behind that girl, other children were observing the scene.
He couldn't trust anyone of them, after what the Tsuyo hunters had done to his mother. He rapidly turned to his right and he entered a secondary street, all of this while grabbing Yuka by the arm. After getting some distance between them and the girl, Tetsuo decided to split up.
"If we take two different paths, they will lose time. Meet me at the refuge." said Tetsuo, and Yuka nodded.
After some time, for a mere coincidence, Tetsuo managed to find the girl again. She looked like she was running away from something, like he was.
He hid behind a corner, watching what the girl was doing. She got close to a door and tried, uselessly, to open it. Then, she put her hand on the door and it almost instantly shrank to the size of a tennis ball. She was about the enter the building, but then a loud shout stopped her. The Tsuyo hunters that were chasing him now were pointing their guns at the girl, and she raised her hands in the air.
"Try to move, girl, and you won't move anymore in your life." warned her what seemed to be the leader. She had nowhere to run or hide: it was a dead end. Her face was distorted in a grimace of fear and hatred.
At this point, Tetsuo knew he couldn't remain still. Without even thinking it twice, he jumped out of his shady corner and he interposed his body between the girl and the hunters.
"If you want to hurt this girl," said Tetsuo, "You will have to kill me first."
The hunters began to laugh sarcastically. Tetsuo grinned his teeth.
"Look, the blue knight came to rescue the princess! Let's see if your determination will stop the bullets of my toy."
Now all the rifles were pointed at him. He knew he couldn't dodge an attack like that, and he couldn't run away. He turned to the girl. When they had killed him, they will surely kidnap her, or do something even worse to her. And he decided he couldn't let that happen. He advanced to the rifles, and he felt an overwhelming heat in his chest. He stopped when only a meter separated him from the guns. He directed his eyes full of anger and fury to the ones of the man in front of him.
And the, something that none of them expected happened.
A woman in a bikini appeared out of nowhere and stood beside Tetsuo.
Both the girl and the hunters couldn't understand what was going on.
But those two seconds in which the hunters hesitated were enough.
The woman, that had had a whip in her hands this whole time, snapped it with such strength all the weapons in the hunters' hands flew away from them. She then extracted from her bra a sharp dagger and slit the throat of the man Tetsuo had faced. The others tried to fight her, but her movements were too fast for the human eye to follow. In a matter of seconds, they were all dead or badly injured. A few of them managed to run away.
The woman in the bikini turned to Tetsuo, who had been motionless while observing the incredible fight, and she asked him: "Do you need help, Tetsuo-sama?"
Tetsuo-sama? He couldn't understand what this woman was talking about. The girl, who had approached him during the fight, took the floor for the first time.
"I think she is your Tsuyo," said her. "Apparently, you can spawn girls that obey your commands."
"That's right," agreed the woman, "I am your Tsuyo, Tetsuo-sama. And, since I came to life because of you, I will do everything you command me to do. If you don't have any requests, I will disappear, so that I don't waste your energy."
The woman in the biking sparkled for an instant and then disappeared out of sight.
Tetsuo immediately turned to the girl.
"Listen, are you hurt? Is everything alright?"
The girl blushed, and then answered with a small 'yeah'. Tetsuo smiled at her and asked: "Damnit, where are my manners? My name is Tetsuo Sabetsu. And you are...?"
"Sonya... Just Sonya." she answered without looking at him in his eyes.
From that moment onwards, Tetsuo couldn't remember much, because he passed out after using his Tsuyo.
"Hey, are you sleeping? Come on, I can't believe you are sleeping in class. Wake up!"
Tetsuo was abruptly awakened by the sound of a voice he didn't recognize, and that was unusual because he remembered every single voice of his classmates. With a huge effort, he opened his eyes and he found out he was sitting beside a girl he had never met before. The girl had blonde hair and piercing purple eyes.
"Wait a second, who are you? I don't think I ever saw you before."
"You idiot, were you really asleep during the whole class? I am a new student, Nives Tsuno."
"Oh, I see. So you are newbie, huh?"
"Yeah, you could call me that. By the way, I don't think you have presented yourself."
"Oh, yeah, I am Tetsuo."
They started chitchatting for the rest of the class, but they didn't realize they had Sonya's eyes pointed at them for the whole time.
After class, Tetsuo went to the canteen to have lunch. Immediately, when he stood up from the desk to head out of the classroom, Sonya stood next to him and asked him if he had slept well last night. If you hadn't caught it yet, Sonya was madly in love with Tetsuo, and she couldn't bear the sight of another female getting too close to him.
"Yeah, I didn't sleep too well this night." answered him.
She proceeded to hug him tightly, and Tetsuo's face inevitably laid on Sonya's (big) breasts. Nives was walking behind them, and she tried to print on her face a careless expression.
Not too far from Tetsuo and Sonya, a couple was arguing in a quite loudly way.
"I know what she did to you!" exclaimed the girl.
"It was nothing!" replied the guy, "She just kissed me, and that's all. Nothing else happened."
"You should have stopped her!" she sobbed, before turning away, crying, and heading quickly to her room.
The guy, speechless, gave in a deep sigh and decided to head to the canteen.