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Prelude: Phone Call.
Giavonna returned from school and questioned the absence of her brother. Usually, Giavonna would resent her brother's presence, yet today seemed a bit off. There was no trace of him.
"That's a bit off…" she thought.
As soon as she finished her thought, the landline rang.
"What the-... A call at 7 P.M.?!" She picks up the receiver, and questions who it is. "Ah, Ms. Como… Sorry to call at this hour, yet I must ask-"
Giavonna interrupted the man on the line. "Who are you?" The man responded promptly. "I am a doctor, and your brother was in my care, Miss…" Giavonna shook. "Was…?" "Yes, I am sorry to inform you that your brother passed due to a traumatic injury. I am sure you will be proud to know that he gave his life for the city he loved…"
Giavonna's hand shook, and she was in total shock. "Miss?" She could not muster a whimper. "Excuse me, Miss-" She put the receiver back on the landline, and staggered to the couch out of shock. "No fucking way… Reji…." Giavonna began to weep, as such news could only destroy a person…
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Fallin'.
As Kiryu waddled up the broken steps of his apartment with his cracked phone in hand, he approached his door to his apartment, and opened it, anticipating Giavonna. Kiryu notices Giavonna's bag, but then dismisses it, after all:
"I don't want to be the one to tell her,'' thought Kiryu, as he mindlessly walked to his room like an empty shell of a man.
Once he enters his room, he slams the door shut, and the fragile door rattles. In his contempt, Kiryu begins to think about his brother, Reji, and how he was the only one who ever listened to Kiryu when his Father left and his Mother passed away. It was Reji who picked the family back up onto its feet. When Kiryu would get bullied and beaten at school, it was Reji's smile that Kiryu always wanted to come home to. Reji was the one who bought the apartment for him and his family to live on. Reji was the one who pressured Kiryu to workout and pick up boxing; it was all Reji. Reji pushed Kiryu in the hopes he would become able to handle the world, and life without his brother was not a life Kiryu wanted.
Just as this thought entered and exited Kiryu's mind, he got up from the ground. He felt even more broken than before, like an echo in a hallway. Kiryu hastily took off his jacket to reveal his uniform underneath, and he thought:
"He also got me into the school! What hasn't he done, huh? I don't want to see the old man's face when he finds out that Reji is dead..." Soon all sorts of thoughts got into Kiryu's head. "How did he die? Is it worth living without Reji? How will the old man feel? They said that he died for his city, he died in his line of work. Does that mean he fought a monster? If only I had the power… If I had any ability…. I could take revenge! I could avenge the brother I love so dearly!"
But out of all the thoughts running in and out, one thought rose above all others. "Is life without Reji worth living?" "No, no! C'mon… Don't think like that… You got so far…" A counter opinion soon formed. "Ah, look at yourself! No ability… No pride! Living in an apartment with a sister that wants your head? You really think Reji wanted to live with the likes of you?"
"I need a walk to clear my head, I can't have my mind clogged up." Kiryu thought as he opened up the door to his room to leave. He walked down the stairs and waved hi to some of his neighbors he didn't see too often at this hour. He walked out of the apartment block, and was greeted by the cool air. "Ahhh… That's a bit refreshing." He walked down the sidewalk, and the only thing he could think of… Was his brother. Usually, his brother would be with him for today, but obviously, that wasn't an option. He starts to pick up the pace. "If I run, maybe less blood will run to my head, and I'll think less. Yeah, sounds good..."
"C'mon man… Less blood won't save you from your problems Mr. I Don't Have An Ability. Look at yourself, strutting around like a peacock when a middle schooler could take you and turn you into mush in an instant! What a joke."
His memory flashed before him as the cool air brushed past him. His brother was always there for him. And he couldn't be there for Reji. Kiryu stopped thinking about his brother… And his sister. He took a glance at one of the buildings near the plaza. All of a sudden, he struggled to see. "Why, looks like someone's getting a little uppity."
A figure appeared out of the sudden darkness. "What the- Who the hell are you?" "I'm just a friend. Don't you worry." Kiryu felt a hand on his shoulder. I'm here to remind you of something. Everyone that you think is dead, they watch you, y'know. Don't believe me?"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Kiryu cried out into the darkness.
"Don't you feel that guilt? Those sins you carry?" "Liar! Liar! I was never a part of anything!" "You don't think you're innocent, right? Why do you think Reji ended his life in battle? You're just completely impossible-" This really pushed Kiryu off the edge.
"No! No! He didn't die to leave me! He loves me! I'm faithful, I do everything I can for him- "Hmph. Think what you will, but I know the truth. I see everything you do, I hear every single one of your thoughts. So don't try to convince yourself that you're the good guy. To me, you ain't really that good… Pal." The figure laughs maniacally, and he disappears into the black mist. All of a sudden, the world returns to the light.
"What the-'' Kiryu is shocked to see the world with all of its colors once more. He feels dazed, but is able to come to his senses. "I… I don't know what happened…" He puts his hand to his head, and in doing so, he remembers his little exchange from that visitor. He is filled with an overwhelming sense of regret and guilt, because he knows that Reji definitely did kill himself to get away from Kiryu. The figure was right. Tears begin to stream down his face. The guilt was unbearable. Nothing even came close to the suffering he endured at that moment. He knew that if Reji was still alive, he would be incredibly disappointed. And that broke Kiryu's soul beyond repair.
"This life man…." "Without the people I love…" More tears start to stream down his face. "M&G Supplies…."
He starts running into the store, brushing past the people still around at this hour, and goes up to the second floor. He saw the janitor, and purposely bumped into him, stealing his keys in the process. "Hey, watch it!" "S-sorry man!" He uses the maintenance door, and opens the door to the roof. The chilly air greeted him. "Ah, piss…" He saw the city he hated. All of the people. The buildings. Everything that led up to the death of his brother. He saw his smile, his frowns… He felt everything his brother had ever felt, all of his emotions… His life flew by him in an instant… And everything he had ever done until now, was about to be negated… Before he took the plunge, he wrote a note, and took off his shoes.
In his note, he wrote… "I've really messed up big this time. I don't know if anything can get my brother back, but maybe this fall will help to ease my pain. I'm sorry I failed you, Reji."
All of his life would end… But he could not live without the only light in his life. "Now or never…" He met the edge of the building, and looked down into the almost empty plaza. "Oh, bro…. Nothing can ever replace you. And I definitely can't." He let his body be taken by the air, gratefully, as he slowly descended down to the ground.
Kiryu's eyes slowly open as he regains consciousness due to the heavy amounts of pain he feels in every part of him. At first, he could not move, but slowly he began to hear a faint sound of bones snapping as the pain died down. And the sound came from his legs. He began to panic, but as he tried to sit up, he just grew ever more injured. The sound from his legs was competing with running footsteps that were getting ever quieter. The black mist begins to engulf the surrounding area around Kiryu. But after a short while, it starts to dissipate. As soon as the last bit of mist is gone, Kiryu whispers:
"Someone... Kill... Me..."
As Kiryu somehow finds the strength to get up he surveys his surroundings and is incredibly surprised. "W-hat…. I can… Walk?" The pavement around where he landed was covered in his glossy red blood, his socks are dyed red, and his clothes were torn from the bones that he saw clearly bursting out from his chest.
"I should be dead!" Kiryu thought as he clearly saw visible injuries a moment ago heal in the blink of an eye, and he rattled his brain to find an answer. He was cut short by a quick flash of light from behind him.
"Shit! Is someone here?!" Kiryu thought as he began to turn around. As soon as he starts to think about where that light came from, he notices that he is still wearing his school uniform. His sleeves were scuffed, and he is covered in blood, yet his uniform is still noticeable. And that flash of light just now seemed to be a camera, which is seriously bad news for him. If he shows his face, his school is done for.
Kiryu quickly hides his face from the direction of where the flash came and ran away once he was around a corner. He peeked out to see who took the picture, but to his surprise, no one was there. "I definitely would have heard the footsteps of him running away, right?" Kiryu thought.
"Arghh, that doesn't matter, this just gives me a chance to get away..." Kiryu thought.
"I shouldn't stick around for too long... And I should avoid crowded areas because I look like I just killed somebody… That won't be good for me..." As Kiryu continuously thought of ways to get out of this situation one thought kept popping up, which disturbed his escape plans.
"How am I alive right now…?" Kiryu surveyed his body once more and saw no visible injuries. Although he was covered in blood, he could not smell the oh-so-familiar scent of it. It was like the blood was not even there to begin with, which is odd, to say the least. As he brings his arm closer to his face to take a whiff, the now dried blood on his hand slowly starts to vanish as the same black mist arises from the blood's place. As Kiryu stands there in shock at what he is seeing, he takes another peek around the corner, and sees that there is no blood to be seen on the ground, nor the surrounding wall.
Kiryu then thought, " My blood… This mist…. And my bones… This…" He starts to hear footsteps coming around the block, and Kiryu dashes into an alley, navigating around the city once more.
"I don't have time to think about this!" Kiryu thought, knowing he was running out of precious time. "I just have to get out of here before I'm caught!" Kiryu thought again in urgency. After navigating a couple of alleyways, he comes to a very sudden stop to catch his breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Ahh… I think I'm far enough." Kiryu said out loud. As the intensity of the situation died down, a thought seemed to loom over him, and as time passed he finally asked the question: 'Why did I run?'
Of course, this was a rhetorical question. It is natural to run when you don't know what's happening around you after all. This need to run is the pinnacle of the 'Fight or Flight' response in humans. But maybe the real question was: 'Why did I care? Why should I care if I'm the victim?' If Kiryu thinks about it hard enough, then yes, he should run. If he was caught at the scene of suicide, the school would come under fire from the media! But why would I care? "Not even five minutes ago I jumped off a building because of my brother's d-eath…" As Kiryu started thinking that, the memories of his brother came back to him instantly.
Mental images of his brother came to him, and eventually, all he could see was Reji, still young, still a boy. After a couple of seconds, Kiryu screamed and there was a loud 'Crack!!' All of a sudden, his fist was lodged in a brick wall! A rush of pain shook through him like a bolt of lightning. Kiryu quickly retracted his fist in pain. But as more thoughts of his brother came into his head, he started to punch the wall more and more, each time hurting more than the last. He was determined to have an outlet for his suffering, despite the pain. He threw punch after punch after punch.
But as the pain kept coming, so did his thoughts about his brother. After a couple more punches his fists were bleeding from the knuckles, and a copious amount of spit was coming out of his mouth. Kiryu let out a massive scream as he fell to his knees. A stream of tears started to flow from his eyes as he woefully said, "B-Brother I don't know w-what to do. I don't want to live in a world without you, I really don't..." He said, sniffling in the process. But I… I... W-want t-TO LIVE!! I WANT TO LIVE!!!" Kiryu screamed at the top of his lungs. "I need help!! How do I go on? How do I get closure!?" As Kiryu shouted, he remembered what the man on the phone said about his brother's death.
"Your brother was my patient. He died late tonight after an attack with a monster." Kiryu then thought: That! That is how I will get my closure. I'll find out who killed my brother! A smile started to form as Kiryu realized he wouldn't have to be so lost. A-And... Kiryu's brighter expression began to diminish as his thoughts went deeper.
"And what, what can I do? I'm just a powerless cripple! What could I ever do to a high-rank monster? I'll just get squashed and become a sad mess of organs on the pavement. No, I just need to see him, I just need to see the monster who killed my brother with my own eyes! The rest doesn't matter. I just need to see him. But first, I'd go home."
Kiryu pushed the rubble aside from the wall he hit violently. He sat there in silence, wondering how a cripple like his could almost annihilate a brick wall like that. He sat there in silence, then slowly got up after he half-heartedly convinced himself on what to do next. He stumbled his way home, nestling his arm in his shirt sleeve trying to contain the blood, wincing all the way there.
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The Next Morning.
Police sirens can be heard in front of an abandoned factory on the poor side of the city. A police officer walks up to a house and knocks on the door. A woman then steps out and says, "Oh, it's one of you guys. What can I do for you?"
The officer promptly responds with, "Uhh, Ma'am... Did you hear or see anything strange happen last night? We have a couple of reports of disturbances in the area, property damage..." The officer put his reading glasses on as he continued on with the list. While the officer was taking his sweet time, the woman let out a very disheartened sigh. "Possible suicide, impersonation of a school student, disturbance of the peace, and uhh…"
The woman furrowed her eyebrows. "Enough with the list, I get the picture. But err… Now that I think about it, there was someone screaming their lungs out last night, around midnight I believe? It was annoying, I was going to go out, but after hearing that blood-curdling screaming and the rumbling coming from across the street I decided not to." The officer nodded and then asked "Screaming and rumbling? That ties in with disturbance of the peace and err… Vandalism. How long did this last?" She responded with, "Err, about ten minutes or so? Not that long, but hearing it was like… Totally terrifying."
The officer then wrote something in his notebook then said, "Alright, thank you for your time Miss!" The woman then scoffed under her breath. "Damn cops…" She slammed the door, and the officer promptly walked away.
The officer then walked up to another officer in the alley next to the abandoned factory building, who was checking out the scene, and said, " So, sir, what do you think we're dealing with?" His eyes wandered to the 7 by 7-foot hole in the factory building wall. The senior officer responded with "Well, judging that most bricks are intact and only some have cracks, this must mean that this damage was done in only one of the three hits." "So... What does that mean sir?" The officer said. The senior officer put his hat back on and turned around to walk to his car. "It means that we're dealing with a high ranker..." He puts a cigarette in his mouth, opens his car door, and drives off, shaking his head in disapproval.
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Kiryu's Bedroom.
The air is still and the room is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. As the early dawn arrives and the sunlight starts to stream through the shutters, the sound of an alarm can be heard. 'Beep Beep!' The loud alarm disturbs the once still room with its call, and a hand reaches out to smash the snooze button. Kiryu's hand flails around in the general vicinity as his face is buried in his pillow, wishing he could catch a couple more z's. After a couple of seconds of his hand hitting the air, he finds his target and slams it with much force to ensure the snooze button is hit. But after a couple of seconds, he realizes the absence of the weight of the clock on his hands. He hears a loud thump on the ground and the sound of gears breaking. Kiryu lifts his head out of frustration and curiosity.
When he was getting up, it revealed his messy hair, the pinnacle of bed hair, and his shirt is absolutely drenched in sweat. But the most notable thing about his appearance is the tear marks under his eyes. As Kiryu pauses and looks around the floor of his room for his alarm clock that fell to the ground, his eyes notice some springs and gears rolling on the ground. Next to them, coincidentally enough, is the alarm with a slightly large indent on the top of it. As Kiryu sees this, still drowsy, he says, "Wow! I knew it was vintage, but I thought it would be stronger than that..."
He recovers the clock and sets it back up. He fiddles with the gear system, and with a stroke of luck, the clock starts working again. "Kudos to me!" He pumps his fist into the air, and he thought, "Actually… I could probably call the old man, and call in sick since he probably already knows about what happened to my bro by now, I think he would understand, right?"
Kiryu mulled this thought over for a while but then realized "Last night, someone was running away from me while I was on the ground... While I don't know if they saw my face or not, it would be really inconvenient if they came up to me and exposed me for attempting suicide, and disgracing our school… I'm totally gonna have to skip school… But my face was all bloody- Screw this, I gotta make sure. Only one way to do that..."
Kiryu reluctantly pushed himself up and started to walk towards his closet door to put on his school uniform. As he opened the door he saw hanging on a rack in the closet, his torn up uniform from last night. "I'll probably need to throw that away later." Kiryu thought as he reached for the torn up clothes, he heard a rumble his gut seems to be having a hissy fit because of his terribly unstable calorie intake. "But first, food… Sometimes I wish my stomach would be content..."
Kiryu thought as he quickly put his clothes on and rushed out of his room. As Kiryu made it to the living room, he saw that his sister's bag was missing. "Seriously, why does she insist on working so hard?! Her brother died yesterday, and she's still going to school. This woman..." He said as he clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Whatever! Maybe that's how she keeps her mind off things. Good for her."
The pain of Kiryu's hunger starts to intensify even more, and Kiryu starts to briskly walk to the kitchen and open the fridge. As he opened the fridge he saw that it was full, which was a bit of a surprise. "Well, at least I got some stuff to eat. Thank God at least I'm a little diligent." As Kiryu pulled out his phone to check the time, he realized it was eight A.M. "Shit, I'm late!" Kiryu grabbed some vegetables, frozen ham, and some bread and ran out the door to school.
He swiftly put his sandwich together and ate while on the move. He couldn't enjoy it, but at least it was something. As the time approached near 8:30, Kiryu finally got in front of the school building. As Kiryu stopped to catch his breath, he saw someone. A familiar face with yellow hair, and standing next to him was another familiar face with red hair. Kiryu ogled them, trying to catch his breath. At the same time, someone came up behind him. "Hey! K-Yu, my boy!" Kiryu turned around to see a tall skinny boy stretching.
Student- Beak! Level - 7.5
Power- Stone Skin! - He makes his skin turn into a stone-like material in looks and durability! Unfortunately, he can't move his fingers or toes in this state, and he can only change back and forth once every minute! Victory for him is only a stone's throw away!
School- Tamago High School!
Style- Manifestor!
Beak laid his hand on Kiryu's shoulder and said, "I never see you this early in the morning! Where have you been lately?! It's almost like you've been avoiding me!" "Ahh, n-no I would never, I just had a lot of school work to finish, y'know, as usual," Kiryu responded as Beak gripped his shoulder. "You seem a little tense."
Beak said, sounding worried. "Err, umm, I didn't get good sleep last night." Beak's face started to have a devilish smile creep across it. "Aww too bad! Here, let me help you stretch!" Before Kiryu knew it, Beak had already taken his hand off his shoulder and pulled it up to smack him in the back. As Kiryu turned over his shoulder to look at Beak's hand, it had already turned into a fist, and it was coming down to strike him. 'Bang!' Kiryu fell to the ground because of the hit to his back and started furiously coughing on the ground in front of him.
"Gak! Why does this hurt so much more than normal?!" Kiryu thought, still in extreme pain. As Kiryu looked up, on his hands and knees, still dazed from the impact he saw a foot coming towards his face, and a tooth fell out as he was flung two to three feet. "Shit, shit, shit, shit! This hurt so much more than ever before, ack..." Kiryu thought, terribly pained. "Was it because a tooth fell out? Shit… It hurts!'' Someone from the crowd around him stepped out and said, "Stop." As Kiryu looked to see who it was, he realized it was another familiar face; it was the blue-haired girl from the night before; the one that shot lightning. "Beak! As a pawn, you can't be making a scene in front of the school like this! Your job is to make sure people get to class. Understand?"
As she said this, Beak turned around really quickly to address her. "Ah, yes I forgot, I forgot! I was just teaching this cripple some respect you see, he bumped into me without saying sorry." He was madly scratching the back of his head, trying to avoid her rage. Tezza was surprised by the incessant schmoozing. "Cripple?" Tezza muttered. "Mhm, well... Do that on your own time, but don't get in the way of others." "Yes of course, sorry about that, I won't do it again!" Beak responded in an apologetic manner. After a second of silence, the late bell rang.
"Saved by the bell..." Beak said as he started to walk off. "They're all like that…" Kiryu thought as he got up off the ground and coughed up some blood from the lost tooth. Before he could get going, someone quickly flew past him. Kiryu initially looked up to say sorry, but when he saw Sheila walking very quickly to the building, he was too scared to say anything. He shut his mouth and stayed silent. As a couple of seconds passed he realized that she couldn't care less if she bumped into him or not. "Weird…. I wonder what she's up to." Kiryu muttered.