"April..." Don muttered as he watched her body slowly descend to the ground. His eyes honing on her ultimately. He could feel a burning sensation in his chest, a gut-wrenching disturbance in his stomach, and the rapid beating of his own heart. He could hear the flow of his own blood and the rapid beating of his heart. Everything around him seemed to begin to slow down.
'April.' Don muttered internally. Disbelief in his voice.
Vivid visions of his time spent with April would fill his mind from when they first met when he saved her from a group of grade school bullies. Her expression was wary at first but later became trusting. She began following him around and even after school the day he saved her. He knew she was following him but never said anything until she approached him of her free will.
It was when he was sitting alone at lunchtime eating a lunch that Rebecca had packed for him. She asked his name, and he gave it to her. She decided to sit and have lunch with him. Don didn't seem to care, nor did he mind. In fact, he didn't seem to care about a lot of things.
What Don didn't realize was that day would be what changed him forever. Don didn't realize just how pure she was. Just how warm she was or even how bright she was. Don didn't know anything would come of simply letting her eat at a table beside him.
April continued hanging out around Don and having lunch with him. If she had any questions about schoolwork, she would ask, and Don would help her. Eventually, Don even began to protect her from bullies and wild animals. There was even a time April was about to be hit by a car while taking the crosswalk. Don saved her by tackling her out of the way of the speeding car.
As they continued to spend time together, Don steadily began to trust her without even knowing it. Even if they lived separately, Don and April spent many years together. Even though Don was a few grades ahead of April, they would still hang out. They went to arcades, movies, festivals even carnivals. They spent a lot of time together.
April was slowly changing Don without him knowing. April was showing Don that the world wasn't filled with filth. That there was still hope and light in the world. April was living proof of this, Don could not see this at first, but as time passed, he realized just how pure April was.
Eventually, April confessed her feelings to him. Don didn't know what to make of it, so he brushed it aside. No one had ever said "I love you" to him before. Although, April wasn't going to give up so easily. She knew Don was different. She could tell that he wasn't like other boys or men. So maybe, Don didn't know what 'love' was. After all, April never got an answer from him about his family.
Don just had a different air around him than most others, but what Don didn't see was that April saw something inside him that he never saw. When she finally opened his eyes, he felt relieved. He felt joyful. He felt that he could open up to her more. There was no more doubt in his mind. That day in the shower was the first day he ever felt so peaceful in his life, but now...
It was gone.
These flashbacks flooded his mind like water breaking through a dam. April's smile continued to be the thing he saw over and over. All the way up until the present day. The promise he made to her and the vow he made to himself. The last thing he remembered was April's smile before he felt something crack and shatter. Something inside of him broke. Deep inside his heart was a Seed. The shell slowly began to break open, and a strand of light would flourish from the Seed.
"I see..." Don muttered as he listened to the man speak about how he didn't plan for April to die and that he was just going to knock him out.
"Is that so..." Don added to the man's remark about how he would kill those who ruined the mood.
"Then..."
"You don't mind if I slit your throat, do you?" Don added after a brief pause.
Don's mind shut down.
No feelings came to him.
He wasn't pissed or happy.
He wasn't sad or disgusted.
Don was feeling nothing.
Pure emptiness.
Everything around him seemed to stop. Nothing made a sound. The light in his eyes was void. Blank, just like the days when he lived with his trainer. His dead brown eyes looked around to see everything in grayscale. It was as if time itself had completely stopped. Don flicked the wrist of his right hand, and his hidden blade came out. He ran his finger slowly along the blade's edge before letting his arms fall back to his side.
Don nonchalantly walked towards the man who was simply in a stand-still motion. Once Don was in front of the man, he swung the hidden blade for the man's neck and then sheath the blade with a wrist flick. The man seemed to have jumped back just in time for his throat not to be sliced open. Though the blade still nicked the man.
Don just stood there, lifeless.
"What the hell!?" The man groaned as the wound on his neck began to heal. His eyes looked all over the place upon Don's person. He was looking for any sort of blade. The man only saw Don had a combat knife sheathed.
'But then when did he draw it?' The man muttered internally.
'No, how did he even get in front of me?!' The man corrected his internal thought.
"Teleportation?!" The man exclaimed.
He blinked once before seeing Don in front of him again. "Shit!" The man shouted as he tried to jump back. The man did jump back but felt a sharp pain in his gut. The man looked down to see his stomach had been pierced by a blade which caused him to wince in pain.
"What the hell!?" The man exclaimed once more as his wound slowly closed up.
The man looked from his wound upward only to see Don in front of him again. This time the man tossed a fist forward instead of retreating. "Fuck it! Fine! Let's go!" The man shouted in a battle cry.
Although, something felt off. As the man swung, it looked like his arm went through Don. He continued the flurry of attacks, which looked like he was punching a ghost.
In Don's eyes, the man's movements were sluggish. It felt like an eternity before the man's fists even reached him. He evaded the attack, then another and another. To Don, time itself seemed endless and incompressible. What were seconds felt like hours, and what were minutes felt like days.
Finally, Don flicked his wrist to bring out the hidden blade and thrust it into the man's throat. The blade tip pierced through the man's throat, but before it could go through, the man seemed to have vanished for a split second and reappeared a reasonable distance away. A girl with a black leather jacket, shorts, thigh-high boots, and black hair in a ponytail looked at Don with a narrowed glance. Don held no expression as he looked over the woman. He saw the second half of the necklace dangling around her neck.
"I see..." Don muttered to himself, his voice void of all life.
"Are you okay, babe!?" The woman exclaimed as she looked at the man trying to catch his breath. She saw a nick at his throat, which closed up quickly. Her eyes would grow wide when she saw the wound in his gut. "What's going on here?" She asked with worry in her voice.
"I don't fucking know! We were brawling, but he never used his power. So I was going to knock him out. I threatened to kill him to see if his power would awaken, but nothing! Then our stupid fucking goons fired at his girl without my command, and now we are here!" The man exclaimed with a quick rundown. The woman looked towards the bike to see April lying on the ground, then back towards Don, who was just standing there.
"At least I made it in time." The woman remarked. Her eyes looked over the hidden blade that Don had yet to retract. Her eyes went wide when she heard gunfire go off and saw that Don was still standing.
"What the fuck!?" One of the snipers remarked.
"How the hell!?" Another exclaimed.
"Is this guy even human..." A third muttered.
"Who the hell is this guy!?" A fourth remarked.
"Hey, you! Is that your power or something?" The woman called out to Don.
"It's unfair..." Don replied, which caused the woman's brow to rise. "What?" The man remarked.
Don pointed at them.
"I should repay the debt. As you have taken from me..."
Don's body appeared in front of them as if he had teleported. His speech paused for a split second.
"..I will take from you." Don slammed the hidden blade on the woman's stomach.
The man's reaction time was extraordinary since he could push the woman out of the way and take the blade into his arm. The woman grasped the man's arm and teleported away again, but Don was right behind them as they appeared. Don thrust the hidden blade into the woman's collarbone, which caused her to cry out in pain. This caused their attention to shift behind them. Don removed the blade while looking at them.
"How..?" The woman muttered weakly as they looked at Don, who stood there lifelessly.
In Don's perception, their teleport was more like them rapidly moving. As if they were running at high speed. However, Don could just walk beside them the entire time and then walk behind them the moment they stopped. That was how he appeared behind them.
"Wait! Take me instead!" The man exclaimed in front of Don, which caught the woman's attention. "I am the reason your girl died, right? So kill me and spare her, please!" The man plead. As if his earlier bravery and cocky nature were nothing more than a front. "Ion..." The woman muttered. She could not move. The pain from the wound was too great.
Sadly, even for the pleas the man had. Don had no pity, no remorse, no guilt. He felt nothing at this moment. Everything was empty. He was merely going to take from the man as the man took from him.
After that... Don had planned to kill the man. So, the man's plea meant nothing to him.
Don's body vanished from the man's sight. When the man, Ion, heard a grunt coming from behind him, he turned to see that Don had picked up the woman by the throat and lifted her off the ground. Don even created a decent distance between him and Ion.
"No!" Ion shouted as Don was preparing to thrust the hidden blade through the woman's neck. Of course, the woman was fighting it by hitting Don and kicking him, but it felt like her attacks were hitting nothing except air. Just like how Ion's fists phased through Don.
"Stop..." A weak voice called from a distance, which caused Don to hesitate.
"This isn't you..." The voice called out again.
"You are not..." There was a pause. "...heartless..." It continued.
Ion, the woman, and Don shifted their eyes toward April, who was reaching out toward Don weakly.
Seeing that April was alive and hearing her voice illuminated his eyes. While everything was in grayscale, April's appearance was the only thing that had color. The color slowly illuminated the grayscale in Don's vision, and slowly Don's perception of time returned to normal.
"April..." Don remarked with a faint sign of life in his voice.
"Yes..." April nodded softly with a gentle smile.
Don dropped the woman and hastily moved towards April.
Ion raced towards the woman.
The two passed each other, but only Ion looked at Don for a moment to see that he could comprehend Don's movements before looking at the woman.
"Jessica!" Ion shouted as he slid into a dash beside the woman. The woman, Jessica, looked up at Ion with a smirk. "Hey, babe... can you heal me?" The woman questioned, and Ion nodded. Without another word, he pressed his lips to Jessica's, and slowly the woman's wounds began to close up.
Don squatted down beside April and pulled her into his frame. He looked over her body and saw that the bullets had grazed her. Sure she was bleeding, but she wasn't dead. If that was the case, then why did she pass out?
For now, Don was only concerned about her safety and mortal well-being. "You are alive, right? This isn't a dream, right? You are here, right?" Don was asking hastily. Emotion filled his tone of voice.
Hope was there.
He was latching onto April as if she were the only thing keeping him together. April brought a hand to Don's check and smiled softly. "I am fine. I just hit my head pretty hard, is all. Don't worry." April remarked. Don noticed some blood coming from the side of her head.
"I am just glad that my voice can still reach you." April commented with a bright smile. Instantly tears began to flood Don's face in silence. He held April close, but not enough to cause any injury. "Haha... what's wrong? It's not like you show soo much affection..." April tried to tease him.
"I thought I lost you." Don muttered through his sobs.
"Who, me? I am a tough girl. Besides, I am not going anywhere." April replied softly with brief pauses.
"Say... while I enjoy being embraced... You are kind of crushing me..." April remarked, which caused Don to release her slowly. He then scooped her into his arms with a princess carry.
"I got both of them in my sight. Tell me when Boss." A voice came over an earpiece in Ion's ear.
"Idiot!" Ion shouted.
"Stand down! Do not fire! I swear to god, if any of you fire upon those two, I will rip out your fucking hearts!" Ion swore and shouted as if there would be no tomorrow.
This attracted Don's attention. The light that was in his eyes started to lessen. April could see it and reached to caress his cheek gently to get his attention. When Don looked at her, she would shake her head. "They surrendered. I am alive. Everything is okay. So... let's just go home, okay?" April suggested softly.
Don turned from them and moved towards his bike. He straddled the bike and allowed April to sit on his lap. She would hug him as tightly as possible while Don started up the ignition, then revved the bike before shifting the clutch and driving off to the base.
Ion would watch them race off, and he would release a heavy breath when they were off into the distance. He looked at Jessica, who was just as exhausted as he was. "I didn't think that would happen..." Ion remarked. "Neither did I. The others were good at fighting but had yet to awaken to their powers. However, what was that?" Jessica asked Ion. Ion helped Jessica to her feet.
"I do not know. It was as if I was fighting a ghost." Ion answered.
"Before that, we were on equal footing. He was even able to endure me using my Limiter Release power. The only reason I won was that I also have the Hyper-Regeneration power. But.... whatever that was... I could not say." Ion added with a shake of his head.
"You mean like those things in the sewers?" Jessica asked, and Ion shook his head.
"No. Those things can be dealt with by burning them. This was different. It was almost as if he did not exist... and yet..." Ion rubbed his throat before rubbing his stomach. Both wounds had closed up, but he could still feel the numbing pain.
"Do you think his power evolved, like mine?" Jessica inquired as she massaged her collarbone. The wound was also closed up, but she could still feel the stinging pain.
"I do not know. Honestly, I do not think I want to know. All I know is that whoever tries to harm that woman will never see the light of day." Ion replied. He learned something new. That Don wasn't like anyone he had come across. He learned that Don was not someone you wanted to mess with. He learned that he should not approach Don or his group without caution.
"Sooo... are we not going to recruit them?" Jessica asked. Sure, Don nearly killed her, but if Don wasn't going to kill them, there was still a chance to get Don on their side, right?
"Right now, I do not know. Let's head back to base, then go over a plan." Ion remarked, and Jessica nodded before taking hold of Ion. White light illuminated Ion and her, and when it diminished, they were gone.
"Umm..." one of the snipers muttered.
"What are we suppose to do?" Another asked.
"Do you think we should return to base as well?" A third inquired.
"Do you really want to? Boss may kill us. We should let him cool down." The fourth stated.
All of them were talking through a communication device. They all seemed to agree on delaying their return, and instead, they decided to do a bit of scouting and maybe hunt some bugs and whatnot. No one even tried to track down or follow Don and April. In fact, they had the impression that they would most likely end up dead if they did, which is why they decided to hunt some bugs to pass the time.