POV Folarin.
When I first met Diego, I was super excited. He was the hero I idolized my entire life. He was a man of character that always fought for the greater good of the people and never backed down in any situation. Even in his death, he refused to back down.
In my city, there are statues of him and the heroes of Team 11. Whenever I was in a tough situation, my first question was, "What would a man like him do?"
When I was bullied at school, I finally stood up to them. I always tried my best to imitate him. When I got drafted, I put all my efforts into becoming as strong and lethal as possible, and thanks to that, I even managed to get recognized and offered a mate for myself.
I was the best at the academy. Then I reached a top spot among the veteran soldiers. Everything was perfect until he was found to be infertile. Life was not the best, but I tried to make the best out of it. Then God appeared and changed my whole perception of the world.
It was thanks to his powers that I managed to meet Diego, but when that happened, I was kind of disappointed. What I saw was neither a heroic figure nor a tragic man who strived to be the best of himself. No, what I resurrected with my own hands was something much more terrifying. He was just a cold-blooded killer with the mask of a human.
He doesn't seem to act out of a sense of justice. Although I talked to him a few times, I never really had the opportunity to see what he thinks like and we never really discussed important stuff. Moreover, he seems oddly detached from reality. He never bothered to learn what happened after his death after the superficial conversation we had on the first day, nor did he ask about his many acquaintances and their descendants.
'It's a lot different from all the possibilities I had imagined. He doesn't even suffer from PTSD and with the kind of life he lived, that's a miracle.'
Forren, on the other hand, is a lot more human in the way he expresses himself. He seems gentle, although he's obviously not the smartest tool in the shed.
"I'm bored." Said Satsui while opening yet another package of milk bread.
Yesterday Instead of cooking alone, I decided to include everyone in the process and make some pizza. For some reason, during that time, Satsui decided to check the bread section while gathering the ingredients for his own pizza, and then he returned with tons and tons of milk bread packages. At first, he was trying all kinds of milk bread, but then he finally realized which kind was his favorite one. They were of a very specific brand and were small and thin.
He had at least another dozen packs of that bread in his room, and at the moment he was carrying four packs. One of them had been emptied recently.
"Then maybe you should do something other than stuff your stomach with trash all day long." I said.
He didn't listen to a word I just said and stuffed his mouth once more.
We were watching some more survival guides to prepare ourselves for what we were about to face.
"I wonder what Diego is doing." Said Satsui, mimicking the voice and attitude of a woman.
"Wow, that was eye-opening." I commented.
"Aww, don't take it too seriously though. Anyway, I'm tired of hearing bullshit, so I might as well go swim a bit to relax my nerves. " He said this before stuffing his face with the last three milk bread pieces in the bag.
"You could've at least offered me some before finishing that."
"I thought vegans didn't eat this sort of stuff." He said with a puzzled expression on his face.
'Wow, you even know what a vegan is.' I thought, but then I remembered his brother 'No, someone must have told him and he probably searched for what a vegan is.'
"I'm not a vegan though."
"What?" This revelation almost choked him.
"I do enjoy vegetables a lot, but I'm not a vegan."
He then opened yet another bag of bread.
"But... Forren told me... How come you don't like meat?"
I sighed before answering.
"Eating meat is a luxury on my planet, so it was rare for me to eat it. I'm already used to eating meat only on big occasions, plus eating three months' worth of bland, tasteless chunks of meat does not help when it comes—"
"Hey! Catch!" He gave me exactly one loaf of milk bread.
"Relax, no need to be overly cautious about something we have already successfully achieved." He said before getting up.
"And even in case something goes wrong, our gracious Folarin will be there to fix it." He then gave me a thumbs-up.
Then suddenly, Valis bolted out of a nearby room, kicking the door wider open and making a grand entrance by freezing the ground she walked on.
She was wearing a lovely blue shirt with some cool cartoon characters that were punching each other while wearing black leggings.
She walked in front of us, made a small pirouette, and posed in front of us. I noticed she had cut her hair so that it now reached her shoulders rather than her hips.
"The protagonists are here." She said this while making a V sign with both her hands.
From the same room, Tsuitame also came out. He was covering his head with his hands in shame.
He was wearing golden accessories such as thick rings, bracelets, and a black veil that covered his mouth that was tied up to his head with a golden string. As for the clothes, he only had pants on.
'It doesn't match all that well with his gray fur, but at least that's not the worst thing he could wear.'
Speaking of his fur, today it was surprisingly clean. Not only was it spotless, but it also seemed much softer than usual.
"So, how much would you rate us out of ten?" She said this with complete confidence in herself.
"I'd say seven out of ten." said Satsui.
"I've taken a lot of points off for the choice of pants." He said, gesturing at Tsuitame to turn around.
"How could you?"
"It's just too vulgar for my tastes." he explained while throwing the milk bread at her.
But Valis was able to catch the bread and started eating it.
"Then what about you, Folarin?"
'It's cute and all, but it's not jaw-dropping, so it would say…'
"Seven out of ten as well." I didn't want to be mean and give her a lower score than what Satsui had given her, so I decided to simply match his answer.
"At least my new hairstyle is cuter than before, right?"
Satsui gave a quick glance at Tsuitame, got up, and said. "I don't know." before heading out.
While on his way outside, he met Diego and Forren, who were both returning from their sparring session. They were completely drenched, so my best guess is that they swam a bit before returning.
Forren was carrying a passed-out Diego on his back.
"Yo!" He said while heading towards the stairs.
"Forren, Forren, what do you think of our new look?"
He stood silent for a moment, looking at both of them, and then said.
"It's not bad, Tsuitame could have been a lot better, but it's a refreshing change nonetheless."
The next question was a no-brainer.
"So how would you rate us?" She said, while tightly hugging Tsuitame.
Satsui was certainly enjoying the attention Valis was giving him; his tail was constantly wagging. But he was a bit awkward in his motions. He wanted to hug her back, but he seemed a bit hesitant to do so.
'How cute.'
"I'd say about... seven out of ten?"
After hugging Tsuitame, she then started digging her hands into his fur. He seemed a bit uncomfortable.
"It's so soft." She muttered.
"Well... Give me a moment and I'll start preparing lunch."
He returned after dropping Diego, drying his body and changing clothes.
In the meantime, Satsui went to change himself and decided to wear his normal attire, which was composed of a white hoodie and gray sweatpants.
When Forren returned, he was wearing a tight blue shirt paired with some very large black shorts.
"Hey I got an idea yesterday." Said Valis to Forren while he was cleaning some lettuce.
"What is it."
"Can't we dine outside today? all around a fire camp preferably. "
"Sure, if you convince the others as well, we'll dine around a firecamp!"
"Yay!"
Then she immediately turned around.
'Oh now.'
"Folyyyyyyyyy!"
I immediately gave in. I didn't want her to bother me for the rest of the day. Of course, Tsuitame gave in immediately, as the simp he is. Satsui was the only one who didn't want to eat outside.
The reasoning was that he hated insects, but in the end he gave up. So it was decided that at night we would all dine around a fire camp.
POV Forren. (that night.)
Everyone was happy until then. After Folarin proposed that idea, we all fell silent.
That one moment was enough to tell me none of us had a pleasant past, not even the cheerful Valis.
Valis put her head to rest on Tsuitame's legs, and he began gently caressing her head, so he decided he would be the one to tell his story first.
Satsui and Tsuitame were of noble bloodline back on their planet. Satsui was to be the inheritor of the clan while his brother was supposed to become the clan's greatest weapon against the invaders, but Satsui didn't want that destiny for his brother, so he chose to become himself their clan's biggest weapon.
Satsui told us about soul weapons and the unique traits of his race. Then he told us about the conflict they had with the alien race that was trying to enslave them and use them as weapons. The war up to his brother's death. Then he stopped talking.
His eyes were filled with rage, his fists clenched, and I could feel his weird aura running rampant in his body. Then everything stopped all at once, and he decided that it was enough for today. So Valis stepped in.
The Valis and Folarin stories needed a bit of context to be fully understood. The main premise was that their bodies cannot handle all the mana they are capable of producing, so they need a male to be the container for all that energy since apparently the males of that species are incapable of producing mana. Since humans as well can't produce mana, it was easy to use them as substitutes.
Valis was a powerful variant no male could handle, and was executed before her powers could go rogue. She had a pretty normal childhood with a childhood crush that then died under the pressure of her own powers when she was seventeen.
As soon as he heard this, Tsuitame assured her that the amount of power she stored in him was nowhere near enough to harm him, and even if it could, he could easily use it to create more aura for himself.
When Folarin was born, the population of males had drastically decreased because a lot of humans couldn't handle much mana. The newborns could, but the ratio of male to female newborns was terribly skewed against the males. Having a male mate became a luxury only those who were deemed useful to society had access to.
When hearing their stories, a thought came into my mind.
'I was right that time.'
When it was our turn to talk, I remained silent.
Our past was not something we were proud of; we were just tools of war. We never really had a mother figure or a father figure; we didn't have any names for ourselves. Our childhood mostly consisted of us idly waiting in our rooms waiting for the moment they would call us and make us test some weapons, or they would test some weapons, drugs, or poison on us.
I remember sticking out like a sore thumb among all my brothers. They were all cool and unique. From the B line and upwards, we all had distinctive physical features that clearly showed that we were not human, whether they were horns, tails, scales, claws, eyes, some could even walk on all fours.
I had an ability, and my specialty was regeneration. Because of that, I grew up in a separate zone, a zone where they put most of the irregularities as well as the dysfunctionals. Seeing someone die was something I grew accustomed to, mostly because the variants wouldn't age past 10 years, and if they did, then that meant that they were something worth investing in.
Unfortunately, my body was not stable and I had trouble digesting food. I was destined to die in a corner if it wasn't for Diego.
He was also an irregularity, and his body was probably the most unstable one I saw. His power allowed him to rebuild his body upon dying. He was clearly the most interesting one for the scientists, as they often took his body to do experiments elsewhere.
He always had a high fever and was the one other kids were afraid of the most, so one day I simply climbed onto his bunk bed and lay there with him. We didn't talk. We just suffered in silence, with our backs against each other's.
From then on, we grew up to be each other's biggest shield. It was the whole world against us.
Diego then began talking.
"Our childhood huh… It was awful. We weren't treated as humans for the most part. I was the exception to the rule."
They all seemed interested. They all stopped eating. Their gaze was all on Diego.
"Since I could escape with no problems and I could even kill whoever was sent to capture me with ease, they had decided to start teaching me human values and try to influence me with their stupid propaganda."
"But I had the support of my mother, and thanks to her, they weren't able to brainwash me."
'What?'
"Your mother?" repeated Folarin, shocked.
"So a scientist helped you?" Valis tried to specify.
"No, I mean my real mother. Even if she was barely conscious at the time, I remember clearly hearing her voice in my head. She would often sing me a lullaby or tell me fantasy stories to help me sleep through the pain."
I remembered him saying something about his mother when we were younger, but I didn't think he could actually hear her voice.
"She was the one who taught me how to use my powers as well as who to choose among all my brothers who could be trusted and who couldn't."
The two wolves didn't seem to understand the situation, so Valis started explaining to them what he meant and also explained who me and Diego were.
"When we became adults, they decided to start selling us as weapons, so in return we destroyed the entire facility and made sure to destroy any and all of those facilities as well as clean any data. We burned away the result of two centuries of research in about five years."
"How can you be so sure?" Asked by Valis.
"We're not completely sure, but they can't produce anything without the ovaries of my mother, so at least I stopped the production." Diego said with confidence.
"You already know what happened afterwards, so I won't repeat myself."
What broke the silence afterwards was a whale jumping out of the water. It was massive and majestic, and all the water around it would shine.
"This world really is something else."
Diego said in awe.