Chapter 18 - A Fake Smile

Right as the crowd is about to attack the trio, Tommy starts emitting tons of dark binding energy.

"Forget attacking military personnel that are in-charge of your own safety and the peace of this planet… Weren't you the same old people that had a hand in the elimination of all Pryers… Including the innocent ones… So tell me… Why shouldn't I kill all of you right where you stand?" Tommy says with a creepy smirk on his face.

As the dark binding energy continues to radiate from his body, it is as if the crowd and the rest of the trio could feel the sky go dark itself. Tommy's mere presence at this very moment was beyond suffocating for anyone to be able to withstand. Even so, Takeda stood up for everyone and put his hand on Tommy's shoulder to give him the few words of wisdom he currently needed the most.

"Because that's not what heroes do…" Takeda tries his best to be as loud as possible in order to speak up to Tommy.

Upon hearing Takeda's words, the creepy smirk on Tommy's face turns into the same old dead and depressed face he had before upon realizing what he was going to do. In mere moments, the intense dark aura surrounding Tommy had subsided. Momentarily, everyone's breath was stabilized once again yet the fear for their life from what radiated from inside Tommy that had seeped in through their hearts hadn't faded just yet.

The raging fear fled the masses away from the trio. While convenient, this wasn't what Tommy had wanted. Realizing what he was about to do, Tommy falls to the ground on his knees, grabbing his head as if he had reached a breaking point. While desperately trying to collect the mangled pieces of his very being in the heat of the moment before someone could catch him astray at his weakest, a punch from the frail young girl that was about to be sacrificed, hits Tommy from below his face.

"Why did you and the other two stupid military companions have to get in the way of the safety of the ones I love?! What good do you think you can do after being the very perpetrators of the genocide you mentioned earlier!?" The young girl, not much younger than Tommy, exclaimed as loudly as she could even in the face of the fear Tommy had instilled in her and the crowd.

While the punch didn't hurt Tommy at all, it did make him fall on his back. It was as if time had slowed down for him. In these moments, he looked up at the blue skies from his position on the ground, contemplating on what the girl had just said.

"Maybe she is right… Some hero I am… I was about to do the very same thing I had been critical of earlier… The way the military always handles things… The thing I vowed to change when I joined the military… To not let a conflict shut down any unheard voice ever… So why did I… I…" The last of thoughts rushed through Tommy's head before he had been completely blacked out.

When everything was over, an old man came running to the trio. After panting a good bit, he shook Takeda's hand with both of his hands with tears in his eyes as he continued to say, "Thank you for stopping the facade of the village. My granddaughter is in her rebellious phase and when this so-called 'God' dropped his message onto us, I refused to believe that God would ask for such an act of malevolence. After a lot of infighting, my granddaughter boldly came through to them and asked them to be the sacrifice. I could neither convince her or the villagers to stop… I owe you so much for saving her life…"

"It's fine, old man. We're just peacekeepers. We didn't take this post to get a bunch of thanks. I think you should head home and ground your little girl. It's illegal to hit a military personnel like that regardless of what they may say. It's only going to hurt her case, granted we aren't taking her to court or anything, she's too little for that and we aren't that petty. I suggest you leave now." Takeda speaks up to the old man as if he were annoyed but doesn't know why himself.

"Well, I still want to do something for you guys. I have a pretty huge mansion to my name and I can get you some great meals if you come with me." The old man continues.

"Mr. Takeda… The military office here got burnt down, I think it'll be a good idea to just go with the gramps over there. Plus we could eat something that isn't food scraps…" Oli whispers to Takeda before he could refuse the old man's offer.

Upon taking Oli and Tommy's sakes into consideration, Takeda accepts the offer from the old man. After lifting the unconscious Tommy on his back, the trio leave for the old man's house immediately.

At the old man's house…

"The war was really gruesome… As a child, I used to be friends with so many of the Pryer kind… As I grew, our parents distanced us from each other… Even so, me and my Pryer friends, as we grew up, decided to live in the same neighborhood… That was until the war got here… And they were shot down on sight… It was truly a regretful sight… Annihilation of an entire race… People no one would ever see again… The horrors still-" The old man says to Takeda while having a cup of tea but gets interrupted by his own headache upon remembering the hideous sights he had to withstand years prior.

"Woah there old man, try not to think such things over, it ain't a healthy idea for someone your age." Takeda speaks back to the old man while patting his back to help him feel more comfortable.

"I'll be fine Mr. Takeda. I think you should be more concerned about the boy. He hasn't woken up in quite a few hours." The old man replies to Takeda's concerns.

"Why do you care, grandpa? These people barged in so suddenly and now the entire planet's population could be doomed thanks to them interrupting the sacrifice. These military freaks think for no one else but themselves…" The old man's granddaughter furiously interrupts the conversation upon hearing her grandfather have concern for Tommy.

"That's rude Lisa. You should apologize to them, they're here to help us." The old man speaks up to his granddaughter Lisa but she simply leaves the room and shuts the door loudly.

"Sorry about that… She is a really sweet girl but ever since her parents died in an attack from the Pryer ghosts a year ago, she hasn't really been her normal self… She's taking too much of a toll now…" The old man speaks to Takeda in a sad tone of voice.

"It's fine. She's just a kid. I can't blame her for being this way considering the situation at hand." Takeda replies with a smile.

Meanwhile, in the room Tommy is resting in…

Tommy's eyes start to open again. Sitting next to Tommy was his little brother Oli who was reading a book about Pryer lore. Upon seeing Tommy wake up, a huge smile hits his face which he follows up with a tight hug for his brother as he exclaims, "You finally woke up big bro!"

"Where am I…? And how long was I unconscious Oli?" Tommy asks with a faint tone of voice.

"About 3-ish hours. But I'm glad you're up. It was getting really boring. They don't have a single working television on this planet. The attacks nearly destroyed all signal towers here but the books are really interesting!" Oli explains the situation to Tommy with a light expression, so as to not overwhelm him.

"I see." Tommy nonchalantly replies with the same dead expression in his eyes from the past few days.

Just then, the sliding door on the side opens up and a maid at the mansion greets Tommy with a bow and says, "I see you're awake sir. My name is Jane. I really want to thank you for saving the master's granddaughter today. She may have come off as rude but she's a really sweet girl once you get to know her… Anyways, would you like something to eat or drink?"

"It's alright… I don't do this for gratitude… And No, I'm fine, thanks though. And you don't have to call me Sir, Ms. Jane. It just feels odd being addressed so formally by an adult. Just calling me Tommy would be fine." Tommy replies to the maid Jane with a bow himself.

"Oh my, you're quite well mannered young master Tommy. Are you sure you don't want something to eat?" Jane replies to Tommy with an impressed expression.

"Yeah-" Tommy continues but his stomach spills the beans about how hungry he is.

"It's not good for a growing boy to not eat. I'll get you something." Jane bows yet again as she leaves the room to get Tommy something to eat while Tommy is left with an embarrassed expression.

"She's really good at cooking big bro, you should try one of the cakes she makes for dessert." Oli barges in by grabbing Tommy by the shoulder and Tommy simply gently smiles back and nods slightly.

With Jane taking quite some time to return to the room, Tommy and Oli decide to head to the kitchen themselves, only to hear the cries of a little baby down the hallway. Taking a few steps further, they see Jane being occupied due to also taking care of a child while doing her work at the kitchen.

Upon seeing the two enter the kitchen, with an awkward expression, Jane bows slightly and says, "I'm so sorry. My little son right here suddenly started crying and I got so occupied in taking care of him that I couldn't get the time to prepare something to eat for you."

"It's fine! Family is important, I get it. I don't throw tantrums over stuff like that. Here, can I have the baby for a second?" Tommy replies with the blue in his eyes momentarily returning as the dead expression he had until now, starts to fade upon seeing a little baby in front of him.

"Oh you don't have to Tommy. It's my problem after all!" Jane replies, but Tommy continues saying, "Oh come on, I'll be glad to help out. I don't really like others doing all my work. I wasn't really raised that way. And besides, I like helping."

Upon taking the baby from Jane, she bows yet again with an awkward smile as she returns to prepare something to eat for Tommy. Much to her surprise, her son immediately stops crying upon Tommy holding him. With a gentle smile pointed towards the baby, Tommy starts singing the lullaby his mother once sang for him when he was little. His voice was quite melodic and pleasant to hear even for Jane and Oli. As soon as the baby fell asleep, an impressed Jane then put a cake on the table while taking her son back into her arms.

"Thank you so much Tommy. I didn't expect you to be such a good singer. Please eat, I'll handle the baby for now!" Jane speaks up to Tommy with a pleasant smile.

As soon as she leaves, even Oli claims that he was really surprised at how good his big brother was at singing.

Meanwhile, Lisa, who had just come out of her room, sees Jane holding her son fast asleep and is surprised how easily he had slept today. Upon seeing that, Lisa asks, "Woah, how did you manage to handle him so easily today?"

"Oh, it's all thanks to that charming little boy Tommy. He is such a sweet boy. Why don't you go make friends with him and his little brother who is exactly your age too?" Jane replies with a smile.

"No thanks. No matter what they do, they can't make amends for how much of the planet they've doomed today." Lisa replies with an annoyed expression as she continues to walk down the hallway while Jane is left frowning at her hostility towards the boys.

As Lisa continues to walk down the hallway, she finally comes across the kitchen, where the boys were eating what Jane had prepared for them. Laying her back at the door frame with her arms folded, she spoke up to Tommy saying, "Don't get too comfortable just because you know how to make kids sleep. Thanks to you, the entire planet is going to be put to sleep in no time. I hope you leave this place as soon as possible. It's nauseating to even look at your face and quite frankly, I don't ever want to see it again. I am only seeing it to confront you so that our planet regains the small chance it even has at surviving."

"Don't be so rude… We are only here to help…" Oli replies to Lisa with a weak tone of voice while Lisa simply screams, "OH BE A MAN! NO MAN SHOULD BE TALKING IN SUCH A FAINT TONE OF VOICE! HAVE YOU GOT NO SHAME!?"

"Relax…" Tommy shows up with his face looking down at Lisa, right in front of her, within the blink of an eye with a scary yet dead expression once again.

As Tommy continues to speak, he moves his face up so light can peer onto it as if it were cinematically shaded.

"I get it. You're angry. You're scared. And what I said earlier to the crowd was wrong. But I had to get things done. Even so, I apologize for what I said or was about to do there. There's no escaping reality. However, my little brother Oli and Mr. Takeda had nothing to do with what's making you so angry. Throwing tantrums isn't going to solve anything y'know." Tommy replies to Lisa in a calm yet dead tone of voice.

"You say that as if you know anything about what we've been through here… Do you know how much we've had to put up with since the start of these attacks…? How much desperate action we had to take to even get to the safety we're at…? If it weren't for the almighty in the heavens above, a lot more of us would be toast…" Lisa replies to Tommy in a cranky and condescending tone of voice.

Upon hearing what Lisa had to say, Tommy's eyebrows twitch for a moment and his pupils get shorter upon a grave realization and utter shock. Turning his face back, he continued, "I may have apologized but I disagree when you say that it was stopping the sacrifice that doomed the planet. If anything, it saved you from early death. Don't you guys believe that God has a big plan for us or something and that things happen for a reason? Maybe you should use that thick skull of yours to thank him. Maybe you weren't the one meant to die today."

"What are you implying…? That I am not a worthy sacrifice to save this planet…?" Lisa replied to Tommy with a ferocious look in her eyes while her teeth were gritting, an expression reminiscent of a wild tiger in the woods.

"Oh my, such a scary look. Maybe if you used your strength in using your capacity to think instead of using it to look like a muscle-only tigress, you'd be able to figure out how odd it is that a God would be so cruel and ask for sacrifices in the first place. A being so powerful he could create and destroy anything wouldn't need the help of someone as weak as humans right? Heck, what parent kills his own children? Would your parents have done that? Don't you see it? It's all a hoax.

Some human-hating freak, probably from the days of the war, is trying to kill off the people of the planet by hunting down all the younger ones. Then all the planet would be left with is decrepit old people incapable of having children, slowly left to die in a barren wasteland. But of course, you're too blinded by your love of God that you can't even think straight. You forget the fact that why a being spoken to be so generous would ask for such ridiculous sacrifices." Tommy continues to explain to Lisa the grander picture with shade all over his near invisible-in-the-shadows eyes.

Upon hearing all this, Lisa is left startled and grabs her own head, only to scream, "YOU'RE LYING!!!"

"Am I really? Seems to me that you're lying to yourself. To be in a comfortable lie that some God is actually going to save your people. Guess what, you're supporting this 'God' in killing off your own people directly by handing yourself in. Otherwise, if you were smart, you'd try to get to the bottom of the whole thing. If you believed your God is so good, you would've never been part of this hoax from the START.

Seems to me that the girl claiming to be strong is nothing but someone who still believes in fairy tales. Guess I wouldn't be shocked that even God has come down to bribes after leaving his so-called creations for so long and letting so many die. I guess he was never so great to begin with. Heck, maybe he's not even real! If he was, he wouldn't let something like this happen! Heck if YOU were REAL, you wouldn't let this happen!

Didn't you take the initiative to sacrifice yourself to save the others? Then what about the sacrifices before you. Why didn't you sacrifice yourself BEFORE them?

Seems to me like someone is running away from her problems. Finding a means to a quick end. Heck, you don't even know whether this would guarantee the safety of your grandfather. Even if he does live, what point would he have in living if you're gone? Everything would be taken away from him all thanks to you being foolish. This 'God' just seems like an average crook to me. I think I wanna beat him up!" Tommy continues talking to Lisa as his speech gets more and more condescending until he says the very last words.

Upon hearing the last few words, the fury within Lisa's head clogged her entire sanity and ability to think for an instant as her legs automatically took a leap forward to attack Tommy and jumped on top of him, ultimately smacking him onto the ground yet not even hurting him one bit.

Tommy simply laid down on the ground with his dark and stoic expression and replied to Lisa's fury saying, "Is that all what your so-called 'God' has taught you? Violence in his name? I shouldn't have expected any better, coming from you at least."

On hearing what Tommy had to say, sanity returned instantly back to Lisa and she ran back to her room immediately with tears in her eyes as she spoke her last words to Tommy, "I HATE YOU!"

Tommy simply stood up with a frown watching her run, while Oli spoke up saying, "Was it really the right thing to say big bro? Didn't it feel kind of rude?"

"That was the only way to explain to her how grim the situation was. Even if it means she hates me, she now understands the magnitude of the danger she and all her loved ones are in. To a hero, that's all that matters." Tommy replies to Oli with a clearly spiraling deadness in his eyes, a visibly shaky voice followed by a fake smile on his face. His hands were visibly shivering. His eyebrows spilled the beans on how much he couldn't hold his fake facade of being okay at this very moment.

All this immersion being even more amplified by the background seeming as empty and white as a snowy day and a miserable yet short dark aura coming from Tommy's body. The area above and below his very eyes were being shrouded by the shadow of the bangs of his very hair. His tone of voice made it seem like he could barely breathe and was on the verge of tears.

The visible deadness in Tommy's eyes leaves even Oli sweating in discomfort and breathlessness as Tommy, in a faint voice and from a distance, whispered "I really don't want to be hated… I really don't… But what choice do I even have… What choice have I ever had… What choice have I ever really had…?"

Behind the walls of the kitchen stood Takeda in the hallway who listened to everything that transpired. Feeling bad for Lisa, he heads to the direction she ran off to and meets Jane on his way who tells him where her room is and thanks him for his concern, to which, he just bows and says that he can't see a kid so sad especially in situations like these and continues on his way down the hall to head to Lisa's room.

Upon reaching her room, he simply knocks at the door and says, "May I have a chat with you Ms. Lisa?", to which, she weeps from inside her room and says, "Go away! You're here to make fun of me like that boy did aren't you!? Why can't you guys just leave already?"

"Trust me, a grown up like myself has better things to do than to pick on a child. I'm just here for normal talk." Takeda replies to her with a friendly tone of voice.

"Make it quick…" Lisa replies back as she heads towards the door of her room and sits down on the ground with her back against it while she continues, "But I'll keep the door closed."

"It's fine. Listen, I know what Tommy said was harsh. Some of the things he said were things he shouldn't have. You're just a child and I respect that you took initiative to die for the sake of your village. At your age, it is tough to question what is taught to you. At your age, it is easy for someone vile to put fear into you about stuff like that. I get it because I've been there…" Takeda continues before Lisa interrupts by saying "Been there too…?"

Not paying much attention to her interruption, Takeda continues saying "Yes, I have. When I was a kid, there was always a war between the empire and many major factions of human allies because the empire wanted to be one with non-human species. I was born to the tribe of the samurai. There was a major split between the conservative and the progressive samurai of the time.

I happened to be born among the progressive samurai although my best friend was born to the conservative ones… Ultimately, he chose that he could neither kill me, his own best friend, nor any samurai on either side… The empire's military still allowed him to join them and help them on other missions if he so chose to emancipate himself from the empire's enemies…

We of the progressive kind almost never resorted to murder… We usually just captured and arrested all the conservative samurai… Our morals ran deep within us… For both of us progressive and conservative samurai believing in the same god… The conservatives, who fought in the name of 'God and his benevolence', were ultimately murdering not just aliens but other their own kin…

Then one day… One of the conservative samurai had kidnapped my own sister and threatened to kill her if we didn't surrender Toru back to them… My best friend Toru was madly in love with her… For a while, they kept tormenting him… Made him do their dirty work… Until one fateful day, I snuck into their palace and fought him there… Our battle caused the whole place to collapse… What remained was one room… And inside it… We were revealed the truth that my sister was already murdered a while ago…

Having gone mad… Toru and I went on a rampage on each of his conservative kin for nights until none remained… I realized I gained nothing from this… He however, was consumed by his rage… Ultimately he was caught trying to hijack the military's system to let the arrested samurai out… We had another battle… I tried explaining to him that it wouldn't bring my sister back… Ultimately I won the battle and he got arrested…

A few years later, on my request, during the war, he got released and re-integrated into the military… But ever since then, our friendship has been in bad blood… My sister used to believe in God… She was religious until the very end… Even when kidnapped, she died praying… Always in the front of all our festivals in the name of God… Her eyes had a spark when praying… Me and Toru, who barely believed in God, prayed along just for her smile to stay… All Samurai did…

Ultimately, in the same God's name, we annihilated each other, sullied friendships, betrayed our own code of accepting change and not to kill our own kin over any political jargon. And who died? My sister certainly did after she spent her entire life worshipping God as if it were her last day alive. Not just her though, a lot of innocent people died similarly over 'God'.

I am not saying that it is God's fault. Heck, I don't even know if God even exists. It's just strangely amusing to me what lengths people can go to in his name. Would he even want something like that? Dunno but I'd sure as hell appreciate if the wall of hate and delusion in his name that people create can be gone someday. If only my people kept true to their doubts on him, a lot of bad stuff could've just not happened y'know. Why else would we have our intuition?

Tommy's execution is poor since he's a child but I know he was trying to make you think for yourself by giving you a harsh interpretation of what I said. This way, you'd know what's ACTUALLY best for your family."

"Huh… I'm so sorry… I didn't know… I was just so scared…" Lisa replies gritting her teeth in fear and the nausea induced by said fear with tears in her eyes.

"Its alright. I get it! I told you, I've been there when I was a child too! It's kind of why I don't want to see other children in the same mess. Not Tommy either. He has seen a lot lately too. A year ago, his parents died in a terrorist attack. He pushed himself hard, learned to put on quite a fake smile too." Takeda continues before Lisa interrupts him in a rather cuter and more open and friendly tone of voice saying, "Fake smile…?"

Taking a moment to close his eyes and sigh, Takeda continues saying, "Yep, a fake smile. I know it all too well from the days I've had in the war. Children aren't meant to be put through that. If I could go back in time, I'd love to make some silly mistakes like messing with a girl and getting slapped right on my face or cheat in a football match. Unfortunately, life had something else in mind. My mistakes are just one murder after another of my own former allies.

All I can really hope for is Tommy or you don't go through the same stuff. So watch each others' backs in my opinion. It could save you a lot of trouble later in life haha."

Upon hearing what Takeda had to say, Lisa had her hand on her mouth while her eyes were wide open. Tears fell from her eyes after knowing what she had done and she could do nothing but remain quiet. Her head was an even bigger mess than before and it started to ache worse than it ever had. Paying no heed to her silence, Takeda just sighed, shrugged and said, "Well. I know that's a lot to take in. Take your time and stay safe Lisa.", as his last words and left to look for Tommy.

Upon reaching the garden of the mansion, Tommy stood there staring at the sky while the winds blew through the leaves of the trees there. In this very moment, while his eyes were shining blue, his open mouth and the low-lying posture of his body spoke volumes about how dead inside he still was. Just then, Takeda stood his hand out to Tommy's shoulder to say "Hi" to him.

Merely taking a look back without being startled, Tommy speaks up to Takeda saying, "Oh, it's you Mr. Takeda.", while Takeda replies to him saying, "Yeah, plain old me. So what's up?"

"Nothing. I was just looking at the sky because I was bored. Not much to do on this planet eh?" Tommy replies with a dead yet audible tone of voice.

"Well, it's true. But as soon as we get done saving this planet, we'll have lots of things to do again. Ya know, after so many missions where I am completely surrounded by work, this one is a nice change of pace. Sometimes, one just gotta appreciate nature's beauty ya know!" Takeda blabbers on about life.

"You sure that's not the effect of you pushing into old age right?" Tommy replies with a side eye.

"IT IS NOT! Anyways I was here to talk to you about something!" Takeda shouts and drops down to exclaiming his words upon regaining his composure in no time.

"Talk to me? What about?" Tommy's face looks slightly more curious when replying yet his eyes remain pitch black and dead with only a slight glimmer of light.

"About your conversation with Lisa." Takeda replies with quite a side eye to Tommy.

"Then I've got nothing to tell you on that matter. It had to be done or she wouldn't change her views. It's better to know you're gonna die later than die early like vulnerable and stupid cattle. At least it'd open her up some more opportunities to think things through and not put herself or her family in danger or misery. Although, with a thick skull like that, I don't think she understood anything!" Tommy replies sarcastically with the same dead eyes.

From a distance, Lisa, who was sneaking in to listen to this conversation from behind, had an annoyed expression on her face and said to herself, "I come all the way here out of my empathy for him and he talks like THIS behind my back!?"

Back to the conversation between Takeda and Tommy however, after bursting into a bit of laughter and Tommy wondering what was so funny about what he said to Takeda, Takeda continues to speak up to Tommy saying, "Well, what you said was still rude. You know, you don't have to go as far as making people outright hate you to get your point across."

"What other option did I even have?" Tommy asks with a dead side eye and a fake expression of curiosity in his mouth.

"You want to be a hero right? Start by building their trust in you and each other instead of God. You can't just go around telling people that they have no right to hope without looking like a complete asshole. Wouldn't a hero like you want them to rely on you? Pretty sure they'd come to terms with reality easier if they're persuaded rather than dunked on haha.

You don't have to push it that much. Just tell them that they can't leave everything to God. Sitting around and doing nothing to think of consequences would always mean certain death. It is unreliable to trust someone who doesn't exist, but it is credible to rely on someone that does. Ultimately who does the chores or pushes through life? We do ourselves, not God.

And even if humans do start wars, me and my pals were the ones who helped end it and we're just humans too at the end of the day." Takeda continues explaining Tommy.

"But can I… really be the hero they need…? Wouldn't you be the better hero…? You did the job of explaining so much better than I ever could… I almost killed so many people before… I killed someone before… I put people close to me in danger…" Tommy replies back while shivering with a shaky voice. His facial expression spoke volumes about his true emotions this time. Nothing was faked. White spirals were spinning furiously in his eyes. His mouth was trembling. His hands couldn't stop shaking. It is as if he were cold.

"Of course you do. Like I said, you're still a kid. Try making a poor stock investment choice and then we'd talk. All that money loss STINKS as an adult." Takeda replies to Tommy once again with a friendly tone of voice.

"Hmm… I'll think about it..." Tommy answers.

"Y'know, these easy times as a kid won't come back. Don't come to me when you regret not spending them doing something you like. If you're just gonna self-loathe, then there's nothing I can do about it. Only you can. Besides, I don't like playing hero. I just save people as a job. My hands are too bloodstained from the war for such title. I think it'd fit you better." Takeda speaks up while looking to the sky holding his straw hat.

Upon hearing those last words from Takeda's mouth, Tommy's mouth was open in wondering how he couldn't grasp something so simple. The color of his eyes had momentarily returned as the light of the star above shined onto his face to give him an alive look that had been quite a rare sight lately.

Shortly afterwards, Takeda calls upon Tommy and Oli to take errands of the city as their first line of work since they had arrived on the planet.

Meanwhile, Lisa, who was still listening to the conversation, felt like her worldview was expanded to new horizons upon hearing Takeda talk of trust. Light could be seen glimmering in her eyes while the alive expression on her face screamed of a change beginning to sparkle up.

Meanwhile, in the village…

As Tommy was taking errands, his head ended up getting hit by some kids' ball and when he turned around to look at them, all of them stood in fear.

"Hey boss, how are we gonna take the ball back…? Wouldn't it anger God if we were to talk to that boy?" One of the kids whispers.

"He could be dangerous, yeah, let's run!" One of the other kids exclaims.

Before they could run however, Tommy just threw the ball towards them saying, "You don't have to fear me ya know."

"Why shouldn't we!? Because of you, the Pryer ghost might kill us!" The kids exclaim.

"Oh please! I'll take care of that! Don't you guys think it's suspicious that a God would ask you guys to bring someone as a bribe? Children of all things at that? Clearly someone is eliminating the youth so only the impotent gramps and grannies remain, only to die soon. This has to be a facade by some racist alien!" Tommy gives them a short rundown.

"And how can we trust that a dead eyed boy like you isn't the very alien you speak of!? Besides, we'd rather trust God! He gives us everything!" The kids try to mock Tommy with this.

"Dead eyed…? Whatever. How about a challenge? Me vs all of you in football. 15 rounds! Show me the power of God you speak of. If you guys win, I'll leave the planet immediately! If I win, you guys gotta listen to me! How about it?" Tommy replies to them with a smirk on his face and color returning to his eyes gradually.

Upon seeing his face look more alive, the kids take Tommy up on the challenge, laughing it off by saying, "Hah! One against so many!? We wouldn't even need God!", while Tommy just smiles back saying, "Oh don't be so sure about that."

After Tommy loses the first five goals with a smile and giving a poor performance, the kids get way too overconfident, only for Tommy to make his first goal. While the kids think it is just luck, Tommy's consecutive streak of making it to ten goals and beating a bunch of them solo despite their prayers upon the first few of Tommy's goals.

"How'd you do that!? You've got to be a monster!" The kids exclaim upon their crushing defeat against Tommy.

With a sweaty expression, Tommy talks back to them saying, "I am no monster. You guys just leave so many things to God. How about working as a proper team for once. You guys have no coordination. Everyone is looking to make the goal themselves instead of passing the ball to the other. It is easy to deceive you guys this way. And you guys aren't even aware of some classic football techniques!"

"Classic football techniques!?" The kids get startled while Tommy replies to them saying, "Yep! Wanna learn them from me?", to which, all of them get friendly with Tommy and scream, "YES!!!"

With just an hour of training them, teaching the first few kids how they can make goals easier on themselves by angular kicks, teaching the rest how coordination works by passing the ball, having all of them surprised and finding him cool, their next match ends at a whopping 9-6 with Tommy still winning by 3 more goals, however, he didn't hold back one bit.

"For the first day, you guys were really a challenge!" Tommy exclaims while sweating heavily with his clothes all dusty from playing around.

"But man, you're so cool! You beat nearly twenty of us by yourself!" The kids reply back in appreciation to Tommy's skill.

However, much to their dismay, a few angry parents try pulling their children away while calling Tommy a problem child. While Tommy's expression starts to fade into deadness yet again upon hearing what they had to say and how Tommy was "Going to be the cause of their deaths", the kids pushed their parents aside and screamed that Tommy is just like them if not cooler and that someone as skilled as him is all they need to be saved.

Surprised by their kids' actions, the parents start throwing trash at Tommy but the kids start defending him by getting in the way. Tommy's eyes turn back to blue immediately as he smiles and screams, "TRASH FIGHT!!!"

All of them together started throwing trash back at the crowd of parents until they got tired and ran away. The kids rejoiced upon disobeying their parents for the first time. Playing a few more hours together, Tommy had quite a blast for once. Even in the good times however, the fear within the children present there was imminent. They were afraid of being sacrificed.

A lot of them saw someone close to them die, be it their very young older siblings or their own parents but Tommy simply patted them on the head and told them to rest assured as long as he was there. The group, around a campfire, hugged and danced around Tommy to ease their pain while calling him as their big brother and hero. For once, Tommy felt hopeful and could smile along with someone other than those close to him.

Good things never last though… Eventually, a forest fire occurs where the children were playing. Realizing his lack of concern to check around for safety, regrettably once again, Tommy with an expression of fear on his face, screamed for them to run.

Barely able to see through the smoke, Tommy could still see a figure walk through it. His teeth had started to grit with a sinister and creepy smirk, his hair started to rise, dark binding energy penetrated through his very soul and his stance turned into that of a feral animal as his voice changed into that of a beast's voice behind his own as he screamed, "SO YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAUSED SO MANY PEOPLE INCLUDING CHILDREN AT THAT TO DIE!? PREPARE TO MEET THE SAME FATE!!"

Realizing that the monster who caused so many deaths and made Lisa and the other children present on the planet suffer was right in front of him, Tommy's entire body ran like a feral beast, jumping and swinging through trees at unprecedented speeds with his hair barely able to keep up the pace with him and flowing viciously in the direction opposite to where Tommy was running.

Kicking a tree so hard on his way towards the figure behind the smoke that it fell, Tommy dashed through the air with one of his hands shaped like a claw ready to cut through its prey with dark binding energy surrounding every inch of his skin, especially the area near his fingers.

"I'LL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER HURT ANYONE ELSE YOU FILTHY ANIMAL!!" Tommy screamed and followed it with a roar as he landed his front foot strongly onto ground and ferociously pushed his hand shaped like a claw down the figure behind the smoke at a point blank range.

Tommy's shirt started ripping from the sheer magnitude of his own binding energy as he released another barrage of claw-like attacks imbued with the dark binding energy radiating from his body at speeds faster than what one can perceive with their naked eye.

The figure, seemingly unharmed and still invisible behind the smoke, simply grabbed Tommy during his sequence of attacks and slammed him through several trees in a circle before ultimately throwing him deep into the forest.

Having not been hurt even one bit, Tommy stood up in no time and forgot to run altogether. By simply taking a strong dash fueled by his immense amounts of dark binding energy while screaming, "GAME'S OVER BUDDY!! PREPARE FOR A DOUBLE IMPACT!!".

As the smoke quickly cleared, a Pryer-like figure could be seen standing right in front of Tommy's dash path. With less than a second to process what was even happening there, all Tommy could think was, "Wait… Isn't that a Pryer…? Aren't I doing the same thing the military did by going wild…? What would he even think of me like this…? Another human trying to end the last of his kind instead of hearing him out… Am I deciding what's right and wrong when I have no right to…!? But I have to kill… Wait no… What am I even saying… This isn't me… Killing is never the way… Wait… WHY AM I GOING WILD!? No… NO… NOOO!!! I CANNOT LET THAT SCENE REPEAT EVER AGAIN!!"

Tommy got small flashbacks of his first ever kill while on his way to hit his enemy. Having remembered how gruesome it was, his speed drastically lowered and this gave the opponent the opportunity to grab him by his head and slam him onto the ground in front of him again.

This time, with all his dark binding energy subsiding and his pitch black dead eyes looking as if they were leaking a black aura from how mentally crippled Tommy was at this point, it definitely seemed as though Tommy took major damage due to his hesitation to avoid killing someone else again.

Barely able to get up from the blow he had just taken, he grabs his mouth before he could puke remembering the putrid sight of his first kill. It was truly time… Tommy had completely broken down… Grabbing his head in pain, he screamed in agony screaming, "NOOOOOOO!!! I AM USELESS!!! USELESS!!! THAT IS WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN!!! I AM NO HERO!!! ALL I EVER DO IS BE WEAK AND BE SAVED BY SOMEONE ELSE!!! ALL I EVER DO OTHERWISE IS KILL AND MAKE THINGS WORSE!!! I AM NOTHING BUT A WORTHLESS SCUMBAG!!!"

Continuing his streak of pitiable agony as he started tearing up, his screams got more and more painful to hear. His sadness was pitifully abrupt. The point Takeda was suspecting would come was finally here. Having fallen to his knees yet again, his body started emitting tons of dark binding energy once again. He started slamming the ground with his fists at full force while repeatedly screaming, "ARGHH!! AHHH!! I DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE!! I DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE!! A KILLER LIKE ME DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE!!! AHHHH!!!"

With each strike to the ground, the dark binding energy his body was releasing, started clouding his very appearance into a pitch black silhouette of him. Such intense release of dark binding energy caused the clouds to go dark and swirl around in all directions. The planet's spin could suddenly be felt by all the inhabitants as it started to get faster and faster. The skies itself had gone dark. The very physics of the planet's and its moon's revolutions stopped making sense as the eccentricity of the planet's orbit was peaking higher than ever.

The moon of the planet was in a pendulum-like orbit until a positional anomaly was temporarily achieved as the blood moon had eclipsed the sun. From such a disastrous sight in the sky right above Tommy fell black lightning that struck the intense field of dark binding energy Tommy was releasing.

As the clouds suddenly started raining while the skies remained dark, the planet and the moon were suddenly back into their original positions like nothing had happened. From the clearing smoke walked a silhouette of Tommy, gradually getting clearer and clearer. The silhouette's eyes were pitch black with Red irises. His binding energy radiated green and he carried a sinister laughter which was unlike any sound Tommy had ever made before.

As the silhouette and smoke had finally cleared, the figure of the Pryer that Tommy was fighting earlier, the God of Pryers himself, Lord Akselfer, stood in shock as his fear facing the boy had been realized. The reason why he was so unusual and possessed such odd binding energy nature was finally clear as he saw the big man finally awaken himself and screamed, "SETH!?"

Having finally reappeared after eons upon eons, stood the big man, Seth, and from a distance his voice creepily getting the hang of the doomed atmosphere present there, echoed, "Who dare disturb my slumber so prematurely?"

To be continued in Chapter - 19…