After three years since Bob's family's trip to Japan, in the Honshū Island, in the Kantō Region, in Tokyo, somewhere in the Shinjuku street, many things had changed in his family: the three Shadows were not allowed to go anywhere outside the house while Bob's four children could not go to school. They already knew that their future was not what they were expecting. Bob wasn't taking care of them well anymore; he only gave his children some food that would be worth less than five yen.
For this reason, the children became physically weak and were always hungry; the Shadows, instead, didn't have to eat, but Hana and Shadow tried their best to keep the children safe and joyful, although they couldn't do much.
The seventh of April , Bob entered Tamara's room, a normal, purple room with simply a broken, purple iron bed, a grey iron chair, and a desk of cherry wood. Tamara stared at her father as she tilted her head.
"We have to talk," Bob said while staring at her blankly. Tamara, who was lying on the bed, stood up and took a rigid posture as if she was scared.
"Even though you are just eight years old… I already found someone you will marry when you are older," Bob announced as he sat on the chair. Tamara stayed silent for some second as she then stared down at the floor.
"But…" she was about to add something but started to hesitate while her father raised an eyebrow. She then finally managed to speak up.
"I thought I would marry a guy who would love me and vice versa, not someone… not someone you chose and that I have never seen," Tamara said with a truly sad look as she grabbed her own shoulder, starting to feel uncomfortable due to her father's presence.
"It's not a lovey-dovey marriage, it's a way to get some money; I am literally selling you to the parents of your future husband… so why should I care for your useless needs?" Bob replied coldly as he just stared at his daughter whose tears began to drool from her eyes.
"I… I understand…" Tamara said while holding back her tears, being too scared of her father to fight back. Bob stood up and went away. Tamara would then close the door of her room and start giving punches to her bed while crying and screaming in anger.
"WHY?! WHY ARE YOU SO BAD TOWARDS ME DAD?!" Tamara screamed as she slammed her head on the bed, the force of it eliciting a nosebleed. After the nosebleed had stopped, she went under the covers of her bed, trying to rest. Meanwhile, Hana was lying on the other side of the door of Tamara's room.
"Poor girl…" Hana said sadly as she entered through the key spot, shaping her liquid body to match its shape; she then went under the covers of Tamara's bed and hugged her in order to reassure her.
"Thanks…" Tamara said as she hugged Hana back and began to cry silently.
"We are sisters… I can't ignore you when you are so sad…" Hana said as she kissed Tamara's forehead and tried to make her fall asleep. She would manage to calm Tamara down as both fell asleep. Bob would then enter his room and open his wardrobe where there was the dead body of Rose, tied up. The room was brown and had a bed, a desk, and a chair made of cherry wood, while the huge wardrobe was crafted with brown mahogany and had two doors.
"Don't ask, Jeremy," Bob said as he then opened a mobile full of syringes and grabbed one.
"Let's get to work… shut up Ollie!" he then added as he ignited Rose's body with lots of syringes. Rose's body trembled constantly, as if it was still conscious, yet heartless. However, Bob didn't look surprised at all; he kept igniting Rose's body for hours until he eventually stopped.
"You may be wondering, why am I doing this? Well, that's none of your business," Bob snapped coldly as he then threw a syringe on a wall where it remained stuck.
"I am kidding! You know you are my favourite, Ben!" he then exclaimed with a genuine smile. Bob then closed the wardrobe and laid on his bed. He began to smirk and stare at the ceiling.
"I wish I could stop time for at least ten seconds…" Bob said as he then closed his eyes. After some seconds, he opened them again and got up from the bed; he then exited his room right after taking a key with him. He exited the house and locked the entrance door as he then walked away. He went to a brand new laboratory which was nameless and quite empty inside; there weren't many rooms, as if it was a laboratory under construction. The rooms were filled with medicines, suggesting the false intentions of this laboratory, and all looked the same: white, messy, with just an iron table and an iron chair. Under this place hid a secret room that could be revealed only after pulling a lever in one of those rooms.
"Let's get to work…" Bob said as he entered the secret room and utilised some animals as guinea pigs; his favourite guinea pigs were horses, bears, spiders and mice. He however never felt satisfied from all his experiments which never ended well; he needed something more special, something unique, something with potential… something with powers.
Bob would get the idea of using humans for each of his experiments. However, he couldn't simply go around and take people to his laboratory; he needed a way to take them to his place, since adults were too difficult to convince; he needed children.
"Once I will get some children I will come back here. Stand guard, Oliver," Bob said as he walked away. He came back home and knocked on Rayan's room's door; Rayan ignored it at the beginning but then the knocking became much more violent, so he opened the door and stared at the floor, not willing to look at his father's face.
"We have to talk," Bob declared coldly. Rayan just stood silent, hesitating to answer, but he then nodded as a sigh of understanding. Bob then took his arm and dragged him to the living room. Right when they reached the room, Bob threw his son on the couch. The room was dark, almost nothing could be seen. Rayan took a good posture and sat on the huge, red couch while staring at his legs. They remained silent for minutes that felt like hours; paradoxically, the silence felt louder than a gunshot. Bob's breath pierced the thin air between the two, who were doing nothing more than waiting for one of the two to start the discussion.
"Aren't you wondering why the others aren't here?" Bob asked while tilting his head. Rayan stared at him with a bit of worry.
"What did you do to them…?" Rayan questioned with a voice that sounded like his heart was stabbed by a million knives. Bob went for a direct punch on Rayan's nose which sent his head backward as it was slammed on the wall.
"You should never answer a question with another question. Remember that or the next time, I will take your right eye," Bob threatened while adjusting his jacket. He then started to walk towards Tamara's room. He kicked the door, destroying it in the process. Rayan stood up and went beside his father, and had an awful sight: Vincent and Tamara were on the floor, unconscious, while Shadow, Hana and Entity were trapped in three bottles, seemingly trying to get out as the bottles shook.
"What…" Rayan said before taking a step backward, but Bob knocked him off through a swift punch and grabbed him with his hair. He took all his sons and daughters to the secret room of the laboratory, where he began experimenting many times on them, careless of their screams and begs for mercy. However, Bob never felt satisfied. He decided to go around at night, searching for children. One day, he met two children, a boy and a girl. He began to act friendly towards them and even played some games with the childrens; the two children were not scared at all—a huge mistake.
"Hey, what are your names?" Bob asked with a genuine smile while looking at them. The boy was around one metre and twenty centimetres tall. His face was oval, and had a fair and soft skin; he had a little straight nose and his lips were pinkish and full; his cheeks were soft and his jaw was well-defined; he had green hair and red round eyes. He was slim and his posture was regular. His hands had long fingers and he had short arms and legs. He wore a white jacket, black unripped jeans and black lace shoes.
"I am Zack and she is Kokiricha!" he answered happily. The girl, Kokiricha, was around one metre and twenty centimetres tall too, had long, red, lob-combed hair and round eyes. Her face was oval, her skin was fair, her nose was little and straight, her lips had a pinkish colour and were full, her cheeks were really soft while her jawline was well-defined, like her brother's; her body was slim but graceful, her posture was really formal, almost perfect, her hands had long red nails and her arms and legs were slim and long. She wore a long, green jacket with golden buttons, green shorts and green, short heels.
"Well it's nice to meet you, Zack and Kokiricha!" Bob exclaimed. He stayed silent for some seconds before speaking up.
"Listen… Do you want to play hide and seek?" Bob asked; the two children nodded, only for the game to end by their massacre. Bob used this trick to kill many children.
The once four hundred and three Shadow Experiments made by the old Shadow increased as the seven next years passed, turning into five hundred forty-four, and giving to Bob the name of Dr. Bob as he had announced that he discovered everyone's powers, thanks to a machine that could be used in his laboratory.
One day, Dr. Bob was in his laboratory's secret room until Tamara entered slowly.
"Dad…" Tamara said, her voice feeling broken yet full of hopes. She was wearing a red, long shirt, black shorts, and black fingerless gloves, while her hands were scratched; she also had thick, big, black horns shaped as the half of a heart—a collateral effect of her father's experiments.
"Yes?" Dr. Bob asked while he was writing some documentation on his papers.
"When… when are we going to get some father-daughter moments?" Tamara asked as she sat next to him. He stopped writing for a few seconds but then went back to his job.
"Why do you want that?" he asked, clearly not interested. Tamara gulped; she knew that anything she would say could lead her to death. She started trembling and stared at her feet, stretching her legs and putting her hands on her knees.
"I miss when you were the lovely father that always played with me…" Tamara said, almost crying; she knew her kind father was gone forever, and she couldn't do much except trying to remind him, although she was too young to remember them all, those moments she passed with her father.
"Don't waste my time," Dr. Bob snapped as he then stared at her blankly, while Tamara stared back at him, deep in his eyes. They stayed silent for a few seconds before tears started to fall from Tamara's cheeks as she simply stared back at the blue floor of square tiles and black lines.
"I… I understand…" Tamara said as she wiped away her tears. Dr. Bob grabbed a knife from a mobile and scratched her right cheek; she held her cheek as she closed her eyes to handle the pain; she didn't scream because she was used to getting hurt daily.
"Love you, Dad…" she added as she got up and walked away while holding tears; she didn't even try to put a bandaid on the cut. Dr. Bob kept writing his documentation, acting like he didn't care at all about his daughter.
He simply kept experimenting on those poor children daily. However, one day, Christopher appeared again; he simply grabbed Dr. Bob's arm and teleported him to an all-black place.
"What's this?" Dr. Bob asked while he was holding a syringe dirty of blood.
"This is the True Nullverse! Well, one section of it, as such a structure is even bigger than infinite itself," Christopher explained loudly. Dr. Bob stayed silent. However, he remembered that Christopher had already mentioned it once.
"Why did you take me here?" he questioned. Christopher smirked and created an energy orb right in front of his eyes: it was black inside, had white and transparent edges, and a white dot on its centre.
"This is Nullverse Essence. I brought it here for you to experiment on it," Christopher answered as he then handed it to Dr. Bob, who grabbed it.
"See ya' later," Christopher added as he faded away. Dr. Bob then stared at the orb in his hands; he was already thinking about all the things he could try.
"This is going to be fun… don't you agree, Wendy?" Dr. Bob asked the voices in his head.