Chapter 40 [Destruction of Istabul Part 13. Love]
"Ughhh…" Kazama groans as he sits up, he looks around and sees Xavier shaking on the ground a couple yards in front of him. Even though his body hurts, he gets up and runs at him. "HEALTH POTION!!!".
[5 Health Potions Remain]
"I don't fucking care!" He puts the Health Potion at Xaviers mouth, and Xavier swallows the liquid. He stops violently shaking, but his skin is still frayed, his eyes still bloodshot, and his nose still running, But he could deal with that. "What happened Xavier?" Kazama gets no response.
"God… Damn it…" "Kazama… Why are you crying?" Xavier asks, "What?" Kazama wipes the tears from his eyes, but then he starts crying even more. "I-I never realised just how precious human life is… What do I do Xavier!? I've murdered so many people! I can never make up for that mortal sin!"
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"EIENMUGENKA!!!" Zero darts off, he showers Bathu in punches. The incendium is pushed further into the ground. "50 JUDGEMENTS" '50!?' is Bathu's first reaction, as he looks up he sees the massive pillar of heat headed straight for him. He puts up his remaining arm to block the attack.
The massive pillar hits him, pushing him further and further down the Earth's crust, and then mantle. Bathu sits in the pool of semi-liquid rocks, thinking that he'll just die there, but he vows to himself that he'll never lose to a human! Bathu jumps off of the semi-liquid rocks and lands back on the surface, but Zero was waiting for him.
Zero tackles the beast, despite the insane size difference, Bathu falls on his back. Zero jumps up and funnels all of his heat into his Left Fist, Bathu puts up his guard. Zero charges in and goes for the punch, the matter around his fist being distorted. But before it can connect, Bothu puts up a shield, protecting his son. But the guard breaks, after Zero uses up 90% of his Heat. The other 10% rips through Bathu's remaining arm like butter, and the impact on his neck, makes him fall unconscious.
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It was eerily quiet… That was it… The humans won… On 10:13 PM 10th February 1983 a King-Rank Incendium destroying the planet was averted by Natsuki Kazama, Xavier Kael, Atar Ertugrul, Alexi Ertugrul, and Shijima Teika.
"Woah, I didn't expect that from humans… well done." Bothu opens a portal to the Heat Realm, and his soldiers start walking through it. "Humans I will be back in 5 months, if your leaders won't send your finest soldiers, I will destroy the Earth." Bothu walks through, and closes the Portal.
They all expected that the second this fight ended they would start fighting each other, but the only one whose body was realistically well enough to fight was Kazama's, but his mental state isn't enough to fight. Of course they still have to fight each other as Kazama and Xavier need to retrieve the Yong'un Seng for the CIA, Teika needs to retrieve the Yong'un Seng for his own personal reasons, and Zero isn't going to let them just take it. Of course the question is, where is the Yong'un Seng?
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"I kept it Atar! I protected it!" Alp Ertugrul holds the Yong'un Seng as he looks at the two massive holes from on top of a hilltop. He grabs a bandage from his bag and starts wrapping it around both of his missing legs.
"Huh, this is what they're all fighting over?"
Alp looks behind himself and sees a young black male holding the Yong'un Seng, "I could probably sell this for a good amount of money."
"Hey! Give that to me now!" Alp shouts out, "Nah, I think that I'm gon' keep this." Alp facepalms and whispers under his breath 'should've expected that' "I may be old but if I can't take out one of you th-" Alp, now in 16 separate pieces, falls on the ground, dead.
"I fucking hate old people… Hey boys! Let's go crash this party!' The boy says, then 20 guys pull up behind him on motorbikes, all with crowbars or machetes.
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"Heh, you beat him?" Teika asks, but Zero just sits over Alexi's corpse, looking lost. "Hey, Alexi… Wake up…. Wake… Up…." Tears flooded down his face, "Why… Why are you dead? Why?..." Zero holds up his arms, he sees how bruised and bloodied they are, then he looks back down at his dead brother. "I wonder if dad made it out…" He punches himself for even asking such a stupid question, he just needed to look at his surroundings to tell what happened to his father.
"Hey Teika… Why are you still here?... Your stupid fucking stone is gone! GONE! GO AWAY!" Teika stares at Zero, "No… It isn't… And I bet you've just realised how stupid your whole plan was…"
Zero looks at his hands again, he sees the blood of all the innocents he has killed to get here. He looks at his surroundings and realises another important thing, that yes Weak men can't protect themselves, but strong men are prideful, and can destroy everything they love to uphold their ideals, why? Because they know they're strong enough to do that. Whenever you have stronger people in a society that are prideful, everything will be destroyed, at least, here on Earth. Maybe it's different in the Heat Realm, Zero doesn't know, but he knows at least on Earth that it's just a cycle of destruction if everyone has planet-destroying powers, just like in his dream paradise. Yes, everyone will be the same if we look at it from our current perspective, but once all the others are culled, more groups will rise within that one group that took over, causing the cycle to repeat itself. But, he also knows that Strong People, when working together, can create a paradise, not based off of groups. That's what Zero thought was the truth, and only that, nothing else, but now this idea has been challenged heavily. Yes Strong People can create Prosperous times, but they also destroy, they become prideful, they revere themselves as better than the weaker ones, based off pure strength, but truth is, humans don't need strength to survive anymore, so why does it matter, that's why he had this plan, to make the weak want to survive, want to grow stronger, but that curbs intellectual growth, which makes the overall progression of the human race stagnant. But if everyone is strong, when those hard times come we can be prepared. So what, we need a mix of weak and strong people? Not really, see when there is no conflict, what is the need for strong people, you would prefer the growth of humanity then right? Over fear mongering thinking that an apocalypse will happen when you need these guys to help. But then the times when strong people are needed will come, you don't want to curb the progress of humanity, you will still want the geniuses progressing the species while the soldiers fight the threat. The answer Zero comes to:There is always a need for weak but smart People, but not always a need for just strong people. - So what, has the ideology that he has believed in most of his life just been completely and utterly wrong? Not completely, this all stemmed from him always being alienated, as he was gifted with Heat, while 99.9% of the population don't even know what it is. He began to hate these people, but he also made some observations about his society, that the weaklings in charge make horrible decisions, what if another Incendium attack were to happen? We would need more people getting stronger, more people training in Heat, but the weaklings had no clue and were potentially putting the whole human race at stake. And if he made an Incendium attack happen, just maybe the leaders would wake up and get more people learning the art of heat, just like himself. Then a better society could form, sure, he knew billions would die, but the ends justify the means. But this eventually shifted, as he thought 'what if nothing changes? What if it's just like the last three? What if there are still weak people at the top?' So his plan changed, to eradicate every possibility of weaklings still being at the top, the plan was to kill anyone who didn't know at least the basics of Heat, so the strong can rule and pass down their genes, and finally become the dominant race, just like the Heat Peoples. So, what was he meant to do now? Back down? No. He knew what he needed to do, and he's still going to summon an Incendium.
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"I-I don't know what to do with myself man! Please, help me!" Kazama hyperventilates and scrunches up his hair, so clearly panicked as tears run down his face, "I-I mean how could anyone who's done what I've done consider themselves human!?" Xavier simply places his hand on Kazama's shoulder, "Tell me, why did you give me that potion, you're running low, you know you'll need them, yet you gave one to me, why?" Kazama thinks for a minute, then replies "Because I see you as someone who will be useful to me?" "Is that really it? You know you're lying to yourself, sure I may be an asset to you in the upcoming fight, but you had 6 chances to live, and you gave one up on me. With that way of thinking, just keeping 1 more to yourself is better, because what if I don't try to save you, and you get fatally wounded 6 times, you're dead because of me." Kazama's breathing slows down, "I-I don't know…" "Let me make it a bit easier, you came and begged me for help, even though you see me only as an asset? Would you really do that?" Just like that, it was almost like a light bulb went off in Kazama's head "No… You aren't just some asset, you're my friend." "Exactly, you just completely shrugged off the idea of me being your friend, why?" "Because I don't deserve any friends?" "~and?" "...Every friend I ever get ends up dying because of me." "But, Kazama, that's a lie. You see every human life needs to have some love in their life, or they turn out like you did, everyone needs someone to rely on, everyone deserves someone." Kazama just kind of stares at him for a minute… "But… How does that forgive me?" "You see Kazama, you saw me as a friend and you saved my life, you could've let me die, but you didn't. Why do you see me as a friend?" "Because I think your life has value?" "Exactly, because I've helped you out so often, you think I have some value. Your problem is, you need to realise every life has that intrinsic value, that can't be stripped away, it's in our souls, you can never take that away." "What?" "Even the worst human beings, around the right people, can become great people." "So what? People are shaped by those around them?" "Bingo. See, no human is at birth going to be evil, just as if someone is evil, they are not necessarily going to be evil for the rest of their life. What you needed, this whole time, was a good friend." Xavier hugs Kazama… Tears slam on to Xavier's shoulder as Kazama starts crying. After Kazama finishes, "See bro, just because you experienced horrible things, doesn't mean everyone will. And just because you were a murderer, doesn't mean you are one now." "But, I still need to be put to justice for my actions." "Are you really going to be locked up for that now? Jail is to rehabilitate you, you've already been rehabilitated, and from my perspective, you won't ever do those things again…" "I love you man" Kazama hugs Xavier, "That's just what friends do."