Warning: chapter and book overall contains gore, viewer discretion is advised.
"Fate could decide to be kind to the wicked, and wreak hell on the saints."
Hiroto was dragged into the throne room. He trembled, thinking he was caught, this was bad, this was very very bad. He yelped as the guards threw him onto the red carpet in front of the queen. The fabric crumpling under his knees. The boy scoffed and ignored the snickering nobles, he stood up straight and took off his hood, revealing his glare.
"Congratulations, Takahashi Hiroto." The queen ascended from her throne and made her way down the steps, Hiroto made a confused frown. Gold shining in the eerie atmosphere of the sleek modern hall, chandeliers built with icy glass structures laced with gold and the nobles all unique in their ridiculous colour combinations and designs.
"Her majesty, First of her name, the maker of walls, Queen Rikina the benevolent!!" The guard slammed his weapon down to accentuate her titles through the echo. Everyone was huddled, their metallic dresses collapsing as they squeezed into each other to provide a narrow pathway. Bowing as she walked past them, two guards followed her with guns embedded into their gauntlets.
She muttered something. The drones obediently recording in the distance, guard robots on their stations and heroes crying over their idol that once was. The queen wore a long ridiculously opaque veil, the queen smiled as the nobles drank cherry wine in their elegant glasses much different from the queen's cup laced with rubies. She raised her traditional goblet and the nobles that filled her grand throne room did so too, "to Hiroto!" They shouted and had their fill of wine.
Hiroto's expression turned even more confused, he froze. "What is going on?" he thought, looking at the queen's cup he hesitantly bowed his head to avoid any trouble.
He could have sworn he was here to be executed for the crimes he had committed. The queen was celebrating him… perhaps it was some sort of a cruel joke?
Rikina solemnly nodded. The heroes and invited guests paled, processing the news. "Give the child a shawl, something" she waved her hand as a traditional knight gathered a self heating cloak to wrap around Hiroto, "you are inappropriately dressed for the occasion, no matter, indeed my guards must have dragged you here in a hurry." He snorted at the understatement, abducted would've been more accurate.
Rikina's oldest son, prince Lakan, took a step back as his mother stopped a few steps above the ground where he was. The other two siblings cowered behind him. The queen smiled behind her veil."Today, I pronounce you, the new minister of Engineering and our realm saviour. Under the royal eye, you will make new weapons for our defence. Your new weapon ideas have reached me," She smiled softly as his eyes widened in understanding and horror, passing her goblet to the left hand, she grabbed Hiroto's shoulder and squeezed on it, "Your father would be proud, boy."
Hiroto cursed at himself under his breath and paled under the attention of the crowd, people cheered his name, He panicked and covered his mouth to try and hide his emotions.
Hiroto had just given a tyrant his most powerful invention, rendering her unstoppable.
"HIROTO! HIROTO! HIROTO!"
How could he have been so careless!? His head was spinning.
A few months ago
Hidetsugu Takahashi, Hiroto and his brother; Sylvester's father had died long ago in a domestic terrorism attack.
The news had spread through Juvia like wildfire and he was a baby then…Sylvester didn't remember all the details, everything was vague as he had chosen not to talk about most things. He sighed and his shoulders dropped. Pushing himself up he frowned at the horizon beyond his clean windows, white hair gently swaying in the breeze of the air conditioning.
The story had felt suspicious ever since he was young, pink lights of the city stabbed his eyes as they quickly flashed. He shot his head away, orange eyes scanned the letter awaiting an answer at his desk.Hiroto sighed and the furrow in his brow deepened. It was understood that on the weekend shifts he did not take any project requests, rather overlooked the process of his old weaponry. Not even from the government, his employer was kind enough to give him such concessions. So why the sudden letter?
He was annoyed and it was barely concealed. His office room was empty; the only noise produced was the crackling from an artificial campfire holograms embedded and glowing in the sidewalls, providing some sort of warmth. He settled his coffee cup down and hesitantly reached for the rather old-fashioned letter, footsteps echoing loudly around the room. These mechanical letters were usually government documents for secret gadgets to be combusted later; impenetrable even by recent technology, and convenient. Ensuring a private correspondence between the sender and the receiver. Hiroto yawned, slightly bored and extremely overworked.
"When will you be free?" The doors whirred open.Hiroto jumped, shocked, he whipped his head around and relaxed a little at the sight of his elder brother. Sylvester raised an eyebrow, leaning on the wall, his nose and jaw shapes were sharper than Hiroto's. He inspected the room slowly, presumably bored. This man had a barely taller but much muscular silhouette, wavier hair and clearer eyes to reveal the blood red underneath. He had grown into a handsome successful actor not only in Juvia. His scope branched internationally, mainly in Great Britain.
Hiroto huffed, blowing a stray hair strand out of his face. For a man in his twenties Hiroto's arms were weak and body lean, when it came to looks Hiroto was a man worshipped to look like Fira'n H'shel-te; god of elegance, wildfire and freedom. Compared to his brother, his white hair was straighter and he was leaner, heavy eye bags adorned his face and metallic freckles shimmered under his collar.
Hiroto shook his head, "I will be there in a minute, let me sort out one more request." He hastily put his hair into a messy bun and held his hands out signalling Sylvester to move out by his motions and hoping he understood, "it's probably another secret package…"Of course nothing ever goes his way.
Before Sylvester could respond back paparazzi controlled drones lifted themselves to the office wall's windows to invade in on their activities, ready to take pictures and film videos of the beloved brothers, mainly Sylvester. Hiroto couldn't help but roll his eyes and lift his hand to shield his face, it was known he wished to live a private life. Sylvester scoffed and lowered the blinds for Hiroto's privacy from the flashing cameras that harassed them, blocking out the neon lights and fluorescent advertisements of the buildings and malls outside with it, "idiots."
He lifted and flipped his hair in the wind of the air conditioning. Hiroto smiled at his antics, "please… not now."
"Fine, fine." Sylvester laughed and flashed his tongue over his teeth in pride as the drones that flew away the moment they stopped receiving footage from the one way blinds before leaving the room, "you better come out in a few minutes or less, i'm starving!" He whined, changing his mood all of a sudden.
Hiroto huffed and locked the door behind him, he then took the small device and nestled it beneath a book, crushing it with the leather cover over his desk. The device released gas spreading into the room, a fibre mask generated over his mouth for fume protection automatically and he frowned as an unfamiliar silhouette generated in front of him, formed by the smoke. The queen never revealed herself to unimportant commoners, had he done something wrong?
"Good evening, Takahashi Hiroto."
That was definitely not the queen.
The woman, he would assume by her glitchy voice, grinned as the CCTV cameras fused and burned down. Fizzing as the wires melted over the walls, "you need better security." She simply grinned, he could feel it from her voice even if her expression was unclear from the smoke.Confused, Hiroto's hair melted down and glowed orange, "is this a threat?" His lava hair swirled around in the air so as to not touch anything that could potentially catch on fire, the woman who formed from the smoke laughed deeply as red diamonds formed on the protective microphones placed in the room.
"Calm down." She made a gesture of peace.
Picture frames shook and some bookshelves collapsed, books splaying out on the ground as the wood crushed them. Her figure was made of smoke, she was without a clear face, yet still she had an intimidating presence. Hiroto could feel her scrutinising him, goosebumps forming all over his spine.
"I am not here to hurt you." Her voice was stern, sharply cutting through the air unlike the teasing tone she used previously. Hiroto's hair cooled back down into white strands of thin metal as they were before. He didn't let his guard down, staying alert and ready to counter sudden moves with his flair.
"Who are you?"
"I am Raya Hinode." She said without hesitation, she walked towards Hiroto as smoke trailed and dissipated from her figure behind her. This was a hologram of her real self being delivered live in a message. She summoned a few paper documents, "I am here to invite you to the Crystal Rebellion speeches personally," She sounded so sure that he'd join, Hiroto was extremely dumbfounded by her bold assumption, perhaps offended as well.
'Raya' seemed as if she had done this countless times, she seemed as if she had nothing to fear. It was not reassuring.
Hiroto hesitated as if the information she said just slammed into his head, "The… crystal-…?" He frowned and turned to her as she looked around, "You are mistaken if you think i'll join or you have the wrong person." Hiroto slowly backed up to his desk and averted his gaze from the woman, he would be lying if he said he wasn't scared. The glass vases and decorations on his desk clinked against each other and the table creaked from supporting Hiroto's weight all of a sudden, pens rolled down and he bit his lip in frustration at the mess.
"The weapons you build for the government are the same weapons they use to kill hundreds of lives every single day beyond the walls." She tutted, turning her head sideways as if it were a casual conversation and Hiroto's brain screeched to a halt, "what?" He glared. Hiroto was forced by the government into the job, a prodigy at machinery. It was said to strengthen their defence… if Hiroto refused he would've been stripped of the noble title in Juvia. Hiroto couldn't help but pale and whisper, "there's people over the walls?," they never told him this or anyone in fact.
Beyond the walls there was nothing but vaste jungle and wild trees. Juvia's forests and the beasts that lurked within were cruel. How could it even be possible that people survive let alone have settlements out there?
"Even if that is true, I was abducted and branded into this job. I don't have a choice."
"You have one, and many more. I'll find it for you and give you a choice. Follow my lead, these people don't have to get hurt. I know you're passionate about heroism, so help me save some innocent lives. I was a recruit of the ascendancy to."
Hiroto looked at Raya in confusion. A recruit? How could she be in such a brutal government facility and be against the queen she was supposed to serve. Last he checked, the removal of their barcodes wasn't something he's ever told anyone.
She seemed to emit a cunning aura, challenging him to ask. The white haired man couldn't utter a word except, "lying- you're lying. Such huge weapons, their blasts would be heard if they were ever used," He hoped she was lying. She quietly took out a hologram file and played a recorded video from… a drone? It was old. Little children stood in front of mud houses and a chief protecting his tribe as soldiers quickly infiltrated the houses. A blur of negotiations and aggressive insults over… food?
The next thing was just a bunch of screams, and loud plasma attacks. Villagers using their flairs were no match for soldiers with modern weaponry. The drone was hit by a beam and shot away, the static noise and blood stains on the broken camera were all to be seen.
Raya was quick to retort afterwards, "the walls and invisible barriers make Juvia soundproof, why do you think the curfew happens? All of this, for a queen who doesn't respect your family name, steals the credit of your effort to all the mechanical engineers and nuclear scientists that work for her." Raya held Hiroto's shoulder in an effort to calm and slow his mind down, "I can hear your thoughts, you aren't guilty of anything of course however after this you will be." The video shut down as she waved her arm.
Hiroto didn't even realise he was staring at the wall till the mist's touch snapped him back to reality. He looked at her, "you- what is it you want exactly?" he stuttered. He will keep having to make weapons. If the queen ever found out he has abandoned his line of work, the status of nobility that was given to the Takahashi lineage could dissipate without extensive questioning and ruthless paperwork.
Otherwise due to the fact that Hiroto knew and created the most important missile tracking systems, along with many extraordinary weapons for various heroes at a young age determined to make a difference like his father, he would be held on trial for treason and promptly executed, how many times has this happened to colleagues that had come before him? he didn't know. He felt ashamed, cowering for being so gullible.
"I want you to put your talent to good use, I understand you deserve to know that your weapons aren't stored for the country's protection, the foreign war that Rikina started 10 years ago is forged. I also understand you need some sort of payment... Hidetsugu Takahashi's death was a complicated matter, i'll tell you all I know about it. One of my recruits has more information than I do. He will arrive in a few weeks time after his rotation." Hiroto simply stared as the mist spoke, forged? His ears were hearing things faster than he could process them. Father?…"He wasn't a man I knew." Hiroto blurted out, skeptical.
"Yet a man you were attached to. Who wouldn't be? You don't have to personally know someone to be inspired by them." Raya was cunningly pulling on Hiroto's strings. It was working, he admits. Hiroto knew Sylvester wouldn't be back in a while now that he had nagged him once. Curiosity got the best of him.
Hidetsugu died in a suicide bombing; Juvia knew this, he knew this, it was all over social media. Hiroto however was not one of the men who had heard any thing more about his father's death than what was nationally broadcasted… and neither did anyone dare to speak about their conspiracies if there were any who believed in something different. This is a risk he could take if there was new information about his father.
"Speak."
.
"SPEAK!!!"
Years ago, Sylvester clenched his teenage brother's hand, "please." He would never forget the day ambulances flashed red and blues around his burning down, he could barely breathe as he hazily saw his traumatised mother's body wrapped in heavy blankets and soot being put in cuffs, she screamed in agony and despite her nagging was stuffed inside the police car. She was burnt and her face was horribly scarred. The memory was hazy, perhaps his brain wanted him to forget.
He had felt so much pain. He could barely look up without his eyes screaming in protest. Moments later he woke up with machines attached to his wrists to monitor his heart and brain waves. He was unburnt? A blinding light and whirring of the IV's as he flinched under the medical light before it was closed. Hiroto gasped in confusion and shot up before being pushed back down by Sylvester, "you can't move right now."
"Where is mother? Why are you here?" The trembling Hiroto couldn't decipher who Sylvester was immediately, they had been separated for years since they were children. "Being detained." Sylvester shook his head, "she did you wrong. Tell me what happened. What did Masato do to you?" Hidden rage boiled behind Sylvester's face and Hiroto couldn't be more than confused in Sylvester's care.
The news of Hidetsugu Takahashi's family manor burning down kept feeding the media for days after Hiroto had entered the coma that day from the carbon dioxide emissions. It was labeled as an accident, a body burnt to char had been retrieved from the rubble, unidentifiable but assumed to be Masato Mikan's. A famous media personality.
No one knew what happened, Hiroto knew… those habits will be stuck with him forever.
He shook in fear, grabbing his hand harshly to force himself to stop. Hiroto started to recognise this woman, her rebellion only sneaked through gossip, not much information regarding the ready army was with the public and the media has successfully diverted the attention from the mysterious attacks. The opposing chess players for the throne moved quietly on both sides. It felt as if he knew things about Hiroto that he didn't yet discover about himself, he found it annoying and terrifying and… thrilling.
Talking to an outsider, much less the chief of a rebellion, was dangerous. He could get caught and executed over this as well. Yet, he was dumbly quiet. "I will tell you all you need to know at these bunkers here. My men will be there to escort you through the tunnels, You will be to an area with my devotees. I will introduce you and our new village recruits to the motives of the rebellion, in a speech" Her voice was laced with determination, "it's your choice now… I've shown you all my evidence, continue to deny it, you'll have chosen your side in the war without hearing us out."
Hiroto's mouth was agape in confusion as the device fizzed into thin air and the woman disappeared as quickly as she came, a small chip left behind to download the location into his barcode. Immediately, Sylvester shot through the door, "are you coming or not!?" It didn't give time for Hiroto to process anything that happened."Yes- yes. I am-" stroking his fingers through his braid, Hiroto sighed to calm himself. He looked at the device one last time before heading out. His 'father' might have disapproved of this, Xui Lingwen was a man who was the closest father figure he and Sylvester ever had.
It was odd of him to remember Xui in this situation. It had been so long since he had last seen the man. He was a head butler that took care of them till Hiroto was 10 after Hidetsugu's death, and then one night without waking up either of them, he wore his cloak and left the mansion, never to come back. When Hidetsugu died, he remembered Xui's silent sobbing. It was ironic that Xui had just soothed Sylvester to go to bed before that. Sylvester, not being able to sleep that night, saw this painful image of his caretaker bowing deeply in a puddle of tears before the fresh shrine portrait, describing it to Hiroto as if it was painful hiccuping.
What would Xui say if he had seen Hiroto interacting with such brash people?
Sylvester looked at Hiroto and patted his head as they made their way through the building towards the afloat roads where their car was waiting in the terrace parking lot, "you seem troubled." He took out his ID so a robot valet could confirm his car location and automate it towards them.
"It's nothing." Hiroto closed his eyes, sulking. Sylvester raised an eyebrow as if testing if Hiroto was doubting his ability to read Hiroto's micro expressions, "whatever you say."
Hiroto closed his eyes in shame, dragging a palm over his eye as he let his thoughts wander back to the encounter. The location was saved on his desk computer as he had seen it flash. He would take the risk and venture there tomorrow without informing Sylvester.
That's how all this mess started.