WHO Are These Guys?!

? - ‘’You’re an anchor holder huh?’’

A person who had developed a deep bond with an item, person, animal or even an area. this bond allows the anchor holder to use current through certain ways.

Yumo stares at the mysterious man with a bewildered, blurry gaze, his shaky arms hold him up and the body of the crazed weighs his weakened body down.

Yumo with a raspy and quiet tone – ‘’Anchor holder...w-what...of course I’m not, I’m just-’’

The man cuts him off with a raised hand, his other hand moving to slip the cigarette back into his mouth. He stands up and looks down at Yumo with an understanding but neutral gaze

? – ‘’So that's the gist of it...little do you know but you just awakened your anchor with that axe over there’’

He motions his head over to the lumberjack axe which has since clattered to the floor next to yumo, the purple current that had once surrounded it now slowly wisping away like smoke around its old edges.

Yumo’s eyes flutter, his eyes rolling into the back of his head then centring multiple times

Yumo with a barely awake tone – ‘’Who even are...’’

His sentence gets cut off not by the man this time but by his body crumbling to the floor, the exhaustion and wounds finally catching up to him

The man exhales a puff of smoke and moves the crazed body off Yumo’s with his boot.

Danchi with a quiet greeting – ‘’Names Danchi. Lieutenant commander of squad Alpha-100. Nice to meet you, new blood’’

Yumo just catches the greeting as his ears buzz, the smell of iron that filled his senses slowly drifting away as he loses consciousness...

His mind drifts to a deep space inside of his mind, a vast ocean that he sinks deeper into

Yumo with a hoarse voice – ‘’It's so cold...’’

His hand moves around in the dark water, trying to grasp it in his hands. His hands slowly warm up as if a blanket had been wrapped around his body

Yumo – ‘’No...it's warm?’’

A small smile forms on his face and his eyes close, his body relaxing and sinking deeper into the murky depths of the ocean.

Yumo’s eyes slowly peak through his eyelids as they slide open, granting him view of the surroundings just to see a large, pointed blade inches away from his eyeball.

Yumo’s heart beats a rhythm quicker at the sight of the never-ending blade, but he doesn’t feel scared...rather he feels calm. The blade looks...familiar

Yumo’s hand slowly reaches out to grab the blade but before he reaches it, his eyes snap open in the real world. He's in a hospital bed, a bright light shining in the lamp on the roof.

Though...something is blocking his view of the light fully

Danchi who is sat cross legged on Yumo, Yumo’s hand which had reached out for the blade in his dream seemingly have moved in real life to grab Danchi’s face

Danchi with a raised eyebrow - ‘’Something wrong?’’

Yumo looks shocked and quickly throws Danchi off him, Danchi landing on his head on the white floor of the room

Yumo with an angry tone – ‘’what the hell are you doing you freak?! Learn some personal boundaries before I kick your-’’

Yumo grunts and holds his ribs quickly as a sharp pain shoot through his body from still-healing injuries

Danchi stands up from the floor slowly with a straight face, brushing off his dark green trouser which are held up with a belt with a golden belt buckle.

Danchi looks down at Yumo – ‘’I wouldn’t have moved. Might damage your ribs again’’

Yumo looks up at Danchi with a furious look, his teeth bared and his face going slightly red – ‘’I wouldn’t have had to move if you didn’t sit on me!’’

Danchi shrugs, clearly brushing off Yumo’s anger like he’s just overreacting – ‘’I was just making sure you were alright. I couldn’t really see you well on the chair since I can’t see things well from afar’’

Danchi’s hand moves to reach inside of the pocket of his dark green suit jacket that he wears more like a cape than an actual jacket. A piece paper is held in between his fingers as he slowly extends his arm to hand Yumo the paper

Yumo’s eyes close until they are half lidded again, his body slightly back as Danchi’s hand extends towards him. His eyes move to the piece of paper, and he asks with caution

Yumo – ‘’what is that?’’

Danchi’s head tilt to the side a little bit, his hand that holds the paper lowering slightly but staying extended.

Danchi tone remains neutral along with his gaze – ‘’it's a recruitment offer for the holder division’’

A division made of only anchor holders to handle all matters that are caused by anchor holders or current.

The words hang in the air for a moment, Yumo’s eyes widening as he lets the words bounce around then settle in his mind.

Yumo regains his composure – ‘’if that's what it is then...’’

Yumo pauses, his body relaxed, and his head turned down

Yumo with a quiet tone – ‘’I don’t want to join’’

The rooms air seems to go still at yumo’s decline

Danchi’s gaze doesn’t waver from yumo’s face which is now tilted down towards the blanket of the hospital bed.

Danchi with an accepting tone – ‘’I understand. Everyone's got something they want to do with their lives’’

Those words hit Yumo hard. Everyone has something they want to do with their lives...yeah right. Yumo’s chest tightens but outwardly he remains impassive, his half-lidded eyes still trained onto the blanket covering his body as if it's the most interesting thing in the world

Danchi moves his hand with the recruitment offer in it and sets it down gently on the bed side table – ‘’I’m only going to be in town for a few more hours. If you change your mind...meet me by the train station’’

Danchi turns on his heal, his suit-cape twirling around with him as he walks out of the room and closes the door behind him.

Yumo finally lifts his head to look at the closed door, his posture rigid and tense now as he squeezes his bed sheets tightly

Yumo looks back down at the bed sheets with flared nostrils and gritted teeth – ‘’I don’t have anything like that asshole...’’

His voice low and self-depreciating, his knuckles whitening as he squeezes the bed sheets tighter.

Memories of his repetitive life play like a highlight reel through his mind, every day more monotonous than the last. He remembers the numbness in his hands as they moved box after box in that god forsaken warehouse, his hands felt as if they belong to somebody else. As if he was a puppet for some higher power's entertainment and every joint of his was wrapped in strings.

Yumo closes his eyes tightly and his body curls up, he thinks – ‘’what I do is all I’m worthy of doing...other people don’t matter’’

His body relaxes slightly, his surroundings turning quiet as he believes he's come to a conclusion

Yumo leans his head back against the wall, his body slowly unfurling and his hands now resting in his lap, relaxed – ‘’You’re doing what you deserve to do...other people don’t matter’’

The paper rests on the bedside table, its flimsy structure not depicting the weight it bares on yumo’s mind.

2 hours later, a nurse walks in. Her hair cut short and brown and her presence friendly

Nurse holding a clip board in her arms – ‘’Hello mister Sumano! How are you feeling now?’’

Yumo looks up at the nurse but then looks away again

Yumo shrugs deftly – ‘’Fine mostly.’’

The nurse nods and writes down something on her clip board before looking back up to speak to yumo

Nurse with a chipper attitude – ‘’the doctor told me that its recommended you stay in our care for another day just so we can monitor you and make sure none of those wounds open’’

Yumo nods just to make her feel like he’s listening, but his ears are only picking up the thoughts inside his head

He wonders why does the nurse care for him? She'll never see him again once he leaves and only knows my name because it's written on the paper in front of her. So... why?

He thinks back to what Danchi said: ‘’everyone has something they want to do with their lives’’. Danchi’s words light a spark of curiosity inside of yumo.

Yumo looks at the nurse with a curious look, his eyes slightly wider – ‘’why do you want me to get better? ‘’

Yumo’s voice interrupting whatever she was saying and making the nurse look confused by the question, her eyebrow raising.

She stays quiet, as if unsure how to answer such a question that came so out of the blue. Her shoulders relax and her face melts into a soft smile

Nurse – ‘’because I care about you, isn’t that obvious?’’

Her answer causes Yumo’s heart to skip a beat, his entire being pausing as if his muscles are hesitant to believe it.

Yumo’s hand raises slightly – ‘’But why? You don’t even know me well and you’ll never see me again so...’’

He pauses to let her answer again, this time now anticipating her words

The nurse giggles slightly and shrugs – ‘’A person's life isn’t valued on how much I know them because everyone is important’’

Her head tilts down and her soft smile remains though it becomes more thoughtful, and she continues – ‘’a lot of people have someone else who cares for them deeply so if they get hurt, I can’t imagine how the other person would feel’’

Yumo’s body feels much lighter at her words, his cheeks flushing slightly as he stares at her with realisation dawning on his face

Yumo thinks to himself – ‘’everyone is important...how could I have been so selfish’’

Yumo’s lips press together in a thin line as he stands up, the nurse trying to usher him to lay back down but he doesn’t listen, a sense of determination running through him along with a new outlook

Then, without Yumo’s consent, he smiles. A real. Genuine. Smile and one goal in his mind as of now, catch that train with Danchi.

Yumo – ‘’Thank you but I’ll be fine from here on out’’

The nurse looks at him confused and shakes her head, her one hand raised slightly

Nurse – ‘’N-no you really need to lay down-’’

In the spur of the moment, he rushes past the bedside table with the recruitment paper still resting on top of it. He bursts through the hospital room dorm and his feet pound as he rushes down the white hallways.

His ribs lower back pounds with pain but the pain doesn’t hurt, it instead fills him with a new excitement that he hasn’t felt in years.

Yumo thinks to himself as he runs – ‘’If I protect people, the people who they care about won’t be sad. They won’t have to go through the same pain I did’’

A flash of him staring at himself in the mirror back in his disgusting apartment flashes through his mind but he shakes it away

Yumo with a determined voice speaks to himself - ‘’I’ll keep people safe, just you watch!’’