Eye for an Eye

“GOD IS HERE! Our Lord Osiris will bring a new age of prosperity! He has risen!”

Alright, normally I don’t see that until I’m in Akihabara…

Exiting the train into Suidōbashi Station, Getsurin’s attention was swiftly stolen by a heckler of public normality. Screaming and shouting, bordering a demonic possession from the crazed movements of that strange man. Thankfully that has passed, much less chaotic from what he normally encounters. In fact, this stroll is a subtle reason why he didn’t mind a delayed return home: To avoid the endless strain of abnormalities that blankets every corner of Akihabara.

In spite of his proposed directionlessness, he knows for certain he will not end up like those that shout at bystanders.

“Gods arriving in Japan today, huh? Yesterday was the Carnival Cult kidnapping people, the week before was witches casting curses.”

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring… Heh, as long as they don’t cling onto me like the yellow eyed ‘Witch’ freak, hollering at me for a whole block just because I didn’t apologize for accidentally stepping on her street art. If you don’t want people walking over your stuff, then don’t lay it on one of the busiest sidewalks in Tokyo.

“How dare—! Ye shall fall begotten that of great misfortune and misery that lies beyond human emotion!!!” The self proclaimed Which conjured and cursed, chasing haggard and withered. As she eventually faded into the crowds of people, along with the cursed screams.

He called to his memory, cringing at the unsightly situation as he saw plenty of people raising their curiosity at the mad woman following a high school student through Akihabara. Just another day for many. As it was for Getsurin, ready to go home, he had little to no intention of stopping and apologizing to the poor, likely unhoused woman.

Getsurin shivered with cringe once more with the thought of encountering the woman again. Thankfully, Akihabara is big enough where it's quite rare to bump into the same stranger, at least in such a short period.

“I’ve never had anyone chase, well, aggressively follow me until they ran out of energy…"

“What an odd life to have.”

Getsurin whispered under his breath. Almost longing for an experience that can be considered normal and average. With his current situation, the most he’ll be able to strive for is a literal walk in the park.

“This place is pretty nice… But…”

“There’s hardly anyone here…”

A side effect of modernity, almost symbolic, Koishikawa-Kōrakuen park has become more of a shadow in the minds of the modern world. Vacant, isolated even, as it is overtaken by an extraordinary monument of modernization: The Tokyo Dome. Between history and progress, an area such as this brings certain types of people: from a bygone era, societal strays, and worn souls. Each is just moments away from normality and the future, but instead desire comfort, familiarity. Or, something more, something that they can’t even describe. In such a loud world it's not difficult to see these certain types of people become isolated.

But Getsurin has always been this way—As much as he’d like to claim he’s a byproduct of the modern world, he’s simply waiting for opportunities for an extrovert to adopt his introverted persona.

Yes, he's isolated because he wants to be, and he knows it.

“Maybe I should just man up and just focus on literally anything.”

“It's not like it's frickin’ hard…”

Getsurin, showing signs of a path into the future, understanding that the flaws are another aspect of life, and workarounds are possible. He turned to the beautiful clear sky, for further enlightenment. When—”What the hell?” He mumbled. An airplane, at a regular altitude far above Tokyo, one of its cloud trails suddenly morphed to deep gray.

Without a thought to comprehend, the aircraft has altered in color and size. No longer the faint white line in the sky—Now a much larger hellish vermillion sphere. The near instant change of the plane brought out a whimper so subtle from Getsurin, struggling to gather any sense of the sight. Wanting to ignore the fact an explosion happened thousands of kilometers in the sky.

Completely failing to realize the fear has overtaken his body: freezing in place. Zero signs that what he witnessed is even real. As if an absolute hallucination: shattering the mind’s use of physical senses, the eerie silence, the nonexistence of any sound originating from the explosion made the terrifying sight all the more surreal.

The faint touch of the shockwave eventually traveled to him, breaking him out of the stunned state, to then look at his surroundings for any grip back to reality. He soon saw others in the park gazing at the bright ball of fire. Dozens, if not hundreds of impossibly dark tendrils of smoke cascaded from the ball of fire towards the earth, each harboring destructive shrapnel. The hellish flame soon faded into a pure black cloud.

Too confused to make any movements, Getsurin could only watch, helpless, as the shrapnel fell. To find any grasp of reality once more, he looked around the park and everyone he had seen before fled for shelter as the shrapnel of the plane came closer and closer. Confused, but not incoherent, Getsurin was able to tell that most of the shrapnel would fall westward of his location.

However, a faint yet sharp thud shook his entire body, down to his core—Panic flooded his mind as the chance of something striking him was not zero. Still in a panicked focus, he searched his immediate surroundings to find the source of the thud, he knew it would be small, looking for any signs of an impact.

The cry of sirens from Emergency service vehicles quickly took over all regions of Tokyo. Which eased the panic in Getsurin as the falling shrapnel had likely ended. As the recognition of the immediate fear was over, a new fear took over. Knowing that so much more suffering will come from this unknowable atrocity… Even for Getsurin, the terror was already near him.

“Did that fall from the explosion?”

Getsurin mutters, as the last of adrenaline pumped into his body. Embedded in the earth is a sickly white thing—cradled by the small crater from the impact of wherever it just fell. Questioning if something like this actually came from the plane. Curiosity moved him toward the thing, confused, he glanced once more at the pitch black cloud in the sky. Studying the thing, glistening like freshly crushed fruit. Aside from the dark soot and dirt, it was the purest of white he had ever seen.

Curiosity overtook him and he picked up the sickly white thing: rotating it in his hand, spherical and grossly squishy, he thought it was strikingly similar to an eye, but not like any eye he had ever witnessed. As this eye detailed unusual geometric patterns in and around both Iris and Pupil.

The eye liquefied—deadlocked onto his hand. Instantly dissolving into the microscopic pores of his skin. Forcing its way into Getsurin, without any form of warning or even time for him to properly react to the frightening sensation.

The air in his lungs burned, the blood within him boiled, the shock of tears and sweat razed his skin. Unable to breathe, unable to scream, run, or even think. As if the sequencing in the depths of his DNA was only designed to create pain—the eye was transforming him from the inside. In those seconds of suffering: All of the pain fled to his head, then closer to his own eyes.

The hyperfocus of pain gave him a jolt of freedom to move again, but only to stop the pain that grew by his eyes. His glasses ripped off of his face, followed by the deepest red that he didn’t know was possible.

Just instant as the pain started. It was gone.

He fell to his knees, and slowly put his hand over his left eye. Only recognizing the unmistaken texture of blood around his face. Vision somehow still clear as before, he slowly locates his glasses. There they were, next to the eye. Unfortunately, not the eye that fell from the plane. Stained by his blood and park dirt, it was his own. Plainly resting on Koishikawa Kōrakuen’s fine grass.

In that moment of exhaustion, he was only able to gaze at his own eye.

An odd life indeed.