twenty one years of darkness

The girl opened her eyes again, she had just woken up on a bed in an unknown room. She looked around and started investigating everything. She saw a little table right next to the bed with some food on it, some pieces of fruit, a slice of bread and a juice.

Grabbing the food she started to desperately eat it, beginning to cry for a moment, before she got interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah…” She said sitting on the bed still covered on the sheets.

Kuro opened the door and sitted on her side staring at her with a big smile

“How do you feel?”

“Well, I´ve been better, but after sleeping I feel fine…”

“Yo rather fainted than sleep but I'm happy to hear it… I don't know if it's too early to start with the questions so if you feel uncomfortable or something just tell me okay?”

“Don't worry… I also have questions too…”

“If you want, you can start, I don't have to hurry.”

“Well… For the moment I only have one… How much time have I… Well… Being a monster?

“Most likely 21 years…”

As a response to the news she looked to the side. The tears came back to her eyes but this time they did not stop. Hugging herself she stayed like that for several minutes. Kurogane did nothing except touch her shoulder gently, trying to comfort her a bit.

“How many people… Turned like I did…?

“Most people… Just here in London it seems like 90%...”

“So… There's still a good bunch of people alive in the city…”

“I wouldn't say more than a few thousands…”

“And… How many people do you think I…”

Before finishing that sentence Kuro shouted stopping her

“For as far as I'm concerned you have never killed another human being, so… Don't go too hard on yourself, for the moment, try to accept and understand the new reality that you… Unfortunately have to live on…”

She let her head down, lost in her thoughts.

Kuro got up and walked towards the door.

“Oh, before I leave… Do you remember your name?”

“Erika... “

“Nice to meet you Erika… I have something that… May help you with… All of this”

Just as he said so he threw a book to the bed and left the room. Erika took it, checking the cover, seeing how old it looked. It was a diary, a scientific notebook really, or at least that was the title, “The scientific notebook of Luca Leinster.”

With curiosity she opened it and took a quick peek. Reading the first pages. They explained the first moments of the event. This scientist described all of this as a giant nuclear explosion that took place in Russia. There was a lot of data collected that she didn't really understand but somehow, seeing that so much information was known gave her some hope.

After passing some pages she arrived at a note, it was for the son of the scientist. She, with some doubt, started reading the note and as she finished she decided to set it aside for the moment, leaving it on the desk next to the bed and getting up the bed. She then walked to the wardrobe looking for something to wear. She found an old brown jacket and some jeans.

The girl exited the room and started walking around the building, checking out all the places. Erika stopped in front of a window, watching the ash falling, lost in the view. Seeing those streets that not so long ago were full of people now, hollow of life. After some time there, thinking, she got away from that image, continuing the tour of the place.

She arrived at the garden. It was a little open area with lots of crops and plants all over the place. They made a lot of contrast with the white of the ashes outside. There were even flowers too. Red ones, purple ones, all the colours imaginable.

Erika came close to some white roses and stared at them. She got on her knees, standing closer to them smiling a bit as she did so. Grabbing one of them, she got her nose close with a big smile just to be interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Enjoying my garden huh?” Said the silver haired boy teasing a little.

“Oh sorry I was just… Seeing the house a little and I ended up here…”

“You don't have to apologize. How do you feel?”

“Better I think… At least I remember how to behave like a human… I… I really dont remember much about… Well, all this time… Mostly it was all dark. Like I was trapped inside my body with barely a moment to see or do something…”

“Well… Then you are ahead of a lot of people, and don't worry... If you don't recall anything about that time It may actually help you… It will give you time to adjust to everything again. So don't go crazy if you start howling at midnight or anything.”

She laughed a little, the first laugh she had in a very long time and she knew it. Feeling closer to being herself again she went back to look at the flowers.

“I think I am ready for some questions. Just keep in mind that I will do the same and I will be merciless…”

“Ohh… I may prepare myself then.” Said Kurogane, Smiling.

“Well… Let's start easy… How old are you? Remember you will have to add like… 21 years to that.”

“I am… OH MY GOD I AM 47!! What the hell…”

“Okay… Wow… You are old…”

“Hey! Don't mock me. I don't look that old… Do I?

“Absolutely, wrinkled like a raisin”

“Really funny snowflake…”

“At least I am only 23” He said laughing to the conversation.

“Are you sure? Then you have one hell of a natural hair colour. Or did you dye it?”

“It's actually none of those, its my mutation”

“Your mutation? What do you mean?”

“Eh… Okay, this is actually really long to explain, did you read the book?”

“Not everything but I did start it, but I didn't get much, your father was not the most compelling writer in the world”

Kuro was stunned for a second, those words made him remember something that took him out of the conversation. She noticed it, and her smile faded away as she reached him to apologize.

“Sorry… I didn't mean to upset you....”

“Oh don't worry, I told you that you didn't have to apologize, it's just… Nothing. Why don't we go inside and talk there, I can make tea or something.”

“Oh sure… Sounds good”

They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before going back inside. walking down the corridor arriving eventually to the kitchen. It was a big room with a table in the middle and some chairs. Erika sat in one of those while Kuro went to a teapot and filled it with water. Using his shadows again he heated the water when these banished in a few seconds.

Erika saw this and her eyes sparkled with excitement.

“How did you do that?!”

“Wait, I will explain everything in a moment.”

“Okay… Party pooper…”

“I assume then that you are the life of the party”

“I am. You doubt me?”

“Not in the slightest…”

“Good… I don't wanna have to show you…”

Kurogane rolled his eyes but all the time with a smile on his face. He then walked to the table with a mug and a few leaves of tea and mixed them with the water in front of her. She smelled the beverage and grabbed it while drinking a little.

“Not bad, first time I drink fresh tea. You won't have any?”

“Nope, I hate tea.”

She looked at him a little deflated.

“Then… Why do you have it…? “

“Guests usually like it… And it is a very british thing to have.”

“So you are not british? To be honest, your name made that a little obvious”

“Actually, I am british. Well, half british”

“And the other half? Chinese or something I assume.”

“Japanese, but good try.”

“Oh sorry, your blue eyes gave me so many clues.”

They both explode in laughter, with Erika almost spilling the tea. After a few seconds they regained their composure and went back to the conversation. Kurogane was the first to talk again, resting his elbows on the table and looking directly into the eyes of the girl.

“Okay, I will start explaining a little about the radiation M, the bindings, mutations and stuff.”

“The M stands for…”

“Magical radiation…”

“You're kidding right?”

“I wish I did…”

“Wow… Okay… Continue…”

“I may say that I don't understand this completely. My… Father was the expert… But I will try… Okay… The explosion seems like it expelled a lot of radiation. Like, so much to reach all the planet. The interesting part of this was that it was mostly a new type of radiation. How he discovered this is something that doesn't matter right now but putting it in simple terms this radiation was the result of a process in which the energy becomes matter.”

“Okay… I am not an expert in science by any means but I do remember something about the energy not being created nor destroyed, only transformed. How can that work?”

“I'm not exactly sure, I know that it obeys to the equation of the disintegration of matter by Einstein. But I don't really understand this so much… The thing is that this radiation when reaching something usually changes it, with non-organic matter doesn't really do much but with us it can alter almost all of our structure. That's why we mutated.”

“And I became a giant monster…”

“You weren't that big… There are ones much much bigger.” Said the silver haired in a goofy way.

She laughed a little, stopping the new round of sadness that was about to start. Then she asked.

“Okay, you have explained the mutations part, not why you can control shadows”

“The principal effect that this radiation had on all of us is that in essence it made us walking nuclear reactors.”

“That sounds awesome.”

“I know right?! And basically we can control energy, move it around our bodies, sense it, and even transform it into matter. But we cannot do it all, every person has a specific type of ways to use it and can only transform it into one thing. That's what we call bindings.”

“That sounds even more awesome. So… If everyone has one that means I have one too?!”

“Nope, you should have two.”

“What?! Really?!”

“Yep, the thing that I used to cure you emitted M rays so basically it acted in you like a second binding, with much less… lets call it charge than before so it was much easier to resist than the one made with the explosion”

She hesitated for a moment, full of excitement for the first time in years she wanted to ask something from the very beginning and after some seconds of thought Erika managed to do it. 

“So… I remember that you told me that you were a doctor…”

“I am, why?”

“What do you intend on doing now? Knowing that there is a cure and all…”

“Easy, I will cure everyone. Discover what happened and… Make things as easy as I can for all people.”

She was looking into his eyes the entire time. But after he said that she looked away, breaking eye contact with a sweet smile of pure happiness. It was just for an instant, not enough for the boy to notice and after that she looked away to him and said with a laugh

“That's easy for you? you are such a dreamer… You remind me of someone… And if you don't have trouble with it I would like to help you… Just so… You know, you don't screw everything up.”

“I was already counting with you. You thought that I saved you just because I was kind? I need an assistant for my laboratory.”

“Okay… We need to clarify that first, I am not your assistant.”