Birth of Shadow

November seventeenth, nineteen ninety-five, beneath the Kanji groups research facility. Akio Takeba stood within an elevator, a man in a suit and tie at his side.

“We’ve prepared all the prisoners and volunteers; they’ve been fit into the machine, and we’re ready for the next step.” He spoke.

Akio let out a deep sigh, running a hand through his short hair.

“It all comes down to this.” He remarked.

“You nervous?”

“Anxious. If this fails, all these years will have amounted to nothing.”

“Don’t be. You’re a genius and a hard worker.”

“Right, thanks, Kanji.”

A silent ding could be heard, and the elevator door slid open before them. On the other side was a long and vast hall, the floor beneath them gray concrete, the ceiling towering well above their heads. A group of men and women in lab coats scurried around a long console, a wide glass in front of them.

Kanji and Akio approached, the group turning their attention to the two.

“Kanji, Akio.” One of the men stepped forward. He was young and wore a bright, shining smile. He stretched his hand out, “I’m glad that I get to see you make history.” Akio took his hand and firmly shook it.
“I’m glad that I get to make it.” He smiled back.

He stepped in front of the glass, eyes falling on the huge contraption behind it.

It towered toward the tall ceiling, expanding back further than any of them could see. It was made of shining metal, and etched into it were hundreds of “seats.” Men and women of different ages were strapped into these seats, each of them wearing a white jumpsuit.

“One thousand and two.” The man from before remarked, approaching the console with a clipboard.

“We have one thousand and two bodies in the machine. If your theory is correct, we’ll have enough energy to create a dungeon two times the size of Japan!” He exclaimed with excitement.

“We’ll have something stronger than any nuclear weapon.” Kanji placed a hand on Akio's shoulder, nodding firmly. “Let’s do this.”

Akio nodded back, taking the levers of the console in hand and pressing them forward. The sound of whirring grew louder and louder, the machine inside rattling. Sparks of what looked like black electricity flashed throughout, the prisoners and volunteers strapped to the machine beginning to writhe and shout in pain, mixing in with the sound of the machines rattling to create a terrible melody. Their eyes bulged, bodies jerking, frothing at their mouths. They began to roll their eyes toward the back of their skulls, the machine shaking with much more violence.

The sparks of black lightning became more prevalent.

“Something's going wrong. We’re over capacity!” The man from before shouted, hand pressed against the glass.

“Stop the machine!” Kanji shouted.

“I’m trying!” Akio attempted to pull back the lever, but it wouldn’t budge.

“If we can’t stop the machine, this whole building might come down!” The man stepped away from the window, approaching the door at their side.

“What are you doing?”

"Manual shut-down!” He placed his hand on the scanner, the door whooshing open. The young man sprinted inside as it whooshed closed behind him.

The room's atmosphere was intense, and the symphony of screams and the machines rattling was much louder. Flashes of black struck at him, tearing some of the fabric from his clothes.

Everything suddenly slowed, the sounds of screaming, the sparks of black, the world. And suddenly, everything went dark, and an all-encompassing void consumed the world.

The man stood within this void, an overpowering sensation taking over his entire being. A hand in all black, surrounded by a white aura, stretched out and reached deep into his body. It reached toward a place not even known to himself, his being, his soul. Memories in which he’d forgotten trekked up, feelings of despair and anguish washed over him, and then the hand began to pull, stealing something from him with immeasurable value.

There was dust and smoke, residual mana scattering around the inside of the room like dust bunnies. Once it’d all cleared, there was nothing. The machine was gone; in its place was a large patch of ash.

“W-what just happened?” Akio spoke with despair, hand stretching toward the glass.

“Akio! Look!”

Further away from the patch of ash was a large pool of black, strange, thick ropes made of that darkness fleeing into the air.

“Is it a dungeon?” He silently asked.

A hand emerged, black as the pool it spawned from. Then there was another hand, then a head, a body, legs, and feet. A creature made of darkness rose from the pool, slowly turning to face the glass. Two holes formed in its face, creating pure white eyes, and another cracked where its lips would be, forming a smile of this same white light. The black ropes of mana it was made from formed atop its head, creating a set of perpetually floating hair.

Akio felt insurmountable dread just by looking at it, pure fear shaking him to his core and paralyzing him. He instinctively stepped away as it levitated over, stopping before the glass and watching. It lifted its finger and pointed at Akio, its expression never changing.

“What the hell are you!” He shouted.

The creature twitched, a loud voice ringing in his head.

“Nuclear… Weapon…” It answered. Its voice sounded similar to that of the young man from before, but laced within were hundreds of echoing and clamoring voices.

“Your… creation.” It extended its hand outward, placing it on the glass, its eyes refusing to move away from its creator. Akio could feel something wrap around him and start to pull him in, a strange and cold sensation overwhelming him. The world turned dark, and suddenly, he was standing in a void.

“Hello?” His voice echoed endlessly.

“Hello, Akio.” A familiar voice spoke.

He reeled around, eyes meeting those of the young man.

“K-Kira? What is this place?”

Kira lowered his head, eyes locked onto him.

“No, sorry. I am no longer ‘Kira.’ We are the shadow, and you are inside my heart.” There was much more bass behind his voice, the constant echoes distorting it.

“We? Heart? What's going on here?”

“Something stronger than any nuclear weapon.” He stated, “A dungeon two times the size of Japan. Your weapon.”

“Are you trying to say that you came from my machine?”

He nodded.

“How?”

“A dungeon harbors monsters, a dungeon turns into a distortion and frees those monsters, I am a monster.”

“I’m still not understanding.”

“Three in one.” It stated.

“Three in one?”

It nodded again. “I am your weapon. Three in one.”

The word around them suddenly began to rumble, the thing that appeared as Kira turned away before resettling his gaze onto Akio.

“I can’t stay. My heart calls me.”

“Wait!”

Akio was suddenly back in the real world, holding his hand outward.

“Sir?” Kanji gently shook his shoulder.

“We have it.” He muttered, “We have our weapon.”