History

"I was thirteen years old. Puberty hadn't really hit me yet." Ramon crawled past an office building with Junnosuke on his back. "But Twist had. Usually it makes itself known at eighteen or nineteen years old, but I wasn't so lucky."
     Junnosuke stiffened.
     "I was sitting on the sidewalk outside of my grandpa's store with my friends, drinking soda, when a thought came into my head. I imagined what it would be like if I could be like my favorite superhero on television, the Red-Heart Avenger."
     "Who's that?"
     Ramon and Junnosuke ran through an open patch of land between two office buildings as quickly as they could. Once they reached the other side, Ramon flinched in pain as his makeshift bandages rubbed his bullet wound the wrong way. He grit his teeth and forced himself not to alarm Junnosuke. 
     "He was a complete goof, but his superpower was that he was invincible. No matter what happened, he always got back up and saved the day from the bad guys. It was a kid's show, I was a kid, what can I say? Anyway, I had this idea that I could be like my favorite superhero."
     Ramon could feel Junnosuke's grip on his shoulders tighten.
     "What happened?"
     "I challenged my friends to fight. It wasn't a big deal; we fought all the time. But something weird happened when we fought." Ramon sounded uncomfortable. "I won."
     "Why was that weird? You're great at fighting."
     "One of my friends was a kid named Franco. He was fourteen and built like a garbage can; meanwhile I was a scrawny twig of a kid who was good at sneaking into places."
     "Oh."
     The two of them were quiet as they snuck past a bus stop and another antique shop. 
     "Yeah. My friends hit me, over and over, and it didn't hurt. It didn't even tickle. I thought I was unstoppable."
     "You were! You had Twist! Why are you acting like it's a bad thing when you have such a cool power! You're a hypocrite! You've probably been using it this..." Junnosuke shut himself up as he remembered that Ramon was bleeding. 
     Ramon didn't say anything.
     "Why... did you get rid of your power?"
     "I didn't. If it were up to me, I would've kept my powers. It was such a rush," Ramon's voice was tingling, "being able to stand there and get punched and not feel a thing. I could challenge anyone to a fight and win by doing nothing except waiting for them to get tired. I felt like I was free to do anything I wanted."
     Junnosuke blushed.
     "That's how my power makes me feel. Why do you want me to get rid of it? How can it be bad if it makes me feel so good?"
     Ramon sighed.
     "After I found out about my Twist power, I couldn't stop using it. I kept asking people to fight me. After a while, I started picking fights myself. Why shouldn't I? It wasn't like anyone could stop me. I was safe; besides, fighting was fun. Winning was fun."
     Junnosuke watched the back alleys pass them by. Second hand clothing shops, confection stores, and animal care clinics fell behind.
     "It became all I could think about. Fighting, winning, using my Twist power. It was like my brain turned into a spinning top; no matter how fast it went, it never moved away from those three things. I could slow down or speed up how fast I spiraled into complete obsession, but I couldn't stop myself."
     "That sounds like you were a bad person," Junnosuke mumbled, "I'm not like you."
     The two of them ran behind several pharmacies and small clinics that were clustered together. 
     "So you're a good person? You're not bad like me or the policemen? You'd never lose control of your powers? You'd only use them when they wouldn't hurt anyone else, or if you really needed to? Who told you that?"
     "My sister."
     Ramon nodded.
     "My mother told me I was a good person."
     Ramon felt Junnosuke's grip falter.
     "She said I was her little angel; that I was the sweetest boy she'd ever seen. My father told me I was going to make a fine man when I grew up."
     "Shut up."
     "My friends all told me I was real nice; I shared my toys and comics with them, and I didn't mind being the butt of the joke every now and then."
     "Shut up!" 
     Junnosuke pushed himself off Ramon and fell onto the ground of the alley behind a record shop. He covered his ears and curled up into a ball. He wanted to turn into a dragon and get away from the old man and his words.
     Ramon walked over to the kid.
     He sat down next to him.
     "As I was saying, I became obsessed. Every time a problem came up, I immediately thought about how I could use my Twist power to solve it."
     "Shut up!" Junnosuke shouted.
     "Why? Does it sound too close?"
     Junnosuke squirmed. Ramon leaned over him.
     "You're not a horrible person; believe me, I've met a lot of those." His voice was calm. "But Twist is something that takes good people and..." He sighed softly. "That's the other reason it's called Twist. It'll take your brain and warp it until the only thing you can think about is Twist. At your age, I'd usually say it's your parents responsibility to get rid of it for you, because it will warp and twist your mind into its own image."
     Junnosuke was crying.
     "But, apparently, here in Japan, you also get a say in whether or not you receive the surgery." He looked out over the alley. "That's why I think you should get rid of it now, while you can still think about other things. You can still choose to ignore it. Right now, all Twist can do is tempt you into using it. You're not at the point where you can't choose anymore."
      The kid's tears kept falling, and Ramon pulled him deeper into the alley and out of view of the street completely. 
     "Some people, some very, very rare people, never get the surgery, and they have normal lives." Ramon said quietly. "But one thing they all have in common is that they never use their powers."
     Junnosuke kept sniffling, and didn't look Ramon in the eyes.
     "You're not a bad person for getting the surgery. It's like... being sick and getting treated. It'd be worse to knowingly avoid treatment, wouldn't it?"
     The kid nodded.
     "I didn't choose to get the surgery. Like I said, I never would have."
     "S-so..." Junnosuke wiped his eyes. "What happened?"
     "My grandpa. He knew from the start, and he kept telling my parents to give me the surgery. They didn't listen to him. I got worse, and worse, until one day I challenged my dad to a fight."
     Junnosuke's breath hitched.
     "I beat the crap out of him."
     Wind whistled through the alley.
     "My mother told my grandpa what happened. She was just trying to explain why my dad wouldn't show up for work the next day. She didn't think anything was really wrong with me. She justified me to him; said I'd had a bad day. My grandpa came that night, shot the front door off its hinges with a shotgun, and kidnapped me."
     "Really?"
     Ramon nodded and stood up, motioning for Junnosuke to do the same.
     "He took me to a friend of his. He was smart enough to tie me up and throw me in the back of his truck, so by the time I was able to get out of my binds and was about to leap out of the truck, he'd bought enough time to make it to where the surgery was going to happen."
     Ramon rubbed his bald spot, then showed it to Junnosuke. 
     It was covered in stitches.
     "His friend knocked me unconscious with some kind of drug, probably chloroform, and performed the Twist removal surgery on me. I woke up days later, and when I did, it was like I'd been taken out of a long dream."
     Junnosuke stood up.
     "My parents sued my grandpa and sent him to prison. I testified against him in court. It was only after I turned eighteen that I realized he'd saved my life." His voice was slow and measured. "Anyway... we can't stay here. I think we're almost out of the main streets of Tokyo. We only have to go a little farther, and then Percy will handle things from there."
     "Yeah." Junnosuke said quietly. 
     Ramon went to pick up Junnosuke, but the kid refused.
     "Actually... wouldn't it be faster if we both ran together?"
     Ramon looked down at the kid and realized that if he'd been as smart as him, he never would've betrayed his grandpa. He smiled.
     "Just try to keep up. We're parkouring twice as much as we're running."
     Together, the two of them ran west.