City of Crows

Waves crashed against the rocks. Rocks that were carved over hundreds of years by those repetitive waves that lap against them. Corrosion. Erosion. Years passed, and things grew old. Being slowly chipped away until the surface chiseled was thin and crusting, why did it unsettle him?

It was like smoking. The lethargic, meaningless abyss that cradled him as his body shriveled up like a slip of paper held to a flame. For so long, he'd tread through that void, not living, but surviving. Perhaps his eyes were closed, and that was why he couldn't find his way out. When he opened them, a bright light glimmered.

A song consoled him from the womb. In this dream-like state, neither awake nor asleep, he felt his mother's love. Her soft hands brought him close. A mature woman in her thirties, with long eyelashes and plump red lips. Her magenta hair was braided and decorated with flowers from the garden. She held his cheeks, smiling warmly at her young son. He couldn't look her in the eyes.

"Mommy's right here. There's nothing to be afraid of." She brought him into a hug. Wrapped in his mother's tender embrace, he started to cry. "Shhh...it'll be okay."

His heart ached, a dull stabbing pain that pounded with every beat. His mother wiped his tears, and she lifted his chin. "Will you show it to me?" she whispered. He could open up to her.

He showed it to her, blushing humbly. "Ah, this is it? It isn't the one that grew inside my body, so where did it come from?" He shrugged. "You found it on your own. My little boy finally left the nest."

The metal heart pulsed in his hands, and he held it out for her to take. But his mother gently took his hands and pushed them away.

"It's yours, Masao. You need to take good care of it."

When his mother's image vanished, he saw his reflection in the darkness. A smoky figure. He reached out, and it copied his moments. A mirror image. The shape of his soul. Even though it changed over time, it was still made of the same parts.

...

He lay in a white void. Snow danced from the sky, falling over him. Numb from the cold, he couldn't move. His fingers were purple. Blood barely pumped. His heart would slowly die in this frosty world. But then, someone came to him.

A man crouched over him, their legs mingling on the snowy ground. How beautiful, he thought. Was it the snow, or the ethereal visitor? Breathtaken, he admired how saintly the visitor had become after his death.

The visitor's blond hair was fluffy, and his bangs fell over his nose. "Sao..." his voice was the sweet chirping of morning birds, almost too pretty to belong to its owner. He couldn't break his gaze from the visitor's eyes. "Take care of yourself."

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere far from here. I don't know if I'll see you again," he replied with a bittersweet smile. "Can you do something for me?"

"Sure."

"Please take care of Kaho and my son. I need you to do that for me," he pleaded. No, he couldn't agree to it. If he did, the visitor would leave forever. "Please, you have to."

The visitor's calloused hand cupped his cheek. His frostbitten skin warmed and returned to its regular color. Muddy compared to his friend's snow-white complexion.

"Live a long, happy life for me."

"Don't go...I need you."

His friend shook his head with a laugh. Their noses brushed, and the man's hair tickled his face. Eyes so close, yet so distant. They would never be his. "I needed you a hell of a lot more than you needed me. You did your job, and now it's time to help someone else."

"Stop! I don't want to live in a world without you!"

He'd plead with God until his vocal cords broke as long as he could get what he wanted. He'd wade through the flames of hell for him, anything to have him back. But the dead couldn't come back to life.

"I'm glad I met you."

His friend stood and walked away, but he couldn't reach out his hand to stop him. He was tired of yearning for people he'd have to say goodbye to. The visitor's outline shrank as the distance between them increased, and he was swallowed by the white vortex of snow that curved through the sky.

Masao's eyes opened the tiniest sliver, but the space around him was blurry and flooded with white light. Two unrecognizable figures stood over him, talking in voices so distant and muted that he could hardly make out words.

"He........fi....e....just.........ed....rec......"

"What.....a.........iot."

Blinking didn't help. He could barely open his eyelids. The blobs of color moved around the room, but never strayed too far. They remained. Red, black, white. A soft light shone above him. Was this...a hospital?

When his vision returned, he was overcome with relief. Hajime and Satoshi sat next to the hospital bed, chatting casually. He couldn't speak. His head was too foggy to string sentences together, but he understood their conversation. The first thing that worried him was Satoshi. Why was he there? What about Hajime?

"The dead man wakes!" Satoshi laughed. "You need lots of rest, and some thank you cards for the surgeons who made sure you didn't die."

Huh? I'm supposed to be dead...why did they bring me back?

"I would've never guessed it was you, Satoshi. The funny thing is, I'd just told him he had friends inside COT before he went and shot himself up," Hajime said.

Satoshi has been...? But he works for the CSS...

"Hmm, I thought I mentioned it before. I've been working my way up."

"You were too busy pushing your dumb book on me. Seriously, you're so broke you can't afford an editor? It's ridiculous."

"Silly me~ It slipped my mind," Satoshi stuck out his tongue. What a childish guy. Usually, he'd scoff at his immature behavior, but now it comforted him. If it were only Hajime visiting him, it might make him want to kill himself a second time.

Listening to them talk gave him the impression that they had known each other for a long time. Hajime's personality was a nice contrast to Satoshi's. Two complete opposites who made a great team, both working in COT for the country's benefit. These two weren't evil because they worked for the organization he hated. There were good people in COT who were fighting back like him.

"How are you feeling? You're lucky Kaho heard that gunshot, or I wouldn't have known you needed help." Hajime asked.

He tried to tip his head, but his neck was tense. In response, he stuck out his lip like a whiny dog. "I could've guessed, you're really pale. The pain might get worse once the numbing wears off."

Besides the numbness, something felt different. His heartbeat was quiet. Usually, he'd notice when it skipped a beat, or when its rhythm slowed subconsciously. A regular heart wouldn't stand out that much, but the metal under his skin was thick, and its irregular boxy shape could be felt through his skin.

No longer. It was so steady he couldn't feel it anymore. It was still metal. He'd recognize the mechanical pulse whether it was inside of him or in the palm of his hands.

"Did you notice it already?" Satoshi grinned. "I had them fix that too."

Fix...my heart?

Their voices drowned out as his ears rang. Were they still talking to him? All he could focus on was that distant wish of his. The wish became more like a fantasy than something he could physically attain. How long had he suffered because of that damn organ, or rather, his lack of it? Three years.

Why hadn't he realized it? How badly he wanted his heart back.

The thing keeping him alive was his enemies' creation, and each day it was a reminder of his failure to defeat them. It stole his humanity.

"Wha- What are you crying for? You're not gonna die! I won't let them kill you."

"He's happy," Hajime said. "It finally works."

Hajime was right. They weren't tears of sadness, but relief.

His visitors chatted for a while until they had to go. "See you soon, my friend! Rest up." Satoshi waved goodbye. Alone in the room, he paid closer attention to his surroundings. Multiple machines stood around him, and he was hooked up to them by needles in his arm. It was boring to rest by himself, but it gave him time to think. Hideo's passing broke him, but wouldn't his friends feel the same way if he died? Would they hate him if he dared to meet them again...?

Screw that. I need to save Yoli.

He'd have to wait. No way he could get up and leave in his condition. What about his safety in general? He trusted Satoshi, but how could that lunatic trust the hospital staff not to harm him the moment they left? He closed his eyes, settling on what he knew best. A nap.

- - -

The staff wasn't kind, but they weren't out to get him. They treated him and monitored his heart. It continued at a steady pace, not once acting up. He'd spent a long time with a broken one, so he forgot what it was like to be normal.

He didn't bring up Yoli, but he constantly scanned the halls for any sign of her. To his surprise, Wataru didn't show his face. The man must've been lurking and didn't disrupt Masao's healing process.

Before he was born, COT succeeded in taking over Japan from inside the government. Constantly striving for something larger, their intentions were unclear. Could it be to liberate the earth and allow people to live freely as they claimed, or something else? He could sleep, but not peacefully, not inside their headquarters.

After two days, he'd rested enough to become antsy. He couldn't laze around all day without nagging unease. His priority became finding Wataru. If he could get his hands on that man, he'd strangle him to death without a second thought. It escalated. In the hours he spent in isolation, those murderous urges he struggled to push aside in his youth manifested. Killing was a burden on the soul. It ate you from the inside. But he craved it.

On the night of the second day, he snuck out of his room and took a look around the facility. Nothing was interesting about the blank white halls. Barely anyone was out, and if he did happen to pass someone, they didn't notice him. When the doctors took him out, it was hushed. At all times of the day. A ghost town.

Mindless wandering brought him deeper into the headquarters to unexplored wings. The hospital was connected to the main building by a sky bridge. Walking to the other end took a while, but it was convenient. The main building held countless offices. Important employees were given their own, while lower-ranking workers had desks in shared spaces.

He had no specific destination or map to follow. On the fourth floor, slapped between a janitorial closet and another irrelevant person's room was Wataru Yamada's office. Plain like the rest of them, it was marked by his name written in Kanji on the outside.

"Lucky me," Masao whispered with excitement.

The door clicked open, and he peeped his head inside. It was pitch black, impossible to see what might be lurking in the shadows. The door shut behind him. His eyes adjusted to the new lighting. At the back of the square room was a single desk positioned in front of a large window. The blinds allowed a striped pattern of city lights to cast around the desk.

"Predictable."

Wataru sat at his desk, hands folded. Masao couldn't move. The man stares daggers at him. He spun something around his finger with a cocky smirk, and when the light hit it, it glistened. A necklace.

"Enjoying the cute nurses?" he asked. Masao's eyes locked onto the necklace. Wataru let it lie in the palm of his hand, the silver X on full display.

"You took that from Hideo! Give it to me!"

"Are you accusing me of being a thief? It isn't theft if the person was dead, you know."

Wataru shifted in his chair and set the necklace on his desk. "You'll be joining your friend soon. Actually, you should've died three years ago, but someone got in my way."

"All bark, no bite, that's what you are. Could've killed me during my time here, but you haven't." Masao scowled. "You're scared of me."

"Pffft!" Wataru burst into laughter. "You're about as scary as a feisty chihuahua. I appreciate your optimism, but it's showing how dull you are. You can't get rid of me. We outnumber you."

He wanted to punch the guy, but the distance between them was daunting. The floor was so dark it could crumble beneath him if he took another step. Wataru was untouchable on his podium.

"Why do you want Yoli so bad?"

"The girl is just my plaything. She's the purest thing in the world, so naturally, I'm the only one who deserves her."

"So you put us through all this because you have a crush on her?! Coward! A woman wouldn't even want to stand within two feet of you, especially not someone else's girl."

"Does it matter? I'll get my way eventually." Wataru shrugged. He'd been given everything he wanted his whole life. His job, status, and possessions weren't earned—they were stolen from those less fortunate. That made him a spoiled brat, not a leader. Yoli was a novelty to him, not a person.

"Something great is on the horizon. It's a new era I like to call 'nihilism', or maybe a better name would be 'the loveless world'. But I don't expect a moron like you to understand." Shade fell over his face. "There's a monster living in this city. A hideous curse that's existed since the age of mystery. The leaders before us were too blind to see its potential, but I have seen it all. Do you know what they call it?"

He shook his head. How could anyone take this guy seriously? he thought. Wataru lived in his delusions, believing he ruled everything. He was obsessed with destroying obstacles in his way. His disregard for people's lives made him the perfect person to represent COT.

"El. The curse that will grant COT eternity."

He stopped listening when he brought up the supernatural. Masao didn't believe in it. The necklace belonged in his hands.

It was Storm's at first. Years ago, when he brought Hideo over to Storm's place, they cleared it out and took the things they wanted. It caught his friend's eye, and he'd worn it ever since. He couldn't conjure the image of Hideo without the necklace. Wataru must've grabbed it without much thought, taking something that might be able to rile up Masao.

The door burst open, and multiple large men surrounded him. "Huh?!"

"Any last words? I'm having you taken to the electric chair."

His mouth fell open. Of course, he wasn't allowed to wander the halls and go wherever he pleased. It was a setup to get him away from the hospital's safety, where Satoshi could oversee what was done to him. Now he was in Wataru's domain. They must've watched him over the cameras. An entire team of people was dispatched to take him to his execution.

No point trying to escape. They were stronger than him. He slacked in their arms. "You're with me, right?" he muttered.

"Uh, with you? Sorry, I don't follow," Wataru smiled, pleased with himself.

"Did you find the stairs to heaven?"

A flame lit with him. A fuse. It burned until dynamite was set off. He lunged forward.

A matter of seconds. Something whipped out in the blink of an eye.

Bang!