Darkness

The only ones who entered the elevator were me, Ken and Yuta. For some reason, it seems that Misaki, Akira, and Mary were not needed for the process. As soon as we entered, Yuta pressed a button which had ‘-30' written on it. It was baffling to see a building with so many floors, even in the underground. A thought ran through my mind and escaped without me realizing:

"So many floors… What are all the other floors used for?"

Yuta glanced at me but said nothing. In his look, you could see a faint lack of interest in my question. Ken, on the other hand, decided to respond:

"Nothing. Most of these floors are not used for anything. Not anymore at least…"

He had his eyes fixated on the buttons the whole time while saying that as if he was remembering something from long ago.

"What do you mean by that? What was their purpose before?" I asked with a note of curiosity in my voice.

"They were full of apartments for the kids who were mutated… Most of them couldn't return to their families so they needed a place to stay. Some of them didn't even have a family to begin with…"

There was something about the way he was saying this, like some sort of regret in his voice. I couldn't quite grasp it, but it seemed like he wasn't contempt with telling me this.

"And why aren't the apartments being used anymore?"

My question was straight to the point. I figured out that if I ever want to get something out of Ken I need to cut to the chase.

"Some left in search of a better life, some left to help people get better lives and some left for the sole reason of not being heroes anymore. But all of these are the ones who didn't die. This isn't an easy life kid, but you still have a chance to back away."

Surprisingly, the one who answered my last question was Yuta. Even though he didn't seem interested, it seems that even he was somewhat affected by the events that happened.

But what does he mean by all this? It's too much to understand in a single go. Searching for a better life? But what was the life at T-Corp not offering them? Helping people out? But why would they have to move away to do so? Not wanting to be heroes anymore? Does that mean that there are villains roaming with superpowers, or does it mean that they just didn't want to keep this responsibility on their shoulders anymore?

What do I want though? Do I even want to be a hero? I only want to find my dad's killer and bring him to justice. And if justice is not served, then I will serve it. Does that make me a hero? Probably not. What even is a hero? Just someone whose sense of self-righteousness is approved by the society. Who is to say that the villain is always wrong. In fact, who even stood for a while to think about why the villain is doing what he's doing? There must be a reason, right? But this is not what society cares about. Society cares about rules. Law and order. Anyone breaking the law is a criminal, even though he might be doing it for a noble cause. Damn, what could we even consider a noble cause? This whole ‘justice' thing is just messed up and I don't want to take a part in it.

But even so, there is no way I'm backing down right now. I need these powers in order to achieve my goals. If my father wanted me to have them, then I'll own them proudly.

While my train of thought was going, we managed to reach the ‘-30' floor. Doors opened and greeted us with another set of doors. This was a surprise, but I guess it made sense for the laboratory to be locked. These doors were different from any that I've actually seen before. Two huge chunks of metal glued one to another with a lock pad in the middle. But not even the lock pad was normal, it seemed like it had advanced security installed, with an eye scanner and fingerprint lock. Whatever was in here, they sure wanted to keep hidden. Ken approached slowly and put his finger on the fingerprint scanner. The LED that before was red has now turned yellow. Then he put his eye in front of the scanner, followed by entering a combination on the pad.

As soon as he finished, the big metal doors slid to the sides with a very loud noise of metal scratching metal. What these doors revealed was more than any normal high school boy could have expected. A huge room, with metallic floor and walls of the purest white, filled with tables, microscopes, whiteboards, chemical substances, flasks of a large variety of colors and syringes. This could be the dream of any scientist that worked in the domain of ‘mutating men', although probably not many would take on a job like this. I had to respect the craziness that my father and his colleagues showed by making this whole thing happen.

But by far the most interesting thing in that room was a giant cauldron made out of metal. I know it's a poor description, but the way it presented itself was too much for words to handle. It looked like it could fit a human inside and it was full of LEDs and buttons. Lots of labels and inscriptions were covering the surface of that machine, especially on the cover that was on the top.

Yuta approached the machinery and started clicking the buttons. After a few seconds, most of the LEDs were lit and there was a noticeable change inside it. It was full of some blue liquid that looked like acid, or at least that is the kind of feeling it was giving me.

"Hop in! You said there's no time to lose, right?" Ken said with a cheerful voice.

I opened my mouth in order to refuse, but I realized that I didn't want to. At this point, I didn't even care about living that much. If this was the only thing that could help me find that murderer, then I am going to risk everything for it. It's now or never, and never is not an option.

I made the first step towards the machine. My mind was emptied, but my resolve was strong. A second step, wondering what led to this. The third one, remembering my mom crying herself to sleep. The fourth step, remembering the look my dad had in the picture. There I was, standing in front of a machine that was going to alter my body in ways unknown to me. Standing in front of a machine that could potentially change my life for the better. Standing in front of that machine, nothing made sense anymore, and it didn't need to. I only knew one thing, I had to go. Even though my mind was saying ‘no', my body was telling me ‘yes'.

I entered the bizarre machine and let the blue liquid engulf me. When I entered, the cover rose on its own and buried me completely. After a few seconds, I realized that I could breathe inside the blue liquid just as normal. It didn't make any sense to me, but after seeing all that I've seen before, I wasn't concerning myself about it.

"Ready to go."

I don't know who said that, but it was the last thing I heard before falling into a deep sleep.

‘Where am I?' I wondered. I woke up in my house, but it was different. It was just as it was 6 or 7 years ago. How could that be? Is it a dream? I was in the living room, so I started roaming the house.

A faint smell of cupcakes was coming from the kitchen, but nobody was there. The smell of cupcakes was combined with one that I could only describe as ‘home'. The smell of ‘home', smell that wasn't the same after dad passed away. Going up to my bedroom revealed a sight that I never thought I'd see again.

My dad was standing on his knees, in front of a smaller version of me, maybe 10 years old. I approached but he could not see me. It was a dream, just as I expected.

"Never let go of your dreams, Yoshi! You never know when life is going to give you another chance, you hear me? Look at your old man, after all this time of useless research, your daddy finally found something, something that may help the world grow. Never let go of your dreams, son."

He was always so inspirational and kind. He always lifted up the spirits of everyone around him. Whenever I had a bad day, he would come with a pair of socket puppets on each of his hands and he would talk to me through the puppets. He always said that anything I couldn't tell him, I could tell Kuro and Shiro. He named them after their colors, so it was easy to remember. Dad was a good man, a good husband, and a great father.

"And neither shall you! Never forget who you are. You are my boy, you can achieve anything you want with that great mind of yours!"

My mind went completely blank as my father addressed himself directly to me. I didn't expect him to see me, much less be able to talk to me.

"Dad! Can you see me? Dad, I missed you so much!"

I was so excited, even though my happiness was soon to be crushed. A giant black vortex started absorbing everything in the room, including my father. I grabbed his hand in the last moment, holding to him as tight as I could.

"No, don't go dad. Please don't go. Not again! I won't let you!"

"Yoshi… I wish we had more time, but we don't. Remember this very clearly. The truth is inside. You'll only realize when you finally get to know yourself."

After that, he loosened his grip, making his hand slip out of mine and falling into the vortex.

"NO!"

But it was too late. As soon as he got engulfed by the vortex everything went black. There was nothing there. No universe, house, people or nature. I couldn't even see my own body. It was a darkness that managed to make me forget everything for the moment.

It was somehow calming, as a gentle hand caressing my cheeks. Maybe not existing was not as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe I was simply not meant to live in this world. Maybe…

I woke up. I was laying on the floor, with a white sheet under me. In the room were all the people from ‘The Elite Five' staring at me with expecting looks.

Even so, before I managed to even stand up, I started hearing voices.

"Damn, the kid has actually survived!" said Yato.

"Tsch, he really is Hisashi's son, huh?" said Ken.

"I'm so glad he's alright, I was so scared!" said Mary.

"I knew you had it in ya, Yoshi!" said Akira.

"Maybe I should go out for dinner tonight, I'm really tired of canned food..." said Misaki.

But how? They were all talking without opening their mouths. What happened?

That was only the beginning. The true horror started when I sat up and they all noticed me waking up. That's when an incoherent noise started playing into my ears. It seemed like they were all talking at the same time, but why would they? There was no point if I couldn't understand them, right?

As if it was not enough, I started hearing more and more voices overlapping each other, screaming in my head, driving me crazy.

"ARRRGH. STOP, MAKE IT STOP!" I managed to yell. At least I think I did because I could not even hear my own voice.

As soon as I said that I could see Mary with a concerned look on her face, running towards me. That was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.

Once again, the darkness was soothing me.