I’ll burn down the world

The man began to lower his hands as Ano turned around. This was his chance to pull out his gun and shoot the little boy who had pissed him off. While all of this was happening, Ano's head was being filled with images and conversations from the past.

"I am the leader of this gang!!!"

"No one can beat us Northern Stars!!!"

"Ano-kun please stop. It's too dangerous."

"MARRY ME NOW!!!"

The young boy turned around with his gun lowered. The bald man had drawn his gun and was about to point it at the young inventor. Ano's eyes stared at the man. The assassin, seeing those eyes full of anger and despair, was so terrified that the gun fell to the ground. After the assassin of Hana dropped his gun and Ano was out of danger, it happened.

“Die.”

*BANG*

Ano shot straight into the heart of the assassin in that private room. Without any remorse for having done what he did he approached the man and took the money that fell out of his left hand. Before leaving the box, he made sure there was no one who could see him leave.

The young boy had lost his most beloved childhood friend 2 hours ago and killed his first person just a few meters away. Still, he had to remain calm so as not to attract attention. Without hesitation he approached the bar and ordered a drink.

"HELLO! CAN YOU POUR ME A ROYAL WHISKEY, PLEASE."

"YES BUT GIVE ME A MOMENT. I HAVE TO GO GET A BOTTLE FROM THE STORAGE ROOM!!!"

Ano already knew this, he had made sure to order exactly the bottle that was missing from the shelf. That they had it in stock was pure luck. Had they not, he would have had to resort to plan B. Once the waitress left, he would have about 3 minutes to carry out his plan to erase any visual evidence he had left behind.

The waitress left the bar and went into the storeroom. Ano quickly slipped behind the bar without anyone seeing him and while staying low he connected with his PDA directly to the terminal that was there. That terminal was directly connected to the store's internal network, which would greatly facilitate the task of editing the club's recordings.

Good! I have access to the entire bar system. The first thing is to make a loop in the camera that focuses on the bar.

In the first 30 seconds the young boy decrypted the password of that sad security system and inserted a video loop with ease. This way he would avoid attracting the attention of the security guards who may be watching the cameras.

Done! Now I have to delete the recordings of me going to the box. This is turning out to be easier than I thought, although with such a bad system I'm not surprised.

Once the main evidence that could incriminate him had been erased, at the last minute he needed to cover the hacking evidence.

Before I leave, I set a timer so that the camera loop is automatically deactivated, and I prepare the cleaning sequence for deletion of cybernetic traces I left on the terminal so that no signs of tampering could be found. DONE!! Now I need to leave before anyone notices me.

As he was coming out from behind the bar the waitress arrived and saw the young boy crouched right at the entrance to the bar.

"HEY YOU!!! EXCUSE ME!!!"

A bead of cold sweat ran down the boy's back.

"CAN YOU MOVE? I'M BRINGING YOU YOUR ROYAL WHISKEY AS YOU ASKED!"

"YES. OF COURSE EXCUSE ME. I DROPPED A COIN HAHAHA!" he said, relieved not to have been discovered.

In order not to attract attention the young inventor drank from that liquor he was served and paid for everything with the money he had taken from Hana's murderer. Just at the moment when Ano was leaving the place, a female scream was heard all over the place.

So 30 minutes had already passed.

The dancer who he sent to the box discovered the corpse of that murderer. With that scream in the background, calm, but furious at the same time, he left the place and returned to his apartment in Asu's building.

****

Once in his apartment he went straight to the shower. Exhausted, the young boy reflected on everything that had happened in the last 6 hours. What was that voice he heard? Why did he decide to go there? Who could have some kind of hatred towards his friend?

“She's a millionaire!”

Something happened with Mai. No, she couldn't know about Hana. Could it have been someone from the neighborhood? No, she never messed with anyone, everyone in the neighborhood knew she was playing a game with that gang thing.

At that moment, Ano remembered the day at the science fair.

“KYAAAAA!”

Don't tell me it was... Yu Asu!!! He hit Hana and got juice all over his suit. He looked at us with those disdainful eyes of his and left without apologizing.

The young boy found a culprit. Although he had no evidence against him, he would now have plenty of time to investigate him. At the same time he would build his suit in secret and investigate the truth hidden by that rotten family.

So first it was my suit and now it’s my beloved friend… I’ll never forgive you, Yu Asu. I’ll devote my entire life to unravel the truth. I won’t rest until everyone who killed Hana is killed!!

Then, a message on his PDA surprised the boy.

*A new video has been downloaded.*

A new video. What is it?

What he had in his memory was the video he tried to download a few hours ago. He didn't manage to download the whole video, but he was able to retrieve the end of the recording. Those 10 seconds of video he got would be something he would watch every day of his life. 10 seconds where he could see how Hana danced happily and succumbed to the drug.

****

After watching the video dozens of times that same night, Ano noticed a small detail that he couldn't see until then. Just before the video ended, before Hana started to faint, as if it was a miracle, Hana seemed to say something while looking at the camera.

Without wasting a single second, Ano tried to read Hana's lips, but the quality was so bad that it was not possible for a human to decipher what she was saying. For a human, but not for a machine. The young boy used an AI that was able to transcribe what people were saying without the need for audio. After several minutes, the AI determined 114 possible dialogue options for what the young woman said. However, only 2 of those sentences made sense.

"Ano-kun, I love you."

"Ano-kun, I hate you."

The young boy did not know which of the two phrases it might have been. His judgment was completely clouded. He felt that the obvious choice would be the confession of love for him. However, he couldn't stop thinking about the argument they had the day before. Maybe that made her hate him.

“I don’t need you to defend me anymore.”

I’m sorry Hana. I couldn’t keep my promise. He cried.

That would be the last time Ano would cry for the next few years. His personality would never be the same as it was before. His eyes became the eyes of someone who had seen the worst imaginable possible, filled with hatred and despair.

****

The young boy decided to return the next day to the hostel where it all happened. He tried to recover more evidence about what happened but it was impossible. He asked people returning home about an unknown old man who had been there the previous evening. No one knew anything. Suddenly Shin and Bo appeared at the entrance of their poor hostel.

"Subcommander Ano, where is leader Hana?" The boys asked.

"She got sick and is now in the metropolis hospital healing. Don't worry about her. It will be some time before she can return."

Shin and Bo looked at their friend in terror. His face was scary. He has always been someone very expressive who always showed his emotions. Now that person in front of them looked like some kind of soulless robot.

"Listen. If you are ever offered anything by someone you don't know, run into the hostel. You will only eat and drink the things I bring you. Do you understand?"

The children were so frightened that they quickly nodded and ran inside like they were chased by a demon.

Well one less thing to worry about.

Willing to find out the truth behind it all, the young boy returned to his apartment in Asu Industries. Once there, he would continue to develop multiple devices that would help him along his path to discover the truth and destroy that rotten world.

****

The next day he started working on the B.U.T.H.O project. Although, for the moment he was only involved in the construction of a few components. He would continue to take advantage of this opportunity to steal components for his personal creations.

After a long first day in his new position, he set out to return to his room. However, on the way there something strange happened. Some employees from the laboratory sector had gotten lost. They were carrying some opaque drums without any information written on them.

"I told you it wasn't this way! That thing must be broken!"

The two scientists were lost. They had a PDA that they were using to get to a seemingly difficult-to-reach place. On the way they had gotten lost, and the young inventor decided to go over and inquire about it.

"Do you guys need help?"

"Ah! That's very kind of you. This area is the residential area, right? Can we take this elevator to get to the research area?" Asked one of the white-coated employees.

"Actually no. Follow me, you have to take the elevator that is two sectors further north."

"Thank you young boy, we appreciate it."

Ano accompanied the stray employees. On his way he tried to scan the contents of those drums. However, the material they were made of prevented any kind of scanning.

Once they reached the elevator, the young boy waited for a moment of distraction from these two men and managed to slightly pierce one of the drums. Then he saw it. A pink liquid began to gush out slowly. A thick pink liquid that they were secretly transporting.

The elevator arrived, and the scientists entered. As the elevator closed and the men smiled and thanked Ano for his help, the young boy looked at them with eyes filled with anger and bloodlust. For a moment, an evil purple aura enveloped the boy's body, flooding the elevator with an air so thick that for a moment the men inside felt like they were drowning.

The elevator closed and the young boy returned to his room. At last, he discovered where that substance they had made Hana drink had come from. He still didn't have much evidence, but over the next few months he would devote himself, body and soul, to developing his suit and investigating thoroughly to find the person responsible for the death of his beloved friend.

I will never forgive those who did this to Hana. I will find the culprits and put an end to them and all that is sacred to them. I will become a ghost that will avenge the injustices of this rotten world, and I will be the dark angel that will bring light to this world plunged into chaos.

"Let's do this one more time."

-End of the first arc-