Six years ago ( part 3: That young boy was me! )

  He launched a straightforward attack with all the speed and strength that he had. He didn’t expect that his attack would be stronger than what he used to pull out in training.

Maybe the difference was that he was putting his life on the line or maybe because of the weight of the sword he used in the fight, which was lighter than any sword he has ever held in his life…

The reason didn’t matter to him as much as the result of that surprisingly strong attack. The confrontation between them took a surprisingly quick end, with the crazy man losing one of his metallic arms and being severely injured.

The arm was maybe replaceable, but the injury that he sustained was at a vital point. The villain knew that this was bad news for him. He stopped moving and tried to focus on just breathing, hoping that the boss may show up to save him or take him with him. But that wasn’t the case. He fainted while waiting…

But that didn’t mean that the boss didn’t show up there…

Soon after the battle ended, a middle-aged man appeared on the scene. He was wearing black clothes, starting from his small hat and long coat to his gloves and shoes.

He stood before the criminal, who was lying on the ground unconscious. While looking down at him, trying to understand what happened there, he noticed that he stepped on some blood that was mixed with the dust.

He kicked the cut arm in disgust, thinking that it was the cause of the blood. Then he noticed the injury that stopped bleeding because of the actions taken by the criminal trying to survive.

He looked at all of that and then simply smiled and said: “… It looks like you’re trying your best to survive… At least you’ve been a good decoy for me to move freely and achieve my goal in this city. I came all the way here to pick you up to find out that you’re struggling even to breathe!”

The boy was leaning his tired body on a destroyed wall of the orphanage, trying to take a breath after the fight, when he heard those words. He moved his head to see who was talking…

But before moving a muscle, he realized that staying there any longer would be the worst decision he could make in his life. And yet, he stayed!

As he was about to withdraw, he heard a familiar voice. It was the voice of his assistant. He understood immediately that the person who came here has a similar device to his badge that works as a supportive artificial intelligence unit, which meant that trying to escape was futile.

“… Master, another living existence was found on the premises: a 14-year-old boy. Name: Shinji Takahashi”

That was what the boy heard and made him freeze in his place. The so-called boss was taking a few steps toward the orphanage when the boy decided to go out and try to figure out a way to survive this unfortunate meeting.

“…To think that you would go out and face me before I reach you, what a polite boy! It looks like you’ve taken good care of my subordinate. Too bad I wasn’t expecting to find a strong opponent that can defeat one of my pets. I would’ve brought a more capable subordinate to face you, someone that might amuse you.”

The fearsome man gazed at the surrounding area, then continued talking with a bored tone: “… Help would probably arrive here at any moment. What do you want to do? I know that you fully understand that you’re in a bad situation, but luckily for you, I am in a good mood today so I can spare your life.”

He waited for the boy’s answer for a second, then he repeated: “… What do you want to do?”

The boy who was trying his best to stand noticed that the man before him was wearing the same badge as him. He immediately and without hesitating asked with a weakened voice: “… That… badge?”

“… Hmm? You mean this?”

The man-in-black pointed his index finger toward the badge that was on his black coat and continued talking: “… I took it with me as a souvenir from an old friend of mine in this city. I found it convenient, so I started using it right away. Any problem with it?”

He waited for the boy to answer him for a second, then he put his hand behind his ear while asking again: “… Is there any problem with it? Hello! Do you hear me? You slept already?”

Out of fatigue, the boy fainted while his mind was thinking about his father and wondering if he was alright. In the last seconds, he was conscious. He recognized the badge he saw and knew for sure that it was one of the inventions that his father was putting in his laboratory…

That was the worst memory kept in the boy’s mind.

That was the worst memory I got when I was a kid…

The year 2078 was a milestone in my life. It marked the biggest change I went through in my childhood. To be precise, everything changed after I woke up…

The next time I opened my eyes, three days had already passed since that day. I was in a hospital in a different city.

Later, I knew that it was a military hospital. Ten minutes after I woke up, the doctor ended the check-up, saying that I was fine and that I could leave the hospital immediately if I wanted.

Just as I was preparing myself to leave, I received a visit from a military commander. He thanked me for trying my best to protect the city and filled me with information about what happened.

The terrorist group that attacked about 100 cities in east Asia had been formed by old prisoners who got their freedom after helping in the experiments. Their boss’s identity is still unknown. The man that he fought against was hospitalized in a prison where he will live the rest of his life.

The goal of their attack this time was probably to get revenge on the scientists that used them as lab animals…

This meant that my father, Akira Takahashi, who was one of the great inventors and scientists that were responsible for developing the new type of androids, was one of their targets…

The terrorist group had an alternative motive that even the military couldn’t understand.

Every important document owned by those scientists disappeared. It was obvious that the Red Claws, which is the name of the terrorists’ organization, was responsible for that, but even after questioning the captured criminal, they couldn’t get any useful information about the true reason behind their actions.

As for Akira Takahashi, he has been missing since that day. They couldn’t find any trace that could lead to him. His lab was a complete mess. By looking at it, anyone can understand that a fight broke out there. Every document about his latest research or latest prototypes is gone.

After the global nuclear disarmament that happened after the third world war, many weapon companies left the business of weapons and started manufacturing robots that took over the jobs of many people.

Meanwhile, the companies that had chosen to stay in business started creating new types of weapons that can kill the androids or help in capturing half of the android humans.

In a world where almost all the humans in the globe had fused some metallic components into their bodies, bullets became nearly useless. And that was the birth of the EMP laser guns which combine laser and electromagnetic pulses as a way to enable the new type of bullets, which are laser beams that ignore the human flesh, to disable the first electronic device that it hits on its way, permanently.

Everyone was happy about that, not knowing that they’d created a new type of lethal weapon.

After that terrorist attack, people weren’t happy about what happened. They realized that they’d become more fragile than any time before.

Explosions and biological attacks were not new things for them, but the EMP attack that made many of them unable to escape without killing them was the worst thing they experienced.

Being deprived of the power to escape and obliged to face their doom, which was either bomb shrapnel or the epidemic disease was a harsh experience even for those who just saw what happened while surfing the net…

Years before the attack happened, some engineers started searching for a way to protect humanity and reduce the destructive force of EMP weapons.

This group of engineers, later, was accused of terrorizing world peace and, quickly, were obliged to abandon the project and dispose of any document that contains any secret or critical information about the new guns.

The governments of multiple countries understood the mistake they made when they did everything possible to stop scientists from trying to find a counter to the EMP attacks.

As for me, everything looked like a nightmare for me. In just a few days, I lost everything. I wasn’t able to accept the reality in the beginning but slowly, after weeks, I started to understand my new situation…