The night demands vengeance

"Please don't make any noise. Your family is asleep and neither you nor I want anything to happen to innocent people, right?" Said the boy.

"Yes, calm down. Can I please drink a glass of water? I'm very thirsty."

"Don't try anything or this will be over before it starts."

Ano followed the man into the kitchen, where he poured himself a glass of bottled water free of toxins and contaminants. Afterwards, they both headed to the living room, where they sat across from each other as a table separated them.

"So young man, how could I help you on this night without my family or myself getting hurt?"

"I have come all this way to avenge my friend."

"Young man, I am very sorry. But I assure you, you have the wrong person."

The young boy, impassive and without changing his face, engulfed by rage, began to recite what was in his head.

"Professor Tsukino, 58 years old. Leader of the medical division of Asu Industries. In his laboratory, he researches and develops a compound called [Frey Substance]. It has a pinkish color and produces hallucinations in people who consume it. In large doses, it is lethal. The group consists of five researchers as it is a secret project..."

Ano went on giving details until he got to the key point.

"Twenty-two months ago, you paid someone to give a lethal dose of [Frey Substance] to drink to a girl living in the suburbs of Sector C. I have evidence of the payments you made and I managed to obtain several modified dossiers from the lab's inventory. One of them is from the day before Hana was murdered. You were falsifying the inventory to hide the misuse of your research."

"No doubt that's a fake. And even if it were true, I would never do something like that. I'm sorry about your friend Hana, but you've got the wrong person."

Hearing Hana's name from that assassin's lips tensed the arm with which he was pointing at the doctor. The sinister purple plasmatic aura that had accompanied the young boy since his 16th birthday began to emerge from his back. An aura that no one could see but all could feel in his cold gaze.

"You’re lying. Tell me who is behind all this. Was it Yu Asu who gave you the order? Your attempts to hide the truth are futile."

"Young Asu would never have ordered something as low as that."

Ano's gaze began to grow more intense. His patience was reaching its limit.

"Lies."

He’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying… he’s lying…

"Young man, just because someone doesn't tell you what you want to hear doesn't make him a liar."

Ano settled back in the seat of that armchair.

"Tell me everything you know or you will not live for tomorrow."

"Okay, all right. You seem to already have a lot of information about our team and our investigation, but there are two things you've got wrong. Our equipment has never harmed anyone, and the compound does not produce hallucinations. It allows those who take it to see the future. The more they take, the further into the future they can see. However, our safe limit at the moment is only about 4 hours. Anyone taking too large a dose will die."

See the future?? He’s lying.

"You expect me to believe that there is a drug capable of predicting the future? What nonsense."

"I'm not lying to you."

He’s lying!!!

"My friend died. I buried her myself. In her hallucination, she said she was getting married. Tell me..." He stared into the doctor's eyes. "...how can she get married when she's dead?"

"It can't be... repeat that please."

The doctor looked at the young boy as if the savior of the universe was standing before him. The young boy was becoming more and more enraged.

"You killed my friend."

"No, not that. About your friend's future. You say she saw her getting married, right? That means she's not dead!"

"Don't raise your voice." He said, threateningly with the gun.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Look kid, people who took too much [Frey Substance] would spend 10 minutes screaming that they couldn't see anything, that everything was dark. That's because they couldn't see the future because they were going to die from an overdose. But from what you tell me, your friend did get to see how she got married."

"It was nothing more than a hallucination."

"According to our research, what she saw was real."

LIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!

The young boy was furious to the limit. That doctor kept making fun of him and his friend. But he managed to keep his cool. After so long, he was finally about to fulfill his ultimate goal. He was not to make any mistakes.

"So you admit that you've even experimented with killing people with your drug."

"No. Those were accidents in our lab. So far, we only have records of two cases of poisoning of two scientists who sacrificed themselves for science. I mean no disrespect, but I am sure of my words."

"Hana died. Her body was cold. She was pulseless for hours before a doctor certified her death. I was the one who buried her body. You yourself have said that taking an overdose is fatal. Therefore, you are contradicting yourself by saying she is still alive."

"I'm sorry boy… I… could I have been wrong?"

Ano refused to accept the scientist's version. He calmly slipped his left hand into his coat while still pointing the gun with the other hand at the scientist. From his coat he took out a case, which he placed on the table.

"Open it." Said the boy quietly and tacitly.

The elderly scientist slowly approached and opened the case as he was told. As he opened it, Mr. Tsukino drew back in surprise. In the case were 5 syringes, a medical rubber hose, and a vial with a clear liquid.

"This is..."

"Refined heroin." Interrupted the young boy. "Enough to kill two adults."

"You're telling me to take my own life with an overdose of opiates."

"I'm giving you free will. More than you gave my poor friend. Scum."

The scientist was between a rock and a hard place. A young boy with a devilish face, who didn't seem to come to his senses, was pointing a gun at his head while hinting at him to take his own life himself.

"I see. You want to make it look like a suicide. That way, the police and my family won't suspect it was murder. But if I refuse, you'll have to shoot me and the truth will come out."

"What I seek, no, what I will obtain, is vengeance."

The scientist thought for a moment that it might save his life. Clearly, the young boy was furious with him and would not listen to reason. But he understood that all he was looking for was a scapegoat that would serve to put his mind at ease.

"Listen, how about tomorrow I give you access to all the lab's files? I'm sure you'll find the real culprit there. I'll help you. We'll look together for the one who did that to your friend, yes?"

Then, Ano, with a single sentence, broke all his hopes.

"You can choose, what would you prefer your family to see when they wake up? You have five minutes to choose."

Tsukino was silent, the eyes that were looking at him had no color or soul. They looked like the very eyes of the grim reaper. That man was determined to kill him. It was a demon with black and gray hair that had come to end his life. The scientist concluded that it was a trap to kill him.

The man weighed his options. They were few. And they all ended in his death. After weighing it for a single minute, the man began injecting the syringes one after another.

"I hope you find peace at the end of your road, young man." He said in a melancholy tone. "Thank you for giving me a more dignified option. Please take the syringes with you so my family won't know what happened."

"I can't do that."

If I took the syringes with me, it would be clear that it was not suicide but murder.

"Hahaha, I see it's hard to fool you. Let me tell you my last words, I hope they help you find the path you seek."

The dying scientist took his last breath and proclaimed.

"Everything is not what it seems."

As he breathed his last, Tsukino's life flashed before his eyes. He recalled his childhood days before the war. It was a relatively peaceful world, full of comfort for some and full of injustice for others. The world had not changed at all. No, the world had changed; it was the humans who had not changed.

“We must flee. On this side of the wall, we have no future! Take the briefcase! Inside is our ticket to the Neo-Human faction!!!”

“They are escaping! Fire!”

“Welcome to Asu Industries. Here you can fulfill your dreams.”

"My dreams? How little I have lived..." the doctor muttered.

Ano waited patiently for the man's pulse to stop. After confirming his demise, he slowly walked away towards the door and quietly left.

One down.

****

Meanwhile, Yu Asu and his secretary, Inui, were talking in his magnanimous office.

"We have detected abnormal readings from our files." Said the secretary.

The young man was feeding the exotic fishes he kept in an aquarium that adorned one of the walls of his office.

"Send in the cleaning crew. We've found the spy." Cold Yu replied.

****

The day after ending Mr.Tsukino's life, the boy woke up strangely dizzy. A strange taste ran across his palate and some of the tension he always felt in his neck disappeared. He got out of bed and took a cold shower to try to get back to normal.

After taking several medications, the young inventor thought he had finally avenged the death of his friend Hana. A strange joy ran through his body, but at the same time, the cold and cutting expression on his face had not changed even a little bit.

Now that I have finally avenged Hana, I should go visit her for the first time since she died. This way, I will confirm that what that pig Dr.Tsukino said was a lie.

It was early in the morning, so he still had time before starting his workday again. From his apartment, he could see much of the suburbs, including the C district. Then he saw it. A plume of black smoke was rising in the area of his old neighborhood.

The young boy panicked.

Not again...