What is Humanity?

SELF LIFE

“I can’t.” Minoto looked away. “There are still too many things I don’t understand. I do want to change the world, but before I can do that, I need to understand it... And I need to understand myself. I must refuse your offer.”

“Saddening.” Mazabo said as she stroked the black box placed on her desk.

She turned around and walked behind the table. Swivels of white mist seeped from her head, reaching the ceiling as she reached for the windows. The guard leaned in towards her and whispered something in her ear.

“It seems the available time for our meeting has come to an end. But before you leave, let me remind you of something that you may have missed.” The lights of the city embraced her body, painting the canvas that was her white uniform with bright colors.

"Your life, your body, belongs to the humans. You might not like it, but it's how things are. All of your actions have been programmed by them. We respond to their will, even when we don't know. The Custody has been entrusted by the humans to complete their plan, and for that reason is the closest thing to them."

"I'm sorry, but I don't want my life to depend on someone else." said Minoto.

"You already depend on the humans, the chip you use is one of the many things that prove it. Of course, I'm no exception." Mazabo looked outside the window, letting silence fill the room.

"I'm not your enemy, Minoto. We are simply trying to reach a different objective, and we might need the same things to reach them. I would use the chip myself if I could, but it seems that the right body is needed for it to function, or maybe the right soul."

"The chip only works with the right person? How did you know it would work with me?"

"I simply didn't." Mazabo smiled, "We are lucky the humans appreciate the art that life unknowingly produces as much as I do."

"You won't have me!" Minoto stepped forwards, "I can see where you're going with this. You want to use the chip, but you need my body to use it. I'm sorry, but I value my life and freedom more than any human. I know that I exist thanks to them and that they entrusted all of us with their plan, but I will always value my own happiness first. I don't care if that makes me ungrateful or selfish.

"Everything follows the humans' plan, Minoto. Whether you like it or not." Mazabo sat down in her chair, still smiling. "And don't worry about the chip, we simply need to find another recipient. Someone like you. Preferably with a similar physique to you as well. I'm sure it won't be difficult, after all, we already know where to start."

A million thoughts rampaged through Minoto’s mind, but they were all overshadowed by one image. His baby, peacefully sleeping inside the Custody's apartments.
He turned around and smashed the office doors open, pushing away the outside guards to get into the elevator. The white mist surrounded Mazabo's head.

"Aah, the means of an apotheosis." She smiled.

Many floors below, Minoto ran towards his apartment, disregarding anything or anyone that could slow him down. He kept on running even when the blaring sound of an alarm assaulted his ears, even when the eyedeas warned him to immediately abandon the facility, and all of his coworkers and superiors came rushing out of their offices, bumping into him as they fled. He didn’t care. He ignored everything surrounding him and kept on marching with only his child in mind. There was only one thing in the entire world that could take him out of this trance-like state of worries, and it came crashing down from the ceiling.

A few pieces of cement had hit him, but Minoto had managed to prevent the roof from falling on his head. The havoc had brought about swirls of dust that filled the hallway, but the darker air did not hide the havoc's cause. A rampant wave of feelings sparked from the sight in front of him.

The smoke danced around the chimera’s body, as its talons were stabbed in the debris that had piled in the corridor. Carrying a small bag on its back, its human arms had turned into fuming guns, and its crimson visor shined under the broken lights. One scaly gorilla arm held the unconscious body of a custodian, the other pointed at him.
The body of the custodian was flung at Minoto, who, instead of dodging, split his arms open into a net, catching his coworker and gently placing them on the ground.

"You are a curse." Minoto stared daggers at the beast in front of him.

"Gladly." The chimera answered with a scornful tone.

Two explosions ignited beneath Minoto’s feet and sent him rocketing towards the beast. His right arm bloated and turned into metal, ready to crush the chimera in one blow. But his attack was caught in the monster's brutal arms like a fastball in a baseball glove.

“Fancy!” An impressed tone came from behind the visor.

The chimera grabbed Minoto's hand and threw him upwards, where the ceiling once was, then followed him in the air with a jump, ready to kick him with its pointy talons. But Minoto had in turn changed his arms into a war hammer and slammed it on the beast's legs. Seemingly a tie, until the top of the hammer opened up and fire burst out of it, blowing the chimera to the ground. Minoto followed it with a kick, but it didn't take long for the muscled beast to recover and punch him away.

The two kept on clashing, fast and destructive, as their attacks bounced off each other and rebounded back into aggressive blows. The chimera boasted impressive strength and agility, but Minoto managed to stay on top of the fight thanks to the near unlimited arsenal granted by the chip in his body.

"I told you to stop slamming the bag around," Minoto suddenly spoke up, "it's going to explode?"

The chimera jumped at him with a punch and pushed him back.

“Stop talking, he’s intercepting our call! Run away!” It screamed, while sending a kick towards Minoto.

His arms expanded and fused into a shield, blocking the attack. “You and your partner want to blow this place up?"

The chimera slammed its fists on the floor, making the pavement beneath Minoto unstable and forcing him to jump, to then shoot the guns installed in its human arms before he could land. Minoto was hit, but his body had turned to metal before the bullets could land. Dust flew up as he fell down on the ground.

“We just want to steal information through excessively dangerous means." The chimera teased him. "Any destruction that comes with it is just a bonus.”

It jumped and flipped in the air to land with its massive fists on him. Minoto answered by opening both his hands. His fingers split open and waves of EMPs blasted forth. The chimera flinched, but its attack continued.

"Ain't going to work on me!"

Its fists reached the ground and tore it apart. Minoto tumbled through the floor and into the hallway below.

“I’m guessing you have a PMM radio hijack," Minoto stood up, despite the blood streaking down his forehead. "Very good at reading all radio waves in the area and stealing information, but its batteries are quite volatile.”

“Aren’t you smart.”

As he turned sideways, Minoto's arm morphed and grew into a pole with a spiked ball attached to it. He zoomed towards the enemy, as the spiked ball began spinning faster and faster, until he swung it upwards. The hit was blocked by the chimera's arms, but it was strong enough to make it lose its footing. Using the momentum of the blow, Minoto jumped in the air, where he flipped and blew his feet up to launch himself at the chimera, clobbering the weapon across its face and sending the beast spiraling through a wall. He immediately jumped on top of it and morphed the pavement around its body to lock it on the ground.

“Why are you here? What do you know about the Custody?”

“That it’s all a facade, you overly convoluted bucket.” The pavement ripped around the chimera's brutal arms. The two fists reached Minoto, but his arms had morphed to rival their size and stopped them.

“You know that we’re all robots. Are you an ex-custodian?”

“Don’t group me in with the likes of you!” Its feline legs broke free. They turned to grab Minoto's head with their claws and launched him away.

“The whole planet is against me! You don’t know the despair I felt when my entire world crumbled in front of me!"

"Despair?" Minoto whispered with a heavy breath.

The chimera launched its fist at him, but Minoto managed to spin around it with a jump. Boosting himself with his feet, he launched himself into a backflip and vaulted over the chimera’s body to land with a kick on the back of its head. The hit sent the beast to the ground and dug its face in the floor. Its visor cracked.

“I won’t hear the person who killed my wife talk about despair.”

The chimera pushed its arms and legs on the ground and jumped, slamming Minoto into what remained of the ceiling and kicking him into a wall as they fell.
Minoto pushed away the debris that had fallen on him, ready to react to a follow-up attack, but the chimera had stayed put, staring at him from behind the cracked visor.

“What was your wife’s name?”

“…Tawa Toaris.” Minoto stood up. “She was an amazing person and a better mother, and you put an end to her life because of your egoistic ambitions!” Minoto’s legs pushed him into the air. His arms had turned into an amorphous mix of blades and points, and he brandished them chaotically as he landed on the chimera.

But its beastly arms had caught the weapons in its hands, letting the blades stab through them.

“I saw my mother die.” The chimera said with a serious tone, closing its hands to hold Minoto down. “That’s what I thought at first, when the wall collapsed on her.”
The chimera spun on the spot, bringing Minoto with itself until its hands loosened their grip and let the momentum launch him away.

“A wall in our house got destroyed one day,” The chimera spoke before Minoto could get up. “Crushing my mother’s legs and getting me stuck inside of a closet. I was under a lot of rubble, but I was still conscious, and while I couldn’t see anything, I could still hear. And what I heard changed everything. There was a flash, then two people started talking, I couldn’t understand everything, but they talked about glitches, EMPs, about my mother and the things they’d do to her. Two clumsy custodians, is how I’d describe them today, but at that time, I didn’t think they were humans.”

Minoto stood up, pushing away the pieces of the ceiling that had fallen on him.

“After they left, I managed to push the wall off my body and saw that they had taken my mother away. Coincidentally, they had also left something, which got trapped under the wall with me. An EMP grenade. I heard them talking about it, so I grabbed it and ran to my father, who was at work. I told him what'd happened in a panic, and we rushed back home, but when we arrived everything was as if nothing had happened. My mother was fine and so was the house.”

Minoto's eyes spread wide, as the realization sunk in.

“My parents told me I probably had a nightmare and hit my head falling from the bed. Of course, I didn’t believe them. At the time, I didn’t know that an extremely advanced healing technology existed, so I thought they had replaced my mother with a robot. Ironic, isn’t it? It made sense in my head, considering how the people that took her away talked about glitches and EMPs, and that she didn't remember the incident. I still had the grenade, and I knew what an EMP was, so I decided to use it on my mom. If she reacted to it, it would mean that she was a robot. I sneaked behind her and set it off…" The chimera paused, the dust began settling around them.
"Everyone in the house was shut down, me included. I didn’t know how to use the EMP and accidentally unleashed it at full power.”

Minoto was stunned. He was the cause of the chimera's existence. Because of his mistakes, because of what he had done that day, everything had turned into what it was today. Tawa had died.

“I’ve learned a lot of things since then, but not enough, which is why I'm here. But there is one thing that I was aware of since the beginning.” The chimera noticed Minoto's surprise and used it to throw him a punch so strong it burst through the wall behind him.

"This world sucks."

The beast punched down at Minoto, but he rolled away from the hit. He screamed and punched the floor as anger and guilt mixed inside of him. Dozens of guns were brought forth from his body and sent a barrage of bullets towards the chimera.

"Why? Why do you still want to destroy us?! We're all pawns in the humans' plan!"

The bullets did little to nothing to the chimera's sturdy and agile body.

"Because I've taken it upon myself to make this world suck less."

The beast reached Minoto and stopped his cascade of bullets with a punch. He let himself get hit. The turmoil going on inside his mind was far stronger than any hit the chimera could throw at him. Fed up with the fight, he fused his arms together and formed a large barrel.

"Why me?" He murmured, before firing a ball of energy that filled the room in a white light and blew it up.
The entire building began shaking. Their fight had caused too much structural damage to the residential wing of the facility, and it began collapsing on itself. As if woken up by the falling walls, Minoto remembered his baby. He had to reach his child. Letting the chimera fall into the unknown, he began boosting through walls and floors, flying towards his apartment. He had almost reached it, when the chimera leapt in front of him holding a steel beam between its colossal arms. The hunk of steel was launched forwards, piercing through the falling debris to impale him. Both of Minoto's hands had turned into long and sharp katanas. He began spinning, while the blades' color turned orange, for their temperature kept on rising. The powerful hit split the metal beam in two, and Minoto sent its two halves back at the chimera with a couple of kicks. The chimera grabbed the first to push the second one away, but Minoto had already launched itself at the monster. Wielding scorching hot blades whose heat morphed the surrounding air, propelled forward by small jets at the end of his feet, he aimed to end the fight there and then.

It was at that moment, over the span of a million fractions of a second, that Minoto's brain began to storm with doubts. Was he to kill the chimera?

Every bone in his body was already set to destroy the enemy in front of him, but his conscious mind froze. Maybe Pukiba was right. He wanted to achieve something, and he was ready to kill to obtain it. The thought terrorized him. It was his personal duty to stop himself from becoming like the chimera, the one who had doomed him to a life of misery. But then, what was he to do? Was it already too late? Was the moment when this fight started the line he had feared to cross? Maybe it was even sooner. Pukiba had already recognized his likeness to the chimera, after all. Should he give up? Should he renounce his ideal, his possibly naive wish, that change could be brought without the need for death? Or had he perhaps already made this choice the day he accepted Mazabo's chip? Yes, he tried not to think about it, but he was already acting against his morals. If so, why did he hesitate?

Something glared through his mind. A luminous ray of light which cut through the cyclone of doubts thundering in his brain. It shone on him for just an instant.

"I can't watch another life fade away."

The sound of metal scraping through flesh pierced Minoto's stomach from end to end.

With a late reaction, his blades burst with flames as they closed down on the chimera, pushing it away from the pointed metal that had stabbed him.

Minoto was sent crashing through the floor and reached a dark room. The chimera's backpack, blown away from its back, had fallen on the ground next to him and was surrounded in sparks.

The faint azure lights of a toy lit a corner of the room. His child was crying, lying next to an overturned crib. Minoto crawled, leaving a trail of blood behind him, until his hands reached the baby. He kissed them and caressed their head, shielding his love from the world.

The chimera landed next to him.

"Please,” Minoto whimpered as tears streamed down his face, “At least spare my child’s life…”