The Ghost of Nemuro [Part II]

The helicopter flies me into the remains of Tokyo as I finally see what’s been left of it. Sure, it’s only a small portion of Tokyo when compared to the entire metropolitan area, but the devastation is undeniable. The cracked streets are littered with abandoned cars and chunks of crumbling buildings, and all throughout, I spot peculiar sights such as a bullet train wrapped around a skyscraper and chunks of earth that seem to have been carved right out of the ground a few blocks down where it was supposed to be. Over all of it, a thin layer of winter snow covers the remains like a shin linen sheet covering a corpse.

I didn’t think xenohumans would have been capable of this kind of mass destruction, yet looking down, all I can see are millions of lives and homes gone within the span of a day. In between the rollercoaster of shock and horror, a part of me was glad that Hikari had attended high school in Osaka.

An agent in the helicopter turns to me as the helicopter comes to a stop overhead a decrepit building with almost all of its glass windows blown out. “See that building down there the riot police are surrounding? That’s where the target is. Do you want a debrief of the mission again before you drop down?”

I shrug, picking up my pair of noise cancellation headset and inspecting it. “Sure, why not.”

He hands me an arrest debilitator, not as sturdy as typical debilitators but as easy to use as handcuffs. “The target is a seventeen-year-old boy who had been admitted to Tokyo Xenoprison approximately a year after your escape for his inability to control his powers when he gets emotional, which resulted in the death of his mother. He possesses supersonic abilities that are too dangerous for the troops to approach, even with proper equipment. Tests have shown that you would be resistant to his sonic boom attacks when your ability is activated, so as long as you have your noise cancellation gear equipped, he should be nothing more than an extremely loud teenager to you. Your job is simple. Go down there and apprehend the boy alive. Put the debilitator on him, and once you incapacitate him, let us know with your walkie-talkie. We’ll move in and take care of the rest.”

I nod as he goes over the mission again, a part of me pitying this child. “Understood.”

A shockwave blasts from the third to the highest floor of the building, expelling rebar and concrete chunks as the police below back up in response. The agent grabs a parachute and offers it to me as I put on my headset. “Don’t need it,” I say as I dive down towards the building and begin counting down my Restless Spirit, verifying that the noise cancellation headset does in fact cancel noise.

I dive right through the top floor of the building and land one floor above the target’s last telegraphed location. Pressing myself against the floor, I phase my face through to scout what lies below before diving through. Crouched in the corner of the floor and hugging his legs, I see the target sobbing and rocking himself, his face buried in his knees.

Come to think of it, Hikari’s seventeen this year too. It hadn’t clicked since it’s so difficult to imagine Hikari to be much older than she was when she held onto and cried into my pant leg that day. His crying intensifies as another sonic pulse emanates from his location, my eyes flinching in response. The poor kid… He looks so confused.

Laying here, it’s hard not to imagine a kid like him spending the rest of his life in a place like The Osaka Xenoprison or the Permafrost Panopticon. Unlike me, he’s still got his whole life ahead of him to lose. I couldn’t imagine Hikari spending the rest of her life in a place like that, but I try to shake away these hesitations as Restless Spirit continues to count down. Right now, his arrest is what stands between me and Hikari.

Looking at the way he’s currently positioned, apprehending him would almost be too easy. With the way he’s cornered himself against the wall, I can simply emerge from the wall behind him and put on the debilitator with a swift motion. Wasting no more time, I align myself with the corresponding corner the target is sitting in and phase through to the side. Scaling down from the outside of the building, I keep an eye phased through the wall to keep a sense of my altitude relative to his.

Arriving at the ideal position, the target still hasn’t noticed my presence. I retrieve the debilitator from my waist with my feet and legs lodged into the wall a floor below the target. Clinging directly behind him, I could place the debilitator on him in one fell swoop. It feels too easy. Is this really the work of a hero? Gulping down my doubts, I slap the arrest debilitator around the target’s head, the circlet quickly tightening itself to fit the boy’s skull.

With the job done, I tumble back through into the building and stand up, staring down at the boy in the corner, still in shock from what just happened to him. He cries and wails, yet his ability has been completely compromised. I suspend Restless Spirit and reach for my walkie-talkie to complete the job as I begin to make out the boy’s incoherent cries. “Please! I– Please, I don’t– I-I didn’t! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t want to kill her! I didn’t! Please! Mama! I’m sorry, Mama! I didn’t… I didn’t! Mama! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

He lifts his face up to look at me with swollen eyes of fear and sorrow, a string of snot bridging his nose and his knee. Tears well and roll down into his gaping mouth as he begins to slowly shake his head, his voice trembling with a weak and shaky quality completely opposite of his prior, more deadly voice. “Please! I don’t wanna go back! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! It won’t happen again! I promise! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t!”

His expression and inability to form words say more than his words do as my hand grips the walkie-talkie, clutching it with increasingly intense strength. I stop short of crushing it entirely and speak into it, with a pant. “Bad news! As I was placing the arrest debilitator onto the target, he let out a sonic boom that shattered the device. I can’t complete the arrest now. Over.”

This isn’t a hero’s work. Hikari wouldn’t be proud of this. This boy isn’t an obstacle standing between me and Hikari. Why must I pick between my own morals and freedom? Why must I compromise my morals to reunite with her? I don’t. I haven’t needed to thus far. I’m free right now, aren’t I? So what’s to stop me from taking this boy and escaping away together?

The agent responds to me through the walkie-talkie. “Roger. Please stand by and stay safe.”

The boy blinks at me with confusion, his sobbing pausing temporarily. “Wha-what are you go-going to do to me?”

I peer outside at the police surrounding the building. “I’m getting us out of here, back to our homes, back to our families.”

His eyebrows stay furrowed at me, and his voice retains its weakness. “R-really?”

I nod, reassuring the boy, though even I’m not quite sure how I’ll get out of this one yet. The agent gets back to me on the walkie-talkie. “Verify the target’s location and come back to us, Ghost.”

I try to conceive a lie that would give us cover to escape in the remains of Tokyo. What have I gotten myself into this time? How am I going to escape a full troop of riot police officers armed with automatic firearms and now with a child in tow too!? Fuck! A part of me wishes I hadn’t done this. Maybe I can still just turn him in… I don’t have time to think right now, not when they’re expecting a response. I answer the walkie-talkie and play along for now, praying for the best. “Roger. The child is still on the same floor. Over.”

“Copy that. Come back to us now, Ghost.”

I quickly turn to the boy, hoping his abilities might be able to help us out. “Listen now. We’re in an extremely tight spot, and I need you to cooperate with me to get through this. Explain to me exactly what your ability can do.”

The boy seems to be rather timid once the debilitator had been placed on him, answering meekly. “I-I don’t know…”

“You can’t not know right now!”

The agent speaks again, getting more impatient. “Ghost? Just leap out of the building and return. Ghost? Ghost, are you there?!”

I freeze, unsure of what to say. If only I had taken the parachute earlier, I could at least fabricate some sort of excuse as to why I can’t exit the building.

“Ghost! Respond!”

What if I just don’t respond? How will they respond? Could I fake my own death? Will they pull out, or will they send in troops? They haven’t sent in troops yet in fear of the boy, and as far as they’re concerned, the boy is still active. Does that mean they’ll pull out? I don’t know, but I’ll have to gamble on it. I quickly move over to the boy and use Restless Spirit to free him from the debilitator. “Do the sonic boom thing.”

I reactivate Restless Spirit, clutching my headset as the boy follows my directions. I need to keep them believing that the child is still unrestrained.

“Ghost!”

I ignore the call once more, directing the child to emit another sonic pulse before reactivating Restless Spirit. “I want you to do your thing every time I wink at you. Understood?”

The child nods in response, following my signal. As I hear the helicopter near to check on us, I sink into the floor and lay low, using it as cover though keeping an eye out for sky surveillance and winking at the boy. After around thirty more minutes of repeating the same process of directing the boy to emit a sonic boom at random intervals, the helicopters pull away. I decide to maintain the facade until night falls.

I phase an eye out the building’s wall to scan the surrounding area. The troops have all pulled out… It’s a miracle! They must’ve presumed my death and decided the operation was a failure. They refused to advance their troops on the unrestrained boy and pulled out! See, Dr. Yamamoto! Your project idea was never going to work!

With the perfect opportunity presented to us, I call the boy over. “Now’s our chance! They’ve pulled out! We need to get out of here right now while under the cover of night!”

The boy follows me as we slowly descend the stairs of the building. Exiting the front door of the abandoned building, I feel a sense of joy for the first time in a while. I look up into the night sky as the familiarity of the Moon and her court of stars greet me once more. I’m coming, Hikari.

The boy shifts around next to me, looking around. “S-something’s odd.”

I turn to him, confused why he would comment on something odd now that we’re already out of the building and standing before the path to freedom. “What do you mean?”

“Th-they never pull out. The troops h-had held a si-i-iege on this b-building for a w-week.”

I turn my head back forward to the open road ahead. “What?”

Almost the distance, a command echoes. “Assume positions!” Troops rise from the snow around us, completely wrapping and choking the building. Their guns point to us unforgivingly. “We gave you a chance, Ghost. What a shame. They say ghosts only come out at night, and here we are. We’ve wisened up to your tricks. Open fire!”

I turn to the boy as bullets fill the both of us, his teary eyes meeting mine one last time as he drops to the cold snowy concrete. The HuH-C coating penetrates my every limb and delivers lead into my body as I fall to the ground, my fist clenched and my eyes affixed to the glittering light sky, free from the light pollution of Tokyo for the first time in centuries. Their fire stops, yet my breathing continues.

One leg after another, I push myself up from the ground and look around, coughing up blood from my wounds. The troops surround me entirely as I paint the black powder-stained air with crimson ribbons and wispy clouds of vaporous breaths. The bullets fly in once more from all around, blowing up snow in bursting spectacles of orange and white in contrast to the purple horizons. The blossom of steel buffet me like a meteor shower from the night sky itself, but I trudge forward. My life leaves stains on the snow, but I trudge forward. I may be more crystal and lead than man now, but I trudge forward. My eyelids fall heavy, but I trudge forward.

Leaving pained steps in the snow, I can only hear Hikari’s singing over the gunshots. These weighty bullets cannot wound me more than I have already done to myself with my own failures nor can they weigh on me more than the weight of my own regrets. The world itself could fall upon my eyelids, and I’ll still keep them open to watch. I’ll always be watching.

I promise.

I’ll be there.

I’ll be there, Hikari.

Count on it.

Count on it.

I’m watching, Hikari.

Are you watching me?

I can see the starlight from here as I approach with each dedicated step, so count on it, Hikari.

I’m watching you. I promise.

I’ll be there.

With my next step, I feel a jolting sting shoot into my forehead, though it’s not quite a bullet. I’m still standing after all. I’m still alive. I’m still breathing. With my next step, my foot fails to find ground as I trip and fall. My face plants itself into the Earth, and my body follows. I try to push myself up, but I find no strength in my arms. Everything turns dark as my next breath fails to inhale anything. I flail about as cold, sharp panic fills my mind, my body plummeting deeper and deeper through and into the Earth’s crust.