Embers of Hope Part 3

The large metal door screeched shut, signaling Yamori’s departure. My breaths had a slight weight on them as I felt the acid burning through the flesh on my nails and into bone…. But the worst of it all was when the air in the dungeon brushed away at the burning wounds. I was holding back my urge to scream in pain but it wasn’t enough to stifle the pained grunts that left me.

“You think this makes us even?..... Is that why you did it?” said Tsuneo in a breathless tone, as he was still struggling with the damage he took from the wire trap. He panted a few times like a tired dog, gathering up the stamina he needs to form sentences “ You deserve much worse… for all…. you’ve done. You are nothing but a liar... a fraud…. a parasite who uses others just to get what he wants. And eventhough…. I’m being put through all this agony. At least, I’ll know…. That I got to watch you… die a slow death”

I kept my head down as I had ever since Yamori left. “Feel better?” I asked

“Huh?” asked the confused Tsuneo

“You made it clear ever since that day in the cemetery that you despise me” I looked at his lifeless face “Do you feel better now that you vented all that hatred out?”

Tsuneo stood silent

“Eventhough you are blind to it…. I’m not the lunatic you think I am….. You think I take pleasure in bloodshed? Aya-san, Yuri-kun, Tadano-san…. they trusted me to protect them….. and I failed. That is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life.” And just the memory of that immediately shut me down

“Like I said… Akio-san…. You are nothing but a liar….. I saw what you did…. To Kenma” Tsuneo said, limping his way towards the end of that statement

But what he said jolted me back up again

“Kenma was a familicidal psychopath…. He deserved to die….” Tsuneo leaned forward as much as he could without moving his gaze from me “But even considering that ... .what you did to him was beyond inhuman….. And you are telling me…. That you don’t enjoy killing, knowing full well what you did?”

I attempted to question him about what he saw as there is still nothing but a gap in my memory of that time…. But I immediately stopped myself as I knew he would be less than helpful if I picked his brain about it.

I leaned forwards and put my head down, hiding all the signs of despair that washed over me at the thought of it. “You were related to Aya-san, weren’t you?” I asked

“Don’t you dare bring her into this!” he shouted and lunged forward until his restraints stopped him, but after a pause, he calmed down “then again, why does it even matter ... .it's not like she is ever coming back. I always thought that Aya was a good judge of character….that she knew the kind souls from the wretched ones.. Guess I was wrong if she put her trust in someone like you….Her last name was a secret from almost everyone she knew, wouldn’t fare well for her if people knew her husband died a week after she got married, especially after how the police covered it up….We even protested against it but they went as far as to getting threats about our Psychosis Index rating”.

The authorities, cover-ups, and threats of increased rating…. If I had a Yen for everytime that brought back a sense of déjà vu….or is it a Rel now?

Tsuneo clearly hated me, but the fact that he still told me all that was a giveaway on how done he was….. that he had nothing left anymore. If I was to find out more about Tsuneo, it was now or never

“You were her brother-in-law,” I deduced.

“We were childhood friends. Me, Aya, Kiyoshi… my brother. We were close, but after Kiyo proposed to her…. I gave them some space…” his voice was shaking throughout, just like what happens to mine when I talk about my family. “Right around the time of their wedding, Kiyo was investigating a scandal involving the higher ups and a week after the ceremony, he was found beaten to death…. The police wrote it off as a robbery gone wrong but I knew the truth…. I gave them the files he left with me, cold hard proof that it was organized and not random and they…. They burned it. Right in front me”

He paused to catch his breath, and it was clear that unlike before, he had acclimatized to the pain of his missing ankles “Aya never recovered, I mean how could she. The months that followed were agonizing for her…. Kenma was Kiyo’s best friend, even rivals of love once. It’s only in the hopes of moving on that Aya accepted Kenma’s hand when he asked her a few months later. And after Yuri and Hachi were born, I really thought that she found her happy ending… All until I caught Kenma in that alley, with a knife in his own son’s neck”

He leaned back and chuckled “Look at me right now, fallen low enough to lay out the sob story that kept me going for a long time to the one person I hate the most in this wretched place”

Considering this might the only time if ever I find him this loose lipped, there was one question I had been dying to get an answer for

“And why is that?” I asked… I lifted my head and looked him straight in the eye “You made it clear that you were not a fan of mine after all the allegations, but what did I ever do deserve more hatred than the guy who had been torturing you for weeks?”

“I hated you lying, but I despised you taking everything and everyone I cared about from me. Aya, Yuri… my friends… Myself” he said with a more pained voice than before

“I let your friends live…” I corrected him without hesitation

“THEY ARE DEAD, Akio-san” he turned up the aggression for the moment, leaning forward and looking down, hiding his face “ That bastard Nishigaki tortured me for their whereabouts, brought them all in here and made me watch them suffer.” And his voice turned softer all of a sudden…. As if he was trying very hard not to break down “I had to watch their screams, all the while cursing me for betraying them…. I had to watch everything they went through until he just threw their lifeless bodies away, dissolving them in those…. barrels of acid.” And he took another pause to recover

“Tell me something, Zero….. how is someone supposed to see all that, go through everything that I have gone through and not lose my sanity….. I don’t despise you for lying, as a matter of fact, a part of me believed you once you held your own against all of us….” He suddenly looked at me with an intense stare. “I despise you for not killing them, and most importantly, for not killing me.”

How could I have-

“You might have thought that just because you refuse to betray your morals, you are the first step in making this place even slightly better…. But by going against the nature of this place, you are just making it much worse for everyone else around you” said Tsuneo, planting an explosion of doubt in the same room as my moral code.

I dropped my head once more, with the knowledge that my decisions once again led to the suffering of others.

Judging from all he had said so far, I couldn’t help but ask a gnawing question that arose in my mind. “Tsuneo-san, have you ever taken a life? Killed someone with your own hands?” I asked him, to which I got my answer, judging by his hesitation.

“I thought not….. because if you really have taken a life, you would know how miserable you feel after that, and once you have felt that, you wouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone….even your worst enemies...” And for the first time, I got him to listen to me without brushing me off

“I’ve only killed one person in my entire life….One. The worst part of it is that I can’t even remember what I did, I remember how it started…. The guilt, the grief, the anger and then then…. Nothing….. I was battered and beaten by you and your group but I remembered my body feeling lighter than ever. And the next thing I know, he was lying in front of me dead…. I told myself that it didn’t count since I wasn’t conscious when it happened, but if not me, then who?.... I was afraid, I was more afraid than I ever have been….afraid of what I was becoming….. I know you don’t believe a single word I say but….” I lifted up my gaze to look at him, but it seemed as if I had been talking to myself the whole time….. Tsuneo had passed out from exhaustion, signified by his slowed and steady breaths and his closed eyes.

“What was I expecting” my thoughts leaked as I chuckled to myself, looking up at the barely visible ceiling, waiting for the passage of time to take away what was remaining of the day…trying my level best to ignore the acid burnt crevasses on my fingers causing me no end of irritation

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From the pitch blackness to snapping back to my senses, I find myself on the floor lying on my back….I sit up and look around to get my bearings. But judging on how close the bright red globe in the sky was, there was no doubting on where I was

“Morpheus?” I muttered to myself

And suddenly something fell on my face. It stained my cheek and I attempted to wipe it off…. And it was red.

It started to rain and I put my hood up for cover, but as I brought my hands down from my head, I saw them getting painted in red….. And suddenly.

“I trusted you Nii-san”…that voice

Eventhough I wish I didn’t a moment later, I turned around

“Yuri-kun? Aya-san?” They were standing staring at me…. They had no eyes, and their skin was as white as snow.

“Why did you let us die, Nakamura-san?” said Aya-san in a monotonous voice

“We trusted you to keep us safe ... .you had us killed” said both of them in perfect sync “Do you enjoy the death and suffering of others that much” and now they were getting close to me, step by step.

“NO!” I shouted “I didn’t know….IT WASN’T MY FAULT”

“What about me?” a faceless and standing figure said from beside me, in Tadano-san’s voice “Wasn’t it your fault for what you did to me?”

They were getting closer and I stepped backwards where the puddles of blood splashed onto my shoes.

“What about us, Akkun?”….No…anyone but them

And there they were on my left, opposite to where the faceless figure was…. Mom and my little brother.

“Why are you trying to forget us, Nii-chan? You are the reason we are dead” said the thing looking like Yuito

“Why are you running away? Did you have us killed to get rid of us? Or did our suffering bring you happiness?” They all said in unison

“NO!.... I tried. I did all I could to save you… To save all of you!” I said, stepping back keeping my distance from them

“There is no helping us…. Everything you touch dies, you are a disease…. A calamity…..” They were assaulting me with words walking towards me “Noone can escape the destruction you leave in your wake. You are humanity’s last pillar”

“What?”

While I was blindly stepping back in the rain of blood, I suddenly tripped over a ledge which I was completely unaware of, making me fall onto a floor where the rain stopped falling on me. The floor was made of wood and it seemed to be an interior of some kind. I got back up as fast as I could

“Get away from me…..GET AWAY!” I screamed and ran straight through the long corridor, turning my back against the victims of my path.

I ran blindly until I reached the end…. I was met with a door similar to the one in Yamori's basement right beside me. I opted to push the door with all my might and shut it tight, separating me from the ghosts that were approaching. I put my back against the door and took a breath of relief…. And that proved to me my biggest mistake.

The door was punched through, by….. an arm of spikes. It grabbed me by the face with only my screams escaping it’s grasp, and I suddenly was made to realize that I was screaming somewhere else too

I snapped back to reality…. Legs twitching, chest burning and coughing up a storm, desperate to catch my breath. I was looking at the ground hunched over and I was unable to assess my situation with my heavy breaths interrupting anything that my brain tries to process.

“Rise and shine, my friend…. Didn’t exactly drag you in here so you could sleep in” said that wretched voice

I slowly lift my head up while still being hunched down only to witness the stun baton in Yamori’s hand….. That explained the twitching

“Nakamura…. You alright?” asked the voice of Jayden from beside me, although I couldn’t see him from my position

“I really hope that he is alright…. Because he has a long day ahead of him” said Yamori

“What do you want, Nishigaki?” I asked

“I think you already know that, don't you? But if you were willing to say anything that you already haven’t, you would’ve done that by now…. So I decided to give you a little bit of…motivation.” Yamori was clearly enjoying this

“Motivation? What are you talking about?” while I was hesitant, I had to inquire

“Glad you asked…. You see, one thing I noticed about you Nakamura-san, is that you care a whole lot more about others than yourself. After Tsuneo here’s valiant escape attempt yesterday…” and mid sentence, Yamori turned his head to address Tsuneo “ Brilliant attempt by the way, A for effort on that one” and then he turned back towards me “You… took the punishment for yourself…. And being the humble scientist I am. I want to test how far your resolve goes.”

He takes a couple of steps towards me “Of course… I hope you outlast Tsuneo, he ratted out all his friends just because he was afraid of some pain.”

I glimpsed over to Tsuneo while Yamori was going on and it was clear that he was gritting his teeth in rage and regret about that.

“So, considering Tsuneo-kun’s feet are sitting on my lab table right now, I’ll give him a free pass….” He turns around and moves behind Jayden’s chair and puts his hands on Jayden’s shoulders. “How about having your former enemy in the main chair? How far would you go to protect the man, who brought a legend to his knees” Yamori taunts me

“Don’t give him what he wants, Nakamura…. If you do it’s the same thing as shooting yourself in the head” Jayden pleaded me

My sight was scrambling around, as there were too many things going through my brain right now, and I couldn’t find the right instance to put it all in order. The only time I had to come up with a plan was the few moments there was until Yamori grabbed a drill from his desk of torture tools.

“So let's begin now shall we?...Now… What is the Tyrant doing in Helios?” he asked me, holding the drill directly above Jayden’s leg.

“He’s looking for Isaac, what else am I supposed to-” I answered his question to the best of my knowledge

“Tsk,Tsk,Tsk…. Wrong answer” he said firing up the drill and lunging it straight into Jayden’s leg

The whole room echoed Jayden’s pain, and it was even worse to hear.

“THAT’S ALL I KNOW! LEAVE HIM ALONE!” I screamed, hoping my voice got past the loud whirr of the drill and Jayden’s ear shattering screams… but all my effort obscured into nothingness.

Once Yamori pulled the drill out from his leg, blood dripped from the drill bit onto the hole created in his leg, which started staining Jayden’s dark pants, even darker.

Yamori poured an HP potion on the hole on Jayden’s leg “That my friend, is what it feels like when I drilled through your flesh and muscle…. If your old rival there, lies one more time, you will get to feel what it is like when this pierces the bone…. He lies again, maybe an eye…..oh oh oh better yet, the tongue. That is something I haven’t done any observations on yet….” He told Jayden

Yamori left the side of Jayden who was grunting and writhing in pain and started walking around aimlessly. “Man, this is getting exciting”. And he found himself behind me. “And if that isn’t enough persuasion, maybe I’d consider turning it up a notch.”

“I told you everything I knew, you delusional hack. Why are you so afra…” but before I finished my sentence he tipped my chair over and I felt a strong force making contact with my face over and over again.

After he was done punching me, he got off me, leaving me with my vision shaky and my mouth full of my own teeth and the taste of my own blood. And he suddenly lifted my chair off the ground, and I was left staring at the cold stone beneath my feet, to which I spat out the contents a couple of blood-covered teeth

“WATCH YOUR FUCKING MOUTH! YOU DARE CALL ME A FUCKING HACK? DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I WORKED TO GET HERE?” Yamori screamed at my face and then he bent down matching my seated height. “ I thought you were different, Akio…. I thought you understood me” he said sternly, and he got back up and turned his back to me “But I guess you all are the same. Comes running to us when you face minor inconveniences, and berates us for not doing the job right, that you couldn’t do for your own FUCKING SELVES.”

That’s one fragile ego.

“It’s always been like that, even in the real world…. We train our asses off to solve YOUR PROBLEMS, and we get treated like common trash in return. It doesn’t matter how much good you do, because all people remember is all the bad, and how that makes us horrible people to begin with.”

So that’s your deal

As I put it all together, I couldn’t help but let out a brief laugh “So that is it!” I said, sitting up and looking straight into Yamori’s now uncertain expression

“Guess you are right, Nishigaki-san. I do understand you now…. And it all starts to make sense….. What you are doing here, why you are so hesitant to go after Isaac, why you are so afraid of Tadashi…… You are not looking to take down Isaac’s regime, you are planning to take over it…. That’s why you insist on this solo act, why you offered me of all people to work with you…. Tadashi is an unknown variable, so you want him out as soon as possible. You are not looking to starve out the nest of snakes, you are looking to cut off its head, and replace it with your own… You are not delusional….. you are just a massive control freak.”

And as a reaction, Yamori drew his handgun on me, pointing its barrel directly at my head. Guess I hit him where it hurt…. And as he put his gun away, he chuckled “Ah, guess this is what Isaac means he hates it when people figure him out.” He looked around to witness the mostly silent stares of both Jayden and Tsuneo. “Well, I guess it's out now…. so which means you will be more inclined to help me would you not?”

“My answer remains the same… Fuck…you”. I replied

Yamori approached me, grabbing a large wrench from his tool table on the way and chuckled “That’s a shame” and he struck me in my stomach as hard as he could, crippling me as I struggled to draw breath. He turned around and now walked towards Jayden’s chair

“That is quite a shame isn’t it, Riley-san? He just had to say otherwise and it might have spared you all the suffering to come”

He is back to using honorifics now…Was the shock I just gave him that hard on him? But eventhough he was doing nothing but observing this whole time, Tsuneo took this moment to pitch in

“Just like how you promised me that if I told you where the rest of my group was? Because last time I checked, I was still your guinea pig even after you brutally murdered my friends….”

“CRIMINAL SCUM GETS WHAT THEY DESERVE!” Yamori loudly cut off Tsuneo and he continued after pausing to catch his breath “ People like you who don't have an ounce of human decency, who exist to make my job a whole lot harder, who haven’t suffered even a fraction compared to me deserves to be reminded of their place. That’s why all of you find yourself here….. When you don’t have the fear of god in you, it’s up to me to give you something to fear. And it is up to me, to remind others about…fear”. The egotistical maniac in front of took a second to calm his nerves

“Unfortunately for you, I’m not here to convince you towards my cause…. I’m here to learn. Now.... lets make up for lost time shall we?” Yamori took a metal stake from the table and jammed it into the half healed hole in Jayden’s leg, ignoring his grunts of pain.

He then pointed the massive wrench in my direction “I will ask you one last time, What… is… the Tyrant…. doing… in Helios?”

“I don’t know” eventhough hesitant, I gave him the only answer I could give

But as predicted, Jayden suffered for it as Yamori swung the wrench from over his shoulder and hammered in the stake, causing Jayden’s leg bone to audibly crack along with his screams and cries echoing around the room. And then he asked again, but with increased aggression “WHAT IS HIS INTENTION?” and he kept hammering it in until I spoke, and after a couple of swings, I broke.

“I DON’T KNOW!... Please, no matter who you torture, that’s all I can tell you…. I cannot tell you anything that I don’t know” I said in utter desperation…. I couldn’t take this anymore, and I had no idea what to do to have him stop it. I wasn’t afraid of him just as he wants me to be…. I was just mad and exhausted. And all I can do is find a way to spare these two from going through any more suffering

And suddenly, Yamori dropped the wrench “That is something I cannot accept… based on my experience, people suddenly remember things once they are given the proper motivation… maybe if I….”

“Alright…fine, you win….. I’ll tell you” I said… “I’ll tell you” I whispered, limping my body, giving into my exhaustion in the attempt of drawing him close, as this was the only plan I could think of right now.

He took the bait. Closing the distance between us and until the side of his head was right next to mine, and I struck…..

I sunk my teeth into his ear and bit in as hard as I could, and for once Yamori was the one doing the screaming. However his shielding was tough, while I got him to bleed and wail in pain, I couldn’t rip off his ear as I intended to, and I was hoping this was enough to make his bloated ego go off the cliff. He punched me to attempt to break my grip off his ear, but that caused him to finally reveal his second Cyber-Gear… an extendable baton….

The strike from his gear against my non-existent shielding and battered body was nothing less than agonizing, causing me to let go. And as intended, he was beyond infuriated

He kept lashing me in the face. He immediately flipped my chair and kept battering me over and over. I couldn’t defend myself with my hands locked into the chair and I just had to sit there and take the agonizing lashing. It didn’t stop there, he kept swinging at me till he calmed down, and then even stomped on my chest for good measure. Yamori then remembered that his ear had a massive bite wound on it and that the blood was flowing down his neck onto his already bloodstained lab coat.

“YOU LOWLIFE…. YOU WILL FUCKING PAY FOR THAT!” Yamori said furiously, and the HP vial he wolfed down, didn’t stop the bleeding fast enough, so he retreated for the time being back to his lab to staunch it.

But as I was on the ground, battered without even being able to look straight without my vision distorting, I saw an opportunity, as I had fallen directly beside one of Yamori’s tables of torture tools. The beaker of acid he uses was on the edge of the bottom shelf which was on my eye level right now… And if I could tip it over, I could weaken either the shackle or the chair arm. I had to act quickly as I only had a matter of moments before Yamori would be back.

“I struggled in the hopes of getting to the beaker, but considering my hands and legs were bound to the chair legs, it was much more difficult than I thought. However, a stroke of luck was in my favor as my struggling caused the chair to turn to its side, colliding with the table and knocking off one of its legs. I got barraged with a set of tools but the beaker of acid tipped over narrowly avoiding splashing onto me… The right chair arm was in contact with the ground and the acid flowed its way onto where I lied and flowed under the chair arm…. Unfortunately, my hand also makes contact on the ground where the acid was pooling when I relaxed my wrist and the moment it made contact, caused my weakened gauntlet’s metal to shatter like it was made of potato chips.

This was bad in that way as well, as eventhough it had been trained for years, my wrist muscle was starting to strain, and if I relax, the acid may end up eating through my hand as well, and the resulting screaming might alert Yamori in on my escape efforts

Jayden and Tsuneo were calling out to me to see if I was still breathing, but I filtered them out to use the little bit of my brain left intact to focus on the task at hand. My chair was still lying sideways on the acid and I did my level best to keep my hand away from the puddle. After what felt like ages, Yamori returned and pulled my chair back up straight.

“YOU UNGRATEFUL PIECE OF SHIT… I hope you are ready to face the fire.” Yamori let out his rage onto me. But through his anger, he failed to notice the chair arm having acid on it. It wasn’t loose enough for me to break out. But it definitely was a bit more wobblier compared to before.

Yamori planted his stun baton on my chest and shocked me, causing me to be disoriented. He used this chance to unlock my shackles and pushed me onto the cold stone below me. He grabbed me by my hair and dragged me across the floor…. My ankles were slit and I couldn’t stand to fight back, so all I could do was struggle helplessly while my fellow prison mates looked upon.

We didn’t leave the room, instead he dragged me to the corner of the room which was closer to his lab and let me go. What lay in front of me was what looked like a statue of a kneeling animal of some kind on a pit full of wood.

“You know what this is, Akio?” he asked me, crouching down to my level “ This is one of my works in progress… a recreation of one of humanity’s greatest devices of….persuasion. While I was planning on having Jayden be the first I would observe with it, I think that you will gladly take his place” Yamori points to his maimed ear “Look at this…. Look at what you did….it is still BLEEDING!.... just so you know, you did this to yourself”

Wait… does that mean?

He then proceeded to drag me once more and this time over the pit of wood. He then swung open the top and threw me inside “Oh and in case you were curious, there used to be a name given for this contraption… it used to be called ‘The Brazen Bull’ “.

While I had no idea what was going to happen to me, Tsuneo on the other hand, was alarmed by it.

“YOU SICK BASTARD! WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW IS JUST MINDLESS TORTURE!” Tsuneo exclaimed

“I assure you, Fujisaki-san, that what I am doing is not without intention. It’s clear to see that Akio here is not taking me seriously. Not only will this put him in his place…. It will also be a interesting observation to witness how someone without any pain dampening would perceive this” Yamori said

“Without any…. wait, he wasn’t lying about that?” Tsuneo sounded surprised…. Figures that he didn’t believe me when I did let him in on that fact.

“Time to find out” Yamori shut the top leaving me trapped inside

The darkness inside was only illuminated by the one opening there was inside. There was barely any space to move. I tried pushing the top open but it didn’t even budge an inch.

This some kind of claustrophobic imprisonment? How is this worse than what he did all this time?….. And I immediately got the answer to that question, as the heat started to rise…..

The bottom started to become hotter and hotter by the second, however I was helpless as I couldn’t move or get my back off the floor of the contraption as I couldn’t push on my feet due to my severed ankles. I suddenly felt the skin on my back burning….I’ve never felt that much pain in my life.

As the seconds passed, there was nothing I could touch inside, everything was scalding hot and my struggling only made it worse, however there was nothing I could do.

My agony muffled my own screams, I could barely keep my eyes open but it didn’t shield me from the sight of my skin charring in the red hot vessel. And my depleting health bar caused me to panic. I kept banging the top of the vessel as much as I could….clawing it until my nails cracked due to the intense heat, but my strength was rapidly deteriorating.

Please…make it stop, I can’t take it anymore, someone…please kill me, end my agony…..thoughts that I never let win over my ego were taking over, and my health bar slowly approaching emptiness was the one of the senses of relief I had….

The other was when my vision was elsewhere, showing me flashes of burning buildings, dead people, and an inhuman hand dripping blood. These flashes were few but they made me forget the pain for a moment.

My HP was almost gone and that is when the top of the vessel opened, and I felt a sudden strong sting on my back as Yamori tossed a bucket of cold water on my back. He grabbed me by the neck and the vessel I was in became distant, only to be met by the hard rock floor once again.

My senses were dulled, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t hear anything except my ears ringing and muffled voices. My mind had shut down and I didn’t know what was happening anymore. All that was in my mind was the suffering….. my charred and cracking skin brushing the air in the room proved to be several times more agonizing than having acid poured on my nails…… I didn’t know if I was screaming, I didn’t know if I was breathing. I had my hands on my head but they had no feeling. And the only thing that was constantly repeating in my head was the phrase ‘Make it stop’.

I didn’t know what happened to me after that…. Was I still in the same spot? … Did Yamori drag me elsewhere? Or am I even still alive?

Is this what I deserve for all my sins?