Embers of Hope Part 4

The memory of that brutality lingered with me for what felt like an eternity ... .and it felt as if time had suddenly stopped around me….. I was alone, in a solitary cell, sitting on the cold stone floor….. with the only company I had being the sound of water leaking into the basement drop after drop…. and my slipping sanity. I couldn’t look straight at the fires that illuminate this damp and dreary place, as the moment I do, the memory of my charring flesh and the agony that came with it strikes me down.

How long have I been staring at the floor?.... So long that I forgot what the place looked like…. But I was afraid to lift my gaze. I remember being shoved along the floor, shackled, dragged, beaten and poisoned for the days that followed. I don’t remember hearing anyone’s voices, I don’t remember what was exactly done to me……..All I remember was the agony.

What did the outside look like? How did the voices of people sound? What did food taste like? What did a warm bath feel like?..... Usually people forget these things when they are cut off from the outside world for a very long time, but while I have been here for days at max. Each second felt like a minute, and each minute felt like an hour.

The water slowly dripping under me for days gave me another companion… That being a puddle where the water was unfortunate enough to have nowhere to go but with me. It showed me a face…. A man with bags under his eyes, with a short beard and messed up black hair to match his hopeless and miserable look on his face…. Oh….that was just me.

What did I want to do before I was put in here? Oh right, I wanted to escape…. I went around calling others delusional…. Guess it takes one to know one.

“And that is how his journey ends…. What a dull story that was” after a long time, I finally heard a voice…. But it wasn’t anyone’s voice, it was mine.

I slowly and fearfully looked up, and there he was

“Yo…. Been a while”

I might’ve forgotten many things, but I wished this thing was one of them.

“You do realize I can read your thoughts right? Talk about a rude welcoming back” he said

“So what, you are here to….make fun of me?” I asked

“To make fun of you?” he takes a couple of steps towards my side and leans on the wall of the cell I was in “Well that doesn’t get me anything now does it? Lets just say, I am here to…lend you a shoulder”

I chuckled “Guess I really have gone insane” I said, keeping my gaze down on the floor

“Well no…. Not yet anyways….. But if you want to just keep feeling sorry for yourself, maybe I’ll drive you insane myself” he said

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, facing him

“Oh for crying out….. Do I really have to spell it out for you, Akio? I had been observing you ever since we last met, and the last three weeks have been more agonizing for me that watching you squirm in the Brazen Bull” he said bluntly

But even in my own mind, I couldn’t help but shudder instinctively when he said that name.

“And he ends up traumatized and falls into depression….” he comes in front of me and crouches down “Is that how your legend ends?”

“Legend? Do you even hear yourself? I know you think that I am pathetic right now….. And you are right…. I’m no legend…. I’m not a chosen one from a manga who has a magical power to solve every problem….. I’m just a guy who played a damn video game for a living.” I look at my shivering hands “I’m not any special from anyone else… just like them, I’m afraid of dying, I’m afraid of suffering…. And more than that, I am afraid of- ” I

“You are afraid of losing yourself, you are afraid of the guilt that follows your actions which leads worse consequences…. Like the Tadanos and like what has happened to Tsuneo” said my doppelganger, cutting me off. He crouched in front of me “I know what you are afraid of…. But are those really things to be scared of?”. He gets back up and walks away slowly, turning his back towards me “In my view, Yamori Nishigaki got his head where it needs to be…. He turns to face me with his hands behind his back but still continues his path, walking backwards. “He was not afraid to adapt…. To accept the evils that followed, if it means that his chances at survival increases” He turns back around but still keeps moving “That is why you got bested by him” and he moves out of my sight and into the darkness “He doesn’t let loss hold him back…he learns from it.”

“And now it’s your turn” he said, appearing crouched right next to my ear from behind, to which I turned my head slightly, having him in my peripheral vision. He gets back up and starts to circle around to my opposite side “You tell yourself killing is off-limits ...but eventhough you know that you won’t get far like that, you still refuse to kill…. That is why, I’ll let you have the next kill for yourself. Without me to…guide your hand this time”

What he said shocked me back out of my trance “What are you talking about?”

He pushed himself off the wall and walked ahead with his back turned “Questions that you should find the answers for yourself Akio…. Or there is no fun in it” And then he turned to face me “But let me use your brain that you have been shutting out for the past couple of days just to help you out…. Remember your saying when you find yourself shutting down in the middle of a losing game”

“When you think all is lost, empty your mind, reassess everything…. and try again” I said, getting a sense of my former self back.

“Find the opening and punch through it, that’s when your mind clears, and calms…. The rule of the Absolute Zero” he reminded me “So what is it going to be, Akio Nakamura? Are you going to fall to the rules of this world, or are you going to punch through, and try again?” he said, extending his hand out to me.

Even now, the pain and the guilt haunt me…. But he was right, when did I ever strike out when I lost my way once….take the loss, learn from it…and try again. My mind became clearer and after that day, I remembered my initial goal. Sato, The Immortal Ten….. Tadashi.

I’m not going to end it before all that…. And besides, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I actually got myself taken out in the bronze layer of all places.

And with that self-declaration which I knew even he heard, I took his hand and got back up on my feet.

My darkened and blurred vision started to brighten and clear as my eyes opened. I was still on the floor of my cell with the puddle from before had grown to the point where it was dampening my pants. And it seems there are no slash wounds on the back of my legs as well unlike all the other times ... .Alright….time to get up.

I pushed the puddle as hard as I could, trying to stand myself up on my numbed legs. I made more progress by using the wall of the cell and finally I was on my feet. I tried to stay upright through my twitching and shuddering knees, and after a couple of minutes of staying upright and taking micro-steps forward and back, I regained feeling in my legs.

But I had to start over again when I turned around to face the bench next to me, as my eyes suddenly came face to face with a lifeless corpse, which caused me to shriek in surprise and fall back down onto the damp stone once again.

“Oh shit” I muttered to myself as I once again slowly got myself back up from the ground.

I slowly approached the pale corpse on the bench, lying on her side with her arm close to her chest and lifelessly hanging downwards, with her blank stare highlighted by the dried blood down her bloodshot eyes and on the edges of her mouth……. I’ve seen this before….. This was exactly like what Sato showed the world on what happens to people in this place when their HP reaches zero.

“What the hell?” I muttered involuntarily after my observations…. But however I missed one more thing.

She was leaning on a… blade?

I tried pulling the weapon free, but it only led to the body rolling onto it, covering it more. I had to slip my hand under her back, with her cold skin contacting my hand… I wiggled my hand from side to side in hopes of finding it and I found it, I pulled it free and observed it.

It was a Rel-bought dagger…. small enough to conceal I tried to put it in my pants’ pocket but I was getting actively blocked as my interface popped up and notified me that I couldn’t access my inventory in this area.

Of course pocketing something would send it into the inventory…it's only now that I am learning about it. I even tried the back pocket but it resulted in the same. I had to hide the knife as I was clueless on how to keep it on myself and I didn’t want Yamori finding it. And unfortunately there was only one hiding place in this whole cell that I wouldn’t check…. And for that, I had to face the fire

I keep remembering all of that when I look at the brazier at the corner of the cell. But if I had to face that trauma if I am to escape this place. I closed my eyes and followed the sound of crackling embers until I was right next to the flame. I crouched down to the heat of the low hanging brazier and opened my eyes, and the flame was right next to me.

I could’ve sworn that I heard my own screams but I was confident that I was not making any sounds. I unsheathed my wakizashi in the hopes of pushing the knife further under the brazier to make it hard to reach…. The blade that normally announces its presence with a bright red glowing stripe feels nothing more than dull and lifeless now. I slipped it under the metal bowl of the brazier but its weakness showed when it shattered and disintegrated, seconds after being exposed to the minimal heat. And it left me with no choice.

I slipped my right hand underneath to push the knife further in, only inches from touching the bottom of the scalding hot bowl. I felt my breaths deepening with every passing second as the memory of what he put me through showed itself. I started to feel light headed and a sense of overwhelming fear washed over me the more I stared at those crackling flames. I couldn’t do it anymore, and I leaped back before I had a proper panic attack. The knife was concealed to anyone who was standing but not to anyone crouching down. I had to take the gamble that Yamori wouldn't check it.

My heavy breaths however, got the attention of someone else from the opposite side of my cell.

“Ann-chan? Are you okay over there? Ann-chan!” I knew that voice all too well at this point…but who was he calling out to.

I moved towards the door only to see him strapped to one of those tilted metal tables from Yamori’s lab

“Nakamura? Nakamura! Please tell me you are back with us?” he asked

“Tsuneo-san? What’s going on?” I asked back

“Oh thank god! I thought you were a goner.” He replied back…. And I think this was the first time he didn’t verbally attack me at first sight

I pressed my head against the cell to see where we were, and with my limited view, I saw the massive metal door cutting off this place from the main building.

“In case you were wondering, this is where he puts us up to dry. Letting his test subjects simmer after the physical abuse and the poisoning. Sometimes keeps us for days here, keeping us drip fed and hydrated like we are his fucking rats” And he suddenly pauses “Nakamura, that bastard threw a little girl into your cell….. she hasn’t said anything since yesterday… Can you check on her?”

“I’m sorry Tsuneo-san…. But she’s gone” I broke down the bad news to him

Tsuneo looked down and started screaming in rage “THAT FUCKING PSYCHOPATH!.... She was just a kid. WHO CAN DO THAT TO A FUCKING KID?”

“Tsuneo-san… I know this isn’t the time to ask. But you have to let me know how long it has been since I was put into that….device. I don’t remember anything, I need to know” I sincerely asked him

Tsuneo lifted his head and looked at me “I wouldn’t blame you…. The fucking bull was torture device that mankind swore against ever using again. I don’t know who’s worse at this point…. Fucking Nishigaki for ever even considering using it, or that damn lunatic who made this game in the first place for actually allowing shit like that to happen….. It’s been 2..maybe 3 weeks? It’s hard to keep track when you haven’t seen the light outdoors for a long time. He tried questioning you the day after but you were unresponsive. You didn’t even flinch no matter what he did to you, didn’t even answer mine or Jayden-san’s voice…. We thought you were done for”

“Where’s Jayden?” I inquired

“Right here, Akio” his voice reaching me from the cell right next to me…however, I was not able to see him

“He’s strapped into one of these right next to you” Tsuneo clarified

“Akio…. You alright?” Jayden asked

“I’m fine…. We don’t have time to fully relax just yet. I’m going to get us out of here…. Before that deranged son of a bitch kills us” I said to assure them, but that ended up backfiring

“Yeah… he’s a lost cause” Tsuneo commented

“I mean it…. Look if we don’t get out of here, no one will…. And Nishigaki will be free to experiment on whoever he pleases. He blackmails, and exploits people…. Just like he did to you Tsuneo-san….. Jayden, we both know that he is looking for the remaining survivors of your clan to pin Misha’s murder on them… And you know fully well that he is going to do the same to them as he did to us….. He didn’t hesitate in leaving a child to die in agony…. There is no way in hell I am going to let him do anything like that to anyone else anymore.”

“Ann-chan….she didn’t deserve this” Jayden iterated

“Then what are we going to do, Nakamura? He’s smart enough to cover all his flaws. This place is locked airtight and he has something ready for everything we can do.” said Tsuneo

“Not everything….. We only got one shot at this. Only thing I have to figure out is how to get past his fingerprint lock on the second door.”

“I’ve been working on that for the past few days” Tsuneo commented

“What’ve you got?” I asked

“That lock also has a keypad under it… The 4 digit code, to which I still haven’t figured out” said Tsuneo

“Four numbers of something he values…but what?” I thought out loud

“You said that we got one shot at escaping…. How are you sure that he is not expecting it?” asked Tsuneo

“Because he doesn’t know about it” I answered

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One more day of desolation later, we were greeted with the sound of the large metal door opening and a few minutes later, the sound of my cell opening. I kept my gaze down and hid my face, not giving away that I was back to my senses. He towered over me and kicked me in the face, to which I rebounded back from.

“Good to see you are back to the land of the living, I was afraid that I irreparably broke you with my magnum opus” he said

The ruse was up so I looked up at him without saying a word

“You almost had me convinced that you were still out of it. The fact that you didn’t fall down this time and did lie on the floor was what gave it away.” He said while he checked up on the body above me.

“Tsk,Tsk,Tsk,Tsk…. Guess daddy’s little girl didn’t even last even close to as much as her tower of father. The least I can do is let her join him. Would save me a lot of acid that way as well” he said very casually

Whatever doubt I had about Yamori just dissipated at that moment. This sick fuck has to be put down for good.

“Nishigaki” I called out to him holding my anger back

“Hm? What is it?” he asked standing in front of me

“The Tadanos…. Yuri, Aya and Kenma…. What did you do to them?” I asked

“I did what you asked me to do…. After I post mortem’d them I took their bodies to the cemetery, and buried them next to their other under Scarlet Glaze'' He turned around and walked towards the gate with the little girl’s body on his shoulder “At that time, I trusted you… and just in case you checked, I didn’t want to raise suspicion…. But if I knew that it was going to end this way, I might as well have dissolved their bodies as well. Would’ve save me a lot of precious time”

He tossed the body onto the ground like it was a trash bag. “Well…. This is going to take some time, so might as well get you prepared for the day ahead of you” he took out a syringe of liquid and came towards me.

I instantly went on high alert and got up to attempt to defend myself…. I threw a punch in but Yamori effortlessly evaded it and grabbed my shoulder, locking it and pressuring me down to one knee. He then plunged the syringe into my neck and injected me.

He didn’t let go of my shoulder for the next few moments and I suddenly felt my whole body going limp and my vision blurring away

“Shhh….easy now” the last words I heard before my consciousness faded away

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The visions came back to me once again….. a burning interior of a building, a black silhouette of a man defending a small group of what looked like the silhouettes of men and women… and a child.

What are they afraid of?

“You don’t have to do this…. We were your friends, you family” said an unrecognizably scratchy and muffled voice but it was all in vain, as the silhouette of a horned figure plunged his arm right through the lead man’s chest.

The black silhouette painted red as he fell to the ground. The rest of the ground retreated into a room that was not visible to me, and the horned figure followed. What followed were screams, the shoji screen walls of the room exploded in splashes of red while the figure who fell first was crawling towards the room

“No…please… no” his last words before he passed out.

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And once again, I woke up but this time, I was heavily disoriented. The first thing that entered my vision was the drops of water falling upwards, and the single light bulb in the room floating on a wire like how a balloon does when it’s tied to a string. The moment I relaxed my body, I felt my chin being pulled upwards along with my line of sight. And that was when I realized that I was restrained from my knees on a metal bar close to the roof, causing me to drop down and be suspended from it…….Jayden might feel right at home at Kangaroo land with this.

And without even having a chance to process what was going on around me and how long I actually had been neutralized for, the monster of the basement entered the room.

The sound of his shoes echoed with the room, reminding me how even sound had no way to escape from here. And after he heard my struggles of trying to reduce the discomfort of what he had restrained me onto, he diverted his attention towards me while he walked towards his work table.

“How are you doing, Akio” he asked

“Oh you know…. Just….hanging around” I said, reigniting my sarcasm

Which resulted in Yamori stopping what he was doing and turning around to look at me, showing a mild infuriated on his face.

“Yeesh….tough crowd” I commented

“Guess being roasted alive isn’t enough to rip that obnoxious attitude out of you” said Yamori

“Yeah it just reminded me that taking shit from people being way over their head isn’t something that is in my playbook.” But he didn’t take my comment lightly, as his reaction was pointing a machete at me from his work desk.

“You sure you want to cut me down, I thought you wanted me for…. information” I said smugly

“Oh… that was before I realized how valuable you were to me elsewhere, Akio” he replied

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked cranking up the seriousness by one notch.

Yamori put his machete back on the table right next to me “You saw right through me, Akio…. You deduced my true intentions with Isaac…. You saw who I really am….And to think you did it all on your own.” He moved away from me and towards his desk. “ I remember Junichi once saying that being a professional CG player was as challenging as being a detective. That you have to see through your opponent’s thick shells and find what makes them crack…. I didn’t take him seriously back then but from what I’ve seen from you so far…. It actually makes me believe him”

He then turned back around and started walking towards me “All I wanted you to do is give me the edge I need to overthrow Isaac, and to make sure nothing gets in my way. And to say you delivered…I’d say it’s understatement”

He held two vials in front of my face “Let me ask you something, Akio. Do you know what these are?”

I didn’t have to observe closely to know what they were “An HP and SP potion” I replied

“Very good….” He then turns around and slowly walks away with his back turned “You see my friend, I was always thinking. If fear is the way to keep everyone in line. What scares people with no exception….” He stops and turns around for a moment “Definitely not death. At this point it has become commonplace…. And of course, if it doesn’t have any educational value, you know that I abhor the waste of life”

He then finds himself right next to me “So what is the one thing… that people fear in here…something that they would do anything to prevent?...He closes the distance even further where he is only a few inches away from my upside-down face “It’s pain…it’s suffering. Nobody likes it…nobody wants it….The perfect factor of fear I can use to keep everyone in line”

He then walks to his work desk while showing me the HP vial between his fingers. “But this thing has been the bane of all that. A miracle cure that heals all. I’ve been trying all kinds of ingredients, chemicals…. To try to create something that can’t be cured by an HP potion… “He leaned on his desk exposing the back of his bloody lab coat to me “No matter what I made, it was always neutralized by the HP potion. No matter how severe the symptoms were, just giving people that reassurance that an HP vial can cure them, was the bane of all my work...And to think the answer I was looking for was right in front of me this whole time.”

What?

He turned back around and came right back at me “I found it, Akio…. The perfect weapon of fear” he held a vial of purple liquid in front of my face “This is what you get when you combine a HP with an SP potion in a lab…. Two of the most helpful items in this whole place, and it can be used to create a poison that cannot be cleansed by an HP potion…. How ironic is that?”

He took the vial back to his desk “Best part it, that I am its founder… Nobody so far has ever thought to create it. I found that out once my interface asked me to name my creation…. I call it Abyss Venom”

“However I couldn’t use it as a crutch…. As per my agreement with Isaac, I was to hand him over the first yield of my research along with it’s creation method using the materials he provides me…. And that’s when he told me about your team and Sato” he said, looking at me over his shoulder. “ I thought I was back at square one…and it's only then I realized, that I was sitting on the answer this whole time”

“What are you talking about?” I inquired

“It’s you blood.” He turns around and shows me a vial of light blue liquid. “Your body is much more unique than anyone else down here. You feel pain as if it is reality, you heal significantly slower than the normal person….as slow as a Spark even. But you are no Spark… your cells resonate with Cyber-Energy, you have natural shielding….. You are like the middle ground between a player… and a Spark…. Whatever The Tyrant did to you on the first day altered your character’s chemistry. That’s why I did some extensive tests on you during the time you were…. unresponsive”

I remember Tadashi calling it ‘my condition’…. What the hell did he even do to me that day?

He steps closer to me with the vial. “And to think that your blood…is able to enhance the properties of Abyss Venom…. Normally, it poison’s its victim, slowly shattering bits of their health bar…. Until there is nothing left. The victim is left helpless as day after day they get closer to the end of their life and there is nothing they or anyone can do to stop it.” He shakes the blue vial in front of my face “This however, takes away their ability to defend themselves…. This does all that but also scrambles their cellular energy resonance…. Taking away their ability to use Cyber-Gear and disables their shielding permanently”

I can’t let that vial get out of this place. If this gets into circulation, not only will I have something worse than a bounty on my head, but I will be the probable cause of this whole place falling apart. I have stop Yamori and the Abyss Venom from leaving this place. Which leaves me no choice….

“So what…. You plan on keeping me as your live in blood bank?” I asked

“As a matter of fact, no” he walks away towards the barrel of acid next to his work desk and drops the vial into it. “I already gave Isaac two vials of the…Enhanced…. Abyss Venom….”

No…Already?

“And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that once he sees it in action, he would want more….. Unfortunately for him. Only I know how to synthesize it…. And I am currently in the possession of the most vital ingredient to create it…..You.” he said pointing at me

“You are going to use me as bait” I deduced

“Indeed I am…. I lure out the king snake out of his lair with you as the mouse. And I cut his head off…. But” He grabs a couple of jumper cables and touches them together, causing them to spark. “As long as I don’t kill you, might as well use the time till he come through to get some valuable data”

I struggled but it was in vain, and the moments that followed proved to be….quite a shock.

My heart felt like it was at the verge of exploding, and no matter how heavily I breathed, I felt like I was suffocating. Every muscle in my body started to cramp up and I was already tired enough from screaming in pain when he clipped the cables onto me. After what felt like an eternity of getting hit with shock after shock… he stopped for a moment.

“Still hanging in there?” Yamori taunted me

“You can count on it….. it’s like my perspective on you…. Feels like it's turned on its head” I threw out a sarcastic remark… barely keeping myself from suffocating due to my breathlessness.

Yamori didn’t take well to me firing back at his attempts at provocation and ended up shocking me one more time. By the time he let go, I was barely keeping myself from blacking out

“How ... .How are you still a smartass after all this?” Yamori asked sounding clearly irritated

“Even after years the people I know haven't found the answer to that question… I don’t think you will to”

The burning sensation in my chest started to flair up, and while I forced myself to flinch to ease the pain, it couldn’t keep it up for long with my cramping muscles and gravity pulling my body down.

“You think you can keep that façade up? In that case…” He put away the jumpers and equipped his gear baton and started lashing out his frustrations at me.

From that point onwards, I kept track of time counting the types of torture he unleashed upon me.

He started off with lashes from his Cyber-Gear that proved more painful than I expected it to be, and then proceeded to drop my head into a bucket of water forcing me to fill my lungs with liquid. I was forced to drown and only when I struggled involuntarily, in the hopes of getting my head out, he pulled me out

I coughed to empty the water out of my lungs… “Refreshing” I said, but that only had me dunked a couple more times

He didn’t question me throughout all of it…rather, he was just recording everything… documenting, observing, coming up with more tests. His next method of torture felt a lot more worse, as he splashed a beaker full of acid on my body and on my dulled gauntlet…. He was documenting everything he saw, from how portions of the gauntlet which stays stuck to my hand for most of the time, crumbled within seconds of getting hit with acid…. And how the corrosive ate into my skin… He then poured an HP potion on me to observe my healing speed.

And he finished it off by injecting me with an unknown substance that made me feel as if my blood vessels froze solid, shattered in tiny shards of glass and cut me from the inside. The blood I vomited up afterwards also didn’t help.

“WHY ARE NOT BEGGING FOR IT TO STOP? WHY AREN’T YOU AFRAID?” He exclaims, striking me with his Gear baton, but the impact of that caused no pain in comparison to the toxin in my blood at the moment. “HOW IS THAT ISAAC MANAGES TO BRING YOU DOWN WITH A FEW WORDS AND NOT ME? WHAT MAKES HIM BETTER THAN ME?”

Over bloated ego, Control freak and an inferiority complex to boot…. And I thought I was a wreck of a human being.

“Is that all you got? Because I can do this all day…. Even if you do bring me down, you are going to kill me either way” I said in the attempts to further hurt his pride

Yamori paused for a second “You are right” he put his baton away and he suddenly hit the release lever on the device I was on, and the bar suddenly dropped sending me crashing into the ground. But all that sudden movement hurt much more than normal as a result of the substance Yamori put into me, where it made me feel like I just dropped into a pit of broken glass.

I was already disoriented from behind and hung upside down for quite some time, but he threw a punch my way just to make sure. He then unhooked my legs and hooked my arms up to the pole, and lifted me back up off the ground.

“You think you have nothing to lose right now, but I don’t believe that…” he said being right in front of me “You are still fighting, still…resisting ... .for what exactly?” He takes a couple of steps back “What does… a man who has lost everything still have left to lose?.... We’ll think about that later, because right now, I have more pressing matters to attend to” Yamori turned around, went to the PC on his work desk and started typing.

“I had an interesting case last week… Brothers…. one was murdered by the other and he attempted to kill me once I pieced it together…. Couldn’t help but do a few tests on their bodies before I disposed of them” He turned to face me “Did you know that siblings have a higher compatibility with each other’s Cyber-Gear than normal?” And he started stepping closer to me “ Usually when a player or a spark touches a gear that doesn’t belong to them, it disintegrates within a matter of seconds. But when it’s someone you are related to, it lasts for longer without disintegration.”

He grabbed a stun baton from his table of death on the way “ It’s a shame that your brother and mommy dearest met such a tragic fate, or they could’ve-”

“FUCK….YOU!” I didn’t care if my whole body was on the verge of falling apart, if I found a way out of my restraints, I could’ve made him regret even going there.

To calm me down, he placed the stun baton on my chest, sending enough electricity down my body to leave me twitching and immobile. “I didn’t think of it at that time, or else I would’ve kept Huntley-san alive a bit longer if I knew his little girl would show up looking for his dear father.”

Huntley? Why does that-

“You remember Huntley-san, don’t you, Akio? I mean…it’s because of him we met for the first time” Yamori reminded me

“The big guy” I reminisced

“I warned him many times, but strong-arming and murdering even for the sake of one’s child is something that I can’t let go. He was pleading for his life by the end…. Unfortunately for me, that was a one-time thing only. No matter how many parents I convicted before, their children never came looking” he said

“Convicted? I was never convicted of anything and yet here I am. Stop bullshitting” I called him out

“Of course you were…triple homicide of a man, woman and child ....Post mortem suggested that all three bodies had stab wounds…. And neither Tsuneo nor any of his liquidized pals, have bladed weapons. Only you did…. And besides, who, except me, is going to believe that the protectees murdered each other.” Yamori said casually, bending the truth that he already knew

I should’ve been mad, but what left me wasn’t a cry of rage, but a laugh

“What’s so funny?” he inquired

“Nishigaki…no… Yamori-san. Remember what you told me? That the next time I kill, it would be someone that I’m convinced deserves it. Guess who just qualified for that? I don’t give a fuck if Jun trust’s you with his life…. But for all you have done. You will pay for it with your life once I get out of here” I said, looking him straight in the eye

Yamori suddenly let out an demented smile “You really think you even have a chance of escaping? That you can outsmart me? I invite you to try, Akio-san….. and remember what I also told you? The only ones who take lives for thrills are monsters…. And even now….” He gets close to my ear “ I still don’t see that in you”

He pat me on the shoulder and walked away but stopped in his tracks at the door

“Junichi…. Why didn’t I think of that?” he thought out loud, leaving me puzzled

“That would be killing two birds with one stone” he turned around to face me. “The Kanies….. Not only can I observe energy compatibility among siblings, but even between twins.”

That sprung me up even more than before. “You sick son of a bitch, if you even lay your hand on them-“

“There…that’s it” He quickly stepped right in front of me…. That brow twitch…that is what is keeping you going….your friends”

I was suddenly rendered speechless

“Don’t beat yourself too badly about it… Junichi had been a thorn in my side for the past few weeks. You just brought me to the conclusion that I would’ve come to, much earlier”

He turned around and took a couple of steps away from me “Well…. You still do have some room for relief, because right now, I am on the hunt for the remnants of Jayden’s group… and if I remember my esports right, they did have a twin duo with them…. So for now, Meguru-chan and Mai-chan can rest easy…. I will get to them later if I find RTG’s duo first”

I can’t let this bastard get his hands on either of them. I just can’t.

“So…place your bets Akio, because by the time you wake up…you might see a few more familiar faces here” Yamori cranked up the stun baton to a maximum and placed it on my chest.

I was left screaming once again, but this time. The sensation of blacking out was much stronger this time, but as if my body had grown resistant to it, I remained limp, but barely conscious…. But after all this, more than ever it was clear that I had to get away but the time I had to wait around for something to happen was over. I had to put a stop to Yamori before any of what he is doing affects the outside world.

The clock that was ticking down had officially begun.