Embers of Hope Part 6

The amount I had to process all of a sudden was overwhelming…. Tsuneo-san's death, leaving Jayden behind, in tandem with the fact that I have to dislocate my own thumb to get out of this chair made me stop and take a moment.

“Akio, I know it’s a lot to take in…. But right now I need your head in the game” Jayden reminded me

Game….game….game. This is all a game….. that’s what I have been telling myself this whole time. I mean, I’m my in-game character right, my weapons are the same as it used to be, an inventory system, a different currency…. So this has to be a game.

…..But what about everything else?

“This is no game” I concluded out loud

“Huh?” Jayden asked in confusion

“A game is supposed to be what you play for fun, or to test your limits…..This is neither….Tsuneo-san’s death could only be blamed on me, and because of me, more people are going to suffer if that improved Abyss Venom gets out of here.” I could feel that I was starting to panic “What if I escape alone and Yamori kills you…. It will all be my fault again. Like mom, like Yuito…. Like Yuri, like Aya-san, like Tadano-san…..like Tsuneo-san….” but Jayden interrupted my panicked muttering.

“SNAP OUT OF IT, YOU MORON….. You might’ve been known to be a genius but I am surprised at how dumb you could be. How long do you think any of them would’ve lived for if they never met you? How do you know that they wouldn’t have suffered more if they went separate ways from you…. People die, Akio. That is how it has been back then, and that is how it is now more than ever. You couldn’t have known about Nishigaki… and you can’t be held accountable for Tsuneo and his group….. even Sakuragi” said Jayden

Misha….

“There is a chance that Sakuragi would’ve been alive if you were there that day, but do you think that means that she wouldn’t meet her end later? This is how the world works, Akio…. Death is a part of life, and it will always be there no matter how much you wish it wasn’t” Jayden leaned back on his chair “Tsuneo was a stubborn son of a bitch… After you got roasted that day, he had been questioning himself on whether he was right on how he treated you. He was telling me how he wanted to apologize to you but….. he never did even when he drew his last breath.”

He leaned forward now “And right now, the one thing you can do is to make sure Tsuneo’s sacrifice was not in vain. Pay that bastard Nishigaki back tenfold for all he put him and everyone else through. If he doesn’t kill me, I promise to hang on to life and wait for you to return. We find the rest of my crew, and we work together to get out of here….. And I’ll get to see my son again.” Jayden said

I used Jayden’s words to strengthen my resolve…. He was right, all I could do right now is move forward. I’m sure that’s what Tsuneo-san would’ve wanted.

However after an eternity of waiting,screaming, and pulling, I wasn’t able to bust my thumb out of its iron prison.

This wasn’t working… What can I do to actually get this done? I couldn’t cut myself too deep, or else I’d risk weakening even further by the bleeding. I had an idea but I needed something strong and blunt and that’s when I saw it… exactly what I needed

“Jayden… the bucket.” I said, hinting at the bucket he used to fill up with water and dunk our heads in.

“What?” he asked and looked around till he saw it. “How’s that going to help?”

“The handle is detachable” I answered

“Didn’t really answer my question” he reiterated

“Just trust me…. If I can get that handle, I think I’ll be able to get out of this” I told him

Jayden opted to try to reach for the bucket with his feet…he didn’t have a choice but to trust me and he did so eventhough it was clear that reaching for it with his slashed feet proved agonizing for him. He tried his best to do so...and after a few minutes of agony, he pulled the bucket right in front of him.

“Great…now take a moment, and kick it towards me” I told Jayden. He was grunting and breathing heavily as the strain on his legs made it difficult for him to guide the bucket to his desired direction.

However even after he centered himself, it didn’t seem to matter as his kick sent the bucket barreling towards my left and out of my reach.

“No….No, no, NO!....” I shouted as I just realized the bucket was just inches away from my reach. I tried all I could to extend my reach but it was for no avail. I couldn’t budge my right arm and the chair felt like it was welded into the ground.

A moment later, all I could do was sit back on my chair in defeat.

“I’m sorry, Akio. I didn’t-”

“It’s fine… you didn’t do it on purpose” I said before he finished ... .Back in the day and even when I first met him here, Jayden was someone who I swore to never forgive ... .never to even talk to. If only the old me knew about how we are right now.

I didn’t have a choice, so I started pulling again, but it wasn’t my thumb this time.

“Dislocating my thumb with my bare hands isn’t going to happen…. This is the only thing I can do, might be a similar result but at least I will make some progress.” I said, attempting to pull my hand out of the shackle in force.

I knew that I had to worry about the bleeding, but even with my slow regeneration, shallow scrapes won’t be an immediate risk.

So I started pulling, increasing my pain with every pull as the iron shackle crushed my hand which was connected to my thumb.

Progress was made little by little, but there was only so far I could go without my reflexes kicking in and slowing me even further.

“By the chance I don’t make it out of here alive, can you do something for me?” asked Jayden

“You will make it out of here, don’t you dare-” I said while looking at him until I got cut off

“Let’s face it Akio…. Chances of him letting me live after you are gone is as much as him killing me outright. But in this case, I don’t make it out…..”

“Stop”

“I want to let him know I never wanted to abandon him…. My son”

“I SAID STOP!” I repeated myself “I’m not about to let Nishigaki kill any more people… and that includes you…. So, save it” after I gave him a piece of my mind, I started to pull on my hand once more

“You only think of the good your actions can bring…. You never consider the consequences…. And that is your greatest weakness, one that people like Nishigaki exploited…. You might be a master at beating people at their own game, but you are not immune to being played yourself.” Jayden started talking my ear off while I was trying to pull my hand free bit by bit.

“What are you trying to say, Riley?” I asked, letting my hand rest for a bit

“I know you Akio, I’ve known how you think back then, and I know more now….. I know you are trying to figure out a way to get me out as well, and I know you are stalling for time till you find the answer….” He said

He read me like an open book

“I know that if I die in here, you are just going to blame yourself just like you do for everyone else…. I know what it is like to live with guilt, and that is exactly what I am seeing when I look at you right now….You blame yourself for everything…..your family, the job you did for Nishigaki, for Tsuneo…. but you have to accept the fact that you can’t save everyone. The sooner you realize that, the higher the chances of your survival will be”

Jayden clenched his hands into fists “That is why I am asking you to do this and it’s all I will ever ask. Promise me that you will let him know. Promise me that you won’t forget”

I found this to be a hard pill to swallow, but I couldn’t argue with the fact that I have been used by others many times now. I wanted things to be the same as they used to be, change is as inevitable as death….. as much as I want to reject it, to go against it…… it happens around me nonetheless….. and it will leave me behind if I don’t keep up. But even if I can take a single step forward to better myself…..

“I promise” I told him

I think that was the first time I saw Jayden smile the whole time we were down here, “Thank you, Akio. I’ll hold on for as long as I can…. But I can’t promise you back that I’ll be alive the next time we meet”

Eventhough he was smiling, tears were rolling down his eyes “I’m glad. I’m glad that Julian won’t think that I abandoned him”.

What followed was a laborious couple of hours, where the cycle of pulling and recovering repeated itself. The toxin in my bloodstream started to drop in potency, unlocking more of my strength as time passed… However, time was a very limited resource we had and we ended up running out of.

The loud metallic dragging that echoed signaled us that our escape attempt was about to get much harder from now on.

“Shit” I ducked down as a reflex and almost started to panic again

“This was bound to happen sooner or later” Jayden said

I tried to hurry up but that just made it even more difficult

“It’s no use Akio, you are not going to free yourself in time…. You have to shackle yourself again before he comes in here.” Jayden said

“What?... Are you crazy?” I asked

“This is the only chance we will get, you have to take the gamble that he won’t kill you just yet…. You still have some time, one of your restraints is broken, and he doesn’t know that. Find an opportunity when his guard is down.” Jayden said

While I did nothing but hesitate, I had to trust him this time….. I had no chance of getting out in time and I didn’t have enough strength to fight….. Undoing all my agony for the last few hours, I slipped my hand back into the shackle and hid the blade in my gauntlet.

However, the ruse of my full restraint was only temporary…. All of our efforts will be out of the window if he attempts to remove me from the chair. I could only hope that his immediate attention would not be towards me.

The sound of the lab door opening had my nerves flair up for a second…. But I managed to take a deep breath and calm myself as I didn’t want to give myself away.

“Enjoying your last day among the living?” Yamori asked me as he walked towards his desk.

“I’m guessing Isaac’s gone then?” I asked

“Not yet at least…. But considering who the two people who are disrupting his operations are, I’d say that his time is severely limited. Isaac might be good…. But he doesn’t stand a chance with the Tyrant and the Hellspawn…. And I’ll be there to clean everything up” He placed his Cyber-Gear police baton and pistol on the desk and started performing equipment checks. “You are in luck Riley-san, I know you’ve been dying for a change of scenery, and I’m pretty sure your upcoming accommodations will be… much more desirable.”

He then walks towards me and placed his pistol barrel under my neck “But unfortunately for you, Nakamura….. this is the end of the road for you”

“Yeah, so you take out Tadashi… What about Sato? I thought that was the reason I was down here to begin with” I asked him, in the hopes of keeping his eyes and attention away from my damaged restraints.

“Chifuyu is in fact going after Isaac…. And it’s only now I admit that you were telling me the truth after all. So if you were telling me the truth through all I put you through…. I’d say it’s fair to assume that you know about Sato just as much as I do. Maybe he was just your team’s coach and nothing more” Yamori said as he took his gun off my neck and took a step back “And in case you were wondering, I already have enough blood from you in here to make a basement full of my masterpiece. And with the only raw material for it perishing, I’d say I’d be able to make a nice profit on the side for my noble cause.”

For the first time in a long time, he actually said something sensible. But right now, I need him to move away from me….. if he notices the wounds on my hand and the damaged restraint, all of this is going to be for nothing.

“Nishigaki!” Jayden exclaimed to get his attention, to which Yamori reacted to by turning around

“Tsuneo-san…. he hasn’t woken up since yesterday, I fear something is wrong with him” said Jayden, playing dumb. And I instantly caught on to what he was trying to do.

Nice save….

“Oh? Oh!” Yamori sounded confused but then he reacted as if he remembered something.

He moved towards Tsuneo’s body and lifted his head up. And it was exactly like hers. His eyes were partly open, darkened blood out of his eyes and mouth. Yamori brought up his interface on his left hand and clicked his tongue.

“I’m afraid that was my bad.” He took out a remote and pressed the button, and I heard the camera behind us starting to roll. “Detective Yamori Nishigaki, Badge Number 6447, report conclusion on Subject 6 designated for chemical testing…. Abyss Venom test 2 results in failure by human error. Healing Salve not administered in time, subject confirmed deceased….. Time of death approximately 98 hours after Abyss Venom administration…. Symptoms observed proves to be consistent with the younger Subject 7 including a highlighted injection point, however further testing required on new subjects to confirm maximum life expectancy”

Not going to happen ever again… not on my watch

“Well….this is annoying. I was hoping the only one to die today would be you, Akio…. Oh, I’m sorry….Nakamura-san…. Considering this is your last day, I’ll even consider you as a person today, hence you get your honorifics back. I don’t have much time till the attack starts, so I guess I’ll dispose of you now and clean you and Tsuneo over there after I get back.” While Yamori was saying that turned back towards his lab table and put a tube of liquid in a device and closed the top. He activated it and it started whirring.

“I hope you bitter rivals enjoyed your time together for the past few weeks, because it is time to say goodbye to Nakamura-san, Jayden,” Yamori said, going in front of Jayden’s chair and crouching down. To which Jayden reacted by spitting in his face.

Yamori wiped his face with an irritated look and pointed his finger at Jayden “You are lucky…. That I am short on time right now. I’ll be sure to remember that once I get back” Yamori then proceeded to punch Jayden in the gut, forcing him to flinch. Yamori then undid his shackles while he was stunned and dragged him to the ground and proceeded to punch Jayden until his movements became minimal. And then he looked over towards me and spotted the tipped bucket that Jayden failed to pass to me earlier. He let Jayden writhe in pain for a bit and took a couple of steps back and straightened it right beside me…. And that might’ve been the break I needed.

He then grabbed Jayden by his hair and started to pull him out of the room, but before we parted, he exchanged a glance that definitely was saying ‘Make it count’.

And the last few minutes I had to make a move started to tick down.

As I heard the door to the lab close a few moments later, I started my escape attempt. I freed my hand and tried to reach for the bucket, but it was out of reach no matter how hard I tried. I stayed calm and didn’t let my thoughts stall, and I tried to gain that extra bit of reach I needed using the knife I had hidden in my gauntlet. I gripped it with my fingertips and reached for the bucket and I was finally able to reach it. However, I could only nudge it slightly towards me.

Nudge after nudge after nudge, it was finally in my range and I pulled it towards me. I put my foot into the bucket to hold it down and pulled off the straight, detachable handle. I locked my thumb once again and slid the thick wire-like handle between my thumb and index finger.

I took a couple of quick breaths and held the knife in my mouth

This is going to hurt ... .I told myself, and in one rapid motion, I put all my strength into the handle and twisted it counter-clockwise, either breaking or dislocating my thumb. I tried to stifle my groans of pain as much as possible but I wasn’t all too successful. I felt like my reactions to the pain might’ve leaked outside the room, but it wasn’t the case as Yamori didn’t come running.

However, I was now able to squeeze my thumb under the restraint…..however I didn’t free myself just yet. But I hid the blade under my hand and folded my thumb inwards so I could free myself with ease. And it was almost time to face the beast.

A few moments later, the machine on his desk stopped whirring, and the man himself came in moments later.

“Sorry for the wait, I had to make sure our friend was restrained properly into his accomodations.” Said Yamori while walking to the machine.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I wasn’t in much of a hurry” fighting through the pain, I managed to squeeze out a little bit of wit.

Yamori now had a syringe in his hand, this time a dark orange liquid. “Even at death’s doorstep, you never cease being a clown. This is where a normal person shows fear in their eyes, starts begging for their life, maybe lies to get to live for a few more precious minutes…..” And Yamori was right in front of me. “But you….you are still a puzzle that I haven’t fully cracked and one I guess I never will.”

The syringe was getting closer, but just like practicing trigger discipline, I bid my time for a few more seconds. “Oh right… I almost forgot” Yamori dropped the syringe into his inventory. “I couldn’t record the observations from my latest concoction. Guess you are in luck, Nakamura-san….” he gets closer to me and starts moving my face around holding me by my chin “You get to live for just a couple more minutes” ….. And this was the chance I was waiting for

“Hey, Nishigaki-san” I said

“Hm?” he replied

“Remember that promise I made to you? About who my next kill was going to be?.... Time for me to deliver” I said that and slipped out my gauntlet arm from the shackle and grabbed him by the shoulder. His veins started glowing red and it started to spread all across his body.

Yamori didn’t expect that and started to struggle, but he fought me off taking a couple of steps back.

“What did you do to me?” he asked, but I didn’t answer “You son of a bitch” he attempted to go for his inventory but I freed myself and rushed him with the knife.

He had no idea I was armed, and he was counting on his shielding to keep him safe, to which he was still unaware. Given that he didn’t try to defend himself while he saw me running at him.

I managed to slash his left eye to which he reacted by screaming in pain. However, my sense of equilibrium was out as I fell behind him after the attack. Yamori was blinded by the pain that he took his gun out and started firing blindly…. I reacted by running away as much as I could to the far end of the massive room and taking cover to which he wouldn’t be able to find me.

However, my predictions remained true. With my thumb broken on my dominant hand, I wasn’t able to grip the blade properly, as a result, there was no way I could take him head on and win. He has his Cyber-Gear and I don’t. But he won’t have shielding for a while so if I am to attack, I have to catch him off-guard or from behind.

“It hurts…..it hurts, it hurts, it hurts…..THIS MUCH PAIN…HOW?” Yamori screamed from the opposite side of the room.

But unfortunately, the door out of the lab into the main room is on Yamori’s side. There is no way I’m sneaking past him as the door was visible even from here and if I make a run for it, he can easily shoot me in the back.

“I was right….. YOU WERE LYING TO ME!. All this time, you had the ability to not remind people what pain used to feel like, but also take away their shielding. Imagine the data I could’ve got out of all that? I might’ve not had to threaten people with Abyss Venom if you told me about this earlier.” Yamori started to rant while his footsteps were slow and evenly paced…..

He didn’t know where I was in the room.

“You only have yourself to blame for whatever happens from now on, Nakamura-san. All the people I have and will use Abyss Venom on. It’s all your fault”

Don’t listen to him… don’t let him get into your head….. I told myself as I was sneaking in the crate and shelf covered room. This place was layered with items like an overcrowded storage room, which gave me a lot of cover to work with

“Nakamura-san, it doesn’t have to be this way….. besides, now that you have let me in on your ability, I decided that I’m going to let you live for a while longer”

I trained my ears to hear any sound Yamori made ... .the sound of his shoes making contact with the stone as he takes cautious steps forward and the sound of him pulling his gun’s slide to double check if the bullet hasn’t jammed. But I wasn’t careful enough, as I ended up colliding with a shelf when I was moving from cover to cover and dropping a stack of files, giving away my position

“Oops” Yamori taunted me as he opened fire towards my direction. However, he still didn’t see me and I still had the advantage.

“You still think that I am in the wrong do you? No matter how hard I try to make you understand, you just keep rejecting reality. People don’t care about what you want to do…. The only way to make people listen to you… to not defy you, is to give them something to be scared of.” Yamori was stepping towards the disturbance, but I have long since relocated…. Not letting him zero in on me.

He was now searching around the mess I made and I saw this as an opportunity…. I wiped Yamori’s blood off the knife on my pants and tried to use the shiny silver surface of it as a partial mirror…. I couldn’t risk exposing my head but even a little bit of extra information helped.

I was crouched behind a crate, with the stack of files I dropped at striking distance, and the surface of the blade started showing patches of dark red, as the sight of the bloodstains on Yamori’s lab coat caught on its vague reflection… The patches started to grow in size until I could hear his footsteps right next to me.

I held my nose and mouth shut with my gauntlet arm just so he wouldn’t hear my breathing, my hearing started to drown out due to the sound of my own racing heart and all I could do was hope that Yamori wouldn't blindly check my position…. And he didn’t.

I held my breath and carefully stepped behind him with my focus razor sharp on him. But he was not easy to get the drop on.

Yamori caught my presence at the last moment and tried to fend me off, swinging his gun back in the hopes of catching me off-guard, but I managed to stick the knife deep into his side….. He shouted in pain and he followed by grabbing me by the neck. I reacted by trying to break his hold by slamming my right hand into his but it was hard to conjure up too much strength with my hanging thumb. However I was able to reach for the knife and pull it out of his side and send it through his arm which forced him to throw me across the room while he writhed and groaned in pain.

This was the chance I was looking for and I chose to run for the lab door as I had no chance of overpowering him….. The middle room was much bigger and more of a maze than the lab, and unlike the earlier room, the exit door to the holding cell room was not visible from anywhere. The room barely had any light as most of the braziers were focused on the center where the torture happens. While I had the shadows to my advantage, that also meant that I would be prone to making fatal mistakes due to my poor visibility.

To build up an early advantage, I retreated into the shadows and took a breather, leaving my eyes open to adjust to the low light.

Alright, calm down and reassess Akio….. just like a tense match being pushed to overtime and match point…..Okay, the good….his blind one eye so meaning he has a massive blind spot on his left, he’s not used to pain so if I catch him off guard again, he will be stunned for a moment, and for now, he doesn’t know where I am in this maze…. The bad….the low visibility in most of this room is a bother… I have to be extra careful where I go, I lost my weapon in that last bout, I can’t run for the door as I need some time to figure out where the keypad is and to input the combination…..

This is not going to be easy…. but then again, so far…what was?