That cold prison cell seemed to grow even colder with Raiden's appearance. I didn't know the man well, but the mere knowledge that I had a past with him sent a shiver down my spine. He had the kind of erect posture and confident gaze that belonged in old samurai films. He looked strong, noble, and dangerous.
He walked with the clank of his metal feet on the floor, sat on my bed, and said, "How about we sit and talk?"
Sitting and chatting like a romantic couple next to a cybernetic samurai didn't sound very appealing. So I closed the lid of the toilet across from the bed and sat on it.
"Didn't you die?"
He crossed his legs and placed his right arm on his thigh. With his right hand, he scratched his mask as if stroking a beard. "Of course I am dead, Mehmet. This is a place that reflects the subconscious. I am the Raiden that Rose knows in her subconscious… Not the Raiden you truly know."
"Well, you can't really say that I know Raiden… I lost my memory."
"I know."
"Then why are you here?"
"Who knows? Rose created the scene…"
"So, does Rose also decide what you say?"
"No… Then this whole conversation would be meaningless." He got up and broke the cell door with a single punch. As the prison alarms blared, he turned to me and said, "But I have an idea about why Rose wanted me to talk to you." Then he walked out the door and disappeared.
With the alarms blaring one after another and the armed forces climbing the stairs in a rhythmic clatter, I can say that I absolutely crapped my pants. So I got up and threw myself out the door to chase after Raiden.
***
I found myself in a dark alley… People in hunger and destitution were huddled on the ground. The sounds of coughing and crying were constant. Each of them was wrapped in their robes to hide their wounds and their filth. I quickened my pace and caught up to Raiden, who was walking slowly among the people.
The robotic samurai's steps had woken up the destitute people. As the robot passed by, people were looking at him like a savior, like a Messiah. Some opened their hands and prayed to him, while others bowed their heads and knelt before him.
"Savior…" some said.
"Prophet…" some said.
"Hero…" some said…
"You see, don't you?" Raiden said. "What it means to be a hero… It's not your actions that make you a hero. It's the people your actions touch. I had realized this when I was a simple duelist. As people would yell my name in every duel I won, as people would be thankful for getting rid of the villains I killed…" A little girl with a piece of moldy bread came in front of us. The little girl had blue eyes, and her tear-filled eyes shone with enthusiasm. Raiden bent down to the little girl and lifted her robe. With him lifting the girl's robe, the other side of her face was revealed. Half of her face was rotten, and her eye was bulging out of her face. Her throat was riddled with holes, and the metal tubes connecting her throat were visible. It was only a matter of time before she would be breathless from a small blow. The little girl extended her moldy bread to Raiden to share it. Raiden smiled, and his metal fingers traced over the girl's head. As he petted the girl's head, he continued to speak. "Being a hero means making people's dreams come true."
"I know that…"
"I'm not sure you do." Raiden reached his hand behind his back and cut the girl's neck with his sword. As the girl's neck was impaled into the ground, people started screaming.
"What are you doing?" I tried to lunge forward, but Raiden hit me so hard with his metal arms that I was plastered to the wall. In fact, my back had created a huge dent in the wall.
"Stay back!" he said and drew both of his swords. As his swords shone with the light of the laser, the whole alley turned into a pool of blood. It only took a few seconds for him to slaughter the whole alley. His white metallic body was covered in red stains as he stood on top of a pile of corpses, his back turned to me. He was out of breath, and tears were flowing from his eyes.
"Why did you do that?" I yelled furiously.
"They… They were sick…" he said and lifted his head, looking at the sky. It wasn't obvious from the mask on his mouth, but I could feel him clenching his teeth. "…they had to die so that they wouldn't infect others."
"There must have been another way…"
"They always say there is another way, don't they? In reality, this is a big lie." He turned to me. "This is what it means to be a hero… They call those who make sacrifices that no one else can, a hero. But being a hero means being an enemy to someone else. Genghis Khan was a hero to the Mongols, and to others, he was a savage barbarian king. Napoleon was a hero to the French, and to other nations, he was an invading dictator. Attila was a hero to the Huns, and to the Romans, he was a barbarian invader. Che Guevara was a freedom hero to some, and to others, he was a ruthless revolutionary. Do you understand what all this means? Being a hero means destroying some things while saving others. This is the nature of the world. Just as humanity slaughtered nature and many other things to progress; if those who committed these massacres were called heroes, this heroic motif has never changed."
I had nothing to say. The only thing I felt was the anger swirling inside me. Raiden walked past the corpses, finished the alley, and turned into another alley. I also got up from where I was sitting and followed him.
***
We were in an experiment room. All over the room, there were three-meter-long glass capsules containing green liquids. The glass capsules were extending one after another for almost a kilometer. The ceiling was full of hoses, and the floor was full of cables. Raiden was standing in front of one of these experiment capsules, with his swords on his back. He had his hands on the screen in front of the experiment capsule. He was looking at the writings on it.
When I slowly came next to him, Raiden started to explain.
"CLAUDIS IX was a planet left to its own devices with corruption, poverty, immorality, and many other things. CLAUDIS IX, the last home of the Jihad Emperor, was left in the hands of a cowardly queen after the emperor was killed in a treacherous ambush by the Supreme World Republic. The queen was not only a coward. The queen was also a lover of power… She had beheaded most of her defiant children. She had eliminated most of the defiant nobles with assassination. Her fear was not only against the nobles who craved to take her power. Her greatest fear was against the Supreme World Republic." He pressed a button on the screen with his hand. With the button press, the lid of the glass capsule opened, and the thing inside was revealed.
The thing inside was a woman floating in the liquid. The woman had the pointy ears of a mind-weaver. Her completely naked body was smooth and beautiful, but it was flawed. Two hands, like baby hands, were coming out from the sides of her stomach.
"The Republic was exploiting CLAUDIS IX. What was it exploiting? Its resources, its people, and many other things… How could CLAUDIS IX protect itself against the Republic when it couldn't even protect itself against the enemies within it?"
The woman inside the capsule slowly opened her eyes. She had the naive gaze of a newborn baby. She was trying to recognize and understand both me and Raiden. If it weren't for the air bubbles that came out from time to time from the hoses rising from her mouth and going into the ceiling of the glass capsule, we wouldn't have been able to tell if the woman was alive or not from her listless demeanor.
"When corruption and many other evils had engulfed CLAUDIS IX, what did I have to do to stand against these evils? If you want to win the game on a planet full of dirty games, you have to play dirtier, and as a hero, I had to do that. As the protector hero of CLAUDIS IX…" he said and pressed a button with his hand. With the button press, a red light turned on inside the capsule. In an instant, that liquid turned from green to red. That mind-weaver who looked lifeless was writhing in agony. Her agonizing screams could be heard as she was hitting the glass capsule with her hands.
I took two steps back. I knew the woman couldn't touch me from inside the capsule, but she was trying so hard to get out of the glass capsule that it was impossible not to feel a shiver. It had taken more than a minute for the woman to lose her breath and go still, and I hadn't been able to leave that place during that one minute. I had a feeling that if I left, she would die in despair, and for some reason, I hadn't wanted the woman to die alone and hopelessly in the dark. I didn't know if I had done a good thing or an even greater evil.
Raiden continued to walk with slow steps. He was reading the screens in front of the capsules. If there was a problem with the writings on the screen, he would press a red button, and once again, the mind-weaver inside a capsule would die in agony.
"I don't know why the Bioethical Oversight didn't come to stop me, because Rose doesn't know either. The only thing I know is that I was wishing someone would come and try to stop me back then. If someone had come and said, "There's no need for what you are doing." If someone had come and offered me another way, I would have wished for it, but to no avail… A hero is someone who forges their own path. A hero is someone who is all alone. There is no one who can help a hero. The burden of every hero is their own, and I have never seen a hero who could share their burden."
**
The fog had engulfed the room as in nightmares seen in the middle of the night. You couldn't see anything, but for some reason, Raiden was standing in front of me as if he was not affected by the fog. He was kneeling on the ground like a samurai meditating, with his fingers touching each other. His head was bowed, and his back was turned to me.
"What are you going to say now?" I asked into the fog.
He didn't lift his head. He didn't react at all; he continued to sit on the ground as if he wasn't breathing.
"What is all this for? A hero is like this, a hero is like that…"
"Don't you want to be a hero?" Raiden asked.
"I said I want to be one, but I didn't expect to get such a serious reaction. I didn't expect philosophical talks or a big life lesson on heroism either."
"Are you saying these things to a hero who slaughtered his own daughters, who killed thousands of people by starting a revolution, who orphaned many children?"
"Yes…"
Raiden took the sword in front of him and held it suspended in the air with both hands. When I walked past Raiden, I understood that Raiden was extending the sword toward me. As I took the sword in my hand, I looked at Raiden's masked face. His eyes were looking at the ground, and there was no movement. I took the sword in my hand and said,
"Thank you…" I said, without even knowing why I was thanking him.
"Now, kill me with that sword…"
"What?" I said in surprise. "Why would I do such a thing?"
"I told you about my sins, didn't I? About the pain I caused and many other things…"
"Yes…"
"Isn't that enough to kill me?"
"How would I know that? Yes, you might be a monstrous killer, but you also saved a people from corruption and many other things."
"But that doesn't erase the sins that were committed, does it? A hero is someone who has power, and power is inherently evil. Humans sometimes need more powerful but controllable, bigger monsters who will do what they want, to defeat a monster. That's who we are. Our subconscious was so washed with ideas like heroism, justice, peace, and so on that we ended up becoming slaves to those ideas. The only thing we left behind was a path of blood and corpses shed for the sake of these ideas. Restlessness blossomed like a black stain on our chests, and then it engulfed our whole bodies. An endless torment… Peace, justice, and calm are not the essence of life. They are things that are made up… The effort needed to keep them alive is more than the effort needed to bring them about. Because injustice wants to take its place. War wants to come back. And restlessness waits at the door. You should know this… If you want to be a hero, you should know these things."
I looked at the sword in my hand first, and then at Raiden. All these things I had been told were starting to annoy me. Talking about such deep topics was giving a simple man like me a headache. But I understood Raiden. Probably too many people were trying to become the kind of hero Raiden was talking about. John Crowrift was perhaps an example of this. The Supreme World Republic was perhaps an example of this. But there was something he was missing.
"Did you see?"
"What?"
"The thing that was born as a result of the revolution you brought and the people you slaughtered…"
Raiden lifted his head and looked at me. I, on the other hand, continued to speak.
"Look, when I say I want to be a hero, the thing I want is actually different… You want to be a hero based on ideas, but I don't really have any ideas or ideologies. The reason I want to be a hero is my friends. The smile on their faces… Have you ever seen the fruits of your heroism?"
As Raiden was submerged in silence, I sighed deeply and extended the sword to Raiden. Then I closed my eyes and strained. I will explain why I strained later. After straining for a while, all the fog disappeared, and the scene changed.
The background was pristine white, but we were not just two people. This time, Rose was with us too. Yes, I had been staying in the Mind Tunnel for so long that I had become able to change some things in the Mind Tunnel… After all, my mind was connected to this place too, right? Rose had looked around in surprise when she realized that she had been teleported to where we were. I pointed at Rose with my hand and said to Raiden,
"Yes, maybe you never found peace, but this was related to why you were being a hero. I never saw the fruits of your heroism. Rose is your loyal follower… She has been on the road for centuries to find her hero's killer. She struggled with death, she was beaten with fear, but she never gave up on her hero. This… This is the reward of heroism, Raiden. At least I think so. A hero must know how to be happy from the happiness of others."
Raiden looked at Rose for a while. Rose also looked at Raiden, not knowing what to do. I was expecting a family hug or something like that, but it hadn't happened. After a few seconds, there was finally a reaction. Raiden bowed to Rose and greeted her, and said:
"Thank you for everything, young lady…" Rose also bowed to Raiden in the same way and greeted him, and said:
"We, as CLAUDIS IX, thank you for everything, Lord Raiden. Your sacrifices will be remembered for centuries."
Raiden turned to me with a smile on his face: "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mehmet." he said.
"The pleasure was all mine, robot samurai…"
As Raiden disappeared like dust particles in the wind, my eyes were frozen on Rose. Rose was still standing, bowed down.
"Ah… It was such a sincere meeting, wasn't it? You hugged… You kissed each other… It was a complete family reunion." I was walking toward Rose, who was still standing, bowed, and making fun of her when I realized that Rose was sobbing. She was biting her lips so that the sound of her crying wouldn't be heard, and the tears in her eyes were covering the ground.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
There was no answer.
"What happened, did something happen?"
There was no answer, but Rose suddenly hugged my neck and started crying. The woman's muscular arms were squeezing my neck so hard that I couldn't breathe. If it hadn't been such an emotional and important moment for her, I would have tried to save myself by screaming.
"This life is so unfair!" she said as her tears were flowing down my neck. I, who had turned bright red from not being able to breathe, could only say:
"Yes…"
"He thanked me, didn't he? You didn't make him say that, did you?"
"No, no…" My voice really sounded like it was coming from my ass. "…he said it himself."
"Thank God…"
"Yes, we got a little too emotional. But… Rose… I don't mean to interrupt, but I can't breathe…"
"Ah… I'm so sorry."
***
All these emotional moments didn't last long. Rose had put on her angry demeanor with her hands on her hips again.
"Even though you are a scoundrel, you really managed to move me," she said.
"You're welcome…"
"But the question I'm really curious about is this; how long have you been able to control the Mind Tunnel?"
"Don't worry, you didn't ruin any of your scenarios."
Rose raised one of her eyebrows and gave me a suspicious look.
"Really…"
"Get the hell out of here, do you expect me to believe that? So how did you learn to control the Mind Tunnel?"
To be honest, I didn't really want to tell Rose how I had learned. Why? Because I had realized that I also had control over the Mind Tunnel during a stealth mission…
Before sneaking into a base, I had to hide in the snow under a snowy hill for a few hours. I guess something I had eaten the day before had upset my stomach. That's why I had been pooping with diarrhea for two days. Right in the middle of the stealth mission, I had to go to the bathroom. Under normal circumstances, I should have pooped my pants and continued my mission, but… But I had also pooped my pants in the previous mission, and that's why I didn't want to walk around with my ass full of shit in another mission. I had tensed up so much to prevent the shit from gushing out of my ass that I had involuntarily intervened in the scenario. That's why I was involuntarily straining whenever I wanted to make a change in the Mind Tunnel. I didn't know how things would change in the Mind Tunnel without straining.
"That's my secret."
"But this is against the rules…"
"Yeah… But since your scenarios are over, screw the rules! Oh, thank God! This adventure took so long… I hope I was able to learn some things that will be useful when I get out. Oh… I was forgetting something. Thank you for the training you gave me, but it's my turn to give something…"
"What are you going to give?"
"Something came to my mind that I could give you after that insincere greeting you had with Raiden."
"What kind of a thing?"
"You'll see…" I said and started to strain. I tensed up so much that my face almost turned bright red.
"What are you doing, you crazy person?"
"Wait…"
"You're going to shit your pants! And if you strain this much, you're going to shit your pants in real life."
"Don't you interfere!"
***
Sunlight fell diagonally to the ground, and birds hiding in the shadows of the trees were busy chirping. The hoses in the lush green garden carried water, and the sprinklers watered the entire garden. A robot dog was barking from its kennel. A gigantic war balloon was flying in the sky, carrying the words, "Everything for the homeland…" on it. In front of us, there was a door. A simple, wooden door. As I pressed the doorbell next to the door, Rose looked at me. She hadn't been able to understand where the scene had brought us either.
"I'm coming…" a voice was heard from inside as the doorbell rang.
"Why did we come here?" Rose asked. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have looked so stressed in a war zone. But for some reason, everything in the place she was in right now seemed strange to her. Clean air, beautiful sunlight, peaceful and quiet houses… The smile on the face of the man in the flying car passing by on the street… The elderly ladies on their morning jog, and many other things…
"The scenario is my scenario… Did I ever complain when I was in your scenarios?"
"You did complain! Numerous times!"
"Even if I complained, I never tried to ruin any of your scenarios. Please… Can you at least pretend to be a little content?"
"Pretend to be content! You can't interfere with my demeanor!" Rose was just about to throw a punch at me when the wooden door opened.
A young woman opened the door… Probably because she was at home, her hair was a mess, and the loose dress she was wearing was wrinkled. Despite her homey state, the woman still looked beautiful. Her light brown hair fell to her shoulders, and her green eyes shone with hope. She had thin lips and a slender body. In her arms, there was a baby wrapped in a blanket, and she was constantly swaying the baby.
She didn't recognize us at first. Then she pushed her hair aside with her hand and smiled at me.
"Edgard… Is that you? You've grown so much."
"Yes, Mom… It's me… Your son, Edgard…"