Note: Before you jump into this chapter, take it as a little reward for last week's great work and a bit of motivation for this week too. This one's a double length chapter, and it hits the biggest character moment for our MC so far, culminating everything together into a real gut punch by the end.
-x-
Fukushima (Japan)
There was a serene warm breeze in the air. One that was nurturing for me but harmful to its residents.
I stood on a paved road in Fukushima. Held in my hands and balanced on my head were baskets of the giga-fruits straight from the Garden of Chernobyl. Yes, I had coined the name myself.
On my back, I had a net bag full of fruits as well. It was comically large, extending well over my head and just about to touch the ground. I loved the expressions on the locals faces as I walked around, offering free fruits to anyone willing to receive.
The adults were more cautious than the children, most wouldn't accept them but they were happy with a sample, some even asking for my name, if I would be around the area again.
I felt a certain fuzzy feeling settle in my stomach when one lady had taken a sample of one my apples and asked me if she could take a basket back home for her children. The way she thanked me with misty eyes was...particularly heartbreaking.
This felt right. Not fun like gambling, but good.
The sun was setting by the time I had exhausted my stock.
A group of children walking home from the park had stopped in front of me, giggling at the massive fruits.
Their clothes were scuffed and dirty from playing. One girl had her crown caked in dust, with the sunshine hitting her at an angle that colored her hair in dirty blonde.
In a flash, I plunged back to better times. Angy, that angel, I could see her silhouette superimposed on the girl's frame. I had to hold back a grimace.
Most of the children were giggling, bouncing on their heels and speaking in rapid fire Japanese I was wholly unable to follow. But not all of them. A brown haired boy with a yellow backpack looked downcast as the only one without a fruit.
I produced another massive, perfectly ripe mango from thin air and handed it to him. The kid's eyes went wide as saucers, his small hands barely able to hold the fruit that was the size of his head. The group of them wow'ed in amazement, I could see stars in their eyes. Their adorable innocence rolling off in waves. My mouth ached from smiling so much.
"I know I'm giving you these fruits to eat," I said in horribly broken Japanese, mentally relying on Nakime's rough translations and her laughing at my awful pronunciation, "but please, don't take food from strangers."
"Sayonara, Oni!" they yelled in unison. Their voices overlapped, creating this chaotic harmony of childhood joy.
"Ta ta!"
As the kids waved and ran off down the street, their backpacks bouncing with each step, their laughter fading into the distance, I let out a long, shuddering sigh of peace.
The Fukushima reactor was kilometers away, sitting in a secluded, dead sector. The exclusion zone stretched out beyond the city limits, marked by warning signs and abandoned checkpoints, a monument to nature's cruel indifference.
But the ambient radiation lingering in the air? I could feel it in my bones, in my blood, in every cell of my body. The invisible particles cascading through the atmosphere, drawn to me like iron filings to a magnet.
Man, is this what it feels like to be super? It was dizzying. But God help me, it felt amazing. It was a buzzing, electric high that made my skin tingle and my exhaustion evaporate. Honestly, I hate to say it, but the radiation was incredibly yummy.
It felt a lot like doing hard drugs but safer.
'Master, don't you think this punishment is a bit ridiculous?'
Nakime's voice echoed in my head, transmitting directly from the Infinity Castle.
Back in the main hall, Sebas was currently being forced to hold the 'Murga' position. For the uninitiated, that meant he was squatting on the wooden floor, his back hunched forward, his arms weaving behind his knees to hold his ears. It looked absolutely ridiculous, deeply undignified and precisely the point.
The most dignified, terrifying dragonoid butler in existence, currently subjected to an Asian high-school detention punishment.
'If you're so angry, just kill him like he demanded,' she added.
'No, it's completely justified!' I sent back, a sudden burst of annoyance spiking through our connection. 'And he's a decent enough summon. I can't just waste him and let my anger take over.'
All the while I was talking to Nakime, I was running at super speed toward the failed reactor, using my Impulse ability to match my kinetic vision to the blur of the scenery.
The world streaked past in bands of color. Trees, buildings, street signs, all blending together into impressionist paintings.
I finally stopped at the boundary of the reactor content with the rat at which the radiation was rising to me..
It was oddly peaceful actually. Seeing the sun set on the abandoned reactor as the oddly abandonment of the scenery put me at ease.
Right as I was in the middle of relishing my massive dose of rads, my phone started ringing.
Tring. Tring.
The ringtone cut through my peaceful moment like a knife. I actually groaned out loud.
'Is it Kate?' I wondered, pulling it out.
"Moshi mosh... Jojo here," I answered smoothly. "Who's the beauty I'm speaking to?"
"Sorry to disappoint, Mr. Kaisen, but it's an old, fugly bastard speaking."
The voice was gravelly, exhausted, and deeply unimpressed.
'Wha—'
"Oh, hey Cecil," I recovered quickly. My brain scrambled to shift gears from flirty to professional. "How's it hanging? Any headway on that billion-dollar bounty of yours?"
"Now is not the time to joke, Ki-" He stopped himself mid-word. I could practically hear his teeth grinding "Mr. Kaisen," Cecil snapped in a tight voice. "First, that ridiculous demand with the self-appointed bounty. Then you somehow use a disguising ability that I wasn't privy to, which means you've been holding out on me, roam around Chicago, in gang territory, and meddle in a gang war for Christ's sake! Do you have any idea how many resources I had to deploy to clean up that mess?"
wheeze
I could practically hear Cecil catching his breath in an attempt to reign in his temper.
"And to put the cherry on top... you created a Fruitarian Garden of fucking Eden in Chernobyl of all places! The satellite imagery team thought there was ANOTHER failure in the reactor! Do you understand how many questions I've had to field from the United Nations?!"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, old man," I laughed. "Don't give yourself a heart attack over me. Plus, what did you expect me to do? Hide in the castle for eternity until you get your shit figured out on how to deal with our fascist flying friend? And the gang part was an accident. I wouldn't be an upstanding citizen if I let those bad men hurt an innocent family."
I heard a snarky remark mid-rant. "Right. The rocky mob enforcer Titan is completely innocent."
"Hey, I heard that!" I was grinning despite myself. This banter was almost fun.
Cecil was quick to pivot the subject. "Mr. Kaisen, we're getting off topic. I didn't know you had the capability to neutralize hazardous levels of radiation."
"Hey, I didn't know I was that capable either. A friend of mine gave me a very physical pep-talk and now look at me—I'm the answer to world hunger."
Sigh...….
I heard a very long, incredibly tired sigh over the receiver.
"... Mr. Kaisen, after you're done with Fukushima, would you mind helping us out with a few other radiation hotspots? There have been some accidents not privy to general public."
"Of course and thanks for the dinner, Cecil. I knew you were a nice guy. See you soon."
I hung up. The satisfaction of getting the last word never got old.
By the time I reached the perimeter, I had absorbed most of the ambient radiation. My body, already used to massive energy absorption from yesterday, was taking it in without much effort.
I was buzzing and practically felt…INVINCIBLE.
"Now, I'm having such a great day," I muttered to myself, grinning. "Wouldn't mind topping that up with a little gambling..."
My fingers literally twitched. The phantom sound of the gacha chime rang in my ears. I opened my interface, staring at that juicy Platinum ticket. My mouth watered.
I was just about to tear it when a hand clamped down on my wrist, twisting it hard enough to make the bones groan.
"Ow, ow, ow, fuck!"
I spun around only to find Sebas was halfway out of a newly opened Tatami door, his eyes flaring with a dangerous, oppressive purple ki.
"Master, I will not allow you to take back those crutches."
The rage was instantaneous. After yesterday's incident of nearly fucking dying in a nuclear reactor, and now this? He was stopping me from scratching the damn itch.
"Butt out, old man!" I snarled, trying to yank my arm away. He didn't let go. If anything, his grip tightened. "Was the punishment not enough?!"
"The punishment may not be enough, but I will not let you go back to that addiction." He said it so matter-of-factly. Like it was simple. Like I was simple.
"WHAT do you even know about me, huh?!" I blurted out in vehement anger, my mind completely abandoning logic as the panic of going cold turkey hit me. "What about the dangers of this world? The aliens? The curses? The superpowered maniacs? I need to gamble to get more power! I need feats to get more tickets!"
Sebas finally let go of my hand. It was completely covered in red finger marks. I quickly yanked it back, rubbing the sore joints against my chest.
"Very well, Master," Sebas said, his voice terrifyingly composed. "You may go ahead and gamble. But at least entertain this old man just once."
He disappeared from my vision.
I looked inside the gate. The evening light of Fukushima couldn't reach the shadows where Nakime was seated with her biwa.
"Really, Nakime?" I said in a deeply disappointed tone. "Now you let him out? I was having such a great day, too."
Nakime's shoulders shook. She stammered, "Ma... Master... I... I..."
Before she could even finish her sentence, Sebas reappeared in front of me.
But what shocked me to my absolute core were the two little kids struggling in his massive arms, crying and protesting to be let go.
"Hanashite! Leave us!" one cried in Japanese. "Oka-san! Oka-san!"
My stomach plummeted.
"Sebas, have you finally lost it?!" I yelled, stepping forward. My hands came up instinctively, reaching for the kids. I needed to fix this. This was so fucking wrong. "Let the kids... are those... these are the same kids I gave the mangoes to! Let go of them right now!"
Sebas looked straight into my eyes. He spoke every word with a bass that made my skeleton crawl.
"You wanted the tickets from feats, Master. Here. Kill these helpless children. That should grant you enough tickets to roll for more power."
"Hey... hey, that's not what I..." My voice came out weak. My throat had closed up
"Better yet," Sebas interrupted smoothly, his grip not loosening an inch. The kids were still struggling, their small hands pushing uselessly against his arms. "Why don't you torture them first? Make it count. Get multiple feats for more gambling. Isn't that what you want? More tickets? More power? What's a few dead children compared to becoming stronger?"
"The kids cried harder, sensing the dark murderous intentions of the old man. In their panic, they looked at me as their savior. A look I am all too familiar with. Angy used to look at me that way. When my father would grab her by the ponytail, roughly dragging her inside. But I couldn't do anything. I was afraid too. That if I intervened, he would beat me as well. Their cries jolted me back to reality.
"LET US GO! MAMA MAMA, WHERE ARE YOU!"
"ENOUGH! Sebas, stop it!" I lunged forward.
Sebas sidestepped, I fell towards the ground on my knees. I didn't try to get back up, he wouldn't let me get close if he wanted to.
"No, Master, it is you who has to stop," Sebas said coldly. "Chasing power like this... relying on crutches... it will make you turn into your own worst fear, like this."
He snapped his fingers.
A burst of ki knocked the kids unconscious, and he simply dropped them.
I quickly dove to catch them before they hit the rough ground, sliding across the dirt and pulling their limp bodies into my arms, sighing in massive relief when I saw they were just asleep.
"This is not a lesson you can just get away with!" I barked up at him, my heart hammering in my throat. "These are innocent lives you're messing with! You don't use children as props! You don't traumatize kids to make a fucking point!"
"Then what about your innocence? Are you certain you want to take the role of villian in this world? Are you willing to walk down that path? How do you know that you won't become...this," he spread his arms out, gesturing at us, "When you run out of feats to achieve. And you'd have done all the good you can. Will you then turn towards evil? Can you be sure you won't become a monster?"
Sebas kneeled down on one leg, keeping that same severe look. "Tell me, Master, why do you gamble?"
My mind was a complete mess. Half of me was agonizing over his words, trying to come up with counterarguments and failing. The other side drowned in sorrow and nostalgia. Angy sat beside me, sleeping soundly, wearing a set of blue oversized pajamas completely covered in stars. She'd picked them herself during one of our shopping trips and refused to wear anything else the entire week.
Eventually, I buckled under Sebas's intense stare, "I gamble because I need that high." I tried to match his energy and the tears prickling my eyes weren't helping.
"That is an excuse," Sebas repeated firmly. His eyes didn't leave mine. "Tell me why you gamble."
"Because I'm a degenerate piece of trash from a Fake family!" my voice cracked.
"No. Tell me the real reason if you want to rid yourself of this disease."
"What disease?! Gambling is part of my charm! People like me because... because..." I looked up at the gate. The sun had finally set, and Nakime had poked her head out to see the fuss. "Nakime... you like me, right?"
Nakime covered her mouth.
"Master, please... you need help," she said, her voice breaking into whimpers. "I have already lost someone I loved to gambling. I killed him... I killed him with these hands. Please, Master... don't break my heart again."
My mind went completely blank. My heart stopped.
"Nakime... you too?" I whispered, looking down at the dirt. "I'm just a piece of trash. What more do you guys want from me?"
The kids were suddenly lifted from my arms. Sebas cradled them gently against his chest, having forced them unconscious with his ki just to make a point.
"Master, you may kill me. You may hurt me. You may order me to commit the worst sins possible by a man," Sebas said, the harshness completely gone from his voice. "But please, let us help you. Let me fulfill your command. Let me make you strong. Not here—" he pointed at my body "—but here." He pointed at my head.
My mind, under so much stress, the memories I had forced shut just a few nights back tearing completely open. Flashes of Angy came back again and again.
I saw her smile as I did card tricks for her. Her hands clapping together, eyes wide with wonder. "How'd you do that, Johnny?" Like, I was the most amazing person in the world.
I saw her eyes light up as I showed her a brand new 20-sided die. Holding it up to the light, watching the numbers catch the sun. "Will you teach me your game? The one with the dragons?"
I saw her... I saw…
"Because she liked it," I sobbed, my walls totally collapsing. "Because I was finally..."
Before I could even complete the sentence in my blackout state, my phone screen suddenly lit up in my pocket.
An emergency broadcast overrode my volume settings, blaring at full volume into the quiet Japanese night. The sound was jarring, discordant, and destroying the moment.
[Omni-Man is back,] the news anchor announced, in a breathless and frantic voice. [I repeat, Omni-Man has made his way back home!]
[Feat Achieved! Become a Key part in the Extinction of an entire Civilization}
[Reward: +1xDiamond Random Gacha Ticket]
Author's Note:
Remember guys, we're now on the 30-90 days list and no longer at number 1.
So let's go All IN on the Stones and aim for the top!!
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