They say that Time heals everything. But I know that is not true. They say that good memories can help you forget the bad ones. But good memories are like gold-plated jewelry, beautiful and shiny when you first have them, but in time they fade. Bad memories are like scars, the body covers them up in the hopes of protecting the minds sanity, but there are always reminders. That is how my life seemed to go. I have no memory of my parents or where it is that I came from, your earliest memories that I have earned that dark cold cell that, for the earliest part of my childhood, was my home. This is where my story begins.
The earliest memory that I have are of the cold dark cell that was my room. The dark brown bricks that lined the walls in every direction. The wooden door with bars at the top that I couldn't even get to. The bed that was as hard as stone and the paper-thin blanket in it. This is what I was in at 3 years.
I usually sat on that bed, my neck bound to the back wall farthest from the door. The chain only just long enough to get me to the door. Every day I waited for my food and drink to arrive. Simple bread and water given to me through a small door at the bottom of my cell door. This was my every day, nothing seemed to change for 3 years. Until one day.
The door to my cell opened, which for me was rare, and two tall men walked in. one was dressed in a red shirt with torn off sleeves and the other was in a suit that almost looked like a tuxedo.
"This, is it?" asked the man in the tuxedo. His tone was very authoritative, and demanding. He also sounded disappointed.
"You know how hard it is to get one that young?" said the other man. His voice sounded more like a punk voice.
The man in the Tuxedo walked closer to me. I didn't move, I just sat on my bed. He kneeled to be at my level and moved his head up and down as if inspecting me. "I guess it will do." He said. "Just try to get it trained before the buyers come. A withered little thing like this won't make much."
The red shirted man simply nodded as the Tuxedo man left the cell. The red shirted man then walked in uncoupled the shackle around my neck, and grabbed me by the arm. I tried to resist, but I was too weak. "Come on you little brat." He angrily said. "We need to get you ready for the high roller."
I didn't know what, or who, that was. But I also didn't know what to say. I could speak, but usually chose to stay quiet because sometime they didn't feed me if I spoke up.
The man pulled me by the arm. The hall was much like my room, dark bricks lined the wall with lights in the celling every few feet. As we walked down the hall there were doors on both side like the one to my room. We walked down the hall until we arrived at a particular door, from the outside it looked like another wooden door, but the inside was completely different. This room was much better looking than the cell I was in before. It was much cleaner and had tiled floors and white walls, not a sight of brick. The middle of the room was empty and as the man kept carrying me we passed by a mirror on the wall. I didn't recognize the image in it, the pink skin, and ratty clothing. It was a moment before I realized it was me. I fought out of the man's hand and ran over to the mirror. This was something new to me. I finally got to see my red and black eyes, or the short tentacles on my head that were the same color as my skin. As far as I was concerned I was beautiful. I only got a moment to look before the man grabbed me again and forced me away.
The man threw me into the middle of the room. "Well, it's time to toughen you up." He said with a smile. "A Majin like you will fetch a better price that way."
Without any other warning the man took a fighting pose came at me. He kicked me in the gut before I even had a chance to get on my feet. I held my stomach in pain as the man came at me again. I put an arm up as he tried to kick again, but my arm felt like it was broken in two from the force. "Come on you brat." Said the man. "Majin are famous for regeneration." I didn't even know what that word was back then, I just wanted the pain to stop.
The man picked me up by my neck and slammed me on the ground. "You need to fight back if you want to survive." This was true torture to me. I didn't know what to do. The man stopped long enough for me to get back on my feet and I put my fist up in a fighting pose like he was. He came at me with a punch from his left arm. I managed to dodge it, but then a right punch came and hit me in the stomach. I was on the ground again.
"This is pathetic." Said the man. "I guess we'll have to try again tomorrow." The man grabbed me by the arm that he broke earlier. The pain was immense, like my entire arm would come off. He pulled me until we arrived back at my cell.
It was the same every day. The man would come to my cell, take me to the tiled room, and beat me up until he said we were done. I was never given any time to recover from the previous day, every day the pain got worse.
"It's been over a week and you still can't throw a punch," yelled the man. "Maybe you won't be worth as much as we thought."
I got up and again and tried to punch with my, now soar and broken, arm. The punch didn't even faze him. He pushed me down onto the floor and I simply laid there for a moment. It was then that I saw the mirror again.
I was horrified at what I saw. My once beautiful face was covered in bruises and bumps. My tentacle hair was all misshapen and ruined. After finally getting to see my face, this is what it turned into, I was furious. I didn't care about the pain or the man who was beating me, I just wanted to look like I did before. My blood felt like it was boiling, then something amazing happened. The pain was leaving me, my arm no longer hurt, my stomach no longer ached. When I looked back in the mirror my face healed before my very eyes. It was incredible.
The man laughed. "Looks like the regeneration finally kicked in. Let's see if it continues." The man lunged at me with a left punch. I managed to dodge it easily. He then tried to kick me and I dodged that easily as well. With everything he'd done over the last week and my body recovered it's like he was moving in slow motion. His attacked were easy to see and dodge. At one point, I saw an opening. He tried a right hook and I got under. I punched at his side and heard him yell in pain. Then I punched him in the head and he fell on his butt. This was the first time I felt joy. But it didn't last long.
"That dose it!" screamed the man as he got up. I prepared for him to lung at me again, but instead I saw a yellow glow come from his right hand. Then suddenly that glow shot out straight at me. I put my arms up in defense, but it was little help. The blast knocked me to the wall and imbedded the wall with my shape. I fell from the wall in pain.
I was barely conscious, but I heard someone else come into the room. "What was that!" yelled the man. "Are you crazy? Using a Ki attack indoors." The other man didn't answer. "Just get her back to her cell. The auction is next week. We need to make sure she's ready, and alive."
I awoke a while later back in my cell. My arms were numb from the blast I took. I tried to remember the feeling I had back in the training room and after a few moments the pain left and my arms were healed. I wasn't sure what the last man meant by auction, but I knew it was something bad. I had finally felt happiness, first when I got to see my reflection and second when I got to fight without getting beaten up. this was the moment I had another emotion I had never had before, the desire to be free. I had to escape, but how. I only had a week to figure out how to get out so I had to think fast.
I continued my training every day with the same man. I was carful and always let him win so he wouldn't use that Ki attack again. One day while fighting I tried to jab punch him but he jumped back to avoid the hit. However, my arm stretched out and managed to hit his face anyway. This was yet another thing I didn't know I could do. The man didn't seem to surprised to angry about this. In fact, he seemed rather happy as he got up and looked at me.
"Every time you learn something is another zeni in my pocket." He said with a creepy look on his face. He grabbed my arm and took me back to my cell.
I spent that entire night practicing with how my body could stretch. I learned that it was not just my arms but my entire body that could stretch and move in almost every way. most interestingly was that I could stretch my head to get out of the collar around my neck. I now had a plan to escape and tomorrow was my only day to do it before the auction.
My training started like normal we spared for over an hour, but this time my plan was to get him mad on purpose. I punched and kicked with all I had and made him look slow and weak. I even laughed at him from time to time. Eventually he did what I wanted him to do and fired a ki blast. I blocked it like before only this time I didn't lose consciousness. I pretended to be passed out on the floor instead. After a moment, the man came over to me
"Darn it," he said to himself. "I better got you back before the other find out."
The man lifted me up and carried me over his right shoulder. As he walked I quietly stretched my arm out and reached to his back pocket. The key he always used was hanging out and I grabbed it. The man didn't feel me take it out. I closed my fist and continued to pretend to be passed out. the man arrived at my cell, the door was still open from when he got me. he placed me on my bed and put the collar on. He then exited the room and closed the door.
"Has anyone seen my key." The man shouted out loud from outside. "Must have dropped it somewhere." I remember hearing as his footsteps got fainter and fainter. I knew there was no one else in the hall and the door was still unlocked. I quickly got up and slipped my head out of the collar and ran to the door. Slowly I opened it and looked down each direction of the hall. I knew which direction the man had gone and knew my best bet was the opposite direction because that's where he went after leaving me each night.
I walked quickly down the hall, not running so as not to make as much noise. The hall didn't change for a while, just the same dark bricks. However, after a few moments I came to a large door at the end of the hall. I was different from the cell doors for one it was made of clean blue painted wood and had no bars. I reached for the knob and slowly turned it. The door opened and I saw a place I didn't expect.
This place was nothing like the hallway I was in. it looked clean with nice white walls and shiny polished floors. I looked out and saw people walking around in business suits with briefcases and ties. They reminded me of the man I saw a while ago before the other man started training me. I also saw some men and women in white lab coats. Then I heard a group of people walking from one side of the room.
There were about ten men surrounding a large muscular man in a tattered shirt and blue jeans. He was chained up with a strange mechanical collar on his neck. I wasen't sure why at the time, but the large man looked familiar.
They walked over to a lady behind a desk and that was when I realized that the one in front of the group was the man from before. I wanted to hear them so I looked around and saw a large plant to my left. I leapt from the door when it seemed like no one was looking and hid behind the plant. From there I could barely make out what the wan and lady were saying.
"Glad to see you back mister Parker." Said the lady in a nice tone.
"Good to be back." Replied the man. "I got a new patient here. His energy is unstable so the collar needs to stay on."
"Understood." Replied the woman.
My thinking was interrupted when the man in the red shirt came charging out of the door. He moved so fast he didn't even notice me.
"Sir," he shouted to Parker. He then ran over and whispered something in his ear.
"You what!" Parker shouted. He then looked over at the people guarding the large man. "You five stay with him. The rest of you start searching. We have an escaped Majin patient."
Two of the men started heading towards the door. If they came that way they would spot me for sure, I had to move. I saw an empty desk a few feet away, I thought if I moved fast I could get there without being seen. When I believed, the cost was clear I ran for it but was stopped half way.
"There she is!" I heard someone yell. I looked over to see almost all ten men descend on me. I tried to run, but I was caught in no time. Two men grabbed my arms and held them behind my back. I struggled, but I couldn't get loose.
The men picked me up and brought me to Parker. They forced me to my knees as Parker looked at me with an expression of humor and evil. "What a naughty patient trying to run away." He said with a smile. I didn't reply, as usual. "We're here to help people like you, that's all." I didn't understand what he was talking about at the time, but I didn't care. I needed to think of a way to escape and fast.
I looked around and saw the large man still standing at the same spot he was before. I remembered what he had said about his unstable power and the collar. I headbutted the man holding my right arm to make him let go and quickly punched the one on the left. Then I tripped Parker and ran over him.
I ran to the large man and climbed up his back. Once I was at his neck I punched the collar with all my strength and the collar broke and fell off.
"What have you done!" yelled Parker. I smiled, but only for a moment before I realized that this man was starting to glow yellow. "Everyone out!" shouted Parker. Everyone started running.
The large man moved and I fell off his back. I landed on my butt and was about to pick myself up when I saw the man's hair turn yellow. Then he gave out a defining yell and in an instant a huge wave of energy went out in all direction. The entire building exploded.
It's hard to describe what it felt like. After the explosion, I was blown into pieces all over the remains of the building. I could feel myself in all those pieces as though I could tell what state I was in. I wanted to be h whole again. I felt as all the pieces started to move. I could still move despite being in pieces. I made all the pieces come together at the top of the ruble pile and little by little the pieces came together into one big pink blob. Then I felt my shape returning. I held an image of myself from just before the explosion and before long the blob of my remains formed by body. I couldn't believe I had managed to pull myself together after something like that. This was amazing.
After I had regenerated I looked around. The building was nothing more than a pile of rubble. Bricks and metal girders scattered everywhere. in one direction, I saw a bunch of light heading towards me. I was scared so I hid behind a stack of bricks that were still intact. I heard the people speak as they approached.
"What do you think happened?" asked the first man.
"No idea." Said the second. "Maybe a patience did this."
"A patient at a hospital." Said the second man. "Not likely."
This was when I realized where I actually was. It was some form of hospital. But what hospital has brick cells.
My thinking was interrupted when someone came around the corner and shined his light on me. "Hey, I found a survivor." He said
The man lowered his light, But the lights from the other behind him made it difficult to see his face. He reached out and grabbed my arm, instantly the memories of the man in the red shirt poured into my head. I fought to get free, fearing what he was going to do. I didn't know this man but I was still afraid. The man held firm, but I kept struggling, screaming and hitting. Eventual the man released me and I ran in the opposite direction as fast as I could. I didn't know where I was heading, but I didn't care. I was free from that place, and that's all that mattered to me then.