Future Crisis: Chapter 1
A weird thing I noticed: what happened to all of the demons from the past? Do they just stop breeding at some point?
R&R!
This world is terrible.
Waking up from the meager sleep he could get out of his 14-hour work day, the young scientist quickly got up, shaking the folds and tears of his leather jacket and his jeans. The crumpled white nametag-sticker on the left side of his chest said "Akuhei" – a name that he gave himself for a reason he could not disclose. The mattress he laid on seemed to be in fairly decent condition, as long as no one saw the rip marks on the side. It also gave an audible grating sound as it slid over the floor.
Akuhei walked into the bathroom, which was once separated by walls. Now, only the remains of wall insulation were present. He opened the faucet and splashed water on his face. At least indoor plumbing worked. There was no measure of time in this country – all clocks were either lost or destroyed, and electricity was unavailable. The power in his house was drawn from a small, purple-colored crystal ball the size of a marble, in a secret vault underground. There was also a time display there, but Akuhei could not bother to walk down.
The living room was converted into his own workspace; equipment was scattered across the floor, along with strange weapons. Broken picture frames of his family hung on the walls, but most of them were charred. A prototype machine of some sort sat in the middle.
He stepped out of the house and onto wood, onto a balcony that was covered with sand. This was a daily ritual – it reminded him of his purpose to stay in this forsaken land and protect it, for the whole world was overrun by terrible creatures. Ruins of once tall-standing skyscrapers were eventually reduced to ashes. Akuhei was surprised to see any vegetation in the middle of the wasteland. Few houses were intact around him, and they held onto their lives on just one last hope: the fences surrounding the houses were covered with sheets of paper with words of spiritual meaning written on them – seals. Powerful monks who visited the area granted their protection to Akuhei and his neighbors, out of pity and desperation.
Outside this relatively safe zone, people constantly ran for their lives. They could not get far, however, because the land was surrounded by water. The country was an island, and few helicopters stopped by to check for survivors. Only occasionally lucky people and holy people who clung to the homeland were left. Besides, the pilots had better things to do than to be ripped apart. Akuhei's lab was a secret known to no one but himself.
This was Japan, 2018.
What did people run from? Demons. Or youkai, as they called them. These creatures were responsible for the destruction of human society around the world, after they first took over Japan. While people were constantly killed and eaten by youkai, there did exist safe zones – holy grounds – that housed refugees. The world population was reduced to 4.5 billion, or at least that was what people thought. Governments around the world that were still intact were stocking up on arms to defend themselves, but over the centuries youkai were able to evolve to defend themselves from modern weaponry; they were utterly impervious to bullets.
Akuhei checked the meter on the machine in the living room. "21 minutes left," Akuhei said to himself. "21 minutes is all I need… until I can finally solve this mess." He believed that the world should not have been dominated by youkai – in fact, youkai should bear no influence to human life after the destruction of the Shikon no Tama. Akuhei firmly believed that there was a crucial turning point in history that ruined the world's timeline.
The machine whirred in his living room; these 21 minutes were the longest minutes he ever spent in his life. He stared at the small cylindrical tube as it glowed in red, then orange, then yellow, and so on, until all the colors of the spectrum were displayed. Finally, the tube grew black. "It is complete!" he thought to himself. "Finally, after nine years..."
Backlash energy blew him backwards into a wall. The tube radiated with chaos, and Akuhei heard terrible voices in the sky above him. The tube attracted youkai nearby; the barriers constructed by the seals were quickly broken.
"So this is where you hid, human…" a creature stirred above him. Akuhei ejected the cylinder and placed it into a canister on his belt. He quickly grabbed a metal (but light) backpack that was attached to a much larger tube with a handle.
"Inferior beings are not to touch primal energy!" the youkai exclaimed. With one swipe, the roof of the house was blown off. "Explain your treason against the empire!"
Akuhei was not fazed. "There are two ways to settle this," he said. "One, you can let me walk away scott-free. Two…" He linked a coiled tube from the big cylinder to the one on his belt. "I will completely annihilate all of you."
He looked up and saw a monstrous bird-like creature, with golden feathers and wings that blocked the sun. Its large beak was studded with sharp protrusions. Next to it was a similar bird reduced in size.
"What good could a human like you do? Did you understand how your pitiful resistance was broken?"
One bird dove down and attempted to eat Akuhei. He pointed the cylinder at the bird and pulled the trigger on the handle.
A gray beam engulfed the diving bird; immediately after, there was no trace of the demon.
"What magic is this?" the gold bird roared.
"This device is a youki-eraser," said Akuhei. "It uses the remnant energy of the Shikon no Tama to create literally tiny molecule-sized black holes that can only eat up youki bit by bit. Of course, you won't live to remember this."
The bird flapped its wings; wind rushed through the openings of the house. "Damn you, human! I shall report to the emperor about this!" It changed heading and attempted to fly away.
Akuhei walked out to the balcony and took aim. "I don't need the emperor knowing about this," he said. His index finger pressed on the trigger; in a flash of gray light, the bird vanished into nothing. "Your energy will not be recycled. You have been turned into nothing. Matter is energy, and when youkai are shot with the ray, they will disintegrate and be thrown into oblivion. This is the ultimate anti-youkai weapon, as it will not affect any other matter.
"I will speak to the emperor himself," he thought. "And after that… I must begin to solve the root of the problem. I must erase Inuyasha, for he is the sole cause of this tragic future."
And with that, he pressed a button on his wrist. Rocket propellers appeared on his back, and he flew toward a red tower, seeking nothing but the death of a certain individual.