I don't own Bioshock blah blah blah Kokoro Connect's not mine either blah blah blah apparently I have to put this up here or people get mad. Just read the story already. If you find any traces of plot, promptly forget about it. I'm not starting anything at all, and the title of this story is definitely not suggesting otherwise. Bye for now.
Delta felt a bit groggy.
It was as though he had forgotten something he shouldn't have, something that had happened or something that would happen soon, and he couldn't get that memory back. The more he thought about it, the more dizzy he became until he was forced to stop wondering lest he pass out. It felt as if there was something there in his mind, actively keeping him from remembering what he'd forgotten.
After a while of stumbling about with fog in his head, Delta realized he'd gotten lost in the twisted hallways of Rapture. For a moment, he considered looking for a way out, but knew it would be hopeless the way he was, and instead opted to stop thinking and rest. It was no good, after all, to be exploring Rapture with its denizens as hostile as they were, especially if he couldn't even concentrate well enough to walk in a straight line.
Half an hour later, the throbbing in his head faded away, and Delta felt well enough to look up and take in his surroundings.
It was immediately apparent that something was off.
The room itself wasn't particularly unique; it appeared to be a record shop, albeit in a state of disarray like the rest of the city. Shelves had fallen over or broken, and record cases littered the floor. Countless hours of the century's best music lay scattered and broken on the waterlogged ground, but Delta barely had enough humanity left in him to care about such things at all.
No, the room was ordinary enough. Its inhabitants were what made it strange.
Standing across the room, staring at Delta with a blank and emotionless face, was a completely ordinary middle-aged Asian man wearing a white shirt, black pants and a black tie. His slightly unkempt hair was black, and his face had small amounts of hair lining the mouth and chin, less as if he was shaven and more like he simply didn't grow enough facial hair to worry about too terribly much. His dull brown eyes had less light in them than most people's, and appeared to look at something behind you, rather than directly at you.
The reason he was strange was because he was so calm and ordinary.
Here in Rapture, the only people left were horribly disfigured and void of all sanity. A comfortingly normal face and a calm, polite demeanor were impossible luxuries here.
Yet this man stood before Delta, lost of all concern, lacking any irregular traits save his cold, lifeless eyes.
And then the man spoke.
"Hello, Delta."
The Daddy took action immediately, rising to his feet and backing behind the counter for cover. He wasn't willing to trust anyone here.
"Now, now, don't be so hasty. You may look like a beast, but you're still a human on the inside. Think with your head, not your weapons."
Delta didn't listen, and only spun his drill twice as though warning the man off. Despite this, the man only took small steps forward.
"I can understand your confusion as to my appearance here, but surely you can calm down long enough to hear me out."
Frustrated that the man hadn't yet backed off, Delta jumped onto the counter, stomped on the trembling wood and roared at the unimpressed man. Yet the man continued moving forwards until he was right in front of the counter, craning his head almost straight up to look at Delta through his helmet's glass pane.
"Maybe you would be less hostile if I told you who I am?"
Delta realized the man wouldn't back off, and instead raised his right arm, spinning the drill around as he aimed for the man's face.
"Well then, allow me to introduce myself."
The drill came down, letting out a horrible noise as it shot towards the calm man.
But all Delta hit was air.
The man's left arm had moved past the drill and swung to the side, hitting Delta's right arm and forcing the drill out of its lethal path with enough strength to break down a steel door.
The man raised his right hand and pointed a finger at Delta's helmet, moving it towards the forehead area above the glass window.
As soon as that finger made contact, Delta felt brute force knock him backwards off the counter, into the wall behind him.
"My name is Heartseed."
In an instant, the man was in front of Delta, leaning over him this time, peering into the glass pane as though he could see the face behind the helmet.
"I'm here to make things interesting."
With another strike, the injured daddy was sent flying backwards once more, tearing through the wall and skidding across the ground in the hallway outside of the record shop. The hallway's stone flooring chipped and cracked from the impact, but held strong under Delta's weight.
Heartseed casually walked through the large hole in the record shop's wall, his hands in his pockets as he carefully stepped over the rubble made of bits of wood and stone.
At the same time, Delta stirred before rising to his feet, flame curling around his left arm as his right raised the slightly damaged drill that had been his weapon for so long. His helmet glass was cracked, but he was a daddy; even after that much impact, he wouldn't go down so easily.
The two faced off for only a moment before Delta made the first move. With a bright flash of light, tendrils of flame shot from his left arm and flew at the casual man, who nonchalantly stepped a bit to the side as the fire raced past him and into the record shop. The shelves and record cases set aflame, but neither combatant cared. All they could focus on was their opponent.
With an inhuman roar, Delta charged towards the man with his spinning drill held in front of him. The daddy showed no sign of restraint, and only worried about taking the unperturbed man to the ground.
Delta slammed into the record shop's outside wall, twisting around last second to avoid going through the prominent hole. His opponent had not been hit by the attack; his movement was too fast for Delta to observe, and the man was already standing behind him, undisturbed as before.
"You won't hit me like that, you know."
An impact in his side sent Delta flying out of the hallway, hitting a large glass window that separated the city's interior from the depths of the sea. Large cracks spread out across the window centered around Delta's helmet, which had hit the glass like a wrecking ball.
Delta wasn't done yet, but the force of the hit took the wind out of him, and he sat still for a moment, his breathing ragged as he attempted to consume as much air as he could.
"Your movements are much too slow. Don't you have anything to help you with that? I've been exploring this city for a while now, and it seems the technology here allows you a bit more ability than just shooting fire from your fingertips."
The man showed no emotion in his face, nor his voice, but the words he chose gave Delta the impression that the man was taunting him.
Delta's left arm raised once more and fired a barrage of icicles and ice shards at the man, who stepped back and to the side to avoid the sudden attack. Not finished with his attack, Delta clambered up and dashed past the man, laying what appeared to be a small whirlwind at the still uninjured man's feet.
As Delta slid to a stop and spun to face his opponent, the man folded his arms behind his back, staring down at the whirlwind with not a single bit of emotion on his face.
"Interesting... how clever of you. I assume that any motion made on my part will set the trap off and send me upwards into the ceiling above my head, correct?"
As if in response, Delta stepped back and spun his drill, preparing for another charge.
"It seems like you've got me caught here then. Your move, Delta."
Delta dashed forwards once more, the blades on his drill becoming no more than a blur as he flew across the ground towards his enemy.
At that moment, Heartseed took a single step back.
The trap launched, sending the man into the wooden ceiling above him. However, the man touched the planks with his finger as he went upwards, and the weak wood burst around it, allowing him to safely pass through into the hallway above them.
Delta could not stop his momentum. His drill crashed into the crack in the sea window, shattering the entire glass surface instantly.
The sea rushed into the halls of Rapture, taking Delta with it as water flooded the entire floor he had occupied.
Though his suit was able to withstand the pressure of the deep sea, Delta was injured repeatedly as he smashed against obstacles while being carried by the rush of sea water that forced its way into the city. He could see the shops collapsing as their merchandise was knocked over by the current, the items and furniture battering him as they tumbled along with him in the waves.
Delta tried to find a place to anchor himself, but he instead smashed into a stone pillar, the impact knocking him out instantly.
Five minutes later, the rush had stopped. The entire first floor of what Delta had finally identified as a shopping center was entirely flooded with deep sea water. Even if a second window was smashed on the same floor, it would make little difference.
He had awoken after the current had settled and climbed a mostly submerged set of stairs onto the second floor. The wet wood creaked under his boots as he slowly regained his land legs, but the floor was strong reinforced and strong enough to hold him.
Delta wiped his helmet with his hand to gain his vision back and continued moving along towards his objective.
Wait.
His objective?
Delta's head began to hurt again as he tried to remember what he was here for, what he was attempting to do by crossing through one of the many shopping centres that were spread across Rapture. The feeling in his head pulsated outwards through his body, gaining him a horrid headache; it felt as though needles were being stabbed into his head, more and faster the harder he thought about it.
To avoid passing out, he stopped thinking, but his head was still pounding and his vision had blurred once more. It was all he could do to stay conscious.
But to make matters worse...
"Well, that was an interesting attack."
Delta was barely aware enough to panic a bit as he heard that voice once more.
"It was clever, and powerful too. However..."
Delta painfully turned his head to face the man, hunching over a bit in a futile attempt to lessen the pain in his skull.
Delta's vision was blurry, but the man was close enough. The daddy could tell that he had sustained no injuries whatsoever; he was totally unscathed.
"Well, anyways. Now it's my turn."
The large, powerful daddy had no time to react.
A strike hit him in the side, sending him flying into a storefront and smashing into several bags of dirt, sending dust flying into the air. It was a small plant store that also advertised some of their plants as being able to be used for medical purposes. The "going out of business" sign over the door showed exactly how well such claims had been received.
The glass in Delta's helmet had shattered. He would have to find a way to fix that later, if he could simply get out of the fight alive.
Heartseed walked into the room, ignoring the dust as it began to settle on his shirt and tie. He turned to one of the plants on his shelf.
"For this to be here of all places..."
The man picked the plant up in its pot and turned it around in his hands.
"How cliché."
Without a care in the world, the man dropped the pot to the floor. It did not break, but the plant shriveled a bit as if recoiling from the impact.
He turned to face Delta.
If he ever showed emotion, a look of panic may have come over his face as he saw what the daddy was doing.
Delta's left hand was on fire once more. A grunt came from the daddy's mouth like it was meant to replace a smile.
With a snap of the daddy's fingers, the dust and dirt flowing about the room set on fire.
Delta couldn't breathe. The flame flew into the broken helmet, singeing his face and filling his lungs with heat and smoke.
As the fire filled the room, Delta once more fell unconscious.
"Heh. That's the end of that, huh?"
A voice spoke to Heartseed from nowhere.
"Well, you did well enough. He's in another zone now, so you can go ahead and get out of there."
The calm man looked into the shop behind him as he was spoken to, focusing his eyes on one point of interest.
A single plant lay on the ground, burning in its pot.
Elsewhere, two young men walked through what had so far been nothing but an infinite field of golden wheat.
"Tch." The albino clicked his tongue. "Nothing but wheat for miles. Just where the hell are we, anyways?"
He turned to the boy in the white tunic walking next to him, as if expecting an answer. None came save a quick, unsure glance.
"Well we've gotta find a way out eventually. There's no reason for us to be here if nothing's gonna happen, after all."
The boy in the white tunic nodded in response.
For a while, they continued in silence.
After half an hour, they stopped in unison, standing side by side at they looked at what had appeared in the horizon in front of them.
"Well, I'll be damned." Said the albino. "Looks like things are going to get exciting after all."
