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I have a poll up, but voting is not a requirement.
When preparing to write this chapter, I had to put myself into the mood. Took me longer than usual because something seemed wrong with all my media files. Had to refresh them all and reload my library. Works now.
I was sorta surprised that I received such a nice reception for this.
Chapter One: Predictions
The fire burned merrily, happily unaware of the freezing tension between it's hard faced patrons. It caught a flake of dry wood and popped it with a sharp crack when the two came close, face to face.
"Let me make a prediction, Satomi-kun."
The voice was like a snake across the grass, worming it's way into Rentarou it's hiss poison, it's bite ecstasy...
Pain was a wonderful, wonderful tonic, and that voice dripped it like a cracked pot brimming with honey.
"...You will come to me on your own; one day."
He faded into the darkness...
"...I'll never be like you..."
"...I was like you once...you hate me because you envy me. Envy my freedom. Behind this mask...is YOUR face."
"...Just remember...as much as you hate me for my freedom...I hate you. I hate you and your ability to live among them. I DETEST you."
"REN-TA-ROU!"
Rentarou didn't snap up, or jump, he didn't do any of the silly things people usually did when startled. He simply snapped his gun straight and pointed at the source of the noise, the trigger half cocked.
He was pointing at Enju's forehead.
Hie eyes widened as his brain took into over drive.
A hospital bed. Or a street, blood everywhere...and one small figure.
With purple blood flowing out, pulsing, growing, living.
One day I'll have to do it...just...like...this...
The gun didn't fall from his hand, and though his eyes were widened, they were the only indicator of his shock until he narrowed them. His hand did not even shake as he re-holstered the gun and let his hand drop.
"Don't do that. I could have shot you."
Enju huffed at that. Yeah. Right. Rentarou, shoot her. Puhleease.
"Thinking of a quiet little alley to steal me away too-"
Rentarou overrode her before she got too far on that line.
"We're going to see Sensei. All of us. I've also got something to tell you, but It'll have to wait..."
He sighed, his face deadpan as he realized he'd have to fuel both girls imagination inadvertently.
"...and yeah, Ill have to say it in a quiet, dark alleyway."
Enju, instead of getting sly, perked straight up and became rigid like a board.
"So...so bold! I'm...not certain I'm ready for such boldness..."
He felt like face palming again, but even though his hand had no more glass, he'd had enough self inflicted pain for today...and he still had more to dish. Of the emotional kind.
Glutton for punishment.
Rentarou set a pace, and the other two fell in behind. Tina's eyes bored into his back, and so did Enju's, but he didn't speak, just set the pace. Soon the whispering would start.
Right on time, Enju turned to her "wingwoman" and started a series of hissing Rentarou didn't bother trying to listen in on. He was already trying to prep himself for war.
To bad he hadn't prepared for a fight instead.
Japan, what was left of it after so many wars with the Gastrea, was a sickly, deteriorating thing. Fallen power wires, burnt buildings, broken windows, boarded up doorways...and the thin veneer, spread too thin for even the eye to be fooled, of normalcy and prosperity. The sky might as well have been stormy gray instead of the mildly cloudy that it was. I would fit better.
As he stopped by one of the few still working street lights, a sound like tin ball bearings being tossed around in an iron blender started up.
Oh who was he kidding, it was gunfire. He took a deep breath and jerked his head towards the sound of the noise. A few flashes of light and then a woman burst out of a doorway, and behind her, a bloody, crazed looking man. Behind the two of them, another bloody, sick looking woman hobbled.
This world was like a freaking circus. He swore.
"Tina, Enju. Please stay."
The two of them looked at him in confusion. I mean, sure; Tina didn't have her weapon on her, but they both were far stronger and faster than they looked...especially Enju, being a rabbit model. Rentarou however, did not see their faces when he looked at them. He was bodies without faces, only a red, hollow place where the head should be...with numbers.
The dreaded, dreaded numbers. He blinked and it was gone.
His resolve however, was not. He drew his gun and repeated his order.
"Stay. Please."
Tina smiled, and Enju's face became leery.
"Keeping the ladies clean for the confession scene?"
Rentarou didn't respond, just turned and ran off.
The world slowed. Slowed to a crawl as Rentarou ran forwards. Sometimes the shift made him sick. One eye slowing everything down, seeing everything in such hyper realism, while the other saw everything at the same speed, but somehow...faster. Like it was missing more to keep up Skipping frames.
How can both eyes show the same thing, in the same amount of time and still have one be slower, more detailed than the other?
He skidded to a halt and took in the scene. The crazed man had fallen to the ground panting and staring at the steps...the sickly woman was now at the top of them, looking fearful. He took a good look.
She...was not the one he was after.
Shifting quickly and jumping away barely in time, he avoided the explosion of flesh and bone as the man writhed and sprouted sickly yellow and black legs from his back. The force sent legs spinning in the air, purple...he had no other word for it but goo...seeping out of them unto the roads. It seemed to have yellow, glowing eyes, and pulsed...but Rentarou shifted his attention to the giant, hulking arachnid in his sights.
Standard Gastrea. Nothing too serious. The head of the victim, spilling blood and fluid everywhere as it spun around, fell from the beast. Rentarou shot it away to stop it spilling juice all over the place. Might as well just have it blow up in one area than spin out over a wide one.
It happily obliged by exploding upon being shot, littering it's limited area with gunk everywhere. Rentarou leveled his gun to the threat at hand, ignoring the pink bits. His first shot aggravated it. But his next was to a leg joint and it suddenly was missing two legs. Said legs went flying, but are we really going to go into detail about where those two delinquents went?
Rentarou focused and shot once more, but the spider, having enough, shifted to the side and charged him.
Gritting his teeth, Rentarou jumped backwards and took aim for the head. His shot caused a few of it's eyes to burst, and the thing jerked back in pain. Meanwhile, Rentarou landed and braced off of the road, taking aim again.
Inside of me, I have the power to turn you all into mincemeat!
You hate me for my freedom...
Do you know why Varanium is Black? ...It's the solidified essence of my soul, my hatred.
I'll never...
"I'll never be like him."
He fired the last of his shots right into the head and intersection for the body, spraying...juice...everywhere. The beast had already half regrown it's legs, but Rentarou dared it to regrow it's head.
Just let it try.
It didn't. Instead it just keeled over and smashed into the sidewalk, it's legs taking a few power lines with it...
and just like that, yet another stop light and walk sign joined the ranks of the inoperable.
A sound like wet paper being smacked against the ground brought his attention to his back, where the sickly woman had been.
He said had been accurately, as he saw the bloody remains of a twitching hand and a new, moth like Gastrea stretching it's wings. To Rentarou, the sky darkened.
Freedom be damned.
Screw protocol. Rentarou left his own thin veneer of normalcy burn away. What was left was black...
Black and blue.
He could be poetic and call them bruises, but really.
Nobody has time for that.
His Varanium limbs now visible, he kicked off, blasting into his new foe with abandon as the bile in his throat rose. His fist connected solidly with the beast and a foot nearly blasted a hole into it before he realized he was in pain.
His body was on fire.
Not the outside.
The inside. His insides burned. All along his Varanium additions the pain roared at him like a cornered beast would to frighten a potential predator. He ignored it. He punched his foe down to keep it grounded and leveled it's face in with a foot to it. He punched it into activation point blank, blasting a hole through it's brain. Gastrea poisoned blood flew everywhere, but Rentarou had no time for niceties.
This was what happened to people when they got to far, when they broke that 50% threshold.
He would have to tell Enju. Tina.
He would not let them become these...mindless things.
He almost said monsters...but then he took at look at his own foot.
He had no right to call anyone a monster.
He let the body fall. He didn't even have to bother to wait for the representatives. They were already there. His company would get the proper payment and status recognition for it. Not that he much cared. He walked towards Enju and Tina, not catching the glance that passed between them.
He'd have to find that alleyway...
+~E~+
Much of this chapter I felt like I was being sketchy with detail and with character persona. It felt very OOC and off putting to me. However, I do plan to resolve this issue soon.
Levi97100 – I do have a pairing in mind for this story; however, it will take a bit of effort before I can get to that point. I do have a few ideas for the in between period though. I hope they satisfy.
NattenRaseri – More is given.
TheGreatWhiteNortherner – I do plan to make this multiple chapters, as this has proven, however, updates maybe be sporadic, knowing me.