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Heta-Generations Chapter Four: Encounters
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It was a race up the stairs. The teenager almost tumbled several times in the process, but his father was right behind him to push the boy along. There had been a scream, a piercing scream of a woman. It had awoken both Kaito and his father right when they had retired for the evening. This occurrence threw a wrench in their current plans, but what they did not know was that it would change their lives completely...
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Conrad could not prevent the tears from escaping his eyes. He sat there, defeated yet victorious. His mother had run out of the room to who knows where, screaming and sobbing about blood. Red still covered the majority of his forearms, already drying and staining his skin. The wounds had closed instantly, the pinches of pain at his wrists were now faded - nonexistent.
But the question arose... What would he do now? There was no one beside his mother, no relatives that he knew of, that would be willing to take him in. Would he be able to make it on his own...? Of course not... He was too young. Conrad was only fifteen years old, and he could not work or go anywhere. People would know who he was. His face had been plastered on the fronts of newspapers and magazines. How could he ever get away...?
"Are you alright!? What happened!?" Not his mother but someone else had arrived at the door. Two Japanese men stood in the doorway, their eyes going wide at the scene before them. They were foreign yet the two of them spoke excellent English. Conrad decided to reply in German, maybe so he could fool them into believing that he did not understand.
"Leave!" But, they did not. "Go and leave me alone!" The eldest began to back away, but the youngest grabbed his wrist and held him back.
"I know that you understand me. You reacted when I first spoke, so please let us help you..." The tears were coming back without Conrad realizing it. Suddenly, he dropped his head and began sobbing. "My name is Kaito Mizushima. What is your's...?" Kaito ventured forward, kneeled beside the broken boy, and carefully placed his hand on Conrad's shoulder.
"C- Conrad... A- Ackermann..." He managed between sobs.
"Ackermann!?" Kaito's father blurted out in bewilderment. "Are you related to the actress Amel-!?"
"My Mutter..." Mr. Mizushima squealed in excitement. "She only cares about herself. The only reason her career was sky rocketing in the first place was because of me..." His eyebrows furrowed out of disappointment.
"What do you mean?" Kaito then asked; Conrad looked up at him in confusion.
"Are you saying that you don't know that I'm-?" He was interrupted by the sound of gun shots and shattered glass hitting the carpet. Someone had shot out the window, and everyone instantly ducked.
"Don't tell me that you're involved with gangs or terrorists!" More bullets fired, and they crawled on their stomachs to the exit.
"No! I didn't even know it was possible that someone would be after me! It must be because of that..." He mumbled the last part to himself. What would he be any good for other than his healing abilities...? The only thing else that came to mind was a bargaining piece.
"Well, it's stupid to stay here! Come on; let's go!" Kaito grasped Conrad's hand, and for a moment some form of familiarity tingled up the German's spine. He quickly disregarded it as more shots rang in their ears.
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There was noise, countless murmurs and beeps. He awoke in a fog and could not make sense of any of this. What had happened...? The last he remembered was walking in the street and... His head ached if he thought too much on it. Enrico was finally able to see clearly. He laid in a hospital bed, an IV drip connected to his arm and a heart monitor to his left. He looked around the room but saw no one. Where was a nurse? Where was a doctor?
"Hello? Is anyone here?" His voice was hoarse but he was able to speak a few words. Enrico felt his right shoulder begin to itch. He scratched but it then began to burn. "Nurse?" There was a call button beside him on the wall. He did not care about the wires connected to his body but physically lunged for the button. "Nurse!? Nurse!" He failed in his attempt and ended up sprawled on the cold tile floor instead. This frigid temperature did nothing to affect his body, that continued to persistently burn.
"He's in here!" At last, assistance had arrived. But those clothes... were not that of a doctor.
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They ran as fast as humanly possible, rushing down the stairs and out the front door. The three of them darted around corners, attempting to dodge the barrage of bullets. Conrad continued to hold onto Kaito's hand while they ran. Mr. Mizushima was at the tail of their party.
In one miniscule second, the adult of their trio was down. As the two boys turned around and paused, a shot was fired. Blood spurt from the gaping wound in Mr. Mizushima's shoulder, painting the pavement a brilliant crimson. Kaito's eyes went wide from terror, but Conrad could only gape in horror.
"Otou-san!" The boy began to run to his father, but the man waved him away.
"No, Kaito. Go while you still-!" Amidst the pain and tears, a bullet tore through his cranium. He fell to the ground as soon as the fatal wound was inflicted.
"Tou-san!" Kaito screamed until his voice gave out. Conrad pulled him away, fighting his own grief from what had just occurred. Fresh tears fell onto the pavement, mixing with the just as rich blood.
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Heart beats, thousands of them. He could feel them hum within his own chest cavity. They were like drums, beating to the rhythm of life. A breath escaped his lips like the very wind blowing that day in Italy. His arms twitched with calculations and his fingers with newly found knowledge. There was tremor of business that ran up along his spine. His eyes burned then opened with awakening.
Enrico looked at his surroundings, the world different than that of before. It was as if he were a newborn once again. He was forced to relearn everything that he knew, gathering more information than ever before. Things that he would never even consider stood out, we're now somehow significant. The boy could not explain how he felt different. It was almost as if... he was not quite human anymore.
Where his body had been burning before, it was now ice cold. If he could compare it to anything it would be like the scorch of the sun at noon to the chill of the moon at midnight.
Enrico finally lifted his upper body. His wrists were bound to the cold table he rested on. He had to break free, get away from this place as soon as possible. The Italian could not explain why he felt this way. Something in the air just felt toxic, poisonous to his very being.
"It seems that someone is awake." A voice came from overhead, an intercom more than likely. Enrico could see clearer now after having spent several minutes with his eyes opened. He had been removed from the room where his awakening began and now rested in a room similar to those usually used in surgical procedures. That thought made him even more frightened as a man appeared from the window above and waved, the owner of the voice. "Do you see me, Enrico?" The boy in question nodded his head then continued to look around at the peculiar machines and staff surrounding him. "Good; I assume that you are now fully aware of yourself and acknowledge that you are the embodiment of the newly formed Northern half of Italy. Countries have been and still are awakening all over the world, but your case is one of the few that are out of the ordinary. You only have say over the North but not the South. Enrico, we need you to join with South and make the two halves officially one."
"What; why?" Enrico frowned in confusion.
"It would make our current goals a little easier to achieve." He paced a little back and forth, as if debating with himself what exactly he could share with the country.
"And, what are those exactly?" The man paused then looked at him with a false smile of sympathy.
"Forgive me, but that is classified." With every second, Enrico disliked this further and further. The words that this individual spoke did not rest well in his stomach. "I'm sorry, North, but we are going to have to sedate you for the time being." Enrico thrashed back and forth as a staff member gripped his arm like an iron vice and attempted to stick a needle in it. "We're just going to be running a few tests; this will help with the pain." He panicked as the thin metal pierced his skin and fluid entered his veins. His limbs soon became numb, and his world turned once more into a great fog...
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(A.N.) A tragic end for Mr. Mizushima, but his character was a bit insignificant. That is why he never got to finish his cliche speech. Lol. (With minor characters I'm cruel. Hee!)
*No cultural\translative notes this time! Yay!
~Ame-chan777