Pinpoint Zero

Chapter 21: Settings For Nihility

Garder stepped off the jet with the tail end of his brown long coat hovering aimlessly in the soft Japanese wind. Everything about it, from its culture, to its architecture, right down to the very air was vastly different from South America. His knowledge on the Japanese culture while not great, was more than passable and considering he would now be spending his life here, he would only get to know it better. Thanks to his younger half-brother, he was able to learn a lot about Japan anyways, as of now, he could only learn more. But he was no longer here to learn about customs or traits, what he needed to do was to find out the location of that place that did studies on Diclonius. However the very first thing he had to do was meet his family.

"Garder! It's so good to have you back!" Where warmth flowed from the very heart of Jessica Alya, Garder felt nothing but coldness in his own. As she gazed at him with a heartwarming smile, her happy demeanor slowly diminished as she saw his darkened face. She looked past his brown coat and even the horned rimmed glasses and saw the colorless world in his eyes. Soon enough his half-brother, Ishori, came out brining the same heartwarming welcome then upon seeing his brother's face, instantly quelled. Garder at first didn't say anything he stepped inside leaving the two bewildered and most notably, confused that nobody was following behind him. Their home on the outside has a very natural Japanese look, right down to the slanted roofs and high windows but the insides took a mixed collection of Eastern and Western compositions. He sat down in a large recliner, folding his legs and staring forward without blinking. This home, this smell, it had absolutely no meaning to him, even in the most docile of locations he felt empty inside.

"I will never forgive you! You dreaming bastard who dare to ruin my desires! As long as I live, as long as I exist, I will turn your world into a living hell! Everything you know, everything you love, everything you've ever held dear to you, I'll cast it into the abyss!"

He had lost that fight, he had lost himself, and the only thing he could hold onto was the last bit of memory of his good past. He couldn't lead his men, he couldn't lead his friends, even his daughter, the person most precious to him, could not be saved. He may have beaten Cents in a physical fight, but he had lost the war of willpower. That man, that cold, dark, murderer, had never given up, even for a second. He had believed with all of his soul that as long as he continued, as long as he lived and always believed, he would eventually reach his goals. Those servants obeyed him, because they admired such willpower and determination.

He had lost, fully and completely.

"Where is Veronica and Nicholas?"

"They are both dead, they didn't survive the war." Garder answered the shocked Jessica who covered her mouth. Ishori went to his wife, sitting her against the couch to comfort her as she wept softly into his shoulder. "Both of their bodies have been buried." He spoke simplistically, not a tone of sadness, regret or even emotion out of his voice. His brother Ishori did not speak of it, but he gave Garder a long look, wondering why he was being so calm about it. No, he wasn't being calm about it, he just lacked any concern or emotions that would give calmness.

"I'm so sorry to hear about them, if only they could see our beautiful little Elrya right now." That was correct, their baby had been born some time back, maybe a new life would take some of the pressure off of Garder. "Let me see her." At Garder's words, Jessica got up, sniffing softly into her hand but tried to wipe her tears away. She didn't want her baby girl to see her mother in such a state.

"What happened out there?" Alone with his brother, Ishori had to ask the quick question that was grinding on his nerves ever since he had seen the state of his brother. Garder didn't look at him, merely leaned back in the chair and pushed the horned rimmed glasses further up his nose. "War happened, people die, every day, it is nothing to be concerned about." But it was something to be concerned about, this wasn't even a deal of shell-shock. Garder had completely changed, his emotions were dead, and his thoughts perfectly strict yet lacking pride as it had before. What stood before him was just a shell, a dank, empty, emotionless shell. At last Jessica stepped in, holding a bundle in her arm and bringing it up to them as Garder finally stepped up to see her.

"Don't be loud, she's still sleeping." She whispered happily before Garder finally got to see the pride and joy for his brother and his wife. Everything, right down to the two small horns protruding from her head. He didn't hesitate, the quick flash of his gun being removed and the click of the muzzle before both parents cried out in fear and outrage. Garder took aim, his finger just moments from pulling the trigger to blow off the girl's head and even a part of her mother's body. This child could not live a normal life, it would be impossible for her. Even if she went for years without trouble, she would eventually become like the rest.

…Like Mellissa…

…Like Veronica.

Garder glared at this small baby girl, sleeping soundly and without care in her mother's arms. He kept the pistol tightly aimed against her head until something finally pushed the baby out of his way and something stood in front of him. Ishori, staring with both revulsion and confusion stood between his baby and his brother while the latter narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Move out of the way, Ishori, the child has to be killed."

"What are you talking about Garder! Are you seriously telling me that you're going to shoot my child! What the hell is wrong with you, what has she done!" It was hard to tell if Ishori was angry with his brother or perhaps frightened that Garder was doing such an insane thing. The slit eyed man did not budge his hand, nor did he even take a look at the whimpering Jessica who glanced between the two men.

"Move aside Ishori Alya, you understand nothing of the situation."

"Then tell me what the fucking situation is!"

Garder paused then spoke darkly. "At some point your daughter will grow up to be a killer, a being unable to control her own emotions. She'll kill you, your wife, everyone around her when she loses control. She must be put down before such a thing can happen." If Garder's actions and words had been confusing before, both parents now looked at him as if he struck them blind, deaf and dumb. Jessica, still crying, merely started to pray that the situation would be subverted somehow. The baby in her arms started to move, crying softly as if sensing the danger around her as well.

"If you do not move, then I will kill you here on the spot and murder the child and her mother too if have to."

Words, cold as ice said to members of his own family. Because for Garder F. Morotisan, the world only runs on the prospect of logical understanding. Things like emotion, understanding, regret, dependability, all of it was erased when he finally shot through the head the woman called Veronica Q. Morotisan. In truth, he holds no abhorrence for Elrya Alya. He does not feel disgust with her, or distaste or a single pint venom towards her. She is just a child, unable to alter or even understand her own fate. The child holds no sin to herself and yet by her own nature, she is a sin. He doesn't hate her, but by the logical reasoning that now flows through his head, she is a manifestation of trouble that must be ended. In his mind, she must be killed to save humanity. Because he himself is human, just an old human man who follows only the most logical of reasons.

"Garder, brother, please tell me what's going on? We're family, what exactly is wrong with my daughter? Is it her horns? It's just like Veronica and the doctors said it's only a minor bone mutation. Her hair itself will probably grow over them anyways." Ishori pleaded, staring at the barrel of the gun and swallowing deeply.

"When your daughter grows up, at some point in her life she will get the urge to kill humans. She will be unable to control or even stop these urges. Whether she likes it or not, she will eventually give into these urges. If you want to have both the pain of others and the pain of your daughter to done in before it gets worse, than you will move out of the way." But even on his threat, Ishori didn't move. He shook, he sweated, and he swallowed constantly as if he had a lump in his throat, but he didn't move. Maybe the only reason Garder didn't shoot him, was because he had already shot enough of his own family. His dark gaze didn't not falter, but his pistol did, lowering to his side, he turned tail, walking towards the door. For a moment, he thought about saying something, perhaps along the lines of how things hadn't changed. How their daughter was still going to be dealt with at some point. Yet, he gave an exasperated sigh, then walked out the doors.

Elrya finally calmed down, laying against her mother she finally fell asleep yet even though she relaxed, both parents were at a loss for words. "Ishori, you should talk to him, see what's going on. Maybe he's just having a hard time, his daughter did die as well." Her husband gave the same exasperated sigh as his brother, collapsed into the chair with his hand over his face. Things had change so much the moment he came back, not just his attitude but the entire way the world felt to Ishori. In his life he had always been a lazy but kind hearted fellow but now he felt not only lazy, but weak hearted. Maybe because his older half-brother was always the one who was confident, powerful and assertive. Garder was the one who would speak to him about problems that he, Ishori, might be having.

"What do I tell him though Jessica? You saw what happened, he didn't even hesitate to point his gun at Elrya. The worst part about it, is I believe he may have had a point." It was surprising that Jessica softly jerked her baby away as if Ishori too was going to attack her. Noting his wife's angst, Ishori tried to calm her down. "I will never do anything to hurt our daughter, you know that Jessica. It's just that, my brother has always been a caring and wise man but he's also been through countless wars. He's seen friends and comrades die all the time and it never shook him to his core. Even if Veronica was killed in the war, it would probably take some toll on him but it would never put him that state that we saw him. It's not like he's in shellshock or some other war related emotion, he's just gone.

But he hasn't lost his intelligence, I can see it, he hasn't gone insane or anything."

He glanced over at Elrya, slowly reaching over to caress her hair. "How could this child, grow up to be anything but the sweeting girl possible? But Garder said that when she grew up, she would start killing people."

"Do you actually believe that?" Jessica asked morbidly.

Sighing again, Ishori stared longingly at his daughter than replied. "I don't want to believe it but my brother has never been an idiot, he's been far more intelligent than I ever was. He would never say such a thing without some sort of reasoning to it. I don't know why he would ever want to do it, but something happened, during that war, that caused him to be like this. Something happened, that never happened in any other battle before. He's changed Jessica, something in him has changed, or…maybe even vanished.

I'll go outside, if he's still there I'll talk to him, though I don't know what exactly I can say." Ishori however wasn't long, he came back in, shaking his head and uttered. "He's already left, when I meet him again, then I'll talk to him."

His wife only nodded solemnly, putting Elrya back in her crib. As a mother, Garder's actions were unforgivable, but at the same time, he was also part of the family. If it wasn't for him, none of them would have been able to live as well as they did. Just like her husband, she too wondered and worried about the old General.

Somewhere in the country, experiments were being done on Diclonius. Obviously such a place has to be either well hidden physically or most possibly, hidden in a more mental sense. Getting an idea, he closed his eyes and abandoned his senses. He drowned out the outside noise, the mundane speeches of people talking and concentrated to that only a single set of words could truly reach his mind. Words like "horned girls" or "Diclonius".

…

…

"…Diclonius…" The words, a whisper finally reached him. It actually caught him a bit off guard that he would find someone so quickly. Turning around the person who had whispered the word, seemingly to himself as no one else was around him was a young man perhaps in his early 30s sitting on the end of a bench with his legs crossed. It was hard to tell if he was man who had been through hardships and now getting his act together, or a man who had once had his act together and was now going through hardships. Perhaps both at the same time, but it didn't matter how the man was feeling, nobody knew such a term as "Diclonius" unless they actively knew what they were.

Riku glanced up, trying to put on a smile and greeting the elderly man who came before him. "Good evening sir, is there something I can help you with?"

"Indeed, you just mentioned the word "Diclonius."

Riku startled. "H-How do you know about that? Are you one of the staff members for one of the other facilities?" With five different facilities, it wasn't like Riku kept tracked of all those who were part of Kakuzawa's agenda. Hell, he had had hard enough time remembering everyone who worked in his own facility. He was actually more frightened that this man had caught on to his activities involving the release of a few Diclonius. For the past months he had been quietly releasing one or two Diclonius out in the open to atone for his sins and telling others that they had died during scrimmages. It was a legitimate lie as it wasn't uncommon for some Diclonius, some who still had a little bit of willpower left, to go against their assailants and act aggressively. He knew perfectly well that if they found out what he was doing, the chance of them letting him live was slim to none. That didn't bother him, such mundane things like death no longer had a meaning to Riku anymore. More than once, every time he released one of the horned girls, he wished they would attack him and end his pain. But at the same time, he had to live for his wife and daughter's sake, that's what scared him. He had no qualms in dying, but he was afraid that his wife and daughter would be put in danger if people found out what he was doing.

"No, I am not. But I am interested in seeing what these facilities have to offer. You will bring me to it now and let me look at it."

Riku was obviously confused. The only people who knew about the facility and what it did, where those who directly worked in or for the facility itself. Could someone else have let such a thing slip and this man had overheard it as well? "You should forget ever hearing about that. I don't know where you heard that…story…from, but none of it is true. Please, I have to get going." In a hurried rush, Riku got off the bench and walked away, swallowing when he heard the footsteps behind him. Sure enough the elderly man was following him, his expression as dark and emotionless as before.

"Listen to me, you have no idea what you're getting into right now. You have no idea…"

"Be quiet." Garder didn't yell it and spoke it so calmly one might not have been able to hear it. But for Riku, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks with his mouth hanging slightly open. "Do not question my intelligence on the matter, I understand more than enough right now. There are places, apparently facilities that work in line in capturing and studying horned people known as Diclonius who are capable of producing invisible objects with strange properties. I have more than once had to deal with them myself. I wish to see these facilities and even take part of the work there.

You will show it to me now. Are you the head of these facilities?"

Riku shook his head. "No, not directly, though I am the head of one of the facilities. Ugh, this is the first time someone ever directly came to me and asked to be a part of this mess. Even if I show you the facility, it wouldn't help anything, it's not like I can let you work there out of the blue. It takes, special operations for anyone to get in and once you get in, nobody gets out. Honestly, you're lucky you met me, anyone else would have had you shot for knowing such information. Do you have a pen and piece of paper?"

Garder did and gave them to Riku who quickly wrote something down. "This is the number for my boss, I should warn you though, and he's not exactly the friendliest person. Now if you don't mind, I need to get going, please don't follow me." Garder watched as the man left, knowing well the number was real and then made the call.

"Hello." The voice that answer even as a simple gesture of answering held a note of arrogance to it. It felt little from someone saying "Hello" and some saying "Who the fuck are you and more importantly why the fuck should I care?"

"My name is Garder F. Morotisan, Ex-General of the South American Military force. I am here to speak to you about the issues involving your facilities. I wish to partake in these experiments with the Diclonius."

"Tsk, how do you know about that?"

"How I know is of no concern, but trust me when I say I know more than enough. I am offering my services to your facilities. How about we meet somewhere and talk about this in greater detail." Asking wasn't an issue, somehow, due to the other man's reaction, Garder knew this man would meet him. Something shuffled on the other line, papers, a body, who knew and for Garder, who cared?

"Fine, fine." The man on the other end gave a place to meet and then hung up without saying another word. Garder could understand what the other man meant by his boss not being a friendly person.

The morning air was thin and comfortable as Garder pushed the door open to the small coffee shop, grabbed a newspaper and sat down at the end booth before pushing his glasses up his nose casually. Ordering his hot coffee, his slowly sipped it as he waited for his "guest" to arrive, reading up on anything interesting, things such as unexplained deaths. Nothing out of the ordinary and ten minutes later, he heard the door open and someone finally sit down on the opposite end of the booth.

"So you must be him, the Head Director of the Diclonius facility…" Garder muttered softly, placing the paper down. "…Kakuzawa." The man before him had to be in the same age as Garder, give or take a few in a clean suit yet giving off an aura of absolute dominance and arrogance. Everything, from his hair (Which Garder noticed to be slightly off, indicating that it was a wig though he wouldn't know until later what it hid) right down to his clean brown suit, said "pride and arrogance." His eyes were piercing and his mouth set into a short but very tight frown. It was clear the moment that Garder saw him that this man not only gave off the aura of the master, he expected everyone else to share the same views.

"I'm going to get to the point, I am under the knowledge that you are the head of some sort organization that works with Diclonius. I wish to seek business with you in understanding these people."

Kakuzawa ordered his own coffee and gave Garder a long , hardened look as if to trying to decipher him somehow. "How do you know about them?" Even his question was more of a demand but it didn't matter to the old General, he wasn't here to partake in who was more dominant than the other. "During the war, I had witness them during combat and heard things over here. Perhaps things that most people would not have taken kindly too."

Kakuzawa narrowed his eyes suspiciously, unable to tell if Garder was merely giving facts or actually threatening him. Either way, as a man who had always held higher ground he felt almost insulted that this other man was trying to speak to him as if they were equals. "Pray tell me…" He paused.

"Garder. Garder F. Morotisan."

"Yes…yes, pray tell me, Morotisan-san, what thinks I have done anything wrong? I merely run an, important company under the order of figuring out human evolution. The Institution of Human Evolution, something I created a few years ago, and nothing more. Certainly there is no problems to be had."

Another sip before Garder replied. "Do not be mistaken Kakuzawa, I am not an idiot, I can bet that if I collected a few people and had them check out your so called facilities, things would not go nearly as well for you." This time Kakuzawa knew the man was threatening him and he didn't take kindly to it one bit. Clenching his fist, he spoke in a dark tone that threatened to break if Garder continued to antagonize him anymore. "You should learn to keep your nose out of other people's business, especially ones that don't concern you."

"..But that is not what I'm here for. I already told you that I wish to partake in your facility's business. I wish to test and experiment on the Diclonius to understand how they work."

"…Hm, can I trust you not to breathe a word of we do?" For Kakuzawa, if Garder actually did decide to screw him up, then he could easily get him kill, at least he believed so. But there was always some use for more faculty members especially in the Tokyo facility. Too many of the Diclonius there had been acting up, needing to be put down by Riku. Garder nodded curtly and Kakuzawa folded his hands after taking a sip of his own ordered coffee. "Then we have a deal, Morotisan-san, I want you to come to this address here. You should understand that I would want to make certain preoccupations did not happen."

"Of course Kakuzawa, I will be there in the morning. I have no more words to speak to you. I hope business goes well between us." Garder muttered, paying for his meal and leaving the room. Kakuzawa glared at him, and without even meaning too, Garder had directly struck the old man's pride. For the man who believed himself superior to everyone, having someone try to speak to him as an equal was unforgivable but he was also an interesting and resourceful man. The kind of pawn that would make spreading the line of Diclonius much easier than before.

Author's Note: And the story now continues. I'm done with my hiatus and now deliver the chapter. Please R&R.

On a secondary note, if anyone is willing to beta-read the chapters to fix up the grammatical mistakes, please sent a message. Obviously I would go to the "Beta Readers" section of but the thing is, the last time I did it, my beta-reader did 4 chapters total and never appeared again. I'm not here for that, I want a person who can at least do one chapter a week.