Chapter 2:

Yuu wasn't sure how much time he spent sitting in the middle of the bloody floor, surrounded by ruined debris and broken corpses. Time seemed to past in an instant as he cradled his head screamed until his voice was hoarse. A pathetic sight, to be sure, but in the end, there was no one there to behold it, so had it really happened at all…? Even in the confines of his crumbling psyche wracked by despair, Yuu scoffed. That question was in the same vein as the faux-intellectual, bullshit philosophical questions he used to ponder when his greatest concern in life was what high school he would be attending. His world used to be so much simpler back then. Before he knew about abilities, before he knew that his brother had traveled through time on dozens of occasions to save them all. Yuu wished that same opportunity was available to him.

Reality was cruel more often than not. Shunsuke's ability required a toll every time it was used, but even that toll was fickle and ill defined. The moment Yuu lost his eye, he lost the ability to go back in time. Would that he could heal himself, but for all of his powers in healing, he couldn't reverse damage after the body took care of it himself. Abilities were oft nebulous, and though any rational person would synonymize healing with fixing, that wasn't how his abilities functioned. His eye had long since scarred over, with new tissue formulating to replace that which had been sliced away. There was nothing to heal. Light would never enter his eye. There was no way for him to return to the past.

Back when he was traveling around the globe, consumed with finishing his task and returning home, he had accepted this. At the time, it had been a bitter pill to swallow, but nevertheless was one he could live with knowing that Kumagami would have understood… but now? In the face of a world wrought with abilities, in the face of his own failure? Yuu's heart shattered.

After the death of Ayumi, Yuu had felt hollow. Empty. Fool that he was, he couldn't even conceptualize what life was supposed to be like following the loss of his beloved little sister. Violence served as the only balm upon his wounded soul until Nao had shown him the benefit of living life for those who no longer could… but Nao was gone too. Everyone Yuu had ever cared about was gone. Asking him to remain rational and hopeful in the face of such loss was too much. He couldn't handle it.

Telekinesis was his most frequently used ability thanks to its power and utility. Without moving an inch from his place on the floor, it was child's play to locate the unconscious man's side-arm and retrieve it. Yuu had learned more about guns than he ever wished to during his travels. The bullets aimed in his direction were too numerous to count… it was almost poetic that he should eventually hold the barrel of a pistol to his own head.

One pull on the trigger, the slightest motion of his finger, and all of his woes would vanish. Life was an extraordinarily fragile thing to take. For all the value placed upon it, it was so easily lost. Would the others look down upon him for giving up? Undoubtedly so. Yusa would cry for him. Her kind soul unable to understand why he made the choice he did. Misa would judge him. Ruthlessly. She'd call him weak for giving up. She'd be right. Joujirou might be willing to listen, but then he'd ask a simple question of Yuu that would reveal how little he approved. The question would seem almost innocuous, but it would be poignant and honest. Conversations with Joujirou never went like Yuu would expect, and he knew even topics such as suicide d;lll phrased in such an innocuous way, that would show how little he approved.

Yuu could imagine the sadness in Ayumi's eyes. A girl so vibrant and full of life… she would just be hurt by his choice. To her, everyone deserves a chance at happiness. Shunsuke would be… heartbroken. All of the time and sacrifices he made to give them all a better future. To see his little brother spit upon that would be unimaginable. Nao, more so than all the others, would hate him. Her kind heart was matched only by her conviction. If he threw away his life for nothing, she would never forgive him. Even then, even knowing how all of the others would look at him, he still held the gun against his temple.

"I guess this is it, then?" He choked out, a hollow laughter emanating in between the panicked sobs.

The end. No longer would he struggle, no longer would he feel the weight of his failures, the weight of his loss. In a way, it seemed freeing. It was almost funny, he no longer felt the omnipresent exhaustion that permeated his very bones during his travels, but even then, the idea of a sleep that he would never wake from sounded… freeing. What point was there in remaining in a world that seemed to exist just to spite him? Why press on when he was alone? What purpose did he have? What reason did he have? Try as he might, Yuu could not come up with an answer that satisfied him. Why not free himself from those questions instead?

Hey, Tomori, what should I do from here on…?

The same question he had asked her back then, except this time, there was no one to answer him. No one to extend a hand and pull him from the depths of despair. It was just him, alone with his regrets.

How about you return to the student council once again?

Yuu's vision began to blur as tears built in his eye. Time and time again he reached up to wipe away the clear liquid, but still it continued to flow until they were streaming down his face.

"Why am I crying?" Yuu whispered quietly, the words barely intelligible to his own ears.

Everything about that night was burned into his memory. The moment Nao had made her presence known by kicking the cocaine out of his hand had been the start of one of the most important nights of Yuu's life. He could remember the righteous anger and pain in her eyes as they talked in the empty parking lot covered in graffiti, lit only by the lone street-lamp. The house belonging to the Takajo family, a random associate of Nao's. Yuu recalled laying on the couch as she prepared the meal. The cushions had been stiff, the room chilly, but still he waited. Watching Nao in the kitchen was just like watching Ayumi. Neither had been masters of the kitchen, but both still tried. Both of them made that same damn recipe he'd loved as a kid. The sickly-sweet dish his mother used to make. The food he loved and hated more than all others. What he wouldn't give to have a plate of it in front of him now.

The food itself would've almost made him gag, every bite would have to be forced down, but he'd still have cleaned his plate. The sensations upon his tongue didn't matter at all, it was the memories, the images and feelings that rose to mind that held all the significance. The way Ayumi would write her little messages on top of the egg with nothing but love on her mind. The way Nao mimicked his mom's old recipe to perfection just to remind him that though his sister was gone, life Ayumi would have wanted him to keep living. The simple acts his sweet little sister took when alive ample proof of that fact.

A dull grunt and the sound of shifting weight on the rubble strewn ground pulled Yuu from his reverie. Becoming lost in one's own thoughts was an all too easy task for him, even in dangerous environments. Any minute the building could continue to collapse and leave him crushed beneath concrete and shredded metal. It wouldn't be the first time he dropped a building on himself, but just like before, he would walk away unscathed. There was one absolutely indisputable fact about Yuu Otosaka… he was strong.

"Do it… you monster!" The man whose ability he had stolen who, according to his memories, was usually addressed by his surname, Lindberg, growled as he pushed himself to his hands and knees, the glass and jagged stones digging into his skin and drawing more blood to mix in with the trail that already covered the dusty ground. The wordless snarl that escaped his lips was a harsh, guttural noise that reflected the pain and hatred he must have felt. To still be capable of movement after sustaining his injuries of that caliber was impressive. Strength of will he had in spades. "Kill yourself… and rid the world of your evil!"

"Kill myself?" Yuu asked, his voice raw and his face streaked with tears. The concept he'd been grappling with in his mind sounded insane when spoken aloud. Lindberg's words themselves were like a fleeting wind. Only a vague impression of their intent reaching his psyche.

"Do it!" Lindberg roared angrily before falling forward, his uninjured hand cupping his abdomen as he violently began to cough, streaks of red staining his lips.

"I would," Yuu murmured, his voice cracking as he tapped the barrel of the pistol against the side of his skull in an almost rhythmic fashion. "I really would… but I don't think I can. They wouldn't want me to." He wasn't talking to Dennis Lindberg at all, the former Head of Security was simply the only one who was there to hear the words the troubled teen gave voice to.

That was the crux of his dilemma. Yuu couldn't kill himself. The memories of the people he loved more than anything wouldn't let him. An optimist would say that his current mindset of hopelessness was just conjecture and gloom, and that down the road he might find meaning once again and seize it. Yuu disagreed, but he would press on anyway; his life would continue past that moment. Nonexistent was his desire to stay in the realm of the living, but he would do so anyway. The freedom of death would not be his, not yet at least.

The glare the former Head of Security struggled to level in his direction was one of pure malice. "Whoever 'they' are… I hope they die with you…" A final curse unto a hated foe from a man who believed himself fated to die. The poets would have loved it.

If Yuu was thinking rationally, he would recognize from the man's memories that Dennis Lindberg didn't mean such comments. Anyone would express anger upon seeing a dozen of their coworkers and friends killed. The memories Yuu searched through had shown him quite clearly that this lab was not used for torturing kids in the name of science. Yuu himself had been the only subject, and he'd been comatose for three centuries. By all rights, the men and women present in the facility had not deserved to die… unfortunately, most of them already had passed on from this mortal coil, and one of the few that survived had just crossed a line from which there was no return.

There was no conscious decision made when Yuu's anger flared. The moment he heard the denigration of his loved one's memories he reacted on a level that was instinctual. A response that could only be attributed to someone who had spent years in a constant state of danger and was now fraying at the seams due to the pervasive, overwhelming grief that threatened to consume him completely. Dennis Lindberg had insulted Yuu's family, wished death upon them, and for that, he would pay a price.

The effect was instantaneous. There was no dramatics or fanfare. One second there was a living, breathing man, the next there was naught but a corpse with a twisted, purple neck, and an expression of furious shock etched onto their features. Telekinesis was such a versatile ability in his hands. With it, Yuu could lift boulders that weighed more than himself. Snapping a neck was child's play.

"Sorry, Shun…" Yuu muttered despondently, looking down at his hands. They were free of physical blood, but metaphorically, they had long since been stained. The path of violence and death wasn't the path his older brother had wanted him to walk when he first accepted his herculean task, but it was the one he inevitably found himself on. No one had ever changed the world without getting their hands dirty, and he was no exception. Every time he willfully took a life, he offered a quiet apology to his brother, but if he were being honest with himself, the remorse was no longer present.

"What do I do now?" Yuu asked of the world, not expecting an answer, and certainly not receiving one.

Purpose was lost to him, but he needed to find one. It was almost cruel asking a man who wished to die to find meaning in being alive. There were an infinite number of things he could do with his life, but as he contemplated his options, they each sounded as banal and pointless as sitting in that lab for all eternity. Goals and dreams were for happier people than he. At that moment, he needed nothing more than a reason to walk out of the facility and leave the Thar Desert behind him.

"I…" Yuu paused briefly, uncertainty coloring every word. "I guess I'll go see their graves."

To pay his respects to his long-departed family, assuming they even had active graves after centuries had passed and societal upheaval, would require him to return to Japan… he'd have to go home. Even before he'd fallen into his mineral encased coma, it had been over three years since Yuu had stepped foot on Japanese soil. When he'd decided to Plunder every ability in the world, he'd know he would be leaving for a very long time. The world was too vast, the number of people with abilities too numerous. After three years, he hadn't even come close to completion. Back then, he'd swore he would return to Nao when he was done. What was one more broken promise on a list already so long?

Yuu rose to his feet with a long, tired sigh and looked at the wreckage that surrounded him, his eyes trailing over the lone survivor in this area of the building. From the memories he'd searched through, he knew there were many others who worked here, but only this woman, May, was left alive here. She had not wronged him, and so she would not die. Her ability, however, would no longer belong to her. It was a simple ability, but fairly potent given she was untrained in utilizing it. By waving her hands she could generate an array of dazzling lights which could temporarily blind those who looked upon it. Mine now, Yuu thought as his eye glowed green.

Yuu's examination and exploration of the rest of the facility that he hadn't destroyed in search of both survivors and supplies was, like most things in his life, a simple affair thanks to abilities. X-ray vision was such a cliché power to have, but he'd found it during his time in Colombo, the largest city in Sri Lanka. The young woman he'd taken it from had seemingly enjoyed using it in rather perverse, self-satisfying ways, but to Yuu it was a tool like all the others he stole. Voyeuristic tendencies didn't even cross his mind.

The search was only marred by the red emergency lights that had clicked on, and the occasional broken fire sprinkler that had short-circuited, a torrent of water sprayed in every direction around it. A quick application of his freeze ability spared him from needlessly wet clothes. Money, food, a knapsack, a cell phone, GPS tracker, even keys to one of the ATVs stored in the attached garage all found their way into his possession. Crossing the Thar Desert to reach India would be easy for him given his ability to conjure water from nothing, but the need for other supplies was a given, and any device which could access the internet and let him begin learning about this new society he found himself in was a boon.

Yuu's years of travel in war torn regions and thriving metropolises alike had led him to acquiring not only abilities for every circumstance, but an instinctual mindset focused on efficiency and the task in front of him. The grief and pain were still there, but with his decision made to stay alive, all of the pain he felt was forcibly shoved behind the drive to just press onward and do what he'd set his mind to accomplishing. For now, that meant getting home. But in a world over-taken by abilities, with certain individuals trained to use them in suppression and combat, and laws in place to prevent civilians from using them in public environments, it was necessary for Yuu to blend in, and for that, he needed knowledge.

The only detour he made was to the now deceased Director's office. Given his perusal of the researcher's memories, he doubted there was anything of value to be found in the data and historical profile built around him during his time encased in crystal, but he figured it didn't hurt to check. The woman's office was, fortunately, in perfect condition relative to what it should have been. The late Doctor Hatfield was a capable woman, but not an orderly one. Papers were strewn all over her desk, empty mugs with stained coffee rings and impressions from her lip balm were scattered around. A mess, to the say the least, but her computer remained undisturbed and apparently connected to a different breaker than the lights.

The ease at which Yuu began to navigate the computer was a testament to the stagnation of technology over the centuries he'd been asleep. Humanity had catapulted in advancement following their discovery of how to utilize electricity. The first battery had been invented in 1800, and 200 years later everyone was walking around with computers in their pockets, with mankind having walked on the moon. Once abilities propagated, the world failed to progress at all. Further proof of the chaos and misfortune the existence of abilities wrought upon the world. How many advancements could have been made that would have benefited mankind? Self-sustainable energy? Life saving medicine and surgical procedures? There were an infinite number of advancements that could have been made, but instead, humanity had been robbed of progress so that society could play out their fantasy of living in a comic book. It sickened him to know that countless people had been made victims of a plague that the modern society watered down as a fucking quirk.

Yuu didn't care that it was presumptuous of him to judge the world through only his own eyes alone. Long before the denizens of this world had even been alive, Yuu and Nao had elected themselves the arbiters of whether humanity needed superpowers. Even if he no longer had ambitions to rid the world of abilities by himself due to the sheer infeasibility of such a task, the rationale that had led him to that initial decision was still alive and well. Humanity was too selfish, too irresponsible, too eager to fight and sow chaos to be trusted with abilities. The endless struggle for power, the incessant greed, they only led to tragedy.

In his perusal of endless files and reports, Yuu regularly encountered encryptions that necessitated so manner of password and security key to bypass. Whenever he encountered such an obstacle, the power to interface with computer code on local servers proved itself extraordinarily useful. He couldn't hack anything remotely, but if he was physically near the server or physical device itself, computer code was as easy to navigate for him as walking. Yuu offered a quiet word of thanks to the ability's original owner, a small, 12-year-old boy from Germany. Unlike most people who had their ability plundered, the young boy hadn't reacted with anger or hostility when his ability was taken, instead, he'd simply asked why. In a way, the experience had been eye-opening. Yuu was feared by those he encountered. The vast majority of ability users had no concept of where their ability came from, they didn't understand why he did what he did, they just looked upon him with terror as he stole it from them. Even after he explained his motive to the German boy, the child hadn't understood, but he'd still offered Yuu a polite farewell. Though he would have long since passed, Yuu hoped the kid had lived a long, happy life.

"Interesting…" Yuu murmured as he read an archived report from over 200 years prior. When he had first been discovered in his comatose state and labeled as X-00024, over a dozen skeletons had been found around him, encased in a more brittle form of the same crystal that surrounded him. Studies of those corpses revealed that they likely suffocated to death inside the crystals but were otherwise injury free at the time of their deaths.

As far as Yuu knew, he did not have an ability that matched the exact details of the circumstances. The one stasis ability he possessed did not involve crystal formations at all, and it certainly wouldn't kill anyone who he used it on. The mineral abilities he had could very well kill someone if he encased them completely, but none of those abilities would also be able to keep him alive and unable to age for centuries. Whatever had caused him to end up comatose was a complete mystery to him, and he did not like that. Someone or something had forced him into unfavorable conditions that led to his 270-year slumber. Whether they were the cause or not, the simple fact that it happened was a troubling thought.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the only time Yuu had experienced difficulties with his memory. Even discounting the little things he constantly forgot such as names, dates, places, and events from his past, there were times where he lost it completely. The week he spent in Western Saudi Arabia was nothing but a blur. Vague memories of the sounds of gunfire, the scent of smoke, and the image of a child facedown a pool of blood was all he had. That and a series of news reports describing the aftermath of the carnage. Dozens of people dead, an entire block of nearly decimated buildings. He wished it had been an isolated incident. Whenever Yuu lost his lucidity, things went very, very wrong.

The last thing he remembered before entering his coma was encountering a tribe of wandering nomads shortly after his journey through the Thar Desert had begun. They were a friendly people who he happily engaged with in trade and conversation for an evening before pressing onward. Beyond that, his memory was blank. For all he knew, the conditions he found himself in were entirely of his own creation. With abilities and the toll stealing them eventually placed upon his mind, anything was possible… It was almost cruel that after sleeping for 300 years his sanity was better than it had been since he'd first started his task. Time, above all else, was his hypothesis as to what was needed to process the thousands of abilities he'd plundered. The human mind was capable of processing the influx of power, he just needed time.

Most of the data he poured over was not only meaningless given the level of expertise in various fields of study that was required to understand it, expertise he did not possess in the slightest, the content in of itself was worthless to him. Yuu could not care less about the analysis of his unchanging temperature while comatose; he was awake now. Unless it pertained to how he ended up stuck in a damn geode, he didn't give a rat's ass. The endless reports might as well have been the drivel children draw on the side-walk using chalk for how useful it was to him at that moment. He didn't care that among certain circles he was considered one of the greatest mysteries from the Troubled Century, the period of time when abilities became public knowledge and more and more people developed them. Yuu had been famous as the One-Eyed Grim Reaper before, some scientists knowing his face because he'd been frozen during the advent of abilities was barely noteworthy to him.

Yuu leaned back into the well-worn leather chair and kicked his feet onto the corner of the desk. The first year of his journey across the globe had taught him the flaws of arrogance in the face of other abilities. The necessity for a visual connection to his opponent in order to steal their ability combined with the brief moment of time where he was incapacitated when doing so had gotten him into situations that were… difficult to navigate. Caution combined with his ever-growing number of abilities had lessened the danger, but it wouldn't do to forget that given how dynamically different the world is from what he once knew. As much as a part of his brain told him to be cavalier since the worst that could happen would be his death, he knew he couldn't. Self-deception wasn't in his repertoire. Just as he wouldn't commit suicide, he wouldn't allow himself to die either.

While his theft of the two abilities he'd encountered had worked so far, it would be foolish to presume that would always be the case. Abilities had altered dramatically since their advent in the world. It would be naïve of him to assume he was still the most potent ability user in the world when the number had grown from the thousands into the billions.

Why am I even thinking about this right now? Yuu mused, reaching up to rub his eyes. Somehow, despite sleeping for a few centuries, he was tired. I just need to focus on visiting their graves. All of them. I owe them that much.

The notion that his departed friends and family might not have graves passed his mind, but if that was the case, he'd make them some and hold funerals in their honor. The dead deserved respect. Yuu wouldn't call himself religious, but between time-travel and speaking with the dead, he had learned not to make presumptions about the universe.

"Should… should I try and talk with one of them?" Yuu knew he could. Misa assumed that Yusa losing her ability would lead to her passing on entirely, but she was mistaken.

Surprisingly, Yusa was not the only girl with an ability related to the dead. Yuu had met two others, both of whom had abilities that pertained to the dead, but both were different. The girl in The Gambia could write notes to the dead and have them respond on the same pen and paper, visible for anyone and everyone to see and read. She had used it freely and openly to give those who had lost those they loved peace of mind. The other belonged to a man who lived alone in the rural areas of midwestern America. The ability to summon and communicate with any deceased individual so long as he knew their name and could picture their face when using the ability. Only he could see the spirit, and the spirit could not physically interact with the world, but they were there.

Despite having that power, Yuu was loathe to contact any of his loved ones… The dead were dead, no amount of communication with them would change that fact. Given that he was still coming to grips with the reality of their passing it… it just didn't seem smart. Another time. Yuu nodded his head resolutely, his legs swinging off the desk as he rose to his feet. When he could be sure he wouldn't spiral completely just from seeing their faces, then he would summon them to say his goodbyes.

"Wait for me, okay?" Yuu murmured. He wasn't sure if the dead knew what happened in the world when they were summoned, but even if his comment was just for himself, it was a slight balm to his pained soul.

Having finished his examination of the computer, Yuu continued his search of the interior of the facility, failing to find so much as a single soul, dead or alive. Given the protocols in place for the lab combined with the collapse of an entire wing of the facility, evacuation was a rather sensible action to take. Whether those who had evacuated went to the underground bunker and locked themselves inside, remained in the nearby area, or fled entirely was of no particular import to him. There was no purpose in trying to conceal his existence to the world. A lab this well-funded guaranteed that at some point, someone would eventually hear about his return to consciousness and subsequent escape. Everyone who had been in the building could be silenced and it wouldn't matter, someone would come check on the facility at some point. Shrouding the evidence was a fruitless endeavor. Plus, there was the fact that leaving a trail of bodies that large in his wake did not appeal to his sensibilities in the slightest. Said sensibilities were twisted, sure, but morality had not abandoned him entirely If the other staff had remained, he would simply take their abilities and leave it at that. Unless they threatened him further, they would never have to see him again and their lives would not be at risk.

Yuu approached the exit that led to the garage with surety in his step. The sooner he got a car the sooner he could leave the desert and begin making his way to Mumbai. The city would be different from his time spent there in the past, but it was at least somewhat familiar, and once there he could go about acquiring a cheap fake ID and passport to get him to Japan. Once there he could go about legitimizing his return to the world, but if Japan was still as big on procedure as it was in the past, he'd need some form of passable documentation to get back into the country. It was a shame he'd never found a teleportation ability that was useful beyond the span of a few miles, and even those were exhausting to use more than a few times in a row, but he'd survive. Travel, above all else, was something Yuu had grown intimately familiar with.

The off-road, likely heavily modified ATV was a welcome sight to Yuu when he stepped into the garage. Officially, he had never acquired a license to drive in any of the countries he visited, but experience was a great teacher, and he had plenty of it. A brief flex of telekinesis activated the switch to open the large bay doors, giving Yuu his first view of the outside world since his return to consciousness. Though to him it felt like no time at all had passed, his breath caught in his throat as he looked out over the scattered shrubs dotting the sand dunes as far as the eye could see. The wonderfully bright stars that dotted the night sky worked in concert with the half moon to provide more than enough light to appreciate the beauty of the early morning in a part of the world so few ever would see.

The Thar Desert was more populous than most deserts in the world, rather, it had been in the past. Even through the grief that still hung over him like a shadow, Yuu couldn't deny that a small part of him was excited to see the new world in which he found himself. The moment he realized that he almost shrunk in on himself, but he knew they would all be happy to see him forget his pain, even if just for a moment.

Yuu never did encounter any of the other staff that worked within the lab, leading him to believe they had all taken shelter within the bunker underground. A wise decision, in the end. If he wanted to, getting into said bunker would be simple, but Yuu had no desire to waste his time doing so. They'd realize soon enough that it was safe to emerge, they'd find corpses aplenty, but the woman named May would walk away without so much as a scar. All things considered; it was the best outcome they could've hoped for. Collapse was a volatile ability, woefully easy to activate even when on the fringe of consciousness. Yuu could have collapsed all of the facility without effort. That only a single wing was impacted should be viewed as a goddamn miracle.

With the ATV loaded up with all of his supplies and extra fuel, Yuu hopped in the driver's seat and took off. The facility behind him was spared neither thought nor consideration as he sped away driving Southeast. Thanks to the GPS tracker, he knew he had a few days of driving ahead of him in order to reach Mumbai. That was okay though, despite his purpose, he had time. For the first time in years, Yuu wasn't in any rush.

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Author's Note: So, just wanted to say that much like the first chapter, this one is probably fairly rough. I barely edited it at all, so there's that. Also, after this chapter it should be obvious that I'm not following Charlotte canon 100% to the letter. The timeline for abilities fading away is a lot more nebulous in my fic, and Yuu was clearly gone on his journey for a lot longer, and he was no where near done. And though it was mentioned in the text, I'll reiterate here: Yuu is currently 19 years old. He'd been traveling the world for roughly three years before whatever happened, happened.
OH! Shoutout to the song, Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths. It's a brilliant song that I had on repeat for about an hour as I wrote the scene where Yuu was contemplating suicide. I would highly recommend checking it out. As always, thanks for reading. Cheers.