BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga

Volume 1: The Darkness of Our Pasts

Chapter 7: Comatose.

I looked at him through the glass window, along with everyone else there. Ryuu, Miyuu, Joseph, Shinzuka. Even two old people were there talking to the doctor about Manic's condition, and a person none of us had met before, but he told us he went by GC. This was bad. The doctor told us that with all the injuries he sustained, including some massive internal bleeding, it was a miracle that he was still breathing. We all knew he would pull through, he just had to. The doctor didn't know who Manic really was, but we did. He would make it.

Since technology advanced for a while, so did the healing processes of patients in hospitals. There was no way to determine when Manic would snap out of the coma, but his injuries, broken bones and the like, could be healed in less than half the time than it could a long time ago.

I rested my forehead against the glass, finally feeling the effects of no sleep for well over a day, and I could tell that everyone else was feeling the same. Shinzuka couldn't stop crying, even for a few minutes. We all knew that Shinzuka saw Manic as more than a friend, but the big lug couldn't see it. Every time she came along, she always hugged onto Manic's arm, but he always tried to play it off as normality. He was even starting to soften up for a while there, too, and showed the same affection towards her.

I sighed. "I think we should all go home... there's nothing we can do for now..." I said, exhausted. Ryuu and I demanded that we were to take Manic to the hospital and the chief agreed to it. He even stopped by and told us that it was he who Manic was forced to test against when we all went to apply for ONBA. However, he didn't stay for long to chat, so that's all he told us, along with some info about things that happened while we were there.

"You're right..." Ryuu said. He walked slowly towards the exit door. "We better get sleep. He wouldn't want us to be like this for him." I nodded to that and walked towards the door as well. Everyone else followed a few minutes later.

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It's been a week since we hospitalized Manic. He was still there, comatose, but Ryuu and I were back to working at ONBA.

"No, Ma'am," I said over the phone, "we can't take him out of custody until we get his reports cleared. We'll call you as soon as they are, though." I hung up the phone and leaned back on my chair, with my hands behind my head. I realized that Manic actually made this job at least mediocrely fun with the pranks we would pull on each other.

"Oh no..." I heard Ryuu mutter as he looked through the net from his desk screen. I got up from my chair and walked over to see what he saw.

"What's wrong?" I said.

"We have to get to Beach Square quickly," Ryuu said immediately as he got up from his chair and marched towards the door. I quickly followed him and we both jogged towards Beach Square.

We finally made it, but nothing looked any different.

"What was the problem?" I asked Ryuu, but he quickly took out his cyberband. I then figured that some viruses went loose in the net. I put my cyberband on as well, but I didn't see any viruses around. However, I did see a man standing in the middle of the net square. he had a pitch black t-shirt and baggy shorts that went below his knees and were covered in chains. His hair was also black with a few hints of silver, but the most striking thing about him was that he looked a lot like Manic.

"What's going on here?" I said to the person. It looked like his eyes were glazed over as he looked at me. His icy glare pierced through me as I took one step backwards. He seemed too emotionless to actually be human, but I could tell that he was. "Hey, answer my question, what's going on!?" I said to him again. This time, he went hostile and slammed his fist into my abdomen, sending me back a few feet and onto the ground. He was still as emotionless as before, but he quickly turned back to the crowd.

"The end of your lives will be soon. Prepare for it." the figure then disappeared from sight. Ryuu helped me up from the ground and we quickly took off our cyberbands to pursue him, but we couldn't find a trace of the person anywhere. I gripped my stomach lightly.

"Are you ok, Kin?" Ryuu asked me.

"I'll live," I responded. "He was strong..." I said with a small laugh. Now I wanted to fight this guy for real.

"Why did he say our lives would end soon?" Ryuu asked. I could tell he didn't expect an answer, but I shrugged to his question anyway. "I don't think he could have meant it, but we had better tighten security around here," Ryuu suggested as I nodded in response and we both walked back to the ONBA headquarters. There was something definitely odd about that guy, I was sure of it. He had too much of a resemblance to Manic in his looks, but he definitely wasn't like him in any way whatsoever.

I got home from the ONBA late that night and laid in my bed, thinking. What did that person mean by 'our lives would end soon'? How was he that strong? I checked the capacity my cyberband had to keep me in the internet quickly afterwards and I saw that it was almost halfway down from its original position. There was no way he could have been that strong, especially from a single punch. That guy was not human, I was sure of it.

Chapter 7 done. Short, I know, but the next ones will be good. Review, please! ^_^