A/N: All characters within this story are owned by Chiyomaru Studio. The only character that I have sole ownership of is Kenichi Izumi.
Enjoy this chapter.
Date: July 25, 2012
Divergence: 1.048596 (Steins Gate)
Time until Overwrite: 24 years, 3 months, 22 days.
"Worry not, miss," the man whose smile screamed of lies and deceit said. "We'd take better care of you than anyone in that little Resistance has ever bothered to do."
"But," she resisted his words. "They're not the ones with the problem. I know what you all have done - all the evils that you planned on doing. Why would I ever turn my back on my friends for a group like yours?"
She never expected to get this kind of attention from anyone. There were people more worthy of the praise she was getting; there were people who were more twisted to be receiving their praise from a man like this in particular.
If she could leave, she would have, except this was her apartment. Plus, based off the descriptions she had gotten of these people, she knew they were smarter than to just send one man to convince her to join them. She didn't want any of the attention from people like this. She would have taken praise from anyone, but these people were the most evil she'd ever encountered. They didn't even try to hide it.
"I'm risking a lot with my superiors by going to you personally," the smile lost it's faux friendliness. "The least you could do is hear me out."
He said it as if she was being ungrateful for not doing as he wanted. The small circular table that was planted in the middle of her one-room apartment only seemed to get smaller. It felt like he was going to overwhelm her with his presence despite the fact that he was lanky and older than her. He imposed so much force, but he kept himself so restrained all at the same time.
"I don't ever want you to feel forced to help us," he said. "I understand you kids and your desire to want to stick together is really strong, and I would not want to mess with that process of growing up."
Before their impromptu meeting, she was setting up tea for herself so that she could have something to stimulate her mind as she worked. Because of him, she had to get another cup of tea ready just for him. He took advantage of her politeness and sipped the tea that she placed in front of him. He crossed his legs, leaned back, and rested his arms on the back of his chair, the smile losing the sort of deceit she saw earlier.
"Why should I believe you?" she didn't believe a word he said at all.
For all she knew, he'd "leave the decision up to her," only to threaten her family and friends for her cooperation. Based off what she heard about the way these people operated, it was the only logical conclusion that could be drawn. She grabbed her cup of tea and sipped, eyeing him from over the lip of the mug.
"I could have forced you to be my slave multiple times over by now," he shrugged his shoulders. "The fact that I haven't should key you in on my willingness to work with you."
The statement itself disturbed her beyond belief. The way someone could say that with total seriousness was lost on her. She could only wonder just what he could have done to force her to do things that she wouldn't want to.
He uncrossed his legs and leaned into the table.
"It was troubling enough as it was to find any sort of connection to whatever you call that group...the Committee of Antimatter...?" he explained. "I don't want to force my way in and scare them off."
"And what makes you think I won't tell them?" she immediately challenged his statement.
"It has the same effect as me forcing you to work for us against your will," he responded coolly. "This is my hail mary shot that would get my superiors angry if it fails. However, I know you'll want to do the right thing."
He lifted his cup off the table and sipped again, watching her deliberate.
She didn't know what to do. For one, she would have slapped him, cursed him out of her apartment, and let the rest of the Anti-Committee know that this man had approached her with such a ludicrous offer. She looked at him as he nonchalantly started looking around the rest of the room, nodding at things he found interesting, and letting out strange noises of curiosity when he saw anything that stood out to him. It was so exaggerated that she saw right through it: just an attempt to get her riled up. For someone tasked with trying to get her to join his cause, he was doing the lousiest job possible.
"You know," he said, his eyes planted on the painting of Mozart behind her. "I admire your desire to stick to what you believe is right. It says volumes about who you are as a person."
He looked back at her.
"The American on the other hand," he laughed a seemingly disappointed laugh. "Just stick money in his face and he'll be your lapdog."
She tried so hard to seem uninterested in anything he had to say, but the fact that he brought him up was enough to make her break her facade and begin asking questions she never imagined asking.
"By the American, you mean...?"
He clarified for her and told her his name. Of course, it was the name of the person she had in mind.
"He's working for you?"
Now she was keenly interested. The act of the person who could care less about what the man had to say had crumbled within a second and her own connection to the named American was at most fault.
He smiled, having reeled her in.
"He's assisting in a limited capacity," the man said. "We figured that the intelligence agency... Stratfo I believe it was called... he's a part of would provide great support in our goals to find those who have been silently opposing us from the shadows."
His attention went back to the painting.
"After all," he said. "It's how we found your connection to the group."
Her eyes widened at how the Committee was able to pinpoint who she was. She was always sure to be careful when using her phone in regards to Anti-Committee matters. She made sure to keep such matters away from the public view and only bothered to interact with them from the safety of her own home. She decided that she needed to regain control of the conversation.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
He smiled again. "Because transparency is important in a budding partnership."
He looked at her, dragging his finger along the circumference of the cup.
"Since I am such a benevolent God, here's what I'll do," he said. "You and the American can discuss this matter all you want. Just tell him that I've talked to you and he should open up about things considering he does like being careful."
He wet the tip of his finger, allowing the tea to drip back into the cup from his hand.
"Of course, you can also take this matter to the Anti-Committee," he followed. "Granted, you'll be unable to properly identify me, but the sentiment still exists and I'll be able to know if you do decide to take this course of action. But, there's one thing I cannot allow you to do."
He hooked his finger upward, making the table that separated them rise along with their cups of tea. The space between them was empty, allowing him to stand and cast his figure over her.
"If the public knows anything at all about what took place between us here," he said, his demeanor becoming more menacing. "If you so much as blab a word to anyone not involved in your struggle against us."
A giant sword appeared out of thin air right in front of her face. She wanted to flinch and back away, but she was stuck to her spot as if some invisible force was keeping her there. The sword he brandished was a terrifying sight to behold, making her whimper in fear just by looking at it. It seemed like merely landing her gaze upon it would have fatal implications for her body. It already seemed to give her a terrible headache.
"I will not hesitate on using our influence to bankrupt your university and destroy your place in society," he finally warned. "Pulling the commonfolk into a matter as complex as ours is despicable, don't you agree?"
She looked at him in fear. Within moments, the sword had disappeared. In fact, everything seemed to go back to normal. The table was not floating into the air, and they were both seated in the exact same position they were in moments prior.
Was that just a hallucination?
"Don't you agree, Hiyajo-san?" what he said seemed to follow exactly what Maho had experienced in that altered state.
"...Agree to what?"
He laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry. The sword being in your face probably distracted you, didn't it?"
What he said confirmed her doubts. He had controlled her mind to come up with such a vivid delusion. She didn't know whether she should have felt relieved that such a terrifying experience only happened in their minds, or scared at the fact that they could share an experience like that in the first place.
"No," Maho cut him off before he said another word. "...I agree. I don't think anyone who's not volunteered themselves in this matter should be burdened with this knowledge..."
He flashed his teeth, happy about the understanding between them.
"Now, before I go, I believe I haven't told you how you'd be assisting the Committee quite yet," he said. "It's quite simple actually. There's a little thing called Gigalomania. It's how humans like us can ascend to god-status. It is a very dangerous thing to be handled by 'scientists' or 'experts'. When used for wrongdoing, things like the Shibuya Earthquake in 2009 occur, you see?"
Maho nodded.
"That kind of ability is very dangerous and, if I say so myself, should not be reproduced artificially in the slightest. If you hear mention of your group trying to study Gigalomania, all you have to do is impede on the research as best you can. You don't have to report to me, or the Committee, or anyone. This is a matter of trust between us."
This was where he seemed most serious. As if he very honestly believed that he was ridding the world of a very serious danger if he stopped such research.
"Who knows," he shrugged. "Perhaps, when you realize just how dangerous your little group is, you'll finally see why the Committee is needed to shepherd the sheep into the New World and you could join our ranks."
The way he wove his words distracted Maho from the disgust she originally had for him. However, once she realized just how uncharacteristically charismatic he was being, she drove to shut down any more conversation.
"...I'll consider your offer," she said. "I have to do more research on this Gigalomania matter, but if it's as dangerous as you say... then I'll see what I'll do about it when the time comes."
"That's good," he jumped to his feet. "I'm very sorry for scaring you like that earlier. I just tend to get a little heated when it comes to innocent people not deserving the suffering they'd hypothetically be put through."
He began making his way out the door. "Of course, I would never lay a finger on you. After all, I'm a gentleman first and foremost."
"W-Wait!" Maho called the man back before he stepped out of the already opened door. "How do I tell the Professor that you've contacted me?"
"Well, that should be easy for a scientist like you," he paused with a smile on his face, as if he were expecting laugther from her end. "Tch. Liven up a little, won't you?"
He sighed. He was having more fun with controlling Maho than anything and Maho hated herself for allowing the situation to come down to this. However, her curiosity and desire to gain insight into the Committee pulled her in many different directions.
"He hasn't told you about Stratfo, right?"
Maho shook her head.
"Then bring it up to him if you want to talk to him about Committee matters," he explained. "If he asks how you know about that little thinktank, just tell him a man with a big sword who has ties to the Committee told you about it. He'll be bound to believe you considering I'm the one who instructed him to find you in the first place."
There was so much information for her to process that she wasn't sure if she was hearing everything properly. What did he mean by big sword? Did he mean that giant thing that she saw in her delusion?
"Now," he sounded exasperated. "Are we done here? I have a school who's construction I need to tend to in Shibuya and I'm afraid I've already used up a lot of my free time to seek you out here in America."
Maho slowly nodded. She didn't understand anything, but she knew that she wanted the man gone before she began pondering over anything.
"Good," he bowed to her before making his leave. "I wish you luck in your future endeavors, and I hope you consider this proposition between us."
Okabe slowly opened his eyes. This time around, there was no extreme pain, and the only parts of his body that now felt sore were his chest and throat. He still felt the weight of the oxygen mask on his face, but this time he felt like he could actually breathe easier without it. The room around him was dark, the lightbar that was present when he first awoke having been extinguished. He could make out the shapes of the different objects of the room with better clarity, but it seemed like his left eye was still covered just like before. He sat up slowly, testing out just how rejuvenated he truly was. The pain in his chest remained, but he felt like he had better control over his body. It was as if the torture that Wakui put him through was just a dream. The only remnants of that nightmare were stuck in his chest and throat, very likely from what had occurred the first time he woke up.
He reached his hands out in front of him. His arms felt heavy, but they weren't painfully so. He felt a little resistance as wires tugged from both his forearms back toward the wall behind him. It was the first time he had been aware of anything being wired to him aside from the oxygen mask he wore. The wiring was connected to his forearms, his chest, his thighs, and his shoulders. They seemed to be syringes of some sort as, when he moved his forearm, he felt something move beneath his skin along with it. He looked at his hands which were now both unbandaged. They were black and purple, but to his surprise, all of his nails on his right hand seemed to be healing. He carefully slid his left index finger along his right middle finger. His hand was tender to the touch, as expected. What was unexpected to him was encountering the smooth hardness of a nail growing once more. Wakui had torn off many nails from his hands and feet, making Okabe wonder what would happen to their regeneration if he was able to escape. The fact that his nails survived, mostly unscathed, was a novelty to him.
Unbeknownst to him, the movements he made tripped the hospital's systems, alerting the staff to the fact that he had woken up. He heard a beep to his left just before the door slid open. A pair of nurses, garbed in white blouses with red stripes going down their chest from their shoulders, made their way in. The lights turned on as they entered. Their demeanor was calm as they both looked at a clipboard that the black-haired nurse held in her hand. This demeanor they held changed once the brunette nurse's eye landed on the awake Okabe. What was thought to be an unconscious squirm was actually him being awake.
"Call the doctor," the black-haired nurse said in Japanese. "Tell him that the patient's awake."
The brunette nodded before quickly walking out of the room. The other nurse had taken off her glasses as she approached Okabe, inspecting every little detail about his body. She looked at him as if he shouldn't be alive; as if the very fabric of reality had twisted before her and she was trying to confirm whether she was dreaming or not. Of course, such a reaction would not concern Okabe, but considering the circumstances, he couldn't help but wonder that his consciousness was something that didn't have a high chance of reoccurring at that point.
"How do you feel, Okabe-san?" she asked.
"I feel a lot better than last time," he said with a hoarse voice. "I can actually speak now."
His throat was sore, but it wasn't painful. As a matter of fact, everything that was in pain when he fell unconscious was now just a slightly uncomfortable soreness.
"That's good," she said, now at his bedside. "The doctor will be here soon to check everything."
She got on the computer which was hanging just across from his bed. She put her glasses back on as she began typing away at the keyboard.
"First," she said without looking away from the computer. "I'll get you prepped by jotting down your vitals at consciousness."
Standing at her spot, she took off her glasses and looked at the monitor that was displaying Okabe's vitals. She nodded to herself, and began filling out whatever form she had on the screen.
"Where am I?" he asked.
The fact that the nurses spoke Japanese and looked Japanese from a distance made Okabe wonder whether or not he was even in America anymore. The nurse stopped what she was doing and raised an eyebrow at him.
"You're in the hospital, sir," she said. "Are you having any lapses in memory?"
"I don't mean that," he responded. "What country is this?"
"Perhaps that car accident did more damage to your head than we previously thought."
The nurse walked away from her spot at the computer and toward the very confused Okabe. Everything she was saying was all sorts of wrong and he could only wonder whether he was actually himself or not. The last time he checked, being relentlessly tortured by a madman with a giant sword was not anywhere close to a car accident like the nurse was describing. She dimmed the lights with the help of something on her wrist as she approached him.
Once she got to his bedside, she took a flashlight out of her breast pocket and waved it in front of his eye, testing the reactivity of his pupil. He felt a tinge of pain on his optic nerve from just how bright the light was and he would have squinted to block the light had the nurse not held his eyelid open.
"Your eyes are responding just fine," she said as she pocketed the flashlight. "No lasting nerve damage at least."
She held her wrist-gadget up to her face and turned the lights back on to full.
Before she could get any further, another beep was heard at the door. The nurse from earlier walked in, trailed by a doctor who looked younger than Okabe, but held the oldest eyes. Despite the lifetime that Okabe's lived, those pale blue eyes he saw held more wisdom than he could ever hope for. His brown hair was slicked back, only allowing a single strand to fall between his eyes. Even though it looked like something that could be done to attract co-workers, the aura he emitted seemingly contradicted such a belief by saying something like "I have neither the time nor the need to submit myself to petulant games." His doctor's coat fit snugly around his body and seemed to be weighed down by just how many pens and pen-like things he had in his breast pocket.
He exchanged a few words with the nurse that presided over him, mostly talking about the nurse's "new findings" in regards to Okabe's situation. He nodded, taking careful note over what she said as he wrote into his Pokecom about whatever she said. After a brief minute, he dismissed both nurses and shut the door behind them. With a single swipe of his Pokecom, the door's locking mechanism clicked into place with a deeper pitched beep signaling that it was successful. He pulled a visitor's chair away from the table that had all the flowers he had been given and placed himself right next to Okabe.
"Hello, Okarin," he said. "My name is Dr. Izumi Kenichi."
The eyes he had were kind, but withered. His smile was tired. It seemed like he had been dealing with things like this for about as long as Okabe was forced to deal with the Beta Worldline. The fact that the doctor called Okabe by his nickname meant that they were in some way close, but Okabe didn't know who he was.
"My codename under Valkyrie is Apollo," he said. "So, knowing that, you needn't worry about any sort of misunderstanding as to why you were placed here."
Apollo, as explained by Daru, was the Chief Surgeon in Valkyrie. There was an event in 2016 that brought Okabe into a leading role in the Anti-Committee before its merger with the Rounders and Mr. Toshiyuki Sawada's group in the 2020s. As a consequence of this event - of which every leading member of Valkyrie except for Okabe has knowledge of - Faris brought Apollo onto the team thanks to her connections with almost every industry imaginable in Japan. Thanks to his importance, Apollo sat among Daru, Kurisu, Okabe, Faris, Moeka, Nishijou Takumi, Sakihata Rimi, Aoi Sena, Kunosato Mio, and Toshiyuki Sawada as one of the only members within Valkyrie with top-level clearance into everything they were doing. Naturally, this meant that he also knew of Okabe's Reading Steiner situation as soon as Daru got wind of it.
Izumi Kenichi himself did not look like the outstanding man that Apollo was to Valkyrie. He was the bastard child of a Japanese mother and a European father who had left their family well before he was born. To his displeasure, against all odds, he inherited his father's blue eyes. However, that did not deter him from working hard in order to help support himself and his mother as they lived out a very spartan life in Tokyo. Standing at just three years older than Okabe, he was finishing his postgraduate work in medicine at Showa University's School of Medicine when Okabe first began pursuing Quantum Brain Science in America at Victor Chondria's Institute of Neuroscience. Given the fact that he was a surgeon, he had seen the most grizzly sights that no one person should have to see, but he continued because he enjoyed helping people. Apparently, it was this trait that Faris honed in on in order to get him onto Valkyrie in its early days as the Commitee of Antimatter. It was in his induction, apparently, that Okabe and Izumi first met and became fast friends.
"As you can imagine," he continued. "Knowledge of what actually happened to you needs to be kept within the tightest of circles or else the Committee might get a bead on where we may reside. I think you want to take a break from all that running and being careful, don't you?"
"Of course," Okabe picked up the conversation in stride. "I place my fate in your hands, Izumi-sensei."
Izumi chuckled.
"Perhaps your brain did suffer some damage there," he said as he began taking off Okabe's oxygen mask. "The lack of delusional nicknaming is certainly a sight to behold coming from a man like yourself, Okarin."
Okabe didn't feel much of a change in his breath once the oxygen mask was removed from his face. Whatever they gave him must have done a number on his body because he definitely felt a lot better than the last time he woke up.
"I don't know whether I should be honored or offended at hearing that, Sensei," Okabe responded without any muffle in his voice. "I'm just barely getting back into the swing of things."
"Well, for starters, calling me Miken is fine. Despite the fact that this is your first time meeting me, I've been friends with you for 20 years now."
"Miken sounds like a name Mayuri would come up with."
"Who do you think bestowed such a nickname upon me?"
"I doubt that I stuck to that naming scheme for you."
"Naturally."
"Understood," Okabe said. "I shall dub thee Magic Eye."
Both men laughed once Okabe uttered the name. It seemed like this was the first time Okabe could ever actually laugh freely on the worldline ever since he arrived. As for Izumi, it also seemed like he suffered the same drought of happiness that had been wrought on Okabe.
"It pains me to see that you haven't changed one bit, my friend," Izumi smiled.
"It pains me to not know you quite as well as you know me, Magic Eye," Okabe responded. "We should make up for lost time when all this is over."
Now that he had his bearings under control once more, Okabe did not feel quite as helpless about Kurisu and Maho as he did when he first woke up. Even though it pained his heart that both girls that he considered special to him were taken under his watch, he knew that his will to succeed and save both of them could only ever be matched by the force of a thousand suns. Wakui had awoken a special kind of obsession in him that had lain dormant ever since he arrived on Steins Gate. The obsession to save Kurisu was back on the forefront of Okabe's mind and he wasn't going to let anyone stop him from letting her live the life that she should live.
"As leader of Valkyrie I think you're gonna need an update on the situation," Izumi said without acknowledging the possibility of rekindling their friendship. "You've been out for quite a long time, my friend."
"How long have I been out for?"
"A month and a half."
Okabe was about to speak up again about how incredulous he was, but Izumi put up a finger to stop him from speaking any further.
"Please let me finish filling you in before you strain yourself any further."
Okabe was about to protest, but thought better of it. He calmed down a little, evident by the beeping from his heart monitor decreasing from the intense rate it was at when he realized just how long he was out for.
"First off, in regards to you."
Izumi leaned in.
"Thanks to Shuichi-san's shallow torture techniques, you've been able to mostly recover all the damage he had done to you. Unfortunately, your left eye did not share the same fate as the rest of your vital organs. It's still there - don't worry about that, but the damage done to it will forever need corrective lenses just to be able to see clearly out of it.
The nail matrices on your right hand were heavily compromised, but with time your nails will be back to how they were before their unfortunate removal. Thankfully, with the help of our "Magic Medicine" that you see being injected into every major muscle group in your body, we were able to help your body recover from the broken bones it suffered close to two times faster. You really would have put us in a bind if you did any more damage to yourself when you first woke up last month, but thankfully you didn't.
Your right lung was collapsed, but with a quick surgery, we were able to get it back into working order. Sadly, because of this collapse, you'll be prone to more accidental ones in your future, so please don't exert yourself so hard. While a collapsed lung may not be so painful at first, I know you understand the long-term implications of allowing it to happen often.
Lastly, your story from here on out is that you got into a really bad car accident on the Togane Highway. It was not your fault, as the wildlife seemed to do everything in its power to kill you. Valkyrie went to lengths to get it all set up to make your story match real life, so it's best that you stick to it. We're currently in the Chiba Medical Center, so that's why you hear all this Japanese around you. Got it?"
Okabe nodded.
"In other news, I know you'll be glad to hear that we were able to find Hiyajo-san last week."
Okabe's ears perked up. He was about to speak up before he remembered the request that Izumi made to him.
"Unlike you, whom we found tied up in a shipping container deep in the forest of Kyushu, she was found in a hidden basement at Tokyo Denki University."
Tokyo Denki was his old school. However, he had no recollection whatsoever about any sort of hidden basement beneath it. The only thing he could think of was the time that Leskinen had disappeared into the hallway of the university all that time ago in Beta. Such an odd encounter was ingrained into Okabe's hippocampus so he had no way of forgetting it. If such a concept existed even outside of Beta, then Okabe could only wonder what else from that hellish worldline was able to survive the reconstruction onto Steins Gate.
"She's totally healthy," Izumi said. "It seems like they didn't put her through much at all. The only reason why we were really able to find her was because of a tip we got from Suzuha-chan."
Okabe was scared to hear that Suzuha was doing things for Valkyrie. That girl had fought all her life in both Alpha and Beta and all he wished for was for her to live as normal a life as her humble heart could.
"Apparently, she saw Hiyajo-san walking down the hallway across from her. However, when she went to investigate, there was seemingly no trace of Hiyajo-san whatsoever."
The similarities between what Okabe saw with Leskinen and what Suzuha saw with Maho were uncanny. He could only imagine how scared Maho was after being kidnapped and being forced to remain within the university for as long as she did. He could only be thankful that Suzuha's innocent observation was able to save her from suffering a fate that was a tenth as bad as what he was forced to go through.
"The basement itself was swarming with Stratfo soldiers. If that nickname sounds familiar, that's the name of the -"
"I know who they are," Okabe cut Izumi off before he continued. "They and I had quite a couple run-ins in the Beta Worldline."
"Okay," Izumi said. "I'll continue then."
"They were quick to surrender to the Rounders under Moeka-chan's command. We cleared out everything and it seems like they forced her to try and figure out the identities of all the leading members of Valkyrie. The good thing is that she doesn't know any of our true roles within the Anti-Committee, so she couldn't reveal our identities even if she wanted to."
The line of logic was hard for Okabe to follow. Sure, his Steins Gate counterpart may not have been quite as close to Maho as he had been, but she was still a trustworthy person to entrust the deepest secrets of Valkyrie to. He was grateful that she wasn't, but he couldn't help feeling a little pained that Maho was unable to get the recognition she deserved for guiding the universe to this worldline with her contributions to time travel.
It also begged the question as to how Wakui was able to discern her identity quite so easily. Nishijou Takumi as Neidhardt was a given thanks to the very public thorn he'd been in the Committee's side since 2009, meaning his real name wasn't exactly secret. However, he was sure that Maho wasn't subject to anything quite as public as Takumi, so her identity should have been safe.
"There's one last thing, Okarin," Izumi brought Okabe out of his bubble.
His eyes seemed to be even sadder than before. Those eyes Okabe saw almost made him want to break down into tears.
"We haven't been able to find Kurisu. A couple days after your tracker went off, hers showed up deep in Yakushima Island, but we didn't find her. Somehow they found out about the tracker that she had, removed it from her body, and relocated somewhere else. We've been hard at work trying to find any sort of trail we could follow to find her, but our efforts have led us to many dead ends over the past month and a half. We've gone so far as to question Shuichi-san, but naturally he's being uncooperative."
Izumi's expression was gloomy. It was as if he was filled with regret for not being able to find Kurisu. However, this news didn't seem to surprise Okabe, nor did it do anything to hinder his obsession.
No. News like this invigorated him. Knowing that Kurisu and his unborn child were out there, being held captive by cowards angered him.
A fire was lit deep inside him; a fire that had been quelled after he prematurely believed he had made it to the promised land. He could feel the soreness within his body become engulfed by the flames that devoured his very being.
"Kenichi," he called Izumi out by his real name which caught him by surprise.
"What is it?"
"By your standards, I should be good to go now, right?"
"Well," Izumi started. "The fact that you've woken up like this means that your body is fully recovered. As a medical professional, I'd recommend another day of rest, but knowing you, you'd ignore it."
Hououin Kyouma could feel his shackles melting. The shackles that oppressed him for months on end in Beta. The shackles that tried to bring him down in the wartorn worldline. The shackles that were slowly tightening their hold on him as he let his guard down. Hououin Kyouma was not going to allow those shackles to oppress him any longer.
"My Favorite Left Eye of Horus," Kyouma called out to Izumi who was caught off guard yet again.
"Y-Yes?"
Hououin Kyouma was no longer just an act. The mad scientist had finally found his footing after 26 years of thinking he had risen from his slumber.
"Why don't we pay that fool, Wakui a visit?"
After 26 years of opression, Hououin Kyouma had finally been freed. The Phoenix had risen from the ashes of war with a wicked smile on his face.
A/N: Sorry for the looooong wait on this one. I swear I meant to be done with this story by the end of 2018, but it seems like life had other plans for me so I'm sorry for that. I hope this is a good enough treat for you guys to chew on for making y'all wait for so long. I'm also slightly happy that I could finally implement Apollo in the story. He had been a character in the works ever since Chapter 12, but I couldn't find a good place to fit him in until now. But yeah, the endgame is on the horizon. Not many chapters between here and the end. I hope you all are prepared for the ride from here on out because I'm not pulling anymore punches.
Thank you for reading,
~Quil