Ch. 6
Vol 1
Chuuya reflexively turned to the driver.
Almost simultaneously, the mailman smiles thinly, ramming the accel. The car shoots forward like a bullet.
The force pushes Chuuya against the seat.
Alu is convinced her stomach was left behind with the robot from the force of the terrible driving. Who gave this man a license!? She wanted to yell.
"You bastard…..."
Ah, Chuuya verbally was on the same wavelength as her, at least in that they were agreed.
"Put your seatbelt on. You're going to bite your tongue." The man, still driving, speaks in a casual voice.
"Stop the car!" Chuuya yells, and releases his right fist to grab at the handle. Chuuya's fists are at the speed of a diving sparrow. Normal human beings wouldn't even be able to follow them with their eyes. However- this man was different. Faster than Chuuya's fist could land, a countering hit slammed into Chuuya's jaw.
"Gh-"
Chuuya's torso flew backwards, and his head just slammed against the back window. Countless white cracks run across the glass panels now, multiplying like branches of a tree.
Alu flinched, eyes wide. She hated that she couldn't do anything. Dammit all! She didn't come here to be useless! Alu tried to link to Juubi's power but at the moment, she knew it was the only reason she had any ability at all to handle the strain of Paul's ability. She was aware that Verlaine was just testing her resistance. That's right, he didn't know her secret. All he knew was she wasn't going to die easily. That alone was enough for him to keep a tight grip on her with his gravity hold.
"Whoa, sorry." The man is still driving with one hand on the wheel. "You're lighter than I thought. Are you eating properly? I worry, as your older brother."
"You bastard…!"
Chuuya's figure burns in anger.
In less than one second he counters, his fist flies to attack. A right hook, with every ounce of power in his upper body. His speed is so fast that Alu honestly feels impressed.
Alas, the annoying European agent deflected Chuuya's punch. The man grasped the fist with a single hand. As if he was catching a baseball.
"What…" Chuuya's voice is filled with horror.
"This is light, too." The man's sight never wavers from the road. He clicked his tongue as if actually a bit frustrated with Chuuya. "At this rate, you're going to be murdered easily."
But, Chuuya smiles. "Is that so. Then you must be pretty heavy, aren't you?"
A beat.
The man suddenly begins to sink into his seat.
"Wha-"
Alu knows it's literally only Juubi that explains why she's not a human tomato on the inside of this crazy Nakahara bro clown car of anti-gravity. It was like riding in the flying car from Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang but instead this was the Shitty- Shitty Bang Bang mobile. Alu can sense that despite using his gravity to focus mostly on Verlaine, Chuuya is actually making a conscious effort to not crush her too.
Though it could also be to interrogate her on her connection to Paul Verlaine as well. Actually that made more sense. Otherwise Alu wondered if Chuuya would have just killed her off too. Gee Willikers, kids are just not alright these days!
But, this troubles Alu because despite the power Chuuya is flexing, Verlaine's hold on her own body hasn't decreased at all!
His body kept sinking like he was being absorbed into the seat itself. The seat of steel and leather fail to withstand the intense gravity. The metal screams as it deforms and flattens. Parts fly out.
From the hand that stopped Chuuya's fist, waves of gravity spread, swallowing the man,
Drawn by the high gravity, the man's sunglasses fall off and crash onto the floor. Instead of bouncing off the bottom of the car, the glasses stick into the floor and crumble.
The car groaned in response to the man's weight, which had increased tenfold.
"Who the fuck would get killed by you. Stay there and get crushed." Chuuya doesn't loosen his ability. He increases the gravity even more. More. More. More.
Chuuya's eyes widen.
"What…?" His confused tone is apparent.
Verlaine doesn't get heavier.
His weight stays the same.
From Chuuya's fist, more waves of gravity are released. But the seat stays quiet. It doesn't deform any further.
"Is that it?" The man, who should be in pain from the extreme gravity, speaks calmly. He grabs Chuuya's fist.
Then, something impossible happens.
Chuuya burrowed into the floor.
"Gh-!?"
Ah, welcome to the club, Alu thought wryly, wincing as Chuuya is rendered about as useless as she is currently. Also Verlaine's sudden increase in pressure, she notes, was solely reserved for Chuuya—which was a good thing because at that moment Alu felt like her intestines were gunning to leave her body.
The passenger seat where Chuuya sat was bent. The frame snapped inside, jutting out from the inside of the seat. The angle adjustment broke, making the entire back fall downwards.
Chuuya, pushed by the seat, sank. As his body receives force from all directions, he let out a noise of pain and alarm, unable to lift his arms or legs.
The framewires from the inside of the seat burst subsequently, piercing the interior of the car.
"I told you. -I'm your older brother."
The man narrows his cold eyes. The same color as Chuuya's.
Chuuya can't respond. He struggled to even breathe. From the force of the gravity, his lungs are about to burst. Still stuck to the passenger seat, Chuuya directs his bewildered glare towards the man.
"Stay there and listen." The man, still driving with a single hand, says as if lightly singing. "I didn't come to assassinate you. Why should I need to? You're my only brother in the world."
Oh christ, this one was a real piece of work, Alu grimaced. She took it back. He was definitely villain material. He didn't care about Chuuya. He was on some weird high brotherly man whinge— or something.
Chuuya groaned, body straining against the insurmountable force, behind tightly clenched teeth.
"I don't remember, having… a brother from Europe."
"That's also a misunderstanding." The response is curt. "I am not a European. No, I'm not even human. Like you."
Ah so he wasn't French after all. Alu grimaced. "So you're not French, just an asshole," she found herself saying out loud for the first time during that whole intense exchange. She finally had enough air in her lungs to say something though in hindsight that probably wasn't the best way to start the conversation.
Both Ponytail Nakaharas 1.0 and 2.0 paused.
Oh why did that have to be the first thing out of her mouth, Alu began to sweat profusely.
"You just spoke." Verlaine sounded surprised for the first time.
Chuuya quickly glanced at the girl next to him. The robot had mentioned something about her ability being unique or something. It was the only explanation for why she wasn't dead by this crazy monster's ability by now. But she looked like a completely normal person- not hardened like many he knew. And on top of that, he realized from the sound of her voice that she was the one Adam had been referring to repeatedly as wanting to be the one to seek him out. Oh great, was she just another person out to kill him or kidnap him? He felt his resentment grow for both strangers in the car although it was clear that she was also being restrained by Verlaine.
"Who are you?" he asked, still straining against the gravity.
"She is your secret admirer," Verlaine said, and it was hard to tell if he was being serious or not. He ignored Chuuya's look with a hum, still driving as though he hadn't just performed a murder whammy and double kidnapping.
"My what?" You could hear Chuuya's blue screen of death on his face and in his voice. If things weren't so damn serious, Alu would have honestly laughed. At the moment, her ability to do anything was being inhibited by the need to keep her organ pouch from imploding from the force of the gravitational crush. Once again, her ability to speak was hindered by her need to not die.
Alu could feel Verlaine resuming pressuring her with the gravity on her body. "Ah I see. She is of no importance, after all. Then she has no more reason to breathe."
Alu grimaced. Dammit. She was trying to keep a low profile. But for some reason being able to talk while being crushed wasn't normal. Actually, that made a lot of sense. Ah, she went and had to mess up being low key again. Why even bother trying. Suddenly, Alu felt something akin to blood bubble in her throat.
She coughed with alarm, throwing up blood.
"Gak!" She violently spat up blood.
Chuuya—though she was a stranger to him— still looked mortified. It was clear this girl wasn't in league with Verlaine—and Chuuya still had his own questions for why she was getting involved with him in the first place, dammit!
"Enough!" Chuuya's eyes flashed. "You have me! Just let her go!"
"Oh? She knows too much. That's sloppy, little brother, you work for the mafia. You should know better than anyone—that evidence needs to be erased!"
The pressure was strong. It was very strong. Alu grit her teeth, feeling Verlaine attempting to pop her like a tomato now, but she squeezed her eyes shut, as her body still didn't get crushed the way Verlaine was hoping it would.
Verlaine tsked. The only reason he wasn't using his full power was because it would affect the car he was driving.
However Alu slumped finally, momentarily in too much pain to register much. Chuuya just watched helplessly, a mixture of rage and frustration that he couldn't do anything about the situation at the moment.
"Ah, so your body does have its limit," Verlaine mused. "Since my little brother wishes for you to be spared, I will allow it. I do wish to continue speaking with my brother. I will deal with you after, since I do find it distasteful to be rude to women and children…"
"You sick bastard!" Chuuya snapped. There was very little Chuuya wouldn't do to stay within the mafia. He had his reasons for why he didn't rebel or try to leave no thanks to that shitty blackmail by a certain bandaged bastard. But, he did actually draw the line at harming women or children—that were innocent at least. Still, Chuuya was increasingly beginning to understand that this girl was not with Verlaine in any way. In fact, she seemed just as pissed at him as he was. It was an odd feeling, to know he wasn't alone in this freak show, despite not knowing this complete stranger.
Adam's words rang. That's right, he had mentioned she had said something about caring about a person wasn't about actually being close to them at all. That made no sense to Chuuya but at the moment, his brain was currently plastered to the roof of his skull.
Alu found she couldn't speak anymore. If she did, she felt like she would pop. Juubi, she inwardly pleaded. Please…help me!
She felt herself B-THMP.
Wait.
Alu squeezed her eyes shut. She could sense it. The energy of this antigravity between Chuuya and Paul Verlaine was similar and yet different. With Paul Verlaine it felt like a switch. Devoid of actual emotion, or rather, a lack of humanity within it? No, to be more precise, he was someone who cared deeply but was incapable of expressing this properly and thus, came off as cold and unfeeling because he himself didn't even know what to feel—about anything, and that included Chuuya. Chuuya was his desperate attempt at an anchor for his swirling emotions. That's what Alu concluded, from her ability to sense the 'charge' behind the antigravity between these two.
With Chuuya, it was straightforward. It was refreshing. It felt oddly emotionally charged? Honest, and raw. Alu pretended to pass out, feigning having gone through too much. She needed time. She had a terribly impulsive idea.
"Oh, she has passed out, best she stay that way for time being," Verlaine sighed before he turned his attention back to Chuuya.
"Bastard! I'll take care of her myself! You don't need to concern yourself with that!" Chuuya yelled.
"What are you talking about? She seeks to form a bond with you," Paul Verlaine retorted, calmly. "For the sake of your future happiness, I must ensure you do not have your heart broken by anyone-especially a woman."
"What the hell are you talking about!" Chuuya bristled. "I'm a mafioso! Romance isn't part of the equation, ever! At least, not for me!"
"Haven't you ever felt that the world was cruel?" Verlaine's voice sounded soft and lamenting. "Why I am me. Why you are you. Nobody tells us. My goal, is the opposite of assassination. -I've come to save you." His voice was like the waves crashing on shore, forcing their way to Chuuya to pull him back out with the tide of Verlaine's own messed up emotions.
"Haha, ha! You shitty bastard! You've come at the right time." Chuuya, writhing against gravity, glares a —hungry for a hearty helping of murder with a side of punch—smile. "I don't know about you, but I'm human."
"No." The interjection was cold and simple. It left no echo of doubt. Only the weight of crushing certainty. "You are not human. Your true form, is '2383 lines'." The words echo within the car.
Chuuya is speechless.
Alu wants to punch this so-called older brother where the sun don't shine. How dare he assume to know what makes Chuuya human or not. Code? So what? Human beings were made up of genetic code. Who cared whether it was constructed in a test tube or not? Seriously, scientific mansplaining sometimes made Alu wanna punch science fiction reasoning when expounded by nut jobs like Verlaine.
Alu had to focus on feigning sleep but this was really annoying. She wished to have Juubi at full power. Back then she didn't realize just how used to his power she'd gotten. But now she'd realized what she could at least do with his power here. She just had to find the right moment-hopefully the car wouldn't explode and they wouldn't crash and burn in a terrible fiery death before then.
Where was Dazai? He would have loved this, she thought dryly. She could almost hear Dazai, see him, with his body half out an open car door window, shouting, 'I believe I can fly~" or some manic shit.
Shit. She missed that Dazai she had gotten to know. This one was going to be a real headache, she could just tell and she hadn't even met him yet. If she lived that long, hahahaha. At the rate this was going, she was gonna be lucky to survive the rest of the car ride. It was seriously like being stuffed into a 'family road trip' situation but completely absurd.
Alu could just hear the annoying tiny violin being played in the background as this man continued to explain. "The researchers from the army tried to artificially extract abilities from ability users. Their expenditure succeeded. But only halfway. Abilities, of course, can't be controlled by machines. Only human souls can seize them. However, simultaneously, it means that the limitations of abilities are defined by the soul."
Keep my mouth shut, Alu told herself in a mantra.
"Then the researchers wondered, if they could trick the ability. Thus they made it so the ability thinks 'there is a human', and hence, grows under control. For those purposes, a 'personality formula' was derived. An artificial creation impersonating a soul." Verlaine continued to explain as though he was doing a biology lesson.
But really, he was just irritating Alu's head. So basically, Chuuya was 'code' created to impersonate a human so that an ability which needs a human soul to thrive could latch onto it. Researchers didn't 'trick' jack shit, Alu fumed inwardly. Chuuya was human. He wasn't conventional, hell no he wasn't. But he deserved to breathe like a human. He deserved to live like a human. Only code? Give me a break, Alu thought, the anger dokis only growing despite her attempt to feign sleep.
"Extremely simple equations, lines of code directing emotions and principal actions, made only to be able to deceive an ability. The length of that code, 2383 lines. -Do you understand, Chuuya?"
Alu cracked an eye open, sensing that she was starting to feel her toes again. Verlaine seemed so wrapped up in his mansplaining speech to Chuuya that he wasn't paying attention to her. Good. But Alu saw the look of twisted grief and anger on Chuuya's face. She grit her teeth. Shut up, she thought.
" Your soul, is nothing more than a program of 2383 lines of code, that researchers thought up on a whim." Verlaine finished.
"You're lying." Chuuya strains his voice out of his throat. "That can't be possible."
"It's true."
"You're lying!" Chuuya yells. "I'm a brat born somewhere in a seaside village! My friends proved that! They even have pictures!"
"That's the government controlling intel. They'd only been lured to the fake info."
"Shut up, Verlaine, controlled intel or not doesn't change this one fact," Alu said darkly. "That kid's soul is genuine."
Her eyes remained halflidded, but Verlaine suddenly felt something was off. His ability, his own ability, wasn't able to push down any more on her? That didn't make any sense. He and Chuuya were the only anti-gravity users in the vehicle…right?
No, that wasn't right. Verlaine's eyes flashed. "Wha…"
Alu smirked, past her bloody lips. "You just shut up and drive."
With no warning, Verlaine felt the car veer as though being driven by some invisible force. But he knew better. It was all this person in the car with them. Alu's eyes slowly opened, revealing their rose gold glint. Her eyes looked otherworldly. Verlaine was momentarily stunned.
It seems there was first for everything—even for someone as jaded as him.
"To want to know one had a past, is painful for some. It's that pain that proves he is not just 'fake'…" Alu felt like she understood Chuuya better than she even thought before. "So you're saying he's just 'code'? …..Don't fucking make me laugh." She snarled at Verlaine as the car continued to soar through the air, completely controlled solely by Alu now, as she navigated a landing course while talking.
Verlaine was unable to lift even a single pinky. He was utterly plastered against the dash, and this was an odd feeling for him. His own ability was being suppressed by a force he couldn't even begin to describe.
"Chuuya… is suffering so much. He is trying so hard. You state he was merely an experiment meant to 'trick' an ability into latching to his code? No. He is more than that. He is a person. That ability, Arahabaki or whatever, latched because it recognized that he is human!"
Chuuya in the future had been a bit of a hot head but he was a caring one. He had tried to make Alu feel better in that one moment when she was feeling upset over Kousuke. Was he a heartless calculating machine dictionary on human behavior copying robots like Adam?
No. He wasn't.
Could he be just 'artificial code' as Verlaine claimed?
Regardless of the 'facts', arguably, Chuuya was more human than Paul Verlaine. Verlaine had a soul, Alu sensed that, but his was far darker than Chuuya's. Verlaine's soul was not like Chuuya's. Alu could feel her 'Juubi' related abilities beginning to manifest again—had for a while since she'd been slowly absorbing energy through Verlaine's happy trigger anti-gravity flexing. Every time he used his ability, it was through his 'spirit' after all, and what do demons like to nom on? You got it. Spirit juice!~
"There was a reason abilities didn't latch to machines. Machines don't have hearts. But Chuuya did. Chuuya did have a heart. He was living. So what if he was 'artificial'? He is the definition of being only human."
Chuuya was stunned speechless. This person didn't know him, not personally. He surely didn't know her. But why did his chest feel so tight? The gravity that Paul Verlaine had been exerting wasn't even in play anymore. Even though Chuuya's body had resumed being normal again—he felt light without the use of his ability. His chest felt light and heavy simultaneously for a different reason. Chuuya was bewildered.
Alu landed the car abruptly then but honestly, neither other party moved. Verlaine found himself unable to move, as Alu sat, still seated, the car now comically just sitting in some grocery parking lot—people gaping outside.
Chuuya continued to stare. He honestly had no words. No one had ever stuck up for him before like this. Not even Dazai. Dazai had only stated that as long as he did his job, then being human didn't matter. But this?
Chuuya felt his eyes grow wet.
This was like that brief moment of fleeting happiness he had felt with the flags when they had given him that photo, proving he was not just nothing. Was this feeling he had been shying away from with the flags, was this what it felt like to have a friend? But they'd only just met. So why did it feel like he could trust her in that moment despite not having known her for as long as he'd known the flags? This was what the robot meant when he said human beings were illogical and irrational.
Even though it should be wrong to trust someone you just met.
It felt right.
Chuuya was confused.
Alu continued to speak, this time tossing Verlaine out of the car like a soda can. Verlaine grunted, slamming into the ground. Where he lay was a small crater. Alu daintily stepped out of the car as Chuuya just sat, jaw wide open, watching her.
Wait.
Chuuya scrambled to remove himself from the car, peeling himself from the seat, not wanting to miss this action!
Alu continued to speak, glaring down at the ex agent, just gritting his teeth, glaring at her now. For the first time, Verlaine looked pissed. But it was fine. Because Alu was too. She grinned at him and continued to speak loudly. Let the whole damn world hear, as far as she was concerned. There were onlookers, though most of them fled when Alu made the mini crater in the parking lot. Some cars beeped, having their alarms triggered. Alu paid them no mind. Her only target—Verlaine's stupid mug.
"He still bleeds like a living thing. He thinks, he feels, he has basic needs like anyone else. To say he was 'just code' is ironic, considering scientists are also reverse engineering bio-android robots like that annoying robot, "Adam"!" Alu continued, her jaw tight. "I can promise you Adam will never get a true ability because he lacks what is in here!" She pointed to her heart. "He's a decent robot but still a shitty illogical thinking tin man, you know!" She added as a afterthought.
Chuuya thought they already would get along great as pals. She disliked Adam too. Hahahaha.
Her eyes were ablaze. The light within them is a pink gold swirl with white irises. Her hair was slightly tipped white even. It was clear whatever she was exuding wasn't anti-gravity. It perplexed both Verlaine and Chuuya, though Chuuya was more transfixed on her, herself.
"—Even if he wasn't 'born' through conventional means, that doesn't matter. Clone or not, who the hell gives an actual damn? There are plenty of humans now-a-days that are born through all kinds of methods! Trying to state he isn't human because he doesn't fit convention is pretentious."
"Wait?" Chuuya record scratched. "Clone…..?"
Alu kept her focus on Verlaine.
She was so tired of people hurting people for the sake of their own convoluted butt-hurt jaded mindsets. This man killed people that obviously cared about Chuuya simply to separate him? To isolate him. It was pretty damn clear without Verlaine saying it at all that his intention had been to steal Chuuya away. To force him to live a life alone with him. "You killed those people…because of your own selfish desire to control Chuuya because you are a sad little man with no sense of actual purpose anymore!"
Killed what people? Chuuya was increasingly agitated. So she did know more about him? He had to get answers! Why did other people who he never met know so much more about him? Chuuya was frustrated and already on edge.
Verlaine tried to speak but found that the pressure on him was so strong and yet it wasn't anti-gravity? What the hell was it? Verlaine genuinely had no idea. For the first time, mr. Know-it-all Lament Agent Butthead, was at a loss for words.
To Alu, the explanation Verlaine expounded was absurd. It was even more absurd to try to put it into logical words. Chuuya—-A human simulating humanity as an artificial biological intelligence made up of only code? What the hell was this shitty logic even.
Verlaine and Chuuya looked at her. Alu reached out, and Paul Verlaine furrowed his brow, as his eyes flashed, as though it looked like normal speed to his eyes-Alu was actually moving at an inhuman speed to touch Chuuya!
It was that moment.
Alu gripped Chuuya's arm tightly. "Hey, you need to get out of here," she said immediately.
Chuuya's face twisted with confusion. "Wha?" Was she asking him, a mafioso who was the main target in this whole drama, to run away?
Adam appeared just then, having just caught up, and though he crossed great distance, he looked like he didn't break a sweat. Or a circuit board in his case, Alu mused. She sighed, and she griped at the robot. "There you are, you annoying hunk of junk mail!" She said loudly. "Take Chuuya and get him the hell away from here!"
"Ah, yes," Adam said, stepping over to Chuuya immediately.
"Hold on…!" Chuuya's voice trailed off as Alu looked at him with a look he couldn't describe.
"I can't hold Verlaine back for long, and I know this is sudden," Alu said. "But, will you trust me? Chuuya?" Her face twisted with urgency. Even Chuuya knew she wasn't acting. She genuinely cared about him. He couldn't shake that feeling.
"Trust?" Chuuya felt his throat constrict. He didn't know what he was feeling. This girl had stood up for him but he knew nothing about her! "Who are you?"
"I'm your friend," Alu said simply, before pushing him towards Adam.
Even Chuuya didn't know the expression his face made when he heard those three little words uttered.
However at that point, Paul Verlaine had enough. Alu suddenly felt her body hit with what felt like a freight train. The sound of bones snapping in her rib cage forced her to let out a gurgled scream of agony, alarming Chuuya and alerting Adam that Verlaine was back in the picture.
"Annoying little bitch," Verlaine sighed, standing up from the crater and dusting himself off. Alu's body flew as if in slow motion before Chuuya's eyes went up and then down like a rag doll, coming to rest on the ground a good couple yards away.
Without waiting for Chuuya to react, Adam takes Chuuya and attempts to run. But no, not this time. Chuuya can feel his blood lust burning in his mind.
Adam finds that Chuuya slips from his grasp like butter.
He is perplexed.
Without warning, Verlaine made a move directed at Adam. Divide and conquer.
Without looking, he rolls. Where Adam's head was a second ago, an enormous body of black mass whizzes by.
It crashes into a building next to the grocery store. It's the same car that Chuuya and Alu had been in moments before.
Well so much for not involving civilians. Alu's goal had originally been to put them in a densely populated area to negate Verlaine from causing casualties in a numerous body count fashion but clearly Verlaine didn't give a damn anymore since he had just realized there was someone—just one annoying bug— that could take Chuuya from him.
He was going to crush the bug. No, grind her into dust.
Leave it to a woman to get in the way of his chance to bond with his brother.
As Adam confirmed that it was a projected weapon thrown by Verlaine, he turned around immediately while still rolling. He takes out a service pistol of the European police enforcement, and shoots at the direction Verlaine had been standing moments before. But, Adam's eyes widened with shock and horror. However, nobody was there.
As Verlaine turned his attention to Alu's body to the side of Chuuya, Chuuya's eyes widened with horror as he realized what Verlaine intended to do to strike next. "What the hell…" Chuuya uttered, but he moved swiftly, immediately guarding Alu's limp form. Verlaine realized that the boy's goal was to prevent him from touching Alu's body anymore. His eyes narrowed. He tried to use his ability to crush her but Chuuya let out a feral scream.
"Don't you lay a hand on her, you bastard!" He didn't know why he was putting his life on the line for a stranger—it's so stupid….so…it was so…human. For the first time, the anti-gravity that emits from Chuuya counters Verlaine in a way it hadn't before. It was stronger, it was super strong.
Verlaine found he couldn't crush Alu as easily as before and grit his teeth. Why would this boy pick a stranger over his own brother? Didn't he understand that he understood Chuuya. Only him. "She only speaks pretty words. They mean nothing."
Chuuya hugged Alu in his arms, as Adam just flanks him, calculating on if it's feasible to carry two targets or if he'll have to prioritize Chuuya. "No," Chuuya was shaky but he was defiant too. A fire was lit within him. "They. meant. everything."
—
A/N: This is how the fight should go. lmaoooo. Someone needs to smack Verlaine, oh my lord. until the next chapter my people. *salutes
