Chapter 3: Painful Memories

"Oh. You're still following me?"

"..."

"Well I guess I could enjoy some company. Just be careful."

"...?"

"Hey. What did I… Watch out!"

"!"

"Stay still, you cut yourself under the chin… Raise your head… Come on now. I only have one hand, be obedient… Oh. You actually listened to me... Aaaand that's it. It would leave a little scar but hey. You'll get way more when you'll be 'complete'... Little abomination."

The creature purred at that nickname.


Ethos stared at Abotox as she was recovering from the impact against the wall, taking this opportunity to take a few steps back towards the corner. He needed to reach the double doors where Naegi and Kirigiri were waiting for him. But if he turned his back to the creature…

The creature recovered and started to growl as she turned towards the Destroyer. In response, he held his hammer tight and repeated what he said.

"You are not Aby… I won't hesitate." He frowned.

The green creature roared before diving to the side, one of her hands ready to scratch the man. But thankfully, Ethos knew the creature's way of fighting so he just jumped away and dodged the attack without any trouble.

And just as predicted, Abotox threw her tongue towards the black and red haired man while he was still in the air.

The second the tongue touched his suit, Ethos swung Jessie on the said tongue, smashing it to the ground. The monster of Despair immediately reeled her tongue in a painful screech. The man used this opportunity to run closer to the corner. If he kept things up like this he would reach Naegi and Kirigiri soon enough.

The green creature rubbed the injured part of her tongue with her hands then looked at her opponent with a loud growl.

She gave chase and swung her tongue like a whip towards the man's weapon, grabbing it.

Ethos held his hammer tight and pulled, not letting Abotox take Jessie away.

"No you don't!" He puffed.

After a dozen seconds of this tug of war, the chimera did something that the Destroyer didn't expect: she jumped towards him, letting herself being pulled. Ethos quick ducked to dodge the claws aimed at his face, losing some strands of hair in the process, and counterattacked with a reverse punch to the monster's face with his robot arm. Sending the monster away, against the wall.

That's when he saw it, right under Abotox's chin: a scar. A scar he remembers very well.

"No way…"


A Few Years ago…

In the corridors of the lab, a man, lacking the muscles he once had, was walking down the said corridors. He was wearing a black and white lab coat, the right part white and the left one black. His long hair was combed back into a ponytail, a red colored line of hair separating his haircut in half. His right hand in his pocket, the left one non-existent, making his black sleeve loose. A cigarette in his scarred mouth under his tired grey eyes, he sighed. He was about to scratch his beard under his chin when he suddenly heard a little roar behind him.

He turned around to see her.

The first monster, green and weird looking. And most importantly, small and surprisingly nice. The creature was waddling towards the man. Roaring happily.

Ethos smiled. In this dark and despairing place, taking care of these creatures was actually… 'nice'. He knew that once they were 'complete' they'll be unleashed to kill innocent people and probably get killed. Heck, he might even have to kill some himself… But until then… He'll take care of the little monster that was purring at him once she reached his leg.

He crouched to Abotox's level and gently patted her head. He knew that the feline part of her loved it.

"Hey little abomination." he greeted, "Still following me, heh?"

Abotox looked up, exposing the scar under her chin from her last accident and roared happily.

He will enjoy his time with the only thing that wasn't giving him Despair. Even if she was born from it.


"Ab- how? Why are you-" Ethos stutterd.

Abotox grumbled as she recovered from another hit, getting frustrated. She looked at her opponent, ready to roar threateningly but stopped as she saw an open hand extended in front of her.

"H-Hey! Calm down. Aby! It's me! Remember me, Little abomination?!" The one robot armed agent exclaimed.

The creature stopped all movement and tilted her head when hearing the nickname.

"Yes. R-Remember me?" He asked before combing his hair back with his robot hand, his right one not letting go of Jessie, just in case.

Abotox's wrinkles slowly faded away, a sign that shows that she's relaxing. Her teeth retracting back into her mouth, the tongue flopping out. Her tail slowly started to wave happily.

"You do remember me Aby…" Ethos whispered as he slowly stepped towards the monster, metal hand extended.

The green monster stared at the unknown hand in front of her face.

"Yeah… New hand…" He added and put his hand against her head, she leaned into the touch with a purr, "Oh my God, it is you… What… What happened?" Ethos almost cried out as he slowly patted her now huge head.

They stayed like that for a few seconds.

"But that means… Listen Aby. I have to go."

The creature straightened up, her body language showing that she's surprised.

"Yes I know… but it's very important and you must stay here…" he added… he knew that they have to kill her after all she has done and how dangerous she was now, she is condemned… he just wish not to be there when it happens.

He patted her head again, knowing that it might be the last time he did that.

But suddenly, a strange song, or rather melody came out of the speakers on the walls. Ethos looked around in confusion. He thought that he could tell the instrument used: cello… flute… violin… and vocals...

"Wh-what is this?"

But his attention got drawn to the grunts in front of him: Abotox was shaking her head while scratching the ground with her claws. The music was affecting her!

"Aby!" He exclaimed, something was wrong he knew that very well.

So he slipped the shaft of his sledgehammer between his fingers until the head of the hammer was pressed against his knuckles before approaching the monster.

"Aby look at me!" He ordered and the creature obeyed.

She looked at the man. Being too close, he could only see the wrinkles starting to form again on her face, showing that she's frowning at him and a low growl came out of her mouth.

He didn't have time to escape and her tongue immediately wrapped itself around his neck.

And instantly after, before she could grab him or pull his head in her mouth, he uppercutted her with his hammer, freeing his neck from her slimy embrace and stepped back while she was stunned.

"Damnit… fuck…" he wheezed, "No choice then… Aby…" he grabbed his hammer tightly with both hand. "I… have to fight you…" he whispered as he fought back the tears forming in his eyes.

He prepared to jump to smash her head, it won't kill her but stun her for a long time enough for him to run away with Naegi and Kirigiri and sent a more heavy armed battalion of Future Foundation.

The creature recovered and glared at the man with a growl.

Ethos jumped.

He swung his hammer down but Abotox jumped back and immediately came back to the charge. Her left hand high up, ready to scratch the life out of Ethos's torso.

The one robot armed man was still trapped in the momentum of his swing so he could only get closer to the monster to get hit by her palm and not her claws.

And the slap was one of the most painful hit he ever received as it literally send him flying to the other end of the corridor, but at least he reached the corner.

He coughed some blood and looked up. The tongue of the monster was coming at full speed and wrapped itself around his hammer. Ethos eyes widened when he saw Jessie literally slip through his fingers.

"Jessie!" He exclaimed as he stood up.

But Abotox was having none of this as she engulfed the totality of the sledgehammer in her mouth. Then everything started to spin.

Ethos remembered that he should be running so he did, he was now pretty much in no position to fight without Jessie. Well he still had small hammers but the pros of a sledgehammer is to hit from a longer distance!

And the strange melody wasn't stopping from coming out of the speakers.

He didn't turn around as he heard the monster he used to babysit spit something hard to the ground, and he neither turned around when he heard her chasing him at full speed. He really should have at least glanced over his shoulder.

Because he didn't see the tongue coming at him again like a whip and wrap itself around his robot wrist.

"Fuck!" Ethos cursed as he got pulled but he quickly got ground and started to pull too.

But he saw the monster about to jump again.

"Oh fuck… Aby you Little abomination." He cursed again as he rolled up his left sleeve, exposing the prosthesis, "Please don't eat it. Please don't eat it." He prayed.

And when the monster jumped, he unplugged his arm. The monster was still pulling with her tongue so it flew towards her face while she was still mid-air, making the rather hard metal limb slap hardly against her face.

Ethos grinned as he resumed his escape. He looked back to see his arm and nearly fainted when he saw Abotox roar in anger and steps on the prosthetic limb making a loud 'CRACK'.

"Oh God, Sonosuke's gonna kill me."


"Come on Ethos…" Naegi whispered in a worried tone.

It's been too many minutes since he said that he'll rejoin them, and there's that weird song that started coming out of the speaker…

"Makoto, you must understand that if the creature appears before Ethos we will have to close the doors…" Kirigiri said to her fiancé.

He nodded hesitantly. The two of them were holding the heavy doors, leaving them slightly open for the Destroyer to pass but not for the monster. Kirigiri had her hand on the lock, ready to turn it the second the doors were sealed.

"GUYS!" A voice came from the corridor behind the door, it was Ethos, the monster pretty far away behind him, "GET READY!" he shouted.

The couple nodded and the second the black and red haired man passed through the opening, they slammed the doors and locked it. Loud bangs were heard from behind.

"We don't have time to waste, let's go." Ethos said, earning another nod.

"Alright let's go!"

"Wait Ethos, what happened to your arm? And your hammer?" Naegi asked in a worried tone.

"We'll talk about this later we ha-"

Suddenly a noise from the air vents cut him off, it was getting closer, and fast!

"WE NEED TO RUN!" The Destroyer exclaimed and started running, the two others behind him.

But they weren't fast enough, Abotox quickly caught up to them and even passed them. Then she jumped down the vent, cutting the trio's path. They didn't even had the time to react that the monster immediately pulled out her long tongue and wrapped it around the Detective's waist.

In a loud gasp, she got pulled in the air.

Ethos, being right in front of Kirigiri, managed to grab her arm and shout to Naegi to do something. With only one hand he wouldn't be able to do much.

The ahoge man quickly drew his gun and pointed it at the monster that kept pulling his fiancée, not letting go.

"Let her go!" he ordered before opening fire.

He fired five shots, two missed but the rest touched the target: one on the shoulder, piercing through the scales of Abotox's shoulder, the second touched her belly but the last one pierced one of her right cheek's eye. Blood splattered everywhere from the three wounds.

The monster of Despair let Kirigiri go to screech in pain.

Ethos' eyes widened in horror at seeing her like that but he looked away, tried his best to fight back the tears. They must do it.

They must kill Abotox.

"Shoot her eyes. Seems to be her weak spot…" He almost whispered and pointed at the monster rubbing her injured bleeding eye.

"Ethos are you sure?" Naegi asked, noticing his dark and sad expression.

"Makoto… I don't think we have a choice." the lavender haired woman said in a monotone voice as she drew her own gun.

The couple aimed at the creature and shot her like a rabbit, but Abotox just moved around, looking for somewhere to hide but there was no air vent entrance nearby and she couldn't jump high. So she kept getting shot.

Thankfully (for her) the couple missed a lot, and they quickly run out of ammo, and they stopped to reload, just enough time to attack.


The Monster of Despair had 5 of her eyes destroyed, and the remaining two were blinded by her own blood. She was scared, but the song made by her was ordering her not to be scared. Shesaid touse the painful feeling to fuel her rage, her thirst of destruction and death! Her fighting spirit!

TO FIGHT TO THE DEATH!

She filled her lungs with as much air as possible and let out a deafening roar.

SKREEEELLIIIAAAAAAROOOONG!

If she can't see, she'll have to touch. She's already dying. But she must kill the Hope before that.


The trio was paralyzed with surprise and what seemed to be fear when Abotox roared. Ethos never heard her roar like this. So why was it also familiar?

Anyway, Abotox suddenly started to move around at random, or at least it looked random. Her tongue lashing around like a whip.

Stunned by confusion, the trio wasn't even moving, until Kirigiri understood what the monster was doing.

"Watch out! She's trying to locate us!" she exclaimed.

"What-?" Ethos asked, but something smacked his chest.

It was the tongue, and in less than five seconds, the tongue was pulled back to its owner, Abotox charged at full speed towards her target, she crossed the distance between her and Ethos in an impressive speed. The man dived to the ground one second before she crashed on the wall he was standing in front of.

He started crawling away but had some difficulties with only one arm.

"Ethos are you okay?" Naegi asked.

"Don't worry about me! She's gonna do it again!"

As if on cue, Abotox started to move frantically again, and this time she hit Naegi. The green monster immediately ran after him, heavily stepping on Ethos' leg during the process. Unfortunately for the Symbol of Hope he was too close to the monster so he couldn't dodge. The tackle was incredibly violent.

Naegi fell to the ground and tried to stand up again but the monster set her large belly on his leg so he couldn't escape, then blocked his arms away with both of her hands, enabling him to move.

The brunette was forced to the ground, he could only move his head and shout for help as his gun flew away when he got tackled.

Ethos was still on the ground, trying to stand up. His leg wasn't broken but heck it hurts so much it wouldn't move. So Kirigiri went to Naegi's rescue. But Abotox didn't share that view as she swung her yellow tail towards where she heard the female agent take a step, hitting her chest and throwing her away.

Kirigiri hit the wall violently, she tried to stand up and noticed that her gun was missing. It fell next to Ethos.


Abotox knew that the human was right under her, she could feel and hear him squirm to break free from her. Maybe the human under her was the Hope she was ordered to kill? But she couldn't see well where his head was, just one bite of his face and he's done.

She licked everything in front of her to localize the head, once she found it, she wrapped her tongue tightly around his neck.

Time to pull.


As seeing what Abotox was about to do, Ethos, still on the ground, grabbed Kirigiri's gun with his only hand and did his best to aim at the monster. Popping one eye should make her stop.

His hand was trembling at the thought of hurting badly the monster he used to take care. But a scream from Naegi reminded him what was going on. He fired a shot but missed the eye completely, injuring gravely Abotox by cutting her tongue with the bullet. Ethos wasn't a gun fighter. The creature screeched again before vomiting blood on the brunette's face.

Ethos was frozen by shock of what he just did, his whole body trembling. Naegi gasped for air, then coughed blood that wasn't his. Kirigiri kept trying to stand up but it was even difficult just to breathe, the hit she received was more painful than expected.

Abotox screeched in pain again.


It hurts.

Ithurtsithurtsithurts!

SO MUCH!

But the song kept going on, it never stops. The duty wasn't over. She's dying… But she couldn't stop. She must kill before she dies.

But she still couldn't distinguish anything... Where was the human's head? No choice but to go at random.


Naegi kept struggling under the monster's weight, trying to break free. Suddenly, something smashed the ground on his right. He glanced over, only to see the monster's head.

Did… Did she just tried to headbutt him?

Oh god, she was.

She sent her head back once more for Momentum and swung her head towards Naegi, he tilted his head as much as he could and barely dodged the hit. He was about to scream for help but that would just help the monster, would it?

"Makoto!" Kirigiri tried to crawl towards him but Abotox's tail was still waving around in a frantic manner to keep anyone to interfere.

Abotox was getting tired of missing, so she let go of Naegi's arm but only to smash her hands at each side of Naegi's head, to keep him still. This time she won't miss, but damn. Those hit against the ground did hurt. She took a few second to breath then she'll give the final blow.

Now that Naegi's arms were free, he used one to keep the green creature's head away, and the other tried to reach for a gun. The closest one who had a gun in his hand was Ethos, still frozen by shock that he cut Abotox's tongue.

Abotox's tongue was her pride. He knew that and he cut it, bad memories from his past flowed his mind. It's just that time all ov-

"ETHOS!" Naegi and Kirigiri shouted at the same time, pulling the black and red haired man out of his reverie.

The now one armed man blinked and quickly analyzed what was happening: Naegi was reaching for the gun in his hand, Kirigiri was still far and hurt, and Aby was about to headbutt Naegi!

Ethos threw the gun, Naegi caught it, turn to Abotox. Aimed at her.

Then blood splattered.