Chapter 13 Origins
The questions still weighing heavily on my mind, I returned back to my dorm room at midnight; my room lights still on.
"Akiha? Why are you still awake?" I said sluggishly, opening the door slowly and dragging myself in with a lot of effort.
"Ryusuke-san!" Akiha yelled, leaping up from her sprawled out position in front of the television to greet me.
"Hi..." I mumbled, pulling out a change of sleeping wear and shuffling into the bathroom.
"Something happen?" Akiha asked.
"Yea..." I said, my body threatening to collapse on me but not from fatigue.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really..."
"Anything I can do?"
"I'm just really tired and confused right now. Maybe I'll just sleep in tomorrow..."
"Sure, you mind if I try something? It'll help take the edge off, at least for a few hours."
"Is it clinically tested?" I asked, afraid that she might pull out some weird plant, give it a weirder name like "wolfsbane" and make me consume it.
"Well... No, but there aren't any negative effects."
"Does it involve plants or some kind of substance you want me to take?"
"What? No! Wait, just what are you thinking about?"
Emerging from the shower fully dressed in a thin t-shirt and shorts, I shrugged, "I'm just very suspicious of whatever magical hocus pocus you're trying to pull."
"It's not...! Urgh! Just sit on the bed and face outward ok?" Akiha said, holding her hand to her face as if I said something stupid.
Then again maybe I have.
Sitting down as she told me to, Akiha pulled my only chair and sat directly in front of me, her eyes looking directly into mine.
"Ok, Ryusuke-san, what I'm about to do, is apply a minor suggestive spell on you, the effects won't last long, not for more than a few hours."
"What would the spell do?"
"You seem very mentally preoccupied right now, the spell will give you ease of mind, at least enough to let you sleep peacefully. You look very burdened. Don't argue, I can see that much. The most I can do for you right now, is let you have a full night's rest."
"Alright, what do you need me to do?"
"I'll explain what I'm about to do, and how the spell works. I don't want you to resist as it will affect the power of the spell. Can you do that for me?"
Nodding once in reply, Akiha clapped her hands together, "Excellent. Alright, the spell in question utilises the five senses to align the spell target's will to the will of the spell user..."
"So if you want me to jump, I jump."
"More or less, the more senses being influenced the more powerful the spellbecomes. But the reasonability of the task at hand also plays a factor. A normal person would never obey a command like 'jump off a building'. Right now I'm going to use three senses, touch, sight and hearing. One is the bare minimum and five would be the spell's maximum power."
"Then why not use five?"
"I'm basically using this spell to send you to sleep. If I did that, you'd sleep for several days."
"Alright, what do you need me to do?"
"Just sit still and look into my eyes."
Doing as she told me to, Akiha smiled, "Good, now... Rest... Sleep well... Ignore your troubles until you wake up..."
At first, nothing happened, the next moment, my eyelids started to get incredibly heavy and I fell sideways onto my bed, I must have fallen asleep immediately because I didn't even feel my head hit the bed.
-Time skip, 15 hours-
When I woke up again, Akiha wasn't even pulling her usual 'wake up with me in your face' routine. She even seemed subdued.
"Morning Akiha-san." I mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
"It's afternoon." Akiha said, switching off the muted television before turning around, "And adding an honorific behind my name again? You must have slept better than I thought."
"S-sorry..." I muttered, getting up to go do my morning ritual.
"Nah it's fine, makes us seem closer. I like that."
Spluttering on my mouthful of toothpaste foam, I quickly finished brushing my teeth before sticking my head out the bathroom door, "Did I just hear you..."
"Yep. You did. Ryusuke." Akiha said, dropping my honorific as well.
"Oh, and before I forget, lunch is on the stove, I made a teriyaki dish that I can't remember the name of. But since it's nearly 4pm maybe it would be better to maybe eat a small helping and go out for dinner hmmm?"
My morning ritual done, I checked the large pan sitting on the stove which had several chunks of Teriyaki chicken inside and rice in the cooker beside the stove.
"Akiha, how old's the dish?"
"About two hours, I wasn't hungry until late noon so..."
"No, I mean the recipe."
"Oh, that's a good question... probably a decade or two?"
"Figures, that caretaker in the child error facility I came from liked
to..."
Stopping midway in my sentence, my doubts and fears from last night all came flooding back.
"Liked to...? Ryusuke, are you alright?" Akiha said, getting up and walking into the kitchen area in time to see me doubled over the counter, taking in deep breaths.
"Ryusuke! The spell wore off already? Please, just tell me what's wrong!"
"It's nothing..."
"This is NOT nothing! If you don't want to tell me, I'll..."
"You'll force me to tell? What happened to not suggesting things to people against their will?"
"Not when someone's life is in danger! You're anything BUT fine Ryusuke! I know you don't see me as a close friend but please, just get it off your chest!"
"I'm a lie." I whispered.
"What?"
"My life... Is a lie."
"What do you mean?"
"My life, my memories, who I am. They're all a lie. How does it feel knowing that the person that saved you was programmed by a machine?"
"Who you were and who you became after is unimportant. It's who you are now that matters." Akiha said, "So please, don't dwell on it anymore ok?"
Nodding in response after a few minutes of silent contemplation, I said, "Fine, but I'm still searching for things linked to my past."
"I understand your need to do so... But what if you don't like what you find?"
"Knowing a harsh truth is better than knowingly living in a world full of unknown lies." I said, wolfing down my several bites of the chicken before heading out the door.
"Ryusuke!"
Ignoring Akiha's calls to stop, I headed out the door and out to town without another word. Naturally, without a plan in mind, I was hopelessly clueless for the next two hours.
Shit, it's dinner time already. If I go back now Akiha would definitely stop me from going out again...
-One quick dinner at a nearby hastily chosen restaurant later-
Alright, I just passed the fifth district hospital a few minutes ago, so I must be somewhere in the eight district... The research laboratories here are...
"Oh my, Reality Shift onii-chan! What would you happen to be doing at a time like this?" A young cheery voice said from behind me.
Dammit... It's...
"Kihara Nayuta." I said, turning around.
"Oh you remembered my name! I'm so honoured."
"Don't kid with me. What's an elementary school kid doing out here?"
"Judgment desu wa Reality Shift onii-chan." Nayuta said, holding out her armband.
"Tch, and you're detaining me on what charges? Violating curfew? Last time I checked you can't arrest people for that."
"I'm here because you haven't found any leads. Or have you onii-chan?"
"No..." I admitted, looking away to avoid seeing the gloating look that Nayuta definitely had right now.
"Well isn't that expected. The project revolving around you took quite a time for me to dig up. And I had to search with all the resources of the Kihara family."
"So are you going to give me the information I want or do I have to take it by force?"
"There is no need. The research facility you want is 4 blocks down, 2 blocks across called the Institute of Biotechnology. You will find part of your past there."
"And what about the rest?"
"I helped you because you intrigue me onii-chan, but that doesn't mean I'll do all your work for you." Nayuta said, walking off and vanishing into the darkness as quickly as she came.
The facility itself looked abandoned. The grounds were not maintained, shrubbery had started its slow conquest of the grounds and the fencing was already rusting.
No wonder I didn't find anything, I was searching for facilities currently up and running. It never occurred to me that the facilities involved would be closed down by now. Which means I have to widen my search, while spending more time on previously screened results.
Leaping over the gate and landing silently with Vector Change, I walked over to the door and unlocked one of the facility side doors with electricity before walking in.
Whatever this place did, it definitely did not involve biotechnology. There were three times the amount of lodgings required for a building of this size, many rooms with unfamiliar technology that was not designed to be used on the body and almost all the rooms below ground had soft padded walls and the familiar stench of blood on them.
Just what was going on in this facility?
At the lowest level of the facility, about three stories below ground, there was a large amount of computers arranged around the room that seemed to be in charge of the whole facility or at least a camera control console.
Walking up to a terminal and pressing the power button, the computer did not responsd and simply stared back in defiance with an inky black screen.
Alright you wanna play? Let's play.
Placing my hand on the central unit at the corner of the room, I gave a quick pulse of electricity enough to power the room for an hour or two with the excess energy travelling down to juice the batteries in order to sustain the room.
Thank goodness these rooms come up with back up power sources, constantly powering the computers while using them would sap quite a bit of my concentration. With that being said, I should've just stuck with constantly powering the computers. All the data on these computers are gone.
Performing a full scan of the system, it seemed after the facility was shut down, all relevant data was moved elsewhere and any unwanted data here deleted. In order to ensure all data was deleted, a scavenger virus was used to eliminate any data not moved or deleted. After performing one final scan of the system, a file caught my eye. It wasn't the description of the file, but the fact that there was a file on the computer not removed by the scavenger virus.
Upon closer examination, the file was listed as personal and not data related and thus was probably not under the scavenger virus' targeting ledger.
Opening the file with a single click, the file turned out to be a personal record log in the form of dated diary entries. The dates on the data entries made enough sense, but the year was omitted.
May 12th
The latest child ability development screening has come in, many children look promising, but there is a child of one of the new families absorbed into the Kihara conglomerate that looks especially promising. I look forward to receiving more details in the future.
May 14th
The child in question has been transferred over to the Institute of Biotechnology by order of Kihara Gensei. I have no doubt that the child will be a keystone in achieving SYSTEM. While Kihara Gensei and his family attempt to use the Crystallised Esper Essence, we will attempt to use subject "Kihara Kaho" to achieve SYSTEM.
Kihara Kaho? That's what was called before right? "Use" me to achieve SYSTEM? That's a fucking joke. How can you use kids for your own little science projects? This violates civil... No, HUMAN rights!
Scrolling down to the end, the final entry was corrupted, with only the second half of the original salvageable: "equipment here inadequate, transfer of subject "Kihara Kaho" to Foreign Genealogy Research Laboratory with immediate effect."
I have to record this down somehow... Maybe if I use the wireless to transfer the file to my phone...
Before I could do anything however, the terminal shut off and the screen went dark as the power flowing to the terminal was cut. That in itself is impossible, I should still have a good hour of battery time before...
"My my, isn't it a bit late to be playing computer games Kihara-kun? Or should I address you as... Ryusuke Isha?"
The sound of a delicate yet dangerous voice came from behind me, chilling me to the bone as I recognised the source of murderous intent.
Turning to see the same girl I saw last night smiling with a psychotic glare, she waved a wire that she had just pulled, "Playing in the dark is bad for your eyes you know?"
"Who the hell are you?" I yelled, my voice not as powerful as I had wanted it to be, tinged with the obvious splash of fear.
"I'm not obligated to tell you... But oh heck, you're going to die here anyway so why not? I'm Konore Maka, you can call me Maka."
"So you're here to apprehend me? I wasn't aware that Academy City's darkness was interested in broken down facilities."
"Oh, are you under the impression I'm after you for something you're doing? Oh no no no! I'm not here for what you're doing or hope to do. I'm here for what you did."
"What I did...?"
"And he pretends like he doesn't know... Is he that bad at remembering faces or does he just doesn't care? Nah! Either way you're going to die here!"
Leaping onto a nearby table for leverage, Maka used the table to push off and shoot straight for me.
Proximity Trace online... Vector Change... Telekinesis... And Energy Manipulation...
Before I could finish opening the selected Realities, Maka had drawn a knife and made a large swipe across my face.
Leaping backward and slamming into the terminals behind me, I let out a grunt of pain before standing up to my feet shakily.
"I know about your past and abilities Ryusuke! Your ability is indeed strong but it has a very slow startup time!" Maka said, taking another swipe at my unguarded flank.
Right now, the only ability I had active was Misaka's Electromaster. Hardly an ability I would prefer to use standalone in a firefight.
Rolling to the side to avoid another attack from Maka, she continued, "As long as I keep up the pressure on you, you can't do shit against me!"
Looks like her fighting style exploits my weaknesses, but what about hers? What are her weaknesses?
Man, even though most of the hits she landed on me are light, they sting like hell and blood's starting to ooze a lot out of them.
Wait, oozing? The wounds are light, only a few capillaries should be cut. Why is there so much blood?
Don't tell me...
"You are an ability user..." I muttered, blocking Maka's arm to prevent her knife from slashing my face.
"Oh my! You figured it out!" Maka said mockingly as she hopped backwards to put some distance between us, "But seriously, are you sure you're the Reality Shift that fucked up my life? It's surprisingly easy to beat you."
"Your ability... Controls blood flow?"
"Yes and no Reality Shift-san, but shouldn't you know what my ability is seeing as you're the one that gave it to me?
I could just analyse her Personal Reality and get the answer for myself, but the way she's acting... Our Personalities would definitely not be very compatible... If I try to use her ability it might cause internal damage.
"My ability is Aqua Mark. It allows me to move liquids..."
"Get real, what makes your ability different from Hydro Hand?" I snapped, trying to keep her talking.
I don't have much time, I have to get another ability out before she attacks again... Oh hell just any random ability will do...!
"Hydro Hand manipulates water. Aqua Mark manipulates anything liquid. But shouldn't you know this? Seeing as you're the one that fucked up my ability, and my life!" Maka yelled, leaping forward with another attack.
"I don't remember doing any of that!" I yelled, dodging left and right, starting to pant.
"That's not my problem, my objective is you're death! If it's easier to accomplish, I won't complain!" Maka yelled, leaping in again for another round.
Now, prepare to die from... Eh? Pyrokinesis? Of every ability I can use in my arsenal, I HAD to draw Pyrokinesis? What kind of misfortune is this?
Screw Pyrokinesis... Her blade's made out of metal right? I'll stop it with magnetism!
Reaching out with my hand, ready to stop the knife, time seemed to slow down as Maka stabbed the knife forward. That's right... I control ferrous materials... Your knife is no excep...tion?
Why isn't the knife stopping?
"You're gone now!"
Stabbing through the area between my fingers, Maka gave a cruel laugh as I clutched my right hand, "You just tried to control my blade with magnetism didn't you? Too bad, these blades are made of titanium! Your Electromaster ability won't work on them!"
Shit, I miscalculated... Should have known better...
Rolling into another computer terminal, I gritted my teeth before using magnetism to grind any nearby ferrous materials into iron sand. Clenching my fist around a makeshift iron sword, I compacted the iron sand to make it is dense as possible.
It sucks as a weapon but it's the best I can do for now...
Standing up to Maka now that I had a weapon and a means to counterattack, I braced and readied my iron sand sword to parry the blow... Which failed spectacularly. The titanium blade simply cut through my iron sand like it was Swiss cheese.
"Nice try, but not good enough!" Maka yelled, changing the angle of her arm to alter her slice into a stab.
I guess my options are running out huh? I've got an idea but it's crazy. Though seeing as it's crazy against crazy, it might just be the one thing I could use to end this fight.
Regathering the iron sand as a sword, I quickly released my grip on the sand itself before setting the whole sword alight with flame.
"So you've learned a new trick? You're finally living up to your reputation Kaho!"
"It's not a new trick, I've thought about using this a long time ago. I just haven't finished ironing out all the kinks in it."
If her ability is as she says it is, she'll see this as an opportunity since her ability manipulates... But! There's a special twist, if she just attacks me, I'm toast, if she tries to use her ability, it's my win.
"So Maka, what are you going to do?" I yelled, forging the iron into a proper katana.
In truth, there's little more that I can do other than taunt her, all my concentration is going into compacting the blade and keeping the electrons from reacting with any other element otherwise the sword itself would be useless.
"Are you an idiot? I just told you what my ability is and you're making molten metal in front of me? Are you looking down on me you retarded piece of shit?" Maka yelled, swinging her dagger hand in a wide arc, probably trying to use her ability on the glowing piece of metal at my side that was starting to take an orange hue from the heat and pressure.
When nothing happened, Maka blinked twice before swinging both hands out this time, a look of confusion painted across her pristine face.
"It's called speed forging!" I yelled, my makeshift weapon nearly complete, "By heating and compacting the iron sand, I can lower the time the iron spends in a liquid state and also decrease the heat needed to bond the iron fragments."
My weapon complete though still smoking from the heat, was ready. Carrying the blade completely via magnetism less the hot iron burns my hand, I swung the blade and pointed it at Maka, "Let's go Maka! Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve?"
"Don't get cocky bitch!" Maka yelled, twin knives at the ready.
Leaping forward with my new weapon raised high above my head, I let out a loud battle cry before bringing down the blade on Maka, causing her to predictably raise her knives to defend herself.
This katana indeed does have range, but compared to Maka's knives it is definitely several times heavier. But there's a way around it! If I use magnetism along with my hands, I have no doubt that I can manoeuvre the katana as fast as her knives if not faster!
The playing field levelled out, Maka and I started to dance, a dance of blurs and blades where the slightest mistake meant death. Watching all those sword fighting anime was absolutely no help whatsoever as I found out after a few superficial cuts.
Fighting against Maka while she had two knives was starting to take its toll. Never being attacked from the same place in quick succession meant I had to focus more on blocking and parrying than attacking and even when the opportunity to counter presented itself between her attack flurries, I was easily blocked by one of her knives, with the other one free to counter my offensive.
Her knife wielding is indeed skilful. In no way can a knife block a katana, but by diverting my momentum instead of stopping it, she creates openings and weaknesses that I cannot accommodate for. If this keeps up, I would indeed be on the losing end. But what can I do? I don't have enough time to bring out another ability, and I don't think I'll have an opportunity to retreat... At this rate... I might really die...
"It's over!" Maka screamed, knocking my katana out of her way, her knife swung back ready to take my head, and her victory.
Well, if only I got to say goodbye to everyone huh?
Closing my eyes and accepting my defeat, a blinding white light came crashing through the ceiling,taking the hit that would have otherwise killed me.
"Really, just when I leave you alone for a few hours you already got yourself killed. Is the rest ofmy time gonna be spent watching over you? Because I sure as hell don't want to!" Akiha said, turning to me, a large gash on her cheek.
"Akiha! You're... You're bleeding!"
"Well, small price to pay seeing as this was going through YOUR neck. Now stand back, I'll finish up here."
Turning back to face Maka, Akiha's smile was anything but pleasant, "Well, I would like to thank you for taking care of Ryusuke-san, and here's my gift of thanks."
"Who the fuck are you? Get out of my way bitch, what's with the dress? Who the hell fights in a dress nowadays?"
"Well... I was intending to have a nice night once Ryusuke-san came back so I didn't bother with my battle gear and the someone like you just HAD to come along..." Akiha said, absentmindedly letting loose a large bolt of lightning centimeters from Maka's head, "Ooops, sorry, that was supposed to come out later."
"Get out of my way or I'll take you down as well!" Maka yelled, leaping around Akiha in an attempt to get to me.
"Ain't happening." Akiha said softly, grabbing Maka by the ankle and tossing her as if she was a rag doll through the wall.
"Akiha..." I muttered, shocked and amazed at how fast she dispatched the opponent I had been fighting for so long.
"What? Be right back, I'll finish the job." Akiha said, pointing at the ground signalling for me to stay put as she entered the hole in the wall.
"No Akiha! Don't kill her!" I yelled, running after the disappearing vampire.
"Why not? She nearly killed you, and if you spare her she would highly likely just return to finish the job." Akiha said, looking at me like I was a primary school kid.
"Let's just go. I need to get these treated anyway ok?" I said, tugging on Akiha's dress sleeve.
"Oh all right... But if she comes after you again..."
"I'll handle it. Let's go."
Being guided by Akiha wasn't the worst experience I had that night, but after a while Akiha had to stop to quickly close up the wound she sustained from Maka before continuing on. The walk back was not very eventful, since it was already midnight. But that didn't stop the few pedestrians we walked by from staring at us.
Reaching the dormitory with no Anti Skill or Judgment stopping us, I quickly heaved my aching body and lay down on the floor panting heavily, "Damn, how'd you get there so fast?"
"I flew." Akiha responded simply, pulling out the first aid box.
"What? As in grew out giant bat wings and..."
"Flew through the air with magic you idiot. Just what kind of monster do you think I am? Bad enough I have to take the blood of humans now you want me to look like some kind of bat as well?" Akiha said, lightly slapping my arm.
"Ow! Can't you just heal these with magic like your wound?"
"Yes... But although my magic is infinite, using excessive amounts leads to this accursed body lusting for blood. I'd rather not trigger that part of me and treat these normally."
"You healed up that wound on your face right? So doesn't that mean you already need blood?"
"Well... Yes, but I can hold back my urges for quite some time, and the amount of magic was quite substantial so I'd appreciate it if you don't talk about it in case I... I get hungry..." Akiha said, shuddering at the mention of her last sentence.
"Well, you had to heal that wound as well because of me. And I hate it when I owe people favours so..." I said, looking around and away from Akiha.
"No Ryusuke-san. I won't allow it."
"Oh you know what I was talking about?"
"I will not drink from you. It's bad enough I had to do it once. I'm not doing it again."
"But..."
"No buts."
"You talk as if you have a choice in the matter." I muttered darkly.
"What?"
"I'm not into force feeding, but you're well being does come first so..." I muttered, reaching for the nearest sharp object, "Drink, or i'll spill it and make you drink it anyway."
"You... Why must you go so far?"
"Why can't you just do what you need to do to survive?"
This shouting match is going nowhere.
"W-why..."
"Huh?" I said, shocked by Akiha's sudden change in mood.
"Why do you go so far...? Why is it so important that you must feed me? Why can't you just let me be?"
"In order to stop you from feeding on random people, I'll agree to feed you. As often as required. Now drink or I'll really do it."
Looking at me hesitantly, Akiha looked away for a second before tentatively reaching for my arm again, her eyes now glowing a deep crimson red. Scared from the sudden change, I started to shiver until I realised how stupid I was to be afraid. She's already holding herself back for the exact reason I'm shivering. She's afraid of others being afraid of her, and I'm playing right into her fears.
This feeling... It disgusted me to my core.
Steeling my mind and my body, I watched as she gently pierced my skin, my arm not feeling a thing as she started to drink, the gulping sounds echoing in my deathly quiet room.
Finishing as quickly as she started, Akiha wiped her mouth off and closed the wound before attending to my wounds as well, "Sleep now, you lost a bit of blood and will feel lethargic."
"A-alright." I muttered, ready to head to bed and retire for the day.
"Oh, and Ryusuke-san..." Akiha called out from the kitchen.
"Yes...?"
Peeking her head out from the kitchen doorway, Akiha's face was filled with gratitude as she looked me in the eye, her eyes back to normal, "Thank you so much..."
-End of Chapter 13-
And that's another chapter done! I know this chapter's a lot shorter than the rest, but as this is one of my favourite arcs in the entire Index universe, I'm planning to do a day by day account of what happens (also making this the longest covered arc in the story) So instead of covering several days and reaching 6000+ words, prepare for a volley of slightly shorter chapters, each covering 1-2 day's worth of events. And finally, read, review, and story alert only after doing both!