Into the Darkness
Chapter Three: Memory Dissonance
Touma was stuck in a daze.
Piles of rubble and debris entrapped his body, clutching onto him with no sign of letting up. A small shimmer of red and blue lights made its way towards his eyes, temporarily blinding him. He felt the weight being lifted off his back as someone threw the rocks off of him. He felt a hand reach towards his collar, dragging him to his feet.
Touma, in his confusion, could only see faintly see the silhouette of the person who saved him. He was pulled over to what he thought was an ambulance, and he was rested on the floor. Touma shook off his bewilderment and clutched his head in pain. His entire body was aching; every single muscle was sore. He coughed frequently due to the dust that had accumulated in his lungs. The boy looked to the side and saw Shiage arguing with Yomikawa. Touma gathered up his last remaining strength and sauntered over there as fast as he could.
"What do you mean I can't go?" Shiage shouted angrily at the older woman.
"In your own words, you said that Rikou wouldn't be a liability." Yomikawa replied calmly, unfazed by Shiage's aggressive tactics. "Anti-Skill has to survey the damage and take care of any casualties. I can assure you that tomorrow morning, we'll have an entire team tasked with finding her, I promise."
"She could be in danger damn it! You expect me to just wait here?"
"As your commanding officer, I absolutely forbid you from going off on your own. If you disregard that order, then I have no choice but to arrest you for obstructing our work." Yomikawa retorted. She turned towards Touma, and gave him a worried look.
"Are you okay?" She asked. "You received the brunt of the impact. Shiage jumped out of the window while Tessou and I ran through the front doors."
"Yeah… I think I'm alright." Touma answered as he looked at Shiage's direction. The brown haired boy was sitting in the corner, biting his knuckles to the point where they would bleed. "Is he going to be okay?"
"He should be. Going off to find her now would only hinder our efforts. We'll go out to search for Rikou tomorrow morning, so make sure to get some rest until then." With that said, the blue haired woman left with Tessou, leaving only Touma, Shiage, and a whole lot of destruction in their wake.
The damage spanned the entire block. The building that collapsed may have been small, but the explosion was strong enough to blow apart other structures as well. The fire had spread across the area before it was quickly smothered in water by firefighters. What was left was a huge smoking pile of ash and a street filled with ambulances. Touma stalked up to Shiage, mindful of the situation he was in. He could see in his hands, he held a cell phone with a single text message on it.
[In one hour, I will have no more need of this girl.]
"The hell is that?"
"Who else? It's the guy that kidnapped her." Shiage groused.
Touma offered his hand to the boy. Shiage smacked it away profoundly.
"I'm going off to find her. I don't care what anyone says." Shiage replied as he pushed past the spiky haired teen. "If you're going to report me, then go ahead. I could care less. But don't ever get in my way. If you do… I'll kill you."
"I'm not going to report you." Touma stated as he grasped the boy's shoulder. "If anything, I'm going too."
"Heh, you really are a strange level zero aren't you?" Shiage remarked as he turned to face his companion. "What's your motivation? Why do you want to help me?"
"Do I need a reason to save someone?" Touma exclaimed as he clenched his fist into tight balls. His eyes burned with determination, his resolve absolute. His face bore a smile all of a sudden. "She's your friend, and you need my help. I don't need any more reason than that."
Shiage smirked and hugged his assault rifle close to his chest.
"Where do we start?"
Academy City
12:10 A.M
"We have less than an hour to find Rikou, and we can't ask Anti-Skill for help." Shiage declared as he dusted himself off. The brown haired boy looked around the area and saw an unlocked vehicle parked to the side. He handed Touma his phone. "The problem is, I have no idea where she is. Do you know this number?"
"No… but I know a person who might." Touma emphasized. He dialed the number on his own phone before following Shiage towards the car. It was an Anti-Skill police cruiser, and the owner was only several feet away from his vehicle, talking to another officer. Shiage quietly grasped the handle to the car with Touma following his example on the other side. The two quickly jumped inside, slamming the door and locking it behind them. Shiage went underneath the dashboard and hotwired the car in several seconds. The sound of the car going into ignition alerted the nearby personnel, and the man went to the front of the cruiser in an attempt to stop the two boys.
Shiage grumbled and quickly shifted into reverse, doing a 180 before he shifted in drive. From his rear view mirror, he could see the man pull out a pistol. He shot several times at the wheels, only being able to dent the spoiler. In defeat, the man pulled out his phone and contacted help.
"Looks like we've gone off and pissed Anti-Skill." Shiage grinned. Touma stood in the passenger seat, impatiently waiting for the dial tone to end. "Reminds me of the days I was in Skill-Out."
They drove on the highway, turning on the siren as they sped by the numerous cars that occupied the road. They each departed off the center, allowing Shiage and Touma to blast right through. Shiage never let up on the gas pedal, accelerating to over 85 miles per hour. They were lucky that there wasn't a lot of traffic; otherwise, they would've already crashed. While Shiage was speeding, Touma punched the dashboard, disabling the automatic tracking system it had enabled.
"Hello?" Touma muttered into his phone. He could hear some shuffling from the other end. "Shirai?"
"What do you want you barbarian?" The girl shouted into the receiver. Touma held the phone away from his ear.
"I'm forwarding a text message and the person who sent it. I need you to identify this person now!"
"Why? Don't tell me you're stalking a-"
"Just do it!" Touma roared. He could hear the girl reluctantly typing on her keyboard. Several moments went by without another sound, leaving Touma to wonder if she was actually searching.
"The guy's name is Hibiki Yuuma. Age sixteen, and a real troublemaker."
"Can you tell me where he lives or where he frequents?"
"He's usually seen around the industrial area. You know, the one with a lot of warehouses. I'll send you the coordinates onto your phone. Why are you searching for him? Is he your friend?"
"No…" Touma tentatively responded as he ended the call. His eyes casted downwards, his hand clutching his head. Under his breath, he spoke. "Even if he was… I don't remember anymore."
"What's wrong? You look a bit troubled." Shiage inquired. Touma shrugged it off.
"Let's go over to the industrial district." Touma announced; his body unusually stiff. "We don't have much time. Sooner or later, Anti-Skill is going to catch up with us."
"You don't have to tell me twice!"
Shiage took a nearby exit, somehow managing to avoid slamming into cars that encircled them. The boy maintained a high speed as he zipped down the empty streets. Shiage pulled on the handbrake and drifted along a corner before making a beeline towards the industrial district. As they arrived at their destination, Shiage turned off the engine and grabbed his equipment. Touma looked at the GPS that was included in his cell phone and glanced at the general area.
"If we got the right guy, she shouldn't be too far from here." Touma affirmed as he raised his pistol. "We're going to have to search all these warehouses one by one until we find her."
"Alright." Shiage replied as he readied his Colt M4A1. The two came up to the front of a warehouse. Touma aimed his pistol at the hinges of the door and pressed the trigger firmly. The door flew open and the two boys quickly hunted for the perpetrator. They had turned on their flashlights and explored different ends of the warehouse.
Shiage was frantic in his search for Rikou. Touma had never seen a person look so desperate in his entire life. This was the face of a man who had nothing else. The spiky haired teen understood the lengths to which this former Skill-Out would go to save one girl. In fact, it was the one thing they had in common. The two of them both shared the same resolve that would not be shaken even in the face of death.
Something was eating away at the back of Touma's mind. He felt oddly vulnerable, even more so than that time he faced Accelerator. Touma started coughing violently, as he felt his throat go dry. He could see Shiage was suffering the same effects as he was. Touma reached for his throat, and to his amazement, when he grasped it with his right hand, he no longer felt like he was being suffocated. He quickly sprinted over to Shiage and grabbed his throat. Shiage threw Touma a confused look after he recovered.
"What the hell was that?" Shiage wheezed.
"He's here." Touma verified. As if on cue, the person responsible came out of hiding.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect you of all people here." The man stated as he eyed Touma with a look of familiarity. He was a fairly tall man who had short black hair and brown eyes. He wore scoured and battered clothes that made him look much more intimidating than he already was. "So what'cha doing in Anti-Skill?"
"You know him?" Shiage questioned. Touma shook his head furiously.
"Absolutely not! I'd never hang around people like him!" Touma asserted.
"Your words hurt you know?" The man replied. "Does the name Hibiki ring any bells?"
"No."
"It's only been two years and you've already forgotten about me. I'm sad." The man sarcastically smirked. "It's funny how you were such an agitator back in middle school… now you're working for the police of all things? Hah! You were always such a fruit."
"Where's Rikou?" Shiage demanded as he pointed his gun at Hibiki. The man frowned.
"Ah yeah, that girl. Well, turns out I couldn't get her to use her ability. For some reason, it just doesn't work. You see, that's why I came here. For you." The man said as he pointed towards Shiage. Hibiki turned towards Touma and scowled. "Kamijou, you can go rot in a ditch somewhere. You aren't worthy of my time."
"I asked you a damn question!" Shiage shouted, his hand tightening around the foregrip of his weapon.
"She's right over here." Hibiki stated as he dragged an unconscious girl by her collar.
"What did you do to her?" Shiage screamed. Every second that passed was hell for him.
"I didn't do anything you jackass." Hibiki retorted as he threw Rikou towards the brown haired boy. Shiage dropped his weapon and grabbed her into his arms, checking to see if the man had harmed her. Touma knew that if there was a single scratch, Shiage wouldn't just kill this man. He would undoubtedly slaughter and butcher him until there was nothing left but a pile of human remains. "I'm not the type who enjoys torturing women. I asked her to use Aim Stalker but when she tried, she fainted."
"Then why do you need Hamazura?" Touma asked. Hibiki turned to him casually.
"He knows the most about this girl, and so I thought I'd persuade him to help me. Nobody is leaving this building unless I get what I came for."
"Go to hell!" Shiage barked as he aimed fired his assault rifle at Hibiki. An explosion suddenly dispersed the bullets, causing them to fly around the room in a frenzy. Touma was thrown across the warehouse, his back slamming into a large shelf. Shiage shielded Rikou from the blast, getting hit on the side of his abdomen.
"How did you-"
"Everybody has fancy names for their powers. Mine's Catalysis. Lame huh? Basically, all I do is rearrange atoms and forcefully combine them, creating new chemical compounds, usually unstable ones. The leftover products are just tossed aside." Hibiki looked at Touma with contempt. "I'm just a level two, but I can already create a wide variety of compounds, just by using the air around you. The gas you inhaled was dinitrogen tetroxide which is extremely toxic and corrosive."
"Damn you…" Touma cursed as he struggled to get up. He was still weak from the events earlier.
"If I got to level five, I suppose my AIM would increase to cover an entire city block, instead of only several meters. It would also be possible for me to interact with another person's body. Imagine, me being able to cause you to spontaneously combust by increasing your blood alcohol levels; or even possibly creating explosive compounds inside your body, causing your organs and flesh to spill all over the pavement."
"You're a sick bastard you know that?" Touma growled as he forced himself to stand. He clenched his right hand into a fist.
"What better way to level up than killing all seven of the level fives of Academy City? Tracking them down is a difficult task, so I traced down an esper who had an ability that could be of some use. Do you object to such a thing? I always knew you were a pussy, but I never thought your pacifism extended beyond just yourself."
"I'll tell you one thing before I beat the crap out of you. You don't stand a chance against any of the level fives!" Touma quickly charged at his opponent, outstretching his right arm. An explosion appeared in front of him, causing him to be flung backwards by the shockwave. Hibiki stood over him and grabbed Touma by the collar.
"Looks like this is where you meet your end." Hibiki stated. Touma closed his eyes as he feared for the worst.
The attack never came.
Touma opened his eyelids to see his opponent staring back at him, baffled at his power's failure to work. Touma took this opportunity to grab Hibiki by the neck with his left hand before throwing a heavy jab with his right. The esper was thrown about like a ragdoll, crashing into multiple pieces of furniture that lay all over the apartment floor.
"Why doesn't my power work when I'm near you?" Hibiki gasped as he felt his bruised face.
"Hamazura! Take Rikou and get out of here!" Touma shouted as he dashed towards the enemy. Shiage nodded, placed Rikou over his shoulder, and sprinted towards the exit.
"Oh no you don't!" Hibiki exclaimed as he lifted his arm to extend his AIM field. A quick punch with Imagine Breaker disrupted his AIM, allowing Shiage and Rikou to escape. Hibiki put his fingers to his mouth, looking at the scarlet liquid that now stained his skin.
"… It's been a long time since I've seen my own blood." Hibiki murmured eerily. "Do you remember my creed? Anybody who makes me bleed, I make killing them my priority."
"Good for you." Touma mocked as he readied himself again. "That doesn't mean much. You're a killer anyway. You killed those Anti-Skill soldiers."
"What? You thought that was me? Heh, I'm glad that you think so highly of me. Sadly, I wasn't the one who killed them."
"You expect me to believe you?"
"I don't expect you to do anything. You were always a pain back then, and you're still a thorn in my backside today. Ever since I've known you, you've always been such a good guy. I hate that. Just because we went to the same school several years ago, doesn't mean I'll have any qualms killing you."
Touma threw all his weapons to the side. They weren't going to work on his adversary, even if he had the gall to kill someone.
"Don't worry, because I have no intention of dying." Touma uttered.
"I'll blow apart your body, and carve my name in your blood." Hibiki stated. Touma instinctively felt the need to jump to his side, and he followed through. Immediately after he did so, an explosion appeared before him. He could feel the heat pressing against his face.
Touma was stuck on the defensive, actively avoiding the areas where Hibiki was aiming his ability at. Soon enough, the entire warehouse was filled with smoke from the ensuing fires that broke out. Touma's breaths became pants, his back still sore from the building that collapsed on top of him. Touma could barely see, and he could feel himself starting to become lightheaded.
"Tch, you're a persistent cockroach." Hibiki muttered as he lunged towards Touma. He grabbed him by the hair and kneed him in the stomach before moving onto his head. Touma could feel his own blood being spilt in front of him, his vision blurring. Was that because of the carbon monoxide or the beating he was enduring?
Touma reacted by giving Hibiki an uppercut, slicing his lip. Touma went on the offensive and didn't let up. He punched the esper numerous times in the chest and head, so much so that his knuckles began to cut open.
Hibiki pulled Touma's hair and punched him several times in the face before putting him into a headlock. Touma could feel the air leaving his system and kicked his opponent's legs. Touma rolled to his side and tried to get up, only falling down again due to his legs giving out.
'Damn it… Not yet…' Touma strained. He stopped when he thought he heard something speaking to him. Something in the back of his mind. All of a sudden, he felt rejuvenated. It was like something inside him was giving him the power to continue on this fight. He stood up, and caught the punch that Hibiki threw. From there, the match was finished.
"Why don't you take a nap?" Touma remarked. He then clenched his own right hand into a fist. When he struck Hibiki, he could have sworn he saw a dragon.
The sheer might of the attack was unbelievable. Hibiki flew backwards and slammed into the brick wall, creating a large dent. Touma heaved a sigh of relief, which was cut short when he saw the roof was coming down. Trudging through the fire and wreckage, Touma grabbed Hibiki and hoisted him on his shoulder. He slowly walked out the front, only to see an entire barricade formed by firefighters and Anti-Skill alike.
From the corner of his eye he saw Shiage and Rikou, who was now conscious, standing next to one of the police cruisers. He could see Yomikawa rushing towards him. He could see himself falling forwards.
And thankfully, darkness.