Future Crisis: Chapter 2
Akuhei's jet pack whirred as it came to a stop; he landed on a protruding platform of a red tower. The sky around it was occupied with a haze, along with many flying demons circling the tower. However, Akuhei didn't seem to be noticed by anyone.
"Intruder! Kill him!" Akuhei noticed two salamander-like humanoids standing in front of a door. He quickly activated his weapon, and a flash of gray light sent the two youkai into oblivion. The barrel of the gun smoked as he powered it down. "I have to let it recharge itself soon," he said to himself. "I'll quickly deal with the emperor and get this over with."
He walked through the doors and came across an elevator. Akuhei pressed the button on the side of the door, and the lift gate opened. He quickly entered the small cubicle and closed the door. Grating sounds of demonic claws were heard from the other side of the door, as if the youkai tried to pry it apart. Akuhei pressed the button that had a "court" character written on it. The elevator speedily zoomed up, and the arms of the creatures down below were crushed after tenaciously clinging onto the door.
When the elevator bell ringed and the door opened, Akuhei found himself in front of a long hallway with several doors on the side. He looked at his weapon. "This is what I worked for after all of these years," he thought. "If I die here, then I would have wasted the time and effort I spent on this cause. Now that'd really suck."
All of the doors opened and produced some sort of youkai. Given a perfect straight corridor, Akuhei turned on his machine and fired into the hallway; in a flash of gray light, only the clothes of the youkai remained.
He quickly advanced to the room he shot at, which had two doors instead of one. Inside, there was a person sitting behind a desk on a big leather chair. He was almost taken to be human, had Akuhei not seen the tiny black wings that came out of the man's brown hair. He was dressed in traditional red robes and carried a lollipop in his mouth, while the two people who stood around him all wore familiar black-on-white suits with black ties, their hands behind their backs.
"You've been here for a little thirty minutes, human," the man said. "But you somehow shot up two hundred and fifty two floors. I presume you took the elevator?"
Akuhei didn't bother to talk; he quickly pointed his weapon at the seat.
"Y-you're majesty! That gun-" the emperor's left-hand man pointed at Akuhei.
The emperor sucked on the candy. He didn't look the least bit scared. "That's an interesting weapon you have there," he said. "Did you build it yourself? Where did you find the materials to construct that? I implore you; do give me a good story."
Akuhei fired at the emperor, but the demon quickly jumped out of his seat. The beam of light touched the arm of the man on the left, and the flesh disappeared. The man screamed in agony.
The emperor landed back on his chair. "Judging from what happened there," said the emperor, "that weapon somehow erases youki. Am I correct?"
Akuhei didn't stir. He restarted the weapon and aimed again.
"The first two thoughts on your mind are 'reload', and 'How on earth did he not choke?' am I right?" asked the emperor. "That's not good. We can settle this diplomatically, human." He suckled on his lollipop again.
"There's nothing you can talk about, youkai," said Akuhei. "Your kind deserves to rot."
"Insolent brat!" said the one on the right of the emperor. "You have quite a sharp tongue in front of his majesty."
"But we are logical," said the emperor. "Unlike you humans who act on impulse, we calculate everything. However, this is no way to start a proper conversation. Let me introduce myself."He got up and took a bow. "I am emperor Mizushima; of course, this is not my real name, but a name that I gave myself after devouring the fountain of youth hundreds of years ago. Every stone of the temple is in my body, and the fountain runs through my veins as we speak. I have not aged since then. You…" He looked at Akuhei's crumpled up name tag on his chest. "You are Akuhei? That's not a name that a mother would likely give her son. Did you choose it as well, to hide your real name?"
Akuhei gritted his teeth and tore off the name tag. "That's none of your business."
Mizushima bit off the tip of the lollipop and took out the stick. "But there is some significance in your real name, isn't there?"
"And what if there is?"
Mizushima's lollipop stick ended up in the trash can. He ordered his men to leave the room. "Well, if I say that I will try to kill you, will you give me your real name before you die? Just your surname will do."
Akuhei raised his weapon. "What the fuck are you? Fountain of youth? Do you think that I'm a kid? I won't tell you shit," he said.
"You will believe me," said Mizushima. "I guarantee you."
Akuhei pulled the trigger; Mizushima jumped out of the line of the gray light, but he did not protect his left arm. The gray light eradicated his fingers and half the palm of his hand.
"Now pay attention," said Mizushima. The holes that used to hold his fingers now began sprouting a clear liquid. "Water?" asked Akuhei.
"As I've said," said Mizushima, "the fountain of youth runs through my veins. My regeneration speed has been multiplied by a hundred fold." The water formed the shape of his hand, and flesh took on like wax in a mould.
"In theory, the flesh of demons is made up of youki. Your weapon erases youki, which in turn, erases my flesh. However, water from the fountain of youth can take my inner youki and recreate new body parts. I've been living for almost 500 years; the youki supply in my body is nearly endless now."
"No one cares," said Akuhei. He turned a dial on the barrel. The opening facing the enemy began to close up. Akuhei then fired eight shots in succession, but all of them were dodged by Mizushima.
"That's clever," said Mizushima. "You decreased the output of the beam to allow more attacks before you need to cool down. However-" He jumped in front of Akuhei. The two were face to face: Akuhei stared into the cold, purple eyes of Mizushima. "-You're still just a human. Your speed cannot even compare to mine."
Mizushima stabbed his hand into air; Akuhei had sidestepped to dodge the attack. He pulled the trigger, and gray light took away Mizushima's torso. The robes around his body closed in.
He winced and flew back to stand on the table. His eyes darted to a glass case on the wall, and quickly back at his attacker. "That is not necessary at the moment."
Akuhei's gun finished cooling down. He took aim and fired again and again, but none of them reached their mark.
"Poor human! Are your eyes too slow? Let me put you out of your misery." He darted in front of Akuhei's face again, this time closing his fingers and prepared to stab Akuhei's heart.
With a reflex, Akuhei's index finger pulled the trigger, this time erasing any trace of Mizushima's left arm.
The demon emperor only smiled. "Physically attacking you is not very effective. But then again, I realized: humans are fragile. They cannot evolve to adopt natural defenses in a matter of years, unlike us. And you refuse to be 'civilized', so I can only do this." Water rushed from his neck to the rest of the body, puffing up the robes to contain his new flesh. He flexed his new arm as if to test it out. Mizushima opened the drawer and produced a pistol; he clicked it and pointed it at Akuhei.
"Checkmate."