Chapter 2

The Hollowed Shrine

(Part 1)


-The Next Day-

Darkness…that was the first thing I saw when I woke up. The bandages around my eyes were doing a great job of concealing my vision and the reason for that was because of my actions yesterday.

I punched my eyes in attempt to blind myself again. And the reason was because of those stupid red lines that kept flashing before me. The red lines that, if I traced with my fingers, could absolutely destroy everything…or even kill everyone.

I didn't want to see that kind of sight again. I might destroy something important, or worse, kill someone unintentionally.

I then moved my right hand and touched my left shoulder, only to feel my hair as it came in contact with my fingers.

Damn, this stupid hair of mine. I cursed in annoyance. I usually had short hair, but since I was in a coma before, it grew long. My head felt hot and scratchy. Additionally, because of what I did yesterday, the doctor had strictly instructed everyone not to bring any sharp objects into my room.

My attention then shifted to my right as I heard the door open. It was probably the doctor again, checking up on me, probably wondering if I was still trying to claw my eyes out.

"Doc…I'm not trying to claw my eyes out," I begun with a lowly, reassuring voice. "I just need scissors to cut my hair, Doc. I promise you that I won't stab myself."

"Sadly, Markus, I have no authority in this hospital." I shifted in my bed. The voice who answered me was a man with a deep and authoritative tone. It wasn't that of the good doctor. It was someone that I was very familiar with.


"Sir Abe?" I recognized the voice of Abe.

Abe was the former superhero called 'Immortal' before becoming the handler of the Guardians of the Globe, an organization of superheroes and the one that I had been aiming to enter.

Usually, he would be standing on the rear lines, guiding the heroes from the shadows, but if things go south, he would immediately leap into action and assist.

And with his presence here, I was pretty sure he had something important to tell me.

"Hello, Markus. It's been a while since we last spoke." Abe begun with a solemn tone on his voice.

I remembered. The last time I talked to him was in his office back on the Guardians of the Globe HQ. He had told me that there was finally a place for me in the organization's main team. The date at that time was May twenty-fifth…and it was thirty days before my second father had revealed to me the story about my birth.

And it was thirty-one days before my planned suicide.

"Yes…I do remember." I said as I turned my head to him, following his voice. Abe pulled a chair close to my bed and sat beside me. I did not know what he was feeling, but I could tell that his face was either serious or pitying.

"Do you know the date of our last conversation?" he asked and I answered him.

"It was May 25, 2025, Sir Abe."

A soft, amused snort, escaped from his nose before he spoke. "You know you can call me Abe, Markus." I made a soft smile to him as he added another question. "Do you know the date today?"

I shifted my head to my left and began to wonder. Come to think of it, I still didn't know the current date. The doctor had told me that I was in a coma for a long time. Maybe I was in sleep for a few years?

"I do not know. The doctor hasn't told me yet. But I do know that I was in a coma for a long time."

The chair slightly moved as Abe shifted on his sit, a saddened frown forming on his face.

"Markus, you were in a coma for a very long time."

I noticed the sudden shift on his voice. It was now full of unease. "What do you mean by that, sir?" I asked as a foreboding thought passed through my mind. Could it be that I had woken up from coma that lasted more than two years?

"Markus…I want you to calm down right after I answer you." Abe gulped down before he answered me. "Today's date is June 13, 2095. Markus…you were in a coma…for seventy years."


2095…seventy years…I sat still for a moment, slowly absorbing what Abe had told me, and then, when I finally understood what he said, the words hit me like a punch to my guts.

"Seventy…years." I gasped sharply in shock and horror. I thought I was only asleep for a couple of years. I didn't expect that my coma would last for seventy years. What the hell?! I was truly asleep for a long time!

"That…can't be…!" I exclaimed in panic as my mind was suddenly filled with apprehension. Seventy years was a very long time for me. I must have missed a lot of things.

And my mind quickly zeroed in on the first of my priorities.

"Molly, my sister!? Where is she?" I recalled my first half-sister and her jubilant soft smile. What happened to her during my absence? How was she doing? Was she still sad to what I had done? Oh, I was pretty sure she was saddened by my attempted suicide…but angry too?! After all, I hurt her with my stupid, selfish decision.

I heard a long and deep sigh from Abe. It puzzled me for a moment, but at the same time, my heart started to beat in tenseness.

"It is a long tale, Markus. After your attempted suicide, your sister, Molly, waited for you to wake up." He begun, his voice changed into a tired and sympathetic one. "Day and night, she would be sitting here, just so she would be the first person that you'd see when you awoke." My heart swelled as distress made home inside of me. Abe, however, continued on. "And then, after two years of waiting, she decided to become a superhero. She temporarily stepped into your role as 'Invincible', and her alias was 'Marvelous'."

"She became a superhero? Why did she do it?"

"Because she thought that, if you woke up and saw the world riddled in crimes, you would be extremely sad. She didn't want you to feel that way." Abe answered me. I only lowered my head in half-amazement and lament. Molly, my beloved first half-sister, who didn't want violence or brutality, had decided to become a superhero. And she did it because she didn't want to make me sad.

She stepped into the world of superheroes, battling crimes and evil…just for me.

Molly…I made a troubled frown. Guilt was now weighing down inside of me and it felt sickening.

"Wh-What happened? Where is she, Abe?"

The man beside didn't answer me for a moment, which added more tension to the air inside the room, making it more thick and uncomfortable for me.

"Twenty years ago, a large alien fleet called 'The Kreigsvhalohn' attacked Earth. They were from the alien Galactic Kingdom of Wolvesbane." Abe paused as his gaze shifted towards the window. A frown of pain formed on his face as he recalled the dreadful attempted invasion from before.

"The said Kingdom was a former enemy nation of the Viltrum Empire. The reason for their attack was that, somehow, they thought our planet was the new home world for the Viltrumites"

"How was she then? Did she get hurt? Where is she, Abe?" I asked again in a desperate manner. I couldn't believe that the Earth had suffered a major attempted invasion of another alien society. This made my worry for Molly's state grow more.

Abe sat in silence for a moment before he answered me. This time his voice was very solemn. "Markus…I want to tell you that Molly, together with your other sister Terra, had fought bravely against them, but the attack was overwhelming. Even with the combined forces of Guardians of the Globe and the Viltrumites, we had suffered many casualties-"

"Abe, where is she!?" I shouted. I couldn't take the suspense anymore. I must have frightened Abe because I heard his chair slightly move from being jolted.

"Ma-Markus. I want you to calm down for the next thing I will say to you." He paused for a moment before he answered my question with a regretful tone on his voice. "Markus…Molly was killed in action. She died from her injuries."


I sat still after what Abe had said to me. The words echoed softly inside of me as my mind slowly absorbed it.

"…Dead?" I muttered with a plain tone, and just as I said it, the words completely settled in my mind. My eyes widened in shock as I remembered another person that I cared equally for, other than Molly.

"Wait…Wh—what about Terra?"

"Terra…had married a Viltrumite man, a couple of years before the attack, and she was pregnant." Abe paused as his brown eyes shifted towards a white vase with a bunch of radiant white roses on the table beside him before he replied with sadness. "She, uh, suffered a miscarriage during the attack."

I let out another devastated gasped. I couldn't believe that Terra had found a lover and got herself pregnant. But I was more disturbed by the fact that she had lost her baby because of the attack.

"Wh-Where is she now?" I asked. Abe let out a tired out sigh. The man was probably exhausted from reporting so much bad news to me.

"Six months after the attack, Mark had recalled most of the Viltrumites who were already grown up and could fight. He said to me that he would chase down the Wolvesbane and talk to their superior. He was probably going to attack their home world, if they ever had one." The man paused for a moment before he added more. "He also asked me to watch over you. Someone should meet you and tell you all the events that had transpired while you're asleep."


Abe concluded his report to me and the room was shrouded in silence, except for the occasional tick-tock of the clock hanging on the wall in front of me.

As for me, I only sat in silence. My eyes were focused on the wall at the foot of my bed, staring as if I was lost. But inside of me, everything was running wild. I couldn't understand the emotion that rumbling inside of my heart.

"Markus, that's all for today." Abe said to as he stood up and walked towards the door. However, he paused for a moment as he touched the door knob.

"I've seen the video that you made. I know why you did it." His head half turned to me, showing his despairful face at me. "I don't know what to say except that I feel bad for you…and despite all of the things that had happened to you, you deserve to be helped by a professional." I slowly looked up to him as he added more. "Tomorrow a psychiatrist is coming to see you. Her name is Touko Aozaki and she's…an expert on dealing with traumatized people."

He turned the knob and opened the door of my room, but before he got out, he paused again and made an exhausted sigh. "Markus…I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm truly am."


The door made a hollowed click as it closed, its echoes reverberating throughout the room. Silence then enveloped me again. This type of silence should have calmed a normal person, but not me.

My guts were filled with swirling emotions and it was trying to gain control of me so that I could let it out. And then my ears heard the clock's tick and tock. Just as I heard it, I finally felt the weight of Abe's words.

About my seventy-year coma.

About the attempted invasion that had happened on Earth.

And finally…about Terra, suffering from miscarriage because of the infighting with the invaders…and Molly who had died from her own injuries.

I also finally understood that I had played a part to their misfortune. If only I could turn back the time and talk to them. If only I had woken them up from their slumber and told them about my feelings, then this might not have happened.

Terra would be so happy with her first family. Molly would still be alive. We could have defeated the enemy without so many casualties on our side.

I could no longer contain my emotions anymore, and just as the realization hit me, my eyes burst into tears.

"No…No…! Molly, Terra!" My hands were in my face as I called out their names, my voice filled with shame and guilt. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

I cried and cried in despair as if they could hear me, that they would certainly come and hug me into a tight embrace. I really did wish that they could hear me right now so that they would know that I deeply regretted what I had done – that I left them and acted selfishly, not knowing that my actions would hurt them.

They both truly loved me. They both truly cherished me. And I betrayed it with my haphazard thinking that committing suicide was the right action for me.

"Molly…Terra…Dad." Suddenly, I missed the embrace of my second father, Mark. His hugs were warm and comforting, enough to calm me down. But no matter how I called them for them, they would never come because they weren't here right now.

I knew that, which was why I continued my pathetic sobs. Even though no one would hear it, it echoed throughout the night.


Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Kara no Kyoukai and Invincible. Names, places and events are merely fictional if one exist in real life then its purely coincidental.

Special thanks to Pure Red Crane for beta-reading.

Yahoo! Hello guys and welcome to my new chapter. Ohohohohohoho! I kinda enjoy writing his chapter since I still love to do experiments on drama, so my drama part is kinda sucky for me! LOL!

In any case, how was the chapter everyone, I do hope you enjoy reading this one...because this is the first arc of this fanfic. Oh yeah, the First arc will be called 'The Hollowed Shrine', and the reason for that...well...it was actually the name of Touko's workshop. Her magical workshop, which serves as the main setting for anime Kara no Kyoukai, series.

In any case, I'm kinda exicited writing Touko Aozaki here, because she's one of the coolest characters in type-moon and Nasuverse! Plus it would be very interesting on how she'll interact with Markus Murphy! Btw, does anyone know who Markus Murphy is in the comics!? What can you say about him? Well you may leave it on the review/comment box bellow!

Oh well, this is where I'll end for today. Goodnight and stay healthy everyone! Thinker out!