It's a dark winter night in the month of March, with only the moon and the stars dimly lighting the streets. A convenience store is still open with its LEDs lighting the street in front of its entrance. "When will this shift end…?" says the cashier as he yawns. The doors chime with a customer entering the store. The customer - a man, walks past the cashier leaving the cashier amazed at his impressive physique. "Damn. I wish I had a body like him… Does this guy take steroids? A bodybuilder or something?" the cashier thinks as he leans out of his chair to stare at the man.
The customer walks around looking at the different products in the store. The guy walks into the sweets and chocolates aisle. Surprised by the man's choice, the cashier's mind is immediately filled with doubts, and he begins to question the fabric of reality. His mind starts races about, trying to find an explanation for the man's choice. "What…? Huh? Are big guys supposed to eat chocolates? Wait… Why Chocolates? Is he a kid? No way… Does he have kids? Wait… Oh… It's for his kids. Got it... Ok, ok." He found an answer which seems quite plausible and he calms down and settles back down in his seat.
After some rustling, the guy comes out of the aisle and walks straight to the cashier to get his bill. He puts down a bunch of lollipops and toffees. "This is all. How much will this be?" The man says. "Wow, this guy sounds exactly like he looks… Nice." The cashier remarks with his thoughts. The man keeps intently staring at the cashier. The cashier could hold on anymore and his mind can't calm down without asking this question. "Does your kid have a birthday party, sir?" the cashier says with a smile on his face as he starts scanning the items.
"Kids? What do you mean?" the man says in a confused manner, while squinting his eyes and wrinkling his forehead. The cashier snaps his head to look at the man, perplexed by his response. "What does HE mean?" the cashier asks himself, as he loses his grip on reality and his mind drifts into the void of an existential crisis. His face starts contorting into a mix of bewilderment and disbelief as he contemplates the cosmic implications of such a man buying chocolate. The cashier starts zoning out which the customer notices and decides to shake the cashier by his shoulders.
The cashier snaps out of his crisis and starts speaking. "I… I just… Um… Uh… Right. Uh, you don't have kids… sir?" the cashier while slurring his words. "No, I don't." the man says. The cashier starts questioning all the different patterns he had noticed from his years of working at that store and takes a huge breath.
"I am not even married." The man continues. The cashier looks at the man with a wide-open mouth as if; his jaw will get unhinged and drop to the ground. "Are you… okay?" the man asks. The cashier closes his mouth and continues scanning the items. "I just thought you had kids. Sorry, sir… Could this be… for your younger sibling, maybe?" the cashier continues trying his best to get an answer.
"No…" The man stops mid-sentence to ask a question. "Does it even matter, man? It's for me." he starts with frustration, easing into a calmer tone. The cashier makes a face. It screams, "mind-blown". The man sighs and continues, "Tell me one thing. How old do you think I am?" The cashier starts speculating trying to find a tangible answer. "You seem to be… around… their… thirty five?" he replies.
The man face palms and sighs. "Oh, lord… Not again. Anyways; even though I look like this I am 16… My second year is starting in just over a week… Do I really look that old?" The cashier nods in agreement. "I can't believe you are 16. Are you really?" he questions. "YES! I AM 16!" the man says as he pulls out his school ID card. "Wait, why did I have it on me?" the man asks himself.
"Kurokawa, Karasu huh?" the cashier says, as he notices the name on the ID. "Yes. That's me." Karasu confirms. "2050, huh? Last year you were in first year?" the cashier inquires. Karasu confirms with a nod. "Wow… This is unbelievable… Why would a man… sorry… a boy in black clothes and a mask, looking like a 35 year old bodybuilding buy a ton of chocolates? Wait… do you take steroids?" The cashier asks.
"Why do you think I take steroids?" Karasu asks, perplexed by the sudden mention of steroids. "No, I just thought you do. You are built like a mountain. So…" the cashier says, trying to explain his thought process. "No… It is just what it is. Genetics, you know. I don't take steroids." Karasu says. The cashier finishes scanning all the items and puts them in a bag. "I wish I had genetics like you." The cashier with a soft smile while handing the bag to Karasu. Karasu pulls out a lollipop from the bag and starts sucking on it while walking away. "Oh, right." Karasu stops in his tracks and turns around to face the cashier. "I can promise you, you don't want my genetics." Karasu replies before leaving the store.
The cashier's eyes stay wide-open as he watches Karasu leave. "Is something wrong with you, bro?" the cashier says contemplating Karasu's final sentence. "The fuck…?" he thinks to himself in confusion.
It's been a week since Karasu had this peculiar encounter with the cashier. He knows he confused the shit out of the cashier and. It's a hot and sunny morning with the green trees cheerfully waving around in the wind. The birds fly, going about their day. Karasu casually walks along the road in his school uniform. He stops to look at his watch, to make sure he has enough time to get to school. The watch says its 7:55 am. His classes start at 8 am. "Shit… I need to get there fast. There's still 3 kilometers left to cover." He talks to himself. Covering such a distance in 5 minutes is almost impossible, and he know that well. Not wanting to be late on his first day, he scans his surroundings for something he can use. His eyes stop to stare at a sheet of metal buried under a pile of building materials.
It is rusty with a little bit of shine left on it. The sun's light reflects on Karasu's face, as if calling out to him, "Hey, come use this!" He stares at it, knowing he can do this. But, he's unsure. He doesn't want anyone seeing him. His vision darts from one side of the road to the other, making sure no one is present nearby, he makes his way over to the metal sheet. He stands on it and they both start rising; higher than all the visible roofs. "I should gauge my speed today." He thinks, and looks at his watch again – 7:55:38. He braces himself by crouching on the sheet. Then it starts moving. In the morning sky, it looks just like a blur while creating strong winds behind it.
In less than 10 seconds, he gets to his. He jumps off the metal sheet and lands on the roof and slides for a few meters. After stopping, he looks at his watch again. It reads 7:55:49. "So… I was traveling at about 300 m/s. Not fast enough…” He says. He dejected by this and starts walking to the door and goes down the stairs and gets to his class. He peers in through the window in the door and sees that the teacher is not there yet. He opens the door and walks in. As he makes a few steps into the class a boy stops him. Waving his hand to Karasu he greets him with a smile. "Good morning! We're in the same class again." He says. Karasu nods in acknowledgement and says, "Nishimura."
Nishimura keeps staring at Karasu waiting for him to say something. They continue this friendly staredown for a few seconds and Nishimura speaks up, "That's it? Are you in a bad mood? Ok, fine. I will leave you alone for today." Karasu nods again and walks to his seat at the back of the class, near the window. As he's walking he notices multiple people's vision fixated on him. "What are you looking at? I am human like you!" Karasu thinks, while contemplating whether to confront the people staring at him. Karasu sits down and looks around. He takes in all the new faces in his class for this year. All the people seem to know at least 1 other person. Everyone is chatting among small groups scattered all over the class.
The class with 45 is bustling with chatter, the sun's light pouring in lights the room elegantly with some students standing beside the window taking a dose of Vitamin D. The walls look like they have been cleaned recently with them having no adhesive, dirt or any of the papers clippings stuck on them. They have been removed in preparation for the new students and to make the class much more welcoming.
Their words echo through the classroom and their voices amalgamate into an unintelligible mess. 5 minutes later, the teacher gets to the class and greets everyone. A few students follow him. "Oh, god… This subject again." He says to himself. A guy sitting in front of Karasu turns to face him and greets him. “Yo! Good morning! Same class again! You didn’t pick up my call yesterday. What were you doing? And… why are you wearing a mask? Are you sick?" Karasu just looks at the guy, his old friend, for a few seconds and says, “Yes.” His friends ask, “Yes? Is that for all the questions?” He just nods.
His friend squints his eyes as his mind gets littered with confusion. He remarks that Karasu is acting a bit weird today and asks if he is okay. Karasu just sighs and says, “Man, I have a sore throat. Just leave me alone for today. We can talk once I get better.” The sore throat was a lie. His friend says, “A ton of ice cream again, brother? Hahaha.” He just groans instead of using words.
“I know you are my friend, but don't talk to me… just for today.” He thinks to himself not saying it out loud. The teacher starts teaching geography. He loathes this subject because he just finds it boring. He was looking out of the window when he notices a girl running at full speed and there were also small flashes of light emitting from her palm. She was running as fast as she could. MC deduces that she is probably using her ability to help herself either run faster or run for a longer time. "How are you still alive while being this reckless with your ability, honey? You should have been long dead by now." Karasu remarks while talking to himself.
"Huh? Did you say something?" his friend turns to ask. "Look." Karasu says, pointing to the girl running outside. "Yeah, what about her?" he asks. "Look at her hand!" Karasu says. "Yeah! What of it?" his friend asks again. Karasu's head snaps to fixate on his friend's face and he says while narrowing his eyes, "Are you fucking blind?" His friend, taken aback by the sudden insult says, "Whoa. What the… why am I blind now?" Karasu sighs as he looks away from the window and lays his head down on the desk.
His friend leans closer to his ear and whispers, "Can't you just tell me what you wanted me to see? Was it her face? Sure, she's good looking but you know I have my eyes for someone else, right?" Karasu sits upright, slightly clenching his teeth and takes a deep breath. "There were flashes in her hand. Green flashes. You aren't colorblind now, are you?" Karasu says with a frustrated tone while stressing on some particular words.
"Shit… I… didn't notice that. Wait… maybe it was her phone?" his friend speculates. "You fucking dumbass!" Karasu says. "Oh, come on. You know I am not good at reading between the lines!" his friend says.
"Welcome; to another day of my life in this shithole of a world." Karasu says while talking to his 'imaginary audience'. Karasu starts recounting some details from the past to pass time. "The year was 2030. Better understanding as to how genes work and how modifying it can cause changes in an organism’s body." Karasu says counting on his fingers. "Ok, then… They decided that it would be a good idea to release the news of the discoveries to the public. Uh-huh. Government was too stupid and green lit that shit. Okay… then… people were given access to avail it and they were happy to accept. Ok, that's correct. Started off as a treatment drifted into a commodity and then into fantastical powers, around… 2035…? Wait…" Karasu stops mid-sentence.
He forgot what happened next and decides to pull out his small notebook where he has been noting all the details that he can find about the past of his "shithole of a world". He loves to document the things that made the state of the worse, including the usage of gene-editing in a way that it wasn't supposed to be.
"So, the elderly came first. Huh. Oh, right! Treatments! Right. Shit, how did I forget that? It didn't happen the way they wanted it to be but their lives sure got better. Healthier bodies. Without any bullshit diseases. Got it." Karasu says while reading his notebook. He closes his notebook and tries to recount the events by-heart. "So, lesson of the day people: Whatever can go wrong, would likely go wrong. And! second lesson of the day: Everything can be a double-edged sword." Karasu continues.
"I never understood why so many people believe that everything will just work out! Of course it doesn't! Because of your stupid attitude people! Now is the perfect time for the third lesson of the day: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst! Words to live by people, words to live by." Karasu continues with his speech, as he imagines himself captivating his imaginary listeners.
"Not any different for gene-editing. Of course. They are not a damn special class!" Karasu speaks with intensity. "Scientists hands just itched with curiosity which I don't blame them for. Humans have always been curious. If Michael didn't die eating a poisonous mushroom millions of years ago we would never have known. Now, even if he didn’t do that, someone else would have done it, right? That's what experimentation is about, right?"
"Then, they started working on powers like… like… What was it again…? Ah! Super-strength… pyromancy… regeneration that can regrow a limb in a matter of minutes if not seconds… then… super-speed, of course. The most cliché thing. Then more as well." Karasu continues as if he's teaching history to a bunch of students. History of his "shithole world."
Karasu continues his lesson. "So, scientists found out how to make that work and people could live like the superheroes they have all their life. In a year of the 'superpowers' being released to the public shit went to hell. People started using it to commit crimes. Then… then… what was it again? Shit… God dammit."
Forgetting the events again, Karasu was prompted to open up his notebook again. Karasu continues while reading the notebook, "Oh, right. 'Rogues', right. So, they were named 'rogues'. What a cool name for assholes. Well done people. You give bad people a cool name and expect them to stop. (claps quietly) Y'all should have called them something like wussies, or poopy experiments. Sounds embarrassing, right? Yeah, that would have stopped them. Okay, it probably wouldn't. But, hey! They would be much more embarrassed with their crimes."
Karasu chuckles at his own joke. The teacher notices this and stares at Karasu for a few seconds but decides to let it pass for one time. Karasu hasn't noticed yet and so he continues. "Then... right… The government didn't expect it. Wow… dumbasses. Who elected those guys? I know I didn't. Oh, right. People then decided to call the entire population a bunch of 'Mutants'. Come on, people. Even that sounds cool, but I thank you for that. It's a good name. The mutants who had children passed on the modifications to their offspring, take me for example. The kids even had a part of their psyche amplified. For example, a mutant is much more likely to have a mental disorder than any normal human. They are prone to develop issues with controlling a particular or a set of particular emotions as well, etc. Like, I have anger issues, but I have gotten it under control. But… it still remains. Then, in 2038 the government decided to make severe laws. Oh, right, they even experimented on military personnel, including police officers. If a mutant uses their power for crimes they will be given the death penalty. (chuckles) Damn… what a fucking rollercoaster the world is. No action, slowly starting, slowly and then cloud nine. The fucking knee-jerk reactions…(chuckles again) Oh, how I would LOVE to change this prejudice…"
The teacher was now fed up with Karasu and decides to call out to him. "Mr. Kurokawa. Hand me your phone and get out of the class." Karasu's attention snaps to the teacher. "Sir… I haven't… brought my phone…" Karasu says. "I don't care. Whatever you are looking at, hand it to me and stand outside."
Karasu pulls out a little sketchbook from under his geography book that he had kept from the beginning of the class. He gets up putting his notebook in his pant pocket and walks up to the teacher. He hands the teacher his sketchbook. "Just because you were in the top student last year, doesn't mean that you get to disturb in class." The teacher says.
He then opens the sketchbook and sees pages filled with photos of news of crimes committed by Mutants with an odd illustration of the corresponding criminal. Karasu hates them, and he takes action regularly to physically engage with these criminals and subdue them because most of the time the police are not able to intervene, because they fear they might die.
The teacher flips through some of the pages and sees the most recent entry that was done a week ago of pyromancer incident where a pyromancer and his little group of criminals decided to take people hostage at a mall and they were neutralized by a vigilante clad in a black hoodie, black mask, and denim pants. A simple outfit; for a person that has appeared in multiple places, neutralizing criminals in place of the police. This guy has been seen in action for years, over 5 years.
Looking at the weird drawings making fun of the different criminals makes the teacher chuckle. But, he stops himself and says, "Look, Kurokawa. I understand why you were laughing, but no disturbing class. So, you still have to stand outside. Go."
Karasu starts walking to the door. As he reaches his hand out to open it, the door slides open on its own. Karasu shifts his vision to see who or what opened the door and it's the same girl from before, who was running to get to class. She was looking at the teacher and she notices a giant from the corner of her eye. She turns to look at that giant, who is Karasu, staring back at her. She jumps in sudden fear and assumes a defensive stance with her hands put up to her face, ready to chop him, as Karasu towers over her and continues to look her in the eyes.
"Who are you, miss?" The teacher asks. "Sir… uh… I am…" the girl tries to get her words out, but eyes are fixated on Karasu. Karasu understands what might be going through her head and decides to step to the side and allow her to clearly see their teacher. The girl slowly changes into a more relaxed stance and continues speaking. "Sir, I am the new transfer student..." she says.
"Oh. There's no time for introductions. Plus, you are 10 minutes late. Not a good impression now, is it? Out of the class, please." The teacher says in an imposing manner. "But… Sir-" the girl tries to convince the teacher to let her in. "No, out of the class." The teacher interrupts her mid-sentence.
"Sir, please…" she says. "Yeah, fine. Let's go out now." Karasu says as turns her around and starts pushing her out of the class. They both stand outside and Karasu bows before closing the door behind him. Once the door to the outside world is closed, the class bursts into laughter and so does the teacher. The teacher tries to suppress his laughter but is unable to do so. "By the way how big is Kurokawa? He's so huge." The teacher says and continues chuckling as the image of the girl's defensive stance flashes in front of his eyes.
"He's over 180cm." Nishimura says, answering the teacher's question. "Oh, believe me! I can clearly see that. But, wait, He's got to be over 190. He dwarves me whenever he stands up." The teacher turns around to continue his lesson but then he turns around to ask another question. "Has he ever bullied anyone? He can easily do it. So, does he?" Nishimura and Karasu's other friend deny the claim in unison. The rest of the class bursts out laughing again.
With having nothing to do, Karasu decides to continue reading his notebook. "I am not handing this over, buddy." Karasu says as he opens to the page where he left off. He looks over at the girl who is looking at the ground while sulking. She puts her hand on her head and speaks under her breath, "Damn it…. Why… why did this happen?" Karasu hears this and hesitates to say anything. The continues to ponder over the question that she had raised. After observing for a while Karasu decides to speak up. "Is something wrong?" he says. "… I was late on the first day… What could be worse than that…? Dammit." She replies with a sadness and exhaustion.
Karasu is surprised. He is confused… "What the hell…? That's it? Are you serious?" he thinks to himself wanting to say it out loud but he stops himself. Instead he says, "Is that really a big deal?" The girl looks at him with a shocked look. "Is that NOT a big deal? Being late to class is NOT a big deal? I am missing my lessons. Is that not important?" she says with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "The teacher will just continue on with their lessons without a care whether anyone is lagging behind or anyone was not in class at the time of the lesson. I am barely above average. How will I cover that part of the syllabus? Are you going to teach me?" she continues with her frustration bubbling up.
"Yeah, fine. I hate the subject, but I am good at it. Let me know if you need any help." Karasu replies with no sense of urgency, but rather nonchalantly. The girl finds this carefree attitude quite surprising. "Wait… This feels different. Why, though?" she asks herself. Her mind wanders trying to find an answer as to why this conversation feels so different from any interactions she has had with other people. "Why were you late anyway?" Karasu asks. "I got hurt about a week ago... So… I can't really walk properly." The girl replies. "Wait… she's a mutant, right? She could have… I will ask later, maybe." Karasu thinks.
"Why does THIS feel different? He's nothing special… He's just talking to me like a normal person… Then, why?" the questions run about in her mind. "Normal person… Normal… Oh… I get it." She finally found her answer. She starts to blush at the sudden realization. Someone is finally treating like a normal person. "Finally… Where have you been? Finally, someone not placing me on a pedestal! YES!" She thinks to herself as her excitement grows.
"Finally I can have a friend who's not friends with me for my looks. Wait… what if…? I should ask." She continues pondering and decides to ask Karasu a question that she finds to be of utmost importance. "Um… Mister… I don't know your name, but that doesn’t matter right now. You said you would help me. Why?" she asks. Karasu looks at her in confusion wondering why she might be asking that question.
"I don't know. Maybe, because you asked?" Karasu says in a matter-of-fact tone. The girl is pleasantly surprised by his answer. "Oh… Uh… That's… Great! Well, are we friends then?" she says as she extends her hand out in a handshake. Karasu dismisses her saying, "Me agreeing to help does not mean we are friends. Remember that. Moreover, you just arrived. We don't know each other, so no friendship."
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The girls eyes widen further, "Wow… Guys usually jump at me asking to be friends. This really is different. That’s great." Her mind echoes this statement. She dances in happiness, but in her imaginations. She doesn't want to come as weird and end up freaking him out. All that thought and effort but some of that excitement still spills out into the real world, which is made obvious, by her jumping and striking the victory pose, with her hands high above her head with wide grin and closed eyes decorating her beautiful face.
Karasu sees her do this and is taken aback as he shakes his head vigorously trying to reorient himself just in case he zoned out and started imagining things. Once he stopped his eyes widen as he realizes that what he was in fact real. He finds this reaction to be strange and decides to speak on it immediately. "What the fuck are you doing?" he says maintaining a calm demeanor.
The girl opens her eyes as the sudden realization hits her like a truck. She gets disappointed and crouches down to the floor facing away from Karasu and starts sulking. "Ahhh… there goes the friend… why did I do that… no… …. No…" she says, quietly. Nishimura was able to witness the entire incident while Karasu's other friend was only able to see her hand when she struck the pose.
They are both confused with the other guy being much more confused as compared to Nishimura. They sign to each other talking from the opposite ends of the class. Nishimura having a clear view of the hallway tries to convey the happenings. But, there's a problem. Neither of them know how to use sign language, so they do random symbols or actions trying to do their at conveying what they saw or questioning the other.
"Hey, she started crying I think!"(motions crying), "WHAT? Who started crying?"(waving around his hands), "The girl" (makes a twin tails), "The girl?" (copies the twin tails) "Yes!" (nods his head vigorously)
This continues for a while and the teacher notices them and thinks they are goofing around. So, the teacher decides to call them out. "Hey both of you. You are in the middle of my class!" the teacher shouts. The both of them stop immediately acting as if they were not doing anything.
The class starts laughing again. "You both want to join them outside?" the teacher shouts again. The teacher decides to step outside and check on Karasu and the girl. He walks to the door and slowly opens it. Karasu instantly notices his presence and tucks away his book, but the girl is unaware of his presence.
The teacher sees her on the floor circling her finger on it while squatting down. He's confused and the only possible way to find an answer would be Karasu. The teacher turns to him and nods to signal what happened. Karasu just shrugs, not sure what to say. "I am not really sure, sir." He whispers in his teacher's ear. Unsatisfied, the teacher calls out to the girl.
She gets startled and quickly turns her head to see the teacher poking his head out of the gap between in the door, staring at her. "NO! NOT AGAIN! NOT ANOTHER PERSON!" she screams out loud in her mind. A bit of which again spills out as a "No A-". "Noah? Who's Noah? Did someone named Noah come here?" The teacher says as he turns to Karasu again for an answer.
Karasu shrugs again, not knowing what his teacher is talking about. The teacher, getting frustrated, asks Karasu to explain from the beginning. Karasu starts his account of the events, which is exactly what happened but very condensed. "She was frustrated she was late on her first day. I said it's not a big deal. She asked if I can help cover what you taught today. I said yes. She asked if I will be her friend. I said no. She, for some reason, which only god will know, struck a victory pose. I asked her what she was doing. Then, she got disappointed and sat on the floor. Then, you came out of the class. That's it." Karasu says frantically trying to wrap it up quickly as he can't want to speak for long, due to his pain.
"Why are you speaking so fast? I got like, maybe… 60% of what you said." The teacher replied while speaking just as fast to express his frustration. The class can be seen trying to hold in their laughter and trying to peek outside and see what's happening. Some of the students that sitting near the hallway windows try to look outside but end up getting frustrated as Karasu's huge body is blocking the view.
One of the students turns to Nishimura to explain what happened, but he claimed that he doesn't know anything, making the other students even more disappointed. The teacher gets fed up and leaves. Going back into the class, he tells everyone to be quiet as he is going to continue his lesson.
After 50 minutes of teaching the bell rings and the teacher is leaves the class. When he steps outside he sees Karasu and the girl standing together waiting to go into class. He stares at them both with a frustrated look and tells gestures them to go into the class. He then starts to leave but before that he turns around to say, "Karasu, don't disturb in class.", with a smile on his face. The girl notices this and when the teacher turns around she asks Karasu, "Does the teacher like you?" "Yeah, he does. Same for me, I hate the subject, not the teacher." He replies.
They both walk back into class with Karasu going to his seat and the girl looking for a seat. Some of the boys stand up and offer their seat. The girl is taken aback by this and declines them politely. Her eyes scan through the class finding one empty seat at the back of the class beside Karasu. She walks over and sits down, greeting Karasu again. "Yeah, hello." He replies with disinterest.
Before the next period some of the girls get up from their seats to come greet her and they start talking. Many of them also ask about what happened outside in the hallway, to which the girl doesn't give a clear cut answer as she doesn't want to be embarrassed. All that she tells them is: "I was just disappointed on being late on the first day of class." To which some of the girls empathize with her saying that they have had the same experience before and that they feel bad for her. The girl laughs it off, with the teacher for the next subject walking in to start her lesson. Everyone walks back to their seat with one student turning around to tell the girl, "If you ever need help, come talk to me" with the girl replying, "Ok, I will."
After 2 more hours of grueling classes and being bored out of his mind, it’s time for recess. Karasu’s friend asks him if he will be coming with him and some other guys and he nods his head, signaling he won’t. Karasu is a loner that just happens to have a few good friends. He watches his friend leave and gets up to leave the room with his lunch box. He arrives on the rooftop and sits down on one of the many benches on the roof. Taking his mask off reveals a deep scar on his face on the left cheek. The injury has healed, but the scar remains. His cheek still hurts and thinks back to the week before while caressing the scar.
Karasu recounts the events. His exam results were released for his first year in high school. He had passed his finals with great grades, and was satisfied with his result with a gleeful smile. In the middle of the night, he lay on his bed, sleepless. With nothing to do, he imagines the events that will take place when the new school year starts. He continues thinking about all the things that he plans to do. Make a new friend, become part of a new and big friend group, study better, etc.
He believes he can easily make new friends, but there's one condition. Some people might mistake him for a bully or maybe if the people found out about the fact that he is a mutant; both of the situations are highly unfavorable. Thinking being the only thing for him to do right, he thinks about how he has been honing his telekinesis for years and is still looking for all of its limitations.
He seems happy with the way his life is going, but right now, at this moment, it feels miserable. "Damn, this is boring." He says to himself and whips out his phone and decides to do something even more boring so that he could sleep. He decides to do something that will bore him further and make him fall asleep… Watch the NEWS. He starts flipping through the channels and watching the latest news. He stumbles upon one that is covering an incident that took place in a mall at the City of Ichinomiya. The anchor is reporting about an explosion that happened at the mall a few hours ago. It seems to be a live broadcast. They stand in front of a huge mall and several police cars outside the mall. "What the fuck?" Karasu says as his frustration increases, looking at the scene behind the reporter.
“A group of armed criminals have taken multiple shopkeepers and customers hostage and are demanding for 110,000,000 yen to release the hostages without any harm. We know that there is at least 1 mutant among the culprits. 2 police officers have been sent in to gather some more information as to who the criminals ar. Their colleagues are worried as the 2 police officers haven't left the building yet, making us ask the question, "Are they dead?". We don’t know what’s going on inside. And the police won’t allow us to go inside either, for reasons that should be obvious. We will get back to you to report any new developments soon enough.” the reporter says.
The reporter reacts erratically to any loud noise. He's clearly scared to be there as any normal human would be. The mention of mutants being involved sends waves of rage through Karasu. "These are the kind of people that give rest of the mutants a bad reputation. Fuck these guys!" he says, trying to contain his rage and not yell. He has always hated this sort of mutants, who use their powers to facilitate crimes. Instead of living like normal people, they can’t help but take advantage of the powers bestowed on them. They were never meant to be used for something like this. This is just madness. As he sees this and he thinks that he can help the cops and the hostages, as he does have telekinesis and he is quite good at using it.
He throws his phones onto the mattress and slams his fist down on the mattress getting off his bed and grabbing a face mask to cover the bottom half of his face. A solid black colour will be able to cover his face well enough. He puts it on while listening to the news and the reporter who is in the studio says that this is happening in Ichinomiya. That’s not very far away from where he lives, Osaka. He looks out of his room’s window. While looking around, he saw a shining piece of metal (a sheet) around 100m from him. He can’t see it very clearly, but it’s visible and that's enough. He uses his telekinesis to bring that metal sheet in front of his window.
He grabs his phone off the bed and vaults his way out of the window, jumping onto the sheet. Then he starts traveling and superhuman speeds. He goes fast enough to get to the place of the incident quickly but also slow enough so that the metal sheet doesn’t get vaporized or melted due to air friction. “These are so fucking unreliable,” he says to himself while looking at the sheet. He starts going faster and faster. He reminds himself that he can’t lose too much time. The metal sheet hasn’t started melting yet, at 500m/s. That’s good. This sheet is holding up well. If he keeps moving at this speed, he should be able to reach there in less than 4 minutes.
3 minutes and 20 seconds later, he arrives at the scene and jumps off the sheet while in a dark alleyway shrouded in the shadows of the nearby buildings. He puts away the sheet and then starts running to the crime scene, but stops midway. He walks to an abandoned building nearby and uses his power to make a flight of stairs to the 5th story of the building. He runs up the stairs frantically to get there in time before things get any worse.
"Okay… How do I start…?" he asks himself. He scans his surroundings, and looks at the mall to peer inside and possibly see where the hostages are. He can next to nothing. "There's only one option." He says as he focuses on the wall of the mall that is facing him. He raises his hand, with his palm facing the wall. The tingles run through his fingers and he imagines a bunch of ropes connecting themselves to Karasu's puppet that is, the mall itself. He rips open a huge hole to get a clear view inside. The building seems to be in shambles and traces of people's fear and desperation can be seen all throughout.
The criminals inside see the giant hole and are shocked and they look outside to find out what's going on. But as soon as Karasu had enough information about the criminals and hostages' rough positions he clenches his hand forms a fist, instantly closing the hole, the force of which creates a shockwave travelling through the air, forming an explosion in its wake. The noise of this shockwave echoes through everyone's bodies as they witness the events unfolding before their eyes. The bystanders outside the mall look on in awe and wonder. Some are scared, not knowing what could be happening, others waiting to see what interesting events will follow suit.
"Let's get started, yeah?" Karasu says as puts his hands in his pockets and turns around to face the floors above. His forehead tingles, with a sense of electricity surging through him, as he rips apart pieces of the building he's standing on. He merges and compresses multiple pieces together, making them stronger. "Now you all can break through the wall easily." He says, talking to the concrete pieces hovering overhead.
He forces the concrete chunks into shape of spears and flings them at the mall. They tear through the air like a bunch jet engines as they break the sound-barrier and pierce right through the wall, like a hot knife through butter. The people inside, now scared for their, inside the mall with its walls, floors and furniture destroyed and blown to pieces. The holes the walls have witnessed the raw power carried in those concrete spears, and they do not look fine. The rebar had melted and was dripping on the floor solidifying in place. The wall was blown wide-open. The floors are broken with the wood sticking out.
"Now, their morale should be down." Karasu says as he walks down the stairs of the abandoned building. The criminals hide themselves away from everyone's sight. They wonder what or who could have done this. The criminals' leader, a pyromancer, decides to inspect the spears and walks to over to one of them carefully, slowly. "Shit… what the hell is this…?" he says as he walks closer to them and sees that the spears have not been damaged even though they travelled through a 10 inch thick wall.
Karasu runs to the mall and stands in front of the entrance to look at the cops standing outside with their guns aimed at the entrance, just in case a criminal tries to escape. The cops see him, and knowing his intentions, they yell at him to get away from there.
He starts walking and a cop fires a warning shot into the air and yells, “If you go any further, I will have to shoot you! You aren’t authorized to go inside! Come back!” Karasu pays no heed and walks into the mall. The cop is flabbergasted. He tries to run after Karasu, but one of his colleagues stops him saying, “If he dies, he dies. It will be his fault for not listening. You can’t go after him and die as well. Think about your family.” The cop replies, “But it’s our responsibility to protect them!”
His colleague says, “It’s our responsibility, sure. But think about it. Why would he go in? There must be something? Moreover, he is a mutant.” Think about that." The cop is confused at first and asks, "How do you… how do you know he's a mutant?" His colleague tells him about a vigilante that has been witnessed fighting on the cops side while using his incredible strength and skills. The cop remembers all the different cases that he has heard about and calms down. "Well, guess we wouldn't have to worry, then." He says breathing a sigh of relief not trying to leave anymore as he decides to wait and see what happens.
Karasu scans the ground floor of the mall and sees 2 dead bodies. Keeping himself hidden, he slowly walks to them to inspect them. "The 2 cops, huh?" Karasu says, looking at the 2 police officers that were previously sent to examine the mall and gather information. They have been burned to a crisp with a multiple bullet holes littering their bodies.
Karasu is standing in front of the group of hostages. Behind him are the hostages and in front are 3 of the criminals. One of the hostages, a girl, is looking at him with tear-filled eyes. She didn’t expect to live anymore, but Karasu has come to save them. The 2 police officers that were sent beforehand are both dead with gunshot wounds on them and burned to a crisp. Karasu raises a concrete wall separating himself and the criminals from the hostages. The girl wants to help, but she’s injured and can’t move. She can do nothing but wait.
Karasu lifts pieces of glass and moulds them into the shape of a conical drill. The 3 criminals step back and one of them shouts, “Wh-who are you? Get out of here, or else… or else, you will not get out of here. Only your dead body will.” Karasu throws one of the drills, grazing the face of the speaking criminal. His cheek starts to bleed as his knees lose all strength and drops to the floor. One of them raises their gun and shoots. The gunshot rings out, and Karasu blocks it with another one of the glass pieces, flinging it at the bullet at an insane speed. The glass shard tears through the air, breaking the sound barrier, and creates an explosion as it collides with the bullet. More glass shards spread around and the bullet is nowhere to be seen. The criminals stumble back further. They can feel the difference in power between them and the man in front of them. Not being a mutant is very inconvenient at this moment. "Maybe we can ask for mercy and leave…" one criminals thinks to himself. And then Karasu sends some of the glass shards flying at the man.
A man’s guttural agonised screams ring out. The cop thinks that it was Karasu and starts to think that he possibly died, and then more people start screaming. This time more women and men are screaming in terror. Many people start running out of the mall. Blood is dripping from the floor above the entrance and is seen clearly through the entrance with all the lights pointing at it. Then a gigantic explosion happens. Fire breaks out inside the mall. A man was seen flying out of the explosion. It was Karasu. Another one jumps out, ready to stab the other.
They both drop to the road. The orange flames behind them lit the street; it was a sight to behold. A beautiful explosion like a blooming flower; yet deathly scary at the same time. Karasu assesses the situation by talking to himself. This man, standing in front of him ready to jump at him and stab him to death. Hundreds of people surround them. Anyone can get hurt if they get caught up in it. A helicopter flying above, recording the entire situation. He can’t let allow any explosions to be directed at the sky. There are tens of buildings around them. He doesn’t want to cause any more harm to the buildings as that can be detrimental to the city and cause huge financial losses. Can he trap this man and take him away from here? Once he assesses the situation; he puts his focus back on the man. The man sends a ball of fire toward him.
Karasu raises a piece of the road to form a wall and blocks it. Then, uses the ground to twist into a shackle to trap the man and raises a dome around them, so that the people don’t get hurt and also to not let any explosions be directed at the helicopter. The reporter says, “What’s happening? What is that man doing? We don’t have any answers. Will he win or not?” Then, screams can be heard from inside the dome. No one can see what’s happening. Another huge explosion, and the dome breaks revealing that the man’s hand was broken and his foot was bleeding. Karasu was ready to beat this man to death if this guy doesn’t want to get captured by the police. The man gets into a stance ready to use his pyromancy. He throws down a wall of fire to block Karasu’s vision. He jumps through it and tries to stab Karasu in the face, but fails. He was able to graze and deeply cut him though. Karasu is bleeding from his right cheek. The mask is cut. He doesn’t want his identity revealed so he starts getting faster. He is ready to use his full power on this deplorable man. Holding onto the mask with his right hand, he raises his left hand and punches the man straight in the face. Hard enough that his face gets partially buried in the road. The man is out cold. Karasu rips a piece off the road and starts traveling; fast. He goes far away. Then returns slowly, to the same alleyway where he left the sheet of metal. He did this so that people would think that he helped, and then left.
He came back slowly so that people won’t notice him getting close. He gets back onto the metal sheet and flies off. “Another criminal subdued with minimal damage to the surroundings.” he thinks to himself, which is true. The only building that got damaged was the mall, which is to be expected as it can’t be helped. And the only casualties and injuries were the criminals and the only one of the hostages. Thankfully the injured hostage was not fatally hurt and would survive. He gets back home in about 5 minutes. Grabs a first-aid kit from the kitchen downstairs and gets ready to patch up his wound. His entire face was painted in this crimson liquid. He washes his face and applies first-aid. That’s how he got that scar. With the hostages saved, and having gotten himself patched up, he can have a good night’s sleep. He is one of the only people that still try to save the reputation of people with abilities. Many people don’t like to associate with them nowadays because of such criminals. Karasu hopes to change the mindset of at least some people out there. Now he goes to sleep waiting to see what the new day holds for him.
Karasu thinks, “I don’t want to talk a lot. My cheek hurts too goddamn much.”
The transfer student now leaves the class. She goes to the top of the roof and finds that Karasu is also there eating his lunch. He saw the girl come to the roof and puts his mask back on and close his lunch box. She looks at him and is a bit hesitant but decides to walk up to him and introduce herself. “Hey, My name is Nagisa, Mitsuri. We haven’t introduced ourselves to each other have we?” MC decides to be polite and says, “Hello, ma’am. My name is Kurokawa, Karasu.” Mitsuri was one of those people on the day of the incident where Karasu helped them. She is excited to talk about that incident and would love to tell that story to anyone who listens. She thinks, “He looks like the kind of guy that would be interested in this hero incident. Who wouldn’t want to hear a story like that?” She admires the guy that saved her in the mall that day.
She asks him if she can sit down beside him. Karasu says he doesn’t mind and also tells her not to bore him with any small talk as he deems it to be waste of time. If she wants to talk she needs to talk to the point without beating around the bush. Mitsuri likes it. She has always been a to-the-point talker. So she starts, “Do you know what happened in Ichinomiya around a week ago?” Karasu says that he does. Mitsuri continues, “Did you see the man that subdued the last criminal? Wasn’t he very cool!? The way he dealt with them so quickly?” Karasu says, “Yes. Seems like an efficient guy.” Mitsuri’s eyes light up as she remembers that day fondly. Continuing with, “I was one of the people he saved that day. I wish I could meet. When I ran out, I heard a huge explosion and was scared for him. I didn’t want him to get hurt. Otherwise, I would be very angry. I have been praying to god every day saying that ‘PLEASE GOD LET ME MEET HIM AND THANK HIM PROPERLY!!’ The reason being if he didn’t come that day I wouldn’t be here. I could have ended up dead, you know.” Hearing this Karasu looks at her and says with surprise, “You were one of them!?” and then he thinks to himself, “She doesn’t know it was me, right? Hope not.” Mitsuri is excited to tell him more about that day, so she replies, “Do you want to know more?” Karasu says he does, so she starts narrating her experience.
“Let’s start from the beginning. Why was I even there in the first place? I was there to buy new clothes for a cousin who was turning 3 years old. I was excited to be there and looking for something that would make a toddler happy to wear, so it took me a long time. It was around 6 pm by the time I was done shopping. After I was done, I decided to maybe get some snacks and a drink. I went to the snacks store on the first floor and was waiting for my order when I heard some people screaming downstairs. That was very weird, and I became a bit worried, like ‘What the hell was happening?’, ‘Is there some dangerous animal or maybe a criminal?’, ‘If not that, what else could it be?’ Those questions were just running through my head. And then I heard a few gunshots. I knew something very bad was going to happen, and it didn’t help I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I should call for help, get out of there and get myself out of harm’s way, or should I stay there to maybe help people if they got hurt and use my healing ability on them to keep them alive just in case? It was very confusing.”
Karasu interrupts her, “Wait, you have a healing ability?”
Mitsuri looks at him, she stops her narration and hesitates a bit, “…yes…”, and takes off her headband to reveal a pair of animal ears.
Yes, the people with abilities did end up growing animal-like features, but it wasn’t for all of them, mostly girls. The animal-like features are usually related to their ability and another animal who can do something resembling that same thing. But it didn’t coincide for every person.
Karasu: “That’s cool. That’s a very useful ability.”
Mitsuri: “Wait, you don’t hate me for it?”
Karasu: “No, why would I? My friend; the guy who was sitting in front of me in class, also has an ability.”
Mitsuri: “Really? I didn’t expect anyone else to be having an ability.”
Karasu: “But, I can’t help but ask. Why did you so carelessly mention it?”
Mitsuri: “I don’t know. I wouldn’t have done it in front of anyone else. Maybe, because you seem like someone I can trust? I don’t know. Maybe I like you even.”
Karasu: “Sorry, hun. We don’t even know each other.”
Mitsuri: “I know. But it’s just an instinct you know like it’s telling me to trust you with that info.”
Karasu (with a concerned look in his eyes): “Well, now that you have told me, I should give you this piece of advice. Don’t say it in front of anyone else. Most of the class doesn’t like people like you, I mean people with abilities.”
Mitsuri: “Are you one of them?”
Karasu: “…Do I look like one? Anyways… I need a bit of help.”
Mitsuri: “Sure, what do you want help with?”
Karasu: “So… umm… A cat recently scratched me. I still have this scar. Can you maybe heal it? I would like to see what you can do.”
Karasu shows her a scar on his brachioradialis muscle, the largest muscle in the forearm.
Mitsuri: “Oh wow. Look at that. I have never seen such a veiny arm.”
She starts touching the scar and mentions that it looks about a week old. Karasu doesn’t say anything regarding how old it is, but he knows that it happened on the day of the incident.
Mitsuri starts healing it, and in about 15 seconds, she is done healing it. Karasu is surprised at the speed and his pain is now gone, “That’s neat AND sweet.” he thinks to himself. He expresses his gratefulness, and she says that she is happy to help.
Karasu now prompts her to continue her story of that day.
Mitsuri: “Oh right, where was I again?”
Karasu: “You were saying that you were confused about what you should do, or something like that.”
Mitsuri: “Right, right.”