I’ve gotta be strong. I’ve gotta be strong. I’ve gotta be strong.

“Goki, you’re moving up in the world.”

“Thank you, President Thumb.”

“No, it can’t end like this. The strong never die,” Goki said after a bit of his past flashed through his mind, like his life was flashing before his eyes.

Neon War Chapter 5: Goki’s Past

“His life is flashing before his eyes,” Toji said, able to tell what Goki was going through as if he were peering into Goki’s soul.

Was Thumb wrong? Goki questioned himself.

I’ve always been raised to believe in the strong. Since childhood, my family valued strength above anything. They’d tell me and my brother, Gama, that a strong man rises above and conquers all. I lived by those words all my life, Goki thought to himself.

Even after I found out that my parents never loved me and loved Gama more—even after they abandoned me at the age of fifteen—I still remember the day Thumb found me, abandoned and broken.

“Do you want power, kid?” Thumb had told me. “Join me, and we’ll be strong together.”

And thus began my journey of climbing the ranks of Thumb’s army. I’m currently twenty-five, and I’ve been in Thumb’s ranks for a while. I’ve been with him since day one, and I always believed in his goal. No—rather, I always believed in his strength.

As for my parents, I still remember the day of their betrayal. I thought I was the strongest—they raised me to believe I was. But then, one day, they broke it to me: Gama was the strongest.

As someone raised in a high-end noble family of assassins for the military, I was deemed useless to them. And so, they threw me out like garbage.

I’ve spent all my life in pursuit of strength, Goki continued to think to himself. Then, his eyes opened once more. Toji was about to attack and finish him, but Goki cut him off.

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“End me!” Goki screamed.

“What?” Toji and Zemaku said in unison.

“You heard me—end me, Toji. You’ve proven your strength. End me now!” Goki demanded.

“But this isn’t like you—to give up,” Toji questioned.

“You’ve surpassed me, not just in strength, but as a person,” Goki said.

“As a person?” Toji repeated in confusion.

“Yes, as a person,” Goki continued. “Sure, you only did this for your loyalty to Ren, but deep down, I can tell it’s a bit deeper than that. You also see an issue with Thumb’s philosophy, just like Zemaku and now Ren. While I’ve been blinded by Thumb’s strength, all I’ve ever done is follow the strongest. It makes sense why I couldn’t see it—my family never raised me to think critically. I always followed orders.”

“Goki, what do you mean your family never raised you to think critically? What family were you born into? Don’t tell me that—”

But Goki cut Toji off.

“Yes, Toji. I was raised under the assassination family of the northern areas of the military. A family that Thumb quickly disposed of after learning of my background. My family background was the Kratosian Family. The name of our family was inspired by Kratos, the personification of strength and power. It represented a family that valued power and strength above all else.”

“My family emotionally manipulated me,” Goki continued. “They treated me like I was special, but then it turned out that my older brother was the one they considered special. They abandoned me like I was garbage once they realized I couldn’t be fixed, and they told me the truth.”

“Then Thumb recruited me at the age of 15.”

“I don’t care about your excuses!” Zemaku yelled. “You laughed as you brutally tortured a literal child in a village over information about a man who was considered that village’s savior. I can’t just forgive you for that!”

“Don’t you think I know what I did?” Goki screamed. “I was an evil scumbag who wasn’t afraid of anything, but I never chose to be like this. Thumb’s goal of total control, believing humanity had strayed too far, becoming weak and divided due to our over-reliance on social media and our disconnectedness from the world—I wanted to believe in it. My family would encourage me but would still be distant. They would often be on their phones when encouraging me, but I never noticed it until I got older. That was why Thumb got rid of them—they were against everything he stood for and everything about the world he was trying to build.”

“It hurt me. It made me cry like a bitch. My parents even called me a bitch when they abandoned me and called me a baby. Do you know how painful that is for a 15-year-old to hear from his parents?” Goki screamed, while crying.

Goki and Zemaku stared at Goki—this buff, hard-boiled man in a cape who looked as suspicious and evil as can be—crying with the soulful eyes and innocence of a child.

“Zemaku, let’s take him with us back to your hideout. Please, just trust me. He’s no use to Thumb anymore anyway. He’ll throw him out like garbage too.”

“Fine,” Zemaku gave in.

Chapter 5 End