-Rain of Sins-

-Burning Blood: Ch 6-

Slowly having your senses return to you, alongside a dizzying amount of pain was something all Heroes in the Industry, with any real notoriety at all, would have to experience one time or another. And even he, with all his ability and meticulous preparation skills, was a painfully familiar with the sensation.

The extreme lightheadedness that plagued him this time, however, was extremely concerning.

Sir Nighteye slowly forced his eyes to open, not that it did him much good. His vision was plagued by dark spots, and everything else was either in doubles, or spinning. Nonetheless he was able to make out a ruined street of some kind, and debris everywhere.

The weight of his eyelids was too much, however, and he blinked. But suddenly the street was different, with less debris on it.

Confused, and still exhausted he blinked again, only to find himself in an alleyway.

Alarmed, he forced his eyes to stay open, regardless of how much everything hurt, and how his vision swam.

…But, wait, it wasn't just his vision swimming, he was moving somehow.

It was with this revelation that he was finally made aware of the sensation of arms grasped tightly under his shoulders, pulling him along with brief but consistent tugs.

He blinked again, and he was suddenly being dragged around the corner further down the alley, a thick trail of blood marking his path, on the ground that appeared from under his limp legs.

He blinked again.

He hurt everywhere, especially his lower chest, but his legs felt perfectly fine.

…Rather, they didn't feel at all.

He blinked again, not even acknowledging how the world seemed to shift far more than it should within the timespan of a simple blink.

He couldn't feel his legs.

That was probably a bad thing.

The arms around his shoulders let go, and his upper body unceremoniously dropped the short distance to the cold floor.

The person behind him let out a sharp gasp, and stumbled to the side, catching themselves on the alley wall, and clutching bloody wounds tightly.

Nighteye was only vaguely surprised to see the tattered red scarf of the man he'd been fighting not an hour prior.

…Should he be surprised? It was hard to think, his head felt like it was full of cotton.

"W-why?" He whispered out, with a cough.

"Because." The villain grunted. "You're-"

Nighteye blinked again, trying to clear the dark spots from his vision, but when they opened several minutes later, Stain, and his answer, was long gone, with only a large puddle of blood where he had been leaning.

Nighteye tisked in annoyance, but his attention was quickly torn away by an emergency aid Helicopter flying overhead, with Hawks trailing close behind it.

"About time." He sighed, finally acknowledging the losing battle against exhaustion, as his eyelids kept growing heavier. "This whole fiasco… is… way past it's welcome…"

And with that final lightheaded thought, Nighteye stopped fighting his body, and let his eyes fall close.

-Rain of Sins-

Within the rubbled remains of the half standing coliseum, a particularly large boulder dissolved into dust, opening up a large enough gap for a cursing Tomura to crawl out of.

"Fuck society. Fuck the Heroes." He muttered as he pushed himself to his feet.. "Fuck this scripted event, it totally ruined my raid! And fuck that blond idiot too!"

"No thanks."

Tomura froze as something sharp tickled his neck, heat radiating from the object. He glanced to the side, and scowled as he came face to face with a smirking Aoyama.

"Awfully generous of you, but I'll have to pass on the offer."

The villain just gave a confused look in response.

"Man, that was bad." Mineta facepalmed, brining Tomura's attention to the midget standing off to the side. Sitting a far distance behind him, Oachako sat crouched over the unconscious form of Tsu. "Just go back to your crappy one liners dude. They were bad, but not that bad." The grape said.

"Look I'm trying ok?" Aoyama blushed in embarrassment. "Alright, re-do, re-do."

He coughed, shifted his cape slightly, and straightened his sword at Tomura.

"Ah, Villain, I see you're finally awake." Aoyama flashed a smug award winning smile, the sun gleaming as it hit his golden hair., "You're Dust in time for justice."

"As I said." Mineta sighed. "Bad, but not horrible."

Tomura glanced back and forth between the two, a half disgusted, half baffled look on his face. "What is happening right now?"

Aoyama and Mineta spared a glance at each other and smirked.

Plan "Distract the way-out-of-our-league Villain, so that he doesn't fight back until other Heroes arrive" was going smoothly! They just had to keep him talking.

"That's what I should be asking." Aoyama said, his sword humming dangerously. "You said you were here for me. What did you mean?"

"I meant exactly what I said. What are you? Deaf?" Tomura scoffed. "I don't lie as I breathe, like you Heroes do. I said the attack was here for you, I meant that the attack was here for you." Red eyes met blue. "And you know exactly why."

Aoyama blinked.

Mineta blinked.

They glanced at each other.

They glanced back at Tomura.

"I do?" "He does?"

Tomura stared at Aoyama with a blank face. "You do know why we're after you, right? You're not that stupid are you?"

The blond just raised an eyebrow. "Buddy, I have never seen you before in my life."

Tomura looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, but after a moment something clicked, and his eyes went wide in realization.

"No way." His dry lips twisted into a malicious grin. "You actually have amnesia! Haha!" He tilted his head back and let out a gleeful cackle. "Oh this is too good! You really don't remember do you!?"

"Remember what?" Aoyama frowned, his sword inching towards Tomura's neck.

The Villain turned to him, red eyes sparkling with cruelty.

"You were one of us!" He laughed. "You're a traitor!"

The words rippled through the clearing like a bomb.

Ochako's head whipped around, staring at them with wide eyes, her face pale as if she'd just seen a ghost.

A cold chill rippled through Aoyama's bones, but he gnashed his teeth together and forced through it.

"You lie!" He shouted.

"Why would I?" Tomura laughed. "And what other reason would I have for gunning after you?"

"I- You-" Aoyama pressed his sword forward threateningly, pressing the blade against Shirigaki's neck, causing the skin to hiss against the plasma infused blade. "You're a Villain! It's what you do!"

But Tomura ignored him and continued to laugh to himself.

"Oh I can't wait! After this whole disaster, the Heroes are going to start investigating! They're going to pick up on your trail, and I'd like to see you try to cover your tracks when you don't even know what all you've done!"

"Bro, calm down." Mineta grabbed Aoyama's arm and tried to shake him out of it. "He's just trying to rile you up so he can escape!"

Oh how he wished that were the case. The Villain hadn't even given any evidence to his claim, but what he was saying… the word Traitor. It caused his heart rate to spike, and made his head pound in pain as pictures of places he'd never been to flash in his mind, and his brain reached for memories that weren't there anymore.

"LIAR!" He roared, desperately denying what he instinctively knew to be true.

"Deny it all you want, I won't stop you." Tomura chuckled. "It'll just make it all the more fun to watch as your little world unravels."

Tomura leaned his head back, away from the blade, and scratched at the burnt skin on his neck. "No wonder there was a scripted event to save you, this is a really good side quest. Honestly, I didn-"

Aoyama stared off into nothing as his mind raced, he couldn't hear anything over the blood pumping through his ears, and the headache that wracked his skull.

He didn't hear Tomura's ramblings… and he didn't hear the ominous cracking from the ruined ceiling above him.

"WATCH OUT!" Mineta screamed as he crashed into Aoyama's side. But the grape was too small, and Aoyama's armor too heavy, and he bounced off like a ball.

Aoyama snapped out of his trance from the impact, and looked up to see a giant chunk of the ceiling falling directly at him.

He stumbled back at the sight, but tripped on his cape, and fell backwards.

He could only watch helplessly as the boulder of cement came crashing down atop him.

…He couldn't help but think it was a fitting end for a traitor who had endangered all of his friends and classmates.

But strangely, instead of crushing him, the rock began to slow down, the air around it bending and stretching like an invisible trampoline.

He didn't have much time to think about it, before a pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him out of the way, before the invisible net snapped and the rock crushed into where he had just been.

"Young Man, are you okay?"

Aoyama shook his head to bring himself back to reality, and looked up to see a face he was personally unfamiliar with, but one he recognized.

Silvery white hair, teal eyes, and a phenomenally well maintained mustache.

"You're the guy who cut off Satin's broadcast!" Aoyama gasped. "The one who stole the bomb!"

At the recognition, the man visibly seemed to puff up in pride. "Indeed! It is I, Gentle Criminal! The fiendishly slick, and devilishly handsome Ne'er-do-well! Who charms the hearts and minds of Heroes and Villains alike!"

"Ah…" Aoyama blinked at him, not entirely sure how to respond. "Well, thanks for the save. I thought I was a goner there."

Aoyama spared a glance to where Tomura had been, but clicked his tongue when the man was nowhere to be seen.

"That's just what Gentle does!" A short woman, with red hair and a camera, popped her head out from behind the man's cape. "He's there to pull people out of their lowest points, and inspire them to go forward!" After a pause she added, "...Although, it's usually more figurative than that."

"Indeed, La Brava, but never forget, you're just as much a part of this as I am." Gentle smiled softly and ruffled her hair, before turning his attention back to Aoyama.

"There are several Hero teams on our trail right now, and I've been doing my best to lead them to any survivors I can find. They should be able to help you and your friends get out of here, and to any medical assistance you need. I wish I could do more, however I unfortunately lack any form of real medical skills."

Gentle glanced sadly at Ochako holding Tsu's bleeding body, and nodded at a frozen Mineta.

"I wish you good luck, and safe travels, Young man." He said to Aoyama. "But I believe our time is running out, so my partner and I must be on our way."

And he was right, Aoyama could hear the sounds of footsteps in the distance if he strained his ears.

"Same to you, Sir Gentle." Aoyama said, hopefully with the appropriate respect for the man who saved his life- which seemed to surprise Gentle, who smiled genuinely and gave a parting nod before bouncing away, his partner in tow.

Aoyama watched the retreating forms of the two criminals as they ran away.

"After this whole disaster, the Heroes are going to start investigating!" Tomura's voice echoed in his mind, as the sound of footsteps grew closer.

He glanced back towards the direction they had come from, presumably the direction that the Heroes were also coming from..

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"They're going to pick up on your trail, and I'd like to see you try to cover your tracks when you don't even know what all you've done!"

…The same Heroes who could very well already have figured out he was responsible for this.

"Deny it all you want, I won't stop you. It'll just make it all the more fun to watch as your little world unravels."

The footsteps grew closer.

And even if they didn't know now, they would figure it out eventually. Effectively turning UA into a bear trap, waiting to snap shut around him.

The footsteps grew closer.

And so, with his world view shaken, his head pounding, panic on his nerves, and time to think rapidly running out, Aoyama made a decision.

Because humans, you see, are irrational creatures. And when you're in a lose-lose situation, with no obvious way out, and desperation setting in…

People can make very, very, stupid decisions. Very, very, confidently…

"Wait!" Aoyama shouted, causing the two to pause and glance back at him. "Let me come with you!"

"What?" La Brava squealed in surprise before shaking her head and glaring at him. "No! You just want to lead your fellow Heroes to us."

"No! I don't." Aoyama stemmed forward, determination in his eyes. "I give you my word, I'm not trying to trick you."

La Brava huffed and was about to say something, but fell quiet as Gentle laid a hand on her shoulder.

Gentle stared at Aoyama seriously. "You give your word?"

"I swear on my honor." Aoyama put a hand to his chest. "I will not try to get you captured, and if it comes to it, I'll do all I can to help you escape."

"A heavy promise from one so young, but no less sincere." Gentle nodded at him. "A man's honor is worth much indeed. Come young man, let us be off."

La Brava looked like she wanted to protest, but she bit her tongue and followed Gentle as they resumed running down the hall.

Aoyama let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, but was stopped from running off by something gripping his leg.

"I'm coming with you!"

"What!?" Aoyama looked down at his best friend with a packed face. "No! Did you not hear what the Villain said? He was after me! You're clean. You should stay at UA, it's your dream." He smiled sadly.

"And even if he was lying about the traitor thing, he still sought me out specifically. Tsu, and everyone else, got hurt because I have a target on my back. I'm endangering everyone by staying here."

"That's why I'm coming with you, you idiot." Mineta scowled and poked Aoyama. "You need someone to watch your back!"

"But-"

"No buts!" He punched the blond in the gut. "Bros stick together."

Aoyama stared down Mineta for several seconds, but when the Grape refused to blink, he sighed sadly before smiling and reaching out to bump his friend's fist.

"Bros stick together."

"You man!" Gentle's voice called out from down the tunnel. "Are you coming?"

Mineta and Aoyama nodded at each other, before taking off in a dead sprint. Running down the tunnel, into the darkness, into a new life.

…

..

.

When a Hero team arrived on the scene a minute later, they found Ochako curled up in a corner, staring off down a hallway, and shivering in fear.

-Rain of Sins-

-Three Days Later-

A lone pair of footsteps echoed loudly in the metal underground tunnels beneath Jaku General Hospital.

Any staff or lab assistants who heard, immediately began making themselves scarce- suddenly having to go to the restroom, or closing the door to their offices and hiding in their work. Because over the last few days, one thing had become very apparent.

Their boss was NOT in a good mood.

Which was something easily confirmed as Ujiko came storming around the corner, with a fierce scowl on his face, and deep bags under his eyes, clutching a cup of coffee so tightly it threatened to shatter.

Ujiko hadn't slept much, or really at all, recently. He was too busy.

Too busy, with things far too important to delay on.

More important than sleep.

More important than needling his labs to make sure they were on schedule.

More important than listening to whatever inane rant Tomura tried to call him for- likey wanting another outfit made of hands or something.

So important, that he had even politely informed the Master that he would be occupied for the foreseeable future, and as such would be unable to take any art requests.

And as such, it was definitely more fucking important than getting sleep!

… Did he mention that one already?

Ujiko shook his head to ward off the drowsiness, and lifted his cup to take a sip of coffee. Or, at least he tried to, only to scowl when he found it to be empty.

He'd just left to go get a new cup, had he really drunk it all on the way back?

The scientist scoffed and opened the door to his destination with a flick of his Admin card, revealing a large dark room, with various terminals manned by a select few of his most trusted staff.

In the middle of the room, with numerous tubes and wires connected to it, was a large growth vat- specifically one designed to the specifications from Izuku's lab, but personally modified by Ujiko himself. Rather than the blue fluid the Origins Lab had designed to mirror the conditions of a womb, or the thick toxic green sludge that nomu were traditionally submerged in during the creation process, this tube was filled with what Ujiko believed to be the perfect balance between the two designs, resulting in a rich emerald liquid that almost seemed to shine in the light.

Floating in the tank, with countless needles stuck into his arms, chest, and legs, with a breathing tube for oxygen, was none other than the body of Izuku Midoriya.

The body of.

By the time a panicking Ujiko had gotten Izuku back to his lab, the boy's heart had stopped beating. Had stopped beating for a while.

That, combined with the severe damage his spine had suffered, would have been more than enough for the kid to have been declared clinically dead, by just about any medical professional who would have looked at him. And that's not even tracking into account the extreme blood loss, widespread third degree burns, countless injuries, ruptured organs, and numerous broken bones.

Any sane person with even the most basic medical know-how would have written Izuku off.

…But for once in his life, Ujiko was more than happy to have been called that vile nickname in his youth.

Not since Daruma Ujiko had officially committed public suicide some 60 years ago, to continue his work underground for Master, legally forging the identity of Kyudai Garaki, had he been so committed to something.

Izuku Midoriya. Would. Not. Die.

Not under Ujiko's care.

His first instinct had been to give the kid quirks. Previously, given the fact Izuku was quirkless and his body wasn't designed to hold the strain of even a single quirk, let alone multiple. Between the quirks ripping him apart from the inside out, and possible quirk rejection between the quirks, he would have been very very dead.

Fortunately Izuku's serum pushed his body to its physical peak, on top of providing additional durability in the form of stronger bones, denser muscles, and a slightly above average recovery rate. And with the recent breakthroughs in genome mapping and genetic engineering Izuku had pioneered with the Origins Lab, the option of quirks was firmly on the table.

But then the dreaded question. What quirks to give?

Durability and vitality quirks? Useless. The damage had already been done.

Regeneration quirks? A much more viable option, but ultimately a flawed one. Regeneration quirks were VERY rare, and the sheer level of damage was far too severe for any low to mid level quirk to take care of. Even the most powerful regeneration quirk he had available, a copy of the one he had found to help Master recover, revealed itself to miss the mark.

Just like All for One, Izuku had been horribly maimed before given the quirk, and the quirk could not heal what wasn't there to begin with.

Thus quirks, one of his main specialties, was out of the picture.

All that was left was to roll up his sleeves and get to work himself.

Organ transplants had been frowned upon in Japan long before quirks came around, and quirks had basically killed any use of them at all in the present day.

A person's body, organs included, was tailor made for them and their quirk, and their quirk alone. (Which was part of the reason making good quality nomu could be such a challenge!) Whether it was acid resistance, heat resistance, the ability to morph into something else entirely, or suddenly stretch to ten times its size on a dime. The human body was genetically built to handle the quirk it was born with- and some couldn't even handle that!

Ujiko's mind briefly flashed to blue flames and burnt skin, an old project Master had eventually abandoned.

If that Mirio kid who evacuated all those civilians got a heart transplant, he would never be able to use his quirk again, less the organ phase through him and land in a bloody mess on the ground. The organ wouldn't have his DNA, wouldn't have his quirk factor.

Fortunately, Izuku didn't have a quirk, so for once in Ujiko's life, literally none of that mattered!

Better yet! With Izuku's work at the Origins Lab, Ujiko could just have then grow replacements with Izuku's own DNA! Which would cut out any risks of organ rejection post surgery.

…

But even with all that. With some of the best medical personnel in all of Japan, and the most advanced cutting edge technology, machines, and techniques…

It was still so much that was broken.

Ujiko scrolled through the list of operations, and felt a deep pang of sorrow in his chest.

Left Lung: Replaced.

Diaphragm: Sewn back together.

Intestines: Replaced.

Left Eye: Replaced.

Liver: Replaced.

Right Bicep: Replaced.

Ujiko winced as the list went on. Numerous organs replaced, with more still pulled back together from their tattered remains. Large skin grafts had to be grown and grafted on, to replace dead and burnt areas, most notably his entire back.

He quickly flicked past the long list of bones they'd had to fuse back together, before eventually settling on the last part of the list. The spine, which linked to a completely different project document.

Spines were… difficult.

The human spine was an incredibly complex piece of biology, second only in the body to the brain. It was, quite literally, the backbone of the entire nervous system, with hundreds of thousands of nerves and synapses running along its length before branching out and connecting every system in the body together. All covered in hundreds of individual, highly specialized bones known as vertebrae, each of which was a potential point of critical failure.

And if ANY of it messed up, it caused potentially irreparable loss of movement to entire arts of the body.

It was so complex, and so vitally important, in fact, that not even mother nature itself could design a good human spine.

What was originally evolved for bony fish to wiggle side to side in the water, had to adapt to wiggle up and down in the water, then had to adapt to the land and having legs, and then it had to adapt itself to support a creature's weight because monkeys wanted to walk and swing and do all these things, and then again the thing originally made to swish side to side, had to adapt because Humans wanted to walk on two legs!

The result was a tangled mess that bent itself in three different places, and led to almost half the world's population suffering from back or neck pain at some point in their life, because of bad design and inefficient structural support.

The spine itself was a bad spine, how the Hell was Ujiko supposed to make a good one?

Ujiko, unfortunately, could not make a spine reliable enough to operate without pain or functionality loss.

The only person in the world who could potentially do such a thing from the ground up, would be the leading expert in cloning and genetic modification, who was, unfortunately, the one with his spine shattered into five pieces.

So… Ujiko had to improvise.

Instead of the bumps of vertebrae sitting beneath skin, there was a sleek matte black device that ran from the nape of Izuku's neck all the way to where his tailbone should have been. It was segmented, allowing for it to bend even better than a normal spine, and its size stretched along its length- only an inch wide at its tip on the neck, widening around the area of the shoulders, before gradually slimming into nothing at the hips.

Most of the device's bulk was planted firmly inside of Izuku's back, with the "outer shell" above the surface of the skin to allow for maintenance, recharging, and clamped down in an airtight seal to prevent infections.

Ujiko felt his eyes locked onto the black device. Standing out like a sore thumb along human skin, the light on its widest part blinking blue, on and off, in standby mode, as if to mock him.

"Look at me!" It seemed to say. "Look at what you failed at." "Look at how you maimed your kid."

It was an artificial nerve relay that worked as an in-between for signals from the brain, and the rest of the human nervous system. But still, it weighed heavily as a failure in his mind.

Ujiko had worked relentlessly, putting Izuku back together, getting his heart beating, getting him breathing. And when that hadn't given him the results he wanted, the kid refusing to wake up, and brain wave activity staying stubbornly low, he'd doubled down.

He performed an advanced version of the nomu operation's first treatment, further reinforcing the body, making it stronger, faster, more resilient- a refined version of the same treatment he had given Nine previously.

The treatment overlapped with the serum the boy had made, stressing and pushing the human body past its limits, into the realm that only quirks had previously achieved.

But still, to Ujiko's ever growing frustration, and gnawing worry, it wasn't enough.

Izuku remained unconscious.

The doctor sighed as he slumped down into his chair, but as he set down his empty coffee cup, it didn't 'clink' like it usually did, it… crinkled?

Ujiko lifted his cup and was greeted by a small clip of paper.

He grumbled in annoyance, but picked the paper up regardless, to reread it for what felt like the thousandth time.

PROJECT KRONOS

Izuku had repeatedly muttered those two words over and over to Ujiko, before he blacked out.

It was obviously important, or at least the kid thought it was important, but… nothing seemed to come of it.

Every scan of the database came up empty. Izuku had never mentioned the project before to Ujiko or Yuyara. And when Ujiko had taken temporary control of the Origins Lab, no one there had heard of it either.

It seemed like a dead end, the inane rambling of someone on death's door, with a critical lack of blood, and a severe concussion.

But still…

As Ujiko glanced between the paper, and Izuku's lifeless body floating in the tank, he scowled and crumpled the paper before shoving it into his pocket.

"I'm headed out!" He snapped at his employees as he stood from his chair and marched back towards the door. "Make sure not to do anything stupid while I'm gone."

-Rain of Sins-

The Origins Lab was different from the one under Jaku Hospital, Ujiko thought, staring idly at the walls as he walked down the hallway, descending ever deeper beneath the ground.

All of his labs were kept very clean, but the dull white metal panels that lined the walls almost seemed sterilized in comparison- a comparison reinforced by the fact every staff member was wearing some form of rebreather. Then there was just how cold it was down here, and how it seemed to get colder the further down you went.

Ujiko understood the purpose of course, if you turned the entire lab into a giant freezer, it allowed computers to run at higher efficiency, while also slowing down the decomposition of organic material- something that the Origins Lab almost exclusively dealt with.

He hummed to himself in thought as he passed over a metal walkway, suspended over a particularly large room, one lined from end to end with the large glowing tubes that the lab used to grow their experiments… most of which were empty, he noticed.

But he kept his thoughts to himself and continued on his path ever deeper into the maze of the facility. Down stairways, winding hallways, and through various testing rooms, until he eventually reached his destination. A large metal door, at one of the deepest levels, perfectly measured to be in the exact middle of the facility.

Ujiko tapped his master admin card on the scanner to the side, and the door to Izuku's personal office opened, letting a thick white fog roll out across the floor.

With only a moment of hesitation, he stepped forward.

He had mentioned that the Origins Lab was different from his other labs, but this really took the cake. Izuku had decided to take the lab's old control center as his personal office, and had apparently done some renovations since Ujiko had given him the abandoned facility.

Ujiko walked forward, on a raised platform, towards the large terminal in the center of the room. He glanced around him, at how the room sharply dropped downwards, and became a storage area of sorts, with tubes of all sizes lining the walls. The same white fog that was seemingly so prevalent in this facility, covering the floor in a layer so thick you would be forgiven for not wanting to test if there actually was a floor beneath it.

Nonetheless, he arrived at the terminal, squeezing through a gap in the side, and sat down on the large cushy chair in the middle. He marveled for a few seconds, at having a desk that nearly formed a complete circle around him, and how much space it provided. Though, that was probably necessary for Izuku, considering most of the space was taken up by computer monitors, terminals, and various tech the kid had decided to plug into the veritable workshop he had set up here.

Ujiko rolled his shoulders and got to work, flicking on the impressive amalgamation of technology in front of him, and punching in the lab's standard access code.

[DENIED]

He mentally face palmed as the red word popped up in his face. A lab's SAC was only for basic machines and doors, any sensitive tech required an appropriate level ID card, or a personalized password to access.

He glanced around to see if the kid had broken protocol, and had left a sticky note somewhere with the password on it, maybe stuck under the desk, before shrugging and scanning his master admin card- the one that designated him as, you know, the guy who owned everything here, and the red screen flicked away as the machine wired to life.

After a few seconds, the screen flickered on, and he was bombarded by various alerts and pop ups that were obviously meant for Izuku. Test results, lab efficiency, material stockpile updates, etc etc, but as he archived them for the kid to read later, (and the kid would get to read them later), one caught his eye.

[Genetic Scan Complete]

[Genetic Sequencing Complete]

He glanced to the side, to the machine the window was referencing, to find various blood vials plugged into a device. The natural refrigeration of the room had kept them from spoiling.

Ujiko shook his head and focused himself, he had a job to do.

He pulled out the crumpled paper in his pocket and smoothed it out on the desk.

"Project, Kronos…" He muttered as he typed it into the terminal, and started a search for any reference of the words.

But unlike the last fifty times he had tried it on the main server that was supposed to have access to every file in the entire lab network across Japan, there was a match.

A single folder named E.K.R.

"Why are you hidden off the main network?" Ujiko asked himself, his face scrunched in confusion.

He dragged the mouse over and tried to open it, only to be met with a Password prompt.

Ujiko grunted in annoyance, and went to his end-all be-all idea.

He scanned his Admin card.

[DENIED]

He stared at the word in bewilderment. Before scanning it again.

[DENIED]

Third time's the charm.

[DENIED]

"Well, shit." He leaned back in the chair, and scratched the back of his head, trying to fight down the sense of worry pooling in his gut.

Why was this folder hidden from the main network? And why had the kid made it so not even Ujiko could access it?

Ujiko checked the file's properties tag, seeing if there was some hint laying around, but all he found was a description for what the file name stood for.

E.K.R.

Entropy. Kronos. Rapture.

Ujiko's eyes flicked from the screen, back down to the small scrap of paper in front of him.

"Well…" His brow furrowed as he re-read the project names. "That's not ominous at all."

-Chapter End-

-Arc: Burning Blood: End-