In the year 1950, 2 neutron stars collided not far away from our solar system, which caused an explosion that created a gamma-ray burst that unfortunately hit the earth. But instead of producing a great deal of damage, the ray that lasted for minutes emitted gamma rays that changed something in our DNA and made us humans evolve in a way that we never expected.
We have superpowers, although not everyone in the world has them, more than 60% of the world's population does. Unfortunately, the maliciousness of the human race stopped us from evolving and becoming civilized. Greed overtook humanity, and everyone from those who had superpowers to those who had none abused the concept of superpower and wanted to benefit from it as much as possible. The world entered another age of darkness that looked dimmer than that of the dark ages, and the innocent people of the world wished for the smallest light of hope to save them.
That's when a bunch of righteous, wholesome, and flawless people showed up when the world was in its darkest times and used all they had to save it from its untimely demise. They are known as "Heroes," the ones who brought peace, justice, and safety to the entire world and became a dazzling light of hope to anyone who is in need.
The story begins in the year 2000:
My name is Kurayama Ishigami, a 13 years old boy who doesn't have any superpowers or anything that can make him unique or stand out from the rest, and also a disappointment to my family of super-powered people. I always dreamt of becoming a hero when I grow up, but my parents were very unsupportive of such an idea and didn't believe that I can accomplish it and always tried to make me forget about such a dream. I am a disappointment, and I am someone with an impossible dream, yet my family always treated me kindly, and I always felt the most happiness when I was with them. I love my family more than anything in the world.
"Ishigami" a kind and soft voice called out to me. "ISHIGAMI," the voice said again in a scary way that made me fall off my bed. I looked up to see my older sister, Aiko Kurayama, she was in high school precisely the third year of high school. She tends to hide her true emotions towards everyone but she was always treated as the second mother of the family. She is caring, kind, and beautiful, yet she tends to get angry really fast. She was also sick and didn't go to school today.
"Ishigamai, If you wake up late every day, you will never have good grades. And you know what that means?"
"I will never become a hero. That's the one thousand time you said it in the last two months."
"Hmph. Anyhow, you better come quickly or brother will leave you nothing again."
As I heard that, I stood up in a panic and ran towards my closet to start changing to my school uniform. I didn't have time to change comfortably, so I just started changing my clothes while making my way downstairs.
As I was running downstairs, I bumped into my older brother, Katsu Kurayama, he graduated high school last year and is now studying in the college of art and design. He loves annoying everyone, but it's impossible to hate him. He is always regarded as the cheerful heart of the family.
"Woah, what's up with the hasty attitude, Ishigami?"
"Big brother, please for the love of whatever is dear to you, tell me that you didn't eat my special pudding?"
"Oh, you mean the one you hid in the back of the fridge, the one that says 'don't touch'"
"Oh god no."
"Don't worry, I only ate five spatulas worth of pudding."
"Noooo, why? Why did you do this?"
"Ishigami, you must know that a true hero must bear tragedies like this one." He said in an evil voice.
"Trust me, when I become a hero I will be sure to take you down myself."
"Hahaha, that's the spirit. Now go and eat breakfast leftovers."
"I hate you so much."
As I was coming down the stairs with a depressed look, I heard a voice that lit my heart with joy. "Big brother, big brother." my younger sister, Hina Kurayama, is still in grade school and she's the youngest of us. She is regarded as the most beautiful in the family and the one that has the second biggest heart amongst us. She is also carrying her signature white fluffy rabbit plushy that is as white as snow.
"Big brother, I drew you again." She said as she gave me a drawing of me wearing a hero outfit and standing on top of a man wearing a black outfit. She also drew a red arrow that showed which is which.
"You're so talented, Hina. You should become a manga artist in the future."
"What's a manga artist?"
"Hahaha, don't worry about that for now. Hina, I want you to go and annoy the evil-doer know as "Big brother Katsu", are you ready for your mission?"
"Ay ay, sir." She said as she saluted me and ran off towards Katsu.
After a long journey, I finally reached the kitchen where a true goddess was standing and waiting for me, my mother, Sumiko Kurayama, a goddess of the family that gives you her blessing just by seeing her or listening to her voice.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Ishigami, you're late again. Are you serious about being a hero?"
"But sleep is something that every hero needs."
"Yes, by sleeping early and waking up early. You stayed up until 3 AM watching anime. I am sure that heroes don't do that."
"You'd be surprised, mother," I say while eating my breakfast so fast and eventually almost shocked to death from the food.
I stood and picked up my school bag and ran towards the front door.
"Ishigami" x4
I turned around to see all of my family standing behind me.
"You forgot your bento."
"Jeez, and you want to become a hero?" my older sister said.
"Good, my evil scheme is working perfectly." my brother said.
"Don't worry, big brother. I will always support you." my younger sister said as she handed my bento to me and saluted me.
I took my bento and gave my family a smile before waving them off and dashing towards school.
And for the last member of the family who is rarely present, Hiroto Kurayama, my father. He rarely comes home, sometimes even once a month. He was a very busy scientist that worked on evolution studies and experiments, he didn't want to involve us in his work as he always wanted to listen to our accomplishments when he came back that we didn't have time to ask him anything. We appreciate his hard work for us and we love him even if we don't see him much.
My school day was like any other day, boring to the end. Classes, talking with friends, crushing on a girl that is out of my league, and most importantly, being yelled at by teachers while I sleep in the classroom. I wasn't a good student, but I was a smart one.
After a boring school day, I walked back home alone. My house was the farthest from school, so I had to walk alone quite a distance on my own. Upon reaching my home that was located in a quiet area of the town where each house was far from the other, I saw a black sedan parked right in front of it. I was happy to see it because it was the car that my dad used to get back home with. I ran towards the house with a happy look on my face.
As soon as I walked up to the door and placed my hand on the door handle, I was paralyzed. An overwhelming feeling of fear that froze me in my spot. I felt like collapsing to the ground and start vomiting my breakfast and lunch, but I regained my composure before I fell. I took a deep breath just for a strong stench of iron to assault my nose. I have never experienced something like this, what was going on?
I tried once again to regain my composure and used all of my might to open the front door.
My older brother, Katsu had his back on the wall, his right arm was torn off and his chest had many bullet holes, he was pinned to the wall with a large knife. My older sister, Aiko was in two pieces, her upper body was lying down on the floor in front of Katsu, while her lower body was lying down on the stairs, she was painted by her blood. My younger sister, Hina was lying down right in front of me in a pool of blood, she was carrying her rabbit plushy that was previously as white as snow while meanwhile, it was as red as blood. Each one of their faces has a look that haunted me, it was a look of pure hopelessness and despair.
My father was standing in the kitchen, he was drenched in blood from head to toe while carrying a large knife on his left arm. His right arm was mutilated very badly and his guts were spilling out. "I am so sorry, Ishigami. I never wanted this to happen," he said before getting shot in the back of the head and dropping dead to the floor.
A man wearing a black coat came out from the kitchen, he was carrying my mother's decapitated head in his right hand. He looked at me and gave me a gut-wrenching grin, "That was an amazing fight. I am sorry you missed such an exciting family feud. I wish it didn't end that quickly." he said as he threw my mother's severed head right in front of me.
With tears coming down like a waterfall, I dashed right to him with all my might and anger just to get shot in my right side. There was a man in the living room, "Calm down kid," he said.
"Alright, playtime is over. Fix him up, Sasori," the man with the black coat said.
That's when I felt someone walk right up to me, and suddenly, I felt my injury healing completely, "He is all fixed up, Katsuri," Sasori said.
"Alright, let's get going."
The man with the black coat picked me up on his shoulders. I saw my family's last moments, all had a look of despair, rage, disbelief, and most importantly a look of sadness as if they were pitying me who had a worse fate than all of them combined. My life...has been ruined.
I woke up. I was being dragged by two people that were wearing black tactical uniforms and were also carrying military rifles. They dragged me across a long hallway, and at the end of it was a large metallic door, they threw me out and closed the door. I was in a large room full of people, maybe 200 or 300 hundred people are in here, and they all looked distressed, shocked, terrified, hysteric, all were mentally damaged.
The large iron wall in front of me rose like a garage door revealing a large platform that had three people in it. I recognized them all. They were the ones that killed my family; the man in the middle was the one called Katsuri with the black coat. He took a few steps closer and said:
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to my fine establishment. I am sorry for the rough welcoming but just bear with me now. I can tell that all of you are now wondering where this place is and how you can get out. Well, we are in the middle of nowhere, so don't bother with trying to escape or break out.
I only want one simple thing from you, and after that, you can go back to your daily lives" his grin got more extensive by the second as he said this, "We only want you to try a newly made medical injection, don't worry it is 100% safe".
Five large doors opened. "Please enter slowly, and one by one," Katsuri said. The same door I was thrown out from opened, and due to me being the closest to it, I entered first.
I walked through that long corridor until I reached what looked like a hospital room only way darker, and in it was a man wearing a doctor's coat. At this point, my body was moving on its own. I was too shocked and traumatized to analyze anything. I just want to get out of here, so I did as they told me. I walked to that room and sat on a patient's chair as the man instructed me to do. He grabbed my arm and injected me with something that I don't know.
After that, he told me to go through a door that was in front of me that leads to an equally large room as the previous one that I was inside in. It was a bit empty, but people started going in one by one until it was full again, "Now everyone, we will play a game of waiting" Katsuri said, "I am sorry to bore you, but it is essential," we kept waiting for a couple of minutes, then it hit.
My body was dying from the inside and outside. My veins were almost going to explode from whatever was going inside my body. I couldn't even scream because of how intense the pain was. I was just suffering in silence. Everyone was going through the same thing. Then the bodies started dropping, one by one, everyone dropped to the ground dead. Some are horribly disfigured, some had their skin melt off from their bones, some had their mouths filled with blood and were shocking on their fluids, and some were just dead from the intensity of the pain, the pain kept going until it suddenly stopped and I went back to normal, and so was four other people who looked my age.
"Perfect, just as expected, now for those who survived, I owe you an explanation. You have been injected with a highly concentrated and a modified blood sample from the hero known as gamma."
Wait....the hero gamma? The first hero? The first man to have superpowers?
"And for you who don't know, gamma was the first human to be evolved and the one who was directly hit by the gamma-ray burst. And with that, he had a power that allowed him to control gamma radiation, which made him very powerful. As you know, 12 years ago, he tried to free the world from superpowers, so he tried to absorb all the radiation that was in the world.
He did absorb 40% but instantly died, hahaha pathetic. But anyway, we found his body and did some experiments on it so we could profit from him. As you can see, you are the only test subjects that survived this experiment. sorry to say, but you will stay here a little longer" he had a disturbing smile on his face as he said, "Welcome, to Laboratory 5 ".