The director gave me a folder full of papers and documents. The whole thing was a centimeter thick and wrapped with blue string. I can guess it would be some more dumb paperwork as usual.

“This is everything that you need to have. You’ll be living in a shared space with other people, which so far only one has transferred into your apartment.” I looked at him and grabbed the folder slowly unwrapping and glancing at some of the files and paperwork that he gave me. Room, locations, everything. I kept on flipping through each document, trying to figure out which was which.

“Kemono-Zero…” My eyes shot up to the director.

“Pardon?”

“You still bear his name tag?” I glanced down on my chest and the dog tag was hanging on top of my shirt.

“Oh yeah…” I reached out, touched it lightly feeling the small scratches and dents over the years.

“It’s the only thing I have left of him…” He nodded at me and escorted me to the hallway. He didn’t say anything else related to my tag. That felt very random and out of nowhere that he would mention about my father. He stopped right in front of me, arms behind his back, standing in front of the doors.

“Maybe you will change your mind down the road, but maybe the answers that you want to know will be here… This may be an open opportunity for you to take.” I gripped the folder harder.

“What opportunity? I… I-I don’t know. It feels like I am being forced and everything.” He sighed and nodded, crossing his arms in disagreement.

“Even though it may seem forced, there are always reasons for everything we do here. You just have to see it with an open mind.” He opened the door and led me out.

“Meet up with Lieutenant Jasper, she’ll take care of everything else that you’ll need to do.” He put out his hand, offering a handshake. The firm and cold goodbye that I felt through that hand felt… half-assed.

“I'll be seeing you soon… Mr. Kizuato.” He lets go of my hand and closes the door, leaving me in the hall alone. I leaned against the wall behind me, utterly fazed and burnt out. I couldn’t think anymore.

What do I do from this point? Do I even have a choice? I clenched my damp hands shut, taking a deep breath, staring at the ribbed ceilings of the hallway. I stood there for a couple of moments, thinking to myself. Man, I wanted to sleep.

Minutes and seconds passed until I started to get up and head to the infirmary, As I picked up my bags, a small clink audibly caught my attention. I looked down and it was the tiny memory stick that that one woman gave me back in California.

Shit, I had completely forgotten to give this to the director. I quickly turned back around and reached my hand to knock on the door…

“What would you be referring to as increased activity… the recent ‘kidnappings’ perhaps?” My hand stopped before it could reach the wood. I could vaguely hear the director talking to someone, though couldn’t tell who he was, as the voice sounded like it was coming from his computer.

“This institution has full authority in its personal matters, even if the action may be unethical… What do you mean by kidnapping?” He was quickly interrupted, almost angry by his statement. Well, now my curiosity has been peaked. My ear lightly brushed against the door trying to get a better sense of the conversation.

“Is it perhaps the boy that you are referring to? We do understand the current situation that he is involved in or what we may be taking in. He does not fully know the extent of what is going on, maybe the surface level yes… Madam… Would you please let me-” The voice from the computer kept on rambling and complaining about something, yet I still couldn’t understand it. The director let out a sigh and the sound of something being slammed rocked the doors.

“If we had not retrieved him, he would have been in the hands of that damned militia group hours after if we had not done so. God knows what they might try to do to get the Federation’s attention. We know the situation well madam, our intelligence does not prove us wrong otherwise…” I moved around the door until I could hear the voice from the computer more clearly. I kept on looking around my back to make sure no one was watching me.

“So… What will you do with him then? No one simply steps foot on the island without purpose. You know this place is under a damn blanket full of false claims and conspiracy theories! We can’t have any more information leaked.”

“We will give Mr. Kizuato his true purpose. We’ve already had crystal samples that directly guided us towards him a long time ago, proving our theory… it is only knowing if he will be like his father or sister… and if the crystal will even accept the host. We may have to delay his examination due to... some circumstances we had today...” Father and sister? There is no way they are not talking about me.

“If that is the case, then I would like for you to read up on some documents about him… I sent one of my agents to deliver the package. It may benefit you, and possibly him as well.” I now remembered that woman that stopped me from entering the plane, giving me this thumb drive that I now hold. I looked at it and securely placed it in a pocket in my bag. Now I really can’t lose this

“I have yet to receive his further documents you have sent. But I may as well owe you as this was the conversation that I wanted to have, but you know… sometimes feelings may get hurt…” I suddenly heard footsteps coming from the other side of the corridor, and immediately backed away from the door and tried to make my way towards Jasper at the infirmary.

“Have you seen that girl chasing Jasper again? They really don’t get along, do they” As I looked back at the source of the sound, it was just two girls just quietly conversing and softly laughing. I sighed in relief, walking awkwardly to the infirmary.

-------------------

“That stupid idiot with her shit aim! Agh! Fucking hurts like hell!” The voice of Athos grunting every other second can be heard outside the clear windows and doors of the infirmary. As I came closer, I could see Athos laying on the bed.

“I know Athos… I know.” Jasper was standing right in front of a computer and typing in some things on the screen. I entered the room and immediately, the crippled man struggled to wave his hand at me, but managed to do so.

“Hey kid! Agh! God-damn, what are you doing here?”

“The director told me to come here… What is this?” My eyes looked at the machine, fascinated with how it was built. Jasper was finishing up typing some stuff on the machine, pressing a green icon button, the thing coming alive. Two curved arms started moving towards the location of Atho’s wound.

“It’s one of the institution’s newest breakthroughs, auto-regenerative healing.” The arms began to emit a white aura, flowing towards the wound. He laid there, eyes closed, calmly taking the healing.

“So, it can basically heal any injury?” Jasper chuckled nervously.

“Well, not quite everything. You can’t bring a dead person back to life unless they were killed not long ago, and you must at least have fifty percent of your body left, which must include your brain and heart. There are other things as well, but i'm not the egg-heads researching this.” It was kind of heartwarming now such technology exists. Though, at the same time, I wished it would have existed earlier.

“Well those egg-heads are the ones creating your equipment as well Jas.” The voice took our attention directly to the door. A short haired woman dressed in a white lab coat had entered the room unnoticed.

“Well if it isn’t the geek herself. How have you been doing.” She was holding a tablet, along wearing a digital wrist tablet.

“Doing fine, just research and dumb things like that… Say, I heard about your little confrontation earlier today. Should I even ask-”

“Don’t bother. Just make a guess and you will be correct regardless.” She chuckled then looked at me.

“I see that you are a new student. Nice to meet you.” I waved back at her, somewhat awkwardly but tried my best to be welcoming. Jasper then stepped beside her, suddenly pulling her close.

“This is Thea Dawnset, one of the lead researchers in Heiwa. She also happens to be my closest friend.” Who would’ve known Jasper would have good friends. Thea smiled awkwardly and tried to push Jasper off. At the same time, she noticed Athos lying on the bed.

“What happened to him?” She examined the bullet wound at a distance.

“Ah same person as Jasper mentioned.” She laughed nervously.

“Well that’s new…” Jasper then goes back to the screen and swipes through some data that it was showing.

“Say Thea, what are you doing here anyway?”

“Oh yeah!” She places her tablet on a table next to the bed and brings her wrist, typing on the small computer. Suddenly a hologram was emitted from the device, showing schematics of the same machine that Athos is in.

“I actually came here to fix up the AR System and tweak some stuff with the settings. I recently found out that there was some discrepancies with the alignment with the rods and some of algorithms in the code were not allowing a full follow through-”

“Thea! English please…” She laughed nervously.

“My apologies… Basically the system has a slight chance that the regeneration could cause some mutation in the affected area of the body.” Me, Athos, and Jasper paused what we were doing, and immediately looked at Thea.

“Wait so like… Cancer? WHY WASN”T THERE A WARNING SIGN ON THE FUCKING MACHINE?” Athos quickly shouted, as Thea tried to calm down the situation.

“Now now, as I said, there is only a slight chance. It is only a thirty seven percent chance rate. And even if you do get affected, as soon as I get this fixed, we can reverse the process to properly heal you up.” I could hear Jasper chuckling as she facepalmed herself.

“Jas, you are still directing uh…”

“Akani.”

“Yes!” Jasper immediately grabs her stuff that she had brought with her.

“Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that! Shall we leave then?”

“Ah yes.” I gathered my belongings as well and got ready to move.

“I’ll take care of the rest. He’ll be in good hands.” The both of us left the infirmary, leaving Athos to heal up, or I hope he does so. The sun was nearing the horizon, mellowing the sky and cooling the air. I followed Jasper to the train station, which she was going to take me to my home on the island.

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“You’ve been carrying all of this stuff the entire day?”

“Yeah, kinda heavy but I got it.” She took one of my bags, relieving some of the pressure off my body.

“You know you can always ask for help if you need it.”

“That's why I said I got it!” She smiled and looked ahead.

“Say, I have a question…” I looked at her.

“What was it like to live with your family?” My eyebrows raised in surprise, the question seemingly pulled from the blue.

“What do you mean by that?” She laughed softly, nervously.

“Well, like… your father and your sister were both well known in this institution and the federation forces. Both aces of their own generation… I’m just curious what it was like to live with them.” I started to think back, what life I had before they left. Exactly how much time did I even have with them?

“Ahh! Uh, if you really are uncomfortable talking about it, it’s fine! I don’t mean to be disrespectful about it.” I looked at her. She smiled but frowned a little.

“Well the only thing that is disrespectful is you reading my mind without permission.” I gently chuckled.

“I didn’t read your mind, I saw your facial expression.” We both laughed comfortably as we kept on walking. We reached the station and entered the car immediately.

“As far as what my life was like with them… or what time I had with them, I guess you could say it was like your typical family. Sitting down together, eating, doing family things. Despite the family name, we aren’t really all that special… Just normal human beings… or Falsea― you get the idea.” The train was moving fast against the hillside, seeing the artificial land and buildings that make up this island. The sun was above the horizon, almost touching the water.

“Normal family life… I honestly never thought it would be just that.” Jasper was leaning towards the window, holding her head up with her hands.

“It's not like my family is always acting military twenty-four seven.” She sighed.

“No, it's not that…” Her tone immediately sounded more, down.

“Wait what do you-”

“Arriving at Ogura Station. Please mind the gap.” As the train came to a complete stop, Jasper immediately got up and headed out of the car. I tried to catch up with her as she was walking very swiftly.

“Hey wait up!” We walked for a few minutes on the sidewalk. The roads were still bustling and people were still out walking doing their own business. We then reached a building that looked like a typical apartment complex, maybe seven stories high.

“Damn, why did you walk so fast?!?” She dropped my bags on the ground.

“Well this is your place. Apartment number and information are inside your folder the director gave you earlier, and-” She looked distressed, something was bothering her.

“Are you okay?” She paused. I looked at her straight in the eye. She shook her head and nodded.

“Ah yeah… yeah. I just forgot that I had to do something back at the academy.” She patted me on the shoulder and started to leave.

“I gotta go! I’ll see you soon!” She ran back to the station, sprinting.

“Jasper! Wait! What do I- Agh!” I yelled out, but she was gone before I could say anything. With a huff, I pulled the things I needed out of the folder.

“Looks like I’m on my own…” Entering the main entrance and heading up the elevator for the fourth floor, my eyes scanned the numbers above the doorways.

“Two eighty six, two eighty six, two eighty six…” It took me a minute until I found my apartment. I realized that there was no key that the director gave me inside the folder. I scanned my ID card and the door clicked open, revealing a spacious living area, like an expensive apartment. The lights were off, the only light the remaining slivers of sunlight peeking through the windows. I looked for the light switch and I could see everything in this room. I walked around, touring the place. Kitchen, two bathrooms, and four bedrooms?

On one of the doors, there was a sticky note left…

AKANI KIZUATO

Welcome Home : )

I don’t know how I feel about that smiley face at the end, kind of creeps me out. I opened the door and my foot immediately tripped over something. As I fumbled trying to turn on the lights, there were boxes upon boxes placed around the room.

“What the hell…” When I looked inside of some of them, they contained all my belongings from home. They completely took everything from my home!

“Ah great, this is freaking wonderful...” It made me sort of peeved at the fact that they completely robbed my house and took everything. Actually, would this even be considered robbery? I started to open up more boxes and tried to figure out what each box contained. From clothes to personal items, and even my books that I don’t even read. But some other things were missing like my computer and game consoles. I then noticed a piece of paper taped against the wall…

------------------

TO KIZUATO, AKANI

We tried our best to collect all your items and belongings that were contained around your house. Some items that you may notice that are missing from this pile would be due to constraints or types of contraband that may not be permitted on the island, most notably, any electronic gaming devices due to the nature of the security of the island. Items may be cleared and collected at warehouse 3B at the campus. Sorry for the inconvenience, we hope you have a nice week.

-Heiwa Evidence Retrieval

------------------

Well, that's great, now I have more crap to carry back to this stupid place. I crumpled up the paper and headed outside to the kitchen. As I carefully stepped through the sea of boxes and right out the door…

*Click*

“Who are you and what are you doing here...” I was immediately stopped by a gun pointed towards my head… again. This seems awfully familiar. I slowly turned my head to the person pointing the gun at me. The dark hair with a long strand falling on his side, and the familiar face with the same disgusted look.

“Yuma?” With that, he looked at me momentarily, then began to lower his pistol. On the floor there were bags of ramen cups and other cheap goods you could get from a convenience store. He sighed, crossed his arms.

“You again.... why the hell are you here?” I pointed towards the sticky note with my name on it.

“I’m going to start living here today, I was only told that I was going to live with other people. Didn’t expect you to be my roommate...”

“Really…” He scoffed and made a disgusted face. He picked up his bags and headed towards his room.

“Here's one rule for living with me…” He threw his bag in his room and glared directly at my eye, almost out of haste and hate.

“Don’t ever talk to me.”

“W-wait-” The door slammed shut before I could say a word, the room falling silent, Only the sound of footsteps behind Yuma’s door and the slight humming of the air conditioner were left. I sighed, accepting the fact that he definitely hates me for god knows what. I looked at the time and it was only six in the afternoon, I might as well just get to sleep early for the night, it wouldn’t be hard to take care of these boxes and stuff later on.

I carefully treaded through the piles of boxes and brought the bags that I had brought with me next to my bed. I opened up the closet to find my bedding and laid it out sloppily, impatiently hastily afterwards.

“I’m so tired…” I rolled on my back, facing the ceiling of the room. I stayed in that position for quite a while… just thinking about everything. From here on, I am bound to this place, some odd institution with a psychotic girl and a grudge holding maniac, to a crazed gun girl that has beef with psycho girl.. Fucking hell… a mixing pot full of emotions and I am dumped right into it. I don’t know if I am more mad or disappointed that things turned out this way. And Jasper didn’t even tell me what to do tomorrow. Agh! There’s so many questions left unanswered. Ah, forget it.

I tried to close my eyes, trying to let myself rest and relax. The director, Jasper, Athos and Yuma. I just want this all to be a dream. I started to fall deeper, thinking.

And thinking…

And thinking…

“I know you want to be like your sister and mother…” Those words from my father… Was I really that naïve back then?

Now that I think about it, what did I really want to be? All those years of being in school doing jack-shit, I really never thought about this question genuinely. Did I want to be a person to make a difference in the world, or just be that same average person in life, making another person make a difference in the world… labeled as a cog in a machine or being seen as a leech in society… What…

Who do I want to be?

If I never got this opportunity, I don’t know where I would be...

A choice. An opportunity. A fate.

“Akani, you will follow in our footsteps… won’t you?” A voice popped up in my head.

“You won’t leave your loving father and sister behind, will you?” I opened my eyes. I was standing up, standing in a vast black plain. The two same figures from my nightmares were in the distance― dark and vague.

“No… No....” I felt my heart beating faster, filling my ears with the heavy pump of my blood.

“This is your fault for abandoning us…”

“This is all in my head! This is all in my head!” I clenched my hair, trying to wake up.

“Akani, you know I thought better of you…” The voices mocked, growing louder.

Akani…

“No, stay away! You are just a dream! A DREAM!”

Akani you won’t leave us behind right…

“STOP! YOU BOTH LEFT ME! ALL OF YOU DID! PLEASE STOP!”

Akani.

“AGH! STOP-”

I felt my hands ripped from my face. A black hooded figure was right in front of me. It stood there, letting go of my hand. I backed up slowly, in fear of what it was.

“Quite an experience that you had back there...” The voice was somewhat distorted, sounding like a female person. I felt my body froze as I couldn’t move.

“Why won’t you calm down now… I am not here to hurt you, as if I can even do so in the first place…” I tried to budge and move, but to no avail.

“Who are you?” It started to chuckle. The black plains of my surroundings started to grow into more polygonal terrain, but very null and dark.

“You always ask that simple question… Who are you...” It started to pace around me, slow and menacing.

“Say back there, your whole episode of a crisis in one sitting… let's say I don’t know who I am.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Why should it matter that you should know who I am. Actually, let's focus on you and I’ll ask the question. Who are you?” I turned to him, as he was still walking.

“Me? I’m A-Akani Ki-” He lifts his hand and pauses me.

“I know your name… I asked who are you?” I was confused.

“I know you are confused…” it read my mind somehow.

“I am just a fragment of your consciousness, aimlessly going through your head. You may be a little insane and have something wrong up here but hey, at least you are talking to me now.” The dark figure then stood right in front of me, much too close.

“Again, who are you?”

“I-” I didn’t know what it was asking.

“Um-” I grew frustrated. For some reason, even this simple question made me unreasonably frustrated.

“I don’t know! I don’t know anything!” It sighed… then it laughed.

“I knew that was going to happen…” The figure then removed it’s face covering and hood.

“Maybe now it is the time to gain some answers.” Silver hair and a normal face… Jasper?

“I was surprised that you didn’t wake up before your episode had started.” She chuckled and sat down on the ground.

“Jasper? W-what the hell are you doing in my head?” She points a finger to her hand. It was glowing in a cyan like aura around it.

“It's one of my abilities you know-”

“Yes I know but why? And how are you even reaching me this far?” She walks up to me and puts her hand out. I slowly start to gain movement on my limbs. I was able to walk.

“It is six in the morning already. decided to break in your apartment and see how you were doing mentally, and my predictions were correct”

”Predictions?” She turned around and the scene changed into a road, with the car that I had ridden on to the airbase.

“I saw you visibly distressed when we were heading down to the airstrip. I took a glimpse and… sorry that you experienced that.” I sighed, disappointed for some reason.

“You saw everything, didn’t you?”

“And that episode that you had earlier, sorry about that.” I sat down on the flat ground. Looking at the surrounding area, fragments of images and light were floating around ashes.

“I saw that when the director was talking to you, you wanted to be like your sister and father back then… why did that change?” She sat down in front of me, drawing my attention up to her.

“I was naïve back then okay… it’s normal! Kids want to be like their siblings or parents, of course I looked up to them. I didn’t know that they were aces or high-ranking people back then. Even without knowing, they were like superheroes to me…” A fragment of my memories back in the invasion floated in front of me. I reached out for it, but disappeared in thin air.

“Then when you have them taken away from you, only to learn that only one of them survived, I… I lost all hope. It was made worse that my mother isn’t around for a while, busy with politics and shit like that. I had to fend for myself with my aunt, but she turned bitter and abusive as time went on… I-” I couldn’t get myself to continue. It was too painful. I stood up, looking at the floating fragments around me. Memories and images floating like the dust and debris after a war.

“Then why would your mind tell you that you left them? You didn’t even do anything.” I sighed.

“Maybe I am still in denial, I don’t know. These nightmares… with my father and sister, god I’ve lost count how many I’ve had at this point. The scene started to change into different terrain. The campus grounds were built around us, and we were in the center of the plaza, but this time, it was barren and empty.

“Why don’t you give this place a shot? Maybe you can figure out who you are.” I turned around to face her directly.

“Why should I? Why would I put effort into a place that I don’t even have a good reason to do so? As of right now, it looks more like a goddamn PMC than a freaking academy-” She suddenly put a hand against my head, which knocked me back into some sort of facility.

“Let's set this straight and make this more obvious than it already is right now. You have some special skills that you possess like I do, and everyone else here that inhabits this place. We can help you use your talent for some good to this world. That is why you are here.” She starts to lead me around.

“Heiwa, as I said before, is a research facility that innovates in humanitarian and problem solving solutions not just for this planet, but for the universal pact. Also the fact that you see this place as a private military, you aren’t technically wrong, but… how do I say this... just see this as a secret organization as well.”

“But the world is in peace, isn't it? There shouldn’t be a reason to take up arms?” She stops.

“We are at peace. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some… troublemakers out there.”

“Troublemakers? Terrorists?” She starts to chuckle.

“Not necessarily… but I guess you could call them that.” She then changes back to the barren dark plains of my consciousness, showing the solar system, pointing to Earth.

“We are the overseers of harmony, keeping the peace within the universe and helping those who are in need. Making tomorrow better than yesterday.” I tried to be serious but I scoffed and chuckled under my breath.

“Sorry. that sounded like a lame phrase some superhero would say.” She chuckled half-heartedly, the smile dropping from her face as if it had never lived there before.

“Superhero eh? I’ll say this. Are you willing to find out who you are?”

“I… I don’t know. I don’t know if I am-” Immediately, I was punched right on my chest, throwing me back onto the ground. With my ears ringing, I opened my eyes, looking at the same ceiling as before. The pressure and pain on my chest started to come in, as I grasped for air and rolled off my bed, thumping the ground and groaning.

“What… the… hell was that for-”

“Man I am starting to get tired of that big mouth of yours. Always uncertain and don’t know what to do. Take some initiative sometime!” Jasper stood right beside me, looking down while I was laying there. She was wearing the academy uniform and her hair… it was back to the normal brown and red color.

“Just give it a chance, Akani. Besides, do you really have a choice?” She looked around the room, still full of boxes.

“Your room is a freaking mess. I’ll meet you at the entrance at eight!” She immediately left the room, closing the door behind her. I looked at the clock… it was already seven thirty.

“That stupid bitch.”