[Ongoing] Dréd-Son - Chapter 35: The Nameless Survivor
Title: Dréd-Son - Chapter 35: The Nameless Survivor
Fandom: Johnny's & Associates
Pairings/Characters: Kis-My-Ft2 (8 People) - in this chapter: mostly Kitayama
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Fighting, dark themes...
Disclaimer: Not mine. Owned by J&A. The AU is mine though as well as aymagun's.
A/N: Outlined all chapters until the end and I think I can say that this will end with 50 chapters, so 15 more to go in the 4 months to come, which means I can post 3 chapters a month if I get them all written out in time.
Summary: It's called the 'gift' or 'soul' by most. A strange, mysterious force only few possess on the planet that is half ocean and half desert. The people on the planet have lived in harmony with each other and their environment for centuries but something yet unknown is threatening to throw everything into chaos.
Akut’ou walked around Kitayama to look at the other from all sides as he talked.
“Let me start from the beginning then.” He placed his hands behind his back. “Oh, memories. You see, I discovered this crystal on my many travels. I didn’t think of it much at first, it was only a crystal but then, when I took a closer look at it, I found out about its wonderful abilities and came up with ways to make use of them.” He gestured at the crystal hanging above Senga and also pointed at the shadows lurking around. “These are all parts of it and they all work differently. Amazing, isn’t it?” He smirked.
“The crystal is made from a material from deep inside this planet, the very core, the matter which created all of this and all of us. You could call it the very essence of the life of this planet. And as such it has astounding properties,” he pulled out a few splinters from his pocket. “It will remember something you carve into it, DNA or anything else that is in some way ‘alive’. Blood, plant essences and what you call ‘the soul’ as well. It can absorb all kinds of energy and stores it to fuel other processes.” Akut’ou continued his explanation.
“When this planet was created, the crystal most likely came into existence one way or the other and absorbed energy from some outside source, the sun or some kind of explosion. It stored this energy until it got into contact with something else, life matter. So it used the energy to fuel this life matter and slowly but gradually, this planet came into existence as more matter was drawn in and other matter was created in the whole process. After this process was completed, it kept evolving further into what it is now,” he pointed at the shadows around them. “See those? Well, why don’t I tell you what they are?”
“I did the same to them as I was about to do to your little companion over there. With the exception that their ‘souls’ are nothing but human energy, normal energy. Not the soul power that the likes of you possess. Still useful though.” He shrugged. “Then I killed the vessels of the souls - otherwise the souls would not become independent but would want to return back to their bodies. I hate wasting resources though, so I reanimated the shells again. The crystals would keep the bodies moving, give them life without actually giving them life energy but they no longer had anything to control them, no mind no heart, nothing. So I used other crystals to program them to do as I wanted them to by transferring a part of my own mind into them. Genius, isn’t it?” He made a small twirl and skipped forward.
When Kitayama learned about the truth, he was no longer sure whether he had really wanted to hear it. What the other was telling him was making him feel beyond sick. Disgusted didn’t even come close either. The fact that the other was talking about it while he looked so ‘happy’ and giddy about it made matters even worse.
“People always want what they cannot have, right? They envy those who have something they lack. Those who possessed the gift, the soul, have always been admired. Even though nobody but a small circle knows about you officially, you cannot hide your powers. Families might discover them, strangers, it all happens by chance. Your so called masters haven’t been able to find everyone after all. There were far more, there are still more. I wanted to make this accessible to more people,” Akut’ou exclaimed dramatically.
He looked at the large crystal hanging from the ceiling. “I discovered how to transfer a soul’s energy into the crystal, the essence, the power. It needed a trigger to be released though. I could not make use of it freely yet.” He hummed.
“My own soul ability is to see your souls. I let my own ability bleed into the crystal so it would remember it and this is how I was able to draw out the souls of the gifted ones I captured. The one crystal would ‘see’ the soul and draw it out and the other one would absorb and store it.” By this time Akut’ou was ranting, getting lost in his mad story.
“I tried to put the soul abilities back into the soulless bodies so I would have an army doing my beck and call that nobody could stop. With them, I could rule this planet and maybe even the worlds beyond it!” He looked at Kitayama. “You’re what must be my first successful experiment. You must be. You were someone without a soul ability and when I released the soul energy on your home city, it stuck to you.”
He finally reached out to touch Kitayama. “I exposed countless individuals to the power of the godstones, the crystals. I was hoping that someone would be compatible and develop artificial soul powers after their ‘death’ or while still alive, I didn’t care. Ah, so many experiments failed. It became harder and harder to get ships and towns to come to the right places. I wasted so many valuable resources up until now. I believed I had not yet succeeded but in fact I had!” Akut’ou continued to rave.
“So your masters erased your memories, huh? Someone was very thorough. They must have also removed all the traces of your home, your origin from you,” he tilted Kitayama’s head over but the other pulled away and glared at Akut’ou.
“What do you mean by that?” somewhere deep inside of him, he had a feeling but he was praying that he was wrong. That for once, his gut feeling wasn’t right.
Akut’ou pointed at the scar by Kitayama’s temple, “That scar. Do you remember how you got it? No. Because you had it before you came to the Ghayi. It’s where a clan-mark was removed from your face. The mark of a nomadic clan which people called the ‘givers of wisdom’, a clan that educated other people outside the university in the capital, taught basic arts and crafts to those living in the cities that aren’t moving. It was such a useless clan.”
This was where another voice interrupted them, “You are responsible for the death and extinction of an entire clan?” Master Yara stared at Akut’ou with horror and disbelief clearly showing on his face. He was clearly hoping it would ‘just’ be a singular.
Akut’ou smiled, “The power of this crystal is amazing, isn’t it? There were others before it but my aim was off sometimes and I had to try again. For this one though, all it took was one shot, one burst of energy and their entire city became history in a flash. Before, nothing and nobody was left but this time, there is one sole survivor. The only one being who was able to receive and absorb the crystal’s energy instead of being destroyed by it.”
“An entire city, no, several of them. Just because he was experimenting,” Master Yara couldn’t believe it. He had been looking into the issue of vanishing cities and ghost towns for years. He had been following a lead with his disciples before everything had happened. They had all known that there couldn’t be a pleasant truth behind everything but this was beyond all his worst fears and expectations. “You’re mad.” It was an understatement but he couldn’t find any other word to describe Akut’ou.
As the mad scientist’s words sunk in, Kitayama could feel something inside of him breaking and falling apart. Something was welling up from deep within now, something that had been locked away before. He could feel himself growing numb, despairing and maybe even losing his mind. He didn’t know what to think anymore, what to do.
“Yes! Yes! Forget about anything but that you’re mine. My creation! You have nothing else to ‘live’ for anymore. There is nothing you need to feel. If you feel, everything will only get worse!” Akut’ou could see the signs and the glee showed on his face. “Became mine completely. Discard who you have been until now. He doesn’t matter anymore. Kitayama Hiromitsu doesn’t exist, nor has he ever existed. You’re the nameless survivor!”
To be continued...
Fandom: Johnny's & Associates
Pairings/Characters: Kis-My-Ft2 (8 People) - in this chapter: mostly Kitayama
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Fighting, dark themes...
Disclaimer: Not mine. Owned by J&A. The AU is mine though as well as aymagun's.
A/N: Outlined all chapters until the end and I think I can say that this will end with 50 chapters, so 15 more to go in the 4 months to come, which means I can post 3 chapters a month if I get them all written out in time.
Summary: It's called the 'gift' or 'soul' by most. A strange, mysterious force only few possess on the planet that is half ocean and half desert. The people on the planet have lived in harmony with each other and their environment for centuries but something yet unknown is threatening to throw everything into chaos.
Akut’ou walked around Kitayama to look at the other from all sides as he talked.
“Let me start from the beginning then.” He placed his hands behind his back. “Oh, memories. You see, I discovered this crystal on my many travels. I didn’t think of it much at first, it was only a crystal but then, when I took a closer look at it, I found out about its wonderful abilities and came up with ways to make use of them.” He gestured at the crystal hanging above Senga and also pointed at the shadows lurking around. “These are all parts of it and they all work differently. Amazing, isn’t it?” He smirked.
“The crystal is made from a material from deep inside this planet, the very core, the matter which created all of this and all of us. You could call it the very essence of the life of this planet. And as such it has astounding properties,” he pulled out a few splinters from his pocket. “It will remember something you carve into it, DNA or anything else that is in some way ‘alive’. Blood, plant essences and what you call ‘the soul’ as well. It can absorb all kinds of energy and stores it to fuel other processes.” Akut’ou continued his explanation.
“When this planet was created, the crystal most likely came into existence one way or the other and absorbed energy from some outside source, the sun or some kind of explosion. It stored this energy until it got into contact with something else, life matter. So it used the energy to fuel this life matter and slowly but gradually, this planet came into existence as more matter was drawn in and other matter was created in the whole process. After this process was completed, it kept evolving further into what it is now,” he pointed at the shadows around them. “See those? Well, why don’t I tell you what they are?”
“I did the same to them as I was about to do to your little companion over there. With the exception that their ‘souls’ are nothing but human energy, normal energy. Not the soul power that the likes of you possess. Still useful though.” He shrugged. “Then I killed the vessels of the souls - otherwise the souls would not become independent but would want to return back to their bodies. I hate wasting resources though, so I reanimated the shells again. The crystals would keep the bodies moving, give them life without actually giving them life energy but they no longer had anything to control them, no mind no heart, nothing. So I used other crystals to program them to do as I wanted them to by transferring a part of my own mind into them. Genius, isn’t it?” He made a small twirl and skipped forward.
When Kitayama learned about the truth, he was no longer sure whether he had really wanted to hear it. What the other was telling him was making him feel beyond sick. Disgusted didn’t even come close either. The fact that the other was talking about it while he looked so ‘happy’ and giddy about it made matters even worse.
“People always want what they cannot have, right? They envy those who have something they lack. Those who possessed the gift, the soul, have always been admired. Even though nobody but a small circle knows about you officially, you cannot hide your powers. Families might discover them, strangers, it all happens by chance. Your so called masters haven’t been able to find everyone after all. There were far more, there are still more. I wanted to make this accessible to more people,” Akut’ou exclaimed dramatically.
He looked at the large crystal hanging from the ceiling. “I discovered how to transfer a soul’s energy into the crystal, the essence, the power. It needed a trigger to be released though. I could not make use of it freely yet.” He hummed.
“My own soul ability is to see your souls. I let my own ability bleed into the crystal so it would remember it and this is how I was able to draw out the souls of the gifted ones I captured. The one crystal would ‘see’ the soul and draw it out and the other one would absorb and store it.” By this time Akut’ou was ranting, getting lost in his mad story.
“I tried to put the soul abilities back into the soulless bodies so I would have an army doing my beck and call that nobody could stop. With them, I could rule this planet and maybe even the worlds beyond it!” He looked at Kitayama. “You’re what must be my first successful experiment. You must be. You were someone without a soul ability and when I released the soul energy on your home city, it stuck to you.”
He finally reached out to touch Kitayama. “I exposed countless individuals to the power of the godstones, the crystals. I was hoping that someone would be compatible and develop artificial soul powers after their ‘death’ or while still alive, I didn’t care. Ah, so many experiments failed. It became harder and harder to get ships and towns to come to the right places. I wasted so many valuable resources up until now. I believed I had not yet succeeded but in fact I had!” Akut’ou continued to rave.
“So your masters erased your memories, huh? Someone was very thorough. They must have also removed all the traces of your home, your origin from you,” he tilted Kitayama’s head over but the other pulled away and glared at Akut’ou.
“What do you mean by that?” somewhere deep inside of him, he had a feeling but he was praying that he was wrong. That for once, his gut feeling wasn’t right.
Akut’ou pointed at the scar by Kitayama’s temple, “That scar. Do you remember how you got it? No. Because you had it before you came to the Ghayi. It’s where a clan-mark was removed from your face. The mark of a nomadic clan which people called the ‘givers of wisdom’, a clan that educated other people outside the university in the capital, taught basic arts and crafts to those living in the cities that aren’t moving. It was such a useless clan.”
This was where another voice interrupted them, “You are responsible for the death and extinction of an entire clan?” Master Yara stared at Akut’ou with horror and disbelief clearly showing on his face. He was clearly hoping it would ‘just’ be a singular.
Akut’ou smiled, “The power of this crystal is amazing, isn’t it? There were others before it but my aim was off sometimes and I had to try again. For this one though, all it took was one shot, one burst of energy and their entire city became history in a flash. Before, nothing and nobody was left but this time, there is one sole survivor. The only one being who was able to receive and absorb the crystal’s energy instead of being destroyed by it.”
“An entire city, no, several of them. Just because he was experimenting,” Master Yara couldn’t believe it. He had been looking into the issue of vanishing cities and ghost towns for years. He had been following a lead with his disciples before everything had happened. They had all known that there couldn’t be a pleasant truth behind everything but this was beyond all his worst fears and expectations. “You’re mad.” It was an understatement but he couldn’t find any other word to describe Akut’ou.
As the mad scientist’s words sunk in, Kitayama could feel something inside of him breaking and falling apart. Something was welling up from deep within now, something that had been locked away before. He could feel himself growing numb, despairing and maybe even losing his mind. He didn’t know what to think anymore, what to do.
“Yes! Yes! Forget about anything but that you’re mine. My creation! You have nothing else to ‘live’ for anymore. There is nothing you need to feel. If you feel, everything will only get worse!” Akut’ou could see the signs and the glee showed on his face. “Became mine completely. Discard who you have been until now. He doesn’t matter anymore. Kitayama Hiromitsu doesn’t exist, nor has he ever existed. You’re the nameless survivor!”
To be continued...