Snow and Ash - Eight Part 1A
Ryo:
Sometimes it seems like I’m always counting down to something. Long hours are saturated with anticipation, and seconds are filled with frustration.
If I'm used to it, why is it that waiting is still hard to bear? They tell me “We’re still here, so he’s okay!”
But in my mind, that place and that situation don’t fit within my definition of okay.
Yamapi grabs the binder filled with the descriptions of the mutants we encountered during our last run-in with XMA off of the second shelf.
“Ne,” Tegoshi begins, talking to no one and staring at the ceiling. “On this day in the past, not all the mutants were created yet. Does that mean that when we return to the present, the ones who are still humans right now won’t be mutants?”
That’s not true.
“Eh?” Koyama responds to the time-travel mutant, clearly confused at the complexity of the mutant’s power.
I’ll break it down for you one more time. Simpler, this time. Regardless of what happens, who you meet, or who you kill while in the past, the present will be the same as it was when you left it. Why is that? Because once you all return to the present, I will change everything back to the way it was, in other words, changing back anything you messed with in the past. You six will be the exceptions. I won’t change anything about you. That is why the states you are in during the last few moments of the three days will be the states you will be in when you return to the present. Got it? If you kill someone before the three day point, if they were alive in the present, they will be alive when you return to the present. If you save someone that was dead in the present, they will be dead when you return to the present. The things that happen to the six of you will be the only things that remain changed at the end of the three days.
So play. Give me a show I deserve.
“And Shige?” I ask. “How is he?”
He’s a mutant. And conscious, so you can stop thinking that he’s not touching the necklace because he doesn’t have the choice to.
“So he got something that is bearable?” Koyama questions with a slight smile.
I didn’t say that.
My body stills. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
See for yourself. Have fun.
I try to control the anger that rises up inside of me, not wanting to hurt anyone around. “That bast-“
“Calm down, Ryo-chan.” Koyama’s hand is sliding over my back. “He wants a show, so he’s riling us up. Don’t believe it.”
“Exactly,” Yamapi says with sudden optimism. The way Koyama doesn’t even look at him distracts me for a moment. I thought they were okay. “We’re leaving in an hour; we’ll see for ourselves.”
“Are we splitting up?” Massu asks. “Same as before, Kei-chan and I, Tegoshi and Yamapi? Now that Ryo-chan is with us, he could clear the path for us to get to the leader.”
I sit back and listen carefully as the others work out the plans. If the time-travel mutant really is lying, and Shige has something bearable, we can’t mess it up for him. And if he isn’t lying, and Shige is suffering, I want to get him out of there as quickly as possible.
We all do.
It was decided that Tegoshi and Yamapi would begin in the main area, clearing a path to the rooms Shige is probably in, and I will go with Kei-chan and Massu to clear a path to the pitiful leader of XMA. Afterwards, I’ll go back to where Tegoshi and Yamapi are, help out, and get to where Shige is and get him out of there.
---
When we pull up on the dirt road to the building that we once destroyed, a sense of déjà vu rushes through me. On the outside, a normal building. On the inside, a game that plays with unwilling victims’ lives.
Unwilling, of course, with the exception of one.
We enter the building without much delay and the smell of chemicals that is linked to almost every memory here threatens to make me sick. Towards the middle of the staircase, we all pause, about to go our separate ways.
“Be careful,” Koyama says and those are the only words exchanged before we ascend the staircase, split up, and go in different directions. For just a moment I turn back to where Yamapi and Tegoshi are running down the white hallway before the three of us, Koyama, Massu and I, ascend yet another staircase.
Fluorescent lights cover the ceilings and in our dark clothing, we stand out against the bright white walls and sparkling tile. No light is turned off, and no switches are visible.
In other words, even if we wanted to, there’s nowhere to hide.
We turn the corner, and two figures melt in from the ceiling - one stopping to stand in front of us, and the other continuing to melt and sink through the tile to the level below us.
The one standing crosses her arms and her dark red lips curl into an evil grin. “Ah~ Rude of you to invade our home, isn’t it?” She reaches over and produces a knife from her hand. With it, she cuts a square in the wall, and I watch as she tosses what she cut out to the side. “Useless bastard can’t do anything right,” she mumbles to herself before slamming her fist into the square. Out of the corner of my eye I see Koyama get startled by an alarm that begins to sound.
It’s loud, the kind of sound that pierces your ears, and it makes it hard for me to concentrate, but I have no choice. I can’t let them get hurt.
She faces us with her hands behind her back, glares, and when she brings her hands back in front of her, she’s holding a dozen knives that she produced. She throws them up, holding them in her own force, but when she motions for them to be thrown at us, I stop them, suspending them in mid-air only a short distance from where they began.
“So you want to play?” She holds her hands out, and three more come out of her skin. “I don’t need those. I have more.”
She throws them, and I stop them, but for only a second one of the ones from before slips out of my control. It was only for a moment, but it was long enough.
“Kei-chan…” Massu responds to his gasp of pain.
“Gotcha,” the mutant exclaims with a look of achievement. “Now for you two.”
“Don’t get your hopes up.” I change my target. The knives fall to the floor, and the mutant's breath hitches when I lift her.
“Katori-chan…” Koyama pleads in a shaky voice. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
“How do you know my name?” she asks in surprise and momentary innocence flashes in her eyes.
“Please,” Massu adds.
“I…I can’t.” The knives lift off of the floor and I drop her, taking the knives under my control once again.
“Sorry, Katori,” is all I say before I throw all of the knives into her body. Her eyes grow wide and she falls to the floor, red blood pooling around her on the white tile. I turn to Koyama who is horrified. “She’ll be okay when we return to the present, right? She was in the way.”
Koyama looks down to the knife in his stomach and, wincing, pulls it out, dropping the bloody weapon to the ground. I lift up his shirt, and watch as the wound heals completely, leaving only the blood behind.
“Let’s go,” he says and returns to his feet. I hit the wall again, turning the alarm off, and we continue. Whoever the alarm was meant to signal would have gotten the message already, but at least now I can fully concentrate.
We reach the end of the hallway before the sound of an explosion can be heard.
The fight has begun.
---
Between Katori and the leader, there aren't any more mutants. It might seem like that is a good thing, but it’s not. What it means is that not only are all of them ganging up on Tegoshi and Yamapi, but the timing is also wrong.
He’s supposed to be injected minutes before the building explodes. I haven’t even gotten to Shige yet. And if all of the mutants are down with the other two, Tegoshi and Yamapi will have to create even more of a mess, possibly destroying the building before we have a chance to get Shige out of here.
Game over.
“Can you two stall?” I whisper the other two as we lean against the wall outside of the leader’s office.
They both nod in agreement.
“Be careful,” I say before running down the bright white halls towards where the sounds of violence are getting louder and louder…
---
When I reach the large room, my eyes travel to the center, where I was once on the brink of destruction. This entire room circled around me, and Shige crawled over to me when I was on the verge of death.
It’s not easy returning to the place that holds one of your darkest memories, especially when once again things are about to be destroyed.
Every blast of fire that Yamapi creates is larger and stronger than it usually is - probably a result of the built-up power that was making him sick. The same is true with Tegoshi. His eyes are shining a bright blue color and electricity is surrounding him, enveloping him, as he directs some of it at the mutant characterized by his brute physical strength.
I teleport over to where Yamapi is, his eyes a reddish-orange.
“That one over there,” he says to me and I hold the one he was fighting in place. “Don’t let him touch you.”
“Why?”
He swallows. “Just watch.”
I stare at a mutant I don’t quite remember and my eyes widen as he places his hand on a cardboard box and it melts into liquid. He touches another one, and it disappears.
“That’s why. He can change the phase of anything he touches. Solid to liquid, liquid to gas, or even solid to gas. In other words, instant death.”
I re-focus my attention on this new mutant, but something’s not right. Even though I’m not doing anything, the mutant isn’t moving. He’s standing still, watching something behind the boxes with a smile.
“Ne, non-mutant,” he begins, “if you break into someone’s house looking for something with the intention of stealing it, that’s wrong isn’t it?”
He walks behind the boxes, and continues. “If I give it to you, it’s okay.”
I lift the rows of boxes all at once and toss them to the side, but when I look back to the mutant, my heart stops.
“But you see,” he begins, looking at me and hooking his arm around Shige’s neck. “I can’t do that. Daddy would be very upset if I did that.”
“Let go of him.”
“I had no intention of hurting him…though, Daddy probably would rather have him dead than in the hands of those who are trying to rip us apart. And I think he would agree.”
Shige lifts his hand up and takes the mutant’s arm away. “Of course.”
“Shige…”
He raises an eyebrow. “What? You think I’d actually rather go with you?”
It could just be a front to protect himself. He’d never be brainwashed by the nonsense that the people here choose to believe.
Shige takes a few steps to the side and motions to something behind me. “Go ahead.”
A burst of fire rushes past me and incinerates the phase change mutant, killing him after only a few seconds.
Shige looks at the remains and smiles. “He was annoying. Always complaining.”
But something still seems different. “Let’s go,” I say regardless.
“Did you not understand what I said before?” he says with a serious expression that causes my heart to sink. “Why would I want to go with you?”
“Shige?” Yamapi says from behind me, probably feeling the same way I do, before I look back and see him begin to fight with another mutant.
“What happened to you?” I say, my voice shaky as I try to fight the ache in my chest.
“I changed my mind, that’s all. Just like I changed my mind and became part of your curse even though I said I’d stick it out and live a life without touching you.”
I can’t speak.
“What? You thought it was some trick? That somehow, it’s not me? How did I know that then?”
Only the six of us would have known that. Because at this point in time, none of them even knew I existed until now. They wouldn’t know about my curse, or that Shige had anything to do with me, or that he became a part of it.
“You said this wouldn’t happen to you.”
“What wouldn’t? That I’d have my eyes opened to the wonders of the world Daddy wants to create?”
I cringe when I hear him call the leader that. “Let’s go, Shige…Just leave this place.”
“I could, or you could join us too. You love me, don’t you?”
“…No. I don’t.”
His eyes widen when I throw him against the wall, everything inside of me in pain watching it. “What?”
“When did I ever say I loved you?”
“Ryo-tan! What are you doing?” I hear Tegoshi yell from across the room.
“It’s not him!” I yell over my shoulder before looking back up to ‘Shige’. “Answer me. The first time I said it.”
He furrows his eyebrows. “When you saved me from here.”
“Wrong.”
I pull him away from the wall a bit, and turn to Tegoshi who is watching in fear. “Shoot him!”
“What?!”
“Trust me. Just do it!” I yell.
He hesitates for a few moments, but just as I’m about to open my mouth to tell him again, a bolt of lightning originating from him strikes ‘Shige’.
I let him fall to the ground, watching in pain as he shakes, and telling myself It’s not him. It’s not him. It's an trick - a trap.
I turn away, not wanting to look at it anymore, and watch as a few other mutants enter the room. They never stop.
I take a step forward, my eyes on the Snake, before a small voice reaches my ears. “Ryo…”
Slowly, I look back to the body lying on the ground.
“On…” he shakes once more. “…the phone.”
“Huh?” I say softly.
He swallows, still trembling. “We were together ever since dinner that day. When you left, you didn’t even wait an hour before calling me.” I fall to my knees beside him. “That was the first time you said it.”
“Shige…I’m sorry. I thought-”
He shakes his head.
“I made a mistake. I…”
He raises his hand, and places it on my knee, using it as leverage to pull himself up. He glares at me, and places his hands on my chest. “No you didn’t.”
He throws me to the other side of the room and my anger gets the best of me when I get to my feet. “Stop messing with me, you bastard!” Debris begins to float around me and I direct it all at him, impaling him in the chest with a broken, pointed piece of wood. Blood pools around the body when it falls, and he shifts back to look like his real self, a man in his thirties who I recognize as one of the ones whose power remained unknown to us. He was a shape-shifter.
The state of the room is worse than when I arrived, but the fires have all stopped burning, and just remain frozen in time. The stalling is over.
Part B
Sometimes it seems like I’m always counting down to something. Long hours are saturated with anticipation, and seconds are filled with frustration.
If I'm used to it, why is it that waiting is still hard to bear? They tell me “We’re still here, so he’s okay!”
But in my mind, that place and that situation don’t fit within my definition of okay.
Yamapi grabs the binder filled with the descriptions of the mutants we encountered during our last run-in with XMA off of the second shelf.
“Ne,” Tegoshi begins, talking to no one and staring at the ceiling. “On this day in the past, not all the mutants were created yet. Does that mean that when we return to the present, the ones who are still humans right now won’t be mutants?”
That’s not true.
“Eh?” Koyama responds to the time-travel mutant, clearly confused at the complexity of the mutant’s power.
I’ll break it down for you one more time. Simpler, this time. Regardless of what happens, who you meet, or who you kill while in the past, the present will be the same as it was when you left it. Why is that? Because once you all return to the present, I will change everything back to the way it was, in other words, changing back anything you messed with in the past. You six will be the exceptions. I won’t change anything about you. That is why the states you are in during the last few moments of the three days will be the states you will be in when you return to the present. Got it? If you kill someone before the three day point, if they were alive in the present, they will be alive when you return to the present. If you save someone that was dead in the present, they will be dead when you return to the present. The things that happen to the six of you will be the only things that remain changed at the end of the three days.
So play. Give me a show I deserve.
“And Shige?” I ask. “How is he?”
He’s a mutant. And conscious, so you can stop thinking that he’s not touching the necklace because he doesn’t have the choice to.
“So he got something that is bearable?” Koyama questions with a slight smile.
I didn’t say that.
My body stills. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
See for yourself. Have fun.
I try to control the anger that rises up inside of me, not wanting to hurt anyone around. “That bast-“
“Calm down, Ryo-chan.” Koyama’s hand is sliding over my back. “He wants a show, so he’s riling us up. Don’t believe it.”
“Exactly,” Yamapi says with sudden optimism. The way Koyama doesn’t even look at him distracts me for a moment. I thought they were okay. “We’re leaving in an hour; we’ll see for ourselves.”
“Are we splitting up?” Massu asks. “Same as before, Kei-chan and I, Tegoshi and Yamapi? Now that Ryo-chan is with us, he could clear the path for us to get to the leader.”
I sit back and listen carefully as the others work out the plans. If the time-travel mutant really is lying, and Shige has something bearable, we can’t mess it up for him. And if he isn’t lying, and Shige is suffering, I want to get him out of there as quickly as possible.
We all do.
It was decided that Tegoshi and Yamapi would begin in the main area, clearing a path to the rooms Shige is probably in, and I will go with Kei-chan and Massu to clear a path to the pitiful leader of XMA. Afterwards, I’ll go back to where Tegoshi and Yamapi are, help out, and get to where Shige is and get him out of there.
---
When we pull up on the dirt road to the building that we once destroyed, a sense of déjà vu rushes through me. On the outside, a normal building. On the inside, a game that plays with unwilling victims’ lives.
Unwilling, of course, with the exception of one.
We enter the building without much delay and the smell of chemicals that is linked to almost every memory here threatens to make me sick. Towards the middle of the staircase, we all pause, about to go our separate ways.
“Be careful,” Koyama says and those are the only words exchanged before we ascend the staircase, split up, and go in different directions. For just a moment I turn back to where Yamapi and Tegoshi are running down the white hallway before the three of us, Koyama, Massu and I, ascend yet another staircase.
Fluorescent lights cover the ceilings and in our dark clothing, we stand out against the bright white walls and sparkling tile. No light is turned off, and no switches are visible.
In other words, even if we wanted to, there’s nowhere to hide.
We turn the corner, and two figures melt in from the ceiling - one stopping to stand in front of us, and the other continuing to melt and sink through the tile to the level below us.
The one standing crosses her arms and her dark red lips curl into an evil grin. “Ah~ Rude of you to invade our home, isn’t it?” She reaches over and produces a knife from her hand. With it, she cuts a square in the wall, and I watch as she tosses what she cut out to the side. “Useless bastard can’t do anything right,” she mumbles to herself before slamming her fist into the square. Out of the corner of my eye I see Koyama get startled by an alarm that begins to sound.
It’s loud, the kind of sound that pierces your ears, and it makes it hard for me to concentrate, but I have no choice. I can’t let them get hurt.
She faces us with her hands behind her back, glares, and when she brings her hands back in front of her, she’s holding a dozen knives that she produced. She throws them up, holding them in her own force, but when she motions for them to be thrown at us, I stop them, suspending them in mid-air only a short distance from where they began.
“So you want to play?” She holds her hands out, and three more come out of her skin. “I don’t need those. I have more.”
She throws them, and I stop them, but for only a second one of the ones from before slips out of my control. It was only for a moment, but it was long enough.
“Kei-chan…” Massu responds to his gasp of pain.
“Gotcha,” the mutant exclaims with a look of achievement. “Now for you two.”
“Don’t get your hopes up.” I change my target. The knives fall to the floor, and the mutant's breath hitches when I lift her.
“Katori-chan…” Koyama pleads in a shaky voice. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
“How do you know my name?” she asks in surprise and momentary innocence flashes in her eyes.
“Please,” Massu adds.
“I…I can’t.” The knives lift off of the floor and I drop her, taking the knives under my control once again.
“Sorry, Katori,” is all I say before I throw all of the knives into her body. Her eyes grow wide and she falls to the floor, red blood pooling around her on the white tile. I turn to Koyama who is horrified. “She’ll be okay when we return to the present, right? She was in the way.”
Koyama looks down to the knife in his stomach and, wincing, pulls it out, dropping the bloody weapon to the ground. I lift up his shirt, and watch as the wound heals completely, leaving only the blood behind.
“Let’s go,” he says and returns to his feet. I hit the wall again, turning the alarm off, and we continue. Whoever the alarm was meant to signal would have gotten the message already, but at least now I can fully concentrate.
We reach the end of the hallway before the sound of an explosion can be heard.
The fight has begun.
---
Between Katori and the leader, there aren't any more mutants. It might seem like that is a good thing, but it’s not. What it means is that not only are all of them ganging up on Tegoshi and Yamapi, but the timing is also wrong.
He’s supposed to be injected minutes before the building explodes. I haven’t even gotten to Shige yet. And if all of the mutants are down with the other two, Tegoshi and Yamapi will have to create even more of a mess, possibly destroying the building before we have a chance to get Shige out of here.
Game over.
“Can you two stall?” I whisper the other two as we lean against the wall outside of the leader’s office.
They both nod in agreement.
“Be careful,” I say before running down the bright white halls towards where the sounds of violence are getting louder and louder…
---
When I reach the large room, my eyes travel to the center, where I was once on the brink of destruction. This entire room circled around me, and Shige crawled over to me when I was on the verge of death.
It’s not easy returning to the place that holds one of your darkest memories, especially when once again things are about to be destroyed.
Every blast of fire that Yamapi creates is larger and stronger than it usually is - probably a result of the built-up power that was making him sick. The same is true with Tegoshi. His eyes are shining a bright blue color and electricity is surrounding him, enveloping him, as he directs some of it at the mutant characterized by his brute physical strength.
I teleport over to where Yamapi is, his eyes a reddish-orange.
“That one over there,” he says to me and I hold the one he was fighting in place. “Don’t let him touch you.”
“Why?”
He swallows. “Just watch.”
I stare at a mutant I don’t quite remember and my eyes widen as he places his hand on a cardboard box and it melts into liquid. He touches another one, and it disappears.
“That’s why. He can change the phase of anything he touches. Solid to liquid, liquid to gas, or even solid to gas. In other words, instant death.”
I re-focus my attention on this new mutant, but something’s not right. Even though I’m not doing anything, the mutant isn’t moving. He’s standing still, watching something behind the boxes with a smile.
“Ne, non-mutant,” he begins, “if you break into someone’s house looking for something with the intention of stealing it, that’s wrong isn’t it?”
He walks behind the boxes, and continues. “If I give it to you, it’s okay.”
I lift the rows of boxes all at once and toss them to the side, but when I look back to the mutant, my heart stops.
“But you see,” he begins, looking at me and hooking his arm around Shige’s neck. “I can’t do that. Daddy would be very upset if I did that.”
“Let go of him.”
“I had no intention of hurting him…though, Daddy probably would rather have him dead than in the hands of those who are trying to rip us apart. And I think he would agree.”
Shige lifts his hand up and takes the mutant’s arm away. “Of course.”
“Shige…”
He raises an eyebrow. “What? You think I’d actually rather go with you?”
It could just be a front to protect himself. He’d never be brainwashed by the nonsense that the people here choose to believe.
Shige takes a few steps to the side and motions to something behind me. “Go ahead.”
A burst of fire rushes past me and incinerates the phase change mutant, killing him after only a few seconds.
Shige looks at the remains and smiles. “He was annoying. Always complaining.”
But something still seems different. “Let’s go,” I say regardless.
“Did you not understand what I said before?” he says with a serious expression that causes my heart to sink. “Why would I want to go with you?”
“Shige?” Yamapi says from behind me, probably feeling the same way I do, before I look back and see him begin to fight with another mutant.
“What happened to you?” I say, my voice shaky as I try to fight the ache in my chest.
“I changed my mind, that’s all. Just like I changed my mind and became part of your curse even though I said I’d stick it out and live a life without touching you.”
I can’t speak.
“What? You thought it was some trick? That somehow, it’s not me? How did I know that then?”
Only the six of us would have known that. Because at this point in time, none of them even knew I existed until now. They wouldn’t know about my curse, or that Shige had anything to do with me, or that he became a part of it.
“You said this wouldn’t happen to you.”
“What wouldn’t? That I’d have my eyes opened to the wonders of the world Daddy wants to create?”
I cringe when I hear him call the leader that. “Let’s go, Shige…Just leave this place.”
“I could, or you could join us too. You love me, don’t you?”
“…No. I don’t.”
His eyes widen when I throw him against the wall, everything inside of me in pain watching it. “What?”
“When did I ever say I loved you?”
“Ryo-tan! What are you doing?” I hear Tegoshi yell from across the room.
“It’s not him!” I yell over my shoulder before looking back up to ‘Shige’. “Answer me. The first time I said it.”
He furrows his eyebrows. “When you saved me from here.”
“Wrong.”
I pull him away from the wall a bit, and turn to Tegoshi who is watching in fear. “Shoot him!”
“What?!”
“Trust me. Just do it!” I yell.
He hesitates for a few moments, but just as I’m about to open my mouth to tell him again, a bolt of lightning originating from him strikes ‘Shige’.
I let him fall to the ground, watching in pain as he shakes, and telling myself It’s not him. It’s not him. It's an trick - a trap.
I turn away, not wanting to look at it anymore, and watch as a few other mutants enter the room. They never stop.
I take a step forward, my eyes on the Snake, before a small voice reaches my ears. “Ryo…”
Slowly, I look back to the body lying on the ground.
“On…” he shakes once more. “…the phone.”
“Huh?” I say softly.
He swallows, still trembling. “We were together ever since dinner that day. When you left, you didn’t even wait an hour before calling me.” I fall to my knees beside him. “That was the first time you said it.”
“Shige…I’m sorry. I thought-”
He shakes his head.
“I made a mistake. I…”
He raises his hand, and places it on my knee, using it as leverage to pull himself up. He glares at me, and places his hands on my chest. “No you didn’t.”
He throws me to the other side of the room and my anger gets the best of me when I get to my feet. “Stop messing with me, you bastard!” Debris begins to float around me and I direct it all at him, impaling him in the chest with a broken, pointed piece of wood. Blood pools around the body when it falls, and he shifts back to look like his real self, a man in his thirties who I recognize as one of the ones whose power remained unknown to us. He was a shape-shifter.
The state of the room is worse than when I arrived, but the fires have all stopped burning, and just remain frozen in time. The stalling is over.
Part B