Chương 17: Freedom
…
"Hey, squad 17, answer me! Where is subject UN-1?! Answer me! Goddamnit!"
"Send more personnel, we can't afford to let that one escape. Dr. Ujiko will kill us if he does!"
"What more personnel?! We already sent everyone available!"
"What did you say?!"
"Shit… Just what in the world is happening…?!"
In a small room packed with screens everywhere, a lot of people could be seen panicking and yelling in anger at what seemed to be the lack of images on the screens. Some even hitting the desks in front of them because of the feeling of powerlessness that they were going through.
And their emotions were understandable. After all, their most important subject was escaping, and despite them having sent everyone capable enough to stop him before he fled, all of their units ceased all communication the moment they made contact with the brat.
What's more, this was happening repeatedly with everyone they sent to capture him…
It didn't matter if they sent a pair of squads, or if they sent all the seventy present squads at once.
The moment they arrived at the zone where the subject supposedly was, their devices ceased all communication.
It was as if the subject had…
"... No, it's not possible… While that kid possesses a higher level of body capabilities, he is facing countless trained soldiers equipped with tranquilizing weapons… Not to mention that many of them possess very dangerous Quirks that could quickly subdue him if necessary… It's simply not possible for him to have…"
While scratching his head in frustration, one of the several men in the room pondered deeply about the current situation as he felt something was not right.
After all, the subject was but a little kid of no more than 8 years old.
Even if he had a powerful body, how could that even compare to what hundreds of soldiers armed with weapons were capable of?
It simply didn't make sense to consider the possibility of the subject being the one to have taken down the soldiers as something plausible.
"…"
However, even if he—...even everyone in the room thought like that… the fact that the soldiers had indeed dissapeared after making contact with the kid and that he was still roaming free through the base was something none of them could deny.
…
However, if he was wrong, and the kid had been indeed the one to take care of the soldiers they sent… then how had he done it?
'Shit'
He simply couldn't figure out an answer to that.
"What the fuck is that?!"
"Huh?"
Suddenly, while the man continued racking his brain off to think of the answer to his question, the voice of one of his companions startled him and made him turn to look at him with a confused expression.
"Hey, what's—...Huh?!"
However, just as he was about to ask the reason for such a shrieking scream, his eyes caught sight of something in one of the screens at the corner of the room, and his entire body froze in its spot at that instant.
It appeared like one of the body cameras installed in the armor of the soldiers had safely recovered its connection with one of the screens in the room, and was finally projecting them an image of what the long corridor where they had sent the soldiers looked like.
'This… This can't be…'
Unfortunately, none of the people present had the time to cheer up about that fact, since right there on the screen, the sight of one of the previously mentioned soldiers now lying on the floor with its head facing a completely wrong direction and with a long trail of blood coming from his nostrils and mouth could be seen.
It was a brutal sight. Something that none of them had expected to see so abruptly.
"..."
In the end, none of the people there were able to muster a word after seeing such a sight.
Of course, not because this was a traumatizing sight for them.
None of the people present in that room were innocent, and all of them had seen their fair share of macabre stuff.
No. The real reason they acted like that, was because of how bizarre and incomprehensible what was in front of their eyes was.
The identity of the soldier's corpse there, with his neck twisted like a wrung-out sponge, was not a common one.
According to the data that they had about him, he was the leader of Squad number 2, one of the top squads in the facility, and he, in particular, possessed a very powerful Quirk that made him stand out from all his peers by a lot.
"Steel-muscles…"
They all remembered the Quirk's name clearly. It granted him muscles that would harden to the point of resembling steel whenever he desired it or when his body received too much of a shock in a short amount of time. Just like non-newtonian fluid worked, but with muscles instead of liquid.
In summary, it granted him an almost invulnerable body which even guns would do no damage at all, and a humongous strength since his muscles wouldn't get torn even if he surpassed the common human limits of strength by several folds.
For him, lifting a ton was not something out of the ordinary, and that, coupled with his almost invulnerable body made him a powerhouse on his own.
Considering all that, for him to be the one lying dead on the ground… and with his neck twisted of all things!
It didn't make sense.
Couldn't his Quirk have prevented such an event from happening?
… And the fact that the one who did this was supposedly a kid who simply had a slightly better physique than normal people… It made even less sense.
It was as if the whole situation was just some sort of sick joke.
However, none of them had the time to laugh about the absurdness of the situation, since soon, seeing that not even a capable soldier like him had been able to stop the kid, and realizing that at this rate he would escape, the men in the room began to panic.
"... This… This can't be…"
"Fuck… At this rate won't we be killed for failing to keep that brat from escaping?!"
"Should we go try ourselves to stop him? It's our only option if we don't want to face Dr. Ujiko's wrath…"
"Ahhh… Why did I even think it was a good idea to sell my soul to this place…?"
However, despite the great chaos that enveloped the entire room, not everyone was feeling as urged and confused as it may have seemed.
"Heh"
Suddenly, while most of the people there were racking their brains about what to do, or trying to decipher what in the world was happening, a carefree laugh reached their ears and made all of them turn to look at the author of that sneer with perplexed expressions.
There, sitting on a chair with a calm and triumphant smile on his face, one of their companions was looking at them while gesturing them reassuringly with his hand to calm down.
"Everyone, don't worry… I've just sent "That guy" to take a look at the problem"
Hearing his words, the entire room went into a frenzy.
"What?!"
"You sent "him"?! But he is only supposed to guard the door and kill whoever enters this place without authorization!"
"Are you nuts? What will you do if he breaks important scientific material while he is dealing with the subject?!"
"Not to mention that Dr. Ujiko wants that subject to stay alive. It is very unlikely that such a brute will be able to handle a kid without killing him in the process!"
However, the man didn't flinch in front of all the angry complaints directed at him, and instead, he simply scoffed and pointed angrily at the screen where the corpse of one of their best soldiers could be seen with its neck broken.
"Well, it's either that, or us being killed mercilessly by Dr. Ujiko when Subject UN-1 escapes! Whether or not he kills that kid in the process, it is a risk I'm willing to take… And besides, do you see the way such a powerful Quirk user died? It doesn't matter if the kid is the one to have done it or not. The fact that there's something out there that killed the leader of Squad 2 in such a horrid way is the truth… And I'm going to take it down, be it with the kid in the process, or not"
Shaking his head in displeasure, the man snorted before he gained a helpless expression as he talked.
"... And, even if you all don't like it, I've already issued the order… Now, all we can do is wait for that brute to come back here to report to us what the results are"
""...!!""
Hearing the man, the people in the room looked at him with an astonished expression, before they all gritted their teeth and bit their lower lips in frustration.
However, in the end, they all stayed silent. Being unable to berate the man in front of them due to how confused and chaotic their minds were at the moment.
All, except for one.
At one moment, one of the present people looked threateningly at the man from earlier, before he growled "…This better work properly, or we will make sure to kill you by our own hands before Dr. Ujiko comes back…". Soon gaining the nods of all the others, and making the man from earlier visibly shiver for a moment.
After that, the time passed.
Five minutes passed, then ten minutes, and finally twenty minutes.
The clock continued ticking as the men were biting their nails in anxiety.
The wait to know how the problem had concluded was killing them.
They all wanted to go out there and discover with their own eyes what was happening. However, considering that none of them was armed, and neither were they trained to fight or had a good Quirk to defend themselves, they felt reluctant to do so.
After all, the soldiers they had sent had died. What would powerless people with weak quirks like them do?
In this situation, all that was left was to wait.
Wait for the man they had sent to deal with the subject to call at the door… And tell them that he had taken care of the kid.
-Knock, knock, knock-
And, just like the sound of angels ringing bells in the sky, soon the sound of someone knocking at a door reached their ears and freed them from the unending torture that was waiting.
As soon as they heard the door, they all turned to look at the screen that was connected to the camera installed on the other side of the door, and there, they saw the man who would tell them whether or not they would die today.
"It's him!"
"Did he do it?"
"Where is the kid? I don't see him"
"Shit, he is covered in blood… He didn't do what I think he did, right?"
"He better have held back at least so that the kid doesn't die…"
Seeing that the man they were expecting had arrived, even though without the subject beside him, they hurried to open the door to see what he had to say.
-Click…-
And soon, the door opened. Revealing the imposing figure of a man filled with bulking muscles and a stoic face that seemed to have gone through countless hardships across his life.
A man that everyone across the room knew very well.
Maki Kenta, the bearer of the Quirk "Full Gravity". A Quirk that granted him the ability to create a designated zone around him that could possess up to a hundred times more gravity than normal.
He had become the guardian dog of the secret facility where they were situated right now, and he was the one designated to kill anyone who entered without permission. Be it someone who accidentally discovered the place, or a hero trying to meddle where no one called him.
The number of heroes he had taken down was easily in the hundreds, and the destruction he left whenever he entered in combat was not something to scoff at.
This was also why he was kept at the entrance by Dr. Ujiko, since there, the zone was reinforced by several folds to withstand his abilities so that he wouldn't need to go to other zones within the facility, where he would destroy important materials while fighting foes.
"Oi, Kenta… Did you do what I asked you to?"
Seeing him enter the room, the man who had issued him the order soon stood up, and asked him in a hurried tone. Gaining the attention of all the other men, who wanted to desperately know the answer to that as well.
"..."
However, much to the man's confusion, Kenta did not answer him, and instead, he simply stared back at him with an impassive face while staying completely silent.
Seeing that, and feeling his nervousness and impatience for knowing what happened skyrocket, the man frowned angrily, before he stomped his way towards Kenta.
"Hey you brute, I asked you something!"
"..."
Once in front of him, the man grabbed the collar of the big guy, before he readied to yell at him in anger.
He, and everyone in the room, wanted to know what had happened.
Their lives were on the line depending on what the man who had just arrived would answer, after all.
-Shlck!-
However, before he could utter a single word, a sharp pain stabbed into the heart of the man who was grabbing Kenta's collar, and caused a torrent of blood to gush from his mouth. Making, at that very moment, the entire room to freeze.
""...!!""
Feeling the sharp pain in his heart, the man gasped in suffering, before he slowly and faintly managed to lower his head to look at the source of his torment.
And once he saw it, his eyes widened to the point he felt they were on the verge of bleeding.
Down there, right where his own heart was supposed to be, what seemed to be a vicious tongue could be seen piercing deeply into his body as if he was made out of butter.
A tongue that, somehow, came straight out from the stomach of the man named Kenta, who was now opened apart and had several sharp teeth around the severed part, just like a big and monstrous mouth in the middle of his body.
It was an unnatural sight that could make anyone shiver in discomfort.
Something that shouldn't exist.
Something unnatural.
Something not human.
"K–enta—... No, you…. Ugh… W-What the fuck are you…?"
Seeing the unnatural sight in front of him, the man managed to utter those words as he felt his life slipping away from him.
However, as if those words had used all the energy he had left, his body went limp like a lifeless doll in just mere seconds after that, before his eyes lost all light within them.
-Tschk!-
-Thud!-
Once dead, the tongue coming from Kenta's stomach rapidly retracted, leaving the man's dead body to fall to the ground helplessly, before his body reattached itself again to look just like a normal human. As if the demon's mouth that had been right in the middle of his body had never actually existed in the first place.
However, things didn't end there, since soon, as if to make more fun of the men's confused and chaotic minds, the appearance of the man named Kenta began dissolving like a candle being burnt by a flame and made everyone around the room exclaim in horror.
Some even began vomiting on the spot.
The sight was grotesque. Seeing what was once a human being get dissolved like mere liquid was something disturbing for anyone, no matter how accustomed they were to horrible things.
However, completely in contrast with what the sight had been until then, when the body of Kenta finally dissolved completely, all that was left was the appearance of a naked boy standing right there, with his bright red eyes looking impassively at the group of people in front of him.
A boy that everyone there remembered clearly.
The one who had caused them to fall into such a mess in the first place.
The one whose fault was that their lives were at risk of being taken away by their boss.
The one who they had thought had been just one more of the subjects that Dr. Ujiko brought to his laboratory to experiment with.
Suzaku Suzuki.
Subject UN-1.
…
°
°
°
|At Jaku General Hospital, sometime later…|
…
In Jaku General Hospital, the day seemed like any other.
People were being treated or diagnosed, and the doctors and nurses moved at frantic paces all around the hospital. Not unoccupied enough to slow down for even a minute.
Even then, that was but a normal day for everyone there, and most likely, for any hospital in the world.
With Quirks arriving in society, the number of injured skyrocketed every day. As such, having incommensurable amounts of hurt people every day became the norm for any health center.
Fortunately, the arrival of Quirks also helped a bit in modern medicine to ease a little bit the weight that it put on medics' shoulders the sudden increase in wounded people.
However, even then, the increase in patients continued to be a thing.
Though, to the relief of the staff of the hospital, today wasn't a hectic day. Just a normal one.
Otherwise, none of them would even have the time to catch their breath every once and then.
As such, the staff of the hospital continued doing their jobs without complaining. Thinking that with enough luck the day would end without complications if they didn't falter.
And, indeed, there weren't any complications… That is until a certain incident happened out of the blue.
Just when the sun was beginning to put for the day, inside one of the corridors of the hospital, a certain nurse could be seen roaming around while reading a few files in front of her with a serious expression on her face.
Currently, she was registering the number of medical tools and medicines that they had in stock in the hospital.
A while ago, the chief doctor had asked her to do so, as it was an important task since they couldn't afford to lack anything at any moment when the lives of people were at stake.
And since things seemed manageable for the time being, she took a break from treating patients and went to do what the doctor had asked instead.
After that, she checked various rooms. From the storage, to bathrooms, to patient rooms, to the security room. She traveled all across the hospital and spared no room from her vigilance.
And in the end, seeing that in most of them, the number of medicines and medical equipment seemed to be in a good quantity, she felt satisfied.
It seemed that no unforeseen problems would arise from that aspect during the next few weeks.
"Hmm?"
However, just as she was finishing with the list of rooms left to check, at one moment she came across an almost unnoticeable door by one of the sides of the wall of a hallway and stopped right in her tracks.
The door was painted the same color as the wall, and, coupled with the fact that the door almost had no separation from the wall aside from a small gap of a few millimeters, it made it hard to notice it at first glance.
In fact, she almost missed it while she was passing by this area.
However, the thing that gave it away for her was a small sign on top of the almost unnoticeable door that said "Janitor's storage room".
When she saw it, she finally noticed the fact that there was a door right below it. Which made her surprised when she realized it.
"Huh… That's weird"
After that, she decided to check on the list of rooms that were left to inspect to see if she had missed it. However, after a few seconds of checking it again and again, she noticed that the room in front of her seemed to be missing from the list.
Feeling surprised by this, the nurse raised an eyebrow in amusement, before she then decided to enter it to check if everything in there was in proper condition.
After all, having good hygiene all across the hospital was a must. She had to make sure there wouldn't be any problems with the chemicals used to clean surfaces, or with the tools used to take away the waste of the patients.
Otherwise, who knew what kind of infectious or viral problems would arise in the future because she had decided not to check today?
-Click…-
"Let's see, a janitor's room huh…? Well, in this case, the first thing in the list to check is–Hmm?"
However, the moment she entered, she noticed something weird about the room.
Despite the small sign outside that said that this room was a janitor's storage room, the place was empty. As if it had never been used in the first place.
Seeing that, the nurse couldn't help but wonder if that room had been left unused ever since it was built.
Otherwise, why would there be a room without purpose inside a hospital, where space was the most vital thing possible?
However, in the end, she didn't think much of it.
Maybe they had simply not noticed the room during all this time.
After all, she had barely noticed it by coincidence when she had been passing by. So, it wouldn't be a big surprise if no one had noticed it during all this time considering that most of the personnel of this hospital always were in a hurry, and it was likely they wouldn't notice a place like this.
That, or they noticed it, but didn't care. Why would someone even care for a Janitor's storage room if they aren't a janitor, in the first place?
So, thinking that it made sense, the nurse scoffed in annoyance at having wasted her time and prepared to leave the room so that she could continue checking the rest of the hospital's inventory.
She could just report about this room later to Dr. Ujiko, who was the head of the hospital, and they would put it to good use later on after knowing of its existence.
Thus, having no more matters to attend here, the nurse opened the door once again, before she prepared to close it and leave for good.
-Thud!-
However, just as she was about to leave, a loud sound coming from one of the walls of the room reached her ears and made her stop completely for a second.
"Huh?"
Thinking that she had heard wrong, the nurse frowned slightly as she glanced at the wall where the sound had come from, wondering if the wall was connected to another part of the hospital, before she shrugged her shoulders and started closing the door once again. Not thinking much of it.
-Thud!!-
However, when she heard the same loud sound from before appear again, and even more booming at that, she couldn't help but stop where she was and glance with worried eyes at the wall where that sound was coming from. Wondering if someone was trying to break into the hospital without anyone noticing it, or something along those lines.
-Silence…-
"What is…—?"
However, before her imagination would become wilder, something shocking happened.
-Bang!!!-
Out of nowhere, just when the silence was beginning to settle after the two first loud sounds had passed, what had seemed a completely normal wall until then suddenly opened violently with a bang like a door, and collided with the wall that was on its side due to the force behind the impact that opened it. Causing a deafening sound in the process that forced the nurse to flinch slightly as she covered her ears.
After that, a small dust cloud covered the entire room. Causing the nurse to squint her eyes as she coughed a little bit while observing the situation.
'Is it a villain?' Naturally, such a thought was the first to come to her mind. After all, who else would cause such a violent incident inside a hospital filled with people who need peace?
She could only think of the author behind this as an evildoer.
However, just as she was preparing to go and call for a hero who was nearby just in case she was right, the dust cloud settled, and a shocking sight was revealed.
There, right behind what was once a wall, was a long and dark corridor that seemed to extend for who knows how long. Something that should by no means exist inside of a hospital.
However, despite the shockingness of the discovery, there was something else in front of her that picked her attention much more and made her regard the secret passage in front of her as something secondary.
"A kid…?"
There, completely naked and with bruises all over his body, a child with red hair and red eyes could be seen standing right in front of the long corridor that had appeared.
A kid that, for some reason, despite the bizarreness of the situation, simply stepped out of the dust cloud with an impassive expression on his face, before then turning to look at her with squinted eyes when he noticed her.
As if he was seeing a threat.
"..."
When she saw him, the nurse felt a bit lost for a second.
However, soon after, she recovered from her stupor, and ran toward the kid while yelling "Are you okay?!". Feeling shocked after seeing a child in such conditions, and wondering just what was behind that long corridor for a kid like him to have emerged from there.
However, just as her hand was about to reach the kid, a certain feeling of dread filled her mind and made her freeze instantly.
"...!!!"
After that, she began to take several steps back away from the kid in a hurried way as if he was a dangerous predator that was threatening her life.
"..."
However, that feeling lasted only a second or so. It was so short, in fact, that by the time she recovered, it felt as if it had simply been a product of her imagination.
'What was that?' Naturally, that question passed through her mind after experiencing that feeling.
After all, that feeling had appeared out of nowhere, and it had seemingly come from the kid in front of her. It was normal to question her own mind.
"Where am I?"
However, before she had the chance to question herself more about what she had just felt, the voice of the kid reached her ears, and made her turn to look at him with a surprised expression. He, after all, looked rather calm, despite his exhausted and damaged appearance.
Nevertheless, she still answered his question.
"We are in Jaku General Hospital"
To which the kid simply answered with a short "I see…", before falling into a deep silence as he looked all around the room.
Seeing him act so brazen despite his alarming appearance, the nurse felt that something was wrong with the kid in front of her.
However, just as she was about to tell him that he currently needed medical assistance with urgency and ask him about his parents, the kid turned to look her straight in the eyes and asked her for something.
"Miss, I need you to call the police"
…
-To be continued-
(A/N: Edgy arc finished, I can post amogus images again)
->
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