Nameless

Updated May 5, 2022 • Published October 21, 2021
87 minutes read • By Ting Sheng

This little prototype story is written by my friend, Ting Sheng. Enjoy.

Thanks to Ting Sheng for letting me put his story here. I really enjoyed the story, season 0 is amazing.

Table of Contents

• Season 1
  • Premise
    • Year 2076
  • Training arc
• Season 2
  • Year 2077
  • Year 2082
  • Short Training arc
  • National wide sports festival arc
  • Student exchange program arc
    • Year 2082 July
    • Year 2082 August
    • Year 2083 Sunday 12.01am
• Season 3
  • Year 2094
  • Year 2094 February
  • Year 2094 August
  • Year 2095 January
  • Year 2095 December 31st
  • Year 2096 January 1st
  • Year 2096 January 3rd
  • Year 2096 April 15th
  • Year 2096 April 16th
  • (Flashback) Year 2083 August (almost 13 years ago)
  • Year 2096 April 19th
• Season 0
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4 : Reflection
  • Chapter 5 : First and last
  • Chapter 6 : First and Last 2
  • Chapter 7 : Diary
  • Chapter 8: Turning point
  • Chapter 9: A heartfelt chat
  • Chapter 10 : Friends
  • Chapter 11 : Contract
  • Chapter 12 : SUS
  • Chapter 13 : Secret Society
  • Chapter 14 : A Reason

Season 1

Premise

In the year 2045, humans have developed supernatural powers, however, only 5% of the population of humanity has gained such power, and only 0.1% will actually be powerful and useful to the military (they usually serve as the general or some high position in the military)

At the year 2069, China and America have been at war for 20 years now (most of the time it’s peaceful, but the two still bombs each other every once in a while).

At the same time, Sven Smith (aged 5), and his mother, Maria Smith (aged 29) lives in a village near the border between China and America (still in the China territory)

Maria had always wanted a 2nd kid, but her husband had passed away when she was still pregnant with Sven. So she adopted another kid that’s also 5 years old and named him Adam Smith.

Year 2076

Sven and Adam at the age of 12 are found out to be within the 0.1% of superpower users, and therefore sent to a middle school that specializes in training superpower users which is in the capital of China far away from their village

Sven power:

• Electric type
• Power: 20
• Precision: 100

The electricity he produces is weak it could only stun an adult for 3 seconds, but he can inject electricity into silk and control them with extreme precision, so far he can lift 30kg worth of stuff with his electrified silk, but he cannot inject electricity into any other kind of material.

Adam’s power:

• Fire type
• Power 90
• Precision 50

He can produce heat up to 400 Celsius for now and can produce fire from anywhere on his skin. He could also endure 400 Celsius of heat.

So my 1st season would be like:

Adam and Sven are sent to middle school.

No detailed character introductions because no-one in the school would want to leak their powers right off the bat as it would give other people an advantage over him/her.

Training arc

Some type of competition arc (it will be in teams because the school wants the students to earn each other trust and be willing to expose their powers so that they could corporate well to win the competition.)

Season 1 ends off with America dropping several nukes near the China-America border and killing Sven and Adam’s mother, Maria Smith.

Following up with season 2, it will continue right after the nuclear tragedy.

Season 2

Year 2077

Sven and Adam are 13-year-olds (middle school first year)

The US government were happy at first because of the 5000km square worth of land achieved through nuking China, but the United Nations and American citizens were angry that America violated the agreement of banning the use of nuclear weapons, so the Americans rioted, and the president and the higher ups of military were assassinated shortly afterwards. With this, America got a new president, John Clinton, he formed a peace contract with China and returned the land to China as well. The people around the world were happy to get such a nice president.

Adam and Sven’s age: 13

Time: After the nuclear tragedy was reported through news channels (but before the Americans rioting)

Sven and Adam were in shock and Adam cried like absolute crazy while Sven was just shedding tears in their student dorms, with their other 2 roommates (Steve and Alex) comforting them.

Sven to Adam: ha…you’re crying 10x louder than me when you’ve shared less than 10 years of feelings with mom, do you have any idea just how fake you look right now?

Adam: … what did you just say?

Sven: …

Adam: * grabs Sven by his collar and lifts him up

Adam: I know you’ve always had a hard time expressing your own and understanding other people’s emotions, but this time you’re crossing the line, take that back right now!!!

Sven: ha… You’re this angry right now because you can’t accept what I said huh? Welp, I guess that makes sense, in the end, you’re just mom’s adopted child anyway.

At this point, Adam lost it, he focused all of his heat on his fist and proceeds to punch Sven in the face. He punched someone hard that Sven suffered from 1st degree burns and multiple fractures on his face and was blown out of the room.

Sven: ha… *he said weakly as he tried to talk with fractures on his face

Sven: See? That just proves my point that you would probably kill your own family, just because you can’t accept what they said.

Truly shows just how little you treasure your family. Ha, I bet that’s why your initial parents abandoned you anyway.

At that point, the heat Adam produced has exceeded his limits and is at around 800 Celsius.

The heat was so immense that the whole student dorm was able to feel it and burned every single nearby paper into ashes.

Adam: I’ll smash your face in so hard that you’ll never be able to talk again.

* He said calmly as he prepares his stance to punch Sven again

But before he can do anything, he collapsed because the heat got to even himself (as I’ve mentioned before, Adam is only able to endure 400 Celsius of heat, and therefore, he’ll faint if he produces more than 400 Celsius of heat)

Following after the fight between Sven and Adam

Sven and Adam were both hospitalized and suspended from school. Adam was discharged within a week, while Sven needs to stay for another 2 weeks.

Adam was the first to apologize, but he did it through messaging while Sven was still hospitalized, but Sven never replied back.

After a few months, they hung out and interacted with each other like nothing ever happened. Everyone was relieved to see the 2 brothers making up.

Year 2082, Adam and Sven’s age, 18, last year of high school

It’s time for the yearly sports festival again.

At this point, Sven though that he was tired of it, because after 5 years of the same sports festival again and again, he already knows what everyone’s power is, and the event barely even change each year, and the same goes for their rankings, top 3 always being Adam, Eve (a girl), Alex. (Sven is usually ranked 4th).

But the hot-blooded Adam looks forward to the sports festival every year and seems to never get tired of it.

But this year, America and China is organizing a student exchange program between them, the top 10 students from each country will represent their country and visit the other country as a tourist. But there will also be some type of mission assigned for the foreign students.

And if the team sent from both countries completes the mission, they will get international fame, money, a confirmed high-ranking job in the future and other stuff that would benefit them

This student exchange program is extremely important because it is China and America’s first student exchange program in more than half a decade.

After the student exchange program was announced, the usual in-school sports festival has been changed to a national wide sports festival, with all of the top superpower schools participating. And the top 10 ranking students of the national wide sport’s festival will be participating in the international student exchange program

So basically my s2 so far would be like

News of the nuclear tragedy announced

The fight between Sven and Adam

Time skip to last year of high school

Student exchange program gets announced

Short Training arc

National wide sports festival arc

Top 10 winners include

• Adam
• Sven
• Eve

Student exchange program arc

Year 2082 July

A month after the sports festival ended and the top 10 national winners were picked.

The top 10 winners including Adam Sven and Eve were sent to New York, America by plane. They will be staying there for 2 weeks.

After they arrived, they went through the VVIP gate, and they’re greeted by a high-ranking US military officer.

The officer said that they will be informed when the mission starts (he did not mention what date and time), Until then, they can do whatever they want.

The officer then escorted them to their hotel.

It was 1.00pm when they checked in to their hotel and the military officer left. The top 10 winners were split with 10 presidential hotel rooms. After unpacking, they met at the hotel lobby and discussed their plans.

So basically the plan is:

• can go out of the hotel whenever you want in a group until the mission is announced
• must all gather at Adam’s room within 10 minutes when a meeting is taking place or when the mission is announced (because Adam’s room is in the middle of all their rooms and is the closest to the elevator, which gives them an access advantage)
• do not expose their identities in public to cause commotions
• must go back to the hotel no matter where they are before 9.30 pm.
• that’s all

After the meeting, all of them went out to have fun and toured around New York.

After 9.00pm, no mission was announced and they all went back to their respective rooms, they thought their first day was a success.

Sven (an introvert) was tired af after spending the whole day outside with a bunch of extroverts.

When he just entered the room and was about to sleep straight away, the TV lighted up with a breaking news.

He took a glance, and the news anchors shared a video about terrorists saying that “Terrorists had planted a bomb somewhere in the Clinton area (which is 500 meters from the hotel) and that the bomb explosion radius is about 200 meter big, which will result in at least 2, 000 deaths.”

The news anchor then said, “Citizens were already evacuated, and experts have already been sent to confirm the bomb’s existence, but until now, there’s no bomb to be found, the results remain unchanged after a week, they will abandon the bomb searching and everything will return to normal.”

After the news ended, Sven didn’t have too much of a fuck and went to sleep

He woke up 7 in the morning and went out with the others again at 10.00am, on their way to go shopping, Adam mentioned the news broadcasted yesterday. He said “Man, that news yesterday about terrorist mass killing in the Houston area is scary af man, hope we won’t encounter them during this trip.” 4 other winners agreed with Adam while 5 other winners including Sven and Eve were confused. Sven said “what are you talking about? Don’t you mean the news about terrorist planting a bomb in the Clinton area?”

Eve and the others agreed so.

Adam and the others said, “Nah man it was clearly the mass killing one, I never saw anything about a bomb being planted.”

They then had an argument and Adam went to ask a shopkeeper about the news.

Adam: “Hey there, I’m just here to ask something, was the news broadcasted yesterday at 9.05 pm about mass killing or bomb terrorism?”

The shopkeeper was confused and said that “it was neither of them, in fact, there wasn’t even any news broadcasted yesterday at that time”

Adam realized now that he could just search up the news on google. But the news was nowhere to be found.

Now, it’s the winners who were confused.

Eve then said: “Now that I think about it, isn’t it weird how everyone is still acting normally? “Another guy from the top 10 winners: “What do you mean?”

Eve: “Even though news of terrorism about bombs or mass killing have been announced just yesterday, no one here seems to be worried, all of the business here are still opening too.”

Another guy: “Then does that mean that we’re the only ones that received the news?” Everyone: “Yeah, but why though…”

Sven then said: “Could it be that… our mission… has already started?”

*Shows shots of the group being spied on by unknown people

*Episode ends dramatically with a cliffhanger, but I won’t be continuing this arc anymore because I suck at converting action scenes into words.

The top 10 winners from each country completed their respective missions and won numerous prizes and fame. They are said to have the brightest future ahead in history.

Like I said last time I’ll no longer be continuing this arc because I suck at storytelling, so I’ll be continuing my story while skipping this arc

Before I continue the next arc, I would like to say that Eve and Adam has had signs of romantic feelings for each other since season 1(I didn’t mention this because it’s a rushed story, I would take the time to deepen their relationship if this was a complete story), everyone knows that they like each other except themselves.

Year 2082 August (after the student exchange program arc ended, this will be the summer festival arc which is a lot shorter)

It’s summer again, almost every class in the school decided to go to Shanghai, which is the largest summer festival event in China, they did not come here in such a big group in the previous years, they have 2 reasons to why they came here this time

1. To have fun and make memories since this is their last year of highschool
2. To somehow make Adam and Eve confess to each other before their highschool life ends.

So both the girls and the boys group worked together to plan out what they’re going to do to make Adam and Eve confess to each other. So the plan would be like:

• let Eve be the one to confess with a love letter prepared by the girls (they didn’t let Adam be the one to confess because he’s dense af and is afraid he would fuck up the confession, as to why Eve agreed to let others prepare her love letter because she has failed every writing exam since middle school)
• on that day, they would try and lure then both to a place with no one around and somehow time their confession with the fireworks to make it as cliché as possible After everything is prepared, everyone awaits the day to arrive.
• to be continued

Year 2083 August (Saturday)

The day for the Shanghai summer festival has finally come, after all the preparation are done, they all went out and met at 5.00pm

They had fun at the theme park, played the mini games and ate bunch of delicious food at the summer festival stalls for

nearly 6 hours, at 11.00pm, 1 hour before the fireworks event, all they did was cooperating to get Adam and Eve to a nearby park with no people around where they could still see the fireworks.

Time: 11.40pm

After all preparation were done, everyone (in order) said that they have to go home because it’s too late now or something like have to use the restroom (just whatever excuse they can think of to sneak away and let the two be alone) but in reality they were all hiding behind bushes, trees and structures in the park, waiting nervously for the confession to happen (they all had earphones so it doesn’t matter how loud the fireworks are they could still hear the confession.)

Time: 11. 55pm

When the last person also walked away, finally leaving Adam and Eve alone, the dense ass Adam finally realized that this is a trap, panicking helplessly, thinking: “Wtf?????? This is obviously a trap to leave me and Eve together alone was this their plan all along??????”

“What should I do, what should I do, what should I do, what should I do…” He thought, while sweating like crazy

“Should I just walk away as well? But that will make me look like a total bitch if I leave a girl like Eve alone in the night. So those motherfuckers are trying to force me to confess to her??? Oh right I should just wait this out, that’s clearly the best choic-”

“I-I love you, please go out with me!” Eve said.

In the midst of panicking, Adam did not realize that the time was already 12.00am, following Eve’s confession, it was the fireworks.

Everyone else hidden away, looked at the two standing gorgeously under the beautiful fireworks, like they were made for each other.

*Episode ends with ending song continues playing

Year 2083 Sunday 12.01am

(Right after the confession happened)

While everyone, hidden away, was enjoying the beautiful fireworks, it got disrupted by the voice coming out of their earphones, it was Adam talking.

Everyone immediately turned away their attention from the fireworks and awaits Adam’s response to the confession.

Unexpectedly, Adam bows down and calmly said: “I’m very sorry, as of now, I still think going out and have a girlfriend at the age of 18 is too early…so my answer is …no …sorry…”

Eve looked down, seemed a bit sad, and said: “…no it’s fine … it’s only natural after all…”

Everyone drowns in silence after that, the originally excited atmosphere suddenly turned serious, some might even say it’s depressing

“But… that’s for now …at least.” Adam said

Eve looked confused and said: “…eh? Didn’t you just reject me?”

“Nah my point is that I don’t want to get into a relationship when I’m still a student since that would be troublesome, so that doesn’t matter as long as we both graduate from university, right?”

“After we had both graduated from being a student, we can find a suitable time… at this exact location, at this exact day, at this exact time! …and I’ll be the one to propose.”

“So please … can you wait just a bit longer?”

Eve was shocked, tears dropped down from her eyes, “Yes…!” Is what she said.

Everyone was stunned by this change of events, some even cried, but they all had the same thought in mind, and that is: “damn, that was cool af”

after the summer festival ended, they all went back to their dorms.

Adam returned back to his room and started reading the love letter, it was a normal love letter, and then another piece of folded paper fell from the envelope.

Adam opened the paper, and it was the marriage registration form the girls snuck in. He was like: “EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH??????????????????????!!!!!!!”

He was so loud that all of his originally asleep roommates came to check on him. They laughed like crazy after seeing the marriage registration form on Adam’s hand.

Adam: “Yo don’t laugh man what the hell should I do with this???”

Steve told him to calm down and explained that it was just the girl’s prank and Eve wasn’t the one who did it (though she knew about the marriage registration form)

Sven: “So what are you gonna do about it? If someone else finds it they’re gonna think that you’re a creep man”

Alex: “I don’t think anyone would mind if you throw it away, it’s just a prank after all” Adam then thought for a moment

Adam: “…Nah I’ma keep it”

Everyone else: “Welp… if you say so…”

After the summer festival arc, I was originally gonna end it with a graduation arc, but idk how to write one, so I’m just gonna move on to season 3

Season 3 part 1 is pretty much just about the process of how Sven and Adam achieve their high-ranking positions in the military, which I don’t really know how to write either so I’ll be skipping to Season 3 part 2

Season 3

Year 2094

Adam and Sven’s age, 29

Almost everyone in the class went to the same university because there’s only 5 superpower specialized universities spread across China, and almost all of them graduated at the age of 24.

They then went to choose their career, 20% out of the 5% superpower users chose military jobs, 96% out of the 0.1% superpower users chose military jobs

Adam joined the military and worked his way up to the highest position in the military, a 5-star general. Sven is the assistant/2nd-in command for the 5-star general. Surprisingly, Eve chose to be a teacher at their original high school instead of the military. But because there is currently no war, Adam and Sven sometimes also offered to be a temporary instructor at the school.

Even after everyone graduated from university, Adam still haven’t found a suitable time for his proposal to Eve, because everyone was extremely busy with their own lives. Adam also refused to propose without everyone in the class present.

So basically everyone in season 2 is adults now.

At this time of the year, Sven, Adam, and Eve were teaching the same class (which is the class for 0.1% superpower users)

5.30pm

After the classes were finished, Eve messaged Adam and told him that she has a surprise for him and to meet at the library (because the library is closed at that time and no one is around)

Adam met Eve in the library and Eve whispered to his ears, she said: “next week Saturday will be a national holiday, I already confirmed that everyone are free that day, so if you’re free as well, can you please… Uh..umm.. pro..pose on that DA-’

“REALLY???? HELL FUCKING YEAHHHHH!!!! Me and Sven don’t have anything scheduled that day either!!!” Adam said excitedly

Eve was stunned by the sudden shouting by Adam, and then said: “but it’s not on the same date though… Do you mind?”

“Huh? What date? Oh you meant what I said back then? Don’t mind that la, I only said that to sound cool, it’s already hard enough to even gather everyone together now, I’m not gonna ask for more” Adam said.

Eve teared up and said: “Finally… after 11 years, we can finally…”

Adam wiped away her tear and nodded. It was a happy day.

Next week Saturday 7.00pm

Everyone gathered at the garden just like they all did 11 years ago, with the exception of everyone not hidden away. It had a happy atmosphere.

Eve arrived before Adam, dressed gorgeously.

They had everything prepared, food, beverage, and even consoles to play together like they did back then. everyone was waiting for Adam’s arrival, impatiently

However, he did not show up that day

Saturday 11.00pm

Adam didn’t show up for over 4 hours now, most people are worried, some are sad, Sven is just downright pissed.

Sven said that he’ll go to Adam’s house and search for him since he’s the only one who knows where’s Adam’s house is (and that’s because high ranking military officers’ houses must be kept a secret)

Sven arrived at Adam’s house, he used his power to unlock the locks on gates and doors, and finally found Adam in his bedroom, he was in horrible shape, he was shaking, he was crying and kept on saying: “why did it has to be now? “He didn’t seem to even realize Sven was there.

Sven was shocked because he has never seen the usual hyperactive, positive and confident Adan in this shape before. He said: “… oi, what are you doing bro, we have to hurry to the-”

“DON’T COME NEAR ME!!!”

Sven was shocked yet again, but this time, he seems even more pissed now, he said: “What the fuck us wrong with you? Do you know how worried everyone is? Do you even know how sad of a face Eve had when you seemed to not attend the party? You’ve thrown away your responsibility, you’ve done all this shit, and now you’re the one that gets aggressive??”

Adam seemed calmer now, he just quietly said, “…just leave me alone … please…”

Sven also calmed down now, he said: “whatever, I wouldn’t want you to attend such a big party just to show Eve that pathetic face of yours anyway.”

Sven left and got back to the park, he apologized and said: “Sorry, Adam is safe but I wasn’t able to bring Adam here, but he really doesn’t seem to be in any shape to come out right now, or anytime soon.”

Everyone was disappointed, their view of Adam is the complete opposite of what it was 11 years ago

11 years ago, they thought the promise Adam made to Eve was cool af. Now, they just thought Adam as an irresponsible man.

Year 2094 February

For 2 months, Adam didn’t come outside of his house. At that time Sven had to manage everything in the military on his own, he had no time to check on Adam, so he gave Eve his house location, and asked her to check on him as frequently as possible since Sven thinks Adam would be more open to Eve.

Eve went to Adam’s place almost every day to check on him, she also brought food, she even did a report on what Adam reaction was each time she came to check on him. This is her report,

First week

Adam had no response to anything except a simple nod

Second week

“Mhm” is all he said

Third week

“I’m fine…also thanks for the food” is what he said

Fourth week

He seems to get better mentally every week, so I tried asking for the reason why he ended up like this, he didn’t respond

Fifth to sixth week

I stopped asking that question, and Instead I asked some more simple and relaxing questions, he became more open with it each day

Seventh week

I was finally be able to have a normal conversation with him now, he even apologized to me about the proposal, I forgave him without asking for the reason

Eighth week

I started encouraging him to go to work again, he said “just a little longer…” Most of the time. -end of report

To everyone’s surprise, Adam finally came back to work on 2094 May and also started teaching at Eve’s school again, in fact he seemed to be even more hardworking now.

Year 2094 August

After 3 months, he even volunteered to travel across China to check on the major army bases and trained the soldiers personally. Sven and Eve were worried for him to go by himself for a long period of time, but Adam said that he’ll definitely be back before 2095 New year’s

Year 2095 January

Adam actually did come back before New Year’s.

2095 was the most peaceful year for Adam and everyone else

Year 2095 December 31st

Today is the last day of 2095, Adam, Sven, Eve and their students had planned to go to the countdown event at China’s most famous district, District 69.

They planned to meet up at 7.00pm to go shopping before the countdown because at 5.00pm Sven and Adam have to patrol around the city to check if there’s any signs of a terrorist attack, as terrorist likes to attack at crowded places during huge events.

After finished patrolling at 6.30pm, Adam and Sven took the train to district 69 to join up with Eve and the students

Sven and Adam are currently on the train

Sven: “Finally finished patrolling, 2095 was a good year, wouldn’t want to end it off with a terrorist attack tbh.”

Adam: “…yeah…that was tiring”

Sven: “That’s weird, usually you would be really excited when a big day like this comes Adam: “…”

Adam: “…hey…what would you do if I’m the terrorist that we’ve been searching for? Wouldn’t that be funny? …ha…ha…”

Sven: “What are you talking about all of the sudden? wasn’t that too random-”

Adam: “You see this timer on phone right now? The moment it hits 0.00, multiple large-scale explosions will occur across China, killing millions of people.”

Sven: “Like I said, even for a joke this is going too far, you’ll scare the other passenger-” The televisions on the train lit up, broadcasting a breaking news.

Adam: “Oh, that was faster than I thought.”

News anchor: “There have been multiple large scale explosions occurring in major cities and army training camps across China, the cuties reported so far are Sichuan, Beijing, Shenzhen…”

As the News anchor lists out the cities that has fallen victim to the explosions, one passenger after another broke down crying, assuming that their families or friends had been killed, while Sven knowing his very last family, Adam, is quite possibly, the killer.

The train was air-conditioned, but Sven was sweating. It was supposed to be a happy day, but it ended being many’s worst day of their lives. One could say the hellish atmosphere on that train was no less than that of hell itself.

“…Hangzhou and Tianjin…and there’s a new case of city reported, Shanghai, District 69.”

The moment it was reported, a loud explosion noise came from the direction of behind Sven, and rays of light came shining into the train. Sven didn’t move, he didn’t even look back to check the situation, or rather, he didn’t dare to.

After a good 30 seconds Sven turned around and said: “ADAM WHAT THE FUCK-”

Before Sven could even finish his sentence, Adam already positioned his hand right at Sven’s face, heated up, and blown Sven out of the train cabin.

Year 2095 December 31st

6.50pm

The final battle has begun.

Sven shielded himself from the explosion with his hardened silk, got back up to the train and dragged the fight to a nearby office building.

It was a hard fight for Sven because he has to avoid getting innocent people caught up in the fight, while Adam doesn’t need to.

At one point, Sven successfully baited Adam into his trap and turned the tables over, he has the advantage now.

When Sven is about to deliver what he believes to be the finishing blow, his phone rang, it was the reminder to meet up with Eve and the students at 7.00pm just in case he forgot

Adam: “…ha… right… we were supposed to meet up at 7, too bad they’re gone now, since I blew up district 69.

Sven: “…you bitch… that’s why you suggested to meet up at district 69, but why the hell would you kill them?!”

Adam: “Can’t you tell? It was my plan all along…or rather … it’s America’s plan.

Sven: “…what the hell are you talking abou- …, Are you saying that… you’re a spy sent from America…? …but what about the plan? You do know that China has a backup plan for this right? We discussed this at the military meeting years ago!

Adam: “ha… you really are slow on things when you panic, as a spy, I’ve obviously already informed the American military about the plan, and they’ve already taken care of it.

Sven: “… America’s trying to conquer China once and for all huh? and I thought the new president was pretty good too…but what about the bombs? How can America plant this many bombs across China without getting caught?”

Adam: “…damn, you really are slow …remember that I volunteered to travel across China to give personal coaching to the soldiers?

Sven: “So you planted the bombs when you were doing that huh? …I get it now… Adam remained silence

Sven: “…so basically… everything you’ve done until now, all of the contribution you’ve done to the country, every nice thing you’ve done to others…, were just lies?

Adam: “…”

“yeah”

Sven: “…well, I guess that I can’t hold back now that I’ve known your reasoning. Adam Smith, I will now execute you for commitment of genocide.”

Adam: “woah hold on, here, grab this.”

It was at this moment, Sven let it his guard down, he grabbed the object that Adam threw at him, just like any normal person would react when someone throws something at them.

Sven looked at the object, it was a piece of human skin.

“What the hell is thi-”

“I sliced it off when we were talking, you do remember that I can generate hear and fire from anywhere on my skin…right?”

Sven thought for a brief moment, when he finally realized it

“…shit-…!”

It was too late, it was a direct explosion, Sven got blown out of the building, fell from the 5th floor, leaving him half-unconscious

Year 2095 December 31st

Sven’s consciousness is fading away, he tries to hold on, but he can’t.

His surroundings are full of citizens panicking, shouting, crying and suffering, it is an absolute mess.

He looked at the citizens, lied down on the middle of the road, and thought: “ah… I guess this is the end, why do I have to try so hard anyway, what could I achieve even if I win this fight. Most of China’s military power are destroyed, it could never stand against an all-out attack from America… I’ve lost everything… I’ve never even seen my dad’s face before, mom died when I was 13, Eve and my students are now dead, my only family left also betrayed me, there is nothing left I could appreciate now…”

“Honestly…just… let me die …at this point, I don’t want to face any of this bullshit anymore…”

In the middle of all this chaos, a signboard of a building detached, about to land on the citizens, killing them.

“So why am I even doing this?”

By the time Sven even realize it, he himself stopped the falling signboard, saving them “…oh right…, I forgot…”

As Sven is slowly getting up, he thought: “…the very job of being a soldier…is to protect my country’s citizens, even if it means risking my life…if I can’t even fulfil my roll…ugh…”

“How am I any better than him…?”

As Adam landed from the fifth floor. he said: “Oh, already on your feet now? That was pretty fast.”

“Well… it’ll probably be my last time doing this… might as well give it my all”

Sven said.

Time: 7.10 pm

For a good 5 minutes, it was an all-out fistfight between Adam and Sven, Adam can’t use his power to a high extent because he’ll ignite the gases in the vehicles around them.

It came down to the last move they both can make. They both got a clean straight punch on each other faces, but it was Adam’s win.

Sven flies backwards for about 10 meters, hit a light pole, and stopped. He survived, but is not in any shape to fight anymore.

Adam: “…why”

Sven: “…what do you mean why”

Adam: “Don’t pretend like you don’t know, at the very last moment your fist made contact with my face, you relaxed your muscles, so in the other words, you hold back! …but why?”

Sven: “haha… don’t mistaken my intention, I could never beat you in terms of raw strength…so I came up with a plan instead.”

“…What plan? “Adam asked

Sven remained silence as he slowly lift up his left arm, pointing at the direction of Adam and moved his arm to the left at about 140 degree.

“…Ughh…!!” Adam suddenly felt something sharp tightening in on his neck.

He looked closely, it was Sven’s silk, he put that at the last sparing punch to the face.

“I’m a kind man, so I’ll let you have your last words and wish, but if you try anything funny… I’ll kill you right away.” Sven said

Year 2095 December 31st

Sven: “I guess this is the end huh, well, I guess spending the last 25 years with you wasn’t a complete waste, it was somewhat fun.”

Adam: “The end? Nah remember that famous quote on Reddit which said, “Death isn’t the end, the end is when everyone completely forgets about you.”

Sven let out a depressed laugh and said: “and someone in the comments said, “That’s why you should commit war crimes right?”

“Yeah yeah, guess I’ve become the 2nd Hitler now.”

Sven: “…enough of that, the next time you say something, it will be your last words, so choose them wisely-”

“General Sven!”

Their conversation was interrupted by a police officer, followed by what it seems to be his team.

“General Sven, my name is Benjamin Moore, the leader of the local police station, I never expected sir to be here, we’ve finished evacuating the citizens in the area, but sir you look severely wounded, what happened?”

Sven: “Ah… it’s nothing, I was just fighting this guy who caused the explosions.

Benjamin: “Wait, you’ve found the culprit? Does that mean it was this guy’s doing… wait, isn’t him general Adam?!”

Sven: “…yeah”

Benjamin: “…is that really true…? General Adam…?”

Adam: “…yeah”

Benjamin shocked but he quickly pulled out his gun and said: “Men! Surround him! Don’t let him escape!”

Benjamin: “you monster… do you have any idea just how many of my comrades and friends have you killed?!”

Adam: “…yeah…sorry man…”

Benjamin: “you bitc-, Sir, please give us the order to shoot him!”

Sven: “Hold on a second, he still hasn’t had his last words yet. Now… Adam, let us hear what you have to say.”

“…”

Adam: “…America stationed 40% of their forces in Japan beforehand so they can get to China faster after the explosions were set off. They’ll arrive at the Northeast side of China within 2 days. They’ve also stationed 30% of their forces in Russia and will joined up with the main army within a week. So I advise you to focus all of your defence at the north and northeast side of China… that’s all…”

Sven: “Wow, that’s some awfully kind advice from someone who committed genocide, but what do you expect from the mere 5% of military China has left.”

Adam: “…”

Sven: “Well, I assume that will be your last words. I, Sven Smith, the 2nd in command general of China’s military forces, shall now proceed the execution of Adam Smith, for the reason of betrayal and commitment of genocide!”

It wasn’t even a second long, it was just a brief moment, but when Sven pulled the thread, all he could hear, was the silk tightening, and blood came out of Adam’s sliced opened neck, and his lifeless body falling flat on the ground. Sven’s heart stopped for a moment, he wanted to cry, but he held it in, he thought: “We were just having fun, I didn’t realize we were making memories, I’ve never thought it would come to this day.”

The whole process felt like a full minute.

The moment Adam’s body touch the ground, someone came rushing out of nowhere, pulled his/her sword, and aimed for Sven’s neck. But Sven was able to stop it with his remaining silk, he took a good look at the attacker, it was Eve.

“YOU BITCH, HOW COULD YOU KILL HIM?! ISN’T HE YOUR BROTHER? DIDN’T YOU GUYS SHARED DECADES OF MEMORIES TOGETHER? SO HOW…how could you…why did you…you guys were just joking around the last time I saw you both, …so how…how did it came to this..?..”

Sven: “…because he was the culprit, the culprit behind the explosions, the culprit behind this massacre, he was a spy, sent from America, he…is a terrorist, he killed millions, and you’re expecting me to let him go?”

“…no… there’s no way… that’s impossible… you’re lying right? Please tell me that you’re lying, …please tell me this is just a joke, you guys liked to pull pranks on each other back in the days, right? so please…tell me Adam is just playing dead…”

Sven: “…”

Eve cried, she cried a lot, she lost her strength in her sword, so she let it go, she lost her strength in her legs, so she kneeled down.

Benjamin: “She’s down now, shoot her for the reason of trying to kill general Sve-!”

“DON’T!!!”

Sven shouted, as loud as he could.

“Put your guns away, if you have the balls to pull the trigger, I’ll kill you.”

Benjamin and his men were shocked, “Y-yes, sir “they said.

Sven thought: “She’s the only one I have left, protecting her might be Adam’s last wish too…wait, shouldn’t Eve …be dead right now…?”

He immediately asked Eve: “Eve! Didn’t Adam told you and the students to wait at district 69?”

Eve: “…no …Adam changed the meeting location to district 72 beforehand, …he said it would be easier since there’s a station there for the train you both took…”

“So the students are safe too?!”

“…yes”

Sven looked at Adam’s dead body with a shocked face, and said: “Adam…I thought you…”

Year 2095 December 31st

7.15pm (when the explosions took place)

Location: America, White house

When the explosions in China were broadcasted to America. Everyone in the room (including the president, John Clinton, and 15 other people with a high position in the military and government) laughed and celebrated, they laughed because Adan actually followed their orders, and planted the bombs. They celebrated because now they could finally defeat China and conquer the world.

They formed a peace contract, organized student exchange program, formed a diplomatic relationship with China, it was all just an act to let their guard down, so that their plan could work. In the student exchange program, they purposely let the students win just so Adam could get recognition and a high-ranking position in the military, so that they could get even more detailed information and top secrets about China.

“Begin the attack on China from Japan immediately, I won’t let them have even the slightest chance to rest, with 95% of their military destroyed, the fall of China is certain!” President John Clinton said.

“Yes, your majesty!”

Time: 8.00pm

The battle ships have sailed, jets have started flying. They will enter China’s seas territory in about 3 hours and arrive on the mainland in about 5 hours.

Year 2096 January 1st

Time: 12.00

4 hours after they’ve departed, 1 hour after they’ve entered the China sea territory

A soldier reported to the commander, saying: “Sir! We’ve arrived! We are able to see the city lights shining from China now!”

Commander: “huh? Isn’t that an hour too early? Let me see.

The commander walked out of his cabin and on to the deck, he looked, and there was indeed a lot of lights visible at the horizon. But he still thought something was off.

He said: “bring me the binoculars, I wanna take a closer look.”

So he did, after he looked again, he dropped his binoculars, he said:

“I-impossible…how…”

“Those…aren’t city lights…, Those are-”

Before he could even finish his sentence, multiple ships around him blew up.

“…those are…battleships lights!”

“So they’re already here huh? I figured they wouldn’t just sit there waiting when they can strike now.” Said Sven, while sitting in the commander room of his battleship.

“General Sven, we’ve confirmed 6 of the American battleships have been taken out. What shall we do now?”

“Wow, so all of the shells hit right on the target huh? This army Adam trained is pretty good after all.”

“… General Sven, is General Adam really the culprit?”

“…yeah …I know it’s hard to believe, considering he’s the one who saved you all from being caught in the explosions by ordering most of you to gather at the east coast of China just 2 weeks ago, right?”

“…yes…, He said it was for a large-scale military performance…but I never would’ve thought that it was actually a preparation for war.”

Sven let out a small laugh, smiled, and said: “You tricked me Adam, you tricked me good…”

“Now, for the order…”

“Yes!”

“…we’ll crush them.”

Year 2096 January 3rd

2 days after an all-out war broke out in the East China Sea between China and America.

The American army thought they weren’t going to battle until they got on China mainland and therefore got caught off guard by China’s surprise attack, and lost a third of their army, their commander is also dead. They reported the situation beck to the US military headquarters.

After knowing the situation, the 1st in command general of US military, Eric, said: “What?! That’s impossible, the majority of China’s army should be dead by now!”

“But sir, they are indeed alive and we’re losing the battle!”

“What the hell was Adam doing, he had ONE job and don’t tell me he fucked it up?!” Eric thought.

“Retreat back to Japan for now! We’ll then send half of our back-up army to you!”

“But sir, we only have enough oil to go to China from Japan once, now that we’re this far inside China territory, we don’t have enough oil to sail all the way back to Japan!”

“Shit… that’s right…since such a large fleet of ships uses a ridiculous amount of oil, we planned to refill using China’s oil Instead once we’ve landed…but who would’ve thought…!” He thought.

“Hold on there for 6 more days, we’ll send 80% of our back up army along with fuel to there!”

“Yes, sir!”

After the call ended, everyone in the room panicked, including the president other high-ranking politicians. They were in an extremely stressful position

The phone rang again.

“What again?”

“Sir, a man called the military headquarters number and said he wanted to talk personally to the president, the man claims to be General Sven Smith from the China military.

The president thought: “Sven? Why would he want to talk to me? Ah right, he’s probably seeking peace instead of constant war and killing! If we form a temporary peace contract with China, we’ll have plenty of time to prepare again for a sneak attack! Yes… that must be it…”

“Fine, put him on the line.” He said.

Sven then got on the call

Sven: “Well hello there, Mr. President, do I need to introduce myself? President: “There is no need. Now, what is your purpose for calling me? “Sven: “I called to have a trade deal for you. I will only accept a yes or a no.”

The president: “And what will the trade be?”

Sven: “I will retreat my army and will not hurt anyone, but on 1 condition.”

“Ha, as I expected.” The president thought.

“…and what is the condition?”

Sven: “the condition is for you to retreat your army as well, and to surrender your country to China.”

Everyone in the room was quiet for a small moment.

“I beg your pardon?” The president said.

“Like I said, surrender your country to China, or else the fighting will continue and many will die-”

“Are you fucking stupid? You, Chinese are the one who suffered the most so far, why are we, America with the advantage here, be the one to surrender instead? Do you even have common sense? As long I’m president, I’ll never let this land fall into the dirty hands of you Chinese! Fucking idiot” The president was pissed off.

Sven: “…That is very unfortunate… you could’ve saved thousands of lives by not letting soldiers getting involved in war, and become a national hero, but now, millions will suffer because of you.”

“What if I can’t save lives? I’ll become a national hero by defeating America’s biggest enemy Instead!”

Sven: “Very well then, now, let’s play a waiting game, the one who loses his cool first a loses within 30 seconds first loses.”

“Huh what are you talking about” The president asked confusingly.

But there were no replies, it was silent.

After 15 seconds, a person rushed into the room, panicking, and said: “-they’re all destroyed…”

“What is?”

“…the army camps…, a ridiculous amount of bombs have been set off in army camps… the soldiers…my friends…they’re all dead…!” The person then broke down crying.

“Wha…what…” Everyone in the room were in disbelief, they couldn’t believe the news, they couldn’t believe that China has in fact, turned the tables on them.

“…and there,”

“you’ve lost the game.”

Year 2096 January 3rd

After the explosion incidents were reported

“What?! How about the army we issued to stand by at the west coast?”

“…they were all annihilated…, 99% of America’s back up army have been killed…”

“… that’s impossible… this must be fake… that’s right, this is just a bluff, right? Please tell me this is just a bluff to scare us…”

“…no sir… there are photos and videos to prove that this has indeed, happened.”

“…how…? They turned the tables on us…? How did you managed to plant bombs in army camps…without anyone noticing…?”

“Huh? Who’s the idiot here now. If you can send Adam as a spy to plant bombs, why couldn’t we do the same?”

The president fell on his knees, trembling with fear.

“As a farewell gift, how about I tell you about China’s plan, the plan was to send spies to America, become an actual citizen there and apply for their military. So that they can easily get explosives and set up them deep within the US territory. But there is one catch, and that is the spies are ordered to NEVER make an aggressive move unless America does it first, but you did, so according to the law, this is just an act of self-defence. And you wanna know who proposed this plan? It was your country’s spy, Adam.”

The president and others can’t believe what they’ve heard. They never would’ve expected that their own spy plotted a rebellion against them.

“Ha, when Adam revealed his true identity, he told me that he told the US government about the plan, but judging by your reactions, I assume he didn’t huh. Man…sigh…he really got me good, I even accused him of betraying us, turns out that it was all part of his plan…” said Sven, with a depressing tone.

“H-how did it came down to this…? ..Ha…It doesn’t matter…the enemies shouldn’t be here any time soon… I can still run away…” said the president, while looking like he’s out of breath.

“Do you really think I would let you escape? I mean I would if you surrendered just now, but millions died because of your pathetic of a decision,”

“…so I won’t.”

“…Me? Pathetic?…ha…who’s the dumbass here..?…the nearest army camp is over 50 miles away, none of your Chinese spies will be able ever catch me,…l will escape, and rebuild my country and return to crush you pathetic Chines-”

“You talk too much.”

Without even realizing it, a familiar voice came from behind the president, his view turned upside down, his whole head is turned around, one of his personal bodyguards had snapped his neck.

The other people in the room went crazy, the other guards pulled out their guns and aimed at him, “Don’t move!” They said, then proceeds to shoot him, but the bullets had no effect on him.

Guards: “What ?! Ho-”

Before they can even do anything else, another bodyguard pointed his silver desert eagle at their heads and blasted a hole through them, with tremendous firepower.

Sven: “Oh right, I forgot to mention, besides your military, we also infiltrated your bodyguard system. And that’s why I said you won’t be going anywhere.” With the leaders and military down, the fall of America is assured, there is no way for you scumbags to escape now…”

“Checkmate.”

After everyone in the room were killed, Sven was still on the call, he said: “I knew you two were in this room, but I can’t recognize you two at first because of your disguise, but I realized after seeing your abilities. But man, it sure has been a long time since we last met, isn’t that right? Steve, and Alex.”

Steve: “…I heard that major cities of China has been destroyed, …is my mom ok?

Sven: “… we haven’t confirmed yet, but don’t get your hopes up, over 500, 000 deaths have been estimated. But if Adam didn’t disrupt their plan, the estimated deaths will be at least 10 times higher.”

Steve: “…ok, …I understand.”

“…enough of this, Sven. After all of this is over, I need you to explain to us, that Adam being a spy.” Said Alex, aggressively.

Sven looked down, with a depressing smile on his face, he thought that this conversation is different from how it was back then, everything changed, it didn’t felt like he was talking to a friend.

This war, has truly ruined everything.

“.. yeah”

Year 2096 April 15th

The mayors of every state and cities in America has surrendered without putting up a fight against China. America is now completely China’s territory.

The officials may have surrendered, but the citizens would not. There were riots all over the place despite the Chinese army stationed around. Tt’s as if they weren’t afraid of dying.

After a month of America’s fall, the president of China held a press conference about addressing the future of America and the changes.

To everyone’s surprise, America will not be colonized by China, it will still exist as a country. But the military will be controlled by China, and several rules has also been applied, such as banning the usage of weapons without a license and restricting other laws that the Chinese government see unfit. But overall, nothing is changed. The China’s president said they only wanted a co-exist relationship with America, just like the relationship between America and Japan after WW2.

And as expected, some of the Americans were still not happy with it, what they wanted was complete freedom, with barely any restrictions whatsoever. However, the amount of riots that took place has been decreasing, it was expected to return to normal within 2 years.

After all of that, Sven took a 2-month break from military work, he went back to teach his students again after schools were reopened.

When he went into the teachers’ office, he looked at the seat beside his, it was Adam’s seat. He looked at it and saw a slightly large metal box on his table. Sven opened it, there were letters inside it, a lot of them.

The first letter on top has words written in black on it, it was

“1 to Alex”

He then looked at the others letter below.

“2 to Billy”

“3 to Calli”

The more letters Sven looked at, the more certain he is that these letters are Adam’s farewell letters for their classmates back in highschool. He flipped through every letter in the metal box, he was expecting his name at the 23rd letter, because 23 was his serial number back in school, and there is, “23 to Sven” except that it was written in blue instead of black.

He wanted to read it, but he wasn’t ready yet, so he kept it first. He thought that he should deliver these letters to his respective classmates.

Except for Eve’s letter, he thought that he should give it to her directly.

Year 2096 April 16th

After being mentally prepared, Sven brought the letter to a detention centre, otherwise known as a prison, to see Eve. As Eve was detained for 12 months for the attempt to murder.

He can meet the most dangerous inmates without getting a lot of checks because he is a 5-star general. But when he told an officer that he wants to pass a letter to Eve, the officer said: “Sorry sir, but even with your position, the letter still has to be checked before being passed to an inmate.”

“I know, but please, can the letter be checked after Eve has read it? This letter is from a person that is very important to her, even I haven’t read it yet. So can you please give me a pass this time?”

Since the officer is just a low-ranking one, he doesn’t want to get in trouble with a 5-star general, so naturally, he allowed it.

And Sven went into the section where level 3 inmates are kept in, he found Eve, he hoped he can communicate with her just like before, but this time it was in a maximum security, depressing prison, and they were separated by long, thick iron bars.

When Eve noticed Sven, she didn’t say anything, but there was a clear presence of hostility towards him.

Sven: “Hi… Eve… How are you doing lately…”

Eve: “What do you want? If it’s nothing then… leave me alone.”

“Leave me alone.”

These words brought back some unpleasant memories of Sven, he remembers now, it was on that faithful day, where Adam was supposed to confess to Eve, but didn’t, when Sven checked on Adam, it was the same words, “Leave me alone.”

Adam’s one was a bit crazier, but both had the same feeling, the feeling of losing someone that is dearest to them.

Because of that, Sven knows that Eve isn’t in the mood for some chit chat. So he just slid the letter through the iron bars and said: “This letter is from Adam, you can check his handwriting if you don’t believe it, he wrote it to everyone else, but I’m sure yours would be different, so please read it.”

Eve picked up the letter, and said: “He wrote it to everyone? That includes you right, what was it about then?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t read it yet.”

“Why?”

“Why? I wonder… probably just because I’m too scared, when the one person that I thought I know everything about him, turns out to be an American spy, I realized just how little I actually know, and I’m just scared that he will reveal even more things in the letter, that’s probably why.”

Eve: “…”

Sven: “…well… I’m gonna leave now, hope you can get out of this depressing place soon, it’s not good for someone like you…, the students are also waiting for you, …bye.”

As Sven left, Eve stared at the letter, holding it tightly, hesitating whether to open it or not.

Year 2096 April 16th

Eve opened up the envelope and took out the letter inside. She was scared, she was afraid to learn the truth, but she still read it anyway.

“To Eve,

Hi there, it’s me Adam. By the time you see this, I am probably dead, this letter was written on November 2nd, 2094.

Well…umm…I actually have so many things to address I don’t know where to start. So uhh…I’m actually a spy from America…and I’ve been sending top secret information to them for over 20 years now, but as a spy work, it was rather easy, they were strict but they never ordered me to go assassinate anyone, so I thought it would be alright for me to get into a relationship now, the reason I rejected you back in highschool was because of this, I wasn’t certain whether is they would allow it, so I wanted to wait longer to observe their following actions. After 11 more years, I thought it was it was honestly enough, I thought they wouldn’t had mind if I got into a relationship, but turns out, they do mind.

They were afraid that I would get too attach to a supposed “enemy”, and they received the order to destroy the main military forces of China, and to kill Eve Nobunaga and Sven Smith, and that if I didn’t follow it, they would kill and torture each of my loved ones one by one, until I submit.

The order was sent on that day, where I promised to confess to you. That promise lasted 11 years, just when I thought it can finally be fulfilled, I couldn’t, that’s why I didn’t came, that’s why I broke the promise and made you looked bad.

I’m sorry I’m sorry

I’m sorry I’m sorry”

There was an ink splat on the last “I’m sorry” Adam pressed the pen against the paper so hard when he was writing the letter that the tip broke and ink splatted out.

“Well.. I don’t even know if you still have feelings for me, you might have already moved on, well, everyone probably already did, and I’m really sorry I have to say this to you now, but “I love you, really.”

Eve noticed there are some wet spots on the letter, she didn’t know when it started, but she cried. She cried because she felt sad, she cried because she felt guilty, she cried because she wasn’t able to do anything to help Adam when he was at his lowest.

When she held the envelope upside down, another folded paper fell out, the paper has become yellowish, probably because of how old it is. Eve picked it up, and opened it.

(Flashback) Year 2083 August (almost 13 years ago)

When the summer festival was over, everyone went back home.

Adam returned back to his room and started reading the love letter, it was a normal love letter, and then another piece of folded paper fell from the envelope.

Adam opened the paper, and it was the marriage registration form the girls snuck in. He was like: “EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH??????????????????????!!!!!!!”

He was so loud that all of his originally asleep roommates came to check on him. They laughed like crazy after seeing the marriage registration form on Adam’s hand.

Adam: “Yo don’t laugh man what the hell should I do with this???”

Steve told him to calm down and explained that it was just the girls’ prank and Eve wasn’t the one who did it (though she knew about the marriage registration form).

Sven: “So what are you gonna do about it? If someone else finds it, they’re gonna think that you’re a creep man”

Alex: “I don’t think anyone would mind if you threw it away, it’s just a prank after all.”

Adam then thought for a moment

Adam: “…Nah I’ma keep it.”

This time, 13 years later, it was the same marriage registration form.

Eve remembers, of course she remembers, this was Adam’s reply to her question 13 years ago.

The marriage registration form was filled out, the only bracket left blank, was the wife’s signing bracket.

Eve cries even harder, but this time, it had a somewhat happy tone to it.

She bites open her finger, and used the blood to write her sign on the bracket.

“Yes.” She said.

Year 2096 April 19th

After Sven received good news about Eve from the prison saying that she is more productive now and partakes in activities the prison has given the inmates. Sven felt a sense of relieve, he was worried that Eve’s situation might get even worse after reading the letter but thank God it didn’t.

Sven: “Well…since Eve was happy with her letter, maybe I should start reading mine too.”

He then opened the envelope, there was only a piece of paper, he unfolded the paper and started reading.

“To Sven Smith,

Yo, what’s up man, I’m probably not so fine by the time you read this, in fact, if I am dead, I was probably killed by you. Don’t worry la, me being dead was all planned anyway, if you ask me why can’t I inform y’all earlier that I’m actually a spy, so that this war could’ve been prevented, problem is, it’s impossible to do that without getting found out. You probably don’t know, but my actions are constantly monitored by other spies around me, if I say anything I wasn’t supposed to, I would be killed immediately,

Just so you know, this won’t be a light hearted farewell letter, I have quite a bit of things to address and explain.

Soo, you remember 17 years ago, where mom was killed, you aren’t happy that I cried harder than you did, and we had a fight? You said something along the lines of, “you’re just a adopted kid, how dare you cry harder than me.” Well, I have wanted to say this for years now, but let me tell you one thing,

“I’m not the adopted one, you are.”

Well there you go, I said it. So… truth is that mom and I actually came from a famous American spy family that has been doing this for generations, the Heinburg family, My real name is Adam Heinburg, and mom’s is Maria Heinburg, the family name, Smith, simply doesn’t exist.

Mom was sent to China as a spy. And after I finished my spy trainings at the age of 6, I was secretly sent to a adoption centre in China, and mom specifically picked me up there. So it wasn’t a coincidence that I was “adopted” into “your” family. There is no coincidence, everything was planned.

You probably have a lot of questions, but I don’t have enough time and space to write out the full story for you. I’ve already asked my father, Peter Heinburg to tell you the full story after everything is settled down.

You were a good brother, I appreciated the time I spent with you, it was fun.

From,

Adam Heinburg

After finishing the letter, Sven had mixed feelings, he felt sorry for being a dick to Adam 17 years ago, acting all superior when it was the complete opposite. He felt sad for not being able to say sorry to Adam after all these years, Adam was probably waiting for his apology until his very last breath. Sven also had one question,

“Who am I?”

Because he doesn’t have anyone that’s important to him, he doesn’t have a so-called family, or rather, he doesn’t even know who they are. He thought he was special, he thought that getting a great ability, getting a high-ranking job, was something only a few can accomplish, but he now realized it all means nothing, he was a socially awkward person, he just needed someone he could love, someone he could trust on, someone he could call family. But now knowing that mom isn’t even his biological mother, he questions if she even loves him at all.

Sven didn’t cry, he just felt an unbelievable amount of pressure, he suddenly lost any motivation to live, he doesn’t even know if he’s relevant to anyone.

Suddenly, his waiter came in, said: “Sir, the current head of the Heinburg family, Peter Heinburg, has came to pay a visit.”

“…what?”

Season 0

Chapter 1

Shinji Edo is a 12-year-old Japanese boy. Currently studies in the local Yamaha elementary school. His grades are always top of his class, but he constantly gets bullied, because he has social anxiety and slight autism, he almost never talks to anyone except his family, including his classmates and teachers, he can’t even talk to them through the phone.

His mom is a teacher, and he would constantly scold and beat him for making mistakes in his studies, she is a responsible mother, but she sometimes takes things way too seriously, causing Shinji to hate her sometimes.

His dad is a scientist that works abroad in America most of the time, he comes back only once every few months, despite that, Shinji’s is every much attached to him. He is Shinji’s role model, causing Shinji also wanting to become a scientist.

And there’s also this girl with an unknown name that has helped Shinji countless times from bullies, her name is unknown because Shinji is too shy and never asked her.

Year 2032 (Shinji 12 years old)

I am Mako Edo, Shinji’s mother, right now is August, and Shinji’s most important exam yet will be held in September. and as a strict mother and teacher, I’m obviously teaching him as much as I can.

After his school ends at 1.30pm, he takes a break and his tuition ends at 6.30pm, after I’m done with my work I teach him up until as late as 12 or 1 am. Today it’s the same as usual.

Shinji: “…Mom, I finished the exercise”

“Oh ok, you can take a break for 10 minutes and let me mark this in the meanwhile.”

“…Shinji, what is this?”

“Why are your answers exactly the same as the ones on the answer sheets?”

Shinji: “…”

“I asked why?” I asked as a I grabbed the cane near me

Shinji started sobbing and said: “… because the questions were too …hard…and if I hand over you the wrong ..answers…you would get angry…I was..scared…” He said as his weak body and voice trembles

“…Shinji, you’re still a kid, mistakes don’t cost you much, but when you’re old enough, a mistake could get you in debt, fired from your job, but if you cheat, your social reputation is basically ruined and there will be no life left for you to live anymore”

“… stretch your hand out, I’m going to beat you 10 times.”

He stretched out his arm slowly.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Four.”

Shinji: “urgh..!”

“Five.”

“Six.”

Shinji: “arghh..!!”

“Seven.”

“Eight.”

Shinji falls on his knees, crying in pain.

“Get up.”

“I won’t give you a discount just because you’re in a sorry state, nobody will.”

Shinji cried even louder, suddenly got up, pushed me away and ran back to his room.

…sigh

I should have known… that if I pushed him too hard to perfection, he would one day use underhanded techniques just to avoid punishment or achieve his goal…I should have known… because I was the same back then.

I sat down and drank my coffee.

The coffee has never tasted this bitter.

Chapter 2

Year 2032 November 7th

Today is Shinji’s birthday, his father came back from America in time to celebrate it. Today is also the day where Shinji’s final exam results will be revealed. So how they’re gonna celebrate his birthday tonight will depend on his results. (His father wouldn’t mind but his mom definitely does.)

7.00am

After Shinji had his breakfast and prepared for school, he said: “I’m heading out now mom.”

“Be careful on your way, okay?”

5 minutes after he went out, Shinji’s father came down the stairs.

Father: “Good morning darling…eh… where’s Shinji…?”

“He already went out to school.”

Father: “Eh… doesn’t his classes start at 8.00am though…? This is a bit early…”

“He was too nervous for today and couldn’t sleep at all, so he decided to go to school earlier.”

Father: “…Your face looks a bit pale. Today’s his exam results reveal day right, perhaps you are nervous too?”

“… yeah”

Father: “…I know you’re strict towards him but today’s his birthday too, don’t be so hard on him, okay?”

“…sigh…fine, fine, I’ll let this one slide for once.”

1.30pm

After the classes ended, everyone rushed outside to the find out their grades on the school boards. Shinji of course did so too. Among the huge crowd, it’s very hard for Shinji to get to the front. The crowds contained many mixed emotions, sadness, happiness and other.

All of a sudden, someone shouted in excitement, they said: “Yo holy shit someone in our school made to the national top 10!”

“Wait what?”

“That’s impossible!”

“Who is it?”

“Fuck off, let me see, his name is …Shi..Shinji…Edo?”

“Oh, that nerd?”

“That autistic kid got into the national rankings??”

Shinji heard the news and quickly squeezed into the front, he searched for his name, and found his name under the full As category

“信じ 江戸 (全国トップ 10)”

2.00pm

After the crowd dispersed, Shinji ran back home, but he got tired after 3 minutes of running, so he walked instead.

After a while the bullies from the middle school near Shinji’s school showed up again, usually he would just run away, but he’s already tired.

“Hey it’s that kid again.”

“Oh really? Perfect timing, we just ran out of money anyway.”

“So kid, won’t you mind borrowing us some money?”

Shinji was scared, he didn’t have any money on him, and he’s way too afraid to talk.

“Oi, kid don’t you hear us-, wait… Oh shit it’s that katana state championship winner again!”

“Fuck let’s run!”

“Arghh, you better watch out next time kid!”

After they all ran for their lives, Shinji instantly realized it was that bug sister again that always save him from the bullies.

“Are you okay?” The girl asked Shinji.

“…”

“Still won’t talk as usual eh..am I really that scary..?”

“Eh whatever, I’ll walk you home today too I guess.”

“…”

“… uh…umm…m-may i-i ask..for your …name..?” Shinji asked

“…oh so you CAN talk, oh my name? Yeah of course it’s-”

Loud train passing by noises to cover up her name so that readers won’t know what her name is :)

After talking with the girl, Shinji continued his journey back home, after he reached home, he found out that the door was unlocked, he went inside expecting to see his mom come asking for his results, but she was nowhere to be seen, and neither is his dad.

“Bang!” He heard a loud banging noise coming from the kitchen, he quickly went there, and what he saw was his mom and dad, lying in a pool of blood.

Shinji was scared, he’s breathing heavily, he’s so shocked he can’t even scream. His dad has already stopped breathing, but his mom is still barely breathing. “I have to call an ambulance!” Is what he was thinking, but when he touched the telephone, his autism struck him, he realized he has never phone anyone before in his life.

He panicked, he’s dialling the numbers and picked up the phone.

“Shinji…”

“Mom…? Mom! Please don’t sleep… please stay awake… please…”

“…ha…ha… I guess this is karma, …I had to be strict, I had to be the evil one,”

“Please! Mom!”

“…so that my child would hate me, despise me, …so that he would vow to never become a failure …like me…” She thought.

“Mom! …Do you remember back then when I asked you, what can I do to make you happy? …You said I just need to study hard…and succeed in life… that’s why I even studied this much, I feel like you’ve never genuinely be happy before, so I just wanted to make you happy, I wanted to see you smile, …I wanted …I wanted to make you be proud of me…!”

She was shocked, she’s breathing even slower now, she just said one last thing to Shinji.

“… I’m sorry” …and smiled.

Chapter 3

Year 2032 November 7th

3.00pm

After the cops and ambulance arrived, Shinji’s parent’s dead bodies were transported to the hospital.

The police told Shinji to be hopeful and that his parents will be okay, however, Shinji knew better than anyone, that his parents are already long gone. It hit hard, it hit really hard, especially when Shinji thought he had already suffered enough through the bullying and abuse from his school mates and mother, he had just realized that was the thought of a child who has yet to mature.

His eyes looked hopeful, but he wasn’t hopeful for his parent’s revival, but instead hopeful for the murderer that killed his parents to be caught, rather than hopeful eyes, it was more like it’s seeking for revenge.

Tomorrow

The murderer has been identified and caught, it was a high school 2nd year student, Kamiya Kurosaki. Kamiya keep insisting that he was used by an American mob boss called Andre Lukewarmth. He claimed that his boss told him that his targets (Shinji’s parents) were criminals and has to be killed and he even offered Kamiya a large sum of money for a seemingly easy job. After investigation, Kamiya claim proved to be true and he only served a 2 year prison sentence since he was still a minor, while Andre Lukewarmth was sentenced to death for crimes such as drug dealing and indirect murder. On the surface, it may seem like he has received certain death, but Andre is an incredibly powerful man, he controlled 90% of the drug trades between North America and South America, his organization consists of members that is equivalent to a small sized nation, and his organization is rumoured to be worth at least 900 billion. With this much power in hand, no judges are brave enough to sentence him to an actual death sentence, so he was only put on “death row” with an indefinite date.

After a few days, Shinji was supposed to inherit his father’s money and property according to his will. But his lawyer saw the chance that Shinji has no relatives and is still very much a child that doesn’t know anything about the society, he robbed the inheritance and ran away.

Shinji, without a place to live in, without money to feed himself, without friends to hang out with and without family to care for him, went to live in an orphanage.

The only thing he had left, was a broken heart.

Chapter 4 : Reflection

Year 2033 November 7th

It’s Shinji’s birthday again, and it has been exactly one year since Shinji’s parents were killed.

Within this year, Shinji worked multiple part time jobs and is able to afford to buy 2 proper graves for his parents, and every week he goes there to pray. The graveyard guard sees him coming here every week, though he still doesn’t know exactly what he’s praying for, success, health, relationship or maybe forgiveness? Nobody knows.

Within this year, Shinji achieved a lot, the top rankings in every exam and event he has participated in, though he wasn’t happy, he felt like he lost something inside instead,

“I think it’s probably emotions” he thought

This year, Shinji printed a copy of all his academic results achieved this year. He went to his parents grave, he prayed, and then burned his copy on his mother’s grave, hoping that it would send his message over to the other side.

After sitting there for 30 minutes, he got up and went back to the orphanage. On his way , he saw a teenager his age getting pinned to the wall, it was obvious that he was getting bullied, Shinji initially wanted to ignore, but he realized it was someone he knew.

“Isn’t that… Yamagata from the orphanage? He’s deaf and can’t speak, he’s slightly mentally disabled too (implying that he has a lower IQ than most) he sleeps in the bed besides me too.”

“…I don’t want someone I have to see everyday to hold a grudge against me for not helping so I guess I’ll help.. just this one time though.” He thought as he slowly walks towards them

Shinji : “Excuse me, but can you leave that person alone? He’s my friend.”

The bullies looked at him and said with a threatening voice : “Huh ? Who do you think you are, aren’t you just a first year? How about you tell me what do you got on us buddy?”

Shinji didn’t cared, he instead gave him the death stare : “just so you know I have great power within the school, if I really want to…I can get you kicked from this school.”

The other bully suddenly realized : ” Shit bro I thought he sounded familiar but he’s the student council president !”

“Huh? But he’s just a first year ?”

“Apparently he has achieved enough that he was chose to be student council president even though he’s just a first year.”

“Tch, so he’s just the teacher’s sugar baby. Dammit, my dad spent a lot of money to get me into this school, I wouldn’t want to get kicked out…” The bully thought

“Tch, Nerd, let’s go.” He said

After the bullies walked away, Shinji waited for Yamagata to get up and walk back to the orphanage with him so that he won’t get targeted again. But Yamagata seemed a bit confused after what happened and did some hand signs

Shinji thought : ” oh right, he’s deaf so he didn’t understood the previous conversation, he can’t speak either…I guess I’ll give him a pen and paper.”

Yamagata was glad that Shinji was able to understand him and so he borrowed the pen and paper from Shinji.

[ Hi, you helped me chase away the bullies just now didn’t you ? Thanks a lot for that but you could’ve just turned a blind eye away to it… ]

Shinji thought : “turn a blind eye? Is that what he usually expects from people that sees him getting bullied ? Just how many times has this happened to him for him to think that it’s common sense? …oh..wait.., it was the same for me back then.., when I was bullied for no good reason everyday, only “she” ever lent a hand and helped me…the rest were… ignorance or worse…”

“Ha , we’re like reflection of each other .”

Shinji replied : [ It was nothing, I just didn’t had anything better to do, you don’t have to thank me ]

Yamagata : [ oh, uh , may I ask for your name? ]

Shinji : [ it’s Shinji Edo, you can call me however you like tho ]

Yamagata : [ Thanks! My name is Eichi , Eichi Yamagata! ]

Shinji’s imaginary to-do list

1. Make friends

2. be successful

3. get rich

-thats all he wants right now, more goals can be added in the future

Chapter 5 : First and last

Year 2033

Today was the day where students receive their student report book back to get signed by their parents or guardian, the school is filled with all kinds of emotions.

Someone: “Arghhhhhhhh I’m 2nd place againnn, bro, I bet my both of my kidney that Shinji’s first place…again.”

“Hey Shinji, you’re first place again aren’t you.”

Shinji: “hm? Oh yeah I am.”

“Can you at least look happier man? It looks like you achieved that with ease to be honest.”

Shinji: “huh, umm, I guess I never really thought studying is that hard, things that can be solved with effort seems easy to me. Well I gotta go now bye.”

“Wai-”

Outside the school, Shinji met up with Eichi and brought out his notebook and pen

Shinji: [hey Eichi, kept you waiting, let’s go back now]

Eichi: [Sure! Btw where did you placed?]

Shinji reached into his bag and took out the report for Eichi.

Eichi opened the report and saw Shinji’s placements.

He dropped the report along with his notebook after that.

He was in shock but couldn’t speak. He picked up his notebook and started writing

Eichi: [ YOU’RE 1ST??? THAT’S AMAZING!!! ]

Shinji: ” eh?huh?eh?”

Shinji was shocked by how excited and surprised Eichi is, his eyes are speaking.

Shinji: [T-Thanks, it’s not really anything that impressive though]

[Ah right, how about you? Where were you placed? ]

Eichi read it, took out the report and casually handed it over to him

Shinji opened the book and saw the following:

Class rankings: 42

Yearly rankings: 687

Shinji started sweating and he wrote on his notebook

Shinji: [Umm, how…many students is in out year again?]

[I think it’s exactly 687] Eichi casually wrote, with a smile on his face.

“…so we’re each first and last place huh?” Shinji thought as he wipes off his sweat

And so they continued their journey back home

Chapter 6 : First and Last 2

Year 2034 February

Shinji and Eichi has since entered their 2nd year of middle school. This school doesn’t follow the usual class ranking system, meaning that they split students to classes at random disregarding their rankings whatsoever.

And so Shinji and Eichi coincidentally ended up in the same class.

“Hey hey, don’t you think it’s weird about Shinji?”

“What’s weird about him?”

“I mean he usually hangs out with that guy over there.”

“You mean Eichi? What about him?

“I mean Shinji’s always top of the rankings while I heard that Eichi got last place last year.”

“Wait what, damn that’s kinda impressive that he was able to get last place, now that I think about it, yeah it’s pretty weird.”

“Hey look, it’s Shinji and Eichi again”

“Why would Shinji hang out with someone like that?

“Yeah I know right, they’re like polar opposites.”

Shinji thought: “so we have become the talk of the school huh, tho it’s mostly negative…”

“I usually just ignore them but…I mean Eichi can’t hear what they’re saying and those people sure are taking advantage of that, I wonder if Eichi will be able to stand it if he heard this many people badmouthing and discrimination against him…maybe…just maybe…it was fortunate that he can’t hear.”

On their way home, they spotted a very skinny dog lying on the side of the road, Eichi rushed over to the dog to help it, though Shinji quickly stopped him, he wrote [ Just leave it, you might get some kind of infection if you touch it.]

[What do you mean?? The dog is about to die if we don’t to do anything? Don’t you feel painful about it??]

“Painful”

Shinji suddenly had some kind of realization and let go of Eichi

“Pain, huh, as if I could still feel anything on the level of that incident after going through that…” Shinji thought

He took a deep breath and walked over to Eichi, he wrote [Let’s take it to the vet]

Eichi startled for a sec and nodded his head.

When they arrived at the vet the veterinarian told them “Oh is this a stray dog or is it your’s?”

Shinji : “it’s a stray dog but please treat it, I’ll pay for the fee”

Vet : “hmm…alright, but it’s condition is quite severe it might take a long time for it to recover or it maybe won’t even survive, so you’ll have to leave it here for treatment for about 2 weeks at least, is that fine with you?”

Shinji: “Yes it is”

After signing the paperwork they left and went back home.

On their way back home, Shinji thought for a while

“…the way he showed no hesitation in helping a stray dog…seemed very much like what a child would do,…I guess his mental age is also slightly lower than most people his age.”

“From my experience, the older you get, the lesser you will care for someone or something you don’t really know… or maybe even your own family, not like I’m any better for ignoring a dying dog anyway”

“People tend to think more logically and only do thing that benefits themselves, only someone like Eichi will ever give unconditional love despite being discriminated by everyone around him.”

“Maybe…humans were supposed to be like this all along..”

“What kind of monsters have we evolved into..?” thought Shinji, while letting out a little laugh

Eichi : [What’s so funny?]

Shinji : [nah, it’s nothing ]

Chapter 7 : Diary

Year 2026 November

“Today is my 6th birthday ! I got this diary book from my dad as a present ! I’m gonna write as much as I can everyday on this, I’m so happy!”

Year 2027 November

“I turned 7 today! My parents gifted me a dog this time! Ever since I entered primary school, mom’s been a lot harsher on me..but I’m still doing fine though! ”

Year 2028 November

“I’m 8 today, should’ve been a happy day, but this year’s a bit rough, I didn’t lived up to my mom’s expectations in exams, so she didn’t get any presents for me this year.. I’m fine without any though!”

Year 2029 November

“Today’s my 9th birthday. Dad couldn’t return from America this year, I was a bit disappointed so I cried a bit, just a bit though! I think I’m okay, probably.”

Year 2030 November

“I’m 10 this year, I think I’m being bullied, my classmates started calling me a nerd or a wimp. Even though I’m 10 already, I cried quietly with my face lying on the table.

Year 2031 November

I turned 11 today, at some point I noticed I’m all alone now I’m school. My dog gave birth to 2 puppies yesterday midnight, she was bleeding a lot so my mom brought it to the vet. Today morning we received new that it died, the puppies disappeared too.

Year 2032 November

Year 2033 January

“Didn’t write this last year, so I’m writing one now, my heart feels like it’s suffocating everyday, I think I’m gonna kill myself sometime soon.”

Year 2033 November

“Forgot about this, but I turned 13 yesterday, after praying at my parent’s grave, I noticed someone I knew getting bullied, I wanted to avoid trouble so I helped him, turns out he’s a pretty interesting guy though, I think.”

Year 2034

Today Shinji and Eichi were about to go to the vet to check on the dog they sent there 2 weeks ago.

Shinji : “is the dog doing better now?

Vet : “yeah they are, though haven’t fully recovered yet. Would you like to check on it?

Shinji : “Yeah sure”

They went into the room where the dog and other animals were being kept, The dog was moving around happily with no problem, it looks like it regained a lot of weight too. Eichi ran over to play with the dog, while Shinji was stunned, the dog reminded him of the puppies his house dog gave birth to before it passes away.

As he’s watching Eichi and the dog playing together, he smiled.

The chains suffocating his heart seems to has loosen up. He regained something that he has once lost years ago.

Chapter 8

Year 2035

An underwater volcano erupted in the East China sea. The ashes and dust soar up to the edge of space. It generated waves that affected countries over 10000km away. The sound waves produced circled the earth 4 times.

Hundreds of thousands of people died. All countries in the East were heavily affected, this catastrophic event is called the Great Disaster of the East.

Unaffected countries like America and Europe started accepting refugees and send aid. Chinese, Japanese and Koreans make up for 95% of the total refugees.

Shinji sits on the rooftop of his school with the other students and watches as the devastating waves sweeps away everything in sight, including the orphanage he once called home.

Eichi cried besides him, actually, everyone cried, no matter students or teachers. Knowing that their loved ones were still waiting at home for them to come back from school just a few minutes ago. It was an apocalypse.

However, Shinji, didn’t cry. He thought to himself :

“I’m a third year, oldest among the students, I can’t cry.”

“I’m the student council president, I bear major responsibility, I can’t cry.”

“I’ve been through this before, I have nothing to lose, I can’t cry.”

“It’ll be fine”

“It’ll be over soon”

“I must help others”

He stood up from the sea of people, only to see hundreds of ppl crying, trembling, people doing self harm to distract them from the mental pain, and even people attempting suicide by jumping into the freezing water. It’s hell.

He sat back down after a while.

“…how…can I help them..?”

He can't.

Chapter 8: Turning point

Chapter 9: A heartfelt chat

Year 2035

After the students were rescued from the rooftop, they were sent to emergency shelters that isn’t affected by the waves and flood. Shinji and Eichi were sent to an temporarily closed school in Tokyo.

To prevent diseases from spreading in such a highly populated area, everyone is required to constantly wear a mask for at least 2 weeks straight.

Everyone is given a bed sheet to sleep on. Shinji and Eichi layed their bed sheets at the corner of the hall. Things have somewhat calmed down, but Shinji and Eichi couldn’t really communicate with each other either because they don’t have any pen and paper.

One day, during a scheduled time where students could go out, Shinji went to the school library to borrow some books to pass the time. After picking out a series titled “The Evil Magician”, another book caught his eye, he looked at it for a little and decided to borrow it.

After going back to his occupied space,he was constantly on his book studying it for a week.

One night , when everyone is asleep, Shinji tapped on Eichi’s shoulder and woke him up, Shinji then did a sequence of hand signs, it wasn’t consistent but it was good enough for Eichi to understand what he was saying.

“Do. You. Understand. Sign. Language?”

Eichi was shocked for a bit, but then his eyes were filled with delight and excitement.

“Yes! Yes I do!”

Shinji looked quite happy that his message got through.

Eichi: “Since when have you been leaning sign language?

Shinji: “Just. About. A week. Ago.”

Eichi: “That’s amazing! I learnt it for 2 years when I was little.”

Shinji: “Nah. I’m still. Fairly. Bad. At it.”

Just like that, they chatted for hours without ,making a noise and without anyone noticing.

They barely had any sleep, woke up late next morning and missed the breakfast.

Chapter 10

Year 2035 September

Foreign countries has started taking in refugees from Japan ever since 2 months ago, and now its finally Shinji and Eichi’s turn.

Shinji was notified to go to classroom 3 to be given his information on transferring to another country as a refugee, Eichi went to the canteen instead.

Shinji is quite nervous, but he doesn’t know exactly why.

“Number 47, Shinji Edo, please come forward to receive your information.”

“Hmm? Is Shinji Edo not here?”

Shinji: “Ah! Sorry, I am here.” Shinji dozed off for a bit.

After taking it, he carefully looked at each pages of the huge file of papers.

General Information

Transfer of Country / Location : United States of America, Andover, Massachusetts

Date of transfer : October 10th

Transferring School : Philip’s Academy (Private school but all school/tuition fees will be covered by the government)

Place of living temporarily : School Campus

Amount of Living expenses : 1500 USD (Education, Hospitality treatment and School expenses all covered)

*The Living expenses contract will only be valid 3 months after you’ve graduated university (maximum until bachelor’s degree, master and doctorate degree will not be covered)

“Hmm, seems good enough to me, I heard that Philip’s academy is one of the most prestigious High Schools in America, they probably decided to send me there after seeing my achievements and grades here…”

Shinji met Eichi in the hallway on his way back.

Shinji : “Hi Eichi, on your way back?”

Eichi : “Oh hi! Yeah I am. Oh right Shinji, have you received your transfer information?”

Shinji : “Yeah I did”

Eichi : “Nice, so where were you sent to? Im transferred to America,

“..Texas.”

Shinji suddenly stopped walking, he seems to have realized something.

Shinji thought : “How did I not realized this earlier..? If we’re gonna transfer to a completely foreign country at random, there’s almost certain that we wouldn’t end up in the same location…or even the same state…!”

“…im really am an idiot huh…?”

Eichi : “…What’s wrong Shinji? You look a bit uncomfortable.”

Shinji : “…it’s nothing.”

Eichi : “….”

Eichi stared at Shinji for a bit and then they both went back, awaiting the separating day.

October 10th

After roughly a month, the day has finally arrived, Shinji and several other groups awaits at the Tokyo International Airport, the airport has never been so busy before, even though this is the first time Shinji has ever been here.

Eichi boards different airplanes with Shinji, but they depart on the same day, so he came to wait with Shinji. Shinji isn’t talking, he looked pretty down and the atmosphere was fairly awkward, but Eichi tapped on Shinji’s shoulder and did some hand signs.

“….Shinji, don’t worry, my mom once told me that friends are connected by heart, so even f they get separated, they would still be able to find their way back to each other! So let’s meet up again, sometime…!”

Shinji looked shocked, he stunned for a bit and responded

“That came out of nowhere, but…. yeah, sure!”

“So where did you copied that line from anyway, doesn’t sound like something you would say.”

Eichi : “Ehh….you knew….?”

Shinji : “hahah, of course I do!”

Shinji laughed a bit, he thought

“So he thinks of me as a friend..? I mean I never really thought about it…. Friends…huh? Never had any friends before, so I guess I wouldn’t have known…”

“…thank you, my first friend”

After chatting and waiting for 2 hours, it’s time for departure.

They both packed their things, got up,

“Bye”

Said Shinji,

As the word quickly gets swallowed up by the crowd noises, they both walk away in different directions with their back facing each other.

Shinji boarded his plane, sat down, and before long, the plane started moving and the wheels started making louder and louder noises as the plane accelerates faster and faster.

“…after this, will Eichi and I really meet up again?”

“….will I be alone?…again?…again?”

“….”

“….its okay…though”

“its okay”
“its okay”
“its okay”
“its okay”
“its okay”
“its okay”
“its okay”
“…its….okay?”
“…its not okay.”

“I’m afraid…”

“I don’t want to be alone…”

“again.”

Today is another nice day in America, the birds are chirping, the students outside are chatting happily, the weather is nice with a cold breeze, blowing into a room through the opened window, in the room is a university student, who woke up abruptly, looking like he just experienced a nightmare, the man is called Shinji.

“hah….hah….hah…”

“…It’s that dream…”

“again.”

Chapter 10 : Friends

Chapter 11 : Contract

Shinji woke up late for school with only 2 hours of sleep, because he has been so busy lately, ever since Shinji moved to America, he has accomplished many great achievements, after just 16 months of studying in high school, he passed both of the high school final exam and university entrance exams which he took it nearly 2 years earlier than others. his 5th year of university, and he’s already on his way to a master degree in biology, chemistry and medical.

And just yesterday night, he came back from Sweden, after participating in the yearly Nobel Prize Ceremony, not as a spectator, but as a prize receiver. But he requested that he will receive the award in secret instead of on stage, because he does not want unnecessary attention and disturbance from the public. He managed to get away with it by telling his university that he was going on a trip there.

Today, Shinji went to school, apparently everyone is talking about him today.

“Eh? Eh? Why is everyone talking about me today? Don’t tell me the news about me receiving the nobel prize was leaked?”

Shinji panicked a bit got some cold sweats, he thought he looked like just a normal university student from the outside, aside from the fact that he was 3 or 4 years younger than everyone else here, but not a lot of people knows, because he never brings it up.

He walked towards his classroom, nervously opened the door, and said:

“Sorry, I’m lat-, wait what.”

After he opened the door, what he saw was an empty classroom with no people in it. He panicked again, he quickly takes out his time table from his bag.

“We don’t have to go to the lab today righ-….oh…shit, I forgot…”

“I’m supposed to take the medical test that will let me acquire master degree for today…”

Shinji immediately rushed to the examination hall.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, I’m not gonna wait for another whole year just to take this exam…!”

He managed to get in 2 minutes before the test starts.

Shinji found his seat and sat down, the person started talking to him

“You’re Shinji right? Everyone is talking about you today”

Shinji : “Oh yeah ive heard, what were they talking about actually.”

“About how you didn’t even attend any classes this year besides the first day of school, and yet you have the balls to just come here and take one of the hardest exam in America anyway.”

Shinji : “Oh about that, don’t worry, I think I can pass, probably anyways.”

The person thought : “Hmph, I broke up with my girlfriend and studied 9 hours per day and attended another 8 hours worth of classes and tuition per day last year and still failed this test, this year I came back with even more preparations and didn’t even slept for the past few days. This isn’t a test that someone like you can pass easily.”

After the test papers were hand over to the students and the timer started ticking, the only sounds that can be heard in the hall are writing noises and the sounds of pages being flipped over.

The students were given 5 hours to complete 53 pages of questions. At the 2 hour mark, the person besides Shinji thought : “Hah, its only been 2 hours and ive already completed half of thi paper, I can do it! Ha, I wonder how its going for Shinji.”

He took a peek with no intention to cheat, only to be shocked

“H-he’s…sleeping…?”

After the exam ended, Shinji went back to his school dorm after buying dinner.

“Well that was easier than I thought, finished the paper and checked answers repeatedly for 3 times within 2 hours, used most of the total time to sleep instead, really needed that nap.”

“…but even during nap, I still had that dream about Eichi…again, 2nd time this day already.”

“…almost as if something is telling me not to forget about Eichi, …or rather the promise between me and him…”

“hmph, as if I could ever forget, I just don’t have the time, that’s all.”

After dinner, he turned on his computer and there’s an email for him, it was an email from the official US Government account.

“An email from them again? Ever since I was chosen as a candidate for the Nobel prize winner, they’ve been bothering me nonstop, I bet it’s probably something about the prize money again.”

As Shinji opens the mail, to his surprise, it isn’t the usual department that emails him, it’s the National Science Foundation (NSF) instead. This is what was written on the email.

Dear Mr. Shinji Edo

Excuse this sudden email, and we’re sure that you are busy at the time, but please keep this email a secret and absolutely make sure no-one is looking at the same screen at this time (includes outsiders anywhere besides you, screen recordings, screenshots, camera recordings, photos or live screen sharing), if you cannot guarantee all of the above request, please do not read any further, and delete this email, but if you do, please click on the censored text below to uncensor it. If you do not trust us, you are free to use any form of internet protection.

“…wow, what the fuck could be behind those censored words for them to be this cautious.”

Shinji hesitated for a little, but thought that he doesn’t have any important data on his PC and uncensored the texts.

Assuming that you are ready, we will ask for your permission to visit and enter your room in the student dorms in your current school, Harvard University, to discuss a top secret matter that is related to the government. We have already successfully received permission from the school to enter the school grounds, the headmaster is the only person you can ask to confirm the legitimacy of this email. If the content of this email gets leaked to the public, it will be your responsibility and prepare for the consequences. If you permit us to physically enter your room and visit you in person, press “accept”,if you don’t, press “reject”. Please double check before making your decision, this email will be available for 14 days.

“They are not letting me know what are they after huh, the NSF wants to talk with me in complete secret…, considering all of my accomplishments during my stay in America, they probably think I’m qualified enough to handle an extremely important yet secret job for them, basically a recruitment huh… usually I turn down all of those but this one seems special,…guess I’ll give it a try.”

After thinking for a while, Shinji clicked on the accept button. Shinji then got to email the NSF and discussed a suitable time for the meeting.

3 days later, the members of the NSF came to Shinji’s room. Shinji let them in and offered them tea. The man in a green suit introduced himself,

“Nice to meet you, Mr.Edo, I am the vice-executive of the NSF, Michael Foster and also the person who emailed you, you can just call me however you like.”

Before they began the meeting, Michael ordered the 2 assistants besides him to search the room and other neighboring rooms to check if there’s anyone or anything suspicious. After a few minutes of the checking and there are no problems, and so they began the meeting.

Michael : “Mr. Edo, as you may have already saw it coming, we are trying to recruit you into joining our organization as a researcher in the fields of chemistry and biology. This is an extremely important and secretive job that is only reserved for some of the best in the world. After seeing all of your achievements, we decided that you would be a more than qualified candidate for this. Do you have any questions, Mr. Edo?”

Shinji : “…I have 3 questions, first , what are we researching in this “super important” operation. Second, how many other members are working on this. Third, how much is the annual salary.”

Michael : “We don’t have a specific goal to work towards to yet, but the theme will be around the human body and chemicals. There are about 30 other members, but we will recruit even more people every year. The annual salary isn’t fixed, but it will be around 5.1 million USD at minimum, if results are produced, it will increase.”

Shinji : “Hmm…the first 2 seems pretty normal, and the salary is around 5 million huh…wait, 5 million?”

“FIVE fucking MILLION??”

Michael : “uhhhhhh… yes..? ….is it too little for you…?”

Shinji : “Nah nah, sorry that’s not what I meant.”

Shinji thought : “5 million??? In dollars and not Japanese yen right?? I worked my absolute ass off and finally got 1 million prize money from the Nobel prize, I became a millionaire just overnight and now you’re telling me I can become a multi-millionaire in just months??”

Michael : “Umm, Mr. Edo… have you decided yet?”

Shinji : “Huh, oh,umm, how much time am I given to think about this?”

Michael : “1 week from now, mister.”

Shinji : “…is it okay if I contact you tomorrow or the following day?”

Michael : “Of course, mister, here are the full details on this matter, please read it before making your decision, if you accept our offer, I will later bring the contract for you to sign.”

Shinji : “Ok, no problem.”

After a 15 minute talk, the NSF members left.

At night, Shinji was reading the papers Michael gave to him.

“Wow, they even have bodyguards that can be hired to protect ourselves or our family if we want to, we have to pay for the fee ourselves though…”

“damn… after my parents were killed, I started out with absolutely nothing, but now here I am almost 10 years later, received an opportunity that barely anyone else in the world has.”

“…if only mom and dad can see this…maybe I would’ve gotten the acknowledgement I never got from mom,…this is what you wanted right? Mom?”

Shinji then took out his phone and dialed a phone number on it. After a few seconds, the call got through.

Shinji : “Hello? Is this Michael Foster?”

Michael : “Yes it is m, Mr. Edo. Have you made up your mind?”

Shinji : “Yeah.”

“I accept."

Chapter 12

After Shinji signed the contract, Michael asked:

“I heard that Mr. Edo have yet to receive his master degree yet, would you like to wait until the results are announced or would you rather go to work immediately?”

Shinji : “…if I choose to wait, is there a limit to how long I can wait?”

Michael : “Yes there is, but we can arrange everything behind the scenes so that they would mark your papers first and release the results months ahead of everyone else, but the exam results must not be made public. Only a government organization like us have the power to arrange this for you.”

Shinji : “Wow ok, thanks I guess. So how long until I can move out?”

Michael : “Probably a week, 2 weeks at most, so please have everything packed ready, including important files like ID cards and passports.”

5 days later the school emailed Shinji about his results, perfect scores on every paper except art, he barely passed that one. Shinji’s total score on that exam was the sixth highest in American history. He was then called to the headmaster’s room to receive his master degree in private.

3 minutes after Shinji left the headmaster’s room, the headmaster started sweating and mumbling:

“…not again…such a young folk too…”

The vice-headmaster besides him asked : “What’s the matter, sir?”

“…oh right, you only received this position 2 years ago so you don’t know…, ever since I got the position as the headmaster of this school 40 years ago, I’ve been receiving request from the NSF every year to recruit extremely talented people from the school to work for them,

“…but not a single person has ever returned nor did the school ever received any letters or emails from them.”

Vice-headmaster : “wha-, but how about their family? Their friends? Won’t they think it’s weird that someone so close to them just suddenly disappeared?”

Headmaster : “No, because they purposely only target people who doesn’t have any family or have a very distant relationship with them, people who has very little social connection to the society, basically people that can suddenly disappear without raising much attention or commotion.”

“Most of the time they recruit professors and teachers, but they also recruit students, but a student that’s only 21 years old such as the Shinji boy that just left is the youngest one to ever have been recruited yet.”

Vice headmaster : “…wow…do you know what happened to them sir?”

“No idea…i actually once received their offer before I became a headmaster too, on the verge of accepting it but denied it because my wife was pregnant at the time.”

“…do you know why the former vice-president quit his position despite being only in his 40s? Because unlike me, he accepted the offer.”

“…he was a very ambitious man, getting rich has always been his number 1 goal, so he accepted the offer without thinking twice after seeing the salary.”

Vice-headmaster : “…but sir, can’t we just report all of these suspicious acts to the police or something?”

“The government holds great power, not even the headmaster of the most prestigious university in the world like me could do anything against them, you think some half assed police force would be able to do anything? Actually, …it’s not just me, the previous headmaster or maybe even the ones before that, have probably faced the same problem back then, who knows how many years have they been doing this now…”

Vice president : “…”

“Also, I’m only telling you this because you’re the vice president, if a third party knows about this information, the government wouldn’t hesitate to silence you, I would get into a lot of trouble as well, so please…”

“…keep your mouth shut.”

Chapter 12 : SUS

Chapter 13

Today, it was about time for Shinji to set off for his work. He will be moving to an apartment that is provided by the NSF.

Shinji stood outside his school dorm and waited for a black Mercedes Benz car that is supposed to escort him all the way to Nevada where the working facility is located.

Despite possibly being his last day at school, Shinji didn’t felt like he was going to miss it, neither did he felt such way when he was moving from Japan to America.

At noon, the car arrived on time. Shinji sat alone in the backrow seat as the front seats are occupied by Michael and the driver. As soon as Shinji got in the car, he noticed that a piece of non-see through black exists between the front row and backrow seat, and the same type of glass is also placed on the sides and back of the car. In other words, the view of the backrow seat is completely blocked inside out, Shinji cannot see anything outside of the car, and no one outside could see Shinji.

Michael speaking through a speaker : “testing, testing, ok. So Mr. Shinji, you might have noticed that the backrow seat is completely sealed off from the outside world, and that is because we must not let anyone see you and where you are headed, and we also cannot let you know our destination and the exact location of the governmental facility either. Basically, we’re keeping your entire existence a secret from the public, but that is the ironclad rule of accepting a top secret job from the government, I believe this was written in the contract, surely you have no problems with this?”

“…”

Michael : “…You can talk through a speaker too by pressing the button on your left by the way.”

Shinji : “…Oh is this it? Oh umm okay I guess.”

The car is fairly long, more like a mini limo, the backrow seats contains a seat with enough leg room to fully lie down, a mini fridge with beers, juice, energy drinks and mineral water inside, some packaged sandwiches and snacks on the side, and a small 15 inch TV.

They also installed a camera to check on you, there’s even a sensor that detects the safety level of oxygen input and carbon dioxide output in Shinji’s space, if he ever feels that he is in danger, he can press on the red button that are on both sides of the car. The backrow door only be unlocked from the driver’s seat, and the windows are bulletproof.

An hour after the journey began, Shinji fell asleep.

“…Hello, I’m agent Michael Foster, yes, …yes, the person at the back is Shinji Edo…”

Shinji was woken up by the noises around him, he could slightly make out that the person talking is Michael.

Shinji : “Urghh…, oh it’s night already? Where are we Michael?”

Michael : “Oh Mr. Shinji, you’re awake, good timing.”

Shinji : “…? …anyways where are we-,…wait, why can I hear you talking? I thought sound was completely blocked off in my space.”

Michael : “I was about to tell you that, and that’s because I turned off the sound proof function.”

Shinji : “You turned it off?”

Michael : “Yeah, because there is no need for it anymore, we’ve arrived at our destination.”

Shinji : “We arrived…?”

Michael : “I’ve already helped you filled in with paperwork’s, after a bit, I’m gonna guide you to to your apartment and help you check in…ah, and also…”

“…welcome to the facility”

After a while, Shinji got off the car and walked towards the entrance of the main section of the facility, and right after he stepped foot in the facility, he felt a sudden immense pressure building up on him, but that feeling went away as fast as it came.

“…What was that…?”

Michael : “What’s wrong Mr. Shinji?”

“..N-nothing.”

Michael then guided Shinji to his room, Room 3521. Shinji thought it was weird because the apartment only has 3 floors and he also heard that only about 30 to 40 researches live here along with him, so there couldn’t possibly be this much rooms. But he didn’t paid it much attention.

Upon entering the room, Shinji was absolutely blown away by the luxurious furniture and spacious room.

“Holy fucking shit a king sized bed? A 40 inch flatscreen TV? All for one fucking person?…Wait there’s no bathroom though.”

Michael : “If you’re looking for the bathroom, unfortunately there is none, but there is a building next to this apartment that has I believe is 10 small shower rooms that comes with toilets and sinks separated by walls. All researchers goes there to shower and use the toilet.”

“Oh ok, thanks.”

“Well that’s kind of weird but I don’t mind anyways.” Shinji thought.

Michael : “Overall you seem satisfied with your room, well then if you don’t have anymore questions, please excuse me.”

“Oh you’re leaving? Bye then.”

Michael : “Yeah, farewell, pleasure working with you this time.”

As Michael closed the door, he walked down the building, out of the entrance gate where the car is parked, he got in the car and said to the driver:

“Get us out of here immediately, I can’t stand this horrifying place any longer.”

When the car was out, Michael let out a sigh of relief, he then slowly grabbed his phone out from his pocket and called a number.

“…Hello? Yes, it’s me Michael Foster,”

“…We got him,…sister.”

The next day, Shinji woke up at 8.30 a.m. to prepare for work, he went to the public bathroom to brush his teeth and took a shower first, after showering he met 2 other people on his way back to his room to make breakfast.

“Hello there.”

Shinji said, but the 2 men didn’t even notice him, they are walking in front of Shinji.

Shinji walked closer to them and attempted to say hello again but he stopped because he realized they both were wearing headphones, sound blocking ones, most likely. So Shinji stopped bothering them and went back to his apartment instead.

He cooked some scrambled eggs seasoned with black pepper, after eating he changed into his working uniform prepared in the closet which is a lab coat, he also grabbed a mask and cap to put on. He then took the elevator down and went to the laboratory according to the map.

“Wow this place is pretty huge, didn’t notice yesterday because the lights were mostly turned off, is that fucking a Walmart over there?”

“Let’s see… after walking past the fountain, turn left… and we should be at the lab…”

Shinji turned to the left, and saw quite a few people that’s wearing the same coat as him outside of the lab, and also security guards.

“…It seems that the guards are checking the researchers belongings… I guess that makes sense… wouldn’t want someone to sneak in dangerous stuff after all…”

After getting his things checked, he went in without problem, but what awaits him is quite the bizarre scene.

“…Everyone here looks…oddly depressed..? Maybe more like… unenergetic…? Also everyone is wearing the same black colored headphones for some reason… won’t it be disturbing to have those during work?”

“…The place seems a bit old, but pretty well maintained and probably renovated not too long ago, it’s really clean too, but it feels…rather eerie.”

Shinji had a cold sweat, and looks rather nervous now.

Shinji was just told to go to the observation room in the laboratory, and he’ll understand everything. And so he did, he entered the observation room in lab 3, where most researchers are headed.

The observation room is a rectangular space with some tables and experimental tools. A few men wearing hazmat suits passed through the metal door separating the experiment room and the observation room, between the 2 rooms is a thick layer of glass where the observers could observe what’s happening inside the experiment room and record it.

Shinji looked through the glass and saw something, something that threw him off guard.

It was a body, a human body lying on the table used for experiment.

“Oh, that startled me for a bit, we’re doing an experiment on human corpses today huh.” Shinji said.

“…I mean Michael did told me about this before hand, but on the first day if my work? Probably have to prepare myself just in case I don’t throw u-”

“…huh?…where…am …i..?”

Shinji’s eyes became wide opened, his pupils became smaller, he slowly turned his body and head around, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

As much as Shinji wouldn’t want to believe this disturbing fact, the body isn’t a corpse.

It’s alive.

While Shinji is still confused if he heard it right or not, a researcher besides him calmly said,

“Ok, start the experiment.”

One of the man in hazmat suits calmly pulled out his scalpel and placed it on the body’s stomach.

“Hey what are you doin-”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

The man’s stomach is cut opened, you can see the organs inside and blood came splatting out. Even so, the researcher carried on, and the screaming never stopped.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

“Body temperature, check.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

“Organs health status, check.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

“Patient’s body reaction, check.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Despite all of that is happening right before their eyes, no one seemed to care, no one seemed to notice or even hear the man’s scream and agony. All except for one man.

Shinji is aware, he’s aware of the agonizing scream, he’s aware of the red blood that is splatting onto the glass, he is aware of the man’s pain.

And yet, he couldn’t do anything.

After some time, the screaming stopped, the man is dead, he died of shock before his injuries became fatal.

All researchers slowly took off their headphones, the researcher besides Shinji said to everyone in the room:

“…Alright, that’s all for today, good work everyone. …Ah right you to-”

Shinji’s legs gave up long ago, his knees are on the ground with one hand pulling on the edge of the table, other hand is covering his mouth from throwing up, but of course that didn’t work. He looks like he’s going to pass out anytime soon now.

“Hey! Are you okay?! Hey-”

11.00 p.m.

Shinji woke up in an unfamiliar room, he got up opened his eyes and looked around, he’s sleeping on a couch.

“Oh, you’re awake. Do you feel any better now?”

Shinji looked to his right, and there’s a man in his 50s sitting on the couch.

Shinji: “…Who are you…and where am I…?

“Oh, right I haven’t introduced myself yet, my name is Robert Williams, you can call me however you want. And we’re in my apartment right now, I don’t know where did you put your cards so I don’t know where your room is either.”

Robert : “…You should’ve said so if you were new here, then we wouldn’t have let you into that room…”

Shinji : “…So that wasn’t a dream?”

Robert : “…Yeah, unfortunately…”

Shinji : “…Tch.”

Shinji got up from the couch suddenly and walked towards the door.

Robert : “Hey! Where are you going?”

Shinji : “I’m leaving this place.”

Robert : “To where? Do you even know where the facility is located?”

Shinji : “It doesn’t matter, I figure it out.”

Robert : “Do you even know how tight the security is in this place? Behind this seemingly small sized town, there’s multiple layer of walls and electric fences, 150 active guards with the other half in reserve, 300 specially trained troops in total just to keep 30 researchers in their place. And how are you going to deal with that?”

Shinji : “So you’re telling ME to stay inside this shithole and KILL people for whatever the FUCK you all are experimenting?”

Robert : “Young man, I don’t even know your name but you have to calm down. I will explain everything I know about the murdered patient you saw earlie-”

Shinji : “Patient? You call THAT a patient? I have a masters in medical and a patient is someone you help and cure, NOT someone you torture and kill. Seems to me he’s MORE like your victim instead of patien-”

Robert lost it, he grabbed Shinji by the collar, slammed him against the wall, and shouted:

“GOD DAMMIT JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY, WHY DO I HAVE TO DEAL WITH BRATS LIKE YOU EVERY TIME A NEW PERSON COMES IN? YOU THINK ANY OF US HERE REACTED ANY BETTER THAN YOU DID WHEN WE FIRST SAW THAT? YOU THINK ANY OF US HERE ACTUALLY ENJOYED DOING THIS? YOU THINK ANY OF US HERE GO ON WITH OUR LIVES WITHOUT ANY GUILT? WE ARE THE SAME, SO LISTEN TO ME, PLEASE!”

After screaming his lungs out, Robert is out of breath, he lets go of Shinji and sat down on the couch, he then said:

“…Hah…hah…hah…sorry about that, …I’ll serve you a drink, do you want coffee or tea?”

Shinji: “…Coffee…please.”

After both of them calmed down, Robert took some time to explain the details to Shinji.

Shinji: “Why are you and the other researchers doing this kind of experiments?”

Robert: “Multiple reasons, but the main reason is, as you may already know, most people that are recruited here, are permanently trapped here for the rest of their lives, obviously because the government can’t let the public eye know that we are committing human experiment. So we only have 2 choices left for us, either stay here and work, or commit suicide.”

Shinji: “…This may be rude of me to ask, but why didn’t you or anyone here seemed to committed suicide despite the amount of pressure and guilt working here?”

Robert: “…Nah…they have been quite a bit of cases like this a few years ago, a few researches or so kill themselves every year, which is the reason why new recruits like you are here, to fill up their places.”

Shinji: “…”

Robert: “…Actually it’s past midnight now, if that includes all your questions, maybe you should go back to your room now.”

Shinji: “…Actually one last question,”

Robert: “Yes?”

“How accessible are food and things for daily uses here?”

Robert : “…Well I’d say you don’t have to worry about not being able to get what you want here, there’s a bank, a supermarket, a library, 2 bars, a well equipped gym and many other stuff too, all of them are operated by machines though. This is facility is very much a functional society along with a population of 447.”

“Which is also why we call this place…”

“....our own Secret Society.”

Chapter 13 : Secret Society

Chapter 14

After Shinji got scammed into the government-controlled facility that secretly conducts brutal human experiment, he went through many mental torture in the process. At the first the experiments were torture, but as he accumulated more and more experiences, at one point he barely even felt anything about it anymore. During the experiments, he puts on noise cancelling headphones to distract himself from the victim’s suffering, just like everyone else does. Even so, Shinji stills goes back home every day feeling sick and disgusted of himself. After nearly a year, Shinji has “killed” 32 victims, attempted suicide 14 times, and attempted escape 43 times.

The start was rough, but after a while Shinji started to has his own circle of friends that are within his age group. After work and on their days off, Shinji will hang out with them, go to bars, watch movies or even play some games. Entertainment items and facilities is very accessible within the facility because the researchers faces extreme mental stress.

Today is another windy day, the sun shined as brightly as ever and Shinji has been caught back due to another attempt to escape.

The guards handcuffed Shinji and thrown him back into Gate D as his face hit the floor.

Shinji: “asaabsjbajkbjuabx…bro can you be more gentle please?”

Guards: “Yeah right, how about you stop causing us trouble already it’s been a fucking year like holy shit.”

Shinji: “Like hell I will ever stop, I’ll come back 2 weeks later so watch out you fuckers!”

Guards: “Oh god please don’t”

After that, the guards shut Gate D tightly closed and left. Shinji got up, wiped off the dust on his clothes and went back home.

In his home, he went to an empty storage room, bit open his thumb and painted a straight “1” on the wall with his blood.

“…Dammit…still no results after 44 tries huh…that was the best plan I had in a while too…”

Every time Shinji fails to escape, or “kills” a human experiment subject, he paints the wall with blood to remind him to never forget that he has taken the lives of both criminals and innocent people.

This wall of blood, is a side he doesn’t want other people to see.

Info:

The same operation that involves human experiment has never been halted even once since the 1800s, mainly because the equipment back then wasn’t as safe and efficient as it is now. Even though the experiment has showed progress after multiple generations of geniuses working on it, it wasn’t until the event of the great disaster of the east took place that the experiment has shown rapid progress. The dark truth behind such success is because researches were only able to experiment on some life sentenced or death row criminals. But after the great disaster of the east, America accepted more than 8 million refugees from China, Japan, and other countries, and therefore the government took advantage of this. After the refugees gain their citizenships here, those who fail (for example people who do drugs or declared bankruptcy) will have a chance to get sent to the facility as a test subject, those who succeeds in the suitable field will have a chance to get sent to the same facility as a researcher (like Shinji and many others). Before this, native Americans were the only choice they had, the amount of test subjects they had were very limited because they were only allowed to experiment on some criminals on life sentence or death row. Criminals and people who declared bankruptcy consists of over 90% of the total experiment subjects.

As Shinji sits in his office room, writing out his report for the last experiment, his doorbell rang.

Behind the door is a voice of a man, who said: “Is Mr. Shinji here?”

Shinji: “Yes, I am. What do you need from me?”

“…The president is here to see you.”

“…The president?… Well I guess it is about time she appears, considering I’ve attempted escape way past the average amount.” Shinji thought.

Shinji: “Okay, I’ll unlock the door.”

As Shinji unlocked the door, a man and a woman stood before him, the man is probably a bodyguard, while the woman is most likely the president of the facility. Shinji then led both of them to his living room, but the president told the bodyguard to wait outside anyway.

“…she looks like she’s in her mid 30s, 20-30 years younger than I expected. She also looks Asian…probably Chinese…?” Shinji thought.

President: “Hello, Mr. Shinji, my name is Alice Foster, this should be our first time meeting…”

“…But you probably have an idea as to why I paid you a visit.”

Shinji looked at her with a somewhat shocked face, but that’s a given, since she is speaking Japanese, Shinji’s native language.

Shinji: “…Ah..ah, yeah, yeah! Of course!”

Shinji replied back in Japanese as well, though stuttering.

Shinji: “Umm…are you perhaps Japanese as well…?”

Alice: “No, no, I was born in Singapore, but immigrated to America after high school, I only learnt Japanese as a side language, I myself have never been to Japan before.”

Shinji: “Haha…is that so…That’s quite impressive how you’re able to speak native level Japanese without ever being to Japan.”

Alice: “Haha, not at all,”

“…Since Japanese is only one of the 51 languages I’ve mastered.”

Shinji looks a bit surprised, but he didn’t said anything, he just thought: “…51? Is she an extreme polyglot? But even at a world class level, 51 is still quite an overkill. But she doesn’t seem to be lying either…”

Alice: “Nevermind that, let’s get to the main topic. Do you know why I visited you?”

Shinji: “…Aren’t you here for punishment because I tried to escape this facility numerous times?”

Alice: “Hmm…not quite, I’m just here to have a chat with you, though it is your constant attempts at escaping which caught my attention.”

Shinji: “You’re here to talk to me?”

Alice: “…”

Shinji: “…So what are you here to talk about?”

Alice: “…Why…

…Do you keep on attending the human experiment projects?”

Alice has just asked a question that shouldn’t have been asked. This question is one of the definite unspoken rule among the researchers in this facility shut off from the rest of the world, as they all have a reason that they do not want to admit, from the bottom of their heart. And yet, She asked it with a smile on her face, clearly not looking for an answer from Shinji, but instead challenging his endurance. Shinji looks a bit, just a bit…pissed.

Alice: “…If you truly didn’t want to ‘kill’ people, you could’ve just stayed in this luxury apartment, and avoid going to work. It’s not like we can force you into doing it, so why didn’t you stop?”

Shinji: “…You serious about that question? …Mrs. President. A leader like you should know better than anyone else.”

Alice: “Yep, dead serious, but if you don’t want to answer…”

“…then I can answer it for you.”

Shinji: “…”

Alice: “…Let me guess…The reason why you don’t stop experimenting…

…Is ironically because you want to stop the experiment itself.”

“…This facility has existed for centuries, with that, thousands upon thousands of people got killed brutally just for the sake of this experiment. And it’s not just us either, there have exist numerous facilities like this across the globe in the human history, committing the same crimes in secret to achieve more or less the same goal as us. Famous examples are Unit 731 during WW2 and the infamous Russian sleep experiment which was reality, but now exists as a fictional creepy pasta on the internet. During war times, human experiments are even easier to commit in secret, causing a ridiculous amount of people to be buried.”

“…But do we halt this experiment because such a massive amount of humans have died for it? No.”

“…It is precisely because so many people have died for it, that this experiment is so important. When something of this scale of responsibility is placed on our hands, …it is not something that we can just ignore, sit back and relax, while knowing this responsibility of ours…”

“…Carries the weight of hundreds of thousands of human lives.”

“…As long as the government wants to continue this cruel experiment, we have no choice but to do it. If we ignore, somebody else will do it. If we commit suicide, another innocent soul will be recruited to continue the experiment.”

“However, as you and everyone else in this facility know, there is one solution to this seemingly never ending cycle of suffering,

…And that is to complete this experiment itself.”

As the president said, so long as they reach the goal of the experiment, this multi-century old experiment, will come to an end. Obviously, there is no telling what will happen to the researchers when the experiment is over,

Alice: “…But it is definitely the most realistic option we have right now, wouldn’t you say? Mr. Shinji.”

Shinji: “…”

Shinji isn’t saying anything, he’s just sitting there with his head down, fingers crossed on his lap. Due to the serious atmosphere, a minute of silence felt like half an hour, the cup of coffee on the table has already cooled down.

Alice smiled, got up and said: “Well then, I shall be taking my leave now.”

“…Please do note that this talk is not about convincing you to stop attempting escape, this is just a reminder for you as to what our goal are,…So please kindly do your best…

…So that we can complete this experiment.”

Shinji: “…Tch. Don’t just swing around the word ‘we’ so casually, as if you’ve ever participate in any of the experiments.”

Upon hearing that, Alice’s constant smile fade away, instead she turned around and said:

“Mr. Shinji, here’s another question for you,”

Shinji: “…Another?”

“I have been servicing here for 10 years, 5 years ago is when I became president.”

“…How many people do you think I have killed with these hands in the first 5 years?”

The already serious atmosphere have become pressuring, Shinji could not even speak.

Alice: “If you could not answer that, that is fine, how about this one instead,”

“Can you see the weight of lives and responsibility lying on my shoulders?”

Yet again, Shinji said nothing but remained silent, but this time, he seems to have realize something. After staring at Shinji for some time, Alice smiled again and said: “…Seems like you get it. Well then, goodbye,”

“Mr. Shinji.”

Shinji lies flat on his bed staring at the ceiling.

*sigh*

“What a tiring day… It’s 4 already? Well I guess it’s time for the meetup with those guys.”

Chapter 14 : A Reason

To be continued…

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