Which (to him) meant he had lost all proof of his existence.
✦ ✦ ✦
This had happened before-a boy had somehow slipped out from under his control, but he had convinced himself this was an isolated occurrence and merely coincidental.
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No, he had tried to convince himself.
✦ ✦ ✦
Without his power, he was in the same position as the object of his abuse and scorn, Orihata Aya. . .if not worse.
✦ ✦ ✦
Orihata Aya would be able to carry on somehow, testing to see if cross breeding were possible, but he had no chance of anything like that.
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He would be completely useless.
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And, probably, disposed of.
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(This can’t be happening!)
✦ ✦ ✦
He opened his hands, and let electricity crackle across his palms. He could see the sparks, hear the sound of air burning.
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(It’s still working......I’m not finished yet! So why......?) He forced power into his jaw, and managed to stop his teeth from dancing.
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Normally, this would be no time to be holed up in an abandoned, half-finished amusement park like this. He should be down in town, trying to work out what was wrong. But...
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“D-d-d-damn you...”
✦ ✦ ✦
He couldn’t do that.
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He was too scared, too frightened to see things with his own eyes.
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“Damn it. . .damn it!”
✦ ✦ ✦
What worried him the most was the lack of response from Kinukawa Kotoe, who he had spent so much time on. Even if the others fizzled out, she had been a virtual copy of himself, so how could she possibly escape his control?
✦ ✦ ✦
“Impossible! It’s completely impossible!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Blood glurped out of his ear wound again.
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He sat trembling in the darkness a while longer, but at last he got control of himself and stood up.
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He walked slowly to the top of the tower he was hiding in.
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The roof of the half-finished tower was covered in building.
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materials, and he made a b-line for one particularly innocuous-looking pile.
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“If it’s come to this...”
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There were seven canisters, none especially large.
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Each one contained enough bioweaponry to wipe out every living person in the area.
✦ ✦ ✦
Specifically, it was a toxic virus genetically engineered to dissipate and die within three hours of being released into the air-or thirty minutes in daylight.
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But during that time, the virus would multiply explosively, infect every living thing it came into contact with, and melt every cell in their body. Eventually, the virus would begin to cannibalize itself, leaving nothing untouched in its wake.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was described as the ultimate “antibiotic”...one so powerful that it could disinfect life itself.
✦ ✦ ✦
But Spooky E was hardly concerned about such details. His body already had immunities to the virus; so no matter how much
✦ ✦ ✦
‘death’ he spread, he would never feel so much as a sniffle.
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“I could use this...”
✦ ✦ ✦
If he killed everyone, he might be able to hide the fact that his ability had failed...!
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He reached his hand towards the valve on top of one of the canisters. 5
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“Then. . . !” There was a gleam in his big eyes.
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But his hand suddenly froze, like something was pulling it back.
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He raised his head, and stared around him.
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"What...?!"
✦ ✦ ✦
He heard footsteps. Someone was here.
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Quite a lot of people were here.
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He looked over the edge of the tower at the ground below.
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His expression stiffened.
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"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
There was a crowd of people staring up at him.
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He recognized at least half of them.
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Naturally, they were the people he had brainwashed.
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“Wh-what the hell?!” he roared.
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But none of them made any response. It was as if they hadn’t even heard him.
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They simply stared calmly up at him, in silence.
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“A-answer me! What the hell are...!” he shouted hysterically.
✦ ✦ ✦
A voice from behind him said, "At last we meet, Spooky Electric-kun."
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It was a young man’s voice. Spooky E twitched like he was jolted with electricity, then spun around.
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A man in white clothes-Asukai Jin-was standing at the entrance to the roof.
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“Wh-who are you?!” Spooky E screamed.
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Asukai Jin did not answer. He stared at the canister behind Spooky E.
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“Oh, I see. The ‘disinfectant.’ You were going to use that?
✦ ✦ ✦
Cut it close then.”
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“What the hell are you?!” Spooky E shrieked, and at last Asukai met his gaze.
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“That’s a strange question.”
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“Wh-what?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I thought you were looking for me. Was I wrong?” Asukai said, shrugging. “If you must say something, it should be, ‘I guess the time has come,’ or something like that.”
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“Th-then......y-you are......” Spooky E took a step backwards. He bumped against the canister.
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“You know me as ‘The Imaginator,’” Asukai said, grinning.
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Spooky E gasped. “What. . .did you do? How......?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
He knew the man in front of him was his greatest threat.
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“I’m just better than you,” Asukai said quietly and with utter confidence.
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“Guh......!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“The Towa Organization, was it? Your syndicate. . .no, system?” Asukai trilled.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Y-you know...?"
✦ ✦ ✦
“Not any specifics. Just that this system is...“observing”
✦ ✦ ✦
things. I must say, you’ve got quite some people working for you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Spooky E made another choking sound.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What are you observing? What conditions are you searching for?” Asukai asked, peacefully. “I’ve thought of many things, but have only been able to come up with one working theory.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Spooky E was shaking like a leaf.
✦ ✦ ✦
“‘Transformation. ’ What else? Anything that changes? That’s what you’re watching, correct? You give ordinary, innocent humans drugs and observe their reactions, and then you investigate how much they change. . .am I right?”
✦ ✦ ✦
"Unh..."
✦ ✦ ✦
“From which we can determine that the Towa Organization operates on a scale much too grand to be referred to as a mere syndicate. Essentially, everything in the ‘present’......whether they hate all things new and different, or whether they are trying to bend these new things to their will-has collectively produced what is known as the Towa Organization. Obviously, this means their power is incredibly vast. However...” Asukai shot Spooky E another grin. “In this area, at the moment, there is only you.
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Correct?”
✦ ✦ ✦
He smiled with only his eyes, his eyes declaring that Spooky E would not be saved, would not be able to escape.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Grrraagh. . . !” Spooky E ground his teeth, blood spraying out of his missing ear again. “Y-you. . .you know that much. . .but do you have any idea What that means?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mm?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“No matter what you do to me, you have no future!” Spooky E bellowed. “You can’t survive long with the Towa Organization as your enemy! When you end my life-you end yours!” His shrill voice was almost completely swept away by the high wind blowing across the tower roof.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............" Asukai Jin just kept on smiling, staring at Spooky
✦ ✦ ✦
“My enemy?” He nodded to himself. Then his mouth twisted into a smirk. “My enemy!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What’s so funny?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Speaking of enemies. . .do you have any idea?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“or what?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“How many people died because of the ‘experiments’ you’ve been conducting? People who coincidentally had an allergic reaction to the drugs you fed them. . .or who went into shock. Here’s a hint, it’s no small number.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“So what? They aren’t important!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“True. They aren’t,” Asukai agreed, calmly. “The percent-age of deaths is much lower than traffic accidents, or disease.
✦ ✦ ✦
You could certainly say that anyone that happened to die that way was simply unlucky. . .nothing more. But every humane-has someone who depends on them. Don’t you understand? They have friends. . .family.”
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"...?" Spooky E frowned, unable to figure out what Asukai was driving at.
✦ ✦ ✦
“He certainly was unlucky. He always did have bad luck,”
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai said, his gaze drifting marginally skywards. “He had no
✦ ✦ ✦
‘roots,’ you see. Everything he tried, he did timidly. Yet his ‘flower’
✦ ✦ ✦
was gigantic, which meant he’d jump on board any fool’s dream, get tricked again, and just wind up in trouble. I had to cover for him so many times.” A self-deprecating grin passed across his face. “But that was all in vain. No matter how hard I worked, I could not make up for his utter lack of fortune.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I suppose it was he who gave me The Little Prince.” Asukai sighed, and fixed his gaze on Spooky E again. “Enemy? No, this is revenge. This is the irony of fate.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“So tell me what you mean!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Just a little history,” Asukai said suddenly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What...?"
✦ ✦ ✦
“Have you ever considered who it is who ultimately wins? Is it the strongest? Is it the one who kept everyone under his thumb?
✦ ✦ ✦
What do you think happens to people like that in the end? I’ll tell you...nothing. When they win, they use too much power, and collapse. Their victory is snatched away from them by someone else. When you face your enemy, you must make a more intel-ligent choice.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai’s smile vanished.
✦ ✦ ✦
“The second option is to carefully surrender. You have plenty of power, but not enough to take on your opponent, so surrender is the best way to stay alive. But the first option......”
✦ ✦ ✦
Unsmiling, his gaze was so pointed it seemed to pierce the other man’s skin.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Turn your enemy into your ally. This is the wisest, most effective method.”