Chapter Text
A Memory of Mine
Toru
“Nothing gets my mood down like a damn power outage!” squealed the millionaire in the bathrobe. The rows of rings constricting his bony fingers clinked with every wild gesture. The other man sitting across the bar counter was completely still, watching his host without expression. The lights had gone out in the last few minutes and a maid had been sent downstairs to start the generator. The glass doors leading out to the terrace had been opened, letting in a chilly breeze.
“I wasn’t always this well off, believe it or not. You see, my hometown was a backwater middle-of-nowhere sort of place. It was where I used to live before I joined the organization. Quiet, unremarkable, had a kind of rustic charm to it I suppose, but those sorts of places never really appealed to the likes of us .”
Even in the limited visibility afforded by the moonlight, the man’s wide mouth could be seen stretching into a grin. He had drawn out the duration of the final word. It was clear to anybody what kind of person he was referring to. This was an unusual sentiment coming from him. His kind was known to have a very minimal understanding of the term “us”.
“It was located further south, not too far away from Morioh, and drew all its electricity from an old hydroelectric power plant. It was built forever ago and nobody bothered to maintain it properly. Nobody even took the initiative to replace the wooden water wheel with something more modern. Yeah, a water wheel. This is the level we’re talking about. It was that bad. So whenever winter came and the water froze over, we’d barely get any power at all. Maybe a couple hours a week, tops. And man, let me tell you, it was absolute hell. Dark, freezing hell. For months, I’d be numb and chattering. Didn’t help that I was still living off the land back then. In those days, all this was still a pipe dream.”
He flailed his arm in an arc around him. The guest did not bother turning his head to look around. A few hours earlier he had already endured a lengthy house tour during which every opulent possession within the mansion had been pointed out to him. He was sure he had never seen someone so thoroughly pickled in the juices of his own debauchery.
“I was lucky I owned my own property. Even then, the neighborhood brats would sneak in while I was asleep and mess with me. Stomping on my fields, pissing and throwing eggs and dumping all kinds of shit on me while I was out. Probably not the absolute worst hibernation horror story you’ve heard but believe me, I had it pretty bad!
“There was this one time when I owned a cat. Well, I didn’t really “own” it as much as it was just a stray that stopped by my place every now and then. I liked it well enough, it was a cute little thing. I’d feed it, give it a rub, all that and send it back on its way. Then one day I woke up soaked in its piss. Turns out the thing had gotten locked into my place and there was a blizzard blowing through the town. I didn’t even know there was a blizzard! I must’ve been out for a while. So then I found the cat pacing back and forth next to the exit. It was so emaciated that I didn’t even recognize it. Probably hadn’t eaten for a week or so. It kept clawing at the door and screeching nonstop. And yeah, “screeching” is the perfect word for the sound it made. Looks like it had been screaming for a while since it coughed up blood and its voice was all strained. Like the sound a piece of wood makes when you put it into a chipper. When I tried to feed it or give it water, it didn’t respond. It was as if all its senses had died down and its whole being became fixated on one useless motion. It just kept on scratching at the door and screeching its awful noise…”
The man’s tone grew more and more frantic as he spoke and his voice began to crack. His hands were balled into shaking fists.
“I tolerated it for a day. Just one! Imagine it, trapped in your own home, in the dark and cold, with an insane screaming demon that just wouldn’t stop! I tried throwing it in different rooms, but the noise somehow wouldn’t stop. It was like it was coming out of the walls. Then I decided I had enough. Grabbed it, put it in the middle of a door and went to town - slam, slam, slam, back and forth - until it turned to mush. Cause it didn’t even stop screaming up until that point… The dark, the cold. It drove that animal crazy and then it drove me crazy. Me and that thing, in the blizzard we were one and the same. Once you experience living in the pitch black, the dread never leaves you. Ever since then, I thought, never again-”
“You knew him while he was alive, yes?”
The silent visitor suddenly interrupted his host’s deranged ramblings. Even for someone who had all the time in the world, he did not enjoy wasting it to this extent.
“Who? The doc? Well, yeah, I was getting to that!”, the host shot back after a momentary confused pause, “Of course I knew him! He was the reason I’ve become the guy you see today. It was all him!”
“When was it that you met him?”
“Well, I don’t remember. Must’ve been a long time ago. Doesn’t matter, either way. What matters is that I knew him well . He allowed me to get close to him. Not a lot of people get that kind of privilege, you know. And back then, at the beginning of it all at least, he needed me. I had a special set of skills he required. Not a lot of people in Japan had the agricultural expertise to handle the business down in Guinea and I was one of the only ones he found that could do it. I managed the successful cultivation of generations of the fruit and kept a steady stream of it moving into the labs. I had a job, and I did it well.
“He promised me at the beginning that this path would lead me to the place that all of us dream of, but so few of us have arrived at. And at the end of everything, what shocked me was that he was right …”
The breathless stream of words had reduced to a whisper, but lost none of its fervor. What started off as inane ramblings now betrayed a true ambition, something that could be found in very few men.
“His new world for our kind had the potential to become a reality. Look at me. I’m living proof of that. Once upon a time, I was a farmer that sowed his seeds with his own hands. Today, I have friends in places higher than you can imagine, and enough cash now to last me an entire lifetime of luxury. And a lifetime might not sound like a lot to you, but remember that the two of us operate on slightly different scales of time. All of it began when I worked with him to design the award-winning formula. And mind you, this has nothing to do with the miracle medicine. That was a newer project, not to mention far beyond my field. No, I’m talking about the pesticide.”
“Satellite… The number one pesticide brand globally,” the visitor chimed in. Unlike most of what was being said, this was something he had heard of. In response the millionaire clicked his tongue and shot a finger gun in his guest’s direction.
“Bingo! The one thing that earned me everything I have. Tomoki had his special juice, and me? I had my bug spray. Looks like you did your research.”
“How come the mastermind allowed you to distribute it to outsiders? To my knowledge, the whole operation was carried out in utmost secrecy. Producing the pesticide en masse and selling it to ordinary businesses could have led to the fruit trade being discovered.”
“Not quite. I thought that at first too. That somehow one thing would lead to another and we’d end up being found out. Even in the case that happened, it wasn’t that big a risk. There was no chance the existence of the cartel, or even the fruit for that matter, would become widely known by the public. Perhaps if we were discovered, there would’ve been a setback in our operations, but the status quo of our lives wouldn’t change. Our invisibility couldn’t have been disturbed. There’s a limit to how bad things can go. And in the end, none of those worries even mattered. The complete opposite turned out to be true. Once everybody was using the pesticide, we didn’t stick out.
I remember when I first concocted the stuff. Admittedly, it was never my idea. Like I said, on the theoretical front, it was all him. He always had a knack for the heady stuff. If I had to narrow down the purpose of the project to a single ultimate goal - it was to eliminate the rock insects that fed on the Locacaca buds. I mean, think about it. What would be the greatest threat to the survival of a crop of rock fruit other than rock pests ? Just simple biology.”
He chuckled and stirred the half-melted ice cubes in his drink with his finger. He cocked his head to the side and grumbled something under his breath about what was taking the maid so long. The dark was beginning to agitate him.
“If you were so invaluable to him, then why did he abandon you?”
The visitor continued his barrage of questions in that same expressionless tone. Encroaching deeper personal matters, he expected this one would strike a nerve in the millionaire. Yet, no offended retort came, and the only thing that followed was a long eerie silence. He seemed to be in deep thought. When he finally spoke, it was even quieter than before.
“I’m… not really sure.”
Another lull passed between the two, during which a barely detectable noise resounded from downstairs. Something thin and fragile had been cut. What was taking the maid so long.
“I knew him better than anybody else. We had this mutual trust and I believed in his future more than anyone. Or maybe… that was just my perception of our relationship. He was older than all of us, so who knew what he was thinking. But one thing I’m sure of is that I was replaced at some point.”
“What do you mean ‘replaced’?”
“Well, the doc always had a thing for bugs. Knew a lot about them. Wouldn’t be caught without carrying at least a dozen on his person. His knowledge about them helped me come up with the correct combination of toxins that can effectively wipe out the pests, while keeping the growth of the crop unaffected. So imagine my surprise when it was the introduction of another insect that rendered my presence on the plantations obsolete.
“Don’t get me wrong, I would still regularly supply him with the pesticide. That hadn’t outlived its use, only I had. My constant supervision and management of the crop was no longer needed. He had essentially found a shortcut to dramatically accelerate the rate at which new fruit ripened. They were moth larvae - I’m not even sure if they were silicon or carbon-based - that burrowed into the stems of the plant. Apparently they had been a secret tool used by a family of fruit growers in Morioh that the doctor managed to swipe somehow. I’m not quite sure how he got away with it…”
The visitor nodded. Another thing he recognized. He knew that one of these fruit growers had played a part in 2011.
“So there you have it… I earned my fortune by concocting the most effective bug-killer, and then lost my sole job to bugs. It’s almost poetic! But it didn’t really bother me, cause by then I had already made my money. And besides, the pesticide sales raked in much more than I earned with my day job. All I really had to do by then was sit on my ass and oversee production…
“And yet… none of that explains what you really want to know, does it?”
“No. It doesn’t.”
He breathed in hard, took a swig of his drink and brought down the glass hard onto the counter.
“In truth, I don’t know why he stopped requiring my aid as a stand user .”
Despite the cryptic matters they were discussing, he still found it hard to utter that term. It rolled out of his mouth husky and indistinct, time-worn from lack of use.
“I have a few theories. Maybe he was saving me for a rainy day, maybe he thought I would turn traitor if allowed to get too close, maybe he thought my stand was far too useful, or far too useless. I have no way of knowing for sure…”
A disappointing answer, thought the visitor, though still uninclined to grill the millionaire into giving him more information. He was confident it’d come out rather quickly. This subject was clearly something that had been eating away at him inside for a very long time, and he seemed to be on the verge of spilling it all out. All he needed was a little push. And so, just as he pushed his empty glass to one side, rose and began to walk around, a great unseen force immediately brought his body to a halt again. He stood there, frozen, as if a great pressure had started to bear down upon him, as if something tangible had clamped down upon his living force itself. In his left hand, hidden behind the counter, the visitor grasped something very tightly. He felt his victim tremble. In a few moments, he began to speak again.
“In a way I was his first successful “experiment” - someone that had managed to breach the great barrier, someone that could taste a drop of the cream that we have thirsted for so long. The same cream you people have been bathing in for as long as the twin humanities have existed…
“It was such a shame that he and the others never reached the same level as me. He was too ambitious, too willing to go out and get things done. He wasn’t like me. He wasn’t a coward that wanted to throw in the towel just because he’s racked up enough stacks. He was too busy to have the time to establish his own empire. Or maybe he never wanted one for himself, and only for his race. I don’t even know anymore…
“All the others? I’m sure they only saw him as their leader or a coworker. Maybe he would have approved of that, since it was truer to the nature of our race or some such. But if one thing is for sure, you can attribute all my success and happiness to that man. Do you understand what I’m saying? To me, he was a miracle. He was The King. He was everything . And had he succeeded, he would’ve meant the same to you and everybody else. Then the next thing I know… Gone. Completely lost, leaving nothing behind.”
As he raised his hands and covered his face, his rigid standing figure began to wilt.
“Do you know how he died?”
“No…”
For the first time since he had arrived at the estate, something resembling a smile crept onto the visitor's face, though obscured by the mask covering it.
“He was blasted apart into nothingness. By a nobody. In a garage, surrounded by people who didn’t even know of his existence. This is a piece of information I salvaged from one of those people. I drew it out of them in their dying moments.
“You are the only one of his followers that remain. You continue to be loyal to him. You were the only one who was truly loyal, the only one to whom he meant anything to. Naturally, you hate the ones responsible for his death. The same ones I seek to wipe out…
“Are you following my line of reasoning?”
The trembling man turned his head to the side and stared outside. Under the full moon, the stark black silhouettes of the pines swayed in the wind. In this moment, they looked unreachable, a flat backdrop at the edge of the horizon. The moon was just as flat, and completely immovable. The passage of time seemed to cease; no amount of waiting would have brought dawn. He longed for the warm glow of sunlight. He imagined that, by some twisted whim of the mountain gods, he could have been trapped in this moment forever. Standing in the dark for eternity, with only his houseguest to keep him company. The masked man who sat there watching him still, hunched and silent.
“Will you follow me?”
A long moment had passed before a strange noise began to emerge from the millionaire’s throat. At first it resembled the incessant creaking of an old wooden door. It started off quiet and indistinct before gradually getting louder, progressing into something more recognizable as a human vocalization. The manic laughter filled up the room and spilled out of the open door into the wilderness surrounding the estate. The wild, unrestrained screeching went on for a long time and had already permeated everything by the time it died down. In contrast, what followed it was a resolute statement spoken clearly with a self-assured smile.
“Count me in... Jeangalltier is at your service.”
In that instant, the masked man loosened the grip of his left hand, and the six-armed giant that stood over the dead woman downstairs moved to turn on the generator. Light and lucidity returned to their place in the world.
“I’ll remember you, your holiness! Anytime you need me, just give me a ring.”
The one who called himself GOD stood up to leave. As he walked away, he turned back to notice that the man's eyes had not followed him. The knobby stone lumps stared straight ahead, observing nothing. He turned around and moved to open his fridge to retrieve more ice. For someone without the use of their eyes, his movements were astoundingly precise. GOD gave him one last glance, and caught a very odd sight. There were several rows of neatly arranged mason jars on the lower compartment of the fridge. Floating in the murky brine of each one were cat heads of all sizes and color, perfectly preserved, with the faces still displaying their final agonized contortions.
GOD walked briskly out of the estate. One of the first things the millionaire had shown him when he arrived was a tree in the backyard, around which a shrine had been built. He had spent a long time explaining the significance of that tree, but GOD was not paying attention. He just found the man’s devotion pitiful. Carbon or silicon, the folly of humanity knew no bounds.
Almost a century earlier, a young boy sat cross legged under that same tree, munching on the last remaining bodies of the colony that raised him. They tasted okay though the outer shells of the exoskeletons had lost their crunch, having gotten stale over the past day since the boy had bursted from the nest. Perhaps he could’ve done better for himself by not savoring them for as long as he did; he had been eating since noon yesterday, and he only finished now when the pinkness of the dawn of the next morning had started to effuse into the sky. He was excited to see the sun again, it would be his second time ever.
As he waited for it to rise, he noticed something traveling across the sky over the trees. It was too far away to make out and he guessed it was some kind of airplane. As it got closer, however, it had become clear the dark shape was not anything familiar to him. It was tall and stiffly vertical, not a very aerodynamic shape. Whatever it was, the thing sped towards him in a straight line, the harsh morning breeze apparently not doing anything to disturb its trajectory.
He was reminded of a supernatural ability that Buddhist monks seeking enlightenment were rumored to develop. In the middle stages between the complete and utter obliviousness of an ordinary human and the deepest possible knowledge that the enlightened ones possess, there was a point at which a person’s comprehension of the workings of the world around them had advanced enough to grant them the ability to manipulate certain aspects of it. Maybe their feet could be made light enough to tread over still water without so much as a ripple, maybe they could conjure the elements from their body, maybe they could make feral beasts bow in their presence. The possibilities were endless. The only catch was that this stage came just before the point at which the person’s mind had suitably matured enough to not abuse these abilities. Only once that point has been passed can that mind go on to achieve true understanding over the nature of existence. Those who become caught up in the splendors of a fool’s paradise can never seek to progress past that transitory stage. Among one of the powers granted this stage was the ability to project one’s spirit out of the body and travel immeasurable distances through flight. The only pose that can be held by the projection as it moves is the stock posture of a standing human - head held straight up, feet together, arms hanging on each side.
Scratching a large scab of rock over his knee, the boy’s train of thought had carried him so deeply into his own little world that he had barely noticed the speedy arrival of the once distant dark shape. He looked up at the thing hovering right in front of him, puzzled.
“You look…”
Something else had changed around him. While the sky had taken on the glaring bright red of an emergency warning light, the world below it had darkened. The boy shielded his eyes, still unsure what to make of his visitor.
“Impossible?”
A surprisingly ordinary-sounding male voice resounded from the thing.
“Honestly...yeah. That was the word I was looking for.”
He continued to stare at his mysterious visitor. It truly did look impossible. He couldn’t make heads or tails of anything going on up there. It was as if his blindspot was located dead center of his field of vision. His eyes were working fine, but all he could perceive was a column of nothingness that either hid or was the hovering thing. And he couldn’t tell which.
“Uhhh… Mind if I look away for a sec? No offense, but it almost hurts looking at you.”
“By all means. Though if it pleases you, I can take on a form more suited to your vision.”
“Go ahead, then.”
A slender mechanical body popped into existence, metallic bars encircling its limbs and sharp blades extending from its wrists. The boy smirked, amused by how oddly naked this being looked, apparently not realizing the irony.
“Better?”
“Sure… but actually, you can do even better, can’t you?”
The robotic figure produced an airy noise that the boy guessed was supposed to be a sigh, and in its place, an old man in a dark suit and bowler hat appeared. Now with a human face, the boy could tell he was annoying it. It filled him with mischievous joy.
“Alright, now that’s good!”, he exclaimed, half sarcastically. The old man swiftly changed the subject.
“Where might your nest be?”
The boy jerked his head to one side, gesturing towards a mound of pieces.
“And the colony?”
The boy loosened his jaw and pointed a finger into his mouth.
“You… ate them?”
The boy nodded.
“All of them?”
“...Are you not supposed to?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rock organism do that...”
The boy shrugged.
“Well, that is a good thing. It only confirms you are the one I seek.”
“What do you seek?”
“A king of the world. A ruler of men. Eldest and wisest of all.”
“Sounds like me, alright.”
“Hmm! So sure of yourself. I take it you’ve already decided who you want to be?”
“Sure. I’ve been dreaming for 17 long years. And now I’m awake.”
The boldness with which the boy spoke pleased the entity. It had been searching for a long, long time for one with enough ambition to bear its strength.
“And what was it you dreamt about?”
“Well, pretty much what you said. A utopia. Exclusive to me, and all who are as me. An earth where the sun shines brightest, and everybody can bask in it.”
“Quite a huge dream.”
“Nope, just a real one.”
The old man could only nod in response as the boy stood up and began to stretch.
“Now it’s your turn. What are you all about? I don’t think I’ve ever learned about anything like you.”
“That’s natural. I exist everywhere so I don’t particularly stick out. Like a sheet stretched out across an infinite surface. It’s surely there, but it’s become so thin you don’t notice it. I am a law of reality.”
“Sheet? I… don’t follow. You’re gonna have to speak in more straight-forward terms.”
“The body you see is just a simplified visual representation of my true self. I am an abstract matter, like a force of nature. I am entropy. I am responsible for all the bad luck anybody has ever encountered. I am-”
“Calamity. Got it.”
“You catch on quick. You’re a smart kid.”
“And you’re a funny old man. Mind clearing that up too, by the way?
“Huh? Like I said, this is just visual representation. As for why it looks the way it does, I couldn’t tell you. I’m far older than any man.”
“So what does your other half look like, huh? All the good luck.”
The old man thought for a moment.
“Last time I checked? A film of golden light. Rather like plastic wrap.”
“Pfft! That explains your analogy.”
A personification of a force of nature was not the sort of company the rock boy had been expecting this morning, though he was certainly enjoying himself. He leaned back against the tree and smoothed out his round heap of his hair with his hands.
“And you’re looking for somebody like me because?”
“I have a goal. A divine purpose that I cannot fulfill in this current form. A bloodline to snuff out. Despite what I am, I cannot enact my own judgment upon those that I seek to end. I can’t just go around pointing my finger at people and have their heads explode.
“No, I need someone to do it for me. Or rather I need a central body to which my power can be applied to. Someone to act as a ‘host’.”
“So this is some kind of proposition. Or maybe a deal.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“So… you give me your power and I help you end a bloodline. What’s in it for me?”
A sinister smile spread across the old man’s face as he slowly turned his back to the boy and faced the rising sun, barely recognizable under the harsh red filter that had been cast over the world since his arrival. The boy watched with curiosity.
“Now, take a step towards me.”
The boy did, and instantly recoiled with a grunt of pain. He had accidentally stepped into a stray stinger on the ground. Was that even there before? He sat back down and inspected the wound. Blood speckled with gravel leaked out of the hole. The stinger had lodged itself unreasonably deep into the rock flesh that normally would have been able to withstand it.
“You could’ve just told me, you know!”, the boy yelled as he worked to pull the stinger out of his foot. The old man chuckled.
“Heh, you got lucky! If you had done that before I told you what I am, it would’ve been much worse. You might have perished the minute you set your eyes on my back… Now you’ve seen for yourself. With me, nothing can touch you. Reality will bend over backwards and the world around you will flip through as many hoops as it takes to protect you. All you have to do is stand there and wait. With this ability, the path toward your dream will be entirely clear of obstacles. As for my end of the bargain, you don’t have to worry. You won’t have to play an active part in uprooting that family tree yet. A very long time from now, when you’ve grown up, fate will lead you to them…”
The boy stumbled back to his feet and got an odd look on his face.
“Well, you’ve got me interested all right. But how exactly do you intend to grant me your power?”
The old man pointed towards a small town in the distance, Morioh-Cho.
“Go there. That town is situated right next to the ocean, and a brand new holy ground exists near the coastline. I’m sure you’ll find it. There is a group of your brethren further down the mountain that have already begun their pilgrimage while you were snacking. If you set off now, you can catch up to them. As for me, I will see you at your destination.”
“What’s gonna happen when I make it there?”
“Surely you know that holy grounds can grant abilities. All we have to do is meet there, and I will become your ability. One and the same as the power of your heart. Your stand.”
The boy understood.
“Well, I'll see you there.”
As the world returned to its original colors, the old man began to fade into nothingness once more.
“Hold on! Since you can fly and all… couldn’t you just give me a lift over there?”
“Hah! Not a chance, user !”
In 2007, at the lowest point in his life, Toru reminisced on this watershed in his journey as he sat on the pavement, slouching against a wall. Many of the details have become hazy or even completely vanished. Memories were an ephemeral thing, no matter how much he insisted otherwise. For instance, he hardly remembered the identity or significance of the original human Toru, and had entirely forgotten that the deal with his stand had even been a deal. After all, he had nothing to remind him. The old man no longer spoke to him, and their former comradery had assumed a far more conventional stand-and-user dynamic. Even assigning it a stolen identity of its own did not change that. He wasn’t bothered by it. After almost a hundred years, he had nothing to say to him either. Toru had changed, no longer the hungry boy who wished to seize the world. His dream remained unchanged, but his methods had become far more discreet. He found it better suited his nature.
A passerby dropped a coin in his lap as they passed. He felt like he could weep. What had happened to him? He did not understand why all the rejection had affected him so badly. His attempts to break into the tech world had gone bust and the depressive slump had forced him to cut off the only person he had ever truly loved in his life. He had gotten soft and weak. The frailty of old age and the emotional instability of teenage years made a painful combination. Rock humans all aged differently, and Toru hated the way that he had.
Above all, he was weighed down by the one fear he always had - that all of his efforts would be for naught. Nothing would be left behind in the end. In that moment, Toru seemed to glimpse his ultimate failure.
Of course, in just a few years’ time, the fire and ambition of his youth naturally returned to him with full force. Combined with the caution and intelligence he had developed, he became nearly unstoppable. With the inkling of a miracle medicine in his mind, Head Doctor Toru rebounded. And I’m sure we all know where it led him…
It was true he was the eldest and wisest. But a king of the world he would never become.
GOD stepped off the cobblestone path and onto a rocky ledge jutting out over some trees. He pulled off his mask and sunglasses for a better view, feeling the wind blow against the curly hair peeking out from under his cap and cooling the metal plating set into his face. He was high enough up the mountain that he could see a clear view of Morioh in the distance. It would take him about half an hour to reach his destination. GOD squinted to make out the imperceptibly thin line that stretched far into the distance. It would've been invisible had it not given off its golden glint. As a gloved hand grabbed onto it, the thread began to emit a quiet hum. Energy coursed through it like a signal traveling through a telephone wire. No matter the distance, GOD only had to reach out to feel the faint pulse of life within his next victim. At some point in the past week, during his various excursions to find out who or what he had been before he was, GOD had learned about an ability that had belonged to one of his component parts - An extremely potent power, an orb of infinite energy that ignored the laws of the universe itself. The single attack that had set the universal force of calamity against a single bloodline, and the same one that almost wiped it out. And all it was was a tiny thread, spinning at impossible speeds. As he held his own golden thread in his hand, GOD could not help but wonder what law of the universe had caused this connection. Perhaps it was a vestige of an old ability that re-manifested in this new stand. How could that be when he was an antithesis to all that defined the owner of that old ability?
GOD shrugged to himself. These questions were none of his concern. Maybe someone more befitting of his name existed somewhere, watching from on high, and acutely understanding all the logistical workings of these tangled spools of thread blasting each other of existence. But him, he didn’t really care.
Learning about his past was not a strictly necessary step towards his ultimate goal, but it could potentially uncover valuable assets and overlooked advantages. GOD was not one to pass up on such opportunities. A sizable conglomeration of followers had already been established in the three short months since his awakening, a small but passionate unit of fanatics devoted to his cause. Most he had lured in with the promise of safety and protection, others joined in willingly in search of a higher purpose. The rarest kind was the sort of man he had just recruited, ones who already had their own personal grudge against his targets. Of course, none of their myriad reasons ever measured up to the divine punishment that he sought.
Regardless, he had become the center point around which all these minor bodies could orbit. A King of the World, a Ruler of Men, eldest and wisest. Though his world will not have sunlight shining down on it, and its heavens will be unmarred by twinkling lights.
He looked up at the infinite stretch of stars above him. His attention was drawn in the direction of the Perseus Constellation. He pictured the armored hero, swinging his sword above his head. Perhaps one day he would slay these stars as well.
He continued his descent down the mountain, guided by his thread.
Miles away, in downtown S-City, a panicked young man paced back and forth within a cheap hotel room, periodically peeking through the blinds down at the empty streets. Seated at the table are his dear family - Father, Mother, Older Brother, Older Sister, Younger Sister- all staring at him with identical vacant expressions. “Oh god, oh fuck, oh god, oh fuck, what the do I do?!”
He winced and held up his hands against the sides of his head. Beads of sweat rolled down his face. His bulging veiny eyes looked as if they were ready to pop out of their sockets.
“Sh-should I hide?! Or shouldn’t I?! I’m not sure… Maybe holing myself in here was the right move… B-but I’m so afraid… Dammit, why won’t you just disappear! Uhhh uhhh, man, why the hell is it so hot in here-”
Fuck’s sake, man, would you calm down?!
The eldest brother spoke up first. In response, the younger gulped submissively and immediately jerked to a stop. Three years after losing him, the instinct to obey his older brother still had not left Higashikata Joshu. He shuffled over to a chair and sat down.
There’s no point in what you’re doing. You better get your ass up and start running again. Here you’re just a sitting duck.”
“But what if he’s out there! He might be waiting for me to come out, and once I do?! It’ll be all over for me!”
Jeeeez~ little brother, you want me to follow you out there? You were always such a sissy! Don’t worry, you can hold my hand if you’re scaaared~.
The older sister gave him an all too familiar sardonic smile.
“Shut it, Hato! He got to you first and you still don’t know what kinda guy we’re up against?! Really goes to show how much there’s going on upstairs!”
Hmph! I’ll have you know, Doofus, there isn’t anything going on! At least not anything like whatever’s going on up your stairs!
“Wha- That doesn’t even make any sense, shit-for-brai-”
“ Joshu! Language! I won’t tolerate you talking to your sister like that in my household!” , cut in the mother. Estranged from the rest of her family for 15 years, yet always so desperate to reclaim all that lost time till the very end.
“ Your household?! You think you can just barge in after all this time and say something like that?”, now the father spoke up, finally roused out of his angry-browed disapproving silence. And of course it was Kaato chiming in that did it. Though…the last time Joshu checked, Norisuke had all but forgiven his wife for all she might have done in the past… What exactly was going on here?
Oh please, dad, would you give her a break? For once?!
This has nothing to do with you, Jobin!
Yeahhh~ Quit being such a Mama’s boy all the time! You’re suppooosed~ to be the eldest!
Guys! We’re forgetting about big bro Joshu’s problem! He’s gotta get outta here quick!”, now the youngest sibling joined in. Daiya, always meaning so well. Joshu never really did pay much attention to her though.
If only we brought my bike along. You could probably outspeed that guy on it!
“Your bike? Are you seriou-”
Nah, broski, we totally should've taken my rad lambo, dudes.
“Broski?! Lambo?! What are you-”
Something strange was happening. This wasn’t how his family really acted, was it?
Get out of my house right now! You’re not welcome here anymore, you child-murdering sluuuut!
Daaaaa~~d, we’re nooo~t at hooome anymooore~, remembeerrrrr~?
And you’re not allowed to speak to me or my son, ever again!
You tell him, Mommy!
Guys, did I ever tell you how much I lo~~ve Yes?!
Muhuhuhuhuhuhuh!
Ayo, check out my sick beetle collection!
“Ughh Uhhhhhhh….! What the fuck is going on with you guys?!”
These gross mimics only displayed a single defining trait of each of his family members. His mind, buckling under the grief and stress, had deformed them into cruel caricatures of their true selves. Joshu stumbled out of his chair and watched the bodies distend into ghostly abstract shapes, before further dissolving into smoky wisps swirling around him. His entire world had started spinning. A monstrous cacophony of a collective 23 years of bickering closed in on him from every side. Had he forgotten to take his meds today?
“S-stop! Stop it! PLEASE STOP!!!”
What’s wrong Joshuuuuu~?
Come on, Joshu, quit whining and get up!
You never did drink enough milk as a kid…
You’re ruining the mood, dude. That’s so uncool! What kinda summer vaca-
“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU ARE DEAD!!!”
Joshu covered his ears, but it did nothing to filter out the voices. By the time the flashes had started, he was curled into a ball on the floor. His limpid eyes were wide open, but he saw nothing in front of him. What he did see was the living room stained in blood, and the limbs and innards that were strewn everywhere. His only remaining sibling was standing in the midst of it all, staring at him with eyes that weren’t his. Eyes encased in metal rings, and segmented into thirds, not halves. The voices kept on going and going. Louder and Louder.
“Please… stop…”
How could you bear to leave us behind?!
Joshu?
You blew it. The one time it mattered, you fucked it up.
Joshu!
Where did I go wrong with you…
You realize you could’ve saved everyone?
JOSHU!
“Please… please…”
Well, It's okay to make mistakes, right...? You were only human, after all~~
Ca~~lafor~~niaaa~~!
JOSHU!
A single voice overwhelmed all the others and broke through to the sobbing boy. His eyes widened. For a moment, there was only silence. Sitting up and wiping the tears from his cheeks, Joshu looked up at the person standing over him, looking exactly the same as he remembered him. A loose-fitting sailor outfit hung off of his lean, sturdy frame and a matching hat sat atop curly hair trimmed short. Next to him, all the other apparitions suddenly appeared dull and colorless.
You doing alright, man?
Regret was a feeling Joshu had come to know very intimately over the years. Even if every instance of it throughout his life were to be personified, he always imagined there was only one possible shape it could take. Staring down at him was the memory of his brother, the one who called himself Higashikata Josuke.
“J-Josuke…?! I-”
Phone’s ringing.
It was. Joshu pulled his mobile out from his pocket. It seemed to have been ringing for a while, but all the voices had drowned out the sound. The number was anonymous.
“...Hello?”
“....I-it’s really you… I can’t believe it! I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for so long! You’re still alive!”
Joshu was confused for a second. It took him a while to recognize the voice. The moment he did, his face clenched into a scowl. He snapped his head back towards the direction of the apparitions and pulled the phone away from his ear, covering the microphone with his other hand.
“DAMMIT! CAN’T YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR A SECOND, TSURUGI?! I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING PHONE CALL HERE-”
Joshu stared into an empty corner of the room. All of the ghosts had vanished, even Josuke. Around the table, there were five empty seats. Peacefully snoring away under one of them was Iwasuke, having barely noticed Joshu’s delirious tirade. He was the only other living thing in the room. Upon seeing the little rock dog that had miraculously survived a second disaster, Joshu felt an odd comfort.
And Tsurugi… He… wasn’t there before. There had only been five of them! He was never-
Finally the realization set in, and Joshu turned his attention back to the telephone.
“Hello? Are you still there?! Hello?! Can you hear me? Oh no, Mom, I think something happened t-”
“NO! NO! I’m still here, I’m alright!”
“Thank goodness! I can’t believe you’re actually alive. Where are you?! Are you safe?!”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Joshu tuned out the ensuing questions from his nephew.
“I… I’ve never been so happy to hear your voice…!”
“Same here, uncle. Mom’s here too. But, come on, you gotta focus! I’ve already made sure no one’s listening in, tell me where you are.”
“Uhh! Uhh! Oh, yeah, right! I’m in S-City. And don’t worry, I’m alright. He’s still after me but I’m safe for now. Oh, and Iwasuke too.”
A resolve welled up in Joshu’s soul. After everything, he still had a few things to live for.
“ J-just tell me what to do, Tsurugi, I’m ready.”