Chapter Text
“Haahh… hahh…”
A boy was running in the barren desert, body covered in rags. He was injured, blood leaking from his head.
“I… I need to run. I need to run far away!”
He remembered the day he first opened his eyes. His creators looked upon him, caressing him and nurturing him.
“Look who’s awake! Marsha, look! Project Surya is coming into fruition!”
“Yes, Rafi. It seems like the first step is complete.”
“Ahh, Soto! Come here too!”
“Huh? Is it about the Withattery project? …Forget I said anything. What?”
“Project Surya is awake! After ten years in the making!”
More blood covered his vision, but he kept going. He had to keep going. He didn't want to die.
“So, how are we going to make him more human?”
“Why not ask the lead researcher? He started all of this, so he should know best.”
“Ah, right! Let’s ask Ivan!”
His family, the Aamirans, created him as a part of Project Surya, a project aimed to create an artificial human.
“...Will my family… be okay?”
He remembered the training he went through. His creators taught him advanced martial techniques.
“Don’t push yourself too hard, my boy.”
“Okay! I’ll do my best!”
“Alright, go for it!”
He remembered the times he had to dodge obstacles and weaponry, tested by his creators.
“A placebo for all of his senses? Why?”
“He needs to feel like a human if he wants to become human. I assure you, this design is very human.”
“But what if something bad happens to him?”
“Be calm, for in dire times, his limiters will be removed. Perhaps, in his growth, he will break these placebos naturally.”
The Aamirans gave the boy the name Shu Aamir Ivanson. They taught him kindness, hope, and strength.
“This Toujee Fusheegurro guy looks pretty cool, and he's a super human. Hey, Marsha! Ivan! What say we make Shu like this guy? Eyy?”
“Denied. I will not accept this suggestion, Rafi.”
“Ah, warm up, Marsha. It does make sense, no? He will become strong. And besides, you do want it deep down, yes?”
“Wha- Ugh… Yes…”
“No. I have to go back! I have to save them!”
He remembered the first time he saw his sister project, named Project Rahu. Every one of his creators wanted to create someone who could spend time with Shu when they were busy learning about humanity.
“Woah! Who’s that, Mr. Soot?”
“It’s Soto- Nevermind, it’s okay. That’s Project Rahu, your sister project.”
“So she’s my sister?”
“If you think about it, yeah.”
“Yay! I’m getting a sister!”
But with such an important and secretive project, there will inevitably be people who wish to take it for their own gain.
“Secure the target. Leave no survivors.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Run, Shu! RUN!”
“But what will happen to you?!“
"Just go! If you’re caught then-”
He still remembered the gunshots and explosions ringing in his ears. A trauma that would not last long, but would still shape how he would live forever.
“Please! I WANT THEM TO LIVE!!”
Gekko Dynamics. They destroyed everything to try and obtain Project Surya, even going so far as taking Project Rahu.
“Keep fighting for what you believe in, Shu. Even when everything looks bleak.”
“Okay, Ms. Marsha!”
“Hey, let’s make apple peach cobbler fritters sometime, Shu!”
“Okay, Mr. Rafi!”
The last things the Aamirans gave Shu was a quantum gauntlet and 25 years of love, from a nonbiological family to a lab-born young boy.
“Remember, Shu. You are an Aamiran. And we are those who walk the path of humanity.”
“And those who eat good food!”
“And most importantly… You are our pride, Shu.”
Shu’s eyes suddenly shot wide awake from a nightmare.
“Huagh!! Hagh… Urgh…” Shu gasped in cold sweat as he put a hand to his head and stood up from his mattress.
“Mr. Ivan… Ms. Marsha… Mr. Rafi… even Mr. Soot,” he spoke weakly, before taking a deep breath and exhaling.
He went out of his bed to get some water, while reminiscing about his past.
Shu looked down. His memories snapped to the day he ran away, the final promise given to him. His soles reminded him that he couldn't find the way back. His creators wouldn't want him to basically commit suicide anyways.
“I ran so far… I miss them all.”
He closed his eyes, remembering the day he lost almost everything once more.
During his escape, there was an odd, blue flash of light coming from his gauntlet constantly strobing. It hurt his eyes, yet he didn't look away from it.
He was encapsulated. And then, it was white. He closed his eyes.
…And he opened his eyes once more to be greeted by a white void, surrounded by nothing. He couldn’t help but feel calm, though.
“Where am I?” He questioned himself, unsure of where he was.
“You are in my domain, Shu Aamir Ivanson,” a voice called out to him.
“I see… What even is this place? Wait, WHAT?!” Shu said aloud, extremely confused. “Who’s there?!” he added.
The voice boomed again in the whiteness of space. “It's me. I am the Voice Of The Curse.”
“What? What curse?” Shu asked, thinking of reasons as to why he would be cursed in the first place.
“The Curse… of the Cetashrine.”
“Oh no! …I think,” said Shu as he scratched his head.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop being vague. I am CTSR, and YOU will be my contour, like many others before me!”
“Hey! But this is MY body! My family made me!” argued Shu in favor of his family, late or not.
“Dude. I’m not going to turn you into my vessel or something like that.”
“So? What then?” Shu asked, his concerns diminished ever so slightly.
“I’m going to perfect the foundation of your strength.”
“Really?” Shu asked, skeptically.
“Yeah, bruh. After all, I did make you too!”
“Huh, so you’re one of my creators too?” Shu raised an eyebrow.
“Um, I guess so? You can probably think of it that way.”
“Huh. Thanks, Voice guy!” he happily said.
“Uhh, yeah, no problem. Alright, I will tell you about your strengths…”
“The Aamirans only taught you how to brawl. But that won’t cut it. You will need to adapt to survive and only having one method of attacking, with your fists no less, leaves you extremely vulnerable. I will give you Styles.”
“Styles?” Shu asked.
“Think of it this way. You can, in a situation, change your way of fighting, even if you don’t practice or even know about the style.”
Shu thought of dismissing his voice entirely, but chose to listen a bit longer. “That’s still kinda vague…”
“You’ll see. As for the second, I give you, your Selves. They are yourself. Your Selves are them. Selves are from different worlds, which I TOTALLY didn’t rip from a certain bus company.”
“I’m not buying that, Voice guy,” Shu dryly replied.
“Yeah, whatever! As for your third… it is your HEAT. This is your own strength, how you will survive. In due time, you will see. But, it’s time you find yourself a new family. I will override one of these Selves, so that you will be both yourself, and your Self. …Basically, you won't be hunted anymore!”
“Oh, that's a relief,” Shu wiped his forehead while sighing. “But… a new family? Who?”
“The Foreclosure Task Force.”
Shu opened his eyes once more, still running. However, instead of only the parching sand, he saw remnants of civilization.
However, at this point, he had been running for what felt like twelve hours straight, maybe even longer. He thought his body felt heavy and his feet burning. And so, he tumbled and fell onto the scorching sand.
He wasn’t quite affected. In fact, it was quite warm… Wait, no, he had to focus!
Nearing the building, he saw a figure on a bicycle. “HEY!!!!” Shu screamed out, trying to get the figure’s attention while running towards it.
The figure looked like it was turning in his direction. Inching closer, he saw that it was a girl with silver hair and… wolf ears? Was he seeing things right?
Being ever so slightly closer to the building and the girl, he shouted again. “I… HEY… Haah…”
The wolf girl ran towards him, but before they could meet, he fell face first onto the sand once more, this time knocked out for good.
Two hours later, the Foreclosure Task Force clubroom
“Urgh…” Shu’s eyes slowly opened as he let out a weak cough. He rubbed his eyes, trying to remember what happened before he lost consciousness.
He looked around. A room filled with things you would find in a school, from what the Aamirans taught him. A whiteboard took up a chunk of one of the corners of the room, as well as a huge table sitting in the middle. There also was a gun on said table. Wait, a gun?
“Nn, he’s awake,” a voice said from above him. He looked up and saw the wolf girl from earlier, alongside three other girls. Now that he could see her properly, she wore a white dress shirt, a cyan scarf, a cyan necktie, an unbuttoned navy blue blazer, and what seemed to be a badge holder hanging off her blazer. She also wore a pleated dark skirt. But what piqued his interest is the fact she had a blue halo… and her blue eyes, which are mismatched with slitted pupils, the left one being white.
“Her eyes… they’re pretty.”
“Wha- Really? I thought he wouldn’t wake up!” another voice exclaimed. He turned slightly to face the other girl who spoke.
“Cat ears?” he questioned himself. The cat girl wore the same white dress shirt, pleated dark skirt, and badge holder as the wolf girl, but her blazer was buttoned up. Her halo was pink, and her eyes were red.
“Wow! We should tell Hoshino-chan!” another ANOTHER voice gleefully said, both her hands clapped together on her right cheek. He turned to face the source of the voice again. Her hair was blonde. Like the first two girls, she wore a white dress shirt but forgoed the blazer and necktie, and instead wore a beige cardigan. Her badge holder hung from her neck instead of her cardigan. Her halo was green, and her eyes were a sparkling emerald green.
“Beautiful eyes… like I saw, from my sister before,“ Shu thought to himself.
“Alright, I’ll go get her,” the last voice said. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a better look at her, as she left the room.
“Err, uh… Excuse me,” Shu called out.
“Wah! He can talk!” the cat girl exclaimed in surprise.
“Yes, I can talk,” Shu remarked, mildly annoyed. “…Could you ladies be quiet for a second? I need a moment,” he added, deep in thought as he closed his eyes.
“Oh, okay!” the blonde nodded.
“Nn,” the wolf girl replied.
Shu started to meditate. “My throat feels sandy…”
A few minutes later, the sound of a door opening came in through the room. The girl who Shu couldn’t get a good look at brought in another girl.
“Oh, so this is who you were talking about, Ayane!” The girl said, taking a good look at the meditating Shu.
Shu opened his eyes to see the aforementioned Ayane, alongside the girl next to her.
Ayane had the same shirt, blazer and skirt as the first three, but also donned a beige sweater underneath her blazer.
A familiar voice chimed in. “Lehron Games?”
He turned his body to see the last girl. Much like the blonde girl, she forgoed the blazer, opting to use a tactical brace. Other than that, her outfit looked the same as the others. “Who are you?” Shu asked.
The pink haired girl introduced herself. “I’m Takanashi Hoshino, a third year student in Abydos High School.”
“Abydos… High School?” Shu asked, clearly confused by the alien name.
“You’re in Abydos High School right now, MALE!” The cat girl perked up with frustration.
“Rude,” the voice told Shu, quite shocked that someone could say something like that.
“Serika!” Ayane raised her voice while glaring at Serika. “Be respectful!”
Shu quickly looked at both the cat girl named Serika, and Ayane.
“No no no, it’s okay. See… Um, I was running away from something…” Shu tried to recall, scratching the back of his head.
“Nn. He was running across the desert. Really fast. Shiroko approves,” said Shiroko who quickly raised a thumbs up.
“Yeah. Hmm.. I was running away from… bad guys? They wanted to capture me…” Shu said weakly, not knowing the whereabouts of his creators. “But then, I saw a blue flash of light, and now I’m here.”
The Abydos students were confused.
“Oh, no… That’s terrible!” the blonde said as she expressed concern.
“Nonomi, I think he’s, um, not remembering things right,” Serika said in a hushed tone while leaning towards Nonomi.
“Let’s hear him out first,” Hoshino glanced at Serika as she replied, having heard her whispering.
“Ah, alright,” Serika contemplated first before agreeing.
Suddenly, Shu felt a horrible sensation in his throat, his placebos firing back.
“Argh… I don't feel so goo- BLARGH!” Shu threw up a copious, unhuman amount of moist, wet sand on the clubroom floor, getting a look of shock from every student.
“...Seriously? Maybe we shouldn't have heard him out…” Serika cringed exasperatedly, a look of disgust painted on her face.
“Agh, my bad… I’ll clean it up,” Shu apologized, bowing quickly.
“It's alright, I’ll help you,” Nonomi awkwardly assured him as she scoured the room.
“Th-thanks,” said Shu as he bowed and put his hands together in deep thankfulness.
Nonomi grabbed a dustpan, and Shu started scooping up the sand that he had thrown up.
"At least don't throw up on the floor! Especially our clubroom floor!” Serika added before reluctantly grabbing another dustpan to snag the sand.
Ayane sighed as she grabbed a pair of gloves instead. “Shiroko, do you want to help?”
“Nn, if only Hoshino helps,” Shiroko compromised, taking Hoshino’s hand.
“Okay~” Hoshino yawned, grabbing a broom as well.
Surprisingly, Shu was scooping a pretty hefty amount of sand with his hands, with said hands seemingly expanding larger than normal.
After around five minutes, the Abydos students and Shu were done cleaning. Shu bowed his head and put his hands together again, thanking them for helping him.
“Hmm… Actually, we haven’t asked for your name, uuuh…?” Ayane looked at Shu, trying to get familiar with him while also moving on from his comical sand shenanigans.
“Shu Aamir Ivanson. That’s my name,” Shu answered.
“Wow, then it’s nice to meet you, Shu!” Nonomi greeted, gleeful.
“Nn. Nice to meet Shyou,” followed by Shiroko.
Hoshino stayed silent, but pursed her lips in thought.
“Aamir? Sounds strange…” Serika muttered, unfamiliar with the name.
“Hey! Don’t disrespect my creators!” Shu retorted immediately in defense of them.
“Uwah! Oh, sorry…” she apologized in shock before contemplating and looking away from Shu in remorse.
“... It's okay. I forgive you,” Shu sighed, still feeling a bit tired.
“I apologize on Serika’s behalf as well," Ayane added. “But, creators?” she asked.
Shu turned to Shiroko, ignoring her question.
“Shiroko, right? Thank you for coming to my aid when I went unconscious,” Shu thanked.
“Oh. Nnno problem, Shu,” Shiroko smiled.
“So, you mentioned a clubroom, Miss Serika… What’s the name of this club?” Shu asked curiously.
“We’re the Foreclosure Task Force!” Serika announced with pride.
“Foreclosure… Task Force?” Shu muttered, immediately lost in thought as he tried to remember what the Voice said to him.
“I think we’ve had enough flashbacks. Yes, I said they would be your new family.”
Shu stayed silent in contemplation for a good five minutes, before taking in a breath.
“I see… So you guys are my family, then?” Shu blurted out.
Everyone with the exception of Shu blurted out a “What.”
“What makes you say that?” Nonomi asked, eyes and mouth agape in shock and suspicion.
“Because… Because you're the Foreclosure Task Force. The voic- I mean, my creators said you would be my new family.” Shu added.
“Yeah… Good call. Let’s not reveal me, you know?”
“Uuuhh…” Ayane trailed off, unsure of what to say.
“Aaahh…” followed by Serika, then a “Ummmm…” from Nonomi, and a “Nnnnn.” from Shiroko.
“We're one big family, you say?” Hoshino questioned Shu as she broke the silence, getting looks from the other students.
“Yes. Please, be my new family. I need this,” Shu affirmed with conviction.
“...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!” Serika shouted in even more confusion and frustration. “ARE YOU OUTTA YOUR MIND?!”
“Oh, then you’d be my little brother~” Nonomi teased, playing along with the idea.
“You mean like close friends, right?” Ayane replied with a blushed face and hand to her mouth.
Shiroko nodded. “Nn. New running partner.”
“Uuuu… Okay, okay! If everyone else is fine with it…” Serika muttered.
“Well then… welcome to Abydos, Shu!” Hoshino said as she held her hand out with a smile on her face.
“Hooray! Welcome!” followed by Nonomi,
“Nn. Welcome.” then by Shiroko,
“Hmmph!” another by Serika,
“Welcome, Shu!” and finally by Ayane.
Tears welled up in Shu’s eyes. With a new family, he’ll be fine, right?
Hoshino grabbed his shoulder before moving behind him. “Alright, let's get you washed up. You look ragged, Shu!”
“Yeah, and the fact you grabbed the sand, from your mouth, with your HANDS!!! WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!!” Serika bickered, as everyone brought him into the washrooms.
And then, Shu opened his eyes once more, returning to the present.
“Hoshino… I thank you so much for accepting me, and letting me into your school.”
He continues reminiscing.
“Well, Shu, you’re officially a student of Abydos. Heh, maybe our school will get some traction with a male student. It’s basically unheard of!” Hoshino congratulated Shu.
“Huh, really? Why?” Shu asked, confused.
“I don’t know. But it's been like that for a long time,” she replied.
“Oooh! Are you sure you can beat my shot put record? I've even beat Hoshino-chan!” Nonomi mentioned as she agreed to Shu’s challenge.
Shu warmed up his right arm, preparing to throw the shot put ball. “Heheh, yep! I’ll show you what the Aamirans taught me!” as he grabbed the ball.
“HuuAGH!” he shouted as he threw the steel ball hard, to the point where they lost sight of the ball in the sky.
“...Okay then, we have a new shot put champion!” Nonomi congratulated not without a hint of concern, confused that the ball hadn't landed on the ground.
“Ugh, if only Shisa was here…” Serika muttered, a bit bored as she swept up some sand onto a dustpan.
“Ahaha, yeah… We haven't seen her, Lenn, or Sophi in a while. I wonder why they're taking so long on their business trip?” Ayane added.
Serika giggled a bit. “You know, this reminds me of when Shu threw u-”
“Don't remind me of that!” Ayane interrupted, fuming.
“I wish these peaceful days can continue on forever,” Shu thought to himself as he drank his water.
Grabbing his clothes that his classmates got him, he styled his hair in the mirror before leaving his room, and started walking through the lonely, sandy halls of the Abydos High School Building.
