{Observation 4: The (fake) hero remains unknown (to most)}
Donning his ‘hero’ outfit, Laurence took the back exit into the alleys, where he ran into no one, thankfully enough.
He decided to carry the braces in a bag, since they would draw attention from the blue glow they produced when worn.
Wearing the outfit minus the braces wasn’t going to draw too much attention, given that many people in the city had many different opinions on what to wear; “strange” wasn’t defined by clothes here.
He may have wanted to be recognizable, but he did not want anyone to trace where he came from.
Although, he found that there was no reason to avoid public places altogether, since he was currently ‘unknown’ to the residents of the city.
If he ended up confronting the serial killer and someone saw him, however, that was when he would avoid contact with other people as much as humanly possible.
And, if it turned out that way, he especially needed to watch out for networkers; with their sharp eyes, wits, and agility, they could easily chase down someone back to their base.
Still, for right now, he knew it was safe as long as no one saw him exit from the run down store.
After aimlessly weaving through some alleys, crossing some streets, and walking through even more alleys for good measure, Laurence finally decided it was safe to simply go about his business; finding the serial killer and trying to stop him.
The crossing streets were filled with people, but it wasn’t enough to call it crowded; they most certainly avoided going in alleys, but it appeared as though some people avoided going to the central district that day.
It just went to show just how serious the threat of the serial killer was.
Adjusting his goggles and scarf, Laurence looked up at the roofs, seeing if he could catch a glimpse of the networker who helped him one month prior.
Central district was where Birdy usually did business, and, knowing her, she would immediately notice a singular person in an alleyway should she come across it.
If people were avoiding the alleys, then that only made it more suspicious to be caught walking through one.
Laurence knew he had to avoid Birdy’s eyes at all cost when chasing after the killer, because he doubted she would stop looking for him even if he went out of her vision.
Once he caught her attention, she would pick him out in a crowd the moment he walked into it.
That’s why he hesitated to walk away from the streets; he was stuck looking for info, however scarce, as he walked, because he wouldn’t risk going into the alleys unless he thought it were safe to do so.
That didn’t mean he didn’t mind running into one if he knew the serial killer was there; it was only when he was searching for him did he have a problem with being singled out.
Picking up the pace while looking around, Laurence overheard a few people talking in a line for one of the trade centers.
“-nd people have been talking about it, even to strangers.”
“No kidding? But there’s no value in that.”
“I know, that’s what I don’t get; why would they go around warning people when they can just let them die to the killer and take their stuff afterwards?”
Laurence found that the conversation the pair of men were having to be interesting, and thus walked behind them in line to interject.
“I’m sorry, but I’m curious about what you just said…”
The pair of men looked at Laurence, then back at each other, as if they were wondering whether to speak about it or not, but one of the men simply shrugged and answered.
“There's a pair of young girls going around, warning people about the serial killer… have you heard of them?”
“I’ve heard of the serial killer, but not about the girls… are they really doing charity work in this day and age?”
“Nah, they probably have something up their sleeve. Ain’t no way they’re doing this for nothin’.”
The second man denied the notion, but his friend seemed to disagree.
“Well… I don’t know about that. What could possibly be gained from warning others to stay away, when it’s none of their business if they die?”
The second man was about to respond, but Laurence spoke up first.
“About these girls, did they mention else regarding the serial killer?”
“Hey now, we’re not running a charity like those kids here…”
“...They wanted to see if we knew anything about the serial killer.”
“Kenchi?”
The second man seemed surprised at his friends willingness to give away the information, but the man named Kenchi seemed to ignore this.
“I’m curious about something as well. If you answer me, then I’ll point out where the kids went.”
“Okay… what is it?”
“Why do you care so much?”
The question caught Laurence off guard, but he answered.
“The serial killer… he might have had something to do with an acquaintance’s death.”
Although this wasn’t the main reason he was tracking him down, Laurence still wanted to know what the serial killers involvement in Yuna’s parents death was; it would have bothered him too much not to know.
“Hm, I guess that makes sense.”
Kenchi scratched his head, seemingly disappointed, but pointed in a direction regardless.
“Over there. I didn’t exactly watch them every step of the way, but they walked off in that direction.”
“Thank you.”
Laurence gave a small nod before taking off in the direction Kenchi had pointed him in, before doing a 180 and coming back to ask one more question.
“Do you know what they look like?”
“The two of them are short, can’t be any older than ten. One of them is blond and the other has… what was it?”
“...Purple hair and a hat.”
The second man reminded his friend with a sigh, as though he was exasperated at the idea of helping someone out.
“Oh yeah, it was something like that, wasn’t it?”
“That’s enough. Thanks again for the help.”
Laurence didn’t waste anymore time as he went on his way, searching for the two strange girls.
It wasn’t much, but anything related to the serial killer could end up leading to them… that’s what Laurence thought.
* * * * * *
Near an alleyway in the central district, not too far away from where Laurence was, was a woman named Erika.
This might seem like a completely random statement, with nothing whatsoever to do with the events at hand, but Erika had her role to play in things as well.
Looking at the people passing her by and leaning against a wall near the aforementioned alley, she let out a long sigh.
Why do I have to stay here?
Erika was currently waiting for her companions, as they had told her to stand by there while they went and took care of something.
It wasn’t that she doubted that there had to be an important reason for her being there, it was just that she didn’t like being kept out of the loop.
Coming to the central district was a very sudden decision made by Hana… What would have compelled her to do such a thing?
Absentmindedly thinking this, Erika moved off of the wall, deciding to walk for a little bit, but not too far from the spot she was given.
It was at this very precise moment of her moving away from that wall that Laurence came out from a crowd of people, running straight into Erika.
If he wasn’t obscured by the people, she would have been able to react fast enough to move out of the way; the same went for Laurence.
But here they were, bumping into each other.
Neither of them were knocked down, but the sudden force made them look in each other's direction for a moment.
“Ah, sorry!”
“A-ah… no, that was my fault.”
Erika apologized, slightly embarrassed, thinking that if she had been paying attention, she might’ve been able to avoid him, despite this not being the case.
Laurence was just about to move away, before something caught his eye.
“...A sword?”
Hanging at Erika’s waist was a sheath containing a blade inside, which Laurence seemed to notice almost immediately.
It wasn’t anything strange to keep a weapon at your side in the city, but swords weren’t the most common ones to obtain.
It was only natural for Laurence to find it odd.
Erika became slightly more guarded at Laurence’s wariness of her, but responded.
“It reaches longer than a knife, and it can kill quicker than a blunt instrument.”
“I suppose…”
Laurence’s expression became one of uneasiness, as he was bothered by the fact of people killing one another, but Erika, not knowing this, found it even more suspicious.
“...Tell me, do you know who I am?”
“...Huh? ...No, I can’t say I do.”
Laurence looked up at Erika and studied her more closely; her choppy, short blue hair fit in perfectly with her narrow, dark blue eyes. Her slender figure wore a tight tank top, but not so tight as to cling to her figure. She also wore long, grey sweat pants; as though she were out for a jog. Aside from her big, black, laced boots, nothing stood out about her besides the sword.
Laurence’s expression seemed to relax as he was distracted with figuring out whether he knew this woman or not, and Erika’s narrow eye’s widened into a much more natural shape with her suspicion lessening.
“I suppose you do not. ...My apologies, I thought I recognized you from somewhere, but I appear to be mistaken.”
“No, no. I was just taken aback by the sword, so I must’ve looked strange. Sorry.”
Both of them looked at each other, then laughed.
“Look at us, complete strangers in the city, apologizing to one another… I never expected to meet someone else that was so friendly.”
Erika seemed to smile genuinely as she stated this and Laurence shook his head.
“It’s not that no one’s unfriendly, it’s that they can’t relax around people they don’t know.”
Erika opened her mouth in surprised, then gave another smile.
“I don’t believe I’ve heard your name.”
“Ah…”
Laurence knew he couldn’t tell this person his real name while he looked like this, so he decided to say the hero name himself and Thomas had come up with.
“Phoenix. It’s not my real name, mind you, but it’s the one I’d like to be called.”
“Oh? A networker?”
“Something like that. And yours?”
“Erika.”
As they introduced each other, the two moved towards the brick wall that Erika had no left too long ago, so as to avoid the traffic of people.
“Erika… got it.”
“By the way, you seemed to be in a hurry. Is there someplace you need to be?”
“Oh, that’s right! Have you seen a couple of young girls around, asking people about the serial killer?”
“...? A serial killer?”
Erika put a hand to her chin as a sneaking suspicion creeped up on her, especially since ‘Phoenix’ mentioned a couple of young girls.
She had an idea of who he was referring to.
“Would these girls happen to have blond and purple hair respectively?”
“You’ve seen them?”
Erika’s mouth became a straight line as Phoenix confirmed her notion, the reason for why she was dragged along to the central district becoming crystal clear to her.
“I did, but I didn’t pay attention to the direction they went. Sorry.”
“Oh, no. It’s alright.”
“...Would you mind telling me why you’re looking for them?”
“Well, I figure they might have information about the serial killer, since they’ve been looking for them.”
“And why do you want to meet with this serial killer?”
Phoenix blinked, as if wondering why Erika was asking these questions, but he answered.
“He might be related to the death of someone I know.”
Erika nodded in understanding, but her mouth became a full frown.
“So you’re looking for revenge then?”
Erika knew this story all too well; someone seeking revenge for a loved one that was killed by killing the person responsible.
She understood, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
“Nope.”
The answer from Phoenix was so sudden that Erika almost doubted her ears when she heard it, especially since she wasn’t expecting it.
“...What?”
Erika’s eyes widened in shock at this response.
“Well, it’s not like killing them will bring the person back. I’m just curious if he had anything to do with it, that’s all.”
“...If they had something to do with it, then what would you do?”
“Hmm… I guess I wouldn’t do anything. Oh, but if their reason for killing is stupid, than I can’t promise I wouldn’t beat them up a little.”
At how plainly Phoenix stated this, Erika couldn’t help but stand there in awe.
“You… really are strange.”
Phoenix laughed at this.
“Maybe, but doesn’t the same go for you? That face you made when you thought I wanted to kill for revenge isn’t a normal expression for people in the city.”
“...I guess you’re right.”
Erika ended up chuckling herself at this, realizing that there truly was other good people in the city.
It made what she was doing seem much more meaningful, to meet someone like this.
As she looked at Phoenix’s face, she saw that he was looking off into the distance, distracted by something.
“Is something wrong?”
Phoenix looked back at her, apologetically.
“Ah, I just thought I saw… an acquaintance of mine go off into an alley. I need to go stop him just in case.”
“Why?”
“The serial killer is the entire reason the streets are so packed today; he usually kills people in alleys.”
“...And he’s just went into an alley regardless?”
“Y-yeah, he must not have known. Sorry, but I have to go after him.”
Erika noticed that Phoenix was acting oddly, as well as impatiently.
She got the feeling that he was lying to her, but she had no idea why.
What she didn’t know was that Phoenix wasn’t acquainted with the person who went into the alley; he was simply going to chase after him on the off-chance he was the serial killer.
Erika watched Phoenix hurry past her and she was tempted to follow him, if not for the fact that she was waiting for Hana and Lucy to return.
“I’m sure we’ll meet again.”
Phoenix stated this as he ran off into the alley, leaving Erika alone to wonder what he was hiding.
To her, he was a very strange person; apologizing to her, being friendly around her and having no desire to kill out of revenge were traits one wouldn’t find these days.
But he acted oddly during parts of their significant, yet brief, interaction.
“I thought you hate men?”
The cutesy voice came from behind Erika as she whipped around; Lucy, the owner of the voice, and Hana were standing there.
“How long have you been watching?”
Lucy grinned mischievously.
“Hm? Is there something you didn’t want us to hear?”
“Actually, I would have rathered if you heard the entire conversation-”
“He was acting odd.”
Hana interjected, her young voice carrying a seriousness that wouldn’t normally be associated with girls her age.
Lucy, realizing Erika had no reason to get flustered, pouted in disappointment over the fact nothing happened.
Erika ignored this and nodded at Hana’s observation before continuing.
“He’s searching for a serial killer, which is what I’m assuming we’re here for?”
Hana nodded.
“It’s a mutant targeting normals. We need to take care of this before the chosen get in contact with them.”
Lucy huffed in a taunting fashion when she heard the chosen mentioned.
“Ugh, it’s such a stupid name. How can you even say it with a straight face?”
“Erika, we’re following that man. Even if he isn’t the one we’re looking for, he’ll be targeted by the serial killer if he sticks to his pattern of killing.”
Hana stated this, ignoring Lucy, who seemed to get more dejected at the lack of attention.
Erika nodded at the statement, but was still uncertain about something, so she asked.
“Why was I kept on standby here in the first place?”
“...Did Lucy tell you nothing?”
Both turned to the purple haired girl, who was crouching down and staring at a shriveled up leaf twirling dangerously near the edge of a gutter.
Hearing her name called, she waved her hand around dismissively.
“I thought she already knew.”
“So you got lazy, in other words.”
At Erika’s sharp remark, Lucy turned to her with a careless expression.
“I just don’t want to waste time doing pointless things.”
“You’re staring at a dead leaf.”
“I got lazy.”
Hana shook her head at Lucy’s lack of passion.
“Anyways, shouldn’t we hurry up before Phoenix gets too far away for us to track?”
“Phoenix? Is that what the man you were talking to was called?”
Nodding her head, Erika started walking off in the direction of the alley she saw him turn into.
Hana followed right behind her, and Lucy trailed behind, disinterested.
The alley was empty, but this didn’t make the group panic.
Erika looked up at the sides of the buildings before finding an escape ladder near the roof.
“I’ll teleport onto the ladder and make sure Birdy isn’t in our area.”
“Please do.”
Erika was a mutant, if you hadn’t already figured out.
Her power was the ability to materialize anywhere, so long as there wasn’t a solid object already there.
Using this power, she did as she said she would and appeared on the ladder near the roof, not a second later.
Climbing up to the roof, she looked around for Birdy, the Networker who was usually around this area, to make sure it was safe to materialize the rest of her companions onto the roof.
When she found that this was the case, she teleported back to where Hana and Lucy were and grabbed onto them, teleporting them with her onto the roof.
Lucy ran off to the edge of the roof and jumped to the other building, an abundance of energy appearing out of nowhere from the girl who was lazily walking just a few moments ago.
This sudden change didn’t remain unnoticed by the two who followed after her.
“Lucy?”
Erika was immediately silenced by the excitement on the face of Lucy, who looked off into the distance.
“What’s this, what’s this? Something’s causing the air to react in a way I’ve never seen before!”
After saying those words excitedly, Lucy ran off to the next building, with Hana giving a knowing smile at the actions.
“Erika, teleport us to keep up with Lucy! Whatever’s caught her attention must have something to do with the mutant we’re hunting down!”
“Right!”
Acknowledging the order given to her by the much younger leader, Erika did as she was told and they followed Lucy to the source of the reaction she was witnessing.
* * * * * *
Gregory, after watching Birdy go off along her way on the roof, went down to the street level and began hunting for that day.
The main reason he always stayed up there was so that she wouldn’t catch him in the act of killing, and now that she had passed him by, he could freely do what he wanted.
But there was something odd that happened this time when he entered the alley.
He was being followed.
The idea wasn’t something completely unexpected, since a singular man entering an alley would draw attention.
As a matter of fact, it was what he wanted.
If someone curious followed him, then he could kill them right then and there when he was satisfied there was no one else.
He turned around to meet the unfortunate soul who decided to follow him.
* * * * * *
Phoenix (Laurence) had seen the blond haired man walk into the alley all by himself, and immediately found it suspicious.
There was always the possibility that he had simply no idea of what was going on in the central district, but he found that less than likely.
Even though the two girls he heard about may have been a good lead as well, he had no idea where they were, so he decided to follow the man in front of him instead.
After giving a small farewell to Erika, he ran off after him and found that he was still in his line of sight as he entered the alley.
Thankful for this, he trailed behind, careful not to let on about his presence.
...But if he isn’t the killer, than I must be way too suspicious.
At this sudden realization, Phoenix decided it would have been better to simply call out to the man and warn him; if he wasn’t the killer, then at least he wouldn’t be treated like one, and even if he was, then he would most likely try to kill Phoenix.
Calling out to him was a better plan, but Phoenix scrapped that idea as another person came into his field of view, coming out from another alley and also following the man, albeit closer than himself.
What the hell is she doing here!?
He knew who it was, even though he hadn’t seen her for a month, and decided to follow even farther behind, curious as to why she was there in the first place.
* * * * * *
“...Birdy?”
Gregory was stunned for a moment; the networker had been following him, despite the fact that he was sure he saw her go off into the distance.
“You know, I always wondered why you were up on that roof… could you have been waiting for me to pass by?”
Birdy’s question was more rhetorical, as Gregory looked down in silence.
She had figured everything out, although it wasn’t that hard; she had been in central for a while, so why hadn’t she seen the killer after all this time?
It was simple; he was always aware of when she was looking the other way.
There was nothing else that Gregory needed to hear from her; he needed to kill her now.
But he felt compelled to ask a question first.
“...Why didn’t you watch me from the roof? Why follow me so closely?”
She should’ve known the dangers of being caught by Gregory, especially since he couldn’t afford anyone knowing he was was the serial killer.
Her actions were not those of a cautious person; it was as if she were asking to die.
“Oh… so you want to die then.”
“Huh?”
Barely giving Birdy the time to answer the question, Gregory formed an answer in his own mind, his lips curling into a grin as he lifted his finger and pointed it at Birdy.
If Gregory had been thinking rationally, he would have waited for Birdy to answer, but the truth of the matter was that he didn’t care.
All he cared about was killing normals.
There was nothing left for him to do in this world, except killing normals.
That, and, he wanted to get past his irrational feelings of attraction towards her.
With this thought in mind, he aimed for Birdy’s heart and-
* * * * * *
“Hold it!”
Phoenix called out to the two as he walked out of the alley behind Birdy, which he had been watching on from.
Phoenix didn’t know why Gregory was pointing at Birdy like that, but he didn’t think anything good of it, so he decided to intervene.
He had taken out a brace and put it on his left arm, but he kept the rest of the braces in the bag and used it cover up the glow it started producing from being worn.
He also put his scarf around his mouth, so as to hide his identity even further, considering Birdy had seen his face before.
Birdy became immediately uneasy upon realizing she was trapped between two people, and Gregory’s gaze moved to Phoenix without moving his finger away from Birdy’s direction.
“Just who in the hell are you?”
Gregory asked this in an irritated tone and Phoenix just smiled in response.
“Phoenix, part-time superhero, at your service.”
“...”
“...”
Both Gregory and Birdy looked at Phoenix with a blank expression, as though they were pitying an abandoned puppy.
“What? Don’t believe me? That’s fine. I’d have the same reaction if I were in your guy's position as well. Although I do have to ask; sir, are you the serial killer I’ve-”
Gregory pointed at Phoenix and a bolt of light shot out, making Birdy jump back in surprise.
Phoenix sidestepped and threw out some blue flame in the path of the light to see if it would block it, and he found this to be the case as the light was stopped by his flames.
The light was shaped like a small sliver and it dispersed a moment later, only to have fragments larger than the light shoot itself out from the other side of the flame.
“...I’ll take that as a yes.”
Phoenix’s expression darkened for a moment upon realizing that the way the light attacked would have matched up with the way the victims of the serial killer died.
Meanwhile, Birdy was staring bug-eyed at the spectacle happening before her and Gregory had a look of surprise wash over his face.
“Another mutant?”
In response, Phoenix took out the rest of the braces and latched them on with help from the flame, his dark expression from earlier fading, but the grim seriousness remaining.
“Why have you been going around with these pointless killing?”
Gregory’s surprise disappeared, replaced with confusion.
“Why…? Isn’t it obvious?”
“No, it’s not.”
“The normals have been constantly slaughtering our kind without so much as a reason why, and yet you are acting like this isn’t reason enough?”
“But you had a normal brother, didn’t you?”
Gregory’s eyes widened and his voice shook as he asked a question.
“How… did you know?”
Phoenix looked somber upon realizing the man had a right to know the truth, despite how poorly it might turn out.
But if people knew that Phoenix had killed someone, then that would defeat the purpose of creating a symbol of everything morally right.
That’s why he lied.
“You helped him kill a couple parents around eleven years ago, didn’t you? Those were the parents of my friend, who was attacked by a normal person at her home.”
“You.... you know the bitch who killed my brother!?”
Phoenix bit his tongue at the insult and shook his head.
“She’s already dead. But-”
“You’re lying!”
Gregory, enraged, refused to listen to Phoenix, who, ironically enough, was lying, just not in the way Gregory thought he was.
“I am not.”
Ignoring this, Gregory shot out another couple of flashes of light at Phoenix, who set up a wall of blue flame around him.
Once the light was embedded inside his flame, Phoenix positioned the flame so that they would shoot out behind him, thus leaving him uninjured.
He won’t listen to me… Doesn’t he realize that killing normals is hypocritical, if his brother was one as well?
To make matter worse, Birdy was in between the two at the moment.
Phoenix realized that he should have prioritized her safety first, since she couldn’t protect herself, and looked around for her while diverting a few more rays of light.
She had somehow made her way onto a nearby emergency ladder, despite it being a good distance off the ground, and was looking on.
Why isn’t she escaping!?
Her show of surprise had vanished and she was intent on staying where she was, seemingly invested in what was happening.
Phoenix couldn’t imagine what possible reason she could have for staying there, but he was glad that Gregory’s attention was on him at the moment; it meant that Birdy wasn’t in any immediate danger.
“Bastard, what’s with that flame!?”
Gregory, who was already enraged upon hearing that Phoenix knew who killed his brother, continued throwing darts of light which were consequently rendered useless by Phoenix’s flame.
“If you want to talk, then at least stop trying to kill me! Besides, even if the person who killed your brother was alive, what would you do after they were dead? Would that bring your brother back?”
“Shut up! Just shut the hell up!”
As he yelled this, Gregory unleashed numerous darts of light seemingly no different from the others, but they broke off into fragments early before moving into Phoenix’s flame.
What was strange about the fragments was that they cut clean through the blue fire rather than embed themselves inside it.
“!”
Throwing out whatever fire he could muster at the time, Phoenix threw all of it beneath himself and launched himself up into the air, barely reacting to the attack.
While he was focused on putting the danger away from himself, Phoenix didn’t notice that Gregory launched another barrage right in front of him the moment he launched off the ground.
“Look out!”
At Birdy’s warning, Phoenix quickly produced more flame to take the incoming attack, this time throwing it out to make sure the attack hit the wall of fire before they fragmented.
To his slight relief, he found that they embedded themselves in the flame and he quickly turned them towards the walls before the slivers split off.
As they did, however, not only did they cut through the flame, but they also cut clean through the wall as if it were air.
Putting aside the scary thought of what would’ve happened if any of the darts or fragments happened to hit himself, Phoenix quickly realized that person who warned him was now in peril.
Because she had warned Phoenix, Gregory was now staring at Birdy with cold eyes.
Birdy seemed to stiffen up when she realized she was the one in danger now, but the moment Gregory took a shot at her, she managed to scramble off the ladder and landed less than gracefully on the hard ground.
Phoenix took this moment to run up in anticipation of Gregory’s attack and threw out the flame to protect Birdy, blocking off what would’ve been a fatal array of light darts and aiming them at the wall.
When he did aim them at the wall, he made sure to do so in a circular pattern, getting an idea.
After they cut through the wall, Phoenix used his flame to plow through the weakened structure of the wall and created an opening big enough for a person to go through.
Without thinking twice, he picked up Birdy-
“Wh-what are you-!?”
“Sorry!”
-and just before the next assault from Gregory arrived, threw her inside the hole, seeing that there was a slight drop to the floor, but not a big enough deal to cause serious injury.
“Assho- OW!”
He could hear Birdy curse at him as he pushed onwards towards Gregory, who had thrown out even more darts, but they were already intercepted by Phoenix’s flame and he threw them all around Gregory.
At the crumbling brick around him, Gregory panicked at the realization that Phoenix could turn his power against him.
“Don’t shoot!”
Phoenix shouted out this warning, realizing that Gregory was now hesitating to use his powers upon the realization of what Phoenix could do with it.
In response, Gregory did exactly that and didn’t shoot, but only as he turned to run away.
Phoenix didn’t let this chance slide and pushed off the ground with the flame to gain momentum, nearly upon the already close blond-haired mutant.
As soon as he was close enough, he threw out the blue fire and made it surround the unsuspecting Gregory, who was almost immediately tripped up as his legs and arms were bound and he fell to the ground.
“Dammit all! What the hell do you even want from me!?”
Struggling pointlessly in the friendly fire, Gregory didn’t bother using his powers while his hands were at his sides, fearing he would accidentally shoot his power into himself rather than at his bindings.
Phoenix, taking a deep breath upon realizing it was over, crouched down in front of Gregory’s face and looked him in the eyes.
“Well, I want you to stop killing people, for one.”
Gregory stopped his struggling and spat in the face of Phoenix.
“As if I’d listen to a friend of my brother’s killer!”
Looking slightly disgusted, Phoenix wiped the spit off his face and distanced himself slightly to avoid any such assault from happening again.
“You’re being a hypocrite.”
“What did you say!?”
Sighing, Phoenix looked at Gregory with a sad expression.
“You’re killing all of these normal people for revenge, right? But your brother was a normal too, so-”
“Don’t you dare compare that trash to my brother! They go around hunting us down without ever trying to understand a damn thing about us, yet they’ll go back to killing each other in the next moment! If their going to be like that, then I might as well speed up the process!”
“Not everyone was responsible for your brothers death.”
“It wasn’t just him! They killed my mother too, simply because she was a mutant!”
Phoenix didn’t know about Gregory’s mother, but he didn’t react with surprise at this information, calmly responding to his hatred.
“How many people have you killed, simply because they were normals?”
“...What?”
“Don’t you get it? You’ve become the one thing you despised the most. You’re doing to normals what the normals did to you, so then what? What’ll happen when someone comes seeking revenge because you killed someone close to them?”
“It’s only fair that I do the same thing to them! Why should I have to sit back and wait for them to kill me because of what I am!?”
“I’m not saying that you should let them kill you. If you can live, then do whatever it takes to live. But, even if your mother was killed by normal people for being a mutant, that’s not a reason to kill them.”
“How isn’t that a reason!?”
“Because all that accomplishes is more death. It doesn’t bring them back, it doesn’t make the pain go away, and it doesn’t make anyone happy. ...No, perhaps there is one other thing it accomplishes… By killing more people, you’re simply easing the pain of losing someone important to you. You’re only running away from the fa-”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Gregory spewed hatred in his words, no longer willing to listen to whatever Phoenix had to say.
Phoenix jumped up at the sudden exclamation, and scratched his head in disappointment.
Yeah, I knew it wouldn’t be that easy…
Then, Phoenix noticed Birdy approaching, from down the alley, looking a little more than upset at Phoenix for throwing her into the basement of the building with the broken wall.
“I did say I was sorry…”
Birdy ignored Phoenix and crouched next to the enraged Gregory.
“My sister is a mutant as well.”
At Birdy’s words, Phoenix looked at her with surprise and Gregory stopped thrashing about and twisted his head to try and look at her.
“Is… that true?”
Gregory could barely speak the words, his mind forgetting about the hatred in his heart for a moment.
Birdy nodded.
“You wanted to know the reason why I followed you down here, rather than up on the roofs? It’s because I also wanted to request… that you stopped killing people for revenge as well.”
Gregory realized he was staring into her pretty green eyes, then snapped out of it before looking away, not willing to be swayed because of his feelings.
“Y-you’re lying, you’re not related to anyone like that.”
“Did you really think that there were no other mutants that were related to normal people?”
“...E-even so, why would you go so far as to risk your own life to talk to me?”
“Well, probably for the same reason as that idiot right there.”
Phoenix shrugged at the jab as Birdy continued.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. If it’s wrong to kill people for being a mutant, then it doesn’t mean it’s right to kill people simply because they’re normal. That’s it, really.”
Gregory, the man who, until just recently, tried to kill Phoenix and Birdy, was hanging on every word the Networker was speaking to him.
There were a number of reasons for why he calmed down so quickly, but the biggest one he wouldn’t admit to himself was because he had fallen for her, despite his disdain for normal people.
It was a silly reason, especially since he barely knew her, but it wasn’t exactly like he understood his own feelings.
Even so, it was too sudden for him to change.
“I can’t… just change because you tell me to.”
Birdy nodded her head, despite Gregory’s head being turned away, expecting that response.
“I know, which is why you should meet with my sister.”
“...Why?”
“Her power allows her to speak with the dead.”
Phoenix perked up.
“Seriously?”
Birdy nodded then looked back at Gregory.
“Naturally, I don’t expect you to believe me that easily. But, if she says things that only your mother or brother would know about, then would you believe it?”
“I…”
Birdy took out a piece of folded paper she had already prepared before hand and displayed it in her hand before looking at Phoenix.
“Can you release him?”
Phoenix looked at Gregory; he no longer had any malice in his expression, despite mere moments ago.
He wondered why the man was able to change so suddenly, but he saw no reason to keep him bound and dispersed the flames around Gregory’s body.
Once he was free, Gregory sat up and came face to face with the folded piece of paper, held out by Birdy for him to take, which he cautiously did.
Opening it up, he saw an address written down on it.
“I can’t force you to come with me, so it’s up to you whether or not you want to come. If you do, however, then you’ll be able to talk to your family… and then you can decide whether you really want to continue this senseless killing or not.”
Gregory looked down at the paper for another second before clenching it and putting it inside his pocket.
“...I still need to kill people for valuables.”
“That’s fine, but only if it’s to survive.”
Birdy stated this and Gregory bit his lip; he couldn’t understand these two acting like this, even if they explained their actions.
The city was full of selfish and terrible people, but he had met a delusional person that went out of his way to stop the killings because they were ‘wrong’, and a woman who couldn’t help but reach out to someone that was the same race as her sister, even if they were a serial killer.
“...Honestly, what the hell are we all doing here?”
He asked that question not just to Phoenix and Birdy, but himself.
He lost all interest in killing others for the sake of revenge so easily, as if it had been one big joke to him.
It wasn’t.
He seriously wanted to kill all the normals.
But now he seriously wanted to believe in what Birdy was telling him.
If it turned out to be a lie, then he could simply start killing people again… that was what he thought.
So it didn’t matter if he stopped killing for now.
Gregory stood up and walked past Phoenix before saying something to Birdy.
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I’m asking for.”
With that remark from Birdy, Gregory continued walking down the alley without turning back.
* * * * * *
Birdy stretched her arms out as she yawned, tired from what had just happened despite how short the exchange was.
“Hm~ Maybe I should call it a day early.”
“...You’ve changed.”
At Phoenix’s remark, Birdy turned around to face him, tilting her head to the side in confusion.
“Have we met somewhere before?”
“No, but someone I knew described you differently than how you’re acting right now… unless they were lying to me.”
Phoenix gave a frown, keeping up his act; the person he was referring to was himself, as Birdy had helped him track down Bug one month earlier for the sake of revenge.
“How did this person describe me?”
“Ah… He said you helped him track down someone for his revenge, but just now you were trying to talk someone out of killing for revenge…”
“That’s not a description…”
“Uh… He did say something about you being uncomfortable when he went overboard and kept hitting a dead person with his bat-”
“Laurence!? You’re talking about Laurence, right? Do you know if he’s still alive?”
“Y-yeah, although I haven’t seen him for a while.”
Birdy sighed, seemingly relieved at this information, before answering Phoenix.
“Well… I guess you could say I changed because of him.”
“Oh, is that so…”
Birdy didn’t elaborate any further than that, however and studied Phoenix’s face, causing him to back off.
“Uh, what is it?”
“Hey… are you sure we’ve never met before? I can’t tell when you’re covering your face like that.”
Phoenix then realized that his questions must have made her suspicious of his identity.
Birdy was sharp enough to be a networker, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that she would have her doubts.
But, before he could deny her, she just shook her head dismissively.
“Well, not like it matters. I guess you’re just hiding your face in case people see you using you powers.”
“...”
“So what's with this ‘part-time hero’ gimmick? Do you actually think you’re a defender of justice or something?”
“Well yeah… That’s what I’d like to be.”
“...Hmm.”
Birdy was suspiciously eyeing up Phoenix again, although for an entirely different reason than before.
Phoenix, on the other hand, wanted to leave as soon as possible, in case she figured out who he was.
“I think I should go now… it doesn’t seem like that guy will try anything else for now, so I don’t need to be here.”
Birdy didn’t respond to Phoenix’s words, even as he started walking away.
“Don’t die… Laurence.”
Phoenix thought he had heard Birdy mention something in a small voice, but when he turned around, the networker was already gone.
* * * * * *
Gregory was all by himself.
He looked up at the sky, blue and bright, in the narrow space between the buildings, and sighed deeply.
When was the last time he was alone with such conflict inside of him, he thought.
Everything was so simple just a few moments ago.
But, with one tiny piece of paper in his pocket, things became more complicated.
Did he go?
Did he ignore the invitation?
He already knew which choice he would make, but something was stopping him from reading the address written on that piece of paper.
It was a certain sense of fear, knowing that if he chose that path, he would have to accept that what he did was wrong.
Gregory was not a strong person, despite his bulky build.
All he did was kill people in secluded areas, simply because he couldn’t face that fact that his family wouldn’t come back, no matter what he did.
So for him to go see Birdy’s sister meant that he had to stop running away from it all.
Could he do it?
The fact that he so easily changed his mind also planted doubts in his head; did he really want to kill people in the first place?
Come to think of it, why did people kill one another in this world?
It was such an obvious question, and yet he never stopped to wonder why.
Everyone killed each other for valuables; Okay, so why was that the case?
What made everyone start killing in the first place, rather than work together?
But no matter how hard Gregory thought about it, his head started to ache.
He wasn’t there when the world became what it was, so he couldn’t know what started this cycle of death and hatred.
But, even if he didn’t have the answer for that question, thinking about it gave him a certain courage to face his current problem.
He had just thought of it himself; a cycle of death and hatred.
The moments those words popped up into his head, he was prepared.
He took out the piece of paper and was about to unfold it before a voice spoke to him from behind.
“Face your judgement.”
The words came from a young woman, but he didn’t see their face.
What he did see, and feel, was a sharp, piercing pain go through his chest.
From behind, a long blade had stabbed through his back and was sticking out through the front, his blood already running down the tip of the weapon.
He felt amused, despite the fact that he was about to die.
Because, in the very moment he decided to face his guilt and do the right thing, someone decided to take justice in their own hands and end the man's life for what he had done.
Why else would they say, ‘Face your judgement’?
As the blade was pulled out from him and he collapsed to his knees, the note he just took out fell to the ground and dropped in the forming pool of blood.
“Ah…”
The note.
He needed to hide to note.
Whoever lived there had nothing to do with him or his crimes.
If this person killed him out of revenge, who was to say they wouldn’t destroy anything that was related to him?
He knew all too well; he wanted to destroy something as impossible as the entire city, after all.
Those feeling of revenge didn’t end with the lives.
If you could get away with it, you would destroy anything you possibly could that was tied to the person you wanted revenge on.
So, if they had mistakenly thought that the address was somewhere important to him, who's to say that they wouldn’t go there and destroy the place, or, even worse, kill the people living there?
Gregory put his right hand on the paper to cover its presence, and tried to soak it in blood to hide it’s existence.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three...
He could feel his strength leaving him, his eyes becoming tired as the life drained from his body.
Lifting his hand, he saw that the paper was stained, but the pool of blood was becoming large enough.
This was good.
Soon, it would be too hard to tell there was even a piece of paper there.
But he felt that, if they were going to search his body, they would search the area around him.
He crawled in the opposite direction, towards his killer and looked up.
There, he saw three girls he had never seen before.
His killer, the tallest of the three, had short blue hair and was carrying a sword, dripping with blood.
He needed them to pay attention to him, not the pool of blood, so he crawled towards them.
Slowly…
Surely…
He felt as if the world was getting farther away, and he reached out towards them, as if they would help pull him away.
But, as everything faded to nothingness, he had a thought.
This… is good enough…
...I’m sorry… for… everything…
. . . . . .
* * * * * *
Erika stood down at the man she had just stabbed, his eyes looking far off into the distance as all motion left his body.
She knew that this was for the best, but something about this particular job left her feeling… off.
“Erika, are you alright?”
Lucy, already noticing the emotional change in Erika, called out to her as she walked over to the dead body.
“Yes. It’s nothing.”
Erika wiped off the blood with a towel Hana had taken out of from underneath her cloak and watched as the pure white cloth became embroidered with a dark red, random pattern from soaking up the blood.
As Erika sheathed her blade, Lucy spoke up again.
“Hm, I wonder? The reaction in your brain and body hasn’t left yet.”
Erika looked silently at the handle of her sheathed sword.
Lucy had the ability to know ‘cause and effect’, as well as ‘substance’.
This was a really broad and informative power, that let her to observe any changes in any matter, whether inorganic or organic, as well as knew what happened to make it that way.
On top of that, whatever she observed, she immediately knew what it was made of, down to the last particle.
Thus, Lucy could observe the way Erika’s mind became stressed, as well as the cause of it.
“Does this have anything to do with that ‘Phoenix’ person?”
Lucy followed up, this time, with a legitimate question.
While she was aware of a change of Erika’s emotional and mental state, she couldn’t determine what caused it.
This was because the ‘cause’ in her ‘cause and effect’ power was limited to changes within whatever she was observing.
In simpler terms, she knew what caused Erika to feel uneasy, scientifically speaking, but she had no clue what the external stimulus was.
Erika was thinking about something that had happened, and that's what ‘cause’d her to feel the ‘effect’s of a change in her body.
...Ugh, her power is just as annoying to describe as mine.
Whoops, I’m breaking the fourth wall again.
Anyways, Erika sighed at Lucy’s astute observation and nodded her head.
“I can’t deny that…”
Erika and the other two had caught up to the source of what was making the air react earlier; it had been the blue fire produced by Phoenix’s braces.
During that time, Lucy claimed that she couldn’t determine the components of the flame; a first for her powers.
Since she could determine what something was made of simply by looking at it, it was a shock for the group to find something that broke the rules of her power.
But what bothered Erika wasn’t that, but rather the actions they took after Phoenix and Birdy went to painstaking measures to stop Gregory from killing anyone else.
They followed after Gregory, and, on Hana’s order… Erika killed him.
“It couldn’t be helped. He was a danger to people.”
Hana stated this firmly, but Erika shook her head in disagreement.
“B-but…”
“Enough. We couldn’t take the chance that he was simply playing along with them because he was in a bad position. Not only that, but what’s done is done.”
Even though it was Erika who killed Gregory, she still didn’t feel right about the action.
Hana was the leader of the group, despite being only nine years old, and she did make the decision for her.
Erika tried arguing with her, saying that he might not kill anymore people after this, and Hana agreed, but not in the same way.
A dead man can kill no longer.
Hana was right to think that; such a dangerous person couldn’t possibly continue his deeds if he was dead.
Erika decided to believe in that argument in the heat of the moment, but as she saw Gregory’s final moments, she couldn’t help but feel as though it were a mistake.
What’s done is done…
Hana’s words ran throughout Erika’s head again and she nodded.
Even if it was wrong, she couldn’t change it.
The only thing she could do was learn from this, and perhaps learn to speak what's on her mind more.
Besides that, she knew that Hana was much wiser than her, despite the age difference.
Who was to say that she didn’t already weigh the option of letting him live between killing him?
At that thought, Erika’s worries faded away.
She trusted Hana’s judgement.
“You’re right.”
Erika stated this and looked at Lucy, who had pulled out a bloodied piece of paper from the pool of blood.
“Hmm… No good, I can’t read it.”
Lucy muttered this as she threw the paper back into the blood, walking back towards the other two.
“...I might have to talk to this ‘Phoenix’ sometime.”
Hana mentioned this nonchalantly and Erika stared at her with a bewildered expression.
Upon noticing this, Hana frowned.
“You don’t have to come if it bothers you, but I recall it being fine earlier.”
“Ah, well…”
Erika scratched her cheek sheepishly.
“It has been a long time since then, so I might be fine around guys now.”
At the brief mention of her trauma, Erika felt a shiver run down her spine, but she didn’t feel as strongly about her past as before, as though it had numbed with the time.
“But you were freaking out about a month ago- OW!”
Erika pinched Lucy’s cheeks as hard as she could.
The event she was referring to was a time when Erika tried helping the two in gathering information, only to break down crying when a man approached her.
They found her crumpled on the ground, a sniveling mess.
“Don’t you ever mention that again! I seriously thought I was going to die!”
“Still, Lucy has a point. I wonder what could’ve made you change in such a short timeframe?”
Hana pondered, but Erika, desperate to change the subject, backtracked.
“You said you wanted to talk to Phoenix?”
“Ah, yes. It seems as if he shares the similar opinion that ‘evil’ should not be tolerated, and yet he allowed that man to escape. While I respect his ability to act without hatred, he’s naive if he thinks the problem will solve itself by letting ‘evil’ people live.”
Erika kept her mouth shut before she could say, ‘but we just saw him solve the problem’.
After all, Hana didn’t kill the man without just cause; there was never any guarantee he would have stopped killing others, like she said.
“We may be able to convince him to join our cause, since we’re pretty similar.”
“I see…”
“Wait! If he joins, what will we call ourselves then!?”
Lucy became passionate all of a sudden, referring to the official title of the trio.
Thier group was named Valkyries.
Hana, the leader, also came up with this name as she formed the group, even though she didn’t know much about its meaning.
What she did know was that it had something to do with females, so adding a male would force them to change the name.
“It doesn’t matter; as long as we’re able to eliminate evil, a simple name change is nothing.”
“But, it’s like saying goodbye to a friend before they go on a long journey, then finding out they died at the exact moment they started their journey! Isn’t that too tragic!?”
Erika stared at Lucy in exasperation, despite the fact that she wasn’t talking to her.
Lucy was always a bit… strange, to say the least.
Hana seemed to consider the topic for a moment.
“Hm… I guess the name does carry some weight because it’s what we’ve called ourselves for the longest time.”
“Doesn’t it, doesn’t it?”
“But this is for the sake of furthering our own goal, so bear with it.”
At Hana’s decision, Lucy’s shoulders sagged and an immense expression of disappointment came over her face.
“But… we can still call ourselves Valkyries until he joins, right? Not only that, but there's no guarantee he’ll work with us anyways.”
Erika mentioned the obvious; it was true that they were discussing things that weren’t set in stone yet, so there was no need to worry about the name change until later.
At these words, Lucy almost immediately perked up and Hana gave a nod.
“Indeed. We can’t force him to join, after all.”
“Oh, guess I’d better be on my worst behaviour when we meet him~”
Lucy was smiling childishly again, the prospect of keeping their group's name clearly her top priority.
“You’ll stay back at the base.”
As Hana said this, Erika couldn’t help but laugh at Lucy’s pouting; ever since she met Hana, her life was full of these tiny moments of happiness, even if they were only brief.
She didn’t take another look at the person she just killed, literally putting the event behind her as they walked out of the alley and back to their base.
* * * * * *
“-And that’s all that happened.”
Laurence explained the confrontation between himself and the serial killer, as well as Birdy’s involvement as well, to Thomas, who had been preparing some soup.
After Laurence finished retelling the events, Thomas switched off the portable stove and sighed.
“Is that it?”
“That’s it.”
“No drawn out action sequence?”
“Nope.”
“No crowd of people?”
“Unless you count Birdy.”
“Just you deflecting and dodging some deadly light thingies before running up and restraining him?”
“Yup.”
“...What the hell man?”
Thomas was irritated at how short and underwhelming the entire event had been, and Laurence sighed in agreement.
“Since you’ll probably find out, I’ll admit that I was disappointed too. But that’s reality for you; not everything is an epic battle that can span several issues of comics.”
“But for your debut to be so short and pointless-!”
“Now you're overexaggerating. What’s important is that the serial killer changed his ways and now it’s not such a far-fetched idea for him to become an ally. Not only that, but Birdy seems to be aware of how pointless the killing is, meaning she could be an ally too. None of this is bad.”
“I guess...”
“...You weren’t secretly wishing that he would go on a rampage, only for me to stop him in front of a crowd of people, were you?”
Thomas’s eyes lit up and he slammed the counter, shaking the pot and portable stove, as he became passionate.
“Well, isn’t that what a hero’s debut is all about!? It’s supposed to be a big spectacle that leave a huge impact on people!”
“But if the impact leaves them dead, is that something to be excited over?”
“Ugh…”
Losing all of the energy he just had, Thomas frowned.
“Reality sucks.”
Laurence had made his way behind the counter and started looking for something in the shelves underneath the counter as he responded to Thomas.
“As long as things get better around here, I don’t really care. ...Hey, where’d you put the bowls from last time?”
“Ah, I think I left them in the back.”
“Seriously? It’s been four days since the last time we used them...”
Making a small complaint, Laurence made his way past the curtain and into the back in search of the bowls.
After he found them, the two ate soup and read comics until they were too tired to stay awake.
Seemingly, it was as if nothing had changed at all that day.
However, in a city as big as this, not every change was noticeable at first.