{Observation 3:The month before the (fake) hero’s debut}
Okay, now it’s time for some loose ends to be filled!
I know that sounds like a silly thing to do so early on, but I don’t want to keep jumping around from one character perspective to another.
It would take too much of my already precious time; besides, everyone just wants to see whats next anyways, right?
Starting off, why was Yamada all alone in a room that was in a similar position to Laurence and Yuna’s home?
Answer; he wanted to remind himself of what he had done, as well as confront Laurence in a place that was fitting.
Simple enough really; it was all just preference.
Next question; if that was the case, then why didn’t he simply give Laurence the information of where he would be, rather than have Bug be threatened into giving it away?
Answer; he knew that Laurence wouldn’t take the information seriously unless it benefitted the person who gave it to him in some way.
In other words, Bug’s life was expendable to Yamada so he let Laurence get the info out of him.
Yamada still had no qualms with killing for benefit, but he could no longer kill for revenge, you see.
That’s why he could do something like that to Bug; because it was for his own benefit.
Another good one would be what Laurence asked Birdy to do before he stormed Bug’s home.
All he asked her was to stay out of the way when he got his hands on him; that's all.
There are a few more, but lets only answer one more question for now.
Why did Laurence suddenly blurt out that he would be a hero, despite the fact he was ready to kill himself?
Was he brainwashed?
Is he really able to get over his grief that quickly?
Is he just a really bland character whose only purpose is to progress the story?
...Well, while that last remark might be true, Laurence’s real reason for the sudden shift in attitude was because he was still suffering from the fever, despite not having a headache.
Thomas watched him fall flat on his face the moment he exclaimed what he would do, almost like a bad cartoon.
* * * * * *
After another day's rest, Laurence wasn't nearly as gung-ho about his idea to become a hero.
Thomas wasn’t having any of it, however.
Laurence had learned Thomas’s name yesterday as he was carried back to bed, although he needed to be reminded next day because of how fuzzy everything was from before he hit the floor.
Thomas also reminded Laurence of the declaration to become a hero, and he just shook his head.
“Ugh, I must’ve been really out of it to suggest such a thing.”
“What are you talking about!?”
Thomas grabbed onto Laurence’s shoulders when he shouted, surprising him.
“It was a brilliant idea! Becoming a hero so that people won’t be killed senselessly, all because of a tragic past… that’s exactly what a superhero story is about!”
Laurence was taken aback by Thomas enthusiasm, especially when he compared it to how the boy was treating him when they first met.
Even if he thought his mother was a fool, Thomas himself was just as foolish; a hero fanatic in an age where such fantasies would get you killed.
“I can’t be a hero.”
Laurence stated this again, but Thomas’s eyes burned with fierce determination.
“Of course you can! Don’t be afraid to embrace your inner hero!”
“No, I can’t.”
“Shut-up! You can’t just take back what you said-”
“-While I was delirious from a fever-”
“-You have to back up your word! Rule number seven of heroes; a hero always accomplishes what he says he will!”
Laurence gritted his teeth in anger, getting upset at Thomas, who continued to ignore him.
“Idiot! Listen to me loud and clear; it is impossible to be a hero right now!”
Thomas’s smile faded and he frowned, finally listening to Laurence.
“Why not?”
“Because there are too many things missing for that to even be possible! First off; I can’t save people with a baseball bat in my hand. Secondly; even if I stopped someone from killing another, they would just go and kill someone else. Lastly, and most importantly, the people have no way of living other than through killing right now.”
Laurence sighed as he sat on one of the folding chairs placed in the front of the store; they were having their argument amidst the thousands upon thousands of comic books surrounding them in the shelves.
“...It’s a nice thought, one that I’d like to believe in, but… I would just be killing people in the end if I take away their only way of living.”
“Oh…”
Thomas slunk back into his seat, dejected at this problem.
There was no way of earning valuables through decent work; the closest to doing so would be the producers, who supply the traders with stock, but that was it.
Not only that, but convincing the people to change how they lived would be a next to impossible task; through years of killing and distrusting others, it would be hard for them to open up to a more peaceful way of life.
“What if we made a new business?”
Thomas suggested, but Laurence shook his head.
“Did you even read my mind about how people wouldn’t be able to adjust?”
“...Umm, but surely seeing a hero might inspire some change?”
Thomas was desperate for some reason; Laurence assumed it was because he really wanted to see a hero, even if it was fake, in real life.
“That’s still doesn’t change the fact that I can’t save people as I am now.”
“...Actually, I might have something that can help with that.”
A surprising proclamation came from Thomas’s mouth and Laurence raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
“Can you wait here for a minute?”
Before Laurence could even give an answer, Thomas took off into the back of the store and came out almost as quickly as he left with a heavy looking wooden box.
That being said, the fact that he could lift it up with ease suggested it was lighter than it looked.
“What is it?”
Thomas gave a grin as he lifted the top of the box off; it appeared to have been opened before, but Laurence didn’t know when.
Peering inside, he could see four long, metal braces with square holes strewn throughout; it also appeared to have latches so that it would stay on whoever wore it.
“Go ahead and try it on!”
“Uh… sure?”
Laurence felt uncomfortable with how Thomas’s eyes seemed to be studying his expression as he took the metal braces out of the box.
Huh… they really aren’t that heavy, Laurence noted as he held them in his hands.
He fit the braces along his shins and forearms and latched them snuggly on each limb.
Before he could ask Thomas exactly why he was wearing such a thing, Laurence felt a warmth spread throughout the areas covered by the braces, and looked at them to see a faint, blue glow.
“What…?”
“Surprised?”
Thomas gleamed as he crossed his arms in pride.
“I thought that making something using parts of the meteors would give someone superpowers, so I went ahead and made these! ....Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure what they actually do, so I haven’t used them. But maybe you can figure it out?”
“...Hey thomas?”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you being so friendly towards me all of a sudden? I mean… I didn’t exactly give you a reason to trust me with these, and I’m pretty sure you said you hated me.”
“Huh? O-oh, well, I can read your mind, you know?”
Laurence narrowed his eyes in suspicion at that remark.
“You read it yesterday too, and despite knowing I would do nothing to you, you claimed you hated me.”
“Oops.”
“...Don’t tell me… the only reason you’re acting this way is because I said I’d become a hero?”
“W-well, you know?”
“No, I don’t know.”
Thomas fidgeted with his hands and gave a nervous laugh, trying to brush it off.
Laurence just shook his head and sighed, realizing Thomas didn’t really care about him, but about the idea of creating a hero.
“Well, that’s fine. If anything, I guess that just means I can trust you for now.”
Laurence didn’t really care about the reason; what’s important was whether or not Thomas was someone he could trust.
As long as he became a hero, or shared that common ground of looking up to heroes, Laurence felt like it would be fine.
“Still, aren’t these braces worthless as they are? Nothing's happening.”
Laurence tried shaking his limbs in different directions, but nothing happened; the braces still glowed blue and felt warm, but that was it.
“Maybe their power is the ability to give someone the power to glow in the dark?”
“You brat, I’ll seriously kill you if you gave me such a worthless superpower.”
Laurence took another look at the braces at his retort and found that the glow was originating from the square holes; which would normally show his skin, but was showing a kind of shimmering blue.
“Shimmering…”
Laurence pondered the word in his mind for a moment, as if it were something important, and thought of other lights that shimmered.
“...Fire?”
Thomas answered his thoughts, understanding that Laurence was looking for the answer to the power, but shook his head.
“I already thought of that, but nothing happened when I assumed it created fire. Besides, fire is red, not blue.”
“...Putting that aside for now, this wasn’t glowing until I started wearing it. It reacted to being worn, so maybe that’s a hint? Not only that, but it feels… warm.”
Now Laurence thought about the warmth the braces, trying to think of what it reminded him of.
The first thing that came to him, much to his chagrin, was how he felt when he was with Yuna.
He didn’t want to think about that and tried thinking of something else, but his mind wandered back to her smile and how she made him feel.
It was warm, comfortable, and safe.
Like a gentle fire that enveloped him softly.
“Woah!?”
Laurence’s eyes snapped open at Thomas’s exclamation, despite the fact that he never remembered closing them to begin with and saw an incredible sight.
“Blue… flame.”
Surrounding his body was fire, but not red fire that would burn the skin, but rather, a warm, safe, blue fire.
Laurence’s eyes widened in shock at the spectacle, and almost missed the fact that the flame was coming from the square holes in the braces.
Thomas was busy jumping up and down like a kangaroo, spinning in the air like an energetic kid his age should have acted.
“Holy crap! Cool, cool, cool, cool! I’m so glad I’m wrong about that fire thing, because fires, like, the coolest ability that superheroes can have, even though it’s supposed to be really dangerous, but they still don’t kill with it because they-”
Thomas rambling trailed off in Laurence’s head as he focused on the flame surrounding his body; it had answered his feelings towards Yuna, of all things.
Trying it out, he imagined the warmth moving over to his left side and it did so; all of the flames left his right side and hovered around his left.
“...It’s official; I’ve completely gone mad.”
Laurence said that not because of how impossible this situation was, but because he actually felt like he could do it now.
Become a hero, that is.
This time, however, he no longer had the excuse of a fever to pretend he hadn’t thought of it in his right mind.
“Hey Thomas.”
Thomas stopped bouncing around the place and stood at attention towards his newfound obsession; the creation of Laurence the hero.
“Yessir?”
“This still doesn’t change what I said earlier; it will be next to impossible to change how people act in the city. In fact, this might not even change anything at all, but...”
Laurence clenched his fist and the flame circled around it, as he imagined it.
“At the very least, this is pretty awesome.”
“Isn’t it, isn’t it!? What can you do with it!?”
“Huh, let’s see here…”
Laurence imagined the flames moving towards the soles of his feet and lifting him off the ground; likewise, the flames recreated what he had imagined and he was hovering above the floor.
“It looks like I can use it as a platform.”
Laurence stated this plainly, but Thomas was freaking out over the sight.
“You can fly!?”
“Probably.”
“‘Probably’!? Don’t you understand how important this is!? Flying is a key component of a superheroes tool kit! It’s like bread and butter! Not to mention how freaking cool it is!”
“Can you quit yelling? I’m starting to get a headache.”
“I was yelling?”
Laurence looked at the boy with exasperation as he nodded.
Thomas seemed to be a little embarrassed at this, but he still looked like he was ready to yell at a moments notice about how cool this or that was.
“...Thomas, can I ask you a personal question?”
“Huh? Uh, sure.”
“Why are you so obsessed with heros? I mean, considering how your mom died helping out someone else.”
Thomas’s excitement seemed to deflate from his body almost instantly, his mouth curving downwards into a frown.
He didn’t stall his answer for too long, however, perhaps already planning on talking about it sooner or later.
“...Well… These comics were all I had left when she was gone. I knew that they were nothing more than ‘nice ideas’, but… I dunno. Maybe I just wanted to believe that better things would happen… well, if I lived long enough, that is.”
“But you’re-”
“Yeah, yeah, I know I’m still young, but… that doesn’t mean anything here, does it?”
“...Point taken.”
Laurence had sat back down in the folding chair as he listened to Thomas, the blue flames dissipating in the air as he took his mind off of it.
Thomas let out an annoyed sigh, reminding Laurence of how the boy acted when they first met.
“Sheesh, I was in such a good mood too.”
“I know; you wouldn’t shut-up at all.”
“Thanks a bunch, insensitive asshole.”
Laurence unlatched the braces and the glow disappeared completely when they were removed.
It was at that moment that he thought of something.
“How weren’t you able to get these things working, anyways?”
“Well, how were you?”
“Weren’t you reading my mind?”
“Not at that point, no.”
“I thought about Yuna and… it just sort of happened.”
“Oh.”
A silence went over the room, and Thomas looked at the shelves of comics to the side, seemingly deep in thought.
Laurence shook his head and broke the silence.
“Don’t go quiet on me now. It’s a fact that I was thinking of her when it happened, so there’s nothing to feel awkward about.”
“Yeah… I guess.”
“The important part is that I can use these braces… although I’m still questioning why you made them in the first place.”
Thomas’s eyes sparkled and he declared with pride;
“Superheroes are always made through coincidence! Therefore, I went out of my way to do something completely random in hopes that it would lead to-”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.”
Laurence waved off Thomas’s raving before he got too into it, wanting to avoid listening to him ramble on again.
Thomas’s passion for superheroes was far more… extreme than Laurence expected.
Granted, he lived in an abandoned comic-book store, but it was rare to come across anyone who could be so happy talking about things that seemed so trivial and illogical.
In that regard, the boy reminded Laurence of Yuna.
Yuna would always be so cheerful around Laurence for the smallest reasons, but only when they were alone.
I guess it’s not that it’s rare, but just that very few people see others being happy in public. Laurence thought.
“Oh, by the way-”
Thomas walked past Laurence to the bookshelf behind him and ran his thumb along the volumes it contained, stopping after a few seconds and pulling out a comic.
He tossed the volume at Laurence, who let it fall to the floor.
Staring up at him was a steam-punk clad man with long, black hair; his entire being surrounded by orangey-red flames.
The title; Fireman NO.#1.
“Now that you can manipulate fire, it seems even more fitting for you to read that.”
* * * * * *
A week passed since Laurence started free-loading at Thomas’s place.
Thomas, while more than happy to contribute ideas when it came to creating a hero, also hunted to sustain the two.
Laurence didn’t complain, knowing that they would die if such actions weren’t taken.
That didn’t mean he was alright with it, it just meant that he understood how pointless it would be to complain about something without providing an alternative solution first.
If anything, he felt more upset that more hunting had to be done since Thomas was providing for him as well.
He didn’t doubt the young boy’s capabilities however; he trusted them, and that was the issue.
Effectively, it mean that he had to kill for the both of them; not just himself.
Still, he kept that discomfort and turned it into resolve to find the solution he was looking for.
He also needed to work hard for the both of them; to make their delusional fantasy come to fruition.
* * * * * *
Two weeks passed and Laurence had gotten used to using the braces.
Testing them in various ways without damaging the interior of the store, he found he could simply lift himself up using the flame rather than stepping on it.
It was a ‘friendly’ flame, so to speak; it never burned anything, or spread anywhere.
This meant that it couldn’t have been used to harm people the normal way, which was good considering Laurence had no desire to do anything to put anyone's life in danger.
Still, it needed to be forceful to some degree, or he couldn’t use it to subdue others who meant ill-will.
Thomas was more than willing to be his test subject for testing its combat capabilities.
Moving to a building they thought was abandoned, then searching it thoroughly to make sure this was the case, Laurence and Thomas were prepared to do more extensive tests of the braces strengths, now that Laurence could properly control it.
They moved to the basement hall, since it was cooler down there and it was hot outside.
Standing at opposing ends, Laurence faced down Thomas, who held a broom handle they screwed off from the broom back at the store.
“Ready?”
“Yeah, come at me.”
At Laurence’s nod, Thomas ran with the handle up high, aiming to hit Laurence on the forehead with it.
Laurence stood still and threw the flame at Thomas’s head; knocking him back rather easily.
“Wha-!?”
Landing on his butt, Thomas frowned at the irritating impact.
Then, his frown turned into an angry expression.
“What the hell was that!?”
“My victory.”
“No, No, No! Where was the flashy movement!? The pose!? The dialogue about what's good and right-”
“Ah, shut-it! This is only practice to see what I can do to stop people without harming them. Besides, why do I need to do all that embarrassing stuff in the first place?”
“Do you think people will be drawn to someone who doesn’t capture their hearts and imaginations?”
“...Ugh.”
At Thomas’s surprisingly good point, Laurence flinched.
I’ve gotten up to when Fireman fought Dee-sparido and the Raving Reapers so I’m well acquainted with those silly antics, but… Do I seriously have to do them?
Laurence shivered at the thought of himself saying such naive and childish things for all to see; his head shaking in denial.
“There's no way I can simply do that all of a sudden…”
“Huh, what’re you talking about?”
Thomas asked like he was seriously confused, making Laurence raise an eyebrow.
“You were excited when you read those parts in the comics.”
“Wha- No I wasn’t!”
“I can read your mind; give it up.”
“...Okay, but I’m still not doing it.”
Thomas sighed at Laurence’s steadfast refusal; he knew that it was very well his own desire to see such clichéd actions done by Laurence, but it still didn’t feel right to have Laurence simply show up, solve everything, then disappear without saying a word.
“So then do you just save people without telling anyone anything?”
“Well…”
“You’re the one who thought that a hero would make things better because they represent something that people can follow by example. And don’t even think of using the fever from earlier as an excuse; you thought of that after getting over it too.”
“...I’m starting to realize just what a pain your power is.”
Laurence let out a sigh of his own; it seemed like both himself and Thomas had been sighing a lot as of late.
As long as Laurence was around, Thomas could witness his dream come to life.
As long as Thomas was around, Laurence couldn’t claim things contrary to his thoughts.
Despite how irritated they were with one another, they knew they could help each other out.
“Whatever. It’s not like a supervillain will pop up out of nowhere for me to beat, so that kind of practice is pointless.”
Laurence stated this while shrugging.
* * * * * *
Did someone say supervillain?
...Well, I suppose a transition into an abandoned building near the center of town beside the crossing streets would be appropriate, wouldn’t you say?
It just so happened that someone that convenient was plotting something at that time, although they weren’t exactly ‘evil’.
They were simply filled with hatred and rage.
It’s the thoughts, not the person that was evil; as were most people living in the city.
On the roof, lying on his back with a scowl was a blond haired man; his arm covered his eyes from the sun overhead.
He was in his mind, thinking about how much it would be nice if the tall buildings he so loved to look from became nothing but rubble.
If the people were nothing but splattered messes of guts and shattered bones.
If this city was completely destroyed.
Such irrational and simple-minded thoughts were in the man’s head, although there was a reason for him to have such basic, seemingly crazed thoughts.
He was a mutant.
The normals killed his only family.
It was simple really; he didn’t have anyone left that he cared about, so why should he care about the rest of their lives?
This is why nothing would hold him back from his plans.
Moving his arm to the side, wiping the sweat of his forehead, he sat up and noticed a girl approaching from the rooftops.
She moved gracefully, almost unnaturally so, and leaped across the gaps between buildings with general ease before stopping before the man.
“Birdy.”
The man said her name as a greeting; nothing fancy when it came to her, since they didn’t exactly know each other.
Birdy seemed exasperated, in contrast to her fluid, fast movements earlier, but didn’t take a moment to catch her breath.
“You’re always up on this rooftop when I come around here.”
“Is that a question?”
“...No.”
Birdy had a curiosity as to why he was always up there, but she kept it to herself, as she felt like it was a dangerous line to cross for some reason.
“In that case, you should get going.”
“...Hmm.”
With a small nod, Birdy went off to the next roof as fast as she did for the previous one.
As her figure receded into the distance, the man scratched his head.
He had seen it before, but watching her go across the roofs was like watching a bird fly; thus her nickname.
He didn’t want to admit that she looked pretty as she moved, because such irrational feelings would get in the way of the feelings that mattered.
The ones of revenge.
Plus, despite her extraordinary athletic ability, Birdy was a normal, not a mutant.
It was simply good leg strength and reflexes that made her the way she was; nothing was gained from the meteor's radiation.
“...Now's a good time.”
The man slowly got up, his bulky build towering over the chipped rocks and dirt of the abandoned roof garden next to him.
He slowly walked to the roof exit, then made his way down to the streets of the city.
He said that it was a good time, but he wasn’t going to act upon any ambiguous plans of grandeur destruction.
The ‘why’ was simple enough; he only thought it would be nice if everything just broke down.
He couldn’t actually figure out a way to make such a thing come to fruition.
All he could really do right now was kill.
Kill as many of the normals as he could possibly kill, because his desire for revenge wasn’t something that could be stopped.
Unlike Laurence and Yamada, he was only doing it to make himself feel better; using his family was only an excuse to kill.
That being said, the man himself was not aware of it; for all he cared, he was rightfully justified to do so.
As he let his rage bubble inside of him, he caught a couple walking down an alleyway.
Perfect. The man thought to himself as he smiled.
The two who approached seemed to notice the man’s strange nature, and turned away to avoid him.
Unfortunately, this is what sealed their fates.
Someone who turned his back on the man could not survive, due to his nature as a mutant.
He pointed at one of the retreating figures and a strange, ethereal light shot out of the man’s finger, hitting his target.
At the impact point, the man who was retreating stopped suddenly and started spasming, much to his companion’s horror.
“Joey? Are you-”
Just before he could finish his question, blood splattered everywhere from the front, as though the man had imploded from the inside.
His back itself was perfectly intact, but there were wounds all over the front of his body; even the shirt had tears in it as the blood poured out.
Just as the victim hit the ground face first, dead, the other tried to run, but his hesitation due to the confusion of what was going on was fatal, and he felt a sharp prick in the back of his neck.
He felt his back become numb, but his front started to throb in expanding pain.
Trying to scream, he opened his mouth, but the only thing he achieved in producing was choked gasps before he saw his own blood fly in the air throughout him.
He flopped to the ground, but not before seeing something shiny in the air where his blood had spurted, as though something else had left with the red fluid.
It had disappeared before his eyes, and then he no longer saw anything.
* * * * * *
Four weeks since Laurence started freeloading at Thomas’s home and he had begrudgingly agreed to talk about a superhero costume, if only to stop Thomas from pestering him about it.
Thomas had brought out various articles of clothing from capes to masks to tights… he had either been planning this for a while, or he simply stocked up on superhero-ish articles of clothing since he was obsessed with them.
Laurence had guessed that it was mainly the latter, but he couldn’t deny the possibility of the former.
Pulling out one of the capes and producing matching tights, Thomas grinned from ear to ear.
“Now, try it on!”
“...Are you retarded?”
Laurence had no intention of wearing something that flamboyant, especially in public.
He understood that Thomas wouldn’t let him go unless he stood out with his outfit, but the one line he wouldn’t cross was wearing spandex.
“Do you seriously think I’ll wear that, especially with the gauntlets? I’d be compared to a clown before being compared to a hero.”
“Uh… ehe, yeah. I guess it’s a no go, huh?”
“Sheesh, just let me pick something out.”
Laurence rummaged through the pile of clothing and found an aviator cap with green lensed goggles.
“Well, I am going to be flying…”
Tossing it to the side, he continued searching through the pile while Thomas looked on.
* * * * * *
“How’s this…?”
Laurence asked Thomas the question, but he already knew the answer from looking at his excited, sparkling eyes.
“Wow!”
Laurence choose clothes he thought would look cool, rather than flashy, but it was unique enough to do the job.
He wore grey jeans that had zippers imbued throughout its design; something one would have seen from a rock concert in the previous world.
His upper body wore a sleeveless red and black vest with some white sleeves showing from the shirt he was wearing underneath.
His head wore the aviator cap he found and he also wrapped a long, white scarf around his neck.
Laurence looked at himself and frowned, however, realizing the colors of the outfit didn’t go well together, despite the style certainly doing so.
“Hmm… Hey Thomas, can you find a vest like this only with white and blue colors plus a hood?”
“Huh? Uh, sure…”
Thomas took another look at Laurence before realizing that he was only paying attention to the style and not how the colors went with each other.
With new found understanding, Thomas tried thinking of whether he had seen something similar to what Laurence was referencing to.
In the meantime, Laurence looked through the pile of clothing for a pair of goggles with blue lenses and found them after a short while of searching.
“This should work.”
Thomas called out to Laurence as he brought out a vest that he described; it had a different design, but it still remained stylish in nature.
Not wasting much time, Laurence tossed the aviator cap and his recently worn vest to the side to try on the new clothes presented to him.
“Hey Laurence.”
“What?”
“You mentioned how you couldn’t be a hero with society as it is now, but all I’ve been seeing has been you trying to improve yourself as a hero rather than think of answers for that problem.”
“Oh, that. I thought you already saw it in my head, so I didn’t think it needed to be mentioned…”
Laurence, with the vest on, flipped the hoodie onto his head as he responded to Thomas.
“Hm? Did I miss something?”
“Yeah. I realized that we don’t have enough people supporting us right now for things to change. That’s the main reason heroes can get away with what they do; its because they have the support of the people, right? Not only that, but I have a feeling that everybody actually wants things to change… because of that, it’s probably better if I start by doing good deeds around the city, to show people that they aren’t alone in how they feel. ...Yeah, something like that.”
Laurence nodded to himself as he put the goggles on and wrapped the scarf around his neck again.
Touched by his words, Thomas got some tears in his eyes.
“Laurence…”
“What? Don’t look at me like that, you’re making my skin crawl.”
“But, but!”
Laurence snapped the braces on to complete how he looked and flicked Thomas’s forehead.
“Ow!”
“Just shut-up and tell me if I look hero-ish enough.”
His cheeks puffing up in anger, he looked at Laurence’s outfit again and gave a nod.
“Although it’s just clothes and accessories, it’s unique enough to stand out and the goggles, hood and scarf are enough to hide your identity since you don’t stick out in your regular hat and clothes anyways… Not to mention the whole anti-hero look reminds me of someone going against the norm while doing the right thing. If you're going to be recognized based on these clothes, it’s not a bad outfit to be attached to.”
At Thomas’s long winded, yet observant analysis, Laurence was reminded again of just how obsessed the boy was with heroes.
It wasn't that he needed a reminder, it was just that Thomas always changed how he acted when it came to the topic and Laurence couldn’t help but find it odd.
I guess that’s just how people are when they are talking about something that interests them.
“Oh, we need to decide on your hero name by the way. For that, I’ve compiled a list of every single superhero name used in comics-”
“On second thought, you’re odd even among passionate people.”
* * * * * *
The next day, Thomas came back with some juice and bread from his efforts that day, as well as some news.
“There's a serial killer on the loose.”
Laurence had already stopped reading to grab the food that Thomas had tossed him, and looked at Thomas incredulously.
“Really? With everyone killing one another, you’re saying someone stood out amongst the others?”
“Yeah. It’s becoming a pretty big topic amongst people in the central district; all of the victims share something in common, which is why they know it's the same guy.”
“Huh.”
“Most of the victims have all of their valuables left on them.”
Laurence was about to take a bite of his bread, but stopped at this new information and gave Thomas a serious look.
“So he’s only killing for the sake of it?”
“Yeah… He only takes a few things from some of his victims, probably the bare minimum to survive, then goes on a killing spree without taking anything.”
“If it’s that big of a topic, I take it that it’s starting to get pretty bad?”
Thomas nodded.
“It’s gotten to the point where no one wants to go through the alleys in the central district, even if they have a friend with them.”
“Really? But it’s only one guy, right?”
“Well… someone apparently saw the guy who did it, although he only saw the aftermath of what happened.”
Laurence couldn’t hide his scepticism of it being a single person and sighed.
“So he didn’t see the actual killing. For all we know, it could’ve been a group who did all the work and that person just happened to stumble across the bodies.”
“That’s true… but this isn’t even the strangest part of the killings.”
“What is?”
“Some of them apparently ran away from the killer, only to get killed anyways from the front.”
“So? A group could do that if one of them was lying in wait for the stragglers.”
“But his body was face down and there were no wounds on the back. Normally, if they were stabbed from the front-”
At that statement, Laurence lept up from his seat, knocking it over and nearly dropping the bread he held onto.
“Are you sure!?”
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
Laurence shook his head and calmed down, thinking he was mistaken.
After all… I killed the man who killed Yuna’s parents…. didn’t I?
“No… it’s probably nothing, but can you elaborate on their deaths?”
Thomas gave a questioning look to Laurence, but answered nonetheless.
“As I was saying, if they were stabbed from the front, wouldn’t it be natural to assume they would fall backwards? Not only that… but almost every single victim was the same; their back was perfectly fine, their front was full of wounds, and they were face down.”
“‘Almost’?”
“Some of them were the other way around; their fronts were perfectly fine, but their backs were wounded and lying on the ground. It’s almost as if the weapon pulled them to the ground on the side they were attacked from.”
“That’s… definitely not normal.”
Laurence frowned, the nagging suspicion in his head growing stronger the more he thought about it.
If this was indeed the man responsible for kill Yuna’s parents, then it wasn’t much of a stretch for the hunter they encountered that day to have simply come across the corpses of her parents and decide to locate their home through a networker.
But that didn’t explain the hunter’s words on that day.
Laurence didn’t remember it perfectly, but he knew that the hunter he killed mentioned something about Yuna’s parents mentioning their daughter.
In other words, the hunter had met Yuna’s parents while they were still alive, but didn’t kill them? Not only that, but he still took the time to find a networker and break into their home despite being unaware of their death… or did he simply find out about their death after he met them while they were still alive?
It would have made much more sense for the hunter killing Yuna’s parents to have been a separate incident, but the coincidence between the serial killings and Yuna’s parents deaths were unsettling to Laurence.
Laurence had already come to the conclusion that Yuna’s parents killer was still alive and well, despite how unlikely it was anyone other than the hunter.
The main reason for this was that the way Yuna’s father was found stuck with him; no visible wound on the back, but his front was covered with them.
He had always wondered what had happened, and now corpses were popping up dead in the same way?
How could he not make such a wild assumption?
“Laurence, are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”
Thomas noticed the troubled expression Laurence had while he thought about what this all meant.
Of course, Thomas could have read his mind, but he felt as though it was something Laurence needed to bring up if he truly wanted someone else to know.
Laurence saw no real reason not to tell Thomas, so he said what was on his mind.
“Yuna’s father was killed in a similar way to what you’re describing.”
“Is that so…”
“Yeah… but the issue is that I thought I killed the man who killed Yuna’s parents.”
“Wait, parents; it wasn’t just the father?”
“Oh right… I guess if you weren’t looking into my head just now, you wouldn’t know. Yuna’s mom was slumped against a wall in the same alley as her dad; nothing was particularly odd about the way she died in comparison, though.”
“Why’d you think that her parent’s killer is dead?”
“A hunter broke into her place and he talked as if he met them while they were still alive.”
“Couldn’t he have been working with the other guy then?”
Laurence seemed to be taken aback by the question, realizing he had never thought about it that way before, despite it being a plausible solution.
“Yeah, I guess that make sense…”
“So then what's the problem?”
“...It just means that there's someone else out there who’s responsible for the death of Yuna’s parents.”
Thomas moved uncomfortably to sit down in his folding chair and took a bite of his bread, not sure how to respond to Laurence.
Laurence didn’t know Yuna’s parents personally, but he still felt uneasy when he made the connection.
It reminded him of how he started living with Yuna and, selfishly, he looked back on the memory fondly despite the pain she suffered that day she was left alone.
It was unclear to him whether he was uneasy because he didn’t feel any sadness when looking back on it, or if he still hadn’t gotten over what happened to Yuna.
But there was one thing he couldn’t forgive.
“That’s not what bothers me the most. Right now, there are people who struggle to live everyday and that usually involves killing someone else. But this person isn’t doing it to live; he's doing it because he can.”
Death wasn’t anything new in the city; if someone had something of value that you needed, you killed them to get it.
That didn’t mean it was the right thing to do, but for nothing to be gained from killing another human being made their death meaningless.
To Laurence, who had come to have a little more faith in humanity this past month, these killings were absolutely unforgivable.
“So what are you going to do about it?”
Thomas, who stopped eating his bread, asked the question to Laurence with obvious intentions.
As self-serving as the question was, Laurence knew that this was a perfect reason for him to track down the killer as a ‘hero’.
But-
“Nothing.”
“Eh?”
“Well, think about it for a second; I find him and beat him up and then what happens?”
“...Oh.”
Even if Laurence stopped the man from killing someone, he would only come back and kill another.
This was the biggest issue they had right now; Laurence needed to gather admiration from people in the city so that it would potentially change the way the society was.
But, as it were right now, they had no way of stopping someone for good outside of killing them, which would defeat the purpose in the first place.
“Ugh… If only these police that you see in comics existed…”
Laurence complained, reaching for his juice.
“Yeah… but it’s not like that would do anything against certain mutants.”
“I wonder if I can reason with the people I beat up?”
Making a small joke with a chuckle, Laurence stretched his legs out to ease some of the tension from the serious discussion.
Thomas seemed to take the suggestion all too seriously however.
“Oh, oh, oh! That’s, like, the perfect solution!”
“...Huh?”
Laurence started to get a bad feeling as Thomas’s eyes lit up.
“It’s like the 37th issue of Vagaman, where one of The Shade’s henchman, The Cruncher, realized the error of his ways after a long fight across-”
Covering Thomas’s mouth as muffled noises continued to spill out, Laurence gave a look as though he could care less.
He had gotten used to Thomas’s hero-mania within the month he had gotten to know him, but it didn’t annoy him any less than before.
“First off, the shade is a district in the south. Secondly, your mouth is disgusting; stop drooling when you talk about heroes. And finally, I sincerely doubt anyone will listen to the person who beat the living hell out of them.”
Taking his hand off Thomas’s mouth, he defiantly looked at Laurence.
“But are you just going to let him keep doing this!? How many people will he kill while we try to come up with an answer?”
“Shut-up! Why can’t you be one of those dumb, blonde female sidekicks that don’t make good points!”
“Ah! You just said that it was a good point!”
“Hmph.”
Laurence flopped back into his folding chair, almost knocking it completely back, and shook his head.
“Yeah, you’re right that I don’t want to sit back and do nothing, but can I really reason with someone like that?”
“It won’t hurt to try! Besides, you need support, right? No matter who it is, as long as we have more people on our side, we can change the city!”
“...Seriously, one moment you're an annoying little brat and in the next one you’re an annoying little brat with a good point.”
Thomas puffed his cheeks up in anger, but there was something in Laurence’s expression that stopped him from yelling.
“Hey Tom… can I call you Tom?”
“Uh… sure.”
“...Thanks.”
“Huh? Where’s this coming from?”
“Well… I know this is late, but I haven’t exactly thanked you saving me that night and letting me live here. Not to mention the fact that I probably would have given up had I not met you so… thanks for putting up with me.”
“...”
“You’re still a brat though.”
“Hey.”
Thomas complained half-heartedly, a little embarrassed at Laurence’s sudden gratefulness.
“Geez, now everything's all weird, huh? Let’s just read some comics or something.”
“Yeah.”
The two finished off their food and read comics for the rest of that day, as there wasn’t much light left in the sky at that time.
Before Thomas went to bed, Laurence told him to wake him up if he slept in the next morning.
He made up his mind; it was time to act like the hero he knew could never exist.
* * * * * *
At night, the serial killer suffered.
Each and every night, again and again.
He always had the same dream, watching each and every one of his family members die, one by one.
...No, that was inaccurate.
He hadn’t seen his older brother die, he only saw his corpse.
After helping him out with hunting down a pair of adults, his brother went to scavenge the dead couple’s home.
Almost like it was yesterday, he could hear the words, ‘You stay here, I can handle a little brat,’ and then the image of his body on the floor of the very home he set out to scavenge appeared before the killer’s eyes.
That just left him and his mother.
With only the two of them, life was tough but they always managed somehow.
Having someone looking out for you was better than noone at all.
They were even starting to live a comfortable life, their mutant powers making the hunts all the easier.
But then his mother made a mistake.
She used her powers to kill someone and apparently had a witness.
If you kill people who figure out you’re a mutant, then there's no problem.
But when a passerby catches you in the act and runs away before you can react, is there anything you can do?
It was almost scary how in-sync the normals were, when they were chasing a mutant.
No matter where you ran, they always found you.
Networkers were normals too, after all, and it was almost impossible to escape their eyes.
His mother made him run as well, but she realized that it was pointless to expose him to danger when she was the only one they were after.
She pushed him into a nearby building and pressed against the door as they were escaping through an alley, his pounding on the door desperate.
By the time he gave up, looked for another exit and got to where his mother was, it had already begun.
The killing of the mutant.
He was unlucky to arrive at that time, because people never took a chance with mutants and always killed them as quickly as possible.
Ironically, if she had just abandoned him from the start, it would have been less cruel.
The scene of numerous blades stabbing his mother's body, was almost enough to make him scream.
But, he was in the crowd of people who had chased after her.
Since he came from behind, naturally, they assumed he was one of them.
Screaming would only result in suspicion, and he couldn’t waste the life that his mother so dearly tried to protect.
So, he remained silent and turned his back on his mother's corpse.
But in these nightmares, she lived for much longer.
She was stabbed, again and again.
Bludgeoned, again and again.
Screaming and thrashing about, asking why she had to be treated like this.
And all the while, he was simply staring on in horror.
* * * * * *
He woke up, his body drenched in sweat and his lungs gasping for air.
The couch he slept on was cold, and the blanket he remembered placing overtop of him had fallen to the hard, wooden floor of the run down room he found on the second floor of the building in the central district.
He sat up and wiped the sweat off his brow, then grasped his head with his hands.
This blond-haired, bulky mutant was named Gregory; he was the one who had been behind the recent killings lately.
If one were to ask him why, he would say it was for his family.
But if you brought up the nightmares that had been plaguing him for the past month, then he wouldn’t deny that those were part of the reason as well.
At first, when his mother had died and left him alone, he thought to try and live amongst the humans, to try and preserve the life his mother had fought so hard to protect.
He had even successfully done so for a while, burying his anger and hatred within himself for a couple years.
But then, the nightmares started happening, tormenting him every night, begging him to take revenge.
After a week of this, he took his first life for no reason other than revenge and it seemed to ease the pain in his heart, if only a little.
He only intended for it to end there, but when he had the same nightmare that night, he took another life.
Before he knew it, he had started killing more and more humans for no other reason than to kill them.
It was like the first time he killed pushed him into a path of violence where he could no longer escape his desires for their deaths.
Even though the nightmares remained, killing them made him feel better.
That was the only reason, even if he wasn’t aware of it himself.
He turned his head to look out the window; the dark-blue tint of the fading night signaled that it was getting closer, but not ready for dawn.
Reaching for the blanket, he wrapped it around him and stared outside, waiting for morning.
He wasn’t exactly well rested, but he had no intention of experiencing the nightmare yet again.