...Let's start with yours. Mine haven't been all good, but they're not all bad either, so.
[At least that way, he hopes he'll be able to brush off whatever the hell happens at the end, and he can focus on whatever Atsushi has to deal with with his full focus first.]
So we have a better chance of ending on something good. Got it.
[He's hesitant at first, but eventually he reaches out and touches the bubble, adding a bit of color to it.]
---
Your arms are chained, preventing you from transforming your arms or using your super-strength. Not that it would matter much if you could use it, the man sitting on the couch in front of you is stronger than you anyway. Any attempts at fighting will be beaten down swiftly. You know, you already tried it once. All you can do is wait for this man to say what he even wants with you. He had put a 7 billion yen bounty on your head for a reason, after all. You might as well find out what that reason is.
The man sounds cheerful enough as he speaks. "Good morning, my were-tiger lad! Enjoying the cruise?"
You just glare at him. Up in this floating mobile fortress, you have little chance of escaping. He knows that, and he's taunting you.
"Right!" The man sets his glass of wine down. "You probably want to know why I called you here." 'Called', he says, as if he didn't just kidnap you right off the streets of Yokohama. "It's about the Guild's goals, and the reason why we took you away."
You hadn't expected to get a full answer this soon. "What?"
"We," the man says, "Are searching for a certain 'book.'"
"A 'book'...?"
"Yes. Only one copy of this book exists. It is impervious to any flame or special ability. An ability-user who can see the future told us that the book is sealed in Yokohama."
It's an interesting story, but one question is on your mind: "What does that have to do with me?"
"You, my dear boy, serve as the guide to this book. And I brought you here, up in this base, since I didn't want you to burn to ash with the world below."
The blood in your veins runs cold. "What?"
The man sees no issue with detailing his plans, so he continues to talk. "We've neutralized the special ability department in the government. That just leaves the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia. But these groups are proving to be rather tricky, so it'll be easier to search for the book if we simply raze the city instead."
He's not wrong. If the book can't be burned by fire, then burning everything else down would make it easy to find this book. But you can't accept this possibility. Yokohama is your home. You won't see it destroyed. "You can't possibly have an ability of that level."
"Oh? Then tell me-" The man reaches into a bag sitting on the ground near him, and he pulls out a hideous-looking toy doll. A familiar hideous-looking toy doll. "Do you remember this?"
How can you forget? That doll has been haunting your nightmares for days. That doll is what caused you to go berserk and harm your co-workers. That doll's curse is very familiar to you, and you know that anyone affected by it will attack everyone in front of them in a frenzy. You know, because you lived it yourself.
"My tactical officer says that if I rip off this doll's head, it's curse will trigger on around one-fifth of the population."
One-fifth. One in five. That's... "No, stop!"
"It pains me to sacrifice so many people too, but I can't let 'that item' stay here in this uncharted little fiefdom. We have the power and the duty to retain control over it." The man sounds calm, but serious at the same time. You know he means business. This plan is horrible, but he will carry through with it if you don't stop him.
"Alright, I surrender," you say in a panic, your heart practically up in your throat, "I'll get the Detective Agency to do everything they can to find the book for you! So please, don't use that ability!" You sound desperate. You are desperate.
But the man, he's calm. Like a business tycoon striking a new deal. "hoh? What a curious proposition! In that case, I'll cooperate..."
For a moment, you feel relief.
And then the man grabs the doll's head and rips it off. "...with the survivors."
It's the first thing he thinks as the memory begins to curl and fade away, and he has to shake himself back to the present, grounding himself in the reality away from this bubble again. Humans are always like this - they'll sacrifice who they need to or want to to get at the things they think they need or want. It's not a surprise, and he doesn't feel the need to judge, but...
Seeing as the only human in this memory that he has an attachment to is Atsushi, he naturally ends up viewing that other man as an enemy.]
...It's really like that everywhere, huh? [People being people.] --What happened after? Like... if I can ask.
[Fitzgerald is, honestly, probably one of the better of the villains Atsushi has faced. While he may have been willing to burn a whole city to ash for his goal, at least his goal was only to obtain a book to save his wife. Compared to a man who wants to watch the whole world burn, that's a step up.
But that's neither here nor there, and Atsushi's understanding of Fitzgerald after the fact doesn't change how he felt in that moment. So!]
Everything turned out mostly-alright. We managed to stop the chaos before it went on too long, and casualties were kept to a minimum. A lot of people gained new nightmares, but they lived.
Then we beat the snot out of that man.
[He sounds particularly satisfied with that too. Beating up Fitzgerald had definitely felt good in the moment. Serious!Atsushi got to play around for a bit before Atsushi's usual insecurities took him over once more.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moonlightbeast) wrote2022-02-17 09:23 pm
u_u thumbs up gently
...Let's start with yours. Mine haven't been all good, but they're not all bad either, so.
[At least that way, he hopes he'll be able to brush off whatever the hell happens at the end, and he can focus on whatever Atsushi has to deal with with his full focus first.]
no subject
[He's hesitant at first, but eventually he reaches out and touches the bubble, adding a bit of color to it.]
---
Your arms are chained, preventing you from transforming your arms or using your super-strength. Not that it would matter much if you could use it, the man sitting on the couch in front of you is stronger than you anyway. Any attempts at fighting will be beaten down swiftly. You know, you already tried it once. All you can do is wait for this man to say what he even wants with you. He had put a 7 billion yen bounty on your head for a reason, after all. You might as well find out what that reason is.
The man sounds cheerful enough as he speaks. "Good morning, my were-tiger lad! Enjoying the cruise?"
You just glare at him. Up in this floating mobile fortress, you have little chance of escaping. He knows that, and he's taunting you.
"Right!" The man sets his glass of wine down. "You probably want to know why I called you here." 'Called', he says, as if he didn't just kidnap you right off the streets of Yokohama. "It's about the Guild's goals, and the reason why we took you away."
You hadn't expected to get a full answer this soon. "What?"
"We," the man says, "Are searching for a certain 'book.'"
"A 'book'...?"
"Yes. Only one copy of this book exists. It is impervious to any flame or special ability. An ability-user who can see the future told us that the book is sealed in Yokohama."
It's an interesting story, but one question is on your mind: "What does that have to do with me?"
"You, my dear boy, serve as the guide to this book. And I brought you here, up in this base, since I didn't want you to burn to ash with the world below."
The blood in your veins runs cold. "What?"
The man sees no issue with detailing his plans, so he continues to talk. "We've neutralized the special ability department in the government. That just leaves the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia. But these groups are proving to be rather tricky, so it'll be easier to search for the book if we simply raze the city instead."
He's not wrong. If the book can't be burned by fire, then burning everything else down would make it easy to find this book. But you can't accept this possibility. Yokohama is your home. You won't see it destroyed. "You can't possibly have an ability of that level."
"Oh? Then tell me-" The man reaches into a bag sitting on the ground near him, and he pulls out a hideous-looking toy doll. A familiar hideous-looking toy doll. "Do you remember this?"
How can you forget? That doll has been haunting your nightmares for days. That doll is what caused you to go berserk and harm your co-workers. That doll's curse is very familiar to you, and you know that anyone affected by it will attack everyone in front of them in a frenzy. You know, because you lived it yourself.
"My tactical officer says that if I rip off this doll's head, it's curse will trigger on around one-fifth of the population."
One-fifth. One in five. That's... "No, stop!"
"It pains me to sacrifice so many people too, but I can't let 'that item' stay here in this uncharted little fiefdom. We have the power and the duty to retain control over it." The man sounds calm, but serious at the same time. You know he means business. This plan is horrible, but he will carry through with it if you don't stop him.
"Alright, I surrender," you say in a panic, your heart practically up in your throat, "I'll get the Detective Agency to do everything they can to find the book for you! So please, don't use that ability!" You sound desperate. You are desperate.
But the man, he's calm. Like a business tycoon striking a new deal. "hoh? What a curious proposition! In that case, I'll cooperate..."
For a moment, you feel relief.
And then the man grabs the doll's head and rips it off. "...with the survivors."
no subject
It's the first thing he thinks as the memory begins to curl and fade away, and he has to shake himself back to the present, grounding himself in the reality away from this bubble again. Humans are always like this - they'll sacrifice who they need to or want to to get at the things they think they need or want. It's not a surprise, and he doesn't feel the need to judge, but...
Seeing as the only human in this memory that he has an attachment to is Atsushi, he naturally ends up viewing that other man as an enemy.]
...It's really like that everywhere, huh? [People being people.] --What happened after? Like... if I can ask.
no subject
But that's neither here nor there, and Atsushi's understanding of Fitzgerald after the fact doesn't change how he felt in that moment. So!]
Everything turned out mostly-alright. We managed to stop the chaos before it went on too long, and casualties were kept to a minimum. A lot of people gained new nightmares, but they lived.
Then we beat the snot out of that man.
[He sounds particularly satisfied with that too. Beating up Fitzgerald had definitely felt good in the moment. Serious!Atsushi got to play around for a bit before Atsushi's usual insecurities took him over once more.]
no subject
So it turned out like that, huh... [Thank god because so many of the bad memories he's seen here have ended horribly! It's just depressing!!]
--Good! That guy looked like he coulda used a few good punches. He seemed pretty smug about how smart he was, y'know?