The Initialization : Phase 004

"Haah, now you've really done it this time..." Said by an aging police officer in disbelief as he put a pair of handcuffs onto the arms of a silent black-haired teen.

"You would end up in an actual federal prison than in the juvvie with this magnitude boy. Heck, considering these people that you've killed, I won't be surprised if you end up in the electric chair." The old man grimly added as he finished cuffing the left arm of the lad.

Surprisingly the said teen seems to be showing little resistance to the arrest and was just continually staring into the gruesome scene of his doing as if he was in a daze.

Therein behind him lies dozens of mangled dismembered dead bodies on the floor that is bathing with their own fresh blood. Chopped heads severed arms and–is that a sword? was scattered all over the place making the arresting officer grimace onto the horrid scene. He considered himself a pro veteran of the force but this was the first time he actually seen a crime scene of this sheer brutality.

"Hah, these scums deserved to die like these," Aizen sneered without much remorse and added as an after thought, "...Though yeah, i guess using an RPG-launcher was a little bit overkill."

The old policeman let out another sigh. He felt as if he was on his deathbed ever since he got the role of a probation officer for this certain onyx-haired delinquent. Just six months ago the kid was involved in some buy bust drug operation and was charged with twelve counts of man slaughter but due to some 'external influence' it seems the charges got dropped and the boy somehow got off scot free.

After handcuffing the teen and pinning him down onto the back of his police mobile, the officer then picked up his internal radio to coordinate with the station and report the capture of the culprit of what would the media will later dubbed as 'The Yuno-yakuza Massacre Case'

As for Aizen, he just slept quietly on the back of the armored vehicle as if he was going to a nice county side vacation trip.

After an hour or so, he got a slap on the check as an awakening call that they have finally arrived onto their destination.

After adjusting onto his surroundings, the first thing that Aizen notice upon disembarking the vehicle was the seemingly colossal walls of Tokyo federal prison.

"Ohho, guess it's really Tok-fed for me than juvvie this time eh," He sarcastically remarked as he whistled when he was dragged inside the penitentiary like some harmful animal.

"Boy, with you killing those Yakuzas that are supposedly protecting your ass, you shouldn't be surprised that you end up on this ditch even if you're still a minor."

Aizen snorted with that response. Protecting him? hah, what a load of bull crap that was. Those yakuza's only bailed him out before since he still had a mountain of debt to pay them and they can't afford him being jailed cause it's bad business.

Well, with those shitheads out of the picture, so does his mountain of debt and finally, his twin sister can finally be free.

Contrary to what most would think, it's not really hard to take down a syndicate ring.

All you need is careful planning, a little bit of luck and a three years stockpile of ammunition like C4 and grenades,

—Especially grenades.

With every records and files of the syndicate incinerated into dust, even if someone were to revive the gang, they would surely not find any trace or records of their enslavement seeing as he already killed the ones who knew of the contract.

Finally his sister can be truly be free.

As for him, well he could try running away and live as a fugitive but he highly doubt that he can since he was the one who bring down the cartel. Not only he would be pursued by the remnants of the Yuno familia that he massacred but also by their rival mob families seeing as he also killed a handful of them by the order of his ex-boss.

Aizen is a nihilistic person. He doesn't really have aspirations in life like having a family of is own or deep passions to excel at something. But he's not totally against it. If the opportunity arise that he'll fall in love with someone then he'll marry her. However, you won't gonna see him looking around for his soul mate.

Love is tedious anyway.

It's a two way connection.

Too bad for him he's a single minded person.

Anyway the world is better off having no little carbon copy of him running around in the future. Aizen takes life in his own pace. Its meaningless anyway so why bother aspiring to become a better person? Personally speaking he highly doubt a person could change fundamentally anyway.

Humans can adopt a social mask and tailor it to their liking but basic human nature is much harder to change especially if ones surroundings have already a pre-disposed biased opinion towards you.

Plus it's not like Aizen hated his current self.

If he was told that he would die tomorrow then he would just stare blankly and calmly reply, oh i see.

He's that type of nihilist.

He doesn't want to die of course but he won't actively pursue life as well.

He acknowledged God but doesn't believe him.

He love himself but the person he hated the most is also himself.

Such are the duality of his existence.

In layman's term, he just a laid-back lazy selfish apathetic person.

Hence, his only option was to go to jail. At least in prison he could lay low and be protected by the government as a state witness.

In another perspective, the American dream is to be imprisoned.

Think about it, you get to eat while practically doing nothing. You get free bodyguards and with proper connections and a little bribery, you can experience the pleasures of life.

And since you're already in jail, you don't have to worry about getting caught.

Being jailed truly is a NEET's fantasia.

If shit hit the fan, he could ask for a plea bargain in exchange for his knowledge against the mobster groups that are ruling Tokyo in the shadows.

Aizen can't help but smirk as he was placed into the maximum security cell within the penitentiary.

All is going according well into plan so far.

A week had passed and like he had predicted, his trial was soon over before anyone can say an objection.

Well, it's no surprise at all seeing as he practically annihilated one of the most notorious cartel in the city.

Though it seems even with the gang being disposed off, the higher ranking officials in the government that are backing and profiting from such organization still hold a grudge against him for ruining their lucrative grey business.

And the verdict? Reclution Perpetua

Or better known as life imprisonment.

Well, Aizen had already somewhat expected this outcome so he wasn't all that much suprised. Hell, he should be on the death row seeing as his crime was sixty two counts of man slaughter and massive damage to property but luckily because of the plea bargain deal he had with the government, his sentence got somehow lessened.

Furthermore, it could even be reduced further if his cooperation with taking down the notorious mob families in Japan prove to be essential.

The outcome was really a win-win situation in favor of him so he really didn't resist much after he was dragged out of the court.

(Haah, so my boring prison life begins now huh...) Aizen thought with a sigh as he succumbed to his fate. They have entered any elevator made of premium grade steel with five buttons available on the middle left section.

From his prodding and inquiries around, it seems that Tokugaoka Federal Prison consist of Five levels below the ground. firstly with it's first floor occupying the hall of justice and other federal offices that deals with the paperwork's of criminals then down to basement one or B1 where suspects that awaits trial or judgement are held.

Aizen remembered that's where he was also detained in the past weeks.

B2 and B3 are the floors where the usual convicts are imprisoned where the former are the place for males while the latter is where female inmates resides. B4 seems where high profile and dangerous inmates are located and locked away.

Finally for B5, seems like no one really knows what was in there except those in higher position. However rumor around says it's where the really dangerous and those inmates who is above the law are held but some say that it's a special floor where suspicious experiments are condone.

The detaining guard then pressed B5 button silently making the black-haired inmate raised his eyebrows in suspicion.

"Oi, isn't level five a restricted zone? why are we going there, i thought the usual inmates are restricted to B2 and B3..."

But he only got stiff silence to his inquiry from the guards. As the lift gradually passed B2, B3 and finally B4, so does Aizen's apprehension rose to a dangerous level.

His primal instincts that are honed by the five years of being a top hit-man was going haywire. Something just tells him to expect the worse by the time they reach the bottom level.

(This is bad, all i can use as a weapon is my fist and these handcuffs.)

it only took a minute or so to reach B5 and with the sliding doors of the elevator being opened, Aizen got into fighting stance but what he sees at the other side of the lift is not what he expected to see in such circumstance.

"W...What the hell is this?" The befuddled teen asked no one particularly as he was pushed outside the elevator by the guards.

There in front of him lies rows and rows of virtual gaming pods also known as Virtuodrive. it was a new device that let's people dive into what was known as VRMMO or in gaming lingo, virtual multi massive online game.

Even the ever anti social Aizen had heard of it since it became the main trending topic on all media outlets two years ago. From the global internet all the way to local television networks, people of all ages can't helped but to be mesmerized into this new form of technology where you can dive into a brand new fantasy world.

Noirehartz Online

–Or simply put, NOIZ Online.

A new addiction that took the world by storm. A world where both spirits and material beings coexisted. A world where there's flying island and underwater cities that can be visited. A world where one can be together with mythical creatures you can never dream on seeing in reality.

A world of infinite possibilities—or so the catchy ads says.

It was the first ever true virtual reality game that directly intercepts one's neural waves and converts it all into byte data and vice versa. As such, it make things seems truly real into the virtual world.

As for why dozens of console pods for such games can be found in the lowest portion of Tokyo's federal prison, Aizen can only speculate.

"Ah Mr. Ryumanagi i've been expecting you welcome welcome~" Greeted by some guy in a lab coat while grinning from ear to ear. He was averaging around 161 cm in height with a lanky build and a dirty tea colored hair. His back was somehow hunched probably from either using the computer or sitting too much–perhaps both.

Aizen's first impression of him was that he can't trust this person.

Everything about the guy seems ordinary–except those dark grey eyes of his.

Dead fish eyes.

It was a pair of orbs that seems had gotten too used to the darkness of society. a pair of orbs that Aizen usually see staring back at him whenever he looks into the mirror.

The type that looked at the abyss too much and was devoured by it.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the supervisor of this floor, Zenix Milstein." Introduced by the scientist looking man as he adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose upwards. "I'm also one of the head engineer working for NOIZ."

"I see, and what does the head honcho from a gaming company doing in the most restricted area of Japan's most celebrated prison if i may ask?" Skeptically asked by Aizen as he just ignored the handshake offered to him by Zenix.

"My my, how straightforward. Well, i like people who doesn't waste my time so i like that attitude of yours Mr. Zen-kun~" Teasingly replied by Zenix as he grinned further when Aizen made an appalled face after he shortened his name.

"Well then, are you familiar with the term Noirehartz or simply NOIZ Online Mr. Ryumanagi?" Zenix asked with a start.

"It's a VR game right?" Aizen replied with a poker face whilst putting his thumb on his chin he added,

"If i remember it correctly, It was made by the collaboration of all the leading gaming companies in the world, making it truly first of it's kind. With it's initial release two years ago, the game had already attained a whopping rough estimates that the 40% of world population are currently being hooked into it."

The scientist nodded. "Yeah nowadays, you're considered a caveman if you don't have a NOIZ account especially in a technically advanced country like Japan."

"Oi who are you calling a caveman eh?" Aizen said with a twitch of his brows. He was just too busy to set up an account in NOIZ. Heck, he can't even remember the last time he played a game before. "I might not have a NOIZ account but I'm not technologically inept. I still have accounts l-like...F-Facebook for instance."

"Facebook?" Zenix asked while barely containing his laughter. God, this is too much for him . The engineer can't believe someone still uses those obsolete sites in this day and age. It seems he'd found a walking relic by the name of Aizen Ryumanagi, this truly is a lucky day for him.

"Zen-kun get out of here, that's so last decades ago. NOIZ is the new mode of social networking in the world these days since its more fun socializing with your friends together while exploring an unknown fantasy world." The guy in lab coat said with mirth of laughter.

"Well so-ree, for being a caveman," Aizen snidely remarked as he gave the laughing dick his best evil glare but it seems Zenix was immune to it. "Some people are just too busy to bother with some silly game you know."

"Oh NOIZ is not only about games and all Mr. Aizen" Zenix quipped as his gigles died down. "It was also being used for treatment especially those that are physically disabled or those of whom suffered from a stroke. Several business companies have also set up a virtual offices by means of convenience so instead of commuting for work one can just dive into NOIZ to do their jobs instead."

"Hah, no wonder the rate of shut-ins and vegetable humans increased dramatically within the couple of years."

"Well i won't deny that the advent of NOIZ may have caused many to feel lazy to go out anymore but that's their own prerogatives. After all, you can't blame a car for making a person prefer riding than walking."

"But i can sue the car maker." Aizen challenged.

Zenix only narrowed his eyes and creepily smiled in return.

"You mean to say that you're gonna file a lawsuit that is something like this?" The older guy coughed as he raised his left index finger upwards as if chanting a spell.

"I Mr. Ryumanagi is filing a complaint against Toyota and it's group of companies for making the complainant lazy and thus unable to perform a minimum of 1 kilometer walk by himself. The prime suspect in the crime is my two year old red car vios in which are currently being detained on my garage as we speak. I hope in good faith that the honorable court would act on my case and vanquish the evil that is making me lethargic and obese—or something like that." Zenix humorously joked with a face like a cat that's eaten the canary.

Yup i hate and can't trust this guy

The black haired teen thought with a scowl. He hated losing in an argument but he can't think of any witty retort against that one and even if he doesn't like to admit it but, yeah it's really kind of funny when it's phrased like that. Aizen thought while trying not to smirk.

"Well cars and lawsuits aside, why we brought you and why are there several virtu-pods around here was of course related to NOIZ." Zenix started finally getting to the point after the aura around somehow lightened. Pushing the glasses on the bridge of his nose upwards, he gestured Aizen to walk with him as they started an impromptu tour of the place.

"As you may have known, NOIZ Online was already active and open for public for two years now. With our ever growing fan base of users increasing by the hour so does the staff's problems arise as well."

Aizen nodded silently. With every action there would always be a consequence. it was one of the fundamental laws in life.

"NOIZ Online has indeed exceed our expectations. However, at the moment it still lacks something for it to be truly called an actual alternative reality." Zenix sighed while standing still for a moment to touch a gaming pod.

He had a hard look in his face as he turned to the teen beside him.

"Do you know what that is?" The older man asked with a kind of hard to read expression on his face. "I'll give you a clue, it's a four letter word."

Even after pondering for a moment Aizen's mind still drew blank so he blurted out the first word that entered his brain.

"Love?"

"Pfft, I can't believe that came from a convict with sixty two counts of murder but no it isn't." Zenix chuckled with the unexpected answer and shook his head. Afterwards he answered his own inquiry which surprised the younger convict.

"Evil."

Aizen blinked. NOIZ needs evil? What in the bull crap does this lunatic of an engineer think he's saying. Saying that the worlds first ever virtual reality game needs evilness is totally absurd even for him.

"I'm pretty sure that my answer confused you but I'm being serious here." Zenix reiterated when the black haired teen give him a dubious look. "Currently there are approximately 13.5 million users in which 50% of it are constantly active gamers worldwide."

"Wow that's alot of subscriber's." Money was the first thing that entered Aizen's mind when he heard of the figures. There are 3 months free subscription period for new users of NOIZ but when it ran out, one have no choice but to pay a certain monthly fee for them to have access to the game. It's one of the reason why the dirt cheap Aizen didn't bother buying a NOIZ pod when it became a household name two years ago.

"Yeah it is, however most users or at least the top hundred users tend to act their real life fantasies like some world hero or a savior of humanity. Well we staff members can't really blame them since we pre programmed NOIZ as a world that could cater such desires."

A world where there's no evil? Aizen hardly believed it. As long as humans are around, evil will sure lurk in its shadows.

"So you mean to say that in NOIZ, no one absolutely breaks the law or disregard the moral ethics?" The hand cuffed teen asked skeptically.

"Of course there are instances where we get reports of player killings or harassment but let's see, if we put it in percentage, the ratio of good and bad users are four to one. Maybe its because its the first ever VR game but people are being overly cautious with their actions." Zenix said as he shrugged his shoulders. "What's more, users with bad alignment just PK once or twice then will lay low for a while until their red status disappear's."

"So there's evil after all in NOIZ." Aizen concluded with a nod. he's not familiar with some of the terms that the engineer used but it does sound relatively bad.

"Evil is a subjective concept."

"I don't think were here to discuss about philosophy Nietzsche."

"Ahha point taken."

Zenix coughed.

"Well err, technically yes there is evil but how do i explain this," The older man knot his brows as he scratched his head. "Certainly there's some evil around but it's somewhat half-assed and weak."

"What do you mean by weak?"

"Well what I'm looking for is not just some kind of a jackass that hides after he commits a crime or two but some asshole that is strong enough to proclaim to the world that he is evil and he doesn't give a fuck what they thinks, how about it did i explained it better now?"

Aizen nodded understandingly. This explanation was way better to understand. "Ahh i see, so you want a Yakuza boss instead of a usual disposable grunt is that it?"

"Err—i guess?"

"Though why do you want someone like that in your game? Wouldn't that cause trouble for you guys instead?" Aizen asked sincerely since he doesn't get the point of putting some asshole to cause trouble intentionally.

"Mr. Ryumanagi let me ask you this then, Do you believe we could totally achieve eternal world peace?" Zenix asked with a sagely demeanor. He eyed the teen as if sizing him up which made Aizen narrow his eyes on him.

"I suppose not," The convict said after some deliberation. The engineer emphasized on the word eternal which means an everlasting peace with no conflict. it was such a beautiful concept but impossible to attain.

"Yeah i agree as well that it's impossible but let's just say by some miracle we humans somehow achieved the state of world peace," Zenix began again with a cryptic questioning. "What do you think will happen then?"

Aizen pondered for a moment. "I guess, there would be no more wars no famine, sickness, conflict, injustice, inequality, pain and suffering in the world by then."

Zenix smiled.

"Yeah, what a really scary world it would be if true peace could be achieved."

Aizen gave him a questioning gaze. "Scary?"

The older man nodded. "Mr. Ryumanagi, with everything you said gone how do you think humanity would progress? Wars are hideous affairs but you can't deny that most technical advances came in times of war and as cruel as it may sound, without any wars, Earth's resources would already be depleted cause of overpopulation."

Aizen sneered. What a hypocrite, only people who hasn't truly lost a loved one can say that war is good.

"That's just presumption's of someone who doesn't really know the horrors of war."

"But you can't deny the statistics." Zenix countered. "I think that our reality in itself is beautiful because of its flaws, not in spite of them. One cannot truly appreciate life in a perfect world and thus, a world of eternal peace is a dead world."

So what's he's saying is one can't appreciate the importance of something unless they worked hard for it or alternatively...lost it.

"Each and everyone of us has their own unique set of principles as well as individuality. However, conflict and argument arises because sometimes what we value may seem wrong to others." The older man expounded his notion as he made hand gestures while the younger listener ponder on the things being said.

"Exchanges of ideas and principles happens as we argue the merits of our values being it good or bad but in the end of the spectrum, whether we like it or not, we assimilate some of the other parties idealism. Isn't that what progress is all about?"

"That's just on the basis that only through conflict that progress can be achieved." Aizen responded playing possum. "We can also progress and exchange ideas through peaceful manner and calm discussions."

"Indeed we can, but can a person really stay calm and composed when the issue of sacrifice enters the discussion?"

The teen blinked at the another curve in the topic.

"What about sacrifice?"

"To gain something, one must lose something of equal value in exchange." Zenix commented with a serious expression. "Isn't progress mostly paved with sacrifices of others?"

Aizen had a sudden thought as a trick of sweat flows down onto his face. He was speechless. This was unbelievable for him.

"D-Dont tell me...are you..."

Zenix raised an eyebrow at his unusual reaction.

"Am i what?"

Realization had finally hit Aizen and with a trembling hands, he pointed a finger at the older guy.

"Are you..."

The NOIZ neural engineer smirked. An evil glint sparkles in his glasses. "So you finally get my po—"

"Are you...a fan of retro anime's?"

Zenix blinked. Aizen blinked. And they both blinked at each other as sweat-drops flowed down their for heads.

".......……..."

"....Retro....Anime?"

"Well yeah," The black haired inmate replied. Aizen's sister is a die hard fan of retro anime from the 20's so from time to time he was forced to watch those old shows with her especially in the weekends. He remembered watching some red coated shorty sprout off equivalent exchange crap one Saturday that Sayaka decided to go anime marathon on his apartment.

"Didn't you get that whole equivalent exchange crap earlier to some old anime?"

Zenix shook his head.

"Uh...No, I didn't."

"I-I see."

"......"

"Damn! all that tension wasted." Zenix frustratingly whined, sloughing back in a nearby chair. With the serious mood ruined, all he could think about is anime and some dude in a red coat. "Man, now i don't remember what were talking about anymore."

Aizen sighed fighting off a headache that is starting to brew in his mind. all this shit is giving him a mind-grain. "Well, you kinda lost me arfer that equivalent exchange stuff. but how is all this crap related to NOIZ anyway?"

"Ah yes yes, sorry, what i mean to say is for NOIZ to progress further, we need some necessary evil or more specifically, powerful evil users to balance out the uneven numbers of users with good alignment. After all an ideal world is a reality where in both equal evil and good clash in coexistence."

"So your putting criminals in NOIZ to balance out the system to make it more like how the real world works."

"Well thats our objective in a nutshell. Hence, we from Noiz approach the Japanese government to ask them if they would let us put up a facility within this penitentiary for this plan."