Arc 2 Chapter 3- I Matter Too

“Aww, he’s so cute! Our little Kyosuke.”

The couple looked down on a baby Kyosuke with heartfelt smiles and love, the child they hold is one of forbidden. An Angel and Demon were not allowed to speak to each other, let alone have a child. Yet, there he was, baby Kyosuke.

“He looks like you, Michael.”

The mother spoke to Michael, who Kyosuke had thought to be his father. Kyosuke’s father didn’t look like an angel, he looked like a normal man in his early twenties and looked nothing like the father he had on Earth.

Kyosuke grew up with a man who he had thought to be his biological dad, but never even thought to ask why he looked nothing like him. Even though Kyosuke’s dad in the modern real world was Japanese, Kyosuke looked nothing like a Japanese person at all, he didn’t even look like his mother other than the blonde hair.

“Well, he has your eyes Apela. It looks like you blessed him with your evil glare!”

Michael laughed at his comment, Apela had an annoyed but cheerful look on her face, she couldn’t help laughing at Kyosuke’s eyes. Both his parents loved to laugh, they laughed even when they were angry, that’s something Kyosuke could finally see.

They put Kyosuke down onto the floor, he wasn't even ten minutes old, and there he was, crawling around the floor like a pro!

“Look, Michael! He’s already learning to crawl and he’s never even tried before, we got a real learner here.”

Baby Kyosuke looked up at his mom. Kyosuke still had the consciousness of his normal self so this “learning” he’s doing is not learning, he just remembers that he can crawl so he’s putting it through a test.

“Kyosuke is going to be a special boy, he’s got a lot of responsibilities in the future so let’s let him enjoy his happy moments now.”

Michael looked down at Kyosuke while saying this, he couldn’t help but crack a smile at the sight.

Kyosuke knew where this whole life was going, even though he was a baby, his sixteen-year-old self knew that his life wasn’t going to be all giggles. Something had to have happened to him to make him appear in a new world, something bad.

“We need to teach him all we can before that day comes, I suspect we have a year before we need to send him off.”

Apela seemed hopeful that as long as they taught Kyosuke the basics, he would survive and someday get to meet them. The thought of being able to have a happy family was on the mind of Apela, but Michael brought her back to reality.

“Sadly, I don’t think we’ll see Kyosuke for a while, a long while. I want him to have the happiest life until then even if he’ll have to watch us go.”

Just then Kyosuke began to cry, weirdly enough though, even Kyosuke didn’t know why he was crying, it just kind of happened. Maybe it was because he was a baby, or maybe because even as a baby, he knew.

The door slammed open with force causing shards of glass from the windows nearby to smash sending glass shards all over everyone in the room. Darkness consumed the entrance of the door like fate didn’t want Kyosuke to see who was standing there.

Kyosuke couldn’t see anything anymore, he could hardly hear too. Muffling of magic being thrown about and metal clashing together, without time to think Kyosuke was grabbed up by his father.

“We need to get away from here, your mother is buying us some time, she’s stronger than I am. We’ll be alright little guy, trust me.”

The thing is, Kyosuke couldn’t trust him, he knew his fate and knew it was about to happen as soon as his mother caught up with them.

Michael carried Kyosuke to an old building that was rotting away, the windows were covered with some sort of wood and the door wasn’t fully on the hinges. The air around the building was bitter, it smelled of blood.

“Listen here Kyosuke, I don’t have long to tell you anything and I doubt you’ll remember any of this but here I go anyways. Your name is Kyosuke, your last name doesn’t matter as we’ll be sending you away for a little while. Your goal isn’t to save us, it’s to save the ones you care about, you’re the only one who can do that and even if you have to lose everything to do it, you need to push on.”

Apela rushed into the building, slamming the door behind her. She was sweating from using up all of her mana, the building shook as the thing that was chasing her neared.

“Hey, sweety, daddy and I are going to be sending you to a nice place that’ll have people that should have no problem getting to know you. It’s a place where everyone is accepted and despite everyone's differences, they somehow live alongside each other. I hope you can understand, this is for you, because you’re important to us.”

-You’re wrong, you guys are just being selfish to make me feel better. You guys could have come with me, he never would have found us, you guys just took the easy way out and left me to fend for myself.

Kyosuke couldn’t help but think about this, he wanted to tell them so badly how much he wanted them to stay with him, he wanted to get to know them more than anything in the world, his life has been a lie up until now and he wanted the truth, that’s all he’s ever wanted, someone to talk to. He wanted to tell someone about how the people in his school were finally getting to liking him after years of neglect.

Why did they make me think that I was their real child? Did they even know I wasn’t their real child? It only hurts me in the end, knowing the fact that I have to watch my parents send me off, back to the hell that they created.

The footsteps were right outside the door and Kyosuke could see the dark shapes outside the little cracks in the walls. The wall smashed open and Kyosuke finally got to see who was causing all of this trouble for him. Standing there was a man he knew, a man he hated. None other than Kieran Blakely stood there, his face wasn’t the same though, it wasn’t the face of someone who lost everything, it was the face of someone who wanted everything.

Kieran looked at young Kyosuke and smiled.

“So I finally got to meet the little tike, you two made such a precious-looking baby, and look! His hair makes little devil spikes… HOW ADORABLE! HOW ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE! YOU’RE THE TYPE OF ADORABLE THAT WOULD SELL FOR FINE MONEY ON THE BLACK MARKET!”

Kieran leaped towards Kyosuke but had a fireball thrown into his face, this caused him to fall back onto the floor. The world’s fireballs caught people on fire unlike in most of the light novels and anime that Kyosuke looked at, usually, they just cause the person to take heaps of damage but here it doesn’t do much initial damage, but it does a lot of overtime damage.

“SON OF A BITCH THAT BURNS!”

He enjoyed the pain, it made him feel something he had never felt before, when he screamed it was a scream of joy, not of pain.

Michael and Apela hugged Kyosuke tight before a strange green portal opened up on the wall next to them, Kyosuke looked at his parents for the last time before he was sent flying into it.

-Kieran. Kieran! KIERAN! He did this, he caused my life to fall apart. He wanted to use me, to sell me, all for money. Kieran wanted to kill my parents, all for money!

The air around Kyosuke started to get heated, the voice in his head started to gradually get angrier.

-Do I not matter? Am I just a TOY?! I’ll kill him, he wanted me gone so I’ll just have to make him disappear.

Kyosuke’s anger started to spiral out of control when he realized what must have been going on in the real world, how much time had passed? Have Kyosuke’s friends already been killed or has it been only a minute?

“My family.”

Kyosuke’s mind returned to the present, the world around him was the same way he left it, all of that was in his head, they were just memories of a forgotten time.

“My life.”

Kyosuke’s scarf started to glow and rip, the spells Edwin had put on them were being used, too much power was being put into the scarf so it started to rip in hopes to let his power run wild.

“My friends.”

Kyosuke started to laugh, his eyes slowly turning red. A ghost-like figure appeared behind Kyosuke, it slowly started to take the damaged scarf off of him in hopes to let his power free like a caged animal.

“They matter.”

Kyosuke’s power was in full control of him, not a single shred of Kyosuke was left and his body was finally ready for its full test. Kyosuke’s power changed everything about Kyosuke from his hair color turning black, to a glowing, white, aura that covered Kyosuke just like his scarf had, around his neck. He had black tattoos on his body, they were words in the language of the gods.

“I matter.”

The figure took a step back, he didn’t expect Kyosuke to learn his power so soon, he expected it would take months or even years before he found out his full potential, even though Kyosuke couldn’t control this power, he still knew to kill.

“MY!”

Kyosuke took a step forward towards the figure.

“LIFE!”

The figure looked at Kyosuke, soon taking a step forward to assume the fighting position.

“MATTERS!”

Kyosuke started to walk forwards while tears ran down his face, he launched himself forward using Adtonitus, he didn’t need to say it, it just came naturally. The figure couldn’t even see Kyosuke coming towards him. Kyosuke smashed into the figure causing ripping and tearing on guts.

“AUGH, Dammit! I wasn’t prepared for this shit!”

The figure’s stomach had been smashed open from the impact, but on Kyosuke, there was not a single scratch. Even moving at the speed, if someone were to run into someone or something head-on, it would mean instant death, yet Kyosuke had no injuries.

Blood lined the road as Kyosuke walked towards the bleeding figure, he was on the ground and Kyosuke could finally get a good look at his face, the man's mana was leaving him so fast that the dark shadow around his face had to disperse for him to stay alive.

“Why do you want me dead?! I didn’t do anything to you! I just want to be happy, I want my friends to be happy, I want my family to be proud of me for once! I want them to know who I have become, what I’ve done for life, who I’ve helped.”

There was a demonic tone in Kyosuke’s voice, it sounded like the power was fullying consuming him and he allowed it, he wanted all the power to fight.

Slowly he got to see the face, it caused Kyosuke to go silent, and freeze into place. Lying on the ground was someone familiar just like Kyosuke thought. The aura that surrounded the figure was that of someone he knew.

Lying there on the ground, was Kyosuke.

The boy wasn’t exactly Kyosuke, he had white hair instead of blonde, and his clothes were the same but different color, everything about this boy, even down to his scarf, reminded him of himself.

Kyosuke’s imposter began to laugh while getting up, he slowly turned into the monstrosity that Kyosuke himself turned into.

“Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Kyosuke Matsuda, I’m sixteen years old and, well you know a lot about me, except, there’s something a little different from me. You see, when I was sent to Earth I wasn’t as lucky as you were, no, my family hated me. I was beat every night, close to deaths on many accounts.”

He told his story to Kyosuke like he was telling it to an old friend who had been away for years. He told it to him like they were going through this together when in reality, the Kyosuke who had died so many times up to this point didn’t know anything about suffering. Kyosuke died many times, but he never suffered, he never broke down after dying and cried.

“One night, I came home from school, I wasn’t even ten yet. There was blood everywhere, my dad walked up to me with anger and rage in his eyes, you wanna know what he did? That son of a bitch scalped me alive, he said my hair was a curse and that I brought nothing but pain to the household. Do you know what it feels like to feel your scalp getting ripped off your skull?”

The imposter began to cry, his emotions showed just as much as the Kyosuke we know, they both knew that crying was a way to help them cope, and laughing was a way to calm down.

“Enough of that, you can call me Suke from now on, that is if you survive.”

Before Kyosuke could respond he was punched in the face with enough force to send him flying twenty feet, he smashed into boulders and trees, and blood-spattered left and right as he continued going.

The fight was on and Kyosuke wasn’t ready to lose, he used Sentora to sense every move that Suke might make. Being able to predict his moves Kyosuke was at a huge advantage, Suke slowly started to transform as Kyosuke did, the power was almost identical other than the color flip from a white aura into a black aura, their fight continued while in the background Ai started to slowly awake.

“M-my head, what happened to me? Was I knocked out?”

She looked over in horror at Kyosuke and Suke fighting, they weren't just punching but they were ripping at each other like primal humans tearing at the flesh of their prey. Kyosuke’s punches were so hard that you could hear each bone in Suke’s body snap and break.

Suke jumped back after getting punched in the ribs, he could feel his internal blood inside his body drain so he knew that he needed to buy a few minutes to try and heal.

“So this is what happens when you’re angry? Too bad you can’t control it, unlike you, my body doesn’t burn up when I use my power, I’m able to stay like this and keep my morality too.”

Kyosuke was filled with hatred and rage, his laughs turned to screams of anger, he didn’t even try to fight it, he was tired of being weak and tired of dying, he wanted to live after all.

“I see you’re not in the mood to talk, looks like I won't have time to heal, I guess I’ll give this one to you. See you later Kyosuke, Etrea-”

Before Suke could finish his escape spell, Kyosuke launched himself off of a tree to gain almost instant full speed into Suke, he picked Suke up throwing him hundreds of feet into the air before grabbing him and throwing him straight to the ground. Suke rolled out of the way before Kyosuke came crashing down into the path, rocks flew all over the place smashing into Suke causing a gash in his head.

“Kyosuke, what are you doing?!”

Ai screamed at Kyosuke, confused that he had this sort of power in him, she didn’t want to see Kyosuke acting like this and didn’t want to see his body be destroyed.

Kyosuke, still filled with this rage, looked away from Suke for not even a second before he yelled the words “ETREATRAY!”

Suke’s retreat spell activated and Kyosuke was finally silenced, he couldn’t see or hear anything since the spell used his weakness of loneliness to keep him from seeing.

The air around Kyosuke slowly started to thin out as he was able to breathe normally again, his body still filled with anger ignored the fact that Ai was his friend. Kyosuke lunged at Ai hoping to continue his rampage, right as his finger scratched Ai, Ken stood up and smacked Kyosuke on the back of the head.

The smack wasn’t at all-powerful yet it knocked Kyosuke out instantly, the smack was enough to make Kyosuke’s power and mana leave his body before he could even retaliate.

“That’ll teach you to try and hurt a lady.”

Ken laughed this off. The power Ken possessed was more than anyone even realized, the smack must have used a lot of mana because Ken needed to take a seat after using it. Ai decided that now would be the best time to ask questions.

“What happened to Kyosuke? Why did he randomly start attacking me?”

“I don’t know, one-second Kyosuke was standing still and the next he was talking about how much he wants to save his friends, before he could finish his entire body started to shift into this demonic entity, yet, it had a slight hint of angelic pride. I’ve never seen anything like it before, do you know anything about this?”

Ken thought to ask Ai since it’s been two weeks since they’ve gotten here and he expected that she might have a story to tell.

“Well, I’ve never personally seen this power, but my father had seen him use something like this to fight off a man named Kieran Blakely. Kieran was a man that used to be under my father’s wing before greed and envy took over him, he became a powerful murderer who terrorized the Kingdom for years. Once Kyosuke came, within a day he was able to put an end to his terror, not long after Kyosuke did that though, the kingdom was attacked and my father was killed.”

Ken looked at Ai with pity, he knew the pain she must have felt when she realized that her father had died from someone that had been terrorizing the Kingdom she so loved. She lost the only person she could trust and had to start her whole life over because of it.

“I’m going to take Kyosuke away for six months, in that time I want you to train with Adal until Kyosuke comes back. I’ll make sure he doesn’t change too much so don’t worry. I want you guys to learn some spells that’ll get you into Mutien Academy, they don’t take just anyone and you’ll need some pretty strong techniques to get in there.”

After saying that and not even letting Ai put in her words on the matter, he got up and picked up Kyosuke, he looked behind him to see Ai sitting there starting to cry. Ai for the first time had someone she liked, and she’s losing him already.

“Don’t worry Ai, daughter of Edwin Vandel. You’ll get him back soon enough, just don’t die and you’ll see him in six short months.”

Saying that Ken turned around, pointing forward.

“The path ahead of you kids is looking dark, so you best keep moving forward and don’t linger too long in the past.”

Ai looked up at Ken as he walked up into the sunset, Kyosuke in his hands, the night was over and no lives we lost. She walked over to Adal and picked him up onto her back, he fought hard and it shows. Ai walked into the house with Adal and closed the door, looking out into the vast unknown.

***

“DAMMIT!”

Suke threw off all of the food on the table.

“I should have killed that damn fool then and there, now he’ll have more time to get stronger, and because of these injuries it’ll take forever for me to get back into full strength.”

Two people walked into the dining hall, they’re faces were blurs to the world, but as they moved closer to Suke they finally showed themselves.

“Hello, Suke, How did the fight with Kyosuke go?”

Asked an almost identical Adal.

“It was a little more intense than I originally thought, the damn fool’s moving a lot faster than I expected and before I know it, he’ll be ahead of me.”

A girly voice spoke up to calm Suke down.

“Don’t worry Suke! You’ll always have me to calm you down!”

A girl who looked exactly like Ai latched onto Suke, causing him to fall out of his chair. This girl's feelings for Suke were much stronger than Ai’s for Kyosuke.

“If they hurt you again, I’ll kill, kill, KILL THEM ALL!”

Suke laughed this off, the Tsundere side of Ai's body double was showing and it gave Suke the rush he so needed.

They all began laughing, their training started today, they’ll become strong enough to wipe out Kyosuke and his friends, that way no one else will be in their way to take over Acrayma.