Chapter 22

A Territory South of Rose Kingdom

Three Years Ago,

On a long, open road, with fields lining the horizon as far as the eye can see, a jet black sedan sat off to the side in a grass patch with the engine off. A young man sat on top of the car's roof while a tall woman with brown hair worked under the hood.

Clank.

“Ah shit,” the woman cursed after dropping a screw down into the engine. Hearing it drop through and land on the ground, she leaned down and picked up the front end of the car with one hand.

“Hey! Fucking warn me before you do that!” the young man shouted. When she picked up the front, he was titled off the car onto the ground.

“My bad.” She set the car back down with the screw back in her hand.

These two people were Michelle and Ethan. While the former was more or less identical to herself in the future, the same cannot be said for the latter. Ethan was, at this point, a 16 years old ball of hatred with a massive chip on his shoulder.

He snarled as she continued to work on the car. “How much longer will it be?” he asked in an impatient and aggressive tone.

“I’ve identified the problem, at the very least. The air intake is busted. I’ll need to run to the next territory and pray they have an auto parts store of some kind.”

“Tch. The luck of that happening is fucking zero. We might as well just ditch this piece of shit and run instead.”

“Leave a nice car like this in the middle of nowhere? Are you crazy?”

“Shut it. If you're so adamant about fixing this, I’ll just leave and find my own way.”

“Like hell. My clone will be watching you and will chase you down if need be.”

Ethan looked into the back seat of the car at her clone chatting away on a MC (Mobile Communicator) with one of her business partners.

“Right~. As if you’ll take time out of your busy schedule to supervise me the entire time.” His tone carried more than a hint of resentment and contentiousness.

“I will. You know I will. I’m going to run to the next town. I’ll be back within a couple hours. Stay put.”

“UGHHH!”

“Listen, you little shit,” she said with twitching cheeks that played no part in hiding her annoyance with him. “Stay here or I will make your life miserable. Got it.”

As she said such things, she suddenly thought how mother-like, or at the very least, big sister-like it was. She even possessed the ‘look’ that all great mothers seemed to have, which caused her to lament slightly as she was only twenty years old.

Leaving him and her clone with the car, she took off sprinting down the road at over 60 miles per hour. Ethan watched her depart with bitterness in his eyes. From his perspective, he had essentially been ditched by her, even if her clone was still in the car. He knew this clone wouldn’t take time out of her busy schedule to at least relieve his boredom.

He looked back into the car and heard her muffled voice arguing with someone over an MC call while throwing out various business terms he didn’t understand. Seeing her so distracted, he contemplated running away, as he wasn’t exactly traveling with her by choice. She had forced her care onto him when she found him lying in a ditch bleeding out. While he was grateful for her help then, she kept him tethered to herself since, which was suffocating and frustrating. However, he ultimately decided to stay put as her threat lingered in his mind.

To pass the time, he decided to take his anger out on one of the trees nearby. Although he wanted to punch it full force, he decided against it since, as stated before, his surroundings were mostly fields with only a few trees, and this particular tree was the only one thick enough to stand up to his punches. He wanted it to last for more than just a few minutes.

(Author’s note: Just for comparison, the Ethan of the present day could demolish this tree with a single jab, if you were curious.)

Two hours went by without Michelle returning. During this time, Ethan released his anger upon this tree in ten minute intervals. However, this method of stress relief was not helping in the slightest as he consistently pulled his punches in order for the tree to last. He thought about not doing so, but then the tree would timber and he’d be stuck with nothing to do for an unknown amount of time.

He looked over at the sedan and found that the clone Michelle was still taking calls. He stared at her through the rear glass of the car with an annoyed but puzzled expression.

If she’s so damn busy, why is she bothering to look after me? She’s stretching herself too thin. Why the fuck does she even care?

His trust issues and paranoia towards others were at their height during this point in his life. After being surrounded by the darkest parts of humanity and experiencing numerous betrayal from so called friends, he was convinced that she had some ulterior motive.

He stood up and faced the tree once again, but instead of resuming his punching session, he found himself frozen. He continued to ponder the issue of Michelle. After spending a significant amount of time with her, he started to doubt his conviction that she had a hidden agenda. However, he shook these thoughts away as he couldn’t take the chance to open himself up again.

Tap. A blade was suddenly pressed against the side of his neck.

His eyes widened as he looked towards the blade. He could feel that it had already dug a millimeter or so into the skin and had started to draw blood.

“Don’t move or I’ll split open your neck.”

Ethan did as he was told and stood still, with the exception of turning his head slightly to understand his surroundings, which the blade wielding man didn’t object to. Encircling him was a group of twelve, all armed with blades or guns. On the street, a large transport truck stood as its engine continued to run.

From this, Ethan was able to assume they were a band of kidnapers who, probably, sold people into slavery. He objectively evaluated himself and understood that he was a petite, good looking kid that some sicko would love to play with, so it wasn’t a mystery as to why they would want to take him.

Frustrated, he started to reprimand himself for being careless. While taking his anger out on the tree, he had been lost in thought and let his guard down as a result. He didn’t even hear the truck pull up, let alone anyone approaching him.

Behind him, one of the kidnappers walked up holding a pair of handcuffs. Seeing as he had zero time to contemplate his situation any longer, he readied himself for battle as a smile crept across his face. His true personality began to leak out.

“You know, I was trying to use this tree to release some pent up anger I’ve got, but it just wasn’t fucking working. So I thank you for showing up when you did, asshole. You just made my day.”

Without warning, Ethan swung around faster than the blade wielder could react and drilled his fist into the man’s face. As a result, his head caved in and the impact thoroughly destroyed his brain, killing him. His limp body fell to the ground, much to the horror of the kidnappers.

“R-Riko!” yelled the man with the cuffs, but before he could react, a leg kicked the side of his head, breaking his neck and damn near detaching the whole thing from his torso. His body was sent flying off to the side.

“An Awakened!” a man, presumably their leader, yelled from the back. “Everybody, battle positions! We found ourselves a walking gold mine!”

Ethan reacted quickly to these words, rushing at the closest enemy before they had a chance to ready themselves. The man he lunged at tried to swing the chain he was holding, in an attempt to strike Ethan, but missed horribly due to panic. Not a moment later, a fist struck his body, penetrating through his sternum to crush his heart.

His body was pushed back by the impact into one of his teammates, who braced himself but was still knocked over as he tried to catch a grown man flying through the air at him. Flat on his back, he understood the precarious situation he was in, but before he could rectify it, Ethan was already stomping on his face, the ground under his head cracking as a result.

With four of their comrades dead, the remaining eight backed up and readied themselves for battle. Ethan realised their formation put him at a disadvantage and began to think of a plan. Before he could do so, unfortunately, he instinctively turned around and saw a pistol pointed at his legs. They were shooting to wound and not to kill.

He quickly shifted his body to the side, avoiding the first shot, and began sprinting towards the one holding the pistol. Luckily, the other two gun wielders in the group would hit their teammates if they chose to fire upon him, so he discarded them as a threat until he dealt with the one who fired first.

He dodged and weaved his way past several bullets. At that point in time, he had grown just powerful enough so that he could see a bullet in mid air. However, he still was not fast enough to dodge them after one had left the muzzle. Instead, he zig zagged towards the marksmen, becoming a target which moved faster than he was capable of aiming at.

Ethan, arriving in front of the gunman without a scratch, swiped a hard right hook across his chin, not just dislocating his jaw but rather smashing it clean off his face. Needless to say, with only half a face left, he dropped to the ground and died rather quickly.

Seven remain. Seizing the opportunity, Ethan grabbed the now dead man’s gun and began firing on the remaining kidnappers. Bullets sliced through the air and tunneled into the assailants' bodies, rendering four of them dead and one incapasitated for the rest of the time. However, two managed to dodge his shots with unnatural speeds, which caused Ethan to flinch in surprise.

Those two are Awakened as well.

He stared down his two remaining opponents. One was a tall man with broad shoulders who exuded a dangerous aura as if he were a wild beast in disguise. The other was a woman wearing ripped jeans, a black leather jacket and thick jet black eyeliner. Her appearance gave the impression that she was trying hard to look dangerous but was failing miserably. However, she still was able to dodge the bullet Ethan shot, so he didn’t dare underestimate her.

“Ethan!” yelled the clone of Michelle, who hadn’t gotten out of the car until then for the fear of being shot. Ethan, without turning his head to her, used his last remaining bullet to shoot her in the head.

Never in a million years did she expect to be shot without hesitation by her supposed ‘ally.’

The reason he did this was to alert the real Michelle that he was being attacked. The original can gain the clone’s memories once she decides to cancel the clone’s existence. However, killing the clone also accomplishes the same thing. So, now that she has died, the memories of this incident will be transferred to the real Michelle, making this method the fastest way for him to notify her.

He then dropped the now empty pistol on the ground as he stared down his last remaining foes.

The woman raised her pistol at him and fired in one smooth motion, the speed of it catching Ethan off guard. He tried to dodge but the bullet managed to graze the side of his leg. She still did not aim for a lethal shot.

The wound he received was, for most, enough to render them immoibile, but for someone as accustomed to pain as him, he was able to keep on his feet. Luckily, the bullet hadn’t struck the bone nor caused any major damage to his muscles, so as long as he ignored the pain, he was still okay.

He began to zig zag towards her in the same fashion as he did with his previous opponent. However, in the midst of doing so, he suddenly felt a bullet scrap across his hip, which caused his eyes to widen in shock.

Damn! She can keep up with my movements.

For the average person, he would still be perceivable to the naked eye, but as stated before, trying to shoot some who can side step at one hundred miles an hour is impossible. Be that as it may, for an Awakened like her, she was more than capable of tracking and shooting him accurately.

Although a chunk of flesh was now missing from his hip, he continued to charge towards her as he wanted to take out the long range attacker first. As he closed in, the distance between them shortened to the point where she could no longer aim downwards in time, and since she also couldn’t shoot him in a vital area, she stepped back to let the dangerous looking man take over.

Ethan, whose focus was solely on her, didn’t notice the man lunge towards him. Unprepared, he was hit square in the diaphragm, a hit which sent him flying backwards a good distance. He landed hard on his back in the middle of the field that was off the road, but his momentum continued as he rolled on the ground, kicking up dirt and five foot tall grass along the way.

He eventually came to a stop and laid on his back, trying to regain his breath. Quickly, he popped back onto his feet while holding his stomach, astonished at the strength of his opponent.

He’s … much stronger than me! Shit!

His opponent started charging at him, prompting him to spread his feet and ready a battle stance to receive his next attack. However, just then, he caught sight of the man’s hands.

What in the …?

***

Michelle, who had made it to the next town over, just to find out that, like Ethan predicted, there was no store selling auto parts, was walking back dejectedly with her head hanging low.

What a shitty town. There wasn’t even a merciful mechanic willing to help me. Sob.

She continued to walk silently, encountering no one on the open road, when suddenly, the memories from her clone entered her head. As they ingrained into her brain, she relived what her clone had experienced and instantly understood the situation.

Ethan was under attack.

She took off sprinting down the road towards his location at full speed, thankful that her exhaustion from running earlier had disappeared. But as she ran, she could feel the intense wind resistance from the strong breeze that accompanied that sunny fall day, which frustrated her as it forced her to use more energy while running. It didn’t help that her shoes weren’t meant for exercise of any kind, and at speeds of 60 mph (≈96 kph), they began to fall apart.

However, she didn’t care. She had promised herself that she would take care of him, and she wasn’t about to break said promise.

Eventually, after twenty minutes, she arrived at where she left her car. She was greeted by the sight of ten corpses spread out on the ground and a truck which sat idle in the middle of the road.

But then, she was suddenly startled by the loud crunch of metal as the person she was looking for smashed into the side of the sedan, causing it to flip on it’s side and tumble into the street.

“E-ethan?” she asked involuntarily as his figure laid in the street before her, bleeding profusely. This is unsurprising as he had been fighting consistently for the past twenty minutes. Although the kidnappers were trying their best not to wound him more than necessary, he was far tougher than they expected. If anyone else sustained the injuries he had, they would've long since passed out.

He slowly stumbled onto his feet, using the flipped over car behind him as a ledge to prop himself up. That’s when he noticed Michelle’s presence to his left.

“Took … you … long … enough,” he grunted in a rather annoyed voice, which she thought was just like him. She started to run towards him.

“Hold on, I’ll hel…”

BANG!

Before she could react, a bullet sliced through the air and pierced directly through her eye, instantly dropping her to the ground. Having hit her at an angle, the bullet missed her brain and she was able to stay conscious, which, in actuality, was not a mercy of any kind. Once she hit the concrete road, she began to wail in pain while putting pressure against her eye socket.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh! Fuck!”

“Michelle!”

Walking out of the tall grass field, which was malformed from the fight that had ensued, the assailants who both only carried minor injuries approached Ethan with confident strides. In comparison to Ethan, they might as well have been unharmed.

The woman lowered the still smoking pistol to her side after having made a freakishly accurate shot through Michelle’s eye. Meanwhile, the dangerous looking man casually walked up to Ethan, who stared at him with overwhelming hatred, which he seemed unbothered by.

“Ready to surrender.”

“Fuck off.”

Hearing this answer, the man’s hand transformed into an inhuman looking limb, one which appeared not unlike that of a crap pincer. Only, it was more alien than that as it still had the color of human skin and possessed a much more practical shape for combat than a pincer would.

[Pincer Gem]

Michelle, who was trying to not pass out from the pain, was in awe that such a ridiculous power could actually exist. However she quickly changed her judgement of said power as the man clamped down on Ethan’s head, lifted him up, and smashed him into the bottom of the flipped car.

“GAAAH!” Ethan screamed as his body was used to flatten the car in its entirety, but the man wasn’t done. He lifted Ethan back up into the air and smashed him completely through the car and into the pavement below it. Due to the impact, the automobile was obliterated and web like cracks had formed in the pavement underneath Ethan’s body. He spat out blood as he choked out a groan.

Keeping his grip on the boy’s head, the man then lifted Ethan off the ground, blood trickling from his mouth, and squeezed his head with his pincer. Ethan let out a blood curdling cry as he felt his skull beginning to buckle under the pressure.

“Look kid. I’m trying my best not to kill you here, because honestly, I could have done it a long time ago. Just give up.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Fine. We’ll do it like this. If you don’t let me put cuffs on you or at the very least, allow me to knock you out, I’m gonna rip apart your lady friend over there.”

Ethan’s eyes widened, realising that it was no longer just his life at stake. Michelle’s face mirrored his for a split second, but was soon encompassed by despair. In the moment, having sustained such a heavy injury, she hadn’t the strength to fight back, but that wasn’t why she was despairing.

Although she had vowed to watch over Ethan, she also cared for her own life, and was painfully aware of how Ethan did not care for her at all. If it came down to it, she was certain he’d sacrifice her for his own well being.

Ethan kept calm following his threat. “You think I care what happens to her? She’s just someone who forced herself into my life. Do as you please.”

He answered like how she expected, which caused her body to shake violently with fear. She was just a regular girl from a rich business family that happened to have a cloning ability. She couldn’t muster the will to struggle against or run away from the assailants.

The dangerous looking man flinched at Ethan’s answer, as he had not expected it. “Oh really? But when she was shot, you looked awfully worried. Are you sure that’s your answer?”

“Me?” Ethan question. “Worried? Not fucking likely.” He then proceeded to spit a mouthful of blood onto the pincer man’s face.

“So I can't make you surrender using violence because you're too damn tough, and I can’t hold your girl hostage because you're too cold-hearted? That doesn’t sound like any sixteen year old I’ve ever heard of. Let’s test how ruthless you are, kid.”

The pincer man gave a nod to the armed woman behind him, to which she then proceeded to walk towards Michelle while pulling a large eight inch knife from her pocket.

Michelle tried to scurry away, but was easily caught and held down on the ground by the woman.

Ethan looked on at the scene with an impassive expression, trying his hardest to hide any weakness from his assailants. However, his facade started to crack when he noticed the woman’s knife inching towards Michelle’s other eye.

‘I shouldn’t care. She doesn’t care about you.’ He told himself this, but as he saw her, bleeding in the street with nothing but fear in her eye, his confidence began to waver.

If she was just using him, then she should’ve hated and resented him in that moment, as he was the one which brought this upon her, but he couldn’t find anything but innocent, unbridled terror for the kidnappers.

“W-wait,” he murmured, which didn’t go unnoticed.

“I thought you didn’t care.”

As the knife was brought closer to the helpless Michelle, tears began streaming down her face as she was scared out of her mind. Even if she was an Awakened, in her current state, she was far weaker than the girl pinning her down. For the first time in her life, she was powerless over her own fate.

“Ethan … d-don’t worry about,” she whimpered. “It’s fine. Just do what you have to.”

She tried to flash a smile to him for reassurance, but hadn’t even the strength to do that. Instead, she just closed her one remaining eye and waited for her torture to begin, but just as the knife touched her eye lid …

“Stop!”

And so it did. Michelle opened her eye to see the blade a mere centimeter from her iris, but that is not what surprised her. Her shock stemmed from the fact that Ethan had just saved her.

“Just … just stop, okay. I’ll go with you.”

Michelle’s eye widened in shock. “Wait Ethan, you don’t have to …”

“You fucking dumbass!” Ethan suddenly screamed at her, which, needless to say, was quite unexpected. “Don’t just relinquish your fate to someone else so easily. Don’t die for my sake!”

“E-Ethan …” she stammered, but she couldn’t find the right words to say.

“Just fucking stop. I … surrender,” he said, dropping his hands to his side while the tension was released from his body.

Seeing an opening, the pincer man immediately struck Ethan across the chin with a hard right hook, the first time he landed a hit on his face in the entire fight, which instantly knocked him out. Ethan’s body went slack.

“Leave her, darling,” the pincer man said to the woman. “We got what we came for.”

She relinquished her control over Michelle and joined the pincer man’s side as he threw Ethan into the back of the truck. Once inside, the woman chained Ethan up with over a dozen Batrock chains and a shock collar around his neck.

Meanwhile, the pincer man hopped into the front seat of the truck and pressed on the gas pedal, coldly leaving behind his deceased comrades. The truck began to drive down the road away from Michelle and within a few minutes, she was unable to see it as it disappeared over the horizon.

She laid in the street, holding her throbbing eye and she slowly drifted off in unconsciousness. Her thoughts were erratic, but the one constant emotion she felt was frustration. That and a tinge of guilt.

She couldn’t help herself when she needed to most, even with her powers. If she had created a clone in that moment, it would’ve had the same injury as her, which would’ve made it effectively useless. She had been lectured by Ethan of all people, she had lost an eye, her car was crushed and she was left in the street for dead. But what ate at her most was that he, despite lecturing her on giving up control of her fate, he had done exactly that.

He had willingly let himself be captured and would be sold as a slave, which is the definition of renouncing controlling. She was frustrated that he had to do that in order to save her.

She also felt guilty that she thought he didn’t care for her. She was convinced that he would sell her out in a heartbeat and without remorse, and to realise that she had created the assumption herself without him ever saying so left a sour taste in her mouth.

“Ethan ... I’m sorr…” She couldn’t finish her sentence as she dozed off.