𝑸𝑶𝑻𝑪:

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒖𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒄𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒖𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝒘𝒂𝒔, 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚.

***

As if half of her weight evaporated into the alluring scent of blood surrounding her, as if the fangs of her own monsters embedded into her feet had been freed, as if she was reborn, the girl dragged her flawless body in a fluid motion, almost like with a melody, as she slashed bodies of humans whose deaths were engraved into her all-seeing eye. With perfection like that of a goddess, she carried all the blood surrounding her in extreme precision, absorbing it into her silky skin; no drop wasted. The fog in her mind was as thick as an animal's fur, as she threw her entirety, her identity as Asami Sato back within the obscurity of her heart, being only a POWAN; a hungry one.

Her shimmering white eye caught the reflection of another woman being crushed to a slimy mess of bloodied skin, like a crushed juicy fruit. Nothing could have been more fervent than the feeling of one's stomach being full, as well as one's heart being free. As she stepped into an unknown lane of the underground lab, metal walls devoid of windows and doors, and a ceiling light after every five steps, she wasn't Asami Sato anymore, but a woman out of her mind. And she liked it, judging by as much as her vague consciousnesses allowed her to realize. Another locked door busted open, and her steps lead her to a hall full of experiments, glass chambers situated systematically with cords and wires piercing through their respective holes.

And the only thought illuminating her mind was 'meal'.

In the blink of an eye, the neatly organised scientific room was a bloodied mess, before she sucked it all in, leaving only crumpled bodies lucky enough to be distinguished as corpses, or else pieces of human flesh and bones.

She had only remembered tragedy in her life. Having forgotten everything else, the feeling of euphoria seemed so unfamiliar to her, as if it were an acquaintance of a forgotten past. And how ironically tragic her euphoria was, if it came at the price of her humanity.

But Asami was, by far, not concerned about trivial things like those. She was getting what she needed, as she ignored the rising weight in her gut and focused solely on how the liquid tasted against her skin.

Another door thrown open, and her movements paused. Children, no more than the age of six or seven, helplessly curled into the corners of their glass containers, bodies shaking with terror, eyes flooded, alone amid the sounds of death echoing outside their room.

She approached, sound of slow steps breaking the silence of the room, no care in mind if her meal were young children abandoned mercilessly before a cannibalistic monster by some other monsters, far more cannibalistic than her. But she realised she was still Asami Sato deep inside, when one of the little children, a girl with trembling lips, tear-stained face and scarred body, completely halted her movement in its place with her words.

"Big sister will protect us, right?"

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵?

The word sounded so foreign to her ears, even though she had been ready to swear her life to do the same a few days ago. It was as if she had compartmentalized her memories into fractions, locking the unwanted ones and throwing them into an untouched space. Each syllable had passed her ear like a cold afternoon breeze in summer, totally not belonging in that place. The words had come out so meekly from her mouth, Asami had almost missed them. But she didn't.

"Big sister has forgotten how to protect. She only knows how to kill."

Her response made the girl clamp her widened jaw as more tears ran down her cheeks, eyes widening like saucers and no trace of voice residing in her throat. The rest of the children screamed pathetic pleas of help, though unbeknownst to them, there was no one to hear their cries, except Asami.

But somehow, she couldn't move. Her hand stopped where it was, and not a single movement which could harm them was made. The feeling of weight in her gut increased tenfolds, and her heart, which felt so light a few seconds ago, was weighing against her chest like a boulder.

The movement was made though, as her legs carried her outside the chambers, and the cries reaching her ears subsided into slow whimpers. Oblivious to the reason behind leaving a good meal, teeth clenched and fingernails digging deep inside the skin of her palms, she felt frustrated; frustrated with the fluttering feeling in her heart. Forcing her eyes to shut, she skid with lightening speed to find another meal.

As her bare feet came in contact with the cold metal of the floor, sending chills down her spine, her steps slowed, slowly shrinking in rate as they finally halted. The thing before her, a large circular metal door, wasn't what caught her attention, but the presence behind her. A vicious uplift of her lips concocted itself on her face, teeth showing slightly at the edge as she extended her hand, the air around it warming up, the degree intensifying per second as she finally launched. A large amass of fire shot out of her hand, making the thick metal of the door melt away fractionally and revealing the silhouette of a man behind the flames.

Asami entered, skin of her ankles burning to an ashen shade as she stepped on the burning metal and regenerating back the second she entered.

"Good to see you, Asami."

She smirked.

"Likewise, Kite."

***

"Here." The woman extended a water bottle towards him, despite the rain hitting them like arrows from the sky. "Thought you might need this."

The man took it, looking from the clouded night sky towards the woman, and then the bottle. The air had crisped under the freezing atmosphere and they had been holed up under this makeshift shed for more than a week. Half of them had died on the way here, either from the pain or from the wounds of the fire lit by P.E.D. officers, some killed by a few experiments going berserk and still, about a fifty of them remained, all covered in ragged patient gowns or torn curtains.

"How did you get this?" The man asked, not oblivious to the lack of money they faced.

"Picked a few pockets." The woman plopped down beside him, face covered in wet filth, chapped lips brushed with dust. "How did we end up like this, Yurui?"

The woman had taken a liking to calling him by his actual name, unlike the others, who either hadn't known his real name, or were too used to call him Kite. He hadn't known her name though, and neither was he too interested in knowing. "I don't know, Snow."

Clenching his teeth and tightly balling his fist, crushing the bottle he was holding, the man pinched the bridge of his nose. He had barely recovered from the news about Gretta's death, and her having a child, and now it'd been over a week since they had been thrown into an abandoned slum – for their need had been no more – which was set on fire to kill them to erase every evidence of their filth. The sight of his mates, begging, hanging on to the feet of those inhuman monsters, crying for mercy for them and their children had haunted him every single second. Since when had they been at fault? Being born at the laboratory hadn't been a choice, nor had been having Gretta die, then why? Why had it been for them to be abandoned? They had barely managed to escape the fire, most of them ending up with burns, making them disabled for the rest of their lives. He looked over to the children, hungry and sleep-deprived, hanging lifeless to their mothers' bodies. He wouldn't be too surprised if one of them died the next day. Tears formed in his eyes, his hands reaching their way into his hairs, tearing them apart as he buried his face between his knees. His cry reached everyone, especially surprising the woman beside him, as he screamed helplessly, tears streaming down his face, "I hate them. Those heartless bastards, why were we... I can't ever- ever forgive them."

It wasn't anything new to say. They had repeated the same thing over and over again, but the hurt had never stopped. His tears reciprocated, women hugging their children sobbed into their necks as men cried, holding their heads. Snow cried, one arm holding his shoulder and other grasping her mouth.

"I can't take this anymore. All of this, they should be the ones—"

A man crashed into the wall, and Kite's words hung in the air. No one dared to move, as the stranger stayed still, collapsed on the floor. Finally, Kite stood up, shrugging away the arm holding him, and reached the body of the newcomer.

His white hair and white beard gave him a full look, but so was not the case with his body. His limbs were barely there, thinned like a dry branch and paler than white. It was a topic to be pondered upon as to how he even reached this far with those legs. Or maybe that had been why he crashed in the first place. But what caught his eye was his wound. It was slow, but it was closing up, skin intertwining together and forming a firm layer. With trembling hands, he reached for his eyelid, pulling it open as his eyes widened. The not too unusual white eyes shone like the new moon in the darkness surrounding them, brighter thermost POWAN's did. Kite's breath stopped in his throat; he barely ever heard about the past, but he had been the most knowing member of the P.E.D., all for his supportive nature.

The man before him was unmistakably the other Sato brother.


***

"How could you even do this?" Asami asked, pivoting her leg to shift to an attack stance once her eyes met with her ghostly ancestor seated comfortably on his wheelchair beside Kite. "Wasn't your plan all to protect these people you abandoned?"

"I abandoned them?" A forced laughter stifled from his mouth, "No, Asami. I could never have abandoned them after what they did for me. I was late, yes, but I was saving what they had spent their lives believing in and creating." He pointed his finger towards old Atsusuke, his face lacking any trace of humour, bolstering pure fury as his eyes showed red, "this is what they spent their whole life improving. And they died; by your hands. As much as I hated you, I loved them even more, and you," his breath hitched, "you did not bat an eyelash doing what you did. No mercy for anyone, children and women equal."

The girl stayed quiet, for her own perplexity over her decision to leave the children was too much, leaving no space for arguing with the man consumed with rage. But no, his rage wasn't even near to what Asami felt. Days of anger and hatred had welled up inside her monsoon heat, only to form thunder clouds; the clouds to wash away anything and everything that had been the cause of her hurt, starting with the man before her.

"You did what you wanted." His eyes welled up, but none of the wetness left his lashes, "Each one of them is dead. But I am alive. And I will make you and your family, your whole damn clusterfuck of an organisation pay for what you did to us."

Clenching his fingers on the back of Atsusuke's wheelchair, he moved it forward, "Go. Kill her."

Her eyes widened when the seemingly half-dead man stood up, legs trembling before he found his footing. Opening his eyes, he revealed two pupil-less white eyes, shining like the sun, nothing like Asami had seen.

Closing her widened jaw, she propped her weight on her left leg, hunched forward to bend her body slightly, right leg sliding back to give momentum, as she herself revealed her white eye, gleaming like the moon under the camouflage of her silver hair.

The skin on her fingers hardened, gaining a lustre unlikely of a human body before the entire limb turned into metal.

"Kill me, huh?" She smirked, repositioning her metallic arms before her, as her opponent seemed to do the same, readying himself for a speedy thrust, "Trust me. I failed a lot at that."

With one last battlecry, she launched.

_________________________________________________________

Fu fu fu. A cliffhanger!!!

I like it. Anyway, a big fight is approaching so be prepared between the fated battle of the two relatives. The flashback was totally random and on the spot thinking but I hope it came our right. For the rest of it, as always, I wish you enjoy it. Thank you for your constant support.

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