Neverending Tempest - FINALE

Proof of Resolve

TW: 18+ | Slight Descriptions of Violence | Mature Language

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I always got Muskat

You always got Kyoho

A treat to reinvigorate after a long day of work

It’s all coming back now

For most things

I gather the pieces together

Since that day

Memories that don’t serve me

Fade away

Memories of you

Fade away

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PT 393, Present, Dimension ???

I sped down the highway, cutting through traffic like a hot knife through butter. Why the fuck now? I’d done everything perfectly. Everything! What could’ve gone wrong?! I could feel the mask’s essence on the seat to my side. It was like it was attracted to my face. Now was not the time to use it, it was dangerous. It’d probably kill me!

Edriel appeared in the passenger seat with her feet up on the dash. “I don’t think it will, Enzo. Maybe you should try it on.”

“Stop listening to my thoughts!”

“They are pretty loud. It’s almost hard not to listen in. I’m telling you, Enzo. That mask might be able to help you out in a pinch. Maybe…put it on and think real hard about Kabukicho.”

I gave Edriel a rattled, confused look. Before throwing the mask over my face. I thought about the red lights. The street stuffy with massive crowds of both tourists and citizens alike. The next thing that flashed in my mind was Emi. What they could be doing to her. Daisuke, his face beaten into the ground. Everything I do. It’s all for her. I hate myself for imagining a life without my sister, a life where she isn’t happy.

If I’m allowed to be happy, why can’t she?

Lights, colors, senses, everything was distorted, ripped apart and then reformed. My senses ducked out, color perception was warped to an agonizing degree, and my body felt light, like there was nothing there, just my soul, floating in space for a brief second. With a blink in spacetime, there I was, outside of the hospital. My phone immediately rang. It was Kubota. I let it ring out. With the mask’s powers, I could see everything I wanted to see. Human bodies were simply stringy structures of code that walked around me. Kind of like Edriel. I thought hard. Take me to Kubota.

I was inside the Kubota family office. The people I wanted to see were simple visages of what could be humans laying on the ground. My hand shook as I ripped the mask from my face only to see corpses. Tons of Kubota’s men laying on the ground. I examined one of them, only to see a single hole sliced through their heads. Just like Nova’s weapon. As I moved through the office, the bodies only became more abundant, and exceedingly brutalized. Like they were slashed with a sharp weapon. Maybe a sword. When I heard Daisuke’s crying, my astonishment was thrown out the window as I began a full sprint to the heart of the office. I kicked the door off its hinges. The red hair and freckles were all too familiar. He held the hand of Emi. His other hand over her eyes, and a jagged, bloody spear on his belt. Daisuke stood next to him, yelling.

“Enzo?! What are you doing here?” Daisuke gasped through tears.

What stood before them was an unrecognizable body on the ground. There was blood all around Daisuke and especially Nova. Spatter on the walls, from the multiple large gashes across the body, made from the spear.

“Who…Whose body is that?” I asked.

“We didn’t know what he was gonna do, Enzo!”

“He was going to hurt your sister. So I stopped him.”

“Are you insane? Do you know what this means for us?”

“It was his fault. He did this!” Daisuke cried. “He came in here and said he knew you! So Kubota thought you were working behind his back.”

“So he killed him.” I muttered.

“I was just protecting the little girl. She’s innocent in all of this.”

“We’ve gotta get out of here. Go into hiding. We can talk about this somewhere else.”

Screech!

We heard the sound of tires spinning against the asphalt as they drifted to the Kubota office. Our heads bobbed up, down and around, trying to find an escape. Nova picked his spear from his side and pushed Emi into Daisuke’s grasp. He hugged her close to his stomach, keeping her sight concealed.

“Guys…What’s going on?” Emi sniffled.

“It’s alright Emi, we’re just playing a little game of hide-and-seek. I want you to stay close to me, okay? Since I’m your partner.” Daisuke explained.

I threw my arm to Nova’s wrist as he lifted his weapon.

“You’ve shed enough blood today. We need to get Emi to safety.” I whispered.

“Fine then, follow me.”

Nova shifted his gaze to a window in the corner of the room. He gave himself a running start, and with a crash he shattered the window, cleanly landing on the ground below. It was a nearly ten feet fall.

“Do you have Emi?” I asked.

“You go first. Be ready to catch me if I mess up.”

“We don’t have room to mess up now.”

I smashed through the window. The wind went against me as gravity hooked onto me, shaking my body and dragging me to the ground with its chains.

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Nova was in the front seat of the car, we took the chance to calm Emi with some eye-spy games. It was a long, quiet ride. We were all in shock from what happened, nevermind talking about everything happening with Emi in the car with us. Nova told us he was taking us somewhere safe, and we had no choice but to trust him. The Hironaka clan would be after all of us in no time. Before we hopped in the car, Nova sliced the ankle monitor from my leg. We drove across Arakawa river, I rolled the window down and chucked it out, plopping it into the river, even if it was still active, I’d be halfway down the river if they tried to track me. The city’s buildings progressively became tinier and tinier, more spread-out. We drove past nature foundations and increasingly vast woods until we made it to Nova’s home deep in the woods of Omitama. Upon exiting the car, Nova led us into his house. It was furnished practically. The biggest room was by far the living room, which has a table fit for two with tatami mats next to an island that was situated in front of his kitchen. There were two other rooms, one was Nova’s, we could see the reflection of candy pink paint out of the room to the left in the hallway, contrasting with calmer colors on the right. A little girl flew out of the room into Nova’s arms.

“Daddy!” She chirped.

Her hair was the same as Nova, it was like she was a clone. For the first time, when I looked up at Nova’s face, I caught a smile.

“This is my daughter, Rhea.”

“Who are these guys?” She asked.

“Some work friends of mine. We have much to discuss. But dinner will be ready soon. How was school?”

“Boring. We never learn anything!”

“You always say that. Did you do anything fun?”

“Well…I guess we wrote haikus. We all got to come up with our own.”

“Do you want to show me yours?”

“I wrote about you. From wartimes.”

She dug in her bag and handed Nova a piece of paper. Out of curiosity, I peeked over.

“Stained with crimson red

Forever caged by choices

Will I change my fate?”

He handed it back to her, and knelt down on one knee. Coming to her level.

“Always so serious and mature, aren’t you? Remember, we are not caged by our choices. It’s what we do after we make those decisions that decides our fate. You are quite the poet. If you write more, don’t be afraid to share.” He assured.

I was next to kneel down to Rhea’s level.

“Hi Rhea, I’m Enzo. This is my sister, Emi.”

Emi peeked out from behind me. She held my pant leg as she locked eyes with Rhea.

“Oh! Nice to meet you Emi! Do you wanna go see my room?”

“Yeah, sure…!” Emi responded in a murmur.

Emi timidly followed Rhea. Keeping her distance and peering back at me as she followed her. I gave her a smile and motioned for her to go. She nodded with a smile back. Nova took us outside and into a barn that sat at the back of his land. As we approached the barn door, boars approached the fence to our left. I was startled by their excited snorts and squeals. There’s almost no animals in Kabukicho. Nevermind farm animals.

“Woah! Ho there Crystal!” Nova exclaimed.

A tanuki flew to his shoulder.

“What is this place? What are you?”

“I’m a farmer, simple as that.”

“You kill these animals?!” Daisuke accused.

“No, I would never! I simply like animals. They humble you. Plus, girls love it. Explains why yakuza scare girls off.”

“I love the house-tour. But we need answers, Nova. What is going on with you? You just murdered an entire office of yakuza, and now you come home and act like it was just another day at the office. I need answers.”

“You need answers? I heard you were half-way across the world. The next second you meet Daisuke and I at Kuroba’s office. What about that?”

“I guess I should explain. This is going to sound crazy, I went to my father’s house in the U.S. I found a mask that made the world look like…code. When I looked through the mask everything was like it could be bent and manipulated like a video game. A woman appeared before me, and she taught me to use the mask to warp across the world.”

Nova and Daisuke looked at me with blank faces. Daisuke laughed at me, and Nova let out a chuckle, but his demeanor was not as hysterical as Daisuke’s.

“A mask that lets you see the world like what? Like a computer? That must be a really shitty mask!”

I took the mask from my side. I could still feel it’s essence calling to me.

“What? Do you want me to show you? I will!”

“No. I believe you.” Nova cut in. “What was the name of the woman who appeared?”

“She called herself Edriel. She said a bunch of cryptic things and then disappeared.”

“What did she show you?”

“How do you…? What do you mean?”

“Did she show you someone’s memories? Ones that were not your own?” Nova asked with a desperate look on his face.

“Yeah…A girl with big green eyes and curly orange hair, and a man with silver hair and silver eyes. They were in wartimes, and I think they fell in love.”

“I experienced the same thing. That man with silver hair, Theodore Springer. The girl with orange hair is Terra Lorenz. They become partners, and have a child that they name Rhea.”

“That’s…Your kids name, and you’re supposed to be Terra, right? I recognized you from my childhood. Don’t you remember me? We went to training together. But you left. Why do you call yourself Nova?”

“Because I’m not Terra.” He asserted sternly.

“Well, sure. But I dreamt about you. I swore you were Terra. Don’t you remember me?”

“No. I’m not her.”

“So why do you do the same things as her? You have this armor you control telekinetically, a daughter named Rhea, you fought in a war with the armor! There’s no world where that is a coincidence.”

“Edriel’s probing of my mind was supposed to make me like her, but I denied her. I carved my own way. I’m done being someone I’m not.”

“So then what is my place in all of this?” I asked.

“You were supposed to be Tempest. How wrong that went.”

“How do you know all of this?” I asked “What is wrong with this world?”

“Enzo!” Daisuke cried. “They’re here!”

“Motherfucker! How’d they follow us!” Nova shouted.

He ran out of the barn and into the house. I ran after him, yakuza poured out of squad cars outside of the house. Smoke was blasted into the air as gunshots rang through the air. My sight was even more obscured as I smashed down the door into the house. I saw Nova run in and throw his body over Emi and Rhea.

Bang!

A rattle of shots burst out of yakuza’s guns. I picked the mask from my side.

“Call me!” Edriel probed.

“Don’t!” Nova cried.

I obeyed her like a sheep. As the mask came to my face, everything went green.

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Pure black. There was nothing. There was nothing yet I could feel everything. My skin tingled like it was going to set on fire. My head hurt, my fingertips shook with this new energy that shocked me awake like lightning. Still. I could see nothing. I felt like I was floating in pure blackness. Affixed into my vision was a vague outline of Edriel’s face, pressed up close to me. I could feel her now. She felt…real. Solid. Like a real woman. But her look hadn’t changed.

“Enzo Eclipse. You were a mistake, it’s like I threw too many pieces I had laying around in a blender, and out popped Enzo! I am impressed, but kind of disappointed. I may be able to bend matter, but I cannot predict fate. I’m sorry I manipulated you. We need to learn the truth sooner or later. I know they will use you. They’ll send you after me. I’m tired of following the pre-destined narrative. I’m going to do my own thing. Your sister and friends? They don’t matter. They are not real. The world you grew up in is fake. You are set free from the matrix. Congratulations.”

She faded into nothingness. Back to black. Like a bright flash, my eyes opened. My skin was pierced by wires that spun all around my body. Bubbles floated up in front of my face as I began to feel the water soaking my body. I could breathe just fine. The “air” was clean, and so was my vision. As I came to, I looked around the area. Lights blared. Bouncing off my tank and coating the water and me with a blood-like red. Scanning the room, there was a console and some sort of advanced computer ahead of me. I look to my left. There is Nova. He’s in a tank just like my own. But he must’ve regained consciousness before me. Because he’s staring at me. It sets in. I begin to violently inhale and exhale the water I had been breathing for all years of my life. My heart races, it’s the only thing I can hear. Images of Emi and Daisuke run wild in my mind. If we are here, and they are not, they…

I smash my cage open and fall to the cold, hard floor. Maybe my senses aren’t the same as they were, but the real floor feels very different than the perceived feeling of one. The wires that had been set into my skin are ripped forward as I fall to the ground, wet, sopping blood staining my body. A woman steps into the room. She has long, pink hair and an eyepatch. She looks down at me with annoyance. She’s followed by a maid with a clipboard.

“What a disaster. What did you do, Temp?” The woman says.

“My…Name isn’t Tempest. It’s Enzo…”

“Oh, it calls itself Enzo.”

She scans the room, and the red lights go off.

“Terra’s awake too.”

“Master has classified him as Terranova. He’s due for extermination.”

“I told you a million times. I can bring the old Terra back, as long as ‘master’ agrees to my request.” She mocked.

“He’s agreed to your request with prejudice. Nova may join you. You may do whatever you would like with the other one. Edriel ruined him.”

“Pretty messed up to say that about your own creation, isn’t it?” The woman chided.

“I will write that down for Master N to hear.”

“Good joke.”

The maid came over to Nova’s tank. She pressed a button on the side, draining it of all of it’s water. Nova burst from it. As he landed, he was possessed by a fury that must’ve controlled his body for him. He sent his fist rocketing into the head of the maid. Robotic guts burst out of her in an instant. He turned his attention to the woman. She snapped her fingers. It was like a sinkhole appeared in the floor. But it was a portal to a different dimension. Nova fell through, and the hole closed. Like he had never been there.

“Boss’s orders.” The woman came to my side and helped me up.

“Emi…Daisuke…”

“Wow, nice to meet you too. My name’s Jackie. Your sister isn’t real. Neither is that other guy. You grew up in a simulated dimension. But I guess things didn’t turn out the way the boss-man wanted them to. To him, you are garbage. But you aren’t a glitch, so killing you would be unethical, I guess.”

“I…Killed my sister”

“You don’t have a sister."