"Great, that's everything in the house and still no info on the lab," I muttered to myself as I sat down on my parents' bed. I looked to the left and saw my mom's computer and flipped it on, "Maybe her file history will have something, a clue, maybe information on the type of lab it is....That could help." I saw a tab open on her internet page. I clicked on it, and a video popped up. It said, "How to show mother's love."
I chuckled a little (is this for real? Nah, not her.) I turned to the bottle of Cola that I brought and began chugging it down as I prepared for another round of searching when I heard the doorbell ring.
"Guess that must be them." I jumped from my bed and walked downstairs to the front door, and opened it to find my parents standing there.
"Hey kiddo, hope you didn't miss us too much?"
"Hi, Dad. Greetings, mother." I walked up and grabbed their luggage. "How was your trip?"
"It was acceptable." She responded while walking past me. "But I'll need to leave again soon, your Lord Aamon has a job for me in the Headhunters' territory. It appears someone has been misbehaving."
"Oh, I see." I began packing away the groceries that they had bought. I glanced at them and saw my father nudging her.
"H-Hey Liam, do you want to come on a mission with me?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"A mission, you've never gone on one with me before, right? So let's take you on a real one."
The video on her laptop came back to me(Is this really happening? How pathetic, honestly. Maybe I can get her to reveal something if I go with her, after...) I gave a warm smile, "Sure, let's go." (She, for the first time in my life, seems vulnerable)
We took the car to the grassy hillside of the island where all the Kara-no-goki family members live. It's a beautiful forested mountain that overlooks the entire island, much like the one in the centre where we had the tournament. At the top was grandfather's mansion. It, much like its owner, was a testament to his power. It was an old Shiro-style Mansion with a bit of Victorian Gothic inspiration for the colours, walls and watch towers. It loomed over the land like a dark shadow, casting the island into the abyss. Mother didn't even stop to marvel at the building; she just casually walked to the front gate like she was walking into a supermarket.
The soldiers outside panicked upon seeing her and quickly opened the gate. Making sure not to slow her stride for even a second. As we walked to the front...I think that's a gate...or a tower...I honestly don't know. We got closer to it, and it began opening, letting out a strained sound. It was like creaking, but not from age but pure sturdiness. The door opened into a wooden hallway with jade pillars holding up the ceiling. Each pair of pillars depicted a war between good and evil, and as we got closer to the end, the pillars, the last ones, had no images, just a weird milky white and obsidian black liquid in glass containers. Always together but never mixing.
"Weird choice for an ending." My mother finally said.
"Ya, does that depict unity?"
"No, something stronger."
"What?"
"Diversity and acceptance."
We walked past the hallway and to another set of doors. Two to the sides and one large one in front. My mother turned left and clicked a button. It was for an elevator. As we walked in, she punched some weird twelve-digit code into it, and we moved downwards. The doors swung open to reveal an office with a laptop on the table. It had glass windows and behind it a cave that stretched to infinity. The floor was glass, too. I couldn't see the bottom of the cave at all, either. Only the walls around us. And the ceiling. Miss Seiko walked to the table and pressed a button on the laptop. A demon head image appeared on the screen.
"Greetings, my child. How are you today?"
I looked at her, and she was already kneeling. I didn't even notice her do that. I awkwardly got onto one knee too and began to bow.
"Ah, Liam, you are late."
"I'm sorry, sir, I should have bowed sooner."
"You are forgiven. We have more pressing matters anyway. Daughter, the Headhunters are on the move again. Their leader, Kamala Nyathi, has been experimenting with miso augmentation. Intel suggests that they are based on an old ship not too far from the island. Use the helicopter to fly over there, dispose of this weapon and return to me."
"Would you like me to collect data on this weapon?"
"No, apparently, what they are trying is actually a cheap copy of what we have been doing. Their information would be redundant if not worthless."
"Understood. May we take our leave?"
"Do so."
After changing into proper military gear, we left the compound and walked to the other side and reached a helipad. The pilot let us in, and we were off. The island grew smaller and smaller as we left for the vast sea.
"Hey, Mom."
"Yes...ummm...honey?"
(God, that sounds weird. I need to see if I can get any info on that underground lab.) "Do you do any work that doesn't involve fighting?"
"Yes, research. I work in a lab researching how Chishamiso works, for example, how it's passed down through generations."
"Really, how does that work?"
"Oh, you interested?"
"Ya, I uuuuh... wanna know more about you." The stone-cold glacier that was her face, for the first time, had a little wicker of flame.
"Oh, well. For starters, Chishamiso isn't passed on genetically."
"What?"
"Do not show so much surprise; it makes you look foolish."
"Oh, sorry. Anyway, what do you mean it's not genetic?"
"Well, as we understand it, miso is created when you combine Hearth Ether and Spirit Ether, creating chishamiso. When we do this, it brings out the latent genetic abilities we all have. That much is somewhat true, but there's more to it than that. You see, when we looked at the cells of some of the most spiritually attuned miso users, you know what we found."
"A triple helix?"
"If only. But no, we found nothing, nothing at all. Their cells are as identically different as the rest of us. In other words, there was nothing special about their cells. Sure, it had small bits of genetic code telling us what their abilities were, but those were remnants from using their powers so much. In other words. Our powers come almost completely from the spirit. In other words-"
"When we have children, we pass on a sliver of our souls to them."
"Exactly, it seems that souls work just like plants. When you rip a piece of it, the seed, that seed simply grows anew. Which also means?
"Souls are tangible."
"Right again. Now all I need to do is figure out how to separate the soul from the miso, creating a misoless human. Or maybe even giving one to someone who doesn't have a miso, like your father, for example."
"Ma'am, sorry to interrupt, but we are coming up on the ship." Said the pilot
"Right, thank you." She got up and took a long, wrapped-up rod from next to her. "Liam, let's go."
"Okay."
"Going into stealth mode." The helicopter flew up into cloud cover as a hatch opened up below us. My mom, without a second thought, jumped down without a parachute.
"Bloody hell, wonder how she plans on surviving?" I jumped after her. The wind, rain rainwater whizzed past my face as I plummeted to the ship. I noticed my mother was almost to the ground. She snapped her fingers and traded places with one of the soldiers, sending him frying into the ground with a splat.
"Oh god, she killed him?" I threw a disc at a barrel next to her and traded places. As the alarm rang, we snuck into the air ducts and crawled further into the ship. Before long, we reached the cargo bay of the ship. Hundreds of men and women in silver-painted animal skin clothes and jeans stood at the ready everywhere in the bay. Some had silver crocodiles, others lions, some wolves and some honey badgers. There was even a giraffe.
"Mom?" I whispered.
"Yes, Liam."
"No killing, if we can avoid taking a life, I'd rather do that."
"Just like your father, honestly. Fine, no killing. But we'll have to camp up here for a bit. Best to let them believe we've left the ship before we move on.
We sat atop the containers hundreds of feet off the ground as troops walked by looking for the would-be intruders. We were probably there for about three hours.
"Hey, Mom."
"Yes, L...yes, honey?"
"Do you always do missions like this?"
"No, some of my other missions are more personal than this."
"Like what?"
"Well, once I needed to get information out of a man, but he was notoriously resilient. He was an American agent, responsible for local defences for a redacted base. I knew that basic torture wouldn't get me far, so I tailed him for a week. Found out that he liked going out partying a little too much. And his wife and kids were none the wiser."
"Blackmail?"
"No, no, that wouldn't go anywhere. He'd die before he gave up his comrades. No, I needed to do something else. So I lured him in." I gave her a concerned look. "No, I didn't do what you're thinking. Like any man can come close to your father."
"Ewww."
"Sshhhh, voice down. Anyway, I messed with him. A little flirting, a few Polaroid pictures."
"Polaroid?"
"Man loved his cameras, fancied himself a connoisseur of photography. Anyway, after all that build-up, he was head over heels for me. I did more than just turn him on; I listened and understood. Then finally came the day I let him do the deed, and what happens?"
"What?"
"Kidnapped. He wakes up in a damp dungeon half half-naked a freezing cold. Next to him is my cell, thick concrete separating us. He couldn't see me, but he could hear me well and good. Poor man figured that some terrorist group was after him and profusely apologised for getting me into this mess. I cried but told him it's not his fault; he was surprised that even after all of that, I still showed him kindness and love. That's when the torturer came. Beat him to an inch of his life, asking my questions."
"Who was the torturer?"
"Me, of course. As expected, nothing I did made him crack, so...I moved on to his mistress."
"Wait, but you're the mistress."
"Exactly, self-mutilation wasn't easy, but it had to be done. He heard her cry and scream, but he still didn't give in. He apologised, of course but you know what I told him?"
"What?"
"At least he didn't hurt you. The next day, the torturer came back, and I offered to take the beatings and pain. Torturer would come, I'd offer to take the pain, and then we'd spend the night talking about how much we love each other. Some days, the torturer would ignore me, but most I got what I wanted. I used one of our workers to put me back together and rinse and repeat. Two weeks go by finally, he breaks. He tells me everything I need to know, but in exchange, I'd be let go, and he would gladly continue to suffer for me, his pain for my safety. I got what I needed and left."
"Where is he now?" I asked, a hint of fear in my voice.
She looked deep into my eyes, her crimson eyes absorbing my every expression. She smiled, a warm, sweet, innocent smile. The kind you'd give to your loved one. The kind of smile I've always wanted her to...
"Mom, where is he now?" I repeated.
"He's happy." She whispered.
A chill ran down my spine. "Look alive, Liam. The Headhunters are finally calling off their dogs. We can move."
I blinked back to reality and followed her deeper into the catacomb of shipping containers. Eventually, we reached one that had a wolf symbol on it. She pulled out a blood red longsword and slashed through the steel like it was water. The doors open, and inside we saw a set of stairs leading to a well-furnished underground lab. She pulled the doors closed and wedged one of the long poles she cut off into the door to keep it from reopening.
"There's no way of doing this quietly, especially since we won't be killing so, move quickly and expect heavy resistance when we exit."
"Got it."
She sheathed the longsword and dashed down the stairs. Almost immediately, gunshots were let loose, but she was too quick. She traded places with anyone and everyone, making them shoot at each other. I rushed in and tossed around as many disks as possible. Zipping around and knocking out as many guards and scientists as I could. One was running to a panic button, but my mom traded places with him, and I knocked him out. All thirty targets were down in twenty seconds.
"Too slow. Hey, keep an eye on them, would you? She walked to what looked like a bank vault. She took her sword out again and slashed through it like it was nothing, leaving a lava-like mark on the metal. The door swung open. Inside was a little boy with greasy black hair and sunken eyes. He had on a dirty hospital gown that was marked with faded red stains of what I believed was dried blood. He looked pitiful and in pain. She walked in with her weapon drawn, saying what sounded like a prayer in Japanese. I kicked up a disk and bicycle kicked it past her head. Teleporting to it and punching her in the face, sending her a few steps back.
"No bad Liam."
"The hell are you planning. He's obviously not an enemy, so leave him alone."
"You don't know what that thing is. He's a miso experiment, one that must be destroyed; these things level city's child. Get out of my way."
"No."
"Are you really willing to fight *me*, for some monster you don't know?"
I got into a ready stance and took out a few disks. "The only monster I see. Is the thing right in front of me?"
"Should have known." She traded places with my disk, shattering my fingers into pieces and punched me. I tucked and rolled, screaming at the pain, but quickly got up to tackle her.
"RUN, SHE'S GOING TO KILL YOU," I yelled to the kid. He got up and sprinted in fear. My mom kicked me off and tried to sprint after him, but I caught her leg and got her in a sudokuh chokehold. I could hear an alarm go off. (Seems the kid escaped.) She somehow flipped me off of her and got up to run after him, but guards surrounded her. One ran to a wall and hit a self-destruct button. She roared in anger and began hacking away. As she was in the middle of her slaughter, I ran and dropkicked her to the ground and tried her hands to a table.
"Shit, I need to get these people out of here." I looked around for as many alive guards as I could and slowly carried them to boats. When the other headhunter realised what I was up to, they began to help me carry their friends out. I guess they cared more about survival than vengeance. I then went back for my mom, but she was gone. As the boat began to explode and sink, I grabbed a life jacket and dived into the water. It took a few hours, but I managed to swim back to shore despite my hand. As I walked on the beach, I saw my mother behind me, stepping out of the water, covered in blood.
"Do you...have any....any idea how many sharks I had to....k...kill for you?" She was out of breath, seems she swam all the way back without a jacket.
"At least...the boy...is safe."
"Oh, him. No, I found him...and the other Headhunters. You and I...are the only survivors."
"H-how?"
"How else, Liam, I swam."
"No....NO!" I rushed her, but suddenly everything went black.
I could hear light rain pitter-pattering on a window. The low hum of a car sang a soothing alarm to me, awakening me with a gentle nudge. I opened my eyes, and I was in the back of a car. My life jacket was gone, and my clothes were replaced with a suit and tie. My hair was still a little moist, but the rest of my body was dry. I got up to take in my surroundings. Mother was the one driving. We were in a forest, and we were heading back to our grandfather.
"You killed them. The kid was one thing, but the soldiers. They were running away. Why kill them?" I asked, with exhaustion sitting heavily in my lungs.
"They'll be looking for vengeance, and they saw our skills and who we are. Such things make us recognisable. The Kara-no-gokis can't be tied to something like this."
"So it was for grandpa."
"N-not entirely."
"That doesn't change anything. It was unnecessary. Are you serious, trying to convince me that Grandpa is worried about some wannabe wolf pack?"
"It's not Grandpa's safety that concerns me."
"Then who?"
"....doesn't matter, what's done is done."
I lay back down. Frustrated and exhausted. I looked at my hand and saw that the limbs had grown back. Probably Aunty Cassidy's doing. That makes six debts now....damn.
"Mother, that story you told me about your agent. You know what bothers me most?"
"I lied, Liam. I thought it would be funny, but I guess I was wrong; nonetheless, I killed him a few weeks after I got the information. But I did show him my face first for good measure, though."
"No, not that. It's that you managed to convince a random man that you loved him, but couldn't be bothered to convince me." The car stopped for a moment. I could hear her fists clench against the steering wheel, but I didn't care. She can get as mad as she wants and yell. After a long pause, she took a deep breath then began to drive again. We reached the mansion and gave a briefing to Ms Seiko. Mother omitted any details of our fight, thankfully, but the ride home was still awkward.