Etienne woke up in a panic, drenched in sweat. He patted his body frantically and swung his head back and forth.
"Okay…I'm not on the plane anymore. And I'm alive. Where the hell am I?"
Etienne looked down at his clothes. He wore a short-sleeved green kimono and straw sandals. He tugged at the kimono and pulled on the sleeves.
"I apologize if it's a bit short. We've never had anybody of your size or your complexion through here, if you can believe that."
A man with an eyepatch on, adorned in a colorful kimono decorated with floral patterns, looked at him from the opposite corner of the room. In one hand, he held an ornate wooden pipe with birds carved into it, and in the other, he held a small plastic card.
He put the pipe to his lips in slow motion. He took a puff and blew out.
Etienne continued to examine him for a while, "Who are you? Are you the one who saved me from the plane?"
The man slowly tapped his chin. It was as if the entire world was at quarter speed, "Yes! Well, no, I didn't, actually. I commanded some villagers to fish you out, and I ordered the doctor to heal you."
He paused for a second and rocked his head back and forth, as if he was bouncing the idea around in his head, "I suppose I did save you, then. My name is Hattori Masanari and I'm the leader of this village. Welcome to the village of Ukiyo on Tashiro Island."
Etienne bowed his head deeply and lifted it back up, "Thank you so much, Masanari-sama."
Hattori put the pipe to his mouth and blew into the air. He held the little card up to his face, "Etienne…Etienne…that's too hard. I think we should call you ikerushikabane. Do you know what that means?"
Etienne sat up on the straw bed, "Masanari-sama, tell me," He pointed to his face, "My appearance doesn't bother you or anything? I'm surprised you're not having a bigger reaction."
Hattori looked over at him, "I had a friend from your side of the world. A young woman. She told me about how men and women fly around the world, how there are no more wars and everybody from all countries live together and intermingle peacefully. I don't know what was more unbelievable. But now I see at least one or two of those things were true."
Hattori looked at him silently for a while and took a few slow drags off his pipe. Etienne kept his eyes fixed on him.
Hattori cracked a smile, "You asked me a question, so let me ask you something, Etienne. You're a martial arts practitioner, aren't you? What do you study?"
Etienne cracked his neck, "Thank you for noticing. I'm not much of a practitioner, per se. I practiced a little aikido for self-defense."
Hattori's face flashed with confusion, "Aikido? I'm not familiar with that discipline. Tell me, why do you study it, for strength? For clarity of mind?"
"He's never heard of it? Isn't it Japanese?" Etienne thought to himself.
Etienne scratched the back of his head hard. Hattori's question echoed and reverberated in his mind. Etienne thought back to the last few years. Deep dives into the esoteric and the arcane. Meeting with criminals and slum lords in back alleys. All for one goal.
Etienne opened his mouth, and with conviction, he stated, "I want to kill the people who took my family from me. And after, I want to make it so no child ever has their parents taken too soon again."
A strange look formed on Hattori's face. Immediately, there was a reverence and respect for the stranger.
Hattori sat up excitedly and, with a big smile, shouted out, "I may have the perfect place for you. You're almost healed and you're free to go after, but if you're interested, I would like to extend an offer to join the Iga Clan shinobi. What do you think?"
Etienne was completely stunned. He opened his mouth to respond, but began to choke. Every time he attempted to catch his breath, he coughed violently.
The young man blinked his eyes rapidly as he attempted to prevent himself from passing out.
After a few seconds, he calmed down slightly and finally catch his breath a bit. The choking stopped completely, but Etienne still struggled to focus, as noise filled his mind.
He took a deep breath in through his nose, then out through his mouth. He repeated it twice, then slowly pried his eyes open.
Etienne looked down and saw clouds below him. He looked up and stared at the moon, almost in grabbing distance. Wind rushed past his ears as he hurtled toward the Earth at frightening speeds.
Through the harsh noise of the wind, Etienne could make out a voice in his ear.
"Gabe!" Etienne identified it immediately.
He hurriedly pressed one of the tiny buttons on the earpiece to turn him up.
"Etienne, can you hear me? Please respond if you are conscious!" Gabe's voice shook.
"I-I'm here Gabe! Do you know what's going on?" Etienne screamed out.
"Try to stay calm!" Gabe responded firmly, "The moment GoGo snapped his fingers, you were teleported about ten thousand kilometers in the air. For about 2 or 3 minutes you were pretty much in space. As far as a plan on landing safely—"
"Forget that!" Etienne cut him off, "I'll live, I can survive a fall from this height. Do you know of any way I can stop that ability?"
Gabe began furiously typing on the other end of the headset, "I have access to the Metahuman Ability Database, let me see if they have any data on an ability like this."
Etienne put his arms at his side and braced himself as he flew through thick clouds. A thousand tiny ice shards pierced his face, but his expression did not change.
After passing through the clouds, he could see the ground. He saw the long winding highway and the Soiree, now completely leveled.
On the highway was a luxury truck, speeding down the empty road
Etienne homed in on it like a missile and began flying towards it.
"This is my last chance," Etienne thought to himself, "If I lose them right here, I may never see any of the executives again. My one lead on my family could just disappear."
In seconds, Etienne went from above the clouds to only a few feet away from the truck.
He slammed into the hood of the truck, shoulder-first, and put a huge dent in it.
Etienne bounced off the hood and hit the ground. His body bounced like a rock skipping on water, and he landed face down several feet away.
He struggled to form a thought while processing the pain throughout his body.
"It feels like I broke everything in my body. If they come over trying to fight…"
The doors to the truck swung open, and all of GoGo's executives jumped out. Gold and Chef Tim pointed their weapons at Etienne, and Derrick danced over toward him. GoGo watched from the passenger window.
Etienne looked over at the driver's side, and his eyes bulged. His cousin Lyle Otunde stood near the hood of the car and stared at him.
He wore a generic blue tracksuit and a black trucker hat. The hat was pulled down so low that his eyes were barely visible.
"Freaky, he's looking over here!" Lyle said to GoGo.
Etienne rose up slowly, clutching his broken right arm. The executives stopped in their tracks and stared at him.
Etienne pulled the sharp kitchen knife from his waistband and held it out in front of him. There was a look of indignation on his face, and his stance dared anyone to get close to him.
Derrick continued to move forward until GoGo yelled out, "Stop!"
There was an aura around Etienne. Not visible to the eye, but everybody felt it in the area.
The grass near his feet died, and even though nothing about him changed, Etienne grew bigger and bigger before the executives.
GoGo shook his head, "This is too risky. We need to pull out now!"
Lyle got back in the car quickly, and Etienne started to sprint toward it. Gold and Chef Tim took a few steps back and got in the car.
Derrick stood his ground and nodded his head back and forth. Etienne stabbed at him, but Derrick dodged it and pulled out an old MP3 player in the same motion. Etienne continued to lunge at him and Derrick repeatedly dodged with minimal motion.
After a minute or two of this, Derrick grabbed the blade of Etienne's knife and turned it.
"Totska," He read aloud, "I think I saw an ad for this on Instagram."
Derrick turned his head to the side and narrowed his eyes, "You didn't scare off GoGo's Disciples. If we were at our full strength, we wou—"
Etienne grabbed him by the neck with his broken arm. Derrick clawed and hit Etienne's arm, but it did not budge.
GoGo appeared on Derrick's left side and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You're strong, but you are way too arrogant, Derrick. Did you really turn the music off to monologue?"
GoGo laughed about it for a brief second before turning to Etienne, "As for you…we'll be back just for you."
GoGo snapped his left hand, and the two of them vanished without a sound.
Etienne fell to his knees and passed out.