The Hero Is Unchained, But Not Free

By: Fox Under Fire

Chapter 4

The blood seemed to die inside my veins as I held my breath, unable to believe the moment I found myself in. The sister of the man I had just discovered to be my next-door-neighbor was caught in the grip of a villain.

A villain who was mostly invisible, at that.

Last night I had seen a Uni encounter outside—but now here I was, right in the middle of the action with nothing to protect me. Was this what Satsuya had meant when he’d said I was in danger?

What would he do if this mostly-invisible man came after me, too?

Surely I wasn’t as high on the priority list as his sister. In fact, if he was smart, he would allow another Uni to kill me instead of doing it himself, now that I knew what he was. There would be no liability that way—no one to shout to the rest of the world that he, a Uni breaking the law by doing a normal job in normal society, existed.

I wondered if I would be angry with him if he did allow me to be murdered. Maybe I would come back as some sort of ghost to haunt him (and maybe write a mystery novel on the side, since I wasn’t technically dead?). But now wasn’t the time to worry about it. Not when there was a kid in trouble.

The invisible man’s grin grew as his grip on Yuuki tightened, and the girl choked. “Now, now, Searcher. You’re in no position to be making demands.” He taunted Satsuya. “You would survive if you were in her place, but there’s no way your Typpe sister will be able to withstand my stranglehold. So why don’t you be a good boy and listen to my demands?”

“You mean the demands of the Conscious!” Satsuya spat, the magnetic feel of his power vibrating through the air, though he had yet to utilize it. “I already know what they want, and my answer is still no. It will always be no.” A hazy white light began to gather around him, like a halo that trimmed his entire being.

“Even at the cost of your sister?” The almost invisible man scoffed, obviously unhappy with the way these events were unfolding. “So, you really don’t mind if I go ahead and snap her neck?” I had no doubt he could do it, even with one hand; that hand was so large, her neck was dwarfed in comparison. The question was, what would happen to him if he did kill her.

The almost invisible Uni’s hand raised, and Yuuki raised along with it, kicking weakly as her feet left the floor. Yet still she fought. “Of course I’d...die for my...big brother.” She ground out, displaying far more courage than I could ever hope to muster.

As I stared in horror, her words struck me.

If it came down to it, who would I die for?

Was there anyone?

I didn’t have time to think of an answer before the nearly invisible man’s eyes suddenly shifted to me. “If you’re ready to die, kid, I guess I’ll have to use other means.”

I felt the brush of fingers before they even reached my neck. A ghost of touch whispered across my hair and I jerked, screaming as I went flailing from my seat. My movement upset the table I’d been sitting at, and my still-open laptop clacked to the ground, but there was no time to be concerned over it.

I was more worried about the hand that had materialized out of thin air behind me, reaching for my neck.

Somehow I had forgotten all about the coffee mug that was clutched in my shaking hands—the mug I instinctually hurled at the phantom feeling of malice lurking behind me. Still steaming, the coffee saved me, giving me just enough time to scramble away as the mostly invisible Uni cursed my unexpected attack.

Coffee is the real hero, I thought as my back rammed against the wall. I had crab-crawled myself into a corner before I had a chance to process what I was doing.

“You brat!” The mostly invisible man growled, but it wasn’t until I regained my senses that I realized he wasn’t talking to me.

The hulking hand that had held Yuuki was open, blood dripping down the back of it from a wound that resembled claw marks. Yuuki was free, head poking out from behind the long bar. A powerless Typpe had taken advantage of my coffee attack to rake her nails across the Uni’s exposed hand, leaving damage made possible only by desperation.

And leaving Satsuya free to do as he pleased.

“Show yourself.” He moved faster than I could see, gripping the mostly invisible man’s bloody hand and face. The villain cursed as Satsuya tugged, beginning to tear him from whatever distorted reality he lurked within. The villain’s invisibility oozed and stretched as his body was pulled into the real world, as if he were a creature being birthed.

It was such a strange, grotesque sight that it was mesmerizing, my writer’s mind on overdrive as I watched the scene, hardly feeling like part of it anymore.

“What? H-How? My pocket dimension is solid! Only I can remove myself from it.” The now halfway invisible man shrieked as he struggled against Satsuya’s iron grip, his voice somewhat muffled by Satsuya’s hand. “You shouldn’t be able to—what kind of monster are you?” The anger he displayed shifted to fear as another portion of his body was pulled free from the void.

“I’ve been asking myself that for a while now.” Satsuya’s voice was eerily calm, the sound of it sending a shiver up my spine. “But I still don’t have an answer.”

The now mostly visible villain and Satsuya wrestled for control, and my mind reeled.

Where had the kind Uni who’d appeared genuinely concerned for my safety gone?One moment, he was making me coffee—and the next he was attacking a fellow Uni. The now mostly visible man had called him a monster...and I wasn’t sure he was wrong.

“Big brother isn’t a monster! He’s trying his best!” Yuuki growled as if she had heard my thoughts, her head poking over the liquor bar behind which she had hidden. Her glare was furious, and I couldn’t help but admire her bravery yet again.

Here I was, sitting slumped by the wall, still dazed, and she had the courage to speak up when someone spoke badly about her brother as the villain had just done. Maybe it was her age—all kids seemed to think they were invincible—or maybe she was just stronger than I was, but whatever the case, it left me feeling a bit pathetic.

Another Typpe can stand up to a villain, but I can’t?

Sure, I had thrown my coffee at the (then) mostly invisible man, but that was more a reflex than anything—a reflex to save my own life, or at least try. Did that actually count as heroic?

Why was I thinking about being a hero, anyway? I was a writer. That was who I had always been, and who I would hopefully always be. By all rights, I, a normal Typpe, shouldn’t even have been here, caught up in this Uni business. But I was, and I didn’t know what to do with that.

The shadow assailant from last night had broken the rules by attacking another Uni without a pre-staged fight, but this was something beyond that. This was a Uni fight taking place in broad daylight, and the threat on my life and Yuuki’s was very real.

It defied all logic. Who would attack someone out of the blue? That was one of the first laws The One had put in place when they’d formed our society: there will be no unsanctioned fighting. There were still crimes committed, but not in—

Oh.

You’re not in the Second Sector anymore, Ivy!

I had come to a place where crime was normal, where there wasn’t total peace like in the first ten sectors. That wasn’t to say this crime wouldn’t be punished. Surely the police and heroes would show up soon. We would probably end up on the Uni Update. But if all the mostly invisible man wanted was five minute of fame, why had Satsuya mentioned the “Conscious”? If this wasn’t the first time he’d been attacked by the mostly invisible man, how was he still living life as a Typpe?

Where were the police and heroes? I didn’t hear any sirens. Did people in sectors outside the top ten not care?

Was I going to die here?

I had been taught that the world was ultimately an orderly place. When villains attacked, heroes showed up to stop them, and life went back to normal. No one really got hurt; they were always saved.

But as I watched the two Uni struggle, I recalled the words my grandmother had once said while watching the Uni Update. “Our peace is just an illusion. Real freedom means sacrifice. It’s tough work, Ivy.”

Tough. Just like I needed to be if I was going to live through this.