Chapter Four

Kiochi sat on one of the many benches located around the station as he collected his thoughts.

He was tired and quite hungry but he knew that once he stepped foot into any one of the safe houses in Tokyo or even Japan as a whole, the council would be informed and his head would be taken by his A ranked colleagues.

The situation would be equally as troublesome even if the council sent several B ranked people after him, so he needed to be careful.

[Kiochi, I’ve gone through some of your memories and I noticed something. It seems that there is a delay in the amount of time it takes for the council to receive information on the status of a warehouse, correct?]

The voice in his head asked.

‘Yes, that is correct. But I still don’t like the idea of having my whereabouts known by anyone right now.’ Kiochi replied.

He didn’t have a solid plan, well actually he did, but he didn’t like it.

[Here is my suggestion: why don’t you go to the nearest warehouse and gather as many resources as you need then make a run for it.]

Kiochi thought about what the voice suggested. Then chuckled at the fact that he was actually willing to listen to what a disembodied voice was saying.

Maybe the council was right. Maybe he was defective.

Kiochi had been in many battles over the years and maybe all that trauma and pain was finally getting to him.

[You’re not crazy, just a little slow on accepting advice.]

The voice said.

He sighed deeply and looked up at one of the many lights that littered the stations roof. Some of them flickered on and off in the distance.

‘What’s your name anyway? I don’t think calling your ASDP will be any good.” Kiochi asked.

Some time passed and Kiochi lowered his gaze to the floor, as one of the stations staff passed by. No trains were active at this time so Kiochi definitely looked suspicious.

But he was wearing a torn up and wrinkled suit, so the subway staff passed Kiochi by.

He must have thought that Kiochi was unemployed and probably didn’t want to get involved with him.

Well, saying that Kiochi was unemployed wouldn’t be entire wrong.

[I’ve been thinking about your question and the answer is no. I do not have a name and I do not think that I was born entirely of the Automatic Self Defense Protocol that was inside the device in your brain.]

Some time passed before the voice spoke again. It sounded really familiar and had a gentle feminine quality to it.

[I may not have a name, but I wouldn’t mind letting you give me one.]

The voice said.

Kiochi thought about how the voice sounded like a woman’s and It had an intelligent tone to it as well.

He couldn’t quite figure out why it sounded so familiar.

It was as though the voice belonged to someone he had known all his life and yet every time it spoke Kiochi was completely surprised.

“Eve.” He unconsciously said out loud, then all of a sudden his vision blurred and all the color seemingly drained from the world leaving only blue, grey and black.

He felt all the energy drain from his body.

..

[INITIALIZING]

..

[PROGRAME: EVE]

..

[RUNNING FULL DIAGNOSTIC]

..

[ERROR!] [ERROR!] [ERROR!]

..

[ WARNING: Non functional components identified. Foreign components may result in critical body failure.

Do you wish to purge all foreign components? Y/N?]

Kiochi couldn’t make sense of any of what was happening.

His whole body was burning up as though he had a thousand fevers and his head ached intensely.

He needed to get to the safe house before he granted Eve permission to destroy his body or whatever she was planning on doing.

He held onto the bench as he slowly rose to his feet.

Every part of his body felt extremely painful to move and keeping himself awake through the pain proved extremely difficult.

He slowly walked towards the exit and made my way into the streets of Roppongi.

The safe house was a couple of blocks away from where he was but the pain he was experiencing made the distance seem much further away.

Kiochi’s vision alternated between extremely blurry to not so blurry, all the while maintaining its blue tint.

His breathing was ragged and the fact that he was hungry didn’t help at all.

[Do you wish to purge all foreign components? Y/N?]

Eve’s voice rang like a hundred of bells going off simultaneously in Kiochi’s head.

‘Fine! Do whatever you want!’ He yielded and that’s when things went from bad to worse.

Firstly he lost all feeling in his hands and his stomach convulsed violently causing him to vomit.

Since there was no food in his stomach all that came out was his stomach acid and a bit of blood, but within that slimy mess Kiochi noticed a device of some sort.

It was small. No bigger than an earring, but what was it doing in his stomach?

[PURGE PROGRESS: 9%]

‘Nine percent? Are you kidding me?’ Kiochi yelled internally, but Eve didn’t respond.

Kiochi continued walking for several more minutes before reaching a small street side noodle shot.

The front door had a key pad.

Kiochi had no clue as to the many possible four digit combinations that each of the safe houses were assigned and so he lifted his numb right hand up to the key pad and entered the first code that came to mind.

[1][2][3][4]

The little blue light above the keypad tuned red and it let out a small beep.

The frustration didn’t help Kiochi and before he knew it he was vomiting again.

This time less stomach acid came out, but far more blood.

[PURGE PROGRESS: 15%]

Kiochi swore that he bad heard Eve whisper something like “hang in there”, but in the state that he was in, those words never reached him.

He sat on the door mat, his breaths were getting weaker and weaker as he clung dearly to consciousness.

He tried the keypad again.

[2][4][6][8]

The light went red and let out a beep again. Kiochi slammed his numb hands on the door before he finally remembered that sometimes the people who set up the safe houses would set the passcodes as the first four numbers of many constants found in physics.

But there were so many.

He had to chose one before he passed out, so he chose Avogadro’s constant.

[6][0][2][2]

The blue light turned green and he was greeted with two beeps as the door opened.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t celebrate this most joyous occasion because his body was wreathing in pain.

Kiochi crawled into the noodle shop and closed the door behind him.

The interior of the shop was the complete opposite of what one would expect from a noodle shop. The floor was covered in rubberized grey tiles, the area of the room itself was about nine meters squared and bright white lights illuminated the noodle shops clean interior.

At the rooms center was a table and covering the walls was various equipment meant for covert operations.

Kiochi vowed in that moment to get revenge on those who devised that complicated passcode.

But just as the thoughts of revenge crossed his mind, a sharp, burning pain engulfed his legs.

He tore off his pants and what he saw made my heart skip a beat, if not several.

His skin was bright red and black goo oozed out of his pores.

Kiochi panicked and tried to wipe away the hot goo, but as soon as his index finger touched the goo, the skin on the tip of that finger felt like it was going to burn off.

He laid on his back and cursed himself for naming Eve.

[PURGE PROGRESS: 45%]

..

[INITIALIZING SECOND PHASE]

..

[SHUTTING OFF PRIMARY CONSCIOUS]

Wait what? Kiochi thought.

Then darkness followed.

.

..

Twelve years earlier

Growing up wasn’t easy for Kiochi Suzuki.

Although growing is an arduous process for almost everyone, fate was slightly crueler in some ways when it came to Kiochi.

He was orphaned at the tender age of seven.

The guardians at the orphanage told him that his mother died shortly after he was born and he lost his father soon after.

He once overheard one of the guardians say that his father died due to work related stress and other health issues.

His mother on the other hand died a few days after his birth.

One thing that Kiochi found odd was that only his father’s name was on the all of his files.

He knew this because he once snuck into the head caretaker’s office, searching for answers.

He learnt that his father was a doctor and due to unknown reasons, Kiochi’s extended family couldn’t take care of him.

But hard as he tried, he couldn’t find any details about his mother.

Well, it’s not like any of that would matter in the end since they were both gone and so he gave up.

If fate had decided that he would forever be alone, then so be it.

Kiochi decided that he would cry it over a little and emerge stronger.

Ok, he cried a little more than he hoped, but at that time he had already started disconnecting himself from his humanity.

Not long after that, the orphanage handed him and a few other children to a strange organization that claimed they were a non profit organization that helped children like Kiochi get educated and find their places in society.

All that was a bunch of crap and even back then Kiochi knew that those people were sketchy.

Kiochi and the other children were taken to some high tech looking building in rural Japan and it was there where they would spend the following years of their lives.

They would be molded into soldiers whether they wanted to or not.

Those who could not endure the countless surgeries and procedures that were compulsory died and were disposed of.

Those who survived on the other hand, emerged as something that was both much more than human yet was also much less.

.

..

Present day, Tokyo

[Kiochi!]

Kiochi heard a sweet voice calling from somewhere as he slept, but a little more shuteye never hurt anyone, so he ignored the call.

[KIOCHI SUZUKI!]

The increased volume shook him out of his deep slumber, but to Kiochi’s surprise, his eyelids weren’t heavy and his eyes weren’t irritated.

The blue tint from the night before was completely gone and he could honestly say that his vision was way better than it had ever been in his entire life.

Everything was so clear.

Kiochi sat himself up against one of the walls and sighed.

A lot had happened to him over the span of just two day’s, but thankfully, he had managed to get the sleep that he so desperately needed.

He rested his right hand on the floor and noticed that the floor was sticky.

He looked and found a pool of a blackish reddish fluid covering a considerable amount of the floor. It was then that noticed that his clothes were also covered in the mystery fluid and he could see tiny pieces of metal in the fluid on the floor.

“What happened last night?” Kiochi asked Eve as he stood up.

[After you named me, I felt the sudden urge to synchronize with you on a higher level. But when I tried I noticed that a lot of the tech the council shoved into your body was actually detrimental to your health and so I purged all of the trinkets the council gave you.]

Ok. Kiochi understood why, but that still leaves the how.

Wouldn’t he need to undergo many surgeries?

And what the hell was that black goo? Kiochi wondered.

[That “goo" is a titanium based substance. 40% of your skeleton was actually made from titanium, but upon completing my diagnostic I realized that your normal bones would be more effective than the titanium.]

What the actual hell?

Kiochi couldn’t believe what he heard.

That didn’t make sense since human bones are made from calcium and other substances, wouldn’t it make more sense to have metallic limbs? Kiochi wondered.

[To be more precise, your normal bones aren’t exactly “normal”.]

Eve pointed out, but Kiochi just got more confused.

‘What do you mean when you say not normal?’ he asked.

[I noticed this when I ran an Internal diagnostic on you at the station. There is another substance in your bones that’s many times harder and several times lighter than titanium alloy and even after purging the titanium alloy and other useless devices, your body’s rate of recovery was extremely fast. Just after I purged your body of all useless matter, your body had lost almost 45% of its total mass. However, your body began putting itself together as new tissues formed in the span of a single night. It was quite interesting to witness, although you wouldn’t stop groaning in your sleep.]

Kiochi coughed sheepishly and looked himself over.

He hopped around the room for a couple of seconds and realized that he had become way lighter.

His joints felt smooth and the impact from each time he landed was almost insignificant.

Something was very different about his body, but he still couldn’t understand what any of this meant.

Kiochi raised his bloody shirt and found that he had indeed lost some weight.

His muscles tightly clung to his body and there was an almost complete lack of body fat.

[We shouldn’t stay here for too long. The council has probably already been notified of your location.]

‘Right!’ Kiochi snapped back into reality and jumped out of his filthy blood soaked clothes.

His stomach growled, but that was not the time to be thinking about food, or how amazing a burger would be if he had one.

No! He had a mission, a goal and he had to be single minded about surviving.

Kiochi grabbed some black boots he found in one of the many lockers and slid them on after wearing some black cargo pants he found in one of the many duffel bags that littered the floor.

He wore a black, long sleeved shirt, some black cargo pants and a pair of black gloves.

After getting fully dressed, he equipped one of black bullet proof vests he found on the desk in the center of the room and shoved a tactical knife into its designed slot.

He also grabbed a handgun, a few magazines and wore the belt that held his Nodachi.

Afterwards, he slipped into a black hoodie that covered all of his gear.

That was pretty much all he needed. Taking any of the cool high tech gadgets would make it way easier for the council to track him.

Kiochi took a quick visit to the restroom and found out that he was a few centimeters taller than before.

‘Eve… what on earth did you do to me last night?’ He wondered.

Brushing those thoughts aside, he left the noodle shop and closed the metaphorical door from hell.

His destination was the Saito headquarters.

Saito was a mega tech company that was part defense contractor and part tech industry leader.

Kiochi was fortunate enough to know the co founder and head of research and development, Yamamoto Saito.

He was the man Kiochi once saved and also the man who gave Kiochi the Nodachi he carried.

If there was anyone who could help him stand even the slightest chance against the council, it was Yamamoto Saito.

.

..

A Hotel in Morocco

“How many drinks does that make, twelve?” One of Yassine's colleagues asked. “No. I haven’t had that many, have I?” Yassine wondered.

“Bah! It matters not Yassine. We made history yesterday, feel free to celebrate it however you wish. Ha!” The burly man let out a hearty laugh before he retuned to his group, leaving Yassine alone with his glass.

To be honest Yassine hadn’t had that much to drink, but he was smart enough to read the room and so he played the role of drunk student.

That night was indeed special.

They had confirmed the existence of another Ovum Vitae. The so called “seed of life” had a twin and as soon as professor Rose saw it she ordered that everyone celebrate wildly.

Yassine was never one for drinking so he had planned to go to bed quite early during the party.

But just as his hope for a good night sleep took flight, Yassine heard a voice that shot the dream down.

“Enjoying the party?” Asked a sweet voice.

Yassine's heart stopped and his mind went blank. “Ah, good evening Dr. Tahiri.” he greeted the professor politely, half checking if his breath for the smell of alcohol.

Dr. Tahiri smiled lightly and took the seat next to his in one of the corner areas, so they some privacy. “No need to be so formal, after all we are celebrating.” She said.

Her voice was so beautiful Yassine almost forgot to breathe. “Of course Ms. Rose and yes, the party is quite enjoyable.” Yassine couldn’t help but be nervous but he calmly raised my glass to make a toast to the occasion.

Dr. Tahiri did the same and the clink of their glasses went by unnoticed as the party raged on. “Yassine, do you have any plans after all this?” She asked.

All the gears in Yassine’s head ground to a halt instantly as he couldn’t make sense of the situation he was in. “uh- no. Not really. I guess I’m heading back to the university and continuing my studies.” His voice trembled slightly as he answered.

Dr. Tahiri eye’s almost seemed to glow after she heard Yassine’s answer.

Yassine could see her figure quiver slightly as excitement welled up inside of her.

She was had a phenomenal body for someone her age and the almost skin tight red black dress she wore that night only amplified her beauty. Her small figure and her gentle eyes made Yassine want to protect her with all his might.

This, of course, was overshadowed by how confident and independent she actually was.

“Is that so? I have a proposal for you, if you’re at all interested.” She said.

Yassine’s heart went into overdrive after hearing those words and he subconsciously nodded his head.

“Good. I have some work to do in Japan and I wouldn’t mind having you there as an assistant. You will be compensated for you work, of course and if you’re curious about what work I’ll be doing, it has something to do with the Ovum Vitae.” She gleefully said.

Yassine’s heart slowed down and returned to it’s normal pace, as his neurons fired in their usual logical manner. “I see. Well, I wouldn’t mind going to japan for a few days or so. Yeah, count me in!” he said, while trying to mask his disappointment.

Why was he disappointed in the first place?

Dr. Tahiri smiled and gently rose from her seat and walked towards some officials who were situated near the bar area leaving Yassine alone, again.

He swallowed the remainder of whatever was in his cup and headed to his room where he proceeded to sleep like a log.

.

..

The next day greeted Yassine with an ear splitting headache.

He was under the impression that he hadn’t had that much to drink but it seems like he was completely wrong.

He dragged himself out of bed, left his room and walked to the kitchen.

One of the best things to do in this situation was to rehydrate and medicate.

He took slow, lazy steps to the kitchen, until he heard Dr. Tahiri’s voice. It sounded like she was on the phone.

“…I’m not surprised, if anything this has convinced me that there are more than three.”

Her language was formal and so he decided to remain silent and waited behind the wall that separated the hallway from this mini kitchen area guests could use to self serve.

“Impossible. That’ll take too much time. I need to be there to ensure everything goes well. We don’t even know anything about what’s inside those things. I’m not going to let those new gen’s lay their hands on any of the Ova.”

Yassine wondered who she was talking to.

He could tell that they were talking about the Ovum Vitae, but he couldn’t make anything else out.

After a brief moment of silence passed, Yassine walked out and acted like he had just arrived.

He let out a over the top yawn and Dr. Tahiri immediately turned around.

She seemed slightly flustered, but Yassine could see her visibly calm down after she realized that it was only him.

“I’m sorry, I’ll have to call you back.” She said in the more familiar gentle tone that she usually spoke with.

“Good morning Yassine! I hope you didn’t forget the talk we had yesterday.” She walked over to Yassine and stood uncomfortably close to his face as she spoke.

“Of course not! I remember exactly what you said. Something about Japan, some assistant work and generous compensation.” Yassine let out an over the top laugh and Dr. Tahiri punched him on the shoulder. “Who taught my innocent Yassine how to con women?”

Their conversation continued on casually but Yassine couldn’t shake off the feeling that he had overheard something he shouldn’t have.

He had a gut feeling that him going to japan and Dr. Tahiri’s conversation on the phone were linked somehow.

Or maybe he was being paranoid.

After the discovery of the “second” Ovum was announced and made official, Dr. Tahiri requested that the Moroccan government allow her to take the Ovum Vitae to Japan for research purposes.

They granted her special permission and the professor and Yassine got onto the first plane headed for Japan.