Chapter 17

The village was in shambles. Bodies lay scattered around. A lone man with blond hair stood with his back to Hiro. He held a  young girl by her neck. The child squirmed, but she could not scream or even draw breath. The man’s hand closed tighter around her neck and she stopped moving. He dropped the body and turned his head slightly back to see Hiro. Hiro brimmed with fear at the sight of the blue in his eyes.

 

            Blood from his own head streamed down his face. The arm that remained at his side the whole time he choked the girl was broken with the bone protruding from it. His clothes were tattered and drenched in blood.

 

            He faced Hiro completely and waved his good arm over his body. “You see, you little monster? You may be capable of this-“ He raised both arms despite obvious pain. “-But look behind me!” Not a single person in the mayhem behind him was alive. “This is what a real monster is!”

 

            Hiro woke up feeling sick. “Argh…” He brought his palm to his forehead and looked up. The sky above him was black with thousands of stars burning across the cloudless night. What was that? A dream?

 

            Lisanna ran over to him from the river a few yards away. “Hiro!”

 

            He was lying on a bed of grass with a piece of wrapped-up cloth as a pillow. “Lisanna?” She was already standing over him with a large leaf cupped in her hands. Water trickled down the side. His speech was strained and difficult. “W-where are-“ He coughed dryly.  “W-we?”

 

            Lisanna bent down over him. “Don’t talk. Just drink this.” She tilted the end of the leaf over his mouth.

 

            The water trickled down and he drank it. When the leaf was empty, he coughed again. This time his throat was much clearer. “Thank you.” He leaned back down. The pillow felt strange beneath him, and he reached around and felt it. There was a torn portion to the cloth and areas that felt like openings. He pulled it out and looked at it. The cloth was a piece of a battledress. “Lisanna… This is yours.” She didn’t get time to say anything. Hiro sat up like he had just been struck by lightning. He grabbed her and started moving her around to look her over.

 

            She was confused. “W-what?”

 

            Despite the fact that her upper body was clothed in nothing but a bra, Hiro seemed satisfied with the physical inspection, but his eyes were still full of concern. “Are you alright?”

 

            “Am I alright? You’re asking the wrong question, Hiro. You lost a ton of blood and you’ve been out for hours!”

 

            He ignored what she said. “Are you alright?”

 

            She smiled. “Hiro, don’t you remember asking me that before you passed out? I already told you that I’m not hurt.”

 

            He got to his knees and put both his hands on her shoulders. “No. I don’t mean that. I mean are you really okay?” He looked right into her purple eyes. His own were filled with worry.

 

            When she saw the concern on his face, Lisanna felt herself start to break down. Her voice was quiet. “Am I okay?” Her eyes grew shiny and wet. She got progressively louder. “Am I okay? Am I okay? Am I okay? Of course I’m not okay!” Her body was shaking uncontrollably, and the tears spilled. “Kazuto almost-“ She couldn’t say it. “And… and… T-then you were like t-that.” She pointed to the pile of blood-drenched clothing and bandages a little way away. “And then y-you passed out. You had l-lost so much blood! I-I didn’t know if you w-would even wake up a-again!” She grabbed him by his bare shoulders and started jerking him back and forth. “How am I supposed to be okay with that?!?!”

 

            He wrapped his arms around her and held her so close it was as if he feared she would disappear if he let go. His own tears poured down his face. “I’m so sorry. If I had just gone with you! But I… I... And then when I thought I was going to be too late. I’m sorry! This is my fault!”

 

            She pulled away and slapped him, her tears still falling. “Don’t you dare say that! I might not be okay, but I didn’t get hurt because of you coming for me! You saved me! You almost gave your life for me! Your scars are proof enough of that!”

 

            Hiro looked at his own body for the first time since before he reopened his wounds. From the amount of pain he had endured, he didn’t even expect his muscles to be attached to his bones, let alone be healed. But his body didn’t even hurt. He looked at his hands and worked his way up. His arms were no longer covered in any sort of bandage. There were no open wounds anywhere on them. His chest was bare and it had no wounds either. His toned body was covered in new scars, but they were all that remained of what should have been horrific and life threatening lacerations.

 

            He looked back at the girl in front of him. “Lisanna? How am I?”

           

            She was still crying a little. “When you passed out, I tried to treat your injuries, but I couldn’t even tell what was what through all the blood and grime.” The memory gave her tears a reason to renew. “I didn’t know what to do, so I carried you to the closest river. I was going to clean you so I could see what needed to be treated, but when I washed away the blood and dirt, there wasn’t a single open wound on your body. Just those scars.”

 

            Hiro finished inspecting himself. He was baffled. I shouldn’t even be able to move right now… Yet… I’m healed?

 

            Lisanna drew Hiro’s attention by grabbing his hands. She looked right into his eyes. "Hiro. I know we decided we wouldn't talk about it" -she ran her hand along the scars on his arms -"and I will never believe that you're a monster, but I need to know... What are you?"

 

            Hiro missed a shooting star in the sky above as he returned her gaze. His eyes had the same look as the time Lisanna had first seen him in the forest by the mountain. His soul cried out through them. “I… I don’t-“

 

            Lisanna looked away thinking he wouldn’t tell her, but this time, he continued.

 

            “I awakened when I was six years old.”

 

It had already become blatantly obvious to her that Hiro had a power, but she was not prepared for the second part of what he said. “Six?! I’ve never heard of anyone awakening that young!”

 

“I did.” His eyes took on a distant look as braced his arms behind him and settled back. “It happened right before I meet Kamishi.” Images began to fill his mind as he started to explain.

 

A beautiful woman with flowing brown hair that fell to her waist called out to a small boy in the yard. “Hiro! Dinner is ready!”

 

When he entered, his mother already had the table set, and a man sat in one of the chairs. He was strong-looking with defined features. His black hair was shaggy and his brown eyes matched his wife’s hair. Their son had inherited the mother’s hair color, but the father’s shaggy hair. He also had his father’s plain brown eyes instead of his mother’s vibrant ruby ones. However, his face was his mother’s. She always wanted him to have her eyes too, but she was happy with the compromise. Their boy was an even split between his parents.

 

He ran up to the table and lifted himself up on his tiptoes to try and peak over it, but he was too short. “Ah! It smells good, Mommy! What is it?!”

 

“Your favorite, dear!”

 

“Chicken and dumplings?! Yahoo!!! Thank you, Mommy!” He jumped up and down in excitement.

 

His father’s rough voice cut through his cheers. “Hey, your father helped too, you know.”

 

The boy ran over and hugged his dad. “Thank you, Daddy!”

 

The man reached down and ruffled his son’s hair affectively. “You’re welcome, son. Now go take your seat so we can all eat.”

 

Hiro did as he was told and his mother served him. They enjoyed their meal with happy conversation in each other’s company. When they finished, they cleared the table together.

 

His mother spoke sweetly. “Hiro, could you take these to the kitchen?” She handed the boy a small stack of dishes.

 

He shuffled away awkwardly, the small boy still had a hard time balancing a few plates, and he had to watch each step he took. He hurried into the kitchen. A small step stool allowed him to get up to the sink. He placed the dishes in it before climbing back down. Hiro moved to go back into the dining room, but he felt strange. His head started to throb, and things started to swirl around him. There were voices in the other room - his parents and another he didn’t recognize.

 

Hiro leaned against the kitchen doorway as his mind faded in and out. He felt blood run down his arm. He looked at it to find a gash in his flesh. He screamed. His whole body started to pour out blood, and Hiro threw up his hands in panic and pain. In an instant his house was obliterated. More pain surged through him, and he struck out at what he thought was someone attacking him. The strike produced a wave of force that shot out along the arc he had made with his arm. The surrounding homes were leveled completely.

 

Screaming from the remains of the next room reached his ears. They were his mother’s. His head spun more and he lost all concept of where he was.

 

When his mind calmed, he found himself back in what was his dining room. Nearly everything had been turned to splinters. He stepped forward and heard a splashing sound. He looked down to see a pool of blood spreading out from his mother and father on the ground. Their bodies had been mangled.

 

His mind couldn’t process what his eyes were seeing. “Mommy? … Daddy?! He ran over to his mother and grabbed her. “Mommy! Wake up!” His little hands became soaked in her blood as well as his own. “Wake up, Mommy!” He turned to the body of his father and started shaking him. His blood joined the other theirs. “Daddy! Mommy needs us!!! Daddy, please get up!!!” He shook him to no avail. He could barley whisper. “M-mommy… Daddy.” He looked at the blood covering their bodies, then at the blood on his own hands. He had done it. He had killed them. His mind broke, and the flood gate of his heart opened up and poured out from his eyes. The tears mixed with the carnage, and his screams fell on only his own ears.

 

He cried as the blood stained every part of his body. It felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. He smashed his fists into the ground over and over again. Each time, the earth shook a little. He cried until the sun set. Then his mind started to spin again. He heard footsteps from behind him and he turned to look. A hand reached down to him. He heard a voice that sounded impossibly familiar. It was the third voice from before. “Come with me.”

           

            Hiro took a deep breath. “My power is the ability to force my body past all human limitations. I can make my senses of sound and smell keener than any dog. I can make my eyes sharper than any eagle. I can amplify my speed, strength and reflexes beyond all comprehension. But it doesn’t just push me past human limitations. The same power that strengthens me also pushes my body beyond what it can handle and starts to kill me. You’ve seen what happens when I use it. This evil ability demands blood to gain its power, the power to destroy anything. The power I tapped into and destroyed my own home with. The power I annihilated my village with. The power I used… And I… “ Hiro had his head in both his hands. “I killed everyone… I killed… I killed…. I killed my own parents!”

 

            “But Kamishi was right! That’s not your fault!” She tried to put her hand on him.

 

            He pulled away. His voice was full of anger. Not at her, but at himself. “How is it not my fault? Was it not my power? Was it not me who used it? Was I not the one who lost control? Were my hands not the ones that took the lives of so many innocent people?” His shouting continued to express his self-hate. “I’ve lived in constant fear of losing control again. That’s why I always go into the mountain to train it, even though it causes me suffering. My very being rejects this power! My body bleeds for all the lives I took with it. You’ve seen what I look like when I use it. I hate this power. I wish I never had this curse. It shows what I really am. A monster.”

 

            Lisanna looked down at her lap. “Then what about me?” Hiro gave her a confused look. “What would have happened to me if you didn’t have that power?” She lifted her head and a fierce fire ignited in her eyes. “Don’t you dare say you hate that power! If you really would rather not have it, then that means you would rather have not saved me. Am I really so insignificant to you?!

 

            Hiro raised his hands and tried to speak. “Lisanna-“

 

She wouldn’t let him. “No! I can’t stand to see you like this! I won’t let you be insulted, even if you’re the one doing the insulting! I don’t want someone so important to me to call themselves a monster!”

 

Hiro lost it. “I didn’t choose to be a monster! I didn’t want to destroy my home. I didn’t want to kill my parents. I didn’t want any of this!”

 

She knew she had to make her point and shouted back. “Then you didn’t want to meet me?!?!”

 

He was incredibly frustrated. “You know that’s not what I meant! You just can’t understand what I’m feeling! I have no family. I have no one. I have no place to return to!”

 

Lisanna was angry. “Shut up!!! I don’t understand you?! It’s you who doesn’t understand me! You think I have a place to go back to? You’re wrong! Do you know why I tried so hard all the time at Uzario?” Her eyes filled with pain. “I used to live a happy life with my family too. For years my family and I lived a simple life, and Sensoken left us alone since none of us had powers.”

 

She paused to take a breath. The smooth sound of running water rolling over stones in the river filled the silence. Moonlight reflected off its surface and the light danced across their faces.

 

Lisanna continued. “But then Kamishi came along. He started the battle schools again, and even went so far as to force kids he deemed worthy into them. It wasn’t long before soldiers came to my hometown to gather the kids with potential. Both of my brothers were taken… But not me…” Lisanna’s lips spread into a bitter smile. “It’s strange you know. That should have made my family happy, right? They got to keep their daughter. But no, it made them hate me. My mother and father grew to resent me as weak. My brothers were good enough, they had potential; they made my parents proud. But me… I was trash to them!”

 

Hiro’s thoughts drifted to the day Lisanna was hospitalized with her broken leg. He was standing beside her bed. ”Don’t you think it’s odd how only certain children were forced into these schools?” He looked back to the girl who was pouring out her life story. Her face was the same as when he had asked that question, a scowl of pain and anger. He continued listening to her story.

 

“Every time soldiers came to collect someone from our town, I was passed over. For years their bitterness towards me grew. They called me names. Told me I was a disappointment to them. They would even hit me and call me worthless! It got so bad that I had to run from my own home. I joined a battle school of my own will despite the warnings that people who didn’t have potential would never make it! I wanted to do whatever it took to be strong! I thought that if I could awaken a power, my parents might love me again.”

 

Hiro felt sadness and anger rise in him. I always knew she had some kind of pain pushing her. But I never imagined it was something like this. For someone who would dare call her trash �" that’s no family!

 

Lisanna’s eyes welled up yet again. “I just wanted the happiness of my childhood back!” She started a small bitter cry. “I thought I could go back after making it this far… But…”

 

Hiro struggled to contain the rage in his voice. “That place will never be your home again. People like that gave up the right to be your family. You’re not trash!”

 

She rubbed her tears away and smiled at Hiro. “I know. I’ll never go back there.”

 

Hiro sighed. “I guess neither of us have a home.”

 

She closed the distance they had built between themselves during their argument. “That’s not true.”

 

Hiro raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

 

She poked the left side of his chest. “Home is where your heart is, and we all hold something dear. So don’t tell me we don’t have a place to go back to.”

 

Hiro looked at Lisanna’s face. Her eyes were no longer filled with any kind of sadness. They were no longer wet with tears. The moon simply made them glow a soft beautiful purple. A gently blowing breeze had dried the tearstains on her checks, and her long blonde hair blew in the wind. She had given Hiro the top half of her ripped battledress, and she had nothing else to cover with except her bra. Her form was beautiful.

 

Hiro felt his face burning, and for the first time in his life, he struggled to speak through his embarrassment. “And w-what if my heart is w-with y…yo…you?”

 

She smiled joyfully. “Then that’s where your home is, dummy.” She drew even closer to him. “And my heart is with you as well.”

 

His impulses took over. He grabbed Lisanna and pulled her into a kiss. He held her tight in his embrace. Her warmth flooded his body and any pain or sadness he felt faded away. All he could feel was the bliss of this moment, the wonder of having the angel in his arms, and her lips on his lips. Time lost all meaning that instant. She hugged him back and they just held onto each other during the kiss. In the moment of their passion, neither of them felt nor realized that Hiro’s scars had begun to disappear one by one.

 

After a while, Lisanna pulled back. “So as long as we have each other, we will always have a home to return to.”

 

Hiro gazed into the soft purple eyes of the breathtaking blonde angel before him. Her eyes were filled with light and life. They held a promise of a future together. “I love you.”

 

She cupped his face in her hands. “I love you too.” She put her forehead against his. “You’re no monster, Hiro… You’re my hero!”

 

To be continued in part II: Piercing the Shroud of Lies