by Ash Masters
*
Yamato was thrown into a wall but was caught before he could drop then tossed across the road, skipping across like a stone on water on top of the cars and only stopping when the train of vehicles ended where he fell. Despite his mighty body, he struggled to get back up.
Like he had said to Junichi when he was younger, he may have been invincible but he could still feel pain. The ability allowed his body to be resistant to damage; his skin wouldn’t tear and his bones wouldn’t break but his nerves still worked and so he still felt pain. No ability was one hundred percent advantageous which was evident when he had met One, a man who was old despite his ability to live forever – the same ability within Yamato now.
As he trembled in his struggle to rise, Yamato thought about his life in Underground Shibuya, how in his armour he had become the force of justice he had always wanted to be. With Akira preoccupied with Overground Shibuya and his daughter Ayumi who was still a child, Underground Shibuya was an underworld with with crime and chaos. He however was the light that was fighting the darkness under his name Reaper.
A dark name. He thought, but a name he gave himself when he lost his wife to the allure of darkness.
Yamato was no stranger to pain, he felt it when he endured what the Keys and Humans threw at him yet each time he got up. Every time a building fell on him during intense battles where he couldn’t escape in time, each time he was mauled by Nightmares when they overwhelmed him and everyday when he had to look his young daughter Rika in the eyes and see the hurt – hurt from not having a mother anymore, not having a normal father to do normal fatherly things with, not having a normal life, Yamato endured the pain and still, he had gotten up.
Not this time however.
‘You have to get up Yamato!’ He hissed, trying to lift his body that felt impossibly heavy, off the ground. ‘You have to live so you can make it up to Rika! It’s your fault that she’s always so angry! If you were stronger then you could have stopped all the bad things she experienced from happening! Get up! GET UP!’
‘You’re stronger than this – I know you are.’ Kioshi said as he took an arm and placed it over his shoulder.
‘I thought you were the one who was supposed to stop Akira?’ Said Kouji as he took his other arm.
‘Kids...’ Mumbled Yamato, still in a daze. ‘How did you get here?’
‘The Xero Xone allowed me to pass through the ground down to here. This place is practically the entire size of Shibuya so you can find this place by just moving downwards.’
‘Yamato, Kioshi says you can give people abilities. You have to give me one so I can fight.’ Kouji pleaded.
‘I can’t...’ Yamato shook his head gently both to tell Kouji and to help wake himself up. ‘I can’t think straight.’
‘Then what can I do?’ Kouji asked, desperate to show his worth.
‘Stop the girl...’
Kioshi and Kouji looked back at the Nightmare headed towards them.
‘That’s a Nightmare?’ Kouji thought out loud.
‘Nightmares.’ Yamato stressed the “s”. ‘Maybe a hundred of them fused into a single mass by that girl down there who somehow managed to take Ayumi down.’
‘I got it! She’s the one controlling that thing! I can take her!’
‘It’s dangerous Kouji, you’ll get hurt! She took out Ayumi.’ Kioshi looked over Yamato’s hunched body.
‘So what!?’ Kouji met Kioshi’s stare. ‘Meaning if you go you won’t get hurt?’
‘With my eyes I may be able to stop her without killing her. Do you even have what it takes to stop her?’
‘You mean kill her?’
Kioshi was reluctant to answer. ‘Yes... If need be.’
‘I can do it! Just watch me!’
‘Damn it, Kouji! What have you got to prove!?’
Quietly Kouji carried Yamato ahead and Kioshi kept up so they could put more distance between then and the giant Nightmare. ‘You’re the Key and I’m not, Kioshi. Miyako got me thinking; what makes you so special? What is it that made you want to fight against society? What gives you your strength to stand up and keep going? Stopping Akira is just as much my responsibility as it is yours. I’ve done my fair share even if my sacrifices weren’t as large as yours.’
‘Kouji, being a Key doesn’t make anyone better than anyone.’ He gave a reassuring smile.
‘I need a part in all of this, Kioshi! I need to prove to myself and my father that I have what it takes to be a man. I’m sorry.’ With his last words he ditched Yamato, heading towards the Nightmare instead.
‘KOUJI!’
‘Kioshi, let me go. I can hold him off; I won’t die. You need to go to the Shibuya Grand Hotel. He pointed at the large building overlooking all of the smaller buildings like an abomination. ‘It’s time that we end this, end what your mother, your father myself and my wife started all that time ago.’
‘Yeah...’ Kioshi said to himself then something occurred to him. ‘Wait, where is my father?’
