Chapter 38

Pain was still very applicable to Juntaro.

While he lacked a physical body and was trapped inside the electronics like a captive to a cage, he was still able to “feel”. Such a thing has always been a mystery to even him as to how it was possible, despite lacking any sort of physical nervous system and sensory organs. Though he was indeed a being of data, he still retained much of his human attributes.

All sounds, sights, feelings and even taste and scent, depending on the appliances he possessed, were still accessible to him but he also had full control over what could reach him from the outside world.

He was a captive, but he was also in charge of his confinement.

Ryuuko’s black tentacle that had somehow been able to reach him did not surprised him anymore. However it was not to say that such a thing still wasn’t a shock. This was definitely not the first time nor that baffling, with all the craziness that has happened so far, but the phenomenon was still mind-boggling.

The shock for him was how the black tentacle that had pierced through his screen, had also subsequently overtaken his entire system as it tore into his body. The moment it began to inject something of a foul substance inside him, he lost dominion of his entire electronic world; his system overloaded and ran wild, causing his him to completely fall apart as a result, turning him into fragments of data struggling to hold together his feeble human form.

“WHAT THE FU-?!”

The words he shouted he did not know if he had said it out loud or if it was in his head. Juntaro wanted to scream, his entire body spasmed with unbelievable pain from its collapse, but he had no mouth. And even if he could, he would not be able to hear for he also had no ears. But even so, invasive sounds flooded into his little world and was deafening him.

Thundering noise of heartbeats violently shook his electronic prison, shattering everything like a powerful earthquake and further breaking apart his already tattered being. The terrible pounding noise drowned out even that of his own thoughts, with the only thing left being the feelings of utmost torment that sent shockwaves through him with every little pulse of his own heartbeat.

It hurts so much. It felt as if his mind, the only thing he felt was still intact and that he still believed he had control over, was also on the verge of cracking. That he was mere moments away from dispersing back into the binaries that had long held hostage of him.

But, even amongst the explicit suffering, there was a strange feeling of peace. His body that was falling apart, withering away to nothingness; it brought solace to him that his cursed existence will vanish along as well.

He was tired. So very tired. He just want it all to go away. He despised his fate; to be trapped and confined. To be looked down on as something less than a human being, in his mind, but not even enough to be called a monster.

Why must it be him? He doesn’t want any of this. He never did. All he ever wanted was...;

“Kirika...”

The name darted across into his mind and flew from his non-existent mouth as a whisper, yet was clear as crystal even amongst the endless drumming. The thought of his sister. His beloved sister. He remember that she was also here. Also trapped in this false world that defied all logic and reality. Trapped along with him.

He was suddenly filled with guilt. Compared to him, she was the one person that he knew had done nothing wrong. Fragments of memories came to him of his sister, as he thought about how her, and especially her, did not belong here. She did not deserve to be in this so-called “paradise”. This fake reality that has trapped them all so cruelly in the guise of mercy.

But then, why was she here? Why was she also trapped along with him? It must be ... it must be all his fault, yet again. It was always his fault. Like before ... and before...

Anger filled his breaking mind and began to overpower the pathetic feelings of resignation and desire for the illusionary “peace”. He was furious. He was seriously pissed off.

His heart that was muffled by the invasive noise coming into his world began to pound rapidly, outpacing the rest of the erratic and countless heartbeats that tried to stifle him. Not yet. Not until he could properly make up to her, for everything he had done. For all the misery he has caused to her.

He refused to be subjugated. He refused to be erased. This was his prison but this was also his world and he will not allow it to be overtaken so easily.

The raging beat of his heart started to resound and drew in the rest of the drifting, deafening noises, capturing them as the numerous heartbeats that throbbed around him began to beat in sync with his own.

BABUMP BABUMP BABUMP

Juntaro was not the only one who felt this way. For the other two boys, their body still frozen tightly in place outside, they were also experiencing a similar torture.

The club president, despite his large body’s lack of pain receptions, was suffering greatly.

“Ugh!! Is ... is this how it is for her?! IS THIS WHAT SHE’S FEELING AND HEARING RIGHT NOW?!” Roared Kenjirou’s inner thought as he gritted his teeth in pain, so hard that he bleed from his mouth. The deafening sounds of heartbeats was blasting heavily in his ears, ringing at such an infuriating tempo that was bringing madness with every beat.

He could hear them. Voices. Screams and cries of agony, so eerily familiar, that was mixed in with the thundering drums and their piercing shrieks were threatening to blow his brains out from his skull.

Despair. Hatred. Rage.

He hollered as he tried to throw his arms over to cover his ears but was helpless to move. He wanted to plug them. To silence them. To brutally tear out his own eardrums so that all of this would stop.

If it had been just physical pain, he might have been able to handle it. But all of this that came to him, there was no feeling of any of it at all yet was still so excruciating. The rupturing heartbeats was doing more than just attempting to deafen him, it was also dragging something out from deep inside his mind. It was bringing back horrible, horrible memories that he had tried so desperately to bury.

Those screams and shrieks, they were familiar because they were the same that were once directed at him. It was so long ago, yet flashes of bloodied red appeared before him and formed into hellish hallucinations before his very eyes to remind him that he could never escape from his torments.

“AARGHH!!!” He screamed as his mind began to collapse at the vivid sights of his horrid memories. He couldn’t take it anymore.

“I want to see her again...”

The moment this thought came into his mind, everything went quiet. His eyes that were rolling to the back of his head, the wave of unconsciousness that tried to take him, broke off as his gaze moved to a distinct female figure standing before him. But;

“That’s not her. Why? Why isn’t it her? Where is she ... Why isn’t she here?!”

Anger began to cloud him, his heart pounding fiercely and began to loudly overpower the numerous other booming foreign beats that was pounding in his head.

He was enraged. The shrieks and cries that thundered inside of him started to become muffled and was absorbed to his own anger. All of this ... who should he direct all this fury towards? Who were the bastards that took her away from him? Who must he tear apart to ease this insatiable appetite for vengeance?

Letting out a resounding roar, the beating of his furious heart overtook the invasive beats, forcing them to move in sync with his own.

BABUMP BABUMP

On the other end of the spectrum, Takuya who was held in a world of silence could hear none of the screams and cries that was blasting into his disabled ears. Instead, he was forced to feel them all.

From the tip of his fingers to the far end of his toes; from the edge of his skin to the deep of his bones, he felt the reverberation spreading mercilessly across his entire body. Pounding from inside as if his very cells have each gained a heart and was beating intensely, a sensation that brought him ever closer to madness with their every pulsing movements.

The pain was strangling him. He wanted to scream but he did not know if he was able to, or if he already was. He could not feel himself. He could not hear himself. All there was, was agony and his body being slowly taken away from him.

“Taken away...”

That thought stuck to him. An odd yet familiar sentiment that crept up on him, like a sharp dagger plunged into his back.

“That’s right. Nothing more than a piece of property. Abandoned, but then reclaimed once my worth was rediscovered. My existence ... my reason of being ... all of it was just...”

“GAAAAAAHHHH!!” The screams finally flew from his mouth. He could not hear it. He could not feel it, but he knew his voice came out along with the anger and hatred that he tried so desperately to hold down, all of it rushing out with his painful cries.

And then, he heard it. Even within the quiet that clung to him, that seized his entire being like the tight binding of a leash. “His” voice;

“Pathetic. Look at you, still struggling for such a pointless endeavor. Worthless child. When will it finally dawn to you? When will you learn and accept that you will never be one of them. You are nothing more than a...”

The voice, too similar to his own, was clear as clear can be in his silenced mind. The voice that he couldn’t rid of, no matter how hard he tried. The voice that even Artificial was unable to mercifully relief him of. The hated voice that brought out every type of scorn, loathing and envy he had for the world, for its people and to himself.

“I AM HUMAN!” Takuya cried out in in a desperate rebuttal yet he could not hear nor feel his own voice’s response to the anger and hatred that choked him. But even so, the screams brought out an overwhelming force that shifted the pain clinging to his body into a different sensation. What was before, if it was the feeling of his body being taken away from him, then this would be him seizing it back as he felt the powerful exploding of his own heart amidst the sporadic pounding and erratic throbbing that was the alien heartbeats inside of him.

Their percussion began to move together. Their beats that once had no coordinated rhythm, instead just wild collusion that attempted to drive him mad, was now moving in sync with his own.

BABUMP

Ryuuko watched with bated breath the distress of her clubmates. It was a horrible sight, seeing them in such anguish brought on by her. Because she was connected to them via the black tentacles from her arms, to a degree, she too was able to feel their internal turmoil and it was suffocating. From where she had stabbed them, black veins erupted from the wounds and wildly spreading throughout their frozen bodies in a gruesome manner as they could only loudly scream.

It was terrible but she could not turn back now. The process have already begun and if she was to rescind herself, they most definitely will die. The black tentacles that linked her to her friends, its injections rapidly pumping an untold amount of vile substance into their bodies, was forcing the virus into a state of grisly mutations.

She could only bite her lower lip and gave a look of grimace, all while helpless but to hear their deafening screams, watching as their eyes rolled to the back of their heads and the veins in their bodies madly throbbing and bursting out from underneath their skins.

“My, my, that certainly is painful. How awful, don’t you think Takatora Ryuuko? I wonder will they be able to hold out until the end?” Came a mocking voice amidst the screams as she looked over to the smirking face of Alma. “Their sins run quite deep, to the point that it is a part of them. You will not be able to free them from it and if it is to be pulled out, no matter what matter of miracle is to exist, it will not save them.”

“I am not removing their sins and you know that.” Ryuuko answered bitterly.

“Indeed, heh heh. You are influencing theirs with your own, a temporary measure and a very cruel one at that. I wonder, how did you learn of this method? Was it from the endless pool of chitter-chatter being whispered in your ears? Their voices, they’re are quite irritating, aren’t they?” Alma mused as they twirled their silvery braid in their broken hand.

Ryuuko gave a look of surprise as Alma only returned another look of condescendence.

“Don’t look at me with such shock, my dear Eve. Did I not say that you and I are connected? I too am experiencing the same binding of pain received from those boys you’re so desperately holding on to, as well as the shrieking of those bothersome remnants. Although their wails are more of a nuisances to me. Curses and raving expletives, unlike to you who otherwise seems to be well accepted by them. They are directing you to such actions but aren’t fully instructing you of its complete ramifications, instead just being an ambience of annoyance trying to cloud your judgements.”

Ryuuko kept quiet as Alma continue to laugh. There was much she wanted to say; questions that ate at her she wanted to ask and rebuttals to their scornful words yet she knew that it would be pointless, as she would just be ridiculed and be answered with more jeers from this person. Instead she further focused herself on her task at hand, further steeling her resolve and desire to support the boys despite the increasingly painful and angry cries of the voices within her.

Alma was indeed correct on their assessment of her actions. However, it wasn’t so much that she was being told what to do, due to the ambiguous prattles from the countless masses that was speaking to her yet whose voices were still nothing more than white noise, but instead more of a matter of instructive instinct from her own body. She was moving to the beat the ever-increasing fluctuation of her heart as it was struggling to find the same tempo of that of the boys, and theirs to the others. Her throbbing right arm was holding steadfast together with the black tentacles that clung to their bodies, pulsing strongly as she meticulously waited for the desired moment.