The Deadman

The guise of being a professional makes it hard for him to tolerate idiots who are ignorant of the affairs of the world. Kato did expect that the cultists that have real connection to the demons would be so stubborn. Then again they are fanatics. Zealots who have made it their life to become one with the machine.

Machine-possession and grafting. They skin their victims and use their youthful skin, revive them through a method, and wear their skin. Flesh-crafting is mastered in this day and age. Kato had witnessed clinics and hospitals who have made these treatments that were the same as going to the dentist to get their tooth removed or implanted. He had spent enough time getting used to the way of the world. They were similarities to the future he once knew. He didn’t have trouble.

Chang was damn right about his work being added. Uncle Sam or at least Uncle Strato still had him somewhat leashed. Kato didn’t mind. Also, he had enough time to investigate his previous acquaintances and found out that some of them couldn’t remember him well.  Kato guessed that this was the work of the Deadman, the true deadman, not him. For what reason he had done this, he didn’t know. Kato’s head had been aching at the thought of playing games with beings that are beyond his limits. Even if Kato wanted to pretend he could somehow break his limits and resist.

His soul instinctively told him that this was his limit. His body can be enhanced through other means, but his soul has reached its limit. It can no longer be improved unless he merges with more souls. Broken souls that are devoid of memories and ego. Once consumed will expand his soul, but the chances of succeeding is a miracle itself. Kato, in his spare time, had visited the database and archives collected by the Wraiths. Information that was copied to digital format. Readable docs that are accompanied with hard copies scribed in alkaline paper and are due for replacement. Copies of copies are made.

He has a strong body, but his mind was simply average. Enhanced enough that he could remember easily, but Kato was sure that a good memory does not come with the wisdom and the mastery of using said information inside one’s head to the fullest.  He simply didn’t have the ability to comprehend all the lore regarding this side of the world. Kato at least knew that he was a Magus by their standards. A Magus that is not bound by a world that was eaten up by the millennium bug. It was quite an upgrade. Kato wasn’t expecting that he’d be able to use spells more than the elements, but nonetheless he was limited by his own limitations. Magic itself was nice, but he wasn’t focused on making use of them. He was a musclehead with an affinity for using guns and bombs to do his work. If anything it felt dirty to Kato despite all of his vows and hope for a better self. He was back to what he was good at. He was back to working as a thug. An independent thug who could disappear from the memories of his employers.

If anything he felt more like a problem solver. He finds troublesome people or cases and finds a way to solve them. One of those cases led him to this texan shack that was off the grid. The one he fought was a muscular giant armed to the teeth and was grafted with the flesh of demons.

The man’s shack and basement was full of items that a man shouldn’t have. Tomes that are full of esoteric knowledge that has been translated through a machine and artifacts that are supercharged with energy that could distort the air around him. His basement had thirty bodies stacked together and were constantly recycled to create this horrific figure. He had identified them because the man had made records. The man was a master of flesh-crafting, an augmentation doctor that had been trying to remove the limits of the flesh.

There was a hard-limit to augmentation. And those who have lost their flesh have no container and only those who have strong will can maintain their dignity. Strato, who Kato had met, was one of a kind. But he was a man whose soul clung to the last piece of his flesh. His brain and heart that has aged acts as teeter and that limit is barely allowing him to live as he is.

Which leaves Kato questioning if a man without a soul can live. It could not. It can live, but it is nothing more than a biological robot that functions without the soul that makes it a true conscious being. It can never be human. It can never be classified as a human being. Even this man, whose name Kato won’t speak, was feeling aggrieved by the fact that the flesh he had mixed together couldn’t form anything. He had recently concluded that because his creation was soulless that it can’t be made into being. The man was smart enough and at the finale of his greatest creation, Kato came to visit and slammed his back on the wall.

The madman did try to win despite being ambushed. However, Kato had disabled his security, traps, and weapons before confronting him. Kato wasn’t dumb enough to assault the seemingly lone shack without scanning the area. If he had assaulted the madman immediately, he was sure that he would have to endure the wrath of turrets who would trap him in a killing circle. Questioning the madman was futile. He was fanatical. He did not reveal anything that Kato had made the choice of crippling the man and letting the nation take care of this madman.

It wasn’t his job to kill them. Kato was a professional. His emotions were steeled and chained by reason. It was better to learn what the madmen knew than kill him.

Kato took care of the items. He made seals on certain items and then had the entire records that the madman made archived for future use. The rest of the artifacts were useless to him and with how insistent they were. They wouldn’t give in the chance to get an artifact.

The mobile base was parked not far from the shack. The space itself became restricted and a wall of drones were summoned to cloak the perimeter. Chang, who was carrying his portable equipment, connected his workstation to the database of the madman.

“Dr. Keith Carlino. I was wondering where he went. Brilliant man. A master of augmentation and flesh-crafting and a known necrophiliac.”

“I don’t know why it makes sense now.”

“It’s actually pretty tame since his goal is to resurrect a former lover.”

“She died?”

“Yes. But here’s the best part, Sir. He stole the brain of his lover. Applied luxurious treatments to it and had preserved it for twenty-five years.”

Chang brought up data and showed it to Kato.

The madman had collected humans that were considered top tier. Most of the humans that this madman bought were smuggled into the country. After they enter this country, they are drugged, shipped, and taken to the designated place where the madman would have his drones take care of the humans and have their flesh harvested.

They are all natural. Not a single augmentation and had good genes. The research notes of the madman suggested that he would make a body that was compatible with his former lover’s brain and then transplant the brain and revive her through this method.

Kato didn’t understand why he didn’t opt for a brain transplant. However, there was a sense of perfectionism in the man that wanted to prove that he could make a better and stronger body. There was simply no reason to go this far to the point of using demons' flesh. Nevertheless, the perfectionism of the madman led him to going this far.

“Of course, there was also this.”

Chang transferred data to Kato.

“It looks like he was hoping to advance human creation. He wants to create a customizable body recycled from the flesh of individuals.”

“I don’t know what to say. Should I applaud him for wanting to recycle flesh?”

“I don’t think you should. In a way he wanted to further the studies regarding this. He wants to create a coil that could be used. He even has a schematic of this ‘coil project’ that he wants to make.”

The plan was simple. If a body is ill or wasn’t up to the taste of the customer. He or She will create a body that is similar to the customer and then inhabit this body by transplanting the brain. He had met difficulties and he planned to create his first subject. The results were horrible. There were many irregularities. As if this violated something. 

For the past few years this madman had been failing. And then he turned to resources that he shouldn’t have touched. In a way, the bodies that have been gathered and recycled constantly in his basement did not rot because of the flesh-preserving mastery that the madman had created. 

“It’s disgusting, but it works.”

“It sure is.”

Below the basement is the reason why the flesh did not rot. Submerged in a concocted liquid that the madman had made. A man-made peritoneum covered in peritoneal fluid that sustained the organs that were pumping blood into flesh. 

It was a giant blob of meat that was full of organs from all kinds of people that he had harvested. The size of a bus was as wide as a round stage. There were eyes floating inside the blob of meat. Scalps with their eyelids that were naturally sewn.

“Should we kill it?”

Chang sincerely asked while recording any information and taking samples from the blob.

“When you are done, maybe. But I doubt that the white coats will stay still. They want to make a full diagnosis of this and test it. Possibly, dissect it, and examine it further.”

“I guess there’s knowledge to be gained from this. Chang, I hunt assholes, but seeing abominations like this makes me question if I should continue.”

“Well, it’s understandable since you have the choice to stay away from this kind of work. Are you uncomfortable?”

“Oh, I have seen much worse than this, Chang. Still, what kind of idiot would try to endure this kind of scenery when you can just avoid it? It doesn’t bother me, but it’s like asking me if I want to see shit every time. It’s unpleasant to look at.”

Chang nods his head. He understood how revolting his job could be. Chang was on the side that handles all matters related to cleanup and taking samples. He was the guy you ask to do this awful work of watching mutilated flesh, corpses, and all kinds of things.

Chang has a stomach that could handle it. He was expressionless and numb to the sight of these abominations that Kato was sure that this man probably had a great resistance to these kinds of images.

“How long is this going to take?”

Chang blows air through his nose, “This will take a while. You aren’t our only agent so I’m sure that you can take a rest. Besides, you’ve done a lot that no one can say that you’re being a lazy asshole that is sucking on the taxes of the people.”

“Technically, I’m not a citizen of your country.”

“You have dual citizenship at least.”

“True.”

Kato placed his eyes on the blob of meat. Chang, who was analyzing the samples, and keeping them secured grew curious at Kato.

“I guess it’s a pain in the ass being the Agent of Wraith now.”

“It’s not that bad. Besides, I need one meaty leg to cling to. And having Uncle Sam’s leg as that backer ain’t that bad.”

Kato kept his helmet on and locked the weapons. “Anyway, good luck with the harvesting, Chang.”

Kato got out of the shack and groaned at the sight of the mobile base. He sent Strato a message who only replied with a thumb’s up.