The Earth After Rebirth

An uncomfortable silence fell onto them for a minute. Not because the big hall was quiet, they were hauling every insult at the man in the ring. Despite their noise, despite Hiro speaking softly they heard him clearly.

And silence just warped around them. The words coiled themselves around their necks nearly choking the life out of them, like a boa constrictor to its prey.

They expected everything under the sun, but not this. They all looked horrified at the man Hiro called his father. He never talked about him much, so they had no idea he looked so wrong.

They may not have known what he looked like before, but what was in front of them was something else entirely. He had a resemblance to Hiro, but it was almost all gone. His eyes looked dead and that of a cold-blooded killer.

It was impossible to fathom because they had met every member of the Misaki family and they were about the nicest people out there, but here was their family head, ripping people's arms like they were nothing.

"That's your—" The word refused to come out of Kiro's mouth.

"Father..." Ishaan said with his mouth agape looking at the strange man, who was a bit of a giant no matter how he looked at it.

"Are you certain?" Nikolai asked dumbly, not knowing what else to say.

Hiro silently sobbed. No sound came out, just silent tears carving his bright red cheeks. Kiro was surprised at how good his friend was handling this, until he remembered that, this was how his friend showed anger. Discover exclusive tales on m,v l'e|m-p| y r

Silent but deadly. A storm was brewing within him, he was only petrified because there were many things inside of him at once, emotions and thoughts alike. His brain couldn't work fast enough to process the mountain that stood in front of him.

"Hiro, I need you to calm down. Don't do anything that's going to draw attention to us." Kiro tried to calm him down.

He'd never seen what happened when he got truly heated. It was one time he'd seen him like this, back when they arrived at the academy, he managed to calm him then but he wasn't so sure this time.

He knew just how much he was asking of him, but rampaging now would not help them or his father. That would only cause their plan to go south. He hoped Hiro wouldn't take it the wrong way.

He sincerely felt for him. Seeing what they'd done to his father, he was secretly glad his grandfather was nowhere to be seen. He had no doubt in his mind that, once upon a time, Hiro's father was as down to earth as the rest of his family.

This place clearly changed him, in his opinion it would change anyone. Being forced to kill people, people who were in the same predicament, people who were kidnapped and enslaved like he was. He felt sorry for him.

But whatever he said wasn't something that registered within Hiro. All sounds were gone in an instant, he felt like he was falling down a bottomless pit. He couldn't feel himself breathing, he was just, falling. The darkness that threatened to snatch him, frightened him a little.

But he wanted it, he felt like, he needed it. He reached out his hand to welcome it, let it takeover, to let it run rampant and punish anything and anyone. Because the man that was in front of him was but a shell of his father.

That's when he felt a squeeze on his shoulder, that jolted him back to reality. He looked back with eyes unseeing because of the tears that filled them, but he could see who it was nonetheless.

It was none other than his best friend, the person who'd saved him more than he'd ever count. The person who stood with him through it all, the person who willingly agreed to be his friend.

"Kiro...what did they do to him?" He asked in-between sobs.

Kiro was lost for words, he didn't know what to say nor did he know the answer to that question. He couldn't comfort him with words, so he instead hugged him.

Knowing there were people in his corner calmed him down a little but he still couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"Dammit. They won't stop." As soon as he wiped them new ones appeared.

"We're here to make them pay, and pay they shall." Kiro said scanning the crowd that was still frantic about the man whom was rebelling, who was now rattling the cage violently.

"The game..." Hiro let out thinking of something.

"What about it?" They were all confused as to why he'd mention it, this wasn't a time to be thinking about games, they wondered whether this was too traumatic for him so he was rambling.

But Hiro wasn't rambling, for the first time since laying his eyes on that man, he was thinking clearly. And this somehow scared him more than anything.

"Do you think it's prophetic, the game I mean?"

They all looked at him funny. They now had no doubt that he was losing his mind. Hiro saw their expressions, he sighed.

"I mean, remember the first task to enter the capital? I told you my experience within the labyrinth. What I saw as my father then as the closest thing to it now, just like in the game, he's forgotten himself."

The thought that the game could tell the future, their future, was exhausting for him, he fell onto the nearest seat. His mind going thousands of kilometers per second. He couldn't make up an excuse as to why or how the game could've predicted this.

"Must be a coincidence." Felix said in denial.

"Must be." Kiro agreed with him.

Their words weren't convincing to anyone, not even themselves. The game certainly seemed like an entity that was self-aware, it was bone chilling to think about.

Especially with the strange experiences Kiro has had. Like the space with dead stars, he clearly saw his world then but then again this was common knowledge for anyone who lived in their country.

It didn't explain the voices he'd hear occasionally though, that seemed panicked about something that was coming too early. Now that Hiro said it out loud, it made him realise how strange it all was. He believed his friend but it simply wasn't the time.

"Let's talk about it later, we have cleaning to do."