3.37. Ascension

It was late February, and it was sunny in Tokyo.

Not just sunny. Perfect weather. Clear skies that shone a perfect, undisturbed cobalt. Warm afternoon sun, warming the slightly chilly air to a comfortable temperature. No wind. Trees stood undisturbed.

And in a suburban area, just a kilometre away from Bluelock's facility, Y/N stood facing Kuroi.

The streets were empty. The walk out of Bluelock, out of the emergency exit and down the hill it was on to the city below had been some of the tensest few minutes Y/N had ever lived. Kuroi had concealed a handgun in his pocket, the barrel pointing right at Y/N the entire walk.

And now, they stood facing each other. Y/N had nowhere to run. And Kuroi, by kidnapping him in broad daylight, would have nowhere to run after this either.

Y/N was still dressed in his Bluelock sports kit. Shorts, a plain white jersey, boots. He watched Kuroi silently.

He didn't know what he felt.

Anger?

Kuroi certainly deserved it. Y/N had tried to let Ascension go years ago. But he kept coming back, he kept fucking with Y/N's life, he kept trying to destroy everything he was trying to build up. Why wouldn't he be angry?

Sadness?

At Kuroi? At the situation Ego had told him about, the man's dead parents? Not likely. Y/N was more sad about the years he'd suffered because of this sicko. The amount of other kids his age that were broken at his hands. And now, the amount of dead and dying rotting inside of Kuroi's sick prison of Ascension.

Fear?

Of course there was fear. Maybe before, there wouldn't have been. Before, in Ascension, he wouldn't have been scared of death. But now...? Y/N had things to lose. His friends, the people who cared about him, everyone who'd ever helped him out. And most importantly of all, he had himself to lose. He was on the verge of finally learning how to recover himself, finally trying to live life the way he himself wanted - and he could lose it all.

But was there really any point in fear? Y/N had seen the gun. He knew what was happening, what was going to happen. Nobody was around. Maybe someone had called the police, but there was no sound of sirens, no flashing lights, nothing. Nobody could save Y/N except himself.

It was Y/N, and Kuroi.

"Why."

Y/N bluntly said. The gun was tucked away in Kuroi's pocket. The man stood there, hands by his sides, a mirror image of Y/N. His black hair hung over his forehead in loose strands. Dark shadows surrounded his eyes. His hands were loose and relaxed against his sides, but veins stood out in his head, neck, and over the back of his wrists.

"Why are you doing this?" Y/N spoke. He made an effort not to sound scared, not to sound angry, not to sound like anything. He wanted Kuroi to know that if he wanted a reaction out of Y/N, he wasn't going to fucking get one.

Kuroi stared at him. "Why did you run?"

The man's voice was largely the same. He usually sounded teasing. Like he was playing with Y/N. Like he knew Y/N was powerless against him. But now, he was hiding it. Now, he wanted Y/N to know that he wasn't going to be swayed. Y/N L/N would die right here, right now.

"You wanted me dead."

"You're going to die now anyways. Why delay it?"

"Maybe I thought you'd give up."

"Give up?" Kuroi scoffed dryly. "I don't give up."

"I can tell." Y/N replied just as dryly. He waited a few seconds, and when Kuroi didn't reply, spoke more. "You're going to be arrested."

"Maybe."

"Are you going to shoot me before that happens?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Kuroi tilted his head. Y/N just repeated the question, fighting the shake in his voice. "Why me?"

"Why you."

"Why me." Y/N wanted to yell. But he resisted, hard as it was, and gave Kuroi nothing but a blank face. Why? Why me?! Of all people, why is it always? Fucking. Me?!

It was a question he'd asked himself hundreds of times over. Why was it him? Why was it him, to be given the cruellest fate? Why did he have to go through Ascension? Why did his parents treat him worse than garbage? Why was he always alone, why was he always worse than that guy, worse than this guy? Why was he never enough?

Y/N had spent his entire life struggling. Struggling to find what he wanted. Struggling to not be alone. And most of all, struggling to crawl out of the shadow of this man. This devil. This monster.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean." Kuroi was playing games. He always played games, making Y/N repeat himself over and over again. Y/N was sick of it.

"You do." He said firmly. "Why are you so... obsessed with me?"

"Why..." Kuroi looked to consider it. Really, really consider it.

The surrounding streets were quiet enough for Y/N to hear his own breaths, echoing in his ears. It was strange. Not a single person, not a single car. The noise of the city centre was distant enough to not be heard. It was as if the entire world had stopped. Stopped to watch a boy, and his devil.

"...Why wouldn't I be?" He questioned. "Everyone else is as well, for good reason."

"There is no reason for what you do." Y/N quietly replied. "Ego told me everything. He told me your parents died in that fire, he told me about the orphanages, he told me about your 'terrible conditions' and your wanting to help people, and he's crazy enough to think you're a good guy but I mean this when I say: there is no good reason for the things you do."

"When did I say I wanted to help people?" Kuroi answered back.

Y/N stilled. "Ego said that."

"Ego is... very wrong." Each soft word sent a shiver down Y/N's spine. The boy steadied himself, steeled himself. "Trust me. I've read his files on me. Shall I tell you the truth?"

Y/N wanted to say no. He desperately wanted to be so uncaring to say no, to be cold enough to completely shut out Kuroi. But inside, he burnt with curiosity. He wanted to understand why Kuroi did what he did. He wanted to know what could've turned a normal human being into such a... demon. "Ok."

Posture straightening just a bit, Kuroi opened his mouth. His face didn't change either, remaining calm, and composed.

"You should be grateful, godling." He murmured. "Your creator has never told anyone this story. Be glad that such a tale could bless your ears before you die."

Y/N drew a shaky breath. And Kuroi spoke.

"Kids at my age were so immature, you know? They cried. They laughed. They fought. And they loved. All over these... trivial things. I didn't do any of that. And for that, my parents... found something wrong with me."

"They always took me to the hospitals. To doctors. They worried that something was wrong with their child, that he was different to everyone else's. And... it wasn't until later on that I understood they were right. I was different. But my differences weren't because I was damaged, they were because I was simply... greater."

Greater...?

Kuroi stared hard at Y/N. As he spoke, his eyes never left the boy's.

"Greater... better... smarter... stronger." His voice grew deeper. "All other humans liked money. They liked power. They liked having things. Having a house, having a job, having safety. I didn't care about any of that. School tests were trivial. Making money was simple. Everything that humans strove towards, I could obtain with just a tiny bit of effort."

"Life was too easy. Where everyone else struggled, I thrived. Where everyone else found difficulty, I found boredom. No challenge that this world threw at me could ever make me try." Kuroi murmured. "It was almost like... I was simply on another level. I was above trivial matters, human matters."

Y/N's stomach twisted. He didn't say a word. Kuroi was on a roll. The blank face he'd kept on so far melted the longer he spoke, replaced by a terrifying, horrific, demonic expression.

"So, through that, I realised that maybe I wasn't human. I didn't have the weaknesses that other people did. I was better than human, in every single possible way." Kuroi blinked once. He raised his hands out to Y/N.

"I was, and still am, a god amongst men."

A chill ran down Y/N's spine. Goosebumps formed on his bare skin, hairs rising along his arms. Something primal. Something animal in him was terrified beyond belief at the man in front of him.

"And so, I strove to understand what it was like to be human." Kuroi tilted his head. "I've always found humans to be quaint things. But I've never understood them. What drives humans to live? How do they live with themselves, knowing the weakness of their minds and bodies?"

Y/N swallowed hard. "Y-you're..."

"I'm talking." Kuroi said stonily. For a second, challenge flared in his eyes. He silently dared Y/N to talk. Y/N didn't say another word.

"The recurring thing I discovered was that people lived life because they wanted things. They wanted something, and that drove them to keep going. And what's the most wanted thing in the world?"

Y/N's mind immediately answered for him. Happiness? Love? Time? Then he realised, and paled. Oh. If you're looking for a single physical thing... it's probably-

"The World Cup." Kuroi finished his train of thought. "So many people want it. People would dedicate their entire lives... just for a mediocre chance at getting it. It is the most sought after, the most wanted item in the world. And... maybe someone capable of getting what everyone else wanted... would be the most 'human' person on the planet."

"I didn't make Ascension to help people like Ego thought. I didn't do it to kill pathetic humans. I did it in order to understand what being human truly felt like. And I placed my hopes in you." Kuroi's blank facade was crumbling fast, replaced by something dark. "My creation. My demigod. My godling."

"You were supposed to help me. You were supposed to teach me what it meant to be human!" Kuroi snarled. Y/N instinctively took a step back, and that was when the gun was whipped out. In broad daylight, Kuroi held him at gunpoint. "You were the ascended one. And I am your god."

Y/N couldn't keep the blank expression up. He stepped closer. Closer to the gun barrel, closer to the black spot that filled his vision. "You're not a god, Kuroi. You're not human either, you're a fucking psycho."

"You keep saying that." Kuroi murmured. "I don't want to kill you, Y/N. You're not like the other human rats. I don't want to kill another higher being. Belong to me again, and I will never need to kill a human again. You are mine. So act like it."

It was selfish of Y/N. Kuroi had just offered to stop. Stop killing. Stop the mindless, pointless suffering. And yet, Y/N didn't want to accept it. He wasn't ready to give himself up, even for the lives of likely thousands more.

So he shook his head. And Kuroi's face hardened.

"That's fine." He said. The gun was shaking in Y/N's face. Not with fear or anxiety, but sheer rage. "You don't need to be alive to serve me. Your body will do."

Y/N's jaw tightened. He didn't want to die. Not at all. He swallowed bile. He didn't want to die, but he wasn't going to show Kuroi anything.

"I need your body..." Kuroi mumbled quietly, brokenly. Madly. "And the things inside it. You ruined it before... but with you, I'll create more demigods. More ascended ones. And so you, in the end, will help me learn what it is like to be human."

Y/N was shaking. So was Kuroi. Kuroi stepped closer. The gun pointed at Y/N's forehead from a metre away.

"I'll kill as many as you want, Y/N. I'll kill them all before I kill you. My godling. Don't fight this. You'll serve me, alive or dead."

Y/N shook his head.

"I'll never." He breathed.

And then, it was all happening so fast.

Kuroi's face changed.

His eyes grew darker, dark brown drowning in a sea of midnight black. And in them, Y/N saw burning, roaring, all-consuming rage. His face changed too, going from model worthy to something out of a nightmare. The mask he'd put on, the fake persona of a 'human' he showed to everyone, fell away, replaced by the face of a devil.

He was angry. And in that anger, Y/N saw his true nature. Kuroi talked about being a god, he pretended to be a human, but he wasn't. He was plain and simple, a monster.

Kuroi's hand stilled on the gun.

Y/N tensed.

Kuroi pulled the trigger.

"Goodbye, Y/N L/N."

Ascension - A Bluelock x male reader story.

Act 3 - Completed.