Breakout

The bell rang and everything scattered, broke apart like the
class was held together by a prayer until then. Everyone had been waiting for
it, waiting for the clock to tick over, but to Saito it wasn’t as though he was
even waiting for anything anymore. As he watched the people around him burst to
life, suddenly invigorated by the chance to go home, to see their friends, to
drink or party or whatever it is that they did to make themselves feel alive,
he could feel his envy as acute as a knife in his side as his hands swept
across marbled wood worn almost smooth by the passage of a thousand hands. The
professor at the front of the class was packing up as well, sliding his books
into a rolling suitcase he carried with him and making his way for the door as
Saito swept his own materials into his bag and made his way out after him,
closing the door as he left.

“Something wrong, Saito?” the man asked, cocking his head to the side as he
raised a grey eyebrow to the younger man. He was a good teacher and a good man,
and as he looked to his student he couldn’t help but think that something was…off,
with him.


“Not really, Okubo-Sensei.” He sighed and shook his head,
the universal sign that of course something was wrong, but he didn’t much want
to say that to the old man as he made his way along before he finally cracked a
bit. “Just…I don’t know. It seems like every day is the same.” He muttered,
bringing a hand up over his eyes. For a moment the world flickered in front of
his eyes, black and white superimposed over the real world, the core of Okubo’s
eyes glowing with a color that he couldn’t see fast enough, his lips moving
silently before he shook himself, everything returning to normal as he heard
the man speak.

“I think everyone feels that way at some point
in their life.” His voice momentarily far away as though heard through water
before he clapped a strong hand to the boy’s shoulder. “Maybe you need to get
out more, Saito. Take a night off now and then.” He gave him a slight wave as
they parted ways, Saito making his way towards his bike as he ran a hand over
his face. A professor was telling him he needed to get out more; he almost felt
like he’d stooped to a new low.

Work didn’t go much better then school, the only thing
changing being the slanted angle that the daggers of light coming through the
curtains came in at. The copy machine would whirl, the computer would slowly
fill with information as he worked through the teacher’s work that was being
pushed off to him. Okubo-sensei at least was a decent enough man; he could
barely respect Makimura, the teacher he worked for. He shouted too much and
belittled his students and worked Saito for all he was worth; Saito practically
ran the class while the massive man swaggered his way through the room,
swatting at students who talked too loud or who drifted off during his
lectures.



It was all the same, all
routine. He’d read about human memory systems enough to know that his entire
routine was so ingrained into him that it barely required thought; like
driving, he could practically sleep through it. Still, there was something that
kept jolting him today. Maybe it was his dream last night, or maybe he was
still dreaming and just didn’t know it, but one way or another, for a brief
moment, things didn’t sync up. The world would seem grainy, the film of black
and white covering it, with people’s eyes glowing for just a brief moment as
they said something impossibly quickly that he couldn’t quite catch before
reality seemed to catch up, speeding along to meet it’s quota once more. The
lapses were getting more and more severe, and coming closer and closer into syncing
up with the beautiful headache that was beginning to form when finally the massive
man bellowed from his desk. “Go on, Takamori,” he coughed into his hand,
patting himself with a thick hand to his chest, “You’re done here. Get some
shut eye, you’ve pulled space cadet duty all day.” He noted as the young man got
to his feet and left with little more than a wave over his shoulder. The grainy
feeling washed over him again, and he almost had time to see a tall man leaning
up against the door, a smirk too wide to be real on his lips before it was gone
and he continued on, shaking his head. He wondered briefly if he was going
insane, but he didn’t much bother to continue along that line of thought; he
was just tired, just feeling a bit under the weather. Still, there was that
project he needed done… he sighed and shook his head, making his way down the
halls towards his cycle as he ran a hand over his face. Maybe his professor was
right, he really did need to relax a bit…

Somehow the whole
bar-hopping gene had passed Saito by in much the same way that it did his
parents. He didn’t really get the point of ‘hang out and drink’, but today he
was making a special exception; somehow little spasms of reality trying to tell
him something were enough to make him want to not much care about reality. As
he knocked back a small glass filled with clear fluid that tasted suspiciously
of cough syrup with the burn of alcohol, he closed his eyes as it did it again,
but this time he blinked, cocking his head to the side; a word had gotten
through to him, and he wasn’t quite sure if the time warp had just said what he
thought it said.


…pussy!…


He opened his eyes and saw again the flicker of a figure to
his side before he shook his head, trying to rub away the image of it with a
hand. Did his imaginary friend just call him a pussy? He almost thought he’d
sunk to a new low before he opened his eyes and looked across the bar,
motioning with his glass for another before he realized that everything was
moving about him very, very slowly. The world had the same grainy film cover of
black and white as before, and people’s eyes still glowed, but there was
someone else there who hadn’t been there before, and with a rather casual swipe
of his hand he knocked away the glass Saito held in his hand and leaned over
the counter.


“You good at hearing
what you want to, kid, but one of these days you’re gonna let me out.” The
man looked much like Saito, if Saito had decided to go up and poke holes in his
face; lip rings, piercings over his left eyebrow and three down one side of his
nose, ears filled with rings and bars…everything on his face was of silver,
slightly tarnished, but harder to get over was his smile, which cut quite literally
from ear to ear thanks to a long cut from the corner of his lips back to his
jawbone, kept shut by a pair of rings through the skin of his cheek. He grinned
to the young man, his face splitting wide and revealing far more teeth then he
really should before he took the cigarette from a man’s hand to the side and
took a long drag of it, smoking it down to the filter before letting it out
through the slits of his cheeks, the smoke wafting up over his face through the
vents as he ashed it easily.


Saito, for his part, mostly just stared at himself before he
shook his head and slapped a hand to his forehead. “So wait a moment… what the
hell is this? And what the hell are you doing? And how-“ he started before
there was a sharp sound across his face, a firm punch knocking him to the side.
He fell against one of the slowly moving members of the bar, the man pressing
backwards and turning to look to him in slow motion as…whatever it was across
the bar kept talking.


“Don’t talk like those
people do! You’re not one of them, you’re not some pussy who goes to the bar
because his damn teacher tells him that he needs to get a life! You’ve been
through some shit, you’ve had some family fun, and now it’s time to cut the
fuck loose.”


The man seemed to recoil and move in slow motion, attempting
to push Saito, though even at normal speed Saito was well prepared for it.
Still, he was a bit to engrossed with the other man to start worrying about
things like what was going on to the side.


“What does it look like I’m doing?!” he muttered, blushing
slightly at the insinuation before shaking his head. “I’m at a bar, I’m
drinking, it’s a school day tomorrow-“


The man grabbed him from the other side of the bar and
pulled him across it, spilling drinks all over and spreading the ash-tray on
someone’s lap. “You’re about to learn the
meaning of cut loose, kiddo.” He said with a happy smile that stretched too
far across his features before the young man was thrust backwards by the drunk’s
thick fists, sending him sprawling back across a table only to stumble to his
feet as several patrons of the bar began to get up and make their way towards
him.


“What the hell are you doing, you little shit?!” one of them
demanded, making his way towards him menacingly and cracking his knuckles. To
Saito, though, without the grainy film on it now, he seemed rather likely to
kick his ass, especially with the pounding headache that was beginning to form
in his head, almost threatening to bring him to his knees. He put a hand to his
forehead and groaned, the waves of pain occurring faster and faster, concentrating
right between his eyes, like an undulating pattern of sledgehammer blows
driving out thought. He couldn’t stop to think, couldn’t say anything but pant
for breath as he sunk to one knee, the group of men coming nice and close as
they looked down to him. “What the fuck is going on with you?!”


He didn’t respond, far more worried at the moment about what
was going on with him. The lights seem to flicker and flash around him,
everything starting to move in beat to the shuddering waves of pain rocking his
form. He almost felt high on the pain, like the adrenaline being forced into
his system was slowly turning all that pain into a delicious form of strength
that flowed to the very tips of his fingers and caused the air around him to
shudder, voices echoing slowly and almost languidly around him as he felt the
first man who he’d fallen into, one of the rougher day-worked types who worked
in the lower commons, grab hold of his collar and heft him up to his feet.


“You got something to say to me, punk?!” he demanded,
pushing Saito back into the booth behind him. A slight laugh burst from Saito’s
lips, and he couldn’t stop himself as he tried to grapple with what was going
on. His body felt alive, on fire, like his muscles were cords of iron and his
body strong as steel before he watched, as if in slow motion, the man shift
foreword and move to punch him in the face.


The punch never hit; Saito’s hand snapped to the man’s
wrist, faster than he ever thought he could have but with the languid grace of
a master, stopping him mid-swing as he looked to the oaf with a long grin
slowly forming on his lips as he started to let himself go, started to breathe
out as he felt his nice little shit of a life start to burn.


“Yeah…shut the FUCK up.” He spoke with force and with an
exultant edge to his voice, as though he’d wanted to say it for a long time
before he twisted the man’s arm down and pulled towards the floor. He was
almost surprised at his own strength; the other man didn’t much seem to have a
chance to do anything but yelp and follow suit as he pulled him down and
slammed his fist into the floorboards, fingers still locked around the drunk’s
wrist in a crushing grip.


The man looked to him with wide eyes as the others took a
step back as Saito just grinned. “What the hell is this?” the worker whispered
quietly, the intoxicating sound of fear in his voice. Someone was afraid of him! He was different,
something was wrong, but the tiny part of him that shouted and told him that
all this was just a messed up dream, to get a hold of himself, to stop and walk
away…


But it just felt too damn good to let loose.


“This is me not giving a damn.” He said with a fierce grin
to the man before he brought his other hand up and into the man’s chest, twisting
his palm and putting plenty of force into the blow as he rose with it, bearing
the man aloft and, almost to his surprise, sending him spinning off his hand
and backwards several feet into the air before he landed across the bar with a
loud crack of wood. The other men in the bar had stepped back slightly, looking
to the young man standing there now looking quite fierce indeed before there
was a clicking noise from behind the bar, the man behind it raising a shotgun
to point it at the young man’s chest.


“Get the hell out of my bar, and don’t come back.” He said,
cocking the weapon once before Saito looked to it, his eyes on the weapon
itself before a cocky grin slid across his face. Like this, he was invincible.
Like this? That toy meant jack shit.


“Do it, if it’ll make you feel better.” He said, voice slow
before there was the sound of a gunshot and the wet sound of packed flesh
rending, a pattern of blood spreading across his chest where the shot spattered
against him. He skidded back a step and coughed, bringing a hand up to his
mouth as a bit of blood spattered his fist before he looked to the man and
grinned.


“Nice.”


He turned and made his way for the door, leaving the people
standing there staring as he walked, the soft, metallic sound of shot dropping
to the floor making itself apparent as he walked from the bar, his wound
already closing out of view of the others, his shirt torn but otherwise seeming
relatively unscathed as he slid out into the night and was gone.

Words: 2512
Gained:
Possession Quest - Vaspire
Enhanced Attributes (Passive)
Regenerai
Exp: 262