Shattering Humanity-Chapter 146: One Month Later

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters---Yes, even their own life---such a person cannot be my disciple."

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A little boy, with purple hair is crying in a crowd of scrambling, fearful people. An explosion goes off within the crowd and a louder wave of horrified screams echo.

Immediately cut to the PoV of a little boy now watching a live professional football game. The PoV looks to the left at a man with orange eyes and purple hair.

Little Boy: "Dad, I wanna be a professional basketball player AND football player, can I?! Can I?!"

The encouraging father chuckles and his hand reaches over, tussling the hair of his son.

Dad: "Well Jormungand, your mother named you after a mythical beast that could infinitely grow, so you have the name to be anything you can think of, and more. If you see something you want to be, or see a way to make this world safer and easier for your sister, become ’that’. From one man to another Jorm, try to make the lives of the women around you easier. I promise, they’ll make your life easier in return. I did it for your mother, and she gave me both you and Drakaina, as reminders of her wonderful existence."

Jormungand: "Papa, I-I made Drakky mad, and she said ’It was my fault Momma is dead’..Is that-"

Papa: "Of course it’s not true, Jormy. But that just proves my point, she said that out of anger. Whether it’s your sister, or the future supermodel you end up marrying, try to make this world better for them. Don’t completely bow down to them, but do try to understand that a rational, philosophical, and love driven woman, can be the perfect complimentary force to us men.

The PoV of little Jorm blinks and he is now on his father’s shoulders, at a city parade for a championship winning professional team. The crowd is cheering, fans are happy, and players are waving from their floats.

Suddenly the PoV goes flying, as if tossed, and an explosion is heard.

He blinks again and suddenly the PoV is sideways, laying on the ground.Screaming is constant and there are dead victims or injured people with blown off limbs, crawling to safety.

Fire crackling around.

The little boy’s PoV gets up crying and scared, but is immediately knocked back down.He is kicked by panicking adults, nearly stomped and trampled to death but a hand grabs him. His orange, bruised eyes open to see a dark silhouette of a girl/young woman.

Silhouette Girl: "Jormy! Jormy, are you okay?!"

The dark silhouette clears up and another explosion goes off 20 yards away, brightening up the face of a 14 year old Drakaina. She’s crying, covered in blood all over her floral dress, but her eyes are of determination to save her little brother.

Drakaina: "Jormy! We have to get out of here!"

The adrenaline rush of the older sister is short lived as she slings her 10 year old brother on her back and begins running away but after 5 steps, she falls. Jormungand sees Drakaina’s right sneaker, where her pinky and ring toe are supposed to be, is bloodied and missing.

{Flashback}

Papa: "...try to make the lives of the women around you easier.I promise, they’ll make your life easier in return. Whether that’s your sister, or the future supermodel you end up marrying..."

No longer within Jormungand’s PoV, the brave young man helps his seriously injured sister up, putting her arm over his shoulder and they calmly walk away from the final stages of an attack on the innocent, with explosives.

{Morning, 5 a.m. Sanpaku Underwater Tunnel Capital}

[30 days after both Shelly’s conquest of Roronora City and MamMon DæMon claiming revolutionary control over the Sister Mountains.]

Drakaina: "Jormyyyy...Jormy, wake up, my little ’Jormsviking’."

An orange left eye paired with a right IceEye opens and looks around, focusing on a set of beautiful orange eyes.

Drakaina: "Good morning, Jormy."Jorm: "Good morning, Sis."

The big sister looks at the alien symbiotic eye of her little brother as he stretches his arms, revealing his prosthetic ice hand.

Drakaina: "Shelly is right, no matter how many times I see you with that eye, and that hand, I’ll never get used to it..."

She begins walking to the dresser, in her PJs, to pick out her clothes for the day.

Drakaina: "Welp, hurry up and get ready, you have physical training with Captain Saku and the rest of Izanami Division in 20 minutes. After that, we get to go back to Roronora City and see how much it’s changed in a month."

Jormungand sits up on the edge of his bed and looks over at his sister’s bare right foot. Her pinky toe and ring toe are completely gone.He then looks at his replacement hand that grew while he was unconscious from the eye transfer.

Jormungand: "Can you throw my glove over, Sis?"

On the bureau closest to her, Drakaina sees the kevlar right handed glove and grabs it.

Drakaina: "Make sure you don’t take this glove off in front of people, Jormy. Some of the people who don’t know how much of a sweetheart you are, will see that hand, and label you a monster."

The cute older sister examines the glove made with an anti-piercing material then underhands it towards her sitting brother. Which he catches with the icy prosthetic hand.

Saku: "And then those fear mongers will have to answer to me."

Drakaina: "EEP!"

Surprising the young woman, Saku is leaning against the door frame.His hair tied up, body fully healed after his scuffle with Katsu 30 days earlier. He is wearing his Squad 40 sweatshirt, with Izanami stitched into the left sleeve, a matching pair of black sweatpants and black high top sneakers.

Appearing from behind him, Friend, the reliable 4-year old German Shepherd with brown fur covered paws and snout. White fur covering the rest of his, still growing, 90 pound(40.8kg) frame.

The "wolf" sits politely at his master’s feet. His Squad 40 bandana tied around his furry neck. Also, the same collar Saku’s clone had found when revisiting the ’hide out’ in Hanabi City’s Garbage Dump.

Saku EyeEngages with Jormungand.

Saku: "It’s taken a bit longer than the others, but after we’re done training and exterminating the last of Demon District’s Icemen, you should have an evolved IceEye by the end of the day."

Jormungand, with his glove on, jumps off his bed, nods in enthusiasm, and gets his high top black sneakers on.He struggles to complete the simple task of tying his laces with his glove covered hand.

Saku looks at Drakaina.

Saku: "Did you finish that project I asked of you?"

Rhe young woman blushes, also nods in enthusiasm, and carefully prances to her bed side drawer. As she goes on hands and knees to reach under her bed, Saku peeks at her permanently damaged foot. He lets a barely audible, concerning breath out of his nose. She pulls out a black sweatshirt, gets up and hands it to Saku after prancing back to him.

With Jorm’s back turned towards them, Saku unfolds the all black hoodie. A similar ’Izanami’ patch is cleanly stitched into the right sleeve. On the back of the sweatshirt ’Jormy 0’ is ironed on without any sign of misalignment.

Saku: "Not bad. Not bad.Well, the thick eyebrowed loud mouth lost that bet. Scylia was more than confident in you to do this one and now Dom owes all of us one favor, no objections."

He looks over at Jorm, then back at Drakaina.

Saku: "I think it’s only appropriate for you to give it to him, since all your effort went into it."

He hands it back to Drakaina and she walks over as Jorm is finishing tying his sneakers. He looks up and sees the sweatshirt, the little brother’s eyes go back and forth between his sister and the hoodie.

Drakaina: "Your birthday is next week, but I figured this makes up for the past 3 years without a present."

Jormungand: "Drakaina..."

The 14 year old little brother, already taller than his 18 year old sister hugs her tight and tears form in both their eyes.

Jormungand: "Thank you, Sis. I love you. You know, Mr.Daisuki says everyone has 3 treasures, that all together creates the ’one piece’ making their life complete. You’re definitely two of those three."

Drakaina: "Oh? What’s the third treasure?"

The little brother peeks over his sister’s shoulder and looks at Saku who is watching them have a family moment he never got to have. Jormungand then goes back to looking at his sister’s orange eyes.

Jormungand: "Takamagahara. They’re our family now, and there are a lot of really smart and strong girls here. Who are just like you Sis. There’s Big Sis Shelly, Big Sis Itsuka, Big Sis Scylia, and Big Sis Sol that make our lives easier. Mom named me after a forever growing beast. So I’ll continue to grow and get stronger for them and twice as much for you."

Saku is smiling as he leaves the doorway, Friend is close behind.

Saku: "I’ll meet you at the main entrance in 15 minutes. Get ready, cuz we’re both getting a new power today, no matter what."

Drakaina: "Hey!"

Saku stops and turns halfway around. They lock eyes even though Drakaina doesn’t have an alien symbiote.

Drakaina: "You’re not just doing all this, so you can copy Jormy’s eye ability and-..."

Saku comes back into the room, interrupting her assumption.

Saku: "No, I am not pretending to be someone I’m not, just to obtain power, and I’m not going to stash his ability, then distance myself from you two.If you want the truth, this past month was the first time I actually enjoyed playing the ’big brother’. You gotta cool, athletic, intelligent little bro, who is willing to become stronger in this shitty world, where most kids his age would be shitting and pissing their pants every single day.

If anything, evolving his eye will make it easier on Jorm to protect you, and that’s why I’m excited for him. Can I not be excited to get a new power in 30 days too? Am I the bad guy for also gaining power, after investing so much time in someone else’s success?"

Jormungand wrestles into his sweatshirt and runs into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror.

Jorm(heard in the bathroom): "This is freaking awesome! So this means I’m officially on Izanami?"

Saku(nods): "Of course you are.You didn’t puss out once we all decided to dedicate 333 hours of training within one month. That alone deserves respect."

Jormungand blushes but smiles from being commended by his older peer.Saku looks down at Friend while talking to the siblings.

Saku: "Still...Imma keep it real with you two, having a 14 year old young man be in the position to possibly kill another human, it goes against everything I believed when I was 14.Less than an hour before the invasion started, I told Friend, ’I want to be someone who stops the violence and killing’. I wanted to be ’the voice of true justice’, and now I’m just another family ruiner."

Drakaina looks down at her foot that was forever changed when she was 14.

Saku: "But I hate this life and the dangerous, violent world we’re forced to live in, together. So I want my squad full of people who also hate this life, this world, and want to help change it for the better. There’s always something to hate about life. It’s a sign there is room for improvement, everywhere and in everyone."

Drakaina puts her wrists on her hips and puffs out her cheeks.

Drakaina: "I’ve been meaning to tell you, your cynicism doesn’t give me much confidence in your leadership over my impressionable little brother. And by the way, you don’t have to hate life to want to better yourself. The most lovable thing about life, is that you can change yours whenever you truly want."

Saku: "Changing yourself and changing the world are two different things.Katsu’s Division thinks this shit pile of a world is sweet, also believing there is human perfection because of love. I can’t have anyone part of my team who hasn’t hated their life’s outcome so far at least once or anyone who believes a form of perfection exists.Family and friends are the last people you want to believe have reached perfection."

Drakaina: "Well I think Jorm is perfect."

Saku looks at Drakaina, interested in her rebuttal but then Jormungand comes out of the bathroom.

Saku: "Yea, you probably thought he was perfect 31 days ago, too. Those of us in Izanami Division, understand nobody in the world is close to perfect and the desire to no longer want to hate the world creates self accountability."

Drakaina puffs her out cheeks even more in anger and turns red.

Jorm: "’Peaks are for cartography, geology and data graphs, not a human’s capabilities’. That is what my Dad would say.We were taught to believe there is a level beyond perfection that only those who truly are committed to greatness can hope to achieve.Perfection is subjective to each individual. What the average man would see in a professional athlete as perfection, to that athlete, perfection is still out of their reach."

Saku softly chuckles at how much 30 days of amateur philosophical discussions have been providing this 14 year old with the ability to articulate his own opinions.

Saku: "Without the unnecessary mental distractions of the pre-apocalypse, you’ve naturally learned to meditate and let your mind think freely to ask freeing questions and actually understand the words of wisdom your Pops wanted to pass on."

He then looks back at the older sister.

Saku: "Oh yea, I almost forgot. Congratulations, new Izanagi member, since you and Aiden seem to be hitting it off, D told me to have you meet up with him in the science building within Tomodachi Town.I guess Zoram brought up some information on Seiõr that Aiden ran away with.You seem to know a little bit about science so they want your input."

Drakaina tilts her head in confusion and Saku doesn’t elaborate further, he just shrugs as he wakes away.

Saku: "7 minutes!"

Jorm leans into the hall from his room.

Jorm: "Sir, YESSIR!"

As Saku walks away, Itsuka, also fully healed, is waiting for him in her mid-cut "Itsuka 20" sweatshirt. Izanami stitched into her right sleeve.She seems... jealous as she walks with him in stride. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Itsuka: "So... that’s the girl you gave your sweatshirt to in Roronora?"

Saku doesn’t recognize the hints of concern being clearly displayed from the woman who confessed her love to him.

Saku: "Yea. It took a whole week to get it back. Like, what’s so hard about giving someone their sweatshirt back after borrowing it?"

Itsuka: "And she was only wearing a bra underneath while wearing your sweatshirt?"

Saku finally realizes the trap of questions being set and stops walking, making Itsuka stop two steps in front of him, she doesn’t turn around.

Saku: "Listen, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, but whatever you want us to be, can never be. I’m sorry. I do care about you.I recognize you as the Vice-Captain of Izanami, but I...don’t want to hurt you, especially your feelings."

Itsuka doesn’t turn around and keeps her strong, muscular toned, back turned while talking to him.

Itsuka: "I know you weren’t asleep when Shelly and I had that discussion our first night all as a group. After Katsu was knocked out from his eye transfer. It was my first ever time talking to another girl my age, about love and I’ll admit, I was talking as if I had done it so many times for others. I told her I was jealous of her life, but now, because of the three of you, I find value in my own."

Saku puts his head down and looks at Friend, who also puts his head down as if ashamed.

Itsuka: "...’Don’t let the ones you cherish change for the worse, because sooner or later, you’ll see the one you once cherished, no different than how others have seen them all along’. I don’t need permission to love you and I don’t need your love in return to know how my own heart feels. I want to make sure you don’t change for the worst.

Cuz the more you continue playing the dark, shady loner, sooner or later, Katsu will be able to convince everyone to turn on you. If I can prevent that, all that is left to fulfill my happiness, is if both of us are sleeping under the same roof every night, safe."

Saku grits his teeth. It breaks his heart keeping this woman at arms length. His fist tightens.

Itsuka: "Well, my happiness would be ’mostly’ fulfilled."

Saku relaxes his tension and looks up, EyeEngaging with her turned blushing face.

Itsuka: "C-can I wear your sweatshirt, sometime? Just once is enough! Maybe for the night..."