Wishful Thinking is Very Human
:
:
Genos could recall the pain that had mangled him that fateful day. It had been a lazy day and he had been a lazy youth in a humdrum town that had no discerning feature whatsoever. The pain he endured when that psychotic cyborg ploughed through town had been unimaginable for him. He had honestly thought he was going to die at that metallic killer's steely hands.
.
His body had been raked through machinery and heat rays that were hotter than magma. He had been slammed against buildings and torn about. He had thought that he was going to die.
.
He was on the only left, the only one Dr Kuseno could find anyway. Genos couldn't believe how lucky he had been that Dr Kuseno had been there. He would have died without that good doctor.
.
'I'll help you.' Dr Kuseno said and Genos couldn't even muster out a "thank you" before passing out. The doctor had been impressed that Genos had even stayed conscious throughout the entire annihilation of his small hometown. He was carried past, stringy and half a corpse, a nihilistic landscape where children once played and adults once worked. He was carried past what had once been a field where healthy crops grew and past a school that fostered talents.
.
When Genos came to, inside a cool laboratory in an unknown area, he didn't recognise himself. Genos gazed at the ceiling, confused but he let slip what was probably the least important question at that point: 'Do I still have my soul mate's first words?' he asked. He didn't recognise how he sounded.
'I am afraid not, lad.' Dr Kuseno said, mournful.
.
Genos was heartbroken. 'Your right arm was completely blown off. Do you still remember what it said?' Dr Kuseno said, he sounded sympathetic.
'I'm not sure. Argh, I always thought it was dumb,' Genos grumbled. He tried to ignore how yellowy the world was and he tried to focus on his memories. There was a screen in his mind and he was able to manipulate it like it was a tablet.
.
'How do you like your new cyborg enhancements?' Dr Kuseno asked.
'They're useful.' Genos said and he continued swiping through memories and sifting through data. Memories were fast erasing, it was like his new robotic self was trying to reject his human self in order to embrace "efficiency". But Genos refused it. He managed to shut it down before he lost too much and then he found it. He found what he was looking for and relief washed over him.
.
"You are... a hero, huh?" Genos quoted. Dr Kuseno made a noise which conveyed that he was impressed. 'I always thought it was silly. I didn't think a guy like me, too ordinary and weak, could ever be a hero.'
'Well, you're not ordinary anymore. Being a hero is very much in reach.' Dr Kuseno said. Genos began to look over himself. He admired the handiwork that Dr Kuseno had imbued him with. 'A hero... huh...' Genos murmured.
.
He stretched his fingers, in awe of how easy it was to manipulate his new steely appendages. 'Do you really think it's possible?'
'I know so.' Dr Kuseno affirmed.
'Do you think it's possible for me to hunt down the robot who killed my family? My hometown?' Genos asked. Rage stirred beneath his surface.
'If that's what will bring you peace.' Dr Kuseno murmured.
.
Genos thought it would and thus that began his quest for vengeance. A quest that led him to his encounter with the hero Saitama, a man with the skill to defeat villains with just a single punch.
.
It was that encounter that led him to where Genos was now, a long way away from his original goal and in middle of downpour.
.
In the middle of downpour in which a monster, known as the Deep Sea King, was rampaging and had taken down many heroes already. Genos was certain he and Saitama would be enough to defeat the heinous monster but until he could even get to the fight, there was nothing he could do.
.
Genos saw someone in the mess of lashing rain. He was concerned that it was someone in danger but his senses and instincts screamed otherwise. He approached nonetheless. He saw a naked man. He was scarred and drenched. He appeared agitated and glared when he saw Genos.
.
'Who are you?' Genos called out and the man glared harder at him. 'And what are you doing here?' The man was defensive. 'Did you not hear the evacuation notice?' Genos was confused as to what was happening. He couldn't locate any sane reason as to why someone would be streaking in the middle of a storm.
.
The man assessed Genos with cruel eyes. 'You are...' he drew out his sentence, displeased and sour, 'a hero, huh? Heh.'
Genos' ears pricked and his internal radar screamed. That was it! That was it! That was the sentence! But Genos refused that this man was his soul mate. There was something too wrong about the situation.
.
The man had incredible speed and blurred past. Genos could barely focus on what happened next. He could only focus on what was happening to him internally. His hopeless romantic, one that had been subdued for what had felt like eternity, was awake and wailing about soul mates. But it was impossible.
.
It had to be impossible.
.
Was it bad that a small part of Genos didn't want it to be impossible? But overall, he held immense dislike for the man; after all he belittled Genos' goals and ideals so easily.
.
Of course it was a bad thing that a small part of Genos wanted to reject that. He was too swept up in remembering what it was like to be fully human. Growing up, everyone traded the information on their wrists willy-nilly because it was such a human thing to do: to let everyone know about what their destined person's meeting was going to be like. The phenomenon of soul mates and the writing on wrists was completely unscientific and nobody in the community of science had a strong will to endorse it. And yet...
.
Genos was extremely impressed by that man's diction and speed. He seemed powerful but he didn't seem admirable. He was hostile and antagonistic.
.
Who was he?
.
Genos was destroyed a little while later in the fight against the Deep Sea King. He had been close to useless against the monster. The best he could do was keep that one little girl alive and well, away from acid.
.
He was lucky when Saitama showed up. They all were and despite the controversy his master brought, things turned out okay. Genos was able to get back to Dr Kuseno's laboratory and was able to have repairs done. He came back to Z-City good as new, if a little better.
.
It was then, when Genos was idle and safe within Saitama's home, when he determined that it was safe to fondle unnecessary ideas and theories Genos replayed the memory on his mental screen. He slowed it down and honed in where he believed was necessary. The only way to confirm it was to see if the mystery man had what Genos had asked him written on his arm.
.
The writing that had once rested on Genos' arm had been neat, if a little childlike. It was rudimentary.
.
The writing on the mystery man's arm had been removed through crude surgery, from what Genos could deduce from memory. He examined his bare arms regardless, for a hint of what had been there once upon a time. He strained himself trying to work it out. It took him an hour before he could work out a bit of what had once been on that man's arm. Genos figured that the man had removed it in order to mask his identity. A soul mate's first words were a huge give away in regards to identity so if the man were submerged in shady things, it was no wonder why he had disfigured his arm like that.
.
W...o. ..re...y...u?
.
Genos was unable to decipher any more than that. He was caught up with the nostalgia of what it was like to be human. It was the only explanation as to why he so dearly wanted that horrible man to have "Who are you?" on his slender wrists.
:
:
MerryFortune:)