Asia / Japan / Military Faculty (Suribachi City / Yokohama): October 1st, 2158.
It was a beautiful day for the world. The birds were chirping their songs as mankind went about their daily routines with smiles on their faces at the beauty of the city, but also sad looks on their faces at the horror of it whether it be financially, emotionally or physically, yet if you were to look closely at suribachi city. To be more specific, inside of a huge military facility, silent guards and expensive quirk-detection barriers, you could see a pale skinned handsome man laying in a pool of his very own blood.
The atmosphere was extremely tense.
Something important was happening.
This was not a beautiful, typical fairytale.
This was a man on the verge of meeting god or the devil himself.
(John T. Vance's POV)
Cold.
That was the first thing I felt.
Not fear.
Not pain.
Cold.
My eyes shot open.
Blurry.
The ceiling above me was not the car lot ceiling. It was military, traditional and ugly in that old rich people way that made everything feel like it belonged inside a museum.
My breathing came out rough.
Wet too.
I blinked a couple of times and thought with wide eyes "Where the hell am I"
Something warm slid down the side of my neck.
Blood.
A lot of blood.
My right hand twitched against the floor, my fingers pressing against something beneath me.
"Did I die" I thought with a confused look on my face.
blinked a couple of times and thought with wide blurry vision "Where the hell am I"
The last thing I remembered was that car lot.
Blood.
A voice.
A smiling mask.
A gun.
(Flashback: North America / Washington / Vance City (South District Car Lot): Unknown Date.)
The crowd was lively.
Reporters were standing behind black barricades with cameras in their hands, shouting questions like hungry animals pretending to be civilized.
I was standing on a small stage in the middle of an abandoned car lot with a calm smile on my face.
Behind me was a huge projected screen.
VANCE CITY RENEWAL PROJECT
A NEW BEGINNING FOR SOUTH DISTRICT
How disgusting.
The lot was ugly.
Broken fences.
Cracked concrete.
Old cars with no tires.
Dead weeds.
Poor people standing around with hopeful looks on their faces as if I was really about to save them.
Contractors stood behind me in clean suits.
City council members stood beside me with fake smiles.
My deputy mayor, samuel reed, was standing to my left, clapping too hard.
Too hard.
I looked at him from the corner of my eye.
His smile was wide.
His forehead was sweating.
"Mayor cance. Is this project truly for the people or just another deal for your friends." Asked a chubby female reporter loudly from the crowd of people with her microphone out toward me.
The crowd became quiet.
I stared at her for a moment and smiled.
A practiced smile.
A mayor's smile.
"If giving poor families homes, workers jobs and this district a reason to stop looking dead is corruption, then maybe this city needs more corruption." I said calmly with my arms spread out in a practical manner.
The crowd erupted into laughter and applause.
The reporter blinked in confusion.
Samuel laughed.
Too loudly.
My fingers tightened around the podium.
Something was wrong.
Not loud.
Not obvious.
It was quiet.
The guards were in their positions.
The cameras were pointed at me.
The police were near the gate.
The stage was secure.
Everything looked a little to perfect.
My eyes moved through the crowd slowly.
Old man in brown coat.
Woman in red scarf.
Young couple near the food truck.
Construction worker behind the stage with clean boots.
Clean boots.
In a muddy car lot.
My jaw tightened slightly.
"Today is not about me. Today is about South District and the people who believed this city could still be dragged out of the grave." I said calmly into the microphone.
*POP*
Suddenly A loud sound came from behind the crowd.
Everyone flinched.
My security moved.
I didn't.
Car backfire.
No.
Distraction.
I looked toward samuel.
His eyes were not on the crowd.
They were on me.
My mouth twitched.
"You bastard" I thought calmly with a tight jaw.
The screen behind me suddenly flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the words disappeared.
A video began playing.
A hotel room.
A woman.
A man who looked like me.
The reporters gasped.
The crowd started whispering.
"Mayor vance."
"Is that you."
"Mayor Vance, do you have a comment."
I stared at the screen with cold eyes.
It was fake.
Staged fake.
But fake.
I had never let cameras near my sins.
My sins were smarter than that.
Samuel stepped toward me with wide eyes and said "Mayor, we need to get you off the stage."
I turned my head slowly.
He looked scared.
Too scared.
I smiled.
"Do we." I asked calmly.
His face twitched.
For one second.
Just one.
That was all I needed.
Then I saw him.
Near the broken gate.
A man wearing a white smiling mask.
My face was printed on it.
My campaign smile.
The fake video.
The car backfire.
The clean boots.
Samuel sweating.
The reporter's question.
The guards looking at the screen.
This was not a scandal.
This masterfully staged .
And I was the show.
"GET DOWN." I said shouting at the top of my lungs.
*BANG*
Blood sprayed.
My security chief dropped beside the podium with a hole in his neck.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
The microphone exploded in sparks.
The sound shrieked across the speakers.
The car lot became chaos.
Samuel grabbed my arm and yelled "This way."
I looked at his hand on me.
Then at his face.
He was still acting.
Badly.
My left hand grabbed his collar and yanked him in front of me.
"W…what are you doing." Said samuel with a look of confusion on his sweating face.
*BANG*
The bullet tore through his shoulder.
Blood splashed against my suit.
He screamed and fell.
*Boom*
I ran down the stage steps.
My breathing was rough.
My heart was calm.
My mind was not.
The black SUV was ahead.
My driver was slumped over the wheel.
Dead.
Blood covered the window from the inside.
"They got everything" I thought with cold eyes.
A police officer waved at me from behind a black sedan and said "Mayor. Over here."
His voice shook.
His hands didn't.
I stopped.
His uniform was real.
His badge was real.
His fear was fake.
My eyes dropped to his belt.
Wrong holster.
Wrong hand.
I smiled.
"You almost had me, unfortunately for you I am a trained former black ops." I said calmly with a very gentle smile on my face.
His eyes changed.
*BANG*
I threw myself to the side.
The bullet ripped past my ear and smashed into the SUV window.
*CRASH*
Glass exploded.
I slammed into him, grabbed his wrist and twisted with all my strength.
*CRACK*
"GAAAAAAH." Said the man screaming at the top of his lungs in agony.
The gun fell.
I picked it up.
*BANG*
His body dropped.
I staggered back, blood sliding down the side of my face from my ear.
Warm.
Wet.
My eyes moved across the car lot.
Smoke.
Blood.
Bodies.
Cameras still recording.
The fake video still playing behind me.
My fake face.
My fake shame.
My fake sin.
Even now they wanted to own the story.
Then I saw him.
Across the street, standing on top of the old dealership building, was a man in the smiling mask.
My face stared back at me.
White.
Plastic.
Happy.
He raised one hand.
Slowly.
Like he was waving goodbye.
My jaw tightened.
Then the black sedan beside me clicked.
A small sound.
Soft.
Gentle.
My eyes widened.
"Oh. You sneaky little shit." I said muttering with gritted teeth.
*BOOOOOOM*
Fire swallowed everything.
Heat slammed into me.
The world flipped.
Concrete hit my back hard enough to empty my lungs.
My ears rang.
My vision went white.
Then red.
Then black around the edges.
For a moment I could not breathe.
Could not move.
Could not think.
Then pain came.
All of it.
At once.
Something warm slid down the side of my face.
Blood.
Mine.
I opened my eyes halfway.
The sky above me was grey.
Washington grey.
The stage was burning.
The screen still showed the fake video.
My mouth twisted upwards.
I laughed.
"Masterful" I thought with blurry eyes.
A shadow moved over me.
The smiling mask crouched down beside me.
Up close, my printed smile looked ugly.
Wrong.
"Any last words, mayor." Asked the man calmly.
I stared up at him.
My breathing came out rough.
Wet too.
"Yeah." I said hoarsely with a smile and blood on my teeth.
"Tell whoever paid you…" I said, coughing softly.
The man waited.
I stared into my own smiling mask and said with a weak whisper "They were still afraid."
The man tilted his head for one second.
Just one.
He raised the gun.
*BANG*
*SPLAT*
…
(Present: Asia / Japan / Military Faculty (Suribachi City / Yokohama): October 1st, 2158.)
I gasped.
My body jerked.
A foreign voice came from somewhere nearby.
"Arthur." Said the voice, low and panicked.
Arthur.
Who the hell was arthur.
Pain ripped through my skull.
"GAH." I choked, my hand flying to my head.
Memories slammed into me.
Britannia.
Arthur rimbaud.
Duke of britannia.
Government.
War.
Port mafia.
Enemies.
Paul verlaine.
Blood.
A trap.
A gun.
A betrayal.
My lips parted slowly.
I was not john anymore.
No.
That was wrong.
I was john.
But this body.
This disgusting, skinny, dying body.
It belonged to a man named arthur rimbaud.
The duke of britannia.
I laid there in silence for a moment before a laugh crawled out of my throat.
Wet.
Ugly.
Broken.
"So…" I said muttering hoarsely while staring at the ugly ceiling with wide eyes.
The hallway was silent.
Blood kept spreading beneath me.
"So this is what dying feels like from the other side." I said with cold eyes.
Footsteps shifted nearby.
A blonde man stood in the dim candlelight with a terrified expression, his face pale, his hand trembling near a bloodied blade.
My eyes slowly turned toward him.
Paul verlaine.
The name arrived before I knew why.
My murderer.
No.
Arthur's murderer.
I smiled.
Paul froze.
The hallway was silent.
I pushed one bloody hand against the floor and slowly forced myself upward.
Pain screamed through the body.
But I ignored it.
Paul stepped back.
His lips parted.
"Impossible." Said paul with wide eyes full of fear, his hair blonde hair curling upward themselves.
I stared at him and said whispering with a bloody smile "My father once said I could change society if I set my mind to it."
Paul's face twisted into confusion.
I laughed softly and said with a grin "Let's start with you."
The room went cold.
…
THE END…