SUPERWORLD

Toshiro IX

The children left him as requested, except for the lab-coated young man with skin almost like taro root. Toshiro left him to mourn over the body of a man who had similar skin and a lab coat of his own. Toshiro hoisted Kageyama with newfound strength born of rage and dragged the executive to a more private location. The bastard thrashed, kicked, and pleaded, but Toshiro didn't hear him, he barely even felt Kageyama claw at his face, leaving behind weeping gash marks on the mad father's face. Toshiro was dialed into one thought and one thought alone:

Nen, nen korori yo, Okorori yo.

Bōya wa yoi koda, Nenneshina~

Bōya no omori wa, Doko e itta?

Ano yama koete, sato e itta.

The song of his beloved Chihiro, as she sang it to him once, echoed in his head as he hauled the monster responsible for her death in his hands towards a conference room where he would exact revenge.

Toshiro kicked the conference room door open and tossed Norihito Kageyama onto the table before slamming the door shut behind him. Kageyama scrambled off the table instantly, driven by a need to survive, Toshiro stopped him by burying his fist into the man's stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and forcing Kageyama to writhe on the ground, gasping desperately. Toshiro wore a grim smile.

That's a start...

"P-please," Kageyama begged, unable to catch his breath. "I'll tell you everything you want to know, I can pay you, I can even get you the other members of the group, just don't kill me!" The businessman was frantic, but the charm that got him so far in life was not present, and wouldn't have worked if it was.

"That's a good deal," Toshiro began, nodding as Kageyama's eyes lit up, "too bad I don't care about any of that." He reveled in watching the newly kindled light die, but almost immediately, the newly spreading look of fear on Kageyama's face began to make Toshiro's stomach turn, and so the old detective stomped it out.

His stomach felt better with every crunch that came with impact.

"...w-why...?!" Kageyama's words were barely intelligible, his broken face no longer able to control his speech and the blood filling his mouth making every word sound like a gargle.

"Serum γ-2, know it?" Toshiro asked, putting on his interrogation voice, and lifting Norihito from the floor into an office chair.

"Y-yes, my company was researching h-human biological modification. The Triumvirate, the men in wheelchairs, made me—" Toshiro stomped Kageyama's ankle, grinding his heel into the newly broken bones. Norihito cried out in desperate pain and Toshiro waited for him to stop before saying:

"I don't care about excuses, you piece of shit!" Toshiro roared. "And I don't give a damn about men in wheelchairs! Serum γ-2 , why did you make it? Why did you kill innocent children?" Toshiro demanded.

"They wanted...monsters." Norihito Kageyama barely managed to say, spitting his teeth out, making speech difficult. "Something grotesque that their hero could fight. We tried using the formula on adult humans, but they just died, their bodies didn't have enough plasticity. Children's bodies are m-m-more m-malleable, they have room for growth."

Toshiro punched him in his already broken face.

"Do you hear yourself?! Why!? Why did you do it? Why turn anyone into a beast at all?! Why not just live like a decent human being?! Better yet, why not just kill yourself so the world doesn't have to suffer you?!" Toshiro shouted himself hoarse.

"It...it was my family's duty. My grandfather, Toshinori Kageyama, was part of Unit Seven Thirty-One. The emperor himself ordered the creation of the formula, he said it would turn the tide of war. Ever since then, we've been working to perfect it." Kageyama explained as blood poured from his mouth.