Karma's P.O.V.
The next day, I made my way into town, a paper clutched tightly in my hand.
I was meeting Shuu here at a library, to look up any information about 'Creation Enterprises'.
I texted him, and already, he was inside. Fucking nerd.
I found him in the back where the computers were. He was deep in concentration reading an article with really small print, and didn't hear me approach.
I knew I had to mess with him before we settled down into investigation business. I was two strikes down already, I had to even our score, especially since I was the one who came up with the stupid bet in the first place.
However, before I could even think of anything to do, he suddenly whirled around and pierced me with a violet glare.
"Ah...Shuu," I let out a nervous giggle, my hands raised.
"You know I could see you in the screen reflection, right, Akabane?" He narrowed his eyes at me.
I chuckled and slid into the seat beside him. "You're no fun when you're in serious mood, Orange."
He faced his screen, typing furiously. "We have important work to do. You could be a help and get into serious mode too."
I stuck my tongue out and slouched in my chair. "You know I'm smart, but I prefer physical action." When I glanced at him, I was surprised to see he had a slight blush across his cheeks.
"Why are you blushing?" I questioned.
"I'm not, shut up." He faced his screen. "By the way, I've already found something while you were late goofing off."
He pushed his screen to me so I could see what he was pointing at.
Creation Enterprizes was typed into the Google search bar, but he hadn't hit enter yet.
"If you type in 'Creation Enterprises', nothing shows up. I went through over a hundred pages on five different search engines, and found absolutely nothing. No videos, no blogs, no Wiki page, no articles, nothing. It's like somebody made a virus that wipes out anything to do with those two words together." He explained.
"Hmm," I narrowed my eyes and leaned in closer. "They must have done something really bad to make history erase them."
"Precisely my thoughts, which is why I came to the conclusion that a lot of articles had to be made about them, and the more that is written, the more likely there is to be a typo in one of the headlines."
I beamed when the realization hit me too. "Shuu, you're a genius!"
He looked away. "If you're just now realizing that, I win another mark on our bet."
I shook my head, still smiling. "I always knew that, Shuu."
He scowled. "Pay attention, Akabane."
He hit the enter button, and the page loaded.
One hit.
"Creation Enterprizes exposed for inhumane human experiments."
"Inhumane is an understatement." he continued, scrolling down the article. "The virus didn't delete this one because they spelled enterprises wrong."
I scanned the paragraphs, and to my horror I picked up a few phrases that made my skin crawl.
"...victims were found with missing limbs, extra limbs, and animal limbs..."
"Over a three hundred suspected dead at the hands of Creation..."
"More than five thousand different species of animals found- confirmed to be the missing animals-"
"...failed in their attempts to make a new super breed of humans from animal parts..."
I shuddered and leaned back. "That's beyond gross and terrible."
He nodded and turned the screen back to it's original position. "Obviously once they were found out, they were shut down. Everyone who was even remotely involved with the company was arrested, and the CEO and surgeons who did the grafting of limbs were all sentenced to the death penalty, except for one person."
He typed in something quickly, then showed me the screen again.
"The top surgeon, Markus K. Emri, was given a life sentence under maximum security. Apparently, despite his horrific experiments and severe lack of ethics, his invention of successful animal grafting was still a breakthrough in the science and medicine field, and he was kept alive to help with the research and technology."
I punched my fist into my palm. "I want to have a talk with this guy."
"So do I, but we can't. He's under strict orders- no visitors. The only person allowed to see him is the Chief of Police to relay messages between the research community and him. He's been confined to his cell for over thirty years."
"Thirty years huh, explains why no one is talking about it anymore." I mused. "Even though it was so horrible, humanity will always lose interest in old news."
"It was also forbidden to make any movies or plays about it, or write any books based off the idea." Asano explained, scrolling down the screen. "They didn't want anyone to get any more ideas and spread the word grafting animal limbs was now successful. Also, many people were ashamed this had been done on Japanese soil for so long. It would spark outrage and decrease tourism. The economy would suffer, and officials didn't want that. Hence the virus that wiped out anything to do with Creation Enterprises."
"It's disgusting and terrible, but it makes sense." I stood and stretched. "But if this all happened over thirty years ago, why is it suddenly starting up again? Those two monsters we fought, are they really from the same company? They're so much more...advanced. It's not a person with the strength of an ox, or a guy with the body of a horse that's been unleashed into the world, it's actual...actual beasts."
He looked at the ground. "I think some people hid in shadows and kept the business growing in secret. Now they've advanced their technology and can do more."
"Does it say anything about where their old base was? We should do some investigating there." I stood behind him and looked at the screen.
"It was torn down and rebuilt into a library, of all things." He said.
"Maybe the library was just a front." I leaned back, hands in my pockets. "Let's go there tonight."
He shut off the computer and glared at me. "We can't, baka! Not tonight, not ever! We're already way too caught up in this, and my father will kill me if we get caught doing something so illegal."
"So we don't get caught." I grinned. "We can't just sit back and do nothing! It's only a matter of time before another monster attacks someone. We're the only ones who know what's going on, and we can't go to the police, no one will believe us."
"We can't take on an entire underground black corporation by ourselves." He narrowed his eyes. "You may be prone to suicidal missions but I plan to live my successful life to the fullest. Not to mention midterms are-"
"Karma-kun? Asano-san? Why are you guys here?"
I whirled around to see a confused Nagisa walking over, a load of books in his arms.
"Oh, hey Nagisa," I smiled. "I see you've been busy."
"Yeah, the big history test is tomorrow so we've been studying." Nagisa set his books down on a nearby table with a loud thud. "What about you two?"
"Same as you, studying." I answered.
His blue eyes switched between us, calculating. "You two aren't in the same class..."
"Well duh, Nagisa," I laughed. "Shuu and I were just...tutoring each other. Him, physics and me, history."
"I beg your pardon, Akabane," Asano jumped up from his seat and straightened his tie with a glare at me. "We were most certainly not. There is absolutely nothing in this world that you could possibly teach me. Especially not physics."
I gave him a 'go with this plan you idiot or you'll blow everything' look.
He turned his face away and crossed his arms.
Apparently discovering the return of the worlds most evil company wasn't enough of a motivator to even pretend he needed help in a school subject.
That's the Shuu I love to hate and hate to lov-
"Well, if you two are almost done, why don't you come get a hot chocolate with me, Karma?" Nagisa smiled. "It's getting chilly again and I would love a hot drink right now."
"Erm, sounds great Nagisa, but Shuu and I actually-"
"Are done." Asano announced. He gave me a look. "With all of this."
I was stunned. He couldn't be serious! Not after the breakthrough we just discovered!
"Oh, great! Well, you ready then, Karma?" Nagisa asked excitedly.
I kept staring at Asano.
"It's rude to not answer people when they've asked you a question, Karma." Asano said coldly.
I gave a small huff and plastered on a fake smile. "Of course Nagisa, I would love nothing more than to go out with you this evening."
Asano took a step back like he had been shot. He gave me one last deadly glare, before turning and marching away. I saw his hand raise to his face, then drop back to his side.
Nagisa beamed and grabbed my arm. "Great! Let's go now!"
I barely listened to his mindless chatter as I watched Asano's figure walk away.
He can't be serious. This is most definitely not over. Whether he likes it or not, it's only just beginning.