Chapter Text
Everyone said college was some amazing thing in someone’s life. Not when you’re of Japanese decent and a foreigner in America. Not when you can’t go home to your family because they are evil, and doing evil, evil things. The only exception being Wakana-neesan who was Philip’s only friend in the world. She was the only thing that kept Philip as close to human as he could get. College isn’t amazing if you’re supposed to be dead and the love you wish someone would feel for you wasn’t in existence. Not when you were on the run from an evil organization and you didn’t know where you were, what was going on, and why you had to be the victim. Not when you’re just a data reconstruction of a human body, not the real flesh and blood thing. That’s why he buried himself in his research, it usually drowned out the loneliness. It was better. If he played the part of being a machine, a flesh and bone search engine no one noticed. Philip enjoyed the research, but not the darkness. Not the loneliness he always felt. He constantly felt incomplete and he didn’t know what it meant. If he were human, he was sure he’d know.
Philip yawned and checked his watch. 1:00 am. He put down his dry erase marker and studied his notes. Mexico was very interesting and Philip wished he could visit it soon. Futo had always been freezing cold or boiling hot compared to Mexico’s constant tropical weather. Philip dropped his book and left his work area. On his small dorm-issued bed laid a newspaper. He’d read it already, of course, along with two entries from the 1800’s. Something about American officials giving up on the search for a man who had been kidnapped many months back. Had it been 6? 7 months? It didn’t really matter to Philip.
Philip shuffled over to his personal coffee maker and opened up his cupboard. He pulled out the container of coffee grounds from Folgers and opened the little black lid. Nothing. He was out of coffee grounds! Panic. He’d have to settle with tea. Until he remembered that he had run out of that months ago and never had replenished it. Thank god Wal-Mart was open 24/7 and Philip didn’t have regular acceptable sleeping hours. He grabbed his red boots and a few U.S. dollars from his jar then he shuffled out the door. Philip found that he should have brought a flashlight minutes later, since the moon wasn’t out. Interesting, he thought to himself, a new moon. It was dark as it could be. Philip clutched his duster closer to himself, it was colder than he had estimated. Decembers were freezing in America. Philip all but hurried up and jogged to the closest Wal-Mart. He made his purchase quickly and left within a few minutes.
Philip was nearing college grounds when a black van pulled up to him. The driver rolled down their window revealing an Asian man with graying hair, roughly near his 50’s.
“Need a ride sweet heart?” The man asked in a sickly sweet voice.
“No thank you,” Philip answered, disgusted, as he speed up his walk.
“Are you not Sonazaki Raito?”
“I am,” Philip answered coldly. This man sure was annoying. “What do you want?”
It wasn’t for a few more seconds when Philip noticed the mistake he had made. Only members, the highest, of Museum knew his real name Raito. Or even his existence. After all, he was a slave all of his life to make Gaia Memories. Oh and the enemies of Museum who wanted his brain. He was such an idiot, someone of his intelligence should have not made that mistake.
The doors to the van opened and two mean dressed in black climbed out. Philip cursed and dropped his plastic bag of coffee before turning and running away. Philip may have been unnaturally scrawny, but he wasn’t slow. He dodged into an alleyway, figuring out his direction. If he passed onto Jefferson Street in exactly 9.8 seconds he’d lose the 2nd guy. That left the first man equipped with an AK-47 coming around on Washington. No matter which direction Philip went, the man would run into him. Check mate, but if Philip was able to collide with the man hard enough… he could knock the man down. Philip would be home free. He didn’t have the extra weight though. Suddenly a gunshot echoed from above his head and something sharp stuck in his back. He stumbled. A sniper had been above him. No, it wasn’t a bullet wound; it was a needle from a dart gun. What were dart guns again? Sleep? Squirrels were…enemy. Run away? Sleep? Sleep. Then he fell face first into the pavement and didn’t stir.
Philip stirred after awhile. When he tried to move his arms he found that they were tied. Tightly, probably leaving a nasty cut in his flesh. His feet were tied as well with handcuffs. E attempted to wiggle from the restraints but found he could not.
“You’re ours now, Raito,” the driver said looking at him through the rearview mirror.
“Are you Museum?” Philip asked trying to read the man’s face. “Or are you an enemy of Museum?”
“I would never work with those… monsters. Museum killed my family. My little sister to!” A man in red leather hissed. He was of Japanese decent with a square, sharp jaw and black short hair.
“Enemies. Interesting. Where are you taking me?” Philip answered confidently.
“Shut up or we’ll drug ya again,” the driver said.
Philip thought for a second and entered Planetary Bookshelf. He quickly found the names of the men who had kidnapped him.
“Red Lotus? Funny name. You’re Terui Ryu, son of a common man in Futo. You’re name is Larry, how uninteresting. Kengo Hidari, let me guess, Japan?” Philip rattled off.
“Shut up and don’t ask us questions,” Terui Ryu hissed.
“Don’t have to. So Kengo, I heard your brother Shotaro disappeared. Did he run away from you?” Philip laughed darkly.
Kengo turned towards him and smiled cruelly. “You’ll see what happened to him sweetheart. You two are going to be roommates.”
Philip’s stomach dropped. He knew what they were going to do to him now. Not only would they torture him, but his father wouldn’t come and help bail him out. Not after he ran away and betrayed the Sonazaki’s. Not to mention whoever Hidari Shotaro was, he was probably some fat, disgusting man that Philip would have to live with. Hundreds of scenarios passed through his mind of the possible man Hidari would be like. The least being an attractive, half-boiled, sweet man, because face it, those were rare. Plus, Philip’s luck was crap. Philip wasn’t a complete machine, he did long for a partner to. Someone who could… romantically take interest in him. Human contact that didn’t hurt him and make him cry. Wakana taught him the things he wished he would have never learned at all. There was a considerable difference between feeling things and knowing no one could truly love you because you weren’t human. Philip used to be the devil, he still was, but less heartless. Deep down in the darkest part of his amazing complex brain, was a wish to die. A cold depression in the form of a woman’s voice telling him that she loved him. A warmth he had never felt since he was younger. It was dark, and he had these emotions he didn’t know how to handle. He wished that someone would just kill him already, it would be more merciful. He had an animalistic need to live, of course, but it wasn’t like he wanted to. He had no friends, no home, no family, no life in those terms.
One step at a time, Raito, that’s what Wakana always told him. He wasn’t an object, remember his true self. Wakana wasn’t here anymore, you fool. She can’t protect you. Philip curled up into a ball and closed his eyes from the tears threatening to spill. Fear consumes even the most heartless monsters. The devils of this world.