Chapter Text
Junpei Yoshino was having a bad day.
I've been having these often, he thought, massaging the swollen flesh below his right eye. They'd taken his money again. Now that he had some more of it, they'd gotten bolder.
He sighed. He wished things were better.
The walk home was quieter than the walk to school. The sun was dipping low, casting long, distorted shadows across the concrete.
The haze of negativity was… something he'd been getting used to, ever since he started perceiving it. It was everywhere.
People felt bad things very strongly, he had heard. Negative feelings left a mark on the human mind, and negative memories were much easier to recall then positive ones.
He was getting used to it by now.
Less so to the spirits.
Sometimes, in the shadows, he could see stalking, twisted things. Negative spirits. Some of them walked on the rooftops, others babbled meaningless words in the ears of passersby, coiling around their necks and heads.
Focusing on the negative spirits made him nauseous.
The way that they pulsated and the words that they babbled- being around them made his stomach churn. So he ignored them as best as he could.
He felt his new phone rumble inside of his pocket.
Right, who was it- his mother.
Mom
Junpei?
You
What is it?
Mom
Can you go to the market today after your job?
You
Sure.
What do you want?
Mom
Mom has sent you a file
List.txt
It's not much.
How long will it be today?
You
Not long. Jin-san's finishing work for the week. I'll have the day off tomorrow.
Mom
Ah, great. Give him my thanks.
A small smile tugged at the corner of Yoshino's mouth.
Well, today wasn't a good day.
But it was getting better.
He covered his head with his hoodie, and focused on his senses. He closed his eyes and let his mood settle into a meditative calm. He counted to three and let the world disappear around him.
He continued walking until he could duck into an alley.
He took a pair of sunglasses out of his pockets and put them on.
A soft whirring sound echoed behind his eyeballs. He didn't flinch- he was used to it by now. The lens slowly enveloped his retina- and then he could see it.
The lines manifested.
Under the earth.
Black. White. Blue. Green. Red.
He followed the blue lines, to where they were densest. They each had a different configuration, but the blue ones were the ones that didn't tangle up- they tied together like organized, sorted wires.
He ignored the buzzing in his brain and followed the blue lines.
He changed the location of the shop. Again, he thought, after ten minutes of following. That was getting tiring.
He wasn't getting anywhere.
He took out his phone.
You
Did you guys move again?
Last seen three hours ago, he checked. That guy was so hopeless. He might have not bothered to reconnect his phone to the internet when they moved.
If they had moved and he wasn't just lost.
He sighed.
Ah, there was the answer.
T-san
Y
You
Where are you?
T-san
How o I sgare sdress?
You
Uh, tap the dot next to send recording. It should have it…?
T-san shared an address
You
Ah, thanks.
T-san
If it's wromh
Eromg
Wrong
Call me.
He chuckled. Yeah, hopeless.
He checked the address.
That wasn't too far.
He could get there in five minutes or so.
He got there easily enough.
It was a five story building, and at the bottom, was the shop. Moved entirely as though by miracle, and completely empty of any customers, as always. T-san was waiting by the counter, by the empty cash register, focusing on his phone. His body was covered by a very faint shimmer.
It was supposedly a grocery store, but the shelves were barely stocked. The doors and windows were half-shuttered. The place was barely an excuse, and the cashier would probably ignore anyone who happened to walk in.
T-san was an obviously foreign man, but he didn't really look like most foreigners he'd seen. He had a lined, weathered face and long hair bound into ragged gray dreadlocks, which were covered by a baseball cap. He usually had a scowl or a neutral expression on, and he was very impatient
Oh, and his entire body below the head was made of metal.
"You're early." he said. His robotic fingers danced around the screen, chipping the screen protector very slightly with each tap.
Was he…
Playing a piano game?
Junpei held back a chuckle.
"Hi, T-san. I finished school early today."
"It's Tezzeret, brat. Learn the name. It's not difficult. I learned yours."
"You don't really use it…"
The metal man snorted.
"When you impress me, brat." he pointed at his face- at the large, obvious welt in it. "When you stop being a coward. You hate these people who torment you- that you remain unwilling to fight back is disgusting."
His face twisted into a sneer. Something about the situation Junpei was facing annoyed him intensely. Something personal.
"I shouldn't hurt people just because I hate them." he said.
"What should you hurt them for, then? Bah. No matter. Go do your job."
Junpei Yoshino just nodded, face trembling. He turned away from the cyborg in the cash register and left for the broom closet- before blinking. It wasn't where it was supposed to be. Had they changed the layout? He turned to the side. Yes, they had.
He walked in. The broom closet was empty. It never had any brooms in it. T-san never bothered to clean. Junpei glanced down, studying the room. It was, well, a closet.
He extended his hand towards a wall and phased through- as though it wasn't there.
And soon, he found himself in the lab.
Jin-san's lab was strange. It spanned across a massive room, brightly lit in blue and green that his eyes first had trouble adjusting to. The space around him was vast, but full with chrome instruments of varying and unsettling shape and size. Surgical drills. Needles. Glass vats of liquids in every color and texture imaginable. Odd instruments resembling claws and hands and tentacles. A handful of floating spirits in vats.
The walls gave him the feeling of being in the stomach of a frog, and the light that filled the room was oppressive. One of the machines somewhere in the chamber was making a persistent, high-pitched whine.
Like a mosquito.
And in the center of his all, was him.
His boss.
Jin-Gitaxias.
He… was hard to describe other then alien. He looked like some kind of hunchbacked shrimp with arms and legs plus the face of a bird. He was all bone and metal and flesh melded together. There wasn't a clean line of demarcation.
Tezzeret was a machine from the neck down, and a human from the neck up. With Jin, the machine didn't end anywhere, and the flesh didn't start anywhere. There were the same thing.
He walked with his spine curved so low he was hunched over everything- but he was still tall enough that he'd have loomed over him and Tezzeret even if they stood on top of each other.
"Yoshino." he said, voice like two metal plates grinding together. "You are early. We will begin the tests. "
Junpei had met the alien in a seemingly innocuous way- in an alleyway. Jin-Gitaxias had detected something in him that made him sure that he could see the "spirits" that lurked around the world.
Had he not done so, the alien would have had disposed of him, and Junpei had a feeling that Jin would have not lost a lick of sleep over it. Oddly enough, he didn't feel afraid.
Jin-Gitaxias didn't hate him. He had a feeling it took a lot to get Jin-Gitaxias to hate anyone.
It was… odd. He wouldn't deny he was excited about meeting an alien- even if he wasn't from outer space, but rather outer dimensions- but Jin-Gitaxias wasn't what anyone would expect.
Well, in some ways. In others he was almost stereotypical. He came here to study spirits- his world apparently lacked any- and didn't care about anything else. Tezzeret was here because he could transport people between dimensions. Junpei was here because he could see the spirits when most people couldn't.
Nothing else really mattered. The alien was honest and forthcoming about this.
It was refreshing, honestly.
Jin-Gitaxias had arranged for him to get a "part-time job" in the store as a cover, even paid him- which helped a lot at home- but really, he just wanted to look at what he could do and what he was like.
Jin offered him his brain-measuring helmet, and walked over to open one of the nearby rooms. This one was clean, featureless, and completely white. A spirit, body bloated and misshapen, sat in the middle, unmoving. Its body was rigid, as though every muscle had contracted.
Junpei walked inside, put on the measuring device, and closed the door. Jin-Gitaxias' grindy voice echoed through an opening.
"Testing. Activate your innate summon spell."
He nodded and looked over to his side. A Moon Dregs manifested, the poisonous jellyfish making a bubbling noise as it floated in the air.
"Enabling full spectrum of observation."
Dozens of holes in the walls were opened, holes that resembled mouths. Hundreds of eyestalks poured in- studying him, studying Moon Dregs, studying the spirit. Smaller aliens, very different from Jin-Gitaxias himself in, scurrying out of the holes, positioning themselves to observe.
"Releasing restraints on the spiritual object. Brace for hostilities."
The spirit's body relaxed. Its dozens of eyeballs turned directly at him, and its tongue lolled out. It stumbled towards him, surprisingly agile despite its enormous bulk. It screamed at the top of its lungs-
"Rent's due!!!"
Jin-Gitaxias' voice echoed slightly, that beehive sound that usually came from his chest- laughter.
"Deploy the toxin."
Junpei nodded. Moon Dregs charged, and buried its tendrils on the creature's midsection. He was getting better, more precise. Poison flooded into the monster, and it screamed.
"Rent's due, rent's due, rent's due, rent's due!!!"
Junpei's implant clicked, information flooding into his brain.
"122 units of poison have been deployed." said Jin. "Disperse the summon. Subdue the spirit by waiting it out."
Junpei nodded, and unsummoned Moon Dregs- the creature letting out a warble as it vanished. The curse thrashed and charged again-
But he was faster. Faster than any human should have been.
Dodge. Duck. Sidestep. Weave under clumsy blows and trampling charges.
Bit by bit the spirit grew weaker.
Bit by bit the spirit grew clumsier.
And eventually-
"Spirit dispersed."
It collapsed, dissolving into black smoke. A hole opened in the wall to collect the residue.
"Excellent."
The welt in his face was gone, he realized. Gone in less than a second. Jin was really amazing.
All he needed was a touch.
"It was remarkably aware of you to not utilize your newfound prowess." said Jin, lowering his hand and turning back to study a computer screen. In it, various images of a human brain could be seen. His brain. "To combat your tormentors at the school, I mean."
He blinked.
"You think so?"
"Indeed. We must pursue a low profile. My resources are comparatively limited, after all. Additional scrutiny from law enforcement will strain them. Reports of a child possessing sudden incredible physical prowess might draw them to our location."
He smiled. Jin was nice, in his own creepy alien-that-swallowed-a-thesaurus way.
"There will be additional tests regarding the durability of your summons," he noted. "In addition to this, I will replace your ocular implant."
Another? So soon?
"When do I get started?"
"5 minutes. Consume your supplements and remain hydrated." he pointed towards the small refreshments table in the corner.
It really looked out of place. It had a packet of biscuits and a handful of bottles of water.
They tasted…
Like nothing, really.
"The next test is one you will not remember."
"Why is that?"
"Your inner reserves are tied to negative emotions. I will artificially provoke negative emotions. It will not be conducive to your physical and mental well-being to remember these negative experiences, which is why you will be treated to forget everything afterward."
He…
Was going to get tortured?
"What kinds of negative emotions?"
"We will start with low-level nausea induced via movement. Shame and social embarrassment via specific simulations. Afterward, pain via a needle, burns, and controlled shock. Intensity will increase steadily. You will then experience a chemical inducement of pain that is not tolerable for your average human. It will cause you permanent psychological damage to recall the experience."
He thought about it.
Jin-Gitaxias made a hand gesture he couldn't quite identify.
"There will be only the pain that is required by necessity. The Progress Engine is efficient."
Just as much pain as was needed. He wouldn't remember it. So it might as well never have happened, right? Something that is forgotten, that doesn't have any impact in the world, does it even really exist?
Well...
He found he was okay with it. It was a neutral act. Jin didn't hate him, or want him to suffer. He just wanted to test what pain would do to him, and then put him back together as though nothing had ever happened. Was it that bad? If you hurt someone, and they didn't suffer any bad effects from it, or even remember the hurt, was there a problem?
Was it even hurting them? Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just a bitter medicine.
If he were given the choice to press a button that could kill all those who hated him, he wouldn't hesitate to press it.
Jin-Gitaxias didn't hate him.
"Alright."
Junpei Yoshino opened his eyes.
"Huh?"
He didn't feel anything.
His limbs weren't numb, like he'd have expected. What had happened.
He just remembered saying alright, and…
Ah.
Jin was in the corner, reading through something in his tablet.
"Did we finish?"
"Yes. We are done for today."
"Well, thank you, Jin-san."
"You may leave."
He left shortly after.
"Are you getting soft, Gitaxias?"
Tezzeret stood by the door, eyeing the Phyrexian Praetor with suspicion.
"Not at all, fleshling."
"You are more flesh then I am."
The creature made another sound- this time, like a wasp nest. Mocking laughter.
"Untrue. The brain is where you are, Tezzeret. And it is mostly flesh. You are uncompleat still."
The artificer planeswalker scoffed.
"Call me whatever you want. You're being soft on the boy. You've vivisected Mirrans by the hundred to catalogue minor variations in the metallic patterns in their nervous systems. Why are you playing so slow? Why are you paying him for this?"
Jin-Gitaxias simply sat there, looking at the samples of Junpei Yoshino's natural poison.
"The soul." he said softly, or as softly as he could get.
"The soul?" Tezzeret repeated, disbeliving.
Jin-Gitaxias made an annoyed noise.
"Our studies were exhaustive, and identified no purpose to the spiritual components of Mirrans. Phyrexians could live without them, and neither the emotional or intellectual aspects of a personality required them- the brain is fully capable of enabling thought, individuality and personhood, with absolutely no need for additional interventions."
Tezzeret snorted.
"So you were wrong."
"There is no shame in admitting failure, as long as steps are taken to ensure such failire is not repeated." Jin-Gitaxias sneered. "The soul possesses an utterly undeniable value. It is the source of Junpei Yoshino's abilities and performs some unknown mediating function that generates mana through his emotions and regulates into an innate ability. Users of this phenomenon are in short supply as you yourself noted, and the loss of the soul is an undeniable consequence of compleation. Therefore it follows; compleating Junpei Yoshino would remove his abilities."
There was a moment of silence. The whine of the machines studying the toxin samples. And the sound of industry and activity beyond the walls of flesh.
"We are gatherers, learners, advancers of knowledge," Jin-Gitaxias said at last. "When knowledge points to a value that comes from the soul, the Great Synthesis adapts to incorporate this knowledge. Junpei Yoshino is valuable, as he is a "sorcerer," an user of a magic that proceeds from the soul. He will be kept happy and contented, and his compleation will be slow and calculated. He will be supported financially through the process and he will be educated by my own hand."
"It is necessary that I keep him contented. We have experimented enough with fodder. We went through over a dozen "curse users" and "windows" and learned little. The slow, measured approach from a fully consenting subject that is willing to provide me with the data I require has given me great amounts of that same data, and thus that route will be taken."
"Norn won't be happy that you are taking your time with this, you know."
"Norn can come here and do it herself if she thinks her method is superior." he waved the planeswalker off. "We continue this way. Once Junpei Yoshino has outlived his usefulness as an uncompleat individual and we have obtained the means through which the ephemeral soul can be retained through compleation, we will remove or integrate him. Until then, he will remain by our side."
Tezzeret remained silent for a second, then snorted.
"Right then. You're the one in charge. The kid could learn some spine, though."
"Do as you will, as long as you ensure you aren't discovered by the broader authorities. You have impressed onto me the necessity to remain beneath the notice of the so-called "Strongest Sorcerer", after all- I have no wish to quarrel with one who could cleave the arms of an ancient planeswalker off with a swipe of their own, or at least until I am prepared to handle this."
Jin-Gitaxias thought of something.
"Or at least, until I have acquired more arms, and ensured that they can function even as they are removed from the torso."
"Huh?"
"That was a joke."
Tezzeret sighed and walked away. Jin-Gitaxias returned to his experimentation without another word. The planeswalker reached for a bag of chips in one of the shelves. He'd have to restock soon, if only to give the appearance of a store.
His mind drifted- to places far away. To Alara.
"Stupid kid." he snarled. "Won't get anywhere."
He remembered the Seekers.
No. He wasn't like that child- born in the lap of privilege, fed and clothed and sheltered- and still too weak to take anything for himself. Too cowardly.
"Bah."
He reached over to his phone and returned to the silly little game.
The kid was going to be flesh in a vat soon enough, as soon as he stopped producing results.
As soon as Jin-Gitaxias got his little hands on a better sorcerer, Junpei Yoshino was going to simply be the weaker one.
And the weak were worth nothing.