6

  Six yawned, looking at the T.V. mindlessly, slogging through the many filler episodes of the show he was currently watching. Ughh, this was so much better ten seasons ago!! It’s so much worse now… so boring… He complained mentally, flicking a bit of cereal into his mouth. The handsome Japanese “ikemen” was no older than 35, but age had not deterred him from maintaining his youthful looks. Despite what his current attitude would imply, as he complained senselessly about the show on the television, he was no slob; he worked out consistently at the gym in his house and was at his physical peak. His semi-long hair was arranged in a messy bun, with more than a couple of loose strands. His navy blue eyes seemed to glow faintly, even in the darkness of his room, though at the moment they were dimmed thanks to his unimpressed current demeanor. He yawned again, barely paying any attention to the main character as he began to fight a random villain introduced two episodes ago. Six grumbled, getting up from his bed for the first time that day and opened the curtains of his room with a flick of his wrist, letting the sunlight flood his room. He looked out the window and at the crowded streets of Kyoto below. His eyes landed on a nearby grocery store he had been using for years now, pondering with puckered lips. What do I want for lunch today? Ehh… I have eaten healthily the past week, I deserve something tasty today. Yeah, something tasty~ He snapped his fingers while humming a tune, making up his mind. Suddenly a couple of bucks that had been in his wallet vanished, while at the same time a pack of frozen chicken nuggets plopped down on his table. He made a pulling motion in the air, the curtains closing once more. He turned around and got on his bed with a yawn, snapping his fingers, the nuggets now inside his microwave and the discarded box softly landing inside a garbage can. The hero rested his head on his pillow, looking up at the air in front of him and visualizing a keypad, clicking the buttons and causing the microwave to beep and turn on. The familiar sound of the active device began to hum in the background soon thereafter. Six scratched his nose a little, frowning in his boredom, his eyes lazily drifting to the TV again before being rudely snapped out of his stupor by his phone ringing in the bathroom.

  Six raised an eyebrow, a bit of energy returning to him and some glow coming back to his eyes, the phone suddenly teleporting into his hand as he looked down at the number calling him with middling interest. What's this? It better not be Eight pestering me with a dumb mission again, dammit. When am I gonna get something fun?? That last one about cleaning up after the earthquake was such a bore, all I did was move some debris out of the way for hours! He looked down at the contact name, ‘Mom.’ Six blinked in surprise, as it had been a couple of months since he last spoke to his family, energy further returning to him while frowning nervously. He answered gingerly and with a raised eyebrow, putting the phone in speaker mode. “Hello? Mom?” he asked politely, poking the air with his index finger and making the TV turn off in order to concentrate better. “Oh, thank god!! Son!!” his mom answered, her voice clearly distressed. Six's eyes narrowed, his fist clenching and his eyes focusing all of a sudden. “Something terrible is happening! Please come quick, I think monsters have-” his mother's voice continued talking, but Six had long since stopped listening, the phone now laying on his bed by its lonesome.

  The citizens of Kyoto all stopped as a loud whirring noise could be heard from above, staring up at the sky in awe. A portal appeared in the middle of the air, showing a visage of a rural town on the other side. Six looked up at the portal while approaching his window, his eyes narrowed with a murderous look engraved in them. He pulled at the air, the window sliding open so violently it shattered upon impact with his wall, and then he stepped out and into the open air without giving the glass shards littering his room a second thought. He teleported into the portal right as he took the step forward, gracefully walking past the wormhole and into the green prairie on the other side. He looked back at the open portal and the thousands of watching eyes from below, everyone who had been on their morning commute stopping in their tracks to marvel at the hero’s ability. Six paid them no mind, closing the portal behind him, although he did have to admit that the peoples’ awed looks did make him feel good about himself, even though he was already rather desensitized to it. The hero took a deep breath, smiling softly as he took in the fresh air of the countryside and looked around his hometown, trying to find any immediate dangers. His eyes were glowing intensely, forming a strange dichotomy with his rather pleasantly amused smile. I wonder, is it a monster or a human?? My mom did mention a monster… and I guess that makes sense. No real, breathing human would be idiotic enough to attack MY family. Right?

  He took a second deep breath, taking a step forward and suddenly appearing at the top of the town’s church, standing on the tip of the cross which acted as the highest point from which he could initiate surveillance. He looked around the town, his eyes darting between the houses and the streets, noticing quickly that they were oddly empty. This isn’t right. I was speaking to my mother less than ten seconds ago. He smiled even further, biting down on his index finger in worry. He wasn’t afraid of what could happen to him; he was number Six - a member of the invulnerable Celestial Ten. But his family? His mom? His dad?? They had powers, like most people, but they were weak and old. A monster or a criminal could easily hurt them… or worse. The utter humiliation of having his very own family be hurt right under his nose was immeasurable, he’d NEVER hear the end of it. Six’s eyes darted across the town more quickly, his breath accelerating as he tried his best to remember where his parent’s house was. He finally spotted it, and instantly teleported there the second he was certain it was the right place. “MOM?!” he asked out loud, stepping into the house, only to find it eerily empty. He grit his teeth, teleporting into his parent’s bedroom, his eyes widening in fear as he saw his mother’s cellphone on the bed, with nobody in sight. Six clenched his fists so hard his nails dug into his skin, making his palms bleed slightly, his grin spreading from ear to ear psychotically. Dammit!!! Dammit all!! Was I too late?! There’s no way. It took less than ten seconds! There’s not even a sign of struggle. What the hell happened?! This… This could be great~

  Six was startled by the sound of a voice behind him, twisting around quickly, his hands up in a fighting position while his eyes began to positively beam with energy. The silhouette of a person was now standing at the doorway to his parent’s house, shadow draped over them and obscuring their features. “You wanna know where they went?” the person asked with a chuckle, stepping forward into the light to reveal a heavily scarred woman - someone that had clearly seen many battles and had come out of them victorious. Six narrowed his eyes in suspicion, sweat running down his face as thousands of possibilities rushed to his head. He opened his mouth to speak to the woman, unsure of if he should just launch an attack right away or listen to her. He had no idea what her power was, after all. What if she could kill his family faster than he could crush her? He couldn’t risk it. “....What are your demands?” Six finally asked solemnly, his tone of voice contradicting the grin plastered on his face, lowering his hands slowly to show that he wasn’t in a fighting stance anymore, his eyes dimming. You’re going to regret this~ Six thought to himself in excitement, barely able to contain a chuckle. I’m going to rip you to pieces, and enjoy every bit of it!! The woman snickered, raising her arm slowly, her palm facing down, as from the shadows around the room rose a myriad of wolf-like creatures made of pure darkness. All that was really discernible from them was a silhouette vaguely in a canine shape and red beady eyes glaring at him. You’re showing me how your power works?? What an idiot. Come on, be smarter than that!! Six pondered in dismay, merely looking around at the creatures unimpressed, noticing how they all seemed to be connected to whatever spot of darkness had birthed them. The woman clasped her hands together, the creatures morphing into chains that quickly latched unto Six, pinning him where he stood while making the hero gasp in surprise.

  “The chains are infused with my power, meaning that I can sense instantly if you try to escape. So stay put unless you want something awful to happen to your family, okay?” she said with an excited grin, reveling in watching one of the most powerful heroes in the world be helpless and at her mercy. Six stared at her silently, his intense navy blue eyes following her as she paced around, his smile disappearing as he did his best to suppress the desire to mock her. “As for what I want out of you, Six, it's simple,” she continued, finally getting to the point, rubbing her palms together before dramatically finishing her sentence, “Money!! It’s about damn time I get a retirement fund!!” Six blinked in surprise, baffled at the answer. Wait. You invoked the ire of a Celestial for MONEY?! You aren’t even with the Rebellion, you’re just a common criminal?? What a damn disappointment!! She turned around with a triumphant expression to look at Six, raising an eyebrow expectantly. “I’ll bite. How much do you want?” Six asked in faked bitterness, looking at how the dark chains around him were coming from the shadows cast by the walls and furniture of the room, a plan forming in his mind.

  The woman grinned, pleased that Six was being compliant, her eyes narrowing. “Ten million dollars,” she exclaimed without wasting a heartbeat, swishing one of her arms around by the wrist as darkness pooled around her in the shape of a floating dollar sign. She was clearly really excited to have that money, causing the hero to raise an amused eyebrow. He shrugged, a playful smile appearing on his lips once more as he simply accepted the situation he found himself in, his baffledness simmering away. He looked up at the sky through the window facing the streets of the town, a gigantic portal opening up and obscuring a large portion of the road like a stray cloud. The criminal quickly turned to look at the portal manifesting up above, her eyes widening in shock and panic. What?! Does he not care that I have his loved ones hostage?! Oh fu-!! Six laughed at her worried, sweat-drenched expression internally; a comically large cube of stacked bills falling from the portal and onto the road with a loud pomf, some of the bills being shot outward from the impact. The portal in the sky actually led to Six’s personal bank vault’s floor directly, but it's not like that information mattered much anyway.

  The woman blinked a few times, gulping subtly as the portal vanished and a nervous grin appeared on her face, surprised that Six had just accepted that fast and easily. Her eyes darted to him in suspicion before quickly returning to the piled money after seeing nothing about the hero’s expression change. J-Jesus… That’s gotta be more than ten million, right?? She wondered, pursing her lips while her eyes glinted with greed. Six, meanwhile, really couldn’t care less about the woman’s reaction or about the massive pile of money. He was too busy concentrating in order to create tiny imperceptible portals right in front of his pupils - where the darkness caster wouldn’t see them. The place where said tiny portals lead to kept alternating all over the village, opening and closing after a few milliseconds each, seemingly at random and erratically. I’m going to use these tiny portals to scan the entire village until I find out where you have everyone trapped. I know you didn’t have enough time to take them anywhere far, since I got here so fast. After that? THEN comes the awesome part~ The hero allowed himself to half-smirk, his gaze darting over to the criminal a few times to make sure she hadn’t noticed anything.

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  The woman slowly turned to look at him once more, making Six act like he was looking at her and not at the imperceptible portals which were rapidly opening and closing all over the village, scanning every nook and cranny in it at blinding speeds. “W-Well!!” the woman continued, looking outside once again as if to double check that the crazy pile of money was still there and she wasn’t hallucinating. That was super easy. Maybe I can get even more greedy?~ “I also want one of Five’s cloaking devices, as well as one of her carrier boxes!” she continued to demand, a happy grin spreading across her face, blushing while staring at the crazy amount of money on the floor again, almost lustfully. Were the Celestials really so insanely rich that even this was nothing to him?? Should she have asked for more?? 100 million??? A billion???? Six laughed openly, snapping her attention back to him, her eyes quickly narrowed, ready to invoke more creatures in a heartbeat. After all, this person was still Six; not someone to be underestimated or taken lightly. “You’re really demanding, you know that? It’s kinda funny. Anyway, you probably have some bite to that bark, no?? You BETTER have, just sayin’!!” Six asked excitedly and amused. Right as she was about to ask him what he meant, the sun exploded. Or at least it looked that way to the darkness caster, her eyes suddenly getting blasted with light so bright she could swear it was coming from inside her retina. She screamed in surprise, the light flashbanging her, rushing to cover her eyes with her hands. It was so bright she could see her pinkish flesh and the veins of her hands even through her closed eyelids. She stumbled, trying to escape from what looked to be as if a star had appeared inside the room, taking a step back and hitting her foot on the bed, falling on it.

  Six took a step forward, the darkness chains evaporating thanks to the absence of shadows from where to sprout. A portal facing outwards hovered in front of his face so that the light that would otherwise be blinding him instead passed through the portal and released somewhere outside. Six had covered the entire room’s sides with portals; on the ceiling, on the walls - from every direction minus the floor in short - all of them leading to a single gargantuan portal in the sky above a chunk of the pacific ocean. The sunlight that should otherwise be supplying a large swath of the earth with sunlight instead passed through the portal and flooded the room with a ridiculous amount of it. Six had deliberately chosen that specific chunk of ocean to open the portal above, a place where no human save a fishing boat or two would be thrown into chaos thanks to the sudden absence of sunlight. Ah, I probably shouldn’t keep this up for long, though. The amount of UV radiation in this room might just cook us both alive!! Or give us mega cancer. Either way, not fun. I do love gambling, though.

  The darkness caster wailed, “What did you do?! Don’t fuck with me, Six!!” the woman screamed, flailing her arms around, punching the air blindly. “I’ll kill everyone in this village dammit!!” Six chuckled again, a sadistic grin spreading across his face. He punched the air, compressing the very fabric of space between his fist and his target, his attack connecting cleanly with her abdomen even though he wasn’t even close to her. The strike was so potent she dropped to her knees and began to vomit, wheezing for breath. “Don’t be silly. You think I didn’t enlighten the place where you took everyone too? Rather sneaky of you to keep them in the forest on the outskirts… hiding in plain sight and all. Also pretty impressive how you managed to transport them all so fast, I may add,” Six mused, kicking the air, compressing space between his foot and her face, making her screech in pain as her jaw was dislocated by the attack. He was pleased with himself, looking down at his writhing enemy. I was getting worried that my physical prowess was deteriorating… I guess comparing myself to Eight, Three, and Four was just an unhealthy practice. Glad to see my worries were for naught! “But despite that brilliance, your mistake was messing with a Celestial in the first place. At least it's fun to teach a brat a lesson,” he finished with a shrug.

  The woman spat blood again, scrambling to get a hold of anything, still intensely blinded by the light. Six smirked, readying another punch, this time directly to her windpipe, aiming to crush it and kill her by asphyxiation. But he stopped himself, thinking of something much better. Suddenly, all the light in the room vanished, the portals disappearing. The woman gasped, stumbling around as her eyes got adjusted to what suddenly felt like the middle of the night by comparison. “Don’t worry, the portals are still open in the forest, so you can’t get sneaky on me and threaten the hostages.” He lightly kicked her shin from where he stood, “Now get up. You made me come all this way, I want to have some fun~” Mmm, although the portals in the forest only lead to a few shadowed areas so as to not cook the residents, and by proxy my family, alive. No need to give her any details, though.

  The woman stumbled to her feet uncertainly, staring around in fear, her eyes landing on Six while her breathing accelerated and her lower lip trembled. “W-What- '” she tried to say something, words failing her as she grabbed her dislocated jaw and bruised abdomen in pain. Six raised his fists in a fighting position. “Because caged animals fight harder,” was the only explanation he gave her, cocking his head smugly. The woman understood immediately what he meant; He just wants a fight, she realized, That’s the only reason he’s keeping me alive. Yowling in desperation and fear, she placed her palms in front of her as a torrent of dark creatures sprouted from the shadows in the room. Six chuckled heartily, his arms spread out before finally coiling back into a fighting position, punching and kicking the air in glee while his eyes darted all over the room to try and keep up with the amount of creatures pouring out, as well as their positions. Every attack, no matter where he seemingly aimed or what he actually made contact with, always made one of the creatures collapse to the ground and dissipate into a black mist. He compressed the very fabric of space between every attack and his desired target - windpipes crushed, limbs torn from their bodies, or whatever other method he felt like using - always making sure that his hits would be crippling if not lethal. All he needed was to do a snapping motion with his hands, and one of the dark wolves would get its leg folded in half. The woman panted, sweat running down her face as her wounds along with the sheer pressure of summoning so many darkness creatures so fast was causing her to slowly stumble and lose her footing, nausea creeping into her. She looked around and at the window, running for it while still creating as many of the creatures as she could to keep Six entertained. I have to get out of here, NOW!! She didn’t even bother to take a look at the gigantic pile of money still in the middle of the road, making a run for it despite her sorry state.

  She didn’t manage to make it far; since early into her run she ended up bumping into Six - who had simply teleported in front of her - making her scream in pure terror. “Not so fast, girl,” he said calmly with a malicious grin, doing a sweeping kick to make her fall to the floor. A creature sprung to attack him from behind, trying to protect its master. Six snapped his fingers, teleporting the creature into the sky where the light vaporized it. He leaned down to look at the woman on the floor, and then looked up at the rest of the creatures rushing forward as they jumped from the window and onto the road. Raising an eyebrow, he clapped his hands, teleporting everyone - including himself - into the air. There, the creatures of darkness all began to melt into a black mist, being cut off from their source. Six sighed in disappointment at how easy the fight had been, although his smile remained as he flexed his fingers, taking mental note that it was a pretty good workout nonetheless.

  Six continuously teleported both himself and the woman every 0.1 seconds back to their starting positions, creating the illusion that they were floating or flying in the air despite the fact that they were essentially in extended free fall. Six used his teleportation to very quickly and in rapid succession move his body forward while doing a stepping motion, making it look like he was walking in the air towards the darkness caster. Speaking of her, she was gasping for air painfully, staring down at the floor twenty meters below while grasping at the nonexistent floor. “NO!!! No, please!!! Six!! I beg of you!!!” she begged in a raspy voice, trying to crawl away unsuccessfully. How silly. Don’t you see you can’t crawl away while in the air? Nothing to grab at, no third law of Newton. You really should have paid more attention to physics class. Six thought in amusement. When he reached her, he sat down in the air next to her, looking down at her pitiful visage without an inkling of mercy. “For threatening my family, I could just crush your beating heart between my fingers…” he began menacingly, suddenly a portal appeared in front of both of them, showing a beating, living heart on the other side. The woman gasped in fear, clutching her chest as if she could rip the portal from inside her, begging harder, her words slurring in dread as more blood lurched from her mouth. Six closed the portal, shaking his head in amusement as a playful smile appeared on his face and he dropped the menacing act, “But don’t worry, my dear enemy! Your ability is entertaining! I’m going to take you to the Association so we can make a good training dummy out of you. I mean- what would you like, slavery or death?” he asked sadistically. The woman began to say something, but he shut her up by ceasing to teleport both of them, making them descend into free fall from where they were in the air. “Not like you have a choice anyway,” Six mused. The woman screamed and Six yawned, and at the last second before impact he teleported her to the Association’s primary prison, inside a well lit cell. He, meanwhile, teleported himself to the forest where his family was being kept while closing all the portals that had been providing blinding light to the area.

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  A few hours later, Six was back inside his room in Kyoto. He called the warden of the prison to inform him of the new puppet he had brought in, to which the warden obliged - albeit clearly not as amused or excited about the prospect of a new fun toy compared to Six. Six ended the call, getting on his bed cozily and picking up his tray of chicken nuggets, frustrated that they had gotten cold in the time he was away, but he smiled nonetheless. At least that was some good fun. Eight really should send me to more missions like that instead of the boring humanitarian stuff she makes me do. He made the tv remote click itself on by pressing the air with a finger, compressing the space between it and the tv remote’s “on” button. He blinked in surprise, looking at the news that was suddenly there instead of his usual programming. Six, confused, double checked that this was the right channel. Why the hell was his favorite drama T.V. channel suddenly showing the news?? “...This is a terrible day for the whole world. Truly awful!! Last time something like this happened, the hero Immortalis stepped up and joined the Celestials, becoming Number Seven,” the anchor exclaimed in an extremely grim tone, “But will the world be so lucky this time?” Six’s eyes narrowed and his face cracked into an even wider psychotic grin, sitting upright on his bed, suddenly extremely interested in what the news had to say, shoving a chicken nugget into his mouth.