Chapter 6 "Owl's Eyes"
Chapter 6
Owl’s Eyes
Near Planet Jino
Segundo Galaxy
“Is Ketsu, like, a super awesome engineer and a super awesome pilot?” Roy asks in awe. “Because this spaceship is, like, huge!”
“He grew up traveling through space with his father. Also, for the past five years, he studied aerospace, as well as mechanical and electrical engineering.” Katuo kneels down, trying to reach something under the black leather couch. “Where the hell is that goddamn remote?”
“Hmmm.” Roy is munching on his cookie, which he took from the kitchen after Siko baked a few dozens of chocolate chip cookies this morning.
“What the…?” Katuo finally pulls something out from under the couch. It is a large red book without any word or picture on the cover.
“What is that?” Roy gets closer to Katuo, trying to get a better look at the old thick book.
Katuo opens the book. He smirks almost immediately when he recognizes the handwriting, “This is my father’s book.”
“Really?!”
“What? It’s all blank!” He says when he gets to the fifth page in the book. He turns over the book, looking through all the remaining blank pages.
“But aren't there like a lot of words on the first few pages?” Roy asks.
“Yeah. That was the list of powers with details.” Katuo turns back to the first page. “I guess he left this here for me to write down new powers I may see any time soon.”
“Powers?”
“Yeah. So far, there are over ten different kinds of powers in the book,” Dark God says. “I see the power of ice on the list. You have it, right? Siko’s father also has it.”
“Ah, I see. What other powers are on the list?”
“Rush, lion… My father has the power of rush, and my sister has the power of a lion,” Katuo says.
“What are they?”
“Whoever has the power of rush may be one of the universe’s fastest. Hell, I tried to catch up with my father, but never succeeded. I’m just praying that I never run into someone else with the same power,” Katuo mumbles angrily at his memories of how often his father laughed at him after winning every single race. “Anyway... The power of the lion is the universe’s greatest strength. It is also known as ‘insane strength.’ Anyone with such energy can destroy a planet with one finger.”
“Wow…” Roy says in amazement.
“If I remember correctly, my father told me that if you run out of your primary power, like ice, then your life energy becomes your back-up. Now, that’s the most important thing because not too many can recognize their own life energy at first and die because of it. In other words… If you run out of life energy, then you die.”
“That could have been bad.” The Icy Warrior gasps in terror.
“You know, my father told me that every single person in the universe does have at least one hidden power, depending on how powerful they are. All it takes for them to look deeply into themselves and discover the power from there.”
“You have two powers?”
“Hey, guys! What are you talking about?” Siko asks, entering the living room with the happy dragon in his warm embrace. He spots the red book. “Oh! Isn’t that Tezuka’s book? He gave it to you?”
“I guess.” Katuo shrugs his shoulders. “Roy, you said you have two powers. How did you get the second power? It’s quite rare that we find someone other than our fathers with two powers.”
“Well..." Roy scratches the back of his head nervously. He says hesitantly, “I, uh… I got it after I… Um... ”
Siko softens his light green eyes at Roy’s sad face. “It’s ok. You don’t have to tell us anyway. We don’t have any interest in anybody’s past. You are who you are, after all. Nothing else matters to us.”
“No, no, it’s ok.” Roy smiles lightly at Light God. “I left my home planet to join you and fight alongside you. Somehow… I think you already know about my past even before I joined because you’re the Gods of this universe, after all.”
He sighs lightly and continues, “Well, where do I start…? Oh! Here I go…”
~*~
TEN YEARS AGO
YEAR 2058
“Poor kid. It must have happened so fast for him. He watched his own parents getting murdered. He must have felt so helpless back there,” says a man in a white lab coat. “His name is Roy Shivero, isn’t it?”
Ignoring the conversation of the adults, Roy is sitting at the darkest corner of the room and hugging his own knees. He is looking blankly at the floor. He does not care who is talking.
“...and then, he killed the murderer just like that. Instantly.”
“What should we do? He can be considered as a real threat to our village if they ever find out about his power.”
“Hey, you. You’re a witness, aren’t you? How did he kill the murderer?”
“He used ice powers to stab him in the chest. Pierced through the heart, I think. Honestly, his family had been my neighbors ever since he was born… and I had never seen his powers before until last night when I heard loud screams from his house… So, I called the police and came to his house… and you know the rest of the story.”
“You know, he can be a hero!”
“Or a villain.”
“Either way, he will always be known as Icy Warrior who avenged his parents.”
Since that day, Roy has been moving from a foster family to another. As soon as they find out that Roy has icy powers, they don’t want him anymore.
Eventually, Roy finds himself in one of the small tribes about thirty miles away from his hometown.
~*~
YEAR 2065
The 14-year-old Icy Warrior was sitting on the top of large hills, watching women pulling corn from the fields on the farms.
“Hey.”
Roy turned to a smiling black-haired man who sat next to him. He looked away, trying to ignore him.
“What’s wrong? You haven’t said a single word since you moved here.” The stranger blinked his dark eyes. “Are you afraid of us? Because you shouldn’t be.”
Roy shrugged his shoulders carelessly.
“Is it because nobody wants you?”
Roy flinched at first, but then he frowned in anger. “What am I supposed to do? I am the murderer.”
“What murderer?” The stranger laughed out loud. He noticed that Roy looked offended. “Sorry, sorry! Ahem… My name is Thel. Roy, isn’t it? I’m just like you, yeah?”
“How so?” Roy rolled his dark eyes, silently wishing that Thel would leave him alone.
“You have ice power, right?”
“So what?”
Thel leaned backward with his hand on the ground, looking up at the light gray clouds, which were about to snow. “I don’t have ice power, like you do… but I have a different one.”
“What?” Roy glanced at him with his curious wide eyes. “You have power too?”
“Hikyou-sama granted every single person in this world with power. Most of them just don’t know how to use it.” Thel flashed a big grin at him. “I have this power called aguila. I have the owl’s eyes.”
“Aguila?” Roy leans a little closer to Thel. “How does it work?”
“It gives me the ability to see anywhere within hundreds of miles!” Thel closed his eyes and then opened them again. This time, his eyes were glowing in a very bright white light. “I can see a bird on that mountain.”
“Amazing!” Roy turned to one of the mountains, but he couldn’t see the bird at all until it flew off the closest mountain. He gasped lightly at the sight.
“I can teach you if you want to learn. This power is completely harmless compared to ice power, right?” Thel smiled again at Roy’s excitement. “Then they can forget about Icy Warrior! Instead, you can be a hero of Hielo!”
“Okay!” Roy smiled for the first time ever since his parents died.
~*~
“Where is that Icy Warrior?!” One of the men yelled angrily, along with a large mob shouting. “He must be killed!”
“Please calm down,” the chief of the tribe said. “What is it this time? He hasn’t done anything wrong. He hasn’t even left the tribe.”
“Yes, he did! We saw him! He was with someone else of your tribe!”
“What’s going on?” Thel came up closer to the chief. He tightened his grip on his long bow. “Why are they here?”
“It’s you! You are the one who taught him how to fight!” The second man shouted, pointing accusingly at him. “It’s because of you and that monster, our precious baker died!”
“What are you talking--” Thel could not finish his question when the mob ran all over the land of the tribe.
“THAT IS ENOUGH!”
Sudden ice was being formed all over the land, making the men from the town stop from any going further completely.
“Roy! What are you doing here?! Stay away!” Thel cried in panic, watching the 15-year-old Icy Warrior calmly walk past the relieved chief.
“Your baker.” Roy inhaled loudly and then released a light icy breath. “We did not kill him. He had a heart attack.”
“Yeah - because he saw you using that eye power or something!” A woman shouted.
“What does that have anything to do with his death?” Roy narrowed his dark eyes in anger. He sighed lightly, “Look, from now, I promise not to come any closer to your town. In return, I would like you to leave my home alone.”
It started snowing just when the mob began to leave and return to their home. With an icy breath of relief, Roy turned to the people of the tribe and gave them an apologetic smile. “I’m so sorry that you had to see this.”
A few months later, an unknown alien suddenly appeared on Planet Hielo and started attacking every single citizen in its path. It kept asking for the so-called Icy Warrior.
Roy did not make it in time when he found his best friend lying dead in the middle of the destroyed peaceful village.
He was angry at himself and at the fact that everything was his fault. The alien came for him and killed Thel and many other innocent people.
If he were never born, then such a disaster like this would never happen.
He eventually found the alien by using the power of owl’s eyes and then defeated him after a few hours of battle just outside one of the towns.
And thus, from there, he was called the ‘Icy Warrior of Hielo’, even though he did not want to be one.
There was still hatred and revenge left. It was because of Icy Warrior that the alien came and killed hundreds of people.
Roy couldn’t stand the verbal attacks from the Hielians over and over again, so he decided to move as far as possible, away from civilization.
~*~
“And… then I met you guys.” Roy finishes his story. “When I used the power of aguila to find your spaceship coming to my planet, I was concerned at first that you may be other aliens looking for me. Turns out I was correct… except you took me away.”
“So, aguila power, eh? Why didn’t I sense it when we first met you?” Katuo asks.
“It has a very tiny energy, which is used for eyes only.” Icy Warrior shrugs his shoulders as if he has explained it for a hundredth time in his life. “That’s why I was able to attack you from the mountains.”
“That’s amazing!” Siko exclaims. “My father has aguila power too! But he has barely used it ever since the Nuclear War ended though… so I’m really excited to witness how you use it!”
Gus starts whining loudly.
“Hungry, Gus?” Siko giggles and then gets up from the couch. “Roy, thank you so much for telling us. You didn’t have to, but still, we are really grateful that you opened up yourself to us. I… no, we promise that we will fix everything.”
Roy blinks at Light God in surprise. “Everything? You want to fix everything that you missed out on for the last thousand years?”
“It’s not our fault.” Katuo shrugs his shoulders. “Hikyou-sama ran off to some other universe, leaving the Fifth Universe all alone, weak, and defenseless for a thousand years.”
No, fuck you, Katuo! I tried to leave but Dios wouldn't let me!
“But you stayed with Dios-sama anyway,” Ketsu says nervously, as if he does not want to anger Double God any further. Fortunately, all he got from Hikyou-sama was a ‘hmph!’
“Who are you talking to?” Roy asks.
“Hikyou-sama,” Siko says cheerfully. “He is with us. He always will.”
“Only Siko, Ketsu, and I can hear Hikyou-sama.” Katuo smirks lightly. “But a normal human like you can’t.”
“Oh, um… Who is Dios-sama? Do we have another God?” Roy asks curiously.
“Actually…” Katuo begins his usual explanation. “We are in one of the Five Universes. This is the Fifth Universe, where Hikyou-sama is the God. Dios-sama is the God of the First Universe.”
Ugh, Dios. Can't you just say that he's the biggest pervert?
Ketsu and Siko can't help but burst into loud laughter. Katuo smirks lightly at Hikyou’s complaint.
“Ah, okay.” Roy is confused but realizes that Hikyou-sama must have said something funny.
Ketsu stretches out his arms tiredly, about to leave for the bridge when he remembers something important. “Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention that we have two more weeks before we reach our next destination.”
“Where?” Icy Warrior asks almost excitedly. He is really getting tired of being stuck in the spaceship.
“Planet Lune.” Katuo smirks. “That planet is full of healers. We will get one healer to join us.”
“Why do we need a healer? Aren’t you immortal --” Roy gets smacked in the head.
“Moron! We need one for people like you! What happens if you bleed to death?” Katuo snaps at him. He turns to the Hoshiko team. “Train hard this week. Rest a day before the next arrival. Sounds good?”
“Yes!” Everyone yells.
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