Chapter 1 "Knapp Mitsukai"

WARNING: There will be a MALE X MALE intimacy in future chapters.

Chapter 1
Knapp Mitsukai

SEPTEMBER 15, 2040

The day Knapp Mitsukai dies is when he turns 18 years old. At least, that is the first thing a beautiful woman with pale skin and pink eyes with a look of concern tells Knapp after she breaks the kiss.

“Sybil? What do you mean?” Knapp raises an eyebrow in concern as he places his hand on the young woman’s face cheek. She unknowingly leans into his hand without meaning to. 

“I mean… Never mind.” She lazily shrugs one of her shoulders. She tucks her hair behind one of her ears. “It was just another crazy feeling of mine. I mean, they usually come true but they are often crazy.”

“No, it’s ok. We had a long day.” Knapp chuckles softly, recalling a huge lunch rush at the Mexican restaurant he worked at today. He leans closer to his black-haired girlfriend and whispers, “Should we continue --”

They jump at a loud beep. Knapp sighs lightly and starts patting his hands all over Sybil’s bed until he finds his smartphone under the purple blanket. He takes a quick peek at it.  “Ugh, it’s my brother. He said that my parents wanted me to come home right now.”

Sybil opens her mouth at first but no words come out. Instead, she closes her mouth and then gives Knapp a tight hug.

“What’s with you tonight?” Knapp gives a light-hearted chuckle as he returns the hug.

“I love you,” Sybil says suddenly after she pulls out of Knapp’s warm embrace and stares firmly into his dark brown eyes.

Knapp hesitates at first yet blushes at three simple words at the same time. It is the first time Sybil has ever said that to him, but it feels so fast for some reason. He puts on his glasses and mumbles almost shyly, “See you tomorrow.”

~*~

“It’s after midnight! Where have you been?! We are so worried!” A woman with long black hair yells angrily and shakes her rolling pin at Knapp.

“Mom… I just turned 18. I’m fine. Can’t you just give me a break?” Knapp says irritatedly. 

“You’re still living under our roof so you have to follow our rules!” His mother snaps back.

“Sapphire… Honey… He’s fine, so why don’t we get back to bed --” His father tries to get the rolling pin from Sapphire’s hand, but she quickly turns around to glare at him.

“Tokuso! He should have known better!” Sapphire points her rolling pin angrily at Tokuso. She turns to Knapp again. “You decided not to go to college. You decided not to enroll into the Army like your father did. Instead, you’re working at a restaurant. It will not help you get a decent house and pay bills!”

Knapp shifts his eyes toward the door to the hallway to find his 14-year-old brother Ryu trying to peek quietly. He scowls deeply. “Didn’t we have this conversation thousands of times? Since I started high school, you have told me hundreds of times that college was a waste of money. You told me that being in the Army is basically a death sentence because of the Nuclear War. You know what, Mom? Fine. If you don’t want me to be here, then I’m moving out.”

“H-hey, Knapp --” Tokuso gets interrupted by his wife.

“Then, go!” Sapphire crosses her arms and taps her foot on the tile floor repeatedly. “Without a decent job, you will not survive out there. You will just come back once you realize that you need us.”

Loud slam comes from the closing door.

~*~

Knapp ends up going to Tallman Mountain State Park. After a couple of hours of walking, he is sitting on the large boulder just a little over a running creek. His knees are up being wrapped by his own arms. His chin is resting on the place between his knees.

He knows his mother is right. He does not want to admit it but he cannot hold a job for at least three months. He either quits or gets fired so he moves onto another job each time.

But it is not his fault. Ever since the Nuclear War started eighteen years ago, any college has become way too expensive as fewer and fewer people are attending any college or university. Instead, more and more people are joining the Army, Navy, and other military agencies.

He loves his mother, but sometimes she takes it too far. At some point, he will have to come home and tell her that she’s right just so he has a place to sleep rather than becoming homeless. What would his younger brother ever think if he sleeps on the streets in the cold weather like this?

His father… He is a soldier who serves in the U.S. Army, but he rarely ever talks about his missions. Some days he is ok. Other days, he gets anxious for no reason. Knapp suspects that Tokuso has some kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. During the months when he was deployed, Sapphire was much kinder and more considerate of her children’s feelings. But when Tokuso is around, she gets stressed all the time.

There is a sudden noise of rustling nearby, so Knapp quickly jumps back up and points his flashlight at the dark areas. He scans the pitch darkness from his left to right and begins to wonder if it is just his imagination --

“It’s you,” comes an unfamiliar voice.

Knapp quickly whirls around until he is facing a female stranger. She has long silver hair that nearly radiates in the darkness. Her light purple eyes are so sharp as if she has been toughened up inside. She is wearing a simple white buttoned shirt and black skirt just above her knees. Her long black boots make rustling and cracking sounds as she makes a few steps on the red and orange leaves.

“Who are you?” Knapp asks softly as he briefly adjusts his glasses. “What are you doing out here… during this time of night… Don’t you know that it’s too dangerous to walk alone? Don’t you know the crime rate in New York City?”

“You are the Universe Warrior… or rather, you will be one,” The silver-haired woman speaks out loud. “So, you’re going to die before you’re touched by Double God.”

Knapp blinks once, twice… in confusion. “What? Universe Warrior? Double God?”

She keeps walking until she passes him. She continues, “Earth… No… the universe will meet their doomed fate. Everyone will die.”

She turns to him and says, “That’s why I was sent here…” She narrows her purple eyes and finishes, “...to kill you.”

Knapp’s heart begins to beat faster and faster. He chuckles nervously and asks, “W-what the hell are you talking about? Are you trying to joke? Because killing isn’t even funny.”

“The Fall of the Moon will succeed.” She puts up her hand, pointing her palm at him. “The world will be reborn. I’ll send you even further to the place where it no longer exists. You’ll die over there.”

Suddenly, a bright light is being formed out of the female stranger’s palm and is being expanded rapidly until it turns into a portal.

“Eh?” Knapp is in complete awe. “How did you do this trick -- what is this?”

The portal is starting to suck him, so he feels his feet slipping across the ground. That’s when he becomes panicked. If he gets sucked in, what if he will not be able to get home to his parents and brother? Or to his girlfriend… the one he is so afraid to say that he loves her? “No, no, no! Please!”

He falls back on his bottom, but he is still getting closer and closer to the portal. He yells, “What did I ever do to you?!”

“You didn’t,” The silver-haired woman says coldly. “Double God did this to us… to everyone in the universe.”

Knapp is moving faster and faster towards the portal. He manages to turn over on his knees and digs his fingers into the ground but nothing is stopping the portal from pulling him at all.

Last thing before he gets sucked into the portal, he screams his brother’s name, “Ryu!”

~*~

YEAR ????

Knapp opens his dark brown eyes to find himself staring at the whiteness. No ceiling. No sky. It’s basically… nothing.

Am I dead? He thinks to himself. He turns his head to the side only to see even more whiteness in the far distance. Heavy mist everywhere isn’t helping him to remember where he is at all.

He gets up from the white floor… at least he feels something solid under his feet. He asks out loud himself, “Has the universe ended?” If that’s the case, then why is he still alive?

He decides to start walking… at least, there has to be some kind of a town or at least a person out there.

Every step he makes, he hopes to see something within the range of his sight. But after what it feels to be an hour, nothing but endless whiteness and heavy mist are still all around him.

He recalls that a week ago, his father told his family that he was going to be deployed for South Korea. He said he might be staying there for up to two years. 

South Korea is a war zone. Tokuso is going to leave the day after Knapp’s birthday. There is a high chance that he is going to die out there. That was the sole reason why after work, he ran away to Sybil and stayed with her all day.

He is so scared. So afraid that his father will be killed in action. And he will never have a chance to say goodbye to him. If he is not there, then who is supposed to look after his mother and younger brother?

He collapses to his knees. He does not know if he is exhausted or depressed but his legs decide to give up on him. Or maybe he is hungry. Is he going to starve to death in a place like this?

Tears begin to fall. He leans forward until his face is on his hands. His loud sobs are the only sound that he hears. Nothing else makes any sound at all.

By the time he gets back up, his glasses have been adjusted and his tears have dried up. He has no idea how long he has been crying but without clock or daylight, it sure feels eternal. 

He forces himself to move his feet.

~*~

He cannot believe what he is seeing right now. There is something in his sight, and it is definitely not something white. He begins to jog, not caring if he is still exhausted from walking for hours… or has it been a day?

Either day, he does not care. 

“Wow…” He says in awe as he inches closer and closer to what he has been seeing. It is a sword. Stuck in a perfectly cubed rock. Including the handle, the entire blade is colored in full black.

He takes one more look around and then reaches out his hand to grab the handle. It feels like it’s been wrapped multiple times with a battle wrap to help with better gripping. 

He is surprised. When he pulls the sword, it just slips out of the rock easily like it is meant for him. He is holding the sword with the blade pointing upward and just watching it in excitement. He does not know why he is excited but it sure beats walking around in the middle of nowhere.

The sword begins to vibrate in Knapp’s gripping hand. It suddenly slips out by itself and then turns around until the tip of the blade is pointing straight at him.

“What the fuck?” He asks nervously, trying not to move as much as possible. As if he moves, then the sword may harm him in any way.

It flies fast. He barely has time to react but he does not realize what happens next.

He begins to feel intense pain. He shifts his dark brown eyes downward until the handle comes into his sight. The sword has pierced through his chest cleanly. It is the last thing before he blacks out.

~*~

Knapp suddenly gasps for air and then garbles. He spits out metal-tasting liquid and repeatedly coughs. His chest is still feeling pain; as intense as before. He moves his hand until he feels the handle of the sword.

The sword is still inside his chest. How the hell did he not die from that?

He shakily grabs the handle and begins to pull it carefully out of his chest. But not without increasing pain. He swears that he is going to pass out again but manages not to.

When the sword is finally out, Knapp drops it with a loud clang and then falls back to the floor. He is breathing fast and heavily. For some reason he expects to see himself lying in the middle of the pool of blood but when he pushes himself up, he is surprised to see just a tiny pond of his own blood.

He feels his chest, expecting an open wound and a rush of his blood. Instead, it’s completely closed. As if the sword wound has never happened.

He takes a look at his own hands, which are soaked in blood. He slowly glances at the sword fearfully.

He realizes that it’s a little blurry in his vision. He takes off his glasses to wipe them with the clean part of the hem of his shirt. He then puts them back on only to get blurry vision again. Blinking in confusion, he takes them off again and is looking at the bloody sword with the perfect vision.

W-what in the world happened to me?

“I’ve always wondered why there were two swords in the past but now I finally understand.”

As soon as he hears another unfamiliar voice, Knapp quickly gets up only to stumble over a little bit but he makes sure to stick his feet to the floor. He turns around until he is facing another stranger. This time, it is a male. He asks softly, “W-who are you?”

“Let’s just say… I am a form of the Fifth Universe. You can call me Kawaii,” the stranger says cheerfully. He jerks his head toward the bloody sword lying next to Knapp. “As you can see, the sword chose you because it feels strongly connected to you in some way.”

When Knapp does not respond but rather stares at him, Kawaii continues with a light chuckle, “We are in the future.”

“Future? Where are we?” Knapp asks anxiously.

“Here is what you used to call Earth back then,” Kawaii says. He smiles sadly as he continues, “But so much stuff happened recently. I… I don’t know if we will ever survive.”

“This is Earth? Everything… Everyone is gone?”

“Yes.”

Knapp shakes his head furiously. He takes a look at his hand only to realize how clear his vision is without wearing his glasses. “What is happening to me? What did you mean by… the sword chose me?”

“You are the Universe Warrior. This sword is called the Divine Sword. It was created the minute I was born. With the sword’s help, you borrow the power of the universe.”

“No, it… it’s impossible. I am not the Universe Warrior! I can’t… I can’t even fight… like my father!”

“Knapp…” Kawaii says softly, as if he does not scare him any longer. “Whether you like it or not, you are the Universe Warrior. You’re the only one who will save me… I mean, the universe.”

“How so? This Earth is dead. At least, it will be dead in the future.”

Kawaii ignores the question as he continues, “The Timeline Protector will send you back to the past. What you want to do is completely up to you… but before that, what I will be telling you soon will affect the future. The future always changes, but it will be revealed as a true timeline at the end. Soon… I…”

He shakes his head as he suddenly starts a new sentence, “There is the last surviving Locker who is hiding on Earth. He seeks to lock Earth from Double God. As you see why I am here right now… Earth is my heart. Or rather, the Heart of the Fifth Universe.”

“Double God… That… woman with silver hair mentioned him…” Knapp says softly. So it wasn’t a dream, after all?

“Your grandfather, Gotsu Mitsukai, never ran off. Twenty-five years ago… thousands of people went missing. Gotsu was one of them but he wasn’t like them. One of the only two surviving Lockers almost killed him, but he was taken in by Double God. He was one of the Legendary Breakers. He was trained along with Kowareta Kejinto to defeat the Lockers.”

Knapp widens his eyes in shock but remains speechless.

“At the end, Gotsu and Kowareta defeated the Lockers, but unfortunately that was at the cost of their lives. They saved Earth from the doom of chains. But… the problem is, one of the Lockers survived but was very weak. He had been building up the chains in silence so that Double God wouldn’t notice him at all until it was too late.

“When you get back to your time period, I want you to find Forgotten. She should be at one of the bases in Virginia… Ft. Belvoir, I guess? Just tell her that you were sent by the Fifth Universe, and she would help you out right away. Ask her to get a spaceship. You need to get out of Earth fast before the chains completely lock Earth out. I want you to gather the certain warriors in order to form Dark Team,” Kawaii says.

He walks over to where the sword is lying and then picks it up before handing it to Knapp who takes it without any hesitation. “Let me get rid of that stain…”

He flickers his wrist once, and then the bloody stains are completely gone from Knapp’s white T-shirt. He continues, “Other than Forgotten, the warriors whom I want you to find… One who reads minds. One who uses lightning. One who switches places. One who defies gravity. One who explodes. Lastly… the one who heals.”

The new Universe Warrior shakes his head. “I… This is too much. Spaceship? The warriors you want me to find…? What will I do if I am not able to find them?”

“You will. I have faith in you.” Kawaii gives him a small smile. He puts out his hands in the air and holds them in the air until a scarf with white and black patterns appears on them. “Wear it. I am… struggling to stay alive right now, but once you go back, the power of the Fifth Universe will overwhelm you. I suggest you wear the scarf at all times and only take it off if you need to use it to defeat your foe.”

Not knowing what exactly Kawaii is talking about, Knapp wraps his neck with his new scarf anyway.

Kawaii nods his head, but not at Knapp. Instead, it’s directed to someone who has been standing behind the new Universe Warrior for how long; only Kawaii knows.

Knapp feels a gentle hand on his shoulder but does not turn around to see who it is. He is not even sure if he is supposed to look.

“The Timeline Protector is taking you back,” Kawaii flashes a big grin on his face. He waves his hand as he says sadly, “Goodbye. I hope… to see you again.”

~*~

Knapp opens his eyes to find himself lying on cold but soft ground of wet grass and staring at the night sky. He frowns when he realizes that he can no longer see bright stars in the dark sky.

Instead, he is looking at thick and large chains hovering over the sky.