Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 190 LIKEWISE

It wasn’t until the next morning that the girls finally awoke. I had cleaned up the dead bodies pretty well and threw them in a dumpster out back. After ransacking the place I was lucky that someone wrote a password on a sticky note which gave me access to the computers and all the information I needed. 

“Good morning!” I yelled to the girls as they grumbled awake. The older ones sat up, but the young school girl continued to lay there. Blinking up at the ceiling as she forced herself aware of her surroundings.

“Who the fuck are you?” One asked. She was a little shorter than me. Head shaved, her dark roots showing she still had a beautiful face despite being bald. The amazing thing about her was her rack. It was at least D-Cup. Since I had all of her medical information I knew they were real.

“I am Weston,” I said. “Like you, I was kidnapped by the fuckers that ran this place. You are Aiko,” I said, dropping a thick folder at her feet. 

“You are Setsuko,” I said, dropping a thick folder on the girl next to her. She was slim, a few curves, she had dark brown hair in her profile picture that went down to her shoulders. For now she was bald as well.

“You are Jun,” I said, dropping the last folder on the last girl. She was the youngest of us, at only 16. She once had long black hair. She had the least amount of curves, but was still easy on the eyes. She stared up at me in a daze. 

“Over the last 6 months we and another 3 people were kidnapped and tested on. The other 3 died from the experimentations done on us. From what I can tell, the testing was done by a man simply called the Doctor, and his assistant. No one else. I happened to wake up from the drugging after they had to move us.” 

“Where are those fuckers?” Aiko growled. Apparently she remembered some as well. 

“Dead,” I said. “I…killed them myself.” The 3 looked up at me, shocked for a moment. Aiko recovered first. 

“Good,” she mumbled as she began to leaf through her folder. “Fucking 6 months of my life, gone,” she whispered as she scanned over the pages. Most of it was gibberish. How much feces or urine we excreted. The dosage and times of the drugs they gave us. The interesting part was at the back. 

“Looks like we have to thank a hero for saving us though,” I said, turning on a TV. On it was the news as they tried to move the giant. He was a huge man, as tall as a skyscraper. Dark skin, weird muscles everywhere, completely nude, the only distinguishing feature about him was the skull mask on the top of his head. I recognized him from One Punch Man. One of the first villains Saitama beat in the manga, the giant and his scientist brother were working on a serum to make the brother the strongest man in the world. After taking the serum he became gigantic. Saitama beat him with one punch. Causing the man to die and fall on City B. Leveling many buildings. Including the one we had been tested and experimented on inside. 

“We are currently across town in City B,” I said. “That building size guy caused the doc and his assistant to move us.” They were doing another interview about King, the supposed man that beat the giant. He was a tall man, with blonde hair, and 3 scars along his eye. He had been unlucky to be at the site of every one of Saitama’s major kills. He received the acclaim for the kills whether he wanted it or not. I was slowly making a plan for what I would do in this world as I watched the news. 

“What the shit is this?” Aiko asked as she came to the back of the folder. 

“Right, the testing these asshats were doing on us,” I said. “Apparently the dead doctor got it in his head that true strength came through emotion. I was Subject A, for Anger. You, Aiko, were Subject P, for Passion. Setsuko, you were Subject J for Joy. And Jun, you were subject F for Fear. Calm, Devotion, and Hope are no longer with us.”

“What-the-fuck,” Aiko said digging through the folder still. “Passion? What the hell is that about?” 

“He had a theme,” I admitted. “Aiko, you were a hooker before all this, so he thought you would stick to passion well. Setsuko there were accounts that your loud laugh drew his attention. He followed you around, finding you laughing all the time. And Jun, you uh, well you know. He chose you for fear because of your introverted past.”

“Goddamn. God-god-damn,” Aiko mumbled. “Fucking fuck of a pencil dicked scientist piece of shit. This world is already shit and I gotta deal with this bullshit?!” She got up from the bed. 

“Shower is over there. Trust me, you’ll feel better after one,” I said. She flipped me off and headed that way. 

“What does all this mean?” Setsuko asked, showing me the pages. 

“From what I can tell. He was working on making us surpass our limits through these specific emotions. So I would get stronger when I’m angry. You would when you’re happy. You would when you’re scared. That sort of thing. The guy was obsessed with emotions. From what I can tell it may have worked,” I admitted. I kind of blacked out and tore the guy apart. Maybe I really did become stronger when I was angry, just like the Hulk. Which was exciting and scary at the same time. 

“There is some food in a small kitchen back there,” I said. “I found some clothes there.” I pointed to a large pile next to them. I was already in my black pants and hoodie from my hero costume. It was comfortable so I left it on. I turned to leave them but stopped as one of the girls sobbed. 

“My parents are dead,” Jun said, reading her profile. 

“Uh yeah, he didn’t want people looking for us. Aiko and I didn’t have anyone, but you 2…” I left it at that as I walked out. Heading to the small kitchen I made simple sandwiches. I doubted they would be up for eating anything anyone else made, having been drugged for months on end, but it was something to do. Finding a computer I did more research on the world. 

We were not in Japan anymore, at least not the Japan I knew. The continent of the country that we were focused on was large. I guessed about the size of central Japan. Apparently centuries ago we looked like the Earth I knew. But after monsters and kaijus wrecked everything, the world was mostly changed. There were other countries and continents, but most people didn’t travel to them. There were problems everywhere with monsters and villains. Everyone was doing what they could to survive. 

Yen was used, so there was that at least. Instead of names, each city had letter designations. I was sure it was laziness on the writer's end, but oh well. We were in City B. City A was where the Hero’s Association was, which was the biggest city and centralized on the continent. The other letter cities were close by. I knew Saitama was in City Z. Which was ground zero for bad stuff happening. 

The country had police, taxes were collected, but so many missing or dead from random disasters, the world was in chaos. Only the Hero Association had real power. It had been started about 2 years ago when a rich guy's grandson was saved by a random passerby. I knew that Saitama saved the grandson, because of the manga, but no one else in the world did. The Hero Association grew as other people came out, sick of all the villains and death. 

There had been a political party last year that had tried to put an end to the Hero Association. They claimed that heroes shouldn’t have any rights to harm villains. That was when citizens stepped in, and put an end to that political party. Now heroes were the rockstars of the world, much like MHA. Only now if you happened to kill a villain, no one really cared. Most of the heroes had a code of course, but if you happened to end an annoying person that was causing death and destruction, you were praised for it. 

I agreed with this world’s philosophy much more than MHA. In this world I had lost both parents. Never knowing them I didn’t really care about monsters or villains. Now I did, I was strong. I could help. And hopefully finish some quests on the way. 

I sat and planned for a time. I had an idea of what I wanted to do. There was a hero test in the next few days that I wanted to be a part of, but I wasn’t going to start from the bottom like Saitama. I wanted to skip a few levels up. That would be tricky, but I had an idea how to get it done. 

As I heard yelling from the back I got up and left the back room. I found Aiko and Setsuko arguing in the kitchen. Jun was nervously standing in the corner. The 3 girls eyed me as I walked in. 

“What’s up?” I asked. 

“I want to leave,” Aiko said. “This place freaks me the fuck out. And I will be damned if I stay here any longer to get captured.” 

“Fair enough, where should we go?” I asked. 

“We? I’m on my own, kid,” she said. “I want the keys to the car out back.”

“We should stick together,” Setsuko mumbled. 

“She’s right,” I said. “We should stick together. Something was done to us. I don’t know what exactly. But we shouldn’t stray too far. There could be lasting effects. Seizures, violent outbursts, blacking out, spontaneous human combustion. I don’t freaking know.” I eyed Aiko, she relaxed slightly. “But I also agree, we shouldn’t stay here. Let’s get a hotel.” 

“A hotel?” Aiko asked, interested. 

“Sure, I found some money. We can get set up somewhere.”

“Give me some,” she said quickly. 

“I will, later,” I promised. “Come on. Not like we have homes to go to anyway. Let’s stick together for now. Try to figure it all out.” We were soon piled in a small Toyota out back. I thought of something and ran back in. 

Once back in the driver’s seat Aiko asked, “What did you forget?”

“To burn it all down,” I said. An oxygen tank exploded inside, breaking the glass of the back door. I kicked the car in reverse as the building caught fire. Aiko laughed excitedly seeing it burn down. We were out in the city soon enough. Traffic was directed around the giant that covered a lot of the city.  We headed for A-City. The biggest and most populated area, it didn’t take long to find a hotel. 

It was getting dark out by the time we got to our room. A large penthouse, I spared no expense to make sure we each had a separate room. It was all on the dead doctor’s credit card, so I wasn’t too hurt by it. The girls were starting to get more excited. 

Dropping a wad of cash on the table I said, “You can get clothes tomorrow. For now let’s relax, get used to being awake again. Jun, Setsuko, maybe you can find some family. But for now, let’s stick together, alright? I want to make sure you’re safe before disappearing on me, alright?” 

“Why are you so calm about all this?” Setsuko asked. The college student eyeing me as I sat across from her.

“I don’t know,” I lied. “Kind of thought we were connected now.” I almost felt something from the girls. I had sisters, maybe it was that. That camaraderie of growing up with them. But I didn’t know these girls. Maybe something else was drawing me to stay close to them. “I get that room,” I said pointing to the master bedroom. 

“I want it,” Aiko said, making a run for it. I ran in jumping on the bed as she cursed. But we were soon laughing for some reason. I couldn’t explain it. Maybe the doctor really had done something to us. In all of his testing he was obsessed with awakening strength. Maybe I was psychic now, or linked to these girls in some way. Like one of those Japanese Mahou hentais or something. For now I left the mystery out there. The girls soon ordered room service. 

Joking around as we ate we watched the sunset from our balcony. Ready for a new day, and hopefully no monsters to contend with. This was One Punch Man though. I knew there would only be bigger and stronger monsters coming our way.