“No.9! Get up and run!”

  “I can’t! My leg hurts too much!”

  “God……DAMNIT!”

  I bent down, motioning for her to get on my back. She crawled on as I sprang up and started running.

  “How are you even able to carry me? Isn’t your body weak?”

  “I can make the blood inside my own body burst in microscopic amounts. It makes my blood flow faster and gives me slightly heightened strength and stamina, without it I wouldn’t have been able to keep getting up. But enough about that, what are the conditions?!”

  “First, the target of my voice has to be smart enough to understand it. Second, I have to be completely concentrated and focused on them, and be confident in what i’m saying. Third, the harder the command, the more mentally strong I’d have to be then the target. The third condition can be ignored if there is already reasonable cause, like that one time when I put that guard to sleep. It’s because he was already tired.”

  “So that’s why you said it wouldn’t work against this thing. It can’t understand your voice, so it wouldn’t be able to heed your words.”

  “Mhmm.”

  As we talked, that thing jumped up in the air in an attempt to pounce on us.

  “Zero, it’s coming!”

  I stopped and started running in the direction it was pouncing us, in hopes of getting under it to avoid it.

  “You feel much quicker!”

  I felt no difference as I was forced to dive to avoid the large quadrupedal monster’s pounce.

  “It didn’t work!”

  “It’s because of the pain! My leg still hurts, I can’t concentrate!” No.9 squealed.

  “GROAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!”

  “Well, suck it up! If not, we’re both going to die!”

  Without turning around, it began to lift its tail into the air right as we passed under it.

  “Go right! No, left!” No.9 screamed frantically.

  “Which one?!” I yelled back.

  “Uh, choose!”

  “What do you mean—?!”

  The tail slammed down right next to us, sending both of us flying in opposite directions.

  “Aaaaaagh!”

  “Tch!”

  I landed and tried to regain my balance, but slipped backward as I moved due to the lack of friction. No.9 was in the fetal position on the ground; she was shaking.

  The beast turned to look toward me and slowly made its way toward me, as if it knew I didn’t have much left in me.

  “Why……why?!” I heard No.9 scream.

  She was sitting up now, and her hair was covering her face. Despite the noise she was making, the beast was still heading my direction.

  “All I wanted to do was help…..but look what happened! Nothing’s changed! I’m still getting used to it! Blamed! I’m useless! USELESS!”

  I wasn’t focused on Mo.9’s tantrum right now, I was trying to muster the strength to get up but I couldn’t. I was too tired to use my blood flow technique, and the thorns were hurting more than ever. It was two large steps away from me, and all I could do was sit there and watch.

  “Aaaaaah……AAAAAAAAAGH!”

  No.9 screamed, and her hair fell from her face, revealing that her eyes had turned completely black. No pupils, no whites. It’s like I was staring at an endless voice.

  “I’m sick of this! I’m sick of getting pushed around! Sick of getting blamed for everything! Sick of being worthless!” She said as she stood up, with her hair flowing behind her.

  “No.9?”

  Did she get a second awakening?

  The beast was right on top of me and was about to bring its foot down, when no.9 looked at me with the most enraged look I’ve ever seen.

  “You are brimming with vitality! You are brimming with speed! You are brimming with physical strength!”

  It brought its foot down, but any earlier signs of fatigue had just been completely erased after she yelled that. I moved faster than I ever had before and swiftly dodged its stomp. Even the beast looked confused as it began looking around where I once was.

  I ran behind it with newfound strength, but the thorns were still piercing through my skin. Even with my boost, it still hurt to move.

  “ our injuries are healed! You’re brimming with stamina! You’re—gah!”

  After speaking that last command, her eyes began to bleed, and veins were bulging from her head; she stumbled back as if she was trying to hold onto consciousness.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The beast quickly swept its tail behind him as he turned around. I jumped with increased strength and slashed downward in an arc, cleaving its tail in two.

  “Groooahhhhhhhhhhh!”

  I clenched my fist to activate the flower blossoms, which burst all along the creature’s blood-covered tail. It stumbled forward while trying to gain its balance, and I capitalized on this chance.

  I ran under its stomach to avoid its tail so that I could slash both of its ankles. I watched as it fell to its knees. While running, still beneath the beast, my flowers exploded once more, causing further damage to its legs. The faces all around its body made an unsettling expression, and I immediately got a bad feeling.

  “ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!”

  It roared, and all of the heads on its body screamed in unison; the noise was so ear-piercing that I couldn’t think straight. The sound waves were so threatening that my vision became blurred. Balancing myself became increasingly difficult, and I couldn’t help but fall over.

  Is it a mind attack?!

  I turned over to see it staring directly at me, and it opened its mouth wide as if it were charging something. Energy similar to when 963 fought my dad was forming around its mouth, as it grew bigger and bigger until it formed a sphere.

  I heard shuffling to my right as I saw no.9 stumbling forward while holding her head.

  “Gain….Control!!!” She yelled in an almost demonic voice.

  Once she yelled that, she fell over and I saw blood leaking from her ears and eyes.

  However, something was even more concerning. I could feel the thorns resurfacing and wriggling in my body as the pain came back.

  No, it’s not just coming back, it’s hurting more than ever before!

  “Aaaaahh……….What…..is…..this……gaaaaaaaaah?!”

  I spread my arms out, unable to move from the pain. The thorns wriggled and churned inside me, as if they were trying to break free.

  “GROOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!!”

  It had finished charging, and it seemed like it was about to release it, when the thorns broke free from my body.

  “!!!!”

  They shout out from every pore in my arms and legs and branch out like roots. Then, all of them stopped moving and converged right on the beast. They pierced right through its legs and torso, and it screamed in pain, canceling its attack.

  I could feel each individual thorn ravaging and rupturing its body, as it pierced its eyes and mouth, whipping back and forth like wild tentacles.

  “Aargh!!”

  Make it stop! Stop! STOP!

  The thorns stopped moving, and without me even doing anything, I could feel blood flowers blooming from the thorns all around its body.

  Within seconds, a large explosion of blood blew the monster into pieces, leaving no trace it was there in the first place besides a large splatter of blood on the floor. The thorns that had ravaged the beast so receded back into my body in the most uncomfortable way possible, and the immense pain I felt from earlier was gone.

  “Haah…..haaa…..blegh!”

  I threw up all over the floor where I was sitting, and continued to do so until there was nothing left in my stomach. My head was ringing, and the world was spinning, but I forced myself to stand up.

  “No.9….what did you do to me? How….did you even do that? That wasn’t just a voice command; you changed my illness into a weapon.”

  The pain I usually feel in my body has subsided completely. I could still feel the thorns, but they didn’t hurt and felt more like a brace. I couldn’t help but feel giddy as for the first time ever, I didn’t feel them scraping against my bones and muscles.

  Yet, the moment I felt excited, immense pain spread through my entire body again. The thorns were back and worse than ever.

  “Was it not strong enough?! Damn it, just when I had hope!” I yelled in pain as some of the thorns broke through my skin. I couldn’t help but fall to the ground as I hugged myself in pain.

  “Aaa….agh…..!”

  Why are they reacting to what she said so strongly?! What did she say again? Gain control?

  I thought for a moment about why they would react that way just from the words “Gain Control”. Maybe it’s because I somehow lost control of them? If it’s in my hands now, is it because I got excited?

  I tried to focus through the pain and calm down. Attempting to latch on to this foreign feeling of moving these thorns on my own, I willed them to recede. It didn’t work.

  “….C’mon!”

  I tried to empty my mind like when I train with my katana, and willed them to recede again. They didn’t go back, but they stopped bursting outward. I was getting somewhere. I kept my mind empty and tried to metaphysically grab the thorns and push them back. Once I did that, they slowly retreated back into my body and wrapped around my bones like a brace.

  “Haaagh……*gasp*……blech!”

  I slowly stood up, most of the pain going away as I started walking over to No.9.

  “You could’ve said a bit more to make it clearer,” I said, giving her a slight glare.

  “....”

  I got no response from No.9; she was unconscious and losing a lot of blood. I held my hand out and turned the blood that was leaking from her eyes and forehead into flowers that wouldn’t burst; this would stop any further bleeding.

  I had recovered from what had happened earlier due to all of the commands she shouted out earlier. Meaning even though she was unconscious, they were still in effect.

  Are they permanent now? What a powerful awakening!

  After stretching my shoulders slightly, I picked her up and hoisted her over my right shoulder. With my newfound strength, she was far lighter than before.

  “I still hate your guts, but without you, we would’ve both died here. You deserve to be free just as much as 963 and I.”

  The red tint in the room faded, most likely after sensing the beast was dead, and the door that no.1 walked through opened.

  I ran through the door, not wanting to waste a second longer in this place. There were no longer any lights in the hallways. I was running through pitch-darkness with no idea where this path led. I could only hope that there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

  Please! Please! I’m almost there, I can taste it!

  Soon enough, my prayers were answered and a dim light shone in the distance at the end of the hallway.

  “Is that moonlight?!”

  I increased my speed until I saw it, a small door in which from the cracks shown a light I had not seen for four years. I slid to a halt in front of the door, expecting a passcode lock, but there was no such thing. Only a lever with a red light shining above it obstructed my path.

  “Haaaaa…..pheeeeew.”

  With intense anticipation, I pulled the lever down, and with a hiss the door opened, spewing steam from all sides. Until finally, it opened completely, revealing the dazzling moonlight illuminating the dream I had pined for.

  “That took longer than expected. I should’ve brought a chair out if I knew we were going to be standing here for so long.”

  And right under that dazzling light were my last obstacles. With a cynical smile, holding a vastly different-looking pistol than before, with his swamp-green hair and fang-like teeth, stood No.1. He looked as if he was basking in the glory of putting us through all those hardships. Next to him, typing something on a tablet, was Dr. Verrat. Wearing a white lab coat and green sweater, with long gray hair and technicolor goggles.

  "You...always know the worst time to show up, don't you? You have a masters degree in ruining someone's day." I snarled, placing No.9 on the ground.

  "Yeah, and I didn't even have to study." He chuckled, twirling his pistol.