#59 Asao's memories 3

-----(Asao's fragments of memories)-----

'Where am I?' Asao wondered when he found himself lying in an unfamiliar room.

It was pitch black room and the only visible thing was enormous metal doors with a fairly big stone monument in front of them.

Asao was slightly confused because he had no idea what was happening, the last thing he remembers is him going to sleep.

He got up from the floor and approached the doors and tried to open them, however, they didn't even budge.

Seeing this, Asao's expression didn't change a bit, he was already expecting that but he still wanted to try it. He went in front of the monument and started observing it.

'What are these characters?' Asao wondered when he saw unfamiliar characters craved into the stone monument.

There was only one thing he could understand and that was a craved image of sitting man in a cross-legged position.

He tried to imitate the image but nothing happened even after a long time. When he felt like he couldn't do anything else but helplessly wait, he suddenly woke up.

He looked around with a slightly surprised expression, he was still in his room.

'What was that?' Asao had a thoughtful expression on his face when he remembered the unfamiliar characters on the monument.

This was probably the third thing he became curious about. The first one was the candies, the second was the thing he received from Kazuki and the monument became the third.

...

As time passed by, Shiro became more and more greedy and expectant of Asao.

"Shiro, don't you think you are taking this too far? He is still a kid and his body is still developing. You can't increase the number of drugs, it's already a miracle that he is still alive!" Kazuki tried to talk to Shiro about his plans.

"Shut up, Kazuki. I can do whatever I want. As you said...it's a miracle that he is still alive so maybe he will show us another miracle. That man's project is apparently going really well. And if you think that I am too cruel then let me first tell you that man is far crueler than me. He even forced his own son to join his project, haha!" Shiro crazily laughed.

"But his project is much safer than ours..." Kazuki was a bit surprised after hearing that man even forced his son to join but he was still aware that man's project was much safer than this one. But that didn't change his disgust he felt towards that man.

'To strip his own child of its freedom...Is he doing this not to feel too guilty by forcing other kids while he sacrifices nothing? Or is he simply as greedy as Shiro? After all, if his own child were to successfully complete the project then that child would become an easy pawn to control.' Kazuki thought with a hand supporting his chin

"Yes...our project carries more danger, however, the results we can achieve with this project also correspond to the danger. This means that our project is ultimately better than his!" Shiro released a cold smile when he mentioned that man again.

"Prepare what I have asked for...I want him to undergo the training of martial arts while you are busy with preparing the materials." Shiro commanded and left without any worries or intention to hear Kazuki out.

*sigh* 'What should I do? Do I really want that kid to suffer even more or is it even possible for him to suffer more than now? I know that no matter what I will do now, my sins won't disappear.' Kazuki absent-mindedly stared at the palm of his hand.

...

Asao was forced to practice every day all kinds of martial arts, they also forced him to kill some chickens to make him more comfortable with seeing blood but that wasn't really necessary because the first time they came with a chicken and ordered him to kill it, he simply carried it out without thinking much about it.

Kazumi came into his room with another animal in his hands.

"Hi!" Kazuki greeted him with his usual gentle smile. By now, if it wasn't for his family difficulties, he would have already freed Asao and even adopted him, of course, if Asao gave his approval.

"Hello, am I requested to end that thing's life again?" Asao said without any shred of emotion in his voice and looked towards the small puppy in Kazuki's hands.

"What? No, no! I thought that you would welcome some company here so I brought this little guy with me. You aren't allowed to hurt him." Kazuki quickly explained with a panicked expression.

'I must do my best to make him at least feel something. If he will truly become emotionless he won't live for long before he will start having thoughts like 'I ended so many lives, I wonder how does it feel to die...' Most of the humans feel fulfilled when they feel love and when they also receive it back but there are also cases where the hatred is enough for them, although it doesn't sound comforting, he will at least feel something' Kazuki thought when he saw Asao's attitude towards the living things.

"I see..." Asao lightly nodded and curiously looked towards the puppy.

Kazuki saw his curiosity so he gave the puppy to him and Asao raised the puppy in quite a crude way to his eyes level but it still didn't hurt puppy at all. He just didn't know how to handle things in a gentle way.

However, when Kazuki saw this, he shook his head and showed him how to properly hold the puppy without it getting scared.

The puppy looked at Kazuki with a curiosity in its eyes, however, it didn't take long for it to start licking Asao all over his face while happily flapping its tail around.

Asao was extremely surprised by its action even though he didn't show it on his expression.

His lips slightly curved up even if it was only by 1mm, Kazuki was still able to notice that because he was already used to seeing his regular blank expression.

'Is that a smile?! This is the first time I have seen him smile!' Kazuki smiled and let Asao play with his new friend.

...

Whenever Kazuki visited Asao, he always brought the puppy with him, however, he wasn't able to let Asao keep him there. If Shiro somehow discovered that puppy, he wouldn't be happy. And Asao didn't mind it anyway so there was no problem.

However one day it all went horribly wrong.

"I have something to do now, can I let you keep him here for an hour before I come back?" Kazuki asked Asao because he had to go and do his regular job, collect some data and materials.

Asao just nodded at him with the snoring puppy in his hands.

After a 30 minutes, the door opened to his room and Asao raised his head, thinking that Kazuki returned but it was Shiro instead and when he noticed that his expression slightly changed.

When Shiro noticed the puppy in Asao's hands he became angry.

"What the hell is that thing doing here?! Kill it and throw it away right now!" Shiro shouted at Asao, waking up the puppy.

"I can't" Asao answered shortly with a calm expression.

"What do you mean, you can't?!" Shiro's face darkened when he heard his words so he used a threatening tone.

"This is Kazuki's pet. He asked me to take care of it for a while before he comes back." Asao said with a calm expression, he knew that if he just said that it was Kazuki's pet then Shiro wouldn't kill it, however, this would perhaps be his last time seeing his friend.

"Hmm? I see...give him to me. I will have to talk about this with Kazuki." Shiro's expression changed to normal when he heard Asao's reason for his disobedience. He crudely took the puppy by its neck and threw it out of Asao's room, however, he no longer cared about it. The puppy wanted to go back to Asao's room, however, when it saw Asao's threatening gaze, it stopped.

"Now...Why am I here...yeah, take this" Shiro turned back at Asao and handed him few pills, each of different colors.

He watched as Asao gulped down all of them and then he left the room.

When Asao recalled how Shiro crudely handled his friend, his expression didn't change nor his emotionless eyes changed a bit, however, there was something burning inside him.

He clutched his chest where he felt the burning sensation.

'What is it? I feel like I want to kill something.'