10 - Cleaning And Cleansing

[PRAGUE]

“Well then...”

“They truly do want the war, do they not?”

Aizawa smiled to herself.

“Then so be it.”

The two remaining Nachtvessels stood behind her. She stood by the entrance of one of the castles, gazing at the horizon that appeared to be shrouded in darkness, trying desperately to be saved by the moonlight. The city wasn’t too far away from the castle, and yet, it would soon fall completely under control.

“Beta, Gamma.” Aizawa began. “Do you see these flocks of people leaving the city?”

“Yes.” They both nodded.

“Your task is as follows.” Aizawa continued. “You will locate the soulfuls among them, neutralize them, and bring them to me. Make sure they are alive. I will need some foot soldiers for the upcoming disaster. Do not use your soul expressions and avoid being detected. The last thing I want is for the Heisei to get information on me.”

“Understood.” They both leapt forward. The man headed deeper into the right side, and the girl took the left side.

“And you...” Aizawa said, looking back at Oskar. Oskar had the same uniform as the other two - dark, toughly reinforced combat clothes with utilities such as knives or even a handgun present. His look was absolutely devastating - it felt like his eyes were full of complete void. There wasn’t a single coherent thought inside his head - only instructions that he had to live by, only orders he had to obey.

As disgusting as it was, the Black Book was a marvel.

“You will do the same.” Aizawa smiled. “I want you to show me what you’re capable of. I want to know that you’re not only a good bait, but a good investment. So go on, make me proud. Nachtvessel Omega.”

“Understood.” Oskar said, even his voice sounded dead. He sprinted forward.

“Now then.” Aizawa said, heading to the city, albeit much slower than the other two which were in a rush. “Let’s prepare the battlefield.”

...

“Ugh, why do you think they’re making us evacuate?”

“You don’t know? There’s gonna be a war soon. A war between soulfuls...”

“Do we need another one? What, first it was normal people against them, and now they decide to kill each other?”

“Dad, don’t say it like that-”

“These damn soulfuls...I said it back then, and I’ll say it now. The world would be better off without them!”

The father felt a sharp object pierce his chest. Of course, since he wasn’t a soulful, the attack killed him instantly. Gamma, standing behind him, revealed herself, and without breaking a sweat, massacred the rest of the family, all except one. The younger man that tried to convince his father that spewing out extremist takes outside isn’t really a good thing.

“W-w...why? Why?!” The young man, enraged, rushed at the girl. She struck him in the jaw and knocked him out.

She grabbed his limp body, put it over her shoulder, and carried it along. She jumped up on the top of a nearby building and catapulted herself from roof to roof, until she finally descended. Her target was an older woman that was waiting in line at a grocery shop.

“What are you gathering here for? Get out, all of you!” The shop owner said from the inside, holding onto the locked doors. “Get out! Get lost!”

“You dirtbag, you promised you’d sell me canned food!” One of the men in the crowd yelled. “We need to eat that! There’s a fucking war going on!”

“You said you’re loyal to the city, didn’t you?” The woman said, knocking on the glass doors. “Where’s that loyalty now?!”

“I need food too!” The shop owner yelled back. “I’ll call the police if you don’t leave!”

“What police? There’s a war situation-” The man said, until suddenly, he was too shocked to even speak. He saw something sharp and red impale the shopkeeper’s head. But unfortunately for him, nobody cared that he died, except those who weren’t yet desensitized by the concept of death.

They ran over him, breaking through the doors, and began a human catastrophe. They all rushed at the food aisles and took as much as they could. They pushed each other, grabbed cans and boxes from each other, stole, argued, and fought. They fought each other as if they held lifelong hatred against them.

Gamma entered the store. The older woman couldn’t get her hands on anything major, only a can of tuna, and she was, in fact, trying to fight someone over it. Gamma grabbed the woman and pulled her back. But she felt some sort of resistance.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!” The younger woman grabbing onto the can yelled. “This ugly hag stole my food! Stop defending her!”

A red liquid shaped like a slicing tentacle exited Gamma’s palm. It decapitated the woman and accidentally killed a few of the other hoarders in the shop. Even that was not enough for some of them to stop, but most of them began screaming in terror. The older woman looked back at Gamma with fear, and a second later, was also knocked out.

An hour had passed. On the other side of the city, Beta was doing more or less the same. He had slightly more carrying capacity thanks to his larger frame, and he had the same amount of regard for what he would do to whatever would be an obstacle. He remotely destroyed vehicles full of people with slashes, cars, buses, even bicycles. He started amassing heaps upon heaps of unconscious people on his left shoulder, and used his right shoulder to actually do the capturing.

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“Oi, what the hell are you waiting for?!” A man in his car said, slamming the steering wheel and signaling. “Drive!”

“There’s no movement in front of me, dickhead!” The driver in front of him replied, leaning out of the window.

“Then make some movement!” He yelled back. He felt something go horribly, horribly wrong. He looked at his side mirror and saw the car behind him get cleaved into multiple parts. He saw a soulful approach it and start killing the people inside it. He saw it punch a younger man unconscious and grab him on his shoulder.

“Fuck...fuck!” He yelled, hitting the gas pedal as hard as possible, driving the card into the sidewalk, scratching the car in front of him, and eventually driving into a tall iron lamp post.

Beta didn’t say a thing, he reached into the passenger seat of another car, banged the head of a man in a suit against the front seat, and grabbed him to go.

One by one, the bodies were delivered to Aizawa herself. She had her divine acclamation active to quickly take care of the bodies and convert them into soldiers and servants. She could see destructive bolts of electricity being fired in the distance, destroying buildings upon buildings.

“He’s quite eager to wave his soul prowess around.” Aizawa smirked to herself. “He’ll be even useful when pitted against the rest of the Heisei.”

She touched the bodies’ foreheads one by one. She held the Black Book in one of her hands, and used the other hand to reprogram humans. Once that batch was done, Beta and Gamma returned deeper into the city to look for more. She was left alone for a few moments, and she flipped back to the first pages of the book, the ones that still had all those entries on it.

And suddenly, she saw Oskar come to him, holding a girl.

“Good job.” Aizawa said. Oskar dropped the girl on her knees, but to Aizawa’s surprise, she was still awake.

“P-please...” The girl begged. “Don’t k-k-kill me. Please...”

“Oh?” Aizawa asked, approaching her, towering over her frame. “Did he forget to put you to sleep?”

“Please...don’t kill me...” The girl pleaded.

“I’m not going to kill you.” Aizawa smiled. “Hey, what is your name?”

“Mara...it’s Mara...” The girl said, tearing up. “My...my dad got killed...please, don’t...k-kill me...”

“It’s okay, Mara.” Aizawa said, kneeling down. “It’s okay. Everything is okay.”

“I...I’m scared...” Mara said. She was seventeen at best, but looked pretty short for her age. She was genuinely shaken to her core. “Why...”

“You are a soulful, Mara.” Aizawa said, gently placing her hand on Mara’s forehead and patting her. She looked like a mother comforting her own child. “Did you know that?”

“Yes...” Mara said. She turned around and pointed at Oskar. “He punched my dad, and I don’t think he’s...he wasn’t conscious anymore.”

“I think he is.” Aizawa said. “I don’t think that he punched him with enough strength to kill him. Say, Mara...”

“That face of hers...”

“It reminds me of her.”

“Who are you?” Mara asked, tears slowly running down her face. “You’re...a soulful, right? Who...are you? Why did you bring me here? Why did you attack my dad?!”

“The world is a very complex place.” Aizawa replied. “I am the soulful trying to rid humanity of its greatest imperfection.”

“What...?”

“Mara, it’s a very difficult thing to explain.” Aizawa said. “There are many bad things inside of a human. Humans do very bad things based on those things. They hurt each other, they kill each other, they betray each other for personal gain. It is no longer a case of bad apples, it is a case of a rotted tree. Do you understand me?”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“The complexity of the human-”

“I said, what does it have to do with me?!” Mara yelled. Aizawa smiled in response, never letting go of her heartless smile.

“You want to see your father again, correct? And your friends, your lover. Do you want to see them in a flawless world?” Aizawa asked. “Hm, Mara?”

“I want to see him again...”

“Then I’ll help you do so.” Aizawa said. “Once you agree to help me, that is.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Do you keep a diary?” Aizawa asked. “When I was in school, a lot of children in my class used to keep their diaries where they wrote about themselves. Their memories, their feelings, their problems, their everything. I didn’t need one because I never forgot anything. Do you have something like that?”

“No...” Mara said, saddened. “They don’t really have them anymore, but...I can keep one if it means everything will be okay-”

“Oh, but you do. You have one. You have a diary that contains only the truth.” Aizawa said. “A book with no lies, no editing. You will let me access that book.”

“Okay...” Mara nodded.

“And you’ll allow me to wipe it clean from all the useless things.” Aizawa’s smile grew. ”You’ll allow me to use the pages for a cause that truly matters.”

“Complete Memory Erasure.”

“You love your dad. You also love white chocolate. You don’t like doing your hair every morning, but you do it anyway because you want someone in your class to pay attention to you. You’re shy. You swim and you used to play guitar, but now you’re rusty. You like modern music and you don’t like mushrooms. You like camping. You have average grades, your best school grade is biology. You wanted to be a doctor because you liked helping people, especially your dad.”

“Memory Injection.”

“You will be a loyal soldier of the Servata Cordis. You will obey any and all commands of the Servata Cordis. You will have absolute obedience to the Servata Cordis. You will not think for yourself. You will only act.”

The girl, who, a few seconds away, was a little limp, now regained her composure. Her tears were long gone, and she stood up right. And Oskar watched, having absolutely no reaction whatsoever.

“You, take this, and bring me more soulfuls. Incapacitate them if needed. Protect yourself.” Aizawa said, reaching into a small wooden box next to her and handing the girl a handgun. She grabbed it, loaded it and went away.

And it was like this with dozens of other soulfuls. Over time, Aizawa’s manpower increased by tens, reaching a hundred or so by the end of that wicked conscription of hers.

“Good job, Oskar Weber.” She told Oskar. The latter only nodded a little. Bombs began going off in the city in response to the terror, the people declared that they’d prefer leaving nothing to the soulful scum in charge. Aizawa was attracted by one of the explosions, so she went there.

She saw a small rally there. There were a hundred or so people walking through the street, chanting against the soulfuls. Men, women, children, elderly, healthy and sick, every type of person was there. They began chanting the slogans used in America to support the anti-soulful cause. They had initially disliked soulfuls, they hated them even more after the world was placed in the hands of a soulful, and their hatred reached its apotheosis once they heard they had to leave home because of the very same soulfuls. They just wished life was back to being normal.

“Do you hate me?” Aizawa smiled at the crowd. “Do you not know what my cause is? It helps you more than anything else.”

“Get out, you filthy soulful scum!” A protester yelled, throwing a bottle of water at Aizawa. She kept smiling.

“These human decisions...this corruption of the perfect beehive...”

“How pathetic.” She thought. She summoned her blades and massacred every single one of the protestors with no hesitation whatsoever.