“Look, Old Man! Can I eat this lizard?”
“Hey, get your ass down here.”
“Wait, wait a minute, just a second…”
(He sure does like to be up in high places...)
“Hurry up. I'm taking you somewhere even higher today.”
“Oh wow ! This is AWESOME!”
Seeing his adopted son frolicking around, his foster father, Sol Badguy, let out a deep sigh.
(I shouldn't have brought him here...)
It was inevitable that he would be curious and excited about anything new to him at his age, but Sol, who did not like the loud noise, was quickly fed up with the child-like innocence of his son.
It had now been six months since he took in Sin, the son of an acquaintance, and began to raise him.
Today, they were visiting the famous floating nation of Zepp to collect a reward for their work. Bounty hunters by profession, both father and son traveled the world daily in search of new bounties — which sounded like good work but, in reality, it made them drifters. Their main targets were Gears, dangerous bio-weapons, but their populations had already dwindled to such an extent that it had become difficult for them to make a living on those bounties alone. Inevitably, the pair sometimes targeted common bounties. The other day, they happened to get tangled up with a gang of hoodlums, which was not by bad chance, but a lucky break for this father and his son. The relatively well-known gang was led by a criminal with a special bounty that the floating military state of Zepp was currently searching and offering a reward for. The two — though, really only one of them, as the other exercised too much self-preservation — managed to claim the prize without any effort at all.
"Amazing! It's really floating in the air! What's that?”
Sol hesitated as he looked at the child, who was both happy and sad to see this adventure come to an end. To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and unwanted suspicion, Sol decided not to take Sin to the bounty office.
“I'll go alone from here. Stay put and be quiet.”
"Huh? Why?! You're leaving me behind again!"
Sol tied the chain in his hand to a tree in the back alley and started walking. At the end of the chain was, of course, a collar. And of course, the collar was tied to Sin.This was a strategy devised by Sol, a former scientist, to control the ever-mobile Sin. Sin was extremely reluctant at first, but Sol's loving iron fist made him obedient.
While waiting for his adoptive father, Sin busied himself by rummaging around the diameter of the small area within his reach. Residents passing by giggled at the sight of Sin, who was still chained up and wearing a collar, but Sin didn't pay any attention to them. As Sin was taking a break from his rounds of scavenging, a group of three boys about his height surrounded him.
"What the hell is he doing? He's wearing a collar!"
The leader of the group, a boy, pointed at Sin and laughed at him. The two accompanying boys started to laugh as well.
“Oh! Come play with me!”
Sin, unable to read the situation, invited the boys to play with him. Perhaps because he spent all hours of the day with his foster father, who was far from his age, he rarely had the opportunity to interact with people closer to his own age, which was why he was so intrigued.
"What is he, stupid?"
“So, what do you do for fun?”
"Hey, don't get smart with me. What elementary school are you from?”
To the boys, Sin, an out-of-towner who was conspicuous in their territory, was an eyesore, and his innocent remark irritated the boys.
"Hey, say something! Don't ignore me!”
In a fit of anger, the boy who was the leader of the group grabbed Sin by the front of his shirt. Sin mistook the attack for "play." To Sin, who was used to seeing his foster father's inhuman movements on a regular basis and had continued to train himself in secret, the boy's movements appeared to be nothing more than an attempt at play.
"Hmm, that... What kind of game is this?”
The boys turned the tables on Sin's words.
“Cut the bullshit! Don't talk down to us!"
“Enough! Let's do it!"
The boys clenched their fists and surrounded him. At this stage, Sin finally realized that this was no "game.”
“You're wearing a hideous eyepatch. Are you trying to look cool?”
“Or are you covering up an infection or something?!”
One after another, the boys were shouting and reaching for Sin's eyepatch. A hand snatched Sin's eyepatch and shifted it for a moment, exposing the eye beneath through the gap.
“Don't… Don't touch me…”
Sin hurriedly covered his right eye with his hand. Already the pain was gone. But for Sin, it was forbidden. Whenever he touched his right eye, an abominable image that was burned in his mind came back to him like flickering images from a movie. Silently but surely, an uncontrollable anger welled up inside Sin.
“Wh- What the hell… was that?”
When the boys caught a glimpse of the appearance of Sin's right eye, they had a hunch that they had touched something dangerous that should not have been touched.
“Let's get going… This guy's eye is scary..."
The boys involuntarily backed away. Sin held his right eye, looked at the boys with his left eye, and leaned forward.
“Don't come any closer! You monster!”
The words were enough to make Sin's shrinking heart burst.
“U-UWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Sin roared with such force that the surrounding buildings creaked. Black lightning shot skyward from Sin's body as it erupted with arcs of released energy. The boys were directly hit by the shockwave and blown several meters backwards onto their behinds.
