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 Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:54 pm
Basic Solo #3 & #4: 1,513 words
Sachio slammed the door to his father’s office behind him as he stormed down the hallway and down the front set of steps until he reached the front door, only stopping to grab his coat, before storming his way out of the house entirely.
As much as he hated to admit it, Sachio did have a flaw, and that was feeling inadequate because of not being able to meet his father’s impossible demands. His father was an old-school sort of Japanese man, meaning that Sachio would be punished severely for not meeting his father’s demands and being expected to follow his father’s every command. Sachio couldn’t stand it. If he got an A, his father would demand why Sachio hadn’t gotten an A+, even though the school didn’t award those. If he got a 99% his father would scream and demand for him to study even harder for the next test, because that just wasn’t good enough, never mind the fact that in America it was a lot easier to go to the right college, even if it was something like Harvard. They wouldn’t be scrutinizing every test, but look at the overall grade instead. His father just didn’t understand that though, which is why he demanded too much of his children.
Sachio’s sister had just been accepted to an out-of-town, out-of-state college that he and their mother had been preparing to sneak her too. Unfortunately, since his father was so old-fashioned, he also had been trying to set her up with a man to marry since she had graduate high-school and had demanded that she stop schooling immediately unless it was to find a husband. Women should only care about running the household and taking care of their husbands and children after all, never mind about what they may want. And what his sister wanted was to become a prosecutor, and for that to happen she had to go to college and then law school. She was determined, and the rest of the family had decided to ignore the patriarch’s wishes, which meant getting cut off from his money. Not fun, but livable. He didn’t realize that this wasn’t Japan, and so he had a lot less power and respect over here. Something he should have thought of before moving them all to America.
Which is why Sachio was storming out of the house, again, tonight, to cool his head. He had been in another heated argument with his father. Apparently, his father was under the idea that if he couldn’t see Sachio studying, that it wasn’t happening. Never mind the straight A’s that Sachio continually got and he was in no danger of losing. That didn’t matter to the patriarch and he had had another earful of screaming and yelling about how he was such a disappointing son and he was ruining the family name and his sister was SO much better, something that would be reversed when his sister was yelled at, at least the two siblings were on good terms to where they communicated what was going on.
He had desperately wanted to shout at the old man that he had other responsibilities now, no they weren’t just more miniature gardening or flirting with girls. But he had to bite his tongue. Even if he had been allowed to tell his father, his father never would have believed him and instead blamed him for not studying enough and not doing enough for the family. As if anyone cared about their name over here. Sure, his father was rich and owned a small but profitable company, but that didn’t mean he automatically gained respect from everyone else. Here in America, it only meant he was a good businessman.
So, instead of punching pillows tonight, Sachio had gone outside. It was getting colder these days, the temperature fluctuating quite a bit, but it was now staying between 30 and 50 degrees now, which meant it was at least somewhat predictable. Sachio wondered if his powered outfit would keep him protected from the cold. It didn’t seem to be too insulated, considering how easily he moved through it during the summer, but October hadn’t been that cold, which is when he had last powered up. And unfortunately, that ended up with him running from a bunch of man-eating spiders. Or at least he was pretty sure they were man-eating, after all he hadn’t seen any of them eat anyone else, but they sure did look hungry. And events such as that only helped to explain why there were such weird attacks that went on during events such as those, ones he had ignored before. And the explanation behind them only made it worse.
As he continued to walk, frown still marring his perfect face, he tried to calm himself down, it just wasn’t working. If he would just, ugh! Sachio thought as he scrunched his face up into a frown even more. His father was just impossible it seemed. Sachio often wanted to knock him out, strip him of everything but his clothes, and leave him in the middle of town, just so the old man might learn a thing or two about the real world, and it would be quite different from what he actually expected. Sachio was glad though that he held his tongue when he almost blurted out about being a senshi. After all, even if his father had believed him, he would only be yelled at more for not having already defeated the entire Negaverse yet.
Sachio would have powered up, but he knew he couldn’t be out for too long tonight. He did have to go back and actually study, he didn’t actually absorb all of the materials he needed to know through osmosis after all. But he knew after becoming a senshi of surgery what he actually wanted as a goal in life, and it wouldn’t be to follow in his father’s footsteps. As much as he hated to admit it, the idea of being a surgeon intrigued him, to the point where he had been researching it. He had yet to tell his father though, because although the old man would crow to everyone he knew that his son was going to be a big important and well-paid surgeon, in the background he would be berating Sachio for somehow not already have becoming one by the age of 18. Sachio rolled his eyes, and wondered what the heck kind of shows that his father was watching where it was actually possible for people to become top surgeons by that age. Genius didn’t make up for a lack of skill after all.
But that was what his father expected. It was always about what his father wanted, never about what may actually make his children happy. Why his mother had married such a man he didn’t know. After all, she was French, which made him and his sister half-French, half-Japanese, even if he didn’t look like that. There was no arranged marriage in-between them. Perhaps his father has just been a better person at the time, or his mother had ignored all of the red-flags, or maybe his father just hid his fanaticism of wanting to be the head of the household. He wasn’t sure, but either way, it wasn’t earning any favors with his children or with his wife, whom he barely even interacted with at this point.
Sachio and his sister had more of a relationship with her now than their father, and were eagerly awaiting the eventual divorce that was bound to happen. They were both pretty sure that their parents were only staying together because their mother couldn’t afford to move out just yet, and she was waiting for Sachio to graduate high school since she was the only thing between he and his father having complete and total control over them. Sachio had caught his mother sighing and looking at old pictures of the two of them together often, and although Sachio felt sorry for his mother, there just wasn’t any way that his father was going to change, unless perhaps some earth-shattering event happened, like an earth-shattering meteor or something.
At this point Sachio had managed to round the block and was already heading back towards the house. Too soon for him, but he had to go back eventually. I just want to make him understand… He often told himself that, feeling tears beginning to form. He hated to admit it, but he still loved his father, even if the man was abusive. But what could he do? He had wanted to throw his father into therapy so many times, just to see what was going on, what had changed, why was he doing this? He knew that his mother hadn’t expected this sort of change, and it had only happened once Sachio had been born, so his sister got to witness the change too, which is probably why she was on Sachio’s side so much since their father also now treated her differently too.
Just what happened to him?
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Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 7:15 pm
Super Solo #1: 524 words
Sachio opened his textbook dreading the next few hours that he had to study. Sure, he had gotten into college early, but that was to get away from his parents. And yes, he was a pre-med student, but that didn’t mean that he liked all of the work. Even if he had done well in high school and had done everything that was asked of him and more by the teachers, pre-med was still so much worse in comparison to workload. He often wondered how others did it. Sure, he was going into a highly competitive field and one that would be very stressful, but the need to do it was what mattered. It was the getting to it part that was hard.
He sighed and looked out of his apartment window at the snow that was falling. He was tired of it. He was tired of the snow and the cold and being stuck inside so much. At least it gave him an excuse to study more since he couldn’t go out as much, but still it was starting to get a little ridiculous. So many times, he had wanted to go out and just punch an agent or a youma or something. And he had been at that weird circus recently too. From what he had been told by others who had been at the previous… “incident” it was about the same. Unable to tell who who was who and what life was real and whatnot leading to some big reveal by some General that they had to punch down and kill.
It didn’t satisfy him as a senshi though. He felt as though there were so many senshi that he didn’t need to patrol that much and yet when incidents such as the circus thing happened, that there weren’t enough senshi. Why hadn’t there been more? Why didn’t any of them notice that their fellow senshi and knights were trapped in some weird circus thing, even if it was only for the night?
They were so… disconnected. And the only senshi he felt close to, the one he was trying to figure out if he wanted to ask to be his “girlfriend” was just as lost as he was. He felt… inadequate, even if he was a super senshi now.
He shook his head. That was not what he was supposed to be thinking about right now. Right now, he was supposed to be focused on studying all of this pre-med and other class stuff. It was starting to become so routine to him considering that when he got bored he would actually go and study. A far cry from focusing on miniature zen gardens. But what could one expect when all that was out there was cold, snow, and ice? He certainly didn’t want to deal with going to the stores out in this weather and always put it off as much as possible. That and he didn’t have the money at this point to go and spend it on small frivolous things. His scholarship only covered so much. And now he got to experience the joy of student loans.
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Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 7:05 pm
Super Solo #2: 605 words
The electricity flittered on and off in certain parts of the meteor. Kami had gone to check it out. The first time… going alone. He had gone before with EunKyung, discovering much of the meteor and the parts inside. It hadn’t been enough though. He had wanted to find more. But since that day he had been busy, the school work becoming unforgiving of those who wanted to have a life outside of it. And this was just Undergraduate! He couldn’t imagine getting a Graduate degree let alone getting into Med School! But he would make it, he knew he would. And with his stellar grades he had been given a scholarship and knew that he wouldn’t have to pay too much for his education.
For now, at least.
That wasn’t why he was here though. He had wanted to find out more about his “Homeworld”. Though in comparison to others, it seemed to be more of a “Homecountry” or something quite a bit smaller than an entire “world”. It was his though and he was here to discover as many secrets as he could.
He had heard from others though that he wouldn’t be able to read anything. There would be no understanding of the previous language that the old inhabitants of the meteor used. Still he hoped to find something that would help him to understand… whatever they were and what this place was used for.
From the inside though, it looked much like a hospital but much more advanced. Everything in pristine condition, not even dust having settled on anything, and he wondered if it had been completely sealed from anything that could dirty it. Though from what he could tell, his “people” had been meticulous about cleanliness, which he couldn’t blame them for. After being told and reading about all of the horror stories that plagued many of the hospitals and other medical buildings on Earth, he wasn’t surprised that they would make sure to keep their environment as sterile as possible. He was sure that they wouldn’t have wanted to have a reputation of infection or disease wandering the hallways.
Still, it was eerie. There was no one. As though they had been wiped out in an instance, much like the Thanos Snap from the Avengers, only instead of half of them, it was all of them. It made him wonder just what exactly had happened to cause all life to cease to exist from the Universe so many years ago.
It disturbed him.
But, he couldn’t figure it out on his own. And each Senshi and Knight were also trying to find their own ways. It would be different if they could recruit more, let more people in so at least some of them could concentrate on other things besides fighting and rescuing people. The fact that they couldn’t do either of the latter two at this point though made it… well sad. Most likely in his lifetime they wouldn’t find out what had happened, wouldn’t be able to solve the mysteries. He could only hope, then, that he would be reincarnated once more. Perhaps on another planet that had living beings on it. Earth wouldn’t last, but did that really mean that all hope was lost? Was there nothing else out there?
Were they truly alone in the universe?
A disturbing thought and one he did not want to linger on. He stopped in front of a door that led to a larger room, one he hadn’t been in before and held his hand above the hand scanner, to prove that he was truly the Senshi of Takamizawa…
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 8:35 pm
Super Solos #7-12: 3,225 words
Takamizawa wasn't sure what had caused him to snap but something in him had caused him to decide not to study like he should have. He had been studying for so long and hadn't powered up during that time and he needed to take a break from it all. And it was this that had caused him to decide to explore his homeworld for longer than he had ever done so before. He of course had gone with his girlfriend the first time around and had gone by himself a few times afterwards, but he had never gone any deeper than the second level. part of that was because of the inability to open the door at those times and frankly he hadn't wanted to open the door.
Even though he had bragged about his home world too others that he had met he was still too afraid to go and explore any further. He had often compared it to bioshock, at least the third game, and in all honesty, he was scared to go back. He had yet to find a way to turn the electricity back on but this time he wanted to try or at least he wanted to try getting past the second level. He did not inform anyone that he was going and of course he wouldn't be skipping classes to do so but he had to go he felt in his heart that he needed to find more of a connection to his home world than he had before.
he left a note in his apartment in case Eunkyung wandered over in wanted to know where he was. He couldn't bring her this time he needed to do this on his own and nothing was going to stop him. Besides he needed a break from studying.
He brought along all that he needed or at least thought that he needed to bring along. That included a flashlight and various snacks and also a blanket and some water he wouldn't be gone for too long of course but he would be gone long enough to where he might even stay overnight for the first time. Soon enough he found himself powered up and clicking on the button to his homeworld and soon he found himself standing on the platform close in front of the doors that he had seen on so many previous occasions but still felt dread when looking at them.
With a sigh he found himself opening the doors once again with his powers. He left the doors open for the light that came through them but in front of him laid an empty hallway with no lighting and darkness. He felt a shiver run down his spine and once again the feeling of something being there overwhelmed him. He knew that most likely there wasn't anything here no living souls no animals no plant life everything had been wiped out at some point but if experience had taught him anything it's that creepy space hospitals that had been abandoned usually were abandoned for a reason. He just hoped that this one wasn't alive anymore.
It took him a couple of minutes to wander through the couple of halls that he could get through someone struggling to get to the second floor going downwards since the stairs weren't quite stable but eventually, he found himself at the doors once again that he assumed lead him to the next floor down. Even if there was no electricity, he knew that he could open the doors just by putting his hand over the symbol in front of them. Perhaps at some point this had been the main way for the various inhabitants or workers of the comet to get through certain doors that they needed access to. He had yet to find anything that told him of what the inhabitants of his homeworld may have looked like before, but he hoped that he would eventually. He had no doubt that they most likely did not look like humans after all he doubted that most of the universe actually looked like the humans of earth even if apparently the princesses of the so planets of the solar system, we're humans and everyone who was reincarnated were also humans. That didn't really matter to him he just hoped that eventually he'd be able to learn more about them.
With another sigh and a determined I he held his hand in front of the doorway where he assumed that some sort of keypad or hand recognition software or perhaps power recognition software was and slowly the doors opened up and once again there was darkness in front of him. He stood there for a moment making sure that he couldn't hear anything inside of there and that nothing was going to suddenly come out and attack him and possibly kill him and after that moment he realized that there was just silence. Silence like there had always been. It unnerved him. It was why he often brought some sort of music player with him when he was digging around to see what he could find if anything because he couldn't stand the pure silence. If he could just get the electricity or whatever power source there was to run perhaps then there would at least be some sort of noise. Perhaps this trip would be the one where he found it? Either way, he wanted to come out of this feeling like he had actually accomplished something versus… well the nothing that he usually came back with. Sure, he had seen the books, and while they were helpful, sometimes even using them to help with his own studies on Earth! that didn’t mean that he had actually learned anything about his Homeworld. It was a place that conducted surgeries and… well that was about it. Something that anyone could guess just by learning that he was the Senshi of such a place.
He moved the flashlight around, making his way through slowly. Even if he didn’t hear anything, he was still incredibly creeped out by the place and was just making sure there weren’t any aliens silently lurking on the walls, waiting to lunge out and bite his throat and such his blood or something when they had a light shine on them.
He passed more rooms. Most of them appeared to either be operational rooms, preparation rooms, or rooms for patients to rest in after their surgeries. He hadn’t seen these before and was surprised that they were quite mixed on this floor, but that still didn’t tell him much of anything, nor did it lead to what he really wanted to find, the power supply. “If it’s a comet, then usually it would be freezing… but to get energy they would need heat, and there don’t appear to be anything that looks like solar panels…” He muttered to himself as he pressed on, growing a bit more annoyed. Of course, the comet was huge, and he could spend days or even weeks trying to explore all of it at once, but that wouldn’t have been helpful. And eventually he would need to start taking notes on where everything was.
On the walls there appeared to be some maps, perhaps ways of telling which room was which and what the floor did, but other than perhaps some colors and symbols that he would have to try and more accurately determine later, they were largely unreadable by him. What he really wanted was some sort of map that could tell him where the power was, or perhaps just some blue-print like map that would show him the entire makeup of the comet. He assumed that would be in some sort of library somewhere, but he had yet to find one. Perhaps it was buried more deeply so that it would be harder to access? Or, he supposed, everything was digitized somehow and the only way to see it would be to get the power back on in the first place. It was like playing a video game, but usually someone would have a guide on how to find it so that he wouldn’t have to do all of the work.
He didn’t mind getting to explore and learn about the place, but he found that he never really had time to go here and truly learn about it. He only had a few hours here and there, and perhaps a couple of days, but other than that he always had to go back to Earth and continue his studies.
It bothered him. A lot more than he was willing to admit to other people, even ones that he could consider friends at this point. He knew that being a surgeon would make his life extremely busy and he hadn’t even powered up in… was it a year or something at this point? How long had it been?
Too long.
And while he knew that others usually took breaks, he was sure it was because of something that they would eventually get over. Moving, studying a bit more than normal, work needing a few more hours, but what he was doing? A pre-med student, then a med student, then a Doctor, then a surgeon? And after that? Working. So much working. Even if he did specialize in a certain type of surgery, specialists were needed even more than just general practitioners. He would most likely be on-call 24/7 until he just couldn’t do it anymore or quit.
When would he actually be able to help save the world? To be a Senshi? To save people from a threat that they didn’t even know existed? Would he ever be able to?
It was these thoughts that usually haunted his mind when he was studying and when this happened, he found himself wanting to throw all of it out and abandon it and move onto something easier. Most other Senshi didn’t go around doing what their powers were about. It’s not like the Senshi of Strawberries became a professional Strawberry farmer… he assumed. It’s not as though Athalia suddenly got interested in Hercules Beetles and decided to study those for the rest of his life.
So why did Kami feel the need to go into surgery anyway? To go into medicine? To go into a career that was so taxing on a person that they usually retired at a much earlier age? Was it his own selfish desire to be seen as the best? Or was it… because he felt so disconnected from his Homeworld and powers that he felt he needed to learn about it in some other way. To be useful to the other Senshi and Knights that he could, at the very least, call his comrades? He hated to admit it to himself, but it was most likely that. He felt as though he was pretty useless on his own and wanted to make up for that by learning something more useful that he could use to help others. Even his powers weren’t centered around surgery, he was sure that he would still feel this way.
And with that thought in mind, he continued. He would get something out of this trip. Whether it was finding some new book or being able to fix anything on his Homeworld, he was going to do it!
It was about an hour later and Kami found that the darkness was starting to irritate him. He couldn’t understand it. He was sure that the building had windows. It looked as though they were sealed shut for some reason. He couldn’t tell if that was because they were all broken and to keep the air inside or if it was something else. But if he needed something to be second on his list, it would be finally getting those up and seeing the universe rush past as the comet made it’s way around.
He was starting to feel a bit burned out by yet again coming to his abandoned Homeworld and having gained nothing and the thought crossed his mind to go back to the surface and at least eat a snack before he continued, but at the end of the hallway, behind another door, there was yet another staircase but… this time it appeared that there was a door on the other side. He hadn’t seen anything like it before, and he was sure that there was more to this third floor behind it. After all, both the first and second floors seemed to cross forever, and Kami had often found himself having spent an hour just traveling from one end to the other.
This floor appeared to only take half of the time, so he assumed that either he had walked quickly through it or he was about halfway through and the other side led to something else, something more significant. And he wanted to see it. Whatever it was. Hopefully not alive.
He opened the next door and… more hallway. But shining his light into it and moving it around, he could tell that there was something in the end of this small hallway, a larger room? Perhaps even the power supply? Kami hadn’t felt this excited about anything in a while! At least something besides getting his exams over and done with and the ensuing weekend-long sleep that tended to follow. He felt himself running towards it, almost tripping as he ran into the room. This was definitely something! There was a large object in the middle of it, what appeared to be screens and perhaps whatever the inhabitants used to control the screens or machinery around… but he didn’t spot anything that would help him just yet. It was a large room. Completely dark. And he only had his flashlight to help him see through the darkness. He wondered if the inhabitants before him could either see in the dark or even really needed to see light. Maybe they had heat-vision? It would have to be explored later, Kami had a goal in mind, and he wanted to at least come back with or start something useful!
Another hour had gone by and he didn’t find anything. He could have sworn that he looked in every nook and cranny that the room offered him. Perhaps this was the room where the main generator was, but it was somewhere else that contained whatever it was needed to turn it on? Of course, there appeared to be wires coming from the ceiling and going into the floor, but he thought that may have been from transferring power to the rest of the comet. So, what was going on here? Was this even the generator?
He took another look around the room with his flashlight and something caught his eye. He wasn’t sure how he had missed it the first time, but sitting on one of the tables there appeared to be… crystals? He wandered over to them and keeping his hands gloved he touched one of them. It felt a bit cold and they appeared to be translucent. They were scattered about on the table, as though whomever had been looking at them last had just up and left. There appeared to be some drawers below them and shining his light on the door, it appeared to be locked. Touching it he could feel his hand freezing and as soon as he could react took it off.
“Looks like we’re finally getting somewhere…” He muttered to himself as he tried to figure out how to open the drawer without freezing his hand off. Near where the crystals lay there appeared to be some sort of cloth. He assumed that it might be used to open the drawer and using it found that it protected his hand quite well. It did not protect his face from the icy blast that followed opening the drawer, which looked a lot more like a freezer at this point, and Kami could feel himself falling backwards and hitting the ground as he hoped that his face was permanently frozen into one position now.
After a few moments, and realizing that he could feel his face again, he wandered back over to the freezer, making sure to keep his face away, and he could see more crystals. These did not appear to be in any sort of order or cut, with some of them appearing to be broken. Freezing, but broken. He knew that comets were made of ice and dust, so most likely these were created naturally from the comet, perhaps when it passed near the sun, but what did they use them for? These were different as well. These frozen ones appeared to give off some sort of light, or at least they appeared opaque rather than translucent like the ones on the desk.
Using the cloth, he picked one up and looked around for a place to put it. On the same desk there appeared to be some sort of device with something sticking out of the side that looked like it would fit the crystal perfectly. Carefully he managed to put the crystal in, and it fit quite well despite being partially broken. He then pushed the now crystal-filled container into the side of the machine and immediately it started to hum and turned on? It produced quite a bit of light and Kami had to let his eyes adjust before he could see again.
When he could though, it appeared that the device was one and was now doing… something. He was pretty sure it wouldn’t be too dangerous as there didn’t appear to be any protective gear laying around. The machine continued to hum for a few moments before it opened in the front and a few vials of what were most likely samples came out, unfortunately having been so old that they appeared to be just brown mush. The machine continued to hum and appeared to be waiting for it’s next sample, but that was not to be. Not at this time. Learning just this though was worth it.
Whatever these crystals were, most likely part of the comet, they were what was used to create the energy needed to get this place up and running. The smaller crystals he assumed were for smaller machines and he would have to see how long they lasted. In the few minutes since he had put this one in, and closed the fridge, it was still going strong, but how long would it last? At least he could use this as an excuse to spend a night here. If it was still on by morning, then clearly these crystals lasted for a long time. But he would need to find a bigger one to be able to power the rest of the comet. An assumption, but one that would most likely prove correct.
Still, he was now able to actually enjoy being on his Homeworld, now that he felt like he had done something of use, not just studying to understand human anatomy. In the next few hours, he would try to find something that would be more powerful than his flashlight to carry around so that he could study more of the comet. His next trip could be the one to find the main power source.
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