Circulorum in aqua

I awoke in a room that was smaller than my own. Yet all things within it seemed familiar, as I sat upright leaning against the wall , it all came back, the countless hours, days, months and years I spent training with 717 in the outskirts of the womb where shallow waters never run dry.

I got up and walked to the bathroom mirror, there was no door separating the bathroom and living room , it was just one room in fact, but I liked to tell myself that they were two separate rooms , just without walls separating them.

I looked at the mirror , the bangs of my bob cut were getting too long.

“Aren't you growing old 545” inspecting my whiskers , which I proceeded to shave as I normally do every day , 

“And now one half of the world's greatest fighting duo can look handsome” I said to myself while laughing alone.

I washed my face and wiped it down with a cloth before getting dressed.

My blue and grey uniform , my flat brown shoes, and with  a glance at the room, I was out the door , leaving it open , the taskmasters can tend to that. 

I began walking through the narrow bunker passages that run underneath the womb, they were lit with red LEDs , narrow and a bit dark, not that it affected me since I could always just use yen reinforcement to increase the light in my eyes and see beyond clearly in the dark. I saw a taskmaster ahead of me. I recognized him as one of the taskmasters who used to beat 263 back when we were younger.

 He walked past me , I can't explain it but as he walked past me…it was as if he blew a wind of…of…what I can only describe as the very essence of pure concentrated hatred , my eyes reinforced themselves with yen ,I turned around and in a billionth of a second filled his skin pores with my yen. 

BOOM! 

I detonated my yen , and was left standing in a blood splatter filled passage , drenched in his blood…I'm breathing heavily, I walked onwards , the other taskmasters heard the bang and I sensed them coming , but by the time the speed of sound was available, I was already long gone.

I went to the communal showers , I bathed , burned my clothes and changed. I was late for a meeting with 717. I rushed through the passages and through mother as well as the central building’s upper levels all whilst manipulating the space between the shower room and boardroom. By bending space bit by bit with yen and the space at hand I could essentially make a single step of mine, worth a million miles. 

A nifty trick 717 taught me. 

“I'm not late” I said as I adjusted the sleeves of my white suit as I appeared before 717.

“Actually you're a tenth of a second late , and your technique has gotten sloppy , you need to practice more.” 717 said to me in a serious tone as he walked towards a chair on the giant brown round table and sat in it.

“Where's everyone else then?” I asked him,

“Who said there'll be anyone but us?” He responded by asking a question to my already present , pressing and existing question.

“What do you mean?” I asked him as I sat in the seat next to him on his right.

“We're going to the world , well ,the world before this one” he said in a somber tone.

“Isn't that suicide?” I asked him with shock and fear in my voice, 

“And that's why they sent us ding ding…” he said sarcastically in a melancholic tone…

“How many troops are we taking with us?” I asked.

“We're each allowed a delegation of five thousand men” He said

“Will 263 be joining, if so I wish to retract her from the war” I said to him in a serious tone.

“263? You mean 236?” He said with great confusion in his voice , 

“No I mean 263” I said to clarify his confusion.

“No I'm not aware of that subject number being in either one of our delegations , 236 was on the list but for some reason I only hear about her , never seen her.” He said as he got up and began walking to the door . I didn't care about that , I don't know any 236.

“Where are you heading to?” I asked him 

“To prepare , we leave in five hours” he said as he walked out the door.

“A whole five hours , look at us getting ample time” I sarcastically said with a chuckle alone in the boardroom. I could sense the taskmasters cleaning the mess I had made in the underground passage , father heard it, father felt it , ik it.

In a moment my thoughts were paused as a vision appeared before my eyes…

“Zero zero zero, why are you a child again…” I asked the young zero zero zero before me. Just then I snapped back into reality. The empty boardroom, 

“Where the hell are you!?” I said in frustration as I hit the round wooden boardroom table with a clenched fist.

After a while of weeping I left the boardroom. There was no need to bend space , nor was there a need to rush. I walked to the centre of Mother , where there’s one of the most closely guarded secrets in all of the Womb, the gate to the world. I simply used yen reinforcement to move faster than the literal army of soldiers at the gates could perceive, passing by them without them ever seeing a single thing. To me it was as if they were all frozen in motion, unable to see, feel or even hear me. I casually walked through their doors , closed them behind me so as to not leave behind any signs of my presence, walking past the frozen guards, taskmasters , and even subjects being made to clean and dust machinery in the vicinity.

The hallways were so full of people , but eventually I made my way through and reached the solid yen reinforced steel double doors, as I had done numerous times , I simply just relaxed my body and disintegrated my body through the door, then regathered myself into my prior form by using yen linked to my consciousness to pull myself together. There's darkness and silence for a bit , but as my ears and eyes form along with the rest of my body and clothes , slowly my senses begin to re-manifest. After awhile I began breathing again , and eventually opened my eyes , I saw her , waiting for me of all people.

“You know having to wait for you to phase through the door is like watching paint dry.” 

263 said visibly irritated by the time she had to wait for me to regain consciousness. 

“You know we're moving so fast a second feels like a whole day to us at this point right?” I said to 263 to ease her mind , 

“Realistically even if I take a year , it'll only be a few minutes you know” I continued saying .

“You're such a know it all sometimes I swear” she said with a gorgeous shrug as she turned to the giant rectangle shaped gate.

“So we going or not” she said after I asked to stand next to her.

“Yeah” I said as I raised my hand , then filled the gate with yen , and a bright yellow and white barrier appeared before us. I turned my head and looked at her, she smiled , I smiled back at her adorable face. I held her hand , and she responded by squeezing my hand back. We both stepped through the gate.

Blinding light blinded us as we walked into an alleyway between two tall skyscrapers, because I was holding her hand, 263 was moving at the same speed that I was moving at , but she soon let go of my hand and began using her own yen . 

“Won't you run out soon?” I asked 263,

“Eventually” she said, turning back to me as she walked for a few steps and stopped In front of me.

I remained silent, because I knew that her application of yen was not only one of the most impressive, but one of the most draining. She can write things in and out of the fabric of space itself , an application without equal , something one can only be born with…an Ikari, if she runs out of yen , her brain sleeps , and therefore she stops imagining herself and therefore she'll cease to exist. What a cruel fate for such power.

She turned back and looked at me ,

“C'mon 545, let's go see the world of the living” she said.

I simply followed her , everyone here was basically frozen to us , we walked into a street, there was a hotdog stand, something non existent in the Womb. 

“Hey, remember the first time we were deployed here?” I asked her as she stood there observing the fat man behind the grill,

“How could I , we were told to hunt down a demon shadow that had been killing people for some kind of ritual, we lost over four hundred men here , some died maintaining the spite of speed that kept it moving as fast as us , others died reinforcing the civilians and infrastructure with yen so that no one would ever know what happened , and the unlucky ones were impaled.” she said as she began taking hot dog sausages and putting them in her pockets.

“Hungry much?” I asked her, looking surprised at the raw amount she was stuffing into the pockets of her dress.

She didn't stop , instead she went behind the hotdog stand and took the entire packet of sausages that was next to the fat man grilling them.

“Hey that's stealing, plus can't you just make sausages with your ability?” I scolded while asking.

“We protect them on a daily basis , a packet of cooked sausages is the least they could do to say thank you , and oh yeah, sure I can make sausages , but the taste , the food here tastes a million times better than anything I can come up with.” She said with a melancholic smile as she got up ,and put the sausage packet over her right shoulder in her right hand.

The streets were so full, yet to us everything was still , even the birds were just paused in the sky. We walked through the city of Senzenaro , which was the capital of the country of New Spain. After hours of walking through the beautiful still silent city , I couldn't help it but stare at her hair . Then she turned back to me ,

“Give me your hand” she said to me.

“O-ok” I stuttered as I put my right hand forward towards her , but to my surprise she only touched it with her right index finger .

“There” she said with a bright smile on her face. 

“Wha-” I said before stopping, as I realised I was beginning to float.

“C'mon 545” she said giggling as she flew upwards ahead of me.

“Hey wait up” I shouted as I followed her through the city , her arms were open wide , like she was a bird  ,as the wind blew back her hair , it was as if I was chasing her in the air, through the buildings and streets. The wind in my hair , then she took a right turn into Verlin street , but when I turned into it I stopped and hovered in mid air , I couldn't see her , I frantically began looking around myself.

“Over here slowpoke!” I heard her voice shout from above me , she was sitting on a cloud above me in the sky.

The sight of her hair glowing in the sunset as she sat on that cloud took my breath away. 

“Come here you big dummy!” she shouted with a giggle. 

I flew up and stood before her , floating in the air .

“Have a seat” she said. 

As I touched the cloud my hand fell straight through it. 

“Hey are you trying to kill me !” I shouted angrily to her .

“Got me , I was gonna save you though” she said laughing to her heart's content. 

“You can sit now I actually made it solid enough to sit on” she went on to say as she wiped the tears of laughter from her face.

I first touched it to make sure it was solid , and it was , I sat next to her as we looked down upon the city. From her direction I heard the sounds of plastic as I was looking down into the city. I turned to her and saw her opening the sausage packet, somehow, she had gotten impatient with the plastic and tore a hole through it , and thus she had a sausage halfway in her mouth already , even though she was still ginger wrestling with the packet seal.

“Let me get that for you” I said as I took the packet from her little hands. The packet seal was tough , I struggled .

“Not as easy as it looks hey” she said with a giggle. 

“be quiet ok” I said as I focused and just like that the seal broke and the packet was opened. I took a sausage and put the now opened packet back into her hands. We sat on that cloud for what felt like hours talking about everything.

“So what's it like working under 717” she asked, looking at me with curiosity.

“Well he's training methods are basically just beating me nearly to death or until I figure out what he's hinting on me to find out, he's always sending me on missions, and he's an overworking employer who doesn't understand the concept of days off, but above all, he's the one I look up to the most.” I said ,looking down into the city with a subtle smile.

“You're so lucky all I ever do is help produce weapons and machinery , being stuck in a workshop all day sure gets boring really fast.” she said ,gazing up into the blue expanse above us.

“Wait but isn't your ability like cheating? I asked , 

“What do you mean?” She asked me in response.

“Well you literally can just make a gun out of your yen or blast things” I went on to say.

“That's literally the whole point , but not exactly how it works. You see, things I make can only exist as long as I exist or live, meaning its risky to use weapons I make on the battlefield, because if I die , the weapon fades into nothingness. So instead I use my yen to do things like heat up the blacksmith tools and other contraptions that design or make weapons , providing electricity where needed and stuff.” She said .

“So you're like a battery?” I asked , 

“Yeah kinda , but not quite , I'd say

… I'm more like back up back up back up power” she said. 

The pack of sausages ran out.

“We should probably be heading back now” I said.

“Yeah” she said in a soft sad tone.

“Oh yeah, why did you call this place the land of the living earlier back there in the alleyway 263?” I asked her.

“Well it's kinda obvious don't ya think, they're living, we're just alive.” She said as she opened the giant rectangular gate with a wave of her hand.

I knew what she meant. We walked through the gate together.

After stepping through the glowing white and yellow barrier we were back in the grey gate room.

“We'll be going to the original world, the home if the demon shadows that father saved us all from by making this place.” I explained to her just as we walked through the gate, her eyes opened wide.

“It's suicide, that place was created for the demon shadows , few ever come back l.” She said hysterically.

“717 will be with me, and plus we're gonna have an army 10 000 men strong.” I said to ease her visible stress, 

“I'm coming with you.” She said immediately.

“No! with your power , it'll only bring them in large numbers , plus we can't risk attracting Asmonius’ attention , he will kill us all.” I said to her hysterically.

“Sorry for yelling. The mission will go well ok, we leave in a few hours , I'll see you when I'm back.” I said to her , then immediately bent space, and stepped back into my room as to not give her the opportunity to reply. I released my yen reinforcement and fell to the ground.

“Well that took more than I thought it would” I said to myself out loud with a chuckle.

I got back up to my feet then began packing my bag. Everything was moving normally to me now , I saw the time and realised I had only thirty minutes left. 

And so I used that time to walk to Gathering place underneath Mother.

I eventually reached the big black gate , it opened on its own the moment I saw it , and I walked until I eventually walked through the opened gate. The gate closed behind me , the building was massive , an underground military base field , there was grass and flowers everywhere , but in the horizon I saw a stage , and I walked to that stage , but the closer I got , the more I started hearing voices in that direction. In time it became clear what was going on as I reached the empty stage , I looked down and realised that the stage was at the edge of a cliff, and below me were thousands of soldiers awaiting command.

“You're late” I heard 717’s voice say from behind me.

“Sorry I was preoccupied with something else” I apologised saying to him as he walked onto the stage. He ignored me, and went on to pull out a microphone from his jacket’s right pocket.

“I'm afraid we all knew this day would come men and women. We need to find more seeds for producing more crop for us all to continue being able to effectively farm , warn away hunger as well as starvation which our growing population faces. Before us we were faced with two options , to massacre more innocent subjects in order to reduce the amount of mouths needing to be fed , or to risk our lives in search of grain and seeds so we can just farm more food. I will not lie to you ladies and gentlemen, even if we don't come back, the population of the womb would fall by ten thousand and ten, no matter what happens out there , just by being here…you are a hero.” He said with a stern and confident voice to the armies before us. 

“Many of us will die , that's a guarantee…but it will be for the children of the Womb, for every subject in existence and to come , for the sustenance of the only line of defence and offence humanity has , for the sake of humanity itself , for the fallen , for the unborn and for the dead.” He said as the soldiers in black cheered .

“We leave soon for where the shadows of demons call their home. The place may have always existed as a home for shadows of demons , a husk of hell, but it's still the only place we can find seeds , we will head out for a region that was once known as Uganda , we will then immediately set up barriers and a stable headquarters, most of us will be fending off the shadows of demons while the others establish our base and the barriers that will keep us safe in our time there . For the Womb…we are all children of the Womb.” 717 said as he walked away from the stage. 

I looked to my left and saw seven people , one was someone I knew all too well, the commander , the head taskmaster , Jin Nagashi, his average length blond almost silver hair , the eye patch , the whiskers on his chin , it was him. He went up on stage and began issuing us orders. I immediately went to where the other soldiers were, I jumped down into the ocean of soldiers, I really was now just another number. I was beneath the head taskmaster in rank and power. 
I looked up to Mr Nagashi as he took stood at the centre of the stage , my eyes did not move as I looked up to him.

“Attention! In this order shall we proceed , anyone who dares break the chain of command will be executed and branded an official enemy of humanity.

717 will be the spear in our defence and will be a complete unit on his own.

545, you will captain the first support unit in the west , your job will be to hold back the enemy and support 717,  2000 men.

I will be the edge of the spear in the east .

563, you will captain the second support unit and will be providing me with support, 2000 men.

660, you will captain the supporting unit to 545’s supporting unit and will provide them with infantry fire and support where it may be needed . 2000 men.

555, you will captain the supporting unit to 660’s support unit. 2000 men. 

543, you will captain the first intelligence team ,  you will operate in the east , 500 men. 

355, you will captain the second intelligence team , you will operate in the west , 500 men.

Lastly 700 , you will operate in the centre and will govern the construction of the headquarters and it's running thereafter, 1000 men. You will relieve the most yen efficient soldiers, and our success will rely on how soon you can organise and construct the headquarters , as until the headquarters is fully constructed we will be engaged in constant high intensity warfare.

…We are all children of the womb.” he said as he left the stage and began walking to 717.

 It seemed as though the other six men that were with him were his body guards or something , from what I saw and how they followed him. I stood there , and looked beside me , my fellow captains. 

563, also known as the ghost. The man whose sword skills are so legendary he's said to have single handedly killed a hundred shadows of demons when his arm was broken.

660, the cherry bomb, a powerhouse in terms of literal explosive power , said to be able to create explosions nearly instantly.

555, the curse , said to be the last thing anyone who's ever gone against saw.

543, the animal, said to not be able to spare his opponents.

335 , the unkillable soldier , said to have the highest grade of yen regeneration.

And the head captain himself , 700 the child , only ten , yet has killed more people and evils than most diseases. 

And lastly myself the storm God.

“We are all…children of the Womb” , 700 said to us. I knew what he meant , the weight of words to heavy to simply just utter , “we are all children of the Womb.” He said to us. We all stared back at him and nodded in agreement. But I couldn't stop looking up at 717 and Jin.

“We are all…children of the Womb” kept echoing through my mind.

Moments passed as we organised ourselves into our ranks. Then one of the walls glew yellow and white , and it was there I realised it was the gate. 717 jumped down and walked through the gate , it was funny, how casually he just walked through the gate leading to nightmare world. My squad was up , as the captain I walked Infront , I'm could hear the heavy boots marching behind me as I walked to the gate , I eventually reached the gate , if I stopped it would cause my squad to think I'm questioning my decision , and that could lead to instability in the squad , so like 717, I too walked casually into the glowing light.

Immediately as I walked through I began falling, we were falling through a night sky. It was pitch black with grey clouds. I looked below me and saw explosions , mighty yellow explosions , and I immediately knew 717 was already engaged against the enemy , and by the looks of it , there were many. 

“OPEN FIRE!” I shouted to my squad mates which were beginning to fall behind me.

 Immediately shells and bullets rained down to the ground which we were falling to. The shelling made even more explosions , I knew if we were gonna land safely I'd have to do something big. 

There was no need to worry about 717, he’s far stronger than I am. 

In a heartbeat I expanded the yen I shared with my squad without their knowledge and increased the output I was supplying to them and immediately used yen reinforcement on them all, as I manifested my hammer in my left hand , and my katana in my right hand. Concentrating my yen into them both I focused the power of multiple explosions into them , lightning was flying out of my body , and like a bomb I touched the ground and all that explosive energy was released from my body and weapons. 

A mighty explosion cleared the battle field in a great yellow blast, the aftershock echoing for thousands of kilometres and the blast itself having gone from what I sensed at least three thousand kilometres.

I stood in the crater that was so vast it now looked like the normal area. I could sense 717 engaged , even that attack only killed seven demon shadows.  I could sense the rest coming for us on foot, increasing our speed is unwise , because they can do the same , therefore it's best to fight them without too many complications that could potentially work to our disadvantage. My squad finally touched the ground .

“Set up the rocket launchers , assemble and prepare for use of any and all ballistic equipment, we have at best an hour until those that slipped past 717 reach us!” I shouted to them, and they immediately began preparing the ballistics. 

Of the two thousand that were sent , only one thousand nine hundred and eighty three we're currently alive.

Using yen reinforcement on all of us I increased everyone's battle capabilities at least five fold, it should allow them to anticipate their attacks better. 

“Infantry with me , calvary in all vehicles to provide us with cover fire!” I shouted as infantry began forming square ranks.

I could sense them coming , they're even closer now.

“Ballistics fire!”  I shouted as rockets and blasts flew into the air , in the distance explosions filled the horizons , staring into the chaos I gripped my sword and hammer harder. I breathed in. Then out.

“INFANTRY FORWARD!” I shouted with all my might as I began running straight into the chaos , and in an instant an ocean of battle cries came from behind me,  followed by running footsteps, and as we ran, in an instant I threw my hammer and one of the shadows felt the devastating blow, The gunmen were firing from behind us as we were engaged.

Shadows of demons are pitch black creatures made from black aura, red and purple flames and sometimes smoke, they're skin feels like scales to an extent. I punched one and it flew for about two kilometres but reappeared behind me. I sliced it in half with my sword , but it simply turned into two , then another one of the damned creatures kicked me , sending me flying for a whole thirteen seconds. I hit what felt like a giant boulder, and fell to the ground. Glowing explosive artillery and bullets from guns filled the battlefield , it had little effect on the creatures , but it gave the infantry and gunmen openings to inflict some damage. Even with our steady hand , I could sense him in the west, the ground was shaking…717 was engaged in battle , using yen reinforcement I could see him slicing through hordes , he flew up and caused yellow balls of yen the size of stadiums to fall and explode , the ground was shaking , he's a monster.

I picked myself up. I had no choice .

“Maximum reinforcement” I said as I maximised my yen reinforcement causing it to manifest as a yellow glowing armour.

I took the skies, I reinforced my squad once more as I flew into the sky . I could sense the other squads on the battlefield, they were all well reinforced so I didn't need to worry too much. In a billionth of a second I filled the entire active battle field with my yen , and the air as well. As if it were raining light , I made lightning rain through the entire battlefield constantly directed at the shadows of demons as I descended into the battlefield in a flash of lightning and heavy gusts of wind, the earth was quaking from my presence , I threw my hammer and it continued going after them all as I engaged with my blade. 

The infantry was struggling but they held their own , ballistic missiles were destroyed by the lightning constantly bombarding the land , but the shelling was still somewhat effective. The lightning burned the shadow demons , they attempted to multiply , to grow in size but I did not let up my assault ,one grew over five hundred metres tall, I grabbed my blade and called my hammer to my right hand and shot myself thousands of kilometres into the sky , I flew into the pitch black expanse then as gravity started bringing me down , I gathered my strength, the shadow demon threw it's hand out , and a great explosion came from our clash but I came out unscathed, with the shadow demon in ashes falling from the sky, it's brethren cried in rage , I hear their cries throughout the land , they're coming. 

Of the two thousand forces that descended with 545 into the world , only one thousand five hundred are currently alive.

The battle waged on, I slashed through five , my hammer being able to change its weight without me touching it meant it could fight on its own , which I took full advantage of as it brought enemies flying towards me for me and my men to destroy while destroying others with great heavy blows across the battlefield. The lightning I'm calling down and is draining me ,but I can't stop , it's the edge keeping us ahead. 

I thought to myself as I knocked one of the damned creatures’ head off with my hammer. It's kin tried coming for me but I slashed it in half with my sword. I could hear cries from my men , one of the soldiers near me had been impaled through the back of his head, blood was oozing out of the two holes where his eyes used to be , his screams filled the battle field , my lightning stopped , I'm running low. Another soldier of mine was crawling on the ground , his legs had been ripped off his torso, he barely crawled an inch before being trampled to death by his own kind and the shadow demons in their struggle, explosions fill the sounds of the air along with screams of pain and battle cries of the damned creatures. 

They just keep coming , I slashed one of the creatures that was running behind me.

I heard a loud feminine scream somewhere to my right, I turned to the hysterical scream and saw 677, a female subject I assigned to my squad being dragged away by the damned creatures. I tried running to her , but…the creatures just kept coming. She vanished into the black darkness of the creatures as I and the rest of us fought on, with me struggling to reach her…and then , it was too late, she was gone.

Next time on Tales from catharsis, the tale of the sunless moon :
Elliot Prescott awakens before Zero zero zero, but nothing is as it seems.
Next in tales from Catharsis, the tale of the sunless moon;

Sisters and Brothers of the Womb Act |||: The black death , Act 1 , Astray.