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  Ever since Darwin Valadne lost his true identity and all of his own memories prior, he has been acting frantic everyday. This leads to Nanasu Valadne needing to apply as a caretaker.

  This was seen as a form of dementia on the highest level possible, but really had no effect on motor skills. No signs of fatigue.

  Not even any brain scan could determine damage done to the brain. It was almost like the brain itself deleted all memories... willingly.

  Though the Soul remains unaffected, this was still a first for anyone that researched the Soul.

  If the Soul remained undamaged, how did Darwin Valadne lose his memories and all sense of who he was before?

  Like Nanasu said, whoever inhabits the body of Darwin Valadne, is not like someone else that takes over and uses the body as a vessel.

  No, Darwin Valadne is not like a Synthetic-Class.

  What they are, is a lost man with a severe form of Soul-Ability induced dementia.

  Alarms sounded in every barrack, building and cafeteria in the vast space station of Soul-Core.

  Every Specialist, Enforcer and Trainee stood up from their seat to get ready for whatever let the alarms go off.

  It could be an invasion from Dark Intrinium, or worse, a skirmish from space pirates in which Soul-Core lost 4 minor space stations as a result of it in different systems.

  “Non Soul-Wielders, grab your weapons!” A Squad Leader yelled.

  -

  [ 2 minutes earlier ]

  ‘Darwin’ left the Spacecraft Deploymen Center and turned the corner, noticing a bunch of workers staring him down weirdly.

  .:. M G N H I E N B C C K L R T A J N B A G L F C N N C F C K A J K C .:.

  “Rghh... my mind is a blur! I can’t think... I can’t remember!”

  ‘Darwin’ sped up, dragging someone else with him. It was Nanasu, her ‘caretaker’. Why would someone proficient in Soul-Wielder need a caretaker?

  Wasn’t it Nanasu that told me to find myself? Well I’m doing that now!

  “Darwin! Stop!” Nanasu ordered him to stop.

  “Stop calling me that... I’m not Darwin! I never was!”

  I was never Darwin, or whatever she assumed I used to be. No, I was always a different person.

  I can’t possibly believe I was this fabled Capt. ‘Darwin Valadne’ of Soul-Core. I couldn’t possibly have been that great.

  I’m going to find that person who took everything from me and get answers that way. But for that to work... I need to bring this girl with me.

  “Let- go! You’re hurting my hand!” ‘Darwin’ gripped her wrist extremely hard without knowing, almost cancelling blood flow to her hand.

  She felt her hand going numb. “Darwin!” She yelled again.

  ‘Darwin’ then pushed her against a wall, hard.

  “THAT IS NOT ME!” He yelled as hard as he could.

  Trainees and Enforcers in the same hallway looked at ‘Darwin’ and Nanasu funny, almost like they were teenagers in a toxic relationship arguing.

  “I refuse to believe I was your brother.” He said with furrowed eyebrows.

  “...”

  “That’s why I’m getting out of here... I’m going to learn it from the one who took my memories away.”

  Nanasu went silent, letting herself get dragged around by ‘Darwin’. While she was being dragged around corridor after corridor, she sent a distress signal to Mikael Asger.

  And then a few seconds later...

  Alarms.

  “Shit!” ‘Darwin’ hastened his pace, paying no heed to Nanasu’s own well-being. She was almost suspended in the air with how fast he was crossing corridors.

  “FUCK!”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  -

  Claude was done with his own set of problems that arose from his fight against Kaioshun in Tristate City. The Ultimate Enforcer on board praised him for his bravery.

  However, the criticism that he got from the Ultimate Enforcer is that he put Nanasu Valadne in danger for the pure reason that he wanted to fight.

  No reason, just fight.

  Claude has his first strike as Captain of the Star Gazers Squad.

  Though, the strike didn’t bother him at all. Whatever bothered him was how strong Kaioshun was against him.

  Then the sirens sounded through every corridor.

  Claude looked up, noticing Nanasu being dragged by someone. In the same second, Mikael turned the corner of the hallway in haste—spotting Nanasu and ‘Darwin’.

  “Hey! Isn’t that Nanasu’s brother? What is he doing?” Claude asked Mikael, who just ran past him.

  “He’s kidnapping her, brickhead!” He responded, turning the corner.

  “Ah! Makes sense!” Claude ran behind him.

  Mikael needed to turn 12 more corners to block ‘Darwin’’s path and surround him with Claude. He vanish-stepped once. He was running for time.

  As soon as ‘Darwin’ cut another corner, he was stopped by Mikael.

  “Darwin, what are you doing!?” He summoned his spear, pointing it at him.

  Claude and Mikael had Darwin surrounded in both sides.

  “Move, you fucking freeloader! I’m taking her with me and there is nothing you can do about it!”

  He didn’t let go of Nanasu’s hand. It also looked like Nanasu was sedated by something. Must have happened recently.

  “Let my squadmate go, Darwin and we can resolve this peacefully. From how it looks like now, you can’t go anywhere.”

  “I can however I fucking want.”

  “You can try.” Mikael went into stance, prompting Claude to do the same.

  “Right... and I will!” ‘Darwin’ extended his hand, firing a blast to obscurify the area. He blasted a barrel to engulf the area in smoke.

  He then started running towards Mikael whose vision was limited and pushed him out of the way, against the wall.

  “Ug-“ Mikael dropped his spear. “Damnit! Captain, come on!” Mikael sprinted down the hallway after them.

  “His blast felt really potent. Who knows what that could’ve done had he aimed for you, Mikael!” Claude ran after him.

  ‘Darwin’ kept running whilst holding Nanasu’s arm, cutting corners to where it led to the entrance of the Spacecraft Deployment Center.

  He came right back to where he was. His mind was in pieces, he couldn’t think. All he could think about was cutting corners and hope he could see the hangar sometime soon.

  “Come on, you fucking bitch!” ‘Darwin’ tightened his grip on her arm.

  “Hh...” Nanasu, still feeling the effects, struggled to run to the point she was being half-dragged, followed by half-running.

  Mikael turned a corner. Noticing ‘Darwin’—He rematerialized his spear and threw it in an attempt to incapacitate him, or at the very least, stop him.

  “GHU-“ ‘Darwin’ turned around, beaming the spear away. He continued running down the corridor.

  Mikael sidestepped out the way of the beam, catching up quickly and running after them – remanifesting it.

  “Mikael, run after them! I have an idea!” Claude said, running the other way.

  “Right!”

  .:. They’re really... going to kill him... .:.

  “M-Mikael... wait, don’t...” She pleaded, weakly. Her arm went completely numb from how tightly he gripped her arm.

  “Stop this instant, Darwin!”

  “GET OUT OF MY WAY!” ‘Darwin’ yelled, discharging a volley of beams towards Mikael, staggering him in his pursuit. Not only that, he gave Mikael no space to dodge the beams, forcing him to take it head on or pop a Soul-Barrier.

  “G-“ Mikael engulfed himself in his own Soul-Barrier. He essentially lost focus now as well as losing them both.

  ‘Darwin’ and Nanasu were safe for the moment, or just ‘Darwin’ in this instance.

  ‘Darwin’ turned about 3 more corners before noticing the next corner he will turn will be the hangar of the spaceship. They were finally closing in on their escape.

  But, Mikael bashed through the door ahead of them – throwing the spear, aiming at Dawin’s chest. The spear Mikael had in his hand wasn’t a lethal one, knowingly manifested that way.

  This was merely just an attempt to pin him to the floor or stagger him enough to give Mikael a chance to capture him.

  ‘Darwin’ formed a Soul-Barrier to ricochet the spear away, but the force of the throw broke his sprint.

  Stumbling a bit and tripping on a six-pack of mineral water, he regained his balance and swiftly side-stepped away, fleeing Mikael.

  “Ugh…” ‘Darwin’ fired another beam to get a few seconds ahead of him.

  Mikael saw this coming beforehand and swiftly ducked under the beam, remaining horizontal for less than a second.

  He took this moment to slide across the floor and materialize his lethal spear, throwing it at Darwin’s leg.

  This was it. This was the money shot to end the pursuit… However.

  The spear was deflected, and it wasn’t Darwin.

  It was Nanasu.

  The spear ricocheted back at Mikael, forcing him to duck under it, the tip grazing his helmet.

  “S-sorry… Mikael…” Nanasu said, weakly. “He’s my brother… I can’t let him get hurt…”

  Was it her brother, though? Her brother died years ago. Her brother faded into obscurity by a Hyperkiller that was able to manipulate memories. A Mental-Type, a special one.

  This wasn’t her brother. This was a completely different person that is only inhabiting the body of who was Darwin Valadne, the Captain of the once fabled Comet Gliders Squad.

  Not only that, he was also en route to become an Ultimate Enforcer.

  Mikael paused, stunned for a moment.

  Nanasu couldn’t bear to look Mikael in the eye. She should’ve accepted it a long time ago. Why can’t she? Her brother’s dead. Darwin Valadne, the man who people once respected is gone. This is someone else now.

  And this complete stranger inhabiting the body of someone she loved dearly is kidnapping her to Gods know where.

  “You want to get your brother back, right?” ‘Darwin’ loudly blurted out.

  “… What…?” Nanasu was perplexed as always.

  “This Darwin Valadne… your brother, do you want him back? Someone has told me of a place where I… Darwin can get his memories back.” For someone who was a heavy amnesiac, he sure was level-headed.

  “W-what are you talking… about…”

  “…There is place called the Archive in the Library of the Souls. Only a handful of people know about it. In that library, there is everything you need to know about the Souls and all. It seems that Darwin Valadne knew about it. A good friend of Darwin rehashed it to me. This… 6 years that I’ve been living as an amnesiac… it’s going to end now.”

  Darwin turned another corner and made it to the hangar.

  “…I’m going to get your brother’s memories back and end this torture of yours… It’s the least I can do. I know you told me to live my life the way I want and not to return who this… body was once part of… I’ve lived this life enough and I’ve learned a lot. This world is cruel, and I don’t want to be part of a cruel world.”

  Nanasu was taken aback by everything this guy said. His words dug deep and opened a new scar in her wounds. She looked down at the ground, still being dragged by him.

  “… So please…”

  Help me.

  Help me get your brother back