Chapter 11: The Price of Oblivion
Twilight over Amnesia never brought coolness, only a sticky heaviness—a blend of ozone and static dust. Amidst this chaos of rusted metal, the unknown garden felt like an anomaly, an island of suspended silence.
Kobe lay in the grass, his body crushed. Beside him, Kaiden stared at the distant Colossi, his long blond hair catching the silver glints of the artificial lights.
"Why is this life so hard for us?" Kobe whispered. "It's unfair..."
Kaiden slowly turned his azure gaze toward him. A contemptuous smile stretched across his perfect lips.
"Injustice is a fool's word, kid. The world doesn't punish; it just absorbs. What hit you is Eto. The weak call it a gift, but it's just the universe's elegant way of making you pay in memories. It is the energy that pulses when your soul remembers—a black fire flowing through your veins."
He scooped up a handful of dry dirt and watched it trickle away like time itself.
"A memory isn't just a simple image, Kobe. It's your internal spine. To gain strength, you must go through the Offering. You agree to hollow yourself out, to flee who you are to become a weapon. You want strength? Fine. Pay up."
The silence fell again, heavier this time. Kaiden fixed his metallic gaze on the boy.
"But when you can no longer settle the bill, you end up becoming a COVID. A spineless wreck, a black hole in the engine of existence. Your mother, Kobe... look at her. She isn't living anymore; she's fading. She's an empty shell waiting for death to come and collect the scraps."
Kobe wanted to protest, but the image of Alma burned through his mind: her glassy stare, her trembling hands, that immense void that seemed to emanate from her. A visceral cold twisted his insides.
"COVIDs are ticking time bombs," Kaiden continued, his voice turning sharp. "When the void becomes too great, the beast wakes up. They mutate into Bökyakusha. Monsters of pure Eto that devour the past of others because they have nothing left in their own bones."
Kaiden stood up abruptly, looming over the boy like a magnificent and terrifying shadow.
"Kill her. Now. It's better for you, Kobe. It's the only mercy she has left before she becomes a predator that will eat your heart without even knowing who you are. A memory isn't nothing. It's you. You might as well die whole."
The world froze. Kobe felt the air crystallize in his lungs. Nausea preceded an incandescent rage. His fists clenched until his knuckles nearly cracked.
"Never," Kobe spat, his voice choked. "I could never kill my roots. Never!"
There was a second of hovering, a tension so dense it felt like it could bend the surrounding metal. Then, Kaiden let out a nasal laugh, mocking and crystalline.
"Iaaahahhah! I'm joking, kid! If you could have seen the face you were making... you looked like you were trying to hold up a collapsing wall."
"I wasn't joking," Kobe cut in, his eyes bloodshot.
Kaiden stopped laughing. His face became a blade of ice once more.
"I know. That's what's worrying. But rest assured: your engine is already running. You are an Anomaly. Eto flows through your veins without you even opening your wallet. Someone else settled the bill for you."
Kobe sat up, hope struggling against bitterness. "So... I'll be able to master it? Like you?"
Kaiden opened a single blue eye, a smirk of pure arrogance on his lips.
"Maybe. But not today. That's because I'm a goddamn genius. And you? You're just a debt waiting for payment."
He lay back down comfortably, closing his eyes for good.
"We'll see tomorrow. If I'm in a good mood. Sleep."
The word fell like a sentence. Kobe closed his eyes, but the word "Sleep" echoed like a warning: the void was never far away, and the bill always comes due.
The dawn of Amnesia barely crawled between the metal debris. Kobe woke up with the sensation of having been put through a hydraulic press. Every muscle screamed, and the memory of Kaiden's pressure still tightened around his chest.
Kaiden was already standing, leaning against the fossilized trunk, staring at the distant Colossi with icy indifference.
"Stop groaning, kid. If it hurts, it means you're not a wreck yet," he tossed out without turning around.
Kobe pulled himself up with a grimace, wiping the dust from his face. He approached with a limp, ready to demand answers, but Kaiden cut him off short by turning his head toward him.
"Do you remember what I told you yesterday about COVIDs?"
Kobe stopped, a look of surprise on his face. He hadn't expected the man to return to such a brutal subject on his own.
"I remember," Kobe answered in a muffled voice, his fists clenching instinctively. "You said they were empty. And that my mother was one of them."
Kaiden nodded, his azure gaze showing no compassion.
"Then remember this: Eto is your fuel, but it's also your undoing. To use it, you must pay. You take a memory, you sacrifice it, and you get a power in exchange. That is the Oblivion Contract. But by constantly emptying your past to buy strength, you eventually end up overdrawn. That's when you become a shell. That's when you become like her."
Kobe took the blow in silence. Kaiden's logic was as sharp as his pressure.
"And when the void becomes unbearable, the body mutates to compensate," Kaiden continued. "That creates a Bökyakusha. A beast of pure Eto with nothing human left in it. That's why the Albatrosses exist: they hunt these monsters before they level what's left of this world."
"And your power?" Kobe asked, staring at the man. "That pressure... what is it?"
Kaiden didn't make a move, but the air above Kobe suddenly seemed to weigh tons. The boy was slammed to the ground, face-first into the dirt, his bones creaking under an invisible mass.
"It's my branch. Gravity. I manipulate weight to crush whatever bothers me. Simple. Clean. No frills."
He released the pressure. Kobe stood up painfully, spitting out a mixture of dirt and bile.
"There are four main paths," Kaiden resumed. "Those who project their memory, those who reinforce their bodies, those who consume everything to destroy, and those who manipulate the minds of others."
"And you? Which one do you belong to?"
Kaiden let out his short, dry, nasal laugh.
"You have eyes, kid. Use your brain. I'm not going to give you the answer. Think, observe how I manage my Eto. If you expect me to spoon-feed you, you'll end up erased like the others."
Kobe felt that black, viscous heat pulsing to the rhythm of his heart, impatient to break free.
"And if I refuse to forget? If I don't want to sacrifice my memories?"
Kaiden lay back down against the trunk and closed his eyes, ending the discussion.
"Then prepare to die. You don't negotiate with the system. You either pay the bill, or you serve as a target."
He paused before adding:
"Now, get up. Training starts again. Try not to faint at the first wave."
Kobe stood tall, his teeth gritted. The time for questions was over. The time for pain was beginning again.