Time to Choose

Will Ratio join Soul and give up his dream to be a hero. Also what is this timer that Leech and Soul know about.

Today was the day for Raito to meet with Soul so he can have a better understanding of this new world he’s going to be part of. The second Raito’s alarm went off he quickly jumped out of bed and began to get ready for the day. As he picks out his outfit he can’t stop thinking about what kind of person Soul is. Also if Soul has the ability to change his mind on wanting to be a superhero. Because after this day he will put into action his dream of being one. There has been one benefit though since Raito learned he was a Gift and that was meeting Flight. Raito’s mother has never seen him as happy and full of smiles ever since he met Flight. She had always worried about Raito because he always had a hard time making permanent friends. His father was in the United States military and was stationed in Japan when he was 24. During his time in Japan he met Raito’s mother and the two feel in love despite the language barrier. Wanting to impress her, he learned japanese the best he could while he was in Japan. But was being sent back to the United States after being stationed in Japan for two years; unknown to him at the time Raito’s mother became pregnant with Raito. Raito’s parents decided they loved each other enough and both wanted to start their family together. They decided to wait till Raito was two before moving to the United States and for Raito’s mother to apply for a green card. Over the years his father became fluent in japanese and his mother was able to at least understand english for the most part but still has trouble speaking it. Since his father was in the military they would often move a lot. Over time Raito sort of just gave up trying to make friends since he would have to say goodbye sooner or later. Seeing how moving was affecting Raito they made the decision to stay put in a single place. When it was time to be stationed somewhere else his father would go alone. This did help Raito become more social again but he knew that it made his mother sad. With her broken english it was hard on her too to make friends. She spends most of her time talking to friends overseas or at her part-time job at an international market. The idea to move back to Japan has always been in the back of his parents mind but they don’t want to leave the life they have built.   

As Raito finished eating breakfast the doorbell rings and Raito’s mother answers the door to meet Flight for the first time. “Hello, my name is Flight. I’m here to pick up Raito,” he said with a smile. Raito’s mother was happy to meet Raito’s new friend and introduces herself to him the best she could before shouting out to Raito that his friend was here. Upon hearing his name he walks over to the door and hugs his mother goodbye before heading out.

“I thought I’d bring this cool masquerade mask I bought from the dollar store. I figured I wear it when I meet Soul,” Raito said while putting on the mask.

“You can but there is no point in it,” Flight said with a laugh

“Why? You said that a Gift should always keep their identity a secret.” Flight agreed that he did say that but his point will be clear once he meets Soul. Since Flight had to make sure that Raito doesn’t find out who Soul is, the two will be taking a bus to Soul’s estate. By luck Soul just so happened to live in the same state as Raito so setting up this meeting wasn’t too hard. Once they were on the bus Flight handed Raito a blindfold to wear as insurance during the ride there. “Man I feel silly wearing this while talking. I can feel people staring at us.”

“Well you’re not wrong but we are using the public bus so this probably isn’t the weirdest thing that's happened here...probably,” Flight responded with while looking around in the bus.    

The bus ride to Soul’s house would take about an hour so in order to pass the time the two of them started to talk about anything they could think of. Raito learns that Flight likes the color blue and hates the taste of blueberries. Flight learns that Raito used to be able to speak fluent japanese but over time lost the ability too because he spoke english all the time and only ever spoke japanese at home but has been trying to relearn it. As the two talk Flight pulls out the I Am Hero manga so they could talk about that.  

“I’m starting to really like Hiro and was wondering if they named him that because the name sounds a lot like the word hero,” Flight ask while turning the pages to find a cool picture of Hiro.

“I read that it was done on purpose. A lot of series tend to pick names that match the character's personality so it’s more than just a name. Take Honzonise the character that trains Hiro. His name is the combination of the japanese words honzon and nise. It roughly translate to false idol or untruth idol. At first it means nothing but as the series goes on he is the one that turns into the evil hero.”

“And the evil hero is actually a good guy trying to take down the school after learning the truth! So his name has a double meaning, he’s the most popular hero but the fame is false but at the same time when he is an evil hero; he is thought to be a villain but that’s not the truth either. Wow! That’s deep.”

“That’s why it’s my favorite series, everything that happens servers a purpose and that includes names.”

As Flight and Raito continue to talk about the manga Flight realizes that they are about ten minutes away from the Soul’s house and pulls the cord to let the bus driver know to let them out. From this point Flight took off Raito’s blindfold so they can walk the rest of the way there. Curious, Raito asked Flight just how did he meet Soul and why did he choose to be on his side. When Flight left Time Keeper he had nowhere to go and all of his money was taken away from him since Time Keeper was the one who was supplying him with any funds. For about a year he lived off of begging and scavenging for food when ever he was flying over foresty areas. While traveling in Arizona he sensed that there was a Gift nearby but has never sense this presence before. That’s when he came face to face with Soul and when his eyes met with Soul they both knew they could sense each other as Gifts. Soul greeted him in the most unique and unexpected way, by hugging him. Soul went on to tell Flight that he knew everything about him and was happy to know he was still alive. Flight was very confused on the whole situation and was a little cautious since he wasn’t sure if he was working for Time Keeper or not. But once Soul introduced himself to Flight, his suspicion over him started to fade. “My name is ****** but you can call me Soul,” he said to Flight. Flight had actually heard that name before; it was a name a previous Gift had mentioned to Flight while he was still working for Time Keeper. Apparently that Gift thought Flight was working for Soul and rejected his offer to join both Time Keeper and Soul. Flight tried to learn more about Soul and asked Time Keeper about it but was told to not worry about it. Over time the two began to develope a friendship and was asked to join his alliance. Of course we know that Flight agreed to it and started to work for Soul ever since then and has helped him look for more Gifts to join his side.

“How did he know everything about you if you both just met?” Raito asked. Flight not wanting to ruin the surprise just told him that he will see soon enough. After ten minutes of walking they appear in front of a large estate. “This dude must be loaded!!” Raito shouted out. Once they were in front of the door they rang the doorbell and waited for about ten seconds before the door opens to reveal a man wearing an all white suit and a white luchadore mask answering the door.  

“Hello Wave, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Soul,” Soul said in a calm voice and invites Raito and Flight into the house. “I hope you don’t mind me using your Gift name, I prefer to use them instead of real names. Just incase someone might be eavesdropping.” Raito didn’t mind and as he enters the house he couldn’t help but scan the area. The house was spotless with fine art hanging on various walls. A large piano as the centerpiece in the den with chairs placed around it. There was even a bar in the living room and a large TV near it. Raito couldn’t help notice that the inside of the house was mostly white and even asked Soul why that is. “The color of white is supposed to be the color of purity, that’s really the only reason why,” Soul said as he led them into the living room. As they sat themselves down on the couch in the living room Soul looked up at Raito and proceeds to tell Raito that he didn’t need to wear his mask. “Flight hasn’t told you this yet but as the Gift of Souls I have the ability to read souls. Everything you do is imprinted onto your soul. Flight didn’t tell me a thing about you other than that you want to use your powers to be a superhero. I already know your real name, where you live, who your parents are and much more the second you entered my home.” Upon hearing this, Raito couldn’t help but shiver in fear as he takes off his mask. To learn that a Gift can be this powerful utterly frighten Raito. What else can this Soul guy do and is Time Keeper just as powerful as Soul? So many questions began to pile up in Raito’s head. Flight could see how terrified Raito has become over hearing what Sou has just said. Flight hopes this fear will make him understand the dangers of making enemies with Gifts can be. Soul, sitting across from Raito continues to talk, “I understand you have questions that Flight can’t answer so why don’t we start from there. Ask me anything and I’ll give you all the answers to the best of my ability.”

With a small stutter Raito asked, “so..so if you’re the Gift of Souls does that mean there is an afterlife? A place where souls go after death.”

With a small chuckle Soul replied with, “the number one question everyone wants to know. Sorry to disappoint you but I have no idea. I’m just the vessel for the real Gift of Souls just like how you’re a vessel and not the real Gift of Sound. So I don’t really know but at least you know souls exist. In fact the heart is the gateway to a person's soul and that is also where the Gift inside of us resides, in our heart.”

Disappointed to learn that Soul doesn’t know if an afterlife is real continued on with his next question, “who is Time Keeper?” With a deep sigh, Soul crosses his leg and starts to answer Raito’s question. But in order for him to properly explain who is Time Keeper he needs to first explain in greater detail about what Gifts are.

“You already know that Gifts are what we call the divine beings that live inside of us and that there are 30 of them in total. Gifts were the first beings to have ever existed, they created everything and I mean literally everything. Gifts have been living on Earth since the 1st century but they most likely have been on Earth much longer. I don’t know why but for some reason Gifts are unable to have a physical form in our universe. Apparently they wanted to experience life among their creations and Earth was the closest planet with intelligent life. Gifts are unable to have a physical form in our universe and that is why they must live inside a vessel and how they pick a vessel is completely random. All I know about the process when picking a vessel is that they choose a body that is still being developed inside the womb. The powers we have is just one of the benefits of being a Gift.” Soul begins to set up from his chair and walks over to the bar. He starts to make himself a drink and continues his speech. “When a vessel dies the Gift leaves our body and looks for a new vessel. Since humans are mortals it’s just a natural part of life for us to die. So Gifts have had thousands upon thousands of different vessels over the years.” As he finished making his drink he looks over to Raito to see his eyes glue onto him and paying attention to every word that’s been coming out of his mouth. Soul twirls the glass in his hand before taking a sip, “Time Keeper is the exception to this rule.”

“What do you mean he’s an exception?” Raito asked with a confused looked on his face.

“You and I are probably the 5,000 person to be the vessel for our Gift. Time Keeper is the first and only person to have ever been the Gift of Time,” Soul said as he continue to drink from his glass.

“How is that even possible? If that’s true wouldn’t he be, several thousand years old then!?” Raito shouted out as he jumped out of his seat.

“You’re correct but you seemed to be glancing over an important detail, he is the Gift of Time. He has the ability to manipulate his own age. The second his body becomes too old and frail all he has to do is snap his fingers and poof he’s back to having the body of a twenty-year-old,” Soul said as he snapped his fingers. “The only reason why I know so much about Gifts is because all this information comes from him. He knows everything about Gifts and there is even more information about Gifts that I don’t know about because he keeps all the sensitive information for himself.” Raito refusing to accept this questions Soul about accepting the information Time Keeper has been giving him. Stating that is it not possible that he’s lying to him about everything. Flight tries to calm down Raito by putting his hand on his shoulder and looks him in the eyes.

“He’s not lying though. Remember how I said all Gifts have a special trait along with their powers. The Gift of Time’s trait is the ability to keep the memories of past vessels. But since there hasn’t been any other vessels, Time Keeper has all the memories from the actual Gift of Time.”

With a stunned face, Raito quietly sits back down. This is why Time Keeper is dangerous. He possesses memories from an actual Gift and has been alive since Gifts first came to Earth. Time Keeper, the Gift of Time who is essentially immortal is also the man behind almost all organized crime in the entire world too. Soul walks over back to his chair and as he sits down he looks over to Raito and twirls his glass around in has hand. “You want to know who Time Keeper is, he is the man who wants to rule the world. You see, about 80% of all crime can be traced backed to him,” Soul says as he takes another sip from his glass. Soul continues to explain that like a leader of a mafia gang he has men do all the actual work and then they all report back to him. Whether it be money laundering, corruption in politics, gangs, murder, and even corruption in law enforcement, he deal business in all of it. The only thing he doesn’t do is anything related to sex and of course random small crimes. Soul continues to explain that his reach isn’t limited to the United States but also to almost every country in the world. “Time Keeper isn’t the only Gift you need to watch out for. Since his operation is so massive he has another Gift handle everything over in the East. His name is Skull, the Gift of Death; but most people know him as the living zombie. Being the Gift of Death makes it so he is incapable of dying because he’s already dead.”

Raito starts shivering again, unable to pick up his head and just stares at the floor. With his hands on his lap his mind starts to wonder. There are people who can control time, death, and souls; just what kind of world is this. This isn’t fun anymore, this isn’t the type of world Raito had in his head after finding out he’s a Gift. He can only manipulate sound, what could he possible do!? But then all of a sudden he slowly stops shivering and starts to slowly breath in and out. He wanted to know the type of world he is going to enter and now he has. There is a person who literally wants to rule the world and possesses the power to do it. Once he was able to control his breathing he slowly lifts up his head and ask, “if Time Keeper is the one who told you all of this and you know so much about Time Keeper. What exactly are you to him, how do you know him?”

Soul slowly closes his eyes, lifts up his glass and drinks it till it was empty. As he puts down his glass he says, “like Flight I too used to be part of his empire. In fact he was like a father figure to me and was really kind. I was even supposed to become his right-hand man but that all changed once he revealed to me the purpose of his empire. This man that had helped me only did so because he wanted what I possess, a powerful Gift. I left and when that happened he tried to have me assassinated by a Gift named Energy Reaper. I survived obviously and ever since then I’ve made it my goal to be the opposite of who he is. I’ve tried taking him down but he has to many powerful Gifts on his side and I just don’t possess the ability to stop what he’s created. So I made my own alliance and have gathered Gifts of my own. I am Time Keepers enemy.” Upon hearing this Raito’s mood all of a sudden changed. Instead of quivering in fear, he is instead smiling. To Raito, what Soul just said resonated with him but for a reason neither Flight nor Soul would understand. To him, what Soul said sounded like a hero's declaration to stop evil.This is the real world but this is also the world of Gifts.

“So what you’re saying is, small petty street crimes have no connection to Time Keeper and other Gifts,” Raito asked. Surprised to hear this Soul nodded his head in agreement. Flight on the other hand didn’t like what Raito just asked. This was supposed to change his mind on being a superhero.

With that being said Soul stood up and said, “if there is no more questions I believe we’re done here.”

Immediately Flight stood up and shouted, “aren’t you going to invite him into the alliance!?”     

“Now why would I do that? To be part of this alliance we have rules and to me, I don’t think he’ll be able to follow any of them.”

“So we’re going to let him die by Time Keepers hands!?”

As Flight and Soul shout out at each other Raito slowly raised up from his seat and asked, “what rules?” As it turns out there are several guidelines that a Gift must follow to be allowed into Soul’s alliance. The first rule is to not use your Gift to stop crime, keep your Gift a secret from none-Gifts, always address Gifts by their nickname to keep their identity a secret and to have a disguise when using your Gift. Of course the last two rules don’t apply to Soul since he can read souls to find out who they are. Without this alliance with Soul, Raito can potentially be targeted by Time Keeper. An alliance with Soul would grant protection because since Time Keeper and Soul are very powerful Gifts they both stay out of each other's way. Gifts under Time Keeper are not to interact with any Gift under Soul and vice versa. “Flight, it’s okay. I don’t think I could follow those rules anyways. Besides, as long as I stay away from any major crimes and only stop small street crimes. I'll be safe, okay?” Flight being disappointed with this outcome could only nod his head in agreement towards Raito. He knew that there was no talking to him at this point if not even Soul was able to convince him to stop trying to be a superhero by explaining who Time Keeper is.

“If you give up on your goal I would have no issue adding you to my alliance. I’m with Flight when it comes to being a superhero. You’re not a character in a comic book who can somehow gets revived after being killed. Once you die that’s it,” Soul said towards Raito. As the meeting came close to the end Soul leads them out the door. Flight informed Raito to go on ahead without him as he just had a few things to settle with Soul.

“So what do you think about him?” Flight asked Soul.

As Soul takes off his mask he says, “you weren’t kidding when you said he was a nerd. The amount of hero related fantasies that exist in that guy's soul was far greater than I could have ever imagine. He’s aware that there are Gifts out there that possess the ability to conquer the world but his ideals and morale doesn't break. For a second I thought I made a break though but something I said ended up inspiring him instead. I’m not sure what it was I said either.”

“He’s different alright. That’s why I don’t want him to get hurt. Thanks for meeting with us anyways,” Flight said. As he says his final goodbyes, Flight rushed out of the door in order to catch up with Raito.

During the ride back home Flight and Raito stayed quite, afraid to talk to each other. Raito felt that Flight was angry towards him for not wanting even consider joining Soul’s alliance. While Flight felt that Raito was angry at him for trying to push him into conforming to Soul’s rules in order to be in his alliance. Raito peeks under the blindfold and as he is about to speak Flight starts to talk causing them both to say, “sorry for what happened back there.” The two stay quite but only for a split second before they both begin to laugh. As they apologize to each other they also say to each other that there is nothing to be sorry for.

“You’re not the first Gift to try the whole superhero thing and it never ends welll. I just don’t want to see anything bad happen to you,” Flight said.

“I get it, but this is something I thought was impossible to exist in the real world. I want to at least try. I know I might get hurt and doing this is dangerous but I would hate myself if I didn’t give it a try. I was being serious when I said I’ll stay away from big crimes. I’m powerless against a Gift that can control time so I’ll be careful,” Raito said with a clenched fist in the air.

As they reach Raito’s house he told Flight to wait outside for him as he goes inside his house. Once inside he looks at his bookshelf to put back the first volume of I Am Hero and grabbed the second volume. He runs back downstairs to hand Flight the volume so he can continuing reading the series. Flight leaves and Raito heads back to his room, “now which volume was it again,” Raito said as he searched through his bookcase. “There it is,” he said as he pulled out the seventh volume of I Am Hero and started to skim through the pages. He eventually stops and we see Hiro in his hero suit standing in front of the evil school. His suit is heavily ripped since he just finished his final fight with Honoznise. With blood dripping down from his mouth and one eye shut closed he raises his right hand into the air. As he takes in a deep breath he shouts, “I may not be the strongest hero but I am a hero. You have done enough damage to this world. I might die defending the world from you and the world might hate me for it. But I will for now on be your enemy and you will see me as a threat to what you have built!” Hiro then slowly brings his arm down in order to point straight at the school and snaps his finger. His hero suit slowly turns from white to black, “this is my hero declaration to stop you, I am the new evil hero!”

As the day turn to night all of a sudden a black hole appears into Soul’s home and Leech appears into the house. “Soul! I’m home!” Leech shouted out. Soul walks downstairs into the den to see Leech staring up at him with a grin.

With an annoyed attitude he replied with as he walks towards Leech, “I really wish you wouldn’t just pop in here in the middle of the night.”  

“I wanted to know how the meeting went with that new Gift,” Leech asked eagerly.

“It didn’t go exactly as Flight wanted it too but it went about what I was expecting. Another kid wanting to play superhero and despite the danger is still determine to accomplish his dream.”

“Tsk tsk, when will people learn that having super powers don’t make you invincible. What is he? The tenth Gift to try and become a superhero? I know there has been four Gifts since I’ve been working with Time Keeper that have tried and of course died from it. I’ve kill two myself.”

“And I’m aware of at least three Gifts that had died when I was still associated with Time Keeper.”

“So why exactly couldn’t I have meet the new Gift, I could have scared him into being a little puppet of yours. It would have been fun!” Leech said with a laugh.

“He was with Flight,” Soul said while staring at Leech.     

As Leech’s smile goes away he replied with “oh…” Part of the relationship between Leech and Soul was they kept their arrangement a secret from his alliance and especially from Flight. Leech isn’t even allowed to be near Soul if Flight was in the area. Leech shakes off the tension he was feeling, “if Flight wants this kid to live a long life hopefully he can convince him to ditch his dream.”

“I highly doubt he can do that. Is Time Keeper aware that a new Gift as awaken?” Soul asked.

“To my knowledge no and even if he did he wouldn’t know what this new Gift was since I don’t even know; you won’t tell me. But once he does he’ll be on a timer,” Leech said as he wiggled his pointer finger in the air to mimic a clock ticking. “We both know that no Gift has survived being on the three month timer.” With a deep sigh Soul agreed with Leech. Once Time Keeper learns about Raito there is a good chance that it will be the end of him.

Author's Note

Critiques are welcomed and appreciated since I want to improve my story telling.