A heavy rain hammered down, filling the silence. Cars splashed through the downpour as traffic began to build.
Eduin walked past a building in a black hoodie, moving among the crowd. Thoughts surfaced in his mind: *Who was my mother? Why did I feel a connection to that woman?*
More and more thoughts piled into his head, making him dizzy for a moment. When he turned, he noticed a man in worn-out clothes carrying a small boy. He watched the man feed the child stale bread, soft enough to digest, while he chewed on a hard piece himself. In that moment Eduin remembered his own past: a poor little boy beside his father, near a pizzeria. The child smiled. His father had managed to bring home leftover slices of cheese pizza, and the boy reached out and took a small piece. He ate it with great delight, and the man managed a smile, watching his son happier than ever.
Suddenly two police cars pulled up near them. The father quickly hid the boy behind a dumpster large enough to keep him out of sight. The man raised his hands in surrender, but the officers showed no mercy. They drew their guns and opened fire without pity. A bullet tore through his neck, and blood poured from the sternocleidomastoid muscle in torrents. The veins in his arms snapped like severed cables. Every part of him was riddled with bullets, and the whole time the boy watched, witnessing his father's brutal murder. His eyes filled with pain and tears. A deep sorrow and rage flooded him as he watched helplessly, knowing exactly why his father had hidden him: so they wouldn't kill him too. He began to cry in silence.
"That'll teach you to pay up and not mess with us, trash," the officer said aloud, his face calm and without remorse.
The boy looked at their faces, but shadows covered them. Each wore a dark expression he couldn't make out clearly. Then they drove away. The boy rushed to his father's body, hugged it, and wept inconsolably.
"Dad! Wake up, Dad!" he screamed.
A crushing pressure built in his chest, a pressure that told him to take revenge. Inside his body, the part of him that came from his mother's genes began to take shape, and he felt a surge of strength and speed. He fled the scene and ran home. The house was worn down but standing, enough for a little comfort. The boy went inside, walked to a drawer, and opened it, revealing the last gift his father had ever given him. It was his sixth birthday present. Without wasting a second, he opened it. Inside were two gleaming iron swords.
One of them vanished out of nowhere, but he paid it no mind and took up the other.
"This is for you, Dad."
Without another thought, he took off toward the police station. The four men who had murdered his father were there. He shattered the door with a single slash. The men turned and looked at him with disdain. One of them reached for his gun, but in one swift motion, his hand was severed. Blood sprayed everywhere, staining the blade. The man screamed in agony while his companions froze in shock, and the boy stood before them with an unreadable coldness. He killed them all. Screams poured out of the station, and the air filled with the smell of death.
"Why?! WHY DID YOU KILL MY FATHEEEER?!" he screamed in rage.
When the boy finished, it didn't bring the satisfaction he had expected. He fell to his knees as tears spilled from his eyes, knowing his father surely wouldn't have wanted him to kill anyone.
Something still felt unfinished. He rose and walked to a car, drove the sword through its window, shattering it, and climbed in through the hole. He floored the accelerator, throwing the streets into chaos, other vehicles stopping to avoid a collision. He reached the place where the government kept its military arsenal, and the soldiers spotted him through their binoculars. The car smashed into the gate and burst through. The boy leapt out and sprinted into a tank, firing at every target he could find. A tremendous roar shook the whole compound as the soldiers returned fire at the vehicle.
*I'm going to destroy every last one of you for killing my father,* the boy thought.
After twenty long minutes, he left the place in ruins and went home. When he arrived, he lay down on the floor, thinking about everything that had happened, and most of all about his father. He sobbed in silence, and no one knew that a poor little boy had been abandoned in that decaying house, crying, holding a power he never asked for.
Back in the present, Eduin shed a tear as he relived those traumatic memories, though inwardly he smiled to see a father who might have more time with his son. Hoping the boy wouldn't suffer what he had, Eduin walked over and offered them 2,000 dollars, the only part of the 5,000 he carried that he had left to give. The boy's eyes lit up with wonder, and the man was stunned by such kindness.
"Take it. You need it more than I do, and I hope it makes you happier," Eduin said softly.
He left the money with them and walked away. As he went, he remembered a little girl.
"Here, have this bread. Um, hmm..." She paused, thinking. "Friend! Yeah, friend. I can see you're really hungry, and I want to give it to you," the girl said with cheerful honesty.
Eduin had simply accepted the piece of bread, grateful, and feeling a touch of tender attraction without knowing why.
He tried to remember more but couldn't. He could only recall a little of how she looked: pink hair, green eyes, and soft hands. He sighed and kept walking. A thought crossed his mind: *Will I ever see her again?* Though he knew he probably wouldn't.
"Hello, son."
A woman's voice spoke behind him. He spun around but saw no one, though he knew someone was truly there. The world around him warped, and a voice echoed through the air.
"You've realized it by now, haven't you?" the woman's voice asked. "It seems you have. I only want to tell you that I am your mother. The power you're awakening comes from me. It's called 'Berserk,' and it's uncontrollable at first, but it seems you master it better than I did as a child."
With that, Eduin snapped back to reality, clutching his head, hit by an inexplicable headache that faded within minutes.
*Was that really my mother's voice?* he wondered silently. *I need to get out of here as soon as possible. I can't keep remembering, especially now that I know my power comes from my mother.*
Without wasting time, he hailed a taxi and climbed in. As he gazed out the window, he noticed a young woman who reminded him of the girl from his childhood. Their eyes met, but the taxi took a curve, and she blurred away in the rain.
"Heh, so she lives around here. Then this time, I'll try to find her," Eduin said with determination...