Spirit World Adventures

Chapter 21 - Hinote's Story

We ran like maniacs over to Hinote and Darius. He was shaking but not from any injury, it seemed, instead in anger. Darius was telling him to calm down, but Hinote was shaking his head and gritting his teeth like a feral beast.

'Oh god! Did something in your story do this or the Nayslayer?' Acacia asked, fumbling her fingers over him before he pushed her away.

'It was his story, but also his own doing,' Darius said, 'He always ends up like this.'

'Always?' Olivia asked.

'It's my fourth time in the library,' Hinote said, eyes black 'and it seems to just get worse and worse,' he mumbled, breathless.

'How can that be? I thought it was just showing us things to teach us a lesson,' Acacia said, her face quizzical.

'I don't know, Brainiac, okay? It just is this way for me,' Hinote scolded her, and Acacia drew back, arms crossed.

Darius was shaking with rage. It was the first time I'd seen any negative emotion on him. It was quite upsetting to see it.

'No, Hinote, this ends now!'

'Darius-Kun?'

'Kun?' I asked Olivia, but she just shrugged.

'Let these people help you. Let anyone help you! Don't you see? This is why you're always coming back here!'

'It's not that simple-'

'But it is! At least, it could be. But no, you shut out any help. You shut out all reason. You're too scared and hopeless and therefore when any hope or means of freedom is served to you, you push it away like a fish sandwich!'

I stifled a laugh. Hinote was looking down at his own shaking fists.

'Tell them, or I will...'

'They won't like what they hear. They're younger than us, Darius-Kun.'

'People always think less of kids; think we can't handle things. But this world is dark at times and it's the truth that makes us able to deal with it and bring the light back. Isn't that what Master Jack was always saying, that the future is ours to make?' Darius said, pleading with sorrowful eyes now and I felt like hugging him; but he also looked fragile, like he would break into a million pieces if I did.

Hinote planted himself hard on the ground, legs crossed. We stood around him, feeling the black aura that followed him around grow with every laboured breath he took, his head low.

'Fine, this is my story...

'I was born in Tokyo, Japan. We were one of the city's most affected by the Technological Collapse some fifty or so years ago, my family said. We were a techno-centric city. What were we to do now? It turned otherwise wonderful people into monsters. They were quickly bored, scared, and lost. What do they do without a screen or a bot to do things for them? And else could they do but to blame those around them? Hate their families, lash out at their co-workers, revolt against the government.

'By no means was this Japan's fault. Far from it. I'm just saying, that was the world I was in when I was born. Even though it was decades later, Tokyo was still grieving from its loss. It was as if the world had turned upside down. Countries with the most wealth and development were struggling the most, right? Those were the ones who had civil wars and overturned governments and had to change their names and create new systems.

'Japan always had a lot of tourism but after the collapse, no one was visiting other countries at all. Every country, I suppose, became segregated. People didn't like people from other places. They saw them as a cancer come to infect their home and take their resources. So when I met Darius, a black boy whose father was an Engineer here to help rebuild Tokyo, I was fascinated. I was enamoured. I had the wrong reaction...'