Cracked and Shattered (T) (Oneshot) (Big Ryuusei Spoilers!)

[ComicX6]

WARNING: THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT RYUUSEI SPOILERS IN THIS FIC. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, TURN BACK POSTHASTE! THIS IS THE ONLY WARNING YOU WILL RECEIVE!

After reading Heatman’s report of the game, I had to write this. Be warned for the above reasons.


Warnings: Brief language, and savage beating.

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Cracked and Shattered, a Ryuusei no Rockman fic by ComicX6
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It’s amazing what some people will throw away. Tsukasa thought to himself as he surveyed the vast expanse of garbage before him. Broken televisions, Tranzers, stuffed toys, trinkets of all shapes and sizes, furniture, old cars… all were unceremoniously dumped into huge mountains of garbage. Most of the smaller, household things had been broken, presumably why they were in the junkyard to begin with, even though most of the damage could have easily been repaired with a little elbow grease. But the Dream Island Scrap Yard relied on this stuff to make ends meet. By the day’s end, the recycling plant would have converted a respectable portion of this ‘junk’ into new materials.

The sound of garbage crunching under someone’s feet caught his attention. Turning, Tsukasa saw is friend Hidenori carefully negotiating the nearest pile of scrap.

Hidenori was a boy of thirteen, and his appearance was somewhat swarthy looking. His torn shorts and shirt with ripped out sleeves gave him the appearance of a hoodlum. He proudly wore a cracked Visualizer on a necklace, a souvenir rescued from the junk. While he was usually quite outgoing and cheerful, people often suspected that he was up to something. Usually, their suspicions were more or less accurate.

Tsukasa’s appearance was a sharp contrast. He was fair, and had long, shaggy yellow-green hair, giving him a girly appearance. Actually, most people, upon first seeing him, would assume that the person that they were dealing with was a girl, only to become highly embarrassed to find that he was really a boy. His slender figure didn’t help much either.

‘’ Hey!’’ Hidenori shouted as he continued to navigate the heap. ‘’ Have you found anything yet?’’

‘’ Haven’t started.’’ Tsukasa replied. ‘’ So, how goes your vigil?’’

‘’ Poorly.’’ The other boy said, passing a hand through his spiky black hair. ‘’ I heard that he was seen standing on the Wave Road above the harbor, but I was out all night, and saw squat!’’

Hidenori had heard rumors of a black being with red eyes and a scar being seen on one of Dream Island’s Wave Roads, and had spent the past fortnight trying to catch a glimpse of it with his Visualizer. So far he had found nothing.

‘’ Aw forget it.’’ he said with a wave of his hand as he reached Tsukasa. ‘’ Come on. Let’s find something we can sell so Derrick won’t try to kick us out.’’

Derrick was a sixteen year old and, like Tsukasa, Hidenori, and the other teens living in the yard, was an orphan. Since he was the oldest, he felt that it was his right to rule the others, or the Junk Kids, as the inhabitants of Dream Island called them. He had gathered a bunch of other teens to form a gang of sorts, which policed the yard. The one rule that they imposed was that every week, each inhabitant would have to pay ‘rent’ in the form of yen. If a person failed to meet this requirement, Derrick’s thugs would beat the offender for not being appreciative of Derrick’s ‘hospitality’. Since the easiest way to make money here was to sell a valuable found in the yard, it wasn’t an uncommon sight to see youngsters going on scavenger hunts. This was their home, after all, despite the regular attempts of the Satellite Police to drive all of the ‘ruffians’ out.

It was actually rather fun. Some rather interesting things could be discovered. A month ago, Hidenori had found an antique model car completely intact in the scrap. After he had cleaned it up he had sold it to an antiques dealer for a tidy sum, allowing both of them to afford a decent meal.

Hidenori bent down and started picking through a medium sized pile. A few seconds of rummaging told him that there would not be much of value here. What he could see were pieces of cardboard, scraps of rotten food, and iron rods used for supporting pieces of concrete. That was just on the outside. He silently cursed whoever had unceremoniously dumped all of this together.

Tsukasa wasn’t having too much luck on his pile either. As soon as he reached in, something sliced his hand. Instinctively, he withdrew it to find a gash on his palm. ‘’ Be careful.’’ he warned Hidenori as he sucked the blood off his hand. ‘’ I think I just grabbed a big shard of glass.’’

His friend frowned. ‘’ I don’t think that there’s any useful stuff down here. Maybe we should… Wait, I have an idea.’’ He grabbed something Tsukasa couldn’t see and began to yank as hard as he could. Finally, he pulled a twisted bicycle from it. As he did, the pile began to sag and collapse, garbage streaming down the side the bicycle had been removed from. With one last rumble, the top collapsed down on the ground, burying the bike and revealing even more goodies.

‘’ There.’’ Hidenori said in triumph, breathing heavily. ‘’ Let’s see if we can find something good now.’’

Their hunt was now more fruitful. Between the two, they found a junked Tranzer, an old computer, several wooden boards that could be sold, and several battlecards. ‘’ Great.’’ Hidenori said as he covered the treasures with other garbage to hide them. ‘’ Let’s go into town to see if anyone is interested in buying any of this stuff.’’

Tsukasa wasn’t paying attention. He was kneeling on the ground, looking at something with great interest.

‘’ Something wrong?’’ Hidenori asked.

‘’ Do you know what this is?’’ Tsukasa asked, holding up what he had found.

It was a rather curious device. It was about the size of a person’s palm, and had a ring on the side to slip fingers through. There was a screen on it, but it was covered by a plastic cover, with a circular piece of glass so that to viewer could still see the screen. ‘’ It looks like some kinda old Tranzer or something.’’ Hidenori said quizzically, scratching his head. ‘’ I really have no idea what that thing is.’’

‘’ Why don’t we ask Derrick?’’ Tsukasa asked, pocketing the thing. ‘’ He knows a lot about computers and Tranzers, so I bet he’ll know what this is.’’

Hidenori looked skeptic. ‘’ I’m not sure that’s smart.’’

‘’ Oh come on!’’ Tsukasa protested, wiping hair out of his face. ‘’ It can’t hurt.’’

His friend sighed. ‘’ Oh all right, but don’t blame me if something bad happens…’’

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Derrick and his gang had made their home at the center of the yard. Using raw materials found in the scrap, they had built a hodge-podge of a headquarters. The walls were made from larges metal sheets that had been somehow driven into the ground, the roof was a large tarp, and held down by extra strength adhesive. The inside was decorated with furniture scavenged from the yard, all in various states of disrepair, such as strings poking out of couches of stuffing trailing out from rips in cushions.

Derrick himself was a mean looking teenager, muscular too. His hair was brown and unkempt, and his beady green eyes were always searching for valuables he could lift from their rightful place. He wore camo pants, and a vest over a white tank top. His gang looked equally fierce.

Hidenori and Tsukasa were led inside to the least filthy room in this place. There, Derrick was sitting on an ancient egg shaped aero chair, and was flanked by two beefy henchmen. In front of him was a coffee table, which had a bowl of some unfamiliar food on it. The Junk Boss steepled his fingers together and leaned forward, reminiscent of megalomaniacs from retro spy movies. ‘’ I heard that two kids came here to ask Junkman (he referred to himself in the third person a lot) something. What is it? Make it quick!’’

Tsukasa held the device he had found out. ‘’ We found this out in the yard.’’ he explained. ‘’ We thought that you might know what it was since you know computers.’’

‘’ Bring it.’’ Derrick told one of his guards. The guard took it from Tsukasa’s hand and gave it to him. Derrick studied the thing, and then gave a gasp. ‘’ You found this in the yard?!’’

‘’ What is it?’’ Hidenori asked.

‘’ It’s an Advance PET II!’’

‘’ What’s a PET?’’

Derrick put the thing down on the table in front of him. ‘’ Before they used Tranzers, people used PETs. You can tell that this is an Advance II edition by the circular window here.’’ he said, running his finger along said window. ‘’ It’s around 200 years old, and extremely rare. You could easily get five digits for this.’’

‘’ Oh thanks!’’ Tsukasa said happily. He reached for it, but Derrick snatched it up.

‘’ Hey!’’ Hidenori cried in indignation. ‘’ We found that!’’

‘’ In my junkyard!’’ Derrick sneered. ‘’ Everything of value here belongs to me! Get it punks? You’re only here because I let you!’’

‘’ Why you!’’ Hidenori snarled. For a moment, it looked like he was going to launch himself at the greedy teen, but thought better of it when the two goons glared menacingly at him.

‘’ But that’s ours!’’ Tsukasa protested. The goons ignored him, as a girly looking 11 year old would be no threat to their boss.

‘’ Just leave it.’’ Hidenori groaned. ‘’ Come on… let’s get out of here.’’

But Tsukasa was insistent. He stepped around the table and grabbed Derrick’s arm.
‘’ Please!’’ he begged. ‘’ Please give it back!’’

Derrick gave him a look of distain, stood up, and, without warning, kneed his smaller adversary in the stomach. Hidenori cried out in dismay as Tsukasa went down gasping, clutching his stomach. ‘’ Don’t touch me you bastard.’’ Derrick snarled.

‘’ W-Why…?’’ Tsukasa gasped.

‘’ Why?’’ Derrick repeated maliciously. ‘’ That’s why you were left in this yard! Because you’re a damn filthy little bastard!’’ The goons began to laugh.

Something snapped.

Tsukasa suddenly leapt up and punched his tormenter with shocking force. Derrick stumbled backward and tripped over his chair, crashing to the floor with a large crash.

Before he could pick himself up, Tsukasa was upon him. With a shocking amount of rage and power, he began to mercilessly punch Derrick in the face. ‘’DON’T… CALL… ME… A… BASTARD!!’’ he screamed with each blow. Hidenori and the goons stood by, too scared to interfere.

Tsukasa did not let up his assault. Not even when he drew blood, not even when Derrick, who couldn’t defend himself, began to whimper, not when his eyes began to swell and turn black, not when he knocked out several teeth, not even when his nose failed to hold up any longer and broke, doubling the flow of blood.

This finally woke the goons from their trance; they leapt forward and ripped Tsukasa from their boss, who had by now lost consciousness. Tsukasa pulled himself away, and began to breathe heavily from the exertion. His eyes were wild, and blood dripped down his hands.

Hidenori, careful to maintain a distance, called out to him. ‘’ What the hell is wrong with you??!!’’ he screamed. ‘’ What happened, Metrios attack your head?!’’

Tsukasa turned and glared at him. ‘’ Don’t come near me Tsukasa!’’ Hidenori shouted frantically.

‘’ I hate that name!’’ Tsukasa spat. ‘’ He’s so damn weak! Hikaru… that is much better!’’

With that, he turned and stalked out of the makeshift building, still trembling with rage.

The PET remained where it had been dropped, crushed beyond repair underneath the chair.

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If you didn’t get what was going on, Tsukasa is the ‘girl’ who appears after Misora and before Goyoda in Ryuusei’s OP. In the game, he was abandoned as an infant in the Dream Island scrap yard. On the towel he was wrapped in, Tsukasa was written, so that’s what he calls himself. However, he has split personalities. His normal one, Tsukasa, and a darker half, Hikaru. When Denpa Henken is performed with his FM, Gemini, Hikaru physically manifests himself as the second twin, and the two fight together as Gemini Spark.
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