Green Lantern Corps. General. 004. Insides.
Title: Elseworlds: Kuroyami Ni Mo
Fandom: Green Lantern Corps
Characters: Motoyama Hikaru (Kal’El)
Prompt: 004 - INSIDES
Word Count: 2144
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Half a planetary rotation makes so much difference.
Author's Notes: “Kuroyami ni mo” translates loosely to “in blackest night.” The character for the name ‘Hikaru’ means light. The character for the name ‘Shou’ means ‘to fly.’
Again. It had happened again. This was the third time the train had crumpled against his body instead of the other way around. Hikaru took off before anyone could see his face, running down the tracks and veering off as soon as he’d gotten past the station and not slowing down until he was in a tiny road in the middle of nowhere, mountains all around. He had no idea where he was.
Fortunately, his cell phone did, and it had been in the pocket not facing the train. It told him, via the GPS tracking system, that he’d run all the way up to Miyagi. He took a deep breath and started south, hoping he could call the speed again. It came and went at unpredictable intervals. He had nearly reached Nagaoka - he could catch a train from there and nothing would seem strange - when his surroundings came to a standstill and the ground rushed up to meet him. His last conscious thought before it hit was to hope that he wouldn’t wake again.
Fourteen Years Prior
The streak of light across the sky might have been a shooting star, or a meteorite, or even some accidental piece of debris falling from perhaps a plane. It was none of these. It struck Earth far too gently for the speed of its descent, ending its long journey in the mountains of Aomori of Japan. The sound of its impact - the snapping of wood as trees broke and the crunch of metal on rocky dirt - brought no curious onlookers. The following day, a small child was found on the narrow road by a lost tourist far beyond the reaches of her map. Although the child was obviously foreign, she brought it to the nearest structure, only to be brusquely informed that it was no business of theirs.
Unable, in good conscience, to either leave the child or take it with her, the tourist asked for directions to the nearest police station. No one was on duty when she arrived, but the door was open, and a sign stated that the officer on duty was on patrol. The tourist, digging through the items in the back of her car, found both a basket and a blanket and left the child at the tiny police station.
Much to the officer’s surprise, the sound of a crying child greeted him upon his return. Not knowing precisely what to do with it - he was both young and unmarried, with no prospect of changing that latter qualification in the near future - he brought it to his superior officer, who sent him to City Hall (somewhat of a misnomer, as the community it served was barely large enough to be called a town, much less a city). City Hall sent him to the nearest actual city, where he left the baby with child services.
Child Services protested that the matter was highly irregular and where had the baby been born and who were its parents and this was not within their jurisdiction, but eventually the child was settled at the nearest shelter. He would remain there for the next four years, preternaturally quiet but a quick learner regardless of the subject, and with a marked propensity to avoid other children. His pale skin and bright blue eyes made him a target for unwanted attention, whether it was on the part of his peers or his superiors, and he learned early on to keep his eyes downcast. Often, he could be found simply running, a look of concentration on his small face.
Shortly before what was guessed to be his fifth birthday, the boy was peremptorily adopted and given the name Hikaru; the family in question was fairly well-off despite the growing economic difficulties and their son had expressed the desire for a younger brother. The wife and mother - Aiko - was unable to have another child due to complications with her first, Shou. Because of this, it was hard for both her and her husband to refuse their son anything. Hikaru was picked randomly from a pile of folders, chosen for his age - Shou was seven - and for the complete lack of any disciplinary or behavioral problems. The decision was nearly reneged when they were introduced to Hikaru, on the grounds of his being so clearly foreign, but Shou was fascinated and immediately claimed the boy.
That fascination would fade over the next few years, although Shou never failed to defend his younger brother. Hikaru was taunted for everything - for his quiet demeanor, for his round blue eyes, for his skin, for his extraordinary skill at any sport he tried, for his ability to learn and remember quickly and apparently easily. Most of all, he was taunted because he showed no indication of pain. Sometimes it was as if he didn’t even notice he’d been struck.
The year Hikaru turned twelve, the family was relocated to Niigata prefecture, near the city of Nagaoka. The move coincided with the start of the new school year, and both Hikaru and Shouta found themselves as new students at the same junior high school. It was a large school, and while Hikaru made no friends, none of his fellow students harassed him either. It was a welcome change, and the two years he would spend at East Central Junior High School were the happiest he could remember at that time.
Shou, meanwhile, graduated and went on to a middle-ranked high school. His grades weren’t as good as his younger brother’s, nor was he particularly good at sports (although he showed a rare talent for coming out on top in a street fight), but it didn’t seem to bother him. During his second year - only a few months before Hikaru was to graduate junior high school and as he started preparations for high school entrance exams - a third-year student somehow got his hands on his police officer father’s service weapon and used it to shoot both his parents before bringing it to the school and empty the rest of the shots randomly into the crowd of early morning students. He fled through the building and up to the roof, finally jumping off despite all efforts to talk him down. One of the students hit was Shou; he was pronounced dead at the scene by the paramedics.
Standing behind Shou at that moment was Hikaru, asking for advice before going to his own school. The bullet passed cleanly through Shou’s ribcage and out the other side, ripping a hole in Hikaru’s uniform and impacting against his skin. It flattened and dropped. Hikaru felt it slide down into his shirt - properly tucked into his tightly belted pants - and then realized that his clothes were wet with his brother’s blood, and finally that Shou had fallen. He refused to let go of his brother until his parents arrived to pry his surprisingly strong grip loose and take him home.
The bullet clattered to the floor later, as he pulled off his uniform to burn it; Aiko found him sitting next to the empty bathtub, scalding water turning his fair skin pink and with his fist clenched tightly. He blinked at her when she called his name, finally standing and emerging. She had no way of knowing that the word “freak” was just as loud in his head as the refrain that his brother was gone and never coming back. That day was Hikaru’s fifteenth birthday.
It was three months later, the day of his junior high school graduation, that Hikaru threw himself in front of a train for the first time and felt it crumple around him. He’d run before he could be identified. The second time was two weeks later, and this time he chose a faster train. It had no effect. The third time was the day before he was due to enter the most prestigious high school in the prefecture and he knew that it was hopeless and he could not die.
Hikaru opened his eyes to a hospital ceiling. His mother sat next to him, looking worried and for a moment he felt guilty for trying to take her other child away, but no matter how much they all ignored it, everyone knew Hikaru wasn’t really Aiko’s son.
“You’re overworked,” Aiko told him, and Hikaru nodded. “You missed the entrance ceremony today, but the school waived the attendance requirement in your case.”
“Thank you,” Hikaru said. “I’m sorry to be such a bother.”
“You’re my son,” Aiko said, her grip on his hand tightening. Hikaru didn’t squeeze back.
The hospital sent Hikaru home that evening. After his parents went to bed, he locked himself in the bathroom with a razor. It would not pierce his skin, and his hand shook hard enough that he could not force it. The next day, he went to school and listened attentively in all of his classes, taking notes and asking questions. He avoided the after school clubs, pleading ill health, and did his homework. Again, he waited for his parents to close their door. This time, he snuck out the windows and climbed a telephone pole. There was a thick power line within reach. Hidden in the darkness below a broken streetlight, he grabbed the line and pulled. The power for three blocks in all directions suddenly winked out, but all he felt was a mild tickle. After knotting the line so that it would not accidentally injure anyone else, Hikaru returned home.
After his fifth attempt failed, Hikaru locked the door to his room and refused to come out. He lost enrollment in his high school and incurred both the wrath of his father and tearful pleadings on behalf of his mother, but he wouldn’t budge. Eventually, his parents gave up. After several months, he began to hear voices and sounds, and thought he might have lost his mind, except that what he heard coincided with what little he saw from his window. If he’d gone crazy, his mind had provided a very convincing illusion. Almost against what little remained of his will, Hikaru began to listen actively. It didn’t take long before he could identify the residents of his neighborhood by sound, but then the scope widened. He could hear sounds from farther away than he could see, and not all of them were pleasant or even what he could dismiss as normal. The pain and suffering of others reached his ears, and he couldn’t stop hearing. Something had to change. Fourteen months after Hikaru had locked his door, he opened it and stepped across the threshold.
Hikaru’s choice of that particular moment to exit his room was prompted by a whistling sound, growing steadily louder. It culminated in a loud boom nearby, the groundshaking sound followed by the worst earthquake the area had seen in five decades. Hikaru, following some inner prompting he didn’t understand, ran directly to what turned out to be the crash site.
“Sector 2814.” The voice rang from inside what could only be an alien ship, halfway buried in the side of the mountain. Hikaru followed it, tearing a hole in the side with his bare hands and for the first time appreciating how his freakish strength might be used to reach someone unreachable by other means.
Inside the ship was a body - it was so clearly inhuman, despite having the same basic shape, that Hikaru thought of himself as not the alien for the first time in his life. “My name is Abin Sur,” it said, “and you have the ability to overcome great fear.”
“But I don’t,” Hikaru found himself saying. “I jumped in front of a train because I was afraid of being different. I hid for over a year because I was afraid of myself.”
“Are you hiding now?” Abin Sur asked, and Hikaru realized that it was badly injured.
“I…” he said, and started forward. “You’re hurt.”
“You were chosen for your compassion as well as your ability to overcome fear, Motoyama Hikaru of Earth,” Abin Sur said.
“Chosen for what?” Hikaru couldn’t help asking.
“I am the Green Lantern of Sector 2814,” the alien said, “but I am dying. I must choose a replacement to take over my duties. You have shown courage, strength, and compassion. Do you accept?”
“But I haven’t shown any of that.” Hikaru knelt by the alien, searching for the source of the bleeding and pressing his hand against the worst of the alien’s wounds.
“This ring will manifest your will,” Abin Sur said. His voice was growing steadily weaker, and his hands trembled as he removed a ring of clear green from his finger. “I will not ask a third time.” He held out the ring, flashing green eyes catching Hikaru’s gaze despite himself. “Do you accept?”
Hikaru hesitated, and made his decision.
FINIS
Nalanzu's Little Damn Table
Fandom: Green Lantern Corps
Characters: Motoyama Hikaru (Kal’El)
Prompt: 004 - INSIDES
Word Count: 2144
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Half a planetary rotation makes so much difference.
Author's Notes: “Kuroyami ni mo” translates loosely to “in blackest night.” The character for the name ‘Hikaru’ means light. The character for the name ‘Shou’ means ‘to fly.’
Again. It had happened again. This was the third time the train had crumpled against his body instead of the other way around. Hikaru took off before anyone could see his face, running down the tracks and veering off as soon as he’d gotten past the station and not slowing down until he was in a tiny road in the middle of nowhere, mountains all around. He had no idea where he was.
Fortunately, his cell phone did, and it had been in the pocket not facing the train. It told him, via the GPS tracking system, that he’d run all the way up to Miyagi. He took a deep breath and started south, hoping he could call the speed again. It came and went at unpredictable intervals. He had nearly reached Nagaoka - he could catch a train from there and nothing would seem strange - when his surroundings came to a standstill and the ground rushed up to meet him. His last conscious thought before it hit was to hope that he wouldn’t wake again.
Fourteen Years Prior
The streak of light across the sky might have been a shooting star, or a meteorite, or even some accidental piece of debris falling from perhaps a plane. It was none of these. It struck Earth far too gently for the speed of its descent, ending its long journey in the mountains of Aomori of Japan. The sound of its impact - the snapping of wood as trees broke and the crunch of metal on rocky dirt - brought no curious onlookers. The following day, a small child was found on the narrow road by a lost tourist far beyond the reaches of her map. Although the child was obviously foreign, she brought it to the nearest structure, only to be brusquely informed that it was no business of theirs.
Unable, in good conscience, to either leave the child or take it with her, the tourist asked for directions to the nearest police station. No one was on duty when she arrived, but the door was open, and a sign stated that the officer on duty was on patrol. The tourist, digging through the items in the back of her car, found both a basket and a blanket and left the child at the tiny police station.
Much to the officer’s surprise, the sound of a crying child greeted him upon his return. Not knowing precisely what to do with it - he was both young and unmarried, with no prospect of changing that latter qualification in the near future - he brought it to his superior officer, who sent him to City Hall (somewhat of a misnomer, as the community it served was barely large enough to be called a town, much less a city). City Hall sent him to the nearest actual city, where he left the baby with child services.
Child Services protested that the matter was highly irregular and where had the baby been born and who were its parents and this was not within their jurisdiction, but eventually the child was settled at the nearest shelter. He would remain there for the next four years, preternaturally quiet but a quick learner regardless of the subject, and with a marked propensity to avoid other children. His pale skin and bright blue eyes made him a target for unwanted attention, whether it was on the part of his peers or his superiors, and he learned early on to keep his eyes downcast. Often, he could be found simply running, a look of concentration on his small face.
Shortly before what was guessed to be his fifth birthday, the boy was peremptorily adopted and given the name Hikaru; the family in question was fairly well-off despite the growing economic difficulties and their son had expressed the desire for a younger brother. The wife and mother - Aiko - was unable to have another child due to complications with her first, Shou. Because of this, it was hard for both her and her husband to refuse their son anything. Hikaru was picked randomly from a pile of folders, chosen for his age - Shou was seven - and for the complete lack of any disciplinary or behavioral problems. The decision was nearly reneged when they were introduced to Hikaru, on the grounds of his being so clearly foreign, but Shou was fascinated and immediately claimed the boy.
That fascination would fade over the next few years, although Shou never failed to defend his younger brother. Hikaru was taunted for everything - for his quiet demeanor, for his round blue eyes, for his skin, for his extraordinary skill at any sport he tried, for his ability to learn and remember quickly and apparently easily. Most of all, he was taunted because he showed no indication of pain. Sometimes it was as if he didn’t even notice he’d been struck.
The year Hikaru turned twelve, the family was relocated to Niigata prefecture, near the city of Nagaoka. The move coincided with the start of the new school year, and both Hikaru and Shouta found themselves as new students at the same junior high school. It was a large school, and while Hikaru made no friends, none of his fellow students harassed him either. It was a welcome change, and the two years he would spend at East Central Junior High School were the happiest he could remember at that time.
Shou, meanwhile, graduated and went on to a middle-ranked high school. His grades weren’t as good as his younger brother’s, nor was he particularly good at sports (although he showed a rare talent for coming out on top in a street fight), but it didn’t seem to bother him. During his second year - only a few months before Hikaru was to graduate junior high school and as he started preparations for high school entrance exams - a third-year student somehow got his hands on his police officer father’s service weapon and used it to shoot both his parents before bringing it to the school and empty the rest of the shots randomly into the crowd of early morning students. He fled through the building and up to the roof, finally jumping off despite all efforts to talk him down. One of the students hit was Shou; he was pronounced dead at the scene by the paramedics.
Standing behind Shou at that moment was Hikaru, asking for advice before going to his own school. The bullet passed cleanly through Shou’s ribcage and out the other side, ripping a hole in Hikaru’s uniform and impacting against his skin. It flattened and dropped. Hikaru felt it slide down into his shirt - properly tucked into his tightly belted pants - and then realized that his clothes were wet with his brother’s blood, and finally that Shou had fallen. He refused to let go of his brother until his parents arrived to pry his surprisingly strong grip loose and take him home.
The bullet clattered to the floor later, as he pulled off his uniform to burn it; Aiko found him sitting next to the empty bathtub, scalding water turning his fair skin pink and with his fist clenched tightly. He blinked at her when she called his name, finally standing and emerging. She had no way of knowing that the word “freak” was just as loud in his head as the refrain that his brother was gone and never coming back. That day was Hikaru’s fifteenth birthday.
It was three months later, the day of his junior high school graduation, that Hikaru threw himself in front of a train for the first time and felt it crumple around him. He’d run before he could be identified. The second time was two weeks later, and this time he chose a faster train. It had no effect. The third time was the day before he was due to enter the most prestigious high school in the prefecture and he knew that it was hopeless and he could not die.
Hikaru opened his eyes to a hospital ceiling. His mother sat next to him, looking worried and for a moment he felt guilty for trying to take her other child away, but no matter how much they all ignored it, everyone knew Hikaru wasn’t really Aiko’s son.
“You’re overworked,” Aiko told him, and Hikaru nodded. “You missed the entrance ceremony today, but the school waived the attendance requirement in your case.”
“Thank you,” Hikaru said. “I’m sorry to be such a bother.”
“You’re my son,” Aiko said, her grip on his hand tightening. Hikaru didn’t squeeze back.
The hospital sent Hikaru home that evening. After his parents went to bed, he locked himself in the bathroom with a razor. It would not pierce his skin, and his hand shook hard enough that he could not force it. The next day, he went to school and listened attentively in all of his classes, taking notes and asking questions. He avoided the after school clubs, pleading ill health, and did his homework. Again, he waited for his parents to close their door. This time, he snuck out the windows and climbed a telephone pole. There was a thick power line within reach. Hidden in the darkness below a broken streetlight, he grabbed the line and pulled. The power for three blocks in all directions suddenly winked out, but all he felt was a mild tickle. After knotting the line so that it would not accidentally injure anyone else, Hikaru returned home.
After his fifth attempt failed, Hikaru locked the door to his room and refused to come out. He lost enrollment in his high school and incurred both the wrath of his father and tearful pleadings on behalf of his mother, but he wouldn’t budge. Eventually, his parents gave up. After several months, he began to hear voices and sounds, and thought he might have lost his mind, except that what he heard coincided with what little he saw from his window. If he’d gone crazy, his mind had provided a very convincing illusion. Almost against what little remained of his will, Hikaru began to listen actively. It didn’t take long before he could identify the residents of his neighborhood by sound, but then the scope widened. He could hear sounds from farther away than he could see, and not all of them were pleasant or even what he could dismiss as normal. The pain and suffering of others reached his ears, and he couldn’t stop hearing. Something had to change. Fourteen months after Hikaru had locked his door, he opened it and stepped across the threshold.
Hikaru’s choice of that particular moment to exit his room was prompted by a whistling sound, growing steadily louder. It culminated in a loud boom nearby, the groundshaking sound followed by the worst earthquake the area had seen in five decades. Hikaru, following some inner prompting he didn’t understand, ran directly to what turned out to be the crash site.
“Sector 2814.” The voice rang from inside what could only be an alien ship, halfway buried in the side of the mountain. Hikaru followed it, tearing a hole in the side with his bare hands and for the first time appreciating how his freakish strength might be used to reach someone unreachable by other means.
Inside the ship was a body - it was so clearly inhuman, despite having the same basic shape, that Hikaru thought of himself as not the alien for the first time in his life. “My name is Abin Sur,” it said, “and you have the ability to overcome great fear.”
“But I don’t,” Hikaru found himself saying. “I jumped in front of a train because I was afraid of being different. I hid for over a year because I was afraid of myself.”
“Are you hiding now?” Abin Sur asked, and Hikaru realized that it was badly injured.
“I…” he said, and started forward. “You’re hurt.”
“You were chosen for your compassion as well as your ability to overcome fear, Motoyama Hikaru of Earth,” Abin Sur said.
“Chosen for what?” Hikaru couldn’t help asking.
“I am the Green Lantern of Sector 2814,” the alien said, “but I am dying. I must choose a replacement to take over my duties. You have shown courage, strength, and compassion. Do you accept?”
“But I haven’t shown any of that.” Hikaru knelt by the alien, searching for the source of the bleeding and pressing his hand against the worst of the alien’s wounds.
“This ring will manifest your will,” Abin Sur said. His voice was growing steadily weaker, and his hands trembled as he removed a ring of clear green from his finger. “I will not ask a third time.” He held out the ring, flashing green eyes catching Hikaru’s gaze despite himself. “Do you accept?”
Hikaru hesitated, and made his decision.
FINIS
Nalanzu's Little Damn Table