Chapter 32
[47]
Mitsuru Kirijo examined the lab in front of her from atop a nearby building. Once upon a time it had belonged to the Kirijo group, Japan’s former most influential tech conglomerate. The company had since fallen to ruin after years of corporate sabotage and covert blackmail.
Now, the site before her belonged to Okumura Enterprises, the number two tech company in Japan, second only to the corporate titan that was Shido Sciences.
Mitsuru was here on a mission. She donned her black domino mask and stepped off the rooftop. This job would be easy compared to what she’d already gone through. Inside was a hard drive containing the schematics for an advanced device that’d been ‘acquisitioned’ from the Kirijo group upon its fall.
The lab was closed for the night so, aside from a few security guards, the place would be empty.
She scaled the side of the building with her grappling hook and came to a stop at a top floor window. Extending her fingers revealed the hidden claws in her gloves. She cut a perfect circle through the glass and carefully climbed through the hole. Softly placing the glass on the floor, she stepped into the head office overlooking the rest of the lab.
Looking out across the workfloor, she saw something very out of place. A crew of men stood in a large crowd on the workfloor surrounding a man in a lab coat lying on the floor. The men kicked the scientist in his ribs and shouted at him, what they were saying however, Mitsuru couldn’t hear.
‘Oh dammit.’ Against her better judgement, Mitsuru decided to get involved. She blamed it on that damn spider. Years ago she would have left those crooks to their devices, but after meeting Yu, she’d been shown the ropes of the hero life and even indulged in some crime fighting from time to time.
Mitsuru announced her presence by leaping through the office window and out onto the workfloor below. If Narukami could see her now, he’d be proud of how far she’d come from her original ways.
“Hey boys! Why don’t you leave the nerd alone.”
The crooks stared in disbelief at the woman before them. Tall with long flowing maroon locks and pale flawless skin, garbed in a black catsuit that conformed to her athletic yet slender figure, she was truly a sight to behold.
“Holy shit! Forget that asshole. C’mere baby, we’ll show ya a real good time!” The criminals left the man on the floor and approached the seemingly unarmed woman. Unknown to them however, this cat had claws.
Mitsuru flexed her fingers and her retractable claws extended once more. The closest thug had his face slashed and fell to the ground in pain. She then leapt to the next closest one and broke his nose with her heel.
Only 3 thugs remained, now seeing her as a threat, they pulled out their weapons. Two had lead pipes and one had a gun, child’s play to the experienced fighter. She used a combination of her gymnastics and judo training to take them down before the armed one could even fire off a shot.
The cat burglar looked down at her injured victims, either unconscious or writhing in pain (Yu wouldn’t be too proud of that, but at least they weren’t dead. She then turned her attention to the scientist still on the ground.
He attempted to crawl away as he watched her approach, but she caught him easily. Slamming her heel down next to his head, she leaned in to meet the man’s gaze.
“What were those men looking for?” She questioned the frightened man.
“I-I don’t know! I don’t know!”
Mitsuru traced the edge of her claws across the man’s chin. “You saw what I did to them. If you don’t answer me, I’ll make that seem like a slap on the wrist.”
“P-Please, I don’t want to die!”
Of course Mitsuru had no intention of actually harming the innocent scientist. But since the opportunity for an even bigger score presented itself, she’d be a terrible thief if she ignored it. So, to make the man believe she’d actually hurt him, she swiped her claws next to his head.
“TELL ME!”
“Th-The basement! They wanted to get to the basement.” He stammered out.
“Basement?” This lab didn’t have a basement, at least not when it was owned by the Kirijo group. “Take me there.”
“But-” The man protested.
“NOW! BEFORE I EXECUTE YOU!”
The scientist pushed himself off the ground and onto his feet. He led her out of the workfloor and into a hall containing an elevator. When the two stepped into the elevator, he swiped his badge on a scanner.
“Basement.” He said aloud.
The elevator chimed in response before humming to life and moving downward. And downward. And downward. What the hell? They were on the ground floor before. Just how deep down was this basement?
Finally, the elevator came to a stop and another chime sounded. “Basement.” Came an automated voice from the scanner.
The doors in front of Mitsuru opened to reveal an enormous underground room dwarfing the workfloor above. Blinking devices littered the walls alongside large tubing and wires that led all the way up the walls presumably to the floors above. But, what stood out most in the room was the centerpiece.
Inside of a giant tube of thick glass, a glowing orange figure in a roughly humanoid shape thrashed violently against his containment. The creature had to be 15 feet tall, its shape was fluid and constantly changing as it moved. The figure opened its globby boneless mouth in a scream that couldn’t be heard through its glass prison.
Mitsuru stared in awe at the abomination before her. “What the hell is that thing?” She said quietly.
“Not what.” The scientist replied. “Who.”
Mitsuru turned to the man who watched the molten figure with a look of pity on his face. She pushed him forward out into the room.
“Explain.” Mitsuru demanded and flexed her claws again.
He turned to her, fear once again showing in his eyes as he remembered his situation.
The scientist cleared his throat before speaking. “That thing was a man...once. His name was Yohei Kiritani, but now we refer to him as project Molten Man.” The scientist once again turned to face the imprisoned creature.
There was a moment of silence before he continued. “Kiritani was a scientist here at Okumura Enterprises. We worked together on an experimental liquid metal alloy. One day, something went wrong. Kiritani was exposed to the alloy and it consumed him, turning him into that.” He pointed at the figure.
“Okumura wanted to cover it up, said it would tank our stocks. So we contained him as best as we could. Built this whole place to hold him.” He gestured to the entire room. “But it wasn’t enough to just cover up the mistake. Okumura wanted to use him to get an edge over the competition.”
The scientist walked over to a nearby control panel. Mitsuru watched curiously, yet cautiously as he pressed a series of buttons. Suddenly, a large hole above Molten Man’s container opened. A random assortment of objects fell into the creature’s tank and on to its body before the hole closed again. The trash melted into the creature’s body and his orange glow became visibly brighter.
After completing the task, the scientist turned back to Mitsuru. “So now my friend is a battery for this goddamn company.”
“I don’t understand.” Mitsuru stated as she watched the last of the trash be consumed.
“After containing him, we soon found out that Kiritani’s body would consume itself over time. The only way to prevent this is by introducing new matter for him to absorb, the resulting reaction produces immense heat. Okumura Enterprises claims that they’ve found a way to recycle waste into sustainable energy, it’s what’s gotten us to our number 2 spot as a tech company. But, in reality, we’re just feeding trash to a monster we have locked in our basement.”
“My god!” When Mitsuru broke into the lab tonight, this had been the last thing she was expecting to find.
The scientist looked up at Mitsuru with pleading eyes and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I know I have no right to ask this, but please…”
“Help me end his suffering.”