Chapter 1
The sterile scent of antiseptic hung heavy in the air, a stark contrast to the vibrant energy Sae was accustomed to on the football field.
He strode through the Blue Lock facility, Girolamo trailing anxiously behind, his face etched with concern.
The news had hit Sae with the force of a well-aimed shot, a gut-wrenching blow masked by his icy exterior.
Rin, missing? The thought churned within him, a volatile cocktail of disbelief, anger, and a flicker of something he refused to acknowledge as worry.
He found Ego in his usual spot, perched before a bank of monitors, his face a mask of grim concentration.
The monitors displayed security footage, each frame zoomed in on the hospital entrance, exits, and surrounding streets.
"It's like he vanished into thin air," Ego stated, his voice clipped and devoid of his usual theatrics. "He entered the hospital yesterday morning as scheduled. No footage of him leaving. We've reviewed every camera angle, questioned every staff member. Nothing."
Sae's jaw tightened. "Loki knew he was going to the hospital?"
Ego nodded. "He voiced his concerns about Rin's condition. Apparently, Rin was pushing himself to the breaking point. Loki threatened to bench him for the match against Bastard München if he didn't see a doctor. Rin finally agreed and took a day off."
The implication hung in the air.
Loki, with his meticulous attention to detail, wouldn't have left this to chance. He would have ensured Rin actually went to the hospital. But then… what happened?
"Show me the footage of him entering," Sae demanded, his voice sharp.
The scene flickered to life on the screen. Rin, looking pale and gaunt, his dark hair a mess, walked through the hospital doors. He looked exhausted, every step a visible effort.
Sae watched him disappear into the sterile lobby.
The camera remained trained on the entrance, but Rin never reappeared.
Hours passed as they reviewed the footage, scrutinizing every detail.
Sae's frustration mounted. He was used to dissecting plays, analyzing movements, anticipating opponents.
But this was a different kind of game, a game with invisible players and unknown rules.
"Who else knew Rin was going for a checkup?" Sae finally asked, his voice low and dangerous.
Ego considered this. "Aside from Loki and myself, only a handful of the coaching staff and perhaps a few of Rin's teammates who might have noticed his condition. But they're all accounted for."
Sae didn't believe it. Someone knew more than they were letting on.
He could feel it in his gut, a tightening knot of suspicion. He needed to talk to Loki.
He found the French striker in the training grounds, effortlessly juggling a football.
Loki's usually playful demeanor was subdued, his blue eyes clouded with a rare hint of unease.
"Sae," Loki greeted, his voice neutral.
"You told Rin to see a doctor," Sae stated, cutting straight to the chase. "Did he seem… hesitant?"
Loki nodded. "He didn't want to admit he was struggling. Rin is stubborn, you know that. He hates showing weakness."
"Did you see him enter the hospital?"
"No, I didn't. I had training and assumed he would follow my instructions." Loki paused, his gaze hardening. "You think I had something to do with this?"
"I'm not ruling anything out," Sae replied, his voice flat. He searched Loki's eyes, looking for any sign of deception.
He saw only genuine concern mingled with bewilderment.
─── ∘°❉°∘ ───
"Let me out of here!" Rin screamed, slamming his fist against the steel door.
A dull ache vibrated through his wrist, but the door remained unyielding.
He hated the stupid choker clamped around his neck. It felt heavy, constricting, a constant reminder of his captivity.
"They won't open the door," a voice drawled.
Rin spun around to see a silver-haired teenager lounging on the narrow bed. He had a similar choker around his own neck, his fingers rhythmically stroking it.
"Who are them?!" Rin demanded, his voice hoarse.
The teenager shrugged, a glint of amusement in his eyes. "Mutant Traffickers. The choker on your neck enables your powers."
Rin froze, his mind reeling. "What? I'm not a mutant!" he shouted, disbelief and anger surging through him.
The silver-haired teenager arched a skeptical eyebrow. "Kid, they wouldn't have kidnapped you if you were not a mutant."
He crossed his legs, his gaze unwavering. "Unless they just like your pretty eyes, which, you know, good for you, bad for me."
Rin slumped to the floor, the weight of the revelation crushing him.
Mutant Traffickers. Powers. He wasn't just exhausted or sick. He was… something else. Something dangerous.
He had always strived to be the best in football, to surpass his brother, but this… this was a different ball game.
"What do you mean, 'enable'?" Rin asked, his voice barely a whisper. He looked up at the teenager, desperation creeping into his eyes.
"It's like a limiter. Suppresses your powers so they can control you," the teenager explained, his voice surprisingly gentle.
"The chokers allow them to use those powers at their leisure and sell you to the highest bidder."
Rin felt a wave of nausea wash over him. He, a weapon? A tool? The idea was repulsive.
He closed his eyes, trying to reconcile this new reality with everything he thought he knew about himself.
He was Rin Itoshi, a football prodigy, on the path to becoming the best striker in the world. Not… this.
"What's your name?" Rin asked, his voice raspy.
"Pietro Maximoff," the teenager replied, a hint of weariness in his tone. "Welcome to the club, I guess."
Rin opened his eyes, a flicker of defiance igniting within him. He might be trapped, he might be a mutant, and he might be facing an unimaginable threat, but he wasn't broken.
He was Rin Itoshi, and he would not be controlled.
He would find a way out of this, even if it meant embracing the very thing he never knew he was.
"Pietro," Rin said, his voice gaining strength and fear, "do you think they will take this off if we asked a bit nicely?"
Pietro raised an eyebrow, a flicker of amusement in his tired eyes.
"You think asking nicely is going to do the trick, kid?" He gestured to the smooth, obsidian band around his own neck with a sardonic smile.
"These things are designed to stay put. And trust me, asking politely hasn't worked for the past… well, long enough."
Rin’s frustration simmered but he pushed it down. He needed information, not to lash out.
“So how do they work then? If they enhance powers, what are they enhancing? Mine, I mean.” He pointed to his own choker, a cold, metallic thing that felt alien against his skin.
Pietro finally sat up a little straighter, a hint of animation returning to his demeanor.
"Think of it like… a tap. These chokers tap into something already there. For mutants," he emphasized the word, watching Rin's reaction closely, "they stimulate and control their powers. For you…" He paused, his gaze intense, "For you, they’re probably unlocking something dormant. You feel anything… different?"
Rin frowned, concentrating.
He felt… wired. Restless. His senses felt sharper, the hum of the fluorescent lights more grating, the stale recycled air heavier in his lungs, the distant thump of footsteps in the corridor echoing more loudly.
He had dismissed it as stress, but now… "Yeah," he admitted grudgingly. "Everything feels louder. More… intense."
Pietro nodded slowly. "Welcome to the party, kid. Sensory amplification, maybe more. Everyone's powers are different. And these traffickers, they're not interested in party tricks."
"So what do they want with us?" Rin asked, his voice low.
Pietro sighed, running a hand through his messy brown hair.
"Depends. Some they sell off to shady organizations, labs, even governments. Some they… train. Force to fight in underground arenas, things like that. Mutant powers, they're a commodity. A dangerous one."
The thought of being sold, of being a weapon for someone else, ignited a cold fury in Rin.
He wasn’t going to be anyone's tool. "There has to be a way out," he said, his voice hardening with resolve. "You said you've been here a while. You must have tried something."
Pietro’s initial spark of animation dimmed, replaced by a weary cynicism.
"Tried everything. These rooms are reinforced, doors are locked with biometrics and some kind of energy field. The chokers," he tapped his again, "they also suppress our abilities, prevent us from going full power. They're not stupid."
"But they're not perfect," Rin countered, standing up, pacing the small space.
"Nothing is perfect. There's always a weakness, a flaw." He ran his hands over the door, testing the frame, the hinges. It was solid, cold metal.
He balled his fist, the pent-up energy under his skin thrumming. He punched the door again, harder this time, a dull thud echoing in the room.
"Waste of energy," Pietro muttered, but there was a flicker of something new in his eyes – interest. He was watching Rin, really watching him, for the first time.
"Maybe," Rin conceded, still studying the door. "But we need to test their limits, right? Find the breaking point."
He turned to Pietro, a spark of manic energy igniting in his eyes. "You said they suppress our powers. But they also enhance them, right? So, what if we overload the system? What if we push past the suppression, force them to glitch?"
Pietro blinked, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Overload… you think that could work?" Hope, fragile but present, crept into his voice.
─── ∘°❉°∘ ───
Ego sighed, a sound of reluctant agreement. "Fine. I'll send everything to your device about the hospital Rin visited."
Sae hung up, his eyes burning with a cold, focused fury. "Girolan," he said, his voice sharp, "I need you to access every database you can. Hospitals, clinics, security networks, anything within a fifty-mile radius of this hospital. Look for any unusual activity, disappearances, anything that screams… off-grid."
Girolan, though intimidated by Sae's intensity, nodded quickly, already pulling out his own devices. "Right away, Sae-chan."
─── ∘°❉°∘ ───
Rin and Pietro were huddled near the corner, examining the choker on Rin’s neck.
"It’s smooth, no visible seams, no buttons," Rin muttered, his fingers tracing the cool metal.
"It's nanotech," Pietro explained. "Self-adjusting, responsive to bio-signatures. Cutting it won't work. It’ll probably just tighten or release some kind of energy pulse."
"Great," Rin grumbled. "So brute force isn't an option." He leaned back against the wall, the cold seeping into his bones. He shivered, not just from fear, but from a deeper, internal chill.
Pietro’s brow furrowed as he watched Rin. “Your body is cold,” he observed, his voice laced with a strange undertone. “Like someone whose…”
Suddenly, the already weak lightbulb above them flickered violently, plunging the room into near darkness for a split second before sputtering back to life, now casting long, distorted shadows across the walls.
In that brief moment of darkness, something shifted in the atmosphere, a prickling sensation on Rin's skin, a sudden drop in temperature that had nothing to do with the room itself.
When the light stabilized, illuminating the corner again, Pietro’s eyes widened, his usual detached demeanor cracking. He stared, not at Rin, but at something behind him.
Rin instinctively turned, his heart slamming against his ribs.
Standing in the doorway, barely visible in the flickering light, was a child.
A girl, maybe seven or eight, dressed in a faded, blood-stained hospital gown.
Her pale face was streaked with grime and what looked horrifyingly like dried blood.
She clutched a tattered teddy bear in one hand, its fur matted and dark with the same sinister substance.
But it was her eyes that froze Rin to the spot.
They were black, completely black, devoid of pupil or iris, and they shone with a malevolent glee that no child should ever possess.
Blood dripped from her fingertips, each drop echoing in the sudden, heavy silence of the room.
The child’s head tilted at an unnatural angle, a grotesque parody of childish curiosity.
A slow, horrifying smile stretched across her face, a smile that revealed rows of teeth far too sharp, far too pointed for a child.
Her body began to twist and contort in impossible ways, limbs bending backwards, neck elongating, bones audibly cracking and snapping as she moved.
The teddy bear fell to the floor with a soft thud. She took a step, then another, her movements jerky and disjointed like a puppet with broken strings, and started to run towards them.
Rin reacted purely on instinct.
He snatched the first thing his hand landed on – a small, dented metal cup that had been inexplicably left in the corner. He hurled it at the child with all his might.
It struck her in the face with a sickening thud, but instead of stopping her, it seemed to enrage her further.
She let out a shriek that was not human, a high-pitched, ear-splitting sound that vibrated in Rin’s bones.
Pietro, his face drained of color, grabbed Rin’s arm, his fingers digging painfully into his flesh. “Run!” he yelled, his voice a panicked rasp.
He didn’t need to be told twice. Rin scrambled to his feet, propelled by a primal fear he had never known existed.
They bolted towards the opposite side of the room, desperate to escape the horrifying apparition that was now practically on top of them.
Pietro, his movements blurring with impossible speed, slammed his shoulder against the wall, sending a section of loose paneling crashing to the floor. Behind it, a dark, narrow vent shaft gaped open.
Without hesitation, Pietro shoved Rin towards the opening. “Go! Get in!”
Rin, barely registering what was happening, squeezed himself into the cramped space, the rough metal scraping against his skin.
He could hear the screeching of the child getting closer, feel the wave of icy dread emanating from it.
As he scrambled further into the vent, Pietro was right behind him, pushing them both deeper into the darkness.
They crawled blindly through the narrow shaft, the metallic tang of the vent replacing the coppery scent of blood.
The child’s shrieks faded behind them, replaced by the frantic rasp of their own breathing.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the vent opened into a dusty, dimly lit space – a kitchen, judging by the faint smell of stale grease and the glint of stainless steel in the gloom.
They tumbled out onto the sticky linoleum floor, gasping for breath, adrenaline still coursing through their veins.
Rin scrambled back, his eyes wide and darting, expecting to see the child emerge from the vent behind them.
But there was nothing. Only the lingering echo of her unearthly scream in his mind.
Pietro, his face still pale, leaned against a chipped countertop, catching his breath. “We better move fast,” he said, his voice strained but regaining some of its earlier composure. “These chokers… they have a tracking device. They’ll know we’re out.”
Rin stared at him, still trembling, the image of the bloody child burned into his vision.
Tracker? Traffickers? Mutants? His mind struggled to process the torrent of information, the sheer impossibility of what had just happened.
He was trapped in a nightmare, and he had no idea how to wake up as he and Pietro dashed to the exit and ran outside to the city.
Pietro rubbed the choker thoughtfully, his brow furrowed. “Wherever ‘they’ are, it ain’t Japan no more, kid.” He glanced around the alley they’d tumbled.
Buildings loomed, taller and grimmer than anything back home, and the air felt colder, sharper.
“Smells like… city smog and desperation. Definitely not Tokyo.” He shuddered, even though the chase was over, a chill still clinging to him from that… thing in the house.
Rin, still breathing heavily, leaned against the brick wall of the alley, his mind a whirlwind. Mutant? Kidnapped? Bloody ghost children? It was all too much.
“So where are we then Pietro? You seem to know more than you’re letting on.”
Pietro sighed, running a hand through his messy silver hair. “Okay, kid, buckle up. This is gonna be a bumpy ride. First off, we’re probably somewhere in America. Judging by the architecture and the… general vibe, maybe somewhere like New York or Chicago. Definitely West or maybe i'm wrong and we are in an unknown state.” He paused, his gaze distant “Look, kid, we gotta move. These trackers are probably broadcasting our location right now. They won’t leave us be.”
“Okay, okay, move where?” Rin asked, pushing himself off the wall, a surge of adrenaline replacing his fear with a desperate need for action.
“Do you… do you have a plan, Pietro?”
Pietro pushed himself up, stretching his limbs. “Plan A? Get the hell away from here. Plan B? Figure out how to get these damn things off. Plan C? If all else fails… make them regret ever kidnapping us.”
A spark of his old self flickered in his eyes. “I’m pretty good at Plan C, by the way.”
He tilted his head, listening intently. “Hear that? Sirens. They’re coming.” He grabbed Rin’s arm again. “Come on, kid. Let’s see if we can outrun them. First thing’s first, we need to find somewhere… less conspicuous.”
They bolted from the alley, emerging onto a street bustling with evening traffic.
Cars honked, people rushed past, oblivious to the two teenagers with glowing chokers fleeing for their lives.
The city lights seemed to blur as Pietro, true to his word, was incredibly fast, pulling Rin along with him.
Rin struggled to keep up, his lungs burning, but Pietro’s grip was firm. He was indeed fast. Unnaturally fast. Was that his power?
As they weaved through the crowd, Rin tried to focus on Pietro. Silver hair, bright green eyes, a nervous energy that seemed to crackle around him. He looked older than Rin, maybe seventeen or eighteen. And he seemed… resigned, almost like he’d been through this before.
“They’ll have cars, won’t they?” Rin gasped, trying to catch his breath.
“Probably,” Pietro yelled back over the city noise, “but we got a head start. And they don’t know exactly what we can do yet.” He glanced back, his eyes scanning the street. “We need to lose ourselves in the crowd, find somewhere… safe for a bit.”
Suddenly, Pietro veered sharply, pulling Rin into a brightly lit subway station.
The air here was thick with the smell of metal and dampness, and the rumble of approaching trains vibrated through the floor.
“Subway?” Rin questioned, confused.
“Best way to disappear in a city like this,” Pietro said, his voice dropping to a more normal level now.
“Millions of people, tunnels everywhere. They’ll have a harder time tracking us down here.” He pulled Rin towards the ticket machines. “Come on, let’s blend in.”
As they navigated the crowded platform, Rin’s mind raced. He was a mutant. He had powers he didn't know about.
He was in a strange country being hunted by mutant traffickers.
And he was relying on a silver-haired teenager he’d just met who seemed to know way too much about all of this.
"I think even if these chokers limits our powers," Pietro said quietly, drawing Rin's attention back to the present, "whenever you feel cold... it might be a sign you're summoning an evil spirit."