CSC V3 Ch. 3

*****

Hisao

*****

It's been a few days since the attack that inspired rumors of a new Piper out on the prowl.  There haven't been any incidents after (thank goodness), and because of that, the excitement and fear eventually died down and life had mostly gone back to normal.

Well, I say mostly gone back to normal, but not everything.

"What the hell is that cop's problem?" Omoyo yelled, giving her desk a frustrated smack.

With no volunteer work scheduled, we were all chilling in the clubroom doing our own thing when she suddenly lost her temper. The "cop" that got her all vexed was Serimachi.

Ever since that first meeting with him when he questioned us about the attack, we've all spotted and run into him many times. He mostly just said or waved "hi" to us in passing, but for some reason, it got on Omoyo's nerves.

"That guy's totally stalking us," she claimed.

"Are you sure it's not just your imagination?" I asked. "I mean, that attack did happen close by our usual way to and from school. He could just be doing his job by canvasing the whole area, looking for clues, all that."

"All the way here?" Omoyo said, referring to the school. "No way. He's definitely stalking us. The way he looked at us sometimes, it's like he thinks we're criminals or something! We need to watch out, especially you, Isaneko."

With a smile, Isaneko replied, "Aw, are you worried about me, Homura? I'm so touched. You must really care about me, a lot."

Omoyo scowled and said, "I'm being serious here." She turned away as if to hide her face, which was looking a bit red. "It was obvious from the get-go that cop doesn't like you. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to do something to you. Speaking of which, what did you do to him? It sounded like you guys got history."

"In a way, we do have a bit of history," Isaneko admitted. "His wife is actually a member of my cult."

I blinked and wondered, Did I hear her right?

"Isaneko, you have a cult? Like an actual cult?"

The others looked at me funny.

"Yes," Isaneko said, rather slowly and deliberately. "But you should know that already. We talked about this a while back. Don't tell me you forgot."

"Well . . ."

"Unbelievable," went Omoyo. "How do you forget something like that?"

I shied away feeling somewhat embarrassed and defensively said, "Give me a break. If it's been a long time, I'm going to forget, okay? So, does this mean that you got people bowing and praying to you, stuff like that?"

"Occasionally," said Isaneko. "It's surprising how stupid people can be. Just because I showed a little bit of supernatural gift, they believe that I'm like some kind of divine savior. I have to pinch myself to keep a straight face every time my followers sing me praises. It's just too hilarious."

She had a dark smile plastered on her face as she spoke with rising evil elation.

"I take back my concern," said Omoyo. "It's no wonder that cop hates your guts."

Isaneko shrugged. "I'm already bored with all that worship, to be honest. I've been trying to phase those kinds of meetings out, but Mother was adamant about keeping them going."

"Okay," I went, standing up. "I think that's enough of an info dump of things I'm probably better off not knowing."

"Oh, is it that time already?" said Mirai, glancing up at the wall-mounted clock stuck close to the ceiling.

"Yeah," I replied back. I hit the snooze button on my phone, ceasing the alarm buzzing and stuffed it back in my pocket.

Ever since the attack a few days ago, my parents had become increasingly worried about mine and Yuna's safety, so they had us coming home earlier than usual. They also didn't want us going out during the weekends, which didn't really matter since all the weekend volunteer work events the club always joins have been canceled for the foreseeable future. I was also more of a homebody, anyway. Still am.

As I grabbed my stuff, I asked the others, "You guys coming with?"

Mirai shook his head. "Nah. You guys go on ahead. I must consult the dark forces for the next harvest of souls."

I'm not even gonna bother trying to translate that.

"I'm gonna stick around too," said Omoyo. "I just remembered I'm scheduled to help out the Library Committee today."

"I'm also scheduled to help out the Library Committee," said Isaneko.

Omoyo raised an eyebrow and said, "You are? Since when?"

"Since right now."

"Oi."

"Then I guess it's just you and me, Yuna," I said. "Let's go."

As Yuna and I casually strolled through the usual streets and roads, I noted how there were more people around compared to when we usually walked down this way. I was just about to turn a corner, when Yuna suddenly tugged on my sleeve, stopping me.

"Is something wrong, Yuna?" I asked her.

She pointed at the corner and out walked a boy our age from another school. I think Yuna must have sensed the boy coming and stopped me from walking into him. He happened to glance at us, and his eyes almost immediately lit up.

"Hisao? Is that you?" he said.

"Shinji? Wow, it's been a while!"

The boy grinned and replied back, "Yeah, it has."

Shinji was a friend of mine back when we were kids. We used to hang out together all the time until middle school. 

"Look at you," he said. "Did you lose weight? I hardly recognized you!"

"Must be all that Kendo practice," I said.

Shinji did a double-take. "You and Kendo!? You, the guy who did nothing but watch anime all day and night? You joined the Kendo Club?"

"Did you have to say it like that?" I pouted in dismay at his reaction. "But no, I'm not in the Kendo Club. I'm in the Community Service Club. I just get sent there to help out when they're short on people, which seems to happen a lot for some reason. Never joined them in any contests though."

Shinji raised an eyebrow. "You get sent there? What? Did your mom bribe your club prez or something to make you exercise?"

"You know?" I said. "That would not surprise me."

Yuna yanked on my sleeve again.

"Oh! Right!" I exclaimed, realizing something. "Sorry, Yuna. Hey, Shinji. This is my cousin, Yuna. Yuna, this is Shinji, a friend of mine from middle school."

"Pleasure to meet you," Shinji said with a grin. 

Yuna smiled back and bowed without a word.

"Not much of a talker, huh?" Shinji whispered to me. "Even less than you."

"There's . . . actually a reason for that," I whispered back.

"A reason?"

"It's complicated," I said, thinking better than to elaborate on my cousin's past without her say-so. "Anyway, what about you? Are you still doing Kendo yourself?"

"You know it," said Shinji, glancing back at the long bundle of fabric slung behind him. "Got a match coming up too."

"With who? Megugami?"

Shinji shook his head. "A different school, which is too bad. I'd love to spar with you some time. I bet it'd be fun."

"Pft! I doubt it," I said with a short. "I can barely hold my own against the latecomers. I won't last a second against you in a fair fight, Mr. Middle School Kendo Star."

"Aw, don't say that," said Shinji. "Who knows? After all that practice, you might even be good enough to give me an actual workout."

"Ha ha," I laughed mockingly at his sarcasm. "Very funny. But seriously, I'm not even in the Kendo Club. Like I said, I just help out from time to time with practice. No contests or anything like that. Anyway, it was nice talking to you, but me and Yuna need to get going."

"Why? What's the fire? You guys got a doctor's appointment or something?"

I shook my head and replied, "No, nothing like that. My mom just wants us home early because of that thing that happened a few days ago."

"Oh, that," said Shinji. "It's crazy what's been happening in town lately. First, the Piper shows up. Then we had those fires. Now this. Did you hear? The guy that got attacked was the ace of his school's Kendo Club! I know the guy was probably taken by surprise, but to put him out of commission like that . . . Whoever the culprit is, they're strong. I hope they catch him soon."

"You and me both," I said. "Well, see you."

"See you around," Shinji said.

We parted and went our separate ways.

A few minutes later, while me and Yuna continued our walk home, Yuna suddenly stopped and tugged on my sleeve again, this time rather frantically.

"What is it now, Yuna?" I asked.

Yuna aggressively jabbed her finger the way we came again and again, and then wildly waved her hands around. I didn't really understand what she was trying to say.

Giving up on hand signs, Yuna hurriedly pulled out her phone and typed in it as fast as she could before practically shoving the device into my face.

On the screen, I read: "Shinji following trouble maybe"

I repeated the words a few times under my breath, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Which wasn't easy for me, let me tell you. But I got it soon enough.

"You think someone's following Shinji and he might be in trouble?"

Yuna gave a vigorous nod.

A terrible image suddenly flashed in my head of Shinji lying face down on the ground and I felt something surge from inside my stomach. It was both hot and unpleasant.

And then, without hesitation, as if someone else had taken me over, I ordered Yuna, "Take me to him. Quick!"

Yuna seemed surprised at my sudden change in personality, but recovered and nodded. 

Together, we ran back the way we came. Yuna led me down the road Shinji had taken and it was a straight shot forward. Along the way, Yuna nearly tripped, but I caught her before she could hit the ground and scooped her up in my arms, carrying her the rest of the way. 

"I just need to keep going straight, right?" I asked her.

She timidly nodded in response.

I didn't notice at the time, but Yuna was pretty flustered when I picked her up. I wasn't sure why. We were in a rush and it seemed like the sensible thing to do to save time. 

I also normally wouldn't have the strength to carry another person, let alone carry someone while running. But thanks to my Psy-Armor, Yuna was as light as a feather, and I could run for miles and miles. Thankfully, I didn't have to go that far.

In just a few minutes, I caught up to him. I spotted him a few feet away just slowly making his way home without a care in the world.

I stopped just a few feet behind him and set Yuna down. As far as I could see, we were the only ones around.

"Yuna," I whispered, "you sure he's being followed?"

Yuna nodded and made circle motions with her finger before pointing ahead. I think she was trying to tell me that the guy following Shinji had circled around and is now waiting ahead of him.

"Great, now what to do?"

As I tried to figure out my next move now that I was there, Shinji suddenly cried out.

"Whoa!"

Yuna and I looked up, and I saw Shinji fly up, like a guy in a cartoon slipping on a banana peel.

"Shinji!"

I kicked off and leaped. A cluster of psychic energy gathered at my feet and exploded, propelling me forward as I leaned down. I managed to get beneath Shinji just in time after skidding across the ground, which felt surprisingly slippery and cold for some reason.

He went "Guh!" when he landed on my back and rolled off. I, on the other hand, didn't feel a thing thanks to my Psy-Armor.

As we picked ourselves up, I asked, "You okay, Shinji?"

"Forget about me!" Shinji cried out. "What about you? I probably shouldn't say this about myself, but I'm pretty heavy on muscles thanks to all that Kendo."

"Oh, I'm okay," I said. "Didn't even feel a thing."

Which was the complete truth.

"Were you always this hardy?" Shinji asked with an incredulous look.

I shrugged and replied, "You're not the only one who's built some muscle."

I couldn't really blame him for it, but the doubtful look on Shinji's face was really hurtful. But moving on . . .

"You still haven't answered my question," I pointed out.

"A little sore, but nothing serious thanks to you," he said. 

I breathed out in relief. "That's good to hear. But that seriously freaked me out, the way you suddenly flew up like that. It was like something out of a cartoon."

"You're telling me," said Shinji. "But there's nothing funny about this. If you hadn't caught me, I might have conked my head and it'd be lights out for me. Forever."

He took a look at the ground.

"It's weird though, how the ground just suddenly got all slippery. Wait, is that . . .?"

I followed his gaze to the pavement and was astonished to see that quite clearly a section of it was covered in ice, something that should be impossible this time of year.

<== Chapter 2

Lily Wong Ch. 34

Chapter 34

An Absurd Man

A new day had come, and with it, a new month. With Halloween over, everyone was out cleaning up the remains of the festivities, including the students who got the day off from classes. All of the students were out sweeping, packing up decorations and throwing away garbage. All of them except for five students who had gathered at a classroom at the history building to speak with the teacher there.

Viceroy Kevin Lin sat on top of his lecture table with his arms crossed, and one leg folded over the other while scowling sternly at the kids sitting in front of him.

The previous night, after rescuing Lily from an army of homicidal skeletons and suits of armor, Viceroy carried her out of the underground chamber filled with deadly traps through holes he made by punching the walls and ceilings, and then took his niece to a nurse's office for a checkup before returning to the dorms to rest. He discovered the others' involvement in Lily's magical activities when showed up to see how she was doing and had them come to the meeting taking place now.

As soon as everyone was seated, Viceroy got started.

"Now then," he said. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but I want to hear your story first."

He looked Lily square in the eye. 

"Tell me everything. Leave nothing out."

Lily and the others gave each other quick glances. After taking a deep breath, she told her uncle everything. From the moment she found the bracelet to all the adventures she and the others had; she left nothing out.

When she was done, Viceroy closed his eyes for a moment to ponder.

"I see," he said after opening his eyes again. "So you've been sneaking out at night to deal with a magical maniac who's been tormenting the students for his own amusement who's been calling himself the Schemer. And you freaked out yesterday because you thought I was working for him."

Lily nodded. "Yeah. But now I'm not so sure anymore. Please tell me, Uncle Viceroy, what is really going on?"

"First of all," Viceroy said, "I have no idea what's really going on. I never even heard of the Schemer before today, let alone work for him."

"But then why lie about losing a bet to patrol the library?" asked Lily. "Why were you at these places before the Schemer hit them? And why were you so chummy with him yesterday? What even are you? Since when could you use magic?"

"Yeah," Tanja cut in. "And why do you wear glasses even though your medical records say you got perfect vision?"

Everyone looked at her funny.

Uncle Viceroy asked, "Why do you know what's in my medical records?" 

"No reason," Tanja quickly replied. She turned her gaze away while whistling innocently.

"Uh-huh." Viceroy had a raised eyebrow but chose to just steer back to the main matter and started to tell his story.

"I suppose I should start with that last question. When I was about your age, me and my cousin Jodie suddenly got zapped to another world that was like straight out of a fairy tale. We met a famous witch there and traveled around with her for a bit before we found a way back home. During our travels, me and Jodie read some magic books and practiced a few spells, which was how we gained our powers."

"So Aunt Jodie has magic powers too?" asked Lily.

"That's right," Viceroy said with a nod. "And she's probably way better at it than I am. She used to do all sorts of experiments on my after we got back from Emeron."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Lily cut in. "Hold the phone here. Did you just say Aunt Jodie used to experiment on you?"

"Yep," said Viceroy.

"Like you were some kind of lab rat?"

"Yep."

"And you let her?"

"Yep."

"Why?" Lily asked her uncle. "Just why?"

"She paid me with Pokémon cards."

THUNK!

Lily planted her face down on the table and groaned.

"Anyway, that's how I got magic powers," said Uncle Viceroy. "Now what else . . . Oh, right! About lying at the library. Well, I noticed something magical going on that time and came to check it out. I couldn't actually tell you that since magic was supposed to be a secret, so I made something up. Though, I suppose that was pointless."

"And the places the Schemer hit? What about those?" asked Lily.

"Bluestone asked me to check those places out because he noticed something out of the ordinary," Viceroy said. "I didn't find anything myself and thought they were all just false alarms, except for that tiger statue everyone was talking about. I thought I heard a girl while I was dealing with it, but never imagined it was actually you, Lily."

"Pardon me, Mr. Lin," Oliver cut in. "But you said Director Bluestone asked you to investigate those places?"

"That's right," Uncle Viceroy said. "Oh, you probably don't know this but Director Bluestone is actually a magician like me. And a pretty powerful one at that. Well, you have to be if you want to be part of the Magic Council."

"The Magic Council?"

Uncle Viceroy explained, "They're a group of magicians that go around telling all the other magicians in the world what to do. They're not actually a government for magicians, but they got a lot of magic power, a lot of money, a lot of people working for them and almost everyone goes along with the same kind of rules they make anyway. And believe it or not, I'm actually a secret agent for the Council."

Lily raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You're a secret agent, Uncle Viceroy? How'd that happen?"

Viceroy shrugged and replied, "Not sure. After my term as a Fourth Grade English teacher in a Japan was over, I suddenly got a call from them saying they wanted to hire me. Maybe me nuking the Illuminati had something to do with it."

Lily cried, "You did WHAT?"

Uncle Viceroy acted like he didn't hear and continued. "I haven't really done anything secret agent-y yet though," he said. "The Council had me stationed here at the school as a teacher for cover while I wait to get a mission."

Under his breath, Oliver muttered, "Something tells me you're never getting one."

Lily overheard and wordlessly agreed. It was pretty obvious that the Magic Council's real aim was to keep Uncle Viceroy from making more trouble by putting him somewhere out of the way.

"But we're getting off-topic," he said, oblivious to the students' thoughts. "There's still one final question, I need to answer, right Lily?"

He looked Lily square in the eye, his usual goofiness gone and replaced with a chilling sharpness. Lily swallowed but gave a firm nod back.

"You accused me of being chummy with the Schemer yesterday. Before I explain, let me ask you a few questions first. Judging by when you freaked out and broke that transformation spell, I'm guessing you're talking about the visitor I had at my office. Am I right?"

Lily nodded.

"Why did you think my visitor was the Schemer?"

"Are you kidding me?" cried Lily. "Looking like that, who else could he be?"

Uncle Viceroy rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a bit.

"And just what exactly does the Schemer look like?"

Lily scowled at her uncle.

"Just humor me here, guys."

Reluctantly, Lily obliged. "Well, he's really big and tall."

Viv added, "He's got on this blue gown with long flowing sleeves and a hood over his face."

Eddie chimed in, "And you can't see anything under that hood. Like completely pitch black."

To cap it off, Oliver said, "He also sounded like he was using one of those digital voice changers, all deep and distorted."

"And that's what you saw and heard Lily?" Viceroy asked.

Lily nodded.

"I see," said Viceroy. "But what, or rather who, I saw looked completely different. Who I saw was an old man of average height with white hair and dressed in a business suit."

"How can that be?" cried Lily. "I did see the Schemer! I really did! I was there listening to you chat and laughing over evil schemes! I'm not lying."

"I never said you were lying," Viceroy said. "I'm just saying that you and I saw and heard different things."

Lily crossed her arms and irritably asked, "How is that any different?"

"Think about it, Lily," said her uncle. "There must have been something strange from our chat, something that doesn't match, a gap or two maybe?"

"Now that you mention it, I did notice some weird pauses you made," said Lily. "But what does it all mean?"

"I can understand your confusion," said Uncle Viceroy. "But there is a pretty obvious reason behind these discrepancies, one that anyone involved with magic could think of: an illusion. You were hit by a magic hex that made you see and hear things differently from what is actually there and said."

"But when did that happen?" asked Lily.

"If I may, Lily," said Oliver. "I believe you may have been hexed with an illusion spell at the same time you had been transformed into an infant. I suspect that what happened yesterday was no accident, but an orchestration of the Schemer."

"You think he used his magic mumbo jumbo on my stuff?" Tanja asked. "But when would he have the chance to do that?"

"Remember, Tanja," said Oliver, "our opponent is a cunning sorcerer far more experienced and educated in the magic arts than we are. There's no telling what sort of tricks he still has hidden in his sleeves. He could easily tamper with our things without us noticing and has only done so now because he probably felt like it was time to up his game."

"That said," Uncle Viceroy spoke up again, "I don't have any proof to anything I just told you. It's just my word against what you saw and heard with your own eyes and ears, Lily."

"I believe you," Lily said with conviction. "If you were really working for the Schemer, you wouldn't have put a stop to that tiger statue. And you wouldn't have come to save me, twice."

"Well, I'm glad I have your trust again," Uncle Viceroy said, smiling warmly. "It's just too bad I have to give you all detention for the remainder of the school term."

Lily blinked. "Say what?"

"I'm also banning you from all the game rooms, movie theaters and playgrounds. You won't be allowed to go anywhere except for your classrooms, the dining hall and your dorm rooms. Oh, and you can't use the internet anymore except for the school's digital library for homework."

Eddie exclaimed in dismay, "What? Why?"

"What did you expect?" asked Uncle Viceroy. "You guys admitted to breaking curfew, trespassing to off-limits areas, and even snuck out of school grounds one time. Worse still, you kids knowingly put yourselves in danger. You should count yourselves lucky that I don't tell your parents about this. I can't anyway because of all the magic stuff. Well, except for you, Lily."

"What? You're going to tell Mom about this? No! You can't!" Lily cried. "She's going to kill me!"

"Believe me," said Uncle Viceroy. "I'm not happy about this either. I'm sure to get most of the flak for this."

"Then - !"

"But for you and me, this magic business is a family matter. Unlike the others, I can't hide this from your parents. You're going to just have get ready to face the music."

"But - !"

"I'm sorry, Lily," Uncle Viceroy cut in. "But this is not up for debate. Now, get going. You're going to want to enjoy what little time you have left to be free, because starting tomorrow that freedom's going bye-bye."

**********

After watching his students trudge out of the history building, Viceroy marched over to the Castle and headed up the stairs to the top floor before stopping in front of a door.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Went his knuckles against polished wood surface. He waited a few seconds and then knocked on it again. The second time, he got an answer from inside.

"It's open!" a raspy voice called out.

Viceroy opened the door and walked into the dimly lit office space. There, he found Julius Bluestone sitting behind his desk while sunk comfortably low in his chair, one leg folded over the other with his hands clasped on his lap.

"Ah, Viceroy," said the white-haired old man. "Take a seat, take a seat! To what do I owe this sudden visit?"

Viceroy opted to keep standing and said, "I got something I needed to ask you, Director. It's pretty urgent."

"Urgent you say?" Bluestone frowned and straightened up. "Well, if it's urgent, ask away!"

"Yes, or no: are you the Schemer?"

Bluestone looked up. While his eyes were locked with Viceroy's, he tapped a finger on the end of his chair's armrest over a small rune symbol carving. That carving was the trigger for a powerful and complex illusion spell that Bluestone had built into his office that could overwhelm the strongest of minds. Whatever the victims of that spell see and hear would be things that he wanted them to see and hear. 

Viceroy's eyes flashed blue for an instant, a sign that the spell had taken hold.

So, while Bluestone smiled and answered truthfully, "Yes, I am the Schemer," Viceroy instead heard, "No, I'm not the Schemer."

This should be more than enough to fool his built-in lie detector, Bluestone thought.

But against expectations, Viceroy squint his eyes and said, "So you ARE the Schemer."

Bluestone dropped his jaw, astonished. "That spell was powerful enough to befuddle a dragon. How - ?"

"Illusions are still lies in the end," Viceroy said. "Simple as that."

Bluestone gaped at the history teacher, dumbfounded. But then he snorted and laughed. He laughed and laughed. And laughed. 

Then, after calming down, he said, "Here I thought you could not possibly surprise me more after literally punching through the magical defenses of the old Bluestone family lair, but to resist illusion magic of the highest grade like this! You truly are an absurd man, Viceroy Kevin Lin. But I suppose that's to be expected of the person who nuked the Illuminati."

Viceroy was not amused. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

No longer all smiles, Bluestone coldly responded, "No. You probably want to know what my plans are and why I'm doing all this, but I will divulge neither. All you need to know is that I have fallen onto the path of evil and that I will not stop."

Viceroy balled his fingers into fists, and he said softly, "You think I won't stop you?"

"No, you won't," said Bluestone. "Because you're not allowed to."

"Not allowed? And just what is that supposed to -! Huh? Why can't I move?"

Viceroy suddenly found himself frozen in place. No matter what he tried, his limbs refused to listen.

Slowly, Bluestone stood up and casually paced around the younger man with his hands held together behind his back.

"Oh, Mr. Lin," the old man said, "You are indeed an absurd man. But no matter how absurd you are, even you cannot break the chains of a magic contract."

Viceroy made a puzzled face. "A magic contract? Since when did I -?" He was hit by an abrupt realization and his eyes lit up. "My job contract! That wasn't just an ordinary piece of paper I signed, was it? That was a magic contract!"

"That's right," said Bluestone. He stopped right in front of Viceroy and smirked. "A magic contract, one of the few magic spells out there that are absolutely unbreakable. Once signed, the very universe itself will make sure you follow whatever's written in it."

Viceroy glared daggers at Bluestone while listening. "So you've had this planned out for years!" he said.

"Well, I've certainly been planning for years and years, and years," Bluestone said. He had resumed pacing around his prisoner. "But the magic contract was the other Magic Council members' idea. You didn't really believe they thought you would be the perfect secret agent to help protect the world from evil did you? To them, you were dangerous, like a rabid animal that needed to be caged. And the magic contract is that cage. I merely took advantage of the contract and added a few things to it to make you . . . convenient for my plans."

"Which you still won't tell me about?"

"No," said Bluestone. "But don't worry. You won't have to wait long to find out."

And then he burst in evil laughter.

"Mwa ha ha ha ha ha! MWA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!"

<== Chapter 33

A Poem: The Spiral of Hate

 The Spiral of Hate

A Spiral of Hate is sparked

By Hateful Deed to Innocent People

Indignant cries leads to march for Justice

But Righteousness depletes at a rabbit's pace

The Line between Good and Evil blurs

Angel faces become masks for Demons

As Hate pollute Souls of Heavenly Blue to Hellish Red

No longer Righteous and Just.

No longer Heroes of Goodness.

Stained by Innocents' blood

Monsters they are of the Worst Sort of Evil.

Reviled, disgusted and Hated

Sins of Vengeance inspire more Hate to spread.

The Indignant misdirected to Misguided Acts

To make pay the Innocents and Undeserving

In place of Hate-corrupted Kings who ignore Calls for True Justice.

Truly, Angels have Fallen

Obedient to the whispers of the Devil in their Hearts

An Inspiration to Others to make weep He Who Watches From Above

To turn a most Stupid Cycle, a most Foolish Spiral with no end in sight.

A Spiral of Hate

*********

Hi. This is Victor, the author.

It is not often that I openly express my views to the wider world, mostly because I'm just a simple guy who wants to avoid conflict as much as possible. But sometimes, as news after news comes out of an unfortunate situation getting much, much worse, I cannot help it. And it has gotten to the point that this time, I wanted to make sure that this poem is understood at its core.

This poem in a nutshell is a criticism and condemnation of all parties involved in the currently ongoing conflict as of this post that started between Hamas and Israel that started in October 2023 AD and eventually snowballed to rope in at least two other countries directly, and inspired people in the greater world in really negative ways. And I mean all parties.

It is also a warning of things to come that we've all already seen coming but still needed saying for some reason. Everyone had these warnings before. We've seen it in the latter half of Naruto, a franchise started by Japanese comic artist Masashi Kishimoto. We've seen it in an episode of Doctor Who about a conflict with rebellious Zygons. Sure, one's a cartoon and the other's a fictional sci-fi drama aimed at children. But that doesn't mean the messages, the morals, and the lessons are invalid, especially about the consequences of war and falling to our own hatred.

One real life example that proves my point would be the event that took place in Amsterdam between November 6 to November 7, 2024 and possibly ongoing as well.

And to be perfectly clear so there is no misunderstanding, I condemn antisemitism. I condemn racism. I condemn sexism. I view all those things as evil, and they clearly are. 

I judge not by a person's race, religion or cultural background. I judge people individually, by the things they say and do as individuals even as they claim to say and do things as a representative of their demographic. And if I believe what those individuals do is evil, then I condemn those individuals, and those individuals alone. Because race, religion and cultural background are in no way indicators of a person's worth or whether they are evil or not.

Now, I will end my essay with a link to a video that perfectly encapsulates pretty much everything.

The Doctor's Speech | The Zygon Inversion | Doctor Who

YOUTUBE LINK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJP9o4BEziI&ab_channel=DoctorWho