A young boy named Hika walks happily in the middle of a scorching desert. Despite the heat, it doesn't seem to bother him. He has just returned from a trading market, where he exchanged goods with other survivors, and is now making his way back to his base. As he walks, he spots a plane wreck in the distance. He notices his best friend, who is tinkering with his laser gun, nearby.

"Arik! I'm back with more food and water!" He calls out to Arik with a bright tone.

Arik immediately stops his activity. He looks relieved after seeing Hika come back safely.

"Hey, Hika! Why do you go alone? You should always have my supervision when you travel!" Arik scolds him.

"But I'm okay, right? So what's the problem-" Suddenly, a giant snake erupts beneath Hika. Its giant mouth immediately swallows him.

"That's why..." Arik makes a big sigh. The giant snake right now is wiggling his body like a worm, still finishing to go out of the ground and shaking it intensely. Arik starts pulling out his laser gun. After a quick inhale and exhale, his eyes redden. Arik starts dashing at the purple monster. His goal is to blast the snake's yellow eyes. With movement as fast as lightning, he makes a red trail out of his glowing eye. The snake, not realizing Arik's presence, suddenly gets surprised to see him in front of its eyes. An explosion abrupt, its eyes got obliterated along with its brain. Arik quickly dashes down before his power starts to fade. The fully erect snake is now falling to the ground, shaking it immensely.

"I guess Hika teleported to the trade market again. I guess I should pick him up...," Arik sighs.

Hika and Arik are mutated humans in this post-apocalyptic world. Arik's power is to move with super speed, but only when he is alone with one living creature. His power rule is a bit strict, it even has a drawback, he will have an urge to kill when his power is activated, and his power is a passive type. So even if Arik didn't want to, his power would activate if he was alone with someone. Troubling him and endangering someone, especially Hika. After getting his dark yellow jacket and black backpack he starts his travel to the trade market.

...(Now from Hika's perspective)...

In a bustling trade market filled with unique stalls. Each one brimming with technologies and daily necessities. People are just milling out, trying to find the perfect stall for their trade. Some people with mutated features or even part cyborgs are strolling around in this resource haven. Particularly at one stall specializing in basic supplies, there is Hika.

"One pack of water bottles, please!" Hika is trading again, but somehow the item that he brought has disappeared, and he can't continue the trade.

"Hey! aren't you already traded with me half an hour ago?" The bald guy with an eye patch looks confused at Hika's behavior.

"Ahh..." Hika understands the situation now. He just got revived again.

"But how do I die and when?" Hika mutters to himself. Hika's mutated power is to rewind time 15 to 30 minutes to the past when he dies, but it only affects him and not the world. So in the eyes of others, if he dies, he just vanishes and is teleported somewhere. And the drawback is that every time he dies, his memories get erased bit by bit.

"Hey kid, if you're just gonna stand around and not trade, just go away from my stall!" The bald guy kicks him out.

Saddened and confused, Hika walked away from the stall. When he is near the trade market exit, many guys with colorful spiky mohawks start circling Hika.

"Hey, cutie! Wanna hang out with us?" The tallest one of them starts getting closer to Hika.

"Sorry, I'm busy right now," Hika gave them an innocent smile. Totally not aware of the dangers around him.

"Ohh~ don't be like that. come on let's go with us, it's gonna be fun, I promise!" The tallest guy starts grabbing his hand.

"Well, if it's just a short while, maybe Arik won't be mad..." Hika mutter.

"I'll be mad!" suddenly, a familiar voice surprised Hika.

"Arik?"

Arik quickly grabbed the mohawk guy's hand that was touching Hika. "Don't touch him!" His eyes glared sharply at the boss.

The leader of the group is taken aback by the sudden appearance of a stranger. And 'Him'? Isn't this kid a girl? The boss is quite confused. Before he starts retorting, his underling quickly stops him.

"Stop it, boss, he is the most skilled hunter in this territory!" His underlings start apologizing to Arik for him.

"Stop it, you idiot! Don't bow to this moron. With just some of my punch, I promise he will get knockout quick-, "A sudden jab from Arik stopped him before he could finish his word. Arik grabbed Hika's hand and swiftly exited the trading market, leaving the underling watching their boss sprawling on the ground.

"Hey, that was mean!" Hika is still getting dragged by Arik.

"You idiot, they were trying to hit on you!"

"But I'm a boy, though.... Why do they even want to hit on me?" Hika showing some dumb innocence, making Arik a bit annoyed. With his long silky black hair and his white smooth skin, he looks like a girl, and an adorable one at that. Even Arik treats him like a little sister rather than a brother.

"Well, whatever, at least you are safe." He can only give a big sigh. His friend here is a burden to him, but Hika is the only person he can call a family in this post-apocalyptic world.

In mid-way of traveling back home, Arik's urge to kill is getting stronger. His eyes start glowing bright red. Arik holds his head with one of his hands, resisting the pain.

"Arik!" Hika worries.

"It's okay, I can hold it...."

Hika knows Arik is holding it in because of him. He knows he is just a bother for him. He doesn't have any skills to help Arik. Sometimes Hika thinks to himself, Should I just leave him?

"Sorry... again..." Hika sobbed a bit.

Still holding his head, Arik responds, "It's okay...."

With a lot of pain and doubtful thoughts, they continue their walk. After a few minutes, they can now see their home. Weirdly, after getting closer to their base, Arik's eyes get dimmer and dimmer. His urge to kill is cooling down. Because of the trading market accident, Arik assumes it's the gang from before, but his alarm trap is still not activated and the light is still turned off. Something is not right, Arik thinks.

"Get behind me!" Arik instruct. Hika nods in response.

After grabbing his laser gun and night vision goggles from his backpack, Arik slowly opens the plane door, and Hika follows him from behind. The cabin is fully engulfed in darkness. Hika follows Arik while pinching his jacket because they only have one goggle. After observing the whole cabin, it seems there is no trace of intervention. After confirming the safety of their home, Arik turned on the generator.

"BOO!" a sudden ghost appears in their face when the light starts turning on. Hika and Arik jolted. This is the creature who cools down Arik's power?

"What are you?!" Arik shouted.

The flying white cloth started making a laughing expression with the three holes in his body, "Ohoho, so you want to know who I am? I'm the catalyst of your friend power!" after laughing again, he winked with one of his holes. The ghost's bold statement makes both of them extremely bewildered.

With quick reflexes, Arik pulls out his laser gun and points it at the ghost. "Care to explain more?" Arik threatens the unknown being without hesitation.

"Wow now, there's no need to resort to violence," pleads the white cloth in desperation.

"Huh? Do you want to tell me not to be wary? You just barged into our house, should I not be cautious about this?" Arik says sarcastically.

"OK, ok, ok, I'm gonna explain everything to you guys, but stop pointing your weapon at me. Even though it won't affect me, it's rude," the ghost descends to meet their gaze.

Suddenly, a thin red laser goes through its pure white fabric when the cloth stops descending.

"What the heck, dude!" the ghost complains.

"So you're not lying..., you may start now." After testing his doubt, Arik puts down his gun.

The ghost pouts with its hollow holes. After their brief skirmish, the ghost starts explaining the reason for their arrival. Hika is still silent, processing the situation they've found themselves in.

"Ok..., where do we start..., Oh yeah! It all started when I was wandering in this barren desert," the ghost begins.

After a long explanation, the gist of the ghost's story is that they were bored and trying to find some amusement in the middle of the desert. After some time, the cloth felt some tingling, hinting at a connection to time. Coincidentally, it was pointing to their plane.

"I felt a trace of time somewhere near that giant hole and snake beside this plane wreck. So, I came to investigate. Surprisingly, I met a familiar past figure, which is you guys. That's all," the ghost explains.

"Ohh yeah... I just got revived. Did that snake eat me?" Hika looks over at Arik, seeking confirmation. Arik nods, knowing this is part of their routine. Each time Hika dies, Arik summarizes their recent and past activities. However, nowadays Hika keeps a diary to record his activities.

"We now know you are innocent. However, I am confused about how you can be the source of power for Hika. Isn't he a mutant, just like me? As far as I know, all of us with abilities have been infected by the mutant virus. If you are Hika's catalyst, shouldn't you be the source of power for everyone with abilities? Are you the virus? I still don't quite understand your statement." Arik inquire.

The ghost is grinning, amused by Arik's curiosity. "That's a good question! Let me clarify why I'm a catalyst, but before that, let me tell you a story. It was during the early days of the apocalypse, when the virus had just started spreading across the world. Amidst the chaos, a foundation started a 'Mutant Deterrent' project to contain the abilities of mutated beings and fight against the mutant outbreak. It's hypocritical, considering that they caused the apocalypse themselves. Unfortunately, I became one of the mutant victims. So listen here buddy, you are holding my power," the ghost points at Hika, but his hand passes through his chest. The cloth continues to speak.

"Sadly, the foundation fell to ruin by some mutant before they even finished absorbing us and programming you guys and the other army of artificial humans. So you guys might have an error or a bug of some kind. But I think you guys are the only artificial human survivor."

"Huh? Were neither human or mutant?" Hika ask.

"Yup," The ghost quickly answers.

Hika and Arik turn to face each other and then look back at the ghost, while making a confused expression. This is a bit shocking to them. What do they do after knowing this information?

"Why do you tell us all of this information? This is pretty valuable stuff. What's your intention?" Arik starts being suspicious of the ghost.

"Of course, I'm not just giving freebies to everyone, so I have a proposition to offer. If you guys help me get my power back, I will assist in fixing all of your power drawbacks. Pretty good deal if I think so myself" The ghost smug, while proudly pumping its chest out.

"But that's mean..." Arik mutters, knowing the consequences of the offer.

"Ohh~ You probably know what the result of this proposition is. Yup, she will lose her power."

Arik is hesitant about this offer. Is it okay? Will Hika be okay with this? He contemplates.

"Sure!" That sudden answer almost gives Arik a heart attack. What is Hika thinking? They still don't know if the information from this fabric is true or not.

"Stop it, Hika. We still don't know if-" Arik's sentence was cut short by Hika. His eyes were filled with determination. He believed that he was always a hindrance to Arik, but this was his chance to pay him back. He was not going to let this opportunity go to waste.

"It's okay, Arik. I don't need this power. I can't let you suffer more because of me. Your power is more useful than mine, and it can even help others. My power is just for my selfish need to survive, and the drawbacks always burden you. So, it's okay, Arik. I want to pay you back," Hika said, giving a bitter smile.

Arik's voice halted mid-sentence as he struggled to find the right words. "Hika..." he said slowly, his guilt weighing heavily on him for not noticing his family's troubles earlier.

"Ohh~ so you agree girl?" The ghost asks

Without hesitation and not even waiting for Arik's approval, Hika replied "Yes, and I'm a boy."

"WHAT?" The ghost's eyes wide open showing its void.

...***...

It's been two weeks now. Arik and Hika now name the ghost "Cloth", pretty straightforward. The ghost is now aware of Arik and Hika's limitations and has witnessed it firsthand. And this past few weeks they've been collecting material for their coming journey. 

"Food and drink, check; clothes, check; camping equipment, check. Alright, we're ready to go." Hika is doing a re-check of their luggage.

"Yeah, we're ready to go!" the ghost cheers.

" Shuddup you dirty rag." Arik is still annoyed about agreeing with Cloth.

"Hika," Arik nudged Hika with his elbow.

"Hmm?" Hika turns his attention to Arik.

" Today we're gonna buy a weapon for you in the trade market. After buying that then we can travel." Arik started donning his rugged mountaineering backpack.

"OK!" Hika answers with a bright smile.

Cloth still doubts Hika's gender. But for now, it will still be a mystery for the ghost. Their journey has just begun.

"Let's go!" Arik calls out to his companion.

Riding a floating motorbike, Hika and Arik slide through the vast desert. Cloth is flying in front of them, leading the way. They already bought a new blaster for Hika and some new weapons for Arik.

A few bumps on the road made Hika hug Arik tighter. They both wear a scarf mask and goggles to protect them from dust. Their destination is an ancient technology left by the creators of the apocalypse. But after some long hours of traveling, Hika falls asleep on Arik's back. They've been traveling for nine hours straight. The sun is now setting.

"Hey, I think we should stop here and rest. The flat surface here is a perfect spot to make a tent. And in Hika's drowsy state, there's a chance he will fall off the bike." Arik shut down his floating bike. It gently plops down to the sand.

"Ohoho, what a nice brother you are." Cloth jest.

Arik starts making a tent and a campfire for them, while Cloth is just watching him. Surprisingly, he can't interact with any object except if it's time-related, the ghost exclaims, and the duo already knows of this fact.

Hika is put to bed nicely in a sleeping bag. Arik tries his hardest not to wake up his cute "little sister". After that, Arik takes out their cooking equipment from Hika's bag. The smell of him allegedly cooking soup makes Hika's nose twitch. And it's not a fragrance to be fond of. Hika's eyes jolted open. He quickly gets out of the sleeping bag. Arik, who is stirring a hot, boiling pot, suddenly gets pulled by Hika and thrown to the side.

"Never cook without my supervision, okay!" He prompts Arik, giving a wry smile. Now, Hika is in control of the cooking. He knows better than anybody that his brother is bad at cooking. But somehow Hika kind of feels Deja Vu about this situation but can't remember it.

Anyhow, the soup that is supposed to be yellowish orange by the recipe turns out to be jet black. (How the heck can Arik mess up this hard?) Hika tosses the toxic waste that was initially going to be their dinner. He ties his silky hair to a ponytail, showing off his beautiful face in the dim moonlight. Skilfully, with his delicate hand, he chops up ingredients and mixes them up professionally. Arik and Cloth watch in awe at his skill. A quick dish is now ready to serve. It's carrot soup.

"Here you go." Hika gave Arik a portion. And he serves himself a bowl, too. Their stomach starts to growl after a long trip.

"Thank you for the food," Arik says.

"My pleasure!" Hika responded.

Sitting next to each other on a black mat, they start to gobble up their food. The aromatic smell makes the ghost drool. Even though he can't eat, he really wants to. Hika notices the ghost's dejected face.

"Sorry for not being considered cloth...." He stops his hand to take another sip. Guilt is clearly seen in Hika's eyes.

"Don't be Hika." Arik suddenly hops between them. He shows himself chowing the delicacy the ghost desires but can't ever eat.

"Cih," the ghost clicks its tongue.

Seeing that scene, Hika can only give a chuckle. He never has a pleasant time with Arik like this. It's the first time. Because of the presence of Cloth, Arik doesn't need to hold down his power. The starry night makes the atmosphere feel calm. (What a beautiful night we're having), Hika thinks to himself.

After cleaning up, they were getting ready to sleep. They sleep in just one tent. Cloth, a mutant who doesn't need any sleep, is on guard duty. He will alarm them if anything happens. Not too long after eating, they now fall into a deep slumber.

While on duty, Cloth is playing some word games. "...interrupt, corrupt, abrupt... hmm... what word still rhymes with this?"

Still thinking about what the next word should be, he suddenly gets interrupted by a huge green creature out in the distance. "Wait, what is that?" Their bright yellow eyes are coming closer and closer. A small roar is heard. The mutant is ginormous. Its silhouette resembles a T-rex. It looks like it's sniffing something. (Maybe it's because of the soup?) Cloth guess.

Cloth, as fast as he can, goes to the tent and warns the duo. The mutant notices the cloth movement. "Guys, wake up!" Cloth whispers.

The dinosaur bows down, trying to peep inside the tent. Their big eyes fill up their plastic window. It only sees darkness inside the tent. Arik and Hika woke up still half alive. But Arik is the first to be fully awake, jolted because of the bright yellow eyes at their tent window, staring at them.

"Hey Cloth, take Hika far away from here! I need to activate my power." Arik whisper.

"(Yawn), what's happening?" Hika's eyes are still half open. His sudden question makes the T-Rex roar. Even without seeing the inside, the monster reacted to the loud voice by quickly biting off the tent roof. The tent collapses.

"Run!" Arik grabs Hika's hand and drags him out of the monster's way. Now they really have to confront this monster. Every step the mutant takes shakes the ground immensely. The quakes are getting stronger. The monster is just a few steps away from them. They quickly hop on the flying bike. It slowly started to float. Before the T-rex reaches its teeth, Arik pulls on the gas, almost making Hika fall off. It almost chomped Hika's head, but it missed by a centimeter. Hika is still confused, he can only hug Arik tightly, afraid to fall off, while Arik speeds up to escape the green monster.

"Cloth! attracts its attention! After you can't see me and Hika, leave the t-rex alone. I'm gonna finish that thing." Giving a nod, Cloth, who is beside him following the speed of the bike, falls back to distract the giant mutant. It works. The dinosaur head is flailing around, trying to bite Cloth. "Ahahah, you can't catch me, idiot." The ghost taunted.

Arik and Hika are now quite far away from the monster. Arik's urge to kill is starting to eat him up. His eyes have now reddened. Arik quickly stopped his bike.

"Stay here!" After saying that, he dashes back to the monster that was bothering their goodnight sleep. Because of his lightning-like speed, a wave of sand rushes through Hika, making him throw away a little. "Cough, cough!" Hika clears his throat from the dust, still on the ground.

After running at a crazy amount of speed, he reached their initial point. The gigantic mutant is now in his sight. And cloth is nowhere to be seen, as planned. Arik let his urge to kill loose. The red trail from his eyes is zig-zagging around the dinosaur, and a hint of blue streams is following him from the saber he is holding. It roars and tries whipping its tail around, aiming for him. Arik easily jumps over them. With this momentum, Arik jumps to their tail, runs up to their scaly back, and then continues dashing to their head. The monster's body is filled with a series of slashes from Arik's new blue lightsaber. After reaching the head, he jumps down, putting an end to his combo. When he landed, not even looking at his back, the dinosaur fell apart in bloody pieces.

His urge to kill is a bit intense. He now tries to find another prey to kill. Leaving the scrambled corpse, he tries dashing back to his "little sister," an easy victim to feist. But his eyes are getting dimmer. Arik slowly gets his consciousness back. "Oh shit!"

He gets thrown away by his speed because his power has stopped working. The two companions in front of him are the cause of this. Arik's head is buried in the sand below Hika. While Hika is helping Arik get back on his feet, the ghost just explodes with laughter, making Arik annoyed.

***

After the disturbance of the mutant from before, they are now cleaning up their tent remnants. Thankfully, the necessities inside their tent are still in good condition.

"What do we do now? Do we rest again or continue the travel?" Hika asked while picking up their equipment that was scattered around because of the incident.

"We should change location, maybe this is near a mutant nest. It's too dangerous to stay here. But we should still rest. We're just going to change locations, Hika." Arik answer. He is helping gather their stuff too.

"Wow, that was dangerous, wasn't it?" The ghost giggled, he was kind of amused by the tragedy befalling them.

"Oh, shuddup you," Arik grumbles.

Hika chuckles again, seeing that their relationship is getting better. But a sudden quake interrupts their conversation. It's mortifying. Maybe because of the whine of their fallen comrade, the horde of T-rex is now stomping their way to the trio. Their silhouette is still far away, maybe they are still guessing where the source of their friend's cry is. Because of that, they have some time to pack up and leave.

"We should go now!" Arik hurried. They are now done packing. Arik mounted his bike, put his tight goggles on, and covered his face with a black scarf. Hika, after just wearing his backpack, walks his way to Arik, who is looking at him. But a sudden shake makes Hika stop his steps. A mutant jumps up from the sand and impales his chest with its pointy horn. He coughs blood and progresses into a puke of blood. He felt immense pain and fainted on the spot. The car-size snake swims freely in the sand while Hika's body is still hanging horrifyingly on its horn. Its yellow scale is assimilating them with the sand. It's hard to notice their next movement.

"...."

Arik is angered to see his family's lifeless body being dragged around like a doll. He sighs, "Cloth, go away from me for a while. Don't let the horde come here, distract them. It's going to be a tiring night for us." He got off his bike. He pulls his weapon out—a saber in his left hand and a gun in his dominant hand.

"Why are you bossing me around lately?" The ghost is irritated by his consecutive orders.

"Just do it, you dirty rag, do you want our help to get your power back or not?"

"Ugh! At least be nice about it, I have feelings too, you know." The ghost flies away, still sullen, he is now on a mission to distract the horde.

Arik shakes his head a little, seeing how the ghost behaves. But come back, focusing on what's in front of him. He still sees Hika's corpse in the snake's horn. "Okay, I have a few minutes before Hika revives." He says this because, if Hika got revived in mid-battle, Arik's power would turn off, putting them both in danger again. Thirty minutes before, they were still in this location, so Hika would be teleported back here again if he followed his power rule.

After taking a deep breath, Arik's eyes start to glow brightly. "Let's go," he says, lunging to the battlefield.