Dynamite And A Laserbeam - Redux

Vol 1 - 7: Our Mission! Let's Be Heroes - Part 2

[Original Chapter Published - February 20th, 2022]

[Revised Chapter Published - January 7th, 2023]

[Secondary Revision of the Chapter Published – June 22nd, 2023]

[Third Revision of the Chapter published - April 29th, 2024]

A throbbing, almost unbearable headache thumped against Kyoka's skull as she groaned. There was nothing more painful in the world than waking up with the headache equivalent of a borderline migraine. Essentially, it was a hangover. Not that she would personally know what being hungover felt like, but considering how it had been described to her, she'd have to imagine that this was similar.

Her face felt unbearably hot, her vision was about as blurry as an unfocused camera. She felt the cold winds of a fan blowing on her at high speeds, and with each passing second the headache got worse and worse. She felt like she was going to collapse and die on the spot due to the amount of pain that she had felt.

Until suddenly, it all went away. It was the sharpest switch-up she had ever felt in her life, only trumped by that one time she fell down the stairs, felt as if she had broken her neck, and then suddenly felt as if that hadn't been the case and being able to get up go do something else.

Her vision had finally cleared up, and when it did, a bout of confusion came over her. Why? Well, it had to do with where she currently was. Kyoka had found herself in what appeared to be a dirty apartment and not one that she was familiar with. Looking down at herself, she was still dressed in the outfit that she had been in when she... When she....

"When I what?" Kyoka squinted, clasping her forehead as she struggled to remember why she had gotten out of bed today. She knew that she had placed an order at Beelz's store, but she never remembered going. The last thing she remembered was taking those pills that her mother prescribed her with.

The gap in her memory was frustrating her. The only thing that she remembered was that she woke up, got dressed, told her parents that she was going out for the day, was told to take her pills which she did, and then... what? It was as if someone had taken that part of her life directly out of her brain, and tossed it out. As if it was completely and totally unnecessary for her to function.

But why? What happened in between the time she had left her house, and now, where she was in some stranger's apartment? Speaking of the apartment, the first thing that she noticed upon finally becoming completely conscious was the faint smell of someone smoking weed. Whereas most people would probably shrivel their nose in disgust at the rank smell, Kyoka didn't really care all that much. It wasn't as if she hadn't smoked before, even if it was rare.

The only time Kyoka smoked was when it was offered to her by the few friends she had at school, and even then, it had to be clean. There was only one time she had laced weed, and it fucked her up big time.

It had been at one of her friend's older siblings' parties, and she had been completely absorbed by the atmosphere. But after that party, she never went to another one ever again. Not to mention the fact that it took her a week to trust anyone after that experience. That was a year ago, though, so it was in the past.

That little memory aside, the rest of the apartment was pretty boring and screamed poverty. Across from her, there was a box TV sitting on a hollow sliding glass drawer and inside the drawer was a basket filled with dirty laundry. Behind the box TV was a small kitchenette. From what she could see through the gap in the wall, there was a microwave and a stovetop. But, aside from that and the few cabinets she had been able to make out, there wasn't much else there.