Shadow Healer [The Blood Phoenix awakens]

Awakening strange powers

Akira slowly stirred in the bed. His lids felt a bit heavy. Other than that, everything seemed pretty normal.

“Wait. I didn't die?” The realization hit him like thunder, and every trace of drowsiness vanished. His eyes roved around the room like a searchlight, taking everything in.

He was still in the hotel room that smelled like wealth and power, limbs still cuffed to the bed.

Akira tried to adjust his position to check the clock on an adjacent table. Instantly, the cuffs and chains restraining his hands shattered, splintering some parts of the bed in the process.

His eyes narrowed, and he looked at his hands. “What just happened?” Confusion weaved into awe, then more confusion.

Could the cuffs have gone weak from all the tugging? Or did he get stronger?

There was only one way to find out. He pulled back his legs with tearing force.

Right before his eyes, the cuffs splintered, bed posts shattered, bed frame fractured, and the mattress, alongside Akira in it, landed on the floor in a heap.

His mouth dropped open, his eyes going wide. A tingling feeling arose in his heart, and it began to pound loudly. The warm sensation in his lower belly was throbbing lightly again, but his current emotional state eroded every other sensation.

“This is… wild.” He gasped, taking in the destruction a casual tug of his legs could achieve.

This was inconceivable. Just hours ago he was desperately struggling, unable to do anything about the cuffs, and could only let himself get taken advantage of.

Yet, he could now shatter metal with minimum effort. Was this a side effect of the poison?

Akira didn't think so. Poisons ate at people, but after waking up, he felt so full of energy. His fingers felt itchy from lack of activity. Nothing like what a poison should be like.

Whistles went off in his head, and thrills ran down his spine. “I can see clearly without my glasses.”

Akira suffered from myopia and his vision was blurry when objects weren't close enough. Just now when he checked the room, everything was bright, clear, in HD quality.

His myopia has been cured!

As he was still struggling to wrap his head around that, he began to hear some sounds. His brows furrowed, eyes narrowed.

It seemed to be faint whispers at first, barely audible. This was unlike his experience earlier in the day when he passed out. It felt more real, grounded in reality.

His eyes drifted shut and he focused on the sounds. From barely audible whispers, the voices became distinct. Then came the moans, gasps, pants and screams. There were even sounds of music.

He could hear hundreds of people talking at the same time. The strange power was magnetic, sucking him down the rabbit hole.

His nails dug into his thighs, and he forcefully tore his consciousness away.

Akira gasped, and opened his eyes, blood roaring in his ears. He placed his palm over his chest, feeling his heart pound louder than drums.

“What was that?” He couldn't understand it. His fingers tapped against his thighs, trying to decode what he experienced.

“I can hear people in the hotel and streets, despite this place having one of the best soundproofing systems in the market?” His hands trembled and he looked down at his own body.

Akira noticed his body became toned and parked with muscles overnight, his skin rosier. Then there was this weird improvement in his sensory abilities.

“Did I just awaken superpowers?”

He shook his head, giving it more thought. He suddenly slapped his thighs and stood up with a clean blackflip.

There was only one way to find out… interact with normal humans and confirm he's still alive.

*****

The warm sun fell against Akira's face, it was early morning. Which meant that it had been fifteen hours since he was kidnapped.

On his shoulder rested the backpack containing the wads of cash from the duo. He had contemplated what to do with the money for a long time. Taking it felt like selling his soul. He did it anyway. After what he went through, it was the least of all he deserved.

Another bothersome thing was the way the hotel attendants glanced weirdly at him when he called them in to pay for the broken bed.

Akira knew exactly what they were thinking. Sweat soaked sheets, broken bed, with cuffs attached. It seemed like a luxury perverted roleplay. His neck had prickled under their gazes, but he maintained a stiff lip, feigning ignorance the best he could.

With this money in hand, he could buy his mother a better resting place, and do a ton of things. That was, if he lived long enough to enjoy them.

The hyper awareness didn't stop. Now that he was out walking in the streets, it became worse. He could hear everything going on, from the salary earners hurrying through breakfast at cafés to random people walking on the streets.

Most of what he heard were things he would rather not. Akira didn't particularly care about the secretary whispering to her boss how ‘that place’ felt sore after last night's activity. Nor did he want to know about the old woman thinking about getting a boyfriend.

But he didn't know how to turn off or control this weird ability of his. He could only scream ‘Eww!’ in his mind and hurry through the throngs of normal people going about their daily activities.

He could even see the internal organs of some people if he looked long enough. So he tried as much as possible not to stare too long irrespective of the attraction it might hold. Merely glancing at other people’s undies made him feel like a pervert, albeit unintentional.

He truly didn't know how to handle this. Stuff like this seemed cool in movies, but in real life? Not so much.

The squeaking of tyres and strange grinding of car engines had him raising his head in search of the source.

A car was veering dangerously on the intersection opposite the road, its speed alarming. Two school children were riding a bicycle, on their way to school, and they were directly in the car's trajectory.

A vision flashed before him, the car colliding with the kids, crushing one, while the other was sent flying, landing against a pole. While the car swerved in a deadly arc and collided into nearby shops. Blood pooled on the crosswalk, while pedestrians screamed.

Akira gasped, his heart skipped multiple beats. He didn't stop to think, he kicked an empty can towards the kids, swerving them in his direction, then he kicked a huge stone placed beneath a jacaranda tree lining the boulevard.

People screamed, watching the out-of-control car rushing towards the school kids who were still oblivious to the imminent danger.

An empty can hit the bicycle’s rear tyre with shocking accuracy, diverting their trajectory, and sending them skidding towards him. The huge rock landed squarely against the left front wheel, forcefully pushing the car back, and into a nearby empty pavement. The tyres exploded, wheels locked, and for a frightening moment, time seemed to freeze.

As the kids’ bicycle threw them off, Akira dived towards them, sweeping them cleanly off their feet, and away from an incoming motorcycle.

The kids’ faces were pale, one of them gasped, instinctively clutching onto Akira's arm.

On the other side, the car groaned and the engines died off after the collision.

“He saved them! This young man actually saved the kids from being hit by a car!” One of the middle aged women exclaimed.

People who were initially confused as to what happened, turned to look at Akira who was still holding the kids in a crouching position.

He slowly set them down on their feet. The boys seemed no older than fifteen, and also seemed to be family. If that car had collided into them, their mother would have been inconsolable.

Akira's hands shook, tremors running through his body. Pedestrians were shouting and pointing, those who saw narrating what happened to others who weren't paying attention.

‘What just happened here?’ He couldn't wrap his head around it.

The movements felt like instinct… like he had done them all his life. His speed, accuracy, perception, were all abnormal.

Was he still the Akira who couldn't do manual labor without complaining of chest pain?

How could he have casually kicked a five kg stone like football without breaking his bones? Does this stuff still make sense?

Akira looked at the kids, gently examining them for injury. “Are you alright?”

The kids nodded, still shaken.

“I didn't see the car coming.” The one driving muttered, his lips quivering.

“I know.” Akira smiled at them, and patted their shoulders. “You're safe now.”

Whispers of ‘how did he do it?’ filled the street, with some of the office workers stopping to check him out.

The car driver finally came out, his body sweat soaked. He crossed the road, and walked briskly towards Akira.

Akira's eyes narrowed. ‘He's not going to ask me to pay for damaging his car now, will he?’

The man stopped before him and locked eyes with him. “Did you just kick a stone at my car?”

Akira rolled his eyes, already seeing trouble. ‘Here we go.’