Tragedy of the Greatest Heroes

Chapter 17: The Benefits of a Broken Spirit

I knew it was insane. Jerricho was at the bare minimum a Low A-Rank, likely even stronger. As a Low B-Rank, I was basically a baby throwing itself into a brick wall to try and do damage. Actually, a baby might have a higher chance of actually breaking the wall than my chances of beating Jerricho.

But I couldn’t hear anything except that man’s crying screams. Jerricho had let someone die, and he had fun watching it. He had a chance to step in and he did jackshit about it. As far as I was concerned now, he was a villain, and death would not be enough for him.

Jerricho easily caught my first punch, stopping it dead in its tracks. A shockwave blew back a car and waves of water behind Jerricho but I didn’t even see him budge. It was child's play to him.

Jerricho began to crush my right hand and I felt my bones begin to crack under the pressure. As I winced in pain I threw a left kick towards Jerrichos side. He didn’t even try to block this attack and my leg bounced off his side harmlessly, blood dripping down my shin.

‘Shit, just how much did he reinforce his body?’

I felt myself being lifted by my arm upwards before being thrown like a doll through the ceiling and into the floor above. As I tore through the ceiling I slammed into a car directly above me and gasoline poured out onto my eyes. I hooked myself onto the ceiling of the second floor of the parking garage and quickly wiped the gasoline off of my eyes. When I opened them again I had a clear view of the entire floor, unobstructed by cars.

‘Shit. He’s already gone.’

I searched around everywhere but Jerricho had already disappeared from view. It hadn’t even been 5 seconds. I was about to return down to the underground level of the parking garage when a truck slammed into me from the side. I felt my shoulder dislocate as I got thrown out of the parking garage and crashed onto the ground. The car lodged itself into a surprisingly intact apartment complex behind me.

I knew I should quit, it was painfully obvious how much Jerricho outclassed me. I had already dislocated a bone but hadn’t even landed a single blow on Jerricho. But every second all I could hear was that man crying, his heart breaking for his wife. Jerricho took pleasure in that, a sick grotesque pleasure.

Suddenly I saw a shadow cast over the area around me and I looked up. Jerricho had torn off the top 3 floors of the parking garage and was reeling his arm back ready to throw it at me.

‘He’s trying to kill me.’

A B-Rank psychic like myself would barely be able to lift such a heavy object, yet Jerricho was spinning around half the parking garage like a toy. This was the difference between the ranks.

Jerricho threw the parking garage at me like it was a tennis ball. I had barely enough time to put up a barrier before the parking garage crashed down on me. The apartment complex behind me turned to rubble and I was sent flying back through 3 buildings, landing 2 streets away.

I tasted blood in my mouth and felt a stabbing pain in my left arm. I looked over at it and noticed a large metal bar stabbed through, bones and all. My barrier was completely shattered by the attack. I wretched out the metal bar and howled in pain as flesh and bone were broken more from the removal.

‘Damnit,’ I thought to myself in a mixture of rage and sorrow, ‘why is someone like him so strong? He let her die. He deserves to die! Why did AGH decide to let him work here? Why is he someone who was given so much power?’ Innumerable questions flooded my mind as I looked back towards Jerricho.

I saw him still, floating in the air, that damned smile still on his face. He didn’t feel any hesitation, any remorse, nothing at all. I reached out to my side and used telekineses to grab 3 cars next to me and threw them as hard as I could toward Jerricho.

The trio of vehicles flew through the air at over 100 mph, to any C-Rank it would be lethal, and to a B-Rank it would be a dangerous attack, but Jerricho merely swiped his hand downward and all three of them were split in half, flying past harmlessly.

I saw Jerricho freeze for a moment as he saw the spot I was standing in just a second ago was now empty. When I threw the cars I deliberately through them directly in front of me so I would leave his vision for a moment. While hidden from view I used my powers to solidify a cord between me and the underside of one of the cars, allowing it to pull me along. Now a few feet behind Jerricho, I pushed off the car and detached myself, sending me flying towards him. Flight was impossible for anyone weaker than an A-Rank, so movements like this were the only way to engage in aerial combat for me.

As I flew I began to condense psychic energy in my arm. Rage fueled my power as more and more energy flooded in until I felt my arm begin to swell painfully. I had enough psychic energy to destroy a medium-sized house in a single punch.

I threw my fist forward, the speed at which it traveled causing the air around it to ignite as it approached Jerrichos face. This time, he had no chance to react and my fist approached with inevitability toward Jerricho’s face.

2 things happened next. First, a flock of birds 10 feet behind Jerricho was slammed into a building from the shockwave of my punch and splattered into puddles of blood. Second, I crashed down into the underground level of the parking garage again, barely able to even see what happened.

I felt my head ring painfully and my vision began to blur. The whole world spun and water filled my eyes and ears. I sat up and immediately felt numerous bones in my body creak painfully along with a warm liquid trickling down the back of my head.

I saw Roland run toward me and felt him lift my head onto his leg. As I observed his face I could see his eyes, strangely cold and distant, as though he were disconnected from the world.

“Shit, Mark where are you hurt?”

‘Would you like me to start with the arm with a hole in it, the dislocated shoulder, or the bleeding head?’

I shoved down my thoughts as I said “My head.” Psychic powers were partially connected to the brain, healing my head wound would allow the rest of the healing process to go much quicker.

Roland quickly placed his hand over my wounded area and I felt a burning sensation as it slowly began to heal. I looked around but Jerricho didn’t seem to be following me.

I recalled what had just happened. I barely saw his movements, but I had noticed just enough to try and guess what Jerricho had done. Before my fist even moved his head an inch, Jerricho grabbed my wrist and threw me down through three stories of the parking garage. I crashed into the bottom of the parking garage before I could even register that I had actually landed a full punch.

The man who had been crying earlier hobbled over to me, Violet supported his shoulder as he walked to help move him along.

“Sir, you shouldn’t be walking right now,” Roland said.

“Call me Carson,” he said, his voice dry from his earlier weeping. Even now I heard a lingering sense of sadness in him, but his eyes seemed glazed over slightly now.

‘Did they put him under a minor hypnosis to make him feel better?’

“Why did you do all that for April? You didn’t even know her,” Carson asked me.

I shrugged in response. “I just felt like I needed to do something. I suppose that guy provided an easy target. I’m sure Roland can relate to me.”

I saw Roland nod at my mention of his name. It appeared we thought in very similar ways to each other.

“Well, in any case, thank you,” Carson said. Suddenly his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp, forcing Violet to catch him.

I saw Jerricho descending from the holes he had made by throwing me through the parking garage. Sunlight beamed down with him, as though the gods were showing their support for someone as cruel as him. If this were any different situation I would have thought an angel had descended from heaven.

I felt anger surge in me once again and started to get up when I felt a wave of psychic pressure begin to push me back. It wasn’t overly forceful or painful but it was enough to make me hesitate for a moment.

“Now now, I was hoping we could have a chat,” Jerricho said, this time the smile on his face, while filled with smugness, was no longer malicious.

…

We all sat outside at a circular stone table Jerricho carved out of the ground. Vivian was sleeping nearby along with Carson. She had fainted soon after my fight with Jerricho commenced.

I stared down Jerricho, while I had calmed down I certainly didn’t find him to be any less cruel or deserving of punishment. But it was clear that nothing I could do would even be able to phase him.

Jerricho stretched his arm out into the air and from nothingness, pulled out a teapot and 4 cups. He placed a cup in front of himself, Roland, me, and Violet and poured for each of us the liquid from the teapot.

“It’s my unique power, I have access to a dimensional storage space about the size of a small garage,” Jerricho explained, still smiling smugly.

I hesitantly took the cup and looked inside it. The drink appeared to be water, not tea, but it also had a strange reflective quality to it. I swished it around slightly and saw light refract in innumerable directions, like an infinite series of bounces that had no end.

“It’s a healing liquid. It’ll help replenish any psychic energy you might’ve lost throughout the second selection. I’ll leave you some for the sleeping girl over there too.”

“Her name is Vivian,” I said to him. For some reason, his voice seemed to have a newfound calming effect on me and I no longer spoke to him angrily.

Jerricho took out a teaspoon and began to stir his drink, staring at each of us expectantly. He waved his hand at us, gesturing to the cups he had filled with the healing liquid.

I grabbed the teacup and brought it up to my mouth. I took a sniff of it first. I felt the heat coming from the liquid caress my face as the smell of eucalyptus and mountain pine trees filled my nose.

Feeling that it was safe I decided to take a sip from the cup. Immediately I felt the liquid flow down my throat and spread its warmth throughout my entire body. It felt like every vein in my body was suddenly filled with warmth as psychic energy filled my body once more. I had used more psychic energy in the fight with Jerricho and while running down the second selection path than I realized.

“Well, now that you all seem to have calmed down, allow me to explain this test.”

Jerricho took a long sip from his teacup before beginning. He closed his eyes and a wonderous smile grew on his face. When he stopped he looked at us 3 with a comforting warmth.

“You see, the couple here are criminals.”

‘What?’

“April was on death row for murder, premeditated, and quite a few of them. Carson was arrested for rape and assault, mostly of young girls. He has life imprisonment. Of course, they were a real couple though. They were quite loving to each other according to the prison guards.”

I sat silently, contemplating his words. Indeed, that did change things slightly. One could even argue that they got what they deserved. But I still hated it.

“That doesn’t make you any less wrong in your actions,” I told Jerricho.

Roland nodded in agreement. “Mark is right. Even if they were hardened criminals this is well beyond torture, two wrongs don’t make things right.”

Jerricho smiled at the two of us and shook his head.

“If they were going to do nothing the rest of their lives, we could at least put them to use for society’s benefit.”

I felt the urge to fight Jerricho rise again. His reasoning wasn’t wrong but it was cruel. It was the same type of reasoning that dictators would use to justify internment camps back in the Great War.

Jerricho shrugged his shoulders. “I’m never going to be able to convince you. Even the principal needed several weeks of convincing before he allowed me to do this, and he was already crazy.”

Jerricho began to readjust himself in his seat, now placing himself in a more serious position as he looked at each one of us carefully. He observed Violet, his gaze looking up and down her body until she shifted away uncomfortably.

Roland walked up to him and grabbed his shoulder, “Hey,” he said. But Jerricho merely flicked Roland’s forehead and Roland was forced back down into his seat.

“Calm down kid, I’m many bad things, but I’m not a pedo.”

He then observed both Roland and I, looking up and down our bodies over and over again, as though he were a farmer picking out the most ripe fruit to ring to the market. He then looked at Vivian, who was still sleeping. As his gaze drew over her I felt similar to how Roland likely felt when Jerricho looked at Violet. I struggled to keep myself under control as Jerricho examined Vivian.

I saw his eyes wide, slowly taking in every detail about Vivian. Her hair color, smoothness, skin tone, acne, arm size, length, chest size, shoulder width. It was difficult to not think of him as a predator as he did this, if he had done such a thing to my sister I would’ve attacked him without hesitation.

Jerricho finished his examination of all four of us and smiled.

“You all pass.”

I tilted my head slightly in confusion. How did we pass? This section was supposed to test for search and rescue objectives, and we had failed to rescue one person.

“When you came in here the principal told you that your goal was to find an examiner right?”

I nodded in response to him. That was indeed what the principal had said.

“This wasn’t a section dedicated to search and rescue, it was a test given by examiners. Each examiner was told to come up with a test that would test the skills, mental fortitude, and intelligence of the applicants. Your little group,” he said, pointing at us with a spinning finger, “you guys satisfied me.”

He looked at Violet first, “You little Ms, remained exceptionally calm considering the situation. Adding onto that your unique power you used while finding this place, and your Mid B-Rank status, I decided to let you pass.”

Now he turned to Roland. “You sir have shown your skills as a leader ever since the door closing on the second day of the application, yes, I was watching. All examiners have been watching any major events. You also know when to step down and let more qualified people take charge, like when Mark led you all in providing medical aid.”

He turned his head towards me now, his eyes examining me once more. “You impressed me the most. You displayed healing abilities on par with a Low A-Rank and had decent knowledge about first aid. Not only that, your strong dedication to your moral code was displayed when you decided to fight me, although that could easily be put up to stupidity instead.”

I felt myself redden angrily at his words. The damned bastard was calling me stupid.

“I must ask you kid, where did you learn first aid and such healing prowess?”

“My parents are doctors,” I said. “They made me take first aid classes and taught me up to intermediate healing techniques.”

Jerricho nodded, “Yes that explains it,” he said, satisfied with my answer.

Jerricho suddenly spun in his seat and pointed at Vivian. “She unfortunately was rather unimpressive. She displayed great control of her psychic powers when reducing Carson's pain but her mental fortitude is completely lacking for AGH.”

“She reacted the same way most people would!” I protested.

Jerricho shook his head. “This is AGH, do you think that we’re just gonna let people in all willy-nilly like that? I’m letting her pass because she’s part of your group and I want to see what kind of influence you might have on her, nothing more.”

I saw Jerricho create a backrest for his chair as he leaned back. He crossed his legs and placed them up on the table as he looked towards the sky. He gave a heavy sigh as he let us consider his analysis of us for a few seconds.

“I’ve been officially relieved from hero duties for years because of my brutality,” Jerricho suddenly said.

I felt a wave of shock come over me. That would mean Jerricho wasn’t even an official hero. Why would AGH allow someone like Jerricho, who wasn’t even an official hero anymore, to become an examiner?

“But each year AGH calls me back, do you want to know why?”

I hesitated for a moment before nodding my head, indeed I was curious.

“It’s because every applicant that became a student at AGH after taking my test has become an S-Rank.”

It made sense for AGH to do something like this then. Despite supplying a truly incredible amount of S and SS-Rank psychics to the world, only about a quarter of all AGH graduates became S-Ranks. To have what seemed to be a guaranteed method for raising new S-Ranks would keep AGH among the top hero academies in the world.

“Tell me, do you hate me?” Jerricho asked us.

I looked at Violet and Roland, confused at Jerricho’s question. Thinking about it, with the knowledge that the couple Jerricho had used for his test were hardened and cruel criminals, I couldn’t hate Jerricho. But…

“No, I don’t hate you. But I do think you deserve jail time for this test. This isn’t just about the couple.”

I stood up and began to yell at Jerricho as I recalled how Vivian had broken down completely when April had died. The couple weren’t the only people hurt here.

“You tortured Vivian just as much as you tortured them,” I said, gesturing to the sleeping Carson. “Vivian might never recover from this! You went too far!”

Jerrichos hand moved too fast for me to even notice as he slapped me across the face. It didn’t have any psychic powers imbued but I hadn’t made any shields, leading it to sting painfully. Roland and Violet stood up as well but a single hand motion from Jerricho forced us back into our seats.

“I showed her what it would take,” he said. “I showed her what it’s like to fail. I showed her the cost of being a hero.

Jerricho now walked around the table like he was giving us a lecture. His face was a confusing mix of disappointment and neutrality.

“You want to apply to AGH, meaning you are likely to become future S-Ranks. Do you think you can make it that far without suffering loss? Without your failures weighing on your soul and your heart breaking? I taught you what would happen, and in the future, you’ll be thanking me.”

I faltered at his reasoning. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. If we did end up graduating from AGH, our nightmares were just beginning. As A-Ranks and higher, we could be placed in charge of leading an entire city's worth of heroes and every potential failure could be blamed on us.

Roland, Violet, and I all looked down at the stone table in front of us. I wanted to deny it, to deny what Jerricho had said. But the fact of the matter was that there was truth in what he said.

“A large amount of applicants are beginning to flood into the city now. I need to make a new test. Don’t worry, I won’t use the same one. I could only get permission to use it one time.”

Jerricho held out his hand to stop me from protesting. The moment he said he needed to make a new test I was going to slap him. At the very least now though, nobody else would have to go through what Vivian did.

Jerricho waved his hand at us, “Get going now. You guys took quite a long time in this section, it’s been 45 minutes since you entered. If you get going now though, you can still keep your position, I would like a few more S-Ranks to my name.”

With that, Jerricho grabbed Carson and flew away in the sky, too fast for us to catch him even if we wanted to. We all watched his body vanish into the sky for a few moments, turning from a dot in the sky to a point, to a speck, before disappearing altogether. I got up and walked over to Vivian and grabbed her hand. It was cold and clammy, but its soft delicate feel remained.

‘She looks so fragile,’ I thought to myself.

Her face was still pale and her eyes were tightly shut, as though she were still trying to hide from what she had seen earlier. I wrapped my arms around her body and picked her up in a bridal carry position.

“Are we ready to continue going forward?” Roland asked with a small crack in his voice. I sensed hesitation and fear in his voice. His arms swung by his side, his hands shaking ever so slightly. He no longer stood as tall and strong as he did before.

Violet merely nodded. She had become practically mute since the test. Her eyes were cold and distant, even from Roland. She shuffled her feet slightly, dragging them across the ground, and folded her arms inwards as though to shield herself from the world.

I was no exception from the rest of them. I shuddered slightly as I recalled seeing April's last moments before her heart stopped. Her lips shuddered and her eyelids loosened. It was as though her final breath had been drawn out of her by death itself.

‘So he has only ever made S-Ranks…’

Slowly, we began our trek through the remains of the destroyed city to complete the second selection. Around us on all sides were destroyed buildings, destroyed dreams, and destroyed lives. Each one was the cost of failure, and each one we saw weighed on our spirits as we dragged onwards.

…

‘...’

‘You are no better.’

‘...’

‘So… the benefits of a broken spirit.’

End of Chapter 17