Chapter Text
A young man slowly exhaled as he placed his helmet on. He was E-Soul. He was going to be a hero.
"It's backwards." His daemon, Jie, buzzed.
He knew that.
Glad no one could see his blush the young man spun his helmet back around. Now he was E-Soul.
A blue beetle, smaller than a fingernail circled and circled around him and eventually zagged back towards him and crawled under his helmet finding a well-prepared home there complete with blue tinted windows. With this his daemon would be safe, warm, and be able to warn him if anyone approached from behind.
Taking another deep breath E-Soul paused one foot turned towards the door. He patted down his pockets. Double checked his belt had everything and then checked again. Then he headed out for his first day of heroism.
There were remarkably few crimes in this part of the city. There was a park. And a remarkable amount of tourists for such a relatively uninteresting place. They had a habit of needing help.
In short it was a decent place for a hero to gather trust and maybe build up some courage before trying something more dangerous. You had to start small.
And E-Soul did find things to help with. A spilled bag of groceries, a tourist needing directions, someone wanting to take a photo with a hero, a rather aggressive duck, and finally a lost child.
He didn't look lost. If anything, the kid looked irritated as they held the fish tank that held their changing daemon, fingers tapping on the glass. His guardian would likely be coming for him soon, so E-Soul passed him once. Twice. Then he finally stopped.
"Do you need help? I am E-Soul a hero, who are you?"
"Yan Mo." The kid glared at him, "And I don't need the help of a subpar cosplayer. I already have a way better hero."
As if for emphasis his daemon turned into a beta fish in a furious flash of fins.
"Of course." E-Soul said despite his growing worry. What kind of hero would leave a kid alone so long or even babysit to begin with? It had almost been twenty minutes. He looked around. He couldn't see anyone... "Do you mind if I sit with you?"
Yan Mo looked at him up and down, then shrugged, "Won't stop you."
And so E-Soul sat with him and watched as the child's daemon changed. No often finding himself among kids or fish it was a strangely pretty sight as the daemon slipped from one kind of tropical fish to another. It was a touch young but at that age Jie had also only changed into beetles too so perhaps they were both odd.
"What do you think you're daemon will settle as?" E-Soul asked after a minute of silence.
"None of your business."
"Okay."
"... Fine. This fish!"
E-Soul fought not to jump back at his looked into the golden lure of an anglerfish. It wasn't something that should be this close to the sun. Jie flew to get a better look.
"It's... I've never seen anything like it." E-Soul eventually offered as Yan Mo rolled his eyes and went back to ignoring him.
Fish daemons weren't common this deep inland and weren't popular to have, but the child seemed happy even if it meant carrying around a fish tank. That’s what mattered.
Perhaps E-Soul could relate too. While less of an inconvenience, bug daemons weren't popular either. He didn't care either. It was his daemon; other’s judgements didn't matter when it came to your soul.
And so E-Soul sat in silence, on opposite sides of a bench, with a still fuming kid, waiting for a hero.
And a hero did arrive.
E-Soul shot to his feet as a dragon flew towards them faster than any crashing car and curled around the bench like it was a treasure to protect. This was Null. And the one stepping off his back could only be Zero.
"Ge!" Yan Mo got to his feet and charged towards Zero who picked the kid up, tossed him, and caught him in a hug. "You were taking forever! Why did you take forever?! This E-Soul weirdo tried to babysit me instead."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Zero laughed, "It's just that Mrs. Zhang's cat was caught in a tree again and then people recognized me and wanted signatures and help, and-"
"You helped them. You know you can't stop and help everyone, right?" Yan Mo sighed like he was the put upon adult here.
"Of course I can. They're no one I can't save, and no injustice I can't correct!"
It should have been cheesy, overly grandiose, an impossible promise waiting to shatter. The type of words that can only be true in story. E-Soul found himself believing in Zero's simple statement of fact. So. This was a real hero.
Yan Mo groaned but smiled as he was slung over Zero's shoulders.
"Thank you for helping Yan Mo! I know he can be a bit of a troublemaker." Zero smiled and E-Soul found himself smiling back even as he blushed. A helmet was an excellent idea.
"It was nothing."
"Don't say that! It takes a weight of my shoulders knowing someone was watching him."
"I was fine!" Yan Mo shouted, "And can we go get boba now? Without being recognized. Again. Honestly, they should be trying to monetize the lines of fans you draw in."
E-Soul stared at the azure dragon that was Zero's daemon surrounding them. It was larger than a bus and its scales glowed a jewel blue lined with gold. It was impossible to be subtle. As if knowing what he was thinking Null smiled and leapt landing with a small splash in the fish tank besides Yan Mo's daemon.
It was a koi fish. Null changed into a koi fish. Settled daemons couldn't do that. She was still beautiful. Silver scales spotted with black and golden clouds.
"Cool right?" Zero was standing a touch closer than expected, "I originally settled as a koi fish, but well this kid believed in me so much that even a koi fish could become a dragon, a boy can become a god. Isn't it amazing?! The power a single point of trust can bring?"
He ruffled Yan Mo's hair. Smiling.
"Yes, it is." E-Soul answered remembering the rush as his trust climbed, as his thoughts, ideas, flew faster and further. "Still, I don't think I would like Jie to change."
"Then she won't!" Null said as she flipped back into the tank.
E-Soul stepped back. It was strange being spoken to by an another's daemon but... he didn't mind it as much as he should. Besides with Jie tucked away he should get used to daemon's talking in his direction. He nodded in respect, "I'm glad."
Zero smiled at him, "Wanna get boba together? I'll pay."
E-Soul shook his head even as Jie buzzed angrily in his ear already anticipating his response, "I wouldn't want to interrupt your day. There's no need."
"We'll alright then see y-"
"He can come." Yan Mo interrupted, "If he's the one that picks up the drinks. Even in costume no one will recognize him and cause him to take so long the ice melts. I want to try the mango boba cubes."
It was true but still. Rude.
"Be polite." Zero chided him and then turned back with a wink, "But if you are willing to indulge us E-Soul I'm not picky when it comes to boba."
And so that was how E-Soul ended drinking boba in the park with the greatest hero of their age and a kid that hated him for intruding. Not how he expected his first day to heroism to be. Still. Not as bad as he feared.
He blinked as Jie landed on his nose to observe the pair. Zero and his first believer were chatting about the newest boba flavors and luckily E-Soul hadn't managed to stumble on a flavor Zero hated. It shouldn't be as much of a relief as it was.
E-Soul slowly took off his helmet and felt the pair staring at him. What was so strange? Had he messed up his face somehow? What were they looking at?!
"Wow! Your daemon is so cool! She's the same shade of blue as Null, what kind of beetle is she?"
Praise E-Soul never expected to hear from someone's whose daemon was a literal dragon, "Unknown. Jie isn't part of any recognized beetle species."
"You really are a mysterious one!"
"It's kinda lame. He should keep the mask on if the answer to the mystery of your daemon and your face is just that." Yan Mo said slurping on his drink.
"Yan Mo."
"What. It's true you should give people a reason to talk about you even if some will be kinda unnerved by not seeing another's daemon. And even if you do look like a Power Ranger knock off the helmet is distinctive. Why do you wear it?"
Since when were kids marketing critics?
"You've been listening too much to your father's business conversations again, haven't you?" Zero sighed. "E-Soul, you don't have to anws-"
"It's practical." E-Soul stated, "Countless careers are ended from head trauma. Countless heroes suffer from constantly being the center of the public's eye. It would be so easy for Jie to be carelessly crushed, a helmet keeps my daemon safe as well as secret."
"What a boring answer." Yan Mo turned away.
"He's not entirely wrong." Zero shrugged, "Oh! How about this, 'This mask is a reminder of my commitment to be a hero, a symbol of justice, it's the truth of who I am!’"
"A bit grandiose, isn't it? I can’t imagine saying such things with a straight face."
"Don't let that hold you down!" Zero slapped him on the back, "Half of heroics is being an inspiration. You have to fake it, even just a little if you want to be a hero, so fake a smile, fake strength, fake resilience. It will all eventually come true."
E-Soul rolled his words around as he started his too sweet drink. Eventually he left.
He continued his career as a hero.
He helped out where he could, stopping small crimes, drumming up support for the local food back, and kept developing his armor. The buzz of ideas and inventions sparked by his third consecutive win at a robotics competition kept building and now he seemed to generate electricity, and power. He joined a hero team.
There were four of them. They were kind. It was nice to not to be alone to have support to fall back on. He put his buzzing power to work crafting items that would help them and compliment their powers. A staff, a cape, a shield, communicators, and armor.
His gifts crumpled, evaporated, and shattered, as his team, his friends, were torn apart.
An empty space where a scowling face should be. Legs barely staying connected to what remained of a body. A torn blue cape barely covering a shredded chest, every reinforcement vaporized like it was tissue paper. A body bag.
E-Soul was the last one standing.
He looked down at far smaller corpses with even less of a chance of fighting back then his friends, he looked up at a hero, an almost friend, a mad god.
Could Zero even see who he was killing?!
"Zero! Why are you doing this?!" E-Soul shouted, Zero did not answer with anything but a infuriating frown that softened into a smile as E-Soul smashed him through building after building.
It was an easily dashed victory.
Null torn him off Zero. And E-Soul barely escaped as the dragon's jaws came down. He wasn't able dodge the daemon's crushing embrace, his bones scraping together. Touching another's daemons, their very soul... it was an anathema, a violation. It was something the closest of lovers or the most hated of enemies would do.
E-Soul kicked and attacked back broken armor turning into a new kind of weapon.
More than ever E-Soul felt like a bug about to be crushed, buffered by a hurricane. He was buzzing with power. Suddenly it didn't matter that everything he created was dashed to pieces, that any batteries had long died out, he could control the storm.
For a moment the world believed in him. They had to. He couldn't fail them. He couldn't fail everyone that already died believing in this hero.
E-Soul staggered forward hating that not all of the blood was his own. He steadied himself and charged forward to meet a fallen god. Zero rose to meet him.
E-Soul was faster.
He fell to his knees, fell onto the pool of blood he created, and had less than a second to see Null's jaws close shut around his own arm. What did it mean to be eaten by another's daemon?
What did it matter?
Null broke apart, died, in a blinding, fading, shower of gold. Fireworks or fireflies? E-Soul had no answers as he slumped over next to Zero's corpse their blood mixing.
Why...
Just a few days ago he would be happy to get boba again with the smiling teenager he never knew the true name of. He wanted to introduce his team.
They were all dead. There were no answers.
E-Soul was the last one standing and eventually he had to get up.
His injuries healed in days. E-Soul had every part he could think to ask for to construct a fully functioning prosthetic. He gave speeches. Reassured other victims. Kept moving. He envied Jie who was frozen, curled up, like any other dead beetle pined to a board. She was like that for months, almost a year.
But eventually they both got back to work. They had a duty. There were trusted. They were a hero, a god killer. He could bear the weight of not just his own grief and betrayal. He could make sure no one would become like Zero.
The Commission approached him. They had the same goal. They wanted his approval for the new system, the hero rankings.
He gave it.
And so E-Soul become the first hero X. A title perhaps naturally occurring or inspired by his final move against Zero. It was a title that would chain heroes. Limiting their rise as their defeats are engineered before they have the potential to become something more. At least in theory. In practice no one could stop E-Soul from winning the second tournament. The third.
His teammates, the countless heroes that threw their lives aways, that one foolish or brave reporter that kept filming to the end... none of it seemed to matter. All everyone remembered was that E-Soul was the one that landed the final blow. He could kill a god.
If E-Soul wasn't careful a poor mood could spark a thunderstorm and that was the last thing people needed. He'd torn through all his old tools when he forgot his strength. He stopped a hurricane.
One day his helmet broke before he could put it on.
Jie emerged shaking off glass and metal like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. She was beautiful. She had the shape of a scarab beetle. Though E-Soul knew true scarab beetles weren't so large. And even a fool would know they don't have feathered wings or shine and clink against the ground like a piece of jewelry. She was Khepri.
The daemon of a god.
Eventually he found his voice, "Change back."
Jie moved forward seemingly entrances by the noise her steps made, "... We won't die like this. It won't stick. I can feel that power buzzing under my skin. It's warm. Like the sun. It’s been so long since I’ve felt warm..."
"No this can't be what we become. We're not a god. We want to be a hero, remember?" E-Soul didn't like pleading note in his voice, "I don't want them to change us."
Quietly Jie shifted returned to who they were, a beetle people never noticed or just thought was another species entirely.
E-Soul threw the next tournament.
He returned home feeling lighter than ever as the pressure of people's trust ebbed away. He cleared his schedule in advance for some kind of celebration (not that there was anyone to celebrate with except Jie).
E-Soul smiled as he took off his mask put on some music and returned to his work bench, Jie stretched her wings as she circled around him. It was almost like old times.
The idea to create other prosthetics had been floating around his head for a while now, it would do the world good if he could manage to make them cheaper... E-Soul stared at the drafting board. All of his impossible ideas, his inspiration, dried up.
Of course. Of course this is what he would lose first.
E-Soul wasn't trusted as an inventor anymore; he was trusted as the man that defeated Zero. He could generate his own electricity. Had no need for mere magnetism and relays to control his armor.
He kept staring at the drafting board, at an arm that might as well be created by a stranger. And knew with absolute certainty that he would never be remembered for anything else he did or anything he would go on to do, E-Soul would forever be remembered for the worst day of his life. He would never be allowed to forget it.
The lights exploded. Shattered glass rained down on him. Days past.
It was easy for the public to believe he took the loss hard. The Commission even sent him a gift basket, and a note that amounted to a thank you for not going mad with power. He threw it out.
Eventually E-Soul ordered the construction of an R&D department, shoved away his workbench, and kept working as a hero. Anything else would be a waste of time. It's not like the weapons he made protected anyone anyway.
Years, decades, past.
He had failed. There were more and more heroes, changing, cracking, like Zero, so many fake smiles under far too much pressure. A public that still demanded perfection. That people, children, become ideals.
They were all so young. E-Soul didn’t remember them being so young.
The Commission believed they truly succeeded, and perhaps they did, no hero would be as strong as Zero, or outside of their control again.
E-Soul didn't consider just that much of a victory at all.
Rat King, Magic Shadow, there were always more villains to defeat again and again. A tired play. There were more marketing ploys. More meet and greets, signings, merch releases, more and more ways to test his patience.
He did become the type of hero that could say such grandiose things with a straight face. He inspired people. They idolized him.
It now hurt to take off the mask. The years, the decades, of wear and tear flaring up, shouting to be heard, barely suppressed by the public's trust. Jie found it more and more tiring to fly outside his helmet. Not that she often tried. It was all so cold or at least that’s the excuse she gave when she curled up, unmoving, for days on end.
Still. None of this was a reason to stop. He was going to save as many as he could, live up to the trust others placed in him. That’s what being a hero meant.
Today he had arrived too late to save the parents, but he had saved the child. He'd carried him somewhere warm out of the rain and made the necessary calls as they clung to him. It wasn't enough, he should have been faster, but it was the comfort E-Soul could offer.
What was the boy’s name again?
Ah, right, Yang Cheng.
Fun Fact Corner
Koi Fish (Zero’s daemon, Null). First domesticated to be eaten now Koi fish are breed for ornamental gardens. In Chinese culture they are seen as a sign of good luck, family harmony, and perseverance to the point that it is a legend that even a koi fish can become a dragon if they fight the currents and reach the top of the river. Often when Koi are released into the wild, they become an invasive species and for all the effort put in to eradicate them they still swim.
Beetle: species unknown (E-Soul's daemon, Jie). There are over 400,000 described beetle species and millions more estimated to exist. Beetles can control pests but can just as easily become a pestilence themselves. For humanity they've inspired technology, been eaten as food, used as entertainment, and are something to collect. Scarabs are only ones considered sacred.