Road To Redemption: A Tokuverse Story

"Since you got dressed." She shrugged. "Don't let it get to you. I've been doing it to people for years."

"Well for someone without shapeshifting you did a good job." He complimented.

"Thanks. I'm still getting used to the whole Cyborg deal but at least I've still got my stealth skills."

"Right. I heard you were ripped apart on that island." Johnny said while putting a record on.



"The island, the assholes and those...things on it did all of that. Then the Paladins put me back together." She rubbed her head. "I don't think the old me would've felt guilt over everything she'd done."

"Empathy, regret and guilt are...certainly difficult to cope with. Especially when you've done the things we have." He agreed and walked over to the table. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Pfffft...ha...haha...bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!! Okay, that's gross, but it's hilarious all at the same time. Kudos to you man. I've seen it happen before you know. With some of my own victims. Turns out its rather hard to keep yourself together when you're getting diced up."

"Don't I know it. But if you'll indulge me, making them perform that trick through simple psychology and shapeshifting is honestly just way more fun."

"Heh, I can only imagine how that must feel."

"Like a kid at Christmas." He summarized with a proud smile. The two shared another laugh together before he continued. "So, Miss Suko, you seem to be all about the kill, am I correct in that assumption?"

"You are correct in that assumption. I see it as an artform. Well, I suppose it's more appropriate to say that, I saw it an artform. Past tense."

"Same here." Suko agreed. She decided not to go into detail about Chinatsu and the assholes on the island and just focus on the topic at hand. "None of my victims were personal. I would honestly just choose them at random, stalk them, plot out their murder and then carry it out in a stylish flawless manner." She summarized. "Collapsing the trachea was imperative of course. Some like the screaming but honestly it's just too much of a risk. You have to shut them up first before you can have your fun." She giggled a bit. "Does that make me a bad person?"

"Well it's tactical I'll give you that much." He agreed. "But you get my point right? None of our murders were personal right?"

Suko considered mentioning how much time she took killing the island prison warden but decided that was a topic for another time. "Correct. It was about satisfying our own urges and vices and practicing our personal artform."


Agent Emily Granger sipped her coffee while she watched the two of them on the cameras. "This is gold. Better than any interrogation."

"That's probably for the best. People on my list don't tend to last too long." She joked. "Besides which, we've got Suko on a leash and we injected tracker nanites into Johnny just to be safe. We'll be able to keep an eye on and track both of them wherever they go."

"Rather ruthless but I can't blame you for taking precautions." Seth agreed. "Out of curiosity, what kind of enhancements did you give Suko anyway?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Go right ahead."

Emily turned back to the monitors and typed a few buttons and one of them changed to showing a readout of her blueprints.

"You must understand, Seth. Her body was barely holding itself together when we found her. The medical bay on the ship was the only reason she made it back to the labs to be put back together. While doing so we made sure her body was refined and improved enough to be useful in combat against The Feonds while further ensuring that we would still be able to keep an eye on her."

Seth crossed his arms while looking over the blueprints. "Are these even legal?"



"Government Secrets." Emily summarized. "She can't shapeshift like Johnny of course but her own stealth and infiltration skills shouldn't be underestimated. We can make exceptional use of their own respective skills. Provided further training and therapy."

"Honestly there isn't much to tell." She admitted. "My family was perfectly normal. Well off, sure, but normal. Kind of boring really. I'm sorry if you were anticipating some great revelation or some crybaby Freudian excuse but there isn't much to tell." Suko sipped some of the wine and then set her glass down before continuing. "Mother did say once that mental illness apparently ran in our family but it must have skipped her."

She gave a light shrug of her shoulders. "Hell, even my first kill was indirect. There was a rope, see? It was over a creek and everyone liked to swing on it while playing games. So, naturally, I got the brilliant idea in my head of moving this pointy little rock I found into the middle of it and slowly sawing away at the rope over the course of a couple days. Slowly, slowly, whittling away it, until it couldn't take the weight anymore."

She looked down at her drink. "Kotobuki Teru was his name. He was fifteen years old. A local babysitter. An avid cyclist. An honor roll student who would go out of his way to make people smile every day of his life. He died when the rope snapped and he hit his head on the rock and it pierced his skull."

Suko closed her eyes. "I was there. I was right there with everyone else when it happened and nobody suspected me. Everyone thought it was an accident. Can you fucking believe that?" She asked Johnny. She began to laugh. "I remember. I remember everyone screaming. They screamed and screamed and screamed and cried and the blood poured down the creek and stared it all red and...I...I..."

She nearly fell onto the table and choked back her sobs. "I just watched. I watched it and I smiled. It was bliss. Absolute and total pleasure. God That's who I was. Who I am. That's the monster that they locked up." Suko took a moment to compose herself before downing some more of her glass.

"That's who I was. A monster who played innocent and cried crocodile tears over the indirect murder of a completely innocent person...then went on to murder one hundred forty-seven more." Suko finally looked back up to Johnny. "You want to know the real truth Johnny? The truth is: I deserved all that shit I went through on that island."

"Heh, you're kinder than you think." Seth complimented.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a total sweetheart." She joked. "It's nice to see the two of them are bonding though. In a weird way I'm actually kind of happy for them. This is what they both needed. Someone who can really understand them."


Suko hesitantly reached up to his back. Her arms were trembling. Her whole body was shaking. She didn't know what to do. She'd never let it all out like this. She'd never expressed herself like this. She'd never felt guilt before. She didn't know what to do! She didn't know what to say! Everything she'd done, the lies, the cheating, the deception, the murders, it all came crashing back down on her at once and she felt all of it weighing her down. She felt her mind shattering as anchors dragged her down into the depths of despair. She collapsed and wrapped around him and began to quietly sob. No matter how much she tried to hold them off they poured down her face like a broken dam as the guilt of her atrocities, the scale of what she'd done, washed over her like a tidal wave.





"Thank you."

Suko backed away and composed herself. She fixed her hair and rubbed her face and wiped her eyes. She cleared her throat and then poured herself another glass. (What the hell just came over me? Seriously, where did all of that come from? The old me would never have felt even the faintest flicker of emotion over her kills. Nothing but glee and triumph. So why did I break down so hard just now? I nearly fell onto the floor and cried like a child. Is this...is this the new me? Who I am now? It's like I'm a completely different person but I still remember who I was. What I did. The things I did to those people throughout my entire life. I'm a Monster. Was a Monster? Ugh. Goddammit this is confusing!) She was about to speak up to Johnny when her cybernetically enhanced senses picked up the scent of blood. She knew it well. All too well. Suko lowered her glass and leaned over to him again. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Courtesy of my "friends" from above" Johnny replied bitterly as he held it to his nose until the regeneration cells kick in. 

"Allies of this Goddess character perhaps"

"Maybe" Johnny walked over and puts the cloth in the laundry hamper. "I cant say they're like the Feonds. From what my memory depicts they're not the sort that believe in her cause. More like whatever the price suits them"

Suko scoffed, "So this cosmic bitch has mercenaries now?"