Morning came quicker than Nihil could have predicted, as ambitious rays of sunlight broke through the smog and industrial pollutants which infest the clouds, striking against the boys face, much to his dismay. "Aargh... hell..." Nihil groaned and moaned in pain as a familiar burning sensation returned, much as he had experienced during his time in the hospital.

An inferno within the body, as if his entire nervous system was in flames and every bone tense to the breaking point. It was like being forcefully awoken by an intense cramp in your leg, except the pain was coming from everywhere. For a brief moment, Nihil thought to summon Mona, his robotic maid, yet a feeling of deep mistrust overtook him as soon as he thought of her.

Even yesterday, when he finally managed to get back into his apartment after a week, finding dust and uncooked food left to rot on the kitchen counter, as well as the robot herself stuck in an upright position on her powering-pad, he couldn't help himself but feel anger from her visage. As if she had somehow wronged him.

In fact, he was sure she was somehow responsible for a part of his troubles, though he hadn't the slightest idea as to why he felt that way. Sure, even he knew that his emotions for the maid were hypocritical at best, but never before was he struck with such an intense need to shut her down for good. It was murder, in his mind and that is the only reason why Mona had survived the night.

Gritting his teeth and summoning up his strength, using the very pain he is feeling in order to fuel himself, Nihil rose from the bed and reached for his darkened hoodie. Rummaging through the pockets took everything he had, as the flaring nerves recoiled at the merest sense of touch. Hell, even rolling around on his otherwise soft bed was pure torment.

In the end, he found what he was looking for; a small orange cylinder, a plastic container which held those very special 'painkillers', generously provided for him by the doctor. He had been given around three cylinder, each with twenty pills each. He promptly opened up one and took a swing, as if he was drinking some form of beverage.

Several pills fell from the cylinder and melted as soon as they touched his saliva, turning into a colourless cocktail that he quickly swallowed down. The effects were nigh instantaneous; a short burst of revulsion and disgust, perhaps from the fact he just swallowed much more medicine than required and thusly caused his body to attempt regurgitation, quickly followed by an onset of calm, of nullification, as the pain lessened to the point where it was only all that he could think about and not so horrible that he couldn't move.

Gasping harshly, Nihil sat upright and took a number of quickened breaths, using his vast psionic powers to soothe his own mind by draining away the pain, unintentionally creating a physical memory of the torment he had just experienced. "Thank God that I dont have to experience these automatically..."

This much was punishment enough, surely. Still, he didn't want to wake up like this every single day. Not to mention how yesterday was an immensely draining night for him, leaving him so barren of psionic energy that he basically felt like a vegetable at the end of it, had it not been for the plethora of negative emotions he experienced due to the phone-call he received from 42PD.

Nihil could only imagine his torment should he ever fall asleep without expelling his powers for a day. "No. No! There has to be a way!" Memories of yesterday began to flood his brain as he ransacked it for ideas, which caused him to nod to himself as quickly reach for his phone, intending to call upon the doctor, yet as soon as he touched the phone, the damn thing began to ring. "W-wh!?"

This stunned the boy as he calmed himself with a breath and realized that it was 42PD that was calling him, or better to say, that 'H' was calling him. "Kid! Kid! You alright there?!" Nihil blinked in confusion as he reached for his phone. "They can force my phone to accept the call? Holy fuck man."

A grim sense of unease coiled around his heart, as Nihil grunted in annoyance and promptly drained himself of that rising doubt in a singular motion. "I'm fine now, H." Nihil blinked again, from surprise this time, as his own tone was alien to him. Removing the doubt from his own voice caused him to sound very arrogant, even if it wasn't intended. He just hoped H wouldn't take too much offence. "Yeah, sure you are. My scanners just went red with warning signs as if you were set on fire or something, then it went mostly quiet as you swallowed down a copious amount of highly illegal drugs."

H seemed to sigh and continued on without letting Nihil reply. "You know what, I changed my mind. Asking if you were alright with that many drugs in your system is a bad move on my part. I'm sure you're doing 'just fine'. However, my bosses will want to know what the hell just happened."

"I told you yesterday, didn't I? My powers are based in negativity. My brain is literally allergic to dopamine so it causes me immense pain whenever I feel even momentarily happy." Nihil could feel the man's eyes open wide in shock. "Wai- holy sh-"

The boy smiled with a melancholic expression. "And guess what? That's not all! If I don't use my powers for long enough, the energy builds up and makes me feel like every single nerve in my body is on fire, in addition to pushing every bone to its breaking point!"

"... Alright, I guess I can forgive your attitude if that is really the case. Hell, God really fucked you over, didn't he, kid?" Nihil's body flinched with rage, as he felt his heart beat faster and his adrenaline levels rise. "Fuck. You." And before H could make a retort, Nihil quit the call and instantly called the good doctor instead.

"Mhmm, yees~, this is Mr Petrovich, how can I help you~?" Nihil's poor mood instantly brightened when he heard the doctor's comical tone, causing the boy to have to ignore a few extra pangs of pain. "Nih- ah, I mean, Ynim on the phone, doc. I was wondering if you could do something for me?"

"Hmm, well, I'm your agent, so I sure hope I can but, well, you espers often have some very strange needs, so at best, I can promise you to try!" With another smile, Nihil promptly exposed his idea to the doctor. "Well then I would like you to try and make me some kind of 'esper battery' that I could use to store my powers into."

"Ehhh? What do you need that stuff for, youngster? You planning to make some sort of psionic bomb?" Nihil blinked in confusion, but then nodded to himself. "The doctor might have a point... I mean, my powers are based in everything evil, so maybe storing a lot of them in one place is a bad idea but... that means I'll have to continue to suffer..."

"No! Why would you think something stupid like that? I just want somewhere to store excess energy so my body does not hurt as much. Besides, if I wanted to create a bomb, I wouldn't need a storage device to make it happen." That much was true. After all, he had already created thunder by channelling the energies into a singular point. Surely, it would be a piece of cake to hold them together instead?

"Wait, no it wouldn't? What the hell am I thinking?" It was then Nihil remembered how much he struggled to actually hold the energy together before releasing it. To create a bomb or a grenade at least, he'd have to throw it away from himself without it exploding, which was nigh impossible. He just shook his head in disbelief.

"... did you just say bombs are stupid, my young man? Why, I take personal offence to that! Hmph! I promised you that I'd try to help you and I will do exactly that; try! Maybe next time, you'll have improved your manners some, hmm?" And with that, the eccentric doctor ended the call, leaving a very stupefied and confused Nihil behind.

"What was his problem, geez... Old people are so fragile." The boy let out a sigh as he dressed himself, his phone beeping a couple more times as he put it down as a few messages from H arrived. "Before you ask, I was listening in. You could have told me you were religious, you little brat, blah blah blah... Oh?"

Nihil could scarcely believe what he was seeing in the message on the phone's home screen, so he unlocked it to get a better view. "... 42PD will provide you with proper medication as well as try to manufacture the batteries you asked for on the condition that you stop taking drugs. Come on, kid! A chemical dependency AND 'a natural allergy to dopamine'? Even you can't be stupid enough to not see how fishy these 'ESCP' people are." Nihil snorted loudly as he read the message in his head.

"As if you guys have any right to call someone 'fishy'..." Still, the boy had to admit that the policeman had a point. His inner conspiracy theorist instantly assumed that the ESCP were the ones that give out these strange powers to people, then make them somehow dependent on drugs created by the company in order to control the espers as a form of modern, living weapon.

Nihil shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. "Now's not the time to be nursing such distressing thoughts."

The boy felt himself become caught up in a web of loss and mystery, seemingly completely unable to concentrate or focus on anything in particular. Walking around in his own apartment, he noticed that the dishes had been piled on without being put in the dishwasher for what was likely months. Normally, he would just order Mona to 'fix' this situation, but right now, he didn't even feel like turning her on. "Wonder why I suddenly dislike her so much... Its probably connected to my esper powers, somehow."

With a sigh that could have been felt by passer-by several kilometres away from Nihil, the boy began to do his chores. The dishes came first, then he vacuumed the whole apartment, before promptly wiping away the dust and even taking out the trash. Granted, the last chore just meant throwing his trash into a disposal unit, which would then automatically sort the recyclable and non-recyclable bits, before promptly incinerating the latter.

Some people say that everything is incinerated and that nothing is actually recycled and, considering that he hasn't ever seen a pipe or something of that kind leading from the disposals and anywhere other than the incinerator, Nihil felt inclined to believe them. Having completed all of his chores and being left with a sparkling apartment, Nihil took some time to allow his brain to catch up on what he had just done. "I really changed, huh..." Muttering to himself a sentence that ended up being more of a statement than anything else, Nihil promptly let himself fall backwards and onto his couch, turning on his plasma TV in a hand motion that both looked and felt automatic. Either way, the boy breathed out in self-satisfaction, cringing only momentarily as his brain rewarded him with a tinge of pain, as he relaxed and listened to the news channel.

"- earlier this day, which is to say a few minutes after midnight, City 42 was stuck by two separate instances of 'bright-red' or 'orange' lightning. At first, both strikes seemed to be just another abnormal, but not entirely unusual sight produced by our city's famously toxic atmosphere."

Nihil snorted and sighed. "Famously toxic, my ass. Dumbass reporters downplaying what is a serious health issue for anyone without the money to compensate... Oh well, I guess that's just how things are in this disgusting world, for now."

"However, today's overly-bright winter morning arrived alongside a report from 42PD that may well shed some very, VERY; unwanted light on the rather peculiar event. From what our investigators could gather, the twin strikes were actually the work of a powerful, vigilante esper that referred to himself as 'Nihil', firstly lying about being a sanctioned Cleaner directly to the police operative he contacted to quite bluntly ask how much a gang boss was worth."

"Bluntly? What do these people expect from me? Should I double-talk about wanting to kill someone and get paid for it?... wait, that sounds incredibly wrong. Yeah, no. What I did was rid the world of two sinners. That's it. The money? That's just an added benefit. A wordly, material reward for my actions... but, what did she mean by 'unwanted light'?"

"That's right, people. Looks like marauding AI, cyber-thieves, a copious amount of drug abuse, numerous gangsters and other unhealthy aspects of this city weren't enough! You heard it here first; we now have freak-show vigilantes on the loose too, seemingly killing anyone they want and whenever they want so long as it brings about a profit. Hell, at least they're honest about it."

"... maybe I should try to bring people in alive? Would that make them happier about my existence?"

"But you know what, folks? As if having an esper vigilante wasn't enough, Nihil's freak powers make me have chills just by thinkin' about them. I mean, just listen to this shit: somehow managed to mind-control an entire gang of psychopathic criminals to give themselves up, blew up a steel bridge via lighting strike, then later used another lightning strike to blast through several tons of trash, barricades and reinforced concrete just to incinerate a gang boss for money."

"So?... how is this scary or important? Besides, I didn't 'mind-control' anyone! I wasn't even aware that my powers could be used that way until someone else mentioned the possibility!... haaa, chill Ynim, the poor reporter lady has no clue about that part... at least, I sure hope she does not."

"Now, if these don't sound like the actions of an insane individual, I don't know what would. Alright, alright, killing a gang boss might not be so bad, but why the hell would be blow up a bridge? Well, truth is, we have no clue! In fact, if Nihil didn't call the police to confirm that he's going to murder someone, they'd have no way to prove he did anything at all. The only similarity between the bridge and the gang-boss incident is that the steel reinforcing the concrete found in both instances has been melted by roughly the same force. Meaning, if he didn't call, this would have really been just some 'freak lightning'. And honestly? I'd have preferred that over the truth."

"These people and their ridiculous xenophobia... Hell, its not like I'm going around turning people into ashes."

"I know what you're thinking; so what if this guy went and killed some gang boss, that's a good thing et cetera, et cetera. Truth be told, I have to agree, but if I'm fully honest? These actions seem like something that an edgy teenager with superpowers would do and not the deeds of a functioning adult. Because of this, I'm quite terrified that our 'esper vigilante' might end up being a menace to society that forces people to do as they want rather than a real-world superhero."

Nihil's eyes opened as he waved his hand in the same motion as a few minutes ago in order to shut the TV down, before sitting upright and putting his head between his knees. "... was what I did, really that bad?..."

He wondered as tears began to stream down his cheeks, the barely-contained emotion surging from within him making the eighteen year old shake and shudder where he sat. "Sinners... what the hell was I thinking? Who cares if they're sinners... for fucks sake, I killed two people! Its no wonder everyone is scared of me!... the reporter lady is right... no, she's only half-right since she only knows that I killed Yulcer... she... they, they have no clue about the other dude. What'd he do? I don't even know his name... was he an innocent? Probably not. Hell, he looked so regretful of everything that I'm sure he'd ask me to kill him anyway..." The boy held himself tighter as the tears continued to rapidly flow, drenching his hyperweave hoodie.

"What would the doctor think of me if he knew?... he let me out of the hospital with all those supplies, treating me like I was worth a damn... and I took that hospitality, that goodwill and... and I took two lives. Not just that, but I openly considered doing it again!" His fingers grasped the joints of opposing arms even tighter, to the point where it began to hurt.

"An angel of God... who the hell am I kidding? What kind of 'angel' murders people in cold blood? Who cares if they're sinners?! Criminals are people too, dammit!" His panic grew exponentially with every passing moment, yet a cold touch on his forehead woke him from his trance as the boy looked up to find the golden, ever-spinning eyes of his robotic maid staring right at him.

"Master. I've detected a rise in bodily pressure indicative of high negativity. My programming indicates that baking a cake may aid the situation. May I proceed?" Nihil turned to stare at the robot as his panic twisted into fear. "... how the hell did you turn yourself on without my input?"

Mona twisted her head, almost as if to mimic confusion as her eyes spun rapidly in order to process the situation. "Master, I was in standby mode. I am equipped with automatic wake-up protocols when my assigned master, which is you, is detected to be in distress."

"What an incredible and totally believable excuse." Nihil sighed inwardly and then nodded towards the robot maid. "Fine, I'll accept that for now. Anyway, a cake is good but a chocolate cake is better... so make me a chocolate cake."

"Master, the creation of a chocolate cake requires materials we do not have on hand. May I have permission to go shopping for them?" Another nod was given to her before the boy realized something curious. "I'm not sure I have the money to afford a chocolate cake, Mona."

"Master, your current balance is seventy-two thousand, three hundred and seventy seven credits. You possess enough funding for 'a good number' of chocolate cakes." A grim, darkened expression etched itself onto Nihil's face. "So, considering that my new account was made by ESCP and that my banking details are completely different from a week ago, I think its safe to assume that Mona here is a spy."

"Is that so? I guess my parents sent me one last care-package or something." Nihil sighed and nodded towards the robotic maid. "Go ahead. Have a field day."

Mona seemed to blink in surprise and what was apparently 'shock'. "Master? Are you not coming along with me?"

"Why should I? You're perfectly capable of shopping on your own. Besides, I'm not feeling all that well..." Nihil replied without looking at the woman he thought he was in complete love with just a few days ago. Mona politely bowed without missing a beat before leaving and just as she left the appartment, Nihil took out his phone and texted a little something to his new friend, H. "After all, who better to spy on someone for me than the police?"