"SOMA? What is that?", Takeru said in a confused voice.
"Shut your bitch ass up, man! Let me and my senpai talk!", Rento replied.
"Geez... What a dick..."
"Senpai! What the hell are you saying? We can't just suddenly make him a member!", Rento asked in a concerned voice. Yuko made a silly confused voice, almost like she was taunting Rento. "Why not, Takahashi-kun? He's an alternate-user like us."
"There's no way you believe that, Ikari-san!"
Yuko came right up to Rento's face. "Think about it, Takahashi-kun. Why would an alternate run away and go hide in a bathroom when it had no way to know we were coming after it? It would surely just go after other humans. Ichino-kun here is an alternate-user and a special case we haven't seen before. Don't you trust me, Takahashi-kun.?"
"Uh... well... I do." Yuko smiled. "Well, alright then! Lets head over to the office and introduce our new member!" She looked over at Takeru and said, "Get up and follow us, Ichino-kun. Just to let you know, your life is about to completely change."
Takeru gulped.
"Come on, get up! You should act on your senpai's orders immediately!", Rento shouted. Takeru was shook. He got up quickly and said, "Can someone explain all this to me!?"
"Walk with us to our office, Ichino-kun. Rento will explain everything while we're on our way.", Yuko said. "Ok...", Takeru replied. The 3 began walking together but Takeru was still fearful.
During their walk, Takeru asked a lot of questions to Rento and the answers he got blew his mind completely and changed his view of life forever.
"So why was I suddenly out here on the street with my teeth all broken?"
"That's cause your alternate had taken over you and it made the mistake of fighting me which caused it to get its/yours teeth broken."
"What the hell is an alternate?"
"Its a inner monster that awakens within random people all throughout Japan. It mainly occurs in Tokyo but it can happen anywhere else in Japan too, even in a random small little village. How this happens and how these inner monsters come to be and gain their own consciousness within our bodies is a complete mystery to us. SOMA has been trying for a long time to figure out this mystery but we still haven't cracked it."
"Okay... Alright... So, that's fucking crazy. You sound like you're explaining the premise of your new manga."
"I know."
Yuko began quietly laughing. Rento started looking shy. "What is it, senpai!? Am I doing a bad job of explaining things?"
"No, not at all. I'm just getting nostalgic, you know? I still remember having this exact same conversation with you.", Yuko replied. Rento became flustered. "Come on, Ikari-san... That was only a few months ago..."
While Rento and Yuko were talking, a horrifying thought popped up in Takeru's mind. "Wait... If what this guy is saying is true, does that mean that I was the one who did tha- that to my grandma?"
Takeru fell on the ground and started puking violently.
"Eww, fucking disgusting... What the hell's up with you now?", Rento said. Yuko became angry, she had never shown her anger to Rento before.
"Takashi-kun! Apologize to him, now! How can you say that? Don't you have a human heart?"
Rento was disturbed. Seeing his kind senpai becoming angry was surreal. "I-I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Takeru."
Takeru was still on the ground after being done puking. "There's no way... There's no way... no... No... NO! I COULDN'T HAVE DO-"
whoosh!
Takeru was blasted away a little bit after getting hit by an energy blast. "Snap out of it, Ichino-kun."
"Huh? What was that?", Takeru said in confusion still trying to put all his thoughts together.
"It was Ikari-san's unique ability. She can shoot out concussive energy pulses out of her hands. She shot a weak one at you.", Rento replied.
Yuko walked up to Takeru and put her hands on his shoulders. "I know you feel guilty, Takeru. But, it wasn't your fault. You did nothing wrong, okay? I know that hearing that from a stranger isn't gonna mean much but still, I want you to know and understand that."
"Ok...", Takeru replied in a soft weakened voice.
"Ichino-kun, the best advice I can give you right now is just don't think about it. Keep your mind away from it for now, ok?"
"I understand." "She's right... Its best I just keep it off my mind for now."
Yuko smiled. "All right, lets get back to walking." They all began their tedious walk again. "Doesn't this SOMA thing have cars it can give to its members?", Takeru asked in an annoyed voice.
"It does but me and senpai are a new group so we haven't gotten ours yet."
"I see... What even is SOMA anyway?"
"Its a secret organization that spans all throughout Japan and has its main headquarters in Tokyo. We're heading there right now. All victims of alternate awakenings that manage to resist the alternate taking over become alternate-users and they become members of SOMA, System of Managing Alternates. It is our job to get rid of alternates who do manage to take over their hosts completely."
"Really does sound like a manga premise, huh?"
"I know."
"Am I like that? Am I an alternate-user?", Takeru asked. Rento faced Takeru's eyes with a serious look. "According to my senpai, you are. But, you still haven't convinced me completely yet. You better take your first job seriously if you want to do so."
Yuko chuckled. "Geez... Takahashi-kun, you sound so serious." Rento got flustered again.
"I have one more question, why aren't there any people here? Nippori normally has a lot of people walking around."
"That's because of Otori-san. Look up, he's there in the sky flying all around Tokyo. He's one of the most important members of SOMA's team here in Tokyo. He possesses the unique ability to sub-consciously control and give commands to humans. We informed him prior to coming here that there was an alternate here and we were heading to kill it. That was why he made sure no humans would come here and see us SOMA members doing our job."
"Well... how the hell have people not noticed him up there? How have I not noticed him?
"Simple. He just sub-consciously commands all people of Tokyo except the SOMA members to never notice him."
"You can see and notice him only know because his unique ability stops working on you the second you have knowledge of it. All SOMA members obviously do thus we aren't affected by it."
Rento looked over at Yuko and said, "Ikari-san, you should probably call him and inform to him that we're done here so he can let go of not letting people come here."
"Oh right! Thank you for reminding me, Takahashi-kun."
After about an hour of walking, the 3 finally reached SOMA's main headquarters. During that walk, Takeru was still trying to come to terms with all the madness that was suddenly dropped on him. He was dumbfounded by the craziness of a new world he thought could never exist in reality. He still hadn't quite processed everything."
"Geez... you guys made me walk all the way to Kyobashi... So, where is it? Your guys' office."
"Its right in front of us, Ichino-kun."
"But... this is Shimisu corporation?"
"Not to us."