Everyone is chilling in the big room in the ‘Battery Bucket’, doing their own thing.

  Raiden barges in and announces: “Okay! I see that everyone’s here right now so… it’s time to talk dreams!”

  Ketsuki stops doing pushups and Atsume quickly hides her popcorn. Erika turns around on her chair and they all look at him with questioning eyes.

  “You guys’re confused, huh? I mean, your dreams. What would you guys call your final destination? I already told you all that I want to look for ‘The man from Nowhere’ and the ‘Godfather’s Key’ but what about you?”

  Erika and Atsume say “Ohh!” as everyone understands and Erika starts: “I want to find Kreon! The artificial planet!”

  Raiden replies: “They named a planet crayon?”

  Erika changes her pronunciation a bit: “No! Kreeon!”, “Never heard of it. Mind elaborating, madam?”

  “Aww come on. Kreon’s super famous! I’ve heard about it from Flo- …a good friend. It’s an artificial planet, built by a mythical species of people that uploaded their minds onto said planet! They’re the ultimate mechanics this galaxy’s ever seen!”

  Atsume thinks out loud: “Hmm… the only artificial planet I’ve ever heard of is Dandros, the Galaxy Capital.”

  Raiden says: “Well, I guess it’s just a famous story among mechanics. Ketsuki? You’re up next.”

  Erika is left pouting as Ketsuki replies: “I don’t want to go to a specific place, is that still ok?”

  Raiden assures him: “Of course. Dreams can be anything.”

  Ketsuki explains: “I want to find the second strongest fighter in the galaxy and defeat them.”

  Atsume is confused: “Only the second strongest? Don’t undersell yourself.”, and Ketsuki replies, “Well, since I’ll never be able to beat myself, I’m the strongest.”

  Raiden comments: “Can’t beat that logic.”, and then turns to Atsume, “And you? What’s your dream?”

  Atsume says: “I want to find Katara, the treasure planet!”

  Raiden replies: “Also never heard of it.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Atsume explains: “I’ve read about it in a fairy tale about a boy who sets out to find infinite wealth. He ends up finding this planet that is covered entirely in gold, diamonds and other treasures and ends up using all of that money to help the poor. And that’s what I also wanna do.”

  Erika smiles: “A nice thought that kids get taught such important values where you’re from.”

  Atsume turns very serious all of a sudden: “Where I’m from, that’s not what happens. The only thing you get taught there is greed and ruthlessness.”

  Erika doesn’t know how to react and Atsume takes a few seconds to reply: “You know what? You people I can trust. I’ll tell you about my story… and why this helping-the-poor-thing is something I must achieve.”

  My mother was a prostitute in the slums of Jaqu. Those slums were located just outside of some cyberpunky city that valued money above all else.

  Some man she doesn’t remember impregnated her and since an abortion would’ve been too expensive, she gave birth to me in this terrible environment.

  Through my earliest years, she seemed to hate me and by now I understand why. I was the source of all her problems or at least making them worse. I was an extra mouth to feed, I was the reason she had less customers and I was an incredible source of stress and worry.

  My mother never was against having children but didn’t want to put a child into these slums. But through all of that, she managed to raise me well.

  Because of our incredible shape shifting abilities, we’re an incredibly rare species. Even taking into consideration the difficulty of locating someone like me, I’ve never seen another member of my species besides me and my mother.

  She taught me how to shift into anything someone wants me to look like by the age of eight. I was taught to set boundaries because some people would obviously make moves on me when I look like a hot adult woman. This had some serious effects on my mental state for the years to come.

  There was this one customer who regularly came by with the fairy tale I told you guys about in his bag. One fateful day, he wasn’t happy with her performance and started beating her. I heard screams of agony from the bedroom and came to look because I was worried.

  The man stood up and turned around, walking toward me, ready to beat me too. My mother grabbed a belt and wrapped it around his neck to choke him. They tossed and turned and it soon became bloody.

  I couldn’t hold it in anymore and shifted into some monster from the fairy tale. I had a huge maul with tons of sharp teeth, sickles as hands and it looked incredibly terrifying.

  I quickly sliced him apart in a rage, crushing his remains with my many teeth. I was a monster. After a few seconds of silence I shifted back into a human and my mother looked at me with tears in her eyes.

  I was rooted to the ground by the sight of her and she said with a smile: “There are so many reasons… for my tears in this moment… Atsume-chan. But I’ll only tell you one… Atsume-chan… I’m so grateful… that you were born…”

  I suddenly had a rush of tears to my eyes and ran out of the house. I ran as fast as I could, crying out loud out on the street. I ran to the only doctor I knew and burst into his office.

  “You need to help my mother! PLEASE! She’s gonna die!!”

  I was a mess and this doctor said: “Sorry but… I can’t just go around helping people for free. I too need to make money somehow.”

  I was shocked by his answer and started attacking him. I bit and punched his leg until he kicked me away.

  “Get the fuck out now, you brat!”

  I screamed as I ran all the way back home. The hopelessness and fear I felt during that moment was unprecedented. And when I arrived back home, my mother had died. I tried several things to get her back to life but after a few minutes, I just sat there in a corner, crying.