So, Bishop gets real mad cuz our boi JY0B2 has been behaving like a maniac and refusing orders ever since he went MIA for 3 days and like, are you even aware of how much money he spent on this motherfucker? How much time he invested in turning his mind into mush?? Only for this dumbass with a NUT for a brain get all fussy all over again??? It's diving him crazy. Not happy like, at ALL. He talked back, questioned orders, and even flat out refused to obey basic commands like, I don't know, eat your fucking ration??? To avoid dying??? It was honestly embarassing, and the team had to start treating him like a wild horse.
He'd tried everything, from punishing to bargaining, but nothing seems to work. And with his brain being a nut and all, bringing up his family doesn't even have much of an effect anymore. Specially now that they're all dead. Oh yeah, that. I should talk abt that.
When Bishop FINALLY decided to send people to investigate the Hamato case, they were too late. There wasn't anyone in the locations given by subject JY0B2. And the man he claimed to be persecuting his clan told him the same story, but on the inverse so like. Who to believe. It wasn't his problem so Bishop just left it at that and washed his hands of this case. Japan was out of his jurisdiction anyways and he was already busy with America's mystic shit.
So bringing up his fam wasn't an option, and that was one of his only bargaining chips. He could try and put the hitman through mind conditioning again as a disciplinary action but. The paperwork. Ugh. Not to mention the adaptation time after that.
Meanwhile having a rat as his best friend gave human Yoshi a purpose. He saved little treats for his rodent friend whenever he got fed and told it all about what was in his mind. Which was, admitedly, not much; he was confused most of the time. But it was nice having someone to whisper sassy commentary of daily life to.
At some point human Yoshi remembered he had a soul. Well, half of it. But he still had his spirit whole! And wondered if he could give a piece of it for Yoshi the rat. Because it'd be more fun if his best friend could talk to him aside from understanding. So he did that, gave a small part of himself for the lil rodent. And it worked! He could understand its squeaks!
Yoshi the rat gaining self awareness, picture taken within the process:
Yoshi the rat felt self awareness for the first time in his entire 1 and a half years of existence. He existed and was perceived. Wowzies. Holy shit, his human looked like crap. Grooming him would be hard work due to his size, but he was persistent. The human chuckled. They'd talk after missions, after experiments, after disciplinary sessions. Yoshi the rat was worried for his friend, so he often spied on that Bishop guy to see if he could find a way to help his human.
The guy was talking about mystic energy harnessing, and Yoshi was surprised when he understood what that meant. Huh. Curious. Well, it was bad. Meant his human would scream and cry again, maybe die, so he better get him the fuck out.
Yoshi's human was stubborn and didn't want to leave, saying that was all he knew, but Yoshi knew better. He had a family waiting for him, far deep in a forest, where sunlight was soft and air was pure. The human seemed to vaguely recall something like that, so he did as Yoshi told him and ran away. Wasn't easy with all the security, but they managed. They hid in the sewers and Yoshi was so very happy to see his family again.
They weren't like him, not since he changed, but he loved them all the same. For a while, things were good. Yoshi the rat and family brought Yoshi the human food and warmed him in cold nights and groomed him if he was too dirty. He started to remember things again, like how to use his power for something other than killing. To nurture and raise, even if it was just a bunch of rats. And day by day Yoshi remembered more bits and pieces of better days, and told those stories to his human, who in turn became more and more enthusiastic about said family. He decided he wanted to find them, to learn why he wasn't there with them.
And because of that Yoshi remembered fire and blood and loss. And he didn't tell his human about those things because he had just started to act like a person again, this would destroy him. But his efforts were in vain as the human wasn't as easy to fool anymore. He decided to go back to the EPF and demand answers, which like, horrible idea, period. But he escaped once, he could escape again right?
WRONG. Bishop got them – yes, them. He finally took notice of the little pest talking the human's shoulder and got interested. Somehow it was as if JY0B2's fragmented mind had been planted into a little creature. Instead of restarting any process of brainwashing Bishop gave the human and the rat to the scientists to figure out what the fuck happened and how to replicate it.
They tried many things, for a long time before the first and only success happened. The human felt a shift in his own soul when his powers were pushed out of little rat Yoshi, causing his small heart to stop.
Hamato Yoshi awakened in wrath, with thirst for revenge. He broke his bounds and killed everything in his sight until he found his friend. He infused everything he had into the rat.
He didn't have a family to return to, a clan to save, a reason to exist. He'd stained his hands in so much blood he would never be able to redeem himself. So he did what he did best and destroyed everything related to the organization that caused him so much pain. Just like with his clan, the destruction of the Earth Protection Force happened through fire and blood.
Unbeknownst to him, however, this rampage didn't affect only those who caused him pain, but also those who were victims very much like himself. Dr. Baxter Stockman, who had been serving as a scientist against his will in a project with a mysterious substance, was inches of completion and possible freedom (haha, he thinks. Boy was about to either get unsubscribed from life or have his contract unwillingly renewed to the EPF). Rat Yoshi's essence had been pulled out in order to be transfered into the creatures Stockman had been working with, as the ooze would amplify the natural potential of creatures and the more potential they had, more would be amplified. When Yoshi the human broke in, the carefully constructed environment got contamined and the process didn't get to finish. One of the ooze samples fell onto rat Yoshi just as Bishop, injured and hanging on by a thread, managed to shoot human Yoshi.
His soul, already broken, split into many splinters, the biggest of them claimed by the rodent, who scattered away from danger with renewed energy.
The missed shots landed on the doctor himself, on some of his experiments, and in flammable substances. An explosion was imminent, everyone had to evacuate. The rat managed to flee.
And after long days of agonizing pain as his bones and organs slowly rearranged, he was something new. He wasn't Hamato Yoshi, and wasn't Yoshi the Rat anymore.
