Wolverine

"Buzzzzz..." The sharp air-raid siren shattered the peaceful life carried by the sea breeze and waves.

It was Nagasaki City, a coastal city in Japan. As for why the air-raid siren had sounded, it all stemmed from the behind-the-scenes dealings of a certain arms dealer. Although Tang Tian had not fully involved himself in the war, he would show no mercy to that deranged people who were "born beneath mushrooms and died beneath mushrooms." Dying beneath the mushroom cloud of a nuclear weapon was their best possible fate.

Japan's sentries reacted quickly. The moment they spotted the distant American B-29 bombers, they activated the air-raid siren. When Japan had heard that America had developed a weapon of mass destruction called the "atomic bomb," they had initially dismissed it as merely a somewhat larger bomb. But after the American military's warnings proved ineffective, the arrogantly overconfident Hiroshima had been wiped off the map. While Japan was still horrified over the deaths of more than a hundred thousand people, another devastating disaster arrived.

After the sentries sounded the alarm, Ichiro Yashida, an officer, also rang a dull bell.

At the bottom of a dark, lightless well, Logan, Wolverine, had been separated from his brother Victor after the war. On the Pacific War battlefield, he and a number of American soldiers had been captured by Japan's elite troops. Yes, captured. Although Wolverine possessed a body with a healing factor that allowed him to recover rapidly, even he could not withstand the attacks of several thousand regular soldiers. After the Japanese discovered that he was a monster with this special constitution, they locked him in a deep well so he could not escape.

Logan extended his bone claws and wedged them against the mouth of the well, expressionlessly observing the chaos outside the concentration camp. At times he watched the officers' movements; at others, he watched the officers in the guard towers. Wolverine was naturally unafraid of this nuclear explosion. The blast's power would be weakened down in the deep well, so he only needed some time to recover.

"Fuck, where are you going? Help us! Let us out!" As the Japanese soldiers ran about in confusion, the American prisoners of war in the concentration camp grew anxious and cursed at them. They were not fools; they naturally understood that such chaos among the Japanese meant something terrible had happened. They wanted to get out as quickly as possible. Of course, most Japanese soldiers did nothing, instead preparing to commit seppuku in loyalty to some idiot.

Ichiro Yashida, however, differed from the other officers. Drawing his katana, he came to the gate holding the prisoners. "Over here." Seeing someone coming to save them, the prisoners quickly called out in fluent American English. Bang. His faintly reddened katana cut through the iron chains, freeing the prisoners of war, who scattered and fled in every direction.

The Yashida Family was one of Japan's great families, possessing corporations wealthy enough to rival a nation. Though it could not compare with Umbrella's divisions, it was still far from weak. Ichiro Yashida was the son of the current family head, and also a mutant. He could create an energy similar to faster-than-light particles and channel it into his katana. It could cut through any metal except Adamantium. He was also Wolverine's future greatest enemy, the Silver Samurai.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang..." As rifles fired from the guard towers, some of the American prisoners of war who had just escaped fell. But compared to the danger to their lives that was about to arrive, it was nothing. The prisoners continued running.

"Cease fire! Cease fire immediately!" Ichiro Yashida, barely in his twenties, was still kind-hearted. He ordered the sentries to stop firing; otherwise, he would not have released so many prisoners in the first place. This formed a stark contrast with the future Silver Samurai, who would become ruthless in his pursuit of endless life.

Ichiro Yashida smiled as he watched the prisoners run farther and farther away. Once free, they ran toward the shore. Then he saw Wolverine, tightly confined in the deep well. Ichiro hurried to the mouth of the well. To Wolverine's surprised gaze, he cut through the chains sealing it.

As Ichiro cut the chains, Wolverine jumped back down. He understood that nowhere was safe; the power of a nuclear weapon was not something one could simply flee from.

"Go! Go! Get out of here!" Ichiro Yashida shouted down at Wolverine in the deep well.

"Brother, that's a weapon carried by a B-29 bomber. You can't avoid it." Wolverine looked at Ichiro Yashida as though he were an idiot, proving the frightening consequences of ignorance. It was obvious that the nuclear explosion could not be avoided, yet he had released those prisoners like a fool.

"Ichiro, come here! It's time to die in loyalty to that idiot! Japan banzai!" the commander of the Japanese concentration camp shouted fanatically. In sight, several other officers had also prepared to commit seppuku for some idiot.

"You're safer down there. If I were you, I'd move faster..." Wolverine had always been a loner and would not care about people unrelated to him. But when he saw that Ichiro Yashida had released the American prisoners of war, he developed a favorable impression of him and decided to give him a way to live.

However, Ichiro Yashida was still called over by his superior. On the way, he swallowed hard. Seeing the Japanese officers dying, and the B-29 bombers drawing ever closer, Ichiro steeled himself and prepared to kill himself.

At that moment, the B-29 bomber had already dropped Little Boy. The instant the nuclear weapon exploded, it was as if ten million little suns had erupted with light, accompanied by a massive mushroom cloud. Within a few microseconds, countless waves of searing heat, overpressure, radioactive fragments, shockwaves, thermal radiation, nuclear rays, and nuclear electromagnetic pulses swept through the area. Faced with the apocalyptic weapon before him, Ichiro Yashida no longer had the courage to kill himself. At a loss, he watched the mushroom cloud rise into the sky. Of course, one could not run from an apocalyptic weapon. All one could do was put on sunglasses and quietly await death. Tang Tian himself also greatly admired mushrooms—though not ordinary mushrooms, but the enormous mushroom clouds produced by nuclear explosions.

"Run!" Seeing the mushroom cloud drawing closer and closer, Ichiro Yashida truly wanted to kill himself this time. No one wanted to die beneath such a terrifying weapon. Wolverine rushed out in time, dragged Ichiro Yashida into the deep well, and used the cover at the mouth of the well to shield him from most of the shockwave and heat that followed.

"No, we still can't go out. It isn't safe outside yet. Wait a while before going out," Wolverine explained as he looked at the nervous Ichiro Yashida.

Wolverine did not know that the man he had saved would seek him out before his death in the future. On the surface, he would claim it was to repay him, but in truth, he wanted Wolverine's power. The future Silver Samurai was born from this moment.