User blog:SouichiKazehaya/Tuner's Passion, Fighter's Pride

Azure Eyes, Crimson Skies - Tuner’s Passion, Fighter’s Pride

Who: Gilbert McLaine, Licca Kusunoki and Souichi Kazehaya When: Post-Gilbert Character Episodes, pre-Magatsu Kyuubi hunt Where: God Arc Hangar Summary: Tuning had more or less become his lifeblood. But in spite of all that, something felt lacking...

Another busy day, another few hours spent inside the development room.

Ever since Gil'd gotten his God Arc tuned up with Licca's help, I wound up sharing a similar need to bring the most out of mine, leading to the eventual formation of the Shirogane equipment I'd use relatively often in the early stages of my work as Captain. My need might have been more all-consuming than I thought it was, though -- because as soon as I set off that morning, I found my feet bringing me towards the location of Susano'os and Tsukiyomis alike. It was strange, hunting Deusphages so casually, but then I remembered nothing would be more threatening than facing off against the Marduk when I was freshly promoted to Captain. And if I could do that in spite of being unprepared, I could probably face those as well.

I wound up getting more than I bargained for; way more. On top of having the parts I needed for the set of equipment I wanted, the materials to complete one other along the way -- a blade, gun and shield that made use of the God Arc Soldiers' materials -- more or less fell into my lap, thanks (or no thanks, depending on how you look at it) to some Rampaging God Arc Soldiers that happened to be running around the mission area. Licca even busted out laughing at how much trouble I get myself through in spite of untuned equipment when I handed over the parts. I could have sworn she'd called me a crazed challenge seeker at that time...

Well, she wouldn't be far off, honestly. Though it's more like the challenges come finding me, instead...

"So, how does it look so far?" Gil peered over my shoulder, apprehensive. I'd been looking over the Shield, Long Blade and Shotgun on Licca's workdesk for the past few minutes now, and at how she'd worked to tweak it to my preferences.

"I can still get more out of it, I'm sure of it..." Placing one hand on my hip and putting the other up against my bottom lip, I made a small noise of consideration as I gave it another glance, before looking back at him. “It’s still pretty early to call it finished.”

“You could tell that easily?” Licca laughed a little, wiping the sweat off her brow and put aside her tools to peer back. “I guess working with Gil over the past few months sharpened your eye.”

“That’s part of it, yeah...” I scratched at the back of my head, a little embarrassed. “The rest was more my effort. That and finding the blasted Aragami that he needed me to hunt.”

“It wasn’t that bad, was it? Certainly wasn’t any different from seeing you dive in with all your gear untuned.” Gil snorted a little, though it didn’t seem like he held any animosity towards me this time. Poking fun at my habits seems to have become his newest pastime...

“Hey, I’ll have everything in tip-top shape before you know it! My God Arc won’t stay untuned forever!” Admittedly, I might have sounded more indignant than I meant to come off, but it wasn’t as if I was taking that seriously.

“Just let me know when you’ve got your God Arc ready this time; we do have a mission, you know.” He chuckled, before settling against the wall. “It still amazes me that you managed this much though; I thought Deusphages were meant to be feared, not to be hunted.”

Licca couldn’t help the amused noises that came out of her throat. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing! Though I guess it’d help that he has that malleable Power of Blood...”

“Mm-hmm. The Captain didn’t get his nickname for nothing; I wouldn’t be surprised if even large-class Aragami didn’t concern him.” He certainly seemed convinced of it.

Though I wasn’t. Not by a long shot.

“Hah, like I’m nearly good enough for that.” A wry smile tinted my features as I settled against the wall I was closest to.

I couldn’t tell at first since I’d kept my head low, but when I got a look at them, their expressions were rather telling. Gil seemed genuinely surprised that I’d put myself down as harshly as I did, and Licca wasn’t entirely convinced of what I said. It probably didn’t help that I’d been hunting every trace of a single particular Deusphage I could find, and with what seemed like single-minded intent, too.

“I’m not sure I believe something that self-deprecating when you’ve hoarded nothing but Tsukiyomi materials over the past few weeks, Souichi.” Licca put her hands on her hips.

“You’re one of the strongest God Eaters we’ve got. With a God Arc that malleable, and that kind of power, I’m sure you can just--“

“But is that really all there is to it?” I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair as I collected my thoughts. “I have power and adaptability. Yeah, I’ll give you that. But that’s gonna do me little if I don’t have the skill to match both of those traits.”

“If you can fight the way you do even without tuned equipment--” I cut Gil off before he can finish.

“Then that just shows how much I’ve relied on this power, doesn’t it?”

It had him balking for a moment, but Gil seemed to finally pick up on what I was trying to say -- and crossed his arms in contemplation. ”So what you mean to say is you want to harden yourself as a God Eater. Is that what I’m getting here?”

“That’s the gist of it...” I cast a look on the blade, gun and shield on the workdesk. ”Can I really call myself one of the best if I’m just swinging wildly at what’s in front of me until it gives way?”

“It’s not like we’ve got much of a choice here, even so. You should know by now.” I wanted to say he was wrong, but... Gil had a point; the incident with his superior, Kate, came back to the forefront, and our recent incidents with Romeo and Julius as well. This is the sort of job that can kill -- in a dog eat dog world like this, it’s only natural that you’d do everything you can. But even that seemed like an excuse to just rely on this power even more. If I can’t even swing my weapon when it counts, then what worth is it?

“Yeah...I’m painfully aware.” All the same, I had to at least be rational. This was no place for things like pride. That’s the sort of thing that kills even the best of us.

...It wasn’t long before I turned to Licca, though. This discussion must’ve made the air tense... “Sorry. I got a little carried away with that.”

She shook her head, though. “I don’t always get to hear people speak of themselves, so it’s fine, really! Besides, you’re with friends, you know.”

I couldn’t help the light smile on my face at that. “Friends...right. I should make it a point to remind myself of that. It’s so easy to forget...”

“If you do forget, we’ll be right here.” Gil held out a clenched hand. What he said got a light laugh out of me, but all the same, I followed the gesture by bumping fists with him.

“I’ll be counting on all of you, then. Whether it’s here, or out there on the fields.”

Our talks went everywhere after that. I can’t say I remember what about, or why, but one thing was for certain...the few friends I’ve made have already made this world a more tolerable place.