User blog:Baluar/Chapter 12... and 13? Ok, this one's weird.

Too lazy to actually post two different chapters. Now, let's go with the story.

For once in a lot of months, I can finally return to my old life. Killing Aragami I know is priceless. Only event worth mentioning in a couple of weeks is that I almost get squashed by an Ouroboros. While I am struggling not to be crushed under its leg, everyone assumes I am dead. I can hear their shocked expressions, but I don’t have time to answer: I quickly transform myself into my Aragami form and rise up the Ouroboros leg with my arms. If their statements before were shocked, now they see me as a god of some sort. After all, not many guys can lift up an Ouro’s leg. After killing it, it appears I’ve earned a nearly endless supply of nicknames from my comrades. Courtesy of Lili, I got “Commander Hulk”. I mean, seriously?

            At least life got normal. No weird Aragami showing off for a while. No stupidly huge monster attacking the Den. No: just good ol’ life. Said life goes on as normal on the Den for the first time ever since I arrived as the first New-Type God Eater recruit of the Far East Branch. Errr, I mean, alongside my good little sister, of course. I grow bored. I thirst for adventure. Fortunately enough, destiny keeps one or two surprises in box for me: once again, we get an urgent assignment, exclusive to our Branch this time, where we have to kill a pack of Ogretails the size of a Gboro-Gboro. Not to mention they are 30. I sign in first, followed up by Lindow, Alisa, Nia, Robb, Kota, Soma and a bunch more of people. It’s 10 vs. 30, then.

            They hardly do anything but avoid us (for guys of that size, they’re pretty coward), so I adopt my alternate form, and so does my sis’. Quickly enough, we find that only both of us have dealt with more than 4 (each) while everyone else hardly has killed their first. At a given point, I’ve got to save Lili from being squashed by the tail of one of these guys. Sounds like this thing is making us exponentially more powerful. But alas, it does NOT go without consequences. I find that my eyes are becoming darker and darker (like having red eyes NATURALLY was not bad enough… not to speak of Nia, whose eyes were black already), and my skin, before quite pale, has grown a slight red hue. And it goes worse for every transformation. I ask Sakaki for help, and he performs one hell of a lot of studies on me and Nia (if I didn’t knew better, I’d say he enjoys it… because he doesn’t, or does he?). He comes to say that he might have a potential solution to our problem, a solution that should allow us to eliminate the disadvantages of our “condition”.

Well, apparently, Sakaki needs time for developing his cure, so all we can do is to avoid transforming into our Aragami forms in the meantime. Thus, we keep up our life without bringing that up again for a while. During this interval, some random things happen, such as Lili and Robb becoming a couple or Sakuya retiring from her God Eater duties to take care of Ren, who is now insanely active and requires much more attention that she could give him while working of this as well (Lindow, on the other hand, doesn’t change his lifestyle one tiny bit. For instance, people hold tournaments of “Who can drink more beer in one day?” He’s always first, by far. The next day he usually refrains from active hunt). Also, Alisa and I decided to formalize our relationship, causing Nia to crack jokes (only in my presence), pointing out I’m about a head and a half taller than Alisa, which inevitably results in other, well, dirtier stuff. She’s a genius, really. I really can’t understand why she only acts that way when it’s only the two of us.

But there’s still no news concerning the cure. And my reddish skin is there, as a reminder… A reminder that, no matter what, I’m still not what I used to be… That there’s something inside me that’s not supposed to be in there.

Chapter 13

            Time passed, and we still haven’t got a cure. Oh well, I guess it could be worse.

            But my words of not long ago (“ there’s something inside me that’s not supposed to be in there”) are foreshadowing. During a routine mission, I suddenly hear voices in my head. Curious. I once heard it happened to a prototype New-Type God Eater. He heard his God Arc speaking to him. But then, I realize not many God Eaters are part Aragami, so that’s more likely a side effect of my peculiarity. Yet, the idea of having a second conscience within my head is rather creepy. But I keep doing what’s expected from me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            This doesn’t wear off, though. It only gets worse. When it began, it was nothing but random, disordered thoughts. Now… there’s someone else within my head, who I call “It” (yeah, really shockingly creative). It’s voice is deep and echoes eerily, but that won’t creep me out. What It says, though, is a good cause for concern:

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[Why do you act this way, hunting your potential servants? You have the power to do whatever you wish, to dominate the beings who are the main life form in the world. Why do you restrain yourself, when you could literally own the planet?]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[That’s kinda like aiming high, isn’t it? – I answered. – Anyway, why do you think I’m interested in that? I wouldn’t domain a bunch of species which almost annihilate my kind.]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[The hunger for power repressed in your subconscient would crush a normal person’s will. Don’t you feel it? It is natural in your species. Your power only makes it larger.]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[Oh, shut up. I don’t care about power.]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[Are you certain of that? Your subconscient begs to differ, my friend. You crave for power. Why do you deny it?]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[Power comes with responsibility (cliché notwithstanding). And I don’t want more responsibility. I’d rather be a normal guy. I know what I want and what I don’t want. And, just for the record, who the hell are you?]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[You know who I am.]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[Give a direct answer once in a while, please. Who. Are. You?]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[Your other half. Your wild instinct. Your inner Aragami.]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[There you go. Was it so hard?]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -[You believe I care for what you say? I simply point what you truly desire, and you show your thanks by trying to deny my existence?]

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            I simply stop paying attention. I am with Nia. Apparently, I delayed a whole minute in talking with It. When I finish, she simply says:

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            -You too? I had hoped it was only me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:white;mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">            Dammit. This is serious. Sakaki needs to hurry the hell up, or we’re done for.

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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor: background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">