User blog:Roinelll/Solace 3-07

<<== Previous Chapter

=
Idle Warrior

=
"Sierra?" I hear a whisper and see from the corner of my eye that the redhead gunner is trying to get my attention covertly.

Ignore it.

"Sierra?!" His voice raises in irritation as the boy sees that I have noticed him, but was brushed off completely.

Let's ignore it.

'''Entirely... I'm going to ignore it.'''

"Sierra!!" Kota shouts impatiently, then covers his mouth in fright.

Great...

Just fucking great...

My shoulder slumps as I turn around to stand again in between the scared foolish teammate of mines and a riled up Chi-You. The one that was following us for the last half hour or so, while spanning both of our nerves until their fullest. I get glared on threateningly and when the avian tries to reach for the boy, I just raise Chupacabra and stop the motion midair.

"S-sorry." I hear the muttered apology as he grabs onto my shoulders from behind, which... is kinda weird. Hiding behind a lithe girl like me, if it were the other way around, well... Even then we would have been felled by a powerful chop or a kick from this deviant Aragami. "What are we going to do?"

I don't care, Screecher here doesn't seem to be too aggressive towards us for the moment.

With that I simply shrugged and started walking again, Kota quickly got to the front with a frightened yelp. I still couldn't help it, but resumed towards the strange destination that my left arm pointed out. I was still haunted by the dread that we might possibly march into our death, but on the other hand neither of us knew when will this Aragami right behind us suddenly decide to have us for a light snack.

"There's something that has been bothering me." My eyes twitched in annoyance as the gunner turned around to face me while still keeping up walking. "Sierra?" My head dropped a bit to the question and stared at the boy in disdain. I didn't want to get broken out off my thoughts, but from time and time again he was trying to stop me. "Do you have an idea why this one is following us?"

How many times will you freaking ask it again?!

I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!!

"You don't ha--." As I glared at him, and he wasn't paying attention what laid before his steps, the boy stumbled and fell. His weapon clattered loudly to the ground as he hissed in pain. "OW-ow-ow." He moaned and quickly got to his feet, casting a dread filled gaze at the Aragami behind me. "You don't have to glare like that at me." Kota finished his sentence, a bit disheartened. "But either way, we can't just bring that Aragami with us... Right?"

I know that...

"What do you think happened to Soma and Sakuya?" This time the boy didn't turn around, checking his footing and doing his best to ignore the demonic glare of the Chi-You behind me. "I mean, didn't Hibari say something that they were in trouble?"

... You do realize, that this is a pointless monologue, Right?

'''I mean... just forget it and carry on...'''

"If nothing had happened, we should have met with them already. However as things stand and if they are really in trouble, what could we do?" Even the usually cheery God Eater was at the end of his wits and nerves. "Plus if we bring this... guy and meet with them, what's going to happen?"

'''... I've been asking the same questions... And I freaking can't imagine what is going to happen at all...'''

Behind us the Chi-You roared and took off to the air suddenly, Kota turned around frightened, but when he couldn't see the Aragami, a puzzled expression overcame his face. He first turned to me, then to the surrounding buildings tops, followed by the numerous destroyed walls all around.

"Uhm... " Kota blinked at me, but I just shrugged to the unsaid question. "Do you think it left finally?" But before I could perform another shrug, from the side of a nearby building an Aragami exploded to land near our feet. "Holy!" We jumped away, raising our weapons in defense before the Zygote that was wriggling around the ground, but in a few seconds the Chi-You burst through another section of the wall and landed right on top of the smaller flier.

We were quite speechless, well actually only Kota was struck since I'm already mute. Nevertheless, we saw as the small Aragami was grabbed by the powerful wing-arms of the avian, then was being torn apart. However this time the Chi-You didn't start devouring the torn away pieces, but instead threw them aside.

Then it lifted the wailing Zygote with one of the clawed arms and held it steady, following it up with the other arms claws plunging deep into the body of the small Aragami. We both stared in shock as the avian retracted the clawed fist, looked at it for a few seconds then with a furious shriek, stabbed into the Zygote yet again.

"What... is it doing?" The gunner used the time while the avian was busy with the other Aragami to get behind me. "It... doesn't make any sense."

'''No... way... Is it?'''

I stared wide eyed in front as on the second try, the deviant Aragami succeeded and now was holding a small blue orb in it's hand. Kota beside me was first agape, blinking stupefied. Then he turned to me and failed to pronounce the slightest comprehensible word for a few seconds.

"Did, that just..." The gunner was still struggling to find the right words. "Extract the core?!"

With the deed done, the Chi-You threw the body of the small flier away, then decided to walk towards me and stopping a few feet away. Then the large clawed arm extended to me and stopped a slight distance away from my God Arc, holding the core of the Zygote with two of the clawed fingers.

"What... now?"

The avian screeched, pressing the core to my Chupacabra a few times, then leaned to me and roared in what looked to me like... frustration?

This is freaking absurd.

However, in the end the Aragami gave up the notion and clenched the claws into a fist, crushing the core into tiny pieces. With the palm open again, it showed it near the weapon in my hand, while screeching. But then the pieces of the destroyed core started to dissipate into a black cloud of oracle cells and slowly drip to the ground between the clawed fingers.

Another furious roar echoed as the Chi-You suddenly left from the ground and took to the skies, disappearing from our eyes in a couple off seconds. I stared at Kota, who did like so back at me and this time it was his turn to shrug.

"It's going to return, right?" Kota asked, but I didn't answer. Soon enough another roar echoed and this time the avian returned to us on foot, dragging an Ogretail by the tail behind it. "Do you think its going to do that again?"

However, the Chi-You raised the left wing-arm holding up the Ogretail, then proceeded to grab it below the protruding bones by the neck and immobilized it completely. Then the small Aragami was held in front of me and I stepped back in surprise, but the avian held it close again. The big eyes of the Ogretail were fixated on me and while it tried to squirm free it didn't help it. Even with the legs of the small beast kicking about, the Chi-You kept it in an iron hold.

"What do you think is going to happen, now?" The gunner asked, curious and slightly amused. "Sierra?" However, because the squirming smaller Aragami blocked his vision, he didn't see that the small arms that are usually crossed in front of a Chi-Yous chest pointed at me, then at the Ogretail. "Is... it going to attack us finally?" Kota took a step back as the avian roared, slamming its prey into the ground.

... Really?

As another menacing roar came from the Chi-You, I stepped towards the still dazed Ogretail and pierced the body with my Chupacabra, shattering the core inside. With it gone, the small Aragamis death wail erupted, although it didn't last long. A few seconds later massive amounts of Oracle Cells started to spew from the body as it slowly disintegrated.

I saw what you did with your kind.

I glared right at the Chi-You, which howled out in rage and grabbed me with both clawed arms. As he brought me close to its face, the demonic visage was completely fixated on me. Kota on the other hand was panicking and had his weapon trained on the avian, even knowing that it would be completely useless and with me in the way it would have been foolish to open fire at all.

'''Do it then!! I'm not scared of you!!'''

I've gotten screamed right into the face, then suddenly dropped to the ground as the avian let go of me. It glared at us once more, then took to the skies again. The redhead walked to me and helped me up, then took out a Restore Pill and offered to me, but I shook my head and refused. Interestingly enough, I wasn't hurt even when I was grabbed by the clawed hands.

"You pissed it off on purpose, right?" Kota then asked from me and I could see fear in his eyes. When I nodded, he sighed nervously only. "I knew it... Please, don't be so reckless..." He pleaded, but Instead I just started walking again, towards the destination where my left arm would lead me to. "We're going to check it out? Even if the Chi-You returns?"

I turned slightly to the side to have him in my vision and nodded. The boy then scratched his head and caught up with me. I've returned my gaze to the front since I was quite wary of the fact that we might possibly run into something that would be rather deadly for us.

Roughly an hour later my left arm started itching, at first it wasn't much, but as we neared the destination it grew in size constantly. For our relief the Chi-You didn't return after I probably pissed it off, but we run into some small Aragami. A couple of Cocoon Maidens and another Ogretail had been taked down by us. We had also spotted a few Zygotes too, but managed to keep out of their notice.

"You're pale Sierra." Kota noted, sounding worried. "In the last half hour, you had been getting visible more and more worse." I looked back at the boy, then shook my head that it's not what he thinks, but instead he grabbed my arm in concern. "Reckless, once again." He said, to which I've simply shook my head, then before he could scold me our communicators came back to life with cracking statistic.

-Kota, Sierra. Can you hear me?!- The nervous voice of Hibari could be heard, along with some background noise from the other end of the line. -What if they had gotten ambushed just like the other teams?-

"We are fine for now, but what about the ambush, who was?" The gunner spoke up and a very relieved Operator answered.

-All of the teams out there in the city had reported that either they had gotten into a melee with numerous Aragami, or were right out attacked when they had their guard down after taking down a designated target.-

We've saw that too, we've gotten lucky to have not been swept up in it.

"Is Sakuya and Soma all right?" Kota inquired, somewhat worried about them. We did have a rather uncanny escort with us, maybe that was why we didn't get into so much trouble. "Earlier on when you tried to contact, you said that even they were caught in one."

-Yes, however they could pull through it with haste. Since the connection was established once again, they are en route to your location. And...- She stopped realizing something. -Why are you that much off course off your patrol? Even with the connection lost, that's too much difference. Did something happen to you?-

"Well... In short, a Chi-You decided to walk with us and... stuff." The gunner looked at me while not really knowing how to describe the events as clearly as possible, but I've just nodded for him that it's good so far. "Also Sierra is starting to look sick." At that I've grabbed his shoulder hard and squeezed it, the boy hissed and looked back at me with a determined gaze. "She is denying it, but I can see how the color is draining from her face. She had also taken some serious wounds from a squabble with a different Chi-You, although they were healed with Pills."

'''I'm not in denial! This... is something that has to do with that thing we are nearing... I'm not sick.'''

'''I... hope...'''

-Then rendezvous with Soma and Sakuya. She will be able to get some medical care for Sierra before you return to the base.-

"Also... I believe, Sierra did find something related to our last big mission." He didn't want to say that ones name, not like he will ever forget 'Moon in the Welkin', but rather because even he still hoped for a miracle. "... We might find some clues."

-Regroup immediately, this is an order." Instantly Hibari turned much more serious.

"No!" Even Kota was surprised by his fiery defiance. "I mean... Lind--."

-Kota Fujiki.- The stern and commanding voice of Tsubaki came ffrom the earpiece, then it dawned on us that she was probably present. Which made sense, knowing that other teams had gotten into seriously disadvantagous positions. -You are to meet up with the rest of the First Unit and return to the Den.-

"Y-yes Ma'am." The boy hang his head, knowing better than to disagree with the scary woman. "Let's wait for the others." He pleaded with his eyes, to which I've shook my head and pointed behind us.

I think trouble will find us faster than that, I'm afraid.

He turned towards where I've just directed and tried to take a better look, but then a very bad feeling came over me. I grabbed the boys shoulder and pulled him after me towards a nearby building. The walls had been broken down and I could see a staircase leading to the upper floors, which I decided to scale fast. The reason for that was that the probably source that I was feeling all this time was moving, and only a moment ago did it decide to go in our direction.

"Damn it." Kota uttered as we scaled up to the fourth floor, we couldn't get higher since the upper levels had collapsed under their own weight and the destruction done to them. "We're in trouble again, right?" He glanced and me and I very slowly nodded, before a nervous laughter came over him. "So what is it this time?"

My eyes were glued to the end of the street, from where something just turned in. It was probably an Aragami, at least I think it was, but I had never saw one before in the NORN. As the boy turned towards there too, the beast started to walk slowly towards us. It didn't look like we were spotted so far, but it wasn't sure why is it advancing right at us so surely.

"What is that?" The gunner asked as I had taken a good look at the strange being. "I never saw anything like that before."

Its probably a Medium sized one, since it was roughly as tall as a Chi-You is, while also featuring humanoid features. The body was large and sturdy with thick limbs covered in what looked like heavy armor. On the creatures shoulders, armored pads were to cover the head from the sides and the head was decorated with a horned helm.

What really intrigued me was that the right arm of the creature looked very similar to a God Arcs gun part. The way it was carried gave me that exact feeling. When it was only a few dozen meters far from us, the Aragami dropped into a half kneeling stance and raised the gun in front of it, right at us.

"We better move." Kota said my exact thoughts, just as a part on the gun separated and the barrel lengthened. We both could feel the energy gathering in the weapon of the Aragami, even as we made haste to get to the other end of the building. We did reach a window and had to chose to jump from the fourth or to get blasted with the building.

Crap!!!

We didn't get that choice as the demonic Aragami released the stored up energy in a massive blast.

End of Chapter

==>> Next Chapter