User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater:Universitas, chapter 36: Between One and Zero, part 1

The day had truly been eventful.

After Arthur’s power-up and the climactic defeat of the Boundary Yan Zhi, he, along with Beo, Bal, Nia, and Ken, had spent the rest of the day training with Sigma to master their new powers. The rest of the anti-Feldman task force, as it was known, wondered which of them, if any, would be next… but in the meantime, there was little they could do but wait. The next day would be their last before any of them who had not yet traveled to the Horizon would be taken there by Sigma, so tensions were understandably high.

Nanako Kawashima could be seen entering the lounge and approaching the bar, taking a seat next to another God Eater.

It was C, her horns and blue hair very apparent.

“Tell me, C,” Nanako spoke as she sat down, her sunglasses clipped over her collar and her coat placed on the stool next to her, “what do you think about all of this?”

“Me?” came C’s reply. “I don’t know… I mean, sure, I was one of the first to find out about what Feldman had been doing with the Boundary Aragami all those years ago, but as for the future…”  C paused, scratching her head. “Not even I, in all my knowledge, can tell what’s going to happen next—not in terms of the battle against Feldman and certainly not in terms of the future after that.”

“Hm?” Nanako responded. “I’m surprised to hear that from you of all people. Aren’t you the greatest information broker of all time?”

“I mean, yeah,” C answered, “but all the knowledge and information in the world doesn’t mean a thing next to power that literally defies all known rules of the universe…”  C slumped back and set her drink on the counter.

Nanako let out a small chuckle. “I see what you mean, I suppose,” she replied. “I used to think I knew how the world worked. I lived a quiet life back in Glasgow doing R&D work when I was a kid… back then, that was my entire world. Working under Cyrus and becoming the best damn R&D tech I could. And then, well…”  Nanako trailed off.

“Sigma… right?” interjected C.

“Yeah…” came Nanako’s reply. “That day, when Sigma came to Glasgow and killed Cyrus, I thought my world was over. My one bastion in this world, my beacon of hope… gone, snuffed out like all of a weak candle flame. But then, when the Gehenna awoke and stampeded towards the Glasgow Branch, Sigma showed me that I had power and courage beyond what I thought myself capable of. It opened my eyes to a world of possibility existing outside my tiny frame of reference, like a frog climbing out of a well to discover a whole world waiting for him out there.”

“And then,” added C, “you traveled to Japan and became a God Eater… right?”

“Mhm,” answered Nanako. “I was born there and sent by my parents to Glasgow when I was very young. I figured, as part of my journey of self-rediscovery, I’d return to the land of my birth and finally become a God Eater, like Cyrus wanted me to. It was the best way to honor his memory and to discover the me I always knew I could be, you know?”

“And the rest is history,” C spoke. “You all saved Julius from becoming a Singularity and stopped Rachel Claudius not once but TWICE. You’ve done things no normal human, let alone most God Eaters, could even imagine.”

“See?” responded Nanako. “That’s just what I mean. I broadened my horizons beyond what I thought my limits were. I opened myself up to a whole world I hardly knew existed.”

C sat up straight and turned to “look” at Nanako, as much as one whose eyes were covered could “look” at anything.

“So…” she began, “you’re saying that I need to stop confining my views based on what I already know, and instead expand my horizons based on my own possibilities? That sounds…”

“Hard?” interjected Nanako. “It might very well be. I mean, look at everything I went through to get to where I am today. I wouldn’t want to live through all that again, but at the same time… I guess I’m pretty happy with my life as it is now.”

“So… began C, “you don’t have, like, any big wish, any major dreams you’d give anything for?”

“Hm?” Nanako inquired. “How do you mean?”

“Well,” responded C, “everyone else who’s obtained the Horizon’s power has had some grand goal, something they would gladly have laid down their lives to achieve. Are you saying that you don’t have anything like that?”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Nanako began, “…I guess not? Like I said, I’m satisfied with where I am now. Sure, I regret Cyrus’ death, but had he not died, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’d still be in Glasgow, working R&D for Fenrir. So I guess if I had to pick one thing…”

Nanako stood up and slung her coat over her shoulder.

“…it’d be to be the greatest detective of all time?”

At those words, Nanako let out a hearty laugh, walking towards the elevator to return to her room.

But neither she nor C could anticipate what was about to happen…

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