Ch 10: Token

"Will you all shut up…" Torino growled to himself as he sat on a long bench about 3 miles away from Maple Inn. Ever since his ordeal with Chiba Celia, he was having a rather irksome time with the 250 some voices that were screaming constantly inside of his head. God it was so fucking annoying. He placed his hand on the back of his head which had begun throbbing ever since his scuffle with that damn girl. He pulled it back, and saw it drenched with blood. Sighing with spite, he concentrated and regenerated the wound that had opened up. Jericho was standing at the edge, his eyes closed. He was his usual stoic self now.

Torino looked up at the sky, his hazelnut eyes narrowing. "What the hell are you doing Brutus…" He thought, concentrating. He saw all the images, the future at the ready. He could find nothing on Brutus. What use was this prediction if he could not use it affectively? It wasn't that he cared for Celia or the others (He had proven that point a few hours ago.) But if Brutus won, he would lose. Simple as that and if there's one thing he did not accept. It was losing.

Closing his eyes, Torino let his thoughts instead travel back. Into the past months and months ago. He remembered quite clearly how it had happened. When it had happened, where it had happened. He was in the water of that death filled lake, his mind broken, destroyed but…conscious. He had been beaten, destroyed by that girl and her powers. That power, he had come face to face with the Pure Form of Queen Celia. He had overestimated her. He admitted it, he hated to, but he did. He had completely overestimated her power and what now…he was on the bottom of this lake. He was dead.

Was he? It came to him, that if he was dead, he should be thinking. Yes, he was alive, broken, beaten, and decimated perhaps. But yes, he was alive. He lifted his hand, and saw that it was not a massive arm, but instead his own. He starred, his widening. He was in his human form and yet…

He could sense everything.

He let his body contract, and willed an arm to come out of him. His powers, all of it were inside of him. He was suddenly aware of a stinging pain just at the end of his elbow. Looking at it, he saw that his left arm was missing. Damn that girl. But somehow, he thought, that it could be fixed. His frowned, and sought to fix it, and found that his arm was reforming. The bones and sinews attaching. It just a few seconds his arm was back to normal. He…could regenerate? Oh…how it came. His powers, returned. He couldn't help but smile, he had gone beyond the grave, he had survived death itself. He didn't feel he was immortal though, but damn he did feel quite good.

He threw his arms out, his back exploding outwards as he flung himself out of the water and landed lithely on his feet. His chest was exposed as he looked down at it. His arm had regenerated, it would be unique but…

His white suit covered his body and in no time at all, he was wearing a completely new outfit, white and clean. He brushed his hand through his hair, feeling the ridged bumps on either side of his cranium. Alive.

"Kakuzawa."

His eyes opened grudgingly. He recognized Lucy's dark voice and sincerely wished he had fallen asleep before she could speak to him. But alas, there she was, and he was awake. Stretching his arms, he got up and made his way towards her, stopping in front of her. "What?" He said simply, but it did not hide his own disgust with her. After all, he did hate Diclonius and to help them in anyway was sickening to him. It just didn't help when he had to help his own rival herself.

"Has it ever occurred to you, that times have changed. You ruined Celia's life and she's done everything to fix it. She's brought both Diclonius and humans together…"

"Get to the point Elfenliar!"

Lucy closed her eyes. "I can't force you to do anything, as much as I want to, because ripping your head off, tearing your eyes out, doing all sort of physical damage would never solve it. So, I'm going to throw away my pride and ask you this…

If you have any soul at all in that corrupted being of yours, then at the very least you could apologize to Celia for what you have done to her."

He starred her, unsure if he had heard correctly. He had expected something along the lines of a vector coming into lop his head off. He had not expected to be asked (not told) but asked to apologize. He said nothing, he turned and sat back down on the bench and closed his eyes. Lucy said nothing, he didn't know what her expression was and didn't bother looking for it either.

Her footsteps echoed away and he was left to his own thoughts again. His and 250 others. Apologize to her? What pathetic thought that would have been. What a stupid idiotic…thought. Thoughts went to the tomb, she had written his own name on that tomb. She said, because even someone like him deserved to be remembered. Isn't that what he always wanted, to be important, to be remembered?

"Lucy." He called out to her. The Diclonius woman stopped, turning her head to listen. "I will not apologize to that girl. I despise, her, as she despises me. I couldn't' stomach being apologetic towards her. We are opposites, she is an innocent creature, and I am a monster. I will never see eye to with her, never…no matter what happens."

"You killed her parents, can't you at least show some remorse?"

"And how many parents have you killed? How many people have you slaughtered?"

"Too many." Lucy answered, and I am regretful that I killed them. That I killed my husband's father and sister so cruelly."

"What will apologizing do then? It won't bring them back."

"No." Lucy said, nodding her head. "But at least I've made an attempt. My husband never forgave me for killing his family, and yet he still loves me. I love him. The most you can do is show a bit of remorse for her. Even with what you did to her, she showed you some."

Torino was stuck in his own thoughts again and for once the voices were silent. He took a deep breath and said nothing. He didn't speak, and Lucy didn't retort or make any sort of attempt to make him speak. She gave a passing glance to Jericho and was about to leave when something hit her leg and fell to the ground with a small clink. Looking down, she found that it was a pure golden coin. She turned to Torino whose eyes were closed, his chest breathing, deep in sleep. Picking it up, she noticed that instead off an image of saying a Japanese leader, it was instead a picture of a family. An easily distinguishable mother and father holding the hands of a young girl. Lucy could almost see a set of small horns protruding from her head.

"Maybe there is some hope for you…" She thought, before leaving.

Torino stirred. "I'm to fucking nice…" He thought, before falling back to sleep.