~Chapter 11: Ragna's Temptation~

Shunack stared up at Jessica before rising up to his feet. "You..." he said quietly, narrowing his eyes at the military woman. "What do you want?"

"Many things, Shunack," Jessica retorted. "Personally I want to watch you bleed to death, but for now I cannot let such a thing happen." The woman grabbed the man by his silver hair, pulling him so that he was face-to-face with her. "What exactly are you hiding?"

For a moment Shunack grimaced from having his hair tugged, but soon he assumed a tough glare. "I've already made it quite clear that I won't tell you anything," he told her. "The knowledge I am hiding from you is dangerous. It's better if I keep my secrets from harming this world."

"The Forest's 'weakness' could be the key to humanity's victory in dominating the world once again," Jessica told him viciously. "The Ragna army seeks to control the Forest in order to let humanity thrive upon the Earth."

Shunack completely understood Jessica's words, and in all honesty he agreed with her views, but he did not trust her. E.S.T.O.C. was a weapon built to destroy the Forest, not control it; if it fell into the wrong hands then the entire planet could collapse.

"Again, I will not share any of my knowledge with you," the enhanced human repeated. He saw Jessica grit her teeth and clench her fists, almost preparing to fight him. "Don't bother trying to fight me," Shunack said in response to her body language. "As you can see, I am enhanced with the Forest's power."

Jessica narrowed her eyes at him, having already guessed that Shunack was enhanced due to his new hair colour. "Why do you keep your knowledge to yourself?" she decided to ask. "If you had a note to remind you of the Forest's weakness then surely you must want what the Ragna army wants. You must want humanity to thrive once again. You lived in a time where humanity thrived!"

There was a pause before Shunack calmly responded to Jessica's words. "I am only to use the power if the world is no longer safe for humans," he told her. "As you can see, the Forest is peaceful towards the inhabitants of Neutral City. I myself was allowed to become enhanced by the Forest despite being from the past, not to mention that the nation of Ragna isn't constantly being attacked by the Forest. If you ask me, the world isn't suffering as much as the people of the past thought it would suffer."

Jessica stepped forward, ready to punch Shunack, but stopped as she realised that punching him would do no good since he was now enhanced. She scowled at him, gritting her teeth. Shunack remained relatively calm, perhaps also feeling a little smug since he was now much stronger than the militant.

"You should return to Tria City; you have no business with me here," the young man told the woman. Jessica narrowed her eyes and turned around.

"Don't expect this to be the last time you'll see me," she scoffed as she started walking. "I will not give up until I get my answers from you." She stopped walking to look back at him one last time. "And next time we meet, you'll have the entire Ragna army to answer to." Once she had said her final statement, Jessica walked off to return to Ragna.

Shunack watched her leave before continuing to dig for a while longer. When he had managed to uncover one of the windows to the building he was digging up, Shunack smashed the glass with his fist. He went inside the collapsed structure to look around for anything which could be considered useful. At first the sight depressed him since the building he had entered was one he had been to back in the past; it was part of a mall. But Shunack quickly discarded all thoughts of depression when he realised that salvaging for usable items in a mall would most likely result in him returning to Neutral City with plenty of things to show everyone. Even better: he was the only one who knew how to use most of the items from the past.

...

Nori had spent the day baking a cake for Shunack, rather proud of her efforts. Baking cakes was difficult in this era, and took a lot longer since ovens didn't really exist. The young woman smiled to herself as she placed the cake on a table to cool down, hoping that when Shunack returned he would appreciate her efforts.

But then she stopped smiling. Shunack always had his mind on Shika. He had always wanted to reunite with her, but now that she was dead... he couldn't. But he still refused to let her go. He wouldn't move on.

That was one of Shunack's major flaws: clinging to the past.

Nori let out a heavy sigh, feeling rather saddened all of a sudden. Shunack would never appreciate her. She didn't want to ever accept it but... she had to. He loved Shika, and no one else. He would never care for anyone else.

Yet he was the only man Nori spoke to her seemed... nice.

The black-haired waitress growled a little and forced a smile. She couldn't be so depressed about such a thing. After all, Shunack was just a friend of hers.

...Right?

...

Yolda stood beside Hajan, the pair looking out to the desert as they watched Shunack walk back towards the town, dragging a large pile of odd items behind him.

"Think he's doing okay?" Hajan asked.

"He's... getting better," Yolda answered. "But the Forest seems to think otherwise."

"The Forest is probably just confused," Hajan assumed. "Shunack is a very complex man."

"He is indeed," Yolda agreed. "But the Forest is not easily confused. It knows Shunack from the past; I can sense it. And the Forest can sense some tension in Shunack's mind. Some... consideration. As if Shunack is considering one thing or the other."

Hajan let silence occur for a moment before he spoke up. "...Shunack's having second thoughts about turning down Jessica's offer, isn't he?" he guessed. Yolda almost flinched at the words.

"I think so," she admitted. "Again, the Forest isn't new to all of this. They've dealt with many people in the past who tried to fight it out of pure hatred, and they've definitely seen citizens of Neutral City join Ragna."

This time Hajan didn't want to respond verbally. He knew what Yolda was talking about. He knew who she was talking about.

"...Maybe you should talk to him," the older man eventually suggested. His friend looked at him strangely before he continued. "...We don't want someone like him joining Ragna. He's been enhanced. He has secrets of the past that only he knows that could end this world. ...Maybe you should just talk to him."

Yolda was silent, but she nodded slowly as she turned to look back at Shunack, who was currently trying to climb his way up to the city with all of the stuff he had found.

"...I'll speak with him later tonight," the elder woman planned. "I'll take him to the memorial and tell him what happened only a couple of years ago."

"...I'm sure he'll reconsider his recent thoughts when he hears what you have to tell him," Hajan stated.

"Hmph," Yolda responded thoughtfully.

...

Shunack was panting heavily when he finally managed to drag everything up to the city itself, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He stood and tried to catch his breath as he heard some light footsteps approaching him. The silver-haired man turned and saw Nori as she approached him shyly with a sweet smile on her face.

"Good evening," she greeted.

"...Hey," Shunack panted tiredly.

"You were gone for a while. Need a drink?" Nori asked.

"No thanks, I can manage..." Shunack assured as he stood straight, having regained himself. He looked down at the young woman, tilting his head to the side before he smiled a little. "So how are you?"

"I'm great!" Nori chirped. "I knew you were out in the desert, and I knew you were still kind of sad so... I baked a cake for you!"

Shunack stared at her. "...A cake, huh?" he asked, chuckling a little in an almost sad manner.

"Yeah!" Nori replied. "Cakes are very hard to make these days, but I wanted to make you one! Nobody really gives you anything in return for what you do for them. I wanted to... y'know, make you happy!"

The young man stared at her. Any normal man would see this as an act of someone who may have felt a little romantic, but Shunack was by no means ordinary. He just smiled kindly.

"Thank you," he thanked. "But I don't do that much for this city..."

"Of course you do!" Nori assured, beaming happily as she gestured to the town surrounding the pair. "You've done so much for this place! You've improved transportation of goods, made efficient contraptions and made the city a whole lot safer!"

Shunack looked around, thinking about what Nori had just said. It was indeed true, but he couldn't take full credit for it. "...Yolda and Hajan still do a lot of work, too," he pointed out.

"I guess..." Nori replied quietly. "...But you're introducing us to things from the past! That's... quite cool!"

"You seem awfully cheery tonight," Shunack noticed. "Is something wrong?"

Nori looked at him oddly, surprised that he picked up on her cheery behaviour at this moment. "...No, I'm just in a good mood from baking a cake..." she told him, looking at the floor as she scratched the back of her head. "It took a lot of effort..."

Shunack smiled. "...You should share it with me," he offered, seeing the young female widen her eyes in surprise as she looked at him. "Cakes are better when shared with those you care about, right?"

"...Right..." Nori responded slowly. This was... an unusually charming comment coming from someone like Shunack. Unless it was just a friendly gesture more than anything, that is.

Again, Shunack smiled. He was about to ask to go back to Nori's place to share the cake with her, but saw Yolda approaching out of the corner of his eye. "Oh. Hello, Yolda," he greeted with a small smile. Yolda nodded to him in response.

"Shunack," she began. "I want you to come by my office later this evening. There's something I must talk to you about."

"Huh?" Shunack reacted, sounding confused. "...Alright." The young man turned back to Nori and smiled. "Let's eat that cake first, shall we?"

Nori smiled happily. "Sure!" she agreed.

...

Later that evening, Shunack approached Yolda's office building. He headed up to her office and knocked on the door.

"Come in," she called. Shunack opened the door and walked inside.

"...You wanted to talk to me?" the man recalled.

"Yes," Yolda responded as she walked over to him. "Come; follow me." The elder woman walked past him and out of the office. Shunack seemed confused, but followed her.

"Where are we going?" he asked as the two headed out of the structure. Yolda didn't actually answer him, so Shunack decided to remain silent as he followed the woman.

The walk wasn't too long, but eventually Yolda came to a halt. Shunack stopped beside her and looked at her for a moment, before following the gaze to see what she was looking at.

A ruined statue.

"What's that?" the young man queried out of curiosity.

"That is a memorial statue," Yolda answered simply. "Hajan and I built it a few years ago."

The statue wasn't particularly large, instead being the size of a regular human. The statue was of what appeared to be a young man with a cloak. No... Shunack recognized the armour shaped into the statue. That was standard Ragna soldier armour this young man was depicted wearing.

Shunack knelt down by the statue's base, and engraved into the stone he saw the words:

'In Memory of Shaan'

"Who's Shaan?" Shunack asked, looking up at Yolda.

"I'll tell you," Yolda answered. "I want you to learn something from him."

~End of Chapter~