Chapter 26

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE GOD EATER FRANCHISE HOWEVER I DO OWN MY OC.

Name: Cedrick Esparza

Gender: Male

Hairstyle: Style 7 (Dark Brown)

God Arc: Ice Drill (Short Blade), Apega Blaze (Sniper Rifle), Kurogane Tower (Shield)

Blood Art: Blood Cascade II

"So Kanon, what is it you need help with exactly?" I ask most logical question I could think of. If I am to help Kanon, I will need to know what she needs help with. It makes sense, right?

"Um... There's accuracy, what bullets to shoot and... Oh! Friendly fire. I definitely need help with that last part." She says so matter of factly that I find it surprising. She must have had these difficulties for a while if Haruomi gave up on her.

"How long have you been having difficulty in those areas?" I voice my thoughts. Maybe she hasn't always been like this and is just stuck in a rut at the minute or a bad run of form.

"Let's see here." She assumes a thinking stance, finger under chin, as she thinks about her answer. "Probably since" I notice her tone has gotten more depressed. It is as if we had just been teleported to one of the icy regions located at Earth's poles and we were standing out there as we feel the decreased temperature on our naked bodies. "he left us." I focus so much on the figurative temperature change around us that I almost miss the rest of her sentence. In an attempt to get her to brighten up, and thus the figurative temperature, I ask her a question that I hope will bring back better memories of this "he" Kanon refers to.

"So what did you do before you had these problems?" My attempt to brighten the mood works but only just.

"He" There's the pronoun again, "helped me to produce special bullets that, if a God Eater got in the way, they would be healed instead of injured." She explains to me about how she got around the problem before but that brings a new situation to mind.

"Why can't you continue to use them bullets?" Surely she won't have these problems if she uses those bullets, right?

"That's the thing. They don't work anymore." The sadness in her voice cements the comment to be true but that doesn't mean that I don't find it confusing.

"Wha-What do you mean?" I hear myself stutter, thankfully though it only emphasises my confusion at the situation.

"I don't know how it happened. One day my Arc was able to use those bullets, the next day it wasn't able to. I tried to vary it but it still didn't work so I've been forced to use standard bullets." She was getting too depressed now. I was already beginning to figuratively feel the cold Antarctic winds against my skin.

"Well, how about we start training tomorrow? I've just came back from a tiring mission after all." To be honest, I had almost completely forgotten about the mission. It didn't take too long and therefore wasn't very tiring but I didn't really feel like teaching Kanon right now. There has to be something that could better use my time.

"Aye aye, Instructor. I'll be waiting until then." She salutes me in a way that I find amusing yet childish. This woman has been a God Eater for longer than me and still acts like a child, I wonder what she fights like.

"At ease." I speak as she relinquishes her soldier pose. I give her a wave goodbye before walking away.

"Oh, and Instructor?" She speaks up, causing me to stop in my tracks and turn around.

"Yeah?" I was surprised. I didn't expect to hear from her so soon. I thought we were finished with the conversation but she still had more to say?

"How has your eye been?" I raise a hand to my eye patch after her question.

"Apart from last night, my eye has been fine. I can only assume that last night's pain was because the anaesthesia was wearing off." I speak what I thought. Hopefully Kanon will confirm that my thoughts were correct. It would be a huge relief to know that there isn't anything else that is wrong with me.

"Yeah, that is most likely the case." She says before taking on a more shy demeanour, "I see you've taken my idea then?" I rack my brain for what she could have possibly suggested to me before realising that it was her idea to get an eye patch.

"Oh, yes I have. I don't really like the fake eye so I thought about hiding it from the world. Never to see the light of day." I state confidently. I see Kanon ponder over her next words. I speculate leaving but I have the feeling that she wants to say something else.

"Cedrick, you shouldn't worry about what other people will think about your replacement eye. I'm sure your friends will be supportive of whatever you pick." Maybe I was right to stay. Kanon's words sounded like they came from the bottom of her heart. I suppose it would be rude not to acknowledge them.

"Thank you, Kanon but I don't wear my eye patch for others. I wear it so I don't have to look at my eye every time I loom into a reflective surface." With that, I take my leave; heading out of the lounge and to the cafeteria. I am quite hungry so that would be the logical spot.

After collecting my tray of food, I sit down at a table near the back; one that gives me view of the cafeteria doors. I like to watch the doors as people enter to see who actually does. Right now, there is only a few people in the cafeteria and these people I haven't met. I can only assume that, due to the absence of armlets, they are not God Eaters. I suppose they could even be the family members of the black plague victims that are housed within the infirmary at the moment. The door opening catches my attention. The person who walks through isn't a God Eater but heavily supports them. The woman looks around the cafeteria before her eyes land on me, noticing I was looking at her. She gives me a friendly wave before grabbing a tray and moving to get her food. I focus on mine and continue eating. A few seconds later, I jump a little as the woman took a seat opposite me.

"Hi, Vice Captain." Licca speaks cheerfully. I look to her face and notice that she has grease marks on her cheeks. I don't point it out though. It is actually pretty cute that she is so devoted to her work that she doesn't notice when her face pays the price for it.

"Hi, Licca." I respond in a lower levelled cheery voice compared to hers. "What can I do you for?"

"Thanks to the materials you collected, I can finally run those tests. Thank you!" She seemed genuinely pleased. I do remember testing out the machine she gave me but I can't remember giving her any materials. Maybe she just noticed I had them in storage and thought they were for her. Either way, I probably wasn't going to use those materials so it would be better if she could find some use for them.

"No problem, Licca." I continue eating as she speaks.

"But we're just getting started. I want you to help me collect data using the improved version." She must mean the machine. She's already improved it? "I think it might be pretty late before we finish. Is that alright with you?" It seems as though she had already enlisted me to help her out. I have no problem with that but at the moment, I am enjoying my slop of a dinner. Or at least, I am trying to.

"Not right now, we are having food." I gesture to our plates to which she just smile in response as if anticipating the answer.

"I know that. I meant after our food."

"Oh, yeah, I'd be happy to help." I speak from the heart. I am genuinely interested in helping her continue her project. According to Licca, this machine will be beneficial for God Eaters so I'd like to see how it works before it is released as an official device.

"Really?! Hehe, I'm so glad to hear that." Hearing how grateful Licca is is truly heart warming. This is why I help people. "It's so good to have someone like you around." With them being her final words, the two of us continue eating.

I stand atop a ledge high above the battlefield also known as the City of Mercy. I scout the area to locate the Aragami and where their hiding places may be. I look to my Arc and see the upgraded device equipped to it. It was bigger than the other device but if bigger mean stronger, then I am all for it.

"Okay, everything is reading nicely." Licca comments on my vital signs through my earpiece. For safety reasons, she stays in the Den on these missions. It is only natural, right? She can't defend herself seeing as how she isn't a God Eater. "There should be a herd of Ogretails in your area." She informs me and I jump down from the ledge. I wander over to where I thought the first hiding spot would be and I am not surprised that I find an Ogretail there. Without so much as a thought, I silently run towards it, God Arc in Melee Form which comes crashing down on the Aragami, taking it by surprise. It tries to retaliate with a tail attack but a simple back step makes sure that it misses me. Once the tail has swiped past me, I charge in with another slash which quickly turns into a multitude of slashes. One, two, three, four, then I suddenly feel a boost that allows me to keep slashing. The Ogretail falls onto its side, breathing heavily but I don't relent my onslaught. About five slashes later and I make sure the Ogretail doesn't get back up. I extract its core and get a minor surprise as I hear Licca through my earpiece.

"Nice work with that Ogretail, Cedrick! There should be two more Ogretails about 20 metres North West of where you are." I give my silent thanks to Licca before continuing in the direction she pointed me in.

Sure enough, I find two Ogretails feeding on what looks to be the remains of another. I'm not quite sure how I will take them both on at once. Maybe I can lure one of them closer to me. I think for about a minute of how I can do that before acting out my best idea. I take cover behind the chapel in the centre of the city and bang my Arc against the wall, hoping that one of the Aragami will hear me. BANG! BANG! BANG! To me, the noise was pretty loud but it didn't seem to attract the attention of any of the two Ogretails.

"An Ogretail is moving towards your area. It is about 15 metres to your left." Licca informs me through the earpiece and I look towards my left. The wall continues on for about 10 metres so the Aragami will be just around that corner. I stealthily follow the wall and wait about one metre away from the corner. About five seconds later, I see the nose of the Aragami enter my field of vision. I wait for only another second and strike the beast on the head.

"GRRAA!" It releases a loud roar as it crumbles to the ground in pain. For the next 10 seconds, I lift my Arc down onto its head several more times before it is defeated. It is only then that I hear four sets of footsteps from behind me. Without even looking back, I run around the corner and keep heading straight on; turning when I get to the next corner. When I do, I see that the two Ogretails that were mauling the corpse of another were missing. So the two following me had to be the two that were here.

"GRAA!" A collective roar from the two of them tells me that they are getting close to my position. Instead of continuing straight ahead, I run to my right and into a wide open area to which battling should be easy. I look back to the corner I had ran from to see the two Ogretails that had spotted me. Without another thought, I set out a paralysis trap right in front of me and make sure to stay behind it as the two Ogretails run towards me. One of them stops when they are about 5 metres away and raises its tail, the other looks as though it is about to knock me down with its jaw. Thankfully, the paralysis trap stops this charging Ogretail but it doesn't stop the other Aragami from releasing a barrage of icicles in my direction. I manage to hide behind the paralysed form of the Ogretail which takes the brunt of the attack. However, it is not large enough to stop the entirety of the icicles so I am forced to deploy my shield. Once the barrage is over, I take to swiping the Ogretail directly in front of me. I manage to land three swipes before I notice that I am unable to see the Aragami that launched the icicles. I look around before noticing that the Aragami is situated about 5 metres behind me. During my slashing with the paralysed Ogretail, the other one had moved behind me. I move to the side so that I can keep both in my vision. As long as this Ogretail is paralysed, it should be easy to-

"GRRRAAA!" the Ogretail breaks out of the trap, turning towards me as it does so. The monster's face doesn't look very happy. Nevertheless, since this Aragami is closer to me, it takes the priority. I side step to the right and slash at it. I wait for the Aragami face me again before I side step to the left and slash it again. That's when I feel a pain in my side which forces me down to the ground. I'm not sure how I keep forgetting that I am fighting against two Aragami but I do. The Ogretail that knocked me down attempts to lunge onto my downed form but I scramble backwards before it does so, raising my shield to block its jaws from somehow biting onto a limb. I get to my feet just as I notice the originally paralysed Aragami launching icicles in my direction. I force myself to back step to avoid them. I was becoming fatigued now and I could feel the build up of lactic acid in my legs. I will have to kill them quickly. I switch to gun form and launch the maximum four bullets at the Ogretails. One of them falls to the ground whilst the other flinches. I take this as my opportunity and use a stun grenade, making sure to cover my eyes as I do so. As the Aragami slowly recover from their stunning, I use an O-Ampule to replenish my Oracle Points. Once they have been replenished, I launch all four bullets at the downed Aragami killing it instantly. Now, with only one left, I charge towards the remaining Ogretail which has just managed to overcome the stunning and slash at the beast. It becomes routine to back step just before the Aragami tries swinging its tail at me but I manage to defeat it in another minute or so.

When I returned back to the Den, I was told to check in with the medical unit. Luckily, I did not see Kanon there and I told the unit that I needed my internal bias factor checked. They gave me the 'A-OK' and allowed me to leave. I met Licca waiting in down the corridor for me and I bought us two drinks as we talked.

"Oh, wow. *yawn* Is it that late already?" She asks rhetorically. When I had returned room the mission, it was already quite late. It also took a while before the medical unit could see to me so that added to more time. As of now, I believe that it is 23:30.

"We did some good work today, thanks for the help." Once again, hearing how grateful Licca is makes this all worth it. "You're real dedicated too. Most people, especially God Eaters, shy away from this type of stuff." I'm happy to hear her comment and can only respond with one of my own.

"We work well together." I speak with a smile on my face.

"Hahaha! Well it's always nice to work on something that's actually progressing." As she speaks, I struggle to contain a yawn of my own. "A Fenrir engineer started the design work on this prototype ages and ages ago. He wanted our fighters to have access to a Link Support Device and a God Arc all at once. He said it'd keep more people alive out there. But Fenrir deemed the project a financial sinkhole. It was 'impossible', so they refused to fund it. Without funding, it got shelved." I didn't know the history of this project was so complex, it seemed to be bringing down the mood. I continue to listen, however.

"But good engineers don't take no for an answer. He kept at it; researching, developing, a step at a time. He died before it was finished." She has built the mood back up. "He was always a tenacious guy. The engineer - my father... Gave his life for this project." And just like that she brings it down again. It is good to hear a bit of back story for this project though as well as her motivation. "Thanks to you, we've finally proven that his dream was within reach. We're so close, it's like I can stretch out and grab it." I give a nod of my head to cement her thoughts.

"We're going to be working on this for a while, so before we get into it, I want you to promise me something." She seemed so serious, I don't think it would be right to not promise her this. "Promise me you won't hold back. If I've made a mistake or done something wrong, if I get a little crazy, tell me. Promise?" I was expecting her to ask me for a promise like that. I thought it would be something along the lines of never giving up on this project. Nevertheless, I need to give my answer.

"I promise." I give a nod of my head to reinforce my support in her project. After that, we both finish our drinks and decide to call it a night. After all, I have a busy day tomorrow, one that I am not really looking forward to.