Disclaimer: I do not own the God Eater franchise but I do have control over original characters and storylines.
AN: looking back I've noticed that the fights are often pretty quick and clean making the aragami to be weak AF while the god eaters are pretty powerful. From this arc onwards I'm going to try and keep the fighting a little more gritty, so that both sides don't look too over powered or too weak.
The immutable lizard
The trouble that came from developing a romantic interest in a co-worker were as follows: nearly everything that the person did took on a whole new meaning. Second was that it became increasingly difficult to act normal around the person in question. Finally, the person in question now became the only thing that the admirer could think about.
Try as he might to avoid as much contact with the girl he now kept thinking about a lot, it was a hard task to do when the girl was on the same team as he is and lived in the same building that he did. He finished his breakfast much faster than normal, eager to leave and go out on as many missions as possible.
Unfortunately for him, his infectious behaviour of being a workaholic had passed onto other members of his team like Sakuya, Hibari and of course Alisa.
The last name on the list came out of the elevator dressed in her usual clothing. She moved a little slower than normal because of the fact that she was working on her hair. Normally this would cause James to steal glances at her followed by him realizing what he was doing and admonishing himself for the action.
But luckily for James though, he recognized what was going on and developed a countermeasure. Underneath his glove, he hid a simple device that rendered a static shock whenever it was touched. He would often press the button whenever he thought about her for too long or if he caught himself staring at her. This acted as a form of aversion therapy which worked in the short run but it was clearly a temporary measure. He needed to get rid of these feelings as quickly as he could.
"Hey James", she greeted with a big smile on her face but James was clearly thinking about something else. She repeated the salutation from before and this time he acknowledged her with a gentle smile.
"What are you doing up so early?" he asked then shocked himself when she took a seat beside him.
"I went to sleep pretty early so I got up early too. I was hoping I could join in on your training session", she replied sitting a little closer to him.
"Sorry I finished my training. Going to go out now and cause some trouble for the aragami", he said slowly getting up
"Actually James Ms. Tsubaki asked me to make sure that all members of the first unit to remain on standby for now", said Hibari stopping him mid-rise.
"Does this have something to do with the aragami murders?" he asked.
According to the reports from the recon team, there were multiple occasions where they saw the corpses of aragami torn limb from limb. Monkeys, fishes, tanks, vajras and many others fell victim to an unknown force. Aragami that would have caused a lot of trouble to most teams were annihilated like they were nothing.
Normally this wouldn't be a cause for concern as aragami killing other aragami was good news to everyone that's human, but there always existed the possibility that the aragami killed could turn on and attack humans as well. Rather than that happening, it would be prudent for the god eaters to locate and kill the aragami slayer before it came for them.
That was a good plan in theory but finding the target was much harder than anticipated. If what Hibari said was true then it meant the intelligence division had to have narrowed down a location.
The question of what kind of creature they were trying to face was a welcome thought to James who used this time to reflect on what kind of strategies or ideas he'd need to incorporate in the upcoming mission. While they waited for Kota and Sakuya to wake up and get ready for the day, Alisa took the time to do some light reading. She did notice from time to time that James would uncannily flinch for some unknown reason before he reverted to that thoughtful expression.
Eventually the call from Tsubaki came and the four of them now gathered in the briefing room. The information was pretty sparse but it was the best they had. The intelligence team had found the aragami in the ruined city with the tornado. Apparently there were plenty of aragami in the area which meant it would be taking some time to kill all the aragami there.
Not wanting to waste such an opportunity, the four of them set out without wasting any time. They got onto the copter and within no time they were at the location.
"Alright we're going to try something here. It's called the wishbone, normally it's a play that people use in football but this time we're trying something else", he said to the team "Kota and Sakuya will take up their usual positions as rear attack. Hit the enemy with as many bullets as you can and then some. I'll be charging ahead with Alisa in the rear position. Just as we saw with the Ourobors, this is a new aragami so there's no telling what kind of powers it has or how it moves."
"The reason I'll be facing it on my own is because I want Alisa to study its moves and search for openings. When you see them you capitalize on it, sound good".
"James this plan hinges on you being able to endure the aragami's attacks long enough for Alisa to figure out the weaknesses", objected Sakuya to which James casually mentioned "Life's no fun if you play it safe all the time".
'You never play it safe', thought all three of them at the same time while James went ahead of them. As much as all of them wanted James to exercise some kind of caution but that was not in his nature. As they had learned well enough, he may have a plan but he'll still be the first person charging head first into the unknown.
As they contemplated that, they saw James running back with a frantic look in his eyes.
"OHHHH CRAPPPPPP!" he shouted while right behind him was a giant aragami that they had never seen before. It took the form of a lizard, it's body mostly coloured in silver with traces of blue and gold here and there. It had a gauntlet on one arm and a pair of stone protrusions on its back. The aragami leapt and came down at James with a claw swipe but he flipped back just in time to avoid that.
"Alright team stick with the plan", he called out and everyone got into their positions. The lizard aragami turned around and continued to swipe at James but he either blocked and deflected the attacks or dodged them. Sakuya fired at its legs to try and knock it off balance while Kota shot at the head chest and the arms.
James thrust his spear forward but was shocked when he saw the thing instinctually flip back and dodge.
'The hell?' he thought 'No way are aragami smart enough to dodge. Is this one of those anomalies?'
His answers would have to wait however when the aragami rose its armour covered arm up, creating a lance made of fire and threw it at James. He was able to move aside to dodge it but the lance did hit Kota. Sakuya immediately switched from offence to recovery, firing multiple healing bullets and going to where Kota was.
The aragami swiped left and right. James dodged the first then landed on the right arm. He ran up the aragami's arm then leapt off and attacked with a barrage of spear thrusts to it's face. The aragami moved back a little, seemingly wiping its face (which seemed like an oddly human thing to do) before it stood up on one hand and spun around to attack with its powerful tail. James was able to dodge the attack but he saw it shatter the buildings and take out a chunk of the hill beside him, showcasing how insanely powerful this target was.
The aragami wasted no time going on the offensive as it darted forward and attacked with another swipe from both its arms, this time the attack did land as it knocked James high into the air. The lizard turned its attention to Alisa, slowly walking towards her.
It's march was stopped when it was hit by multiple bullets from up above. Both Alisa and the aragami looked up and saw James running down a building, yelling like a madman as he continued firing at the target.
The aragami leapt onto the building about to pursue the target but James leapt right over it then turned around and fired a few more bullets at the target. Sakuya and Kota returned to the fray, momentarily pausing when they saw James hit the ground but resumed their attack when he got back up like nothing even happened.
The aragami let out a defiant roar of anger as it now kicked against the building, propelling it into the air where it arched its right arm back.
"Everyone move", shouted James realizing what would happen but they were too late. The aragami came down with the power of a crashing mountain behind it. When its fist hit the ground, it caused the area around it to be completely engulfed in fire which knocked the entire team back.
The beast then emerged through the fire and as if it wanted to add insult to injury, it created a pair of knives on its hands and spun around to land deep and heavy blows on its four opponents.
James slowly got to his feet, wiping the blood off his mouth and nose. At times like this, his hand instinctually moved to his face. If he wanted to survive, he would have to remove the physical restraints he placed on himself, thus reverting him back to the soldier he used to be.
However he could not do that when he saw the others were also recovering as well.
"God damn aragami", hissed James and charged forward. The others saw the aragami attack James with a multitude of strikes but he batted them all away with his spear. As if the weapon seemingly danced around him, creating an impervious field that prevent any of the aragami's attacks from coming close to him at all.
James deflected another attack from the beast then spun around and swung his spear to land a heavy blow on the aragami's knees, thus forcing it to the ground. He immediately turned back to his team then held his hand out.
They realized what he wanted to do and Alisa ran forward while Kota and Sakuya took flanking positions and attacked the aragami. She grabbed James' hand and he quickly turned around then propelled her high into the air.
The aragami rose up to attack but James quickly jabbed it in the chest. The lizard caught James off guard though when it suddenly shot out a set of fireballs which knocked him away, causing him to let go of his god arc. The aragami tried to run away but stopped when Sakuya hit it on the side of the face. It turned around and saw James taking off his red jacket and start to wave it. Like an enraged bull to a matador, the aragami charged forward with its arms draped in the flame shaped knives from before as it readied itself to rip its target apart.
At the last second though, James tossed his jacket at the thing, then let go of a few pins that he was holding. It was too late that the aragami saw the flashbangs which the god eater concealed in his jacket. All of them detonated and engulfed the battlefield in a white light for more than ten seconds before colour came back into their world.
When the aragami looked forward, it saw James still standing in the same position as before but this time, his hand was pointing up. The aragami had no time to react and paid the price for it when Alisa's blade rammed through the top of its head and emerged out at the bottom.
Alisa stood on top of the aragami, her sword still in place. The other three took the moment to ensure that the aragami was indeed dead. After ten seconds passed and the enemy showed no signs of movement, they all breathed a sigh of relief while Alisa jumped off her target with a triumphant look on her face.
"Well that was pretty fun", remarked James retrieving his spear from the fallen aragami "Who's up for dinner and a coffee, but I'll have a tea though."
"Is everyone still feeling good?" asked Sakuya with a look of concern on her face "We all took some pretty serious damage
"My chest does sting a little", replied Kota
"My legs feel a little shaky from being thrown so high up and hitting the ground", stated Alisa
"Little loopy and tired now that the adrenalines starting to fade but that's okay", added James.
"Guess we can wrap this one up", declared Kota with a fist of triumph "Man at this rate I'm going to be a legend before I even hit thirty".
"Yeah, yeah", said Sakuya with a glum expression "Let's just go home and turn in the report oh legendary one".
"Isn't it normally me who does the report?" asked James looking confused
"Well If you like I can help you", said Alisa to which James immediately objected. As he headed back to the safe zone, James was the only one who noticed that it suddenly got a little brighter. Worriedly he turned around and was shocked to see that the aragami they thought they had killed was now floating in the air. As if that was not enough, the protrusions on its back were gone, allowing it to form a halo on its back along with three pairs of wings that were surely not just there for aesthetic purposes.
The aragami let out another fierce roar, indicating the fight was not over. It now formed a pair of flame knives and flew towards the attackers, picking out one in particular.
Kota turned around and his life flashed before his eyes. From the moment he saw his mother till now, everything passed by him in a series of fast clips as he knew that this was the end for him.
However death would not come to Kota Fujiki today as at the last moment, James stood before him and took the full brunt of the aragami's attack with his god arc. The boy was catapulted into the air while his shield and the god arc that he used were now broken in two.