Chapter 52
Kisara had sensed something was up for a while before her brain finally made the connection. To begin with it had just been this nagging little suspicion she couldn't quite put her finger on. Then, after destroying her fifth or sixth trap, she finally worked out what was wrong.
'That wasn't demon.'
'What?' Kaiba frowned.
'The trap I just destroyed,' she pointed towards the amulet lying vacantly on the ground below where the trap had been set, 'it wasn't of demon origins.'
'So?'
'So it shouldn't have been there,' she made her way over to the amulet in order to examine it.
She recognised it right away. But then again it wasn't exactly hard to, not after all the time she'd spent helping False learn how to identify these things. Bending down, she scooped it up from the ground. Her weapon had only deactivated the trap it contained, not destroyed it. And that could only mean one thing.
'A Balancer set this up,' she turned towards the others, who were all watching her curiously.
'How can you tell?' SK licked his lips.
'Because it's not destroyed. All Balance issued traps set up by a Balancer are immune from destruction. If attacked they simply deactivate.'
'Why?'
'Because Balancers are supposed to bring back as much of their arsenal as they can for their efficiency rating.'
'Their what?' Tristan looked confused.
'Balancers don't exactly get given ranks beyond the obvious two, but a record is kept on every mission they've ever been on and stats are drawn up from that. Once you're averaging ninety percent or higher on most of categories you can be recommended for promotion to Tracker. Recommendations don't mean squat if the Council don't like you, however, I mean Eva Shadows was recommended three times before they agreed to her promotion.'
'Why so many times?'
'Are you asking me for the honest truth there Win,' Kisara gritted her teeth for a moment, 'because I'm pretty sure you won't like it.'
'Why not?'
'Because the honest truth makes the Council sound exactly like they are.'
'And how are they?' Kaiba's voice held pressing tones.
'They refused her promotion three times because she's a Shadow Human and even though they have no problems with her kind becoming Balancers, mostly because they're amongst the most efficient recruits you could ask for, they refuse to allow any of them to become Trackers. Well, at least not before Eva came along.'
'Don't the Council like Shadow Humans?' SK frowned as his tongue once again skated across his lips.
'It's more than just a simple dislike of them. The Council, or at least the Odraians on it, despise Shadow Humans, because the Shadows claim to be descended from the original breed.'
'You mean the Chaosen?'
'Yes, I mean the Chaosen. Shadow Humans claim not everyone evolved when the Odraians did and that a small strain of Chaosen kept going and evolved into something new. Into Shadows.'
'And of course the Odraians would hate that because they like to deny all knowledge of the Chaosen,' Tristan rolled his eyes.
'And because of that all Shadow Humans get a raw deal. Especially ones like Eva who like to call attention to their heritage. I mean, I sometimes have to wonder why she's never been stricken off the way she carries on sometimes.' Kisara paused for a moment, before sighing heavily. 'Still False has always admired her, because she fought the conventions and won.'
'And good on her for doing it,' SK folded her arms, 'its not easy trying to make it in a system that doesn't want you.'
'How would you know that?' She couldn't help but eye him up suspiciously.
'Let's just say we've all had a little experience of that in recent years,' Tristan smirked, 'maybe a little too much experience of it.'
'But you are the system,' Kisara could hear the loss of calm confidence in her voice. 'I mean, if you didn't exist there would be no system to begin with.'
'Try telling the system that,' he rolled his eyes, 'it stopped wanting us a long time ago.'
'But that doesn't mean we don't have any effect over the order of things,' Kaiba folded his arms, 'it just means no one wants to listen to us. I mean, it was the Mistresses who set up the Balance Council to begin with, but it's been a long time since we've had any power over what they do.'
For a few moments Kisara was silent, then she turned away from them and started walking again.
'We don't really have the time to waste hanging around here,' her voice was flat.
'You're right,' SK fell into step beside her, 'we've got CiCi and Damon to save.'
Lus couldn't get over how much False brought out the old, carefree Arados. Not only managing to get him out of his room to visit Lus just as he was clearing up after breakfast, but also getting Arados to remain calm as the three of them went to Giya. Giya was a dismal as ever, but as it was the last place the Teen was known to have been it made for a sensible starting point in their search. If Lus was being truly honest with himself, he wasn't sure he was all that comfortable working with False, despite his good influence on Arados; mostly because False brought out an irrational sense of jealousy in him.
Lus was fairly sure that feeling was mutual. There was something about the looks False occasionally threw him which more than suggested that was the case. Still, for Arados's sake at least, Lus was determined to keep the tensions as low as possible.
'What do we do when we find the Teen,' Arados broke his train of thoughts. 'I mean, we can't hurt him because⦠well you know, my Dad is in there somewhere.'
'We need to find some way of extracting the Order and Chaos he took from your siblings without killing him,' False was ready with an answer before Lus had a chance to even think.
'And how do we do that exactly?'
'Well,' False stopped, forcing the other two to do the same, 'I do have a few ideas, but I'm not sure how willing you'll be in going for them.'
'Why, what are they?' Lus frowned at him.
'Its not so much what they are, as what they involve.'
'Your demon powers,' Arados shot him an understanding look, 'you want to see if they can help you in some way.'
'I need to find out what they are first, but, yeah,' False nodded, 'I was thinking they might come in handy.'
'Are you sure that's a good idea,' Lus eyed him up suspiciously. 'I mean, you got those powers from Ni.'
'I know that,' he turned away from them, 'but if I'm ever going to learn just what kind of person I am then I can't be afraid to use what I've been given. I just have to hope using them doesn't turn me into someone I'm not, that's all.'
