Chapter 44: Leader of Corpses
From the various looks on their faces (Naverre continually glanced at his shoes and the cuffs of his pants, Walter looking cross from time to time), the trek out to Shinjuku had been enjoyed by no one. It didn't bother Flynn anymore, not even having to loop all the way around a large block of the city to get to the actual town entrance. There were more disgusting places they could be walking, longer too. And, he knew they'd have to delve back into that swamp to reach Ikebukuro eventually. They didn't realize that, although they'd probably hear of it quickly from the locals. But even though none of them were complaining out loud, Flynn saw enough that he decided to let them have a long break just investigating the town before starting his plans to train them.
"Is this really the place?" Isabeau asked. "The area seems lit up enough, but usually they have guards posted at natural checkpoints like this near towns."
Shinjuku never had their guards out here, at least not in this world. But then, this place wasn't like he was used to. He'd seen that immediately in a disorganized mess of chalk art in the parking lot area outside the town entrance. That had never been there before. Almost halfway to the entrance, those responsible were still at work on it. One was a person he was expecting to meet here. Flynn always met her here. But the other… he was apparently telling the truth in the last message he'd gotten from him.
"We can take a quick look around," Jonathan said. "And there's some people to ask."
He'd been prepared to deal with Hikaru here and now, but not Krishna. Shuttering his focus to getting through this inevitable moment, Flynn said, "Right."
While he thought he was keeping outwardly calm, his friends immediately glanced at him in concern. They did know him more than usual because of the time he'd stalled. That would be a problem (and an embarrassing one at that). Sighing inwardly, he wondered if it would be worth it to start letting them in on things. It could help with Isabeau especially since she was concerned for the well-being of their group. As the group's medic, she could overrule his authority as their leader to make him take another leave for mental health.
None of them brought it up immediately. Instead, Jonathan went ahead to where Hikaru and Krishna were. "Excuse us, but is this the entrance to Shinjuku?"
Hikaru looked up at them. "Oh, hi! Yup, right over there," she waved with a hand covered in various colors of chalk dust. "You guys came quick."
"We did?" Jonathan asked.
Tilting her head, she asked back, "Yeah, didn't you hear? An alert just came out, a couple of minutes before, so you are suspiciously early. Anyhow, there's been a problem lately across town in corpse demons cropping up. They're tough buggers to keep down, but weren't a threat until just now when they decided to invade town."
"The corpses got into town?" Flynn asked, alarmed about that. Corpses were tough (at the level of his friends) but slow. The biggest danger they presented was that when they killed people, they would revive their victim as another corpse demon. Their slowness wouldn't matter when their numbers got high enough.
"Not quite, they got the shutters down," Hikaru said. "Somebody ran up here a bit ago and told us to make sure demons don't get in town this way. Okay, better than fighting corpses when we're not done here yet. They seemed worried, but it's been quiet here."
The metal shutters generally kept underground towns safe, but not always. And the one responsible for the corpses could wreck a shutter. "We should go down and check on them," Flynn said.
"Sure," Jonathan said. The others agreed to that.
"Go right ahead if that's your thing," Hikaru said, going back to drawing.
She was acting strange, but there was a possible reason… it didn't matter right now, not with the corpses invading town. Usually that was a request that let them gain the trust of the town, nothing to put the townspeople in danger. Flynn didn't think a few extra hours in the west would bring the corpses down here. But figuring out what changed would have to wait until the people were out of danger.
"Do you know something about this place already?" Naverre asked as they headed down the stairs.
Yes, he'd have to tell them something. "I'll explain later," Flynn said. "These corpse demons are tough defensively, but not that difficult in truth. Hopefully their shutter holds."
But that wasn't the case as he spotted the half-melted gooey corpses shambling around the hall. There didn't seem to be any still corpses from recently deceased, nor fresh bloodstains. Several doorways he spotted were blocked off, so the people had been able to get into hiding. Flynn hurried over to where a pair of corpses were trying to take down a blockade, leaving his friends to take the closer ones.
Once he had those two down, he took another look at this end of the hall. The Association bar had its door shut; it might be blocked from inside. Down the hall to the side, the shutter up to the shopping district had been broken down at about waist height; it seemed the corpse demons had done that themselves. The door to the other half of Shinjuku and the government district had also been broken from the pieces of metal on the floor. But it had then been retracted up, which was unusual.
"Hoy Flynn, there's more halls down this way," Walter called.
Those halls were usually infested with other demons, with a few people unable to get the Asura-kai to let them in the safe area of town. "You, Issachar, and Jonathan, you three head that way and clear things out. Isabeau, Naverre, let's secure this hall and check on the rooms here."
The others quickly agreed and went to their tasks. Flynn used his gauntlet to contact the Association bartender here. A minute later, he got a reply. 'The bar's packed with mostly non-Hunter folks, as I sent the others out to protect the smaller rooms. I'm sending out a pair of guys that have keys to our warehouse; please send one or two of you with them to make sure our supplies are safe.'
After Flynn confirmed that, he pulled Walter back from the other group to go to the warehouse. Isabeau was soon calming some children in one of the rooms and checking over the injured. He posted Naverre to keep an eye on the shopping district entry and went to check a smaller shutter going to the government district. Thankfully, that was still intact. But where was the Hunter who usually stirred up the corpses? His demon form was distinctive.
That person should be around because the corpses didn't have the intelligence to organize and invade.
"And a small word of warning: this is something you can only do once. There's no turning back when you do."
The girl's words kept running through his mind, uncovering things that he'd tried to bury and forget. Souta had been a quiet hard-working Hunter up to that point. Sure, there were lots of things that he was dissatisfied with. But they were things that he'd given up as useless to struggle against. Everyone was dealing with them: the oppression of being trapped in a dark land, the dullness of stalemate with the demons, the bullying of the Ashura-kai. If one didn't learn to deal with it, the despair was overbearing. One had to focus on survival, day to day.
But, that girl was different. He didn't remember her exactly, or why he'd ended up talking with her. He had talked with her a long time, even about those things he'd buried. What Souta did remember of her was her advice, and the way her expression made him feel like he could make himself the most important person around if he reached for that. Even above Tayama and Fujiwara. There was no reason he should put up with things that held him back.
Ever since their meeting, Souta grew more and more fed up with everything. It had been about the broader picture at first. Why did everyone outside the big groups have to be shut up underground? The Ashura-kai expected them to keep their noses to the grindstone and to accept stringently controlled supplies from what their group had already picked over. And they had no respect for the dead. Bodies were left for demons to devour or play with. If someone dear had died, those goons would snap at mourners to get over themselves and get back to work. Souta knew that all too well.
Yes, they didn't care for those who were dead. Souta had lost many of his family and friends to the war, including his own young children being kidnapped by the angels. The rest of his family had the misfortune of not being in Tokyo when the Firmament was summoned. Over the years, he lost others he cared about to demons, to illnesses, and sometimes to humans. And the Ashura-kai managers told him to get over it and keep working for them.
It wasn't the demons who were evil, Souta came to realize. It was humans who were evil, from the heartless greedy Ashura-kai to the shameless weaklings who followed them for safety that amounted to living like animals crowded in a kennel. Even he was guilty of that inaction because he simply did what he was told and never tried to argue for himself. The demons had been sent to rouse their spirits and grant them freedom from such sins.
And then, the local Ashura-kai managers crossed the line. They shut one of the big shutters of the underground town, supposedly because of an unexpected influx of demons swarming to the arrival of Kuebiko in the old government buildings. In doing so, they cut off nearly a third of the residents of Shinjuku from retreating to the safety of the main hall. They'd told everyone else to retreat back to their residences, perhaps so they didn't hear the pounding of fists on the other side as the others tried to get them to raise the shutters. There had been some horrific screams.
Those people… they'd been familiar faces, but not close. Souta was alone in life now, only connected to the dead. The last people he could count on as friends, some drinking buddies in the Hunter Association, were both dead now. They'd been killed because a macabre had surprised them. While they'd managed to defeat that demon, they were immediately ambushed by some corpse demons hiding in shadows. His buddies had fallen and, before his eyes, were transformed into corpse demons themselves.
Had they still recognized him? Souta didn't know; he'd spent quite some time near them, dazed but not harmed by the five corpse demons. Something in him expected the girl to show up again and say something more, but she didn't. Instead, he listened to the moaning and anger of the corpse demons, feeling his own anger building like steam in a pressure cooker. The corpses had said something about the demon in the government building. He wasn't sure what, but Souta said he'd go see that one.
But first, the people needed to be awakened as he had. They needed to face their sins; they needed to look death in the face as something they foolishly ignored. Somehow, the corpses responded to his words, calling more of them together. Souta led them to break into the main hall of Shinjuku so that they could have vengeance against the living. There were more screams, but he felt these were deserved. Then he headed out to meet with Kuebiko.
The old god had a towering presence and not just in size. One look at him put the vengeance of the earth in mind, a force that mere humans could not oppose. "Are you here to drive me away as well?" Kuebiko rumbled, gesturing over to three corpses in the room. "Then that shall be your fate as well."
Two Hunters… they'd been cowardly sorts, taking on easy jobs and only trying hard if something paid well. And one of the hated managers. They'd be better as corpse demons, Souta thought. No sign of their horrible selves, just death and repayment of their sins. He was pretty horrible himself for thinking like this. But, he didn't care anymore.
"I'm not here for that reason," Souta said as Kuebiko gathered a boulder of a fist.
"Then what for?" Kuebiko asked, easing off for a moment.
What for… the corpse demons had told him so. Souta tried to gather his courage, but it was in front of a being that could turn into a landslide and crush him. And Kuebiko wasn't the focus of his anger. "I want to make the Ashura-kai pay for what they've done," he said, quieter than he would have liked. "They tried to bribe you into doing what they want, right? I'm sick of that… I'm sick of everything! I brought the corpses into Shinjuku to make them face their sins."
"What of the sin of stealing the land from us gods and abusing it thoughtlessly?" Kuebiko asked. There was anger in him too, deep and ancient, enough to swallow up a small being like himself.
Souta felt like that was already happening. "I… I didn't think of that."
Kuebiko snorted dismissively. "Take whatever petty vengeance you hold and use it up against other fools. As far as I'm concerned, you mortals are only good as bodies to nourish the earth. I will make these civilizations crumble to pay for the sins of generations of humanity. You don't matter, fool. Your name will be forgotten once your breath ceases, while mine is etched into the land itself for eternity."
Then, what did he do now? He left because he was clearly unwanted there, not sure what to do anymore. He wanted to make the others pay for not caring; he wanted to bring those awful managers down. But there was also that dreadful haze that tried to seize up his mind again. What was the point of doing anything? He had no one left, no family, no friends, just memories of the dead. And he couldn't bring the Ashura-kai down. Souta was just one person who worked quietly and was ignored for it. When he passed, no one would remember his name. For that matter, no one would remember the names that were precious to him.
What was the point?
'There is no point,' a multitude said, surrounding him with more that was forgotten than he could ever remember. He was still somewhere in the government district, just… everything was so white. 'You're not capable of ending all suffering. But, you can end the suffering of those in reach, including yourself. Go back now. We promise you that your coming words will have weight.'
End the suffering of those in reach… "Fine," Souta said, heading back to Shinjuku town. The girl had spoken of vengeance and personal power. But right now, this voice of white meant more to him.
He expected a heavy quiet when he returned. Maybe voices of fear and helplessness if the corpses hadn't gotten to everyone yet. Instead, he heard discussion. "We've reviewed who should be here and the only people we can't account for are a few Hunters and some of the Ashura-kai who were outside of town when this started. The only confirmed death so far is the Ashura-kai guard who was supposed to be at the exit to the shopping district. If it wasn't for you guys showing up when you did, it would have been a lot worse."
"I'm glad that worked out."
The corpse demons hadn't gotten their vengeance? Souta felt angry at that, but it quickly got swallowed up by the emptiness his life was. What was the point? End their suffering. He continued in, taking a few Reds out of the pillbox he had. He'd already chosen to do this; it didn't matter why.
"But how did they get in? They seemed slow-moving and unmotivated."
"We're not sure of that, although their slowness did give us time to get barricades up. Not good ones, but it bought us just enough time."
"Well you have done some good work…"
"And you did nothing for the rest of us, just shut yourselves up in the shop once this area was in danger! You left everyone past this shutter to fend for themselves too."
"Hey, hey now, this wasn't in my job description."
"You said you were here to protect and support this town, but you've done no such thing!"
"We should focus on restoring security to this town, not fight amongst each other when there's still gaps in your defenses here."
"Yeah, what he said."
"Although if supporting the town was your job here, you've bungled that completely."
Souta walked over to the group, talking where the large shutter had been earlier. Some were familiar, some were strangers in strange clothes. But, what did it matter? They were all suffering and he could end it all for them. "He wasn't protecting the town, but taking advantage of us while he stood around and barked orders like the trained mutt he is," Souta said, almost glaring at the Ashura-kai manager there. But his fury was entirely smothered now.
"And just what were you doing when the corpses invaded town?" the manager said, quick with an attempt to get the heat off him.
Souta smiled a bit. "I brought them in here. I'm a leader of corpses."
The group there went silent at his claim, as if something about him unsettled them enough that they couldn't get angry at him. Maybe he looked like a corpse. That would be fitting. Although, one of the strangers in blue turned to him immediately. There was something piercing to his eyes, like he could see the truth already.
"But he is right," Souta continued, talking to the manager. "You took command without giving anything back; you have no respect for anyone, especially not the dead. I bet you don't know my name even though I've worked here since the Firmament appeared."
The manager started to say something, but couldn't finish. Right, his name would be forgotten. But it didn't matter anymore.
"Why did you bring the corpses into town?" the stranger with piercing eyes said, taking command of the situation now. And he did so fluidly, without shouts or threats.
They didn't need to know, he thought. But he went ahead and explained, "To make everyone face their sins and everything else they ignored. You try to control the demons with the Reds, but they're breaking that control. Shibuya is now a battleground, isn't it?"
"N-no," the manager lied weakly.
"The demons who accepted the Reds will die and be replaced with those who will refuse them, like Kuebiko here," Souta said. He didn't know where this information came from, but he knew it all the same. "You try to control us through penning us all in, but that will soon cease to work. People are tired of dealing with your shit, especially after that missile fiasco. They know that you do not care about life or death, that you don't care about them. But you can't run away now; you will pay for your sins."
"Hang on," a second manager said, trying to take back control, "don't be throwing around accusations like that without proof. You…"
Interrupting him was best. "You're afraid of that, aren't you? But you don't have to worry now. I can bring you salvation by bringing you to nothing."
The stranger tensed at that, his presence turning like a blade to its sharpest edge. The others there got uncomfortable, perhaps not realizing the change consciously. While he realized that he'd just made things dangerous, Souta wasn't able to care about that. His vision started turning white again.
He lifted his hand, showing that he had at least one Red in his hand. "We will become silence where none of this matters."
"Hold on, don't do that!" one of the managers said.
But he wasn't going to listen to anyone else now. "If we cannot throw off the yokes you put on us as humans, we shall do so as demons. I won't be the only one." Then he swallowed what he had.
A burning sensation quickly ran through his mind and chest, then tore out of his skin like it was paper. What emerged was an old hag, dirty wrinkled hands emerging from a tattered black dress, a ragged black veil of mourning over his head. All of his sorrows flooded over him, flushing out all colors and turning white of despair. No one could understand this… he shrieked to rend the air and make them feel this maddening emptiness. They would become nothing and when there was no one around to hear him, he would become nothing.
But that desire was cut short by a flash of immense power, a lightning bolt tearing him right apart.
'Come to us,' the voice of white said. 'Help us find the absolute end we seek, to end all pain and sorrow.'
He looked to the shadowy figures before him, not feeling anything but a wish that they seek oblivion too. "Your punishment is to bear my sorrow," he said, reaching out a dirty hand and seeking to tear into their souls.
"No, don't do this!" a voice he hadn't heard before called. One of the shadow figures ran up to him and grabbed his arms. There was a jarring warmth to that grasp, like a streak of sun trying to break into winter. "Joining them won't bring you peace. It will only bring you into their endless despair."
Endless despair? Fear took him over swiftly. "N-no, I don't want that," he sputtered, tears melting down his face.
'He belongs with us, as one of us, not to be alone,' the voice of white said. But it was terrifying instead of comforting now. He'd gotten over past sorrows; there were scars, but he'd moved on. But… right, that white was endless unless they ended everything.
"I won't let you touch him." He was fierce in defending him, banishing the White with just his words. Souta wondered why briefly, but then saw who was with him. He was an angel… or she, but that really didn't matter. While the other shadows were gone, she became clearer.
Should he be afraid that an angel was with him? Or grateful? "Wh-why save m-me?" he asked, his own form a quiver in between the human he had been, the demon he'd become, and something else…
"No one should suffer like they do," the angel said. Then she brushed her hand along his hair, being strangely gentle with him. "You're suffering enough on your own. What's your name?"
"Souta," he said quietly, feeling ashamed at being in tears in front of strangers. But it seemed this angel still cared about him, which brought out more. "I, I'm sorry, the last of my friends died and turned into those corpse demons today, or yesterday, sometime, and there's nothing left in the world for me."
"You don't need to apologize for feeling that way," she said, sympathetic and knowing.
His sorrows overcame him and she held him tight. She started singing and a sense of peace washed away everything else. He forgot his own name even though he'd just told her. But in that, he forgot everything else until all was new and strange, except for a feeling of love that asked for nothing in return.
That... That lightning… it was the same as back when they fought Ladon. It hadn't been God who'd intervened. Rather, it was Flynn. Flynn? How in hell was he strong enough that his spells could be mistaken for a miracle of God? And then Issachar had turned into an angel and went over to where the strange hag demon had turned into a white monstrosity. And that female 'hag' had started off as a distraught man who claimed that he'd save them by killing them all. Now, Issachar couldn't be seen but the light of his halo was still there, seemingly a light that came from nothing. What was going on?
But the bizarreness of this situation soon didn't matter when Walter looked at Flynn. His face was pale and his hands were trembling, like he was terrified of his own power. That didn't feel right as an explanation, though. It had been the words that the man had been saying; that was right, those words had disturbed Flynn and his soul was as volatile as a storm waiting to break. Make a wrong move, say the wrong thing, and someone else was likely to get smoked by that godly lightning as well.
"Flynn," Walter said, coming over to his side. At the very same moment, Jonathan did exactly the same as him. Their eyes crossed; things weren't right, their positions were wrong. But that didn't matter right now.
Even the locals who'd been talking to them realized that something was wrong here. The residents that had come out didn't know if they should be more afraid of the angel they'd just seen or of Flynn right now. The Ashura-kai men were trying to back out slowly and unnoticed. In contrast, the barkeeper was gutsy enough to step up and say, "Hey, that was a potent spell there. You need a quiet room for him to rest in?"
"Sure, that would help," Jonathan said, then took Flynn's arm. "Come on," he whispered, "We'll talk in private."
It took a moment, but Flynn nodded and tried to relax. Thankfully, Isabeau was quick enough to say, "Yes, and we mean no harm to any of you, including our friend there." She indicated where the light remained.
"Good," the barkeeper said, his voice a little louder than normal conversing to carry to others. "And thanks to your intervention, we'll be able to regain security here. We can discuss matters with you lot later." He then started calling for other Hunters to guard the exits and double-check rooms for demons.
The room they'd been directed to was a shared bunk room. Those who had been barricaded in here had already gone to check on friends and family. While Walter figured he should be careful, Flynn seemed less likely to lash out at the moment. "All right, what's up with you? That's some crazy magic to pull out all of a sudden, and you seem like you've been here before."
"I have," Flynn said quietly. He dropped onto a nearby bunk and seemed lost. "But not like this, never seen this happen before."
"Does it have to do with that picture Isabeau found at Kasumigaseki?" Jonathan asked, sitting by him on the bunk. "Were you here in a previous life?"
He nodded, but then said, "I don't remember that life well. It's this life… this time I keep repeating."
"Say what?" Walter asked, putting a hand on the bunk to lean there.
"I've done this enough times that I can't count them all," Flynn said. He pointed back to the door. "There was a ceiling grate down the hall I sent you three down that led up to the street; it had been kicked down, which let demons in that way."
"That's true, I did see that," Jonathan said, putting a hand to his neck. "But you didn't go that way."
"Not this time," he said. "When you ask around, the people will tell you that the main threat in the area is Kuebiko in the government plaza. They would have told you about the corpses too, in the shopping district. But this is the first time I've seen them down here."
He was speaking these things as a certain truth. It was a crazy thing, like something that might come out of Literature. However, Flynn had that look again, being older than he appeared. He also was haunted by what had just happened. "Man, that's," Walter fumbled trying to know what to say.
"Wait, so you know Tokyo already?" Naverre asked. "You know what's going to happen to us?"
Flynn shook his head. "I know a general sense of what's to come. Yet this proves that things can still surprise me. Actually, I don't have a clue what will happen to you, Naverre. You should have dropped out months ago after the incident with Alarune."
"Eh?" he asked, shocked by that as much as the rest.
"And Issachar should be dead," he continued. "He should have turned into an Undead demon, and I would have killed him."
"Wh-why?" Jonathan asked, paling at that. Walter knew why: if things had gone differently, they might have had to do that with Marie too.
"Our duty is to fight demons," Flynn said, regretful about it. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. "Actually, you all will die if things go as they normally should. Maybe not a death you'd think about, but you'd perish all the same. And even times when it's not by my hand, your deaths were my responsibility in some part."
All of them in here would die, like what they'd just seen. That was the truth. It wasn't just Flynn's seriousness this time that convinced Walter of that. It was some feeling deep inside, dreams of having unearthly powers but a corrupted body. One of those dreams popped into mind, a new one: facing Flynn in battle. He wielded a sword that seemed far too big for a normal person to carry, much less fight with. In Flynn's eyes, though, there was a sharp glint of something. He was someone who could kill gods, not just use their powers.
At the same time, he was this person here, now clenching his fists in his lap and trembling. "I won't let this game kill you this time. I won't let the White win, not the angels or demons. Not Salvation. I won't let them take control. This has to be the last time, or…" a sob stopped him from continuing.
What did you say to this? Walter wasn't sure, but he felt like he should be saying something. He knew that something bad had happened to Flynn, had suspected that it was someone dear he lost. But, the one he lost was all of them? He glanced around at the others in the room, all some mix of concerned, confused, and unsettled. If all of them died, through some fault of his own… that grief would be immense, paralyzing. And Flynn had lived through that too many times to count now.
He was also someone who could, no, who had killed gods. Perhaps for that very reason. That kind of power and responsibility, and grief, it was unimaginable. What could you say to someone like that?
Maybe… maybe just ignore all that and consider that he was their friend and leader. "Hey, um, but you've got us this far, huh?" Walter said. "You've got Naverre and Issachar with us now. So what if things are different? I think, no, I know you can do whatever you put your mind to. And we'll be behind you on that, right guys?"
"This is unimaginable," Naverre said, putting a hand on his forehead. "But… yeah, I'll try. Yeah, you can count on me!" He smiled, although he still seemed uneasy.
"Right, of course," Jonathan said, smiling as well. He put a hand on Flynn's shoulder. "But, that makes me think, were you the fairy who was giving Marie all those things to get to the ball?"
Flynn nodded to that. "Yes… some of those jewels on the dress are literally not of this world." He put one hand over the other fist, like he was trying to stop himself from trembling. He sounded ashamed as he added, "I've been manipulating you guys too, so your sight doesn't narrow and lead you to your doom. I shouldn't be doing that, but…"
"Well I don't care about that," Jonathan said, finally making Flynn look up at him. There was a brightness to his eyes… of course. "That means you gave me the best things in my life right now. I mean, it is troublesome that this mission keeps me away from them for so long to them. But I want to make the world better for them. Being down here, when I see the children around and some of the people, it makes me think of Marie and Adam, and I know these people don't deserve to live like this. So I want to make a better world for them too, although I don't know how. It seems you do, so I'll follow you no matter where this mission leads us."
"Right, I agree," Walter said, smiling at them. "I mean, the angels that showed up in Mikado are awful, and the demons everywhere are awful for the most part, so if you say they shouldn't win, we should make sure they don't. But what's with that white being with them?"
"The White are the personification of despair in all of humanity," Flynn explained. "That's who was speaking through that man after he turned into a banshee, since he turned white too. I'm sure you felt it, his despair in that scream. But that was just his despair; the White is everyone's despair."
Everyone… it made Walter shudder. "Yeah, something like that shouldn't win."
"I chose them once," Flynn said, shockingly. "When my grief took me to my lowest. They want to destroy absolutely everything. But it didn't work and I ended up back at start. It drove me insane; I could never fully escape the despair or the madness even when I want…" his voice trailed off.
"Flynn…" Walter put a hand on Flynn's other shoulder; he was still trembling. And this time, he didn't reply.
"Um," Isabeau said, finally speaking up. She came closer and crouched in front of Flynn. He didn't respond to that either. "Pardon me for being frank, but I don't like this."
"Well can you blame him after living through all that crap?" Walter asked before he thought better of it.
But Flynn still wasn't responding, not even when Isabeau tried to take his hand. "That's true, and it only worries me more. I suspected something was up, but…" she sighed. "I think he lied on that mental exam a few days ago. He's clearly in poor condition to be fighting demons, much less leading a group of us."
Jonathan seemed to nearly protest, but then thought better of it. "I suppose you're right. With this power he's been hiding all this time, he should win any battle he gets in. But if a demon gets to him like just now, we can't count on him being able to focus his attacks like that."
Isabeau nodded. "I mean, we should tell him to retire right away and go spend a lot of time somewhere quiet and peaceful. Even so, I have this feeling, like I know he can make things better. But that's if he doesn't fall apart completely before he can finish his plans. So I want to help him too, but I don't know if it should be letting him continue or making him step back."
"Actually, making him step back might make things worse on him," Walter said. "Remember how he was before this whole thing with Gabriel and Lilith started? He said to me one time that waiting on things to happen was sometimes worse than doing them. When Gabriel called him out, he was sharp as a knife with her, not backing down one bit. Just now, I was thinking, so what if he's been manipulating us? We trust him and it seems to help him focus on things. I just wish there was more I could do to keep him steady. But it is unimaginable stuff, like…" he glanced over and then realized something: Naverre wasn't in the room anymore.
Jonathan looked over too. "Naverre? I didn't hear him leave, but…"
This could be bad, perhaps moreso for Flynn than Naverre. "Dammit, did he have to get cowardly now?" Walter said, pounding on the bunk bed frame in frustration.
"It is an awful lot to consider," Isabeau said as the door opened.
While it wasn't Naverre, it was Issachar. He was still in his angel guise. Walter crossed eyes with him and felt a gentle warmth come over his mind, like returning to a fireplace after being out on a winter's night. Strange that it should come from him and not an angel like Kazfiel, or even his own principality.
"Sorry about that," Issachar said, smiling although there was some sadness to him. Then he glanced over at Flynn and got concerned. "How is he?"
Jonathan was quick to leave his seat so Issachar could sit by him. "He hasn't responded for a little while. Sorry, we were trying to encourage him out of being upset, but given what he told us…"
"It was really tough to figure out what to say," Walter said.
Even when Issachar sat by him and put an arm around his waist, Flynn didn't respond. "I'll see what I can do. I need to stay down here since I'm currently keeping demons from being able to enter Shinjuku."
"You can do that?" Walter asked, surprised at that.
He nodded. "I don't know how, but this area is safe for now. Look, would you all go help the locals secure this place without my power? And talk to them as usual; Flynn has a reason for making that a priority. Once he settles down, he has some training missions for all of us in this area. We need to get a lot stronger to be on equal footing with the demons we're searching for."
"All right, he's better off in your care right now," Walter said.
Issachar smiled at that as the other two agreed. But as they left the room, Walter couldn't help but wonder where Naverre had gone off to.
