Disclaimer: I do not own the God Eater franchise but I do have control over original characters and storylines.
AN: as much as I did like the third story arc, it felt a little too elongated to me which is why we're going to get to the good stuff pretty fast.
Doubts and regrets
Today the team had two objectives in mind, first was recon and the second was rescue.
In the past few days, the far east branch heard rumours of a ghost girl wandering around the battlefields that aragami would normally frequent. A little inspection into the matter allowed them to learn of her description; a young looking girl with white skin and yellow eyes wearing only a torn flag as clothing.
In the minds of the retaliation team, there was only one person that fit the description but the last time they saw her, she made the ultimate sacrifice to save their world. The branch decided it was best to investigate the issue further and sent out the recon team to one of the locations. They did not find the girl, however they did encounter a new type of aragami who's attacks caused everyone to split up.
In the end Tatsumi was the only one to return as he explained how he got separated from Kanon and Brendan. With that said, Soma, Kota, Alisa and James wasted no time in gathering their god arcs and heading out to find their comrades.
The four of them all felt the sting of losing a friend and did not want to lose another. The team arrived at the ruined city and divided into two groups to widen the search area.
"The signals getting stronger", she said hearing that both teams were nearing the last known locations of Kanon and Brendan.
As James and Soma drew closer, they saw a conspicuous looking pebble rolling towards them. Curious they turned in the direction of the pebble, seeing a familiar face poking his head out from the side.
The two of them rushed to Brendan's side but were stopped when a new aragami landed before them, the force of its descent, knocked them both back.
The aragami bore a similar resemblance to the one that Johann piloted but there were noticeable differences. Firstly, it did not have the beastly companion behind her, her body was completely blue with the legs and feet all in the shape of spikes. Its body had white lines drawn all over with one large circle in the face and a large halo behind it.
"The hell is this thing?" snarled Soma.
"Our next kill", replied James and Soma scoffed in agreement.
The two found out that not only was did it bear a resemblance to the aragami that protected the Nova, it's move set was also similar in that it attacked with an arm swing but it's arms grew longer than they had expected allowing its range of attack to drastically increase. The two attackers skidded back, narrowly avoiding its attack then James switched to gun mode and fired a few shots at the aragami.
In response to that, it took out its halo from behind and fired a massive beam of energy. The two of them immediately leapt to the side to avoid the beam that tore through the wall behind them and everything else that tried to impede its path.
When the aragami's attack stopped James immediately attacked it with a barrage of spear thrusts, each one landing but could not break through the powerful armour it had on.
Soma leapt up and attacked with a downward slash, the aragami immediately turned to him and rose its hands up to block but the buster blade earned its name today when it broke the armour and caused it to stagger.
The aragami let out a fierce cry of frustration from this but neither of the attackers backed down. Instead Soma lobbed a flashbang while James threw a few traps on the ground. The aragami glided towards them with the speed of a car then attacked with its elongated arm. James quickly held his shield up, deflecting the attack and Soma ran along it's extended arm then jumped off to land an attack on it's halo and shatter it.
"That takes care of that", said Soma with a smile landing behind it. It turned around, ready to attack with a swinging kick but James ran forward with his charged spear The aragami's body tilted back to avoid the swing from his blade then shot both her arms out, crashing into James and sending him high into the air.
James hit the top of the wall then quickly grabbed onto a part of the exposed ceiling, pointing his spear at the aragami while Soma kept it distracted.
He waited till the aragami was directly under him then kicked the ceiling and sent him down. Before he could land, he spun on his side to achieve the necessary speeds required and perform the same move he did on the black Hannibal in Lindow.
Soma watched as the drill that was his teammate, slammed into the aragami with incredible speed and power, creating a giant hole in its body, making it impossible for it to mount any retaliation at all.
"Care to explain how all this happened?" asked James to Brendan while Soma carried him.
"I'm sorry", said the teen with his head lowered "When the aragami attacked I should have retreated with Tatsumi and the others but… I… I wanted to make up for the arc incident".
"What about it?" asked Soma
"When it was time for us to decide on whether or not to stay and go… I only thought of myself and decided to go. I never knew we were all pawns to the former director and when it was revealed to be a lie, I felt so terrible".
"So when there was a chance for me to prove myself.. ow", he said when James flicked him on the head "What was that for?"
"Did anyone look at you differently for your decision?" asked James and he shook his head.
"Did anyone treat you differently?" he asked and got the same reply.
"Then why did you feel the need? Don't forget you're not the only one who decided to go. Kanon, Kota and Karel all decided to do and no one holds it against them".
"I know but…"
"Clearly you don't Brendan", said James then took a breath "Look, in times like those there is no such thing as a good decision. You made your choice and we made ours and what happened, happened. The best thing you can do is learn from it and move on."
"Alright you've laid into him plenty now, give the guy a break", said Soma surprising the two of them "When's the last you've eaten?"
"Lunch from yesterday", he replied and his stomach groaned in agreement.
"We can deal with the debrief after he's eaten, don't you think leader?" he asked and James quietly stared at him.
"Hey guys", called out another voice from the distance. The trio saw Alisa and Kota carrying Kanon on his back. The teams met up then headed back to the base.
After Brendan got an earful from Tsubaki and everyone ate dinner, it was time to sleep. Feeling a little restless and in the mood to talk or play some games, Alisa stood outside and knocked on James' room a couple of times but got no response.
"hmm", she muttered to herself and pressed the door, surprised to see that it was open. She went inside and found that no one was there.
Growing ever curious she made her way to the lounge, thinking that he might be up doing a little reading. When the girl drew closer to the lounge she heard his voice but it sounded like he was in conversation with someone.
"So this is the required speed we'll need to be going to break the escape velocity barrier", he said "And what about the return trip".
Oddly enough she did not hear a response but he continued the conversation "Adding the extra weight… this would be the newly required speeds we'd need to be going."
"Who are we talking about?" asked Alisa making her presence known.
"Hey Alisa, what are you doing up?" he asked turning to her.
"I was feeling restless and now I get why", she said slowly coming down the stairs "James who were you talking to?"
"Oh that?" he said holding his tablet up "It's an old interactive space exploration software I found in storage".
"Huh?" she asked looking at the tablet.
"It's something like a game where you can create your own adventure and the software creates scenarios based on that", he said handing the device to her "Go ahead and try one".
"hmm", she said examining the contents "It only let's me select a few base classes".
"Well yeah you have to give the creators some leeway, they created these base classes to serve as a foundation for your character and the story progresses from that point on".
"I'm not quite sure I understand it but it does sound fun", she said slowly giving him the tablet "James is there something going on that you're not telling me?"
"What? No, why would you think that?"
"Call it a hunch or maybe even over analysing the whole thing", she replied with her hands behind her "But I get the feeling that…"
"I'm hiding a secret?" he asked finishing the sentence and she nodded "There's nothing going on here Alisa, sure I may have spread myself a little too thin the past few days hanging out with everyone but that's it nothing more".
"Alright", she said sighing in relief "Then you don't mind if I stay here with you for a while?"
"Uh, I thought you wanted to get some sleep", he said looking confused.
"I said that I was feeling restless", she said sitting beside him "I'll hang around here for a while and head back afterwards".
James nodded in agreement but sighed in his mind. Her presence meant he would have to be careful with his plans which also meant he'd have to postpone some of the planning work. He also needed to be extra careful as it seemed Alisa was starting to grow suspicious of him and he did not need that.
Alisa on the other hand had found it difficult to find a good time to tell the boy she loved that she loved him. Though right now would be a good moment to, she could not shake the feeling that there was something he was hiding, despite him saying there wasn't.
In the end she believed it was her own mind jumping at shadows so she thought the best thing she could do was relax herself a little. She remembered the time when she saved him from the Vajra and subsequently falling asleep on his shoulder during the ride home.
Sitting beside him like this, she started to feel more relaxed now and could feel herself slowly drifting away.
