Chapter 7 – Monsterphilia
Bell saw it clearly as the man smiled at the child and when that man pulled out his gun and shot the child in the head, Bell screamed.
"Due tue a single bullet, inconformity turned into anger and spread throughout Ishval" "Executive Order Num. 3066… announced the beginning of the massacre of Ishval" "It was Hell" "Why is it that us soldiers – Who should be protecting people – are killing them?" "Can you say without doubt… that there wasn't a moment where you felt satisfied that you hit your enemy correctly?" "Such a Wonderful Job!" "That was when the high priest, Rog Ro stood before the Fürer" "You say your life is worth the thousands left" "The life of a person is of the same worth of any others. No more, No less"
That day Bell woke up screaming, only to puke afterwards.
.
It took bell about an hour to calm down. When Hawkeye had explained the horrors of Ishval massacre he couldn't help but feel revulsion and hate for what the soldiers had done, but he had seen it, he had seen the sheer trauma in Armstrong as he raised that wall, he had seen the pure will of Mustang and he had seen the start of years of happiness for Hughes. He had also seen the Joy for blood and death that some of the Alchemist showed and he had seen the results of seeing humanity as absolute equals from the perspective of Bradley.
Bell put those thoughts aside and geared up to go another day into the dungeon, after finishing he went out of the church and ran along his path but immediately stopped when he saw a large amount of people walking along the roads.
"Huh? What's going on?"
"Ah! This is your first time?" a merchant had noticed Bell's confusion and after one look at his gear immediately noticed he was a rookie "It's the Monsterphilia"
"Monsterphilia?" Bell was confused, a festival to the monsters?
"Um. It's a festival sponsored by the Ganesha Familia that they do for the sake of entertaining the masses, you know, with Ganesha being the God of the masses? Anyways, they bring monster out of the dungeon fight them and tame them in front of an audience, it is amazing in a way."
"Woah…" Bell was amazed they would do something like that but snapped out of it when someone asked him to move so they could talk to the merchant about an item they could buy
"Sorry! Thanks for the info" Bell apologized to the person and thanked the merchant before leaving
Bell wandered around thinking about what to do before he remembered that he had an oil bomb on him and that he should return to the church, if only to leave his gear so he would be left in his casual clothes. Meanwhile he reminisced about the kindness shown by Takemikazuchi and vowed to return every valis, after all not only had the box of oil bombs come two days before but also a strange metallic cage for the vials that stopped them from moving too much or shattering by accident once it was attached to his hip bag; The cage a had space for one vial but if you extended it you could put two in exchange for being slightly more dangerous with the possibility of the two vials shattering each other.
Bell was put out of his thoughts by a voice he had missed by the last few days "Beeeeeeeelllllllllllll-kkkkkkkkkkuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!"
"Kami-sama!" Bell hugged the Godly Missile as she reached him and blushed a little when he felt certain parts of her goddess anatomy press against him but shook it off by the sheer happiness he felt by seeing her again
"Bell-kun… I am home" Hestia smiled with pure joy that he couldn't help but feel too
"Welcome Back, Kami-sama" Bell too smiled at her
"Let's go on a date!" His goddess suddenly declared
"Eh?"
"Come on Bell-kun! You wouldn't leave your Goddess alone in a festival would you?" Hestia smiled in victory when she saw Bell relent
"So… How much time will you do that?" Hephaistos wasn't amused by Hestia bowing "Why are you doing that in the first place?"
"Takemikazuchi taught me Ultimate Technique to apologize or ask for something" Hestia replied "And I won't stop until you agree to make a weapon for Bell-kun!"
"I said this before already but the works my Familia produces are very high quality and require years of training before reaching the levels they have, I can't simply give you one of my Familia's works if you don't have the money to pay it" Hephaistos was simply confused "Why are you going so far?"
"Bell-kun… My child, he works so hard to make ends meet and now he has started to change and become something great… but I can't help. I am useless to him, I can't give him funds, I can't give him teammates, and I can't even consistently feed him like someone his age should be" Hephaistos eyes softened as she heard Hestia's explanation "At this rate I can't help but feel that he will die trying to lower the moon for me" Hephaistos narrowed her eyes at the remark she made at the end
"Is this about what Loki said?" By this point almost every god had heard about Loki harshly insulting Hestia
"No" The firmness that Hestia answered with surprised Hephaistos "This is about the fact that I came to the Lower World expecting everything to work out for me. This is about the fact that, that child is so pure and innocent that he would take the dreams of a spoiled goddess and try and make them reality. Hephaistos, once more I ask you to make a weapon for my child and for you to teach me how to be a proper goddess!"
Hephaistos sighed "You really are troublesome, y' know? But you have changed" Hephaistos stood up from her seat "Very well, I will do it. But you will pay me back every valis and you better not slack off when I teach you! I'm known to be a harsh teacher" Hephaistos smiled
"You will do it? Ya- " Hestia's legs gave out and she fell to her knees
"Oi! Seat down for a- " Hephaistos couldn't finish when she watched Hestia grit her teeth and stand up before she bowed "Thank you, Hephaistos"
Hephaistos couldn't help it, the gods had come down to Tenkai to find interesting things, and right in front of her was one 'Just who are you?!' a grin spread through her lips, at least her weapon will follow this interesting person
"Well, we better get to work!"
"Wait! You will do it yourself?!"
"Of course I will! This is something between you and me! But don't think that you will just watch, you are helping me"
Hestia had helped Hephaistos forge that blade, she even used the only ability she could still use without Arcanum and made the heat focus into softening the metal and removing all possible impurities, they had even used one of her hairs to connect it to her Arcanum. The end result being a pure black knife that once exposed to her blood and his, would grow alongside him.
She was tired and hungry, but she wanted to at least have a bit of fun with Bell before she rested. It also helped that the things she ate were making her hunger disappear.
"Bell-kun, Bell-kun, let's go over there" Hestia hugged the arm of her child and smiled as she watched him have fun
"Wait, nya, white hair, nya!" Bell turned around to look at the source of the voice, making Hestia notice that they were in front of the restaurant, Mistress of Fertility, that Loki insulted her
"Me?"
"Good Morning, nya! Sorry to call nyou out like that, nya!" Bell looked like he didn't understand what was going on.
"Ah, um, morning… Can I help you…?"
"Got a favor to ask nyou. Here, nya!"
"?"
"Syr is nyour friend nyaight, White hair? So get this to her, nya"
The girl put a girly purse in bell's hand and bell looked even more confused
"Anya. You are not being clear; Cranel-san is confused" Now a green haired elf with short hair joined the conversation.
For a strange reason Bell seemed elated that the elf remembered his name, so Hestia pinched his back.
"Ryu! What do nyou mean, Syr forgot her wallet playing hooky to go to Monsterphilia, nya. She nyeeds it, so I'm asking him to take it to her. Nyou knew that, right, white hair?"
Hestia and Bell made a face of understanding that Ryu noticed.
"That is how it is. I apologize for the confusion." Ryu bowed to Bell and Hestia.
"Ah, no, we got it now. So that's what's going on…" Bell stared at the purse and then at Hestia
Hestia noticed and smiled to her child "Don't worry Bell-kun, we can find her while we look around!"
"Syr left a while ago, though, nya" commented Anya
"We will see what we can do!" replied Hestia
"…And that's about it" Loki was currently talking to Freya. They had gone into a bit of the deviation as Loki and Freya reminisced and Freya mentioned Loki's Infamous encounter with Hestia before the Banquet of Gods and the quickly spreading rumors of whatever happened after Loki took Hestia behind locked doors. Some of the gods with smaller Familias found themselves nervous that Loki was about to make a move against them. Yet as Loki had just explained, they were yelling Wolf when seeing a puppy.
"I see…" Freya just smiled mysteriously like always
"Ok, I can't hold anymore! The heck wrong with ya! Ya been acting srange recently. Ya suddenly started moving and collecting info, pokin' yer head into things ya never cared 'bout before… What are ya scheming?"
"Scheming…? My you are making sound evil~"
"Shut it" Loki glared at her with her red eyes on full display "If this has anything to do with my children, I will make sure to take you down." Ottar almost moved to attack after that, with Aiz grabbing the handle of her sword in response.
Tension filled the room, making the air feel heavy and a strange pressure to appear, yet the two goddesses didn't blink as they stared down each other.
Then Loki relaxed and the tension disappeared "This 'bout a man, isn't it?"
"…"
"So. Ya got yer eye for a child in another Familia, I take it?"
Freya just smiled loftily. Every god already knew of Freya's Tendencies and the fact that she had appeared on Banquet of Gods was probably her just figuring out which god that child belonged to. Loki just narrowed her eyes at Freya, she had talked with Hephaistos, Hestia, Pandora, Baldr and Her, which meant that she had found the child after talking to one of them.
"And?"
"…?" Freya just slightly tilted her head signifying her question
"Who's the guy? What child are ya after now? When'd ya find 'im?"
Freya seemed to think for a moment before answering "What about this? I will tell you if you promise your Familia will not to interfere when I come for him"
"Urk!" Promises between gods and Familia were no laughing matter and were treated quite seriously "Just to clarify this mysterious man isn't in my Familia, right?"
Freya just nodded
"Eh! Isn't like it's my problem!" Loki accepted, after all Freya only… Loki's eyes widened as she realized to late that she had been tricked
"Bell Cranel of the Hestia Familia" Freya dropped the bomb in amusement watching with joy as Loki glared at her
"Why him? Why does it have to be Chibi's only child?!" Aiz remembered who it was and her eyes widened slightly
"…He's not that strong. Weak if you compare him to the children in our Familias. But his soul is different, beautiful, pure and strong" Freya could hear it a flame that rolled with thunder singing inside his soul "and Perfectly Transparent with a burning white light surrounding it"
"Bullshit!" Exclaimed Loki "Human souls are colored by who they are, by their goals and their sins! The only souls like that are the ones that were just cleared for reincarnation! And burning white?! Isn't that Chibi's Eternal Flame?!"
"Indeed, that's why I want him. He's unique, and special. He even called my attention in the most interesting of ways" Freya smiled and looked outside before her smile widened "I apologize. Something has come up"
Loki gritted her teeth as Freya left with Ottar "I'm sorry Chibi…." When Freya came for her child, Loki Familia will not interfere "But if you are to have a chance…" Freya however had committed a slight mistake "I will have to play with your child" She tried to bind the goddess of trickery.
END