God Eater 3 - Starling Start

by Sprogster85

Join our protagonist, Aurick Bird/Pennywort, through the God Eater 3 story.

8. Chapter 8 - Phym

God Eater 3 – Starling's Start

Chapter 8 - Phym

Name: Aurick Bird

Codename: Starling

Hairstyle: Type 2

Hair Colour: Dark purple

Face: Type 4

Eyes: Type 4

Eye Colour: Fox Brown

Accessories: Frizz 2 (Dark Purple)

Voice: 8

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE GOD EATER FRANCHISE.

Also, please leave a review.

An urgent mission led to an abrupt awakening that didn't allow me to dwell on how heavy the atmosphere had become after it was revealed that an Ash Aragami signature was detected not too far away. Despite this, within five minutes, Zeke, Hugo, Lulu and I were deployed to fight the threat.

Urgent: Evasion Notice

Underground Facility: Conveyor Passage

An Ashborn was detected on our scheduled return route, so we have no choice but to swerve onto an unapproved route to avoid it.
Note: Use of Dusty Miller's beacons is unavoidable. We are currently applying for official access.

We were able to finish the mission with relative ease. The only real threat to us was a Borg Camlann, but that was dispatched easily with some smart thinking and appropriately differing between offence and defence. And so, just as we were finishing up, devouring the defeated Aragami, Amy's voice came through our earpieces with the usual congratulatory message.

"Great work, team!" Her voice has become a welcoming thing after missions. It tells us when our job is done and finally allows us to let our guard down. "The area is nice and quiet. There's a surprising lack of Aragami. Oh!" She utters a surprised gasp. "P-Please wait a moment." Her voice has taken a slightly worried tone and it spreads to the rest of us. We look at each other and prepare ourselves for the news. I can only assume that another Aragami must've wandered onto the battlefield. "S-Something is…" I may, regretfully, be correct. "This is an emergency, everyone!" Her voice suddenly takes an oddly calm yet hurried tone. "Return to base immediately!" Her voice is enough to get us all sharing an inquisitive look but we decide not to question it. Instead, we hurry back to the Ash Crawler.

"What happened?" Hugo speaks as the three of us rush back into the Ash Crawler. Looking at the resonance radar, the word "WARNING" appears in regular intervals. It seems that shit has just gotten serious.

"This response…" Amy begins as she continues typing away on her keyboard. "It's an Ash Aragami!" Her voice takes a higher pitch and relays her panic, despite her attempt at maintaining her professionalism. "Range is… six miles!" That's a lot closer than I had hoped for. I hope there's a way to outrun it.

"Huh? An Ash Aragami?!" Zeke exclaims in surprise with a hint of worry in his voice. "Are you kidding me?!" He looks between Hugo and I, most likely expecting us to be looking on in surprise as well. Or hoping that one of us can't contain a smile which would suggest that the situation is all just a joke.

"Comparing with the database… No matching data found." Amy's words provide evidence that the situation is indeed dire. "It's an unknown type of Ash Aragami!"

"Reverse our heading and retreat at full speed!" Having finally received confirmation of the identity of the unusual Aragami signature, Hilda issues her command to retreat. "We need to withdraw from the area immediately!"

"We're too late. It's already on us!" Amy responds just as quickly as Hilda could issue her command, and I can't help but feel a sinking feeling in my stomach. "It's so fast! Ash Aragami on a collision course!"

"Wh-What did you say?!" Hilda expresses her surprise and the reality of the situation sinks in for the rest of us. I can see Zeke's face portray his shock while Hugo's face seems calculating. Most likely in an attempt to find a way out of this situation. Unfortunately, as Amy said, it is too late as only a moment later the whole Ash Crawler is shook with the force of something hitting the rear end of it. It's a struggle to maintain my balance as the vehicle shakes. Hilda holds onto the receptionist desk in an attempt to stable herself while the rest of us try our best to regain our footing.

"Impact with rear cargo containers! Some are destroyed!"

"Is there something it wants in our cargo?!" At Hilda's words, I remember that even I was drawn to the cargo hold on the Ash Crawler. It was almost as though something was guiding me there. Is it possible that the same thing had drawn the Ash Aragami towards it.

"It won't stay away from the containers! They can't withstand any more!" Amy's words suggest some truth behind Hilda's deduction after another wave of shaking forces us to try and keep our feet rooted to the ground once again.

"Aaah!" We hear a gasp through our earpieces.

"Was that Claire?!" Hugo asks quickly but his question is ignored.

"Container is breached! Ash Aragami is inside!" Amy's panic is evident in her voice now.

"Just not our day." Hugo expresses before turning around, making sure to look me in the eyes. "Let's move." Without any other words, we rush towards the cargo hold.

With our God Arcs in hand, we come across the area where the cargo hold was. Lying on the ground in front of where the door should be is Claire.

"Are you all right?" Hugo takes Claire into his arms who struggles through the pain to look behind her and see the damage caused by the Ash Aragami. I inwardly breathe a sigh of relief as I see Claire doesn't seem to be too badly damaged.

"Ah… Ngh…" Claire struggles to speak for a moment as she tries to refamiliarize herself with what has just happened. "The container is…"

"Don't be stupid! Think about yourself! Damn the cargo!" Hugo is quick to interrupt her. He had asked if Claire was okay, not the container.

"Protecting that cargo is the duty entrusted to me!" She attempts to get Hugo to understand her.

"Uh… There is an Ash Aragami in that container!" Zeke joins in the conversation as he also runs to her side, clearly not wanting it to drag out any longer as he tries to explain the current situation.

"Don't just waltz in there!" Hugo reprimands her.

"What?!" Claire looks on in surprise, unaware of the presence of an Ash Aragami. We all turn to look into the container. As I do so, I see what looks to be a little girl wearing rags sitting in there, staring into space as she is exposed to the elements. At that moment, I see a large claw emerge from the gaping hole in the roof of the container.

"Huh?" Claire speaks up and it is only now that I realise that I had already walked into the cargo container. Everyone else has gathered inside too.

"Is that… a human?" Hugo asks in confusion.

"You're asking the wrong questions, Hugo?!" I shout and sprint towards the girl as I see the massive Ash Aragami roar and prepare to swing its claw down at her. I'm forced to jump towards her and only just manage to cradle her in my arms as the momentum from the jump carries us under the claw of the Aragami.

"ARRGHHHHH!" I thought I had managed to dodge it, but all of a sudden I feel as though my back has suddenly ignited. I'm 100% sure that my back isn't on fire though, as I can feel liquid spreading over my body. It only takes a second to realise that the liquid I feel spreading over me to be my own blood. I try to gather some strength into my arms and legs but can't for the life of me manage to move even a muscle. I can't even open my eyes. In fact, every attempted movement, no matter how small it may be, is only greeted by more pain. I grit my teeth and try again, but despite that the pain is too much for me and I feel my vision fading to black, unable to feel anything, unable to see anything and unable to hear anything.

Hugo's POV

As the girl that Aurick saved stares at him, I realise that the Ash Aragami is preparing for another attack. Without any other indication needed to realise that this would be dangerous if I don't step in now, I change my God Arc to Gun Form and fire a few bullets at the monster's head. It recoils slightly as the bullets land and it's claw that it was about to swing takes hold of the cargo bay instead.

"No, you don't, Zeke!" I shout the name of my friend to snap him out of his stupor the situation has caused.

"Okay!" He switched his God Arc to Gun Form as well and we fire volley after volley of bullets.

"I'm going in too!" Lulu shouts and charges forwards, managing to land a few slashes at the monster's face. However, the Ash Aragami seems to brush off our attacks. Regardless, Zeke, Claire and I fire shot after shot at the Aragami to try and knock it away from the Ash Crawler.

"Claire, aim for the hands, alright?" I issue her a command.

"Got it!" She responds immediately. The Aragami roars at our attempts to injure it. As a few more bullets land on its left claw it loses its grip entirely and falls off the cargo hold leaving a cloud of dust to spew upwards, signifying a steep drop. With an inward sigh of relief that the immediate danger is over, I quickly bring my attention back to Aurick.

"Are you okay?" I ask him in a slight panic. My panic isn't quelled at all when I see Aurick glowing a mixture of green and blue, seemingly at the hands of the little girl he saved. But his lack of a response does scare me. He did just suffer an attack from an Ash Aragami, after all. There's a chance that… No, I can't think of that. I rush to his side and lift his head up, trying to find any sign that he's still alive. This can't be how it ends! "Hey! Come on, wake up! Live, dammit! You have to live!" I see his eyes blink open a few times before they close again and he loses consciousness. But will this be the last time he is ever conscious? My eyes begin to grow wetter as I think that.

Aurick's POV

Surprisingly, I'm able to open my eyes without any difficulty and I immediately try to move the rest of my body. I almost let loose a happy chortle as I feel absolutely no pain at all, but I prevent it from escaping once I'm able to realise where I am. I blink my eyes open a few times, only to discover that no matter how many times I do so, I am still greeted by the same blackness that surrounds me. I can't see anything at all, and I can't hear anything either. It's like I've fallen into a black void. There is no light at all.

"Hey." My voice belies the worry I'm feeling right now. I think, anyway. Had I actually spoken? If I did, I couldn't hear it. But if I didn't speak, then that means there might be a problem with my voice or even just my jaw. "Hello?" I try to speak a common greeting yet cannot hear myself once again. Despite not hearing myself, that quells another worry that I had. I think it is safe to assume that I'm actually unconscious. Otherwise I would have either heard or felt something in response to my attempt to talk; whether that be someone speaking back to me or someone attempting to touch me in response. But now another worry comes to the surface; how long will I be here for?

A few seconds of silence passes as I wonder about how to regain my consciousness when all of a sudden, my ears begin to work again.

"-y! Co- on, -ake up!" I hear Hugo's voice. My whole body suddenly becomes lighter and it feels as though I'm floating higher into the void. All of a sudden, my eyes flicker open and I am immediately greeted with Hugo's face. "Live, dammit! You have to live!" I speaks with tears threatening to fall from his face. Honestly, I don't like the fact that I've caused my friend to suffer, but before I can do anything in response, my body suddenly becomes much much heavier. My vision fades once again and I feel myself falling back into the black void of my own mind.

Hugo's POV

"We've got to get him to the med bay." Claire rushes to Aurick's side. "Hugo, Zeke, carry him there!" I'm surprised to see her issuing a command to me, but I don't take the time to dwell on it. She is right, after all. We need to get him some medical help. There's nothing that can be done by keeping him here.

"What do we do about her?" Zeke comments on the girl next to Aurick as he positions himself to carry Aurick's legs. The blue and green glow no longer surrounds Aurick nor does it seem to be emitted from the girl. I'm not sure what she is but it is possible that she may have just saved Aurick's life. I'm not sure why I think that, but maybe we can trust her. I lift Aurick's body up and Zeke does the same with Aurick's legs. At the same time, the girl that was sat on the floor immediately stands.

"We can't keep her here. The cargo bay is completely destroyed." Claire comments as she looks towards the gaping hole on the roof.

"I think you're missing the point, Claire. We can't keep a girl in the cargo hold anyway." Lulu makes her thoughts known and I can't help but agree.

"Hugo, let's go." Zeke speaks up and begins walking out of the remains of the cargo container. As we move the little girl follows closely by Aurick's side.

"We may have to ask Hilda." Claire comments, knowing that for some reason, the cargo she was ordered to keep an eye on was this girl.

"I wonder what Gleipnir wanted with some girl, anyway?" Zeke seems just as confused as me.

"We can worry about that later." Lulu tries to dismiss the conversation. "Let's just get Aurick into the med bay." She rushes ahead to hold the door open for us.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I hear Hilda speaking up from behind us as soon as we've put Aurick on a spare bed. She must have rushed up to the cargo bay to see the damage caused but then saw us entering the med bay and began to worry.

"Aurick was hit by the Ash Aragami and still hasn't regained consciousness." I try to explain as briefly as possible since time is probably of the essence. At the same time, the unnamed girl stands beside Aurick and definitely takes the attention of Hilda.

"I see." Hilda sounds a bit dejected, possibly even depressed but she tries to muster her courage and immediately begins connecting Aurick to the machinery while ignoring the girl that has taken residence by Aurick's side.

After that, Aurick's vitals were to be constantly watched. He always had to have at least one adult visitor to keep an eye on him. Whenever I wasn't participating in any missions, I would watch over him along with some other people. Each and every time, the girl by his side would not move. Although, that did not stop her engaging with us. It seemed to be that Claire would try and teach her how to communicate. Although it may have simply just been a way to pass the time. It was nice to watch, and I would occasionally join in. It wasn't a very good distraction though. Every time I looked at the girl, I could only think of her as the thing that Aurick risked his life for. That pained me. Aurick and I have been friends for longer than I can even remember. We even had some shared goals, including building our own port together. He's like a brother to me, so when his life almost ended in front of my eyes, I wouldn't be ashamed to say that I almost cried. Losing him means losing everything; a friendship, our shared goals. Which is why, on the third day after his hospitalisation, after Aurick's eyes began to move, I could feel my chest grow warmer with relief.

Aurick's POV

After what felt like years of being stuck in that black void I suddenly feel myself rising to the surface of the it. Much like how I did when I regained consciousness for a few seconds and saw Hugo looking down at me. Despite my eyelids still feeling a bit heavy, I push through the fatigue and attempt to open them. Only to be greeted by the harsh white light of the medbay. It forces me to blink my eyes shut again and a second passes before I attempt to open my eyes again, only this time I do it a lot slower. As I do, I spot an unusual looking face right in front of me. Her black hand extended as if to say hello.

"Ah…!" The girl gasps as she realises that I've regained consciousness, but for a second all I can do is stare at the little girl in confusion. Trying to jog my memory, I'm pretty sure that there was no one with this description on the Ash Crawler.

"Ah!" I hear Claire gasp also, her voice conveying her surprise.

"Whoa!" Zeke also expresses his own surprise while leaning in towards me. Quite frankly, it's unnerving to see how close they are. I raise a hand to my face to block any attempt at getting any closer from any of the four people directly in front of me; the little girl, Claire, Zeke and Lulu.

"Is he alive?" Lulu asks a question that I can only define as stupid.

"No, I'm definitely dead." I sarcastically reply with a raspy voice. I suppose it must have been a while since I've talked. I wonder how long I've been unconscious for.

"You're awake." I hear Hugo speaking from beside me and turn towards him. His words were unnecessary for me, but I feel as though they were a source of comfort for him. Or at least, that's what I hope they were for. "Why did you have to worry me like that…" He complains with a heavy sigh.

"Ma'am! Our sleeping passenger awoke just now!" I turn back to Claire as she speaks and see her pressing a finger to her ear. She must be communicating with the owner of the Ash Crawler, Hilda. As I return my attention back to the front though, my eyes settle on the little girl in front of me. The most notable feature on the tanned girl is the two black horns that emerge from both sides of her forehead. Her white hair is styled in a way that makes it look as though she has a halo above her head. Apart from two black gloves that cover the entirety of her forearms as well as her hands, she appears to be dressed in white rags. The girl beams at me and it requires effort to not stare back into her blood red eyes. To try and take my attention away from the girl, even if it is momentarily, I try to move my body so that I'm sitting up. I won't lie, it does hurt slightly. Hugo, seeing my wince, extends an arm behind me to help me sit up.

"Whoa, whoa! Take it easy." Zeke suddenly speaks up at my attempts to move. "You've been out for three days!" As he speaks, I bring a knee to my chest to give me something to lean on so that I don't fall backwards.

"Three days, huh?" The way my body seems to be reacting, it definitely feels like I've been motionless for a lot longer. Perhaps three weeks? I've never had this much difficulty moving my body before.

"You remember what happened, right?" Hugo enquires as to why I've been put in this position. I turn my attention towards the little girl whose attention must have been taken away from me as she seems to be playing with Claire and Lulu.

"An Ash Aragami attacked, right?" I look back to Hugo and Zeke and wait for their confirmation. They do so with a nod of their heads. "I think I remember running towards that girl while she was in the cargo hold. Other than that, I remember Hugo looking down at me. I guess we made it out alive?" My intonation rises towards the end. I hadn't considered the possibility, but since Ash Aragami are supposed to be incredibly scary and unbeatable monsters, that means there is a chance that we all died during that attack. Although, that chance is incredibly small anyway.

"Barely." Zeke grumbles with a pissed off expression on his face before turning towards the little girl. "If that girl hadn't done what she had you would definitely be dead by now." His tone grows softer as he speaks; his voice full of gratitude.

"Somehow she healed you." Hugo offers an extended explanation, as if predicting my next question. "We have her to thank for your health." Although I understand his words, I don't understand how a girl can heal people.

"Do you mean she treated me on the battlefield? Or she stitched up my wounds?" My questions make their way to Hugo and Zeke. The latter smiles.

"It was a lot cooler than that!" Zeke excitedly states. "You were covered in some kinda bluey green glow! Then all of a sudden your wounds were gone!"

"How did it take three days before I woke up then?" The questions continue to pour out of me as the situation I was in only grows more and more confusing. At this point, the door to the medbay opens and from the other side emerges Hilda and Amy, both with smiles on their faces as they see me.

"We can assume that when you were hit by the Ash Aragami," Hilda immediately speaks up apparently having heard my question from outside the room, "it also inflicted some mental damage as well as physical damage." She speaks as she comes to a stop to the left side of the bed. Meanwhile, Amy seems to be checking out some of the monitors by the bedside.

"Vitals are green." Amy announces and I can't help but inwardly sigh. Despite the pain I feel, I seem to be in good shape. She continues to look at a few machines before she turns towards me while picking up a tool in her hand. "Time for a quick test." She offers me a smile.

"You're going to make an injured person do a test?" I humorously enquire as a bright light appears at the end of the tool in Amy's hand. She shines the light into my right eye, and the test requires that I look directly into it. She then moves to my left eye and does the same. She turns away from me and begins to operate a machine.

"It's not that kind of test. I'm just checking to see if your vision is normal." She replies after the test is finished.

"And you couldn't just ask me if my vision is normal?" I keep my humorous questions going. It's not everyday that I get the chance to speak with a girl I'm interested in like this.

"Of course not. You've been unconscious for a while, I need to check what the reflection of the light is like from the back of your eyes. Unless you already know about that?" She continues to operate the machine as she asks a question she already knows the answer to.

"Well, you're the expert, I'll let you do your thing." I turn my attention away from Amy and watch the scene in front of me. At some point during my flirting with Amy, Zeke must have moved away from my bedside as he now appears to be actively engaging with Claire, Lulu and the girl I saved and who, in turn, saved me.

"You've got quite a fan club now! Hahaha!" Amy speaks up again after a minute or two of silence. Her attention is no longer on the machinery around us and is instead settled on the scene in front of us.

"I would never have guessed that Gleipnir was using us to ship human cargo." Hilda speaks up, and indirectly reminds me that she is also standing at my bedside. Her tone of voice suggests that she isn't in much of a joking mood. "I thought the reward was suspiciously generous, but I bought into it anyway."

"Is that kid human, or…?" Hugo's question was on my mind as well. If she was able to heal me, and I was covered in a bluey green glow, then that suggests that she isn't human. But she looks like one. So what is she?

"When the Ash Aragami attacked, we recorded a huge resonance phenomenon emanating from the container. If we consider that this child was at the centre…" Amy seems to be trying to gather her own thoughts as well as attempting to explain our question.

"I saw it with my own eyes. Somehow, that kid did something that healed Aurick's wounds. That sort of power goes well beyond human." Hugo explains his own evidence, and the verdict is pointing towards the girl not being human.

"Listen, Claire…" Hilda speaks up and grabs the God Eater's attention, "All of the people you see here are authorised personnel." Hilda's seriousness is evident in her voice. I almost feel bad about wanting an explanation as the girl who was jumping around excitedly and holding Claire's hands seems to sense that the situation has become more serious. Her happy bounces suddenly stop and a concerned look spreads on the face of the girl as she looks at Claire. "Could you at least tell us what you know about this?" Claire lets go of the girl's hands and abruptly stands up.

"She is the hope of humanity against the Ashlands."

"Huh?" Zeke cannot withhold his confusion. Claire brings a hand towards the girl's head and begins to lightly pet her.

"We were told the contents of that container could carry humanity into the future… that is was potential." Claire begins to explain.

"So, according to Gleipnir, this girl is the hope of humanity…" Hilda repeats as she tries to process Claire's words and Gleipnir's objectives.

"I was certain it had to be a new type of God Arc or something like that…" Claire continues her explanation. She didn't know that the cargo she was assigned to keep watch over was a little girl, which would explain why the girl was kept in inhumane conditions. "Nevertheless, it is still my mission to safely deliver the container's contents, ma'am." She turns towards Hilda as she confirms her own objective. "Please return to course and continue to mission HQ."

"Hold on. Wait a sec." Zeke abruptly interrupts with a mildly annoyed tone of voice. "Are they gonna use that girl as a guinea pig or something?" Zeke's sudden question catches me off guard. Having known what it's like to be treated as a guinea pig, I don't want to see anything like that happen to others. Even if this girl isn't human, she shouldn't be treated like that. Being treated like a guinea pig isn't something I would wish on even my worst enemies. "No way! That's not gonna happen!" Zeke's sudden increase in volume startles the girl he's talking about and she quickly hugs Claire as if to shy away from the conflict. "She saved our comrade's life!"

"Take it easy, Zeke." Hugo is quick to interrupt Zeke's rant. "It's Claire's job… not ours."

"C'mon, that's… I mean, yeah, but…" Zeke tries to retort but can't seem to find the right way to explain it to Hugo. I honestly know how he feels. It wouldn't feel right to almost sacrifice myself for someone just for them to waste their life. Thus, it wouldn't feel right having saved this girl just to send her to Gleipnir be experimented on. But, at the end of the day, this isn't my call. This isn't my mission. The girl is not my responsibility. I cannot dictate her path in life nor what is going to be done with her. I therefore cannot intervene with the situation, even if I don't like it.

"We're going to fulfil our contract." Hilda walks away from my bedside and stops a few paces away from Claire. "Let's set out toward mission HQ as scheduled. The girl is already out, however, and the container is damaged beyond repair. There may have been a shipping accident, but she's still a passenger on my vessel. As such, we'll treat her as we would any passenger. How does that sound, Claire?"

"My assignment is to deliver her safely to her destination… But I have no specific orders as to how she should be transported." Claire responds, confirming that treating her like a passenger would be acceptable.

"Great!" Zeke suddenly shouts, his arm raised in the air. "So, uh," He begins as he walks towards Claire and the little girl, placing a hand on the latter's head. The girl visibly braces for the contact on her head. I get the feeling that she doesn't quite trust Zeke yet, and his outburst probably didn't help to gain her trust. "Do you think now we could stop calling her the girl or that kid or whatever?" The stroking of the girl's head does not last long as he continues walking into the middle of the circle that everyone seems to have unconsciously formed. Everyone turns towards the little girl in question and see emits a surprised sound at the sudden attention.

"Why don't we think of a name for her, then?" Claire expresses with an outstretched arm, almost as if passing off the naming rights onto the person at the other end of the arm which happens to be Lulu. Lulu looks at the little girl we're trying to name in confusion and has a few nervous movements of her head as the little girl sheepishly walks towards Lulu. The little girl stops expectantly with her eyes looking right into Lulu's.

"So… cute…" Lulu can only offer a few words in response, and I have to admit that I agree with her there.

"What would be a good name for her? I'm really bad at this, so you decide." Hugo relinquishes his part in naming the girl by pushing it onto me. I look towards the girl and try to think of a name that would suit her. I can only assume that everyone else is thinking the same thing. First of all, the name she has cannot overlap with someone that I already know nor can it sound similar to their names. She needs to have a unique name. Second, it has to be feminine, it only seems right. Maybe I could try mixing a few names to get a few ideas and work from there. Let's see, if Amy and I had a child, surely we'd want it to have a combination of our names, right? So, let's start with "A" so both of our names start with that. Maybe we could end it with the "y" sound that Amy's name ends in. Perhaps we could name her Airi?

"Phym." Claire suddenly speaks up and the little girl jumps at the name. Yeah, I suppose that works too.

"Oh! You like that one?" Zeke asks as the girl seems to bounce every few seconds in excitement.

"It suits her nicely. Phym… It has a sweet sound." Hilda shows her approval of the name.

"Phym. Phym… it definitely fits!" Amy, too, seems to be accept that as the girl's name.

"Phym…" Lulu experiments with the name on her tongue.

"Haha! Are you happy with that name?" Claire, seeing how well the girl responds to the name, smiles and asks if the girl likes it. The girl's eyes settle on me, and she bounces her way towards me.

"Phym…" She repeats in a high pitch. She smiles widely at me, and I can't help but reciprocate it.

"It's good to meet you, Phym." I can't help but offer my greetings to the person that saved my life.

"Phym… Ehehe!" She giggles cutely.

A short time later, I was confirmed to be healthy enough to be released; regaining my freedom as well as the use of my legs.

"You wakey!" Phym exclaims with excitement in her voice as she sees me emerge from the lift and entering the Bridge. I have to say, I'm pretty excited too. After lying on a bed in the medical bay for so long, I'd almost forgotten how it felt to walk around. "Um. Ummm…" The newcomer mumbles as she tries to think of the words she wants to use. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for her; being unable to speak and thus unable to communicate her needs. I know that she's not a human, but surely she's revelling in the chance to be able to communicate. "You… save… me…" I hadn't expected those words, but regardless I can't help but listen carefully now. "THANK!" She expresses her gratitude with an incomplete phrase, but that makes it relatively cuter. "Daddy!" I can't help the involuntary step backwards as the girl claims me to be her father.

"Huh?" A confused grunt makes its way out of my mouth before I can even comprehend what's going on. Why is Phym calling me her father? I mean, it's cute, but I'm way too young to be a father. I'm way too young to have that kind of responsibility.

"I thank Daddy." She explains her gratuitous gesture, but I'm still more concerned with her word choice. "People call… Daddy, Daddy! So you Daddy!" Who has been calling me daddy? And why have they been calling me that? I can only assume that she was taught to call me that by Claire, the person that's been trying to teach Phym how to speak as well as increasing her vocabulary. But, that's such an odd thing to call me. Wait, if Claire told Phym to call me her father, who did Claire call Phym's mother? Finding out the answer to that question can either make or break a relationship… "I wait long for… Daddy to wakey." Phym continues speaking and I return my attention back to her, choosing to debate on whether to criticise or praise Claire's methods of teaching for later. "Happy! Nheehee!" She giggles cutely, as I've become accustomed to due to my previous interactions with her. Still though, I didn't think one action would cause her to see me as her father.

"You weren't hurt, were you?" I kneel down to look her in the eyes as I speak with her.

"No!" Phym excitedly claims as she tries to ease my worries.

"So, how much do you understand?" Phym is having difficulty finding the right words to use. Does that mean then that she has difficulty understanding others? I mean, it wouldn't be surprising. A few days ago, she had nothing like social interaction, and now she suddenly has plenty of people to communicate with. There's a lot more to language than just learning words and what they mean. Every character is a symbol with its own meaning and Phym needs to combine many of these symbols just to produce a word that her audience already understands. I don't envy her lack of communication skills.

"I… understand… little." The girl takes her time to process the language and provide me with an honest response. I place a hand on her head and stand back up, patting her hair a few times before turning around silently.

"Time to stretch my legs." I take a step in front of me and hear the girl behind me take a few steps to catch up. I take another step forward and hear the little patter of Phym's feet as she follows me. If someone were to witness this little event, they'd think I actually am her father.

After a few more paces from me, and several more for Phym, I notice Claire entering the main floor in my peripheral vision. The conversation with Phym fresh on my mind, I decide to walk up to her.

"Hey, Claire." I give her a casual greeting, coming to a few paces away from her. The woman I greeted appears relieved to have found me, as a small smile makes its way onto her face.

"Aurick," She speaks with a smile before it suddenly disappears, "Could you come to the medical ward later?"

"I've just gotten out though. Did they forget to do some tests or something?" I must say that having my freedom be restricted like this isn't exactly amusing for me. I know I wasn't exactly given the 'all clear' but come on! I've only been out for a few minutes.

"We have to check anyone who comes in contact with Ash Aragami or high-concentration Ashblight." Claire gives me a serious answer in return. "You've been devoured, so I want to give you a thorough check. If anything happened to you…" Her voice trails off which only serves to peak my curiosity. What was she about to say? Would I be considered arrogant if I were to hope that she'd be worried about me if something did happen?

"Mommy!" Phym springs towards Claire as the girl senses a pause in the conversation. Her interruption reminds me of the conversation we had only a couple of minutes ago.

"So, Claire, you're her mother and I'm her father… How did you work that one out?" I try to keep my voice as calm as possible; I don't want my emotions to influence her answer after all. The woman in question reciprocates Claire's embrace. I had noticed Phym hugging Claire earlier when Zeke had shouted about Phym being used as a guinea pig, but I didn't know they were close enough for her to call Claire her mother. I didn't even know I was close enough to the girl for her to call me her father. "I never thought I'd be a father this early in my life."

"W-Well, you know how the process goes." Her voice sounds a little nervous but I don't reply, indirectly suggesting her to continue. "When a baby learns to talk, they usually begin with the roles of the people around them. Their mother and their father. She quickly became attached to you after you saved her from the Ash Aragami, you were the obvious candidate for her father."

"And because you were teaching her how to speak, you became the obvious candidate for her mother, right?" I continue for her, sighing as she replies with a nod. I look down to Phym who relinquishes her hold on Claire, proceeding to smile at the woman who places a hand on her head and gives her a few pats. "Claire, I…" I begin but my thoughts stop me. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to finish that sentence; to openly declare in front of our daughter that I have no romantic feelings for Claire whatsoever and that the target of my feelings is in fact the Ash Crawler's operator, Amy. Maybe I'm overthinking this but saying that might cause a conflict between us and hence damage our psyches enough to impact our jobs. Of course, maybe I'm just overthinking the fact that Claire might have feelings for me. Nothing about the fact that I'm Phym's father figure and Claire is her mother figure suggests that the two people involved have any romantic feelings for each other. "…I'll be there soon. Just let me finish walking around for a bit." I opt to change the sentence I was about to utter. This way, I am prolonging the status quo under the intention that if Claire ever does look to be trying to get romantically involved with me then I'll turn her down at the time. I don't want her to waste her life looking for a romance that isn't going to happen. With my answer given, I turn around and walk away. Hearing a 'see you later' from Claire to the little girl that follows after me. I hadn't expected the first few minutes of my walk to give me such a headache.

A few seconds after leaving Claire, another crewmate enters my field of vision.

"Looks like you're feeling better." Hugo speaks up as I walk towards him. He moves his head slightly to get a look behind me, no doubt at the little girl following me. "Phym, it's good to see your daddy awake, huh?" The girl gives him a smile in return, but I can't help but notice that even Hugo, my best friend, calling me Phym's father.

"Not you too." I grumble. "I thought only a few people would comically call me that."

"Well, she hasn't left your side since you collapsed." Hugo attempts to reason with me. "She just sat there watching you with a worried expression. It's like she's your kid. So, we've decided that you're Phym's dad."

"This is too much responsibility." I'm talking to my best friend here, I don't have to hide anything when I'm talking to him. I can tell him straight out that this situation isn't exactly what I wanted.

"Hahaha! Don't be like that. Look at her." At his prodding, I turn towards the girl behind me. "Can you deny that happy face?" As if she understands Hugo's words perfectly, Phym gives me a cute smile with a little wobble of her head. I can't deny that she's adorable. I'm just not a big fan of being referred to as her father. "All joking aside though…" Hugo's voice takes a serious tone. "When you found Phym, you instantly threw yourself between her and the Ashborn, right?"

"It just seemed like the right thing to do. I don't remember thinking much at the time; it was probably my instincts that drove me to try and protect her." When I think of all the people I wasn't able to protect, all those people that died while we were stuck in Port Pennywort, I can't find it in me to stay motionless and let someone die when there's something I know I can do to help them.

"She remembers that, and I think that first impression counted for a lot. And regardless of how things turned out, you owe her your life too. Take good care of her, Dad."

"So, now we're stuck in a limbo where we both saved each other's life and are thusly indebted to each other which makes us become a family." I give a heavy reluctant sigh. "Alright, I'll accept that." I turn towards the girl that has now become my daughter. "Let's continue our walk." I walk away from Hugo and await our next encounter.

"Looks like you're finally awake." I hear Ricardo's warm voice from behind me and he gives me a light slap on the shoulder before I can turn around. "I had a real scare when I heard you got eaten by an Ashborn."

"I'm not surprised. As far as I'm aware, not many people live to tell the tale." I try to joke with him to maintain the light-hearted atmosphere.

"I'm glad you're okay." He offers me a kind smile. For what it's worth, I actually feel pretty guilty about this light tone we're communicating with. I hadn't once thought about Ricardo until just now. It's not that I forgot about him, it's just that we don't know each other well enough. We rarely talk to each other unless the situation calls for it; I guess we've never been in many situations where we can just talk about nothing. "I never thought our cargo's be a little girl." Ricardo comments as he looks at Phym.

"It is unsettling." I respond quickly, my voice adopting a calculating tone. "It makes you wonder what else they're doing; what else they're hiding."

"They even went to the trouble of camouflaging their tiny cargo with a big container." Ricardo adds to my thoughts.

"I definitely feel as though Phym is going to be a big part in their plans." My voice is barely above a whisper. I'm not too sure why I felt the need to hide my words from Phym, considering it's unlikely that she completely understands what we're talking about.

"Well, whatever the case," He gives Phym and I a smile, "we've cracked this Pandora's box wide open. No going back now. And hey, we have an adorable new travelling companion. I count that as a win." He reaches towards Phym's head. She appears a little reluctant to accept his gesture, but she doesn't swat his hand away from her. Instead, she allows him to ruffle her hair. "Oh, but promise me something, Phym." He kneels down, intending to look her in the eye as he speaks; his hand now removed from her head. "No more sneaking into the God Arc storage room!" I can't help but look at Phym in surprise at this new revelation. Phym must have been sneaking into the storage room while I was in the med bay. But why? Is there something in there that she is interested in? I might need to ask Keith about that and see if he has any more details. "You see, there's a spooky ghost in there. So no going in. Ever. Got it?" One look at Phym tells me that she still doesn't understand that she shouldn't go into the God Arc storage room. She probably doesn't even know what a ghost is or what makes them spooky in the first place.

"Hehe!" Phym merely giggles with a smile on her face.

"Great. Now, promise your daddy too." Ricardo seems to think that Phym's chuckle is her way of agreeing to staying out of the storage room.

"Promise what exactly?" I can't help but ask. It would be weird to promise me that she'd stay out of the storage room. I have no business with it anyway. Surely that would be a promise best kept with the residents of the Ash Crawler.

"Promise to keep her promise." Ricardo stands back up as he talks to me. "Sometimes parents make their kids double down like that, you know?" At his words, I try to think back to whether my family was ever like that. After a few seconds I realise that they weren't; I never had to double down on my promises; not that I remember what they were. "Anyway, as long as she keeps out of that storage room, we're golden." He gives a sigh. "Man, what a mess that was. I guess she was hungry and looking for food… still, yeesh…" I look back at Phym who continues to stay silent. What exactly is Ricardo talking about? By the sounds of it, Phym went into the storage room to look for food. But why would she look in there? "But then she got all upset and teary eyed and apologised. I couldn't stay mad, you know?"

"Amazing. She already knows how to take advantage of others." I am genuinely surprised by Ricardo's story. I had never thought he'd be a sucker for such tactics.

"Well then," He gives me a hard pat on my shoulder, "Keep a better eye on her, 'kay, daddy?" His words make me grimace and he smirks before walking away from us. It takes me a few seconds to collect my composure and after I do so, I let loose another sigh.

"Phym, when you're hungry, make sure to talk to someone, okay? It'll be a lot easier to get you something to eat that way." She gives me a happy head nod and I'm once again left questioning how much of my words she understood.

Before we can even move from the spot, some people I haven't seen in a while come walking up to us. Or rather, they walk up to Phym.

"Hey, Phym!" Marr greets her with an accommodating smile on his face. "I'm so happy your daddy woke up!" Any positivity I had been feeling from seeing the kids for the first time in days suddenly disappeared with Marr's words. Please don't say they are going to start calling me daddy too. "We get to eat together again today!" I suppose Marr is right. We'll all be able to eat together; it's been a few days since that happened, after all. Perhaps Marr was a bit more worried about the social gatherings becoming unusual since I wasn't there than I had thought.

"Will you come play with me in my room sometimes?! It'll be lots of fun!" Lil invites Phym to hang out together in the female sleeping quarters. It's nice to see them getting along. I hadn't thought they'd be nearly this welcoming.

"I'm glad you're okay!" Sho speaks directly thought me and not using Phym as a medium to talk to the both of us. "Phym and I were really worried."

"I'm fine now. Thanks, Sho." I place a hand on his head and ruffle his hair. Only after doing so do I remember how often I seem to be doing this to people. Well, more specifically to Phym since this is the first time I've petted Sho on the head in a long while. Maybe adopting Phym as a daughter is just making me into a softer person.

"You're already walking around?!" Amy's surprised gasp makes me turn my attention towards where the voice was coming from. I see her approaching her desk and beginning to press a few buttons. "You were in a coma for three days, so take it easy, okay?" The worry in her voice warms my heart, but I can't help but feel disappointed that she isn't looking at me as she speaks. "The Ashborn knocked out all of our systems. It'll take a while before we can move again." As if reading my mind, she tells me as to why her attention is on the monitors around her. "We worked three days and nights after the attack. The root of the problem was deep." Now that she mentions it, I think I can see a couple of dark circles threatening to darken further around her eyes. "I guess the crew got to take a long-deserved break, so that's a plus. They'd been working nonstop since the Ash Storm."

"Did you manage to get a break, Amy?" I can't help but question her despite the fact that my answer can be found by looking under her eyes. Amy looks towards me, her face appears calculating. Her gaze shifts to the girl beside me, caught up in conversation with the other kids.

"Everyone looked like they were having fun making friends with Phym. I'm a bit jealous." Amy answers while looking wistfully at Phym before returning to the monitors which seem to be turning on one by one.

"Why not play with her now?" I ask her, turning my attention to Phym as she happily engages in conversation with Sho, Marr and Lil. She turns her head towards me once she realises I'm looking at her. "I'm sure Phym wouldn't mind becoming better acquainted." I prevent myself from adding 'with her future mother' to stop any chance of awkwardness between us. Nevertheless, I truly mean my offer. Amy looks at Phym once more,

"We'll play once my work is done. Okay, Phym?"

"Work?" Phym repeats, not completely understanding the word.

"That just means Amy's busy for now." Marr explains so quickly that he doesn't give anyone else a chance to do so. "She can play later."

"Do you want to play with Marr, Lil and Sho, for a while Phym?" I ask her curiously, not intending to stay in one place for too long.

"Where… you go?" Her response sounds sad as the smile disappears from her face.

"I'll just be walking around for a bit. Going on a walk." I rephrase myself to make sure she gets the idea. As if to refute the idea of me walking around by myself, Phym hugs my leg. I can't help the chuckle that escapes me. "If that's the case, let's keep walking." I turn my attention to the children near us. "I'm sure she'll play with you later." With that said, we give a little farewell and continue on our walk.

Our walk soon takes us into Hilda's office, where it seems the woman in question had been expecting our presence.

"I was relieved when I heard your condition stabilised." Hilda begins as I walk up to her, Phym walking by my side. "I'm glad you're all right."

"I'm glad too. There's a lot of things I still have to do before I die. Although, saving someone the way I did for Phym wasn't on the list." I turn to Phym as I mention her before quickly turning back to Hilda.

"You've been asleep for three days. A lot has happened don the ship in that time. As you can probably guess, Phym right there next to you was the star of those three days. The way she innocently stirred everything up brought the whole crew closer. We kept watch at first, but she looked so worried nestled up to you, so…"

"So, you allowed a person to look after me just because they seemed worried?" I can't help but think there's something ethically wrong with that. I mean, I know everything worked out okay, but who's to say things couldn't have taken a turn for the worse?

"The kids were probably the first to open up." To Phym, I presume. "After that, people started coming to your hospital room. And before we knew it, Phym suddenly became our mascot." I can definitely see how Phym could be seen as some sort of mascot. According to Hilda's words, she brought everyone closer together after seeing a friend suffering life threatening injuries. By Phym just being herself, she seemed to ease everyone's fears. "Then you wake up to find her completely at home on the ship. That's got to be a surprise."

"You can say that again. I've missed something incredibly important. The whole atmosphere has changed around here."

"Well, I can't blame you." Hilda's voice portrays a hint of humour although it quickly fades. "The ship will keep going toward Chrysanthemum. But our systems are down because of the Ashborn. We aren't able to move at the moment, so I'm afraid I have to ask you to wait." She probably assumes that I'm eager to go back out on a mission and, in all honesty, I am. Part of that is motivated by revenge on an Aragami I know I'm never likely to defeat, but another part of that is excitement for being able to move again without suffering from any pain. I kinda want to live my life to the fullest right now. "But this gives you a chance to talk to everyone. Maybe they'll have some stories about Phym." Hilda's words remind me of what Ricardo was talking about earlier. Perhaps someone knows something more about it?

The next thing I know, Phym and I are walking around when a thought suddenly occurs to me.

"Do you even know where you'll be sleeping from now on?" At my question, the girl merely cocks her head to the side in confusion. "You know you can't sleep with me, right?" For one thing, the beds that this Ash Crawler provides are a bit small. They're definitely comfortable, but two people squeezing into one bed will be incredibly difficult. And then there's the ethical issues. Should she really be falling asleep next to her father in a male dormitory? The answer is obviously not. "You'll have to sleep with your mother from now on." I don't require a hospital bed anymore, so you can't sleep beside me.

"That's why… I… spend time with you…" Phym manages to inform me while browsing her vocabulary to help get her message across.

"Ah, I see." I can't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It seems that she already knows that she can't stay by my side constantly. It seems as though she just wants to stay by my side whenever it is physically possible and ethically acceptable. "So, have you already slept with your mother before?" Phym, either not understanding me or unable to find the right words to respond to me, gives me a light chuckle. Unable to discern whether it is one answer or another, I decide to just show her the way to the female dorms.

Once we get to the female dormitory, I give it a few harsh knocks just to make sure that nothing entertaining is happening in the room.

"Yes?" I hear Lulu speak up from the other side and open the door to the dorm. Her answer sufficiently providing enough information to suggest that nothing interesting was happening behind the door.

"Hi, Lulu." I greet her and Phym does the same. I turn my attention away from the woman instantly and to my adoptive daughter. "So, this is where you'll be sleeping from now on." I give a quick glance around the room. "In one of these beds. Lulu or Claire will probably tell you more about that in the near future."

"I'm glad to see you're in good spirits." Lulu replies to me with a happy smile before it quickly fades into a different expression as she sees Phym. "Ph-Phym's with you too? That's nice… H-hello there, Phym." Is it possible that Lulu is nervous? Why is she nervous around Phym? "Ahh, how embarrassing." Her voice takes on a higher pitch. If I let her continue, she'd probably end up squealing. "It's just that she's so cute…" Ah, so that's the issue here. Lulu cannot get past Phym's cuteness. "Whenever I say her name, I just… My heart tends to flutter a bit… Ah!" She holds a hand to her chest as she stares at my daughter.

"I suppose I know how you feel." I can't help but agree with her for a couple of reasons. One, I do know how she feels. Phym does seem to be a great name for her and she is quite cute. Two, by agreeing with her I can limit the amount of embarrassment Lulu feels.

"You do, don't you?" She asks, almost imploring me to agree with her. "This is just a natural reaction. Yeah, just remain calm." She takes a few seconds to regain her calmness. "In any case, I'm glad to see you're alright Just seeing Phym at your side with that worried look, silent tears running down her face… Ah! Just thinking about it causes a squeezing in my chest… No, I must remain calm…" Honestly, Lulu's going pretty overboard. So much so that I think it might actually be better to keep Phym with me than to let her share a room with a woman that can't help but gasp when she looks in the direction of my daughter.

"Let's uh… go get some air…" I almost hurry Phym out of the room to let Lulu calm herself down. "Claire will keep an eye on you when you're in here anyway." Maybe I'm trying to convince myself more so than I'm trying to convince Phym. Regardless, we should leave Lulu alone for a bit.

Our walk around the Ash Crawler comes to a halt on the same floor that caused this whole situation. To my right is the med bay, the place wherein Claire is awaiting to give me a medical examination, just to clear up any possible doubts of anything being wrong with me. Directly ahead of me is the remains of the cargo hold, the place where Phym was kept locked up only three days ago. To my left, is the place she supposedly thought she'd find some food and in front of it is the person that probably knows more about that than me.

"I was always curious about what was inside that enormous container…" Keith speaks up after we've given the customary greetings. "I had no idea someone like her would be in there… You must have been surprised too, right?"

"Of course. It's not everyday that you find a little kid trapped in a locked room." I give an almost sarcastic reply.

"At first, Phym seemed to be in some sort of daze after she was rescued. But it didn't take long before she was able to communicate normally." Well, Keith, 'normally' might be a bit of a stretch at the moment. "And above all, she's such a quick learner!" I guess I can agree with him there. It's only taken her three days to understand the syntax and some vocabulary of the language. It would usually take a human child many years to master this. "The other day, my brother was making me play cards with him, like he always does," Keith's voice adopts more of a humorous tone. "Phym was just watching, but we invited her to join us, and she'd worked out all the rules."

"Really?" I turn towards Phym in amazement. She really must be a fast learner. It's actually quite scary when you think about it.

"It was amazing. The way she looks, the things she can do… it's clear she's far from ordinary. And the funny thing is, one look at her smile, and it feels like none of that really matters at all. Maybe this is what they call maternal instinct." Probably not, Keith.

"I heard she also decided to try and raid the God Arc storage room. What was that about?" I try asking him. In all honesty, I'm not too interested in the situation. If Keith says he doesn't know then I'll leave it at that, but I'm at least a little interested as to why she thought there'd be food in the storage room.

"I can only assume that she was attracted to the Oracle Cells in the God Arcs." Keith looks towards Phym and I do the same. We both notice that she seems distracted by the room behind Keith. "She probably hasn't eaten a lot of normal food, so she goes with what is instinctual. Eating Oracle Cells might sate her hunger, eating God Arcs is more of a danger for us." I look to Keith with confusion on my face. "What if she ate your God Arc?" Ah, now I see why it's so dangerous.

"Listen, Phym," I tell her, kneeling down to look her directly in her eyes. "Never go into this room, okay?" I point to the room in question. She stares back at me in confusion.

"I promised Ricardo that I wouldn't." Her response was a bit slow, but considering the words themselves I'm happy to drop the subject now. I give a contented sigh before standing up again and looking over towards the med bay. Outside of it, I see Keith's brother.

"It's probably about time for that checkup." I can't help but grumble and begin walking over the Zeke and the med bay.

A few seconds later,

"I can't believe I wasted my time worrying about you. Guess I'm happy you're okay, though." The tsundere known as Zeke relays his thoughts to me. "And aww, little Phym's following Daddy around. How cute." Without even giving either of us time to respond, he immediately continues, "Alright, time to cook up a treat! Zeke's special ampule au rice!" Ampules? I look at Phym and it suddenly clicks for me. O-Ampules! Phym can eat those! How hadn't I made the connection earlier? Still though,

"Ampule au rice? What does that even mean?" Can Phym even eat rice?

"Hold your horses!" Zeke quickly responds, "I was just about to tell you the dish's secret origin story!"

"It won't be a secret for much longer then?"

"So yeah, Phym refused to leave your side." Zeke ignores my question. "She wouldn't even touch any of the food we gave her." That makes sense, considering she's more Aragami than human. "By the time the sun came up, we figured hunger was taking its toll and vowed to get her to eat. Lulu and Amy cooked up all sorts of tasty treats, but Phym wouldn't touch any of them. That was when I came up with my miracle food. The wondrous ampule au rice!" He brings a hand to the back of his head and gives a few scratches. "Truth is, I just accidentally dropped the ampule we were going to give you on some rice. But for some reason, she flipped out when she smelled it. Gobbled the whole thing down." He informs me with a smile on his face, recalling the memory. "Weird food preferences aside, it's probably not toxic, so we kept making it for her."

"I suppose that is an odd taste. Maybe you should mix the ampule up with some other things as well. She might respond more to a wider variety of food.

"Yeah, yeah! I can do that. What sort of things do you like, Phym? Cake? Meat?" Zeke immediately tries to question Phym. However, in his excitement, he must have forgotten why I had suggested the idea. She doesn't have much of a palate to begin with. If she was able to eat everything else then what would be the point of this task?

"Huh?" Phym offers a confused response to Zeke. Which only makes him lightly chuckle.

"Nothing about Phym's normal, especially not her taste buds… but still, she saved you – and that makes her a friend in my book." Zeke can be the kind of person to suddenly warm a person's heart without realising it. I'm not immune to such heart-warming attacks so his words definitely make me feel a bit happier. "Besides, it's like we've got an all-new adorable member of the family!"

"I'm going to have my check up now." Perhaps it was out of embarrassment, but I decide to quickly end the conversation with Zeke and enter the medical bay. This way, If my actions were caused by my embarrassment, no one else will have to notice.

A few seconds later, Claire welcomes me into the med bay and gestures for me to take a seat in front of a range of medical machines. I allow her to do her thing, which includes taking some blood and analysing it.

"Bias factor balance and metabolism are stable." Claire states, her voice relaying a hint of surprise. "Good. We should be all right… for the time being, at least. You heal incredibly quickly, even if you did get patched up by Phym."

"Phym patched me up?" I had heard about being healed, but I've only just remembered that I am yet to thank my saviour. I bring a hand to her head and give her a few pats, as she stands to my side.

"It looks like Phym held off the corruption causing by devouring. She's really taken a shine to you… You're an intriguing character, to be sure." Claire responds with what a believe to be a hint of happiness in her voice. Honestly, I've already thought of a response to her words. Something along the lines of: 'does that mean you've taken a shine to me too?' but while I would probably succeed in making Claire flustered, I don't want to ruin the mood. Besides, flirting with a woman I have no romantic interest in isn't really my style. "Phym is…" Claire begins again.

"Hmm?" Phym responds happily, yet in confusion as she hears Claire speak her name. Her attention is taken away from the machinery around us as she looks at Claire.

"Sorry, it's nothing." Claire smiles back at Phym, her previous sentence and thoughts stopping for some reason.

"Ehehe." Phym merely giggles in response. She definitely seems to be a happy little girl. Her positivity is infectious. But while I feel positive, a quick glance at Claire's face seems to suggest she's hiding her worry behind a veil of happiness. Seeing that the check-up is over, I lift myself off of the seat.

"It's a relief that you're fine." Claire comments, erasing the worry from her face as my movement stirs her from her thoughts. "Phym touched you after you were devoured. Her hands were surrounded by light, and your wounds suddenly healed themselves. It may sound like an overstatement, but you owe her your life."

"So I've been told." I bring a hand back to Phym's head. "Thanks again, Phym." I offer her my gratitude and I am met with another happy giggle of hers. With that done, it's time to get out of the med bay. I don't want to get too familiar with the place, after all.

After receiving the all-clear, I am officially reinstated back into the mission roster. Despite the best efforts of Amy and a few others, I decide to immediately take part in a mission.

Location: Valley: Lower Reaches

Objective: Est. a route to Chrysanthemum

A lot has happened, but we finally managed to work out a plan to return to the official routes. Your job is to guide us to the specified beacon.

Unfortunately, we encounter a small problem. After collecting our equipment from the God Arc storage room, my team, Hugo, Zeke, Lulu and I headed back towards the Ash Crawler's exit. Of course, a little girl was following me the entire way.

"Sorry, Phym. You'll have to stay here until I get back."

"Yeah, you can't go out there. It's dangerous." Zeke backs me up.

"Huh?" Phym offers a confused grunt at the situation.

"We'll play when we get back, okay?" Lulu tries to give her an incentive for waiting patiently.

"Dangerous?" Phym repeats Zeke's words. Judging from the worried look on her face as she gazes back at me, I assume she knows what that word means. I kneel down to look her in the eyes,

"We'll be back soon, okay? Go and see your mother until then." I try my best to talk as calmly and softly as possible, trying to make my words seem less like a demand and more of a suggestion. I place a hand on top of her hand and ruffle her hair again. I've lost count how many times I've done this now. Despite the gesture though, the smile that I'm used to seeing doesn't appear on her face. "Didn't Lil want to show you around her room? Maybe you can do that while I'm away." She still doesn't smile back at me. I stand back up, rustling her hair for a few more seconds before my hand leaves her head. "We'll be back soon." With my words, I turn my back to her and begin walking out of the Ash Crawler; stopping right in front of the exit to spare a look to the girl I'm leaving behind. I can't help the wave of uneasiness that washes over me as I witness the scene behind me. Phym stares back at the four of us with a sad expression on her face. Her sadness is infectious. I hadn't ever thought I'd see a situation where someone would be waiting for me to return; all the people that could wait for me are usually on the mission with me anyway."We'll be back soon." I speak to quell her fear before continuing to walk forwards and out of the Ash Crawler. All the while wondering to myself how I've gotten so soft for a person I've barely known for a day.

The mission finishes with no problems. Perhaps it was at the behest of Amy, but the mission only consisted of fighting a few Ogretails and Axe Raiders. Of course, they didn't stand a chance. I can't say I'm completely back to my full strength, but we managed to fight them off without any major injuries. I was hit a couple of times from a few Ogretail projectiles, but I was able to brush them off after a while. Returning back to the Ash Crawler, Phym came running up to me and ensnared me in a hug immediately. Seeing as how she doesn't seem to have caused much damage to the place while I was away, I reciprocate the hug. Something about this whole situation just compels me to do so.

"Daddy." She looks up at me. "You ow? You owie?" She asks with worry on her face.

"No, I'm fine, Phym." I offer her my kindest smile. "See. Perfectly fine." I gesture to her to take a look for injuries. However, her head falls to the ground.

"Worried… Want go with outside…"

"Haha." My laugh is hollow. "Sorry, Phym. That's too dangerous." We're not even sure what will happen if Phym goes outside. She's not a God Eater. She doesn't have a constant supply of Bias Factor to help keep her out on the battlefield to certain periods of time. "Come on, let's go and play." After I witness her smile at my words, I walk forwards, breaking out of Phym's grip in the process.

The rest of the day was spent with Phym by my side as we played all sorts of games. We played with cards, where Phym even managed to beat me in a few rounds. She played with the other children and visited Lil's room like she had promised. All in all, it was a pretty fun day. At night, she understood that she had to sleep in the same room as her mother, Claire, and did so without any fuss. However, by the time the following day had come, the atmosphere had once again become heavier; much like how it was on the day we met Phym and I entered a three day coma. Let's just hope that this isn't a piece of ominous foreshadowing for the day. After collecting myself and getting ready for the day, I head to the mission counter to see what's on the agenda. As I enter the Bridge, Phym comes running up to me; greeting me and telling me about her night. She sticks to my side as I continue on my way to the mission desk. As I approach it, I notice a few people already standing by it.

"A new mission has been posted. Take a look." Hugo suggests with undisguised haste. I waste no time in doing as he says.

"Phym looked really worried during the last mission." Amy starts before I can even have a chance to read up about the newest mission. "She was right next to me trying to listen in. Whenever you spoke, she said, "Dad is okay."" A warm smile makes its way onto my face. Without even meaning to, Phym has just lightened my mood slightly, even if she hasn't lightened anyone else's mood. "I kept saying that you weren't fighting Ashborn, so there was nothing to worry about, but…" Ah, so that's why she seemed so scared. Turning back to Phym, I notice that her face seems to have taken on a sad expression. I wonder if she's beginning to see this area of the ship, specifically, as a place that will take me away from her. I give her a pat on the head to try and cheer her up as Amy continues to speak. "The encounter with the Ashborn before might have left a deep impression on her."

"You think she's scared of that Ash Aragami?" I ask Amy, making sure to keep patting Phym on the head to try and quell any of her worries. I'm not sure how effective my head patting is at doing that, but she does seem to smile every time I do so.

"Yeah, it was really persistent in going after her… Actually that wasn't the first time this vessel has crossed paths with Ashborn." Amy's words startle me slightly. All this evidence seems to suggest that the Ash Aragami really are interested in Phym, but why?

"We have confirmed data on the Ashborn that appeared the other day." Claire speaks up from her position a few metres away from the mission desk. "It is called Anubis, and there are records of encounters with it in the Restricted Ash Zone."

"Then why was it in this area?" I can't help but bring myself to ask. We're a long way away from the Restricted Ash Zone. Surely, it's not possible that it sensed Phym's presence from that far away…

"This is the first time it has been seen in this area." Claire's words are scary enough for me to be unable to supress a little shiver along my spine. The thing almost killed me during our last encounter. It would do us no good to run into it again.

"You rarely encounter them if you rely on major routes. That's what makes safe paths so valuable. Still… we've gotten near contact warning range a number of times. In a fight, just one medium Ashborn is strong enough to wipe out an entire company. All we can do is pray nothing bad happens." Amy's words continue to scare me. I hadn't known that Ash Aragami could be categorised by their size either. Does that mean the one we encountered may not have even been the worst one we could have ran into? So, I almost died to one of the weaker ones? Fuck, that's not good for my mental health. "Wait, I'm sorry! I went off on a tangent again. You're here for a mission, right?" She finishes her tangent and gives me the briefing for the next mission.

Back on Track

Location: Valley: Abandoned Mines

Objective: Est. a route to Chrysanthemum

The Chrysanthemum has made it back to the official routes. All the information we gathered on unexplored routes is worth a fortune! Thank you for all your help. Your future cooperation is appreciated.

It seems like our next job is to scout ahead of the official routes and exterminate any Aragami that would pose a threat for our little crew to pass.

"I'll accept that mission." I state my intent to complete it. Amy smiles in response.

"Thank you. Claire, Zeke and Hugo have already volunteered to accompany you." She informs me before turning towards the girl by my side. "Phym, you should wait here, okay?" Phym grumbles in disappointment and she reluncantly relinquishes her hold on me.

"We'll be back soon, okay?" I give her the customary salutation before preparing for the mission.

15 minutes later, as we are walking through the valley, I notice a distinct lack of Aragami. It is entirely irregular. Even on scouting missions we usually have to defeat one or two small Aragami, but the whole place seems to be devoid of them.

"W-We have an emergency!" Amy's panicked voice suddenly rings in our ears. Hugo brings a hand to his ear as if to hear her better. Although, I really don't think that was needed.

"What is it?" He responds with utmost haste. His voice trying to sound as calm as possible.

"Ash Aragami approaching from outside visual range!" I feel my heart drop into my stomach as Amy mentions and Ash Aragami is approaching us.

"What? Again? But we just ran into one like five seconds ago!" Zeke complains, referring to the fact that we're only just recovering from the last Ash Aragami attack.

"It's like they're being lured to us." Claire hypothesises with a calculating gaze. All I can think of is that these Ash Aragami must really be able to sense Phym over incredibly long distances.

"No…" Amy utters in shock or disbelief, I can't really tell. "It's turned toward us and is closing in at high speed!" With her words, we immediately stand on guard. There's nothing we can do to defeat it, but becoming on high alert is a way for us to minimise any damage that we may suffer from a possible confrontation. "It's coming in too fast!"

"Ma'am. What's the plan?" Claire tries to get into contact with Hilda.

"Return immediately." As Hilda speaks, I feel as though the air around us suddenly becomes hotter and more active.

"What?!" Apparently I'm not the only one to feel it as Claire shouts in shock. Turning around quickly, I see the Ash Aragami has appeared directly behind us. The sinking feeling in my stomach grows as the monster, without hesitation, brings a claw down onto Claire and Zeke who are knocked back about 20 metres from the impact.

"Ah… Ngh… Aaagh…" The two of them groan in pain and I notice s black mist pouring off of them.

"Bias factor function dropping rapidly. Vitals are at critical! S-Someone get them out!"

"Dammit… what can we do?" Hugo speaks up and we return our attention to the Ash Aragami. Within the blink of an eye, it moves so fast that it is almost like it has teleported to our side.

"Gwaah!" Hugo screams in pain as the monster almost throws him several tens of metres away. Try as I might to brace for the impact, leaning on one knee to try and duck under the attack, its swipe similarly launches me backwards as well.

"Gaaah!" I can't help but shout as I feel a shooting pain in my left arm. A black mist forms from the area that was attacked. As this happens, the Ash Aragami roars and a powerful fire emits from it. I struggle to look at the enemy, having landed harshly on my back and unable to move. I had hoped being hit by a devouring attack for a second time would give me some kind of immunity to it. In a way, it did. I haven't immediately passed out from the pain, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Two black, spherical jaws appear over the shoulders of the Ash Aragami.

"Gah… Unh… Nggggh!" I hear Hugo grunt in pain and see him clutching at his arm. This… This can't be happening.

"Haaaaaaah" I force myself to shout to loosen my muscles, successfully bringing myself into a kneeling position as I do so. But, despite my best efforts, my legs just won't let me go any farther. "Ugh… Aah… Ngh…" I can't help the grunts of pain that escape me with every movement. If I don't do something here then we're all going to die. I can't allow that to happen. This isn't how it should end. Not to an Ash Aragami. We've still got things to do, dammit! We have our dreams! We have our goals! I cannot allow this to end here! As I struggle to push my body upright, I notice that the Aragami is looking directly at me. Without any warning, it suddenly charges right towards me. In that moment, I feel my mind go blank. Staring into the face of my enemy, I feel nothing. Not even the pain of my wounds. Instead, my body and mind just seems to be accepting of the fact that this is the end. I stare right at the beast as it charges. To my surprise, it stops abruptly and turns its head to the side.

"Huh? Wh-what-? That response…" I hear Amy's surprise in my ear and decide to carefully turn my head in the same direction that the Ash Aragami is looking at. My heart drops for a second time as I see the white rags, tanned skin and white haired figure I've grown so close with over the past day. "Th-This can't be right! Phym is out there without any gear…" Phym takes a step forward, and then another and then another. A golden glow emits off of her which only grows stronger every time she steps towards me. "What is…?! A powerful bias field is covering the entire area!" Phym, with a determined look on her face, extends her arms into the air. Somehow, this action causes the Ash Aragami to retreat about 25 metres away from us, and it just keeps going and going.

"Huh?" I hear Zeke grunt. "I'm… healing?"

"Phym? What are you doing…?" Claire asks her. I'm not sure whether Claire was asking why Phym was out on the battlefield with us, or if she was asking what she is doing to heal us. Either way, seeing my friends begin to heal, and also feeling it for myself, it makes me happy to see her. Phym walks up to me and extends a hand towards me. I feel compelled to take it. As my hand approaches hers, a yellow orb forms between them. And when our hands meet, a pulse of energy radiates from us with our hands being the centre of it and a familiar feeling overcomes me. Somehow, without any warning, all my wounds have suddenly been healed.

"Wait… is this… Engage?" Hugo exclaims in his surprise, having made his way back to his feet. I can't help but smile at Phym as I recognise the feeling to be Engage.

"Haha! Thanks Phym." I express my utmost gratitude with the happiest smile; a smile that I don't even need to force. Making my way back to my feet with ease, I turn around to see the Ash Aragami is still spectating us from a safe distance away. However, that suddenly changes when it teleports closer, but not too close, and offers us a really unintimidating roar. It would have scared me, if it wasn't for the fact that I was healed once again by Phym. Now, I feel completely energised, and dare I say it; I feel like I can even beat an Ash Aragami. "Phym, stand back." I order her, taking another look at my adoptive daughter. However, to my surprise, I see a God Arc form in my hand. I'm unable to dwell on how she got it or what she intends to do with it as the Ash Aragami roars once again. I decide to ignore Phym's mysterious God Arc's sudden appearance and instead charge towards the Ash Aragami that almost ended the life of not only me, but Hugo, Zeke and Claire; my friends. If Phym can heal us, then we'll have to damage it. Even if we can only inflict enough damage to scare it away.

"There's no mistaking it! Engage with Phym confirmed!" Amy's voice confirms Hugo's prior suspicion. "Vitals have stabilised. God Arc function of all members restored!" she states, and I believe I can hear a bit of relief in her voice. Regardless, I take a swing at the Ash Aragami's globe thing that it sits on before it can finish its attempt to intimidate us. "This is incredible!" I choose to believe Amy is merely surprised at the fact that I've been able to damage the Ash Aragami with my swing. I decide to quickly switch my God Arc to Gun Form as Zeke jumps up and tries to swipe the beast in the face.

"Eat this!" He shouts as he lands a hit on its face. That's all he can manage though, as the monster suddenly disappears from our sight and emerges behind Hugo.

"Behind you!" Claire shouts in time for Hugo to sidestep an attack. At the same time, I launch a volley of bullets at the beast. Only a couple manage to land, but they're backed up by numerous bullets from Claire. I can't tell at this distance whether they did any damage, but the Ash Aragami visibly staggers backwards. I switch my Arc back to its Melee form and charge towards it again.

"RRAAAAHH" The Ash Aragami suddenly roars and the two spherical sets of jaws appear over its shoulders once again. I decide not to halt myself and watch the scene with caution. The orbs quickly head towards their targets. One goes after Hugo, the closest person to the Aragami, and the other heads towards me. I sidestep out of the way of it, just in time, only to see that the orb changes direction as soon as its past me and starts chasing me again.

"The fuck?!" I can't help but shout but narrowly avoid it again. All of a sudden, the orb dissipates.

"ARGH!" I hear Hugo's pained shout and spare a glance in his direction. It looks as though the flying mouth that was chasing him has actually landed an attack. Hugo falls to the ground with a black energy rising from him.

"Phym! Help Hugo!" I command her and she runs towards our downed leader. Looking back at the Aragami, it looks as though it is holding itself as it slowly ascends into the air.

"You're not getting away!" I shout and charge right after it. It had ascended a further three metres be the time I reach it. Jumping up, I manage to land a quick devour attack and enter Burst mode before jumping once again and delivering a few more slashes to it. Without warning, a blindingly red pulse shoots out of the Aragami which pushes me back several metres which gives me a rough landing on my back. When I get back to my feet, I notice that the fire orbs above its shoulders have turned a mix of blood red and yellow. In addition, behind its back it appears to have grown wing-like appendages made of fire. Similarly, the fire withheld in the globe it sits on matches the colour and ferocity of the orbs above its shoulders.

"It's powered up?" Hugo asks as he struggles to get back to his feet, despite Phym healing him.

"That was a devour attack!" Amy informs us through our earpieces. "The Ash Aragami has gotten stronger!" It crosses its arms and disappears incredibly quicker than before. Luckily, it emerges a fair distance away from any of us. I charge towards the monster as it collects the two fire orbs and merges them in front of itself. It grows bigger and bigger as I approach. It finally grows to a point where I realise this attack will do a lot of damage if I'm hit directly, and I deploy my shield to take the brunt of any attack it will release. However, I hadn't been expecting it to be transmitted into a fire-like dome around itself.

"GAH!" Apparently, neither did Claire.

"Phym!" I shout for her to heal Claire while Zeke and I continue to barrage the monster with physical attacks. A few bullets are shot towards the Ash Aragami every now and then, courtesy of Hugo. Zeke and I force ourselves to backtrack as the beast swings repeatedly at us with the two balls of flame it keeps above its shoulders. We easily avoid the attack but before we can charge back in, the monster suddenly disappears. It emerges behind Zeke who is only just able to avoid being ran over by an attack that charges towards him. I follow up as soon as the Ash Aragami has come to a stop as I realise that after every attack, there's usually a few seconds where it tries to recollect itself.

The fight continues for another ten minutes. Every few minutes, Claire, Hugo or Zeke are rendered unconscious from the fight and I send Phym over to stop the devouring. Even using Engage with them doesn't seem to do much in the way of saving them. I've already depleted all my stocks of Restore Pills because I had thought it would work. It turned out that they did work, but they just contributed very little in the grand scheme of things. And so, that leads us to the current situation.

"Hugo, Zeke and Claire can't take any more of this." Amy informs me through my earpiece as I cautiously watch the Aragami that doesn't dare to move. Similarly it watches me and we now have ourselves a 1 versus 1 match. Despite the obvious fatigue that I'm feeling, I can't help but want to keep pushing myself beyond my limit. Seeing Phym appear before us when everything suggested we would die gave me the inspiration and the courage I needed to fight for my comrades. Even if by doing so, I will suffer significantly more.

"RRRRAAAAAAAA" The beast roars once more as the two flame orbs above its shoulders take on the appearance of black jaws. I stand still in the face of them. Seconds later, they come barrelling towards me. This is exactly what I had wanted. I start running to the left and see that the flying mouths continue to chase me. I just need to keep grabbing the attention of the Ash Aragami whenever it decides to use a devouring attack so that it doesn't go after my downed teammates. I continue running for a minute or so until the flying mouths stop chasing me and fade away. The fire orbs reappear above the Ash Aragami. Before it can do anything else though, a few bullets hit it square in the chest. I hadn't noticed it while I was running away from the devouring attack, but I must have stopped right in front of Phym. I only now realise that Phym wasn't just healing my downed teammates, but she must have been fighting along with us.

"Ready, Phym?" I ask, but don't wait for her answer. Instead, I charge straight into action and land a few heavy hits on its head and arms. As I do so, the yellowy flesh underneath reveals itself and the feeling of immense satisfaction wells up within me. "Hahaha!" I yell as the monster falls to the ground, heavily breathing after having its arm bond and its head bond broken. It stands directly in front of the monster and repeatedly slash at it. However, even that wasn't enough to kill it.

"The Aragami is trying to escape!" Amy yells as the monster clambers back upright and quickly fades away. "It's trying to reach the hunting grounds."

"I won't let it!" I shout and immediately give chase using multiple shield dashes, allowing my stamina to build up once I get close enough. Switching my God Arc to its Gun Form, I launch volley after volley of bullets. It succeeds in stopping the beast in place, turning back around to face its attacker, but that was its last mistake. Phym charges in and lands a couple of solid blows on the fire-globe thing that it sits on and successfully makes the Ash Aragami stumble. As the monster tries to get back upright, I deliver slash after slash against its head and eventually, the Ash Aragami falls to the ground completely still.

"Ah… Oracle response clear! Ash Aragami is silent!" Amy's voice is full of emotions. Surprise and happiness seems to be the most prominent of them. "Please return to base now! Go to the medical ward for treatment!" And now, her worry takes priority.

"Very nice work, Phym." I struggle to praise her through my panting breath, my hands leaning against my knees as I admire our handiwork. She comes running over to me and I place a hand on her head. "Very nice work." She goes in for the hug and I don't back away from it. Instead, I lift her into my arms.

"I did good?" She asks with a smile on her face. I have a feeling she already knows the answer to that question.

"Very." I don't hesitate to reply. Instead, I cradle Phym in my arms for a few more seconds before finally remembering to do something. "Oh, I can't forget that." I put Phym back down on the ground and prepare to devour the Ash Aragami's body.

"Let's head back to everyone else." I speak to Phym with a happy smile on my face, glad that we have found a way out of this mess.

Upon arrival back at the Ash Crawler, we were all ushered into the med bay. However, after only an hour of extensive tests, we were all released and were told that it was like we returned from a regular mission. However, Phym remained in the med bay. She was having difficulty staying awake as we made our way back to the Ash Crawler, so I had decided to pick her up and let her fall asleep in my arms. It appears that she was simply exhausted as extensive tests revealed that she did not suffer any effects from being in the Ashlands. A part of me was thankful for that, but until she wakes up, I don't think I'll be able to rest easy.

"That was a hell of a stunt you pulled off." Hugo comments with a tinge of awe in his voice as we await further instructions in the Bridge. "You've startled me more than a few times so far, but you always pull through, huh?"

"Nah, if it wasn't for Phym, we'd all be dead now." I give him a response instantly. It is not because of me that we defeated the Ash Aragami. It is entirely because of Phym. She was able to stop the devouring attacks that threatened us immobile. And we were able to fight back because of that.

"That's right. Phym showed up and saved all our lives. But if it wasn't for the bond between you and her, then we would be dead right now." Hugo's words don't provide the flattering effect he probably wants them to have. "Last week, we never would have thought we could defeat an Ash Aragami, but we beat one on our own. Gleipnir is at a loss when it comes to them… This is big." As usual, Hugo is in a business mindset. I, on the other hand, am just glad we were able to get out of that situation in one piece. "But one thing that concerns me is this ship. I took a look at the logs… They've had a number of close encounters with Ashborn over a short period."

"So I've heard." Amy had informed me of that before we went on our previous mission.

"Either she's extremely unlucky or there's a reason Ashborn are attracted to her." He finishes his thoughts.

Hugo and I sit in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Hugo decides to leave me to my own devices which gives way for Hilda to take his place and resume the conversation.

"To be honest, I still find it shocking that you can defeat such enormous creatures as the Ash Aragami." She heaps praise on me, but again, I don't really feel as though I deserve the credit for it. Sure, I contributed, but so did everyone else. None of this would be possible with Phym. "And with a single squad at that. I think it may be… No, it certainly is a world first."

"You think I could get a certificate with that on it?" I amusingly ask her. Aurick Pennywort, Zeke Pennywort, Hugo Pennywort, Claire Victorious and Phym. We hereby present you with a world record for defeating an Ash Aragami. As soon as I finish my amusing thought, I kinda feel like I hadn't bothered to begin it. Repeating the name 'Pennywort' over and over again really just soured my mood.

"It almost goes beyond awe and into fear." Hilda ignores my question. "Just what on earth are you, anyway…" Her words do inspire a bit of self-belief in me, knowing that she has that much faith in my abilities to possibly even fear them. But there's probably a reason for that. We AGEs have had our bodies manipulated so much that you probably couldn't even consider us to be human. We're probably closer to Aragami than human. And when you think about it that way, our strength is something that should be feared. It gets even worse when you use devices such as Engage or the Acceleration Trigger. "And that doesn't even touch on Phym's abilities…"

"What exactly is Phym?" Perhaps she would know. Phym definitely isn't human, but she doesn't seem to be an Aragami either.

"While I can't yet be certain, I can take an educated guess… She's a humanoid Aragami. An Aragami that has evolved to take on the form and characteristics of a human. There have been reports of such cases since the calamity, but all were discovered postmortem. It's hard to believe we have a living specimen right here. It would seem Gleipnir had some ulterior motive in disguising her as cargo…" That's something I won't be able to forgive Gleipnir for; keeping a defenceless little girl inside a cargo container. How many days had it been since she last ate anything? No wonder she had wandered around the ship in search of food. "But we don't have enough information. Any discussion of it now would confuse things and lead to erroneous conclusions. Anyway, Phym is Phym. There's no reason to single her out or treat her differently from the rest of the crew. I think we have an understanding, yes?" I give a simple nod of my head. Although I do treat her differently from the rest of the crew, I assume Hilda was talking about not discriminating against her rather than to not continue treating her like she is my daughter.

The rest of the day serves as a rest and relaxation of sorts. After all, we had just defeated an Ash Aragami. That's enough to get our names in the history books, so I believe we deserve a rest. After my conversation with Hilda ends, I proceed to buy a stockpile of Restore Pills, having used all of mine during that battle with the Ash Aragami. I also talked with everyone else on the ship, even learning that we would now receive mission requests to exterminate Ash Aragami. The cash involved in these missions is enormous, allegedly, which would definitely help in achieving Hugo's and my dream. During the whole discussion though I had an unsettling feeling in my stomach. So, once night fell and everyone in the male quarters had fallen asleep, I decided to leave the room and head back to the medical bay. Once inside, I pulled up a chair next to the sleeping Phym. After keeping watch over her for a couple of hours, my eyelids gradually begin to grow heavier and heavier to the point where I couldn't keep them open for any longer and drifted off into a blissful sleep.