I shouldn't be wasting my energy on this but… I want to fight alongside everyone else!
Star's brown irises turned gold. An aura of red phantom flames surrounded her. "Sword," she said. A red, gold, and black ornate sword materialized in her left hand, bearing the same aura as her body and crackled in gold flames. Throwing herself forward and up, Star shot out into the night, gliding towards the Akuma hovering lower in the air above the ferry.
Lavi hooted as he rode by on the extended handle of his hammer, evading the blasts from the Akuma guns.
"You can fly!"
All Gee, shucks, Star shouted after him, "Glide actually, in this form. And what goes up and slightly glides must come down." So I'd better hurry before my pixie dust runs out.
With a burst of speed, Star dashed among the Akuma, slashing them with her blade. She moved back and forth fluidly, turning, flipping, and cutting as she went.
"How are you doing that, Star? That's amazing," Allen called, then raised his bladed left hand and cut down the Akuma going for Miranda and the passengers. "I didn't know you could use a sword."
"For one thing, I've been spying on Kanda in the training room. As for my Innocence… Except for what my body needs to function, I convert my energy into Innocence that I form into various weapons. The weapons work as extensions of my body and infect the Akuma that I touch with them. My parasitic Innocence, fittingly named Parasite Eve, destroys Akuma much like their own virus kills humans—from the inside out!" Hovering, she thought on it second, a finger to her chin. "Well, outside in actually." Then she lunged and stabbed the Akuma that rushed at her.
Right at that moment, her glide waned and she fell from the air towards cold dark waters.
Damn it! Star tried to summon more power but felt her body sucking in on itself as Parasite Eve pulled more power to convert from it. Fatigue assailed her.
Someone caught her by the wrist. When she looked up, Lenalee smiled awkwardly.
"You're a lot lighter than I expected."
"Sorry, I'll try to go for elephant next time," Star said wryly.
Lenalee said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"
"Forget it. It's nothing."
Thanks to Lenalee, they landed safely on the deck of the ferry moments later.
"It's my Innocence," Star explained in response to Lenalee's comment. "It burns calories pretty quick. I get faster, I glide, and my physical strength increases… Unfortunately…"
A few people gasped as Star fell to one side, only to be caught by Kro.
"Are you alright, Star? You look so drained."
Panting shallowly and sweating feverishly, Star swallowed down her dry throat. She pushed her soft, full, jaw-length twists out of her face. Kro quickly helped her over to the bench she and Lavi had been sitting on before the attack. Explosions continued over the water as Lavi, Allen, Lenalee, and Kanda finished off the remaining Akuma.
"We should be safe for the moment. The others are almost finished out there," Krory said, one eye on the action.
"Thanks, Kro. Unfortunately, as I was saying, my Innocence takes its toll."
"Your uniform…it's hanging off you!" Miranda said in shock.
Star patted her very loose uniform jacket with thin, trembling hands. The standing, once fitted collar sagged around her neck so that she could partially sick her hand inside. It was like she had lost nearly a third of her body weight in a matter of moments.
"And it didn't get bigger, did it. You shrank," Kanda deduced.
"Like I said, Parasite Eve sort of eats me as it's fuel."
"That's too dangerous, isn't it?" Miranda said.
"Fighting Akuma, what isn't dangerous about that really," Star shrugged. "Every weapon has it's drawbacks. Every war has it's causalities, sacrifices, and risks."
When the fight was done, Allen descended to the deck of the ferry near Star, Miranda, and Kro, deactivating Crown Clown's glowing mantle.
"Shouldn't you deactivate your Innocence?"
"In a minute." Her sword vanished and Star manifested a lorgnette that matched the sword in ornate style.
"Come on, you've earned a rest." Allen's lighthearted tone almost hid his concern. "The Earl's forces may already be at the location of Star's assignment. I don't think we should immediately split up for missions that can wait."
Through the mechanical lenses of the opera glasses she held up to her eyes by its handle, she scanned the area. But she didn't see anything nearby or in the distance of the night.
So not yet, huh. It hasn't spread. Sighing silently, Star deactivated Parasite Eve. The red phantom flame aura around her dissipated along with the lorgnette. The draining pull inside of her faded as the Innocence stopped drawing on her body for power. I need to rest and eat to recover my strength.
"I'd appreciate you all there just in case, thank you," Star said.
"I agree with Allen. Komui said to stick together if anything looked suspicious," Lenalee said. "Akuma might already be after the Innocence."
But they're not the ones you should be worried about, Star thought.
Author's Note:
Parasite Eve is also a novel by Hideaki Sena with a PlayStation game inspired by it (I don't think me, my sister, or my brother ever got past the first fight or somebody broke into our house and stole the game, I can't remember what happened -_-). I always thought the game was interesting and wanted to know the story.
In The 110th Innocence, Parasite Eve refers to the parasitic nature of Star's Innocence and how it infects Akuma. Eve can refer to any number of references concerning Star, including her gender; it can be a reference to Eve and Eden from the Bible; or eve as in "the day before", "the period immediately before something", or "the latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall)". It also refers to Hevlaska's prophecy, the title of "the Centennial Eve".
The type of ornate spectacles Star uses that allow her to see the souls of Akuma are called lorgnettes. The glasses she manifests can take on the form of pince nez, monocles, and other ornate seeing glasses with colored lenses. I had originally called them opera glasses and learned something new while writing this chapter.