The Harbinger's Lament
Omake 2
Since I managed to; at least in my view, write a successful Omake in the previous chapter, I've decided to write a second. Taking place a few weeks after the last.
"Where is he, Kahlua?" Tsukune asked as he gasped for air, following a crushing hug from the blonde Vampiress.
"Oh, Apollo'll be in his workshop." Kahlua chirpped merrily as she pointed to a door leading to the basement. "You should check out all the beautiful things he's made after all this time."
"Think I might." Tsukune responded kindly before making his way through the door and down the flight of stairs; made from ornate marble, the walls adorned in smoothed rock. The Vampire allowed himself to admire the craftsmanship that it must have taken to accomplish such a feat before reaching the last step; hearing the rough motion of claw against stone.
"Apollo." Tsukune stated as he beheld the workshop; littered with masses of various material before beholding Apollo's winged human state turned away from him.
"I thought I sensed Shinso Blood." Apollo's voice droned as he continued working away on a piece of granite. "Come to sway me? Or perhaps to merely leer at my position. Even for you, boy; I believed to be against your nature."
"...I see you're still as beligerantly fatalistic as ever." Tsukune responded, somewhat sadly.
"And you are still as naievely guided." Apollo responded tartly though distantly almost. "If you have come to test the results of this imposed exile, you succeed only in testing my paitence."
Tsukune could only sigh, he knew from experience how unmovable the Harbinger could be. This encounter would be no different.
"I see this world has become peaceful. From what I'm told, you've done a great job." Tsukune offered brightly.
"Do not mock me, Aono." Apollo replied irritably. "I do so not as a past time but because it is my duty to protect. Something of which you claim to relate, yet when fact is lain out before you, you dismiss it for it is not what you want to hear."
Tsukune's optimism began dimming. "You just don't understand why you're here, do you?" At this, Apollo stood to his feet, Tsukune noticed his lengthy tail flicker in agitation.
"I understand rather well. You have placed me here in this open prison in the hope that I will simply conceede. To stand in line with everyone else; blindly convinced that you have all of the answers." Apollo turned with his wings wide spread. "No, boy; it is YOU who does not understand... or rather you do not wish to accept reality."
"Why are you being like this? That's the one thing that me and everyone just wants to know."
"Because I am RIGHT!" Apollo thundered, his Yokai flooding the room sickeningly, forcing Tsukune back from the immense pressure. "I have had this same conversation with my dearest Kahlua and it seems that she is the only one who has the means of accepting that one fact." Apollo's glance glued onto Tsukune who was already recovering.
"I truly wish I was not, but I am. Call me megalomanical if you wish, but I am too old and too informed to follow the words of a petty boy, given too much power but never seemingly enough!"
"We want the same thing! That's what you said before..."
"What you have provided is a 'tolerance' Aono, not a 'co-existence'! Apollo rebutted furiously. "You simply believe that the worlds of humanity and of Yokai fully understand enough of one another or even have the humility to give one another the opportunity! Man is scared and Ayashi are not without reservations, yet you have simply strolled on in because it is what YOU want!"
"Apollo! Now you're being unfair!" Tsukune retaliated finally "All i see is a being so wrapped up your own self importance..." Tsukune's words were caught short as he found his throat tightening in the grasp of the Harbinger's hand; his two oddly coloured eyes, burning furiously. Try as he might have to summon his vectors, Apollo's grip on his throat made concentrating enough on them impossible.
"DO NOT DARE INCINUATE SELF-WORTH TO BE MY REASONING!" Apollo bellowed in unrestrained anger "YOU HAVE ALLOWED YOUR OWN PURSUIT OF POWER TO DROWN YOU IN ADDICTIVE EMBRACE, ABANDONING YOUR VERY HUMAN NATURE IN THE PROCESS! YOU ARE NO MORE THEN A SELF-SERVING VAMPIRE HOPING TO ALTER THE WORLD FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT!"
Tsukune's world began spinning as his skull slammed against the far wall of the workshop. Apollo's visage came into view, as did the apparent rage in his guise.
"The world is not only yours, Vampire. It is not only mine; it belongs to those yet to be and how will they see this world? Tolerance only lasts for as dependant on whom's tolerance is tested!" Apollo continued as his temper abated only slightly "You want co-existance TODAY; if it were only that simple!"
"...And you wonder why we won't listen." Tsukune groaned as he began to recover. "Everytime your view is challenged; you resort to aggression and expect us to just go along with it. You're family Apollo, which is why I want to give you each and every chance, but you just aren't helping yourself by being this way."
"Do not talk to me of family." Apollo responded harshly "I have acted accordingly to protect them; for every member of my kin i love more then you will ever fathom. Rather you all despise me for my methods and live, then to die, loving me for doing nothing. I do not care for helping myself; but it would seem it is futile to attempt awakening you to the truth sooner. If you knew your family was putting not only themselves, but the people of both worlds at the risk of extinction; what would YOU do? What if YOU had to make that call?" Apollo's wings drooped as he huffed and sat irritably on an ornate chair, resting his arms on the desk of which it faced.
"Which is why, with a heavy heart, I have simply had to resign myself to knowing I have failed you all." The Harbinger continued calmly "The more I press the issue, the more you resist and I could not just try a democratic approach because I would run too much a risk of you all dismissing the notion. As if this outcome is any different..."
"So what are you going to do?" Tsukune asked unsurely as Apollo turned to a water basin and dipped both his hands in the crystal clear water.
"...I have washed my hands, of all of you." Apollo responded with finality. "It is clear that you have all made up your minds. Foolish the path might be, I cannot stop you without becoming the very thing I yern to prevent. Saying this, I will not watch you destroy yourselves... perhaps this prison is more a blessing then a curse; so I will not have to watch you all die when war comes."
"War won't come Apollo!" Tsukune pleaded with frustration "What IS it with you and this insistant obsession?!"
"When you have lived as long as i have and seen everyone and everything for what they are... perhaps if you are so unfortunate to live that long; you will have your answer to that question" Apollo replied "But I am done with you all. Go on; play out your little drama, then take your place along with the innocent who become the destroyed, the used and the betrayed. But know this, and take it to your grave that once you are all slain, at the hands of those you have sort to bring premature peace; I WILL return and I will carry out my duty of bringing co-existence."
"So you're giving up on everyone." Tsukune stated unbelivingly "What about your devotion?"
"Wake up boy." Apollo huffed sadly as he waved a dismissive hand "Because of your selfishness, co-existance for the next countless generations to come, is just a dream. Now leave this place and trouble me no more."
