The eyes are the window to the soul.
Chapter 4
"We'll split into two groups. Each group will have a healer and a member with a great since of... smell." Lindow said implying toward Soma and Shio.
"Right." Soma mumbled, somewhat ticked by Lindow implications. But still gathered in his group, the mission was far too important for him to be stubborn. They had to find her and they were going to bring her back.
Soma was with Kota and Alisa, while Shio was with Sakuya and Lindow.
"You guys ready?" Lindow asked.
"Yeah," they answered with nodding heads.
"Remember, do not engage unless they strike first. We follow different rules now."
"But wouldn't we find her faster if we break them?" Kota asked.
"We want to find her in a negotiating mood not a hostile one." Lindow answered. "Alright, Soma's group takes the east, mine will go west. Let's move out."
And the group split silently wishing each other good luck. The sun was high in the sky when they made it to the area of the said white trees. They almost seemed to glow and pulsate. As they crossed over into her territory they all felt a jolt in their Oracle Cells.
"H-hey... did you guys feel that, or was that just me?" Kota asked.
"Y-yes, it almost feels like the plants are filled with Oracle Cells." Alisa commented.
"They are, with her's." Soma answered as he placed his hand on a tree, feeling it pulsate to his touch. It gave him a warm feeling inside.
"What?!" They both exclaimed.
"She must have released Oracle Cells in a burst like Shio did to mutate the vegetation. She now has a connection to the plants and most likely knows we're here now."
"And that's a good thing... right?" Kota asked.
"... Maybe. Let's keep moving."
Cautiously they continued forward. To their dread they encountered a Kongou, but it did nothing. It looked at them but continued on with its business.
"Whoa, they really won't attack us."
"It appears that way, but let's not dottal here Kota. Come on, let's keep moving." Alisa said, trying to ignore the herd of Sariel eating from a fruit tree.
"She's close..."
"Soma? Are you sure?"
"Yeah," turning on his headset he contacted the other group. "Lindow."
"I know, get into position, we'll confront her first."
Soma and his group pushed through the bushes and took cover. But Soma saw no point to this since she most likely can already sense them.
Readying themselves, they spotted her. Her back was turned to them. Her hair flowed down her back like wavy silk. It had grown longer since the last time they had seen her, reaching past her butt. Her wings hung low like a train to her dress.
Unable to contain themselves, Kota and Alisa ran out of the cover the moment they saw her.
"Leader!" Alisa called out stopping at a safe distance. But she didn't respond to them, unmoving, she was like a statue.
"Leader... it's you in there... right?" Kota asked, but still she did not move.
"Please, answer us Leader!" Alisa cried out. At last she moved.
They gasped as they saw her body. Her skin was grey, her eyes were like a crimson Aragami's eyes. Her face showed subtle sadness but mostly indifference. Her hair danced from the breeze as she turned toward them, stray feathers sprayed in the wind with the jingle of tar black cross earrings. The wings flapped up to life as she moved. She wore clothes that looked like it was made out of tar.
A web-like choker graced her neck. And a strapless bare shoulders dress that had feather borders on top like frills to turn into short sleeves around her arms. The dress had more holes than the Halter outfit. They exposed part of her left hip and all of her right leg. She was bare foot and had a web-like tar garter on her right leg. She had wraps of her tar cloth wrapped around her right arm that broke off into an explosion of web-like tar frilling bracelet on her wrist. While her left arm was a wing, they could not tell if she had a hand under those feathers or not. The end of her dress was ripped tattered, and uneven. She looked like a fallen angel straight from a Gothic fantasy.
"God Eaters... why have you come?" She finally spoke.
"Leader it's us, don't you recognize us?" Alisa pleaded.
"Leader? I am not your leader nor is that my name."
"Leader..." Alisa said feeling hurt at her leader's deny. The 1st Unit Leader turned a little to make a pointing jester toward the Aragami coming out of the forest covering. The Marduk from before came to stand beside her.
"These are my people, I am Leader to only them. They came to me all on their own. They found me when I was lost and alone, but they were good to me." She smiled at them and her voice softened. "And I will continued to protect that goodness with everything I am."
"But... what was the purpose of gathering all those Aragami in one place?" Kota asked. "Are you trying to create your own army?!" But her saddened face was unwavering to his accusation.
"We are all united by one common wish." She closed her eyes. "We want out of this viscous cycle of carnage." They all gasped at her declaration.
"Don't make me laugh." Soma grunted. "Monsters can never run from their basic nature."
"We monsters are tired of the continuing cycle of killing and eating or being eaten with no end to the constant pang of hunger. We've found a way to live around it and we wish to be left alone."
"You're not one of them! Open your eyes, you're human Leader!" Soma yelled at her.
"Human? What are you-" Then she stopped, suddenly coming to an understanding. "Oh, I see. You're talking about her."
"Quit fooling around dammit! Let's go back to the Den."
Her eyes slanted and her voice came out like venom. "I will be dead before I go anywhere with the likes of you."
All three were taken aback. She had never taken a tone like that with any of them before, let alone Soma. Her words felt like a knife in the chest to Soma, but he hid his pain in his anger.
"Why, you don't want to be around a monster like me?"
"You don't know how much of a monster you truly are." Soma couldn't hid the hurt from her words this time. She was the one person to tell him he wasn't a monster. The one who would always approach him during the death god rumors when no one else would- even when he would go out of his way to push her away. To have her say that was ground shaking.
"Leader," Kota said in disappointment.
"Don't give me that," she said pointing her fingers at them. "You're all monsters in sheep's skin."
This made Soma feel a little relieved. So she was not physically calling him a monster, but his character was. True at times he could be an asshole, but he was never that bad. What could he have possibly done to be considered monstrous in her eyes, let alone regard the others as monstrous too?
"Leader!" Sakuya called out, coming from the east. "At last we found you!"
"What happened Soma? We were suppose to confront her one group at a time." Lindow said running in with Shio.
"What's this, more of you." Her patience was beginning to run thin. "Why do you come here all up-in-arms? I have not come near the human settlement nor have any of my people. We have lived on the fruit of this land so why do you trouble us?"
"Leader... don't you remember us?" Sakuya asked somewhat hurt.
"I have never met any of you before in my short existence."
"Leader..." The usual happy-go-lucky spark in Kota's voice was sobered.
"Leader, please! Try to remember us!" Alisa cried out.
"There you go again. Leader, leader, leader. I'm getting tired of that word."
"Who are you?" Shio asked getting into a fighting stance. "Where is she?"
The Leader turned to Shio. "Why if it isn't princess Shio. How's life been living with the humans?"
"Don't try to trick me, where is she?"
"Shio what are you talking about?" asked Soma.
"That's not my friend!" The Leader began to slowly clap her hand/wing.
"Very clever, Shio." Then her voice grew bitter. "Finally, someone who gets it." She began to chuckle, the others got into a fighting stance.
"If you're not her then what have you done with her?" Lindow said in rare seriousness.
"Damn you, if you've hurt her so help me I'll crush your skull." Soma growled.
The supposed 1st Unit Leader imposter looked appalled at these accusations. "Of course she's alright. Do you think I would willingly hurt my own mother!"
"Mother?!" Sakuya gasped.
"What?! When?! Whoa! Holy!" Kota couldn't even come up with a sentence.
"That can't be. How can that be possible?!" Alisa asked
The imposter put a hand on her chest right over her heart. Her voice and face softened as if talking about something precious.
"I heard her voice, it cut through the darkness... All alone I floated in a never ending darkness for such a long time. All alone I followed her voice to a sea of light... And found myself here... with her." Her eyes were so warm. "She gave me something that I craved and needed more than anything... an existence, an identity, a family..."
"Then what is 'your' name..." Lindow asked.
The imposter looked up to rub the Marduk's muzzle. "The Aragami like to call me Prince..." The apparently 'he' stopped to touch his heart. "But, mother... she gave me a name... she called me... Shino."
Shino then left the Marduk's side to walk over to the edge of a calmly flowing river. "Look... the water reveals all truths."
As the group walked over to the river they saw it reflected not the reflection of their Aragami Transformed Leader, but of a boy about the same age as Shio. His skin was gray and his eyes were crimson. His hair was shoulder length platinum and straight, but spiked at the ends along with his bangs that covered his forehead.
His body was slim like a growing boys and he covered himself with a ragged tar cloth kilt with a scarf that covered his neck and shoulders and went down to his hips with tattered ends. His face although youthful had a maturity to it and indifference as it gazed at them.
"Wait, you're a guy!" Kota came to the realization a little later than the others.
"Yes... I wish not to defile my mother's body by transforming it to my true essence, so I keep it in tack." His eyes were gentle at the thought of 'mother.'
"And what will happen to her?" Soma questioned in anger at this 'Shino's' familiarity with his Leader. "Will you eat at her conscious until she fades away and her body's all yours?"
For the first time he looked upon them with rage. His eyes slanted as his eyebrows furrowed. And his wings twitched back to life.
"Never! She will never fade away as long as I draw breath! She will forever sleep under the sun's warm kiss and dance under the moon's light!" He then pointed an accusing finger back at Soma. "Watch your tongue hypocrite! You've all tried to eat away at her until there was nothing left!"
"What audacity do you speak?!" Alisa said appalled and enraged at his slander of her unit's bond.
"Do not play coy with me" He practically sneered his words as they came out. "I seen mother's memories as she graces the moon with her presence. I know of her and seen how you all interacted. And from what I've seen you've all secluded her like a figure in the background."
"How dare you!" Sakuya was angered by his banter. "You know nothing about the bonds we all shared with her through the trails we've faced together. She... she helped me find myself when I was in grief when I thought Lindow was gone. She made me never give up."
"She was there for me when most would abandon me." Alisa said getting emotional. "She helped me find my inner strength... To have the power to protect the ones that are precious to me with my own hands!"
"Me too!" Kota jumped in. "She helped me protect my family, even saved my life, and helped me find the right path of becoming a protective sanctuary for everyone instead of relying on someone else's sanctuary." Then he pointed at Soma. "Oh, and she also helped this guy become less of a jerk."
"Hey!" Soma said smacking Kota's finger away. Shio chimed in with a giggle, ignoring their antics.
"She'd go get dinner with me and help do my hair! We'd always have fun together!"
"She saved my life, reaching into the darkness for me. She never gave up on me when I was ready to give up on myself." Lindow in a reflective tone.
"You see! No matter what you say she's touch a significant part of our lives. Together we created a bond that's united us as one heart that will never break, no matter what!" Sakuya said touching her heart in the passion of her speech, as the others silently agreed with her. But Shino remain unmoving.
"If that was true then why haven't any of you ever called her by her name?" They were all silenced by this realization.
"Mother would always go out of her way to say your names. She would acknowledge your existence making sure you understood the important place you had in her life. And yet the only time she'd been called by her name was once by Lindow through an email!"
Alisa and Sakuya were starting to tear up and the realization of the their unconscious callus actions toward their leader. But Shino didn't stop there.
"Did you know that every time you guys would call her Leader she'd die a little inside? She felt disconnected and unattached to the group whenever you wouldn't acknowledge her. But she still kept on going. You people at the Den would ask for her help with missions and she'd go willingly, but no matter if the mission was easy or hard she'd never get a thank you and you'd all carry about your business like she wasn't there. But she kept going.
"She'd selflessly endanger her life for the lives of many, but when the deed was done instead of being thanked she gets criticized and judge for being foolish. But she smiled and kept going.
"She was often alone. But growing up as an orphan she was use to it. Coming to the Den excited her. She thought for the first time she would learn what it feels like to have a family. But my goodness... such a heart breaking quest... one that was slowly destroying her. Kota would cling to Alisa; Alisa would cling to Sakuya; Sakuya would cling to Lindow; Lindow would follow Dr. Sakaki; and Dr. Sakaki would use her like she was a spare tool and lock her out once her mission was done! Soma would lock himself away, while Shio and Ren, the only ones that tried to connect with her were taken away to a place out of her reach! In your tight chain of bonds she had NOTHING! Leaving her alone to only see just what it was like to have a family from a distance. Proving you right, Lindow, all of your souls were one except hers." Alisa and Sakuya were in tears at this point.
"I was only joking when I said that."
"And yet it still haunts her to this very day..." Shino's voice then softened and held his heart as if he was embracing her. "But she doesn't need your thorn-like bonds. I'll love her... I'll give her the affection and the family you all never would. I'll make her happy so she no longer needs to cry at night."
"Shut up!" Soma said finally having enough. "Don't give me that crap! You're just a figment of her imagination created by her overactive Oracle Cells. A piece of a monster."
"I wasn't created, I was born!"
"Believe what you want, you're just a fake. You would never understand the feelings we have for her. How far we've come to get her back. She's important to us... and to me."
Shino began to laugh like a mad man startling the others as he put his right hand on his forehead covering up the right side of his face.
"I get it now. You guys want her back now that she's no longer there. Hehehe! Appreciating something only once it's gone like kids with a toy they haven't played with in a while being taken from them. If you considered her important Soma then you've done a poor job at showing it."
"Shut up!"
"You were always so oblivious to her affections, like a fool. Almost heartlessly so."
"What the hell are you-"
"She loved you, you IDIOT!"
"What?" Soma said out of breath from shock.
"She'd always tried to get you to open up. So that you could interact with others... so you wouldn't be alone like her. All she wanted was a chance for you to let her in. But you'd push her away!" The venom in his voice was like acid. "You'd always ignore her feelings and toss it back at her! She'd end up having to sow her heart up again to try another day only to have it ripped again and again."
"B-but how... since when?"
"From the beginning. Soon she began to feel like she'd never have a place in your heart, that she'd never make you happy like Shio could. So in order to make you happy she would sacrifice her own... and so much more. Even... when she thought it would be her last breaths she called out your name! But in the end it wasn't you who saved her as she fell alone into the darkness, it was ME!"
"I-I just... wanted to keep her safe... I didn't want to lose anyone precious to me anymore, so I pushed her away to keep her safe. But in the end, all I ever did was hurt her... you can be angry at me, but please... give her back."
"Hahaha! You had two years to tell her this! And now I'm suppose to just hand her over to you! You're too late, you can't have her back!" Shino said, getting into a rage. His hand began to morph into a black short blade that resembled a Black Tortoise blade.
The other Aragami were about to come to his aid once he formed a somewhat God Arc. But he stopped them by raising his winged arm.
"Stay where you are. This is my fight." Then he lifted his wings, giving them a powerful flap as he flew toward them. "I'll make sure you guys never hurt her ever again!"