Another chapter's up! Yaaaay. Never thought I'd made it this long.
Guess what, right now I'm going out of town to someplace called Bandung, West Java. It's amazing here… I got comfy bed, comfy trip, and delicious meal, but the best thing here is… I can get away from my collage works for 3-4 days muahahah! Finally! The needed and desired vacation! Actually the reason I came here was to present my paper in a competition called Hardrock, but I still have some time to update this fic and play around, so why not?
Well, you know the drill with disclaimer. If I own God Eater, I would instantly hook up Kota and Alisa. Thanks a lot Namco and Shift for this awesome game. Looking forward to the full English patched of God Eater 2.
Please pardon my typo or grammar mistake. English is not my native language. Enjoy!
Mission Impossible
City of Mercy, Afternoon
"You're late," spat Soma as he saw his teammate jumped down the chopper. His white buster blade was resting on his shoulder. Seemed like he was getting impatient because of his leader's late arrival. If she came a minute later, he would've jumped down to their target and slashed it the hell.
"I'm not late. You're just too early," she countered him as she final checked her Serpent Warblade buster blade and Auglemir shield. All fine and ready to roll. Nothing was wrong, except the uneasiness she held in her chest. She was scared that all those rumors might influence Soma and making him uncomfortable with her in any way but seemed like it was all in her head. It was relieved to see Soma acting like nothing happened at all, so she better too.
"What's up with Doc and his mission this time? Extract the core from a moving aragami? He'd lost his mind," complained Soma as he rearranged his medic supplies.
"I know." Riitsu did the same, making sure she had extra stun grenade. "But at least we're in it together, right?" She flashed him a smile. Not her brightest one. No, she was still not ready to smile like that again, but still it was a sincere smile.
Her smile probably had the same affect to Soma as stun grenade affect aragamis because the pathetic platinum blonde boy took a while to respond back to her. "Y-yeah."
As if breaking the awkward moment, a loud Kongou roar was heard from below, inside the rubbles of City of Mercy. Took it as their cue, both God Eaters jumped down to hunt their target.
'I'll clear up the misunderstanding with him after this bloody mission,' she made a promise to herself. "I'll take section F, E, and inside the church. You take section C and D," ordered Riitsu as they touched the ground beneath them.
As she about to dash to their respected sections, Soma stopped her. "Wait!" And stopped she did but Soma didn't say anything after that so she just stared at him in wonder. The truth is, he was just too coward to say that he wanted to talk about her of what happened yesterday, afraid that he might tell her what was really in his mind, so in the end he just said, "Don't you dare die. I got some business with you after this."
Yeah, it was enough. After this absurd mission cleared, sorting out of what happened with that silly rumor, Soma was seriously thinking of telling her his feelings toward her. No, dear God, he wasn't thinking of a confession, just about how she should smile a little more and what Soma wouldn't give to see that smile. Okay scratch that. If he were to say how her smile drove him mad, it would be the same as confessing, right? So he might just confess too…
Unfortunately Riitsu caught it the wrong way. Oh shit! Did he mean about that rumor? He wasn't angry, was he? Oh well in the end I still had to talk to him anyway. "G-got it! Right b-back at you, Soma!"
And so the search began. As a reckless leader she was, Riitsu would dash into places without even scouting around of any aragamis. Every time Lindow and the others warned her, she would say something like 'If they show up, they show up. What's the difference?'. Unlike Soma who professionally checked every crook and nook of ran down buildings, wary of every possibilities. He really didn't show it much, must be due to experience that he developed a sixth sense instinct to survive.
"Section F, E, and inside the church are clear," reported Riitsu over the intercom. "Also no activities in section J and K."
"Section C, D, L and H clear. I'm heading to section N."
"Roger. I'll meet you there."
A big Kongou wouldn't be so hard to spot and with east sections cleared, that meant the Kongou should be in section N, the west part of City of Mercy. Wasting no more time, Soma dashed as fast as he could to section N. The faster this silly mission end, the better it is. In just a minute, the boy reached the section N entrance. Slowly he entered inside, prepared for Kongou's condensed air gun attack, but oddly nothing happened.
"What the hell?" cursed Soma as he found the section full of no aragamis. "Hey, there's no Kongou here."
"That can't be. Hibari said the aragami signal is still in the area. Maybe the radar got a bit jam-!" and the communication went down without her completing her reasoning. Panic struck over Soma. His blue eyes widened as he visualize the possibilities that happened to her. She was strong, no doubt about it, but what if the aragami ambushed her and she had no chance to fight back at all, like Eric.
"DAMMIT!" Soma ran with all his might to her last location, section D.
Just as the boy entered the vast area of section C and D, his vision was blurry because of the dirt that flew around everywhere. Hazily, he could see a figure jumping up and down, avoiding the Fallen Kongou's attacks. It was her. She was alive.
As the female lieutenant leaped through the Kongou's tail attack, she spotted her comrade's charging attack, aimed at the white Kongou's torso. With the ape-like aragami still busy attacking Riitsu, Soma had all the time in the world to pinpoint his attack on the torso, outer part of its core. He released his fully charged attack, yet it only tripped the aragami a little. Surely that wasn't enough to unbound its torso.
"Soma, change place! You distract it, I'll be the main attacker." With her elemental fire affinity, Riitsu's Serpent Warblade was most likely having stronger damage on the ice-type aragami they were facing, which means more chances to unbound its torso and got its core. Even so, she still had to be careful or the Kongou might die before they even finish their mission.
The Kongou suddenly briefly became idle, somehow charging for something, but the God Eaters it was facing were much too experienced to not notice what kind of attack it would use. Riitsu and Soma quickly distanced themselves from the Kongou, safely avoiding its cold-air spin attack. Now that the Kongou still recovering from that move, Riitsu lissomely charged her buster blade and unleashed it, again, on Kongou's torso. This time, her attack made a crack on its torso.
"A little bit more!" she encouraged herself and launch another crush attack, but the Kongou was recovered and deflect her attack with its large arm, sending her up 3 meters in the air and fell down harshly, luckily a bit far from the Fallen Kongou.
"Shit!" Soma immediately ran to her side, preparing to give her a link-aid. He hastily and carelessly avoid the white aragami's attacks, fear he wouldn't make it in time to save her. Just before he reached her, the blue hoodied God Eater took a stun grenade from his supply bag and threw it right on the Kongou's face, giving him some time for the link-aid. "Don't you dare die!"
As Soma finished the link-aid, Riitsu gasped out a lot of air and breathe in as much. "Thanks, I owe you one."
Soma didn't replay nor looking at her. He just stood there, readying himself after the stun affect wore off.
After finally getting her footing again, the First Unit leader gave out her order. "Okay, its torso's about to unbound anytime now so we'll change to Dr. Sakaki's formation. I'll lock its movement with stun grenade and fire bullets, and you'll extract the core."
She was actually expecting a 'roger' or 'got it', but instead she got no reaction from Soma. That was strange, even for someone quiet like him.
"Uuuh, Soma? Do you get it?" asked her while peeking a little to his face, curious of what kind of expression he displayed now?
Pity, she didn't get to see it because of the Fallen Kongou's another attack, three ice projectiles that were aimed at them. Riitsu jumped to her left while Soma dodged to his left. Not wasting anymore of her strength, the brunette girl took a bind trap and planted it just a meter away from the Kongou. The moment it stepped on it, the bind activated and restricted the ape aragami's movement. On instinct after seeing it stopped moving, Soma changed his God Arc to its devour mode and started to devour the aragami, looking for its core in the torso.
It was supposed to be another seconds to go until the bind broke, but this Kongou seemed to be resistant to binds so it started to move again, shocking the God Eaters.
"What? It broke already?" Soma exclaimed, taken aback by the force that pulled him along with his God Arc toward the beast. He was about to get punched to pulp but fortunately Riitsu was fast enough to stagger it with her fire mortar bullet, right on its face.
"Hang in there Soma! I'll keep him still so keep looking for the core!"
The battle continued like that for a few deciding minutes. Soma was devouring for the core, swinging back and forth, up and down because of the Kongou's power but he managed to overpower it while Riitsu keeping it still with the combination of fire mortar bullets, stun grenades, and bind traps. The combination really worked. Both buster-bladers did their part wonderfully and within another minute, Soma completely extracted the core from the body, all whilst the aragami still active.
"I got the core!" yelled Soma as he jumped down from Kongou's back, landing oh so gracefully.
And that was it. Without the core, that white beast's body was just a pile of useless oracle cells, waiting to be eaten by other monsters. Both of them stood proudly for accomplishing this absurd mission.
"Mission cleared," declared Riitsu as she sighed, relieved. "Let's go home and have some tea."
Responding to her, Soma let out a deep vicious growl and said, "Tea? The hell you're talking about?"
"About tea of course. Alisa just taught me how to make herbal tea last week and maybe now's the prefect chance to-"
Without any warnings, Soma suddenly grabbed the collar of her khaki battle top uniform. He screamed at the top of his lungs in front of her. "You almost die AGAIN and what you're thinking about now is tea?! Yesterday you took Quadriga's stray bullet because of your clumsiness, now you attacked Fallen Kongou recklessly and got incapacitated! Do I have to mention what happened last month ago when you took that blow for Kota and being infected with Lindow's oracle cells?! What tomorrow? You'll get swallowed by an Ouroborus voluntarily? Are you an idiot?!"
Though she usually would take the losing side in fights with Soma to prevent further feud, she thought Soma was too offending now with his collar-grabbing and face-screaming, so she stood up her ground now. "Well my bad if I calculate my attack wrong, but I'm damn sure there's another NICER way to say it rather than shoving it into my face."
"Don't you think we tried to ages ago, leader?! But still, you keep on doing that death-wishing of yours!" His words may be harsh, but there was a hint of worry and plea in his eyes, not that she noticed.
"Wh-?! I'm not!"
"Dammit why can't you see it?! Are you really that eager to join that suicidal ghost boyfriend of yours?!"
"Ghost what?! Who the hell are you talking about?!"
They went silent for a few seconds until something clicked in Riitsu's mind. She knew who Soma was talking about. He was talking about Ren. Really, she was wondering on how Soma knew about him because as she reckoned, that information was highly classified, but that didn't matter anymore. The way the blue-eyed boy included Ren in this rough conversation did not please the hazelnut-brown girl at all.
'Don't. Talk. About. Ren. Like. That." She was practically growling at him. It wasn't a suicide, it was a noble sacrifice!
Though he didn't show it in his face, Soma knew he went too far this time. His leader's eyes were a bit teary but it was full of hatred and disgust because her important person was insulted. He was pondering of apologizing to her but all of a sudden, a deep growl was heard from the Fallen Kongou's corpse. Both of them turned around and thinking maybe it was just their imagination, but its next roar wasn't what they expect to be just an imagination. That coreless Kongou was moving limply toward them, too slow for them to run from. Knowing it wouldn't have its vengeance, the ape beast let out a loud, loud roar and grew still, never to move again.
Both God Eaters were puzzled of what just happened, so Soma decided to contact the Den to report this phenomena and to request for a chopper. "Hibari you there? We finished our mission so send in the chopper. Also connect me to Doc right now. I got something urgent to report."
True to their feelings, that roar wasn't an ordinary roar. As if it came through a summon to answer the roar, a Corrosive Hannibal jumped in from the wasteland beside City of Mercy, and landed by the dead Kongou. They were not ready for this, more likely Soma wasn't ready for this. He never engaged in a battle with Corrosive Hannibal before, not like Riitsu. Riitsu's memory from her last battle with Lindow's aragami form might help her survive until back-up comes, but what about Soma? Just years of experience, power, and agility weren't enough to fight this black monster. He needed informations like its weak part, its elemental weakness, and the most important was its attack patter. Without those informations, it would be suicidal.
"Soma, report the base about this. And tell them to quickly send a chopper here," Riitsu ordered Soma, her voice was shaky and nervous, barely louder than whisper.
Finally the Corrosive Hannibal noticed their presence and took them as threats. It roared, as if letting out a battle cry, and swept the ground around them with its fiery claw. Riitsu, knowing that attack pattern, quickly dashed to her right and Soma with his instinct jumped up on high-leveled rubbles.
"GOD! The timing can't be much worse!" Riitsu readied her Serpent Warblade once again in a battle stance, challenging the aragami in front of her. "I'll distract it! You contact the base and tell them to send the freaking quickest chopper they have!" Accepting the challenge, the dragon-like aragami attacked Riitsu with its fiery jump attack which she managed to dodge by dashing backward.
"Hibari! Dammit come in Hibari! We got ambushed by a black Hannibal! Send a chopper here!" yelled Soma panickly over the intercom. In seconds, Hibari informed them that back-up and chopper was on its way but still, that meant they have to hang in their dear life for another twenty to thirty minutes. There was nothing Soma could do now except helping his leader to withstand the black Hannibal's attacks and to survive until back-up come.
The Corrosive Hannibal launched another attack, the one where a purple sphere underground would track the target and blow them away in seconds. Riitsu prepared her Auglemir shield to hold off that attack, but somehow that sphere didn't come after her. It passed her, through the rubbles, and stop directly below Soma. Before he realized it, it was too late.
"NOOO! SOMAAA!" Instictly to protect her unit member, Riitsu jumped over to her comrade and pushed Soma down the rubbles, taking the blow instead. The sphere exploded and she was consumed by dark purple fire for a few second, though it felt like an eternity. Without her anti-blaze gear, the damage was fatal and all she could do was screaming, hoping it would reduce the pain. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
"RIITSU!" She could hear Soma screamed her name. How rare of him to say her name like that, but Riitsu couldn't think of anything anymore. It felt like every bits and pieces of her flesh was cooked in oven, over and over again. It was too hot, she thought she'd melt already until she saw Soma's pale face.
'What in the world is that expression Soma? It doesn't suit you at all…'
Vaguely, Riitsu felt the hotness subsided though the intense pain still lingered. She could see her surroundings better now and the first thing she saw was Corrosive Hannibal big feature coming closer to Soma. With few energy left in her, Riitsu difficultly said, "So… ma… R-run…"
She knew well he heard it. That sharp ears of his weren't just some head accessories. But, why? Why wasn't he moving from that damned aragami's path? Why did he prepare for battle instead? As depressing as it was, she could do anything no more because her vision went black and her consciousness faded into oblivion. The last thing she saw was Soma's broad back against her, which made her felt safe and worry at the same time.
Much to Soma's ignorance, his leader had fainted already, but he still shouted, "Dammit, woman! Don't you die on me! I haven't told you my feelings yet!"
God a half cliffy, eh? Well please look forward to the next chapter 'kay?
For those who like to read a great balance between romance and action adventure like Gods Eater, I recommend you to read Kanata Kara manga. So fluffy and cute hehe…