Agito Chapter

Part 7: Burn Out, Shine On

Needless to say, Kunieda Higashi did not expect to be woken by his doorbell in the middle of the night. But he expected even less to open the door to be greeted with the amnesiac he'd once nursed back to health, looking every bit as battered as last time. Tsugami, along with a woman Higashi didn't know, practically fell into his house as soon as he opened the door, giving him grateful, incoherent mumbles.

Barely a minute, he had them both seated and was fussing around in the kitchen preparing hot drinks. He desperately wanted to know what had brought them here, of course, but they clearly needed some time and nourishment.

Possibly more time than he'd anticipated, as both his guests had fallen fast asleep by the time he returned. Smiling gently, he left a note telling them to take what they wanted from the fridge, turned the light off and headed upstairs to bed.

Three hours later, the siblings sat on a concrete step in Kunieda's back garden in the warm darkness. Yukina gazed up at the moon while her brother picked at some grass. It took them a while to start talking.

"So…Mana's dad…that was you." No accusation, but no forgiveness either. A flat statement.

"Yes." She folded her arms, resting her chin on them. "I didn't mean to. But I got all this power so quickly…our experiments worked too well. It just happened. I didn't mean to," she repeated.

"I believe you. Otherwise, you wouldn't have…" he sighed.

"It's okay. I'm here now."

"We can't stay here long. If that thing tracks us here…Mr. Kunieda doesn't deserve that. After he's been so kind."

She stood up, pulling him with her. "We've got a little time. We can get ready for next time, right?"

"How?"

"If we both had that form I reached, you think we could take him together?"

He agreed, but remained hesitant. "How do I get it?"

"We'll work on that. Become Agito."

He did so, and she began to coach him: On breaking through the trance, letting emotion overtake Agito's eternal calm, letting your anger in and letting it fill you up and burst out of you. But nothing happened. No form change.

"I just don't think there's enough anger in me," he complained, the simple action of rubbing his head in embarrassment looking very odd coming from the normally-elegant Agito form. "There's nothing I really hate, y'know…that's too much stress, man…"

She smacked him, and immediately regretted not transforming first as pain shot up her arm, but ignored it to begin lecturing him. "Idiot! You've got the capacity for emotion! It doesn't have to be at someone! Just feel strongly about something, okay?"

"Like what?"

"I mean…hate to say it but…look, if you're anything like me…" She stopped stumbling over her words. "Don't you feel lost? Don't you hate it?"

He stared silently for a while. The mask made it hard to pick up on any kind of emotion—normally he had the kind of face you could read like a book.

"Yes.

"I hate it. I'm fine with where I am, but who am I? Am I supposed to be this? Am I being me wrong? What have I left behind? What's broken just for me not being there? Why are those things killing us, what did we do? And why does it have to be me fighting them? Can't it be someone who at least knows what's going on? Who am I anymore? Is there any Tetsuya left? Did Shouichi ever exist?"

He bent over, head in his hands, the occasional raindrop beginning to hiss as it evaporated on contact with him. "I think maybe it does have to be at someone, Yukina. And…I'll do."

His building anger exploded out of him in a tornado of flame, sweeping over him and transfiguring him, armour plates cracking and bulging outwards as his figure swelled with muscle, turning a deep red as if he was being roasted by his own unnatural body heat.

They stood staring at each other for a while, her expression unreadable, his body shaking with almost forced emotion, the form itself dragging up whatever threads of fury and disgust it could find in him.

Eventually he saw no more point in being transformed and reverted, crouching and curling up, shivering. "Okay. I did it."

"Look, I know it's no fun," Yukina said, brushing a hand over his head. "Suck it up. We need it."

He turned to look away from her, and saw Kunieda on the porch, looking out at them with bulging eyes.

"Uh…oh, Mr., uh…look…how much did—" He rose and took a single step, Kunieda falling backwards with a yelp at the movement.

"Look. It's okay." She went and picked him up, dusting him off. "Stop shaking, it's fine. That thing he was is called Agito. We can both do it. Nothing to be scared of."

"Agito…so that's it…" the doctor said, something almost nostalgic in his voice. "Does it hurt?"

"No. Well. Not normally."

"It doesn't bother you? Your body changing like that?"

"It used to," Shouichi said. "But I can control when it happens. It's still kinda weird though…when you get called…"

"Called," Kunieda whispered. "That's what he said…it was calling…"

"…sir?"

Their host sank into a garden chair, running both hands through his hair. "My son…he was the same. This…Agito. I guess if he'd given it enough time, he'd have been able to control it, like you. Heh." He kept stuttering, glancing around as if for an escape.

"He couldn't. His body changing…the calling…it was too much, I tried to stop him, I…"

"Hey, hey." Shouichi took him by both shoulders. "Please, calm down."

The man didn't seem to notice them. "He killed himself…oh, my boy, my poor—"

"Sir!" They shook him back to his senses, guiding him inside and to his seat. Shouichi was staring over at Yukina. She couldn't meet his gaze. (Don't say it. Please.)

"Is being Agito…so bad?" she said, bitter.

"Well…that new evolution…it's not so great," he offered. "If that's what being Agito leads to, y'know?" He looked blankly up at the ceiling. "The police have attacked me before, and…the Lords are only after us, right? Us and people who'll become like us eventually?

"Are we the problem?"

She punched him in the face, dragging him up to her by the collar before he could fall. "What the hell is that? Huh? What's this shit you're spouting? Are we the problem?! You know that's not true!"

"Isn't it selfish, though?"

"Selfish? To fight for the right to exist? To become something better? Listen. I've been there. Thinking you're the problem." Her eyes were as wide as they could get, grip on his jacket tightening. "You're not. Nothing wrong with different…it's okay to change."

They both froze.

The call.

Kunieda recognised the look in their eyes. "You're…not going to end up like him, are you?"

Shouichi gave a goofy smile. "Nope."

"We'll keep evolving," Yukina said. "Without fear."

"The reason we get called is, uh, to fight," he explained. "There are things out there…well, you shouldn't have to deal with them. One of them's coming this way now. So we're heading out to stop it."

"But, that's…" Kunieda looked at them with no little despair—their faces so young but their eyes already so weary. "Do you have to?" he asked weakly.

"There's no-one else," Yukina said, and they were gone.

The warrior Lord stopped short its endless march; in the middle of the road, blocking its path, the brother and sister stood, opposing it again.

It raised its armaments and roared a battle-cry.

Moving in sync, they transformed. Then, they transformed again, reaching the over-muscled, burning state, raising their smouldering hands just in time to meet its charge.

It was a vicious affair. All three combatants possessed brutal strength, and pulverising, unsubtle blows were traded without pause. Either one of them alone would have soon been smashed aside, but together the evolved Agito were able to keep up the pressure on the Lord champion.

The brawl dragged on, and on, and on. They staggered at each other, leaning heavily into their swings, falling away and smashing through fences, lampposts, postboxes. But it was wearing more on the Agito—they didn't just have to contend with physical exhaustion, but their evolved form's innate burning anger, which seemed to grow with every second they remained in the form.

It ate into them, chipping away at their reasoning, their teamwork and co-ordination starting to crumble. The Lord was quick to take advantage, smashing heavy mace-blows into both of them and landing them next to each other a good ten feet down the road.

Yukina recovered quicker, launching herself back at the monster with a deep growl.

Shouichi took a second or two longer to prop himself up, and paused.

For just a moment, everything was clear.

Who am I…? That's obvious.

I'm this person right here…I'm me. What name I slap on that doesn't matter.

And I've found my place. He stood. It seemed easy, like he wasn't even tired anymore. It's right here. This battlefield.

That's it, isn't it, Yukina? For a moment, he just watched her battling. Relentless. Fearless. That's how you do it. I'm not like you…wherever you are, you make that your place.

And… He inhaled, slowly, deeply. I'm not going to lose.

Not to the Lords.

Not to this anger.

Not to despair.

He exhaled, and turned his face upwards.

And the sun rose.

The crack of dawn shone over the horizon, bathing them in the first rays of the day's light. Still in a strange altered consciousness, he could feel it wash over him. Before, assuming this evolution, he'd felt like a man on fire. But this feeling…it was fire, but somehow gentle. Warm, relaxing.

His body shuddered.

You

Begin

To

Move

Inhale. Exhale.

The bulk seemed to be falling off him, cracking and bursting to reveal shining brilliance beneath. He felt so much lighter now. An insect shedding its skin—no, leaving its cocoon.

Body

Heart

He took a step towards the Lord, and then he must have taken some more because there he was in front of it. Yukina had taken another solid hit, and been knocked halfway through a nearby parked minivan.

Eyeing the Lord up, Shouichi threw a punch. It brought up its shield to block, and he slowed down to let it. His fist collided with the curved, ethereal metal—

Your feeling

Your wish

—and shattered it, the Lord falling back with a confused screech. Drawing himself up, Shouichi put a hand out in front of him, his belt flashing and producing the same weapon the bulked-up form had used; this time, though, he split the double-ended thing in two, balancing one blade in each hand.

The beetle-Lord screeched, bringing the mace around two-handed, and then Shouichi was behind it, trails of light streaming off both blades.

—believe.

The Lord's weapon fell in half, the spiked head clattering against the road. The second strike made itself known as a glowing diagonal slash up the monster's side, and it roared in pain, reeling back and putting a hand to the wound.

When it looked up, some kind of glowing symbol was staring it in the face. Hanging in the air, formed of ghostly white light, was an image not entirely unlike Agito's face, flanked by four curved horns. At the other end of a whole line of these images, each as tall as any of them crouched Shouichi, bathed in the morning light, the symbols tracing a path between them.

While the Lord still struggled with the damage from his last attack, he took to the air, at first jumping with almost leisurely ease at the first symbol. But with each one he passed through he gained a burst of velocity, until in no time at all he burst out of the final image with a triumphant yell, thrusting his foot out to strike it directly on the jaw.

It sprawled back and skidded down the street, leaving twin trails of sparks as it went, finally rolling to a halt on the pavement, almost at the end of Kunieda's garden.

It climbed to its feet, screeched, shakily extended a clawed hand. But enough had been done. A halo materialised over its head, blinking for a second before it toppled onto its front, vanishing in a violent plume of fire.

Later, Yukina finally approached him, the two of them taking shelter from the now-glaring sun.

"What did you do?" she asked.

He gave a contented sigh. "Evolved."

Next time, we go back in time, to find out what everyone else has been doing while this was going on!