Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OCs and the plots.

Warning: Slight AU, appearances of new OCs.

A/N: I know I had disappeared for quite a while now. But I had suffered major writer-block for the past months and had revised this chapter over and over and over and over (till somewhere to the point I wanna bash my own brain to the wall)again until I'm finally able to settle down with this version compared to the previous few I had written. And so here it was! The new chapter is finally here! Sorry for the long suffering wait for those who looked forward for this story! I really am! (Wailed.

And for those who are still with me in this story, thank you very much for your supports! I feel really really happy! :'D

That's enough for the A/N for now, everyone enjoy!

"Why?" was the only word he could mutter as he was struggling to push himself off from the wooden floor, refused to succumb to the calls of the unconsciousness that easily overwhelmed his other fellow God Eaters.

He glared at the culprit, who stared down at him with a pair of penitence amethyst eyes, in the same time; the culprit's expression conspicuously showed her yearn for him to submit to the oblivion so that she could no longer need to witness and suffer his accusing glares that brutally stab on her conscience.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was empty, as she was trying to void herself from emotions that would further cloud her judgments, "This is a conflict between deities, humans should've not been involved in the very first place. What happened back at the Den shouldn't have happened. It was caused by my inattentive and carelessness of my original duty to ward off the fallens from harming the human on this land… My deepest regret…"

'Stop it…' he couldn't talk, nor he had the strength to do so. So he begged in his own mind for the female deity before him to stop talking.

"Soon, a fight between the deities and the fallen will began, but it will remain unseen by humans, so rest assured." Then, she slowly squat down to take a closer look at him, trying hard to ignore the furious turmoil that swirled in his sapphire eyes, she reached out her hand and softly grasp on his calloused gloved hand, "As soon as you awake, all your memory of my existence and involvement in the Den for the past eight months will be alternated…"

'Stop it… Don't say anymore…' he hated himself for not able to gather his strength to speak up, as though there's a lump stuck in his throat to prevent him from speaking.

"You will forget the promise that we made six years ago during the first snow…"

'Don't say it…' he wordlessly pled.

"It would be the best if you forget. Forget about the promise that had tied you down to me, you have to live strong and move on. Because after the battle, I would probably…"

'Don't say such thing when you obviously don't want it! Not especially when you showed such sad face when you said it! I didn't wait six years for you to blurt out this kind of crap to me!'

"Don't worry, my brothers and my shikigamis will continue to watch over the humans on this land in my stead with their own ways even if I'm no longer able to."

'Like I care if they will watch over us for 24/7, we obviously still need to fight those aragami on our own!'

Damn it! Why can't he talk? His sight was starting to blur, it's a sign that he was starting to give in to the oblivion.

Soon enough, everything had faded to black.

He felt bitter.

Frustrated.

Sad.

"I'm glad, that I've met you again until the very end…"

He felt as though he had been living in a dream from a long time.

Soma found himself lying on his couch, staring at the ceiling of his room with utter confusions. He was never a heavy sleeper because of his keen hearing which mostly brought him more harm than good during his free time in the Den as well as from the disturbance and restlessness of the half-aragami of his crawling under his skin, prompting him to go for the next hunt outside the anti-aragami wall to sate the bloodlust to kill the man eating preys.

It irks him to no end.

But today, sleeping in sounded tempting for a change, and he was ready to do so, if weren't for the sudden wetness he felt trickled down his cheeks preventing him from doing so.

Pushed himself up from the couch, he wiped the trails of tears using the back of his hand, brows furrowed with qualm as he found that it was unusual and uncharacteristic of him to weep over something as trifle as a dream.

What was that dream was about again?

Right, he remembered absolute nothing.

"Pathetic." He grumbled to himself before reaching to the inner pocket of his hooded jacket to grab on…nothing.

Sapphire eyes fixated on his empty palm, Soma was yet again drowned in confusion.

What was he trying to hold at that moment?

Soma was about to knock the door of the room next to his, but abruptly stopped himself before his knuckles land on the surface of the door.

"What the hell am I doing?" Soma cursed. He did this as though it was a daily basis, like a habit he have unknowingly developed for who know since when?

Why was he trying to knock on Lindow's door again?

Lost in thought, Soma failed to notice the door before him slide open.

"Er… is there anything you want?" An unfamiliar voice reached his ears, causing the platinum blonde to snap out from his stupor.

Why did he feel disappointed? Soma wasn't so sure himself when his eyes met with a pair of grey eyes with slight hue of purple.

Again, he was plunged into astonishment as soon as the disappointment literally crashed down on his conscious. He felt… wrong.

Even if he was standing outside of Lindow's room, he himself couldn't exactly tell why he was actually expecting it was someone else emerges from the said person's room. And it was definitely not the guy who was half a head taller than him that stood before him right at that moment!

Who was he expecting?

"Hey, if you have no business with us, then move. You're in our way." Owner of the second voice nudged the other male aside as he stepped out of the room, identical pair of eyes with the former peered down at the dumbfounded guy who blocked his way.

Realizing he was in trance again, Soma immediately shook his head and glared towards the unfamiliar duo in front of him. Both have brown hairs with deep healthy shade, same eyes, same face, and same stature. If it weren't for them to have different hair length, the different side of their fringe and their different choices of clothing, it will be difficult to tell them apart. They are obviously twins.

"Aren't this supposed to be Lindow's room?" Soma asked, in an unfriendly manner. He doesn't remember seeing these two new faces around in the Den nor Tsubaki had informed them about new veterans moving in.

"You mean the former owner of this room?" the guy who opened the door, who seemed to be the friendlier version of his other twin, replied with a light smile, gesturing his hand towards Sakuya's room which was opposite of Soma's, "That guy offered us his room and moved into his wife's room this morning."

Noting the puzzled and annoyed look on Soma's face, the guy continued to explain without needing to be asked, "We are the new recruits, but apparently the Den was currently shortage of rooms for rookies, so the instructor had made an arrangement for the both of us to share a room in the veteran's section, not that the both of us minded." Said the guy with right sided fringe as he raised his hand to show Soma the new red armlet that clamped down on his right wrist.

"I… see," was the only thing Soma could say in return.

"Look, I don't know what is your problem here," the other twin with left sided fringe started with a more neutral tone, "But we are on our way to the Director's office, it'll be rude to just shove you aside and walk, so would you mind?"

"Uh, yeah… right." Soma awkwardly stepped aside so that the duo could pass. It was unusual for him to place himself into uncomfortable situations as he cared less of who his neighbor was as long as they don't bother him.

Yeah, since when did he care?

Curiosity roused by the platinum blonde's behavior; the friendlier twin stopped walking and asked, "Not trying to sound offensive, but are you, by any chance expecting someone else lives in that room instead of us and Lindow?"

At that, Soma felt himself tensed, along with a painful stung in his chest. What made the feeling worst was, he still don't know why he felt this way. The unknown hollowness that has been provoking his confusions since the very moment he woke up from his sleep haunts him to no end. As much as he hated to admit as he thought of it as sign of being a wimp… These feelings horrified him.

Instantly, he strode towards the elevator without looking back at the twins who was expecting his answer. Instead of his usual rude "mine your own business" or "shut the hell up", he only replied the curious twins with an unsure "I don't know" before allowing the elevator's door shut close.

If only he had turned his head to take a swift glance at the twins, he would've seen the anticipations that shown in the twins' identical eyes, an expectation for him to remember something precious and unintentionally forgotten…

"I still can't believe that a horde of Chi-You and Kongou assaulted the Den yesterday!" Kota exclaimed frivolously as he eyed the damaged area in the entrance. The main training ground was severely wrecked as well, so the stimulation combat training for the Gods Eater would have to postpone until all the basic training gears and necessities are fixed.

"It's hard for me to believe it as well," Sakuya nodded in agreement, eyed warily at the damaged wall that was in the reconstruction by a few workers, "The aragami seemed to be only targeting the Den, no damage was done to the residential area at all. Strange, don't you think?"

"Nah, don't rack your brain over such things," Lindow casually waved it off with his infected right hand, leaning against the couch beside his wife, "After all, you could never predict the behaviors of those beasts. What matters the most was none of us ended up hurt or dead! We should celebrate!"

"That aside, Tsubaki said that there are new rookies joining us today," Alisa interjected. Her expression fully reflected her anticipations to be a good senior before the new rookies, "But I haven't seen any new faces anywhere. Say Soma, have you seen them? " She averted her towards the teen that was being aloof from the small crowd as usual.

"How would I know?" Soma replied skimpy, decided not to expose that he had seen the rookies roughly an hour ago as he doesn't want to participate further in any asinine froth.

Used to the young man's grumpy and unsociable behavior, Alisa no longer pay heed to him and continue her friendly conversation with Sakuya and proceed to chat the daylight out of each other while Lindow and Kota could only listen whilst searching for an opportunity to cut in, which proven to be impossible for the time being.

'Why am I even sitting here in the first place?' Soma self-muttered. Since when did he formed a habit of torturing himself by sitting in the midst of insignificance talk while he could've just ask for one or two solo missions to pass his time like he did for years? It's just not like him to endure the attentions that had been directed to him from his teammates now and then just to get his nonexistent opinions.

Soma couldn't help it but steal a glance at the small group he wants being with while he was sure they are not looking and frowned as he felt something was wrong and missing. There should be another person supposed to be here with them. But who?

He can't remember. Or, the said anonymous doesn't even exist to begin with…

And there it was again, the surge of hollowness and loneliness welled up in his chest for the second time in a day.

'Great, just what I need. I'm being delusional.' Soma scoffed to himself before taking a swig from his can. No point racking his brain over something or a person who wasn't even exists.

"Speaking of rookies, do you know there's actually a rookie who was supposed become a God Eater at the same day as me?" Kota suddenly blurted, and this had successfully caught everyone's attentions, albeit it more to pure curiosity, "I heard that she was supposed to be the very first New-Type God Eater of the Far East, but then her frail health had failed her miserably so she couldn't even made it to the aptitude test… Erm… what's her name again?" Kota squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his chin in attempt to ponder over the unfamiliar name, "Orua? No… hmm… Laura? I guess not either-"

"Aurora Haruno." Lindow aided.

"Yea! That's it! Aurora Haruno!" Kota grinned with enthusiasm, which earned him a whack behind his head by Alisa, "Don't look so triumph when you couldn't even remember such simple name as that!"

"I had heard about that young girl myself, and was supposed guide her for a full month by the order of the ex-director himself since she was a valuable asset," Lindow shrugged and stubbed out his cigarette into the ashtray, "But it was a shame that she couldn't make it to the aptitude test. Just like Kota said, Aurora have been ill for years, she could die if Fenrir force her to partake the aptitude test."

"It was a pity for such a young girl to suffer illness," Sakuya agreed, but paused for a moment before speaking her mind from the other side of her perspective, "However, think of the bright side. She won't have to risk her life outside of the wall every day to battle those aragami and continue her peaceful live with her family."

"True." Alisa nodded in consent while lips twitched into a sad smile, almost ashamed of herself wanting to be in Aurora's place, having a family by her side every day instead of getting all bloody and nasty outside in the battlefield, overwhelm with anxiety and dread as you'd never know which day would be your last.

All train of thoughts was interrupted as soon as the metallic sound of a can along with the spilled liquid all over the once cleaned floor. Soon enough, few sets of eyes strayed on the young man who dropped the drink, qualm and worried marred on their faces as they found the platinum blonde stood as stiff stone. No one could explain the unreadable emotions that had shown on the said young man's face. His expressions visibly turned from pale to anxiety, and later turn into something a mix of confusion with hint of sadness.

"H-Hey Soma, you all right?" Kota carefully voiced out, clearly not used to the said buster blader express anything other than grumpy and annoyance, he proceed to saunter towards his teammate to get the guy to snap out of it by waving his hand before Soma's face, which instantly earned himself an irritated glowered from the Soma.

"What?" Soma barked rather rudely at the younger of the two.

"Hey," Clearly offended by the rude respond, Kota glared back and yammered, "I was just trying to make sure that you are all right since you're acting weird a minute ago! Don't just go all snappy to a person who's just trying to be nice!"

"No one ask you to worry about me like a mother hen!" Soma retorted with a growl and shoved Kota roughly to aside, causing the younger teen to stumble few step back and landed on the couch after tripping over his own foot. As for rest of the people in the small group, they could only find themselves jaw slacked upon the impending fist fight.

"Hey, watch it!" Kota hastily punch a fist into the air before struggling to stand up and marched fumingly toward the older teen, "I know I have been nothing but an eyesore to you all these time, but I'm damn sure as hell that I don't deserve to be treated like that!" he shouted gave Soma a hard shove on the shoulder. Anger flared by the act, the latter grab Kota by his collar and dragged the teen close up to him and warned, "Listen you brat! Can't handle my attitude? Fine! Just stay the hell away from me and mind your own business so you won't be treated as such! Stop complaining like a whining child!"

For once, Kota didn't flinch nor back away with tail between his legs like he used to under the glower of the buster blader. It felt like they had heat arguments for countless times before this, but Kota couldn't remember when or how. He had even have a vague image flashed through his mind that the two of them are actually getting along quite well, along with a silhouette of a certain person he can't really recall, who would always be there to be the fine peacemaker whenever the once in a while arguments went out of hand or getting awkward. Kota tried hard to remember, but as soon as he did, it felt like someone had hacked into his mind and tore the pieces of good memories away from him.

Then again, with a furious and unreasonable teen grabbing you by your collar and snaps at you like you are some kind of lopsided dog could really get on ones' nerves and distract you from thinking. So, Kota doesn't hesitate when he snaps back, paid no attention to those who was watching the arguing duo with amusement and awe.

"Oh yeah? Call me brat and childish all you want! 'cause I have at least a decent childhood to be one while you probably don't even have a childhood to begin with! That's why you're always grumpy and unapproachable! "As soon as the words let loose from Kota's lips, he immediately regretted it with guilt tagged along to eat his conscience alive. The hurtful look that mirrored from Soma's eyes was something he had never seen in his life.

Stifled of breaths could be clearly heard across the entrance upon Kota's wounding retort. Most people are expecting Soma to beat the daylight out of the teen judging by now, not surprising judging from the infamous reputation Soma had shouldered all these years; some threw Kota countless gaze of admiration for being brave enough to speak up their resentments towards Soma in their steads.

However, those from the First Unit have none of those...

"Alright you two, cut it out!" Lindow stepped in and pulled Soma away from Kota from behind whilst Alisa pushed Kota a few good step away from the older teen and stand between the two to prevent the possible nasty fist fight, "Geez, if only Leader is here...huh?" Alisa paused. 'What on earth am I babbling about?' she thought, and steals a glance at Lindow, 'The leader of First Unit is here. But since when I have started to call Lindow 'Leader'?'

As Alisa was having trouble dealing her own thoughts, the heat argument between the two guys continues even with Lindow and Alisa's interference.

"You think that I wanted to be this way being called monster and such every single day I live?!" Soma bit through his words, being held back by Lindow so that he won't lung himself at the redhead to strangle him, "All my life I had been caged within the lab like a lab rat, being strapped on the cold table and endured numerous immoral experiments conducted by that son of a bitch who called himself my father so that God Eaters could exist! And just when I thought I had been set free from that hell hole, I was immediately forced to fight those bloody beasts and being called monster just because I'm different! What kind of normal childhood do you expect me to have? Huh? You tell me!"

"Soma, quit it!" Lindow raised his voice to prevent the platinum blonde from spilling anymore that are not supposed to be heard by the ears of the publics.

"What? My past is not even a top secret anymore!" Soma roared.

Lindow arched an eyebrow at Soma's unusual burst of rage. Never for the past seven years he had witness such behavior from this kid. Sure, the grumpy did throw a fit for a few times within his sight, but it was usually just a few nasty insults and a huff, then the kid would proceed the ritual of isolating himself from the rest until mission calls. Never once he would pour his heart out through his rage like he did now.

"Geez, just when I thought that rookie have set you back on the right track… Huh?" Lindow instantly went stunned. He was convinced that he had just mentioned a rookie, but which one? Annette? No, these two had never spoken more than two sentences to each other in combine. Federico? No, not even close. That kid flinched like Shun did whenever Soma was within his eyeshot. It couldn't possibly be Aurora. It will be utter ridiculous because that girl was never here… right?

As the third person was being plague by confusions, Soma rashly pulled himself away from the taller man's tight grips. He took in a deep breath trying to sooth his still flaring anger, and starting to wonder what have been keeping him sane all these years in the very first place.

There again, he found his own hand unknowingly snaked into the empty inner pocket of his jacket and grab on nothing…

"It's a promise."

Soma tensed up at the small fragment of foreign yet horrifyingly familiar memory that suddenly emerged from the sea of his mind.

'What was that?' He asked himself.

"What's with all the commotion here?" A stern voice and the familiar clicking of high heels promptly snapped everyone out of their stupor's state. Most of the bystanders swiftly dismissed and scrambled away from the scene as they don't want to be ended being victims being questioned by the strict instructor.

"Oh, hey, Big Sis!" Lindow chuckled dryly and give a casual wave to his older sister.

"Don't you 'Big Sis' me! I'm asking what's with all those shouting and noises going on here." Tsubaki pressed, brows knitted close into a discontented frown as she scowled at her only younger brother before her, demanding immediate answer from him, "I could even hear the entire ruckus from inside of the elevator."

"Oh, you know," Lindow grinned and hand scratching the back of his head with another placed on the side of his hip, trying to come up with an answer which no one would ended up getting into trouble, "It's very normal for youngsters to get into a fight once in a while, healthy even! It's a sign that they are growing up normal and trying to fit in into the crowd with the wrong way!"

Okay, that doesn't make any sense. Lindow silently admitted.

Knowing her own younger brother for her whole life, she had easily figured out what the raven meant, Tsubaki frowned with disapproval but did not press further for details, instead she scolded sternly, "I don't have time to give lectures to all of you one by one, but do bear in mind that you are in the Den, not some random arena for fist fighting. Show some discipline and dignity as a God Eater before the new recruits, do I make myself clear?"

No one talked back nor they would dare to go against the instructor when she literally steps her foot down to the matter using that kind of stern tone. Yet there are times, some people just don't have the temperance to endure the lecture at that moment.

"Tch."

"You have a problem, Soma?" Tsubaki glowered at the teen, watch as he turned on his heels and proceed to leave the entrance, much to her surprise. No matter how annoyed the platinum blond may be, he would usually hold back his own urge to leave the crowd and stay until she was done briefing what they needed to know, "Where do you think you are going? I'm not done talking here!"

Soma didn't stop nor reply even when she had raised her voice, eventually trotted out from everyone's sight. No one dared to sprout a word. Not when they was uncertain of their instructor's mood at the moment. They felt like they are walking on eggshells, until…

"So, Big sis!" Lindow voiced out suddenly, trying to snap his older sister's attention away from the long-gone teen. Whatever's going on in Soma's head, it could wait, "I bet you didn't come all the way here from your office just to shout at us for being loud, right?"

"Right," Tsubaki finally averted her eyes away from where Soma had left and sighed, "Indeed, there's something I need to announce." Dealing with Soma's attitude issue could be dealt later; she added the last part to herself.

"Is it about the recruits that would be placed in our unit?" Sakuya, who had been quiet through the whole ordeal, finally spoke with her usual calm voice, hands tapping on the remaining two teens on the shoulder, trying her best to snap them out from their sudden perplexed states.

"Yes, and they should be here in a minute or two." Tsubaki replied as she flipped through the files of the recruits, until she heard the familiar chime of the elevator, "Ah, speaking of the devils."

The group's attentions were instantly attracted towards the new faces in the entrance, and awed as they realized that the newcomers are a set of twins. They shared the same tall builds and identical faces. The only things could tell the duo apart was the side of their fringes and different hair length along with different choice of uniforms. If they were to look likewise, it was impossible to tell them apart.

The said duo strode to stand next to Tsubaki in front of the group their soon-to-be teammates, with one of the twin who dressed in khaki sniper uniform appeared relax and natural while the other twin dressed in blue battle uniform seemed to be impassive. They stood there, waiting for their instructor to start the introduction as the others taking in their sharp appearances.

"Kanzaki and Kansugi…was it?" Tsubaki questioned, frowning as she was done scanning through their files. However, she immediately masked her doubtful expression before anyone noticed. "Go ahead and introduce yourselves."

With that, the one who dressed in khaki sniper uniform took the initiative to introduce himself to the group with a small smile, "I'm Kansugi, I've been assigned to the 1st Unit as of today."

"I'm Kanzaki, older brother of Kansugi, and I'm as well have been assigned to the 1st Unit." The other twin dressed in blue battle uniform introduced soon after.

"Heya!" Lindow casually waved and replied, "Welcome to the Far East Branch. I'm the Leader of the 1st Unit, the name is Lindow. Let us all get along!"

"Huh?" Sakuya was slightly confused when she noticed something was off, "Just given names? What about both of your family name?" not to mention, these two's given name sounds more like one of those rare family name instead.

"We don't have one," Kanzaki replied sharply, but not in an offending tone.

"Oh, my bad." Sakuya promptly apologized, assuming they are one of those orphans.

"This is so cool!" Kota cried with incitement and pumped his first into the air, "I have never seen a set of identical twins in my whole live! Say, do you guys possess one of that tel…teli?- No, telegraphy?"

"You mean telepathy." Alisa can't help but corrected the helpless teen with an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say!" Kota thanked and continued, "Can you two like… finishes each other's words and could tell what each other was doing when you guys are apart?"

Kanzaki held back the urge to roll his eyes, remained quiet to that and leave it to his younger brother to reply most of the possible questions, which Kansugi gets the hint and replied the excited teen instead, "Yes, we can."

There are more questions that Kota wanted to ask, but Tsubaki quickly intervened as it was time for the two new recruits to undergo medical check-ups, "This ends the short introduction. You guys could have your own session of Q&As later. As for you two, go to Dr. Sakaki's lab for medical check-ups."

"Yes, ma'am." Kansugi replied, and Kanzaki just gave her a small nod before setting towards the doctor's lab. Once the duo was out of sight, Tsubaki continued, "As you can see, both of them are New-Type Gods Eaters. Since Lindow and Alisa know more about New-Type's combat skills, I'll leave them under your cares."

"Understood." Alisa replied swiftly. However Lindow on the other hand, was showing a rather rare moment of hesitation as his eyes remained locked at where the twins had left before he reply.

"Are you sure they need our guidance at all?" Tsubaki frowned at his remark.

"What do you mean by that, Lindow?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure you have noticed by now, those two are no amateurs in combats." Lindow shrugged. He had been in this line of work for years. He had been working alongside with various kinds of fighters, and had guided numerous batches of newbies through the blood soaking ritual out there, so it wasn't that hard to tell apart the air of a veteran and an amateur. Yet that duo's presences were simply overwhelming. They may look a few year younger his age, but there's a sheer moment Lindow actually felt like a toddler in comparison right at the moment he looked them straight into the eyes. They looked far wiser, tougher, and excel than more of the veterans in the whole Den combined. No matter how much they tried to mask themselves, eyes won't lie.

"You are probably right, Lindow." Tsubaki sighed in defeated and set her eyes on the files she was holding, "In fact, we don't really know much about the two of them. Additionally, Dr. Sakaki demanded their recruitment to remain unknown to the HQ."

"Why?" Lindow was taken aback.

"He won't tell. We would never know what's going on in that doctor's mind," Tsubaki shook her head, "but I still have my trust in his nature at least. Let's just hope things won't turn complicated."

Yes, no matter how much the two tried to mask themselves from them, it was impossible to conceal the natural domineering air surrounded them.

Those are the eyes of true veterans.

A/N:

Uh-oh! What happened to our female protagonist?

Curious?

Then stay tune! XD