Sayaka, I determined, was much nicer than my initial impression of her would have suggested.
Not that that was a hard thing to achieve, but the genuinely apologetic girl was a nice break from the crazy bitch from before, and the ninjas before her.
Sayaka, for now, had temporarily exited the room, probably going to grab a snack or something.
Which left me with the white cat thing that was Kyubey.
The confusing creature. It was an odd thing to me; It's appearance was strange, certainly, but there was more to it than that.
Even more confusing was the fact that I couldn't sense its emotions. Sayaka's; I could easily feel from the other room -Primarily mortification mixed with embarrassment-, but Kyubey may as well have been a blank spot to me.
Which was weird, to say the least. I could see the creature's Heart, as dim as it appeared to my sight, but I could see it.
"What are your intentions on this planet?"
I looked over to Kyubey, temporarily broken out of my musings.
What indeed...
I scribbled on a notepad that I had temporarily borrowed from Sayaka, before tearing off the sheet and holding it up to him.
'None.'
"If you do not have intentions, then why did you come here?"
'No reason, this place was simply the closest to where I was.'
"If you have no purpose here, then what shall you be doing?"
What was this, an interrogation? No, don't answer that.
'I'll be leaving.'
Had to go back and let Shikaku know that I'm still alive. And Shikamaru, too, the kid was quite attached to me.
Also had to watch the fallout from Danzo's death and make sure things didn't get worse.
"Do you require assistance?"
'No.'
It seemed like Kyubey was satisfied with that, because it stopped asking questions.
Or maybe it was Sayaka walking in with a sandwich in one hand and a small... needle-like object in the other.
I'm not sure how to describe it, but the lower portion of it was a long, thin needle, which ended in a small, blackened gem locked in place with several pieces of metal, with a small decoration on top.
Sayaka, I noted, was frowning.
But much more important and immediately concerning; that little thing.
To normal eyes, it looked normal, unassuming.
I did not have normal eyes.
Utter Darkness. Despair, Hate, Grief, Sadness.
A torrent of negative emotions was contained within the gem, more emotion than I'd ever seen contained in a single place.
And with such powerful emotion, Darkness was never far behind.
It was black. The Darkness along with the emotion, the highest concentration I'd ever seen, baring only one.
Myself.
Yeah, no. That Darkness had to go.
Sayaka apparently finished her sandwich while I was focused on the gem, because her other hand now had a dull blue gem contained within an ornate holder.
I stared at it with interest, because the gem also contained emotions.
Hope and Despair, Anger and Calm, Happiness and Sadness.
Darkness and Light.
Far more of the former than I found myself comfortable with.
Far more than could come from a girl her age, I noted.
"This is my last Grief Seed." She said, frowning.
So, that was the name. How appropriate.
"You'll need to go and get more. That one is close to full."
Sayaka nodded.
She brought the needle part of the Grief Seed to her own gem.
I watched, in two sights, as it happened. The gem she held grew brighter, shining with some inner light.
The Darkness, the Emotion flowed from the gem; the Excess drawn from the gem into the Grief Seed, pulling away the Despair, the Grief, the Hate and Anger.
And the Darkness.
It was over quickly, her gem bright and sparkling, the Grief Seed dark and almost pulsating.
I stared at it, now extremely uncomfortable with it.
Sayaka nodded towards Kyubey.
And then she noticed my staring at it.
"Um... do you want to take a look at it?" She asked, blushing only slightly.
I broke my gaze, looking at her for a second, then nodded.
She held out the Grief Seed, and I took it.
I idly noted Kyubey twitching as I took it, but I didn't really care about that.
As I held the Grief Seed in hand, I stared at it carefully.
As I looked, I could only confirm what Sayaka had done, transferring the emotion and Darkness into the Grief Seed.
More negative emotions, more Darkness, concentrated.
If ever there were a condition to birth Heartless, these would be among it.
I brought a claw up and tapped my finger against the gem.
I could feel the Darkness all but roiling under, like a container under too much pressure.
Preparing myself, I pulled.
The Darkness from the Grief Seed flowed into me, pulled away from the emotion, brought into myself.
Delicious.
I could feel it, see it where it flowed from the Grief Seed into me, the very nature of Darkness itself drawing it out, adding itself to me.
But it was not me. The Darkness flowed, Darkness that was not a part of the Darkness that composed my being.
It listed in my hand, passing through my body, slowly assimilating with me, slowly becoming a part of me.
The Darkness that I assimilated, that which was drawn to me and made to compose me, flowed around my body, adding to my size, my strength, my speed, my very existence.
What little of that I had, anyway.
But...
It was not what I wanted. I grew, yes, I became faster and stronger, but I also became simply larger.
I was growing towards becoming a Mega-Shadow, and a Gigas Shadow later still.
But that wasn't what I wanted.
With a mental frown, I pulled. Darkness flowed back, becoming denser, lengthening and strengthening. I lost most of my size, but not my strength, not my power.
The Grief Seed fell out of my hand, a deep purple gem devoid of Darkness almost entirely.
In the slight reflection offered by its surface, I caught sight of myself.
Antennae grown long, sticking out of my head. Arms and legs rearranged, the form different, but not uncomfortably so.
Small. Smaller than what I should be, smaller than what I had been seeking to become. But, still...
A Neo Shadow stared back.
Me.
"Interesting."
The faux-eager voice of Kyubey was one that I had become accustomed to, now.
"You appear to have condensed the emotions in the Grief Seed." He stated.
The Grief Seed floated in front of his eyes, though his expression didn't change, as always.
One paw reached out and touched it.
"That's curious."
His paw suddenly gained a sheet of colour, a purple-pink wave flowing up his fur. The Grief Seed, beneath him, slowly became more and more pale, until the flood of colour stopped and the Grief Seed became nothing more than a very light grey shade.
"Normally, extracting these emotions requires the destruction of the Grief Seed, however, whatever you did to it appears to have loosened the bindings on them."
Kyubey retracted his paw, still examining the Grief Seed.
"The structure is still intact." He continued.
"What does that mean?" Sayaka asked.
"You might be able to use it again."