Under the warm sun of the following morning, Araiso woke up. He opened his eyes slowly peeking through the sand, then sat up, pushing the kelp off of him. It took him a few minutes to realize there was a small stack of clothes sitting next to him. He looked up slowly, spotting Daaku higher up on the slope to come down to the beach Araiso was on.
Confused, Araiso got dressed in the provided clothes and then made his way up to see Daaku.
He just waved, “Hey. I was wondering if you were dead cause that scar on your back.”
Araiso blinked. Scar? He lifted the shirt, looking to his stomach. He paled, seeing the darkened skin of the scar on his stomach and remembered being stabbed through by Navy.
“You seem ok though.” Daaku said, catching Araiso’s attention back. “Want to see Kasei?”
He nodded and followed Daaku to a car. After driving for a few minutes into town, Daaku parked and walked out with Kasei stopping in front of a large white building almost seven stories high.
“Know what this place is?” Daaku asked, looking to Araiso. He shook his head. “It’s a hospital. When humans get really ill, they come here to hopefully be cured by other humans. Sometimes,” he paused, “they die.”
Araiso looked to Daaku, not sure what to do. He just followed when Daaku walked in. He watched as he conversed with the woman at the counter for a moment and then led Araiso up through the halls. They stopped on the fourth floor in front of a door. Daaku hit a button on the side and the light above the door turned from red to green, and the door slid open to the left.
Araiso blinked, walking in slowly after Daaku motioned for him to go in.
The room was a pretty plain single person’s sleeping ward. There was no heart monitoring machine, or IVs, just a bed and some counters with first aid stuff placed about. Laying in the bed was Kasei, seeming to be asleep.
As Araiso grew closer to the bed to see, Kasei’s eyes opened slowly and he sat up. “Hey Daaku. Who’s this?” He had a rougher ruder tone than Araiso was accustomed to.
“…Araiso. One of your best friends.” Daaku answered. “How’re you feeling?”
“Better.” Kasei answered rubbing his head. “How long’ve I been in here? You know how I feel about hospitals.”
Daaku nodded with a chuckle. “Yeah… Only about a day. You came in because you collapsed on the beach.”
“Beach?” Kasei blinked, staring at Daaku. “I hate the ocean. Why the hell was I there?”
Araiso gawked, not believing what he was hearing. Daaku nodded, “This guy, he’s convinced you to take up swimming again.”
“Like hell!” Kasei shouted angrily. “He can eat my dust! I’ll never swim again! Not ever!”
Daaku tilted his head to the side, thinking. “Hmm… Araiso, I want to talk with you. I’ll be right back, Kasei.”
“Yeah.” Came Kasei’s rude reply as Daaku pulled Araiso by the arm out of the room.
He dragged Araiso down to the first floor into a inner church deep within the hospital. Abyss was in there already inspecting the podium at the front under a statue of a woman dressed elegantly.
“Hey! Abyss, I found him.” Daaku called, walking over to the other with Araiso. He paused, crossing his arms. “It seems Kasei has amnesia for the last month.”
Araiso and Abyss both blinked, not understanding.
“It means he’s forgotten everything.”
Araiso slowly looked down.
Daaku shrugged, “I’ll go up and talk with him and see what I can find out. Why don’t you two wait here?”
Araiso lifted his head up to protest, not really sure what he should try to say.
Daaku waved his arm, “Don’t think about it. Kasei’s rude to people he’s just met and, to him, he’s never met you. If you talk to him now, you’ll just be asking for trouble.”
Daaku sighed and waved for the two to stay, and then left the room.
“It seems he’s forgotten due to Gaia’s power thrusting through him.” Abyss thought, his thoughts conveying over to Araiso telepathically.
“Ha ha! What total dorks!” came a laugh from up in the rafters of the room. Abyss glared up as a young man jumped down from above. He had black straight hair pulled back into a ponytail, eyes as cyan as Araiso’s and stood as tall as Kasei, but he looked to be only 16.
“Really! Why are sea children worrying over land children?” The man asked, shrugging his arms out. “Isn’t it supposed to be that they can’t interact with us? So isn’t it good that he doesn’t remember you?”
Araiso blinked, feeling oddly sad. Abyss just was getting pissed off, as his glare hardened on the other.
“Oh don’t get me wrong,” said the man. “It’s all good and well if the humans weren’t about to be whipped off the face of the planet.”
Abyss stomped his foot, demanding an answer silently.
“What?” He blinked. “You didn’t know? Procne told all of us - children of the Heavens - that her and Poseidon were going to flood the planet and return Gaia to her former power.”
Araiso shook his head, trying to shout but no sound came.
The man laughed, “What? They are gods after all. They can do with us what they want, right?”
Araiso stomped his foot, getting frustrated.
“Hey don’t take your anger out on me.” The man laughed again. “You’re the one who revived the guy and made him forget everything.”
Araiso paled, staring at the other. Abyss saw this and rushed up to the mystery man, touching his forehead with a single tip of his finger.
The man laughed uneasily, “Wh-what? You mean you really didn’t think that he’d be able to keep his memories after using Gaia’s power? I mean, it should’ve killed him.” Abyss pressed his finger in, a dark aura appearing around him. “Now… Now… No need to get so pissed…” Abyss wasn’t listening, the darkness starting to go around the other.
The other jumped back, standing on the podium. “See here!” He clapped his hands together as if in prayer and white wings spurted forth from his back suddenly. “You can’t do me any harm! I’m a child of the sky!”
Abyss snickered, a “Heh.” of breath sound leaving his lips.
Abyss extended his palm fully at the other, a blast of black energy slamming into the angel. It was all over in an instant, as the angel fell to the floor. The black energy disappeared like mist into his body, his wings turning black. Then quickly, his feathers withered away to dust and then were gone, back into his back.
Abyss walked slowly over the angel, looking down upon him. “So much for immunity to my power.”
Araiso stared, “…You shouldn’t have done that. Procne will be mad at us.”
“So?” Abyss turned to Araiso, “You stopped Navy from flooding the planet to find out that’s what the gods intended all along? You know that’s wrong.” Araiso slowly nodded, looking down. “If we’re going to do this, then we’ll need an angel’s help.”
“Do what?” Araiso looked up, seeing Abyss grow crooked smile. He didn’t even need to telepathically say his plan. It was clear on his face.
We’ll take out the gods.
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