Once the moment of understanding had passed from Crystal’s face, her radiant smile returned, followed by a sudden, diving hug into Aryu’s arms, sandwiching the extremely dangerous sword between them.
He held her back, unsure of what to do and weary of moving too much in fear of the dangerously sharp blade between them. Soon, she let go, tears in her eyes. (Of joy? Of pain? He couldn’t tell.)
“How did you know what to do? she asked.
Aryu was flabbergasted. “I, um… I just assumed. Power saved you before, and this is all I have, so I hoped it would help. Did it?”
She wiped the tears from her eyes and laughed lightly. “You had better believe it did, Aryu. The sword Izuku has was something from the Est Vacuus. I don’t know why or how, but it was a piece of it. A slice in our own reality, here in the heart of the Omnis. I felt it again and was lost to its nothingness. How he ever got something like that in his hands I couldn’t even guess, but it is a very, very dangerous weapon. I don’t even know how he’s holding it. We were extremely lucky.”
“If that’s true, why couldn’t I feel it like you, at least on some level? Is it one of those ‘not experienced enough to feel it’ things, because I’m getting really sick of that.”
“No, the Est Vacuus extends beyond something as small as the Power. It is the embodiment of nothing. No one can escape that.”
“Except me, it seems.”
“No, not even you do; however, you carry the Shi Kaze, which is the closest thing this reality has to a pure piece of the Omnis. It would seem that the two cancel each other out.”
“Which is why I hit him like he was kicked by a horse! He didn’t know what I had could hurt him.”
“Hurt him? Aryu, you could have killed him with ease right then and there. He lives only because of the intervention of luck and fate.”
Aryu became dejected at the thought of how close he was to ending it all. Luck and fate. Old adversaries revisited once more. “Should we chase him?”
“No, we’ll never catch him now. Besides, now that he knows what you have, he won’t be so giving with the free shots from now on. I’d say we’ll be hard pressed to get you near him again.”
“Oh, I’ll get near him, don’t worry about that. He has crimes to pay for, and answers to give.” The things he’d said before disappearing weighed heavily on Aryu. What did Izuku know about who he was? What doors to open? “Can you move? We should try to keep going. We need to find you a cure.”
“I’m not sure I need one,” Crystal whispered. Aryu wasn’t sure what she meant but knew she needed to regain the Power before they faced Izuku and his blade of the Nothing again. “You’re right. Let’s go.” She was up and leading the way once more, Aryu following behind, watching for another attack. “Thank you, Aryu,” she said as they left. “Thank you for bringing me back.”
“Let’s try to find that cure and that way you don’t have to go there again.” A faint smile from her. One that said that she wasn’t so sure.
“I didn’t hurt you with that thing when I hugged you, did I?”
Aryu shook his head. “No, I’m fine. Thanks for the hug, though.”
“Aryu, in another time and another place, I would have kissed you.”
Despite his reticence to her and her attractiveness, it was a thought he didn’t hate.
-----------------------
They hunted high and low for a lab or some other location likely to have the fabled cure, but after searching room after room they realized they were searching for a needle in a haystack and called off their search before they ran out of time. HOME was burning madly, sirens blared everywhere, and it was clear that whoever was left was abandoning ship very quickly.
Finding Sho and Nixon seemed the best bet. They had agreed to meet on the roof of the ship once they were done with their respective tasks. They found a set of stairs leading up and eventually made it to the roof of HOME once more, the sunlight cutting through the smoke from the crash site blinding them temporarily.
Sho and Nixon were there. Sho spotted his mother and Aryu and waved them over. Fires burned unattended and a few scattered piles of mechanical debris indicated that any remaining resistance from the Army of the Old left on the top deck had been quickly and easily dispatched.
Nixon told them of the revelation of Team Yosuru and what that could mean. If Izuku did have a small army of Embracers, it made him that much more dangerous. The upside was that they had Nixon’s righteous broadsword and the Shi Kaze, two weapons that could easily take them down, not to mention the still hush-hush fact that Nixon was the same powerful beast of a man he always was.
“We’ve got t’ get off this thing and head north after ‘em,” Nixon explained. “There are n’ more vehicles left 'ere we can take, so I fear it may be a long way fer us. Hopefully we can make up some ground when we reach land. Sho, d’ ya know tha best way t’ follow ’em? Any idea where they’re goin’?”
Sho was unsure. “They were moving west, away from our home. There’s a large river estuary far northwest of here. Beyond that, a few small cities and towns, eventually leading to the Vein River Valley, but unless we find a faster means of moving other than walking or labored gliding, it’s still a great distance to go, and they have a hell of a head start.”
“Then we catch ‘em when they stop,” Nixon
