CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.57 'THE EYE OF THE STORM'

In time, all wounds healed. That was what Ban had once told Saionji. Lately, she had been calling into question her lessons from the man, but most recently, those thoughts had quieted down. She had felt helpless in the eye of the storm, helpless when they were all divided by a rampant Chimera. But when she came up with the plan, the one which subdued the storm which had brought them so far down, she felt a sense of accomplishment after the fact. To her, that feeling of having pulled through, even with the injuries they had sustained, she felt was the world. Sipping from a wooden cup, she exhaled, and looked at the beautiful fall colors surrounding Baka-Bayashi's greenhouse-turned campsite.

Greenish-golden bamboo leaves, something which she had barely seen before, now enveloped them entirely... whether it was autumn shifting their colors, or the terrible weather having killed off the hardy plants, she couldn't tell. Rays of pink sunlight peeked out from beside the mountainside neighboring them, and she watched as she took another sip of Hirano's delicious tea. Shimoda came to sit beside her, now bandaged and seemingly far better than he had been after they fought against 'Geryon.'

Since that fight, she had been unable to rid her hair of the golden streaks which now branded her. In all fairness, she didn't hate it, but when she saw herself in a puddle, she almost didn't recognize herself. A slight, angular frown forming on her lips as she thought about it, Shimoda took a sip of tea and cleared his throat. "Holding up, Saiji? Sorry I didn't ask sooner, you've just been so busy, helping out... Doesn't leave a lot of time to talk." He shook his head as he spoke, as though he was a disappointment of a brother.

Saionji set her now empty cup to the side and blinked as she inhaled some of the brisk autumnal air before looking to her brother, her emerald-green eyes mirroring his own more hazel-colored eyes. Her frown became a slight, though more present smile, and she gently punched him on the shoulder, her head tilting ever so slightly to the side, as though what he said was absolutely outrageous. "I'm doing good, don't worry about me Shoda! It'd be silly of me to want your attention all the time!" She rested her hands against the plank of wood which Bayashi called a swing, which they now sat on, and began to slightly kick her feet about.

"Huh? Oh, I guess... You're right, it would be silly. Yeah." Shimoda himself seemed unamused, the quizzical look in his eyes fading like a dying spark of interest. Maybe Saionji really didn't want to talk to him. "You've got everybody to look after, after all."

Raising her brow, Saionji finally picked up on Shimoda's sudden reserved mannerisms, and she placed a hand on her brother's shoulder. Looking him in the eyes again, she began to frown... even if she was feeling like they were on top of the world, she couldn't ignore somebody in need, especially not her brother. "Is something up? You've got a look in your eyes... if it's important, I'm sure Andrei can pick up my work to help."

It was at that moment that Shimoda's reservation seemed to crack. Those feelings, his inferiority, and his failures in comparison to Andrei... What was he doing right that Shimoda wasn't? He had everything, the attention... everything, right? Maybe he just had to be tougher... that was it. "It's nothing. Just... that slash I took was pretty harsh. I'm still not feeling totally myself, you know?"

Saionji locked eyes with Shimoda for another moment, the two Akotos seemingly locked in a contest. It wasn't something they did often... Shimoda never liked to step on Saionji's toes, and vice-versa, even if sometimes they got on each other's nerves. Eventually relenting, she couldn't force Shimoda to tell her everything, he was his own person after all. "Alright, just... let me know, if anything comes up, alright?" As she spoke, she began to stand up, picking her teacup back up once more.

"Yeah, I will." Shimoda said, his voice hollow as he watched Saionji get up. As she gave him one last glance, he almost thought about speaking out, but she was gone before he could fight back his own nerves. Taking another sip of Hirano's tea, he looked down to the ground, a plain glum look on his face.