Earthbound: Champions of the Future

Chapter Thirty Eight

~ Syo's POV ~

I flew out of Naoma's scarf as she fell to the ground, unable to stop herself from falling forwards after we teleported to Siton. Only Gaius remained standing, laughing hysterically as Naoma groaned with pain.

"That's just mean, Gaius!" I scolded, crossing my arms with a huff. "We're not as used to teleporting as you are!"

"Yeah, maybe I should've told you it's pretty rough on your first time..." Gaius admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Naoma pushed herself off the road and brushed herself down. "We need to go to the theatre and check on the people there." She said. "Azura sounded pretty worried about them. After all, before she met the priestess, they were her family."

I turned towards the theatre. "I think we have bigger things to worry about." I said, pointing towards it. Naoma turned to where I was pointing and gasped.

The roof of the theatre had previously been on fire, if the charred black of it didn't give it away enough. Small embers here and there were still alight, although they were too weak to do any real damage. The previous sign above the door had fallen off, laying in pieces on the sidewalk, no longer light up by green neon lights.

"Another psychic is nearby." Gaius said. "They must've been the one who burnt that place down. That fire isn't natural fire, I can feel it."

"That must have been Ciar." Naoma responded. "And if Ciar's here, then Emi and S'yan can't be too far behind, right? We just have to do some looking around."

Gaius gripped one of the knives that he kept in his belt. "You know him?" He asked, nodding towards someone to Naoma's right. Naoma whirled around, her hair whipping behind her, her fists clenched angrily.

She somewhat relaxed when she saw it was S'yan who Gaius was referring to. He looked angry; angrier than usual. His steps towards us were slow, while his eyes held a harsher glare than I had seen before. Before Naoma could begin to say anything, he interrupted. "Where is he?" He asked.

Naoma blinked, stepping backwards in her confusion. "He?" She repeated. "Do you mean Ciar? We don't know. We just got here. Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. I'm glad that we-"

"Doesn't matter?" S'yan echoed. "He took Emi. She fell unconscious and he kidnapped her."

"Wh-What?" Naoma gulped. "I-In that case, we should go look for her-"

"No." S'yan interrupted yet again. "You will not accompany me. I must look for her alone. I can trust nobody else."

"But that's why we're here in the first place!" Naoma exclaimed. "S'yan, everything Ciar told you was a lie! I'm not working for anyone, let alone my father! I don't know what my father did to you, and I know it must have hurt you... but you can trust me again! I promise!"

S'yan paused, his eyes narrowing. "I never trusted you." He snarled.

Before Naoma could react, a fist collided with her stomach. Gagging, she flew backwards, crashing into the road in a crumpled heap. I flew over and landed next to her, watched as her chest quickly rose and fell as she gritted her teeth against the pain. "Gaius!" I yelled.

"Don't worry, I got this." The thief responded, taking the knives from his belt and charging towards S'yan to take Naoma's place.

"Are you okay...?" I whispered. Naoma cracked a green eye open slightly as she pushed herself off the ground. "Don't move too quickly..." I added.

"I knew he was strong, but I definitely wasn't expecting that..." Naoma muttered, rubbing her stomach to ease off the lingering pain. "I don't think he'll listen to what we have to say, but I don't really want to fight him, either."

"Plus, if what he said is true, then Emi's in danger." I said. "It'd be better if we can get him to come with us before we went to look for her, though. He might know something."

Naoma nodded and turned back towards Gaius, who was still, although only barely, holding off S'yan. Drawing her sword from it's sheath, Naoma ran to Gaius' side and jumped in front of him just as S'yan was about to throw in another punch. His fist stopped just short of her face, although she still flinched slightly.

"I don't have time for this." S'yan growled. "Tell me where Emi is. Now."

"I told you we don't know." Naoma responded. "I don't work for Ciar or for my father."

"Then you are useless to me." S'yan muttered. He grabbed Naoma's wrist and threw her over his shoulder. Instead of falling face first into the tarmac, she flipped in mid-air, gathering her bearings before landing on both feet. She sheathed her sword as her ring began to glow.

"Now would be a great time to try this out." She smirked.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked. "I mean, last time, you almost completely lost yourself to your beast side."

"Yeah, but that was before." Naoma shrugged. "Abbess Mizu said that this ring controls me when I use it, so I can switch whenever I want and be completely fine! I just have to figure out how to actually trigger the switch..."

I nodded, uncertainty still lingering in my head as I turned back towards Gaius and S'yan. "I've got just the thing for you, buddy old pal." Gaius grinned. He quickly sheathed one of his knives and pointed a gloved finger at S'yan. "Brainshock!"

S'yan immediately wavered, placing a hand on the theatre wall to steady himself. "What did you...do to me?" He whispered, apparently unable to raise his voice.

Gaius examined his blades proudly. "Feeling a little dizzy there? Brainshock does that to you."

"Way to go, Gaius!" I exclaimed, clapping excitedly. "Now then, S'yan... will you finally listen to what we have to say?"

Naoma stopped gazing at her ring and jogged over, hands on her hips. "Like I said earlier, everything Ciar told you was a lie. I'm not a traitor."

"Do you think we didn't already know that?" S'yan questioned. "We only agreed with his words because we knew who he truly was. Emi tried to attack him, but he kidnapped her in the attempt."

"He must have already known about that plan." Gaius said. "Ciar's got some real strong telepathy going for him."

"Then... why didn't you just tell me that was your plan?" Naoma asked, looking slightly hurt. "He isn't here. You could've told us when you saw us."

"You may not have been the traitor Ciar said you were, but you are still untrustworthy." S'yan replied. "As I said, I trust no one."

Naoma hesitated, staring at her shoes before looking up with a sigh. "Gaius, you can break off whatever you're doing to his head."

"Okay." Gaius shrugged. S'yan immediately recovered from the Brainshock and stood to his full height, glancing away from us with his usual gloomy expression.

"What do we do now?" I asked. "We need to look for Emi."

"I wouldn't worry." Naoma replied. "Emi came to us first."

I followed her gaze and gasped. Emi was slowly approaching, hands clenched into fists and her hair falling over her face, a grinning Ciar following closely behind her.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i'm breaking rotation to finish cotf before the end of the year this is me being a rebel

AceAttorneyFan over and out!