The Aura Within | Pokémon

Twenty Nine | Back To Back (Part III)

"Kazuma...?"

All eyes were now on a very unstable Axel, who stared incredulously at the entity before him. This being, who was also Claire's trump card, was once Axel's older brother who slaughtered his own family. His name was Kazuma Rosario, the eldest son of his parents: Marcus and Malia Rosario. It was believed after the day his family was slaughtered, Kazuma had disappeared and stayed hidden in the shadows. He was like a ghost roaming the earth while hidden away from the rest of his kind.

Only now was he truly a spirit of the undead.

Claire smirked at the distressed Axel, enjoying every moment of this. It was as if watching his distress fed her sick and twisted amusement. However, even though she wouldn't admit it, Axel wore the exact same distressed and shocked look when her loved ones were killed right in front of her by corrupted sadists.

"Axel..." Akira mumbled as she gave him a disbelieving look. "How do you know—"

"He's my older brother," he growled, the endured rage within him beginning to rise to the surface. "He's my traitorous brother who killed our family!"

Upon hearing this, Maya's eyes widened when she saw how angry and furious Axel suddenly became. His entire figure quaked while his knuckles turned white because of how tightly he held his sword. The guilt within her rose quite a bit. It was bad enough she had to betray her own childhood friend, but now knowing that her boss was using Axel's own kin to kill him made her feel awful. He trusted her with his past, but what for?

She didn't even know.

If only she was given the chance, she would do almost anything to help. Maya never wanted any of this to happen. She never wanted to place innocent people in danger, but what's done was done.

They trusted me, she thought as she glanced at Soul and Axel.

"Kazuma Rosario, A-ranked criminal of the nation of Kanto," Claire introduced. "Charged for the murder of his own family, thievery, and many other assassinations. His head is worth six million gold coins."

"I should've known that name sounded familiar..." Blake thought out loud. "Duke Belray mentioned that one of his cousins were robbed of their most expensive artifacts by a man of that name."

"An A-ranked criminal is your final trump card?" Aaron scoffed. "You certainly have no shame in resorting to such tactics."

"Enough!" Axel shouted, causing everyone to flinch at the fury of his tone. "No one else is allowed to engage in battle with him but me!"

"But—"

"My life was ruined by him, my own brother. He's the whole reason my life had been so hard. I made it my goal to kill him as a consequence for all of the sins he's committed, all of the blood he's spilled," Axel fumed, glaring daggers at the man before him. He looked back at his teammates, his eyes clouded with rage and vengeance.

"If any of you get in my way, I'll take you down as well!"

Everyone, including Soul, were taken aback from what he said. They had no idea where all this anger came from, but all they knew was that he was very furious. Recovering from Axel's outburst, Blake glared at the curly haired knight. How could he say such a thing to his own teammates? The blond knight began to step toward Axel with a very angry look, but Aaron held his hand out to stop him.

"Let him be, Blake," he spoke calmly. "We'll only get in his way."

"... Tch, fine," Blake mumbled, still unhappy of what happened.

"Just by looking at them, you can tell there's definitely bad blood between the two," Akira observed, a worried expression etched on her face.

Maya couldn't help but agree with what she heard Akira say. Two brothers who shared the same blood shouldn't have this amount of hatred sparking between them. In this case, it seemed like Axel was the one who burned with hatred from Kazuma while the older brother did nothing but exist to only feed that anger. Despite all that's happened, they're still the only family they have. If one were to fall right before their eyes, would the other have felt remorse?