Chapter 18 — “Good Work”

Chapter 18 — “Good Work”

It is as if time itself has been frozen. The hails and debris, encapsulated by green aura is completely still for minutes now — staggering for controls. Lime and Noah watches each other, encircling the eye of the storm. The moment passes like nothing happens, but they are struggling to control the storm — to control the battlefield itself. They are like eagles, constantly having a mind game of their own, battling for one single blunder to turn the battle over. The storm has stopped its rampaging spiral for some time, and now has become the audience of the two.

“When I first see you, I see a girl struggling even to throw chairs.” Noah grinned, keeping his hands up, “And now — not even three days, you’re evenly matched with a Sera.”

“It’s your fault being too confident and stopped training your power,” Lime throws the same expression as Noah, while trying not to lose her focus.

“Don’t try to instigate me, young girl. You know damn well there are no way to increase power capabilities —” Noah feels the tingling pressure of Lime’s power on the tip of his fingers. Noah, whose power overwhelmed any of his foes in his previous battles, “ — except if you are blessed enough to be a OO candidate.”

“Blessed? You called this blessing?” The comment put Lime in a worse mood, “because of this, I can’t even have a normal life.”

“Some people dread to have a grain of your power, yet here you are — complaining about it.”

“Well those people never felt the gazes of the mass judging — just because you have something special!”

“—Sounds like you will fit in easily in the Ark,”

“To be honest, maybe I would!” Lime’s revelation makes Noah raised his eyebrows in shock, “But the way you beat Lemon to a pulp, the way you rejected Bitter — I can’t stand the way of your violence! How can I feel safe with your Ark — or anywhere else?!”

“Don’t you hear yourself? You can’t stand the way of violence? Don’t be such a naive hypocrite! You know as damn well as the rest of us, that there’s no way to attain peace without violence! The SCF uses violence to us first, so we will bite the same way they brought it to us. They use every dirty tricks on the book — there’s no ‘rulebook’ in this game we’re playing! Your ignorance is baffling, and your immaturity is annoying! The world doesn’t revolves around you — even if you are the strongest!”

The way Noah barked the reality to Lime has taken her aback. She thought of a retort, but she couldn’t find any. Eye for an eye. Teeth for a teeth. That is the truth of the world.

“…Is there no middle ground for us to negotiate?” Lime pleaded. Seeing the naivety of the girl, Noah realised she couldn’t be helped it. After all, she’s still just a kid.

“The moment we show weaknesses, is the moment where we lost it all. The SCF is cunning as ever, after all” Noah’s tone becomes calmer and clearer, “If there’s at least a room for us to speak our opinion, then we wouldn’t have resort to this…unnecessary organisation.” For a moment of time, he remembered of the young boy who was part of his closest, “…we would still be a normal family, living a normal life.”

“Yeah… I suppose we both have our own dealbreaker don’t we?”

“I supposed so…”

“So…should we continue? Might as well bring out the shy guy out.” Lime points to the blank space next to Noah.

Noah looked to the direction. His eyes narrowed, “…You’ve figured it out?”

“At this point, we gotta bring out the best of us, no?”

“At this point, you’re just flaunting yourself.” Noah snickered, snapping his finger, “Ichimokuren, give her what we got.”

The storm, that came to a halt for a few minutes starts to move again as the yellow oval started to peek out again. Then, along with the roar of the thunders, it started to join the storm pac, as it begins to spiral Lime at the centre.

“Standing against Noah of The Ark isn’t really in my bucket list —,” Lime puts her guards out against the ravaging hails, “— Let alone discovering his dirty, little secret,”

Defending herself against the storm that had picked up its velocity, Lime grabbed herself some of the debris she had taken control, and made herself a green mini-tornado, countering the torque of the main tornado the ‘yellow eye’ has been developing.

“Surprised?” Noah’s words sounds like a roar in the middle of the storm

“I am, with how much you are able to keep the facade up to fool the entire world,” Lime commented.

“Anything for the sake of our dream.”

Lime flies with her handmade tornado, flinging the debris toward the ‘yellow eye’ and Noah. In response, the both of them sends hails, lighting branches, and cutting winds to the swirling Lime. The two opposing forces traded blows, chasing gone with another, as the skies turn both green and grey. The storm keeps on getting bigger and bigger, paralysing those who watches from the outside.

“I think it’s time for us to end this,” Noah raises his hands. The ‘yellow eye’ starts to glow its colour out. The rumbling of the sky gets more chaotic, as the winds slices everything in its path to dust. In a few seconds, scratches starts to form on Lime’s body, as she condensed all of her energy into a single spot, glowing with green.

“Yeah, I think it’s time.”

Noah finally let the beast out from the mist of the storm. A one-eyed dragon, with a yellow eye at the middle of its head starts to blitz toward Lime, carrying the whole storm with its body. Lime, with her eyes locked in to the Ichimokuren, throws her hands up to the sky. In one go, the energy she has been condensing is released to the dragon and the sky —

The sky split in half, along with the dragon. The afternoon sunlight beams toward the eye of the storm, as the blue sky painted across the horizon of the line Lime has pierced through. Along with the black clouds dissipating, Noah falls to his knee. The Ichimokuren’s sliced carcasses fell on the ground — basking in the orange skyline. As the mist comes falling down like the morning dew, the other part of the battlefield has been revealed as well. Shem, sitting with her legs crossed watches the aftermath while Lemon and Bitter apprehended her without resistance. A serene smile is still on her face — fit for her.

Soldiers start to swarm the area which they couldn’t even set a single step on it, ready with their weapon engaged. Lime approaches the grey-haired man. As she is about to declare her victory, she notices something about him.

“You’re…smiling?”

Noah didn’t reply.

“…You don’t have anything else hidden up your sleeve, don’t you?”

“Rest assure, that is everything The Ark has to offer,” Noah sighs, watching the smiling Shem at the distant “It just feels, unreal. The long crusade has finally closing…” Noah glances toward Shem. A line of tear flow down from the end of his eyes, as his head falls to his chest.

Following him, a sigh of relief gets out from Lime as well. She watches closely Bitter and Lemon, who nods toward her. With a confident in her voice, she finally declares,

“Noah, and Shem of The Ark — you are hereby under arrest by the Kuzumi Agency.”

“— Wait.”

A raspy voice comes from the crowd of the soldiers. And from that crowd, an old man starts to approach the main scene. It’s the man with the business suit, with his face plastered all over the world. The man who once saved the world. In a swift moment, Shem and Noah’s expression changed. The expression they never show to anyone else, except themselves — rage and terror.

“The Kuzumi Agency will be rewarded for their extraordinary campaign. For now, the SCF shall take control of the procedure.” Katsuo clears his throat, as he approaches Noah — looking at him with absolute disgust. Katsuo glances at Lime— smiling at her awkward and tense self, and brings his attention to Noah. A gentle smile rises on his face. The corporate smile that brings justice to the world.

“Effectively now, The Ark has been officially dismantled. All personnel who has associated themselves with the organisation will be taken and handled according to the law. The officers; Cham of The Ark — Domini-class, has deserted the battlefield. She will be found and will be brought to justice.” Katsuo begins his series of declaration and commands, “Noah of The Ark — Arkus-class, fooled the world with his ‘Sera-class’ power. He will face trials according to international laws he has violated…” Katsuo takes a deep breath, as he looked directly to Noah’s eyes, “Shem of The Ark —“

*BANG*

A gunshot, and a body tumbling down. Lemon watches with her widen eyes unmoving. Colour escapes her face, seeing Bitter points the smoking gun to the bloodied ground. In front of him, is the slumped body of what used to be a black hair girl, filled with smile. Her head is damp with red — the ground under her seeps the same substance. A screeching wail fills the shock. Noah’s slammed his head to the ground, unable to witness to what’s left of his family member, and Lime — standing with her eyes blank. Her face reflected her heart, as a concoction of emotion stirring.

“— in accordance to the SCF policy, the neutralisation of the Sera-class threat is complete,”

A round of applause from Katsuo Yamamoto himself. He congratulates his partnering agency, as the screech of grief howled into the dusky sky. To the Kuzumi Agency fellows, he said with heads up high, —