Episode 4- Self Discovery

It had been a few days after Flare had devoured his God-Arc and met Utsaku as a result and things have been going well ever since then, Flare fought Aragami and collected materials while Utsaku would guide him in how to defeat Aragami along with Utsaku remembering every little detail about the Aragami, locations, and materials they encountered. They had made their way into a valley as they had gone pretty far down into the lower reaches of the valley, Flare walked around as Utsaku took personal notes using Flares eyes to observe the area. Eventually Flare sat down by the running river starting to drink the water, taking a moment to relax as Utsaku spoke up.

Utsaku's core glowed as she began to speak, "Hey owner, we've been together for awhile now and I haven't heard you say your name. May I know it?" She said as she made Flare's palm manifest an eye so she could see him.

Flare thought for a moment and thought it was a good idea since he named Utsaku, "My name is Flare, I gave myself that name a long time ago... At the time there was no meaning behind it. After all I had just woken up not long before picking the name..." He said as he looked at the eye Utsaku had manifested on his hand.

Utsaku thought to herself a bit before remembering, "oh yeah, if I remember correctly. There was this book you looked at but couldn't read at the time, but looking at the memory I saw that the word Flare means sudden fire or Burst. I think it suits you!" She said as she made the eye vanish before growing another eye on the back of Flare's other hand and on the back of his neck, looking around the area to keep watch for Aragami.

Flare softly chuckled for the first time in a long while as he warmly smiled, "Yeah I suppose so, I'm glad you like my name too..." He said as he snacked on some candy he had found awhile ago, nothing special just some mints.

Utsaku looked at the candy and manifested a monstrous mouth on Flares arm having it open, with Flare feeding her the candy. "This is tasty, it's crunchy though." She said as she ate the candy and made the mouth disappear from Flares arm.

Flare would nod as he thought about meeting humans again but wanted to be cautious this time, after all he didn't want to be targeted the way he was when he killed the Ra to protect those God Eaters. "Hey Utsaku, do you think I should try meeting humans again?... Even if my life is threatened?..." He said as he looked at Utsaku's core.

Thinking of an answer Utsaku thought being honest was best, "Well I don't want you to get hurt, even if it the humans. But from what I saw in your memories, there are good humans if you look hard enough!" She said trying to give a realistic but positive answer.

Flare thought about it and he thought Utsaku was right, it didn't seem fair to risk Utsaku's life and his own because of his ignorance and naivety. "Then I'll focus on observing humans before interacting with them, it isn't fair for you to get hurt just because I want to make friends..." He said as he didn't really feel like being enemies of both Aragami and humans.

Utsaku would think to herself before having an idea, "Hey owner, why don't you transform or use your Oracle powers often?" She asked as she knew that Flare and herself weren't humans.

Flare thought about the question before asking himself that, "I don't really know, I guess I never really knew how or thought that I should..." He said as he got up and started walking around going further into the valley, he could detect Aragami heading towards the river and he wanted to avoid them as he made his way to an abandoned mine thinking this was a good spot to try it out.

Utsaku would instruct Flare on how to control Oracle Cells around him and how to manipulate them at will, trying to conjure an Aragami of his own from his own cells and the Oracle Cells that act as a sort pet. However he kept failing after repeated attempts, he remained practicing in isolation for several days until on the 16 day he managed to create something. Flare managed to conjure a floating human eye the size of a tennis ball with veins and flesh attached to the back of the eye, he looked at the eye curious to what it could do before he pointed at a rock. The red eye recognized the command instantly as it looked at the rock and fired a laser from its pupil, blasting the rock as Flare was happy with the results.

Utsaku was proud that she successfully taught Flare how to control Oracle Cells to create Aragami pets, "you did great, is it a cool ability owner?" She asked with such enthusiasm.

Flare chuckled a bit as he absorbed the creature back into his body before sitting down, "It is a cool and useful ability, thank you for teaching it to me... It'll be very useful..." He said as he began to relax.

Utsaku giggled a bit as she made her core glow, "I'm glad, now you can create helping hands whenever you need to!" She said as she calmed down a little to relax with Flare.

Flare chuckled some more as he got up and started walking around leaving the valley while Utsaku would memorize the surroundings and the pathway, though Flare kept going as he began killing nothing but Small-Type and Medium-Type Aragami and devouring them along the way as he'd unknowingly be adding Oracle Cells to his body. Though Utsaku knew this since she was a God Arc but she felt as if she shouldn't tell Flare until she understood how it would be helpful, as Flare kept walking until he felt the Ash density start to rise. Flare started coughing as he walked now coughing up blood as the Ash was running him from the inside, Utsaku quickly altered Flare's arm to that of a God-Arc's Predator-Mode beginning to devour the Ash before creating a new Bias Factor allowing Flare to recover and gain a substantial resistance to the Ash.

Utsaku shouted as she changed Flares arm back to normal, "Are you ok?! Why didn't you turn back when you started coughing blood!" She began to pout.

Flare sighed in relief able to breathe again as he continued walking again, "Thought my body would already br resistant since I devoured a Ra before, guess not... Thanks for doing whatever you did though..." He said genuinely grateful.

Utsaku paused as she began to question Flares self awareness, "Um owner, how aware of your abilities are you?" Knew them all since they were linked together through Flares blood.

Flare began to think to himself before coming up with an answer, "I know that I can devour things and gain their properties or abilities, and the more Aragami I consume the stronger I become... And then there's the ability you showed me, where I can control Oracle Cells... That's just about it..." He said completely clueless about his potential.

Utsaku sighed and would facepalm herself if she had hands or a face as she began to explain, "Listen closely owner, you may look human but you're not. I know for sure that you're a monster similar to Aragami but far stronger, sadly I don't know what you are exactly. But I do know that you can control Oracle Cells, your own cells, and any kind of inorganic material. Not to mention the things you can craft from what you consume, and the things you can do during battle." She said doing her best to explain.

Flare began to contemplate about his 'potential' as he roamed around, "I see, I guess that makes sense... Well I suppose I better start learning how to use those abilities you mentioned, let's start with that crafting thing..." He said as he sat down and started creating chunks of materials from his hands that he consumed before.

Utsaku would form an eye on Flares shoulder in order to see what he was working with so she could instruct him, "Ok owner, just like with Oracle Cells you need a clear image in your mind of what you want to create. Since your body has already analyzed and copied the makeup of the materials, all you need to do is imagine what you want to be created and the on hand materials will break apart then reassemble into the item you want. You can even take a material and reshape them, compound them, or segregate them into their most basic forms. How about trying to reshape something?" She explained then suggested.

Flare stared at the materials thinking about having any kind of rock manipulation or manipulation over sound, "very well, let's begin..." He said as he pick up an Oracle Bolt Crystal and some rocks, he started with imagining the desynthesis of the Oracle Bolt Crystal causing it to glow. With some concentration Flare managed to break the Oracle Bolt Crystal down into a chunk of electrified quartz, Oracle Cell crystals, and raw electricity that scattered away. To Flare this was good as he took a rock and a Oracle Cell crystal before imagining an item he could consume that would give him control over rock and minerals, upon his concentration the two materials combined but failed becoming just rocks and Oracle Cells stuck together. After failing Flare tried again several times until he got what he wanted, he had created an Oracle Earth Crystal before quickly devouring it and holding out his hand to the ground then swinging his arm up causing a spike of rock to erupt from the ground.

While Utsaku tried moving Flare on into trying something else he simply kept taking items apart with the desynthesis process before making making an item that would grant some form of elemental control, he managed to gain light, dark, water, sound, and more. After repeating this and devouring the results so Flare could create more for later use, he then had an idea before manifesting a duplicate of his old God-Arc without its core. Flare stared at it imagining a random type of armor that would be permanently merged to his back that would grant a physical boost when charged up with his own cells, he proceeded to repeat the desynthesis, transmutation, and synergy processes resulting in the creation of a durable spinal armor with the area of the armor that was supposed to be located on his upper spine being a device with an Oracle Core and syringes that would draw Flares blood before charging it with Oracle energy and pumping it back into his body to enhance his physical abilities. Flare rested the armor on his back before letting Utsaku take over the process, the armor became merged onto his clothes before the syringes and machinery pierced his body and slowly became a part of him, now drawing his blood and pumping it into the Oracle Core building energy in reserves for when the device was activated.

Utsaku would be a bit worried since Flare had been doing this non-stop for days without him realizing it before she decided to say something, "Well you've been working on this stuff a lot lately, how about you try something else or go exploring?" She recommended.

Flare would ponder on what he really was while he got up and started walking without saying anything, he contemplated the fact that he looked nothing like an Aragami and had the abilities and characteristics that neither a human nor Aragami would have. To him the only way he'd know what he was is if there was someone like him or someone familiar with what he was to teach him about himself, but neither of them were a possibility at the moment since he found neither of them. So for now all Flare could do was asked questions that didn't have answers, so all he could do is practice the abilities he learned and accept the information he had at the moment.

As Flare roamed the underground ruins full of dense Ash he entered one of the abandoned homes and looked at a mirror noticing his appearance, his hair was no longer black, short, and thin but now thick, gray, and about 2ft long while his left eye iris had changed from blue to white. Even growing from 6'1ft tall to 6'11ft tall, while sporting a thin yet built figure which to Flare was all that bad.

Utsaku would form an eye on Flares shoulder looking at his appearance, "You look better than you once did, but I think I like this appearance better." She said making the vanish.

Flare would nod in response as he altered his clothes into a black trench coat with armor over the chest, forearms, and hands. "Yes, this is a more suitable appearance... With it I should be more versatile in combat, it's also easier to use my abilities with this body..." He said as he looked around the house finding a picture of a boy with white hair, visors, and a sword with a girl with pink hair, pink eye, and a white cat themed headband on her head. Flare stared at the picture thinking about it before taking the photo from the frame and putting in his pocket, he felt as if he'd knew them from somewhere while beginning to walk around again.

Walking through the ruined underground city until a Kyuubi but Flare wasn't in the mood as he stomped on the ground causing stone spikes to erupt around the Kyuubi trapped it beneath the spikes, soon holding put his hand compacting Divine, Lightning, and Fire surrounded by a condensed horizontal wind vortex before firing the combined elements blowing the Kyuubi's head off killing it. Flare let out a deep breath of irritation as he used his arms Predator-Mode to devour the dead Kyuubi whole taking its materials and abilities into his body, keeping its abilities and storing its materials for later as he started to leave wanting to find somewhere to relax.

So Flare roamed around once more, with a faint idea of his potential and a lingering feeling of familiarity with the picture he kept. Let us hope he discovers more about himself...