Chapter 22: Jikan in Comet

"Synthesis… Synthesis, I need to figure out what I can do here," All throughout that night, Damien just couldn't sleep. This also happened to be the night that Raven decided to do his image training where he fights with himself, which didn't make things any better. Damien wondered why is it so loud anyway? "Whatever, I got three maybe four days? I need to figure out what I can to do.

"Damien!" cried a voice right beside his ear,

"Krista. What. Is. Your. Damage?!" Damien guessed that she had been trying to get his attention for a bit, but he had a bad habit of ignoring others when he was deep in thought.

"Fierce is getting restless, you haven't been giving her enough attention. Look, she really wants to play with you."

By his side, Damien could see that Fierce was biting onto his pant leg, and she was tugging at it, "Fair enough. Fine, I'll play with her, good things never came from me thinking to hard anyway. Did you want to join in?"

Krista shook her head, "Next time, Fierce wants to play with you, so I'll give you your time together."

Damien took out his bow and wrapped some loose rope around it, "How about it Fierce, want to play fetch?" She began to run around in circles and got down into a ready position, "Okay, do you think you can catch this one before it falls?"

Damien took aim and she bolted, he decided to move his aim slightly to the right, to trip her up and fired. As she ran, Fierce lifted her head up and noticed the change in direction, moving herself to acclimate.

"She's good," called Krista.

On Fierce's back, small wings spread out and she jumped. Managing to get about 15 feet in the air, she caught the arrow as it was flying past. She ran back and handed Damien the arrow.

"Great jump! I think that's the highest you've gotten. You'll be flying in no time!" praised Damien, much to Fierce's delight.

She still couldn't quite fly yet, but Fierce could still display a pretty impressive jump. A fact proved by Cleo's own amazement, "Wow! That was really impressive!"

Proud of herself, Fierce started prancing around in circles until she bent down and lowered her head, a stance Krista was acutely aware off, "Cover your ears!" Luckily, anyone who needed to hear her quickly reacted as Fierce put her head up and squawked loud enough to make ears bleed, "Well, that's new."

Fierce had actually scared herself, running to Nightshade, who whinnied knowingly, "You know what little one, this is giving me an idea for my synthesis," said Damien.

"Just make sure she doesn't do that again!" yelled Raven displeased by what just happened, which pleased Damien all the same, "Be prepared to leave in 20 minutes, we will reach Comet by late afternoon."

The trek was considerable easier than before, paved roads and bits of civilization littered the area. They had finally made it out of the woods. Damien in particular was glad to see it so, he worked best in a city environment. If he wanted to end Dante's life without immediately being killed by his entourage, Comet would be the best place.

As Damien fantasized about all his possible assassination opportunities, Krista once again yelled in his ear, "Darius!"

"By Iroh," he whispered, "Yes, Krisha, once again you have my attention!"

"You were about to walk past the security checkpoint and get arrested, snap out of it," retorted Krista.

"Welcome to Comet, now it's nowhere near as big as New Dawn, but Comet is still a sizeable village and a great place to vacation!" exclaimed Dante.

The city looked a lot like Horizon, but just like Dante said, it was considerably larger. Rather than all the commerce being centralized in one places, shops, stores, and shacks littered the streets with various items for sale. Obviously, this place was a hub specifically for commerce. The energy here could only be matched by Dante's own.

"We are here for a man named Jikan, he's probably at the chief's office, but if you happen to see a man with light tan skin, average height, very skinny, short and spiky hair, and thick rectangular shades, then that's him… probably," added Cleo.

"I feel like you should explain what you mean by that," said Krista.

"I would, but Dante would like you to experience the surprise, that's just the type of person he is," responded Cleo, not completely able to look her in the eyes.

"Figures," finished Damien.

He wasn't altogether pleased to see another member of Shining Twilight added to their ranks, not that the name Jikan rang any bells for him. During the war, Damien had only seen Raven in action, adding to his unwillingness to confront them in a straight fight, even when aided by Krista and Amelia. He had met Dante and Cleo in a non-battle environment only twice, where he became privy to the name of another key member, Melody.

The name Jikan was foreign to him, and Damien was unsure if he was there during that war. Maybe it was the name of the strange, deformed, humanoid beast Damien occasionally saw in some of the battles, but he could have sworn it was female.

"This Jikan guy, what's he like?" Damien tried to see what he could gleam from Cleo, unlike the tight-lipped Raven, she was the talkative type.

Contrary to her usual pleasant demeanor, she groaned and angrily spoke, "He's insufferable, I'm sorry. You know what, Dante?!" Damien nearly fell off Nightshade her voice was so forceful, "Dante honey, you know I love you. Like you know right, because I… Sorry. Dante, why did you recruit Jikan in the first place?"

"Aside from being the funniest guy I know, he's possibly the greatest source of quick and efficient manual labor I've ever seen," answered Dante immediately.

"Yes, and he's the laziest person I've ever met," Cleo retorted, "Seriously, it's frustrating just being around him!"

Damien felt like he was getting more than I bargained for, but based on Dante's face, Cleo's words weren't unfounded upon. "I'm going to level with you Cleo, you're right. Yet, regardless of how he acts, he truly cares about our cause, and I could never abandon him. It's just like you said, he's my friend, so let me apologize for him."

Cleo moved her horse close to Dante and got him into a huge bear hug, "This should do for an apology. Either way, It's fine, that stubbornness is one of the reasons I fell for you, never change."

They were barely managing to avoid falling off their nymphs as they stumbled due to the shift in weight. Raven, who was in front them was shaking and had his head lowered, until he exploded, "Get your hands off Dante, you succubus woman!"

I was wondering how long until Cleo set Raven off again, "You're just jealous!" She stuck her tongue at Raven and continued to hold on until they both fell of their nymphs, forcing everyone to stop.

Raven was absolutely fuming, and Cleo was laughing her ass off. Dante managed to get out of Cleo's grasp, but offered his hand to help her up, before joining in her laughter.

"Hey, you've been working non-stop for twelve hours, are you sure you are okay. Hey? Are you there? Jikan, right? Hello!" called a voice a construction site.

"Well, well, isn't that lucky!" said Dante.

At a dig site a man who fits Jikan's description and wearing a bright red shirt was hacking away at a mining spot, creating a huge hole around him.

"You consider this guy to be lazy?" questioned Damien. Dante, Raven, and Cleo took notice, but upon taking a they continue on their way, "Hey wa-wait a minute, where are you going? That's the guy, isn't it?"

"That's not him," said Raven, a man of many things, but not words.

"Cleo?" pleaded Damien.

"That's Jikan's ability, it's just a clone. Pretty sure he calls that one Jin" she answered nonchalantly.

"A clone huh," Damien pondered, "Wait a clone what?! Like he made another him?" "Yes, that's what a clone is," mocked Krista.

"You do not get to act like that Ms. Oh my Vitnova, a device that always points north!"

shot back Damien.

As Damien argued with Krista, he noticed something, they only knew the affinity of one of their members, Raven, and he was untethered… according to information said to him by Dante. Cleo, Dmitri, and Dante all haven't shown or told them what affinities they had. As an information junkie, Damien felt somewhat ashamed of himself.

"Hey weird question, just curious, but what are your aff-"They all suddenly stopped in front of a large building, reaching about three stories high and 100 feet thick. It wouldn't be a stretch to call this place a castle. Made completely of marble, the building glistened under the sun, creating an ever present sparkle that showed the beauty of the structure.

"Raven, Comet the place with the hardass, right?" asked Dante.

Raven nodded his head, "That's right, that's why we had Jikan come here. We even promised him a second living space. Come now, let's go see if he made any headway."

"Please, please, please, please, please, please, take him away, I'll do whatever you say. Just make him stop."

A short and stout older man wearing a long black hat was currently on his knees begging Dante to take Jikan away, "Mr. Franklin? Are you okay? What happened?"

The old man was basically crying into Dante's arms, "That boy, Jikan, he's everywhere. I keep seeing him, he keeps asking me for a moment of my time. Even when I said yes, he just keeps asking for it, it never ever stops. He's like a crazed beast!"

The man, Mr. Franklin, went back to crying. Krista, Amelia, and Damien were all understandably confused, "So Dante, wanna clue the three of us in on what's going on here." asked Krista always the quickest to ask the direct questions.

"This is the chief of this village," he explained, "Shining Twilight is hosting a gathering of the elites of Stellar in order to ratify Soaring Sun's new ruling body, and air a set of grievances. Unfortunately, he's an extreme traditionalist and stubbornly refused to even speak with our organization without meeting ridiculous demands, so I sent Jikan, one our most persistent members, to try to change his mind. Obviously, he had some success. Maybe too much success."

The old man just kept crying and crying until they heard a knock on the door, "I-it's him, I know it… it's him! Take him away, take him away!" shouted the old man.

Dante walked to open the door and was met with an annoyed voice, "Come on Mr. Franklin, it's probably not even-" There at the door was a man who fit Jikan's description, except his shirt wasn't red now. He looked around the room before smiling and giving Dante a hug. "Good to see you man! Wait is it already time to go home? I might need a bit, I lost one of my wands near good ol' Franklin's house. Oh, hey you guys got to meet with him, good job!"

He looked far worse anyone in the room, bags under his eyes, messily dressed, and his hair was incredibly ragged. In his black, wrinkled shirt, he looked like he had been on an incredibly trying week of travel rather than everyone else. His wattiez was also active, an incredibly condensed and thick layer of purple aura surrounded his body.

"Jikan… What did you do?" Raven walked past Dante and grabbed onto his shirt, lifting him to his toes.

"W-What are you talking about Rave, I just came to ask if Mr. Franklin had seen my wand, or well… me anywhere. A bit ago, I left it in one of the bushes near his house and kind of forgot about it, my b."

Raven raised a fist, but Dante got in his way, "Calm down buddy. Let him off this time, please, for me." Raven reluctantly put his hand down, "Listen Jikan, you kind of messed Mr. Franklin up. He's not in the best state of mind right now."

Jikan looked past everyone to the crying Mr. Franklin, "Well, at least I got you guys to talk with him." Immediately, Raven brought a knee to his gut, "Whoa, whoa Raven wait, I give up, you win, you win!"

Dante tried to restrain Raven to stop him from going any further, but he was continued to stomp on Raven, "Raven if you stop, I'll take you out to get beers, just you and me what do you say?"

Raven instantly stopped and dusted himself off, "I'll let you off this time. Do better or else."

On the floor, Mr. Franklin spoke up, "Listen, if you promise to leave Comet tonight, and get rid of him . I promise to have come to the audience with Celestial Blaze, deal?"

Immediately, Dante walked over and with a big smile held out his hand towards Mr. Franklin. "Absolutely, we have ourselves a deal."