Festival Under Siege

While I was lost in thought, another explosion happened in the distance. One of greater volume... and one I didn't create.

"Where did that come from? Did anybody see?" I asked them. This wasn't good, was my theory wrong? Was Zeus starting his attack?

The festival that was ongoing during nighttime, rather than daytime, was rattling with the screams of hundreds of people. Once we climbed over the roof of another building, we could see the flames.

It was a legitimate explosion, not an air attack, but one with fire. One I couldn't diffuse.

"No... Tama!" Soul shouted out a strange name before jumping off of the roof and breaking into a full sprint toward the street the explosion occurred on. Ken, Ipa, Ruby, and I were left behind.

"Ipa, watch from the rooftops, and Ken, stay with him. Ruby, come with me and regroup as soon as you see Soul. Ken, I want you to use your Ether attacks to protect Soul at all costs, I can protect Ruby... Ipa, you stay hidden until the absolute last moment. Does everybody understand me?!" I yelled out in an urgent tone. Everybody nodded and we split apart.

"What do you think that was?" Ruby asked me while running with me. I'm pretty sure she was faster than me and was just slowing down to let me catch up.

"It was Zeus, I'm convinced of it. A combination skill involving fire..." I paused. I've only seen fire once before, and that was with Joro… no, it can't be. He's not here, is he?!

"We'll have to find out. Whatever you do, don't do anything reckless, we're not here to show off skill, we're here to stop this." I told Ruby.

"I know I know. Let's take that shortcut!" Ruby said, pointing toward an alleyway on our left side. I went to turn down the alley, but Ruby pulled me back as people poured out of it. After around twenty people, all leaking blood in some way passed through, we took our turn. We ran straight into the danger while they ran away.

"Anima, there!" Ruby pointed to the roof and we could see a girl with dark brown hair, almost exactly like Soul's, pointing a strange, dull-looking sword at the floor. It was charging up with a skill... was that a staff?

Ruby put her hands together and boosted me up onto the roof to get to eye level with the girl.

"Hey! What's the problem here?" I asked her. I was only confident because I knew Ken and Ipa were constantly watching my back.

"This doesn't concern you." She told me.

"Oh come on, I don't have the patience for your goddamn backstory, stop throwing firebombs in the street!" I told her. I hope this girl at least had a brain.

"Soul, your dog over here is a lot ruder than you initially explained. Come get it before I cook him alive." The girl said. She seemed to have some sort of relationship with Soul... what should I make of that?

"You... you can use fire? Where did you learn that?!" I asked her. I wanted to change topics and hopefully distract her. I knew that look in her eyes. It's one of lost proportion. She's not herself right now. As cringe as that sounded, I knew what that was like. I felt that look deep in my soul when Daria and Shima were taken away from me.

There's been a death in her life. It's ruined her. How would I have stopped myself if I went berserk and started launching skills at Sieve's soldiers? Think Anima... think!

The skill at the end of her dull sword charged up with red smoke and she pointed it at the floor. She wasn't trying to launch it at citizens, she was only shooting it at the floor. Why? What good does that do?

So, I can understand she just wanted to hit something, not destroy it. That had to be anguish, right?

Shima pulled my entire body with the trajectory from my left arm and threw me right in front of the attack.

"Shima! I wanted to watch!" I told my left arm as it rose up again. Shima turned into the shield she once before mimicked and I absorbed the flames from the girl's skill.

As I absorbed it, I found myself watching clips of her memories within my very own eyes. The experience terrified me as the translucent images flashed back and forth. There was blood... there was death...

And there was Soul.

Both the girl and I screamed out in unifying pain that seemed to affect us at the same intensity. I sat holding my head as the girl on the roof did as well.

Shima absorbed the flame attack and I was able to see strange glimpses of the girl's memory... what the hell was that? How did Shima have that power?

"Hey! How do you know Soul?!" I yelled up to her.

She was still silently groaning in pain while holding her head. I must've had a higher pain tolerance than her.

"Soul! Who is she?!" I yelled toward Soul on the roof right next to Ruby and it seemed like the conflict died down as she looked at me.

"How... why are you asking me?" Soul asked me again. I made my way back to the roof by climbing on boxes and the shingles I could reach, standing next to her as the mysterious girl sat with her knees close to her chest. She was leaning against a railing and staying quiet.

"I saw you... that girl knows you, and something bad happened to her." I turned back to look at the flame girl.

What I saw in my eyes were images of torture. Skin being scraped off of her body, being slapped, hit... and other methods of physical abuse.

"[Blessing 3]" I shouted in the girl's direction and the skill wrapped her in blue smoke and reverted her to a healed form of what she used to look like. Then, that happened recently and she was still recovering.

"What exactly is happening right now? I'm confused, this doesn't make any sense." Ruby asked.

I stared at Soul, but she was hesitant to answer me. That's when the girl I healed stood up and walked over to us with a strange limp on her leg. I thought I healed her...

"Tell him, Soul. Tell him the reason you came here in the first place. Tell him about Ono." The girl said.

"Ono? You mean Jane's grandson?" I asked the girl, but she shook her head, staring at Soul again.

"Anima... I'm sorry, but I used you to get a look at how this city works so I can bring Ono to Tama, my sister." Soul told me.

"That's fine, we had the same goal anyway. So, who is this Ono guy? Jane thought it was Zeus since they look similar, right?" I asked. Both Soul and her sister, Tama, shook their heads at the same time.

"Ono isn't Zeus." They both said.

"What... what are you talking about? Do you both know who this Ono guy is? What's with his name? And where is he if he isn't Zeus?" I asked them.

Tama put her hand on her hip and looked up at the starry night sky.

"I should elaborate on that, so as to not confuse you. You see, Ono isn't Zeus. Zeus is Ono. Ono used to be Soul's boyfriend, and he's currently possessed by Zeus." Tama explained.