Freedom with a bang

Making their way to the entry point, the god eaters scanned the surroundings of the City of Mercy.

"What are we looking for again?" Nana said, downing an oden sandwich.

"Today's mission is to round up zygotes, and at least 2 kongou, we've also had word there might be two chi-you in the area." Haru pulled out a communicator and flipped the switch.

"Hey Hibari how's it reading from over there?" he asked.

"Multiple aragami on the ground, 1 ogretail and 11 zygotes. Kongou are sifting through the buildings. Be aware the Chi-Yous reported have not been confirmed to have left the area. Final radio check. Kanon." Hibari called.

"Here and ready for the brawl!" she yelled.

"Nana." Hibari said.

"Same, and full of sandwiches!" Nana shouted.

"Inmate 1103, we really should've learned your name before you left..." Hibari said, the frustration clear in her voice.

She was met with silence.

"Hello? Do you hear me? Are you reading me?" Hibari said.

"Uh Hibari, he can't talk in that thing remember." Haruomi said.

"Oh, right. After you get back you're going straight to Licca. Can he at least hear me?" Hibari asked.

The inmate nodded, hoisting the communicator for Haru to see.

"He says yes." Haru said, eyeing the convict.

"Well that hiccup aside, you're all clear to execute the mission good luck." Hibari said as Haru cut off the transmission.

"Alright team, here's the plan, Me and the inmate will hold to the front. Nana stays to the far back. Kanon...you stick to the way WAY back. Wait, actually. Kanon why don't you stay upfront with the inmate and I'll cover your rear. Unit 4 move out!" Haru commanded taking the lead.

The inmate shook his head with a face-palm and walked after Haru. Nana immediately frowned at the order.

"Yes sir!" Kanon said, and with cannon in hand, running ahead ready to fire at anything...or anyone.

Keeping in formation the team moved through the church, finding no Aragami inside. After slowly inspecting the balcony window they moved to the other end with a hole in the wall.

Inmate 1103 held up a hand and hid along the hole's edge. Haru, Kanon, and Nana took a peek and saw a cloister of zygotes floating around like drones.

"There are the zygotes, still no sign of the Kongou. Bet if we set one of those off they'd come along in a minute." Haru said, holding his chin in thought.

"Uh, are we sure we want to do that, that's a lot of zygotes." Nana pointed out, doing a double-take to make sure she counted correctly.

"Good point, our best plan of action is to lure them in here, and only keep one alive to lure out the main course. I'll shoot one and lure it in here, then we ambush it, hard!" Haru said switching his buster sword to gun form.

"Yes sir! I"ll blast 'em to hell!" Kanon said, getting a bit of a deranged look on her face.

"Uh...right." Nana said getting concerned with the pink-haired girl.

Haru pointed Nana to his opposite side and they both took their position. Haru aimed his rifle and with a red zygote insight, he shot it dead in the eye and it fell. A pair of other zygotes looked in the direction the shot came from and moved to the church.

As they approached the entrance, Nana readied her god arc, a shotgun ready to fire the moment an aragami enters. Haru stood beside holding his sniper rifle.

On the opposite Kanon and the Inmate were ready with buster blade and mortar to go. The zygote closest to Haruomi came in and didn't get so much as blink before Nana put it down with burst fire.

Haru then finished extracting its core, efficiently. The other zygote turned to them, but the inmate went in to silence the creature before it could shriek.

"(All according to plan.) BOOOOM!" Haru's thoughts were interrupted by a massive explosion. To his shock, he did not find the Zygote to be blasted. The inmate was smoldering from the shoulders up, still holding his sword over his shoulder.

"Uh...I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it! Oh, what did I do!?" Kanon screamed.

"Uh, oh..." Nana murmured, looking between the inmate and the zygote.

Upon seeing it was surrounded it screamed alerting the other zygotes outside. The swarm began to move towards the church.

"Dammit!" Haru barked, as he went to kill the zygote.

However, it was cut in two before he could take two steps.

Both Haru and Nana were taken aback by the sudden strike. Meanwhile, Kanon was still apologizing non-stop. Pieces of the inmates' helmet fell at their feet. They crumpled from two halves into five pieces as they hit the ground.

...

As the smoke was clearing from their upper body, their vision began to clear. They held one hand up over their face to keep out the light.

The inmate had not had direct sunlight in their eyes for some time. White hair came into view, as the smoke faded. It was messy, and otherwise all over the place after being inside that helm for who knows how long.

As inmate 1103 peaked out from his hand, they began to adjust to the light. Then the air, the inmate took a deep, hard, breath to re-adjust to his surroundings.

As he removed his hand, a pair of white-yellow eyes were revealed under the messy white hair. The atmosphere was rigid, humid, and with the incoming zygotes cluttered.

How long had it been since he was allowed on the outside without that helmet?

Upon the helms' destruction, an old feeling had been renewed inside his heart.

Freedom

It was his key to life, what he was taught life was meant for, what his whole being was made of.

That one feeling.

The inmate now fully revealed, turned around to see Kanon, still apologizing in a panic.

"You have done well. That was a good shot" a quiet, but young and weary voice, and not one hint of sarcasm.

Kanon froze at hearing the inmate, nearly dropping her gun with a slack jaw. She noted he didn't look that older than her.

"I..w-wah?" Kanon tried to form words at what she just heard.

"You really helped me out. So much in fact. I declare in this house of worship, I will grant you one wish. Within reason. I'm not a genie. Otherwise, I'd grant you three wishes." the convict said, readjusting his hair into a more kempt style.

"Oh! But first!" 1103 turned to the swarm and with one swipe of his sword sent the massive wave back like they were baseballs on the ground.

Putting his god-arc at his side, Inmate 1103 wrenched the core from the split zygote and crushed it. Residue puffed out of the core like dust and faded away into his glowing veins.

Nana could only watch in awe. It was like looking at her Captain.

He propped his god-arc and aimed it at the row of zygotes he made. 1103 dashed out the church and smoothly bisected them like a guillotine. All, but one. His god-arc morphed and devoured the cores of the small aragami, filling its cheeks.

With a throaty swallow, the inmate and god-arc went into burst mode.

The zygote that lived, tried to fly away but was caught under 1103's foot.

SHRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKGGH!!

It let out a final scream, as it was pierced by the flat blade of 1103's god arc.

A kongou emerged from a nearby building and pounded its chest, followed by another.

"There you are ." the inmate said, grabbing his black coat by the sleeve.

He immediately flung it off to reveal his neck covered with burn marks, going all the way to his naval. His right arm clamped with an armlet had many fleshy scars along the wrist.

Removing the coat also revealed a white t-shirt with a Fenrir logo muzzled on the back. Up above it, it said INMATE 1103.

"This party's getting crazy. Let's Rock!" the inmate shouted, crushing the zygotes core with a deranged smile.

The Kongou leaped to the god-eater rearing back their fists.

Not even halfway, one Kongou was pierced through its abdomen, as the claymore was sticking through its back.

The other didn't have time to act before its brethren was layed up upon him and both were flung to the ground, with a bounce.

Before they could land, each was bisected by the claymore in a flash. The bottom Kongou was cut straight down the middle in half, leaving way for its core to pop out. The top Kongou who was already suffering from a stab wound was cut off from its legs.

Oracle matter spilled everywhere as it struggled to get up without its legs.

1103 collected the core of its dead partner, and let his god arc swallow it. Approaching the injured Kongou, he raised the god-arc and proceeded to munch on it.

The poor ape-aragami struggled in vain to escape the jaws that burrowed deep inside its torso, ripping its core. 1103's god arc swallowed it and proceeded to eat the remains before they could fade.

And then...silence

The zygotes had long since faded away, and with the Kongou defeated the surrounding area was clear of enemies.

Nana and Haru were slack-jawed.

"That was awesome! And violent!" Nana cheered.

"That was...that was something...hey Kanon what did he say to you before?" Haru asked.

BOOOOOOM! BOOM!

The echo of explosions filled the church answering Haru.

"Stupid ogretail you thought you could try it! DIE!" Kanon yelled, using her blast gun to reduce the aragami into debris.

The raptor-like aragami had already been killed the moment Kanon's bullet pierced its core. Not that she noticed.

When oracle residue ceased to air out of the ogretail Kanon finally stopped.

"Ha, I shot it, and it died!" Kanon said, with a crazy grin, holding up her blaster in victory.

"What did you say Captain?" she asked, immediately changing back to her happy-go-lucky persona.

Haru and Nana stared uncomfortably at the girl who suddenly flipped a switch.

"Uh...nothing. Good job." Haru said, giving her a sweaty thumbs up. Nana at the risk of becoming cannon fodder did the same.

Kanon joyously started skipping around and with a childish smile, as Haru grew weary of her gun handling.

"Unit 4 come in!" A voice rang on the communicators.

Haru quickly pulled out the device turned up the volume.

"Hibari what's up?" he asked.

"2 new oracle responses inbound, Sariel coming in. Lining up a location." she said, briskly.

Haru and Nana looked out the church to the skies. When they lowered their eyes the inmate was gone.

"Oh no! He bailed! Damn, I'm gonna be in serious trouble for this! Hibari come in!" Haru yelled into the communicator.

One moment later, two blue, figures crashed outside. The humanoid butterfly-like creatures laid on top of each other, with 1103 on top holding his buster blade inside the upper Sariels eye.

It was rent asunder, and he pulled out his claymore. The Sariel fell dead and rolled off the bottom aragami. With a swift strike, its eye was also carved off and was crushed into the palm of his hands.

Nana was once again left speechless. Haru stopped short sending a may-day to Hibari and Kanon wasn't sure what just happened.

"Unit 4, good job on the Sariels but more aragami incoming, they're rising from underground, take caution!" Hibari said on the coms.

Around the inmate popped Zygotes of every color forming a circle.

"Were they sleeping!? C'mon guys time to get in there!" Haru commanded. Nana readied her hammer, and Kanon ran to take aim at the swarm.

Before they could get close. The inmate jumped and spun upside down in mid-air. Then he spun, letting go of his blade as it went around like a boomerang to the ring of zygotes, bisecting them one by one.

After 1103 landed on the ground his god-arc had cut clean through the last one and returned to his hand.

Only the pieces of the zygotes remained, they had been cleaned of their cores.

Nana dropped her jaw, and let slip her hammer from her hand.

"How did he do thaaaaaat!?" she whispered.

"Wooooowwww! THAT, WHAT WAS THAT!?" Kanon almost screamed.

Haruomi had no idea how to respond and dropped his god-arc in shock.

"All aragami responses are gone, I don't know what you did, but well done, they didn't last 2 seconds. Come on home Unit 4!" Hibari called, very happily.

"Uh...yeah." Haru said weakly into the radio.

The inmate's coat that he had flung awhile ago, had returned to his shoulders.