Shinen of Alchemy [Mature/Private Shiranui]

All in all, it really was just an ordinary day. Atsuki couldn’t remember the last time Nola had given him a day of rest. It was a 24/7, always in the job, with a few inadequate hours of sleep. After all, it’s not like the Silent took breaks. Those parasites would thrive in a restless environment as long as the negative Shinen were strong enough. So, being sent to this… Resembool… to check the Residual Shinen was really not a big deal. It still irked him that the only information Nola had given him was that a death had occurred… perhaps more damage done than just that. Apparently some other force had momentarily put a thin, glass barrier between life and death. The only thing that troubled Nola and he was that the force seemed to be completely natural—there were no supernatural qualities about it. Well, not really, anyways. That made no sense to him. Even Atsuki’s Sigma couldn’t prevent death from happening—even though his own history proved otherwise.

A tingly feeling inched up Atsuki’s spine as he neared the place the death. Such strong, negative Shinen seemed impossible due to the fact that the deceased woman was not a Target; she had never been infected. After all, it’d been six years since the death. Shinen to last that long…it was astounding. A place with this aura was one inexperienced by Atsuki, and he knew this place would be a literal breeding ground for Silent. Residual Shinen themselves were not contagious, unless held together in one specific area… if one was to touch that area, they may very well be infected. So, how many people had been here…how many people had been infected? The presence of others still lingered, which worried Atsuki. It was more than likely that Silents had clung to the negative Shinen of others.

By the Shinen, Atsuki could tell that the woman who had died had been very close to the others. Related, perhaps?
“Saijo.”

Atsuki turned around, frowning. Liu Yee was standing there, in his infamous arms-crossed stance. One thing Atsuki hated about Liu was his tendency to show up yet fail to tell him (or Nola, for that matter) when he showed up. And that made him wonder how long Liu had been there.

“Liu,” Atsuki added in a not-so-playful banter. Liu… such a different specimen. There were times that Atsuki would’ve sworn that Liu himself was a Silent in human form. The Original itself, maybe? But when he thought about it, he knew it was impossible. Since Liu had Lancelot, his Lux-Pain earring, it was impossible for him to even get touched by Silent. But that didn’t stop Atsuki from believing Liu had naturally negative Shinen.

Liu sneered, “Nola really screwed up this time,” he looked around, his dark brown eyes scanning the area. Yeah…Nola messed up. This place was so desolate… It reminded him of Kisaragi City. It was easy to find the Original in Kisaragi City, since he’d been born and raised in Kisaragi, and knew every nook and cranny of that place. This… well, this place was larger than Kisaragi, but it still wasn’t the largest place he’d ever been to. It worried Liu that the Original may have been able to escape Armestris and infect others in other places. Wouldn’t Nola know how to find that guy? They only had a name: Edward. That’s all they had… That’s all that Nola got! She failed at being a Lynx in the Fort. One of the worst technicians, Liu was sure. “There’s got to be a Silent infectee out there who’s infected countless others.”

“How could she knew? The woman was not a Target to the Fort. She wasn’t infected. Nola had every right to be negligent of it.” Atsuki sighed and stepped back. The resonating Shinen were quite disturbing. So much anger, regret, loss, sadness, and the need of revenge. The mismatched sentences were already trying to flow into Atsuki, even though he’d not used his Sigma yet. Something was incredibly wrong here, he just had to find out what. “The Shinen here are amazing. All this—”

“Amazing!? Repulsive!” Liu snapped. “How could the Fort miss all this?”

“Such despair, grief, hatred… the need for retribution. There’s others here, too. Less prominent, but here, nonetheless. I wonder how many Silent are here. Male. Age uncertain… We should contact Nola. She’ll be happy with this information.”

Liu snapped his arm out in front of Atsuki’s chest, keeping the grey-haired male from taking another step forward. Liu wasn’t about to let Atsuki leave like this. He’d redeem himself to Nola and the Fort if it was the last thing he did. Atsuki’d taken too many missions from him already, and Liu was determined to find and eradicate this Silent in a minimal amount of time. Whoever was infected, Liu wasn’t going to let get away. No matter what Atsuki wanted to do. His way of dealing with Silent was too humane. The Silent could come back and re-infect the original infectee if their mind wasn’t eaten. After all, emotions could come back. Though once the Silent was destroyed, those emotions and memories wouldn’t come back, but new ones could be formed. Didn’t Atsuki know that?

“You haven’t even used Sigma!” Liu protested, removing his hand from the teen’s chest. “How do you know she’ll find any of this useful?”

Atsuki let out an exasperated sigh. “If you are so upset about it, try it yourself,” Atsuki knew this comment would annoy Liu; he couldn’t use his own Sigma unless he had a Target or infectee right in front of him. His way of garnering information was brutal and merciless. He wasn’t fit to be on the Falco. “We have enough information on the Shinen and all we could gather on the Target. Nola will easily be able to track down this person. After all, she, Natsuki and I managed to get Tadashi—no thanks to you.”

Liu looked like he was going to explode (something Atsuki personally wouldn’t have minded). He knew he was treading on thin ice. Liu wasn’t one to hold back his emotions. The pessimistic, overly insensitive 19-year-old was quite the character. His belief in experience over opinion would, someday, get him into trouble nobody would be able to get him out of. His sharp tongue would earn him deadly enemies. His stubborn and irrational thinking would lead him into making bad choices. Liu’s next outburst, all that considered, was no big surprise to Atsuki: “That’s because you always show up! You’ve stolen all my jobs! You’ve allowed Silents to simply be destroyed and their minds never exterminated. Mr. Yamato could be infected again. It’ll be—”

Atsuki drowned him out and turned on his heel, leaving the angry protests of Liu.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Atsuki was pleased. Liu was not. Nola had happily accepted the information. It’d been enough for the Fort’s technology to find their Target. But the information wasn’t as clear as it usually was. Nola hadn’t stopped complaining about it since, but Atsuki was, luckily, patient. Liu…? Not so much. Now Atsuki was sitting down on a rock, staring into what seemed to be endless fields of corn and blank areas, besides a small gathering of houses off to the east. Nola was supposed to call them back soon, and Liu was pacing restlessly by the time the phone call actually came.

“Edward Elric,” Nola commented in her silky yet dominating tone. Faintly, Atsuki could hear Natsuki squealing in her girly voice about the huge Shinen she’d found near their area. “That’s his name. The computers refuse to show me anything else about him. From what I can tell, if he has criminal records, they’re undisclosed. He had a family at one point in time, about six years ago, as we’ve already found out. The location of his father is unknown to us and anybody else that he’s related to is either dead or unable to hold Shinen, which I think is odd…” Nola trailed off, and only Natsuki’s loud comments of accomplishment and the clicking of keys on a keyboard could be heard.

“Nola?” Atsuki asked. Liu eyed him. Atsuki shot Liu a dirty look, and was about to make a comment on Liu’s useless restlessness when Nola began to speak again.

“We don’t have enough information to confirm his location. We know there’s a connection to the military and he has a prosthetic arm, or something of the like. He should be easily picked out, if I could hazard a guess. Go into the inhabited area not too far from you. Ask around. But don’t be too robust. You’ll look like flies in a glass of milk. You’re not normal there, remember. Be careful.”

Atsuki nodded and hung up. “Lets’ go; we’re going to ask around for this ‘Edward Elric’ boy.”

Liu nodded and started off for the town. Atsuki followed close behind, but as soon as they were in the line of site of the people, Atsuki got a bad feeling. They would look like flies in milk; and the only question now was if the people there would accept outsiders, ignore them, or drive them out. But now they could only hope for the best.

Silver hair over dark eyes. Atsuki walked ehind his partner, each of his steps becoming more tentative than the last. Though the scenery was beautiful, the closer Atsuki got to the village, the more ripples the adolescent sensed in the scenery’s Residual Shinen. Without even activating Sigma, Atsuki detected traces of ranging emotions attach to the land. And even though Atsuki’s timidity was not out of the ordinary, he was feeling and acting edgy.

His black-haired companion turned and stared at him with merciless brown eyes. Liu Yee was in a foul mood. Nola had yapped incessantly at him for almost ten minutes on how she’d kick his butt if he didn’t keep his attitude in check. Of course, Liu had replied in kind, with a snarky and unnecessary comment. Turning cool eyes back to the road ahead, Liu murmured angrily to himself. It was so like Nola to send the peace-maker Saijo along to see if their Target was still able to be saved. All Liu was was the “unsung hero”—and even then no Fort members thought he was a hero at all. Liu thought his job was definitely more important than Saijo’s. Liu completely destroyed an infectee beyond repair. Simply destroying a Silent doesn’t mean that the infectee no longer has risk of re-infection! Clenching fists in agitation, Liu shook his head. Here he was, standing tall and walking confident, behind him, Saijo hiding his face in the folds of his long leather coat and looking around as if someone was going to attack them at any moment.

Shaking his head, Liu pressed two fingers to his temple and commented, voice dripping with sarcasm, “Atsuki Saijo: Fort’s fearless Falco member!” Liu glanced over his shoulder at his partner, only to see that Atsuki didn’t even seem to be listening. Grinding his teeth together, Liu turned forward and cursed under his breath. Liu had known Saijo for years, though Chief Ray had only placed them as partners two years prior. Ever since Liu had known him, Atsuki Saijo had been completely unresponsive. All he ever did nowadays was eat, sleep, and work. Liu had never known a time where Atsuki questioned orders, no matter where he was sent or what he was to do. Liu was constantly tempted to point it out, but he knew that the only response he’d get would be a stoic, smart-ass one. Liu knew that a response like that was a response he didn’t want to hear. Ever.

Atsuki finally turned forward, keeping his eyes in front of him instead of all over the place. He could tell that Liu Yee was still in a bad mood, and if he didn’t snap out of his self-pitying state, anyone whom Liu deemed “unfit”—for any reason—was going to see the full extent of the raven-haired male’s untamable ego and unfathomably bad attitude. Atsuki barely managed to keep a sickened look off of his face. All he wanted to do was eradicate Silent and get out of this place in, hopefully, under a week. People in Kisaragi needed him, and he dreaded what the small city would be like if he returned to find that Silent had spread. Kisaragi City already had an unusually high infection rate—to the point where Liu had had to step in multiple times. There were even kids in Kisaragi High that risked infection.

Atsuki stopped a few paces behind Liu when he heard the voice of a woman in her older years. Despite hearing her words, Atsuki processed little to nothing of what she was saying. Lifeless black eyes stared down at her, evaluating her without a trace of any emotion—good or bad. Liu, on the other hand, had brown eyes full of contempt and disapproval trained on her.

“No,” Liu commented coolly, Atsuki still trying to pull himself away from his thoughts, “We’re not from here. Nor did I realize we gave off the air that we were from such a pitiful place…my sincerest apologies, ma’am.” Liu smirked before turning his gaze down the road from where she’d come, infinitely curious as to what other people were here; like the Target.

Suddenly seeming to get what the older woman had said through his brain, Saijo spoke up in his usual expressionless way, “We’re here on business, looking for Edward Elric. There are a few confidential matters which concern him and his welfare.” Atsuki stood there a moment, as if he’d startled himself with the sound of the voice he never really used. Liu Yee grimaced and pondered formalities a moment, shortly after deciding that the old woman had no great need to know who they were—she (now) already know why they were here…so what else did she need?

Nola smiled, obviously pleased with herself. The computer screen with Edward Elric’s information was slowly—very slowly—coming together. His job and job description had finally been found (even though Nola had to do a tad bit of hacking to get the full extent of the job description). Nola was now hacking a few PCs to get extra files on the young alchemist. Unfortunately, she found no information that she thought was extremely interesting. However, Chief Ray seemed to be silently intrigued in the information Nola had scavenged so far.

Though the word “alchemy” held no meaning to Nola, Ray read and reread any tidbit—no matter how small or seemingly insignificant—of data that had even the slightest hint toward the existence of alchemy. With a twinge of timid curiosity, Nola noticed a subdued flame of hatred in Ray’s eyes that Nola had never seen before.

Shrugging it off, Nola continued searching.

Atsuki frowned as he withdrew himself from the conversation, hiding himself behind Liu. He had earlier sensed an uneasy Shinen from the woman. Activating Sigma, Atsuki decided he’d take the risk of possibly displaying his power.

Atsuki mentally warned himself. This woman had already braced herself for the worst, and she didn’t yet even know their names. That gave Atsuki a bad feeling. This was definitely going to be harder than he anticipated.

Life in the silver-haired adolescent’s mind rarely ceased activity, though the tool of which he could convey his thoughts rarely was put to use. Perhaps it was this reason Saijo sensed people thinking of him as “unapproachable.” Frankly, he did not want to be approached, so his originally unintended isolation came as a blessing to him. After all, Atsuki was not paid to talk, he was paid to ensure the wellbeing of people who could not defend themselves from the destructive mental parasite labeled as “Silent.” Ever since the last of his family members had unnecessarily been thrown into the void, exterminating Silent had become the adolescent’s only goal. Willing to give up anything—which now was only his flesh and blood—to further the process of eliminating Silent, Saijo had become a lifeless doll. At first his cold and un-talkative ways had only been a mask. Though over time, his façade and his real self had become completely undistinguishable. Once to the point where he was merely a puppet, Atsuki ceased thoughts of what life would be like had he acquired Sigma differently. In a perfect world, Saijo’s younger sister would still be there for him and give him tidbits of wisdom Saijo could only dream of attaining. In a perfect world…a utopia: something entirely out of reach of mankind. One would only be able to dream of such a place, and even then they would be foolish to do so. Was it now even impossible to dream, as well? Much to his passive dismay, the young Falco member could only confirm this. Not once had he dreamt since joining fort. That had been a number of years ago; in fact, Saijo couldn’t even remember how long he’d worked with Fort. It must’ve been over five years now…

Somewhere deep inside Saijo’s dormant heart he suspected there was still bitterness for not being able to have had Lux Pain implanted by choice. No, during his time of physical (and emotional) weakness, Fort had located and “adopted” him and ever so graciously given him Gawain. It was a shock that he even survived, especially since he was already dying. It used to make Saijo wonder if they’d only wanted him as a tool. If he’d died, would they really even care? Saijo guessed not. It seemed only sensible that any normal person would be thankful for Fort saving their life…but Saijo was still unsure of whether being saved was a good thing or not. After all, look where it had landed him: him being partnered with the famous Liu Yee, a very stuck-up male with a wildly untamable ego. With Sigma, Liu’s egotistical nature made for being a deadly enemy, or a very useful, if not patience-testing, ally. Saijo’s rational side saw clearly the significance of Liu Yee, but another part of his mind wished that Liu would vanish and someway get stuck on the plane between space and time. What a bittersweet day that would be; though Saijo had a feeling Nola would unintentionally react in the most inappropriate of ways. How strange the workers at Fort could get. Liu wasn’t included in that, of course—he was not strange, just needlessly rude.

“How unfortunate,” Liu murmured, “We come and speak to a troublesome old woman only to find our Target is not here. Can you sense any trace of him at all, Atsuki?” the raven-haired male’s voice lowered at the last part, black-brown eyes scrutinizing his partner expectantly. Atsuki opened his mouth; only to close it again as he let a brief expression of confusion cross his face as he eyed an object that was rapidly spinning towards Liu’s head. Nevertheless the metallic-haired adolescent felt he had no energy to speak to the tiresome, older teenager. Liu turned around only to be smacked in the forehead with what Atsuki could now identify as a wrench. An unusual object to throw at people, Saijo thought. Atsuki stepped back just in time to avoid Liu as he flailed his arms and stumbled backwards.

“Damn it!” Liu raged, vanishing inches before he hit the ground to who-knows-where. Atsuki made no outward signs to show his displeasure in Liu’s hypocritical act, though inwardly he was very irked at his partner. First Saijo is ridiculed and told not to use his power in front of people unless absolutely necessary, and now in broad daylight, Liu pulls his infamous vanishing act? Unfortunately the younger teenager could not say he was surprise. In silence, Saijo watched as the moody young woman called her grandmother back to their home.

“Who is she to speak of a lack of manners? Throwing a wrench at someone is hardly proper etiquette.”

Atsuki felt his skin crawl as the familiar yet (still) unaccustomed feeling of Liu’s cold aura suddenly appeared somewhere close behind him. The day where Liu Yee clearly stated his arrival before jumping straight into a conversation would be the day Atsuki showed an emotion; which would be extreme happiness. But after that Saijo would die and go to heaven, so the momentous occasion of two relatively nonexistent things happening would be short-lived. Atsuki shook his head slowly, turning around to stare at his partner, only to see him lightly fingering a large red bump on the middle of his forehead. Usually Atsuki would tell Liu that he indirectly asked for it (in a very subtle and indirect way, Saijo would say this), but Saijo’s mind was suddenly caught up in something else. However, Liu didn’t seem to notice the change in his partner’s demeanor; he was too caught up in attempting to see the bump on his head and muttering a string of curses directed at the teenage girl from earlier. Not bothering to give Liu any warning as to his departure, Saijo headed off.

~ ~ ~

Nola sighed in defeat as the blue-haired youngster begged her for the thousandth time in a very squeaky voice to let her do a long-distance Viewing and call Saijo herself to report where any significant Residual Shinen might be.

“Natsuki Venefskuja! Sit down and shut up! If you’re going to do a Viewing, do it properly, not like a toddler, please!” Nola snapped. The blonde teenager rarely lost her temper, but after hours of trying to get the last bits of the Target’s information with little success made her edgy. Nola was used to being able to find any info without any problems. No hacking job was too big for her to handle. So, naturally, being faced with defeat had the young woman in a very foul mood. And despite the older girl’s harsh words, Natsuki still seemed to be brimming with excitement. The blue-haired teenager was infatuated with Atsuki Saijo. According to her, they were going to get married one day and have kids and live in a house together… Long story short, Natsuki had planned out their whole future for them. However, Atsuki never commented on it, and it was suspected the reason he never visited the Fort facility was because Natsuki never left. Nobody dared tell Natsuki, though, that it was likely she was scaring Saijo off. Nola eyed her younger coworker and sighed. Even yelling hadn’t dissuaded the girl from being overly rambunctious. It wasn’t as if the older teenager had expected harsh punishment to work—and heck, simply yelling was hardly punishment. Nola knew when it came to their little rescue-boy Saijo, Natsuki couldn’t be shut up. It would be miraculous if Natsuki’s mouth closed. Nevertheless, Natsuki was now sitting down, tapping her feet, and looking expectantly at Nola.

Briefly giving a look of annoyance to Natsuki, Nola said, “Fine. Go ahead. Do it quickly; we have more important things to be doing.”

“Yay!” Natsuki squealed, getting up and heading off to do a Viewing. Nola was quite sure she’d had an eardrum burst. The blonde teenager watched the young girl leave and wondered what went through her mind. Every Sigma user had a way of dealing with what they read and experienced via Shinen. Was Natsuki’s way of dealing with these feelings being infatuated with Saijo? If so, it was good that Saijo didn’t return her feelings. Sighing, Nola decided she didn’t care to know any more.

~ ~ ~

Atsuki couldn’t say he’d been excited to hear from Natsuki. Though much to his surprise, his ‘secret’ admirer wasn’t as loud and flirtatious as he’d expected her to be. He could only guess that it was because she had been foolish enough to do a long-distance Viewing. She must’ve been exhausted. Nevertheless, she’d called and told him two locations where Residual Shinen was strangely large—and old—before saying goodbye and hanging up. She’d told him to be careful, too; though Saijo couldn’t understand why she’d say that. What could possibly be there that he should be wary about? The teenager sighed and moved off to the first destination: a graveyard. Still-faced, the silver haired mal began to walk. Along the way he attempted to pick out any Residual Shinen that he could sense without using Sigma. Residual Shinen like that were extremely rare, so Saijo wasn’t surprised when he came up empty-handed. Despite being unable to gather any more information about the small town, Atsuki couldn’t help but wonder what things were really liked under the surface. However, Saijo quickly allowed himself to be lulled back into thoughts of nonexistence—how nice it would be to be able to live a life where no one saw you, and you saw no one. That way you would never be judged superfluously, correct? It was not as if Saijo cared. Again, it was not his job to care. He knew that caring would be a key contributor to his own demise. If the young male allowed himself to care about what other people thought and felt, he would be completely consumed and would eventually become lost in the depths of his own mind. Would being lost in your mind be worse than living and seeing what went on around you? Saijo had a feeling that being able to think freely for all eternity would be enough to drive a man insane.

Silver tresses fell into Saijo’s eyes as he stopped suddenly, turning his head and staring. He’d nearly overshot his destination. Regrettably, the only thing that had gotten him to realize this was the strong Residual Shinen that emanated from the graveyard. There were many Residual Shinen, and Saijo knew that searching for the right one would have been a difficult task if Nola had not given him a last name to search for. However traversing through a graveyard with eerily prominent Residual Shinen was not something Saijo wanted to do—graveyards held a deep sentimental value to him, though the memories they brought back were anything but pleasant. When he thought about it deeply enough, he supposed that graveyards had sentimental value to everyone. Shrugging this aside, Saijo let his unusually active mind go to rest as he searched the gravestones one by one until he found one with the last name of “Elric.” Attached to the ground by the gravestone was a very conspicuous Residual Shinen. It held a deep despair and Saijo felt he could detect traces of anger. Narrowing black eyes at the gravestone, Saijo activated Sigma.

The feeling of Gawain activating and the familiar brown-and-gold markings spreading up his arm by now was something he was accustomed to, but didn’t particularly like unless it was to remove Silent. What good to removing Residual Shinen do? Erasing Residual Shinen would not further the cause of eliminating Silent… Grimacing, Saijo quickly picked out the error in his argument. Residual Shinen could lead to someone becoming infected with Silent, therefore erasing Residual Shinen was necessary. Forgetting his irrational argument, Saijo removed the Residual Shinen. As soon as it was removed, he reevaluated what he’d learned. The death of this woman was unfortunate, to say the least, and Atsuki was slowly beginning to piece the puzzle together. With what little information he’d gathered from this unusually large Residual Shinen he knew would help him in the future. It had already given him a key to what Silent the Target may be infected with. The combined despair and anger, he knew, could ultimately lead to Clymenus. But six years…? He’d gotten six years. How could one infectee survive Silent for six entire years? Was he no longer alive? Is that why the elder had told Saijo and his partner before that he no longer resided here? Staring at the gravestone once more, Atsuki buried his head halfway underneath his trench coat collar, keeping only his nose and eyes visible to the rest of the world.

The next place Natsuki had told him to visit was a site where apparently a home had been burned down. Natsuki had relayed that Nola had attempted to get information on the reason the house burned down, whether it was by accident, or on purpose, but had come up with nothing. Atsuki wondered why everything around here held such mystery to itself—most things back in Kisaragi were simple. The only things that held any real complex value were the statues located around Kisaragi City to supposedly protect it from demons, and the OD levels that Professor Reiji Takano tampered with. Luckily the green-haired professor had failed to like OD with Sigma. They were one in the same, but Atsuki knew that anyone outside of Fort knowing about the powers that he and other Sigma users held would eventually lead somewhere bad. Replacing thoughts of the cheery history professor, Atsuki continued walking. And as he walked, his mind went blank. No thoughts played through his mind other than eliminating Silent and getting back to Kisaragi where the current and more important dangers were. Kisaragi was being plagued by Silent, and Saijo had still failed to find the Original, making it very risky for Chief Ray to have sent all Fort Sigma members out of Kisaragi here to Resembool. Was this Target’s Silent really that big? Was it really that ‘worthy?’ Saijo and his partner had been pulled out of their current mission to do a side job of sorts. It was unlike Ray to do such a thing. So how come this time it was an acceptable exception? Did Chief Ray know something that none of the rest of the Fort members knew, and was simply refusing to bring it into the light?

For the second time, Saijo was stopped before he overshot his destination by the overwhelming presence of a despaired and angry Residual Shinen. Saijo looked up, straightening and pulling his face out from underneath the collar of his black coat, shining onyx orbs staring at the place where not one, but multiple Residual Shinen rested. Saijo had taken a step forward before realizing that he was not alone. And the person that was in proximity with him held an aura of infection. One that Saijo had never experienced before, either. Something about the blonde boy standing feet away from him told Saijo he was infected with a high-ranking Silent. But why did he look so calm? Why was he not muttering and giggling to himself, or simply trying to kill himself, like all other infectees did? Why…did he look so normal? Saijo blinked once, lifeless black eyes staring at the shorter teenager’s frame. Suddenly, the name that Nola had given him popped into his head.

“Edward Elric?”