CrossRoads Part 2

[Seven]

Now that he had been calmed, he had become more receptive to answering her questions once more. "Because of my elder brother and the gargled words of a priestess's vision," he replied and scoffed. "You asked what became of us abandoned children once our parents were gone, and if we were led by one or many? Here is your answer. We served on the outskirts beneath the autonomous unit of our parents, but once they died, my elder brother became the sole leader. He was a great orator, but mainly, he was held in high regard because it was foreseen that the 'Child of Mika' would become the first to regain the glory of a True Soul-Eater.

"I do not know if it was my elder brother that might have had my life spared. I doubt it mostly, because how he named me and how he despised me. I believe I lived only because of that doubt instilled in people's minds by that prophecy. To them, a child of Blight was a child to no one, and so my brother was the only one seen as a child of Mika... but they were still uncertain enough that I lived. But my brother further engrained his position as rightful heir in my naming." Here, Mikaki gave a sardonic, humorless laugh. "My brother, Mikaku, was a clever man, and he killed two birds with one stone. He led on his propaganda and denounced me all at once by naming me," he said cryptically.

[Pan]

"...So then what does your name mean? And what became of your brother? Did he achieve his goal or was he killed off?"

[Seven]

He smirked at her a little. Ah, so, it seems that she had finally picked up on the fact that everyone was being spoken about in a notably, long gone dead sense. "You're jumping to the end, I'm afraid," he said, almost teasingly. He reclined in his seated posture, and in spite of himself, he smiled with a wry quality, the way cats would if they could smirk. "Let's just say... I find it funny to be seated here with you, Kealya. Peacefully seated in a room, enemies of each other people's, long gone." He looked upward and put his hands together, his humor dark and bordering on bitter. "Gods of Irony, I do applaud."

He took in a breath before looking back at her, his eyes notably that same red and shimmering he spoke of. "My brother, named me, Mikaki, which is not a true derivative of Mika, but instead of Mikaku. He denounced my lineage to our father, meaning I was not a true Child of Mika, not by any measure. And by taking the liberty of naming me after him, he put out such emphasis that he would be the Chosen One of prophecy, for people were only named after True Soul-Eaters. It even spoke that a polluted being like me was not beyond his saving."

Mikaki shook his head once again. "So, I lived my childhood in silence. I was not allowed to speak even though I lived outside the village, because my voice was cursed and I could not control its destructive nature till I reached maturity. And even then, I was never quite welcomed. But it didn't matter. I snuck around the shadows, and found trouble to give myself some merriment. It was not all bad I suppose. I felt happy more often than not. Or perhaps that is the frailty of mind: that it must find happiness somehow, however it can, even if it is through delusions and dementia. And I worshiped my brother, in spite of his hate of me--I was the only smear on his otherwise perfect record, but he was god to me the way the first generation were gods to the others."

[Pan]

At his comment about sitting there peacefully with her Kealya couldn't help but smile. "Well it might help that I know nothing of my father's people and I was raised ignorant of that fact." She became silent again when he went on with his story and she face sunk into sorrow again. She made a few small movement and shocked closer to Mikaki looking up at him. She was now sitting next to him rather than sitting across from him. "I feel like the story of you and your brother did end well. It's the way you are speaking about him even if you did worship him as a child you obviously have moved on from that... What happened to him Mikaki? What happened to the man you saw as a god?"

[Seven]

"He..." There was no ending that he could manage to that sentence, and so he simply trailed off, staring as though into the distance. His thoughts moved to slowly unclouding memories, long buried, but never forgotten. He remembered the thick smog, cast off from burning. Even with the brightness of all that flame, fluttering through the skies like, even with inhuman eyes, it was all but impossible to see through. The day Hell had come to earth, fire and brimstone in the sky. The end of the world... or at least, theirs. There was a hard thump in his chest, a twisting that seemed to go down all the length of his throat. Perhaps he wasn't as numbed as he claimed to be. It was thinking back to that day of hate and madness that inspired the feeling of madness anew. A dark and wry smile slowly curled up one side of his lips. It showed off the sharp, pointed edges of most his teeth. "We were... a cannibalistic society, as I said..."

[Pan]

It only took that statement for Kealya to put the peaces together. "So you eat your brothers soul?" She went silent looking away from him. "Was it when the morning star came back to finish off the Nazatika?" Again it didn't take long for Kealya to figure out this fact as well. She was grate a understand stories even before they finished. "Was... Was there any reason why you did it? Or was it just because that was the way of your people?"

[Seven]

Though she wasn't looking at him, his silence confirmed that 'yes' to her first two questions. Rather than answering her more opened ended questions, he also turned his face away, still thinking of that long ago time. Of that burning. "Have I... unnerved you now?"

[Pan]

She nodes her head. "Unnerved would be a good word to describe the feels that I have right now... But I'm not frighten of you. I understand you a bit better now and why you where trying to push me away. But..." Kealya slowly reaches her hand up and takes his larger on in hers. Only then does she look at him. "But I am still right here and I don't have any desire to go anywhere."

[Seven]

He looked down at her face, silently wondering if there was something innately selfish about himself for doing this. One of the parts of the story he had never gotten to was Toria... and just how this girl seemed to wear her face. It felt like he was being haunted, but he also had enough tact to know that mentioning this likeness was a poor idea. "I wonder if you will not regret someday."

[Pan]

She shrugs her shoulders at this. "I'll fall off that bridge when I come to it but for now... As odd as it may sound to you I know what I want... And it's you... I know most people would have been frighten by your story and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't at some point. But like I said I'm still here I didn't run away or ask you to leave after it. As strange as it may sound I'm glad I ask you about it and glad that you told me."

[Seven]

"Then your opinion of me is much to generous," he said, softly bowing his head, only it wasn't in shame or to dissuade. It was more of an accepting nod with a touch of gratitude. "Is there anything more you wish to know?"

[Pan]

Kealya thought for a moment and then smiled up at him. "A while ago I saw you playing that strange instrument. What's it called? I have never seen anything like that."

[Seven]

He blinked. "Guitar," he said simply.

[Pan]

She gave a slight smile looking away from him again. "Humm do you think you could play it for me? I really loved how it sounded. We have something close to it here but it sounds nothing like your guitar."

[Seven]

It was from literally out of nowhere that the guitar appeared. All he had done was reach back behind him, as though one would ruffling through a bag they new well for an item--only there was no bag on his person. He held the guitar in his hands now, strumming through the chords once. "I have been to many worlds, Kealya. If your world is paralleling any of those others I have seen, the guitar is yet to created in yours for another few centuries."