Songs of Innocence

Chapter 22: The Storm Swift and The Dark Snatcher

Once again, Sun needed money. This is a chapter where she does get paid for doing a job, but this chapter isn't about her. This is about an anthropomorphic parrot named Aello. She is the younger sister of another parrot called Captain Celaeno. They had been separated for years, and they thought each other to be dead. But today, they were finally going to meet again. However, in order for you to actually care about this, we're going to have to rewind to the day that Aello abandoned Celaeno.

Years ago, on Captain Celaeno's airship 

It was a miserable day for Aello, and it seemed the weather empathized with her, being equally as dark and gloomy. It wasn't like she wanted to be moody, but she couldn't feel any other way because she knew her older sister was going to come back to her and Aello's room on the ship with handfuls of stolen goods. Aello hated stealing, and hated that her sister was a pirate, but she could never bring herself to leave her. There were two major reasons: because they were sisters, and because Aello knew she wouldn't make it on her own, due to her younger age. But every time Celaeno came back to their room with a new hanful of things, Aello got a little closer to literally walking out on her.

"I'm back, sis!" Aello heard Celaeno's voice say from the other side of the room's door.

["Kinschicho Underground Shopping Center" from Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse]

Just as Aello expected, when her sister entered her and Aello's room, the parrot was carrying a wooden box overflowing with freshly stolen gold coins. She laughed in tired triumph as she wiped some sweat off of her forehead. 

"That was a close one!" she said, before looking at Aello, who was not happy with her. 

"You stole those." Aello glared. She then sat on her bed, crossing her arms as she stared at her sister with a stern glare. Celaeno, in response, shrugged. 

"Well, yeah. How else do you think I got 'em?" Her sister didn't respond, continuing to glare at her. Celaeno's mildly joyful expression quickly shifted into a sad one. She walked over to Aello's bed, and sat down on it with her, placing the wooden box in between them. Celaeno had been used to her sister's black and white view of morality for a long time, but it was starting to get unbearable to deal with. Every time Celaeno successfully stole, Aello would try to scold her for her lack of morals, but after a while, it only elicited an eye-roll from the older sister. She'd moved on from trying to justify her actions long ago, since Aello just couldn't understand. So now, she was simply trying to excuse her actions instead.

"Listen to me," she said, looking at her sister, "this won't be what we do forever. We just need enough money to get our own place, and then..." She put her hand on her sister's shoulder, and continued, "...no more pirate stuff. Ever. I promise you that." She grinned as she looked into her eyes to ensure that she was honest... But it didn't work. Aello had always been more immature than Celaeno, but to her, the line between good and bad had no shades of grey, only black and white. Because of that, it was always hard to accept that someone so close to her would steal even once, let alone make a living from it. She couldn't comprehend that it was, in Celaeno's words, the only way the two could survive. Despite how their fancy clothes made them appear like highly-paid professionals with equally high standards, each time they robbed, stole, and took... it was a all just a fight for their survival.

They started out as petty thieves, stealing food and little objects because they couldn't afford them. In fact, Celaeno was the one who started doing it first, because she found she had a knack for stealing things, and tried to get Aello into it along with her, since they were all on their own. But as Celaeno stole, she got more and more things, and eventually, she had more than enough to make a living... and yet, she didn't stop. She could, but it was just so fun to her, and she had the skills to ensure she'd never get caught. And she never did. So, she kept on stealing, even when the both of them knew they had way more than enough to return to regular society.