IEGO: CS || Time Catcher

『 CHAPTER 17 』

Crying it out felt tiring, but it felt so good, Alpha realised.

Although, right about now, a sense of embarrassment creeped up inside him. He could feel his already reddened cheeks, nose, and ears reddening further; because he realised he had just cried right in front of you. After calming down his hiccups, just after his sobbings had died down, he glanced at you, saying, "My apologies for showing you an unruly side of mine."

"You don't need to apologise," were the words you wrote on the ground for him.

"Ah, then, my apolo ⸺"

You raised an eyebrow.

"Pardon." He wiped away his tears, sniffling one last time. Then, he cleared his throat. "If ... you do not mind me asking, although I am aware this is rather redundant of me to ask, may I know how you came to the conclusion I did not ... aim for you life to perish?"

You wrote on the ground again with your finger. "Cuz your apology made me realise that. Alpha, did El Dorado really wanted you to kill me?"

Alpha shook his head. "No. That was never the objective in the first place."

You tilted your head.

He explained, "My actual objective was to erase soccer as a whole from time. In order to do that, I had to first remove soccer from the life of your friends, and yours. The intent was to make it so you have no memories of ever seeing and playing the sport."

You signed an 'OK', before writing down: "But why did you need to erase soccer? Why did El Dorado wanted you to that?"

"From what I recall of the information given to us of Protocol Omega, it was to stop Feida."

"Feidaya?" you tried to repeat.

"Feida," Alpha corrected. "Ah, that is right. You have speech impediment from your damaged vocal chords."

You smiled wrly. "So who Feidaya?"

"To start, Feida is not an individual. It is an organisation, comprised of many individuals, just like El Dorado," Alpha answered. "However, those who make up Feida, from what I know of, is that they are what Master ⸺ Correction: my former superior ⸺ calls Second Stage Children."

Second Stage Children? You tilted your head again. What does that mean?

Seeing your curious eyes, Alpha explained, "Second Stage Children are children who are different than ordinary children like me, so to speak. Second Stage Children appear to have superhuman abilities, that is not limited to the physical sense, as far as I know."

Superhuman abilities huh... You pointed at yourself. Then, when you saw the confusion on Alpha's face , you wrote down, "Then what about me?"

Alpha opened his mouth.

You gave him a look.

"You are a zombie," was all what Alpha could answer.

You laugh. "You're not wrong. I guess you don't REALLY know what makes someone a Second Stage Children."

"Unfortunately, yes."

Something clicked in your zombie brain. "So how does soccer relate to Feida?"

"That ... I do not know either. My former superior told me that soccer is our only way to battle against a faction that is like Feida."

"So ... kinda likey war ... is it?" you asked aloud.

"Yes."

You pursed your lips. You wrote on the ground again. What you wrote had Alpha waiting with bated breath. When you finished writing the following ⸺