The Zodiac Spirit Guardians

Catching Up

"Lady Akira, you are the Goddess of Destruction." Steele admits with a very faint hint of disdain.

I never once thought we would be the ones to tell Akira who she is. Even after she decided to erase every memory she had, I still didn't consider the possibility that we'd be informing her of her supernatural origin. I've always been a cynical person, but this is truly an all time low for us. At least I was wrong about us hitting rock bottom earlier.

Akira's face is blank. My gaze wavers to Haruka who holds a tight expression of forced indifference. I've also seen that look before, pure hatred is hard to hide. Too many people in my past would know exactly how that feels. Seeing it pollute his features is unusual. He's not normally forcing his apathy, it's usually there by his nature.

I've contemplated telling them what I found in the forest, but I can't let anyone know about the dragons, especially since the enemy is taking enough precaution to stay outside Haruka's wall. They must have inside intelligence of Haruka's limits, which keeps me from trusting everyone in our group with this vital piece of information.

Silence consumes us for several minutes before anyone says anything. During this time I take a seat on the grass and lay down. My arms stretch out above my head and place themselves behind my neck. The wind knots my hair and flings it around my eyes so I close my lids.

My death sentence has officially been finalized. I would've never guessed that treason would be my end, but there's always got to be a plot twist. Being wrong is tiresome. At least Akira knows what the hell she is now. There's just this massive obstacle of avoiding imprisonment to deal with before our time for rejoicing can start.

A smirk crawls out of my lips and a laugh escapes me accidentally.

"What is it that you find so humorous, Ezra?" Steele asks with a voice so stern it could scare a horde of disgruntled children into getting along like puppies.

I lift one hand into the air and swirl my finger around in a circle, motioning for everything around me. The smirk grows into a grin. I felt so uptight just a few minutes ago, on the verge of snapping, and now I feel weightless. All because there is no way anything good is going to happen now that Akira knows mostly everything again. With that thought, the stress evaporates in an instant. So of course I'm going to admit, "We're all screwed."

"Ignoring what Ezra just said," Kappie adds from a few feet away, still sitting on the ground looking out towards the mountains, "we seriously need to form a plan of action." His arms extend toward the grass and push his body off to stand up. "So," wary hands brush away excess dirt, "Akira, as you know, we are being followed. And we have been for some time now." He mutters this in such a fatherly way that I cringe a bit inside and maybe a bit more visibly on the outside, "In my opinion, we should find him and order him to tell us who sent him." For now, it's best that they all assume a person is following us rather than a dragon or two since people are easier to cope with than mystical beings.

Rayce lights up and bounces around, still holding the pathetic weed Haruka handed him as an apology earlier, "Now we get to play hide-and-seek!" The childish boy claps his hands and squats down beside me to play with my hair. I never understand this kid. I swat his hands away and roll over to ignore his annoying fingers. Nineteen is supposed to be an age of maturity, at least it was for me, to an extent.

"As valid as that plan sounds," Steele must assert his superior ideas and opinions, and I mean that in the most satirical way possible, "I believe we should stick to the plan of proving to Them that Akira is still suffering from amnesia and is still no harm to Linkai."

I burst into laughter, "That's the dumbest plan I have ever heard in my entire life!" The laughing keeps coming, tossing itself out of my throat and into the air, "I cannot believe your dumbass just suggested that!" More laughing follows, along with glares that are aimed directly at me. Aside from Haruka, who glares at everyone and everything, these scowls are a bit unnerving.

"What do you advise then, Ezra?" Akira's serious curiosity at my ideas are enough to make me spring to my feet and saunter over to where she stands.

Upon seeing those narrowed, skeptical eyes of hers, a part of me misses my little confused Akira with her wide eyes and red cheeks. But then there's the bigger part of me that absolutely loves the fiery and borderline antagonistic personality that comes with the knowledge of the power she holds inside of her. She gets so riled up and feisty, as if the world couldn't even phase her into melancholy.

"Well my little duck," My teeth flash, "I say we hunt down our little follower and force him to answer a few of our questions. Then, if we're all still up for crazy ideas that could get us killed, I think we should take the advice of Steele and march ourselves right up to Them and begin what I consider to be The End of The World." I brush a strand of her hair back with my finger tips. This time she doesn't shrink away from me.

My sarcasm is apparent to everyone, even Itsu. Eyes are rolled and arms are crossed, and I am delighted in that reaction. Any "plan" we make that involves finding our follower, will only result in bloodshed that could kill one of us. I know if I inform them who really might be our stalkers, they'll just want to go after them with more aggression than before.

Ash eyebrows raise and eyes that match, widen in pure amusement. "That one!" Akira exclaims in a cheerful voice, "We will go with that plan!" Lady Akira has officially lost more marbles than Itsu, her murderous pet dog. Speaking of which, he is now asleep on the dirt curled up in a ball like an actual dog. Akira's gaze finds where mine has landed and already knows what I was going to suggest, "Itsu!" She shouts, waking him up with a start, "I need you to lead us to where our follower is hiding."

We are all going to die.

*****

Conclusion of THREE