The Astral soul system-Chapter 219: Problems big and small

To prove her point she let it go five more times and it made it’s way back to her in a minimum of one minute and maximum of ten.

"That’s... interesting"

"Looks like I’m stuck with it for now"

Odd, that almost reminded Zyro of the recall function branded gear had, except Zaria never branded the hair

"Have you tried using it again?"

Zaria shook her head

"After last time? No way,at least not yet"

"Understandable"

Zyro was pretty sure that if the same thing repeated itself he’d be in a pretty bad situation

"Enough changing the subject. I want you to tell me what to expect"

"With Jade"

Zyro asked. This entire conversation was all over the place

"Well... not much i think. At least not right now. She’ll get some new powers"

"Like wings?"

"Among other things,yeah"

"I really wish you wouldn’t be so vague "

Zaria said with a slight moan of annoyance.

"It’s just... really hard to explain"

"..."

"Trust me though, this’ll be a good thing "

"For her?"

"Yes, for her"

"Then you can give me something more to work with "

Zyro sighed and thought for a bit. He couldn’t really blame her for her doubts. Even he was slightly off put by how withdrawn Jade had become, even if it was a bit amusing. It was like she was a different person.

"Well for one, forget about real food for a while. Trust me,it won’t get better."

"Then what do you eat"

Zyro froze. If he said he ate beast crystals and the occasional soul, she’d think he was crazy... well he was crazy and she already knew but still

"Um... she’ll be able to heal from pretty severe wounds now... though she needs energy to do that"

"Zyro, what do you eat?"

"And her eyes might transform like before if she gets emotional"

"Zyro,look me in the eye and answer me"

"Look,you really don’t want to know,trust me"

Zaria kept staring at him for a full minute before sighed.

"Fine, but promise me that if something happens to her,you tell her,me, and everyone EVERYTHING"

"..."

"Zyro...."

"Scouts honor"

"You’re the farthest possible thing from a scout"

"Promise, honestly"

Zaria sighed in relief.

They went silent for a few seconds,both staring up at the sky. After a while, Zaria put her hand over her face.

"You’re going to need to tell her dad too"

"John?"

Zyro briefly remembered the friendly middle-aged man.

Theia popped out of thin air.

"Damn,guy can’t catch a break. Wife who’s secretly part of an evil organization dies and daughter who he sent off to school got turned into an alien"

"I don’t think he’ll mind though"

Zyro said out loud for Zaria to hear

"He really loves Jade. He’ll accept it fine. At most he’ll be lost for a bit "

"I hope you’re right"

Zaria replied wistfully

"What about you?"

Zyro suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Your family. You never mention them"

"Oh. Yeah,I guess I don’t "

"Is it bad?"

Zyro asked, hoping he hadn’t said something he wasn’t supposed to.

"No,my family’s nice. They’re just a bit... much sometimes. It’s easy to feel lost or overwhelmed. They mean well, it just feels like they don’t get me sometimes "

Zyro chuckled

"I hear that. My moms were like the north and south pole, extreme opposites. They could hardly agree on everything and it was always a mess,buuuut sometimes it does feel a bit lonely. Even when you’re surrounded with people "

Zaria smiled

"That’s one way to put it. Your mom’s were -"

"Killed during the military’s attack "

"...you-"

"...I... I’m so sorry "

"It’s cool. I’m pretty sure we were trying to take over the world "

"You don’t care?"

Zyro scratched his head, thinking of a way to put it. It wasn’t that they didn’t care about feelings like that. They just didn’t have them.

Zyro was incapable of being negative,in fact no one paid much mind to it but that smile was the only facial expression he’d made since he’d been released...over a month ago.

His smile might as well have been stitched on, same with Zaine’s scowl.

That’s why one of them couldn’t be in control for too long. Eventually they’d become irrational. Imagine Jade had actually died and all Zyro could do was smile and laugh like nothing had happened.

Disturbing

Zyro guessed that maybe Zaine felt sadness and anger towards the apparent death of their family, but Zyro literally couldn’t see it that way. All he could think of, despite how selfish was how good it was that he himself was alive

And on the other hand Zen couldn’t care less .

They were made to embody a specific alignment,no matter how twisted and dark it had gotten over time.

"I do, I’m just hopeful"

Zaria went silent

"Well now i feel like a jerk"

"Hehe, don’t worry about it. You’re just worried about your friend. I understand that,at least i hope i do"

The two went quiet again, staring up at the sky for a while.

"It’s getting late"

Zyro nodded.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Hopefully "

He said as he turned to leave.

Zaria waved as she also turned to leave.

"That was a nice chat"

"Yeah,i-"

He suddenly felt his chest get tight and he suddenly turned around.

"Zaria?"

~~~~~~~ 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

He immediately ran towards her. She looked like she had tripped and was crouched on the ground, clutching her chest,her face scrunched up in pain.

He tried to help her up but she raised her hand, motioning for him to keep away.

He got on one knee in front of her and offered his hand.

"Are you okay?"

She looked at his hand for a few seconds and winced, forcing herself to get up and not taking it

"Zaine?"

Zaine took a look at himself and suddenly realized.

"What the-?"

How did this happen.

Zaria looked down at the choker and noticed that the gem she could clearly remember to be gold had turned red, but... wait, wasn’t it a different color before?

Zaine himself was stunned. He suddenly got up from the ground and backed away.

"What did you do?"

Zaria didn’t answer. She was still on the floor and still looked like she was in pain.

Zaine had absolutely no plans to help her, and Zaria honestly didn’t want it at this moment.

She shifted near a wall and put her back to it, resting.

"Damn,I guess this is only fair"

She says coughing.

"The fuck is wrong with you? You’re dying?"

"It sure feels like it"

Zaria groaned.

"It... started a while before I came to the academy. I don’t know exactly what, but I thought it was just another one of my random sick outbreaks. I figured it’d be gone in a week but..."

She coughed again, clutching her chest

"Aren’t you rich or something? Just get a fucking doctor "

"That’s not the worst thing. My ability"

"What about it?"

"Nghh. It’s been going haywire ever since. Sometimes it feels like I’m loosing all my power and other times I can barely control it"

Zaine remembered when she shot him into a building. That sure seemed like a lack of control to me.

"So you’re a nuke"

She tried to force a smile.

"If only. Sometimes...it feels like... I’m loosing my powers"

"Really?"

Zaria didn’t like the way he said that.

"So...if I did this?"

He said, suddenly raising his hand,a soul gun charging up, illuminating their surroundings.

"You couldn’t do anything to stop me while you’re like this"

"Um... dude? Are you sure you know what you’re doing here?"

Theia said, sounding a bit curious but making no move to convince him to stop

"..."

"You know i still haven’t gotten you back for that building incident"

"... that was a mistake"

"Maybe... and maybe i don’t care"

...

...

...

...

Zaine groaned, suddenly pointing his hand to the sky and firing.

"You’re no use to me dead, and I doubt the exp would be worth the trouble"

Zaria was way too weak to even ask what he meant by that

"..."

"Doesn’t mean I have to help you though"

"As a matter of fact you do"

Zen interrupted in the corner of his mind

"Or at the very least I have to. We still owe her a debt. You can settle your grudges later"

Zaine growled.

"Fine. You do it then"

Their left eye turned black again and although they didn’t notice it so did the choker. It seemed to not only be aware of but also subtly manipulating their changes.

"Theia, what’s wrong with her"

Theia used read to bring up her status and profile but there was no negative status there.

"I can’t find anything out of the ordinary. If anything she should be healthier than usual right now"

"Can’t you just scan her like you did me once?"

"Well to do that,id have to be inside her-wait,pause,no. I meant she’d have to be my host"z

Looks like whatever was afflicting her wasn’t a regular illness or anything simple at all.

"You said this started before you came to the academy?"

Zaria nodded, still breathing heavily.

"Did anything straight happen around the time?"

"Nothing i can remember "

"..."

Zaria groaned as she slowly pulled herself up on shaky feet.

"I’m fine. This isn’t the first time I’ve had an episode, and they don’t come up often. I can deal with it until I find a fix"

"And what about your powers?"

"They’re manageable "

"Really? Because you just said you were loosing them"

Zaria didn’t reply and turned around to continue walking.

"Goodnight, Zen "

Zen watched her shuffle away and looked up at a corner blocked by shadows.

"Follow her"

A pitch black shadow swooped out , extremely fast and earily silent, trailing above Zaria.

"Watch her for the night"

He said to the air.

"Welp, it’s official"

Theia said, sounding exhausted

"Literally all your friends have problems "