"So you want me to remove the poison because you don't know when it will be activated..."
"You're the only one I think could help, especially after hearing what happened to you from Nyx," replied Athena.
Kisuke reclined on his seat and said, "Might as well tell us how you met her... when she had supposedly died."
Athena nodded, "I met Nyx soon after I reached Kuoh Town in hopes of finding some clues to your whereabouts and to contact Serafall Leviathan who seemed to be staying at your place." Athena then looked towards Nyx before continuing, "When I met her, she was not in a very good condition..."
Understanding her cue, Nyx gulped in nervousness and opened her cloak for everyone to see. While Kisuke is still making a poker face, Serafall's face was that of a shock, "Y-your arm and leg are prosthetics?"
In the Human world, getting prosthetics if you lost your limbs was normal, but in the Supernatural world, that option is only available if one can't afford the limb regrowth treatment or if one is an eccentric that wanted mechanical prosthetics for its various functions like Azazel.
From what Serafall could tell, Nyx's prosthetics were just the most basic that allowed her to move unhindered but someone like her shouldn't have any trouble getting treatment.
Guessing what she's thinking about, Kisuke explained, "It's because normal treatment can't fix her issue."
Serafall looked at her and asked, "Why is that?"
Nyx and Athena also looked at him silently, waiting for his answer. The two of them tried to find a way to return her arm and leg to normal, but they could only figure out the cause of it.
"It's because the attack that hit her doesn't only destroy the flesh, but also reduces the spiritual body into its elementary particles. Which means, her soul right now doesn't have an arm and a leg. The reason why she can't get the treatment is that the limbs won't regenerate properly and would only become something akin to a cancer tumor."
"And the reason why she only has the basic of the basic prosthetics is that's the only way to make a moving limb. My guess is that the prosthetics are made to be very complex to circumvent the problem with the soul and any additional feature would only make it fail."
"As you might have guessed, the only way to fix this is to fix the soul itself. However, you don't really have to worry about that one. Unlike normal souls, a God's soul is resilient and as long as it's in its proper vessel, it'll recover naturally."
Nyx gathered her courage and asked, "...H-how long before I fully recover?"
"It depends on one's natural capabilities. For some individuals, it may only take a few weeks or months, but if your recovery rate is unnaturally low, it may even take centuries. Adding to the fact that my attack last time was a bit special, you can multiply that time by ten or upwards," answered Kisuke properly.
"Is there a way to accelerate her recovery?" implored Athena.
Kisuke immediately nodded, "Of course there is. With my help, she'll be able to return to normal within just a few days."
Nyx and Athena's expressions change to that of delight, however, before they could say anything else, Kisuke added, "But then again, I don't have any obligation to that, do I? In the first place, I'm the one who caused this to my enemy and shouldn't even have any reason to explain this to you."
Their expression froze. Thinking about it, Kisuke is indeed right. He didn't have any reason to do them a favor.
"Then again, it's not like I can't really help, so I'm giving you an option. In exchange for the information you have, you can have me cure your infliction instead of helping Athena getting rid of the poison. The decision is on you."
Athena became nervous at Kisuke's offer. Since he already figured out that most of her information came from Nyx, Kisuke made this offer, 'Did I make a mistake bringing Nyx with me?'
However, as soon as that thought came into her mind, she shook her head, 'No... It was Nyx's information and she's the one who has the right to make a deal.' Athena looked forward and waited for Nyx's answer without saying anything to sway her decision.
Kisuke admired Athena's stance and looked towards Nyx who's now making various expressions as she tried to come up with a decision. She also looked towards Athena but the latter didn't even face her and didn't do anything to interject at Kisuke's offer so she knew that she had her blessing to ask for a cure.
But after a few minutes of contemplation, Nyx smiled wryly and shook her head, "...Please go on with the original agreement."
Athena's eyes widened at her decision but it was Kisuke who asked her, "Why?"
Seemingly getting over her fear, Nyx answered clearly, "Although I'm not a good person, I still pride myself as one of the primordial Goddesses. I can't possibly betray the one who helped me in my trying times. Besides, her situation is more urgent."
"...Nyx..." Athena muttered her name.
"But didn't you just betray Hades?" Kisuke continued asking.
"That's indeed the case. But the relation between me and Hades is purely for the sake of our mutual goal."
"Goal?"
Nyx then looked straight into Kisuke's eyes, "Before I say anything else, will you promise to get rid of the poison within Athena's body?"
Kisuke sighed, "...Fine. I promise I'll remove the poison, but only Hades's poison."
Nyx smiled and nodded, "That's fine. That's why we came here."
Nyx then proceeded to tell them Hades and Apollo's real goal.
While Hades wanted the whole Underworld for himself and that isn't something new, Serafall was shocked to hear that Apollo wanted Heaven.
The real reason why Nyx cooperated with them is that she, along with those two, knew the threat that the God of the Bible left behind, the Sacred Gear System. More specifically, the Longinus users as they are people who could reach the Gods without becoming one themselves.
When the God of the Bible was still around, he was the one maintaining the Sacred Gear System. However, Nyx theorized that he was instead limiting the system rather than maintaining it.
One point of evidence of this is after he died, the Sacred Gear System continued to grow, and right now, not only the Longinus but also normal Sacred Gears are attaining Balance Breakers like it was nothing.
"Balance Breakers could only happen when one was able to break away from the limiting system of the Sacred Gears. In the past, only Longinus users could attain this because of the potential and strength of the Sacred Gear itself. Now, not only are the Longinus users getting stronger in a strange manner, but also the normal Sacred Gears are catching up to them. One of these days, I wouldn't be surprised if a Sacred Gear was suddenly classified as a Longinus."
"Let's say that this is true, but how is the Sacred Gear system a threat to you?" asked Serafall.
"Simple answer... Because the Sacred Gear system is for the Humans."
"Now I see your point." Kisuke nodded, "If it's the Humans who can attain strength enough to go against the Gods, it's only a matter of time before they declare war on other mythologies."
=========================
=========================
=========================
Editors:
28th00: Oh, that's what Apollo wanted, huh? Hero Faction is an example of the Sacred Gear's, even if mind control, enslavement and the poison jar method was used enmasse on like 99% of them. Seriously, screw those guys.
Staz Irvine
"Of course, it isn't just that. Us Gods are not immune to desires, as one of their major motivations is greed for power. And between Apollo and Hades, the former is the worst, as the latter would be satisfied as long as no one interrupts the cycle of souls," added Nyx.
In that regard, Kisuke and Hades might have something they could agree on, however, fundamentally, they are still after different things. While Hades wanted to constrain the soul into its 'natural' cycle, Kisuke is after the freedom of the soul.
In hindsight, Kisuke's belief in souls is closer to Aizen's than any other member of Soul Society, while Hades' thinking was aligned with those very old conservatives on the Council of 46.
"Enough with their motives. Why did they target me?"
"Some Gods, especially those who are aligned with the stars have this rare ability, Divination. Its basic function is to let its user peer into the future. Apollo has unusually powerful Divination powers that enabled him to peer into the far future with much more accuracy," replied Nyx.
"So this Apollo saw me through his Divinations?"
Nyx shook her head, "Not exactly. The farther and more specific one wants to see, the greater the limitations that were imposed on this ability. However, Apollo was still able to figure out a few things and make his move. The content of his Divination was, 'Our Grand Ambition will be ended by a Human.' "
Kisuke closed his eyes and thought about her words for a few minutes before sighing, "So I gave myself away, huh?"
Nyx nodded, "You're correct. From the start, they didn't know who this Human was. However, they did have a few suspects and I only knew a few of them. First is the host of the Holy Spear, Cao Cao. But he's under Indra's protection so they couldn't do anything at the time but to plan ahead. The other two were Dulio Gesualdo and Vasco Strada, both from the church, but they both have the same problem as the first one. And the last two that I know of are the possessor of the Two Heavenly Dragons."
"However, even after planning against them, the result of the Divination didn't change which could only mean two things. First is that they failed to stop this Human and second is that they were targeting the wrong person."
Serafall then suddenly pressed her fist on her palm, "I see! They found Kisuke because of Kokabiel's debacle! But then again, why did they make their move? If they knew they would fail from the beginning, then they wouldn't have lured him out using Sona-chan. Clearly, Ki-tan is still alive so is Sona-chan."
But instead of Nyx, it was Kisuke who answered her, "It was because of Ophis-chan."
Hearing her name, Ophis tilted her head in confusion and wondered how she was involved in all of this.
However, Kisuke ignored her and continued, "I knew for sure that Divination can't read a transcended being's fate as they have no fate to begin with. As beings that shook off the shackles of the world, they are outside of the natural order. So when Ophis-chan started interacting with us closely, it should be also around that time that they stopped seeing the Divination results."
"So you really are the Human in that Divination since it disappeared and all?" asked Serafall.
However, Kisuke just shrugged his shoulders, "Who knows? This peering into the future is very unstable to begin with, that it may change suddenly due to the smallest actions. It might have been me or it may be someone else. Unless Divination is a steady stream of information from the future, it isn't really reliable and one is bound to misunderstand the information from it."
'Divination can hardly be useful... Unless it's someone like Yhwach. I wonder if his ability is really to watch and manipulate the future like the Soul King?' Kisuke thought as he sighed.
But for the first time, Nyx smiled, "In my opinion, Apollo's Divination was unusually strong this time."
Kisuke's eyes widened slightly at her reaction and asked, "What makes you think that?"
"I think that instead of predicting the future, he instead brought that future to himself."
Athena was also shocked this time, "You think that if they didn't touch him, the prophecy wouldn't have come true anyway?"
"Isn't it? I mean now that they made him their enemy, I think Kisuke Urahara wouldn't leave them alone now."
Serafall looked towards Kisuke and asked, "What do you think?"
"Hmm? Well, it's true that I'm going to mess with them from here on out and probably clean them up once I get my chance. If they didn't bother me, I probably wouldn't even look their way."
Kisuke then stood up and looked towards Athena, "I heard enough. Come with me and let's remove that poison."
Athena first looked towards Nyx and the latter nodded at her. She then stood up and followed Kisuke. Serafall, Ophis and Nyx were left alone, however, only the sound of Ophis munching on her snacks was heard as the other two didn't even talk.
Half an hour later, Kisuke and Athena returned with the latter's complexion a lot better.
Once Athena reached Nyx's side, she turned back to Kisuke, "About the cooperation..."
However, before she could even finish speaking, Kisuke raised his hand to interrupt her, "Let's talk about that in another day. Serafall-sama here will contact you."
Although she was stopped, Athena was happy with Kisuke's answer as this was actually the best one she could hope for, an answer that Kisuke didn't immediately refuse, "Understood. We'll leave and will wait for your word."
Athena and Nyx didn't bother them anymore and directly left.
Serafall stood up from her seat and asked Kisuke a question she has been wondering, "Since you're in control of Athena, wouldn't you have cured her regardless of her offer? After all, she's your precious outlet of information from Olympus."
Kisuke signaled Serafall and Ophis to follow him before replying, "Of course. Athena and Nyx should also be aware of that."
"Then couldn't have Nyx accepted your offer and still get what they came here for?"
"It's because the real reason that Athena came here is to show me that Nyx isn't an enemy. Although it looked like she used Nyx's information for her own benefit, she's actually looking out for her. Athena knew that Nyx and I were enemies and gave me an out in the deal is one way to ease my stance on Nyx."
"Besides, what they came here for is not the poison, but the cooperation. If I have to guess, Olympus is probably divided into two factions. Apollo's faction and Zeus' faction, and the latter's faction is at an overwhelming disadvantage. The only reason why Apollo's faction hasn't made their move is that they are not ready to take on the other mythological factions yet. Athena wanted me to join their side as Apollo's enemy."
"The fact that you sent them away in hopes of meeting them again, you already accepted it?"
Kisuke then suddenly grinned, "You bet I will~! There's no greater chance than this for me to enter Olympus, right?"
Serafall's mouth twitched at his answer, "Y-you won't attack them, right?"
Chuckling, Kisuke replied, "That's a funny question, Sera-chan~. Designating me as a terrorist probably took them some effort, so it'd be very rude of me to waste it~."
Serafall wanted to do something, but she already knew that she couldn't change his mind, 'I should bring this up with Sirzechs-chan... We can't have this guy continue his terrorizing activities in the Underworld by branding him as one!'
=============================
=============================
=============================
Editors:
28th00: Chomp Chomp say the Phis-chama. Serafall has seen the light, giving Kisuke the label of a terrorist means he doesn't need to care about anyone or anything in his revenge and/or boredom.
Goyya: Kisuke, one of the very few people to be labeled as a terrorist. It's a free ticket to mess with others.
Comentario de párrafo
¡La función de comentarios de párrafo ya está en la Web! Mueva el mouse sobre cualquier párrafo y haga clic en el icono para agregar su comentario.
Además, siempre puedes desactivarlo en Ajustes.
ENTIENDO