บท 47: Answers Lead To More Questions
Everyone in the group looks around waiting for the two to reappear but they never do.
Saku puts both of his swords in their holsters and spits on the ground and yells to the sky.
Saku(pissed off): "What!? You bitches didn't want to fulfill the bounties now!? If they wanna fabricate a story to make me look like a terrorist, I'll give them AND you pussies a real reason to put a price on my dogs head!"
Itsuka: "Saku stop yelling."
Saku: "Shut up bitch!"
Itsuka shoots right back at him.
Itsuka: "The HELL you just call me punkass!?"
The yelling attracts 5 smaller Icemen. Itsuka and Daisuki take them out easily and sheath their swords. Another appears around a building heading right for the injured Katsu.
From the Iceman's PoV it's a few feet away from the cowering young man then its view does a roll revealing Shelly has already dealt with the hazard. The head rolls towards Katsu, and he looks at it, getting close.Daisuki sees it and panics.
Daisuki: "Katsu! No don't get close you didn't-!"
Katsu falls back and Shelly's hand appears, closed, right in front of a surprised Katsu's face.
He still has two green human eyes.
The 18 year old girl's clenched fist squeezes harder as if she 'caught' something. She looks at the group and yells at them in urgency.
Shelly: "Someone give me a container!"
Everybody, even Saku is interested in the situation. The Iceman head next to Katsu, only has one eye. Katsu grabs Shelly's bag and finds the mason jar filled with wrapped candy Shelly packed for Katsu.He pours the candy in her open bag and hands her the jar.
Itsuka: "What is going on?"
An Iceman appears and the fit girl easily kills it in one swipe.
Shelly with both HeatHolsters and SunSwords kneels down and grabs the jar, then she looks at each eye user. Daisuki, Itsuka, Friend, and finally Saku.
The girl nervously swallows her spit and then holds the glass jar up to her right eye...waits a second... then puts it down. She looks at Katsu with tear filled eyes making her blue irises truly look like waves of water on her beautiful but worried face.
Shelly: "Katsu. Please...(tears stream from her eyes)...don't ever look at me differently, no matter how I look. Please."
Katsu: "Shelly what are y-"
Shelly starts moving away from Katsu with her hand still clenched and the jar with the lid, her AIG (Anti-Icemen Gear) on her hips. Once she is about 10 yards away she turns to them with the glass jar up to her right eye{stage left}. She closes her eyes and opens her hand in front of the open jar. 'Something' flies into the jar and Shelly quickly puts the lid on.
Shelly: "Mr.Blooms arcade! Let's get out of the open!"
Daisuki grabs Katsu and Itsuka grabs both Katsu and Shelly's bags. Saku is the first there and pulls open the door for everyone. After Friend is the last one to enter, Saku looks around one last time for the two toying with him and his group. He gets angry, holds a middle finger up high for anyone watching, walks into the arcade and closes the double door. Itsuka puts a metal pipe and wooden board between the handles.
Saku: "Thanks...Listen I'm sor-"
Itsuka: "It's fine. I get it. If someone put a bounty on my PipPip when he was alive I would've lost it too. Besides, I've been called worse and not even out of rational anger."
They turn around to see the rest of their crew in an empty arcade with damaged, dusty, and dark machines. The sunlight from the single hole in the roof is the only light source that exposes the dust in the moving air. Daisuki puts Katsu in a seat in the bright light. The mentor checks his watch as he takes a seat at the same colorful table. "4:55" the digital compass changes from SW to E as he slightly turns to take the rest.
The group converges around the stationary Katsu to see what Shelly had in her small fist.When Shelly puts the jar on the table, the group all makes different sounds of "woahs and holys".
The Iceman 'eye' is making a "squealing" sound but it's 'opened' with octopus or squid like suction cups, and is quickly moving inside the confines of its glass prison. It moves so quickly that it looks like it has disappeared until it rests.
Daisuki: "Ok Saku, checkmate. Maybe that 'parasite' theory wasn't too far off after all. Nobody, even eye users, see these things transfer, nevermind physically catch one with their bare hands. It was labeled just another phenomenon. Sweetheart, excuse my military language, but you got some set of freakin' balls on ya to take that risk you just took. If you chose the wrong eye, you would've lost one of your sweet mums eyes you cherish so much."
Shelly shakes her head.
Shelly: "Since I have 'near-perfect photographic memory' I went through all the people I've seen with IceEyes, from the few teachers and mentors at the Academy all the way to those two we just encountered...(she looks at Saku)...Everyone, except one person, has had their right eye transferred. We learned at the Academy there was no consistency between which eye from the Icemen was missing after recorded transfers. So I looked at Katsu knowing my resolve and took the odds any gambler would take."
The "eye" is now sounding more and more desperate, slowing down and looking more 'moist'. Easily visible for brief seconds now before moving to another side. From the "parasites" PoV Itsuka gets close to look and the creature moves away in pain towards Katsu.
The same design as the "IceEye" on the 'top' of its 'body' looking at the injured boy. Without facial expressions from the small creature Katsu sees sadness in it and feels pity. He picks up the jar to take a closer look. While everyone, except the injured Katsu, gets closer to look at Saku to make the realization.
Saku: "Why did you have to look at me when you said that? Like I had anything to do with the side of my face this parasitic alien attached itself to. I already said both Friend and I were found passed out after killing an Iceman. If you want me to elaborate into more detail, I was able to get an earlier version of these SunSwords after I watched a dude, that I willfully didn't help, get brutally overwhelmed by Icemen. After they left his mangled corpse and carved out chest, I looked at the equipment that was left intact from being thrown aside to expose more of the man's body. One sword was cold on the ground next to the dead man. The other was still sheathed. I pulled the hilt and exposed the red and orange blade and put two and two together, these swords were designed to fight the Icemen. I watched the guy kill one of them so I knew they worked and weren't a failed experiment the dead man created. Unfortunately, one of the aliens that stayed behind, or it could've even been a different one, either way, it saw me and Friend. After a fight that injured both of us we managed to kill the monster together, we woke up with apparently the aliens eyes."
Itsuka: "So with your story, that means both of the eyes are living beings separate from the Icemen they live off of. Then why do both of these 'Eyemen' turn humans into 'ice sculptures'? Does that mean the Eyeman that doesn't transfer, dies? If so, how do they choose which one gets to live? Jeez, I have so many more questions just because of this one answer."
After their separate huddle around Saku is over, they all look over as Katsu finishes uncapping the jar.
From his PoV he removes the lid and blackness.
ของขวัญ
-- ได้รับของขวัญแล้ว สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง