Within 5 minutes of nonstop sprinting, she finally reached them. Seeing a Reaper so close to Rin, she immediately lunged towards the Reaper.
Rin called out in surprise and yelled, "Stop!! Don't hurt him!"
Aida froze in shock as the Reaper boy quickly disappeared. Through the scan, Aida could tell that the boy had simply turned invisible and hid behind Rin, he was hiding as though afraid of Aida.
Seeing this odd scene, Aida cocked her head and stared in confusion. Just what was going on here. A Reaper didn't choose to attack a Variant, and the Variant chose to protect a Reaper. Is this a new species of Reapers?
Coming to a stop, Aida took a closer look at the Reaper hiding behind Rin and then realization struck. This was an identical copy of the Reaper she killed with the dark gem! From this, she quickly deduced what happened. This Reaper must have smelled the scent of his brother on Rin and treated Rin as his true kin. This explains why this Reaper had followed them this entire time. It appeared to have developed some amount of sentience.
Additionally, to her surprise, this new Reaper seemed to have an interesting ability as well.
Coming to a decision, she calmly sat down cross legged on the ground and raised her hands to show that she was harmless. Since the Reaper was not going to attack them, she had no reason to kill it either. Besides, it would be more interesting alive than dead. She also began to feel guilty about killing his brother.
Seeing that she wasn't going to attack, Rin also followed suit and sat down. The Reaper boy timidly reappeared and peeked out from behind and cautiously copied Rin to sit down as well. Rin patted his head and treated him like a little brother.
Aida listened as Rin recounted all that had occurred and how he ended up meeting this Reaper. He had also named the Reaper, Little White, due to his luminous moonlike eyes.
After hearing the story, Aida calmly nodded and silently got up. Seeing this action, Little White immediately became vigilant. Aida paused as she saw the reaction and tried to soften her vibe, making it slightly warmer. She knew that Little White's intelligence at the moment was that of a 2 year olds and only knew to act on instincts.
Softening her vibe did help as Little White gradually relaxed. Rin also got up and held Little White's hands as they walked back to the temporary camp. As they reached the area, Light came running towards Rin to give him a hug, completely missing the presence of Little White who had turned invisible. Little White in his invisible state ran and hid behind Aida.
Seeing this, Aida laughed out loud. What a cute timid little Reaper! Seeing this cute reaction, she made the decision to keep him for the time being. First, she had to bribe it. Thinking for a bit, she reached for her backpack and took out a single gem. As the gem was taken out, Little White reappeared and stared anxiously at the gem. It seemed eager to take the gem but was too timid to take it from Aida. Instead, it compromised and looked pitifully at Aida.
Laughing again, she patted his head and handed the gem to Little White who immediately took it and threw it into his mouth as though fearful she would change her mind. This small action from Aida caused Little White's impression of her to shoot up multifold.
He had been hungry this entire time but had prioritized following the scent of his brother. For this reason, he had been starved for the past couple days.
Seeing that he was a little more comfortable with her, Aida had Yukio fetch some extra clothes they had in the jeep. She patiently helped Little White clean up as best as she could and change into his new clothes. After cleaning up and putting on new clothes, he looked completely adorable like a bun. Seeing him like this made Aida's eyes mist as she thought of what Xiao Ai would have looked like if she had a human body.
By this time, everyone in the group had noticed this new addition and were staring curiously. During the time Aida took to clean him up, Rin had told everyone about how they met and what had occurred. Aida also explained that she suspected Rin had drifted off while sleeping not only because of poor control, but also because he naturally felt a familiar connection with Little White. Everyone looked on thoughtfully.
Clapping her hands, Aida snapped everyone out of their reverie as she said, "Okay, let's head towards the nearest city. I want to pick up some camping material such as tents and sleeping bags, as well as take a nice clean shower. We also need to get a new vehicle. With the addition of Little White, space was going to be a bit tight."
Nodding in acceptance, they all hopped into the car and followed the GPS's directions to the nearest city. None of them except Rin and Aida were extremely comfortable with Little White's presence. The terror of Reapers was something that they couldn't easily come to terms with even if Little White appeared harmless at the moment. They had a deep trust and faith in Aida, so went along with this idea anyway.
Little White just sat in the car quietly, staring blankly into space as though it didn't notice anyone's presence. Light also quietly monitored the emotions of Little White. To his surprise, Little White's emotions were extremely clean and pure. His only thoughts were about family and there were no negative emotions like anger, rage, or even hunger.
This allowed Light to finally relax and focus on continuing to sort through the mess in his mindscape. After discovering this newfound mental ability, he realized he had yet to discover all of its secrets. He made a mental note to discuss this in private with Aida, he wasn't ready to share the information with everyone yet.