Imode stepped into the camp at an alarming speed. She even hopped onto a horse.
Miko pulled her down, and a car drove up. It was nice seeing more vehicles. Horses were getting old by now.
Imode got in the back, and it drove off in the direction of Savito.
Rumor had it... she was about to end a war with her voice alone.
***
I wasn't worried about her necessarily... but anything could happen.
"We aren't some kind of Military... we're supposed to HUNT Pathogens," Markus explained.
"Hence the job name, Pathogen Hunters?" Byul added with a sigh.
We were all just laying around quietly after that. We had nothing else to do but wait.
"You think she can do it? Convince them?" Pika asked, her palm on her chin. Her words were mumbled and quiet from it.
"Well, we certainly have to hope," I said, falling on my back, laying in the short grass.
A small ant crawled from a piece of grass onto my hand. It was small and dark-colored. Its mandibles were a slight bit creepy, but its size was just so minuscule compared to me.
It continued up my arm and stopped on my wrist. I stared at it carefully, inspecting it and its small details. It crawled to my palm, which made my hand all tingly. I smiled as I looked closer at the small thing.
CLAMP!
A loud clamping noise occurred and I was shocked. My palm had opened up and swallowed the ant whole. Everyone jolted upward, fearing that it was enemy fire.
"What the hell!?" Kayla asked, looking over at me quickly. She put two and two together quicker than the others.
I tried to explain myself, but I couldn't speak.
The voice inside of me spoke.
"I need to eat living things once and a while. I'll take that small thing as a snack." Its deep, distorted voice shook me to my core. "If you only eat dead things, such as meat on a burger, or plants... I'll... we'll never grow stronger. I need to eat the brains and blood of creatures such as that small insect."
I began cursing at the thing in my mind, calling it every curse word I knew.
"Cal... it's okay." Markus said, his hand placed delicately on my shoulder. "Your Pathogenic side is awakening further, and it requires living things. It won't be able to hurt you, or others unless you allow it to." He said so calmly.
There was a brief silence.
"What a shame. I could have finished it." A voice came from the shadow of the tent we were behind.
Our eyes darted to the dark silhouette, who stepped into the light.
It was a boy, maybe around my age. He had a notebook in hand, with a pencil in-between his fingers. He had a paintbrush hanging from a string in the notebook.
"I'm Michi." He introduced himself.
The boy had fairly long hair, which a blue-ish tint resided in. His eyes were blue as well.
He turned the notebook around, and I could see an amazing drawing of the ant, but not just the ant. It had my palm in the drawing as well, amazingly detailed, and looked almost like a photo.
Everyone gasped in awe at the drawing, which had been slightly wet from paint.
"I was painting the ant, but it seems your body ate it," Michi said, pointing to my palm.
What a weird phrase... but maybe not for such a weird guy.
I almost freaked out until I realized that everyone was told about my... disability of sorts.
"Sorry." I apologized, quickly returning my eyes upon my palm, which felt dirty now.
"Ah, no need to apologize. You made the whole thing much more enjoyable." He said, quickly sketching something.
"Ah-ha. If I recall... it was like... this..." He said while his pencil danced along the page happily.
He finally flipped the notebook around again, this time, on another page.
The sketch showed my palm, once again, except it was opened up with pointy teeth sticking out of it. The ant is a small little dot falling inside of the gaping hole.
I felt a bit sick that everyone got to see it now. Oh, how my reputation would die.
"Anyway, nice to finally meet you Calibrum Corvus. Oh, right... Cal." Michi said, bowing down, being polite. He walked away, his hair flowing in the cool breeze. Round glasses hung from his back pocket.
We all silently watched him walk away.
"That guy was weird," Pika announced, which all of us then agreed with.
***
It would be another hour before Imode finally returned. The smell of gas and the sound of the engine alerting us to the gate.
Miko drove the car inside, and Imode was smiling.
"Good news I suppose?" Kayla asked Imode.
"Yeah. Since they have no leader, they agreed to stand down." She briefly paused, her smile faded into an evil stare. "Let's hope it's permanently now."
We all nervously laughed.
The war was over... but for how long? When would another just pop-up? I had to... kill innocent soldiers... just so I could survive. Was that bothering anyone else? Was it... just me?