Chapter 81 - 79

POV: Asher

Seiji has the gift of giving me reasons to get furious at him, something that I do not do very often, not even when Takamori sets his mind into bothering me towards something, nor when my soldiers mess up around me…

I have to take a deep breath to calm myself after that, the more time I spend with Seiji, the more it gets harder to keep my cool.

I'm starting to wonder if all of this is worth the trouble after all… but then I remember his massive figure, remember him fighting, not only the ghouls, not only opening a path among their front lines with ease but, most of all, remembering how he fought against Warrior Queen, not as a beast, but as the shadow of the great samurai he used to be.

And that on itself is an asset that can greatly increase our fighting power, and to be fair we are not in the position of wasting any, especially from not only being at the front line, but because of the increasing danger the ghouls oppose, so I try to ignore how he always manages to crawl under my skin and piss me off and focus on how many lives he will be able to save by working on our side, on how cleaning this place up will ease the pain on those survivors.

Or at least give them time to settle down again and continue to survive for the rest of their lives until the ghouls or the Citadel chooses differently. 

Thinking like that eases the worry growing in my heart. 

Sometimes thinking too much can be as harmful as not thinking at all.

I once more set my gaze to the abandoned eerie halls that surround me, and left alone now I do not lower my guard down, going downstairs and being watchful of every space, from big to small, that could hide a ghoul in its shadows..

And yet, in the end, such stressful demeanor and task are for naught as, for the remaining night, I find no more ghouls at all, and after a while as such I'm sure that Seiji had a hand on it,  though I cannot blame him for such behavior, would do the same of my life force was somehow bond to another person.

It would be a scary and strange thing to happen indeed, being so intertwined with another as to share your life, literally.

Is an odd power to have over a person too… but unfortunately I cannot afford to be kind and ethical, I have to use him, like a tool, so we can all survive.

One life against many… is logical yet it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

After spending all night making sure the place is truly once more safe, me and my soldiers converge towards the main door once more, and beyond a ghoul here and there they, too, have barely encountered any action, to the dislike of few.

"What? Where is that boy? Don't tell me he died already?" Gunner says, but it would be too troublesome to explain so I chose to ignore his clear resentment against Seiji.

We go our separate ways then, already dreading the report that I would have to write not only about accepting Seiji but from cleaning this area too, all bureaucratic troublesome manners, and after one more night without sleep I speak to all when I say we are up to some good rest, especially since the ghouls may try something again, giving even more reason to have my troop rested and alert.

Before going back home, however, I still have to pass at the clothing store again, and as it was not open yet I wait for that too, but at least I do not make the same mistake again and buy more than just one set of clothes for him, aware that this may happen quite often if he keeps changing back and forth from his other form, but because of the height difference there is not much I can do to prevent the loss of more clothes.

I'm already feeling the pressure in my skull from stress and lack of sleep, and yet, even after I finally reach home I still cannot rest, having to babysit Seiji now.

I leave the clothes upstairs, bringing only one pair, but as go downstairs and reach the basement I can feel a vein on my forehead popping up from even more stress.

Because Seiji is not there.

I search the rest of the house before being sure that he, truly, is not there, and with another deep breath I try to calm the emotions that he seems to be able to stir inside me time after time again. 

Did he break off from my command? That cannot be, otherwise he would have gone after me… then what is it? Is he hidden somewhere around? No, he is not very good at stealth, probably because of the time he spent being a gigantic loud creature…

Or perhaps he found a loop hole in my command? Go back home…Home… I did say home… did he manage to crook my words?

Were other places beyond this could be considered home?

It doesn't take me long to figure it out after my line of thought goes there, for there is only one other place that I had shown him that fits that category.

Our hidden outpost.

As I've done many times before I follow the path until I reach the squished building cramped behind other's walls, pass the bar and dance floor, the overlooking abandon place that held my forces hidden from the overlooking hungry gazes of the Citadel looking up above.

However what I encounter once I get inside is not the sight of my men coming to salute me, nor the busy Intel team typing away in front of the screens, but something that makes me stop for a while with my hand still stretch out towards the doorknob to stare back at the insides, and all that emotions that I've manage to subdue before come overflowing once more.

This-this man is…!

"Seiji!" I barely manage yell in the end.