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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Feb 14, 2011 23:10:10 GMT -5
"Don't I know that..." Minato mumbled to himself. The eyes, the voice, the exhaustion... he'd sounded confused at the very words coming out of his mouth toward the end there, too. This was way further than anything that had happened to Minato.
"One last thing. On my way in here, I saw a vision of this shrine I've never seen before," Minato said. "I didn't get to see much of it, but there was this weird mask in it and a butterfly design on the floor, and it seemed kind of run down. Do you know anything about that?"
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Abel gave a pained smile at that. Not running away from people who cared about him...
"I've been a fool, haven't I?"
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Atsuro blinked. He had seen the god cards, but he'd been with Pegasus at the time, and the guy had been kind of freaking out pretty bad, thinking they were after him. He didn't seem very aware of Adil's confusion as he continued talking.
"Have you tried looking for Izanami? I'm pretty sure if he's anywhere, it's with her," Atsuro said.
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Naoki sighed. It was indeed obvious. "I thought I sensed something off before. There was more than one Abel here, wasn't there?"
He was pretty much ignoring Seth's confusion.
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Post by mugenginga on Feb 16, 2011 14:08:37 GMT -5
Igor simply smiled at Minato's question. He spread his hands apart, one could almost see a shrug in it. His shoulders didn't move, however, "The truth is yours to find, not mine to lead you to. I'm quite sure if you choice is to fight to save a friend, the answer will come to you."
Leave it to Igor to completely dodge the question. Worth note was that he didn't claim to not know or know... once again he was leaving it in Minato's lap.
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Yuugi returned the pained smile with one of his own. Atem was still keeping an eye on Abel, but he seemed to have relaxed a bit. No worry was showing through, however, at least not towards Abel. He'd given Yuugi a small pained smile... he'd never been good at this sort of thing, it was for that reason Yuugi was stronger. Jounouchi gave a shrug, although he seemed quite keen on maintaining his distance.
"I don't know what Yuugi's thinking, but you don't have to feel bad. We all run from things sometimes," Jounouchi said with a shrug, "But that Atsuro dude really is torn up about things."
Yuugi looked at Jounouchi with a slightly disapproving look. Atsuro really didn't need to be mentioned right now. It faded as he turned back to Abel, "Nothing you can't fix! Just because people have to seperate doesn't mean they can't be friends!"
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"I haven't seen anyone," Teddie pouted, "Sensei has been so tired lately too, and Minato-kun thinks something might be wrong with him! But he won't tell me... but it's so obvious!"
And given that Teddie had put the pieces together, it pretty much was. Adil gave an uncomfortable frown at the continuing conversation, feeling rather left out. After a moment he looked towards Amaterasu and the bug(?) Atsuro had introduced as Issun, trying to see if they (given that by the flaming disc, it was apparent that Ammy was more than a mere wofl) were following the conversation any more than he was.
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And then it hit Seth. He was frowning as he spoke, "You're surprised we're alive because of him, aren't you?"
Cain looked towards Seth first, "Oh look, someone used the brains their lifetimes has giving them. Maybe you aren't as much stupider than Abel as I thought... then again, he was figuring out things with the benefit of one life."
Seth looked towards Naoki, his aggression vanishing into thin air at the turn, "Since Cain feels more like taunting us then answering, yes. Well... with how Abel, I mean my king, was reacting and the other one's appearance... he said something about Abel-ousama standing against him. He was dressed in white too, and seemed surprised to see me. Said something about another mission..." Seth looket at Cain with a disapproving look, "Which if you're from his world and he's against Abel-ousama..."
"If it would make it easier to refer to him, you can simply call him Messiah," Cain said, his smirk twitching a bit and showing clear distaste at the title, "Didn't the angels tell you that your twin had turned away from YHVH? What do you think would have happened if he hadn't?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Feb 17, 2011 23:07:59 GMT -5
And of course Igor wasn't listening to him. Minato supposed he should have expected that; the guy wasn't even bothering to explain the shrine he'd seen. Minato stood up. "Yeah. Okay, I'll be going now, then."
"Please return any time you need our services," Theodore said. Minato said nothing. The man even ended things the same way Elizabeth had. He walked through the door and back into the conscious world.
He hadn't learned much, but he had something to work with now.
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Abel looked away and gave a pained smile as Jounouchi brought up Atsuro. He supposed Atsuro would... after everything that happened, his loyalty was still toward him. He was sure that everything that had happened was hitting Atsuro now that he'd left the court.
"It would be better... if me and Atsuro didn't see each other tagain."
Abel knew Atsuro would be torn up. Of course he would be, with everything that had happened. And Abel had done too much to Atsuro to patch things up now. Too many broken limbs, too many angry outbursts, too much blood spilled. If Atsuro saw him again, Abel knew that would be the last thing to put Atsuro over the edge he was already teetering too close toward. Even with everything that had happened, Abel didn't want Atsuro to die.
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Atsuro frowned at Teddie's comment. So something was wrong with Souji; he hadn't read Minato's concern wrong before after all.
"Well, Izanami owns the shrine, and I'm pretty sure she lives on grounds, so let's look for her quarters first," Atsuro said. "If I know anything about couples, it's that they usually wanna be as far away from crowds as they can when they're getting all lovey-dovey, especially if they're getting a little... well, busy." Though if they were, Atsuro supposed that A) it would probably be a bad idea to drop in on them and B) Souji wasn't as tired as they thought.
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Naoki continued to scowl as Seth started to realize what Cain meant. He'd actually hit on that same conclusion some time ago, but unlike Seth, he hadn't voiced it. At the mention of a Messiah, Naoki spoke up.
"YHVH uses his Messiahs to control mankind for his own uses. It's only natural that he would take the strongest demon of his dimension and use it to control mortals," Naoki said with a scoff. "Especially if the demon was trapped in an easily manipulatable human shell."
He turned toward Cain. "So you escaped to this dimension after Messiah began to actively pursue you, in hopes that you would find your king... No, that's not right, is it?"
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Post by mugenginga on Feb 18, 2011 19:05:47 GMT -5
(OOC: Sorry I'm not on IM FF. I'm really trying to get some good work done on this art. XD But I just finished the base lines for a page, so I'm posting while I take a breather.)
There was no objection from Igor as Minato stood to go, but then again, there never was. The man wasn't all that forthcoming with information when asked, he sure as heck didn't say anything when he wasn't.
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Yuugi frowned, unable to come up with some kind of response. While he hadn't fully noticed the suidical lean Atsuro had, he'd noticed the depression. Atem had a somber look on his face as well, and the group almost looked as if they were giving a moment of silence for a dead friend. Yuugi thought that things could be okay after a while, but Abel was probably right for the moment. Atem stepped forward.
"If the trouble is past, we should head back. Some of our friends might be looking for us," Atem looked up towards Abel, "That was everything, right?"
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Teddie looked confused, "What could they be so busy with that they couldn't be somewhere we could find them?"
Adil said nothing, because he still couldn't understand a word of what was being said.
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Seth gave a frown at Naoki's words, but it dropped quickly. The other man was a demon after all, and he couldn't think of a single demon that didn't consider themselves superior to humans. Some were just less obvious and/or nicer about it.
"I don't think I'll be sharing any more information with an enemy of Bel," Cain said with a smirk and shrug. He then looked towards Seth, "This would be different then that Garuda, wouldn't it? You two?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Feb 19, 2011 3:37:57 GMT -5
Minato looked around the woods for a moment, deciding to see if there were any other buildings back here besides the honden, but he couldn't see them. Had Izanami remodeled the inside of the honden? He turned back around to look at the door, only to find the lock was locked again. He had a feeling using the Velvet Key again would just take him back to the Velvet Room.
"What's up with this shrine?" Minato said to himself. He shook his head and turned back around toward the woods. He needed to find Ryoji and Honda again before he did anything else. He broke off into another run.
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Abel nodded, and there was another flash of light as he took his human form again. "Yeah, go ahead and return to the others. You have business here, anyways."
He would wait for the others to leave before he went anywhere. He wanted to find Seth before he made any other decisions.
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Atsuro sweatdropped. "You'll figure it out when you get older. For now, let's just check the places they'd go to get some privacy."
At this point, Atsuro realized Adil was completely out of the loop. He turned toward Adil. * "Ah, very sorry forgot. Teddie looking for Souji because something wrong him. We will look by Izanami house if you no mind." *
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Naoki scowled at Cain as the man decided he wouldn't be sharing anymore information. And then, the demon actually looked confused at Cain's next words.
"...What do you mean?" Naoki asked. He remembered learning of a Garuda Seth had befriended at one point, but he didn't see how that related.
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Post by mugenginga on Feb 19, 2011 22:03:22 GMT -5
Yuugi winced a bit at the flash of light, which tended to be fairly bright. It wasn't something you'd miss, in any case. He gave a weak smile as he saw Abel had taken his human form again (it felt odd, thinking of that as a "form"). Atem gave a nod and turned to go, but Jounouchi waited until Yuugi turned a few seconds later. Yuugi had been trying to think of a response, something more he could say, but had come up empty. They had left Ishizu, Anzu, and... Yuugi broke into a slight smile despite himself. And his grandfather, who had somehow shown up on the Island. He sped up at that thought.
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"Is it just me or is this stupid shrine awfully easy to get lost in?" Honda said. He, Ryoji, and Koromaru had been wandering for the last five minutes, trying to find someone other than more crowd.
Ryoji gave a forced smile at Honda's joke. Minato was off doing what he needed to do (and he couldn't...) and Souji was... probably dying. For reasons no one could figure out, and Minato couldn't even quite pin down himself. He was looking away from the group when he stopped.
"Hey, Honda, I think it's Atsuro!"
Honda stopped walking forward and turned to Ryoji, "About time we found someone! Yo, Atsuro! Over here!"
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Adil waved a hand to indicate it wasn't an issue, * "I could tell it was serious, that's all that matters right? I won't be a bother being there, right? This seems like it involves you guys more than me. *
Teddie frowned at Atsuro's comment, but it switched straight to enthusiasm as Atsuro switched topics, "Okay! Although this place is kind of big..."
"Yo, Atsuro! Over here!"
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Cain chuckled at Naoki's response. Seth had frowned, knowing Cain well enough to know a taunt when it happened. Cain looked back at Naoki with quite the "who, me?" expression before giving a shrug.
"Nothing that can mean anything with how things sit," Cain looked towards Seth, "Although giving your reactions earlier, I admit its a fair bit amusing. Did you intend on leaving this area or waiting for Abel to find you with him?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Feb 20, 2011 19:41:13 GMT -5
* "Not problem at all. You possibly help, even," * Atsuro said in response to Adil. He turned to Teddie as the bear spoke up. It was a little jarring for him to go from listening for English to listening for Japanese. "Yeah, no kidding. This shrine is just crazy big..."
He turned at Honda's voice, and blinked. Ryoji and Honda were both coming their way, though Atsuro didn't see Minato.
"Hey!" Atsuro waved his arm in the air to indicate that he'd seen Honda, and Amaterasu gave a bark. "What are you guys doing down here?"
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Naoki's expression became flat at Cain's words. "I would rather not start a conflict with Abel right now, especially on the day of a festival. The Messiah tried to do so earlier with Atsuro, and it did not end well for him. Unlike Messiah, though, I cannot see Abel standing down. It's likely he'd be killed."
He turned toward Cain. "And we wouldn't want that, would we?"
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Post by mugenginga on Feb 25, 2011 1:25:05 GMT -5
Honda picked up speed as Atsuro indicated he'd seen them. He came up behind Atsuro, lifting a hand to Adil and Amaterasu before looking at the black haired teenager.
"Trying to find Yuugi-tachi, actually," Honda said, "Getting ourselves lost more than anything else."
"Minato's... doing something," Ryoji said as he caught up. He glanced towards where the chaos had occurred earlier, or at least int hat direction, "I don't know how long it'll take, though. Is everything alright?"
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"Ojisan, calm down! You're going to throw your back out again!"
Sugoroku almost fell over as Anzu yelled at him... for the third time. Ishizu was standing, still holding the boxes of takoyaki from earlier, and had a slight smile on her face. Anzu and Sugoroku were acting much like family might. Her eyes wandered to where Atem and the others had gone. If she hadn't been misreading previous interactions of their group... she supposed it was not only not impossible but somewhat likely that one day they would be... you can't blame the woman for being out of the loop of developments on the Island.
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Seth frowned at Naoki's comment, not liking the idea that Abel was so weak... and then immediately had to wonder at himself. If Abel were to be killed, things would probably go easier on his end. Then again, Naoki could just decide to kill him as well. He let out a sigh as Cain turned towards Naoki's comment and gave a frown.
Unlike Seth, Cain had no doubt about how a fight would end up at this point. Even if their power levels were close... even if Abel's end potential was greater, Naoki would have more experience.
"No, we wouldn't. Neither would you, because Messiah has about a hundred years experience on Abel... and I don't think he'd much like you, now would he. Less than even Abel. After all, Messiah and you are on opposite sides," Cain finished with a smirk.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Feb 25, 2011 2:24:45 GMT -5
"Yeah, everything's... Well, no, not really," Atsuro said, after realizing that no, Ryoji's question did not apply to him. "Teddie's trying to find Souji. He thinks something's wrong with him... You guys know where he is?"
While Atsuro asked this, Minato began to approach the group. They hadn't gone too far from where he'd seen them last, so he'd been able to find them fairly quickly.
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Naoki said nothing in response to Cain's statement. He didn't need him to tell him that. YHVH wouldn't have sent Messiah if he wasn't confident he could defeat his other, Naoki was sure.
"I'll be leaving now," Naoki stated. "The only other major event here is going to be a card game, anyways." He winked, and his voice seemed to switch to the more human tone he'd used before. "Never really been into card games myself. Well, see you."
He waved to Seth before walking off toward the exit of the shrine.
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Post by mugenginga on Feb 25, 2011 4:51:13 GMT -5
Ryoji's expression fell and he gave a worried grimace as Atsuro asked about Souji. Teddie looked towards Ryoji with a worried frown of his own, but this one was more critical. Honda rubbed the back of his head and tried to figure out how to answer Atsuro when he heard a branch crack. He turned towards Minato and gave a grin.
"Uh... hey. Atsuro's asking about Souji."
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Seth gave a depressed wave at Naoki as he walked off. He turned to Cain to glare at the boy once Naoki was out of sight. He'd never felt a more fitting example of Speak of the Devil existed. Honestly, his feelings towards Cain were a lot worse than... y'know... the actual devil. Cain didn't turn to Seth despite feeling the glare.
"For five thouand years worth of memories, you're completely daft, aren't you."
"What did you mean I can die?" Seth said, his tone flat, "How, what are the specifics. Could you cause it?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Feb 26, 2011 2:31:08 GMT -5
Atsuro gave a frown of his own in response to Ryoji's. Why was he hesitant to answer him? It was rather obvious that Ryoji was glad Minato had shown up so that the blue-haired teenager could answer for him.
Minato sighed and walked up to the rest of the group. Atsuro, Teddie, and Adil had all shown up while he'd been gone... How was Teddie going to take the news? "I just got back from the Velvet Room anyways, so I guess now is a good time to say it anyways... something's wrong with Souji. I don't know what, because Izanami doesn't think he's dying, but Igor says his time's short."
"...What? When did this happen?!" Atsuro didn't know what the Velvet Room was or who Igor was, but Souji had seemed fine the other day. Though he had been rather exhausted looking earlier, and Atsuro had seen Minato's concern before, too...
"If I had to guess, it's been happening ever since Souji regained himself as Izanagi. He's been growing more and more sluggish since then. At first I thought that maybe... Souji was going through the same situation I did when I sealed Nyx, but now I don't know," Minato sighed. "And Igor wasn't all that clear either. He just said something about Personas being masks and refusing to wear one..."
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Post by mugenginga on Feb 26, 2011 23:54:27 GMT -5
Cain smirked and looked around at Seth's question. It hadn't been very long since he'd left this world, so he supposed Seth wouldn't have had time to test it. Or was avoiding it, which seemed entirely more likely. While he quite considered himself better than the blue haired immortal teenager, he knew he wasn't so stupid as to not have considered testing it. Abel would be quite willing to oblige if he brought it up. Cain chuckled at that, causing Seth to give a worry tinged glare.
"Answer my question, Cain. You're not that much older than me anymore, I won't be a push over if we fight."
"How many contracts do you have out, dear brother? I can summon more than a mere two demons at a time if I have to," Cain said with a smile, "As for your question, quite likely. It's not anything you need to be a demon to cause."
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Ryoji was quite relieved, and let Minato talk. Honda looked like he was developing a headache. This was extremely complicated, and there was no one he could exactly go punch to relieve it (although that Igor guy sounded tempting, he didn't think he had access to him). Teddie, meanwhile, gave a worried look.
"Make that Igor guy tell you! Can't you? Have you even tried? I'd do it if I knew how but I don't even know how I got to the Velvet Room the first time and there was no one in the car except when Sensei showed up!" Teddie sounded somewhat panicked, really, "I didn't let Izanami kill him before I won't just sit back now!"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Feb 27, 2011 4:27:58 GMT -5
Minato looked rather exasperated as Teddie began to (rightfully) freak out. He'd expected the bear to freak out the worst and he'd been right. His expression fell a bit more as Teddie brought up the time he'd appeared in the Velvet Room, and he thought back to the last time Souji had nearly been lost... and Teddie had nearly lost himself as well.
"Teddie, Igor never gives me any straight answers. I had to work to get what I could out of him this time," Minato said. "But I think Izanami can help us piece these things together. She might be able to help us."
Atsuro, meanwhile, was relaying the events to Adil in his rather butchered English. Amaterasu and Koromaru both remained side by side watching the events unfold.
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Abel had been taking the slow route to get to where Seth was. It wasn't often that he got to relax like this, and he hadn't been to a festival in... he couldn't remember when. That relaxation ceased when he realized he sensed a familiar presence again... and not just one.
"Couldn't be...!"
He started moving faster, pushing his way through crowds of children toward the more secluded area of the shrine. As he approached it, the demonic presence he'd felt got stronger, but so did that very old human presence.
Before Seth would get a chance to respond to Cain, Abel would make it to him. He didn't see who he'd expected to see. Instead, he saw a black haired child. He narrowed his eyes.
"Who are you?"
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Post by mugenginga on Feb 27, 2011 4:46:55 GMT -5
"That's why you make him tell you! All you did was talk, right? He obviously knows something, right?! Sensei is in danger, isn't he?" Teddie looked a little angry despite his overpowering worry, "How hard could it be to get information from him? Is he a god or something?"
Adil was about a sentence behind Atsuro's explanation, and the younger teenager was hiding a lot of details. For reasons he thought were good, Adil was pretty sure, but they were still hidden. He just gave a few concerned nods. He had a feeling he'd underestimated the trouble this group was in, and he found himself looking towards the central area of the shrine. Anzu didn't seem the type to deal with constant stress well...
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Seth opened his mouth to yell at Cain to stop dodging his questions. He had a rather angry look, a rare expression for the Prince of Bel. Let him scream, most normal humans would run if he pulled up a demon while he was confining Cain, kid or not. Before he could put any of that into motion, however, Abel burst through the bushes and gave a glare at Cain.
Cain had a dagger concealed in a folded hand behind his back. The angle was that he'd only have to flick it to draw blood from his palm, enough to summon a demon. Real contracts, not ones set up by the internet (which quite frankly was less of an option than it had once been). However, Abel burst through the bushes and he turned his head, unsurprised, at Abel's arrival. The appearance seemed right, but...
"Tell me, little brother do you hate me?"
Seth blinked at the question that seemed to come out of nowhere. He looked at Abel and the way he'd come running... Hitoshura. It had to be in response to that. He swallowed a lump in his throat, not looking forward to the direction thisconversation was sure to go.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 1, 2011 23:14:42 GMT -5
"I don't know. He's never told me anything; I'm lucky I could get that out of him in the first place. And he'd probably kill me if I tried to force it out of him," Minato said. He could understand why Teddie was freaking out. He'd freaked out similarly after Ryoji left, after all...
"It doesn't matter what Igor knows, anyways. What matters is that we have to help Souji somehow. His eyes were glowing yellow earlier; it's got to be connected to the TV World somehow."
Atsuro was having a really hard time at this point cutting out all of the supernatural stuff for what he was relaying to Adil. He really wished Minato and Teddie wouldn't talk about this stuff so openly when Adil was standing right there and would want to know what was going on.
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Abel frowned at the boy's question, until a look of recognition spread across his face. That familiar human presence, those words, that look in the boy's eyes... it could only be Cain.
He lifted his hand and held it toward the festival, conjuring up a barrier similar to the one Lucifer had used in one of his confrontations with Adachi. While the one Lucifer had used then had merely blocked sound, Abel's barrier blocked perception. No one would see the three of them even if they did wander this way.
"Why would you need to ask that? If you have enough memories to ask me that, then you have enough to know how I feel bout you," Abel said. "How are you back so soon? I didn't expect to see you again for... a long time."
Abel wasn't sure what to feel about this. Elation? Anger? His emotions toward Cain had always been complicated, and nothing about that had changed in the time since he'd discarded his humanity. While he was surprised, he had to remain somewhat civil for now. He could prove he wasn't the same stupid rash human he'd been.
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