"I want to talk." Kaito said with a calm voice, his purple essence flaring around him.
Aqua tried to move, but her body didn't listen.
"What the? M–My body… it won't move." She thought to herself.
She focused her essence to her eyes, enhancing her vision and looked around only to notice something strange. Very tiny arcs of electricity flickered on the ground all around them.
"Did he use the wet ground from my attack to paralyze me with his lightning? My entire body feels so tight." She gritted her teeth as her CPI scanner flickered in her eye.
Kaito: 105,000 CPI
"I may be stronger than this kid, but his abilities are the perfect counter to mine."
Her eyes darted around the battlefield.
"Where is she? Why hasn't she come out yet?"
As she looked around, her eyes caught something. Behind Kaito, Nix finished healing a few of the team members.
Tyrek walked out from the cover of a tree.
"Wow… even with all of our injuries, he still managed to heal some of us almost completely. So this is the power of nature energy?" He thought to himself as he looked at Nix who was clearly exhausted after using his powers on a few warriors.
Aqua watched as some of the warriors she took down all at once began to stand one by one, completely healed like nothing ever happened.
Suddenly, Enaros grabbed his sword and began to walk towards her, rage simmering underneath his scales. Before he could even take a few steps, an arm swung up in front of him, blocking his path.
"Stand down." Kaito said calmly.
Enaros smacked his hand down.
"What are you doing? We have her pinned down! She's defenseless!"
"I said, stand down." He voiced calmly.
"Don't be an idiot!" Enaros yelled. He turned towards Kaito.
"This is our chance. We—"
But Enaros didn't dare to finish that sentence. When he turned to look at Kaito… Kaito wasn't even looking at him.
Instead, he was looking straight ahead… towards Aqua.
His face was calm, calm as it ever could be, but his eyes…
his eyes didn't tell the same story.
"Stand down." He muttered calmly again.
For a moment there was silence between everyone. Even Aqua watched in slight suspense wondering what was going on. Finally, Enaros sighed.
"Fine." He stepped back and lowered his sword.
"Make it quick." He said as he walked back towards Nix and the others.
"What exactly is your goal?" Aqua asked.
"You're wasting your chance. If you think—"
"Shut up." Kaito cut her off with.
"The electricity running through your body right now is temporarily disrupting communication between your brain and limbs while also causing your muscles to tense up. Long story short, I can kick your ass anytime I'd want right now and there wouldn't be anything you can do about it. You understand this, right?"
Aqua said nothing. She knew he was right, even if the effects were only temporary.
"I have questions I want to ask you." Kaito continued with.
She looked slightly confused for a moment but conceded to his request.
"Okay."
"Our first encounter… after I was shot through the chest, you walked up and asked me why, why did I try to keep fighting even though there was no chance that I would win. I told you my reasoning and you froze. Why?"
Aqua stayed silent for a second before finally responding.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said dryly.
"Don't act stupid. You froze. I saw it. Why? Why did those words make you freeze?"
He took a step forward, his purple essence simmering down to nothing and his voice softened up a bit.
"Or maybe it wasn't the words that made you freeze, instead you felt something… didn't you? When my fist touched your face, it seemed like our essence reacted to each other. I'm not sure what it was, but at the sametime, it felt familiar in a way…"
Aqua's entire cocky demeanor began to crumble slightly. She could hardly hide the fact that she herself was curious about that strange interaction as well… yet she couldn't fully understand why. Suddenly, memories began to emerge from beneath her thoughts, but these weren't normal memories…
She didn't remember any of them at all.
A hazy image of what seemed to be her as a child suddenly came to her.
"W-What is this? Is that… me?" She questioned herself.
The memory was of her younger self, who seemed to be pointing up to something as she looked back towards someone else. The other person's face was hazy but they seemed to be around the same age as Aqua.
"What's that?" The young Aqua asked with excitement.
She tried to look at whatever her younger self was pointing at, but the picture was blurry.
"I don't remember any of this, but why… why does it feel familiar?"
Her thoughts got abruptly interrupted as Kaito spoke up again.
"Why are you here Aqua? Why are you doing this to these people?" He asked calmly.
She was caught off guard by the sudden question, her mind scrambling to think of an answer.
"W-We're here for the greater good of the cosmos..." She said, her voice full of uncertainty now.
Kaito's entire stoic facade almost shattered, but he managed to compose himself just enough before it did.
"The greater good? Enslaving an entire planet? Destroying homes? Ripping apart families? Taking innocent lives? That's your 'greater good'?"
Aqua's eyes began to waver. She looked away, just for a moment, but it was enough. Kaito noticed.
"Tell me." He said as he began to speak in a softer tone.
"Do you really believe in what you all are doing here?"
Aqua's thoughts began to race like crazy now. Every lick of her confidence faltered as doubt crept in her mind, and it wouldn't stop.
"I-I… W-We have our orders. The Grand Order's vision—"
"Fuck your orders!" Kaito shouted, even causing her to flinch.
"Look around you! Look at the pain, the suffering you've caused! How can you justify this?"
Her mouth slightly opened to respond, but not a single word came out. She froze.
"I–No, we are…but Sera said…" Her thoughts became completely scrambled at this point, overwhelming her mentally.
"Aqua."
At the sound of her name, all of the voices in her head stopped. She looked up to see Kaito staring right back at her. Not only that, she felt something, something radiating from him.
"Is this… his essence? It feels so… warm."
"I'm not sure what's going on, but I can sense something different about you, yet it feels familiar in a way. I don't believe you're like the others, Aqua. You hesitate. You question yourself, your actions. Whatever they've told you—deep down it doesn't sit right with you, does it?" He asked softly.
Aqua stiffened up a little as she responded.
"You don't know anything about me…"
"I know enough. I know you're not a monster like them. You're different. You don't have to do this. You don't have to keep hurting people." He rebutled immediately.
Aqua's head slightly dropped to the ground, her white hair hiding the rest of her face. For a moment, everything and everyone around was quiet. That was until Aqua began to mutter something under her breath.
"What are you sayi–" Kaito began to ask before he got cut off.
"Shut up!" The sheer force of her voice made everyone flinch, even Kaito.
"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Her voice trembled more and more after every word.
"You don't know anything! Who do you think you are, saying all of this?! Doing all of this?!"
Kaito didn't respond. He stood there watching her as she began to break down.
"You don't understand anything about the Grand Order! We're doing what's best for everyone! For the cosmos! You have no idea what's at stake—none of you do! The Grand Order's vision is the only way to save—"
Booowww!!!
She was cut off mid-rant by Kaito's fist connecting with her face, sending her flying backwards. She crashed into one of the gigantic trees, the impact shaking loose branches and scattering leaves above.
Every single one of the draconian warriors froze in stunned silence as they watched him slowly lower his fist. Aqua slumped to the ground and blood ran down the corner of her mouth.
"You're right—I don't know everything about your Grand Order, and I don't care. You can rant about saving the cosmos all you want, but none of that justifies what you all have done. If you really believe in what you're saying, then prove it. Don't just talk about it—fight me. Show me with everything you've got that your so-called greater good is worth all the pain you've caused."
Kaito raised his fists with lightning crackling faintly around his knuckles.
"And I will show you just why it's all bullshit."