Finn's vision slowly comes to him as his eyes flutter open. The taste of blood filled his mouth. Every breath through his nose sucked down blood to his throat.
"Y—you're awake! Thank the stars… I was on my last medpen and getting worried!" Rikona said, sighing out of relief.
Finn blinked until the fuzz around the edge of his vision cleared. He tried to sit up, but his arms wouldn't move and it felt like a thousand pinpricks along his ribs at once forcing him to stop immediately. He turned his head towards her.
"Who—who are you?" He mumbled out.
"My name is Rikona. I'm with your crewmate Kaito. I don't have much time to explain, but we reall—" She started.
"Ka… Kaito?" Finn cut in, a little more life to his tone.
He rolled his battered body on the rusty dirt until he was on his stomach facing Kaito and the guardian.
"Kaito… I have… to help him."
He pushed himself like a worm across the ground using his face, crawling inch by bloody inch toward the two.
Rikona lunged towards him in a panic.
"No—wait! Don't move! The medpens won't heal your wounds or replenish your essence if you don't stay still for a while."
Despite her grasp stopping him momentarily, his gaze didn't change. His gaze was fixed on Kaito in the distance.
Rikona stared down at his determined eyes. She couldn't help but to admire his fearless drive to stand and fight beside his crewmate despite his horrible injuries. But to Finn, Katio wasn't just a crewmate. He was his friend.
"I know you want to help, but we should really wait for a moment. Kaito said he had a plan and he needs you for it to work." She stated.
Finn's brown eyes widened slightly as he turned his head over to her.
"Kaito said… he needs me?" He asked, voice laced with shock.
Rikona nodded.
"Yes. He mentioned something about using something called his… ult? Then added if that doesn't work, he has a super duper ult, but he hasn't really had practice with them before the exams so he needs your help."
Finn stared at her before turning his head back towards Kaito. He stared at his back for a long moment silently.
"How long until the medpens fully heals and restore my essence?" He asked. "
About five minutes, but it could be a little faster if you minimize your movement while it travels through your system." She replied.
But Finn didn't respond.
His eyes stayed locked onto Kaito.
"Just wait for me… I promise we'll do this together."
Kaito's mind however, seemed to freeze over. He stared at the guardian with eyes wide like he saw a ghost. He chuckled, soft at first then swallowed.
"I'm… a guardian?" He muttered out.
"What are you saying? That doesn't make any sense. Is this some kind of joke?"
The guardian's head tilted to the side.
"I'm unsure of this thing called a joke, but I know for certain that what I said is true." Its black eyes narrowed slightly.
"What confuses me is the fact you don't believe it for yourself."
Aboard the licensing station, Ari'Va mouth dropped open as she stared at the screen. "H-He's a… guardian? That's impossible right ma'am?" She asked, whipping her head over to Astra next to her.
Astra remained still, her porcelain face unreadable.
"Incorrect." She said flatly.
"Incorrect? Ma'am—what do you mean? I don't understand."
Astra's lower set of eyes looked over to the projection of the guardian.
"There are very rare beings throughout this universe called Yoki. They are individuals who carry a guardian within them."
The entire station fell silent. Every single worker looked over towards the two. Ari'Va stared up at her with wide eyes.
"I… I've never heard of this before." She looked up to live feed of Kaito.
"But how… How is that even possible ma'am?"
"The only known way is through a cosmic seal being placed on them as a child as most people throughout the universe's essence are much easier to manipulate and mold when they're younger.. Just like the one you saw on Sylas before. These special ascendants are so far in between, its not a surprise you never heard of them. Even most star travelers never even heard of them or if they did, only brushed it off as a cosmic tale. But…" She tapered off, her four eyes scanning every single part of Kaito's body through the projection.
"But what ma'am?" Ari"Va asked urgently.
"There have been rumors throughout the cosmos of an extremely rare phenomenon where a person is born a Yoki with no such cosmic seal ever being placed on them."
Ari'Va's six-fingered hands hovered over the display as if she could pull answers from the air.
"So then… you're saying, Kaito—he—" She began to stutter.
"Analyze Kaito's essence immediately using another drone." Astra ordered one of the other green workers.
The green operator swallowed and saluted with trembling fingers. The drone feed split the main holo with a white silhouette of Kaito filled the new screen. Streams of purple pulsed throughout and around his body.
"Nothing of significance so far. Is the guardian mistaken? No. That type of statement carries some type of weight to it. It wouldn't say something like that for no reason." She thought to herself, her four red eyes narrowing.
"Continue analyzing his essence until stated otherwise and prepare a clone for transport in case one's needed." She instructed the same worker.
Back on the ground, the guardian took one deliberate step towards Kaito.
"Here it comes. Remember you're training. Five chances." Kaito instructed himself in his head.
He took a deep breath, then another, and another.
thud-thud…
The guardian's right side of its body skin and muscles began to morph before converging to its right arm nearly quadrupling in size.
"It seems I was wrong about you being helpful in answering questions I had. No matter. Once I rid the rest of you, I'll eventually leave this world in chase of others that I am drawn to."
It's paced picked up slightly, now walking at a steady rate towards him.
"Maybe there I'll learn more about myself and find the answers I need to understand this life. I will do that until I find this sensation that's drawing me in. But for now…"
Its ginormous legs tensed to the max before dashing forward, leaving humongous cracks in the ground.
Its fist, now the size of Kaito's entire body, appeared mere feet in front of him.
"I'll devour you next."
It swung, the force of the blow altering the direction of the wind in the surrounding area. But something else caught its attention, or better yet, the lack of something there did.
"I missed?" It asked itself before turning to the empty spot where Kaito stood.
"No… That's not it. He mov—"
thud-thud.
Its black eyes shot open.
"That sound…"
The guardian turned its head to see Kaito right behind him with purple essence flowing around his body closely, fist cocked back.
Thud-thud thud-thud.
Time seemed to slow as he threw his punch. The guardian's eyes watched as his tiny fist stretched through the air. A small smirk grew on its face, until…
THUD-THUD THUD-THUD THUD-THUD THUD-THUDTHUD-THUDTHUD-THUD!
Kaito's essence exploded outward, dwarfing the both of them and the entire battlefield in a purple hue. White lightning arc danced around his body. The ground below ruptured instantly from his power.
The guardian's smirk fell instantly. But before it had a chance to be replaced with something else–
BAMMMM!!
Kaito's fist connected square to its chest, sending it blasting hundreds of meters away into a nearby cliffside, destroying it entirely. Rubble crashed down onto the body of the guardian, burying it as if it was its grave.
The punch was so forceful, it carved through the land of the guardians flight path, like some god took an eraser and dragged it across the landscape.
Kaito's fist, still raised in the air, dripped blood. The skin from his hand to his wrist was cut up with dozens of the small scratch marks. His entire right arm seemed mangled and broken in multiple sections throughout.
He took a deep breath, his purple essence dimming down before clinging closely to his body like before. A cocky smirk crawled up his face.
"One."