Toushikyo furrowed his brow. Dyss said something that confounded him tremendously. Something he couldn't make sense of.

"So . . . you are not with us?" Toushikyo asked.

It was a rhetorical question. Dyss had already said more than enough to indicate that he was not a compatriot of Toushikyo and Recheov's. Toushikyo folded his arms over his chest and was silent for a long moment. He mulled over this revelation several times, but was unable to explain it. Finally, Toushikyo turned around to face Dyss. It didn't quite matter; Dyss could see the man at any angle, but Toushikyo didn't know Dyss-- or many other Memories at all --well enough to fully understand the extent of his power.

"Then why are you here?" He questioned with the utmost insistence.

"Does being around the Legionnaire just make you stupid!? I just told you what I'm here for!"

Toushikyo was more useless than if he had been openly hostile. Just like Recheov, really. Neither of them was openly hostile, but they acted as if they just couldn't understand his questions... Which seemed unlikely. Neither of them was stupid... At least, not as stupid as they were acting.

"I'm here to find them, Toushikyo. Please, just tell me if you know where Izumi is. Recheov said she was with you."

Dyss's entire body was tensed up, the sword starting to feel tempting in his hand. He wouldn't attack anyone first, and yet... A part of him... Almost wanted to goad Toushikyo. To have an excuse to empty all the frustration and pain that was building inside him in a cathartic fight...

"That's not what I asked," Toushikyo replied.

This time, there was something in his voice. It was small, but compared to his earlier tone of voice, as present as a shriek in the night. It was aggression.

Punctuating this was the way Toushikyo took a step forward. He soon dropped his hands to his sides. His pace was extremely slow, slow enough that it had to be completely conscious. With each step, though, Dyss would find the air around him getting colder. The air temperature had dropped suddenly, and it spread like a plague. Being within twenty feet of Toushikyo quickly became unbearable. Being within ten feet of the young man, however, was outright unlivable. Just standing next to him now for a minute or more would be risking one's life. Pneumonia was almost guaranteed.

And yet, Toushikyo seemed perfectly comfortable.

"Whether or not fraternizing with these humans has siphoned your intellectual capacity, or if you never had it to begin with-- I know not. But . . . you are here. You are not in Memoria. You are in the real world. And your reason differs from the Legionnaire's." Toushikyo elaborated, "You will answer me, now. Why are you here?"

As Toushikyo stepped towards Dyss, he would feel a bit of a reaction to stepping closer. Dyss tensed up reflexively at the other Memory's aggressive move, and as he did, a similar aura of heat began to emanate from around him. The heat, while having no visible source, made it feel as if Dyss was aflame, emanating a direct heat, though no light could be seen to accompany it.

"I'm here because I wanted to be. I'm here to try to protect my friends from you and the Legionnaire. And I count a human among my friends. So if you don't have any information, I'm just as happy to leave."

Dyss let his fall into a forward position, the cloth wrapping falling off the blade. He couldn't truly look intimidating, perhaps: the cloth wrapped around his eyes prevented that. Of course, the fact that he moved unerringly with no apparent means of sight could be unnerving all the same...

"What will it be?"

". . . I see."

Something that Dyss said seemed to bother Toushikyo. It reduced the cold that encircled him, drove him back to some level of indifference. It induced a blank sort of feeling, a premiere moment for him to express some feeling beyond levels of indifference and hate, but no feeling arrived. No disgust, no disappointment, and certainly no joy. This was an empty feeling.

"I have information," Toushikyo remarked, "But it is not the information you are looking for. It is not what you want to hear."

Toushikyo folded his arms over his chest. The chill remained about him. Grass continued to freeze and wilt between each man's feet. Nothing changed. Toushikyo was simply waiting.

This . . . was his option. He could turn from Toushikyo now and leave, or he could inquire to the nature of this "information" Toushikyo had to share-- information he seemed convinced that Dyss would be loath to hear.

"Tell me."

Dyss, for better or worse, was not able to resist information. He couldn't help investigating things... And this was no different. He didn't expect help from Toushikyo. At least, no purposeful help. But he wanted to know...

"You're convinced I don't want to know? Well, then tell me. But let me get back to helping my friends."

"Protecting a human," Toushikyo said, only to pause, think, and ultimately shake his head, "No . . . protecting humanity will be the death of Memoria."

The was a pause as Toushikyo collected his thoughts.

"At least, according to the Legionnaire," Toushikyo folded his arms over his chest and motioned in the direction of town. He couldn't see the Legionnaire from here and he didn't know that Dyss could, in a way, get a good look at him, but the icy Memory knew what direction he was in, at least. "It's a Memoria-wide sentiment, now. There is no way to be Real without stealing something else's Reality."

"Or in this case, someone's," Toushikyo conclude. "I'm surprised you haven't heard . . ."

He used the word "surprised" lightly. That was an emotion and sensation he could not experience, after all. Regardless, he did not at all sound adverse to what he was suggesting, almost as if he was absolutely fine with this ideology that was spreading amongst Memories . . .

Dyss felt... Perhaps disgust was the best word for it. Not quite pity, but not quite hate for Toushikyo. The Legionnaire's view was so narrow-minded... So terrible to even consider. Really... As bad as Memories had it, how could they justify killing innocents to reclaim their lives? When someone had done nothing worse than a Memory...

"Humanity... At least, one human... Was all that saved me, when I first got here. With no hidden motive, or scheming, or any of that stuff we Memories tend to do... And that's why I'm here for her, Toushikyo."

Dyss was sorry to hear that idea, though. That had been the whole point of Attis' research. That they could just exist. The idea of having to assume someone's place in the world, effectively... It would make them monsters if they were to do that. Dyss didn't want to do anything but exist peacefully and quietly in the real world...

"If that is really the case... Maybe we just have to learn to live with it. Accept it, and do what we can while we live. None of these humans gets a guarantee they won't drop dead tomorrow. We just have a bit more certainty..."

Dyss at the very least was able to coerce Toushikyo into giving something a bit of thought. Someone. His sister. Everyone knew his sister. She wasn't a young Memory, but she thought she was. She was convinced she was young because she couldn't remember. Because she couldn't remember any single detail-- a face, a feeling, anything --for more than five minutes. And then he thought of his brother, a man currently held in captivity for his inability to maintain control over himself. His emotions flared and shifted with each passing second, from violent extremes to moments of utter calm. He could kill a man one minute and sing that man's praises the next. And then there was Toushikyo. For what all his siblings had no control over, Toushikyo simply lacked. He had nothing. He felt nothing. Everything was cold and dead and that was all which encompassed his world.

This wasn't living.

"You assume we all have lives worth living," Toushikyo replied under his breath.

If it were something he could feel, that statement would have carried a tone of heavy sadness. Just because he couldn't experience such an emotion, however, did not mean Toushikyo hadn't the desire for it . . .

But the truth was, Toushikyo cared little for both the Legionnaire's plan and humanity in general. He didn't care to have this fight with Dyss, either. It served no purpose. It was a waste of valuable energy. Without further adieu, Toushikyo shoved his hands into his pockets and began to walk-- specifically away from the tree-line, and away from the Takamine residence. He passed Dyss by, at first without a word, but spoke once he was ten feet or so away.

"This rebellion will be your death," he uttered, "You've been warned."

Dyss couldn't help but feel a certain amount of pity for Toushikyo. To not be able to feel... Well, of course Toushikyo wasn't going to hurt himself when he couldn't feel despair or self-pity. But that didn't quite excuse something, as far as Dyss was concerned...

"Toushikyo, none of our lives are perfect. I think we were all born of suffering, at least judging by what we can remember... But we deserve to live. Same as the humans deserve to live. If you don't value your life, then why take their lives for your sake?"

Dyss wasn't thrilled at all by Toushikyo's choice of the word "rebellion." The implications that there was an organized force that thought this way... And he and Attis might be the only people opposed to it? That was a frightening thought. It made Dyss wonder if maybe things would have been better if they had never crossed over...

"If you all value humans so little... What do you want with Izumi? And where is she? Of all the humans to pick... You know, Toushikyo. Maybe you could try a good deed. For the novelty of it? Maybe it wouldn't feel good to you, but... Well, what could it hurt? It could even make your life easier..."

Dyss wasn't going to fight Toushikyo any more than Toushikyo was going to fight him. The way things were going, Dyss had a feeling things would come to a head soon already..

"You mistake me for someone that cares," Toushikyo uttered without skipping a beat.

He kept on walking, indifferent to Dyss's existence, his search, and his rebellion. Toushikyo was no soldier. He hadn't the ability to feel a sense of urgency or purpose, after all . . .

But he didn't care to not help Dyss, either. "The girl is in the woods," he said after a moment of walking. And then he left it at that.

Somewhere in the distance, there was a rattle-- an earthquake of some spiritual magnitude. The world itself did not shift and shake; rather, it would feel to Dyss and Toushikyo as if their very beings were shifting in place, if only slightly. A small, yet noticeable change. It would feel as if the source came from their collective right, somewhere in the direction of Galaens, and somewhere in the distance. Had they been closer to the source, the feeling may have been much more intense.

Toushikyo looked to the immediate right and stared for a long while, but ultimately looked away and began to walk back towards town.

Dyss frowned a bit, but really, it was all he could expect. If Toushikyo even knew where she was, "in the woods" was slightly less helpful than "She is in a building." It was slightly better than nothing, though.

"Toushikyo..."

Dyss didn't really have anything to say, he realized. He didn't necessarily wish ill on the Memory, who had an unpleasant experience. He wasn't likely to respond to anything Dyss had to say, really...

"The Legionnaire's way is no better than Vince's or the rest of those people who fed on us. And just as likely to turn terrible when the humans or decent Memories realize what's happening..."

Dyss wasn't rebelling, in truth. He had never agreed to their methods in the first place. However, his concern was momentarily taken by whatever catastrophic thing was occurring... However quickly it subsided. However, with the feeling subsided, he would begin to sweep the forest as quickly as he could with his perception. It had taken him a few minutes to get there, but Izumi was only going to get further away from him if he waited...

Toushikyo paused only once after Dyss spoke, glanced back at him, half shut his eyes, and looked away-- and that was that. Dyss received no further response from the man; he simply continued to walk. His destination was the center of Hillcrest, where the Legionnaire and Milos still spoke together.

In the woods, there wasn't much sign of Izumi. Of course, Dyss had arrived without knowing how long Izumi had been out in the woods. A standard scan would turn out inconclusive . . . at first. But there was still something else. Someone else. Something Dyss had either forgotten about or chosen to deal with later. The deaf song bird was still off of the path in the distance, still perched next to a body laying upon the ground. This body was still immobile, but at a distance, Dyss would be unable to focus on it enough to get much of an image.

Distance wise, though, they were a solid mile away, down the path that led towards Galaens and a bit of ways off the path. Aside from this, there didn't appear to be anyone at all in the woods.

Dyss let Toushikyo go, unable to feel much beyond... Pity? Recheov had betrayed Dyss, it seemed, but Toushikyo had made no such promise. He was really just sort of a tragic figure. He wasn't really immoral so much as amoral; it was something he just couldn't be... And it was going to get him in major trouble, Dyss imagined...

Dyss had forgotten the body, in a way. Really, he had scanned right over it without noticing. As he did notice it, though, he started to run towards it without thinking. His attention was immediately focused on moving through the trees, and he didn't really think too much about looking closer. As tired as he was, he seemed to have a sudden overwhelming sense of urgency...

That bird. What was that bird doing there? Had it been... Trying to lead him? Dyss's mind wandered to anything that didn't involve Izumi lying in the woods...

The closer Dyss came to the clearing, the more his vision would change. His perception would fill with static at first, and then images.


The boy stood upon the surface of the frozen lake. The snow had since ceased its progressive downfall, but the earth was still drenched in a frozen ivory. The boy hadn't left his village yet. Hadn't met Recheov yet. And he wasn't alone this time, either. A girl stood by his side-- a girl with a strange, exotic hair color. She wore thick clothes much like the boy by her side.

And before them stood Illorex, undaunted by the cold.

They exchanged words, desperate and tired at first, but it all quickly became heated-- except for Illorex, who stood stalwart and stone-faced. Instead of arguing, he merely lifted his hand. The boy was tired. He couldn't move a muscle. Not in time, at least. It took the girl throwing him out of the way . . .


The filter would wash away again, with Dyss's perception once again defaulted to the cluster of light he most often perceived. Of course, by then, he'd likely be able to wander between that muted perception and the more glaring brand he'd known for the majority of his life. It was only then, when his perception cleared, that he'd find he had reached his destination-- that he was standing within a clearing, just before a fallen tree.

Standing just before a girl so romantically familiar to Dyss, collapsed over the trunk, and a small turquoise bird perched next to her, singing a solemn and rueful tune.