-Chapter 162: But I Still Reach for the Light
Kairi jumps back as Horobi misses a smack with his attache arrow on her. He has been purposely avoiding me this entire fight. He is definitely following the rules of the Ark right now. I wonder who the Ark is inside of right now because the Ark isn't deal with me itself by using Horobi.
Horobi holds out his attache arrow, making a purple energy arrow appear, and Kairi holds up hers. She pulls her hand back as a silver one appears. She's really going to put him down for me isn't she? I don't think she should do that. We just need to knock him out and then kidnap him at this point.
She fires and he fires back, their arrows colliding.
BANG!
The smoke clears and Horobi turns, catching Kairi's fist before it can collide with his face. He tosses her back and I move forward. Bingo!
He turns to me as my weapon touches his helmet, probably showing him that this is checkmate. He stares at me, probably wondering what is going on through my mind right now, and I swallow. What is he thinking right now? He should know my thoughts.
Can I even do this to Horobi? Can I put an end to him for the greater good for the world? I know Nina gave Kairi a key to transform with earlier to help me do this, but I don't think we should. I can't kill Horobi.
I put my weapon down to the side and look away from him, my eyes going to Kairi. Yeah, I am not able to do this. I cannot kill Horobi.
I pull out my key and stare at Horobi as he ends his transformation, his cold eyes on me probably on me. I look at him and stare at his intimidating eyes, which are as cold as they were when we met. I think the Ark is making sure numb his feelings towards things, but I can't be sure of it. For all I know, he's deciding to side with the Ark or going into acting. I can't tell right this moment.
"Go ahead and destroy me, Mari," Horobi says, his voice calm. How can he ask that of me right now? I just put my weapon down to the side and ended my transformation.
"Horobi..." I shake my head. "I...I can't destroy you. I care too much about you to do that to you."
Horobi steps closer to me. "Do it if you really care about me. Don't you want to stop the Ark? If so, then end me."
"Not at the cost of your life. I'm against that completely," I answer, being honest with him. "I refuse to be the one that ends your life, Horobi. I love you way too much to kill you. I can't ever bring myself to do that." I cannot kill the person I love.
He nods his head a little bit, looking slightly confused by my actions. "I see."
"You can kill me you know. Why don't you do it, Horobi."
"That isn't the Ark's will. I follow the Ark's will and if the Ark wants you to live, you get to live."
"Or is it your own will telling you to keep me alive?" I narrow my eyes. "Tell me. Why are you keeping me alive right now, Horobi?"
Horobi's eyes narrow a bit, looking like he's slightly annoyed by me. No, he's not annoyed by me. He's annoyed that I'm insisting that he wants me to live and not the Ark. Horobi doesn't want to believe that he is able to function on his own.
"Mari, are you alright?" Kairi asks and I turn my head, staring at her as she stops near me. "I see that you're speaking with Horobi. Shall I leave you two alone for a moment?"
I look back at Horobi and clear my throat as he looks me over. "No, we're done speaking to each other right now. We were able to come to an understanding about what we're going to do moving forward. He's going to follow the Ark and I'm going to destroy the Ark."
"I understand. I have received word from Gai Amatsu about needing to meet up with him for an important meeting. Will you be attending it?"
I look back at Kairi and nod. "It is my job as a representative of Halo Horizons to meet up with President Amatsu."
"Mari."
I turn my head and stare at Horobi. "Hm?"
"I will see you soon," Horobi states, saying like it is a fact. Well, it is definitely going to be a fact once we see each other again. He doesn't look as confused as he did before.
"Ah..." Right. "Uh...can...never mind." I shouldn't ask to hug him right now.
"You want to embrace me don't you, Mari?" he asks, speaking up for me. "If you want to do so, you're allowed to. I cannot stop you, Mari." How did Horobi know that I want to do that to him?
I turn to him and tilt my head a bit. "Are you sure you want to hug your enemy, Horobi? What if I stab you in the back? What will you do then?"
"You wouldn't do that to me. You're in love with me still."
He's not wrong about that. I do love him still and I couldn't dare to do that to him. Horobi means a lot to me and I would feel bad if I harmed him like that. No matter how intensely we go out at each other, we can't truly ever harm each other.
"I shall give you two a moment to hug it out," Kairi states and I look over at her, staring through the corner of my eyes, as she walks off from us. She really wants us to have a moment alone right now?
"Mari."
My eyes return to the handsome Humagear in front of me. "Hm?"
"You can hug me now."
"Ah, right." I don't think we should tell anyone about the hugging thing once we get it over with. They'll think I'm okaying him and the Ark's plans, which I am not.
I step closer to him and put my arms around him, embracing him gently with my arms. I'm still holding my key and my driver is on my waist. I can feel his driver right now and I'm sure he is holding onto his key as well.
"You could never stab me in the back," he states and I pull back a bit, my eyes going up to the under part of his face.
"Horobi..."
He places a hand on the back of my head and pushes my head against him. I close my eyes as my heart starts pounding faster. This Humagear...he's a special one. There is a reason why I fell in love with him and a reason why we met each other.
"Mari, I believe that it is time that we head off. I get that you wish to embrace Horobi for a bit more time, but we cannot keep them all waiting," Kairi says and my eyes snap wide open.
"It seems like you have to go now." Horobi's hand leaves my head. "You should get going before they question what took you so long to get there. I do not want you to get into trouble because of failing to kill me." I wonder how much trouble Jin is going to get into when Horobi learns Jin tried sacrificing him to the heavens.
"Right." I pull back and look at him as he looks down at me, his dark eyes staring straight into mine. "Please take care, Horobi."
"You too, Mari."
I hope I can see him again real soon. Hopefully, we won't have to do this again.
~.~
I place down the cup of tea I just drank out of and swallow. Allen is here and I'm not alone with Gai. Kairi is elsewhere because Gai told her she didn't need to be here for our little talk. We just got done with a briefing about our plans and it isn't much different from our plans before. No one knows what to do about the Ark yet, but we'll figure it out.
"I'm still looking into how to get rid of the problem of her chip without her going through surgery again," Allen states and I look over at him. He can just say my name while I'm here. He knows that, right?
"I see. Well, please find something that we can use to stop the Ark from using her fully. It can just use it's own key on her. It just can't take over her while she's using her key," Gai responds and I roll my eyes. "Mari, be mature."
"I am trying to, but you two are acting like I'm not here right now. Is there a problem?"
"You failed to kill Horobi today, right?" Gai asks. I am not going to answer that. "Figures. I didn't expect you to kill him anyway. You're not able to bring yourself to do that yet."
Allen chuckles. "She's too in love with him to hurt him. I think it is sort of sweet that she loves him so much."
"It is kind of sweet that Humagears can build relationships with humans and humans build one with them. I think Mari is the first person to officially want to bang a Humagear."
"I don't want to hear that kind of thing again." I am not going to talk about my sex life here. "Guys, I don't want to bang Horobi, okay? If Horobi offered himself up and wasn't under someone's control, I would consider it. But there has to be consent between us and not be completely one sided. So, chip, what about it?"
"We think we could come up with something to wipe out the information on it. Nina is looking into it with Rei's help. Both of them are very capable of coming up with something and ZAIA will be sure to help," Allen states. "We have Gai's complete support for this."
I stare at Gai's cup of tea as he lifts it up. "I see."
"It'll be good for you to have everyone trying to help you out. I am sure Aruto will help us out as well despite his limited knowledge on all kinds of subjects," Gai says. He puts the cup up to his lips and takes a long sip of his tea.
I look away and nod. "Alright."
I just want to server ties with the Ark. It doesn't matter how it happens, but it has to happen. It really needs to happen.
"Mari, do you want us to stop your from being hooked up to the Ark by whatever we come up with? It won't be with surgery, so it'll leave the chip inside you. Are you alright with having that happen to you?" Gai asks, wanting my consent to let them do their voodoo magic on me with their soon-to-be-here new weapon.
"Do whatever you want. I just want to stop being a tool for the Ark to us freely." I look back at him and smile. "I want to be able to live freely is all. Once that is possible, we can handle the threat of Metsuboujinrai. We all know that they're still a threat to us as long as they're brainwashed."
Gai nods. "Alright. Allen, you heard her."
I look over at Allen. "I am trusting you to do the right thing here."
He nods his head and smiles. "I will do the right thing, Mari. I will make sure that I keep doing the right thing moving forward."
I am glad we're all in agreement right now. I will stop the Ark.