Shattering Humanity

6PM Erebus City Heliport (Once known as Hanabi Park)

Walking out of a government building, while SeiõrSnow is falling, Nephilim is followed by Silpheed, a tired Tristan, with Arai and Maniae dressed in matching HFF sweatshirts, their individual names on the back, their number, 0.

They all have been equipped with SunSwords and are making their way towards the stationary Blackhawk in the middle of the landing station.

Arai is picking his nose while talking behind his new parental figure.

Arai: "When the hell do we get to use these swords? We’ve been training for two weeks already, I wanna fuck some shit up!"

The unmannerly short haired blonde, pulls out a boogey and tries to flick it multiple times, the booger just keeps sticking to the next finger.

The black haired, more tame and mannerly Maniae, cringes at the unpleasant scene.

Maniae: "Ew, dude that’s freaking gross, wipe it on the ground or something before you-"

The booger accidentally gets flicked onto Maniae’s face and the two stop in silence for moment, wide eyed for their own reason.

Maniae slowly turns his head to look at a Arai, the two make eye contact and then the booger flicker smiles a cheesy grin.

While Nephilim, Silpheed and Tristan continue walking, the two boys can be heard fighting and yelling at each other.

Arai: "Hahahaha, my bad Maniae, I’m- hahaha, I’m sorry!"

Maniae: "Get the fuck back here! I’m gunna fuggin make you eat it!"

Nephilim and Tristan both take a deep breath in then out, then the red exposed eye of Nephilim’s assistant gets angry and turns around to reprimand the two, with their mouth still covered.

Silpheed: "Riiuhn- err-, ouu- doo- eeed- doo- reeax-! Diz- izz- ahh- zrreeuz- nizzun- ann- drz- nou- delln- wahh- nay- abbun! Zo- zhud-ahb- ahhn- ehh- Nef-e-uh-um- Zr- dink!"

Both Arai and Maniae (boogerless) who were fighting on the ground, look up in confusion at the 2nd in command to the General, then at each other, and Arai gets irritated.

Arai: "We’ve told you a thousand times, dude, we have no clue, what the fuck you’re sayin’!"

Maniae: "She said you’re a douchebag!"

Nephilim stops with his back turned to the situation.

Silpheed gets red in the face while Arai, kicks out from under his buddy, getting up.

Arai: "How do you know if that’s a chick or a dude, dude? I always thought ’Cyclops’ was a guy."

Silpheed is shaking in anger. Their exposed face as red as the exposed left eye, but the very instant Silpheed’s hand moves for the SunSword, Nephilim’s hand grips Silpheed’s wrist, hard.

The sound of him squeezing Silpheed’s wrist can be heard.

The red eye of Nephilim is in a mean scowl, while the red eye of the assistant grows wide in fear, and Silpheed is truly scared, covered in a cold sweat.

Tristan is too tired to notice and he isn’t aware that he is the only one approaching the helicopter out of the group.

Tristan: "Just...need to...lay down."

The two young boys watch Nephilim and Silpheed, knowing how it feels being on the ’learning end’ of Nephilim’s ways to handling disputes.

Arai’s crystal blue eyes narrow watching how the General treats his most reliable ally, with a Below Sanpaku stare.

Nephilim has his left red eye and right IceEye looking right through his trusted assistant. Silpheed is stuck in fear, unable to turn their torso, like a dog in trouble.

Nephilim: "I know you are better than that Silpheed and you know how I’ve already told you to have some patience with these boys. Especially regarding your personal situations. When I asked, you promised me-"

Silpheed: "Buhh- Nef-e-uh-um- Zr-, Aii-!"

Qs Nephilim grips tighter, Silpheed closes their one exposed, crying eye. Dropping a single tear.N

Nephilim: "...YOU... PROMISED... ME you wouldn’t fail me again, correct?"

Silpheed hastily nods in acceptance.

Nephilim: "Just because they are obnoxiously ignorant, doesn’t mean they deserve to have their heads cut off, right?"

Silpheed: "Ai’m- zahree- Nef-e-uh-um- Zr!

Ai’m- zahree- Nef-e-uh-um- Zr!

Ai’m- zahree- Nef-e-uh-um- Zr!"

The General releases his grip of Silpheed’s wrist and walks towards the boys, looming over them.

Maniae averts his eyes to the side while Arai is starring down the red eye man with both his bright blue eyes.

Nephilim: "Silph, go start the heli. I need to brief these boys of the mission before we take off."

Silpheed straightens up.

Silpheed: "Ezz- Nef-e-uh-um Zr!"

The condemned assistant turns and runs to the Blackhawk, making it to the cockpit just as Tristan is one step away from the cabin door. The door opens and the tired man slides inside.

Tristan: "Oh, Silpheed... you’re here... it’s 90 minutes to Katsu’s place, right?"

Silpheed sits in the pilots seat and is quickly preparing for takeoff. The face covered pilot pauses for a moment, looks back at the slumped over soldier, quickly nods, and goes back to the preflight safety check.

Back on the helipad edge, Nephilim and the boys are still at a stand still.

Maniae: "Nephilim Sr, I apologize for-"

Arai: "I don’t! We’ve been forced to be here in the first place! Who do you think you are, my dad? Maybe you have that one eyed dude shook, but me and Maniae could kick your ass if we really wanted to!"

Maniae doesn’t look as confident, but doesn’t deny the bold claim.

Nephilim doesn’t change his scolding expression while the helicopter blades, 50 yards behind him begin to spin.

But then, he pops off his IceEye to 2nd Stage with a yellow aura and a smile appears.

Nephilim: "That’s...how many times you’ve thrown that claim around, young Arai? I’ve already told both of you, if just one of you can beat me, you’re both free to walk, but until then, get both of your asses on the-"

He suddenly blocks incoming down strike kicks, from both sides. Arai has twisted his torso to a falling front kick, while Maniae tries a heel drop.

The General throws both them away and the boys land with a slide then come in again for a dual attack.

Arai: "Alright Maniae, this time for sure!"

Maniae doesn’t respond, but focuses on the fight.

Both young men attempt to land a single strike on Nephilim but every punch, kick, or sneak attack fails. The General blocks or dodges with ease, and smacks the boys as a parry instead of punching them.

Nephilim dodges one of Arai’s punches and ends up giving the boy a swift kick in the ass.

Maniae tries another side kick but Nephilim catches the boy’s leg, spins him around, and throws the boy at Aria, who was rubbing his ass in pain from the kick. They collide and go to the ground in a stack.

The two boys are hurting, while still stacked on top of each other, Nephilim puts one foot on them.

Nephilim: "We’re going to be heading to enemy territory, I want you two on your best behavior and if you’re lucky, I’ll let you fight one of their guys. Remember, we are supposed to be doing this for MamMon and her plans. If we want to learn more about Seiõr, we need to make her happy. But as of right now, you two are over the line and a bad representation of Erebus as a whole. I’ve been trying to cooperate with you two. Given you real beds and warm food. What more do I need to make you see, I’m just trying to help you guys?"

Nephilim takes his foot off the two delinquents.

Maniae looks disappointed in himself and Aria grits his teeth. They both look up to see a scarred hand for both of them. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The black haired, calm boy takes a hand once again but Arai smacks the helpful hand away, getting up himself.

The blonde angrily marches towards the helicopter, leaving Nephilim and Maniae alone, watching him.

Nephilim: "I truly do appreciate your cooperation, young Maniae but you shouldn’t let others speak for you all the time. If he drags you into something irrational, don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself. Not only yourself, but it’s also him you’d be saving from bad situations.

I understand he’s only had himself until he met you, but this is a different world from the one that had rejected him before the Icemen. We’ve all experienced the feeling of pain from sudden loss, loneliness, or both.I hope I can rely on you to convince him to trust me for a bit. I promise, I know how fun fighting is too. It gets anger out, it’s relieving stress while also humbling. It teaches those who believe they’re in Heaven, fall back down."

Maniae watches his friend storm off and the young man’s expression gets extremely sad.

Maniae: "If you want my honest opinion, Nephilim Sr, I think Arai does trust you but I’m sure he’s more skeptical of his own feelings than if your dedication to us is legit. He’s never had a respectable older figure, I used to have my older brother, but Arai, he went from foster home to foster home. He was bullied and ran away until that day we posted up in that school for 3 years. I think it’s because he feels like he can’t relate to you since he grew up in a rough environment."

Nephilim watches Arai get in the helicopter cabin. From the view, Tristan is still laying out on the floor.

Nephilim: "...’Grew up in a bad environment’, huh?"

The General let out a hearty laugh and pats Maniae hard on the back, pushing him forward

Nephilim: "Well, time to start your first mission. Just know, I’m proud of you and Arai for how far you two have progressed these past few weeks and hey, between you and me, no more picking on Silph, okay? The whole situation with her is kinda fucked up, and I hope you can respect that."

Maniae nods and they walk across the helipad and get on the chopper.

Maniae chuckles at Tristan, who has managed to wiggle up and already asleep in his seat. The black haired boy sits next to his best friend while Nephilim also gets in the back, sitting across from them all.

Nephilim: "Well, since it’s October, how about a scary story?"

Not soon after, the aircraft takes off North, for Sanpaku.