The Seeker | Volume 2

After a few moments of silence, Shinso spoke up. "Your proposal states that the coin is in a higher level of existence right now?"

The other Aizawa nodded. "I hope so." He replied.

He suddenly reached his hand out towards the area where the coin had disappeared, clenching his fist and closing his eyes flighty.

He took a deep breath as the candles in the room ignited once again, burning brighter than ever. Above the other Aizawa's form, an illusory wormhole began to emerge, composed of flesh and blood.

Upon seeing this, Aizawa's eyes widened as he ran to his variant, shaking his shoulder violently. "Stop, you're informing "Her"!" He shouted.

The other Aizawa's eyes shot open, he took a back and unchenchee his fist, causing all of the mystical aura in the room to dissipate.

"Who's "Her"?" The other Aizawa asked, looking up at the wormhole that had just closed.

"The Mother of Envy, the reason we're here!" Aizawa replied.

Upon hearing the name drop, the other Aizawa lowered his hands and continued to gaze at the area where the wormhole had just been sealed.

"The Mother of Envy?" The other Aizawa repeated the name.

"An Outer Deity who is corrupting Izuku." Shinso said.

The other Aizawa paused, after a few moments he took a deep breath and turned back to the group.

"I have a new theory." He said.

He sat down in the center of the room, folding his hands on his lap.

"If I had just transported the coin to a higher level of existence, maybe that informed "Her" of our presence. What if the time I transported Shinso to a higher dimensional "She" found out and attacked him, thus leading to him being lost?"

Aizawa shook his head. "From what I know, "Her" state isn't viable for such interference. She's without the Nest of Vulgarity, "Her" sefirot."

"I used Regration last time to bring Shinso up there. I rearranged a tiny molecular composition in his body, the area of the body where mystical and spiritual essence are the most palpable, in a way that it's harder to detect."

"But even without a sefirot on her side, she must have still been able to recognize and detect Shinso's presence." The other Aizawa explained.

"Do you even know where you sent him to begin with?" Aizawa asked.

The other Aizawa glanced towards Shinso. "I can't remember, but maybe if I pry into his memories, I could access such a thing."

"Access my memories?" Shinso asked, raising an eyebrow.

The other Aizawa nodded. "If you want me to." 

After a few moments of hesitation, Shinso nodded slowly.

Upon seeing Shinso's gesture of confirmation, the other Aizawa gestured to him to lie down.

Shinso laid down on the ground, closing his eyes tightly. The other Aizawa approached him and put a hand on his chest.

With a quick motion, he pressed down onto Shinso's chest. Suddenly, a long, ethereal string stretched from behind Shinso's eye sockets, it was long and purple.

Shinso opened his eyes and caught sight of the string of memories before him.

"My memories…"

The other Aizawa carefully held the string of Shinso's memories, before stretching the string, expanding it and making it larger with a motion of his hands.

Within the confines of the illusory strand, he saw Shinso inside of the General Studies classroom, learning a lesson regarding mathematics.

When he shifted his hand to the left, he saw Shinso as a child, weeping softly after scraping his knee. But something was wrong with this image. Shinso's face was blurry.

"What?" The other Aizawa murmured, zooming in further into the memory. Suddenly, the illusory scene grew dark, and its portion broke off, fracturing into many tiny memories that quickly faded from existence.

"What did you do?!" Shinso asked, leaning up. Suddenly, the string of memories quickly disappeared, along with the fleeting images it carried

"Your memory…it's altered, almost branched." The other Aizawa mumbled.

"I need to see it again." He said, looking back at Shinso with a determined expression.

"Why should I allow that?! You just erased a portion of my memories, they may be small, but they're my fucking memories!" Shinso shouted.

"Trust me." The other Aizawa said softly.

"The last time you trusted your Shinso, they were lost to the cosmos! You think I'd trust you any more than he did!?" 

The other Aizawa fell silent, after a few seconds he suddenly and quickly pressed his hands against Shinso's forehead, causing him to yell out in pain.

Aizawa, who was watching the scene quietly until now, spoke up in shock and confusion.

"Stop, you're hurting him!" 

The other Aizawa's ambition didn't falter, he kept his hand pressed against Shinso's forehead. The longer his hand remained still, the more pain Shinso was in.

Shinso's body went limp, as his breathing slowed slightly, almost like he was asleep.

Upon realizing he was vulnerable enough, the other Aizawa opened his memories once again. 

This time, the string of memories had changed. Where the memory of him crying once was, there was an illusory strand of black essence.

The strand of black essence branched off elsewhere, stretching upwards into the darkness.

He looked left of Shinso's memories, memories deep in his past. There were also numerous dark spots etched within his memory cord, spots that branched off and died.

The other Aizawa zoomed into his memories, looking closer. He saw a scene of Shinso bleeding out on top of a roof as his eyes slowly closed. The memory quickly faded. 

The memory then shifted, moving left of itself and towards the beginning of his memory strand.

"What the hell?" The other Aizawa said in confusion as he followed the memory.

The memory of him bleeding out ended up near the beginning of the strand of memories. When the other Aizawa took a closer look, he saw the scene of Shinso's birth.

"Impossible…" He mumbled 

"What's impossible?" Aizawa asked.

"Shinso's memories…they're incomplete, almost as if ripped from his mind." 

…

"By using this we can determine Valonik Vueresault's location." Usagiyama said as she tossed the stone slab to Westly, who almost fell down under the weight of the heavy object.

"Why would I need this?" Westly asked, picking up the heavy stone artifact.

"You don't need it, well, not you in particular." Usagiyama said with a chuckle.

"Then why hand it to me?!" Westly asked in confusion and anger.

"I simply got tired of holding it." Usagiyama said as she picked up the corpse of the Errican Gang member, hoisting it over her shoulder.

"If the ship's done with repairs, we should take this bastard back to the ship and pry into his memories using the slab." She said as she started to walk.

"Unfortunately, I checked last night and the crew I hired is still assessing the damage, so we'll most likely have to go back to Paxton's house to commence with this." Admiral Kaelin said.

Usagiyama quickly weighed the two possibilities. If she were to go to the ship anyways, they'd see the corpse and most likely inform the authorities.

If she were to go back to Paxton's house, he'd most likely see the corpse too and do the same. But since Paxton and Admiral Kaelin fought in the same war, killed the same people and did many questionable things, he'd most likely let it slide.

"We're going back to Paxton's place." Usagiyama said casually as she continued down the dock.

"Well, I hope Paxton doesn't get too angry." Jake spoke up.

…

When they entered Paxton's house, it was the mid-afternoon, but Paxton and his family were notable for sleeping in when they didn't have much work to get done.

The muscular woman hoisted the Errican member's corpse onto the table, spraying the limbs out so they were dangling off the table.

"Tablet." She said as she gestured for the artifact without looking back at the others.

Westly handed the tablet to Usagiyama, who recalled that the police had done to activate the memory prying.

When she held the tablet over the corpse, it began to twitch and spasm slightly as the ethereal light started to emit from its chest once again.

The corpse was pulled upwards by invisible strings, the tablet left Usagiyama's grip and began to shake and spasm violently.

Strange and ethereal symbols emitted from the corpses chest, colliding and converging to form illusory spheres.

This time, different scenes played out from within the spheres, reflecting periods of this man's life, and his hiring by Valonik Vueresault in retrieving the charm.

Admiral Kaelin, Westly, Jake and Usagiyama watched the scene unfold. He saw Valonik drag a large pile of golden coins under his desk.

The ends of his lips curled up as he turned to face the unnamed man.

"Retrieve the Black-Ember Charm." He said in a deep voice.

Admiral Kaelin raised an eyebrow when he saw the scene behind Vueresault. It was a large rectangular window facing what seemed to be the Dreknought bay.

But from what he could see in the vision, only the tips of the roofs could be seen, indicating that it was high in the air.

Even in the short period of time he'd been in Dreknought Bay, he'd noticed all the buildings had been relatively short, meaning that wherever Valonik Vueresault was, was a building that either was taken down sometime ago, or somewhere hidden.

Suddenly, Kaelin saw the tip of a building he'd seen before, it was a large tip with a sphere at the end of it, similar to the cathedral.

"The cathedral…" he mumbled.

Admiral Kaelin left the house and looked towards the cathedral's location, and he noticed that there were no buildings exceeding its height.

"Strange…"

Admiral Kaelin turned his head when he heard movement in the water, and he walked to the edge of the dock and peered into the murky depths.

Suddenly, a blue figure emerged from the water, landing on the dock and shaking itself off. When Admiral Kaelin could properly see the figure, he saw instantly familiarity.

"It's you…" he mumbled.

Auquenis, who was still wearing his nightclothes, looked towards Admiral Kaelin. 

"You're one of Isaac's friends." He said softly.

Admiral Kaelin nodded. "I am, do you know where he is?" 

The blue skinned boy shook his head and took a step back. "No, I don't. The last time I talked to him was two days ago, since then I haven't seen him."

"So not even you know where he is?" 

Auquenis nodded. "I don't."

Admiral Kaelin changed the subject as he led the scaly boy into the house. When Auquenis saw the man and his memories, his eyes widened when he saw the sight of Vueresault.

"That son of a bitch…" Auquenis mumbled with animosity as he peered into the memory of the horned man hiring someone to locate the Black-Ember charm. 

"You know him?" Admiral Kaelin asked.

Auquenis nodded. "Yes, he rules our underwater city."