Volume 8

Rin’s blast caused a great deal of damage, but the men are unscathed because Haru successfully blocked the attack. Rin is furious and powers up for another attack, but Haru jumps to the top of the building. The use of his powers is wearing on him, but he still tries to reason with “Shion.” Still, the years of madness bubble to the surface and he attacks, badly wounding Haruhiko. Before he makes the killing blast, Mikuro comes between them everyone survives the huge explosion that cause the whole area to blow up, though only Tamura isn’t terribly injured.

Mikuro, his brother, and Tamura watch about the explosion on a television in the hospital where Haruhiko is being treated. Mikuro gets yelled at by his brother, but as they argue, Haru wakes up. When he sits up, everyone tells him to lie back down because he needs to recover from his injuries. The conversation turns to Rin, and a tear falls down Haru’s cheek.

Alice is knitting when her mother tells her that Rin is in the hospital. The doctor arrives to speak with Mrs. Kobayashi and the news doesn’t appear to be good.

Rin is dreaming of Shion’s as a child. He is dirty, ragged, and wounded, hiding in tall grass. He sees a house and enters it, finding a box of apples, but someone else wants that food. A soldier points a gun at him and he knows that he doesn’t want to die.

Rin wakes up screaming, and holds him mother sobbing. Alice brings him flowers, but he is once again sleeping. Mrs. Kobayashi offers her some watermelon, which she washes while she talks about Rin. He is having terrible nightmares, and Alice feels that she is too blame because of the incident on the balcony. She thinks about how Rin has changed since he Shion woke up inside him and wonders if Mokuren’s awakening will have the same effect on her.

Back in Shion’s time, he is taken in by some nuns, although he rejects their teachings of Sarjalim. He gets a history lesson, however, that is hard to understand exactly without knowing the text. Apparently in their solar system, more than one planet was populated. A natural disaster destroyed one of the planets and the population boarded space ships and invaded one of the neighboring planets, thus causing the war that Shion is a victim of, or something to that effect.

Being alone for so long has hardened Shion and made it very hard for him to get along with others. Some of the other children tease him and he beats them up, for which he gets scolded by the nuns. While he exasperates the other nuns with his behavior and ability to challenge them philosophically, the head nun is much more tolerant. She explains her belief in Sarjalim by noting that, while she can’t see the goddess, she can see her works in the blessed people like Shion and people called Sarjalians.

A man named Lazlo takes Shion as his ward and brings him to his house where he lives with a giant cat-like animal named Kyaa (because that is the expression of surprise people first use when they see him). Shion, being cheeky, suggests that Lazlo should be afraid of him because he is so powerful, but his new father tells him that he has nothing to fear because Kyaa eats power. Later Shion complains that Kyaa was in his bed, but Lazlo tells him to lie on the big cat, which appears to be a very comfortable way to sleep. In general they have a happy life together.

A bitchy woman comes to see Lazlo and yells at him because Shion beat up her wussy son. Shion hides because he believes that he is in a lot of trouble. Instead of yelling, Lazlo gives him a kiss. Shion is sad because he starts to understand how much he has missed because he didn’t have parents. Lazlo comforts him and says that someday they will be a like real father and son.

That is not to be though. The head nun tells him one day that his foster father and Kyaa were killed and in that moment, Shion lost the only family he had. They go to the house to pick up his stuff and, though he tries not to, he cries at the loss childhood happiness. In the present time, Rin starts crying in his sleep and, in an effort to comfort him, Alice starts to sing. Shion hears the song and runs into the house, following the sound all the way up to the attic, where he sees a giant painting of Sarjalim. He touches the frame and sees Lazlo and Kyaa waving at him. He runs for them, but he wakes up and sees Alice sitting next to his bed. He drifts back to sleep, but not before offending Alice in some way.

In the dream, Shion wakes up several years older and in school with Gyokuran and Shuukaidou. While they appear to be friends, Shion secretly despises Gyokuran because he believes that the boy only pities him because he is an orphan. Gyokuran defends Shion against another boy, but Shuukaidou notices that he doesn’t appreciate it. When he asks him about it, Shion admits that he doesn’t really like Gyokuran because he is a goody goody. He pretends to be Shion’s friend, but doesn’t understand him at all. He recalls an incident when they were both young. Shion was hurt and Gyokuran started to cry, much to his surprise. He invites him over to his house, but Shion assumes it is just to show off his normal, happy family because it hurts him deeply to see what he will never have.

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