[EXCLUSIVE] - Gaia Gear Ch.02 (Full)

CHAPTER.02 SEPARATE WAYS

1

　"A-ffranchi!" Everly's voice was as gentle as the sea's ebb and flow, lacking its usual vivacity. She bit back from calling him by his familiar name, "Char."

　Affranchi lay motionless, his body gently rocked by the waves, his gaze distant and unseeing.

　*tick, tick, tick, tick, tick*

　The monotonous sound beats in his head like a drum, but it's Everly's voice that breaks through and keeps him grounded. Her soothing melody merges with the rhythm of the waves, pressing down on him like a heavy burden.

　"It's heavy..." A voice within him laments. This voice does not stem from his conscious mind but rather from a deeper, introspective part of him.

　"Eh...?" Affranchi's head snapped up, drawn by the sound of his inner voice. He turned his gaze towards Everly. The vibrant hues of the coral reef shone through, highlighting the fluid grace of her brown limbs as she moved with the ease of a shark.

　"How is it that only Everly's form is visible in the water?" Affranchi mused, a hint of wonder in his voice. But even more mesmerizing than the sight before him was the overwhelming sensation of her presence, a memory that lingered in Affranchi's mind like a haunting melody.

　"..." 

　The weight of his thoughts caused him to recline on his board once more, a sorrowful expression on his face. 

　"It's like being ambushed from the heavens..." he whispered as the wind rustled through his golden hair.

　"Ah!"

　He gave in to his instincts and spun around, diving into the water with a splash. The foam rose around him, the warm tide enveloping him like a comforting embrace.

　As she drew near to him, Everly's skin blazed with a fiery passion, igniting the sea into a tempest that enveloped him. Her vibrant form was visible through the frothy waves, her threads long since cast aside.

　Affranchi swam as if he was trying to escape her, drawn towards the machine on the cape. Between each swell, she cried out his nickname, "Char!" He could feel that there was still time.

　So when Everly's hand brushed his leg, he did not resist. "Oh, Affranchi! Don't leave me!" she wailed, their bodies entwining, rising and falling with the tide. "Why won't you answer me? Why won't you tell me that you won't leave?" she pleaded, her ample breasts heaving against his chest.

　Even in the tumultuous waters, the evidence of her passion was unmistakable. But to Affranchi, all he could see was the machine on the cape, calling him with an irresistible pull.

　"A man-machine!" The phrase echoed in Affranchi's mind, a term he coined himself but with a strange familiarity. However, Affranchi could not recall ever encountering such a machine. All that remained were distant memories from long ago. Memories that predated even Everly's abandonment of her loincloth. But when was that?

　"I must uncover my origins, understand who I am. Without that knowledge, I fear I cannot love you without peace of mind," Affranchi confessed.

　"Why? I'm right here, aren't I? That I can't love you just because I'm here, that's a lie!" Everly protested, her teeth nipping at Affranchi's lips. 

2

　As Everly pivoted away from Affranchi, she propelled herself toward the behemoth machine with amazing grace and might. Her back muscles rippled like a warrior's, slicing through the water with ease.

　"Eva!" Affranchi called out, trying to get Everly's attention as she swam with unrivaled strength. He himself stood tall in the water, his upper body rising above the crashing waves.

　"What is driving her?" he wondered. Yes, a power that should be wielded within becomes a threat when pointed elsewhere. So you feel abandonment, a fear of being forgotten, a panic born from selfish desires of being human, with a body and emotions.

　Naked and unashamed, Everly reached the jagged outcropping and faced the towering, dark green machine. Its massive frame still swayed with each incoming wave. A low groan echoed as it continued to chisel away at the coral reef, moving with even greater ferocity.

　"This! This thing!" she cried as she hurled a piece of coral at the machine, like a tiny ant daring to challenge an elephant. The coral ricocheted off the machine, an absurd spectacle to behold.

　The brittle seaweed that clung to the machine's top undulated in the wind, looking like hair but tearing away in mock laughter at Everly's expense.

　"Everly Key!" Affranchi called out, using her full name as he restrained her arms behind her back.

　"No!" Everly's cry of protest echoed faintly within the cockpit of the machine, resonating like the beating heart of the dark green, human-shaped machine.

　"It's because of this thing that you're leaving!" Everly's sad shout rang with a clear truth.

　But Affranchi's mind could not grasp that logic easily. 

　"That's not true! You're wrong. It's because Gaba Su's dying wish was for me to go to space..." As he spoke, he realized that these were nothing but hollow excuses born of his own sadness.

　"Affranchi, you care more about machines than you do about me. How could you?"

　"How could I?" Affranchi was unfazed by this leap in logic.

　"To think that humans can understand to this extent... Our abilities are truly remarkable," he mused, his subconscious speaking for him.

　Everly, caught in Affranchi's embrace, turned her frightened gaze towards him, tears streaming down her face.

　"Oh, Everly..." he held her tightly to his chest, his arms wrapping around her shoulders with all his might.

　"I don't even know why I have to go to space. I can't explain it," he whispered, his own fear preventing him from speaking his thoughts aloud. It would become a harsh reality if he did, and that terror kept him silent.

　But Affranchi resolved to pour all his love into Everly until the next storm hit.

3

　Another storm arrived, a frequent companion that Affranchi Char knew all too well. The direction of the wind and tide was always in his favor during this season.

　The tumultuous waves brought a humanoid machine, battered from its time at the bottom of the sea, closer to Affranchi's island.

 And in these times when Affranchi came of age, that machine finally found its way onto the shores of his home.

　"I have to check on the coconut trees," Affranchi proclaimed as he stepped outside into the height of the storm. Within his hut, Everly had moved in as his new wife, a union accepted by all on the island, both young and old. 

　Although some may have expressed their objections to the manner in which Affranchi and Everly lived together, especially in the midst of mourning for Gaba Suu, the elder members of the community understood the ways of the heart and respected their choice.

　"Affranchi intends to continue Gaba Suu's legacy by venturing into the cosmos.," the elders murmured. "That's why, for now, he has found solace in Everly."

　And...

　"Just for now, solace..."

　The inquisitive young girls tried to bring up the speculation to Everly but ultimately decided against it, not wanting to cause her any heartache.

　And...

　Their fleeting romance as newlyweds continued until today.

　"Would you like me to accompany you?" Everly wavered, a feeling of foreboding washing over her. It was similar to the apprehension she felt when a storm approached, but she dismissed it, her unease swept away by the raging storm.

　And so...

With fierce determination, Affranchi braved the storm alone, racing against its tumultuous winds toward the island's far end. He retrieved his concealed canoe from the shore and set off to brave the open sea. With the help of the gusts, he aimed to reach the island where the great ocean liners embarked.

　Thu-thud!!

　Affranchi manned his canoe, a Luger with him, rowing with all his might as he cleared the treacherous coral reef. The rain poured down in sheets, and the wind howled in protest, tossing Affranchi's canoe like a tiny sesame seed. But God, and that machine, both sided with Affranchi. 

　Breaking free from the reef, Affranchi's canoe surged into the open sea, a sea churning with rage. In an instant, the island where Gaba Suu and Everly made their home was swallowed by the storm, lost to Affranchi's view. A towering wall of waves stood between him and the isle, and Affranchi's heart ached with longing.

　"The islands where Gaba Suu now rests..."

　The towering waves scaled the heavens, then plummeted back to the depths below. The ocean was now a tempest, its fury unmatched. 

　"Gaba, shield me!" he cried out as the storm raged on.

　The sadness plaguing him as he left the island faded, replaced with a fierce determination to protect his canoe from the unrelenting waves.

　"I can do this! I'll make it to the island I'm heading for!" he declared, harnessing the power of the wild waves and flipping his canoe to take advantage of their tumultuous movement.

　He submerged himself in the canoe hull, a technique the islanders used to weather storms. Surrounded by complete darkness, he couldn't see anything, just a tiny, cramped space.

　Gripping the sides, he steadied his breathing and found purchase for the rest of his body.

　Beneath the waves, the tides raged with tremendous force. Yet, Affranchi felt as if the canoe was suspended in mid-air, buoyed by the turbulent sea.

　Nature's fury was on full display, stealing both the air and the wild tides with its reckless abandon.

　"That's nature..."

　The canoe flipped, cresting the waves as its hull took in air and gave Affranchi a moment of hope. But as it plunged into the troughs, he was thrown about, nearly bashing his head against the boat's underside.

　"Gaba!" he cried out in fear, blinded and battered by the waves like they were the hand of an invisible giant.

　"Gaba..."

　He wept under the canoe's hull, feeling his body being compressed and his emotions becoming muddled, destroying even the most primal of human emotions, sentiment. This kind of trial can break a person but also make them stronger. And right now, Affranchi was searching for that support, though the person he sought was no longer Everly.

　Because Affranchi was on a journey of self-discovery.

　Everly had learned that Affranchi and the humanoid machine had been swept away by the tide when the storm had passed.

　She did not cry, biting back her tears.

　"These tears, they're nothing but..."

　One of her girlfriends caught the stifled whimper as the words escaped her lips, harsh and jagged.

　But that night, in the hut where they'd shared their first nights as a married couple, she wept until dawn.

4

　After the storm had subsided, the waves continued to crest with ferocity for the remainder of the day. But for Affranchi, it was a tranquil escape as he lounged beneath his sail. A canteen of crisp water and a few coconuts, tethered to his canoe, were his only sources of sustenance, but they sufficed for his journey.

　He could see the sun through the clouds drifting in the wind. 

　The elders of the island still whispered the secrets of the ancient art of sea navigation. This time-honored technique, depicted with stones on the sand, was passed down with reverence and simplicity. 

　Affranchi had listened to their tales countless times.

　When taught these ways, the children adorned crowns carved from the trunks of palm trees on their heads.

 　In the eyes of the island, the mastery of navigating by the stars and tides was a sacred rite, and only those who had purified their minds and hearts were deemed worthy of learning it.

　As the night approached, Affranchi could sense, by the rhythm of the tide, that the sea had begun to forget the storm.\

　There, Affranchi first smashed a coconut with his hand knife, drank its juice, and tasted its pulp. 

　With a knife in hand, he cracked open a coconut, savoring its sweet juice and meat. The sun dipped below the horizon, and the moon took its place in the sky.

　"I'm on the right path..."

　With a contented sigh, Affranchi hoisted the sail on his canoe. 

　"Everything is falling into place..."

　*tick, tick*

　That sound echoed in his mind once more. 

　But Affranchi was determined to leave behind all that he had known and believed on the island.

　"It's all something my client set up," he reassured himself.

　But even he couldn't deny the ambiguity of his thoughts.

　"Still, I won't let that ambiguity faze me."

　It was the serenity of his mind that allowed him to come to this conclusion.

　As the last rays of the sun faded from the sky, the stars twinkled to life. Affranchi gazed up, his eyes fixed on a cluster of bright lights flanking the moon.

　These lights, he realized, were from the shining space colonies.

　"Space colonies, huh? No oceans up there," Affranchi mused, a hint of regret in his voice. The idea of a world without the sea was a distasteful one to him.

5

　As Affranchi navigated his canoe through the tumultuous waves of the storm, he caught sight of something blocking the starlight. It had to be an island, shaped like one he had visited many times before with Gaba. Confident in his recognition, he stood up in the canoe, his spirit soaring.

　The other islands surrounding it only served to reinforce his certainty. 

　"From there, there are ships leave for Hong Kong, where they launch pillars of fire." 

　The only sounds were the soft lapping of the waves and the gentle hum of the tides. Even the seabirds had gone to sleep. Affranchi gazed longingly at the empty horizon behind him, where the waves had lost their whitecaps and now only showed large swells.

　"Eva..." he whispered. The name used to stir something within him, but the storm had stripped Affranchi of all sentimentality. So, he crouched and took up the oars, rowing with each breath, determined to reach the lights of the island's harbor.

　And so, hours later, he brought the lights of the island's harbor into view. The brilliant boundary between the island and the sea captivated his vision. Despite their small number, the lights exuded a man-made strength that glimmered in the night. As he made his way toward the piers, his canoe drifted past abandoned fishing boats, their night lights swaying in the breeze.

6

　Affranchi tied up his canoe under a concrete pier and decided to set up camp in the open air, far from any snakes or other unwanted creatures. A massive ironclad ship was docked nearby, its lights off, and around it, dozens of the island's fishing boats were cast in the shadows of the night.

　The haunting melody of a male singer seeped through the darkness, reminding Affranchi of the humid air of the island.

　"Anastasia--"

　The male vocalist's mellow song reminded him of the humidity that enveloped the island. 

　Lured by streetlights, Affranchi found himself on an asphalt road in front of the harbor. The air was still and heavy, with the music coming from one of the bars.

　"I've eaten here before."

　Affranchi peered inside the bar's door, not expecting to find a meal at such a late hour. Under the warm glow of orange electric lights, he could make out the figures of several men, their gaming machines shaking the air with their racket. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, dulling the brightness of the lights.

　"It stinks," he thought, but he was willing to pay if they had anything to eat. He had money.

　Before venturing into the bar, Affranchi covertly slipped his pass case from his pants pocket into the safety of his shirt. With his dark skin contrasting against the whites of his eyes, the bartender fixed a stern gaze upon Affranchi.

　"What do ya want?" he gruffly asked.

　"Just looking for something to eat," replied Affranchi. The bartender reached for a handful of peanuts and dropped them onto the counter.

　"Do I have to order a drink too?" 

　"Well, this is a bar," the bartender reminded him.

　"Then I'll have something with the least alcohol possible."

　"You a kid?"

　"I'm an adult, technically," answered Affranchi. "But I've never been to a place like this by myself."

　A chuckle came from across the room, where a middle-aged man was drinking. 

　"Hehehe!"

　“…?”

　"Mix your drink with water."

　The man behind the counter took a glass as he said this.

　"Thanks."

　Affranchi ignored him and popped open a peanut, opting not to engage in any further conversation.

　The fidgety man adjusted the lapel of his jacket and said to Affranchi, "Don't take it the wrong way, but in a place like this, it's a bit unusual to be so straightforward."

　"Unusual?" Affranchi repeated, his mind wandering to the peeling paint on the wall.

　"Yes," the man continued, "If it's difficult to understand what you're saying, it can make people feel embarrassed. You know what I mean, Glenn?" the man called out to the bartender.

　The bartender, mixing a drink with water, flashed a grin that revealed his white teeth.

　"Embarrassed?" Affranchi echoed, feeling increasingly confused.

　That said, trying to question a man about whom he didn't know the first thing would have been even more tedious. A glass of pale liquid clinked in front of Affranchi's eyes.  

　"At the same time, you pay for it, right? Sir?"

　"And then you grab the glass with one hand and drink it down, easy peasy, young man from the island," the middle-aged man teased. 

　"I'm supposed to do it on my own?"

　Affranchi asked, looking skeptically at the stranger now with a hint of rosiness to his cheeks from the alcohol.

　"Heh, hehehe," the man feigned a laugh and lifted his glass to his lips.

　“…”

　As Affranchi munched on his peanuts and sipped his diluted drink, the barkeep suggested the middle-aged man call it a night.

　"Hey, boy..."

　"...?"

　"What's your name? 'Boy' is a bit informal, don't you think?"

　The middle-aged man said. 

　"It's Affranchi. That's what everyone calls me."

　"Affranchi…?"

　The man swiveled to face Affranchi.

　"Who gave you that name?"

　Affranchi evaded the question with a shrug.

　"Do you know what it means?"

　The middle-aged man inched closer, examining Affranchi's face.

　"The meaning?"

　Affranchi furrowed his brow and gazed at the man's scruffy beard and weathered skin.

　"Sure, names like 'Carpenter' and 'Johnson' have pretty clear meanings, but what about 'Affranchi'? You know the meaning behind it?"

　"No... I just liked the sound of it," Affranchi admitted.

　"Affranchi... Affranchi... what's the best way to put it?" The man muttered, searching for the perfect phrase. With a snap of his fingers, he exclaimed, "Affranchi Char!"

　"Yeah."

　"Affranchi Char," he mused, "a symbol... of what I wonder?"

　Deep in thought, he gazed at the ceiling, his hands tucked neatly between his legs. 

　"But you don't like Char, do you?" The man chuckled, revealing a row of neglected teeth.