[ Truth be told, he's also calmed by it. Or, reassured might be the better way to put it. Human contact has always been fleeting for him -- gentle contact from someone who genuinely cares even less so, even if that's entirely how Allen operates and gives much more freely himself. It helps breathe deep and center himself again, prepare for what he knows isn't over yet; it never is with a level four, they're too tenacious. So he lets his eyes close for a moment at that, leaning in ever so slightly and giving Shouto's hand a light, grateful squeeze where it's pressed against his cheek. "Do you sense it?"
He opens his eyes again, letting both their hands drop as he starts to get back up to his feet. His attention squarely and expectantly to where the epicenter of Shouto's glacier had dropped. ]
Yes. [ His expression schools, becoming focused again and sobered. Coldly, uneasily calm. It's buried deep, but it's still there.
Sure enough, there's a rumbling from deep underneath. Like a small earthquake of pop-pop-pops, until a small circle of snow and ice explodes upward back where the akuma had been and explosive machinegun fire can be heard. It shot its way out of the encasing ice? Yes. With pure rage.
As it flies up however, the first thing Shouto would see is... not the akuma. No, before it even appears, there's a dark, purplish sort of thing that comes out first. Raising up like a specter in the air, it seems to be a... decayed, oozing mass that's only vaguely humanoid. One wrapped in ethereal, dark black chains that extend back and tie it to the level four. Faces peel off from where biceps should be and slough off like rotten mud, bony fingers rake across what should be a face in what seems to be an existential anguish. Peeling back rotted skin and organs that fall away and reveal bone only to amass back. A decayed human in a perpetual state of rotting and recovering, its own flesh unable to even stay attached anymore.
The soul.
And it's sobbing. Deep, wracking moans that lack definition from not having a proper mouth and a jaw that hands askance, and they aren't heard aloud so much as heard directly in your skull--
Shouto's included. But it seems to go quiet for a moment as soon as he's looked at it, and stares back with deep oozing sockets where its eyes should be.
"...see me?" It's raspy. Burbling. Surprised.
"...Don't... you... still... love me?" It's hopeful. So very tentatively hopeful. It's so pitiable, but won't you still love it? Won't anyone? Even if it's so hideous. It killed, it killed what it loved. Oh, it killed you... it can never forgive itself. But you forgive it, right? That's why you can see it, isn't it? That's why... Isn't that why...
"Can't... you-- ...me?" But it doesn't seem to like that anymore. It doesn't seem to like the both of them looking at it at all, and it drops its hands down and screams at the second boy now staring at it. Existential rot and pus spat into the air.
CW: gore!
He opens his eyes again, letting both their hands drop as he starts to get back up to his feet. His attention squarely and expectantly to where the epicenter of Shouto's glacier had dropped. ]
Yes. [ His expression schools, becoming focused again and sobered. Coldly, uneasily calm. It's buried deep, but it's still there.
Sure enough, there's a rumbling from deep underneath. Like a small earthquake of pop-pop-pops, until a small circle of snow and ice explodes upward back where the akuma had been and explosive machinegun fire can be heard. It shot its way out of the encasing ice? Yes. With pure rage.
As it flies up however, the first thing Shouto would see is... not the akuma. No, before it even appears, there's a dark, purplish sort of thing that comes out first. Raising up like a specter in the air, it seems to be a... decayed, oozing mass that's only vaguely humanoid. One wrapped in ethereal, dark black chains that extend back and tie it to the level four. Faces peel off from where biceps should be and slough off like rotten mud, bony fingers rake across what should be a face in what seems to be an existential anguish. Peeling back rotted skin and organs that fall away and reveal bone only to amass back. A decayed human in a perpetual state of rotting and recovering, its own flesh unable to even stay attached anymore.
The soul.
And it's sobbing. Deep, wracking moans that lack definition from not having a proper mouth and a jaw that hands askance, and they aren't heard aloud so much as heard directly in your skull--
Shouto's included. But it seems to go quiet for a moment as soon as he's looked at it, and stares back with deep oozing sockets where its eyes should be.
"...see me?" It's raspy. Burbling. Surprised.
"...Don't... you... still... love me?" It's hopeful. So very tentatively hopeful. It's so pitiable, but won't you still love it? Won't anyone? Even if it's so hideous. It killed, it killed what it loved. Oh, it killed you... it can never forgive itself. But you forgive it, right? That's why you can see it, isn't it? That's why... Isn't that why...
"Can't... you-- ...me?" But it doesn't seem to like that anymore. It doesn't seem to like the both of them looking at it at all, and it drops its hands down and screams at the second boy now staring at it. Existential rot and pus spat into the air.
"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" ]