History
Kiryu is a Double-Zero Silverglow chimera commissioned for Destiny when she was four. He was Synchronized at sixteen, as part of Destiny's training to craft catalysts. He later survived Ateriation when attempting to protect Destiny during the Babel Incident.
The following is an unreleased document derived from a routine medical appointment with Kiryu. His emotional state should be monitored, but much of what he says may be attributed to the pain of his condition.
I had a dream last night.
A great beast was lumbering through the Wastelands, destroying the landscape in its wake. Wildlife scattered away from it, all but the smallest insects who didn't know that they were in the path of a calamity. And so, when the beast stepped on a termite mound, the insects poured out across the beast's paw, stinging and biting, but the beast did not feel pain.
The beast was me.
The termites caught my curiosity as they swarmed through my fur, furiously defending the destroyed home I hadn't even seen. Why would they not flee before me? Did they simply act on base fear and instinct, or did they seek to corral me, the fury of the small many driving off the great one?
After a while of me not moving, they ceased to see me as a threat. Perhaps I was simply something that had fallen on them, or maybe they decided that a mountain did not harbor any desire to destroy them, it simply existed. I rested. I, a destructive force that had rampaged until now, felt captivated by this hive of termites. The insects continued to swarm about me, but with a tactical urgency instead of a warrior's fury.
I helped them rebuild, my paws perfectly suited for the task as if I was made for it. My claws dug furrows in the barren soil, reconnecting their tunnels to the surface. I helped build their mound back up, until it was greater than it had been before. The termites did not thank me. They didn't have the capacity to. Why would they? I was simply a creature that had passed by and caused an inconvenience for them.
I did not help out of pity or remorse. I helped out of curiosity and a sense of duty, responsibility. I did what I thought I was supposed to.
Days passed. The mound was rebuilt, and yet I stayed. What would these termites do next, and how would they adapt to my presence? How would I help them?
The answer came to me as the termite mound grew with assistance. The insects were expanding, one mound becoming many, rising towers in a barren expanse. I shielded them from predators, still thankless, I scared away small mammals that would take over the mounds and destroy the colony if they could. I, a guardian of termites, a force of nature to the creatures I protected. I could destroy them easily if I wanted, but why would I?
One day the termites swarmed more furiously than before. I investigated the source of their ire, and found a colony of ants. The ants had not attacked. They simply existed too close to the rapidly expanding termite empire.
For some reason this felt an injustice to me. The ants were simply in the way. Could the termites not just expand in a different direction? Why did they have to expand at all? I'm not sure why I suddenly started questioning this, but abruptly it all felt wrong. The empire was fake. The termites didn't build it on their own, they built it on the labor of something not of their colony, not even their own species, something they had attacked in blind rage for a passing inconvenience.
I tried to stop the war. I tried to block the two armies from colliding. And all of a sudden, the termites I had aided and protected grew wings and stingers, and I was met with the angry buzzing of thousands of hornets. They stung and bit, and this time I felt it. I had elevated these creatures without reciprocation or gratitude, and the moment I stopped being beneficial, they turned. They drove me off with thousands of stingers injecting their venom, wracking my entire body with pain.
The pain was so great that I woke up, and discovered that my symptoms were flaring again, yesterday's medication having worn off. It wasn't the venom of a swarm of hornets, but the abrasions of countless tiny crystals in my blood, that was causing me such pain.
Comments