My few memories consist only of cowering in fear.
I was a boy no one wanted, who didn't even have parents in his life.
No family, no home, no love, and no purpose - because the moment I was born, I had already failed to qualify for anything I might have been useful for.
The last thing I remember was a short-lived struggle in the darkness. At the end of it all, I cried out, alongside a thousand souls, all at once...
"Your majesty, please save us".
One of the Prime Authors of our kin, the greatest schemer there ever was, a queen from ancient times... surely, who else would ever entertain the wishes of an insignificant lost Umbran other than one of their kin?
But there was no way I could request a second chance at life. The price of a costly wish is an unbearable debt, not to mention, there is no such thing as rebirth of a soul.
Yet, in that hell, I suddenly felt her long-dead gaze.
For just a second, it made me think that the impossible was possible.
If an inkling of the Herald's presence, no matter how thin, could somehow be felt... then is that not a form of rebirth?
Suddenly, my imagination went wild at the mere suggestion of the idea. So I began to plead endlessly, and shamelessly. I presented an unreasonable request to the heavens.
I cried and cried, as loud as my little lungs could muster...
"Please let me do this life over".
Yet... not a single one of our pleas ever reached the heavens.
I must have been a truly worthless existence to deserve that kind of end.
In the end, I finally shut my eyes, and gave up that last hope.
But, in the infinite darkness, I found something to cling onto.
It was nothing like the shining light of hope I always imagined. It didn't come from someone who appeared like a divine saviour would. But, it also came from someone who would never make a single empty promise.
She... was different.
She, is the only one. Yes, the only one...
The only one who listened to every little cry of help.
And, she also... chose to trust me.
--/-->
- Kotori: What was your name?
- Spirit: ...I don't know anymore.
- Kotori: So you've lost that already, too...
- Kotori: O-oh, but, don't worry!
- Kotori: There's no need to try to remember right now.
- Kotori: Since you've forgotten your name...
- Kotori: I will give you a new one myself.
- Kotori: Um... is that alright?
- Spirit: ...Who am I to deserve this honor?
- Spirit: Just receiving your orders is plenty enough.
- Kotori: Oh, come on, it's just a name!
- Kotori: You shouldn't see it as some grandiose gesture...
- Kotori: Maybe I simply need a clear way to refer to my allies here, don't you think?
- Spirit: ...
"Saviour": Pick name.
- Kotori: Let's see... Avery?
- Kotori: There is a character from a novel I like with this name.
- Kotori: And I think it has a nice ring to it! So how about it?
- Avery: ...Okay. I'll humbly accept this gift, then.
- Kotori: Now, Avery,
- Kotori: What I've entrusted you with is a special mission that only you can handle,
- Kotori: Since you're one of the least aged remnants around.
- Kotori: You must do a good job of utilizing that girl's mind.
- Kotori: I trust that you will never falter!
- Kotori: And...
Nino: Use REMEDY on the spirit.
- Kotori: So that you'll never have to spill blood meaninglessly again,
- Kotori: Do not ever forget the goal I gave you.
Avery?: Wake up.
- Avery?: Ah... hah...?
- Meimona: He's awake!
- Nino: ...Looks like that did do something, after all.
- Avery?: Wh-where am I?
- Avery?: What, what happened!?
--/-->
- Meimona: Hey, are you feeling all better now?
- Avery?: ...AAAH! N-NO, STAY AWAY!
- Meimona: Wah! Calm down, no need to panic!
- Meimona: He won't hurt you anymore!
- Meimona: See, he's put away his weapon...
- Meimona: And he even healed you!
- Avery?: Uuuh.. h-huh? I was healed?
- Avery?: S-so, just now, when my conscioussness returned...
- Avery?: That was... you?
- Nino: Yeah. I'm the one who fixed you up.
- Nino: And it's looking like it worked, no?
- Avery?: So that's why... I'm... like this now...
- Meimona: Well, you look all weirdly colorful-ish now, but,
- Meimona: You also look more put-together...
- Meimona: And even your arm is back in place!
- Nino: I don't really know what that did, but yeah.
- Nino: The important thing is that it worked out well, somehow.
- Nino: You're lucky Mei felt merciful, despite everything you did.
- Nino: But you know what this means, don't you?
--/-->
- Nino: You're in debt to me now.
- Nino: And not even Mei can save you from that, I'm afraid!
- Nino: How do you plan to pay it off?
- Avery?: Wh-
- Nino: I'll tell you how.
- Nino: Answer my questions clearly,
- Nino: Or I'll undo everything, and leave you as hurt as you were.
- Nino: Them's the consequences of attacking her.
--/-->
- Avery?: Q... questions...?
- Nino: Yes.
- Nino: Tell me why you targetted Mei,
- Nino: And who ordered you to do it.
- Nino: Seeing how you still kept at it, despite how risky things got,
- Nino: It's obvious that it wasn't something you were doing for yourself.
- Nino: You're dedicated to the mission because it's an order, right?
- Avery?: ...Uuuuh...
- Nino: That's what I'm thinking, so...
- Nino: C'mon. Talk.
- Avery?: W... w-wah...
Avery?: Completely break down.
- Avery?: ...Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, no! NO!
- Avery?: I don't wanna talk... I don't wanna be here...
- Avery?: I-I wanna... I WANNA GO HOME!
- Avery?: I wanna see MOM again! Uwaaaah!
- Meimona: Hey, i-it's okay... maybe we can help you find her!
- Meimona: Do you know where she is?
- Avery?: Ugh, gh... mom... MOM...
- Avery?: Ghhh... uuuaaaah...
- Meimona: Come on, please, calm down first...
- Avery?: Uuuu, uuu... uuugh...
- Nino: ...He just won't stop crying, huh.
- Meimona: Jeez, obviously! You overwhelmed him!
Nino: He clearly isn't in any condition to hurt you or Mei in the future, nor does he seem to want to. Even if he only possesses a faint echo of a life, he don't deserve to lose it.
- Meimona: Even I can tell this is all too sudden for anyone to handle,
- Meimona: Let alone a kid!
- Meimona: For now, we should start by giving him a little breathing room.
- Nino: ...Mei, even if it's acting even more childish now,
- Nino: What's in front of you is still a spirit, not a living child.
- Meimona: Well, he sure is reacting to all of this like a child would,
- Meimona: So you'll have to be as patient as you'd be with any crying kid!
- Nino: I think you're just being tricked into thinking that way...
- Meimona: ...Okay. Fine. Since you're so worried, stay back and be on guard.
- Meimona: If he does try to attack again, I won't stop you from doing as you see fit.
- Meimona: But let me try talking to him peacefully first, okay?
- Meimona: It could get us more answers than violence... since that seems to be the only thing on your mind. But you seriously gotta back off a bit for this to work!
- Meimona: It'll be difficult if you just keep scaring him into tears.
- Nino: What? Ugh...
You really, really, don't like it.
But it does look like your presence won't help its mood improve enough to start cooperating... so, if it means you'll finally get somewhere with this thing, then stepping back and letting Mei handle it is fine for now.
That's not to say you've forgiven the spirit, of course.
You're keeping your eyes peeled for any suspicious movements, and you'll even have fortification at the ready, just in case.
You swear, this thing's deader than dead if it even looks funny in Mei's direction.
>Meimona: Why don't you join us for a bit? We're looking for our friends - perhaps you can help?
>Nino: Having a spirit in the party would be... concerning.
>Nino: But not without benefits.
we need to get him in the party (with mei supervision because nino just can't stop being nino)
water
earth
Your username makes me feel great fear
banana
fire
air
Long ago, the four nations lived in peace.
then everything changed when the damoricelover492 took reign
broooooooooo! i love avery's design! their color scheme makes me think they're part of the umbra family. theory bait perhaps?
It's strongly implied above. "...surely, who else would ever entertain the wishes of an insignificant lost Umbran other than one of their kin?"
Nino: Trust her. Besides, believing she can coax answers from him is probably going to work better than death-threats.
Meimona: Talk things out. Start with some introductions.
Avery?: She wants to help you, even after you almost killed her. Cry some more at this revelation.
Avery?: Does anything feel different?
Avery?: Do you remember anything new?
Nino: Doesn't it kind of look familiar, now?
Mei: Approach the spirit(?).
Something interesting that I've noticed is that Avery's appearance seems to have changed pretty drastically after being healed. Of course, he looks almost totally human again already, but he also seems to look much more like Nino than he did in the flash back. (Compare the first panel and the eighth)
His eyes in the flashback we saw previously were purple, but now they seem to be the same bright blue color as Nino's eyes. The right side (From his perspective) of his bangs seem to have vanished with one extra long chunk appearing in the center, and the back of his hair is suddenly flaring out just like Nino's, as well. (He also got an anime hair-flip that seems to be a combination of Nino's flip and Avery's bangs.)
He seems to look especially Nino-ish in the second to last panel, where we only see his profile.
If I'm remembering correctly, spirits are described as a mind and a soul without a body. Additionally, on the oceanfalls-official Tumblr, Nights answered an ask about revival saying that the main reason revival is impossible is because of the difficulty of obtaining the three parts of the person to reassemble. In this same ask, she confirms that it would be possible for a foreign soul to inhabit someone else's body, but that this wouldn't really be considered "revival."
We don't know exactly how Nino's healing works, but it's possible that Nino's healing here was able to create a new body for Avery, which was based on Nino's own body because Nino's ability was never really meant to be used for anyone else. This, combined with the already present soul and mind, would constitute a complete human again.
If I'm correct here, then the smoke would probably be a sign of Avery's soul not fully accepting the new body.