The World God Only Knows: All the Kings Horses…
By: The 483
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the The World God Only Knows Franchise.
Spoiler Alert: Warning: Light to mild spoilers for the Anime may be included herein.
Bah. I infuriate myself. Anyway, all that prior stuff about a oneshot… well, I decided I wanted to do more with this, rather than a branch, so I am chopping this into three parts, and will be working (slowly and choppily) on another part or two. So, sorry for the false start, and I am not changing anything, so when I finally manage to plop the next part, you won't have to reread this.
All the Kings Horses…
Keima Katsuragi peeked over the wall…
Between 2d and 3d, where he found a girl…
Who, without being focused, fell prey to his call…
So now all the King's horses…
And all the King's men…
Couldn't not put poor Keima's world back together again.
Elucia De Lute Ima, better known as Elsie, was somewhat pensive as she flew silently next to her good friend, Haqua Du Lot Herminium. Their handler for the Lost Souls Team, Nora Floriann Leoria, had summoned them to report to the chief herself. This made Haqua nervous, but Elsie's ever present good spirits did not allow her to fret. She was just curious.
"You shouldn't worry so much, Haqua. I am sure it couldn't be anything bad." Haqua bit her lip as they flew over the dark, sprawling layout of Neo Hell.
"I don't know, Els." She replied, skeptically. "The last time I was recalled, I did end up in jail." Elsie smiled her vapid smile at her friend. They were unusually close, which was a bit surprising, considering their differences. A few months earlier, this would not have been conceivable. Haqua had always looked down upon Elsie, seeing her as not too bright, and pretty simple. Haqua had been top of her class, while she did not even know how Elsie had managed to graduate. But when she had found Elsie after the Lost Souls teams had been deployed, having captured several while she herself had captured none… it was unbearable. In short, the soul she had been hunting had infested her, and Elsie, being Elsie, had managed to break it loose from her. And the hell of it was, she had looked up to Haqua even more after the incident! It was confounding, but allowed Haqua to see Elsie as someone nearly equal to her, rather than someone to look down on. They had been close ever since, despite that it seemed quite evident that Elsie was perfectly aware that she had a crush on her Soul Collecting partner.
"Aww, it will be fine. Vintage is gone, the Goddesses are keeping watch, and we're bringing in more lost souls all the time. I am sure it's just routine, or an announcement or something for all of the teams."
"Vintage is not gone." Haqua shot back as they came into view of the Chief's building. "That girl I fought… she was never caught."
"But there has been no sign of her yet, and everything else has been running smoothly. Relax." They descended, and came in for a soft, walking landing on the landing flat outside the Bureau of Lost Souls building. As they moved into the foyer, Nora, who had been standing just inside the door, leaning against the wall, smiled, and spoke softly.
"Well, if it isn't my two favorite subordinates." She said in a low purr, the shiny gold armlet that was the gift for her promotion, and badge of her office glittering in the low light.
"Oh, Nora! Hi!" Elsie called happily, as if this meeting were unexpected.
"Why are you surprised, Els? She is the one who told us to report." Haqua said as a sigh.
"I am not surprised, and I am allowed to just be happy to see a friend." She said, as scornfully as she could manage, which wasn't much.
"Alright, whatever. What's the problem, Nora?" Haqua continued, casting a skeptical glance at her "boss." She gave a playful frown back.
"Haqua, if you're always so negative, you will never catch his eye." She said in a breathless voice that helped Haqua's face go fully red.
"W-w-hat! I don't like him!" She expounded in a sputter. Nora's smile grew wolfish as she placed her finger to her chin and looked thoughtful.
"Odd. I didn't mention the person. So you really are into that human. Interesting." Haqua began to sputter even less coherently, and Elsie looked at her with big, round eyes.
"Haqua… you mean… that you really do like the Divine Brother?"
"WHAT!? You knew!" Haqua forgot her embarrassment in light of this revelation. Elsie looked put out at her surprise.
"You were never exactly subtle about it…" She puffed out her cheeks and looked upset. Nora chuckled as she watched.
"Ah, to be young. You two have so much fun. Now, come on, the Chief is waiting." Having had her fun, she turned, and moved deeper into the building. After casting one last look at a still put out Elsie, Haqua followed, and Elsie in turn followed her.
"You dodged my question on why we were summoned." Haqua said, once she fell into step next to Nora.
"Oh? I did not. I never had any intention of answering it. It is not my business to reveal the Chief's business. You'll just have to ask her." Nora then ignored any other inquiries on the subject until they arrived at the door that lead into the top boss's office. Nora rapped on the door three times with a knuckle, and then pushed her way in when she was welcomed.
"Madam Dokuro Skull, Nora, Haqua, and Elsie, reporting as ordered." This caught Haqua's attention. If Nora had been summoned as well… this was bigger than she thought.
"Very good, thank you all for making time to come." The diminutive skeletal woman said, her warm smile, not visible on her face, carried through her voice. "I am sure you have all wondered why I called you here, so let me not delay. I wish to present the three of you with a commendation for your performance over the last two months." Haqua, ready to flinch at what she presumed was bad news, was suddenly startled so badly she took an involuntary step back. "Is something the matter?" Dokuro asked, a hint of concern coloring the words.
"N-no. What do you mean, commendation?"
"Well, in the two months since the Goddesses were restored within the bodies of those human girls, your section, headed by Nora and including you, have captured an unprecedented 25 souls. Elsie's record before this was impressive, but with the three of you, your efficiency borders on astounding. If I may be so bold, what is the secret to your success?" Haqua got the bad feeling that the Chief believed it was a combination of Haqua's natural skill, Nora's management, and Elsie's natural dumb luck. But in all honesty, it had very little to do with that.
After the Goddesses had destroyed the Vintage Cell located in Point Rock, Keima Katsuragi, Elsie's soul capturing buddy, had gone into a week of seclusion. He did not leave his room for anything other than the bathroom for days. Elsie had been bringing him meals, after the third day, and Haqua before that. Elsie, fresh off her week long assignment of being Kanon Nakagawa, a popular pop idol, classmate, and Goddess host, had slept most of those first three days.
But on that Saturday afternoon, when Keima emerged form isolation, the girls biting their nails, wondering if he had fully collapsed into his own 2d world… it was as if nothing had happened. He was his usual confident, vaguely charismatic, scornful self. Well, not entirely the same. He threw himself fully into the task of collecting the Lost Souls. He had conferenced with both Haqua's and Nora's buddies, a middle aged house wife and fellow teenaged boy respectively. He set up a system where Nora, Haqua, and Elsie would fly around, finding hosts of Lost Souls, flag them, and then turn over what they could to Haqua's buddy. Her, having a lot of time on her hands, skill with a computer, and a husband who worked in the government, researched the targets, and came up with detailed dossiers. These then passed to Keima, who formulated routes to the conquest of the targets. Then, he would assign one to Nora's buddy, Ryo Asuma, giving him his "script." Keima would then tackle the rest of that batch. In those 2 months, he was never running less than 3 conquests at a time, once running six, when one conquest's sister became infested in the middle of the conquest.
All three of the Demons were kept almost as busy, running support. Haqua enjoyed the good marks that Keima's near zealous push added to her prestige, but Elsie was worried. She had been with Keima since the start, and he had fought it every step of the way. His new enthusiasm didn't fit, and she didn't like how hard he was pushing himself. A sign that constantly batted about in the back of her mind, was the fact that, not even once during this time, had he been using his PFP as anything other a web browser. And Keima not escaping into his games while outside or in school, was a clear red flag for her. But she didn't really understand her own misgiving, so she didn't voice it. She suspected that Elsie was worried too, but they were all so exhausted it was hard to tell.
Haqua felt she could not really tell the Chief that their progress was all due to Keima's active taking over of the way they hunted Lost Souls, so she forced herself to swallow her pride, and blow a minor part of it out of proportion. She took a deep breath.
"Well, Madam, as much as I am loath to admit it…" This part was not fabrication. She really, really hated to say it. "… I have to admit that under Nora's… superior guidance as our section leader, our whole approach has changed. Instead of just working as single pairs, she caused us to pool our resources, and our performance has improved thanks to her leadership and strategy." Haqua's face hurt from the pressure she felt, and Nora's bemused smile didn't help. She had to clench her teeth and breathe shallowly to keep herself in check.
"Well, that does coincide with the spike in performance. Very well, you have outpaced all of the other teams by a significant margin. I am still placing the commendation in each of your service records. Thank you for your continued hard work. Keep it up. You are dismissed." The three bowed, and walked out quietly, except for Nora, whose smirk was so loud it made Haqua a bit ill as it bored into the back of her head. Haqua had her shoulders braced for the comment she knew was coming, but jumped as Nora slid her arms around her.
"Oh, Haqua… I didn't know you felt so strongly about my leadership!" She simpered, her words drooling sarcasm. Haqua tried to shake her off, to no avail, while Elsie smiled as watched happily, still glowing from the praise.
"Get off! I just said that because there was no way in hell that I was going to tell the chief that a human is directing all of our efforts, and clearing souls at an unprecedented rate."
"Harrumph. You won't admit it, yet you are happy to take credit for his actions." Haqua finally managed to shake Nora loose.
"That's not it at all. Katsuragi probably wouldn't want the credit he is due, anyway. Right Elsie?" She said imploringly to her friend.
"Well... I guess you're right. He never really has cared for anything other than getting done with this job, so he can go back to his games." She said, dubiously at the last. She then clouded slightly. "…but even once he accepted the reality… he never really fell into it like he has now. He just reacted as Lost Souls appeared… he wasn't active about it." She then looked up with her big, sad eyes at Haqua. "Haqua… did something happen to the Divine Brother while I was being Kanon? He seems… weird since I got back." Nora cocked a brow at her.
"He wasn't exactly not strange before the whole ordeal with Vintage." She commented. Elsie shook her head.
"No. It's not that. He's just… something is different. It's like… his attention is elsewhere, even more so then before."
"I don't know. I didn't see anything weird happen." But there were those few days I was in jail, she thought, but did not vocalize. "But let's get home."
(…)
A week later
Chihiro Kosaka paced that same few feet of pavement in front of The Café Grandpa that she had on at least 11 different days over the past two months. The sun was setting, and the orange light and gleaming clouds could not distract her from the raging torrent of mixed thoughts coursing through her head.
She didn't NEED an excuse to come to a café, right? Of course not. She could go anywhere she damn well pleased. At least… that was the theory. But what if HE was in there? Huh? What then? Of course, she knew how to play that off. Her nose would go in the air, and she would let out a disgusted huff and ignore him... ah, who was she kidding. If she really believe she could do that… she would have made it inside before now. Grrr! It was so frustrating. She knew how she wanted to act… but she knew she couldn't do it. She couldn't even guarantee that she wouldn't cry, and she refused to do that! At the same time, smashing him like a bug was appealing, too.
Why the hell did this have to be so complex? Everything had been well, the last time they had spoken, right before the Mai-High festival. But, then, they had both been up for more than 24 hours, then, and the events of the prior day didn't really leave much room for overly emotional reactions. She was still a little tired just thinking of how beat she was after the band had finished their set, and she had finished crying while the other girls tried to calm her.
The urge to cause harm momentarily became strongest, and she almost made it to the door before her fear and embarrassment reined her in. She put her back to the building, and took a deep breath to calm herself, before choking on it when a voice sounded behind her.
"Chihiro, hi!" She whipped around to find Elsie and Katsuragi exiting the house, about to leave.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, mildly curious. She flamed.
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" She swore at herself as soon as she spoke. Even Elsie looked confused at that, so she knew she had blundered.
"Did you come by to see me? I am afraid I have to leave." She looked apologetic as she said it.
"Oh, no. That's okay, Els. I actually just came to get some coffee. I have a late study night tonight, and I was looking to get a pick me up." She was impressed at how the lie just flowed free, by itself. Elsie looked pleased.
"That's great! But… why come all the way here? Aren't there shops closer to your home?" Crap. She thought fast, and grasped at the first idea that came to her, compliments of something Ayumi had stated.
"Well, yeah, but I happened to have some of the coffee your idiot brother made at the festival, and thought I'd see just how much better the real stuff was." She said stiffly, hoping the setting sunlight hid the blush she could feel in her cheeks, and that the arrogant burr in her voice was a lot more convincing then she felt it was. Keima adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, debated internally for a moment, and sighed.
"I suppose this is fortuitous. I have been meaning to talk to you, but haven't found the time. Chihiro looked up sharply.
"Huh?" Keima crossed his arm, and put on his least emotive faint frown.
"I just wanted to apologize about involving you in that mess a few months back. I cannot remember if I had apologized, so I wanted to say, that I am sorry you had to get involved in that." He averted his eyes, then turned to a shocked Elsie, and ignored her expression. "Let's go, Elsie, or we're going to be late." And he left. Both girls stared at him as he moved down the road at a quick walk, then looked to each other, before Elsie remembered she was supposed to follow."
"Divine Brother! Wait for me!" And she gathered her broom to her chest and dashed after him. Chihiro watched her recede, blinking in surprise, before her anger managed to reassert itself, and she hitched up her bag and went into the shop. Meanwhile, Haqua, who had been standing in the front door, sipping a mug of tea, looked dour, having seen the whole thing. With that one unsolicited apology, it had clicked in her mind what had happened. Keima had never acted like that… actually, had never initiated any action with a girl who was not on one of his conquest paths. She knew, with a painful certainty, that Keima liked Chihiro. With her mind clouding up to storm, she closed the door, and returned into the house.
(End amended part 1)