It felt like an eternity…
I couldn't tell for how much did I sleep, but I just knew I did. A deep slumber, similar to death. And only now that I had awoken was I beginning to understand what and how did this happen, since spiritual beings rarely need sleep.
But it made sense, since you could safely affirm that I almost died.
"You are awake, I see," a voice said, fully awakening me from my hazeness, this time. That tonality…That kindness…
"Shun-sama!" I jumped from the futon I was sleeping in, shocked in my realization of whose voice was that. He couldn't help but laugh.
"Good morning, little fox," he said, smiling and looking at me with his blue eyes.
"Shun-sama…" I repeated, tears springing up from my eyes as I jumped in his arms.
"There, there... It's certainly been a long time, Akira. Or should I call you Lucy now?" He asked in a joking tone as he patted my head, just like he used to.
"Nothing would bring me more joy than to hear you call me by my true name, Shun-sama. I will forever be your Akira, no matter what."
"That's sickening me, really," another voice was heard, making the tips of my fur stand in annoyance and instinctively, I growled from my throat. Shun-sama already sighed.
"You damn polar fox, you're still alive?" I asked, looking at Eiji who stood in his glory in front of the sliding door, now opened. His tails swayed around aimlessly, framing his body and his blue kimono nicely but his smirk and that look he gave me with his own blue eyes was most annoying.
"I don't understand why you're surprised when I for one thought you would be the one to die. You are aware that a week has passed already, right?" He asked, stepping into the room, flipping his silver hair tied in a low tail like a samurai's.
"A week!? Can't be!" I exclaimed, surprised as I jumped on my feet.
"I was honestly wondering when will you wake up and stop pushing all the chores onto me. You're lazier as days pass, goldfish."
"I don't want to hear anything about laziness coming from you, albino."
"A hundred years…" Shun-sama murmured, letting his head fall backwards in exhasperation. "Nothing has changed at all," he added but his tone changed and he started laughing, evidently amused by this.
And hearing this, both of us had to stop. We also felt good with this familiarity, as if this was the true state of things and nothing else in the world mattered.
After that, everything seemed to truly return to normal, to what we were remembering. The passage of time may have taken the world in its path but this mountain alone remained frozen, the gods of time themselves not daring to touch it. Our memories seemed to be the basis for the shrine's restauration and everything was being coloured in the illusions of our magic.
We all worked hard to clean everything to the point where the shrine was as new but something started bothering us after a week. Nobody came to pray to Shun-sama and even if he himself wasn't worried about this and even if Eiji and the Will-O-The-Wisps tried to seem unaffected, I realised that I was the only one who truly understood the meaning of this.
After all, Faith was what kept Shun-sama alive, just like Fear maintained youkai like me alive.
If this continued, what will become of us? And for the first time since I returned to being Akira and not Lucy, I've thought of humans. And I've thought of Fairy Tail as well, wondering how did they take my disappearance…