The boy blinked in surprise at the person standing in front of him.
"W-What?" He exclaimed, eyes widened.
Even as the elder of the two answered, he felt a vertigo wash through his brain, and he reached for his skull as the other boy, Shin, eyed him strangely.
"Are you okay?"
"Y-Yes." Kai replied, him feeling an awful lot more detached from his own body as compared to what he was used to.
With this fact came a realization that could be embodied in three words.
I'm dreaming again.
Immediately, Kai's eyes flew open, and he looked around himself.
Instead of standing in the Occult Club, he was laying down in his bed.
It was well within the middle of the night still from what he could tell from a glance to his right, towards the window, the only lights shining there being the artificial ones shining there outside.
Sighing softly to himself, he groaned as he pulled himself into a sitting position, getting off the bed and to his feet, walking out of his room and into the hallway, his roommate not being roused by his departure from the room, Sekai resting peacefully in her spot next to where he was sleeping.
For a moment, he wanted to ask God why He'd felt the need to separate the day from night, and not just keep world in some sort of eternal twilight or nighttime, but then he cast this thought aside, remembering what he had to do.
Thrusting his palm into his forehead upon realizing his forgetfulness, Kai sighed.
"Darn it me, you should've warned her sooner." He said angrily to himself in English.
He had to tell his boss' wife about her potential living arrangements, so she'd at least be somewhat prepared for the worst.
Glancing towards his living room, Kai saw the couch sitting there that could be unfolded into a bed, and wondered for a moment if the woman could've stayed there.
Thinking this, Kai decided that he'd have to talk it over with Sekai first before he could make such a decision, and instead opted to try calling the likely soon to-be ex-spouse's cell phone, only to stop when he realized how early it was.
It was hardly advisable to try calling ahead to talk to someone when they were very likely still asleep, Kai thought as he put his phone back in his home-attire pants.
He didn't like the idea of waiting on something like giving someone he considered a close friend a warning, but, as he reasoned with himself, it was his fault for not thinking to do so on the way back to or from Kokona's house.
He'd have to tell her in the morning, he decided, dragging his tired feet towards his bed for the night.
Hours later, just before daybreak, one could find Ayano walking rather aimlessly around her Senpai's neighborhood, looking intently into her phone's screen, as the conversation of texts involved something she deemed immediately needed.
Why do you want to know her address?
Info-chan, after questioning why Ayano tried contacting her so late in the night, asked this question.
I want to get her out of the picture. Since pushing her off a rooftop and setting her on fire obviously didn't work, I want to use a more surefire method.
And what is that exactly?
The Naijimi-method.
A minute of silence passed her by before a response came, in which Ayano imagined Info-chan was trying to discern what she meant by that.
Brutally stabbing her to death?
She had come close.
In a manner of speaking, yes.
Quick question, and I know it might seem redundant to ask, considering you're pretty much an emotionless husk of a human being, but you weren't feeling irate at all when you killed Osana, were you?
Ayano didn't even need to think about her answer before she answered.
I was irate from the moment I figured out she was trying to steal Senpai away from me.
The memory of the time she'd killed Osana sent a wave of sudden calmness through her.
I didn't feel any better until after I was stabbing her again and again. It just felt so relieving, to have the object of my anger suffering and eventually dying under me, with me knowing nothing would separate me from Senpai anymore.
Creepy.
Anyways, I'm only asking because, usually, when a person's stabbing someone repeatedly when they're too angry, they end up cutting themselves on the bottom corner of the knife they're using, and that sometimes clues police in on who murdered someone.
Ayano looked at her hands immediately, searching for any sign of cut marks, yet she miraculously found none.
Info-chan hadn't been finished with her thoughts however, as Ayano's phone rumbled in sync with her receiving a message from the info broker.
I guess I can understand why they thought your Senpai was the most likely candidate, since no one else was so close to her to have stabbed her so many times while on school grounds.
There's no need to talk about it anymore. Naijimi's dead, and we were both happy for a while.
Oh no, YOU were happy for a while.
I'm still happy about that.
Wonderful.
Now, could you tell me what Kokona's address is?
You can't be serious about that?
I've already killed two people. How serious do you think I am?
I'm just surprised by how far you're trying to take this.
You're already guilty of three murders, two attempted murders, and arson. Now you want to add home invasion and ANOTHER murder on top of all of that?
It wouldn't be the first time I broke into someone's house.
Seriously?
Yes. I once broke into Senpai's house and stole his toothbrush without anyone noticing.
As she texted this message, Ayano felt her body shudder ever so slightly in delight at the memory of her brushing her teeth with her Senpai's toothbrush, a profuse blush coming to her cheeks.
It was almost like tongue-kissing her Senpai, she thought.
I see. Then I was wrong.
As Ayano pondered what Info-chan meant, a new text came in.
You're guilty of three murders, two attempted ones, arson, home invasion, and theft.
When Senpai becomes mine what's his will be mine, and what's mine will be his.
Ayano placed her free hand over her heart as she thought this, her heart thumping strangely, yet nicely, at the thought of her Senpai being hers.
The strange euphoria she felt was ruined as Info-chan gave a response.
Perhaps. But until then, it's still theft.
Are you SURE you want her address?
Positive.
You'd be willing to break into her house, and potentially kill everyone in there for being a possible witness?
If it's for Senpai, then the answer's automatically going to be yes.
A moment passed her by.
Then you'll need to aquire 200 panty shots.
Ayano blinked.
Why so many?
This is delicate information we're talking about here. Even I know where to lay some boundaries down.
Sure, I'm willing to put those boundaries down when needed, but that doesn't mean I don't have them.
You're worse than me then.
That's debatable. I know that you're a monster, while I'm a human.
I'm frankly not sure which one of us is worse.
I wish I could care about the distinction.
Why should it be 200 panty shots though? It's hard enough for me to get a few here and there without getting caught in the act.
And we don't even know if I have enough time for me to get all of those before Haruka steals Senpai away from me.
For a serial killer whose willing to murder for someone, you don't have much faith in your chances of getting your Senpai, do you Yan-chan?
I do. He just doesn't know what he's doing to himself by getting close to other people.
Whatever you say.
Anyways, I set the bar that high because I honestly don't want you to break into someone's house just to kill them.
There's no fun in something like that.
Ayano sighed.
I'll find some other way to get rid of her then.
She walked out of the neighborhood then, only after stopping to look up at her Senpai's room window before leaving.
A genuinely tired look was on Kokona's face as she emerged from her house that morning, rubbing her right eye socket with the palm of her hand as she walked out of her front yard, a wince reaching her face with every step.
It took her a moment to register the sound of someone speaking nearby, but upon her walking out into the street, Kokona lowered her hand from her right eye, eyes widening in surprise when she saw who was there.
An equally tired looking Kai stood there, his phone pressed against his ear as he spoke into it, the slightly worried look he had on his face dissipating for a moment when he'd realized Kokona had come outside.
He smiled and waved at her briefly before returning to his call, the small smile dropping as he kept talking to the person on the other end.
"I understand that this is hard to believe, especially with how long you've lived there, but it's really not safe for you there."
He listened for a few moments more, him looking up towards the sky.
"I understand Kuroko. I honestly wish this wasn't how things were, but the everything's just going to get worse if you don't do anything now. At least this way you can get ready without him in the way."
A moment of listening more, and he nodded faintly, "Yes, I've talked this out with Sekai. We both agreed this was the best thing to do. I'm sorry we made that decision without your input, but as far as I see it, there aren't many other solutions, or at least ones that are actually good."
A moment once again passed, and he sighed.
"Don't blame her for this. She had no idea at the time, and I'm very certain she won't be making that same mistake knowingly," he glanced over at Kokona as he said this, who had been staring blankly at him for a good while, "Besides, I know her personally. I know she wouldn't do that again."
Kuroko's apparent response made him sigh.
"Please, we can't afford to waste any more time on this. If I get the chance, I'll be there to talk this out completely. But the most important thing right now is making sure you get to someplace safe."
Kuroko's response to this made him smile, almost kindly, "Hey, it's no problem. You don't need to apologize. We were already prepared for the chance of us having a guest over for the night. All you need to do is get your things ready."
He nodded again after a moment more, "Alright, stay safe until then."
After saying goodbye, he hung up, then smiled at Kokona whilst putting his phone in his pocket.
"Morning."
"Uh... morning." Kokona said awkwardly. "Nasir, would you mind me asking why you're...?"
"Oh, I was just making preparations for someone to move into my house. It's nothing you need to worry about." He smiled, only for his expression to drop when Kokona shook her head.
"No, I mean... why are you here?"
"Oh." He rubbed the back of his head, then laughed. "I guess that would be the natural question in this situation."
"Were you worried about me?"
"Not really. I just wanted to walk you to school."
"Why?"
"You seem to have a pretty bad knack of people trying to hurt you in some way. I just wanted to support you in the event that it happened again."
"What? What gives you that idea?"
He looked up at the sky in thought for a moment.
"Well, there's someone pushing you off the roof, someone posting something about you compensated dating, someone setting you on fire, and my boss trying to hurt your perspective of what love actually is. Anyone going through all that in two days honestly NEEDS someone to support them."
"Hey, you don't have to worry about that." Kokona's eyes tensed at how casually he mentioned the past events. "You don't have to force yourself into that position. I do have other friends after all."
He gave her an odd look in response, yet as quickly as he gave her that look, he pouted slightly.
"But I want to be in that position." He said this, half to himself.
"Why? It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact that you do. Don't you think it'd be stressful to be the one to support me, after yesterday?"
"Not really. Believe it or not, I've been through so much on a daily basis since coming here that yesterday was like just another Tuesday for me," though he shrugged, his eyes grew wide in realization, and he laughed, "Wait, yesterday WAS Tuesday, wasn't it?"
She laughed faintly at the irony, but still had an overall serious look on her face.
"I don't want to add to your plate if you already have enough to deal with then." Kokona said uncomfortably, eyes finding his legs, no doubt still burned from the day before. "I'd feel bad if I burdened you even more."
The legs moved after a few seconds of silence, carrying him to her, and she looked up a second before his arms wrapped around her snugly, an almost proud smile tugging at his lips.
"Such a wonderful person you are. You're just making me want to support you more. The world needs more people like you."
Kokona didn't hug him back, eying the ground self-consciously, "I don't think you know what you're saying. The world needs less people like me, with the things I've done. It'd probably be better off with more people like you, if yesterday's anything to go by."
He pulled away, smiling still, but shook his head firmly.
"No. The world would definitely be better off with more people like you in it. You're a much better person than I probably could ever be."
"How are you so sure?" She asked this while looking him in the eye, before diverting her gaze as she spoke further. "I mean, you must've figured out the truth about me yesterday, right?"
"About you compensated dating?" Kai asked, gaze curious.
Kokona looked around herself quickly in fear of anyone hearing him, only to glare at him when she confirmed no one was around to listen.
"Yes." She grumbled, looking down again when she realized he looked undaunted by her glare. "But don't say it."
"I can't say you're an awful person just from that. Do you really think otherwise?" He didn't seem too surprised, merely curious.
She met his eyes for a moment more, "Well, yeah. Would you really call someone who..."
She trailed off a second before she said "engaged in compensated dating".
"... who would do something... like "that" a good person?"
"No. Maybe if you were dating someone, then yeah, but otherwise, you're not a bad person for it, you're just... not doing the right thing." He seemed to be a bit stumped about how he wanted to speak his thoughts. "It's like saying you're a bad person for having something to sell to someone, and when you sell it to them, they do something wrong with it."
"But in my case, it's not something that might be put to good use or not." Looking around herself again to see if they were still alone, she continued. "Compensated dating is still a bad thing, all in all."
"Maybe. But you're not in the wrong for doing that unless you genuinely wanted to do it. As far as I can tell, you DIDN'T want to do it, so it doesn't make you a bad person."
"Does it really matter whether I wanted to do it or not?"
"Yes, it does." He rubbed his head. "I guess... think of someone who donated to a charity. If they were donating for the sake of there being a chance it'd help someone out, then they're good people, even if the amount they donate is small. If someone donated it, but they were thinking of only putting up the image of a good person and not because they wanted to help, that makes them a bad person. In this case, you didn't do it because you wanted to, so you're not a bad person for it."
"I guess. Doing the things I did would make me a bad person in most people's perspectives."
Kai mentally sighed.
"Have times really changed so little in this half of the Asian continent since World War II?" He asked before thinking.
"What? What does that have anything to do with it?"
He crossed his arms, "Have you ever heard of "comfort women"?"
"No. What about them? Do they comfort people?"
He looked away, his expression flickering in anger and changing back to normal so quickly that Kokona thought she'd imagined it.
As he spoke, she soon realized it wasn't directed at her directly.
"Well, during World War II, after this country joined the Axis, it went on a campaign to take over most of Asia."
"I know that much."
"You even know about the Rape of Nanjing?"
A dark look came over Kokona's face as she nodded.
Over the course of two months, Japanese forces had killed hundreds of thousands of unarmed soldiers and civilians, as well as raping seven thousand women.
"I do." She said grimly.
"Well, during that same time, thousands of captured women were stationed in war zones in places called "comfort houses". The point of the comfort houses was for the women there to act as prostitutes for the soldiers who came to them. Since the average number of men they had to demean themselves for was about thirty different men a day, it was only natural that some... side effects from that position would crop themselves up." He sighed softly. "Since any of the women from the comfort houses with an STD were killed upon anyone realizing that was the case for them, they ended up getting killed by the soldiers themselves when the war was ending. The ones who were able to survive ended up being shamed for their actions during the war, even though they were prisoners forced into that position. The reason I'm asking if things really haven't changed since then is because you think doing what you've done makes you a bad person by default in people's eyes. At least from what I understood."
Kokona stared at him for a long time.
"Am I wrong for looking at it that way?"
"I'm... I'm not sure." Kokona crossed her arms. "But... how much do you know about... about what I did with your boss?"
He crossed his arms, then spoke one word, which was enough for Kokona to understand.
"Fornication."
What festered in Kokona wasn't nervousness, nor surprise.
Only a strange emptiness.
"I see." She said flatly.
"But let's look at it this way," Kai said, looking at her calmly, "You're not doing "that" with my boss anymore, right?"
Kokona nodded firmly.
"Then it's fine. You chose to stop being involved from the moment you found out he was married, so you shouldn't worry about that."
Kokona sighed.
"I guess so. It doesn't change the fact that everyone at school knows the truth, after that Fakebook post."
"All the more reason for me to want to be there to support you." Kai smiled at her.
"I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about me."
"So I can't be there to support you if I want?"
"I wouldn't want you to be, no." Kokona said honestly.
This was the genuine truth.
What she said after, however, was only an excuse for what she said before.
"You just started school here. I don't want you get kept out of things because you're trying to support me. You want to make friends, don't you?"
He quirked an eyebrow at her curiously, "Why would I want to be friends with them? I have you, don't I?"
"Yeah." Kokona rolled her eyes, "A girl whose done dumb things because she needs money that's someone else's apparently out to kill. I can't see ANY reason you wouldn't want to have friends other than me."
"I'm glad you understand." Kai said, walking past her.
She watched him as he did this, "I was being sarcastic."
"I know. But you're still right." He stopped, looking back at her with a playful grin, "What reason could there be to want any other friends, when I already have a friend that's a magnet for trouble?"
She couldn't help replicating his joking tone as she held her hips, "I thought you wanted to be my support."
"Yes. And I still want to be. But now I get to rub my support into your worry's face and see the result. So thank you. I've now acheived a new purpose in life." He looked forward, the same playful smile there. "Now, we should be going, shouldn't we?"
Mentally deciding to drop the matter, she walked behind him, "Yeah, we do need to get going."
It felt incredibly strange to be walking to school with someone else that day, given that Kokona was used to having no one formally accompanying her at such times.
They didn't talk much during the walk there, and though the temptation to try to existed, Kokona didn't feel much of a need to talk for much of the time of silence, as her kohai didn't even seem to feel very uncomfortable with this.
The only thing they talked about came as a result of her asking him, when a minute into the trek to school, Kokona noticed Kai's pensive expression.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, just a bit troubled." He admitted without thinking.
"About what?"
"Well, since I imagined that my boss' wife didn't know about his actions outside of home, I checked in with her, and she had no idea. So I was just trying to set my house up so that she could move in."
"And you're saying days like yesterday are actually kind of normal for you?"
He sighed softly, almost sadly, "Yes, with all the dangers, twists and turns intact."
Kokona's mind flashed to the memory of the fire yesterday, and surmising that was the "danger" part of his day, she ran the line between skepticism and sympathetic pity.
"Are you sure? Even with the fire yesterday it's still normal?" Kokona looked down at his legs for emphasis.
He nodded grimly, "Yes. The only thing that made that fire yesterday abnormal was me actually getting physically scarred for once."
"You mean... that wasn't the only time your life wasn't in danger?"
The answer was obvious if what he said was true, but she couldn't help asking.
Sure enough, he nodded.
"Yes. The closest I came to getting scarred was when I was following my roommate on a date because of a gut feeling that something was going to go wrong. It did go wrong, but not in the way I expected it."
"What do you mean?"
"At one point her date and a few of his friends decided it'd be fine to try kidnapping her. I managed to keep that from happening, but it was pretty hard to do that between fighting three guys and protecting someone on top of that."
Kokona's eyes widened.
"What? Why would they try to kidnap her?"
He closed his eyes, sighing.
On that night, he could still vividly remember that man and Sekai going into that dark alleyway, despite the latter's opposition to it.
The man and his friends decided to kidnapping her then, but Kai had been there to keep them from doing that.
In the midst of him tackling one man to the ground and desperately trying to push the other two away, Kai made Sekai call the police, her doing so as quickly as possible with his phone as Kai endured the short verbal exchange between himself and the three men, which culminated into a fistfight that had gone very much into the three men's favor.
The reasons for this were obvious and painful to bear.
For starters, they were all older, bigger, and of comparable strength to him individually (he didn't want to imagine how things would've gone if he didn't excercise as regularly as he often did). Adding the pacifist nature of his religion to the equation, and a large deal of pain on his end would obviously be endured before the impulse to fight back rose within him enough to take control.
They hadn't noticed Sekai on the phone, as Kai spoke over her so as to keep them from hearing her, though she herself did her best to hide her actions as she curled up into a ball against a wall.
When the police would eventually arrive, Kai had been beaten up pretty badly, and yet the men's attempts to round up Sekai always ended with him grabbing the would-be kidnapper's foot and yanking them off balance, with the men attempting to flee at the sound of sirens, only to find that both exits were blocked.
His experience of being brought in for questioning brought with it a good deal of relief when he found that Sekai wasn't badly hurt, and that the people he'd been fighting were actually human traffickers who were all arrested.
The latter fact gave less relief and more stress to Sekai however.
The realization must've brought bad memories to her, Kai had thought sadly as he measured her reaction for himself.
Thankfully, being handcuffed for a short duration of time and suffering a few bruises had been the worst of that night for him, at least physically.
He still had to apologize for not following the "turn the other cheek" commandment Christ had given after all.
In the present, Kai shook his head, "It's really not worth knowing. All that matters is that she's safe now."
He only hoped that Sekai would be able to mentally recover soon though, he thought sadly.
The rest of the walk went on in silence, with Kai mentally questioning if God was punishing him for his actions before coming to Japan, or if there was some way it'd help Him in His plan.
He could only assume that keeping some people from dying on a daily basis was becoming a tragic norm for him because of his God.
This assumption therefore fostered the guilt that came to weigh on him from anyone who failed to survive due to his lack of ability.
He mentally sighed fitfully, wondering if there would be any danger awaiting him today.
Upon them arriving at the school, Kokona and Kai would find themselves sitting in the nurse's office, who was in the process of searching for more ointment to treat their legs with.
After sitting on the beds as the pink haired woman instructed them, the nurse would stand over them both, the ointment in hand.
"Now, which one of you wants me to rub this into their skin first? I promise I'll be gentle." She said with a smile to them both, the grimace of pain caused from both of their swollen legs not helping much.
Unbeknownst to any of them, Ayano crawled as quickly and silently as possible through the nurse's office, being wary of where the nurse's attention was given towards.
Dropping this wariness for a split second, Ayano picked up a vile of liquid and a syringe, looking over at the nurse again.
She hadn't noticed.
Smiling, Ayano crawled her way of the nurse's office, setting the two items in her hands inside of strapped bookbag, which hung off her left shoulder, her slipping them into the binder shaped bag and closing the flap, going on about her day normally.
When their ointment had been fully applied, Kai would close the door to the nurse's office after thanking her, him looking at his purple-haired senpai.
"I guess I'll be seeing you later Kokona-senpai."
"Yeah." Kokona nodded, watching his back for a moment as he walked away. "And Nasir?"
Kai stopped, looking back at her curiously.
"My last name's Haruka. You shouldn't be calling me Kokona."
"I know." Kai shrugged. "It just felt strange not to call you that after a while."
"Could you call me the normal way?"
"Okay Haruka-chan." Kai walked forward as though he'd done nothing wrong.
"Senpai. Not chan."
He couldn't help the mischievous smile coming onto his face at the trace of irritation in her tone.
"I know," he smiled back at her, waving, "I'll see you later, Haruka-senpai."
"Same here." Kokona smiled as well despite herself, her kohai taking off at a running start, her turning around and going to the plaza.
When Kai would stop running, he would stand before the Occult Club, looking at its doors and wondering if they were open.
Deciding to see for himself, Kai opened the door, thereby seeing it was unlocked, and walked inside, finding Shin standing there reading a book as he stood on the left hand-side of the room, in front of Kai.
"Hey, Higaku-senpai." The new source of light had already caught Shin's attention, but he found himself smiling at newest member of the club. "Sorry again for not coming yesterday."
"It's fine. No harm done." Shin replied calmly.
"Thanks," Kai smiled at him, only for the smile to drop as he surveyed the room, "Did I... miss anything important yesterday?"
"Not especially, no." Shin closed the book he was reading after bookmarking it, putting it back on its book shelf. "We tried to summon a demon again for the club activities, but, as usual, we didn't succeed."
"Oh." He tried to keep the relief out of his voice, which was easy considering he felt nervous still. "What did you do?"
Shin walked around the already lit candles of the room, Kai following behind him awkwardly as he stood in front of the skull on the table beneath one of the pentagram cloths on the wall, Kai noticing for the first time that a knife was driven in the center of its forehead.
The third-year caught his gaze, and holding Kai's eyes, he gave a serious question.
"Do you promise not to tell anyone about this?"
Kai nodded hesitantly.
Seeing this, he looked at the skull, Shin pulling out the knife and showing it to Kai, "We use this ritual knife to draw our own blood for ritual sacrifices. So far, none of them have worked."
The boy blinked in surprise at the person standing in front of him.
"W-What?" He exclaimed, eyes widened.
Even as the elder of the two answered, he felt a vertigo wash through his brain, and he reached for his head.
"I know it may seem strange," Shin had been saying, "But if we want to summon a demon, we have to make sacrifices."
At the sight of Kai trying to shake the dizziness out of his head however, he eyed him strangely.
"Are you okay?" He asked slowly.
"Y-Yes." Kai replied, nodding.
Within his brain came the three words of "I'm dreaming again" before he could stop it, and he sighed, shaking his head to clear it.
"I'm fine." He said, more clear and firmly this time.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." He sighed. "It's something I've been wanting to ask about since I joined, but I'm not sure you'd believe me if I asked about it now."
Looking at the ritual knife, Kai lifted his hand to it, "May I see it?"
Shin nodded, turning his hand to give it to him, dropping the handle in the palm of Kai's hand.
Something was wrong however.
A split-second before it landed, a strange dark mist appeared between his hand and the handle.
Blinking at the sight, Kai shook his head, looking up at Shin, about to ask if he'd seen the mist too, only to see he looked at Kai expectantly.
Realizing what he'd meant to do with the knife in the first place, Kai studied it, it looking rather grand.
"This knife looks like it'd fit the bill." He said off-handedly, him moving to put the knife back in its original place in the skull, "I wonder who thought to make this."
Shin shrugged as Kai carefully pushed the blade back in its holding place, "I'm not sure, but President Ruto said - !"
His and Kai's eyes both widened in sync, a purple mist starting at the hilt of the dagger, it looping around and covering Kai's arm in a split second.
He tried to move as it kept moving, looping around his both in two differing directions, one going from his torso down and the other from his torso up.
When only his legs and free arm were left uncovered by mist, Kai tried to give a yell as to what was going on, but found that his body was frozen, the mist covering him completely as the few seconds since it started ended.
Shin watched in shock, only for it to evolve into horror as the mist dissipated, Kai no longer being there.
A man-sized purple mist appeared in the dark place, dissipating to reveal Kai there.
Strangely tasting air flooded his lungs as he looked down at the ground, it being dark.
He looked up, wondering where he was, only to give a yell of surprise at what stood before him.
In front of him stood a man standing stark naked several feet away from him, him hunched over, his skin completely gray.
He lacked eyes, his sockets empty, his mouth hanging lower than was possible for a human being, him seeming to lack teeth or a tongue, giving him a rather ghoulish look.
His arms were in stubs, everything from where his elbows usually would be and downwards not being there.
"A mortal? Here? How curious." A deep voice said to his left, and looking at the source of the sound, Kai jumped at the sight of a humanoid being floating there, his gloved hands spread out as balls of flame burned above them.
He wore a uniform similar to Kai himself, only his jacket looked more like a trench coat in its length.
What caught Kai's attention the most, however, was the fact that where the man's head should've been, there was only a large ball of flame.
"Why have you come here, I wonder? Do you have fascination with the occult? Do you seek power?"
Kai blinked, then tried his best to sound calm, "I... don't have much reason to be here. I am in the Occult Club of my school though."
He could tell his efforts to sound calm didn't come to fruition.
"Do you have interest in demons?"
"I... I'd say so, yes." Kai said, only for the man with the flaming head to chuckle lightly.
"That's a pity. I'm not interested in you at all. Humans are mundane, boring creatures." Kai blinked at this, yet the man kept speaking. "Tell me, why should I consider you worthy of my time?"
Kai rubbed the back of his head, "To be honest, I don't even know who you are. How do I know if I should even try convincing you to be interested in me?"
Not that he was interested in this guy to begin with, he thought wryly.
He was much more curious about where the heck he was.
"I see. You may refer to me as the Flame Demon then."
"The "Flame Demon"?" Kai asked, giving an incredulous look at the man before him. "You're...?"
"Yes, a mundane name for a demon with powers over fire, I know. But, if I were to give you my real name, you'd have power over me. I dare not give that power away foolishly."
"Huh." Kai held his hips. "You're a demon?"
"I... Yes," judging from his tone, Kai imagined the Flame Demon would be looking at him strangely if he had a face, "I am a demon. Hence, "Flame Demon". What else did you think I was, since we're in the demon realm?"
Kai gave a cursory look around himself (making sure to mind the ghoul-faced man that seemed to be staring at him), and commented, "I was thinking more some type of monster who can control flames, but "demon" isn't that far removed from that. Not to mention that this isn't what I imagined the demon realm would look like."
There seemed to be perpetual darkness all around this circumference of light he stood in, Kai noted.
"Really? Were you imagining some fiery inferno filled with people crying in agony as we tortured them?"
"Something to that extent, yes." Kai crossed his arms, him feeling calmer, and more nervous than scared. "But... may I ask why you have powers over flames?"
The Flame Demon regarded him curiously for a moment, then spoke, "When a human becomes a demon, they are reborn into a more appropiate form. This form was the most appropiate form for me, considering the circumstances of my ascension to demonhood."
Kai gave him a curious look in response to this.
So there were humans who could become demons after all?
They weren't just angels who followed the Devil?
"If that's the case," he said thoughtfully, "How did you come to be a demon?"
"I did a ritual and communed with a demon who took interest in me, and I became a demon with the power over flames after performing a sacrifice for it to give me power. I was reborn in the form that you see before you."
"Why did you want to become a demon? Did you know this would happen to you?"
"At the time I didn't care, and even now I still don't. I only chose to become a demon for revenge. That was all that mattered."
"Revenge?" Kai asked with a still curious look. "Revenge for what?"
The Flame Demon paused, and then the flames in his hands stopped.
Kai felt fear fester within him, wondering why this happened, and if he'd angered the demon with this question, only for the Flame Demon to cross his arms like him.
"There's no need for you to know." He said evenly. "There's nothing for me to gain by telling you."
Kai's eyes flickered in understanding.
"I understand, Flame Demon. I guess..." He looked down slightly, his tone becoming grim, "If it makes you feel any better, I once tried taking revenge on someone. So I think I can understand how you might've felt. I've tried letting that want for revenge go, since I..."
The words stuck in his throat, but he forced them out for the sake of finishing his sentence.
He had just realized he shouldn't impose on the Flame Demon's time.
"Since I... already took revenge on those people. But somehow, whenever I think of it, it's just... so hard to let it go. Maybe if my parents were still alive then I..."
He stopped himself, his eyes stinging with tears at the memories, him closing them tightly, then shaking his head.
"I'm sorry." He said, holding his forehead. "I'm sorry for rambling on. I just wanted to say that I can empathize with how you feel. If I had the chance to, I think I probably would've become a demon to take revenge on them."
The Flame Demon paused thoughtfully, but Kai kept speaking before he could respond.
"I'm sorry for taking up your time. You're probably busy. If you know how I can get back to the human realm, that'd be a huge help to me."
The Flame Demon gave a look to the white circle to Kai's immediate left, and his right, though his lack of a head made this impossible to perceive.
"That white circle over there will lead you back to where you came from." He said, Kai looking in that direction.
"Thank you, Flame Demon." Kai said, walking to the circle after he figured out what the Flame Demon meant.
Before he could leave however, the Flame Demon spoke to the young man, "I suppose I can empathize with you as well, human. I killed people in revenge for killing my parents. If you took revenge for a similar reason, I imagine that you aren't so mundane after all."
Kai paused for a moment.
"I think I would be happy to hear that if it wasn't me killing people in revenge for my parents' lives that makes me more interesting." He said this in a dark tone, walking into the circle, his body consumed in the purple mist again.
When the mist dissipated from around him again, Kai opened his closed eyes, finding Shin to be standing right next to him, eyes wide in surprise.
"Are you okay Shin?" Kai asked blankly, Shin staring at him incredulously.
"What happened? Where did you...?" He looked between Kai and the ritual knife curiously.
"I apparently went to the demon realm." Kai crossed his arms, sighing. "The demons there weren't much interested in me though."
"Really? What did the demons look like?" Shin's voice was a mixture of excitement and fear.
"Well, one looked a naked gray ghoul, and the other one I saw was wearing something similar to our uniform, only he had black gloves and he had a giant ball of white fire where his head should've been."
"Alright." Shin seemed satisfied with this. "But... why and how did you end up getting to the demon realm from this?"
"No way for me to know." Kai shook his head, him realizing then how much his voice was quivering.
Assuming any of the horror cliches associated with demons were true, he couldn't have been taken to the demon realm from being a virgin (though, he reasoned, this cliche often revolved around female virgins, which he wasn't).
He hadn't drawn any blood, so that couldn't have been it.
Was it because he was an orphan?
He shook this idea out of his head immediately.
What difference would it make if he were an orphan or not?
He sighed, giving up.
"Do... do you think you could go to the demon realm again?" Shin asked, looking at him nervously and excitedly.
"I don't think it'll do me much good to do that." Kai said, shaking his head. "What's the point of doing it if I can't even talk much with a demon?"
"Well, the point of our activities is summoning a demon. It may not be the same thing, but if we can go to their domain, then that'd be the next best thing."
Kai thought about it, then nodded, "I understand. But... I'd rather do that later, when everyone in the club is here."
He walked out of the floor pentagram, going towards the exit.
"I understand. Whenever you're ready. President Ruto will definitely be happy about this."
At this, Kai stopped at the door, looking back at him, "Will she really?"
Shin nodded vigorously.
"Okay. I'll try to come for club time if nothing comes up then." Kai said, walking out of the room, rubbing his eyes of the tears that were threatening to spill, Shin not having noticed due to the darkness of the room he was in.
A/N: Thus ends the last chapter I'll ever post to this section.
If you're reading this, and you ever want to read further updates, look for the story titled "Simple Friendship" in the Yandere Simulator section.
Goodbye.