"You're not a cop. You're one of us."

- Alec Conner, Viper

"They might have changed your fingerprints, Payton, but they forgot that scar of yours. You know, the real personal one?"

- Andi, Viper

"Winky face!"

- D. Va, Overwatch

It was a strange tale. He'd been whisked out of modern day Japan and brought to this bizarre place to play the part of a hero. He'd been told divine beings needed common mortals like him to travel to suffering far off worlds and rid them of demonic influence. And yet… he felt like a failure even before he accepted whatever crusade they had planned for him. For the past year, an inexplicable ache in Seiya's heart had driven him to become withdrawn—bordering on paranoid—toward his other classmates. That hollow pain in his chest became near unbearable now that he was with the mysterious being who'd summoned him to serve as her hero. The Goddess Ristarte.

The short goddess anxiously stood on the toes of her sandals trying to peak over Seiya's shoulder. He was carefully reading a note he'd left himself even though he had no memory of writing it, visible on a small floating screen only he could decipher. Despite all of her fussing and demanding to know what he was doing, Ristarte was left completely in the dark.

The message was brief and concise. "Be cautious. Very very cautious," and so forth. "Save the world and the one you love," and so on and so on. Somehow, it was enough to trigger his memories from one year ago. Everything—good and bad—came rushing back to him through the loophole he'd provided himself.

Ristarte watched his strange behavior in confusion. From where she was standing, it looked like he was scratching the side of his head. He was actually brushing away a tear from his eye.

Seiya kept his emotions suppressed as they surged through his mind in waves. Sadness, regret, and bitterness. The divines were bastards who tried to control which of his own memories he was allowed to remember and cherish, but he'd beaten them. He'd just have to keep finding ways to game the system against them.

Seiya nearly gasped when he realized there was an even more hidden second page to the note. Brushing his palm across the screen, the hovering image changed to something that told him exactly what he needed to know at that precise moment. A message that filled him with a small spark of hope at a moment where he felt hopeless. It was only three words long.

Gypsophila and vanilla.

Seiya started to consider the few details he'd learned since he was summoned into Ristarte's holy office. He glimpsed toward the still-confused goddess with discreet eyes.

"How old did you say you were?"

"Uh… 100 years," Ristarte answered matter-of-factly.

"How quickly does time pass on this plane compared to my world?" Seiya asked in growing suspicion.

"It's about 100-to-1," the goddess said with hardly a shrug. "One year to you mortals is a hundred years to us divines."

"And you said you're the Goddess of…" Seiya deliberately let his voice trail off.

"Healing!" Ristarte proudly smiled.

Seiya glanced to the three words on the screen, then back to Ristarte. Toward the screen, then toward the goddess. All the hints were there, but there was one last test he needed to prove.

He shut off the screen and slowly started to walk toward the divine maiden.

"If you want me to save this world you're sending me to," he said coldly as he came face-to-face with the divine, "I have a condition of my own."

Ristarte backed herself into the wall in a slight panic. She looked up at him with innocent blinking doe eyes and nervously gulped as her smaller profile was consumed under the his shadow. She was scared by how quickly he cornered her… but she could also feel gleeful excitement fluttering in her heart.

"Condition… ?" she whispered.

Seiya started to lower his head. It was crazy, but Ristarte felt something deep in her immortal soul urging her to tilt her head upward and close her eyes. Even as she was overwhelmed by her strange impulses, she never felt afraid. Somehow she felt everything about this was right.

Ristarte sighed weakly as her lips met Seiya's. She hardly murmured when his tongue was slipping deep into her mouth a second later. A strange man she'd just met was practically forcing himself on her, yet… he was only doing exactly what she allowed.

One of his hands traveled downward. Any other goddess would have had to deal with an unruly hero trying to sneak a quick feel on her, but Ristarte's hero was different. His palm only traveled slightly below her waist belt and gently rested on the ruffles in front of her skirt. Instinctively, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and pulled his hand closer so it pressed the light fabric covering her lower abdomen. It was a sturdy hand. A strong, supporting hand. And it was delicately resting on the part of her that felt like it needed the most defense.

Ristarte melted deeper into the kiss as she shyly tickled Seiya's tongue with hers. She let him savor the taste on her lips like she'd die if he stopped. He wasn't holding her hostage at the cold edge of a sword. He was more like a shield surrounding her with its warm protection.

Seiya broke the kiss when all of his suspicions were proven true. The realization of who Ristarte was made him feel both relieved and a little heartbroken.

"So that's it. They made you one of them," he said softly as he exhaled. "I don't know if I should thank them or hate them."

The goddess's primordial instincts faded as the hero stepped back from her. Her violet eyes blinked rapidly as she gathered her senses.

"Ah.. ha..." she found herself mysteriously panting for breath as her cheeks turned red. "Se-Seiya! This isn't proper at all! Love between a mortal and a goddess is strictly forbidden!"

"What's the punishment for violating divine law?" he asked calmly.

"You could be killed! Destroyed! Erased from all forms of life! Abandoned on an SSSS-ranked world without me to help you!"

None of those threats fazed Seiya. Without a single hesitation, he asked "But what's the worst that could happen to you?"

"Well, I… I'd be stripped of my divinity!" Ristarte said, struggling to quell the panic in her voice. "Cast out of the Divine Realm and forced to live with beings like you!"

"So you'd become mortal again," Seiya said with shifting eyes, scratching his chin. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Again?" the divine maiden blinked. "I'm not sure what you mean. I've always been the goddess Ristarte!"

Still scratching his chin, Seiya shook his head in disappointment.

"You haven't had your Split Decision Moment yet."

"Wha-what's that supposed to mean?" Ristarte quickly sputtered. All of his answers were just making her feel more confused.

"Ask Adenela. I'm sure she'll be glad to explain it to you," Seiya said.

"Buh?" Ristarte's jaw dropped to the floor like each of her teeth were white anvils. "How do you know about her? I'm the only goddess you've met so far!"

"Properties," he answered bluntly.

Ristarte turned to the side and stomped into a corner of her summoning office. She talked to herself in an aggravated voice as she wildly clawed the sides of her head.

"Properties? Split Decision? Adenela? What is with this guy?! He's acting like he's already been through all of this before!"

If only she knew. She growled with an exasperated sigh as she shoved her frustrations to the back of her mind. She skipped back over to Seiya and forced herself to wear a caring smile, doing her best to perform her official role as mentor-goddess.

"Okay, weirdo. Are you gonna come with me and save Gaeabrande or not?"

"I'll train first," Seiya said indifferently.

"But they could be in a lot of trouble," Ristarte added a little more urgency to her voice. "We need to protect that world!"

"They can wait a day or two. The more important world I need to protect is right here."

Seiya's eyes looked toward Ristarte, kept looking at her, and looked at nothing but her.

"What's that supposed to…?" Ristarte shook her head in a fluster. "Ah, forget it. Just let me know when you're ready. I bet Aria never had to deal with a hero like you."

Author's note: Did you guys know there's a metal cover of Blue by Eiffel 65? What the hell?

Author's note 2: In my headcanon, Ristarte has a small birthmark on her belly that the other goddesses think adds to her cute charm, but if you squint and look at it real closely it looks kinda like bite marks and/or a C-section scar. It makes sense if you consider the way her soul died in her previous life.