Disclaimer: I do not own DanMachi or any of the Omori's original characters, nor do I make any profit off of my writing.

Aiz was seven years old when she felt the connection for the first time.

It couldn't have come at a worse time.

It also couldn't have come at a better time.

Her.. her parents had explained it to her before..

They explained it to her when she was younger; what it meant to have a soulmate and how one day she would find them and fall in love just as they had.

Soulmates had a connection.

She guessed that's what she was feeling right now as she woke up surrounded by unfamiliar faces. Whoever was at the other end was sending her comfort as her life was consumed by fear.

She wondered where they'd been all this time, they couldn't have just been born and already sending her comfort, so why did they only appear now of all times?

After her parents–

She doesn't understand, but maybe the people around her would.

".. h- hello.. "

The pretty elf responded first, her ears twitching slightly in discomfort as the girl studied their faces with a blank expression, "hello, little one. My name is Riveria, can you tell me yours?"

"Aiz.. Waldstein.. "

A hint of recognition flashed through the woman's emerald eyes as she gazed at the child before her. Riveria was a young elf, only ninety years to her name, but she'd done a fair amount of reading in her life, so she wasn't surprised when she recognized the name. She just couldn't figure out from where exactly.

"Waldstein?"

"Mm."

"What were your parent's first names? Perhaps we could help you find them again?"

If Riveria was expecting any reaction, it certainly wasn't that dark look on the girl's face or the horror in her eyes. Those weren't the eyes of a seven-year-old, nor was that the face of one.

"You can't."

Riveria's lips twitched downward, "why's that?"

"The Black Dragon killed them."

Riveria faltered in her questioning.

The girl's face contorted in anger as she hissed out the words, the emotion overpowering the overwhelming sadness and heartache that plagued her. Another wave of comfort washed over her as her soulmate focused entirely on supporting her. She couldn't help but feel grateful to them, they knew nothing about her, only that she was in pain, yet they were doing everything they could to help.

"What were your parent's names?"

Aiz looked away from the high elf, her golden eyes barely pausing on the pallum beside her.

"..Aria.. and Al.. bert."

Aria and Albert Waldstein.

Her eyes widened marginally before she turned to face her companion, only to find him already gone – off in search of the very same thing she was going to ask for.

Riveria wasn't sure how it was possible, the Sword Champion and Great Spirit of the Wind lived a thousand years ago, there shouldn't be any way for their daughter to be here now. Honestly, even the notion that they had a daughter – a man and his wife who was believed to never be able to bear children – it shouldn't even be possible.

Maybe, maybe their story could provide answers, but the high elf sincerely doubted it.

…

Aiz Waldstein, now Aiz Wallenstein, spent many years living in Orario. She practiced and she trained and she dove deeper and deeper into the dungeon, in search of the strength she needed to fell the monster that took her parents from her.

She didn't let anybody in, she refused to. Her father said her hero would come and they'd save her.

He lied.

Her hero never came.

All she ever received was comfort. She appreciated the gesture, she did. But comfort wasn't going to save her, and it didn't save her parents.

There were lots of times when she felt scared or alone and they were always there to help her. They calmed her when her heart raced. They quelled her anger when she lost control – quieting the black flame that roiled within her.

They helped her through so many things. Her lessons in 'swimming.' The Black Wyvern. Evilus. Her first expedition. No matter what was happening they were always there to send her emotions through their connection.

They were happy when she was happy, like when she ate her first jagamarukun, or each and every one after that.

They were uncomfortable when she was uncomfortable, like when another man tries to convince her they were her soulmates. They weren't, she knew that they knew that. She doesn't know why they lie about it – her soulmate wouldn't do that.

Sometimes she felt like she took more than she gave.

Her soulmate would give her everything they had to give, but she never felt like she had anything to give back in return.

She couldn't comfort them, she didn't know how. She'd tried, she'd tried her hardest to give back the one time she felt them feel true fear. She knew the feeling, so she did her best to make them feel safe.

She imagined her hero at the other end battling a fearsome monster, preparing to come for her. She certainly would never imagine a small child, two years younger than herself, screaming out in a shrill voice as he ran away from a surface goblin.

Still, she tried to comfort him, it didn't work.

It seemed like most of the time her soulmate was happy.

She resented them for it.

She didn't want to, but she did.

They only did things in support of her, even when anger at them burned in her chest, she still received comfort from them. She wondered if they would still comfort her if they knew it she was mad at them.

They probably would.

She imagined they were a good person. Much better than herself. She resented them for that too.

Aiz wasn't really sure at what point she stopped wishing to find them. It could've been when she lost her first friend to the dungeon, could she call them friends?

She'd lost people during the war with Evilus, yes. But there was just something different to her about monsters killing the people she knew. Something that filled her with raw, unbridled fury.

It didn't matter in the end, she didn't want to meet them, she refused to.

What would they think of her if they found her? Did she even want them to?

Deep down, maybe.

The little girl in her head never let go of the dream of her one true love, she would wait anxiously until the day he arrived. The girl on the outside though didn't want it.

He'd change his mind, she'd feel his comfort for one last time before he turned his back on her forever.

He'd leave her just as her parents had done.

She was sure of it.

So, she hardened her heart.

She didn't want to meet her soulmate. Him, her, whoever. She just didn't want to meet them.

She was her own hero now; she'd get stronger so she could protect everything she had. She'd never lose anything again.

She didn't need her hero.

…

It was weird, Aiz thought while she sat with her familia in the camp they set up during their expedition, after so many years with only positive emotions sent through the connections, she felt despair coming through the other end.

He'd lost somebody. She knew the feeling well enough.

So, she did everything she could to comfort him from the cave.

That wasn't the end though.

A day later and Aiz paused while they walked through the twenty-fourth floor. His sadness was replaced with nervousness excitement. If a smile graced her lips for a moment when that happened then nobody needed to know.

But then days later, his sadness was back. This time a mixture of hopelessness and failure, another set of emotions Aiz knew well. So she tried to comfort him some more, to tell him that everything was going to work out and he just needed to keep pushing forward.

And it did. He was better again two weeks later.

Aiz smiled into her bowl of stew on the thirty-ninth floor, happy for him.

The two weeks after that day were a whirl of emotions, a larger variety than Aiz had ever felt come through the connection. Nervousness, fear, happiness, disappointment, fear again, happiness again. It was incredibly distracting to sort through while she performed her duties in the vanguard – causing her to overextend herself and fail to abide by orders at several points.

She apologized to Finn about the distractions, though neither of them were fully convinced by her arguments. She was only really worried about what was happening in her soulmate's life at that point in time.

And then the worst emotion came through the connection.

Fear.

It'd been a long time since fear came through from either side. She was long past the point where she had much to fear in the dungeon, she imagined they were somewhere similar.

But this fear was a doomed fear with hints of acceptance. As If they knew their end was coming.

Aiz didn't falter as she chased down the last minotaur that escaped their party, but she poured out every last bit of comfort she had in her. Every ounce of care and love that she kept locked away behind her mask of indifference was shoved through their link.

She didn't know who they were, or where they were. But that was something she could do. She could comfort them in their final moments if this was the end.

She desperately wished it wasn't.

She didn't want to meet them, she didn't.

She could only disappoint them, she knew it to be true.

But she didn't think she could do this without them either.

She appeared at the end of a corridor on the fifth floor, a roar and scream intermingling as they echoed and splintered through the halls of the dungeon. She took off again.

She wasn't sure if it was her soulmate's fear intermingling with her own, but she rounded the corners of the dungeon faster than she thought she could, bounding through the caverns at record speeds – only a gust of wind blowing through in her wake.

She found the monster, cornering a white-haired boy against the wall of a dead-end tunnel.

She cut it down, wasting no even a second of time before vanquishing the minotaur and saving the boy.

A wave of feelings rushed over her through the connection, and she couldn't help the jealous feeling that boiled in her stomach as well as the grief that followed.

Adoration.

They were supposed to be her soulmate! Those feelings were meant for her!

She'd thought that they'd turn her away yes, but she never thought they'd never even give her a chance!

Why did they think it was okay to fall in love with somebody else?

Little Aiz was throwing a tantrum in her head, wailing to the moon of the unfairness of it all.

Was she really that unlovable?

".. are you alright?"

The adoration came back in a second wave, even stronger than the first. She made eye contact with the boy and found her face flushing as she did.

Oh.

Oh.

She tried for a smile and found it surprisingly easy to pull one across her lips.

It was him.

The adoration was for her.

Did he know?

She watched him as he dashed away with a scream, the minotaur blood that covered him drying in the rush of air that blew over him as he dove around the corner and back toward the surface.

She didn't know her earlier anger had freaked him out.

Neither had the realization his soulmate was somebody like her. He probably would have fallen even if she hadn't been his soulmate. Not that she knew any of that, all she saw was him running away.

She felt the guilt that responded to her irritation through their connection and couldn't help but smirk slightly at the feeling.

Maybe, she'd been wrong after all.

It was wrong to not want to meet her soulmate because now she knew no matter what happened, she'd make sure that boy loved her as he should. She'd gotten a taste of the feeling, and she wasn't going to give that up so easily.

Author Notes:

Twas just a one-shot, but would people want to see more?