Hm, since y'all were so nice last chapter, i thought i'd be nice too and update this a little earlier than usual.

Hey! Tis not the end of the story! Last chapter i had merely been referring to the end of the chapter... Not hte story.

And on the contrary, i didn't feel weird in the least bit writing last chapter...

Well, anyway, speaking of the story, i've concluded that, from the way things are headed in this story, with it going to be about 30 chapters long and what i have planned in each chapter, it seems as though something's missing. So there is going to be a sequel after this story. It would just be too long if i had combined the two, so that's how it's gonna be.

I just had to say that 'cause i KNOW i'd forget later on... >.

Erm, right, anyway, enjoy the /wonderful/ chapter i am updatin'.

Disclaimer: (sighs) After 23 chapters of this and (currently) 24 other stories of Gash Bell, many with more than one chapter, you'd think people would get the point by now?


Erased

Chapter 23

No Longer the Same

I stared, wide eyed, when the words of the woman's response reached my ears.

Her memory and personality had been restored.

The original Sherry was back.

"Damn it, Brago, what is going on?" snapped the now original Sherry as she sat up on the bed. There was an angry fire within her eyes that I recalled seeing a couple of times in the past when I knew she was thinking about Zophise or something else. But now she had a whole new reason to be irritated: Me—though as if that hadn't ever happened before. Once when I had been trying to control her when we first met, she had this same exact expression, though that's a completely different story.

"I don't know," I said, putting an equal amount of irritation within my voice, though I was speaking the honest truth. I had no idea what had come over me to have such an intimate moment with her, but the desire was still there, I could feel it; I couldn't help but inwardly want more from her.

The blonde before me scoffed as she shook her head, right before somehow making her frown deepen even more. "Oh, of course you don't! You still haven't answered my other question!" said the woman irritably, her voice dripping in sarcasm on the first sentence. "Tell me why!"

Well…

What was I to say?

…Not much.

"I said, I don't know why," I responded curtly, "Things got out of hand and…"

"And what? What was it you were trying to do to me, Brago?" asked Sherry, I could almost see tears coming to her eyes but she was holding them back. "What was it you planned on doing to me while I was unconscious, huh? Rape me, physically abuse me, do something that I have no idea what the hell is?"

I scowled. "It was nothing of the sort. You—"

"I what?" she snapped, still as angry as ever. "What is it I've done to you? Tell me! And tell me where I am, tell me what I've been doing since… since I passed out!"

Since she passed out.

Of course.

I'm such an idiot.

How could I forget? The whole friggin' reason this all started in the first place was because I had found her unconscious out in the middle of nowhere. Now that the real Sherry was back, she should be able to tell me exactly what happened that night. I turned to look at her, both of us still scowling, and asked my question.

"First off, Sherry, you're going to tell me what exactly happened when that demon attacked you," I started, "before you woke up to this. You will tell me everything you remember so I can know who the hell did it."

The woman reddened in anger. I could tell she wanted to scream at me, to yell at me in all her frustration, maybe even hit me. For a moment she was rather silent, most likely thinking of a way to insult me and tell the truth. Or something else.

"I won't, I don't see how it could be of your concern," said the blonde angrily as she shook her head. I frowned. Sherry would tell me whether she liked it or not, I was going to find out no matter what the case. Though even with this situation taking place and Sherry being so agitated with me, the desire from before was still there, coming back—I couldn't control it, it was slowly taking over me again.

"Tell me," I hissed.

"Give me a reason!" responded the other.

I growled before pushing the woman down onto the bed once more, pinning her hands flat on the mattress beneath us so to prevent her from moving efficiently. Sherry stared at me with wide eyes as I leaned in closer to her.

"You're going to tell me what happened, now," I said gruffly, forcing myself to try not to do anything else. My bookkeeper merely returned my gaze with yet another stiff frown after a moment and I growled yet again in irritation before I snapped, quickly leaning forwards to bite her neck and roughly kiss her down to her shoulder.

For a quick moment Sherry stopped struggling and gasped as she closed her eyes, tilting her head away, making her neck easier to get at, for a split second I almost wondered if she was enjoying this. However, it was all before she realized what she was doing and stopped, only to begin resisting once more immediately afterwards, trying to make me stop, which I did (willingly, mind you) and she glared at me even harsher.

"I don't see how it matters, why should I tell you?" inquired Sherry angrily as she squirmed to get out of my grasp.

"Why shouldn't you?" I shot right back, tightening my grip around her wrists before continuing; there was no way she could break free, I was much stronger than her. "You're the one who got attacked, how could you go on without giving payback to the one responsible? You can't do that without me, I'm the only one who can assist you and I sure as hell want to know what's going on." I frowned again. "You will tell me. There's no way I'm going to go on any longer without knowing what happened that night, I had to deal with you and you're lost memories for over a month and—"

"—Hold it!" interrupted Sherry and I paused. "A month? What the hell are you talking about? What's been going on exactly? How could I have been passed out for over a month?"

"Answer my question first," I snarled, slightly squeezing her wrists, making it a little more painful by the second. The woman squirmed again in response to my actions before somewhat giving up, turning her head away with a slight pained expression mixed with anger.

"I… I don't know!" she stated bluntly and I stared, she kept her gaze well away from mine for a moment as she continued. "All I can remember is getting attacked by this figure… I couldn't really see what they looked like. They were hidden from me so it was obscure… I can barely even remember that! All I recall is getting attacked while I was heading out of the mansion, so I ran to avoid them but they caught up with me easily. Once or twice I was even rammed into a tree or something as I dodged them, but they kept attacking me, wouldn't stop. But then this other demon arrived and said that I wasn't the target quite yet, I think, and then they all vanished. That's all I remember before I passed out, and then I wake up to find…"

A frustrated expression overwhelmed the woman's features as she trailed off and I stared at her blankly, not realizing that my grip had released just slightly. The woman took her hands back and held herself almost in a protective way as she started shaking. I watched as she still kept her gaze well away from mine for a moment and I let my own hands fall freely to my side.

So… Damn it. She couldn't remember who it was. This was so incredibly irritating beyond comprehension. How was I going to find out who caused this fiasco now?

After the small moment ended, my bookkeeper's head shot up and she glared at me once more. "All right, so now I've answered your question, now answer mine!" How could it have been a month already and why were you on top of me?"

I stared at her silently, contemplating on what to say. Shaking my head slightly, I sighed once more and began to speak. "That night you were attacked, I later found you on the ground, unconscious and badly hurt. I took you back to the mansion and watched over you for a couple of days before you finally awoke. But you had no recollection of who I was, or yourself for that matter, and had a complete personality change, acting childish all the time. You were like this for over a month…."

As I told her the remainder of the story, leaving out a few certain incidents, namely her wish to spend the night with me and the now present moment, I watched her expression sadden when I also mentioned her little slave dying.

"Jii…" murmured the woman quietly. A moment of silence befell upon the two of us as she stared off to the side sadly. After a little while she sighed, only before turning to look at me again, her azure eyes staring at me sharply. "So, answer this, Brago," she muttered, "I have yet to hear your reply. Tell me why we were in that position earlier. Are you ever going to answer me?"

At that, I turned away, not having a clue as what to tell her. No good ideas had come into my mind… Damn, this wasn't good. My desire was something to not really speak of with her, so how could I word this out?

"I take that as a no," said the other in a short tone, still staring at me in discontent. I turned my gaze to look upon her and couldn't help but feel that same overwhelming feeling of want from before. Screw it—don't give in a third time!

There was an awkward silence between the both of us, my bookkeeper merely continued to stare at me angrily, her sapphire eyes boring down onto me while I merely forced myself to stay in control.

"Get out," murmured Sherry quietly, I stared at her profoundly.

"What—"

"I said to get OUT!" said the woman as she sat up, raising the tone in her voice as she clenched her fists tightly. Her eyes were shaking and she was more pissed off than she had been five minutes ago.

Slowly I sat up and slid off the bed without a word, taking my cloak and book with me, which were on the floor. Currently I didn't trust her like this. There was no way I could. Although I knew she still needed me to free Koko from that other demon's grasp, I knew that humans did stupid things when they were frustrated. I wasn't going to take the chance with Sherry, although I knew that her old, no, real self was stronger than that.

But right now the main problem was that I couldn't even trust myself. After having such an embrace with a human of all things, something I had sworn I would never have, I needed to get out of there. When I took my sweet time in leaving, however, Sherry took one of the pillows from the bed and chucked it across the room, aiming to hit me in the head.

I merely blocked it away with my hand and closed the door, afterwards walking over to the other side of the room as I put my shirt back on. With one last sigh, I leaned against the wall and sat down on the carpeted floor, setting my book down to the side. It was still glowing, a bright light radiated off of it and I turned in the direction of Sherry's door. It remained closed.

Turning to look back at the book again, I shook my head.

What a damn eventful day this was. Pitiful. Just what I needed, really, to have Sherry's memory and personality restored, but right in the middle of our little… moment. It now wasn't a matter of trusting myself, but I couldn't even recognize who I was anymore. I had changed, turned completely different—all because of Sherry. I knew in the beginning that the change was there, but I had never anticipated it to come to this level.

…Nor had I expected for this to happen to Sherry: For this event to even occur in the first place, for it to change… the both of us? Not just myself? Who were we anymore?

As I stared down at my book, I couldn't help but turn the page and flip through the strange letterings that I could recognize until I landed upon a certain something that I stared blankly at for a small moment. I knew what it was. The letters were glowing brightly, brighter than the others, in fact. Though that would change after a day or two, the special glow would fade slightly and it would be just like all the other legible incantations.

Again, I sighed before I closed the book and leaned my head against the wall, closing my eyes. I needed to meditate. I needed to regain control over who I was, to understand my reasoning more, to recognize myself once again. At least the fifth spell had once again been regained.

Dioga Gurabidon, you're mine once again.