The midnight was chilling with a light rain. Hopefully the rain will stop before the sun rises for a better day. Especially when people were about to have dates.
Most of the gang were asleep, but 4 girls were still awake. They stole a random potion from Rena, gathering near the window to try to see in the dark. They just wanted to make sure the potion wasn't empty.
"Did you guys forget I can analyze in the dark?" Eve asked, trying to not giggle too loud. She would be on self maintenance, but she couldn't rest when everyone wasn't home yet. So here she was, still awake.
"It's more fun this way," Lu grinned and held the potion with her hand. "I assure you that everything will be more exciting."
"But where did you guys go? Chung's eyes were a bit swollen too," Eve asked as she tilted her head in curiosity. "To be honest, you guys lost some energy, but not because it's getting late. What's wrong?"
Ara looked away from her with a frown. She didn't really want to answer. Ever since she heard the news, she got even more worried about her brother. Was he even alive now? What if he died along with Helputt? Would she be able to accept the fact if he actually died?
"Helputt died," Nisha answered bluntly. She didn't feel like she should hide the news. Everyone would find out eventually.
"That… does ruin the mood. I hope Chung can get through this difficult time," Eve muttered, wondering if losing her fellow Nasods was the same as her friend losing their parents. She had emotions too, she knew how sad it was to lose someone.
Nisha chuckled and faced Eve. "He'll be fine. Don't worry too much."
Lu sighed and looked at Ara, who had been spacing out for a while. She snapped her fingers in front of Ara's face to catch her attention. "Your brother will be fine. Ran didn't fully possess him. He'll be somewhere, still alive."
Ara blinked her eyes several times. "How did you know?"
"You think a mere low-tier demon will kill your brother? Ciel and I found him when we were in Hamel. He still had his consciousness, fighting off Ran. Well, as for Helputt… he completely lost it," Lu said with a smile, trying to assure Ara that there was nothing to worry about. She didn't know Aren–Ara's brother–that much, but she sensed a strong will power from him.
But Ara gasped at the words. "Are you insulting Chung's father for losing against this so-called low-tier demon?!"
"He said it himself," Nisha replied with a serious look. She sighed, gesturing at Lu to let her use the potion. "A dark joke wouldn't suit you guys. Let's change the topic."
"I saw Elesis with Ciel today. They're going on a date tomorrow. Do you know about this?" Eve asked as she faced Lu. The duo demons were chilling in the house yesterday; except Ciel was with Rena and Elesis for their cosplays.
"Huh? They are?" Unexpectedly for them, Lu was surprised with this. She didn't know about the date, but she did know about the two spending their time together. She looked at the wall, thinking about her plans for the morning.
She was going to drag 2 people to her plan; Ciel and Elesis. Chung and Noah agreed to come with her, so it became 5 people. But if Ciel and Elesis went for a date, then… she'd go back to be in a group of three. Why did Ciel not tell her anyway? She would let them go. "He's starting to keep a secret from me. That's nice!" She shouted with a smile and nodded her head. Despite it being bad for keeping secrets for his own master, she was proud that Ciel finally had something he wanted to do by himself. Although, she also felt loneliness in her heart.
Eve giggled, feeling relieved that Lu didn't get salty by it. "Then let's make this date more interesting," she smiled and opened the potion on Lu's hand.
Furry Potion: Too bad it didn't turn you into a full animal like before, but you can have the ears and tail!
Noah woke up too early–even Ciel was still asleep. He heard more stuff than usual and it bothered him a lot. Someone kept walking around on the second floor, but covering his own ears didn't help. In fact, his ears disappeared for some reason. He got up from the bed and walked out of the room. Ain, who was looking out of the window, turned around to face him. Now he could see a pair of hamster ears with its tail on Ain's body.
"Did I wake you up?" Ain asked as he stared at confused Noah. He wasn't sure what to do with it, but having a different place for ears sure felt weird. He stared at the boy with his pair of turned back cat ears and its tail.
"I–N-No, I don't know…" Noah muttered and ran downstairs. He felt so confused, he thought he was going crazy. He pinched his own arms, but he felt pain, indicating that he wasn't dreaming.
Click!
Eve came out of the girl's bedroom, showing a pair of dog ears with a fluffy tail. "Hey, it's alright. It's a potion effect," she said with a smile and patted Noah's head.
"O-Oh… is it?" Noah smiled back, his ears slowly moved forward as he felt the headpats. He was still unused to the girl's potions, it kept surprising him whenever it's used.
Both of them sat on the rug in the living room. Eve commanded her drones to show multiple screens; a bunch of random stuff on the internet. She wasn't sure how to spend her time with Noah when he was supposed to be asleep. "Hm… Is there anything you'd like to search? This town has the most interesting articles because they're all made up from lies and imagination," Eve said, still going through a lot of stuff at the same time.
"This!"
Noah tried to grab the screen, but it was just a hologram. The drone made the screen bigger in the middle of them. It showed a page of dark rituals with pictures. Eve tilted her head in confusion, wondering what's so interesting about evil magical rituals and why some humans used them. But she heard about it a lot, especially when demons were wandering around like a normal day. "I heard this kind of stuff can be found in a haunted place, like under the rug or wallpapers," she said as she stared at the pictures.
"Did you ever check what's below this rug?" Noah asked and tapped the back of his fingers on the rug they were sitting on. He wanted to check, but the rug was so fluffy, he laid down instead.
Eve sighed and looked at Noah. "You have a… unique interest. Let's go to a real haunted house one day. I think Elsword would like it too."
"No, I–" Noah got startled and turned to silence. He suddenly remembered what Nisha said last night. "I… would love to."
Eve smiled and nodded her head. "That's nice. Let's bring Ain just in case things go wrong."
Then there was another silence. Eve was still browsing about dark rituals, even though she already noticed Noah went back to sleep.
She heard footsteps from above. It could be Ain who was always awake and just pretending to sleep or it might be Ciel, so she didn't bother to turn around.
"Good morning!"
Hearing the voice made her tail wag in happiness. "Elsword, you're up early," Eve smiled and stared at her boyfriend. He had bear ears, that's for sure.
"Yeah, for some reason I just woke up. You were alone with someone else, that's why," Elsword replied with a pout and sat next to Eve, clinging onto her. He looked at the websites Eve was opening. "Oh, why are you searching for this?"
"Noah was looking at these. He was interested before he fell asleep," Eve answered as she closed all the sites and looked at her… obviously jealous boyfriend. In fact, Elsword was staring at Noah with murderous intent.
Another footstep was heard. This time was Ain, who picked up Noah's body with both his arms. "I'll bring him back upstairs," Ain informed them before going back to the second floor.
Eventually everyone got up, but they were all busy with their own stuff. They ate breakfast and just left right away, leaving only a few people in the house. "Well, well, well!" Lu smiled and looked at the remaining two people that could potentially be the replacement for her plan. Her rabbit ears twitched while she walked toward the first person, Raven. "You need to look scarier, Raven. You got the bear ears!"
"I'm not a bear, though," Raven replied and folded his arms.
Noah approached him too, showing some weird dedication. "Hang out with us!"
Raven blinked his eyes several times, trying to accept the fact that Noah literally just did something that wasn't related to food or healing. Even Lu was a bit surprised with this. "Alright, sure. I have nothing to do anyway," Raven nodded his head with a smile.
"Nice!" Lu turned around to see Rena, but she was talking with Chung. She was doing a weird pose while Chung was recording her with her phone. Both of them had a pair of wolf ears and tails, it made them look like a family from a distance.
"Huh, like this?" Rena tilted head a bit and made heart shape with her fingers. "You know a lot about wolves, Chung. I guess that Wolf of Hamel title was real?"
"Mhm, now say the cute line," Chung nodded slightly, still capturing Rena using her phone.
"Awoo uwu," Rena moved her hands to resemble a paw and smiled cutely at the camera.
"Now you look ridiculous. Keep doing it," Chung smiled and read the viewer's chat box. Long story short, Chung had been streaming using Rena's social media account.
Rena gasped and tried to grab her phone back, but Chung backed away. His tail was wagging, he was clearly enjoying what he's doing. "Chung, give it back!" Rena whined and chased him all the way to the second floor.
"Isn't he way too happy after what happened last night?" Lu asked with a confused look and went upstairs. Rena was sitting on top of Chung while he's facing the floor. It looked really wrong without context, so Lu hid herself for a bit and kept watching.
"That's so embarrassing! Why did you do that?!" Rena yelled with a pout and checked her phone. A lot of comments were already received and they were… positive. People actually loved the content, especially the part where she got embarrassed. The stream was still on.
"We got a lot of customers when we did embarrassing stuff, so… did it work on your internet thing?" Chung asked as he tried to turn around to face Rena.
Rena smiled and got up, helping Chung to stand up and letting him see the comments on her phone. "They did! Thank you," Rena giggled and patted Chung's head while turning the camera at him. Chung held Rena's hand to prevent it, but she could see his tail wagging in happiness. Her face flushed red, imagining an unethical stuff in her mind. "You can't hide it! You love it!" She squealed and hugged him tightly to pat his head.
"N-No! Stop it…" Chung muttered, but he accepted the affection. He hid his red face by facing down, trying to not show much happiness while his tail showed otherwise.
"Yes, that's right, guys. Here we can see… a mating process between two wolves," Lu whispered on her phone while recording the two of them for her content.
Add and Rose actually went outside after all the time they locked themselves in the lab for a date. They didn't look like a couple at all. Rose's cheerful self made them look more like siblings. Although they caught some people's attention; Rose had a pair of fox ears and tail while Add had the cat's.
"What makes you wanna go out all of a sudden? Did something catch your interest?" Rose asked as she looked around the town. It looked like any other normal town, just with more heat and sand.
"The town itself is interesting and someone is being weird," Add replied, still walking forward. Eve said to the group that she would find out something about the town, but she hadn't provided any information. Add decided to check it out himself. What if there was something dangerous going on and they didn't realize because they were simply having fun?
"Is that so?" Rose asked in confusion. She still didn't find the town interesting at all, but she did notice weird things happening. "We got a job in a single day. Does that interest you?"
Add's ears went straight up. He heard something weird and turned around to check if it was closer than what he heard. He didn't see anything weird, so he moved closer until he found the source of the sound.
Ring! Ring!
And they finally found the source of the sound. "Oh, so it actually caught your attention!" Rena smiled with an apologetic look and put her palm together. "We didn't mean to interrupt your date, we're sorry!"
Next to Rena was Noah, who had a collar bell on his neck. He was walking around with Rena, buying drinks and snacks. He hid himself behind Rena and looked at the couple with one eye.
"What are you guys doing…?" Rose asked with a confused look. She didn't expect her friends to do weirder stuff than what was already happening. Especially not Rena and their new friend.
"We're making a mess!" Noah shouted with confidence, which surprised the couple and even Rena. "No more healing, only destruction!"
Add looked at Rena, slowly judging her for what she did to the kid. But the elf shook her head and smiled awkwardly. "This wasn't in the script!"
"No script!" Noah pouted and froze a random empty-looking building. The ice was big enough for people to see, looking like a flower with sharp petals. It shattered into pieces, freezing another building with possibly some people in it.
Rose gasped and narrowed her eyes on the floor, especially the almost unseen trail that Rena and Noah left behind. It was the elf's traps, even though it was harmless for some reason. "There's a script!" Rose yelled at them.
Rena and Noah ran away instantly. "I'm telling everyone you stole that!" Noah shouted and glanced at Add.
Add, who was firstly planning to ignore this, bit his lips in annoyance. The sparks came out of his Dynamo and his left eye glowed. The "that" could be anything, but it was possibly the code of Eve's core. He had no choice but to chase them.
The ice flower–which was actually Noah's ability–became a show in the town. It could hurt people, but nobody protested about it. In fact, they were enjoying the view, since the town never had any ice before. "Is that an enemy's attack?" Aisha asked, getting ready to engage in battle. Her dog tail moved straight up as she gripped her fist.
"That's Noah. Don't worry about it," Nisha smiled and held Aisha's hand. Her fox tail was wagging in happiness, even though she didn't sound that cheerful. "Let's go! We're almost there."
Aisha looked at their hands holding together. She didn't have any feelings for Nisha, so this should be normal holding hands between friends, right? Nisha falling for her in a few days seemed unrealistic. What activity did they even do before they had a fight? Nisha spent most of her time with Raven. So when exactly did she fall in love?
"What are these small white things? Someone is littering," Nisha asked, looking above to see small white balls getting blown by the wind. Some people said it was summer snow. Then she remembered Lu was planning something for today, so it's probably her thing.
Aisha jumped a bit to catch the ball. It was a bit squishy and soft. "It's styrofoam. Who's littering?"
They finally arrived at the destination. It was a library, seemed normal from the outside but magnificent on the inside. The wall was covered by bookshelves all around them. They were the only people in the library. "Here we are, the only place where facts exist," Nisha smiled and looked at Aisha, who was stunned with the amount of books in it.
"Do you like to read?" Aisha asked as she walked around to find a book. She had never seen most of them, she didn't know where to start.
"I don't, but I'll read something," Nisha said and picked up a random book from the shelf. The cover was bland and simple, so she put it back. But she had a memory of reading the book.
Aisha pointed at the book. "That's a good book. It has nice wording."
"Hm, really? What's so interesting about step by step to solve problems and make decisions?" Nisha asked with curiosity as she walked to find another book. "In the end, it tells the reader to find their way to solve problems anyway. What a scam."
Aisha giggled at her words. "You read it before? Chung said the same thing."
Nisha stared at the books on the shelf for a while. She tried to find an excuse for it, but she didn't come up with anything.. "It was indeed Chung's memory."
Aisha picked up a book about Sander's history. Nisha didn't know what to read, so she took a random novel and read it with Laby. "Laby wants to know what happens next! Go to the next chapter, Nisha!"
"Shh, Laby. No talking in the library," Nisha put her finger in front of her mouth and patted her mirror.
The mall was crowded, even though people didn't seem to buy anything. Ciel and Elesis were going to each store to try on cute dresses and accessories for Elesis. "C-Ciel, I don't think any of this suits me," Elesis smiled awkwardly. She had been trying a lot of dresses, but she declined everything. She grew up as a warrior, so she didn't feel right wearing a dress.
"You do," Ciel smiled and grabbed Elesis' shoulders to make her face the mirror.
She closed her eyes, but she eventually took a peek of herself. Her red hair matched with the pink dress. She stared at their ears; her hamster ears and Ciel's bear ears. "I think… it's weird on me," she smiled sadly, her ears moved down.
"They're talking about the ears, not you," Ciel chuckled and put a head ribbon accessory on Elesis' head. As much as he liked them, he wouldn't force Elesis to wear them. But he's still convincing her that the dresses look nice on her.
"Can we move somewhere quiet for today?" Elesis asked as she turned around to face Ciel. "I'm hearing so many things, my head hurts…"
Ciel nodded. He didn't hear as much as Elesis, but everything was louder than usual. Come to think of it, Lu is being unusually quiet in his mind too. He actually missed her, even though he planned to do this. Before they left, Elesis spoke up something that made him happy.
"I'll buy this dress!"
Ciel purchased the dress for Elesis as they walked out of the store. But Elesis stopped her way, facing a certain store. Ciel got curious and looked at the way Elesis was seeing. It was Ain and Ara, who were literally buying probably almost everything they saw. "Do you want more dress–"
"I'm good! One is enough," Elesis replied quickly and waved her hands as a sign of rejection. Maybe one day they would mass buy the dresses.
On the other hand, Ara was trying to stop Ain from buying stuff for her. She wanted to know where he got the money too, but it didn't matter at this point. "I said I like pants more, but don't buy everything I touch!"
"Why not?" Ain tilted his head in confusion. He found it necessary to buy everything that Ara liked. He didn't find a good reason to stop buying, so he looked at the shopping bags in his hands. He came to a realization when he looked at the people in the mall. "Is it going to be useless when it's not trending?"
Ara blinked her eyes several times. She personally didn't care if it's not trending anymore, but it sounded like a good reason to stop him from wasting money. "Yes! And I don't change pants 7 times a day!" she nodded her head.
"I see. Is there anything else you want to buy?" Ain asked, immediately get a no from Ara. They finally walked out of the mall with more shopping bags than they should be. "I'll bring this home real quick. Wait a bit," he said as he jumped and dashed in the air all the way home.
Ara looked on her left. She smiled and waved her hands. "Elesis! Ciel!" she called out and ran to approach them. Elesis covered her ears while Ara just acted normally with her rabbit ears like it was a natural thing. "Do hamsters have sensitive ears?"
"They do, I believe. I feel so weird," Elesis answered as she slowly moved her hands away from her ears.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Rena and Noah ran toward their direction. Ara raised her hands to greet them and shout their name. She got a reply, but then Noah casted another ice flower, freezing the whole mall while running away. The three of them were surprised with what they just saw.
Snap!
Add was chasing them from the back and snapping his finger, returning the mall back to normal. Rose landed in front of them and greeted them with a smile. "Well… for some reason Rena and Noah want to tilt everyone. I don't know why," Rose explained with a shrug.
"I… have never seen him like that before. Not Rena either," Ciel commented with a concerned look. Some of the boys like to make problems, but not to this extent. They didn't randomly ruin stranger's lives.
Elsword and Eve were enjoying their time in a cafe while a lot of stuff was going on outside. They even saw Add and Rose chasing Rena and Noah. It made them wonder what happened out there, but at the same time, they didn't want anyone to disturb their time.
"Eve, you still haven't told me what happened that night," Elsword said as he stared at his girlfriend. On the night after Alternate Timeline potion, Eve got so angry at Add and herself. She hadn't told anyone that she gave the data of her own core to Add. It was too embarrassing for her.
But she promised she would tell Elsword someday. She kept remembering the event, so maybe if she vented out, she would feel better. "Do you remember when we had an Alternate Timeline potion?"
"I don't. You do, though," Elsword answered with a shrug. He had no memory of what happened that day and neither did the others except several people.
"Well, I…" Eve hung her head and recalled the event. "On that timeline, I was dating Chung. I cheated on him for Add, and… I gave him the data of my core…"
There was silence with an uneasy feeling, so she looked at her boyfriend. He was staring outside the window with no expression, gripping his fist and possibly going to throw a random sword if Add passed by again. "It's alright, Elsword. That was embarrassing, so please don't tell anyone about it."
"But–"
"It's fine, really," Eve smiled and held Elsword's hand. "It was something that we couldn't control. Even you and Ara were nowhere to be seen."
Elsword startled and almost jumped up from his seat. "Did I do something with her?!"
"Well, who knows? You guys were in a bedroom alone," Eve giggled and poked Elsword's cheek.
"What about us? We've never been in a room alone!" Elsword pouted and stared at Eve. The statement clearly made the Queen of Nasods blush. Unlike Add and Rose that usually locked themselves in the lab, both of them always went outside to spend their time together.
"I… I don't know," Eve shook her head. Her system stopped responding for a while, she was lost at words. She couldn't come up with any response.
"Then let's book a hotel when we get paid!" Elsword smiled happily, making Eve even more speechless. She was excited, though.
The night finally came. The ice flowers were finally stopped when Add finally caught Noah after a whole day of chasing him. He grabbed the kid harshly and tied his hands on his back. "The f-ck are you planning, Noah?" he asked in an annoyed tone.
Rose was going to do the same to Rena, but the elf was cooperative and didn't rebel. It made them feel skeptical, but they let it slide for now.
"I'm sorry…" Noah hung his head and apologized. "Lu was afraid you two would stop her."
"Huh? Stop her from what?" Rose asked as she looked around her. She didn't sense the demon, not even Ciel who was hanging out with Elesis.
"It's too late now," Rena smiled awkwardly and forced herself to laugh. "I think Lu already finished it around now."
An earthquake happened. Everyone went out of the building to save themselves. A huge demon appeared and covered the moon, at the place where the beach existed. The huge demon moved its hand forward to the middle of the town, showing three people on its palm.
"Ahahahaha! Fear not, everyone. I, Luciela R. Sourcream, will free you from the demon's curse in this town!"
Lu raised her hands to the air with pride and confidence. She looked at the townspeople around her, each of them showing different faces. "There is nothing to worry about. This low-grade demon's curse is easy to deal with, we just need some time because it affected each one of you!"
Everyone turned to silence. Lu walked toward her 2 friends behind her. "Did you guys set everything up?"
"I'm not sure, I think I missed some," Raven reported while he looked at the town from above.
"That one is okay. Chung, shoot!" Lu shouted and pointed her finger at a certain group on the ground.
Noah casted a white whale, surrounding them with a barrier before Chung shot the ground next to Add. The trail that Rena and Noah left sparkled, creating a blue aura on each building. Some stuff started disappearing like street signs and building's light bulbs. There were screams, like a living being dying and vanishing after.
"First of all, let's throw away those low rated demonic objects! They're trying to spy on you!" Lu shouted and smiled as she saw the whole town glowed blue. It was oddly satisfying to see.
The townspeople start cheering on Lu. They were praising her like she was a god, even though she was clearly a demon. It made her happy, Raven and Chung were also happy with this. The three of them hugged each other for their success.
"We did it!" Rena shouted and hugged Noah tightly. Noah laughed at it and celebrated it with Rena.
"Alright, guys! Go back to whatever you're doing. The curse will be fully lifted soon!" Lu commanded and let everyone go back to their business. She approached the group with Raven and Chung as the demon slowly disappeared into thin air. She smiled and narrowed her eyes at Add. "You would stop me if you knew what I was doing, wouldn't you?"
"I would. You ruined my research," Add pouted and looked away from her. He was already distracted at the beginning, he couldn't whine about losing if he wanted to.
"Is that why this town is so weird? A curse?" Rose asked as she looked around. The street was definitely missing some objects.
"It's not threatening, but it could hide itself as a demonic object. Even Ain missed it. Pretty annoying, huh?" Lu sighed and smiled, seeing the town much better than before.
Rose folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "What were you guys doing today? Aside from these two making us run around the town."
"We were also running around the town so I can place my spell," Lu spun around and smiled. She raised her hands and looked at the town. "And I casted the spell on Rena's Erindel, so she can help me spread the spell around."
"No, seriously, what were you guys doing?" Add repeated the question, staring at the demon.
Lu giggled and smirked at them. "Do you really want to know?"
Special thanks to Astry for the idea!
Thanks for reading! Potions ideas are always accepted-