Chapter 9: What To Do Now?
The moment Eveline entered his room, was the moment that Midoriya realized that Eveline had a special gift for relieving heavy emotions. Admittedly, he should have figured that out a long time ago, but he had never experienced it first hand. When he saw the blonde standing at his door, he felt a wave of calmness crash over him in a way that he had never felt before.
"Izuku?" His mother called from behind him, "Izuku, who is that?"
He quickly snapped out of the slight trance he was in and introduced Eveline. "This is Eveline Liones, the woman I was trying to tell you about."
His mother, almost immediately, was on the defensive and seemed to already be developing a dislike toward the blonde, but Eveline hardly seemed bothered by it.
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Midoriya." Eveline smiled as she entered the room. "I was asked to be of assistance to your son if you don't mind."
It took a lot of work to calm down Mrs. Midoriya, and even more to stop her from demanding that Midoriya leave the school, but with their combined persuasion, Eveline and Midoriya managed.
Eveline took the time to carefully explain what had happened to her son; from his abduction to his return, all of it was shared. She even explained that she and Midoriya share a link between them, though she emphasized that she didn't know why it was there.
"Are things like this uncommon?" Mrs. Midoriya asked.
Eveline paused before answering, "As far as I'm aware, it is and isn't."
"What do you mean?"
"There have been bonds like this before, usually between partners," Eveline explained as gently as she could, "But the part that gets me is that your son and I are from different worlds. And I'm sure we've never met before."
Midoriya shifted slightly; he wanted to tell them that they all had met before, that the proof of this was with Bakugo, but he refrained. The fact that his mother wholeheartedly agreed with Eveline worried him and add in that Mael had the answers in that bottle made things worse.
Given what Mael had said before Kasdeya showed up, Midoriya had every reason to believe that Mael erased their memories and that this link manifested when he met Eveline as a child. The only questions he had now was how did that happen and why Mael tried to break it. Was erasing their memories of one another how he tried to break it? Or was that just some side-effect?
"Well…" the strained tone of his mother snapped Midoriya out of his thoughts. He looked up to see that she still looked agitated though not as nearly irritated as she had been before. "I suppose you're right…"
"I'm sorry that your son was taken," Eveline smiled, "I'll make sure that my friends and I won't burden him any further."
Though his mother fell for that line, Midoriya knew better: he was involved this much already and he had no intention of letting them fight alone. Of course, he was going to have to deal with his teachers trying to stop him first.
After his mother finally left the school, Midoriya and Eveline were allowed to do as they pleased. Bryan was already settled into his room, already intent on sleeping the rest of the day away. Zelda and the others were still settling in their respective rooms so, to pass the time, Eveline asked Midoriya to show her around the campus.
"This place is huge," Eveline noted softly as they passed some of the training grounds.
Midoriya nodded, unsure as to why he felt excited about her approval toward his school. "Yeah, it takes some getting used to. It's a good thing we live in the dorms because I don't think I would've been able to explore the campus as I have if I didn't live here."
"That's how I felt when I was little." Eveline smiled, "I used to think that Liones and Camelot were the only places in the whole world. I knew both kingdoms like the back of my hand!"
"You did?"
She nodded, seemingly lost in the memory of her childhood. "Yup! Dad used to tell me that if I could find every little secret in either kingdom, he would give me a treat, so of course, I did."
Midoriya smiled as he listened to her recount every little adventure she'd go on within the kingdoms' walls. However, a small detail nagged at him; if he remembered correctly, Eveline said she used to visit Liones. But just now, she said the world used to seem so small to her…
"Then we couldn't stay in Britannia anymore." Midoriya was caught off guard by that statement, but he managed to remain calm. He didn't want to startle her. "Dad's powers were still increasing and mom needed to unite what was left of the goddess clan, so we were sent with mom to the Celestial realm while dad went back to the Demon realm for a bit."
Midoriya was silent for a second, unsure how to ask what she meant or if he should ask for clarification. Something, perhaps his more inquisitive side, urged him to delve deeper into the conversation but his manners kept him from speaking. However, Eveline must have either heard his internal thoughts or quickly realized that she ought to explain.
"Y-You see, um…" Eveline paused, chewing her lip as she carefully throughout her response. "Well...My dad is the son of the Demon King and my mom the daughter of the Supreme Goddess. There's a whole complicated history between them but my grandparents cursed my parents because they weren't supposed to fall in love with each other. My dad was cursed with immortality and my mother with perpetual reincarnation. There was more to it than that but that's the gist. To break the curses, they needed someone with the equivalent power level of my grandparents, or greater."
"Why?" Midoriya asked, clearly perplexed by what Eveline was saying. "Why did they need someone with equivalent power?"
"That's how spells and curses work," Eveline answered as they ceased walking. "To break a spell, you need to know how it works, and then you need to be powerful enough to break it or reverse it. For curses, it's the same thing but on a greater scale with a slight difference. To break a curse, you need to be as strong as the person who cast it or greater. My grandparents were essentially the gods of our kind so you can imagine what needed to happen. Plus my grandparents were hoping that this punishment might cause strife between my parents. If they came asking for forgiveness for their sins, the curses would have been lifted."
Midoriya shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the thought that forgiveness meant forsaking what her parents wanted. "But they loved each other, didn't they?" He didn't mean to sound so pitiful, but it seemed that his voice was just eager to express emotions he would rather keep to himself.
Eveline grinned, "Of course, my dad lived for three thousand years trying to find a way to break their curses. Eventually, he killed my grandfather and took his power as his own. That's how he broke their curses. But it comes at a cost." Eveline grew quiet before slowly starting to walk again, Midoriya followed beside her. "You see, the Demon King's power is too much for the human world, and keeps growing, so he needed to go back to the Demon Realm to see what he could do about it. Merlin was helping him out a little bit."
The two of them fell into an awkward silence; Eveline questioned if maybe she should have not told him anything while Midoriya struggled to comprehend what she shared. He wished that he had something to say that didn't make him sound stupid. But he was so completely far out of his depth with this girl and he didn't know how to understand things like this.
"I-I didn't know you muttered like this…"
"Yeep!" Midoriya promptly covered his mouth and stared at her with wide eyes. He didn't realize that he had been muttering again. His freckled face flushed a bright red while Eveline merely giggled. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to...I mean I J-just do that when-"
Eveline couldn't resist laughing at him, "Don't! You don't need to apologize. It was adorable."
The blush grew, "U-Um…" He struggled to form a coherent sentence, forcing himself to look away in an attempt to collect himself. "T-Thank you…"
Eveline smiled slightly, a soft blush colored her cheeks. "You're welcome."
The two resumed their walk, wandering about the campus without meeting anyone along the way. Both could feel eyes on them though, and Midoriya, who felt that it was probably just some of the school gossips, elected to ignore them. Eveline, on the other hand, kept nervously playing with her long locks of hair.
"Out of curiosity," Midoriya asked to ease the goddess, "Are there schools in your world?"
Eveline shook her head, "No." She drew out the vowel, taking a moment to consider if that response was truly accurate given her time in prison. "The closest thing I can think of is apprenticeships but even then that's a stretch."
Midoriya nodded, "So this is completely new to you?"
Eveline nodded as well, "Yeah, but it's interesting." As she said this, she took in the view as if she were observing some alien planet. While she preferred the clear view of valleys and mountains, she found that the sleek buildings that made up UA's campus were pretty in a unique way. Still, when shown the gardens that some of the students maintained, she was ecstatic.
"You like flowers?" Midoriya cringed as the question came out of his mouth. It sounded so stupid but Eveline didn't mind.
"I used to gather flowers with my mother and sister, Lunete." Eveline was grinning ear to ear as she bent down to smell the flowers. "Lunete taught me how to make flower crowns, but I don't think I could make one now. It's been a long time…" Her smile fell slightly and he could make out a slight tear growing in the corner of her eye.
"Ah..!" Sensing that he ought to do something, Midoriya quickly suggested they go get some food from the dorms. "We've not eaten all day and Iida, he's our class president, might get mad if we don't practice healthy habits."
Eveline's expression changed from melancholic to confused. She opened her mouth to say something, but the well-timed growl of her stomach prompted her to giggle.
"What's wrong?" Midoriya asked, both worried and perplexed by her behavior.
"I've been in the cell for so long, I forgot that I don't have to eat once a day anymore." She smiled at him and extended her hand, "Shall we?"
Midoriya took it, surprised that her skin felt pleasantly cool against his, and led her back to the dorms. A part of him wondered about what she had said.
Was Guinevere only feeding Eveline once a day? Now that he thought about it, how poorly was she being treated? Eveline had some bruises on her when he found her cell, but it was hard to tell if those were old or if they came from Kasdeya.
Midoriya stopped rather suddenly, much to Eveline's surprise. He turned slightly to get a look at Eveline. She looked perfectly fine. She was healed by Mael….she could heal herself too, couldn't she? He vaguely remembered that...
"Izuku?" Eveline gently tapped the tip of Midoriya's nose, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Are you okay…?"
A blush colored his face as he quickly turned away. "I-It's nothing."
It was nothing, wasn't it?
Midoriya could feel his whole body be engulfed in the flames of embarrassment as everyone in his class bombarded him and Eveline the second they entered the dorms. Most were eager to find out what had happened to Midoriya and who Eveline was, while a select few bothered to ask Midoriya if he was okay.
"Man!" Kaminari grinned as he patted Midoriya's back, "You gotta introduce us to your girlfriend!"
Midoriya felt his voice crack as he stuttered, "G-G-GIRLFRIEND!?" It had never occurred to him that anyone might assume that he and Eveline were partners in any way. It seemed random and outlandish; they technically just met!
Mineta joined in as well, teasing Midoriya on his supposed type. "I never took you for a blonde kind of guy. Then again, there was that babe at the expo."
"T-That was a misunderstanding!" Midoriya cried though it fell on deaf ears. Iida and Shoji were the only two to try and placate the teasing while the girls eagerly introduced themselves to Eveline.
Mina was the most energetic; she greeted Eveline with smiles and offered to take the young goddess shopping. "You'll be so cute! I promise!"
Eveline blushes slightly, "I appreciate the offer…" Though she offered the pink student a shy smile, she was beginning to feel an unnatural anxiety settle within her stomach. Izuku? What exactly does she mean by shopping?
It took all of his willpower to not verbally respond to her question. He responded very quickly, explaining what Mina meant before having to defend himself from another onslaught of accusations from his classmates.
"We're not dating!" He cried as Mineta and Kaminari casually teased him about a wedding date. Though it was uncharacteristic for them, most of the other male students joined in the teasing. The shared relief toward Midoriya's wellbeing had made them more willing to join the shenanigans; all this attention left him unable to be Eveline's emotional support, which she desperately needed.
The young goddess was completely out of her depth but tried to remain optimistic; unfortunately, it showed that she was slowly growing more and more uncomfortable. Having spent years locked away from the world had drained this once outgoing and sociable girl. It bothered her; Eveline always believed that she would be happier out of prison and yet she felt worse.
Yaoyorozu, seeing that Eveline was growing somewhat anxious, decided to pull her away from the crowds and bring her to the kitchen where she had some tea already waiting for everyone.
"Sorry if this isn't something you like," she smiled sheepishly as she handed Eveline a mug, "but it looked like you needed a moment away from everyone."
Eveline stared at Yaoyorozu, surprised that she saw Eveline's discomfort, "Thank you…" She took a sip of the tea and quickly changed from timid to joyful. "Oh! This tastes just like the tea my mother used to give me!"
"I'm glad!"
While the two had their tea, from behind a wall, stood Bakugo. He couldn't bring himself to even be out with everyone else so he hid where not even Kaminari or Kirishima would look for him. He had been watching Eveline and Midoriya for a while, and he was certain that she didn't remember them either. That shouldn't have bothered him but it did. Maybe he was overthinking it, but he couldn't help but wonder if there was a good or bad reason for the memory loss.
"It's none of my damn business.." he grumbled to himself as he stomped off to the elevator. "It wasn't like we had anything special… she kissed Deku too…" But as he stalked off, he failed to notice the curious gazed of a certain brunette.
The castle within the demon realm was eerily quiet as Guinevere received Azazel and Kasdeya's reports. The platinum blonde was seated upon the dilapidated throne with Layla, the dark-skinned genie, floating next to her. Irritation was drawn upon the blonde's face, her eyes darkened with each sentence that the succubus uttered. What kept the second born princess from lashing out at Kasdeya was Layla affectionately running her fingers through the blonde's silvery hair.
"It sounds to me," Layla declared when Kasdeya was done, "that your ego cost us Eveline."
"I-!" Kasdeya tried to defend herself, but promptly shut up as an icy glare stared her down. "I-I'm sorry…"
Guinevere turned her glare toward the large man, "And you?"
Azazel smiled back at his leader, completely unfazed. "What do I apologize for? I told you that if Eveline got away, I wouldn't bother to go after her. You left that to this moron,"
Layla pressed her hand against Guinevere's tense shoulder, "Allow me to deal with him, he'll just drive you mad."
Guinevere snorted, "No," the blonde stood from her throne in a manner that befitted a spoiled brat. "I've been too lenient with all three of you. You had one job and you failed me without much effort. That changes."
Before anyone could speak, the large, wooden doors opened to reveal the guards and a few human soldiers. Among these humans was a tall, unnaturally pale man with magenta hair; Zagan, the human warlord, had come to speak his mind. Unlike his soldier, who cowered at the thought of meeting the second princess, Zagan boldly moved toward the Black Knights, unbothered by the looks he was receiving.
"Guinevere," He greeted with a slight bow, "rumors have reached me saying that you were planning on killing my bride."
Guinevere turned to Layla, confused as to how that information got out as only Layla, herself, and Eveline knew about the execution. When Layla could not answer, the blonde turned back to the warlord and offered her sweetest smile. "Zagan, I don't think you should be going around believing in rumors. I'd never-"
"Cut the crap," he ordered, his relaxed demeanor fell and even the Knights felt a shiver run through them. "I know that you despise her and any opportunity to be rid of her is a blessing for you. Now," he turned his head toward his second in command, nudging his head in a silent order. "I want complete transparency between us, understand?"
His second in command, understanding the gesture, nodded and pulled out a strange map from his coat pocket. He handed it to Azazel, who happened to be closest to him, and Azazel opened it without any enthusiasm.
He struggled to read the romaji, often having to repeat himself before settling on what he thought was right, but came close to properly pronouncing the city's name. " Musutafu, Japan? The hell is that?"
Guinevere rushed forward and snatched the map, "Japan?!"
"What the hell is that?" Kasdeya repeated with mild annoyance. "Is that a recipe?"
"Hold your tongue," Layla growled as she looked at the map over Guinevere's shoulder. "Japan is a place; the old Lord Nanashi came from there."
Zagan smiled, nodding as he spoke. "One of my spies stole that map from Merlin a few days ago, before that green-haired boy showed up."
"Green haired boy?" Azazel turned toward the pouty succubus, unmoved by everything around him. "Didn't you mention someone like that?"
"Oh!" Kasdeya perked up, showing her sharp pearly teeth, "Broccoli Head! He got Eveline!"
Guinevere took the map and threw it at Kasdeya, "So that's who she brought!? That stupid kid!" In a fit of rage, the blonde allowed some of her demonic power seep through the room, alarming the three knights but only gaining a mere smirk from Zagan.
"It looks like the sorceress has blindsided you." he teased, knowing full well that Guinevere was livid. "Perhaps this might compel you to cooperate with me?"
Guinevere turned, "Oh? How so?!"
Zagan's smile only grew as he presented her with a grand scheme that, in his opinion, benefitted both of them. Of course, the main clause was that Eveline couldn't be killed, which went against everything Guinevere wanted, but he managed to secure her support under the promise that Eveline would never be heard from again. All he needed was the supplies taken from Merlin and a few demons for assurance.
"Do you think you'll be able to get her?" Layla hissed, she didn't trust this human to get the job done and, like Guinevere, didn't believe that Eveline could be left alive without interfering with their plans. "She never liked you and if that boy went out of his way to save her…"
"He's only a child, maybe sixteen," he laughed, winking at the annoyed Kasdeya as he spoke, "what challenge could he pose?"
"Bryan and Zelda are with them!" Kasdeya snapped, "Even if Broccoli Head ain't much, they'll probably kick your ass."
"Kasdeya!" Layla snarled, frightening the succubus, "Do NOT support our enemies."
The blue-haired succubus gave a soft growl as her response but didn't argue further. However, Kasdeya's attitude toward the Warlord had sparked a sudden change of heart from Guinevere and she asked if she could make a slight adjustment to his plan.
"It's nothing major, I promise," She said sweetly, "but if you're going to keep my little sister, then I want something else in exchange."
"Which is?"
The twisted smile that crossed the blonde's lips could only be described as horrific and unnaturally evil if applied to anyone else in the room. For Guinevere, it was a smile that suited her best. "I want the heads of Zelda, Bryan, and that boy, and I will have Kasdeya go with you to ensure that my prizes are collected."
"WHAT?!" Kasdeya shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking under the strain. "You can't be serious!"
"Azazel," Guinevere's smile never faltered as she ordered her knights, "take Kasdeya down to the lab, I'll deal with her later."
Azazel did as he was told, throwing the outraged demon over his shoulder and carrying her to the lab. As they left, they could hear Zagan agreeing to Guinevere's new terms. Azazel wondered what sparked the sudden change in his leader, but he understood there was an ulterior motive and it probably was more in line with what Guinevere truly wanted. He only hoped that Zelda had passed on what he told her because this was gearing to be a devastating war.
A/N: I promised I'd post another chapter this month and I have kept my word. I'm having just the slightest bit of writer's block so this chapter, which had been frustrating me for two weeks, was merged with what should have been chapter 10. Because of that, I think I might be late in July.
