Four long days had passed since everyone had returned from the museum, but for Emi, they were some of the most trying days in recent memory. She had gotten little to no sleep for the past three nights, causing her daytime job to seem all the more testing. Four long, dismal work days and three hellish, sleepless nights had left Emi on edge, jittery, and in a constant state of emotional frailty. But why did the Hero, whose phenomenal celestial powers rivaled that of the angels of the Bible, have trouble sleeping? The answer to that was rather simple: nightmares. Horribly vivid and terrifying, Emi had seen visions of the museum battle every time she'd fallen asleep. The nightmares were filled with watery black eyes everywhere, on all of her friends as they engulfed her. Friend or foe, all had glassy black eyes and wicked grins as they crept at the Hero, who found herself unable to move, unable to think and unable defend herself. Now that the effects of sleep deprivation had set in, Emi found that life was beginning to get difficult. She dozed off easily at work, though she hadn't fallen asleep there yet, which was good because whenever she woke, it was with a scream.
Her condo, which was usually spotless, homey and livable, had become a prison where Emi went to fight off sleep for as long as she could, but in the end she always fell victim to her exhaustion. Her only solace was that the walls were well made and thick, so no one was alarmed by her cries when she awoke in cold sweat. And even as Emi neared the end of her work week with every tick of the clock, she knew that she would go home and suffer again that night.
"Hey Emi?"
Emi jumped, hearing Rika gently say her name from the stall next to hers. She took her headset off for a moment and looked over to speak with her friend, Rika, the closest human Emi had come into contact with that didn't know of her existence.
"Yeah, what's up, Rika?"
"I was just wondering what was going on. You've been so tense all week, and now you just look… scared," Rika said with a shrug and a concerned look.
"I-uh-I haven't been sleeping well," Emi admitted.
It was a common occurrence between Emi and Rika nowadays, Rika would inquire as to Emi's personal life and Emi would tell her friend half-truths. For instance, she was being entirely truthful in saying she hadn't slept well, but she didn't reveal that she was breaking down from the strain of her nightly terrors.
Their physical wounds had somehow miraculously healed in less than a day, which was likely a blessing from Raphael. The rest of the weekend had been spent reveling in victory and remembering those lost, but by Monday morning everyone was back into their habits. Emi hadn't asked anyone about her nightmares, but she certainly knew who she wanted to talk to about them.
"Maou," Emi whispered to herself.
"What," Rika asked.
She was looking at Emi quizzically, having been talking and counting things off on her fingers. It seemed Emi had zoned out again.
"Oh, uh, sorry, what were you saying, Rika?"
"I was telling you my top five home remedies for sleeping better."
"Well, I don't need to sleep better I just… I just wish I didn't need to sleep," Emi finished sadly as Rika got a call and quickly threw her headset back on.
Emi's work day ended shortly after that, and even though it was a relief to get off the job, the long night in front of her loomed ahead like a monster in her path. Even so, she gave a small smile as she walked out of the company's stifling cubicles and emerged into the setting sun and the cool evening breeze. She stretched and took in the soothing feeling of freedom before fixing a small smile onto her face and walking home. Her condo would be almost as oppressive as work, so instead of heading straight there, she decided to take a longer route, giving her a chance to work her legs after a long day in an office chair. It also gave her some time to think, or perhaps it was time to simply not think, to just walk as long as she could without having to think of work, or demons or angels. As the sun set and left Emi wandering the dark streets of Tokyo, the people that clogged the streets of the city thinned and finally disappeared. Emi glanced at her phone and realized she'd been walking for almost four hours before she finally decided to start heading home.
'This is ridiculous,' Emi thought as she went, 'I'm just a little nervous and traumatized from what happened at the museum, I can't let it stop me from getting rest!'
Though the events of the museum were wrapped up without any lasting physical damage to Emi and the others, the thought of Bernael and Beliel made Emi feel uneasy. Not that they would appear in Japan again, not that, but for some reason, the way their powers were so grotesquely overwhelming, and the way they were able to manipulate others had left Emi scared. She was the Hero, but she was also human, and the words Bernael and Beliel had spoken about the true nature of humans and the world around them had been hammering away at Emi whenever silence fell around her. The door to her condominium clicked shut behind her as she faced the dark hallways leading into her home. Far from comforting, she could swear that it looked just like a scene from one of her horrible night terrors. The only thing missing were her closest friends, all steadily walking towards her with gleaming obsidian eyes and horrific grins. Emi closed her eyes, feeling rather childish as she felt for the light switch along the wall.
"I'm the Hero," Emi said.
But far from making her feel empowered, the statement seemed to waver and fade against the all-encompassing darkness as she ran her slim fingers along the wall. In her mind's eye she could still see gleaming eyes looming from out of the darkness… or perhaps that was simply the spots dancing behind her closed eyelids. She opened them and involuntarily flinched. Nothing was there, nothing was with her in the darkness, she was alone.
"There it is."
With a flip of the switch, Emi flicked on the lights of the hallway.
'One switch down, about four to go,' Emi thought sadly.
In the moment she was immeasurably sad, however, Emi found that the darkness that had plagued her didn't seem to bother her as much.
"I'm a useless Hero, anyway," she said, feeding the emotion, "if there was a monster in this darkness, I wish it would hurry up and give me a lobotomy so I didn't have to feel like such a failure."
It worked. Slouching through her condo, Emi kept her sadness at the forefront of her being, flipping on the light switches without fear or hesitation, not flinching once.
"And what do you know, I'm all alone in my apartment… nothing new there."
Emi, who was already up later than she should've been, went to her room, stripped and kicked her clothes into a corner before slipping into a t-shirt too large for her, and dropping herself onto her couch. She sunk into the cushions with exhaustion unbefitting a young woman in her prime and wearily cast her gaze at the remote control for the television.
"But it's so far away…"
Letting her sore, tired muscles go rubbery, she flung herself forward, grabbed the remote and hit the power button. After a few moments the television burst to life, but the channel it was on was so bright and voluminous that Emi could barely understand a word she read on it. Instead, she found her mind strangely blank as she stared into the images that flashed dizzyingly at her retinas. After a moment of open mouthed gaping, she realized that none of it really registered and she redoubled her efforts to understand the program.
'Seems to be a historical documentary,' Emi thought.
But even though she'd given the program enough brainpower to accurately assess it, she quickly became entranced in nothing once again, staring blankly at the television. Her vision dimmed, her brain shut down, and Emilia the Hero drifted off into a slumber born of intense exhaustion and stress.
"Hello, Emi."
"Maou?"
Emi was standing in a dark place. She didn't know where it was, but as she looked around the details came into view and she soon found herself in a place she hadn't seen in some time: the Devil's Castle. Not the one at Villa Rosa Sasazuka, it was the one in Ente Isla, on the Isla Kentorum. She was in the main hall, which was shrouded in darkness just as she remembered it, but it was different now. There was no sound of battle in the distance, just horrible oppressing darkness, and even though she'd heard a familiar voice, she couldn't find the person who'd spoken.
"Emi, what have you done?"
A light shone from behind Emi, widening to reveal a strange red glow. It was the balcony that led off the main hall, where the Demon King could go and survey the lands under his control. The large doors were made of glass, and a thick velvet curtain was pulled away to reveal the light that had caught her attention. Ignoring the voice, Emi felt her body move without her consent. Step by step she walked towards the doors, watching as they opened on their own to allow her access to the outside.
"Dead," Emi said, her eyes widening as she surveyed the chaos before her, "it's all dead."
The eerie red glow had come from the sky, which was now bloodred and filled with clouds that obscured the sun. Lightning struck the earth, wherever it jutted up from massive tracts of roiling ocean that seemed to have inexplicably risen, washing away all life. Even as she stared into the distance, she could somehow see all the major landmarks and cities of the entire world, though she knew that was impossible. The capital cities were torn apart, abandoned and crumbling. Emi's eyes flashed as she realized that no signs of life met her gaze. She could survey the world from the Demon Fortress, but nothing moved, and nothing made a sound. No birds were in the sky, no humans or animals roamed the Earth, nothing.
"This is all your fault," the voice said, coming from right behind Emi.
Emi turned to find a shadow towering over her, two red eyes gleaming out of a billowing black haze of power.
"Maou."
"Emi, you've killed them all. You've killed us."
"No," Emi stammered, unable to say much more as she now noticed that the balcony at her feet was littered with bodies.
Rika. Suzuno. Chiho. Nord. Urushihara. Ashiya. Emeralda. Alberto.
Everyone, both from Ente Isla and Japan, all of them were dead and lifeless, their pale bodies ravaged by unseen usurpers and cast upon the stones like puppets with cut strings. Their eyes were open and their faces bespoke an unknowable horror, as if they had died in the most terrifying way imaginable.
"Maou, why are they all dead?"
"Because you killed us," the voice said.
But the shadow had gone, and red eyes no longer loomed over Emi. The voice, now cracked and weak, was coming from-
"Maou," Emi said almost pleadingly, knowing what was about to happen.
The corpse of the Demon King's human form, which she hadn't seen before that point, was talking. She stared with horror as the figure pushed itself up from the ground. His clothes were ripped, covered in blood and he looked void of life, but his eyes were now glassy and black. Slowly but surely, Emi felt fear course through her as his face slowly became suffused with the grin that had traumatized her so much in her daily life this past week.
"Emi, this is all your fault," Maou croaked, slowly staggering closer, "you killed us, you destroyed Ente Isla… you must die."
Emi backed away from Maou, towards the edge of the balcony. She leaned back against the carved stone railing, watching as the Demon King's corpse shuffled forward, his undead fellows raising their heads so as to grin and display their gleaming abyssal eyes. Chuckles escaped them as Maou placed his hands upon Emi's shoulders. Icy dread shot from the contact and with a smile that looked like it might tear Sadao Maou's mouth, the corpse gently leaned forward, lightly pressing its cold lips Emi's own before-
CRACK!
The railing broke, Emi tumbled over the edge, and she fell. But as the fear of death gripped her, Maou's eyes seemed to pierce her heart as he watched her descend, like a dark arrow spreading its poison through her being.
"Goodbye Hero," Maou hissed, "may you drown in the blood of those whose lives you've destroyed!"
Emi turned as she fell, and to her untrained, irrational eye, it seemed as though the ocean was most certainly made of blood, and that it was preparing to swallow her whole.
"AAAAAARGH!"
Emi woke with a scream, a cry of terror that no one else could hear. Her heart was aflutter and every shadow seemed to flicker and move in her peripheral vision, as if the room were filled with creatures from another world. Try though she might, Emi couldn't use her sadness as a shield, all she felt was an overwhelming sense of panic as she watched Maou's face flicker in her mind's eye, a wicked smile playing across his face as Emi plunged to her death.
"I can't take this," Emi said quietly, wrapping her arms around her knees and shoving her tearful eyes into her kneecaps. Time passed, the impenetrable darkness of night gave way to the imperfect twilight of the morning, and finally, Emi gathered the courage to make the call she'd wanted to make since she'd first begun having these night terrors. She didn't care how early it was, she didn't care for the person's schedule, all she knew was that she needed him there at that very moment. She picked up her phone, which was charging at her bedside, and after a few brutal seconds of looking at the glaringly bright screen, she put the phone to her ear to listen as it rung.
"Emi," a tired voice said through the line, picking up after only three rings, "what's up?"
"Maou, come to my apartment, now, it's an emergency," Emi said, her voice weak as she asked the Demon King for aid.
"What's wrong, are you hurt? I'll be there soon, just hold on!"
"Thanks Maou. I really need your help," Emi said before hanging up and setting the phone off to the side.
After Emi hung up, however, she noticed something odd. Usually, the Demon King would've complained about train fees, or how tired he was… something. Was it possible he was getting less selfish? What was wrong with the Demon King that had once crushed Ente Isla under foot? Emi then thought about the Maou from her dreams, the way his dark eyes seemed to burrow into her soul and she thought about calling Maou back and telling him to stay away and never come near her again.
'Control yourself,' Emi thought, 'focus and figure out what you're gonna do when he gets here.'
For a laughable moment, Emi thought about dressing up, powdering her face and making it so that nothing seemed wrong, but the more she thought about Maou's strange behavior and the Maou from her dreams, the more she remained convinced she didn't want to see him. What if he was still under Bernael's control?
Emi, whose brain was suddenly running at a million miles an hour, ran to the front door, made sure it was locked, and grabbed a knife from the kitchen. She then leaned against the door and glanced through the peephole every few minutes. The hallway was quiet and barren of life, and so Emi waited, until something faint reached her ears.
It was a light step, a careful placing of the foot so as to make the least amount of noise. Usually, she'd have thought it to be a neighbor sneaking off to go to work, but they would've been heading away from Emi's door, not towards it. A quick glance through the peephole confirmed that Maou was pressed against the wall, carefully making his way towards Emi's door.
About an hour earlier….
"Ashiya, I'm leaving," Maou whispered as his subordinate slept peacefully.
A groan was his only response and so Maou crept from his flat in the upper apartments at the Villa Rosa Sasazuka, and without delay he sprinted to the train station, paid the fees, and was riding as quickly as he could towards Eifuku, where Emi's condo was located. As he stood aboard the train, panting slightly, he thought about his own actions, and how foolish it would seem for him to rush over to Emi's this early in the morning. But for all his doubts, there was something in Emi's voice that made the hairs on the back of Maou's neck stand at attention. Of course, Emi's voice always had some sort of effect on him, that was the price of his infatuation with the Hero, but now…
'What is going on,' Maou thought to himself.
His week leading up to this moment had been a strange one indeed. Strange dreams kept him on edge, and he seemed to zone out continually at work, much to the dismay of his co-worker, Chiho.
"Mister Maou, did you get enough sleep last night," Chiho asked, sparing her demonic coworker a side-glance.
He looked tired and his eyes were glazed over, as if he was looking at something far away, which he was. Behind the crimson eyes of the Demon King, he watched, like a man possessed, as his dreams were filled with long red hair, bright green eyes and luscious lips that Maou wanted pressed against his own. Every morning that week, Maou had woken up, feeling incredibly tired, and indeed, he had taken to sleeping in so that he could dream as much as possible, as he found it was his only escape from a reality in which he and the Hero were doomed to be forever separated.
"Mister Maou, you've been distant all week, are you ok? What happened at the museum," Chiho asked in an undertone.
"We told you, we're all fine. I'm just tired is all," Maou said, barely able to contain himself as his shift was about to end.
For Maou, sleep was now addictive, like a drug. It was the only place that he and Emi could be happy, and during the week leading up to his train ride over to her condo, she had plagued his mind like no one else could. Bernael's darkness was a faded memory, his time spent working at MgRonalds day in and day out was just a dream, a long, unpleasant daydream. No, his true life began when he closed his eyes at night and saw the Hero, beautiful and resplendent as ever.
'But now Emi wants me over there, and it sounds serious… I should be prepared for anything,' Maou thought as he went.
But when he said anything, his mind strangely turned away from fighting, and instead he saw himself and Emi, wrapped in each other's arms as they lay together upon the couch, watching television with blissful togetherness.
"That's not gonna happen, I have to be ready for action…"
Maou's face turned red for a moment, and before his mind could even twist his phrase, he simply slouched where he stood, exhaling as the train came to a long stop at the station. With all due haste, Maou sprinted as fast as he could for a tall, whitewashed building that he had visited once before. The home of the Hero was somewhere in that tower, and after Maou remembered the path he quickly found his way to the door in question. From a distance it looked closed, so if there was an enemy, they were being smart about not drawing undue attention by shutting the door behind them. Maou leaned against the wall, carefully and slowly stepping closer to the door at the end of the hall. He looked around, making sure no one was around before he continued his ambush.
'The Devil coming to the aid of the Hero,' Maou thought as he approached the door, 'this ought to be good.'
He had reached the door. With a light touch he reached over and slowly tried to turn the knob, but he found it locked. He peered into the peephole, but he could see nothing.
'Curse this human technology, how is someone supposed to see inside with arousing suspicion! Oh, yeah, they're not,' Maou thought, cursing his tired brain.
He reached over, intending to knock upon Emi's door, when he heard a voice.
"Maou."
It was Emi. She sounded… well, Maou didn't know exactly how she sounded, but something was clearly wrong. The door did not open, no locks were undone, Emi simply leaned against the door, wondering how she could be sure it was really him. Was there a way for her to ascertain that it truly was Maou? Maybe she could ask a question… like what they had done to save Raphael and Urushihara from Bernael… but that was no good, the Angel of Darkness had known about that. What was something Emi and Maou shared, something only they knew.
"Emi, are you in there? Let me in, what's going on?"
"Maou, I need you to tell me something so that I can be sure it's you," Emi said in an undertone, just loud enough for Maou to hear through the door.
"Like what?"
"Tell me what we talked about outside the Villa Rosa Sasazuka. Me and you were leaning against the wall, talking, but what about?"
Maou, realizing Emi wasn't going to let him in until he remembered, leaned against the door as well, thinking. It had been hot out, and they had discussed the fate of Ente Isla.
"We spoke of home," Maou said simply, "and we spoke of creating harmony between our people. I believe we also talked about…"
Maou paused, looking around to make sure he was alone in the hallway before he continued.
"We talked about how you should be the one to execute me, should it come to that," Maou said, the idea that Emi would be the one to take his life being comforting somehow.
A moment of silence passed, but then several metallic clicks and scrapes followed to reveal Emi, standing there in nothing but a t-shirt, with puffy, bloodshot eyes and a look of intense sadness upon her face. Maou could only stand there in shock before she seized him by the collar and pulled him inside without a word. She led him to the bedroom, and there Maou stood until Emi pushed him onto the bed.
Maou, usually being of sound mind, couldn't believe how fast things were going. Had he done something incredibly right for once? But then Emi crawled onto the bed with him, sitting cross-legged from him and the Demon Lord knew what this was about. He was going to have to take her emotions, but the way it was so unceremonious made him feel rather hurt.
"What, you're not gonna buy me dinner first," Maou asked as Emi held out her hands.
A small smile played at Emi's lips before a hard look crossed her face.
"Sadao, I really need you now. I've been having nightmares and I can't live like this anymore. I need you to take my fear before it kills me," Emi said, unable to look Maou in the eye.
Maou was awestruck, but now the moments before their arrival in Emi's room made sense. The place was once flawless and immaculate, but now it was messy, unkempt and much like Emi, somewhat disheveled. Maou said nothing of this though, as he noticed that Emi had a knife resting next to her thigh.
"Emi, what's wrong? You said you're having nightmares? Are you sure, I mean, I thought you were under attack or something, not just having a bad dream," Maou said.
"It was NOT just a BAD DREAM! These nightmares are ruining my life! I haven't eaten in two days! I have a tough time staying awake at work! If you're not going to help me then get out and never come back," Emi shouted at Maou, looking at him with eyes that betrayed an unspoken lividness.
"I'll help, Emi, but you haven't given me anything to work with! You want me to just suck out your fear, is that right?"
"Yes!"
"Ok, then, give me your hands!"
"I've been holding them out for hours you stupid Demon Lord!"
"Maybe you shouldn't call people that are trying to help you 'stupid'! And besides, have you even thought about how strong this will make me? Think about it, Emilia, with the panicked state you're in, I could likely grow powerful enough to rise again as Demon Lord Satan," Maou said, standing up on Emi's bed, his hands upon his hips and his chin jutted upwards in a glorious pose.
"You IDIOT!"
Far from frightened, Emi looked mad, so mad that her fear may very well have shrunk a bit to make way for it. Maou smiled at Emi, and it enraged her further.
"What's so funny? I'm asking you for help," Emi said, blushing and closing her eyes and she fidgeted with her bed sheets.
"Emi, you're tired, you're scared, and I know that you're going through something right now, but I wonder if you really need me to suck out your emotions… or if you just need to work them out on your own."
"It's not your job to think, the bargain was that you would perform, now sit down and give me your hands so I can force my anxiety onto you!"
"Tempting, but no," Maou said, crossing his arms, refusing to sit.
"Why you-"
"Eeep!"
Emi with her low stature in comparison to Maou, pulled back her fist and struck him upon the thigh. He squeaked in agony before falling onto the bed, but to be more exact, he fell onto Emi. Emi froze for a moment, shuddering from the contact of Maou's face being pressed into her midriff, his own torso stuck between Emi's legs.
"Satan. Jacob. Get. Off. Me. Now."
"Argh, I can't," Maou groaned, completely unaware of where he was as his eyes were closed, "my leg, I think you broke it!"
"Demon KING!"
Maou flew across the room, slamming into the wall and knocking the picture frames off the wall. When he looked up, Emi was shielding her body from his, looking violated as Maou scratched his head.
"What's your problem," Maou asked lamely before a blank look crossed his face.
"I had a surprisingly soft landing, and judging from where I was standing, I'd have landed…"
Maou realized where he'd been, and to Emi's shock, a smile crossed his face.
"Hot damn, Emi, I like it rough, but not that rough," he jested.
"Idiot, if you're not going to help, just go," Emi said quietly, "I guess I'll just try and deal with this by myself."
"No," Maou said, suddenly looking serious, "I'm not leaving, but I'm not going to suck out your emotions, not yet. First, you need to calm down."
"I'M COMPLETELY CALM!"
"I can see that," Maou said, holding his hands up in surrender.
Silence fell between them, and with his powers Maou felt Emi's curiously strong emotions. He'd sucked out many years' worth of suffering last time, so why did she feel even more precarious now?
"In your nightmares," Maou asked quietly, "what happens, Emi? What do you see?"
"I see…"
Black, glassy eyes, evil smiles and the horrible, gurgling laughter of the dead. Maou, pressing his lips against her own before pushing her to her death.
"I see things from the museum," Emi said, turning and staring out the dark window of her bedroom.
"You mean me, don't you?"
Emi looked at Maou, who'd spoken, but he did not meet her gaze. He sat there, upon the floor, leaning against the wall he'd been thrown into.
"You?"
"It's not uncommon for people to be traumatized by my true form. My power can make a normal human weak and breathless, so when I'm under the control of a madman… or perhaps completely out of control, with no restraints… I imagine I'm not easy to forget. I'm sorry for that. But maybe if we… I don't know, if we could just talk for a while, or something, you could get past that. You don't seem very frightened of me now," Maou noted.
"I'm not scared of you," Emi said, casting Maou an angry glance, "I'm scared of…Bernael? No, that doesn't seem right. But I can't seem to sleep without having nightmares. Please, if you can suck out some of the fear, or whatever's causing the nightmares, I won't ask you for anything else."
"Well, like I said, let's talk and figure this out," Maou said simply, standing and coming over to the bed to sit beside Emi.
"Ok, then. Let's talk," she agreed, sounding skeptical
"Good, see? You're getting more calm already… ok, so tell me, you say you're frightened, you say it has something to do with the museum, tell me exactly what you see when you have these drea-er-night terrors."
And without lying, Emi carefully described the details of her terrors, but for all of them, she made sure to do two things. The first was to leave out anything between Maou and Emi, any kisses, any signs of intimacy, they were omitted. The second was to downplay Maou's importance, so instead of saying 'he had killed her', she would make it general, by saying 'they had killed her'.
"Blacks eyes in all your terrors, along with all of us, dead and lifeless, other than those things is there anything else your nightmares have in common?"
"No," Emi said, "nothing else."
"Well, I think I know what your problem is," Maou said, "you're suffering from post-traumatic stress, Emi. Think about it, you see all of us dead, you blame yourself, it's obviously because you feared for our lives during the fight. The black eyes and evil grins are likely your terrors trying to rationalize and identify an enemy for you, as both were Bernael's signature. And finally, there's something you've missed," Maou said, rather sagely.
"What?"
"In every one of your dreams, they end with you dying," Maou said, "in most cultures, that's considered an ill omen."
"And how do you know this?"
"This world's magic books are filled with omens and fortune telling. In my search for magic, I spared no expense in reading any book that may contain the truth, inclusive of dream fortune telling, where they analyze your dreams and draw conclusions from them," Maou said happily.
"They do that with psychology, too," Emi said, "but I'm not a nut."
"No, Emi, you're a human, and you're immensely tense from having fought a battle that had a lot riding on it," Maou said, thinking quickly, "and in most cases of post-traumatic stress, they recommend a good session of grounding, something to reconnect you and let you know your loved and cared for. I'm guessing a party won't do, either."
"So what am I supposed to? And are you insinuating that you love me," Emi asked.
Maou didn't move as the question was posed, and for a wild moment, he thought about revealing his true colors, and disregarding his disguise of an uninterested party. But no, he had too much riding on him for such childishness.
"Think back to something you used to enjoy, anything. And please don't insult me, I'm a Demon King, you're just a Hero with an inflated ego."
Emi almost pushed Maou off the bed, but her quip seemed to genuinely irk the Devil, so she saved it for a rainy day and thought about a time when she was truly happy, with her father. As if responding to her thoughts about rainy days, it began to rain outside, tapping against the window and sending a wave of calm over Emi.
"It's raining," Maou stated flatly.
"I love the rain," Emi said, smiling, "it makes me think of father. When it would rain like this and he couldn't work out in the fields, he would stay inside and I'd have him all to myself. We'd play games, read stories, and we'd dance. I used to stand on his feet and he'd just do all the dancing for us. He said it was a good leg workout."
"Emi," Maou said suddenly.
She turned to face Maou, who was staring at her as if he'd just seen the sun for the first time.
"Yeah, what?"
"How do you feel, right now?"
Emi thought about it, and to her shock she'd found her emotions to be… rather nondescript. Sure, she was stressed from being unable to sleep, but with the rain and the thoughts of her father, her anger, her panic, and her overwhelming sadness had faded.
"I feel better," Emi said, strangely.
"Keep thinking about that happy thought," Maou said with a victorious smile, getting up to leave, "I have to go, but I can stop by-"
"We're not done yet," Emi said, "you are going to perform, just as you said you would."
"Eh?"
And so, after a lengthy argument, a lot of whining from the Demon King and a little preparation, Emi and Maou were standing, facing each other with hard looks in their eyes.
"Are you ready, Hero," Maou asked, "I won't hold back."
"Bring it on," Emi said, tightening her grip upon Maou.
"Very well," he said, crimson flashing in his eyes, "prepare yourself, Hero, you are about to dance with the Devil."
The two of them were holding hands, standing upon the mattress so that Emi could stand upon Maou's feet without breaking his toes, and without further ado, they began to slowly dance.
"How is this supposed to help," Maou asked, not believing he'd been wrangled into this.
"It's called grounding, and seeing as you refused to suck out my emotions, you will just have to deal with it, Dr. Psychology," Emi said.
"This is starting to hurt," Maou said, his feet aching as they bore the weight of two humans.
"Well, if you'd stop talking and allow me to remember my childhood, this slow healing process might go a bit faster."
Maou shut up, allowing Emi to do whatever the hell she wanted while he simply grimaced and thought about how he was going to explain why both his feet were broken to whoever noticed his limping.
"Hm hmm, hm hm hmmm," Emi hummed happily as she went, her eyes closed and a light smile upon her face.
Maou, who saw the look of resplendent happiness upon her face, couldn't look away from the marvelous sight. It seemed as if her body was suffused with celestial light, making her shine like a star. She leaned back slightly, her neck rolling as her muscles became supple, and Maou simply held her hands for support as she did, playing his part in her dance. He was her crutch, and even if she danced forever, the Devil knew that he could never let her fall.
'This girl,' Maou thought as he watched her, her reflection bright in his eyes.
'And if you have nightmares, we'll dance on the bed
I know that you love me, love me
Even when I lose my head
Guillotine'
"Guillotine by Jon Bellion"
An update for this story? Perish the thought! Hello Devils, how have you been? Long time, no see! Anyway, here we return to the roots of the story, which is supposed to be a MaouXEmi fanfic for those of you just tuning in. Thank you all for your patience! Now, I've been doing some thinking, and I remember that this story was supposed to take place between the first season of the anime and the third light novel. Speaking of the light novels, I've actually managed to read the English translations, yay me! Something else of note, I have no idea how to stop this train. That's right, folks, I started this fic and while I have a scene for how it ends, I have no idea how to pull it into the station! All well. For those who enjoy my little easter eggs, I threw in one from Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of my favorite shows. You'll find it in the scene where Maou tells Emi that she needs to calm down and she screams "I'M COMPLETELY CALM!"
A lot of this chapter was inspired by the music I've been listening to on repeat for a while now, and seeing as you can't copy and paste links, I'll simply put the song titles and artists here for you to search in YouTube or wherever you look for music.
Woke the F*ck Up- Jon Bellion: This song is pretty much when Emi wakes up and thinks of Maou.
Guillotine-Jon Bellion: This was inspiration for the scene where Maou and Emi danced of the bed, in case that flew over your head.
Wherever I Go-OneRepublic: Cause this song just strikes the right chords...
Until next time, my friends! And if you like, I'm actually looking for people to proofread my stories for grammar, etc. Feel free to let me know if you are interested.
EDIT: Ok guys, so a few hours ago, something amazing happened... this fanfic became the number one most viewed work ever. Now, I've been waiting for this to happen for a while now(over a year, I think), and I'm glad it happened on my watch. For those of you who read, you'll notice large gaps in my writing and updates. Not only does life tend to get in the way of things, but I also try to work so as to update the story I haven't worked on the longest amount of time. But to celebrate this momentous occasion (and all of you readers), I will do my damndest to get out another chapter in this story for you all this weekend before I move onto the next one on the list. Thanks for reading, I hope to have another piece of this fanfiction pie to serve to you soon!