Ayatan's eyes fluttered open, a warm and comforting feeling enveloping his entire body. He took in his surroundings and found he was almost entirely awash in the color purple. The sun was clearly up based on the amount of light he could see, and it was far too warm for it to be night time. He tried sitting up only to find a weight around his chest pulling him back down.

"Mmph." a voice grunted. Ayatan froze as he recalled the last moments before his apparent death. The violet walls surrounding him reminded him very much of those last seconds of color before he'd passed out, and he looked down at the weight around his chest to find a pair of arms encircling it.

His heart jumped into his chest, his last moments flashing before his eyes.

"Gosh, thank Satan humans are so easy to heal." the owner of the arms spoke in a deep, feminine voice. "If you'd been a devil you might not have survived."

There it was again. Humans.

Ayatan sprang away from the encircling arms, his entire body spasming as he attempted to put distance between himself and this new monster.

'Attempted' being the operative word there. The entity's arms were wrapped quite tightly around his torso, and he felt it chuckle heartily as he tried to escape.

"Ohohoho no you don't." it replied. "Your ribs are still cracked and you've got a concussion." Ayatan struggled nonetheless, his arms flailing wildly despite the searing pain in his side and head. He was pretty sure a grunt of effort had been released somewhere in there, but her arms were very much latched in place.

"Let go of me!" he yelled. Another chuckle.

"All right." came the condescending reply. "But you're going to want to be right back as soon as I let go." Ayatan, taking advantage of the ever so slight loosening of the woman-monster's grasp, ripped himself out of her grip and threw himself against the purple confines of this new prison.

The colored wall gave way surprisingly easy, a texture like flower petals gliding against his bare arms as he tumbled out. He sprang to his feet as he escaped, his hands rising in preparation to fight to his last breath against the new threat.

His jaw hit the floor as he turned around.

"Hello, handsome." she smirked as she sat up. "Come here often?"

A cascade of pink hair covered most of her, but even then he could still see that he'd just been held in the arms of a woman who looked like she belonged in one of the billboards in central San Francisco rather than in real life.

He needed a second to reboot his brain. Probably because of the massive lance of misery that had just pierced his skull. A sledgehammer had been taken to his head, and he staggered further backwards as he clutched his aching head.

"Told you." she continued. He fell backwards onto the ground, the shock traveling up his spine and shocking his ribs, causing him to gasp in pain. This was the wrong choice, as it caused only further agony to bloom in his chest. This time he yelped as the pain grew nearly unbearable, his headache getting far worse as the shock of falling on his butt reached his head.

He stopped moving on the ground, hoping the pain would stop. "Ow…" he groaned. It was now that he noticed that the 'prison' in which he'd been confined was actually a gigantic flower in full bloom, the risen sun casting its deep hues across the floor behind it.

He looked up from his fallen position to see the woman standing over him, a robe having somehow appeared on her person. With a disarming smile she knelt in front of him, his body seizing as he prepared for the worst.

"Can I keep healing you now?" she condescended. "As much as I'd like to let you get it all out of your system, you're still in no condition to be freaking out. If you keep this up you'll put yourself back where you started in that street."

"Who are you?" Ayatan groaned as he looked anywhere but at her. Her beguiling grace and elegance made every bone in his damaged body want to trust her.

"My name isn't really important right now, but if it'd make you feel safer, it's Roygun. Roygun Belphegor." Ayatan did his best not to react to the certainly strange name in comparison to normal people. If she was really trying to blend in, she could've chosen a name like Brittany or Elizbeth.

Which he supposed meant that she wasn't trying to blend in. Wonderful.

"What's yours?" she continued. Ayatan made the mistake of looking at her when she asked; her head had tilted slightly to the side in curiosity and her resting smile had returned. His breath hitched and brought another stab of pain into his side.

"Ow.." he groaned. "It's Ayatan." Roygun's eyebrows rose infinitesimally, a flash of recognition burning deep behind her amber eyes.

"Quite the name you've got there." Not a trace of humor this time. "And a heavy weight that comes with it." It was now Ayatan's turn to angle his head with interest, and Roygun's jovial nature returned. "I suppose that explains quite a bit about you, to be honest. One of your parents was probably a deity of some kind. Though why they-"

"What is any of that supposed to mean?" Ayatan interrupted. Roygun quirked an eyebrow and sat herself completely down in front of him, a look of sadness flashing across her face, but she took a breath to explain.

"Okay, so I'll cut to the chase and tell you; you're likely a godling. The spawn of some old Native American deity by the looks of it. Chebbeniathan, most likely, but I can't say for sure."

"What? Deity? God?" Ayatan interrupted again. Roygun flinched as he did. "What are you talking about? You're even crazier than I am!"

"Am I?" she sniped back. "If I really am, then what almost killed you yesterday?"

Ayatan went silent. What had that been? He ran Roygun's name through his head, trying to find any hidden words.

"That's called a stray devil." She supplied. "I'll save you the details for now, but a very shortened version of a long story is that they're killers by nature, and it's the job of entities like me to keep them from killing humans like yourself indiscriminately."

"I thought I wasn't human." Ayatan shot back. Roygun huffed.

"You're half human, so it still counts."

How she knew that was beyond him, though at this point he was embracing the crazy dream.

"And no, this is not a dream. The number of times I've told gear-wielders it's not one is large enough for me to know when someone thinks this is all a dream."

Roygun stood up, offering him a hand in assistance as he tried and failed to reciprocate.

"Again, you're still wounded pretty badly, so don't be trying to move too much. I can finish healing you when you go back to sleep, but for the time being try to let me move you around."

"Can you please explain what the hell is going on?!" Ayatan yelled as she prepared to pick him up. "You've got to understand why I'm so confused, especially if you've done this so many times."

Roygun paused at that, her eyes rolling up as she thought about what he said. A part of her wanted to just get this over with as quickly as possible and let him go, but…

Sirzechs would have her head if she let something like this go. Especially considering recent events.

"Alright, but you have to sit on the couch." she relented. Ayatan, thankfully, offered his hand up to let her raise him to his feet. "I can heal you more effectively that way."

"Why?"

Ayatan's face went beet red, a condition that Roygun was clearly enjoying as much as possible. She had once again shed her robe, though thankfully there were small bits of cloth keeping her modesty concealed.

"Is this really necessary?" he asked as his eyes bored holes into the ceiling. "Why can't you do it with your clothes on?"

"Sorry, but devil healing doesn't work like that. Despite how powerful our magic is, at the end of the day we can't pass it on to anyone else except through skin-to-skin contact." Roygun was currently wrapped around him in a horribly seductive fashion, though her grasp on him was thankfully not moving at all.

Ayatan was having a hard enough time as it was.

"Now, where should I start the explanation?" She asked. "I can start at stray devils, deities, or your name."

"Stray devils would be nice." Ayatan squeaked.

"Well then, I guess I'll get started." Roygun began. "So, I too am a devil, though I'm no stray. Stray devils are, for lack of a better term, mutants."

The discussion began there, going very deep into the lore of why devils were the way they were, why strays preyed on humans, and how they were made. Apparently the stray that had attacked him was a rather strong one, A-class she'd said. She was currently in charge of monitoring the western seaboard of America for any strays, which lead into Ayatan's questioning about how she did it on her own.

"Stray devils aren't that common, actually. Especially not here in San Francisco." Roygun explained as Ayatan felt one of his ribs affix itself back to where it belonged. Strangely, he didn't feel an ounce of pain from it. Devil healing was some serious stuff it seemed.

"Why not here?" he wondered aloud. "Do lots of devils live here?"

"More like lots of everything supernatural." Roygun chuckled. "Deities, Yokai, Devils, Angels, and just about everything you could possibly conceive come here."

"Then why are you here?" Ayatan continued. Roygun was silent for a moment, but she once again took in a breath to answer.

"Well, there's a few reasons, most of them personal. The one I will tell you is that I've been on Retea's tail for a while now, and he got desperate and hid somewhere he thought I wouldn't look."

"Isn't that…risky?" Ayatan shifted uncomfortably as he felt a strange buzzing sensation in his head while his eyesight corrected from the healing concussion. "Wouldn't someone else find him and kill him?"

"Exactly. Also, you should be completely healed in a couple more minutes."

"Great." Ayatan praised whoever was looking down on him for the sweet relief from the awkward situation. "Thanks."

"It's the least I can do for a godling who didn't know he was one." Roygun's grip loosened a bit, but she still didn't let him go. "Now, as I was saying, strays aren't that common, so monitoring the entire west coast isn't much of a struggle for someone as powerful as me." Ayatan nodded in understanding as Roygun explained.

He was floored by the amount of information that she'd been dropping on him. Stray devils, the reincarnation system, godlings, and more. She apparently had no…what was it? A peerage, yes. She apparently had no peerage of her own, something he could tell weighed on her greatly.

She went on to explain the various pantheons and godhoods around the world, how the dominant ones here in America were the Natives and Christianity. She told him about sacred gears, how they were a hot commodity in the supernatural world thanks to their multifaceted uses.

"All of that," she finished up. "Leads me to my biggest question. Why weren't you attacked or recruited by now? Your mana pool is…well I'll be nice and call it large." Ayatan figured that by her metrics it was a valid question. If he had to guess, he probably looked like he was a human in his early twenties, though a bit thin and malnourished.

"Well, I suppose that's because I've only been alive for about two weeks." he replied nonchalantly. Roygun's following pause was telling. Her eyebrows rose much more than they had when he'd given her his name (they were threatening to disappear into her gorgeous hairline).

"I…see." she replied cryptically. "That's quite a story for me to believe, though I imagine with no training a simple memory spell would still work on you, even with your powers as unfathomably large as they are." Roygun stood from the couch, stretching luxuriously. Ayatan's gaze flitted all over the room as he avoided staring, and as they did he noted several things.

Most certainly not the least important was a document that had large, bolds words printed over its surface.

" . 10786"

Despite having never seen the acronym or understanding of what such a document would mean, he immediately felt his mood darken as he saw the picture of a beautiful woman next to those morbid letters. She had a brilliant smile and navy blue hair, her deep green eyes full of-

"Well, in that case, I guess I'll have to take you under my wing." Roygun demolished the train of thought. "I can teach you the basics of magic and mana control to help you avoid any more strays down the line." Ayatan rose to his feet as well, his body feeling healthier than it had when he'd first met Retea.

Standing up also made very apparent the tremendous height difference between the two. She was nearly a whole head taller than him, his eyes lining up perfectly with her full cleavage. As such, he decided it would still be best to look anywhere else.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. You'll find that most devils don't particularly care for the idea of modesty." Roygun commented as she walked back towards the giant purple flower. "Besides, I'd feel a little insulted if you didn't look at least a little while I was giving you this wonderful show." From right next to the flower, she picked up the bathrobe she'd shed earlier and slid it over her previously skintight…clothing.

Despite her goading, Ayatan still took the time to assess his surroundings. Out the window, now that he got a good look, was the sprawling city center of San Francisco. The sun was no longer simply rising, instead it now hung in the sky and painted it a beautiful cyan.

"Wow." he whispered. "I never thought the city could look this pretty." Roygun hummed noncommittally off to the side, and Ayatan turned around with a question. "So…do you have any food?"

Roygun grinned.

"I may." she replied coyly. "Though you'll have to wear something better than that." Ayatan looked down at himself to find nothing but his underwear.

Somehow in all the excitement he'd forgotten that he was almost completely naked.

Ayatan tugged at the collar of the suit that Roygun had stuffed him into. His chin also itched from where she had used magic to turn his scraggly beard into smooth skin.

The clothing was definitely superior to what he'd been wearing before the incident, but it was also a lot more constraining. He wouldn't be able to run very effectively while wearing this.

It was apparently tailored to his appearance, according to Roygun. A deep charcoal gray jacket with a violet tie to offset his eyes were paired to black slacks and a pair of oxfords. How he'd known all of those words that Roygun had told him was still very much a mystery to him. Perhaps something to do with his missing memory.

"My goodness, my taste is superb." Roygun said as they walked through San Francisco's uptown area. She herself was wearing a remarkable suit as well, standing out significantly more than even he did. A lemon yellow jacket with a green tie to oppose his own, her perfectly white slacks made a perfect contrast with the asphalt beside them.

Ayatan had nothing to say to that, as he was also cooking alive inside his suit under the hot sunlight. Roygun had promised him a short walk to wherever they were going for food, but it'd been five minutes already and he could feel his body beginning to stick to his clothes.

"And here we are." Roygun said. Ayatan, for all his effort, was entirely unable to maintain his composure at the terrific irony of the building they were standing in front of.

He'd met Retea here only a day before.

"What's so funny?" Roygun asked, scandalized. "This is Edesia's Garden, the premiere restaurant of the entire supernatural community." Ayatan doubled over in laughter as he struggled to process exactly how small his world really was.

He took a while to stop laughing, and even longer to compose himself, but he did eventually manage to wipe the hysterical tears from his eyes.

"Oh gosh, that's actually kind of funny." he finally replied. "I met Retea here." Roygun, for a moment, seemed to freeze as she processed that. "He offered me food and led me to the warehousing district."

"Well, I can promise you that once we're inside you'll experience no such unpleasantries." Roygun assured. "This is probably one of the safest places in the entire cosmos thanks to how much power comes through."

"Oh I believe it." Ayatan replied, thoroughly amused at the entire scenario. "I'll probably be the weakest person there." The fact that Roygun neither confirmed nor denied his statement assured him that he would be able to cause no trouble.

Humorous stalling complete, the pair walked through the large double wooden doors of the building.

"Follow my lead." Roygun whispered.

Immediately Ayatan felt his body cool to a perfect temperature, the sweat evaporating from his body as if by-oh yeah, magic was real.

He kept forgetting that.

Inside the room was at a pleasant level of darkness, lit by candles burning with a soothing white. The entire area was carpeted with velvet, the podium where a greeter stood carved from pure ivory.

"Greetings." The gentleman said plainly as they approached. "I am Allinur, and you are welcome to Edesia's Garden, Roygun Belphegor." He fell into a deep bow, one which Ayatan felt the urge to return. However, Roygun remained stiffly upright, so he followed suit. "Please, follow me."

Without so much as a sound, the man spun on his heel and made his way into the restaurant. Both guests followed him into the dining area, and Ayatan nearly had to hold his jaw to prevent it from dislocating.

While the reception area had been expensive but modest, the actual dining area was a palace of luxury. Black granite walls spackled with marble and ivory designs towered a hundred feet into the air, caverns carved into them at various heights indicating floors of the restaurant. The velvet carpet gave way to shining stone floors that glowed with a slight yellow hue.

On the ground floor there were massive insets filled with tables made from more exotic materials that resembled mahogany.

At the very top of the prodigious amphitheater was a colossal lamp that flooded everything with soft gold light. A slow tune was flowing throughout, the acoustics of the building making it sound like the symphony was everywhere at once.

His shoes clacked on the perfectly tiled floor, though he heard no echo from them. It occurred to Ayatan as they approached a perfectly maintained staircase that this building was far larger on the inside than the outside.

Roygun continued to make absolutely no sound aside from her high heels on the floor, her posture tall but smooth. The devil woman's protege knew fully well that he likely held himself like a commoner, and the stares they were getting certainly emphasized that.

They reached the stairs, and both their escort and Roygun stepped onto them, but ceased moving up as soon as they reached the first mastodonic stair. Ayatan followed suit, of course, and barely contained a yelp as they simply began to hover up the staircase, the step upon which they stood hovering up and through the entire staircase at a perfect diagonal line.

"You have a seat reserved on the 70th floor, ma'am." the butler said out of nowhere. "Will your guest be requiring a seat as well?"

"Yes, thank you." Ayatan's host replied robotically. He heard a pop from the room above them. The man bowed his head as their stair-elevator arrived at what was supposedly their destination. It was a 'small' abscess into the wall, no more than the size of her suite. The butler stepped off of the magical lift and pulled away a large maroon curtain covering the front of it, gesturing them inside.

"Today's first course will be a hippocampus filet with hydra milk and ophiotaurus butter béchamel." Allinur began as Roygun and Ayatan took their seats at a lavishly furnished table surrounded by cushions and various amenities, most of which Ayatan didn't even know the purpose of.

"Beyond that, you may choose as you wish from the menus before you." their waiter continued as trifolds composed of a soft plastic-like material appeared in front of them with a pop. He disappeared out the curtain, and Ayatan barely managed to stop himself from sagging into the divine seat cushion.

"So…." he began. "What is this place?" Roygun smiled as her posture relaxed, leaning back into the seat.

"The fanciest restaurant in the world."

"Don't you think you might be underselling it a bit?"

Roygun shrugged, picking up the menu before her. "The thought crossed my mind, but I'll admit I liked seeing your reactions."

"I think all the other guests did too." Ayatan replied, still trying to shake off all the stares they got on their way up. "Either that or you were drawing a lot of looks." He'd be lying if he said he wasn't inclined to believe the latter.

"Remember how I was talking about your mana pool indicating you as some kind of godling?" Her menu fell back to the table as Roygun steepled her fingers before her. "You're giving it off like a stray devil, so a lot of people here likely thought you were showing off."

The rising heat in his cheeks was familiar by now, though it was no less pleasant despite his recent experience with the sensation.

"And you didn't think to help me mask it?" he snarled. "Why would you bring me here if I draw so much attention?" Roygun chuckled in response to his embarrassment.

"Oh goodness, you need to relax. That was far closer to par for the course here than you realize. The weakest person here, aside from you, could tear this building down in minutes."

The comparison was mind-boggling. He'd seen demolition operations in various parts of the city before. They were methodical until it came to the actual destruction, so the fact that someone could do it with their bare hands was certainly sobering.

And there were likely hundreds of people here, if not upwards of a thousand. As Ayatan pondered the crushing reality of humanity's weakness, Roygun pondered many things besides her menu.

She was certainly entertained by Ayatan's innocence to the supernatural, but it was also worrying. If he'd been anyone with a lick of training beforehand, the fact that his mind had been wiped indicated that whoever had done…that…was also likely involved in his missing memory. She felt the stiff menu buckle as her hands clenched at the memory.

Thankfully, it seemed like he hadn't had his memory wiped, but rather restrained. He was still capable of speech and understood far more of high society than she'd expected him to. Someone had just wanted him out of the picture.

And if they wanted him out of the picture, then dammit she'd do her best to put him back in it. Most of that just revolved around getting him his memory back.

Somehow.

Memory cipher spells were annoyingly complex to unravel, so unless she found something about him that tied him to his past, then she was pretty much screwed on that department.

"I don't think I ever told you what your name means." she said as Ayatan was closely examining his menu. He looked up with that ever-present hope in his eyes, and she had to once again resist the urge to squeal and pinch his cheeks.

Probably a symptom of hanging around Venelana one too many times.

"It's…a very complex and storied history revolving around destruction. Abject, indiscriminate destruction." She felt no pride as his expression fell, sadness overtaking his features. He was wonderfully expressive, though at times like this it made things hurt all the more.

"The Ayatan," she started. "Was a force of nature some six thousand years ago. Very few entities still alive remember it, even fewer still talk about it." She, of course, hadn't been around when The Ayatan had its day. Her father had been, but he'd always refused to talk about it while fear blossomed behind his eyes. "As far as I know, it was nearly unrivaled in all the worlds for power, its appetite for chaos even more so."

Ayatan was enraptured by the story she recounted that her father had told her. Every faction on Earth had supposedly unified in the fight against the monstrosity that tore apart the planet. Thousands died in the fight while it terrorized the supernatural.

She did her best to recount it, though certainly some degree of embellishment had occurred for dramatic effect.

"And at the end of it all," she finally finished. "Apparently it had only been looking for someone."

"That's…unreal." he said with eyes wide. "One creature was able to do all of that?" Roygun nodded sagely in return.

"As far as anyone is really aware, it was basically just a human with a sacred gear gone rogue." She had her own personal doubts about that particular theory, but given that minds far more powerful than hers had deduced it, she wasn't really able to refute it.

The sacred gear system was unpredictable at best anyways.

"Wow…" Ayatan whispered. Roygun, having finished her story, was currently in the process of getting her mood back to where she wanted it; cheery. It wouldn't do to let the poor amnesiac have an identity crisis over some ancient monstrosity from eons ago.

"Regardless of that, though," she interrupted. "How would you like to learn magic? Your leaking mana suggests that you've got a lot of it to go around."

A student would be good to have right now. It'd keep her mind busy and involved in training him rather than thinking about whatever else might be in her life. He seemed eager to learn too if his quickly rising eyebrows were any indication.

"Really?" he asked in wonder. She resisted an eyebrow twitch as she recalled the offer she'd given him earlier today that he'd ignored. Well, to be fair, he'd been rather violently introduced to the supernatural world only hours before.

"Of course. You'd be my protege." She stood from the table and swung her arms wide. "The secrets of magic would be yours for the taking!" Ayatan's eyes were wide with awe. "All you need do is accept my offer."

She held out a single hand in front of Ayatan. Perhaps if he were a bit more wise to the ways of the supernatural he'd find this whole gesture ridiculously hilarious. But he wasn't, so the gravity in his gaze was all the more funny. Her shook her hand gravely, his brows knitted in focus.

"I accept your offer," he began. "Master."

Roygun couldn't take it anymore. As soon as those words left his mouth, she burst out into laughter. Not a restrained giggle, not a hearty chuckle. This was untempered hysterical roaring. It took a moment, but Ayatan began to laugh too, though he was very much simply caught up in the hilarity rather than understanding what was so funny.

The room they were sitting in thankfully had a lot of soundproofing spells to prevent anything, anything, that clients did from being heard by anyone. Her laughter continued to propagate throughout the room to the point where she had to bend over to contain the growing ache in her stomach from how she was howling.

"Oh, oh goodness me!" she half-stuttered as her laughter eventually began to fade. "Oh I'm sorry Ayatan, that wasn't fair to you." He'd stopped laughing far before she had, as the momentary humor had quickly lost its luster to him. "It's just….good grief that was so theatrical. I'm not a 'master' here, just your teacher."

His embarrassment peaked again, his cheeks and ears blushing a beet red. He was also doing his best to become one with his chair, sinking into it and seemingly attempting to hide beneath the table. She did feel a little guilty about that one.

She patted his shoulder consolingly, looking him straight in the eyes.

"I apologize for making fun of you, Ayatan." she said. "That wasn't fair to you."

"S'all right." he muttered in reply. Roygun opened her mouth to continue her apology, but she felt the magical notification of their waiter approaching, and she unfortunately had to withdraw. "I guess I'd better get used to it."

"No, you shouldn't. I don't usually make fun of people like that, and I shouldn't have when you're in a situation like this. How about we continue the discussion over food?" Her question finished with perfect timing, as Allinur pulled away the covering curtain for their room with two trays of food hovering next to him.

"Your first course, ma'am."

The food was heavenly, and the discussion about the basic principles of magic began.

As they left Edesia's Garden that evening, Ayatan felt like his stomach was going to explode. There was so much food, and all of it was absolutely incredible. He hadn't been able to stop eating while Royugn showed him the most basic of elementary magical principles.

To begin with, she'd asked him if in his couple weeks of memory he'd felt more comfortable in any particular situation. Unfortunately, being comfortable in the warm didn't really equate to a fire affinity, nor did enjoying the shade on a hot day mean a cold affinity.

Apparently his mana was 'wild' and 'unpredictable' according to Roygun, who said that he'd probably have a propensity towards destructive magics like her own, Crack. It'd been quite the demonstration to watch her completely shatter every plate on the table. She was unable to put them back together, though, so she simply cracked the pieces over and over until it was nothing more than a fine powder coating on the table.

On the other hand, she also said that he wouldn't be able to do that kind of magic due to a lack of Belphegor blood. Somehow, Ayatan felt a bit miffed by the concept, but at the end of it all he would still be able to do magic.

His newfound educator also showed him how magic could be used to create things, crafting cloaks and clothing from thin air with a flash of purple light. She'd even crafted an apple for him to eat.

"Remember one thing above all," she'd said. "Magic cannot do anything you can't. Your reserves are like your stamina, and if you run out you're powerless to do anything."

That made some degree of sense, unlike the actual magic itself. She'd tried to get him to perform an extremely simple spell, a mana light. He'd been unable to even focus his magic into that, and they'd resigned themselves to the fact that it was going to take longer than a single meal at a restaurant for him to grasp the fundamentals of magic.

"I've got some books you can read back at the condo." She said while they were walking home. "Most of them are just magical theory, general basics for you to learn."

"Will I even be able to read them?" he asked. "I mean, it'll be written in whatever your devil language is." Roygun did think about it for a moment, though she seemed quite unconcerned with the threat of his illiteracy.

"You'll find them quite readable." she replied nonchalantly. "Devil language is magical in nature. Anyone can read it in their mother tongue, so you won't have any issues. It's much like our spoken language, actually."

"You're…not speaking English?" Ayatan marveled at the thought. Magic was awesome.

"No, actually. I'm speaking the native Devil language, you're just perceiving me in english." She stopped walking and turned to face him. "Watch my lips. They don't match up with what I'm saying." Ayatan noticed that she was indeed telling the truth. Her lip movements were actually very far off from what she was saying.

The wind picked up, causing both of their loose jackets to flap in the wind. Her hair, which was styled into a lovely braid, also got picked up by the wonderful breeze. Ayatan shook his head from the thought of it.

"That's really interesting." He said, returning to eye contact with Roygun. She'd raised an eyebrow and was smirking.

"Told you it was true."

Ayatan silently thanked whoever was watching over him (Satan probably) that she hadn't noticed him staring at her.

"Now let's get back to the condo before it gets too cold." Roygun chirped before getting back to walking, her pace much quicker than it'd been before. The rest of the walk back to the penthouse was filled mostly with talk of various different kinds of magic, and how they appealed to him.

None of them did.

Alright, so before anyone says anything, yes, I got personal permission from the creator of the idea of Edesia's Garden. I thought about using a different name, but honestly I liked it way too much and asked them.

Speaking of, by the way, I'm actually on a discord server with them! Those who know them probably know, but to respect their privacy I will not be mentioning them by name for reasons that will be very apparent to anyone who bothers reading these things.

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Sorry for the awful formatting, but it's how I get around fanfiction removing links. Just put that into a search bar and you can join the server! We always love new members.

Other than that, though, I guess it's time to do a review reply.

To Hadrian371, it is indeed nice to be back!

To DragonKiller453, I'll say it'd be wise to not think about Ayatan in that manner, as this is absolutely not about a Tenno being Isekai'd into DxD. I'm going for a bit more of a historical interaction between the two universes(If the ancient scourge holding the Orokin word for "Memory" as a name wasn't an indication. No, the irony of the name I chose for the Tenno is not lost on me.)

To one (insert respectful prefix) fnafdragon; First, nobody knows the whole lore of warframe. It's rather enigmatic that way, and I prefer it. Second, 'powers of the void' encompasses nearly everything that happens in Warframe, so attempting to lump their rather unique abilities with a very generalistic term is…short sighted. Third, the romance is going nowhere (Muahahahaha!).

To Guest, thank you so much for the critique. I mean it genuinely, thank you. I understand where you're coming from with that concern, as I too felt like I was doing a massive disservice to the Tenno with the beginning of this story. But, if you feel like this story is worth your time to continue reading, I will give you my personal guarantee that the horrors and inherent 'wrongness' of the void will very much be a part of this story, though in less than traditional means. I'm hoping that you'll continue to read the story as readers like you are a treasure to me, and I hope to not let you down with my plans.

For the time being, though, I'm going to have to set the exposition revolving around 'unnamed kid.'

Anyhow, that's all from me! See you all in the next chapter!