She is Death

Chapter 53: Welcoming

"I missed you so much... so, so much, Aice," I cried.

I felt him squeezed me while hugging, "I missed you too. I'm so happy you're okay, you survived," he whispered softly.

Then I pushed him away lightly and held his face, his face did not change, it's really him. His cold skin, and those red eyes... it really is him!

He wiped my tears and brought my face closer to him, then we let our nose touched each other's nose (nose-to-nose), then we both smiled.

"Ehem, ehem, Yui," I heard the captain called me so I looked at him. "I think you should go introduce him to everyone," he smiled.

"Oh, yes of course!" I smiled widely. "Everyone, this is Aice. He's the most important person in my life whom I loved the most but I lost him 300 years ago... but now, he's here. He's finally here!" I said.

"Most... important? Loved the most? Uh-oh," Alyssa said then she looked at Yuno and Steve, both of them are glaring at Aice and looked like they want to kill him.

I ignored them, "He's a vampire."

"A-a vampire?" Alyssa said.

"That's cool, but I'm cooler," Felix said.

"Yuck, you're disgusting," Yva said.

"Tss."

"Who cares if he's a vampire?" Steve said.

"We should greet and welcome him warmly, not coldly," Ethan said.

I giggled, "They're really like that, be used to it." He just nodded.

But I want to know something...

"Aice," I called, he looked at me. "How did you survive?"

"Akase helped me," he answered.

I looked at Langston, "Y-YOU DID!? B-but how?"

"Wait, who's Akase?" Alyssa asked.

"It's Langston. Akase is his real name," I said.

"R-really!?" They all said, except for captain and Yuno.

"Please call me Langston, Aice," Langston said.

Aice just laughed softly, "Fine."

"By the way, how? How did you help him?" I asked.

"When you're fighting with Perdix, I was awoken and noticed Aice burning, so I cast a spell to defend him," Langston said.

"T-then... does that mean--"

"Yes, the one that you saw burning is his diamond shield, and not me. I was inside his shield, but even though I was inside it, I still got few wounds," Aice said, then he opened his shirt and saw that there's a large burnt mark on his side and chest.

"Then why did you not take me with you?"

"We want you to grow, because we realized that whenever you're with us, you're not growing... until that day came, where you thought all of us died, you suddenly turned into someone else... something else," Aice said, coldly.

"Y-you're so unfair! Not fair, not fair! You two were together for several years, and you're just watching me get lonely and devastated, not fair!" I said.

"Yeah, it hurts me too... seeing you like that. But look at you now, you've learned how to socialize with others well and you made friends, right? Also, I can see how much you grew," he said. "I'm always watching you from afar, together with Akase...oh, it's Langston," he continued.