𝗕𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗹𝘆 𝗚𝗶𝗿𝗹

Before it started

Mayumi always has busy weeks. She had to wake up at 3 in the morning to help out in her family's hospital and prescribe medicine to some of the patients.

She would catch a break when it was time to head to school. She and her sisters would happily walk to school together as they would sometimes purchase a 'small' snack from their favorite small restaurant. Somehow, they always end up with a big bag. Credit to the bubbly owner's big appetite.

While walking to school, they would review their materials from school and giggle to each other every time they passed the Agatsuma siblings, particularly a certain screaming teen boy and annoyed sister.

Sometimes, Mayumi would walk with her friend Tojuro to hang out and chat about a lot of stuff that included kendo and running. Eventually, they depart for school, since she went to an all-girls school academy and he went to a regular school. That didn't stop the two from still seeing each other though.

After school hours, Mayumi would either go back to the hospital and help out or babysit a couple of children which she also enjoyed. She was good with children so it was an easy way for her to earn some cash.

Finally, she would head back home and enjoy dinner. Sometimes she studied or bonded with her family depending if it was testing week.

That was her weekly routine. May sound boring but Mayumi was cool with it. She didn't really complain about it.

Now, it was a Friday night and Mayumi decided it was best to binge-watch her favorite show while her family slept peacefully. She had overworked herself due to exams so it was best if she had little free time for herself. So she's staying up late because she received perfect marks in all her tests.

'You should go to sleep Mayu-chan. I don't want that pretty face of yours to get eyebags~' Douma scolded her, internally. The fuschia eyed girl rolled her eyes and laughed. 'If you hadn't noticed, I already have some.'

'Ehhh! There's no way you could have! I would have stopped it from appearing on that cute face of yours!' Mayumi's expression went blank, already used to his flirting.

At first, she was a little disturbed by it when he first did it when she was 14. She was surprised when it happened and couldn't face him without cringing, but she eventually got used to it by just ignoring it, remembering he was still a creepy demon.

'Just stay quiet and let me watch my show.'

'Nope. Go to sleep! I wanna ice skate with you~' he complained. Something Douma was able to do was project anything he wanted in the girl's dream or just appear in her dreams. He would do it almost every night to accompany the girl if she ever had a dream of a past memory or to keep himself company. He learned that after many many years as a demon and being reincarnated as bugs, he had a fear of being alone.

Mayumi knew about this and let him accompany her with her thoughts and days. It proved to be helpful since he was like a reminder to her and sometimes gave advice, but that was rare.

'After I finish this episode' Douma continued to whine.

As Mayumi was about to lecture him on giving time to herself, she suddenly gasped and ran to her window, seeing a horse with an ebony carriage appear out her window.

"Douma, do you see this or am I hallucinating due to my lack of sleep?" The girl spoke to herself as calm as possible, looking at the horse who started back at her. She looked out her window, watching the horse and carriage float in midair.

'What the hell?!?!'

The horse nudged its nose against her arm, waking her up from her shock. Its head pointed to the carriage then back at her, telling her to get in. The girl quickly understood and gave the horse a sad smile. "Sorry, but I can't go anywhere with you. I have no idea what you want but you might have the wrong house" the horse furiously shook its head and nudged her harder.

"Ouch! Wait stop! I'm not going anywhere with you!" Mayumi exclaimed as she pulled herself from the horse who was neighing at her to get in.

'What a rude horse.'

"Mr. Horse, I really do think you have the wrong house, so please go on and leave me alone" she smiled as nice as possible, her arm still aching from the harsh nudge.

It looked like the horse huffed which amused the girl but suddenly, she felt dizzy. Her breathing was slowing down and she was starting to see black dots cloud her vision.

"I think I should have gone to sleep..." Mayumi whispered, slowly falling to the floor.

'Yeah, you should have.' Doma grumbled.

And just like that, she was out cold.

'You should have listened to me~! We could have been ice skating'

Mayumi saw a hand shining bright like a star reaching for her as the light gave her a sense of innocence. It came close to her hand, giving her a gentle touch as if it was asking permission to take her hand. However, another hand came out of a mirror, and grabbed her free hand, trying to pull it to the mirror. Both the glowing and dark hands started tugging for Mayumi, trying to pull her away from one another.

Before anything else could happen, she went blank and saw nothing. Everything was just black. However, she felt like she was flying and it felt cool. It was like the wind blew past her, softly kissing her cheeks and dancing around her hair. She felt at peace. It was like she was floating through the clouds and soared like a bird...no a butterfly. A free butterfly.

She was so at peace that she couldn't hear the yells of various people calling for her. Some of the voices were warning her and others were wishing her well for the events coming her way, hoping all went well for the young girl.

Together, they whispered and threw words of encouragement to the ravenette who was in for a big ride.