Art Source: Pixiv
Search: Yae Miko
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Miko let out a deep sigh of disappointment at the book she's currently reviewing in her hand. "No. This won't do." Miko says with a shaking head as the head editors fidgets nervously in front of their intimidating boss. "It's not free enough. It's just too dry." She says with disappointment.
"Pass this message to our new writer. Where's the freedom? The imagination? The excitement? The twist? The question that leads to more questions?" Miko says to the editors, while they squirm under the barrage of questions from Miko. "Redo it. Do not bother with the genre. Just write their stories well."
"There is nothing wrong with following the genre, but do not let it limit your imagination to create a well-written story." She says as she hands them the book while they meekly received it from her.
"If a work had the quality that could surmount the tide, why go with the flow nonetheless?" Miko gave them an advice. "Now go on, then. I'll be waiting for the rework of their story." She says to the editors and they responded with a loud yes, before bowing to her respectfully and left the shrine.
Miko finished her sake before standing up. "Inagi." She calls out to a Shrine Maiden who sometimes takes over Miko's work in the case she gets too busy. "I'll be heading out for a bit." Miko says to her.
"Yes, of course, Lady Yae." Inagi bows her head as Miko heads down to Inazuma city.
Miko was busy for the whole day, so it is to no surprise that she craves for her favourite food after a hard day's work. Fried Tofu and a sake. Perfect for satisfying her hunger and her mood.
Miko arrives at the famous Uyuu Restaurant where they served the best fried tofu all over the Inazuma. But just as she went inside the restaurant, she sees a small crowd gathering in front of the counter and a commotion that is hidden by it.
Curious of the commotion, Miko effortlessly slips deeper into the crowd to see what it is that gain so much attention of a lot of people. And judging from this familiar feeling alone, Miko can pretty much make a rough guess.
"I said get out of my restaurant!" The owner of Uyuu restaurant yells at a familiar towering man.
"Ah, yes. This was bound to happen when the world rejects you and your power." Miko thought to herself with a sigh.
Lucifer stays calm despite the owner yelling at him. "I understand. However I would appreciate it if I can just get my orders first before I leave." Lucifer says.
"Do you not hear what I just said?! You don't deserve to be in my restaurant, let alone order a food!" Okazaki Rikuto, the owner of the restaurant shouted as he bares his teeth at Lucifer. "I knew you were trouble once I saw you coming through that door. The way you look at my wife... it's clear to me that you have impure thoughts of her! How could you dare to approach a married woman when her husband is in the same room?!" Rikuto tells his reason for his anger as he hides his scared wife from Lucifer.
Miko noticed that the dark power Lucifer have is slowly consuming Rikuto's heart, influencing Rikuto's action. It's not exactly Lucifer's fault either, since his power is leaking everywhere and threatens the lives of others. Well, that would be the case if he had been near them for far too long.
The corruption will not only consume their soul, but also their mind, plunging them into madness and turning them into a being with only negative emotion and dark energy. The current actions of Rikuto is the perfect example of how everyone treats Lucifer everyday and everytime. Miko would've been the same as them, if she was a normal human, or unaware of his dark power's influence.
Whatever it is Rikuto was getting angry of, it is nothing more than trivial reason fuelled by Lucifer's dark power. Meaning that Lucifer is completely innocent, but so are the married couple who is yelling at him for a mistake he never even made.
It can't be helped as normal humans have lower tolerance against Lucifer's dark power.
"Now get out of here, before I call the guards!" Rikuto shove Lucifer in anger, which did nothing to the towering man as he stood there like the strongest pillar.
But because of that, Rikuto was the one who got pushed by his own strength and almost fell, but thankfully his wife was there to catch him.
"Rikuto! Are you okay?" Erika asked in concern for her husband.
"Did you see that? How horrible! He just shoved the owner like that!"
"Yeah! We should call the guards! We don't need a pervert and a thug in the restaurant!"
"Get him out of here!"
The crowd of people circling Lucifer starts blaming Lucifer for something he did not do, as they are slowly being consumed by Lucifer's leaking power as well.
This is the natural fate for the Devil. A world where everyone rejects him for simply being him.
To think that Lucifer had to deal with this everytime he met another soul. Miko could only imagine what kind of tough life he had been through if everyone treated him like this. How could he even stay sane at all with his power, along with the people around him resenting him for the smallest of reasons, if not--no reason at all.
Now Miko understood why Lucifer was stunned by Miko's offer to visit her again later. It was most likely the first time anyone had ever said that to him in his entire life.
"You should've just get out while we were still patient enough!"
One of the customers in the crowd decides to take matters into his own hand by throwing a bowl of steaming hot Tonkotsu Ramen at Lucifer. Miko was about to intervene, until Lucifer raise a hand at the direction of where Miko stood and shook his head at her.
"Do not intervene." Lucifer mouths to Miko, before he was splashed with the steaming hot ramen.
Because of that moment of hesitation, Miko failed to stop it in time. Lucifer never had any intention of dodging the bowl of ramen. It soaked his whole face and hair, while his face is now steaming caused by the hot ramen, but the heat of the food did nothing to faze the Harbinger.
Lucifer remains reserved and calm, his eyes are emotionless. No. Emotionless is an understatement. It's completely empty, as empty as what you would see from a dead person's eyes. It is as if he had already long accepted his fate of being the natural enemy of the world. A fate that is crueller than death. A curse, in exchange for unimaginable power.
Looking at his eyes, Miko could only wonder if the unimaginable power was worth it. Not that he had a choice, if he was corrupted by the dark power. Not even the Gods could survive the corruption, let alone conquering it like Lucifer did.
In Miko's eyes, he's merely a unique specimen that greatly amuse her. Yes, that is what he is to her. Nothing more. Nothing less. A specimen that needs to be dissected, as Lucifer had said before.
Even so...
"Oh dear me~" Miko stepped out of the crowd and quickly turned into the sole focus of the crowd. "What in Teyvat happened here?" Miko ignores the signal Lucifer was throwing at her, keeping her mood light, but an annoyance was building up under that light mood mask.
"Lady Guuji!" Everyone is surprised that they have yet to realize the big figure was standing amongst the crowd, as they were too drowned in their resentment against Lucifer, they have failed to notice the eye catching figure of Yae Miko.
"What is all this commotion about?" Miko asked, crossing her arms.
She wears her graceful and flawless front in front of everyone, unlike when she's with the people close to her, or to him when she's flawless, but blunt about her own selfish interest. This must be her public face, Lucifer thought.
"We'll explain everything, Lady Guuji! Hear this man's crime!" Erika was the one who stepped in to explain everything.
The story is just as what Miko had heard before when she watched the whole drama amongst the crowd. And it was just as Miko had expected. Lucifer is completely innocent.
Erika's story is incredibly inconsistent, as the darkness within her forces her to resent Lucifer for something as simple as him ordering a food, and Erika took that as him looking at her with impure thoughts. As expected, Lucifer's power is more terrifying in more ways than one, Miko thought.
"I see." Miko nods after they finished explaining everything to her. "I understand your anger for him. But that is no excuse for you to get violent." Miko says to the others.
"But that man shoved the owner first!" One of the people in the crowd yells in anger.
"Yeah!"
"How dare he shoved the owner! He's well respected here, unlike you, Outlander!" A few people follows in agreement, but they all nod in agreement all the same.
Miko shakes her head. Lucifer's power even twisted these people's logic when they saw it right in front of their eyes themselves. Lucifer didn't even push the owner. The owner was just pushed by his own strength.
"I hadn't realized that the people of the Inazuma city are visually impaired bunch." Miko remarks sarcastically. "Did you not saw it? Or did you choose to simply accuse him of a crime he did not commit?" Miko's cold gaze instill fears in them.
"But what should I do..." Miko hummed. "From what I see, the one who is guilty here is none other than the man who threw a steaming hot ramen at others." Miko says as she points her finger at the man who threw that ramen at Lucifer.
"So how about it? Would you like to be charged for assault? Along with falsely accusing someone from groundless accusations?" Miko's purple eyes illuminates as the temperature of the room drops, sending shivers down everyone's spine.
This is unlike her at all, Miko thought to herself. She would always be affable in the face of public, but she simply could not stay idle as they kept accusing the poor Devil. Why is she being out of character in front of the man she only knew yesterday, when she herself dislike things that are out of her control?
In the end, Miko simply pass it off as her protecting her belongings. She refuse to believe anything otherwise.
Before Miko can say anymore to them, Lucifer interrupts her. "Forgive my insolence, Lady Yae, but these people did nothing wrong." Lucifer says without a single trace of emotion on his face. "They were merely following the flow as they deeply care for the owners of the restaurant." Lucifer added more.
Miko frowns at this. So he's willing to be charged for a crime he did not commit? Miko is aware that these people cannot help but resent Lucifer without any good reason, since their negative emotion is fuelled and amplified by his power. But this is still not an excuse to let them do whatever they want.
"Owners, Guuji Yae and everyone at present. I would like to apologize for my insolence and for interrupting everyone's pleasant lunch." Lucifer bows his head to them politely. "Thank you for your generosity for not calling the guards. I will leave the restaurant as you had wish. And I wish you and your customers have a pleasant day." Lucifer bows his head once more before leaving the restaurant without sparing a glance back at Miko.
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Lucifer went to the nearest small pond around the Inazuma city where it's away from prying eyes. Once he found a clean pond of water, he starts undressing himself, revealing countless of tattoos that resembles more like scars on his muscular body. Most of the tattoo scars looks like it was caused by some kind of claws or bite from a large beast. And the biggest tattoo scar of them all is on his back, where a pair of large claw scar almost fill his entire back in a cross.
He could have simply disintegrate the food oil with his power, but he needed to take a bath anyway.
Once he cleaned his clothes with his power from all the food oil and ramen noodles, he wash himself on the pond as his mind recollects the earlier event.
"I knew you were trouble once I saw you coming through that door!"
"Did you see that? How horrible! He just shoved the owner like that!"
"You should've just get out while we were still patient enough!"
"Get him out of here!"
The words of the people in the restaurant rings a few times in Lucifer's head. He grabs a cigarette and light it up with a lighter, before taking a huge puff from it, then blowing a thick red smoke out into the open air. The smoke drowns the noises in his head along with dulling his senses, and he sighs in relief.
Lucifer is already used to this kind of treatment from anyone and everyone everyday. He couldn't blame those people for what they did, as he is the sole reason why they acted that way. That's right. He is to blame for all of this, Lucifer thought.
Still... to have Miko witnessed it all is what makes it worse. It feels embarassing to have her seeing him in that pathetic situation. Not that she doesn't know his circumstances, of course. But it just feels much worse when she saw it right then and there.
The next time they meet, it will be very awkward for him, Lucifer thought to himself as he cursed his luck.
"Never again." Lucifer muttered under his breath, scrapping the idea of ever walking in public ever again, though it's not like this is the first time he said something like this before.
He doesn't have any faith left for everyone's acceptance. It's an impossible dream compared to destroying Celestia, which sounds very weird in itself, but made very much sense.
When Miko gave him an offer to visit her again, it sparked his hopes up. Maybe he could try interacting with other people again. Maybe he just needs to give them more chance, is what Lucifer thought.
Somewhere deep within his heart, he realized that it won't ever work. But he did it anyway, like a foolish man he is.
When you saw a flicker of light in a complete void of darkness, you will desperately try to cling onto that light and kept it bright, even if it hurt you in the end. But it only made you realize later on, that all you have is darkness when the flicker of light is gone.
So all Lucifer can do is accept his fate. There is no hope for him. If he keeps hoping, it will only hurt himself more in the end. He just needs to focus on what he have now. And the only thing he have is his resentment against Celestia and his goal to bring about a perfect and peaceful world. Because without them, what is he?
"Oh dear~ What a pleasant view."
A familiar voice snaps his thoughts back to reality, and Lucifer silently cursed for dulling his own senses with the cigarette when he need it the most.
"Lady Yae." Lucifer turns to Miko who's staring at him with a pleased and amused smile on her face. "I believe the Guuji of the Grand Narukami Shrine should have been more aware than others, that taking a peek at someone while they are taking a bath is wrong and perverted." Lucifer scolds her for both sneaking at him and staring at him while he is still naked.
"You mean more perverted than you who were staring at Erika with impure thoughts?" Miko smirks playfully, even though she already knew about the whole story.
Lucifer frowns and looks down somberly at the comment. He took a huge puff of his cigarette, ignoring her remark.
"I was just playing with you, silly. No need to take it seriously." Miko says with a giggle at the frowning Lucifer. "It was just a little revenge on you for not allowing me to intervene." Miko smiles innocently.
Lucifer still responded with silence, so Miko continues. "But don't you think it's a little bit unfair of me to tease you for that?" Miko tilts her head to the side. "After all, you did it in consideration for my reputation, were you not?" Miko smiles knowingly, while Lucifer still refuse to respond.
Miko frowns at his silence, so she continues once more. "I admit, you've taken my interest. You were enigmatic and intriguing." Miko says with a smile. "But you bore me when you decided to do something as boring as protecting my reputation. You might see it as you being considerate, but I see it as you taking away the fun from me." Miko says with a shrug.
"Because where's the fun if your life is controlled by other people, hm?"
"A word of advice, Mr. Morningstar. Keep up your enigmatic presence or I'll have to name you on my 'Most boring people in Inazuma' list. And believe me when I say I could only count them with one hand, and I do not want to add a Harbinger of all people into the list." Miko scolds Lucifer like a mother would to her child.
In other words, the next time Lucifer is in that kind of situation again in the future, he needs to let Miko help him. If not, Miko will not acquaint herself with him any further. It appears he was threatened by someone who wants to help him. What a strange way of helping someone, Lucifer thought.
"Now that we've addressed that, why don't we move on to a more interesting topic?" Miko says as she placed a blanket on the grassy ground and placed a picnic basket on it. "But before that, why don't you finish your bathing first so we can talk as we have a picnic together? It is a nice day, after all." Miko suggest as she sat down on the blanket and pat the empty space next to her where he can sit down.
Although Miko's eyes wanders curiously to Lucifer's tattoos that resembles scars all over his body, she ultimately decides to keep her curiosity for a later time. They have more than plenty of time to get to know each other better in the future. No need to get impatient, Miko thought to herself with a subtle smirk playing on her face.
Lucifer look at her in silent, as if debating whether he should play along with Miko. Eventually he took another puff of his cigarette, before finishing his bathing. Miko shamelessly stare at Lucifer's godsend naked body. The first time they met, Lucifer had his jet black hair with his fringe framing his face perfectly. But now his wet hair is slicked back, showing his blessed beautiful face without being covered by his hair fringe. The sun glistens his perfect muscles and long limbs. Water trickles down from his wide chest to his hard abs. It was an incredibly erotic sight for Miko. Even if Lucifer's power is forcing her to resent him, it did nothing to dull the view that she is currently enjoying. And it's even harder to take her eyes off of Lucifer. If only she could make Lucifer show his lower half that is covered by the water. How she wish she can blow away all the water in the pond right now, but she will hold herself back...
...for now...
Miko snickers at her own impure thoughts. "If we're in the world of a light novel, our roles would be reversed." Miko says with a giggle.
Lucifer chuckles. "Then are you willing to switch with me? Or perhaps join me to make it fair?" He suggests, shooting her a charming grin.
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Word Count: 3419
AN: Thanks for reading! If you guys enjoyed it, be sure to vote this chapter, since this will tell me if I did good on the chapter or not. If not, then comment down on which part you think have some grammar mistakes and such! Any critics that can help me grow is appreciated!