The day after the group's little "explanation" meeting, Aiko still couldn't shake the thought of someone deliberately trying to get a hold of her.
Let alone Angels.
And on top of that, she hadn't made any real progress with Urushihara.
He never seemed to want to talk to her, and hasn't been online lately. Fear was starting to take over Aiko's mind.
'Have I really screwed this up?...'
She thinks as she finishes off towel drying her hair from just getting out of the shower.
As if on cue, music started to play throughout the young girl's room. The last chorus of CLØWD's ANTITHESE rang on her cell phone as she rushed over to her nightstand, answering it in such haste that she didn't even see the caller ID.
"Hello?"
"Hey Aiko, sorry to bug ya, but can I ask a favor?" Maou's voice sounded on the other end of the line.
"Yeah sure, what's up?"
"My manager asked me to stay a little longer at my shift today, so I won't make it home in time to help Ashiya with lunch. He came down with a massive stomach ache this morning and can barely stand up. Do you think you could stop by to help him? Urushihara ain't gonna do anything,"
"Yeah I can do that no problem at all! It's the least I can do. Good thing it's sunday and I have the day off," she chuckles.
"Great! Thanks so much, I owe you one,"
"Don't mention it, Maou. I'll see you later,"
After saying their goodbyes, Aiko goes to her closet to start getting ready to leave.
'If that wasn't a sign to confront Hara, than I don't know what would be.'
•
•
•
*Knock knock knock*
Her knuckles rasp against the familiar wooden door.
Again there were muffled voices heard as well as a faint thud. Aiko shook her head slightly and chortled.
'His legs fell asleep again,'
The door swung open, and there stood said boy whose legs were formally asleep.
Aiko gave him an awkward smile.
"Hey Hara,"
"...Hey," he mumbles before turning and going back to the computer.
"Hmph..." the girl pouts as she enters the room.
"Ms. Yamagishi? What brings you here?" Aiko turns her eyes in the direction of the voice. A sickly looking Ashiya was leaning up against the wall, blanket around his body, and book in hand.
"Typical Ashiya, so formal. Even after you know me as your niece you still insist on calling me 'Ms.'? Just call me Aiko. Or else I'll start calling you Uncle,"
"Info received, I shall try to remember," his stomach then lets out a quick gurgle and he places his hand on it, groaning slightly in pain.
"And that's why I am here. Maou said he has to work a couple hours more than planned, and he told me how you weren't feeling good, so I'm here to make you guys a late lunch. Or actually, I bought you guys lunch!" She holds up a plastic bag that holds three cups of soup.
Urushihara whips his head around at this information.
"You are too kind Ms. Ya-...Aiko," She smiles brightly at his attempt to say her first name.
"Here, I got you Miso soup. That should help with that stomach ache," she reaches into her bag and places the cup on the table.
Taking out the second cup and a pair of chopsticks, she places them on the table closest to the purple haired boy.
"I got Urushihara chicken flavored ramen,"
Finally, taking the last cup and putting in down in front of her, she sits down.
"And I got myself some Cream soup. Now come you two. Eat up," She takes the lid off her cup as the two crawl over to the table.
Hara tried his best to sneakily take his cup back to his computer, but Aiko caught him.
"Nuh uh! You eat at the table,"
"Why do I have to?"
"Don't talk back to her like that! Be grateful she even bought you anything," Ashiya adds in.
"Its not like I asked her to!"
"How dare you be ungrateful-!"
"Ashiya, its alright. Fine, if you wants to eat at your computer so bad, g'head...I don't care," the bluenette dejectedly looks down at her soup and solemnly starts eating it.
Only a few seconds later was a sigh heard and the murmur of what Aiko assumed was '...damn it'.
She looks up and sees the boy sitting at the table like she asked. Though a guilty look was plastered across his face along with a dusting of pink across his cheeks.
"Thanks Hara," she smiles at him.
"Yeah yeah..."
They all then eat in a peaceful silence.
It didn't take long for everyone to finish though. And soon, Aiko began cleaning the table.
"If you're tired Ashiya, you should get some sleep. You need as much rest as possible,"
"Thank you for your consideration, but I must finish reading this tome,"
"Tome? What exactly is that?" Aiko asks as she throws the old soup cups away.
"The library said it is a collection of old sorcery documents. I have been trying to find a source of magic on this planet that actually is reliable,"
"Here, I can help you. I want you to get better. Can't have my last family member dying on me now can I?" She gently takes the book out of his hands.
"You do not have to do that Aiko. I am in your debt enough as is," his eyes were struggling to stay open.
"Oh please, you guys are never in my debt. Just rest and I'll jot down notes on what I find,"
Not being able to argue any longer, the blond lays down on his back and pulls the blanket closer around his frame.
Aiko places the book down on the table before pulling her glasses out of her bag, slipping them on.
She then decides to go over to her purple haired crush and plop down beside him.
"Whaddya want four eyes?"
"Hey...that's mean," she pouts.
"Well you're being annoying,"
There was a moment of awkward silence before Aiko decided to ask the question she has wondering the answer to ever since that night.
"...Do you hate me?.."
His head whips to the side as his eyes widen slightly. He shakes his head vigorously.
"W-What?! No!"
"Hm..." she thinks before something under the table catches her attention.
Reaching out and wrapping her fingers around the fake purple flowers, she puts the old flower crown a top her head.
"Alright. I'll be at the table if ya need me," she turns around and crawls her way back to the side of the table.
Unbeknownst to her, Urushihara's face flushed fifty different shades of red from how cute the oblivious bluenette looked just then.
He shifts in his spot, recrossing his legs, and does his best to distract himself on the laptop.
A couple of hours pass and unfortunately Aiko didn't have much written down from the three books she spent time reading.
She was just finishing up the last book when Maou came home a little before four. Her head turned 90° towards the door.
"Hey Maou! Great timing, I have a question about something," she places her pen down on her note pad and holds up the book to him, "Do you know what language this is? It's not Japanese, nor is it any dialect of Ente Islan. And I don't think it's English either."
He squints his eyes at the page, trying to decipher the text, though, unfortunately, in vain it seems.
"Sorry Aiko, no idea what it is. Why don't you use the internet to translate it,"
"My computer," Aiko heard Urushihara grumble. Though Maou must have heard it too, because he threw a dirty rag from the kitchen at the back of his head.
"Gross! What the hell man, this thing is filthy!"
"Don't be such a selfish brat then,"
Grabbing the book and heading over next to the NEET, she places the book next to the keyboard.
"Come on Hara, please help out," the boy let out a sigh before opening a new tab and searching the first sentence at the top of page.
"It's Latin,"
"Latin?"
"Yeah. No one uses it anymore though. Its an old ass language." He closes the tab and goes back to whatever he was doing before.
Aiko takes back the book and sits down at the table once more.
"Interesting," she starts reading the text at the top that was written in black ink. Mumbling slightly under her breath, trying to pronounce each unknown word.
Taking off the flower crown a top her head, she starting twirling it in the air around her finger as Maou's voice reached her ears.
"You staying for dinner Aiko?"
"If its not too much of a bother, sure!"
"Cool," He gives her a dorky smile before starting to make dinner.
"This foreign language is so...different. It doesn't sound as harsh as Ente Islan, or as elegant as Japanese. Listen to this Maou," Aiko stops twirling the headpiece and grips it tightly in her right hand as she holds up the book in her left. Reading the four lines in the middle of the page in red ink.
"Animabus nostris et catenis erit removere. Haec parva momenta complecti armis contra mortale. Alii sensus non sentiunt inter se, ut in se sentiunt dolorem. Cum praeterita nostra caedens sync innotescit."
Immediately after speaking the last syllable, Aiko's body completely tenses.
"Yeah, you're right. That is definitely different-" The Devil King's sentence was cut short as a loud thud resonated throughout the small apartment. It even caused Ashiya to awaken from his deep slumber.
The black haired boy's head whipped around behind him to find the source of the sudden racket. Assuming it was Urushihara his mouth turned into a frown, ready to scold to NEET. But to his surprise, it wasn't him. The cause of the clamor, was in fact Aiko.
The book the bluenette held not seconds ago had slipped from her grip and hit the table before falling onto the floor beside her. The flower crown now resting in her lap as well. Her position caused the demon's face to scrunch in worry.
Her body was stock still. So much so it did not even look like she was breathing. Her hands were still in the position they were when reading the paragraph of foreign text, out in front of her, as if she was holding an invisible book.
"Uh, hey, Aiko?" He leaned down behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Her muscles were so tense it almost felt like she was made of stone.
"Sire?" Ashiya catches his Master's attention as he sits himself up, "Something the matter?"
He doesn't respond. Instead, he walks around the table to face the girl.
His eyes widen after they make contact with the hybrid.
"Um...I think it's safe to say, yeah, something's wrong,"
The blond wraps the blanket around his frame before attempting to stand up. He struggles to walk over to Aiko, but once he does, and catches a glimpse of what his King saw, he lightly gasps.
"...My liege. I think it's imperative we contact the Hero."
"Urushihara, you heard him. Call Emi,"
"........"
"Yo, Urushihara, did you hear me?" He vocalized more assertively.
"........"
"Lucifer, damn it, you disobedient son of a-!" Gripping his shoulders and turning the purple haired boy around, Maou freezes on the spot.
"What the hell is going on here?!"
•
•
•
"You really expect me to believe this just happened out of nowhere?!"
"Oh for the love of-!" Maou pinches the bridge of his nose as the angry red head looked between the two teens sitting across from each other at the table.
"Can you please put your petty rivalry aside for just one second to help us figure this out?!"
Emi grunts before placing her purse on the ground and sitting down beside it.
"How long have they been like this?"
"Almost an hour,"
A few seconds of silence pass before a sigh leaves the Hero's lips.
"Alright, explain everything,"
And so he did.
"So she read something from that book, and then this happened?" The fuchsia haired female gestured to the two human statues.
"Pretty much,"
"Sorry to interrupt Sire, but I think I finally deciphered what she said," both sets of eyes immediately turned to the former demon general.
"Go on," Maou approved.
"Well, the short of it is that it's an ancient incantation. Word for word, the text Aiko spoke reads, 'Remove these chains of time and have our souls be one. Let these mortal arms embrace the moments that haunt before. We feel each others sentiment, we feel each other's pain. Our hearts beat in sync as the past becomes known.'"
"...Are you telling me these two are switching past lives?"
Ashiya facepalms.
"The little respect I had for your intelligence just flew out the window,"
Emi's fist slam down on the table in front of her.
"What's that suppose to mean you filthy demon?!"
"They are not 'switching past lives', they are watching and experiencing each other's current past,"
"I guess that explains their eyes," The black haired make speaks up.
The trio quickly looks between the two frozen teens.
Aiko's irises were no longer their beautiful, deep sapphire. They were a bright violet.
They were Lucifer's eyes.
The said demon's pair were switched as well, his own irises being Aiko's iconic blue.
Both sets of eyes however, had their corneas clouded with an iridescent shade of gold. Which seemed to swirl within, similarly to how it would look of someone were to squeeze a droplet of food coloring into a cup of water. Watching the pigment elegantly swim in the clear liquid, almost as if it was floating.
"But how does that explain how Urushihara got into this mess? Aiko was the one to say the spell or whatever, right?"
"I translated the entire page," Ashiya began answering, "In order for the enchantment to work, you need the DNA of the two participants whom you want to involve with each other."
"This obviously happened by accident. What did she use that had both her and his DNA on it?"
Maou's eyes scanned over to the blue haired female. He leaned over and grabbed the flower crown from her lap.
"Maybe this thing. She was holding onto it when she read me the spell. And her and Lucifer both wore it at one point. Some of their hair must've gotten stuck in it or something."
Emi crossed her arms over her chest.
"Alright then, so basically, right now Urushihara is experiencing Aiko's past. And Aiko is experiencing-"
Interrupting the Hero's sentence, the purple haired boy, whose face was full on blushed, gasped and shivered. His hands instinctively gripped the edge of the table in front of him to keep him from falling over, as his head rushes with dizziness.
After a few seconds, he looks down. Closing his eyes, one of his hands combs back his long bangs.
"Damn dude...What the hell was that? Why..."
"Lucifer. What did you see?" Maou commands from his former general.
He looks up at the Devil King.
"Everything. Her whole life. Shit man I felt everythin' too. I'm exhausted..." his head falls down, and with a soft thud his forehead hits the table.
"If it only took an hour for him to see her past, and that exhausted him. I can't imagine how Aiko's gonna feel whenever she comes to." Emi speaks up.
"Wait what?!" Hara shoots up. His now normal eyes making direct contact with the girl across from him. Still the same as she has been.
"Snap her out of it!"
"We can't. Why?"
"Just...Cause!" he slouches down after no one did anything. Knowing nothing could be done.
'There're just some things no one should have to experience from my past...Especially her.'
"How long do you think she will be in this trance?" Ashiya asks as he lays back down next to the wall.
"Well, if she's not even 200 yet, and it took him an hour to witness it all..."
"Urushihara, how old are you exactly?" Maou quickly questioned.
"Dude I have no idea. It's been so long I can't even remember," he slowly crawls over to his box tunnel.
"...Yeah she's gonna be there a while."
And indeed for a while she sat there.
Emi decided to stay the night, just so that whenever Aiko came to, she could walk her home.
As exhausted as Hara was, he couldn't sleep straight through the night. He subconsciously kept waking up every hour. Probably to keep an eye on the bluenette, which wouldn't surprise him.
It scared him, but didn't surprise him.
It was a little after four in the morning when he woke up again. For the fifth time. He crawled out of his cardboard bed box and shuffled sleepily over to the bathroom.
After relieving himself, and leaving said room, as his feet drug across the tatami mats he was just about the kneel down to crawl back to bed when his ears were filled with the most agonizing gasp of air he had ever heard.
His body swiftly did a 180° turn. His eyes immediately landing on the shaking figure behind the table.
The moon outside trickled in its light through the window, casting a dim glow upon the trembling female. It caused the tear that ran down her blushed cheek to shimmer with an almost alluring melancholy.
The fallen angel daren't move. Not even when Aiko finally looked up, making eye contact with the short boy on the other side of the table.
"....Lucifer..." She whispered. Barely audible to hear even in the complete silence of the room.
"Forget it." He walked over to the unconscious Hero and nudged her awake with his foot. She grumbled and smacked his leg away, mumbling obscenities toward him before sitting up.
"....I-I...B-But..." Aiko chocked back a sob.
"I said, forget it. Okay?" He kneels down and crawls back into his box tunnel.
'...No...I can't...I can't ever forget that...'