"Bullshit." Hiro crossed his arms.
"Excuse me!?" Faye's eyes fluttered, taken aback.
"Hiro!" Connie hit him, indicating that he stepped out of line, and whispered: "Don't you think you should be a bit more respectful? This lady seems pretty powerful, so we don't want ruin our first impressions!"
"Well I have to be honest. This so called... 'embodiment' comes out of nowhere, the moment right after we've supposedly died, offering a second chance at life. Sounds like a bunch B.S. to me. Either it's B.S. or there's some sketchy thing we have to do in return. Nothing as sacred as a second life wouldn't simply come for free."
"Hmmmm, you catch on quicker than I would've thought, Hiro. A very bright boy indeed. And, Connie, my dear, I've had my eye on both of you for a while now. My first impressions of you happened a long while before we met today." Faye nodded her head in approval of his assumption, laughing in amusement from his rudeness and laxity about it. "However, I would advise that you hold your tongue with that attitude and disregard of my position."
She drew her face close to Hiro's. "I am the changer of world's whereas you are now just a mere worthless corpse without a soul. Be weary for I can simply leave you to the gods where they will try to judge you, only to notice that you had died when your soul was stolen. There will be no evidence of a good nor bad conscience.
"They will not care to find your soul and check themselves. They will just toss you away into Abyss where you will live the rest of your days as a tiresome Ushinawareta Tamashī with no purpose or meaning - because it's easier for them."
"A lost soul? Heh, what a creative name." Hiro scoffed.
"They say Abyss is a realm much further below hell and is far worse than anything you could expect of it. Surely being put there after such a sad death is unfair. Aren't gods supposed to be omniscient and omnibenevolent? They'd already know if the person has been good or bad without the presence of a soul. These people deserve at least a shot at living a better life in heaven, right? What if all these 'lost souls' were truly good?" Connie stated, disapprovingly.
"As I said before, it makes a part of their job easier. We all contribute to maintaining celestial balance within our universe in our own ways everyday, but holy figures that are higher ups - such as gods and embodiments like myself - do our best to control it.
"There are eight Shards of Celestial Balance: Ai - love, Kirai - hate, Hikaru - light, Yami - darkness, Chōwa - harmony, Fuwa - discord, Shijima - serenity and Shōgai - anarchy or chaos. A traditional ritual is performed when these shards are gathered together and the outcome is the formation of the Ethereal Jewel, which means celestial balance has been obtained and is absolute. However, this is only for a certain amount of time before the jewel shatters - implying that the purification ritual is due to be done again.
"Each shard has a direct opposite, which balances the other out and nullifies the negatives and the positives, meaning that everything is equal. When these shards are separated, order is no more. This is where me and the gods come in to play.
"By sending an Ushinawareta Tamashī to Abyss it feeds off the negativity the area emits and develops a Fuwa no Tamashī, a soul of discord to live on. This essentially is the birth of a creature called an Akumatenshi - demon angels that have immense power and destructive instincts.
"The presence of Akumatenshi fuel the shard, Fuwa, and act as a balance for the shard, Chōwa, which is held in heaven. This acts as a natural cleansing process for both of these shards, resulting in harmony and discord to be in balance within all realms." Faye answered, reeling off information about shards and their purpose with ease.
"So these people's lives are unwillingly changed for the ease of a few lazy gods, who can't be bothered to do their job right? Why not just gather all the shards as soon as the gem splits?" Hiro questioned.
"There are... complications. It's difficult to locate the shards once they're apart and often they get into the wrong hands…" Faye's trail of thought began to drift away. "This is not what I wished to discuss with you, mortals. I was only informing you on what would happen if you don't accept my terms."
"What actually are your terms, if you don't mind me asking?" Connie muttered, not too keen on the whole situation already. She still felt as if something terrible was going to happen - as if the worst were yet to come.
"You see that string attached to both of your wrists?" Connie and Hiro both peered at the long line of glowing red and durable string that connected them."
"What the heck is this thing?" Hiro tried to pull it off, but it was no use.
"It's an Eternal Bond of Fate. Usually it is connected to the person's heart; however, you two are a unique case..." Faye smiled.
"Unique how? Is it because we're tied together? What does that mean!?" Connie began to panic.
"You two died at the exact same time. 23:11 on the dot. Not a second more. Not a second less. That, along with the fact you no longer have your souls, has allowed both your life threads to be intertwined and immortalised. A very rare reaction to a misfortunate death I haven't seen since-" Faye halted her speech. "Well, let's say it's been a very long while..."
"We're stuck like this!?" Connie shrieked.
"Seems so." Hiro shrugged.
"It seems that Destiny has not been so kind to the both of you, so I - as your glorious saviour - will allow you to take this gift of life because I have deemed you worthy of a second chance... IF you accept my contract that is. All you will have to do is help me sustain Ethereal Balance within the universe. Simple enough, right?" Faye explained.
"Pah! Glorious saviour!? Please!" Hiro received yet another slap around the head after mocking her as a warning from Connie. "Will you stop that, Connie! ...There's something you're not telling us again. That can't be all." Hiro frowned. "Elaborate what 'helping you' consists of."
"And how exactly would we be able to help you? You have all this power and we're just... well we're just us. Humans, I mean." Connie thought aloud.
"Oh, no, my dear. You are so much more than that. Both of you have more spirit in yourselves than the average human, meaning you have magic potential. Else I wouldn't save you if you weren't beneficial to me in some way or another." Faye mumbled the last bit to herself.
"I do feel rather energised now that you mention it. Is that a sign that my magic is working?" Connie gasped, eager to know the answer.
"Hmmm... no. That is just the effects of this realm. Being here in Celeste boosts all magical elements. That is no proof of your magical abilities working." Connie's head sank in disappointment at Faye's response.
"Oh..." She pouted.
"Anyways let's just cut to the chase. You guys don't want to be dead right?" Faye was beginning to get impatient with their never ending line of questions.
"No..."
"Not really."
"Lovely. Then accept my contract and we can get to it!"
"We still have no idea what we're signing up for though..." Connie laughed, wryly.
"I'll explain on the job. You'll learn as we go along."
"She's being secretive because she's knows we won't like what we'll have to do." Hiro whispered into Connie's ear, which made Faye snap.
"Your lives have come to an end. I am already being much too generous, allowing you to waste my time here. Perhaps I'm not being clear enough. You will work for me else you will be reborn as an Akumatenshi and will ensure makes your second death much worse than the first you've already experienced."
"Look at that! She's threatening to kill a dead person! How psychotic!"
"Hiro, can you actually think about our situation seriously for a sec!? We're dead now! If we don't accept this contract we'll become one of those dreaded demon angel things! I think it's best to just do what she wants. A second chance at life is an opportunity that shouldn't be taken lightly! Are you even thinking about all those people who die and are just dead forever!? And here you are with your huge ass ego tossing away this-!"
"Yeah, yeah. Shuddup. I don't wanna hear your lectures, Connie. I have been seriously thinking... Don't you think being an Akumatenshi sounds pretty badass!? Doesn't sound too much like a horrible way to go at all if you ask me."
"You are wrong on so, SO many levels." Connie screwed up her face in disgust before face palming.
"Usually, normal people would have already accepted my contract as soon as offer a chance to live again - but here you two are having a dispute about whether you should take it or not..." Faye's tone became unbothered and less friendly than before. "Allow me to hurry this along."
With just a wave of her hand, the remaining pale colour in Hiro's face was being sapped from him and he immediately fell to the floor.
"Hiro...? Oh my god, Hiro!" Connie ran to aid him, but it looked as if he was suffocating in a sort of way, desperately gasping for breathable air. "W-what's happening to him? What did you do!?" She began flailing about in a panic, not sure in the slightest how to make it stop.
"Just being nice and giving him a taste of the process to form a soul of discord. Very pain-staking might I add... Having your insides dishevel into nothing more than a source of negative power. Your human body tearing itself apart because it cannot endure that mammoth scale of spirit you have to retain..." Faye kept reeling off the list as Hiro's condition only worsened.
He was starting to form visible black veins around his eye and up his neck, fading down to his arms and his eyes were also loosing colour - transforming into a black void of darkness. Connie was in tears as she tried to shake him out of it, screaming his name to see if there were any sort of reaction, be it movement or speech; however, there was noting. He looked almost alien.
"Please! Please make this stop!" Connie wailed.
"Only if you accept my-"
"We will! Just save him!"
"Excellent!" Faye clapped, gracefully waved her hand once more. "See how easy the decision was!? How was your experience, Hiro. Enjoyable? I'd like to think I was doing you a favour letting you try that."
Hiro was completely out of it still. His breathing was heavy and he'd give out gut-wrenching wheezes every now and then. His facial expression was fixed in a way where you could sense the excruciating pain he had just been through and the trauma had him looking as if he had seen a ghost.
He wasn't looking anywhere in particular, his eyes were lost and were just gazing into space. He still wouldn't budge not after being tormented like that. He wouldn't respond to Connie's "are you okay!?"'s or to Faye's mocking.
Connie knew that this wasn't the woman you want to mess with and decided to keep her guard up from then on.
"Will he be alright?"
"Oh I can fix him... but he's just so much quieter! It's lovely! Wouldn't you agree, my dear?" Faye teased.
"Please just bring him back so we can get started. We still don't know what we've put ourselves up to." Connie remarked, sternly.
"As you wish."