An awkward silence was created in that room, while Yuki kept her gaze fixed on the man sitting next to her on the bed. With all the series of events that had occurred, it was no wonder that she remained on her guard even though it seemed that the hostility between the two had ceased for the moment.
"You know, the marks you left on my face still feel throbbing. You were like a stray cat that threw claws into the air that night" - Running his fingertips over the marks, Hiro smiled sarcastically.
Continuing to speak, he explained that the incident in the abandoned building was on the news. And that all that commotion had reached the ears of her grandfather, who had given her the order to find him and take him back to the mansion. And that he would not allow him to keep moving as he pleased as long as he bore the name of the Yamaguchi clan.
"I'll pick up your things at the apartment, I'll talk to the doctor to sign your discharge order from the hospital" - Just when he was about to leave, he saw a young girl who was sitting on the bed continues to Yuki. Lucifer when looking into Hiro's eyes, he felt a lot of fear, similar to what he experienced with the confrontation with Hanabi. Which made her throw herself into Yuki's lap instinctively, which she placed her hand on her head, caressing him to comfort her.
"Who is that girl who is so confident with you !?" - Crossing his arms and looking seriously at the two, Hiro felt uncomfortable because he had not felt the presence of Lucero when he entered the room and realized that he spoke too many details in front of someone completely outside the clan.
Yuki's hand slowly descended over Lucero's head until it reached her chin, lifting her face with just a couple of fingers as he brought her lips together with hers in a tender kiss. She leaving Lucero stunned, who completely confused by that situation did not know how to respond.
"What do you think he is after this?" - Yuki rebuked Hiro making it clear that she should not get into matters that she did not correspond to him. Which made that man seriously angry, who had already lost his temper on more than one occasion in the past and thus led to the death of Yukino.
"She will go with you to the mansion, I cannot let someone outside the clan go around opening their mouths too much. You will take care of your girlfriend and you will be responsible to the old man for any stupidity that he may do" - Turning around and picking up his pace, Hiro left the room slamming the door.
"Everything is fine now Lu ..." - A slap crossed Yuki's face, who when looking at Lucero's eyes she could see that she was crying. It wasn't like the typical tantrums she used to throw from a spoiled girl tantrum, but tears from someone she felt had been violated.
"I don't want you to take me for a fool, please. I know I am not someone strong with this pathetic mortal body, but if you have come to appreciate me in any way, avoid taking me lightly" - Shaky between anger and crying, Lucero did not know how to react properly to this new sensation he was experiencing. What was that? It was what she wondered in her confusion as Yuki took her hand and searched her gaze.
"I promise you that I will not do anything that could hurt you" - With a solemn face, Yuki spoke these words that began to reassure Lucero, who felt a warmth in her chest while her heart accelerated.
After a few minutes and being calmer, Lucero begins to explain to Yuki many things that had to do with the fight she had with Hanabi.
Before astrals like her existed, there was a time when the primordial force that many knew as gaia, spawned spiritual beings that shaped everything that exists. These beings converged in the flow of life giving way to the cycle of creation and destruction, the continuous circle of life and death.
These entities became known as the architects, those who had control over the manipulation of the flow of life. Their vast knowledge, acquired by eons of observation and experimentation, allowed them to conceive the new forms of life that had to be created to give meaning to chaos.
It was then that the Loa, astral entities inferior to the Architects, but superior to any being created after them, existed for the first time. Each Loa was entrusted to model a species that they would protect, evaluate and, when their time came, would make them disappear at the end of the experiment.
During the course of the ages, countless species have appeared and disappeared from the universe as a result of the experiments that the Architects devised for themselves. With each of them, the nature of the Loa was affected in a substantial way, causing many of them to lose their sanity to see his essence altered.
When this happened, the Architects did not hesitate in their decision to reshape them; a mere euphemism to refer to the act of eliminating their consciences and conserving matter to create yet another.
The Loa being conscious and thinking beings, they felt despised by those superior entities. So one day some of them formed a rebellion to overthrow them and gain control of the flow of life.
That battle became a war that decimated much of the universe, on both sides the casualties were piling up and this motivated the Loa even more. That they understood with this that the Architects were far from being unattainable beings.
It was then that the Architects fully understood the folly of their arrogance and four of them decided to commit an act that for their culture was taboo. Individuality is the very essence of souls, which gives them a meaning and reason for being. When two souls were to merge, the power received in that new being was immense, but the price to pay resulted in the loss of one's identity, giving way to madness.
To prevent this from happening, they designed a four-piece talisman; Each fragment would preserve the consciousness and identity of each soul, and with it the new created being would be completely mentally stable.
That being that was created that day was known as Pandora. Who as the first act of her eternal reign over the universe, destroyed all the Loa who revealed themselves; sending them to merge with the flow of life, trapped until the end of time. Or that was what was believed back then.
Millennia passed before the Architects once again thought of creating new beings that would help them reshape the universe. But this time, those beings would only have the power to shape gaia once. To later become mere observers and guides of the new creation.
And so it was from that moment to the present, those new entities were known as astral. Powerful to a great extent, but hardly the shadow of what were once the titanic beings known as Loa.
"That broadly speaking is the origin of what has brought us up to this moment, but it is only the tip of the iceberg in this immense ocean of chaos" - With a melancholy look, Lucero rests her head on the palm of her hand as she tries to get comfortable to continue with the explanation of why at all.
The whole system that was created from those events was known as the ouroboros. The perfect cycle of death and rebirth that gave movement to existence. Each planet where life is housed, there is an ouroboros that makes the life cycle flow in a harmonious and peaceful way. And for each oruboros, there is an administrator with their respective subordinates.
The one who holds the greatest power and hierarchy is known as Arcana. While the lower ranks are known as Nymphs. With that order in place, the Architects took for granted what they considered the creation of the perfect balance system.
Each piece moving continuously, in balance with the flow of life and connecting everything. The greatest achievement they could have developed after the failure of the creation of the Loa. But if history has taught us anything, it's that you can't hide skeletons in your closet for long.
In a distant star to our sun, a rupture began to manifest itself in the ouroboros that ruled that planet. The flow of life began to present disturbances to the degree of becoming unstable. The Arcana responsible for monitoring that system, was the first to contemplate what for her was an atypical phenomenon of uncontrolled rebirths. Strange entities began to emerge from the flow of life without a conscience of their own, but dominated by a wild and primitive instinct, comparable to the enormous power that they manifested on that planet.
The Architects upon learning of this situation energetically instructed the guardian that neither she nor her subordinates would interfere in the events that arose in her ouroboros. Agreeing with her reservations on the matter, the Arcana proceeded as ordered.
In a few years those primitive entities wreaked havoc on the flow of life that ruled that planet, to the point that all forms of life were on the verge of being completely extinct. Reason why, that Arcana decided to disobey her superiors, leaving her subordinates out of the problem.
It goes without saying that his efforts were in vain already at the point where that situation was, seeing himself in the painful need to sacrifice his existence by sealing the ouroboros of that planet. Turning him into a barren rock that floated in the empty space of the universe.
Outraged by that situation, a young astral woman appeared before the Architects to present the conclusions that she had reached in observing her. Making it clear that it was imperative to find a way to channel these atypical events in order to avoid a misfortune like the one her eyes had seen.
The Architects saw that that astral was right in her affirmations, for which they agreed to comply with her proposal. That astral was reshaped into an Arcana, and she was entrusted to replicate her strategy in each of the ouroboros existing throughout the universe.
The entities that were created from the disturbance of the flow of life, were assigned the name of voids. Which by their nature were considered harmful to the flow of life, with the inexorable destiny of being eradicated. For this, she proposed to use against her the same destructive nature of her, but endowed with a consciousness that could allow her to be correctly channeled.
This is where the Architects suggested that these control entities use mortal bodies in order to be managed without the inconvenience that they could get out of control. Baptizing them with the name of Loa, alluding to the origin of the problem they had encountered due to their actions in the past.
"This is too much information for me to digest as you give it to me Lucero. It is simply not something that I can accept as quickly as my own reality" - Yuki felt cornered before this revelation, which although it was something with which she was not agreeable. Okay, it made sense of what happened while he was in a trance in the fight with Hanabi.
That anthropomorphic entity that emerged from the flow of life must be that which was considered a void. But she at the same time she could not be compared to the characteristics that had been told, that was not an entity without consciousness. She spoke and reasoned as if it were a living being, it was something that did not correspond at all with the explanation.
But feeling that she would not find a concrete answer if she explained it to Lucero, she preferred to keep it to herself. In the same way, she hid from him that vision that she experienced while she was unconscious in the hospital.
"There is something I would like to tell you Yuki" - Sitting on the bed, Lucero raises her face looking at the ceiling as if trying to meditate on what she was about to say, taking advantage of the fact that the rabbit stuffed animal was stored along with the rest of the belongings when they were entered.
That night that Hanabi attacked them in the abandoned building, Lucero noticed something strange. The stuffed animal must have shown a signal of defensive response as Hanabi approached it hostilely. But it hadn't, which was completely strange since that stuffed animal was the full manifestation of Freyja's will. Which led her to wonder about the true intentions of the Arcana. Why had she made Adam reincarnate in Tokyo, where a guardian already existed?
Both were left thinking for a few minutes about the reason for those events, without finding an answer that would leave them satisfied. Being interrupted by the floor nurse who had arrived with the medical discharge order authorized by the hospital director, as well as her belongings including the enigmatic teddy bear.
As they left the hospital, a man dressed in black was waiting for them at the door with a fully tinted van. Opening the back door giving them the signal to go up without major mishap.
The vehicle drove for a period of 2 hours due to heavy traffic caused by an accident a couple of kilometers away. A passenger bus had lost control and spilled several cars in its path, causing emergency services to overwhelm.
Upon reaching the apartment building, that man got out of the truck and opened the door for them, indicating that they only had an hour to take their clothes and important objects. Since in a few hours a moving truck would pick up the furniture and boxes of belongings that were left behind.
Going up the stairs, Yuki observed some small stains of dried blood that had been left on the carpet in the hall. Which made him remember that painful night, making her gaze sadden a bit and clench her fists. Feeling a few seconds a gentle hand that she was holding trying to comfort him while she observed him with a slight smile.
Arriving at the apartment, they proceeded to put away all the clothes that were in the closet. Leaving only a few changes of clothes that they arranged in a small suitcase with drawings of black kittens on a pink background.
"If I were still a man, this suitcase would make me die of shame when going out on the street" - Laughing a little at the thought of that dissonant image, Lucero contacted Lucero with his joy, who could not contain himself enough and fell to his knees for not being able to hold your breath for laughter.
The laughter was interrupted by the energetic knocks that were given to the door, that man had gone up to see that he could be left to save and reminded them that they had to leave in a few minutes.
Giving one last look around the room, Yuki prepared to leave. I take that suitcase of luggage and a briefcase with a laptop that was on a chair. Just before walking through the door, he felt a sensation that made him turn in the direction of the front entrance stool.
Several nights ago he had seen her and she had been completely alien to him, but even without being her family, at that moment she felt something that prompted her to put that photographic frame in her laptop bag.
In the back seat of the truck, he takes one last look at the building where he had seen the light again. She accidentally directing her gaze to the infamous alley where she nearly lost her life, making him shiver with helplessness just remembering it. She being reassured by Lucero's hug, who whispered in her ear: "That night was your strength that kept you alive, don't feel bad or be afraid. If you are afraid, who can protect me?"
The truck's engine started and started immediately, Lucero and Yuki began to feel relaxed by the movement of the vehicle until they were deprived of all the outside world. That break only lasted an hour when they felt the vehicle begin to vibrate.
The driver had entered a paved road that was surrounded by fruit trees and cherry trees, that scene made the two young women instinctively lower the glass to appreciate the rays of the sun that crossed the treetops. Feeling a refreshing morning breeze that swayed the branches, making them release petals and wonderful aromas.
It was the grounds of the Yamaguchi mansion, that place where Yuki remembered Shizu and Yoshino had lived for most of their lives. That path evoked blurred images in Yuki's mind, one in particular standing out for a moment: A boy and a girl secretly kissing under a cherry tree.
Suddenly the truck stopped its march in front of the main gate of the mansion. The massive oak doors creaked open, revealing the figure of an older man with a stooped look. His silver hair, less abundant than before, but preserving the dignity of that chonmage that evoked the ancient samurai.
His eyes, already somewhat tired by time, contemplated a young woman with black hair descending from the truck. Making him quickly pounce on her hugging him with an immense show of affection that was strange to Yuki.
"Shizu, my dear daughter you have finally returned home to your father." - Tears flowed abundantly in that old man, making it almost impossible for Yuki to get him out of his mistake. Feeling empathy for remembering the old woman to be her mother in the past life.
A white lie that made an old man happy at the end of his days, which would eventually bring more trouble to the new existence and mission that Yuki had to face.