How long has it been? Some hours? Maybe days ?, with great certainty the notion of time was something that did not cross Yukino's mind as she opened her eyes to contemplate the ceiling of a room that was particularly familiar to her. The aroma of bamboo and grass, bathed in the morning dew, reached her nostrils thanks to the gentle breeze that came through the window.
Her body felt as if it had been beaten to death and her muscles ripped fiber by fiber. It was then that she remembered the moment when he returned to her body as the dimension of the orb collapsed in Hanabi's office. "Kaoru!" - Exclaiming with a start, she remembered that the last thing she saw was her friend, completely mortified by hers. Where was she? How had she gotten out of the office and she was lying on the bed? Those questions circled in her head as she struggled to get up from her bed.
"Stop, you're still damaged Yukino" - With a monotonous tone due to her lethargy, Kaoru held Yukino's hand with barely any force. Both were in the room of the Yamaguchi mansion; right after she passed out from the effort she put in, Hanabi was able to contain the implosion without being dragged into the black hole. But that effort had taken too much of her energy and she was transferred to a hospital.
Being calmer knowing that Kaoru and Hanabi were fine, Yukino continued to rest on her bed while she, in her thoughts, remembered the words Iblis had said in her combat. That battle was fought on the spiritual plane. Why did her body feel like this? What was Hanabi's fear of Iblis's illusory technique? Those questions greatly disturbed the depths of her being.
"I see that you are still having fun to the extreme, dear Yukino" - Leaning her back against the door frame, Hiro directs an incisive glance at the convalescent girl, at the same time that he outlines a smile of satisfaction when contemplating her in that state. Approaching the bed little by little, Hiro placed his hand on Yukino's neck as she squeezed him slightly causing him to give off a subtle moan.
"Wow, I didn't think you were so dirty to get turned on by this kind of thing" - Those words made Kaoru angry, who without considering the consequences of her actions slapped Hiro, breaking his lip a little. Who turned to look at her directly in the eyes of her while he brought her face closer to hers, trying to intimidate her without obtaining any success.
"So the little pet has finally pulled out its claws to defend its lover. Wow, I think right now I'm taking much more interest in other succulent types of gourmet Yukino dishes. I think it's unfair that only you can taste this incredible delicacy wild rabbit "- Hiro took a lock of Kaoru's hair, passing it from one end to the other through his nose while he sniffed it eagerly to put his hands on that girl who had had the audacity to touch his face.
Just at that moment Anzu the governess came to the door of the room pretending that she was coughing to get the attention of the young master. In order for her not to do anything inconvenient since a visitor had arrived at the mansion in search of Yukino.
Clicking his tongue against the roof of the mouth, Hiro proceeded to leave the room. Not without first making a sign to Kaoru giving her to understand that he would have her eyes on her. When he finally finished leaving the room, he was collapsing sitting on the bed while Yukino felt her hand shake holding his.
"Do not be afraid, I will protect you as long as I am by your side. It is my promise to you" - Smiling and winking at her, Yukino tried to comfort the vulnerable young woman who had shown courage in facing the miserable Hiro.
"This way please" - Bowing her face in reverence Anzu indicated to the visitor that she could now enter the room. That distinctive auburn hair, voluptuous figure, and black tailored suit were unmistakable, save for the dissonance of a stricken face that was far from the ever-arrogant Hanabi nature. Who took a chair from one end of the room to sit in front of the bed.
Leaning her face a little as she clenched her fists to her lap, she couldn't hold back any longer as she contemplated the empty expression in Yukino's gaze, that light and spirit of defiance had completely dissolved to the point of making her end up breaking into a deep sea of tears.
"When I first heard about you, I felt enormous curiosity about what Freyja was holding. The moment our eyes met for the first time, I began to hate you; because you had it, that same look that I had, the the same one that I had lost a long time ago "- Leaning a little, Hanabi rested her forehead on Yukino's hand, while still letting those tears of pain flow. That pain that was testimony to that fatal event in the Tokyo subway station.
Taking a bit of composure, Hanabi sat up and began to explain why her sudden shift from her to her. The terrible secret that Iblis's psychic abilities hid were not at all something that could be considered as something to be taken lightly.
Leonardo Da Vinci once formulated a corollary on the existence of the soul in all living beings, with particular emphasis on the condition of man. He said that the brain was the recipient of the soul of every living being and that was undeniable given the evidence of total loss of consciousness in brain death.
Iblis had discovered this through his deep analysis of the life stream, many eons before the first human inhabited the universe. Being an entity devoid of deep sensations or emotions, Iblis was jealous of all beings that were modeled and set in motion.
So he secretly developed a technique that he himself called the dream eater. A technique so terrible that Apollion himself, upon learning it, felt himself in a dilemma. On the one hand Iblis was his friend and his battle partner, but on the other, being aware of the meaning of the flow of life, he decided to seal that technique instead of ending its existence.
The memories in the mind of a living being are merely data, information that alone has no value in the concept of the soul. But it is the emotions, commonly referred to as ties, that allow these memories to shape the psyche of the individual. Its own essence and reason for being, are equivalent to a great amount of energy.
When these ties are taken from a living being, that energy supposes a great amount of power that is assimilated by the user who executes it. But the cost to pay is that the victim becomes a being devoid of emotions and feelings linked to those memories.
Hanabi explained that she was about to lose everything in that subway bathroom more than 50 years ago, if not for the fact that in the middle of the battle Freyja intervened absorbing Iblis in a dimensional gap. Despite being saved, much of the damage was done, but she couldn't notice it until she got to her apartment and she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror as she tried to wipe the dirt off her face.
Something in his gaze had completely changed, as he tried to evoke the memories of his past life, the faces and people in them seemed completely indifferent. He was oblivious to his own reality and it was then that he realized the scope of that sinister technique.
"Human beings are really wonderful, they are born and grow old knowing that they are going to die. But in that way they create memories and with them unique feelings. We once were, we were human beings but now we are only mere caricatures of what a human is We do not age and for the sake of our mission every memory that people make of us ends up being replaced, as if we had never existed for the world.
The last thing we have left as testimony that we were human, are those memories that we bring with us when we reincarnate. The only thing that could separate us from being monsters, are those ties in our soul. And now you, you ... "- Unable to continue speaking because of the lump that formed in her throat, Hanabi moaned in pain and sorrow, not for the woman in front of her.
That was only a wicked and meaningless container, her pain was for the soul of the one who resided in it. Once a father, devoted son and loyal husband, he had become a hollow piece like the container that imprisoned him.
Adam had lost everything, his desire and motivation as a human had completely ceased to exist. All vestige of humanity had been left behind, to give way to the present reality that was now in front of him: a mere tool, a puppet in Freyja's hands.
"Say my name, my real name please" - Yukino looked Hanabi in the eye, who was surprised at that reaction and couldn't answer immediately. Yukino reminded him that she was Adam, that even with her mutilated and broken soul she would remain Adam until that container was destroyed and her memory forgotten.
She told him that at last she could fully understand him in her initial attitude, that she within herself she knew that that cynicism hid something like the bottom under the surface of the lake. With a grimace, Yukino said all these things to Hanabi who, moved by that gesture, decided to take off the mask and began to tell her story.
When he was still a human being, in life he went by the name of Edward Lexington. A young peasant who enlisted in the Royal British Air Force during the First World War. With a poor family and a sick mother, he agreed to enlist on the promise of obtaining medical service for his family as a member of the military.
During a foray into enemy airspace, his plane was intercepted as he was about to tack back, the sound of machine guns echoing in the sky like the roar of the approaching storm with rain clouds. When the shrapnel reached the wings of his aircraft, the fire that was snatched up by the gusts of wind forced him to parachute into enemy territory.
Due to the low height, his parachute could not fully open, causing him to be suspended between the branches of the trees, seriously injuring his right leg. After freeing himself from the harnesses, he began his walk through the mud and pools of blood from the bodies that were stacked between a sea of barbed wire. Three days of hell with the stench of death hovering everywhere, the stabbing pain in his right leg allowed him to maintain consciousness in the face of the fatigue of that day.
But just a few kilometers from achieving his goal, he was inevitably intercepted by the sniffer dogs of a German intelligence commando. "Ranfahren, ranfahren!" - The shout of a crenellated officer who pointed a rifle at him made him stop and raise his hands. But even cooperating with them, he received a blow to the back of the neck that made him lose consciousness.
Upon awakening, he felt that his body was completely tied hand and foot to a chair. Looking around him, he appreciated that he was in a dark rustic cabin lost in the woods, barely lit by the light of an oil lamp.
The stench of gunpowder and carrion alerted her that he was near that distant point where he had parachuted. Everything seemed to indicate that that reconnaissance team had been tracking him for three days and they had finally caught up with him.
Those soldiers sought to collect information for the intelligence service and proceeded to torture him, first pulling out his nails one by one and dipping his lacerated fingers in hydrogen peroxide with bleach.
His screams of pain were like music for his captors who enjoyed making him suffer every moment, even mutilating his private parts with red-hot bayonets. All that torture could be borne only by the memory of his beloved mother who was waiting for him in that Edinburgh countryside.
The pain was excruciating, to the point of causing him to lose consciousness only to be awakened when those ruthless subjects plunged his head into a tub of stagnant water. The torture continued for a few more days, until one morning I heard one of them shout an order: "töte ihn"
The cutting sound of the cartridge warped his senses, while he tried with difficulty to move his head looking to see the face of his executioner. The last he could see were blue eyes filled with lust for blood as he smiled intoning an old German lullaby.
The echo of the bullet reverberated in the countryside, causing the scavengers to fly in fear, while inside that cabin lay the inert body of Alexander, who with the last of his strength watched as the men left that place.
By the time he regained consciousness of him, that hill was a place completely distant from the new setting before his eyes. His sight was completely clouded, but he could make out the shape of old wooden walls and a subtle aroma of mackerel and miso. When he was finally able to fully react, he saw that a chair was thrown under his feet and the pressure of a rope took his breath away.
Struggling to free himself from that situation, he ended up breaking the beam to which the rope was tied, dropping his body completely on the floor. Completely disoriented, he searched the room for some indication of where he was.
Only to realize when looking into a broken mirror on the wall that it was no longer about him, but about another very different person: a woman.
The figure in front of him was indeed that of a woman, with red hair, green eyes and an appreciable good body. That had left him in a shock from which he could not recover as a sharp headache pierced him as a succession of images crowded together in the form of memories.
The corridor of reminiscence, Lucero indicating his situation and his new destiny, everything came in an uncontrollable frenzy of images that were to the point of making him lose his sanity. Alexander had become Hanabi, an illegitimate daughter of an English knight during the invasion of Japan.
Due to the disgrace that this caused Hanabi's mother, in the face of pressure from society and the derision of her own family, he headed to the only place that at that time she could accept him: the red light district. The depression and abuse that she suffered from clients who, drunk with her, attacked her, led her to commit suicide, leaving her daughter orphaned by her and completely helpless in the red light district.
Who in order to survive she did any work from her childhood to adolescence, when she became a vulgar courtesan who sold her body to survive. Repeating the steps of her mother, her despair soon led her to the same fate as her mother.
Faced with all this revelation, Alexander decided that she would take advantage of the situation and look for a way out of that problem. Using her new attributes, she managed to dupe a businessman who was captivated by her beauty. Before long, he made her his wife and gained her a new status and position in society. But 10 years after the marriage was consummated, that man died of a sudden heart attack. Leaving her as heir to the entire fortune, with which she established the prestigious Hoshi College.
"If you say that my story resembles the pretty woman plot, I'll cut your throat" - That made Adam laugh like he had never done since he reincarnated, but for some reason it made Hanabi feel happy instead of angry.
Hearing that joyous laugh and gazing at her sincere smile gave Hanabi hope regarding the condition of Adam's soul. Who was grateful wiping his tears for that moment in which the cold Hanabi's heart broke open before him.
Having spent a few hours of pleasant conversation, Hanabi decided to leave to let Yukino rest; who said goodbye to her with a brotherly hug, telling her in her ear not to worry about her.
Arriving at the main door of the mansion, Hanabi was approached by a man in his late sixties, with a kind appearance and a robust physique. "Are you a good friend of Miss Yukino?" - With an attitude of reverent respect, that man bows before her showing his gratitude for having visited him.
Taiki had served the Yamaguchi family for a long time, being even closer to the Yoshino and Shizu ladies, being for the latter that at some point he experienced something beyond a simple subordinate loyalty. With the sudden disappearance of the young mistress Yoshino, he had given himself body and soul to the service of Chief Hayate's eldest daughter. Until his unfortunate incident where he fell into a coma due to the condition of his weakened heart.
Because of this, he was engulfed in guilt for a long time. Until one day the new patriarch, Master Hiroki, brought with him a little girl no more than 3 years old. Just by seeing her immediately he knew that it was a member of the Yamaguchi clan, due to her incredible resemblance to Mrs. Shizu, which is why he focused all of her energy on serving him from the shadows.
Hanabi then responded to Taiki, letting him know that she was the principal of the school where Yukino was staying and as a student of her institution, her duty was to ensure that she was in perfect condition. So, feeling confident in that man, I give him her business card so that he can contact her in any situation that arises in this regard.
Putting her car in gear, Hanabi left the grounds of the mansion still thinking about the condition Yukino was in. Not only had Adam's soul been seriously injured, but also the aftermath of the fight with Iblis would have repercussions on her ability as Loa.
The next morning, Yukino woke up a little more recovered from the ailments in her body; Being assisted by Kaoru, she went to the bathroom to take a tub bath. Since the incident of the dimensional orb, it had been more than fifteen days that she did not clean her body by herself, depending exclusively on the care that her friend and her housekeeper provided.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she saw that something strange had happened to her body. Strange purple spots that followed the pattern of veins covered most of her white skin, her hair had gone completely gray and her blue eyes now had a reddish halo around the iris.
What the hell happened to me? She wondered in complete surprise as she ran her hands over her face trying to react to her own reflection in her mirror. The battle had been on a spiritual plane. So why had her body undergone such drastic changes?
That question of hers kept spinning through her head as she soaked herself in the tub of medicinal salts to help ease her pain. Kaoru, keeping an eye on her, told her that she would be outside the bathroom waiting for whatever she needed.
Staring at the bathroom ceiling, Yukino thought about the circumstances of Hanabi's reincarnation and how they had certain similarities in that both deaths were related to tragic events. Are all the Loa born as a result of the tragedy?
Relaxing her body to enjoy the salts she began to experience dejavu, remembering the first time she opened her eyes as a Loa guardian. That too had been in a bathtub, and somehow her irony made him laugh quietly.
"It's good to see you in such a good mood my appreciated puppet, but I need your presence in front of me right now" -That voice made her head spin as her body sank into the water as she plunged into a state of complete unconsciousness.
A blinding light gave way to a room that was very familiar to him, Adam was standing in the corridor of reminiscence. He always thought that he would never find himself in that place again, knowing that due to his semi-immortal nature, when he was destroyed he could not enter the ouroboros cycle again like other living beings.
"I must give you credit for managing your fight against Iblis, certainly not even I could assassinate him since it was a Loa of primordial character. But I think that the reason why I have called you you already begin to suspect it" - An androgynous being Dressed in a gray robe and armor, long purple hair that reached down to his calves, and a bracelet in the shape of a hawk, he stood before the spiritual form of Adam.
The person responsible for her new life and misfortune, Freyja, the guardian of the ouroboros of the earth, was present, veiling her face to stand before Adam. The aura she gave off around her seemed to be charged with a hostility that she hadn't manifested the first time they met in the corridor. It could be jealousy perhaps, but there was nothing clear as to why she had summoned the guardian.
"Try to mold your armor like you did in the fight against Iblis. Do it!" - With an energetic and furious tone, Freyja ordered him to perform the transformation of her in front of her. When Adam tried to mold the armor, a strong pain that ran through his entire body collapsed him, breaking the incomplete transformation.
The poison Iblis had planted in his psyche was rendering him completely unusable for battle. The only reason for his existence as Guardian Loa was to be able to go out into combat and serve Freyja when she ordered it. But no matter how hard he tried to complete the transformation, the result was always the same.
With deep disappointment, the arcana watched the dejected Adam as he lifted his face, placing his hand on his forehead as in a pose of a goddess in disgrace. Contemplating this, Adam was frustrated deep within his being to the point of hitting the floor with his hands.
That spectacle made a mocking laugh escape from Freyja's lips, who in a condescending attitude leaned at Adam's height as she removed the mask that covered her face. Beneath her was hidden a face scarred, signs of bloody battles that had sullied what was once one of the most beautiful faces in existence.
Staring at Adam, this she caressed his face gently up and down while she smiled in a candid and seductive way, to the point of almost completely hypnotizing him. She waking him from her lethargy with a kiss on her lips.
The taste of those lips was like the nectar of a peach, but soon that sweet taste turned bitter to the point that she made Adam collapse leaving him in a fetal position holding her hands to her chest in indescribable agony.
"Iblis's poison has a destructive effect on the soul of human beings, it literally leaves them as undead without conscience. I think your race calls it a vegetal state. But in the Loa that poison causes any manifestation of power to make its user is blocked to the point of not being able to fight.I just inoculated you with Akhlys, a poison that used to be said to have the power to kill the Architects themselves.
But if it is combined with the venom of that damn spider, they end up canceling each other, of course with their respective cost. Nothing is free in this universe, my beloved Adam. "- As Freyja told him, that poison was completely nullified in its direct effect. This was proven by trying once more to mold his armor, but this time with success.
Warning him that his battle transformation would have an effective time limit of no more than 15 Earth minutes. If he exceeded that time limit, she would begin to experience the pain produced by Iblis's poison, but this time instead of losing his transformation, it would be her life force that would be in danger.
With that recommendation in mind, Adam left the corridor of reminiscence with a time bomb that threatened his existence.
Reacting in the human world, he was startled to remember that Yukino's body was submerged in the water in the bathtub. Gagging in pain from the lack of air, causing Kaoru to panic by making her enter her bathroom.
Helping her out of the tub, he barely managed to drag her onto the rug on the bathroom floor while he hugged her trying to comfort her. Noticing that the purple marks on her body had completely disappeared, but her hair was still graying.
Having regained his air, Yukino informed Kaoru that he had finally met Freyja in person. That news left Kaoru speechless with the impression who did not believe what happened, because rarely did her arcana let anyone see her due to the wounds on her face.
After drying her body and grooming herself, Yukino decided to take a walk through the garden of the mansion. Her bare feet on her lawn felt like a soft, comfortable rug that made him feel revitalized. Even after losing the emotions of the memories of her, she felt blessed to have the opportunity to have survived the battle with Iblis and to once again have control over her powers.
But still, Freyja's words echoed inside her. Every time she used her powers without measuring herself, her own existence would be completely ending. That would mean disappearing completely and forever, that feeling of her made him hold her arms in a shiver that made him tilt her face as she sought to lean under the shade of a cherry tree.
"Yukino, that is, Adam, I know I'm a burden to you but I don't want to forget you" - Kaoru held Yukino's waist while she pressed her face against her chest. At last Hanabi's words had penetrated the depths of her being. Due to her condition as a human being, she was subject to the same rules as the rest of the people who at some point have had to deal with the Loa in her life.
No emotions, no ties to the future. That was the fate of any relationship between a human and a Loa. Adam was aware of that and felt affliction for Kaoru who would not stop crying over that situation. When did our relationship get so deep? What was it that changed between us?
Asking those questions to himself, the answer came suddenly from Kaoru herself. The way he protected her with her own body during the collapse of the building when there was no guarantee the channel would be activated, that defiant kiss in the hospital room, the night of triumph when her new identity was stolen. in the city Hall. All this had made a feeling grow in her heart that she had never experienced in her existence.
"I love you Adam! Even if I forget you, my heart will remember you and I will look for you in this life and those that follow." lost in her memories.
Getting up a bit on tiptoe to reach one of the branches of the cherry tree, he plucked a few flowers that he delicately placed on Kaoru's temple and said: "I will love you too and I will remember Lucero, for as long as I live"
Emotion made them seal the moment in an intense kiss as they embraced under the shade of the cherry tree, the sunset light bathed their delicate silhouettes in nuances of colors while the wind ruffled their hair.
While distant between the corridors of the mansion, a shadow of sinister aura contemplated with hatred the inadvertent lovers, who did not know the danger that lurked.