"This is unforgivable, this is demeaning!" Segreth protested. He slammed his fist on the table causing the glass vase to wobble.
If both of his legs were functioning, he would be pacing back and forth. The leg I snapped into two was splinted with bamboo and was elevated on a chair.
Boy was he full of life. Maybe I should break the other leg?
There was another man with him who watched him with a deep searing glare in his eyes. His hair matched the paleness of his skin. His eyes had a greenish-blue hue with a golden halo gleaming mischievously from where he sat. Once Segreth had noticed the intense glare being directed to him, he lowered his gaze in shame and clenched his fist tightly.
"I am sorry for my outburst. I shall...This will not happen again."
The man poured himself a clear velvety beverage in a hard crystal glass. He raised the glass in an eye-level and looked at Segreth through its transparency.
"Failure after failure after failure I am sure you are very mortified to even be alive," the venomous-looking man spoke in a gravelly voice.
"It will not happen again. I swear that I will win the younger prince's favor."
The other man scoffed and stared down at Segreth scornfully.
"The reason why you fail is that you underestimate Prince Lucian. You are deceived by his pureness, his innocence, and his youth, but he is not a mere powerless child. He is as mighty as the king, as cunning as the queen, and as precocious as the older prince. Prince Lucian is a monster and he should be treated as such."
The stitches at the corners of my mouth parted even further from the sudden snap of anger searing through me from that one word.
What?
What did he say?
Did he just call him a monster?
A circle of smoke wheeled around me but it was suddenly dispersed by the Chicken Wings standing beside me.
"The hue of your power is the same as Prince Lucian. If you do anything rash, His Highness would be the one paying the price. I will not let you soil his good name."
"Did you hear that?" I asked him, setting aside his warnings. "Did you hear what they said about him?"
I still couldn't believe that they would utter something so unwarrantable about the kid. What did he do? There was not a single bad hair on his body. Heck, the kid hadn't even grown his pubes yet.
The winged-man lowered his sharp gaze and nodded.
"I heard it. These people had these intentions from the start. When they failed to manipulate the older prince, they immediately switched their target to the younger prince. This is no surprise– power attracts slithering snakes."
I looked away from him, still having my doubts about his intentions.
"What about you? Why are you doing this?"
A glimpse of sadness hinted in his eyes.
"There were mistakes with charges and I ended up here. Despite knowing that the prince isn't human, I can't get myself to abandon him even when heaven is already ordering me to withdraw."
Not comprehending everything he was saying, he must have realized that his explanation was gibberish to me. All his foreign terminologies were dog's poop.
"I am an angel created from the same God who created you. Angels are only to guard humanity and as you can see, the prince isn't from the human race."
I peeked through the door again and the smoke reappeared around me.
"I still don't get what you mean, but if I can contribute to this bastard's suffering, you can count me in many times," I told him, slipping my short arm through the gap.
I released the bad air from my claw. The smoke gyrated around the image of his sitting figure and disappeared right after it had set its target.
"Now let's put a seal on those balls."
A sudden shiver shook the bitch, causing him to scream at the top of his lungs. He clamped his hands between his legs. He fell from the chair, yelling in extreme pain. The man he was with was taken aback.
As soon as the mission was accomplished, I walked back to the prince's room, avoiding the gush of people coming in to see who was screaming like a little bitch.
"As promised, I'm going to break the seal that's detaining you in that body. Are you ready to leave the prince?" Chicken wings asked.
I turned around from the question, feeling a ton of metal hanging on my chest.
"Leave? What do you mean 'leave'?" I asked him. "Who says anything about leaving?"
The angel tilted his head in perplexity. "You don't actually think you can reside here? You're not an Ancient, therefore, you will be thrown out the moment they find you here."
I snorted. "If leaving Lucian is the price of getting my body back then I don't want it. Now scram," I spat.
He raised his brow at me, shaking his head in disapproval.
"You don't understand. Even if you didn't accept my task I was going to lift the curse anyway. You are living in pieces," he told me.
"What the fuck does that mean?" I asked him, getting frustrated with his poetic reasoning. "Just get straight to the point and stop giving it to me in pecks!"
"Due to the ritual done to seal you, your body broke apart into three divisions. The longer you walk on this world as a piece, the more your power disintegrates and soon, you'll disappear from this world completely."
My heart dropped; my stomach churned. "What do I have to do?"
"You'll have to find the other pieces that will complete your entirety. It's the only way to stop your existence from ceasing."
I stumbled back, falling on my cotton-filled ass. I gazed slowly at the bed where Lucian laid.
"I really have to leave him?" I asked, feeling the sudden loneliness and longing from having to be separated from the only person who accepted me for who I was.
"It's your choice, Shinigami. You can stay here and spend your last years with Lucian, or you could leave and find the lost pieces of yourself."
"Is it even worth finding myself?" I queried, not directing the question to the angel, but to myself. "Can my happiness back then outdo the happiness I have with this boy?"
The angel shut his eyes. He exhaled the truth from his chest.
"You didn't have a single ounce of joy from your previous life, not a single drop of it."
"Then why...why do I have to leave?"
The angel smiled, kneeling in front of me.
"So you can come back to him without ever vanishing again."
His words sunk deeply, leaving me with a decision that pained me with uncertainty.
"You'll protect him, won't you? You won't let a single fly touch him?" I asked the angel.
It was more of a commanding question because I was leaving him in his care.
"You don't have to worry, I was already there for him even before he was born."
What a creep.
"Can you...can you give me a little more time?" I requested.
The angel nodded in understanding. "I'm always here whenever you're ready."
"Sin?" Lucian called in a raspy voice.
My back fell floppily on the floor. Blue dazzling eyes peeked from the bed.
He slipped out from the mattress and picked me up. He lightly dusted my face.
"Where have you been?"
'Hey kid, oh you know me, cursing people here and there. Did I worry you?'
"I'm sorry, you must have fallen from the bed because I moved too much. Let's go back to sleep, okay?"
Days passed by and the thread that created the star on my body started to loosen. Lucian played with me every day without fail and took me wherever he went.
With every laugh, every embrace, and every kiss I received from him, I started to sway away from the decision of leaving him. But I reminded myself that if I didn't depart now, if I didn't look for myself, I'd disappear from his life entirely.
The angel reappeared in Lucian's bedroom again and instructed me on how to fully lift the curse.
"I broke the spell that kept the thread of the seal in place. The only thing you have to do now is to pull the thread and then you'll return to the original body of your fragment."
I lightly touched Lucian's sleeping face with my nails, being careful not to stir him awake.
"He'll cry once I leave him. His heart will break."
"You can erase his memories of you if you're afraid of breaking his heart," the angel advised, much to my annoyance.
"Are you doing this for my sake?"
"I'm in favor of both of you, but I'd do anything to protect the prince's both mind and heart."
"What's the point of this if he won't even recognize me again? What if he rejects me the next time he sees me?"
"As children grow, their view of life changes and so do their values. The prince is still a child. He has much to learn, much to endure, and much to experience. If the next time you meet and he hates you, that doesn't mean he wasn't the child who took you in at your worst. With or without his memories, it doesn't change the fact that he had loved you and cared for you. Life just changed him. That is the reality and you cannot amend that."
The angel left me to make the final step to release myself from the curse. I stared at Lucian, carving his face to my memory and feeling the heavy burden in my chest. I placed my claw to my sewn mouth and then lightly touched his lips with the same limb.
As I pulled the string of thread from the seal, I erased Lucian's memories of me. Every joy he felt, the laughter we shared without him knowing that I could actually laugh, and every adventure we had in this Kingdom evacuated his mind. I placed my claw on his hand and felt its smoothness one last time.
"Until we meet again," I murmured.
My body grew and returned to its natural state. A blanket fell on top of me. The small claw that he had always held became bigger than his own hand. The bed sank from the profound weight it was now carrying.
"Now go and come back once you are whole."
I scoffed.
"Happy you got rid of me?" I asked.
I sauntered towards the door.
"You can say that. The prince laughed fifty-eight times when he was with you. It surpassed the amount of laughter he had when he could still see me."
"What a sour loser."
"Farewell, Shinigami."
I finally had arms that could embrace him and hands that could finally hold him, but I can neither do any of that.
I opened the door with a creak, walking out of the room. My legs were strong and knew how to stride but they were wobbling, nearing their collapse, not wanting to vacate the warmth that housed me. My eyes could see even the tiniest of insects at the castle, but they proved to be useless because of the tears that started to blur my eyes. My ears could hear even the softest of whispers, but my mind paid no heed to what it could perceive, and ended up listening to the heart that could not speak, but could express the loudest of volumes.
Years passed by as I desperately searched for the missing pieces of my original body. There wasn't a day when I didn't think of how he was doing.
Truth to that angel's words, my power became weaker as I walked the earth incomplete, but I knew that I was getting closer.
I could feel myself.
My pieces were closer than they ever were.
I could feel the strength that was stolen from me and the pureness which will hold that power. Saint and Strength were close.
Were they aware of their incompleteness?
Did they know that I was coming?
My body was deteriorating. It wouldn't survive another year. This was its last. I was already wavering, but finally reuniting with him gave me hope.
Lucian...
You must hate me for being a complete pervert towards you, huh?
A thunderous growl erupted from the giant I was fighting. I was slapped away by his left claw. My three tails wrapped around his arm and I spiraled, successfully twisting his limb and shattering the bones in it.
"I admire your strength, but I am unrivaled. I am a God. How bold of you to challenge me," the pesky lizard cockily spoke.
Bolts of lightning tore out from the skies and traced the ground as they chased me. My tail of darkness enveloped my form to protect me from the bolt, but it couldn't withstand the strength as it dissolved and left me open to becoming a roasted chicken.
My back hit the pitted, crushed, and uneven ground. The giant lifted his bare foot and stomped on me sprightly and fervently. He ground me underneath his feet.
Once he had lifted his foot, my fire and sand tails tore through the air and intertwined around him, weakly squeezing his form. He broke through the flimsy appendages and glared at me with aggravation.
"Why" he spat and landed his foot on me. "Don't" another stomp was given on my tattered body. "You" he grated me angrily against the ground. "Just perish!"
A chuckle burst out of my chest. I sardonically spat blood at him which actually just landed on my face.
"I'm Sin Klepton, a bad weed never dies."
The self-proclaimed God lifted his spear, pointing the very tip towards me.
I knew I said I was a bad weed but damn, did he really have to take it so seriously? My tail of darkness feebly guarded me for the incoming deathly blow. I shut my eyes to welcome death.
I was so close.
They were so near.
The memory of Lucian flashed inside my mind and a smile spread across my face in peace.
"I don't think...I can come back to you now."
The spear accelerated but then halted when a towering and looming figure appeared in front of me.
He held the spear into a full stop and then broke the tip with his hand. He threw it to the giant's eye which he hit victoriously. The giant screamed, his voice causing deep vibrations to the ground. My skin tingled from my savior's presence. The guy seemed to be familiar to me for some reason.
Cloaked reapers poured in from our left, the guy clicked his tongue.
"Why they follow me?" he asked, clearly pissed.
"Hey Skwak, take care of your devoted fans will you?" a gorilla-looking creature yelled.
"Skwak will. Take care of Lucian," the guy told him before flying off.
A sweet scent dispensed from the air and rushed into my nostrils. A monotone voice caused another laugh to emerge from my throat
"I've been pampered long enough," Lucian deadpanned.
The war zone was splashed with the colors of life. Lucian was riding a huge mutt. His lower leg was twisted in such an ungraceful way. He cradled the burnt crisp body of a helpless boy who sent signals of magnetism right through my core.
A rainbow-haired boy leaped and posed as a bow and arrow materialized in his hands. He pulled the bow's string back, sending an arrow spiraling with winds. The God laughed, catching the arrow with his fingers. He threw it inside his mouth and chewed it, causing the boy to yelp in surprise.
Rui took the opportunity to stretch his tail into an amazing length to hook to his other eye, but was captured and was tossed for eating.
Horror broke into his expression. The leaping frog boy caught him just in time before he could slide down into the esophagus.
Lucian handed the overly fried boy to the gorilla and used his good leg to step down from the mutt. Once he had noticed me, he limped towards my form and knelt.
"Hey sexy," I wheezed.
"Do not waste your breath on insignificant words," he lightly chided.
"Aw... you're no fun," I laughed.
I got disrupted by a harsh cough accompanied by blood. He pursed his lips.
"I want to go home already..." I told him, staring at the skies that were clouded with smoke. "I miss home."
He took my hand into his and I tightened my hold. My chest swelled with joy. This was the hand that always held me.
Tears filled the brim of my eyes and I rubbed his skin with my thumb. I couldn't see anything anymore. The sky was suddenly so fucking blinding and every breath became straining and unnecessary. My grasp on his hand weakened but he continued to hold me.
"What do you miss about home?" He asked.
My dumbstruck smile remained. I slowly lost what was left in me. He touched my lips, I had no idea why.
I didn't know when my hands uncurled, when my breathing ceased, and when I lost the sensation of his hand, but I knew that I was just too damn happy to even care.
I was finally home.
"You..." I replied.
The light had become dimmer, the sounds became quieter, but his voice managed to squeeze through before death could collect me.
"Until we meet again..." Was the last thing I heard him say.
Maybe it was just a coincidence.
Maybe it was just my imagination.
But if I heard him correctly, maybe, just maybe, he knew me by heart.
If I gave him the key to reopen the chest of memories where I stored Sin Klepton, would he dare reach down and blow the dust of the forgotten memory?
Adults tend to stumble upon things they've long forgotten, but the nostalgia will hit them strongly and make them pause to savor the moment. They will reminisce of how that object brought them happiness as a child.
A smile will slowly creep up to their faces.
Their eyes will be closed but they will see memories that were hazy, yet still possessed a deep meaning in their lives.
I wish I could go back as his toy and see how he would look at me if he remembered me.
Will I still be his favorite toy?
"Sin, where have you been all this time?"