Way into the night, Takehiko wakes up from his slumber to the words of his Devil brother.
"Take. It's time."
He opens his eyes and removes the blanket from his naked body. Beside him, his two sisters lie fast asleep. Calmly and silently, Takehiko steps off the bed.
Nami is purring in her sleep. Soju twitches her eyes, noticing that Take is awake. She is a light sleeper.
"Take?" She groans, stretching her arm out. "Uhm, why are you awake?"
Takehiko smiles and slides his hand up his sister's thigh. "No need for you to worry, Big sis. I'm just going to take a stroll in the spirit realm, ok?"
"Hm… ok. I am sweepy," she mumbles. Take kisses his big sister on the cheek and she smiles like a child, drifting off to sleep once more.
The lights are all out in the room. Only lights from the city flash upon the window of their room. He stands up, butt naked, and walks to the front of the mirror.
For their mission in Horami City, they bought a room for a couple of days. Since all three of them sleeps in one bed, it doesn't cost them much. The ride to Horami City took the entire evening, and they also had to search for a place to stay for the night. Now all that is out of the way, he can finally go catch the spirit required for his mission.
From the darkness of the room, a dark mist seeps out. Within this mist, the 8-foot-tall demon king takes form. His hardened skin. His devilish spiraling horns. His eyes that look like two distant stars in the night sky. Everything takes shape from the mist.
"Take? Are you ready?" He asks his brother.
Take nods, reaching out his hand into the mirror. He does not wear any of his clothes for this journey. He wants to feel the realm with every part of his body. It is, after all, the natural way.
He touches the surface of the mirror and focuses his energy oozing out of his presence into the mirror. The glass surface wavers as if Takehiko's hand has merely touched the surface of a still pond.
His hand goes through the mirror.
"Kuma. It's ready," Take declares, gazing at his brother over his shoulder. Then, he puts his leg into the mirror, walking into it as if it is the most normal thing to do. Kuma follows, right after Take.
Takehiko's feet grasp a field of grass, soft and fertile. He's no longer standing on that carpeted floor of the room. Before his eyes, it's another world.
"It's been a while since you've entered the spirit realm, Take. How is it?" Kuma gazes at his brother from the side, waiting for his response.
In Take's dark eyes, the green world reflects.
They stand upon a field of tall grass, gusts of wind lashing at them constantly. The breeze is calming. The breath of this world is unpolluted. Free. Fresh. Everything what you want to feel when you step outside.
Take crouches amongst the tall glass and he feels his naked body being grazed by the blades of grass.
"It has indeed been a while. I love it here… this is why I need our worlds to clash, Brother. To let all the humans feel this freedom."
Take rolls in the grass, letting his back feel the fresh moisture of nature.
The Demon King stands beside him, gazing around the field.
"Kuma. You are sure that this is the place that holds Dark Arachnids?"
Kuma gazes down at his brother. "Indeed, brother."
"Then, lie with me on this grass. Feel the nature, Kuma. Enjoy this feeling of natural aura. This magical feeling of greatness," he replies calmly, closing his eyes.
Kuma sits down beside the brother on the field of grass.
Cold and chilling gusts of wind graze the field as the grass dances along to the rhythm.
When Takehiko opens the portal to the spirit realm through the human mirror of reflection, he needs his brother to identify the coordinates of the exact location where they are traveling to. They share a connected mind. After all, the Demon King is a reflection of Take himself.
When his hand finally touches the reflected image, a portal will open to the spirit realm, the spiritual half of the human realm itself.
Only beings with a certain level of power could use this spell, and Takehiko mastered this at the age of 14.
As Takehiko breathes in the air of this field, a cloud hangs over the sky and darkens the entire grassland.
Whistles begin to slice through the wood. Eerie whistles. Not a bird. Not a creature.
Not a human.
'A dark arachnid. It comes to take its prey when they are at their most vulnerable state, right, Kuma?' Takehiko thinks to himself.
In Take's mind, Kuma responds to his question. 'Yes, brother. Like the state, we are in now. It doesn't attack you until it knows that we bear no hostility to it.'
'Then, Kuma, lay back on that field. Release your arms. Do you fear the arachnid? Do you fear anything?'
Kuma lays back on the grass, spreading his arms wide. 'No.'
'Good. Steady as she goes.'
The two brothers lay in the estrange field of tall grass, right beside a forest of unruly trees that seems to touch the clouds themselves. They lay there in their bare backs as if they have no care of anything about the world.
The shadow darkens further, stretching along the grass in a wicked shape. Tall black limbs that look like gigantic bamboo poles touch the earth, softly, without making a thud. Its gigantic body hides in the clouds itself. And gradually…. It lowers its body.
It's a deformed body of a spider that has the human face of a very beautiful lady. An arachnid.
A weaver of pain and anguish.
Her spider limbs reach out to the two brothers lying in the grass. Before she touches them, her eyes examine the brothers closely.
Not a hush. Not even a whistle.
A silence of many odds. Not even the sound of wind grazes the field now.
Her sharp limb reaches above Take's chest. His heart beats. She can feel the waves of sound gracing the tip of her sharp limb.
A heart that beats cannot be her dinner. She needs to put it to sleep. She brings her limb down, right toward Take's heart. Inches away from his beating chest, Takehiko grasps the limb of the arachnid and opens his eyes.