Gazing at a being who looked the same as them, nothing else mattered anymore. All that longing as they grew closer without knowing it came clear in their senses, and now face to face, they froze.

JD jumped to hug the person holding him, who looked exactly like him. The person returned the hug, but JD suddenly let go.

"Ame... " He whispered but trailed off.

"Hm?" JD's mirror image looked all over JD's body. "Are you hurt somewhere? D-did I hurt you?"

"No... maybe." JD wiped a hand across his face and sighed. Slight awkwardness overcame him at the warm feelings building up to his core. JD pushed that aside and went with the first logical thing to ask, "Do you have a name?"

"...Whistiamemeliond-"

"No, not that... freakishly long name." One of JD's arms leaned on the ground for support. "Besides, those aren't our names anymore."

"Brother Hysta..."

"It's JD." JD smiled.

His young brother tilted his head, "J... D?"

"Yeah. Two letters. From my given name."

Both their legs crossed as they sat properly in front of each other.

"John Daniel St. Michael. That's my name."

"Oh!" JD's brother clapped his hands one time. "It's very modern-sounding, indeed! And while it's lengthy, it's not as difficult to say as Hystirerseyeiond-"

"Stop." JD chuckled, putting a finger in front of his brother's lips. "That long-ass name has to go. And I think you pronounced it wrong."

"I'm sure I enunciated it right! But," He smiled and waved a hand. "to be born in Julisie means we're no longer subjects of Paradise, I suppose."

"And we're just humans now."

"With god souls!"

"Which is weird."

"It is! Do you think there's a way we can speak to Garnet directly about this?"

"Maybe. But for starters, what's your name?"

An unexpected reunion that might've been planned out by Garnet himself or someone else. But it had warmed the hearts and souls of the souls that had been separated for a long, long time. JD had so much to ask his brother, and his brother had so much to tell him.

That included how he became a monster in the first place.

"A bodiless soul...." JD mumbled after his brother's long story of how he first came to the human world—to Julisie. "And this... Grogolion, or Leo, his eyes of Garnet one hundred percent realized your soul was a god's."

"How so?"

JD squinted, placing his head on his hand. "There is no real way for any soul to recover their memories. Yet he claimed he could make you remember yours." JD hummed and glanced at his brother. "He knew your inborn magic had something to do with obtaining a body, and once your soul inhabited a body, it would automatically regain all its memories."

"Because I'm a god?"

"Mhm. The soul needed a body and a system to decode everything hidden within it. Like a USB on a laptop, huh...."

"So, it was never possible for anyone to be bodiless?"

"I'm sure."

"But then why...."

"Garnet favored you so." JD leaned to a side, a side smile appearing on his face. "Maybe it had something to do with that."

He pouted and crossed his arms. "I don't care! I'm mad at him!"

JD suppressed his laughter. "Why?"

"For not giving me a body straight away? I don't know. But I feel...." He placed a hand on his chest. "That there's something to be mad about. It's something that I strangely can't recall."

After a brief silence, JD straightened his back and tapped his brother's knee.

"Let's worry about that later, okay? One by one, now. We have all the time in Julisie." JD said in a low and soft tone, and as his brother nodded, he continued. "So, you don't have a name here yet."

He shook his head.

"Ah." JD's eyes lit up, and he stood right away. "Let's go back to the hill. I think I got something."

As they reached the hill, JD ran to his suitcases and hurriedly fished through the pile of clothes, notebooks, and gold coins while his brother followed him.

"Oh, right. Clothes, too." JD turned his head to his brother. "I'm sure my clothes will fit you just right."

"Clothes! I-I didn't even notice I wasn't wearing anything...." He hid in a shirt JD handed over to him. "And now I feel bare."

"You are bare. Go put those on."

"How do you put this on?"

"...Are you serious?"

He shrank behind the complete set of outfits JD threw in his arms.

"Of course, we never had these kinds of clothes up in Paradise." JD sighed. "Come here."

Once fully dressed, he turned around repeatedly with a smug smile. "Paradise needs to heighten their garments."

"Pft."

"Garnet!" He yelled. "Do you hear me? You're out-of-date! Old-fashioned!"

JD lost it and laughed out loud. His brother joined him, but not long after, dark clouds covered the rising sun in the morning.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Look, you made him angry," JD commented, still searching for something in his second luggage.

"Try to strike me with lightning, then!"

Lightning struck several meters away, silencing JD's brother for a few seconds before grinning.

"Softhearted!"

"Shut up, man." JD scolded, but he was still smiling.

"It's true!"

"Only for you, that is. He would've struck anybody else without warning."

"Or his precision is just terrible!"

"He still would've avoided hitting you, I'm sure."

His brother only replied with a pout and an annoyed, suppressed hum. After centuries, that argument spoke true, and even now, he still didn't like hearing about it.

"Found it!"

"What is it?" JD's brother crouched beside him, peeked at the identification card in his hand, and read the name. "Andrew..."

"Yup. That's the right pronunciation."

"Who's Andrew?" A glint of fury and jealousy appeared in his eyes. "Why does he look exactly like you in this... portrait? Did you have a twin brother other than me?"

Before he could continue, JD spoke, "Chill. You're my only brother." JD ruffled his hair. "That's me."

"You?"

"I... used to be an agent in the northern region of the continent. This was a name I registered for one mission." JD shook his head. "It's the real deal. Though I only got to use it once." He handed it over to his brother.

"Andrew Daniel St. Michael..." He muttered.

"What do you think?" JD scratched his head. "Don't worry. It has a clean reputation. The mission I used it for was tame compared to everything else I did under the name John St. Michael. It was half a decade ago when I last used it, too, I think."

"Mhm!"

"You like it? The name?"

"I do."

"You're Andrew in this new life and to everyone, then." JD smiled and pinched his brother's cheek, a soft look of adoration filling his eyes. "And to me, you... will be Drew."

"A nickname? Just like 'Ameme'!"

JD nodded. "Just like 'Ameme'."

"Then I won't permit anyone else to call me by that nickname."

"I'd like that," JD said in a low voice.

His brother—Andrew, heard it, though. It might've sounded strange to anyone else, but Andrew's little smile deepened, and his eyes twinkled at what JD had whispered. His utmost favor for only his older brother to be acknowledged was the only thing he truly cared about.

"Now I have something to call you by." JD packed his luggage and dragged them down the hill. He smiled as he called behind him, "Drew."

"Yes, brother?"

JD pursed his lips at the immediate response, suppressing his smile from transforming to a grin. Once he reached a tall tree, he leaned his suitcases over it and faced Andrew.

"Let's go over things one more time." He sat on the grass and tapped the area beside him. "So, what happened to Leo? Did you just run away from that place?"

Andrew held his knees to his chest and buried his face there. "Swear you won't see me differently?"

JD raised a brow. "Did you... kill him?"

"M-maybe...." Andrew held out his hands, and his voice trembled. "I-it was an accident!"

"Go on."

Andrew shrank deeper behind his knees and legs. "I... I don't know what came over me. After he finalized the curse, everything turned hazy and messy, and all I could see was...." His grip on his knees tightened. "Your corpse in my arms."

JD's eyes slowly widened, recollecting his final moments. His younger brother held him as he tried to reach his face and apologize for dying on him. If that was painful for JD, it must've been overwhelmingly devastating for Andrew.

"And then there's... Eve, was it? He was laughing in front of me, and, and, and my vision turned all red as I pounced at him and...."

"Killed him."

Andrew met JD's eyes. "...I ate him."

"..You ate Eve." JD shook his head. "Rather, Leo."

"...That makes me a real monster, doesn't it?"

"Drew-"

"Brother, the world turned red—so dark and bloodstained and lonesome. And all I could hear were his screams as I...." Andrew teared up and intertwined his quivering hand together. "I've become a real monster."

JD moved close and cupped one of Andrew's cheeks. "Drew. It was out of self-defense."

Andrew shook his head violently. "No, h-he didn't attack me-"

"He cursed you."

"But-"

"Did you eat and kill more people after him?"

"No. But that doesn't justify it!"

"Drew, you lived many years wandering Julisie as a guzzarok. Away from everyone." JD wiped his tears. "Not knowing whether you can really find me and gain your true form. And living with the idea that you killed someone on impulse and the tragedy of the past stuck in your soul."

JD placed one hand on Andrew's clasped, quivering hands, squeezing it.

He smiled. "Isn't that enough? Isn't that too much already?"

"I... don't know."

JD scooted closer and pulled Andrew into a hug, whose suppressed sobs came out as tiny, trembling squeaks.

"You've atoned enough for it, even though it's completely justified in my opinion." JD lowered his voice, "And I'm sure in Garnet's eyes, too."

Andrew leaned over to JD and continued to sob quietly while JD rubbed a hand on his back.

A playful smile appeared on JD's face. "I personally think he deserved it for everything he's done in his lifetime."

"...I believe so too, as wrong as that may be of me."

JD shook his head. "I think that's fine." With no reply, JD pulled away from the hug and held Andrew's shoulders, forcing eye contact. "Consider it judgment."

"Judgment?"

"You are a god who bore witness to Leo's immoral acts and decided to cast judgment." JD squinted, the cruel and cold eyes he shot to the evildoers in the past making a brief appearance the longer Andrew stared. "It's a fair judgment."

Andrew's mouth opened, but no words came out. He closed it again and looked down, eyes partially closing. Between the two of them, it had always been JD who was the kindest. People didn't see it because they only cared about getting on Andrew's good side. Ironically, he was also the ruthless one. And no one but Andrew and those who received JD's judgment had seen or known of it.

And if Andrew were honest with what he thought of his brother's remorseless side, everyone who perceived him as innocent and pure would've lost their minds.

A small smile found its way to Andrew's lips. "Mhm."

"Do you still feel bad about it?"

Andrew looked away. "A little."

"That's good enough for now." JD ruffled his hair and had his warm expression back.

"But..." Andrew raised his head and shot JD a serious look. "I'm troubled with something else. Greatly."

JD let go of Andrew and leaned his back on the tree, eyes squinting and fingers playing with the flattened grass.

"Me too."

Andrew pursed his lips and then wiped his face with the loose scarf around his neck, "Brother, how did we perish?" His voice was muffled, then he peeked behind the scarf, "Do you know?

JD shook his head, his fingers scratching the soil. "Rumors and records only say the vague idea of what happened that day. 'The Gemini gods fought an unknown god from a different land to save the continent they ruled. Were it not had been done, The Great Gemini would have been wiped off the map of Julisie.'" He recited from an excerpt he had read in a book weeks ago.

Andrew scoffed. "And I didn't expect this 'modern world' to be so useless."

"Hey, there's a thing called the Internet now. You'd be mind-blown by the number of theories and conspiracies humans put up there."

"Hmph! I don't desire false information!"

"We won't know whether they're true or not, you know."

"Well," Andrew raised a brow, "they wouldn't be theories if they were confirmed now, would they?"

JD raised a brow and looked over Andrew briefly.

"And it's not as though the ones making hypotheses and claiming such information are reincarnated gods like us who would remember their soul's memories." Andrew shrugged, playing with the loose ends of his grayish-blue scarf.

"That's it!" JD perked up, startling Andrew. "If we're reincarnated, then Eve or Aven might've been, too! Then, we just need to find them!"

"But how will we find and know it's them for sure?" Andrew dropped his head on both palms, which welcomed its weight. "It's not like we have enough influence right now, nor can we read people's minds."

"Drew, you're a genius." JD genuinely said, his expression all hopeful and lit up.

Andrew blushed as his eyebrows met. "W-what are you saying? I was merely thinking out loud...." He pulled the scarf up to cover his lower face, his last sentence barely audible.

JD stood up and gazed in the direction of Abarly. From where he and Andrew were, the medieval-themed towers of Abarly became visible, albeit just the rooftop to the tip. Tree trunks and canopies had covered the rest.

"Since they want me anyway for some reason, maybe it's high time I come to them instead," JD said as if monologuing, placing a finger below his chin and shutting his eyes.

Andrew tilted his head, watching the peeking rays of the sunlight draw white spots on JD's side profile. His black hair swayed gently at the soft passing wind, locks shedding shades over JD's closed eyes.

"Who exactly are you pertaining to?" Andrew asked, eyes slowly widening as soon as JD opened his eyes.

JD turned towards him, the shadow casting over his face, but one part of him shone nonetheless.

"Zalden," he said.

No matter how awfully similar he looked to Andrew, there would always be a difference. Like how Andrew's eyes had been blue in the past and until now, while JD's had changed to a deep brown since housing this new body. And Andrew took note of that. He was sure JD had brown eyes.

But now, his eyes were a glowing blue like his own.