“Hey, are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked Moonwash as we descended the very long spiral staircase leading to my house’s basement. I could just feel the rock all around us, heavy and oppressive, about to collapse and crush me at any moment. But I also knew that wouldn’t happen, the earth was packed so tight here that it may as well be as tough as diamond.

“Mahka told me I could come here and take whatever I wanted.” Moonwash said, referring to my mother.

“Well, she did…”

I followed her down until we came upon a massive room that I could only liken to a colosseum. The edges were lined with tables, crates, and shelves filled with a wide variety of things, but in the middle was just a wide open space with the occasional splatters of blood. How the fuck did we get away with owning this big of an underground? There weren’t even any pillars, relying instead on just how tightly packed the earth was!

Once there, I kept on following Moonwash, as I was unaware of where most things were kept here anyway. It just kept changing, and while interesting, I didn’t really have the time to keep up with the mess Mom makes of this place.

I and Moonwash walked along the wall until I saw something interesting.

“Oooh!! I found it!” I grinned and grabbed the wicked-looking dagger hidden behind a pile of books. Immediately, I lurched, feeling sick to my stomach and vomiting out a mouthful of bile as I wanted nothing more than to kill. I didn’t even know why I was here instead of being out there where there were so many more people to slaughter, but I just got the perfect weapon to stab my friend with, and she just gave me the perfect excuse for it! I just had to hide the body after, maybe even burn it! Finally, I could have my revenge for all the times she’d shown off just how much she was better than me. I knew that she knew what she was doing the entire fucking time, and nobody else fucking realizes it!

I grabbed her shoulder and looked into her bland eyes. They mocked me until the very end. I clenched my teeth and raised the dagger to her chest.

“Haell. Calm down. Don’t kill me.”

“I am calm!” I growled. The incongruence of my words to my actions was obvious, and I nearly laughed at the irony. It was the sort of behavior I’d hate and make fun of.

I staggered back. I still wanted nothing more than to kill my friend right now, but she was indeed my friend. Why would I want to kill a friend? That’s… I’d never wanted to do that before.

“So this is a cursed weapon. Haell, you need to let go of it.”

“No! It’s mine!” I shouted, feeling a surge of possessiveness.

“It’s not. It’s your mother’s, remember?” Moonwash calmly replied.

She’s right. Something was wrong. I realized that bow. I knew that I could be sentimental and possessive of items sometimes, but very rarely. I’d never seen this one dagger until now, so why did I want to hold on to it so much…

I dropped the thing for just a moment, placing it on a nearby table just to see if anything would happen once I did so. I staggered back, nearly falling on my ass as my thoughts immediately began to clear. No, I didn’t want to kill Moonwash. Of course not!

Horrified at my actions, I turned back to my good friend and apologized. “Fuck! Shit! I don’t know what came over me, I–”

“I will kill you,” Moonwash said. Now she was the one with the dagger, and the weapon was pointed right at me. “You tried to kill me. I was so scared.”

She still remained expressionless, so it was hard to tell, but of course she’d be afraid after that. The older girl was also higher level than I was with most things at this point, and so I had to scramble away once she started attacking me.

Thankfully, Moonwash had no fucking idea what she was doing, so I was able to judge everything with relative ease despite the gap in physical power. I deliberately ran towards a pile of crates, and then dodged at the last moment, causing Moonwash to stick the dagger into the wood.

I slammed my fist down on her right arm, finally separating it from the literally cursed dagger. I tackled her afterward so she couldn’t try and grab it back. My friend’s mind was still in turmoil, so I felt her fist impact into my back a couple of times, hurting me, and even causing me to cough out a bit of blood. Thankfully the angle was really poor, and again, Moonwash had no fucking idea what the fuck she was doing.

“I’m sorry,” she finally whispered. It had been a few seconds since the last attack. “So that’s what cursed weapons are like and why Mahka told me not to touch them.”

I got off her and sighed, leaning against a nearby shelf. “Yes! Fucking hell, this was stupid. We could have killed each other.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated herself. “I’m sorry.”

I took a deep breath and sighed again. “It’s fine. I’m as much to blame as you are. I’m very very sorry too for my actions.”

“I forgive you. You didn’t actually attack me, despite trying to. I think I hold more blame.”

“Nah. I just have a better idea of who I am. I have the advantage of a whole entire lifetime to have solidified my sense of self.”

“What do you mean?” Moonwash asked, confused. “I’m older than you, aren’t I?”

“I’m talking about the mind. Like, mentally and shit.”

“I’m smarter than you are.”

“Wha–” I choked and coughed upon her words. “What the fuck, Moonwash!?”

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“Sorry. I realize now that my words might have sounded rude. But I really don’t understand what you mean, because I think I’m better than you are in general when it comes to mental things.”

I nearly fell into another coughing and sputtering fit, but I took a deep breath and let it all out. Moonwash was just being honest about what she thought, and none of the social cues ever came to her instinctively, even if she understood. I also respected brutal honesty a great deal, so that’s fine. My friend only spoke from her perspective, it didn’t mean that she was right.

“There are many different kinds of intelligence, Moonwash,” I finally said. “You’re not necessarily smarter than me.”

“That is true. If combat is also some form of intelligence, then you definitely exceed me in that case.”

“Oh yeah. Totally.”

We sat in companionable silence for a while, just looking at some of the mess we’d made of the place. It wasn’t much really, compared to how large the basement was. Just a few out of place tables and chairs, and some knocked over crates. We could very easily just sweep under the rug what had happened.

“Hey Moonwash.”

“What is it?”

“I’m very sorry again. And I forgive you for your own actions too.”

“Thank you, Haell.”

I extended out my hand, and she took it. We shook hands.

“No hard feelings?” I asked.

“None.”

I could trust that Moonwash was being honest about that, more than anyone else.

“Yeah. It was just an accident. But I won’t judge someone for their actions while brainwashed. Not you, not me. I’ll be damned if I let that ruin our friendship! Never!!”

“I would also hate that.” Moonwash brought a smile to her face. “I was scared at the moment, but I understand that none of us was at fault.” She was silent for a few seconds, but I knew that she wasn’t done speaking yet. She was only deep in thought. “I think I agree with what you said about brainwashing. Although if someone brainwashed was trying to harm me, then I will fight back.”

“Oh, I totally agree! I will not jeopardize my chances to live in order to spare an attacker, no matter their reasons! The fault lies in whoever brainwashed them in the first place.”

We both turned our heads to look at the dagger.

“Should we destroy it?” Moonwash asked.

“...We’re already in so much trouble. Let’s not make things worse for ourselves.”

“But Mahka really did allow me to use anything here. It’s partly her fault.”

“That’s…” my mind whirred. I’d feel too guilty if I actually hid what happened here, and at the end of the day, I didn’t want to do that. However, it was also true that my mother should not have left such a thing lying around. “You’re a genius, Haell! I can work with this!”

“Thank you.”

~~~

Me, my mom, and Moonwash sat around our living, each on a couch or sofa of our own. We weren't allowed to do any of our favorite things today as a punishment for our recklessness and stupidity.

“Why didn’t you just keep it a secret, Haell!?” Mom lamented. “We wouldn’t have been the wiser!”

I gave her the side eye. “Is that really what you want?”

She chuckled. “Heh. No. I’m just kidding. Don’t lie kids! Tell your parents if you accidentally try to off each other!”

“Ah, so if it’s on purpose then tell no one?”

“Unless you need help burying the bodies!” Mom laughed loudly, until she realized what she just said. “Ugh, no! Don’t do that! Ignore me! I’m just… I was going to pick up an order today, a rare repository filled with Life mana! I was going to get to experiment with that rare element! But now…”

“...Sorry, Mom.” I felt genuinely bad. “I didn’t mean to…”

“Oh hush.” She gestured to her lips. “If anything, I’m really very very sorry to you two, Moonwash, Haell. I kept that dagger secured usually, but I, err, forgot. I’ve just been experimenting with the Dagger of Betrayal a lot lately, so I… well, you know. Just left it out.”

“I forgive you, Mahka,” Moonwash replied. “We were all at fault.”

“That’s right! We’re all fucking stupid!” I reassured my mother.

“Haell, don’t curse!”

“Oh right, sorry!” I giggled.

We talked about random things after that, until Moonwash came with a question.

“When you mentioned that you’ve lived an entire lifetime, what did you mean by that?”

I looked at my mom, and she just shrugged at me. It was my decision to make.

“Does it have something to do with those demons you told me about?” Moonwash asked. I did tell her about what a demon was already, but I never gave any context as to how I knew about them, or any of their origins.

“Uhh… Hang on, let me think.”

“Okay.”

I thought in silence for a few long minutes, until I looked back at Moonwash with the most serious expression I’d ever had or would ever have plastered on my fave. “Moonwash.”

“Yes?”

She met my eyes, unafraid.

“I will tell you about me. About everything. But you must promise to never ever under any circumstances tell anyone. Is that okay?”

“Yes. I promise, Haell, to never reveal your secret.”

I looked at my mom for some support, and she gave me a firm nod.

“Alright, so it’s like this…”

~~~

“...I died, and then I was reborn here. I had to learn a lot of things from scratch. And I lost what progress I have made towards becoming a demon. But now my potential was even more immense than before.”

“I see. And you’re not lying?”

“It’s happened before. With Shanayah.”

Moonwash pondered for a few moments. “Can you promise to me that this isn’t some kind of joke? I am just very bad at understanding those.”

“Oh, of course. I swear to my past, to my demonhood, to my parents, their party of The Piss Hunters, to my grandfather, and to all of my friends in The Harvesters. I swear to you, to myself, and to everything: That I am not joking. And that I am only being completely, fully, and 100% honest.”

“Alright,” Moonwash shifted, gradually moving her face into an expression of determination and gratitude. I think. “Thank you for telling me all this, Haell. I truly appreciate it. I am very interested in learning more about your previous world, and how reincarnation is even possible. The teachings of angelism says otherwise. That we would all go to heaven to be with the Angelic God. Although Shanayah does confirm that reincarnation happens, but apparently this one was by the grace of the Angelic God because she had an important duty to attend to here. It’s very confusing.”

I barked out a laugh. “Of course. I’ll tell you all about it.”

I wouldn’t go into too much detail about my personal life, but I felt more ready now to talk about Earth itself with her.