For the longest time, she was only able to hear sounds.
Sounds from animals. Sounds from people. Sounds from the world around her.
“No way… did that just happen?”
“Yes, I did it!”
“Mommy! Where are you?”
“Please don’t do this…”
Trapped in a prison of darkness, she could not see anything, or rather, her perception of sight had been lost ever since that day.
All she could do was listen to the Earth as it moved around her, living and dying.
She did not know how much time had passed. She could only estimate it from the voices around her.
“…”
For a good long while, she heard nothing. No new voices from anyone. Just the roaring of the wind and the occasional patter of raindrops.
The longer she waited for something new, the more the truth dawned on her.
That there was no one left that she could listen to.
“…”
Then, one day…
“Is this it?”
“…”
“I’m sure it is. Looks like we found another one!”
With that, new voices came and went. Some friendly, some angry, some worried, some soft and some loud. After having grown accustomed to hearing nothing at all, she could not remember all of them, but she was happy to not be alone again.
Sometimes there were just one or two, but at other times, there were a lot of new voices all at once, creating a cacophony of sound that she could barely tolerate without going deaf.
This was one of those cacophonic instances. All of a sudden, she heard crying, screaming and shouting from different people. She did not know the exact number, but she was certain that the group numbered about 50 to 60.
All of them were clearly in distress and panicking about something, but she could not hear most of the stuff they said clearly. However, there was one thing that most of them kept saying.
“The overseer is here.”
She had no idea who that was, but they kept repeating it, over and over again.
“…”
She could not ask who the ‘overseer’ was. Or rather, she did not know how to. For all the time she could hear other people, one of the things she could not do was to respond to them. She could only listen.
After a while, the voices stopped, and only one remained.
“Come on… please work… this has to work…”
One became two. Two became three.
“Oh dear. I have never seen this happen before.”
Then, a loud bang, and a flash of light.
In an instant, she could now no longer only hear. After what felt like eternity, she could open her eyes again.
And as soon as she did…
“I do have to say, science has triumphed once again!”
She was thrust into a brand-new world.
**********************
“…”
As soon as Kara began her loud declaration, the mysterious girl stepped backwards instinctively.
“Ah, right.”
Seeing her reaction, Kara immediately toned down her excitement and spoke in a normal tone.
“Let me start again.”
She took a step towards her, and she took another step backwards in response.
“…I guess I can introduce myself from here,” Kara shrugged disappointedly, “my name is Kara, I’m a doctor/scientist/inventor/the greatest genius to ever live.”
She then raised her hands in Anten and Dauma’s directions to indicate them.
“These two are my… helpers, Anten and Dauma. Anten’s an angel, but she feels more like a devil, and Dauma’s a devil, but well… he doesn’t do anything much honestly.”
Dauma stared at her, but she pretended to ignore it and continued.
“What’s your name, miss?”
“…”
The girl still did not speak. However, she gave both Anten and Dauma long looks and slightly tilted her head to the right, causing her bangs to fall to one side and exposing her left eye, which was squinting at them. It was unclear, but she seemed to be judging them.
It was almost as if she could not believe what she was seeing, or perhaps it was as if she did not believe Kara.
As Kara followed her eyes, she quickly pieced two and two together, and came up with her theory.
“From your stare, is it possible… that you can see inside them? Maybe… they don’t look like an angel and a devil to you, perhaps?”
“…!”
The girl reacted strongly to her statement, which told her everything she needed to know.
“I see. I guess it’s because you were created by something with unnatural powers. Makes perfect sense. You’re like some kind of… spirit girl.”
“…?”
She tilted her head again before looking down and getting a little startled by the green orb which had inserted itself in the middle of her chest. She stared at it for a while, seemingly contemplating the presence of that foreign object in her body, before she lifted her head up and looked at the three of them again.
“…”
“…wow, you really don’t speak at all, do you?”
Unsurprisingly, she shook her head in response.
“Come on,” Kara remarked, putting on a friendly, albeit slightly sinister smile, “we can be friends, you don’t have to be shy.”
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She shook her head again.
“Well, I guess it’s alright, you can take your—”
“I think we’ve talked enough.”
Having gotten increasingly frustrated at the girl’s sudden appearance and over the course of the conversation that went almost nowhere, Anten stepped forward and fiercely pointed at the girl.
“Look. I don’t know who you are or why you are here, but right now we’re running out of options, and you are the only option left. If you want to be left alone, I can understand that, but for now, we really need you to do something for us.”
“Anten…”
Dauma turned to look at her, his face one of slight concern at her tone, but she quickly dismissed him.
“Not now, Dauma. I need her answer.”
“I think we should—”
“I SAID NOT NOW!” she yelled.
“…”
It was the first time she had spoken to anyone with such a loud volume, apart from when she was flustered, so he quickly backed away in surprise.
Kara also looked at her with shock, although it was soon replaced with one of interest as she began to silently anticipate her next response.
For the girl, she had begun backing away from her, preparing to make a run for it.
“Now,” Anten continued, her voice shifting down in volume but still maintaining its strong tone as she addressed the girl again, “I need your answer.”
“…”
After a long pause, the girl audibly gulped and slowly nodded.
“…thank you,” Anten responded with a deep sigh before turning and beckoning her to follow.
“Come on, we have work to do.”
“…”
Hesitantly, the girl followed, followed by a concerned Dauma and an excited Kara, as they began the short but awkwardly long trek back towards the village.
**********************
“…”
The girl silently stared at Jori’s lifeless body in front of her. Her face was almost unreadable behind her bangs, but the long pause as she stood unmoving told them everything they needed to know about what she was feeling.
Anten was standing beside her with her arms crossed and tapping her foot impatiently as she watched her watch the body for a long while before looking back at her with a barely visible raised eyebrow.
“…?”
“I don’t know,” Anten bluntly remarked at the girl’s confusion, “since the Particle is now with you, I can only assume you know how to use it to bring the people who have had their souls sucked by it. So go on, have a try.”
“…”
The girl looked down at the glowing orb sitting in her chest briefly before glancing back at Jori. After another pause, she took a deep breath before squatting down and placing her hands over the body.
“…”
She closed her eyes and began to concentrate, pushing her hands gently against the body. Anten, her narrowed eyes widening again, held her breath as she waited in anticipation.
In the corner of the hut, Dauma and Kara were standing at a relatively far distance away from the other two as they watched the proceedings unfold.
“Strange. I thought you would want to get a closer look,” Dauma whispered.
“Ha,” Kara chuckled softly before whispering back, “nah, I wouldn’t go near her right now. She’s ready to lose it. I think I’ll be safer here, with you.”
“…alright then, I guess,” he shrugged and continued watching.
However, nothing was happening.
The girl pushed and concentrated with all her might, but as much as she tried, the orb still glowed faintly with no visible change, and Jori’s body remained stiff and motionless.
“…”
Anten’s silent hope and anticipation slowly turned into anger once again as the minutes ticked by, and even from a far distance, Dauma and Kara could feel the tension in the hut getting more and more palpable.
This is not good.
After about 10 agonizingly long minutes, Anten cracked a painful forced smile and broke the tense silence.
“I think that’s enough. Thank you for trying. We’ll get it next time.”
“…?”
The girl opened her eyes and looked at her quizzically, and she looked away.
“W-what? Don’t look at me like that. You tried your best and we can try again. That’s all.”
And with that, she walked away from her and back towards the entrance of the hut without pausing, while deliberately hiding her face from the others.
“…”
Maybe I should…
Unsure of how to respond, Dauma decided to follow her back outside, and the two of them walked together in silence.
“…”
“…”
After a while, she stopped and spoke sharply to him without turning back.
“What?”
“I just wanted to ask, are you OK?” he inquired out of concern.
“…I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, of course. I have to be fine. I’m an angel after all, I have to take everything with an open mind, patience and forgiveness. So, I’m fine… I’m fine,” she repeated her last line confidently to try and reassure him.
“But…”
“Can you go see that the girl is properly taken care of? Make sure she has proper rest and whatever else she needs for tomorrow. I need some time alone to think about things.”
“I… alright then,” he replied hesitantly before walking back towards the hut.
“…”
Unbeknownst to him however, as strong as his concern for her was, he failed to notice her brief but regretful glance back at him as he walked away.
**********************
After showing the girl to a nearby hut where she could sleep, he returned to the chief’s hut to find that Anten had already come back and was now sitting on what was once Jori’s chair, gazing blankly out of the window.
Seeing how quiet she was, he decided not to disturb her. Picking up an empty chair, he moved to a corner of the hut and sat down far away from her.
Try as he might though, he could not tear his eyes away from her presence even as he relaxed and tried to take his mind off the events of the day.
“…”
He could not understand why, but as he watched her lonely form sitting by the window, he could not help but feel a sense of uneasiness and regret.
Again, much like what had happened a few hours ago, he did not know how to address that feeling. He had to help her, but he could not find the right words to do so.
Am I even able to help her in the first place? Maybe I can’t. I don’t know. Should I ask Kara? Would she know how to help?
…
Perhaps I’m just not the right person to help others. Perhaps I’m still just a devil.
…
“CRASH!”
He did not know when he had drifted off during the night, but a loud crashing sound jolted him awake.
What the hell?
As he looked around, he could see that the chief’s hut had, at some point during his sleep, been trashed.
The table, which had originally been by the window, had now been pushed to one side of the room. Several chairs were broken or turned over. Many of the loose papers that Jori had kept on her table were now scattered on the floor.
Oh no…
Immediately thinking of the worst possible scenario, he quickly stood up.
However, just as he did so, a loud and familiar voice pierced through his eardrums.
“I’m begging you, just stop!”
It was Anten’s voice.
He quickly turned towards her.
“…”
The first thing he noticed was that the girl had returned, and was once again squatting down over Jori’s body, trying to replicate what she had done earlier and concentrating as hard as she could while still remaining completely silent.
“Stop, please! I need you to stop!”
At the same time, Anten was standing over her with her hands on her shoulders, vigorously shaking her back and forth. The expression on her face was desperate and filled with anger.
“Ant—” he tried to call to her, but a hand clamped down over his mouth.
“Shh…”
Before he had even realized it, Kara was standing right next to him with a finger over her lips and using her other hand to cover his mouth.
“Mff… what are you doing…” he muffled.
“You mustn’t disturb them right now,” she whispered, “there’s a slight possibility this could all end neatly, and your interference will ruin that.”
“What the hell… are you talking about…”
“Trust me on this.”
“…”
Even as she was shaken back and forth, the girl ignored Anten and kept on concentrating. It seemed as though nothing could convince her to stop.
“I SAID STOP!”
In an instant, Anten moved violently, using her strength to pull the girl away from the body and throw her against the wall of the hut, before quickly creating her bow and shooting an arrow at her in just the span of a few seconds.
“Plunk!”
The arrow did not hit the girl, but it had snagged on her robe sleeve and pinned her against the wall. Her face had shifted back to a confused as well as terrified look as she watched Anten load up another arrow into her bow and aim it at the Soul Particle in her chest.
“Oh dear… devil, you’re up. Good luck, ue he he.”
Without pausing, Kara quickly removed her hand from his mouth and stepped aside, and he reacted.
Creating his fire sword and holding it on standby, he immediately stepped forward and called out to her.
“Anten!”
“…”
She did not respond. He tried again.
“Anten, don’t do this.”
“…”
“Put down the bow, and we can talk. You need to tell me how you’re feeling. You trust me, don’t you?”
She tilted her head up and audibly gasped in frustration, but her hands were still tightly clutching the bow.
“She’s disrupting my plans. We don’t need her. We never needed her. She doesn’t need to be here. We just need the Particle. That’s why I’m taking it back.”
This is getting problematic. Guess I have to try this again.
“But… that can’t be what you’re feeling now, right? Remember what you told me? You’re an angel, your priority is to save lives. I don’t know what the girl can do either, but we can’t find out if you kill her. You’re tired, you haven’t had proper rest in four days, you’re not thinking straight. Put down the bow.”
“How do you know that? You’re just a devil, aren’t you?! Since when did you become the authority on everyone else’s emotions?”
“I… I can’t explain it. But you just have to believe me.”
“…”
“Please.”
“…”
She looked at the girl, who had remained silent without so much as a yell or scream of fear.
She had not done anything to try and pull out the arrow stuck to her, but her widened eyes behind her bangs as she stared at her said everything.
“…ah, damn it!”
After a few seconds of silence, she lowered her bow in frustration and walked over to the girl and pulling the arrow out, causing her to float slowly back down to the ground without so much as a torn sleeve.
“Anten…”
“…are you happy now?” she replied in a low tone, her face turned away from them again, “you got what you wanted.”
“I… I didn’t…”
“Of course you didn’t. You never did.”
Leaving that last scathing comment with him, she stormed out, leaving the three of them in the ruined hut.
“…”
This time, he knew that even if he followed her, she would not listen to him.
As such, he just stood in silence, watching her leave. Now that she was gone, Kara was now looking at him with renewed interest.
"Those were some surprisingly good persuasion tactics," she mused, "perhaps there's more to you than I can see."
However, he was not listening to her, and was instead completely lost in doubt.
Maybe… I really am just a devil.
As though he needed to remind himself, the one thought crossed his mind again.