Kara’s Log, Day 1586.

It has been almost a week since I returned to Mahu Village.

There have been no changes since yesterday, much like the day before.

The grumpy devilish angel continues to hide in her depressed state ever since her outburst.

The useless friendly devil has been trying to approach her but to no avail.

(Just to add, I have also tried to approach her over the past few days at his request. Needless to say, my predictions were correct, and she refused to see me either.)

As for the new girl, who I’ll address as Spirit Girl until she gives me her name (because she looks and floats like one, obviously).

She has been wandering around the village and going around in circles.

I thought that she would have been bored after a few rounds, but apparently each round seems to be uncovering something new for her as she has not stopped or gotten bored.

Perhaps it’s some kind of fascination she has for this world?

After all, none of us know her. For all we know, she might even be hundreds of years old.

I have tried to ask her some personal questions, but all of them have been met with no valuable answers.

She’s a strange being.

No.

They’re all strange, in different ways.

I feel like I’m probably the only normal one here. After all, there is a high probability that I’m the only human among them.

Crazy, huh?

…

Yeah, I will not stop until I can fully understand these three.

Especially the useless devil.

Something about him intrigues me the most.

He seems like he does nothing, yet he constantly surprises me with what he can do.

There’s something inside him that I want to find out.

And I will not stop until I do.

To that end—

“Kara.”

…

Speak of the devil.

“What?”

“We need to talk.”

Kara sighed as she put down her pencil, set aside the notebook she had been writing in, and looked at Dauma with the best concerned face she could muster.

“I told you; we can’t talk to her unless she can open up to us. Otherwise, it’ll be another wasted attempt.”

“It’s not that.”

Dauma leaned in closer to her.

“We need to discuss what we should do from now on.”

“Oh? What brought this on?”

After a few days of nothing being accomplished, he was suddenly willing to do something else now, and she was surprised that he was the one to bring up the idea.

“Well, it’s not from me specifically. But what the girl said to me.”

“Wait, the girl?”

She did a double take upon hearing the development.

“The girl… talked to you?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me more. Now,” she immediately replied, her eyes sparkling.

“…I was getting to that.”

**********************

“Umm…”

Her voice was so low and quiet that he almost did not hear it, but he had spotted her from the corner of his eye regardless.

She was peeking out of the doorway of the hut he had just walked past, and she shrunk away as soon as he turned to look at her.

For a second, he thought that he had misheard her, and that she was just staring at him just out of curiosity. However, her hand soon peeked out of the doorframe as well, and beckoned him to come in, all while her eyes nervously shifted around as though she was afraid of someone else suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

Thoroughly confused but nevertheless still willing, he decided to follow her lead and entered the hut.

“…”

The girl silently glided to the center of the room, waiting for him to walk closer to her, before she took a deep breath and mumbled something very quickly.

“…thanks…”

“Eh?”

“…thanks for yesterday, I guess.”

Her voice was soft, but not quivering, and there was a hint of a begrudging undertone hidden inside.

It did not seem as though she was afraid to talk to him, but was rather not only cautiously addressing him, but also treading lightly with her words, almost as if one misspoken word could ruin everything.

“…I see. Thank you for telling me this.”

Feeling an unexpected pressure inside him as they maintained eye contact with each other, he gave a simple answer before falling silent.

The girl was also quiet as she processed his response, but her mood seemed to soften a little as though reassured about something.

“…”

“…”

They stood quietly for a few seconds, staring awkwardly and fidgeting, before he spoke again.

“If that’s all, I guess I’ll leave you be.”

“W-wait!”

As he turned and walked back to the door, the girl called out to him again. This time, her tone was much louder and more confident, which surprised him.

“Yes?” he faced her again and asked.

“…Yuu.”

The girl paused, her voice returning to its soft tone, before continuing.

“My name… is Yuu. That’s what the lady wanted to know, right?”

“Yuu…”

It was sudden, but it was certainly not unhelpful for him to learn that new piece of information.

The mysterious girl finally had a name, much like how Kara had given him his own, and it was refreshing for him to know it, almost like a weight had been lifted from him, even if he was not the one who wanted to know about it the most.

“Well, nice to meet you, Yuu,” he responded with a slight smile as he accepted the revelation.

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“…yeah…”

Yuu nodded, her head lowering a little before lifting with definite intent as she looked at him, seemingly with new confidence.

“I need… to ask you something.”

“Uhh, sure. Go ahead.”

“What… am I?”

“To be honest… I don’t know,” he answered as truthfully as he could, but she continued to press him.

“Surely… you should know, right? You were the ones who brought me back after all… right?”

“Umm…”

She’s right. What is she?

He was genuinely at a loss.

I’ve been so focused on Anten that I forgot about her. She was created from the Soul Particle, so I assume that means…

“You’re… a soul…”

“A… soul?”

“Y-yes, a soul, I think. The thing in the center of your chest is a powerful weapon that sucks souls… I think. And when we tried to get those souls out, you appeared, so… yeah.”

That sounds right.

She was still skeptical, but she continued her questions.

“Ok… if I’m a soul, why am I here?”

“…we need you to bring back the souls of the villagers here—”

“No… no, I kind of figured that out… what I meant was, what should I do?”

“Huh?”

“I know what I’m supposed to do… but the grumpy lady didn’t want me to do it… and I don’t know how to do it either… so what should I do?”

“…”

He looked away as he gave his answer.

“…I don’t know.”

“…I see.”

With that, she glided to the back of the hut, where she sat down in a kneeled position, while still keeping her eyes fixed on him.

“I’ll get back to you as soon as we come up with a plan, I promise,” he hurriedly reassured her as he slowly exited the hut again.

“…alright,” she repeated as she closed her eyes, and that was all she said.

**********************

“Interesting,” Kara mumbled as he finished.

For some inane reason, in the middle of his recollection, she had pulled out a mysterious wrapped object, unwrapped it to reveal a brown-grey rectangular bar and had begun to eat it, chewing slowly and methodically as she listened.

“What… are you doing?”

“Don’t mind me…” she continued in between each chew, “…just having… a little snack break… I’ll be done… soon.”

“…okay.”

He was slightly put off and a little irritated by her nonchalance to his story, but he sucked it in and accepted it. She was definitely the type of person to do something like this after all.

“Perhaps… you would like to have a bite?”

“No thanks.”

“Then… maybe a long-winded explanation of why I think this is great? Ue he he.”

“Not really.”

Nevertheless, she still gulped down a big chunk of the bar and began to excitedly ramble.

“This, my dear devil, is what we call a Food Bar. You can also call it an Energy Bar, but it sounds kind of vague and misleading when you put it that way. I mean, surely a bar that is supposed to be eaten as food is way better than a bar that supposedly could give you energy, right?”

“Uhh…”

“But of course, I won’t judge however people want to call it, as long as they enjoy it, because this Food Bar is amazing. Whoever came up with the bright idea to pack an entire dish into a compact little rectangular bar of goodness that can sustain a person, perhaps even multiple people, for one meal, perhaps even multiple meals a day, needs to be awarded a medal for humanity or something. Me personally, even with my skills at inventing new things on the fly, I probably wouldn’t have even come up with something that genius by myself.”

“Umm…”

“But I’m rambling on about how, let’s focus on the why. Why do I think this Food Bar is great. Well, personally as I’m always on the move and don’t like to stay in one particular area for a long time (apart from here of course, but I think this is a special exception), I don’t have the time to cook proper meals for myself, and even if I did, I would probably mess it up. If you must know, I’m not the best cook around, so you should definitely not trust me to cook anything for you. Although, I guess you guys probably don’t need food to sustain yourselves, I've never seen you guys eating in the past week at all. Either way, that is why this Food Bar is perfect for a girl like me.”

“I…”

“Picture this. An easy, clean, long-lasting, nutritious substitute for food that can keep you going for a long while, all in one small thing. And that’s not all. They have made multiple batches of these Bars. Each time they came up with one of these things, they have continually strived to perfect its flavor, add more ingredients and made them much healthier, all while maintaining its perfect quality. I cherish each and every one of these Bars, and I always ensure that I do not waste any of them. While many of our beloved things and items have slowly disappeared or become obsolete, I for one hope that the Food Bar will never go away, and that I can enjoy them for as long as I live.”

“…”

“But let’s move on to the equally serious topic, seeing as how I’ve probably bored you by now. I have plenty more information, but I’ll save it for later.”

As she closed her eyes and chewed on the last piece of the ‘Food Bar’, ‘savoring’ it deeply, she crumpled up the wrapper that held it and instantaneously switched topics.

“Perhaps you might want to ask yourself this, what do you need to do first? After all, it’s you and Miss An’s business.”

“I thought I was asking you for help with that.”

“Yes, but that’s not what you need, is it?” she remarked as she brushed her lap and stood up, casually walking past him.

“What?”

“I’m not an advisor, dear devil. I am just a stranger who’s way too curious for her own good. You can’t rely on me to give you answers, you need to figure this out by yourself.”

“But I… can’t. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. I don’t even know if I’m supposed to be doing what I’m doing. I don’t know.”

Hearing his confusion, Kara sighed and turned around to face him.

“Then, let me give you some wisdom, as a stranger. You need to know your place here first before you can decide for other people. You need to find your motivation and purpose, not half-ass your way through everything and step in only when things go wrong. But before you can do that, you need to take the next step forward by yourself. You told me yourself, that’s what you were doing before Miss An came into your life, and when you guys went after the bastards who ruined the village.”

“…”

He paused and pondered her words carefully as she waited patiently. What she said made sense, and even though she claimed she was not one, it was still pretty helpful advice for him.

Eventually, he declared his idea.

“We need to leave this village. This is not a good place to stay for either of us anymore. We need to continue what we started.”

“There you go. Lead on, and I’ll help you,” she replied with a satisfied and smug smile on her face, not too different from what she had sported when Yuu first emerged from the Soul Particle.

“…but first, we need to find Anten again.”

**********************

She had not moved an inch since the last time they had seen her.

After she had stormed off, she had settled down in a hut near the center of the village, where she had sat down in a dark corner of its main room and refused to move, despite Kara and Dauma’s numerous attempts to get her to.

She just sat still in the same spot, her glazed, dull eyes staring ahead at nothing in particular, all while time passed around her without stopping.

Ever since the two of them had stopped trying to talk to her, she had not been disturbed, and was completely at peace. She had hoped for it to continue for a long time, such that she did not have to leave her corner.

“We’re back, Miss An!”

However, they had returned, and were somehow even louder than before.

“Helllooooooo? Anybody there?”

“…”

Kara was standing directly in front of her face, playfully poking at her loose strand of hair, all while Dauma, the devil she didn’t want to see, stood silently next to her, with a concerned expression directed at the annoying inventor.

“Hmph, you want to be like that?” she pouted after a long time of poking, “fine. Well, Mister Dau, seems like you have to appeal to her somehow, since I can’t get her attention at all.”

She stomped off in a huff, and he took over, immediately prompting a glare as the unfocused eyes moved and fixated on him.

“Anten…”

“I told you already, I won’t move,” the angel retorted in a low, dry tone, “you told me to stop, so I stopped. That’s all there is to it. Did you want more?”

“I didn’t—”

“I know what you’re going to say anyway. You want to leave the village, don’t you? Go ahead, leave. I’ll stay here for as long as it takes.”

“As long as what?”

“Hey!”

“What? I was just curious,” she heard Kara remark as she backed away again.

“Look, Anten,” she heard him plead, “we need to talk. Properly. Listen, nothing will be done if we stay here.”

To anyone else, it might have worked, but to her, his plea had no emotional appeal at all.

“Let me ask you something first, devil,” she challenged as she continued to glare at him, “did you not feel any sympathy for the villagers who had so easily lost their lives? No remorse? No guilt whatsoever?”

He hesitated to give his answer to her question.

“I… I don’t,” he admitted after a while.

“So, all that bravado that day was a lie? ‘We’re going after them’? Was it for them, or was it just for your sense of justice?”

“…I don’t know.”

“See? You always go back to that. Being ignorant. You really think you’re the only one who feels that way? How selfish of you.”

“Sorry to disturb again, Miss An,” Kara butted in again, while she signaled for him to come over to her location, “I’ll just be borrowing him for a while and work some stuff out.”

Sighing, he walked over, and they began to whisper silently to each other, occasionally sneaking a glance or two back towards her.

Despite their open secrecy, she could not be bothered to eavesdrop, so she waited for them to finish their conversation.

**********************

“It’s not working. She hates me even more now.”

“What did you expect by telling her the truth?”

“And you wanted me to lie?”

“You’re a devil! Lying is what you’re supposed to do!”

“I can’t believe this. Look, what should I do now? I don’t think she’ll listen to me anymore.”

“Sigh. Still have to rely on me, don’t you? Ue he he. Well, I just need to find out what’s making Miss Grumpypants so mad, and I have a pretty good idea what. It’s been stewing in my mind for days now.”

“What?”

“We need to appeal to her guilt. That’s the only way we can get her to act.”

“What are you saying?”

“Trust me on this.”

**********************

“Hey…”

Anten lifted her head up and glared at Kara.

“What?”

“I would just like to say, I know how you feel.”

“No, you don’t.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But sitting here moping about what could have happened doesn’t help your case, miss.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“Then, let me put it this way.”

Kara confidently smirked as she squatted down until she was at her eye level.

“You’re leaving because you can’t stand to leave the villagers in this state, am I right? Well, I have news for you, young lady. You can’t help them anymore.”

“What?”

“They’re all lost inside in the spirit girl’s chest orb, and they aren’t coming back.”

“T-that’s not true!”

Kara’s smirk widened as she watched the angel’s shell begin to slowly and surely crack open, exposing her true self to them once again.

“Yes, it’s true. So, you have to give up on them. Or, even better, carry their memories with you so they won’t truly die. It’s all you can do at this point.”

“I… I…”

“Make your choice. You can either stay here with a bunch of corpses, or you can come with us and prevent many more people from becoming corpses. It’s up to you.”

“…”

After a long pause, Anten responded.

“…fine. I’ll allow you to fool me. But don’t expect too much from me.”

Finally, Kara had hit the jackpot.

As she proudly sauntered out of the hut, with a skeptical Dauma following closely behind her, she looked back at him and gloated.

“That’s how a devil acts. Ue he he.”

**********************

As the next sunrise hit the village, the four of them gathered at the northern end of the village.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Three of them were completely silent, while the fourth, with her enormous backpack swaying back and forth, continued to chat on and on to them, even though none of them were fully paying attention to her.

“…so he went into the toilet, and you know what happened next? Come on, guess!”

No one responded. Anten rolled her eyes in annoyance, Yuu looked away, and Dauma gazed into the distance.

“Guess I’ll share the answer another time then. Anyway, if you guys don’t mind waiting a bit, I’ll be getting my ride.”

All three of them turned to look at Kara, and she shrugged.

“What? I’m not going to walk all the way. I have something to help me.”

She ran over to a nearby tarp located at the side of a hut and pulled it open to reveal the ‘ride’ inside.

“…”

It was, much like her, extremely bizarre and confusing to look at. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary dirt bike, with a few added parts to make it look much bigger and bulkier, such as metal plating, thicker wheels and longer handlebars.

However, upon closer inspection, one could spot a few extra additions that did not make much sense to be added onto a vehicle of that nature. It was so absurd that even a sulking Anten had to point it out.

“What is that? Is that a… human skull?”

“Oh, him? I call him Bob. Found him a few weeks ago, he’s pretty friendly, but his teeth are pretty sharp, so I advise you keep your fingers out of there, ue he he.”

With that morbid fact out of the way, she put on her goggles and got onto the bike.

“Try to keep up with me, kids. Although, I believe you three can easily catch up with me, seeing as how I’m probably the slowest weakest one here. 321 go!”

With one push on the pedal, the engine roared to life, and she quickly vanished into the wasteland in a cloud of sand, leaving the three of them coughing and blankly staring at the shrinking figure.

As she got further and further away, Dauma sighed and turned to the remaining two girls with a shrug.

“Well, shall we?”