"Most of the time, the most obvious is the least expected.” - Aiko

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I remained with the lynxes in the hideout for a while. I got to know each one of them, one by one, they all seemed to admire me for being the reincarnation of Rei, I can’t let them down. I got to the last one, she was the sister of Thomas the lynx that I first met. Her name was Aiko Peruggia, she seemed special compared to everyone else because of her ruby hair that closely reassembled my crimson hair color. She also had yellow eyes just like mine, but so did the other lynxes.

“Hello there, Aiko.”

“Rei, we’ve all been waiting for you for a very long time.” She said. She gave me a wise vibe. She looks very young, and yet she emits an extreme amount of wisdom just from her way of speaking. She was close to my height, a bit shorter, with gentle eyes and short straight hair, she doesn't seem like a fighter.

“You seem to be different from everyone else, mind if I know why?” I asked politely.

“You don’t remember?” She asked me.

“Remember what?”

“Hmm… I see, so you forgot everything. Makes sense, after all, it has been millions of years since we last talked.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come with me.” She said as we started walking somewhere alone. What could she mean by that?

“I don’t understand… what do you mean by millions of years?” She scoffed and then said,

“Millions of years and you’re still the same-old simple-minded Rei. No wonder you and Akira attract each other so much, your complete opposites when it comes to personality. But at the same time… so similar.” What’s up with this change of personality? She seemed like an innocent little child when I first entered.

“Uhm… that’s a lot to take in, Aiko.”

“Right, I apologize.” She rested against the wall with her arms crossed, looked at me and then smirked. “I can’t say I didn’t miss you though, sometimes someone simple-minded is what you need for motivation.”

“Uhm… Aiko… can we start from the beginning?” I could barely understand what she was trying to say. I was very confused.

“Right. So first let me tell you that when I’m with the others I have to switch my personality to something more innocent and naïve.”

“Why do you have to do that? Isn’t it better to just be yourself?” She giggled and said,

“You’re so cute, Rei. The issue is that the devil queen has been trying to find me for millennia, and the only way for me to hide is to change who I am. I have been called many names throughout my lifespan, and since I'm the only immortal lynx, I've lived almost forever. Some people called me the Divine Lynx, other people called me the lynx sage, other people called me the Oracle.” Yeah, my subconsciousness was right, she is extremely wise.

“Wow, that sounds so cool! But isn’t your hair a big giveaway? And your eye color?” I asked.

“Only you, Akira, and the other lynxes can see my real hair color, you want to guess why?”

“Well, I guess… it’s because… uhm…” She giggled again and said,

“We all have yellow eyes, Rei.”

“You know why we have yellow eyes?!”

“Of course, I do.”

“Can you please explain?” She sat down and said,

“Make yourself comfortable.” I sat down too. She then looked up through a small window and said,

“Long ago, when Akira and Rei got together, they decided to get a pet, as the usual couple does-”

“So it was you!”

“L-let me finish!”

“O-ok.”

“Akira had a very strong power. He was able to make a new life, for Greenterra to take care of.”

“What do you mean?”

“He could create new races and new animals. After he did that, he gave those living beings to Greenterra, mother nature, so she could take of them and develop them.”

“That’s… amazing.”

“Yeah, it was, but of course that didn’t help him in combat at all. Making life was not an option in combat, since it also took a long process, he couldn’t just snap his fingers and make life, he had to make a long ritual.”

“Ah, I see.”

“But it didn’t matter to him, he was happy with himself. That’s not the most interesting part though, he was the strongest being in the universe after Ochiru for a very long time; but the toll he paid was an immense amount of physical and mental training.”

“And that’s the person that is in Rukito’s soul?”

“Rukito? Who’s that? I’m guessing the last reincarnation of Akira.”

“Yeah, we… we were together back on Greenterra before I died.” Now that I think about it… what if when I come back, he is already with another girl? It definitely would be Shizuka… I don’t care, as long as he is happy, I’m happy.

“Ah ok, and what is your name then?”

“I’m Kasai.”

“Well, Kasai. I don’t think this Rukito is even 10% close to Akira’s full power.”

“What? But he is pretty strong.”

“That’s not my point… he probably doesn’t even have Akira’s gem right now, right?”

“Akira’s gem? No, we haven’t found a single gem.”

“That’s bad… that’s really bad.” She sighed then said, “Anyways, Akira made the Satana Lynxes for the devils to take care of, but as you can see, they didn’t treat us well. But I was the first one he ever made, that’s why he gave me his hair color and kept me.”

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“So… I’m your owner?”

“Yeah!” She said while smiling. I quickly rushed towards her and started pinching her cheeks and caressing her tail.

“Alright, alright, alright, alright. Who’s a real cutie now?”

“H-hey! Stop it! This is no time for~” She started meowing and purring. After some petting, we came back to serious talk. I coughed and said,

“S-sorry about that.”

“For real… you’re hopeless.”

“Anyways, we were talking about Rukito.”

“Right. Well, he definitely has potential, but if he wastes it, it’s over. This is the last reincarnation of Akira, he told me that he could only reincarnate four times, same as Ochiru.”

“If Rukito managed to kill Ochiru after I died… then that means he can reincarnate…”

“Two more times. The first reincarnation was the tie between the two, and the second was killed by the third generation of Akira.”

“Do you mind explaining more in-depth?”

“Ugh… well, my memory is not that good to remember events thousands of years from today. But I did write a diary that I kept with very useful information as the location of almost all the divine gemstones that Akira told me, and every single reincarnation of Akira’s story.”

“Where is this diary?” I asked.

“That’s the problem… I think I left it somewhere in Greenterra after the third generation of Akira died, which was, if I remember correctly, in the year 1901 A.D of Greenterra. In this period the devils dominated Greenterra behind the curtains, so I moved here in hell to hide from the devil queen.”

“Where most devils are?”

“If you think about it, this is the smartest place where I could be at. I can blend in with the other lynxes, and this is the place where she would least expect me to be at. Most of the time, the most obvious is the least expected.”

“Why does the devil queen want you?”

“Not only her, if the angels knew about my knowledge, they would also want me, but the devil queen is the only one that knows of my knowledge. I know how everything, and why everything works, Kasai.”

“Shizuka would sure like to speak with you… I don’t really care for information as long as everyone is ok.” She giggled again and said,

“You never change, no matter how many times you reincarnate. Just so you know, I was the one that kept telling the lynxes that you were going to come to save all of us, that’s just how kind you are, Kasai. I knew you wouldn’t have chosen to go to heaven even if you had the choice of doing so.”

“How do you know-”

“Lira is my friend. In fact, all of the archangels inside the gems are.”

“LIRA HAS A GEM?!”

“Yes, it has never been found though, it’s one of the gems that I even have no idea of where it is.”

“I can’t imagine how powerful someone must be with the power of time…”

“Very. Maybe it’s for the best that she didn’t tell me, if someone found that diary containing the time gem’s location with evil intentions, they will dominate both angels and devils.”

“Why don’t they all join powers and go against Ochiru?”

“They can’t leave the gems, Kasai. Ochiru was the one that locked them inside those gems.”

“Then how was Lira...”

“She goes back in time before she was locked and uses that body to travel to the future.”

“That almost seems like cheating!”

“There is no cheating, it’s her power.”

“Anyways… that’s a lot to take in at a time, I think it’s better if you finish explaining the rest later.”

“Just know that the diary is somewhere in Greenterra with a spell. The spell was casted on the diary so it wouldn't rot away, so it should look brand new.”

“Ok.”

“And the reason why we have golden eyes it’s so the lynxes could recognize each other no matter what generation we were on. Not even contact lenses can replicate the uniqueness of our eye color. The actual reason of why your attraction to Rukito happened is because of your golden eyes.”

“That’s not the only reason!”

“I know, you both have loved each other for literally forever. The golden eyes were so if you two made random eye contact in a crowd, you wouldn’t ignore each other. Think of them as a family last name that Akira made. Rei married Akira and instead of making a last name, he inherited Rei’s eye color and gave them to himself and the lynxes.”

“So Rei’s original eye color was yellow?”

“Yeah, she was blonde with golden eyes. She gave her eye color to Akira, and Akira gave his hair color to Rei and me. That’s why you, Rukito, and I both have the same hair and eye color.”

“But why? Isn’t that a little bit extra?”

“It wasn’t just for looks, in fact, they both gave half of their soul to each other. When Akira was exiled from heaven for defying Ochiru, he was sent to hell. An angel can’t survive in hell without dying slowly, so Rei gave him half of her devil powers, while Akira gave her half of his angel powers since she would have died with half her soul.”

“Is that why I only have one wing and no horns?!”

“Yeah, that’s exactly why. You gave the other wing and horns to Akira, and he managed to develop that devil power to even further lengths and grew a second wing.”

“So that’s why I also have one red eye… it was given to Rei by Akira with his angel soul.”

“Yes, you both have dual eye color. You both genuinely are two halves of a whole.”

“Hmm… they must have suffered a lot, Akira and Rei.”

“They certainly did… an angel was forbidden to be with a devil, and vice versa.”

“But why don’t I have an angel wing too? Didn’t I get half of Akira’s soul?”

“He lost his wings when he got exiled from heaven by Ochiru.”

“Oh, I see.”

“You should still have his halo though.”

“Hmm… it has never appeared.”

“That’s weird. Maybe it’s written somewhere in my diary, I don’t remember too well.”

“Well, thank you, Aiko.”

“For what?” She said with a monotone voice. She actually talks a lot with this monotone voice.

“For everything. For waiting so long for me, and for always having hopes for us to ultimately save everyone.”

“Oh, I never really had hopes for Akira, that guy was always screwing things up over and over, no matter which generation.”

“O-oh…”

“But… he sure never thought of giving up a single bit. When he got discouraged you and I were always there to help him, and all the other crazy bunch of friends he made along the way.”

“I bet it was sad for you to see him die three times…” She looked away, sighed, then said,

“Yes… I rather not talk about it.” She looked back to me, smiled and said, “But I can’t wait to meet Rukito!”

“Let’s meet him again together, once we get out of here and save all the lynxes.” I lend out my hand, she smiled then gladly grabbed it.

“Sounds like a plan.” As we were walking out, she stopped and said, “Before we go, here.” She took out a shining red stone that illuminated the whole room red from her pouch. It emitted a feeling of power, hope, and prosperity, but also death, and sorrowfulness. The tension of such stone sent a shiver down my spine. “I’ve been keeping this on me for quite a while. I was waiting for either you or Rukito to give this away.”

“W-what is that?”

“It’s the blood gem!”

“The... blood gem? I’ve never heard of such a gem.”

“This is Akira’s gem. It was never written anywhere in religion to be kept secret.”

“Well if it’s Akira’s gem, then it doesn’t belong to me.”

“But…you’re half of him.”

“Still, it’s not right.”

“It’s just half of the blood gem, the other half is on another planet. Stop being a hard head!”

“Hold onto it! You will be the one to give it to Rukito once you meet him, it’s destined to be his.” I said.

“But you can use it meanwhile! You just have to pass the test that the archangel gives you to see if you’re worthy! And since you’re Rei, I’m sure you will pass it no problem.”

“Is Akira in there?” She smiled and said,

“No, there someone else. The other half on the other planet is where Akira is at, in this one… there’s someone who was a very close friend to Akira.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if the first person she saw was Rukito?”

“But-”

“It’s fine Aiko,” I said while resting my hand on her head. “I’m quite strong even by myself.”

“Hmm… Indeed, you’ve always been stronger than Akira, until he surpassed you. You used to be his mentor after all.”

“Wait, what?”

“I think we’re done talking for today, I’m hungry.”

“Wait, you can’t just leave it like that! There isn't much food out there anyways!”

“We can’t keep wasting time; Lira told me that we don’t have too much time left until Ochiru comes back at 100%" I sighed. I really hope Rukito managed to kill Ochiru, and I hope he is staying far away from Sachi as much as possible.