Chapter Text
Daniel landed ontop of an abandoned building and got in human form. Plus, walking there will be much better and he'd really prefer not to have the four major crews finding out he was a demon, the stereotypes of them helped cover his disguise up aswell.
And plus, if any of the major crews were to find out, he has a plan for that. He likes having people who don't know him underestimate him. It adds benefit to his human disguise.
Daniel walked silently to the path towards big deal street, a small but visible smile framed on his face. His eyes observed his surroundings silently, the area looked completely abandoned, Daniel put his hands behind his back loosely, locking them together and turning his head to look around, simultaneously walking along the path Infront of him.
"Oi. Who the hell are you? This is big deal street. Go back" Daniel stopped walking and turned his head towards the two unfamiliar figures Infront of him. "I'm here to see jake. I'm assuming you're big deal members? My name is Daniel park—" Daniel replies in a firm and relaxed tone, "I didn't ask for you name. what business you got with boss? And plus he's not someone you meet as you wish, go back now." Daniel's head lowered down abit in slight annoyance, but composed himself.
He is a high-ranked demon, he should not be annoyed as something as small as this.
Daniel sighed, before sensing a familiar figure. "What's going on?" Jake asks, standing behind the two unfamiliar big deal members that were speaking to daniel just a moment ago, with Jason and Brad with him. Daniel watches Jake silently observe the three. "Jake." Daniel smiles, his head slightly tilting to the side. "..daniel? What're you doing here?" Daniel smiles at Jake innocently. "I'm sorry for the sudden intrusion. May I enter?" Daniel asks politely, waiting patiently for an answer.
-
"So you decided to come to big deal..just because you were bored? Is that right?" Jake said with a slouched back. "Yes. Do you not believe me?" Daniel asks calmly, it was obvious that Jake was suspicious of Daniel coming to big deal all of a sudden.
Daniel's eyes softens, "you're doubting me aren't you? Just to let you know, I'm not here to dig up any information that could be useful to gun and goo, nonetheless I like you guys." Daniel's voice is laced with honesty.
Jake hummed in response, before his eyes layed on what Daniel was holding. "Why do you have a wine bottle with you?" Jake pointed out. He must've brought it with him without even realizing while flying..
"I'm not gonna answer that." Daniel doused a mouthful of wine into his mouth before quickly swallowing as a small hiccup escaped daniel's mouth. "What do you even plan on doing here?" Jake questions Daniel furthermore, still skeptical of his sudden presence, and to be frank Daniel didn't really think about what to do besides walk around and explore and talk.
"I just wanted to explore and talk. It wouldn't benefit me to hurt your crew. If you want me to leave, you can just say that." Daniel replies in a calm yet honest tone.
"So formal.."
And just like that, Daniel was free to explore. There wasn't exactly much to do not to daniel's surprise, he tried to make conversation with a few big deal members he's encountered, but most of them were pretty hostile around him.
He assumed that gun and goo would most likely be going home at night, meaning he would, like most of the time, have some alone time. He couldn't help but feel lonely, nonetheless the netherworld was not that different from earth.
Shocking (for humans) to say that the netherworld and hell were two completely different dimensions.
Although they are close together, the netherworld was like earth, but with.. differences. rank and power matters especially in the netherworld. If you want to survive, you under no circumstances cannot be weak.
Education used to not matter in the netherworld actually, only being strong and power was important. Nothing else.
And plus, the language between the netherworld and human world was already different enough.
But atleast now the netherworld was much more stable, almost more..peaceful then earth itself. Demons looked much more different then humans, along with needing/having familiars in life to protect their masters if they were to be weak.
But humans are simply a myth in the netherworld, just like how demons are a myth in the human realm. Only high-ranking demons know the existence of humans, and only powerful humans know the existence of demons.
Demons love interesting things and species, they despise boredom. Humans can withstand boredom. Demons can fly, atleast most can due to having small wings. Human life is interesting, gun is interesting. The people he surrounds himself and the people he know is interesting.
He's not saying that he only likes gun because he is interesting, but it's one of the things that Daniel deeply, deeply loves about him. And even if that changes, he'll still love him. Being in his arms is enough.
It had been far too long since he's been this satisfied.
Daniel walked around more and more, admiring the place lovingly..he wondered what happened here? What history did big deal have with this street? Is it because they're paid too? history? passion?
...
Hm?
His phone buzzed in his pocket, usually he wouldn't get calls at this hour. Unless..
"Hello?"
"Toqqe? Xunioq Mukr, fo noox cea kivth nef. Yun cea yepo?(hello? Daniel Park, We need you right now. Can you come?)"
Daniel frowned, before speaking in a rather more serious, but concerned tone— "Can you atleast tell me the reason as to why you're calling me?"
The demon on the other line's voice became slightly more frantic, "Mqoujo sajh yepo, eno ew eak yqionhj ij anyenjyieaj unx tij toukhzouh ij zoyepinv peko wuinhok ouyt joyenx, ih'j sajh eno. Ih'qq zo jamok laiyr! (Please just come, one of our clients is unconscious and his heartbeat is becoming more and more fainter each second, it's just one. It'll be super quick!)"
"Fine fine, little Jane." Daniel was sad to leave so soon, but keeping demons alive felt more important, despite having a rather huge population.
But for the moment..
He needs to make sure he's alone. It's risky to do it in the public but...
A portal to the Netherworld was opening Infront of Daniel, opening big enough for a human to go into and enough to look like a deep, deep and open scar, only difference is that this 'scar' looking portal is a portal to the place where modern demons live..
Who gives a shit if someone sees? Daniel could just make them pass out right then and there just by making eye contact with him. But he'd rather not, he's too interested and curious about human life.
Daniel drops the wine bottle onto the floor of big deal and just..lets himself fall into the portal to 'hell'. Completely relaxing his body and falling. He doesn't care, cause he knows that he'll be safe. His wings will eventually and automatically go into instinct mode and save him from the impact last minute.
And it did.
His wings came out last minute before letting his body hit the floor..and here he is, in the netherworld.
He told himself that he would not do this so often, yet here he is. In broad daylight Infront of his condominium, he seriously needs to stop lying to himself. The sky in the Netherland is sky yet greyish blue to light yellowish green with a turquoise clouds normally..yea, humans thought the sky would be dark red but that's only in hell. Daniel looked towards his left as he heard footsteps.
A young-looking girl ran to Daniel frantically and held Daniel's wrist tightly, "Winuqqc! yepo en, qoh'j ve! (Finally! come on, let's go!)" Her grip tightened as she ran hastily inside the hospital that was just beside Daniel's condo.
And honestly the hospital was only near Daniel's condo because they needed him.
Little Jane. (Jane Lias)
An orphan who has a worked through many hardships and helps within the hospital that works with daniel in exchange for money, NHC(Netherworld Help Center). Goes by little Jane in her workplace due to her young age and slightly childish behaviour.
Matured children above or the age of 12 - 16 are allowed to work in the Netherworld. Child labour doesn't exist unless you're under the age circumstances. Little Jane is one of them, with her pale blue skin and wavey, yet choppy and layered hair that reached her chest.
13 and turning 14 years old, already helping doctors and taking care of patients regardless of age.
She's an extremely big help to the younger patients due to her age and hyper and friendly personality towards them, along with being fond of children.
She shares a friendly and family-loving but more work-related relationship with daniel. He often treats her like his own child and frequently gives candy to her and the other young workers before going. Daniel feels bad seeing her work at a young age.
Her family-ability, which is an ability only one demon and it's blood-relations can use, is clairvoyance. She's able to see multiple alternatives of the future but the one she is able to see most vividly is the one that will most likely happen in the future. But due to being a low-rank (wants to rank up), she has some slight trouble with it and along with doing verbal and non-verbal magic.
"Toko, Hto emokuhinv keep, muhionh ginxon (Here, The operating room, patient Vinden)" little jane says as she opens the door to one of the rooms in the hospital as she pants heavy breaths from running along with holding onto Daniel's wrist.
Surgeons and doctors were surrounding the patient, their attention immediately shifting to Daniel and little Jane. "Htunr juhun'j ujj xunioq'j toko. (Thank Satan's ass Daniel's here.)" Daniel simply smiled at them and walked near the dying patient, he honestly couldn't believe that they were failing at a heart surgery, this was one of the best hospitals in the netherworld.
"This should do.." Daniel muttered to himself, calmly picking up a clean and un-used scalpel blade.
Daniel took off his left glove, revealing very faded self-inflicted scars on his arm, mostly upper-arm and some on his lower forearm. "I'p neh fuhytinv. (I'm not watching.)" Little Jane says as she covers her eyes with her hands and turns away.
Daniel pressed the scalpel blade onto his skin, blood drew as he sliced his forearm in a swift motion as most of the doctors in the room preferred not to watch, while the rest was either uneasy by the sight they were seeing, or unphased by it due to seeing it for so many times.
The scar showed the second layer as crimson red covered it up and filled the open fresh scar. Daniel positioned his arm for blood to drip onto the patient's dying heart.
Blood dripped onto the heart,
then into the heart.
Merging with the dying heart..
"Htunr juhun to'j uqigo uvuin..(Thank satan he's alive again)" one of the surgeons said, "Xupnih tonxi, jhem pojjinv am! htij ij ftc fo xen'h hkajh cea fiht xeinv jakvokc, ojmoyiuqqc uqeno! (Damnit tonxi, stop messing up! this is why we don't trust you with doing surgery, especially alone!)" Jane yells at towards one of the silent surgeons that Daniel didn't bother to care about.
This is his working life in the Netherworld, giving his blood away to heal dying patients or to help other patients by being a therapist or psychiatrist to them.
"Fton'j ceak zkour qihhqo jane? (When's your break little jane?)" Jane stopped scolding the surgeons and looked back at Daniel, who was slightly surprised at hearing him speak the native language but nonetheless quickly answered— "Nef, kivth NEF ij pc zkour hipo! (Now, right NOW is my break time!)" Jane stopped and rubbed her foot onto the floor angrily as her arms crossed before speaking again, before sighing heavily— "avt ftuhogok, i'p eah ew toko..(ugh whatever, I'm out of here)"
Jane stomped out loudly as her boots hit the floor each second and into the break room, leaving the surgeons silent and dumbfounded. "Xeoj htuh poun fo'ko xeno? (Does this mean we're done?)" One of the surgeons speak up despite the awkward silence in the room. Daniel just nodded 'yes' and walked out of the operating room silently.
Daniel took out his phone afterwards to see a text from gun.
'I'll be back home late. don't wait up on me, sweetness.'
Daniel left gun on read and put his phone in the pocket, walking into the break room and walking over to sit with little Jane, who was rubbing her temples in an act of calming down with a half-eaten banana bread Infront of her just lying on the table.
Daniel sat near little Jane quietly, before putting a hand on her shoulder. "Toc, Janey uko cea eruc? (Hey, janey are you okay?)" Janey was also of her nicknames, Daniel would use it when he was concerned or worried for her.
Little Jane slouched her back as she went back to crossing her arms together before facing daniel— "Sajh zoon wooqinv jamok jhkojjox eah..(Just been feeling super stressed out..)" little Jane replies in an exhausted tone.
"Cea jteaqx huro u zkour. Cea'ko jhiqq ceanv, ogon iw cea htinr cea ukon'h u ytiqx, i jhiqq htinr cea uko...(You should take a break. You're still young, even if you think you aren't a child, I still think you are.)" Daniel advised in a soft tone, patting little Jane's head as she flinched slightly at Daniel's affection.
"Fef, I yun'h zoqiogo cea'ko u vac zah cea jhiqq vigo eww jayt u pehtokqc uaku. (Wow, I can't believe you're a guy but you still give off such a motherly aura.)" Little Jane says in a joking tone as she chuckled.
Daniel smiles at little Jane's response, feeling rather very flattered. "Uko cea vennu ve zuyr nef ek quhok? (Are you gonna go back now or later?)" Little Jane asks.
"Gun ij vennu yepo tepo quho, i vaojj ih feaqxn'h takh he jhuc toko wek u zih. (Gun is gonna come home later, I guess it wouldn't hurt to stay here for a bit.)" Daniel replies in a calming tone before relaxing in his seat. Little Jane was the only one who ever knew about Daniel living a double life in the human world, and to be fair most people would think he was talking crazy for that.
Only little Jane believed Daniel. Because she got proof, unintentionally infact. "Yea, I'm getting out of here." Daniel says in a rather fast tone as he stands up, before leaving he places a gentle hand on little Jane's head, patting it. "Xen'h ve hee tukx en ceakjoqw eruc? hodh po iw cea tugo unc ijjaoj cea funnu huqr uzeah. (Don't go too hard on yourself okay? Text me if you have any issues you wanna talk about)" Daniel says.
He walks out of the hospital and looks around and thinks—
Should he just go back to exploring big deal street or should he stay in the netherworld for a bit?
Well, he wants to do one last thing before returning.
He walks back to his house in a calm manner. Opening the door to find a neatly cleaned house that he paid the maids to do. It's a big house afterall, 2 stories..
No, 3 stories.
Daniel walks into the living room, his elf-ears and tail facing downwards playing as an indication of negative emotions despite it being prehensile, Daniel crouches down and partially flips open the carpet to reveal a rather big floor-hatch that was locked with powerful mana, mana that only the user is able to use and control.
As soon as Daniel touched it and concentrated with little effort, the floor-hatch opened with a clicking sound. No one knows about this, absolutely no one.
Daniel opens it and goes inside, there, inside the floor hatch, was a cold set of stairs that was made of pure clear quartz that faced downwards, the walls that guarded the stairs of clear quartz were bright bioluminescenct rocks that was used as a wall, the pathway was dark so the bioluminescence helped dearly to guide a demon's way through.
Daniel takes a step into it. Counting on the way. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4..counting over 4 and repeating as daniel's focus merely shifted to the stairs, looking down.
And finally, the door, the same door with detailed colored orchids and white chrysanthemums drawn over it, along with small butterflies that glowed pure white. Daniel's eyes water slightly as he opens it,
In the room, there was a bright bioluminescenct ceiling that shined white that had a tint of yellow, despite it being the only light, it worked extremely well, you can see everything clearly just because of that. But the things that fully stood out, was the photographic portraits and paintings,
one that particularly stood out because it was the biggest, was photographic portrait with a beautiful, beautiful woman with black hair that was tied into one bun, with short, yet curly and partially thin bangs to both of her sides that covered the base of her small, yet visible pointy ears. Smiling happily as two small fangs stood out in her dazzling smile as her pink tail in the background was up, showing an indication of happiness. She was in a pleasing but rather typical wedding dress that covered her feet and seemed quite short.
Next to her, was a man with black long horns and black yet short hair, smiling aswell and in a wedding tuxedo, the groom to be specific. He had a relaxed and content smile on his face, his black tail resting over the bride's tail. He had a long scar over his neck that was visible, but seemed to look like it was fading. He looked very tall and big, compared to his bride near him that had her right arm wrapped around his.
How happy they looked,
if only they knew what came for them next.
Daniel stared at the portrait, there were many others, but this portrait is one of the only one he has that is able to bring him to his knees.
A small thud is heard by no one as Daniel falls to his knees as he looks up the portrait, but slowly being his head down as tears uncontrollably fall down to the floor, this, this is the room that Daniel can truly let out all the emotions he represses. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..I should've done something, it should've never ended like that..—" Daniel sobs quietly as tears repeatedly and endlessly fall down his cheeks and onto the floor as he looks up the portrait.
"..Mother, father.." Daniel's body is limp and relaxed, yet his shoulders flinch slightly everytime he lets out a sob.
After all these years, he's still grieving the loss of his dear parents and friends. Daniel has many layers, well, metaphorically. He always ends up having a hard time opening up towards others. He wants to open up more, he really does.
But things like this holds him back in fear of spilling out everything.
This place, gives him the time to let out his emotions and cry them out, just so he can go back to being kind and pretty daniel, like always of course.
It should've never ended that way. He put half of the lives he surrounded himself with in danger, and now they're gone.
But he's still here.
Living good, he doesn't deserve this. Why didn't they protect themselves? Why did they protect him instead?
Daniel sobbed and sobbed, letting out the emotions that he bottled up and crying them out. He didn't need words, he just needed to cry out his feelings.
Until he finally collapsed, and fell asleep with tear-stained cheeks on the hard, cold floor.
...
When a demon is faced with extreme stress, worry or grief or in general any negative emotions and instead chooses to bottle them because of personal reasons and issues, most can't help but keep doing it as a habit because once they start, it becomes a parasite. But because of this, they can snap. At any moment when faced with a shitty situation, they can just snap and break completely on the spot, most likely opening up completely about everything, which is not a good thing, but it's also not a bad thing..depending on how the people respond to it.
A mental snap is more accurate way of putting it, as demons are more mentally unstable then an average human being.
It can become extremely overwhelming to talk afterwards, let alone once they do, most of the time they spout negativity and insult. The room allows Daniel to..be more stable, mentally. Not completely though, but still. And it's not just that, it's a place where he can remember the faces of his deceased beloveds and parents.
...
"Have you been crying?" Daniel raises his head up towards goo, who had this unreadable expression on his face. "Why do you ask?" He responds, giving off his usual relaxed smile that he would most of the time wear when goo and gun were around.
It was already 8:50, Gun wasn't back and only goo and Daniel were here, in the penthouse while goo was previously cussing out some people in a game he was playing.
"Your eyes are slightly red and watery, what's up? Cause like this has happened more then once and I'm tired of keeping quiet about it" Goo replies. damn, was it that obvious? But there's no hell in way that Daniel would tell him the truth.
I guess this happened..sometimes. and sometimes he would come home with reddish and watery eyes, like he'd been crying. (He was crying)
"It's nothing important, I swear, it won't benefit you in any way." Daniel says, his voiced laced with sincerity as his eyes softened. "But it'll benefit my curiosity." Goo sits on the couch that Daniel was sitting cross-legged on and layed his head on Daniel's lap.
"Cmon..atleast a clue?" Daniel knew there was no point in exactly fighting this little gremlin off. He thought for a moment before sighing—
"I..I visited the netherworld when you two were gone, that's all of a clue I'll give you." Daniel says, goo could now tell that talking about it is geinunely gonna be a hard thing for Daniel, so he let it go. Instead asking..
"is the netherworld like hell but in real life? Is hell real?"
"..will you get mad if I say yes?" Daniel asks in a calm tone as he began to caress goo's hair. Surprisingly it was soft and seemed healthy despite it being dyed. "I will get mad if you don't tell me the truth." Goo says, raising his finger and gently poking the cheeks of Daniel park.
"The Netherworld and hell are two different dimensions.. if it makes you feel better you won't be going to hell." Goo immediately sits up and looks directly at Daniel.
"I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?" Daniel tilts his head towards goo, signalling him to elaborate on his response. "What do you mean hell and the Netherworld are different?" Goo unintentionally raised his voice slightly towards Daniel.
Daniel doesn't respond, instead giving him a poker face before tilting his head: "would you like to explore it sometime?" Daniel smiles at goo, almost widely. Before goo could respond, Daniel's phone rung and vibrated loudly.
"Hello?" Daniel asks on the phone. "I'm almost home, Charles finished work and decided to head home early. How are you today?" Gun's voice was laced with sincerity. "Oh, I'm alright, goo is here actually!" Daniel chuckles lightly after responding,
"Ah okay, tell him I said hi and fuck you." Gun says before hanging up. Daniel looked back at goo, who was a bit and clearly pissed off about what gun said and slouched his back.
"Gun says—" "Yea I heard."
Goo went back to playing his game as Daniel patiently waited for gun, while simultaneously looking back at his phone for any notifications or just to scroll through and look at how the human realm works.
"Also later I wanna go to the netherworld with you, it better not be boring." Goo says, Daniel simply giggles quietly at goo's almost childish response, but nonetheless doesn't think much of it. He'll take him there, sure, but he'll need to do some things before letting him go there.
Since it's..not safe and you have to sign paperwork unless you're bringing a human in illegally..
Daniel stood up and walked into the kitchen, and coming back with a bottle of cold wine that gun brought for him in the morning as he watched goo cuss out more players in the game he was playing.
Eventually, Daniel heard the door gates outside being unlocked, and his attention immediately shifted to the door as he put the wine bottle down onto the floor. He had a biggest smile on his face as he heard the door open. "Gun!" Daniel embraced gun who just got home and already smelt of cigarettes, who simply smiled at the imp in his hands and simply patted his soft hair and caressed Daniel's horns, which he loved very much.
"I missed you!" Daniel looked at him with happy doe eyes. "Gun I can smell the strong ass scent of cigarettes all the way from here, go take a shower." Daniel honestly didn't care about that, he was just happy to see gun home. "Anything happened while I was gone?" Gun ignored goo's comment and continued to pat and stroke the hair of Daniel park. "Well, I did take a visit to the netherworld today, how about you? Anything interesting happen?" Daniel asks, clearly interested.
"No, nothing much. Just work, I'll go take a shower, alright?" Gun is always so kind to Daniel, visibly and geinunely.
"Kay!" Daniel walked back into the living room and lied down on the couch, very pleased to see gun. "Oh god— now you smell like cigarettes.." goo commented.
...
And the night ended off with Daniel, this time, sleeping in gun's room and in gun's masculine arms.