Chapter Text
Despite feeling completely out of it, felt you felt an odd sense of security as Demiurge guided you back to your room from the bar. It was strange. You were pretty sure that you weren’t drunk, but your head was swimming with befuddlement. It was quite similar to that time you had that status effect, ‘Confusion’, but you could still think, it was just like your head was full of water.
Demiurge was frowning. So, you knew that he knew that something was wrong. Which was just great. He had already seen you get all emotional about the others leaving, and now he would be even more worried. He was going to think that you were useless and was going to hate you.
Suddenly your sense of balance went sideways, and you fell over to the left, just managing to catch yourself on the wall with your arm.
“My lady!?” You hear Demiurge shout and gently grasp your shoulder the same time your world begins to spin into white.
You opened your eyes to find yourself back in your apartment and the smell of smoke. Smoke! You rushed to take off your dive gear and pull of the power point. Your heart slowly settled. You had got the thing second hand, and it did this all the times, so you were used to it.
Wait a second.
You were back in your apartment.
A realization that you didn’t get enough time to reflect on, as your thoughts were interrupted by an extremely concerned and terrified voice.
“Svalinn-sama?! Where are you?!”
That was Demiurge. Just two meters away from you. In IRL. You really wished you had the time to take this in, but the demon wasn’t giving you any chances. He sent a disgusted look in your direction before shouting again.
“Svalinn-sama!? Svalinn-sama?! Can you hear me?!”
You shrank back into your chair and hid within yourself. You knew you should say something to calm him down, but he was shouting, and you were so small and tiny and, and…
“You there! Where am I? What did you do to bring me here?” The demon grasped your shoulder voice filled with a raging fire, and you gasped in pain and held back your tears.
You were a lot more fragile in the real world. In more ways than one. Being sent back here so suddenly felt worse than a bad dream.
“We-welcome to IRL, Demiurge.” You stuttered out, the fear in your voice half-heartedly masked with humour.
Demiurge froze solid. Your instincts took the wheel and you caged your head within your arms.
“Svalinn-sama?” Demiurge’s voice trembled. “Svalinn-sama, what happened to your arms?!”
He was, of course, referring to the ancient scars on the backs of your forearms. They were a pale which spiderwebbed from your wrist to a few inches above your elbow.
Plishilshk! A vase collided with your fragile, tiny arms. A wail in pain.
You shivered at the memory. “The scars are old.”
You couldn’t tell Demiurge how. Not when you couldn’t even tell yourself the truth. You kept your head down, unable to look Demiurge in the eyes.
“I—Forgive me, my lady.” Demiurge apologized. “What is this place.”
He was referring to the trash pile which could be referred to as your apartment. It wasn’t a trash pile because you were untidy – though you would prefer if that were the case instead – but because it could barely be referred to as the bare necessities of living.
For one thing, it was very small, only one 4x5-meter room, you had to share a bathroom with everyone else in the building. You were sitting at your corner desk on the side of the room closest to the door. While he, just two meters away, was in what you called your ‘kitchen’, I single bench with a microwave on it, which you also used as your ‘dining room’ table, and a cupboard. In the space between your kitchen and your desk was your rubbish bin. You didn’t have a wardrobe, so you just had a clothes rack against the wall opposite your door. In the corner opposite your desk was your worn-down bed, which had a lingering stench from the garbage that you found it in five years ago. At the foot of your bed was an old minibar that you had bought of a hotel which had been running out of business, which you were using as your fridge. Next to the minibar leaning against the wall was your only mode of transport; a bicycle which you rode to save money from the train. Next to the bike was probably the newest thing that you owned, your only pair of shoes, which you had bought three months ago.
You had spent hours upon hours scrubbing every nook and cranny of the room, and yet old stains still lingered from previous tenants. There were no windows, so mold was constantly growing on the parts of the wall that were in line with the plumbing. You were just glad that the wooden floors hadn’t begun to rot in these conditions, so you didn’t mind the roaches that popped out from the floorboards every now and then – you had even made a game of them, pretending that they were Kyouhukou’s minions checking up on you.
“I live here.” Was your quiet response. You heard a quiet gasp in shock.
“But these – but this is no place for a Supreme Being! It is unworthy of you!” Demiurge appeared to be in a state of denial, and you merely shrugged in response.
You were holding out better than you expected. You usually would have run by now. You did feel faint though. What was the time? 12:15. Oh. You also had a shift the night before the transfer, didn’t you? So, this was what… How many hours of solid consciousness? Wait no, you vaguely remember having a nap when you got back… It was hard to remember, it was all so long ago, like another lifetime.
It didn’t really matter. The fact was that you were dead tired right now, and it at least seemed like Demiurge wasn’t going to murder you in your sleep.
“Sorry, Demiurge. I know this must be a huge disappointment for you, and you probably want answers, and I kinda do as well, but right now this body needs some sleep. You go take the bed, I’m sorry about the smell but it's all I got to offer. I’ll take the floor.” You explained before yawning.
“My lady, I couldn’t possibly-!” You stop him mid-sentence with a raised hand, you slowly got up from your wheelie chair.
“Hold that thought.” You said, before promptly passing out.
You woke up a familiar bed with a familiar smell. Groggily you sat up while your eyes were still closed. Was that all a dream? And what did you mean by ‘that’? The new world with all the guardians coming to life or going back home. Realisation hit you. That smell… You were on your bed. Your shoulders sagged. You should have known, anything that good would never happen to someone like you.
“My lady, good morning. I apologise for not following your instructions and moving you to the bed, but I couldn’t have possibly allowed myself to sleep on your bed while you slept on the floor! Especially when I have been gifted a ring of sustenance to that I may serve my supreme beings tirelessly. Why I cannot even bear the thought of what Ulbert-sama would…”
You didn’t listen to the rest. What? That sounded like… You opened your eyes and saw Demiurge kneeling by your bedside, continuing his list of apologies and excuses.
So, it turned out that none of that was a dream.
Fuck.
You jolted out of your bed. Your foot got caught in your blankets. Falling. You closed your eyes in acceptance. You never reached the floor. Because Demiurge caught you. Now that you thought about it, wasn’t this a really common trope in amateur books? Pffft, that was silly.
“My lady are you alright?” Demiurge asked, putting you down gently.
“Ye-yeah. I’m fine.” You stuttered, a heavy blush warming your face. You blinked. Quick, quick, this was awkward, you needed to find something to change topic, now.
“So, um, you probably have a lot of questions, don’t you?” You asked, and Demiurge smiled dazzlingly. Fuck he’s hot. That blush on your face just wasn’t going away, was it?
“As expected of a Supreme Being! Thank you, Svalinn-sama! I have many, but I’m certain that with your wisdom, all shall be made clear!” He said with more enthusiasm than usual, which was mildly freak since you didn’t even know that was possible.
You smiled weakly and opened your mouth to speak when you stomach made a loud rumbling sound. You habitually looked down and rolled your shoulders forward.
“Per-perhaps I shall answer them over breakfast?” Fear struck your soul like a bolt of lightning. You slowly peered up, “Do you – do you want anything?”
“My lady you need not worry about my undeserving self, my ring of sustenance means that I do not need to eat or sleep,” Demiurge answered easily, hand over his heart.
It pained you to accept it, but his words were a relief beyond measure. As much as it pained you with guilt, you couldn’t be your usual stubborn self and order him to eat. You didn’t know how long you would be here – you didn’t even know if you could get back to Nazarick at all! – and you couldn’t afford an extra mouth to feed. Not when you were already cutting meals.
You groggily waddled over to the cupboard and squeaked open its door. Your shoulders dropped as you saw its contents. It was too cruel, being given a taste of a comfortable living in Nazarick just to be sucked back here.
“Ramen for breakfast it is.” You hummed, pulling one of your three remaining cup ramen and the three plastic bottles that you had been refilling with your work’s kitchen sink for months. You sighed as you poured a calculated amount into the ramen cup and put it into the microwave. You knew that it was dangerous to cook ramen this way, but you had been saving up for a kettle a while now, and after your next royalty check, you should be able to get a replacement for the one that broke a month ago.
How much money did you have again? You pondered, thinking of the two ramen cups left in the cupboard. That’s right, 7500 yen. You were lucky that your night shift job offered you meals, so that meant you had at least one meal six days a week. If you skipped lunch, you would be able to last tomorrow and the day after without having to buy more food. You could technically add a day to that if you drank your remaining milk tomorrow... that made three days after today. Your next paycheck from the night shift would be coming on Friday if you remembered correctly, and today was Monday. Today you would probably have to go to the corner store and get two more cups, which would cost around 700 yen.
Ping!
You hadn’t even realised how far you had spiralled into your thoughts when the microwave went off, startling you. You sent a glance towards Demiurge who was watching you with mild intrigue and let out a nervous chuckle. You pulled out your ramen cup and moved back to sit on the bed.
“Sit.” You ordered, pointing at the wheelie chair at your desk. Demiurge bowed and sat elegantly on the chair, looking at you expectantly, you took a deep breath.
“So, before we begin, I feel like I should explain some things up front. Firstly, I have no clue how I’m back here, and have even less of a clue how you’re here – that’s… usually not allowed.”
You closed your eyes in a grimace as you sipped at the ramen cup, before opening them slightly to eye your security guard uniform that hung on the rack to your right. You were pretty sure that you had left your chopsticks in there, but you didn’t feel like searching the pockets in front of Demiurge.
“Look,” You made sure to look Demiurge in the eye, “if anyone finds out that I brought you here, we’re both going to be in big trouble, so we need to make sure that you look like you’re from here.” It was the truth, sure, there was no law against bringing video game characters to life, but even you knew that the greedy megacorporations of the world would like to dissect both of you if they got their grubby hands on the truth.
“Which leads to my next point, which will probably answer one of your questions. Unlike the two worlds you have been in, there only exists one race here, and that’s humanity. The creatures of IRL do not have magic but rather advanced technology.”
Demiurge’s crystal eyes glinted, “Ah, I see! That is ingenious!” You didn’t understand what he was talking about, probably some inner meaning or reasoning behind this reveal, but you didn’t want to question him on it. You were probably flipping his entire world view upside down, whatever it took to keep him afloat and not drowning in the seas of insanity you would just have to accept.
“My third and final point is, that the powers that you know the other supreme beings and I had over creation is not considered that special to most people in this world.” You sighed, “Some would even say that it is a waste of time.”
You shrugged and raised your left hand to gesture at the room.
“And that’s why I live in this dump. I am really sorry that I am not all that you expected me to be.” You said, looking down sadly.
“My lady!” Demiurge gasped in horror, “Please do not say such a thing! No matter your standing in this world, you will always be my Supreme Being! Your very existence shall always give me awe! It is I that needs to work hard to meet your expectations, rather than the other way around!”
His words stunned you. You couldn’t help but chuckle.
“So, do you have any questions?” You ask.