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It has been nearly a month since I arrived in Hell. I have slowly gotten used to it, not that I really know how to spend my time. Since my last outing, nothing much has happened. I usually hang out with Kayano, and we’re sometimes accompanied by Nakamura or the maids, Okuda, Kanzaki and Fuwa.
Sugino did invite me to join the soldiers’ training, but remembering the evil glares I received then, I haven’t really felt like going, so I have just been watching them from the window in my bedroom.
That’s also what I’m doing today. Sugino is fighting one of those who don’t want me joining. I watch him going at it. He is really good. Could he teach me some of that one of these days?
“Nice room.”
I jump. The voice is familiar and very unwelcome. I haven’t invited him in here after all.
“What are you doing in here?” I ask, turning slightly as I can look at the demon king.
“I came to see the view,” Karma says, his voice soaked in sarcasm. His tail is waving. I know there is another purpose but I still can’t fully interpret his feelings.
“What’s the real reason?” I ask.
“I came to get you. Why else would I bother coming here?” he asks, now seeming a little annoyed.
“Why do you suddenly bother to come get me?” I ask. He hasn’t sought out contact with me in all this time except after my last outing when he poured a bucketful of water over me. We do talk sometimes, but it’s never pleasant. He gets on my nerve and I’m pretty sure I’m getting on his nerve too.
“Since you are going to marry me someday, I figured…” suddenly he is quiet and he is clearly not looking at me. His tail begins to move some more. If I didn’t know better, I would say he was either nervous or… embarrassed?
“You figured what?” I pry.
“Apparently common folk does something called ‘dating’, to get to know each other,” he says.
“You’re asking me on a date?” I ask, mostly just to confirm.
“If you wanna put it like that, yeah!” he exclaims. He is defensive now. Clearly he is out of his comfort zone. I decide that since he made the effort to come here and ask, the least I can do is take him up on it.
“Okay,” I say. I step away from the window and pass him as I crosss the room on my way to the door. I then stand there, waiting for him to follow.
“I’m supposed to be in the lead,” he says, not sounding happy.
“If you say so,” I say. “Where were you planning on going?”
“I don’t know, the punishment grounds would be a good spot, but Nakamura says it won’t do,” he says, frowning now. He really does love watching people getting punished. I don’t see the appeal personally. He looks to me after a moment. “Where would you suggest?” he asks.
I think on it. “Have you ever been to town?” I ask.
“Why should I bother?” he asks. “That’s the most boring place down here. If you ask me, that’s the true Hell.”
A king who doesn’t bother getting to know his people… what an awful king. Since that outing, I have only been to town once with Kayano and the maids. I do want to experience some more of it.
“Let’s go to town. There is a café that Kayano-san, Fuwa-san and Kanzaki-san have all recommended,” I say.
“That sounds boring, but okay,” he says. “We go to that café and then I give you a tour of the punishment grounds.”
“Okay,” I say, feeling like we have reached a compromise, which took much less convincing than I had thought it would.
I let Karma lead the way downtown and as we reach the small plaza, he stops and looks around. I notice how everyone is staring at us. It doesn’t really surprise me. Karma is dressed in his usual black cloak. The long horns and tail also stand out, as both are much longer than average. I’m sure, to the demons down here, there is no doubt who he is. The fact that the shadow of uncertainty is about him doesn’t make him stand out any less. It seems like he doesn’t know what to do with himself now that he is here among his own people.
“It’s this way,” I say, remembering where the café is. I don’t even think about what I’m doing until I have done it. I grab Karma by the hand and pull him along, away from the staring crowd. He follows me willingly.
The café is small and cozy, it’s on a street connected to the plaza, but it seems to be tugged away slightly, making it less crowded than other places. I lead Karma through the door and a waiter with brown hair comes over to greet us almost immediately.
“Welcome,” he says with a pleasant smile. “How may I help you?”
“We’d like a table for two please,” I say. I didn’t go to cafës normally when I was alive, so I do feel a little uncomfortable myself, but I know what to do and I don’t trust Karma to be polite, even in a situation like this.
“Of course,” the waiter says. “Follow me, please.” He leads us to a table in the back, hidden behind a plant. We take a seat and he brings us the menu with a polite bow. Then he leaves us alone.
I observe our surroundings. There aren’t that many people in here. A group of four elderly demon ladies are sitting by a table near the window and talking in hushed voices. A male and female demon are sitting by another table with a small demon in a high chair. These are the only other people in the café.
“This place was a recommendation?” Karma enquires.
“They say the coffee is good and the service is better,” I say.
Karma only nods before looking over the menu.
“So many sweets,” he mutters, almost annoyed.
“Is that bad?” I ask.
Karma says nothing.
I quickly make my own choice and then observe Karma over my menu. He still looks out of his comfort zone. I wonder if it really was a good idea to take him out to the town like this. It could go wrong.
The waiter comes after a time with a notepad and a pen in hand.
“May I take your order?” he asks.
“I’d like a green tea and… is that lemon cheesecake any good?” I ask.
“It’s good,” the waiter says. “It’s definitely one of our most popular desserts, only surpassed by the strawberry parfait.”
“I’ll take the lemon cheesecake then,” I say.
The waiter nods before looking to Karma. His tail shapes itself into a questionmark but is otherwise fairly still.
“One black coffee,” Karma says.
“Anything else?” the waiter asks while noting it down.
“No-…,” Karma interrupts himself and his cheeks turn slightly pink. “A… a strawberry parfait,” he says.
“Coming right up,” the waiter notes the order down and leaves our table.
“I thought you didn’t like sweets,” I say.
“Strawberry is different,” Karma says, turning his face away from me. I can still see the pink on his cheeks.
I nod, not that I agree with that logic, but I’ll let him have it. I make a mental note that Karma likes strawberries. It’s good to know after all. Somehow, knowing what he likes also makes him feel a little less intimidating. I guess it’s a sign that I’m slowly getting to know him.
Our waiter brings our order out and we enjoy it in silence. It’s not an uncomfortable one. I feel normal sitting across from Karma like this, like we are just at a normal café in the world of the living and he is just a normal student, not the king of Hell. I observe Karma’s tail as he eats the strawberry parfait. It begins moving a lot, going back and forth in a way that I would interpret as happy or excited. I guess it really is good. The lemon cheesecake is good too for sure.
Karma looks up as he notices me staring at him and a small devilish smile plays on his lips.
“Do you want a bite?” he asks.
“I don’t need to,” I say.
He ignores me. He gets a spoonful and before I can make a single protest, he puts it in my mouth. He then gets himself a spoonful of my cheesecake, but I don’t even think to complain about that. The strawberry parfait is good. If I had had a tail, I’m pretty sure it would be moving the same way Karma’s does. He smiles at me and swallows the lemon cheesecake in his mouth.
“It’s good, right?” he asks.
I nod my head and swallow.
“The lemon cheesecake isn’t so bad either,” he says as he digs into his own parfait again.
I continue with my cheesecake and tea too.
We finish eating without exchanging another word and then we go up to the counter where the waiter is already standing behind the register.
“Are you paying together or separately?” he asks.
“Together,” Karma says. Only then do I remember that I don’t have any money at all. What would I have done if I had come here by myself?
“That’ll be 10 Satanican Dollars,” the waiter says.
“That’s cheap,” Karma says. “Can I see the prices?”
“Of course,” The waiter hands Karma the receipt without hesitation and Karma looks it over before he pays two gold coins.
“Thank you for coming here,” the waiter says, bowing as we leave.
Karma looks the receipt over again as we walk down the street towards the western side of town where the punishment grounds are located.
“Is something the matter?” I ask, finding myself unable to interpret why he looks so concentrated all of a sudden.
“It doesn’t look like he gave us a discount,” Karma says.
“Is that a problem?” I ask.
“Idiot,” he just says.
I think about it and actually, yeah, that was kind of stupid of me to say. He is used to special treatment. I’d guess it makes him happier when people don’t treat him different to everyone else. I had observed the waiter a little too. He treated us kindly, but he gave that treatment to all the other customers too. We were treated well, but not because Karma is the king of Hell. We were treated well because we were customers.
We walked in silence again until we neared the open fields and I could now hear the screams from the tortured souls down here.
“Are you ready?” Karma asks me. “We’ll be able to see it soon.”
Again, his tail is moving with clear excitement. How does he get off seeing people getting tortured like this?
We turn a corner and the grounds are in full view. I stare at all the things I see. People are being tortured in all kinds of ways. Some are carrying bodies, some are burning, some are getting boiled or drowned or tortured with knives . Some are making rope and their hands are bleeding. Most people are either screaming or crying.
“Don’t just stand there,” Karma says and I feel his hand in mine. It holds on tightly and he drags me along, showing me all there is to show.
“These people here are murderers,” Karma says, pointing out the ones making rope. “They have all strangled their victim to death. Every day they make a new rope and by sundown they get to hang from it in the gallows.” He smiles, but I don’t really feel the excitement.
“These here are our punching bags,” Karma says, showing me to a place where demons hit punching bags that yelp, scream and cry.
“People who have been physically abusive in life get to be living punching bags for our overseers,” Karma says. He then guides me inside a tunnel where I hear the echoes of many crying voices. There are evenly sized caves on both sides of the tunnel, and they are all visible through a wall of glass. Humans are sitting inside, crying, screaming or outright going mad.
“The people in here are guilty of mental abuse. They are all listening to an echo of the worst words one could ever say to them,” Karma explains.
He leads me through the tunnel and shows me many more things, ending with a man who is getting ripped apart and put together again in many different ways. He seems to be smiling, and I can’t tell if he is in pain or if he is just mad.
“It’s not going through, Your Highness,” one of the overseers says.
“He still keeps laughing?” Karma says in disbelief. “I thought for sure this one would work.”
“We’re terribly sorry,” the overseer says.
“Well, he is a monster,” Karma says, a thoughtful look on his face. “I will speak to the archive holder and my secretary and see if it is possible to send him into the void.”
I remember what Hazama said about the void. This is where people who tried to play God are sent as punishment.
“Please,” the overseer says, bowing deeply.
Karma leads me away. He is now wearing a frown on his face.
“Who was that? What did that man do?” I ask.
“Other than being physically abusive to his wife to the point where it took her life, he is guilty of human experimentation,” Karma says, his voice having a cold and sharp edge to it. “We didn’t like to imagine what he could do out in the void if left to himself, so we initially brought him in, as it’s a gray area. But we might need to rethink that choice.”
I nod. I have never heard of anyone doing human experimentation, but the idea sends a shiver down my spine.
“I think you have had enough,” Karma says, and only now I notice he is looking at me. “Let’s get you back to the castle.”
I don’t protest. Karma is still holding my hand and he doesn’t let go until we are back. He leads me past Mimura, who greets us, and I respond. Karma doesn’t. He just leads me up the stairs to my room and opens the door.
“You didn’t need to walk me all the way back here,” I say.
“You need rest,” he just says. “I’d like you to join me for dinner, and please wear something from your closet when you do.”
“I’m not wearing any of those dresses,” I say, frowning at him.
“Take a look in there before you complain again,” he says. He then shoves me into the room and closes the door behind me. I stand still and listen until I hear him leave.
He said to take a look in the closet. I’m not very optimistic on what I’ll find, but I decide that there is no harm in doing as he says. Then I’ll decide if I’ll ever wear something from in there. What I’m wearing right now, the only outfit I have had besides the gray one I came in, was something Fuwa made for me.
I open the closet and take a look inside. To my surprise, all the dresses are completely gone. Instead there are dark colored t-shirts and pants as well as three floor-length black cloaks. They look to be the same quality as the one Karma usually wears, but while his is fastened with a golden clasp and the inside is red, my cloaks are just plain black. One of them even has a hood. I try it on and the hood almost completely hides my face. I guess it’s perfect if you want to look suspicious.
I try on some of the clothes. They all fit me really well. I look through the entire closet but there is not a single sign of all the girly clothes that were here this morning. The gray outfit is gone too, but with all these new clothes that I actually want to wear, I don’t mind.
I open a drawer to find some shoes, all of them black but with different designs, and a note on top of them.
Just a friendly reminder. Please wear some of your new clothes for dinner tonight. One of the maids will come get you.
I was told that I need to learn to love you the way you are and I hope that you, with this, can show me who that is.
Your future husband.
I crumble the paper into a little ball. Where does he get off thinking he can sign any note like that when I haven’t even agreed to marry him? It’s not like I have much of a choice, and I admit he is trying to get better, but still.
Even so, I just throw the note in the bin before I turn to my wardrobe trying to pick out an outfit for tonight. All things considered, it is a nice gift.