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A loud bang echoing throughout the house shook Reimu awake, causing her to fall upside down from where she initially perched. Regaining her balance and orientation, she looked out of the dusty window. A storm was raging outside, and everything was wrapped in pitch-black darkness. Worried that some ghost hunters or exorcists had found their way into her manor, Reimu quietly floated down the hallways and from the second floor, peered through the gaps of the bannister overlooking the front doors.
From where she watched, Reimu could see that the front doors were wide open. Those must have been what caused the loud sound from before. Through those doors, a dark-haired man stumbled into the threshold, a hand over his stomach and another hand holding what seemed to be a dirty cloak.
The man stumblingly trudged into the house, his shoes making wet stains on the pristine (albeit dusty) floor. He walked through the first floor of the house slowly, his breaths loud enough for Reimu to hear, and his steps uneven and heavy. Then, he stopped in front of a door by the side of the receiving lounge. He reached for the door, swung it open, and stepped inside.
Cautiously, Reimu glided down the stairs to silently follow the man. But when she peered into the room, she found him slumped in front of the cold and unlit fireplace. Slowly, she approached him, scared that the man might wake up anytime.
The man wore a white suit that's stained with mud and blood, and still gripped in his hand was a dirty scarlet cloak embroidered with flowers. His other hand was firmly pressed against his stomach, and Reimu could clearly see that he was bleeding. His eyes were closed and he seemed to have fainted. Reimu gingerly floated closer to check if the man was still breathing.
Suddenly, the aura from the man made her reel back in fright. Reimu flew back until her head touched the ceiling, her eyes wide as she stared at the unconscious man.
No, she was pretty sure this was no man.
This...was a demon.
Just the thought of seeing a demon brought shivers down Reimu's spine despite the fact that she didn't have a physical body. It brought back memories of when she was still in hell, suffocated by the flames of her own grudge, her soul seemingly pulled asunder by the pain and rage. She had managed to escape from that miserable place and had taken refuge in this old, abandoned manor where she decided to stay as she healed herself.
Yet now, her have had been invaded by the kind she feared the most.
What if this demon's here to take her back? What if she really wasn't able to free herself and that they're still searching for her for some reason? What if it was her fate to languish in hell?
Reimu tried her best to shut away her intrusive thoughts. She took a deep breath to calm her (nonexistent) heart. No matter what her fears were, there was no way she was being hunted to be dragged back to hell. Not to mention, this demon didn't seem familiar. They didn't seem to have met before.
Carefully, she floated down until her feet touched the carpeted floor. She squatted beside the unconscious fellow and checked his breathing. After confirming that he's still alive, she sat on her heels. Even though this man had the aura of a demon, it seemed weaker than what she felt from those in hell. Was it because the man was in danger of dying? Was he a lesser or half demon?
A groan from the man broke Reimu's line of thinking. She stood up and stepped away, watching the man roll to his back and wince in pain. His coat and vest were drenched in blood, and he was shivering. Reimu belatedly realized that the man was cold.
Of course, she thought. He must have only come here to take refuge from the torrential rain outside.
Reimu stared at the fireplace. There was a small pile of firewood in it, but she was afraid to kindle the fire lest the man wake up and feel suspicious of the place. Still, she couldn't leave him here to die without trying to do anything. Demon or not, he was cold, wounded, and helpless. On an unrelated note, he's also kind of handsome (Reimu swore that was not the reason why she was a little considerate of the man).
Letting out a phantom breath (away from the demon in case he got chills), Reimu decided to help him. The manor was clearly uninhabited, and the man was almost unconscious when he came from outside. She would just treat him and hide away, so that he'd think some passerby or fellow person taking refuge in the manor saved his life. As soon as he woke up, she'd hide...just in case he ended up being someone who's hostile towards ghosts.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on her hands. Usually, ghosts couldn't touch anything, but Reimu was different. She had enough power to work her hands like a living person. She floated out of the room and came back with a lantern and some matches. She lit the lantern and hung it, then she kindled the firewood. The amount of firewood would only last a night, so she hoped the demon would wake up once it was extinguished and cold.
She left the room a few times to get some blankets and linen as well as some bandages she saw in one of the bedrooms upstairs. She couldn't lift the man, so she pushed him to rest his head on a rolled-up blanket. Then, she opened his vest and shirt to look at the wound. The wound was bleeding badly and it looked like a stab wound. Reimu hissed as she peeled the clothes from the skin, even though the man did not even have any reaction at all.
She couldn't find any antiseptic or first-aid things in the manor, so she opted to use a bottle of whiskey to attempt to disinfect the man's wound. As she poured it over the wound, the man groaned, and Reimu was worried for a while that he'd wake up from the pain. But as the man remained unconscious, she hurriedly pressed clean cloths over the wound and then tried to bandage it. As she couldn't move him, she could only nudge the roll of bandage around the man's waist a couple of times. The result was a very haphazardly done, messy bandaging. Still, that was better than not treating the wound at all. Demons also heal fast, so he just needed to keep warm and stable for a few days.
Reimu piled blankets on top of the unconscious man, putting a lot of attention into making sure his body was completely covered and warmed. Once the fire was extinguished, the rain would've also stopped outside so it wouldn't be as cold.
Clasping her hands over her chest, Reimu stared at the man and whispered. "Please, don't die here. If you die here, your comrades might come and I'll be in big trouble. Please...since I saved your life, please tell the demons from hell that Reimu Endou would like to be left alone..." She then silently prayed that the man would wake up, treat himself properly, and then leave once he recovered--all the while without realizing that she was there all that time.
Much to Reimu's chagrin, things didn't go as she wished.
Poking her head out of a bookshelf, she watched the demon read quietly by the fire. He had his hair tied up as he read, his clothes, which were previously muddy and wet, now clean and tidy. His wounds also seemed to have healed well, as reflected on the way he moved without difficulty. It seemed he had adjusted well to the house as well.
Of course, Reimu thought as she pouted. It’s been two weeks since the man overstayed his welcome! At first, Reimu thought he’d just stay for a couple of days until he felt better enough to continue his journey. But the man only left for a while and came back with clothes, food, and other stuff he bought from a nearby town. Then he cleaned the kitchen, the study, the downstairs bathroom, and the drawing room he was previously in.
Every day, Reimu would silently watch from her room's window as the man left the house and returned with more things to use.
Somehow, it seemed the demon intended on settling down in the manor.
Her manor.
Was it too much for a small ghost like her to be left alone in her house? Why can’t this demon just leave and find his own place? She slid back to her room upstairs and sulked. There was no way she could let that man stay here.
So, she decided to make things difficult for the demon.
First, she hid all the matches in the house. Without fire, the man wouldn’t be able to light a lamp, start the fire in the fireplace, or cook. Since he almost died from the cold, he wouldn’t want to repeat that experience and look for a warmer place to live, right?
But she was wrong.
After a few minutes of looking for the matches unsuccessfully, the demon just shrugged and summoned a fire in the palm of his hand. Throwing a fireball into the fireplace, he smiled blissfully as the fire roared into life while Reimu seethed behind him.
Next, she decided to sabotage the water supply. Without water, the man wouldn’t be able to take a bath and do other things, so she cut off the pipes outside the house. The pipes were old and only needed a bit of force to break. There was no way the demon would spend a fortune and a lot of time just to fix an old mansion's water pipes, right? It was surely more efficient to just look for a new place to live.
But she was wrong again.
The demon, after discovering that no water ran from the taps, called workers into the manor to find the cause of the problem and fix it. Reimu’s eyes widened as she looked at the first living person she had seen in a long while. She didn’t expect the demon to be friendly with humans, but he seemed just fine talking and joking with them. What was more unbelievable was that he had money to pay for the new pipes. She thought he was a wanderer and only had money for essentials like food and clothes, and yet he paid the workers a handsome amount. Clicking her tongue, Reimu watched while the demon turned on the tap in the kitchen and nodded in satisfaction as water flowed out.
Reimu swung upside down from her canopy in the attic as she racked her brain for ideas. So far, every attempt she had made to scare off or discourage the demon from staying in her residence had been futile. It seemed that the man was determined to stay here for a long time.
So far, the demon didn’t seem to know of her existence. He also never showed any curiosity for the other parts of the house except the rooms he used. He never ventured to the second floor where Reimu hid, nor even tried to investigate if there were other entities in the building aside from him. Still, Reimu didn’t feel safe. She still didn’t know what the man’s intentions were and if he was sent out to bring her back to hell. She couldn’t lower her guard until she was sure that she'd be left alone.
Reimu righted herself and looked out of her window when she heard some sounds outside. The demon must be back. He usually left at sunset and went back right before dawn. As soon as she thought that, the man walked up to the house while carrying a few paper bags. They looked like they had food in them, so it must mean that the demon was going to cook.
Reimu grinned to herself. The demon loved to cook for some reason. Sometimes she'd wake up to the most amazing aromas ever. He must be a good cook...and a good cook loved his spices. Wouldn't he be so pissed if his spices had suddenly gone missing?
Peering stealthily over the second floor bannister, Reimu decided to sabotage the man's cooking next. If she couldn't drive him away because of fear or discouragement, she just had to piss him off.
It wasn't even that hard. The moment she saw the man start to cook, she stealthily slid all the spices to the back of the top shelf. She giggled as the man reached up and tried to fumble for the spice bottles, but he couldn't reach them. As he busied himself with getting a chair and lifting himself up to see where his spices went, Reimu let the hanging pans drop to the floor, catching him off guard.
The man cursed profusely, and Reimu inwardly laughed in victory. Now, she just had to slowly move the dishes to the back of the cabinet again so he had to stoop low to reach them so she can topple the napkins over his head.
However, before she could do so, the man took a deep breath and spoke.
"If you don't want me to do anything here, you just need to say so, Reimu Endou."
Reimu froze. How did the man know her name? No...how did he know of her existence? Dread filled her ethereal form, and she could only think of escaping. She hurriedly zoomed up through the ceiling and towards her room, unaware that her sudden escape caused all the lights and fire in the kitchen to be snuffed out and the cabinet doors to rattle.
Reimu stayed in her room for a few days, nervously waiting for the demon to show up at her door and punish her or something. But the demon didn't seem interested at all. Every sunset, he would still leave the mansion and just come back in the morning. She prayed that the man would just leave her and the manor alone for good and never return.
Please, go away and leave me alone.
However, Reimu's wish wasn't fulfilled. After exactly three days, the demon came to find her.
She was roused by the sound of her name being called, the voice echoing throughout the house. Trembling, she peered around a corner near the stairs and saw the demon walking around the receiving area, calling her name over and over.
When she did not reply, the man sat halfway up the stairs and talked by himself.
"I just wanted to apologize. At first, I thought you were just trying to pull pranks on me like a naughty ghost, but I never realized that you must have been afraid of me."
Reimu clung to the bannister, quiet and invisible. Yet the man continued to speak.
"You must have realized that I'm of demon blood," the man said as he wrung his hands. "But I meant no harm. I simply want a place to stay. I have no intentions of hunting you down or sending you back to hell as you were anxious about."
Reimu's eyes widened. How did he know about that? Then, she suddenly remembered the only time she spoke to the man. It was when he was unconscious and she spoke in barely a whisper. Was he awake that time?
"I will not touch you or invade your abode in the second floor. I just want us to coexist harmoniously in this house until I'm ready to move out. So, please, do not fear me."
Slowly, Reimu walked away from the bannister and descended the steps, her form gradually materializing until she was a few steps behind the demon. "How did you know my name?" she softly said.
The man suddenly turned around, making her flinch. He profusely apologized and gently spoke with her. "You saved me when I was about to die. How could I not know? I had given up on my fate, but you helped me. I couldn't see anything back then as the blood loss rendered me temporarily blind, but I heard your every word."
Reimu clasped her hands over her chest. "So, you're not going to take me away or attack me?" she warily asked.
The man's golden eyes met hers. "I will never do that to my benefactor. I swear upon my name, Vox Akuma."
Reimu peered through a bookcase to spy on the demon fixing his things in the parlor. He said his name was Vox and that he's a demon from a distant land and time.
As she watched him rummage through his things in a chest, Reimu thought about the unbelievable story Vox had told her. After they agreed that they wouldn't harm each other, Vox told her of his story and why he ended up in the manor. It was almost too impossible to imagine. This man who loved cooking but was clumsy in other things went through hell, just like her.
Vox said that he lost all of his loved ones in a war. He was the only one left of his clan, and he had been wandering ever since. As he's a demon, he'd been attacked multiple times by humans and other demons alike, which was the reason why he ended up taking refuge in the manor. He looked like he had gotten over the tragedy in his life, but Reimu saw how much grief his face showed while he was telling his story.
This man was broken, just like her.
And he needed time to heal his wounds, just like she did.
Maybe, that's why fate made them encounter each other.
"Reimu, do you know how to play chess?"
Reimu was surprised when Vox turned around to face her and show her a chess board. How on earth did he know that she was there?! She was invisible!
"I do," she answered nonchalantly, pretending that she intended to be there all along. She gracefully floated to sit on the couch across Vox's chair.
Vox grinned. "That's wonderful. I've been wanting to play, but I couldn't play by myself, could I?"
Reimu shrugged. "I have time to play, I guess. But I haven't played in a while so I might be bad."
After a few games, Reimu realized. If she was bad at chess, then Vox was worse.
"You are bad at this game," she squarely said.
"N-no, I'm not!" Vox exclaimed as he toppled the pieces over. Reimu had him on checkmate again.
Reimu laughed. Somehow, it was adorable how this demon whined about losing. "Even if I play you a hundred times, you'll still be losing..."
"No, please! One more game!" Vox begged. Reimu laughed and goodnaturedly agreed. They had all the time in the world anyway.
And so, the strange relationship between a wandering demon and a cursed ghost blossomed in the abandoned manor.
Oftentimes, Vox brought news and goods from the town, so Reimu would sit down and listen to him talk about all sorts of things while he ate. Then, she would read over Vox's shoulder as he goes through the daily newspaper. She'd teach him some recipes she knew from when she was still alive and watch him eat it gleefully, even though she couldn't eat the meal herself. She still played pranks on Vox, every now and then, and while the demon would be so annoyed, they would end up laughing together in the end.
Sometimes, they'd stay up late to talk about their past lives, their shattered dreams and their fears. Despite remembering those things, Reimu didn't feel afraid anymore. And she hoped Vox was not afraid of his past, too. Maybe someday, they could talk about their aspirations as they continued to exist in this world.
Reimu heard sounds approaching the manor, and she excitedly got up from her perch to look out of her window. Vox might've brought something interesting from town again and they could play this lunch.
However, as she peered out of the glass pane, Vox didn't brought something with him...rather, he brought someone.
"It would be nice if you would think about it, Vox," the man in glasses was saying as they approached the house. "You shouldn't be stuck by yourself here forever. At least with us, you'll have some sort of protection and we can help you when you need us."
Vox didn't agree, but he also didn't refuse the man. "Is Luca really adamant about staying together, Ike?"
The man with the blue-gray hair, who Vox called Ike, nodded. "He's planning on rebuilding his business in the city and said we should join him. I'm not sure what he has specifically planned, but at least the five of us will be together? Five heads work better than one, especially if that single head is Luca's."
Vox laughed. Reimu gripped the window sill. He and the stranger seemed really close. And they seemed to have a tightly-knit circle of friends.
"You know what? Let Luca know that I'm thinking about it," Vox said. "I'll contact you in a few days."
"That's great! Then, I look forward to hearing from you, Vox!"
The man walked away and waved a bit to Vox before disappearing into the streets while Vox slowly walked towards the house.
As the people outside disappeared from her view, Reimu sank to the floor. The day had come after all.
Vox was leaving the manor. He was leaving her.
Reimu refused to go down to the first floor ever since that day.
She could often hear Vox calling for her from the stairs, but she chose to ignore him. She thought that if she did that, it would be easier for him to leave. He didn't need to explain anything or exchange goodbyes with her. It seemed better that way.
Reimu hugged her knees as she sat on the floor. She didn't know why she felt this way. She had been used to solitude all this time. She even wanted to be left alone. More than that, she was aware that Vox would be leaving someday. He had no plans to stay here forever, after all. As a demon who's staying in the human world, Vox would be way safer with friends he could trust. These friends could actually protect him when the time came, and he would have more prospective futures with them compared to staying at an abandoned mansion.
She knew it in her head, but her heart refused to acknowledge it.
Over the days, she could hear shuffling and bustling from below. Vox was probably packing his things. She didn't know if Vox intended to bring all the stuff he brought into the house, but honestly she didn't care. She wouldn't be able to use them anyway so it's better if he brought all of his stuff with him. That way, there wouldn't be anything to remember him by.
She inwardly cursed herself. She shouldn't have gotten used to it. She shouldn't have gotten used to looking out of the window and seeing him walking home. She shouldn't have gotten used to the kindness and affection.
As she continued to silently blame herself, she was suddenly interrupted by the door to her room exploding in smithereens.
Reimu shielded her face with her arms, though the pieces of wood all went through her anyway. As she looked up, she saw Vox standing before her. He looked angry.
"W-what are you doing here?!" she exclaimed. "Didn't we have an agreement that you won't invade my room?"
Vox stared at her for a while before he sank onto the floor. "I'm so glad you're here."
Reimu frowned. "What? What are you talking about?"
"I thought...you left me..." Vox softly said. He reached out to where Reimu knelt and rested a hand over hers. She couldn't feel it, but she flinched anyway. "You weren't answering and I thought you left the mansion to go somewhere else."
Weren't you the one who's leaving? Reimu bitterly thought. "Why would I leave?" she said instead. "This is my home. I don't have anywhere else to go, you idiot."
Vox studied her face without speaking, and Reimu didn't like the way she was getting flustered by those golden eyes fixated on her.
"A-anyway, weren't you the one who's leaving?" Reimu blurted out. She couldn't help it. She tossed her hair over her shoulder to appear like she didn't care, but she didn't know that her fingers were visibly trembling.
"How did you know?" Vox asked. When Reimu told him what she overheard a few days ago, something clicked in his head. "Is...this why you're avoiding me?"
Reimu coughed and looked away. "I wasn't avoiding you. I was making it easier for you to leave." She stood up and faced the window. "Saying goodbye....is hard," she whispered against the window pane.
Despite her soft voice, Vox heard her anyway. He stood up and faced her. "What do you mean saying goodbye?"
Reimu turned to him. "What? Aren't you leaving?"
Vox had a pained look on his face. "So...you don't want to be with me?"
What was this man talking about? Reimu was confused. When she didn't speak, Vox rubbed his face with a hand and explained. "I was looking for you to ask you if you want to come with me."
Reimu froze in surprise. "What...me? Come with you?"
Vox seemed excited and exasperated at the same time. "Yeah! Do you think I'd leave you behind in this manor alone?"
She stared at the demon, eyes wide. "But uh..." she stammered as she walked backwards, away from Vox. "But you are going with other people..." She shakily clasped her hands over her chest.
Vox stepped forward, walking towards her when she was trying to escape. He caught one of her hands. "Yes, but I was with you first. I can't just leave you here when I can bring you with me."
Reimu stared at the man holding her hand. She could feel ghostly tears forming in her eyes. "You're not...going to abandon me...?"
Vox chuckled. "Of course not. I have never thought about abandoning you ever since I saw you."
She wasn't going to be abandoned. Unlike before, in her miserable past life, someone was willing to be with her.
"Are you set?" a man asked Vox just as he walked out of the manor. A couple of other men were helping Vox load his luggage into a large car.
"Yeah, I think I have gotten everything I needed, Mysta." Vox walked with him towards the car, where three other men were waiting.
"Let's have a welcome party for Vox when we get there!" One of the guys cheerily said.
The man named Ike pushed up his glasses and sighed. "You can think about that once we are safely home. Make sure you drive properly, Luca."
"Before we leave," Vox said, "I may have to confess that I have an excess baggage with me."
One of the guys cocked his head to the side. "Is it a child?"
"Shu, please..." Ike scolded. "Well, as long as it's not an evil excess baggage, I think we can deal with it."
Vox smiled and looked over his shoulder. "Greet my friends hello. You'll also be staying with them from now on."
Slowly, Reimu manifested her form as she nervously peered behind Vox's shoulder.
"Her name is Reimu. She saved me and I owe her my life."
The man named Mysta let out an exaggerated sigh. "Oh my god, it's just a girlfriend. I thought it was something sinister."
"G-girlfriend..." Vox stammered. "We're just..."
"Just get in the car, Vox." Ike said as he laughed. Then, he looked over Vox's shoulder. "And welcome, Reimu. Don't worry about these guys. You'll meet a lot of better people in our place."
"Why would she meet other people when she has me?" Vox complained as he got into the car.
"Oh my god, he's an obsessive boyfriend..."
"I am not....we're not...!"
"Please, let's just go home."
As Reimu slid beside Vox in the vehicle, she quietly listened to the guys joke around. Before, she would be so annoyed at the tiniest voice or noise, but now she didn't mind it at all.
The car started rolling and the manor that was once her home slowly got smaller and smaller until it couldn't be seen anymore. But Reimu didn't care. That was her home back then, when she wanted to be hidden from the world and its untrustworthy people.
But now, anywhere with Vox (and well, his bunch of rowdy friends) would be her home.
-- END ---