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Niari knows a few things about himself.
One: No woman can resist him.
Two: He’s one of the most powerful being in this world.
Three: He’s not one of the good guys.
Of course he’s not. He’s the prince of demons. It’s in his blood.
He’s evil, and the worst thing is? He doesn’t really mind. Being evil, along with having power, allows him to get everything he wants. Which is women, mostly.
Well, just one woman, at the moment, he thinks as he watches Rubette. And he’s not exactly getting her.
They’ve stopped on a little island, planning to spend the money they got from their latest adventure and then some more in various pleasures until something else comes to them. While Niari sits on the sand, Rubette and Gokudo are playing in the water.
Well, Rubette is playing. Gokudo is complaining, mostly. She’s laughing, that loud, high laugh of hers. It’s beautiful.
The only woman who said no to him. The only one he wants. He still flirts, of course, because an eternity of flirting didn’t stop just because a cute blonde rejected him, but deep down, she’s the only thing he wants. It kills him, a little, that she said no to him, but she might say yes to Gokudo.
You could take her, a voice in his head, sounding suspiciously like Ikkyu, says. Take her and kill him and get it over with.
He could. Idly, he take a bit of sand, turns it into glass, then back into sand again. He’s powerful. He’s not part of the good guys. He could.
“Wouldn’t be the same,” he mutters. Besides, he doesn’t actually want to kill Gokudo.
Then take him as well. It’s within your power.
Niari can picture it. The most stubborn man he knows, submitted to his will by his powers, on his knees in front of him, pleasuring him. He can’t say he doesn’t like the image.
“I told you. It’s not the same.”
Using tricks and magic to get what you want never bothered you before, did it?
“Well, it does now. What are you gonna do about it?” Sand becomes glass, and then sand again.
You’re not thinking yourself as part of the good guys, are you?
Niari snorts. “Of course not.” He’s the prince of demons. “Besides, these guys aren’t exactly angels either.”
Of course not. They’re humans. By definition, they’re a mess. They were meant to dance in the palm of gods’ hands. They will be gone before you can blink. Do you really want to irredeemably change yourself for them?
“Now, you sound like my mother.” All his life, he’s been nothing much than a puppet she was pulling the strings off, as well. Every time he tried to rebel, it ended up being just another one of their plans. “I’m not that different from them.” Well, beside the immortality. And the powers. And the evilness, of course, inherent to his being, in a different way than the mess humans are made of.
Whatever you tell yourself to help you sleep at night.
In his hand, glass becomes sand again. Before he knows it, the two humans playing in front of him will be sand again, weather he likes it or not. He’s powerful. He could make them immortals, probably. He’s not sure, he never tried. He’s powerful enough to break reality apart, but he’s been using most of his free time making robots. And flirting, of course.
Despite it all, he’s never found a human he loved enough to actually think of making them immortal. But Rubette and Gokudo might be the first ones he doesn’t want to make his by force or ruse, either.
Maybe there is a first time for everything. Maybe there is a remedy to the twisting loneliness in his guts no woman in history could ever fix.
But he can already see them telling him immortality is boring, not even caring how they’re insulting him in the process.
No one has dared insult him when he grew up. No one has dared say no. Too powerful.
“I could kill you, you know?” he says to the voice that sounds like Ikkyu, instead of focusing of empty memories.
You can’t. I’m not actually here. Even if you kill whoever you’re imagining me as, I won’t die. I’m part of you, don’t you get it? Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re the one who is a mess.
“Would that make me human, then?” No answer from the voice. He laughs. “This is ridiculous. Me? Human?”
Sand becomes glass, a perfect surface under his perfect, unchanging body. He’s not human. He’s not, and he can’t forget it. And yet, when he’s with them, maybe because he’s with them, he feels like a mess. He feels manipulated, lied to by gods and demons. And yet, he’s the one destined to rule over demons and gods alike.
It’s nothing. Just a little teenage crisis. A teenage crisis that has been going on for centuries.
He could break both of his friends’ will. He could kill them. Do they know? Do they realize?
Do you wish your powers were still diminished?
No. Yes. “It doesn’t matter. They no longer are.” He broke his mother’s spell, and he’s confident he could do it again. He’s confident he will be stronger than her, sooner rather than later. And when that happens, no one will be able to stop him.
Below him, the glass turns back to sand. It’s all going so fast. His powers are back. The last few months, when he was little more than a human, feel like a dream. He knows even if he spends the next few years with Gokudo and Rubette, it will feel the same. At the end of the day, they will both return to dust.
Dust. A grain of sand in the big machine that is the life his mother orchestrated to him.
Nothing, in the scope of his lifetime.
“Would I be so bad to just lie for a little while longer?” To them. To himself. Pretend he’s not as powerful. Pretend he’s akin to humans.
Why do you care if it’s bad or not? You’re not part of the good guys, remember?
Niari laughs. “You’re right.” It’s easier that way.
He knows a few things about himself.
One: No woman can resist him (except for the one who did).
Two: He’s one of the most powerful being in this world (and he hates it).
Three: He’s not one of the good guys (he’s a liar).