Feldt Bakuko Seiei's Story

Painted against the night sky and buffeted by the wind, the figure in black sat propped against the corner of a small mesh fence, that barrier the only boundary between her and a twenty story fall. While the apartment building was apparently supposed to be a standard place of residence for Humans, Feldt had a sneaking suspicion that this standard did not extend to the roof of the dining wing, an open, rock-covered expanse beneath some of the higher apartments in the main wing of the old stone building. The powerful and chill winds were certainly a force to be reckoned with, the cold air freezing her thin form, used only to the much warmer climate of the upper rings of hell, to the bone and prompting her to take off her coat, draping it over herself tightly as a sort of makeshift blanket. On top of this, it had also been immensely difficult to reach the rooftop, since she had been forced to climb up an old fashioned fire escape, then creep over some scaffolding and jump down several feet to reach her current position. On the other hand, however, it also provided an excellent tactical viewpoint, where she could not be taken by surprise by any attackers, and that, in and of itself, was a blessing.

It was still difficult to wrap her mind around all that had happened. A short while ago, she had been resting in her isolated hope in the underworld. All that had changed when she had been sent here, evidently to fight in some kind of battle, a prospect she equally dreaded and loathed. If this was some kind of game to whoever had sent her here, then it was a game she didn't want to play. Wars caused senseless violence, death and pain, all of which were things to be avoided like the plague. She knew from experience the full extent of suffering, and wished no such thing upon any being. But, it seemed, she was powerless to stop this impending war, for when she had arrived here, she had found herself deprived of her powers - except her ability to absorb pain, of which there was an astonishing amount, even in the world of Humans, and which made things even more inconvenient, although she would still rather suffer herself then abandon others to the pain they would otherwise feel - and stranded, which made any sort of intervention rather... difficult.

She sighed, trying to ignore the loud rumbling in her gut. In hell, she had rarely had to eat anything, but it seemed that here, her appetite had changed as well as her body, making her nothing but an incredibly empathic Human. Her throat was dry - it seemed that the water in the things Humans called "storm sewers" did nothing to quench one's thirst, and the bitter bottled drink she had found in a garbage bin had only caused her to feel unusually dizzy and excited, the both of which together had combined to make her feel very ill - and her stomach empty, causing her body to give a pained cry of protest with each move she made. But pain did not deter her in the least. After all, she had suffered the full force of the torments of Hell before, so why would a simple stomachache stop her? But, she realized, if she didn't find a secure source of food and water soon, she would surely die, another prospect she rather disliked. On top of that, however, there was her lack of a stable shelter. While the apartment rooftop was an easily defensible position, it was also very open, meaning she might be spotted by Humans, or, if it began to rain, would be drenched. Fortunately, at the moment, the diner wing was undergoing renovation, meaning several tarps over the roof obscured her form from view, and might protect her from the weather - but, she realized, such accommodations could not last forever, and would need to be replaced.

Feldt's thoughts were disrupted by a sort of itching in her nose, a sensation she did not recognize. For some reason, she felt the compulsion to suck in a quick breath, then release it, making a rather uncomfortably loud noise that echoed off the sides of the building looming over her, and might have given away her position, if anyone was listening. She guessed it was probably a symptom of the uneasiness - called "sickness" by the Humans, if she recalled - she felt inside her, and made a note of it for future reference. Glancing up, she stared quietly at the city all around her. Many shops in the surrounding area sold food and drinks, and this building was itself a place of residence. Unfortunately, it seemed all Human interactions revolved entirely around some sort of barter system based on the exchange of a mysterious substance known as "greenbacks," of which Feldt, sadly, had none. This, in turn, led to her current predicament. She had nothing to eat or drink, and no shelter in which she could spend the night, and on top of this, none of these elusive "greenbacks" that were needed to interact normally with Humans. It seemed she had only one option: acquire "greenbacks." But the question was, how...? She didn't know what a "greenback" looked like, let alone where she could find one. On top of that, from what she had heard, it sounded like there were all manner of these "greenbacks," each with a different value assigned it, which would make estimating the worth of any given "greenback" almost impossible for a newcomer like her. Yes, it seemed she was indeed in a predicament, but for now, she could only plan ahead while she tried to get some rest. She hadn't slept in the past two days, and her lack of rest was catching up to her. Already, she could feel her eyelids drooping and her awareness fading. Sighing, she settled under her makeshift blanket, the hard metal fence behind her the only pillow someone as "greenback-less" as her could hope to have. Feldt just prayed - ironic that a demon like her would ever do such a thing as ask God for help - that she might not be found while she slumbered, and that her fortunes might improve in the coming day.

An expression of what could only be described as the ultimate form of utter frustration was painted on Takeo's face as he looked up at the night sky. It had taken him many months since he had gotten to Beamore to find a new way to give himself time and space, calmly look at the latest news in his life and evaluate his own predicament. It sounded like something relatively easy to do for most people, but to him, thinking about his tight agenda in his room only made the already close walls of his small apartment seem like they were moving towards him little by little, stressing him out even more. He had only recently discovered that the building's rooftop was a good place for one to meditate: there were no moving walls, no falling ceiling, and since there were currently renovations in the making, no one really went up there anymore, so it was good for having time for oneself. In some occasions, Takeo would go up there when he was fired from a part-time job or had to take up a new one, sometimes it was because his studies gave him no time to breathe and others because he had a discussion with friends or his parents; this time it was a little bit of everything.

He had recently taken up a job in a bar very frequented by generic salarymen after they got off of their generic jobs to drown their generic worries with booze. There, the atmosphere would grow rather depressing the later it got and Takeo couldn't help but be bothered by how the more frequent clients would complain about his boss, the owner of the bar, hiring him instead of a cute girl. Truth be told, he could kind of empathize with that; as a man who had to deal with his own daily challenges, he could understand the appeal of enjoying the presence of a beautiful woman (or several of them) after a hard day. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for him, and he instead had to apologize to other people for not being born a hot chick. Life tends to work in the same way as a domino arrangement in the sense that if one part falls, the others are affected and fall as well; in that same way, the new job was complicating Takeo's life a tad more: he had less time to study, less free and sleeping hours and negotiations for money with his parents were reopened once again even though they never really had a happy ending. To make a long story short, he wasn't exactly going through the best time of his life.

Of course, just laying on the rooftop and thinking about things didn't actually fix them, but at least this was a good way for him to try and somehow convince himself that it wasn't as bad as he initially thought; it worked one out of ten times. He was only recently learning just how complicated living alone and being independent could be, and while he could appreciate the advantages, there were times when he wondered if it was worth the trouble. He finally got up on his feet and stretched as he told himself that it was about time to go to bed if he wanted to wake up early the next day.

"So unfair... " he mumbled to himself in an almost purposefully childish tone. He wasn't done sighing when a sound interrupted him, taking him by surprise and making him quickly stand firm as if he had been caught hiding a dead body.

He quickly identified the sound as a sneeze and scanned the area with his eyes still wide open from the surprise in search of a person, but to no avail. Even before renovations had started in the rooftop, Takeo had never seen anyone else go up there at that time of the day, so of course the sound of another person would startle him. He waited in silence for a few seconds until he realized that there would be no response and that his unknown rooftop friend most likely hadn't noticed him either. He had, after all, been there for over an hour immersed in his own world and without making a sound, so it didn't seem that weird if he hadn't heard that person coming; or maybe it was the other way around? Out of curiosity, he decided to follow the sound of the sneeze and see which one of his neighbors had suddenly felt the urge to breathe some freezing air as well. He had to walk more than just a few steps, but when circled around some tarps laid close to one of the fenced borders of the rooftop, he was instantly able to identify the source of the sneeze. It was a girl, a young girl half covered in an odd white coat in an attempt to shield herself from the cold of the impending night. She seemed to be in horrible condition; her appearance gave away she hadn't slept under shelter for at least a few nights and her face suggested that she was quite ill. And yet, the sight wasn't ugly in the least; on the contrary, her pale skin seemed to shine under the moonlight, her colorful hair made her look more alive and her fragile appearance, combined with her white skin, gave the impression that she was made of porcelain. From the angle Takeo was looking at the scene, it seemed like a beautiful yet tragic painting.

Breaking out of the hypnotism caused by the scene after a few seconds, the young man stepped closer to check on her state, which was as bad as it seemed from a distance. He crouched down in front of her until his head was only slightly higher than hers, but kept his distance; on a closer look, he was able to confirm that the girl was indeed very young, roughly the age of a high-school student, and couldn't help but brainstorm a few theories on how she ended up there. Despite having obviously been living on the streets for a good few days now, she didn't look like she had spent her entire life sleeping in the alleys, so he leaned towards the possibility of her having run away from her home. It made sense; he had heard that cases of young students running away from their houses just to reappear after a few days upon realizing living on the streets wasn't that easy weren't that uncommon. Whether that was the case or not, it definitely did look like she wouldn't last very long by herself and he felt as if he needed to help her. He wasn't exactly a charitable soul that would offer food and shelter to whoever he found on the streets, but if he saw someone who was obviously not handling it that well and had possibly ran away from somewhere, why wouldn't he be able to give a hand, at least for a night? However, for some reason, he felt like waking her up didn't seem like a good idea, as if doing so would interrupt the soothing scenario in front of him. He scanned her face one more time as he tried to figure out what to do; he noticed this time that her eyes were a deep green. Wait... green?

"Eh...?", he finally realized in a rather clumsy manner that the girl's eyes were open. As to how could he had been so immersed to not have taken notice of it until closing in, he didn't know. "You awake?", he finally asked, not knowing if she was fully conscious.

As darkness began to close over her vision, the young Demon noticed something: a slight movement as something blocked out the light of the moon above her. At first, she thought it had just been the wind blowing about one of the tarps that concealed her, but it moved back into her view and stayed there, unaffected by the whipping winds that scattered across the rooftop, and despite the sound of rushing air all around her, Feldt was sure she could hear the quiet sounds of another person breathing. Slowly but surely, the realization crept into her tired mind: someone had found her.

Whoever it was who knelt over her where she lay did not so much as move nor speak, which, combined with the fact that she felt none of the pains caused by hunger like her own from him - the size of his silhouette, seen through her almost closed eyes, told her his probable gender - told her that this was likely a fairly reputable sort of person - one of the denizens of the apartment, perhaps - which meant she likely had little to fear from him. Slowly, tentatively, she opened her eyes, and began to size him up. It took him a few moments, but he soon noticed that he was not the only one examining the strange new arrival before him. After a few seconds of awkward staring in silence, he spoke up, asking a very simple - and likely rhetorical - question.

"Yes," Feldt replied quietly, her voice sounding rather dull and calm, although if this was caused by the haze of fatigue clouding her mind or by her own stoicism was anyone's guess. "I apologize," She continued simply, her quiet, passive voice almost carried away by the winds rising into the night. "I seem to have bothered you. If my sleeping here is a problem, I could move elsewhere."

The young man wasn't sure what to think exactly of the girl's reaction; at the very least, he could say it wasn't what he would expect from someone in her position. It really did seem like she was willing to move somewhere else despite her evident fatigue if he said the word, and the tone of her voice suggested she wasn't going to complain at all. He didn't know whether to interpret that as a sign of submissiveness, remorse or apathy, but for some reason it made him uncomfortable. Not only that, but suddenly a feeling of guilt began to take over him. Sure, she was on the rooftop of a building she didn't reside in, but she wasn't bothering anyone and In fact, wasn't Takeo the one who had been a bother by keeping her from sleeping? At least that's how he would expect it to be in her eyes.

He scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out exactly what was going through her mind and almost instantly came to the realization that he really hadn't planned this at all. For a second, he wished he could go back in time and avoid starting that conversation, but the image of the girl's fragile figure almost shining with the moon behind her was still fresh in his mind. In the end he decided to, for once, go with the flow. He sighed and got up from his crouching position.

"Actually, if it's okay with you, I was thinking I could use some conversation. This place gets boring after a while.", that said he took a few steps and sat down against the same fence as her a meter away, his eyes fixed in the sky. He wasn't used to having conversations like this, where a simple 'how are you?' felt like a stupid question to ask; that was certainly a drawback, since lately it seemed like his specialty was asking pointless questions. "Nice coat", his final remark seemed just as pointless as the many questions he had discarded in his mind.

The quiet, uncomplaining figure nodded stoically, and, adjusting her position slightly, sat up, her head propped up against the fence behind her, presumably to use the rather uncomfortable feeling of the metal links of the fence pressed against the back of her head to keep herself awake. Despite this, however, her eyelids still continued their repetitive cycle of drooping shut, then fluttering open again for a few moments, only to begin falling closed once more. It was obvious she was trying her hardest to keep from falling asleep, and equally obvious that she was failing in this admirable but futile attempt.

"Very well," The young demon said rather formally, blinking a few times to clear away the fog that was once more crossing the surface of those deep emerald orbs. Deep down, Feldt had to wonder if it was normal for Humans to be out so late in such a high, isolated place, seeking conversation. Although she didn't have much experience in the mannerisms of Humans, she was pretty sure this would be classified as "abnormal."

"Oh. Thank you," She said, having, fortunately, managed to remember that those two magic words were the catch-all response to compliments, although unfortunately, the quiet, serene tone with which she spoke might have made her sound annoyed, although in fact, she didn't really mind the boy's sudden appearance. To be honest, she had actually been a little bit lonely, sleeping by herself on that desolate rooftop. Back in the demon world, she had always had kind comrades tending to her - having always been frail in nature due to her dangerous abilities - keeping her company in her isolated home. Those people had insisted on taking their own time to help her, and even though she had protested, not wanting to be a burden to them, they had kept by her every moment. Being all alone again, although she didn't want to admit it, made her feel sad, as it showed her exactly how much of her old world she had lost. That was why when the boy knelt down next to her and asked her to talk with him, she did so more than willingly. Although it wasn't easily noticeable, as she spoke, a tiny, tired smile began to form on her lips for the first time since she had entered that new and strange world. Even she couldn't help but be happy at the knowledge that despite being worlds away from the places and people she knew, she still wasn't alone.