"I don't know either... We can't do anything and there's no room for argument. Norman is right. Yeah, nothing can be done." Ray puts his hand on both mine and Emma's shoulder, "You're the worst you know that." I deadpan, "Then why did you ask!" Emma stomps her feet, "Don't you have a solution?" I thump his chest, "Nope." He grins, "Any advice or something?" Emma asks, "Nope," He grabs my wrists, "Then you didn't need to expose them! Don't dig up buried feelings you jerk!" I pout, "But they came out so easily." He says, the two of us stop and look at him, "Your buried feelings, both of you. They came out immediately. If you're going to bury your feelings, then take them to your grave, no matter what but you two can't give up right?" He eases my hands down, the two of us were silent, "You won't be able to hold them in, and they'll multiply and explode in the end and in your cases, they'll likely come out at the worst possible time and you'll interfere in the most troublesome way. When that happens, you guys and everyone else will be in danger. It'll cause huge problems for Norman and be a hassle for me." Ray sits down and pulls me into his lap, tickling my sides, I laugh, "If you're not convinced, you should confront him directly. Especially since this is a crucial decision, and you'll regret it if you let it go. I'm okay with the eradication but you two aren't. So think again, from the beginning. What do you want to do?" He runs his fingers through my hair, "I don't want annihilation. I want to find a way without conflict. But I can't decide just based on what I want. So I don't know what the right thing to do is." Emma holds her hand to her chest, "Then let's take that and go talk to Norman." Ray looks up at the stars, "Eh? To Norman? But we're still wavering!" I turn around, "It's because you're wavering, like I said, it'll be too late when it explodes and it's not just anyone, it's Norman. He's always been a special person to us." Ray smiles, "Yeah." Emma nods, "And for us, there's also them on our mind." He looks at the amulet around Emma's neck, "Sonju and Mujika." I mutter, "Right. The two of them haven't eaten humans." Ray nods, "But they were in human form and intelligent." I furrow my brows, "It's possible they were lying. If not, Sonju and Mujika can maintain a human form and intelligence without eating humans. They could be exceptions." Ray wraps his arms around me, "If all demons were like Mujika, there may be a way for humans and demons to coexist, do you think Norman knows?" Emma looks up, "I wonder, but if he doesn't, that would be bad. Think about it. Would Norman's drug work on these exceptions?" He rests his chin on my shoulder, "If Norman knows about them, we could ask why such exceptions exist. Depending on the circumstances, we might get a clue. On how humans and demons can coexist." He smiles, "Ray!" Emma lights up, "But we have to talk to him before setting his plan in motion. Honestly, I think coexisting with demons is impossible when seeing humans, they come at you in a frenzy. But we owe Sonju and Mujika, choose what you want to do and I'll support you. Both of you." He stands up and lifts me off his lap, putting his hands on our shoulders, "No matter what you choose, you'll be okay. You can do the impossible? I mean it's kinda your specialties, right? Let's create a future we won't regret." He smiles, "Okay! Thanks Ray!" Emma and I tackle him into a hug, "My head's way clearer now." I grin and kiss his cheek, "Hey! You're too easy!" He furrows his brows but smiles.
The next day, Ray, Emma and I headed to the coordinates left to us by Norman, we trudged through the forest to find a stone building, "Over here." I point at it, Emma knocks on the door, "Oh?" We heard a voice, "You three are Boss's... his friends from Grace Shield!" A girl points at us, "Field." Another man says as he walks behind her, "I'm Ray." Ray speaks up, "I'm Emma." She smiles, "I'm Nat. Thank you for saving us yesterday." I bow slightly, "Ah, that was Zazie who killed the demons. He's with Boss now, they're-" One of them was interrupted by the other, "Boss will be back soon. You should wait inside." He says.
"I'm Cislo. That's Barbara. And the smart one here is Vincent." Cislo introduces, "Hello." Ray says, "Um, by 'Boss', you mean Norman right?" Emma asks, "Who else would it be?" Cislo looks at us, "It's just so different from how he is." I almost smile, "What? Wasn't he like that from the start?" Cislo asks, "You're his siblings and grew up with him right?What was he like? This person you call 'Norman'." Barbara leans forward from behind us on the couch, "Um, Norman is kind, smart, and always has a warm smile." Emma looks at the top corner of her eyes, recalling memories, "Warm?" "Smile?" They were confused, "He's completely different!" They burst our laughing, "What? He's that different? Then what is Norman like now?" I lean slightly forward, "Serious." Barbara deepens her voice, "Winter." Vincent nods, "Emperor." Cislo finishes, "Emperor?" Emma exclaims, Ray chokes on his tea and is splashes onto him, "So you got any stories? Like embarrassing stuff from when he was a kid." They ask, "Idiot." I wipe the corner of Ray's mouth, hiding my laughter, "Like how he used to wet his bed?" Ray looks at me, "He was weak so he used to be in the infirmary a lot." Emma nods, Barbara swings her legs over the back of the couch and slides between me and Emma, resting her arm around my shoulders, I saw Ray's adam's apple bob slightly, "That's a bit strange. Ever since saving us at Lambda, he's been like this perfect genius. But yeah, you're right. Boss is kind." Cislo agrees, "Because you know, if he didn't save us, we would have died there!" Barbara lifts up the large leg meat, swinging it around, "True, and it's not just Lambda, he saved the children from the mass-production farms and hid them in a safe place." Vincent adds, "Making it look like demons stole them of course. He's sacrificing his sleep and dedicating himself to the cause. I can't wait, I want to kill all of them them. Every time I kill a demon, it feels so good." Cislo had an insane look in his eyes, "Yeah, me too." Barbara swallows a bite of meat, "My anger melts away when I kill them and eat their meat." She stares at the hunk of meat in her hands, "Huh? Then could that meat be..." Ray reaches his arm out slightly and closely wraps it around my waist, "That's right, it's meat from a demon we killed." She stares straight at us, my eyes widen and I felt myself dryheave, "It pisses me off that they're the only ones that eat us. My mind and body still remember everything they did to me at Lambda. Every single day was like hell." Barbara gets off the couch and walks to Cislo and Vincent, I felt Ray pull me next to him, "Hell isn't a strong enough word, many children died or were killed. We were treated worse than obects. Just killing them isn't enough. All enemies are the same. Every one of them should suffer what we went through." She drops the leg on the table and stomps her heel into the bone, earning a crack, my hand went to my mouth and I felt my left side being pushed right into Ray, "What's that look? You don't look happy. You were raised as food, but you're not thinking that you don't want to kill the demons do you? Hey, why did you come to see Boss? It better not be some disgusting talk about changing his plan!" She twisted her foot into the bone and leaned close to my face, I felt myself shrink, my heart was pounding out of my chest, my eyes flashed quickly, I stood up suddenly and ran to another room where I threw up, "Nat!" Ray and Emma run to me, I felt Ray hold my hair as I threw up again, "C-Conny..." I felt tears prickling as the acid burned my throat, "Hey, knock it off Barbara." I hear Cislo in the other room, "I'm scared." I whisper as Ray pulls me into his lap, "Demons are monsters that must be exterminated!" She shouts, Emma was leaning against the wall, holding her chest as she starts to hyperventilate, it was like that night, two years ago, "I said stop Barbara." Cislo says again, I felt Ray hold me tight, running his hands through my long hair, kissing my cheek over and over again, wiping the edge of my mouth with his sleeve, I heard her storm off, "I'm sorry about that." We saw Vincent at the doorframe, the three of us slowly stood up, returning back to the couch, I had a firm grasp on Ray's arm at all time while he rest his hand on my leg, patting it softly, "I apologise. But Cislo and I feel the same way. Demons should be eradicated." Vincent bows his head down, "Even as we sit here, our siblings back at the House are being shipped out. We have to destroy the farms and rescue them as soon as possible. You three have family you wish to save from the House right? eradication is the most certain way-" Cislo was interrupted my a door opening, "VIncent, Cislo, about the experiment." Norman walks in, he stops when he saw us, "Emma, Nat, Ray..." He looks at us, "Norman, I want to-" Emma stands up, "Sorry, can you wait a bit? I'll be back soon." Norman apologises, Cislo and Vincent follow him out of the room, "Are you okay?" I look at her as she sits back down dejected, "Yeah." She says quietly, "This isn't a meal... it's revenge." Ray looks at the table with the leg crushed under the foot of Barbara, "But their objective isn't just to get back at them right? Their main goal is wanting to help their family right? We hate what the demons did, they're scary, but it doesn't give us a reason to... it's wrong. It's wrong!" She balls her hands up, tears slipping out, "Yeah, but the suffering they endured is unmistakeable. We can't tell them to not hate the demons. Hatred can't stop once it's begun and it's a chain of hatred that you can't do anything about. That's probably what war is." Ray stares at the fire in the oil lamp, "Then more the reason to-" I start to speak up, "Thanks for waiting. So what's up?" Norman walks in, "Norman, I want to talk to you." Emma looks at him, "We wanted to know more details about your plan. We'll also give you information we have." I stand up and let go of Ray, "Very well." He takes off his robes.
Norman places a purple vile in front of us, "Is that the drug?" Ray asks, "Yeah it is." Norman nods, "But Norman, do you think that drug will work on all demons?" Emma asks, "What do you mean?" Norman was confused, "There are demons that won't degenerate even if they don't eat humans so that drug might not have an effect on them and also-" I was interrupted by Norman, "How do you three know about that? Where did you hear about that?" He quickly asks, "We met them." Ray says, "Met them?" Norman was even more confused, "Was it a demon who looked like a girl?" Norman asks, "Norman?" Emma stares a him, he had a cold sweat running down his face, "No way... The Evil-Blodded Girl is still alive?" He covers his face in shock.
