Itadaki no Hecate

A Silent Anguish

As Hecate and I continue to spend a lot of time together every day, things began to become a little more normal. There are even times that Hecate seems like a normal, introverted and timid girl, and I forget that she's actually a Crimson Lord who needs to feed on the existences of the inhabitants of this world.

Kneeled in the darkness of the night, Hecate, whose role was that of the Priestess of the mysterious Bal Masque, prayed with her hands clasped together. Her eyes were shut, and her body unmoving, like a statue garbed in white.

It was something she had always done without problems. But, not for the first time, as she attempted to perform her duties as the Priestess, she found herself unable to hear a certain voice. Straining her heart and mind to their limits, her brows creased.

Giving up with a sigh, she glanced towards the clock next to the sleeping form of Chigusa Sakai. It was 11:45 in the evening.

Every night, however, I am reminded of that fact as she drained the energy of existence out of me.

Episode 10: A Silent Anguish

As she did every night, Hecate snuck into Yuji's room. Although she stayed in the same room as Chigusa, it wasn't too hard to quietly slip out. Her ability to hover a few inches from the ground helped greatly.

As she floated in, she found Yuji studying a certain brass mirror, the true vessel of the Haridan, while lying on his bed. It was dark, but she could still see him in the dim light coming from outside. Noticing her presence, he stood up and put the mirror on his desk.

"Feeding time again," he said jokingly, to which Hecate made no visual response, but retained her usual indifferent demeanor.

Yuji facepalmed at how dumb he must have sounded, then extended both hands to her. The Priestess took his hands in hers, intertwining their fingers, and closed her eyes. Tiny particles of light streamed from his body and into Hecate's.

"Concentrate and feel the amount of energy you have to channel," Hecate reminded him. As she absorbed his energy, she shut her eyes. "But leave just enough to exist for ten minutes."

"Alright," Yuji said. The first time they had done it, he had let much of his Power of Existence rush into her in one go, nearly causing himself to disappear.

"Release a little more energy, but keep it steady," Hecate told him.

As he willingly poured more Power of Existence into Hecate's being, the particles of light increased in number and size. Just when his flame was no more than a wisp, Hecate spoke.

"That is enough," she said and let go of his hands.

Yuji sat on his bed and looked at Hecate's face. It was as emotionless as usual, but she seemed to be satisfied. The boy smiled at her as she sat down beside him.

Will this really let me be able to use spells like Aster?" Yuji asked.

"Aster is a very high level Unrestricted Method unique to me alone," Hecate explained, looking at him in the eyes. "But even if you could use it, casting just one beam of it would completely wipe away your existence."

That was a frightening thought. Then Yuji recalled how liberally Hecate had used the spell and found himself wondering just how many times she had to absorb his existence in order to fully replenish the energy she had used in the past battles. Come to think of it, just how many people had she consumed to even come to the point of being able to use it so much. He shook his head violently at that thought, she was different now, he at least hoped.