Date A Live: Red Crown Chaplain

24 - Yellow Crown

The rain was waning. I could see it in this blue light.

Everything felt heavy. I couldn't stop myself. My stomach was always empty. My throat was always parched. Starving...

My knees felt weak. Instead of feeling like my limbs, they were like chains that held down my feet.

At that time, when I wanted nothing more than another chance with her by my side, I wished for it, desperately. I thought I was prepared to go but... I was so hungry.

Who...

Who listened to my wish?

I remember myself. I couldn't see in the dark. I couldn't see the void, so I sang. I heard myself echo through my hymns like I was in an old chapel, and I felt someone listen.

I remember my endless tears as I desperately tried to escape. I wish I could scream, I wish I could shout! But nobody came, because no one could hear my cries. Before then, I realized I lost something, sacrificed it to some pale yellow light that wasn't anything holy like other people say. It was horror! It was hell. 

My throat sprayed with blood, and I puked out an unknown black liquid—it quickly enraptured me. The world didn't seem real to me anymore and my fingers strung themselves around my neck like a tight rope until my eyes suffered red and my stomach empty.

I never stared at the void, so why is it doing this to me?!

Was it looking at me from the start?

All this...! Because resolve was being tested?

Thirst, fear, and hunger!

Just who, who was I pleading, praying to...?

Please, I just want to close my eyes and see Laura, even in another life! No more, please. I don't want it like this! Laura, please! I love you... Someone, please... Laura...

-/-

Amidst the middle of their battle, as streets suffer the blight of the bombs of the Spirit of Famine, Miku Izayoi, Shido's spine felt her apprehension. He sensed her fear and sadness as her strikes suggested. It was not of a wild animal, but a desperate weeping angel.

'T-This... This feeling,' he thought in confusion. 'I-I've... never fought anyone before,' he thought as he dodged the ravenous claw of Miku's Crown. 'I'm not an expert fighter!' he adds, 'So why am I feeling—' He ducks against her acidic bullets.

Shido was further assaulted by foreign emotions, strangely feeling the disparity's assimilation with his own. The scent of falling rainwater and the feeling of impactful shockwaves became dull as he was forced to indulge in the unknown's emotions.

Shido wasn't a fighter, and he was by no means an expert at it. Even by the righteous hand of 'Keter-san', he would be no master of the art of battle and war. Keter Adom had placed him in multiple dreams in simulation of the boy's training using the Crown and Spirits' powers but it will never be enough. And yet, the air of battle was assimilating with him, each attack of his opponent becoming familiar and amorous with the way he thinks.

As he was struck down, his black veil stricken away from his eyes by the Crown of Yellow, Shido's eyes burn from gold to red. In a burning flash of red, he saw himself on the ground.

'T-That's... me?' he asked himself, seeing the point of view near closer to him. 'No,' he said as he realized, 'I'm... Miku.'

More clearly, he was seeing through Miku's eyes, seeing how she sees, hearing what she hears, feeling what she feels, and what she was feeling was longing—a genuine and wholesome longing for someone, the hope of their embrace, the warmth of their skin, the beat of their heart.