"Can you believe it, Akuma? We're turning 18 in 2 hours," Tenshi squealed, lying on her bed with her feet kicking in the air and her head off the side.
"It's just a birthday, Tenshi," murmured back, not wanting to stay up until 12am just so Tenshi can jump up and down laughing as she does every year, "it's not that big of a deal,"
~
"5...4...3...2...-" Tenshi counted down stopping abruptly.
Akuma plugged her ears and waited for the screaming but all she heard was muffled gasps coming from her sister.
"T-Tenshi? What's wrong," Akuma questioned, inching closer to her sisters limp body, "AUNT MAE! COME QUI-" Akuma was quickly cut off as she started to gasp and lose feeling in her legs and arms.
Their aunt stood in the doorway, watching with worried eyes, "Let go, children. Let go," she said, trying to keep her voice even.
Akuma looked over at her from where she was sprawled out on the floor, tears rushing from her eyes.
Akuma was dying.
Tenshi was dying.
"It will be okay, 'kuma," was the last thing she heard before her sight was engulfed in black and her hearing died out.
Akuma woke with a jolt, quickly checking to see if she had just fell asleep and not actually experienced her death. Not quite.
Akuma was in what felt like a dark cave. She glanced around and saw there was a door at the end of a long narrow path. Not one for tricks, Akuma grabbed the closest pointy rock she saw and crept along the side of the cave.
When she reached the door she felt an urge to knock and so she did.
"Enter," came a voice from the inside.
Akuma gripped her rock tighter, outstretching her arm before grabbing the handle and pushing the door open.
"Where am I?" Akuma said harshly, straight to business, not wanting to risk her life.
"You're alive," the woman said, sitting up straighter, "And to answer your question, you are in my... home," the woman said to her, not questioning her harsh tone or her stance still in the middle of the doorway.
"And you are you?" Akuma asked, shuffling a little closer and closing the door behind her.
"I am Queen Yūkan'na," she replies easily, sitting up straight with pride.
Akuma bowed politely, "Pleasure. Please excuse my hesitation. This is new to me, obviously," she told the queen, apologising for her rude behaviour. This woman could have the power to kill her right now if she wanted. "May I ask why I am here?"
"Well it is your 18th birthday isn't it? Isn't a gift expected?" the queen asks.
"Nothing is ever expected only accepted," Akuma told her firmly, "Why would you be giving me a gift? How do you know me?"
"Well when you were born I saw potential in you and gave you life when you were a millisecond away from dying. I'm gifting you for my own pleasure, child, don't fret," she tells her, calling her forward with a pale finger.
"Thank you, your highness," Akuma says, standing at the foot of her beautiful blue throne, stone floor beneath her. This woman was different. She was beautiful of course but she was a humble beautiful. She had long, dark hair that resembled Akuma's in her present age and when she was just turning teen. Her hair fell over her chest, concealing anything that would be inappropriate, and her arms and body were covered by a kimono with purple butterflies along her pinched in waist.
"Close your eyes. I am going to be blunt, this is going to hurt, but it will soon be over if you let it overcome you," she tells her.
Akuma nods, breathing a little faster but wanting to be brave. She didn't know why she trusted this queen to not kill her outright but it seemed like the best choice. After all she had be teleported all the way here.
She waited until the queen touched her heart before she couldn't breathe. Akuma tried her hardest to stay calm as she felt something enter and take over her body. She forced herself to make room for the new member and not resist it. While she waited, a transformation happened; her hair went from a dark brown to blue black and from her shoulders to her waist. Her chest grew out, enough to look at but not bulging out and her waist became pinched in like the queens, making her hips curvier and her stomach flatter. Her legs became longer and wrapped in black socks that go to the middle of her thigh and a skirt that meets it there. Her shirt crumples to the floor and her plain white bra is replaced with a lacy black one that fits her newly found chest. A new shirt appears in the first ones place, an all red v-neck.
"You need to be alluring or no one in that stupid mortal world of yours will take you seriously," the queen said disgustedly, her face scrunching up as if she smelt something horrid and foul.
Akuma finally caught her breath and noticed she had wings. They weren't ugly but they weren't pretty either. They were like bat wings and they started at her shoulder blades and stopped at her waist.
"What am I?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"A demon," the queen replied, walking towards her, "Come with me,"
And Akuma followed.
