Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
║no light, no light ━━━ (CHAPTER TWENTY NINE)
ASTA WAS LIGHT AND she was not.
As she sat on a wooden stool in the living room of the Black Bulls base, she noticed him fooling around with his team members, Luck and Magna, freaking out upon being scared half to death by them. His expression was priceless and if she wasn't so lost in her thoughts, she would have joined in with the teasing. For as long as she could remember, he shone as bright as the sun and rarely had a dull moment. Blinding optimism and steel soul, constant words of never give up engrained in his mind, Anemone Coralis often found herself jealous.
No, no. She admired him, tinged with envy. How could a person like him retain kindness and mental strength in this persistently cruel world? He did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong. She only wished she had his strength, his bravery, his gentle heart. Whatever she had in her now was rotten and stained and wrung dry with salty scarlets — her innards could blend in so well with a devil's and yet a god had the gall to merge her soul with hers and label her as divine.
If anyone was divine, it was Asta. He had green eyes (hers was blue) the colour of the earth (the colour of the ocean), the safe haven for every living organism where the cycle of life began and then ended; pure creation for it was the home of the willows and the rainforests, the bees and the butterflies (the land of death stretching across miles perilous for anyone to step foot in; pure destruction for it was the home of the sharks and the octopuses, easily angered for ruthless tides never think twice before pushing people up against the shore until they beg the earth for sweet mercy after death).
Anemone believed Fate was blind, that they wore a blindfold when it came down to them having their magic to fit into this world; the boy with a pure soul was lend the devil's power and the girl with a dying soul was blessed by a god's power. In spite of the contradiction, they worked to the bone and made the powers their own. Still, she bet if she asked a stranger what power they had between the two, they'd say Asta had the god's blessing and she the devil's curse.
"Whatcha' thinking about, kid?"
Yami returned from the toilet (gods know how long he was in there for), folded the newspaper to place on the table and plopped himself in the armchair beside her. Anemone hadn't expected him to strike up a conversation with her but she didn't show it.
"Nothing just..." Luck 'betrayed' Magna apparently and poured some unidentifiable liquid on both him and Asta, the air beginning to stink of rotten eggs, "...thinking about how utterly stupid Asta looks."
"And that's why you came all the way here to visit after finishing yer patrol duty?" He arched an eyebrow.
"No." She hesitated — why did she come to visit Asta? He was definitely the person in mind, not Noelle or anyone else. Then it hit her that she wanted to tell him about what she found out about herself so far recently; how her mother lied about her father dying in a crossfire, how a scientist from Diamond was possibly pursuing her too, the whole truth. Nearly the whole truth. Scratch that- she'll tell him nothing. Not yet at least. Especially not about how she's been killing people ever since she joined the knights and so far barely felt remorse.
