#18: [白い悪魔の花と黒人のマンイーターの花] White devil flower and black man-eater flower

Before the tournament even started, Shiro went to the location of the antidote found inside the body of the one who consumed it, Apostle #9.

"Well, Apostle #9, how's the test run?" Daichi asked "There's a monster, a monster that can control ti--" he said, but before he finished talking, he burst into a flower of bloodshed, splattering blood everywhere in the room. What came out of it was Shiro, the said monster.

"Let's have a little talk shall we?" Shiro said in an ominous tone."What do you want?" Daichi said in an angry manner "Here, a present" Shiro laid out a box, and told him that he can open it. Inside, was the head of Apostles 11, and 10. "I told him that he would later be useful in my work as a member of the MAEU and as a rogue assassin.

"W-wha-what d-do you w-want t-to talk a-ab-about?" Daichi said in a scared tone. "Well, I want to know only one thing, why is there a demon among your apostles? And a demon baron's son at that?" he asked "Well, he's our source of the drug that's all" he said.

"Source of the drug" Shiro mumbled. "My work here is done, you can continue your endeavors and you can watch your every move, someone might stab you in the back" he said with an ominous smile.

At the present time, after the tournament…

"I'm just here to tell you, you're being hunted down by the MAEU, they still don't know your coordinates, and your name" he said and vanished leaving an ominous aura on the floor that he appeared on.

Shiro appeared inside his room where Tomoe was doing her homework. "I need to go to Hell for a second, can you come with me? I need you there for something" he said "It's fine, but why are we going now?" she asked. "Well, demonic drugs are found here, in the human realm, and I think I know what plant it is and i may have a solution to the drug problem too" he said. He grabbed her and teleported to the king's chambers "First king, what brings you to my humble home?" Eiji asked "First king?" Tomoe asked "Well, you see, Shiro's soul and my soul are kind of stuck to each other, like they are the same soul, but the only difference is that Shiro's soul is lacking when it comes to his fighting ability, and now, I'm inhabiting this body of a husk to train his body, lending him my abilities, he has grown, but his growth is too slow, and so he is now inhabiting the sword i used in the tournament" he said

Tomoe's body responded by bowing down thinking "Then the one I Married [temporarily] is the first king?!?!" "Anyways, Eiji, I need to know how many White flowers we had at the beginning of the year" he said "On it" "While you're at it, take the black man-eaters into account too" he said "Is he making drugs?" Eiji thought "No, I will not be, I'm just taking measures because of a problem that surged into the human realm" he said out of the blue.

"What was that?" Tomoe asked "Well, he thought that i would do drugs, and so I just replied" He said "That's quite the ability" she said "Well, it's not, it's just simple mind-manipulation ancient magic" he replied.

On her knees, she stood up looking disappointed at the first king speaking in front of her. "What are you going to do with all these plants anyways?" she asked "Well, i was planning on conducting an experiment in my laboratory, back at the manor. The point of it all is to find out the drug's pros and cons, find their cures and buffers" he explained "what kind of drug was found in the human realm?" she asked.

"The drug found is called [Human X] or in better terms [Demon syndrome] when a demon takes this drug, their abilities are multiplied by three, but with a side effect that they will become addicted to the substance until they go rabid. Meanwhile, id a human takes a dose, the human will get demon-like abilities, and strength, with the same side effects, they go crazy, deteriorating their bodies from the inside until they die" he explained.

"Why would you want me to be here then?" she asks one more time "Well, you're the only one that I know that has the ability to appraise plants" he replied.

Eiji returned with the data, and gave it to Shiro [Lucifer] "There were about 250,000 white demon flowers at the beginning of the year, and only 175,000 black man-eaters" Eiji explained. "As of today, there were only 195,000 white demons and 100,000 black man-eaters, why is that?" he asked "There were disappearances of the flowers all over the continent, we were still figuring out what happened" Eiji replied.

"Call in Baron Narberal, and Baroness Shinko" he said, as Eiji obeyed. "Why my sister too?" well, I will tell you later when it's needed" he replied. Baron Narberal and Baroness Miyanagi Shinko arrive, Shiro [Lucifer] sits beside Eiji as he looks at them. "Shiro here, will take over, as he's the one that called you both here" Eiji said.

"You two, where did you get it?" he asked "Get what, your highness?" Narberal asked "What are you talking about?" Tomoe asked "Well, you came to the human realm, and Narberal's son did as well. Now, I'm wondering about how they got the transportation magic circle" he said in detail.

Shinko said "I asked king Eiji to let my sister go to the human realm a few years ago hoping that she would know more about Humanity than I ever have" "Well, she did say that" Eiji spoke.

"[#79 - Honest]" Shiro chanted "Now about you Baron?" he asked "There was a demon in black, asked me if I want to take my son to the overworld, of course I said yes, for the same reason as her, but my son also took some stuff, i don't know what he did to those items, but he also took some demon steel dust and black water" he said as he restricted himself from saying the truth.

They were asked to leave and Eiji stayed "Did you get what you wanted?" he asked "Well, for the experiment i will conduct, yes, but as for the overworld transfers, not so much" he replied.

The next day, Baron Dutch Narberal was beheaded in front of the Akuma Castle, giving other demons the signal to not travel to the overworld, else, they will meet the same fate.

Shiro, along with Tomoe went back to the human realm [overworld], and went home and took some rest, they have the day off since the Tournament just ended.

"Where were you two?" Misaki asked "From Hell, needed to confirm some stuff" Shiro replied. As Shiro went to the living room, Gabriel, Hisui, Ryuu, Himari, Hikaru, and Mai were waiting for them. "Care to explain what's going on brother?" Gabriel asked in an annoyed voice. "You see, The boy wasn't supposed to exist, but his mother, Izanami, locked me away, making me sleep through his growth. The reason why Shiro wasn't able to unlock the third chain locking him down, is because I already woke up, those pesky dragons lifted it for him once they told him to pull the sword in his dreams" Lucifer explained "And so you assumed his identity?" Himari asked "No, I was training him to become more versatile, as he would wind up stronger than me, with his body's abilities, and my curses, he would become an unstoppable monster, and besides, it's almost time" he explained "Time for what?" Mai asked as a red gauntlet rose up from Lucifer's chest, Himari and Hikaru thought that they had seen it somewhere.

A black cloud covered the gauntlet and assumed a form of a humanoid. "Nightmare Von Lucifer at your service" it said "Well, it's useless now that you gave the info away for fuck's sake" he added "Sorry boy, i had a little accident" he said "You call [deliberately turning into your past demon and calling yourself Lucifer Lightborn] an accident? Really man?" he said scolding Lucifer "Fine, but you still got that sword?" he asked "You do know that this gauntlet was fused with the sword right?!" Nightmare said. "And why the hell is this sword made from drugs, particle steel, and my blood?!?!" he asked angrily "Not just your blood, it's our blood, we are one in the same, remember?" he jokingly said.

"Anyways, when the tournament comes up, I will leave your body to you, I will inhabit the gauntlet-blade" he added in a serious tone. "What do you mean by hunch?" Hikaru asked Nightmare "Ah, that, well that hunch was that Himari was posing as a guy calling himself Hina, but when i got here into the overworld, i searched her name in japanese kanji and it showed the kanji for flower [Hima] and child [Ri]" he said. "And besides, he had similarities with the kid in the picture that I still have until today" he added.

"Anyways, what was this all about then?" Himari asked "About what?" he returns the question "The gauntlet, the sword, the get-up, what was this all about?" he asks again "The gauntlet was made for me, separating my soul to my consciousness, i tear a part of our soul then place the consciousness to the torn soul shard, then insert it into the gauntlet. The get-up was just something that came out of nowhere, and the sword was made by Lucifer, then tempered by our blood and given the ability to regenerate the sharpness with the Particle steel" he added.

They somehow got what was happening but what they weren't aware of was that there is something that lurks in the shadows, something dark, something that wasn't supposed to be there.

"Anyways, let's switch, it's getting boring" Shiro said "Not yet, kid. There is some more training that this body should get before you can enter it" Lucifer spoke. "Wasn't there anything else to do?" Shiro asked "Well, I'm now experimenting with some things back in the manor, and I need to boost this body's resistance of poison and drugs in general, to complete the resistance, i need to let this body take some drugs and activate [#77 - Incontentment]"

Their night passed and the next sun rose. Lucifer vanished alongside Shiro's gauntlet, leaving Tomoe behind. In the night stand, is a letter meant for Himari and Tomoe to read together.

Tomoe called for Himari and the others as they opened the letter and read it's contents. "I will be leaving everyone for today, and a few weeks later, I will come back here. Don't bother asking Noro, he already knows that i will be leaving everyone, though i didn't tell him why, and i also asked him to stop all search parties that will come for me -Lucifer and Shiro"the letter said. Inside the letter, they found two dead flowers that are preserved so that they will still look alive and yet they aren't, there is a white one and a black one. Tomoe realized what Lucifer and Shiro were saying about drugs and the [Incontentment] spell.

"We have to stop him!" Tomoe shouted "What? What are you talking about?" Himari asked and realized the same thing as her "I'll talk to my dad about this" "You do that and I'll have to ask my sister about locations in Hell" Tomoe said.

In hell, Himari tried asking her father about Shiro's case, but Eiji wouldn't answer any of them, saying "Since you know backstage, I won't lie to you. It's the first king's orders that I can't tell you a thing"

Tomoe asked her sister, but she couldn't comply as well saying "King Eiji told Hokuto-sama to not tell anyone about Shiro-sama's locations, sorry sis" and failed her search.

They both went back to Shiro's house and talked about their strategy on how to find him, and the flowers.

"Flowers…" Tomoe thought "That's it!!!" she shouted "What? Found a clue?" Himari asked "Well, there were two flowers in the letter right? So if we trace the locations of the flowers, we might get a clue. The only problem is, Shiro knows that the black man-eater flower can only be obtained in Demon mountain range and Ghoul mountain, the two places that only those in charge can enter, and with Lucifer being the one who rules over the five kings, he can enter them without concerns even if there were guards around the place.