Chapter 85: Distant Memories (Reflection)

"How nice..." It has been a long time since I've come to an onsen since my only memory of one is that time my school went on a field trip. Even if I haven't had any memorable memories of being in an onsen, it's still nostalgic to see something I'm familiar with. "If possible, I want to have something like this back to Hell..."

"I heard that there was once a hot spring at the 5th floor of Hell that they've built, so maybe in the near future, you can ask Millie to build one. After all, the construction workers might have the blueprints used to create the hot spring."

"Yeah, that's possible." If what Lucas said is true, then it'll be amazing if everyone were to try one. "Also, now that I remember. Mt. Levi is a volcano, right? Then maybe we could use that place to create the hot spring." After all, I've seen a hot spring on the top of Mt. Levi, so maybe we could use that same place I bathe in.

"Uhmm..." From what he's about to say, Lucas seems worried. "Since Akemi and Ryou are the owners of Mt. Levi, I don't think that's possible... Ryou would be happy though since he could use that as a chance to make people visit Mt. Levi, but Akemi on the other hand hates it when someone destroys Mt. Levi's nature and animals."

"I guess that would make sense... Even I doesn't like that beauty to be tainted." But also, that day I found the hot spring was the same day I met Leviathan in-person, remembering it now she also told me how Mt. Levi was created. And Akemi being the person that Leviathan chose to inherit her name and be the third person to take the position of the General of the Sin of Envy.

Seeing on that dream I had about Akemi; I understand why she wants to protect Mt. Levi. "And also, with the weather and the animals at Mt. Levi, it can endanger any of the citizens who'll go there."

"*Sigh* If only the angels didn't take the 5th floor, we would've peacefully enjoyed ourselves at the hot spring..." Lucas looks saddened by what he said; young people like me and him are someone who can't truly express what it means by war.

Only the older generations got to experience all the hardships at the past wars, while we in the newer ones didn't, and even if the older generations suffered more than us; they still saw in their own eyes what changed and what has not. So we in the younger generation could only imagine what our world looks like in the past where there's still no war and torment.

Lucas stood up from the onsen and stretched his hand upward. "Come on, now's the time to go visit the house of your friends." He said with a forced smile and left.

That person right there in front of me is Lucas Asmodeus. He is the General of Lust and the one who inherited the name of the late Archduke Asmodeus. What's something enviable about him is that he is very strong-willed and caring for his people, after all, Lucas is the only Archduke who didn't suffer like the rest, which made his sense of justice for his friends to be somewhat protective.

No matter how much he said it, Lucas is still insisting that he didn't suffer like anyone else, but just by that smile that I saw, I knew that Lucas Asmodeus' word was a lie. He lied to me about not suffering but in the end, that lie couldn't stay still at the end and showed itself. The Lucas that I know is like everybody else, he suffered the same fate as everyone that I know. "I was the few lucky ones who didn't have to suffer-" I remember he said that to me when I met Chizuru.

Looking at the water at the onsen; I saw myself on the reflection of the water. Many drops of water are falling from my wet hair and the reflection I saw of myself keeps on changing from the wave. "That's right... I'm nothing like them..." My reflection kept moving from the small waves of the water, and I got to see what I really am.

I'm Haruki Mimasaka, the adoptive son of Beryl Mimasaka and Spinel Mimasaka. I have 2 best friends who I have been friends with for a long time; their names are Homura Suzuki and Asahi Kishimoto. As far as I know, I'm just a normal human living peacefully in Japan, I'm nothing but a NEET who's a dropout high school student. I've grown up with the beauty of otaku culture, and to this day I've been a fan of anything related to it. But that changed... The Haruki Mimasaka that I once knew was just another reflection of me, that Haruki who I was before never knew what true torment is, and now I'm far more different than him.

But my real name is Haruki Hotaru, the son of the Demon King Jarren Hotaru and the Demon Queen Xuntea Hotaru, I'm also the foster older brother of Millie Hotaru; has a pet hellhound named Flint, and have many friends back on Hell that I call my family. As far as I know, I'm a demon, the current King of Hell. Unlike my reflection of Haruki Mimasaka, I'm someone who knows true suffering. Since right in front of my own eyes I got to witness my parents being murdered, I was betrayed by many people I hang up to, many of my people were killed by our enemies, and most of all the parent that I truly loved and missed so much betrayed me and everyone else. That's how different I am from my other-self.

"Yes... This reflection that I'm seeing right now is dead... Right now I'm nothing but a target of misery that everyone enjoys watching... That's just how much I've suffered..."

I looked at the water again and smiled at my reflection. "Haruki Mimasaka and Haruki Hotaru; two separate personalities but the same person... I'm happy to be either one of them." Even if one's different from the other, I'm glad to be the two of them. I have the past of Haruki Mimasaka and the present of Haruki Hotaru, no matter what you think of it they're still the same person but different personalities that I have. Even if Haruki Mimasaka is already dead, his will is still inherited by Haruki Hotaru.

"*Sigh* What am I even doing?" Looking at what I've been doing, I remembered the reason I came here for, knowing I could only let out a bright since I might've found what Asherah sent me here for. "Those two are right here with me..." But, it isn't over yet. I have to search for a real cure for this.

***

[Sun Wukong's POV]

On top of one of the buildings of Tokyo, Sun Wukong was doing meditation to look for the remaining hairs that he hasn't found yet. "Hmm... There is hair here in Tokyo... But knowing that those two stupid Gods are looking for me here in Tokyo I gotta get out of here." He kept meditating to look for an easy one to look for. "Oh! Found one! It's located in Sendai! And it appears that it's the only hair located there. Hehe!"

He stretched his arm upward and let out a massive smile on his face. "Now time for Sendai! Haha!"

Sun started moving to Sendai with joy and he shouted "Heed my voice, Somersault!" A small cloud appeared in front of him, Sun went closer to it and sat on the cloud. "Now, time to go to Sendai!" He used the cloud Somersault as a vehicle to go to Sendai easily.

Somersault traveled on the air really fast; it was even faster than a motorcycle. Sun Wukong used this Somersault for his adventures a long time ago. "I wonder... What adventure did I have with both Ruyi Jingu Bang and Somersault, because no matter how much I try, I can't remember." No matter how much he tried remembering, Sun Wukong seems to be forgetting something or someone dear to him.

"What am I even doing right now?" He confusedly asked himself. "I don't know what I've been doing for the past couple of years, but something just feels off..."

Sun stopped Somersault from moving for a bot and he went closer to one of the buildings to see his reflection at the windows. "Who are you?" Upon seeing his reflection on the glass he asked that. "And what are you doing to my body?" Sun knew that something was odd from his body a long time ago.

"Thinking about it, I felt this the moment when Tian Gong and I first worked together at the Great God War..." He was still confused about the complicated feelings that he was suffering from.

Sun Wukong knew that something odd was happening to his body, but he doesn't know what. All he knew was that it was just a gut feeling.

"That boy Haruki, for some reason I can see myself onto him. We're both the same; we're both trapped in something that we don't know the solution to escape..."

***

[Haruki Hotaru POV]

It was already in the middle of the night when we got here; good timing I could say. If they're finally asleep then that means that they won't find us "So that's Homura's apartment right? It's close to your house."

"After all. Homura, Asahi, and I have been childhood friends for a long time, so it's normal that we live in the same neighborhood."

"Then Haruki, how can you be sure that they're asleep at this time? We don't want to get caught sneaking inside by them."

"It's already 1:00 am, so Homura is already asleep because he's busy reviewing some stuff for his school, and his parent is always busy with their work, that sometimes Homura is left alone by about a week or 2. So I hope we get lucky that his parent is working today."

Lucas smiled. "Then let's go shall we?"

Upon entering Homura's house, I saw that nothing has changed here. It was the same as before I died, due to his parents being busy, they don't have time to change decorations, so the house is always scattered with dirt by Homura. Many can of energy drinks would always be scattered around the floor and many dishes are always left uncleaned since Homura is always busy doing both his part-time job, hobby, and school. So every time I came here, I always cleaned their house so that I could repay them, but seeing this house right now, I was surprised to see it cleaned well.

"What is this? Does Homura have a girlfriend now?" No matter how I look at it, I can't believe that he cleaned his house alone, so the only logical thing would be is that he had a girlfriend that cleans his house... But nope, that's not possible. There's no way that someone like me, Homura, and Asahi would have one.

"You seemed to be in denial Haruki, so is there something wrong?"

"Of course, because there's no way that this house is squeaky clean without me."

"*Sigh* Let's just do what we came here for."

We went to the living room to check if my adoptive parent's urns are here, since where would you put someone's ashes except the living room? "Lucas, have you found their urns yet?"

Lucas was looking at the cabinets where the portraits of Homura's are. "No... Wait, are these urns your parents? And look, there's another one here."

"Where?" I went toward Lucas and saw the urns that he was talking about. "Let me see..." I moved him aside and checked the urns. "It's them..." Seeing the urn that Lucas found made me happy that it was from my adoptive parents, I couldn't hold back my tears from seeing their ashes. "Finally... I got to see you two again..."

Lucas was smiling in joy after seeing me happy right now. He touched the top of my father's urn and said. "It's nice to meet you Beryl and Spindel Mimasaka, I'm one of Haruki's best friends. Lucas Asmodeus."

"Thanks, Lucas..." I could only thank him for doing that, I couldn't be more happier today... I missed my adoptive parent's a lot, even if I didn't see them; I'm still happy to be beside their ashes.

Click. The light shone brightly when it opened, both Lucas and I were shocked that someone opened the lights, the moment we looked behind we saw someone in front of us already.

It was a little girl with white silky hair and she was wearing a demon hoodie, seeing her I didn't know who she was. I knew that there's no way that she's Homura's cousin because I've already met them all.

The little girl looked at us and was shocked to see me, I could see from her eyes that she wasn't shocked to see us coming here because she thought we were burglars, but she was just looking at me directly and it looks like I was the reason she was shocked.

"No- way-" She has a hard time speaking, more like she has problems speaking. But that didn't bother me at all, what bother me is her voice; it seems familiar like I've heard of it before, but I can't remember when and how,

The girl spoke again. "I-I'm- sor-rrie..." Hearing her said that, a memory flashed back to me.

It was that day I came outside my house to buy the sequel of the game I was gonna buy, and at that time an incident happened.

Beep! I could hear the loud beep of the truck, and in front of me was a little girl walking across the road, just by seeing this I knew what I was supposed to do.

I blinked my eyes and time stopped, the truck was almost near the girl, and without my control, my body moved by itself; it was running toward the little girl. My running became faster when I got close to her, and I got to see my own body push the girl away.

And then... Beep! Crash! My body was run over by the truck and at that time I knew that I was already dead, but knowing that I died for the sake of the little girl's life I accepted it, even if it meant leaving my loved ones... and at that time I heard her repeatedly say. "I'm sorry..."

"That voice..." The moment I remembered what happened to me that day, I knew who this little girl in front of me was. "You're that little girl I saved..."