Our Share Of Hell

Osaka, Ikuno ward.

Inside her gloomy room, with walls dyed light brown, Mitsu sat at the bedside. Beside her, Sarai was sleeping under a warm blanket; his face, arms, and torso were covered in bandages.

As she stared at the eyes that bloomed across the room, Mitsu was holding onto a bowl of hot soup. Despite wanting to sleep, she forced herself to stay awake and alert, waiting for Sarai to awaken.

A couple of minutes passed, and she lost her sense of time, still holding the hot soup bowl. She didn’t even change her office clothes, perhaps due to her worry.

Suddenly, Sarai began rolling slightly. His eyelids tightened before finally fluttering open.

W-Where am I… this time? This pain… he thought as he attempted to get up, only to be pushed back by a sudden surge of pain.

I used my Magic for the first time and… fought Enji. He attacked me first for some reason, though… Sarai pondered, a throbbing pain in his chest causing him to cough excessively.

Cough. Cough.

“Sarai!” Mitsu suddenly yelled the instant she heard him cough.

“M-Mitsu-san…” Sarai’s eyes met Mitsu’s comforting face. “D-Did you bring me here? Cough. Cough. W-When?”

“Don’t speak now. I’ll explain everything.” She twisted her body into a comfortable sitting position and picked up the bowl of soup from the nearby nightstand.

“I’ll feed you the soup first,” she said. “Open your mouth.”

She’s going to feed me? I-I don’t deserve all of this… I guess we became quite close in the two weeks of my memory loss… But that wasn’t me… It was the Scor—no, I can’t confirm yet… Unlike Mitsu, Sarai had only one day’s worth of memories with her.

“M-Mitsu-san, I can feed myself. Don’t worry—

Gulp. She fed him anyway.

“Enji told me you went with some Russian girl to help her find her cat.”

Gulp.

“I kept watching through your right eye until I no longer could. That girl is most likely a powerful Faithful.”

Gulp.

“We eventually managed to locate you, but Enji left me alone halfway and found you first.”

Gulp.

“That’s when you fought each other.”

Gulp. The soup bowl was now empty. Mitsu put it aside.

Sarai looked at Mitsu, then the ceiling. “Why did Enji fight me? Is it because I attract so much trouble?” He sighed. “I mean, this is the second or third time I’ve been kidnapped or attacked by someone.”

Mitsu’s eyes narrowed. “Third time? This is the seventh. A bunch of Mafia crews tried to kidnap you last week. But strangely, you handled them efficiently.”

“Wait,” she gasped. “Did you lose your memories?”

“Yes.”

“I see.” Mitsu pressed her lips. “We spent a lot of time together last week. The park, the underground missions, the festival, the library… It hurts that you don’t remember.”

Lots of time… I’m sorry… Sarai’s jaw tightened.

“Mitsu-san, I want to ask you.”

“Hm?”

“On what day exactly did I arrive at the agency? I don’t remember the date.”

“I think it’s,” Mitsu paused briefly. “November 14. It was a Friday.”

As I expected, I spent one week in the agency, not two. Which means the other week took place in the period between my Faith bond and waking up in Osaka. Just what was I—or what was he doing?

The Jashin Mafia, Kazu Ryuji, Aliskra and Scarnetti, the deities' gambit… This is driving me insane. So many things happened that I have no memory of, a malicious fucking deity is probably living inside me, and my fate is already decided… I genuinely want to die.

“I see.” Sarai barely nodded.

“Well, please don’t mind Enji.” Mitsu exhaled. “Since The Yokai kidnapped the boss, he’s been losing it.”

“The Yokai?” Sarai shook his head in a questioning manner.

“It’s one of the strongest secret organizations in Asia, where the majority of members believe in the supernatural beings of Japanese folklore.”

“Just recently, their forces attacked a secret meeting between the boss and other Faithful circles in Tokyo and kidnapped all the participants, including the boss.” Mitsu stared at the ground as she muttered, “They requested we give you to them in exchange for the boss.”

“While most of us refused and sought different ways, Enji was determined to do the exchange.” She looked over Sarai. “You see, the boss saved his life as a child.”

The boss saved his life…

Upon hearing the words, Sarai’s hatred toward Enji cooled.

“This does not justify his actions but will help you understand where he’s coming from. He had always been a twisted person.”

Silence.

“The world is crumbling under its beliefs.” Mitsu breathed. “The global broadcast was a bold attempt to drive the Faithful into rebellion. But the world is genuinely in madness.”

The broadcast… Whenever I think about it, I remember that terrifying faceless figure that’s haunting me. That thing is a whole fucking mess itself...

“I remember it mentioning something about a Devil’s conspiracy,” mumbled Sarai.

“The Devil of the Fallen Triune. There are many ancient scriptures that mention this name. They’re extremely hard to decipher and probably belong to some group of lunatics.”

“The words said in the broadcast were most likely a prophecy. If that’s the case, we can say the Devil probably refers to a Faithful organization or individual. So, a union was never the goal behind this mess.”

Sarai ran a hand through his long black hair. “Is there anyone who’s believed to be this Devil from the prophecy?”

Mitsu clenched her hands. “Yes, there is one person.”

“It’s Lilith,” she groaned.

“Just who’s this Lilith? Everyone is talking about her.” Sarai was genuinely concerned and couldn’t help but ask.

“She’s a woman who has been alive since World War II. A devout believer in Vampirism. She’s immortal and has countless offspring all across Europe and is said to have many world leaders under her thumb.”

“They call her The Demoness of the 20th century.”

A vampire with countless offspring…

“Wait…” Sarai’s teeth gritted. “Don’t tell me she’s on her way to Japan?”

“Yep, she is. Might even be here already.”

No way… I don’t know why, but I have a feeling she will target me too.

“Don’t worry though, she and I are good friends. We had a bunch of fun times when I was younger.” Mitsu’s lips curled into quite the nostalgic smile.

Mitsu-san and Lilith were friends? Just how strong is she… Sarai felt an unsettling mixture of safety and dread as his heart calmed down.

“Well, things are pretty much settling down all across the world. Europe is no longer in pandemonium, and America is gathering its strength again. Tokyo is still in a mess, but things aren’t as bad.” Mitsu stretched her neck from side to side.

“There is a circus holiday in a week or so. It’s almost a tradition in all civilizations to celebrate humanity’s victory against the Faithful this way. You can call it some kind of mockery.”

“Well, just like skipping prayers and religious rituals, not attending will attract the military’s attention, so the Faithful are forced to play along.”

“All said though, it’s pretty fun. Some agency members are planning to attend the event taking place in Dotonbori.”

“I would be so happy if you went with us.” Mitsu’s affectionate smile sent a wave of tenderness through Sarai’s heart.

I’m invited again… He could only feel grateful.

“Thank you, Mitsu-san.” He nodded. “But what about Enji? I don’t think he wants to see me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk with him.”

“Alright. Thank you.” Sarai smiled.

Suddenly, his eyes flickered as if having remembered something.

I’ll ask her.

“Mitsu-san. I have another question.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Just tonight, I went to grab a bite at a restaurant and ended up meeting a Faithful man. We had a conversation about history, and he said something interesting.” Sarai’s throat tightened. “He said that at some point in history, immense Faith in an existence gave birth to deities who embodied that same concept.”

“He also said that The Faithful Plague was a war between deities and not Sorcerers. He was so confident about his words. What do you think?”

Mitsu pressed her index finger thoughtfully against her lips. "I've only heard this in mythology, so I wouldn't guess it's true." She took off her lensless glasses. "But always keep in mind that the history taught in this day and age is most likely far from the truth. Everyone agrees on this."

“So we can never confirm what’s true and what isn’t. That said, there definitely is some buried knowledge beneath the dust of the past.”

“Understood.” Sarai’s chin shook in a pensive nod.

Mitsu’s eyes widened suddenly. “You reminded me. There is something I wanted to tell you about your Faith.”

“I looked everywhere for what a scorpion is and found absolutely nothing. But I remembered a myth about the Faith system.”

She coughed. “You see, if a Faith bond was forced through rituals and prayers, the person would become insane and physically turn into an object or an idea. Yes, it does sound unreal. Even I have no clue how this works. But it’s true.”

“There are many other rules and settings, some of which have been proven true, while some are mere myths. The one I’m talking about is that if every living thing stops believing in a concept’s existence, it ceases to exist in reality.”

“W-What…” Sarai drew a startled breath.

“As I said, it’s only a myth, but it very much aligns with your situation. This, and I’m only suggesting, might be related to what you heard about deities. But we can’t confirm.”

Sarai’s eyes bulged in terror. “Deities…”

Seeing the fear in his eyes, Mitsu quickly sat beside him.

She pinched his right cheek. “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.”

“I’ll protect you.” She smiled.

Sarai’s face grew warm in shyness. “Okay… Thank you so much, Mitsu-san. You’ve been by my side since I joined the agency.”

“Don’t even mention that. It’s been a while since I had someone to take care of.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Sarai stared at her, his eyes reflecting genuine adoration and gratitude.

He turned his head slowly, allowing his gaze to wander Mitsu’s room until it fell on a strange sight.

Resting on the nightstand to the left of the bed was another glass jar in which two eyes swam, a red liquid engulfing them.

Unlike the other jars, this one looks different. The liquid is red instead of yellow, and it has no parchment sticking to it. Sarai pondered.

It’s also the only one in this room.

He looked back at Mitsu and muttered, pointing at the jar, “This jar looks different from the rest. Why is that?”

Mitsu was slightly aghast at the question. Her narrow, darting eyes suggested that.

“Those are the eyes of my mother. She’s dead.”

Fuck. I shouldn’t have asked her.

“Oh… I’m sorry if that brought back some bad memories.”

“Don’t worry.” She chuckled. “I killed her.”

What? Sarai’s jaw almost dropped.

“The glasses I’m wearing are hers. Lensless, like her buried corpse.” An eerie smirk carved itself on Mitsu’s face.

She stepped toward the door. “Good night, Sarai.”

“Tomorrow, tell me what happened to you after the kidnapping.” She turned off the lights, left the room, and closed the door with a soft creak.

Once again, like always, Sarai was left alone in the darkness, staring at the ceiling of a room not his.

She killed her mom, huh? He sighed.

I guess everyone got their share of hell—in this fucked-up world. His eyes closed, drowning him in slumber, and perhaps yet another nightmare.