Conversation with the Devil?

Ritsika Atsuki 

Age: 24

Astrological Sign/Birthdate: Cancer, June 29th

Height: 167 cm

Description:  Dark red hair—almost burgundy, average height and slim build, overt fashion style and chooses to wear bright clothes that stand out, thin lips, dark brown eyes, fair skin

Hobbies: Not too many hobbies, last year college student—Fashion major

Interesting fact: Tried almost every type of Piza in the world. 

***

"Alone, remember?" He uttered without looking up from his folder, meeting my gaze now. So cold. "We agreed to meet on the condition that you came alone."

Technically, I did come alone. Buuuuut, Rich followed me here. I can see why he would want the privacy and something in me tells me to run, but that piece that had been buried so long won't let me move. He's interested.

"No matter, I'm not a man to waste the time of others nor do I appreciate when others do the same to me. You're on time at least, I can respect that. " He stood up and stretched for a moment. "Your job..."

"My job?"

"You're a university or well-were a university professor. At the young age of 24. Not many people get to say that, let alone accomplish it. How'd you do it?"

"I don't know. There's no secret to it. I had a passion to learn more about fruit and so I did. Before I knew it, I was a professor. But you seem to know quite about me. What's the point in asking me all these questions that you seemingly know about? How do you know?"

Returning to his seat, he called a waitress that, when I say appeared out of thin air, "The last time we met I had mentioned to you how, as a kid I heard about the stories of the Seven Trees." He paused, allowing her to pour him a cup of tea, eerily enough, it had the tangy, but tart aroma of yuzu that hung in the fumes released from his mug. He didn't offer me one...

"We've all heard it, growing up in Japan, the fables as they say. One tree bore 6 trees and through the sheer willpower of evolution some think, others say God as we're accustomed to hearing, spread 6 seeds across the world that cured 6 diseases in particular-"

"With the seventh tree, the original, curing life itself."

"Exactly," He smiled, simultaneously matching the placing of a mug in front of me with the tea I had manifested. So good! A conversation with the Devil wasn't so bad if he offered me tea, eh?

"That being said, many people write it off as mere folklore, fantasy. They look at things literally instead of wondering: What if?" He paused, "What if it is true, that each of these trees, indigenous to where they would be found at, all stem from a mother tree that cures life. Are you familiar with what each tree does?"  

"One cures mental anguish, one cures physical diseases, howev-"

"With that one, a person could still die due to age." He interjected. Age has a limit, I guess. 

"Right, but the other four cure, deafness, emotional distress, blindness, and gravitational pull."

He sipped his tea, it's quite good I might add, very slowly. Too dramatic for my taste. What, he's going to tell me he wants to control the world now, too?

"I'm like you."

"How is that?" I wonder. We have nothing in common. 

"What if? It's the question that I've lived my entire life off of, what I instilled into my daughter, hm, Rin, that is..."

"It's human nature, to wonder. To believe and think beyond what is readily available or even possible. What would be if a person, or a population of people, absorbed these fruits on a day to day basis?"

"It's a question?"

"It's certainly not rhetorical."

"I don't know. I suppose no one would really know the answer to that question."

"According to the lore, all one needs is a small drop of the sap from the original tree to employ its benefits. Deafness cured wouldn't simply give people the ability to hear, but the ability to interpret what people are saying and want to say. Mental anguish cured would liberate the mind from fog, confusion, overthinking, and useless wonderment. Blindness cure not only has the power to see but look beyond realms that don't appear to the human eye, deciphering what truly lies underneath this Earth we live in. I don't even have to explain what releasing the gravitational pull would do for the species as a whole."

"You're delusional."

"You ask how I know you. Beyond your surface level book about the health benefits "Don't call 911", there's the cave excavations, reports and studies done under the University of Ottawa, your discoveries and journeys near the coast of the modern day Bahamas. I know all about your research. And I know my daughter too."

Hold on. "What does that mean?"

He gets up and leaves 200, 000 yen on the table this time. Liquid money machine, I guess. There's no one even her-well, that one random waitress. 

"Maybe I told you, maybe I didn't, but I certainly pity the man that falls in love with her. You say I'm delusional, what I think isn't real, it's a fan-"

"I didn't say that."

"Oh," Pausing, only for a split second.

"I just said you're delusional. To take all that away, to live like that. You want to erase what it means to be a human."

"BU-hm-hm," Touching his face, "...but it's exactly this thought that limits us. Physical bodies, age, time, vision, thoughts of pain and delusion, true delusion. True pain. What if all we had to do was take a pill with each ingredient and we advance. We evolve."

"Into what? Mindless beasts who feel less than a plant?" He's starting to piss me off. "People who only live of the hypothetical. We as scientists only believe in the hypothetical so much in so that we can prove it. That's not a life, to be without sentience. You should know as a scientist I'm allergic to the be all, end all of life. The reason things are imperfect is so that we always have something to look towards, to be. You want to erase the process. You must've not looked into who I am deep enough. "

"Oh, but I have. Keep running around with her. She doesn't know how to love anyone but herself. How long will you stand, following her around before realizing there was never anything to stand on? If you're with her, it means I've already won. We'll keep in touch. There isn't a doubt in my mind that you'll return back to me."

***

The Yangtze River, found in China is the official location where the first Yuzu tree was supposedly found. It takes 10 years at least for it to bear a single fruit. Unlike other fruit, it's prime season starts in around November, meaning it grows in cold climates and not in usual warm, maybe even tropical climates fruit primarily grow in. Hokkaido, Northern Japan, has a relatively similar zone that would make sense for a hypothetical, I mean hypothetical tree that grows in a freezing condition to be birthed. The Kochi region is the biggest exporting zone in Japan, due to it being the primary area where the most Yuzu trees are grown. It would be obvious to have a tree there that supposedly cures blindness. How amazing of an advancement for for humanity it would be to cure such a thing like that. But he's only looking at a part of the folklore. There's a reason why folklores exist. To show and teach a lesson of how we, as humans, have possibly crossed the line to not be repeated again. 

All he left behind was the manila folder that was there when I had arrived. Tucking in between my arms as I'm walking down the street, I can only conclude that he knows about the connection between us. Not the romant*c one, but her underlying plan of taking him down. I see why she feels the way she does about him. If her reason of wanting him to be stopped has anything to do with what I just heard, then I can only say my feelings for her could only grow. Yet, it nags me. What he says. The small remarks. The validity and confidence in which he speaks about her actions. My heart wants to disagree, but my head won't let me. He's right. She's never considered how I feel in all this. Maybe she knew that I would help her anyway. 

Ugh, wearing a mask is so troublesome, but I don't want to take it off. I don't want people to see my devious smile and how big brain I'm really thinking right now. I think a person looked at me a little weird because they heard someone talking to their selves a bit loud. Wasn't me, lady. Ha..ha. Upon opening it, all that was there was an address. And where am I going now? Curiosity kills that cat as they say.

A little ahead, no I'm sure of it. What are the chances? I sprint, well, more of a light jog to catch the door of a small donut shop that hung on the edge of the corner. The red hair was unmistakable.

"Ritsika." I grabbed her arm. Maybe that was a bit forward. OH SHIT, what if it isn't h-

 "Hey." she smiled, letting go of the door handle and letting it close in front of her, stepping towards me outside. Not much has changed with the personal space front. She always stands so close to me. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked. 

"We follow each other on Instagram, and I remember you posted this the other day. A huge fan of donuts, what can I say?"

"You only came for donuts?"

"Yeah, actually. Fashion student by day, foodie by night. I don't know what's going to kill me faster: the fashion industry or eating all these foods, hm-hm." Oh yeah, we do follow each other. Strange world we live in these days. 

"Oh, well it was nice seeing you."

"That's all, "it was nice seeing you"? And here I was thinking we were actually friends. I mean we did have s-"

"Ok, ok. I remember-" Very much so, I might add, "but seriously, it is good seeing you. There's not many people I know in Japan. I'll take any friend I can get at this point."

Her face turned a bit sad. I wonder why. "So, Rin," she paused, "She's not with you?"

"No. She had to do some work or something. Besides, I came to Japan without her and I'll probably leave the same way."

"You make it sound so disposable. Like it doesn't matter."

"I thought you and h-" Wait, what am I saying? Their issues as sisters is none of my business. "No, it's, well, I just, hah, I don't know. I've been feeling a bit lonely these past few days, my head is spinning with so many things." And it's the truth. What if, huh? What if what he's saying is the truth about this Yuzu tree, as well as Rin too.

She put a hand on my shoulder. It almost scorched my skin. "Rin, for as much as she cares about herself, I don't think would throw away a person she truly cares about. God knows, how many times I've wronged her. Yet, every once in a while, she'll remind me that she isn't the person that she leads people to be." She says, her lips forming a small crack, a corner of a smile, it is. "Well, it seems like you have to go, and I won't hold you up. I appreciate you opening up. See you later."

I don't know why, but with her, she makes me want to talk about what's wrong. I hate oversharing but now, it only feels like talking and I hate that I was about to just leave her like that. Looking down at the piece of paper in my hand, it couldn't hurt to ask.

"How much do you know about Sendai?"

***