7 The Empty Shell

"You-You're looking for a human?" Lucine could hardly believe what he was seeing. What sort of creature had crawled out of his nightmares to make his life an even worse fuckfest?

"I am."

His eyes were fixed on her. She was exactly as he had seen in his dreams, albeit slightly smaller. Her horns could hardly be seen over her red head, and her small tail mechanically rocked behind her. Everything about her seemed to point to her being small and harmless. Everything but her eyes. Those blank, soulless eyes terrified him.

"What do you want to find a human for? They're just creatures of fantasy."

Her eyes pulsed slightly. They dug into his own, forcing him to avert his gaze.

Her whisper sent chills down his spine. "I don't like it when people lie."

What the hell was this person? She definitely knew more than she let on. What did she want? Or was she just fine with watching him squirm in terror?

Tch.

He hated being cornered like this. He was being humiliated this bad by some ginger midget. How could Lucine Fastus ever be put in such an embarrassing situation? It was time for him to get his shit together and figure out what the hell this monster was.

But before he could do anything, she spoke.

"I know you're a human, Lucine Fastus."

His resolve shook.

"I am. A-And what of it?" He looked at her as defiantly as he could, fighting to keep his wings from quivering.

Her eyes widened.

"You… You're really a human?" Her tone changed completely. She sounded more like an excited child than a monster who had escaped from a nightmare. "Where's your proof? Wait, I know! I'll test you to see whether you really are a human! Um…"

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, her tail wagging energetically as she struggled to think of a good question.

"Ah! I've got one! What are humans best at doing?"

He looked into her wide, excited eyes and took a second to collect his thoughts. What the fuck was going on? Why was a girl that crawled out of his nightmares to make him piss his pants in fear asking him questions about humans like a schoolgirl?

"Well, I suppose we're good at blowing shit up. Especially each other."

She clasped her hands together and gasped. "You really are a human…"

To his surprise, her eyes welled up with tears. He was already pretty bad at comforting people. How was he supposed to comfort someone he was terrified of?

"H-Hey! Are you okay? What's wro-?"

She ran forward and pulled Lucine into a painful bear hug. He gasped as she crushed his broken ribs.

"God, you little…what the fuck are you doing?" he wheezed.

His terror fell away with her tears as she looked up at him with watery eyes. Her look was one that even someone as dense as Lucine could understand.

"Thank God," she choked, making Lucine's stomach do a backflip as he realized what she was so happy about. "I never thought I'd find another human in this place."

They found the same look of relief on each other's faces.

***

"But the problem is that I never had any mirror of sorts to make me swap worlds, or souls or whatever you're going on about," she interrupted for the millionth time. "That can't have been the cause. I mean, think about it logically. A mirror is just- Oh! Haha, sorry. I got carried away again…"

They had been debating what caused them to swap for the better part of half an hour. It wasn't the most productive of debates, with Lucine too tired to explain anything properly and Raifu interrupting whenever he did. Making things even worse, it seemed like she was trying to conceal what her own experiences had been like.

"It's fine, Raifu. Since you've concluded that it wasn't a mirror that soul-swapped you, what do you think swapped you?"

She sat at the foot of the bed. The moonlight shining on her face made her look ghostly. He wouldn't have been surprised if ghosts existed as well. He snuggled further into his blankets. He knew Raifu Fanten was harmless now that he'd gotten to know her better, and meeting her was by far the best thing that had happened since he'd fallen into this world. Another human! A rising feeling grew in his stomach. It was amazing to finally not be alone.

"I told you before, I'm not really sure what swapped me." She ran her hands through her hair, crying out as she accidentally pricked herself on her horns. After convincing a skeptical (but sleepy) Lucine that she was fine, she continued her explanation.

"I just noticed one evening that I looked different when I was collecting water from the river." Her tail frantically swished behind her as if it had a mind of its own, and she had to grab it to stop it from moving. This resulted in a game of cat and mouse with her and her own tail, which Lucine observed in mild interest from within the cocoon of his blankets. "This thing is cool and all, but, God, is it annoying to have around at times."

"So you really have no idea what swapped you?"

She shook her head feverishly. They were both at a loss, and they sat in silence as they both pondered the riddle placed before them.

He had nearly fallen asleep when he noticed she was shivering.

He kicked off his blankets and threw them at her with his good arm, catching her off guard and burying her small figure under them.

"Hey! If I was doing something wrong you could have just told me, instead of throwing your blankets at me!" Her muffled, indignant voice came out of the blankets , as she struggled to get out of the blankets.

"Why didn't you tell me you were cold?" He rested his head back on the pillows, closing his eyes. "The heating in here sucks, you know?"

"H-huh? I'm not that cold, and besides, you're the injured person! You should take them back!"

" 'I don't like it when people lie' " he said, in a crude imitation of her voice. "Also, if you give me back those blankets, I'm gonna scream and tell everyone that you're some random creep who broke into my room. So wrap up tight, buttercup."

She made a small sound of protest, which quickly dwindled into a pouty acceptance. On hearing this, and knowing that she had accepted his judgment, a satisfied smile touched his lips.

"But you might wanna leave before morning." he said sleepily. "If Asrin finds you in here with me, she'll murder us all."

"W-What? I thought you said Asrin was just a goofball who liked to mess around with you?"

"Mhm, she is, but she's also part-time psycho bitch who likes to pretend to be my girlfriend." He grabbed a pillow and held it close.

"Maybe one day it'll be more than just pretend," he mumbled

Raifu poked her head out of the blankets, taking in a deep breath of fresh air as celebration for finding a way out of her warm prison. She gazed on Lucine's battered and bruised body. He was already asleep.

She had listened intently the entire time Lucine had explained everything that had happened to him. He had made it sound so simple, like he hadn't been affected by it at all. But even so, she could tell that he was just trying to hide what he really felt. It must have been scary, having all your loved ones turn into monsters and not being able to do anything about it. She gently put the blanket back over him. He was surprisingly a lot nicer than she had expected.

"Sure, maybe I was cold, but that was no reason to put a blanket over me when you were clearly the one who needed it more!" she whispered, careful not to wake him up.

She stood over him in silence, listening to his light snores.

"I'm really glad that I found you here, Lucine. I'll do my best to help you get home." She said softly.

She left the room, her string-like crimson hair trailing behind her.

Lucine lay, listening to the gentle pit pat of her feet fade into silence. His dull yellow eyes were wide open. Raifu was a human, he was sure of that. She acted in a far more aloof way than any demon, and felt far less intense.

He gritted his teeth and his eyes started to glow.

So why did she appear in his dream before he'd ever even heard of her in such a terrifying way?

He couldn't trust her yet, no matter how much he wanted to. She had told him next to nothing about herself, even though she had taken in everything he had said about himself.

And she had lied.

She knew what had swapped her, or at the very least was hiding something. Her tail was acting up like that because she was lying. She had no control over it because she wasn't used to lying in that body.

Too bad she had no idea how much research he'd done into the female body.

But until she opened up about herself, he couldn't trust her, or anything she says. For now, the discovery that other humans had been swapped was enough. He wasn't alone.

He feebly thought of a few more dots, but he was too exhausted to even attempt connecting them. Sleep beckoned impatiently, and he had no strength to resist her calls. His eyes flickered shut, the golden glow of his eyes softly fading away. He descended into her clutches.

He awoke in his classroom, this time completely alone. It seemed like the faceless figures were gone. He breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. His horns were absent, and the uncomfortable weight at his back had disappeared.

It seemed like he was a human again. What else was different?

He got up, looking out of the window. The star outside was brighter than it was before, pulsing harder and faster than it did before.

He was fully aware that he was in a dream and the star felt like an important part of it. It was something he needed to understand if he wanted to know how to fix his soul swap problem.

"Maybe even fundamental," he said while climbing out of the second story window. Despite this, he hit the ground with a dull thud, unharmed. "To understanding where that damn mirror came from, and how I swapped in the first place."

The star pulsed faster as he walked towards it. He felt a strange connection to it, as if he could understand how it felt, how it felt to be alone at the top. A shiver ran through his spine. He felt like it wasn't just a hunch making him go forward.

After a few minutes of walking, he realised he was getting nowhere. He was walking forward but the star, massive and bright in the night sky, was still as far away as before.

He knew he wasn't being stupid. He had to get to that star somehow, no matter how high up in the night sky it was.

"I might be going insane, but isn't that star coming towards us?"

A voice he thought he'd never hear here sounded behind him. Lucine whipped around, not daring to believe his ears. He needed to see it for himself.

And there he stood.

There stood the demon body he had grown to despise. Those golden eyes, the disgusting snow-white hair, the elf ears, the bull horns and the bat wings.

Ever since swapping with him, he had hated the demon Lucine Fastus' body with a fervour. He had hated what that body had made him feel, and so by extension, hated the person who owned the body in the first place.

They stared at each other, each finding the same look of disdain on each other.

"This was the last place I expected to find you, human" He growled, crossing his arms.

"Trust me, I'm not happy about it either." Lucine glared back at him."But isn't this strange? Are you real or just part of my imagination?"

Demon Lucine raised his eyebrows. "Part of your imagination?" He smiled, raising his fists. As quick as thunder, he rushed forward, aiming to punch Lucine in the gut. Luckily, he managed to somehow evade. "I hope you won't insult me like that again. I'm just as real as you are."

Lucine looked at him in loathing. "You're disgustingly violent."

"Is that so?" He sneered, circling around Lucine. "I'd rather be a disgusting violent prick than a bitchass pansy that's hated by his entire school. " He raised his arms, as if he was trying to reason with Lucine. "They were BOOING for me when I beat Gemu's ass. I think that says something, doesn't it?"

Lucine started cackling. "It says something huh? I'm pretty sure it says you're just as hated as I am, cause the people weren't cheering for me when I beat Gemu. And, by extension, that means no one was cheering for you."

Demon Lucine stopped in his tracks, dumbstruck. Hah, that had done a number on him. It looked as though the idiot didn't realise people hated him-

"You beat him? Like hard? What the fuck did you do to him?"

Unexpected... Why did he care what he did to Gemu?

"Um." Lucine thought for a second. "I uppercutted his jaw, kicked his head, knocked him out, and stomped on him for a bit while he was out cold."

"You WHAT-" Demon Lucine was stunned, staring at Lucine in disbelief. "I'm sorry, but were you not the pacifist pansy bitch who never punched anyone cause it was against his own code?"

They stood for a second in silence.

"I-I didn't mean to."

Demon Lucine cupped his head in his hands. "Ugh. You know I would be happy that you weren't as much as a bitch as I thought." He lifted his head, his eyes blazing golden. "But I was sorta counting on your pacifist code to go apologise to him!"

"What the hell would i apologise for? He came to attack me first!"

"Because I embarrassed him in front of a girl he liked!"

"He was going to cave my skull in!"

"Thats just how us demons do things, alright?"

Demon Lucine collapsed onto the ground, eyes to the empty void above him."When you wake up, you're going to go apologise for everything you did to him. The poor bastards probably aching all over..."

"Uh, I'm in hospital with a broken arm and several fractured ribs because of him."

Demon Lucine rolled his eyes. "Well, you can be a little insincere with your apology then."

Lucine sat down on the grass next to him, gazing at the star above him. "We could be talking about ways to swap bodies back, you know."

"Like what?"

"Have you tried looking in the mirror again?"

"You mean the one in that alleyway? I smashed it when I saw your face in it. You were too ugly for me to handle."

"..."

"..."

"At least sound a bit embarrassed."

"Not a chance."

Lucine sighed. Maybe he really was going to be stuck in the demon world forever. But for now, he might as well relax. Things had been pretty hectic in the real world. He gazed at the star, watching it pulse and burn as it grew closer and closer, until...

"Hold on..." Lucine's eyes widened in shock. "That's not a star..."

"Oh, pardon me for not being able to tell. What is it then? A quasar?"

Lucine jumped to his feet. "No, you twat. That thing has wings!"

Demon Lucine squinted at it, before he too saw them too. "Holy shit, you're right. What the hell is that?"

Lucine tried his best to come up with an explanation. He felt a connection to that star, the same way he felt a connection to the demon sitting next to him. As far as he could see, there was a human and a demon here. So that means, that burning star had to be an a

He was in a cave of eyes. They saw every move. They calculated, judging whether he was worthy to be kept or not. Hands clutched at his legs, some slimy and wet, some rough and painful, dragging him down, pushing him up. A voice echoed across the walls.

"I feel."

"Yes. I will obey."

"Are you my..."

"Mother?"