4 Pent-up Feelings

She wasn't looking where she was going and ended up bumping into someone. "Miss Yuki, I'll help you out of here." "Oh Neil I am sorry I-" "Don't worry about it..." They walked silently, she had never seen Neil be quiet for so long. "Miss Yuki?" "Yes?" "Prince Seth isn't as bad as he pretends to be. He's gone through a lot. He tries to cope with his lonely life day to day. Even though he may be surrounded by faithful servants and demon armies, he feels alone." "He told you this?" "No, but I know him. He can try to lie to himself, but the Prince is not a bad demon." She stopped walking making Neil stop and face her. "So if he isn't so bad, why does he kill people? Why doesn't he help all those dying humans that are staving? Why?" "He needs to see what he has done wrong himself. He is still hurting from his father's-" "So am I! Yet I don't go around killing innocent people. I am trying to move on.. Coming back here, I don't like it. I never want to set foot in this place again." She began to walk towards the exit ahead of her. "I didn't know you disliked me so much." Seth who had been walking nearby happened to hear them talking and ended up eavesdropping. Neil and Yuki both turned to Seth. "Master I-" "Quiet Neil.." He walked up to Yuki and looked her in the eyes. "I tried my best.." "Huh?" "To protect him and you... I wasn't strong enough and for that I am sorry." Yuki couldn't hold back the tears anymore and cried.

"I wish I could move on but you see, it was because I was weak that I could't save your father or mine.. I have become strong, yes. The most powerful and feared demon to ever live. I will never let anyone else I care for die." She wiped her tears away and looked up at him. He began to walk away. "Neil, escort her out." "Yes sir." Neil gently grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away. "Wait! Seth!" The Prince turned to look at her. "I don't blame you for his death.. I know you tried your best, you fought! I did nothing! I was the weak one. I was too scared to do anything but cry. It was my fault, I couldn't-" In a second he the Prince was next to her with a finger placed on her lips. "Shh.. that's in the past, you were a mere child.. You say you have school right? You should go." He dropped his finger from her lips. They looked at each other one last time and then she felt dizzy. Too dizzy to keep balance, she began losing consciousness. Before she fell Seth managed to pick her up. "This will make the trip back home a lot shorter." he said. "You put her to sleep?" asked Neil. "Only for a few minutes, more than enough for u to take her back, she would never make it in time if she walked." He handed her over to Neil. "Make sure she makes it to the village safely." Neil simply nodded and took off.

He was a very fast demon, so what would of been a 2 hour walk home turned into a 15 minute sprint. He left her resting under the shade of a tree, next to a road right outside her village. Soon after he left she woke up. She looked around confused until she began to recognize her surroundings. She saw some people heading to the same school she went to and figured she was still on time. She ran home quickly to discard the unfamiliar clothes then went to school. "Yuki!" Shiro greeted once again waving and smiling at her. "Huff-huff hey guys." She said out of breath. "Late again? You need to sleep earlier." Abby scolded her. "Yes yes I know." "Hey did you make it home okay?" "Well duh Shiro! I wouldn't be here otherwise." Shiro and Abby exchanged a concerned look. "You didn't hear?" asked Abby. "What, hear what?" "Apparently a few people thought they heard a group of guys assaulting a girl last night. They were found dead this morning. I hear it was a pretty gruesome scene. No one knows what happened with the girl or who or what killed them." Uh- well that sucks, I hope they find the culprits." She was cursing herself in her head, why her? She couldn't just tell them them she was the missing girl, or about Seth. "They were very close to where I last saw you last night, that's why I asked if you are okay." "Oh well I didn't hear or see anything, thankfully." She lied. "Let's go. Class is going to be extra long today due to special training because of what happened." Said Abby not sounding too excited about it. "Yea lets go." They went to class and the day went by surprisingly fast even though there was a lot of extra training in self defense. Yuki tried to not think about the other night's event or about the Prince. She was just going to pretend it never happened and continue with her life.

Meanwhile back at the castle, "Prince Seth.. are you really letting her go? Just like that?" "Yes." "But your dad-" "I know Neil, but I won't force her to stay if she doesn't want to." "Well.. you can still protect her. That's what your dad wanted. For you to take care of her." "She seems old enough to take care of herself." "Uh-huh, that's why we had to save her last night.. She had it all under control didn't she?" He said sarcastically. "What exactly do you want me to do? You are getting annoying." "...Find her.. tell her you want to take care of her." "Ha you have lost it. She hates me Neil, did you not hear what she said earlier. I've destroyed her world and her precious fellow humans... and I won't stop. Do you really think she'll want to stay knowing this?" "Then just protect her without her knowing. At least you can do that much, for you dad." Neil had just came up with a brilliant idea. "What do you mean?" Seth didn't like this, Neil was up to something. He began regretting asking.

"Will you be going to tomorrow's food drive Yuki?" asked Abby as they all walked home. "Food drive! Oh man I can't believe I almost forgot! Where is it again?" "On the next village, everyone going is bringing something along. We will be able to trade or split evenly among everyone." Said Shiro. "That sounds great, count me in. So what time should we meet up?" "We should meet up at 7 a.m. and meet at the bridge outside the village. That way we wont be left at the end of the crowd and we can get there first." "Oh! good thinking Abby." "7 a.m.!? Ugh why so early?" "Come on Shiro don't be lazy. We need the food, you know that." "Well yes and you will be there Yuki, so count me in as well." He smiled sweetly at her, Abby shook her head. "Sigh, boys." They eventually all parted and headed to their home.

"Why are we doing this again Neil?" A frustrated Seth whispered as he and Neil hid behind a bush nearby. He knew he shouldn't of listened to Neil. "Shh she'll hear us, and I told you we are doing this so you can know if Miss Yuki is in danger or not." "So following her around like idiots will help? This is ridiculous." "Of course it will help, I don't like that Shiro guy. He gets too close to her." "Sigh, she is not a little girl Neil.. that's probably her boyfriend." For some reason he felt weird saying that. "No, no she doesn't seem interested in him." "How is talking about dumb things like this supposed to help?" "Shh she is coming get down." They hid behind her house and listened. "Grandma I am home!" "Welcome home honey. I didn't hear you come home last night." "Uhh well Shiro needed to talk to me so I stayed out a little later. You must of been asleep by the time I got home." All these lies where slowly killing her, she felt bad lying to her friends and family, but it was for their own good. "Shiro eh? Hehehe are you two "official" now?" "Huh? Huh!!?? Me and Shiro? Oh no. No no no no no grandma, he is just a friend." "Well he is a good boy. He really likes you. I can't believe someone as pretty as you has never had a boyfriend." Yuki blushed. Talking about this kind of stuff with her grandma was always kind of embarrassing. "Well I don't have time for that grandma. I will go to the food drive tomorrow and get us some food." She smiled and held her grandma's hand as a way to reassure her things would be okay. "Aww honey, you are so good to me. I am so happy you came into my life, you are like an angel." "Thank you grandma, but I owe you my life and my gratitude for raising me." "You don't need to thank me child. You were so young, and even though we aren't blood family I loved you like my own. I became your family, that makes me happy. I was alone too you know." "Yes granny I know... Well I will go rest and I'll help you with dinner later."

She went to her room. Their house was a very small and humble one. Only 2 rooms, a bathroom and the kitchen. Her room was the only room in the house with a window, which she was grateful for. She would always sneak away at night to go hunting for some kind of animal. She need to find food to put in the table. "Did you hear that? She'll be going to this food drive thing tomorrow. It can be dangerous." "Neil the only things dangerous around here is that head of yours." "What!? She is very pretty, even you can't deny that. What if someone tries to hurt her again? That Shiro guy will definitely not be able to protect both Yuki and her girl friend. Or do you think he can?.." "..... Sigh." Neil laughed mentally at how easy it was to manipulate his friend using Yuki. His plan might work out in the end.