"Silver and gemstone line the path. They forge the circle of the pact—calling to spirits of myth and legend to partake in the communion of battle."
"Desires, ideals, ambitions… they become the core of the chant. The heroes of yore answer the call, vacating their thrones."
"Fill and shut. Fill and shut. Fill and shut. Fill and shut. Fill and shut. The filling of thy cup continues until it breaks. The cycle repeats until power is made manifest."
"Warriors of the sword, bow, and lance. Heroes of the chariot, tome and dagger. Legends of vengeance, madness and forgiveness. Together, they swirl at the center. O soul who weaves together the arcane—holder of all that creates and destroys… answer."
A resounding heartbeat echoed. Something within the vastness of this spaced, stirred, slowly opening a pair of soft brown eyes. Above, a heavenly light danced before them. Within that light, they saw something shifting. Some kind of animal or being, with hidden eyes staring deep into their own.
A voice echoed in his ears, ringing out clearly.
"What is it you seek… pobt...w...h...e...w...o...eg...s?"
The light spluttered, like a light bulb failing to provide illumination any further. After a few seconds, it blinked away into non-existence. Once more, they found themselves falling into darkness, eyes slowly drifting back to slumber.
At least… until a gentle voice, heavenly and beautiful, spoke in his ear. At that moment, the black vastness broke apart.
"... Come on now, hubby~! A nap is all good and all, but too much is a bad thing!"
Haru stirred awake, his body aching all over. Ow… he thought, groaning. His muscles tightened up and hurt, just from simple movements. Dammit… I'm so sore. The last time I felt like this, I tried to beat Matsuda in a race back during the relay event in the Sports Day Festival last year!
Even to this day, he wondered why he tried to do something so stupid? Matsuda was more physically fit than he was, and was actually one of the school's top runners. Sadly, most people ignore that fact due to his perversion.
But as he pondered, he realized something. What was that voice?
Slowly, he opened his eyes. When he did, his mind short-circuited. The first thing that came to mind was that he was most likely dreaming or maybe he had died and gone to heaven when Yuuma attacked him. Beneath his head was something soft and tender, unbelievably smooth and fleshy as his hand investigated. Connected to whatever his head was laying on was a sight he was accustomed to, but NEVER to this angle. He knew for certain that, chances were, he would never be able to witness this sight in real life, given his circumstances, so he was either asleep or dead and went to paradise.
The Legendary Lap Pillow.
No way. his mind solemnly squealed in the utmost delight. No FUCKING way. T-this has to be it. I'm laying my head on soft, meaty thighs and I'm looking right at some rocking babe's panties! If this is a dream, then don't wake me up!
Then his mind stopped and realized something. If his head was laying on thighs, that meant a girl was willing to put him in such a position. And the voice he heard earlier was unmistakably female. Slowly, he looked up and blinked. Sure enough, it was a girl. And a bombshell at that. She was wearing a dark blue kimono and was revealing quite a bit of her cleavage and had a heart-shaped face that simply made his heart go pidder-patter. And that beautiful smile, eyes locked with his, so loving and tender, was the perfect face of a wonderful girl Haru never knew existed.
However, there was one feature that confused him profoundly. Namely, the pair of fox-like ears that twitched and flopped and wiggled atop her head.
"Welcome back, darling," The woman chirped happily.
Good Gods… even her voice is beautiful and adorable!
"Wha..." Words died in his throat, unable to make an intelligible sound. Where on earth did this girl come from? And moreover, who was she? Not that he was complaining. She did help him cross something off from his bucket list. His eyes remained trained on her ears, though. They twitched a bit as she continued to look at him.
Noticing how tongue-tied he was, the woman giggled. "Oh, you are so cute when you're flustered, Husband!"
Cute? She thought he was cute? Well, that was… strange. Half the time, he was called gross, disgusting, plain and whatnot, so being called cute by a girl, an insanely hot girl at that, was pretty strange.
Wait, what did she just say? Slowly, and much to the woman's disappointment, Haru pushed himself up. "Um… I'm sorry." he apologized. "I don't think I heard right. Did you just call me 'husband'?"
"Of course I did, silly."
"Ah, I see." A beat, then his jaw dropped. "EH?!"
H-H-H-H-HUSBAND?! What the hell?! When… when did he get married?! He's only 17! And how the hell did he score such a beautiful woman as his wife?!
No, wait! That wasn't the point here! When the heck did this happen?! What happened while he was unconscious—!
"... will you die for me?"
Information and static suddenly reared their ugly heads inside his brain, causing him to grit his teeth and press a palm to his forehead.
That's right. How could he have forgotten? Yuma… the girl who confessed to him the other day. At the end of their date, she tried to kill him. She had black wings coming out from her back and a spear in her hand, one of which had nearly skewered him had he not thrown himself out of the way.
But what happened after that? He remembered begging for someone to help, but everything after that point was blank. It was like he suddenly went unconscious at that exact moment in time. Could he have fainted somehow? Then Haru realized something else. Something more important.
They were no longer in Kuoh Park. Rather, they were sitting in a small bus waiting station out on the street. It was still dusk, given how the sky was still colored dark orange, and there were a handful of people wandering about. Cars passed by on occasion, making the streets rather empty and dull.
"H-huh? Wait, how did I get here?"
The woman next to him laughed awkwardly, scratching her cheek. "Yeah, um… I kinda lost my temper when that filthy hag tried to turn you into a shishkebab, so I might have gone a bit overboard in trying to kill her." Haru stared at her, unsure if he heard her correctly for the second time. "And I might have destroyed the park in the process."
… one second passed. Then Two. Then three. Then finally, it all sunk into his head.
"... eh?"