Kaitei Niou 20

Title: Kaitei Niou
Author: Elle Doki
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Daaku hung up, looking to the one with black hair. “Hey, Abyss. Araiso never showed up at Kasei’s. Where’d he go?”

Abyss shrugged, looking to the other as he began to stir. “Oh my head…”

“He speaks?” Daaku gawked.

The man sat up, rubbing his head, then jumped back from Abyss. “The heck?! Where am I?!”

“My house.” Daaku answered. “Who are you? Are you a… merfolk, too?”

“What? No!” The man shouted, insulted. “I’m a proud member of the Heavens - Lucifer!”

Daaku blinked, “Heavens?”

He nodded, glaring to Abyss. “Yeah… What’s going on? We aren’t supposed to be interacting like this. The gods’ll have our heads!”

Abyss snickered, taking a piece of paper and wrote down his message. “And just why is an angel fearing the gods? We have power just like them. Let’s make use of it.”

Lucifer stared, not saying anything for a moment. “You…” He laughed a bit, “I take it you want to stop the flood?”

“Flood?” Daaku asked.

“Yeah,” Lucifer nodded easily with a shrug. “The goddess of the sky and the god of the sea are working together to flood the land in four days. See - god’s powers are only as strong as their body is. When they give birth to their children, of sky, land and sea, their power from their main core is weakened. The goddess of the land, of the humans, has given most of her power to you humans- not that you can use it in your current state.”

Daaku thought a moment, “I get it. So the other two want to kill as many humans as possible to restore this goddess, right?”

“You got it.” Lucifer nodded.

Abyss thought a moment, then wrote down something else. “Pain and sorrow, humans have much of this in their lives. Would it be all right for the gods to allow more pain to come to the children because of their interactions?”

Daaku blinked, sitting down next to them. “Interactions?”

Lucifer nodded. “Right. Children of the sea and sky are able to interact with each other, but they can interact with the humans from a distance. That said, humans can’t interact with the other two at all. But over the years, it’s been done. Fallen Angels, Demons- whatever you want to call them -and the merfolk… Human’s interacted with both and the gods have tried to act against it.”

“Why?” Daaku asked.

Lucifer looked to Abyss, not sure if he should tell. Abyss nodded. Lucifer let out a long sigh. “If a child of the sea or sky were ever to die of heartache from a love with a human, the gods would have to start over on the planet.”

Daaku blinked, “Star over? How can they do that?”

“They can’t.” Lucifer explained, looking down grimly. “See… Long ago - there were many gods of many different things. But you’ve heard the stories - of Atlantis and Odysseus… And the untold stories of humans trying to match the gods in a war. The gods left, leaving behind this edict:”

“The first to die of heart pain from each other, so must all die of such suffering and the planet must end or begin anew.”

“That’s… That’s crazy!” Daaku stood up, infuriated. “So no matter what- that means we can’t love between? Well what if there is love between - there’s also bound to be heartache and pain right? What about those people who suffer because of this law? Isn’t that just the same thing? Loving from a distance- what a load of crap!”

Lucifer nodded, “Pain.”

Kasei winced, slicing his hand on the knife while he was cutting the bread of his sandwich.

“Sadness.”

Araiso sat huddled in his dark corner under the plants, listening as the cars drove by nearby.

“All of these are things we can’t avoid - but to die of this while the other knows of this…” Lucifer sighed.

Daaku stomped his foot, “That’s total bullshit! So angels and merfolk can love as much as they want as long as they never tell us?! What happens if they do?”

Lucifer took a breath, “So far, all the loves were reciprocated.”