"No—no! I don't have the document anymore! Why are you still chasing me?!"
Aura's panicked scream tore through the evening streets. Her bare feet slapped against the cobblestone, her heels long since kicked off somewhere during her frantic escape. She couldn't tell whether the wetness on her cheeks was sweat or tears.
Her lungs burned. Her legs felt like soggy vegetables. Her heart hammered loud enough to drown out her own thoughts.
Even as a demon, trying to outrun a human's magic with raw physical speed was something only an idiot would attempt.
Unfortunately for Aura, she was that idiot today.
"I can't—I can't—!" Her voice broke into sniffles. She staggered, her sprint degrading into a wobbling trot.
When Aura looked back, she found that the terrifying orange-haired figure was already within a hundred meters behind her.
Aura's soul left her body.
Her knees wobbled.
She turned her head fully toward Flamme, tears brimming like an overflowing basin.
"I'm sorry…"
Her voice was tiny.
Then she screamed with the force of a banshee whose taxes were overdue.
"I'M SORRYYYY!!!"
The cry echoed down every alleyway, making several cats jump from rooftops.
Her last drop of stamina drained away. Her legs buckled. Tears streamed down her face in frantic rivers.
"I'M SO SORRYYYYYYY!!!!"
By the time she stumbled into the dead end of a narrow alley, she was barely conscious.
Then—
"Hello, Aura." Flamme landed lightly from her low-floating state. Though she had run some distance earlier, she'd used magic most of the way and looked completely unfazed.
Aura, meanwhile, was pressed against the wall, hacking for breath like she'd just run across the continent.
"Hah—hah—hah—ahh—!" She clutched her chest, staring up at Flamme with the wide, trembling eyes of someone who had accepted her imminent death.
"Hellooo, Aura?" Flamme repeated in a lilting voice, stepping closer when the purple-haired girl only crouched deeper into the corner, trembling.
"Aura, are you alright?" She reached out and placed a hand on the demon girl's shoulder.
"AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Aura instantly screamed in panic.
"Aura?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Her scream went on and on before she burst into frantic apologies:
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!!"
"I'm really sorry—really, really sorry!!"
"Please don't kill me!"
"I'll do anything!"
"…?" Flamme tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"
She held up the Ministry of Education document with Aura's name on it and explained, "You took the wrong departmental file. I came to return it to you."
Aura froze.
The world went silent.
"…Oh." Aura blinked rapidly, the despair fading from her eyes, replaced by the hesitant sparkle of fragile hope. "Oh… thank you…"
She accepted the document with trembling hands and forced her face—stiff, twitching, painfully unnatural—into what she hoped resembled a polite human smile.
"Thank you so much! Truly, thank you!"
"No problem, no problem—" Flamme replied warmly, nodding as though she'd just done her good deed for the day.
Aura felt relief cascade over her like a warm waterfall.
Huuu—
Her shoulders sagged. Her heartbeat slowed. Sanity returned.
'Looks like I survived.
Flamme hadn't suspected anything.
Flamme didn't want to kill me.
I had imagined everything.
I scared myself for nothing—haha…'
"Eh?" Aura felt a hand grab the front of her collar and slam her against the wall.
"Aura! Your hat! Your hat! How many times do I have to tell you! You forgot your hat again! This place is full of human mages who kill demons on sight!!!" Flamme scolded loudly, holding Aura's collar in one hand and her purple hat in the other.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!" Seeing Flamme's angry expression, Aura burst into tears again.
"I've reminded you again and again! But you forget every time! Every! Single! Time! If you expose your horns again, the human mages will cut them off the moment they see them!"
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
"And every time you bite off your hat, you either throw it away or chew it up! Do you think hats that hide demon horns can be bought at a normal shop?! They're all custom-made! They cost money! Lots of money!"
"AAAAAAAAAAH!!! I-I'll stop chewing—!"
"I swear, Aura, if you chew it up again, I'll make you pay for it yourself!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!"
Frustrated beyond measure, Flamme raised a trembling finger.
"If you forget your hat one more time, I'll lock you—lock you—!"
But before she could finish her threat, she noticed something wrong.
Aura wasn't crying anymore.
She wasn't screaming either.
Her eyes were vacant.
Her mouth was slightly open.
She was just… staring at nothing.
"…Aura?" Flamme's anger evaporated instantly. "Aura? Aura?? Aura, say something—"
Too late.
Aura had been scared stupid.
Her little demon brain had simply shut down.
Flamme panicked.
She quickly scooped Aura's limp, dazed body into her arms.
"Hold on! Church! I need the church!"
And with Aura dangling like a traumatized ragdoll, Flamme sprinted toward the church at full speed.
————————————
"Will she really be okay?"
"It's fine, it's fine. Aura acting stupid isn't anything rare. You don't live with her, so you wouldn't know. Sometimes, when she messes up and I grab her horns and pretend I'll snap them off, she gets so scared she rolls her eyes back and drools—mind completely gone."
Zanze and Flamme stood at the doorway.
Flamme nervously glanced into the room at Aura, who sat blankly on the bed with an empty stare, mouth slightly open, not knowing what she was even looking at.
Zanze spoke softly to comfort Flamme:
"The priests said it already—this is Aura's mental self-defense. Nothing wrong with her mind. She just needs time."
"But… sigh, this time it's my fault. I shouldn't have scared her that much."
"Don't worry. Aura is very resilient. She'll sleep, forget every horrible memory, and bounce right back. Though she also forgets everything I teach her, haha. Honestly, maybe it's good she got a proper scare from you. Only when she's terrified does Aura remember her lessons. If I scold her, she'll chew up all the hats and dump them on my bed the next morning in revenge."
"Sigh… I'll come check on her tomorrow. I hope she really gets better after some sleep."
She took in a long breath, then pointed to the pouch on the table.
"The money inside… is my compensation to Aura. From my own savings. I don't have much, so please forgive me."
Zanze blinked, surprised. "No need to be formal. Raising Aura isn't expensive. Well… except for the hats. And the repairs. And food. And bedding. And—"
"Zanze," Flamme sighed.
"Right, right. But still—it's nothing troublesome for me."
"No." Flamme shook her head firmly. "We agreed to care for her half and half. But I'm always at the border and can't visit as often. You've been carrying most of the burden."
Zanze opened her mouth to protest, but Flamme was already bowing deeply.
"…I truly appreciate everything you've done."
Then Flamme turned and left the church room, shoulders slightly hunched from guilt.
Zanze watched her go.
The moment Flamme disappeared around the corner, Zanze exhaled loudly—almost collapsing under the sudden weight of accumulated memories.
She looked back at Aura, still staring into nothingness like a broken doll, and sighed again.
Everyone thought raising Aura was impossibly difficult. Serie felt guilty about it. Flamme felt guilty about it. Most humans would have run screaming ten minutes into the experience.
But Zanze…
Zanze had gotten used to it.
Completely used to it.
She covered her face with both hands as memories came rushing in like an avalanche.
Was it really that troublesome that she sometimes slapped you awake in the middle of the night demanding food?
"Zanze… ZANZE. Wake up. Feed me. Immediately."
"You… it's two in the morning…!"
"Then why aren't you cooking yet?"
Was it really that infuriating that she steals your money, replaces it with rocks, and denies everything despite her hands being covered in mud?
"Aura… why is my coin pouch full of dirt?"
"Hm? I don't know. Perhaps it's… a curse?"
"Aura. Your hands."
"My hands? Oh. That's just… natural soil. Good for the skin."
Was it really that unacceptable that she BITES your hair when annoyed, leaves a bald patch, then vomits the hair later and complains you were 'too smelly to swallow'?
"A-Aura… that's my hair…"
"Then wash it better next time."
"You ate it!!"
"Not on purpose! Instinct! Instinct!"
Zanze slid down the wall and sat on the floor, defeated.
'Why… why was I only realizing now?'
'Why did one conversation with Flamme make me suddenly aware of how monstrous Aura actually is?'
'Could it be… I've adapted? Without noticing?'
"I wanted to tame Aura…" Zanze whispered weakly, "but instead… I've been tamed by Aura."
She tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling in existential despair.
'My life… it's truly over…'
Ever since that night over twenty years ago, when Aura first stayed at her place, Zanze's peaceful life had evaporated. Replaced by chaos. And emotional damage.
Most memories involving Aura were nightmares.
Yet…
If someone ordered her to abandon Aura now—
Zanze knew she couldn't do it.
'So yes,' she thought with bitter amusement, 'I really have been tamed. By a horrible, incorrigible demon.'
But then Zanze laughed softly.
Why would humans—short-lived humans—expect demons to change for them? Demons lived centuries. Millennia. Aura would long outlive them all.
Perhaps it was natural that humans adapted instead.
"Hehehe… hehehehehe… hehehehehehe—"
A sound emerged from the room.
Zanze perked up, startled—'Was Aura recovering already?'
She rushed to the door.
And saw—
Aura, still mentally vacant, eyes looking in two different directions, snot dripping freely…
Currently hunched over the pouch of coins Flamme left behind.
Her hands shook as she pulled out the gold coins one by one.
"Hehe…" she giggled in a breathy monotone, "they're all mine… all mine…"
Zanze stared.
"......"
Aura hugged the pouch to her chest, rocking back and forth like a goblin guarding treasure.
"Hehehe… with this… I can build another academy in a faraway place…"
Her face remained slack. Her mind, absolutely gone.