//Out-of-our-minds//

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piss <3

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//Y/N's POV, 7 days ago//

I stood in front of the crowd of human-hostile demons and reached up to take off my mask. Now, you may be thinking "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???" to which, I'd respond, per usual, "FUNNY YOU'RE ASKING ME THAT, I'D LIKE TO KNOW THE SAME THING, ACTUALLY-"

I undid the strap and lowered my mask from my face. I could practically feel the blood of everyone in the audience run cold. "-What-" I heard a strangled gasp from Cozbi and several other murmurs before I continued speaking.

"As you already know, my name is Y/N. But what you don't know is that I am the only human left within the demon world." I took my chance while the demons were stunned to speak- before any of them decided I was a tasty enough looking snack to leap onstage. And I mean, yes, I am quite the snack, but also please don't kill me I'm too young and pretty to die. "You may see me as a solution to your problems. Of course, I should have enough blood in me to supply everyone in the village before dying of blood loss." If only these gullible demons knew what was going on in my head while I spoke.

"But my question to you is; then what? As I've mentioned, I'm the only human left here. Another hundred years and you will find yourselves facing the same situation all over again. Only this time, you won't have any leverage against Sonju and Mujika." The demons in the audience shifted uncomfortably, starting to see where I was coming from- and maybe a little disappointed that eating me was a bad idea. "But if you give me time, I can explore creating a cure for your situation. If that doesn't work, I can make an arrangement for blood to be donated from the human world. There are many solutions that don't involve violence. And I mean, I love violence. But dying? Not so much right now."

"And how can we trust you?" The leader finally spoke cooly, gliding towards me with an unnervingly pleasant smile on his face. "You, who has tricked the entire population into thinking you were a demon all along and told us moments earlier there were no humans left.  How can we expect your words to be the truth this time?"

I raised an eyebrow. "For the record, I said "No humans left in the castle", which isn't a lie. And when I set out to do something, I'll typically get it done- unless it involves studying. Of course, you could potentially kill me and bet on being able to find a solution later. But I doubt you'll live long after that. See, I happen to be friends with this absolutely terrifying demon. Know their name?"

"Sonju?" One voice from the audience echoed quietly.

"No, that one's Mujika, actually. You ever touched that woman's kitchen?" I cleared my throat. "Moving on- Sonju is the giant-asshole who also happens to wield an absolutely massive spear and could also probably decimate every single one of you within seconds. Now, I don't mean to threaten you, but... You touch a single hair on my head, and you may end with a small battalion of blood-hungry officials in your clearing. And hell, Sonju killed his own sister! What makes you think he'll spare you?"

The leader seemed to resign slightly. No matter how strong the strongest warrior here was, they had no chance against a battle-hardened and equally batshit-crazy individual like Sonju. 

Somewhere in the castle, Sonju sneezed.

"Very well." The demon leader spoke. "So long as you cooperate, we will avoid harming you and any other demons. On the condition that you spare the blood you can."

I watched as the audience began to clamour and stir quietly at the prospect of getting my blood for themselves. It was like standing in front of a crowd of ugly vampires. Lord knows I will never read another vampire romance novel after this experience. "I will spare what blood I can for those most in need of it" I elaborated, looking across the audience coldly. These demons were faced with incapacitation and loosing their mind and memories every day. And I was right in front of them- a chance to guarantee that they would lead humanoid lives for years longer. All of them toed the line of madness and I could tell right away the danger of being ambushed.

"Stand down." A commanding voice spoke and I glanced to Cozbi, who stepped towards the audience. She rested her hand on my shoulder and with her other, raised her blade towards the audience. "Any one who so much as approaches Y/N without my permission will answer to me. Is that clear?"

The clamouring died down and Cozbi was met with a few glum nods. I could tell the sort of influence Cozbi had with these people- er, demons- they valued a strong warrior, and Cozbi was without a doubt, one of those. "I will escort Y/N to the south tent. Bring the demons most in danger of degeneration there. No more than 10. You are dismissed."

I watched the demons slowly disperse until only Aurelia, Benny, Cozbi, and the leader remained. "What do you think you're doing?" The leader spoke dangerously under their breath towards Cozbi.

Cozbi stepped forward confidently with a smile on her face. "I hope you haven't begun to bargain how you can control the public using Y/N. I regret to inform you that they may change who they look to for leadership if you push them too hard." Cozbi leaned towards the leader and spoke, so quietly I could barely hear; "I will no longer stand and abide by your orders while you manipulate my people and let them die." Cozbi straightened and turned to us. "Let's go to the south tent, everyone."

After we walked a few paces away I turned to Cozbi, nudging her in the side."That was kind of hot. Good for you."

"Ya think?" She grinned.

"Uh- Am I missing something here???" Cozbi and I turned towards Benny, who looked midly confused. "You're a human?!?" The demon exclaimed once we were out of earshot of the leader.

"No, I'm a talking goldfish, obviously." I flipped my hair over my shoulder, rolling my eyes. "Can't you tell?"

"You're either out of your mind, or incredibly stupid." Aurelia shook her head with a sigh.

"Anything else new?" I grinned.

Ignoring me, the she-demon continued. "You easily could've hidden the truth and bided your time until Sonju came. Now you're in danger of being ambushed."

I shrugged. "The author wanted to make everyone squirm. That, and this was the only way to settle things while saving a few of you. Thanks to a certain-someone's guilt tripping, I didn't really feel like letting you all die. And more blood on my hands is a no-thanks."

The two demons and the author chuckled nervously while Cozbi was preoccupied in glancing around her shoulder. "Here we are." She spoke, pulling open a tent flap for a large tent. I was met with 8 labouring demons of all sizes. A mass of limbs. Some frothed at the mouth, all of them moaned incomprehensible words in pain. One called out weakly for it's mother. I swallowed a lump in my throat. No manga or anime could do the horrific scene justice.

"Could someone grab me a bucket of water, a cloth, and cleansing herbs?" I asked while undoing my knife belt from around my waist. I pulled out my saxe knife and quickly checked the blade. Soon the water and cleansing herb was placed beside me along with a cloth. I quickly wiped down the blade-it was going to have to be good enough for now. I tore up the herb and dropped it in the water, then washed my hands in it, all while painfully aware of the demons watching me curiously through the tent flap.

I quickly kneeled at the head of the first demon and turned to Cozbi. "How much should be enough?"

Cozbi chewed her lip. "They're all really far gone. They might need a bit more than a drop. Sorry." I nodded solemnly in response and readied my knife.

I drew the cold blade across my hand until blood began to trickle. Trying not  to wince, I made my hand a fist and held it over the first demon's head. Once my blood dripped inside the demon's mouth it began to revert to it's humanoid form; extra limbs absorbing back into it's body and breathing becoming less laboured. As soon as it's changing slowed I glanced to Cozbi who gave me a nod. I then moved on to the next demon, squeezing blood into it's mouth. I repeated this until all 8 demons had reverted to their humanoid forms.

"Can someone grab me my belt?" I asked once I was finished, and Benny quickly brought it over. I fumbled with one hand for the first aid satchel and brought out a bandage. After struggling a moment with my single available, Aurelia stepped forward.

"Allow me." She spoke softly and I shrugged, letting her take hold of my hand and carefully clean and wrap a bandage over the wound.

I checked her handiwork once she was done and found it satisfactory. "Thanks." I smiled genuinely and Aurelia nodded.

"Of course."

Soon the demons were brought out of the tent by their families, still recovering from the energy they expanded to reverse their degeneration. I relaxed on the ground, propping myself up with my hands, left alone in the tent for a few minutes.

"Please let me in!" I heard a voice call and leaned curiously to the voice. Shortly after, a she-demon stumbled into the tent, and I recognized her as the mother from the audience earlier.

She carefully knelt before me, gently taking my hands into hers. "Thank you so much." She murmured tearfully, bowing her head into my hands. "My little boy will live thanks to you. Thank you so much."

I nodded. "Of course." The woman raised her head and stared into my eyes. She bowed once again before rising to the door.

"You should come visit some time. My family would be glad to welcome you." She then exited without another word.

I sighed and leaned back once she left. "What am I, some kind of messiah?" I groaned with a chuckle. "I could get behind that, though."

I sat back up as the tent flap opened again, Cozbi poking her head in before entering.

"You up for a tour?" She asked, gesturing back towards the exit.

I shrugged, pushing myself to my feet. "I don't see why not."

I followed Cozbi through the campsite of-sorts, as she showed me where water was gathered, where certain demons dwelled, the mess hall, etc. etc.

Towards the end of our walk, a young demon girl ran towards me.

"Well, hello there." I spoke when she stumbled to a stop right in front of me.

"Uh-uhm..." She murmured quietly, shuffling her feet shyly. "I heard you healed my papa, so..." She pulled out a slightly-crumpled flower and handed it to me. "This is for you..." The demon girl glanced at her feet. I knelt down to be at level with her face and patted her head. 

"Thanks." I smiled kindly and the little girl blushed and nodded before skittering back the way she came.

"Am I like... super awesome or something?" I turned to Cozbi with wide eyes, half-joking- only to be elbowed in the gut. "What the hell was that for??" I coughed, holding my stomach. "You people and your gut-elbows-"

"Here, we call it "bringing you back down to earth." Lord knows we don't need you having a god-complex." Cozbi turned back towards the south tent. "Let's head back now and get a place set up for you to sleep."

"Hey," I marched quickly after Cozbi's long strides. "I'll have you know that if I had a God-complex, it would be completely deserved. Just ask my army of simps."

"Your army of what?"

"...Never mind."

——-





//The Human world, approx. 1 year ago.//

Norman glanced around the hallway before knocking on the basement door. He waited a moment then entered, descending down the steps, his feet creaking slightly on the wooden stairs.

"Ray?" He called out, looking around the dimly-lit room. Ray did always like dimly-lit places. What was the word... emo, much?

"Over here." The ravenhead called out a moment later, and Norman followed the voice over to a side-room. Once he opened the door he saw it was piled with research and information and Ray stood in the middle of it all, pushing a thumbtack with a red string onto a corkboard- onto a picture of Mike Ratri standing in-front of his mansion.

It looked like some-sort of crazy theorist's room, which, he supposed, wouldn't be too out-of-pocket for Ray. While Ray climbed down from the desk and picked up a news catalogue, flipping through it quickly, Norman's eyes rested on an envelope, set on top of a pile of books, and kept in pristine condition. He picked it up, raising his eyebrows. The albino boy had suspicions over who it was from, and the handwriting of the name "Ray" written on the back confirmed them.

"You haven't opened it." He observed, holding up the envelope. Ray's eyes trailed to Norman's, then to the envelope, then back. 

The ravenette tore out a page from the news catalogue and set it down before pinning it back to the cork board. A slow smile came over his face as he turned back to his albino friend. "Yeah. After all, Y/N can just tell me what's in it herself when the time comes."

"And if your suspicions are wrong?" Norman raised an eyebrow with a smile, leaning back onto the desk piled with research.

Ray shrugged. "Then I put a lot of effort into a little visit with some old demon friends."

Norman shook his head humorously. "You're either out of your mind, or incredibly stupid."

This time, Ray grinned in response. 


"What else is new?"






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Finally some Ray action! And that line- I have to say, one of my favourites to have ever written, mweheheheh.

And 2 chapters at once, both adding up to like 4,000 words?! I'm the best, I know.

Have a good day, besties.

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