Chapter 4: 4: A Small Discovery

                Lulu stirred in her sleep, eyes creeping open for only a moment before catching a glare from above and wincing shut again. Judging from the light still washing over the room from the fixture in the ceiling Lulu concluded that Lyssa had yet to go to sleep herself, or she’d forgotten to shut the lights off before turning in for the night. The latter option happening didn’t fit with Lyssa’s character in the least… Lulu wanted to sleep, on the other hand she’d grown curious as to why Lyssa would still be awake. It didn’t fit Lyssa’s routine at all. Since Lulu could remember, her roommate stuck to the routine of taking a shower, getting herself ready for bed, and then promptly going to sleep until the next morning. Laying on her back for a moment before finally deciding against her urge to return to sleep, Lulu rose to sitting in her futon and turned to see what Lyssa was up to.

                Instead of sleeping like Lulu assumed she’d be, Lyssa sat awake on her futon, back turned. From the missing laptop on the desk and the shifting glow outlining the red-head’s silhouette it was obvious that the other girl had chosen to shirk sleep in favor of using the computer. Lulu frowned, having noticed the laptop not being used was Lyssa’s. Why was Lyssa using Lulu’s laptop? Sneaking up behind Lyssa, Lulu peeked over the girl’s shoulder. What she saw on the screen of the computer nearly caused the blue-haired girl to outburst an objection, but she stifled herself. She didn’t want to alarm Lyssa to her presence. With what she’d seen on the screen, Lulu grew curious.

How do I get to the human world?

                A single phrase entered into foogle search. A simple yet equally dangerous phrase to be searching on the NWW. At first Lyssa clicked into a site written in the native demonic language of Neth’Lareese, where she looked at pictures of an ancient ritual tome and some of the circles said tome contained. Lyssa’s outburst about using this tome and one of its rituals startled Lulu, causing her to back off slightly. Lulu had never seen this tome in Lyssa’s collection, nor could she recollect having observed Lyssa ever actually reading books before… Creeping back up to peek over Lyssa’s shoulder Lulu’s eyes widened in alarm at a site Lyssa clicked into.

                “Sleep!” Lulu magically ordered, her eyes glowing a brilliant blue in response to the calling. Dark energy transferred itself directly into Lyssa’s consciousness, sapping the girl of her ability to remain awake. Lyssa’s unconscious body fell backwards and Lulu promptly caught her roommate by the shoulders. “Delete! Delete! Delete!” Having set Lyssa down on her side, Lulu hastened to remove the offending browser history from the computer. A suspicious eye kept glancing sidelong toward the sleeping Lyssa. Things were adding up quickly now and while Lulu did want answers, she equally didn’t want to know what Lyssa was up to.

                Double checking to see that the history on the laptop no longer contained records of Lyssa’s searches, Lulu took one more look at the slumbering girl and paused. Brows furrowing inquisitively, Lulu turned the rest of her body to face Lyssa’s. Another moment spent staring and Lulu repositioned to straddle the sleeping girl’s body above the waist, arms raised up to Lyssa’s hair, moving it off of her neck. Brows furrowing even more than before, Lulu lifted the front of Lyssa’s shirt and looked underneath. “Nothing?” She uttered, confused. “But Lyssa never removes it… Where did it go?” Retreating from her position over Lyssa, Lulu began patting down the futon, searching. “Not here…”

                Giving up on the futon, Lulu scrambled over to the bathroom. Flipping on the lights, she began by looking in the closet but could not find what she was looking for in there. She checked the sink but nothing appeared to be there either. Lifting the toilet seat to look, Lulu caught the glint of something from the corner of her eye. The shower? Carefully stepping over the broken shower curtain, Lulu knelt down to examine the drain. There, caught between two of the drain holes, sat an exceptionally thin silver chain. Pinching the chain between her fingers, Lulu pulled the damaged necklace up and out of the drain. Threaded into a section of the necklace’s chain sat a small metal socket, now devoid of the gemstone it’d originally held. “Lyssa, what did you do…” Lulu silently accused, clutching the necklace.

                Returning to the room, Lulu removed her Laptop from the futon and placed it back onto the desk, setting the broken necklace down next to Lyssa’s laptop. She was about to retreat back to her own futon when a pinging noise rang out from the blue laptop. Pouting at the computer, Lulu answered the ping by pushing the deny call button that’d popped on the screen. No sooner than Lulu turned again, did the computer once again start ringing out. “Muuh!” Lulu flopped down into the desk chair. Tired and annoyed, she answered the call.

                Upon answering the call, a virtual window popped up, revealing a man’s face on the other side. Wavy green hair came down to his angled chin, a pointed nose turned up as if sniffing something bad for the first time. The man kept a clean shaven face. Emerald green eyes set within the glaring black sclera, stared menacingly at Lulu. “Slo-“

                “Lulu!” Lulu interrupted, fuming.

                “Excuse me?” Taken aback, the man glared.

                “Lulu’s name is Lulu!” Huffing in indignation, Lulu tightly gripped the chair with both hands.

                “Right… whatever, Lulu.” Annoyed, the man waved his left hand dismissively while rubbing at his temple with the other. “Look, I’m certain you know by now what it means when I call you correct?”

                “Mhm” Lulu nodded.

                “Good, then I’ll get straight to the point and ask. Why did you use your Sin Power?”

                Lulu hesitated a moment, averting her eyes from the man’s own inquisitive ones. “Because… Lyssa was having trouble sleeping.” She lied.

                Lulu’s response prompted more temple rubbing from the man and he let out an exasperated sigh. “This is serious Lulu, you can’t just go around using your Sin Powers whenever you please. Every time you use them you run the risk of exposing all of us.” Releasing a long drawn out sigh, the man clasped his hands in front of his face. “Look, this may sound ironic coming from myself, but I honestly do not envy your position. I get it though, she’s probably overjoyed knowing she actually gets to fight someone tomorrow and because of that she couldn’t sleep…”

                “Mmm…” Lulu nodded, letting the man believe his own tale to be truth. She didn’t have to lie any further if he accepted the excuse himself. Less work expended on Lulu’s part was always a good thing in her book. “Is Lulu good then?” she asked.

                “For now, yes. Just don’t let it happen again.”

                “Kay…” Nonchalantly waving, Lulu waited just long enough for the man to end the call before promptly putting down the laptop screen. This was bad. She’d forgotten about Lyssa’s challenge until just then. That meant more work for Lulu to do. Part of Lulu’s deal with the others was to accompany Lyssa in any and all events involving violence, namely challengers for Lyssa’s position, the purpose of which was for Lulu to assess the situation and intervene if necessary. She’d never had to intervene in any of the encounters before but the reprimand to follow if she didn’t go with her was not worth the draining amount of effort it’d cost her. Yawning, Lulu trudged over to the nearest futon and flopped into it.

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                I’d fallen asleep? I couldn’t recall how or when it’d happened but I remembered it seemed to have happened suddenly, almost like a light going out in my head. I sensed my consciousness returning to me, the sounds of someone else sleeping, and something soft and warm wrapped around me. Not quite blankets. Blankets weren’t quite as heavy as this. I peeled my sleepy eyes open and the first thing I noticed was the head of light blue hair and bulbous horns. “Wha-?” I looked down to see Lulu snuggling against me. Using me for her own personal body pillow, Lulu’s arms and legs were tightly wrapped around my legs and torso. Face flushing red, I turned my head to look at the other futon. Why wasn’t she using hers?

                I’d fully intended to vacate this place right after finding the answers I sought. But that hadn’t happened and looking around I noticed the laptop replaced upon the desk. “What’s going on here?” I asked myself in confusion. With Lulu attached to me, I needed to find a way to free myself. I started to wriggle my way out of the sleeping girl’s grip but just as I believed myself to be free her grip tightened around me. “Wh-!?” I looked down and my eyes met Lulu’s. “You’re awake?”

                “Mmm… Lulu was sleeping but Not-Lyssa was moving too much and woke Lulu up.” A yawn escaped the sleepy blue-haired girl. Once finished, she pressed her chin against my chest and looked up at me.

                “Well I’d like to get up now if that’s okay with you…”

                “Uh-uh… Not-Lyssa cannot leave.”

                “I have to get up! I need to use the bathroom!” I lied, but figured the excuse might buy me some time to get away. It then hit me. “Not-Lyssa?”

                “Mhm. Not-Lyssa is Not-Lyssa.”

                “What are you talking about? Who is Not-Lyssa?” A bead of sweat started to form at my temple when I noticed the seriousness in the girl’s features.

                “You are Not-Lyssa.” Lulu frowned refusing to loosen her grip on me despite my efforts to free myself.

                “I am Lyssa! Why are you being like this?”

                “No! Lyssa is not here! Lulu won’t let you go until you tell Lulu who you are!” Frowning, pouting, it became very hard to tell what emotion Lulu happened to be engaged with right now. We’d barely interacted though so I couldn’t understand how she’d been able to notice I wasn’t the person she knew.

                “F-fine! Alright! I’ll tell you who I am, just let me go okay?” I gave up. This girl must’ve possessed incredible intuition if she could deduce that I wasn’t this Lyssa person with as little time as we’d actually been together. Surprisingly Lulu obliged and released me. She sat upright next to me on the futon, waiting patiently for me to explain myself. I only hoped this wasn’t some ploy to determine if Lyssa had gone crazy… Closing my eyes, cold sweat breaking out all over my body, I anticipated the worst case scenario upon revealing my identity. “My name is Ono Tamaki, I’m… Human! Sorry!” I spouted, bowing apologetically to Lulu. I expected pain, suffering, or at least some form of reprimand for my hostile takeover instead I received none of these. I dared to look up and found Lulu sitting quiet. Hand rubbing her chin, brows scrunched together, she appeared to be deep in thought. “Are you… okay?” I cautiously asked.

                Lulu’s features relaxed into a stoic state. “If Tamaki is Lyssa… Then Tamaki has to be Lyssa.”

                “But I told you already, I’m not Lyssa, I’m-“ I tried to reason with Lulu but she promptly stuck out a hand and covered my mouth in order to hush me.

                “Lulu means only that Tamaki must be Lyssa now, because Lyssa is no longer here.”

               

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