Your Childhood Best Friend

A cold jolt runs down your spine as the realization hits you hard. The way her eyes shine, the way she's looking at you like you just came home after being gone for years. That particular brand of warmth—reckless, unguarded, like she never learned not to give herself away completely—that could only belong to—

"...Nao?" you breathe.

The sound that leaves her is somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Her hands fly up to cover her mouth, and for a moment the Demon Goddess of legend looks exactly like the person who used to drag you up the hill behind your neighborhood to watch the summer fireworks. Her crimson eyes fill immediately, the tears not even pretending to hold back.

"You remember," she whispers. Her voice cracks on the word. "You actually remember me."

Something in your chest does something complicated. "Of course I remember you," you say, because it's the only true thing you can think to say.

They laugh, properly this time, and it echoes strangely in the dark forest. she wipes at her eyes with the back of her gloved hand and shakes her head like she can't quite believe it. "I've been here for what feels like forever," she says softly. "And I kept thinking about you. If you came here too, or if you'd forget about me."

"I would never," you say. You don't know what else to say after that, so you don't say anything.

She takes a slow breath and steps a little closer, tilting her head the way she used to when she was working up to something. The horns. The glowing eyes. The shadows that curl loyally around her ankles. All of it is new. None of it matters.

"Hey, do you remember the night before graduation, Rika?" she asks. Her voice is careful, like she's carrying something fragile. "You said you had something to tell me. Something important." She meets your eyes. "You never got to say it."

The words you kept to yourself for years press against the inside of your ribs. You open your mouth.

A crashing in the undergrowth cuts you off. From the treeline bursts a demon soldier in dark, jagged armor, breathless and clearly having sprinted some distance. He drops into a deep bow.

"Your Malevolence! We lost your trail and feared the worst...are you injured? Shall we destroy the human?"

Nao—Lilith—closes her eyes for exactly one second. When she opens them again, the Demon Goddess is back: composed, imperious, radiating an authority that makes the air feel heavier. She turns to the soldier with a look that could freeze a river mid-current.

"I came out here to find a human to entertain me," she says, her voice smooth and faintly bored. "The search continues. Return to the keep. All of you."

"But Your Malevolence!—"

"Now."

He goes. The forest settles.

She turns back to you. The imperious mask softens around the edges. She looks at you for a long, quiet moment, like she's trying to memorize you.

"I'll find you again," she says.

"You always do," you say, before you can stop yourself.

Something flickers across her face. It's so bright and raw and too fast to name. Then she smiles, slow and warm, and the shadows fold around her like a cloak pulled close, and she's gone.

You stand in the dark for a moment. The scorch marks from her blade cut across the dirt at your feet.

You never did finish that sentence. You're starting to think she knew what you wanted to say all along.

You compose yourself and head back to the Inn.