gocirclegogo | I feel like Saint Nicholas is pulling my leg

So long as you're fine, then I guess it doesn't matter, Mr. Kumagawa!

[Thank you, Elder Gods, for telling him which name is which.]

「DON'T 'MISTER' ME! RESPECT IS THE MOST INSULTING THING YOU CAN DO TO ME, BESIDES MAKING VICTORY SIGNS WHILE BEING A BITCH.」

[That is a metaphor only he will understand and he gives no shits about it.]

「AH, BUT STAY AS LONG AS YOU NEED. I'M SURE ELIZABETH-SAN WON'T MIND.」

My bad, it's a habit I can't seem to break. [Because it makes it easier to murder people unsuspectingly.]

Elizabeth? I didn't realize you lived with someone else!

[Enter stage left: Elizabeth coming down the stairs, clothes mildly rumpled and some bandages on her cheek.

This is what happens!

She knows someone has been a bad influence on Kumagawa's already negative - get the pun - personality. Now, while Kumagawa feels 'off' to say the least, she got attached to him anyway. So, she is protective of him. She wants to find the bad influence and fight it away.

So. She reaches a quick conclusion based on the premises that Kumagawa has barely any friends, she knows them, and Liam feels like Kumagawa but more shadowy which means-

She stops at the bottom of the stairs, smiles, and pulls out her book. A card flicks out and the last thing heard is 'Megidolaon!']

[Good job Elizabeth. A+. You destroyed Liam. And your housemate. And also the house.

Oh wait, no you didn't.

After that instant of unending pain and suffering, everything's back to how it was a second ago. Except Liam's being bodily defended by a scrawny piece of shit and Elizabeth's getting screwed (ba-dum tsh) into the wall.]

「ELIZABETH-SAN! WHO SAID YOU COULD KILL MY BUSINESS PARTNER? MURDERING PEOPLE IS RUDE!」

[You are the last person who should be saying that.]

...A...aaah. [It is a horrible way to die and for a moment Liam is reacting normally-in mind-breaking mental breakdown.

Until shadows start leaking out of his ears.

Didn't happen doesn't matter forget it forget it just forget and keep moving.

And then he straights back up, still wrapped in masses of shadows as if he's being hugged by Azatoth or some shit and...laughs a little nervously. Sheepish. Harmless.]

Oh dear, I seem to have offended already.

[Elizabeth yanks a screw out of her arm, stumbling for a moment. Even if she had expected it, she also hadn't bothered to block it. Pain but whaaatever. The more important thing here is wow that kid has something creepy in his head.]

Are you a breed of Shadow? Do you house one in your soul...?

[She shakes her head.] He isn't a normal creature.

[And a beat.]

Unlike the abnormality of Kumagawa.

[That beat between her speech is a terrible, terrible moment. A moment that means his smile has morphed from joyous to horrifying. Come, all ye observers. This is a smile that no one has observed over the course of his stay in London. Because the last time it was used, it wasn't a single Irish boy and an assistant. It was two partners and an upperclassmen and what happened the first time?

Well, that's all the hints the bracket-readers get. BUT! Elizabeth can be overjoyed because the fact reality is visibly warping - no, not the is-this-the-real-life Queen song, I mean it's legit happening - means he maybe got serious. Maybe.]

「EEH? DOES THAT MEAN I'M ONLY NORMAL BECAUSE I'M YOUR FRIEND? I WOULD THINK HE'S BETTER OFF! THE CONTRACTS HE MADE FOLLOW THE RULES OF THIS WORLD! A PRICE PAID IN BLOOD AND SPIRIT AND STAINS ON HIS SKIN. I NEVER MADE SUCH A SACRIFICE! THEY PROBABLY JUST FLOCK TO ME BECAUSE OF MY 'ABNORMALITY'.」

「BUT WHAT DIFFERENCE IS THERE BETWEEN ME AND HIM? HE HAS SCARS AND I ERASED THEM? YOU SENSE HIM ENTIRELY WHILE I HIDE BEHIND THESE LIES? HE'S A DEAR ALLY OF MINE, ELIZABETH-SAN! I MAY HAVE LET MY OLD CLASSMATES DOWN. I ADMIT THAT.」

「I MAY BE THE MOST HATED AND AVOIDED AND UNPOPULAR AND MISERABLE AND TAINTED AND DISGUSTING AND A LIAR AND A TRAITOR AND A LET-DOWN AND A FAILURE AND A LOSER. BUT THAT MEANS IT SHOULD BE MY RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT EVERYONE ELSE THAT'S HATED AND AVOIDED AND UNPOPULAR AND MISERABLE AND TAINTED AND DISGUSTING AND A LIAR AND A TRAITOR AND A LET-DOWN AND A FAILURE AND A LOSER JUST LIKE ME.」

[All the while that feeling has been getting worse and, hilarious, Liam being bffs with Old Ones means he'll get the first warning of them screaming STOP HIM.

Where did those screws come from again? Toss. Spin. Catch.]

「AH, I THOUGHT YOU OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD UNDERSTAND, ELIZABETH-SAN. I THINK THAT WAS MY MISTAKE. BUT THAT'S OKAY, RIGHT? I MAKE MISTAKES ALL THE TIME. I AM A MISTAKE. MY EXISTENCE ALONE ALWAYS BRINGS ABOUT THE WORST OUTCOMES.」

It's alright.[There is a hand on Kumagawa's shoulder and that is really not Liam anymore. His irises have gone to black, and in them lay stars; if they're windows to the soul than Liam's are windows to the Outer Ring. The tattoos along his body have spread down his arms and up his face, clear markings of a contract, spelling out price for power engaved in his own flesh.

He's sharing space because he needs power to stop the fight coming.]

I am no shadow of humanity's darkness, Miss. I am no door, either...this is the best I can conduct Their forms, through the dark places my body shields from light. It is a consequence I accepted gladly for the chance to create a miracle, and I'd appreciate it if you not continue to interfere...you are a guest in this world, after all, and if I am to fail than it'll be by the hands of someone here, not yours. [There's a truth in this Liam' at peace with; he is doomed to fail, by his own very nature. But the lesson he makes in doing so must be unforgettable.]

...Really, though, a miracle a hated person can create isn't something you should fear. Hated people don't create monsters. We lack the very basic requirements to make something truly terrifying.

I'm just a conduit, not a doorway.

[Probably a good thing since Elizabeth was drawing a card for Kumagawa. She tilts her head at him and considers it.]

Yes, of course. That is always the true power of such things. You need only light the tinder readily available in the hearts of humanity. However, my master and my friends would wish for me to stand against it.

[And she sighs as she flips the card she was choosing.] Kumagawa's wish is simple and twofold. One could cost the other. I'm not aware of your wish, however... Know that I must do my best to balance out that negativity to fulfill my own wish. Kumagawa could ruin my wish but I hope he does not. He is my friend.

[f-word f-word f-word, and were this any other time, that would be enough to earn a charisma break. She used it in public around his allies oh god no that's going to make him lose his street cred you don't just go around announcing to the world you're dating oh goddddd--

But we are not in the comedy sub-genre right now, sorry readers.

Instead that hand makes him freeze. Supernaturally still. And the expression cracks a second later from still pretending to be nice to being utterly furious. It's Them and it's her and it's Her, and all but one of them know his true face anyway, so whatever.

The fun thing only cheaters get to know is that he normally would've assaulted her anyway. But he got stopped by Them, and that means trying to reign back that abnormality when the usual fix for it is getting brutally maimed. It's hard. It's hard and nobody understands.

God, he wants to kill her-]

You don't know what my wish is, Elizabeth. That card would be different if you did.

[That voice may as well be in eldritch tongues for the feeling it leaves. But hey, at least the lies got stripped.

And stop touching him Liam, he's jerking away now. Hisssssss ruining his duty.]

You're cute when you're honest like that, Kumagawa-kun.

[One last echo, in a voice that definitely doesn't belong to any short dudes, before Liam simply crumples to the floor. He isn't far enough along to bear that kind of strain; he hasn't taken those last steps yet.

The shadows along his body pool beneath him, and then vanish. It'll be a while longer before he's conscious again, kids, no worries.]

[Elizabeth doesn't even get to protest. Instead she tilts her head like a bird and looks down at Liam.]

...Her? Hello...?

[Ajimu? Is she a shadow? :|a Must ponder this.]

[That wasn't Them. He knows that voice and he knows the voice They use to mimic her and it's totally different and he thought he only contracted with Them she's not an Old One she's not she's not but he thought it was just all in his head.

That she was an illusion.

That maybe she really was dead and he was just hallucinating and lost to himself hunting for a way to kill something that was already dead.

Which means she still 'exists'. Anshin'in-san exists. She's alive.

Elizabeth, you officially have one second to keep him from killing the unconscious kid.]

[One second is all she needs to Garudyne his ass into the wall. So maybe she killed Liam earlier and feels a tad bit bad about it but he was bleeding shadows everywhere and it's creepy.

But it's best to try to snap Kumagawa out of his rage.]

[Since you've come this far, poor observers, it would be rude to drop you right back into a state of being unable to fathom the villain's thought processes. So let's help you out.

OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWITSNOTMYFAULTOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWIMNOTSORRYOWWASTHATREALLYNECESSARYOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW

Okay, now let us move on. Internal monologues aside, he's immediate to pout up at her like the kill joy she is.]

「WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY? I DEMAND THAT AT LEAST COUNT AS ROUND TWO!」

I feel like Saint Nicholas is pulling my leg

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THIRD ATTEMPT TO POST THIS GO

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