World's First Demon Lord

Sakura

May 16 1:15 pm, Tokyo, Japan

It was an uncommonly bright day today. The sky was a clear blue, the sun shining bright onto the green below. Despite this, it wasn't hot at all, and a pleasant breeze with a faint smell of lavender swept through the streets of Tokyo. Colors seemed to just pop a little more brightly than usual, making the people just look a little cheerier than they actually were.

Sakura walked up a small hill, and stopped to look up at the red arch. She placed a hand on the smooth wood, taking in the surrounding scenery of trees and high-rises. It was a common sight here in Tokyo, but here, if felt especially incongruous and liminal, even as other people walked past her.

The wood felt cool on her hand. She stared at it for a while, at her long, smooth fingers. She had always liked her hands; how long and dainty they were. She had dreams of playing the piano when she was younger, but...

She shook her head. This wasn't the time to remember past dreams. That wasn't what she was here for.

She took a deep breath. She was dressed for a casual stroll, in a yellow sundress and straw, summer hat. She gripped tightly onto her borrowed handbag; Ayai had let her use it and the sundress since Sakura barely had anything anymore.

Sakura had actually been surprised that Ayai had such girly clothing.

"It's not mine," she said dryly, crossing her arms. "It belonged to my ex."

Sakura decided not to ask any more questions, and simply thanked her for her kindness. But she still felt weird about wearing Ayai's ex's clothes. Why had she even kept them?

Whatever. The clothes were nice, and she needed something to wear. Sakura shook all thoughts of Ayai out of her mind, and walked through arch.

It was a habit from her childhood. That Person had always placed her hand on the the arch before walking through it.

"It's so I can remember the way I've come through," she had told Sakura, smiling gently. "So I don't get lost."

"It's not that far," Sakura had answered. "You can't get lost if you look with your eyes."

That Person had simply laughed. Sakura had always wanted a laugh like hers; loud and open, completely honest and true to who That Person was.

Memories of That Person kept replaying in her mind as she slowly ascended the steps. After a while, she started to feel that burn in her legs, telling her that she was doing quite a workout. Sakura looked up, only to find more steps ahead of her.

She knew that these steps were famous for being steep, but not that difficult. From the looks of things, however, Sakura was out of shape. She resolved to do more exercise in her free time as she slowly walked up the stairs.

Sakura sighed. She supposed, even after all this time, That Person would still have some sort of effect on her. It was only natural; being around someone for that long, especially during her formative years, was bound to have an impact of who Sakura eventually became.

Maybe that's why That Person had been so disappointed in Sakura when she came out to her. Because she thought that she had a negative influence on Sakura.

But that didn't make what That Person did afterwards right either.

Sakura shook her head, focusing on the steps and the burning sensation in her legs instead. She needed to focus on something, anything else. This was making her angry.

So obviously, she had to focus on the other big thing that was worrying her:

What was her next move?

Jason knew she was alive now, and that she had some sort of illusion power now. He would be stupid not to figure that one out. He may be a lot of things, but stupid?

Cartoonishly bigoted, sure. If only he were stupid. That would make Sakura's life much easier.

In any case, the only connection between her and Ayai were a few secret messages Bunta had sent. Bunta being Bunta, that meant those messages were already untraceable, so Sakura wasn't worried about Jason figuring out who their new team member was.

The problem was what to do with this new team member.

Sakura had told Michi and Ayai everything about what happened when rescuing Bunta. It had taken her hours to do so; she kept stopping every now and then, her words simply failing her. By the time she had the whole story out, she was wrapped up in a ton of blankets, and was on her fifth cup of tea.

Even then, her hands had been shaking as the final words left her mouth.

Michi and Ayai had both been silent at first.

"What are we supposed to do now?"

Surprisingly, it had been Ayai who spoke first.

"You don-" Sakura began.

"No. You just told me that there people are being enslaved under my nose here in Tokyo," interrupted Ayai. "And apparently, you've reached out to me because I can do something about it. No?"

Sakura blinked in surprise, but she nodded.

"Then tell me what I can do to stop them," said Ayai, folding her arms and looking down at Sakura.

Her eyes were afire, her jaw set. Sakura had only been able to look up in awe.

For a moment, it seemed like the weight on her heart had gotten lighter. Just a little bit.

Sakura wiped her forehead as she took a small break. Whoever said these steps weren't that difficult to go up were a liar. She could not believe it would be more difficult to get down.

Luckily, she had brought a bottle of water with her. A couple of people watched as she gulped down the water greedily, but they didn't bother her too much. Once she had drank her fill and put it back in the handbag, she set off once more.

In the end, she had given Ayai access to all the other documents, asking her to decipher what exactly Neurix had been doing.

"What will you do?" Ayai had asked.

Sakura still didn't have an answer for that.

The thing was, Sakura probably had enough information for a story. Once all the research was cleared up, Sakura could probably write a story that completely exposed Neurix for its illegal and terrible practices. Of course, Sakura would like to have a couple more primary sources. Preferably some people from Neurix themselves who had flipped to expose more secrets.

But aside from that, there was the problem of believably.

That is to say: who was going to believe a story as batshit crazy as this one?

Souls from another world? Monsters?

Complete and utter destruction of the world?

What was this, some kind of third-grade manga? No, a light novel? No, some unedited, unpublished webnovel?

If Sakura just posted this online, no one would believe it. Even if it turned out Ayai was some Touhou graduate expert in her field, it wouldn't matter to the masses.

Sakura needed believably. She the public to take her seriously.

She needed a brand that people trusted.

As Sakura reached the top of Atago Hill, and headed towards Atago Shrine, she realized that maybe that was why she had started to think of That Person again.

The top of the hill was much more at peace with itself that the bottom of the hill. It felt much older up here, despite the fact that there were still marks of the modern world. Trees shielded the pond from the rays of the sun, while an old, rustic restaurant building beckoned for people to come inside to eat.

Sakura walked past them all, through another gate, and up to the shrine itself. As she got closer, she rummaged around her handbag to take out some change, and placed it in the big red box at the entrance. She rang the bell, and clapped her hands twice as she was taught, and had a little moment of silence.

She closed her eyes, and thought about everything that she had gone through these past couple of months. She thought about the things she had put her friends through, and how despite everything, they still stuck with her.

And then, she allowed herself to remember.

She remembered the way they were all packed together, like cargo.

She could still smell rotting flesh.

She could still hear their pitiful cries.

She could still see her bright blue eyes, yearning from behind that cage.

That was the scariest part. There hadn't been a hint of desperation in those eyes; it was simple yearning. Like being released from her cage was just an impossible dream, a fantasy she indulged in to make herself feel better with no real way to make it come true.

"Please help me," Sakura prayed. Two lines of tears flowed from her closed eyelids.

Once she was done, she looked up at the statue of the deity. This shrine was known for giving a successful career. She chose to pray here for two reasons.

One: she had read that sometimes there was a dog up here. She hadn't seen it, but hopefully, she would be able to at least get a glance on her way back.

But more importantly, two: Sakura had decided that this was going to be her fight. She was going to dedicate her life to bring down Neurix and Congo. She would use everything she owned, everything she knew, to take down this company.

This was the reason she had stayed in journalism. This was the reason why she wanted to be a journalist.

This was the person she wanted to be.

She walked out of the shrine, her resolve completely remade. She knew what she had to do.

Once she had reached the bottom of the stairs, she took out her phone, and called That Person. She answered on the third ring.

"Mom," said Sakura. "We need to talk."