— POV Akeno —
The door clicked shut behind Mephisto, and his presence vanished like smoke in the wind. But the thoughts he left behind lingered. I could feel unease pulsing in my chest, like the echo of a distant bell that still vibrates long after the sound has faded.
I stood by the fireplace, my eyes fixed on the flickering flames — a pale reflection of those that had just swirled around him. I didn't need to look to know Rias was standing beside me."You saw it too, didn't you?" I asked quietly.
"The transformation?" Rias replied just as softly.
I nodded. But it wasn't just a transformation, not in the usual sense.
"His body… for a moment, it split. Light and darkness. Perfectly separate, yet connected. As if he were two things at once… and neither one dominant." I paused. "And more importantly — it wasn't the first time."
Rias raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I saw it a few weeks ago. Just a glimpse. I didn't understand it then, but that energy, that contradiction… light and shadow in one body. It's unforgettable."
Rias lowered her gaze, thoughtful. "That's not ordinary magic. Not even a known bloodline trait. It's more like… something inside him that shouldn't belong together."
My thoughts drifted back to Mephisto and what he'd told me about himself. "After the fight with Freed… I confronted him. I heard him call himself a mistake. He said he shouldn't be. That he was never meant to exist."
Rias stared at me, as if trying to process what I'd just said. "He said he's a mistake?" she repeated."Yes," I replied, my heart racing as the memory of that conversation resurfaced. "He said he's a mistake. And yet, when I saw him today… I felt that same energy as before. Light and darkness. Like two halves of a single being."
"That would mean…?" Rias trailed off, her voice lowering to a whisper."I don't know, but I feel like something is connected," I said, still feeling the strange confusion burning in my chest. "Maybe it has to do with what Mephisto really is, and what hides behind his words."
"Something that… isn't meant to be together?" Rias asked, her gaze still wandering restlessly."Yes," I said, "but it's not just magic. It's not even ordinary darkness. What's inside him… it's something that shouldn't exist."
For a while, we were silent. Our eyes fixed on the darkness beyond the window."What do we do about it?" I asked softly.
Rias replied, "We find out. Slowly. Piece by piece. Not today, not tomorrow… but in time, we'll understand how it all fits. And maybe, in the end, we'll learn what Mephisto truly is — and what it means to be… a mistake."
— POV Rias —
When Akeno spoke about Mephisto, there was a quiet urgency in her eyes that wouldn't let me rest. I could tell she felt something more than just curiosity. Something between them… something that wasn't just about magic, fate, or existence. Something stronger.
Before we went to our rooms, Akeno turned to me one last time. "But… I think you should know that what I feel isn't just curiosity. It's something… personal."
There was something in her voice I hadn't expected. Something that had long moved beyond just unraveling Mephisto's mystery. Something deeper. Something tied to her own feelings.
"I know," I replied softly before we went our separate ways. But in my heart, I realized Akeno was feeling all of this differently than I had anticipated.
— Time Skip —
As I lay in bed, thinking about everything that had happened today, I couldn't stop wondering about what was happening between us. And between us and Mephisto.
Mephisto… I still had that lingering question in my mind — was this all just coincidence, or was there something more, something I hadn't discovered yet?
Lying on my pillow, one question kept burning in my mind: "Should I tell my brother?"
Maybe I should. Maybe he had more experience with people like Mephisto. But what if that only made things more complicated between us?
Maybe this was my problem to solve.
The unspoken question hung heavy in the air, unsettling me. But now that everything had quieted down, I felt like I needed more time — time to figure out what it is I'm actually feeling.