Magic Hunt at MFing Aokigahara

[disorder_heaven]

The fact that Urushihara had a keen eye for patterns and trends was one of his less appreciated skills. As one of the war generals in Demon King Satan's army, it made his division highly feared and nearly unstoppable.

Here, it had gotten him something more along the lines of a snarky comment from Ashiya. "About time," or something like that. Hard to tell. Urushihara hadn't really been listening.

Either way, upon Urushihara's elaboration regarding the Suicide Forest, Ashiya had grown more and more uncertain. Eventually comments about warning signs and body sweeps deteriorated into snide remarks about cell phones failing to work and the pitch blackness that came with noon.

A bowl of miso soup full of something-whatever beta took care of the bitching, but Ashiya managed to come out of the bathroom just long enough to lob a thick volume of Maou's favourite manga at the back of Urushihara's head. So, when Maou returned home from his long, hard day at MgRonald's, it would be to the sight of Urushihara on the ground and Ashiya in the bathroom groaning dramatically.

Just another day at the Devil's Castle.

Comments

[disorder_heaven]

"Or MgRonald's?" Urushihara aimed a lazy glance his way, his eyes the only part of him really visible in the darkness. "You promise?"

It wasn't like Urushihara didn't take more than his fair share when he got the chance, but it was questionable whether he still would if given an equal one to begin with. His foot caught on a branch, but he instinctively kept himself from stumbling.

[mickeyd_emon]

Maou glanced back at Urushihara's near miss, the glow of his own eyes squinting with a wry smile. Oops, he got caught.

"Or MgRonald's," he said honestly. "Cross my hearts."

[disorder_heaven]

"So no konbini food, no fast food, and no leftovers. Something real and good. Right?"

Urushihara's paranoia might have been well-placed, but either way, he interrupted anything Maou might have said.

"Um. Dude? P-Pretty sure I almost tripped over that boot over there earlier..."

[mickeyd_emon]

"Yeah, on our way in," Maou said as breezily as a brick wall could. Though truly, he didn't remember Urushihara tripping when they were headed toward the source. He hadn't gotten them turned around, had he?

No, of course not. "Relax, I know where I'm going."

[disorder_heaven]

"F'you say so." His voice was steady, but a bit strained. He moved closer to Maou, flexing his wings again as a sign of unease. "Personally, I'll be glad when we actually get to the exit."

There was a glint of many colours as his eyes flicked up to what he'd hoped had been a brief flash of sunlight. If there had been, it was gone just as quickly. This forest was like a black hole.

[mickeyd_emon]

"We'll be out in no time," Maou said, caking on a thick layer of enthusiasm. He sounded too at ease. "It'll be getting lighter before ya know it."

As they trekked onward through the dense forest, it did not, in fact, get lighter before anyone knew anything. In fact, the darkness was static. No more light, no less. It was as if, rather than going down the spectrum toward white, they were pacing back and forth within its very opposite.

Maou ducked to avoid a familiar, rotting rope.

He ignored it. A bead of sweat inched down Maou's temple.

[disorder_heaven]

Urushihara was a lot of negative things, but one positive about him was that, as a general, he was steadfastly loyal to his king. Even through his doubts, he remained obedient, even silent.

The silence was broken an indeterminate length of time after Maou's reassurance, not by his voice, but by a sudden bright light from the palm of his hand.

"...Um, Maou... We've been heading back longer than we've been heading in."

[mickeyd_emon]

"So we have. Must be another magical effect o' this place," Maou said, his own voice cheerily strained. He surveyed the darkness around them, then decidedly headed right.

There was no way they could be lost in this freaky forest. Absolutely no way. He couldn't accept it. Maou knew where he was going. He just had to walk faster!

[disorder_heaven]

"Maou--" Urushihara's burning question was cut off, first by his own hitching breath, then by a sigh. He tightened his wings close to himself, lowering his head and his lashes in the same movement.

"...No wonder humans kill themselves in here. I might kill myself if we don't get out soon."

[mickeyd_emon]

"Please, don't." Maou looked back to his friend, expression anxious. "Neither of us are gonna die in here."

Said Satan, as he led Lucifer deeper into a suicide forest.

[disorder_heaven]

Urushihara shifted and grumbled to himself, but a rustle a little behind them and to their right made him jump, backing up almost directly into a tree.

"F-fuck, man, by the time we get out of here the sun will have gone down and we won't be able to see anyway... W-what the hell was that?!"

Had something with glinting red eyes darted behind Maou, or was it only the reflection of his own demonic gaze?

[mickeyd_emon]

Maou spun around, but he couldn't track the thing before it disappeared beyond his vision. He took a deliberate step back, stumbling closer to Urushihara.

"I don't know. I-it was a trick of the . . . dark, right? It had to be . . ."

[disorder_heaven]

"Dude, back off, I can't see..."

Normally, hiding behind the Demon King's nearly two-meter tall form made him feel safe. However, with his current ability to see already so limited, he felt irritated. He braced a hand against Maou's back.

"C-come on, man. Stop foolin' around and get us out of here."

[mickeyd_emon]

"Okay, fine!" Maou thundered, throwing his gigantic arms into the air. He turned on Urushihara. Magic blasted from him, staining the darkness red. Somehow, the air managed to feel more oppressive.

"I admit it. I'm lost!"

The red bled out of the air, returning the atmosphere to normal.

[disorder_heaven]

To Urushihara's credit, he did not piss himself and faint. He cowered, but only slightly, crouching into a submissive but defensive stance. His wings spread slightly, making his small form appear much bigger than he really was. Despite the slight tremble in his voice, his tone was sarcastic.

"You could've told me. I can get us out. I just need your help."

He didn't feel right showing up his king, but if Maou had only told him the truth, they could have been out of this accursed forest an hour ago.

[mickeyd_emon]

Maou's great shoulders settled back as he reeled in his anger, though it still broiled beneath the surface, fed by the roots of Aokigahara. If he hadn't been so stubborn, Maou could have gotten them out earlier, as well. He swiped that thought to the side to deal with later. He wanted to hear Urushihara's advisement.

"What did you have in mind?"

[disorder_heaven]

"I was going to ask you to give me a boost," Urushihara said, his eyes clearly wary, even in the low light. "But I think I can manage."

He turned to the tree he stood against and scaled it with an athletic aptitude that didn't seem to fit one who so rarely left their one-room apartment. He spread his wings as far as the impossibly dense trees would allow, making a slight sound of discomfort. Once he was clear of lower, overhanging branches, he flapped. Hard. Just once.

The effect swept away all the leaf litter, all trash and debris, everything but the rooted trees and Maou himself. Urushihara cleared the treeline and made another pained sound, this one more of frustration than anything. "...We're going the wrong way. Get up here."

[mickeyd_emon]

Maou frowned to himself, bothered that Urushihara didn't specifically ask for a boost in the first place. Lucifer could rely on him! Right?

He huffed a frustrated breath and pulled himself up the tree with ease. With one leap, Maou burst through the tree tops, slowing on his ascent to hover near Urushihara. He surveyed the view, a hand propped on his hip.

"Oh, damn. You're right. We're not even in the right galaxy." They were indeed heading deeper into the forest, and not even in the complete opposite direction. "Let's fly a bit o' the way and drop down closer to the edge."

[disorder_heaven]

"We should've flown up here the moment we decided to turn back," Urushihara grumbled in an undertone, admonishing himself silently for the comment even as he said it. He flapped, out of habit, before flying lazily over the trees. Even from up here, he could feel the forest, as though the trees themselves had ill intent.

[mickeyd_emon]

Maou shot a glare at Urushihara, though it lacked serious heat. He was right, and Maou knew it. It was his fault they got lost, and he accepted that responsibility.

"Yeah," he grumbled. "That was my bad. But we're up here now."

Of course, accepting that didn't mean he had to be happy about this disaster of an excursion. Maou levitated after his general, catching up shortly. He gave Urushihara more than enough space, and not just for his wingspan. Whether it was for Urushihara's sake or for his own irritation, he wasn't quite sure.

[disorder_heaven]

Urushihara was a clever man, and knew full well that Maou was only acting like a complete ass because of the forest's influence. However, that didn't make the pill any less bitter to swallow, and it was hard to excuse him for his behavior. For a time, he flew in silence.

A little ways away from where the forest would spill out and open to the main road, Urushihara stopped.

"If you don't want us spotted," he said quietly, "we should touch down here."

[mickeyd_emon]

"Right. Let's go," Maou said before pencil diving into the foliage, not bothering to spare a glance to see if Urushihara was managing with his wingspan. He alighted on a higher bough, checking for nearby, living humans, before dropping to the floor. He took a few steps toward the treeline ahead, every silent footfall a higher notch turned on the Devil's furnace. The general feeling of wrongness the forest bred camouflaged the strangeness of its effects almost completely, but the anger still didn't quite belong.

So the flames twisted themselves into the right shape, roots writhing in both Lucifer's and Satan's hearts. It hit Maou with the memory of pain he thought he'd long since outgrown, of a wounded ghoul lying alone in a field that held the still bodies of his tribe. A kid hopeless and angry, even at his rescuer. That moment contorted into the heavy blows of losing three of his generals, one by one, like a man gradually losing limbs as he climbed, the clifftop in sight. Sure, the left arm wasn't as big a deal, particularly since he knew it would reattach. Fighting with only one limb of four, however, was a futile endeavor. The fact he still tried didn't mean he didn't feel the phantoms where that support once was.

[disorder_heaven]

Urushihara slipped down into the trees, not entirely unscathed. The branches seemed to reach for him, to tear into his skin as his feet touched the forest floor. In his current form, however, these were nothing more than a momentary discomfort. They vanished quickly, healing as quickly as he'd gotten them.

Pain sank into his heart, not anger but a despair he hadn't felt in what felt like centuries. And centuries it had been. The memory of falling caused a pain that was almost physical, wracking his body to the point of him stumbling back against the gnarled branches of a tree. Like him, it grew more twisted with the passing years, seeking a light it could not find, yet aging despite all reason. Urushihara's body convulsed as the human left him and he became Lucifer, all anger and regret and selfishness and hate. He looked up at Maou, and the pupils of his eyes burned.

He barely noticed Maou's state, all torn up in his own memories. As was his personality, all he could think of to hold back his own pain was a snarky comment, not hurtful but playful, perhaps darkly so.

"Maybe we should've brought Emi along. Better Half could cut a path through this damn forest."

[mickeyd_emon]

Red eyes throbbing and strained snapped back to Lucifer's. Maou's teeth grit. "Yeah, it cuts through a lotta shit, 'specially what's supposed to stay standing."

Even as he said it, he regretted it, but he couldn't stop his tongue from lashing out. When the Demon King hurt, he fixed the source. But he couldn't fix this.

"Unless you feel like gettin' shish kabobbed again t' be left in this damned forest, let's avoid that, okay?"

[disorder_heaven]

The words were unexpectedly harsh, and cut Lucifer as deeply as the blade had. He bared his teeth, the slim strains of light filtering through the trees painting his face with shadows.

He would leave him again, wouldn't he? But Lucifer couldn't say that. He complained quite often as Urushihara, but not as Lucifer. That divide was clear as day while in these forms. Even so, this wasn't Ente Isla, and as loyal as Lucifer was to his master, he could disobey him here and only have the one demon to deal with.

"Fine, Sire. Then let's take the easy way out. We can't all get cut down in battle, so I believe your way of being defeated is to bail." His head shot up, seeking and instantly finding a break in the trees. "And my Gate is there."

One of his wings cuffed the Demon King's damaged horn lightly as he suddenly made to take off, his great speed and agility surpassed only by the king's himself. There was a burst of violet energy that lit up the entire forest, and it appeared now to be full of the bones of humans and animals who had tried and failed to escape, lighting up all the angels who had fallen and demons who Satan had failed to save.

Lucifer wanted out of this forest like any wild animal would want out of a cage, but his words to the king might not have been so easily forgiven.