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Well, the evening had been memorable, alright. Memorable in a way Daniel would have never dared to think or comprehend, in a way that he, really, would have preferred to completely avoid. Really.

Ume was gone now, gone to her family as she needed to be, and he was alone. The absence of her voice and her odd relief at how the situation had turned out only seemed to make the silence feel more heavy than it should normally have been. It was perhaps only then that it truly came crashing down on him. He was... He was, under no shadow of a doubt...

Well, not like her, no. That much had been obvious, in a way he could not quite explain, in a way that he would not truly understand for a little longer. She felt different from him, he innately knew, in a way he hadn't felt or understood all the other times he'd seen MuCephei. And Lyra...

Well, Lyra had felt like MuCephei in only the barest sense of the term. There had been something dark, chaotic and downright twisted coming off from the redhead, which had only made him fear her more. But a talking cat (what was even the heck, talking cats ?) had come, did something to MuCephei, gave her wings... And they'd escaped, the eternal senshi with her knight in tow.

Knight. Naica, page of Cosmos. Cosmos being someone MuCephei seemed to know, even... If there was even a connection there to begin with. Daniel certainly didn't know, and Ume was just as confused. Knights were.. newcomers, it seemed. It was all too much, way too much to take all at once, and once it finally registered to him that Ume was truly gone, he just didn't bother to sit back down and instead leaned against the wall, letting himself slump down all the way to the wooden floor.

This all seemed right out of some story, something he might have one day wrote, even. It all seemed too filled in fantasy to be real, and yet it was, he'd seen it, touched it, felt it, lived it...

He could remember the feel of those white gloves even now, they'd felt so awkward to someone who'd never worn such long gloves. The wraps on his forearms, the weight of the crystal against his right wrist – his dominant hand, as if the magic had just, somehow... known. Covered in small charms and extensive detailing that seemed very much like an accident waiting to happen.

Bright white, like some shining knight in armor. It seemed almost laughable, really. Daniel certainly wasn't a knight in shining armor. He was, perhaps, the furthest thing from it. If he'd been chosen by the universe to protect it... then boy, had the universe mischosen his champion.

A small meow drove him out of his mental panic, and he did manage a smile for Liddell – the poor girl had no idea what was going on, after all, so he took her and hugged her close to his chest, causing the white-furred feline to start purring almost immediately.

“This is messed up, Liddell...” He sighed. “This is really, really messed up...”

The cat only purred in answer.

Chris... He needed Chris, really. He would know, maybe, hopefully, how to deal with all this – but Daniel found that he had no drive to get up, no drive to face was had now undeniably became his reality, with only one, definitive certainty to it.

Nothing was going to be normal again. Even if he decided to ignore the existence of Naica Page... He would always be here, within him. Waiting.

Gonna Make A Man Out Of Ya [REG12]

Filled In The Silence [META-SOLO5]

Nerds In The Library [REG15]

My Sanctuary [REG16]

Violin Players [REG18]

Chocolate Therapy [BAT4]

This was all too much. This was all way too damn much.

The first breaking point had been space – the youma that had come here, and the look on the blue-haired girl's face as she'd been devoured alive. He'd hightailed it out of the surrounding as soon as the monster had been defeated, unable to bear the sight anymore. There had been no body, but in a way that seemed worse – there would be nothing, no explanation, nothing for her loved ones to truly grasp that yes, she was gone, nothing to let them grieve and start the process of healing.

It was wrong. She should have never died in the first place, so young and full of life... So kind, and so gentle, to make chocolate for a bunch of strangers.

The next was the encounter he'd just escaped, with the blonde negaverse captain. He'd ran – predictably, he'd ran, scared out of his mind, with a new set of bruises that he was staring at right now, added to the scatches and cuts from the fight in the surrounding.

He really wasn't at his best, but thankfully these were as places that would be easily hidden – from his teachers, from Ume, from Chris. Fall was useful for that, at least – wearing long sleeved clothing in fall didn't arise any questions, or raise any warnings.

Technically he had nothing to hide from the latter two, but... They'd worry. He knew it, and he hated having someone worry about him. Mostly because, well... the worry was perfectly warranted, because apparently he couldn't take care of himself. There always needed to be someone else looking up for him, someone else to make sure he didn't freak out, someone else to bail his a** out of dodge when things got even the slightest bit rough.

Daniel had never been hero material. And now there he was – not particularly vain but frowning at the bruises and cuts that seemed to be multiplying – not because it was marring his appearance (there certainly wasn't much to mar there, if one was to ask him), but because of the way he'd gotten them. Because of what they meant.

They meant helplessness and cowardice. Not badge of honor in any way, shape, or form. He didn't want to hurt anyone... but he certainly didn't want anyone to get hurt, either.

He remembered being hunted down by youmas and negaverse agents as a civilian – didn't remember much of the latter, to be honest, but remembered the consequences of it, remembered how damn scary it was, and how he'd felt, squished in between a trash container and a brick wall, waiting for someone to save him.

He didn't wish that on anybody... But what could he truly do ?

Staring at the mirror, at the purplish green spots on his skin, Daniel realized one thing. This was a crossroad. He had a choice to make.

Either he accepted Naica, and everything that came with it. He would need to accept the fact that, yes, ultimately he would need to harm human beings in order to protect innocent people from going through horrible things. He would need to accept that things would be rough, things would be scary, that he would see things he certainly would have never wanted to see. That he might never truly understand what was truly going on.

Or he could let it go. Forget that Naica existed, forget that he'd once been something else. Give it up, all of it, and deny himself of a part of him that was, undeniably, his. It was going to his wonder that had cemented it all in his mind – seeing the vague images in the crystals, the ring he still wore even now.

Daniel was Naica. Naica was Daniel. There was something here, a connection, something he could not truly understand but likewise could no longer try to deny.

Like Chris had said, ignoring their knight sides was perhaps like denying themselves of a very part of their own essence. Even if he did that – he wouldn't get any peace of mind. He'd still always be looking out for monsters. He'd still be always wondering what would come jumping out of the shadows.

...

Daniel took his discarded shirt and tossed it into the laundry bin, moving to continue what he had initially gone in the bathroom to do – take a shower. But he had come to a conclusion, decided which path to take, which road to walk.

In the end, perhaps, it was the allure of the supernatural that had won, but nonetheless – Naica would not give up.

There would be rough spots, but he would not deny himself that part of him he had never known for so long.