A girl sat at a windowsill, looking through the window, her gaze distant as if she was living somewhere else, lost deep in her memories. Her black hair moved along with the wind, covering a bit of her face.
She was Nephis of the Immortal Flame. The daughter of Broken Sword and the Smile of Heaven. Their last heir.
"My lady, do you plan on visiting another hospital again?"
A girl with red hair and a fair face looked at her. The girl was Scarlett—one of her vassals, and one who was roughly the same age as she was before she died, which was why she grew a little close and comfortable around her.
"Yes," Nephis replied, turning to Scarlett as light glistened on her hair and competed to reach her delicate face, "I would like to visit another one."
'Am I missing something?'
She read over two hundred romance novels including a fanfic of something she didn't know called Is This Love? The latter was rather peak and stupid, enough to the point every chapter made her question existence and laugh at the same time.
It was simply sublime.
'Right,' she realised what she was missing, "please get the arrangements ready at the earliest."
"Are you sure now is a good time? After, you kno—"
The air stilled at those words being mentioned. She knew what she meant.
Her grandmother...
She died a while back.
Just two years after she got to feel her grandmother's warmth, she was stolen from her again.
'If only I regressed earlier...'
Is what she told herself every time knowing fully well that it would just hurt more.
She longed to be with her grandmother and back then she used to distract herself with the thoughts of revenge which was why it became her existence.
Which was why she left Sunny behind...
The goal was still the same. Revenge. But this time she would be much more efficient.
She now had knowledge about the future, a bit of Sunny's cunning and webtoons which had decent politics.
Quite a few times people pointed out that it was stupid and a lot more things but still, it was often effective, 'and if it works, it works.'
And this time the Sovereigns were actually staying back. Sure, it was risky to go out, but it was even riskier for people who didn't completely abandon humanity. They needed them in their domains. Attacking her would be risky as it would draw the ire of the public and a few Legacy clans still left in the dark.
There was another weird factor. Asterion. He was still out there protecting her from the shadows, something she only found out during the Antarctica Campaign. Well, maybe it wasn't weird seeing as the Dreamspawn desired her lineage.
'Did he really kill my dad? Maybe he tried to help and was thus banished to the moon?'
No, something wasn't adding up here, because if it happened he would have been trapped far earlier and Mordret wouldn't have been entrusted to him.
'Something is invading my mind.'
She realised it immediately because even though she was a mundane in this body, her mind was still that of a Master and thus her awareness was just as sharp.
"Ma'am?"
Those words snapped her out of her thoughts leaving her thought process all but for—
No.
'I refuse to forget this.'
She couldn't forget it because that meant being susceptible to her mind being intruded upon.
"I will go as planned," she replied to Scarlett, "which reminds me, can you go call a Master for me?"
...
...
Nephis looked at the time and noticed something off.
She turned towards the clock.
09:06
An hour had passed and she had no recollection of it, but she felt as if a problem was solved, and yet—yet a part of her felt missing. Torn apart from her mind.
She felt as if she was forgetting something important. Something... not precious but important nonetheless.
"Ma'am, may I enter?"
A voice asked from the other side of the door. Scarlett.
"I brought the Master as you asked."
'Me? When did I—'
'Right, I'm going to a hospital.'
"Come in."
She would need a guard who was at least a Master to survive with how frequently she went out.
And today, she would meet her. Effie. Up until now, none of the hospitals she went to had Effie.
So today...
---
"Hello Lady Nephis of the Immortal Flame, we are happy to have you here, and thank you for your charity work," her guide—a girl with black hair reaching to her shoulders, and wearing a formal attire consisting of a white shirt and pants—greeted them.
Nephis flinched, 'Who would be this blatant about things?'
"Thank you for greeting me here," Nephis gave a slight bow and followed the girl inside.
'I hope she is here this time around...'
Because if she wasn't then that would mean that Neph missed her in one of the visits or the logs had an issue, which was unlikely.
Nephis went inside the hospital and visited multiple patients, including children. The kids were excited to see her—the daughter of The Immortal Flame—and some of them even asked her for autographs!
"Here you go," she signed an autograph for a sevenyear old boy—just a little younger than her current body!—and smiled.
This went on for about an hour before she went to the other patients, until finally...
Nephis walked towards the bed Effie rested on and sat beside her. Today she was quite lucky to run into Effie since she could have been in one of the hospitals she already visited and managed to miss Effie entirely.
She looked at her friend—the same one who used to be cheerful, and made dirty jokes about every little thing—lying on the bed looking so... Weak. Fragile. She hated it.
Then, Nephis took a deep breath, forcing herself to forget about Effie's current state and started to speak up about what she wanted to tell her.
"Good morning. My name is Nephis from the Immortal Flame and I'm currently doing charity work. This is one of the hospitals I'm sponsoring."
The moment Neph uttered those words she paled, realising something crucial...
She was coming off as an attention seeker(?) Something like that anyways! Now, she had to toss her prepared speech aside.
"Um... I am doing this to improve the standing of my clan? Something like that anyways! I suppose I should wish you a speedy recovery? I am not sure what your current state is but I hope you take care. I am sure you would find a place you can call heaven."
Nephis flinched and gritted her teeth before continuing with a sigh, "I suppose I should be more honest. I... One of the seers in my clan told me that we would be good friends going forward."
Why was she saying this?
She shouldn't have said these words...
By saying these words she was basically telling Effie that she planned on using her.
So why was she saying this?
"I... I hope we can trust each other. I hope you can trust me when the time comes. I know this comes off as me trying to use you—a girl on a hospital bed—but I... I don't have anyone I can call a friend."
Now she was coming off as a person who would give a stranger a sob story the first time they met.
'Great.'
Amazing.
Her fists clenched.
'Way to go, me!'
"I... I don't even know what I'm saying, but what I would like you to know is that I wish to have your trust and I promise you that I will come save you. I know that you would be an Awakened soon and in a body that you would enjoy."
Then she recalled some of the—the things Effie kept telling her, causing heat to creep up on her cheeks.
"Uh, I'll head out now."
And then she ran away...
---
Steve looked at the Spirit in front of him, a friend from the future. A friend who he knew he would meet, and was excited even!
Of course, Steve wasn't a friend of hers yet but to her, he was one.
"You know, I always wondered how you knew so much about the world—even more than me, at times—turns out you knew everything before even Awakening." The voice was carried by a breeze from every single direction, right into his ears, "Pseudo-Seer Steve. That's what you called yourself all those years ago, right?"
Now, the voice turned sharp. The world bent to her will as he was brought face to face with her.
The girl who carried the lineage of—
"Either explain yourself or tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now?" The Spirit in front of him spoke again, the wind turning entirely silent.
No, that was wrong. The world itself turned silent.
"My, I wish I knew the answer to it. I wonder, maybe because I'm paramount to your—no, our plans? I mean you yourself said that we were friends, that means I would live through this. That means I'm simply Fated to live... Oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that?"
"You wanted to break fate, didn't you? A shame, but you need it at the moment," Steve replied without showing a tinge of fear.
He had nothing to worry about, the ability she used was because it wouldn't cause any changes to her present, and because this meeting was Fated at a time where Fate was still... well, it wasn't broken.
A smile crept up on Cassie's face... Slowly...
The closer it got to her eyes, the more fear he felt.
The more—
"Anyways, I think it's about time you leave lest you wish to enter the Nightmare." Steve pulled himself back to reality, barely managing to breathe.
"You got lucky with the time, ah I needed those answers from you. It's fine, we will meet again, after all." The smile never reached her eyes, and thankfully her Will stopped bending the world to her will.
"It's not a good thing to ask for more than necessary, especially after you achieved your goal—making Jack finally have the lineage."
And removed quite a significant part of Neph's memories while figuring out... 'Well, no, Cassie probably already knows about the past world.'
But she didn't need to hear that part coming from him.
With that handled, she finally disappeared. Thankfully, even the third leaf had a timer attached and it wasn't just the moon's position.
[End of Part One: Bonds, Old and New]
Chapter goals: 5 comments on ao3 for this chap and the last one (individually) and 5 on wn (this one) and maybe two reviews for wn :D
I was gonna ask if we could reach 160 hearts (2 more from when I was planning to post this) but we already reached it so thats cool!
Join my discord!
https://discord.gg/KdyrkhNd9h
I know I'm shamelessly asking to join the discord while having a shitty and rushed chapter while pulling a bad habit of g3 but I lowkey gave up (mostly because my incompetent ass forgot everything I planned due to exams deciding it's a good idea to fuck me up) anyways uh I hope you enjoy these bloopers :DD
BLOOPERS:
Searching for fanfics Nephis came across one called Sussie: Romance Blooms in the Hearts of these Young Ones on AO3 written by Anonymous666.
Synopsis: young love! What a wonderful feeling, right? This is a fanfic between my classmate and a popular girl in our school, Sunny and Cassie.
It all started when Sunny desperately tried to avoid Cassie, looking away everytime he was near her. It was subtle at first but it grew increasingly obvious as time went by.
Will this young love work out in the end? Well, probably. You'll just have to hope no one finds out about me writing this fanfic 😅
"What the fu—"
All Nephis did was put 'Sunless' in the AO3 search!
There was also that one Sussie fic called Is This Love?
'What the fuck was that? What did I read both these times?'
'No, better yet, why did I read it?'
Bloopers 2:
This was the first kill Sunny was going to have in this life. His target? Cassie. That disgusting wretched asshole fucking good for nothing prick, cunt, attention seeking, treacherous woman called Cassie.
He was really going to cut her up.
The countdown to his kill already started.
He lurked around the corner, right behind a library corner, when...
Meow.
And that was how the plot for Dangers in My Heart started in the verse of Shadow Slave.
Note: yes, I just started the anime and it's 11:28 pm Monday when I'm writing this 💀 (Should I countinue watching it after ep 1? Let me know!)
Bloopers 3:
"Steve Jobs... I mean Steve, you up right now?"
Sunny asked while moving his hand—definitely not trying to wake him up, nope, definitely not—and turned to look at Jack, giving him the thumbs up.
Note: okay this one sucked... Uh, I guess this is why I don't write at night? Ah whatever, onto the next one. Time: 11:32 PM
Bloopers 4:
'I refuse to forget this.'
She couldn't forget it because that meant being susceptible to her mind being intruded.
"I will go as proceeded," she replied to Scarlett, "which reminds me, can you go call a Master for me?"
...
A beautiful blonde girl appeared before her soon after Scarlet left...
"Cassie? Is that you?"
She had a blue blindfold on her eyes and a beauty that was better than even the Sovereigns.
"Did you regress too?"
"No, I did not regress Neph, what I'm here for though... Is to kill you before you subject the readers to torture! You... In the end you never find your brain! Do you know the pain and suffering I went through? I wouldn't even subject it on the moon man!"
And then, Cassie killed her.
Note: Time of finishing this, 11:40 PM. Yeah I don't know what's happening anymore.