Demon Lord's Reincarnation

"Who\'s she?" Kaley and Rachel asked at the same time:

"Ah."

"It\'s okay."

Kaley instantly knew what was up but something seemed to be in her mind though Rachel thought that I was a cheating piece of shit. The vibes just as we got out of her fighter jet and while we were getting scolded by the ADM were great but now, she looked like she\'d rather die of asphyxiation than to share the same air with me.

"No, I get it. You seem kind of cool but I don\'t deal with this shit, I\'mma bounce—"

Kaley cut her off, "No, it\'s not about that—"

But Rachel cut her off as well, "No, no. We haven\'t done anything yet—we were supposed to—but he\'s all yours—"

Kaley was persistent, "No, no. It\'s totally cool and you can even join us later but—"

"Hold up, hold up! I don\'t— Oh. Ohhh~ Huh," then her face lightened up a little as she looked at me, "This was an elaborate way to have a threesome with me, you know? Heh. With your woman looking like that, all you have to do is ask, no?"

"Umm… Thanks?"

Rachel then turned to Kaley, "Right. My bad for assuming shit. But weren\'t you about to say something else?"

Kaley nodded with a smile that slowly turned to somberness, "Ah… Right…" then she turned to me again, "Chris is here."

"Chris or Kris? Which one?"

"Huh?"

"It\'s a common name, Kaley—"

Kaley shook her head, "N-No! Chris Kenneth Ry! From high school! He came with them!"

Then realization struck, "Oh! A little taller than me back then, curly hair straightened, thick eyebrows, darker skin tone, a little on the skinny side—"

"Why are you giving me all these descriptions?! You\'re as close to him like with Raphael, Earnest, Darelle, and Kris— It\'s your friend group back then, doofus!"

"I-I know! My bad. B-But where—"

"He\'s down below! I can\'t believe we didn\'t recognize—" then her expression turned somber again, "But… Look… He came alone, alright? You know what that means…"

"Oh… Yeah…"

At that point, even Rachel knew what was up despite our earlier misunderstanding, but she even decided to come with us just because. But yeah, it was obvious that our little arrangement earlier was canceled altogether but that didn\'t matter as much because she was open for our "threesome" later when everybody was present.

It was nice to have a pilot that shared the same interests as me but for the second time, the mood just dropped a whole lot when we met with one of my old friends.

I really thought it\'d be one of those touchy reunions but I thought wrong.

It was because when I waved at CK, as we\'ve called him back then, the dude just looked at me briefly before continuing his assigned job.

He still kind of looked the same despite the obvious changes when someone got older but the only thing that was different from before was that his hair was now longer—up to his shoulders—but it was now as curlier because he hadn\'t been straightening it compared to back then.

At the moment, he was hauling their luggage with several other people and Kaley just looked down when even I, one of his supposed closer friends, was also dismissed like that.

\'Didn\'t see him earlier… So, he didn\'t eat breakfast?\'

Kaley then nudged me, "I-It\'s him, right?"

I almost smacked the dumbass, "You weren\'t sure?!"

"Wha— I-I\'m just making sure for the third time! Obviously, it\'s him but— He should\'ve nodded at least, right? That\'s why I called you over to see if he was just mad at me or something."

"Why would he be mad at you?"

"I don\'t know, I was just speculating. He… He looks really off, no?"

"Hmm. For one, he wasn\'t smiling with that one tooth of his at the front—"

Then Rachel seemed to have a realization, "Ahh… I think I remember that one. He really is a bundle of smiles and he has these cool music choices but he lost someone pretty recently."

Kaley and I asked, "Who?"

"His girl, Edna or Ezra or something. He had to collect bits of her ashes from the incinerator when she was chucked in there."

"What happened?" Kaley asked.

"Eh~ Not my business, no? I know that you have to know but he\'s your friend, right? You should talk to him yourselves, I\'mma find some other people to hang around for the meantime. I thought I could hang with you guys for a bit but this is more important."

I nodded a few times, "Thanks, Rachel. See you soon, alright?"

"Of course. We\'ll be \'seeing\' you two later, right? Don\'t forget about me."

"Yeah…"

"Cool."

At that point, CK had just come back from one of the storage areas so I cut off his path instead of just calling out to him.

"You can\'t just ignore me, you fuck. You know I— even Kaley called you over earlier, right?"

"..." CK just gave me a dismissive glance as he tried to sidestep away.

However, I cut him off once again, but this time, I grabbed his arm, causing him to throw me a glare.

"Now we\'re getting somewhere, huh?"

"Fuck off, I\'m trying to work—"

"No, you don\'t."

He gave me a side glance as he looked so fed up just from talking to me for a few seconds, "Get off me, man. I\'m going through something."

"Oh. I know. You\'re mourning right now and we aren\'t expecting anything from you but you look like you needed a hug, at the very least."

"..."

"So?"

"I… I really am just trying to work, man."

"I just said you didn\'t need to."

"That\'s… That\'s not how it works—"

"Umm… You really don\'t know, huh?"

"Know what?"

"That\'s how it works, really."

"What?"

"I\'m 49% owner of this shit, dude. I can basically give you a month off and they wouldn\'t care. I can even take you back with me and you get to see our whole squad— Well, Roi\'s still in hiding but you know how he is, right?"

"..."

"Dude? Earth to CK, Earth to CK. Did you just get hit with a 5-second stun with that big-ass arrow? You know what I\'m talking about, right?"

"..."

"You don\'t remember? Cool chick riding on this white tiger and throws this big-ass arrow, leaps forward, turns invisible, and have stars falling from the sky? Hello?"

"..."

"Is the stun still in effect? Yo?"

"I know you\'re trying to make me laugh, man, but please— Enough with the jokes."

"Huh?"

"I said stop messing with me! No chance in hell that—"

"Oh~ You think I\'m lying, huh? I\'mma make you walk the plank, right now—"

"What? Hey— HEY! HEY STOP! STOOOOOP! BRO! THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"