Chapter 55 – Two Lunatics 【Part 2】

【Loki PoV】

The forest was a miserable collection of dirt, bugs, and oppressive humidity.

This mortal body was a prison of weakness. My muscles ached from the simple act of walking. My stomach, an organ I had never previously given a moment’s thought, had the audacity to feel empty. This was Amaterasu’s idea of a lesson. Banishment wasn’t enough for that glorified sun lamp. She had to strip me of my power and sentence me to a leading role in this pathetic, low-budget tragedy. The sheer indignity of it all was the only thing fueling me.

My mission, however, was deliciously simple.

Find her little story engine, her “Pure Hero,” and break him.

I leaned against a tree, letting the rough bark dig into my back. I arranged my face into the picture of utter despair, a mask I was quickly perfecting. I focused on the memory of her name glowing on the celestial promotion board and squeezed my eyes shut. A genuine tear of pure, unadulterated rage rolled down my cheek. Perfect. My performance was about to begin.

A twig snapped.

The sound was clumsy, artless. It was the sound of a mortal who didn’t know how to move through his own world. I kept my face buried in my hands, pitching my breathing into a convincing, shuddering sob. The footsteps grew closer. I could feel the tell-tale aura of heroic intent radiating from him. It was a nauseating mix of pity and self-importance. It had to be him.

He loomed over me for a moment.

I could almost hear the gears grinding in his simple mortal head. Man in trouble. Must help. Hero points await. I risked a peek through my fingers. The boy from the celestial files. Ryuuji Sato. He looked even more like a generic protagonist in person. Dark, messy hair, plain face, earnest expression. He was practically vibrating with the need to do a good deed. It was time to give him one.

I let out a particularly pathetic-sounding whimper and looked up.

I widened my eyes, putting every ounce of my divine acting ability into looking small, scared, and broken. I scrambled backward, making sure to look as unthreatening as possible. Mortals were like startled deer. You had to let them approach you.

He immediately held up his hands in a placating gesture.

Predictable.

“Hey, easy there. I’m not going to hurt you.”

His voice was gentle. It was the voice of someone who thought they were in control, the hero arriving to save the day. He had no idea he had just walked into my story, not the other way around. I let the silence hang, forcing him to make the next move.

“Are you okay? You look like you’ve been through a lot.”

I almost laughed. I let out a short, bitter puff of air instead. It was more in character.

“Okay? Yeah, I’m just peachy.”

The sarcasm was a nice touch. It added a layer of tragedy. A hint of a dark past. He knelt down, his face a mask of deep concern. But his eyes were weird. There was the expected pity, yes. But underneath it was a flicker of something else. An intense, almost hungry excitement. This wasn’t in the files. The system had flagged him as a “Pure Hero.” This look in his eyes was anything but pure.

This game just got interesting.

“What happened to you?”

I launched into the script I’d prepared. The classic tale of betrayal. It was cliché, but as I’d learned from millennia of observation, mortals adored clichés.

“What does it look like happened?”

I gestured to my torn clothes.

“They left me. They took everything that mattered and left me for dead.”

I watched him. The excitement in his eyes flared brighter. He was actively trying to suppress a smile. He was enjoying this. He wasn’t just a pure hero. He was a drama parasite, feeding on the suffering of others to fuel his own narrative. Oh, this was better than I could have possibly imagined. Amaterasu hadn’t found a hero. She’d found a lunatic.

“Your party?”

He whispered the word as if it was a holy relic.

I flinched, playing my part.

“I don’t have a party. Not anymore.”

I let my voice fill with carefully measured venom.

“They said I was dead weight. That I was holding them back. So they took my share, my gear… everything. And they just… walked away.”

This kid, Ryuuji, was practically vibrating. He wasn’t seeing a victim he needed to save. He was seeing a perfect plot device. He thought he’d stumbled upon a side character for his own story. The fool. He didn’t realize he was the side character in mine. His weird enthusiasm made him even easier to manipulate. He wanted this to be a dark story. I would be more than happy to provide him with one.

“That’s… horrible.”

His tone was off. He sounded thrilled. This was the moment. Time to set the hook. I had to see if his twisted little hero complex would take the bait. I just stared at the ground, letting the silence stretch. He grew impatient and leaned closer.

“They can’t get away with that. People like that… they deserve to be punished.”

Bingo. It was more perfect than I had planned. I didn’t even have to suggest it. His own broken moral compass was pointing him exactly where I needed him to go. This wasn’t about justice for him. This was about making the story more interesting. And I was the key to his next chapter.

I slowly looked up, meeting his gaze.

I let a single, dangerous spark of hope ignite in my eyes.

“Punished?”

“Damn right. An eye for an eye. You can’t let them just win. You can’t let them think they can treat people like that and face no consequences.”

His speech was so full of heroic nonsense it almost made my ears bleed. He was a walking, talking bundle of heroic tropes, but twisted into something much more useful for my purposes.

A true smile touched my lips, cold and sharp.

I quickly disguised it as the grim, hopeful expression of a broken man finding a reason to live.

“I like the way you think.”

He seemed pleased with that. He was a simple creature, really. Just needed a little validation.

“My name is Ryuuji. What’s yours?”

I paused. A new name for a new game. Something simple, yet noble. Something a hero would want to save.

“Leo.”

It sounded strong. I liked it.

“Okay, Leo. You can’t stay out here. You’ll die.”

He stood and offered me his hand. The perfect heroic gesture. He probably practiced it in a mirror.

“You should come back to town with me. We can get you some food, a place to rest. We can figure out what to do next.”

I looked at his outstretched hand. The hand of a fool. A fool who was offering me food, shelter, and a platform for my glorious return. A fool who thought he was the hero of this story. He had no idea he was just a side character in mine. I played hesitant for one final moment.

“Why would you help me? You don’t even know me.”

He puffed out his chest slightly. His answer was so predictable I could have said it for him.

“Because it’s the right thing to do. No one deserves what happened to you.”

It was perfect. So painfully, beautifully, stupidly perfect. He was a pure-hearted idiot. And a pure-hearted idiot with a narrative obsession was the most useful thing in the universe. I would take his sincerity and sharpen it into a blade.

I placed my hand in his.

His grip was firm, reassuring. The grip of a protector. The grip of a tool waiting to be used.

“Okay, Ryuuji. I’ll trust you.”

He pulled me to my feet. I let myself stumble, leaning on him just enough to sell the “weak and recovering” act. He looked so proud of himself, so pleased with his good deed for the day. He had no idea what he had just unleashed. This was no longer a punishment.

“Welcome to the first day of your new life, Leo.”

It was the start of a whole new game.