"Reincarnation?" Shumi asked in an unusual tone. "Do you think I was soone else in my previous life?"
Alex took a deep breath. Now that he had poked the hornet's nest, it was ti to see if there were more than just hornets inside.
"Are you?" he asked. "Do you rember anything at all? It feels weird asking this, but do you rember from before you t ?"
Shumi gave a strange expression, as if not sure how to process that question. "I'm sorry, but I don't rember you at all. If I did, I might've already told you back in the dicine World. Besides, if reincarnation was real, you would've rembered your previous incarnation as well. What was the Sun God before you like?"
Alex closed his eyes as he let out a sigh. She made a really good point. He didn't doubt reincarnation itself was real, since the source for that information was the Godkiller himself, and it was difficult to doubt a man of that stature. But the two gods likely didn't reincarnate at all. It was just that soone else was born with their body.
Still, even after having known that, Alex still couldn't help but have the tiny thought in the back of his head asking him, 'what if?'
After a thought, he brought out his cauldron, placing it between the two.
Shumi looked at the cauldron with a strange expression, not sure what he was planning on doing.
"mory, co out please."
With his call, the figure of an elegant woman erged from the cauldron, translucent and ethereal, in a green dress with black hair like a waterfall draping down the side of her back.
"How can I help you, master?" mory asked.
Alex pointed toward mory while looking toward Shumi and asked,
"Do you recognize her in any way?"
Shumi shook her head as she surveyed the illusory figure. "Is this your cauldron spirit?" she asked with a hint of amazent.
"Yes," Alex said. "She is also the spitting image of the Moon Goddess before you."
"Oh!" Shumi quickly turned to look at her with more care this ti. "I'm sorry, but I really don't rember her at all. I don't even get a hint of emotion when seeing her."
"What's going on, master?" mory asked, equally confused by the situation.
"I'll explain later," Alex said, putting her away. He turned to Shumi and gave a hint of a smile. "I guess that settles it then. You're not the reincarnation. Or at least, if you are, you don't rember, which in the end ans the sa thing for ."
"What did you hope for?" Shumi suddenly asked.
"Sorry?"
"Regarding the reincarnation. Did you hope I was that person's reincarnation or that I wasn't? Which would you have preferred?" she asked.
"I..."
Truthfully, Alex had no answer. He had spent so much ti
wondering what it was that he never gave any thought to how he felt about either possibility. "I guess I'm a little disappointed that you're not her."
Shumi chuckled slightly. "You are brave telling a woman you're disappointed she's not soone else."
"Huh? Oh no. I didn't an-"
Shumi quickly gestured for him to stop. "You don't have to explain. I understand what you an. You must've loved this woman if you're so disappointed. Who was she to you? A friend? Or maybe..."
"My master," Alex said. "She died protecting . Poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Shumi asked. "Are you sure she was the Moon Goddess then?"
"She was in the True realm when she was poisoned with Divine grade poison. Her body had also only just recently upgraded to the Celestial grade at the ti."
"Oh..." Shumi narrowed her eyes. "So she was the sa as when I woke up from my coma."
She could understand how a Divine grade poison could've killed her.
"My condolences."
"Thank you."
Alex turned around and continued walking along the periter of the mountain, searching for hollow zones or trigger chanisms to open a way into the mountain. The two remained silent for so ti, neither knowing what to say.
It was many minutes before either one of them spoke, the first of which was Shumi as she asked a question that had been burning in
her mind for so ti now.
"Is it not bothering you?" she asked.
"What do you an?" Alex asked, turning around.
"This... feeling. You're feeling it too, right? This connection or
whatever it is that is trying to draw toward you. You are sohow completely immune to it."
"Oh. I do feel it. It just doesn't bother as much. I guess I've grown used to this feeling, and I can ignore it if I want to," Alex said. "If you find it making it hard for you to focus, you can move farther away from . I'm not sure how much that would lessen the feeling, but it should help."
Shumi looked away in a thoughtful gesture before turning back around. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are we feeling this?" she asked. "Just to confirm, can you explain the feeling to as precisely as you can?"
Alex hesitated for a mont. It was a difficult task to describe such an
unusual feeling.
"The closest thing I could say would be that it's as if my body were in love with you but my mind hadn't caught up to that fact yet. It wants you, but I can't understand why. There's a need for us to be together, and my body is trying to pull itself toward you for that very reason."
Even through the veil, Shumi's face appeared to be slightly blushing. "That's the sa for ," she said. A short span of silence settled between them for a mont before Shumi spoke again. "Can I ask you
sothing?"
"Anything," Alex said.
"Do you find other won attractive?" she asked. "Have you t
soone that has- how do they say-made your heart race?"
"No," Alex said. "Never."
Shumi lifted her veil, finally revealing her face for him to see.
"What about now?"
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