Forgive Me

"Beel can handle most things, even expired food that be hundreds of years old. Even to eat a stone pillar and chomping on my older brother's wallet. I could name more off but it be a long list of what he eaten. So cannibalism isn't that be an issue."

"Yeah...if only she'd remember that our hosts are still human. She can handle the poisons, but her human host cannot. That's usually how her host dies and stuff. Unfortunate, really."

...Oh, well. She shouldn't be surprised that there are other sins of the same name ambling about. She and her siblings were born out of the mere concepts of them, after all.

"Been Charmed before, too. Intentionally, on their part, and to a degree I knew they were doing it-" Shadows actively wanted you to fall under their sway, after all- "but it moves about the same, more or less. Gets into your head so smooth you barely realize it shouldn't be there - but there's always discrepancies, if you know where to look." Such as his literally not existing here long enough to make such a close friend that wasn't the Thieves.

It was fascinating to him, in a way, how easily this sort of thing made its way into your mind. But terrifying, as well.

And it made him wonder how miserable her life was if everyone she met acted like this. Immediately acted like a good friend despite you never having met them before in your life.

"Don't be sorry - sounds like you have no control over it." Virtue, he decided. She was too nice about this to be a Sin.

But here, he sighed quietly. "Won't deny it's kinda terrifying, feeling like a girl I've never met before is some long-lost best friend I gotta say hi to, but... can't imagine it's any more fun for you, either. Maybe it was fun for a little, at first, when you were new, and young, but..." Everyone you ever met, always acting like they were your friend?

It sounded exhausting.

So he understood. She watched him from her distance, feeling a weird sense of relief come over her. He already guessed how she felt about her own ability, and also knew about the other sins and virtues.

...Just who was he?

"At least it was only Sloth you've met. It could have been worse. At least it wasn't Wrath or Avarice or Envy. Sloth and Gluttony are very mild sins typically. Um...Typically..."

Something wasn't right.

Not with her, no. But with him. She felt like an old friend, felt like somebody he wanted to run up to and greet and spend time with - and despite the urge to do so, he stood frozen on the spot.

Partially, it was Shinigami, making it harder for him to move as he did the bodiless equivalent of staring confusedly at Akira - but also it was partially Akira himself; knowing damn well he didn't know this girl at all (not as Akira and certainly not as Azem), however distantly it seemed to register.

Akira knew the feeling of 'brainwashing'. Of Charm and Mind Control and external forces trying to make you do something you wouldn't, ordinarily. Even internal, with Arsene and Shinigami.

This was more... insidious, than that. It didn't feel 'unwelcome', just clashed horribly with the knowledge that Akira had not existed in this world long enough to feel like this about anyone this strongly - as though she was one of his Thieves and he hadn't seen her in years.

"Are - you...?" He began, stammering, struggling to sort out his real thoughts from the fake ones. Akira paused a moment, blinked. Took a slow breath in and out. Started over.

The girl's shoes scuffed a little on the path she was walking the moment she realized she was being talked to. Her humming halted as well.

The question was directed at her, definitely, when she met the stranger's eyes.

...He could feel it? She'd never met a single soul who could tell that their mind and emotions had been unintentionally messed with. This was a first--

He mentioned Soren, too. He met Sloth? Perhaps the tamest of the sins...Probably lucky to have met that one, over...

Rina.

Or maybe even Eri.