EPISODE III
"I need a chocolate milkshake," declared Mayuri with the solemnity of a celestial diplomat addressing the UN.
"Now? At nine p.m.?" Alex stared at her, bewildered, adjusting his jacket still damp from the temple incident.
"The spiritual body requires joy. And joy comes in the form of strawberry, chocolate… and a bent straw."
Alex sighed and checked his wallet. Empty. Only an expired coupon and a tiny Buddha stamp remained as his worldly possessions.
"I barely have enough for a greasy empanada and half a warm Coke," he admitted.
Mayuri looked at him with the seriousness of someone assessing a diplomatic crisis.
"Then we must perform the Dance of the Unexpected Favor."
"The what?"
"An ancient ritual," she whispered. "The human offers an irresistible smile to the most susceptible soul they find in the street. If the winds of fate cooperate, a coupon… or an offer is granted."
"That's called begging," Alex said, unable to suppress a laugh.
"No! It's a forgotten art."
Without further explanation, they slipped on their shoes and stepped outside. Mayuri, wrapped in her blanket which fluttered like a royal cloak, waved at lampposts and murmured indecipherable words each time they passed a cat.
"They're minor guardians," she explained.
"They remember the shapes humans have stopped seeing."
"What shapes?"
"The shape of listening to silence. Of looking at the sky without demanding Wi-Fi."
Don Jojo's ice cream shop was three blocks away. Alex let Mayuri decide, which drew mild suspicion from the shop owner: a weathered man with an unshakable expression, who had nevertheless never seen a young woman adorned with jeweled hair ask for "frozen elixir with divine cocoa essence."
While mixing, Don Jojo glanced sideways at Alex.
"Is she your friend?"
"She's… an exchange student. From very, very far away."
"India?"
"More like… mystical."
"Indonesia?"
"Higher."
"Korea?"
"Even higher. Like… an entire dimension higher."
Don Jojo raised an eyebrow and handed over the milkshake without further questions.
Seated on a park bench, Mayuri sipped the milkshake with the devotion of someone tasting ambrosia. Her eyes sparkled, as if each sip awakened an ancient memory.
"Does this exist up there?" Alex asked, intrigued.
"No. In Kaluwalhatian there are nectars from eternal flowers, yes… but this—" she raised the cup in a toast "—this is Earth's art."
"Why did you fall?" he asked, not even sure where the sudden candor had come from.
Mayuri lowered the cup slowly, as if each following word weighed her down.
"I don't fully remember. Sometimes memories come back in flashes. Sometimes… they never return."
She paused.
"But I know there was a war. A decision. A betrayal. And a fall… like a flower refusing to wither."
Alex looked at her in silence.The night was warm, and a light breeze stirred the treetops. The Moon, perfectly round, watched them from her black throne.
"Were you important up there?" he asked, almost in a whisper.
"I am daughter of Great Bathala. God of gods. Lord of Creation. Ruler of the Heavens. Princess of the Eternal Fortress." She looked at him with a shadow of melancholy. "But here… I'm just a woman with hunger and terrible taste in couches."
Alex smiled.
"You're adapting fast."
"I'm evolving," she replied. "Today I learned to use the microwave."
"That's not evolution. That's survival instinct," he said with a grin.
They fell into a comfortable, unhurried silence.Mayuri finished the milkshake and, with a near-theatrical elegance for someone sitting on a public bench, wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. Then she looked straight at him.
"Alex."
"Yeah?"
"What does 'being okay' mean?"
"Right now?"
"No. In general. That phrase humans repeat: 'I'm fine,' even when they're not."
He thought for a few seconds.
"It's like a cheap armor. A way of saying 'I don't want to talk about it,' but politely."
Mayuri nodded slowly.
"Then… I'm not fine. But I'm not unwell either. I'm… in transit."
"That's the most human thing you've said all day," he replied.
They walked back, exchanging soft laughter and impossible questions. As they turned the corner, a black cat watched them from a railing.
Mayuri waved at it.
"May the threads of fate not tangle around you, Night Guardian," she murmured.
The cat sneezed.
Alex didn't say anything.
When they reached the apartment, Mayuri paused at the door.
"Thank you for… the cold magical chocolate milk."
"No problem. It's the least I could do for an unemployed deity."
She laughed.
And without fully understanding why, Alex felt his world had begun to spin… just a little differently.