#7 "Hime Project"

elizabeth from wacca with pants and imaizumi from touhou. there you go.

In their past as humans, Hime was an animal conservationist, and Ouka was a doctor and chiropractor; and all the traits needed for such fields show in their personalities as Voids. Both of them knew each other closely in the past, even though they have no memories of such now. Hime recovered exotic animals that were illegally sold and nursed them back to health. Out of all of them, a Himalayan Wolf affectionately named Oto would become her permanent pet once obtaining a permit. Hime and Oto loved each other greatly, but Oto had a tendency to bite too hard as a sign of his affection. After an extremely deep one, Hime went to the doctor's office to make sure there was no detrimental infection. There, she would meet a new primary doctor after her previous one resigned. His name was Ouka Futaoka. A tender and affable doctor, he treated Hime with great compassion, and was quite conversational to the woman, even letting it slip out that her "profession is perfect for a beautiful woman like herself." Ouka learns that Hime is quite a common patient due to all her biting incidents. Ouka continues to be tender towards her, and is always prepared to clean and bandage her wounds, and prescribe her any topical cream necessary (and also pleading for her to invest in tougher arm guards goodness girl!) Eventually, the more Hime visits, the more talkative and off-topic the two slowly get. After one appointment, Hime impulsively goes in for a kiss before leaving the office, saying, "That's for being such a sweet man." Ouka is flustered by the recklessness of it, saying that he could've been a taken man, but Hime says with the way he speaks, she could tell he's not. Ouka laughs and says that she makes a fair point, before returning the kiss back. It, uh, kinda lasts for a while too. What if Ouka's manager just walked in bro. Needless to say, the two start growing close together outside of their professions, and start to hang out as friends and lovers. Also Ouka understands why Hime is constantly at the doctor's now GAWDDAMN THAT WOLF CAN BITE

Both of them turn Void during a Hollow Night after accidentally separating from each other, and thus, were alone roaming the Hollow Night, separated, with no real memories of their past together. After a few Hollow Nights pass, Ouka senses the potency of Hime, and Hime senses Ouka's lack of it. They approach each other, surprised at the odds of the two being at the same place and time as Parasite Voids. Unknowing of their past, they stay close for many other Nights afterwards, attracted to each other's energy and remnants of their souls, as if they fell in love all over again. When the two ventured towards the Abyss, their humanoid forms manifested. A beautiful woman with features of a wolf, and the most tender appearing man. All they could do was stare at each other. Their love was set in stone, and without any words between the two, they began to hold each other by the waist, eyes locked, and danced with no thought at all. All they had was each other's gaze. But their moment of peace, their moment of intimacy was brutally cut off by an attacker. Even as the two defended themselves, they were beaten almost senselessly. The attacker beared a Lab Committee symbol on her coat. Before they knew it, their entire lives were irreversibly changed. They were used, experimented on, and almost broken beyond repair for research, Hime taking the biggest brunt of it all due to more interest in her. Even when they saw windows for escape, they would only be sealed before they could and experimented on again to prevent it from happening again. The Lab Committee saw potential in them, and believed that fusing them together could cancel each other out and essentially kill them, bringing them a step closer to the Void Eradication Plan. However, a human body was needed to contain both Hime and Ouka and prevent any outbreaks or chances of escape. After a man volunteered to take on the Voids, a woman took on the task of injecting both of them inside of him, thus completing the Hime Project. While it appeared successful at first, the man who appeared completely fine slowly degraded hours later, screaming to leave his own body, crying for forgiveness, and for the burns to stop. Eventually, his body no longer existed and was completely absorbed from the inside out, becoming a deformed blob of a typical Parasite Void. The committee could only hear the cries of help, and resealed Hime Project into a vial, never to see the light of day. Several years later, they find themselves able to manifest again, attached to each other and scarred. This time, instead of being in the lab, they were in a home unknown. Regaining consciousness, they look up to see their capturer yet again--no, but wait, this woman...looks different. This wasn't Noriko Watatsumi, instead, this was...

While naturally on the defensive, Nodoka eventually was able to get through to them, though both were still untrusting towards her due to her relation to Noriko. Nodoka assured the both of them would get a host and would be able to live a life where they can find acceptance. Aoki volunteers; even though she knows nothing about Voids due to her lifestyle in Sado, she saw Hime and Ouka and felt that they deserved to not be alone and deserved a shoulder to lean on and immediately decided to host them; at this point, it was no longer about Aoki just wanting to help Nodoka, she wanted to fully befriend these two. While Hime and Ouka was avoidant of Aoki until necessary, Hime would eventually warm up to her first and open up with her true feelings, with some bumps along the way. Ouka, though trying to stay the distant voice of reason, grew a bit jealous at Hime's attention, desiring that exact companionship with the both of them, and especially desiring a human like Aoki to accept him as well. He cracks and humors some of the activities they both do together, until he eventually breaks and says that he wants to open up to Aoki like Hime did but is afraid his real desires and true self will hurt her, and will feel inclined to hurt him and Hime back. He doesn't want to hurt Aoki (the first time he has felt this towards a human,) but doesn't want to get hurt himself. Aoki persistently reassures him, saying "Aw, I'mma bit flattered you don't want to hurt me! But ya don't have to worry, you know? I'd never hurt ya or Hime, I love and accept the both of yall, and that's that. Even if you hurt me, I'mma still be one of the nice ones. I'll just wanna know what's wrong." Ouka tears up, with a smile on his face, commenting on her sedulousness and saying that he is happy she is one of the good humans. Ouka finally feels fully accepted like Hime already felt, and gets the companionship he so desired. This all happens outside of a clothing shop btw. All three grew close (maybe even more than that,) and often do things together and are rarely separate except for work. Imagine being Aoki and seeing that your aggressively chill and supportive attitude makes two people work retail because they want to see more of that in humans. I'd feel happy and bad.