Hey there! If you're new to this story, I whole-heartedly welcome you to join me on this journey! Although this story has gone through many edits and rewrites (and may continue to do so), it still remains my very first fanfic, as well as my very first story over 30,000 words. It will always have a special significance in my heart :')

I originally intended for this story to be THE ultimate collection of all my personal theories regarding Aoi and Oga. To me, Beelzebub is capable of offering far more depth than we are able to see on the surface (and the scope of the manga allows). There are many interpretations the mangaka Ryuuhei Tamura probably did not intend, and never will, but that doesn't mean that we, as readers, aren't allowed to insert our own meanings into our readings of the characters. They still remain highly intriguing and sophisticated (Aoi Kunieda, in particular, grabs my attention =P).

TFOK, in light of that, was meant to be a grand summary of all my interpretations and whatnot. However, along the way, I felt that this made the story far too expository. Moreover, with my other series, 'The manymany ways in which Aoi and Oga could kiss', helping to fulfil some of the things I've always wanted to say about Aoi's character, I'm now given the freedom to make this more of a story to its own end.

As I've said, this is not the first version of the story. The first version no longer exists (unless some of you guys happened to save it), except as documents in my computer. I apologise if there are things you liked about the first version better, but in my opinion, this post-rewrite version is more coherent, deeper and just about better in every way.

Also, if you've noticed, the genre of this story is no longer humour/romance. I have changed it to hurt/comfort/romance, because I feel it is more appropriate. The story is pretty dark overall, but it's meant to be dark so that the light that shines through will be more brilliant than ever ;)

I really hope you do enjoy my story; I've put lots and lots of blood, sweat and tears into it!

Now, let the magic begin~~

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Two Faces of Kunieda - Part One
By Devilry

What do you want most in life?

Aoi found herself in darkness once again. It stretched in all directions; overhead like a starless night, underneath like the depths of the ocean.

'What do I want most?' She asked hesitantly, and frowned. 'Why most?'

Two beams of light pierced out from where she stood, diverging further and further, reaching indefinitely into the darkness beyond.

You may only choose one...

'Yep. Looks like I'm back here again, huh...' Aoi sighed wearily. There was no need for this. Time and time again, she came and left this miserable place without learning a single thing. It was not going to be any different now.

'Look, inner me, or whoever's out there!' She yelled. 'I know it's a convenient way to start off a story with an mysterious dream, but keep this up and you're going to lose all your readers before the true story's even started!'

... Fine. So this dream thing is a little cheesy.

'A little?' Aoi raised a dubious eyebrow.

Okay, it's very cheesy. I know, I know, even if I'm your subconsciousness I'm still you and it makes you look bad for me to rely on such a cheap plot device and I could've done a lot better... But still, something important is being said here! You're supposed to, like, get all confused and desperate over your predicament and this will continue to torment you for the rest of the story until you reach a satisfying inner peace or something like that!

'A predicament, huh...' Aoi mused. As much as she would like to think it, this dream was not completely contrived and arbitrary (and neither was her subconsciousness, to her relief).

One of the paths glistened with an ethereal lightness, bringing her up and up until she would never see the ground beneath her feet again. The view from up there would be absolutely terrifying.

The other path was lush and gave a glow of warmth, but trailed along the ground in the most ordinary, unimpressive way.

'My ideals... and my desires...' Aoi muttered.

You can only choose one...

'Why... does that have to be the case?' She said weakly.

Aoi instinctively took a step towards the upper path. However, the lower path kept its seductive presence in the corner of her eye, and she stole a longing glance at it.

'Which to choose... which to choose...'

She turned to the lower path and gently lowered her foot. As soon as it touched the ground, she began to feel a sense of regret. What happened to her passion and fighting spirit as Queen? Was she destined to live an unassuming, insignificant life?

Aoi turned to face the upper path again. It was still within reach; lying there, waiting for her, inviting.

She heaved a sigh of relief, and carefully lifted her other leg across the darkness between the two paths, reaching for out it. She inched closer and closer, slowly but surely. As soon as she touched it, it began to shake. Dark, ugly cracks spread across its surface, and chunks the size of small boulders broke off, disappearing into the unending abyss below. Aoi nearly lost her footing, but somehow managed to push herself back onto the lower path. She turned to run along it, but it too was trembling in rage. It collapsed all around her her, creeping towards her, hungry to consume her.

Aoi dropped to a kneel and covered her eyes, trying to hold back her tears. The rumbling was getting louder and louder, closer and closer.

All of a sudden, it stopped. It was a long while before Aoi dared to take a peek around again. There was a meek spot of light tracing the outline of her legs, holding her up. Everything beyond the outline, in every direction infinitely, was a pitch-black curtain.

Life is all about sacrifice. When you choose to do one thing, you implicitly reject the other.

Why do you have to choose one over the other?

It is necessary to be consistent and committed to one's beliefs.

Why should doing two different things conflict each other?

It is necessary to know who you are, and who you are not.

What if you do not know who you are?

Then it is necessary to live, for as long as you breathe, a two-faced creature...

Aoi's eyes burst open. Her head was flooded by a wave of disorientation, and she lay still for a few seconds to allow herself to register everything around her.

She lay on a soft tatami mat, but the floor beneath her was moving, swaying, bobbing up and down almost rhythmically. There was the peaceful hum of an engine amidst a gentle sound of rolling water. Then, there was a voice calling out to her: nonchalantly, coolly, with a little bit of concern, but equally concerned with not showing too much concern so that she would not get the wrong idea.

Only one guy had the flair for such unnecessary nuance. Oga.

That's right... We're on a boat... headed for this place called Decapitation Island. Decapitation Island, huh...? Dammit, that's the last destination I want my very first vacation with Oga to be! Aoi thought in horror. She was careful to use the phrase 'very first', for that made it likelier that many more vacations would follow according to the law of Chekhov's gun.

Ever since Aoi met Oga, her life had become very strange indeed. From learning about the existence of demons to the fact that the fate of the world now rested on their shoulders, everything was just so bizarre, rivalled by only the strangeness in which all the various mind-blowing revelations had revealed themselves in such a creatively calculated fashion that just about allowed her to suspend her disbelief without going insane.

But screw that! Aoi was going on a trip with Oga. WITH. OGA. This was difficult to swallow in an entirely different manner. A vacation was what couples took when they wanted to further their relationship and find the freedom to get more... intimate. There was pressure that the entire world might end as she knew it if she did not take this trip seriously enough, but it took a serious miser not to realise that you could always multi-task.

Oh god, there I go again... Aoi thought in frustration. Whenever she thought about Oga, she never felt like she could be further from herself. Just a few months ago, as Queen, such thoughts would have been sacrilegious. Now, they were swarming into her head at the slightest push of a button, unresisted and carefree.

Who I am... Wait, no... 'who I am', or 'who I was'? 'Who I am', or 'who I'm supposed to be'...?

Aoi was not quite sure how her feelings for Oga had escalated so quickly and with such fervour. Was he truly the 'one' capable of changing her life, or was she simply desperate for one man - anyone - to finally appear?

She had always thought of herself as two people. One was the queen; a leader who strived to protect, to provide justice and guidance to the women who needed it in this morally bankrupt society. The other was just a simple-minded, unambitious girl who simply wanted to avoid the dreariness of life; a girl who lived in her own innocuous bubble, seeing the world for what it was and ignoring it for what it meant, much like her baby brother Kouta.

Both faces led two disparate lives that gave her a sense of fulfilment in incomparable ways.

All that worked out perfectly. Until she met Oga. Between Oga and the reformed Ishiyama High under his reign, there was no longer a need for façades. There was no situation to match her personality to; she simply had to present herself as a one person, and stick to that person all the time. In other words, one side of her had effectively become obsolete.

Who am I?

On one hand, Aoi wanted to be the strong-willed, self-assured woman who could love Oga and fight beside him. On the other hand, she wanted to be the ditsy, cheerful girl who Oga seemed to have so much fun with. On the other hand (wait, that was the third hand now), she wanted to be neither because either way, she felt like she was not truly being herself. It did not help that the 'Kunie' disguise that she had fooled Oga with only served to reinforce her guilt that she was presenting herself as a lie. Unsurprisingly, she began having her strange dream not long after.

Regardless, Aoi was determined to make the most of her trip. If there was anything she could be sure of, it was her potential for character growth. After all, she had managed to collect quite the modest fanbase, which she assumed was based on her personality; unlike many other female heroines, she did not find herself needing to compensate for a lack of emotional depth with an oversized bust.

For now, it was more important for Aoi to ensure that the plot actually advanced in some tangible manner, lest the readers think it was doomed to drag on in the grotesque pits of endless purple prose.

'Decapitation Island. It's 200km from the mainland. A small island with only about 300 people on it.' Lamia read off a guidebook. 'It got its name from being an island for exiles. This is where exiled criminals were sent.' The well-placed tautology for dramatic emphasis.

'What's 'exiled'?' Lamia asked, purposefully drawing attention to the dreadful nature of the word by contrasting it to the childlike, paedophile-worthy innocence that was her height.

'In the past, when someone did something really bad, they were banished to islands like this one.' Aoi noted. Not that it made a lot of sense. Decapitation was considered an honourable way to die in the samurai-era. It was like calling Death a travel agent, with very competitive rates.

Aoi's thoughts were pulled back into reality before they could wander off on a tangent of dangerous relativism. She noticed that Beel was trying to crawl into Oga's scarf to take shelter from the cold. He dived in head-first, did a small roll inside the scarf, and popped his head back out again. He then continued to squirm about in the scarf, trying to find the most comfortable position.

'Put some clothes on!' Oga reproached. Beel promptly ignored Oga, delighted to have found his own cosy little nirvana.

'What?' Oga turned to Aoi, who realised that she had been staring.

'It's nothing.' She quickly stammered. It reminded her of Kouta. Like her, Oga had to juggle two different roles at once that required two completely different personalities. A gang leader had to be fierce, tough and independent. A parent, on the other hand, had to put the child first at all times, and act as a role model for him.

Role model... how convenient for Oga that his child is a demon. Aoi sighed. The worse he is a parent in society's eyes, the better he is a role model for Beel. I'd never allow Kouta to be exposed to violence this young! Not until he learns about the principles of our shingetsu style, and knows not to fight without reason.

Even then, there was a tenderness in the way Oga interacted with Beel. Aoi knew that this was crucial, no matter what societal norms the baby was expected to emulate. If Oga were just your average delinquent - a very powerful one, but still a delinquent in every way - she would never have fallen for him nor quit the Red Tails for him. For the longest time, all the male delinquents in Ishiyama High were the lowest form of life; trashy, obnoxious, insecure, an overwhelming need to impose themselves on every last stupid thing around them. Until Oga came around, that was. Somehow, he changed her impression of men entirely. There was something special about him that gave her hope.

Oga's amazing balance of authority and kindness - was this his own unique attempt of being two people at once? Aoi found this fascinating. Perhaps this was why she had taken such an interest in him.

Aoi's thoughts were cut short when an old lady approached the two of them.

'Aww, how adorable.' She remarked in admiration. 'Are you newlyweds? Are you out on a family trip? You guys are very young, you know.'

'HUH? WHAT! NO… WE'RE NOT!' Aoi burst out in fluster.

'Forgive me. From my point of view, you guys looked like a nice couple.' The old lady continued.

Aoi's cheeks flared up. Does that mean that to people who don't know us, we look like a good couple? She thought in exhilaration. In Japanese pop culture, old people always possessed a hidden wisdom. Now that the prophecy had been made, getting together with Oga was a matter of poetic justice! There was simply no other conceivable reason for such a scene to take place. Aoi's legs went numb and she tripped against the railing, sending the can drink in her hand tumbling into the sea.

After all, Oga was not the kind of person who would appreciate a big bust. They would only get in his way. Aoi just needed to overcome this one obstacle. Well, two obstacles. Two huge obstacles.

Unfortunately, Oga had already moved on, and proceeded to talk about something entirely unrelated.

Then again, Aoi did not find this not surprising in the least. Oga was good at being ignorant. Too good. He could make ignorance power and knowledge bliss.

Well, that was still just Oga being himself. Aoi might not even like him as much otherwise.