Third Person

~

The winds that night were strong.

Kira struggled to keep the hood of her cloak in place, even though she knew the Mask would hide her face anyway, the hood itself was quite nice and kept her face warm.

It was especially appreciated when all the rooftops held for she and her teammates was the bone chilling cool of the evening air.

As well as the uncertainty of whether this night would be their last.

They were currently looking down at the at the gardens they were to investigate. It was way past midnight and the streets were devoid of people all thanks to the curfew still being in action.

The lights with the enclosure were on and giving a soft light to the area they would be looking into.

"So do we just jump in?" She asked, readying her staff in its plain form.

"Actually, you're going in alone." Kuro said.

"Excuse me?!" She spun on her heels to level both males with an incredulous look.

"Times will come when we have to split up and take on individual obstacles, we can't be your training wheels forever." Troy said, harsh as always.

She was still mad at him for his earlier comments in the bedroom. She hated how everyone always saw her as some rich girl who had no problems in the world.

She would readily admit she had lucked out. How many orphans fell into the arms of filthy rich families? Very few for sure.

And even fewer would receive love from whatever families they found themselves but her she was supposedly happy with a very lenient stepfather who was ready to go above and beyond for her.

She never took it for granted and was eternally grateful for everything. She was a terrible person, and with each mission, each person they saved and the more strength she acquired, she realized it.

This entire Demona thing was her karma. Her punishment for abandoning this place she had lived so long ago was to save it.

The light she left behind to pursue a better life, she had to save it now.

Her grip around the staff tightened and with no further urging, she jumped down. Using the air to soften her landing into the branch of a tree.

'You should have discussed things first.' Kuro said in her head.

'You put me in charge, at least have some trust in me.' She huffed before shutting any other comments out.

'The child is right.' Lucifer chimed in.

"Not you too." She hissed beginning her walk into the new floral exhibit that seemed to be everyone's interest.

'You have no idea what you're going to see.'

"I hate how they always make me feel inferior. I already know I'm behind but I don't need them throwing their little pity tests every once in a while," she said under her breath, "I never want to be too much or too little. Being just enough to get by is all I want. Just... normal."

'Sometimes being 'just enough', won't get results, Kira Vermillion.'

She stopped walking to stare at a particularly colourful flowering tree, the reality of his words disconcerting her more than usual. After firmly shaking the feeling off, she turned back down the path and kept a look out for anything suspicious.

Troy kept his eyes on the garden, thoroughly avoiding Kuro's boring gaze until he could no longer do so.

"Say what you want, I'm right and we both know it," he turned so he met the other's eyes, "The whole reason she asked for team was so we could do most of the work. When she improved a bit, she thought that was all she needed,but she was proven wrong again.

"She's going to keep improving but unless she's strong in her resolve, she's going to keep relaxing when she thinks she's done enough."

The darker haired male sighed, "I kinda figured that out," he groaned running a hand through his hair, "That's why I think this is a good start."

"Do you even know what is down there?" The blond questioned.

He was met with a very blank stare. He sighed, he wasn't worried about Vermillion, just very unimpressed with Kuro.

"It can't be that bad, my feathers flew over this area several times in the past week and things seemed pretty normal."

"A lot can happen within a few days in Tokyo, especially with Nightmare here."

"Can you be a bit more optimistic for her sake."

Troy's mind went back to the vision he was still yet to share with the other two. He had decided no one else needed to know, for now at least. Dampening Kira's spirit before time would do little to help.

"I'll be optimistic when there's something to be optimistic about."

"Kill joy." Kuro puffed before turning back to track Kira's progress, his eyes widened, "I think something is wrong."

Kira had been walking for several minutes now. Aside from the spooky feeling she got from the swinging vines, there seemed to be nothing outrightly wrong within the gardens.

She let out an exhausted breath, whatever did harm to Sato Akemi was really good at hiding if it was this determined to not fight her.

Unluckily for them, she had been practicing a new skill. If she concentrated hard enough on the airwaves around her and blew it outwards, she would be able to pick out any odd energy signatures.

It was kind of like the sound waves that bats used but probably much more cooler.

'It's exactly the same thing.' She remember Troy saying when she had first brought it up.

"Stupid Troy." She hissed under her breath before focusing as hard as she could and blowing everything outwards.

She came to regret that decision instantly, mainly because if it worked she would be right, but also, she would be in so much trouble.

There was a very strange energy all around her. Stretching for several feet and ending just outside the park, both above and below ground.

'Lucifer...'

'I felt it too, get off-'

Before she could hear the end of his sentence, she felt something rough and flexible wrap tightly around her right ankle. Kira looked down to find a very thick tree vine, with little time to react, she was swiftly pulled off the ground and raised into the air with a frightened cry.

A scowl pulled at her lips, she twisted her wrist, making the staff take the form of the scythe in preparation to strike at the vine holding her upside down.

Instead, her wrists were grabbed by other vines while others tried to crawl into her clothes.

Kuro was about to fly down instantly but his wings were held back by Troy, "She can handle it."

Kira snarled and managed to create sharp blades of wind to cut down the vines. She landed on the ground and got to hacking them down with her weapon.

"At least take me to dinner you bastards!" She growled as more vines tried to creep up on her, "Lucifer! What am I dealing with?"

'Jubokku, demon trees that survive off human blood.'

"Splendid. How do you think they got here?"

'Certain seeds that attract certain demons. Once they're full grown, they result in this but the time gap is way too short for them to have matured without any of us knowing.'

"You're trying to say they were planted recently."

'Yes, and they're more vicious if their first victim is anything to go by.'

Kira chopped off another branch that leaned towards her, "How do I stop them?"

'Expose their roots, sunlight or fire would be better though.'

None of those options were available, the next best thing would be Troy's lightning but there was no way she was asking for his help after what he'd said.

"Looks like it's time to do some gardening."

'I'll forget I heard that.' Lucifer said , sounding like he cringed a bit.

Kira ignored him and grabbed the next branch that came her way and tugged with all her strength. A fairly tall tree with bright red blooming plants flew out of the ground, she slammed it on the rocky pathway and watched as it slowly shriveled up.

She wiped the sweat from her brow, reminding herself that she could do this. She wasn't weak.

"She's handling pretty well." Kuro chirped as they watched.

"Not for much longer, she's still not calling us." Troy added. True to Kuro's observation, Kira was doing pretty well on her own but signs of exhaustion from boosting her strength constantly were showing.

He was pretty sure those trees weren't leaving the soil with out a fight and a good amount had roots that spread out as far as the park entrance.

"Go in, I'll fire from here." The blond ordered.

"Pushy pushy." Kuro wagged his finger before diving off the side of the building.

There was a crack and Troy had his weapon ready. He took aim and let three arrows fly.

Kira barely managed to untangle herself from a few vines before a bolt of golden light connected with the roots of the struggling Jubokku. A few more struck other locations.

She glared at the direction the attacks had come from.

"I don't need your help." She hissed loudly.

"You were doing a pretty good job actually." Kuro swooped down and landed at her side. A feather flew into his waiting hand, covered in a sickly green fluid that Kira had noticed the trees producing.

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He licked it.

"Nasty stuff." He shuddered before snapping his fingers, several of the the vicious plants froze in place, "I've taken hold of a few, uproot them quickly, we'll cover you."

Without further delay, Kira got to work, uprooting as many as she could from pure strength and watching as Troy's arrows set them ablaze so they would stop trying to reach plant themselves back.

Despite their best efforts, there were still many vines creeping up on them. Kuro feathers were everywhere, moving at the speed of light and slicing through as many roots as possible but he was quickly realizing how outnumbered they were.

"We might have to retreat and-"

"The grand opening is tomorrow evening Kuro, if we don't fix this now, they'll attack several innocent people."

"So we keep fighting then, even when you're quickly running out of strength."

"I'm fine." She said, it was in no way true but she wasn't going to lose to a bunch of leaves and twigs. She'd thought of using a tornado but these plants were gripping The ground with more strength than any storm she was capable of conjuring at the moment.

She needed to awaken something much stronger.

More powerful than she was now.

'What are you thinking human? Whatever it is you're not ready.' Lucifer hissed.

She stomped down the urge to tell him to shut up, she needed to focus, to keep going, how was she going to protect her family and be happy when she couldn't even fight this.

She would deeper into the dark void of the power thrust upon her and gain more.

Over head, storm clouds gathered, Ahlai sat on a quiet rooftop, Belzebub standing beside her.

"Do you feel that?" She asked, voice flat and devoid of emotion.

"She's awakened another one." The other demon grunted.

"She had to, if not, there would be no way of stopping the Jubokku, they would only spread further underground during the day, and emerge at night." Ahlai stood.

"She's given into the despair of the hopeless situation." She added with an upward quirk of her lip, "Nevertheless, it won't be enough to-" the was a sudden shift in the air.

"You were saying?"

Ahlai frowned, "This energy, it belongs to-"

"Mammon."

At the sudden change of Kira's energy, Troy was flying down get a better look a the hell had happened.

"What's happening, Kuro?" He questioned, landing at Kuro's side.

The younger boy pointed at where Kira stood, a dark twisted aura blazing around her. Troy was about to head in her direction when the ground began to tremble and crack.

Thick heavy looking chains sprung forth, thrashing and waving in every direction as Kira began to scream horribly.

"What do we do, Kuro?"

"No idea."

Troy was definitely not expecting that and quickly ducked out of the aim of one of the chains just to find out it was just plunging into the soil and uprooting more Jubokku as it came up again.

The chains, varying in several sizes were all over the place, a mess of systemic tangles pulling any tree they could get a hand on and slamming it repeatedly on the hard pavement.

The gardens were completely destroyed and Kira could feel more chains materialize beneath her, zipping underground and destroying all the roots the Jubokku had worked so hard to reveal.

But the more that came, the more she could feel herself slipping, and falling deeper into the enticing darkness of the power coursing through her.

The only words in her head was a constant chant of 'More, more, more...'

All she needed was more, to be more that these stupid trees.

Troy groaned in dismay as more uprooted trees fell his way. He kept firing, singeing as many as he could keep up with. Kuro had drawn up some talismans and was zipping through the air, plastering them on every tree he came up on.

In only a few minutes has passed before they were standing amidst several piles of smouldering tree carcasses and the destroyed remains of the once beautiful park.

Troy turned in Kira's direction. The chains were still whipping about her kneeling form, striking at the air like vipers poised for a fight. There was still something completely off about her and he approached with caution.

"Demona...it's over now, let's leave."

There was a chuckle, one far too deep and masculine to belong to Kira.

"I'm afraid Kira is taking a nap right now so if you could check in never...that would be very welcome." She turned to them.

Troy's eyes widened, and he heard a very annoyed, "oh shit," from Kuro.

Kira's right eye was completely black, no whites, no anything; her left eye on the other hand was deeper shade of green that didn't belong to her, surrounded by black as well with straining blood vessels creeping towards the centre.

"Who are you?" The blond asked, sparks already buzzing around him

"Mammon, Greed's twin of Envy, I work best with my brother but this human body was too weak to handle him so I'll have to do without him." The voice responded, Kira's hands went to her face and down the rest of her body, "Not bad, could be better though."

"Let her go!" Kuro screamed.

"The little girl let me possess her body, she needed more power, I gave her more power. It's a win win." He huffed, then grinned, a slow lazy grin like someone who had all the time in the world, "Besides, it's been so long since I was out, no way I'm returning that easily."

"Kuro?"

"Knock the body out first." The dark haired male said, assuming what Troy was asking.

The blond nodded and flew straight for the Kira with a lightning fueled punched but he was instead flicked back by a particularly large chain and picked up like a ragdoll.

"Trapped for a while means I'm rusty, not stupid," Mammon snarled, "Your power is interesting though."

Troy immediately felt it. A tug at his core like some part of his energy was being sucked right out of him. He struggled, only to be instantly thrown down.

He tried to summon his lightning but nothing came forth.

Mammon barked out a laugh, "Did I forget to mention I can steal the magic abilities of anything I warp my chains around? You'll get them back in a minute but I can have them for as long as I can." Kira's hands lit up with golden sparks, and so did the chains.

There was a whizzing sound and Mammon barely managed to stop the feather by deflecting it. He turned to Kuro, "The one with the blood magic, I'm guessing you wanted to take the girls blood and temporarily paralyze the body before knocking it out."

"Give her back, right now."

"I don't want to." Mammon said and with a flick of Kira's wrist, the chains were dashing after Kuro, but he was just as swift. Evading the chains which struggled to grasp him as he flew several feet above the irritated demon. Struggling to find and opening to paralyze Kira's body.

"Nice try bird boy, but there's no way I'm letting you through." Mammon threw a small ball of lightning but Troy was there, stopping it just before it hit Kuro and tossing it back.

The demon scowled, "Why you...shit, she's waking up."

"Now's our chance. Kira!"

"What are you doing brat it's obviously not her." Troy said resisting the urge to slap him.

"I know but she's trying to fight back, we have to let her know we haven't given up on her."

The blond's brow furrowed slightly, it was a reasonable plan, but it all depended on how Kira saw them, if she cared about them enough to fight for.

If she saw them as more that a means to an end.

He highly doubted that but someone whose opinion he trusted dearly had always told him to have faith in people. Truth was, he always had a sinking feeling when such things were involved, nevertheless, she was their last hope.

"Vermillion, wake the hell up already!"

Kira wasn't sure where she was, all around her, the air felt thick and flowy. She cracked her tired eyes open and struggled to make sense of the dark red-ish space.

She looked down only find a black abyss that stared tauntingly up at her.

She felt herself shiver.

"It's your mind space." She turned around, with much difficulty, until she was face to face with a dark humanoid mist with flashing red eyes.

"Lucifer?"

"So you do have a brain?"

"Why am I here? What happened?" She asked hurriedly, ignoring his jab.

"It's because you gave Mammon the chance to have a blast out there," He drawled, "It's so unfair you know? I asked first but you let him have it."

"There's no time for your ego, how do I get out of here?"

"That's entirely up to you," he pointed at the abyss, "You go down there and if you have enough resolve and strength you can make him submit."

Kira bit her lip tentatively, Lucifer slithered, as that was the only way one could describe his movement, to her side. He placed his hands on her shoulder.

"Having second thoughts?"

There were echoes she was only beginning to notice. The more she listened, the more she began to realize that there were calls.

Voices that had become so familiar over the span of the last month that she could identify them in her sleep. There was an unnerving swell in her chest, she puffed out an exasperated breathe but there was smile on her face.

"As if." She responded to Lucifer's question before diving in, hearing his echoing call of,

"Next time, Kira, it's my turn."

They had been evading punches and calling out for so long, Troy was ready to continue on the offensive once more but he was very sure Mammon would just steal his abilities again.

Kuro dived in, feathers dancing in every direction but failing to get anywhere near their attacker's personal space.

Troy was about use his most powerful attack when all the chains froze in place, there was a grunt in Mammon's direction, he had fallen to the ground, holding Kira's head in her hands and screaming curses.

"No! Go back to sleep you damn- stop!"

All of a sudden a chain whipped through the air, slamming Mammon himself into a wall.

There was no movement, only the stillness and silence that rested over them.

The two boys exchanged a look, then a nod, and proceeded to approach with caution.

Kira lay in the pile of bricks, unable to move or even make a sound.

Her blurry eyes stared up at the night sky, devoid of stars from this height because Tokyo was just so bright.

She smiled as she heard footsteps, but instead of the boys, the person at her side peering downs at her was a girl with ghostly white skin, eyes teary but thankful and hands put together in a gesture of gratitude as she bowed.

Kira gasped softly, reaching out to touch.

"You're, Akemi..."

Just her fist was about to close over the others simple white kimono when the girl vanished.

Kira stared, still out of it when Troy and Kuro were kneeling at her side, trying to get her to respond to their questions.

She went back to watching the night sky until she could no longer keep her eyes open.

***

The next time Kira awoke, her head was laying on something warm and soft.

She nuzzled into the material only to realize it was denim, hands were trailing through her hair in a soothing manner that was all so familiar, but only from a long time ago.

So very long ago she's convinced her mind was playing tricks on her.

She sat up slowly so as not to disorient herself. Kuro's fingers pulled free of her hair.

"Hey," He said, "I'm happy you're okay."

She nodded, noting it was still quite dark. Troy was nowhere to be seen.

"He's making sure all the Jubokku are burned," Kuro said sensing the question on her mind, "Do you want to talk about what happened."

She forced a smile, but it wasn't exactly forced, some part of her was happy at the fact she was alive and she had made progress.

"I feel great actually," save for the concussion making her head throb but it'd heal on its own eventually.

"But Mammon took over your body, maybe you should lay back for a while." He suggested, earnest concern filling every word.

Kira managed a bigger smile and hopped to her feet, "Have some faith in me, I'm not going to let that happen again and even if it does, I trust you and Troy will be able to pull me back just like you did today."

She reached out a hand to help him stand, "Thank you Kuro, you guys are doing so much for me."

He stared at her, torn between trying to persuade her to rest and amazed that she was still willing to keep pushing even after experiencing something as scary as a possession.

He could remember the feeling well, his master had used it as mental resolve training and if one failed to take control back within a set time, they would be exorcised and an exorcism was never something pretty.

He genuinely worried for her.

"It won't happen again?" He asked as he took her hand.

She pulled him up and into a tight hug, "It won't." She replied, she could tell he was anxious and she could only do what she used to do to her little brother when he was still alive, "I'm not going anywhere, Kuro."

There was a quiet sniff, and once again, she was reminded how young he was, how young they all were. But this path was the only one they could take and she would do all she could to make it less painful and lonely for him with all the strength she could muster.

Troy watched from not too far away, a sigh left his lips, humans and their feelings.