Third Person

~

It's a tough pill to swallow but Kira knows it's true, she isn't a master and she barely knows what she's doing half the time.

She wasn't trained or raised to fight spirits, control them, and protect the innocent while keeping the peace between unseen forces.

She sinks to the ground, back against the raised ledge with her head turned up to the sky as she tries to suppress the doubt and unease at Ryoichi's words.

"I hate this, everything, I hate it all so much," she hisses through clenched teeth, "I hate that I don't know what to do."

"You shouldn't let him get into your head, you can't trust him, brat, you know that!" Lucifer growls sounding just about tired of her moaning.

"Well sorry if I don't know who to trust or believe anymore!" She screams at him, but he's not there with her and she feels dumb, yelling at beings she can't see unless she wills them into existence, "I get a feeling I should trust you guys but no one's going to take the words of a couple of Demons and the one Keeper that isn't the universe's chosen or whatever! I doing what I can but guess what? No one cares!"

She takes a couple of breaths from her rant to sigh and curl both hands into her hair, "Troy doesn't believe in my abilities, Kuro's just being kind, These Overseer guys we're going to meet are probably going to side with Ryoichi and I don't know how to win this because it actually feels so much more than slicing through monsters," her last words cone out as quiet whispers, "Why does giving up look like it's the right and wrong choice at the same time?"

She feels a hand on her head and it startles her into the present, she looks up to see Mammon fixing her with a solemn look while Lucifer is standing off to the side.

"When and how-"

"You unconsciously summoned us here kid," the larger demon responds with a small grin, "We've done a lot of shitty things before and we've also left a ton of shit out for your own good but I mean it when I say we've come to realize you're a good fit for the job."

"A better one than him quite frankly," Lucifer chirps in, he gives her a steely look, "Listen well, Kira. You, us and those two pests you call a team are the only ones who pose a threat to Nightmare. The Overseers barely have luck tracking his activities over the years but they're a bunch of pretentious control freaks, they think their forces will be enough to take him on when and 'if' he shows himself but if his plans are truly what we figured out-"

"Then there's no one but you three and us," Mammon finishes off for him.

Kira sniffs back tears of frustration, it suddenly becomes clear this was all second to the real threat they should be facing, stopping Nightmare came first, "You two think I can convince them to go after that artifact that Agawa-san mentioned?"

"You'll have to convince them you're worth believing," Mammon's smirk is wide like the thought of proving the Overseers wrong is exciting, "To them, you and those boys are rogues, you're a bystander who's being manipulated by Demons, can you prove otherwise?"

The more she thought about it the more absurd and ridiculous it seemed but despite her reservations and unwillingness to participate in this broken charade of a hearing, she had a goal, and Demons controlling her or not, she had a life to live.

"What if they don't agree and we have to run, I mean I'm the Keeper and there's that pact thing, right?"

"Unfortunately, if you disagree with their decision and walk out on them, you'll be considered a threat," Lucifer spoke up finally, "And they'll hunt you down."

Her confidence sinks a little at that statement but there's little she can do about it. She can't hand over the Seal and the Demons have made that pretty clear, "I'll do what I can."

"You don't really have much of a choice Kira," Lucifer sneers after her as she gets up and hops onto the ledge to go home. She decided they'd all take the night to cool off and meet tomorrow with a new perspective to tackle this once and for all but Lucifer's words made her turn where he and Mamon stand below her, the demonic glow of their inhuman eyes pierce through the darkness.

"If you fail, getting hunted will put your family and friends in danger. When we first met I told you to cut ties to protect everyone you love, now might be the best time to consider truly embracing my advice," he sounds almost smug as if he's been waiting for an opportunity to prove her wrong on her choice of not letting go for a long time now.

"You really have that little faith in me huh?" She asks coolly.

"Just suggesting a precaution," he waves offhandedly.

Mammon places his hand behind his head, "Luci's right, kid."

"Don't call me that meathead!"

With a wave of her hand, Kira breaks the connection before they can start their fight in the open, she turns toward the direction of home and knows she'll have to take a detour through several alleyways to make sure she's not followed but she's made her decision.

She's not giving up anything but herself.

"I'll just have to make sure it doesn't come to that," she says as she dives off the side of the building, the glow of the sprawled city dims as she falls deeper into the darkness of the alley.

***

The next morning greets the city with warm clear skies.

Kuro takes in a breath of air as he and Troy run past a couple of pedestrians at their entrance to the park. They usually didn't have morning runs during the weekend but that didn't stop Troy from going on his own personal sprints.

The younger boy had just decided to tag along so they could talk things out. After Kira had left them behind the night before, Troy had taken off almost immediately after.

'What's the use of a team discussion if the leader of said team isn't there?'

There was little he could do to hold the blond back, ironic that he was the one eager to abandon them for his revenge scheme some weeks ago but now it seems he's the only one capable of keep the peace between Troy and Kira.

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They are on their regular route and Kuro can't help but recall all the times they had come this way together; His jokes, Kira's laughter, and Troy's snarky comments, it all comes rushing back like music being carried by the morning breeze, and it makes him understand why the events of last night would tick Kira off.

She doesn't know yet, but Kuro had seen her perceptiveness in action. She could feel it too, if they fail, they lose each other.

Without the Seal, she'd have no power and there was only one way to take care of a civilian who had seen the supernatural.

He can't tell what Troy would do after but he refuses to ever work that that smug Ryoichi bastard even if the blond decides to. Something just doesn't sit right with him.

He doesn't want to abandon his revenge on Nightmare but now he has to find a cure for Ryu as well as find his sister, his priorities are all over the place but he can feel that staying by Kira's side is what he needs to make sense of everything, for now at least.

By her , side, he's found friends and family that truly want him even when he doesn't make the right calls. Though uncertain of what the future may hold, he wants to hold onto to what he's found for as long as he's allowed, hold onto the possibility he can experience more than the desire to destroy.

He lifts a hand to push the fringes of his dark locks out of his eyes and glances off to the side at Troy who's clearly trying to ignore his uninvited presence but Kuro keeps staring persistently.

"I hope you run into a tree," the blond huffs finally.

"I'll just get you to heal me if that happens," he grins.

"I'd rather you bleed out and I'd finally be rid of you," he takes a turn and Kuro follows smoothly, "Say whatever you have to if you insist on disrupting my peace."

"So direct," Kuro mumbles before getting straight to the point, "I know Kira's exit wasn't the most encouraging thing last night but it's best to let her calm down first."

"I don't care about Vermillion or her petty emotions, she obliviously doesn't have everyone's best interest at heart."

"She wants to stop Nightmare as much as either of us! What do mean she doesn't have everyone's best interest?! You're just saying that because you don't trust the Demons!"

"I don't, and I have no reason to," the blond stops, Kuro goes on for a few more steps before turning to face him with an accusing stare, "Glare all you want brat, but you know as well as I do that the apprentice is better suited for the job. He's better trained and he'll be able to harness the power of the seal without any issue. We won't have to worry about some artifact we're not sure even exists anymore."

Kuro bites his bottom lip in frustration, Troy's right, Ryoichi is absolutely the best choice, he hates that the answer to their problems seems right in front of them but they can't take it, he clenches his fists, "But do we trust him? How do we hand over that kind of power to someone who came from literally nowhere?"

Troy turns away and jogs past the younger boy. He has his own misgivings as well but he has to win this battle against Nightmare and Kira is clearly not the one meant for the job. He tells himself it's for her own good, he was saving her and the world from a painful ruin.

He couldn't watch all he was to protect crumble around him.

He can hear Kuro's now less enthusiastic steps behind him but they're close to their break point by now.

A tall tree with a wide trunk and falling with blossoms marks the end of their jogging route. A figure steps out from beneath the shade and Troy has to admit he hadn't been expecting her so soon.

Kira sniffs at them, hands on her hips, "Took you long enough."

"Has your temper tantrum passed?" He asks simply.

"I wasn't having a tantrum! I...I just needed to sort through my thoughts..."

She moves closer to them as both boys come to a full stop, "I know I'm not the strongest, and I barely get through most of the time but until I really fail, I don't want you two to doubt me... it's obvious you don't need me," she admits painfully, "But at least for now, I need you two, and I can prove you're right to depend on me, just for a little longer."

Kuro barges forward and swings a jovial comforting arm over her shoulder that nearly pulls her to his level, "Don't say that, Kira! We'll deal with those tight-ass higher-ups together and shove that bastard's words back down his throat!" He grabs her shoulders and forces their eyes to lock, "I'm always on your side."

"Touching display but there's little we can do about our image," Troy cuts in, why were these two always prepared to head into the worst situations unprepared? It irked him to no end and he hated he was getting used to it.

"Leave it to me!" Kira snaps her fingers with a wink, "We fought Nightmare and survived once, how bad could a bunch of old farts be?"

"We need an actual plan, Vermillion," he drawls, he shouldn't have said anything.

"I'm good at sucking up to people remember?" She nudges him lightly, "And if they need money for property damage I can deal with that too. All we've got to do is show them we're not afraid and make them see our worth."

"If they disagree then we fight?" Kuro exclaims in a tone far more excited than he's been all morning

"Why don't you want to give up? You didn't even want to be Keeper in the first place," He pushes, still hoping to convince them not to march them to their demise. He's not afraid of the Overseers, he just doesn't see any point in making them enemies.

There's no point in fighting a battle that's far out of their control against people who truly protect the world.

But he watches the two idiots walk off, talking about what they'd say to give the best impression like they weren't going before some of the most powerful beings in Tokyo.

He trudges after them if only to mention how right he'd been when it all finally came to an end.

Until tonight maybe, he was stuck with them.

He ignores a thin chord in his chest that aches at that thought.

"Morons," he reminds himself in a harsh whisper. All humans were morons, their lives fleeting without any worth getting attached to.

***

The day passes in a slow uneventful haze. Kira tries to brush off her worries when the others come over to hang out and do homework but her eyes never fail to go to the clock.

The minutes sluggishly bleed into hours and despite her bravado in the park her nerves sing irritably beneath her skin the closer it gets to midnight.

She reads through a small speech Troy showed up with but aside from the words she finds too long to remember, she's not really interested but thankfully it's given her an idea of what to say and she'll be brutally honest about her thoughts.

Events blur into one another in a mess of worksheets, laughs, and ice cream from that one place not far from the apartment complex.

Before Kira can tell what's happening she's watching Kuro draw a pentagram with several unfamiliar symbols into the ground of their training yard.

"There's no direct path to the Overseer Temple because it's enchanted but teleportation seals with the right symbols will take us to the front of its gates," The dark-haired male explains as he finishes up.

Kira pulls out her phone, "Ten minutes to midnight."

"We should get going then, the last thing we need is to be late," Troy makes his way into the seal and stands upright with arms folded.

"Someone's excited~" Kuro teases.

"Shut up and let's go."

Kira steps in too, admittedly, she is excited. For so long it had only been the three of them, and maybe Jade and Akio, as magic users that she's aware of. Everyone else was either a Demon or someone else they had to fight. Now, she was about to go where there were others just like them.

Sure this was going to determine their futures moving forward but it was an exciting experience nonetheless.

She didn't plan on losing and she wasn't going to make things harder for them.

"It might be a bumpy ride so hold on tight," Kuro pats his shoulders.

Kira and Troy reach out and grab hold.

"We've got this guy's, we've come too far to be turned down," she urges as the the seal beneath them begins to glow a bright blue that quickly shifts into dark red as Kuro pours more magic energy into it. The ground trembles and the air shifts as Kuro's hand signs rise in intensity.

"Let's hope you keep that energy when we get there," Troy rolls eyes.

"Aye captain, let's show those clowns who's boss!" Kuro grins as he finishes the chant in his head, the air around them explodes outward and they're swallowed up by pulsing lights and the pressure of being swallowed into a whirlwind.