Jonathan looked down at his cellphone, it was displaying the current time and date; December 21st 14:00. The plan was to head back to America tomorrow and spend the last day before Christmas back in the country in which he was born. Huddling as another cold wind pierced through his beige jacket, the bald man would begin to walk faster through the now mostly desolate streets of the city. It was hard to believe, a sudden influx of violence had appeared in the town almost the instant Jonathan had visited. It was almost like he had placed a jinx on the town merely by coming here, although the man himself did not truly believe in such superstitions.
Even then, there had been things beyond logical explanation in this place, such as that monstrous girl. While he had thought about getting out of the town, the man eventually decided that he might as well stay for the time being, because it's not like there was anything for him to return to. Walking down the street, the man would click through the display of his cellphone, looking at what more he could do with it other than just receive and send calls. The text function was still mostly a mystery to him, although he had gotten the basics down. Before he had a chance to look up, a figure would appear in the upper corner of his vision and before long he bumped into a fellow pedestrian.
“Ouch!” Looking up, Jonathan could see a blond man wearing a dark blue suit that he instantly recognized. The youngster before him was Oda Kaguri, a local of the town. He and Mifuyu had decided to fight against whatever insane monsters were lurking in the underbelly of Pandemonium, something Jonathan wanted no part of. Despite that, in a town filled with strangers like this, merely seeing someone he was familiar with caused a slight smile to creep across Jonathan's face. “Oda, it’s been a while.” Indeed, the last time they had seen each other was at Oda’s apartment more than two weeks ago. “Tell me how is that investigation of yours going, figured out anything interesting?” A solemn look would appear on Oda’s face as he realized what Jonathan was referring to. “It was much more dire than we had anticipated, that girl; Maru-Maru, she wasn’t alone. There might be as many as seven of them and I think they are trying to end the world.” Sounding like a rambling madman, Oda would stop himself from speaking for a moment and just breathe. Jonathan looked at him with a worried expression, the boy had clearly seen some things since they last met. Not wanting their reunion to be painted by such negative thoughts, Jonathan tried to lighten the mood by asking a more lighthearted question. “I see, how is Mifuyu doing?”
Jonathan's idea failed terribly. “Mifuyu… he was killed. He was killed by a man, no, a monster made out of iron.” Realizing that he only sounded more insane with those words, Oda would shut his mouth and look at Jonathan to see how he responded. Although he didn’t exactly understand what Oda was trying to hint at with the second sentence, Jonathan understood the first one perfectly, Mifuyu was gone.
A solemn expression would befall the man's appearance, he knew about losing a brother from his time in Vietnam and understood that this was no situation to be taken lightly. “This man who killed Mifuyu… What did he look like?” It was one of the most basic questions any investigator would ask a witness, making sure to speak slowly so Oda would have time to compose himself Jonathan began to probe for information. “As I said it wasn’t a man who killed Mifuyu, the closest thing I could describe that thing to would be a suit of armor animated to come to life. Even if you stabbed it through the heart it would keep on going like nothing happened.” What Oda said sounded absolutely ridiculous to Jonathan, but after considering just what had been happening in this town the prospect of truly supernatural forces existing sounded more and more likely.
“I see, what about Maru-Maru?” Oda would give Jonathan a worried glance, knowing that it was possible that Alice and Evelina were staring her down right now. “She’s still out there, dead set on eating Alice.” Things were looking grim for them, it was very possible that none of them would survive until the end of the year. “You said something about the world ending?” Jonathan recalled what the man had said, something about seven angels descending from the sky and all that. “Yeah, seven angels will descend from the sky, six will be torn to shreds and the last one will end the world. That’s how some prophecy goes and these people seem to believe in it, although I don’t have the slightest idea who they are.”
Looking blankly at the almost insane man before him, Jonathan would nod his head slightly. “Sounds like quite a pickle you have gotten yourself into.” This time Oda would be the one who nodded in response. “I have managed to gain a power, something that will allow me to fight those freaks on the same level. Although, I still have a hard time controlling it. Just using a fraction of it is almost enough to make me go berserk.” Not saying anything for a moment, Jonathan would eventually nod his head slowly. “Well good luck with that then, no way some old man like me could help you against those guys.” His words were honest, if what Oda said was true then there was no way an ordinary person like him could help in this battle.
Just standing there, not sure about how to reply to such a down to earth answer all Oda could respond with was “Yeah.” Still standing there for another moment, he would give Jonathan a piece of advice before leaving “You should get out of Pandemonium while you still can.” With those words he left the bald man to his own devices as he continued down the street. Oda could feel as his right hand started to blacken, merely thinking about those monstrous people was enough to trigger some sort of mini-transformation in him. Over the last few days he had managed to get a decent grasp on how to control his manifestation, or to be precise, a lesser version of it limited to only his right arm. Before anyone had a chance to see his skin darkening, Oda would have undone the transformation. Giving every person he passed suspicious glances, the blonde man felt like anyone could reveal themselves to be an opponent at moments notice and as a result of his odd demeanor the few pedestrians he did meet chose to keep a considerable distance from the young man.
Eventually, he passed a familiar corner and was faced with the run down street that he had lived on for the last year. The dead trees were standing unmoving in the face of the cold winter winds, with a sigh he entered his apartment complex and began heading up the stairs leading to this living quarter. Right before he was about to grab the keys from his pocket, Oda suddenly stopped and stared intensely at the door on his left for a moment. It was not where he lived, instead the reason for the man's apparent fascination with the door was because no one lived there. For whatever reason, whoever owned that apartment never used it as evident by a thick coat of dust resting on the door handle. He had probably noticed this strange phenomena before, but forgotten about it soonly afterwards, for as he stared at the doorknob he got a strange sense of deja vu. In the next moment, he brushed it off and continued walking.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Continuing to head to his apartment, Oda would take out his keys and put them in the lock. The instant he tried to unlock the door he realized that it had already been unlocked, this could only mean one thing, Alice and Evelina were already in his apartment. Ever since what had happened with Mifuyu, this was where the three would meet up when something needed discussing. Opening the door he knew that he would see the two girls sitting at his kitchen table, but what he did not expect was to see a brown haired man sitting there as well, the man looked to be slightly older than what Mifuyu had appeared to be and he was somehow reminiscent of the white-haired man. Looking at Oda as soon as he opened the door, the stranger would speak.
“Sit down, we have much to discuss.” He would say to the blonde man like he had expected him. Never having seen the man now sitting at his kitchen table before, Oda was naturally suspicious of him, but seeing that both Evelina and Alice were okay with his presence eventually made him sit down in the last empty chair at the table. The brown haired man had a somber expression on his face as he spoke. “My name is Kigura, I’m an old acquaintance of Mifuyu.” He would be silent for a moment, adding even more impact to the next words he said. “I’m part of the group trying to end the world, known as the Seven Angels.” Thinking about how Mifuyu was killed right in front of his eyes, Oda’s arm would turn yet black. “You have some nerve showing yourself here after what your kind has done.” The man before him had also openly admitted to being part of the enemy. Slowly rising from his chair in anticipation of the coming battle, Oda’s rage was immediately quenched by Evelina’s order. “Sit down!” All hints of softness gone from her voice, he was uncertain if the woman sitting at the board was the same one he knew. But he did sit down, and thanks to that the man could explain his reasons for being here. “I haven’t come to harm you, in truth I seek your aid.” Looking straight at Oda, it was apparent that the two girls had already been convinced by this man, the only one he still needed to persuade was the blonde man himself.
“As I said, I am part of the group known as the seven angels. This is the closest thing we have to any sort of official name.” He took a short pause before he continued speaking, uttering words of prophecy that Oda had already heard. “Seven angels will descend from the sky, six of them will be torn to shreds and the seventh will bring the end of the world. That is what Junsei, the leader of the group, believes. I have sworn to bring him down before he can do that.” A willing traitor, that was what Kigura said he was. “Since the prophecy states that all but one angel will die, Junsei cares little about whether we fight amongst ourselves. That’s how even someone like me, who openly stated that I was out for his life, managed to become part of the group.” Another pause ensued before Kigura finally revealed the reason for why he had approached the group.
“Aside from me and Junsei, there are currently three more angels alive. One of which never leaves his side, that is why I need your help, I need someone to create an opportunity for me to face him one on one so I can take him out.” After he was finished speaking Evelina would fill in Oda on some information that had clearly been delivered before he arrived. “The other two angels are Maru-Maru and Shirou, that man in silver armor. The third, Junsei’s bodyguard, is someone who wears armor just like Shirou, although theirs is jet black instead of silvery-white.” If they were to go through with this plan, the four would need to know what each person was capable of, that included the abilities granted to them by their manifestations. The three friends already knew each other's manifestations, the two girls might have already revealed their powers to this man. He would test the waters by revealing his manifestation, turning his right arm black and showcasing it to the entire room.
“Well if we are going to work with each other we should know what each one of us are capable of, my manifestation is like a berserk mode, although I have learned how to partially control it.” Kigura would nod upon hearing Oda explain his manifestation. “My manifestation, well lets just say it allows me to survive just about anything. The ability to undo wounds, if you will.” When he said that the blonde immediately thought about his own power to heal wounds, something he seemed to share with Maru-Maru, perhaps this new man had a similar manifestation as well. After the two explained their powers, neither of the women spoke up about theirs, confirming Oda’s suspicion that they had already revealed them to the man. While Oda still didn’t completely trust the man, given the foes they were up against squandering a potential ally was incredibly stupid. “Alright, I will help you take down this Junsei. But do you really believe that the world will end if his plan succeeds?”
With a solemn look on his face, as to punctuate the danger that Junsei posed, Kigura would answer that question. “I firmly believe that man is capable of ending the world, prophecy or not.” With that it seemed like they were nearly finished talking as the brown-haired man stood up. “Junsei is currently staying at the penthouse suite in this town's only hotel, let’s not waste any time in confronting him.” Alice seemed quite distressed by that, clearly this wasn’t part of what they had discussed before Oda arrived. “Wait, we are going now?” Kigura would look at the black haired girl for a moment before answering her. “I guess we can wait a little, but the longer we wait the higher the chance of Junsei doing something unexpected that would throw a wrench in our plans, I just want him out of the picture as soon as possible.” The three friends would look to each other before silently agreeing that getting this over with now is the best choice they have. As such the group of four left the apartment and began heading out towards the inevitable confrontation. As they walked through the cold city they could see the sun already starting to set in the distance, coloring everything in a strange hue of orange. They were cold and in no mood to speak with each other.
Jonathan looked at the town rising in the distance, he was at the docks that had been built quite a bit away from the town, while they originally planned to build it closer to the center of Pandemonium, the river was too thin there and cruisers like the one Jonathan was about to board would not be able to dock. Looking downwards, the mass of water could no longer be considered a river but rather something akin to a small lake. Here, the large multicolored cruiser that was slowly but surely making itself apparent in the distance could dock without problems.
Looking around, Jonathan could see all kinds of people. Most were foreigners, but there were a few people that looked like they were locals as well. With a sigh he would look at the display of his cellphone, about an hour remained until the ship would dock, as suspected the man would be forced to stand here for quite a bit longer. Among the crowd, a certain group would stand out to the veteran. What appeared to be a group of young men, each one more drunk than the last, was trying to make their way through the crowd. On cruisers like this one, getting drunk was a popular activity yet Jonathan himself had never actually done so. He did not know why, perhaps it was just a fear that the alcohol combined with the swaying of the ship would be too much for him to bear and he would end up puking all over the place. The man thought about trying it now, but after some moments he shot down that idea, after what he had been through he just wanted to rest and take it easy for the last few days of the year.
Turning around and looking back towards the city, he could see the orange rays of the sun being reflected off the few taller buildings within. Letting out a deep sigh, the man would close his eyes and let the day's last few rays of sunlight wash over him.