Back at her heaven sub-faction, Inori was looking over a detailed map of the city their sub-faction’s entry point was in, while in her hand a piece of paper on which she’d written down the mysterious coordinates she and the others had overheard from Mion before witnessing the bridge collapse.
Speaking of which, right after the incident had happened, Inori wasted no time in assigning a couple of angels who were with her – more specifically, Makoto and Hikasa – to scout the area and find both Kai and Mion, while she and the rest headed back to devise what to do regarding the still unsolved problem with the invaded heaven sub-faction, as well as what the coordinates could mean.
Narrowing down the range of the area the coordinates pointed at, Inori had found out whatever they could lead to was in the same city their sub-faction’s entry point existed. She did hear one of the angels who was with her guessing it could be coordinates to the sub-faction of hell that Mion belonged to (and potentially the same one that orchestrated the recent attack), but considering they did come from the lips of a demon, she figured wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
Though this was barely the biggest worry on her mind, as shown when Nagisa came into the room she was in and reported, “Makoto and Hikasa just called, they said they couldn’t find any signs of Kai near the area of the river he and the demon fell into, but they did find traces of him going as far as further down that very river, so they wanted us to know they’ll be following them.” And she replied without even turning away from the map or the paper, “Thank you for the update, Nagisa.”
Instead of leaving however, Nagisa stood in the doorway and asked more out of concern than curiosity, “Any luck with those coordinates so far, Inori sama?”
“I’m getting there.” Said Inori. “Once I’m done, I’ll investigate it myself and see whatever this demon’s been on about to warrant what happened on the bridge…”
“Wait, what?” For a moment Nagisa had to confirm he just heard that right. “You’re gonna investigate where the coordinates lead to on your own? Wouldn’t it be better to assemble a modest group to do that? For all we know, this could be some sort of trap set up by that demon-“
“Your concerns are understandable.” Inori interrupted, and for the first time she turned around to look at Nagisa, “But already have a glaring problem on our hands even without this one, and for it to be solved the best it can, we’re going to need every helping hand for it.”
Nagisa knew what Inori meant by that so he said nothing about it and was about to continue his previous point again, but Inori wasn’t done speaking, “Also, when I heard the demon speak those coordinates to Kai, I sensed something in the way he said them… there was no malignancy, deceit, or anything typically expected from a demon, much less for a demon supposedly trying to lead a victim into a trap according to your suspicions… no, more like a scared child in a desperation to say something before it’s too late… does that make sense to you?”
Not knowing what to say about any of this, Nagisa remained silent. This allowed Inori to continue, “But most of all…” and this time she had on an extremely broken look on her face, something rather out of character for her, “…consider this as me taking responsibility for what happened to Kai. We can’t deny he did mess up, but my lord, what was I thinking? If I’d properly known the risks of what I was getting him into, I never would’ve even suggested it, and now because of these completely unexpected turn of events he could be in the gravest of danger, if not…” She couldn’t bring herself to complete that sentence, instead saying, “The point is, what happened to Kai is my fault, and I intend to make up for it, no matter what.”
Nagisa stared at his leader with wide eyes. Never in his eternal life so far had he seen Inori in this much distress. Even upon receiving news of the breach in the heaven sub-faction they’ve been trying to defend, she’d remained composed like always. Then again, nothing which happened during that had made her think her actions were directly to blame for the endangerment of others.
That said, Nagisa wasn’t one to just stand here and watch his leader remain in such a state, so he said, “Inori sama, as far as I can see, the only ones at fault for what happened earlier today are the ones who actually caused it, which are those demons. Nobody blames you for anything, none of us could’ve foreseen things to go out of control this badly. So forgive me if I sound commanding even though I’m not in the position for it, but having said all that, the one true way to make up for any of this is to get to the bottom of everything and make sure the real ones responsible shall pay.”
This time it was Inori who stared back at Nagisa with wide eyes, but the moment didn’t last very long. Thankfully Nagisa’s words seemed to have brought her composure back, because she then glanced at the paper in her hand and said, “What have I been doing, leaving my job unfinished…” before turning her attention back to the map.
Nagisa remained in the room with the intent to help his leader with her work so it could be done faster, but no sooner had he walked up next to Inori in front of the map did she exclaim, “There it is!” and a certain spot on the map lit up like someone had lit a lazer pointer on it. Observing the spot, Nagisa saw the coordinates pointed to the grounds of what seemed to be a university campus.
Just as it looked like Inori was about to head out, Nagisa quickly spoke up, “Inori sama, I know what you said to me, but I’d feel more comfortable if I at least tagged along with you on this. You always tell us to look out for ourselves whenever we do the more dangerous tasks, but what about you? Why should you looking out for yourself be any less important than us looking out for ourselves? I’d like to step into this with you knowing that we’ll be able to watch each other’s backs, rather than stay behind and be powerless to assist you, should you need it. I know you think you’re at fault for this – which I still say you’re not – but lest we forget we also agreed to your plan… not to mention we care for you just as much as you care for us. You don’t have to be alone in this.”
Inori turned to look at Nagisa, and he saw for the first time since the beginning of this affair the slightest sign of a smile on her face – one of gratitude. She didn’t say a word, but Nagisa didn’t need to hear anything to know what was on her mind.
* * *
By the time Inori had arrived at the university campus highlighted on the map with Nagisa and Ayano – who’d also agreed to tag along upon hearing what had happened – it was late at night. She’d done this deliberately, knowing that in earlier hours the place would’ve been too populated for them to use their magic in finding exactly where the entry point to the hell sub-faction lay.
“We won’t need to scour the entire campus, just this one area from approximately here to there.” Inori explained to Nagisa and Ayano, pointing from one end of the grounds they were at to another.
Nodding to show she understood, Ayano mumbled to herself, “Here we go…” and cupped her hands close to her mouth to mutter a spell into them. A momentary light glowed from them to illuminate her face for a second or so, but not enough for the very few people still out and about the grounds to pay any attention to it. Once that was done, Ayano went around with both her hands slightly outstretched, hoping they’d find anything unseen that they were here to look for.
The other two angels did the same and began to wander around like blind people who lost their way. More than once a passerby would glance at them weirdly, but the angels remained focused and patient, and thankfully none of the humans who noticed them felt the need to invest their time in paying closer attention to at best what looked like three people aimlessly walking around the area in a strange manner.
Several minutes of this later, Ayano felt a jolt of surprise as her left hand bumped into thin air. She stopped dead in her tracks and reached out to feel what it was that her hand grazed, and her touch further confirmed the location of what they were here for.
“I found it! It’s here!” Ayano called out to Inori and Nagisa. Immediately they rushed over and felt about for what she was feeling, much to their immense surprise as well. Congratulating Ayano on her discovery, Inori kept her hand on the invisible thing before them and muttered another spell under her breath.
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The moment Inori was done, the invisible thing began to show itself, starting from the place where Inori’s hand was and spreading out to the rest of its surface. Of course this didn’t register at all with any of the humans still passing by, as they not only couldn’t see what was happening, but simply passed through the thing the angels were standing in front of as if it wasn’t there at all. The angels, on the other hand, gazed in astonishment at the thing materializing before them, which was revealed to be a massive door – a great black and red door reminiscent of Auguste Rodin’s Gates Of Hell in all its details, except this one was twice as tall and wide as the bronze sculptural work.
“Here it is…” Inori whispered in bewilderment as if even she couldn’t believe what she was seeing right in front of her. “We found it…”
Nagisa and Ayano were just as mindblown at the sight. To see such a near-impossible discovery had been given to them just like this on a silver platter, and by a demon too, no less, was a shock no words could ever properly describe. But as much as such a shock required time to fully digest, they also couldn’t just stand here in awe all night. So after an undisclosed amount of seconds later, Ayano broke the silence by being the first to speak, “Now that we’ve found it, what’s next?”
“We’ll head back home for now.” Inori replied. “We’ll focus the rest of the night on finishing tending to the angels we’re temporarily sheltering, then discuss what to do about this first thing tomorrow.”
* * *
Indeed, once every angel woke up the next morning, they were summoned to a meeting by Inori in which they were informed of where the coordinates from yesterday lead to. Needless to say, this made all the angels erupt in a fit of shocked gasping and murmuring.
Gradually hushing up all the angels so she could speak again, Inori then called forth one particular angel from the midst of countless others. As the angel did so, some of the other angels in the crowd including Ayano recognized him as one of those from the attacked sub-faction they’d spent the last couple of days and nights helping out. Seeing he still had on bandages around his head and a cast on his left arm from some injuries he was still healing from, Ayano asked, “Taki, are you sure you should be out of bed in that kind of state?”
Though not without a slight wince as he came walking in full view of the crowd, Taki replied, “Don’t fret Ayano, I’m doing much better compared to last night. And besides, I still have enough strength for this.” Just as Inori explained Taki was the one who relayed the information on where the attackers had supposedly come from, and had agreed to confirm this to everyone else during this meeting.
With that out of the way, Taki also got to explaining how during the fight back at his sub-faction days ago, he’d managed to drive a demon into a corner of a building and interrogated him for detailed information on where the lot of them had come from.
“I was only able to get him to vaguely utter the name of this here city before I got attacked from behind.” Said Taki. “Lucky that I survived, not just for myself, but for this future operation as well.”
“And as for the exact location of their entry point, based on that confirmation…” Inori added, showing to the crowd the map of the city with the university campus she, Nagisa, and Ayano had been to still highlighted. “…here it is, as you can see. For those who may still be uninformed of this, me and many others have already come to the conclusion that if this hell sub-faction was able to figure out the coordinates to one of our own sub-factions, it’s only a matter of time before they do it again to this one as well through whatever means they previously used for their attack several days ago.”
Taki backed Inori up on this by saying, “I also tried to figure out how the demons discovered our sub-faction through the one I was interrogating, but he wouldn’t tell no matter what. So I instead resorted to getting him to tell me where they came from, which I already told you about. However, I took so long to get him to talk, I ended up allowing some other demons to get behind and attack me. They definitely have some sort of useful method at their disposal, and who’s to say they won’t use it again, especially if nobody else knows what it is?”
“Exactly.” Inori responded. “Therefore, if we don’t want to become sitting ducks to them from where we stand, the only option we have is to strike them first before they strike us. This is not just for the safety of ourselves, but for the humans in this area as well. If these demons manage to do us in for real, then they’ll no doubt have free reign to enact evil on the humans here now that they know the angels protecting the particular area and its inhabitants are no more.”
“Well I’ll be darned…” Taki muttered at this, while more murmurs went around among the rest of the angels there. “And you’re sure this isn’t some sort of scheme by the demons to do us in?” He asked after the murmurs had died down. “I mean, I can’t think of any reason as to why that one demon would deliberately give his sub-faction’s entry point location away…”
“I know what we’re doing here.” Inori assured Taki even as the murmuring continued, prompting her to raise her voice so that everyone could hear, “Judging by how that demon himself got attacked for it by his other fellow demons hiding elsewhere, it’s safe to assume they didn’t intend for their sub-faction’s location to be exposed to anyone. None of us still have no idea why he’d do what he did, but as of now the truth will have to wait until we hear more news from Makoto and Hikasa once they find both Kai and the demon. For us, this is what’s currently most important.”
“And the demons won’t try to brace themselves for any company in the form of us after such exposure either?” Taki asked again, to which Inori responded in the same raised voice, “They had no idea of knowing we were eavesdropping on the scene, so as far as they’re concerned, the only witness to the so-called ‘exposure’ was Kai and no one else. That leaves out the possibility of them thinking they’ll be under attack anytime soon.”
For a fleeting moment Nagisa, who was also in the room, once again saw the same broken look on Inori’s face at the mention of Kai. Nagisa thought he knew why; if the demons did indeed think they were safe, it was most likely because they’d presumably gotten rid of the one and only witness to the exposure of their location, AKA Kai. He hated the idea of the demons really having gotten rid of Kai on that bridge, as he was sure Inori did too, hence the look she briefly had on her face.
However, Inori came back to her senses almost as soon as she’d let her emotions take over, and said, “On that note, our best chance of attacking them will be the same as when they attacked us – late at night, when they’re least expecting anything and at their most vulnerable.”
“Like we were when the attacks first began…” Taki muttered to himself while Inori continued, “It’ll also be a good opportunity for us to carry out this operation without attracting any human attention, considering the entry point’s rather openly public nature, as well as how many of us will be going.”
“Which I assume will be everyone in our sub-faction?” Nagisa asked, to which Inori nodded and said, “Obviously this is a task of a magnitude requiring every available hand on deck, so yes.”
Just then, one angel from the crowd raised her hand to say, “If so, then I suggest it’d be best if we also took part in this.”
Once again, this angel was recognized as one from the attacked sub-faction like Taki, gaining the attention of many around her. Inori did as well, because she tried to turn down the suggestion, “No, I refuse to let you put yourselves in danger again after what you’ve just been through. You lot just stay here while we deal with this-“
But the angel who spoke up didn’t take no for an answer, and apparently neither did any of the other angels from the attacked sub-faction who were present, because the room was then filled with more voices expressing their desire to join in the task.
Inori held up her hands and practically shouted over the racket, “Look, some of you aren’t even in the right condition to do anything from still recovering! Additionally, think of everything the angels here did to ensure your safety, by doing what you propose to do you’re negating their efforts by-“
“You said yourself this is a task requiring every available hand on deck.” Another angel interrupted, rather impressively, since the noise in the room was so loud by now. “A lot of us have made full recoveries, so add us to your number and you’ll get a lot more to face the demons, thus a better chance against them than what we had several days ago!”
Many shouts of agreement followed that statement, before yet another angel added, “And if not for just your lot, then let us do it for our fallen allies! Make our attackers pay for what they’ve done!”
This time the agreeing shouts that followed were louder and greater than ever, fueled by both the angels’ mourning for the fallen ones and the desire to avenge them by assisting this task to success.
Inori was lost for words at all this. It seemed like even against her authority these angels had no intention of stopping themselves. And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, the points they made to her were rather convincing. She said through her own lips how everyone available ought to take part in this to ensure success the best they could, and she did indeed intend to succeed or else she’d be putting more angels in danger sooner, rather than later if the demons did figure out the coordinates to her own sub-faction and came for them all.
Once again Inori hushed all the angels down to make her statement, “Alright, it can be done. But I expect to only see those in fit enough condition to fight coming along, and no one else. That’s my final say on the matter. And obviously, taking down our enemies is undeniably important, but never forget the most important thing of all is your own safety.”
This finally appeared to satisfy the angels who’d been arguing at Inori, who this time all clapped with determination and said no more objections.
“Okay.” Inori nodded, then proceeded to carry on with the battle briefing for when they were to set their plan in motion later that night, “With that out of the way, allow me to discuss the attack formation we’ll be taking when we get to the place…”