The next day, the sun shone brightly on the ground where puddles from last night’s storm reflected the clear blue skies, as well as countless people on the streets either passing by or standing around. And out of all those people was Kai - in his human form with his wings hidden as he stood on the side of the street in the city square, many things flashing past his mind while waiting for Mion.

Once he made it back to his sub-faction after the storm, he was bombarded by the other angels with either apologies for being unable to look out for him while flying through the rain or words of the utmost concern – the latter mostly from Makoto, Hikasa, and Inori – but seeing how he had more important things on his mind, he just assured everyone he was perfectly fine before heading off to clean himself up. Once that was said and done, he paid a visit to where angels like themselves kept historical records of their deeds to do mankind good; the heaven’s archives.

Since Genesis, the angels existing in secret among man found it important that they kept records of their actions. This was a means to learn from them so that as they continued to face infinite new challenges over their eternal lifespans, they could always find a way through them based on previous experience. It was also a good way for any new work-in-progress angels to learn how to improve their skills, which was what Kai had been there for as a work-in-progress angel himself.

Finding the right documents and sitting down to study them, Kai read about the many examples throughout history of how angels provided help and/or salvation individually to any humans in need of it. He was intrigued to see there were much more examples of such acts than he expected. But then again, knowing human nature, as well as his kind’s eternal obligation to help and protect humanity at all costs - whether from themselves and/or demons - in the name of the lord, he supposed this was no surprise either. All the examples he read about were done in various unique ways depending on the situation, but always with two vital things in common;

1. Angels were not to expose themselves to the humans so as to maintain the secrecy between worlds, but other than that were allowed to use any method of salvation available to them.

2. When the deed was done, the involved angels were required to erase all means of contact from the involved humans.

Seeing all of this, Kai had a few things to think about how he could provide salvation to Mion. How to carry out the second deed out of the two mentioned above could wait, since he was just getting started. As for the first one, he had more than enough confidence he could pull it off, when he’d already done a decent job at it already last night to the point of instantly winning over Mion’s trust. Next to that, he also wondered what the other angels would make of this if he ever let them know.

But did he want to let them know? Despite saying they weren’t angry over it, after the fiasco he caused with the Hellhound, Kai doubted any of them were willing to let him do this and risk failing again big time. Of course, he understood and appreciated the concerns of his comrades and superior, knowing they only wanted what was best for his safety and growth. But if he did indeed want to use this special – as well as not life threatening for anyone at all - opportunity to prove himself worthy, he couldn’t afford to let anyone get in the way, even under the impression of helping him.

Maybe he was just trying to rationalize either his desire of wanting to succeed for once or his fear of what his kind might make of his decision, but Kai ultimately concluded he had to do this alone. He was already on the right track based on what happened back at the barn, wasn’t he? All he needed from there on was effort and determination, which he had more than enough of.

“Don’t worry guys…” Kai thought to himself as he joined everyone heading off to bed for the night, “I can do this… you’ll understand when all is said and done and I’ve managed to save this human…”

And that was how he ended up here in the city square right now in his human disguise, still waiting for Mion as their promised time ticked nearer by the second.

As for Mion himself, he was right on his way to the promised place where he expected to meet Kai again. Albeit not without a slight limp in his step due to the wound still on his leg, and also not without many of the things from last night passing his mind, similar to Kai.

Just as expected, his fellow demons were more than happy to gloat at the sight of him returning as a pathetic, wet mess. Not giving a damn about the obvious injury he was sporting on his leg, even his own older sister, Miyu, had half-sarcastically told everyone, “Give him credit where credit’s due, it’s been a rather boring day, and seeing him come back looking like a rat that drowned in a sewer after his oh-so-cocky statement of ‘showing what he can do’ doesn’t fail to amuse, amirite?”

In a sort of retaliation to the humiliation, as well as to let them know his failure wasn’t for naught, Mion said, “I’ll have you know while I was out, I got myself some fresh meat that I’m gonna have a damn good time devouring over the next few days. What I mean is, I found the perfect human to conduct a possession onto, in case your skulls are too thick to figure that out on your own.”

More laughter ensued, followed by a sneer from a demon named Daichi, who said, “Well damn, wasn’t April Fool’s Day well over a couple of months ago? Nice one Mion, nice one indeed.”

“No man, he’s serious.” Said Miyu, and Daichi stared at her with disbelief before she added, “Come on, you think I wouldn’t recognize my own brother’s serious tone after all these centuries?”

Mion was both confused and taken aback. Just seconds ago she was taunting him like the others, but the moment he said he found a victim to possess, she was suddenly taking him seriously?

“Could this mean I’m on the right track to prove myself capable to them?” Mion thought, feeling hope swell up inside him like a balloon. But then the balloon was instantly popped when a heavy book hit him right in the face courtesy of Miyu throwing one at him and laughing again, “Assuming you really did come across a human stupid enough to actually fall for your tricks of all things, then I suggest you try a bit of reading to help yourself.” She paused to stifle a bit of laughter, and added, “…or not, in case your skull’s too thick to process anything written in it, which I’m positive it is.”

Mion looked at the cover of the book Miyu threw at him reading, “A Demon’s Guide To Possession, And Other Ways Of Spiritual Torment”. Similar to angels with their deeds of good towards humans, demons also had archives of their deeds of evil for the purpose of coming up with new ways to screw humans over, as well as documents written for demons to educate themselves with such as this very book. Mion picked it up and mumbled amongst the continuing laughter, “Thanks for the tip, I’ll make good use of it.” And went away to where he could read in peace.

It wasn’t that Mion was completely oblivious to how possession worked – he was a demon after all – but he did suppose it would benefit him to learn a few new tricks here and there, even if Miyu only threw the book at him just for the sake of taunting him further.

Once he settled into his room, he opened the book and started with reading up on the basics; over the course of history, his kind had always tried different ways of tormenting humans depending on what they felt was most fitting to various time periods. Natural disasters, deadly plagues, conflict within civilization, direct contact with humans to make deals they never kept, etc. During the modern times though, the most popular tactic became possession. They found hooking themselves onto any souls unlucky enough to leave themselves open to attack so they could intrude and take over was the best way to cause all sorts of suffering on mortals as directly as possible.

Possession was also the kind of demonic activity that angels had a harder time detecting, since demons could use their victims’ flesh and souls as hiding places from angels to avoid detection. Though this wasn’t always the case, as only very skilled demons were able to pull it off successfully, while lesser demons ended up getting exorcised. But it was a win for demons either way, since regardless if they succeeded or not, the fact they made the humans suffer to hell and back anyway didn’t change. Taking the human’s souls for themselves if they did succeed was just an added bonus.

Mion sighed heavily at the last part. He didn’t want to pressure himself, but it was crucial that he actually succeeded in taking Kai’s soul if he was to give his fellow demons a piece of his mind.

“Don’t get too overwhelmed now, you’ve barely even started yet…” Mion told himself. He turned over several more pages to see what sort of dark magic he could use for the possession and distract himself from the worrisome thoughts of what might happen if he should fail.

The page he was currently reading said the most effective possessions occurred through demons directly inflicting their dark magic on the human souls. But seeing how Mion wasn’t skilled enough for that yet, he skimmed over more pages for tactics he could actually pull off. And that was where he read a passage mentioning how demons could also possess humans through means of what the book described as “second-hand”. More specifically, demons could use their dark magic on other things first such as plants or animals, then make sure any human they desired to possess come into any kind of contact with those things. This was enough to establish a connection to the demon and the human soul, leaving it vulnerable to possession. As the book described, this method was much easier and less energy-consuming than direct influence, but just as foolproof and sure to work on any living soul except demons and angels (both being naturally immune to any kind of possession).

On the other hand, this method was also more like training wheel material, according to the book. Therefore, Mion could tell most demons would avoid using it either if they were skilled and powerful enough or if they wanted to make a name for themselves, or anything of the sort. But knowing his limits, he was aware this was the best option he had if he was to achieve any level of success.

“Baby steps first, that’s how you’ll eventually get there. Have patience…” Mion kept telling himself as he went to bed, and even as he made his way down the street the next day in his own human getup. Out of a sense of self-encouragement he reached into his pocket and pulled out a jet-black beetle about the size of his own thumb with blood-red eyes. This was the animal he’d selected to channel his dark magic through to Kai – he had full control over the insect once the spell had been cast on it, all he had to do was make sure the beetle landed just one prickly bite on his victim. The rest depended on how well he handled the process from then on.

“Oh, so you’re finally here. Good to see you again.” Kai’s voice suddenly interrupted Mion’s train of thought. He looked up to see he was finally at the promised place, with Kai having been there first. Hurriedly stuffing the beetle back into his pocket, Mion put up a casual face to reply, “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting for too long.” To which Kai said, “Not at all.”

“That’s a relief.” Said Mion, then hoping Kai didn’t notice anything suspicious from him hiding the beetle he quickly added, “Good to see you again too.” And Kai nodded to that, before asking, “So uh, anything in particular you feel like doing now that we’re out here?”

Mion didn’t really care what they did together, just so long as he could make sure the beetle in his pocket got that “soul connection” up and running between him and Kai. So he simply replied, “Well, anything goes, really. Just as long as whatever we do is far away from that living hell I call home.”

“Aw, they gave you a hard time again when you made it back?” Kai asked with the same caring tone he had for Mion during their first encounter, and the latter said, “Yeah, not so much as a glance at my injury as if it wasn’t even there.” while he thought, “Just a bit more sympathy from him for good measure, so the connection can be all the more better when the beetle actually makes its move…”

Concerned, Kai asked again, “Are you even okay walking with that leg? Are you sure you don’t need to go to a hospital for closer examination?” Even though the fact that Mion walked all the way out here on his own to see him indicated he was feeling relatively fine. Still, better safe than sorry.

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“No need.” Mion reassured him, “You took care of it good enough last night, believe it or not. It still hurts a little, but one good night’s sleep later and I found I could walk with it just fine.”

“I see…” Kai muttered, not entirely void of concern yet. Mion could tell, so he figured it was best to change the subject, “As for what we can do, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with taking a little stroll together. There IS a park near the square that we can walk to and pass the time, after all.”

Liking that idea, Kai agreed, “Fair enough.” And they proceeded to walk down the street towards their proposed destination. As they went though, Mion noticed Kai was holding his arm up a bit for his support, which he then noticed did help with his limp quite well.

“There’s really no need for that…” Mion mumbled, “But thanks anyway.” To which Kai responded with a small grin to show he was more than glad to help him with anything.

As their walk together continued Mion thought to himself, “Thanks indeed…” with the familiar sinister smile back on his face. This kind of proximity was more than what he needed to set the beetle on Kai without drawing attention. However, as he reached into his pocket for the insect, he felt something hold him back. And it wasn’t any sort of physical force either. He was doing it himself.

“What’s wrong with me?” He thought. All he had to do was pull the beetle out and let it sink its pincers into Kai’s skin to set the next step of his plan in motion, so what was stopping him now?

On top of that, as Mion looked down for a second to steady himself, his eyes caught sight of his hurt leg and his mind began to fill with thoughts completely unrelated to what he was about to do; how the demons he’d lived all his life with never cared if he got bruised from head to toe, but this random person he’d known for only a night showed more concern for a single injury on his leg than anyone ever did before, and was even offering to help him walk despite not being asked to.

Mion did his best to shake these out of his head after a moment of internal confusion. “So what?” He thought, “His fault for being dumb enough to fall for the show I’m putting up to possess him.”

“Is it a show though if all of what you’re sharing with him is based on the truth?” A voice that seemed to be coming from somewhere inside him asked. Mion quickly shook that away too and thought he’ll just wait until they arrived at the park to release the beetle.

“There’s tons of insects in parks anyway, it’ll make it easier to seem like my beetle was just a normal bug from our surroundings rather than something else.” He thought, but somewhere deep in his mind a part of him felt like he was just making flimsy excuses to delay his plan for some reason.

* * *

When they did arrive at the park, they eventually settled on a bench under the shade of a large tree. This would’ve been the right chance for Mion to have his beetle land a bite on Kai and make it look like just a random insect from the tree nearby, but once again he found himself doing the opposite and didn’t release the thing at all, instead talking with Kai about themselves some more.

It wasn’t like he had forgotten about it, yet for some strange reason his plan just kept retreating to the back of his mind as he and Kai gradually discovered through their conversations more and more things they could relate to and how they felt about them, as well as their lives in general (while leaving out any details that would give away their true identities, of course).

As for Kai, he was holding these conversations because he genuinely wanted to know more about Mion. If he had learned quite a bit about Mion’s background on the night of the storm, then this time it was to understand more about his mind. This was a must in order to provide help to him, if the material he read back at the heaven’s archives last night had taught him anything. After all, how could one find the answer if they didn’t thoroughly understand the question first?

“I can relate to that on a personal level…” Kai sighed deeply after hearing what Mion had to say that wasn’t told last night during their first meeting. “I too know what it feels like to continuously be a failure at what you do and thus wanting to prove yourself as capable as the others…”

“Really?” Mion said with a genuinely astonished look. “I know you said you have folks back at your place who are all better than you, but man, didn’t think we’d have something like this in common…”

“That honestly makes two of us.” Kai agreed. “Everything I try to better myself, I keep messing up for some reason no matter how hard I try. In fact, my most recent attempt went south so badly I actually ended up hurting myself. I won’t disclose details for privacy reasons, but that’s what I had the bandages for the night I first met you. Trial and error is how I believe I can grow as an-“

Kai had to stop himself for a split second there as he almost said “Angel” from force of habit, but he corrected himself quickly enough for Mion to not notice anything strange, “-a person, but after the mistake I made recently, I don’t even know if they’ll ever let me try anything again. Granted, I’m not fully certain of that, but I was too afraid of what their answer might be if I did ask them, and it’s been at the back of my mind ever since. I really just wanna keep trying anything I can on my own for my growth, so yeah, you can probably see where that fear of mine also comes from.”

Kai found himself uttering a deep sigh after he let out everything on his mind regarding his efforts. But the sigh wasn’t out of anything like insecurity or self-exasperation. Strangely enough, at that moment he felt relieved like he’d just got done carrying a heavy load and was finally allowed to put it down. He then realized what this all was about and muttered just loud enough for Mion to hear, “I didn’t think it would do my mind this good to just simply have someone I can freely talk about my troubles with...” before speaking up again with the tone of concern mildly back in his voice, “I hope I’m not bothering you with any of this, you got a lot on your mind too after all…”

“No worries, because I too can relate to what you said on a personal level.” Mion replied. “And like you just said, having someone you can let your troubles out to like this does you well.”

“You heard that?” Kai asked, slightly embarrassed. “Excuse me for letting my mind wander like that, it’s just that this has been bothering me for a while, and I obviously couldn’t tell anyone about it…”

Reassuring Kai it was fine, Mion then let out what was on his own mind as well, “Like I said, I also feel the absolute need to better myself, and I similarly believe I ought to achieve it by being able to stand on my own, but it’s so much more difficult for me because unlike you I have no one to so much as understand me in doing so. With every trial and error, my folks love to bully me for it, so I try again, rinse and repeat. So I too can’t tell any of my folks the troubles I have, just for reasons different from yours - no sense of support or understanding to be found anywhere around me whatsoever…” He paused for a couple of seconds after this before muttering, “…except you, that is…”

“What am I saying?” Thought a part of Mion’s mind, the weird feeling from when he was walking with Kai gave him a boost coming back. Not only that, his mind as a whole was feeling a new kind of sensation; for the first time in ages, if not forever, he felt his mind at peace at another’s company.

“Don’t kid yourself, man!” He tried to shake these thoughts out of himself again. “What he says he understands about me means nothing! It’s all just a tactic for me to get to his soul, nothing else!”

But then the other part of his mind from which the weird feeling came seemed to counter this by saying, “It’s all what really happened to you though, and don’t you actually feel better from telling him all of this? Something you never did with your own kind? You know you can’t lie to yourself.”

Mion didn’t have an argument for that. Not because it was an argument towards his own mind, but because it was indeed true. He couldn’t deny the feelings he was getting from connecting with Kai in ways that didn’t involve the beetle in his pocket, which he couldn’t give any more of a damn about the more he spoke with Kai. He recalled what he said to Kai on the night of the storm, “I’m admittedly grateful to you for hearing me out. This is the first time I ever had someone be kind enough to let me freely vent my frustrations with an open mind.” And even wondered how much of that line he genuinely meant when he looked at how things were going in his mind right now.

“Why did I think trying to win over his sympathy by telling him what my life’s really like was the best way to go about…” Mion was thinking to himself when Kai interrupted his train of thought the second time that day with his voice, “Once again, I’m flattered I can be of help by hearing you out. I did say last night about how nobody deserves to be ignored, especially those in need, so should there be anything else you need help with, just say. I’m willing to be there for you at all costs.”

The archives did indicate angels always provided salvation to the humans they individually helped through any means possible, so Kai wasn’t hesitant to do just that for Mion no matter what it took.

Due to his mind still being a mess from his bizarre internal conflict, Mion found himself asking this in response without thinking, “Why DO you want to help though? What do you gain from this?”

Momentarily confused at such a question, Kai paused for a second before answering, “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t already ask that last night, but I guess it IS sorta baffling that someone you’ve only met for a night is this willing to help you with your life…”

This made Mion come back to his senses, and just as he was internally cursing himself for letting his mind wander this far off, he heard Kai answer, “I don’t care what I gain from this; heck, I’m not really gaining anything at all. I just want to lend a hand to those who’s only had the worst life has to offer, since they deserve better. You deserve better, and that’s why I’m still here. Trust me on this.”

Strangely, this time it was Kai who began to feel weird in his mind as he said this. It was guilt, as he knew what he just said wasn’t 100% truthful, yet he couldn’t bring himself to be fully honest either. There was indeed something he intended to gain from helping Mion, and the guilt came from his personal gain being the bigger reason he was doing this, rather than Mion’s well-being.

The part of his mind that really did want to help Mion tried to protest, but it was drowned out by the guilt filling the rest of his mind with the more rational thinking it needed; like how could he be so sure of success just from a feeling in his gut, how the severe consequences of his actions would fall on Mion instead of him if he failed, and how his responsibility of doing good for humans as an angel had been blinded by his irrational thinking fueled by the desire to prove himself worthy.

“Have I really been so focused on myself, I never considered what this means for Mion?” Kai thought. Mion truly needed someone to be there for him in a life where nobody had ever done so, and Kai was supposed to be that someone. If he did fail Mion, proving he couldn’t be worthy enough for the job and thus unable to continue it, then for him it was just another error that he could try to make up for with another trial. But for Mion, it would come across as severe emotional damage to his already scarred mind for someone he trusted this much to fail him. What if as a result of it, Mion could never find himself to trust another outsider again and just went back to the hellish life he said he had no choice but to live in? Kai wouldn’t be able to get another angel to help Mion for him if that ever happened, and he didn’t even want to imagine such a scenario ever happening.

This time, Kai’s train of thought was interrupted by Mion’s voice saying, “You’re already being of great help by just being here for me. It’s all I needed in a life where nobody’s ever done it before…”

Kai looked at Mion and asked, “Really?” to which the latter nodded, though deep down he was once again extremely conflicted over how much of those words he really meant and how much of them were just for the sake of winning over more of Kai’s trust for the possession.

“I see…” Kai almost croaked in response, because that was the most his throat seemed to be able to squeeze out from his guilt-ridden state of mind. This was a problem he definitely couldn’t see him solving by talking it out, and Mion felt the same way about his own current state of mind.

Eventually, both of them were in such a huge mess of thoughts that they figured it was probably best if they called it a day and met up again with much clearer heads. They couldn’t afford to sit in the most awkward silence ever with only each other for company while they took the time to sort out their thoughts. There was always next time, wasn’t there?

Pretending to suddenly receive a text on his phone, Kai briefly pulled it out of his pocket before putting it back in while making sure Mion couldn’t get a good look at the screen to see what was up. “Aw man, what were the odds of that…” He groaned like a human child told to do the chores and said as he stood up from the bench, “I’m afraid our time today has to be cut short, because I just got a text from my family saying something’s up at home, and I can’t be absent there…”

“That’s alright, it’s not like we can do anything about unexpected events of this sort.” Mion replied, and Kai was relieved to see his excuse had worked, because he would’ve hated to let Mion see through him and think he was deliberately avoiding him or something.

“I just need to clear my mind and see him again another time for a better outcome…” Kai reassured himself internally. “Today’s failure doesn’t have to determine how things’ll play out in future…”

Glancing at Kai walking away, Mion also had similar thoughts in his head. “Just because I didn’t get him this time doesn’t mean I can’t get him another time… I’ll be patient and find the right chance…”

But as these thoughts passed his mind, so did mental images of his fellow demons back at his sub-faction gloating at his failure again like they always have, laughing at how incompetent he was to not be able to nail the first basic step of second-hand possession, even with the beetle he chose for the task right in his hand the whole time. And with that came a sudden rush of determination.

“I’m not going home empty handed today… NOT TODAY!” Mion found his heart screaming at him from the inside, and the next thing he knew, he was charging at Kai from behind, beetle in hand.

However, he’d apparently not taken stealth into consideration in his outburst, because Kai heard Mion’s footsteps and turned around to face him with a confused, “Huh? What is it?”

Stopping dead in his tracks just in time, Mion hurriedly hid the beetle away for a second time and tried to act casual, though again he wasn’t sure why – whether it was his cover being blown or due to the same weird sensation from before when he was opening himself up to Kai.

After a couple of hems and haws, Mion eventually covered for himself with an awkward as all hell, “I just had to ask you, uh… when exactly can we meet again, if that’s alright with you?”

As strange as this overly dramatic manner of simply asking a question was, Kai just laughed it off and replied, “We’ll let each other know via calls, no hassle.”

And with that, they both parted ways for today.