Every angel in Kai’s sub-faction found themselves assembled before Inori one day as she had a very important announcement to make, one that all of them absolutely needed to hear.
“I’ve just received intelligence that a sub-faction of heaven in another human city not too far from here has been breached by half a sub-faction’s worth of demons. Said breach happened last night, and the angels over there aren’t having much luck pushing back their attackers.”
There was a fearful murmur among the angels at these words. The exact locations – AKA coordinates – of any sub-faction of heaven or hell was one of the utmost top secrets angels and demons kept amongst themselves to avoid exposure to each other. Therefore figuring out such info was next to impossible under regular circumstances for both entities. This was why breaches in sub-factions, if there were any, would come as a complete surprise to both sides, as the idea of them was normally about as preposterous as an asteroid crash wiping out all life on earth anytime soon (resulting in the attackers usually gaining the upper hand, even to the point of victory). This was to the point that such breaches had barely happened so much as even a couple of times so far since Genesis.
Inori had to raise her voice quite a bit to quiet down the brief paranoia so she could continue, “So, what I called you here for is to inform you we’ll have to assist them in defending themselves against the demons. After which we’ll sort things out for temporarily sheltering them here until they can form themselves a new sub-faction somewhere else. Now, here’s the sub-faction’s coordinates…”
As Inori proceeded to show the coordinates to the place she was talking about, she paused for a moment to scan her audience. For some reason Kai felt his insides jolt a bit as her eyes passed his own as if in that brief moment they both recalled the mistake he made ages ago with the hellhound, but neither did anything to draw attention to each other as Inori spoke up again, “One last thing before I go over the plan we ought to follow once we get there; I can’t stress enough times the magnitude of the problem we’re up against, so even if it sounds pressuring, I must say this is a task that requires all hands on deck. The sub-faction of heaven in question is already having trouble trying to fend for themselves, meaning it won’t do much help to just send a handful of ourselves to fight off the demons. They need all the help they can get, so I ask you all to focus on the task at hand, and don’t let your emotions take over rational thinking. But most of all, like every other rare occasion in which we had to directly face off against demons before, look out for yourselves.”
All the angels nodded to that to confirm they understood, including Kai. This being a much more serious problem than anything he’d dealt with before, he was hell bent on not repeating his mistakes. Letting his emotions take over his rational thinking had nearly killed him once, and almost could’ve gotten his duty as an angel suspended had it not been for Makoto covering for him. He couldn’t let himself do that again when so many others’ lives were at stake here, not just his own.
On the other hand, Kai did feel more confident in himself than usual as he was reminded of what Makoto had said after seeing what he’d been up to with Mion; “I’d say you definitely proved yourself to be worthy of your potential through this good deed of yours. And I can only see you getting better from here on out.” Even though that really had nothing to do with what was happening now.
Taking a deep breath of determination, Kai thought, “I’ll do my best to not disappoint any of you again…” as Inori proceeded to go over the plans she had for their race to action.
* * *
Over at Mion’s sub-faction, something similar was happening as Kurosawa, the head of the faction, assembled all the demons before him to make his own announcement.
“The breach into one of heaven’s sub-factions last night proved to be successful, but still far from perfect. I congratulate those who joined me in it for putting up a good fight without any casualties.” He took a moment to clap to the demons he mentioned, who gratefully clapped back for the praise given to them. Mion, who remained still, could feel Miyu giving him a nasty smirk as she clapped alongside many others, as if to express how pathetic she found him for not being one of them.
When the clapping subsided upon Kurosawa signaling them to settle down, he continued, “However, I must admit the angels from the sub-faction also put up a surprisingly good fight. It may not be for long, but they’re not doing a bad job fending for themselves. I suspect they too know they can’t hold us at bay for much longer, meaning they’ll no doubt try to call for backup from the other sub-factions of heaven. Which is why I’m ordering all of you to join the attack this time, for a better chance against them. Regardless of how you’ve performed over these years, I insist you put those issues aside and make yourselves useful for once. And I won’t take any objections for an answer.”
Miyu whispered into Mion’s ear, “By that, he means you.” In an unpleasant joking tone and snickered with Daichi before paying attention again, while Mion did his best to remain indifferent and kept listening to Kurosawa. For as much as he didn’t like the idea of what he was saying, it was still less aggravating than having to listen to his own sister bullying him. On top of that, if the issue Kurosawa was addressing was important enough for him to ask every demon in the faction to join in on, it was best that he paid attention and went with it perfectly so as not to get on his bad side later.
Kurosawa continued, “Hopefully with the cooperation of each and every one of you, we’ll be able to take down this particular sub-faction. Finding out its coordinates was a rare miracle in and of itself, and should we win it’ll mean we’ll get to more things with more free range in that particular area of the human world now that the part of heaven that used to watch over it is no more. You’ll see how much that’ll benefit us, as well as our kind in general, in the long run. But that’s IF we succeed, and I very well intend to achieve it. So don’t think of excusing your way out of something for the greater good, and not just your own. Anyway, here’s the plan I set up for you to follow…”
As he listened to Kurosawa’s plan for them to invade the breached sub-faction of heaven, Mion found himself groaning internally out of frustration. Just when he was thinking of running away from a lifetime of hell to live a life of his own in the human world, he was forcibly dragged into an operation he didn’t even want to take part in. The timing couldn’t be any worse… or was it?
“Hang on…” Mion thought, “If we’re all on our way to a battle zone of some sorts based on what Kurosawa san’s been saying, then…” the gears in his minds whirred rapidly as the frustration turned into hopeful thinking, “…then it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise if not everyone returned back home alive… or at least, APPEAR to not return alive…”
That was when the idea struck him like lightning. What if he could go with the others into battle, then run off on his own out of the place while everyone else was distracted with fighting? If anyone was to notice his absence, considering the circumstances it would be easy to dismiss it as Killed In Action. By then, he’d be away from it all finding himself a place to call his own in the human world.
He grinned and thought, “Maybe I could turn this from unfortunate timing to a happy accident…” just as Miyu asked, “What are you smirking about?” after noticing the look on his face.
“Nothing.” Mion quickly hid the grin away and responded in the typical moody tone in which he addressed his sister, “Just thinking about how much I’m gonna enjoy tearing the wings off every angel I come across before putting them out of their misery eventually.”
Miyu scoffed like someone who was just told a bad joke and said, “Good luck with that when you can’t even take over the soul of a single human. Wake the hell up from your worthless daydreams and try to be so much as halfway useful like Kurosawa san said.”
* * *
“Boy, I never thought a heaven sub-faction could ever make an angel feel this creeped out.” Hikasa muttered under her breath while looking at their surroundings, to which Makoto held a finger up to his lips for cautionary silence but also took a moment to nod in agreement with Kai.
Inori had told all the angels that when the breach first occurred in the sub-faction she was talking about, the demons had split up into much smaller groups of three at best to cover more ground in a short amount of time. There was no doubt the second wave would operate in the same way, so she’d suggested that they use the same tactic to combat the demons wherever they were within the place. Similar to the demons that had previously attacked – and were to attack later – the angels were assigned into groups of three, and even four just for precautions. Once that was done, they were all sent out into every area of the faction in search of any demons to defend the place from.
Kai had been grouped with Makoto and Hikasa, and right now they were flying through between various partially destroyed heaven structures with their eyes peeled. Any one of the structures felt like they could be hiding a demon or two inside. Either that, or they could be hiding underneath the cloudy mist on the ground, or even behind piles of debris fallen from the surrounding buildings.
“Normally I wouldn’t allow even the most quiet talking in situations like this…” Makoto whispered back to Hikasa, “…but I think a part of me also needed something of the sort because, let’s face it, this is too tense for anyone to handle…” and took a moment to inspect his right and behind, as those were the directions he’d agreed to look out for the group while they moved. Hikasa was in charge of their right and front, and Kai was supposed to be looking for any dangers on the ground.
Hikasa nodded back in response. “Empty and ruined buildings, complete with an aura suggesting any enemy could potentially come out lunging at us any moment… you know humans have a game of some sorts very much like that, what was it called – Quiet Meadow, or something?”
But whatever Hikasa was referring to, the other two never got to guess. Makoto had seen something out of the corner of his eye and pointed it out to his companions, who turned to see what it was.
They were hovering before a large building with massive gold-streaked pillars and a round stained-glass window surrounded by a gold frame decorating its front. Like all the other structures they’ve passed so far, it was looking very battered from last night’s attack. Most of the pillars and the wall they were facing had great cracks and slashes all over them, with one pillar sporting a single huge gash around the middle, and the stained-glass window was shattered in one area.
“You think a demon’s hiding somewhere in there?” Kai asked in a nervous whisper. His scared eyes automatically focused on the darkened inside of the building that lay behind the broken window, its pitch-blackness looking like the perfect place for a demon to fly out of in a surprise attack.
Makoto replied, “We’re won’t find the answer to that just by hovering out here.” And outstretched his right arm towards the building to summon his crossbow onto it. “I suggest you do the same.” He added to Kai and Hikasa, who followed suit.
Carefully, they approached the building with their weapons ready. They were ready for anything that could possibly come out from any spot both inside and outside the building. Or so they thought.
“LOOK OUT!” Hikasa suddenly screamed, and both Kai and Makoto felt their hearts skip a beat as they saw what she had screamed for – the pillar with the particularly big gash in it was tipping right towards them, directly above their heads. The three angels had just enough time to scramble apart in three different directions before the pillar came crashing down onto the cloudy ground.
Staring wide eyed at what was now the biggest bit of debris they’ve seen so far, Hikasa called out, “You two okay?” to which Kai responded first with a “Yeah, thanks to you!” and a reassuring wave towards her, while Makoto called out with a single, “Yes!” without wasting another second to return his attention to the building, his crossbow aimed at it again.
Kai and Hikasa joined him quickly once more. Damaged pillars didn’t fall onto angels inspecting a suspicious-looking building on their own accord, there was no doubt an unseen assailant had been hiding somewhere in it to strike at the right chance.
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“Either engage or get out of harm’s way at any signs of movement.” Makoto hissed between tensely clenched teeth. Kai and Hikasa nodded with all their attention focused on every small detail of the building. Wherever their assailant was, they weren’t getting them so easily this time.
As Kai returned his concentration to the broken window which seemed to scream “biggest red flag” out of all the features of the building, he did notice something suspicious about it. However, contrary to his expectations, it wasn’t anything behind it. Rather, it was what he saw in the glass’s reflection – even in the distortions caused by the cracks in the glass, Kai could distinctively make out a couple of demons sneaking out from the building behind their backs with their weapons drawn.
Instantly Kai warned, “Behind us!” and whirled around just in time to see the demons all lunging at him, Makoto, and Hikasa. Once more they scattered and prepared themselves to take the demons down, but failed to notice a third demon crawl out from behind what was still left of the fallen pillar.
The three angels fired their crossbows at their opponents, but of course it was never meant to end so easily. The demons deflected the attack with the blades of crimson-black swords they summoned into their hands, which they used to slash out violently at the angels.
Hikasa gave Kai a signal with her free hand, and he understood that as a sign for him to back off from the scene far away enough where the demons couldn’t reach him. There, he observed Hikasa holding the blade of one demon’s sword with her crossbow as if she was sword-fighting herself. Makoto very impressively kicked the other demon’s sword away from him without getting slashed.
This was when Hikasa gave Kai another sign with her hand, fortunately going unnoticed by the demon she was fighting. Kai recognized this as his cue to take aim at the two demons with his crossbow while they were too preoccupied by Hikasa and Makoto to give him any attention.
The first arrow went flying. Before the demon fighting Hikasa had any time to realize what she had gotten herself into, the side of her head was struck with Kai’s arrow. As her body instantly went limp and fell to the ground with a soft misty thud, Kai found himself cheering internally despite the still intense situation. Feeling grateful for the crossbow training he took after the hellhound fiasco when he wasn’t out with Mion (it also helped that Hikasa managed to lock the demon in place by holding it back from attacking her), Kai immediately took aim at the demon fighting Makoto.
“AAAHH!” Kai suddenly felt one of his wings engulfed in a piercing jolt of agony as if it’d been stabbed. Trying to stay afloat with his good wing, Kai looked behind him and saw the reason for his wing’s out-of-the-blue pain was indeed because it was stabbed – the demon who’d been behind the ruins of the fallen pillar from earlier and thus avoided being spotted had finally made a move, and Kai was unfortunate enough to be the closest angel for him to throw a dark red dagger at.
“Dammit, I missed!” The demon grumbled and pulled out another dagger to throw at Kai, who was still struggling to fly away. But then Hikasa came swooping in on the scene with her crossbow firing rapidly at the demon, forcing him to leap out of harm’s way. Still firing, Hikasa shouted to Kai, “Get away from here, you’ll only make it worse for yourself in that state if you stay!”
Kai forcefully touched down onto the ground, massaging his stabbed wing in pain. “But what about you two?! I can’t leave just you to fight them off-“
“Listen to her, you’re not in the right condition for anything at the moment…” Makoto interrupted. He had to cut himself off mid-sentence for a couple of seconds to kick at his opponent again this time to send him rocketing through the air into the wall of another building. Only then Makoto continued, “…other than taking shelter somewhere safe to heal yourself!” and fired an arrow at the crater the demon had made in the wall upon impact, only to miss unfortunately as he dodged it.
Not wanting to leave behind his two friends in danger, Kai wanted to argue, but this was no time for it. On top of that, both Hikasa and Makoto were right. What with the wound more than hindering his combat performance, he was nothing more than a sitting duck if he insisted on staying.
“Don’t worry about us, we’ll come find you when we’re done!” Said Hikasa, and Makoto shouted one last time, “GO!” right as the demon he kicked tackled him into yet another building’s wall.
Kai didn’t need to be told twice. Using his still good wing to propel himself forward faster he half ran, half bounced across the ground away from the fight the best he could. All the noises Hikasa, Makoto, and the demons made tempted him to turn back the more he listened to them and the fainter they became with each stride he took forward. But he held back and kept going until his ears couldn’t pick up the fighting sounds anymore. The next thing he knew, all was silent again like when he and his two friends had initially approached the building with the pillars.
“Where the hell do I hide from here…” Kai mumbled between heavy pants of exhaustion and pain. He kept himself moving by hiding behind the devastated buildings and debris all around him, until he found a good enough temporary hiding place - a space between a large broken chunk of a wall and the structure it came from it, which was another huge building with pillars decorating the front.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he made himself hidden right away and pulled out what looked like a piece of half-transparent crystal from his pocket. Seeing how Inori couldn’t be in multiple places at once to conduct her healing magic on any angel that sustained injuries, her idea was to contain the healing magic in several physical forms for every angel to carry around with them on this task.
Kai put the crystal to where he was stabbed and instantly felt it heal the spot. Even if it took a longer time for both the injury and the pain to go away, the fact that it did do the job was good enough for him. Though he didn’t feel like his wing was fit to join the other one in flight just yet.
On top of that, even while his body was relaxing for the sake of his wing, Kai’s mind was far from doing the same. Not only was he continuously on his guard to look out for any demons that might be passing by or hiding nearby, but he was worried sick for Makoto and Hikasa. Kai wished there was something he could do about any of this, but frankly the one thing he COULD find himself to do was pray that his companions wouldn’t succumb to their attackers or that no demons would cross paths with him. He wasn’t sure if that did anything to help his state of mind either.
Unfortunately, one of the two things he prayed not to happen began to unfold when he heard a couple of voices approaching from somewhere. Faint at first, the voices grew clearer as the ones they belonged to likewise drew near. And judging by the tone, both sounded pretty angry.
“Why do bad things always have a tendency to never listen to one’s hopes and just get worse for them?” Kai groaned internally. He could tell from how close the voices were that if he tried to escape the scene now, the demons in question would no doubt be able to spot him running out from his hiding place. Flying away wasn’t an option either considering the state of his freshly healed wing, so there was nothing else for it. He’d just have to keep himself hidden and hope for the best.
“…would’ve left your sorry ass for dead if I wasn’t under attack too! Two demons having to fight off one angel, I’ll never hear the end of it if Kurosawa san and the others found out!” One of the voices ranted, and the other angrily protested in response, “Well you wouldn’t have had to do that if you didn’t draw the angel’s attention by attacking first, when I didn’t want to fight anyone! Hell, I never even wanted to come here with all of you! Why do I have to do any of this against my will?!”
“WHAT?!” The first demon shouted in disbelief as the second demon continued his argument, “You know Kurosawa’s words are final and it’s no use trying to object to him, that’s the only reason I never said anything! Well, I’ve had enough! You ain’t no Kurosawa so I’m gonna say it! I’ve had it with being pushed around like this by all of you this whole time! Why can’t you lot just so much as try to understand me as one of your kind?! Instead you don’t even care if I get killed by the danger I’ve been forced to put myself into, let alone care how I feel about you always bullying me 24/7-“
There was a loud punching noise that sounded as if one of the demons had hit the other hard across the face, and the first angry voice snarled, “The only thing you made me understand is how stupid I’ve been this whole time keeping a bumbling, incompetent scumbag like you as my brother. But unlike you, I intend to do the right thing about my problem instead of whine and rant about it like you’re doing with yours. You’re on your own from here on out, I’m done covering for you in all this. I got better things to do than watch over you. I don’t even give a damn if some other angel passes by and finishes you off for good, that’s one less thing I need to worry about from now on.”
In spite of the tension of hiding from certain danger, Kai felt confusion rise within him from listening to this conversation. What was the deal between these two demons for them to be on such opposite ends? Was he hearing things right when one said he didn’t want anything to do with this and the other said she planned to leave him for dead here? Also, based on the choice of words, this wasn’t a recent conflict that was between just them either… and why did he care?
Kai’s mind was thankfully brought back to clarity at the sound of wings flapping away, meaning the demons should be leaving the scene now. Just to be sure, he cautiously looked out from where he was hiding to see one of the two demons he’d been listening to was indeed gone. The other was sitting on the misty ground with a face that looked like he didn’t know what to do with himself.
“Must be an angel thing for me to get invested in any situation like that even when I’m not supposed to care…” Kai thought. He could see the demon’s face well enough to tell he wasn’t looking his way, so he figured now might be a better chance for him to flee to safety. However, one more look at the demon’s face after searching for a possible escape route on foot (again, because of his bad wing), Kai found himself frozen on the spot with utter shock. It hadn’t registered with him at first due to the nervousness of whether he could get out of here alive, but once it did, it made every nerve in Kai’s body feel like they’d turned to ice. His spine didn’t just tingle, it was electrocuted with a revelation that made him rethink everything he’d been doing these past couple of months.
He recognized the demon as Mion.
Kai’s mind went blanker than a fresh sheet of paper. He’d been meeting with, trying to help, and befriend a demon this whole time? The confusion this idea brought was greater than any emotion he could ever comprehend. Had Mion deliberately approached him with a nefarious scheme in mind, as par for the course with every other demon? Did Mion even know what the so-called ‘friend’ he’d been meeting with actually was? And if Mion did indeed have plans for him, why hadn’t he done anything yet? Or had something been done already and he was too dense to notice?
Kai looked away from Mion as he got lost in thought, his mind going back to when Makoto had eavesdropped on his time together with Mion. With that came other confused questions. Was Mion so powerful he was able to deceive a skilled angel like Makoto even without knowing of his presence? But if so, why was he and the other demon – presumably his sister – at each other’s throats this much? On top of that, for what reason would he say he didn’t want to be a part of this, or that he was sick of being mistreated by everyone? It wasn’t like they knew an angel would be listening in on them so they’d have no reason to put up such an act. But why would they NEED to put up an act anyway in the middle of all this? Was their whole friendship nothing but an act, for that matter?
Kai was so wrapped up with trying to make sense of all this that he couldn’t do anything but remain frozen where he sat, from which he was left completely vulnerable to Miyu as she noticed him on the ground during her flight. Out of spite she’d taken another look at her brother still left sitting on the ground where she’d left him, and was just about to turn away for good when she saw something else on the ground not far from him. Even from high above, there was no mistaking the pair of white wings which could belong to nothing else but an angel.
“My, my…” Miyu muttered to herself with the sly excitement of someone hitting the jackpot through cheating as she drew a crimson-black sword to aim towards Kai, “Thanks for the easy target…”
* * *
On one hand, Mion was beyond fuming at how Miyu was willing to leave him for dead in a battle zone he had more than no intention of being at to begin with. On the other hand, he was starting to think it was lucky that she did, leaving him completely free to carry on with his escape plan.
Kurosawa had assigned him to be with Miyu for this task, much to both of their dismay. He couldn’t do anything with anyone watching him, and she didn’t want to waste her time covering for someone she despised, but of course both of them couldn’t disobey direct orders from their superior. However, now that he was finally alone, Mion felt his spirits rise a bit despite everything he had to sit through with Miyu, including the near-death experience as well as her ruthless insults to him.
“Well Mion, it’s been a hard time… but give it a few moments and you’ll be free as a bird!” Mion told himself for self-encouragement. First things first, he scanned his surroundings to make out any directions he could go in to get out of here. That was when the first unexpected thing came into his eyes – an angel crouched behind a broken chunk of a wall looking like he was lost.
Mion felt himself panic a little at first, not wanting the troublesome scenario he almost got himself killed in to repeat itself. When he saw the angel didn’t seem to be paying him any attention he felt relief again, only for it to be replaced with utter shock when he thought he saw something familiar in the angel’s face. That was the second unexpected thing to come into his sight.
He recognized the angel as Kai.
The same kind of chaotic confusion that filled Kai’s mind when he recognized the demon also began to fill Mion’s. At the moment he was having all the trouble in the world trying to comprehend the fact that the only one who ever showed him any kind of compassion and kindness, the only one who ever gave him hope in life, the only one whom he ever considered a friend, was something his own kind was naturally enemies with. Did this mean whatever he had with Kai had to be over? And what would become of him if it had to? Would it be back to the hell he wanted out of so badly? Was the friendship he supposedly had nothing short of a lie, something never meant to be?
But right now there was no time to find out whatever the answers to those questions could be. Not when Mion spotted immediate danger in the air – which presented itself in the form of his sister floating high above the ground with her sword held in a position ready to throw. And at the end of the sword’s assumed trajectory was none other than Kai, who also happened to be the center of all of Miyu’s attention as she uttered through her smirk, “My, my… thanks for the easy target…”