It took a while, but Kai eventually came back to reality and remembered he couldn’t stay here. The thoughts he’d been wrapped up in could wait until this was all over. First things first, he’d have to find a safer place for his wing to keep healing until hopefully Makoto and Hikasa found him.
“They didn’t separate from me so I could put myself in further danger…” Kai thought as he checked his surroundings for more demons that could be around, and he froze in shock again. He’d spotted not too far above him, a demon staring down at him with a malicious grin on her face and a long crimson-black sword drawn in one hand. Right now the sword was held in a position ready to be thrown at and impaled through Kai, who tried to scramble out of the way, but knew it was too late.
The demon raised her sword to bring it down, and Kai braced himself for the worst… but it didn’t come. Instead Kai had just enough time to notice a huge chunk of debris flying towards the demon like an asteroid, before a strong force grabbed and pulled him by the arm, blurring his vision.
* * *
Meanwhile, Mion also had to get his mind out of the confusion it was in and instead focus it on what mattered right now. Confusion and shock wasn’t going to help him sneak past everything and escape into the human world where he would never return to his sub-faction of hell. If he had to make a move, it was to be done now, and with a clear, focused mind. Worrying about what the time he’d spent with Kai meant could be figured out when he was out of here.
And make a move he did, but not to escape – as soon as Mion got back to his feet and looked around to make sure the coast was clear, he saw his sister again, and she was looking wickedly delighted for some reason, sword in hand. Wondering what that was all about, Mion looked in the direction Miyu was looking in, and felt shock fill his body again to realize she was aiming her sword towards Kai, who’d only just noticed the danger he was in.
Mion didn’t know what made him do it, as if his body had separated itself from his mind and took action on its own. All he knew was that he couldn’t just stand here to let this happen. He quickly looked around in search of something big he could throw towards Miyu to distract her long enough, and found one in the form of a large chunk of rubble nearby. With no time to spare, Mion heaved the debris into his hands and flung it with all his might in the air, where it headed straight for Miyu.
“What the hell-“ Noticing a huge heap of rock coming at her before she could make her next move to kill Kai, Miyu was forced to fly out of the way as the chunk narrowly missed her. She then searched around for whoever tried to squash her, but couldn’t see anyone else in sight. No, scratch that; she couldn’t see anyone at all, including the angel she’d been aiming at before being interrupted.
Seething with anger, Miyu screamed into the emptiness, “DAMN YOU!!!”
* * *
Based on what he’d briefly seen and what was going on, Kai could only deduce that Makoto and Hikasa had found him just in time, thrown the debris at the demon, and were hurrying off to safety with him. So you could imagine the sheer confusion in him when he turned his head to see neither of his angel companions, but Mion tugging him along at full speed like a semi-truck pulling a trailer.
What with so many confusing things happening at once, Kai couldn’t even try to make sense of anything at this point. Neither did Mion, only in his case due to him being busy with trying to find a safe enough place where there wouldn’t be any angels or demons to see or hear either of them. His plan of getting out of here may be important, but it was more important that he sorted this out with Kai first after what he’d done to save him.
Some moments of rushing across the misty ground later, Mion finally managed to find a secluded area consisting of an abandoned ruined building that offered a decent hiding place within. He pushed Kai inside first and after one more look to see if they really were alone, he followed suit.
Once they were hidden well, the first thing Mion did was ask a still mindblown Kai if he was alright. Of course, Kai wasn’t in the best condition at the moment to properly reply, so Mion figured he’d have to address the elephant in the room before anything, no matter how hard it would be for either of them. He sighed and said, “This is not how I imagined things would turn out between us.”
Kai still didn’t move or speak, but Mion knew he had to continue, “I understand if this is too much for you to take or if you find it hard to trust me… at first I couldn’t believe it myself to see you were an angel this whole time, so I can only imagine how you must’ve felt to see what I really am-“
“That, and the fact that you still saved my life after seeing what I really am.”
This time it was Mion’s turn to go silent with disbelief. In his mind he wouldn’t have blamed Kai if he flew off with terror simply from being alone with a demon, even after being saved by one. Angels of all things more than knew better than to engage in anything but a fight for their lives with their natural nemesis, after all. Yet here Kai was, not doing a thing to defend himself from Mion as if he saw nothing earlier and still viewed him as the friend he made over the last couple of months.
Nervousness rising inside as if HE was the angel and Kai was the demon, Mion asked, “You… you’re not afraid of me…? Even after seeing what I am too?”
Kai replied in a voice that tried to sound composed but still trembled a little, “If you wanted me dead, you wouldn’t have bothered with risking danger to save me.”
Relief washed over Mion like heat from a furnace on a cold night. Even though Kai’s response wasn’t anything spectacular, at that moment for Mion, it came across like it meant everything in the world to know Kai still trusted him. That said, Kai also deserved to know more detailed context to all this, so Mion decided to start with an expression of gratitude, “I wouldn’t let a friend die for anything…”
A part of Mion wished he could’ve said something better, but it seemed to be good enough for Kai. Though he also seemed like he couldn’t be sure of everything, as he asked timidly, “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help overhear what you and that demon who tried to kill me were talking about…”
Now feeling embarrassed, Mion said in almost a mumble, “Yeah, my darned loathsome sister…”
“Did you mean it?” Kai asked, carefully inching a little closer to Mion. “Everything you said to her?”
Mion looked at Kai, and for a moment the angel got worrisome, thinking he was touching on a sensitive topic he ought not to poke his nose into. But to his surprise – not the biggest out of all the ones to happen today – Mion sighed and replied, “I can’t blame you for being curious, of course you’d want to know more now that we’ve exposed ourselves to each other…”
Kai inched closer still towards Mion, who continued after a slight pause, “Yes, I did mean it. What with all the dangerous things I went through after being dragged into a mess I never wanted to be a part of, and not even my sister, as much as I hate her guts if you couldn’t tell already, unwilling to help me out of anything, I kinda snapped and let my true feelings slip.”
Kai nodded, having understood things more now. “So when you said on the night we first met that your folks never treat you well…” He said, thinking back to how Miyu had behaved towards Mion.
“Yeah.” Replied Mion. “Everyone back at my sub-faction is like that to me. The whole purpose of demons even before Genesis has been to inflict bad on everything, so why would they care what happens to others? This applies to their own kind too, hence why they view any demon who can’t be like them as worthless. The whole lot of them are just full of either evil or themselves.”
“Not all of them.” Said Kai, and Mion noticed his voice had grown closer to him than before. He turned to see Kai sitting right next to him and smiling gratefully, saying, “I don’t know many demons willing to save an angel of all things from death. I’m forever in your debt for what you did to me.”
Once again, Mion felt Kai’s words touch his heart with a comforting warmth. So much in fact, that for the first time in his countlessly long life, his cheeks blushed and his eyes grew hot full of emotion. Embarrassed to let it show, Mion tried to hide it by turning his face away slightly, but Kai understood.
Without a word, the angel outstretched his uninjured wing to wrap around the demon’s shoulder like a comforting pat on the back. And like that Kai remained for several moments to let Mion cry out all his built-up emotions until he found his voice again to say, “I’m forever in debt to you too. You helped me see a better way of life I never would’ve seen from the time I lived with my kind. All the things demons get up to, from the typical antics on humans to even stuff like this attack on one of heaven’s sub-factions… I could never find happiness in any of that because, well…” He paused to stifle a small sob and continued, “…you said so too, I’m not like them… but befriending you then made me realize I don’t need to…” There was another pause in which Mion finally got the courage to properly face Kai again, and he said, “All I want is just to be happy in my life for once, and if giving up everything I am or have as a demon is the path I need to take for it… I’d gladly do so.”
Hearing that, Kai’s mind flashed back to the conversation they had on the skyscraper observatory deck. Everything he heard back then seemed to recontextualize when added with what Mion just said, and then came the realization of what kind of risky idea the poor tortured demon had in mind.
With his wing still around Mion, Kai asked, “Will you really be alright with forever leaving your sub-faction though? I mean, I don’t know everything about demons, but I did hear stories of those who, in their words, ‘went rogue’ from hell getting hunted down or something…”
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“You’re not alone in that.” Mion replied. “Which is why I was thinking of using this attack as an opportunity to escape without drawing attention to any of my kind. If I don’t make it back home after all this, they’ll just think I died – no surprise for them, knowing the lot…”
Mion noticed Kai looking at him in a way he couldn’t tell what it meant. Thinking he let something that sounded wrong slip, he half-nervously, half-apologetically stuttered, “D-don’t get me wrong or anything, I, I meant it when I said I wanted no part in this. I would’ve completely stayed out of it if it wasn’t for the reasons I told you, and I also meant it when I said I’d abandon the demon ways-“
“Don’t sweat it, I believe you.” Kai reassured him, and Mion felt relieved for the third time that day. Admittedly Kai may have had doubts upon first seeing Mion for what he really was, but based on all that had happened up to this point, the demon had more than proven his sincerity to him. Thus, Kai’s desire to keep helping Mion in secret until he could finally leave the demon life behind and find one of happiness ultimately remained unchanged for the most part.
However, there were a couple more things Kai felt he needed to address. “Even if you do successfully escape, what next? Like, where do you plan to stay for shelter in the mortal world? How will you blend in with your surroundings?” He asked. “Which brings me to the biggest question I have – do you think you’ll be alright at all in a world that… beings like us can’t belong in?”
This time it was Mion’s turn to look at Kai with an indecipherable look and prompt the latter to somewhat apologetically explain himself, “Sorry if I sound like I’m nagging, but I only want you to be okay once you’re out there, and these are things you need to consider for that…”
“I’ll figure the first two out once I actually get there.” Mion replied, the look on his face unchanged. Kai couldn’t tell if he was contemplating these matters in his mind or what, until Mion’s expression turned to a more pleasant one, surprisingly, as he said, “As for the third one… anywhere that I can see you, I would consider it somewhere I belong. Your presence alone always made me feel more at home than my own sub-faction, so as long as I can keep being with you, I can live with that.”
Immediately after saying that, Mion blushed redder than the sword he saved Kai from and let out an embarrassed laugh, as if he couldn’t believe how sappy he made his honest feelings sound.
But again, Kai understood and continued to comfort Mion. Though this time, even he couldn’t help himself from blushing at those words, out of flattery. To regain his composure and get rid of the awkwardness in the air, Kai tried to continue the conversation, “Was that a thought you had even back when we took each other for humans?”
Mion nodded. “Back then I thought maybe I could try to make the most out of our time together during your remaining human lifespan, but… now that I know your lifespan has no end and vice versa, I’m somewhat relieved, as weird as it is to say…” Another awkward laugh of embarrassment later he added, “Because it means we can keep seeing each other for days to come… right…?”
Still trying to compose himself, Kai replied, “As weird as it is for ME to say too, but I’m also relieved at that. Normally when angels provide help to individuals like I’ve been trying to do for you this whole time, they eventually have to say goodbye, since they can’t stay around for obvious reasons. And well, to be honest, I’ve been dreading saying goodbye to you sometime in future because…” He felt his cheeks redden again and took a deep breath to say the next sentence, “…because I didn’t want to forever part with a dear friend like you… but now, I realize maybe I don’t have to.”
Neither of them said anything for a brief moment. Then Mion wrapped one of his wings around Kai’s shoulder like Kai had done for him and said, “I’m touched, really I am…” before asking right away, “But are YOU okay with that? I may be fine with trying to exist in the mortal world, but what about you continuing to meet me in secret? Won’t your kind sense something?”
Kai had a slightly harder time answering that. He couldn’t tell Mion about the incident with Makoto as much as Mion couldn’t tell Kai about his initial intentions before their friendship threw them out the window. Makoto catching him did make part of Kai’s mind think this couldn’t be kept a secret forever. Then again, Makoto had also let him off the hook and paid little mind to this business since then. And if the demons from Mion’s sub-faction were left to think he died, there was no reason to fear this friendship getting exposed to them, as well as the trouble such a scenario could bring.
After his brief contemplation on these thoughts, Kai replied, “We’ve been doing fine up until now, maybe we can do our best to keep up what we’ve been doing for lord knows how long. On top of that, shouldn’t that be easier after your escape leaves your kind thinking you’re dead? You don’t have to worry about them finding out, and I’ll, well, just keep doing my thing.”
Mion gave another pleasant look towards Kai at that and said, “Thanks…” to which he replied, “It’s the least I can do for a friend, isn’t it?”
Mion smiled in Kai’s direction again at that, muttering, “An angel and a demon as friends… who’d have ever thought that would be remotely possible?”
Kai smiled back at him in agreement. “Such twists do happen I guess, no matter how unlikely they seem at first. If Lucifer can fall from heaven then we’d also probably have to accept that a reverse scenario is possible too.” He said, before adding, “Especially when I’m sitting next to it right now.”
For the first time that day, Mion managed the slightest bit of a laugh. “Better that than the other.” He agreed.
* * *
Kai and Mion stayed hidden in the small area long enough for the lighting outside to change color from heavenly white to the warm orange of a sunset, as heaven sub-factions normally did during sundown. Then came night, which plunged the entire place into a just mildly illuminated darkness beneath a starry sky. By that time, the attack also seemed to have ceased, judging by the near lack of noise. Exactly which side ended up coming on top, neither Kai nor Mion could tell, which didn’t reassure them a lot. However, lack of reassurance wasn’t going to keep them safe forever in here.
“We’ve waited this late into the night, surely it must be somewhat safe enough to go out now…” Kai mumbled, fighting to keep his eyes open. They’d both tired themselves out from waiting for the battle to end so they could safely head back home, or in Mion’s case, just out of this sub-faction.
Fighting his own eyelids just as much as Kai was, Mion took one last look outside and sat back down exhaustedly, sighing, “And we definitely can’t afford to wait any longer either… should we fall asleep while waiting, and whichever side got the upper hand in this fight will find us like this sooner or later the next day. Then we’ll be in trouble, particularly if it’s my kind.”
“Then let’s not waste any more time.” Said Kai, getting to his feet and slapping his cheeks to wake himself. “You’ll call me later to let me know if you do make it out to the human world?”
“Right away.” Mion replied, pointing to his jean pocket where he kept his phone. He then added a moment later, “You think you’ll be alright with your kind when you return home? I mean, surely you also had partners before getting separated on your own, and I assume they’re worried sick at your absence.” Before muttering to himself out of spite at his own kind, “Unlike my lot with my absence…”
“As long as I return in one piece, I don’t suppose there’ll be problems.” Kai shrugged. “Though I do owe them an apology for worrying them, that’s for sure.”
With that out of the way, they came out of their hiding place and took in their surroundings. If they thought the faction’s devastation looked pretty bad before, it was certainly worse now. What with the battle having continued in their long absence, the destruction was now nearly on par with that of a firebombed city. Add that to the eerie silence which was so quiet it was almost deafening, and they found themselves standing in the middle of the most unsettling place they could think of.
“Scared?” Mion whispered to Kai, who nodded as nervously as a child who’d done something wrong and was desperately trying to hide it. Mion nodded back in agreement at that, saying, “That makes two of us. Convincing ourselves that we’re most likely alone right now isn’t helping much when the place looks like it could be hiding anyone from either side in any one of its dark shadows…”
Kai shivered. He didn’t want to think about what Mion mentioned especially when he’d already felt that same anxiety earlier today. So in an attempt to encourage themselves to get a move on already instead of standing here scared, he piped up, “Come on, what reason would anyone else have to deliberately hide somewhere and wait the battle out like we did?”
That didn’t really convince either of them, but Mion did understand what Kai was trying to get across. “My advice; just keep flying towards your destination until you finally reach it. Don’t stop for anything, don’t get distracted by anything, don’t do anything at all except fly.” He said.
“Seems like a way to not distract ourselves with what we fear might happen.” Kai replied and nodded. “In fact, we ought to do that before we both get too scared to so much as take a few steps forward.” He took a deep breath and faced off into the distance with an uncertain yet determined look. Mion did the same in a different direction. Neither of them, however, could’ve imagined then that their fear of not knowing if they were alone in the faction’s ruins were the least of their problems.
They spread their wings, and before taking off they turned their heads to look at each other one last time that night and exchange encouraging goodbyes.
“Promise me you’ll make it back home safe and sound.”
“Good luck out in the human world, and that you’ll make it there safely too.”
Then there was the soft flapping of wings momentarily breaking the muffling silence in the darkness, and they were finally off on their separate ways.
Looking at how he was flying right now, Kai had another reason to be relieved that he and Mion decided to wait the battle out this long. His stabbed wing had fully healed by the time they’d got the courage to come out of their hiding place, so he no longer had any trouble with flying again. Aside from that, he took Mion’s words seriously and didn’t think of anything else but to get out of here and back to his own sub-faction. He was so focused on locking his gaze only on what was in front of him and keeping his ears on high alert so he could still be prepared in case anything lunged at him from the shadows, that he legitimately felt his heart jump into his throat when a voice called out his name, “Kai!” and nearly made him lose balance in midair.
Had it not been for him recognizing the voice, Kai would’ve been scared out of his wits so badly to the point of pushing his wings to the limit to get out of there as fast as he could, and not looking back for anything until he was safe at home. Instead, he felt his heart gradually descend back to its rightful place as he turned and saw Hikasa struggling to catch up with him. This was because her wings looked like they were parts of an elementary school art project, due to injuries that were still in the middle of healing. Nevertheless, this didn’t stop her from flying up next to Kai the best she could as she asked, “What in the world happened to you? Me and Makoto couldn’t find you after our separation and got so worried, we were even ready to expect the worst…”
Kai cut her off in an attempt to calm her down as well as apologize for causing worry, “I’m so sorry about that, but there’s no need to be this worried sick now; I’m here, well and alive! Rather, what about you? Just what happened to your wings for them to be in-“
But this time Kai found himself getting cut off by Hikasa, who didn’t look or act the least like she was less worried to see him alright. If anything, she seemed to be more worried than ever, practically ushering Kai with her despite the state of her wings, saying, “That’s the least of what’s at stake right now! Let’s move, quickly! We can’t let Inori sama uninformed of this godforsaken problem…”
“Uninformed of what?” Kai asked, but as he was to find out later, it was indeed gonna turn out to be a problem of a magnitude beyond his comprehension.
* * *
Mion’s flight was much more uneventful than Kai’s in comparison. One could wish it was because nothing happened on the demon’s way out of the battlefield and thus he successfully escaped into the human world, but unfortunately not. The only reason it could be described as “uneventful” as far as any events went, was because it was rather short-lived.
Not even a minute after Mion had taken flight, he felt a dull thud hit him smack on the back of his head. And that was all he could make sense of before everything before him went as dark as his senses, to the point where he couldn’t even feel a pair of strong hands grab him before his limp body could hit the ground.