By the time Hikasa had finished leading him back home to their sub-faction under the explanation that the mentioned problem had to be addressed there, Kai was dying to know what in the world she was on about. But as soon as Hikasa did go on to address the problem, that eagerness turned to pure blood-chilling terror. Even worse was the fact that this was done in the presence of countless other angels and, to add insult to injury, Inori herself as well.
“Care to explain what the hell was going on back there with you and that demon?!”
Standing motionless on the spot as if his fear had indeed frozen every drop of blood in his body, Kai found himself unable to do a single thing other than croak a strangled, “What…?” as he tried to comprehend what was happening. He couldn’t even register the way every other angel around him gasped in either shock or disbelief at Hikasa’s words, all while Inori looked like a teacher who’d just been informed that one of her underage students had been caught drinking at a bar.
“You know damn well what!” Hikasa replied with a face that Kai couldn’t tell if it was anger or fear. “I’ve been hiding out under a bit of ruins until dark to treat these countless wounds I’ve sustained,” she took a moment to point at her nearly tattered wings, “I’ve been worried sick about Makoto after I had no choice but to leave him behind to fight the demon who did this to me… but most of all, I’d been worried sick about you ever since we separated so I was just about to come out of hiding to find you, when I heard you in the distance talking to someone through the dead silence… so I cautiously poked my head out to see what was going on, only to see you conversing with a demon and…” she took another moment to gasp a few breaths out of sheer disbelief, “and shaking hands with it, and wishing him good luck out in the human world?! Explain yourself!”
As Hikasa’s words – or rather rant, as far as Kai was concerned – ended, the gasping among the angels slowly turned to murmurs of uncertainty. Hikasa eventually turned her glance to Makoto, who was also present and thankfully looked unscathed but in shock just as much as Kai himself. Meanwhile Kai still couldn’t form any words as the revelation that him and Mion weren’t alone at the scene after all began to sink in, as well as the prospect of how much trouble he’d be in for this.
Then the murmuring between the angels halted as Inori spoke in a stern but calm voice, apparently having sensed Kai’s inability to speak up, “I detect from your reaction there’s something about you and this demon beyond just a handshake and a few words. Start from the beginning and tell us everything Kai, for if we want to help you, you must first help us understand the situation.”
Kai doubted anything Inori or the other angels had in mind to “help” him regarding this could actually help at all, but it wasn’t like he had other options. So he reluctantly told everyone how it all began when he first encountered Mion on that fateful stormy night, then deciding to help him after making him out to be a human with a troubled life, and finally finding out he was a demon this whole time but still wanting to help because he turned out to be genuinely good person.
More murmurs, louder this time, erupted among the angels. Hikasa was grabbing both sides of her head, Makoto still remained frozen where he stood, and Inori spoke again to Kai, undisturbed by the surrounding commotion, “Why did you decide to act on your own without letting others know?”
Kai also told the truth to that question, but left out the part where Makoto stepped in by simply explaining his motivation for what he did and nothing else. “It was extremely shortsighted of me to not even think of actually talking out the problem with others to try and solve it…” He muttered.
“Shortsighted indeed!” Said Hikasa in a loud voice. She was so focused on Kai that she barely even noticed Makoto wide-eyed and mildly shivering at Kai’s words as she continued, “Were you so blinded by it you forgot what demons are capable of? Why would you wanna keep helping him?!”
“I’m telling you, he’s not evil!” Kai protested. “He was just as blown away as me when he found out I’m an angel, and I saw for myself he wasn’t lying about how he’s been kicked around all his life by his own kind! He even saved my life, why would he do that if he had ulterior motives?”
Hikasa sighed and shook her head. “Isn’t it obvious? This demon is most likely playing the game long-term deliberately because he enjoys your gullibility! How do you know he didn’t already know your identity before the reveal? Him saving you means nothing as far as I can see, for it could just be another part in whatever big picture he’s scheming! Also, you were totally fine with him going rogue? A demon out and free in the human world, that didn’t raise any red flags for you?”
Kai opened his mouth to argue, but Hikasa knew what was coming. “And don’t tell me that ‘this demon is good’ nonsense again, that’s what he wants you to think, can’t you see?” She insisted.
All the other angels erupted into their loudest murmurs yet as they agreed to Hikasa’s points, except Makoto, who was trembling still, and Inori, who remained calm while she too agreed, “As much as Hikasa may sound hysterical in your view Kai, she’s right as rain. Demons have been no more and no less than embodiments of evil since their creation, and unfortunately have never veered from what they are during their entire unholy existence. What you believe to be a sense of good in this particular demon could very well be manipulation, a façade of good that’s masking the sinister truth. For all we know, he could be attempting a new method of evil that could become the new norm for the rest of them, similar to how possession came to be the current norm.”
Fiercely nodding to Inori’s words, another angel spoke up, “Yeah – we won’t act like we don’t see where you’re coming from, Kai… but it seriously comes across like you’re letting your motivations and desires blind you from the fact that demons are an evil that can’t be reasoned with.”
A second angel was then heard muttering, “And to think the dark magic demons use for possession or mind-warping doesn’t work on themselves and us angels… that demon must be a real master manipulator…” while a third one piped up, “There’s no demon more dangerous than a rogue one, imagine if you’d been manipulated into telling him important information about our sub-faction, or any other sub-factions of heaven out there…”
“But I didn’t…” Kai said weakly, even though he had no idea if saying so would help matters.
Thinking deeply to herself, Inori muttered loud enough for the others to hear, “Assuming the demon did escape the battlefield according to his plan Kai told us about, then we have a rogue demon the other demons have no idea of…” She nodded a couple of times before continuing, “This should be easier for us to handle, since it means there won’t be any demons actively out for this one’s neck.”
“I don’t think I understand what you mean, Inori sama…” Said Kai, to which Hikasa replied, “She means we have to go out there, find this demon before it can get up to no good, and finish it off!”
“What?!” Kai exclaimed, wondering whether his ears were deceiving him. “But Inori sama-“
“Enough, Kai.” Inori cut him off, holding a hand up in the air. “We’ve said all we can to help you see the danger you’ve inadvertently put yourself in, and everyone here is already rather worn out from the great battle today. We’d appreciate it if you would stop being stubborn and wear us out further when we have more important matters to discuss right now.”
Sensing defeat, Kai didn’t continue and just sighed, “By that, I presume you mean discussing how to find Mion and take him down?”
Inori nodded. “While I do have a plan in mind, it’s not one that’s simple, and will require some level of contemplation before it can be pulled off.” She then turned to the other angels to say, “We’ll take this topic for discussion over at the meeting chamber, so do make your way there if you will.” Before turning back to Kai, “In the meantime, could you help Makoto take Hikasa to the healing room?”
Makoto snapped out of his trembling state to regain composure and began escorting Hikasa, who insisted that she could make it there herself, but at the same time didn’t really object to the help. Kai half-awkwardly, half-apologetically followed suit.
None of the three angels said a word to each other on the way to the healing room. Hikasa felt it was pointless to lecture Kai any further by now, and Makoto had a few things to say to Kai that couldn’t be said in another’s presence. Last but not least, Kai stayed silent from his mind not just swimming, but practically drowning in thought after everything that had happened.
On one hand, there was the fear of not knowing what was to become of both him and Mion when the angels were done discussing with Inori and ready to take action. What consequences would he have to face for his shortsighted recklessness, and would Mion be able to look out for himself when the angels did come for him? Would he be able to warn Mion of what was to come before it could happen, and if so, how much help would it be to him for how long?
On the other hand, there was another series of thoughts engaging in a fierce tug-of-war with the aforementioned ones; whether he was right to be on Mion’s side or not. While the other angels had no idea how things had played out from Kai’s perspective, at the same time they were all much more skilled and experienced than he was. Therefore they knew demons way better than he did, from their capabilities to their psychology, etc. – everything they needed to know in order to protect humanity from such evil by fighting them off and keeping them at bay.
His ears ringing with the possibilities Hikasa and Inori had suggested upon hearing about Mion, Kai thought to himself, “Could it be possible that maybe, just maybe, Mion has indeed been making a fool out of me for nefarious schemes? Do demons never truly change no matter what kind of life they’ve lived and what kind of friends they make?”
He’d dare not question the judgement of those better than him, especially that of their sub-faction’s wise and competent leader. Yet the faith he had for Mion also kept insisting nobody could be right all the time, and that miracles such as a demon deciding to turn good did exist in this world.
“They didn’t see and hear what I did throughout those couple of months, they can’t know for sure what Mion’s really like…” Kai thought again, “Wait, scratch that… Makoto’s seen and heard Mion for himself, and I very well remember what he had to say about that!”
“But you just told yourself nobody can be right all the time, how do you know Makoto wasn’t mistaken that one time?” His mind retorted back to him. “How do you know Mion isn’t a demon skilled enough to tell lies that can mask the truth even from an angel?”
By the time he and Makoto had laid Hikasa down on a bed in the healing room for her to take care of her wings properly, Kai decided it was best to shut his mind off entirely for the moment. The heated debate he was having with himself was doing nothing other than confuse and frustrate him further, as if he wasn’t under enough stress already. At this point, the only option left for him was to wait for Inori and the others to finish their discussion and come back to them with their verdict.
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“Hey, Hikasa…” Kai suddenly heard Makoto speak, “You mind if I went off to have a few words with Kai in private? Nothing much, just something I wish to say to him about all this as a senpai.”
Gingerly applying proper healings spells to her wings, Hikasa shook her head. Makoto simply said “Thanks.” In return, before motioning Kai to follow him to an area out of Hikasa’s earshot.
Kai obliged, more nervous than ever and wishing whatever Makoto had in store for him would be over as soon as possible.
* * *
“…we’re NOT taking this matter to Kurosawa san, I’m dead meat if we do-“
“Why you? This traitor is the one who screwed up, if anyone’s gotta get their ass kicked, it’s-“
“Listen Ren, if Kurosawa san finds out, he’ll blame me for failing to keep tabs on him while he’s been going rogue under our noses! You know how he operates, he’ll deem me as incompetent for letting this happen because I’m his sister! By the time he’s done beating this pathetic waste of a demon to a pulp, I won’t come out of this unscathed either!”
“He IS your brother Miyu, so how about you rightfully take responsibility for where you messed up to not notice him going rogue instead of trying to evade-“
“How about I do that by dealing with him myself without earning Kurosawa san’s ire? And you lot are gonna help me with it, end of discussion! You got that?!”
These were the voices Mion gradually woke up to, groggy and confused. He tried to recall what had happened after he’d exchanged his goodbyes with Kai at the devastated battlefield and flew off, when one of the voices spoke directly to him, “Well, well… look who finally decided to wake up.”
Recognizing the voice, Mion snapped out of his groggy state and looked around to see he was back at his sub-faction. He was also propped up against a corner while surrounded by three demons looming over him – Miyu, Daichi, and Ren, who said, “Good thing Kurosawa san had a few guys including me inspect the sub-faction we attacked one last time for good measure… or else I never would’ve found our little backstabber here literally shaking hands with an angel.”
Mion glanced at Ren, to Daichi smirking down at him with the utmost amusement, to eventually Miyu. If he’d seen his sister furious before, it was nothing compared to the look she was giving him now. “And I thought you couldn’t possibly sink any lower as a demon after that outburst you had at me… you dare try to get back at us by joining forces with our natural enemy?”
“What the hell…” Mion muttered, beginning to piece together what the blow to his head that knocked him out really was. Ren had caught him conversing with Kai during a last-minute inspection of the battlefield he was completely unaware of, and had incapacitated him to bring him here.
“Don’t you try playing dumb now, after everything Ren said he saw you do!” Miyu violently snapped at him. “I think I see what’s been going on… you were so sick of how you’ve been treated around here – just like you told me today – so you thought you could get an angel on your side and tell him everything about our sub-faction. That way he’d undoubtedly call for an entire angel army to attack us like we attacked one of their sub-factions, all while you get away scot-free from all this by going rogue.” She then grabbed Mion by the front and slammed him against the wall behind him, angrily adding, “Isn’t that right, huh dear brother?! Tell me if I’m right!”
Daichi shifted closer with the nasty smirk still on his face, saying, “You sneaky little brat… how long have you been meeting with this angel for that to remotely be possible? How did you even do it?”
“And how much did you tell?” Ren joined in. “Better say… while you still have your throat intact.”
Mion couldn’t believe this. Not only was he caught red-handed and about to be put through things that would make him wish he was never born, but his assaulters had gotten the completely wrong idea about his intentions. Not that the truth would save him now when he couldn’t deny the fact that he was indeed thinking of going rogue. Either way, this looked like the end of the line for him.
That said, he couldn’t just sit here and do nothing like a school outcast getting screwed over by the local bullies, so he choked out, “That angel knows nothing because I told him nothing… what do you plan to do about information he doesn’t even have?” It might be over for him, but if there was something he could do before these demons made sure he won’t be able to do anything at all, it was to try and make sure Kai wasn’t affected by this.
“LIAR!!!” Miyu screamed and flung Mion onto the ground as easily as a ragdoll. Without giving him even a second to recover, all three demons were on top of Mion as Miyu continued threateningly, “Covering for your little sneak won’t do neither you nor him any favors… and if you think you can drag this out long enough for him to bring his friends over here to kill us all, think again mister!”
“Unlike you, we’re not stupid.” Daichi added. “Assuming you’ve been meeting this angel long enough for you to trust each other as allies, we also assume you have him in your contacts.” With that, he took a second to pull out Mion’s phone from his own pocket, which Mion guessed he’d stolen while he was out cold. “You are to call this angel to meet with you tomorrow, and when you do, we’ll be there for it. He’s the fish, we’re the fishermen, and you’re the bait. See where I’m going with this?”
Mion nodded painfully, and the pain wasn’t just from getting thrown to the ground with pure blunt force. He understood what this meant.
“Nice plan Daichi, I wish I’d thought of it.” Ren complimented, fueling the smirk on Daichi’s face.
Miyu also gave Daichi a grin of approval before turning back to Mion, “And don’t think you can get out of this alive by choosing the meeting location wisely, we don’t care how much property damage or loss of lives we cause in our attempt to capture your angel.”
Ren looked confused at this. “Capture? Don’t you mean kill? Granted, it’d be fun to keep him around to see how much he squeals from torture, but I thought the plan was to make sure-“
“Think about it, bonehead.” Said Miyu, not taking his eyes off Mion. “Our sub-faction’s location isn’t the only piece of info this angel could potentially have. You’d think every angel would know where their own sub-factions lie like we do with our own, meaning…”
Ren’s frown from having his intelligence insulted gradually turned into a smile of realization as he exclaimed, “We could squeeze any info about the angel’s sub-faction and get to the rest of them!”
Daichi nodded. “That’ll be the second sub-faction of heaven we’ve miraculously managed to attack. Which isn’t much, but nice to think we managed to do it more than once in our lifetimes.”
Miyu then concluded the conversation by telling Mion, “Don’t make this hard for us and cooperate, will you? If you don’t want this to be hard for you instead.”
There was no alternative. Mion thought for now it was best to go along with their scheme and try thinking of a solution to keep Kai safe on the way. The day and time he’d be forced to meet Kai was his only window of opportunity at anything remotely close to a way out, so it was probably best if he focused on that with the time he still had.
“Hand me the phone, I’ll text him about it.” Said Mion in a mildly trembling voice. Daichi did so, keeping a close eye on the phone screen and saying, “And you’d better not send a text for help or anything of the sort… you do wanna keep your fingers to be able to text, right?”
Mion paused for a split second, then scoffed. “Like hell I’d try something that rash in your presence. Unlike you, I’m not stupid.” Which earned him a whack on the head from Miyu, much to Daichi’s entertainment. But Mion didn’t care. The only thing he did care about as he texted was cooking up a good plan within the extreme limitations he was placed in. Yes, he was certainly at a disadvantage here, but if he was to go down, he’d gladly go down swinging as long as Kai could be safe.
“They’ll never have the slightest bit of mercy on me for this, even if they found a way to use it to their advantage…” Mion thought. In all the past examples of rogue demons he’d read about in the archives, none of them were successful at avoiding death by the other demons, so no doubt he was also no exception to the rule. “But when they do get to that, Kai ought not to be dragged into it… he doesn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of a mess that’s of my doing, after all he’s done for me… I won’t let them harm him if it’s the last thing I do. And if I do die…” Mion had to pause mid-text for a second at the next train of thought, as it nearly brought to his eyes tears that he mustn’t let them show. “…I’ll at least die knowing I made the truest friend anyone could ever have in life…”
With these thoughts in mind, the text was finally sent, prompting Daichi to take the phone back from Mion to check the screen. “Wise decision.” He said, satisfied with what he saw. “He won’t suspect a thing with such casual choice of words, all he has to do is text back yes, and we’re good!”
“I’ll lock the little traitor up in his room to make sure he can’t do anything until the promised time.” Said Miyu, picking Mion up by one of his arms and dragging him across the ground like a heavy sack. “Tell me if the angel says anything other than yes, then we’ll need to have our rogue here text him back to set a different meeting time.”
* * *
A small pinging noise broke the silence between Kai and Makoto once they made themselves alone. Recognizing the sound’s source, Kai pulled his phone out to see a text from Mion saying he made it out into the human world successfully and if they could meet again tomorrow for the occasion.
Kai sighed. “So he did do it.” He muttered, and Makoto leaned closer to see what he meant by that. After reading the text, he said, “Don’t reply just yet.” And gestured to put the phone away for now.
When Kai did, Makoto sighed deeply and spoke slowly, “You know we can’t place blames on anyone for something as unexpected as this, right? What I mean to say is, most likely nobody’s mad at you for being deluded by a demon. I’m not mad in the slightest either, I was there to overhear him speak and was just as tricked as you were by his words. Anyone would’ve fallen for that demon’s deceptions if he’s so powerful that he could even make skilled angels believe his lies.”
Kai didn’t know what to say about that, so he decided to go with the flow for now and nodded.
Makoto continued, “That said, because this whole thing was still caused by your own recklessness, everyone will most likely expect you to take responsibility for it. Admit it, it’s your mess, therefore you can’t expect yourself to just walk away with no repercussions while the rest of us clean up.”
Kai nodded again, this time more guiltily.
“Because of those reasons, whatever verdict Inori-sama and the others reach, I won’t object to it or stand up for you.” Said Makoto, albeit in a slightly apologetic tone. He then paused for a bit, before asking Kai in a surprisingly guilty voice, “Though… why didn’t you mention me when Inori-sama asked you why you didn’t tell anyone about what you’ve been doing?”
Kai looked up at Makoto, who was now looking down at the floor as if he was the one who’d been hiding secrets up until now. Knowing what Makoto was thinking and why he asked such a question, Kai responded, “Like you said, this is my mess. You may have intervened at one point, but ultimately it was me who made the decision that became the catalyst for all this. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have had to do what you did in the first place. So I couldn’t drag you into trouble that isn’t even yours.”
Failing to make eye contact again with Kai, Makoto said, “I know I have no right to say this, but… thanks.” And quickly added, “This IS partly my fault as well though, because I chose to cover for you even when I knew I really shouldn’t. And now look how much trouble that’s gotten you in…”
Kai wanted to say something about that, but Makoto wasn’t finished. He covered half of his face with one hand as if he couldn’t even bring himself to show his face out of guilt as he continued, “It’s a senpai’s responsibility to look out for their kouhais’ well-being and lead them down the right path, but I failed at that duty by foolishly doing nothing about you being deceived by a demon when I could’ve prevented it. On top of that, I was too cowardly to speak out to Inori-sama about how I played a part in it as well… too cowardly to admit how I fed the fire that you started…”
Upon hearing all this, even though Kai was still split on whether Mion was genuine with him or not, he had to tell Makoto what had to be told. Before Makoto could say more, Kai placed his hands on his senpai’s shoulders and said, “You said you don’t blame me for not knowing Mion was a demon. Then why are YOU blaming yourself for also not knowing back then?”
Makoto lowered his hand from his face, which was now wide-eyed, as Kai went on, “And think about it, even without your intervention, things would’ve turned out the same with Hikasa catching me with Mion and telling it to everyone. I’m the sole cause of my own problem, and nobody else. So please stop blaming yourself for something you’re not so much as partially at fault for.”
Both of them stood in silence for a brief while after that, with Makoto gradually calming down as he took in what Kai told him and began to make sense of it in his mind. When Kai thought Makoto had calmed down enough from seeing his face loosen up a bit, he asked, “Better?”
Makoto nodded and replied, “Thanks Kai… even though, again, I’ve no right to say that to you…”
“You’ve always been a good senpai to me by helping in any way you could, consider this the least I can do for you in return.” Said Kai.
In spite of the situation, Makoto gave Kai a grateful smile, and they shook hands with each other for that.
Just then, however, their moment was interrupted by Hikasa’s voice faintly calling out to them from her healing room bed, “Kai, Makoto! Inori-sama’s back with her verdict, she needs you to come here and hear it from her!”