“Get out of my way, Takeru-chan! You don’t understand anything! This is a war we’re fighting, a war for our very survival!” Akira pleaded, his eyes staring past me at the fallen angel. She remained on one knee, the impact of his previous blow weakening her enough to keep her down. “In the time since I disappeared, you don’t know the things I’ve seen them do!”

I raised my fists, taking up the fighting stance that my current opponent had taught me himself. “Killing a defenseless girl, one who’s already surrendered? Already lost? That makes us no different from them, Aniki! I won’t let you stoop to their level!”

“It seems this is a problem that can’t be solved with words, Takeru-chan.” he smirked, raising his fists to match my own stance. His feet bounced lightly back and forth, like an experienced boxer. “Alright, if you can get a single hit in, I’ll back off for now… does that sound good to you?”

My fist answered him rather than my mouth. I hopped in, throwing a flying punch towards his smug face. If he was a shard of ahriman like I was, there was no need to hold back! My armor clad fist rocketed forward at a speed impossible for a human to follow. He stepped to the side, easily avoiding it, and countered with a quick jab.

The next thing I remember is hitting the wall of a nearby building, and feeling like my jaw might be dislocated. He had moved so quickly… even my superhuman reflexes couldn’t keep up?! I groaned and stood back up off the ground, shaking off the pain in my face.

A burst of energy flared out of the back of my armored hand, throwing me forward with even more speed than before. The speed that had caught Sara even when she was moving faster than light!

“Such explosive power! You’re obviously not a Daeva, Takeru-chan!” he smirked, catching my punch with his bare hand. His feet slid back a step, the rubber heels of his boots digging against the pavement.

His strength was too great, as my body stood there, a shudder ran down my spine. A primal instinct, I wasn’t looking upon my friend Akira, it was as though I stood before Ahriman himself. I backed away, and he didn’t give chase. He wasn’t really fighting me, he was toying with me. To him, I was insignificant, just another opponent. Not the invincible female boss of Kamijou High. Not a dangerous Shard of Ahriman. Just… a girl with a temper.

“Don’t fucking look at me like that, you bastard!” with a howl, I kicked off the ground. I threw a punch with my armored left hand, but it was merely a feint. He could move quickly for sure, but he also knows how I fight, so I have to do something out of character.

He moved to evade my punch, his hands casually dangling at his sides. He didn’t see the punch as a threat at all, it must have been slow motion to him. My frontal assault style was exactly what he was expecting as he stepped to the left, to the outside of my swing. I locked all of the muscles in my body with a sudden stop, my joints screaming in pain from the immense pressure I put on them. Unnaturally, inhumanly even, I twisted my half extended body, mid straight punch, into a wide kick.

He didn’t have time to react the same as before, he put up his guard rather than smugly deflecting the blow. His blocking stance, only half formed when my leg impacted him, was blown wide open. He was off balance now, and I quickly leapt forward. Despite this, he moved like lightning. My fist flew as hard as it could, but it only grazed the edge of his chin.

He stepped back, laughing. I couldn’t believe him. I was here fighting to defend someone’s life, and he was laughing like it was some kind of game! I was ready to lunge at him again, but he held up his hands, signaling his surrender. He rubbed his chin with his left hand, noting the mark left from my attack.

“I really wasn’t expecting that, Takeru-Chan, ya’ got me.” he admitted defeat, putting his hands in his pockets. “As promised, I won’t do battle with this angel of yours for the time being. Come with me, it looks like we need to have a long discussion.”

I looked between Raza, Sara, and back to Akira. The Daeva stood silent, awaiting my judgment. I turned to Sara, the fallen angel. She let out a small “humph!” and headed down the street, leaving the citizens of the dark to themselves.

And so it was this that led us three to our current location, a family restaurant. The soothing atmosphere of a mid tier restaurant almost made me forget the pent up rage inside me as I glared daggers at Akira, waiting for him to finally explain himself.

“I’m sorry for how things went down, Takeru… I wish I could go back and explain things to you, but would you have understood? My body had changed into something else other than a human’s, and I was being hunted.” he began to explain, taking a sip from a large cola. “I had to escape, and I’ve been running ever since, fighting for my life! I’ve lost allies, friends… I didn’t want to drag you down with me, but…”

“Too late for that, I’m part of this fight now, Aniki.”

“Yeah, and lucky you, you’ve got a cute little Daeva with you to help out, I had to go it alone for who knows how long.” he replied, looking at the girl next to me. Raza nodded silently, her eyes not seeming to trust him just yet. “Is she your only ally?”

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“Yeah, but I only awakened like a week ago.” I replied. “Speaking of awakening… did you feel it too, Aniki? Right before I saw you outside of school, there was…”

“Yeah, another Shard was reborn nearby, I noticed it.” he nodded, putting down his drink. The look in his eyes was incredibly serious, more so than I had ever seen him be in the past. He reached out and put his hand on my left shoulder. “Let’s go find them, Takeru-chan. You don’t have to fight them alone, I’m here now, we can fight Him together!”

“I suppose you have a plan to find this new Shard, Akira?”

“Of course I do, you see, while I was gone those eight years, I started gathering allies.” he crossed his arms, looking exceedingly smug. “It’s not quite Ahriman’s armies, but they’re all talented. I have in my employ a Daeva with first rate tracking skills, she can lead us to the Shard no problem, but we should hurry, the Light will be sure to make an attempt on their life before the day is out.”

“Well then we better get going, are you coming too, Raza?” I stood up from the family restaurant booth, looking back at the still seated woman.

“I will follow my liege anywhere, I will come with you.” she rose, glaring at Akira harshly. As she walked past him, she bumped into his shoulder with some force, then paused a few steps past him and turned back to face us. “Takeru is my Chosen, she trusts you, so I will as well… but I haven’t accepted you as the true reincarnation.”

“I have no plans on fighting Takeru for the right to the title of God of Destruction or anything, I just want to beat the shit out of Him.” he replied, tossing some crumpled money onto the table to pay for our order. “Come on, I’ll introduce you two to my boys.”

We left the restaurant and began walking together. After a twenty minute trip we stopped outside of an old shopping mall that shut down a few years ago. He grinned and hopped over the large security fence, his inhuman athletics making it trivial. Of course, Raza and I were no exceptions, and we cleared the hurdle easily.

Raza’s expression had been frozen in a scowl this whole time, what was she so annoyed about? I can’t remember saying anything that would piss her off, so why? Maybe… Could she be jealous of Akira? Or was it because of what happened with the angel, Sara?

The air inside the building was thick with malice, a killing intent aimed directly at us. Stepping out in front, Akira raised his hands up as if he were surrendering. “I know I said to say on guard, but you guys know it’s me, right?”

The lights quickly switched on, the abandoned building having been repurposed into a base. Various pieces of furniture and appliances were arranged in the middle of the room, with some free standing spotlights set up around the space. Three people waited, two of them stood at attention, ready to do battle, while the third, the youngest looking, sat on an old sofa and played a handheld game.

“Takeru-chan, this here’s Jou.” Akira walked up to a young boy who looked about middle school age and threw his arm around his shoulder. The boy looked up from his game nervously, his short brown hair slightly covering his eyes.

“N-Nice to meet you…” he stammered, trying his best to speak up. I leaned over, my hands resting on my thighs, and looked him straight in the eye. He jumped back, a shudder visibly running through his body. I sniffed him, which caused him even more discomfort. That scent was… he was also an Heir of Ahriman.

Someone so young was dragged into this fight too, huh? It didn’t seem fair, though, I supposed Akira awakened much younger than me as well. I guess I was somewhat of a late bloomer, in terms of these things?

“You’re scaring him.” The only woman in the group walked over and put herself between me and the young boy. She wrapped her arms around him in a protective, motherly way. “Jou is nervous around strangers.”

“R-Rikka… you-your breasts…” the young boy, his face practically erupting from the rapidly appearing blush, squirmed in her arms. The impressive mounds on the punk styled girl’s chest pressed even more against his back as he struggled.

The aroma of this woman, who looked closer to Akira’s age, was unmistakably that of the Daeva. She gave off the same energy as Raza, as did the final member of the group. A man with bleached platinum blonde hair, in a simple suit and tie, stood in the back. He gave a cursory glance towards Raza and I, and then returned to looking at his phone.

“Sorry about my stupid brother over there, his name’s Hiro.” the woman answered for him, releasing her hold on the schoolboy and hopping over to me. She outstretched her hand, and I shook it. “He’s always been kind of antisocial, it’ll take some time for him to warm up to ya. So like, don’t take it personally.”

We finished our introductions, Akira instructing his followers on what his current intentions were. We all took a seat around a low rectangular table and Rikka ran off into the shadows. The sounds of her rummaging through multiple boxes followed, and then she returned with a rolled map. She spread it out on the table, revealing it to be a map of Kamijou City, where we currently resided. Using a pendant with a pointed tip, she let her dark energy flow into it, and it began to track like energies in the city.

“Still, there sure are a lot of shards in one place…” I crossed my arms and pondered aloud. “I awakened in response to an attack on me by someone consumed by Ahriman’s existence, who had been reborn on the same day, and now another appears here? Why?”

“I wish I could tell you, Takeru-chan, I really do.” Akira replied, closing his eyes in thought. “Perhaps the souls of the people of darkness are drawn together, so if a particularly strong Heir is born in Japan, more follow?”

“Got it, Boss!” Rikka interjected, placing two 5 yen coins on the map as markers. “These are the points I feel have the most matching energy, but I can’t determine which one is the origin point.”

“Then we just have to check both, let’s split up.” he answered her, climbing out of his chair. “You take Hiro and Jou to this spot in the suburbs, I’ll check this spot in the shopping district. If there’s two points, we might even be dealing with two Shards, let’s hurry.”

“I’m coming with you, Aniki!” I leapt from my seat and hurried to his side. Raza followed me, keeping her promise to obey my actions.