Kira

~

My gaze shifts from the blond male before me down to the notched lightning arrow in his hold. I don't need a psychic to know I should choose my words carefully.

"Now listen, Miss-I mean, Mister!" I take note of how the glare becomes sharper, definitely a guy. "I have no idea who Nightmare is or where he is, let's just-"

"Lies!" He snaps, letting the arrow fly toward me.

I roll to the left just in time for the arrow to only graze my cheek. The smell of ozone in the air that had accompanied his initial arrival, burns my nose. There are three arrows in the bow now and I'm not quite ecstatic to see just how much better his aim is.

'Brat's a show-off,' Lucifer huffs as I rub the wound with a hiss, it's healing far too slowly for my liking. Forcing my battered body into action i deflect as many arrows as I can with my weapon dodging the rest while thinking of what to say to get myself out of this.

"Who is this guy?!"

'The all-knowing shit is Sathanas's job, not mine.'

"Why the hell are you so useless?!"

'Just for that, I'm not telling you what I do know.’

I fall to my knees, arching backwards to watch another arrow zoom over my nose. Too close. I turn back to the blond, "Listen! I don't know who the hell you are but I'm going to need you to stop shooting at me."

"And lower my guard so you can get away? I don't think so." He fires a few more shots at me but I deflect them all, running right at him and taking a strike.

He stops the edge of my blade by holding it in his hands which I now notice were covered in gauntlets.

Just my luck.

"Do I look like a bad guy to you?!"

Like he's purposefully ignoring my words I watch him pull a dagger seemingly out of nowhere and swipes it at me.

I evade, not stopping my explanation as our choppy mismatchdance of skills take us from one end of the passage to the other, "The old Demona died yesterday, I'm totally new to this and have no idea who Nightmare is or what's going on!" Flipping back, I kick the weapon out of his hand and, summoning the dregs of my abilities left, use a powerful gust of wind to blow him back.

He gets right back up and glowers at me from a distance.

"What will it take for you to stop trying to kill me?!" I scream, exhaustion is settling into my bones, my head slowly starting to throb and fog over.

An edged silence stretches between us and I'm more than ready to to give whatever into running away now I'm closer to the exit.

"I believe you."

"Huh?!"

His glowing gold eyes are full of hate and suspicion but he’s no longer attacking me.

Thank goodness. I fall to my knees, taking in quick ragged breaths, "Why now, you psycho?"

I head him scoff, "If you truly were the old Keeper, you wouldn't have put up such a pitiful fight, I've been warned against approaching her." He takes a few steps toward me, the gap between us closing far too quickly as he breeches my personal space to peer at my face.

"I can sense how weak you are and I'm sure it's not just from exhaustion, you're new."

Rude, but I'll take that over being killed.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

"I'm still not sure about your connection to Nightmare but if I find you're lying to me I'll place an arrow right through your heart."

"There's no way she's anything but his enemy, I didn't know her that long and I also didn't like her at firstl but she saved me, that counts for something to me." I can still feel the lingering traces of her emotions within me, I make a mental note to ask Lucifer about that.

"And that's why you took her place?"

"It's complicated,” my hands moves to rub at the back of my neck nervously.

He raises a questioning brow but there's no way in hell I'm telling my story to one stranger that's just tried to kill me, unless he becomes my ally that is, "Hey listen, you want to take down this Nightmare bastard, right?"

He nods slowly, a contemplative look fixed on my face. I put my hands up to it.

"Do I have something in my teeth?"

He doesn't look amused, "Your Mask is still up, I pulled mine down after taking down the Demon so you could see the face of the one who killed you if you refused my request.”

I gape in disbelief, “Request?”

He ignores me, “It's only right that you do the same if you want to ask my aid."

"What's a Mask?"

"How ignorant are you?"

I frown, "We can cover my bases later but what I'm trying to say now is that we should work together. If you help me learn about this Magic stuff, I can help you fight Nightmare. Sounds good, yeah?"

All things considered, I don't hope to go that far, just get strong enough to give this Seal to someone more qualified for this bullshit.

Lucifer sneers in my head, ‘This brat isn't worth the headache, I'm obviously more than enough.’

I bat his irritating voice away.

"It will make things easier," the blond is murmuring to himself.

Our discussion is interrupted by the hiss of falling sand coming from the ceiling. We both look up to see corpses dropping from the loosened drit and hitting the floor with bone-chilling thuds. One stands on shockingly nimble limbs, it's jaw unhinging hideously to let Beelzebub's vicious snarl fill the room.

"Don't think you've won just yet, I'll get a new body, and the next time we meet, you'll both be at my mercy, that is if you survive my pets."

'He must have fled the body before the kid destroyed it.' Lucifer informs, probably sensing the question in my mind.

Good to know that's a thing Demons can do, a bit late but better than never I guess.

"There's a lot of them," I whine dumbly as the zombie-like monsters edge toward us with rotting limbs and gaping maws.

"I can see that."

'Beel and cemeteries were never a good combination,' Lucifer sounds almost bored now.

"Why don't you use that gigantic golden light trick you used earlier?"

"That move drains my energy, I was using my reserves to fight you."

Shit.

"In other words, we're toast right?"

He spares me a degrading sidelong glance before pulling out another dagger, "You give up too easily."

Any other time, I'd take that as an insult but the longer I remain, the more my body aches to just collapse. Was this really my end? Devoured in an underground room by a Demon's pet zombies. If so, whoever wrote the script of my life should really be demoted for doing an ass job.

The sound of another loud crash draws our attention to the shadowed form swooping into the room on wide, powerful wings the color of midnight slicing through the air.

The figure lands at the other end of the room, a wild ecstatic cackle breaking loose from them as the world becomes enveloped entirely by black glinting feathers flying my way.

I raise my arm to shield my face from the onslaught, and save just a few not-too-deep slashes penetrating my boots to get to my ankles and calves I feel litte else. Gritting y teeth through pain, I slowly drop my hands to see large white wings keeping the whirlwind of feathers away.

"Eh? Why the hell are you protecting her, Angel boy?!" The newcomers voice is pleasantly pitched, dripping with childish petulance.

The first stranger, Angel boy apparently, lets his wings fall away to reveal our company. The dark winged boy is short, probably ten or eleven. Unlike Angel boy who looks a bit foreign with unplaceable features and about my age, this kid has jet black hair, a ragged red scarf around his neck and, just like me, he looks Japanese.

They both seem to know each other.

I study the ruined passageway to see that the black feathers had decimated the small zombie army around us. Shivering at the thought of what could've happened to me, I turn to Angel boy, he didn't have a single scratch on him. Confused, I stare from the blond to the newcomer as they glare slash beam at each other.

"What are you doing here, midget?" The Angel boy grounds outwith quiet but obvious irritation.

"C'mon, you could be more grateful since I just saved your life, a kiss on the cheek maybe…” He taps his cheek expectantly.

If looks could kill, we'dhave another dead body already.

“Fine, fine, drop the murderous look already,” he sighs, “I followed you and Ren here. My train was late and by the time I found your house, he said you'd already taken off to find the Keeper. Good thing I wasn't late this time,” th midget then points to me, “Why did you protect the Demon Keeper?"

I'd been listening a bit too enthusiastically I'd totally forgotten I was the outsider.

"Me? Funny story..."

He tried to kill me.

"She's on my side," Angel boy answers simply, without a hint of warmth.

The other boy casts his gaze on me, I expect to see irritation and distrust but all I get is bubbling curiosity. He runs up to me, standing on tiptoes to peer into my face.

"Really?!" There are practically stars in his eyes.

"I won't repeat myself," The blond huffs.

"Hi," stepping back, I give nervous wave, “So you two know each other?" I study the wings on both, maybe they were siblings of some sort, or maybe the same yokai race.

'They're not yokai.' Lucifer sighs bluntly, probably reading my mind sgain. I have to figure out how to stop him from doing that.

I must be an open book at this point because Angel boy calls me out as well, "We are not related," He hisses firmly, "I am the chosen Angel sent down by God himself to rid this world of Demonic influence." He plants his right hand firmly on his chest, "I am God Archer."

"I call him delusional for short, he's lucky he's hot," The shorter boy says, "I'm Kuro, the Dark One. If you notice, the Aura from his Magic Energy and mine do aren't similar. There are three different types of Magic Energy,” he gsstures to me then back to himself, “Ours is Dark Magic, since our abilities are from Demons, there's also Basic Magic, and Angel boy is a rare example of what we in this business call Light or Divinity Magic. Did you get all that?”

I reward the sudden influx of information with a slow, stupid nod, studying both of them with renewed interest. Now that he mentioned it, Angel boy's Energy does feel very different from mine, Kuro and Beelzebub's. It's unoppressive but at the same time awe-inspiring.

"That's... cool," I wish I can say more but my brain is working on autopilot and conjuring images of my bed the longer this drags out, "I guess you both know who I am then?"

"Demona; Tokyo's Protector, Guide of Spirits, Keeper Of Demonic Forces, Helper of-"

"That's enough! I get it..." I interrupt Kuro, "I'm guessing you thought I worked with Nightmare too?"

At the mention of that name, his bright ruby-colored eyes turn dark, "You could say that, I tailed this guy and his master here," He gestures to God Angel boy, “Even if you didn't end up working for him, I figured you'd be able to help me get revenge, the old Demona that is." He stretches his arms above his head, tiredly, “You don't have the aura I've heard so much about and you almost died in an attack I defeated easily, you're not the woman the world has come to know as Demona this last century are you?”

“I'm not-”

“Time to go then!” He hops to the air ready to leave.

“But the Demons know everything she did!” I scramble to catch one end of his scarf, there's no way I'm letting this strong ass kid leave, "Work with us! With you around and the Demons in my head, we can figure out Nightmare’s goals and maybe find him.”

“We don't need him," God Archer growls.

"Ignore him, he doesn't like me much," Kuro holds out his hand to me "You have my attention for the time being, all I ask is that you two leave Nightmare to me in the end."

"You've got a deal!" I shake his hand.

He chuckles, flapping his wings to fly himself toward the blond, "We're officially on the same team Angel boy, isn't that awesome."

"Shut up you noisy brat, I can hear footsteps coming," He shoves Kuro out of his face.

"Probably the authorities, they're a bit far off though."

"We have to leave," my legs are already dreading the journey home, "How do we get in contact again?"

Kuro waves to get our attention, "We meet at the entrance of this cemetery, midnight tomorrow. We'll talk more then." He grins, wings lifting him higher off the ground.

"That sounds okay, I can let you know you're unwelcome then as well," God Archer scowls at him, turning to me, "You can walk yourself can't you?"

There's no real concern in his voice leading me to believe it's just a formality for him to ask.

I nod.

He spreads his own wings and takes off so much as a glance back, Kuro flashes me a smile before taking off as well.

I wait until they’re gone before I set to work digging through the rubble. It didn't take me long to find the body.

A young boy who Kuro's arrival had reminded me off.

Another person I couldn't help because I stood by.

I carry his pale, bruised body to the center of the room and gently set it down beneath the moonlight flooding down through the hole the boys had left. I kneel beside him battling the shame at my own failure once again. No matter how much I said I didn't want this, I had still let him die because I didn't want to.

I don't regret that.

I don't want to.

Nevertheless, I can't help but imagine what Hikari would have done, she seemed the type to have just burst in here and saved everyone. I smirk derisively to myself, and that's why she had died maybe.

I neglected one for the sake of my plan.

A sickening feeling swirls within me, a feeling I've fought time and time again when memories from my older life push through.

Pride.

A pride in putting my own life first.

It made me feel like a monster.

For the first time, I'm so many years, I'm afraid of myself once again.

But it's clear right now I can't let that stop me.

I had to keep chasing.

Keep running.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you," I stand slowly, heart heavier than my limbs as I begin my journey home, a solemn promise in mind that as long as I'm be Demona, I can't let anyone I can rescue die. One way or the other, I will make up for this sacrifice.

I don't need the guilt of others' loss weighing me down.