100 PAGES !! guys this isn't exactly the right chapter because it was so long and i had to cut out SO MUCH (like, a ridiculous amount) listen to touch-tone telephone by lemon demon while you read this just because --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- trigger warnings: death, manipulative relationship (you know who that's about lol) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A SEDUCTION PARTNERED BY A DEATH After the Blowup, as he so affectionately called it, he had to be careful. He was a patient man, of course. But something had to be done eventually. Mitsuri woke up, skipped brushing her teeth (though she didn’t find that necessary in the first place), and sped into the kitchen, grabbing her silver miracle-made comb on the way. She frowned, forcing the teeth through her matted white hair. The unusual hair was a normal side effect of being a stolen soul, but it sometimes made her self-conscious around the young Angels she spent her playtime with. She had sometimes begged her mother to dye her hair or miracle it another color, but her mother was often either too absent to reply or just refused. When it was the former that occurred, she’d go to beg her aunties, knowing they could both do it themselves, but no matter what the two always vehemently denied her request. Her mom had good days and bad days. The bad days weren’t violent or anything - Mitsuri wasn’t sure her mother was capable of that - but mostly consisted just of staring out of the window by the large entryway door for hours, unmoving as she stared into space. Mitsu’s aunties liked to say that she was just missing someone, and that’s why she went into those blank spaces for a while. Mitsu didn’t know who her mom was missing. She just hoped they could come back. Her aunties visited sometimes, but mostly she was alone in the large house with just her mom, which often felt like she was alone with no one at all. The familiar ringing of the doorbell alerted her to the presence of her aunties, followed by the quick muttering of a prayer that you said after entering a room. The trio of overlapping crosses hung just to the left of every door frame in the house, a red floating eye encompassing it. After they’d said the prayers, her aunties bustled into the room, already bickering after the two seconds of silence. Mitsu smiled at them, fidgeting in her chair. Though she was practically eons more mature than any mortal counterpart of her age, she was still a child, and an impatient one at that. The two older women in large bodices and headscarves stopped as they saw Mitsu sitting patiently, waiting for them. They shared an anxious look, Auntie Janis beginning to fidget nervously with her skirt. “How is she?” Lyla whispered as Janis shot her a look. “Sleeping,” Mitsu replied, her eyes fixed on the crosses by the door, avoiding her aunties’ pitying gazes. Janis quickly bustled over to the kitchen, grabbing a lump of dough and busying herself with it to avoid more awkward conversation. “Your dress is in a horrid state, dear,” Lyla said after a long pause that was punctuated only by a curse as Janis ran over her finger with the rolling pin. “Let’s go up to your room and get you a new one so I can clean it.” “I’ll make rolls,” Janis muttered. Mitsuri obediently took Lyla’s hand, looking down at her skirt to notice a very small smudge of dirt near the waistline. She supposed she did feel like looking her best around the Angels. They always looked so perfect. Ever since she’d befriended Cat, she needed to step up her act. Kage slipped into Hikari’s room discreetly, slinking over to the bed after shutting the door behind him. His daughter would have to wait; this was his wife, the woman who has pledged herself to him. Her recent misbehavior would be overlooked. For now. But she may need some persuading to help him out; those nuns had been around for far too long now and she may as well be entirely brainwashed. Yes, he would have to coax her, but she would come, as she always had. Almost unconsciously, he brushed a hand over her eyelids and she stirred, something in her mind clicking out of place. (cont)
(cont) That would make things easier. Hikari’s eyes slipped open, looking blearily up at him. Mouth opened, he could see as she tried to speak. He quickly stopped it. “Shh,” he whispered. “You’re coming with me. You’re free now.” As he slipped his hand into hers, she whimpered softly, and he could feel her hands growing warm in his. He cursed, shaking it free. She whimpered again, now more fiercely as she struggled against him. But he’d already set off the bomb, and that would destroy her enough. It wasn’t too hard, sneaking in the fire. Most of the Demons weren’t aware of his ‘treachery’. So when he’d needed a favor, his friends downstairs had been glad to grant it. There hadn’t been a meeting since. That was also to his advantage. Kage simply supposed that Mother was on his side all along. God’s house was unguarded and simple, a plain white room with four walls, a door, and a ceiling. Nothing more, nothing less. All she did was sleep there, and sometimes sit and think in the single wooden chair in the centre of the room. There was no bed. She would have forwent that luxury when the signing came to it. There wasn’t a table, but a simple Miracle would have to do for that. Kage cradled Hikari softly in his arms, having put her out when her cries had become too irking to bother with. He could awaken her for the process, of course, but the important thing was that she was there. One more chance, that was all she got. Then it was back to sleep, for a long, long time. He didn’t really wake her up, not truly. Just enough for her to answer him, but she couldn’t do anything against him or escape. He had to be careful about that. No. She was safe with him. “Hikari,” he said gently into her ear. She stumbled back, noticing him finally. “Hello, my dearest. .” She muttered something incomprehensible, then began to pathetically push him away from her, struggling against him. “No, no, no,” Hikari mumbled with increasing desperation. He chuckled, though anger burned white-hot in his chest. Those [other mean word]s really had gotten to her. “You have one more chance,” said Kage softly, holding her shoulders so she was forced to look into his eyes. Hikari shuddered, tears now welling up. “I don’t want to,” she whispered. Her words were slurred and blurring at the edges. His face hardened now. “Are you prepared for the alternative?” She shivered and he felt her muscles tense under his arms. She opened her eyes. “I,” she took a deep, awful breath, “I hate you.” Kage was shaken at this - the Angel had never once raised her voice at him, let alone used such language. He swiftly knocked her out, and she went limp in his arms with a sigh. Plan B would have to do. Kami was expecting them. This was a side effect of playing God, after all. You could always know what was coming. Retirement was always a messy business. Acting as Her Replacement, while an important job and one that could not be done without, was taxing. She could never have really denied it. It was the morally right thing to do, and they did make it so that she practically had no choice. Eventually she’d have had to Retire. But she knew, somewhere, that it would end tonight. She didn’t know everything. But this, she did. Kage was all smiles opening the door with the sleeping Angel in his arms. Kami stiffened at the sight of the latter, her hands balling into fists in her lap. “Still just a child,” he said, taking notice of this and shaking his head scornfully. She sat tall in her chair with her eyes fixed on a point just away from his cheek. “Don’t speak like that to me,” Kami said coldly. He grinned now at this. “Of course.” Kami sighed, smoothing out her skirts. “I know what you want.” She took a deep breath. “I will not let you hurt her. As you must know.” Forcing a smile onto her face, she sat up a little straighter, straining her back in this effort. “What do you wish for?” Kage’s eyes were cold and dead, contrasting his grinning expression as he pulled a slip of paper with burnt edges from a pocket in nowhere. She took this into account, scanning the paper silently. “I see.” “If you sign away the power,” Kage started, “you know what will happen. But you also know what will happen if you don’t. And I see you’ve already made your choice.” Indeed, a quill was now in her hand, which she was forcing not to shake. There was so much that would be lost - but she could not live with the conscious of a death on her hands. That was not her job, and it hadn’t been for any of the others. And then there was a table, the piece of paper still in the centre. Kami set her jaw and looked up at them one last time, defiant with the pen poised to sign. “I’m sorry.” Not wanting his now-confused face to be that last thing she saw before she was gone, she focused her eyes on the sweet sleeping Angel and scribbled her name. Kami slumped forwards, and the smug expression returned. He had won.
