Chapter Twenty Nine

Courage and Pain

That day after school, I skittered along beside Daisetsu, silent. I felt tired. I felt weary. It was terrible. My forehead pounded furiously, like someone had just whacked me with a hammer. I didn't understand. I didn't want to understand. I just wanted it to go away. Still, though, I smiled when Daisetsu asked me if there was anything I wanted to do today, and shook my head.

- - -

I had spent most of the day in my room, reading, only coming out for supper. Once midnight hit, I felt my muscles uncoil as my hair ran strawberry pink, liquid and flowing past my shoulders like a waterfall. My porcelain skin gleamed as I looked at myself in the mirror. I took a long, hitched breath. I still felt uneasy. I still felt...I'm not sure what I felt. But I didn't like it. Not one bit. My wings felt slightly cramped, I flexed them. Funny, how I had gotten used to becoming an angel.

I moved to the window. Silken gleams of moonlight kissed my face, and the wind brushed past me on silver wings of a gentle breeze. I faltered slightly, before finally taking flight. All my worry, that pent up annoyance, seemed to float away. Like different colored balloons, I imagined them flying high into the sky, never to come back again. Yes...this was how it was supposed to be. I twirled in the sky, flying.

Higher. Higher. Higher!

I could touch the stars, they were glittering diamonds, at my fingertips. I could take some if I wanted to. I could take a chunk of the moon! I laughed loudly, and the sound of my laughter attracted other angels. We danced together across the sky, doing a waltz on air. As much as I wanted to continue dancing with them, to laugh, and have my clothes ripple out behind me....there was work to be done. One of them frowned at me as I yawned, but I smiled at her, and she smiled back, her dark black hair laughing as she flew away.

I spiraled towards the ground at a dive. Just as it seemed as the unforgiving ground would take a piece of my face off, my wings spread, taking me a few feet into the air. I glided swerving among the streets. I grew edgy when I saw no one in trouble. Wasn't there...anything?

It seemed I flew around for a long time. I yawned once more into my hand, and perched on a roof of a small house for a brief rest. I think I almost fell asleep there. Because when I suddenly heard a cackling sound, my eyes snapped open blearily, and my head bobbled. But, no time to be tired! What in the world had that noise been? It hadn't sounded too friendly.

I took a gentle dive towards the ground, swerving by the house, and darn a dark gravel road and into an alley. I stopped, and landed gently on my feet, wings flexing curiously. I squinted, eyelashes brushing my skin, as I saw a dark cluster, hidden in the shadows. A strange noise, like a rushing of a waterfall overtook my ears. And then...a small glimmering light.

I gasped. It took me a moment to realize that the rushing noise was the strange laughing coming from the creatures. And the other sound that mingled with it was a great sound of heart racking sobs. And...among that cluster of four or five creatures was...an angel.

"HEY!" My voice surprised me, "What in the world do you THINK you're doing!"

It came out so sharp, it left me quivering. The creatures...and now that I looked more closely, they were kind of like Daisetsu in demon form. Except much more dark, much more malicious...not like my Daisetsu at all!

There were five of them.

I glanced at the angel, she lay quivering in the corner, scratches taking over her body in trails of red. Her silver hair fell around her in tendrils of moon reflected water, glimmering beautifully in the moonlight. She raised her eyes to look at me, confusion, fear, and a look that said, 'get out of here!' all in one orb of breaking blue.

"Step away from her." my voice was cold, hard, unforgiving.

The demons cackled. Like a bunch of hyenas. My face twisted, lips pulling back into something that could only be defined as a snarl of disgust.

"Look, look!" they laughed, "A little angel is threatening us!"

One stepped forward, clearly the leader of the five, "Alright boys, settle down!" they kept laughing, "I SAID SETTLE!"

A silence overtook the alley. The boy that stared at Maya had dark green hair, "Look girly. You angels don't wanna mess with us. We're some of the Demon King's favorite men. He lets us go on these angel raids sometimes, y'know? Just so we can have some fun, y'know? We get so cooped up in the demon realm. And messing with you angels over here on this earth just never gets old."

He spat, it almost hit my shoe. Demon...realm? Demon King... My head went back to the conversation Daisetsu and I had when we both learned of what we were...

"My father took me somewhere today."

"T...that place was in his kingdom."

"It’s not a normal place, Maya. His kingdom is the demon-realm.”

My hand reaches up to rub my temples with my forefinger and thumb. "D-Daisetsu's father?" I breathed.

The boy with dark haire hears me, a smirk traces along his lips, "Smart little girl, aren't you?"

I'm not listening. Does that mean that...Daisetsu would be the heir to the throne.

The demon doesn't seem to notice my inner turmoil, and he's staring up at the sky, "I haven't met the guy yet. But I heard from this demoness Akane he's really something..."

That confirmed it. Akane, that girl...was a demon.

"But I also heard he resisted the harem..."

My blood boiled.

"So, that means he's no idiot who gives foolishly into desires...and well, he'll be some king. The Demon Lord is great, but that Daisetsu should be really something..."

"ENOUGH!" I shout, my words like a thorned whip in the dim voices.

The silver-haired angel looks my way, and I gaze back at her unflinchingly. My eyes unwaveringly look towards the demon, and he's glaring at me. I stare back at him, an inscrutable look on my face. He's been going off track. Ranting and ranting. Well, my curiosities for the demon realm can wait. Nobody shall be hurt like this on my watch.

"I don't give...a...a damn why you're out here or why you're doing this," I toss back my hair and let my wings fan out to their full width, and I remind myself of some kind of bird, warning off its enemies, "But if you think that I will just do nothing while you hurt others...well, you're wrong!"

The demon appears perplexed for a moment, before a sneer twists at his lips, "An angel actually wants to play? For real? Most of them just hop away. Oh, ho ho...this is too great, y'know!? Sick 'er boys."

Perhaps I took a bite of more than I could chew, as four demons came running towards me, the green-haired one laughing. Their fangs glinted in the moonlight, and they're claws gleamed silent sin.

I cried out, narrowly avoiding their deadly points.

With a flap of my wings, I'm air born. I'll have no chance on the ground. But the sky is my element. But they have wings too. Dark, bat wings. And they're after me.

Not good, not good, not good!

"Daiiiiiiiiseeetttsuuuuuu!"I scream, swirving as I avoid a bite to the neck. The demons stare at me curiously, obvious perplex written on their faces. I take advantage of this. Can angels even fight? Do they have powers?

I remember that time that leader of that gang...when I was getting my violin and poetry book...my hand slapped his face and he fell backwards...that power...could I channel it?

My hand forms a fist, and I swing it towards him. It slams into one of their jaws, but it had nothing unearthly about it. In fact, the demon laughed.

"That was cute," he whispered, running his hand along the place where I had punched him, "But this won't be."

He dives towards me, my wings instantly take me away from him, as if they have a life of their own, but his claws take a long, thin piece of flesh from my arm. Blood flies and red pierces the azure.

I cry out, "Dai-kun!"

But he's not here to help me now. I'd gotten into this mess, and now I had to get myself out of it. At yet another outburst of the name of the son of the demon lord, one of the demons muttered to the others.

"Let it out, Maya...just let it out."

Yuji's words ring inside my head.

The demons are coming together in a cluster, laughing. The one with dark-green hair shoots into the sky.

"Give it up girl. The pain we give you will be short and quick. But if you continue to defy us, it will be slow and painful."

My lips quiver. And then I'm concentrating, as they all spiral towards me in a circle of death black. I feel light coursing through my blood stream. In my veins. In everything. But their punches fly, pushing me through the blue. I choke on a cloud. They bruise my legs and my arms. One hits my eye. I feel purple blossoming over the blue orb.

I'm drowning in his pain. And I linger as they laugh.

"Don't! Don't!"

The silver haired angel is weeping. Poor girl. She's too afraid...And yet she's flying towards me, tattered and all, to try and fling off my attackers. Her tears are liquid diamonds among the shattered stars.

"Shut up, girl!" she chokes as a punch hits her nose, blood running down her face from her nostrils, towards her lips.

Right, when people are in their demon forms, they can see us angels, can't they?

I had never met quite malicious demons before. Then again...I'd hardly met any.

"You...how can you hit a girl?"

A punch swings and misses. Miraculous, how they stop to listen to me.

"How can you...hurt innocent people, who have done nothing to you?"

One of the demon snarls.

"How can...you...and...and..."

Light shines from my eyes, and I feel it shimmering in my palm.

"And you call yourselves men!"

My fist slams into green-hair. Except this time, there's no laughter. Only a cry of pain.

"And you call yourself tough!"

It slams into him again.

And suddenly I'm the one chasing him to the ground. He's the one falling. And the other demons stare from the sky, terrified to see an angel in such a rage.

"You're nothing but a cockroach!" I scream at him. I'm not even touching him anymore. Just chasing.

His form hits the ground. And he stares up at me weakly.

"B-bitch." he mumbles, and my light, blasting from my form, has left charred bits of black across his skin. I fall to my knees beside him, gasping. He reaches up a faltering, wavering hand. With a last bout of energy, I blow some air onto him. Air sparkling with golden light. And he falls unconscious. Light always burns out the darkness. The other demons land beside him. The silver-haired angel is gone. They all stare at me warily. Me! Just a little, worn out, tired, angel with pink hair on the ground. Slowly, I get to my feet, and it takes everything I have for my knees not to buckle.

"You tell your demon king," I mutter, and it takes everything I have to say this when the demon king is in my house, "That if I ever see someone out here hurting angels, or humans, whatever, again, he will REGRET it. Do you got that? Because despite what you believe, I have more than just angels who would be with me on this."

Dai-kun would be with me on this, wouldn't he?

They all nod.

"Good."

I turn my back on them, hair lifting with the wind as I turn the corner. I keep walking. Turn another corner. And then totally collapse. That was a pretty tough front I had. Too bad it was pretty much a bluff. How could I ever make the demon king, Daisetsu's father, regret something? How long until he hears of an angel attacking his own? How long until he realizes that the angel is indeed me, who is living under the same roof? An hour, a day, a week? A bitter laugh escapes me, and then I throw up.

- - -

"Maya?!"

It's three in the morning when I stumble back through my window and my hair runs brown and my wings fade into my shoulder blades.

"Dai-kun...you waited?"

Moonlight hits my face as I turn it to smile at him.

A gasp robs his voice.

Instantly, I remember how I must look.

I quickly press my hands to my face, "I fell. I'm sorry. I just got messed up and hit the ground."

"The ground gave you a black eye?" he snarled viciously. I meet his eye, surprised, "And a cut lip? AND a red cheek, and..."

He touches my shoulder, where the gash lays with dried up blood.

"Th-there were some demons..." I said slowly.

I don't want him to think I don't trust him. I just want him to unerstand that I don't want him to worry...

"What?"

I sighed tiredly, backing away from his searching hands and falling onto the bed. My hair lays out around me.

"Daisetsu. I think it's time we had a talk. About everything."

Daisetsu's POV

I bow over her. I lean forward and my face is inches away from hers. I can feel her breath on my skin. The smell of her blood makes mine jump in lust and boil in disgust. How dare those demons lay a hand on my Maya! I reach out and touch her cheek, she winces, so soft and delicate, covered in wounds… I won’t forgive them!

“Dai-kun… Don’t worry… I’m fine…”

“You call that fine?! Maya, they beat you! They dared to lay a hand on you and they will pay! Why didn’t you run away?”

My boiling blood rushes through my veins and I feel my demon-side is trying to come out. My anger feeds my demon-self. My fangs begin to grow, my tail shows itself and I feel my wings tugging.

Maya looks at me with determination shimmering in her eyes. She stays calm, while I feel my anger turn into pure rage.

“I was protecting another angel. I had to take revenge, because they were beating her up just because they were bored!”

My wings burst out and I take a step back before my claws hurt Maya. I narrow my eyes and stare at Maya.

“Then I need to take revenge for what they did to you.”

And I jump out of the window, my wings carrying me. I take a deep breath and I can smell the stench of the bastard. I flap my wings and fly in high-speed. The bastard is residing in a club. A stripclub, why doesn’t that surprise me? I ignore my surroundings and go straight to the black-haired bastard.

“Oi, ya need to help me.”

Disgust fills my entire being as I try to keep my composure. The bastard smirks superiorly.

“Whatever would you want from me, Daisetsu?”

I grit my teeth. Must hold on…

“I want names, I want locations. A group of demons beat up an angel and then they dared to lay a hand on Maya!”

The bastard gestures around him.

“Every single demon in the human world is gathered here right now, you should ask…”

I turn around and look at the demons. Suddenly remembering Maya’s words, I grin and shout:

“Who is bored? If you are, stand up.”

The demons hesitate, as they saw my rage a minute ago. Eventually, all of them stand up. I sit down and lean back with a mischievous grin on my face.

“I know a way to keep you entertained… but you need to do something for me.”

The bastard eyes me curiously. My grin widens and turns into a smirk.

“The demons who have beaten Maya, a pink-haired angel, step forward.”

I use my demonic power to add extra authority to my words and the bastards step forward, trembling slightly. My smirk widens and I bare my fangs. My voice holds slight mock, as if I already know everything, but want to hear them.

“Why did you beat her up?”

The leader of the group steps forward and begins to explain:

“We were just having a little fun with an angel and then she came and got all troublesome…”

Instantly I stand in front of him, not giving anyone a chance to see me move.

“Were you aware that Maya knew me?”

I stare into his eyes, using my power to make him unable to lie.

“Yes, she kept calling your name…”

I feel my shoulders tense. Maya called me, she cried for my help and I wasn’t there… I glare at the demon.

“From now on, until I become the next Demon-King, you shall be Maya’s servant. You’ll have to come and do whatever she may ask when she calls you. You shall not disobey her, you shall not misinterpret her words, you shall be her slave until I’m the next Demon-King." I lean forward and whisper in his ear: “And if something happens to Maya, I’ll count you as responsible…”

I step back and the demon looks terrified. I look up and shout out:

“This is a message to all demons! If a demon, no matter who he is or what rank he got, if he dares to touch my property again, I will make sure he’ll never do that again! Got that? Maya is mine!”

And with a last growl, I spread my wings and fly away. To my home, to Maya…

I have to apologize for not being with her when she needed me most…