Disclaimer: This is totally and completely owned by me. Which means I can do as I please with it and you cannot. Sorry :( All content and characters belong to me. Yay :)

This story is a remake of an extremely old story I made when I was thirteen. Previously known by the stupid title of "Silent Whispers". Um, it was bad. Hopefully its improved now.

Afterlight

chapter one

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He knew he had to keep moving. Shifting the weight on his back, wincing as it hit his injured wing, taking little notice of the pools of blood he left behind. The light was blinding, it was all he could do to stare at his feet as he kept trudging along. But he would not give up, he could not. He had made a promise, a vow, and there was nothing that could prevent him from fulfilling it.

The demon ran through the gnarled and twisted trees, seeking an opening in the treacherous canopy of the dead forest. It had been burned, as many places here had, and in its pain it had become a monstrous foe, blackened on the surface but strong enough to bear its sharpened branches. A jutting branch caught his side, tearing his shirt and ripping his flesh. His golden eyes glittered in a mixture of frustration and desperation as they glanced toward the sky once more, and he sighed in relief when there was an opening in the branches at last.

He spread his charcoal scaled wings far, and with a push of his foot, took to the red sky. He heard whistles in the air as ropes were tossed, and he laughed as they caught in the branches around him. His laughter was cut off when a rope looped around his throat, pulling him back toward the ground. Arrows pierced through the air and caught him in the back, one through his shoulder and one through his side. He was counting on his personal strength to heal them.

He could feel the number of bodies pulling the rope increase, but he absolutely refused to be grounded at this point. He pumped his wings with all their might, running on pure adrenaline now. He could feel the rope chafe at his neck, and he gasped for air, but he would not relent. He had to get away.

His pained golden eyes, slit like a feline’s, began to cloud over as he was tugged closer toward the forest. His tore at the ropes with his claws, but more replaced them as they fell. He smiled wryly at his enemies’ determination, and wondered if he really had gotten himself in too deep to get out.

A glimpse of green, and suddenly, he took no notice of the pain, of the blood leaking from arrow punctures. He only noticed the ropes as they held him back from that shimmering patch of green in the sky, and he pulled against them as hard as he could. His eyes flashed to red, and then the ropes around him fell down to the forest, burning as if his skin had caught them on fire.

Freed, the demon fixed his gaze on the patch of green and flew to it with the last of his strength.

He finally found his way, the angel thought, smiling down on his human liege. My assignment is over; he no longer has any use for me now.

Emerald eyes glittered in happiness as the human he had been assigned to guide and protect smiled at him for the last time, holding a letter in his hands, trembling in excitement. “Thank you, Haruhiko… you showed me the way.”

The angel placed a pale hand on the human’s arm. He smiled, shaking his head. “I merely pushed you – you found the way of your own accord.”

The letter was from a publishing company, and this man’s destiny had depended on it. Once his first book was published, he would become famous and his writing would change hundreds of others like him. All he had needed was a bit of guidance to bring him to his first publication. The rest would happen on its own.

Being a guardian angel was something many angels aspired to be. They could mingle in the human world to help their assignments, and they got to see many new things. Haruhiko was satisfied with both the sightseeing and the guiding, and he found himself contented in his niche. However, his role meant he would say many goodbyes, and he always tried his best to not become attached, but it never worked. His teacher had told him on numerous occasions that he was far too empathetic to take on this job, but Haruhiko had been determined. He gazed at his human liege one final time before he slipped through the wall of the house and found himself in the street, where he could let his emotions show.

He sighed and shifted his wings, watching as the humans trapped in their busy, short lives walked by him with no acknowledgement. He was in his purest form, only able to be seen by those he was sworn to guide. He would have to return now, and be reassigned to another human that he would guide, protect, come to care for, and then leave. He reassured himself that he was doing good, by helping them to obtain their salvation, but he could never get rid of that knot in his throat and that bit of pain in his stomach.
He sighed once more as a child carrying a balloon ran directly through him, and he glanced at the skies to see the nearest portal to the city in the clouds. He saw a patch of light to his left, hovering some distance above the green tops of many trees, and he decided to take that route, kicking up a mysterious gust of wind around the humans as his wings pushed downward and lifted him into the sky.

The angel quickly found himself gliding over the trees, and he slowed his pace, weaving in and out of living things that could only exist in a world such as this. He admired the life of the trees and plants, found it precious in all of its simplicity. The trees could live as long as the angels, yet they were not present in the land that the angels dwelled in. They were unique to Earth. Haruhiko decided he would take a small detour on his path to the portal, and touched his bare feet to the soft grass covering the earth’s surface.

He placed a hand gently on a great tree’s bark, closing his eyes and smiling as he relived the tree’s memories in rapid succession. This tree had seen little of humans, but what it had seen of other life in this forest was immense. Haruhiko saw as the tree did, vividly capturing any small motion around it. He saw a red fox huddled between the roots of the tree next to this, licking one of her pups’ coats clean. He saw butterflies emerging from their cocoons, infant birds as they learned to fly. He saw the beauty of simple life, saw the intensity of death, and he appreciated every moment this tree could share with him. He pulled his hand from the bark somewhat reluctantly, and he turned to leave, glimpsing a patch of red by a nearby tree. He wondered if it could have been a red fox like the one the tree had shown him, and he circled the tree slowly, so as not to scare the creature or alert it of his presence.

The image that met his eyes was entirely unexpected, and he found his mind at a loss. The red had been hair, but not that of a fox. Haruhiko found himself face to face with a very injured and very angry demon. He assessed the situation carefully and quickly. The demon was sitting between two large tree roots, and the grass around him was stained with blood. The angel saw wounds to the demon’s neck, shoulder, and side, and he could smell that the wounds were still open and bleeding. He took note of the creature’s wings – not many demons were granted wings at birth, so this demon’s blood must have some amount of nobility within. This meant that he was powerful, but Haruhiko could easily see that the demon would not fight him if he didn’t have to. His slit golden eyes were piercing and full of anger, but the angel could see when he was listing, no doubt from loss of blood. The demon struggled to keep his eyes open and his gaze on the new enemy before him, but pain and blood loss were taking over his body now, the last of his energy and his adrenaline gone.

He involuntarily convulsed, and he coughed more blood onto the already stained ground. His head was spinning now, his thoughts incoherent even to himself. He felt gentle hands on him, and it took him a moment to realize who those hands belonged to. His eyes widened and he lashed out with his claws, hissing in rage. “Don’t touch me!”

He felt the burn of the angel’s blood beneath his nails, but at this point, he didn’t care. Haruhiko jumped back as both the flashing image of a charred forest and the demon’s claws scraped across his forearm. The demon was acting like an injured feral animal now, unable to process coherent thoughts. He glared and snarled at the angel, and Haruhiko tried to move as little as possible so as to prevent the demon from moving in response. The angel sat patiently, waiting motionlessly under the demon’s gaze, beginning to move only as the creature’s snarling faded into growling and then into silence. Blood flowed steadily from his wounds, and Haruhiko stood as he watched the demon’s eyes lose their focus on him. It was only then that Haruhiko was safe from the demon now, and the creature himself was safe from his own defensive motions.

He stepped lightly over toward the tree, now allowing his mind to wander from self defense to the questions about this demon, and he asked himself what he should do. Haruhiko valued all life, regardless of species. Besides, if he helped this creature, perhaps he would create good ties between demon nobility and angel nobility. The angel removed his outer robe, bandaging his own arm before anything else. If his blood touched the demon, it would only add to the creature’s pain. The blood of an angel acted like fire to what it touched, and it was especially hazardous to demons. However, a demon’s blood had healing properties, and it should have been able to heal this demon’s wounds or at least close them.

“So why aren’t you healing…?” The angel muttered to himself, kneeling by the demon’s side, unlacing the tie that held the demon’s leather vest to his torso. The shirt beneath was tattered beyond recognition, so the angel simply tore it as softly as he could until it was off. The demon was not yet unconscious, but it was evident that he was on the verge of it. The angel examined the puncture wound in the demon’s side, noting that an arrow had pierced him, and half of it was still jutting out from the demon’s wound. The demon’s golden eyes met his for one second, and the angel attempted to smile, apologizing and ripping the rest of the weapon from the demon’s wound. He did not scream as the angel had expected, and the angel though he must have had less energy than he had previously thought. Those eyes were deceiving – they looked fierce even now, but the demon was so exhausted he could not find the energy to cry out in pain.

Haruhiko quickly tore more strips from his angel’s robe and tightly bandaged the freshly bleeding wound, only examining the arrowhead once his torso was tightly bandaged. He wiped the blood from the weapon on the grass by him, and the arrowhead still glimmered in the areas free of blood. He sighed, and lifted his gaze to the listing demon. Golden eyes met emerald, a small amount of focus left. “I’m going to need you to cooperate, demon,” Haruhiko said, firmly and loud. “Can you hear me?”

At what may have been a weak nod, the angel continued. “This arrowhead is coated with a poison. You may recognize it from war times. Whoever shot you wanted to be sure that you could not use your blood to heal yourself. I will also be unable to use my healing skills until the poison runs its course. I need you to remain completely still in order for me to help you. All right?”

There was obvious and well-founded mistrust in the demon’s eyes, but they then showed confusion as they shifted to the white that was already present on his body. The angel now placed his fingers in feather-soft touch on the demon’s shoulder, and he shifted slightly to pull away. “Listen to me,” Haruhiko said in a determined tone, “You don’t have to trust me. Yes, I could be here to kill you. It’s either let me do what I will with the possibility of death, or fight against me which will be sure death. Those are your options.”

Haruhiko heard what may have been a scoff, or what could have been a weak cough, before the demon finally allowed himself to close his eyes. Almost immediately, his body went limp, and the angel wasted no time in examining and bandaging his wounds.

When he was finished, the angel had very little left of his authoritative angel robe left, and this he decided would be used as a rag. Haruhiko took immense care to lift the demon into his arms, and he was shocked by how small he really was. With eyes like his glaring you down, it was easy to overlook his short stature and small build. His skin was also quite tan in comparison with Haruhiko’s. The angel closed his eyes and turned all attention to the sounds around him. He predominantly heard the sounds of life in this forest, insects’ wings buzzing, birds singing, foxes barking, the wind as it laced through the leaves.

There. The trickling of water, fish coming to the surface for the insects that flew too close. He very nearly ascended into the sky to get to the stream quickly, but his thoughts held him to the ground. The earth was easily observable from the sky, but then he too would be easily sighted. And not by the mass of humans, but by the Society, and he could not risk being seen with an injured demon by other angels. He journeyed through the forest by foot, quietly and carefully so as not to disturb the natural life around him. Logical thought was returning to him by now, and he was currently wondering what on earth he was doing. Yes, he valued life, and yes, he might make powerful ties… but demons were very difficult to negotiate and reason with, and while they were very loyal to their words, they were not easily moved to vow or promise anything.

But while this particular demon did lash out at first, he listened to reason very easily after that. The angel hoped that it was the demon’s head and not body that had listened to his reasoning, because if it was the latter, then Haruhiko would most certainly be in trouble when the creature awoke.

His teacher would be wondering why it would take him this long to find a portal. But if Haruhiko just left the demon at the streamside, he would be easy prey to the Earth creatures that go there for water or fish. And this demon looked like he could make a larger meal than the fish in that stream. The angel would think of something as an excuse, maybe his human assignment had asked him to stay for a while longer, and his teacher knew how compassionate Haruhiko was. Or if this demon was a high step on the demon nobility ladder, and he was truly grateful, then Haruhiko would be recognized for serving the Great City and maybe angel lives and demon lives alike would be saved.

Haruhiko stepped into a clearing and sighed when he saw no exceptionally large Earth beings at the streamside. He placed the demon down on the patch of soft grass nearest the stream, careful of his wounds and of his great scaled wings. He floated over to the water’s edge, tearing what was left of his robe into three rags, submerging one in the flowing water and ringing it out to make it damp. He knelt once more by the creature’s side and began the long work of cleaning the blood from the rest of him. The demon was what Haruhiko would be considered pale for his skin tone, having lost an excessive amount of blood. His hair was ruby red, a startlingly bright color for a demon, and it was disheveled and uneven, and probably had not been cut in a while. The longest areas of his hair went past his shoulders a little, and they fell on either side of his face, before his pointed ears.

Haruhiko began gently patting at the blood that had dried in the corners of his mouth. Then there were his wings. Wings of such an ashen color were very rarely seen - even demon royalty had crimson scales rather than charcoal. Yet, this demon had black scales on the outer wing, but the softer scales lining the undersides of his wings were a deep, dark blood red. Haruhiko did not specialize in demon studies, as he studied to be a guardian angel, but of the little he knew he could tell that this was no ordinary demon. What was he doing in this world, injured and hiding? Had he escaped from demons or angels? What had he done to receive such punishment?

“Who are you…?” The angel whispered, patting at dried blood in the light of the setting sun.

The demon’s eyes snapped open as his hand hastily curled around the angel’s wrist. Haruhiko’s eyes widened in surprise, trying to pull his arm away out of reflex. The demon held fast, the fierce golden eyes glaring into Haruhiko’s emeralds.

“I am Akuma,” the demon hissed, tightening his grip. “Demon prince and heir of the Underworld.”