Himitsu – Kuro no Chikai

At the site of where the sudden battle with the swarm of lesser demons had taken place the other day, the plant life was in full bloom, as it would be in springtime, despite winter being so near. This was due to all the holy energy that four archangels had released. And in the midst of the lush greenery, I had found only one, huge tree that remained withered.

There had to something going on here. With this withered tree as the center, the scenery of the entire one meter radius around it remained distinctly that of fall. In other words, it had not been affected by the holy energy. There was something unusual about this. Crouching down by the hollow in the tree and thinking for a moment, I noticed that the surrounding wind had suddenly changed.

Something was coming—

As I stood up, something long and narrow suddenly came flying at me from behind. Dodging with a graceful turn, I rushed over to where the object had been thrown from, and without allowing the offender time to even make a sound, I bound both of his arms and legs with a holy chain. No matter how strong the demon was, once they were bound by their chain, they would not be able to exert any dark energy. The more they struggled, the more of their dark energy would be consumed, and their physical strength would only be sapped, as well. My captive was covered completely with a black robe, his face hidden from sight. All I could see was that he was putting up a desperate resistance.

“You’re only wasting your strength by doing that. Give it up,”

As I said this, I pulled the robe away from the figure. I was caught up in a moment of surprise, and found myself speechless.

“Damn it! Let go of me, bastard……!”

The one that continued to struggle while screaming profanities was a small child. And in his hand, the same as what had been thrown at me earlier, he held a baguette.

At the altar of this desolate church, before me was a small boy. He had red hair, and almond-shaped eyes of the same color. He glared hard with me with eyes that gave off a rough, strong-willed impression, and somewhere behind all of that, some kind of sorrow. Everything he wore on his body, both his clothes and shoes, looked tattered.

“Now then…. I have a few questions to ask you.”

“Let go! Let go of me, you perverted bastard!”

“…. Well, I can’t just let you go after you’ve said something like that. And who would that statement be directed at, exactly?”

“You, who else! Who goes and ties up someone with this weird chain all of a sudden!”

“Ahh… Those are called handcuffs. They’re excellent tools for when you need to restrain someone efficiently.”

“Like I care about that! Who d’you think you are, anyway!? Just barging into my hideout without permission……!”

Upon hearing the word “hideout,” it came to me. Did he mean the hollow of that tree? It didn’t seem like a space very worthy of being considered a hideout, though.

“Is that where you live? But it looked like just an old, withered tree to me……”

“…….! I…. Is there a problem with it just being an old tree……!?”

The boy turned his face away as if offended. Was that really the boy’s home? It was hard to imagine. And even if it were, no matter which way you looked at it, it was strange that only that area was unaffected by the holy energy.

“…… If that really is your home, then where’s your family? Do they live with you in that tiny place?”

“….. I don’t have a family.”

“Eh?”

“…… I don’t have a father or a mother!! Is there a problem with me being alone!?”

He was alone. Did this small child really mean to say that he lived alone in that withered tree in the grass? But, how……? Suddenly, one possible answer came to mind.

“…… Are you an orphan? You have nowhere to live, and you sleep in the hollow of that tree?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time!!”

“…… And what about food?”

“tch!!”

“That bread you had earlier… Did you steal that from a nearby house?”

“……”

“If you keep silent, I’ll take that as an affirmative, you know?”

“Kids like us can’t survive without resorting to stealing.”

“‘Us’?”

“…. On this island, there’s a ton of other kids out there that’re just like me.”

Did he mean to say that there were many orphans in this region? Even in the human world, they were in a period of war. I had known from the reports that as a result of the wars that were constantly taking place in each region, orphans just like this boy had increased. Still, it was a very different thing to see a real orphan in front of me now, and hear things in his own words.

“I see…. That seems rough, for you and the other orphans. If it’s alright with you…. Do you mind showing me where your friends are right now?”

* * *

After passing through the crowded main streets, we entered a back alley into the slums. The humans that walked through the streets all seemed in a hurry to get somewhere. The blatant noise of the beggars and other vulgar people said a lot about the well-being of the place. And everywhere, there were orphans that put on airs of being like adults. Barefooted orphans wearing tattered clothing.

“…. Hey. This is enough, right? I’ve brought you here as promised, so take these off.”

He was referring to the handcuffs restraining him. I had released the ones on his feet, but I realized that the boy’s hands were still bound. The moment they were removed, the boy immediately darted away from me. He still seemed rather cautious, and well, I couldn’t blame him.

As we’d been walking, the surrounding orphans had all began gathering around us—or more specifically, around the boy.

I adjusted the concentration on my holy energy, and made it so that my form would be visible to human eyes.

“Hey, hey, Leader, who’s this~? A friend?”

“Grown-ups… are scary.”

“I got a whole bunch today! Well, not as much as Leader, though.”

One after another, the orphans surrounded the boy and began talking. It seemed that the redhead boy was called their “leader” around here.

“Ah, I… kind of got caught up with some things, so…. I haven’t gone to the job yet.”

By “job,” he probably meant stealing, and because it wasn’t only for himself, he must not have stolen enough for today’s portion.

“I see~ But, we’re always relying on Leader, so…… Today, I’ll go!”

“No, wait! I’m gonna go today~”

The gathered orphans began fighting amongst themselves over who would be the one to go stealing.

“H-hey, you guys, calm down! Listen, alright? It’s not so easy to steal! Amateurs like you would be caught in no time, and thrown straight in jail.”

“J-jail……”

“Noo…. I’m scared……”

“So that’s why, don’t even think about it, got it? Just like usual, I’ll be the one to go, and the rest of you will wait here like you’re s’sposed to!”

“B-but Leader…… There’s a grown-up right there.”

The young girl in the center of the group said this and pointed at me with a nervous face. For them, “grown-ups” didn’t seem to be good people.

“Ah…… You’re right….”

The redhead boy looked over at me with a somewhat embarrassed expression. He still looked cautious, perhaps because of the fear of being cuffed earlier was still fresh in his mind.

“It’s alright. I’m not your enemy. I’m your leader’s assistant!”

“Assistant~?” A chorus of voices all questioned at once.

“Eh…. Hey, wait a minute! What do you mean by that!?”

“It’ll be fine, just go along with it… Now then, Leader! Shall we get to the job at the usual bakery?”

As I started to walk by pushing his—the leader’s shoulders, he stared back at me with both doubt and caution.

So…… stealing, huh? It was something that I had never had the experience of doing before, so right now, my heart was pounding.

* * *

The job had been a success. A huge success. Maybe because I’d been there to help too, or maybe it was just luck, but either way, when we’d brought back the haul that was seemingly much more than usual, all the orphans who’d been waiting started to praise us.

“Uwah—! This is the new item from Maniela! I’ve been wanting to eat this~”

“Hey, hey! Was the big bro assistant able to keep up with Leader~?”

“…… Well, I guess he was pretty good with matching my speed.”

The children were all happily stuffing their mouths with food. They must have always been so hungry, seeing as how they even ate all of the scraps that we’d picked up on the streets.

“Hey, why don’t you eat something too?”

The boy still hadn’t had a single bite of the food that he’d stolen.

“Eh? ….. I’m fine. I can eat anytime…… And anyway—”

“‘I’ve never had the need to eat,’ right?”

I finished his thought in a quiet voice, and the boy jumped back a step in surprise. He was staring at me with fearful eyes.

“…… I noticed it, you know. Right from the beginning.”

“!!”

I had known if from the time that he’d first thrown that bread at me. He had been able to see me, an angel. And feeling an instinctual hostility, he had attacked me. At that place, his dark energy had been rejecting my own holy energy.

I told the other children that I had to leave for today, and taking the boy with me, went somewhere else. I turned the corner of a dimly-lit alleyway, and took him to the very back of the alley, where there were no other people around. He was trembling, his face pale.

“By the looks of it, you might still be too young to understand, but….. Angels can’t be seen by ordinary humans.”

“kh……!”

“Your friends were only able to see me because I’d intentionally made myself visible to them.”

One step at a time, the boy backed away while shaking.

“You were able to see me from the start, weren’t you? And once you saw you, you attacked me right away.”

“Ah…… d-don’t come near me……”

“That was your instinct. You instinctively thought I—in other words, your enemy; an angel—was going to come after you.”

With a flutter, I revealed the white wings that I had been hiding until now.

“Stop it… Stop that……!”

“Since you’re a demon, are you afraid of me right now?”

“Wah……! Waaahhh!”

Frightened tears flowed from the boy’s red eyes. I couldn’t blame him. A normal demon wouldn’t even be able to breathe before the holy energy emitted by an archangel such as myself. And for a boy so young, who was seeing an angel for the first time in his life, the damage had to be pretty bad.

“…… Just kidding. Are you alright?”

As if to cancel out the taut atmosphere, I gently patted the boy’s head, who had been holding up beneath the holy energy until the last minute. With a jolt, he looked up at me, his face remaining a terrified one. His eyes showed confusion, and still, slight fear.

“I’m sorry for scaring you. From the start, I had no intention of harming you in any way.”

“…… Eh?”

“Did you know that a while back, a large number of lesser demons appeared near your hideout?”

“Demons……?”

“Ahh~ I guess you weren’t around there then…… Then, you’ve noticed that the scenery around your hideout suddenly changed a while back, right?”

“…… Yeah. I went into town as usual, and…. well, after stealing and splitting it up with everyone, I came back here at night, and I was surprised ‘cause all the dead flowers were suddenly in bloom……”

“Did you notice anything different near your hideout before that day?”

“…… Not really. No one usually goes around there. And since I’m the only one that knows where the hideout is, other than me, you were the first person to find it.”

I stared at his tear-streamed face. He still seemed a bit scared, but I could tell that he wasn’t trying to argue with me. And I could also see from his behavior that he wasn’t lying, either. It would seem that this boy didn’t have any clues for me. Looked like I’d be going back empty-handed on the investigation of the huge occurrence of demons.

“What’s…. going to happen to me?”

“Hm? What d’you mean……?”

“You’re an angel, right……? You said that angels are demons’ enemies, didn’t you….? So……”

“Hm, well let’s see…”

As I looked at him with a grin, I saw his body visibly flinch. It was actually pretty amusing to tease him.

“Well, first off, I’ll take you back to Heaven, and then you’ll be put on trial. The courts in Heaven are very strict. First, a reaaally scary angel that always has wrinkles on his forehead will read out a list of every bad thing that you’ve ever done on earth. He’ll be the one checking exactly just how much you’ve stolen until now. And each time one of your crimes is read aloud, an Arrow of Judgment will pierce straight through your heart—”

“Uwaaaaaaahhh!!”

“Ahahaha….! I’m just joking!”

The boy was shaking with his face distorted in fear. Had I overdone it a little? At this rate, I was going to run out of people who could give me good reactions.

“J-joke……?”

“Right, right. I said so earlier, didn’t I? I don’t intend to do you any harm.”

“……”

“I’m serious. I was just teasing you since your reactions were so funny…… Ah, I’m sorry! Don’t cry, okay?”

“Hn……”

The boy had started to cry again. I had never heard of demons being crybabies, but maybe it was because he was still a young child. Or, was it because…..

“Hey, are you really a demon? Or, could it be that……”

“….. My mom abandoned me… because I was a child of a demon. My mom was a human.”

“……!”

“But….. I don’t care about that. It doesn’t matter whether I’m a demon or a human!”

When I heard this words, I felt something heavy weigh down on my heart.

The doubts that I’d felt until now. The questions that I’m locked away in my heart with a key, where they couldn’t be touched. And now, it was like this boy’s words were breaking them free.

“I’m me….. Not a demon, or a human. If I’m with others that are like me, that were abandoned by their normal, human parents and ended up alone because of the war, I can make friends with them. I’ve always been able to live without eating anything, too. And because of ‘these’, I’ve never gotten caught, no matter how much I’ve stolen.”

Flap—

At his last words, he spread out a pair of small, jet black wings. The robe that we wore on his entire body must have been to hide these wings. Although he was half-human, as well, it seemed that he was born with more demonic features than human. The sorrow that I’d seen in his eyes when I’d first met him must have been because of the origin of his birth.

“Those seem pretty reliable. If you’re able to escape from the old man at the bakery with those, then I might just lose in a match.”

“Eh……?” 𝘧𝔯e𝗲𝙬ℯ𝙗𝓷o𝘷e𝗹.𝐜𝑜𝒎

“In a race, I mean. Humans do them too, right?”

“…… Yeah.”

“So do angels—competitions to see who can fly the furthest. Are you ready? On your marks… Go!”

Saying this, I burst off into flight. Past the dimly-lit alley, past the town, and the hill. Behind me, the boy with the jet back wings was fighting to catch up. In Heaven, there was no one that could remain within my sights when it came to flight speed, but yet this budding child was able to keep up with my speed. His wing muscles seemed pretty good for being able to escape at the bakery, too.

“The first one to that apple tree on the top of that hill wins……!”

He was gradually picking up speed. Just a little more, and he would overtake me. It was fun. Just as I’d thought, flying was fun.

“Goaaaaaaaaal!”

Pivoting around at the top of the tree, I caught him as he kept flying forward with the momentum. There were very few angels that could keep up with me just a few seconds behind, so I couldn’t help but look forward to the growth of his talent from now on. I carried the boy, still short of breath, until the bottom of the tree.

“That was fun, huh!”

“……”

“Let’s have a rematch sometime.”

“Eh……?”

“Until then, take this.”

“……? Wh-what is this?”

I held out to him a small, cross-shaped earring. However, it wasn’t merely a decoration. It was one of the protective gears that angels used, an object capable of accumulating holy energy temporarily. I explained that it was especially useful for when you were injured during wartime, and was a valuable item for accumulating holy power in Heaven. However, the boy in front of me didn’t seem to quite understand. Well, of course not. Demons had no reason to possess accessories with holy energy, and more than that, it would just be poison to them. For normal demons, that was.

“It’s an amulet.”

“Eh? An amulet……?”

“Yep……. Since you’re half human, it doesn’t hurt even when you’re touched by holy energy, right?”

“…… Yeah.”

“In that case, you should wear that on you. And then, on the off chance that an angel finds you, they won’t know that you’re a demon, as long as you don’t show your wings.”

“……!!”

“The holy energy in that earring will hide your dark energy. Normal demons would suffer damage if they continued to be touched by holy energy, however small, but it seems like you’ll be fine.”

“…… Why…… But, you’re an angel, and demons are angels’ enemies, right? So why are you helping me?”

“You’re the one that told me, right? It doesn’t matter whether you’re a demon or a human. So that’s why I don’t want to fight you.”

“But, angels and demons are……!”

“Among demons, there are even ones that were once angels. They’re called Fallen Angels. You may even meet one of them yourself one day.”

“……!”

“You’re the one that showed me, you know? That even with demons, there are some good ones out there.”

I said this with a smile. The boy’s anxious expression gradually relaxed. And with an expression conflicted between happiness and sadness, tears began to form in his eyes again. 𝒇𝘳𝐞𝚎𝓌𝑒𝑏𝒏𝑜𝙫ℯl.c𝚘𝒎

“In a lot of ways, today was pretty productive. The fact that demons are actually crybabies is a valuable piece of information.”

As I teased him again, the boy rushed at me angrily, still crying.

If only for this moment right now, would it be alright if I forgot about the mission my soul held?

To keep the balance of the human world. From the time that humans are born, and until their life ends, it is “our” job to support that cycle. And the ones that hinder that circulation, and try to destroy the world are none other than our enemies, demons.

Angels, humans, and demons—

Appearance-wise, all of them look very similar. Yes, just like this boy before me, both human and a demon, and myself. The only difference lies in the color of our wings and the nature of our spirits. I felt like that was all it really was. Things like righteousness and evil, it’s only that our viewpoints differed, and so perhaps, there does exist a way for us to coexist in peace.

Would there come a day that I would someday find the answer to that?

For now, I would simply continue to live to protect the important people in front of me.

That was how I chose to use my life.