When Christopher Arclight had first been informed of the fact that he was going to be a guardian angel, he'd thought that it would be just like having another brother. Which would have been okay to him, he had two brothers already.

He had not expected to find his first and only friend.

Tenjou Kaito.

The everlasting scowl on the boy's face was something Chris had not understood initially (that changed after meeting Dr. Faker for the first time), but he'd decided to ignore it and play big brother instead.

It didn't take him very long to notice that Tenjou Kaito himself was an older brother to someone already, and a very desperate older brother at that.

Kaito didn't want people to take care of him. What Kaito wanted was for Haruto to be happy.

But as an angel, Chris could tell.

Haruto was happy already.

He may cough, he may fall unconscious every now and then, he may suffer everyday... but Haruto was happy. Happy to be alive, happy to have such a great big brother.

Kaito didn't see it, couldn't see it.

He was just like his father when it came those things.

It was one of these days where Chris helped out at Faker's lab, and Faker let him because he thought Chris wanted to learn something about science, and Chris was useful anyway.

So Chris and Kaito were on the way to the lab when Kaito finally decided to ask.

"Why are you following me around?" He eyed Chris sharply.

The angel contemplated lying to his protectee. But Tenjou Kaito was one to value honesty. So was Chris.

"I'm your guardian angel," Chris now answered with a straight face.

Kaito had no reason to believe him, but he has no reason not to do so, either. His father was looking for angels, after all.

Perhaps they did exist.

"Prove it."

Upon hearing that, Chris reacted with taking Kaito's hand and they quickly made their way to Kaito's room.

Not really his room, anyway. Kaito only slept there, and sometimes not even that.

"I really hope the sensors won't catch this," Chris muttered as he didn't want Faker to find out about his real identity.

Kaito shook his head firmly and locked the door behind them. "They won't, that man would not even think about an actual angel being here."

Without another warning, huge, majestic wings emerged from Chris' back, white and pure.

"Point proven?" Chris asked, not wanting to spend too much time in this form when Faker was really closeby.

Kaito nodded, but he still was not okay with this. "So, why does Haruto not have a guardian angel?"

"I don't know, the archangels are the ones to decide that," Chris answered, and he smiled a little. And Kaito failed to notice.

He could relate to Kaito a lot. They both were older brothers.

They weren't so different, after all.

They'd gotten used to each other by now.

A shared interest in science and the fact that they both took their brotherly duties very seriously definitely helped forming a friendship.

Chris had even not dreamt that his protectee would be his friend, but it had happened and he appreciated it.

Kaito had become more balanced and the scowl was only present when Faker was within a radius of 20 metres. Which, for Kaito's standards, was okay.

Of course Chris had tried to tell Kaito that Faker only wanted the best for Haruto and Kaito was grateful for Chris telling him, because before he'd thought that Faker was really just being an irresponsible parent. However, both Chris and Kaito were aware that Faker's desire was starting to become a problem.

Faker was attempting to capture an angel (and Chris felt as if he had forgotten something important, but he didn't know what it was). Faker was sure that he could force one to cure Haruto's illness.

Chris was an angel.

But angels were not allowed to do that. It was against the rules. Chris had told Kaito, Kaito had accepted it.

And Kaito had chosen a different path.

The Photon Mode.

He was going to become an artificial angel so he could cure Haruto. Of course, Chris - who valued their friendship more than he probably should - had tried to make him stop because it was dangerous, but there was no way that Kaito would actually listen.

So Chris had offered Kaito to research his own DNA together.

After all, having an angel's blood to analyze would accelerate Kaito's progress.

And Kaito felt guilty. Of course he did.

However, he'd do anything for Haruto.

Tsukumo Kazuma was a man whose actions neither Kaito nor Chris could comprehend.

He had appeared out of nowhere and started to work with Faker, but apparently his purpose was a different one.

"Adventuring!" He had said.

It was summer when Kazuma pulled Kaito and Chris aside, locked himself with them in Kaito's room, and looked at them with curious eyes.

"So... why does Faker do all this?"

The question was straightforward, and Kaito muttered "Haruto", not sure whether he should trust Kazuma or not, but sure enough to say it anyway.

Kazuma knew Haruto, as Haruto had taken a liking to him on one of the boring summer days where everyone was busy researching Haruto's illness that Haruto himself couldn't have cared less about.

Kazuma had played with Haruto, and he had known about his illness, but never had Kazuma expected the search for the angels to be about something like that.

"To think he'd go that far..." Kazuma said to himself. "What does he think would an angel be able to do?"

Chris didn't notice the way Kazuma looked at him.

Kaito did. The slight trace of worry. But no, there was no way Kazuma could've noticed that Chris was an angel, right?

"He wants to force an angel to cure Haruto," Kaito muttered.

"That won't do," Kazuma said, crossing his arms behind his neck. "Alright, I'll try talking to Faker. I don't think violence is a good means to solve a problem. If we talk to whatever angel we may meet, I'm sure the angels will, if they can," His gaze rested on Chris for a little, almost as if he was asking 'Can you?'. "...help us."

Chris tensed up, and he stayed that tense until Kazuma left.

He liked Kazuma, but someone obviously knowing something about his identity was dangerous.

"He knows, doesn't he?" Kaito asked, looking at the spot where Kazuma had stood before.

"Probably," Chris sighed. "Kazuma-san is nice though. I don't think he'll tell Dr. Faker."

"Gone. My father is gone." Chris was sobbing as he spoke, taking comfort in his protectee's embrace.

It was rare for him to show any weakness at all, but it was different with Kaito. They were best friends by now, a bond of mutual trust had been forged.

They'd been teaching each other to stay strong no matter what, but there were things they never wanted to even imagine losing.

Those things were their families and each other.

Kaito did not say a word for the rest of that evening. He just stayed by Chris' side until they both fell asleep.

Responsibility was something that always had a place in Chris' mind.

He knew he had to look after his brothers, for they had suffered the same loss as he had. Of all people, he was sure it would hit Thomas the worst. Thomas had never admitted it ever, but he was always looking to be acknowledged by their father.

Three months had passed since Byron had disappeared from heaven without a trace.

Chris had visited his brothers every weekend, reluctantly going despite Kaito practically forcing him to do so.

That was just how much Kaito cared for other people's little brothers.

"Kazuma is dead." Faker was saying it without emotion.

That information came out of nowhere on one of these days where Chris was about to go visit his brothers again.

"Kazuma is... dead?" Kaito was barely capable of comprehending the words.

Kazuma had been more of a father to him in a half year than Faker had been in 18 years.

Chris was feeling similar things. During the last three months, Kazuma had been a person to give him hope.

Kattobingu da.

Chris had believed it. So had Kaito.

"How did he die?!" Kaito asked, now displaying anger instead of sadness. "And why... why are you alive?"

Faker just shook his head. "He died to a trap in one of the ruins. And now if you excuse me, I have to locate the memory pieces."

When Chris and Kaito had attempted to ask Faker what those memory pieces were, he had not answered, but Chris later discovered that Faker was looking for archangel Astral's memory pieces.

He had no idea why that was the case, though. Or how Faker knew about Astral's existence, for that matter.

And somehow Chris began to question whether Kazuma had really died to a trap.

"Kaito," he said, looking at his best friend with an apologetic gaze. "I'll be in heaven for two days, I have to know what happened to Kazuma."

"Visit your brothers while you're at it," Kaito replied, not angry at all. "And stop pretending that this guardian angel business forces you to stay with me."

He didn't need to say what those words really meant, and Chris smiled at him. This was Kaito's way of telling him they were friends, regardless of his duties.

"Thank you," Chris said as his wings emerged from his back. "I'll be back."

"You need the data of Tsukumo Kazuma?" Thomas raised an eyebrow, leaning against a bookshelf in Heaven's library. One of the libraries. There were many of them.

Chris nodded. "I feel like the demons might be involved." Too many books, he had no idea where the letter 'T' even was, but Michael was helping them, so it'd go fast.

Thomas' brows furrowed and he crossed his arms. "It wouldn't be the first time, I still don't know why the archangels even let these bastards do as they please."

"Please don't speak that way, nii-sama," Michael arrived with a book in his hands, a book which he handed to Chris immediately. "They didn't even try to hide that they interfered..."

Chris opened the last page. "He died to a demon's attack."

"At least they had enough brain to conceal the name," Thomas muttered, obviously displeased.

They had all grown to dislike the demons ever since their father had disappeared, for they were sure that a demon was responsible for it.

They could not confirm it, of course. There was no data about angels in Heaven's library, only data about deceased humans.

The Arclight siblings were aware that they had been human once, a long time ago, and that they could look up how they'd died - at least if they knew their past names, which they did not.

The data still remained useful.

"I will be a guardian angel soon," Michael now said out of context, and Chris smiled, for he had known of Michael's loneliness.

He was glad that his brother would be able to discover the same friendship that he had.

And at the same time, he felt guilty.

For Thomas, who was looked down upon by the higher angels.

Thomas was not allowed to be a guardian angel. The archangels considered him too impulsive for that.

But Chris could not abandon Kaito, either.

Kaito's control over his Photon Mode was increasing, but his health was deteriorating.

Ever since Chris had told him that the demons were responsible for Kazuma's death, Kaito was convinced that Faker was their ally.

He did not like it in the slightest, because Chris was an angel.

Lately, Chris had been feeling even worse than before.

Kaito could tell because Chris spent a lot of time in his real form, looking at the night sky and sighing.

And Kaito had tried to help.

But the pain Chris felt was nothing Kaito could actually help with.

Chris had lost his father and the only other person who could even come close to being a father figure to him.

Kaito still had Haruto.

That difference between him and Chris would hurt Kaito, because difference creates distance.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Do you not recognize your own father?" The child with the blonde braid and the black wings laughed.

Chris' eyes widened in horror as he realized who was standing in front of them. "What... what happened to you?"

He quickly found out that his father did not know that he wasn't in his usual form, so Chris had dropped the topic because he felt it would be dangerous. Apparently, Tron's - that's what he wanted to be called - memory had a gap and the next thing he had remembered after taking a walk was... waking up in the presence of a demon, a demon who had shown him the memories from the time when he used to be a human.

Of course, that meant that magic was involved, magic from hell. And given that the archangels weren't exactly keen on leaving black-winged angels who made pacts with demons alive, Chris knew that he could not tell them about this.

Speaking of pacts - Tron had made one. In exchange for gaining power to get his revenge on Faker, Tron was expected to annihilate archangel Astral.

Archangel Astral, the strongest of all archangels; Astral who had lost his memories in a fight against the strongest demon, Don Thousand. Apparently, that very Astral whose memory pieces Faker was trying to collect.

Of course the demons would want to kill Astral before he manages to retrieve these memories.

"That man... Faker... he was responsible for my death," Tron said, but his features showed no trace of anger. Instead, a crazed smile crept onto his face. "But I will make him suffer for it."

Chris took a moment to mentally bless the fact that Byron had been a person who was so worried about his children that Chris hadn't told him what he had been doing on earth until now, since it was sort of dangerous. Because this now meant that Kaito and Faker would be safe for a while. Not for long, though.

And Chris had tried. Tried to explain that Tron could hardly blame a reincarnated human for what said human had done in another lifetime, because humans did not remember their past lives. Tried to explain that revenge was not something Byron Arclight would do.

But Tron had given up that name long ago, and revenge was a thing Tron would do.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Chris was aware that, despite the fact that a demon was definitely responsible for this situation, there had to be some truth to the story.

And the more he thought about it, the more Chris realized that he wanted revenge, after all.

Not really revenge anyway. It was the loyalty that he held for his father, that loyalty that made him do whatever he was told to do, amplified thanks to the pain caused by seeing his father in that horrifying state.

But there was another loyalty within him, a loyalty that had grown over the last months.

A loyalty for his only friend, Kaito.

Kaito, who liked him despite being an angel. Kaito, who did his best to conceal his ever-present scowl when Chris was around. Kaito, the one person aside from his family that Chris did not want to hurt ever.

But then again, Kaito was a part of his family.

Faker, quite frankly, was not. In another situation - if Faker had killed Byron in his present life, for example - Chris would've been angry on Kaito, too.

But he knew that Kaito hated Faker and he knew that Faker didn't kill Byron in this life. So Chris unable to hate Kaito for having that man as his father.

So Chris - no, V, for a number was all he was to Tron - made a choice. He would kill Astral. He would even kill Faker. But he would make sure no harm could come to Kaito and Haruto.

And his wings darkened.

"Kaito."

"Chris."

Tension. Kaito knew something was wrong, so he looked at V expectantly, waiting for his best friend to drop the bad news.

"I will be gone for a while." V muttered, unable to look into Kaito's eyes.

They were in Kaito's room again, a room that would've felt familiar and good in any other situation, but not in this one.

"A while?" Kaito asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A while." V repeated, turning to leave, but Kaito got a hold of his wrist.

"Why?" Two pairs of blue eyes met, one of them expressing guilt and hurt, the other expressing hurt and confusion.

"I will be there to guard you if something happens, don't worry," V was skilled when it came to avoiding Kaito's questions.

Kaito was skilled when it came to staring at V. "I don't care about that. Did something happen, Chris?"

Kaito never communicated properly, but V knew what words he was trying to say.

Worry.

But Chris worried as much about Kaito as Kaito worried about Chris, but he was V now and V hid these things. Or so he told himself.

Chri- V hesitated for a bit. Just enough for Kaito's expression to soften a little, and that was when V finally managed to escape Kaito's gaze, and he yanked his wrist free, maybe a bit too violent.

And he left, leaving Kaito standing there. Kaito had not managed to say anything in response.

Nothing useful, anyway, because he still shouted Chris' name.

Kaito did not notice the tears in his eyes, because the time he spent staring at the locked door made him cry.

Chris was gone.

V looked into the mirror, the crest on his forehead visible. He traced over it with his fingers, unsure what to think of it, and he concentrated so it became invisible again.

He knew something was wrong with this crest. It was almost as if it was connected to his soul... no, not even Tron would do something that. Or so V hoped.

Michael was floating in front of him now.

And Chris did not want to do this, but he was V now, so he should do this. He had done it with Thomas - who was now called IV - already.

IV who was going to seal the powers of Kamishiro Ryouga and Kamishiro Rio, a set of twins that just so happened to have an otherworldly presence (the nature of which Tron was not sure of, yet assumed them to be angels), for the sake of ensuring that Tron's duty to eliminate Astral would be fulfilled. V was aware that either the twins or IV would suffer. Or both.

And V knew that he was the one who had let things go this far. He could have told his brothers to not get involved, but instead he had listened to Tron and now they would share his fate.

"Nii-sama, why did you call me here?" Michael asked, but V avoided his gaze, unable to stand it.

Moments of silence passed and V felt his hands tremble.

"Father has returned," V said and his voice had lost its tone. He was not able to do this.

He took a moment to continue speaking, but when he did, he hated himself for the cowardly thing he had just done. He had pushed the responsibility for telling Michael the truth onto IV. It was wrong, but then again everything was wrong lately. "Thomas... no, IV will explain the rest to you... III."

V was concealing that his wings had darkened, but he knew it even if he couldn't see it.

But that was life, and V knew that. At least Kaito was safe.

... Or so he thought, until he saw an angel flying below him. V flew closer, close enough to identify Kaito, but not close enough for Kaito to notice him.

Kaito was improving his Photon Mode and Orbital day by day, and with every improvement made, he was ruining his health.

V felt responsible, bit his lip, tried to ignore that feeling... and followed Kaito anyway.

Kaito was looking for Astral's memory pieces.

V had to hide one more thing from Tron now.

III was screaming. He was screaming the same way IV had screamed the night before, and both IV and V couldn't bear to look at III.

It was wrong. It shouldn't be this way.

But it was.

It was Tron's method of breaking them. He had forced III back into his angelic form and tortured him with energy that was meant to amplify the darkness and power within him.

All because III had not obeyed Tron's will. Because III wanted to take care of his protectee - Tsukumo Yuuma, the one who was with archangel Astral. Kazuma's son.

IV had experienced it, too, because he hadn't wanted to be nothing more than a pawn to Tron. He'd wanted to be loved. But it had not happened, and now IV was nothing more than a desperate man who wanted to be Thomas Arclight again but could not be. It was making IV insane.

V realized that it would be his turn to endure this torture soon.

And III's wings stayed white - his screaming did not stop.

"Look at this." Tron had a smile on his face, but a smile from Tron could just as well be a death sentence.

A magical mirror showed them III. III, lying on a bed that V did not know but assumed to be Tsukumo Yuuma's house, sleeping.

Had III failed to accomplish his mission or had he not even tried?

"He's comatose," Tron added as an explanation, a slight laugh escaping his lips.

"Why?!" V asked, a bit too loud.

Tron raised an eyebrow in a mocking way. "The crest was tied to his soul. He chose to betray me twice, so I had to remove the crest."

V had been so wrong when he thought that Tron would not go this far.

"By the way, V..." Tron walked around him. "Tenjou Kaito is Dr. Faker's son, isn't he?"

Chris had told Tron that he would obey. That was because Tron had 'offered' him the same treatment as his brothers had endured, and Chris had declined, apologized, asked for another chance and told the one who used to be his father all about how he would crush Kaito and Faker.

Which he would not.

Chris could not kill Kaito. Chris would've done anything for his family to be whole again, but with IV and III comatose, there was no one left.

Tron would self-destruct at some point if nobody stopped him, and so Chris had maintained his sanity for this last thing he could do for what remained of his family:

Make sure someone was there to save them.

And he was sure if Kaito couldn't, Tsukumo Yuuma would, because he was Kazuma's son and Kazuma would've known what to do. And Tsukumo Yuuma would save Kaito, too.

III had believed that and Chris wanted to believe it, too.

Chris wanted to believe it because if Kazuma had been there, none of this would have happened.

But maybe the demons had known, maybe Kazuma had died because of that in the first place.

Chris would not know.

There was an angel in front of Chris. Not a real one, anyway, but more real than anything else to him.

And Chris was on the floor, staring into Kaito's heterochromic eyes.

"So you're telling me you leave for nine months, secretly watch me, fight me and then you tell me to save your family?!" Kaito shouted, and he sounded bitter, but who wouldn't in this situation?

An Kaito could not kill Chris.

"If you wanna save your family, save them with your own strength!" Kaito pulled V back to his feet.

Both of them were covered in bruises from the fight, but both of them were also strangely okay with the situation.

They understood each other's feelings now.

The endless desire to save one's family, and the slight mention that they considered each other a part of their family.

But Chris knew that he had no time left, so he smiled, sincerely.

Because he had no regrets.

The crest disappeared, Chris could faintly hear Kaito shouting his name... and Chris fell into the realm of a long, dreamless sleep.

Chris woke up in a bed that he knew all too well, in a room that he had missed although it had meant so little in the beginning. To his right, he saw Kaito's head resting on the bed, but Kaito himself was sitting on a chair.

Chris had not expected to wake up again, but he was glad to see Kaito safe and sound.

Maybe a bit bruised, maybe lacking sleep.

But alive.

"Stop staring at me," Kaito muttered, almost too quiet for Chris to hear. Almost.

"What happened?" Chris softly asked, feeling strange because he was aware that he'd been comatose for a long time, but he still felt tired.

"Kattobingu happened," Kaito gave as a response, and that was all there was to know for Chris.