The day after Hyoudou Issei died, Himejima Akeno went to church.
She was alone, dressed not as a schoolgirl but a priestess. The sky was as dark as her expression, the night filling her bones with power. It was as heady and heavy as love. As hatred. She crossed the barrier lingering at the edge of the grounds without even a stutter in her step; the Light knew not what to do with her when she walked as daughter over servant. Only the short, sharp sneer across her face gave any indication as to what she thought of that.
From the church, a man emerged. Two wings—their feathers stained with shadow—flapped lazily from his shoulders. He stood with the supreme unconcern of someone who's far too done with everything to care.
"What do you want, girl?"
Girl, not Devil.
"Bring me Raynare," Akeno said, with the sort of disdain some people would pay to receive. Had any mortal member of Kuoh Academy heard her speak, they might have fainted in shock. "I know she's in there."
He raised an eyebrow. "And who might you be, to make demands of me?"
Another person came out of the building. To see her as the girl she resembled was to make the same mistake as missing the forest for the trees. Hair to shame sunlight shimmered beneath the moon as she spoke. "Just kill her and be done with it, Donny. We don't need some shitty shrine maiden poking around here right now."
Akeno laughed. Rias Gremory would have recognised it. She would have also started running. (Likely to get Kiba or Koneko's help in distracting her, but the point remained).
"Would you prefer to be chilled, baked, or cooked?" she asked. Deep in her soul, something stirred, like a storm occluding the horizon. "Not that I imagine I'd find any restaurant willing to serve mouldering old crow."
"What did you just say to me?" A shaft of scintillating sakura, sharp and savage, cut its way through reality to snap into the hands of the girl as she took a step forward.
"Oh for fuck's sake," came a third voice, "put your dick away, Mittelt. You too, Dohnaseek."
It should at this point be noted that behind the man's—Dohnaseek's—back was a spear that looked like someone couldn't make up their mind whether it should be made of ice or blue-hot flame, and decided, in the end, that it had best be both.
"Now go back to your crosswords and cartoons," the speaker continued, "while I deal with our friend here."
The woman—given the assortment of straps that passed for her clothing, there was no mistaking that—who sauntered out of the church smiled. It was a smile Akeno found familiar, for all that it was filled with the terrible amusement of a trainwreck.
"Fuck off, Raynare," Mittelt said. "That bitch insulted me."
"I like her already. Now shoo."
Mittelt glared at both Raynare and Akeno – but did as she was told. Dohnaseek did not follow. How could he? He'd already left. When they were alone, Raynare turned to face Akeno. Her smile dropped so quickly it may have broken the laws of physics along the way.
"Why are you here, little sister?"
"You are no sister of mine."
"Given the way our father has always favoured you, that might even be true." Raynare's voice had all the false politeness of stabbing someone in the front.
"Favoured me?" Akeno's own was a crack of thunder to match the lightning sparking from her eyes. She spread her arms wide. "Does this look like favour to you?"
"A soft, cushy life as the chief toy of a Satan's sister; power, political importance, and protection, while the rest of us scrabble for scraps beneath the table of kings whose side you mock us from? It does a lot more than look, dear Akeno."
"My mo—no. I'm not doing this. I'm not letting you do this." Akeno's fists were clenched, her gaze deliberately fixed to the sky, and her breath heaved in ways entirely unrelated to the weight of her chest. Slowly, slowly, her fingers uncurled, their claw-like rigidity slackening from birdlike to human. "Maybe if you were less of a bitch, your father might like you."
"I don't want to be liked by the father who prefers the pleasure slave as a daughter over me," Raynare snarled. "Now shut the fuck up and tell me whatever it is your King wants."
"I didn't come here for Rias. I came here to ask you what you thought you were still doing in this city." Akeno paused. "And which one of us is dressed like she belongs in a seraglio, exactly?"
"My business is even less yours than it is hers."
"Make up your mind," Akeno replied. "If I'm your sister, then it's far more mine than hers."
"You've made it quite clear the only things you want out of this happy little family are our corpses." Raynare cocked her head to the side in mocking curiosity, a mirror of Akeno at her worst. "Are you saying I shouldn't respect your wishes?"
"I'm saying you should tell me why you haven't left Kuoh. Even better, just skip straight to leaving and never speak to me again. Hyoudou-kun is dead. Rias resurrected him. He's nothing to do with you any longer."
"Never speak to you again? You came to me. Guess the idiocy of Devils is not only sickening but actually contagious." Raynare shrugged, nonchalant as a cat. "And for all you know, you interrupted our packing."
"Did I?"
"If that's what it'll take to make you go away, then yes. I tried to eliminate Hyoudou as a threat. I failed. Time to go back and face daddy dearest's disappointed disregard. Can't imagine anything I'd want to do more."
"You're going to get yourself killed if you stick around here," Akeno said. "Rias doesn't like it when people threaten her family, even if they weren't part of it at the time, and I can't—I won't stand in her way."
"Then I'll be doing you a favour, yes?" Raynare's smile was a slash of arrogance across her face. "Besides, don't get ahead of yourself. It'll take more than a playpen of teenagers to kill me."
She turned away, back toward the church. "See you round, sis."
Akeno watched her go.
"Don't try to flirt with my cute servant."
Entropy crackled in Rias' hand.
The world howled in fear at the sight of it. It ran down her fingers like blood stained with the dark between stars. Rias had the sort of body that drove men to their doom, but it was a kind fate compared to the one offered by the power pooling in her soul. She glared at Raynare, cowering on the floor almost beneath her boot, but she did not need to. Any fury in her expression was a pale shadow of the rage and ruin she drew her arm back to throw.
Akeno's own snapped out and grabbed it just below the wrist.
"A—Akeno?" Rias's voice was as unsure as Akeno looked.
"Don't kill her."
"Akeno-san?" Issei asked.
"I always knew you were weak. Sentimental." Raynare might have sounded haughty, if not for the water and dust staining her body, and the fact she was half-collapsed and still shaking. There was nothing left of the woman who killed Issei.
"Just go," Akeno spat, ignoring Issei and Rias entirely. Amethyst met amethyst, each sharp with disgust. "Run away. Leave. You should be used to that by now."
Raynare stood, slowly, less out of deliberation than physical inability. This close, with her hair in disarray—its shade the same, empty black as Akeno's—and the cruelty of her jaw softened by defeat and disgrace, Koneko was the first to notice she looked just like Akeno at her most exhausted. The Rook inhaled. The Power of Destruction, even partially manifested, had burned away the harsh, throat-choking tang of Light and the flame-smoke of the Red Dragon Emperor both; she was free to sample the untainted air.
"Oh," she said, very softly.
"Akeno," Rias said gently, like her words would break if she spoke otherwise, "I can't. She killed Ise-kun. She hurt him. She killed his most precious friend. And she trespassed on the territory of both the Gremory and Sitri families. Even if Ise-kun hadn't asked, her sentence must be death."
Akeno shook her head. "Don't make me choose. I can't. Not like this."
"I don't understand. What are you choosing, Akeno?"
"I'm her sister, you blithering idiot, and apparently she's softer in the heart than you are in the head." That drew everyone's attention back to Raynare, who was flexing her wings gingerly but making no attempt to actually flee. She was staring straight at Akeno. "Whatever happened to I can't and I won't?"
"I guess I can't abandon people like you can."
"Eh? Sister?" Issei and—surprisingly—Kiba spoke as one. They looked back and forth between Akeno and Raynare, noting the face, the eyes, the hair. Even the cruelty, for all that Akeno's was far more benign and directed towards far more deserving targets.
"Akeno-san is a Fallen Angel?" That was Issei alone.
She unfurled her wings. Unlike the first time Issei had seen them, one was a mess of inky feathers rising rampant from her shoulder-blade. "My mother was human, too. But I'm a Devil now, for all that my blood is tainted twice-over."
"Spare me the self-pity," Raynare said, "you're luckier than you know. Now, am I going to be able to walk out of here, or do I have to run?"
The tremble of her wings—as if she was trying to stand in an earthquake or against a hurricane—gave the lie to the cool unconcern of her voice.
A flare of nonexistence around Rias' hand. "I haven't quite decided yet."
"Y—you should let her live, Buchou," Issei said, like he didn't really believe it himself. "Don't make Akeno-san sad over something like her."
"You little—"
"Shut up." Issei cut Raynare off, his tone sharp and cold as shattering ice. He pointed at her with the same hand that could slay a god. "You don't get to speak."
She flinched away from the Boosted Gear, face twisting into a coward's snarl, but did not reply.
"Thank you, Ise-kun." Rias nodded. "And you make a good point. Just because she's a miserable existence doesn't mean I have any right to make Akeno's existence miserable too."
She looked at Raynare. "Be thankful for my precious servants' mercy. Now get out."
For a moment, it seemed as if Raynare might resist the order on principle. A single spark of lightning—the same colour as a sunrise— arced around her eyes as she stared Rias down.
Then her gaze shifted to meet Akeno's, and she spun on her heel and left.
Akeno watched her go.
"You never told me you had a sister," Rias said.
Akeno didn't look up from where she stood bent at the waist, pouring Rias a cup of anemone-infused green tea. The flower seemed fitting. She rose with a glacier's grace after serving herself as well, returning the teapot to the kitchenette. A few steps took her back to the table and she sat, arranging her legs with the sort of dignity one might comport themselves with before a queen rather than their best friend since childhood.
"She's my half-sister, actually." Akeno's voice had all the politeness of a door gently closed and firmly locked.
Rias shook her head, hair rippling like a sea of roses. "Akeno."
"What do you want me to say, Rias? You only know of my heritage because you stopped my family from murdering me over it. I'd rather forget it exists."
"And I'd have let you," Rias said, "until it made me watch a trespasser, a thief, and a killer walk out of my territory because my Queen practically begged me to in front of—almost—my entire Peerage."
She sighed.
"I don't begrudge you the request, Akeno. You're my most loyal servant and my closest friend. But I wish you'd told me after you went to see her—I know you must have, she made that clear enough—the first time. I could have arranged to have her and her… friends, allies of convenience, whatever and whoever they were expelled without bloodshed. Nobody would have had to know but us.
"Except you didn't. Ise-kun had to see Asia die in front of him, and then watch the woman who did it—and who killed him too—stroll away without a care in the world. Asia has lost her Sacred Gear. There's an Exorcist who's sworn to kill Ise-kun. And you never had the choice about how or when to reveal your heritage to Ise-kun and Asia both.
"All of this could have been avoided if you'd just trusted me a little more, Akeno. That's why I'm angry."
"It's not about trust," Akeno snapped, quick as a knife. When she spoke again, her voice was soft. "It happened because I was weak. Me, not my faith in you. I thought I could watch Raynare die. I was wrong."
Rias reached over the table, laying a gentle hand on Akeno's shoulder. "You're not weak, Akeno. The way I see it, that makes you strong."
"If this is strength, then I want no part in it." Akeno stared down into her lap. "She was never even nice to me, you know? Fa—Baraqiel was. Mother was. I loved them. But whenever he brought Raynare around, I could tell she didn't like me. And she hated Mother. I'm amazed she never ran a spear through me when no-one was looking: I used to follow her everywhere, asking her to do this and do that and fly with me, Ra-nee, won't you please?"
It was hard to say what was more disgusted: the arching curl of Akeno's lip, or the caustic bite of her tone.
"She only ever did it once, because I asked her while Baraqiel was around. I think I was seven, maybe? I felt like I'd aged to seventy when she finally set me down, and it was—it's still the most fun I've ever had flying. When I turned to you and saw her death in your hand, I thought I'd remember the times she glared at Mother when she thought I wasn't looking. The times she ignored me until I cried. But all I could think of was that day, and the way she smiled in the sky."
Akeno's laughter was as bleak and cold as the Antarctic, and just as dry to boot.
"It wasn't even for very long. The rain had just started, and Mother called us back inside so I wouldn't get sick."
The rain hadn't stopped.
Raynare sat on a park bench, watching the fountain she'd stood before when she killed Hyoudou. The water bubbled up from deep within the rock that surrounded it, relentless. There was a metaphor for the way she felt in there, somewhere. Her hair lay flat and plastered to her neck, but at least now she could pretend it was because the heavens had opened, and not because her little sister had dumped a bucket on her head to wake her from ignominious defeat.
She stretched out her left arm, a pair of silver rings—as bright and pale as the moon above—crystallising around her index and middle fingers. Twilight Healing. Raynare had walked away from the church with everything she'd come for. A miracle forbidden to anything but humanity sat snugly on her hand – a miracle twice-over, in fact, for what it would allow her to accomplish. The glory was even hers alone, her associates lost to Gremory's wrath.
All they'd wanted was to curry favour with the daughter—with a daughter—of Baraqiel, too young and unfamiliar with the Grigori and Raynare's relationship with her father to know it would bring them nothing. That she would give them nothing. There was a poetry in their deaths, really. Failure was all this family knew, and so how could those who hitched their stars to one of its scions meet with anything else?
The rain slicked her skin to gleaming; had she been human, she would have been shivering, but instead she tilted her head back to watch the stars without the slightest flicker of expression. Raynare looked less a person than a sculpture, carved to perfection and set eternal in stone.
A drop fell into her eye, and she blinked. The serenity of the moment startled away, she closed them, losing herself in thought.
Akeno was beautiful. As a child, she'd been cute – obnoxiously so, like an insistent puppy that just kept yapping until you wanted nothing more than to strangle it but couldn't. Now, though… well, she looked a lot like Raynare had at her age, caught between the fading blush of youth and the sharp edge of womanhood. Of course she was beautiful.
If anything, that added to the insult. Akeno was younger, stronger, and more adored to boot. Raynare could stand before her father with Twilight Healing in hand and the name and face of the Red Dragon Emperor on her lips – Baraqiel would trade it all for the chance to see Akeno smile. Her sister had it all: power, prestige, potential. Even Raynare's so-called triumph came off the back of Akeno's childish mercy.
It made it very hard to love her, Raynare thought.
Akeno probably believed Raynare didn't know how. But Baraqiel's sin had been born from love, and no matter if the Bible liked to contradict itself about iniquities, Lowell'd had the right of it when he'd spoken of enslaving their children's children. Baraqiel loved, and so Raynare could do nothing else. She held it close: between the shadow and the soul, as Neruda had put it, where no one would know or care to look. It suffused her like breath. Like lightning. If only she could exhale the storm of feeling as easily as her father could the storm in truth; cast it out and live bereft of something as soft as sentiment.
Alas.
Raynare stood, eyeing Kuoh in the distance. Somewhere in there was her sister, probably being offered crepes and tea to cheer her up, like back when she was six and had just stubbed her toe on the stairs. Heaven forbid—no apologies for the pun—that anyone be related to a Fallen Angel. It didn't really matter. Akeno would bounce right back up; she was perkier than the pin-up models she now resembled.
Twilight Healing vanished back into Raynare's soul, and she turned her back on the city. It was time for her to leave, before Gremory came looking.
It hadn't been nice, meeting Akeno again.
But that was family for you. Blood didn't really care about nice.
It just lived between your bones.
With one last, errant glance over her shoulder, Raynare walked away.
There was no one to watch her go.
This idea's been percolating in my head ever since somebody mentioned the resemblance in a story thread over on SpaceBattles. There are quite a few images—some a little too inappropriate to use as a cover image—where Raynare and Akeno look eerily similar, especially when the latter has her hair down. Are they actually related in canon? No. But it's interesting to explore a world in which they are.
Consider this a series of sequential one-shots; I plan next to adapt Volume 7—the Loki arc—in this universe, and then there are two more scenes I think should be contrasted together for another chapter. After those, we'll see.
If it's unclear, Rias resurrected Asia regardless.