Angel With A Shotgun

Summary: It was like any other day when Syaoran found a girl unconscious in front of his house. Little to his amusement, she claims to him that she's an angel on a mission to return to the Heavens. Syaoran decides that he would help this so-called Angel back to her home; but one question remains: why was she on Earth to begin with? Even Angels hide dark secrets.

Series Cloud 9 presents…
Angel With A Shotgun
Chapter One: An Angel With A Shotgun

What do you imagine when you see an angel? What do they look like? Bright, colorful, beautiful feathered wings with a halo hovering over their head. What about demons? The Devil's pawn? Black, maybe red, creatures of the shadow. Their ugly faces would be enough to make you cry, their screams would be able to make you wish you were never alive.

That's what I would expect at least when I think of them. I mean, you would too, wouldn't you? It's in the books, it's in the movies, the anime's, everywhere you look that's what they look like. Being agnostic I was fascinated, but I . . . wasn't really sure what to believe in.

Even when I met her for the first time, I still couldn't believe it.

It was about a month in to my third year of high school. My name is Syaoran; Li Syaoran. I guess I'd call myself a Good Samaritan. I never caused any trouble, in fact I actually go out of my way to help people a lot; things like crawling up a tree to save an old lady's cat or give some money to the poor or something like that. I've never done anything crazy like run into a burning building to save people, not yet at least.

Well that Friday afterschool was the one day I'd never forget. It was the day I first met her.

Just as I opened the gates to my house, I saw a girl lying down on my steps. Slowly, I made my way to her. At first I thought she was dead, but then I saw her chest slowly expand as a sign of breathing. Was she sleeping? No, she was unconscious. She was probably hurt.

I ran up to her and held her head against my chest, "Hey," I said, "are you okay?" She didn't reply.

It may have been the wrong moment to think about it, but I couldn't help but to notice the sweet aroma she lifted. Her light brown hair was smooth and soft, and her light skin was as soft as a babies. When I picked her up into a cradle, she was lighter than she looked, almost as if she was weightless.

I brought her inside my home and laid her down on my couch.

"Now what?" I said to myself. A random girl suddenly appears in front of my doorsteps. I thought about every single possibility that could've happened to have that happened. None made sense, really.

With a hard sigh, I decided to drop my things in my room and fix up some dinner. If she was knocked out in front of my house, she might be hungry when she wakes up.

After an hour, supper was ready, but the girl was still out cold. It was a bummer too because my curry was best eaten fresh so hopefully she gets up soon.

I left the curry on the stove and went over to the girl. Her white dress was simple. Silk and the only color was . . . well, white. Like I said: simple, but it actually looked good on her. Another thing I noticed was that the dress wasn't dirty. I'd assume that if she had to knock out in front of my house, she would've gone through some sort of hardship, but no; the dress was as if it was just bought.

I thought that I heard her say something, so I hovered over her to see if I could tell what she was saying. But no, just as I hovered over her, her eyes shot open and I was dazed by beautiful green eyes. But those beautiful green eyes quickly turned to fear and before I knew it, I was pushed back as the girl jumped from the couch and over. She gave a quick cry of fear as she ran off around the corner.

"W—wait!" I yelled, "I'm not going to hurt you, come back!" I followed her around the corner and saw her turn into my bathroom. I turned into the bathroom as well but as I turned I stopped and swallowed the taste of death. A sweat dropped down the side of my head as I stared right into a two-barreled weapon that I didn't even have in my house, nor did I see on her. "A shotgun—" before I was even able to continue, I heard a loud bang. My stomach felt like it was being drilled all the way through my back and slowly, I fell to my knees. I was shot . . . I thought, by a shotgun. I fell to my side, unable to breathe, still in pain, and crying. I was going to die. All I did was help one little girl and she was going to be my death. The next thing I saw . . . was black.

Angel With A Shotgun

When I woke up, I woke crying in pain and getting up to a sitting position. I held my stomach for a couple seconds but then realized that I actually wasn't even hurting—not one bit. I looked at myself: not a single scratch. Then I figured it out, I was dead . . . I was dead, that's the only explanation to being killed and waking up without pain! But I was on my couch, the same couch that the girl who killed me was on. I looked over to the kitchen and saw her calmly eating the curry I made like it was her house.

"H—h—hey!" I hesitated.

The girl looked up from eating and said, "Oh, you're awake!" Her voice was soft and beautiful.

"Am I . . . dead?" I asked.

The girl cleared her throat and made her way over to me. "No, don't worry, you're not dead," she said.

I wasn't? "But, you just shot me with a shotgun!" I cried. "You shot me with a shot—gun," I repeated just in case she didn't quite understand what happens when you shoot people with a shotgun.

She looked at me like I was stupid. Not going to lie, in retrospect, I sounded very stupid.

"I'm not stupid," she said. "I know what I did, and you're not dead."

"I'm not?" I took a deep breath in relief. But then the question stands: "Wait a minute, who are you?"

It took her a moment to answer like she was trying to come up with an answer. "I'm uhh . . . my name's Sakura."

I looked at her. "Well, that's one thing normal about you. So now mind telling me why you were at my house?"

"You're the one who brought me in!"

"Yes, I know I brought you in, but you were outside my house before I got home, so why were you at my house?"

This conversation was getting fairly annoying. Against, though, she took a moment like she was thinking of some made-up answer to tell me.

"Well," she looked around and started to trail off. But then she took a big breath like the truth was finally about to come out. "I . . . am an Angel . . . and I'm an Angel on a mission back to Heaven."

I stared at her for a moment. She's crazy I thought. This girl's crazy, I have a crazy girl in my room. First she shoots me with a shotgun and then she claims to be an angel. After thinking that she was crazy, I began to laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" I yelled. "Laughing at an Angel is not something you should be doing!"

"Okay," I said trying to catch a breath, "you seriously can't think that I'm going to believe that you're an Angel from Heaven, you gotta do better than that."

"I just shot you with a shotgun! A SHOT-GUN" she cried. "What more do you need?"

I stopped laughing. Yeah, I really should've died. It was odd that I was still alive . . . with no wounds at all.

"Okay, if you're really an Angel then where are your wings?"

"I . . ." again she trailed off in search for words, "don't have them."

"And what about your halo, where's that?"

"It's a complicated story."

Sakura started to look very frustrated, but it was cute.

I took a breather and stopped badgering her with the questions. She looked like she was finally relieved of having to answer all of these.

I looked out the window and saw that it was already dark. When I got knocked out, it must've been a few hours before I had woken up. "An angel," I began again. "Well then, Miss Angel, you can stay here for the night. Then you can continue your mission to the Heavens tomorrow." Slowly, that cute face of her turned into something quite disturbing. The look on her face actually scared me, like she was giving me a warning because I wouldn't believe her. But seriously though, an Angel?

I brought her a pillow and a blanket so she could sleep on the couch. I went over to the kitchen to eat some of my curry before bed, but surprisingly there was none left. That girl ate it all? I thought. "Guess I'll sleep without dinner tonight," I said to myself. "I ate a shotgun today anyway." Even though the shotgun didn't kill me, nor did it hurt now, the thought of it was just prickly to the stomach.

She made herself comfortable on my couch and I went back into my room, closing the door behind me. I fell onto my bed and thought about everything that had just happened. It all happened so fast, it was hard to digest. She claimed to be an Angel from Heaven. Honestly, if it weren't for that shotgun, I wouldn't have second-guessed this all.

I closed my eyes and went to bed.

Angel With A Shotgun

When I woke up, I felt a soft long bundle of silk resting against the back of my head as if someone was sleeping next to me. It turned around, and to shock, saw a beautiful white face enveloped with long white hair. Sakura? I thought. Wait . . . this wasn't Sakura sleeping next to me. My heart jumped. When did this other girl come in? Did Sakura let her in? The girl's eyes opened slowly and our eyes met.

"Oh," she said. "Good morning there." Her voice was dark with a hint of masculinity.

Wait . . . it just hit me. That's not a girl . . .

Quickly I jumped out of bed with a scream, dragging the covers with me. "W—what are you doing here?" I yelled. "Who are you?"

The man sat up with a stretch and a yawn like it was conventional of him to be sleeping in bed with me. When he looked at me, something about him threw me off: his eyes. His eyes were shaded, almost as if fading—his pupils could hardly be seen.

"Calm down, kid," he said.

"Okay," I started, "I don't wake up every day with a man sleeping next to me in my bed and you expect me to calm down? What is this?" Quickly I got up and opened my door, dashing to the living room to where Sakura was. When I turned a corner, I was met face-to-face with a big furry four legged creature that looked like it was some sort mixed Lion and Tiger. The fur was golden yellow, it's teeth had fangs like a sabortooth, and it stood on its four legs taller than me. It roared and I screamed in fear.

"So this is my breakfast, huh?" It said. Its voice was deep.

"It talks?" I screamed. I ran face first into a giant cat in my room and the first thing I say was It talks. Yeah, great choice of priorities, I know. It lunged at me with its fangs open. I dodged to the side and ran into my living room and behind my couch. It chased me. As if being shot by a shotgun wasn't bad enough, I was now being chased by a who-knows-what who who-knows-how got into my house.

I jumped over my couch as it tried pouncing on me again and fell onto the floor on the other side. Before I was able to get back up and run, it—with amazing speed—pounced on me and pinned me down—one paw almost as big as my chest holding me down. It's teeth opened with drool dropping down. I'm dead, I thought. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead . . . I closed my eyes as it got closer to eating my face and waited for the blow.

"Kero-chan, stop it!" I heard a soft familiar voice say. It was Sakura. I opened my eyes and the beast got off of me. I scrambled my back against a wall and slowly pushed myself up. I looked over to my kitchen and Sakura was there . . . cooking.

Then the guy who slept with me came out to the living room as well. "You didn't have to scare him like that, Kero-san," he said.

"But I was hungry," the big cat, Kero, said.

"You don't even eat," the man with the white hair replied.

"Don't worry you two," said Sakura from the kitchen. "Breakfast will be right up."

"Y—you're cooking in my kitchen?" I exclaimed.

Sakura looked at me with a nasty leer and said, "Good morning to you too, Syaoran-kun."

Suddenly, the big cat, Kero, started to shrink. It shrunk, and shrunk until it was about the size of my hand, maybe a little bigger. It had cute bear-like ears and two angel-like wings. It looked like a small teddy bear with wings, really.

"This kid's not to respect," it said. But this time its voice was small and tiny like a talking mouse.

"No respect!" I retorted. "Okay, you can't just break into my house—err however you got in—and try to kill me as a wake-up call!" I turned to the guy, "And you—"

"Yue," he said.

"—you can't just come into my bed and sleep with me! Who are you guys anyway?"

"Don't tell him!" called Sakura from the kitchen. "He didn't believe me, he won't believe you."

I turned back and forth. They couldn't be serious. "Angels? Really?"

"Yeah, a big talking beast tries to kill you and you still don't believe. Quite dense aren't you?" said Kero.

"Okay," I started, "you don't even look like an Angel!"

Before I could event take another breath, Kero turned back into his bigger form in a blink of an eye and came at me, pushing me up against the wall even more. "Say that again!" He roared.

"Now calm down, Kero-san," said Yue. After that, Kero turned back into his more less frightening form. "What about this," said Yue. Slowly bright white wings, like a bird, began to spread from his back. They glowed bright, like they had some sort of neon lights in them. I couldn't believe my eyes . . . they were the wings of an Angel. Yeah, I know, being shot by a shotgun, and almost eaten by a giant cat, and a wingspread is what caught my attention the most.

I fell to my knees. "I'm dreaming . . . this all happened to fast, I have to be dreaming."

"This kid's dense," Kero squeaked.

Yue brought his wings back in and it was like he never had them. "Kero and I," he started, "are Angels. And to answer your question of why we're here, it is to assist Sakura-chan on her mission back to Heaven."

I took a long moment to gather my thoughts. I was awake; for sure I was awake. As much as I wanted to believe this was a dream, it wasn't. So I had to just accept things . . . I just had to.

"Okay, fine," I said. "Go do it then. Bring her back to Heaven. Just leave and let me be and get out of my house then." Regardless of if they were really Angels or not, I wanted no part in this mission of theirs.

"Actually, Syaoran-kun," said Yue. "We were actually seeking your assistant—"

"I don't need help!" Yelled Sakura from across the room.

Yue turned to her slowly and said, "We are not going to be able to help you as much, Sakura-chan, and you can't do things by yourself. You'll need a pure soul to help you or else you'll never get back."

"But—"

"I'm sorry to say," Kero started, "But Yue is right."

I looked back and forwards at them. Me? A pure soul? What are they talking about?

"How . . . do you guys know that I'm . . . pure?" I asked.

Before I was able to even react, Sakura suddenly appeared in front of my with amazing speed. I felt something pushed up against my abs and when I looked down, saw her holding the shotgun to me. Wait . . . I thought. The next thing I heard was a loud boom, and again, I was in pain. I screamed, dropped to my knees, and collapsed to the floor. My eyes closed.

When I woke up, I was on my side, still in the same spot I fell. My stomach didn't hurt as much as before and I was able to breathe easily. I saw Sakura and the other two standing over me; Kero laughing and Yue gesturing to Sakura that she shouldn't have done that to me. Immediately I got up with rage and pointed a finger at Sakura.

"Hey!" I yelled, "don't do that again!"

Kero, still laughing in his little petite form, said, "Wow kid! I'm surprised you were only out for a few minutes!"

I was dumbfounded. "W—what? Only a few minutes?" The last time I got shot, it was at least a couple hours.

Sakura sighed heavily and continued back to the kitchen.

"You see, the shotgun that Sakura-chan has will only kill demons and evil inside a person," said Yue. "So for you to recover this fast and not feel as much pain from it just shows that you are pure, kind-hearted, and good. For example, you could've just let Sakura lay in front of your house, but you brought her in instead."

"And after you brought her in," began Kero, "you could've done some nasty stuff to her—" Before he finished, Sakura had blasted him with her shotgun, throwing Kero across the room and into my wall.

"That's enough, Kero-chan!" she yelled.

In a couple seconds, Kero recovered and flew towards her with rage. "Do that again!" Kero belched. "I guarantee you that you won't be able to come ba—"

"Kero-san, that's enough," said Yue. Kero and Sakura gave mad glares at one another before Sakura went back to the kitchen.

I took a long sigh myself. They weren't going to leave me alone. Apparently they needed me, like no one else around the block could help them; and apparently I'm just the nicest and most pure person on the planet. When I thought about whether I was or not, I tried thinking about the last bad thing I did.

I couldn't. I mean, I'm sure I've done some not good things in my life, but I don't think I'd ever recall them being bad. I've stolen a couple candies from people here and there when I was younger—wasn't that counted as something bad? How come it wasn't? I looked at Yue, who stared at me with beautiful eyes. I could almost think that he was girl, but I didn't. I then looked over at Kero, who was flying over to Sakura at the kitchen. If I didn't help, I'm sure he would've bitten my head off. Then I took a nice long stare at Sakura. She was beautiful, but she's an Angel that apparently needs to get back home. Maybe this is why I don't have a girlfriend, I'm too nice.

Taking a deep breath, I hoped that I wouldn't regret this decision. "Okay," I started, "fine. How do we do this?"

But the question that struck me the most was: If she's really an Angel, then why can't she just go back to Heaven? That's where Angels live . . .

Right?