A/N: I made some fast corrections in structure when I uploaded this story into another site, so I hope it sounds a lot better this time around.

-Lucicelo

Chapter 1: The Being Under the Tree..

Hiroki dipped his hands into the creek and rubbed them together. The clear water of the river slowly turned crimson. Lingering for a moment until the current washed it away in a diluted stream. He inspected them, a good portion left his hands but the residue of centuries of slaughter was painted on his fingers.

He learned at a young age that he was never completely safe. His guard never went down, his instincts always located a wayward demon miles from him or even closer to him. It was all about asserting dominance and strength. The unfortunate weak ones would either die painfully or get jeered for all eternity for being an inadequate fighter.

Unless the demon defeated someone, they regained their broken honor and pride. Their honor got higher when it was the original demon that defeated them. In the end, nobody cared for technicalities; they desired an action packed rumble where one or both fighters died.

It got boring after torturing what seemed to be an endless supply of human souls. They were weak and powerless when alive. In death, they were placed in plain sight for the dark creatures' enjoyment. The souls were basically practice dummies for the young children, the older ones tested their skills on them before challenging another.

It was mostly the ones that managed surviving after so many years. No life was guaranteed for long periods of time.

Hiroki used one of his hands to push back his hair. His fingers bumped into the horns that protruded out of his cranium. His amber eyes were hidden under his eyelids, a black hue surrounded them which flared out in the corners. His light brown hair stuck up in layers which failed in hiding his elfin-like ears. He wore a black tank top and dark tight pants that clung to his body but was still comfortable. His boots flattened the grass underneath him while his tail curled over his right leg.

He cupped his hands together and gathered some water to drink. Hiroki opened his eyes as he stared at them. He inspected if he managed on cleaning the blood from his hands. No matter how many times he killed, he hated the smell lingering on him. He had enough of that down in hell; he lacked the desire for it on Earth.

Hiroki gulped down the water, and then he shook his hands to get rid of the excess. His blackened nails were cleaned enough so Hiroki was satisfied on their state.

Staring up at the sun's location, he guessed it was about mid-day.

At that time, humans would be wandering around the forest, foraging for food. Hiroki couldn't sense any of them around. Hiroki assumed that the surge of disease was the cause. A large shipment of souls had arrived, overcrowding the initial purgatory layer and the older souls went rueful because of it.

He was in dire need of a break away from all of the chaos. On Earth, the peace was short-lived at times but Hiroki knew that the forests were calmer than human inhabited areas. Legends surfaced constantly about evil spirits overtaking people so no one wandered around alone. The fear took over their logical sense, superstitions were fact whether it made no sense or not.

This astounded him, Hiroki had faced scarier beings and he had managed on disabling or killing them. He was a high end demon; he would be a laughingstock if he was injured by weaklings. His closest friends, well allies he had, were held up to high standard. Of course he worked harder to be as powerful as them; he sometimes surprised them on several occasions. He took pride in being viewed as ferocious demon, which was a compliment among their kind.

It was better to be well-known than to be labeled a loser.

Hiroki stood up from his crouching position and rubbed his hands on his shirt. One of his dark claw nails got caught in his shirt he growled and pulled it out. His nails were useful in battle yet they got stuck on one random piece of string.

A twig snapped out of nowhere, it broke the serene atmosphere. Hiroki's senses rose as his hands glowed a purple color and he turned around. He scouted the surrounding area, a bush on his right started shuffling. Gathering energy, he blasted the foliage and a terrified deer ran off in an opposite direction. He arched a brow; he managed on mistaking an animal for something dangerous.

He swore under his breath for his mistake. His senses were overloaded from keeping his guard up that he was mentally exhausted. Any large animal could sneak an attack at any moment from a long distance and he wouldn't have a head start. He had to pay closer attention and used his sharp hearing than lower his powers.

He was sleepy, he had to admit.

Hiroki rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand then pinched himself. Perked up by the pain, he scoured around the forest. His stomach growled, he was craving human souls. Endless amounts of human souls wandered the Earth; they were easy pickings, no trouble at all.

As of late, he began eating human food. Many of them were horrid and disgusting, one stuck out to him which was watermelon. He had traveled through the many doors into hell and found many undisturbed watermelon patches. Those tasted the sweetest and he sat for hours at a time eating them. The fruit was a great compliment during the summer months or even as he sat in his room at his house.

Hiroki followed the streams current toward a larger body of water. The vegetation grew more prominent near the river banks. They were mostly berries and Hiroki wanted to try some. He spat out any horrible human food. He had not found a food that could possibly kill a demon. Emphasis on yet.

He heard the usual bird chirping in random sections of the trees. None acted up due to his upcoming presence. He posed no threat and he wouldn't disrupt the calmness of the forest for cheap entertainment.

A distinctive noise reached his ears, it was humming.

So low that human hearing wouldn't have heard it from the distance. Underneath nature's song, the underlying tones were happiness and content. Hiroki's curiosity peaked. He pinpointed the location which was overhead toward the lake he was headed to. The humming went lower each passing second.

At the clearing, thought that the light was becoming too luminous for his liking. His eyes began watering but he kept going on forward.

Nowaki relaxed his hand as a bird perched itself on top of his palm. He smiled gently as he petted the bird's head with his right index finger. He lay back against the cherry blossom tree and made himself comfortable in between two thick roots from the tree. The flowers were in full bloom, the pink hues scattered in small individual flowers whose petals fell onto the ground when the wind hit them.

On the way down, they went through Nowaki's transparent halo. They traveled down and intertwined in his dark locks. He loved the aroma from the flowers that bloomed all around him as well as the crisp scent of the morning mist dissipating into thin air. The colors were scattered everywhere he stared and brought everything to life.

He crossed his legs over each other as his toes were tickled by the grass. The bird flew out of his hand when he pushed his hand up without force. It settled on a small branch that wasn't far from Nowaki.

Nowaki fixed his white toga low enough to cover him mid-thigh, it rode up when he sat down earlier. His sandal strings were tied together and lay right next to him in a small patch of yellow flowers. He removed the golden cuffs from his upper arm; they were pretty but slowed down the blood flow to his arm ever since he had another growth spurt. He kept growing taller and he needed new clothes whenever it happened.

He chose keeping the current ones he had, sure they were short but no one complained when they saw him. There was no embarrassment if he showed some skin; the body was a beautiful thing. There was nothing to be ashamed about.

Though it was preferable to be clothed, many angels walked around in the nude. Before clothing was made to cover the body, they wouldn't worry about being exposed to anyone. Fashions went in and out, one moment everyone was all covered up, the next, they would be wearing almost nothing.

Nowaki wore his toga long enough so that his loincloth wasn't shown. This was along the spring and summer months when the weather wasn't harsh. In winter and fall, he wore very long robes or togas that reached down to his feet.

His weapon was a sword he took for safety measures, his hands were healing tools but he could reverse the effects to damage someone.

Nowaki closed his cobalt blue eyes and hummed a happy song. The time was perfect for it and the young trainees were being entertained by newly appointed angel Misaki Takahashi. How Misaki treated the children was similar to how Nowaki cared for them. They loved the young man and Nowaki took the chance for his new found adventures down on Earth.

Misaki's older brother, Takahiro, had mentored the young one and found him suitable to become an angel. The higher superiors agreed with him and Nowaki smiled when Misaki was touching his pristine white wings with his fingers in excitement.

Every appointed angel went through the gleeful phase in the first few hours when they got their wings. Now they were able to fly beyond the clouds in the sky that they walked on.

Before the avian wings appeared, they had a miniature version that barely lifted them up from the ground. It stamped them as angel trainees and was under the wing of the mentors who picked them when they were younger.

Memories of how he attained his wings filled his mind. His mentors were the Kusama's, Yuki and Ichirou; they were the ones that took care of the newborn angels in the heaven's sector of Japan. Before Nowaki got his wings, he helped them up until the point when they told him that his abilities were meant for something more than guarding.

Their prediction came true when the heavenly glow surrounded Nowaki's hands and the elders accessed that he had healing abilities. He was one of the many angels that went down to Earth to heal the sick but they disguised themselves as healers or doctors. They were taught to limit their powers; they had to understand that not every human would survived the many diseases that circled around them.

It was their call who lived and died. The more they healed, the faster their juice would run out. Every angel was different in their limits and knew exceeding them had consequences if they were young enough when it happened.

Nowaki usually saved the lives of children, he would rather have them experience life since cutting it short so young was cruel to him. He even visited them a few times in their youth before they saw the inconsistencies on his age. Usually in the disguise of a wandering man depending on the style of clothing in the era the humans were in.

They were comfortable around him and he often got children that could see the halo over his head that he hid. Children saw many things that their parents brushed aside as their imagination. This ability faltered as they grew older.

He knew this happened all the time, they were taught that everything they thought was true was false. It couldn't be helped, eventually Nowaki went into wandering into new people to cure and the cycle of heart ache of the people growing up only to forget about him continued.

He frequently saw angels he knew from heaven guarding the humans they were assigned to. The interactions the human's made were partial on the guardian angel's preference. There were some angels that they didn't like so the humans would never talk to each other. But they were meant to lead them in the right direction, possessing them wasn't in the job description.

Nowaki heard of angels being lead off into darkness, the transformation was different for each one. One thing was common in all of them, the obvious lack of a halo and the wings turning dark grey or the feathers fell off. The stories never mentioned what was the reason yet he assumed it had to be the worst.

His humming was consistent in the tone. He switched to another one and the lyrics came into his mind. More birds flew to that tree and their natural chirping complimented the song as Nowaki swayed side by side.

The humming slowed down as Nowaki knew he was falling asleep. He didn't mind snoozing some of the day away, either he would wake up or maybe a cute forest animal would nudge him. His defenses went down as he tried getting sleep but trying to get to sleep wasn't simple. Nowaki's mind still thought of many things which kept him awake, he settled on hearing his surroundings.

Hiroki passed through the brush and made it to the hidden lake. Hiroki saw how untouched the nature was at this lake. That meant no humans had encountered this place, there was a mystifying aura that surrounded the area. It reached a good mile in each direction of the lake, which was large and vast, connected to a waterfall that came down the side of a mountain. There were many mountains that connected onto the one with the waterfall.

Blackberry bushes took over a good portion of the lake as Hiroki made a mental note that he would eat them later. Gather a handful before he left back home and made his judgment on them. There were no watermelon bundles from what he could tell.

He felt as if he could lounge around whenever he wanted and this was a distance away from one of hell's gates. No demon would find him here when it was assumed he was constantly blasting down souls and fighting others to be in such a peaceful place.

It was a guarded place besides his home that he could enjoy.

Squirrels ran past him into the trees, a mother deer and her foal drank the water from the lake, a lot of animals were scurrying away from him. A few braved it out and sniffed him before going on their own business. Hiroki didn't mind animals being in proximity of him through he'd rather be alone.

In his vision, he saw a giant tree that stood out from the rest of the trees behind it. It was close to the water but didn't seem like it would collapse because of the water softening the soil. The tree was firmly rooted to the ground, flower petals were in piles around the tree.

"Wow." Hiroki said as he walked closer to it and touched the bark of the tree. "I usually see thin blossom trees when I wander around here. It must be very old or something..." He looked up and the tree stretched out creating an umbrella effect.

The petals fell down onto him as he brushed them away, he stared in amazement. "Well I found my designated spot; anyone else that comes here cannot take my place."

His ears picked up light breathing coming from the other side of the tree. He wasn't about to let some animal take his place even if he made the decision not too long ago.

Hiroki stalked to the other side, ready to strike and saw Nowaki sleeping peacefully against the tree. He didn't expect a person to be in the furthest part of the forest for a nap, not that he hadn't seen this in his travels. Life's pressures sure got to a person and they needed their own space.

Hiroki crouched down and inspected Nowaki, thinking he was a human the whole time. That was until he saw the halo on top of his head and an outline of wings on his back. The pure white aura surrounded Nowaki's entire body, had Hiroki not investigated Nowaki right then he wouldn't have known.

His eyebrows furrowed as he stared at his face and scoffed. "This guy must either be brave to sleep outside of heaven or he is a moron."

Nowaki kept snoozing away as Hiroki poked him in the face. He knew his nails were sharp but he didn't out enough pressure for a cut. Hiroki rolled his eyes at the lack of response against him; he already concluded that this angel was not worth his time. He had to be weak not to have gotten the sense of darkness coming out of him.

Any certified angel had this ability.

Nowaki probably didn't have it and Hiroki knew that instigating a fight with this guy won't make him look good. No one would know but his pride would be hurt that the basis on his win was because his opponent was weak.

Hiroki stood up and a small bag in his pocket fell toward the ground. An amber colored jewel that was identical to the one on his weapon that he left at home was inside.

He gave Nowaki another stare down as he mumbled. "Well...you are sort of handsome…don't get killed angel boy..."

Hiroki walked away from the large tree, he maneuvered swiftly through the lake and into the pathway he first came from. He forgot about the lack of weight in his pocket as he ventured on forward.

Nowaki opened an eye and stared at his retreating form in amusement. He was awake the whole time and wasn't afraid that he would hurt him; his curiosity overruled anything else he might have felt. His mentors always said that a demon never got near an angel unless it was to kill one.

Hiroki didn't do that to him; in fact he complimented him and moved on. Though he was supposed to be asleep the whole time, Nowaki had a feeling that if he was awake Hiroki wouldn't have opened his mouth.

When Hiroki wasn't in sight Nowaki moved his limbs around and stretched them out.

Nowaki smiled as he touched the place on his cheek where Hiroki touched. "At least I found one nice demon in my existence...hopefully there are more like him." He sighed. "But I didn't get his name...how am I supposed to meet him again without knowing that?"

He pouted as he interlaced his fingers and placed them behind his head. "I want to know what the rest of him looks like...just saying his butt is adorable isn't a good thing is it? He looked all over me to make his compliment...I should stop talking, I'm over thinking again..."

His foot brushed against cloth as Nowaki picked it up with his foot. His toe went through the strings holding it closed, he pushed back his foot and launched it to his body. He caught it with his right hand and he loosened the strings. He peeked inside and saw an almost orange brown looking jewel inside.

Nowaki clenched it in his hands as he said in excitement. "This is demon-san's bag...I'll protect it until he comes back. Though it is irresponsible of him to carry something valuable in his pockets." He stared at it in wonder. "It is pretty...maybe he's planning to make a ring out of this, it's a little too big for that so maybe not. I'll come back tomorrow early so I can hand it to him face to face then I'll ask for his name."

TBC