Okay so this is kind of a re-write. I know what you're thinking, this is chapter 1, but it's not. This is actually a re-working of a story I have up called Angels for Recall. If you're coming from angels, while this chapter has an added section, you don't need to read it because it was summarized in angels. Feel free to jump to Chapter 4 (when I write it...) to just pick up where you left off. Basically, what I'm doing here is that I feel this story started off poorly. It was off topic and, while I thought it was a good idea at the time, I kind of started to regret the way I chose to write it. So, now, I've made some adjustments and am now re-doing the start of the story. So, here is Angels for Recall take two, now called Angels VS Demons.

Some notes, this story is not religious, but it is. You don't have to me religious to read it, but the characters kind of are. I mean, they're angels...working for God...they're bound to know their leaders' words. It's based off of Christian faith, but really that stuff does not come up too often so any atheist/Muslim/nudist/etc. readers should be fine.

HUMAN NAMES KEY
Country - Human Name
Japan - Kiku Honda
America - Alfred F. Jones (F for freedom! Faith here because he's an angel and that's cute.)
Hong Kong - Li Xiao / Leon
Russia - Ivan Braginski
England - Arthur Kirkland
Taiwan - Mei (Xiao? Wang? Something Else?)

Kiku was a bit amazed at his ability to fool people. Angels flew on past him without a word as he sat, very, very nervously, outside the Hall of Angels. His staid expression and polite motionlessness seemed to deter anyone from thinking anything of him. Anyone except someone who'd known him nearly his whole life.

"What's up?"

It was his brother who finally spoke to him, the youngest of the family, Li Xiao. He'd grown to just prefer Li, or Leon by his white friends who otherwise botched the pronunciation, and stood now outside the hall, shifting through letters in his satchel. His side job as an angelic messenger gave him a little extra money, and something to talk about when his favorite sister, Mei, asked for an update on town gossip. Perhaps tonight, Kiku would be the center of that gossip.

"Recall," the older of the two replied, gesturing to his shirt, where in which his usual emblem was replaced with a red, flashing "R".

"Yikes. Should you be worried?" Li was also talented in fooling people. The slight, ever so slight minutia of his raised brow showed Kiku that he truly did care, whereas every other facet of his face screamed in painful boredom.

"No," Kiku lied, "it will likely be fine." He thought back to the last time he'd been on call for a mission; it was just the day prior.

Kiku recalled being dressed in his usual, all white with dustings of gold or red, as he took a quiet walk about the streets. The tranquil man observed the buildings and people as he trotted by, accepting his slow pace to just enjoy the breeze in his hair and smell of flowers on the wind. Quiet until someone grabbed him by the back side. The man jumped, let out a yelp, and just as he spun around to see who the offender was, he realized there was none. What he'd felt was just his communicator suddenly vibrating. He pulled the device from his pocket and eyed the screen.

"ANGEL OF PRIDE NEEDED" it read, "AMHURST, SOUTH CAROLINA, USA. WOULD YOU LIKE TO CLAIM?" He eyed the device before nodding to himself and pressing the button indicating yes. The prompt screen faded away to a map. All other Angels of Pride, now that Kiku had claimed it, no longer had the chance to accept the mission. Too many angels in one place could get messy. He changed the path and pace of his walk, taking a quick left as he eyed the communicator. On the screen, a white dot represented him, bustling about above the clouds, and a green triangle represented his patient. In this instance, there were two green triangles, not too far from where the clouds happened to be floating. He pulled another right, his destination quickly coming into sight - drop off. A sharp end to the cluster of clouds the man and about a thousand other angels called home, leading to the atmospheric clouds of the earth. Kiku walked right off the edge and felt the wind begin to whip up his shirt and pants, sending pleasant chills through his body as his home grew quickly more and more distant. Kiku extended his wings from the holes in the back of his shirt and with two gusty flaps, he'd caught enough wind to carry himself to the green triangles. Judging by the green, grassy field, array of lawn chairs, and blowing of whistles, and language being spoken, Kiku had flown to a football, or rather, soccer game in South Carolina.

Kiku's target sat on an uncomfortable looking set of metal bleachers seeming disinterested, and didn't notice the invisible and weightless angel take a seat next to her. His other target, according to to the communicator's map, was sprinting about on the field. He slowly figured out which one she was, a little girl about eight of age with long, brown hair pulled into a tight ponytail and capped with a headband. She had on a purple jersey with the number "08" on the back and "LAURA" written across the top in bold. Laura, panting and sweaty, scooted down the field, knocking the ball back and forth between herself and another girl in purple before she kicked it, launching it past the goalie and into the net. With the final whistle blow, the purple team's members all screamed and cheered, running into a huddle of joy - all except Laura. She stayed behind on the field, eyeing the goalie.

"Hannah?" Laura asked her, "are you okay?"

"Yea," this Hannah responded, "You win some, you lose some." Tears welled in Hannah's eyes. "I'll get you back next year."

"So, we really did end your season?" Laura cooed back, sadly. Laura nodded, before dusting herself off, and sniffling.

"It's okay," she commented, before jogging off to the benches were an angry coach was yelling at her equally depressed team members. Laura eyed the ground somberly. Kiku's second target stood from the bleachers as stomped down them.

"L, come on, let's go already!" the woman remarked at presumably her daughter. This was when it clicked into place to Kiku as to why he was needed. Evidently, Laura's best friend, Hannah, played for the other team, and was crushed at having lost. Seeing her friend like this sucked Laura's victor from her and replaced it with guilt. Laura's mother, on the other hand, was generally disinterested the entire time the game was being played and failed to see what the point of sports was, therefore disabling her from comforting her child.

Kiku pulled a double-ended arrow and a wooden bow, the iconic weapon of choice for an angel, from thin air. He glanced at the dial on his bow and turned it down from nine to level three point four. Not so much energy was needed for just this tiny mission. Once that was done, the man stood tall and took aim. Upon release, the arrow-head split in two, one side going into Laura's shoulder, the other into Karmin's temple. Both girls absorbed the angelic power from Kiku's arrows of pride, and suddenly their reactions changed.

"MOM! I did it! I finally won a game!"

"Yes, that's amazing princess, I am so proud of you!" the mother cried, scoping the girl up and spinning her around. Kiku smiled feeling his job done; Laura was proud of herself, and Mom was proud of her daughter. He nearly flapped away, but paused when he heard the next line.

"You see THAT Diana?! My little girl WON! And what did yours do but warm the bench?" the mother laughed loudly in the other mother's face, and set her daughter down, who promptly ran away to help Hannah off the bleacher. Hannah stood, dusted herself off, and looked at her shoes blinking back tears.

"What Hannah? Gonna cry? It's okay, maybe next time you'll be half as good as me," the girl mocked, sniggering. Kiku then took flight and set a marker on the area, calling for an Angel of Compassion or Empathy to come and fix the situation. Surely his dosage wasn't too high. They seemed to react just as he'd wanted them to initially. The man flew faster, hoping to God someone would swoop in and save the day before Karmin or Laura said something more they'd regret.

The following morning, when Kiku woke, he put his shirt on in the mirror, and stood there waiting for it to register who he was, and display his glowing emblem of pride. The emblem was the only thing an angel had signaling to other angles who they were. They had wings, but so did mythical creatures. Some had halos, but Kiku was not yet old enough to attain his, and still had about another 300 years to wait till he entered seniority and could earn one. The emblem was a tiny symbol, programmed to show up on the breast of every clothing item the angels could wear that connected to their hearts and shined with its true intent. Kiku's heart told him from the day he was born that there was nothing wrong with being proud of yourself, and it was destined to be the thing he ended up helping humans with as an Angel of Pride. He awaited the shirt's beep, indicating a finishing in calibration. The shirt instead beeped, and flashed an 'R' - the R of recall. He knew it meant he was being summed to the Hall of Magic to get a new role as an angel. It was a somewhat common occurrence after all; angels changed personalities all the time. Just, considering the circumstances, Mr. Honda was more than a little scared the Angels of Magic would send him to Hall of Discipline where he would have to deal with the Angels of Angels for his blunder with Laura. Nothing goes unchecked when an angel does more harm than good.

"I'm not worried in the slightest," He affirmed, mostly to himself, but his brother replied.

"Well then get a move on," he said, pointing to a sign flashing green, indicating it was Kiku's turn to go in. He stood, bowed to Li, and moved for the door. It was wooden with iron details and stretched about seven feet high, so heaving a bit as he pushed it, Kiku entered a landmark for the angelic community. The Hall of Magic greeted his with by a grand room complete with books lining every inch of the five story high walls, tables slew about with bottles, jars, potions, open books, and sprawled in journals. In the doorway stood a chipper man in a white cartigain, light green shirt buttoned underneath, and matching white jeans. He smiled upon spotting his next guest.

"Kiku!" greeted an old friend.

"Good morning Arthur-san." He bowed to the man. Arthur made reference to Li, by waving at him over Kiku's shoulder and shouting a "Good day, Leon" as the door shut.

"Here for recall I see?" Arthur asked, already at his station. He worked at a wooden table piled on the left with various books pulled from the endlessly tall shelves. To his right he had a display with test tubes, bottles, spoons, and everything he'd need for any of his elixirs. He reached underneath the table and grabbed a glass bowl from a rack and began working immediately, quickly mixing potions and powders in the bowl before him as Kiku took to a seat across from Arthur's work-space. Arthur quickly formed a concoction, and walked around his table to be closer to Kiku. He dipped a hand in the potion and murmured something in a distant language, before splashing the liquid on Kiku. It dried rather quickly, and the 'R' on the Japanese man's shirt flashed away into an emblem, then another, and another. The flashing emblems continued until the spot on his chest went black. The two men stared at it in anticipation for Kiku's new role.

It remained black.

"How long is this supposed to take, Arthur-san?"

"Not this long," the Brit stated, making his way back around the table and grabbing a fresh bowl. He combined materials in it again, and again threw the mess onto his friend. The motion of the emblems and then blackness repeated itself.

"Arthur-san "

"Kiku, stand for a second," Arthur said, pulling rolling, divider walls out from the sides of the room. He shielded the other man on both sides as he stood. "May I see your wingspan?" Kiku did as he was told, forced his wings out of his back, and spread them within the confines of the two "walls". Arthur waved, and Kiku retracted his wings into his back, confused and concerned, as the Englishman made his way around the table again.

"Arthur-san what is the matter?" He ignored the questioned and shuffled through boxes and drawers under his work station. Finally, he pulled out a small pill bottle seeming to be satisfied, and ran all too close to Kiku, hiding the both of them in the dividers' privacy.

"Kiku, take one of these every four hours ON THE HOUR. It is imperative that you are not even a second late," he assertively whispered, pushing the bottle towards his friend. "Take one now." Mr. Honda took a step back, to re-affirm the small bit of personal space he liked to have, and downed one of the pills with the aid of some water. It burned his chest for a moment, but the black circle on his chest faded into the emblem of pride, which greatly pleased both parties.

"Arthur-san, why-"

"I'll come to your place and explain later," Arthur whispered, pushing the dividers away. He looked cautiously around the room and when he found none of the other angels paying him too much mind, he leaned into Kiku's ear, much to the other man's displeasure, and whispered "don't tell anyone about this. Don't let anyone see you with these. And remember, every. Four. Hours. Alright?" He pulled away and barely gave the other man time to nod before he ushered him out of the hall.

"Have a lovely day, Kiku," Arthur cried, "and maybe stay indoors," the man added a bit more quietly. He closed the hall doors, and the light on the side went then from red to green, indicating availability. A young, blonde angel stood, and urged one she had come with, an older man looking very similar to her save a ribbon in not in his hair, into the hall. Kiku looked at his chest, ran a hand over the pills contained in his pocket, and began his walk home, happy no one could see just how much more panicked and scared he was.

Arthur had said to take the medication every four hours exactly. But at what time did Kiku first take the pill was the question. It was probably around 11:30 a.m., he'd concluded, but at what minute? What second? Would taking the pill early lead to overdose? What where these pills anyways?

The man sighed and set down his spatula. The crackle of oil filled the room as he glanced up at the time, 3:02 p.m., and then back at his chest. The pride emblem was still there.

"DUUDE?! YOU HOME?!" Well, so much for solitude.

"Yes, I'm in the kitchen, Alfred-san." Kiku mentally sighed as he heard Alfred's feet thump on his floor, growing ever closer. Why did the man always feel he could just barge in anytime he wanted? At least he took his shoes off without being asked.

"Kiku! What's up man?"

"Nothing much, Alfred-san. I assume something happened with you?" He turned his attention back to the fish in his pan, and Alfred walked up to the counters nearest Kiku, leaning on them, and speaking several levels too loudly.

"I got an underling! She's an angel, maybe only like 70 years old (which would have made her appear to be about 12 or 13) who just got assigned to the same role as me; this cute little thing named Jane! Dude, like, my teaching skills were top notch, and Ivan barely got a word in."

"You're partnered with Ivan-san again?"

"YES! Can't the council see no one likes him?! Especially not me!" Kiku couldn't argue with that; Ivan was not his favorite person either. His elder brother, Yao, seemed quite fond of the man, and Kiku had is suspicions about their relationship being more than just friendship, but other than that he'd rarely met anyone who whole heartedly liked him but his sisters. Alfred tended to just be too blunt about it, provoke his common partner, and get them both into trouble by causing fights.

"He's good at what he does, and that's rude Alfred-san."

"Yea yea, okay, dad, I'll be good," Alfred teased, clapping Kiku on the back a fair bit too hard. He stumbled forward into the stove and nearly set his clothes on fire. That was another thing about Alfred, he seemed to never know his own strength. Kiku stepped back, patting the dangerously hot spot on his garments a fair bit frazzled. Alfred failed to notice.

"Yo, we should watch more Clannad!" Kiku let out another mental sigh at this notion. Alfred was horribly clingy and loud when the duo watched horror movies, often forcing Kiku to stay up all night with him out of fear, or trapping him in an unbreakable bear-hug, but the blonde was honestly worse with dramas. Clannad, as sad and unmerciful a show as it was, would no doubt leave Alfred in a pool of tears, especially considering the next episode's content. He flipped his fish off the pan, on top of a plate of rice and clicked off the stove.

"Alfred-san, I don't know if-"before he had a chance to finish, he was dragged out of the kitchen by the hand, sat on the couch, and the intro song was already playing. The Asian man settled into his couch and smiled lightly, having expected nothing less. This was Alfred after all. He glanced at a clock on the wall adjacent them, made note of the time, and made note of his emblem, still glowing. Kiku had had the drapes drawn in his living room, making it fairly dark when coupled with the lights being clicked off. The glow of the T.V. enveloped the two and Kiku waited as the episode drew on. It was mostly silent, both emerged in the tale, until the "Clannad song" started to play. It was a clear indication of the most devastating moment of the episode, and by this point, Alfred was already curled up into a ball on the couch, leaning onto Kiku, destroying a pillow, and blinking back stubborn tears.

"Dude " he murmured.

"Dude, no." It was a little louder.

"No. NO. OH MY GOD, DUDE, NO!" And thus began the hysterics. Alfred ditched the pillow he'd taken refuge on, and wrapped both arms around Kiku in a grip just short of the light of death. He sobbed openly, and screamed fragmented sentences of objection towards the screen.

"Alfred-san, if you could please sto-" Kiku began, but his breath was cut off by the tightening grip. He felt his heart begin to panic.

"Alfred-san," a significant blush took the man's cheeks and he wished he'd had a better way of showing how overwhelmed he was. He attempted to push himself out and free, but Alfred only pulled on tighter when the character on the screen started crying too. "Alfred-san, please don't hold onto me like this, I can't breathe." It came out very strained with what little air Kiku could manage, but Alfred seemed yet again not to notice. Kiku, now feeling as if screaming, but actually only speaking a little loudly, was clawing at or rather gently slapping Alfred in his attempt to escape. He wanted to laugh, or do the Kiku equivalent of a laugh, at how ridiculous Alfred looked. He wanted to sneakily rub it in his friend's face that he was overreacting, just as Kiku had hypothesized he would. It's just, these things were hard to do when you were in the middle of being strangled. His chest began to burn as he half laughed, half choked. "Alfre-"

This man has absolutely no grasp of human decency. Around his family, Kiku's radius of personal space fell ever smaller, to the point of allowing Yao and Mei to touch him as they pleased with little to no objection. When with friends, each person had their specific bubble, and Alfred always seemed to attack his delicate boundaries of comfort and social acceptability with a chainsaw. Kiku had given him plenty of leeway because of his nature; allowing high fives, pats on the back, the occasional hug, even a bit of clinginess when Alfred was caught in his emotions, but that was a BIT of clinginess. This was ludicrous. He had no respect, no consideration, no understanding of personal space, and fell deaf every time Kiku tried to politely tell him to stop. It was so very irritating! The man knew he deserved to be respected, and obeyed, be it about matters of his own body or anything else; he was a Honda, elder considered and highly ranked angel - no one was going to suggest otherwise.

"Alfred-san," he snapped, "Don't. Touch. Me." Venom dripped from his voice as he spoke, and his tone certainly caught Alfred's attention that time. He pulled away, raising his hands in a sign of surrender. Kiku pulled away himself, wide eyed, or as wide-eyed as his emotionlessness would allow, stunned by his own outburst. Surely he had more self-restraint than that. It wasn't such a big deal Alfred was all over me. Life threatening, disobedient, and annoying ,yes, absolutely Kiku shook his head lightly but not that big a deal. Kiku could hardly see Alfred in the dim room, but he could make out the other man, no, his friend's, hurt and shocked expression.

"I," Kiku stood, turned towards Alfred and bowed near 90 degrees, "I apologize Alfred-san, I don't know what came over me." Flustered, he made his way out of the living room and into the hall and sped-walked to his restroom.

It's a pretty quick start to the story but considering my restart, I wanted to give y'all a lot to work with. THIS STORY WILL BE UPDATED TOMORROW SO PLEASE REVIEW! Let me know if the angelic world is confusing, because in my original start, I spent about two chapters explaining it. If this isn't confusing, then I'll keep it up.

Now, I don't want to super, super reveal what just happened, but if you have a theory feel free to let us know in the reviews. I'm trying to go for a situation whereas if you ever re-read this, it would make much more sense because you know what the outcome is going to be you feel? But also, I don't think I was subtle with that at all so maybe you've already got this thing figured out.

Finally, I tried to make Kiku's relationship with Alfred a little...idk interesting? Like I know Kiku is really proper and polite but I love to imagine he's a fair bit sassier in his head. Also, Alfred's attitude could easily annoy anyone, so from time to time even Kiku must get sick of him, but I'm hoping he also loves what's annoying about him. Did that come through okay, or was it too contradictory and confusing (minus Kiku's outburst, of course)?