Since Kagami is never gonna show us OBVIOUSLY it's up to me to give us Mika's seraph form. And I'm still disappointed Kagami used the Seven Trumpets signaling the apocalypse but didn't actually match them to the catastrophes they cause. The Second Trumpet is a mountain crashing into the sea, not a fucking salt dispenser. At least Mirai's seraph has come connection to the Fifth trumpet, since she unleashes a monster from the Pit.
The JIDA had found them.
Narumi and his fellow deserters had been fleeing for nearly a month now, from both the Army and the vampires sure to want both food and their wayward young noble. But however carefully they'd covered their tracks, there were still the telltale signs left, since every few days they had to camp out and outlast Yuu's possession.
And the Army had an aerial advantage.
The day he heard the whup-whup of helicopter blades during his shift driving the dilapidated van was one of the most terrifying of his life. At first Narumi had been worried the van was breaking down, but his concerns were dashed when Kimizuki peered out of the ceiling window and swore violently.
"They're here!" The boy shouted, and Narumi's heart raced.
Narumi yanked the van into a graceless turn, swerving down a country road and bumping off to the forested land surrounding them.
"As soon as we're inside the treeline, run!" he shouted over his shoulder.
"And stick together!" Narumi added, before nearly crashing into a tree trunk and slamming the brakes. Rattled by their pursuers, Narumi fumbled with the door handle, yanking the door open hastily.
All seven of them spilled out of the car with haste, drawing weapons and anxiously looking at the sky. When Mitsuba, the last person to exit the van, joined them, Narumi took point as they ran for the cover of the forest. He could see the faint flow of green surrounding Yoichi's eyes, a sure sign he would cover for them if (when) the Imperial Demon Army found them.
Narumi spotted a particularly thick-foliaged tree, and with his adrenaline urging him to hurry hurry, before they kill this squad too, he instructed everyone to "Hide somewhere, get as much cover as you can, don't move."
They all scattered at his command, not straying far, but still concealing themselves separately. Shinoa and Mitsuba found an overhang and did their best to camouflage themselves with dead leaves and soil. The Hyakuyas took to the high ground, Mikaela's claws clinging to the bark as he hoisted Yuu up the tree.
While borrowing himself amongst the brush alongside Kimizuki, he prayed that his subordinate could contain himself. He understood Kimizuki's incandescent rage towards the Army and his desire to rescue Mirai, but taking the offensive now would get them all killed. And if Mirai was with the army, Narumi knew he had little hope of keeping Kimizuki from her.
To be fair, if the seraph was here, they'd be dead regardless.
Narumi held his breath and felt Kimizuki tense beside him, inhaling shallow and quiet. The sound of helicopters had subsided, meaning either they had been passed over, or the army had set down to scour the land on foot. Unfortunately, if the the distant crunches of bracken were any indication, it was the latter.
Narumi stilled when he caught sight of movement beyond his and Kimizuki's hiding place, the voices of their pursuers wafting in the otherwise-still air.
"What's the point of hauling around these crates of chains anyways? It's not like we're hunting an entire damn noble contingent." One voice echoed.
Another voice emerged, scoffing at her companion. "Oh, if you were in Nagoya, you'd think these were too weak to handle that thing."
The scuffling of boots on the earth ceased. "Hey, since you're not doing anything but complaining, go fetch Colonel Sangu's squad and their tracking specialist" The voice was silent for a moment, as if pondering. "I want to double-check the contents, too. If they're not strong enough we're all dead, private."
The other soldier seemed relieved to be released of his duty, tromping off to go find Sangu. Narumi's mind flitted between their options: They could make a move and incapacitate the single soldier and make a run for it, but the clamor would alert the others to their presence. Should they wait, there was the very real possibility they would be caught.
Narumi opted to stay- at least if the had to fight their way out they would eliminate all threats at once, instead of beating back a constant stream in a fighting retreat that would leave an even more obvious trail for the JIDA to follow in the future.
If Yuu did something bullheaded and foolhardy at this point Narumi would kill him again in the afterlife.
Aoi Sangu appeared in short order, trailed by a lieutenant and a number of other soldiers. The nameless soldier next to the crate saluted as Aoi approached her, promptly reporting her reasons for bringing the colonel here in muffled voices. Despite being able to decipher little, Narumi did his best to listen in and glean whatever possible from their pursuers.
Aoi's eyes darted to the tree Mikaela and Yuu were hiding after a few words from the soldier.
Shit, the white cloak!
On a sharp command from Aoi, the soldiers cracked open the crate. Narumi was lunging towards the Colonel even as the tag-wrapped chains whipped their way towards the tree. Narumi heard a howl and a shriek from the tree, chains rattling. He lunged, trident first, towards Sangu, but she avoided his heavy-handed blow with a swift sidestep, three of her underlings placing themselves between Narumi and their commander.
Over the sounds of Yuu rattling chains and the thud of bodies hitting the forest floor, Aoi stated coldly "Makoto Narumi. You and the Shinoa Squad are under arrest for charges of treason, desertion, and stealing property of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army's Seraph of the End project."
She hardly had the time to finish her statement before the crooked butte of Shinoa's scythe hooked around her ankle and yanked her off her feet. Aoi's guards, distracted by the interruption, offered no resistance to a surprise trident-shaft to the skull courtesy of Narumi.
Kimizuki, while keeping Aoi pinned to the ground with a sword point to her jugular, commanded to the group as a whole. "Someone get Yuu out of that!"
Though it rankled him to listen to the orders of a private, Narumi headed over to the struggling pair, still on the ground where they were left.
The chains nearly covered Yuu like a cocoon, thick and heavy and covered in more powerful tags than Narumi had seen in his lifetime, with large iron pegs driven into the ground to keep him there. Clearly the JIDA had spared no expense in retrieving their precious subject. Mikaela was not far from his friend, though Narumi winced when he saw why the vampire had not joined their fight. Stray prongs meant to pin Yuu to the ground had caught Mikaela rather nastily: he was pinned on his side, one spike pinning both his arms to the ground and another slotted between his ribs.
Wincing at the damage dealt, Narumi reached out and gripped the pike. He ignored the whine of blood rushing though his ears as he prepared to-
Wait.
That wasn't blood rushing in his ears.
Narumi looked up just in time to see a black metal sphere careening towards him. He only managed to think 'shit' before is slammed into him, sending him into an uncontrolled roll ten or so yards from his trapped comrades.
Narumi wheezed, the sounds of the squad vocalizing their distress fading in his ringing ears. In a herculean effort, he rolled over to face his attacker. His heart sank as Narumi recognized them.
Lieutenant Colonel Kageyama yanked on the chain that led to her weapon, the smooth morgenstern sailing effortlessly into her grip. Ignoring the struggling Yuu and Mikaela, Kageyama swung her weapon about casually and waved her other hand in greeting.
"Hey there, traitors!" She grinned. "Who's next?"
While the rest of Kageyama's squad launched themselves towards the deserters, the leader of her particular unit in of Moon Demons strode over to the still-heaving Narumi.
"Nuh-uh, you can't get up yet. You need to be alive for your trial, yeah?" She hummed, casually stepping on Narumi's wrist.
This only prompted Narumi to struggle more. Despite his injuries making him a negligible threat, maybe, just maybe he could distract Kageyama, buy the much more inexperienced Shinoa Squad some time-
His hopes were dashed when Aoi Sangu entered his field of vision.
"My thanks for the rescue, Lieutenant Colonel." Aoi said, looking just as placid as she did before.
" 'S no problem. What do you want us to do with 'em?" Kageyama inquired.
Aoi stated "Secure the deserters and subject for transport." She glanced over to the two struggling forms on the ground, one attempting to writhe free and the other spitting obscenities at her. "Please eliminate the vampire. He serves no purpose to us at this point."
Narumi's heart froze as Kageyama nodded and shouted to her teammate "Hey Gin, you wanna take this kill?"
A man leaning on his halberd next to a barely conscious (and heavily concussed, most likely) Kimizuki grunted "My pleasure, boss."
The man jogged over to the trapped teenagers, ignoring the pleading and anger from the JIDA's newly-acquired prisoners. Bypassing the screaming bundle of tagged chains and a flailing vampire's leg, Gin wasted no time thrusting his halberd into Mikaela's chest, the flash of green indicating an activated curse.
Whatever Narumi might have felt for his death was drowned out by Yuu's incoherent screaming, struggling against his restraints while the blackened energy of a Seraph repressed popped and crackled futilely around him.
Strangely, Gin swore and released his weapon, exclaiming "Shit, that's hot!"
And indeed, the halberd propped inside the still body began to glow a faint red hot.
Mikaela stood up.
The vampire stood stone still, the spikes and halberd still embedded in him melting to slag. Fire crawled crowned his head, and three pairs of wings erupted from his back in a fine spray of blood. Unperturbed by Gin screaming and tripping onto his back, Mikaela turned to face the fear-frozen humans, the small set of wings covering his face keeping his expression hidden.
The Seraph whispered, amongst the empty sensation of clanging bells and scraping swords.
"Hu҉rt not͢ t̶h҉e ͢ȩart͟h̡,͏ ̶neįther ͏t̡he̕ s̛ea͏, no̸r͞ t̛h͢e tr̛ęes, till we͠ ҉hav͏e se҉a̕l̴ed̷ ̡the s͡e͝rv̡ants͟ o̢f͘ our ̶G͡od͏ ͘in ̧their̷ fo͠reh͡e͞ads."
Upon that utterance, a floating shofar appeared in front of him. There was a moment of forced silence before the ram's horn spewed white fire at Gin, melting him alive in soundless screams.
The green grass beneath him remained unsinged.
The Seraph then turned to the remaining humans, wings spreading to their full span. The many eyes nestled between feathers roved between the mortals before them, and wheels of fire began to rotate above the creature's head.
"There is no repentance." The Seraph whispered in its multilayered, buzzing voice. "Of your m͠u̕r҉der͘s, nor of your s͟o͟rc҉e͝ŗie̕s, nor of your ̛forn͝i̸c̛a҉tio͜ņ, nor of your t͟h̕e͞fţs."
Each step it took was slow and ponderous, the remains of molten metal spikes sloughing off of it. The army members ran as fast as they could for safety, desperate to live another day, orders be damned.
It stopped, though, and tilted its faceless head at Yuu, who was still giving off faint black sparks as his Seraph struggled to come forth. The Seraph was at Yuu's side at the blink of an eye, it's hand cloaked in fire. It reached, and gently touched its flaming hand to the chains.
The world went white and silent. Narumi's brain short-circuited at the sensation.
He promptly passed out.
—
When Narumi woke, the sky and trees were still and the stars were bright above him. He sat up slowly, mindful of his aching side. He staggered to his feet, his hair whipping into his eyes as he scanned the clearing.
Kimizuki, Yoichi, Mitsuba, and Shinoa were where he last saw them, still passed out on the ground. Narumi ventured a bit further.
Yuu was curled around Mikaela, nose buried in his family's thick blonde hair.
Three feet from them, a bumpy sheet of cooled iron spread like a puddle.
Im so sorry i got mika stabbed again.
Inexperienced seraphs (such as out resident teenagers) who interact without the proper precautions laid out by the other seraph often result in a case of immovable object vs. unstoppable force. On an instinctual level seraphs seek to help each other, but the clashing energies of eldritch abominations are nothing to be careless with.
Let your cosmic horrors interact responsibly, kids.
Shofar: musical instrument made from a ram's horn for Jewish religious purposes.