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Heaven and Hell

Keima knocked three times and waited. It didn't take too long until Tenri's mother showed up on the doorway, with her big and warm smile, like she wanted to make all of the world's problems go away with that. She told Keima to come in, and said her daughter was upstairs, adding that she would probably be very happy if he surprised her by showing up there. He didn't really want to invade her privacy like that, but since her mother insisted, he went up.

— Tenri... — he knocked once before going in her bedroom, and it was a good thing, because Tenri had a towel wrapped over her body. — Your mom told me to come up. — As expected, she blushed in tones of red that Keima didn't know, and hid her eyes behind her hair. Keima stepped back and waited by the door until she told him it was okay to come inside.

— Hello, Keima-kun — she saluted him, looking very ashamed. He still couldn't see her eyes behind her hair, but at least now she was wearing some clothes. The only strange thing Keima could notice was that Tenri's hair wasn't tied in the regular pigtails, but down on her shoulders. — I'm... I'm sorry... I will do the pigtails while we talk... I'm not used to bathe using them.

— It's okay, you look beautiful with your hair down. — Katsuragi noticed that Tenri's eyes got some kind of new glow after he said that, but he was there because of bigger things than looking at people's eyes. — Hey, Tenri, I really need to talk to Diana. Could you... — Before he could even finish the sentence, the halo and the wings appeared in Tenri, and that inquiring look – as scary as Sakura's – was already in her eyes.

— You should come after Tenri sometimes, you know? She's your friend, too. — Keima looked down to his feet. He wasn't really ashamed – he has taken Tenri to lunch last week –, but this was a way to avoid arguing with Diana at the moment. — Oh, Tenri, you know I can't tie your pigtails! It's just too difficult for me! Apollo would know how to do that, but I don't! — She stopped talking when Keima forced her to sit on the bed by pressing her shoulder and started tying her hair. — Come on, you know how to tie pigtails?

— I had to do that a lot in games — he explained, while separating her hair in two parts. He hasn't finished to divide the first part of the hair in three when the wings shrunk and the halo disappeared. He opened his mouth to say something against that sudden body change, but then he realized that Diana wanted to give that moment to Tenri, and agreed with that. That would be his way to show his love for her in that day.

The time while he tied Tenri's pigtails passed silently and slowly; Keima could see her face and neck turn each time redder, and he was blushing himself. It was a really awkward moment, and neither of them knew how to handle those moments. When it finally came to its end, Keima stood up and said:

— Okay, it's over. Now you tie it up, 'cause I don't know how to do that. — He handed her the two red ribbons she used to wear and she started tying the pigtails up. — Hey, Tenri... Is it okay if you come to my house now? I really need to talk to Diana.

She said yes and they went downstairs, stopping only to tell Tenri's mother that she was going to the Katsuragi's for a while. The Ayukawa's mother answered with one of her huge smiles, and the two youngsters went right to Keima's room – his mother was too busy at the coffee house to say hello to them. Amid the games that were piling on the floor, two demon girls and four regular girls were sitting: Nora, Haqua, Tsukiyo the Astronomy girl, Kanon, Yui and Shiori from the library. Tenri looked at them and blushed, sitting by Shiori, who was trying to hide behind a big brown book. Keima sat by Tsukiyo and felt her creepy doll's eyes on him, as always. It didn't take long until Elsie open the door very loudly, with Ayumi after her.

— Sorry I'm late, Kaminii-sama! Chihiro wanted to be rehearsing a little more... But I managed to bring Ayumi! — The second girl smiled at the others, that didn't answer. The meetings between the Jupiter Sisters always had that much tension, once they were all in love with the same guy. Keima didn't like that, tough. He preferred them to live in harmony than in love with him.

Nora pulled Ayumi to sit by her, and Haqua did the same to Elsie.

— Kanon, Tenri, Tsukiyo, Ayumi, Shiori, Yui... Would you please show us your goddesses? I have an extremely important issue to talk about to them, and we have no time to lose.

There was a very silent moment in which the girls closed their eyes and started emanating an intense white light; a minute later, Katsuragi's bedroom became a confusion of wings and halos, along with the demon girls' pink garments. Tsukiyo, who was squatting, fell due to Volcano's deficiency and dropped her doll, which came back flying a second later; Kanon started looking dumb and strangely happy because of Apollo's... Dumbness; Ayumi looked like a seven-year-old, filled with the energy of Mercury's soul; Yui was stronger and even more manly than usual, emanating the warrior's soul of Mars; Shiori finished her book in less than a minute and put it down, and deep in her eyes it was possible to see Minerva's wisdom and suspicion; and Tenri looked at Keima with Diana's best piercing look. As always, he felt a little uncomfortable with all those goddesses looking at him, but everything he could do was to remain calm and talk.

— Thank you all for showing up... — Keima swallowed his tension and kept talking. — I called you goddesses and the demon girls 'cause yesterday I saw a very... Intriguing... Fact. — He sighed and adjusted his glasses over his nose. — I saw... Another goddess.

There was a general astonishment toward the girls. Apollo let a little surprised scream come out, and Volcano made Tsukiyo's doll come dangerously close to Keima.

— Are you sure? — She asked. — You're better be completely sure about this before telling us, Katsuragi...

— Of course he's sure — Haqua answered, unexpectedly, attracting all the attention to herself. — Katsuragi is an intelligent boy — she blushed and slowed down her speaking while saying that, like she wasn't very sure of her words —, have you ever seen him trying to fool any of us?

— He sure wouldn't try to mess up with the Jupiter Sisters, nee-sama — Mars said, laughing a little afterwards. Her laugh scared both Keima and the demon girls; it has already been too difficult for them to get used to that intimidating voice the goddess of war had. — He knows we are tough girls, right, Keima-kun? — After saying that, she looked so cute that anyone would want to take her home, but everyone in that room knew that the great Mars was able to destroy entire armies with a single word.

— How did she look like? — The question came from Minerva, and it was so unexpected that Nora startled.

— She had the halo and the wings, just like you, but she was so different... I mean... She was shiny. — Keima saw Elsie's mouth open a little, like she has just realized that he was talking about Sakura. — Her skin shone in blue, very softly. And her hair was strange... I can't explain...

— Did it look like mist? Or like water? — Mercury asked and seemed to realize where her sister was about to get with the question about the other goddess' appearance.

— Like mist — Keima added —, but her dress looked like water. The girl she was in didn't have that dress. I think it was property of the goddess, if you are allowed to have properties...

— We're just allowed our own appearances — Diana explained. — If the goddess had that dress, it is because the outfit is part of her original appearance, just like the misty hair, the wings and the halo. But it's not possible... A goddess with this description...

— I thought they were all gone — Apollo's childish voice filled Keima's room. — Thought that they had turned into energy to help us seal Old Hell... Wasn't that what happened? I can barely remember those facts, but I know that those three weren't there when we did the dirty deeds.

— No, Apollo — Minerva nodded her head. — The ones who gave their vital energy to help us were Pluto and our mother, Jupiter... One of them was still alive after we shut Old Hell, although almost all of her power has been consumed. She couldn't even go inside someone's heart. Her state was pitiful when we left Heaven.

— Hey, you, heavenly people — Nora called the attention to herself, and pointed her finger at Minerva. — Can't you see that we do not understand a word of what you're saying? We could just sit here and listen, but, you know, we won't. — She put down her finger when Minerva's expression got too intimidating to face. — We want to help you, if this is a problem. We have already proved ourselves honest, so... Please, explain to us what's going on!

The goddesses were silent for a moment, thinking about how insane was that little demon to confront them all that way. Then, they just concluded it was a nonsense moment of Nora, and that she should not be punished; that was when Mars started talking, looking to Keima.

— Many years ago, there was a huge war between Heaven and Old Hell. I remember that so clearly... Along with my eighteen little angels, I won over three legions of demons. — Haqua and Nora seemed a little alarmed by that, but Mars didn't give it a clue. — My sisters also did a great job on that war, but it wasn't enough. Every time we confronted Hell, they seemed bigger... Then we realized that fighting only the legions wouldn't be enough: we had to get rid of the high demons, the ones who had the greatest powers of all. — She stopped talking for a while, maybe to favor the drama. — They could control souls and even living people. That was when the High Triad came in the war.

— The High Triad? — Elsie couldn't help asking, and Apollo found a little funny the way she hid her mouth after saying that.

— Yes — Diana added —, the High Triad. They are the three most powerful goddesses of Heaven, and, I dare to say, the three most powerful creatures in the whole Universe. One of them is our mother, Jupiter, commander of the skies. She watched over every single event that concerned to the air and the skies above our heads: storms, rains, hurricanes... Everything.

— Our mother had two sisters — said Volcano. — One of them was Pluto, commander of the dead world. She was the one to judge the dead souls about their punishments for what they did on Earth, but she also sent them back after the price for their disobedience was paid. However, the souls she sent to Old Hell were lost forever. She couldn't interfere on their punishment, control them or send them back. — Volcano stopped talking, looking too tired to continue. Her sister Diana held her when she felt like falling down again, and Mercury continued the story.

— The last one of the High Triad was Neptune. She ruled over the seas and the natural life. You can tell, just by this information, that Neptune was the most powerful of the Triad. She could take over any living creature and make it play by her rules. The more complex the organism, however, the more energy it took away from her, and that's why she didn't like to take over human beings. — She looked at Keima like he was a vermin. — Anyway, because of her great responsibility, Neptune was the one who held the greater amount of energy.

— When we concluded that we couldn't face Old Hell by ourselves, the High Triad said they could handle the highest demons while we fought the lower ones. — Minerva continued the story without being asked to, which gave her and Mercury that twin appearance, when they start completing each other's sentences. — The three of them passed through every high demon you can imagine, but when they reached the higher one, Beelzebub, it was impossible to defeat him at once.

— They fought several times — Keima was amazed when he saw Apollo talking. He judged her so stupid that thought she would never be able to help him at anything that involved memories or any kind of thinking. — Beelzebub could always take them down very easily, if you consider that they were the three most powerful creatures of Heaven. When we weren't able to resist anymore, the High Triad said that they were going to do anything they could to seal Beelzebub forever that time, and they really did... — Apollo stopped, looking down, like she was about to cry. Indeed, her voice trembled a little after that. — That battle was so intense that Jupiter and Pluto gave away all their power to weaken Beelzebub the most as they could. Until today, I thought the same had happened to Neptune, but...

— Neptune gave away the biggest part of her power, but she got to destroy Beelzebub before it was all gone — Minerva said, correcting her sister. — When the battle was over, she got back to Heaven looking like she would never be able to open her eyes, again. All of us thought the same way. Some of our angels tried to give her their power, but it had no use, because, as you already know, goddesses only get stronger through love — she looked at Keima and smiled. — Afterwards, we sealed Old Hell and spent a lot of our power, too, so we got back to Earth to look for loving girls who could feed us. Neptune couldn't even do that.

Keima and the Hell people looked into themselves, trying to fix that really big story in a way it could not go away. They should all be able to remember its details afterwards, specially Keima, and he knew all the goddesses thought that way, too. He was so concentrated on that task that he startled when Diana touched his arm.

— Katsuragi, we want to see this girl. — He looked at her a little alarmed. How was he supposed to get seven people inside a hospital, considering that the demon girls didn't want to come? — We must know if she's really Neptune, and if she is, she must know that her nieces are regaining their power.

A flashlight came from where Mars was sitting, and the wings and the halo disappeared, leaving only a scared, but confident, Yui sitting in the middle of five goddesses and three demons. She looked at everyone and seemed to realize that those were the sisters Mars used to talk about. Ashamed, the girl smiled.

— Mars is sorry... — She localized Keima and looked directly at him, feeling more powerful to talk after that. — She said she didn't have enough power to hold the connection for this long and that I could have my body back. Oh, and she told her sisters that she was looking forward to see you again very soon.

Some of the goddesses, like Apollo and Mercury, smiled at Yui and thanked her for the message, telling her to say the same to their sister; Minerva and Nora looked and Keima, clearly blaming him for Mars' lack of power. He sighed and looked back at Diana.

— I will bring you to the hospital tomorrow. — Just hope she doesn't expel me from her room, as she did today, he thought, picturing how troublesome would be to have six expelled goddesses in a hospital.

Author's note: hello, people! I must say I was very thrilled by the feedback on Tears in Heaven first chapter. I loved all your comments, so please keep saying what you think about this story! Your comments make my fanfiction a lot better. Also, I'm sorry for not being posting it. I've been very busy with school stuff, but now I'm on vacation and I hope I can keep posting! Oh, by the way, this chapter's title is a tribute to Black Sabbath's song Heaven and Hell (sang by the vocal god Roonie James Dio). Thank you again (now for reading this) and see you on flag 3.0!