"P-Please, can we stop? I-I-" Todomatsu choked, nearly tripping over a rock trying to sprint down the steep trail, "I can't breathe-!"
Totoko, Chibita, and Ichimatsu all had to make an effort into practically skidding to a halt, whirling around to regard the wheezing choirboy, still having difficulty getting oxygen through his bruised trachea. He doubled over, hoarse panting heaving his chest.
"Totty, we're almost there, we're almost at the bottom," Totoko beseeched, running over to him and placing a hand on the small of his back, trying to nudge him along. The youngest wordlessly shook his head, placing his hands on his throat but recoiling when a shot of pain fired through his nerves from the contusions. Totoko lifted her hand, looking back at the others worriedly while Todo gasped, breath strained.
"I'm s-sorry- Totoko, b- but I- I can't-!"
"Hey, hey, it's alright, don't hurt yourself," Chibita butted in, glancing up the trail to see if Osomatsu had found them yet. "We've made it this far in an awful lot of time; do you think he's still after us?"
"Oh, definitely." The Queen panted herself, using the small break to catch her breath. "He won't go back to Hell until he has all of our heads."
"We couldn't even just hide out in the church?" Ichi was sweating profusely under his veil, the humid wet uncomfortably collecting inside the mask strapped to his chin. "He can't get in there, right?" He wrung his hands, glancing off to the side. "I'm scared that if we don't abandon this plan, we're all going to be fucking dead."
Todo dry-heaved from the overwork and Totoko placed a hand on his back. "That's the thing; I don't know if we can. At this point, it would be better off if we aimed to get him in the lake than to try and hide. I don't know where he is, but we need to hurry."
Totty panicked, going into a coughing spell. "But-!"
"Totty."
"E-Eh?"
"Totty." Ichimatsu approached him, Totoko helping lift the man upright. They both quietly winced in empathetic pain upon getting a decent look at his injuries. Ruby shadows where digits used to be wrapped around his neck like lariats. The base of his collarbone was a nebula.
"Todomatsu, we can't wait much longer. I'll carry you if you get on my back, but you really need to hurry up." The nun took his gun off of the choirboy, who had been holding onto it ever since they escaped, strapping it into the holster. Todo looked as if he wanted to cry from surprise.
"N-Nii- san-!"
"Come on Totty, hurry up," Totoko rushed, giving him a small push on the back. Ichi bent down a little and the sixth son clasped his hands once his arms were around his big brother's nape, wrapping his legs around his middle. It was somewhat difficult with his bulky dress, but they managed, Ichi grabbing hold of his ankles to make sure he stayed. The exhausted, aching man rested his head against his brother's shoulder.
"Thanks, nii-s-san...-!"
"It's fine." Ichi could hardly curb a smile, not wanting to admit that he had felt super fraternal for once. Chibita looked over to Totoko and they both nodded, the latter flapping her wings in haste, breaking into a run again.
"We need to hurry!" She cried out, the other two following after. Ichi found it difficult, the extra pounds on his back weighing him down, threatening to make his knees collapse and send them both toppling down the steep trail. Mount Fuji was incredibly bare, the ground incredibly dusty and barren with the occasional tree popping up every once and awhile. The plus side was that if Osomatsu was coming, they would absolutely see him, so the reassurance was nice to know that they had quite a bit of distance between them. They had been running for about an hour now with no appearance from the devil and were nearly at the base.
"Ichimatsu nii- san-?" Totty gasped over his shoulder.
"What?" Ichi managed through his huffing, almost tripping over a hole.
"I don't know i-if- you were going to, but- don't talk to me, o-okay?" Quietly, Todomatsu tightened his hands, closing his eyes. He wheezed. "I-I'm going to- to pray for us."
"Alright."
Chibita's heart skipped, stumbling forward to pick up speed. The quiver on his back nearly fell off. "Oi, the bottom! I can see the bottom!"
Totoko relied less and less on her legs and more on her wings, eventually lifting herself off of the ground and diving straight towards the base, allowing the other two more room to run.
"Should we take the car or keep going?" She wondered aloud, Chibita and Ichi winding down the curving path, Todo's eyes squeezed shut and his mouth moving with silent words.
"If we drive, I think we might manage to get away!" Chibita yelled, turning his head as he hurried to look at Ichi for an opinion. The nun scowled at the two, their faces immediately wiped of their smiles of hope.
"Jyushimatsu didn't just do all of that for us to turn around and quit!" The cat boy spat, Totoko having to hurry up and pull herself upwards so she didn't smack her skull onto the ground. Chibita rushed off of the slope into the base, trying to stop his legs a little to adjust to the change of elevation. Ichi followed after, stopping and boosting his knees to get the slipping Totty higher up onto his back.
"He's probably dead! And if we- if we quit-!"
"-Hey, relax Ichimatsu, hey? We'll take the long way, dammit." Chibita doubled over, hands on his knees to catch his breath. What a fucking workout that was. "We're making good time. We just need to get to the road. I don't think we can afford to take a break."
"I'm actually not sure where we go from here, but I'm sure if we take back roads, we should get there?" Totoko ran a finger along one of her horns, stealing the habit from Osomatsu. "'Cause the church is kinda off to the side anyway."
They all were silent for a minute, soaking in the fact that they were halfway finished. The previously derailed plan seemingly was back on track. They glanced to Todomatsu, who had tears running down his face in fear and pain, prayer unbroken. Ichi felt their eyes move to him and his face burned, tightening his grip on Totty's ankles.
"Let's go." His habit flowed gracefully behind him, sandals crunching on top of the dead leaves. His brother's dress blew behind them as well. "We're sitting ducks."
Chibita and Totoko enjoyed the break for one last second before catching up with him, peering behind them to see if Satan had caught up yet.
The leaves in the trees whistled quietly.
...
Choromatsu threw a hand into his hair, blowing bubbles through his nose. That wasn't good at all.
Todomatsu sounded frantic. He spoke of blood and bruises and hostility. But they should've expected this. A dance with the devil wouldn't be as predictable as they thought it would be. The goddess cursed himself for his stupidity. His friends and family were in danger because of him.
But he could get them out of this. Hopefully.
Taking in a deep breath to calm himself, he folded his hands and closed his eyes, listening to the water around him.
Jyushimatsu.
Jyushimatsu, can you hear me?
Choro frowned, focusing harder.
Jyushimatsu, it's Choromatsu nii-san. Where are you?
No response. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he forced himself to acknowledge the worst. Todo said he had been up on the summit fighting with Osomatsu. He must not have won.
Choro sighed sadly, opening his eyes for a second to fix his crown. Poor Jyushimatsu. Nobody should have to experience death twice.
Watching a koi swim by, he shut them again. Not that he ever wanted to need to, but he was going to perform something that he had never done before and he needed all of the strength he could muster. His legs shook anxiously and the corners of his mouth twitched. He opened his mind's eye.
Oh, God, please let this work...
...
The youkai caregivers stood directly in front of the mirror, peering out at the shape warped by the glass, a pretty golden yellow tainted with a rich red. Akki frowned.
"He had a confrontation already..." The old woman brought her hands to her mouth, worried for her human boy. "I hope he's doing alright."
"The King is very likely fine," A somewhat younger youkai behind her chimed in, "He's already spilt the blood of someone and walked away unscathed." The demon wrung her hands. "Believe in Him, and He will save us."
On the other side, Jyushi laid silently, thin blood from his lips dripping slowly off of his chin onto his neck. His glazed eyes watched eerily into the sky at the quickly moving clouds, the lightning flashing and glinting off of his stained dove pin. Ichor and spinal fluid pooled on the top of his back, deep holes in his flesh where the base of his wings used to be. His skin paled as his dead body drained itself of the blood.
Jyushimatsu?
...Huh...?
Jyushimatsu! Can you hear me?
Nii-san?
Ah! You can hear me! Oh, thank God, Jyushimatsu, I thought I wouldn't be able to reach you!
Nii-san, I'm scared! I can't feel my arms or my legs...
That's because you're dead, I'm afraid.
I thought I was dead, though? How can I hear you if I'm dead? My blood got everywhere and my head got dizzy and my heart ticked real softly-
Jyushimatsu, I want to tell you a couple of things, okay?
Nii-san!
Jyushi, please let me talk, alright?
Sorry, Choromatsu nii-san...
It's okay. You're scared, I understand. I'm so, so sorry that you had to pass away twice. I can't imagine how that felt.
Not nice.
Uh... yeah. Definitely not nice, huh?
Yeah.
Anyway, Totty was praying to me.
...
...
...Okay?
Totty was praying to me?
Ooooookay...?
Jyushimatsu, Todomatsu was praying to me.
Are we playing a game? I don't like this game. Red light...?
Jyushimatsu! If Todomatsu... was praying... to me... what does that mean?
It means that I'm really confused why I can hear you in my head and I can hear you even though I'm dead.
Jyushi, you saved him. Todomatsu wasn't killed because of your intervention.
It finally hit the dead one out of the two and he gasped.
Ah, that's great! I'm so glad! He's never died before, so he doesn't know what it feels like, but I do, so it wasn't much for me, really! And I don't care who they are, nobody messes with my only baby brother!
Jyushimatsu, do you know what this means?
Ah... no?
You did your job. You fulfilled your purpose.
Oh yeah, I did, didn't I? Jyushi's voice sounded disappointed. But... I'm dead, so it doesn't matter anyway. That's alright. I'm just happy Totty's alive!
Well, Jyushi, technically I'm still in training too, but I want to test something out. What better first trial than with my little brother?
Jyushimatsu suddenly became acutely aware as to how grim the sky was above him. He couldn't move his eyes no matter how hard he tried and he gurgled in the pit of his throat in inconvenience.
Wait.
Nii-san! I can see again! How did you do that?
Choromatsu laughed excitedly. It's a secret. Now, Jyushi, brother or not, I need to say a couple of things to you, okay?
Jyushi retained usage of his eyes and flicked them all around, silently recoiling in disgust in his mind at how bloody he was. He could taste the stale gore in his mouth.
Gotcha!
You've fulfilled your purpose as a guardian angel. You've successfully guarded your subjects and saved their lives. Based upon the rules, that means that you are able to ascend.
Nerves suddenly shot signals through his whole body, tingling coming to all of his limbs. Slowly, he waggled his fingers, lifting his head off of the ground. He managed to pick his arms up, spitting the old blood out of his mouth.
You've been revived as a Son of God. You have Fallen, but mind that; it wasn't of your own doing.
A sharp pain seared through Jyushi's back and he arched it, wincing terribly. He sucked in air through his teeth, the wet noise from the gore caked between masking most of it, not enjoying the instant agony the very moment he raised from the dead for a second time.
Ouch-! Nii-san-?!
You will recover your halo and wings. Is that what's happening now?
Turning his head carefully, the angel glanced behind him, hearing ugly cracking as entirely new bones formalized in his back, pushing out through the previous place where they had been before. Jyushi sighed as the pain lessened.
Yes-
He cut himself off as he let out a scream, jolting himself forward and sliding his legs under him, digging his nails into the dirt. His arms trembled terribly and he bit down hard onto his teeth as the misery returned, feeling as if he were getting stabbed in the back. The cracking grew worse. Choromatsu laughed dryly.
Jyushi, have you forgotten how many wings seraphim have?
His neck was severely stiff, but the angel managed to turn his head again. Three series of bones on each side of his body spouted out from his back, skin growing over them at an alarmingly fast rate. Jyushi felt tears of pain well in his eyes, soft noises coming from spots he couldn't see as ivory plumage blossomed quickly over them, masking the fact that they hadn't been there in the minute before. The seraphim panted.
Ah... I guess I have...!
Did the thing happen yet?
Huh...?! What thing?!
Choromatsu didn't have enough time to answer before a third round of torture washed over him, this time piercing into the pits of his arms. Jyushimatsu flinched and tried to reach under them to grab the area for leverage, but wasn't able to move them quick enough. Bursting out of his flesh and restructuring his bones were two new arms, sprouting outwards and creating two pairs of limbs. Jyushi tore into his lip with his teeth, the scratches on his face and bruises on his neck from Osomatsu's doing not seeming like much of anything now. Slowly, he gained feeling in these new arms, waggling their fingers.
A burning hot feeling suddenly bubbled in the middle of his forehead, but it was hardly a surprise. Clenching all four of his fists, Jyushi shook them in endurance and grit his teeth as a new eyeball surfaced onto his face, a third line of sight entering his vision. The brand new seraph stood in silence for a minute, patiently waiting for anything else to happen.
...Is that all?
Did it happen?
If you mean 'two new arms and an eye' by 'it', then yes, 'it' did!
Congratulations, Jyushimatsu! You've completely ascended! I'm so, so proud of you!
Jyushimatsu looked forward at the mirror, not realizing he had been watched. The group of youkai squinted, struggling to look through the fogged, blurry glass at what had happened to the corpse their King had created. Eager to show off, Jyushi stepped forward until he was right in front of it, pressing his four palms against the glass and sticking his tongue out, pressing the top of his forehead above it to really test out his third eye. At that moment, his halo rematerialized, his gown engulfing in a bright light as well to regenerate as a long, white dress similar to Choromatsu's. Around the waist was a golden band, decorated with beads as blue as the ocean and as red as the current sky. Similar golden strips dipped around his neckline and sleeves at the end of his shoulders, marked with sacred symbols of dead language.
The youkai sprang back at the sudden light and handprints, averting their eyes annoyedly away from the three.
"What the fuck is that?" One of them called out. Akki grimaced in disgust.
"I believe that's some sort of angel." She spat, moving the crowd backwards. "The King must not have killed him. What an arrogant son of a bitch, rubbing it in like that. Return to your quarters. Osomatsu will return soon."
Jyushimatsu?
Nii-san! This is amazing!
I know, I know. But the others are still in danger.
Jyushi stepped away from the mirror, eyes and mouth going flat. Curiously, he drew one of his new arms up to his halo, summoning a brand new bat, this one wrapped in seemingly barbed wire. He lit up quietly, determined.
Jyushi... you still have a bit of a job to do.