FOUR MONTHS LATER
"FOR THE LAST TIME NO." Misaki slammed his and Akihiko's door and stormed off. Inside Akihiko let out a breath of frustration as he sat down on the bed. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door as Hiroki came in with Nowaki trailing behind him. "We just saw Misaki storming down the hall. Another fight?"
Akihiko groaned. The fights seemed to grow more frequently over the past two months. All because of one subject. "I don't see why it is such a problem?"
"Misaki's not ready."
"But he hasn't seen Takahiro since he was ten. He deserves to know Misaki is at least alive!" Akihiko first brought it up with Misaki after a month of him living in Aessa but Misaki brushed it off. Another month past and Akihiko decided to push it more, resulting in Misaki yelling that he does not want Takahiro to know about him yet and storm out to go stay with Miyagi and Shinobu or Yukina.
Nowaki sighed, "Yeah but you know Misaki is still waiting for Yukina to find Kisa. He probably wants Kisa with him."
"But Takahiro…" "Look Akihiko." Hiroki sat on the bed. "I know Takahiro is your friend but you also have to think about breaking this to him. If Misaki is not ready and Takahiro shows up here then it will hurt Misaki. Besides, don't you think you need to think about what you will say to him? I don't know about you but I think Takahiro won't like to hear you sleeping with his little brother." Hiroki did have a point; Akihiko was scared for that conversation.
"Just give Misaki some more time and he will come around. He just misses Kisa too much." Nowaki gave a comforting smile. "I heard Yukina is close to finding him."
Akihiko scoffed. "I also heard there are over 20 Kisas right now that he is looking at." Finding Kisa would not be an easy task. It could take months, even years. Akihiko just wanted Misaki to be with his family. "Well Isaka is looking for me so I have to go."
"You miss going out in the field?" Akihiko smirked.
"Hell no! I like where I am now. The only downside is I have to work with that idiot Miyagi and his obnoxious lover is always hovering around if Nowaki does not take him away or I send Misaki away with him."
Things have changed for Emerald in the past four months. Isaka created a new group called Mitsuhashi (he liked the name since the school fiasco) and he placed Miyagi, Ritsu, Misaki and Hiroki in it with Hiroki in charge. They would do all sorts of research that has to do with magic and the group responsibility was to help all the other groups identify spells and objects and do some research of their own. Ritsu was revealed to have been taught magic by Hiroki and Misaki started learning magic himself from Hiroki. In Emerald, Takano became the leader of the group. Isaka wanted Akihiko but he rejected. Shinobu joined Emerald and is being trained by Nowaki.
Nowaki started chuckling, "I even see the two stealing Ritsu every once in awhile. Takano is starting to get irritated." Those were fun to watch. When the three first came Shinobu and Misaki wanted to explore all of Marukawa and they made Ritsu their tour guide because the others intimidated them. Since then Ritsu had unofficially joined their group. "As long as they are adjusting well to Aessa. It is different from Earth."
"They'll be fine. See ya Akihiko." The two left Akihiko alone to his thoughts. As much as he wanted to take Misaki to Takahiro, it was Misaki's choice and he would have to respect it. Getting up, he set out to find Misaki.
"Always. Always bringing up Takahiro." Misaki ranted on as Shinobu and Ritsu listened. The three were in the library, Ritsu already in there when Shinobu found him, being kicked out of the office by Miyagi, and Misaki came storming in a few minutes later. "I get that he is wanting me to meet him but when I say not yet I mean it!"
"I'm sure Akihiko-san means well. He just is thinking that Takahiro would like to know you are alive."
"But I'm not ready to see him or even talk to him. Usagi-san knows this. So he does not need to bring it up every single day!" Misaki stomped his foot in a very child-like manner. He did not care; he was angry.
Shinobu sat up. "It's been four months."
"So?"
"Yukina has not found Kisa yet." Misaki froze. "That's the real reason you won't go see your brother. They already said it could take awhile before they find his soul and even then they have to go through the capital and where the soul is being placed."
"Isaka-san already said Kisa-nii could come to Marukawa…" "That can be awhile too. When I died, I was already on my way to the Null when Yokozawa-san saw my name. He had to jump through a lot of hoops to redirect me to Marukawa and when I finally arrived, it was 11 months after I died. These things take time. You can use that time to meet Takahiro."
Misaki narrowed his eyes. "Yeah? And then what? Rebuild a family with him? Move on with him and forget about Kisa-nii?"
"No one is saying you have to forget about Kisa."
"Is that what you are afraid of?" They all turned to see Akihiko in the doorway with a frown on his face. "Are you afraid to forget Kisa?"
Misaki looked down. "I won't leave Kisa-nii behind." Misaki heard a sigh and then movement. Looking up, Shinobu and Ritsu were gone. Akihiko broke the space between them and quickly hugged Misaki before he could escape. "Misaki, do you really think you could forget Kisa."
"It's been on my mind."
"You silly boy." Akihiko went to kiss him but Misaki pulled back to look at him with his wide eyes. "It's not silly. I'm scared Usagi-san."
"There's nothing to afraid of."
"…What if Yukina never finds Kisa-nii." The thought brought tears to Misaki's eyes. Akihiko wiped them away. "The chances of that happening is nearly impossible. Kisa will surely come here and Yukina will spend his eternal life searching if he has too. Nowaki, Miyagi, and Hiroki are helping. You even have the lazy ass Takano scouting out the East regions. One of us will find him. Now, why do you think you will forget Kisa?"
"I thought that if I did see Takahiro, I would be happy with him." Akihiko gave him a funny look. "But I wondered if I was happy and I spent more time with him, Kisa-nii would be pushed away. I don't want to feel like I abandoned him."
"Misaki, Kisa's last words to me was that he wanted me to take you to your brother. It's obvious he wanted you to meet your real family. I don't think he would be scared of you pushing him away. And you obviously love him very much. That love is not something you can simply push away."
Misaki wanted to believe him but the thought of seeing Takahiro was like saying he was moving forward. He did not want that without Kisa. Seeing this, Akihiko sighed. "Alright. We can wait a little longer to see Takahiro."
"Really?" When Akihiko nodded his head Misaki smiled widely and hugged him. "Thank you."
"I'm sorry for pushing this. I just want you to be happy. You smile and laugh but that changes when someone mentions Kisa. The first time Yukina came back without any news you locked yourself in our room and would not eat. I worry about you."
"I'm sorry Usagi-san." Last thing I wanted was to worry Usagi. Akihiko kissed his forehead. "It's alright love. It's my job to worry about you." Misaki blushed, looking down and missing the sly smile that appeared. "But you did yell awfully loud at me earlier, and even called me an idiot."
"Sorry."
"I think you need to be punished for talking to your elder like that." Misaki froze, recognizing the tone. He tried to escape but Akihiko had a firm grip on him. "No NO NO you perverted rabbit! Not in the library."
"But I can't wait." Akihiko's hand found itself inside of Misaki's white pants, rubbing his length through the boxers. Misaki swallowed his moans as best as he could. "Usagi….san…not…h…here…" Akihiko just chuckled, nipping at his neck as he went inside the boxers. The more pleasure Misaki felt the less he had any coherent thoughts. All he could think about was wanting more…
"GET A ROOM!" The two turned to see Takano, Ritsu, and Shinobu standing in the open door, laughing. Ritsu had a red face.
"Close the door and we will be in one." Akihiko growled as Misaki pushed him away and tried to straighten his clothes, his face a deep red.
"In the library Misaki?" Shinobu snickered.
"SHUT UP." Misaki was about to run over to hit Shinobu but Akihiko stopped him, wrapping his arms around his waist. "What do you want?"
"Isaka-san needs both Emerald and Mitsuhashi to meet in the conference room."
"It still annoys me he had to use my father's school name." Shinobu grumbled. It was hard for him to get over losing his family but the training with Nowaki was helping him cope and keep his mind off of it.
Misaki shrugged. "He really is an eccentric guy." The five headed down to the conference room. When they got there Hiroki, Miyagi, Yukina, and Nowaki were already sitting around the table. Misaki sat by Yukina who gave him a light smile. For the last three months he has not been that cheerful self Misaki first met, working hard to find Kisa. He was actually surprised to see him since he was supposed to be gone for 3 days. "Good afternoon everyone." Isaka smiled brightly. Asahina stood by him with the same dull expression.
"What do you want?" Ritsu gave Takano a disapproving look.
Isaka did not look fazed. "I have a new mission for each group." That was new. Mistuhashi helped all groups but this was the first time they were assigned an actual mission.
"What is it?"
"First, Emerald will have to make a trip to the Underworld." Everyone gasped.
"The Underworld? Angels are not allowed in the Underworld." Misaki remembered that the Underworld was where demons lived, the worst of the worst.
"Why not?" Shinobu asked.
"As we know the Underworld is where those who become demons go. Down there it is made up of mostly dark magic and impure energy." Miyagi explained. "And if any pure angel goes down there then they could risk being infected by that impure energy."
"Then what would happen?"
"The angel could turn into a demon themselves." Misaki gasped and grabbed Akihiko's arm. Usagi-san can't become a demon. Akihiko patted his hand to soothe them. "In all honesty older angels do not have to worry about this. Their bodies have already put up an immunity to the impure energy. Angels that are not older than 50 are the ones that really have to worry about being infected." Everyone looked to Misaki, Shinobu, and Ritsu. "I don't feel comfortable with Shinobu going down in there." Shinobu smiled at Miyagi's concern. "He has only been a pure angel for three months."
"It's also too early for him to go out." Takano added. "I would rather his first mission not be something like this."
"I can handle anything." Shinobu said in a sure voice. Miyagi slapped him in the head.
"Calm down everyone." Isaka had his hands in the air. "I too agree that Shinobu should stay here. He will have more chances to be part of this mission as we continue."
"What do you mean?"
Isaka's smile left. "To start, the capital have been having problems with demons for awhile now. They attacked each region at least once, the last time here was eight years ago. We do not know what they were after since we dealt with them before they could do anything serious." Misaki took a breath. "Even after the attacks, demons have never been a serious threat, until now. Recently we have found demons kidnapping souls."
"Kidnapping souls? Is that even possible?"
"Yes it is Ritsu. Demons have created ways to see and go to Earth. Because of this demons started "people watching." They watch certain people that they like, wait for that person to die or cause the death themselves, and then steal their soul before it gets to Aessa. They have been doing this for over 100 years."
That's horrible. Misaki shook his head. "You want us to stop them?" Nowaki asked.
Isaka shook his head. "It's complicated. Almost every soul they steal gets devoured. The few that stay alive are immediately turned to demons the minute they enter the Underworld and lost to our eyes."
"Why would they be turned to demons? Don't they have to go through a Judgement Circle?" Misaki was confused. To be a demon a soul had to go through a Judgement Circle.
Isaka was thinking of something when Asahina stepped forward. "You see Misaki, when people are born, their life is set in stone. This includes if a person will live a life that makes them become an angel or a demon. Demons have the ability to see those who are destined to be demons. They use this to pick soon-to-be demons to create more, or angels to devour. There's no pattern to who they take and we cannot even track how many souls they have taken."
"So why are we going in now?"
"The Head of the Underworld, Haitani, has been informing us any time he senses light from a pure angel. So far the different groups that get sent in always get there too late."
"And now you are sending Emerald in."
"That's right. A month ago Haitani announced that he once again sensed the light of an angel. Haruhiko sent a team in this time but the group was ambushed by demons. None of them were harmed luckily but came back empty-handed. Now things are different. Usually pure souls cannot even last a week in the Underworld but this Haitani contacted us again saying he found a light belonging to the same soul and even gave us the location of where the soul is being held captive. Your mission is to get him out before the demons kill him. Mistuhashi will be in charge of examining the angel once he returns."
"You guys will be leaving tonight. We have to be quick if we want to get him out."
"Him?"
Isaka sighed, "Yes, this is where things get tricky."
It grew tensed. "What do you mean?" Misaki felt his heart beating loudly in his chest. Yukina started fidgeting. "Who does the soul belong to?" Yukina raised up in his chair. "Isaka-san who?"
"Kisa Shouta."
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Oh no Kisa!