In this chapter, Yosuke and Sahori will join the fight.
Rest assured, Sahori won't meet the same fate she did in canon. I decided to go a different direction.
Still, I feel like life lessons could be learned for her.
Fortunately, the two will meet a friend. She's not Tao though.
And yes, they will start recruiting demons.
It will make it easier for them to survive.
Cnapter 5: Goddess of Love.
Sahori and Yosuke went to Bethel HQ.
"Are you here to join the fight against demons? I warn you that they can be very scary…" warned the guard in front.
He of course was there to warn everyone if demons decided to attack the headquarters.
"Pretty much." nodded Sahori.
The guard shook their hands.
"Welcome aboard." said the guard.
"You think these daggers will work?" asked Sahori.
They had gone to the armory.
She got the feeling that Yuzuru had been there before them.
"Is it just me, or are both Yuzuru and myself chaotic?" asked Sahori.
"Is he sane?" questioned Yosuke.
"Yeah, but he suspects that YHVH doesn't truly have humanity's best interests in heart." explained the redhead. He and Lucifer weren'r so different in this regard. It was likely that he would take action if he were to ever obtain the throne, however.
"I feel like they suit you. And it's better to have more than one, since you have two hands." noted Yosuke.
Sahori nodded.
"Are you going to the Netherworld? I appreciate you wishing to fight demons, but you need to be careful. There are demons out there that are scary strong. Though if you go to Minato, I imagine you would be safe. Just take care of yourselves." warned a scientist.
Before they left, they decided to explain to their friends where they were going.
That way they could come after them if anything happened.
They used the device and ended up in Minato.
"Look at all the sand. It stretches for miles." noted Sahori.
Yosuke nodded.
Not long after our heroes began to traverse the desert, they discovered something surprising.
"Is that a goddess?" asked Sahori.
"What were the chances?" questioned Yosuke.
"Greetings. My name is Hathor. I am a goddess of love." explained Hathor.
"I guess you're a friendly goddess then." spoke Sahori.
"Unfortunately, YHVH never seemed to see things that way." continued the goddess.
"Really?" asked Yosuke.
"I tried to explain that all I wanted was to give humanity love and compassion, but YHVH wouldn't listen to me." explained Hathor.
He felt that humanity would be better off with only one god.
However, she noted that he spent most of his time watching and not taking action. Hathor herself was not planning to do the same. But YHVH decided to make a barrier separating gods from mortals.
And when he did take action, the results were kind of extreme.
She remembered the time he had flooded the Earth. He had promised not to do so again, but was flooding the Earth really necessary?
She liked to think there was another solution to the world's problems. Though she did wonder why humanity eould break the one promise they shd made to God regarding the apple tree he made. It didn't seem hard to listen to him.
"Sounds like he's a piece of work." explained Sahori.
"Unfortunately, while YHVH is gone, there are still those who would oppress others around them." noted Hathor.
"Like who?" asked Yosuke.
"There's this demon with a long nose who is terrorizing other demons…more chaotic ones, to be precise. You'd be doing others a favor if you got rid of him." explained Hathor.
"I suppose we should try to make the Netherworld a better place while we're here." noted Sahori.
If she made Da'at a better place, it just might make Earth a better place as well.
After all, demons were starting to seep into Tokyo.
It didn't take her long to realize what was going on.
"He is not a strong demon, so I figured this would be a good start to getting you used to the Netherworld." spoke the goddess.
Even so, they could tell why Hathor wanted to do something about him.
"Kneel before me! Or I'll blast you with lightning!" exclaimed Vodyanik.
A nearby Napaea gasped.
"Now that's just wrong." said Sahori.
"Lightning? That's a problem. I'm weak to it…" pointed out Yosuke.
"Really?" asked the girl.
"No worries, I'll give you these." spoke Hathor.
She gave him Elec Dampers.
"I'm not sure what these are, but I'm sure they'll be helpful." said Yosuke.
"Chances are they will." nodded Hathor.
Yosuke and Sahori approached the lawful evil demon.
"Ah, you two will bow before me, will you not?" asked Vodyanik.
"Trust me, you want to do what he says!" exclaimed Melchior. It was for their sake of their health.
He handed the long-nosed demon a bag of cash.
"Yeah…I think he needs to be stopped." said Sahori.
His lawfulness only made him slimy. Though she supposed some order was needed to make a productive society.
"If you try to stop me, you shall get zapped!" exclaimed Vodyanik.
Sahori stabbed him with a knife.
"Ow! How dare you! You shall pay the price for defying me!" bellowed the long-nosed demon.
He slashed at Sahori with his claws.
"Ow!" exclaimed the girl.
"You alright?" asked Yosuke.
"When you're as unfortunate as I am, you build up some resilience. So yes, I'm fine." nodded Sahori.
Her partner sighed in relief. Perhaps being unfortunate wasn't so bad.
Vodyanik attacked with lightning, as he implied he would do.
"I don't want my own skeleton to be visible. That's disturbing." spoke Sahori.
"I know." nodded Yosuke.
Unfortunately, they could not avoid the lightning strikes forever.
Sahori's partner got hit.
"Aah!" exclaimed the boy.
Because this was his weakness, he got knocked down.
"Hahahahahaha!" shouted the long-nosed demon.
He attempted to slash Yosuke, but got stabbed by Sahori for his trouble.
"No!" shouted the redhead.
"This redheaded girl's good." remarked Vodyanik.
He attempted to attack her, but Yosuke stabbed him with a kunai.
The blue demon let out a screech.
He attacked with lightning again, but Yosuke used an Elec Dampener.
This worked surprisingly well.
In fact, Yodyanik was zapped to death.
"Aaaarghhh! You got me! I never knew that humans would defend demons…" spoke the long-nosed demon.
Vodyanik had perished.
"I wasn't expecting this demon to be lawful, but I'm glad we got rid of him." spoke Sahori. What this demon was doing was wrong. Other demons did not exist to serve him.
Yosuke nodded.
The same Napaea from before approached him.
"I think I'll tag along with you! You're cute!" exclaimed Napaea.
"Me? Cute?" asked Yosuke.
Napaea nodded.
"Wow. You really brighten up my day." remarked the wind user.
The fairy giggled.
"I could say the same to you." said Sahori.
Yosuke's cheeks turned pink.
Likewise, Melchior agreed to join as well. Though he chose to side with Sahori instead.
"This one's on the house." said the money-loving demon.
"OK, great." nodded Sahori.
"I didn't know demons could be friendly." remarked Yosuke.
Hathor suddenly appeared.
"I will admit angels do think that demons are always evil, but that is not the case. Though there are demons out there that are evil." admitted Hathor.
There was one demon out there she was too afraid of to speak her name. Even other demons were afraid to. But she wasn't going to talk about her at the moment.
"It would probably be best if we don't meet them." spoke Sahori.
"Unfortunately, not all angels are good as well." answered the goddess.
"They're both starting to remind me of humans themselves." noted the redhead.
"Yes. Demons and angels can both be very similar to humans. However, angels are naturally inclined to be lawful and demons are inclined to be chaotic. That's where the conflict between them comes from. They can alter their morality, however." explained Hathor.
"Yiu sure are a helpful source of information." noted Yosuke.
"When you've lived as long as I have, you tend to learn a lot of things. I'm not quite a goddess of wisdom though." continued the goddess.
"So, will you be watching over us?" asked Sahori.
"Of course. Though I do feel a special connection to your partner. I'm not quite sure what it is, however." explained Hathor.
"I see." nodded the redhead.
Hathor disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.
However, Abdiel (the supreme commander of the angels) noticed what was going on.
She wasn't happy that a goddess was interacting with humans. Though one could say she was a goddess herself. People said she was powerful. Both her angelic allies and her demonic enemies admitted that.
"This isn't good. Not only has our leader perished, but the gods and goddesses are beginning to find their other halves. This will destroy his legacy." noted the angel.
It was all Lucifer's fault. He had killed YHVH. How could he do such a thing? Did he even realize the consequences of that? Because of him, Tokyo was eventually going to fade. What would the humans do then?
Though for some strange reason, Lucifer didn't seem to be doing anything other than sitting on his throne.
Why was he doing that?
Well, she decided not to dwell on that. It made taking the throne from him a lot easier if he himself wasn't taking fuether sction agains the angels.
Though she couldn't help but wonder why Lucifer would want to betray YHVH in the first place.
What was wrong with creating humans?
On that subject, she had discovered a peculiar boy in the Netherworld.
He had befriended an angel, but he had changed the angel somehow.
She seemed a bit more…chaotic.
However, she did not feel like he had corrupted the angel. The angel was innocent as ever, just slightly different. The other angels would wonder what had happened to her, however.
But even so, she decided she wished to meet this person.
So she decided she would fly to him.
Perhaps she could send him home.
But then again, he was recruiting others to join his cause.
So maybe he wasn't in such a hurry to leave.
Unfortunately, not all was well with the angels, aside from YHVH's death.
Admittedly, things weren't so honestly bad for them. Many angels admitted to feeling free now he was gone, though Abdiel herself felt that YHVH was a great leader.
But there was a demon named Lahmu who felt like angels were oppressive tyrants. Unlike Lucifer, he did not intend to just sit on his throne and not do anything. It was clear he intended to take direct action.
Fortunately for the angels, they didn't have to worry too much about demons. While demons themselves could not, angels could freely cross over the barrier and go to the human world.
However, they didn't generally interact with the humans, and watched them from above instead.
But unfortunately for the angels, now that YHVH was dead, things were beginning to change.
Abdiel had discovered that holes were beginning to appear in the barrier. The barrier was weakening now that the god who created it was dead.
Luckily, the holes were small, and only weak demons would seep through.
She considered herself lucky (and was grateful) for this reason. These demons were harmless and would not threaten humans.
Well, most of them. But humanity was one step ahead of her. They had already created a group known as Bethel to keep countries all across the world safe. And it was working out surprisingly well.
Humans rarely reported an attack that appeared to be the work of demons. So they were indeed doing their jobs well. Though there had been nasty murders lately.
However, Abdiel still had a reason to be worried, aside from those grisly murders.
Why? Because these holes were gradually getting bigger. Other angels were monitoring the holes.
And if they were getting bigger, it was only a matter of time before stronger demons leaked through.
It was only a matter of time before a truly terrifying demon got through the barrier. If that happened, nobody in the immediate area would be safe.
Abdiel feared that the human world would descend into chaos. This is not what her god would have wanted.
Perhaps it would be best if she made an alliance with Bethel.
There was one small problem though. For starters, she did not know much about Prime Minister Koshimizu.
It seemed like he had appeared out of thin air.
By that logic, she should not place blind trust in him.
She felt she could trust the other members of the Japanese branch, but they weren't as inclined to order as the angels were. Would they agree to her requests?
She would have to think it over.
Meanwhile, Tao, Ichiro, and Yuzuru were approached by a demon resembling a green skeleton.
"This demon looks scary." remarked the angel.
"I know!" exclaimed the blonde boy.
"Maybe, but we shouldn't judge demons before getting to know them." pointed out Yuzuru.
"I'm not a devourer of humans! I just wish to do business!" exclaimed Gustave.
It seemed that this demon was not hostile. Chances are they would already know if they were. When a hostile demon discovered them, their response was typically to try to eat them.
He was being honest.
"Yeah…you don't exactly look like you eat much." explained the bespectacled boy.
"I agree with you on that one." noted Ichiro.
"I assure you, I'm in perfect health. It makes me feel so healthy being surrounded with treasures!" exclaimed Gustave.
"We should consider doing business with him." suggested Yuzuru.
"But are you sure it's a legitimate business?" asked Ichiro.
"The prices seem fair to me." explained Yuzuru.
"Ok then." nodded Tao.
Sure enough, Gustave had wares that they could use to survive out in the demon desert.
"If you need me, you can use the leyline point." explained the green skeleton.
He used it to hop from place to place. It was very helpful for doing the business.
"The leyline point?" questioned Tao.
"It's right over there." noted Gustave.
He pointed a bony finger at the blue portal.
"I wonder if we can use this to get around." questioned the angel. Something told her it could have multiple uses, however.
"You certainly can. We should stay focused on finding a way out of the Netherworld, however. You have friends that are waiting for you to return, do you not?" asked Aogami.
"Yeah, I do. Though I am making new friends. Will I have to say goodbye to them?" inquired Tao.
That sounded sad.
"Not necessarily. But it would be best if you kept them a secret from Tokyo. They might panic if you find out that you have been interacting with creatures that are considered bizarre to them. But you should feel comfortable talking about them to Bethel. They do in fact often work with these creatures."
Tao sighed in relief.
Meanwhile…
At the Jouin High School, two mean girls were wondering where Sahori had gone.
Their names were, you guessed it, Ami and Suzume.
They were planning to torment her.
But she had disappeared.
"Did she run away from school?" asked Ami.
"Where is she?" questioned Suzume.
"I don't know, but she can't hide from us forever." assured Suzume's partner.
"Got that right." nodded Ami.
Sahori was in trouble.
Looks like Yosuke has made a new friend.
Of course, he made one not too long ago.
And yes, he just might become a Nahobino.
Perhaps his circle of friends can all become a Nahobino.
Oh, and they're making friends too.