"Well, lookie here," I looked up from my crouched position to see a young looking person standing above me. At first glance, I wouldn't have thought anything strange about them, except that they were clearly a foreigner. However, their aura felt different, good or bad I wasn't sure, but the feeling I got from them was one that I didn't exactly like. The person's way of dressing was strange, not Sammy strange, extremely strange. Why were they wearing so many chains? Literally, their whole person was somehow interwoven with chains all of which were attached to letters that the white clothing underneath could barely be seen. In addition, attached to their right hip was what looked like a trumpet with a lily inside, on their left hip was a lantern, hanging from that was a branch filled with mysterious power and magic. My twelve-year-old self-tilted my head in curiosity as the blonde haired and almond-eyed person. The smile that they were giving me felt off, not the type of smile that a stranger would give to another stranger, but the type of smile that screamed danger.*

Before I could fully turn around and get away from them, I was lifted off the ground and was sent closer to the stranger. I swallowed dryly as I saw the way they were looking at me as if I were a piece of trash that they had to dispose of. I looked down at my hovering feet trying to look anywhere as long as it wasn't in their direction.

"You don't look like anything special child of Satan," as they said father's name my head turned to look at them. They smirked at my response and proceeded with the one-sided conversation. "You remind me of Auntie Yuri, but it's just your face, do you have anything else that is so special about you? The demons that I have come across with are whispering rumors about you having the same power as Uncle. I wonder, are the Holy flames of Caelum truly Holy and rare, or is that a front produced by Grandfather to keep the true reason of the flames. After all, from all the reports from our family line, the only ones that have ever received the flames are those from Eris' line."

"It seems that you know my name, but I do not know yours," I said. Somewhere in the back of my brain, the image of the stranger in front of me reminded me of someone. The way they dressed was too strange, other than demons, angels where the only other beings who would dress like this. The way that an angel and demon dressed is how their powers and status was identified back in the early years of Caelum, even today, it seems that many of the older angels have not forgotten this old law.

"My sincerest apologies young cousin, I am Gabriel, the Messenger of God and God is my strength."

"Gabriel the Messenger."

My mind began screaming at me, it yelled at me to get out from the spell I was under and run, get away from this Archangel as fast as I could. Stories that my family told me seemed to flood through my mind, this angel was no ordinary Archangel, they were the second child of Michael, the messenger of God who told the news to Mary of her pregnancy. They were the messenger who not only relied on the strength of God, they were the literal embodiment of strength, all they had to do was to add pressure on the ground and they could cause an earthquake. The first time they had caused an earthquake, Amaimon had just about had it. He had to be frozen in time for over two decades by Samael to calm down. However, even though this had pissed off Amaimon, it was worse for father. So much worse. It was thirteen years after Yuri was supposed to be reincarnated, however, by the time father had found her as a human child, God had impregnated her with Jesus. Satan was pushed to the edge with this news, his lifelong soulmate was to give birth to his youngest brother, she was stripped of any memory of him, and he was allowed nowhere near her. He could do nothing but stand in the background and watch as she was given a new role in the world of humans. He had to watch how she had given birth at the age of fourteen, watched as she married another human, watched as she became the mother of the religious world, and watched as she died with old age. And as she died all he could think was that he would never be able to see his dear wife in any lifetime again.**

"Yes, Gabriel the Messenger."

"What do you want Archangel? I have nothing on me, and as far as I know, I have done no wrong."

The angel tilted their head and gave a wicked smirk, then a chuckle and then a hardcore laugh.

"Nothing wrong? Nothing wrong, huh? I can see you. I can hear you. I can smell you. I can feel you. I can taste you," they listed off. "Your kind is nothing but trash, trash that must be disposed of, trash that should never have been made. Do you get what I am trying to say with this? You and that nerdy looking brother of yours were born out of a women that should never have been reborn again. You and that human insignificant brother of yours is nothing but a nuisance for our dear Grandfather."

"Insignificant human brother? Is that what you see humans as? Insignificant? Humans are not insignificant, they may have their faults but many have tried their darndest to stay on your good side. But you and the rest of my dear cousins have treated them like dirt, have trampled on them as if they insects, have destroyed their dreams and hopes. They pray to you, ask you to put them on the correct path, but you turn them away, you don't listen to them, you don't even see them. You, stupid angels, are nothing but prideful pieces of crap who do not understand them at all."

"That's right, we don't understand because we are higher beings that don't need petty things like their dreams. We don't need insignificant bugs."

Bugs. Insignificant. Petty dreams.

The creation of humankind by my brothers, father, and mother, were being called the same as bugs. A little brother that may have lied to me, but was still my brother by blood was being called insignificant, the man who took care of me was being compared to as a bug.

How the fuck was I not supposed to not snap?

I exploded.

Literally.

My flame engulfed both of us, and let's just say, their scream was music to my ears after the crap they sprouted. Grabbing Gabriel's face I sent 60-degree Celsius heat through my flames and toward their skin, I watched as the skin underneath my hands began to steam from the heat provided. The smell of charred skin was beginning to reach my nostrils, I mentally cringed at the smell but I did not let it deter me. As I was beginning to see the skin melt from their face, one of their chains wrapped around my waist and threw me off of them. I could feel the chain begin to dig itself into my being and crush my ribs in the process. Gabriel's chain kept swinging me around until they finally allowed it to let me go by throwing me into the densely forested area by the park.

My back hit against a tree, and I could hear my back crack, I winced and let out a cry of pain as the sound reached my ears. I tried to pick myself up again, but by the time I did, I felt a small tremor underneath my being that lost my balance and my face once again met the ground. Groaning I was about to try to get up again when I felt a heavy weight on my body.

"Now lookie here, a child of Satan will be hurt today. Or should I go ahead and just get rid of her? No, she will be a message toward her father and her brothers. This message that I am about to give you should be something that should forever be kept on you, a message that will forever remind you of who gave you this. Yes, I know the perfect message, young cousin."

I craned my neck to watch as their chains begin to change into 12 sharp silver lances, hovering above each of them were scripted verses. Looking at what each of them had written on them I swallowed a whimper and looked down as I felt the first lance being dug into my thigh and dragged to my ankle. Each of the verses allowed for damage to be done upon contact with demon skin, unimaginable torture upon contact, one that burned not only your skin but your mind as well. I held back a scream as I felt my skin burning, the metallic smell begins to fill the air around us by the time we were on the eighth injury. The more scars I was given the more I bit into my bottom lip and blood flowed into my mouth, I looked at the demons that had come out from their hiding place at the smell of blood. Before they came close to stopping Gabriel I pushed them away not wanting them to get hurt as well, from the corner of my eye I saw a small worm poke its head out before burrowing back into the ground. I glanced back toward the Archangel and I could tell he had not yet noticed the worm.

By the time Gabriel had finished with my back, they allowed their wings to show. An ugly pair of grey that held no merit to those of my family, "Aren't you a noble Archangel or what? Did your mother and father never teach you how to clean your wings?"

Another line.

"You're worse than a child cousin, I wonder who is truly the royal family of Caelum? Believe me, you and your family are nothing but commoners in my eyes, that is why your powers, your status, your wings, and appendages, are nothing compared to those belonging to my family." I cried.

"Oh? It seems I almost to forgot to put who the sender was." The gaze in those almond-eyes was that of utter amusement, their voice dripped with nothing but malice.

I watched as they grabbed one of their lances and heard as they muttered a silent curse, "May whoever wields this name of the Messenger of God, live with it till the ends of time either theirs or mine."

And so the name of the Messenger of God branded my back till the day I returned the curse or to the day I die.

The first to find my condition was Azazel, apparently, Beelzebub had informed him of the situation first as none of my other brothers were available in Assiah. I could hear him choke back a sob, as he began to clean the air around us, disinfecting it of harmful bacteria and pollution. The next two to arrive were Beelzebub and Amaimon, quickly the two began to work on gauze and a potion to help aid in stopping the blood loss that was occurring. I could feel the earth tremor once again under my being, Amaimon, and he was pissed, so freaking pissed that he had an expression screaming for vengeance.

As they had stopped the bleeding Samael and Lucifer arrived with some of Lucifer's followers in tow. From the way they dressed in white and gold, I could tell they were a part of his personal medical team. From the distance I could feel the shadows of Iblis, Egyn and Astaroth beginning to search for the Archangel, however, I knew he was far gone by now.

Since that year, I was given a personal escort everywhere, I saw my brothers less and less, and pain streamed all over my body forever more.

Groaning away my sleepiness, I glanced around me trying to identify where I was. The room reminded me of my dorm room back in the Fine Arts department except it included another bed on the other side with two desks in between. I could feel something close to my feet, so I tiredly sat up from my previous position of laying down. Rubbing my eyes so they could be better adjusted to the dark, I could see a figure shifting their position. The small amount of light provided by the stars outside allowed me to identify Shiemi. Her blonde hair cascaded down her arms that were folded in a way to act as a pillow as they laid on top of the bed. Taking a quick glance at the red numbers next to me I saw the time read 03:32. Damn, it's too early for any of this.

Letting my head fall into my palms, I allowed myself to remember what happened before I passed out. Why did they have to see that stupid scar? Stupid Gabriel. Stupid Archangel. Stupid curse.

I shook my head trying to erase the thought of him out of my mind, for crying out loud, I haven't seen that stupid grinning blonde in over three years. I gasped as his laughter came back to me, the laughter he had as he cursed me with the scars and his name. It was because of those scars that I stopped wearing anything girly. It was because of those scars Mephy allowed us to customize our uniforms as long as they followed school regulations. Feeling the mesh material of my black leggings, I groaned with discomfort as I realized I had worn them all day. Honestly, who wears leggings to sleep? Oh, this was uncomfortable, I thought as I moved my sleeping legs slowly; however, I'm glad no one took them off, explaining a name scarred on my back was bad enough but my legs as well? No, not happening.

Shifting into a more comfortable position, I noticed that I was wearing one of my favorite pajama shirts. The grey shirt, with a cute puglie takoyaki depicted on it, was long, but it did its job as being a great shirt to sleep in. As I sat in bed I began to think of all the possible ways I needed to explain the situation to everyone, sure Mephy and I have had discussions on this topic but the plan never came up. Sighing, I decided the best course of action is to not entirely tell the truth, but not give a lie either. The truth a blonde archangel scarred me one day out of nowhere because the whole I'm a demon thing. The lie a human blonde dude, who was the neighborhood bully who started the whole "Rin's a demon" rumors did the scarring. Yeah, that sounded good.

Sighing for the second time after waking up I managed to slip my way out from under the sheets without disturbing the sleeping figure. I watched my bare feet dangle out of bed, hovering a few centimeters above the floorboards. Sitting there I began to think about the past years and I wondered if what I was doing was right. Was it really okay to not tell Fujimoto and Yukio that I've known all along? This whole secret I'm keeping doesn't make me any better than them and I hated that feeling. That itching feeling that gnawed at my being, a family isn't supposed to keep secrets but here I am keeping a secret, many secrets. But, they kept the secret from me first, they didn't tell me anything until I accidentally pissed off Astaroth's vessel. I didn't notice how loudly I groaned at my own thought until I heard Shiemi moan. I turned my head toward her and watched as she stretched her arms above her head and her eyes droop with sleep. She tilted her head in confusion as she saw me sitting on the edge of my bed when she finally seemed to compute that I was awake she jolted and spoke in a rushed tone.

"Rin, you're awake!" Teary eyes looked at me as I begin to find a comfortable position to in. As my back touched the cold wall, and the blanket was pulled to my waist I looked to Shiemi allowing her to continue. "Um, Yukio wants me to ask you questions, please answer if you are able to. Do you know where you are? Do you know what happened before you became unconscious? Do you know what occurred to make you pass out?" The questions flowed out of the girl her eyes gleaming with curiosity and worry. She needs to understand that questions should be asked one at a time with space in between to allow someone to answer them. Looking at my hands, which were curled into the sheets, I gave her a small nod.

"Of course Yukio wants you to ask me questions," I muttered under my breath. "Yeah, I know where I am, we are in the abandoned boy's dormitory for extra study sessions to prepare for the Exwire exam. Before I passed out a Naberius had found its way into the girls' bath and attacked us for no reason. I'd rather not talk about what made me pass out, you guys already saw the scars, and I would like to keep that private for now."

Shiemi looked dejected as I mentioned my unwillingness to speak about the scars. "Don't worry, I'll tell you all when I am ready, until then, please don't ask about them." I smiled at her in hope that my statement would appease her, and when I saw her nod I knew it worked.

"You should rest in your bed Shiemi, we can talk more about this during breakfast with everyone," the girl silently nodded before getting up from her position. I could hear her back pop from the discomfort she experienced and I immediately felt guilty again. This is the life I have to keep up, and I knew the truth was about to come out sooner or later. But something in my gut told me that it would come far too soon for any of us to realize. As the creaking of the bed next to mine came to a halt, and the soft breaths of the young witch reached my ears, I cried. I really can't go any longer like this, my brothers would soon realize this about me too, but it's better they do not. A promise created by the family must be kept unless all parties have allowed it to be told.

I sat on the bed watching the moon's light create shadows from the greenery and the dormitory. They had begun to sneak around the building patrolling the vicinity after all the King of Demons himself ordered them to keep an eye on me. Every now and again, I could feel their beady eyes looking up at my window making sure I was alright, but I really just couldn't care at the moment. By the time sleep came to me, the sun was beginning to rise and a Seraphim had come to wake me as per the usual routine. Reluctantly I began to get dressed in a new school uniform that had been carefully laid out for me by a shadow while I too busy caught up in my thoughts. It was at this moment that I groaned (I've been doing this a lot) as I realized I had yet to take any sort of bath due to the attack from yesterday. Grabbing the stack of clothes that were laid out, I made my way out the door and into the hallway.

The walk to the baths was silent if I excluded the number of creaks provided by the aging floorboards. As I finally reached the staircase leading up to the third-floor baths, I failed to notice a pair of eyes following me until I heard a voice filled with concern.

"Okumura-san, are you okay?" I turned to my left and watched as the curtain of the boys' bath was separated by Konekomaru. The worried expression that he was giving me could rival that of Shiemi, darn both of their cuteness.

"I'm doing just fine Konekomaru, really. I was just heading to the baths. With all the commotion yesterday, I woke up realizing I had yet to take one. I can't show up to class all gross, especially in the kitchens. Do you know how clean a kitchen has to stay? It's the one place, other than a hospital, that has to be cleaned before and after you are to use it, my teachers would freak if they saw any of us be dirty and cooking at the same time. I would really like to avoid any of that before the morning class."

The short boy gave me a small laugh as I described how cleanliness is the number one rule that we must all follow in the kitchen. As I continued to describe it, I waved my hands to add a more dramatic flair at the end of every negative that could come out of an unclean kitchen. The types of embarrassments my teachers had put two students to go through in the past three days, and were those truly embarrassing. It's like a family member embarrassing you in front of your first crush type of embarrassing. Or the type of embarrassment that called for you to just live off the grid until the humiliation had just died down, or the "incident" to just never be mentioned again.

Ever. Again.

Ever. Again.

No, that was not a typo. It took me two repeats of those two words and the threat to never cook for anyone in the monastery ever again for them to understand to never speak of the "incident."

Excusing myself from the boy, I speed-walked all the way to the girl's bathroom not wanting to run into anyone else (namely Yukio) before breakfast. The two cutest members of our strange group were enough.

Walking into the locker room, I could see where the damage was dealt and was currently being cleaned up by a few low-level demons from Mephisto. Tempus*** demons were considered as being Mephisto's offsprings (weird right? My big bro is a father) and had the power to turn back time on anything or anyone they touch, but they could only go back in time for a limited number of days, no more, no less. I watched them as they worked and smiled, demons were peaceful beings, they only ever barred their teeth when someone or something injures an offspring or trespasses too far into their territory. One them looked up at me and gave a small bow before pointing toward the baths and giving me the okay signal, meaning they were ready for use. Nodding a small thanks, I made my way toward the baths for rest and relaxation after yesterday's turmoil.

Not even 15 minutes later, I was out of the bath and dressed in my school attire for the day. Dark black pantyhose covered my legs, a dark blue high waisted tiered skirt over a black long sleeve button up dress shirt with a white waistcoat. To finish off the ensemble of clothes a white military style overcoat with the True Cross Academy crest on the bottom inner corner.****

Slipping on my slippers I walked out of the baths and began making my descent back toward my dormitory where Shiemi was probably still sleeping. And just as I thought, as I entered the small room, there was Shiemi sprawled in bed with her blanket nowhere near her. Seeing the sight I let out a small chuckle as I glanced at the clock: 04:46. Putting down my clothes in the dirty hamper at the foot of my bed, I made for the alarm and began to set an alarm for the young girl, 05:30 should be good enough right? Setting down the alarm on my side of the room, so she wouldn't hit the snooze button, I made my way back outside my room and toward the ground floor kitchen.

As I walked into the kitchen I was greeted with the perfect balance of aromas provided by Ukobach who seemed to be working on finishing today's lunch for everyone.

"It smells delicious as always," I said as I replaced my white overcoat with a black grey apron that I left hanging by the door when I arrived yesterday. Ukobach turned to me and gave me a big smile in return. "I believe that the matatabi sake should be just about finish don't you think? I'll make sure to check on it later on and leave some out for Kuro.

"You finish the finishing touches for lunch and I'll begin with breakfast, sound good?" The little demon let out a sound of agreement as he continued working on making the omelets that would go in each of our bentos.

As I let Ukobach finish this, I began creating a traditional breakfast consisting of grilled fish, miso soup, and steamed rice. As I let those cook, I began to prepare the side dishes of tsukemono, nori, natto, kobachi, and a green salad.

By the time the time was 06:10 some of the students had made their way down from their dorms to get some breakfast. The first to arrive was the Kyoto trio, from the looks of Suguro he had just come back from a morning bath, while the other two still looked groggy, more Shima then Konekomaru.

"Morning you three," I said as I pushed three trays filled with breakfast through the kitchen window.

"How are you feeling?" I was surprised to hear Shima all serious as he asked me this, I would have expected Suguro to be the first, but it was the pink haired instead.

"I'll make it through the day," I paused. "Promise."

He nodded in understanding as he and his bespeckled friend made their ways to one of the tables.

I waited patiently to hear what Suguro had to say to me as his small shadow was currently shaking restlessly trying to find the right words to express his emotions. I heard him let out a breath and he spoke, "I hope one day you'll be able to tell us what happened. We're your friends after all."

Giving him a gentle smile I thanked him as he walked toward his friends.

The next person to walk to the window was Yukio, a stern expression decorated his face, and it didn't let up when he saw me. Instead, it seemed to have gotten worse as he saw my impassive expression. The look in his eyes screamed a want for answers, his shadow was restless to the lack of answers his human was given, and the way his fingers twitched was a tell of annoyance. Yukio could try to act as a mature adult all he wants, but he was still a teenaged boy who had a father who was still in a coma.

"Eat your breakfast first Yukio, I'll say what I have to say later." That seemed to keep him silent, as he took the tray and went to sit down with the other three students.

After that, the rest of the students began to arrive, and as I grabbed my tray I made my way to seat myself between Shiemi and Konekomaru.

Breakfast was silent. With the occasional seconds and going over the schedule, other than that, it seemed as if they were waiting for me to say something.

Sighing, I placed down my chopsticks, "You guys wanna know, I get that. I really do, but to be honest, I'm not ready. I know that I said we would talk about it Shiemi, but give me a bit more time, please?"

They all looked at me, some seemed conflicted, Yukio, Shiemi, and Konekomaru, and others seemed okay with it, Suguro, Shima, and surprisingly Kamiki. The other two sat there indifferently, but their shadows said a different story, the two were spiked with interest more so than the rest were. By the time 07:00 rolled up, it was time for morning tutoring before we had to be at school by 08:30.

"Before I leave, I am going to take one last look at Paku-san. Nee-san, do you mind preparing something easy for her to digest and bringing it up to where she resting? Moriyama-san may you come with me as well? I may need some herbs that you and your Greenman can provide."

Both Shiemi and I nodded at Yukio, "Oh! Ukobach and I prepared bentos for everyone, there are in the kitchen, I'll place them by the window for you guys. However, because I didn't know what you all liked so I kind of just let the contents be the same, hope you don't mind."

As I finished talking I could see Shima and Konekomaru's eyes sparkle at the mention of homemade food for lunch.

Walking into the kitchen, I made my way to the food pantry to grab a packet of instant oatmeal, I then went to the fridge to grab some milk to heat up and apple juice to go with the meal. Once I finished making the meal, I grabbed a food tray and made way up toward the room Paku was resting in. When I arrived at the door, I knocked before letting myself in.

"This should help," I heard Yukio say. "In a couple of days, the fever will subside and you will be on your feet again."

"Thank you Okumura-sensei." said a hoarse voice. Paku glanced in my direction, and I see the small beads of sweat on her forehead as I set down the tray.

"Good morning Paku-san. I brought to some oatmeal and apple juice for you to eat up also some honey in case you want it a bit sweeter. I hope you get well soon."

"Don't worry Paku-san, I'll stay here to help you while everyone else goes to class," said a worried Shiemi.

I glanced towards Kamiki as she just stood there unknowing of what to do.

"Hey eyebrows, if you are still worried, just stay here and protect her," I whispered to her as I passed to go back out. "Either way, she needs you right now."

With that, I left to grab my bag and bento before I made my way toward the Fine Arts department.

My lesson: You can't go through life without pain.

* Gabriel's description comes from wiki/Gabriel. So I found two versions of Gabriel female and male, and from this, I decided to change Gabriel's gender into being androgynous. I hope you guys don't mind? I feel like angels don't have genders to be honest, at least not stereotypical genders but not omegaverse genders either? IDK.

** So in this Yuri is Mary. Mary is Yuri. I know this is not true in a religious view, but for the sake of the storyline, she is. So let me explain a little on the whole Yuri/Mary dying thing through "natural old age." This was Yuri's first time being reincarnated as a human being and since she didn't technically have a physical interaction with God she didn't die right away after giving birth because Jesus in this story is considered to be a blessed child. More on this in later chapters. Promise. Maybe.

*** Tempus is Latin for time. Most made up demon names will be in Latin.

**** So this is the spring version of Rin's uniform the winter uniform skirt is replaced with black double-breasted pants, and the white overcoat is replaced with a dark blue overcoat.

UNIFORM IS THE COVER ART... I am a terrbile artist.

Word Count: 5,142