Well, hello there and welcome to my wonderful author's notes. Yeah. Basically, this story has a fairly strong grounding of shounen-ai, as mentioned before, and if you don't like that, then you know where the back button on your browser is as well as I do. Constructive criticism is always welcomed; however things like "OMG! Dat'z so gross!!!!!!1!" will be made fun of more then anything else. Oh yes, and this story might offend some people from the way it views religion. No offence is meant in it. Remember, it's a story.

Anyway, without further ado, hope you enjoy. Or if you don't, well… I don't know. Read something else?

All he could do, as the sabre of light and all that was pure pierced his skin, tearing layers of flesh and more, imbedding itself further into his chest, was writhe and scream. Blood poured out of the wound, soaking his chest, dying his once pale-blue shirt a dark crimson. And as the pain built to an excruciating level, it was all he could do but hope and pray to the gods that had shunned him previously to have mercy on him and let him die quickly.

"Did you hear that?" A young female angel asked, turning to her older brother questioningly, who shook his head, shivering.

"No, I didn't hear it, but I can feel something… amiss. Can you sense that aura?"

Another young female scoffed. "You're full of it, Hayate. You and your stupid aura-sensing,"

The male, Hayate, shook his head slowly. "No… I can sense it. There's a… demon here,"

"You're bullshitting, Hayate," the second female raised her eyes up to the roof. "May the holy gods come and save us from dealing with Hayate's supernatural aura bullshit,"

"Ayane!" the first girl chastised gently. "That's disrespectful!"

"Shut up," Ayane retorted angrily. "As if you would know. Little sucky pet that you are. You wouldn't know what sort of shit the other realms have to deal with. We're lucky we get all the kudos and everything. The other realms are holes,"

"Ayane, Kasumi, please, desist for a moment," Hayate had his eyes shut. "There is a demon somewhere here. But for some reason… it feels… different. He feels… different,"

"So it's a 'he' now?" Ayane muttered as Hayate went down the stairs, Kasumi following, Ayane reluctantly trailing after them.

At the sound of Hayate's soft gasp, the girls edged forward, as though transfixed by the gruesome sight that met them.

A young demon, judging by Hayate's aura-reading, at least, was lying motionless on the ground. A sabre was buried in the demon's chest, dark blood staining the concrete.

"He's a demon all right," Kasumi, although not having the aura-sensing skills of her brother, was still picking up waves. She shivered, rubbing her bare arms. "He gives me the creeps,"

There was no way to tell that he was a demon, at least physically. That was until Hayate bent down beside the prone figure and noticed small rivulets of blood running from closed eyes.

"Tears," Hayate mused softly. "He's still alive,"

"How can you tell?" Ayane asked impatiently.

"His aura is still alive. Hence, he must still be alive," Hayate informed them patiently.

"Stupid aura bullshit," Ayane muttered under her breath as Hayate turned back to the motionless figure, leaning over the figure and pulling at the sabre with all his might.

Underneath him, the demon, suddenly roused from pain-induced unconsciousness, gasped aloud as the sabre was pulled out of his chest. Hayate flinched upon hearing the sound of tearing flesh. The wounds had already started to close around the sabre's blade.

"Hold him down!" Hayate cried out as the demon began lashing desperately, trying to stop the source of pain and the angels who had no doubt already bestowed much pain upon him. Kasumi shook her head fearfully as a normal hand slowly morphed into a black, menacing claw in front of their eyes. Ayane on the other hand grabbed another two sabres from the nearby holders and stabbed them through the demon's hands, skilfully pinning them down to the ground. She had to hold them down tightly as the demon thrashed for a moment, only making the wounds bigger.

"Please stop," The demon sounded defeated. For some odd reason, Hayate was feeling a strange attachment to this demon he had never met before.

"Quit it, he's not struggling any longer. Thanks for your help, though, Ayane,"

Ayane reluctantly let go of the sabres and pulled them out of the demon's hands. The demon turned startlingly green eyes to Hayate.

"I apologise. I didn't mean to startle you. I thought that you were… them, again,"

Hayate understood the hidden meaning to the statement. "No. You can't stay in here. Will you be alright?"

The demon nodded simply. "Wounds heal,"

"Good," he relaxed. "My name is Hayate. I'm heir to this kingdom. This is my sister, Kasumi, and my other sister, Ayane,"

"Half sister," the demon said immediately.

Ayane narrowed her eyes and was about to storm over, but Hayate quickly intercepted.

"How do you know?"

The demon shook his head. "I shouldn't have mentioned anything. Just her aura is similar to the… ours, but yet a lot purer. Quite a rare combination,"

Ayane looked away, muttering curse words under her breath, but both Kasumi and Hayate could tell that she was quite pleased with being noticed so readily, even if it was being noticed for her true form, which was half demon, half angel, something rare in itself, although veiled to most.

"And you would be…?"

"Ryu," To Hayate's surprise, the demon held out his non-clawed hand, before retracting it almost immediately, looking apologetic.

"No, don't worry about it," Hayate shook the hand regardless. "Nice meeting you, Ryu. Shame we had to meet under these circumstances. Not exactly what you would call the homiest of places. If you don't mind my asking, how did a demon end up in this realm?"

"I honestly don't know," Ryu admitted. "I just walked around… and ended up here. Before I could leave again, I was captured and brought here,"

"Yes. We usually don't allow the entering of another species here. Most are quite wary and will act before they realise anybody's true intentions,"

With a smooth yet startling cracking sound, the demon claw morphed slowly back into a normal hand.

"You can morph backwards and forwards at will?" Hayate questioned, feeling his own wings tense at the notion of such a rare and potentially dangerous ability in front of him.

"Yes. However, because of this, anybody that can do it is more susceptible to changing against their will, as well. Any strong emotions can be a potential cause for change," Ryu's voice was smooth and gentle, a rich alto.

"Double-edged sword?" Hayate questioned. Ryu simply nodded. The wound was already beginning to close, but would no doubt be giving the demon some pain still. "So. Let's get out of here, alright? You won't be able to stay in here,"

Without a word, the demon followed Hayate obediently up the stairs, a wary Kasumi and a somewhat disgruntled Ayane trailing behind. Even as he walked, pure white wings bobbing behind him, Hayate couldn't help but question the demon's intentions.

He's a demon. But he has such a pure aura. I thought demon's auras were supposed to be black, but this… this is nothing like I anticipated. However, there's something there I can't quite read. Feels a bit like affection, but why? Who for?

For some reason… it almost feels like me…