Disclaimer: I do not own Owari no Seraph (Seraph of the End). I write this for your enjoyment only. This story is an alternate version of the Nagoya Arc with differences from the original; please refer to the footnotes at the end. Once again, I would like to thank my beta reader, ResidentialPsycho, for her help in making this fic possible. Enjoy and please review!

Chapter 28: The Rebellious Son

November 20, 2020

Shinjuku Demon Army Headquarters

"Sir, preparations have been completed for the relocation of angels six and seven!" Colonel Aoi Sangu reported as she saluted the lieutenant general of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army from behind. *1*

Without turning around, Kureto Hiragi, nodded in acknowledgement to his subordinate's report as he continued to gaze down at the bustling activity on the ground below from his spot atop the main building of the Shinjuku Demon Army Headquarters branch.

"Good," he said, his voice betraying no emotion. "The sooner we get this going, the better."

"Of course, sir. Speaking of which…"

Curious, Kureto was about to ask Aoi what else was on her mind when they were rudely interrupted by the last person both of them wanted to see or hear from.

"Hey, Kureto…" a gruff male voice cut in.

"What do you want, brother?" Kureto sneered as he turned around and gave his younger half-brother, whom he had not seen since Yuichiro's interrogation, a contemptuous look. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

Seishiro Hiragi shot him a dirty look. He knew the only time Kureto ever called or acknowledge him as a brother was to mock him and it was no secret among the Demon Army soldiers that they truly despised each other.

"I'm not exactly here because I want to pay you a social call, Kureto," Seishiro growled. "I can think of a lot of other things I'd rather do with my time but since the vampires are launching an attack soon, father has ordered me to make sure you don't screw up; he won't tolerate failure."

Like his subordinate, Guren Ichinose, laughing was not something that came easily to Kureto Hiragi. But as soon as he heard his younger brother's not-so-subtle threat, he broke out into a guffaw.

"Did you just say father won't tolerate failure, Seishiro? Hahaha! Now that's rich!"

Thinking that his elder brother wasn't taking him seriously, Seishiro shot him a hateful glare.

"What's so funny?" he demanded. "I'd like to know what you find so amusing about this situation, brother!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Seishiro. I laughed because I thought you were trying to make a joke!" Kureto answered with a wolfish grin.

"A joke? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't you get it, brother? Did it go right over your head that if I do fail, all of humanity is doomed? Should that happen, do you think father's opinion will matter then?"

Furious and humiliated that Kureto had just insulted his intelligence, and right in front of Aoi no less, Seishiro pointed a threatening finger at him.

"How dare you!" he shouted. "You forget your place, Kureto! How about I report your insolent remark to our father right now?!"

Unfazed by the threat, Kureto merely looked at Seishiro in amusement.

"My place? Do you think that an incompetent idiot who has never even stood on the front lines has the right to lecture me?"

Seishiro's face flushed an ugly red at his elder brother's insult, one they both knew was not far from the truth. Like the rest of the Hiragi siblings with the exception of Shinya, Seishiro had received his high rank in the Demon Army solely because of his birth. But unlike Kureto, Shinya, and even Shinoa, he had almost no ability to command troops in battle. It was also no secret that Seishiro's hatred of Guren stemmed from the fact that a son of the lower Ichinose house was a far more competent commander than he was.

Drawing his sword, the younger Hiragi son leveled it at his brother.

"I won't tolerate your insults towards me or our father any longer, brother," he said menacingly.

In response, Kureto palmed the hilt of his own sword even though he had yet to show any signs of drawing it. But his eyes glittered dangerously, sending shivers down his younger brother's spine. If he had wanted, Kureto could have easily cut Seishiro down before he even had a chance to move.

"Haha… oh please, Seishiro. You're even less competent with the sword than you are commanding troops; you wouldn't stand a chance against me. Do you think father would come running to save you if I decided to kill you where you stand right here and now? After all, we both know your sword and those decorations on your uniform are just for show."

"Why you! I ought to arrest you for treason against our father!" Seishiro angrily shouted and turned to give the order to the two soldiers who had been accompanying him.

But when he turned around, all Seishiro saw were the lifeless corpses of two young soldiers lying on the ground with an emotionless Aoi Sangu standing over them. Judging from the frozen expressions on their faces, Aoi must have killed them even before Seishiro threatened to have Kureto arrested.

"You conniving bastard!" Seishiro growled as he turned back to face his elder brother. "Do you really think you can get away with this?"

Kureto shrugged and brushed off Seishiro's threat.

"Of course, I will. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a world to save. You and the rest of the human race can thank me later."

Before Seishiro could ask him what the hell he meant, Aoi, who had witnessed the entire heated exchange between the two Hiragi brothers in silence, finally cut in.

"Lieutenant General, all of the preparations for departure are complete. Your personal flight is also ready. We can move at your earliest convenience."

"Excellent," Kureto replied.

"Personal flight? What, are you planning a vacation, Kureto? The vampires are heading right to Shinjuku now to attack us!" Seishiro exclaimed, shocked by the casual manner in which his elder brother was handing their dire situation.

"You've no need to worry, Seishiro. The vamps will never even set foot in the Kanto region because I'm going to imprison and destroy them in Nagoya," Kureto answered coolly.

"What? Father never mentioned such a thing!"

"That's because he doesn't know."

"What? Are you fucking kidding me!?" Seishiro demanded. "We even sent you troops from Shibuya because you said the vampires were coming to attack Shinjuku, or was that a load of bullshit too? Are you planning to defy our father?"

"And what if I am?" Kureto challenged. "In case you haven't noticed, I am the one keeping the Demon Army together and doing the work of pushing the vampires back, not our dear old dad."

"Oh, and that makes everything fine and dandy, doesn't it? What the hell are you playing at, brother? Tell me or by God, I'll…"

Before Seishiro could even finish his sentence, Kureto finally drew his sword from its sheath with the speed of a viper and leveled it right at his face, just a fraction of a centimeter from the spot between his eyes. Frightened, Seishiro finally threw his arms up in surrender.

"N..no, wait! Please don't kill me!" he pleaded.

Kureto smirked with satisfaction at seeing his younger brother change his defiant tune.

"Its as I've always thought; you are indeed a coward, little brother. Even so, you are obedient to whoever holds power. As long as that remains true, I can still make use of you. I'm feeling a bit generous today, so I won't have you thrown in the brig for running your mouth without thinking. Just stay here like a good little boy until I return with power beyond your comprehension."

Seishiro gritted his teeth but did not dare to make a rebuttal to his elder brother's words. Now that Kureto was finished with him, at least for the time being, he turned back to Aoi.

"What is the subject's condition?" the lieutenant general asked his subordinate.

"Unstable, sir. She seems to be in extreme pain and appears to be getting out of control."

"Then increase the drug dosage and force her back into submission," he ordered.

Although fiercely loyal to her commander, even Aoi was hesitant to relay such an order to the scientists trying to control the test subject in question.

"But sir, if we do that, she could die."

"I understand your concern, Aoi. But if we lose control of the subject, all of humanity will be doomed anyway," Kureto said calmly. Normally, the lieutenant general did not tolerate his subordinates questioning his orders, but Kureto did have somewhat of a soft spot for Aoi Sangu, his most loyal servant and trusted confident.

The blonde woman made a slight bow. "Yes, sir. Forgive my impudence. I will relay your order immediately."

"Good."

"Will that be all, sir?"

"Almost. Do we have a status report from Guren yet?"

Aoi shifted on her feet slightly. "He says 'everything is fine.'"

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

Kureto chuckled as if he was expecting such a simple answer from his raven-haired subordinate.

"That's just like him."

Aoi raised a brow in curiosity. "Sir?"

Kureto shook his head. "Nevermind. I was just talking to myself. Let's go. Time's a-wastin', as the western saying goes."

"Yes, sir."

SSSSSS

"Nii-san, help me!" Mirai Kimizuki screamed as white-hot pain ripped through her body. Had the girl not been securely strapped to the chair she was sitting on, she might have smashed the glass of her holding chamber.

Upon seeing the restraints on Mirai's wrists and ankles starting to loosen slightly due to her wild thrashing, one of the scientists examining her though the glass started to feel nervous. Normally, a small human child would not have been able to do such a thing. But being constantly pumped with high dosages of synthetic drugs to force her hidden powers to the surface also gave Mirai unnatural strength as well.

"Hey, don't you think we should cut it off here?" he asked his colleague, who was getting off the phone with Aoi Sangu.

The other scientist shook his head. "No. Just the opposite: increase the dosage."

His companion stared at him as though he had just lost his mind.

"Are you sure? Any more and the subject can die. That is, if she doesn't go mad and attack us first."

"We have no choice; this is a direct order from the lieutenant general himself. If you're afraid of her breaking out of the chamber, I've got a tranquilizer gun right here."

"All right, if you say so. I know its not my place to question the higher ups, but I sure hope Lord Hiragi knows what the hell he's doing."

"Believe me, friend, I feel the same way."

"Stop! It hurts!" Mirai screamed as she struggled against her bonds. In addition to being strapped to a chair, she also had several tubes inserted into her body so that the doctors observing her could continue to drug her behind the safety of the glass separating them.

This time, however, the girl was finally able to break free of her restraints with a strength born of pain and terror, and charge straight towards her tormentors, punching at the glass in an attempt to smash it.

And she would have succeeded as well if two pairs of wings had not burst from her back, causing her to finally lose consciousness from the pain and collapse. Before everything went dark, Mirai called for her pink-haired brother, hoping that somewhere, he would be able to hear her.

"Help me, nii-san…"

SSSSSS

"Mika, if you're not feeling well enough, I can drive. I'm not so weak that a little blood loss would stop me," Yuichiro offered from her seat on the passenger side of the sedan she and her foster brother found and hotwired outside the hospital.

The blond vampire rolled his eyes. "Considering how much blood I took from you, I prefer not to take any chances, Yuu-chan. Driving while anemic can be just as dangerous as driving drunk."

Yuichiro scowled. "Do you speak from personal experience, or are you just talking out of your ass, Mika?" she demanded.

Mikaela sighed and tried another approach since they both knew he had been turned long before he was legally old enough to drink and had never been drunk. And they both knew he was wise enough not to drive when he hadn't had enough blood.

"Yuu-chan, even if I allowed you to drive, do you even know where Nagoya Airport is and how to get there?" he asked patiently.

Yuichiro felt her cheeks growing hot at the embarrassing question. She honestly didn't know where the airport was since she was not familiar with the city and had been depending on Shinoa and Shinya to lead the way. But now that Yuichiro had been separated from her squad leader and commander with no map of the area, she wouldn't even know where to start looking. To make things even more difficult, most of the road signs were also broken or missing so she would have to depend on Mikaela after all. At least he looked like he knew where he was going.

Thinking it was best to change the subject, Yuichiro said:

"Never mind, then. Anyway, you looked like you wanted to tell me something else before we left the hospital. What was it?"

Mikaela was silent for a moment as he thought back to what Krul had told him about Yuichiro before he left Sanguinem to find her. How was he to tell his foster sister that she housed a power inside her body that was coveted by the most powerful human organizations as well as vampire progenitors around the world?

"It's actually about you…" he began. "Before the world fell, you, me, and the rest of our brothers and sisters were being experimented on using dangerous combinations of science and sorcery that resulted in the disastrous epidemic that wiped out nearly all the adults eight years ago. But after the apocalypse, the Demon Army was able to get a hold of you and possibly one other, so they continued the experiment in secret in order to create a weapon that would turn the tide of this war in their favor. But this time, it's even more dangerous than before because if this power is abused, it may end up destroying all life on Earth. Now, do you understand why I can't simply hand you back to your mentor or his superiors?"

"Then, where do you suggest we go, Mika?" Yuichiro challenged. "Do you really believe there's any place on earth we can possibly hide? I don't want to live the rest of my life on the run like a common criminal."

"I can understand that, Yuu-chan. But don't you think that's better than endangering the entire planet? You did say that you took an oath to protect humanity when you joined the Demon Army, didn't you?"

Yuichiro groaned but had to admit that her brother was right.

"Fine," she said. "But I still need to make sure my friends are alright first. Maybe we can even recruit their help."

"You're sure we can trust them?"

"You can ask me that after they risked their lives to let us get away?"

"Ok, ok, fine. I'll trust your word. But, if I detect even the slightest hint of deceit in your comrades, I'm taking you away with me no matter what you say. And I can do it, too, Yuu-chan."

Now it was Yuu's turn to roll her eyes. "Of course, you can," she said simply. "I wouldn't stand a chance against you, Mika. Even when we were kids, you always won all our wrestling matches and I had the bruises to prove it."

"I would not have been so rough with you if I knew you were a girl back then, Yuu-chan," Mika replied, purposely neglecting that he already had nagging suspicions about her true sex when he noticed that her body felt different while they grappled. But he always ignored them because Yuichiro acted like a boy in every sense of the word and insisted on being treated like one. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you: when did you start dressing and acting like a girl? Was it when your mentor found out the truth? I'm guessing you didn't simply come out and tell him."

Yuichiro turned her head and looked out the side window, hiding her blush as she recalled the time Guren charged into her medical tent after she sustained injuries from fighting the rogue vampire in Shinjuku. Her mentor had been so shocked after believing that Yuu was a boy for an entire year after he took her in that he couldn't even speak to her for a whole week until he was finally able to wrap his head around the fact that she was female.

When he noticed his sister's reluctance to answer his question, Mika decided to press the issue a bit further in order to sate his curiosity.

"Well?"

Knowing that Mikaela wasn't going to leave her alone until he got an answer, Yuichiro finally gave in and turned to face him once more.

"It was when I was injured trying to fight a rogue vampire by myself in Shinjuku shortly after I turned thirteen," she answered. "I had to be treated which required me to undress because the wound was in my shoulder. Guren was worried about me and thought I was seriously hurt, so he barged into the tent where I was being treated without asking for permission to enter first." *2*

"And that's when he saw…?"

"Yes. I know that there's no love lost between you and Guren, Mika. And I'm not asking you to trust him, even I don't trust him completely. But he did save my life and raise me after I escaped the vampire city all those years ago, so I owe him that much at least. If Guren had not found me, I probably wouldn't have survived outside of Sanguinem for more than a few days, let alone until now. And believe it or not, he also motivated me to at least try to find another reason to live after I thought I lost you along with Akane and the others. That, and finally accepting my true self."

"I see… Well, it looks like your mentor did do a decent job of teaching you how to fight and survive. I guess I can also appreciate him encouraging you to finally accept being a girl and looking like one as well," Mika admitted. "But still, I will never like him."

At her brother's tone, Yuu found a small smile tugging at her lips, which didn't escape Mika's notice.

"What are you smiling about?" he demanded suspiciously.

Unable to resist the temptation to tease Mika, Yuu gave him a bit of a mischievous look and said:

"Oh, nothing, Mika. For a moment there, you actually sounded like you were a little jealous…"

Now that caught his attention!

"I am not jealous!" the blond insisted, blushing furiously. "I don't like your mentor because I think he's a manipulative bastard who saved you just so he can use you!"

"Is that really the only reason, Mika?"

"I just don't like the idea of anyone using you, Yuu-chan," he answered, side-stepping her question.

"Says the guy who drank my blood," she shot back with a wink.

"You were the one who offered, remember?"

"Yes, I do. I was just teasing you; you really do need to learn how to take a joke, Mika. You're way too serious all the time."

"You would be, too, if you lived among other vampires as I have. They aren't known for being emotionally expressive or for their sense of humor", Mika replied, trying not to think about how Ferid was a counter-example to what he just said.

"Ok, ok, I get it. Anyway, how much longer till we reach the airport?"

"Not long. About ten minutes."

"You're sure? Are you familiar with the area? Because most of the signs are broken and there are no maps in the car."

"As a matter of fact, I am. I've been in this city before, Yuu-chan."

"Wow, lucky for me, then. I'm so glad I ran into you again, Mika."

"Please tell me you're teasing me again, Yuu-chan."

"I am. The reason I decided to keep following Guren even after I found out he hasn't been entirely truthful with me is because I believed that it would eventually lead me to you. But it looks like you were the one who found me first, so it worked out after all."

Satisfied and somewhat relieved, Mikaela finally returned his sister's good-natured smile. They may not be naive children anymore but having a banter like this made it feel like old times again.

And that made almost everything Mika had endured until now worthwhile.

Footnotes:

1. The scene with Kureto and Seishiro takes place roughly at the same time Guren and company storm the Nagoya City Hall building to free the hostages and confront Crowley. So does the scene with Mirai. I just couldn't find a proper spot to insert them into the previous chapters until this one.

2. Refer to "Who She is Within", chapter 14.