Thankfully, Midorima and Takao's taxi didn't break down on their way to the shrine and it was surprisingly a normal ride. That had Takao on edge more than before. He figured that the goddess was wanting them to come to her, but he didn't know why. He simply knew that it was most likely not a good thing. He didn't mention anything to Midorima though, he didn't want to worry the human.

Once the two arrived and exited the car, they found themselves hesitating. Neither one had actually entered the shrine grounds yet, instead, they stood there and looked to where they were supposed to go. It wasn't like they were afraid, they were just slightly nervous about it. Both the human and the demon had no idea what was about to happen. Plus, Takao was still worried about being able to protect his human in his weakened state.

"Takao, are you sure you'll be able to enter the shrine?" It was the human who'd finally broken the silence. He was trying to hide it, but it was obvious that he was worried about the demon.

"Well, the goddess... Have I even told you what her name is yet?"

"I don't think so?"

"Ah, well her name is Yoshi... Anyway, she is corrupted, so I'm sure the grounds aren't holy or anything. I'm more concerned about her powers as a goddess. Even though she herself is corrupted, there still may be some residual holy powers within her." Takao wasn't lying about his worries, but he also wasn't telling his human the whole truth.

"I'm sure if she wanted to kill us, she would have already."

"I wouldn't say that just yet Shin. You don't know how this is going to go. We could both die here." Midorima could now tell how concerned his demon was. It caused the green-haired male to also begin to feel those emotions as well, but for some reason, he was still more concerned about Takao than himself.

"Well, we won't solve anything by just standing here. We should get going now."

"You're right. Let's go." With that, both males began to walk up the path that led to the actual shrine. It looked even more run down than it did the first time Midorima had been there. However, they weren't there to sight-see, so they continued to walk, but began to walk slightly faster. Considering how slow they'd originally been walking, it took a little time, but they eventually made it to the actual shrine part.

As they walked up the final part of the hill the path was on, they were able to see two figures standing at the shrine. One was a beautiful woman with silver-white hair. She wore flowing robes of flowers that were mainly green but had various other colors. She seemed to give off a powerful aura, alerting the human and demon to her being the goddess, Yoshi. Standing next to the corrupt goddess was someone who shocked the two males, Hiretsuna.

"Oh look there Yoshi, they've finally come to see us." The angel wore a condescending smirk on her face, but her eyes spoke even more negativity. Instead of feeling threatened, Midorima was just annoyed.

"We've come to talk to the goddess, not you." Midorima retorted harshly, however as he tried to continue speaking, he was cut off by Takao stepping in front of him protectively.

"Oh calm down, you vile beast. We have no intention of hurting your precious human... Not quite yet." So far, only the angel had spoken. The goddess had only glared at Midorima silently from the angel's side. The two males would have thought she would say something already since she was the one with the problem towards Midorima.

"Goddess Yoshi, we are here to ask you to release Midorima from the curse you placed on him." Takao's voice had no worry within it, only confidence, even if it was fake. He was terrified and was struggling to even remain standing at that point, but he refused to show weakness to his enemies, even if they already knew.

At Takao's words, the goddess finally made some form of acknowledging their presence. She instantly contorted her face in hate and practically glowed from her anger.

"How dare such filth speak to me! The only thing worse than humans are demons. Now I have both standing in front of me. It makes me sick!" Yoshi's words were as harsh as the look on her face. As she was fuming with anger, the two males were shocked at her sudden outburst. Her reaction was seemingly delayed. By now, they had been standing there for a few minutes, but such hate should have come out instantly, or so they figured. Something just seemed off with the goddess.

"Now now, you two are upsetting her. You should apologize." The angel was still smirking and looked even more smug than before.

"Shin, I think there's more to this than we thought." Takao didn't bother whispering his suspicion since the two females would hear him regardless.

"What do you mean?" The human was confused by the situation. Midorima wasn't sure how any of this was going anymore. All he knew was that he could see Takao shaking and it made him honestly more worried about the male.

"I think the goddess is consumed by her hate of humans, but it also seems as if Hiretsuna is controlling her."

"How would that be possible?"

"Well, she might have been able to take control when Yoshi became corrupt. She could have also pushed the goddess into corruption. I'm not sure but look at their eyes. Something just looks off." At Takao's words, Midorima looked intently at both females' eyes. The angel's eyes were glowing brightly, while the goddess's eyes were dull and colorless.

"I see..."

"That means your curse was most likely due to her, not the goddess herself. That means more problems for us."

"You are correct," Hiretsuna began confirming Takao's theory, "But, I'm confused. Answer me this, why are you two so close? I thought I'd destroyed your relationship." Her smile was now gone, only irritation was written on her face. "I'd hoped you two wouldn't be able to repair what you had, but you seem even closer than you were before."

"Takao wasn't completely honest with me, but neither was I. I had remembered our time we originally spent together. I lied about not remembering and pretended that I didn't know him at all. That is why I was able to move past the issue so quickly." As Midorima spoke, Takao's head whipped around to look at him in shock. The green-haired male thought he even heard the snap of something breaking inside the demon due to his action.

"Ha, I see. So you already know the depths of his feelings for you. I thought your reaction was relatively calm and your resolution happened fairly quick. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised."

"Shin, why didn't you tell me?" Takao wasn't sure what more he could say to his human. He wanted to be angry over it, but he knew he didn't have any right to criticize him for keeping something from him, especially now.

"I was planning on telling you once my curse was broken." Before any more words from either male could be spoken, the irritated angel spoke up.

"Did you two come to talk, or what?"

"You asked us the question first?" Takao's cheeky response earned a hate-filled glare from Hiretsuna.

"That's true. I only wanted to know why my plan failed, I didn't need to hear more than that. You know, I intended on taking back my precious human, but you, disgusting filth, got to remain with him. Even after all the work, I did. I set things up perfectly for my plans, but you had to ruin it all. You just couldn't let go of one little human. Do you know how hard it is to keep a goddess under control? I've spent 100s of years ruining her relationship with humans. All so I could control her."

"Why would you want to control her? Also, why curse Shin when you already had a different plan since the start?"

"I just wanted to be happy... but no matter how positive things go for me, there's always something that ruins it."

"Instead of the goddess, the one who is truly corrupt is you," Midorima stated, stepping away from Takao. "You have ruined my life for your own pathetic needs. Whoever allowed you to become an angel was truly foolish."

"Shut up! What do you know!? You have always had good luck, but don't worry... I'll show you what true despair looks like. I'll teach you all about my suffering. That's why you've had such a good life. All so I could tear you apart one day!"

"You are completely insane. Your story keeps changing. You have no idea why you have done any of this. I truly pity you." Midorima didn't care one bit about Hiretsuna's rantings.

"Shin... Be careful. You shouldn't rile her up. We-"

"Be quiet Takao. I've had enough with being her pawn. This ends today." The human silenced his demon, but Takao was too worried to just do nothing. Midorima had begun to walk closer to the two females, and Takao wasn't confident he'd be able to reach him if anything were to happen. The demon's pain was slowly speeding up throughout his body. He could feel he didn't have much strength left. Being near the goddess and angel was draining him. Plus, he knew that they knew it as well, which made him all the more concerned.

"You say this ends today, but I want you to suffer more." It was the goddess once again, however she sounded as if she was slowly losing herself. "You must suffer the way I have..." As she spoke, she summoned a golden staff that was full of her power. It wasn't her corrupt power though, it was from a time she was still a pure holy being.

"Yoshi, just make sure you don't kill Shintarou. Just hurt him enough he suffers for quite a bit before dying."

"I understand..." Yoshi raised her staff over her head as the staff began to glow a beautifully bright, golden color. It was practically blinding.

"Shin, get back!" Takao summoned the strength in his body and closed the distance between himself and his human, placing his body in front of Midorima's. He stumbled along the way, but he was able to make it. It was good he did, since Midorima wanted to follow his order and move back,

but found himself frozen to the spot. "Goddess Yoshi, you do not want to do this. If you harm this human, you will never return to how you once were. You are about to commit the worst crime a god can do. You can't directly harm a human with your holy powers."

"They aren't holy any longer."

"They are! Look at yourself! You may be corrupt but you are being controlled. You aren't as far gone as you think!" Takao's desperate words fell on deaf ears. The goddess only smiled at him in response.

"You will die with your lover. A disgusting human and his demonic bitch. It's fitting for you two to be together, even in death." She pointed her staff at the two males as she smiled even wider, causing her to look completely insane, just as the angel. Her golden powers were focusing on the top of her staff, which was now pointed directly at the males. Even from their location, they were able to feel how much hate was put into her powers, making them so much stronger.

"This will be your end Takao. Don't worry, Shintarou will join you after a long-suffering." Hiretsuna laughed maniacally as the goddess chuckled darkly. Takao said nothing as he stood in front of his human. He focused on summoning all his remaining demonic powers.

"Takao..." It was low, and it was all the frozen human could struggle to say. Even though he said only one word, Takao knew he was telling the demon how concerned he was, even if he'd never actually say that out loud.

"Don't worry Shin. I'll protect you. I'll die a million deaths if it means you can live. I'm not doing this because I'm your guardian, I'm doing this because I am in love with you. Remember that." It was now clear in Takao's voice and body language; he was terrified.

"Now die." With those words, the goddess unleashed her holy powers on the human and demon. Golden rays were sent towards the pair. It was like the sun itself was sent towards the demon and human.

Everything happened all at once after that. Using his remaining power, Takao was able to partially transform into his demonic form, but he only was able to bring out his wings. So, deciding that was enough, he turned to face the human and fully surround Midorima with his bat-like wings. All he could do was hope it would protect his beloved human. The holy attack then hit them both without any time to even think about what was going on, but thankfully, Takao's wings with all his powers were strong enough to shield the human.

The power colliding with the wings caused an explosion of dust and smoke. If it weren't for the barrier the angel put up, at the last second, to keep others from knowing what was going on at the shrine, many people in the town would have heard and seen the event.

As the dust cleared and the residual power faded from the air around them, Takao laid motionless on the ground. Midorima laid under him covered in a deep red colored liquid. The blood from Takao's wings, which was what covered the human, was all that was left of them. They had been completely destroyed and torn off of his back, leaving two gaping and bleeding wounds as a result. Along with those wounds, Takao's entire back had been torn up with variously sized wounds. If it wasn't for his breathing, the two females would have thought he was dead. He only had faint breaths, being gasped in and out every few seconds. However badly he was hurt, if he'd been conscious, he would have been glad to see that his mission was complete. Not a single scratch was on his human.

"I told you to kill him! You are a truly pathetic goddess if you can't kill one single demon!" Hiretsuna snapped, getting angry at the now completely still goddess. "He's already weak, why didn't you kill him?!" The angel was glaring at Yoshi, but the aura around the goddess began to change, causing the glare to fall from the angel's face. Hiretsuna realized that Yoshi's eyes were no longer dull and colorless, they were now a beautiful golden color, just like her staff.

"Be quiet for once." Yoshi's voice was another thing that wasn't the same. It no longer sounded as it originally did. She sounded angry, but this time it wasn't because she was being forced to be angry, it was legitimate anger.

"What's going on?"

"You cannot control me any longer. I hate humans and you used that against me, you even made it worse, but I draw the line here. I went along with your plans so I could get revenge on humans, not a demon. He did nothing wrong to me. You are now trying to use me for your own personal vendettas and that is something I won't stand for. You led me to believe I would only harm humans, if anyone, but not innocents."

"He's a demon! He isn't innocent you stupid goddess!"

As the two began to argue, Midorima started to wake up. He felt the warm blood covering him, but he wasn't sure what it was until he opened his eyes. It was then he realized what had happened, causing his heart to drop. He was instantly horrified and scared when his eyes landed on Takao. The demon was still on top of him and was hardly breathing. His body didn't even seem as warm as it should have been.

"Ta-Takao?" The human's voice was low, so he didn't alert the females of his awoken state. "Takao!" Midorima shook the demon, hoping to wake him up, however it failed. The demon made no sign that he was aware of Midorima's efforts. The demon may not have noticed, but the two females did. They stopped their bickering and turned to the distraught human.

"You! Human, leave at once or I will kill you!" The goddess now spoke in a demanding voice, surprising Midorima. He looked up at the two and realized they noticed him. So, slowly and carefully, the human slid out from under Takao and stood up.

"I will not! You almost killed my guardian! I'm not leaving here until you do something about it. Fix his wounds!" Midorima was shockingly showing pure emotions, which reflected how deeply he was feeling at that moment.

"He was half dead, to begin with. Yoshi only helped his death along faster."

"Be quiet! You are the cause of all my problems. I don't want to hear anything from you!"

"Do you want Yoshi to break your curse? She can now if you want."

"I don't care about that anymore. Help Takao!"

"Human, you would rather this demon be saved than your curse be broken?" The goddess was surprised by his words, and waved her hand at Hiretsuna, causing her to stop speaking and freeze, just as Midorima was frozen moments ago.

"Yes."

"I see... However, I apologize, but I cannot save him. I would only do more harm, even so, if you wish for his death to not be in vain, convince me to break your curse. That was your reason for coming here in the first place, wasn't it?" Midorima glared at her before looking to his precious demon. He knew that Takao would want him to break his curse, no matter what. Midorima took a moment to think of his response, before sighing. He truly didn't want to have to go this route, but he didn't want to let Takao down for not taking the chance when he had it.

"I apologize for my behavior when I came here the first time. I understand apologies mean nothing, so to prove my feelings of regret, I will visit your shrine often. I will leave offerings and even bring others here to do the same. I will even fix your shrine back up to look as it once was."

"Why the change in attitude? The you before you were cursed would never have said such a thing."

"I have had enough time to realize that I am not above everyone else. I am still full of pride, but Takao had shown me a different way in life. He saved me from myself." Yoshi smiled at Midorima's words, it was a proud smile. She looked over to the demon, and then back to the green-haired male.

"I never thought a human could learn so much from a lowly demon. I will remove your curse."

"No! Why should you reward him for screwing a demon! He's filthy and vile! He should be killed along with his dog!" Hiretsuna began making her way to the human. It was difficult with the goddess' powers pushing her to stay put. "If you won't kill him, I'll do it myself!"

"No, you won't." Yoshi used more power to stop the angel, but she kept going. "Do not worry human, as long as you keep your promise, you will never be bothered by either of us again." With a wave of Yoshi's hand, Midorima and his demon faded away. Using her powers, the goddess had transported the pair safely back to Midorima's apartment.

Once the two landed in the living room, Midorima took a moment to thank the goddess before looking over his demon to see the extent of the damages. Takao was still bleeding and had yet to regain consciousness. His breathing was shallow and he wasn't even breathing as often as he was. Midorima knew he needed to do something to stop the bleeding, so he went off to search.

The human was not able to find a first aid kit, or anything to stitch up the wounds, so he settled for some towels. Unfortunately, all his towels were white, causing them to turn red the second they were placed on Takao. The ruined towels didn't bother the human at all, instead, they caused Midorima to be terribly concerned. He hoped that the demonic powers Takao had would do something to help. He didn't think he could die so easily, but at that moment, he thought back to the "half dead" comment the angel had mentioned.

"Takao, did the effects of that failed exorcism hurt you that badly? Why didn't you tell me?" Midorima was furious at his demon for hiding that from him. "You fool, you can't die now. We haven't even begun figuring us out. You can't give up on this now." The human hoped his demon heard him, but also hoped he wouldn't remember it. Saying that was very embarrassing for Midorima.

Pushing his embarrassment aside, Midorima wasn't sure what to do next. To his knowledge, he's never treated a demon before. He knew he should stitch up the gaping wounds, but he still didn't have anything to do that with. He didn't even know if that was the right thing or not. However, he thought for a moment and he realized that there was a person he could call for help. It was more like two people, but they were in the same location, so they counted as one.

The human quickly grabbed his phone and began dialing. There were only two people who were directly involved with breaking his curse and knew the full story of their relationship, so he hoped they would be willing to help now as well. The only two people that could help, was Kasamatsu and Kise. Thankfully, they were extremely reliable and answered the phone after only a few rings.

"Hey Midorima, how'd the exorcism go?" Kasamatsu was who answered, but Kise could be heard just as clearly next to the phone, begging to hear details about the event.

"Kasamatsu... Something happened... Takao needs help..." The green-haired male's voice was more emotional than he wanted it to be. He also sounded out of breath, which immediately caused the other human to know something terrible happened.

"What's going on?" At the worried voice of his lover, Kise began to panic in the background. Kasamatsu smacked him to get him to shut up as he waited for Midorima to explain the situation.

"There's a lot of blood and I don't know how to treat a demon... Please just bring Kise with you and come quick... I don't know how much time Takao had left in this state..." Without waiting for a reply, Midorima hung up. Before he could even do anything else, a wave of dizziness hit him hard. Even though he had no wounds, he felt injured. He concluded that he'd been hit by a wave of goddess power, a shockwave of sorts.

Midorima was slowly going into shock and was feeling extremely lightheaded. He didn't want to just pass out on the ground and cause more issues, so he carefully made his way to Takao and sat down next to him. He felt like breaking down, in more ways than one, but he knew he needed to wait, at least until his friends arrived. He hated feeling like this, but he didn't care at that moment. He would suffer through anything, just as long as Takao was okay again.

Those were his last thoughts as he slowly followed Takao into unconsciousness. As his eyes closed against his wishes, the final thing he saw was Takao's face, seemingly peaceful despite all the wounds he had.