III.

Theophany

"Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and descend;
Touch upon the mountains, that they shall smoulder."
—Psalm 144:5

Gabriel woke up in a cold sweat.

She shivered, slowly sitting up to an unknown—almost alien—room. It was small, infinitely smaller than Gabriel's room back in her place in the sixth realm of heaven. In this room was only the couch she slept in, a wooden wardrobe, a table with mortal technology on top, and a single wooden table in the middle of the ensemble. Behind her was a set of blinds, through which an unmistakable view of a city on Earth was scorched by the midday sun. The seraph took a trained look around, searching for any threat all the while realizing she had nothing but a yellow blanket draped over her. She slowly stood up, her wings helping her up with a flap no harder than an owl's wingbeat. The flap caused an unbearable pain, one Gabriel could easily attribute to the Beast's unholy breath. With half lidded eyes she grazed her arms around her left shoulder feeling the cauterized wound, wincing at the phantom pain of the Beast's burning flames. She had only been able to save a handful of her brethren, and now six of the wings she had always been proud of were gone. Her face felt flush, her cheeks damp, yet no tears fell.

She already cried in her sleep.

She slept for far too long. Gabriel was kicked out of a losing war; one she had no qualms dying to if it meant she had to do so along with her beloved family. Gabriel wanted to wear her armor again and fly out into heaven. But it was nothing but a half molten litter of metal and burnt cloth on the side of the couch she had been resting. And Gabriel doubted if she could still fly properly in her current state. She was a passionate girl; her siblings would chide her half-jokingly too often about it. But she was no fool. Should she go into heaven now, she would only die pathetically or worse, she would only serve as someone her siblings would need protecting.

Gabriel was weighing her options when a small jolt of memory made the seraph blink. There were people—a boy and a girl—who she heard while she was asleep! Where were they? This was the mortal realm, was it not? They were human, then. They could at least help direct her to the closest church, or any of the Three Factions' headquarters. Once she is in contact with someone in-the-know, she can formulate a way to form a counterattack, or at least give them the information about the Beast.

Quick in her step, Gabriel pulled the cloth over her armor piece. It was in utter tatters but it will do for now.

"I have always admired your bravery, even among your fellow seraphim." A voice reached Gabriel's ears like a whisper.

The seraph dropped the cloth and made a stance, with a flourish a single long golden spear of blinding light materialized along her hands. Not a fraction of a second earlier, Gabriel knew she was alone. But since the voice reached her ears, she was met with a presence in front of her.

It was a woman.

Gabriel looked like she was staring at an eerie looking mirror. One that bounced an older reflection of herself. The woman was very beautiful, with flowing golden hair and a knowing yet disarming smile. Her frilled light-blue sundress was accenting her disarming smile even more. Gabriel also noticed the pair of small goat horn-like ornament over the woman's hair, but quickly dismissed it as she stared at her striking mismatched ruby and sapphire eyes.

"I ask forgiveness for startling you," She took a step closer; Gabriel was still holding the spear vigilantly. "May I have a moment of your time?"

"Who—what are you?!"

This woman was dangerous. Gabriel only knew of the woman's presence because she allowed her to, and in addition to her little comment about knowing not only her, but her siblings? Gabriel rightly closed her right wings over her shoulder, forming a rigid shield between her and the figure before her. The pain in moving her wings was seething, but the strongest woman in heaven grit her teeth, readying for another battle.

"I am Louisa Ferre." She placed her hand over her chest with unmatched grace. "Please, freely address me as Louisa."

"A-are you with them?"

Louisa Ferre did not answer. Then again, even Gabriel herself did not know which them she wanted ask—and she had a sneaking suspicion the woman knew more than she was letting on—was it the group that was with the Beast or the pair of people who helped her even after seeing her armor and angelic wings?

But then she thought of her siblings up in heaven, helpless. "Are you my enemy?"

The question was no harder to answer than the previous one she asked. It could pertain to a million things neither of them knew yet, nor had the ability to answer at the moment. It was a question only the humblest of fools would answer without reservation, or at least it was what Raphael had told her once. It was a question that seeped desperation. It was a question the woman in front of her answered without hesitation.

"I have not been, nor I wish to be." Her smiled changed from her knowing, into a warm one that Gabriel reminded her of better days with her siblings. It was a smile designed to make her trust this woman. And with everything that happened to her, she truly wanted to resign to those words.

Gabriel dismissed her weapon.

"I don't have the luxury to worry about my own safely." Gabriel confessed. "But if you can help me find a way to contact the Three Factions, I would be eternally grateful."

"Before any of that," She didn't notice when Louisa did it, but Gabriel was already wearing a very identical frilly light blue sundress. But compared to the woman who was barefoot, Gabriel had a pair of bright yellow flip-flops. "Please take them as my token of peace."

"Peace?"

"I have yet to meet an angel so…trusting." Her smile again morphed into the knowing one she saw her wear earlier. "I am eager to return the trust you have given me."

"I…see…"

"This favor you ask of me, giving you a means to find allies." Louise pursed her lips. "May I add a proviso?"

She knew it was too good to be true, finding an unconditional ally in this realm. It had been this way for them, even when dealing with devils and the like. Gabriel furrowed her brow, trying to give a thin smile. "What would that be?"

Pairs upon pairs of eyes trailed Gabriel and Louisa as they walked by the sidewalk of the city. Gabriel left the apartment, but remembered the building's name. Louisa even helped her find the specific address of the apartment complex with the help of a very smitten bystander. Gabriel wasn't one to freely take advantage people with her charm but harmlessly persuading someone was 'fair game', or so Louisa chided her. She firmly disagreed, but the woman dismissed their impending debate. There were more pressing matters to address than deeds that already have been done.

Gabriel asked about the woman's condition.

"I want you to take a lost child under your wing—" She covered her mouth, noticing her mistake. "That was a poor choice of words, please, forgive me."

Gabriel didn't react, but a soft flap of her wings might have been a giveaway.

"I would like you to guide this child for the days to come." Louisa continued. "I am afraid the battle in Heaven is only the beginning. This child can influence many things in the matters of the divine and the heretic, so easily in fact it is almost comical how this child does it."

There was an entire story to uncover from her cryptic words, but Gabriel had a different problem with this. "What is this child to you?"

"This child is of my doing."

"Yet you ask me to be this child's guide?" Gabriel frowned. "Have you not been raising—"

"I have, in a fashion."

"Then—"

"I need someone who knows this world by heart." Louisa let out a breath. "I need someone who can let my child see this world for what it is, what its creator intended it to be."

Louisa knew her father, that much was certain. Gabriel wanted to ask further, to know what this woman meant. But she could already tell the answers she was going to get.

"The gods in this world know little, almost nothing. The devils would rather bathe in vanity, barely knowing what they are, why they exist. The fallen, while admirable in resolve, have little in ways of understanding of what they should truly rebel from." The two of them stopped. "This child needs to know which place to take in this world."

Gabriel was vigilant, sighting the city since the moment they stepped out of that apartment complex. She was ways away from it, but she was far from helpless. Louisa wanted to have Gabriel reach a moat of sorts. It was a pedestrian lane away from the two women, but they waited for the signal to walk.

"Your child, is she—?"

"He, and yes, he is not unlike me." Louisa and Gabriel crossed into the moat. It was nothing Gabriel had not seen before, though the rather tall walls across it looked like it was built for someone important. "An unnatural creation: One who is greater than Gods, yet one who is even less than a human."

Gabriel looked Louisa in the eyes, there was a tinge of melancholy in them.

"That is the Ōte-mon Gate." Louisa supplied, looking over the gate. It was intricately designed by tiles and stone; a testament more to its age than its design, no doubt. "And where we are now is the bridge connecting this and the eastern gardens of this country's Imperial Palace."

"Is he here then?"

"Yes."

As if on cue. Gabriel almost recoiled when a crimson obelisk materialized from nothing. It was taller than any of the sky-scraping buildings of the city, thicker than the city blocks that housed these titanic structures, and not to mention the blood-red obelisk appeared from the sky. Nothing was holding it back, as if it was thrown from heaven itself. Gabriel wanted to believe this was some illusion, that Louisa was messing with her in some way. But as she looked around, the people around who were eyeing her were now looking at the monolithic structure that painted the sky into a slight reddish hue. Gabriel could hear the panic of the people around her.

She grabbed Louisa's arm. The woman looked at her knowingly and answered before she said anything else. "I am not responsible for this."

Gabriel looked at her incredulously, with the way everything seemed to be something this woman already knew, this being her doing was not an impossibility. "What then?!"

"This world finally caved in and called for him." She smiled, a different one than the others she showed before. This time, she looked wistful, almost yearning.

"Welcome home, child." She said to no one in particular.

No sooner she said those words the sky blipped back into its bluish grey hue. The obelisk was gone. Gabriel wanted to wring the truth from the woman, but she noticed something falling from above.

No. It was someone!

Her wings flapped in response, but a stabbing pain from her back made the seraph scream in agony. Gabriel fell on one knee, but kept her eyes on the falling person. Whoever it was, they fell on the middle of the street with an ugly crash! She was too late.

"Louisa—!" She wanted to ask the woman to tend to the one who fell. Thinking about it now, it could be another of her brethren!

But the strange woman was nowhere to be found.

"Please guide this child, Gabriel." A familiar voice echoed through Gabriel as if in a whisper.

It finally dawned on the seraph. The one who fell, was this the child Louisa was telling her about? The one who was not unlike the woman. Gabriel bit her lip, fighting through the seething pain and walked towards the smoking crater.

People already were clamoring towards the commotion, even Gabriel earned a couple of stares from a few of them. Her wings were out and about without a care, this was to be expected. Gabriel wanted to keep them tucked away, appearing invisible as if she was mortal. But her wings would hurt even worse than when she tried to fly earlier. She already tried it when they were about to leave the apartment. This was something she had to live with until her wings heal.

"Excuse me?" She tried to scoot between people.

"Hey! Watch where you're—!"

"Holy sh—it's an angel!"

"Her wings are moving…"

"T-that's cosplay, right?"

Gabriel ignored the peanut gallery and tried to find the child Louise was talking about. When she finally found herself by the crater, people where understandably afraid to go inside the hole. But a few gasps and loud muttering echoed when a single person crawled out of the rather large hole.

It was a boy.

He looked no older than Gabriel herself, certainly as thin as her, but he had raven black hair. Also, he was half naked wearing nothing but tight looking pants and a worn looking pair of black-blue sports shoes. Though, like the rest of the people around her, all of them first noticed his deathly pale skin, piercing golden eyes, and the tattoos all over his body. They sprawled around his body, black with glowing greens on the edges, pulsing as if they were an indication of breathing for him. That was the other thing Gabriel noticed from the boy: he was not breathing. The other people around, she could easily observe from the heightened senses the way they were breathing, they were nervous. The boy, however, was looking at them but not even an ounce of air left his mouth. Even his expression was barely hinting that he was actually alive. Even well-polished statues had a more lifelike expression than the boy.

That is, until he spoke.

"Is this Tokyo?"

There was an air to him when he asked. His voice was soft but clear, everyone heard it. It was a demand for an answer. And it felt like every mortal in the vicinity felt their primal instinct to keep away from whoever this person was, as much as they wanted to sate their curiosity earlier.

But there was one among them that pushed through that unseen pressure, and answered.

"You are near the Ōte-mon Gate." Gabriel said softly.

That push was enough for some of the people to follow.

"This is Uchibori-dori Avenue…"

"Yeah, that's the Ote-bori Moat over there…"

The boy's stone-faced expression quickly faltered, his eyes quickly moistening, his lips slowly arching up. Gabriel and the people who were looking at the boy already dumbfounded, found themselves even more confused when he fell on the ground as if his legs gave out.

"I'm in Chiyoda…the real one…" He smiled from ear to ear, his brows were furrowed, and his eyes were in tears. "I did it…"

"Pix…Jōhei…Old man…" He curled his knees up as he wiped his tears. "Everyone, I did it…"

Gabriel felt a sting in her chest seeing this boy in tears. He was smiling, yes, but the seraph could feel the pain behind his smile of relief. It seemed some of the people could tell, as well. Though most of them refrained to get involved. Opting only to look at the spectacle as if they were gawking at an attraction. A sudden commotion from behind one of the people on the opposite side of Gabriel startled the crowd, the loud beep of the siren from afar was enough for the people around to get the clue. They parted giving a path for the authorities to push the crowd away from the crater. Firemen were quick on the job while police officers were around to question some of the people.

Gabriel noticed some of the officers were looking her way, as well as the boy, and felt worried.

The boy, however, didn't feel threatened when two of the officers were on his case.

"Kid, what's with the tattoos? Are you in some gang?"

"You caused all this?"

The boy looked at the crater, then up the sky and nodded at the two. "I'm very sorry about this. I didn't mean to cause this much trouble."

"Yeah? Well, public indecency aside, we'll need to take you for questioning for all—" She pointed her brow at the crater. "…this."

"What'd you do anyways? Blow up a pipeline?" Her partner added.

"I…don't know how to explain it." The boy winced. "But I can go with you."

"You're in one hell of a situation, kid." The officer sighed. "I'll be asking for your parents' contact information too."

"Of course—"

Gabriel didn't understand half of what they were talking about, but she knew they were about to take the boy into custody! She acted quickly. The seraph summoned a spear of light, quickly catching the eye of the officers.

"Hey!"

"What the—"

The people around her clamored to safely. But the girl had different plans, she lit the spear up the sky and flashed a light so bright it blinded everyone despite it being midday. By the time the officers and everyone else could see again, the tattooed boy and the winged girl were long gone.

Two blocks away, on top of a building littered with pipes and solar panels, Gabriel was breathing heavily. There was an unbearable pain on her back! From the short time she was flying, her wings felt like they were about to fall off. The boy was looking at her with an unreadable expression. Gabriel was too busy hissing at the pain to worry about him seeing her wings. Gabriel was crawling on the ground, knees on the cemented roof while her elbows to the sides of her hands were keeping face from planting into the hot floor.

But then it all went away in an instant.

Gabriel blinked twice, looking at the floor that was now puddled with her sweat and tears. "Huh?"

Her body was then lifted up, her arm was flung over someone. The boy! He was slowly helping her up over his shoulder and into a shade under one of the solar panels, not that the seraph knew it as such. She was grateful she had something to keep her legs from being burnt, and this human metal structure was giving her precious shade.

She slowly flexed her wings, noticing it was now completely healed. The left half of it was still burnt off, but the pain just being gone was more than a small victory for the seraph. She folded her wings, making it vanish so she could properly lean back and— "Ahh…" She sighed, closing her eyes.

"You don't have your usual…gear…" The boy muttered beside her. "But you're an angel."

It wasn't a question. Does he mean her armor? There were angels who go out with full armor. Does this mean he already knew about the Three Factions? Considering his connection with the cryptic Louisa, Gabriel would be foolish to think otherwise. She nodded. "My name is Gabriel."

"The Seraph?" The boy flicked his head, looking at her incredulously. She nodded and smiled. "Your hair is blue, and you look…well, young."

"Am I not supposed to?" Gabriel's brow slowly rose.

The boy looked at her, then at the sky, and finally sighed. "Never mind. You just remind me of someone who has the same name as you."

"I see." Gabriel looked down. "I know what I did was very sudden, but—"

"I know." The boy didn't stop looking at the sky. "I could barely feel any killing intent from you."

"I see…"

The seraph took a good look of the boy. His expression was back to its stone-faced visage again. Gabriel wanted to ask about what happened to the boy, but there were things better left unasked. Whatever he went through, it was enough for him to cry in tears to be out of its grasp. Gabriel was curious, but not cruel. She left her thoughts with a sigh and finally had the luxury to think about what happened to heaven. She was distracted by Louisa's proposition that she kept such thoughts at bay thus far. But slowly the horrifying thought of her siblings succumbing to the attack was creeping over her.

"Excuse me…" Gabriel muttered.

The boy looked at her.

"Do you, perhaps, know about The Three Factions?"

"What three factions?"

Gabriel almost burst to tears. Was she tricked by that woman? She hoped to contact any of them after she did her end of the bargain.

"Is this about demons?"

She blinked.

"Dragons…" She hoped, that this young boy would be able to help her find anything that can lead her. "I need to find the nearest church; I need to tell the Three Factions about what happened."

"There's a church across the road by the school I went to." The boy scratched his cheek. "I don't know if that's the sort of church you're looking for, I've never been inside, but it's close."

Gabriel's face lit up. "Please! Take me there!"

The boy looked at her straight in the eye, as if gauging her. But he slowly nodded. "It's a few minutes' walk north from here."

Gabriel stood up, newfound bounce on her step, and moved towards a clear area between the large panels. "You healed me just then…I think I can—"

The seraph extended her six wings on one side. There was an unbeatable elegance in seeing the wings of a Seraph in full glory. The golden feathers as they glisten, even more so under the afternoon sun. The boy slowly stood up and looked at her wings, clearly curious about the missing half. But Gabriel could only smile at his kind consideration. "This is why I need to tell them, and fast."

"I can't fly." The boy said, not a hint of a sarcastic tone in his voice.

He was not the companion she wanted to be with, in all honestly. But there was a kindness to him that she appreciated. He healed her right away, even after her first impression was to abduct him. And he either could tell the gravity of her situation, or was—again—kind enough to hold his tongue and instead help her. "Regardless, I ask for your help…"

"It's Kashima, Kashima Naoki."

Gabriel, again, smiled.

The Kanda Church of St. Francis Xavier was not as tall as the buildings surrounding it. The multistory corporate buildings surrounding the century old structure looked sleeker in comparison. Their whitened finish would leave the church's indented stone found wanting, the church's former reddish tiled roof was now completely eroded and turned green through the cruel hands of time. It was a tragedy. But to Naoki who would often peer on the building whenever he was bored with classes, it was one of the few things about the building that kept him from forgetting it.

Even looking at the city from high above the clouds, he could see the low and long green roofing of the church.

"There."

"I see it."

It was completely nostalgic being back in his old school. He could most shed another batch of tears. But being brought to his school while being carried in the arms of a flying angel was another reminder how far gone his perception of reality had been torn apart. Gabriel said a short apology for excusing herself, quickly flying inside the church itself and added to ask to wait for her. Naoki was left by the sidewalk with his own thoughts, he sat on top of the railing by the pedestrian lane and waited for the seraph.

He had all the time in the world now.

Looking around half-lidded, Naoki noticed an unsurprising lack of students over the road they landed on, it was still time for school after all. But the few of them peering through the windows of the school building was to be expected. He kept looking around the nostalgic area, readying himself for the changes he needed to adapt to, especially knowing that demons exist this world just as it had in the vortex world. Has it always been like this, his life? Not that he noticed, but the world was always been like this, hasn't it? Only this time, he could see the other side of the coin quite clearly now. He didn't like it, but surviving the vortex world, he taught himself not to dwell on his comfort zone.

He would adapt to this, just as he always had.

"But if I can get rid of these things." He held out his hands, looking at his tattoos. "It would make things a whole lot easier."

"Hey!" A rough voice caught Naoki's attention. "I don't care what you're on, buddy, but these here's school grounds! You'd better get out of here."

It was a man in blue, a guard's uniform, and was walking from the entrance of the building. Naoki looked up, more of the building's windows were slid open and a lot more people in school uniforms were already peering their heads out looking down at him. Some of them were talking out loud, though Naoki didn't bother to listen. Instead, he turned his attention towards the cautious security guard. He remembered a few of the ones before the conception, but this man he failed to recognize. Was this man new? Did some time pass already since the day he went into the vortex world? The possibility didn't even cross his mind until now, but he had to put his thoughts aside to answer him.

"This may sound…weird…" Naoki jumped off the metal railing stood straight in front of the man. "But I'm a student here."

"Ha!" He scoffed. "And I'm the Chairman."

"I know the markings might look off-putting…"

"Might?"

"I understand completely! But I really am a student here." Naoki cursed under his breath. Hundreds of demonic negotiations under his belt, and Naoki could easily tell there was not enough skill in the world to convince anyone he was anything more than a washed-up junkie. But it was the truth.

"Uh-huh." With a last breath, the guard had enough. "Just wait there. I'll call the—"

"Naoki-kun?"

The boy's attention faltered, only seeing the source of the familiar voice by the entrance of the school. There were two women who looked completely identical to each other standing over the peak of the steps. Both sported black hair, fair skin and even same-colored eyes. The only difference was one had a longer hair rolled into a bun while the other had a straight shoulder length cut. The first woman was wearing an all-black blazer over a white dress shirt and knee-length pencil skirt. The second woman was wearing snow white tight-fitting trousers with a thick white pea coat over a black turtleneck.

Of the two women, the short haired one was looking at Naoki with utter familiarity. Of course she would, she was someone who had an irreversible impact over his life.

"Yūko-sensei…"