DOONNNNN!
The water in the creek splashed violently, sending mist and water spraying everywhere. Lucia jumped up and down.
"Rin! Asia! Did you see that!?" Lucia asked as she prepared another blast.
"No fair! It's my turn!" Irina walked up to her.
Lucia paused for a few seconds before smiling. She nodded and stepped aside, being a good girl like her mother taught her. Her gaze bore into Irina as the girl tried to concentrate.
"Remember what Mama and Selda said," Lucia reminded her.
Irina nodded and held her hands close together. She closed her eyes as a golden aura surrounded her. Not long after becoming an Apostle, Lucia noticed a change in the color of Irina's holy aura and asked Uriel, who explained that the color depended on the user. A triangular gold halo appeared above her head as swirls of gold light and pitch-black shadow swirled between the palms of her hands. Her eyebrow furrowed as she struggled to keep the orb together.
"Ohh! Irina, you got it! Now throw it before Leliel blows up!" Lucia said.
"Y-You can d-do it!" Asia tried to mimic Lucia's enthusiasm as best she could.
"Haaaah!" Irina screamed as she threw the compressed ball of Holy Energy. In her slight panic, the girl overestimated the amount of force in her throw. The swirling energy ball of light and darkness traveled at breakneck speed across the creek before slamming into a tree on the opposite shore.
A bright light engulfed the shoreline for a brief second before a massive explosion shook the entire area.
Lucia raised her hands as the winds washed over her and whipped back her hair. Her eyes widened when a good portion of the treeline had seemingly vanished into thin air after the dust and smoke cleared. There was a slightly molten crater in the ground that began to rapidly fill with water from the creek.
"Um…," Irina blinked as she stared, mouth agape at the crater across the water.
"That was…"
Irina turned around and her eyes widened when she saw someone standing behind Lucia.
"So fucking cool!"
"Lucia Reid."
Lucia froze. She slowly turned around to see the stern face of her mother looking down at her with her arms crossed. Her mom had used her full name. From Lucia's 8 years of life, there was one thing she had learned. If Uriel said her full name, she was in trouble.
Uriel's green eyes narrowed. "What did I tell you about practicing in the woods? And where did you learn that word?"
"U-Um," Lucia's eyes darted around, refusing to meet her mother's intense gaze. "Friar Christoph?"
"Young Lady, you better not be lying," Uriel raised an eyebrow.
"I swear I did! He said it when he touched one of the cups by accident! I asked him about it but he said it was a thing to make my sentences cooler!" Lucia protested.
Uriel stared at her for a few intense seconds before sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just don't say it again, alright? That's not a good word. Now, come on. We have something we need to talk about."
It was then that Lucia noticed her mother was dressed differently. Rather than Uriel's usual style of keeping her hair free-flowing and dressing in a black dress, her mother's hair was tied in a ponytail and she was dressed in what Lucia referred to as grown-up attire. A black formal top and a black pencil skirt with brown leggings and high heels.
"Mama?" Lucia said as she chased after her mother.
"Irina and Asia, you three come as well," Uriel said as she glanced over her shoulder.
When Lucia and her friends walked into the room, Irina's father, Touji, was there as well, along with another woman Lucia had seen only a few times. She had long dark hair and violet eyes. She was dressed in a lavender formal blouse with a red coat and black skirt.
"Hi, Auntie Rikka," Lucia greeted. "Uncle Touji."
"Ah, Miss Lucia and Miss Asia," Rikka said as she pushed her glasses up.
"Okaa-san," Irina greeted.
"Alright, you three. Take a seat," Uriel gestured.
The three did as they were told and sat across from the three adults.
"Alright, this might be a big change for you but I made this decision after talking with your Auntie Sandy. We'll be putting you and Irina in the local school. Asia will start a few months later than you girls will—"
"School? Mama, I don't wanna go to school," Lucia interjected.
"But Luci, school is fun. You get to make lots of friends. Learn a lot of things. You can play with lots of kids there," Uriel said.
"But Mama doesn't go to school," Lucia said.
"Lucia, I'm a grown-up. I don't need to go to school anymore," Uriel said.
"But that's not fair!"
"Lucia…," Uriel pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Miss Lucia, if I may. Irina is going to attend school. Don't you want to be with your Apostle? What if the Shadows come after her?" Rikka asked.
Shadows? Irina? At the school? Lucia stiffened as these thoughts ran through her head.
"Rikka—"
Rikka raised her hand and gestured for Touji and Uriel to let her handle it. She smiled as she continued speaking to the young Miracle Child before her. "Mmm. An Angel should always be with their Apostle. It's a good way for them to build a good team and you get to learn about a lot of things together. There's more to fighting the shadows than just knowing how to have powers. You need to learn lots too."
"R-Really?" Lucia asked. "But why can't Asia come?"
"Asia still has to finish learning German, Luci," Uriel said.
Lucia puffed her cheeks and tugged at the hem of her shorts.
"Besides, Miss Lucia. Don't you want to make a team of people to fight the Shadows?" Touji said. "Maybe at school, you can find some really cool people."
Lucia's eyebrows furrowed as she thought about it. It was tempting. Learning new things to fight the Shadows. Making a team. And all the TV shows and cartoons Irina introduced her to called "anime", the good guys always started in a school. Maybe she could be like the girl in all the shows that give the heroes their powers. A broad smile stretched across her lips.
"Yeah! I'll go to school! We'll be super cool, right, Rin?" Lucia asked.
"Yeah…," Irina was less enthusiastic but tried to be happy. Unlike Lucia, Irina had been to school and remembered what it was like. Homework and teachers were not things she missed but if Lucia was happy, she'd try to be as well.
"Good. You two start in two days!" Uriel clapped her hands together. "I even prepared your backpack and lunch box for you, Luci."
Uriel had many regrets. One of them was not putting Lucia in school sooner. If she had known her daughter would look this cute in her outfit, Uriel would have enrolled Lucia in an elementary school in a heartbeat. She sneakily took a picture of her daughter using her phone. Lucia was dressed in a small white sweater with a red unzipped jacket, a red pleated skirt, long white stockings, and red and white sneakers. Her backpack had Uriel's feather attached to it as a charm and a way to locate Lucia in case.
Lucia stood next to her, staring up at the sign that said Flugel Primary School in German.
Klöstern was just a small town in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen so finding a primary school wasn't too hard. According to the recommendation of many parents in the town, Flugel Primary School had a good reputation for providing a good education to children, which was what Uriel wanted. Despite them being far from the district capital, many of the students that finished from Flugel went on to get into reputable secondary schools in other cities in the district.
After all, while Uriel could teach her daughter everything ranging from math to languages, she could never replace the experience of attending a school.
"Mama, do I really have to come here?" Lucia asked as she stayed close to her mother. She had never been around this many people before. She glanced over to Irina, who seemed to be used to this, and bade goodbye to her parents.
That's right. She needed to be brave. How could she fight the Shadows if she was scared of going to school? Lucia gripped the straps of her backpack tightly and took a step forward. "I-I'm off, Mama!"
Uriel restrained herself at that moment. She wanted to vomit blood from the sheer cuteness she was hit with. "I'll be here to pick you up after school, Luci!" Uriel called out after her daughter as Lucia fell in line with Irina.
Lucia didn't know what to expect of "school". She had only heard stories from Irina about how they would spend most of the day in a classroom, learning different things from someone called a teacher. But Lucia only had one teacher her whole life. Her mother. Her mother taught her everything.
"Starting today, we have 2 new students joining us. One of them traveled all the way here from Japan," she heard the teacher's words as they waited outside the classroom. Lucia's gaze darted to Irina briefly.
How was she so calm about this? Shouldn't she be nervous? What if school was just a disguise base used by the Shadows and the Epilogue? What if this teacher was in league with the Shadows? Before she could grab Irina's hand and run, Irina opened the door and looked at her.
"Come on, didn't you hear the teacher asking us to come inside?" Irina said.
"Mmmm," Lucia nodded as she followed Irina inside. She was too used to this. Had Irina been taken by the Shadows when she wasn't looking? Lucia gulped as she stood in front of a classroom of 15 kids.
"Come on you two, introduce yourselves," the teacher said. The teacher was a kind lady who appeared to be in her late 20s to early 30s.
Lucia scanned the class while Irina proceeded to introduce herself. Her eyes shifted color as she read every detail of her future classmates. If her mother was right, someone here had to be of use. Her eyes fell upon a girl sitting in the back of the class with long-white hair and hazel eyes. The girl looked skinny and short, wearing an oversized black jacket and green shorts.
But before she could scan the girl, her eyes shifted back to normal when she felt Irina nudge her.
"O-Oh, I-I'm Lucia Reid! E-Eight years old! I-I…"
"I like…," Irina mouthed.
"I like s-swords and m-magic! My dream is to become a Hero like my Mama!" Lucia blurted out as her face slowly began to turn red.
The entire class went silent at her introduction until the teacher began to clap, gesturing for the other kids to clap in acknowledgment at her introduction. Even with her usually stoic personality, Lucia had some grasp of what the concept of shame and embarrassment were. She gripped the hem of her jacket as she listened to the clapping of her classmates.
"Well, Miss Reid. It's certainly a unique dream. If I may ask, what does your mother do?" the teacher asked in a kind voice, noticing the girl's embarrassment.
"Mama, she's a—"
Luci, remember, if the teacher asks what I do, remember, Mama runs an orphanage and she used to be in the army.
"Mama owns an orphanage. A-And she used to be in the army," Lucia said.
That earned the interest of her classmates as they began to clamor to ask her questions but one gesture from the teacher made the class go quiet.
"Now, now, you all can ask Lucia and Irina questions during recess. Lucia, Irina, you two can sit over there near the back. There's an open chair by Hans and Lenna," the teacher said as she gestured for Hans and Lenna to raise their hands.
Irina and Lucia walked over to their assigned desks. While Irina sat down and said hi to their neighbors, Lucia's eyes flicked over to the white-haired girl staring out the window. Her eyes glowed as she scanned the girl properly this time.
…!?
[Scan failed.]
What…? Huh…?
Lucia blinked when she got a notification in the corner of her vision. She couldn't read the girl? She focused and tried again.
[Unable to generate target data. Producing a list of errors for user.]
[Loading…]
[Loading…]
[The desired target is being actively protected by secondary presence. Scan presence?]
Lucia almost let out an audible groan. She gripped her pencil tightly as she refocused on the teacher's lesson. Order of operations. Her mother had already taught her this. She looked at the girl out of the corner of her eye, giving up on scanning her and the presence. She always did. Even her mother couldn't hide the book about the men doing weird things from her.
Recess came around finally. Lucia was bored out of her mind and tried her best to pay attention. It was something she learned how to do when Father Ferdinand was the one giving her lessons on the world at large when her mother couldn't be there to do it herself. However, she didn't do it out of habit. Most of the things the teacher had taught, Lucia already knew.
"Luci, come on!"
Lucia let out an audible "ah" as Irina grabbed her hand and dragged her to the playground with the other kids. She glanced at Irina, whose bubbly attitude naturally attracted the other kids. Soon, a group of kids formed around them, eager to get the know the newest additions to their class.
As the other kids talked to Irina, Lucia stood quietly next to her like an accessory, listening and nodding along to the conversation convincingly. It wasn't until some of the girls pulled Irina away that Lucia suddenly found herself alone with some of the kids.
"Lucia! Lucia! Your mom was in the army, right?" one of the kids asked.
Lucia looked at the boy who had asked the question. He was a chubby kid with blonde hair about a year younger than she was from the looks of it. She nodded. "Yeah."
"My daddy is a cop! He's a hero too!" The boy said proudly.
The other kids chimed in, saying that their parents were either police or firefighters. There was one that said her mother was a secret agent which made Lucia raise an eyebrow in slight interest. Of course, in her childish brain, none of their parents could compare to her mother.
Her mother was an Archangel. To her, Uriel would always be the coolest thing to ever exist in her own words.
"Did you know my Daddy once rescued people from a bank robbery!" the boy said.
"Really?" Lucia tilted her head.
"Yeah! He told me all about it. There were 100 bad guys at the bank and there were people inside! And Daddy just went in and went BANG BANG with his gun!" the boy said, puffing out his chest.
"That's so cool," Lucia said, maintaining her phlegmatic expression.
"Yeah, and you know what? Daddy even got a medal for it!" the boy added in, smiling as if he had somehow one-upped Lucia. The other kids all nodded, chiming in about how their parents stopped fires or rescued people from bad guys.
"That's super cool," Lucia said.
Everything was going in one ear and out the other. It wasn't that she wasn't impressed. On the contrary, Lucia thought their parents were heroes. It was just that she thought her mother was a better hero.
"Mama once fought a giant dragon," Lucia said. The conversation around her suddenly died down.
The other kids looked at her strangely.
Lucia recounted the story her mother told her about how she had fought a Dragon in a place called Canaan a long time ago. The dragon had seven heads and as big as an entire country. But her mother didn't fight that dragon alone, she fought the dragon with her aunts, uncles, and grandfather along with an entire army.
"And then, Mama summoned fire to—"
"But that's not real," one of the kids said.
"It is. Mama can fly too," Lucia insisted.
The other kids exchanged glances before looking at Lucia. She continued telling the story, eventually reaching the part where her mother and the others were going to trap the Dragon under the sea. As she did, Lucia tilted her head as the talking slowed to a crawl, and one by one, the kids left to go play other games.
Lucia's shoulders fell slightly. She looked down at the ground, watching as the other kids ran around and played. With a sigh, Lucia walked over to the wall and leaned against it, sliding down until she was sitting on the ground. She hugged her knees and watched the other kids enjoying the playground until she noticed she wasn't alone.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a mop of white hair sitting next to her.
It was that girl from class. The girl sat there, reading a book about something. Lucia squinted as she tried to pronounce the words.
P-Para- Paradise Lost?
"Hello," Lucia greeted.
The girl, having just now noticed her presence, jolted slightly and almost dropped her book. Her hazel eyes widened through her messy white bangs. "H-Hello," the girl said shyly.
A few moments of awkward silence passed between them. Neither of them knew what to say next and Lucia was trying to come up with something to tell her. Irina made friends look so easy.
"I'm Lucia," Lucia said.
The girl held her book tightly. "V- Val… I'm Val."
"Do you like books?" Lucia asked.
Val nodded fervently and smiled as she held the book close to her chest. "My Mama got it for me for my birthday…"
"Oh."
The two sat there silently, basking in each other's presence while the screams and laughter of their classmates echoed in the background.
"My mama got me a sword for my birthday. But she said it's for practice. She said when I become bigger, she'll get me a real sword like Selda uses," Lucia said.
"Selda?" Val asked.
"Mmm! Selda is like my super cool big sister! She has a gun that shoots lasers and a sword that looks like a lightsaber!" Lucia said as she made slashing motions.
"Really?" Val asked, eyeing her with a bit of skepticism.
Lucia nodded and looked around to make sure no one was watching. Her mother had told her never to show her powers to normal people but with Val, for some reason, she felt like it was okay to do it. She held her hands out and a swirl of red light manifested in the palm of her hand.
"Hers is blue but Mama said that mine will probably be red," Lucia whispered conspiratorially.
Val's eyes widened considerably at the sight. She reached out to touch it but instinctively pulled back when it stung. "Isn't red bad though?"
"Red's not for bad guys. It's 100% for the good guys. My mom uses red too," Lucia puffed her cheeks as she dispersed the red light.
Val laughed at the sight of Lucia's face.
Lucia's eyes went wide. She had never expected the girl to laugh. From the 3 hours she had known the girl, Lucia never thought the girl was capable of something like laughter.
Val's laughter slowly died down as soon as she realized Lucia was staring at her with her usually blank face. Her cheeks turned red at the intensity of the stare and she rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, sorry…," she looked down.
Lucia reached her hand out, causing Val's eyes to widen. She closed her eyes reflexively, bracing herself for what was to come. However, her eyes snapped open when she felt Lucia's hand on her head.
"It's okay. Mama does this to me whenever I'm feeling down," Lucia said.
Val just sat there, staring at her silently.
"Oh, um…"
Lucia pulled her hand back and had a small smile on her face. "Better?"
"Y-Yeah," Val replied.
"Mama always pats my head and it makes me feel better too," Lucia said as she leaned back against the wall. "Does your Mama do that?"
Val went silent and hugged her knees. She leaned her head against her arms. "Mom… does that. But my Dad is scary. He doesn't like it when Mom does stuff for me. He gets really scary whenever Mom isn't there," Val mumbled.
Lucia glanced at her new friend.
"Your dad sounds like a bad guy," Lucia said.
"Dad's not a bad guy. I think. Mom told me not to be like Dad but he's my Dad," Val said. "Dad used to be nice…"
Lucia didn't know what to say other than to keep repeating that Val's dad was a bad guy. After all, Val was nice and if Val's Dad was getting mad at Val for being nice, wasn't he a bad guy? The bell rang, signalling for the kids to return to class. She watched as Val got up and dust off her shorts. She picked up her book and waved to Lucia.
"See you later," Val said.
The first day of school passed by without any further interaction with Val. Lucia kept glancing at the quiet girl, attempting to scan her with the [Warning System]. The message was always the same no matter what she did.
[The desired target is being actively protected by a secondary presence. Scan presence?]
Lucia huffed and scribbled in her notebook, breezing through the practice math questions that the teacher had given them. As she finished the last question, the bell rang, signaling the end of the first day of class. She sighed. Was every day going to be like this? She wanted to go home and practice Miracles with her mother.
"Rin," Lucia said. "Is school going to be like this every day?"
Irina packed her notebook into her backpack and looked at Lucia. "Yeah. But Mom and Dad said I have to go to school and then go to college so I can get a good job."
"But we're going to be heroes and fight the Epilogue together," Lucia said as she grabbed her backpack. Her… backpack with angel wings attached to it. "Hey, Rin. Want to go to the creek and—"
Lucia blinked when she saw several kids surround Irina and offer her invitations for playdates at their houses. Some of the kids even offered to come over to the Institution to visit her. Lucia sighed as she put her backpack on.
"Oh, I gotta go. Lucia and I live in the same place so I'll see you guys later," Irina said as she bade goodbye to her new friends. The kids all let out groans of disappointment but promised to hang out with her at the park at another time.
Lucia and Irina filed out with the other children and waited outside for their parents to pick them up.
"I made a new friend today," Lucia said as she looked for her mother.
"Eh? Really? When?" Irina asked with a slight look of disbelief on her face.
"During recess. Oh, look! Over there! Val!" Lucia waved at Val, who was standing there alone and waiting for someone. The white-haired kid was reading a book, shying away from the other group of kids.
Lucia and Irina walked over to her.
Having just noticed their presence for the first time, Val almost dropped her book again. She looked up at them, noticing the auburn-haired girl staring at her curiously.
"See, Rin. This is Val. I met her today at recess. She's a really cool girl," Lucia said.
"Huh?" Irina raised an eyebrow. "Lucia, Val is—"
"Um, wait, I'm a—"
"Ah, Val."
Lucia and Irina looked up at the sound of Val's name being called. A man with white hair walked over to the three kids. He had a kind smile on his face and was dressed in a button-up shirt. The way the man smiled at the three made Lucia's skin crawl. However, she held her ground.
Irina was in a similar state as Lucia except her newfound heightened sensitivity due to her Sacred Factor allowed her to sense that man for what he truly was. She unconsciously gripped the straps of her backpack tightly.
"Val, are these your friends?" the man asked.
"Y-Yes, Dad," Val said, looking down at the ground. She tried to maintain her composure but Lucia and Irina could see that the girl was shaking slightly.
"I see. Thanks for taking care of my Val. The little rascal is always getting into trouble, aren't you?" The man placed a hand on Val's shoulder.
Val flinched slightly when she felt her father's grip on her shoulder.
"Come on, Val. Let's go home now," the man said.
"Y-Yes, Dad," Val said as she fell into step behind her father. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled weakly at Irina and Lucia, who just stood there frozen by the sheer malice they sensed from Val's father.
And that's when Lucia saw it. There was a bruise poking out slightly from the collar of Val's sweater. She was about to go after Val when she felt Irina grab her by the arm. She turned and saw Irina shaking her head while she trembled in fear.
"R-Rin? What's wrong?" Lucia asked.
Irina gulped before pointing at the man shakily. "That… That man is a D-Devil…"
Housekeeping
Axormin: Alright, Ax, I'm going to answer all 3 reviews here. Since a lot of it is just going to be repeats from what we discussed in Discord, I'll put in some things I might have left out. Helel, I don't know if I said this or not, but she is the oldest of the Angels in this one. It's kind of cliche for her to be that but hey, it was a design choice. Another thing is that Asia is going to be the one girl that gets swayed by Lucia into doing dumb things so that's more work cut out for Irina in the future, especially when it comes to doing dumb things regarding their Miracles. I did say in a previous chapter that Lucia is going to have a max of 2 Apostles so it will be within the group. Odds of it leaning to Asia is pretty high.
RoyalRain20xx: Why did I enjoy reading a chapter about learning how BS angel powers work so much XD? Just having two little gremlins like Lucia and Irina going back and forth over how they plan on using their basic miracles just put a smile on my face, it's that level of child-like innocence that I wonder if they'll be able to keep once they get older. After all, this is the Supernatural world, an environment that is way more dangerous and unpredictable compared to our regular old human world. But that's besides the point, seeing Irina become Lucia's Apostle really made me draw comparisons to the most recent game that came out, called; Metaphor:Re Fantazio in the way Irina just had glowing veins and eyes appear once she had that Sacred Factor implanted in her-now I wonder how long it'll be before she goes all "God is great" every time something happens. Either way, something tells me these girls are going to be terrors once they develop over time.
Aside from all that however, they church group gets bigger with little Asia joing the group-wonder how many people will melt from from the cuteness of a timid girl like her? Also, that most recent dream Lucia had, that was quite a thing to see regarding a certain Dragon Emperor, methinks Lucia will get involved in that baggage of a boy in the future. Overall, nice calm mood this time around, and if the girls are soon about to be enrolled in school, who knows if they'll really fit in? Guess we'll wait and see.
Hah, just imagine what will happen in a few chapters when they learn offensive Miracles as time goes on. Shooting clouds right now is pretty fun but when they get to the nitty-gritty Old Testament Miracles in the Bible, oh boy. I've never actually played Metaphor Re:Fantazio, a lot of people I know are playing that game though. But yes, to reiterate, Lucia will have 2 Apostles. Odds of it being Asia are pretty high actually. And to be fair, Irina has been to school before so it will be easy for her to adjust. With Lucia being as socially awkward and inept as she is, it'll be a bit more difficult for her initially. She is very book-smart so adhering to the curriculum isn't a challenge for her but in comparison, Irina is the better of the two when it comes to dealing with people.
Okay, let's go over some points in this chapter.
Val: Who Val is should be obvious and Lucia calling them a girl should be even more hilarious. We'll get to learn more about Val and Val's introduction alongside their father is going to showcase a hint at the future main antagonist group. There is an element there. A small detail that will appear in the next 1-2 chapters about that so keep an eye out. Also, Lucia cannot scan them. I am pretty sure you all know why so I don't need to hint at it. The "secondary presence" thing should have been a good enough hint for it.
Klostern and Flugel: Klostern is not a real town. Garmisch-Partenkirchen or GAP, however, is a real place. It is both a district and a city in Germany. Klostern in Germany, according to Google Translate, means "monastery" so intentional pun there. The school's name is also an intentional pun since Flugel means "Wing" in German and Lucia is a half-angel. This entire place is filled with puns.
Anyway, after this, there is only 1 more member she will get during childhood. This whole arc and all its mini-arcs is called Childhood's End by the way. Not at all a reference to the Syfy miniseries, Childhood's End. But yes, just to warn all of you, there will be a MASSIVE tonal shift at the end of this arc so be prepared. Also, some of you might have noticed that I edited God's gender. It doesn't change the overall plot but just some background lore. I have some ideas here that involve God being male. So, see ya in the next one.