Adapt to Live [Part 2]
Nov. 2nd, 2015 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: After leaving Heaven and turning into a demon, Tao was sure things had settled to some kind of normality. The angel coming down and not turning into a demon wasn't something Tao thought ze would ever see.
Notes: Angel/demon au written for nano!
ze/hir/hir for Tao's pronouns. Just to clarify - Tao, Frankenstein and M-21 are non-binary, and they use 'they' for other people until told otherwise.
Rating: PG
Genre: General
Word count: 3,132
Total word count: 5,373
Status: Work in progress
Heh. With the amount of time they'd spent together, of course Boss knew something else had happened.
"I met an angel."
This time, Boss' other eyebrow shot up. "I see..."
"...Yeah," To said, rolling hir shoulders. "Is that possible?" Tao asked them. "I thought the barrier changed everything that passed through it?"
Boss frowned, tapping a finger to his chin. "It shouldn't be, but seeing how long it's been since I helped make it... Maybe the magic has begun to fray since then."
Unease crept into Tao's gut. If the barrier was starting to lose its power, then what did that mean for the ones who had helped make it?
Boss smiled at hir, patting hir shoulder again. "I'm fine, Tao."
Tao pursed hir lips and then nudged Boss in the chest with a shoulder, staying there. "Sure you are." There was a fine line when Boss looked after hir, and looked after hir to distract themself.
Boss' smile wavered before they peered at Tao, studying hir face. "And where are they now?"
"With a Loyard and Landegre," Tao told them. "I hope," ze muttered under hir breath. The feather-brain could have ran off trying to hunt demons like they had with Tao.
"Aah." Boss nodded. "It's the best place to be."
Tao sighed, watching hir breath swirl and then closed hir eyes, feeling Boss' hand pet hir head. Ze concentrated on that, just breathing.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Ze was lying and they both new it. Passing through the barrier and gaining a physical body had been a whirl of confusion and being overwhelmed by senses ze had never used before, but once ze'd gotten used it, ze had thought that was all ze had to get used to. But maybe the angel staying in that mid-form (unless they'd been created like that? Why?) helped them. If they could break away from their training as an angel. That was painful to look at, at how easy they had been to read. That must have been the same for hir and Takeo.
"Hmm." Boss didn't stop stroking hir head. "I think having food inside you would also help - what do you think?"
A smile touched Tao's lips. "It wouldn't hurt."
* * *
M-21 looked around the living room Seira and Regis left them them. It was sparse in decoration after seeing all the shops, but there were a number of photographs framed on top of flat surfaces. M-21 had only looked at them briefly before looking elsewhere. What took up the room the most was books that lined shelves and while they looked interesting, M-21 didn't take any to read - they belonged to Seira and Regis, so they would leave them alone.
Mortals were strange. The pair were 'sleeping' and had said their bodied needed it every day, especially after being in a fight and using their power
There was nothing else to do, and Seira had told M-21 they would likely sleep for several hours, until the sun rose again. They glanced out the window at the dark sky. Heaven had never gone dark - there was constant light.
The demon was still out there. They had been able to chase the demon away, but what if they hurt humans until the next time M-21 saw them?
That was it. That was what they would do - they would hunt demons alone until Seira and Regis woke up again.
* * *
Tao dug into the food ze and Boss had bought, swinging hir legs on the bench they'd been able to grab before someone else had. It wasn't that often they ate out -Boss preferred cooking at home- but sometimes it was nice. There had been a couple of times they'd met other demons that way, their wings signalling to each other what the other was.
"It's been a while since we've met someone else like this, huh?" Tao said, leaning back on the bench to stare up at the clouds. It had to be centuries by now. All the demons they'd met since then had been created by another demon gifting a human some of their power and then that human passing on their power until the link to the original demon was lost, the link had gotten so diluted.
Tao snapped hir head up at a crackle of power, and the angel was there, face twisted and sword in hand.
Dammit, angel, no. Fighting a demon with a Loyard and Landegre for back-up was one thing, but fighting two demons by themself?
Dammit, if they'd been two different demons...
They had to be somewhere less public before the angel made a disturbance. With no-one else around, ze and Boss would be blamed for it and Tao had done enough of running from the police than ze wanted.
Tao dropped hir food and they flitted away to a small distance away. Far enough to get out of the way of the angel's attack, but close enough the angel could see where they'd gone.
The angel swerved into their new direction and Tao saw the scowl on their face before ze flitted away again.
It didn't take long to find a suitable rooftop and the angel hovered there when they caught up.
"Leave those hosts!" the angel demanded. "I don't want to harm them!"
Tao's eyebrows shot up. Was that what Heaven said about them now? It had been a couple of centuries, but didn't they know…?
Of course, if the angel hadn't transformed themselves and had just came from Heaven, it wasn't that surprising.
Tao sighed. "Boss, I'll take this one." One of them was more than enough for an angel who only had the training Heaven had given them. Two demons was plain overkill.
"I'll take you both down." The words had hardly left the angel's mouth before they swooped towards them. "You won't run this time!"
Good. At least the angel know about pressing any advantages they could see. Though was a pre-fight speech part of training now?
"Try not to be too harsh," Boss murmured as Tao leaped to meet the angel. Tao huffed at the remark, sliding past the angel's thrust and drew power to hir hands to slam the heel of hir palm into the angel's wrist, sending a jolt of lightning into them.
The angel dropped their sword with a yelp and Tao saw the sword's design before it disappeared. It was a little different from the one Tao used to wield - the hilt was bigger and fancier with a looped design etched into it that hadn't been there before. Was that what the angel had been given, or was it because they were different that the sword's form changed, echoing its user?
That was a question for another time and while the angel was still recovering from the hit (or expecting Tao to step back to let them summon their sword again, hah), Tao drove a knee into the angel's gut, spiking that with lightning too.
There was no accompanying whoosh of air Tao was used to, but ze grabbed the angel's robe and threw them down at the rooftop. The angel slammed into it and before the angel recovered, Tao landed into a crouch on their shoulders, pinning them there with hir power.
The angel struggled, their arms flailing, but couldn't budge hir. And Tao had found another advantage of having a physical body: it was way easier trapping someone who didn't know what weight was.
The angel glared up at hir, still trying to remove hir feet. "How?" the angel demanded, looking like they were about to bare their teeth.
"What?" Tao said, giving them a tight smile. "How did I beat you, or how am I pinning you down? You have to be a little clearer."
The angel punched hir leg and Tao protected hirself from the brunt of the blow with hir aura. It was a bit pathetic how helpless the angel was once something happened that they weren't prepared for. Tao ignored the tightness in hir chest and the memories that tried to surge with it.
"Both!"
"Demons adapt, angel," Tao said, prodding the angel in the stomach with the tip of hir tail to add insult to injury. Demons had to learn how to adapt, from the moment they left Heaven and had to get used to the world around them and their new bodies. If they didn't, they died. "And we used to be angels, remember? We know everything you were taught." Unless whoever made them now had added things or changed it up, but it seemed like angels were taught the same things Tao had when ze'd been there.
The angel stopped moving, their eyes wide. Huh, was-
The angel's aura lashed out and Tao flitted away, landing in front of Boss. Just in time - the angel had summoned their sword again and slashed where Tao had been.
Tao couldn't help but grin in relief, wanting to clap as the angel swept themselves upright again, their sword pointed at hir. "That's better." There was some hope the angel could change before something killed them.
Now, if ze could get the angel to stop charging and projecting what they were going to do-
The angel disappeared.
"Huh..." Tao said, casting hir senses out, but there was nothing there. "They ran?" Nothing up in the sky or in the surrounding area either. That was interesting. From what Tao could tell, the angel wouldn't have been someone who had the gall to run, but would have stayed and fought to the end. But then... Hm. Maybe the fight had been more helpful than Tao had thought. Now if the angel had gone back to Loyard and Landegre, that would be good.
"It seems like it..."
Tao turned around, not expecting the subdued answer from Boss. Their brows were furrowed, and their eyes distant.
"Boss? What's up?"
Boss' expression cleared and they shook their head. "For a brief second I thought I had recognised their aura."
Tao frowned, casting hir senses out again. Ze had been too distracted trying to make the angel realise the situation they were in to notice.
There were very few people that would make Boss react like that. "Did you think-"
Boss shook their head again. "No. I was mistaken."
Boss wasn't mistaken often and Tao hummed, trying to peer through the falling snow. The angel did have Muzaka's colouration and how they reacted to a few things - Tao could see how there could be a connection between them. But the angel had just come through from Heaven and had been created recently by the looks of it. Then again, anyone would look like that if they only knew what Heaven had taught them.
"So that was the angel you met," Boss said.
Tao huffed, nodding as ze slipped hir hands into hir pockets again. Ze'd warmed up in the fight, but it wouldn't be long until ze cooled down again. "I don't think there are any other angels out there."
But still. Ze had thought nothing could pass through the barrier without changing and ze was wrong about that. There could be more angels in the physical realm than Tao thought.
"I suppose the only thing we can do at the moment is keep an eye on them," Boss said.
"I think they'll be keeping an eye on us" Tao said, shaking hir head, though ze was smiling too. Either way, it meant they would know what was happening with the angel.
Boss chuckled and then patted hir shoulder. "We should get back to our dinner."
"Yeah." Though Tao wouldn't be surprised if something had eaten it already.
* * *
M-21 couldn't think. Their thoughts stuttered and circled to the same one no matter what they did.
Their mission was to kill as many demons as they could and they couldn't beat one. The blond demon hadn't even needed to step in.
Not only that, they had ran away from the fight. They should have stood their ground and taken down at least one, even it meant killing the host.
But...they wouldn't have succeeded. The black-haired demon had proven that. The demon hadn't been trying! They hadn't even brought out their weapon and the fight had been over as soon as it had begun.
They'd had to run. They couldn't have stayed. If they had... That fight hadn't been the same as a spar with M-24, where if one of them lost, they could pick up the other and start all over again.
If the demon had wanted it, M-21 would have ceased to exist. Died.
But the demon hadn't, seeming pleased when they had fought back at the end. Why? Why would the demon be happy about that? Because the demon had wanted a good fight?
M-21 needed someone else with them in case something went wrong. Which it already had. M-21 didn't want to do what the demons had done, but...it made sense.
If they'd been in Heaven, they could have counted on M-24. This was their first time they had been seperated from each other, and M-24 was the batchmate they'd stayed with the longest, the rest of their batchmates been given things to do by their Lord.
There was an odd throb in their chest, stronger than when they thought of their other batchmates, but they could do this. They would complete their mission and then return home.
They were still connected with their Lord and M-21 drew strength from the knowledge it was there. They couldn't communicate with their Lord, not in the physical realm, but it was a constant reminder that their Lord was there.
And hm, it wasn't just demons that paired up together, but humans too. Seira and Regis had known how to fight demons, so maybe they could ask them for information.
M-21 looked around. If they remembered right, Seira and Regis lived in that direction...
* * *
M-21 stared at Seira's door and then phased through it. They were lying under some blankets with their eyes closed. Were they 'sleeping'?
But how were they supposed to make them stop sleeping, and Seira and Regis had said rest was important for them. So...
"What is it, Angel?" Seira murmured, their eyes fluttering open.
"Ah..." M-21 glanced away, unsure. "I apologise for interrupting your sleep. I shouldn't have. I'll-"
"It's fine," Seira said, sitting up again and rubbing at an eye. " Is there something wrong?"
There was a lot wrong. And M-21 wasn't sure if they would be able to fix it. "I'm failing my mission," M-21 said, their words softer than they thought they would be.
Siera made a soft noise and when M-21 looked at them, their brows were drawn in a little. "Did you leave to fight demons?"
"Yes. I...had thought that since I'd driven the other demon away, I would be able to fight demons while you slept." Now they knew it wasn't because of them, but because of Seira and Regis, as well as their superior numbers.
"And it didn't go well."
"No. I don't know why, but the demon let me live."
"Some like playing with their prey before eating them," Seira said.
Had they been? It didn't seem like - well, yes, the demon had been playing with them in that fight, mocking them. Was that what the demon had been trying to do? Make them doubt? But the demon had been right...
"Would you be able to give me some of your information on how you fight demons?" Seira had to know things M-21 didn't.
Seira smiled, nodding as the moved to get out of their bed. "I would be happy to teach you."
"Wait, you don't have to get out of bed," M-21 said, drawing back. Rest was important to them and they'd already interrupted it. "...Teach?" What was that?
"I'll be fine," Seira said. And then they blinked, their eyebrows drawing in a little. "How do you learn something in Heaven?"
"Our Lord gives us the information They think we need and then we know it."
"You...know it," Seira repeated. "How does your Lord give you the information?"
"Through the connection we share." M-21 looked at them. "That isn't how you do it?"
This time a small smile curved Seira's lips. "No," they said, shaking their head. "We have to pass it on through different ways like...talking or reading, and it can take us a long time for us to remember it well."
Oh. "That...sounds like it takes a lot longer."
"It does, compared to how you do it, but if you still want to do it, I'm willing to teach you."
M-21 bowed. "Thank you."
* * *
Seira had made her bed and after they the two of them had gone to living room. M-21 watched Seira as they made a hot drink for themselves. The wisps of steam as they raised from the cup were interesting to watch as well.
"Why do you want to learn how to fight demons?" Seira asked as they sat down at with their cup.
"Because I don't know how to," M-21 admitted, staring at the tabletop as they hovered next to it. They thought they were ready, but they weren't.
"Ah," Seira said. They curled their fingers around their cup, not moving to drink from it yet. "I suppose I should start at the basics, and you can correct me if what you know is different."
"I don't think that's a good idea," M-21 said, hovering in small circles. "I don't think anything I know is right."
Seira tapped a finger on their cup. "Then we can talk about it and try to work out if we can figure out which is true and which isn't."
"...Okay." That sounded like that could work.
"As for how Regis and I can fight demons, our ancestors say our families were chosen to look after humanity, that God had given our families the power of angels to fight demons." Seira was watching them, hands wrapped around their cup again.
____________________________________
When the heck does M-21 learn seira and regis' genders... If it doesn't come up in the next part, there'll have been some off camera correction and M-21 starts using he and her for them.
I almost forgot rooftops were a reasonable place to fight, pfft.
I realise I didn't describe demons having tails at all in the first part, but the description section had been getting long by that point, haha.
Summary: After leaving Heaven and turning into a demon, Tao was sure things had settled to some kind of normality. The angel coming down and not turning into a demon wasn't something Tao thought ze would ever see.
Notes: Angel/demon au written for nano!
ze/hir/hir for Tao's pronouns. Just to clarify - Tao, Frankenstein and M-21 are non-binary, and they use 'they' for other people until told otherwise.
Rating: PG
Genre: General
Word count: 3,132
Total word count: 5,373
Status: Work in progress
Heh. With the amount of time they'd spent together, of course Boss knew something else had happened.
"I met an angel."
This time, Boss' other eyebrow shot up. "I see..."
"...Yeah," To said, rolling hir shoulders. "Is that possible?" Tao asked them. "I thought the barrier changed everything that passed through it?"
Boss frowned, tapping a finger to his chin. "It shouldn't be, but seeing how long it's been since I helped make it... Maybe the magic has begun to fray since then."
Unease crept into Tao's gut. If the barrier was starting to lose its power, then what did that mean for the ones who had helped make it?
Boss smiled at hir, patting hir shoulder again. "I'm fine, Tao."
Tao pursed hir lips and then nudged Boss in the chest with a shoulder, staying there. "Sure you are." There was a fine line when Boss looked after hir, and looked after hir to distract themself.
Boss' smile wavered before they peered at Tao, studying hir face. "And where are they now?"
"With a Loyard and Landegre," Tao told them. "I hope," ze muttered under hir breath. The feather-brain could have ran off trying to hunt demons like they had with Tao.
"Aah." Boss nodded. "It's the best place to be."
Tao sighed, watching hir breath swirl and then closed hir eyes, feeling Boss' hand pet hir head. Ze concentrated on that, just breathing.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Ze was lying and they both new it. Passing through the barrier and gaining a physical body had been a whirl of confusion and being overwhelmed by senses ze had never used before, but once ze'd gotten used it, ze had thought that was all ze had to get used to. But maybe the angel staying in that mid-form (unless they'd been created like that? Why?) helped them. If they could break away from their training as an angel. That was painful to look at, at how easy they had been to read. That must have been the same for hir and Takeo.
"Hmm." Boss didn't stop stroking hir head. "I think having food inside you would also help - what do you think?"
A smile touched Tao's lips. "It wouldn't hurt."
M-21 looked around the living room Seira and Regis left them them. It was sparse in decoration after seeing all the shops, but there were a number of photographs framed on top of flat surfaces. M-21 had only looked at them briefly before looking elsewhere. What took up the room the most was books that lined shelves and while they looked interesting, M-21 didn't take any to read - they belonged to Seira and Regis, so they would leave them alone.
Mortals were strange. The pair were 'sleeping' and had said their bodied needed it every day, especially after being in a fight and using their power
There was nothing else to do, and Seira had told M-21 they would likely sleep for several hours, until the sun rose again. They glanced out the window at the dark sky. Heaven had never gone dark - there was constant light.
The demon was still out there. They had been able to chase the demon away, but what if they hurt humans until the next time M-21 saw them?
That was it. That was what they would do - they would hunt demons alone until Seira and Regis woke up again.
Tao dug into the food ze and Boss had bought, swinging hir legs on the bench they'd been able to grab before someone else had. It wasn't that often they ate out -Boss preferred cooking at home- but sometimes it was nice. There had been a couple of times they'd met other demons that way, their wings signalling to each other what the other was.
"It's been a while since we've met someone else like this, huh?" Tao said, leaning back on the bench to stare up at the clouds. It had to be centuries by now. All the demons they'd met since then had been created by another demon gifting a human some of their power and then that human passing on their power until the link to the original demon was lost, the link had gotten so diluted.
Tao snapped hir head up at a crackle of power, and the angel was there, face twisted and sword in hand.
Dammit, angel, no. Fighting a demon with a Loyard and Landegre for back-up was one thing, but fighting two demons by themself?
Dammit, if they'd been two different demons...
They had to be somewhere less public before the angel made a disturbance. With no-one else around, ze and Boss would be blamed for it and Tao had done enough of running from the police than ze wanted.
Tao dropped hir food and they flitted away to a small distance away. Far enough to get out of the way of the angel's attack, but close enough the angel could see where they'd gone.
The angel swerved into their new direction and Tao saw the scowl on their face before ze flitted away again.
It didn't take long to find a suitable rooftop and the angel hovered there when they caught up.
"Leave those hosts!" the angel demanded. "I don't want to harm them!"
Tao's eyebrows shot up. Was that what Heaven said about them now? It had been a couple of centuries, but didn't they know…?
Of course, if the angel hadn't transformed themselves and had just came from Heaven, it wasn't that surprising.
Tao sighed. "Boss, I'll take this one." One of them was more than enough for an angel who only had the training Heaven had given them. Two demons was plain overkill.
"I'll take you both down." The words had hardly left the angel's mouth before they swooped towards them. "You won't run this time!"
Good. At least the angel know about pressing any advantages they could see. Though was a pre-fight speech part of training now?
"Try not to be too harsh," Boss murmured as Tao leaped to meet the angel. Tao huffed at the remark, sliding past the angel's thrust and drew power to hir hands to slam the heel of hir palm into the angel's wrist, sending a jolt of lightning into them.
The angel dropped their sword with a yelp and Tao saw the sword's design before it disappeared. It was a little different from the one Tao used to wield - the hilt was bigger and fancier with a looped design etched into it that hadn't been there before. Was that what the angel had been given, or was it because they were different that the sword's form changed, echoing its user?
That was a question for another time and while the angel was still recovering from the hit (or expecting Tao to step back to let them summon their sword again, hah), Tao drove a knee into the angel's gut, spiking that with lightning too.
There was no accompanying whoosh of air Tao was used to, but ze grabbed the angel's robe and threw them down at the rooftop. The angel slammed into it and before the angel recovered, Tao landed into a crouch on their shoulders, pinning them there with hir power.
The angel struggled, their arms flailing, but couldn't budge hir. And Tao had found another advantage of having a physical body: it was way easier trapping someone who didn't know what weight was.
The angel glared up at hir, still trying to remove hir feet. "How?" the angel demanded, looking like they were about to bare their teeth.
"What?" Tao said, giving them a tight smile. "How did I beat you, or how am I pinning you down? You have to be a little clearer."
The angel punched hir leg and Tao protected hirself from the brunt of the blow with hir aura. It was a bit pathetic how helpless the angel was once something happened that they weren't prepared for. Tao ignored the tightness in hir chest and the memories that tried to surge with it.
"Both!"
"Demons adapt, angel," Tao said, prodding the angel in the stomach with the tip of hir tail to add insult to injury. Demons had to learn how to adapt, from the moment they left Heaven and had to get used to the world around them and their new bodies. If they didn't, they died. "And we used to be angels, remember? We know everything you were taught." Unless whoever made them now had added things or changed it up, but it seemed like angels were taught the same things Tao had when ze'd been there.
The angel stopped moving, their eyes wide. Huh, was-
The angel's aura lashed out and Tao flitted away, landing in front of Boss. Just in time - the angel had summoned their sword again and slashed where Tao had been.
Tao couldn't help but grin in relief, wanting to clap as the angel swept themselves upright again, their sword pointed at hir. "That's better." There was some hope the angel could change before something killed them.
Now, if ze could get the angel to stop charging and projecting what they were going to do-
The angel disappeared.
"Huh..." Tao said, casting hir senses out, but there was nothing there. "They ran?" Nothing up in the sky or in the surrounding area either. That was interesting. From what Tao could tell, the angel wouldn't have been someone who had the gall to run, but would have stayed and fought to the end. But then... Hm. Maybe the fight had been more helpful than Tao had thought. Now if the angel had gone back to Loyard and Landegre, that would be good.
"It seems like it..."
Tao turned around, not expecting the subdued answer from Boss. Their brows were furrowed, and their eyes distant.
"Boss? What's up?"
Boss' expression cleared and they shook their head. "For a brief second I thought I had recognised their aura."
Tao frowned, casting hir senses out again. Ze had been too distracted trying to make the angel realise the situation they were in to notice.
There were very few people that would make Boss react like that. "Did you think-"
Boss shook their head again. "No. I was mistaken."
Boss wasn't mistaken often and Tao hummed, trying to peer through the falling snow. The angel did have Muzaka's colouration and how they reacted to a few things - Tao could see how there could be a connection between them. But the angel had just come through from Heaven and had been created recently by the looks of it. Then again, anyone would look like that if they only knew what Heaven had taught them.
"So that was the angel you met," Boss said.
Tao huffed, nodding as ze slipped hir hands into hir pockets again. Ze'd warmed up in the fight, but it wouldn't be long until ze cooled down again. "I don't think there are any other angels out there."
But still. Ze had thought nothing could pass through the barrier without changing and ze was wrong about that. There could be more angels in the physical realm than Tao thought.
"I suppose the only thing we can do at the moment is keep an eye on them," Boss said.
"I think they'll be keeping an eye on us" Tao said, shaking hir head, though ze was smiling too. Either way, it meant they would know what was happening with the angel.
Boss chuckled and then patted hir shoulder. "We should get back to our dinner."
"Yeah." Though Tao wouldn't be surprised if something had eaten it already.
M-21 couldn't think. Their thoughts stuttered and circled to the same one no matter what they did.
Their mission was to kill as many demons as they could and they couldn't beat one. The blond demon hadn't even needed to step in.
Not only that, they had ran away from the fight. They should have stood their ground and taken down at least one, even it meant killing the host.
But...they wouldn't have succeeded. The black-haired demon had proven that. The demon hadn't been trying! They hadn't even brought out their weapon and the fight had been over as soon as it had begun.
They'd had to run. They couldn't have stayed. If they had... That fight hadn't been the same as a spar with M-24, where if one of them lost, they could pick up the other and start all over again.
If the demon had wanted it, M-21 would have ceased to exist. Died.
But the demon hadn't, seeming pleased when they had fought back at the end. Why? Why would the demon be happy about that? Because the demon had wanted a good fight?
M-21 needed someone else with them in case something went wrong. Which it already had. M-21 didn't want to do what the demons had done, but...it made sense.
If they'd been in Heaven, they could have counted on M-24. This was their first time they had been seperated from each other, and M-24 was the batchmate they'd stayed with the longest, the rest of their batchmates been given things to do by their Lord.
There was an odd throb in their chest, stronger than when they thought of their other batchmates, but they could do this. They would complete their mission and then return home.
They were still connected with their Lord and M-21 drew strength from the knowledge it was there. They couldn't communicate with their Lord, not in the physical realm, but it was a constant reminder that their Lord was there.
And hm, it wasn't just demons that paired up together, but humans too. Seira and Regis had known how to fight demons, so maybe they could ask them for information.
M-21 looked around. If they remembered right, Seira and Regis lived in that direction...
M-21 stared at Seira's door and then phased through it. They were lying under some blankets with their eyes closed. Were they 'sleeping'?
But how were they supposed to make them stop sleeping, and Seira and Regis had said rest was important for them. So...
"What is it, Angel?" Seira murmured, their eyes fluttering open.
"Ah..." M-21 glanced away, unsure. "I apologise for interrupting your sleep. I shouldn't have. I'll-"
"It's fine," Seira said, sitting up again and rubbing at an eye. " Is there something wrong?"
There was a lot wrong. And M-21 wasn't sure if they would be able to fix it. "I'm failing my mission," M-21 said, their words softer than they thought they would be.
Siera made a soft noise and when M-21 looked at them, their brows were drawn in a little. "Did you leave to fight demons?"
"Yes. I...had thought that since I'd driven the other demon away, I would be able to fight demons while you slept." Now they knew it wasn't because of them, but because of Seira and Regis, as well as their superior numbers.
"And it didn't go well."
"No. I don't know why, but the demon let me live."
"Some like playing with their prey before eating them," Seira said.
Had they been? It didn't seem like - well, yes, the demon had been playing with them in that fight, mocking them. Was that what the demon had been trying to do? Make them doubt? But the demon had been right...
"Would you be able to give me some of your information on how you fight demons?" Seira had to know things M-21 didn't.
Seira smiled, nodding as the moved to get out of their bed. "I would be happy to teach you."
"Wait, you don't have to get out of bed," M-21 said, drawing back. Rest was important to them and they'd already interrupted it. "...Teach?" What was that?
"I'll be fine," Seira said. And then they blinked, their eyebrows drawing in a little. "How do you learn something in Heaven?"
"Our Lord gives us the information They think we need and then we know it."
"You...know it," Seira repeated. "How does your Lord give you the information?"
"Through the connection we share." M-21 looked at them. "That isn't how you do it?"
This time a small smile curved Seira's lips. "No," they said, shaking their head. "We have to pass it on through different ways like...talking or reading, and it can take us a long time for us to remember it well."
Oh. "That...sounds like it takes a lot longer."
"It does, compared to how you do it, but if you still want to do it, I'm willing to teach you."
M-21 bowed. "Thank you."
Seira had made her bed and after they the two of them had gone to living room. M-21 watched Seira as they made a hot drink for themselves. The wisps of steam as they raised from the cup were interesting to watch as well.
"Why do you want to learn how to fight demons?" Seira asked as they sat down at with their cup.
"Because I don't know how to," M-21 admitted, staring at the tabletop as they hovered next to it. They thought they were ready, but they weren't.
"Ah," Seira said. They curled their fingers around their cup, not moving to drink from it yet. "I suppose I should start at the basics, and you can correct me if what you know is different."
"I don't think that's a good idea," M-21 said, hovering in small circles. "I don't think anything I know is right."
Seira tapped a finger on their cup. "Then we can talk about it and try to work out if we can figure out which is true and which isn't."
"...Okay." That sounded like that could work.
"As for how Regis and I can fight demons, our ancestors say our families were chosen to look after humanity, that God had given our families the power of angels to fight demons." Seira was watching them, hands wrapped around their cup again.
When the heck does M-21 learn seira and regis' genders... If it doesn't come up in the next part, there'll have been some off camera correction and M-21 starts using he and her for them.
I almost forgot rooftops were a reasonable place to fight, pfft.
I realise I didn't describe demons having tails at all in the first part, but the description section had been getting long by that point, haha.