I sat in the living room of our small apartment building, holding a handheld gaming device and playing a simple platformer game. Despite my determination, the warriors of the light tribe hadn’t shown their faces for over a week now. Ever since my fight with the angel, I hadn’t seen anything at all from them. 

Things hadn’t really progressed with raza either, as we had barely seen each other. The damage to the school was still being repaired, and we hadn’t resumed classes yet, so I didn’t see much of her unless I went over myself, and things still felt kinda awkward... 

“Takeru, honey... Can you think you can run down to the store and get some rice for me? We’re all out.” From the kitchen my mother called out to me, pulling me out of my thoughts and the game. I stood up, put down the device, and stretched my arms above my head with a yawn.

“Kay...” I quickly tied my messy hair back into my loose ponytail, checking to make sure the shirt I was wearing wasn’t too filthy or old to wear outside. I might be a tomboy, but I didn’t want to look like a hobo. Confirming that I was fit to leave, I slipped on my sneakers and grabbed some money from my mom’s wallet. “Back in a bit.”

What do I do about Raza… how do I fix this awkwardness between us that I caused? She said she wasn’t ready… but was I even ready? Was I ready to accept that I was, in fact, in love with a girl? This teen drama-like event had almost made me completely forget the supernatural events I was embroiled in, though they were still in the back of my mind.

“I wonder how he would have dealt with all this?” I thought to myself, remembering the dream from a few days ago. He always knew what to do, but he had moved away years ago without even saying goodbye… where did he go?

As I was lost in my thoughts, I practically barreled right through someone just as they left the supermarket I was heading into. We both bumped right into each other, but neither of us fell down thankfully. Taking a step back, I quickly bowed in apology. 

“S-Sorry about that, I should pay better attention to where I’m… going…” I finally noticed who I had run into as I looked up towards them. 

Her white hair was still in the same short bob from before, and her silver eyes stared at me, her body frozen. Wearing a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with the logo of a metal band on it, I wasn’t sure if they actually were her at all, what kind of angel dresses like this?

I leaned in closer, inspecting her frozen, terrified face. Yep, that was her, Saraviael, the Valkyrie I had clashed with last week. She was carrying a brown paper bag of groceries, fruit and bread, among other things that stood out on top.

“Y-Yo, doing well?” I asked, awkwardly. I wasn’t sure what to say or do here, since she was just shopping… it’s not like we were gonna fight or anything. 

“You…” her hands began to shake, her tense grip on the bag threatening to tear through the thin brown paper. 

“So… ya’ stuck around in Kamijou huh? I’d have thought you’d go hide in the mountains to train for revenge or something.” I finally managed to speak up, asking a pretty stupid question of the angel. But she ignored me and continued down the sidewalk, not even looking back towards me once. I was taken aback by this, surely she must be furious with me, but she left silently? At least scold me for being reckless or something!

For some reason, that really ticked me off, so I started following her. She noticed I was following her and sped up, but tried to otherwise ignore me. 

“Oi~ Saraviael-chan~” I called out after her, causing her to stop in her tracks. Her body started shaking angrily, and she turned around, shouting.

“Don’t call out to me casually, we’re not friends!” as she turned around, a bright red apple tumbled out of her bag towards the ground. “Ah!” 

With my enhanced reflexes it was child’s play to catch it. The apple landed safely against the palm of my hand. I tossed it into the air, catching it again. I held it out towards her, and she glared harshly at me.

“Are you trying to pick a fight with me, you uncouth demon?” she growled, snatching the apple from my hand and returning it to her bag.  

“Not really, I’m just annoyed you ignored me… after I poured my heart and soul into rescuing you too!” I guess if I was being honest, what I was doing here was being selfish. I wanted to prove I was right, that I had saved her from her abuser, freed her to live a happy life. It seemed like I had, but I wanted confirmation. “How have you been?”

“D-Don’t act like you care about my wellbeing, you trickster!” she stammered, her body language turning much more flustered. “I won’t fall for your honeyed words again.”

“I-I’m not lying, I do care!” I shouted back at her, annoyed that she questioned my motives, even if she was right. “Why do you have to be so difficult, we’re not enemies anymore, right? Can’t you just talk to me?”

“Urgh! You don’t know when to quit, do you?!” she shouted, her cheeks puffing out and her left eye twitching slightly. “I don’t want your pity or help, you’re no friend of mine! I have half a mind to put you in your place right now, but I don’t want to damage these groceries in a fight.” 

“Go take them home then, I’ll wait.” my fists closed so tightly you could hear the popping of my joints. “Get your ass back here, then I’ll make you accept my friendship by force!”

Everything I was thinking was replaced by this, I would beat my friendship into her whether she liked it or not! It’s what I knew how to do, it’s what my role model taught me to do. She hurried back to her destination, and though I said I would wait, I followed her back to insure she didn’t run away. She didn’t question me coming with her, but we had walked all the way here in silence. 

She pushed open the door to a church outbuilding, a fitting home for an angel, I guess. Inside, a young priest was sweeping the floor. When we walked in, he looked over with a smile. 

“Welcome home… Oh, hello there…” he looked at me, stopping his cleaning for a moment. “Is this a friend of yours, Sara?”

“Not a chance!” “Of course not!” Both of us shouted at him at the same time. He just looked confused at our outburst, but we left too quickly for him to ask any followup questions. Sara left the bag at the door and we both left the church in a hurry. 

“I’ll be back soon, Father... I have to settle some things with this girl.” she said, pausing at the doorway for a moment. He looked concerned, but he didn’t get involved. I think he could sense it would be futile to try, so he let it be. 

I led the angel to a spot by the bank of the river, below a bridge. A common hangout for delinquents and ne'er do wells, there were a few punks already there. However, upon seeing me approach, they all panicked and ran off. We were now alone in a secluded place, nobody would bother us here.

“So, how are we gonna do this?” I asked her, stretching out my muscles as I normally did before a fight. “This a fight to the death?” 

“I… would rather it not be.” she responded in a shocking turn of events. “Besides, after you shattered my Godspeed I’ve been unable to pull that much divine power back out, I haven’t had time to recover.” 

“So ya won’t be pulling out any weird tricks then?” I asked, and she nodded in return. Cracking the knuckles on my left hand, I smiled. “Perfect, I prefer a good old fashioned street fight.”

The one to take the first swing was me, a fast right jab sailing out towards her. I didn’t wait for her to be ready, but unexpectedly she guarded properly against it. She countered me, one of her long legs crashing into my ribs and sending me staggering backwards. 

This was… different. I’d only ever seen her fight with a sword so I hadn’t figured she’d know hand to hand combat at all… but that stance reminded me of kickboxers. She was practiced, properly trained unlike my self taught street combat style.

“Your name… is Takeru, right?” she inched forward, keeping out of range of my legendary punch, she had already tasted it before and wasn’t eager to do it again. “I believe that’s what the Daeva called you.”

“Yeah, Hatsu Takeru.” I answered her, beginning to circle around to the left. “My dad named me before I was born, my parents were sure they were having a boy, but they got a failure of a girl instead.” 

Was it destiny for us to fight? The light and the dark, forever fated to do battle? No, we were just stupid kids who didn’t know how to do anything else. Walking around each other, we sized up our opponents' stance. 

Three swift jabs from the angel, testing my guard. I swatted them aside and swung my right fist up into a hook. She dashed to the side, moving faster than any normal human. She was in my blind spot now, and her fist connected with my side. Slamming my elbow down on her extended arm, I twisted my upper body and struck her in the face.  

She recoiled from the punch, but quickly retaliated. Our fists flew, a flurry of attack and defense on both sides. She was tough, as expected of someone with an inhuman body, so she didn’t go down in a single hit like I was used to. 

I threw a heavy straight, missing by a hair. She ducked below the punch, cracking me on the chin with a fast uppercut. But it was her legs that were the real problem, and she connected hard with her next kick. I hit the ground, which was thankfully only soft grass. But still, I hadn’t thought I would be the first one to go down.

For some reason, I could feel a smile creep over my face. I shouldn’t be enjoying this, but I couldn’t help it. Every fight ever since that day with the three bullies, everyone I fought always went down with a single punch. Even in the last fight with Saraviael, I only landed a single hit.

“Did you hit your head on the way down? Why are you grinning like an idiot, this is a fight!” She looked confused, but she still tried to strike me as I stood up. 

“Nah, I was always this kind of idiot.” I responded, causing her to look at me with even more concern. I caught her fist with my outstretched hand, pulling her face close to mine. My dumb grin was all she could see, and she looked at me with a strange expression, a slight blush on her cheeks from how close we were. “Only good at one thing, and this is it. I’m so talented at brawling, in fact, that everybody who's ever gone up against me drops in one hit, unless I don’t take it seriously.”

“I see, you’re looking so stupid because you finally found an oppoenent who can keep up with you?” she asked, averting her eyes from mine as she blushed harder for some reason. “The warriors of darkness sure are simple.”

“That’s right, instead of kicking the asses of tons of ugly delinquents who go down before I have any fun, I get to bash that cute face of yours as much as I like!” My face flushed red, the excitement of the battle mixing with some other feelings within me, and I couldn’t help feeling hot. I shoved her away, striking her in the body with my knee, then throwing a heavy straight with my left hand. 

“”W-Wha? Are you insane, listen to the words coming out of your mouth?!” she shouted, blocking and weaving through my assault as I rushed her down. “What kind of person delights in hurting cute girls?!”

“Well, I am the god of destruction after all!” I responded laughing, elbowing her in the body before following it up with a right hook to the face. She was momentarily stunned, and I used the chance to trip her with my foot. She hit the dirt like I had momentarily done before, so now we were even.

I tackled her back to the ground as she tried to stand up, cracking my forehead against her face. Blood ran down both of our faces as I landed on top of her. My legs straddling her body, I pinned her to the ground. With my uneven breathing and terrifying, out of place smile… I must look like some sort of deviant. Actually, wasn’t this position extremely suggestive?

My mind was racing in multiple directions at once, and I started to get a bit confused. I wanted to hit her pretty face, such a pretty face… she has a really dynamite body too, look at those huge tits! Wait, what’s going on right now… we’re in the middle of a fight, right? Yeah, this a fight, stop thinking about how beautiful her angelic face is with her bobbed white hair and silver eyes! 

My fist slammed against her face, again and again, pushing her down into the mud below the bridge. She managed to free one of her arms, blocking my next blow, but she was unable to counter attack me. 

“Ready to be friends yet?!” I smiled, striking her in the belly. She coughed, but didn’t respond to my egging her on. My fist thrust downward once more, but this time, she managed to catch it.

“Not a chance!” she responded, her expressionless face, for just a brief second, showed a slight smile. 

Despite her small frame, she managed to push me off top of her. Suddenly, the situation was reversed, and she pinned me on the ground. Her fists blazed in a rapid fire assault, battering my torso and face before I could try and block.

I smashed my face against hers again, knocking her off my body. I rolled away, scrambling back to my feet. My vision was a bit dizzy, but I ran towards her nonetheless. She prepared to counter, her arm coiled like a snake about to strike at its prey. We threw our punches simultaneously, mine with my left, her with her right. Our reach was about the same, and our attacks narrowly missed colliding in mid swing. 

All of our remaining strength was put behind these two strikes. Our fists arcs past each other, slamming against each other’s face simultaneously. A cross-counter. Unlike the punches from before, these caused even our supernatural bodies really damage.

My knees buckled under me, and I began to fall. At the same time, so did Saraviael. With the last ounce of my stamina, I forced myself to stay on my feet, even for a second longer. The angel hit the ground with a soft thud, and I gave into my weak legs. 

Laying there, staring up at the sky next to this girl I barely knew, all of our discussion made through our fists, I smiled. A serene calm washed over me, like I had reached enlightenment. A cool breeze flowed through my hair, and I let out a satisfied sigh, reaching my hand out towards the heavens.

“Phew, I feel like a new woman!”I exclaimed, slowly sitting up. My hair tie had come undone, so my long black hair flowed freely in the wind as I looked over at the still prone Saraviael. “You’re pretty good, the second person to knock me down in a fistfight… ever.” 

“I find that hard to imagine, nobody else?” she said, rising up to a sitting position as well. 

“Just you and the guy who taught me how to fight, Akira’s the only one who I could never beat… Well, he’s just a human so I guess I could win now.” I sighed, realizing that my strength had likely surpassed my childhood idol.

“I can’t believe I let myself get caught up in your stupid thug energy.” the angel said, exacerbated, putting her hand on her face. “I’m supposed to be a knight, and here I am rolling in the mud in a fistfight. I’m not fit to serve the heavens, I really am an unwanted failure.”

There was sadness in her expression, but also a sense that she had accepted this fact and was prepared to leave her past behind. This… was what I wanted, right? For her to reject them and be free, so why did I feel terrible about this.

“Nah, that’s wrong.” I said, standing up and brushing off some of the dirt from my clothes. “Even if heaven doesn’t take you back, you have a place here… with me.”

She seemed taken aback by this sudden declaration towards her, her face looking redder than a ripe tomato. 

“B-But… but we’re both girls…” she stuttered out, frantically waving her hands around. It took me a second to realize why she was freaking out, and then I too began to blush heavily.

“That… I mean, I didn’t mean it like that! A soldier, yeah, I just wanted you to join my rebel army!” I quickly sputtered out a response, losing my cool. My chest was beating incredibly fast, even more than the fight had caused it to.

The angel rose to her feet, her silver eyes staring deeply into my own. With a swift and sudden assault, she breached my defenses. Her hand grabbed the collar of my shirt, pulling me down towards her slightly shorter body. Our lips connected, Saraviael’s large chest pressing against my body seductively, and I was left speechless.

“A soldier, sure… that’s all you meant.” she said as she broke away from the kiss. “So what I just did should be meaningless, yes?”

“Totally, I-I didn’t feel a thing…” I needed a reason to leave, right now. Things were getting out of hand, and I had a strong desire to flee. Like divine intervention, my phone rang. 

My phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I instantly snapped my focus to it. It was the ring I set for my mom, why was she calling me…

“Shit, I was supposed to be buying rice for dinner right now!” I answered the phone and before she could say anything I apologized to her. “Sorry, mama, I got a bit sidetracked with uhh… a friend, I’m going to get the rice now!”

I dashed off at top speed, leaving Saraviael in the grass alone.