I

11/08/955, 0635 hours, Sakakibara Household, Terra

"The culprit behind yesterday's attempted robbery was apprehended by Agency members shortly after he evaded the Shunsho Corporation guards. More details will come soon on who this mysterious robber is..."

Yoshihide yawned as he listened to the TV broadcast and slowly munched on his breakfast.

The stupor of exhaustion was still weighing heavy on him, and it was manifesting itself in his sluggish movements.

Why did I think it would be a good idea to stay up late yesterday?  was the only excuse his exhausted mind could think up to explain his tiredness.

In truth, the reason he stayed up late was to catch up on the newest season of a new TV drama he was binge-watching, but he did not feel the need to tell anyone what he was doing. After all, not everyone was interested in obsessing over the murder of Kuwahara Rumi at the hands of her jealous brother.

Still munching on his breakfast, Hide's eyes roamed over the scene in front of him.

His sister had her eyes glued on the TV, seemingly enthralled in the broadcast being played in front of her. His father was glancing over the latest edition of the daily newspaper that had been delivered mere minutes ago. Everything was normal.

"Son."

His father's voice broke him out of his stupor, and with a quick "Yes?" in response, he straightened up and increased his chewing speed.

His father didn't look up from the newspaper. Instead, with his face buried in the paper, he spoke.

"I hear your school is having tryouts for the EGA and the TCF. Is that right?"

"Well," he replied, "It's not tryouts, it's a recruitment. They want to see who is good in combat and who is not. They pick the best student from there."

"And are you going to participate?"

Hide paused as his mind raced over the option. Although the announcement had been weeks ago, he still hadn't made up his mind over whether he was going to try out for the recruitment.

Eventually, he settled on a reply.

"No. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other Celestials and humans who are just as capable as I am. I don't want to disturb their attempts. Besides," he added as he fixed his gaze on the newspaper hiding his father, "I promised that I was going to take over the family business after I graduated. I don't want to take back my words."

Hearing his reply, his father finally put down his newspaper and smiled.

"I'm proud of you, son. I can see that Sakakibara Electronics will be in good hands when I'm gone."

"Come on, dad. You're not that old."

A few minutes of understanding silence passed between the father and son.

And then his sister opened her mouth and spoke.

"Brother. You're going to be late for school."

"Oh shit!"

 

II

11/08/955, 0812 hours, Eden Government Agency HQ, Interrogation Room 18, Eden

"I'm going to say this once."

Ichida Kado spoke as he circled around the room, glaring at the prisoner sitting on the chair with his hands on the metal table.

"Who are you working for?"

The prisoner didn't reply. Instead, his hands, which had visible scars on them, began to shake violently.

"What's your name?" No response.

"Why did you break into Shunsho Corporation last night?" No response.

Kado sighed in frustration. Pushing his red hair back, his face screwed up in concentration.

Beside him, a black-haired female stood by the doorway of the room, closely examining a blade in her hands. Every once in a while, she would decide that the blade apparently wasn't sharp enough for her, and would scrape the blade against the doorway, creating a horrific sound akin to the scratching of human nails on a chalkboard.

The sound was apparently stressing the prisoner out, for he began to tilt his head back and scream loudly.

"That's not helping with the interrogation, Riko."

The black-haired female named Riko stopped sharpening her blade and tilted her head up to look at Kado. In a low, emotionless voice, she replied.

"Do you need me to persuade him to speak?"

As she said the words, her blade flashed towards the direction of the prisoner, who promptly saw her action and began to scream again.

"Yeah, no. I can handle it."

Kado began to walk towards the screaming prisoner, finally coming beside him. As the prisoner turned his head towards him, he slammed his fist into his face, causing his head to violently jerk to the side. Without waiting for him to recover, he grabbed onto the prisoner's shirt collar and pulled him back.

"Shut the fuck up and listen to me," Kado growled, his red eyes glaring into the prisoner's shocked face, "The only reason I'm not killing you right now is because you're a lucky bastard. No one has ever dared to break into Shunsho Corporation before. You're the first one. That means you broke inside there for a reason. Tell me what that reason is, and I swear you will make it out of this interrogation with minimal injuries."

The prisoner gulped and turned towards Riko. Seemingly to confirm his fears, she grinned and flashed her blade towards him again.

"See? I'm not the one you need to worry about."

The prisoner turned towards Kado. Compared to the dangerous female in the doorway, he suddenly seemed safer.

Finally, he broke.

"W-What do you need to know? I'll tell you what I know, so please don't hurt me."

"That's better. Now, why did you break into Shunsho Corporation?"

——-

"That certainly was unproductive."

When they were out of the interrogation room, Kado turned towards Riko and poured out his feelings.

"It's what you get when you interrogate a small fry like him. Odds are he didn't even know what he was doing," Riko replied in the same emotionless tone she had used before.

"Poor soul."

"Says the person who just mentally tortured him."

"Right," Kado smiled, and replied, "That's why I'm the Golden Child."

"Honestly, I can't tell what's going on in your mind sometimes. Sometimes I think you're crazier than I am."

"I appreciate your compliment."

 

III

11/08/955, 0702 hours, Between District 9 and 10, Terra

Yoshihide jogged down the asphalt road with his bag swinging in his hand. As he continued down the path, the calm neighbourhood gave way to taller buildings, and the peaceful serenity gave way to the noise of the city.

His school was situated in the center of District 11, which was one of the more wealthy cities in Terra. Why such a school was situated between massive skyscrapers and gigantic malls was unknown to him.

Perhaps it had been acquired with a too-good-to-be-true deal, or perhaps it was there even before District 11 came to be known as a District for the wealthy to live in. Either way, the school was an oddity against the general higher-class buildings.

He didn't care about that. All that weighed on his mind was that he couldn't miss school again. His frequent late comings, which had been due to 'personal reasons', had already caused his school principal to issue him a warning. Any more late comings, and it was likely that it would extend beyond a mere warning.

"Hey!"

Even though he was trying to make it to school as fast as possible, the distinct voice of someone he knew well stopped him in his tracks, allowing the person to catch up.

The voice belonged to a girl not taller than he was, with her brown hair tied back into a ponytail. There was a look in her eyes, a hidden vitality and enthusiasm that no one could really explain clearly, let alone define.

As she walked up to him, her eyes passed over his face in interest, and she began to speak.

"Are you not flying to school today? I was hoping I could catch a lift."

"I don't fly to school everyday. It's more tiring than you know."

"Fine, fine."

"Risa, you know, if you had wings of your own, you would stop pestering me."

The girl named Risa pouted, and complained.

"Well, sorry for being a mere human! You know, they're making rapid advancements in technology. They may already be creating ways for humans to fly like Celestials. So just you wait! When I don't pester you anymore, I guarantee you will definitely miss giving me lifts in the morning."

"The day you stop pestering me is the day I am finally free, so dream on."

Risa laughed at Hide's reply, and remarked.

"You know, people do think about it when they see you and me together."

"Think about what?"

"That a human can not possibly get along with a Celestial. It's like having two similar sides of a magnet together. They repel each other."

Hide sighed and replied in an exasperated tone.

"Not this again. I already have your father to deal with, and now you sound like him."

"So, why do you continue to hang out with me then?"

"Part of it's because you keep clinging to me for lifts to school."

"Haha. And the other part?"

"Because you're my friend. I can't let that fact go."

Hearing Hide's reply, Risa smiled a radiant smile, and walking side-to-side with him, they walked the remainder of the way to school on foot.

 

IV

11/08/955, 0900 hours, Eden Government Agency HQ, Meeting Room 5, Eden

The Leader of Operations of the Agency furrowed his brow as he went over the details of the two squads' reports. Needless to say, it was obvious that the results of the reports were far from satisfactory.

Sitting near him were representatives of the squads responsible for the unsatisfactory reports: Alpha Squad and Bravo Squad. They were shifting restlessly in their seats, bracing for the inevitable and relentless questioning.

After a long and tense silence, the Leader put down his reports and cleared his throat.

"Kado." he remarked in a deep voice hidden in disappointment and tranquil fury.

"Yes, Mr. Kawanari?" Kado replied in a nervous tone. His crafty and fierce moods from before had long disappeared out the window, and had been replaced with the submissive mood that he had to adopt in front of his superior. As the leader of Bravo Squad, he had to answer for any mistakes his squad mates had made during any operations, so he was in a very compromising position.

"Why has the Shunsho investigation come to a complete stop?"

"Well, sir," Kado replied as he tried to come up with a logical reason that the Leader would accept, "the robber we pulled out last night and thoroughly interrogated this morning turned out to have been following orders fed to him through unknown means. He claimed that he woke up with the idea in his head and just did what he was told to do."

"And you believe him?"

"He trusted me to a certain extent. I can say that he fed me the information from his real experience, at least from his own point of view. Surely you can't expect him to reveal everything if he himself doesn't know it."

"All right," Kawanari said, before he turned his attention towards the leader of the Alpha Squad, "then what about you, Kurisu?"

Kurisu shook his head, and replied in a businessman-like tone.

"No luck on our end either. The deaths recorded, or rather assassinations, of the Shunsho Corporation leadership are caused by means that we still do not know. There's a chance the attacks were planned in advance weeks before we even started on the case. Every trail has led us to a dead end, and we have reason to believe that the clues were deliberately modified for us to continually hit dead ends."

Kawanari sighed, and leaned back in his chair.

"Gentlemen, I can't stress how much these two cases are affecting the Agency and the Forces. Shunsho Corporation is our only source of Anti-Celestial weapons. If they crumble, we lose this source, and it might take months before we can find another large supplier who can provide us with weapons. And if things come to worse, we might be fighting Celestials with human weapons, and that is about as useless as fighting a tiger with a pillow."

As Kawanari continued to speak, he leaned forward and pressed his words hard on the two Squad leaders.

"The Forces are already doing their best, so I-no, the Director expects the Agency to do the same. Find the person behind the attacks, please."

"We will not let you or the Director down, Mr. Kawanari."

"We will catch them, I assure you that."

"Alright then. Now onto the more important part of the meeting," Kawanari remarked, before he grinned in spite of himself, and spoke the words the two leaders dreaded the most.

"Remember to attend the Agency recruitment. I don't want you two to skip it again."

 

V

11/08/955, 1025 hours, Terra High School, District 11, Terra

"In the year 934, the peace of both Celestials and humans were disturbed when the Demon Rebellion, spurred on by numerous demon clans, most prominently the Inazuma family, began. Thankfully, intervention from the Agency at the time was sufficient, and successfully ended the war within a year."

Hide's eyes roamed over the blackboard in disinterest. It wasn't because the lesson content was boring to him, but it was because he had already heard it multiple times from Risa, who was obsessed with history. In fact, she seemed to be the only one in the class at the moment who seemed interested in what the teacher had to say on the subject.

"However, even with knowledge of how large an impact the Demon Rebellion had on the people, it didn't stop another rebellion from starting and ending five years after. So the question remains clear: how and why did another rebellion start in the first place? Please think through it and give me your opinions on it in the next lesson."

As if it was timed on cue, the bell rang as soon as the teacher finished speaking, causing most of the students to stand up and leave the classroom while talking to each other.

"Um, don't forget, today's the registration for the Eden Government Agency and the Terran Coalition Forces, so do remember to nominate your friends!" The teacher called out to the student's backs as they left the classroom.

As though he had suddenly woken up, Hide jolted in his seat and began to pack his school bag.

As he frantically stuffed his books into his bag, he heard his teacher call out to him.

"Yoshihide. Do you have a moment?"

Tilting his head up and looking at the teacher, he replied.

"What is it, Mrs. Agasa?"

"Can I speak with you alone? It's about the recruitment."

"Sure," he replied, before he turned to Risa, who was standing next to him waiting.

"Could you wait for me outside?"

"Sure. I wouldn't want to get involved in your 'intimate' conversation anyway."

"Shut up."

Silently smiling to herself, Risa walked out of the classroom and closed the door behind her.

Mrs. Agasa spoke again.

"Truthfully, I think you would be a good choice for the Agency. Your grades are good, you have a good attitude in class, most of the time at least, and above all you have a strong sense of justice. As your teacher, I would strongly recommend that you try it out. I might even put in a good word for you during the nominations."

"Thanks, Mrs. Agasa. However, I have already made up my mind," Hide replied to her offer, "and I'm afraid I have to decline. It's just that, things like this do need a lot of commitment, and I want to commit myself to my father's business. It has been going strong for 60 years now, and I wish to keep the business alive."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," he said, before he thought it over again and gave another answer.

"Not really, actually. I mean, I'm not against trying it out. I just don't feel that it would be of any purpose for me."

"Why don't you just try it out then? It wouldn't hurt."

He smiled, and gave a reply that satisfied his teacher.

"I'll think it through, I promise."

As he gave his promise, he slung his school bag over his shoulder and walked out of the classroom.

 

VI

11/08/955, 0945 hours, Eden Government Agency HQ, Cafeteria, Eden

"Why do we have to attend this recruitment thing anyway? It's a waste of time. We might as well use this time to investigate the Shunsho case."

The complaint came from Kado, who spoke while he glared at a flyer displaying information on the recruitment.

"What do you guys think?"

His question targeted itself at the people sitting beside him, who promptly answered.

"I agree with you that we need to spend more time on the case. But maybe we should just leave the case aside for the moment and just focus on a less stressful matter," Kurisu replied as he stirred his coffee repeatedly with a metal spoon, "In addition, we might find new cadets who might help us with the case. We might even solve it faster with more help."

"I don't need more help."

"Just because your last squad mates left you because they found your methods a bit questionable..."

"I just don't need any more people to help me. Riko and I can handle the case by ourselves just fine. What do you think, Riko?"

"I'm interested in seeing the new recruits."

"I thought you liked to work alone."

"People can change easily, Kado."

The new voice belonged to a person sitting beside Kurisu. Due to the fact that they were wearing a skull-shaped mask, the voice that came out was delivered in a robotic, distinctly masculine voice instead of a human one.

"I don't know what you know about these things, Hunter."

The masked person named Hunter replied, "What I meant to say was, when you first brought Riko-chan into the Agency, she only talked to you. She didn't care about us at all. Now? She can keep up a conversation with us, at least for a minute or so. I would say that that's proof."

"So I take it that you also agree with Kurisu?"

"Yes, and I'm not the only one who does. Hitoshi and Hikari also do."

The people Hunter referred to were a pair of blond-haired twins identical in appearance but not in gender. As she referred to them, they nodded in almost perfect unison and spoke at the exact same time.

"We are also, like Riko, interested in seeing the newest recruits."

"See?" Kurisu spoke, as he leaned closer to Kado and smiled, "It's five against one now. Are you still willing to bail on us?"

He could almost see the gears in Kado's head grind together in frustration as he watched his face contort in frustration, then finally relax.

"Fine, you win. I'll go."

"That's the spirit! Now let's go see the recruits!" Kurisu remarked as he stopped stirring his coffee cup and stood up abruptly, pointing at the recruitment flyer pasted on the wall with surprising enthusiasm.

"I can't wait," Kado remarked in response with a tenth of Kurisu's enthusiasm.

 

VII

11/08/955, 1035 hours, Terra High School, Hallways, Terra

"So, how did it go with Mrs. Agasa?"

Hide shrugged his shoulders in reply to Risa's question.

"I don't know. She just asked me whether I was interested in the Agency recruitment. I told her that I would consider it."

They were walking down the hallway to their next class, which was due to begin in 15 minutes. Due to the relatively long break time students had between classes, the hallways were commonly filled with loitering students, students rushing to get to their next class early, or students who took the time to walk slowly to their next class and observe the usual chaos going around them.

Usually, due to the large number of students roaming the hallways, one would commonly stumble across something occuring, such as a break-up, or a bullying incident. Today, however, an abnormally large number of them were looking down and using their phones, tablets and other digital devices.

The reason for this unusual activity were the brightly-coloured posters pasted along the walls that were encouraging students to nominate those they felt were suitable for recruitment to the two large agencies that maintained order and dispelled chaos in the three main cities on Earth, Terra, Eden, and Gaia.

The Eden Government Agency, comprised mostly of Celestials, and whose main operations were generally concentrated around the technologically-advanced city of Eden.

And the Terran Coalition Forces, comprised mostly of humans, and whose main operations were generally concentrated around the cities of Terra and Gaia, which were mainly populated by humans.

As they usually operated outside the normal population's eyes, the normal population hardly interfered with the two agencies, with the exception of Agency recruitment.

During that period of time, both agencies would go out of their way to promote themselves with flyers, demonstrations and fairs that showcased their talents. As a result of that, the population's interest in them would normally peak at that period, and many of them would be convinced or encouraged to nominate as many of their friends and family for the position of being an agent working for one of the many divisions in the agencies.

Nominations of people were always sent in anonymously, so there was the risk of someone who did not want to get nominated be nominated by a complete stranger who they didn't know at all. It was unfair, but it made for a successful quota to be filled to the top every year.

As Risa and Hide walked past groups of people who were nominating their friends with or without their agreement, Risa spoke again.

"And? Are you really considering to try out? I could nominate you if you want to. Just say the word."

With that remark, she began to pull out her phone, but Hide shook his head.

"Maybe, but I highly doubt it. It's just too much commitment to a cause. I wouldn't want to be continually bound by obligations. Besides, I don't think my dad would want me to do it. He's spent his life trying to teach me stuff I apparently need to inherit his business. I wouldn't want to waste his efforts."

"Hasn't he been teaching you how to fight? That skill would be useful in the agency."

"That one's for personal defense. You never know when you might need it."

"So, I take that as a no, then?" Risa sighed as she put her phone back into her pocket and said.

"That's a shame. I'm considering trying out for the Forces, so I thought we might work together at some point if you signed up and we both passed the recruitment test. Well, at least I have Saeko joining me."

"Saeko?"

"You know, that girl we met in the canteen a few months before? The one who ignored you wholeheartedly when you said hi because she was too embarrassed to say anything?"

A flashback of a short girl with glasses flashed through Hide's mind.

"Wait, you mean she's trying out for the Forces as well?"

"Yup. I hope the judges won't eat her up. She's got surprisingly sharp eyesight for someone who wears glasses."

As the two continued to walk down the hallway, their attention began to be drawn to a commotion that was occurring a short distance away from them.

"What did you say? I'll have you know that the Agency is one of, if not the best, peacekeeping agency in Eden! I signed up for it the moment the recruitment began, so you can take your prejudiced assumptions and shove them back into your tiny brain!"

From the students' point of view, a silver-haired girl was loudly arguing with a bespectacled male student who was desperately trying to calm her down. As soon as the two spotted her, Hide sighed. He casually walked up to her, and pulled her away from the terrified male student.

As soon as he pulled her away, she turned her head around in annoyance, only to have her expression soften once she knew who the person pulling her away was.

"Saka, you could have at least warned me before you pulled me away. I thought I was going to have to face more of that idiot's crew. That would have not ended well for them."

"The idiot is you," Hide growled as the silver-haired girl pulled herself away from his grip and dusted herself off, "Why did you have to go off and insult someone again?"

"That guy deserved it," the girl pouted as she glared at the male student, "he was talking crap about the Agency. I had to teach him a lesson."

"At least let him off. It was probably an accident. He probably didn't know that he was talking to an Agency fanatic."

The girl ignored Hide's last comment and continued to talk.

"Well, have you applied for the Agency?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to, and that's the end of that argument," Hide replied in an annoyed tone.

"Hmph! Since you want to ignore me, I'll just get going then!" the girl remarked as she stomped off in a childish fashion.

As Hide and Risa watched her go off, Hide sighed and buried his face in his hands, while Risa remarked in an interested tone.

"Sounds like you and her have got some chemistry."

"We met before."

"Oh? What's her name then?"

"I never asked."

With that reply, he kept quiet for the rest of the way to the next class.

 

VIII

11/08/955, 1900 hours, District 8 Shopping Street, Terra

By evening time, Hide's thoughts about the silver-haired girl had disappeared. Instead, they had been replaced by thoughts of a different nature, as he waited on a bench in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Terra.

Where the heck is she? She arranged for this meeting, and now she's nowhere to be seen!

Numerous people passed by him on the bench, but none of them were her.

As he glanced at his watch critically, a flash of what Risa had said to him a few hours ago passed through his mind.

"Remember, the shopping trip, 6.30 pm! Don't be late! I will be very unhappy if you are!"

To save himself from her nagging, he had made it a point to come 15 minutes earlier than the arranged time. And now she was the one who was late.

As he continued to sit on the bench, the frustrated and angry thoughts were soon replaced by thoughts of worry.

She's never been late before, and even for a prank, this is too messed up for someone like her to pull on me.

As the thoughts flowed through his mind, it all coalesced into one singular thought.

Something must have happened to her.

-----

"Risa! Where are you?"

First, he called her home. Her father told him that she did leave her house, so that ruled out any possibility he had that she had forgotten about the trip.

After that, he roamed the area around the shopping street first, searching for the slightest trace of her.

As he continued to find no trace of her, and as his search area continued to grow wider, the feeling of panic began to grow in him, and he began to search with a greater fervour than before.

The thought of calling the authorities had crossed his mind at one point or another, but he dismissed it and decided that it would be for the most extreme emergency. However, as night fell, and his panic grew, the desire to call them grew larger and larger.

Crap, if I don't find her soon...

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted as he turned a corner in District 9, a few blocks away from where her house was.

As soon as he walked out into the street, he found her.

There was no mistaking the injured and unconscious brown-haired girl lying on the pavement who was being surrounded by three large men, one of which was carrying a pocket knife.

Without hesitation, he hid behind a wall out of their sight, and pulled out his phone.

"TCF Office, how may I be of service?"

"My friend's getting attacked by three men. One of them has a knife. We're in District 9. I'm not exactly sure what street we're on. Please hurry."

"All right. We'll be dispatching units to circle the area. Please hold on, help will be with you shortly."

As he hung up, he peeked out of the wall he was hiding behind. He was only a short distance away from Risa and the men, so he could overhear some parts of their conversation.

"We should bring her to Big Brother. Let him decide what would happen to her.

"No. This little shit attacked me. We should kill her now."

Not good. I need to intervene.

——-

"Are you sure? If we kill her now, the mess will be hard to clean up. Plus, she's not a Forgotten. She'll have friends and family who'll come looking for her."

"I don't care," the man with the knife angrily interrupted the other man's objections. "She thought she could mess with me? She's got another thing coming."

As he spoke, the hand which was holding the knife was raised upwards, threatening to bring it downwards on the defenceless girl.

However, before the man could...

Bam.

A piece of brick that one could normally find in an alleyway or near a dumpster for reasons unknown slammed with surprisingly accurate precision into the hand holding the knife, causing the man to drop it, where it landed a safe distance away from the girl.

"What the fuck?"

Angrily swearing in pain, he and his two other colleagues turned around to confront the brick thrower.

"..."

At a short distance away from them, a high school boy stood facing them. In the dim light of the lamp post, his brown eyes flashed dangerously. On his back, two large feathered wings flapped slowly and menacingly.

As they watched him, he opened his mouth and gave a warning.

"Stay away from her."

 

IX

11/08/955, 1945 hours, District 9, Terra

"Come to save your friend, dirty Celestial?" the man who previously held a knife leered, while the two other men cracked their necks and got ready to charge, "Let's see how well you'll go up against us with your cute wings!"

The boy did not respond. Instead, he began to charge at the men, with each running step being accompanied by a flap of his wings, such that it appeared as though he was leaping in the air.

Spurred by his charge, the two men charged, while the first man picked up his knife.

As one of the men charged forward such that he was in front of the other man, he closed his hand into a fist and drove it into the boy's direction.

The man had expected the boy to run straight into his fist, given his momentum.

Instead...

Fwoosh.

Bam!

The boy flew a few centimetres above his closed fist and positioned himself such that his foot was well within kicking distance of his face.

The next thing he knew, his head jerked backward as the foot connected.

"Gweh?"

"You fucking..."

As the man behind him threw a turning kick from the side, the boy twisted his body sideways to avoid the kick, responding with a swing to the man's head.

"Gah!"

Without waiting for the both of them to recover, the boy grabbed the first man by his waist, and with a quick turn, he threw the man a few metres away from where he was. The man hit the side of the wall close to where the boy was hiding, and slumped over unconscious.

"You!!!"

Throwing all reasoning aside, and ignoring his throbbing head, the second man picked up an abandoned glass bottle lying by the side of the road and swung it at the boy, where it shattered on his head. The bottle had been storing a red-coloured liquid, and was not empty when it was swung, so the contents were sprayed onto the boy's head.

Normally, such a move like that would have been capable of knocking a normal human unconscious.

But the boy did not react. With the red liquid dripping down his face, he grabbed the second man's arm, which was still holding onto the remnants of the glass bottle, and proceeded to twist it.

With a snapping noise, the arm twisted at an unnatural angle, and the bottle dropped to the ground. In response, the man screamed and kneeled down as the boy continued to twist his arm.

Finally, with a knee to the face, the second man was knocked out, and the screaming stopped.

-----

Hide released the broken arm, panting in exhaustion. He wiped off the red-coloured liquid from his face, which was slowly dripping into his eyes, and cast a sideways glare at the first man he had knocked out, to ensure that he wasn't getting up.

As he did so, however...

Bang!

Hide staggered a bit as he heard the sound, and a dull explosion of pain erupted from his waist region. He stopped flapping his wings, and collapsed onto the ground, as a dark red patch began to grow on his waist.

"Tch. Still looks like only Anti-Celestial weapons can do the most damage."

As he lay on the ground, he could hear the man with the knife mutter.

"Luckily, I'm always prepared."

It wouldn't take an expert to figure out that he had been shot.

"Gh...bh..."

As he tilted his head to glare at the man, he felt the muzzle of the gun that had shot him being pressed into his head.

"I didn't need to kill you. Pity you didn't just walk away."

He reached out a bloody hand, attempting to grab onto the man's hand and twist it like he did the man with the bottle.

Suddenly...

Bang!

.....

Another gunshot rang out, but it wasn't from the man's gun.

He watched as the man staggered away from him in shock, and collapsed on the ground, muttering curses.

At the same time, he was bathed in a bright light that illuminated the area he was in.

As he attempted to shield his eyes from the bright light, he saw several human-shaped silhouettes approaching from around them.

As he eyed the silhouettes warily, trying to get a good look at them, he heard a loud voice coming from one of them.

"Do not move. We are from the Terran Coalition Forces. Do not attempt to fight back."

Hearing those words, he relaxed as the agents from the Terran Coalition Forces began to respond to the scene in front of them.

 

X

11/08/955, 2055 hours, District 9, Terra

"Risa? Can you hear me?"

Hearing the sound of a familiar voice saying her name, the brown-haired girl opened her eyes.

She was lying on a white stretcher. Around her, voices of people unknown to her and the continuous siren from the ambulance near her rang. A slight movement made her aware that several parts of her body had been covered with bandages.

She tried to pinpoint where she heard the voice from. She was sure that it was from someone she knew, a close friend to her, and she knew that she was not mistaken.

Finally, she spotted him.

Leaning on the side of the ambulance, and with bandages covering his waist, the boy stood facing her.

As soon as their eyes made contact, he smiled at her, and spoke.

"When you recover, tell me what the heck happened when you left your house."

The girl smiled a gentle smile, and replied.

"You got it."

 

XI

11/08/955, 2058 hours, District 9, Terra

"What an interesting performance."

As the silver-haired girl on top of one of the buildings watched the scene unfold using high-powered binoculars, she spoke with a cheery soprano voice.

On her back, a pair of feathered wings flapped idly in the wind.

"Such a shame, though. The ending was a bit of a let-down. I was this close to taking action too."

As she spoke to herself, she suddenly grinned.

"Well, luckily, I have already done it. He's definitely not gonna be happy!"

As she watched the ambulance depart, she stood up, and looked back at the ambulance and the oblivious patient inside.

"See you soon :)"

 

XII

14/08/955, 0730 hours, Terra High School, Hallways, Terra

"You sure you're going to be fine?"

As the two walked along the hallway, Hide sprung the question on Risa, and she had nodded her head in response.

"I'm more concerned about you. You did get shot."

"Don't worry about it. The healthcare here is pretty advanced. I don't even feel a thing."

As they walked and chatted, they failed to notice the imposing figure standing in front of them. It was only until he opened his mouth and spoke that they finally noticed.

"Mr. Sakakibara and Ms. Fujimura, can I have a quick word with you?"

"Principal? What do you need from us?"

As the principal spoke, his black-rimmed glasses continually flashed, giving him an air of superiority, and generating an aura around him that was equally unsettling and tense.

"It will not be too much of an issue. The Eden Government Agency and the Terran Coalition Forces have generously agreed to let you recover first before you will join them for the recruitment test."

The statement confused Hide, as he replied, "Principal, I understand about the Forces being concerned about Risa, but what does the Agency have to do with this?"

Now it was the Principal's turn to get confused.

"What do you mean?"

As he gave the answer, Hide felt his sense of confusion growing ever larger.

"You were nominated for the recruitment test, Mr. Sakakibara."

 

Agency Files #1: Celestials

Born with incredibly similar traits to normal humans, the distinguishing features of Celestials are their ability to resist a high amount of damage, their imperviousness to ordinary human weapons, and their ability to fly. The type of their wings and their [DATA RESTRICTED] determines the class of Celestial they fall under: Angels or Demons.

While the exact origins of Celestials have been lost over the centuries, their first recorded appearance was during the Human-Celestial War, beginning in 0 AI, when humans fought against both angels and demons who were fighting each other. After the war ended in a stalemate between the angels and demons, the Celestials began to live and co-exist with humans.

 

Hey there! This story is still an early draft and a work in progress, meaning that additions to the story would still be made. I'll take any criticism you might have about the story, or improvements I can make to it. I hope you enjoy the story!