Nature is a wonderful place.
Be it vast forests, arid deserts or even a sulphur spring, nature in all its forms is beautiful to me. Everywhere I go, I can't help but Love this world.
This forest is no different in that respect.
It is not special in any way. There are no flowers or animals to be seen that I have not already seen before. It is simply yet another mountainous forest path; one among thousands.
By all accounts, my attention should be fully focused on the signature of Cursed Energy that drew my attention here in the first place. Yet my head still swivels and my eyes still twist and turn to view every flower and meet the curious gazes of every animal.
It's amusing, I think.
Here be the great Narauko, humbled and brought low by the sight of a tree. What would the bigshots think seeing me like this?
I shake the silly thought away without pausing my stride, looking instead to the treeline on my right where a small pack of wolves have started following me. The sight of them makes me happy.
These days, it feels like I can never go for a walk without some animal or other following me around, it's amazing. Makes me feel like a Disney princess.
I don't really get it though.
Back when I was a kid in this life, I taught myself how to hide my Cursed Energy because it was startling the deer and making them uncomfortable. After that, I became very hard to notice, so most animals tended to ignore me.
Yet somehow, since I've recently stopped constraining my Cursed Energy so much, every animal I meet tends to be fond of me.
Have I truly changed so deeply since back then? Or is it how I express myself now that's changed?
I'm distracted from the question when the wolves naturally begin to migrate closer to me, joining me on the trail I walk. Familiar enough with various animals wanting to walk beside me by now, all I do in response is lay a palm on the most adventurous of the lot that came close enough to brush against me and I gently brush his fur in turn.
Mmmmm, fluffy~.
It is a struggle to not just tackle the adorable murder dog down and act as embarrassingly as is expected when dealing with an adorable animal.
However, I do have places to be.
My audience with the Emperor is tomorrow—exciting!—so I'm on my way to the capital with Nagiko today.
It was actually kind of funny, I had half a dozen friends offer to attend with me. It's a big formal event after all, and since I'm not a noble I basically need a chaperone.
I could of course go by myself anyway, but that's besides the point.
The point is that it feels amazing to have so many friends.
Though, I found myself a little bit annoyed that Yoshikane didn't invite me. Aren't we friends? He already admitted it himself just before the whole Masakado thing, so he can't deny it. He's also been ignoring all of my butterflies.
I always knew he was a tsundere, but this is beyond the pale. I'm going to have to bully him a little as retribution when I see him next.
Either way, I decided to go with Nagiko since she's to be my wife, probably soonish. Plus, with her scarring, people might apparently feel entitled to bullying her. Naturally, that is not something that I can allow to stand. What kind of fiancé would I be otherwise?
I am fully prepared to beat people up should they upset her.
As the forest path fades away into a small clearing though, I shelve that thought for later in favour of more immediate matters.
The clearing opens at the top of a slight incline, allowing me to easily see the whole space below, not that it is a very large clearing in the first place.
There's a small pond to one side of the clearing, while the rest was likely cleared out by hand instead of natural effort. I don't have any evidence to support this beyond vibes, but I feel like I'm probably right.
Right in the centre of the clearing there is a simple wooden house. It isn't fancy like those in the capital, but it is certainly better than the huts and halls that most people live in. Honestly, the craftsmanship that went into the house is rather impressive all told.
My eyes pan back to the pond and the occupied seat set up beside a fishing rod dangling into the waters.
A seat that is so clearly constructed from human flesh and bones, the rod being similar, even if I have no idea what part of a human could make for a good fishing rod.
It appears that I have stumbled upon a skilled craftsman indeed.
My own lack of a reaction to the sight reminds me of my previous question by providing a clear answer.
I have indeed changed a lot.
I suppose that's just life. You can't expect to experience anything without being a different person by the end of it, even if the change is so minor that it's impossible to notice.
Though, I guess seeing furniture made from human flesh and not even grimacing is probably a not so minor change.
Only that which is without character is ugly. What is commonly called ugly in nature can in art become full of beauty.
It's almost enough to make me cry that I don't even know who I'm quoting.
The craftsmanship is good, is what I'm trying to say. Even if it is horrific in its implications.
I already figured that I'd be approaching a Curse User from the start, that's why I diverted myself from Nagiko's carriage train in the first place. But still...
Curse Users never fail to remind me the depth that one can fall.
They truly are the most vile of all humans.
He looks like any other man. Isn't that ironic?
People tend to expect things to look as they are. Attractive people are less likely to be considered suspicious, because surely 'good' is attractive, right? Conversely, people expect evil to be ugly—or even beautiful, so that it may tempt you.
This Curse User is just a guy though. Average height and build and hair. He's just a normal looking guy.
And he's sitting on a chair of human leather.
It feels a little idiosyncratic, to be honest. Out of place.
Still, I'm smiling as the rod trembles and I watch as the Curse User successfully completes his fish, hooking the animal out with a triumphant grin.
However, as he turns to drop the fish into a waiting basket, his smile vanishes as he only then notices me standing there, close enough you wouldn't even think to shout to hear one another.
I send him a two-fingered wave, smiling lightly.
"Yo."
Slack hands drop his fishing rod and I watch as his entire body tenses, fight or flight instincts kicking in. I feel no small measure of wonder as I see even his Cursed Energy clench around him in tense waves.
The man's eyes meet my own before flicking between the pack of wolves surrounding me, and a beat passes before all of his tenseness evaporates and his shoulders slump down with a defeated sigh.
"Ahhh fuck."
I can't help but chuckle a little bit at that.
"Yeah," I commiserate, "That's how it is."
Curse Users have started recognising me. I guess I'm getting more famous by the day.
They usually still fight though. I don't think I'd have understood it without living in this world, but they don't fight me out of desperation or in order to try and flee and they almost never give up.
It's an honourable thing, to die fighting. Even if they know the outcome, they still tend to fight me anyway; it's beautiful in a way.
I've never met a Curse User who has tried to run away from me. To the last, every single one has tried to kill me right up to the very end.
I find it admirable. They know who they are and they refuse to try and be anything else, no matter the outcome.
Curse Users are Sorcerers too, in the end. The only difference between them and the average Sorcerer is that a Curse User's honest self is too vile to exist within civilised society.
However, this Curse User simply drops back into his chair with a huff, not even looking back at me.
He wouldn't be the first to pretend to give up and try stabbing me in the back, so I don't let myself get any more careless than usual when I approach him.
"You not gonna fight?" I ask when it really seems like he won't. By the time I'm looking down at him from beside his chair, I'm still not feeling any amount of hostility.
The Curse User shrugs, one part blithe and one part petulant.
I suppose it's fair enough to be petulant, all things considered.
"I am not a fighter," he answers, looking up at me with a frown. Though, his eyes do keep flicking back to the wolves now surrounding him. "Even my Technique can't be used in combat. I'm just a humble carpenter." He pauses for a moment to look me up and down with a critical eye before continuing, "You would make a good tōrō."
My lips helplessly quirk up at that. I've never been told so sincerely that I should be turned into a freestanding lantern before.
"Aren't they supposed to be made of stone?"
He perks up at the question almost involuntarily. "Only the base really needs to be stone, the rest could be replaced by your bones instead. Your ribcage would do well to hold the fire, and your skull could be carved to fit as the kurin."
Idly, my gaze turns to his house, where out front there are indeed two tōrō, both with a skull replacing the little orb that usually goes on top of these things.
What a guy.
Shaking my head, I turn my attention back to the Curse User with an apologetic smile on my lips.
"Sorry, but I'm kind of too busy to stop and chat." He blinks before once more slumping in resignation. I simply bring my hand up to point a finger at his skull, gathering Cursed Energy into a thin ball to make a quick and clean kill.
"It was good while it lasted, I suppose," the Curse User sighs, accepting his fate.
"I'll make sure your work doesn't get destroyed," I tell him, "If that's any consolation."
A single bitter chuckle leaves him. "A small one."
I'm the one shrugging this time, and it is as I am doing so that the Curse User abruptly bursts into motion, his fishing rod coming to life to spear me in the back while he pulls out a hidden knife and thrusts it at my throat.
It almost brings a tear to my eye, I'm so happy for him.
My free hand blurs into motion, catching his fishing rod in almost the same motion that I bring it back around and bury it into his gut, stopping his lunge flat.
As he powerlessly slumps against me, I whisper to hm, "I will pray to Izanami-sama, that she may find enough mercy to employ your talents down in Yomi."
And then I lean away and shoot a thin beam of Cursed Energy through his skull and he dies.
I stare at the corpse for a long moment.
Death is such a... I don't even know anymore.
It always leave me feeling cold, killing people like this. We were talking just a minute ago and now he is a corpse. Isn't that scary? There was a Soul inhabiting this body just seconds ago, and now it is a husk.
I don't know...
I guess it's just the difference between killing someone fairly and executing someone so much weaker than myself.
When there's an actual fight, I feel so happy for them. To be able to die while putting up such a fight... It's admirable. Honourable. Enviable.
It's hard to feel the same when he had no chance to truly fight back in the first place. But even if that is the case, the greater insult would have been to spare him.
I wonder if he ever felt like this for his own victims? I should have asked. That's another regret to carry.
Not that I haven't asked before with other Curse Users, but this guy was unique enough that his answer may have varied from the usual choices of either apathy or sadism.
A deep sigh leaves me as I gently lay his corpse on the ground. There's no use thinking about what-ifs. Maybe I'll get the change to ask him in the future anyway.
There's no way I'm not going to visit Yomi at some point, after all.
Gotta say hello to the in-laws-to-be at the very least.
Smiling again at the thought, I pick up his fishing rod and chair and walk to his house, ignoring the sounds of flesh tearing behind me as the wolves eat their fill. Nature has to run its course in the end. Wolves who go hunting and don't find food die. It would have been cruel to let them join m hunt only to leave them out to dry.
Instead, I simply deposit the chair out front of his house and the rod into my shadow. I figure Sukuna would get a laugh out of it, and what craftsman doesn't want his work to be appreciated anyway? I then move to do a quick lap of the clearing, laying a preservation ward around it all. I've gotten pretty good at preservation Barriers, since I don't want things to disappear into history.
The Barrier won't make this place invisible or anything, it will simply stop the seasons from damaging what's inside. No rain or wind or snow will bring this building to ruin.
Nodding my head in satisfaction, I send a quick prayer to the forest around me and then another, longer prayer to Izanami-sama like I said I would. Then I give the feasting wolves one last look before closing my eyes and finding Nagiko once more.
My shadow grows into a doorway before me and I take a single step forward, briefly floating through darkness before emerging once more inside of her carriage.
"Hey," I greet, the sight of her naturally widening my smile.
She's all dressed up today, obvious considering where we're going and why, but still, it looks good on her. She's taken to wearing a veil so that she doesn't have to deal with seeing how people feel about her scars, which I suppose is fair enough.
"Hey to you too," she returns, her own lips quirking up as I move to lift her veil and share a brief kiss with her.
"Mind if I ask a favour?" I ask as I pull away and sit beside her, taking one of her hands in my own because I'm lewd like that.
"If every kiss costs me a favour," Nagiko begins, voice coy and smile playful, "I will surely run out of things to offer."
Now that's an opening I simply cannot ignore, so I lean closer, taking one of her cheeks in palm and send her my best roguish grin.
"I suppose all you can do then is offer your body~."
Naturally, real life isn't a smut novel, so the response to my words is only Nagiko bursting into soft laughter, to which my grin only grows. Though, I can at least say for my pride that there is some heat on her cheeks as she pushes me away.
Planting a hand over my own heart, I feign hurt and dramatically complain, "Gah! My love is so dismissive of my affections~! How shall mine heart ever survive this anguish~!"
"Oh shush," Nagiko replies, swatting at me again as she continues to stifle her giggling. "I will kiss it better."
"And now she's trying to extort favours out of me!" I complain again, faux-tears in my eyes as Nagiko laughs again before playfully glaring at me with a smile. "My wife-to-be has a heart full of injustice."
Nagiko rolls her eyes at that, still smiling as she bumps her shoulder into mine. "You are incorrigible, you know that?"
"You are beautiful, you know that?" I think it's important to keep reminding her, at least for a little while anyway, until she's confident again.
My words cause her to huff and turn away, though doing so does not hide from me how her cheeks turn rosy.
"What is the favour?" Nagiko asks, turning back to me with curious eyes, though those eyes quickly turn amused instead as I peck another kiss on her lips, just for fun. I like the affection that shows in her smile when I do so. "If you remain so touchy in public, I will hit you."
"All the more reason to be get touchy before we arrive then, hm~?" She holds herself back from laughing at my wiggling eyebrows, sending me instead an entirely fruitless glare for how obviously false it is.
"Narauko."
Grinning, I bring my hands up in surrender and lean back into my seat instead of over her, chuckling lightly.
I suppose I can give her a short break.
"Can you send some of you goons out to the nearby villages and tell them that the Curse User in the area has been removed? He was making furniture and stuff out of people, so I assume the local villages have had some people go missing. Whether they know the cause or not, I think they deserve to have an explanation and some closure in knowing the Curse User is dead."
Nagiko does not respond right away, merely staring blankly at me. Enough time almost passes for me to wonder if I missed something in my own words before eventually—
"Goons?"
It is an impressive amount of incredulity that she put in her tone just then. Sasuga, Nagiko-sama.
Naturally, I do not acknowledge this incredulity at all. I just nod my head agreeably.
"Yeah, goons. Mooks. Minions. You know what I mean."
She stares at me for a second longer. "...I believe the word you are searching for is servant."
"Meh," I shrug. "Potato potato."
Again, my words stun her into silence. Except, this time I can tell it is less out of stupification and more because she is listening to her Eyes as they spill my secrets and expose my meaning, what perverts.
Eventually, once her Eyes have explained to her the purpose of that figure of speech, the look that Nagiko sends me is one of bewildered disbelief.
"That does not work in this language," she begins, sounding almost offended by my own idiocy. "And you did not even pronounce the word differently."
My response is of course a smug smirk.
"Yeah, but you got my meaning, didn't you?" Her eye twitches, because the only reason she got my meaning is because she has Cursed Eyes to cheat with, so my point is a little bit factitious. "So I'd say it all worked out in the end."
If I wanted to not be confusing, I could have just said "Fifty steps: one hundred." As that has pretty much the same meaning as potato potahto. It comes from some Chinese story about two soldiers running from battle; one soldier runs fifty steps, the other runs a hundred. Then, the one who ran fifty mocks the other as a coward for running a hundred steps away.
The point being that it makes little difference if they ran a hundred or fifty steps, both of them are cowards fleeing battle in the end.
However, that wouldn't have been as fun.
"You are so absurd," Nagiko comments, shaking her head with a sigh. "Do try not to insult the entire court. It would be embarrassing."
It's kind of funny that she's not at all worried about there being any danger involved, just embarrassment.
"No promises~." I tease back at her, booping her on the nose as I do, to which Nagiko can only hold a dry stare for a short moment before it quirks up into a helpless, exasperated smile.
Her hand finds its way back into mine without a word, and I say nothing back as she leans against me. Teasing and playing is nice and all, but so are these quiet moments too.
I'm not sure how long the silence lasts before Nagiko interrupts it without raising her head, her voice soft.
"Thank you," she begins, and I only don't reply because I can feel that she is not done. There is only a brief pause before she finishes, "For loving me."
"Of course." I plant a kiss on the top of her head. "How could I not?"
I can't see her smile, but I know it is there from how she nuzzles further against me.
It will be some time from now before the quiet in this cabin breaks, and I will adore every moment of silent comfort.
///
Adriel
///
Adriel is not certain how long it has been since she chose to stay in these heathen lands. Not that it has been a long time, she simply hasn't paid attention to the passing of days.
She is much too focused for that. She has a purpose that she will see fulfilled. Nothing else matters.
She faced an early roadblock when the first location she set herself up in was beset upon by humans wielding heathen Magic in service of the Yellow Dragon. Having to flee then was a disgrace, but one that she could bear.
There is work to be done of much greater importance than merely eliminating a small number of heathens.
There is a man that must die.
Adriel is willing to put aside all else until that duty is done.
Since then, she has learned to better conceal herself within this hostile land; through great trial and error.
Twice, she has been forced to flee packs of monsters, and countless times she has had to defend herself as the very land itself came to life against her, flora and fauna alike.
It is as if this entire Realm is hostile to life.
But she has learned.
She has learned to avoid forests, for they will inevitably try and strangle her should she allow a single moment of inattention. She has learned to stay above the earth, lest her location somehow be revealed. She has learned the signs to tell where a group of monsters have made their home.
In the end, this has led her to carving a residence into the side of an unoccupied mountain. It seems to be the only way she can find any peace in this Hell.
Peace is something that she knows she will need if her experiments are ever to turn a success.
She is no Azazel, but there was a time where she would sit behind him and watch as he made new toys for the children, back before he started making weapons instead. She wouldn't claim to have been as close to Azazel as Bezaliel or Sahaquiel were, but she did spend more time with her studious brothers than most.
So even if she does not have his genius, she at least finds that she is not floundering on where to start.
Though... Azazel did Fall, in the end.
Absently, Adriel's hand brushes through her feathers as she stares in silent contemplation at her wings.
They are not yet black, but she cannot lie to herself and deny how they have lost their lustre.
Adriel shakes her head to clear away her morose thoughts and focuses back on the present.
Namely, she turns her eyes to the wall of her cave where she has set up three barred cells, though only one is occupied presently.
She briefly locks eyes with her prisoner before ignoring him in favour of inspecting her workspace.
He is the second she has brought here, and he hasn't stopped staring unblinkingly at her since. Not even to sleep, and it's been three days. He just keeps staring.
Adriel only has to remind herself of her duty to in order to see that man's eyes behind this one's. That is enough by itself for her to ignore any doubt or hesitation.
For now, she is still in the process of working out her options and finding the right path forward, but even with only having had the time to fully make use of one heathen, she feels that she has made some progress.
Her plan with this heathen is to cross some more options off of her list, working off of what her previous subject taught her.
The end goal of course, is to devise a method to counter the heathen magics of this Realm entirely, but such an undertaking will take time and testing.
However, as Adriel was going about setting up her various instruments—many of which were Azazel's, as she was carrying some of his stuff in extra-dimensional storage for him before he Fell—she has to pause as she feels one of her outer wards trigger.
Adriel frowns. She had thought she had done better work concealing this location.
Focusing on the presence approaching her mountain though, Adriel's eyes narrow as she feels only a single presence. One that does not seem as strong as her either.
She feels suspicious.
If the approaching heathen knew what she was, why would they approach alone?
Most likely, she is either failing to sense something, or the one approaching has failed to sense her.
Either way, Adriel spends a rushed moment priming her valuable equipment to be ready for quick storage and then she is out of time to prepare.
She hasn't been here long enough to set up any defensive wards beyond the concealment and early warning, so she guards the entrance to her cave by herself. Six wings folded behind her back and hands ready to summon forth spears of His Holy Light.
Not a moment later, the sunlight peering in from the entryway comes obscured by the silhouette of a man, taller than average. His features are difficult to discern with the light of heathen day behind him.
If she were in the Kingdom of God, no amount of Light would obscure her eyes.
"Hey there," the Sorcerer raises a hand in greeting, "Angel-chan."
Adriel's eyes narrow further.
So he did know to expect me, she thinks, her senses scanning in every direction for the ambush she is now expecting.
Since arriving here, everything in this Realm has tried to kill her. She does not expect this to be any different.
"Identify yourself," Adriel demands, forming a spear of Light and pointing it at him.
His steps do not stop, and soon he is close enough for the bright backdrop to no longer be obscuring his disarming smile. She quickly categorises his appearance—long black hair, aristocratic features, older than young—but doesn't recognise anything significant.
"No need for that now, Angel-chan," the Sorcerer returns, raising his hands in surrender as he comes to a stop half a dozen paces away from her spear's tip. "I'm not here to start a fight."
Adriel doesn't buy that at all, so she continues to silently stare at him as he himself blithely swivels his head around, observing her equipment with apparent interest. She also didn't miss him avoiding her question.
The man's eyes soon find her prisoner's, and in a mirror of the previous action, he raises a hand in greeting to the man bound and chained against the far wall of his cell.
"Yo."
Unexpectedly to Adriel, her prisoner raises his hand in turn, limited though the movement may be by chains, and nods his head.
"Hey."
Is he here for him? Adriel considers, as that is the first word her prisoner has said since he stopped trying to kill her. Or, more realistically, the first word he has spoken since she chained him enough that he lost the ability to keep making attempts on her life.
"You two know one another?" Adriel asks, her spear not wavering in the slightest.
However, her words garner identical looks of confusion from both men.
"No?" Her prisoner responds at the same time that her guest says;
"I have never seen that man before in my life."
Adriel feels a pulse of irritation that she forces from her mind.
"Why would you great one another that then?"
Her 'guest' shrugs. "It'd be rude to ignore him. I don't really care about what you're doing with him though, if that's what you're worried about."
Adriel stares for a moment, dumbfounded, before blinking and shaking her head.
"Enough of this." She flicks her spear in threat of the man ahead of it. "Who are you and why are you here, Sorcerer."
"Mmmmm~?" The man purses his lips staring at the tip of her spear as he hums in consideration and she almost gets the feeling that he wants to poke it, but that would be absurd. "Curiosity, I suppose."
Seeing in her face that his answer was not enough, the man sighs and helplessly shakes his head.
"You're not as subtle as you might think, you know? Even if no one cares about a Curse User or two disappearing, anyone with enough motivation to look can notice that sort of thing. You see, I happen to be something of an experienced hand when it comes to abducting Curse Users." The man chuckles as if anything he said was funny, but he coughs into his hand when he looks and her and she does not laugh.
"Ahem. Anyway. A bit ago, the Nakiri clan chased you away, right?" Adriel's grip tightens at the reminder. She'd only just gotten set up when it happened. "Now, normally Curse Users are killed on sight, but considering the circumstance, the lady you had huddled away was interrogated a bit first. Normally, that wouldn't interest me. Curse Users get abducted all the time for a variety of reasons, after all. However, I happen to have some Nakiri friends, so I managed to learn about what was shared, and what do you know? An Angel was experimenting on the poor lady! My, how tragic!"
The man winks at her before continuing his story.
"Now that, I thought was pretty interesting. So I put a little bit of work in, and lo and behold, what do I discover?" The man's grin turns a little bit mean as he stares straight into her eyes. "You." As quick as it came, the expression disappears. "So I decided to introduce myself. I've never met an Angel before, you know?"
"What is it exactly that you want from me?" Adriel asks, her voice tense as she considers simply killing the man instead.
"A partnership," is his quick answer, catching her somewhat off-guard.
"Partnership?" Adriel repeats, sceptical. "Why would I ever desire such a thing."
"Because you're a foreign being in a foreign land, of course," the man replies, his tone like he is explaining something simple to a child. She tries to not let it bother her. "You could use the help if you want to survive. After all, it only took me a few days of work to find you, y'know? I have, of course, hidden some of your tracks better than you did, else I'm sure the Principle Clans would be half a step behind me, but such things can always be undone, you understand?"
Adriel does understand. He is offering to hide her from the denizens of this Realm, because her own efforts are evidently insufficient.
He is, of course, also threatening to reveal her instead should she not play along.
"So you want to be my guide?" Adriel surmises. "Help me understand how to traverse this Realm?"
"Something like that, yeah." He nods, pleased with himself. "I can ensure that no Sorcerer comes to bother you here. I can even bring more Sorcerers here for you to do your little experiments on, and, of course, I would be willing to answer any questions you may have about these lands."
"And in exchange?" Adriel counters, knowing by now how this sort of thing goes.
"In exchange, all I ask is that you share your notes with me." The man smiles innocently at her, but Adriel hesitates in her initial response.
She hesitates because when she meets his eyes, she sees something familiar. Something that she has only seen to this extent before within the eyes of Azazel.
That alone does more to allay her suspicions than all of his words together.
"Do you even know what I am researching?" Adriel asks, to which he merely sends her an impish grin and shakes his head.
"Nope! I'm sure it's something interesting though. You wouldn't be here otherwise, so I am quite Curious~." The man holds a hand out to her in invitation, his smile unwavering. "What do you say, Partner?"
Adriel continues to stare at him for along moment.
...She doesn't feel any deceit from him. She doesn't trust him either.
But she cannot ignore the simple fact that this man found her. If he could, then who else could?
She doesn't want to have to deal with those 'Nakiri' again. If making a deal with this man can keep the rest of his kin away...
"You will conceal me and provide Sorcerers for my experiments," Adriel reiterates, "And in exchange I will only have to share the results of my research with you?"
He nods again, his hand not wavering or pulling back. "Just that."
Adriel stares at his hand for a moment longer. It is not like it would matter to her if the knowledge she is searching for would be spread...
She doesn't like it. Doesn't trust him. His hand looks to her like Lucifer's smile. She should just kill him and relocate again, that would be the smart thing to do. The safe thing to do.
But Lucifer's temptations aren't famous for being easy to refuse.
Adriel shakes his hand, feeling rotten heathen magic worm its way around her Soul as the pact is sealed.
She doesn't react to the sensation, no matter how vile it feels, like filth climbing up her spine.
Adriel knows in her heart that she has just taken another step away from God, but she justifies it to herself.
It is just temporary.
She is only doing what needs to be done to avenge her sisters and eliminate a threat to His Great Works.
Her purpose is Just, and once she has seen it done, she can return to His embrace and work to cleanse her Soul of corruption.
The means will all be justified by the end.
She just needs to get there. To finish her work.
Her heart hardens with resolve.
No matter what it takes. That is what she promised herself.
No matter what it takes, she will kill him.
Surely there can be no Evil paved in the path that leads to Justice.
Yet, no matter what she tells herself, when Adriel looks into this human's eyes, she can only wonder how many times she can shakes hands with the Devil before her wings turn to tar.
"So!" The human exclaims, eyes bright with Curiosity. "What exactly are you trying to discover, Angel-chan~?"
Adriel shakes herself out of her thoughts, and her eye twitches at the form of address.
"Mine name is Adriel."
"Oh really?" The Sorcerer rhetorically asks, one of his hands rising to scratch at his head. In doing so, his hair parts enough for Adriel to notice a thin horizontal scar cutting across his forehead. An old wound, she assumes.
"Well, it's probably safer for me not to tell you my name," Adriel sends him a dry glare at that, but she honestly doesn't really care.
"So instead, feel free to call me Sensei~."
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Wozers, stuff is happening.
I kinda need to write a bit with the disaster curses tho, cuz ngl I totally forgot about them till recently lol. But eh, they're minor characters, even if Ekirei is cool as hell imo (that's the smallpox deity btw)
Also yeah, an angel can't just go gallavanting around without anyone doing anything about it. However, should said angel have a 'mysterious' man with vast connections concealing them... well...
Unrelated, but I've come up with an idea for what Sukuna's RCT is gonna look like btw. I have no idea how it'll be received, but I think it's hilarious and I will not be having my mind changed, so I guess you'll just have to have some faith in me lol.