Anya closed her eyes again.
“I… a person like me… stealing the burgers you served to your customers while you were working, sneaking into your home, saying all those things… why do you still care about me?”
Lirina froze.
“…You must really dislike me, right?” Anya opened her eyes, staring at Lirina’s stunned face. “I’m a terrible person, with a bad temper, doing all sorts of unreasonable things… and yet I disrupt your life like this… I’m only spared because of your kindness, aren’t I?”
Anya bit her lip. “I really shouldn’t exist for you… once I recover, I’ll leave.”
“I don’t… I don’t dislike you at all!” Lirina suddenly exclaimed loudly.
Anya looked, startled, at Lirina’s flushed face—blushing either from embarrassment or some other reason.
“…Why would you say such bad things about yourself?” Tears glimmered in Lirina’s eyes. “I don’t know why I want to take care of you… but I know… you… need help.”
“…Huh?” Anya furrowed her brow.
Lirina took a deep breath. “I just… can’t ignore you… can’t not care about you.”
Anya opened her mouth, wanting to ask why. But instinctively, she felt asking more would seem unreasonable—though she already was unreasonable.
“At first… it was because… you fainted like that… I couldn’t just leave you there, right?” Lirina clenched her hands, trying to find the right words. “And… and… about today… well, it’s because yesterday… didn’t we say… we’re already… already friends? So, when a friend is in trouble, of course you help.”
What…
Anya turned her face aside.
…So pure it makes me want to cry.
Does a heart this clear even deserve someone like me?
“Ah… and Anya said she had nowhere to go and would stay here,” Lirina continued, a blush blossoming on her cheeks. “And… I already said, please take care of me…”
Anya tilted her head, puzzled.
“Because… um…” Lirina hesitated for a moment. “I live here alone… and often… I feel very lonely… um…”
Anya tilted her face further in, only to feel her cheeks heat even more.
Lirina lowered her gaze shyly, avoiding eye contact, and they stayed like that for a moment.
“…I bothered you at work, and you don’t mind?” Anya muttered.
“No… two burgers are only 300 yen,” Lirina lifted her head. “And I just found out… that those two missing burgers were taken by you… um.”
“…And I barged into your house, and said so many inappropriate things… you…” Anya’s voice softened.
“You’re an angel… naturally drawn to the aura of demons… and you said it yourself, it was only because you wanted to try taking another angel’s job… so… it’s fine. I know you won’t hurt me again now,” Lirina said after thinking for a moment.
Anya’s cheeks heated several degrees more.
“Then… ahem—” Anya bit her lip. “I accidentally… saw your body… and even said I wanted to check if you were really a demon… and… um…”
She thought of the dazzling curves wrapped in white lingerie, and the provocative roundness beneath the skirt covered by white panties.
She didn’t say anything more.
“Um-um—Anya! I…” Lirina, embarrassed, stood up. “I… these things… I… I won’t hate you for them… because… you didn’t mean to… but… I can’t not care about them…”
Absolutely adorable reaction.
Anya folded her arms behind her back, feeling her cheeks burn.
“…Um… saying these… embarrassing things… I-I’ll put my bag back in my room!” Lirina said, lifting her leg to leave.
Anya turned, grabbing the hem of Lirina’s clothes.
Lirina bowed her head, cheeks red, as Anya glanced at her side. The grip on her hem was gentle—enough to let go with a little pull.
But…
“Those things… wait a moment,” Anya said. “…Stay here a little longer.”
Thump, thump, thump.
…Is that… my heartbeat?
Lirina looked at Anya’s side profile, frozen in place.
“…Is that not okay?” Anya furrowed her brow, watching the dazed Lirina.
Lirina immediately sat down. “N-no, it’s fine… I-I can stay as long as you want—”
“And tonight?” Anya didn’t release her hand holding Lirina’s hem.
“Huh?”
“I’ll sleep with you in the bed.” Anya said, letting go and turning her face into the backrest of the sofa. “…Even though you apologized, saying sorry isn’t enough. This… is the only compensation I want.”
~~~~~~~~
Heaven, a residential district, a small street in a quiet town. Midday sunlight glared over the street, so bright that only the working angels could bear it.
This was a countryside-style neighborhood. All the houses were old-style angelic homes, rarely taller than two stories.
The old houses were scattered in the streets and alleyways, seemingly chaotic, yet possessing a disordered beauty.
At this hour, the streets were empty. Everyone stayed indoors—after lunch, most residents reclined in their gardens, enjoying the slow life of lower-tier heaven. True comfort, as long as the armies of archangels didn’t march through the streets.
Suddenly, a large white shadow appeared at the alley entrance. In the dazzling golden sunlight, the shadow was blinding, painful even to glance at.
It moved quickly, disappearing into the alley’s depths.
“Closed for lunch… please come back later.”
Inside a shop stacked with colorful fabrics—silks shimmering in rainbow hues, fur emitting black-purple miasma, red leather seemingly craving blood, and cottons resonating with the sound of hymns—sat a young girl, lazily lifting her head.
White messy hair tied in a loose ponytail, two broken-horn-like things on her head, her sleepy yet inexplicably radiant green eyes scanning a man in a white robe entering.
“…Reese, right?” the man furrowed his silver brow. Despite the face mask covering him, his golden eyes betrayed urgency.
“Miss Reese… where’s Ivak?” he asked, approaching the counter.
Reese scrutinized him, furrowed brow, long green eyes, slightly wrinkled nose.
“You… who are you?” Reese asked warily.
“…You really don’t remember me? I’m Moaler Harts.” Moaler sighed, removing his hood and mask to reveal a handsome young man’s face. “I need to find Ivak urgently.”
“I have no idea who you are… even if I did, the store manager would know you… how could you not find him?” Reese frowned at Moaler’s helpless expression.
“…Every time I can’t understand this logic… Ivak, come out. I know you’re there.” Moaler sighed, placing two candies on the counter, then shouted into the chaotic piles of fabrics.
“…Moaler,” came a low, lazy voice from the midst of the fabrics—did it really come from there? Hard to tell. “What day is it… coming here now?”
“Cut the pleasantries… Ivak,” Moaler pinched his forehead. “I know you helped my daughter escape Heaven.”
“Oh… that explains it.”
From the fabrics emerged a man—exactly where he came from was unclear… or if he really came out at all, impossible to know.
Shoulder-length hair, about 1.8 meters tall, slightly shorter than Moaler. One sleeve of a gray shirt torn, black pants, barefoot.
Behind gold-rimmed glasses, indifferent black eyes drooped, revealing no emotion. A small scar crossed his high nose, stubble on his unkempt mouth with a cigarette dangling.
“…Long time no see, Archangel… Harts.”
~~~~~~~~
A/N:
Ivak: “Ah… nothing compares to the youthful energy in the mortal realm.”
Saya: “Ivak, what are you talking about… mortal realm… could it be—”
Ivak & Reese: (instant alert)
Saya: “Are you a medium?!”
Ivak: “…No.”
Saya: “Eh—”
Lirina: “Mr. Ivak, you and Sister Reese seem really close.”
Reese: “Mm-hmm! The shopkeeper is the most important person to me, and I’m the most important person to the shopkeeper!”
Ivak: “Hmm, something like that, yeah.”
Lirina: “Ah… but you two aren’t lovers or married. Why is that?”
Ivak: “Well, Miss Hayur, I’m a void being. Void beings don’t have genders, so feelings like love hardly appear… As for Reese and me, well, I guess we’re what you’d call pure family.” (He gently moved Reese aside with his hand.)
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