Himitsu: Kuro no Chikai - [Extra Story]

MISSION 1 – search for the song

The Angel Training Academy——a school whose purpose is to prepare those born as angels for adulthood. Every year, many angels enroll in this school, the only existing educational institution in all of Heaven, and the students that complete the curriculum graduate with the title of “angel trainee”. The number of students is usually around one thousand. Because the system is completely based on merit, with no regard to age, there are some that graduate not even a year after enrolling, and also some that aren’t able to graduate even after a hundred years. The average student takes around thirty. During the strict training period, an angel acquires all the information, culture, techniques, and knowledge they need to become a fully-fledged angel.

“Ahh~… There’s just no end~…..”

Tolemante, the huge library adjacent to the Angel Training Academy. This library, which is shaped like a enormous dome, contains every book that exists in Heaven.

Regardless of the fact that it was just before closing hours, students would gather there in the evening after their day of classes and hurriedly rush to and fro around the spacious room. Since the deadline to submit a topic for the promotion exams was approaching, everyone was immersed in reading their books. Even I, who usually hated studying, was focused in writing my paper. If I failed this time’s exam, I would have to take another year of the same courses. I wanted to avoid that at all costs. For that reason, I had rushed to come and find materials for my topic, but was having trouble finding any useful references.

“Let’s see…. Heroes from the Great War era of four hundred years ago…. Is it this one? …..Hm?”

It happened just as I was reaching up to pull out the thick history book that I’d been looking for. My eyes fell upon the small book——that said, it wasn’t quite a properly bounded book; it looked like a simple notebook that someone had made by hand. Taking it out, I saw that it had only eight pages, including the table of contents; the author of the book wasn’t even written anywhere.

“….The Seven Wonders… of Heaven….?”

“Riiiin, let’s just give up and go home already~”

“….No, not yet.”

“But it’s almost almost curfew~ The dormitory head’s going to get mad at us again.”

“Please, Gumi! Just give me ten more minutes!”

“Sigh… Alright, fineee.”

Before us two angel students was a single apple tree. Surrounded by the lush greenery of Heaven’s land that was always brimming with energy was a withering, strangely-colored tree without a single leaf on it. While everything else in Heaven was enveloped in holy energy, only this tree was rooted here for hundreds of years in its completely withered state. I didn’t know the exact reason, but supposedly, it was the remains of the tree that had been set aflame by a demon’s attack during the Great Heaven War. Naturally, since it was withered, there was no fruit growing on the tree. With eyes as wide as plates, the two of us had been silently monitoring the withered tree since early that morning.

“If we just keep staring at it, I’m sure that eventually an apple will grow and fall down….”

“….Are you suuure?”

“Of course I’m sure! Look, it’s even written right here!”

I said, and opened up the book for Gumi to see. It was the small book on “The Seven Wonders of Heaven” that I had happened to find in the library a week before. The book described a total of seven different “wonders,” with one on each page.

I Apple Which Grows on a Withered Tree II Portrait of The Smiling Angel III Gate Which Opens on Its Own IV Blood Pond in the Water Garden V Bird of Paradise with the Torn Mouth VI Giant Angel of the Dark Night VIII Hymn of Hell The book was formatted like a simple picture book, with unique illustrations accompanied by a few short sentences. The moment I had seen those gruesome illustrations, I was struck by both fear and an inexplicable interest. And so, deciding that I would solve all of these mysteries, I had gone and explained the situation to Gumi, my closest friend in school. At first, Gumi had been too scared to agree, but in the end, her curiosity got the better of her and she gladly agreed to assist with solving the mysteries.

After that, the two of us solved five of the mysteries in the span of a week. And now, we were trying to solve one of the two last remaining mysteries—— “The Apple Which Grows on a Withered Tree”.

“Rin, this is probably just another weird rumor like the rest~”

“….It’s still too early to determine whether it’s just a rumor or not.”

“I dunno about that~”

As it turned out, the five “wonders” that we’d already solved had all been disappointingly lame stories. The “Portrait of The Smiling Angel” was a painting of the Legendary Angel that hung by the Round Table at the Gran Dios Temple, but because it had originally been painted when the angel was smiling for the portrait, there was nothing wondrous about it at all. Although our enthusiasm had been dampened, we moved onto the next wonder, the “Gate Which Opens on Its Own,” which was the gate at the border between Heaven and the human world that opened by itself. However, apparently this happened quite often, and it was simply because people would freely pass through the gate whenever the angel on sentry duty carelessly dozed off.

Similarly, the “Blood Lake in the Water Garden” was caused by someone spilling a large amount of wine into the water, the “Giant Angel of the Dark Night” was just an archangel spreading their huge wings and doing strength training in the middle of the night, and the “Bird of Paradise with the Torn Mouth” was a bird whose owner had just painted for the Harvest Festival, and the pattern on its face only made it appear as if its cheeks were actually torn.

In this way, the five mysteries that we’d tried so hard to investigate had all turned out to be assumptions or rumors, and were nothing more than misunderstandings in the end. We had been drawn in by the appeal of the word “Seven Wonders,” but with each mystery that we solved, we started to feel more and more discouraged, as if our expectations had been betrayed.

“It’s almost time, you know~ Forget it, Rin, I’m just going to leave without you!”

“What?! H-Hold up~! Just a little longer…. Ah!!”

Just as Gumi had grown bored of the unchanging withered tree and was about to fly off, something red suddenly came falling down from the sky. I hurriedly pulled Gumi to my side and caught the red object with both hands. It was a magnificently red apple, perfectly ripe for eating.

“You’re kidding…. Is this for real?”

“Yeah…. So it was really true…”

The two of us stared intently at the apple in my hands. It was an apple that had fallen from a branch on the withered tree that towered over our heads. We had just seen one of the Seven Wonders come true right before our very eyes. For a while, the two of us just stood there with expressions of awe, befuddled with the mysterious event, both wondrous and eerie, that had just occurred.

However, our rapture was soon interrupted by the sound of someone’s voice overhead.

“You guys————! Sorry about that—! No one’s hurt, right—?”

We looked up to see the archangel, Meiko. In both of her hands was an armful of apples.

“….Oh my~, is that right? Sorry to have given you two the wrong idea….”

After we had explained the gist of what we’d been up to, Meiko said this with a genuinely apologetic face. Since we live close to each other, Meiko has often looked after me, even from before I’d started at the academy. Although Meiko is an archangel, because of her friendly personality, we’ve always been able to act casually around each other without having to worry about the formalities or our rank differences.

It would seem that today, Meiko had been transporting the apples to the venue of the Harvest Festival that was taking place in three days. The apple that had had fallen from overhead earlier had simply been one that had fallen off the pile that she’d been carrying. And at the same time, we had made a false assumption. In reality, the “Apple Which Grows on a Withered Tree” from the Seven Wonders had probably also been because of a misunderstanding like this one.

“Aww… I’m sure that this wonder was also just because someone happened to pass by overhead. How laaame.”

Gumi said, genuinely disappointed. She must have been a bit excited about the mystery of the Seven Wonders, too.

“……”

“Well, if you were resting under this tree and an apple suddenly came falling down, I think it can’t be helped that there’d be a misunderstanding~! How about thinking of it this way? On the contrary, it’s a pretty amazing coincidence that an apple would come falling down at that exact timing! So maybe it was due to some mysterious power that made it slip from my hand, you know~? Perhaps God felt sorry for how serious you two were about this and made a divine wind blow on purpose. Right? So cheer up, you two.”

“Miss Meiko….! Although that’s somehow not all that reassuring, thank you anyway. But at this rate, the last one that’s left, the ‘Hymn of Hell,’ is probably just going to another prank, I bet.”

Although Gumi said these words nonchalantly, Meiko suddenly widened her eyes.

“Wait…. did you say, Hymn of Hell?! Where in the world did you….?”

“? Umm… in this book called ‘The Seven Wonders of Heaven’….”

I showed the book to Meiko as I spoke. Her face, which had been so cheerful until a moment ago, gradually turned rigid. Something like fear flickered in her eyes.

“I think you’d better give up on this. I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen to you two.”

“?! Meiko, do you know something about this?”

“….I don’t know the exact details, either. But I remember hearing this hymn before. That’s why I want to warn you. Don’t get too involved in this matter. Understand?”

We couldn’t help but nod when Meiko sternly warned us in a tone she usually never used. Even Gumi wasn’t able to hide her shock at Meiko’s sudden change in behavior. But after being warned like this, it was in a angel’s nature to want to know the truth all the more. While we pretended that we would give up like we’d been told, in reality, our burning curiosity about the last of the Seven Wonders only grew stronger.

There is a resting spot located somewhere not too far from Griselle Water Garden. This popular resting spot, which has a clear view of the beautiful scenery of the garden, is always crowded with angels. One week after hearing Meiko’s warning, our interest towards the Seven Wonders only continued to grow.

We had spent another day going around interviewing the upperclassman since early in the morning, but we were having a hard time getting any good results. The moment we mentioned the words, “Hymn of Hell,” everyone we talked to started avoiding the topic with looks of fear on their faces. Every time this happened, our enthusiasm to solve the mystery grew stronger. Close upperclassman friends, teachers, even upperclassman that just happened to pass by; everyone we asked reacted the same way. And now, we were sitting next to a group of archangels at the resting spot——If even they couldn’t give them any answers, then we would have no choice but to consider giving up.

We glanced over at them. The four, who were all exceptionally well-known archangels, were chatting casually with one another. These four were often seen at archangel meetings, and as the leaders of Michael’s angels (the army), there wasn’t a day that we didn’t hear about their accomplishments and heroic tales. We sometimes saw them with Meiko, but it was our first time seeing them from up close like this. After observing for a while longer, we stood up from their seats with determination.

“E-Excuse me, may we borrow a moment of your time? There’s something we’d like to ask you.”

The moment I called out to them, they all turned around at the same time. There weren’t many opportunities for mere students like ourselves to talk to angels of the archangel rank. We couldn’t help but feel anxious when feeling their holy aura at such close proximity, which was hundreds of times more powerful than their own. I noticed that Gumi, who was standing behind me, was shaking while clutching the hem of her clothes. A cold sweat ran down my own back. Other than the Chief Executive archangel, the headmaster, there were only teachers ranging from lower rank to upper rank angels. Compared to the archangels that they were standing in front of us today, even the strongest upper rank angel we knew seemed overwhelmingly powerless.

“What’s wrong? What do you need from us?”

The one who’d answered first was a youth with blue-green hair. He had a kind, gentle smile on his face, and gave off an overall friendly atmosphere.

“My, my, you both seem rather frightened…. There’s no need to be so nervous. We have no intention of threatening our brethren, so not to worry. Ah, if you’d like, help yourselves to some tea.”

The youth with the long, purple hair said, and offered tea to the both of us. Although we were still anxious, we said our thanks and accepted the tea. The tea that he had made tasted more delicious than any tea we had ever had before.

“Delicious…! It’s… really delicious!”

Even Gumi, who had been shaking like a leaf behind me just a moment ago, seemed to have had her heart won over by this kind archangel.

“I’m glad to hear that. To tell the truth, this tea is a new recipe that I perfected only just yesterday. I used the highest grade of tea leaves from Via Hill, and brought them to Pastone Grasslands to have them thoroughly died out, and then….”

“And? You two appear to be students. What was it that you wished to talk to us about?”

The archangel with long, pink hair and sharp eyes said, interrupting the purple-haired archangel who had started a complex explanation on how he’d made the tea. We did a brief self-introduction, and then launched into an explanation of our topic.

“The truth is, we want to solve the mysteries of this book,”

I said, and placed the book of the Seven Wonders of Heaven in the middle of the table. Quizzically, the pink-haired archangel opened the book. The other archangels were also staring at the small book with curiosity.

“What we want to learn more about is the seventh wonder mentioned in this book on the Seven Wonders of Heaven, the ‘Hymn of Hell.’”

The moment I said this, all the archangels took on surprised faces, just as I had expected they would. However, there was just one thing different from all the upperclassmen that we’d asked up until now; there wasn’t a single trace of fear in any of their expressions.

“We figured that archangels like yourselves, who are said to be Heaven’s elite in terms of knowledge, experience, and skill, might know something about the secret behind this wonder. We really want to learn what the last secret is, no matter what it takes. In this last week, we’ve solved all of the other six mysteries. The only left is the mystery of that hymn! If any of you know something about it, please tell us!”

I pleaded, and bowed with head in earnest. However, no matter how long I waited, the archangels before us spoke not a single word. Could I have possibly said something insensitive…..?

“Pfft….”

It was the youth with the blue-green hair who broke the silence. If I recalled, his name was….

“Ahhahahahahahahahahaha!”

He was holding his stomach while laughing, with a face that said he couldn’t hold it back anymore. There were even faint tears forming in his blue-green eyes.

Becoming uneasy, I looked around at the other archangels and saw that the long-haired archangels on either side of him were both red-faced and looking away in what seemed like embarrassment.

And there was one more—a silent, blue-haired archangel who hadn’t said a single word since we had arrived. He maintained an uninterested attitude and unyielding poker face, but was I just imagining that his hand which was holding a teacup had been frozen in midair for a while now?

“Ahh…. I feel like it’s been about a hundred years since I’ve laughed so hard. Thanks for telling such a funny joke. Anyway, I’m surprised that you two managed to find that book~ Sure, I don’t mind telling you. About the final mystery of the Seven Wonders of Heaven. The truth is….”

“Wait!”

“?!”

Just as he had started to talk, the other three archangels interrupted him. Even the silent archangel that had yet to utter a word voiced his objection. Could it be that they all feared the final wonder just like Meiko did?

“What’s wrong, everyone? Even you, Kaito? Don’t tell me, you know the truth behind this ‘Hymn of Hell’….? Kuku—”

The blue-haired archangel started to laugh again, as if to tease the other three.

“….Joke’s over. Who is it? The fool that wrote this useless book.”

“The author…. doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere…”

“Doesn’t matter who it is! Besides, this book in nothing more than child’s play. Completely insignificant. It’s nothing of interest.”

“Child’s play….. Ah! Then, does that mean you’ll tell us? If it’s nothing important, then it’d be fine for students like us to know about it, right?”

Gumi, who had been keeping quiet behind her the entire time, said this with shining eyes. She was just too straight-forward, but maybe because of that fact, it was easy for her to butt in with comments like this from time to time.

“Huh? Ah, weeell…. Th-that’s true…. Umm…”

“J-Just so we’re clear, this is, err…. merely a completely groundless, made-up fairy tale that has no connection to any of us…”

“Foolishness! I forbid any further mention of this topic. Understand?”

“Wha….! B-But…..”

“This is an order issued by an archangel. Are we clear?”

The blue-haired archangel glared at us as he said this. His cold, intimidating air and glower made us immediately weak at the knees. All the while, the archangel with the blue-green hair continued to laugh by himself. The blue-haired archangel repeated his warning, and then, after announcing that he was returning to work, he flew off. The other archangels seemed to have no intention of telling us anything either, and though we tried to pester them for more information, they soon also went back to work.

The only one who remained was the archangel with the blue-green hair. Since he was so friendly compared to the others, perhaps he would still be willing to tell us….?

“Aww, they’re so hopeless. That’s why they’re so unpopular. Honestly, there’s a ton of secrets I want to tell you, but if I just blurt them out without permission, there’re sure to get mad at me.”

After he winked at them with a fully mischievous smile, for some reason, we found ourselves unable to ask for anything else. Although his tone remained friendly, he also gave off a compelling air of dignity, reminding us that he was, after all, an archangel just like the others.

“….I know, how about we make a promise? Once you two become a little older and advance to lower rank angels, I’ll tell you the truth behind the last of the Seven Wonders.”

A promise——

Until the day that he would tell us the secrets of that mystery…. Would Gumi and I be able to make up for the absolute difference in ability between this archangel and ourselves?

“Understood. I’ll do my best and become a fully-fledged angel as quickly as possible.”

“M-Me too! I’ll do my best!”

“Yeah, it’s a promise. Rin and Gumi, it’s a promise between the three of us…. No, between you and us archangels.”

Seeing him smile as he said this, strangely, we felt our burning curiosity start to quiet down. Surely, what lay ahead of us now was the true domain of angels, completely different from our own. It was like he was warning us that we were still too young at the moment to set foot there.

It was little disappointing, but we could feel in his eyes a sense of anticipation towards our growth. That must have been why he’d made that promise. To angels, promises are second only to their worship of God; an oath between one chaste soul and another.

There was a possibility that even we would forget about this day once they were able to finally fulfill that promise. We were still only students at the time, not even formally angels yet. Once we graduated from the academy and became angel trainees, until the day we were recognized as fully-fledged angels…. In other words, until we became lower rank angels, it might take us decades, or even a hundred years.

But, until that day comes, I’ll——

* * *

“….And that’s what happened, a long time ago~ If I remember, it was probably about like, a hundred years ago.”

The blonde-haired girl sitting in front of me said while enjoying a slightly early afternoon tea.

It was a familiar scene at the resting spot by Griselle Water Garden. There was Rin, who was sitting in front of me and busily cycling through different facial expressions as she spoke. Watching her from the side while devouring a mouthful of apple was Gumi. Gaku was rambling about the deliciousness of the tea again as usual, and Luka was silently enjoying her own. The only one missing was our friend with the blue-green hair. My chest ached as the memory of his smile came back to me for the first time in a while.

Since that day—over a hundred years had gone by since that day I’d first spoken with Rin. Over the years, I have continued to serve as an archangel as before, but as for her, she had graduated from the Angel Training Academy, become an angel trainee, and just the other day, finally advanced to the level of a lower rank angel. Gumi, who was sitting next to Rin, had also advanced at the same time. Although they once showed fear at my silent demeanor, after all this time had passed, I believe we get along quite casually now. More than anything, the two have grown into entirely different people, compared to how they used to act back then.

As I was starting to lose myself in these nostalgic memories, I noticed Rin was looking at me restlessly.

“Kaito~…. So what’s why, it wouldn’t hurt to tell us now, right?”

“Hm….? Tell you what?”

“The Seven Wonders! The final mystery of the Seven Wonders~!”

As she spoke, she took out a small book from some hiding place and spread it out before me, grinning as if she were plotting some sinister trick. Just a moment ago, I had been thinking to myself about how she had matured compared to a hundred years ago, but evidently, I had only been imagining it.

“….Come to think of it, that does sound a bit familiar.”

“It ‘sounds’ familiar~?! I was talking about it just now! Kaito, you weren’t listening at all, were you?!”

“Calm down, Rin! I’m sure that even Archangel Kaito would have trouble remembering something from so long ago right away. I mean, even when you told me yesterday, it took me a whole hour to remember.”

“That’s right, Rin. Even now, I still have no recollection of what you’re talking about.”

“Same goes for me…. Anyhow, there are plenty of things in life that you don’t need to force yourself to remember.”

“….Ughhh, you’re all a bunch of meanies~! How could you all just forget~! It’s probably because you’re all getting old! Your memories are all starting to fail because of old age~!”

“Ahh~ That’s probably it~! Everyone is getting up there in the years, after all~”

The way the two of them were suddenly treating us like old people stabbed into me like a sharp knife. Gaku and Luka also seemed to have been affected in the same way; they both wore tense faces. If we considered our ages as angels, naturally, it was outrageous to say that we were aging and in the prime of our lives, but before Rin and Gumi… a pair of novice angels, we were unable to fight back. No matter what we said, it was sure to come right back at us.

“As you were saying…. What was this about Seven Wonders? Although first of all, that’s a rather shady-looking book.”

“The Seven Wonders of Heaven! I found this while I was cleaning my room yesterday! I want to know about the final mystery of the Seven Wonders, the ‘Hymn of Hell’~!”

“!!”

The “Hymn of Hell”—this situation was starting to feel a bit familiar. No, I remembered it quite clearly. Although she had looked much younger then, she had come asking us this once before with the same serious look. Looking around me, Gaku and Luka were also wearing somewhat nostalgic expressions. Their faces were beat red, and they were frozen in place with their mouths hanging open in surprise.

“Remember? I even made a promise with him~! He said it was a promise between the two of us and your four archangels~ He promised that you’d tell us once we advanced to lower rank angels! He, made, me, a, promise~!”

“……”

I let out a small sigh as the girl continued to ask persistently with the demeanor of a child, acting nothing at all like a lower rank angel. Even if I were to say that it was pointless now that the one who had made the promise was no longer here, I was certain that she wouldn’t hear of it.

As I tried to to think of how to handle this situation, my thoughts drifted to the memory of the horrid incident that had occurred back when I was still a novice archangel.

MISSION 2 – let the song reach My vision filled with wreckage, as far as the eye could see. The vast amount of black smoke were the fumes from the lower rank demons that we had defeated just moments before. The four of us hadn’t fought side by side like this since the Great War. Having been worried for Gaku and Luka, who had been late in returning, I had gone down to the human world with my partner with the blue-green eyes, and from there, engaged in a large scale battle. After we’d eliminated the mass of demons using our full extent of holy power and had finished a basic survey of the battlefield, we were just about to return to Heaven.

“Huh…? That’s weird~”

“Hmm, I too, felt that something was strange.”

“Same goes for me…”

“…..Wait, then it’s the same for all of us?”

“……….”

Since the battle had ended and up until this moment, strangely, not a single one of us were oblivious to this fact. I was sure that all of us had only made it appear as if we were casually using bold moves one after another in quick succession, while in reality, all of us had been struggling. The other possibility was that sense of rivalry felt between those of similar in power level had unconsciously gone beyond their limits. Regardless, all of us that were present no longer cared what had led to this. Thinking about such things wasn’t going to be help us move forward. Right, we couldn’t move forward——because the fact was, none of us could fly right now.

“Umm…. If we turn left on this street…..”

“Hold on a minute! I’m certain that we went down this street a while ago.”

“That weapon shop over there! There’s no mistake. A long time ago while I was on patrol, I accidently dropped the sheath of the blade I used two generations ago into the chimney of that shop….”

“……….”

It was well into the night by now, about the time that humans would be enjoying their evening meal. Meanwhile, four archangels, myself included, were wandering a small town in the human world. However, we had, by no means, lost our way…… was what I wanted to believe.

“Honestly, why is it that the terrain of this world is so complex! We aren’t getting anywhere!”

“There’s no use complaining now, Luka. After all, right now, we’re…. lost. So it’s all the same no matter where we end up.”

“Hrmm…. ‘Even angels fall from apple trees.’ It is at this moment that those words left by our predecessors resonate deeply in my heart.”

Even ‘he,’ who was usually so cheerful, was now more weak-spirited and haggard than I had ever seen him before. To think that we had carefully used up all of our holy power in the battle with the demons, to the point that we had lost our strength to fly; it was such a foolish act, I never would have imagined it possible. And what was more, it would have been understandable if we were unable to return to Heaven due to being injured in battle, however, all of us were practically unscratched. How ironic was it that we, the archangels that stood at the top of Michael’s angels, had made the blunder of recklessly using up our power, something that even inexperienced angel students knew not to do?

I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that made me hate myself as much I did at that moment. In the first place, who could imagine the ridiculous sight of four angels sluggishly walking along as if crawling on the ground? Even in the images drawn by those overly imaginative humans, I’ve never once seen a depiction of lost angels walking merrily together side by side.

“Ah! I see a ship over there!”

A ship….

If not mistaken, we were currently on a small island a short ways from the Alphine mainland. Surely, this ship was a ferry between here and the mainland. If we got on this ship, we were sure to be able to reach Rulen Island, the Alphine mainland. And from there, all that was left was to go to the Claude Cathedral located in the center of the mainland and recover enough holy power to fly back to Heaven.

Due to the fact that our forms were invisible to human eyes, we were able to board the ship without having to pay the fare. With a ship of this size, it was unlikely to sink due to the added weight of a mere four people. After a while, the steam whistle sounded, and the ship departed. While being exposed to the lake breeze, I gazed down at the pitch black lake below from the ship deck. As it were, none of us could fly right now. In our present state, what would happen if we were to fall from the ship….?

Perhaps due to exhaustion, weak thoughts that I would never consider normally filled my head. I suddenly heard Gaku moan in agony beside me. He seemed ill. Come to think of it, since boarding the ship, I had also been feeling something unpleasant, separate from my fatigue. Nearby, a human man was bent over the railing, facing the lake. Upon closer inspection, I saw vomit expelling from his mouth. I suddenly came to an understanding.

This must be the “seasickness phenomenon” that occurs among humans. This “ship” was a vehicle that swayed a great deal. It was only natural that humans, who usually spend their time treading the earth, would begin to lose their normal bodily functions after spending long periods of time aboard this unstable, swaying vehicle. Angels, too, are unused to being on a vehicle that travels by floating along water. All of us had already fallen victim to this seasickness. The continued violent swaying was making my stomach feel uneasy. How much longer would we have to endure this swaying to reach the island that was only an arm’s reach away if we had been able to fly?

“I would like to go home soon.….”

All of us silently agreed with the words that Gaku muttered and gazed up at the distant sky. Never was I more glad that angels couldn’t be seen by humans. If we were to have been seen in our exhausted, disgraceful state, no doubt it would be passed down to their successors as some strange tale.

We arrived at Rulen Island, the center of Alphine, just as the morning sun was about to rise. Worn out from an entire night of being rocked by the ship, we felt something akin to nostalgia upon setting foot on stable land again. Dragging along our exhausted bodies, we continued to walk slowly through the town; it was already past noon by the time we finally arrived at the Claude Cathedral. The sky was slowly beginning to cloud over and show signs of impending rain.

“Won’t be long now, huh?”

‘He’ said, wearily combing back his blue-green hair. These days, it was a huge city built by the hands of the humans, but originally, the land of Alphine had belonged to Heaven. The Claude Cathedral is only the first of several cathedrals remaining throughout the regions that hold the abundant life essence and holy energy inherited from when Alphine was once situated in Heaven. If we rested there, we were sure to recover more than enough of our holy power. We were nearly there; the final hurdle…. Climbing to the top of this long spiral staircase.

“Looking up at it from down here, it’s quite spectacular.”

“Rather a meaningless structure, these stairs are. I don’t recall them being here when it was a part of Heaven. I see no point in making them so long.”

“Hrmm…. I think I shall first use my sword as a walking stick….”

“….We’ve no choice but to treat it as training for our leg muscles.”

With expressions more melancholy than the color of the cloudy, overcast sky above, the four of us slowly began to climb the stairs. Meanwhile, numerous humans continued to overtake us from behind, and somehow, it felt damaging to our pride. Once we made it back to Heaven, it might be a good idea to suggest a physical training program as regimen for future battles with the demons. No matter how poor we were at all forms of walking, it was humiliating to be worse at it than humans. If they incorporated a walking regimen in the human world, such to accustom angel to getting around without use of their wings, even if one were to become lost and unable to return to Heaven, they would then have no trouble making their way to a cathedral. Thinking of such things, at last, we had climbed to the top of the stairs. After becoming lost on Minole Island and having experienced seasickness, it would seem that our bodies had hardened a good deal.

Passing through the main gates beyond the stairs, we opened the door of the cathedral. There was no one else inside, neither angel nor human. The power of holy energy slowly filled our bodies.

“This is supposed to be the place where holy energy is the strongest, but at this rate, we’ll probably have to stay here for a week before we recover enough.”

“An entire week?!”

“I’m worried about the state of the war.”

“And our subordinates, as well….”

In our hurry to rush to the battlefield, my partner and I hadn’t brought along any healing items. And neither had Luka and Gaku, it would seem. It was difficult to recover our power by normal means in the human world, which was lacking in holy energy. A single night’s of rest in Heaven’s living quarters would be enough to make a full recovery from this level of exhaustion, but in the human world, even staying at the strongest power spot required a week to recover. Unfortunately, there was no avoiding this fact.

However, as expected, it would be bad for four archangels to be away from the tides of the war for an entire week, with their whereabouts unknown. In the past month, battles had been breaking out across all the regions, and grew more violent with each passing day. We had to return as soon as possible, receive status reports from our subordinates who had remained in Heaven, and issue new orders. Although a week is not a terribly long period of time for angels, with the war situation changing every moment, our absence was likely to have an effect in the long run. And furthermore, for four archangels to be missing simultaneously would have an overall effect on Heaven’s movement.

“Alright! Let’s call for help!”

“What?! You’re joking! As if I could something so disgraceful.”

“Mm…. Certainly, it would be a bit rash to call for help.”

“……..”

We all had different opinions. Should we put out a rescue request right away, or wait a week and return on our own?

“Well, I guess it would be pretty embarrassing to admit that all four of us got lost in the human world despite being archangels, and above all, had to be rescued because we wouldn’t fly home….. But do we really have to stay here for a week just because it’d be humiliating? Our subordinates are probably worried about us. And we have to help decide what’s our next move in the war.”

“That may be so, but don’t you care what happens to our dignity? The idea of four archangels putting out a rescue request….. If I were one of the subordinates, I’d be thoroughly disappointed.”

“Hrmm…. Quite the difficult decision. Naturally, I’m concerned about our subordinates as well, but surely, our dignity would be lost, and our pride shattered to pieces.”

“………”

We were having a hard time coming to an agreement. That was how difficult the situation was. As the leaders of Michael’s army, our subordinates, as well as the entirety of heaven, place immense trust in the archangels. If not, we would not be fit for even squad leaders. Michael’s archangels are the role models for all angels, so to speak, and must always be invincible and flawless. If it were to be known that we had struggled with small fry demons and gotten lost as well, our dignity would immediately Fall, the morale of the soldiers fighting in the battlefields would plummet; it would have an immediate effect on the war situation. This wasn’t simply about protecting ourselves.

“Even if we think of it that way, it isn’t getting us anywhere…. So, Luka and Gaku are absolutely against calling for help, huh….. Guess that can’t be helped. In that case, there’s only one way to settle it. With the method most suited for us angel leaders, who pride ourselves in serving God.”

Saying this, ‘he’ searched his pocket and took out a coin. On the front was an image of a pair of wings, and on the back, an apple. These coins are used in all transactions in Heaven, similar to the “currency” used in the human world. But unlike humans, it is a tool used them not only to determine the worth of physical things, but to measure the worth of things from all angles.

“Okay, here I go~! Which side?”

“Heads!”

“Then I’ll go with tails. What about you, Kaito?”

“………”

“Guess that means you’re neutral? We’re just going to decide between the three of us then, alright? Go!”

Throwing the coin up high, it spun around in the air while reflecting the light from the stain glass windows, and then returned back down to his hand as if drawn to it.

“There.”

It was tails. This was the answer that “God” had given them. This coin toss, which was naturally assumed to embody the will of God, which held superiority over the power of angels, was often used when there was a split in opinions. Of course, it’s used only in the event that a decision can’t be reached even after considerable effort and speculation.

“Now then, let’s call for help straight away.”

As my partner smiled and put the coin back in his pocket, he continued speaking casually as if he had expected this result from the very beginning. It was said that those angels who are loved by God are made allies of the natural course of things, to a frightening extent. If my memory serves correctly, I had never once seen him lose in a coin toss.

“Fine. Since it’s the will of God, I suppose we have no choice.”

“Speaking of which, how exactly are we supposed to call for help? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with the specifics.”

It was perfectly reasonable for Gaku not to know. Once one became an archangel, we experienced fighting in the front lines during the war, but becoming lost in the human world like this was nearly unheard of. Rather, most of our experiences were receiving reports of pleas for rescue and responding to them, and therefore, until now, none of us had ever imagined that we would be the ones who needed rescuing.

“Ahhh~ Now that you mention it, how are we supposed to to do it again? ….I wonder if it’s written in Michael’s Handbook… Umm, let’s see here~ ….. ‘New Laws of Heaven, Article 23, Section 11: In the event that an angel is in distress in the human world, they are to request help from their brethren by offering up a holy song to Heaven. For those that hear this rescue request, they are to have someone of upper rank or higher accompany them and go to their rescue as quickly as possible.’ ….Is what it says. So basically, all we have to do is sing a song?”

“A song….? I’ve never had to actually sing a song before.”

“Neither have I…. When did they begin using this kind of system, I wonder? I don’t remember having this in our younger days.”

“A song, hm? Are you to say that a song is enough to save Heaven? Foolishness.”

“….No, I think it’s us that are going to be saved.”

Never once in my long lifespan have I ever learned how to sing. To begin with, the soldiers enlisted to Michael’s army have no use for songs. It was my first time hearing of song being used as a distress signal; surely, it was some kind of new trial run that had been recently implemented. Naturally, having already been serving as officers for so long, we had not been educated on such things.

“Looks like we’re in a bind. Truth is, I don’t know all that much about singing either…. For now, how about we just start singing something? Anything should work. It’ll be enough if our voices can reach Heaven, after all.”

“You have a point.”

Coming to an agreement, we each began to sing on our own. We were all inexperienced in singing, but that was of no importance. All we had to do was desperately try and convey this miserable situation with our voices. With bodies that were too powerless to even fly in the human world, casting away our pride as archangels, all we had to do was sing. What mattered was that we express our exhaustion, and the various sentimental emotions that had gathered in our chests.

We each sang freely for nearly three hours, but there was absolutely no reaction from the sky. What was the meaning of this….? The distance from Heaven to this earth was such that it could easily be covered within an hour. Was it because our voices hadn’t been loud enough because of our voices being unaccustomed to singing?

Next, we each tried singing even more intensely. We sang as if thrusting out the entirety of our feelings of exhaustion and fatigue from the depths of our bodies. However, no matter how much time passed, help did not arrive.

After waiting a while longer, we discussed what our songs were lacking, and this time, we tried to sing in sync by uniting our hearts as one, since it was possible that our four scattered voices were cancelling each other’s out. Although the plan was to sing “in sync,” because of our lack of technique and knowledge of singing, we ignored the complicated things such as pitch and rhythm. We focused simply on how to express the emotions that we currently felt in our hearts—anger, displeasure, exhaustion, humiliation, irritation, annoyance—as best as we could. Since it was a hymn, the lyrics were supposed to be a plea for help and a prayer to God, but because it didn’t match our emotions, this proved to be another difficulty. However, it was probably not a bad thing that our humiliation would further amplify the expression of emotions in our song. Once we started singing, I do believe it came out being expressed in a rather fine manner. As we became accustomed to it, at intervals we began snapping our fingers, whistling, and stomping our feet. Surprisingly, singing was quite fun—although none of us said it out loud, we were likely all thinking the same thing. And so, we became absorbed in the song and continued to sing. Day and night, we continued to sing, performing various variations and arrangements. Three days passed like this in the blink of an eye, and then a week, by which time we had fully recovered our strength, and without needing to depend on anyone else, we returned to Heaven. Although it was strange that help never arrived, we decided that it was all the better that we had been able to maintain our pride by returning on our own.

When the four of us returned to heaven, our subordinates were waiting for us at the gate, but they seemed worried as they greeted us. All of them had on expressions of fear and seemed terribly worried about us.

We immediately asked for a status report of the war situation and were told that, without a way of countering against the most frightening of assaults that the demons had launched since the creation of Heaven, many had been patiently enduring on the battlefield. It was then that the Great Archangel had determined the possibility that the Devil himself had joined the battle, and issued an emergency alert to all of Heaven. Once receiving this order, Michael’s angels fought bravely at the grueling battlefields and overwhelmed the demon forces in all regions. We had expected that our absence would cause morale to drop, but it was incredible that there had instead been a breakthrough. We briefly praised our subordinates who had gone to the battlefields and breathed sighs of relief.

And when we asked what kind of frightening assaults they had been up against in our absence, all of them spoke of the exact same thing.

“For this past week, a most frightening singing voice, as if creeping up from the below the earth, was heard coming from the human world, non stop. It must have been the marching song of the demon soldiers, although some believe it was some new form of attack on the spirit…. In the most terrifying voices that we have ever heard, they were begging for praise and help from God. As we were certain that it was those spiteful demons, they were most likely attempting to catch us off guard and to lure us out by feigning surrender! The pitch, rhythm, and everything about the song was truly chaotic and wretched-sounding; it was full of malice, clearly for the purpose of destroying us from the inside by targeting the minds of pure and righteous angels. Ahh, truly, it was a horrible singing voice, as if it embodied all the negative emotions to be found in the world. Most fittingly, we have dubbed it the Hymn of Hell.”