3 [3] God's Right Hand

Chapter 3: God's Right Hand

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"Such misfortune." The sound of a boy groaning resounded as he continued talking. "How are all the ramen out of stock the moment I enter the store? God must be playing tricks on me again..." A spiky-haired youth could be seen grumbling as he held a plastic bag on his right hand. "Well, at least I got something good to eat unlike last time."

Kamijou Touma began to shiver scarcely as he reminisced about the time when he nearly starved to death. Somehow, every time the youth entered a store, all the cheap sandwiches, ramen, sushi, and such were all sold out. Unfortunately for him, the only ones left that were in stock were ranging way above his current budget, forcing him to buy bananas, pickles, and avocados to eat, just so he doesn't suddenly pass out due to lack of foodm

Shaking his head slightly at the thought of that time, the boy continued to walk while whistling his way home. His headphones playing at a moderate volume as he put his hand into his pockets. Occasionally, he turned his head to look at people walk by: couples treading side by side, friends laughing happily, kids playing with endless energy and parents looking at their children fondly.

Reaching the last point, Touma let out a soft, but despondent smile. 'I wonder how Mom and Dad are doing...'

Kamijou remembered very clearly when his parents had sent him away to Kuoh, it was hard to forget since it was the first time he argued with his parents strongly.

Well, at first the ravenheaded youth was joyful beyond compare when he realised they were moving out that cursed town, but his joy was quickly short-lived when he found out that he was the only one going.

Touma recalled when he bickered with his parents for a couple days because of that decision, asking them to cancel it if they weren't coming. However, his parents just shook their heads sadly and told him he had to go, and Touma knew the reason very well.

All he recollected from that day was seeing his parents send him off with smile. A mixture between sorrow and joy, proudness and longing as they waved goodbye. Unfortunately, neither of his parents were able to attend with him due to the difficulty of getting jobs any better than the ones they have there.

Due to that, they decided to send Touma out and let him enjoy life with a fresh start, while staying behind while providing him with enough money to sustain rent for him and themselves. Or else they would've gone with him. However, unknown to them, their actions had caused Touma to get into a part-time job to get money to feed himself, while saving up some to repay his parents for all they had done.

It has only been a couple months - one or two at most - but he still misses them very dearly, especially since they both barely had time to communicate with him anymore. The last time they even had a clear call was 3 weeks ago. A shame since he wanted to surprise both of them with a small gift the next time they met in person.

Touma suddenly broke away from his innecessant daydream, and entered the park that he needed to cross to arrive at his place. He didn't want to think about sad things that will only make him pessimistic, thus the boy looked at the sky. Which somehow, always made the youth calm down when he was stressed.

The sun had already started to finish setting from its mighty throne, causing the shrivels of shadows to largen and inch closer to Kamijou whilst the boy looked around to notice fewer and fewer people around.

'Why is everything so quiet today? Its only [17:33].' The boy brought up his phone from his right pocket and looked around a bit more cautiously as he felt a familiar shiver crawl around his body. That uncomfortable feeling descending on him once again.

"...What is going on?" Touma finally broke the eerie silence that had descended on the place as he shifted his head around. He knew something was wrong, and that fact alone made his skin tremble as if ants clawed on it.

How he knew that, he didn't know - but all his brain screamed him to do was to run and get away from the place as far away as possible. The boy agreed with his brain and prepared himself to run.

However, just as Kamijou was about to sprint away from the ominous; dreadful atmosphere, he glimpsed a shadow of Issei and an unfamiliar girl, smiling at him with jubilation. The boy looked at both of them in surprise, before observing that they were the only two people left - apart from him.

"Issei?" Touma felt the suffocating pressure disappear the moment he found a familiar presence. Instead of calming down the youth, it only made him more agitated, especially since he knew something odd was going on. "Then that girl should be the one Issei bragged about all day. What was it again, Amano Yūma?"

The boy cast away his thoughts and whispered to himself in hopes of calming himself down. Crouching himself behind the bushes, Touma peeked his head out and watched the silky-haired woman ask Issei a question that made his eyes widen with obvious shock. He couldn't make out what they are saying since he was quite far away, which he was quite glad for as he felt that he shouldn't go anywhere near that woman.

Touma knew it wasn't his place to watch the oddball go on a date, but he knew something important will be revealed on this day. This night.

It was like a thirstless need to feed that unsatiable curiosity with answers. Answers he needed to get, as to why he was feeling such way.

'What...-'

Exactly in that moment, his instincts went haywire. They were suddenlt filled with panic, pointing at the woman almost as if saying 'she spells bad news'. He didn't know why, but as he started having thoughts of wanting to move and get away from there, as pleaded by his system, his movements stopped and his arms flailed.

'Fuck...'

He knew it was too late.

The spiky-haired boy collapsed, feeling his knees buckle with anxiety. Sweat starting to pour and form on his back, hands, forehead as his body frigidly froze. His breath stuck at his throat, finding it hard to breathe with the suffocating pressure.

Swoosh!

Kamijou could feel it. A primal sense of fear, settling and stirring deep inside his body, warning him of the danger that is approaching. A danger that couldn't be considered normal, but something...unnatural.

'There it is again...unnatural.' While he was thinking about the amount of time 'supernatural' had propped up today, the boy stiffened.

It was then Touma witnessed something that shouldn't dare to exist.

Feathers, so dark they make the blackest of nights look like bright sunshine. Wings that lead those to view its immense murkiness, towards destruction. Those exact wings emitted an aura of such arctic fear, that the chill blurred the line between cold and warmth.

...and such wings sprouted from the back of the woman called Amano Yūma.

Touma could do nothing but watch as he saw the girl's face morph instantly from emotional to apathetic; rose cheeks filled with life to a cold, merciless smirk.

His body was rooted still on the ground, while he saw Issei paralysed in a stupor. Kamijou felt nothing more than wanting to escape from this horrid place that seemed to be picked out from the darkest of humanities imagination. ' I knew I should've left, there's a reason why they say curiosity kills the cat.' The youth thought while using his hand to stabilise himself.

Unconsciously, Touma's thoughts had suddenly recollected what Souna Shitori had said earlier today, as if screaming at the Kamijou to realise the link.

'Kamijou-san, what are your thoughts on devils?' The short-haired woman's voice reiterated inside of his head, an amused smile plastered on her face as she looked at him with playful eyes.

"No...way..." Touma's face went dead pale with the realisation, slurring the end of his words as he realised the hidden implications behind that seemingly innocent remark. 'Does that mean she's in cahoots with...whatever that is? A devil, no - a fallen angel?'

The boy remembered a friend of his once telling him the description of a fallen angel while playing a game, and that woman perfectly fit the bill. 'A being...that is non-fiction becomes fiction...'

Kamijou's head raced to deduce with whatever little clues he had, but that was ruptured when he abrultly felt the world slow down in front of his widened eyes.

A spear of light, similar to a long kitchen knife. Laughter, mixed with countless others. Disgust combined with myriads of people. Curses. Shouts. Whispers. All these negative emotions were directed at a shivering youth, who had no idea what was going on and why it was happening to him. Touma clutched his head as memories from the past flooded his brain.

Issei's image suddenly overlapped with a small biy with black hair. A large wound streaked across his modest shoulder. A small smile plastered on his emotionless face, a pair of lifeless eyes; a smile of acceptance, as the perpetrator pointed and shouted nonsense. 'He is the reason for all my misfortune!' the man had screamed.

"No..."

Touma didn't know how and when it happened, but the next thing he knew was his body racing towards the spear, a spot on the back of his shoulder burning with endless pain. Similar to a searing hot pan etched onto your skin.

However, Kamijou disregarded all that. The youth's right hand shot and stretched forwards, trying its best to grasp and hold it to prevent the incoming disaster that would scar the boy and leave a reminder for eternity. As the spear inched closer and closer to Issei in the stagnant world, Kamijou stretched his fingers with all his might. Hoping to do something right in his misfortunate life. 'One more step-'

...What happened next was something that couldn't be explained with mere words.

Lightly, the tip of Touma's fingers gently graced the spear's edge. A touch so soft, that it wouldn't even budge a single pencil on the table - but nevertheless, in this situation such single touch was enough. Enough for the immeasurable spear to disintegrate alongside, the reverbrating echo of shattered glass.

The arrogant, demeaning tug at the edge of the fallen angel's lips immediately curved downwards as she gazed at the appearing black haired boy incredulously. Womdering how he suddenly appeared when she had clearly cast a barrier to prevent people from entering.

"...What?" The woman - who was dressed in clothes that barely did anything to cover things - started to growl in immense anger. Several spears of light started to form behind her as she looked down at the two boys below her, before focusing on the boy who stared dead into her eyes. Her anger spiked. "How dare a puny human look at me with such eyes? I don't know why my spear vanished at the last moment, but know it won't happen a second time."

As if reacting to their creator's words, the spears of light that were gently hovering around the woman sped towards the boys. Filled with the intention to kill. Disembody. Devour.

Immediately upon the release of the spears, the black-haired girl suddenly felt a majority of the power inside of her drain. The confident smile tugged at her lips faltered, as she slowly began to descend due to the influx of weakness "Dammit."

Even though Raynare had the capability and talent to form more spears of light than the average fallen, it doesn't mean that she can infinitely cast them. After all, she was limited by her wings; reserves and in the end, she was still a two-winged fallen angel. The woman grumbled at the reminder and continued mumbling.

While Raynare was cursing her limited capacity, Touma was busy thinking how he can evade four spears of light at the same time while not dying.

'This isn't some superhero comic, I should've just stayed back.' The boy thought to himself with berating ideas.

Panic drawn all over his face, the boy instinctively, hurriedly raised his hands to block the spear from penetrating his head, while internally cursing his idiocy of entering this shit-hole. 'Why did I rush to protect him, just because I saw myself in him? Touma you bloody idiot!' Although he had a feeling he would have done the same if he was given a second chance.

Just when the youth thought the first spear was going to split him and make his brain go splat, it vanished. Disintegrated - just like the first time when his fingers touched the elongated light. 'Huh?'

Kamijou stared at the place where the spear once was, while the cogwheels inside of his head started to spin. "...Wait." Touma began to quickly raise his dominant hand and grabbed at the incoming spear with mixed feelings, fear being the most prevalent one. 'At worst ill just lose my arm, haha...'

As if responding to his feelings and worries, the spear disintegrated with the touch - confirming the boy's assumptions. The only question remianing currently was if the rest of his body has the power to make the spears vanish, or if it was just his dominant hand.

While the boy was thinking, Issei, that had already collapsed to the floor while taking heavy breaths, looked at Touma in beffudlement. "He just used his right hand to...make the spears disappear..?"

The boy slowly muttered before turning to look at his own right hand, beginning to think if he had something like that too even though they both are walking between the lines life and death. 'Tch, there's only one thing my right hand is good at...' Issei grumbled while clutching his head, trying his best to shift his attention away from the pain.

His whole day was a mess. Firstly, he gets asked on a date. After getting on a date with a cute girl, then nearly getting killed by her, and then his classmate appearing with some strange-ass power to kill those spears, made the boy nearly have a panic attack due to the sheer incredulity. "Oh man, I think I'm gonna faint."

While one boy was on the verge of crying, the other was currently swinging and swiping his hand to make the remaining two spears disperse. 'Seems like its only my right hand, I'll answer more questions if I survive.' Touma thought while gasping for breath.

Raynare, who had returned her attention to the boy, previously looked at Kamijou with unending anger. However, that anger had quickly morphed into understanding after a few seconds, her face projecting her thought process. "You...have a sacred gear don't you?"

The fallen angel looked at the boy with unexpected pity, laughter almost flowing out of her mouth as she formed another spear of light. "Although I have no idea what that sacred gear is, Azazel-sama might award me if I kill you too. After all, humans with sacred gears are all a nuisance to mighty fallens like us." Whilsy speaking she had started her actions.

The girl began to raise her hand, one finger pointed at him, and the spear dashed. Fearfully, but determined, Touma prepared himself for the intense light while thinking about her words about a 'sacred gear'. "I came here to find answers, and instead I got more questions..." the youth muttered absent-mindedly while thrusting an arm forward to grab the spear.

Well - he was until her felt the spear of light whizz past his body by changing directions. Moving away from him by going up before falling again.

'What?' Touma thought for a few seconds, frozen whilst the recognition started to settle in. The boy quickly moved around to see Issei stare at his eyes with shock and trepidation as Kamijou leaned forward to touch the spear. However, that shock evolved into determination as he immediately pushed Kamijou away, down to the floor.

"What are you-..." Touma immediately turned back with slight anger and perplexity as the unexplainable action of the brown-haired boy, but his words softened and lost all voice as he gazed at the boy smiling at him.

...Smiling at him, with a spear of light pierced straight through his chest.