Before you start, I want to apologize for the delay. I've had serious writers block, and haven't wanted to try writing when I have no idea what I'm doing. Now that it's over (thankfully) I can get back on track. To try and make up for it I'm giving you double the reading experience. My normal chapters go for about 1000-1200 words, where as this one has a whopping 2054 words! Thank you so much for sticking with me, and this story! Without further ado, let's get on with it!

We finish training, and Rin and I both come out of the cage panting. "Nice job Amare!" Rin says with a huge smile, first bumping me.
"You too!"
Rin and I sit on the bench, taking swigs of our water. Sura comes from the side, her face beaming. "Mar, you won!"
"Ughhhh, come on. That's definitely not fair!" Rin whines.
"And why not?"
"Just 'cause." He crosses him arms grumpily, and sticks out his lower lip jokingly, scrunching his eyebrows. Shura laughs and pushes him to the end of the bench, while seating herself beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

She suddenly stands, and before I can do anything, she scoops me into her arms, planting a kiss on my nose. Rin laughs and begins chanting "Amare and Shura sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n.g!" I hit him on the head before he can continue, and he erupts into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"I'm probably being carried home, but you want to follow and play a board game or something along those lines?"
"Why not?" Rin replies, "I've got nothing better to do." Shura rolls her eyes. "Why don't we go to my place, I have some games."
"I'm fine with that." I nod. I don't have many good games in my small dorm room anyway.

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We make it to Shura's house, and I must say, it is adorable. It's decent sized, and the walls are painted a dark red. The grass was poorly cared for, but it doesn't matter, because dozens of flowering weeds took its place, making the whole yard look like a odd flower garden. She leads Rin inside, myself still perched in her arms.

She sets me down on the couch, and swipes her arm across the table in front of us, causing multiple cans and wrappers to fall to the floor. "Alrighty! What do you guys want to play?"
"Well whatcha got Shura?" Rin responds nonchalantly.
She shrugs and points to a bookshelf filled with game consoles, video games, and board games. "Look for yourself."
As Rin searches for a game, Shura sets herself next to me, and cracks open a can of what I can only assume is alcoholic.

Finally deciding on "Sorry", Rin sits on a foot stool opposite the table from us. "I'm green, an anyone who tries to oppose that decision is leaving this house with one less finger." I announce, snatching up the pieces. However, while Rin shrinks back a bit, Shura does nothing but burst into a fit of laughter.
"Whatever you say Hot-shot." She grins, taking the red pieces in her hand.
"Alright then! I get blue!" Rin cheers, and collects his four pieces setting them on the board.

After a dozen arguments, 2 near fist fights, and three cans of beer on Shura's end, we are suddenly interrupted by a loud boom, sounding almost like thunder, but far too close. I bolt up curiously, and Shura and Rin follow my lead. I open the front door, and I'm immediately blinded by a bright light. Covering her eyes, Shura pushes past me. "What the hell is going on?!" She yells.

Almost immediately, the light fades to a dim glow, surrounding a truly beautiful man. Strike that, a truly beautiful angel. White wings extended on either side of him, and silky light blonde hair falls to his shoulders. His horns are blue and golden, and his white garments have patterns to match. He steps forward, and looks at the three of us carefully. "Terribly sorry to interrupt, I was wondering if you could perhaps lead me to True Cross Academy?" He says, with a slight purr in his voice.
"And what business have you there?"
"I suppose it would do no harm to tell you, in fact, perhaps you could assist me."
"With what exactly?"
"I am looking for an Amare Ukato."
I stand still, eyes flooding with panic, and Rin immediately steps between me and him, taking a slight defensive position. What could they want with me, they threw my mother out, what did they care about me. Noticing our action his face lightens and he grows a sickening grin on his face.
"Oh! Would you look at that, looks like I won't have to go far, lucky me."  He says happily, and takes a few steps forward. Suddenly, Shura draws her blade from her torso, pointing it and the man before us"what do you want with her?" She asks cautiously. "Just to talk," he says shrugging before pulling a white blade out of seemingly nowhere, "but I am willing to fight for her."

Wasting no time, Shura closes the distance between them, their swords classing before they jump back. Rin draws his sword as well, his flames dancing around him. "What friends you've made Miss Amare," the angel laughs , "a woman with a demon blade, and the spawn of satan himself! You planning your tea party with the 7 kings of Gehenna yet?"

Shura attacks viciously, while he blocks with little to no effort. He mutters something under his breath, and a blast of light hits her, tossing her to the ground like a rag doll. "Did you really think a holy creature such as myself  would be so easily defeated?" He mocks. I run over to Shura, ignoring Rin's obvious disapproval, hoping to help her.

She pulls herself up, but she's heavily wounded, and blood paints her skin. I turn around sharply with a growl, facing the angel. "Rin, put your sword away."
"Amare!"
"Rin just do it, please. This is my fight." He nods slowly, and sheaths his weapon , the flames vanishing.  I turn around to face Shura, and mouth an "I'm sorry" before pulling off my hood and exposing my horns. I don't bother to look back again, I don't want to see the expression she holds right now, because I'm sure it's not good.

The angel bends over laughing hysterically, "oh just wait until they see this! Head of the Royal Army? I can't believe it!" His awful laughter ceases as quickly as it began, and he quickly regains his composure. "No matter what rank you could've had, I'd think twice before trying to face me love. Remember, I've been alive nearly a century, years upon years of training, and even if your mother left you some spells and such when she died, there's so much more she couldn't tell you. You aren't as experienced, and that can get you killed out in this big scary world we live in dear." I ignore him, and draw my knife from my belt. My black wings fan behind and I cringe thinking about what Shura might be feeling, how she must feel, knowing I've kept something so important from her, I can only hope she'll understand why. "Ugh, such a shame, never having pure unstained wings. Being forced to bear the sign of your mother's treacherous behavior."

I rush at him head on, before swiftly flying up, catching him off guard. I swing a kick at his head, but he turns quickly and catches my ankle in one hand. My wings flap vigorously, trying to keep my body in the air, and pull myself out of his grip, but with one last sharp tug he brings my head crashing into the earth. Stars cloud my vision for a second, and the blood begins rushing to my skull. " umbra vitae!" I cry, and a shadow dog springs forward and grabs him by the ankle, violently shaking his head until I hear the angel let out a cry of pain, and I'm dropped to the ground.

I spring into the air before he can respond, and whisper "patet murum" my body going invisible. When he looks back up he gives a slight chuckle, "what a cheap trick." He flys up to almost level with me, and looks at me almost directly meeting my eyes, and although I know he can't see me due to the vague  look in his eyes, it freaks me out nonetheless. "I truly didn't want to have to use magic on you, but if you'll just keep this little game of chase up, I have no choice."

Sighing his swipes his hand horizontally then diagonally upward while saying something I can't make out.  Suddenly my body becomes wrapped in chains, and with the extra weight, not to mention the constraint Of one of my wings, I drop to the ground. I feel bones snap and one wing be crushed in the chains. I lose my concentration, and I Quickly fade back into view. I try everything to get free, but every time I more I just hurt myself more. The only things I can move freely are one wing, my tail, and my legs below the knee.

I close my eyes tightly as I hear the angel land softly on the grass. Each step he takes seems to take forever, as I hear him walk closer to me. My hair, clothes, and feathers are wet with my blood, but I couldn't get more than one injury on the bastard. He finally reaches me, but there really isn't much I can do, even if I summoned something to harm him in some way, I couldn't get out of these chains. He laughs, obviously sensing  my surrender, and slings me over his shoulder allowing my unwrapped wing to hang loosely over his arm. His shirt is already wet from what I can tell, so I'm probably still bleeding, but he doesn't seem to mind.

I hear what sounds like Rin run over to him and let out a cry of fury, he must have realized that I admitted defeat. "You bastard!" He screams, his sword clashing with the angel's. That's Rin for you, attacking headfirst with out a plan, but then again I had one, and look how it turned out. The angel was right; in the end, I was self taught and inexperienced, I just couldn't compare to his vast training. Just because I have great potential to beat him, I'm no where near strong enough yet.

We've been here for what feels like hours, but in reality, has probably been half an hour max. I've tried telling him to stop, but Rin just keeps attacking over and over, completely randomly. Meanwhile, the angel fends off every move easily , with me still over his shoulder. There's nothing we can do, he's stronger, and has years of experience. That doesn't keep Rin from trying though.

Shura is out cold on the grass, although I'm not exactly sure when she ended up like that. "Rin please take car of Shura, bring her to Yukio or something. I'll find a way out of this, I promise."
Rin's attacks become slower, before he completely fell to the ground on his knees, "you better come back Amare." He whispers softly. Tears threaten to fall down his face, and I can hardly stand to see him looking lie that. I nod and give a weak smile. Next thing I know the angel takes off into the sky to heaven I presume. He readjusts me in his arms, holding me bridal style so he could make sure not to drop me, for that at least I'm thankful. I feel tears run down my cheeks, and as we get higher the freeze to my face. It suddenly gets extremely bright as we teleport or something I guess. All I can really think about is Shura, I wish I could be down there to explain it to her, and I wish she hadn't found out In this way. My biggest hope is that if and when I get home, she'll give me a chance to explain before turning me into the Vatican.