Chapter Text
As soon as Kieran woke up, his phone began buzzing.
It was a call from Mayu.
Kieran answered the phone, but not before he finished brushing his teeth and preparing himself for the day.
“Hiya Kiki!” - said Mayu on the other side. “What ye doin’ after that wondrous album release?”
“Umm… Hatsuna the shrine maiden of the Yaezaki Tenmanguu invited me over for something… I am not sure about what that is, since she’s extremely secretive when it comes to stuff like that…”
“Nice! But I must tell you that I might come there today, as today I don’t have choir practices.”
Upon hearing these words, Kieran blushed. Mayu coming over for the second time since her wish made her overcome her frail body, with the purpose of meeting him ever since they met in Penny’s hotel room? It was indeed such a blessed occasion for him that he made a shrilling noise in his throat, but that noise was soon interrupted when something unexpected happened: He suddenly jumped off the ground, with his head hitting the ceiling.
“AUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHh!!!” - Kieran screamed in agony.
“It’s Kieran…” Charlotte said. “There must be something wrong with him! Quick, come upstairs, mates! And you too, Carmine!”
All of Faxicüra, along with Carmine, began rushing to Kieran’s bedroom, where they found him lying flat on the floor, with his head buried in his hands, whimpering.
“What happened, Kiki?” - asked Carmine.
While Carmine was consoling Kieran, Spica noticed something unusual on Kieran’s body: Two small, semi-transparent wings, jutting from his back.
“Pogo,” Spica said. “Look!”
“What does this even mean? Don’t you say that Kieran ISN’T 100% human like what you always have claimed!” - Pogo yelled while inspecting the seemingly out-of-place feature on Kieran’s back.
“You have correctly guessed what I was about to say. Kieran is not completely human, as he is a Metempsychosis of Kototama. Throughout history, accounts of previous Metempsychoses have shown that they usually possess these wings as a symbol of their status. Normally someone like him would become less human in behaviour over time, but thankfully there is something in his heart that allows him to retain his emotions…”
“Bless my soul…! How can this be? I cannot imagine this lad becoming something like that!” - Pogo muttered under his breath.
“Are you gonna tell me that Kiki is some sort of Nephilim?” - Carmine asked, having overheard the conversation between the twins. “Nephilim or not, he is definitely puny, and with those ridiculous wings, he’s gonna screw things up even further and people’s gonna make a show out of him.”
“Don’t bad-mouth my Lord!” - Spica yelled. “I am sure that he will be fine while we are at Yaezaki Town, doing our business!”
“Uh-huh? You think he will be OK chillin’ with Hatsuna? Fine, but I will tag along with you guys to check if he screws up.” - Carmine smirked. “If he causes considerable snafu, then you are gonna have a bad time with another invite to OUR studio.”
And so Faxicüra had no choice but to bring Carmine along with them. Halfway to the destination, Tobiko, who had just been appointed as Faxicüra’s full-time roadie, glanced at Kieran and then whispered to Carmine:
“Dag, I am sure that lad got a lot of juice to do a Rosary every single day. In this bustling life, not that many people can pull that thing off… I have a feeling that he would….” - she said, before suddenly abrupting her sentence with a gasp.
“Huh? What’s going on, girl?”
On Tobiko’s face was a look of astonishment, as she was fixating towards Kieran at that moment, capturing into her eyes the scene of him flying some two or three feet off the seat with his head touching the ceiling once more and a blissful look on his face, still clutching the Rosary in his hand.
Everyone in the tour bus began looking at that peculiar sight in awe, to the point they began to be blissed out soon thereafter, chanting something in gibberish in unison.
This caused so much commotion that Seamus - Charlotte and Nina’s father who also takes on the role of the driver for Faxicüra’s tour bus - lost his concentration and began swerving uncontrollably, nearly crashing the whole vehicle onto a graffitied wall. Thankfully, Kieran’s ecstasy ended just before Seamus’ panic could kill all of them - plus the fact that all the passengers present fastened on their seatbelts for the entire duration of the trip up to that point.
Arriving at Yaezaki Town, the first thing the whole gang did is to stop by one of the snack stalls near the shrine and buy some of their elusive mochi - with an image of a plum flower stamped at the front. Handing one of these mochi to Kieran, the gang then headed straight to the Yaezaki Tenmanguu, where Hatsuna was standing there ready to greet the whole band for a visit.
“Welcome back!” - Hatsuna said. “I’ve heard that you’ve just released a new album to critical acclaim, right?”
“Indeed.” - said Pogo. “In fact, the album wasn’t Kieran’s idea, but a friend of his who we met a while ago during the Feast of Trifolium…”
“Mhm. I see… Now, do you know why I wanted you to come here?”
Everyone just froze.
“Still, you don’t know what my agenda is? Come with me and I will show you!”
Hatsuna then led the whole gang into her bedroom, where they were greeted by the sight of a boy they hadn’t met before - even if he bears some resemblance to Kieran himself.
“Some time ago, this boy along with his family arrived in Kitakami from a faraway land, somewhere near Galar or even within Galar itself I presume… He said that he arrived here because of instigation from an entity he claimed to be his guardian angel, for reasons known only either to him or to whatever he calls his “guardian angel”. Even when he is a frequent patron of the shrine regardless of our different faiths, he is still tight-lipped about what exactly the angel told him, leading him to have his whole family move to Kitakami.”
“What do you want us to do with this chap?” - asked Charlotte.
“Dunno. I’ve tried to make him cough up the secret of his whole action of making his family leave Galar or wherever he came from to no avail, and I’m afraid you will fail if you try to do the exact same thing as I did. So maybe invite him over for a coffee, I guess?”
Near the Yaezaki Tenmanguu there is a small café going by the name “Angelic Shot” which sports the appearance of a mediaeval tavern. It was also this café where Hatsuna dropped Faxicüra along with the mysterious boy for a drink.
“The name’s Niall MacAllister.” - said the boy. “From the Crown Tundra, son of the august Alastair Balfour and his Eirian wife Aife 1 .”
“Balfour? Do you mean… That noble clan who historically ruled a domain located in the eastern part of the Tundra?” - asked Charlotte.
“Yes… But how do you know?”
“Penny told us that the other day, mate. It is possible that her family lives within the Balfours’ historical domain.”
“I have something to say, boy.” - said Carmine.
“Huh?”
“I heard that you always do anything that your guardian angel wants you to do, right? I told you, boy, living entirely on spiritual guidance is totally worthless nowadays, as there are things that spiritual instigations solve not but science. Be rational, boy, I beg you.”
“That’s all lies! Slander!” - cried Niall, before he and Carmine engaged in intense bickering shortly thereafter.
Just then, a huge wing came out of nowhere and swept through Carmine, attempting to knock her over as if whatever being possessing this wing wanted to protect Niall - if not his “guardian angel”. Eventually, it succeeded, with Carmine’s death grip on Niall being pried out by the wing.
“What the-”
She looked around, and it took her not long to realise that Kieran WAS the person who tried to end her quarrel with Niall with that wing - which she definitely knew was his due to its features.
“I knew it! You are the one who tried to hamper me convincing Niall that his mindset was completely irrational!” - she yelled. “There, you see, Niall, if something of angelic or divine nature hurts me when I am convincing you to abandon your “magical thinking”, then it is proof that they shouldn’t be trusted in the modern world!”
“I-I… I shall pray for your conversion…” - Niall muttered.
“Still not giving up all that mumbo-jumbo?” - growled Carmine. “Right, I will show you!”
Then she proceeded to attempt beating up Niall with a leather belt she pinched from somewhere only known to her, while he was half-cowering, half-in prayer.
“Jesus of Mercy…! We must call forth the help of someone… before Niall ended up as dead meat!!” - cried Spica.
“Let me call Hatsu-”, Charlotte said, but only for her speech and actions being interrupted by the sight of a huge dark-coloured stalagmite jutting up from the ground.
“A Cattivere is roaming here…” - said Pogo. “Now, go on lads! We need to bring down this beast altogether!”
“But what about Carmine and Niall? Either of them would-”
“You can stay behind to keep an eye on them. Now, GO!”
Racing to the Yaezaki Tenmanguu, the gang found Hatsuna being held captive by another Cattivere, with a body seemingly made out of earth and rocks. They also noticed that Majesty was also at the scene sooner than them, trying to fend off the monster from the shrine’s grounds, but from the look of the situation as of that moment, they knew that she had failed trying to protect Hatsuna.
“The Cattivere of Stubbornity. Its form is terrain.” - Majesty said. “Once it sets a goal, there’s virtually no way to make it give up its goal - for it insists that the goal is like its own life.”
“Could it be… RIKA… BUT TURNED INTO A CATTIVERE!?” - stammered Charlotte.
“Very likely, but we don’t know for certain.” - replied Majesty.
Generating a number of shurikens from the words on his notes, Pogo then flung these at the Cattivere in an attempt to stun it. Letting out a bloodcurdling shriek, it loosened its grip on Hatsuna, but inadvertently caused her to fall from a height that would kill her for certain.
Looking at the scene in horror, Kieran’s bandmates began fearing for Hatsuna as they rushed to where she would land in order to catch her.
But for Kieran himself, at that moment he felt a feeling of compassion taking over his heart. It was not a feeling that arose from him, but seemed to be bestowed unto him by God. “I need to save her…” - he muttered.
As Kieran was running towards where Hatsuna would make her fatal landing, he suddenly got a vision of a being that is neither demonic nor a Cattivere, and of Hatsuna rescuing a girl with dark hair and a spiked headband from its grasp. “What did this vision mean exactly? And how can it relate to saving this young lady?” - Kieran thought while rushing to save Hatsuna.
Reaching his arms out and spreading his wings wide, flying at an incredible speed, he finally caught Hatsuna just before she was to die from her fall. Tears then welled up inside her eyes, as she gazed up to her saviour:
“Thank you…” - murmured Hatsuna. “I know you might not have heard of this before, but that night after you visited my shrine for the first time, Lady Magakimi appeared to me and said that our fates are tied together by fate… She also told me that you will accomplish great things that will benefit numerous sentient beings, and in order to spread the word about your works, I wanted to form a band in your name, as recently I began picking up playing drums from the drummer of your mentor’s band…”
“Wait…” - said Kieran in a confused tone. “How can you know Mme. Zeus so well? I heard the relationship between Verrine and hers is not that good these days, and it is incredibly hard for her to talk to that lassie, let alone people who want to keep in touch with her using Verrine as a proxy.”
“Didn’t you know that she has a channel where she frequently uploads videos of her drumming? I learnt how to play the drums from there.”
“Oh…” - replied Kieran. “But… LET’S GET THIS GOING!”
Putting Hatsuna down to the ground, Kieran then chanted his all-familiar incantation to finish off the Cattivere. Moments later, it turned out that Charlotte’s concerns regarding its true identity were right - Behind the Cattivere was Rika.
Unusually for a former Cattivere victim, she was brimming with vigour. “What are you guys doing here?” - she asked.
“We’ve just saved you, Rika.” - Pogo said. “Why did you give in to your temptations to the point you became targeted by the “Evils”?”
“... Maybe I need to do the Examen on a frequent basis once again, like what your man Kieran often does…” - replied Rika reluctantly.
Just then, Mayu arrived at the scene, and was confused by what was going on then.
“Who are these people, Kieran? And what are they doing here?”
“It’s a long story…” - replied Kieran.
A few moments later, the whole gang finally went back to the café where they left Spica in charge of the quarrelsome Carmine, and they were relieved to not see a single scratch on Niall’s body, as well as Carmine’s calm demeanour.
“It is probably my guardian angel’s effort that she calmed down.” - Niall said. “Just before she could lash me with that belt, something prevented her from doing so - which I immediately recognised as my guardian angel, even though she couldn’t see it. Indeed She’s fast to answer my prayers - and always have been.”
While Kieran and Niall were exchanging with each other, Hatsuna came up to Carmine, telling her about how Kieran used his angelic abilities to save her from that fatal fall.
“Kieran,” Carmine said. “I was wrong. You were not totally useless like what I thought earlier. When you are helping others, you are definitely helpful - because of the HEART you possess.”
Taking a glance at his sister, Kieran then smiled.
It was one of those few moments where Carmine has been kind to him instead of her bossy treatment of him.