Work Text:
Rather than being revered, angels were despised where Yoshiko traveled. Tsushima Yoshiko was an angel, even if her appearance didn’t agree; her hair was dark blue, unlike the clear white or silver that most people thought fitted angels, and her dress was black in color and inelegant in fashion; many laymen thought she wasn’t from the God they detested but rather from the Devil they held so dear.
Five hundred years prior to Yoshiko’s descent to Earth, God made a decree: the Earth would be rid of all sin and all that gave life to the issues plaguing the planet. Unfortunately, the angel in charge of overseeing the venture’s execution, Chika, was slightly braindead; instead of delicately altering the balance of life, whether it be via extermination or birth, she acted ruthlessly and quickly; she sent disaster after disaster, and the surviving human’s called it “God’s betrayal, represented in six calamaties.” God, unfortunately, was in deep slumber for the duration of his angel’s excursion into the territory of extreme sadism.
For her first disaster, she sent upon the humans an inferno that burned without end; for three days, it spread, scorching the Earth’s landmass, until she had enough. The humans prayed, their desire not weaker than the fire’s strength, for the fire risked destroying everything they had; it killed without bias, slaughtering plants, animals, and humans alike. The temperature of the fire was so great that it would give slight burns to any human who strayed within ten meters of it and guarantee death for any brave or stupid human who dared make contact with it, whether it be with his whole body or only his fingertip.
On the fourth day of the disaster, Chika ended the fire, and the humans cheered; their joy was short-lived, however. The following day, endless torrents washed the land, enveloping most of the leftovers of the fire in an endless sea that roared at sailors, swallowing any unfortunate human who strayed too far from the land, which had been reduced to a fraction of its original size. Many people considered suicide, thinking that it might be preferable to their hope of drowning in the unabating sea.
With her endless sadism slightly more fulfilled, Chika lowered the waters, planning her next assault on the remaining human populace, around a third of whom had already been exterminated. As her third act of indulgence, she used the smallest of life, bacteria, as her killing agent. Using a bacterium that only targeted humans, she created a disease so horrid that many shuddered at its name. Often, people who were infected were forced to kill each other in isolated rings. Upon infection, a person would suffer initial pains before ugly back pores appeared on all parts of their skin, which would burst after a few days, letting all kinds of bodily fluids flow, such as blood and phlegm. The patient would be in unbearable pain for a few days, comparable to Dante’s ninth circle of hell. Healthy people would walk around, whipping their backs, hoping for salvation.
Chika laughed at the puny human’s logical reasoning, removing the plague from the planet. For four nights, the humans feasted, having battled off what they called “smallpox.” Playing a joke on the humans, she sent her fourth disaster after the fourth day of human freedom from terror. She increased the size of the assailants, sending ferocious reptiles to feast on the humans. There were many different kinds of these reptiles that she called “dinosaurs.” Humans classified these dinosaurs, calling some of them “sauropods” and some others “allosaurs,” though that was not an exhaustive list. They ravaged, some of them gripping humans or their livestock with their gargantuan claws, their prey’s companions only watching and running in terror, lest they be next on the chopping block, and others preying on the fundamental autotrophs that were required for the heterotroph’s survival. The humans beseeched the higher powers for deliverance, and they delivered, though, in Chika’s classic fashion, she caused even more pain.
Her fifth and most horrible unjust punishment was showering, though anime didn’t exist at that time, so it was relatively ineffective at reducing unhygienic behaviors; rather, it was a shower of meteors. It wiped the dinosaurs extinct, though the ashen clouds of dust that it whipped into frenzies or the direct impact also ravaged the human population. Sometimes, tribes of people couldn’t walk for even a single kilometer before seeing the corpse of someone crushed under a large boulder that appeared from the sky. She targeted settlements first; they had the largest density of humans, meaning her sadistic fantasies would be more easily satisfied. The meteors proved too efficient for their own good; after only a few hours of showering the planet with space rocks, Chika stopped the attack, deciding that it was getting boring. Her target population had dwindled, and she decided to have some direct action in the play she was directing.
Her sixth and final act was to descend onto Earth herself to drink human blood and sleep in their skins; however, the humans had enough of antics. When she first descended, an army rushed to the spot she was standing at. Though she was able to fend many of them off, they eventually forcefully removed her wings, leaving her powerless. After that, they inflicted upon her whatever pain they had made them suffer through, and they engaged in their own acts of brutal revenge, which were too graphic to describe here. They had forsaken God and went for the Devil instead. However, they locked Chika up in a cell, and they let her rot; every year, on a specific date, they brainstormed savage punishments; when they decided most savage of them all, they sent their most experienced torturers to teach her the meaning of cruelty. Ever since then, they had all vowed to kill or maim any angel upon sight on Earth.
Yoshiko was part of that unfortunate group of angels; God had chosen her to go down to the Earth and preach his gospel in the hope of regaining the human’s favor, though he had chosen his unluckiest angel for the task, something that the angel in question dreaded. When she entered the first town on her journey, all eyes glared at her; it seemed that the humans had developed some sort of alarm system for God’s angels, and they were wary of her. Standing in the central town square, she hoped that no one would prevent her from delivering her message as she cleared her throat. “Would you all please listen to me about the reacceptance of God’s word and his good deeds upon humankind?” Her voice boomed through the square, and suddenly she felt that she had miscalculated and committed a grave blunder.
“Fuck you, member of the kind who betrayed us so mercilessly, slaughtered our kind, and still has the gall to appear in our faces and accept your word, hated angel!” The crowd screamed in an uproar, seeming to agree with the random man’s message; Yoshiko found herself running out of down, desperately trying to escape her rampaging pursuers; however, as had many times before, luck was against her.
The enraged mob encircled her, their facial expressions decorated with the blood that had rushed there; Yoshiko was in dire straits, and she understood her predicament; the pitchforks were out for her head. The conflict was bloody, even though she made sure not to spill a drop of blood with her own hands; the humans on one side of her, whenever they lunged and attacked poorly, struck down their comrades on the opposite side; regardless of the true culprit of the ripped flesh, the fervor within the crowd only grew, and Yoshiko found it harder to parry and dodge all of their attacks. Filled with rage, they struck and struck until she had nothing left in her; a long metal pole entered through her stomach, impaling her; through their celebrations and revelry, the humans had forgotten to remove her wings, which was her saving grace.
She had a power similar to the iguana’s, where she could detach her precious wings to heal any wound on her. Realizing that she would be stuck in this situation if she didn’t use them, she removed her wings from her body in an effort to better her situation; she knew that she would be unable to return to God’s realm without her wings, though that was secondary to the sharp jabs of pain constantly rushing through her body. She healed her wound, falling unconscious; her last thoughts were that a kind savior would rescue her from the situation she was in.
“Oh, thank god you’re awake,” an ethereal voice rang while Yoshiko groaned as she opened her eyes.
“Who are you?” Yoshiko asked. She found herself in a mysterious home, seemingly a wood cabin in the woods. She was in a room with simple furniture, such as a cabinet, a bed she was currently lying on, and a table. The walls were decorated with a few pictures, presumably family pictures. There were some pictures of flowers sprinkled in between all of them. The one who was treating her had long pink hair and golden eyes. She looks very beautiful, Yoshiko thought. She must also be also very kind as well.
“My name is Sakurauchi Riko. I’m a healer; sometimes, I head to town and get paid well. I found you lying unconscious in the forest with some wings, so I brought you in here. By the way, what’s your name?”
Yoshiko knew that Riko was a human, yet her primal instincts urged her to reveal her true identity as an angel; something within her told her that Riko was a kindhearted human and would act as such, even if Yoshiko was a hated angel. “My name … my name is Yoshiko Tsushima.”
Riko’s ears perked up. Before Yoshiko could yell, she said, “don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you, even if you are an angel; I understand that it was only that Chika who ruined the whole thing, and you had no part in it.”
“Thank you … Riko. Though, I do have another favor to ask of you.”
“What is it, Yocchan?”
Yoshiko felt the blood rush to her face at the new nickname; no one had addressed her with that level of intimacy before. “Would you please reattach my wings onto my body? I don’t want to be killed by those humans when I’m stuck here on Earth.”
“Of course, Yocchan; I’m a healer, I heal. Though, I’m going to have to learn to reattach wings, which will be a slightly arduous endeavor, but for you, and just for you, I’ll do it.”
“T-thank you … Riri.”
“That’s a cute nickname, Yocchan.”
“You’re a hypocrite.” Both of them enjoyed a good laugh with each other, having found a new person whom they could entrust their lives with.
Every night, Riko would stay up for a few extra hours to research the method of reattaching an angel’s wings, and Yoshiko would assist her, whether by cooking meals, lightening the mood, or bringing supplies. They often exchanged playful banter and went on excursions into nature together, sometimes splashing water at each other while laughing with large grins on their faces, sometimes seeing who could climb a tree higher (Riko would always beat Yoshiko at this, remarking, “why would winged people need to learn how to climb a tree?”) with Yoshiko always landing face first on the ground with mud on her face, and sometimes grabbing sticks and sword fighting; they were extremely childish in their types of entertainment. Through the months, their routine remained constant, with both of them finding enjoyment in the other and both of them growing more fond of each other. One night, when Yoshiko approached Riko with a nice pizza she had made for the latter’s studies, Riko surprised her with an announcement. “Yocchan, I think I can operate and reattach your wings tomorrow.”
“Really? Thank you so much Riri!” Yoshiko lept onto Riko, engulfing the human in an inescapable bear hug.
“You’re so childish, Yocchan, even though you’ve lived for hundreds of years.”
“How dare you insult me so! I’ll make sure to punish you when I go return, Riri!”
“No you won’t, you silly idiot.”
“Hmph,” Yoshiko said, pouting.
After a few grueling hours of operation, with Riko painstakingly reattaching Yoshiko’s wings, the wings were back on her back. As Yoshiko began walking out of the door, tears began welling up in her eyes, and she paused, turning around. “Thank you Riri; I truly thank you for everything you’ve done for me. Were it not for you, I’d be lying in the forest or a cell.”
Riko’s tears began spilling. “Goodbye Yocchan, I’ll miss you. You were one of the people to stay with me for a long time. Make sure to tell your angel friends about me in Heaven!”
Yoshiko stood at the doorway, pondering her response. “I don’t think I’ll need to do that, Riri.”
Riko’s heart fell, crestfallen at the prospect that Yoshiko didn’t like her back. “W-why not Yocchan? Was it something that I did? What did I do wrong?”
“I won’t be needing to go back to heaven; I’ve decided to stay back with you on Earth, Riri.”
“Really? You’d really do that, Yocchan?”
Yoshiko pulled Riko into a tight embrace. “Of course, Riri; of all the beings I’ve met in my life, human or not, you were the most kind to me; the other angels may have seemed more heavenly than a mortal, but not you. If they found me in the state you found me in, they would’ve scorned me and left me for dead. Not only did you nurse me back to health, you also agreed to undertake the possibly impossible endeavor of reattaching my wings. You’re a great person, Riri, and I wouldn’t give you up for anything, even returning to Heaven. In fact, over the course of my stay at your place, I think I’ve developed some feelings for you,” Yoshiko said, smiling through her joyous tears.
“You … you like me too, Yocchan?”
“Yes, I like you too, Riri. Will you allow me to stay at your place forever?”
“Obviously, you silly idiot.”
“Say, do you want to get married?”
“Obviously, you silt idiot.”