16CHOIR 4:
Working for God
Naozumi's simple question persisted in Delaine's mind. Even now, as she lay upon her bed, she kept thinking of those words as well as what had just occurred earlier in the day. She couldn't understand why he asked that. And to HER, of all people. Was it because she helped that Ass (Tsubasa) fight off that creepy woman? Or was it because she had the ability to glimpse the future in certain situations?
To tell the truth, she had no idea where she got this special ability from. All she knew was that she had it for as long as she could remember. She could tell incoming events-from simple things such as the exact time of rainfall during the day, to complex situations such as the location of car accidents. Why, there was even a time when she accidentally saw in her mind the answers for an exam scheduled for the next day. Of course, amidst all the potential dangerous situations, she always strived to do something to prevent them, like warning the people concerned with these situations. Some heeded to her warning, but others didn't take her seriously and were thus subjected to grave consequences. Nevertheless, the accuracy of her warnings were starting to become more than a little creepy to those who were familiar with her, and thus, even without meaning to, they tended to isolate her.
As a consequence, she had somehow developed a personality of a loner, choosing instead to hang out with books and writing instead of other people. Fortunately however, she was prevented from transforming completely into the Queen of Doom and Gloom by her two Manila friends, as well as...
The door to her room opened and closed abruptly. Delaine wasn't the least bit alarmed, as she already knew who the person who entered her room was. "Mama?"
"Hi Girl, I just came to comb my hair."
Delaine raised an eyebrow. "In my room?"
Her mother laughed in embarrassment. "Ahehehe, I lost mine."
The girl only rolled her eyes.
Lalaine put down the comb, and glanced back at her daughter, grinning. "Thanks as always, Girl!"
Delaine lifted up an arm lazily. "Yeah, yeah."
"Gooood niiiighhht!" Her mother winked and blew a kiss at her, before leaving the room.
The girl sighed, and looked up once more at the ceiling. "Figures." It actually made perfect sense for her mother to have lost something. Her mind was so childlike-so innocent, optimistic, and carefree. Why couldn't she be the same as well?
But that's something to be thought about for another day. Right now, she had a situation to deal with first. She buried her face upon her pillow. If her father was here, he'd know what to do. He's the only person who knew about her ability, and the only one who-
Delaine shook her head vehemently, trying to prevent tears which threatened to come out of her eyes. "No...no, I shouldn't...I promised I wouldn't..." She shut her eyes tightly, and tried to think of something else instead.
"How would you like to work for God?"
She lifted her head up from the pillow, her eyes opening once more. Oh yeah, that...'
At that moment, her mind went back to the events earlier in the day...
(FLASHBACK)
To say Delaine was surprised at that sudden question was a grave understatement. To say that she was shocked was still a grave understatement. Her eyes were wide as saucers and her jaw was practically already kissing the ground.
"Um Delaine-san," Naozumi said hesitantly, looking at her lips. He then raised a finger and tapped lightly at the side of his mouth. "A little bit of a drool there..."
She immediately snapped her mouth shut and turned away to wipe the embarrassing liquid of her lip as well as to hide the red tint that was forming upon her cheeks.
Her other hand however, balled up into a fist as she heard someone snicker from behind her. She whirled around, and raised a shaking fist at Tsubasa. "What are YOU laughing about, huh?!"
"Obviously you, stupid whale."
...Whale? Back in Manila, if you call someone a whale it usually means that person is fat. Did he think she was fat?! Or was it because her hair was blue? In any case...the nerve of that guy! Anger veins started pop out of her temple, and she tightened her fist even more. "Ass!"
"Whale!"
"Ass!"
"WHALE!"
"ASS!"
"GRRR!" The two teenagers were glaring at each other so hard, it seemed as though they were throwing sparks of lightning at each other with their eyes.
Amidst the two, was an annoyed Naozumi twitching his eyebrow. Finally, when he couldn't take it anymore, he pulled out his frying pan and whacked their two heads with it. WHAM! WHAM!
And it didn't help that a small manipulation of those two words would turn into the more dreaded word ASSHO-suddenly the clouds darkened and the sound of thunder shook the ground. Eeep, forgive me my Lord! A Chibi Naozumi cried in his mind. I didn't mean to! The moment he thought that, the dark clouds faded and the sky became bright again. Chibi Naozumi let out a sigh of relief.
Delaine and Tsubasa were both staring up, startled by the sudden strange occurrence.
"That...was weird..." Was the only thing she could say.
Tsubasa, on the other hand, seemed to realize something, and turned towards Naozumi with a smirk upon his lips. "He got mad at you. You must have thought of something bad again, huh?"
Naozumi raised his arms and backed away, shaking his head indignantly. "N-no, of course not!"
The smirk didn't come off his face. "Oh really."
"Yes, really!"
Delaine stared at the two males, her gaze drifting from one to another in confusion. "What...what are you talking about?"
The obsidian haired older man sighed and smiled a little at her. "I guess it can't be helped." Naozumi closed his eyes, and a gentle breeze blew through the area.
The girl back away slightly, and glanced at the sight around her. As each second passed, the gentle breeze grew stronger, picking up stray leaves and flowers on the way. Just then, a sudden strong gush of wind passed her, heading straight towards the older man. As soon as the wind touched him, a pair of wings suddenly came out of the man's back. They were enormous, and each was composed of snow-white feathers which seemed to individually glow. In all, Naozumi looked very handsome and grand...almost like an...
"Angel..." She breathed.
Naozumi raised a thumb at her and winked. "That's right, Delaine-san! Though if you want to be more specific, ARCHANGEL should be the more correct term."
"EHH?! You..you...you...but..but..." She stammered. "But your name is Naozumi, right?!"
The winged man chuckled. "Well, I'm known by many names, and Naozumi's just one of them. But I think the most popular one I had was," He placed a finger upon his chin thoughtfully. "Gabriel."
Earlier, it was mentioned that Delaine's eyes went wide as saucers. Now they were wide as plates. "WHAT?!" She cried. THE Archangel Gabriel?! The same one she had studied so much about in school, the same one she had read about in the Good Book, the same one who appeared and bore the most important announcement two thousand years ago?!
'Gabriel' continued to smile. "Right on all accounts, Delaine-san."
The girl started in her place. Eep. He can read minds too!
"But don't you worry about that," He said, waving a hand carelessly. "I'll leave your thoughts to yourself. In any case," At that moment, the wings upon his back folded up and disappeared, leaving the angel to be the man he once was. "I think it would be better off if you call me Naozumi instead."
Delaine blinked in confusion. "But why?"
Naozumi tilted his head from side to side. "For...security reasons."
"Oh. Okay," Was what she said, even though she wasn't exactly satisfied with that answer.
"Tsubasa," Naozumi said, glancing towards the boy, his plum-colored eyes expectant.
The boy only crossed his arms and looked away. "I know what you're thinking. The answer is NO."
"It doesn't matter," Naozumi said, shrugging. "You will, at your own time."
Overwhelmed by the shocking turn of events, Delaine sat down upon the grass shakily. Her gaze was still fixed upon the ground, as her lips moved to a whisper. "I...I still don't understand..."
"You will, in time." Naozumi knelt on one knee in front of her, smiling slightly. He then pulled out a box, and held it towards her. "For you."
The girl stared down at the box for a moment, before taking it into her hands. "What...is it?"
The older man chuckled. "Well, you'll have to open it to know, of course."
Shakily, her hands fumbled around the clasp of the box. With a light click, the cover flew open, revealing what looked to be gleaming white gun. From the looks of it, she figured it resemble a 9 mm-caliber gun. There was a slide instead of external levers or decockers at the back of the barrel, for reloading purposes. She looped her finger around the trigger, and squeezing lightly, she found it easy to pull. There was also another smaller box within the package, and as Delaine opened them she saw around twenty rounds of golden bullets. She drew in a deep breath, awed by what she had seen.
"It's called Hope," Naozumi said, grinning. "Named after my divine complement, of course. And these," He continued, pointing to the box of rounds. "Are Holy Bullets. It kind of works in the same way as Tsubasa's sword does. There's one significant difference between your weapons though."
Delaine looked at the angel questioningly.
"Unlike Faith, Tsubasa's sword that is, which completely disintegrates a particular being into nothingness, your Hope, purifies the evil element residing in a certain soul. In other words, Tsubasa's sword is focused on killing, while your gun is focused on healing. Both the Faith and the Hope are Holy Weapons. There are still five other weapons much like them, all made by my fellow archangels, but these are the ones you're going to use to do your job."
"And what IS our job exactly?"
"To take care of this world, of course. Hasn't that been the human race's job since the beginning?"
(END FLASHBACK)
Author's Notes:
Hi everyone! Here's the fourth installment to the series! I hope you all enjoyed it! Oh, and by the way, there is something I would like to clear up. This series has taken a somewhat Christian tone to it, I hope no one is offended by the incorporation of religious icons and elements into the story. And I would also like to remind everyone that this is merely a piece of fiction. I myself am a devout Christian, so again, I hope no one will be offended by this.
If you have any questions regarding the elements of the story, please feel free to ask me.
Oh, and of course I'll have to thank my reviewers:
1. WickedIceMaiden - Wow, I'm glad you think of this story as fun. I hope you will continue to have fun as you go with the story.
2. KylaranAeldin - Wow, you're checking up on my other stories as well. I feel so honored! But ack, I'm sorry about the mistakes I made language-wise. I actually want the title to be like Wings of an Angel (Tsubasa no Tenshi), and I thought it would mean the same if I said An Angel's Wings. And yeah, I admit, I really suck at writing battle scenes. Perhaps you would like to help me out, Roleplayer-san? It would be a great help, since there would definitely a lot of battle scenes here. I would really welcome anything to improve my writing! I've also corrected the mistakes I made, and thank you so much for correcting me!
Well, that's all for today.
Till the next choir!