Recommended listening: The River Sings by Enya

My Angel

Chapter Nineteen

The pressure from the aura was immense.

Hisoka cringed as he tried to sit up in the damaged clutter that used to be his defendant chair in the courtroom. He wished he had sensed everything sooner. Not only was Velken a demon after his banishment, but the whole trial was now proven to be fake. But how could the other angels not see? Were they so blinded by their disgust that they couldn't read Velken's emotions not minutes before?

"Hisoka!" Diego was at his side, tending to the empath's broken wing. There was a soft golden glow and Hisoka cringed as he felt his broken bone moving and putting itself back together. He grit his teeth when the pieces connected and after that, a gentle relief rushed through his ligaments. He nodded to Diego in thanks before turning back to Velken.

He looked positively livid.

"You filthy little empathic whore!" Velken's voice was loud and far from sane. "The Master should have killed you in cold blood sooner! Then I wouldn't have to mess around with your disgusting way-about things and your pitiful friends!" The emotions rolling off the demon made it hard for Hisoka to think. Flashes of images flew across his eyes, showing him things he never would've guessed, seeing the past that left painful cries in his ears and horrendous agony in his chest.

Hisoka staggered to his feet, feeling his own anger melting into his wings; the once bright pearl white boiled down to the color of blood. He worked up the courage to speak. Somehow, it echoed in the hall, making his own chest shudder. "I'm disgusting? Look at yourself! You, who stole an angel's skin to sneak your way into Heaven just to get me convicted of an act that is neither holy nor satanic! You, who dared to call me unfaithful when you yourself have never felt true blissful emotions like love before! You... you are the wretched one!"

Velken lunged at the angel then, tackling Hisoka into the wall. Luckily, the boy's empathy kicked in and a shot of emotional energy came bursting out of his chest, slamming Velken backwards. The demon crashed into the benches beyond the defendant tables, bending his black wings as he hit the floor. Making a noise between a hiss and a grunt, Velken shot back up again, but Diego interfered, leaping between the two and tackling the demon to the floor, grabbing hold of one of the black wings and attempting to break it. In retaliation, Velken snapped his wrist up and Diego let out a cry of pain as his wings folded together, bending in ways wings should not.

Hisoka ran to the scene and summoned his energy again, creating his bow and arrow and pointing the tip between Velken's eyes. "If you want your life, you will stop what you're doing to my friend."

Velken, weighing the two options, found he didn't prefer either. If he kept using telepathy to bend Diego's wings, then he would be shot. If he complied, then he would be held in Heaven's prison for eternity. Neither was appealing. So Velken created his own option.

"The empath thinks he's so strong and can protect everyone," the demon snickered, a sly smile splitting his face. "I do not think so."

"I don't give a damn what you think. Release Diego!" Hisoka demanded, pulling back farther on the bow, his eyes flashing dangerously and his wings burning red.

"You little slut... hardly an angel..." Velken was digging himself a hole. Or so Hisoka thought. "But tell me, little angel, exactly who are you directing your arrow to?"

It was then that Hisoka felt a sharp tug at the back of his mind and his body moved of its own accord. The arrow was soon pointed at Diego. Hisoka fought back against the telepathic control over his mind, but it kept pressing firmly against his temples, controlling his limbs. "Diego..."

Velken, now free from the arrow's range, sprang out from under Diego, who was frozen where he was, wings folded at an awkward angle against his back. The demon stepped back a few paces, a hand on his shoulder, which was bleeding from where Hisoka had blasted him. "Go ahead and shoot, empath. He has committed sin just as deep as you. You will soon get the consequences. Why not take him with you? He loves you, after all. He would make an excellent partner in Hell."

Hisoka's eyes were wide and his body refused to move to his mental commands. His wrist twitched; a sure sign of his rapid lose of control. "No..." It was even hard to speak. The tugs controlling his muscles moved him a step closer to Diego, who didn't move, well within range and unable to dodge should the arrow release. "Can't... don't..."

"Come now, Hisoka." Velken was using his first name. "He understands if you shoot him. You'll meet him in the fiery pit below the Earth. He loves you enough to understand that you will always mean it. He has always adored you..."

A burning sensation was coming from behind Hisoka's eyes. "N-no..." He tried calling back his energy, to bring it back into his body so the bow and arrow would disappear. But the connection between the energy in his body and outside in his hands was severed. He couldn't call it back. It was shimmering in his hands, orange bow with silver arrow, reflecting great energy and power. More than enough to murder an angel.

Murdering an angel. A capital offense. There had never been a case in which an angel had been killed and the murderer hadn't suffered severe consequences. Forever in a pit of fire, forever bitten by snakes, forever anything that God decreed.

Tears were building up in Hisoka's emerald eyes. Velken had set him up. And the empath knew his rashness had let the demon do so. Velken was controlling every move he made with so little effort while making sure Diego could not run either.

"Kurosaki, what are you doing!?" Kira had come back and was looking at the scene with wide eyes. The scene was not as Hisoka or Diego saw it. What they saw was Velken, all in black with folded wings, controlling them with a blue aura and that Hisoka was being controlled and in position to shoot his best friend. What Kira saw was Velken, in his clothes – albeit them, ruffled – with a broken white wing and standing by innocently while Hisoka had a murderous look in his eyes.

Velken turned to Kira. "I couldn't stop him. He just snapped and started attacking both of us! He's going to shoot Diego!"

Diego turned to Kira as best he could, which was only a few inches, and he tried to tell her with his eyes that it hadn't happened that way. He tried shaking his head, but it only moved an inch or so to one side before freezing again. Kira watched Diego, looking into those purple eyes, the eyes of life and of a just being. Then the judge turned back to Velken, looking into the cool blue eyes and seeing no truth there.

Kira became angry. "Lies! What have you done to them!?"

Velken put his hands up. "Absolutely nothing, I swear to you! Kurosaki is the one who's insane!"

Kira ran to the empath's side, looking into those green eyes. The veil of a murderer was there, but to Kira's well-trained eyes, it folded back and revealed the tears that were just beginning to slide down those pale cheeks. Kira angrily turned to Velken, white wings spreading out from behind her black judge's cloak. "You devil!"

Kira tackled Velken to the floor. She could now see what truth there was behind the demons' guise of an angel and she threw her fist back, punching him across the face. Something cracked and Kira was glad to know it was the demon's nose. She summoned her own power, creating a short katana blade in her hand. With a whispered "Eli, Eli, calach ani," she stabbed the shoulder of the demon. Velken cried out, his concentration broken as pain exploded in the right side of his chest and shoulder.

There was a jolt. Fingers slipped. Full bodily movement returned a moment too late, as the arrow from Hisoka's bow flew forward, heading straight for Diego's heart.

"DIEGO!"

The Angel of Life regained his body functions not a moment too soon and dropped to his knees, the arrow passing narrowly by. In its wake, it sliced a thin line across the side of his head. The arrow embedded itself in the golden wall behind Diego. The empath ran to his friend's side. "Diego, are you all right?" Hisoka touched the wound that his arrow had made. The blood was minimal, but the flow was steady and despite the thin line, rivers ran down the side of Diego's face and mingled with his long black hair.

The Angel of Life let out a breath and nodded. "I'm all right. I know you didn't mean it." The angel put his hand over the wound in an attempt to use pressure to get the bleeding to stop. It should've already stopped, actually, which is what made Hisoka so worried.

"You filthy angels!"

Hisoka and Diego whirled around to see Kira holding a struggling, bleeding Velken down at sword point, the crimson life essence slowly sinking into the golden floor. The demon was rambling. "You think you are so pure, so pious and righteous! You do not know of those who suffer for mistakes in life that they could've rectified! You don't know the pain they go through for the rest of eternity just because they didn't understand anything and were ignorant!"

"Silence, Velken!" Kira shouted, twisting the sword so that Velken yelped in pain. "God will be your judge. He will decide your punishment and I pray that it's worse than your current one."

Velken growled, flinching in pain before he tried speaking up again. "You don't know how much we don't want to be these ugly creatures who watch as you angels, you who made the same mistakes and were accepted just because you had misfortunes happen in your lives! You're not the only ones who have made those mistakes and have had such shit happen to them along the way! You're not the only ones who were forced into something! Why are the same experiences ranked differently!? We didn't choose to be like this!"

Hisoka shivered as he heard those words, causing Diego to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, giving the empath a gentle squeeze. Hisoka stared at Velken. Such a sudden change in attitude. It seemed that first he had wanted Hisoka just to get rid of him. Out of jealously? Pure unadulterated hate? Or was it, by chance, that someone had ordered him to? It wasn't unlikely.

"Who told you to prosecute me?" The teenager eventually asked, looking into Velken's cold blue eyes.

The demon looked back and there was that hatred again. But something else as well. Hisoka couldn't be sure of it, but it looked almost like... sympathy. The empath shook his head. He didn't want to think like that. Why would a demon ever be sympathetic for him?

"Because he told me to," the attorney finally muttered.

"Who is 'he'?" Diego asked, coming up beside the demon, holding his head to heal his wound. "Answer me."

"He who drinks the blood of a thousand men..." Velken's eyes turned back to Hisoka.

Diego knelt down by the fallen demon, a stern look in his violet eyes. "Tell us."

Velken coughed, a trickle of blood trailing down to his chin. "Kurosaki already knows. He has always known, but denied it..."

The empath's eyes widened for a split second before they evened out again and the teen stood up. One of his hands clenched into a fist, shaking. Diego looked at the hand, worried. "Hisoka..."

"Velken," the voice was cold as ice as the empath spoke. The tone was commanding and full of anger. "You have cloaked yourself in an angel's guise, sneaking into Heaven, and you didn't even do it for yourself. I pity you." The tone went deeper and the wings burned bright red. "I pity your form and your ignorant, self-loathing qualities, always wanting what's considered 'better' and chasing after illusions created by your own greed."

Hisoka put his head up. Shocked green puddles from before became icy daggers. "You are disgusting."

Silence hung into the room for a long moment. Then Hisoka turned and ran.

"Hisoka!" Diego called after him. "Where are you going!?"

"To that monster!"

"Wait!" Diego jumped up and ran out after the teenager, catching up with him in no time. "I'm coming with you." He held out his hand.

Hisoka glanced to the side, looking at the Angel of Life. His friend. His comrade. His brother in arms.

He took the hand. "Thank you."