11 Chapter 10

As Akeno is crying, Karan only has one angry thought that comes to mind: his power is locked, and he doesn't know why. If he had his power, this would've easily been avoided. None of it would've happened.

'You will give me my power…Hero of Charity!'

~A few months later, Shrine

A few months have gone by with the death of Shuri, and the supposed death of Baraqiel. Strangely, no one has come to see Akeno and send their condolences. Karan is suspicious. He knows Azazel is close to Baraqiel and it's strange to know that he hasn't even showed up once.

Akeno has her moments of sadness, but is very grateful Karan is there for her and won't leave her alone for anything. Even if he's just going to the store, he usually wants her to come with him, just so he can keep an eye on her.

Currently the two are preparing to enter Akenos parents' bedroom. Karan tells Akeno it isn't a good idea until she's ready. It's bad for her to lose herself in memories and try to remember the past more than she lives her present. But Akeno says she's ready, so Karan smiles and Akeno smiles in return. The two walk into the bedroom and are surprised to see nothing really special.

The bedroom is just like Akeno's but a bit bigger. There are many pictures around, mostly of the three together. Karan smiles as he remembers his own pictures with his family.

Akeno has stopped crying. She wants to move on like Karan encouraged her to do. It won't easy, but he isn't going to let her drown in sadness.

As Karan looks around, he sees Akeno staring deeply at one photo. It's the only photo that has Karan in it. She holds it tightly to her heart and reminisces in the memory.

Karan watches her remember the fun times, then looks around stuff himself. He stumbles across something odd; he sees on the wall a handle, and curiously he flips it. Suddenly a small secret hole appears in the wall. He looks over at Akeno, who is still holding the picture, then he crawls into the tunnel and ends up in an entirely different room.

The room is pitch black with no windows or light at all. Scanning the walls with his fingers, he finally feels a switch, and when he flips it, he is even more stunned at what he sees.

All around him are strange tools, whips, knives, and outfits. They range from short fast whips to black outfits which have zippers running across the mouth area.

In the middle of the room is a table, with handcuffs and towels. Karan could easily tell this was used a lot in the past, just by judging how many torture devices there are. Karan then sees a tool hidden from light. It's a combination of a ball of spikes and a whip, a strange looking tool. He has seen something similar to it in his past.

'You're sick, Baraqiel-san,' Karan thinks, believing that Baraqiel was the one who used these devices on poor Shuri. But it was the other way around.

Deciding to slowly leave the room in hopes of Akeno never discovering it, he is startled when he turns around and sees Akeno there, with a sweet smile.

"Wanna play?" she asks childishly. Akeno runs past Karan and jumps onto the table. She lies down on it, tensing herself as if waiting for something painful to come.

Karan quickly picks her up and carries her out of the room.

Karan completely misunderstood. He never would guess that Baraqiel is a masochist and that Shuri is a sadist.

He'll be sure to destroy that room, just in case Akeno ever decides to get bored and tries to play around with some of the stuff in there.

~Years Later

Today is Akeno's birthday, and despite only Karan being there to celebrate with her, she doesn't mind. She's had them in the past with just Karan, although they were usually sad days because she would remember what her parents used to do. Her mother would buy her something very nice, mainly to impress Karan, which it did. Her father would teach her a lightning ability, one that she would be amazed over. Lighting is her own fantasy, her favorite type of ability as it amazes her to no end. Karan knows of this because Baraqiel told him that if he was ever gone on an important mission with Azazel, Karan must be the one to teach her something. But Baraqiel never missed Akeno's birthday.

The two young children are now pre-teens. Karan is actually a year younger than Akeno, so while she turns 13 today he became 12 some months back, although his mind is trying to get to back to the way it's supposed to be, the same body and age when he died. Karan has a very special present for Akeno, one that he actually went exploring to look for. It's convenient to travel in this world, but he believes he has found something that amazes him as well is able to be taught to Akeno. A trump card, if you will.

Akeno wakes up in her room once again. The reason why they haven't moved into Akeno's parent's room is because Karan says when Shuri comes back, she won't want to sleep in Akenos old room. Akeno always makes sad smiles when Karan says something like that. She sometimes believes he's in denial, or truly believes something only a few beings in existence can do: bring the dead back to life.

"Karan… you know my Okaa-san and Otou-san have passed right?" she asks carefully. If he's in true denial, then he will snap at her for saying something so wrong.

"For now," he says, still smiling. Akeno makes a small smile, but is happy to know Karan cares so greatly for Shuri and Baraqiel. To him, they have become parents, his new parents, and he isn't going to let death stop him from creating their happiness.

As Karan creeps up behind Akeno, he readies something he spent a very long time searching for. Not only does it look good, but it has magical properties to help her with fighting.

Karan appears in front of Akeno, surprising her, but what really shocks her is when Karan suddenly gets on one knee and grabs her hand.

"Karan!" she says, as her face starts to become red. In anyone's eyes, Karan seems to be proposing to Akeno, but that isn't what he's doing.

"What?" he asked, curious as why Akeno is suddenly shaking and has become red. Before she can answer he pulls out a very unique looking ring and places it on her ring finger.

The ring is very beautiful in Akeno's eyes. It has yellow outlining and also had a Sanskrit character written on it that reads 'Saudamini' that means lightning. Akeno smiles at the gift, then realizes she can sense some magical powers coming from it.

"Karan?"

"It's a very special ring, Akeno. It'll help you with lightning training and controlling it better."

"Does it amaze you?" she asks.

"Of course it does, I even got a matching one," he says, showing her his red ring. It reads 'Agni' on it which means fire. Akeno smiles. She's very happy Karan remembers almost everything from when they were younger: all the things Shuri and Baraqiel taught Karan, and how to take care of her if they were suddenly out or gone for a while.

"Akeno, I also wanted to show you a type of lightning attack, a very powerful one. Though I can't bring out it's true power since my element isn't lightning like you," he says, causing Akeno to widen her eyes.

This could be her own very trump card. But another part of her mind is in awe as well, that he even remembered what Baraqiel did that one year they celebrated a birthday together with Akeno. Karan remembers well that Shuri bought her a fancy outfit while Baraqiel taught her how to use a stream of lightning which disintegrated the test subjects.

Karan decides he first needs to show her the attack. He activates his Mana Burst, which Akeno has never seen before, though she always knew Karan has some strange power.

"Akeno" he says, before the black haired beauty suddenly widens her own eyes as she stares at his right eye.

"Your eyes… They're beautiful, Karan. What are they?" She says

"It's called the Brahmastra. I'll tell you more about it later." Today is the day Karan feels like he can show his power to Akeno, and she will most likely be the only person. These past few years living with Akeno have been the best he has had in his entire existence.

Karan believes he came here as a child to live a new life, which he took full advantage of: he found a family, he found a life companion, and perhaps one day they will become more than friendly life companions… they might become lovers together.

"Akeno," Akeno hears Karan call to her.

She turns around and sees him holding his hand out to her. She grabs it without wait and begins walking with him.

"Akeno, for this ability, you will need to improve your fire skills beyond what you have already. Also, you can use your entire energy reserve just for the fire attacks now, because this lightning attack will not need ANY of your energy levels, except for the fire you'll need to make."

Now this confuses her. A trump card that will have no energy cost? Will it take her life? Or life energy? "What do I need the fire for?" she asks curiously.

"I'll show you."

'O Brahma, Abhizasti'

'O Vaktra, Agni Devo Bhava'

Akeno knows of this red fire, although she doesn't know of its true capabilities. Akeno believes that it's just a stronger level of fire. It burns things, it's hot, that's all fire really is.

She watches as Karan's levels of energy plummet towards zero. She's worried he may pass out, as he is still shooting out flames. In the corner of her eye, she sees a man with long white hair sitting on a stone, looking at her with hetrochromic eyes.

Karana is only observing.

Karan was unaware he could come out into the real world.

She turns her attention back to Karan, who is staring at the blue sky. All of a sudden, grey thunderclouds began to swirl around him and that's when it hit her.

'It's nature!' she realized. This attack is a trump card used as a final resort but with no energy costs in itself. Plus, it could throw the opponent off by believing the user is sacrificing himself or is going to exhaust himself just for the sake of the fire attack.

Akeno isn't surprised at Karan being able to muster such an ability, but she is shocked to see it in action. She watches as the thunderclouds begin roaring, then all of a sudden an enormous lightning bolt of collosal size emerges out from the clouds and begins flying towards Karan and Akeno. He looks over his shoulder and nods, indicating that they will both be alright.

"Vajra."

*ROAAAAAAAAAAAR*

Was the last sound that was made before a flash of lighting blinds both Akeno and Karan. She opens her eyes quickly and searches around. The shrine is in perfect shape, but the mass area of trees and plains were obliterated to nothing. She looks back to the man sitting on the stone. He is still sitting there, but now has a smile on his face.

"Are you amazed?" Karan asks with a smirk.

Akeno doesn't even move. The look in her eyes has excitement, determination, and strangely ecstasy. The feeling of all the power here has made her feel…hot.

"Fufufu, I wonder what else you can do to amaze me, Karan-kun," she says in a very seductive tone. She even added –kun to make it sound more lustful.

Karan looks at Akeno with confusion; she begins to lick her lips in a way that would make most men want her that instant.

Karan makes a small laugh, and begins showing which fire techniques she should use. It didn't matter how powerful they were; you just needed heat, and a lot of it.

~Sometime later

Karan and Akeno are in a very deep hug. She enjoys these when she feels alone or just wants someone to hold. Karan doesn't mind, as he enjoys the hugs as much as she does.

Suddenly, she gets out of his grasp and looks at him with unreadable eyes. "Karan, I'm going to go on a walk," she says smiling.

She often goes on walks by herself, because she feels she always needs some time away from Karan. When she was younger, she would often go to her mother, who would tell her ways to talk to Karan or how to act around him. But this time, she is going to do something she feels she could now do by herself. Even if he isn't with her, the ring he gave her makes her heart warm; it feels like Karan is always with her.

As Akeno begins walking, she starts to remember the things her mother told her: the family that she never met and why Shuri is no longer with them. Akeno now understands that the reason why Shuri was at the Shrine in the first place was because her family kicked her out and forced her to stay there because she met with Baraqiel.

Akeno wants to confront her family. She's curious and just wants to look; she wants to see why they hated Shuri. She knows her family once hired Fallen Angels to go and try to kill Baraqiel, but Akeno also knows that they failed and some of them held a grudge. The ones that held a grudge stayed and eventually did kill Shuri and Baraqiel.

She approaches an area of the city labeled, 'Himejima Clan Land'. This is where her family stays, although they all hate her for being the child of a fallen Angel, as well as being the child of Shuri. As she walks into the unknown land a voice comes around, but she doesn't know where from. Suddenly at the last moment she feels a presence appear out of thin air.

"You look just like your mother," an old feminine voice calls out to her, and then…

*STAB*

Akeno feels a surge of pain run through her abdomen; she looks down and sees a very long sword piercing through her stomach. She turns around and sees a very old woman with long white hair. Akeno can instantly recognize the similarities.

"Obaa-san…"