A real angel

He knew he would have to join Hikaru. There was no other way. He had to stop killing innocent people. He had to take the chance to do the right thing. To be on the side of good. If he didn't, sooner or later, he wouldn't be able to protect Hanae. It would become increasingly difficult as the parasites were getting stronger. It would be impossible once the Architects take over the planet.

"Why don't we sit down and talk about this. Hiromi can take care of your sister." Hikaru said.

"No. She's not staying with my sister alone."

"Brother! You can trust her!"

"No."

"Hmph!" Hanae turned her head away from Junpei's gaze and flared her nostrils.

"..."

"Then, how about we go talk at my house."

"... Alright then."

Junpei felt better if they went away from Hanae.

Hikaru opened the door and they turned to leave.

"Hanae, you stay here and- how did the two of you come into the house?" Junpei suddenly asked.

Hanae's ear reddened and avoided eye contact with Junpei. His eyes shifted to Hikaru and Hiromi before narrowing his eyes and pursing his lips.

"We'll talk along the way," Hikaru said and walked out.

***

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

The clock reverberated through the almost empty house. Against the silence, the clock was as loud as a police siren. It was an old pendulum clock that acted as a family heirloom. A clock that physically big was also loud because of the bigger gears, in particular, the stepper motor. With stronger force at certain points and slacker at others, the motor ticks the clock hand through to each second.

Hiromi sat excessively hunched over such that her spine and its discs were easily distinguished against her skin. Such behaviour was extremely unusual for someone with her sexy look. She stared at her cell phone.

She waited.

and waited.

and waited...

She didn't move. She didn't eat. She hardly blinked.

She was patient. Even the Death God would not bother wasting time.

Yet she did, she'd wait to the end of time for that one man.

Her phone finally rang.

"Yes, my lord!"

"Yes."

"Understood. I'll move immediately."

"See you soon, my liege."

The phone disconnected.

And she grinned.

"hehehehe! hahahaha! GahaHAHA!!!"

The clock no longer ruled the silence.

***

Hikaru walked with Hiromi down the same street to Junpei's house which he had stalked him in before. He wasn't following the same route because of that intel but from memory from one of his ten thousand victims.

There was a family friend who used to visit Junpei's house with their son. The son had memories of playing with a little girl. That girl was Junpei's sister.

Junpei lived with his widowed mother and his sister. If Junpei was a liberated human, then at least one of his family members would be alive while the other was possibly eaten. And if Junpei was protecting one of them...

Hikaru stopped at the window of a lolly shop and looked through it. This surprised Hiromi.

'... Does he have a soft spot for candy?'

Hiromi started wondering what his tastes were like. She followed Hikaru into the store. He went over to a shelf and picked out an old all-time favourite. Koala's March.

These were bite-sized cookie snack with a sweet filling made by Lotte. The cookies had many different pictures of koalas doing different things printed on them. They were really cute and this surprised Hiromi's opinion on Hikaru's tastes of cute snacks.

He had a cold racy serial killer vibe about him but that only enhanced his sexiness. If Hikaru had a soft cute side to him too...

Hot blood drizzled from her nose.

"Are you injured? You're bleeding." Hikaru asked sternly

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing." Hiromi waved it off and smiled.

Hikaru was concerned that he may have done more damage than it looked on the surface. A nose bleed can happen after a head injury. He was worried that his first recruit's healing factor was a bit slow and he could see her value dropping before his eyes.

He sighed under his breath so no one heard. He didn't worry about it. He would recruit a lot of members for his attack force and will end up with some strong ones and weak ones. The average is what matters. Since he only recruited one person, it was just bad luck that the first individual in the batch was weak. It wasn't indicative of the general population.

Hiromi gracefully dried her bloody nose in a daze behind Hikaru as he finished his transaction with the cashier.

They arrived outside of Junpei's house. Hikaru was about to knock on the door but then changed his mind. There was a window upstairs in which the curtains were open while the curtains downstairs were all closed. There was no ledge or anything that can be used to climb the window. He looked around, there wasn't a soul in sight.

He sent a small tendril with an eyeball at its end to the corner of the window. He spotted a young girl studying on her desk. She looked dead gloomy and her skin was pale from a lack of sunlight. It was likely that she had been holed up here since the parasite invasion. The evidence seemed conclusive. Junpei is a rebel.

He didn't want to knock on the door and have her pretend that he wasn't there and be forced to break into the house. Instead, he sprouted wings from his back. He had thought about jumping to her window but decided against it. Would it not be a horrific scene if you saw someone rise from the window and waved at you because they had jumped several metres in the air?

He looked at his raw pink-skinned wings. He guessed they would look pretty scary to a normal person. He needed to change its colour but didn't have the genes of a chameleon. However, he had an idea.

He started growing hair without expressing the gene for melanin, which is a black pigment. A coat of white hair grew until it became thick enough that he couldn't see any pink underneath.

Hiromi frequently blinked as she watched in amazement with a trembling chin.

Hikaru's dashing figure rivalled that of a real angel.