Chapter Six - Sparring Show

"Thank you for the praise Ms. Angela however it truly was nothing, I simply did what anyone would do." Cebrail continued from where she left off, "I should be the one thanking you in fact for this honor."

"In fact because of your words I have come to the decision that soon I will be going to a school in the Human World to watch over them more personally and learn from them." The crowd cheered at her words, they were excited that the princess would be making more public appearances and loved that she was also going to be spending more time around humans.

Angels couldn't help but love humans as that was how God programmed them. Even Lucifer was no exception to this rule. They loved humans even more nowadays after God's death as humans were made in God's image, looking at them and even helping them comforted the Angels greatly.

Seeing that Cebrail had nothing else to say Raphael stepped forward past Azril and took the microphone from her gently.

As she moved to stand back in front of her mother Raphael spoke once again, "From this point forward we shall give each of these precious children their own set of cards and they may speak a few words if they wish. First Azril."

Raphael took a small deck of cards with the symbol of the suit of clubs and Azril stepped forward, bowing his head and taking the cards. "Thank you very much Lord Raphael and Ms. Angela."

With his thanks he walked back to his place and next Gadreel was called up. He was given the set of cards associated with the diamond suit. "Thank you very much Lord Raphael and Ms. Angela and everyone, I'll do my best not to let you down!"

Finally called up was the girl standing in front of Michael, Puriel, with a childish smile and bright eyes, she looked very much different from how she was back in the conference room. Like a kind and caring golden child.

(How fake~) Cebrail thought casually. It wasn't like she was angry about it, people act differently in front of different people, it's just a fact of life. She was however a bit disappointed, based on the girl's brazen attitude before Cebrail had thought she was a rather genuine person that didn't hold back their feelings. Seems that was only the case around people she thought were weaker than her.

"Thank you so much Lord Raphael and Ms. Angela and thank you to all of my fellow Angels!" Raphael smiled kindly at Puriel and moved to take the microphone from her thinking she was done however the child continued to speak. "I have a really good idea!"

"I'm sure like me all of you are wondering how our 'princess' has been over the years since she hasn't shown up much in public, so how about we end this grand ceremony with a demonstration of her skills!" The people in the crowd seemed to like Puriel's idea but the four Seraphs looked at each other with worry.

"So what do you say Lady Cebrail?" Puriel asked in a cutesy filled with confidence upon seeing the worried eyes of the Seraph.

Even Gabriel herself put her shoulders and looked down on her with eyes filled with warning.

"U-Um... I really don't think-" Gadreel was about to try and step in but was interrupted by Cebrail's own words.

"Whatever." She gave a one word response to Puriel's challenge and stepped forward without even the slightest bit of hesitation.

"Alrighty then~" The two girls stepped down from the stage onto the regular floor of the stadium.

"Why didn't you just fly down?" Cebrail asks curiously as the two stand in front of one another.

"This is just a sparring match right? I wouldn't want to hurt you too bad you know~"

"I see..."

For an Angel their wings and halo were sort of like miniature transformations. On regular weak Angels the difference in strength is minuscule at best but for more powerful ones simply releasing their wings is enough for a boost in light power more than two times what it was before.

The halo was an even bigger boost as well, though at a big cost. While wings could be restored rather easily with light power if damaged an Angels halo being damaged all but dooms them to fall as they no longer have access to heaven.

"L-Lord R-Raphael s-shouldn't we stop them? W-What if the p-princess gets hurt!" Angela exclaimed however she was only met with silence from her superior.

"L-Lord Michael?" Again silence.

She turned to Uriel to ask him as well only to be met with the boyish looking man snickering to himself with a cellphone in his hand. He was recording.

(H-Huh? Why aren't they taking this seriously at all?)

"You shouldn't be so worried about my daughter." Gabriel said drawing Angela's attention towards her, "She is my daughter after all."

"You may begin." Raphael announced before Angela could even process Gabriel's statement and dragged her eyes back to the two children below.

Instantly Puriel pulled out her bat and rushed Cebrail without any hesitation. The distance was closed rather quickly and thinking she caught the princess off guard swung her bat straight for her head.

(Good speed and going for a quick victory. Not half bad...) Cebrail complemented the girl in her head before dodging with a simple back step.

Puriel didn't back off and swung wildly at Cebrail who dodged effortlessly, frustrating the young Angel greatly.

"Stop dodging!" She yelled as the two had some distance between each other.

"Alright."

Cebrail's response surprised Puriel before irritating her greatly.

(This damn princess! I'll show you not to be so arrogant!) Puriel thought, instead of charging at Cebrail like before she grounded herself in a batting stance. A ball of light formed in front of her and as it grew to around the size of a baseball Puriel slammed it with her bat directly towards Cebrail.

The ball of light flew at such a high speed it looked almost like a beam of pure light and seeing such an attack coming towards her Cebrail simply lifted her hand casually.

A smirk planted itself on Puriel's face as the moment the ball of light got close to Cebrail it exploded, enveloping her in light and destroying the area around her.

"Cheep! Cheep! Cheeeep!" Epis yelled in terror.

(Idiot~ did you really think it would just be a regular ball of light~?) Puriel thought only to find herself surprised as when the dust settled Cebrail was standing there without so much as a scratch on her.

"W-What how?"

"Why are you fighting me right now?"

"Huh?"

"I'm wondering why you're fighting me right now. Is there some grand kind of ambition or end goal? What would you gain from beating me?" Cebrail berates Puriel with questions.

Flustered by all the questions Puriel stammered out an answer, "I-I just want to understand why you're so special! What makes you so different that everyone praises you even without ever having met you in person!"

"Haaa~" Cebrail simply let out a sigh of annoyance as if she were dealing with a mosquito that was particularly difficult to kill.

(This is why I don't like dealing with people. So much work for such a shallow reason.) Cebrail's best friend and rival in her past life once called her strange for not being able to fight for the littlest of things, she claimed "most people can fight even for the most stupid reasons." However Cebrail just considered herself to be rational.

Yes, rational.

And because she was rational she would teach this child a proper lesson on the difference between the two of them.

"Indeed I am very rational unlike my mother." As if to solidify her choice Cebrail stated this aloud causing Raphael to smirk, Michael to let out a soft sigh, and Uriel to giggle with childish glee.

(My own daughter thinks I'm irrational, boohoo~) Gabriel, despite her straight face, was crying inside.

"What???" Puriel was simply confused; however, seeing Cebrail reach into her own dimensional storage, her grip on her bat strengthened in anticipation.

Though she had a bit too much pride Puriel wasn't exactly stupid. The fact that so far she couldn't even touch Cebrail was enough of a warning that this princess wasn't as weak as she looked.

What Cebrail pulled out however only confused the child that much more. It was a whip with a deep curve like a hook and while it emitted holy power it wasn't a weapon at all suited for fighting an Angel. It was also interestingly clearly not designed with killing in mind making it a pretty inefficient weapon.

"This is Rance, named after a fellow with good taste. It is also my fishing rod."

"Uhh... okay...?"

"Remember when I told you that Cebrail was just like her mother?" Raphael whispered into Angela's ear, startling her.

"Y-Yes?!?" Angela felt her ear tingle as it was touched by Raphael's hot breath and a deep blush spread across her face.

"Well now you'll see how. I hope you don't look at my niece too differently after this." Despite his words Raphael had a very mischievous grin on his face.

The four Seraph weren't ever worried for Cebrail's safety as one might think from the way they looked at her before the match, instead they were worried she'd go too far in front of such a large crowd of people.

Puriel was about to learn this fact the hard way.

"From this point onwards I won't move from this spot." Cebrail declared hitting the ground loudly with her whip.

"What?!? You think you can-" Puriel cried in outrage but was interrupted by the whip slashing her shirt open vertically.

"KYAAA!" She yells with a blush on her face dropping her bat and to her knees to cover herself up. "Y-YOU-"

Waving her hand causally Cebrail interrupted Puriel once again hitting her on her side with the whip.

"OW!"

"You actually dropped your guard just because your breasts were exposed?"

"I-I'm a girl! Of course I don't want an entire crowd of people seeing me naked!"

"A wise woman once said 'a person's character can easily be judged based on how they act when nude.' If it were me I wouldn't so much as flinch."

"T-That's not a real quote!"

"How'd you know?"

"Grrrr!" Puriel, still in her sitting position, summoned small balls of light around herself and fired them towards Cebrail. They were slower than her first attack so if Cebrail had wanted she could have blocked them with her whip in a very flashy and cool manner. She however wanted to properly teach Puriel a lesson so she stood there completely unfazed by the attack as the blasts dissipated upon making contact with a barrier around her.

"Defensive magic?"

"Indeed, unless you're of a similar strength to myself you can't even hope to pass this barrier." Cebrail flicks her hand once again, sending her whip out and hitting Puriel.

"OW! OW! OW! STOP IT!" Puriel cried out in pain with tears gathering at the corner of her eyes.

"Are you about to cry?" Cebrail flicks her whip and hits Puriel again ruthlessly.

"*Sniffle* *Sniffle* Stop it!"

Finally Puriel raised her arm high with her whip ready for one final big strike. "Understand now child, the difference between you and me is that you can't tell the difference between you and me!"

Before she could bring down her whip a strong hand gripped her wrist stopping her, "That's enough Cebrail."

"If you say so uncle Michael." Cebrail dropped her arm and rested Rance on her shoulder.

Stepping past his niece the leader of the Seraph stepped in front of the sniffling Puriel and picked her up in a bridal carry.

"What's your relationship with that child uncle?" Cebrail asked curiously, Michael wasn't the type to be too physical with anyone, even the other Seraph so for him to carry Puriel and hold her so close and lovingly was a bit surprising.

"She's the daughter of a friend of mine, he asked me to take care of her."

"Oh alright." Such a boring answer made Cebrail lose all interest in the topic and she turned to her mother and Uriel who were approaching her.

"Great job kiddo! I'm totally gonna post this on MeTube!" Uriel exclaimed, giving her a big hug before flying off and turning into a beam of light.

"That was very good Cebrail, just like I taught you! If someone is disrespectful to you, you must make them regret it without fail! That is the Angel way!" Her mother exclaimed, taking her hand gently. "Are you ready to head home now?"

"You see what I mean Angela? Just like her mother." Raphael said while laughing.

"I'm nothing like my mother. My mother is irrational." Cebrail claimed having overheard her uncle's words in a flat but clearly insulted tone causing Raphael to laugh a bit harder.

Angela could only stare at the scene with both a mixture of confusion and horror. Cebrail was not nearly as mature or tolerant as she first thought.