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Today was the day
Chigiri couldn’t be more excited, today was the day he would be assigned his human.
It was a world of infinite possibilities, he could have in his hands a great scientist who would create the cure for all diseases, a future Hollywood star or a best-selling writer!
He felt like he couldn’t be happier as he walked into Archangel Ego’s office. But then he stopped dead in the doorway. What if he failed? What if his human was actually a serial killer or a heartless dictator…
“Don’t stay there, come in now.” Ego’s voice woke him up from his doubts. Chigiri took a deep breath.
“It’s okay… calm down… nothing can be worse than the human that Isagi got” he thought to reassure himself “Nothing is worse than what Isagi got, Nothing is worse than what Isagi got”
“Blessed day,” he greeted with a small bow.
“Yes, yes whatever, here” then Ego left a huge file on the desk “Here is your human.”
Chigiri was taken aback. That file size was very large for a newborn.
“Sir… I think there was a mistake,” said Chigiri, taking the large file. “I thought they were going to assign me my human today.”
“Yes, what’s the problem?”
“Ummm, aren’t I supposed to be given a newborn to care for it and mold it on the right path for a glorious future?”
“Well, in a normal case yes, but this is an emergency, you’ll understand when you see it… For now” Ego waved a hand and a golden button appeared on his desk “Have a good trip, may the light be on your side and blah blah blah” he said before pressing the button and the floor opened beneath Chigiri making him fall without warning.
Towards Earth.
—————————
Nothing could be worse than Isagi’s human his balls!! Not even his weird child who saw things was as bad as this!!
What kind of bad joke was this?
His human’s name was Kunigami Rensuke, 17 years old, high school student and athlete. At first glance, his profile was that of a normal teenager… the problem was that there was nothing normal about having had not one, not two, but TEN GUARDIAN ANGELS?! And most of them had quit after a year of having to take care of that boy. This boy was a bad luck magnet and unlike the lies that humans had created about the black cats that Chigiri loved so much, this was real. It was as if misfortune and chaos surrounded him and did not want to let go.
A Jinx curse, the boy had a jinx cursed on him, Chigiri had heard about cases like this, the most famous one was a guy named Murphy. At first Chigiri had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe they were exaggerating…
Spoiler…they weren’t.
DAY 1
His first morning started calmly.
Almost…
The first surprise Chigiri got was seeing his human for the first time. Chigiri had known the Greek gods, he had lived with (and admired) the demigods and heroes of the past. Why no one had told him that Hercules had been reincarnated as that Japanese boy! His ginger hair, muscular and defined body… was this boy really 17 years old?
And although Chigiri wanted to revel in the fantasy that he was going to be the guardian angel and guide of a modern Greek hero, his work began much earlier than he expected. The boy had entered the shower and not even a minute had passed before his life was put in danger. He had dropped the soap and carelessly stepped on it, ended up slipping and almost hitting his head. Almost becuase Chigiri had reacted quickly enough and performed a small miracle, holding the boy before he fell and returning everything to normal, avoiding the accident.
“Hey! Be more careful, that could end very badly!” Chigiri shouted, even though he knew the boy couldn’t hear him.
“That could have ended very badly…” Kunigami murmured, still confused with the situation.
“That’s what I just said!”
After saving his human from more catastrophes, from preventing him from being electrocuted while trying to disconnect his phone charger from the power outlet, when he still had wet hands from the shower before, to almost falling off the stairs when stepping on his own shoelaces that he had tied incorrectly. They finally managed to leave the room intact and reach the kitchen for breakfast.
“I wonder if it’s really a bad luck curse or you really are such an idiot,” Chigiri muttered, already feeling exhausted. And the day was just beginning!
“Good morning,” Kunigami greeted his family, he approached his mother and left a kiss on her cheek, he bowed to his father and then picked up his little sister when she had rushed towards him.
Chigiri couldn’t help but smile
“Hey… at least he’s a good boy,” he said as he watched the family eat together.
And just when he thought that he would have some peace and could learn more about the life of the human he saw him start to cough and hold his chest. He was choking.
“By the Archangel!” Chigiri rushed to assist him, but he couldn’t touch him, in fact he shouldn’t do it if there were more people present, it was one of the many rules in the manual of “How to be a guardian angel” under the one of ‘Do not intervene in free will.’ and above ‘Never fall in love with your human’ just next to ‘Definitely do not break those two rules.’ But finally panic got the best of him and he ended up hitting him on the back which helped him spit out the food he had stuck on.
“Rensuke, you’re okay!” His mother reacted and she was the one who finished assisting the young man.
“Y-Yes… I’m fine” he said, taking a glass of water that his little sister offered him with a worried expression.
“Have we started again with the bad luck?” said the little girl
“It was just an oversight,” Kunigami muttered.
“And it is not the first of the day,” murmured the angel.
Fortunately for Chigiri’s luck the rest of the meal continued eventfulness
“I’m leaving, otherwise I’ll be late for class… again.” Kunigami stood up and said goodbye to his father and sister while his mother accompanied him to the door and left a kiss on his forehead as a farewell with a small word of warning.
“And may your angel protect you”
“Ma’am, I just arrived… I’m doing my best,” said Chigiri, but then he began to question whether it was safe to even let the boy go to school, if only in his house his life had been in danger so many times, he couldn’t imagine as it would be in the streets where he knew that everything would multiply by a thousand.
And his bad feeling was absolutely right.
Chigiri had stopped counting the number of disasters he had avoided along the way. As soon as it started they had come across a boy riding a bicycle and carrying a load of sharp objects, to a car that had run a red light, luckily he managed to avoid all of Lady Death’s attempts without even his human noticing the danger in which he had been.
Being a guardian angel was a silent and cruel job since it was not recognized, but in the end it was worth it.
But Chigiri was questioning whether this was really worth it.
—————————
“I’M OUT”
Chigiri shouted, dropping the huge file on the archangel’s desk. His hair was unkempt and he was feeling extremely tired and it had only been ONE day. No, he wasn’t going to continue with this.
“I didn’t sign for this, that child doesn’t need a guardian angel, maybe an exorcism to remove whatever is causing him so much harm but I can’t go on!”
Archangel Ego silently watched Chigiri’s outburst, unimpressed, as if he had seen this same scene several times before.
“Are you done with your tantrum?” He asked once Chigiri was silent, the angel was going to answer that it was not a tantrum but the archangel spoke first “What a curious use of words, because in reality you signed for this” Ego moved his hand making a scroll appear written in bright golden letters and with Chigiri’s signature at the bottom: The guardian angel contract “Under contract you are obliged to spend at least a year with your human before you can resign from caring for him.” That explained why all the previous angels had resigned the exact moment the year had ended. “Now, stop bothering me, show up again in a year.”
“Wait!” but Ego had already pressed the button sending him back to earth.
Chigiri screamed in frustration but finally resigned himself.
One day had already passed… there were 364 left
DAY 2
A new day to take care of his human.
The morning was almost the same as the day before, so Chigiri was able to avoid most disasters before they happened and during classes the jinx didn’t seem so bad, or at least they were such minimal events that they weren’t worth it to worry or spend miracles. So Chigiri, resigned to the fact that he would stay with that human all year, took the opportunity to get to know his human better, to see how he developed, if he had friends, what his interests were. He quickly discovered that Kunigami didn’t actually seem to have many friends… in fact he didn’t have any.
Maybe it was the jinx…no one liked being around someone with bad luck. Or maybe it was because the boy had a very intimidating appearance, even if it had taken the angel only a day to realize that the boy was actually as sweet and soft as a marshmallow.
That day he also discovered that the boy had a very strong love for soccer and that he was actually quite good at playing it. In reality it seemed that the court was the only place where he performed without problems. Chigiri had spent the entire training session watching him carefully, it was a spectacle to see him kick the ball with superhuman strength. He had talent and Chigiri as his guardian angel had to make sure the boy took advantage of his strengths. Maybe if they both focused on the field they could survive that year together.
DAY 7
That day Kunigami had a series of practice matches against other schools. Even if in most of his training sessions this week there had been no further inconveniences, Chigiri felt that he could not be distracted for a single moment.
Until he saw a familiar face among the members of the opposing team.
“Isagi?”
The other angel was accompanying a short boy with brown hair in a bob cut with blonde roots and a big smile. Isagi seemed to notice his presence and greeted him. Once his humans entered the field, the angels took the opportunity to talk to each other.
“So you finally got your human assigned?” Isagin had said in mid-conversation
“Yes, a special case,” he explained.
“Oh, like Nagi.”
“Nagi?” Chigiri looked at him confused and Isagi pointed in the distance to another team and a boy with purple hair. Next to him was an angel with white hair and a tired look. “Did they assign that lazy man a human?!” Chigiri liked Nagi, they were good friends up there, but as a friend he did not deny that Nagi was the worst choice for a guardian angel, he never did his job well because it was a lot of trouble.
“Yes, and it’s been six months without being changed, it’s a new achievement, plus it seems like he enjoys it… maybe too much…” Isagi said and Chigiri frowned when he saw how the angel was practically lying on the human’s back.
Who was taking care of who there!
“Yo” Nagi greeted them when his human team entered the field. joing their conversation
“So our humans play soccer?” Chigiri said, a small idea sparking in his head.
“Yes! But… Meguru is not doing very well, I doubt his teammates understand him”
“Reo is good with people,” said Nagi. “Reo wants to win the world cup, it’s our dream, but everyone around him is a fake.” Chigiri was surprised by two things, one, that Nagi spoke so much in one sentence and two, how he said our dream…
It was already a Nagi’s problem, and Chigiri lerned over the centuries don’t get in a Nagi’s problem
“My human is not doing well either… I have a proposal for you” the angel smiled “We have to give them a little push”
—————————
“Excuse me, I think that’s my bottle.”
The purple-haired boy approached Kunigami, pointing to the bottle next to him on the bench. Kunigami looked at him surprised because that bottle had not been there a few seconds ago, but a certain angel had been in charge of moving them.
“Oh, sure” Kunigami returned it to him “Good game, you move very well”
Reo smiled.
“Thank you, that goal you scored from midfield was amazing, you have a very strong left foot.”
“Yes, the monster said it was very cool!” A third voice had joined in, Kunigami and Reo turned to meet Bachira. “Oh, I found this on my side, it must be yours, it’s the name of your jersey,” he said, holding up an orange bottle.
“Thank you, I was looking for it… What do you mean by monster?”
“Well, if we talk about dribbles, I think yours are definitely monstrous,” Reo commented, making Bachira smile.
And the conversation between those three continued to the point that they ended up exchanging numbers and going to a cafe together
Kunigami’s team had won that mini practice tournament but at the same time Chigiri had taken a guardian angel victory by getting his human to finally make friends.
DAY 30
The Angels doesn’t have a family, that’s not how things work. But seeing Kunigami interact with his sisters made Chigiri wish he had one.
“Ren, can you help me with my hair please?” His older sister asked entering the room where Kunigami had been lifting weights.
“Nee-chan look!” The younger sister had arrived earlier and had convinced her brother to use her instead of his weight, Kunigami had accepted with a smile.
“Guys be careful!”
“I can lift you too.”
“WHAT?”
“Come one Nee-chan! it’s fun!!”
Kunigami then offered her his free arm and with a little hesitation the young woman accepted it. At first she was scared when she started to get up from the ground but then she started laughing along with her little sister while Kunigami picked them up like it was nothing.
Chigiri just watched the scene with a smile and reacted in time to prevent some poorly placed weights from falling off the rack. No, the jinx wasn’t going to ruin this moment.
Once the little game was over, Kunigami was in charge of braiding her sister’s hair as she had asked. Those big, hard hands that could lift so much weight now moved skillfully between the locks of hair and created perfect little braids decorating it with some flower clips.
Chigiri then not only wondered what it would feel like to have a sister
Stroking his long red hair, the new question was:
How would it feel to have Kunigami’s hands in his hair?
DAY 45
“You’re a nerd…”
The angel felt that he would never understand his human completely and at the same time he understood him completely.
For example
Kunigami was a soccer lover and definitely a gym addict, he had all the characteristics to be the typical popular athlete in the movies, but on the other hand he was a total superhero nerd who had his room full of Ironman and Young Justice posters and could talk for hours about comics and the chronology of the Avengers.
That nerdy side is what used to fuel his weekend afternoons doing superhero movie marathons.
Chigiri as an angel did not understand human entertainment, he did not understand or possess the same emotions as humans, angels were supposed to be prefects and emotions usually interrupted that.
But he had found a certain fascination in watching Kunigami watch movies.
Seeing how his face was filled with emotion with the scenes, how he would be happy or frown or get sad if the scene warranted it. They were almost micro expressions but Chigiri found himself always watching Kunigami’s face when they watched movies together. He learned every slight movement of his eyebrows or grimace of his mouth and then related them to the scenes he saw on the screen. At one point Chigiri also began to enjoy those films, infected by the same human passion as him.
And he liked that.
Even if it was through his human, he liked that little dosis of emotions
DAY 90
Three months now and Chigiri had completely gotten used to the routine, he knew what the dangerous activities were and how to avoid the jinx. It was tiring but as time went by he had found pleasure in helping Kunigami have it easier. The boy deserved easier
One of the parts of the routine that Chigiri had become most fond of was the human habit of getting up early on non-school days to run on the beach. Watching the sunrise while the first rays of the morning illuminated his orange hair and made it shine as if it was gold, as if Kunigami was the sun itself.
DAY 150
Valentine’s Day, day of love and friendship, moment when all those little humans in love fell under the power of capitalism and decided to buy gifts for their special little person. Chigiri was not against the holiday, he had simply had the occasional fight with Cupid for several years. It was not Chigiri’s fault that he was much cuter than that winged baby in diapers.
But well, back to the main topic.
The humans seemed to really enjoy the day. Everyone except his human.
Chigiri did not consider Kunigami a romantic, if the boy had a love or was looking for a romance the angel was sure it would be with a soccer ball. That’s why Chigiri was so surprised by the long face his human had all day while he watched his classmates receive chocolates or find gifts in their seats or lockers. The last straw that broke the camel’s back for the angel was during dismissal time, it was how the boy still had a little sparkle of hope in his eyes as he went to open his locker, a sparkle that disappeared when he found nothing.
The Angel felt a pressure in his chest.
Chigiri knew that what he was going to do was wrong… very wrong, but he couldn’t help it, not after seeing Rensuke’s look of disappointment…
His human had a Jinx curse on him, a small miracle wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Chigiri moved his hand and a small breeze pushed some books from the locker that fell revealing a gift behind them (a gift that had definitely been there the whole time and the angel had not made it appear at all…), a box of assorted chocolates with a note that It said: Happy Valentine’s Day, Hero.
He knew this could get him in trouble, but Rensuke’s smile was totally worth it.
DAY 168
Chigiri watched the ball go from one side of the court to the other. By this point he had already learned all the technical terms of the game. He had learned the strategies and the positions. But above all he had learned to get excited about the plays.
This particular match had excited him the most, his human was giving an incredible performance. He had already scored two goals, one more and it would be a Hat trick and above all they would break the tie they were in now.
His team had to win.
Chigiri found himself shouting excitedly with the crowd, cheering for his human even though he knew no one could see or hear him.
Minute 90, they were going to give 3 more minutes of extra time, it was time to break that tie. The clock was ticking, neither team let its guard down. Until a window opened, at 38 meters, that was perfect, it was his range.
“Kunigami!” Chigiri shouted, his human kicked, the ball entered the goal “GOOOOL” Chigiri found himself jumping in his place, he didn’t understand what this emotion was, but at that moment he didn’t want to think about it, he just wanted to enjoy it while he rose a few centimeters from the floor because out of joy he had summoned his wings and began to fly.
He saw Kunigami’s Teammates rush to congratulate him and for a moment the angel wanted to do the same.
Then their eyes met, both smiling and then he saw the surprise spread across Kunigami’s face and his lips formed a small “wow” before his other companions threw themselves on top of him. Chigiri had frozen
Had he seen him?
After the match his human had acted as if nothing had happened, so Chigiri decided that everything had been a product of his imagination, perhaps a product of the emotion of the moment (an emotion that the angel should not feel) he had wanted at that moment to interact so much with his human that he had imagined that Kunigami could see him…
Yeah… that was…
DAY 180
He was fucked.
Yes, an angel was not supposed to curse, but there was no other way to define his situation.
He was totally, utterly, super hype mega FUCKED.
But thinking about it, it couldn’t be his fault, no one with half a brain could spend six months with Rensuke and not fall hopelessly in love with the boy.
Starting with the fact that the boy was built like a Greek god, he was so attractive that made the eyes hurt. Chigiri had come to believe that everyone was blind so that no one would notice him before or that perhaps the light his human emanated was so bright that he blinded everyone around him. Because that was the other point.
Rensuke shone like the sun.
He was honest, kind, sweet and caring. The love he showed to his family was immeasurable, but Chigiri had also lost count of the number of times he had stopped his walk back home to help a woman with groceries or cross the street, the number of cats he had taken down from trees (the angel’s favorite) or the times he had volunteered for some task, solely and under the idea that: Doing the good was the right thing to do.
Maybe that’s why the universe had put a jinx on him, to compensate for his good heart.
At first Chigiri thought that what he felt was admiration that he was such a correct human. Not that he was perfect, but he had proven to be someone who when the moment of truth arrived did not let his dark impulses dominate him and Chigiri had found this seemed the most admirable quality.
However, it was that same day that he realized that he had screwed up so much.
Reo had invited Kunigami and Bachira to have a friend’s date and Chigiri had been so happy that his human found friends that he promised himself not to let the jinx curse ruin that day.
He didn’t think he would be the one to ruin it.
Kunigami and his friends went to the mall, they had gone through the cinema and the arcade, Chigiri had protected Kunigami from the jinx in the process and in the meanwhile also had a good time talking with Isagi and Nagi who were also there taking care of their humans.
Isagi had not stopped talking not only about Bachira but about a certain human named Rin who seemed to be the friend? boyfriend?… “It’s complicated” of Bachira and it seems that Isagi also took a liking to him. Nagi had no eyes for anyone but Reo which Isagi had already warned him that he was entering dangerous territory and against the rules, although Chigiri thought that Isagi had nothing to criticize Nagi when he was in the same. (Maybe he didn’t have any right to criticize either)
Was during their time in the arcade when a group of three girls had approached their group of boys and in the end they had all decided to go to the food court together. Chigiri saw nothing wrong with it until each of the girls attached themselves to one of their boys.
Then each of the angels encountered a problem.
Isagi was always happy when Bachira could make friends, but the girl who attached to him seemed to have completely changed her mind when she heard the bob cut boy speak. Isagi immediately entered into overprotective mode when the girl said “You’re so weird” in a slightly derogatory tone.
In Reo’s case, he was very good at handling those types of situations.
Nagi wasn’t.
Nagi was about to send the girl who had attached herself to HIS Reo to a planet far, far away.
Chigiri could not observe the outcome of Nagi’s situation because he found himself annoyed by the girl who had become attached to Kunigami. She turned out to be incredibly clingy and kept asking him to let her touch his muscles even if Rensuke looked clearly uncomfortable.
She was groping him.
She was groping HIS Ren in front of him.
Chigir felt something growing in his chest although he didn’t quite understand what.
Maybe he was proud of his boy, he was attractive and trained daily to have those muscles, he deserved to be admired.
But maybe that girl should keep her hands to herself.
Or
Maybe Chigiri should teach her how to do it…
“Hey, don’t you feel like going somewhere else later or going to eat another day, here, I’ll give you my number,” the girl said and something clicked inside Chigiri.
He never thought that he would use the same jinx on another person, even a small one. He snapped his fingers and before the girl knew it, one of the people that was walking around the food court tripped, sending his tray of food flying and falling all over the girl, dirtying her from head to toes.
The girl screamed and her friends rushed to help her.
Kunigami, being the gentleman that he was, had offered her some napkins to clean herself but the girl seemed to be very upset and she and her friends simply left without saying goodbye.
“Did you just… use a jinx on that girl?” Isagi looked at Chigiri in surprise.
“And then you say I’m the jealous one,” said Nagi. “I wish I had thought of that sooner.”
“Oh shut up, I was just doing my job, she had a very bad vibe” Chigiri muttered.
Jealous?
Impossible.
Angels are not human, Angels doesn’t have feeling, so Angels couldn’t be jealous
But maybe…
Maybe he had been jealous… but that means… Oh he was fucked
“Well, I think that was the best,” Reo said with a shrug. “Let’s go order something to eat.” He and Bachira approached one of the establishments with Isagi and Nagi behind them, but Rensuke stayed in his place for a moment looking at where the girl and her friends had gone before saying
“I guess if you did it I’ll trust your judgment,” Kunigami muttered into the air… or maybe not…
Had Kunigami spoken to him?
DAY 200
This was probably the first time Chigiri had felt scared of his human.
That day they had had a qualifying match, their chance to go to nationals. Chigiri knew that his human was very tense, he had put more pressure on himself than he should have just because he was the Ace of his team. But that’s why Chigiri was there, to make sure things went well and that his boy was okay.
However, thing didn’t went as expected.
Shidou Ryusei, a player from the other team, aggressive and brash. He had completely ruined his plans to make this a good day and then had dared to humiliate his human in the middle of the court by calling him boring, a shitty hero and naive. Chigiri had felt furious, so much so that he even thought about breaking his code of: “Do not hurt humans” at that precise moment against the artificial tanning one. But he held back.
However, once at home his human had locked himself in his room and had no longer controlled. The angel could do nothing as he watched him throw clean punches against the wall, bruising his knuckles leaving them bright red.
This was not his Kunigami.
He didn’t recognize the dark person he had lashed out at that annoying individual after the game, exploding in anger at that moment.
And then he mentally scolded himself for it.
Of course he recognized it.
He was a human.
Humans have emotions that angels don’t.
Emotions that Chigiri had always been interested in learning from his human when he watched him play soccer, watch his movies or spend time with his sisters.
But Anger was also an emotion.
And Kunigami was still his human.
“Okay…Okay…let it out” Chigiri knew he couldn’t hear it but he said it anyway.
Anger
Pain
Despair
Frustration
It was normal to feel all that
Because he was human.
In that moment, Chigiri realized his own impossible expectations, Kunigami was not only a human, he was also just a teen boy. A boy that had a massive strength that luckily decided just focus it in soccer. A kind boy… that maybe all that time was over compensating. Chigiri always praised Kunigami’s ability to chose the right over his dark instincts, but never thought on how much the boy was actually repressing, hiding, turning it into a bomb that sooner or later will explode. Like in that exact moment.
“You’re not a perfect hero,” he whispered sweetly.“But you’re not the monster you think you are now… Just… Just human.”
Because every human has their low moments.
The angel watched as the flash of anger in Kunigami’s eyes changed to one of panic as he saw the blood stains on the dented wall and on his hands. He fell to his knees before sitting against the wall hugging his legs.
Again the thoughts of how many times Rensuke had suppressed that immeasurable force in the name of the greater good invaded Chigiri’s head. How many times had he felt scared of himself like that moment without anyone being able to comfort him and tell him that it was okay to let it out… Maybe that wasn’t the most appropriate way, hurting yourself is never the most appropriate way, but did anyone show him an other way? Maybe that outburst came from a deeper place, but if so then what his Ren needed was help, not hiding for fear of feeling judged or judging himself.
Chigiri sat next to him and this time it was he who felt frustrated, such a human emotion, but he was. Not knowing what else he could do other than just give him company, a company that the other couldn’t feel.
He rested his head against Kunigami’s shoulder and made a stupid move.
He placed a hand on his wounded knuckles and performed a small miracle by healing his wounds and easing the physical pain.
“I would like to do the same with your emotional pain… but depriving yourself of feeling is like depriving yourself of being human… And believe me, I can’t do that to you, take away from you something so precious” Chigiri made a pause before add “But I will be here” he whispered, caressing his knuckles “So it’s okay… it will be okay”
The Angel felt a little stupid for tried to comfort him with words he knew the human didn’t hear
Or so he thought.
But when Chigiri looked up he saw how Kunigami was looking in his direction.
And he would swear that his eyes had crossed… no…. that was impossible.
“You…” No. Impossible.
Kunigami sighed, looked forward again and calmed down.
“It’s okay,” Kunigami murmured, closing his eyes and tilting his head in Chigiri’s direction. “It’ll be okay.”
DAY 201
There were already too many coincidences that Chigiri couldn’t ignore.
But it seemed impossible.
It was impossible for Kunigami to see or hear him.
That time in the shopping center and after his goal in the game…
And the night before.
Last night he was sure he had seen him and hadn’t been surprised when he healed his injured knuckles. He had even tried to lean against him…
But that was impossible
But wasn’t also impossible for an angel have strong emotions?
But since Chigiri met Kunigami he had felt joy, jealousy, frustration…
Maybe his human had the ability to make the impossible possible…
However, that day Chigiri did not have much time to question the situation. It was no time for panic. He was the guardian angel who must take care of his human being and now he had realized one of the greatest sufferings that he had. How come none of his predecessors had seen it?!
He was going to help Kunigami. It doesn’t matter how much it cost.
That’s how he performed the greatest miracle he had done in a long time. He started with making it snow in the middle of summer. A snowfall so powerful that classes were canceled at both school and university. Event that forced the entire Kunigami family, especially his older sister, to stay at home.
Step two. Whisper an idea. Whispering was sometimes considering a way to manipulate other people will, and like an angel he only had the permision to whisper to his human, but for his plan to work he needed to broke some rules. He went to Kunigami’s sister and whispered to her the idea of talking to his brother. Something small, but it was obvious that it was something the girl had been thinking about for days and that little push from the angel was enough to make it happen.
Step three. Accompany Rensuke throughout the process, whether he could see it or not. So when his sister entered his room, Chigiri stood next to his human sister, placing a hand on his shoulder to give him strength. Using a small miracle of good luck in both of them as they talk.
And from that point he let everything flow.
Because he could maybe manipulate the weather, heal wounds, and even place ideas in people’s minds. But his power could never compare to how powerful loving someone could be, not even the Jinx could against the clear love that Kunigami had for his family and they for him.
His sister listened patiently, there were tears and then many hugs. They devised how she was going to talk to her parents and she was going to be the intermediary, a lucky act of the same fate that the Kunigami’s eldest daughter decided to study psychology. During that conversation, Chigiri could feel as if a heavy black shadow disappeared from Kunigami’s back.
The angel had simply watched the whole scene unfold and a new emotion took over a part of him: he felt envy. He envies that he shouldn’t experience such human emotions. But at the same time he felt entirely grateful to his human for allowing him to experience all of this, even if it was simply through him, as a simple spectator.
Or maybe he wasn’t an spectator anymore
Because his human had left him one last surprise that night. As Kunigami got ready to go to sleep he smiled slowly and whispered.
“Thank you”
And that night, as he watched his human sleep and that “thank you” repeating in his mind like a broken cassette, the angel began to review their memories together, the mornings watching the sun rise, the movie nights, the days of playing. He thought about the ups and downs, the happiness he showed when scoring a goal and the accumulated anger so explosive… He had been in those moments not only observing, he had felt the same as Kunigami, he had let his heart become infected by the heat of his emotions.
And a fire was born.
And after so much time together, that night Chigiri was finally able to give a name to that fire. An emotion that an angel should never feel for a human. But he wasn’t surprised. Chigiri had a deep desire that he himself had not realized because he thought he was not allowed to. That was impossible. The job of a guardian angel is to be a spectator and guide, but for the first time in his angelic life Chigiri wanted to be a participant in all of that.
Of joy, of pain… of love.
Love…
“Oh… what a gift and condemnation you have given me”
—————————
Almost ten days had passed since Rensuke and his sister’s conversation and Chigiri had already noticed several changes.
Rensuke had talked to his parents and apparently had let out a weight that he had carried for years, an inhuman guilt that he had been born with as a child and had not allowed himself to feel. But now he was letting him go along with the help of his sister and family.
Chigiri was proud.
Bachira and Reo had appeared at the house. It seems that both of them had intended to visit him earlier to console him after the game, but due to the snow (Chigiri’s fault, who on second thoughts exaggerated a bit with that) they had not been able to come earlier. They had shown up with candy and gifts with the intention of spending it together. Kunigami had then let go of one more invisible wall and had told the truth to his friends who had accepted him without problems.
“You still seem like a hero to us,” said Reo.
“Eh, but if one day you want to do your villain arc, let us know and we’ll unleash chaos,” Bachira said. Chigiri looked at Isagi who just shrugged.
And in the months that followed things continued to change for the better.
Therapy had helped Kunigami a lot with managing his anger, better understanding his emotions, and himself in general. And that had improved his relationship with his parents much more.
Kunigami now had many more friends. With Bachira and Reo they had opened a small soccer club that had been joined by Rin, Bachira’s official boyfriend, and his brother named Sae (who according to Isagi had had their own drama those months and Chigiri had enjoyed the gossip). Over time more people arrived, a loud boy named Raichi, another less loud boy but with a severe case of OCD whom Nagi had nicknamed Maid Barou, some of Reo’s friends (Chigiri was shocked to learn that one of them was a model) and so on. Slowly their little group grew more and more.
Talking about football.
Kunigami continued training without giving up on his dream of being a soccer hero who inspires others. He decided that that disastrous game against Shidou Ryusei was one more motivation to help him improve and find his personal style.
Chigiri was proud
But the most important change was also the most unexpected.
The Jinx was gone.
Maybe no one would notice that detail like the angel, who had fought the jinx day and night, noticed. But it became less and less present, that black cloud had begun to dissipate to the point of disappearing. Chigiri didn’t miss the jinx, it was exhausting, but without it he felt that his work had become so easy that it was almost dispensable.
One night he had said it on air while he was caressing his human’s hair to help him sleep.
“I feel like you don’t need me anymore.”
Kunigami’s brow had furrowed in his sleep, as if those words had bothered him.
“Yes, I do”
—————————
“Archangel, did you want to see me?” Chigiri was surprised when he was summoned to heaven, the year was not over yet.
“Oh, you, yeah” Ego sounded as disinterested as ever. “The year is going to end so…”
“Speaking of which, sir,” Chigiri interrupted him. “I’m not going to give up my human, I want to continue being his angel.”
“Yes, about that, it will not be possible”
Chigiri blinked a few times.
“What?”
Ego did not answer immediately, instead he took out a long scroll and handed it to Chigiri. The Guardian Angel looked at him confused before starting to read and slowly starting to pale.
“Those are all the rules you broke,” Ego said.
“I…” underlined and highlighted at the end of the scroll was his greatest offense: Falling in love with his human.
“From this moment you are relieved of your duty as a guardian angel and you must face the respective punishment” Ego spoke more in a curricular manner. But after a moment of silence he added “Oh, you can go the other way” Chigiri looked at him confused again “Because this human was a special case from the beginning an exception can be made, you can still be a guardian angel, you can be assigned a new human. But for that you must go through a reformation, all your memories of this human will be erased, as if this last year had not existed.”
“I…” Forget Kunigami or be punished?
Chigiri turned his gaze from the archangel to the scroll and read every one of his infractions, every moment of emotion he had felt. He paused on that last line, reading it over and over again.
He smiled
Yes, he had fallen in love with his human, but who in his place wouldn’t have done the same? Kunigami had shown him a world of possibilities the angel had never considered and he was grateful for that. The boy now had a better relationship with his family, he had friends and the jinx was gone. As far as the angel was concerned, he had done his job and committed the worst sin for an angel… he had fallen in love.
No, he didn’t want to forget this experience.
He didn’t want to forget meeting Kunigami Rensuke.
He didn’t want to forget loving Kunigami Rensuke.
He was more than willing to accept the punishment.
—————————
Kunigami wasn’t sure when it started.
At first he thought that he was hallucinating, that his lonely bisexual ass along with teenage hormones had created that angelic figure with long red hair that he sometimes felt like he could see out of the corner of his eye when something bad was going to happen but didn’t.
His mother always talked about guardian angels. And considering his natural bad luck he needed one.
That was the only logical explanation for him, why that beautiful creature could not be human. An angel. That was the only explanation.
The first time he was sure he had seen him was after a goal in a match. Jumping and smiling while he celebrated with him. It was an instant, he only saw it completely for an instant before he disappeared again, but that was more than enough. From there he could only see him out of the corner of his eye when he relaxed enough, he saw him during the mornings when he went running on the beach, the nights watching movies he felt his comforting presence at his side. And his bad luck had definitely disappeared, or at least was less bothersome.
The accident at the mall was another moment he couldn’t forget. He was having a great time with Bachira and Reo and then those girls had shown up. Kunigami was very shy in general but the whole situation had become very uncomfortable, the girl wouldn’t stop touching him even though he had asked her to stop and every once in a while he could see his angel, his angel was upset and then… Boom!
A tray of food fell on the girl.
It had seemed like an accident, but he knew it wasn’t like that. That had definitely been his angel, but it was crazy to say something like that out loud so he simply thanked him when no one else could hear him.
The following months his angel became more present, sometimes he would whisper an answer during an exam or give him words of support before a game.
And it was after a game when everything exploded.
Kunigami never let that side of him come out. Not since he was a child and had hit those children who had hurt his sister, not since he saw the disappointment on his parents’ faces, the fear on the very sister he had wanted to protect. He had done the right thing in the wrong way and he couldn’t afford it again. He must never let that darkness out. But that day he couldn’t hide it anymore, he had exploded everything thanks to the mockery of that demon on the field.
Kunigami had luckily managed to hide it before it exploded against the people around him, if he let all that out it would only be against himself.
He hit the wall of his room again and again and again, his knuckles were numb, even if he saw red he felt no pain.
What woke him up from the trance was not seeing the red wall or the red knuckles, but a red hair creature, his reflection in the window, that looked at him in panic. Just then Kunigami felt the weight of his actions and fell to his knees. What happened next was blurry, his vision was blurry. He felt a comforting warmth on his knuckles and his wounds disappeared.
“I would like to do the same with your emotional pain… but depriving yourself of feeling is like depriving yourself of being human…” This was the first time he could hear his beautiful voice so clearly and it warmed his heart in a way that couldn’t explain “And believe me, I can’t do that to you, take away from you something so precious” Precious? How could a creature as pure and beautiful as his angel think that he had something ‘precious’ to offer “But I will be here” he saw the fine hands caressing his knuckles, he saw him as real as that day after his goal, even more, sitting next to him, keeping him company even after having seen the monster he was “So it’s okay… it will be okay.”
Kunigami wanted to say something to him, but his head hurt and the angel disappeared again, he couldn’t see him anymore.
Kunigami sighed, looked forward again and calmed down.
“It’s okay,” Kunigami murmured, closing his eyes and tilting his head in the direction where his angel had been before “It’ll be okay.”
The next day it had snowed, in the middle of summer, a rare event, but Kunigami was grateful for it, he didn’t feel like going to school. Although he hadn’t expected his sister to come into the room asking him if they could talk either. Kunigami was going to refuse until he felt the warm hand on his shoulder and saw his angel’s smile.
“It was you… obviously it was you…” Always taking care of him… even if he didn’t deserve it.
Kunigami then had taken a long breath and let it all out.
He cried, his sister cried, they hugged and after a long time the boy felt understood and with a peace that he felt he had not experienced since he was a child.
Everything went uphill from that moment.
He talked to his parents, he talked to his friends, he looked for help, he decided to improve in soccer, he made more friends…
And all that thanks to his angel.
Kunigami didn’t know how to show him his gratitude, because every time he went to talk to him directly he completely disappeared from sight. But he could feel his company at night, his warm touch caressing his hair, or when he placed a shy goodnight kiss on his forehead. Kunigami wanted to tell him how much he cared about him, how grateful he was to him for showing him a side of life he hadn’t considered before… but he was afraid that if he told him his angel would disappear forever.
“I feel like you don’t need me anymore.”
He heard his beautiful voice at that point between sleep and wakefulness and wanted to free himself from Morpheus’s arms so he could answer him, tell him that it was a lie, that he was the brightest light in his abyss and that although it was true that he could now walk alone that didn’t mean he didn’t want to walk with him by his side. Being able to do things alone doesn’t mean he couldn’t choose to be accompanied.
But the dream had already trapped him and he could only answer:
“Yes, I do”
The next morning he no longer saw his angel, neither the next nor the one after that.
He had disappeared.
A sadness invaded him and his friends noticed it. Bachira had been very direct about the matter and had called it: Face of the broken heart. Reo had been more gentle and understanding, not trying to push and waiting for Kunigami to tell them when he felt ready.
Kunigami for his part tried to distract himself from the whole situation using soccer. He was playing a friendly match with his small club, which had stopped being small a long time ago, when he saw him. Standing outside the court, dressed in casual clothes, he looked very human but he would recognize that face and that beautiful red hair wherever he went.
It was him
But was he really there?
Was Kunigami imagining him because he missed him?
“Who is the redhead over there?” Raichi said.
Kunigami felt his heart skip a beat. Raichi was also seeing it, everyone was seeing him. Kunigami left the ball on the ground and walked off the court despite the complaints of his teammates.
He was real, he wasn’t imagining it.
He was the angel
His angel.
He stopped in front of the red-haired boy who offered him a curious smile as he tilted his head slightly and saw it in his eyes.
“Hello, Hero.”
“Hello, Angel.”