Rei Ao dipped his head in acknowledgment, his gaze sweeping over the quintuplets with a barely perceptible curiosity. Gabriel and Satania seemed uninterested.
After a beat of hesitation, Ichika turned to Gabriel and ventured, "Gabriel, do you happen to have an older sister?"
The abrupt question made Gabriel blink. Her half-lidded blue eyes opened a little wider as she looked at Ichika in mild puzzlement. She nodded. "Yeah, I do. Why?"
How do these transfer students know she has a sister? And why ask her out of nowhere?
With that confirmation, the sisters were almost certain. But Ichika falteredhow was she supposed to continue? They'd promised Zelel to keep things quiet. They couldn't just blurt out, "Your sister's an angel and staying at our house," right? And what if Gabriel wasn't an angelwouldn't that be awkward?
As the air grew delicately awkward, Rei Ao's lips curved into a meaningful smile. His gaze passed over the quintuplets and finally settled on Gabriel. In a tone that sounded offhand yet subtly leading, he said slowly:
"Gabriel, don't you think the aura around these Nakano girls feels familiar?"
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
Currently You can Read 220+ Chapters Ahead of Others!
Chapter 1,006: Angel Sister Meet...
"An aura?"
Rei Ao's hint made Gabriel frown. She reflexively focused her senses. As an angel, she was sensitive to certain kinds of energy fluctuations.
At first, she didn't think much of it. But when she carefully felt the faint, deliberately scrubbed-away traces clinging to the Nakano sisters, her expression changed in an instant.
It was a residue of energy that was pure and holyshot through with light and order. Faint, yes, as if someone had tried to wash it offbut she could never mistake that essence.
"This is the aura of holy light?!"
Gabriel's eyes flew wide. The laziness vanished from her face, replaced by shock and disbelief.
"And it's my sister's aura?!"
"Youyou've met my sister?" Her voice pitched up with excitement, drawing more curious stares from around the hall.
Satania was stunned too, looking from Gabriel to the quintuplets, totally lost.
The Nakano sisters were startled by Gabriel's sudden outburst, but in their hearts they were finally certain. Yesthis was the sister Zelel-san had been looking for.
The truth had popped out in the most unexpected way, and the hallway suddenly felt theatrically charged. Gabriel's slip had frozen the air; the gathering stares made the quintuplets feel the pressureand made Gabriel realize she'd overreacted. She reined in her expression, though the shock and a flicker of panic in her eyes wouldn't go away.
Her sister, Zelelthe angel academy's top graduate, known for excellence, diligence, and a near-rigid devotion to the ruleshad actually descended to the human world? And already made contact with these new transfer students?
Gabriel's heart sank. She knew her sister too well. If Zelel saw her current stateslacking off, addicted to online games, phoning in her angelic dutiesthe consequences would be unthinkable. She'd be dragged back to Heaven for "re-education" on the spot.
Watching Gabriel's shifting expression only firmed the sisters' conviction. Ichika hesitated, then, remembering Zelel's urgency and worry, mustered her courage and lowered her voice.
"Gabriel Zelel-san due to an accident, she arrived at our house yesterday. She said she's here to find you. She's very worried about you"
"S-She's at your place now?" Gabriel's voice sounded a little dry.
"She's staying with us for the time being," Ichika answered solemnly.
Confirmed. Her sister was hereand close.
A tingling numbness crawled over Gabriel's scalp. Her instincts screamed at her to find a place to hide, but reason said it was pointless.
By now, part of the quintuplets' attention had shifted to Rei Ao and Satania, who'd been observing the whole time. They noticed that neither of them looked the least bit surprised by words like "angel" and "sister," as if Gabriel's non-human identity was old news.
Ichika couldn't help asking, "You two don't seem surprised?"
Rei Ao's mild smile deepened a shade. Calmly, he introduced himself. "Formally: I'm Rei Ao, a friend of Gabriel's."
"As for her" He pointed to the redhead, who was a little miffed at being ignored. "Kurumizawa Satania McDowellas you can see, a demon."
"A demon?!"
The quintuplets gasped in unison, eyes even wider. It was all too much to processangels, demons, and they were classmates?
What was happening to the world?
Yotsuba suddenly remembered something and pointed at Rei Ao, stammering, "W-wait! Rei Ao are you the legendary straight-perfect-scores, every-subject, every-exam super honor studentRei Ao-senpai?!"
Rei Ao nodded casually. "Mm. If there isn't another Rei Ao at this school, that should be me."
A legendary academic prodigy who also seemed to knowmaybe even be acquainted withangels and demons. Just who was this Rei Ao?
The quintuplets stared at him with even greater curiosity.
Gabriel, meanwhile, couldn't care less about honor students. Her head was full of one problem: how to face her sister. She raked a hand through her short blond hair, then sighed.
"Fine. Got it. After school, I'll go with you to see her."
Things had gone too far to run from now. She could only hope her sister would go easy on her for owning up.
After school, at the Nakano home.
When Gabriel finally dragged her feet into the living room behind the quintupletsRei Ao and Satania in tow (the latter purely there to enjoy the show)Zelel, who had already sensed her sister's aura, rose to her feet at once.
"Gabriel!"
Zelel's voice carried a barely noticeable tremor of excitementbut more than that, an assessing edge that promised looming severity. She strode forward, eyes sweeping up and down her sister like a precision scanner.
Wrinkled school uniform. Tousled short blond hair. Shifty gaze. An aura that all but broadcast laziness and indolence. She was nothing like the little sister in Zelel's memoriesmischievous at times, yes, but fundamentally earnest and hardworking.
"S-Sis" Gabriel hung her head, voice as tiny as a mosquito's buzz, not daring to meet her sister's eyes.
"Gabriel!" Zelel's tone snapped to strict, haloed with the authority of a seraph. "Look at the state you're in! Sloppy clothes, listless spirit, not a trace of the radiance or sense of mission an angel should have! Is this what your training in the human world has come to? Those 'helping humans' and 'spreading kindness' items in your regular reportswere those all"
Chapter 1,007: Show me your Halo!
Zelel had only just begun scolding Gabriel when her gaze suddenly tightenedthen snapped to Rei Ao, who'd come in with Gabriel and was standing off to the side as relaxed as if he were in his own backyard.
To Zelel's senses, the black-haired boy looked ordinary. But his very existence felt like a bottomless vortex, radiating a vast, unfathomable depth that made even her heart tighten. What shocked her more was the faint aura on him that seemed to share a source with the powerful barrier blanketing the human world.
She set her lecture aside at once. Her blue eyes fixed sharply on Rei Ao, and with a gravity and a hint of uncertainty she asked:
"You who exactly are you, sir? That auraare you the 'First Awakened' people have been talking about in the human world lately?"
"First Awakened?"
The unfamiliar term left the Nakano quintuplets, who were there to watch the show, completely puzzled.
Rei Ao wasn't surprised she could sense it. He smiled, still perfectly composed. "Zelel-san, sharp eye. But 'First Awakened' is just something people call me. I'm Rei Aoand as you can see, an ordinary student."
"An ordinary student?" Zelel clearly didn't buy it. Feeling that star-wide, perfectly restrained presence on him, every alarm bell rang in her head. A being on this level could never be summed up as "ordinary." His power was immeasurableperhaps beyond many high ranks she'd met in Heaven.
"The powerful ward covering the human world nowblocking outside prying and disrupting the descent paths of angels was that your doing?" she pressed, seeking confirmation.
Rei Ao neither admitted nor denied it. He only said mildly, "The human world has its own order. Too much outside interference isn't good for the beings who live here. Setting up a filter to keep out the uninvited or ill-intentioned is necessary, don't you think?"
He said it lightly, but in Zelel's ears it crashed like thunder. That was as good as admitting that the vast barriertroublesome even for her and the reason her descent had gone off coursewas indeed set by this seemingly young student.
What terrifying powerand command over rules.
The quintuplets didn't grasp the details of "ward," "awakened," or "outside interference," but they caught the key point: that impressive "barrier," serious enough for an angel to treat solemnly, had been placed by Rei Ao to protect the human world?
Yotsuba's eyes lit up at once as she looked at Rei Ao with open admiration. Ichika, Nino, and Miku also stared, startled and impressed. They'd thought he was merely a top studentwho knew he carried a hidden, noble role: a guardian of the human world.
Gabriel and Satania traded looks. They'd known he wasn't simple, but they hadn't expected something this bigenough to affect Heaven's gateways.
Zelel glanced over everyone's changing expressions, then back at Rei Ao's calm faceas if he'd done nothing more than flick a speck of dust awayand felt a tangle of emotions. On one hand, anger and disappointment at her sister's decline; on the other, a being this powerful in the human world, seemingly benevolent toward its ordera huge variable that Heaven would have to reassess. And because of this ward, she wouldn't be able to take her sister back so easily.
The air grew subtle and complicated. The reunion-turned-intervention had been interrupted by this bombshell, and now everyone's attention was on the black-haired boy with the faint smile.
Yet amid this delicate mood, one person was doing everything she could to shrink into the couch cushionsGabriel. From the moment she walked in she'd kept her head down, moving as little as possible, hoping all her sister's attention would stay fixed on the bigger problem named Rei Ao.
No such luck. Zelel, famous for her rigor and thoroughness, hadn't forgotten why she was here. After that brief face-off with Rei Ao, her gaze swung back like a spotlight to her sister.
Gabriel's evasive eyes, guilty posture, and the lazy aura so unlike a holy angel's only stoked Zelel's doubts and anger. She studied Gabriel closelyfrom the rumpled uniform, to the slightly messy blond crop that looked like she'd just rolled out of bedwait.
Zelel's eyes locked on the crown of Gabriel's head. There, at the swirl of hair, she caught the faintest, almost hair-colored off-tone dark sheen. That was not the brilliant gold an angel's halo should cast.
A stunning suspicion flashed through her mind.
"Gabriel!" Zelel's voice leapt, stern and incredulous in equal measure. "Lift your head and let me see your halo!"
"!!"
Gabriel went rigid, her face going chalk white. The thing she'd dreaded had arrived.
"S-Sis the halo there's really nothing to see" she tried one last plea.
"Now. Immediately." Zelel's tone left no room to wriggle. The pressure of a higher angel rolled out unconsciously, making the air in the living room feel heavy.
The quintuplets and Satania held their breath, nerves tautthey'd never seen Zelel this angry.
Gabriel knew she couldn't escape. Grimacing, dragging her feet, and under her sister's near-sparking glare, she reluctantly willed her halo out of concealment
A ringa halo that should have shone with pure, warm goldwobbled into view above her head. But the light wasn't gold. It was dim, as if buried under a thick coat of dusta dull gray. Look closer, and the rim even bled a trace of ominous black.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
Currently You can Read 220+ Chapters Ahead of Others!
Chapter 1,008: Gabriel is my girlfriend, she stay...
At that moment, the pitch-black halo above Gabriel's head drew every eye in the room.
"Ththis this is the aura of corruption?!"
Zelel looked as if she'd been struck by lightning, shock and heartbreak flooding her blue eyes. An angel's halo is the manifestation of an angel's essence. A halo this dimnearly blackwas clearly a sign that the soul had been tainted and was sliding toward fall.
"Gabriel! What what on earth have you been doing in the human world? How did you end up like this?"
"!!!"
The Nakano quintuplets were stunned, too. They didn't fully grasp what "fall" entailed, but judging from Zelel's end-of-the-world expressionand that pitch-black hue, the exact opposite of the radiant angelic glow they'd imaginedthey knew this was very, very bad.
Just as Zelel was about to explode over her sister's supposed fall, Gabriel did something that left everyone slack-jawed.
She clicked her tongue in embarrassment, reached up, andlike taking off a hatvery casually removed the dull, lightless halo from above her head?!
Under Zelel's and the quintuplets' blank stares, Gabriel held the dusty halo, flipped up the hem of her school jacket, and briskly rubbed it several times
A miracle.
With each wipe, the dingy gray came off like grime, revealing the dazzling gold beneath. The halo once again shed a soft, pure golden light. Then, as everyone stood petrified, Gabriel casually put the newly gleaming halo back on her head.
Put it back on?
"..."
Dead silence fell over the living room. The quintuplets' jaws were about to hit the floor. Everyone's brains seemed to freeze.
A-an angel's halocan you really just pop it off, wipe it like a lightbulb, and stick it back on?
This was absolutely not the solemn, sacred vibe they'd imagined!!!
Satania was shaking with suppressed laughter on the side. The shock and grief on Zelel's face froze in place, turning into extreme bewildermentand a furious feeling of being toyed with.
"Ga-bri-el! What is the meaning of this?!"
Under all those stares, Gabriel scratched her cheek and mumbled, eyes drifting, "I I just haven't been praying or doing maintenance properly. Ran low on energy, got a bad connection, a little dust buildup, that's all. It's not 'corruption'"
"D-dust buildup?!"
Zelel could feel her blood pressure spiking. An angelic halo gets "dusty" from laziness? That was the biggest joke in Heaven's historywhile also proving just how slack her sister had become down here.
"Whatever the case!" Zelel forced her anger down and said, cuttingly firm, "Your current state is grossly below the standard for an angel. I must take you back to Heaven at once for systematic re-education and purification!"
