Megumi Kato and Michiru Hyodo didn't know Zelel, but they, too, were surprised by the new student's extraordinary presence.
Standing at the lectern, Zelel ignored the many looks from below. In a cool, melodious voicecrisp as if reading a reportshe introduced herself, briefly and to the point.
"I am Tenma Zelel White. I'm transferring into this class starting today. Please take care of me."
Shizuka Hiratsuka seemed a bit helpless about such an excessively formal introduction, but still led the applause.
"Welcome, Zelel."
"Mm you can sit" Her gaze swept the room and came to rest on an empty seat. "By the windownext to Rei Ao."
"Yes."
Zelel dipped her chin, then walked with measured steps to the vacant desk beside Rei Ao and sat, not a single extraneous expression or movement the whole way.
Once seated, she fixed her eyes on Rei Ao.
"Hm?" Megumi and Michiru both noticed the stare and found it odd, but since Rei Ao didn't react, they let it go.
In another classroom
Gabriel sat on pins and needles the entire period. She couldn't focus on the lecture (not that she usually did). From time to time she sneaked a glance in a certain direction, wailing inwardly.
Because she could feel her sister's presence againand very, very close!
"Why is Sis back again?!"
The break finally came. At the bell, Gabriel was the first to try to slip outonly for Rei Ao, who had appeared beside her desk at some point, to press a hand on her shoulder.
"Where are you going?" he chuckled. "Come meet your sister with me."
Rooftop.
"SSis why are you" Gabriel's voice trembled as Zelel stepped up to her.
Zelel's eyes swept over her younger sister, still strictbut compared to last night's thunder, there was a touch more resignation and the calm of a decision made.
The Nakano quintuplets were there as well. They didn't seem surprised by Zelel's appearance.
Zelel looked to Rei Ao and the Nakanos and explained:
"After returning to Heaven, I submitted a detailed report to my superiors. After discussion, Heaven has decided not to forcibly recall Gabriel for the time being."
Gabriel's eyes lit upthen the word "for the time being" made her tense again.
Zelel continued, "However, regarding Gabriel's situation in the human world and her relationship with you, Rei Ao-sama, Heaven deems closer observation and assessment necessary. As her elder sister, I also have a duty to supervise Gabriel and prevent her from sinking further into sloth."
She paused and delivered the key decision. "Therefore, I applied for long-term residence in the human world, and I will enter this school as a transfer student to better carry out observation and supervision."
Her gaze turned to the Nakano sisters. "As for lodging, I have already discussed it with the Nakanos. They have agreed to let me continue staying at their home. I am very grateful for your hospitality."
Ichika waved her hands quickly. "Please, don't mention it, Zelel-sanreally."
The other sisters nodded one after another. Though having an angel move in brought pressure, they couldn't bring themselves to refuseand their curiosity about an angel was impossible to resist.
"Wwhat?!" Gabriel finally processed the dreadful news and practically collapsed, boneless, her face full of despair. "No way!!!"
Just imagining living under her sister's X-ray-like stern gazeno more gaming at will, sleeping in, or phoning it inmade life look bleak.
Watching Gabriel's picture of utter dejection, Rei Ao couldn't help but laugh. Patting her shoulder, he said to Zelel:
"Since that's Heaven's decision, I have no objections. Welcome aboard, Zelel-san. However"
He shifted to a teasing tone. "Supervise all you want, just don't manage my girlfriend too strictly. She needs to relax once in a while."
"W-who's your girlfriend!" Gabriel protested, cheeks burning but under her sister's severe stare, her voice dwindled to a whisper.
Zelel was still somewhat uncomfortable with Rei Ao's claim, but she kept her composure. "I will observe and supervise according to principles of fairness. As for other matters that need clarification between Heaven and Your Lordship"
The rooftop conversation ended amid Gabriel's lamentations and the Nakanos' complicated curiosity. The warning bell rang, and everyone had to disperse for class.
Head drooping like a frostbitten eggplant, Gabriel let Satania half tug, half drag her away, muttering "It's over," "Life is meaningless," and the like. The Nakano sisters traded looks and headed back to class together, carrying mixed feelings about a long-term angelic forewoman in their home.
Rei Ao also turned to leavewhen Zelel called out to him.
"Rei Ao-sama, a moment, please."
He stopped and turned. Zelel hadn't left with the others; she stood there alone, golden hair stirring lightly in the breeze, blue eyes fixed steadily on himprobing, with a trace of unmistakably sisterly concern.
"Is there something else, Zelel-san?" Rei Ao asked, unhurried.
Zelel seemed to weigh her words, then chose a relatively direct question, even if it brought the faintest, almost imperceptible awkwardness to her serious face.
"Regarding you and my younger sister Gabrielthis so-called 'couple' relationshiphow far have you progressed?"
It wasn't easy for her to ask; it clearly lay outside her usual official duties. But for her sister's sake, she had to know.
Rei Ao smiled, meaningful. Far from feeling awkward about the slightly private question, he stepped forward of his own accord, leaning close. Zelel stiffened slightly at his sudden nearness.
Bending down, his lips near the delicate curve of her ear, he murmured with warm breath and thick teasing in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"Progress? Heh everything we shouldand shouldn'thave done, we've done."
~~~
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Chapter 1,012: Zelel visiting Gabriel's Room...
He deliberately leaned on certain words, letting the insinuation in his tone all but overflow.
When he finished, he even played a prankexhaling a light breath against that sensitive ear.
Before Zelel could react, his figure flickered like a wayward breeze, and he was gone, leaving only the faintest trace of his scent in the air.
"!!!"
Zelel froze where she stood.
Those usually placid sapphire eyes went round, as if she'd just heard sheer impossibility.
A flush raced across her fair cheeks at a speed visible to the naked eye, spreading all the way down her neck.
Her mind blanked from the answer's bluntness and impact; even the wings folded at her back trembled, almost imperceptibly.
"E-everything you've done all of it?"
She echoed the words under her breath as imagesexplicitly forbidden in Heaven's educationof overly intimate contact between the sexes flashed, unbidden, through her head.
Coupled with her sister's slothful tendencies and Rei Ao's forceful personality
"Boom!"
It was as if thunder detonated inside her skull. Zelel felt her angelic core on the verge of stalling from information overload and imagination.
She stood there, dazed, the breeze teasing her golden hair, unable to disperse the extreme shock, confusion, and worldview-shattering disarray on her face.
The model honor-student angel known for calm and rule-keeping was, in that moment, utterly undone. Even her halo, usually a steady glow, seemed to flicker with the turbulence of her emotions.
"Outrageous utterly improper!"
She nearly ground the words out between her teethanger not only at the thought that her sister may have crossed a line, but also at Rei Ao's brazen, almost provocative way of stating it, which left her mortified and irate.
She shook her head hard, as if to banish those improper images and Rei Ao's infuriating smile from her mind. A series of deep breaths lifted the emblem of sanctity at her chest. Heaven's purification technique began to circulate within her, trying to soothe the surge.
It barely worked.
The faint pink at her delicate ears and the stiffness in a stance that was no longer its usual elegant standard were silent tattletales that her inner turmoil had far from settled.
She couldn't wait any longer.
Gabriel needed immediate, round-the-clock supervision.
She had to see her sister's situation with her own eyes; she had to correct and guard against everything in Gabriel's obviously veering lifestyleespecially anything involving Rei Ao that should not be happening.
After school.
Zelel accompanied Rei Ao and the others to Gabriel's apartment.
She tilted her chin up, fixing precisely on one window. From there she sensed her sister's familiar, faintly displeasing aura of sloth seeping out.
She smoothed the hem of her immaculate uniform skirt, drew a deep breath, and stripped her face of every unnecessary emotionleaving only the sternness of a supervisor, and of an elder sister.
Then she strode into the building, steps ringing with resolve.
At the door with the matching number plate, Zelel didn't hesitate. She raised a hand and rapped with her knucklesneither too hard nor too soft.
The knock was rhythmic and brooked no denial, like a fist on the heart.
Inside came a rustle of hurried chaos, mixed with a drawn-out, reluctant "Comiiiing" and the shuffle of slippers on the floor.
A few seconds later, the door creaked open a crack, and Gabriel's facewearied by hassle and impatiencepeeked out. Having bolted home after class, the last thing she wanted was to be caught by her sister.
Two girls stood behind her.
One had sleek, short lavender hair. Her manner was gentle, her clear gaze radiating natural kindness. Zelel recognized her instantly as a demonbut strangely, there was little of the usual unpleasant malice. If anything she felt like a rule-abiding honor student. This was Vignette, one of Gabriel's friends in the human world.
The other, Zelel knew well: red-haired, with those comically black demon-horn hair ornaments, petiteSatania. Hands on hips, chest puffed (not that there was much to puff), she did her best to look fierce, attempting to glare down the interloper interrupting her challenge against Gabriel.
"Ah, Gabriel's sister" The moment Satania saw Zelel, her body tensed almost imperceptibly. The angel's presence was so strong that the demon felt instinctively guilty, as if merely standing there were a mistake.
Zelel's gaze paused briefly on Vignette and Satania. She dipped her head slightly in returnmaintaining the bare minimum of surface courtesy, even toward demons.
"Hello. I'm Zelel, Gabriel's sister." Her voice was clear and pleasant but flowed like an icy springcarrying little warmth.
Her eyes had already moved past Gabriel at the door, sweeping the interior with the speed and precision of a high-end scanner.
One glance was enough.
Zelel felt her blood pressureno, the circulation rate of her angelic energyspike to a dangerously unprecedented peak.
This this is an angel's abode?
What met her eyes was a catastrophe.
Cables, like tangles of snakes, sprawled over the floor, tethered to multiple consoles and screens left on standby or paused. Half-eaten bags of chips, crushed soda cans, pizza-grease boxes, and a riot of snack wrappers dotted every corner like abstract art.
Clothes of uncertain cleanliness were draped over chair backs; a pink bra hung conspicuously from a lamp shade. Scattered across the floor, the sofa, even under the low table lay piles of manga, light novels, and game discscovers in every style imaginable, many looking anything but angelic.
Chapter 1,013: Family Matters
The air in Gabriel's room was thick with a complicated, eyebrow-pinching smell.
Seasoning packets from cheap instant noodles, pizza gone a bit greasy after cooling, chips that had gone damp in an opened bagand a faint note Gabriel's own, tinged with all-nighters and laziness, not exactly fresh.
An angel's dwelling? This was more chaotic and disgraceful than the lairs of the lowest, sloppiest sloth-demons she'd seen in the demon compendiummessier even than the turmoil Rei Ao's words had just thrown her heart into!
"Gabriel!"
The three syllables were hewn from ancient ice, squeezed through Zelel's teeth on a cutting wind, charged with thunder about to break.
She shot out a hand, quick as lightning, and clamped onto her sister's wrist just as Gabriel tried to shrink behind Vignette and pretend to be air. The grip made Gabriel yelp.
"Look at your room!"
Zelel's voice quivered with anger she was barely restraining. She pointed at the wreckage.
Each word fell like hailstones: "You are a proud angel, charged with guiding the human world toward the good!"
"Look at youfilthy! Slothful! A total mess! Where's your sense of duty? Your honor? Did you slurp them down with your instant noodles?! What a disgrace!"
She yanked Gabriel forward, forcing her to face the "crime scene."
"Clean this up. Now. Not an inch left untouched. I'll be here to personally supervise."
"NoooSis!"
Gabriel wailed like a cat with its tail stepped on, straining backward for all she was worth. "It's too late todaytomorrow I promise I'll clean it till it's spotless! Sparkling!"
"Tomorrow?"
Zelel let out a laugh born of fury, cold as ice. "There is no such word as 'tomorrow'that's procrastination. My dictionary has only 'now' and 'immediately'!"
"Seems the human world has taught you not only laziness, but delay and sophistry. That's an extra count against you."
Her gaze locked onto Gabriel like iron shackles.
Then she turned to Vignette and Sataniaboth wide-eyed and at a lossand to Rei Ao and Raphiel, who had somehow appeared at the door, arms folded, wearing the look of someone enjoying the show.
"My apologies, everyone." Zelel forced her tone back toward calm, though authority weighed even heavier in it. "What comes next is family businesssome scenes may be unseemly. We can't host you. Please take your leave."
Rei Ao watched the vivid tableau of the stern older sister dressing down the lazy younger oneespecially Gabriel's "life is over" look and the pitiful eyes begging him to save herand chuckled under his breath. He shrugged at Vignette and Satania, who both looked very ready to go. "All right, looks like the sacred purification ritual is about to begin. We bystanders really shouldn't get in the way. Let's go."
Vignette looked as if she'd been granted amnesty. She bobbed her head like a pecking chick. "Y-yes, yes, we're leaving now! Zelel-san, Gabrielgood luck!"
Another second in that omnipresent aura of severity and she felt she'd suffocate. It was ten times worse than facing the strictest instructor in the demon realm.
