10 Years Later

There was a bar in Omotesando; not a very special bar, for the drinks were rather average and the patrons were all the same salaryman types who went there to unwind after a hard day's work. Once a band called D-Va had played gigs there, but that time was behind them now, the band having broken up a few years back. The owner and bartender, Eiji Kamiya (though most people called him Gin) stood behind the bar inside, absentmindedly cleaning a cup. Tonight was a bit of a slow night, and the chill of the oncoming winter would keep patrons away for at least a couple of weeks. He soon found himself looking up at the television on the wall, where the news was blaring away.

"—In local news, the case of missing Nakano teenager Keiichi Kimura has been closed today after 10 years of searching."

"There's a point where old family photos on missing posters simply won't work anymore. Assuming Kimura's even alive, he'd be completely unrecognizable now."

"Kimura went missing after an explosion in a Shinjuku hospital ten years ago. He had been kidnapped and tortured by a cult known as the Shomonkai merely a week before his second disappearance, and at the time it was believed that they were involved in his disappearance. However, a sharp decline in Shomonkai activities during that time…"

"Damn," Gin said quietly. "It's really been 10 years?"

The news story continued, showing clips of interviews with Keiichi's family and discussing the events surrounding his disappearance. A few patrons who had been watching the televisions began to talk among themselves. It seemed that a surprisingly large number of them had been classmates of Keiichi's, yet from the way they talked about him, very few had actually known him. Most of them knew him as "that classmate who went missing during second year". It disgusted Gin, but he chose to remain silent, so as to not chase any customers off.

The bell on the door rang as it swung open. Gin turned to the door, only to see a rather familiar face, her hair pulled back by a scarf he hadn't seen her wear in years. He pulled a remote out from under the bar and changed the channel on the television. A few patrons yelled at him, but Gin chose to ignore them in favor of who had just walked in. Yuzu fell into her seat, an exhausted look on her face. She wore a black formal jacket and a plain black skirt. A wedding ring on her hand glimmered in the dim light of the bar. Gin narrowed his eyes at the scarf once she got close. That was definitely that same scarf from all those years ago, the one she'd stopped wearing after Keiichi disappeared. She fell into her seat at the bar, an exhausted look on her face.

"I didn't know you were back in town." Gin said. "Do you want your usual?"

She nodded. "Could you get me two?"

"Buying for someone else?"

"Yeah."

He poured a couple of beers and placed them in front of her. She muttered a small thanks before beginning to drink from one. She didn't even glance at the other beer as she proceeded to drink her own down rather quickly and then ask for a refill soon after. Gin halfheartedly did so. She then began to go at that one a bit faster than he would have liked. Yuzu knew she couldn't hold her liquor at all, so it was unusual for her to just come and drink like this. After drinking half of that drink, she said, "I can't believe it's been ten years."

"Since the lockdown?"

She hesitated for a moment, and while her answer was to Gin's question, he was sure that she'd been thinking of something else. "…Yeah." She gulped down more of the drink. "Everyone's changed so much since then."

Gin silently nodded. He didn't stay in contact with everyone from the lockdown, but he still saw some people regularly. Kaido had broken up his brother's gang a few years back, and the power vacuum that had ensued meant it still wasn't quite safe to go walking around the dark parts of Shibuya . D-Va had broken up as well, though Haru was going strong as an independent singer these days. And without him, as she'd so strongly insisted when D-Va broke up. She didn't want to hang on his coattails forever, she'd said.

And then there was Shoji. She'd started coming to his bar fairly regularly once the Lockdown ended. She had unashamedly hit on him for a while, and they had gone out for a fairly brief period as well. But as time went on, she was rather clearly losing grip with reality. Keiichi's disappearance must have affected her somehow, because not long after he disappeared, she began to spout off conspiracy theories that had little to no base in reality. Over the years she'd only gotten worse and worse, and her mind was clearly degenerating along with her ability to write. She'd been institutionalized about a year back, and no one had seen her since then.

"But me, Atsuro, Amane, and you… we're all still hanging around here. Ha… I guess we just can't let go of the past." Yuzu's breath stank with alcohol and she was already wavering in her seat. She never had been able to hold her liquor. A sob escaped her throat. "I miss him. I miss him so fucking much. I just want him to come back, but I know he won't, because I was there Gin. I was there when he died. It took him until he was fucking dying to tell me he loved me. And I still…"

She was definitely drunk. She was sobbing into her half finished drink and starting to attract the attention of the other bargoers. All of this only confirmed what Gin had been thinking. He should have known once she walked in wearing her old scarf.

"Come on Yuzu," he said softly. "You're drunk. Let me call Atsuro or Keiji to come take you home."

"I don't want to go home," Yuzu sobbed out. "I want to see him again. Even if he is just a demon now, I still want to see him. Is that too much to fucking ask?"

Gin walked out from behind the bar and put a hand on Yuzu's shoulder. "Let's take you home, okay?"

She didn't object this time and got off of her seat. She walked with Gin to the door, her steps a bit wobbly as she went.

As they got closer, it occurred to Gin that something was very wrong. The sky was far too bright, the air too heavy. He could hear screaming as he approached the door. They stopped just outside the doorway to look up at the sky. It was a red vortex of energy glowing with an unnatural light. Gin hadn't seen this sky in ten years, not since he had helped them kill Tokyo's protectors. He and Yuzu both stared up at the sky, but Yuzu's face was very different from his own. She had a sad smile as she looked up at the sky.

"I never thought my wish would be answered like this."

The Hills Building had been a part of the Tokyo skyline for many years now. Ten years ago, a king had been crowned at its summit. Now that king had descended upon it once more. A bright flash of light heralded the arrival of two figures at the center of the roof. One was a silver haired man, his once handsome face marred by scars. He held himself with confidence, the tattered black and green haori draped over his shoulders acting much like a cape. The other was a young man with blue hair. He wore a black suit under his long black cape. The headphones on his head were almost like a crown. His ageless face held no emotion. To look at him was unsettlingly like looking at a corpse.

The comparison fit; after all, Keiichi Kimura had died ten years previous.

The blue haired man, who had taken the name of Abel after killing his host, stepped to the edge of the building. He surveyed the city he once called home, whose residents were surely panicking at the sight of the red sky. Naoya walked to Abel's side and looked down at his brother.

"Abel," he began, and Abel snapped his head up to look at Naoya with an inhuman reflex, staring up into Naoya's eyes with his penetrating corpse-like stare. "We can't afford to linger. The angels have already begun to descend. It would be to strategic importance if you turned the humans against them before this war starts."

The king remained staring at Naoya for far too long, and for a brief second, Naoya thought he was going to strike him, but then Abel broke the stare off and held a hand up. Two bolts of lightning struck next to Abel, causing two Cerberuses to appear. Without a single word to Naoya, he began to walk toward the door leading off of the roof. Naoya watched him walk away, and once his king had exited the roof, he looked up at the vortex in the sky.

It was finally happening. After so many long millennia, all those years spent preparing and going to waste, time after time, he'd finally done it. He would get the war he wished for. God would finally pay for what he'd done to him in that first life. All it had taken was the death of the one incarnation of his brother that actually had his personality. He had, once again, sacrificed his brother so he could make a point, and now this corpse animated by a grudge would carry out the war he'd wished for. A single tear rolled down Naoya's cheek.

Everything had gone according to plan.