The soft sound of porcelain being placed on the table broke the silence of the early morning. Kazuya set down a tray with a steaming teapot and two cups in front of his guest, sitting in the armchair beside her, slightly forward.
He looked at his "unexpected visitor," who had arrived not even ten minutes ago.
The woman before him seemed to have stepped out of a divine painting, and the worst (or best) part was that this comparison wasn't an exaggeration.
She appeared to be about twenty-three years old, but there was something divine in that extreme beauty. Her curly blonde hair cascaded like a waterfall, reflecting the glow of the wall sconces with a golden hue. Her fine eyebrows and phoenix-shaped blue eyes conveyed serenity and fascination. Her oval face was framed by reddened lips that seemed always on the verge of a smile.
She was beautiful. Ridiculously beautiful.
And, somehow, completely unaware of it.
Even dressed in a long, simple white silk gown at first glance, the fabric did nothing to hide the generous curves that defied logic. Her large, firm breasts were outlined under the fabric with cruel naturalness, milky mountains that seemed to defy both gravity and modesty with the same calm she exuded. Her waist was slender enough to seem hand-sculpted, while her wide, well-shaped hips completed the silhouette with proportions that bordered on the unreal. The thighs hidden beneath the dress promised both firmness and softness in equal measure. Her buttocks, even while seated on the sofa, were visibly round and voluminous, like a masterpiece of perfect curves.
She was a woman whose beauty could instantly melt someone's "soul" the moment they laid eyes on her.
Although she had introduced herself when she arrived earlier, it wouldn't have been hard to guess her identity even if she hadn't. Few people in this world matched her described appearance from the 'Light Novel,' which didn't do justice to her real beauty… and considering she arrived flying with twelve wings and an angelic halo above her head…
Only one person came to mind, and that was Gabriel, also known as the "Most Beautiful Woman in Heaven," and one of the Four Seraphs.
Yes, one of the Archangels was sitting before his eyes at this very moment.
Kazuya looked at her in silence for a moment, that angelic face, so pure, in an almost ironic contrast with a body that seemed sculpted by some whimsical deity. He sighed inwardly, letting nothing show on his face.
"What kind of genius was God…" he thought, with a trace of irony and admiration. "To create someone so beautiful, so tempting to the eyes… and yet, so innocent…"
Though he had only spent a brief moment with her, a few minutes at the gate of his house before inviting her inside, he didn't need much time to notice two things: Gabriel's almost childlike innocence… and her complete obliviousness to her own appearance.
It was strange, almost comical, really, how someone so absurdly beautiful, to the point of seeming like a myth, could act with such simplicity. There was no vanity in her gestures, no malice in the way she spoke or moved. It was as if she had no idea of the devastating effect she caused by entering a room.
What God had done was almost cruel, in the most divinely comedic way possible.
As he thought this, he poured tea into one of the cups.
"Jasmine tea…" he said, gently pushing the cup toward her. "I thought it would suit someone coming from heaven at this hour…"
Gabriel blinked, surprised by the gesture, and then smiled. The kind of smile that made the soul feel lighter.
"How kind of you, Kazuya-san… You're so thoughtful! Thank you, and I'm sorry for visiting you at this hour! I didn't mean to disturb your rest…" As she spoke, she picked up the cup delicately, as if it were a sacred object, and brought the tea to her lips with the grace of a noble lady—or better, with the shy sweetness of a nun tasting something warm for the first time in a tearoom.
Gabriel gently blew on the steam and took a small sip. Her eyes lit up instantly, as if that delicate flavor had touched her heart directly.
"Hmmm~! It's delicious! It's like… like flowers blooming inside my mouth!" she exclaimed with genuine delight, before covering her mouth, embarrassed. "Ah… sorry, that was weird, wasn't it?"
Kazuya just shook his head, unable to suppress a half-smile.
"Don't worry, Gabriel. You're in my house. You can speak however you like."
"Ufufu~ As I thought, you really are kind…" she replied, smiling again. A smile that had the power to purify any heart, even one hardened by wars, death, or chronic sarcasm.
Kazuya merely smiled and leaned back calmly on the sofa, crossing one leg over the other, as if he had all the time in the world.
"I was already awake anyway…" he said with a faint smile, his voice carrying that calm, teasing tone so typical of him. "But I confess I'm curious… what brought Seraph Gabriel for a personal visit to my humble mansion? Especially at this hour of the morning?"
He cast a quick glance at the clock on the wall.
"It's 4:05 now. And while I was already up, as I mentioned, what if I had been asleep? I imagine for you to come here at this hour, you must have a really urgent reason. Did something happen? Do you need my help?"
Angels didn't show up in the middle of the night for tea and small talk. Not ones with twelve wings, right?
Gabriel set the cup down slowly on the saucer and clasped her hands in her lap, adopting a calmer expression, still serene, but now with a slight hint of concern in her blue eyes.
She hesitated for a moment, as if choosing her words carefully or perhaps weighing whether to share them.
"Actually…" she began in a soft voice, "I didn't come here under Heaven's orders, if that's what you think, so don't worry. I came of my own will…"
Kazuya raised an eyebrow, the smile lingering at the corner of his lips, but his eyes grew a bit more attentive.
"Is that so? Not a diplomatic mission, then?" he said, resting his chin on his hand, his expression calm and piercing. "That makes me even more curious…"
After hearing his words, Gabriel seemed about to continue her explanation… but then stopped abruptly. Her gaze shifted, her eyes narrowing in a rare trace of indignation. Her cheeks puffed out slightly like a sulky child, and her eyebrows furrowed delicately. The kind of expression that shouldn't work on a Seraph with twelve wings… and yet, it worked dangerously well.
"Kazuya-san…" she said, her voice slightly lower, as if trying to restrain herself. "You… said something strange the other day…"
Kazuya blinked once, caught off guard by the sudden change in direction. He tilted his head slightly.
"Hm? Something I said?"
Gabriel stared at him with narrowed eyes and an accusing glint. She crossed her arms, puffing out her chest like an irritated child. "You said… 'by Gabriel's flabby breasts'!!"
There was a tense silence…
Kazuya froze for a second with the cup in his hand, his expression caught between shock and a desperate attempt to stifle laughter.
Gabriel continued, now genuinely sulky.
"A-and I kept thinking about it for days! Days, Kazuya-san! Where are they flabby?!" She brought both hands to her breasts and puffed them out firmly—and worst of all, with genuine innocence and zero malice, as if defending her pride as her Father's masterpiece. "They're firm! Look! There's nothing flabby about them!"
Kazuya… lost it.
He turned his face away, bringing a hand to his mouth, but a laugh escaped through his fingers.
It was all so absurd. One of the four Archangels, the supposed embodiment of purity, confronting him in the middle of the night over a joke—a casual, hyperbolic joke he'd tossed out without thinking.
"I…" Kazuya struggled to compose himself, wiping the corner of his eye. "Okay, okay, I surrender. That was a good one. I admit, maybe I used your… 'pectoral sanctity' in a somewhat irreverent way. But I swear it was just an expression! Nothing against the structural quality of your divine assets, Gabriel…"
"Divine assets?!" She widened her eyes, visibly flushed. "T-that doesn't help at all! You're mocking me again!"
"Never," he said, now with a serene and theatrical tone, as if paying homage to a national monument. "In the name of celestial architecture, I declare there isn't a centimeter of flabbiness in your holiness. They're… impeccably toned."
Gabriel covered her face with her hands, her body trembling slightly with embarrassment.
"Uuuuuh… Kazuya-san is a true villain…" she murmured, mortified.
"Been called that before," he replied with a faint smile on his lips…
Hm? Wait, how had she heard him say that?
Driven by curiosity, he asked, "Alright, I admit… that was the most unexpected thing I've heard this week. But, out of curiosity… how exactly did you hear that? Were you spying behind the door?"
The smile on Gabriel's face vanished.
She slowly unclasped her hands from her lap and, with a more serious and… hurt expression, crossed her arms beneath her bust, her blue eyes shifting slightly to the side, looking genuinely upset.
"So… you really did forget me…"
Those words landed like a weight in the air.
Kazuya blinked, confused, his smile fading instantly.
"Forget… you?"
Gabriel nodded faintly.
"This isn't actually the first time we've met."
She took a deep breath, and her voice softened.
"You were just a child. Your parents… Ryougi Takeru and Ryougi Misa… died that day. In a terrible accident. There was no one around when it happened. Just pain, blood… and a boy alone in the middle of the road. You."
The world seemed to slow down.
Kazuya felt a slight tightness in his chest, a strange, almost forgotten pressure. Fragmented memories flickered behind his eyes: a distant siren… rain hitting the asphalt… small hands trembling, the eyes of a child who didn't yet know what loss was but felt everything.
Kazuya stared at her in silence now, his eyes narrowing. Why had the original owner of his body forgotten something like that? He tried to recall the day of the accident…
Blurred, disjointed images began to surface from the depths of his memory. A child's field of vision, far below the eye line of adults. The pale colors of the rain, flashing lights in the distance, the sound of distant sirens mixed with a constant buzzing in his ears. And, amidst it all, a soft light. Warm. Enveloping.
The figure of that woman… cascading blonde hair, twelve wings like veils of light, and a voice that didn't seem to belong to this world.
But… had that been real?
For so many years, the original owner of his body had believed it was just a childish hallucination. A reflection of trauma. A child's mind trying to find comfort amid the incomprehensible pain of losing his parents. It was common, even expected, for the human mind, especially at such an early stage of development, to create mental constructs to cope with intense trauma.
From a neurological perspective, it made sense. The childish brain was still in the process of myelinating the neural pathways responsible for long-term memory consolidation. The amygdala, responsible for emotional processing, and the hippocampus, responsible for organizing episodic memory, often formed weak connections in situations of extreme shock. When subjected to intense trauma, especially involving the death of parental figures, the brain frequently suppressed or distorted memories as a self-preservation mechanism.
In his case, this suppression was even more pronounced due to the "supernatural" nature of what he saw. A woman with wings of light, holding him as he bled and trembled? To the eyes of a boy who had lost his parents and survived a car accident by a miracle, that could easily have been an angel conjured by his own imagination.
Over time, he had accepted that it was all a dream. A childish delusion. Like so many other children who claimed to see fairies or spoke to "invisible friends" to cope with pain. He grew up and buried the past. And the memory of that moment was swallowed by layer upon layer of rationality, sarcasm, and a mental world built from anime, novels, and manga of this world.
Gabriel merely nodded, with a gentle smile.
"It's alright. Children often forget to survive. I was just a little surprised when you looked at me like it was the first time… But I understand."
She leaned forward slightly, her kind eyes fixed on him.
"That's why I heard you say that about me. I've been connected to you since that day, but after you moved to Kuoh, I couldn't find you anymore. I only learned about you when Heaven discovered the video of you facing Sirzechs and defeating him. I came as soon as I could…"
As she was about to continue, someone interrupted her—
"Master, who is this…?"
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