Demon of Darkness (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

(OOC: WARNING. Violent descriptions of blood.)

Seth wasn only mildly aware that Abel had stepped back. Had he not needed to focus on his target he would have closed his eyes with the thoughts of thanks. He didn't want to do this, he wanted anything but... then again, he didn't want Abel to kill Nirad. It was arguably his place for his position as the King of Bel, but there had to be something said for emotional bonds rather than titles. Nirad was just about to his feet when Seth threw his fist forward. His skills had always been more physical than magical, anyhow.

There was significant resistance to the dagger he'd plunged into Nirad's chest. Even mutated, it seemed the Garuda's upper body was still something like armor. Seth narrowed his eyes, the emotional duress coming through far more than the concentration, and he pretty much threw his entire weight into the attack. The result was that both he and Nirad hit the ground, back in the center of the crater. Nirad's eyes had widened, but he was in no condition to snap out of it. Seth shouted in surprised pain as the demon's claws sunk into his right shoulder. They'd hit in a way that hte two that had gone in front were sticking out the back of his shoulder. It was clear it would bleed rather badly once Nirad removed it.

"Abel, I've... got it!" Seth winced as he spoke. The pain was severe, but he'd had far worse in his memory. An extra scar wasn't going to change that.

Seth used the fact that Nirad would have to rip his talons out of his flesh to yank the dagger from Nirad's chest. He held it and the thoughts in his mind... he was screaming internally. Now he wanted to cry, but he couldn't... even if he could he would have tried to stop himself. He locked his eyes with Nirad's and said one thing in the quietest whisper he'd used in months. It was just loud enough that Nirad would be able to hear it.

_{"I'm sorry."}

And then he brought down the dagger in a vertical fashion onto the demon's throat. Seth displayed an uncanny sense of where the artery was, and a bit of blood splashed onto Seth's face. He gritted his teeth and yanked the blade to the right. The force was enough that the demon had suffered a partial decapitation. More of the crimson bordering on black blood spurted onto Seth. It was a good choice he'd taken to grey clothes, as while it showed it wasn't as bad as it would have on white. There was a huge area of it, but the blood from the injury died out quickly. Seth closed his eyes and his shoulders shook in a tearless cry as he saw the life fade from the red eyes of the demon. Now... now he just had Atsuro and his jealousy issues. Dammit.

Cain had taken a step forward towards Enjin before stopping. He narrowed his eyes in a glare before smirking. The other man seemed to understand the value of the COMPs. Just how much he understood, it didn't really matter. Of course, those thoughts meant Enjin would know that the equal standing Seth was having with Nirad was a result of the Harmonizer function. Then again, he'd also know that Cain could reprogram another COMP and it would only be a temporary inconvenience to the group. Cain dropped his hands to his side.

"I'm not taking your bait. I'm well aware of that battle tactic," he smirked wider, "Could it be you're so threatened by our little group that you are afraid to actually fight? I do have to say, its the smartest choice you could make..."

It was about this time Seth was apologizing to Nirad. Cain glanced over at his youngest brother as the dagger he'd taught him to use was driven into Nirad's throat. It was dragged to the side with force fuelled by agony. Seth wouldn't be giving off the magatsuhi of fear, but it was a very strong negative emotion. His eyes flicked towards Abel and Enjin would be aware of the concerns involving that. He looked back at Enjin and his expression had darkened. He now wore something like a psychotic grin.

"Be aware you've made yourself a target for the Throne of Bel. I'd take care of anything you want to do, because if you think we are your playthings I assure you that you'll find differently."

Seth was clutching his ribs and breathing heavily as he carefully pulled Nirad's talons out of his shoulder. He dropped the still arm to the side and attempted to wipe the blood off his face, but he just managed to smear it. He spit on the carpet and a bit of blood that wasn't his own came out. Well, the spout had been severe. He felt a bit ill thinking that he'd probably managed to swallow a bit of Nirad's blood. He looked towards where Enjin was standing with a look of pure hatred. Because he knew Enjin had known that would happen, and considering the demon's mind reading powers he'd probably know the emotional hell it would cause, as well. He took a step forward.

"Seth, stop," Cain ordered.

Seth stopped, but he didn't look happy about it. He wasn't one for torture. He didn't like torture. But so help him, if he managed to get his hands on Enjin he'd be trying some of those techniques Cain had shown him he hadn't had the stomach for before. He clenched his fists and continued the glare at Enjin. Considering how very distant his eyes were, it set new records for how creepy Seth could look.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Abel's eyes had widened as he looked back toward Seth just to make sure he was alright and saw Nirad pierce Seth's shoulder with those all too sharp claws. He'd been taking a step forward to help him when Seth had yelled at him again that he could handle it. His brother knew what he was doing. It was tearing him apart, but he knew what he was doing.

Enjin's smirk had darkened as he looked away from Cain toward Seth as the man ripped into the demon he had considered his friend, the demon who he'd now killed with his own hands. Well, knife. But specifics weren't really needed at this point.

"Well, it's nice to see that there's still smart people in the world then," Enjin said to Cain's first statement. His smirk widened as Cain's did at that second statement. "And I'm not threatened in the least by your little group. I was more worried about Yarizakura than I am about an unstable demon king and his court." By now, he was starting to get over the initial shock from seeing Cain, and had moved into observation mode. Especially since he was no longer actually inside that building. Not that they would even be able to know that. Even if they managed to get a hit on him, they wouldn't be able to tell that they were dealing with an illusion until he made it disappear too. Having the powers of a satori rocked sometimes.

Abel looked over at Seth again before going back to glaring at Enjin. His thoughts contrasted with what he was trying to show Enjin, though. He just didn't have the emotional strength to avoid thinking that way at the moment, and he doubted with how much torment he'd been lately he'd have the emotional strength to hold himself back either.

Not Keiji dammit not Keiji not Keiji not Keiji control your damn heartbeat stop being depressed for Nirad get the hell away from me dammit I don't want to hurt you but you're not giving me a choice I can't control Abel right now you should know that dammit you saw how I was last night didn't you even though its almost a new moon I can't please just get away

Enjin gave a psychotic grin to match Cain's as he heard some of Abel's thoughts. Well well. Seemed the King of Bel certainly did have some issues of his own after all. The birdman and the scarred of the twins hadn't been lying before after all.

"Personally, I don't think I have all that much to worry about, considering your king seems to be the most unstable one here," Enjin said. He shrugged. "And I know you'd have done the same thing if you were in my position anyways."

He looked back toward Abel, who was still glaring at him.

"Mark my words, Hiizumi Enjin, I will kill you," Abel snarled. "Even if you run, I will find you, and I will torture you, and then finally, I will kill you. I do not appreciate being toyed with."

"Didn't your nii-chan just say that? In any case, I'm done playing with you. It was fun," Enjin said. He put a finger to his head, and it sparkled with the same electricity he had used on Nirad. For a moment Abel was afraid Enjin was going to do to himself the same thing he'd done to Nirad and ran forward. Just as he reached Enjin, the man disappeared again like before, only this time, he didn't reappear again. Abel breathed heavily before looking back at Seth.

"...I'm so sorry, Seth," Abel said. He wasn't sure what he was apologizing for this time. There were a couple things. He could be trying to sympathize with Seth... or he could be apologizing for something he was about to do. He wasn't even sure himself, because he was feeling a rush of agony from Seth. It didn't feel as good as the panic and fear... but it was still that kind of emotional spice.

[mugenginga]

Cain's smirk faded a bit as Enjin mentioned how unstable Abel was. His lips were pressed together in a thin expression, and his expression was dark. Abel was unstable, it didn't take a genius to figure that out. Abel's expression kept flicking over to Seth and the older of his two siblings seemed to be almost twitching. Cain actually looked worried for a moment. There was a slight chance, very slight, that the human emotions would remain if Seth were killed. No one else seemed to think that, but there was a chance Abel would show a certain level of stubborness. However, if Abel was the one to kill Seth...?

Cain shot a dark look back at Enjin, but he held his ground. He was closer by about a foot to Abel. If the King went insane and killed someone, it was better to be him. He'd at least come back, and Abel was already pretty well damned. Seth? Unlikely, and God only knew (Cain's scowl deepened, complete with feelings of murderous revenge) what would happen to him after his death. He shot the homicidal look back at Enjin. It wasn't so much anger as murderous intent. The silver haired man seemed to have the best grasp on his emotions of the entire group.

He took a defensive stance just in case as Enjin put his finger to his head. He hadn't seen what had made Nirad lose it before, but the electricity was hard to miss. Abel rushed at him and the only reason Cain didn't stop him is it would do the King some good to get his rage out, but Enjin vanished just as Abel reached him. Cain glanced at Seth with as close to nervous as the man got as Abel panted and apologized.

Seth had widened his eyes as Enjin put his hand to his head. He had a feeling it wasn't the same thing the man had done to Nirad if only because he had seen the loss of control it caused. Abel rushed for Enjin and Seth caught Cain's glance. Yeah, he wasn't unaware of it. Enjin had taken his COMP too, so he didn't have access to any spells. The only thing close to a defense he'd have was the way the Harmonizer protected all people within an area, and if Abel chose to attack him it would be a joke. Thing is, he also knew it would be a pretty bad idea to go outside with how he looked. He was pretty much soaked in demon blood.

He turned towards the stairs and headed towards them. What he found odd was that he wasn't really... afraid of being attacked. If it happened, it would happen. And he was sure enough of the human emotions were there that what Abel would do wouldn't be worse than what Belphegor had done. By the time the little voice that spiked his fear tried to object to that, he was already several stairs up. The fact that it probably wasn't enough of a distance if Abel really snapped did nothing to alleviate the fear. He sped up though, finding himself wondering how far Abel's "range" went.

"Abel, focus!" Cain snapped. It was enough like an order that he knew it was risky, but he wasn't giving off any fear. He actually expected a repercussion, but as before, it was better than Seth being tortured and/or killed.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Abel didn't hear Cain at first. The prominant human emotions were trying to stop him from going after Seth. His eyes looked like they were trying to slit, but instead he had a rather dead look on his face, more than he usually did. It was Cain's words that shook him out his unfocused silence. He looked over at his brother, and he still seemed rather unstable as he finally ran past him over to the hotel doors.

He paused as his hand grabbed the door handle and looked back toward Cain. He still looked almost trapped.

"I'm going out. I can't handle being in here much longer," Abel said. "I'm leaving you in charge of Nirad's body and handling things with the hotel staff. Keiji's staying with you now. I don't care if he objects, I don't care if he begs, it's not safe for him to stay with me anymore. Send me an email on my COMP if you see that Enjin bastard again."

He opened the door up at this and started walking rather quickly from the hotel. He needed to clear his head. He didn't think he'd be back before midnight again tonight...

[mugenginga]

(OOC: More graphic blood. And I think Seth is justified in his emo fit. XD)

Cain didn't even nod towards Abel. It was doubtful the blue haired man would have heard him. The fact that he had stopped his escape (as it was nothing but, even if it was for the benefit of Seth) to deliver the message showed a level of willpower Cain wasn't sure Abel knew he had. He sighed and glanced towards the stairs. Well, Enjin as his name apparently was had had his fun, hadn't he. He wondered if he looked uncannily like someone Enjin had known. That reaction had been over his appearance after all. He considered the fact that Enjin had taken the COMP. There had been something there... did he know the importance of the devices?

Cain kept focus on those thoughts as he approached the counter. His brothers weren't idiots. They wouldn't blab things to just any stranger. And once that stranger antagonized them, any chance he would have had of losing things naturally would have been lost. His mind then entertained nothing short of a near-miraculous leap. The man did have cat ears after all, and while Cain was more than aware humans could think like that and possess odd powers, the combination of evidence... hell, Cain even had the right term. If Enjin had been a demon, which seemed the simplest explanation, Cain had a feeling he'd been a Satori.

"Answer the door," Cain said with a flat voice.

Cain had knocked several times on the door to the back room. He didn't think for a moment there was no one there. He'd heard shuffling. He grabbed the door handle and shook it, only to find it locked. Cain gave an annoyed sigh.

"Are you under the delusion I won't knock this down?"

Cain found himself being mildly surprised as he heard the door click open. A very nervous and sheet white man opened the door. He looked terrified and Cain knew it was lucky Abel had already left the scene. A blind and deaf man could have seen how terrified the man before him was. He grabbed the man's wrist before he could slam the door in his face and had it pulled forward before the man could slam the door on the wrist... well, no. The man did so but let out a pained shout as he managed to slam his own wrist. Cain jerked him out and positioned him so he'd see the lobby. The man tried to make more noise, but it came out as a muted whimper.

"This can't be the most violent thing you've seen at this job..." Cain muttered, "You need to get this mess cleaned up."

_{"......b-but..."}

Cain tightened his grip on the man's wrist enough that it threatened to crack, "There's also a mess in the far left of the room my group rented. Blood. Take care of it."

The man winced. He clearly wanted to pull away, but Cain could see the man worried about his wrist being damaged if he did so. Cain released the man's wrist and walked away without another word. There was a body in the middle of that mess, and a pool of blood under... Cain could almost hear the man turn green. He didn't stop to turn or give instructions on how to deal with the body. It was only a shell, and burial had been something birthed from Pagan rituals in returning the body to the Earth. Burning was an option, but the smell would effect the place and it wasn't worth the energy. When (and not if) Abel learned he'd left the disposal to the hotel, he hoped his brother would have the sense to realize that dead bodies were just that. Shells.

----------

Seth had stopped when he got in front of his and Abel's door. The fear had already dropped, as he was sure Abel wasn't going to follow him now. He could also take stock of what had just happened to the full extent of his humanity without having to worry about Abel. He passed a hand through the front of his hair, not caring that the already drying and congealing blood smeared through his hair, a few clotted clumps hanging there until he rubbed again and simply smeared the almost black liquid.

He stuck his back against the wall and slowly slid down. He hit the floor hard, but he didn't care. His chest hurt like hell and his breathing was ragged. To top that off, he couldn't even heal himself. It was amazing how reliant you got on that. His shoulder was still seeping blood. It had almost gushed when he'd removed Nirad's claws, but he'd been more focused on the situation. He felt a little dizzy, and he realized with dark and bitter amusement it was probably blood loss. He allowed himself to put his hand on his shoulder and took in another pained breath.

Nirad was dead, Atsuro was trying to decide if he should hate him. It wasn't that he blamed Atsuro. It wasn't like it was inaccurate to put at least some of the blame about things on him. He'd hesitated about killing Abel before. And while he wouldn't have followed God after the way he'd been abandoned to Belphegor, he could have done something about Keiichi then. Or died trying.

Well, that was a regret he'd never rid himself of, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it. It wasn't the first time Seth considered suicide, but that bitter knowledge Abel was only human because of him combined with a complete uncertainty what would happen when he died still stopped him. Was there a Hell? If there was, if God really sent people there the way the Bible stated, he was sure to go there. He couldn't even imagine things being worse than his current lot in his mortal mind, but seventeen years of being raised Christian kept a lingering certainty it could and would be.

His eyes stung like hell. He lifted his blood covered hands to his face and his eyes widened as he realized his eyes were tearing. What the hell? He was grinning, and the expression was proof a grin did not have to be pleasant or a sign of happiness. At several points he'd been convinced he couldn't cry anymore. Now, and only now, he realized that wasn't true. He could cry, but the emotional duress he had to be under to cause it... the ability to do so was almost pleasant. He pulled his legs close and buried his face in them, allowing what was now a practical river to soak into the knees of his pants.

Cain came up the stairs to find Seth like that. He stopped at the top of the stairs and considered walking away. His youngest sibling could at least have gone in a room to do that. He wasnt unaware of Seth's thoughts about crying. He took a few steps forward when Seth lifted his head at the sound. Seth looked surprised when he saw Cain, and there was a morbid entertainment present in the lines of lighter blood thanks to his tears. Then Seth's eyes narrowed, and Cain knew he was being looked at with an agonized hate.

"This is all your fault... And you knew it was gonna turn into this, didn't you? I can't believe you didn't with how many lives you've lived and remember."

"Do you want to kill me?"

Seth looked away and squeezed his eyes as more tears fell, "I didn't..."

"Then you're a fool."

Seth's eyes widened as he looked back towards Cain, his brother's form blurred by the tears, "Wh-what?"

"I didn't ask if you would kill me, I asked if you wanted to. This isn't the time to hide behind a veil of morals, Seth. I'll ask again. Do you want to kill me?"

".......it wouldn't do any good," he felt Cain's harsh gaze, "But yes. Hell, I'm already fucked in terms of so-called salvation anyways, right?"

Cain didn't say anything else. He walked past Seth and pushed his door further open. Seth watched his oldest brother disappear into the room and buried his head in his knees again. What had been the point of that question? Cain had clearly already known the answer. Seth wiped his face again. The tears were already stopping. He was glad he didn't have a mirror on him, or even his COMP and the way it could function as a poor mirror in the right light. He'd have had to look at his face, and he could tell just from his upper body he looked a disaster. What of his face he could see from peripheal vision was a mess too. He looked up as Cain came out, tossing a towel his way.

"You're staying with me now. But you're taking a shower before anything else."

"But I-"

"You are not going to insist you stay with Abel. Don't make me argue the points you're already aware of. If you want to commit suicide, go jump off the top of the Hotel."

Seth stood up with a frown and wiped a bit of the blood off his face with the towel. It was more useful than anything else had been. He walked past Cain, who closed the door behind them.

(OOC: You realize what I just realized? XD The Fuuka quest in P3 proves people on the site of Tartarus get caught in it. So I'm going to wank that the unique spacial shifting properties of the hotel actually manages to protect those that are awake in the Dark Hour from that. Sorry for the long post. )

[Firebreath Fishslap]

(OOC: Time skip is a go, captain.)

Atsuro returned to the hotel a few hours later. The first thing he noticed were the clean up crews still in the lobby. Clean up crews worked fast on the Island; they pretty much had to, what with all of the destruction various people and beings caused in this stupid place. Case in point: the crater that was being fixed up in the lobby. Almost all of the broken floor tiles had been replaced by now, and most of the spilled blood had been cleaned up. Nirad's body had long been moved out of the lobby, having been the first thing removed.

Atsuro blinked at the spectacle and turned to a hotel staff member who was observing the workers' progress. "What happened here?"

The staffer shrugged. She had been called in to help out after the guy who was supposed to be running the front desk today flaked out after what had supposedly happened here. "Something about these twins and a giant bird man and some guy with cat ears. Just move along."

Atsuro's eyes widened and he pushed past the woman to head upstairs. What the hell!? He'd emailed Seth just a few minutes ago to see if everything was okay! There was no way this had all happened between the time he had left Yuugi's apartment and when he'd gotten back here!

[mugenginga]

Cain had gotten answers out of Seth while he was in the shower. After hearing the full information about the demon that had called itself Enjin, he'd had to reassess his original thoughts on the man. Half of the evidence supported thet theory he'd been a satori, but some of it conflicted it. Abel hadn't referred to Enjin as a demon, and Nirad hadn't brought up that he was before being dropped.

And "dropping", which Cain couldn't quite pin down, wasn't a power he could recall any version of satori he'd ever met or heard of having. He'd been trying to define that in his head, but the fact was he didn't have enough evidence. Was it like an angel who fell, only with demons? Or with any non-angel? Forcing violence based on emotions didn't quite fit what had happened to Lucifer and his armies. They'd fallen as a result of rebelling, not the other way around.

He'd given the bed up to Seth after the forty-five minute shower. Cain had no doubt the water had gone rather cold while he was in there. If the pressure had stayed the whole time Cain would be surprised too. Seth had fallen asleep in minutes if the way he twitched from the dreams (probably nightmares, Cain realized) had been any indication. Kaido nor Atsuro had returned yet.

Cain hadn't forgotten that Enjin had stolen Seth's COMP. He'd taken the time to send a message to Kaido. The man had said he was going to the mall, he could pick up a COMP there. Overall, it was easier to do so here than back in their home world. The things had been outlawed by the human authorities after the mess in Tokyo. At the time they'd left one would have better luck getting nuclear weapons. He'd ordered Kaido to get a few, and by force if he had to. If they were going to be in this world, might as well get some backups.

He didn't e-mail Atsuro, despite suspecting the black haired man would try to contact Seth. His youngest brother wrote messages in a manner rather similar to Abel. Enjin wouldn't know that. Of course, it was rather possible Atsuro wouldn't notice that detail, but his lack of observation skills weren't Cain's problem. He'd explain what of the situation he had to when Atsuro got back and make sure to lay into him about paying attention to his surroundings.

Cain had observed the clean up crew as they took care of the mess in Abel's room. They'd quite obviously been nervous about his gaze, but had taken care of the mess quickly enough. After that, Cain hadn't done much. He'd taken care of the necessities and allowed himself to doze off for about an hour there. It was a light sleep, and he'd woken himself up out of it about five minutes ago. He expected Atsuro would be back soon, and knew by the delay any message he'd received back from "Seth" hadn't raised the flags it should. He left Seth all but unconscious on the bed as he walked into the hall. He'd be closing the door behind himself just as Atsuro got up the stairs.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro spotted Cain as he was closing his door and sped up, managing to make it down to Cain rather quickly. He let himself catch his breath before addressing Cain.

"What happened down there?!" Atsuro asked. "They said something about... Abel and Seth, and Nirad, and some guy with cat ears?"

Atsuro was confused, but he was extremely worried. He had gotten a mail telling him everything was fine. That he didn't need to worry. A mail Atsuro was now increasingly sure hadn't even been from Seth in the first place.

[mugenginga]

"The 'guy' you mentioned is named Hiizumi Enjin and he appears to be at least part Satori. He did something he called 'dropping' that send Nirad berserk and Seth had to kill him. Abel left to avoid attacking Seth, I don't expect him to be back before midnight. Did you attempt to e-mail Seth?"

He rather suspected he had. No reason to lay into Atsuro just yet. He'd wait for the other man to admit his idiocy before he laid into him over it. He'd leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. He didn't bother to explain the demon species. If Atsuro couldn't remember it after the time they'd spent in the Demon Realm, he'd just criticize him over that as well.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"A satori...?" Oh, shit. Atsuro remembered those things. They were these mind reading demons if he remembered right. Mind readers in general were bad news to begin with. And this Satori had somehow managed to make Nirad go berserk. And now Nirad was dead. Just... oh shit.

And the fact that Abel had run off so he wouldn't hurt Seth... looked like whatever Nirad was (correction, had been doing, Atsuro noted wryly) doing hadn't been helping too much. He looked lost in thought for a moment until Cain asked him if he'd emailed Seth earlier.

"Yeah, I did... and I got back a message saying that everything was fine," Atsuro said. He blinked. "Wait, that Enjin guy didn't steal Seth's COMP, did he?!"

[mugenginga]

Cain gave Atsuro a harsh gaze, "Was it written like Seth writes his messages?"

Once again, Cain was sure he knew the answer. And if he was right, it meant Atsuro was a fool. Both Abel and Seth tended to write short messages. Chatspeak was frequent, capitals and punctuation were rare. If the message hadn't been written like that and Atsuro had believed the response... Cain scowled and waited for Atsuro's response. He hadn't answered Atsuro's question, but the implications of his own were pretty clear.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro thought back to the message, and he looked a little nervous. It hadn't. It had way better grammar and capitalization than any of Abel and Seth's messages had ever had. It had still been rather short, but that was pretty much the only similarity.

"Er... not really, now that I think about it," Atsuro said. He was really gonna get it for this one, he knew it... It had been an honest mistake! How had he supposed to have known Seth's COMP had been stolen?

[mugenginga]

Cain let out an annoyed tsk noise. It was more emotion than the man tended to show over stupid mistakes of his allies. What had occurred earlier had been rather the doozy for anyone that know how to read Cain's subtle shifts in mannerisms.

"I don't believe I need to answer your question then. Kaido is getting other COMPs, I sent him a message about it earlier. I can get the functions loaded onto them. Go back to your room, Seth is asleep," Cain turned but had another rare moment. He stopped, "Seth cried over having to kill Nirad. He's aware of your jealousy too. You're the type to miss obvious things like that. Keep it in mind."

Then he opened the door to his room. He closed it quickly, not giving Atsuro a chance to react to his near emotionless state of fact. If it had been someone other than Cain, it might have come across as cruel. Being Cain, he was just telling Atsuro things he felt the teenager needed to know, and wasn't wasting the time making it sound nice. If you got past Cain's way of speaking, he'd said one thing pretty clearly: Seth felt alone.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro looked down as Cain spoke. Damn. Just... damn. He looked up as Cain mentioned that Seth had cried over Nirad. And then looked away as Cain said Seth knew about his jealousy. Things were just going to shit for Seth right now, weren't they?

Atsuro stayed out in the hallway even after Cain had returned back to his room. Seth had cried. Seth had long held concerns he couldn't cry anymore. That he'd dried out his tears when he met the father he never knew. That alone showed how close Seth had been to Nirad. Enjin was a bastard. Atsuro clenched his fists. Enjin had killed the only friend Seth had.

Because Seth knew about how his thoughts had been going lately. Of course Atsuro had been feeling jealous. Atsuro had known K1 for years. Then K1 takes the throne, K1 gets pretty much eaten by Abel, and all of the sudden the only one that can reach K1 now is some random twin of his that had shown up the fuck out of nowhere. Atsuro felt he was rather justified in his current jealousy of Seth. So why did he feel like so much of a jerk?

He sighed and opened his hotel room's door. He didn't really know what to do now. Abel probably wouldn't be coming back until the rest of them were long asleep. Probably a good thing.

[mugenginga]

While Cain and neither of his siblings turned into coffins during the Dark Hour, the hotel's distortions seemed to grant an odd stasis period of sort to them. In fact, it applied to everyone actually on the property when the world shifted over. Had one who knew about the Dark Hour seen it, the simplest explanation would have been that the already altered space around the hotel granted a third space neither the normal world or the Dark Hour. Similar to the coffins, and a space that would be distorted should the Fall arrive.

In any case, it meant that Cain didn't really like staying in the Hotel when the Dark Hour hit. He'd left Seth alone in the room, the teenager was still asleep. Exhaustion, most like, and there was no need to rouse him considering nothing had occurred during that first Dark Hour spent in the hotel. It meant that Cain was standing a good ten feet away from Tartarus about halfway through the Dark Hour. He'd seen something more humanoid than not fly over his head and frowned. He didn't like not knowing what things were, and the fact that it had seemed to go to the top of the massive building? Not amusing.

Nyarlathotep showed up about five minutes before the Dark Hour ended. The demon saw Cain staring at him and came to a land next to the man. Cain noted the demon look towards the top of the tower and smirk. The silver haired man narrowed his eyes at it. He couldn't fight with the Harmonizer out along with every other electronic in the world. The demon returned his smirk and rushed over to him. He aimed to knock him down, but Cain showed a bit more force than Nyarlathotep had expected of the human. It got a dagger driven halfway into its arm for its effort.

"I'm not defenseless," Cain growled.

Nyarlathotep chuckled and grabbed the dagger, yanking it out and letting the blood flow, "Did you think I thought you were? Is Abel here?"

"It's been over a day since your last report," Cain replied.

"I don't have to answer to you" Nyarlathotep smirked.

Then the smirk shifted. The indignation changed to amusement and he turned towards an alley. However, Cain noted a slight moment of surprise before it faded into as close to a widemouthed grin as the demon could perform. Cain turned towards where Nyarlathotep was focusing. The first reaction had been what he'd seen the cocky demon pull around Abel, but the second one...? It was not unlike a demon's reaction to Magatsuhi. Abel did have enough human emotions that if he got scared enough he would get a slight raise. But something that would scare him enough.

"Nyarlathotep, stand down. That's an order," Cain stated flatly.

Nyarlathotep looked at him and let out an annoyed sigh. Frightened or not, Abel wasn't one to react well to his human court being "played" with. Or their positions being ignored. The demon raised a scowl and flew backwards so that Cain was more prominent. He looked at the dagger in its claw like hands and tossed it in Cain's direction. Cain caught it less than an inch from his neck. He'd have words with the demon later for his games, but right now he wanted to know what could be causing the reactions he knew from the demon...