Chapter 117 - Visitors

"Hello folks. If you can all really tell me what you're doing in Japanese soil?" Jotaro asks in a condescending tone, as if Jamshid's blade on his back is not a threat.

"I knew it. I knew you were snakes the moment I met the both of you." Eliza says through gritted teeth looking at Daigo and Jotaro. Daigo especially as she trusted him as her tour guide and interpreter.

"Mrs. Little. I'm just here to help." Jotaro shrugs.

"Whatever, or whoever you are looking for, don't you think that having a local representative makes everything more official?" He asks.

"…" The foreigners do not even want to answer him.

"Unless of course, you don't want this thing going official?" Jotaro grins at them.

Unlike the confident-looking Jotaro, the interpreter Daigo is about to piss himself from the tension and fear. Masuo meanwhile, seeing his childhood friend being this confident, gives him confidence that they will make out of this debacle alive, maybe even unharmed, as Jotaro will only be this confident if he is sure of the situation.

"I'm just here to make sure that no funny business occurs. I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, you would rather have me than more… enthusiastic parties." Jotaro continues to talk out of his ass.

The foreigners roll their eyes at Jotaro.

"Are you threatening us? You?" Samuel asks, not liking the tone of the superioris that is weaker than him.

"You can take it however you want. But one thing is true. As long as you folks are not here to do something illegal under the superiori clans' noses, then we're good." Jotaro shrugs.

"Then you have my word that we not here for any funny business." Reynante claims for himself and Marites.

"Yes. We're are simply too old for that." Marites adds.

The two know that with Jotaro around, it is too late for them to walk away. They also witnessed how easy it was for Jamshid to suppress the three Japanese superiori, so they know will only be forced to stay if they try to flee.

*AHHHHH!*

*HAHAHAHA*

The group suddenly hear a faint sound of children's laughter and cheers from the distance. They know immediately that the clamor is coming from the hill above them. The group unanimously realize that what they heard about children living in the hill are true.

"How can something illegal exist in a place of happy children?" Heydar smiles at Jotaro.

"Children are ignorant, and you know the saying about ignorance." Jotaro returns.

Marites and Reynante exchange glances, sharing a look of relief. They know that no one in their right mind will fight in the presence of children.

Samuel and Eliza bitterly swallow their pride as they do not want to cause an international incident by hurting the Japanese superiori. And if gets out of control, it will not only be the Japanese Clans that will take interest in their wood chip, but others too. 

Finally, Heydar does not want any conflict in the first place, so he accepts Jotaro's request. While he had Jamshid touch the three Japanese superiori, it is not too late.

With that, the group of nine, with the help of the ones who have the ability of flight, make their way to the hill, to the direction where they heard the commotion.

Soon, the visitors find an odd sight, making them stop mid-flight.

At the clay road below them, a third of the way up to the hilltop, five children, at an incredible speed for their age, are chasing an adult woman dressed in pink scrub suit, flailing their wooden swords on her with grins on their faces.

The visitors notice however that the woman seems to be enjoying herself too judging by the smile on her face. They then see the woman swipe at the tallest child on the face, leaving a blue-colored smear on it.

The visitors now realize what caused the clamor they heard earlier at the foot of the hill.

"HAHAHA!"

"OSAMU!"

"HAHAHA!"

The children laugh at the tallest child before proceeding to chase the woman again.

The visitors then see the woman in scrub suit spot them making her stop in her steps.

"Children, stop!" She then orders the children.

"Wow… Now, I feel bad." Eliza cannot help but comment seeing the smile on the children's faces get replaced with apprehension as they are spotted by them too.

"Children, stay away." The woman in scrub suit orders the children again, and the children comply immediately, distancing themselves away from her.

The visitors then see the woman and Jamshid stare each other down.

"********." The woman tells Jamshid at a language that is alien to anyone except for Jamshid.

"********." Jamshid replies back.

Even though the visitors did not understand what they said, they are sure that there is hostility between the two.

Before anyone can ask about it, Jamshid shoots towards the woman.

"!!!" The visitors are stunned at his action.

Before they themselves can take action, "*STAB*" Jamshid has already plunged his shiny sword on the woman's body.

Immediately, the woman's body becomes translucent and everyone sees thunder-like light roll throughout it for a second. A split second later, grey smoke rush out of the woman's body, accumulates in front of her mouth, and convenes into a marble-sized ball-shaped object.

"Demon…" Jamshid announces to everyone as he picks up the demon core and letting the woman's now normal body hit the ground.

This is enough for the rest of the visitors to understand why Jamshid took action and they descend to the ground to join him.

Unlike them however, the children's reactions are different.

"NANA-SAN!" Ran rushes out to attend to the fallen demon's body.

"Ran! Don't!" Taishiro steps in her way, stopping her from getting near the group of visitors, especially from Jamshid.

"BAD PEOPLE!" Chihiro screams at the visitors, but he is afraid to attack them. 

The visitors immediately realize that the children did not know of the demon's identity.

"Children, 'Nana-san' was a demon." Heydar tells the children in fluent Japanese.

"No, she's not! She's nice! She's KIND! AND HE KILLED HER!" Ran denies as she looks at Jamshid in indignation.

"Huma-…Children. Ungrateful like always." Jamshid coldly says in Japanese.

His words get him a weird look from Daigo, Masuo, and Jotaro.

"Wow. What a psycho." Jotaro utters.

*tap**tap**tap* The group then see that someone has arrived.

"Ichiki-san!" The children are glad to see the demon chef.

"…" Ichiki, seeing Nana's body on the ground, sighs in sorrow at the fate of his acquaintance.

He then looks at the man standing beside her body, and he is stunned. And looking at the long blade on the man's hand, fear knocks on his heart and his stomach sinks.

"Children. Go back inside." Ichiki tells the children.

"Bu-" Ran is about to protest but, "NOW! If your teachers are present, tell them to come here." Ichiki orders more forcefully.

The children, seeing the always friendly Ichiki raise his voice at them for the first time, can only follow the order and they all run back up to their house.

The visitors watch as the children's figures disappear as they take a turn at the curve of the road.

Jotaro is about to follow them, when he suddenly feels something. He looks down and sees a huge tendril sticking out of the ground, wrapped around his leg.

"Leave the kids out of this.", He also hears the voice of Ichiki.

"Demons. How many of you are here?" Jamshid asks.

"What's it to you, angel?" Ichiki asks instead of answering.

Ichiki calling Jamshid 'angel' shocks the group except for Heydar.

Ichiki meanwhile, knows that the angel in front of him is much stronger than he is. He can only hope that he can distract the group long enough for back-up to arrive.

"Angel, huh." Samuel, despite his casual words, is trying to hide his fear.

"…" Eliza meanwhile, wants to leave.

The two have read about angels in their families' accounts of the great war.

The Filipino and the Japanese superioris, having had no access to historical records as much as the Australians, simply look at Jamshid in great curiosity.

Seeing the visitors' reactions to his words, Ichiki feels a bit of relief.

"Something you don't see every day. A prideful angel, possessing a human body, rubbing shoulders with humans. What has the world come to?" He continues to delay.

Ichiki's words suddenly makes Samuel realize something.

"So… the thing. It also works on angels?" He asks Heydar, who he noticed Jamshid seems to be subservient to.

Eliza takes a few seconds to realize it too.

"He does not have wings, so… the process must be similar." She says in certainty.

Heydar, having his and Jamshid's secret exposed, feels that denying is useless.

"Precisely. Works on angels too, and in a similar process." He admits.

"Demons. Angels. I'm sorry. This is beyond me. I'm leaving." Masuo, after being brought up to speed to what is happening by Daigo's translation, expresses his intention.

"You are not going anywhere." Jamshid suddenly gets in his way, however.

"F*ck you." Masuo's expression crumples.

He looks at Jotaro, and Jotaro also do not look as confident as before.

"Hey Jotaro. Fuck you too." He can only curse in frustration.

"Eh… Mr. Demon." Reynante calls out.

"You're not taking the children as hostages, are you?" He asks.

"How low do you think of me?" Ichiki scoffs.

"…" The visitors simply look at him as if he asked a stupid question.

"Fair enough." He can only shrug.

"But do you think that angel beside you is any better? They will kill any children without emotion simply because they are 'impure'." He argues.

"Is that true?" Marites asks Jamshid.

"…" Jamshid prefers to ignore the question.

"If my great, great grandfather's stories and journals are to be believed, then what this demon said is true." Samuel says.

"But this angel is under a …. Special circumstance. So far, I trust him more than you." He tells Ichiki.

"I too am in a special circumstance. Just look at what I'm wearing. I cook delicious food for those children every day." Ichiki says.

"Tell me, angel. Am I lying?" He asks Jamshid.

"…" Jamshid prefers to ignore the question.

"Angels don't lie unless told by a superior. They can also tell if someone is lying. If I lied, he would have called me out on it. But because I'm not, he'd rather stay silent than to admit that I'm telling the truth." Ishiki says.

Everyone looks at Heydar and Jamshid for confirmation.

Heydar, caught off-guard by Ishiki's cornering, is helpless and he is seen through by Reynante and Marites.

"This woman…" Marites points at Nana's body.

"Who was she to the children?" She asks Ichiki.

"Their babysitter." Ichiki reveals.

He is pleased to see that half of the visitors get obviously uncomfortable at the information.

"Yes. That's right. Your angel just killed someone who is the second mother to the children." He adds.

"Then let us talk to whoever you're working for. We will personally apologize and offer our compensations." Heydar say to Ichiki.

Samuel and Eliza pick up on what Heydar really means.

"Just to be sure. Do you think he is just like… your angel?" Eliza asks.

"Yes." Heydar nods. "I believe that they are subservient to whoever is in this hill. And we've only met two. Who knows if there are more under that person's command?" He adds.

"And, Jamshid. Stay your hand for now." He orders his angel.

"Now. Please. Bring us to your… boss." Samuel demands.

"I AM HIS BOSS." A voice reverberates above them and they all look up.

They are surprised to see a young woman standing on the air, looking down on them, her kimono beautifully billowing from the wind.

Ichiki, looking at the newcomer, gets confused at first as he does not recognize her.

After a closer look however, he realizes who it is based on the way the woman disposition.

"Yoshiko-san.." He utters.