Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Tsurugi: Tsubasa no Gedatsu ❯ The Non-Believer ( Chapter 5 )

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Tsurugi: Tsubasa no Gedatsu

By: Melissa Norvell

Chapter 5: The Non-Believer

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As Tsurugi walked along the cement streets and noticed that there didn't seem to be quite as many people around. Normally, these streets were bustling with the cold looks and uncaring gestures of humanity and now it was as if that number was simply cut in half. As the angel advanced down the street, two girls passed him.

The angel blinked as he caught the appearance of one of them. She was tall and sporty-looking with long, auburn hair and bright green eyes. A spark of electricity seemed to shoot through his body as a familiar sensation overcame him. Instantly, his head snapped in her direction. His golden hair followed the movement of his head and his ponytail and long bangs wrapped around his neck. A look of recognition and surprise crossed his face as he simply stared at her through the masses of people.

'That girl…'

The auburn-haired girl had also turned her head to stare at him, when she and her friend had gotten a few feet away from him. Her expression matched his nearly exact. 'That angel…'

"Huh?" Her friend turned to glance at her in confusion. "What's wrong Miko?" The black-haired girl asked.

Miko shook her head a little. Her friend wouldn't believe her if she had told her that she'd just now seen an angel. It was not like her to believe her on a subject like that anyway, for she did not believe in angels. "I just thought that I saw something, that's all."

"What?" The blue-eyed girl blinked her in further confusion.

"I thought I saw an angel," Miko finally told her, though she knew that she wouldn't believe her.

"Angel?" The black-haired girl's face immediately transformed into a scrupulous look. "Oh please, Miko. Everyone knows that there are no such things as angels," she scoffed. How could she even believe in things like that? It was preposterous!

"That's not true!" Miko argued in an emotional tone. "There are angels!"

"You're delusional," her friend dismissed with a wave of her hand.

"I know there are," the auburn haired girl replied with a downward glance. The sentence was murmured lowly.

Her friend took a few steps from her and placed her hands on her hips. Her two, high-sitting pig tails bobbed with her movement as hazelnut eyes looked upon her in judgment. "I suppose you have a 'guardian angel' or something?"

"I had one when I was small. He protected me and saved my life many times. I owe him so much," Miko replied softly as she recalled her guardian. He was tall and oh so beautiful with long, blonde hair which was tied back into a ponytail. His wings were magnificent. White with feathers that seemed to reflect a silver color and he sparkled with a urethral radiance that not even the most natural gem could reflect.

As she thought of him, she smiled in happiness at the memories that he'd brought her.

"You know his gender?" The pig-tailed girl asked in a doubtful voice.

"Technically, angels don't have genders because they are spirits but they can appear in a male or female body," Miko informed.

"Let me guess, he had blonde hair, blue eyes and large white wings with a toga," the other female thought of the most cliché version of an angel and threw it out into the open. If her angel looked like the one she described then she had to be some delusional, lonely person when she was little or she liked to make up imaginary friends.

"He did have the first three but he wasn't wearing a toga. He had very elaborate white clothes and sashes with embroidery."

"Are you sure it wasn't your imaginary friend?" The girl continued to question her beliefs.

"No, he was real. You've got to believe me," Miko nearly begged her friend. She wasn't very religious and Miko wanted her to have something to believe in. She figured that those with nothing to believe in didn't have very happy lives without knowing the love of God or angels of any kind. "He even appeared in pictures as white lights."

"It was probably the sun reflecting off of your parent's camera lens. Come on, get real! Angels don't exist and you can't sit back there waiting for miracles because they don't happen. They are just freak occurrences in time," her friend tried to bring her out of, what she thought was a fantasy land. Miko had lived in her spiritual state for far too long and needed a dose of the real world. As her friend, she was worried about her state of mind if she continued to believe in such nonsense.

'I know I saw an angel…I just wonder if he was that angel. He looked so familiar and I haven't seen him in such a long time. I'd be so happy if that were true. It would be nice to see Tsurugi again. He helped me so much…' Miko glanced back towards the spot in which the golden-haired angel had once stood only to find that nothing was there. She continued to stare at the empty space and wondered where he had gone to.

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Tsurugi had walked into a dark alley, similar to the one that he'd been robbed in and leaned against the wall with his hands on his head in agony. His head pounded and his mind ran wild. His knees were bent slightly as he tried to quell the reeling pain in his head.

'Who was that girl? Why does she make my head hurt every time I see her,' he thought and winced in pain. "My head is killing me…" As soon as that comment left his lips, flashes of what seemed to be memories flooded his senses.

There was a girl, who seemed no more than six in age with long, auburn hair that shone in the sunlight like fine silk and vibrant round, green eyes that were framed by dark, abundant lashes. She ran into the green fields with her hands up and a bright smile on her face as joyful giggles escaped her lips. She stopped a few feet away and told him to come with her. Then her face was close, all of a sudden and one phrase managed to seep through his senses as clear as the crystal blue sky.

'I love you, my guardian angel. Tsurugi, let's always be together.'

"Tsurugi…Is that my name? Who is that girl?" He wondered aloud.

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"Well, I have to go home now, so I guess this is where we part," Miko told her friend as they came to a split in the middle of the road. Beside of Miko, there was a large, red brick wall with a two-story house on the other side. She neared that gate and stood to face her friend.

"Yeah, I'll call you when I get home," the black-haired friend smiled.

"Alright, bye Zia!" Miko waved as Zia walked off down the concrete strip after she had said her goodbye. The sporty girl and walked inside of the gate and continued to her two-story house.

'Angels…Miko is really hopeless with that fantasy stuff. She really does have a big imagination,' Zia became lost in the thoughts of happenings that had taken place that day as she walked down the concrete strip and into the road. She had not been paying attention as she stepped out in front of oncoming traffic. She suddenly heard the screeching of tires and with a small, 'huh' came back into reality only to see a car that was headed towards her at a high speed. She turned around and screamed in horror at what seemed to be her oncoming death. Tears streamed down her horrified face as her panic-filled, widened eyes stared death down.

'Please…someone help me…' the frightened girl thought, too terrified to utter a word. As if her silent prayers were answered, a man with golden hair, dressed in white clothes with blue embroidery appeared by her side and tackled her to the ground. Both of them fell to the cement strip as the honking car drove through. When the girl woke, she found herself staring down blue eyes. This figure appeared to be a young man, no more than about seventeen in appearance. He looked like a model. She was transfixed on his form and felt herself staring into those heavenly blue eyes. The girl glanced down at his clothes- robes and sashes with Chinese-inspired design and was it her or was he wearing a dress? 'Who is this lunatic? I probably should be asking that when he saved me.'

Tsurugi got up slowly. "Are you alright, Miss?"

"Who are you? How did you save me? No one was around," the girl stated and looked to the side, as if she were still in shock at what had happened. Nothing seemed quite real to her at this moment in time.

"I don't know who I am and-" Tsurugi's words were cut short.

"How can you not know who you are?" Zia sat up and rubbed her back a little. Being brought down to the cement like that was painful but better than being splattered on the road. No matter how much of a freak this man was, he was also her hero.

"I seem to have gotten amnesia," the blonde looked down and to the side in apparent sadness.

"Someone saves me and I can't even get his name…I think you're a guy at least," Zia remarked on the angel's femininity. Truly, he looked as if he could be either gender. The angel was either a very pretty guy or a very pretty woman.

"Yes, I am in this body anyway," the angel stated.

This caused the pig-tailed girl to become confused. What did he mean by that phrase? This guy really was crazy, despite his beautiful, calm expression. "What do you mean, 'in this body'?"

"I'm an angel."

Zia laughed at the simple statement. He was crazy! "You're funny!" The girl exclaimed in a fit of giggles. Tsurugi simply gazed at her with an awkward expression as the girl kicked the ground in her black skirt and shirt. Solemn eyes looked to a lone flower that grew through the pavement.

It was all the same really.

She felt no different than others.

He suddenly felt alone in the world again.

"An angel? Yeah right! Where are your wings, eh?" Zia poked fun at him as she sat up and made flapping movements with her arms.

"You can only see them if you believe in angels," Tsurugi informed lowly. There really was no way that he could prove it to her at this point in time. He felt helpless in that task, so he could only hope that she could understand and try to believe.

"So, you can't prove it to me, can you?" She pointed to his nose with a sly smirk. It was an indication that in her own mind, she had been right.

"I think I might be able to. I'd like it if you believed in me," he smiled kindly at her.

"Okay, since you saved my life, I'll humor you. I owe you that much, don't I?" Zia grinned.

"At least you'll let me try. I should be glad of that," Tsurugi cracked a small smile. There was a glimmer of hope somewhere for this girl. The angel stood and helped the black-clad girl up.

Zia dusted off her black skirt and tightly-fitting shirt. "Alright, Mr. Angel, do your worst."

The blonde angel then cupped his hands and put them together. The closed his eyes and concentrated as gentle gales wrapped around their forms. Zia glanced around as she felt her hair moving against the winds. She then put a hand on her skirt to keep it from doing anything funny.

"What? What is this?" The girl was confused by the sudden movement around her. It was all too strange. It seemed as if he beckoned the very winds themselves to submit to his commands. She had never seen anything like it and marveled at his skill and technique. She then looked to his hands, which parted as a large ball of what seemed like white energy widened in size between them.

"What the hell is that thing?" Zia asked in disbelief.

Tsurugi opened his eyes and smiled as the light from the ball illuminated them. "This is a healing light," he stated gently as he slowly moved the light towards her. The girl took a few uneasy steps backwards. She didn't quite know if she could trust the strange light that he held with great skill. Zia had never seen anything like it and she didn't know that it was safe, let alone real. After all, it could simply be a magic projection though part of her mind didn't quite believe that it was merely an illusion.

"It's alright, you can touch it."

"I'm not touching that! I could be killed!" Zia exclaimed. Truly this man was crazy to think that she'd trust anything strange like that giant white light.

"It's alright," Tsurugi chided her growing leeriness and slowly coaxed the girl to touch the light. Slowly, she reached forward and touched it but it merely felt like the surrounding air. It was dead and no winds blew there. It was simply an illusion after all.

"There's nothing there," Zia stated.

"You really don't believe, do you?" Tsurugi asked with a look of concern. This was more serious than he had thought it was before.

"What?"

"An angel can only impact a part of your life if you believe in them. Nothing will affect you unless you believe," the angel explained.

"Like I've said, you can't prove that you are," the girl put her hands on her hips and closed her eyes with an irritated look on her face. Why was he so insistent upon proving to her that he was something that did not exist? Was he trying to deceive her? Was this some sort of joke?

White wings were raised up to either side of the angel as he began to flap them powerfully and launched his form into the air. Surely, if she saw that he could at least fly, then she could see his wings. "What about this?" He asked.

"Magic trick? Levitation? Are you a magician now, Mr. Angel?" Zia looked up at him skeptically. What was this loon trying to prove? How much of a freak he is?

Tsurugi landed as his many sashes and ribbons fluttered down after him. He sighed in disappointment. "Well, that didn't work."

"How did you fly like that?" The pig-tailed girl inquired. At least she saw that he could fly. For that, Tsurugi was a little happy. It was one belief that he could prove to her that was real.

"With my wings but you can't see them," the angel remarked as he felt a bead of sweat roll down his head in embarrassment.

"If you say so, Mr. Angel," Zia dismissed.

"It's true," Tsurugi hung his head in defeat. There really was no convincing her.

"Well, I've got to get home," Zia looked at her watch. "If you want to still prove to me that you're an angel then meet me here tomorrow around five. If you can remember."

"I'll wait for you. I won't give up on you," the blonde waved to her as she walked off down the streets.

'What a strange man…' Zia thought to herself as she parted ways with him. The girl then glanced back at the angel, who still stood in place and cracked a smile. "I can't believe that he thinks he's an angel," she chuckled, "and the best part is…he can't even prove to me that he is. What a loser!"

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School had finally let out and the building burst with students, who were headed towards after school activities and their respected homes. Miko and Zia walked out together, dressed in their school uniforms, which consisted of white and purple fukus with matching sailor shirts. Miko turned to her friend and asked her if she wanted to come over to her house after school. Zia told her that she couldn't and that she had promised a guy that she'd meet him at the nearby alley.

Miko blinked in response. She hadn't heard of her friend being engaged in any type of relationship with a male. "You have a boyfriend, Zia?"

"Oh hell no!" The black-haired girl waved. "Not this guy! He's trying to convince me that he's an angel."

"What?" Miko blinked as replied in an almost whisper of a tone.

"It's true; remember what I told you this morning, about nearly dying yesterday?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" The auburn-haired girl asked.

"He's the one who saved me, so I'm repaying him by humoring him. He's a really funny guy and a great magician. He can make himself levitate and create this really cool white light," Zia explained.

"What did he look like?" Miko had a hunch on which the mystery guy might have been, so she decided to question her friend further. This was all too familiar and to her, there were no such things as coincidence- there was only fate.

"He had blonde hair in a low ponytail; it was thick and slightly wavy. His skin was very fair and his eyes were half-lidded and looked peaceful. They were as blue as the sky. He was dressed in this weird Chinese-style outfit that consisted of a high-collar; long-sleeved shirt with sashes and two flaps of material that covered the font and back of his lower half. He wore gold sandals and he was really girly-looking. If he wasn't so flat-chested you'd think that he was a girl," Zia explained.

"What colors were his clothes?" Miko asked in a voice that seemed desperate to know the answer as a look of recognition crossed her face. 'Could it be?'

"White with blue and gold embroidery," the black-haired girl replied.

"What did you say his real name was?"

"My, we're interested all of a sudden," Zia teased.

"I think I know him."

"He didn't know so I don't either."

"…"

"Well, I've really got to go or I'm going to be late," Zia told her as she said her good-bye and ran off down the sidewalk.

"It is…" Her friend's face lit up as she gasped. 'Tsurugi…could it really be? Have you come back to Earth? Why? I thought you were going to be an archangel? What happened to you? Why don't you remember who you are? I've got to help you…' The girl worried for her old friend. There was something wrong about this entire situation and she would definitely find out what it was.

When the school girl came to the familiar alley that she had met Tsurugi at before, she stopped to see that he was waiting for her in the exact same spot that she'd seen him in when they parted the day before.

"He's here," she was slightly amazed that he had even remembered something like that. "How long have you been here?" The girl asked Tsurugi, who greeted her with a smile.

"I stayed here all day so I wouldn't forget," he replied.

'Why would I think that this guy wouldn't say something that off key to me?' The girl sighed. "You didn't have to do that. I told you to meet me at five. I'm punctual, I promise."

"Well, I didn't want to stand you up."

"You try too hard."

There was a silence between the two of them as the faint sound of heavy machinery could be heard. It was as if construction or demolition was taking place above them. Tsurugi looked up and commented that he heard machinery. The girl informed him that construction was taking place on some of the buildings in the area.

"Should we be here?" Tsurugi was concerned for the girl's health and didn't want her being hurt. "It seems dangerous."

"It should be alright. I've been through here many times while construction has been going and nothing's ever happened to me," Zia looked to one of the building frames that workers had been building on as the sound of riveters and jack-hammers could be heard.

"That's a blessing."

"So, convince me, Mr. Angel," the girl winked and turned back towards him.

"Well, I've been thinking all day and I'm not really sure I've come up with anything…" The angel replied nervously as he put a hand behind his head and gave a small chuckle.

High above the two, the construction was going according to plan and it was being monitored closely by the managers. Since they were both high up and on the ground, they had to make sure that they didn't endanger any of the school children that had used that road to get to their homes. They had been lifting a large beam across the frame of the building. It had almost reached its destination when little by little; the rope began to come unrolled. It soon snapped, which brought the iron rod tumbling down towards Tsurugi and Zia, who were merely inches from death itself.

The manager looked down below and saw the two standing there and shouted down to them to watch out. Zia heard the man's voice faintly from five stories above and looked up to see the beam rapidly approaching her body. Tsurugi went wide-eyed and uttered 'oh no' as a look of horror crossed his face.

'That beam will surely kill her if it lands on her. I've got to help her.'

'I won't be able to run from it. I'm going to die,' Zia thought as she stared down the face of death in the form of a steel beam with tears flowing from the unstable color of her eyes. 'I don't want to die! I'm only sixteen and I haven't done anything that I wanted to do yet!'

"Please, someone help me…If anyone can hear me. Please! I don't want to die! I want to live!" The black-haired girl screamed in fright. Her heart raced and adrenalin rushed through her so fast that she felt as if she might have passed out. Zia was paralyzed and try as she might; there was no way that she could have moved.

'Strangely,' Tsurugi looked up at the beam, 'I feel a deep sensation within me to help her.' He closed his eyes as he felt a fuzzy, warm feeling course through his veins. He felt the flow of spiritual energy course through his being and flood his senses. The angel slowly clasped his hands together and began to recite a prayer.

"God above, I beg of you, please grant this child mercy. If it is not yet her time, then protect her with your strong arms and hold back this cruel blow of death." After those words had escaped the angel's lips, the beam had change direction and, as if someone had thrown it, it landed a short distance away from them with the construction workers looking on in sheer dread that they might have witnessed a possible death.

Zia looked over at the beam in sheer awe. The school girl stood there, stock still and unable to move. She felt as if she had been frozen in suspended animation. The events reeled over and over in her head as if she had tried to carefully decipher the situation to make some sort of sense but nothing came to her mind.

'He diverted it…' She thought hollowly as her blank eyes continued to stare through the fallen beam, almost as if it weren't really there. 'He prayed and it missed me…Could he really be?' The girl thought as she turned her glance to the angel. Zia began to rethink her views on everything that concerned angels and anything that would possibly be classified as a paranormal phenomenon. Maybe…just maybe she had began to believe that Tsurugi was indeed something that would not be classified as a human.

The voices of the construction workers' voices could faintly be heard as they frantically shouted down to them to check and see if they were alright. The workers themselves could hardly believe what had happened themselves. Some were skeptical and pessimistic and some believed that it truly was an act of God and that the heavens had mercy on either them or one of the people below.

"Hey! You down there!"

"I don't know what happened but the beam shifted," one of the workers scratched his head under his hard hat.

"That's no ordinary mishap. God was on their side," another commented with a smile towards the heavens, as if to thank the Holy Master for sparing the lives of the two.

"It truly was a miracle," another replied as he too, looked to the sky and marveled at the power of God.

"Hey! Are you all alright down there? Talk to me!" The manager continued to shout.

"We're fine!" Zia shouted up to them after she had regained her senses. "It missed us…" She sighed in relief. "Thank God…"

"Are you alright, Zia?" Tsurugi asked.

"Yes, thank you so much," the black-haired girl busted out crying, overcome with emotion. "I thought I was going to die!" She wailed and sniffled in fear. It was as if all of the emotions hit her at once. It felt as if she had a burden far too heavy to be on anyone's shoulders and the pain that she felt in her chest had been unbearable. Her whole body felt tight and ached from stiff muscles. The pressure she had felt was all of a sudden too much for her to bear and she didn't know why but she felt as if she should cry on Tsurugi and seek his comfort.

She then felt light arms wrap around her in a comforting embrace.

It was Tsurugi.

"It's alright," his gentle words reached her ears, "you're alive and you should be thankful for that."

She hugged him back and cried harder into his chest. Her senses were filled with the scent of clean linen and powder. "Huh?" She blinked a little. The girl had thought that she had faintly seen wings but had thought that they were simply blurs of his white clothes that appeared to be wing like when they were blurred by tears. After she blinked a few more times, the actual wings became clearer to her. There were actual feathers caressing her form. They felt so warm and soft to the touch. It was like touching the clouds themselves. She marveled at their sight when she slowly ran her fingers through their abundance. "Why do you have wings?" She lifted her head slightly and looked to him in question.

"You believe at least a little, so you can see them now. I told you that I was an angel," Tsurugi told her with a smile.

"You convinced me with what you did a while ago," she continued to touch his silver wings. "I really do…with what you've just done…there's not a doubt in my mind that angels exist on this Earth. They exist in all forms and watch us as shadows, testing us. They can even be every day people you meet…I know this now. Miko was right. They do exist…I'm so sorry that I didn't believe you." The girl admitted with a downward cast look into the blue embroidery of his shirt.

"I knew I could convince you," Tsurugi smiled triumphantly. "People can change."

For that, he was definitely glad.

"You don't remember anything, right?" Zia's face seemed a little more serious than it had been before.

"I've actually gathered quite a bit but I don't know exactly who I am," the blonde angel blinked a little in confusion. He wondered what brought about her sudden gravity.

The girl then grabbed his hand. "Come on! I'll take you to Miko! She'll be able to tell you everything!" She tugged his form after her and willed him to follow her.

"What do you mean? How do you know?" Tsurugi asked.

"I just have a hunch," Zia smiled as they ran through the alley way, on their way to find her friend and the hopeful answers to all of the questions that Tsurugi had left unanswered for so long.

To Be Continued…