The air in Gabriel's room was thick with a complicated, eyebrow-pinching smell.
Seasoning packets from cheap instant noodles, pizza gone a bit greasy after cooling, chips that had gone damp in an opened bag—and a faint note… Gabriel's own, tinged with all-nighters and laziness, not exactly fresh.
An angel's dwelling? This was more chaotic and disgraceful than the lairs of the lowest, sloppiest sloth-demons she'd seen in the demon compendium—messier even than the turmoil Rei Ao's words had just thrown her heart into!
"Ga—bri—el!"
The three syllables were hewn from ancient ice, squeezed through Zelel's teeth on a cutting wind, charged with thunder about to break.
She shot out a hand, quick as lightning, and clamped onto her sister's wrist just as Gabriel tried to shrink behind Vignette and pretend to be air. The grip made Gabriel yelp.
"Look at your room!"
Zelel's voice quivered with anger she was barely restraining. She pointed at the wreckage.
Each word fell like hailstones: "You are a proud angel, charged with guiding the human world toward the good!"
"Look at you—filthy! Slothful! A total mess! Where's your sense of duty? Your honor? Did you slurp them down with your instant noodles?! What a disgrace!"
She yanked Gabriel forward, forcing her to face the "crime scene."
"Clean this up. Now. Not an inch left untouched. I'll be here to personally supervise."
"Nooo—Sis!"
Gabriel wailed like a cat with its tail stepped on, straining backward for all she was worth. "It's too late today—tomorrow… I promise I'll clean it till it's spotless! Sparkling!"
"Tomorrow?"
Zelel let out a laugh born of fury, cold as ice. "There is no such word as 'tomorrow'—that's procrastination. My dictionary has only 'now' and 'immediately'!"
"Seems the human world has taught you not only laziness, but delay and sophistry. That's an extra count against you."
Her gaze locked onto Gabriel like iron shackles.
Then she turned to Vignette and Satania—both wide-eyed and at a loss—and to Rei Ao and Raphiel, who had somehow appeared at the door, arms folded, wearing the look of someone enjoying the show.
"My apologies, everyone." Zelel forced her tone back toward calm, though authority weighed even heavier in it. "What comes next is family business—some scenes may be… unseemly. We can't host you. Please take your leave."
Rei Ao watched the vivid tableau of the stern older sister dressing down the lazy younger one—especially Gabriel's "life is over" look and the pitiful eyes begging him to save her—and chuckled under his breath. He shrugged at Vignette and Satania, who both looked very ready to go. "All right, looks like the sacred purification ritual is about to begin. We bystanders really shouldn't get in the way. Let's go."
Vignette looked as if she'd been granted amnesty. She bobbed her head like a pecking chick. "Y-yes, yes, we're leaving now! Zelel-san, Gabriel—good… luck!"
Another second in that omnipresent aura of severity and she felt she'd suffocate. It was ten times worse than facing the strictest instructor in the demon realm.
Satania, though reluctant—she wanted to see Gabriel's embarrassing forced-cleaning—could only purse her lips and let Rei Ao tow her away under his warning look and Zelel's icy stare.
The three headed down the stairs, said goodbye to Raphiel, and reached the corridor outside. Only then did Vignette dare take a real, deep breath. Patting her chest, she sighed with lingering fear. "Whew… saved."
"Gabriel's sister's presence is terrifying. I felt like I didn't even dare breathe in front of her—way scarier than our school's dean of students!"
Satania immediately wriggled free of Rei Ao's hand. Hands on hips, she puffed out a chest that carried no intimidation at all, trying to reclaim the moment. "Hmph! What's there to be afraid of? She's just an angel! I, the great Satania McDowell, will be the Demon King one day—why would I fear an angel!"
"…I was merely—merely executing a strategic retreat!"
Rei Ao stopped at that, lifted a brow at the little demon whose bark exceeded her bite, and smiled with shameless teasing. "Oh? A strategic retreat? Funny—because last night at the hotel, someone was so full of bravado, and then, not long after we went in, she—"
"Ahhh—don't say it! Master, you're not allowed to say another word!"
Satania exploded like a cat with its tail trod on, her face and neck turning tomato-red. She shrieked, flailing as she leapt up to cover that wicked mouth before he could spill anything else mortifying. Rei Ao simply leaned aside and let her lunge past; she stumbled, and his grin widened.
Watching the familiar roughhousing, Vignette felt a flicker of curiosity at the word "hotel," but more than anything she wanted to shake off the pressure Zelel had left behind. Noting the sky deepening to indigo, she said, "Um… it's really getting late. We should head home."
"Mm. See you tomorrow, Vignette." Rei Ao spared the nearly self-combusting Satania and gave Vignette a friendly wave.
Satania, cheeks puffed in embarrassed anger, muttered so softly it was almost inaudible, "Bye… ca—"
~~~
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