Angels, Humans & Demons

The Inquisitor Experiences a Strange Feeling

On a pleasantly warm Wednesday Suzuno was coming home from shopping for food. When she reached the stairs to the apartments, all of a sudden, Urushihara ran out of the house and down the stairs, but he failed to reach the ground on his feet – just like everybody else who was in a rush and/or careless in this bad staircase. Suzuno wanted to say good afternoon but she didn't have time because Urushihara landed just right on her. She tried to catch him but of course, she didn't have time to lift her hands either.

'I would have appreciated it if you had caught me...' Urushihara groaned. He was lying crossways on Suzuno's stomach with his back and didn't have the slightest idea of what he wanted to do right then because he had hit his head.

'I had the thought in my head,' she groaned. 'Now I would appreciate it if you got up...'

Urushihara scrambled to his feet and so did Suzuno, picking up the bags she had dropped.

'So, good afternoon,' she said and went up the stairs. Meanwhile she thought about how strange seeing Urushihara outside was, but didn't start to wonder why because she was as careless as he was and fell down. Urushihara tried to catch her but failed too, and Suzuno landed on him.

'Couldn't you walk up the stairs properly...?' Urushihara groaned again.

'And could not you?' Suzuno asked in her usual emotionless tone. Now she was sounder than Urushihara, landing on top, the same way he did before.

'I don't use these stairs often. Now could you get up?'

'Of course.' Suzuno sat up and Urushihara helped her by pushing her up with his palms on her back, then he got up as well.

'So there you are!' Ashiya shouted. He had just come out of the house and stood on top of the stairs, looking very angry. 'Thank you for stopping Urushihara, Kamazuki,' he said while he stomped down.

'Wha...?! Hey!' Urushihara shouted when Ashiya grabbed his collar. 'Let me go!'

'You thought you could escape from the castle, did you?!'

Ashiya dragged the loudly complaining Urushihara back to their apartment. Suzuno picked up her bags again and walked up as well, buried in her thoughts. In her apartment, she put the bags down on the counter and sat down on the floor. After thinking looking at the wall with puckered eyebrows for about ten minutes, she picked her newly got – and first – mobile phone up from the table and called Emi.

'Hello, it's Emi.' Suzuno heard her voice through the telephone.

'It's Suzuno. I need to talk to you in private. Not an emergency, but as soon as possible.'

'Oh, okay, I am at work right now, and I'm going home late, so what about tomorrow afternoon?'

'That's okay with me.'

'Okay, then... oh, wait, I've just remembered that Chiho is coming to my apartment tomorrow afternoon... she also told me that she wanted to talk to me in private. I guess it's about Maou again... but you can come if you don't mind Chiho's presence, and I'm sure she doesn't mind yours so we can talk about you then.'

'I don't mind. It's better that she is also there anyway, I wanted to call her too.'

'Right, then meet you there.'

'Goodbye.'

Suzuno ended the call, and started staring at the wall again.

Next day, Suzuno went to Emi's place in the afternoon. Chiho was already there.