Chapter 196: The Wailing Angel!
"Why were you glowing just now? What happened? And... who is this?"
Yurine looked down at Pino, who was lying on the grass with swirling eyes, clearly still stunned. She then looked at Jashin-chan, waiting for an answer.
"I have no idea!" Jashin-chan said, looking baffled. Then, she immediately put her hands on her hips, puffed out her chest, and got extremely cocky. "Poporon and Pekola brought her... This little scrub even said she was going to finish me off, but I knocked her out with one punch! She's so weak!"
Jashin-chan would be able to brag about this for a long time.
"Anyway, let's go inside first. It's a bit hot out here." Ryohei Tanaka picked up the bags of groceries Jashin-chan had dropped earlier. He couldn't help but glance at Pino. So she's here, too?
He knew who Pino was. She was Pekola's former subordinate, and her... ambition... was huge. But her mind was also very fragile, and she suffered from severe persecution paranoia. She was prone to mental breakdowns, and when she broke, she would do dangerous things. She was a bit of a handful.
"True, this isn't the place to talk... By the way, what do we do with her?" Jashin-chan nodded at Ryohei, then looked down at the pink-haired angel. With a hand on her hip, she grinned and suggested, "Why don't we just bury her?"
This girl really is a demon, Ryohei thought, shooting her a look. He started walking toward the villa. "Just bring her into the living room for now."
"Oh, fine." Jashin-chan shrugged, indifferent.
Yurine went ahead of Ryohei to open the door for him.
Pekola, seeing Jashin-chan grab one of Pino's legs and start dragging her inside, felt her eye twitch. She couldn't stand it. She tossed her suitcase to Poporon to carry in, then walked over and lifted Pino in a princess carry.
"You really are a hopeless good person," Jashin-chan remarked, putting a hand on her hip as she watched Pekola. She didn't really mind, but she had to say something.
Pekola just smiled, embarrassed but polite.
...
A few moments later, in the living room.
"...And that's what happened," Poporon concluded, looking dejected. "It seems Lady Pekola and I are now wanted criminals in Heaven. But we can't completely trust what Pino said. It's possible she, like me, snuck down here to eliminate rivals and clear her path to becoming the Archangel..."
Now, even if she got her halo back, she wouldn't dare return. What if she went back only to be arrested? That would be the worst. She felt like her life was over, her future a expanse of gray.
"..." Poporon picked up her teacup and took a small sip, trying to calm her bitter and sad heart.
"I see," said Ryohei. He was holding half a Shiroi Koibito chocolate biscuit—one of the souvenirs Poporon and Pekola had brought back from Hokkaido. He couldn't help but make a snarky comment. "You angels really will stop at nothing for a promotion, will you..."
"The morals of angels are really in decline!"
"Pfft—!" Yurine, sitting beside him, raised a hand to cover her mouth, letting out an impolite laugh.
As the others looked at her, she giggled. "Demon morals are so pure! ...Jashin-chan excluded."
"...Thanks for the compliment, I guess," Jashin-chan said, crossing her arms, completely speechless.
Pekola clenched her fists on her lap and lowered her head in shame, her face bright red. This is so embarrassing! The morals of angels are worse than demons!
Poporon just gave Yurine a deadpan look. As one of the angels who had dragged down the average moral score, she was in no position to laugh. Of course, she didn't feel any shame, either. Who decreed that angels had to be pure and good? Why? So what if she was a little despicable and had no shame? Was she eating their rice?
'Well... I guess I am eating their rice, actually,' Poporon mused.
"Alright, alright." Ryohei finished the other half of his biscuit and stepped in to smooth things over. He paused, then looked at Poporon and Pekola reassuringly. "For now, just stay here in the human world. If you run into any trouble, just come to us..."
He said that, but he figured they wouldn't run into any real trouble. In the original story, they were wanted, too, but nothing much ever came of it. However, after a while, "the Lord" would descend.
Thinking of "the Lord," Ryohei immediately recalled the famous scene of Yurine knocking her out with one punch. He wondered if that would still happen this time...
He thought about "the Lord's" human-world avatar—a little girl in an orphanage, whose mindset even became childish. She was actually kind of cute. Ryohei suddenly had the bold idea of luring her out with delicious food and teasing her.
'Ah... I mean no disrespect, Amen.'
"..."
"If it really comes down to it, for old times' sake, I can recommend you go to the Demon Realm and become fallen angels," Jashin-chan said, teasing the two angels.
Pino, in her groggy state, vaguely heard the words "go to the Demon Realm and become fallen angels." She snapped awake, bolting upright from the sofa. Her ample curves swayed with the movement. As her skirt fluttered, she looked at Poporon and Pekola beside her and shouted in alarm, "You really did betray Heaven!"
"We did not!" Poporon and Pekola yelped, startled. They felt incredibly wronged. They hadn't betrayed Heaven! They had just been forced by various circumstances to hang out with Ryohei and the others for a while... It couldn't be helped!
"You're still denying it? I heard you! You're going to the Demon Realm to become fallen angels!" Pino said, immediately preparing to escape. She had misjudged Jashin-chan's strength—she thought she was just a small fry, but she was unexpectedly strong.
Pino needed to go back and lead a larger force to subjugate this demon, and while she was at it, capture these two traitors. Her promotion wasn't just a dream!
But when she used her "Return" skill, she realized the surrounding environment wasn't changing at all. Pino froze. 'What's going on?'
A sense of unease began to creep into her heart. Pino started to panic.
"Who's going to the Demon Realm to become a fallen angel? We never said that!"
"Exactly! Jashin-chan was the one who offered to introduce us, but we never agreed!" Poporon and Pekola explained frantically. This misunderstanding wasn't just not being cleared up, it was getting worse!
"Why can't I return to Heaven? What did you do!?" Pino ignored the two angels' explanations. She forced herself to stay calm, glaring at Poporon and Pekola with a fierce-on-the-outside, terrified-on-the-inside look. She then glanced at Jashin-chan, suspecting she was the one behind this.
Poporon just smiled. She raised a slender hand to cover her mouth, her face a mask of schadenfreude. "Your halo was eaten by Jashin-chan. Of course you can't go back. You can just become a traitor to Heaven with us!"
I've been rained on, so you're not getting away dry. Let's all be traitors together!
"...Nani!?"
The pink-haired angel stared blankly, then let out a shriek. She frantically reached up to feel the top of her head, only to find... nothing. Her body went rigid. She turned her head mechanically, staring at Jashin-chan in utter disbelief.
"You're lying, right!?"
"What are you looking at? You were the one who wanted to finish me off. What's the big deal if I eat your halo?" Jashin-chan said, crossing her arms and looking at Pino with righteous indignation.
She was all geared up for a shouting match, but Pino just stared for a second, her lip quivered, and she suddenly started to sob. Fat tears rolled down her pale cheeks.
"With... without my halo, I can't go back to Heaven... My mission will fail... And... and you'll frame me as an accomplice to the demons..."
"I... I'm finished!"
"Waaaaaaaaah—!"
Pino's legs gave out, and she sat down hard on the living room floor in a W-sit. Her butt felt a bit cold on the tiles, but she was in no state to care about that. She tilted her childish, tear-streaked face upward and began to bawl her eyes out.
Anyone could tell she was truly heartbroken.
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