Chapter 90 - Miharu Kozuki
Hollow Night
03:43:13
Time stopped.
Not in the poetic way people describe near-death experiences. Not as some fleeting illusion.
This was absolute - Urteil's golden edge frozen a finger's width from my jugular, Selaphiel's perfect features locked in a rictus of divine fury, even the red droplets from my earlier wounds suspended mid-air like obsidian teardrops.
What...?
The Hollow Night had become a diorama - the circling Noise frozen in their grotesque reverence, the flickering street lamps petrified mid-stutter, the very air itself turned to glass. Only I remained aware, trapped in this impossible pause.
Then the script appeared:
[Urteil's blade descends. FATAL STRIKE IMMINENT.]
[Command your blade to intercept.]
[TIME REMAINING: 5...]
A countdown. Numerals burned beneath the familiar red and blue text, ticking down with methodical precision. My rapier lay discarded several feet away, its silver hilt peeking through rubble.
This isn't just perception, I realized. The slight delays I'd noticed before when stage directions appeared - those microseconds where the world seemed to hesitate - they'd been fragments of this.
My power had been evolving all along.
[4...]
Kozuki's voice trembled in my mind. Miharu, what's happening?
We're rewriting the script, Red answered, her mental voice sharp with anticipation.
[3...]
I focused on my rapier - really focused. Not just looking at it, but already feeling its weight in my hand, remembering the perfect balance it had when I fought with it, the way the moonlight ran like liquid silver along its edge that very first night.
[2...]
…Move.
The blade twitched.
[1...]
Reality snapped back into motion with a sound like shattering crystal.
Urteil flashed downward - and met sudden resistance as my rapier shot upward, steel ringing against divine gold in a shower of sparks. The impact vibrated through my bones even though my hand was empty.
Selaphiel's eyes widened. "What-?"
Her grip faltered for just an instant.
Enough.
I drove my heel into her stomach, feeling ribs give way beneath the impact. She gasped, Urteil's trajectory shifting just enough for me to twist free.
My rapier - Velvet, I named it then, the thought flashing bright and certain - spun through the air as I caught its hilt, redirecting Urteil's momentum with a circular parry that sent the golden blade screaming back toward its mistress.
The divine weapon stopped a hair's breadth from Selaphiel's forehead, its tip drawing a single bead of black ichor that traced down the bridge of her perfect nose.
For a heartbeat, everything was still again - no time manipulation, just the stunned interlude between acts.
Selaphiel touched the viscous liquid, her amber eyes widening at the stain on her fingers.
"You... dare..."
I twirled Velvet in a flourishes salute, feeling the new connection between us - no longer just metal and grip, but an extension of my will.
"Amusing. For an angel, you bleed awfully mortal."
The script flickered at the edge of my vision:
[Selaphiel’s rage builds.]
[Take center stage.]
I smiled, settling into a ready stance as Velvet floated beside me, its point weaving lazy circles in the air.
"I’m ready when you are... divine one."
Selaphiel flared, her remaining composure shredding like old stage curtains.
"You insolent worm!"
Black ichor sizzled where it dripped onto the pavement, eating through concrete like acid. The watching Noise shrieked in discordant chorus as their angel descended into fury.
And as the battle resumed, I realized with perfect clarity - this was no longer just about survival.
This was my debut performance as my new self.
And tonight, all of Hollow Night would be my audience.
[HR][/HR]
The battle became a waltz of steel and light—each clash sending shockwaves through the ruined crossing. Selaphiel's movements grew increasingly erratic, Urteil's golden arcs wilder, her perfect form marred by streaks of black ichor.
She's unraveling, Red observed.
A downward strike came too slow—Velvet intercepted with a ping, the impact reverberating through my telekinetic grip. I pivoted, delivering a slash across Selaphiel's thigh. She hissed, her lavender hair sticking to her sweat-slicked neck.
"You're getting sloppy," I taunted, twirling Velvet in a showman's flourish. "What's the matter? Losing faith?"
Selaphiel froze. It was impossible to miss – the pure, human shock.
[Selaphiel’s resolve falters.]
[Press the advantage.]
I ignored the script. The tremor in her grip told me everything.
"You don't believe you can win," I pressed, circling like a director blocking a scene. "Not truly. That's why Urteil's light dims when you swing it now."
The blade in question flickered, as if hearing its name.
"Lies!" Selaphiel's voice flared, desperation dripping from her cries. "I am chosen! The Divine Messenger—"
"—Who bleeds like the rest of us!" I gestured to her wounds with Velvet's tip. "Face it. Your god isn't watching."
Her scream wasn't any kind of divine wrath—it was human rage. Urteil blazed to life as she lunged, abandoning all technique in a reckless overhead strike.
There.
I sidestepped by inches, feeling the heat of the golden blade sear my cheek. Velvet shot forward like a silver bullet—
—and buried itself to the hilt in Selaphiel's stomach.
She gasped, Urteil clattering to the ground. Velvet wrenched free telekinetically as I leapt, driving my heel into her jaw with a crack that sent her spinning across the pavement.
Urteil quivered, then shot toward me in a last-ditch attack—only to be intercepted by Velvet midair, the two blades screeching as they locked.
"Stay," I commanded.
Velvet held fast while I advanced on Selaphiel, who crawled backward, black blood pooling around her. The watching Noise stirred uneasily.
"Your curtain call approaches. Any last—"
The Hollow Night erupted before I could finish.
A tsunami of Wild Noise surged from every alleyway, storefront, and shattered window—a living tide of claws and teeth. I backflipped onto a lamppost, only for winged horrors to divebomb me from above. A taloned strike to the ribs sent me crashing down into the swarm.
Shit—!
Velvet became a silver whirlwind, severing limbs and heads, but for every Noise I cut down, three more took its place. Selaphiel's laughter rang out over the horde, hysterical and raw.
"See?! This is faith, you arrogant worm!"
Blackness swallowed me whole.
[HR][/HR]
Rememberances of a Fallen Angel
As the sea of Noise continued to rain on Miharu like a dark typhoon, away from the chaos, Selaphiel was now beginning to fade.
She knelt by the wayside, Urteil embedded in the concrete before her, her fingers trembling around the hilt. Black ichor pooled beneath her—perhaps not just as blood, but something darker. Doubt.
"Losing faith..." Her whisper carried across the ruined crossing. "How dare she—"
Then the memories hit.
A flicker of dark hair—Akane, grinning as she tossed Selaphiel a stolen energy drink. "Lighten up, choir girl! Your God's gotta have a sense of humor to make your face that punchable."
Kin, nodding solemnly as she ranted about scripture. "Dunno about angels, but you hit like one. That's holy enough for me."
Rindo, resting an assured hand on her shoulder during one of their night watches, his cheeks reddening.
"I-I believe in you. So... don't stop believing in yourself, okay?"
As the memories surged like wine overflowing a chalice, the light that came next arrived not from heaven, but rather, from within—a supernova of reclaimed conviction. Selaphiel threw her head back and screamed, the sound shredding the air like divine revelation.
The Hollow Night answered.
A pillar of radiance erupted from the sky, swallowing her broken form. The wave of Noise shrieked, some dissolving instantly, others prostrating themselves as the light intensified.
Miharu and her blade, Velvet, who were left bloodied and bruised at the epicentre, could only be left panting and confused as the world was enveloped in another shower of light.
And when it faded, Selaphiel rose—transfigured.
Wings of molten gold unfolded from her back, each feather edged in flame. A halo of white fire crowned her head, its glow casting long shadows across her newly muscular frame. Urteil had become a monstrous greatsword, its blade wreathed in sacred fire.
"Kneel."
The command hit like a physical force. Miharu’s legs buckled before she could resist, Velvet clattering to the ground. The remaining Noise whimpered, pressing their faces to the pavement.
Selaphiel advanced, Urteil trailing fire across the concrete. "You spoke of lost faith," she boomed, her voice layered with echoes. "But, looking back, my faith was never in gods."
Urteil rose—
“It was in them."
—only to be intercepted by a silver hammer.
A blonde girl materialized in a blur of luminescence, her strike caught effortlessly in Selaphiel's palm. The impact sent shockwaves through the crossing, toppling nearby lampposts.
"Tch. Tough crowd." Hoshino backflipped as Selaphiel swung, landing beside Miharu just as two – no, three others emerged from the shadows.
Daisuke adjusted his goggles, unfazed by the angelic horror before us.
"Knew it was you causing this ruckus. Who else could turn a territorial skirmish into a one-woman apocalypse…?"
Liu's familiar—the Tainted—snorted jokingly from his side. "Show-off."
"Quiet, you," Liu chided, though his grin was unmistakable. "Will admit though, she does make for one hell of a stage presence."
Hoshino's hand closed around a stunned Miharu’s forearm, hauling her up with surprising gentleness.
"Before you say, we're not here to cage you.” She confirmed. “We’re just returning a favor."
Miharu tried to shrug her off, only for her legs to buckle in betrayal.
"I don't need—"
"Save it." Hoshino shoved Velvet into her grip, her other hand steadying her elbow. "Every diva needs a stagehand, don’t they? Even you. We fought together before. I’d like to think we made a pretty good team."
Selaphiel's wings blazed brighter, Urteil's fire turning white-hot.
"More heretics to purge. How convenient."
As Miharu flexed her fingers around Velvet, she felt the script flicker at the edge of her vision—only this time it was not red, nor blue, but rather a fluid, ever-changing mixture of the two.
[CLIMAX CONDITIONS MET.]
A slow smile spread across her face.
"Very well. Follow my lead. I trust you’re all familiar with the script...!"
Instantly, she was engulfed in a blaze of scarlet.The horns curled first on her forehead—onyx spirals gleaming like stage lights. Then the wings—crimson and feathered, fanning out with a sound like a standing ovation. Velvet's blade then ignited, its light carving through the Hollow Night's gloom.
Hoshino whistled. "Talk about a costume change…"
Daisuke sighed. "Here we go again...we’ll take care of the Noise. You two…uh, have fun."
As Daisuke and Liu leapt into the deep black pool of Noise, Hoshino stood firm aside Miharu’s new demonic form.
Selaphiel's halo only pulsed in response.
"Encore?"
Miharu levelled Velvet, its glow painting her inner fury in shades of scarlet.
"Nay, divine one. This will be your final act."