CHAPTER 5

ANGELS ANTAGONISM

After a few days, the morning sun of a new dawn rose for a new month. Hunting month for The Angels Antagonism. Does Anouke already know about this? He’ll have to prepare, even more so if he’s going to fight them off. I can tell that he won’t run away from a fight even if he’s taking his last breath. I should probably tell him, Lex thought to himself involuntarily.

He sat up on the sofa and looked out at the morning sun streaming through the windows. “Morning, Lex!” Anouke cheered. “Actually, I never thought about this, but now that The Angels Antagonism is out on their hunting spree this month, why were you hunting me out of hunting season for your group?”
“Well, uh… Ak- Somebody wanted me to kill you due to something which happened in the past. If I did that, he told me he would give me a higher rank in The Angels Antagonism so I could lead more of the hunts and become more powerful by… Just for a reason. And your ‘brothers’ tried to stop me from finding you, so I had to… Yeah, not just kill you. Well, I didn’t kill you, but you know what I mean.”
“I see… ‘Ak,’ huh..?”
“I misspoke,” Lex hastily replied.
“Okay then.”

“Now, Lex. The real question is: whose side are you on? Are you going to go against your own kind, your own group, even your own ideals, or are you going to help me, hm?”
There it is; that question. What am I going to do, go with my ideals even though I’m like this, or help Anouke? I’ll probably just get in the way of Anouke anyway, he is… he is stronger than me after all, as much as I hate to admit that. “I-I don’t know,” he said truthfully. Anouke smiled dejectedly. “Hey, look,” he started to speak in a wistful tone. “Your eyes are becoming grey. They’re faded around the top. I’m glad.” He gave that joyless smile again.

“How have you changed me so quickly, Anouke?” He placed his hand over his face, fingertips pressing into his forehead and covering his eyes which now had grim sorrow in them. “What is happening to me? What have you done to me?”
“You see, it’s not really anything of what I’ve done… It’s just because you’re not with Demons anymore, so now you won’t have those surrounding you and halting your change to becoming Angelic. Or… You want to become an Angel to escape from the past, without even realizing it yourself.”
“Oh, that’s all? I see,” he moved his hand away from his face as he realized something urgent.

“Wait, have you eaten something? When you, uh- When you asked me for help the other day and I refused, did you eat anything?”
“Well, I guess not, no.”
“You haven’t eaten for ages! Why didn’t you tell me, I probably would have helped this time.”
“Well, you haven’t eaten anything either, Lex. And don’t say that you can go longer than this, I mean you probably can, and so can I, but you need to eat, too.”
“I could say the same back to you.”
“How about we both help each other out, Lex, hm? You help me reach my food and I’ll help you with hunting for yours. How does that sound?” He asked, hiding a smile.
“Not too bad I guess.”

“Well, then. I’m feeling extremely hungry as I’m sure you can imagine.”
“Sure can, A-Anouke…”
“Hey, you said my name!” He gasped in shock then smiled at Lex. “You hardly ever say my name, so that made me happy, haha!” He beamed at Lex even with closed eyes, the shape of crescent moons.
His smile is so cute… He watched Anouke as his face returned to normal. Wait, what am I thinking?

They both walked over to the cupboard in the kitchen, Lex reaching up and grabbing the first can of food which was there. “Eh? Is this some sort of joke?” He held out the tin he had picked up with a bland face and Anouke laughed. It was tinned peaches. “You really don’t know anything about Angels,” he held his chest and tried not to laugh. He took a deep breath and had calmed down now. “Alright, so… Phew, that was funny, though. We don’t eat anything actually, and we don’t really get hungry. I just thought that it’d be fun to tease you and now I want to do it more, you have the best reactions!”

“Huh? But before when you tried to reach the food… Wait, that was a joke as well, just to get my reaction!?” Lex asked, almost in shock.
“Yup!”
“Well, I think it’s time for you to eat, Lex. And I know that you’re not tricking me since I know some stuff on Demons. I’ve got more knowledgeable since you’ve been here as well.”
“Yeah, whatever, let’s just go, I’m starving. Wait, before we do, if you don’t eat why do you even have food?”
“Oh, well when I first got here, the house was neglected and the food was already there.”
"Right… Well, let’s go then."

“So, what animal is your favorite ‘food,’ hm?” Anouke asked, genuinely curious.
“Well, of course I prefer humans and Angles, but you won’t let me have those. So, I guess… Hm, we’re in a forest so I suppose it’ll have to be an animal which lives around here. That’s difficult. I’ve not eaten an animal in a while. I’d probably say a deer or something. Maybe a fox. A fox is like a snack to humans, small and sweet, and doesn’t quite fill you up. Get what I mean?” Lex explained to him, quite interested to know what his own preference of food was, too. “I see… Well, you’re right about me not letting you eat your favorite meal. But sure, I get what you mean about a fox as a snack… I guess,” he paused for a second until quietly adding one more word which Lex could just about hear. “Unfortunately.”

 “Well, you asked what I liked; my favorite ‘food.’ If you can even call it food, Anouke.” He mentioned his name again unintentionally. “Well, you eat it, don’t you?”
“In a way, I guess.”

Lex suddenly threw out his arm to block Anouke from walking any further. Silence spread through the forest until the crunch of damp leaves seemed to echo through the density of the thick fog and immense amount of trees. Lex brought his finger to his lips whilst his eyes scanned the surroundings. “There’s a squirrel,” Lex whispered and crouched down. “Oh, do you eat that…?” Anouke asked awkwardly, trying to look for the squirrel. He saw it scuttle onto the trunk of a tree and stop. “Ah, I see it now.”

Anouke looked at Lex but as he did he was already gone, feet on its body. It’s dead body. “L-Lex… Gosh, that was—something.”
“Well, you said you wanted to help me with hunting, what did you expect? A nice stroll through the forest in the morning sun? A hunt isn’t going to be clean and peaceful.”
“Well, I knew that, but still. It was just unexpected and I don’t usually do anything like this. Well, I say ‘usually,’ but I’ve never done this before as you can probably understand why.”

“Hm. Wait, you said that Angels don’t eat anything. When- If you change me, does that mean I won’t eat either?” Lex looked at him with inquisitiveness in his eyes, index finger and thumb holding his chin in a thoughtful position.
“Well, actually- That’s a pretty good question, I don’t know myself. Sometimes Angels go into the human town – obviously we hide our true selves - and when we do, we sometimes eat the food there. But because we don’t actually eat anything and the food can’t necessarily digest, we throw it up, so… But I’m not sure how it’ll change for you.” Anouke answered truthfully.

Lex held the squirrel’s corpse, broad hand holding it by its neck. “Well, my body won’t feed itself.” He muttered to himself, closing his eyes and nearing his face to its lifeless body. He opened his mouth, cuspids nearing its body but he didn’t bite. Instead, a visible aura from the body, though it was dead, got inhaled into his mouth. First, there was a faint white Lex seemed to be absorbing, and then there was a colour change to purple, blue then black until it vanished. He dropped the body. “That wasn’t very fulfilling. Nor did it taste good. But whatever, we should get back.”

Anouke nodded and they started to stroll back. Lex seemed to look a little different – a little broader - so Anouke pointed it out, asking about his theory why. “So, does eating do something to a Demons body?”
“I suppose you could say that. When a Demon is starved, like I guess I was, and they eat for the first time in a while, it gives them a boost of strength. Like for me, I only ate a squirrel, so it won’t last long. But, if I ate a deer or something, then it’d last a while longer since it’s bigger and would have more to feed off.”

Before Anouke could answer back, The Angels Antagonism had come forth. They came from the blur of weak mist, a group of five. “Shit!” Lex gasped in horror. They’ve got me! They’ll tell Akuma. I’m for sure dead! But… Wait, only the higher ranks can speak to Akuma. Anyway, I’ll be able to beat these guys to a pulp; they look like they’re new to the group. But, if they retreat I can’t leave Anouke on his own now. I know he’s stronger than me, but there are Demons in higher ranks than me… They can beat Anouke, too. I may slow him down, but I’ll be an extra hand if he needs it… “Well, well, what have we here? A Demon teaming up with an Angel?” One of the group members spoke, partially shocked. The one who spoke looked at Lex’s hand.

“And one of The Angels Antagonism? Ha, wait till we tell the higher-ups! You’ll be dead meat, the both of you--” He paused and read what was on his hand. “Wait, you’re in the higher-low ranks?” Lex stopped in his trails and so did Anouke.
“Yeah, I am. Want to take me on? Come on, five against one, easy for you, right?” Lex teased though his face was pissed and cruel. “Hah, is that a challenge, mate?” Another from the group stepped forwards overly-confident.

“Lex, what the heck are you doing!?” He turned to look at Anouke with a cantankerous smile, holding up a hand. He took the hint and stayed silent, not planning to meddle with The Angels Antagonism if it was unnecessary. “And what if it is a challenge? ‘Mate.’” He muttered, displeased. Have they never met a higher-low before? They really think they can defeat me? Ha, how foolish! He laughed out aloud from his thoughts. I may not be top of the group, but I’m not far from it. This should be fun.

“Well, who wants to come first?” Lex asked, opening his arms out wide like he was inviting them for a hug. “I will!” Replied the cocky, over-confident one. The other four just watched as the one stepped forwards. “Well, I do love sorting out a good dipshit,” Lex informed them, cracking his knuckles, obviously implying that this one was moronic to even think he could beat Lex. “Ah, my name’s Ayuna. I’m going to make sure to drill that through your damn skull!” He came forth with his arm swinging back.

“Now… This is the action I’ve been craving!” Lex hollered with a crazed look in his eyes.