"My Master tells me she's heard that Nightmare was in china, I rush out to go find him. Instead, I found one of his guys who's burning down shrines all over the east. That's when I met this killjoy." Kuro is gesturing wildly through his whole story before pointing to Troy, “He's lucky I find it cute or I wouldn't even be here.”

"Stop distracting her and making disgusting comments about me, you moron," said blond is shoving him out of the way so he can correct her stance.

The trio's practice and patrol times lasted from about midnight to three every morning, they had assured her there were other Magic users like them who could take care of the other hours but it was best to keep to themselves and step on no one's toes. There designated meet up spot is an old apartment complex scheduled for demolition soon, meaning their fights weren't going to have any real impact.

For weekends they decided it would be better to start as early as 11 pm and they could patrol any time they were free during the day.

It was a decent setup; Kira didn't need much sleep and the boys seemed used to the rigorous training and nightlife.

Once again, she was reminded how much she had to catch up on if she didn't want to be a hindrance and make them reconsider this partnership. She could tell that Troy still didn't trust her and Kuro was probably the one holding him back.

Lucifer kept telling her to ditch both of them but unfortunately, she was afraid to be alone. Standing and looking down at rooftops all night and wondering if any battle she engaged in would be her last. If she could die and her family and friends would never know what happened to her.

'The thoughts of a weakling.-

"Shut up." She snaps at hims

Kuro is staring up at her in question, "What was that?"

"Was it the Demon again?" Troy asks.

"Yeah, doesn't ever shut up," She growls.

“I don't envy you.”

“Thanks for the encouragement.”

"And the stronger you grow the more of them you'll be able to hear?" Kuro cut in.

“That's what he said,”

"I still think that's pretty cool." Kuro sighed, "It's like some sort of video game, you just keep powering up until you're unstoppable."

"You think too highly of her." Troy scoffs and, very reluctantly, she agrees with him. She aimed to get just strong enough to pass on the Seal to another Keeper. Preferably someone who knew what they were getting into. She'd probably be doing the world a favor.

They get down to training, both of them staying this time so Troy can teach her how to dodge attacks she can't counter in speed while Kuro continues his teachings on magic.

An hour after that, they’re getting ready to look out for attacking Jorōgumo. Whatever is going on, they aim to get it over with during the weekend so they'll finally be able to focus their efforts on Nightmare.

"We take each district in this ward one by one. I'll tell you a rendezvous point and we'll meet there after an hour if we see nothing?" Kuro stated.

Kira still can't help but be shocked by his efficiency despite his age, she wondered if it had something to do with his powers, but no matter how she looked at it, the ability to manipulate any sentient being through their blood didn't seem to have any correlation to his weird intelligence. With blood he could also instruct the detachable feather of his wings on who to attack or not. Having Troy's blood from their first meeting was why his feathers had completely avoided harming the blond back in the underground passage.

Troy, knowing that, had used his wings to shield her to the best of his abilities.

Once again, his efficiency awed and scared her. How exactly had he gotten so good while so young, tangled up in this supernatural world of fear and violence?

She pushes that question out of her mind for now. Focus. "What if we see something?"

"Stay back but follow them and do not engage." The dark-feathered boy says.

"How about we call each other too?" She tries.

"Don't have a phone, remember?" He waves his empty hands to exaggerate the point.

"Remind me to get you one tomorrow."

"You don't have to do that, once you can project your voice into our minds, we won't have to use phones during missions, they can be distracting and dangerous if they happen to get into the wrong hands."

"We have a mission to get back to you two," Troy snaps his fingers, "Vermillion, you'll call me if you see anything and I'll inform the brat, got that?"

"Got it!" They both replied at the same time.

"Okay, let's get this started, last one back buys me breakfast!" Kuro screams, making some jumps and swiftly takes to the air.

Troy makes a disapproving ‘tsk’ sound, “This will still take forever.”

"Not if we're lucky," Kira winks before taking off for the nearest rooftop and extra relieved her take off and landing practice was paying off.

Several rooftops and two hours later, she's panting, nearl breathless. They were in the fourth district, the boys could fly and she more than made up for time with her speed but her stamina for this was extremely low. She kept to the shadows, looking down at the brightly lit city below. The streets were nearly devoid of people, everyone too afraid to be out for fear of being murdered, but there was still a mesmerizing charm to the city scape with its colorful billboards and sweeping sprawls of endless lights.

She's about to keep moving again when her phone beeps. She pulls it out to see it’s a text from Troy telling her to get Kuro and come to Shinjuku station.

That was weird, if she reasoned things out, the only reason he would ask 'her' to get Kuro was if he didn't plan on telling Kuro himself.

Her eyes wide realization, He's engaging?!

As much as she wants to go there and smack some sense into him, she knows she has to give Kuro the information. He would know what to do if something went wrong. She arrives at the rendezvous point in record speed to meet Kuro waiting , "He's at Shinjuku station, he's probably engaging whatever he encountered right now."

Kuro whines, "Damn it, Angel boy!"

"Let's go!" Pushing past her exhaustion, she starts off again, the gust of wind that accompanied Kuro's take off not far behind her. Soon, he’s at her side in thoughtful silence.

Her only wish is that they aren't too late.