"Ange, what's wrong?" Serafi looked at me, rubbing her eyes in her drowsiness.
After talking to Kael at the roof, he had briefly explained his 'plan', and left, saying that he had to go do his work.
To be honest, I'm actually questioning his so-called 'plan'. If anything, his plan couldn't be anything but crude.
Looking over at Serafi, I gently pat her head, smiling softly, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Anyway, you should hurry up. Karin's been calling you for breakfast for awhile now. We can't have you be late for school. Karin also still needs to send Dean afterwards too."
"Ah! Right! My food!" Serafi gasped at my words, running over to the dining table.
'I guess she's still scarred from the time when Arthur had mistakenly eaten her breakfast...' I laughed silently as I watched her small back departing in a hurry
Throughout the entirety of the breakfast session and inside the car, I had been rather absentminded, thinking about Kael's crude plan that he had explained the night before.
"The best way to find the location of a Naves's leader is to put a tracker in one of the ordinary Naves," he said confidently.
Kael moved over, taking out what seemed like a burning bug in a small glass bottle from one of the pockets in his windbreaker. That's right, a BURNING BUG. And he calls it a tracker.
"This is a Verilli. I got it from Hell. It has a habit of leaving behind a trail of fire wherever it goes. The fire won't actually burn anything though and it's a type of spiritual fire so normal humans can't see it either. Thanks to that, it's a pretty good tracker. Best of all, it even has a hidden feature," he continued.
"W-wait a moment! You got it from Hell?! How?! Is it even safe?!" I expressed my concern in succession. I had highly doubted that something that came from Hell could be considered safe.
Kael blinked his dead eyes, "Well... It's safe. To an extent. I got this when I snuck into Hell last time. It's actually used as one of the torture methods. The sinner would stuff these buggers into their mouth and swallow them. After awhile...."
"KABOOM!!!"
"And off goes their insides all over the place," he said with a snicker.
At that moment, I thought to myself, 'This is madness. This man is mad.'
"How, exactly, is that safe?! What if some bystander gets injured because of this?"
Hearing my questions, Kael said with a relaxed attitude, "Relax. I know what I'm doing. The thing about this Verilli is that it will only affect the one who consumes it. As long as you don't put it in your mouth, you won't get injured or have yourself blown apart."
"That's why, you will catch a Naves, feed it with this Verilli and let it see that little girl you're protecting. Then-"
"Whoa whoa whoa there! Wait just a sec! You are not to involve Serafi in this, you hear?!" I cut through his speech, unable to contain my instinct to protect Serafi and not allow any risk of her being found by the Devil.
Kael looked at me, his eyes widened in shock, "Well, I did expect that reaction as you're her guardian angel but still. The expression on your face sure is scary... Fine. As long as we can use someone with a relatively high spirituality then I guess it works too. I'll do something about that."
"You wouldn't capture some other child, would you?" I asked hesitantly.
Kael gazed at me with his dead eyes looking more dead than usual, "I wouldn't do that! No matter what, I'm not so horrible as to break the laws! What kind of impression do you have of me?!"
"A demon?" I subconsciously said my thoughts out loud.
"You... Argh..! Enough! I don't wanna argue with you," Kael stressed out with gritted teeth. "Where was I earlier...? Right... Afterwards, the Naves will definitely hurriedly return to report to its leader. We will follow the trail the Verilli leaves behind to find the leader's location. Then, we get rid of the Naves before it gets to deliver the report."
Raising two of my fingers, I asked, "Two questions. Will the Verilli still be able to leave the trail from inside of the Naves's mouth? And how are you sure that it won't explode before we find the leader?"
"Easy. It's existence is so thin that the fire trail won't have any problems passing through. The Naves are made of negative energies itself. It's classified as a demon but honestly, it's not really 'alive'. In short, the Verilli won't explode," he explained.
"How, exactly, do you know about all this information?" I asked curiously.
Kael looked away, replying uneasily, "I did get it from Hell. I was curious of it's capability and needed a test subject..."
"So you used the Naves," I subconsciously muttered to myself.
"What was that, Ange?" Serafi called out to me, snapping me out of my trance. I had been absentmindedly remembering my talk with Kael last night throughout the whole duration of the trip to the kindergarten.
"Nothing," I smiled at Serafi. We're currently in front of Sunshine Kindergarten, about to head in.
'Kael said he'd do something about the bait. But what exactly is he going to use?' I pondered.
I hadn't seen Kael since last night. Before leaving, he said he'd come by the time kindergarten ends to start the plan.
In the meantime, I was told to just do my job and make sure the Naves don't see Serafi.
As such, I spent the whole day looking out for any Naves around Serafi and getting rid of them.
...
By the end of kindergarten, I was partly tired just from killing the Naves.
'There's so many of them today compared to yesterday. This isn't a bad sign, right? I should go ask Kael when he gets here...'
Thinking about Kael, I suddenly got rather impatient as he has yet to show himself.
'Karin should be arriving soon. And Kael is still not here...'
Just as I was complaining inwardly, I felt a slight tug at my sleeve.
I looked down and saw a small boy wearing a black shirt. Black hair, horrible complexion, and black dead eyes. I know that face.
"Kael?" I asked hesitantly.
With his dead eyes, the child looked at me and nodded, "Yeah. I've looked around the kindergarten and honestly, the Naves seems like it has increased slightly, even in other places. It seems like the Devil wants to find a Trist rather urgently."
"It's not going to be anything bad, right?" I asked.
"If we handle him now, yes." Kael nodded before he suddenly turned away from me and bent down to tug on the grass.
Before I could ask what he's doing, a voice cheerfully called out from behind me, "Ange! Mommy's here~ Let's go~"
"Serafi, you go first. I'll follow after," I told her gently.
Serafi looked at me with her eyes round. She looked like she wanted to say something but she ultimately kept silent, nodding her head. "Okay. Serafi will go first then."
After making sure she had left and safely entered Karin's car, I turned to look at the tiny Kael who had already stood up.
"I already placed a barrier at both the car and house. There's no need to worry for her," he said.
"I understand... So, are you supposed to be the bait? Does that even work? You're not even human," I asked the question that has been bugging me.
"Who else? It's fine if I'm not human. Those things won't be able to tell the difference. As long as I display the characteristics of a Trist, it'll do," he shrugged.
Nodding my head, I gazed at Kael's small form. "How did you turn small, anyway? I wish to say you're cuter but now you just look like a little demon instead."
"Do you find it necessary to mock me? Leave my appearance alone! It has done no wrong to you." Kael sighed before continuing, "All angels can shapeshift. The only difference is that Pures can do it better than Impures."
"Eeh... So I can do it too?" I asked, somewhat excited at the possibility of changing my look as I pleased.
"Nah. You're too weak," Kael ruthlessly shot my hope down. "Anyway, we should get down to business."
Kael smiled devilishly, taking out the bottle with the Verilli.