JAPAN HOURS BEFORE VIRUS ATTACK

Bethany's sits among her classmates on a bench in the beautiful garden of Rinnoji Temple, Japan she smiled as her hair,

blew in the wind and trees rustled pleasantly as the petals of cherry blossoms drifted down like pale pink snowflakes on the breeze,

Someone cracked a joke, and everyone laughed, they were all archaeology students of the Smithsonian Museum, on a cultural tour of Japan,

During the three of the six weeks, she had already spent in the idyllic countryside,

She had taken in much of the country's culture, cuisine, and most importantly history

It was just after they had eaten a picnic lunch,

and feeling a bit stuffed decided to take a walk, just to take one last peek at some of the beautiful sculptures that adorned the temple

wandering alone along a stone pathway that through a door that led to a long hallway,

The walls were painted with beautiful scenic murals the massive pillars that held up the ceiling the beautiful multi-colored painted tiles that covered roofing and awnings

Were carved into sculptures of dragons and various other celestial beasts

native to the Asian country's mythology and unique architecture

It was a joy exploring old places like this; they were filled with so much history, like the echoes of the lives once lived within the walls of the temple.

One could almost hear the faint whispers of their voices of past conversations the softest swish of the monk's robes as they walked

She came to a massive medieval-looking wooden door and curiosity was like an irresistible itch, impossible to ignore pushing the door to test it she found unexpectedly,

the door opened with surprising ease, she entered the room and the door closed silently behind her.

She should have qualms about entering a room with only one exit and having the heavy door close without knowing if she could get out again,

But at present, she felt strangely comfortable and safe

The room looked like every other room in the temple except for the fact that it had one single sculpture standing in the middle of it

It was a sculpture of a large raven with its wings unfurled and reaching as if it was just about to take flight

The artistry was incredible, very detailed and delicate, and made of shiny black onyx stone, to give it realism, it actually looked as if it might move at any given moment,

And the most captivating thing about the sculpture was the raven's eyes, they were blue sapphires, cut in such a way that when the light caught them just right,

they glowed like they were lit from a fire within.

"Hello there"

She breathed softly awed by the beautiful and oddly realistic-looking sculpture and reached out to touch the edge of the bird's wing

"Don't touch that!"

A voice shouted at her startled she turned in shock at the same time making her almost fall her hand landed on the sculpture for support

and suddenly

a strange pulse of warmth rush through her hand and into the sculpture shocking her

Standing behind her was an old monk,

criix! craaaak! it was the sound of the sculpture breaking,

She watched as tiny fractures suddenly raced through the black stone

Thunk! suddenly a piece of it fell away and dropped to the stone floor at her feet she jumped back with a gasp of shock

"foolish child you know not what you have done!" the old monk cried

and then more pieces started to fall away in faster bigger chunks and then suddenly, it exploded

"Ahhh!" She screamed and dove behind a pillar and dropped to the ground covering her head as chunks of the black stone flew every which way

Large chunks slamming into the pillars that held up the ceiling making them shake and rumble dust rained down from above

"I am free" a voice roared "at last"

Takehiko inhaled deeply and took his first breath in two thousand years,

and the first thing that had caught his attention had been her scent, like ripe peaches with a hint of honeysuckle, tinged with magic,

And then he smelled another who was a little less pleasant to tolerate

the old monk gave her a nasty glare from behind a pillar opposite her

She rolled her eyes in response,

"like it's my fault they leave a magical statue just standing there" she muttered under her breath then again she wasn't entirely unaccustomed to odd things happening to her in her life but this was by far the weirdest

"show yourselves I know you're here, I can smell your magic, a witch and a monk how interesting "

the voice continued at a regular tone now

He had a Japanese accent the cadence of his voice husky like he had just woken up from sleeping

Under normal circumstances, she would have found it sexy but this was far from normal

"I'm not a witch!", she blurted out loudly oh how much she detested that word

"I'm just a girl, and I had no idea you were alive inside that thing okay, magical being or whatever you are,

I am sincerely sorry for disturbing you, but please don't hurt me, I swear I will not tell anyone about you or what happened here today ill forget everything"

She replied quickly

the old lady was going to have her head for this she thought she was so dead

"Ahhh!" She screamed as he suddenly appeared in front of her

Her heart kicked into fifth gear, and she darted away from him attempting to flee, he moved swiftly and she suddenly found herself backed up against a pillar,

his hands braced on either side of her effectively trapping her between the pillar and himself,

she gazed up at him wide-eyed he had the body and face to go with the sexy voice

he was tall, towering over her with slim long lean lines that were packed tight with lithe muscles like a warrior

a pair of black leather pants hugged his powerful thighs and long legs and a brown belt made of strips of leather woven together was hung around his lean waist

below tightly packed abdominals and his exposed hip bones, hung from the belt, on his left hip was what looked like a Muramasa samurai sword in a black sheath,

his feet were bare as was the rest of him

and unfurled from his back was pair of shining black wings feathered like a bird and so dark that they had a sheen to them when they caught the light

reflecting hues of blue-green purple and red his wings were breathtaking

they contrasted sharply with his flawless white porcelain skin

Her gaze traveled to his eyes which held her captive immediately they were a bright intense blue

Like the fiery sapphire stones, she had noticed earlier, sharply slanted with elongated pupils like a cat's

set in a very handsome face, high cheekbones, and elegantly arched eyebrows, and a square jaw so sharp it could slice butter

and his lips were firm and full a rosy shade of pink he had a nice neck with Adam's apple and attractive collar bones she swallowed involuntarily this magical being was incredibly attractive

and it didn't help that she had a thing for Asian guys even more so if they had long hair like the heroes out of her favorite wuxia shows

silky black hair cascaded around his face spilling around his shoulders and down his back

completed his unnaturally handsome features so beautiful it was bordering on feminine but there was absolutely no doubt that he was a male his masculinity and sex appeal was overpowering

"calm down I don't have any intention of harming you" he informed her

Now that Takehiko had gotten his first good look at her, wavy red hair that fell past her shoulders, with bangs hanging over her eyes a beautiful green that reminded him of the Forrest in summer

feathered with long black lashes that made her eyes sooty and mysterious a pert upturned nose and small but full bow-shaped lips

a dark bruised color like they had been brushed with pomegranate juice and smooth porcelain skin she had chubby cheeks and dimples

She was quite simply adorable and the scent of magic that hung around her aroused his senses and curiosity

"you just exploded out of a statue not five minutes ago where you've been copped up for god knows how long if it were me I would want to kill somebody"

she replied flippantly

"not to mention that you are in fact a demon" the old monk added

"I'm, not a demon" he shot back "well I am but not the kind you think I am"

"you blaspheme demon go back to the hell from whence you came!" the monk cried throwing a necklace of prayer beads at him

he made an exasperated sound with a flick of one of his wings the beads turned into dust falling unto the floor

She gasped as the old man suddenly vanished and her already frantically beating heart broke into a frenzy

" don't worry I didn't harm him he's standing outside the temple greeting the tourist he won't remember any of this," he said trying to reassure her

"your English is remarkably fluent for someone who has been asleep for a thousand years" she noted

"I was sealed for two thousand years actually" he corrected her "but as I said I am not a demon I am actually a celestial demon do you know what the difference means?" he asked

she blurted out the answer despite her fear

"a celestial demon is the offspring of a god who has been at some point swayed by some kind of worldly desires or committed some kind of sin that caused the dark spirit to be formed inside of the heart, that dark spirit or impurity can be separated from the god during meditation or spiritual cleansing, if the dark spirit is strong enough it can manifest into a physical form becoming that of a celestial demon, however, celestial demons are not purely evil since they are born as a part of the soul of a pure god, they exist in a gray area between good and evil, a celestial demon can choose to walk either of both sides if they give up their celestial side, they can become a full demon

or they can renounce their demon side and be redeemed after a period of servitude to the gods and spiritual cleansing or the demon may receive blessings from a patron god and then raised to become a full celestial as a new god, that's according to the mythology"

she finished slowly gazing at him wide-eyed

he tilted his head thoughtfully "that is not exactly false, but it's not exactly true either," he said "not all celestial demons are born that way, only really special ones are, the rest of us are created by the gods as spirits, and we all have various duties and work we must carry out for them

we are more or less, servants for the gods, there all different types of us just as they are all many different types of humans, we were created to keep the world in balance and make sure everything works the way it's supposed to, which includes watching over you humans and keeping

you all safe, but without interfering in your lives the celestial world is a whole other different world from here only the gods get the privilege of changing human lives that's what I am, understand?"

she nodded mutely she was listening very carefully she only wanted to know one thing, that she wouldn't get possibly killed by the celestial being before this day was over

"you seem to be someone who knows very well about our kind though?" he asked

"I don't actually" she protested "what I know is only what I've read during my studies I'm only a student who has a personal interest in mythology and history and there's this old lady I know"

"old lady?" he asked curiously

"there's this weird old lady who shows up sometimes" she explained "she hangs around for a few days and tells me stories just legends and folktales written in ancient books about you guys,

she's kinda like my guardian but she doesn't stay, she comes and goes but I haven't seen her around lately, she says a great fate will come to me, so she must watch over me, but other than her stories there really isn't anything in human books, or history about you guys that prove your kind is real, you're more like just fantasy beings,

no offense, so I never paid too much to her stories either or took them seriously even though I have had a lot of weird things happen to me sometimes I'm not a witch please don't kill me!" she cried"I'm sorry!"

"are you saying right now that there aren't any gods?" he asked "they don't appear before you humans? they don't send messages in the form of celestials either?"

"no," she replied "nothing like that has ever happened before in our present-day there is nothing like celestial gods, and everything is proven with scientific research and study, there is nothing such as magic in our world, we make everything with our own hands it's called technology,

if anyone were to see you outside, they would think you're some kind of monster and they would be terrified of you, the military would use their best weapons to hunt you down and kill you, and if they couldn't kill you,

they would at least capture you and lock you up in a scientific lab and do awful painful experiments on you to figure out how you were created and what makes you work and how best to replicate your abilities, how best to use you as a weapon to make the military more powerful,

that is how it is in our present world, if you're not human then you're a monster that needs to be destroyed for the sake of the world's peace"