A Devil with an Angel's Heart

Prologue

Three years before:

"Letzter Aufruf für den Flug LH784 nach Japan." the speakers announced. ("Last call for flight LH784 to Japan.")

"Hey monster, you ready?" you looked up from your phone at the sound of your dad's voice, smiling slightly at the all to familiar nickname he had called you all your life. "Yeah," you nodded following after him, to the gate, boarding the plane.

You quickly found your seats, yours at the window as you loved watching the ground rolling by underneath. Taking out your headphones you played some swing music, a passion you had taken over from your mom. You smiled sadly looking at all the pictures you had taken together. A few tears rolled down your cheeks. Your dad noticed and wrapped an arm around you "I miss her too."

A few weeks prior you had come home from school, all happy and giddy to finally show your mother the good grade you had gotten for the project you had been working on for so long, only for you to find her lying dead in the kitchen. She had died due to an allergic shock, a bee must have somehow gotten underneath her t-shirt and stung her. She had always been allergic to bees, and therefore always had an emergency set in the kitchen. But she had not made it in time... When you had found her, she was still holding the emergency injection. You had run to her side, calling out to her over and over again, checking her vitals. No breathing, no pulse.

You just sat there, kneeling on the floor next to your mother's body. After a while you got up and if in trance you dialled your father's number, having to let him know that his wife, you knew, he loved so much, had died that day. Now, her urn was safely stored away in one of the suitcases you had brought along.

A few days before your mother died, a company from Japan had offered your father a very lukrative offer. He had been hesitating to accept, as everyone would have had to move to Japan. But after your mother's death, he thought it would be a good opportunity for a fresh start. A new country, a new life, a new school. And so it had been decided that you would be moving to Japan by the end of the school year.

And that's why you were now sitting in this plane.

Once you landed in Japan, after a short stop in Abu Dhabi, you let a taxi take you to your new house. A company had already furnished most of it and all you had to do was to settle in.

A few months later your father had taken you on a little holiday to Egypt, rewarding you both for what you had gone through.

You were just walking down the streets towards a little market, you wanted to buy a souvenir for your friend Kumiko. When suddenly some people at a nearby café started fighting about some card game. One claiming that the other cheated and vice versa. You turned around to see where all the commotion was coming from, and saw how one of the two pulled out a gun, firing a shot at the other. However, the bullet missed its target, heading straight for you.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion as you watched the bullet soaring through the air. The screams and people running away around you all faded away. You heard nothing, except your own heartbeat. Only one thought crossed your mind: "I can't die yet!" You closed your eyes waiting for impact. Except, the pain never came.

You slowly, tentatively dared to open your eyes. Your mouth fell open. "Is this a dream?" you thought.

There in front of you was floating a beautiful but intimidating, humanoid figure with black skin. She turned around and came face to face with you. You were sure you had never seen her before, yet somehow she felt familiar. You instinctively knew she did not mean you any harm. She smiled revealing sharp, pointy canine teeth. She lifted up her hand, showing you the bullet she had caught, looking as though she expected you to praise her for doing a good job. "You saved me." you stated. The woman gave you a look that clearly said: "Yes, what where you expecting?"

You looked around in confusion, checking if anybody else was able to see her too, or if you had just lost it. Who knows maybe you were lying in coma and this was all just some weird dream. Your eyes locked on a very tall man, who was watching you intently. He was wearing a long robe with elbow-long sleeves and a scarf around his neck. Two identical scars ran down his cheeks. He wore a headband wrapped around his forehead and keept his hair in a style resembling Bantu knots, as well as wearing a long ponytail. His earrings comprised of a single, long chain of medallions, resembling a necklace. The largest of these medallions was engraved with the symbol of an Egyptian ankh. His wrists were decorated with a varying number of thick metallic bracelets.

His eyes darted to the woman, to you and from you to the woman floating beside you and back. He started moving, motioning for you to follow. You knew very well the risks of following strangers, but your body moved on its own, following after the strange man into a narrow alley. He led you to a little fortune teller's shop. He opened the door for you let you inside.

"I'm sorry to not have said anything sooner. My name is Mohammad Avdol. Sorry to just spring this on you but you seem rather confused about the woman." He pointed behind you. You turned around to see that the black woman had followed you. She let out a little, catlike purr even though it sounded deeper, like a tiger or a lion, yet there was something high-pitched underneath it all, happily floating around you.

Only now you got a better look at the black figure. She was dressed in a red loincloth, torn at the end, small gold chains connecting the back and the front. For her top she was wearing something similar. A cloth keeping her chest in place, a gold chain securing it around her neck. A triangular formed part of the cloth was loosely hanging over the garment covering her boobs. The ends also torn. With her long, pointed ears, her face could have been described as an elf's face, had it not been for the sharp, pointed canine teeth, her yellow catlike eyes, and the black and red coloured horns on top of her head, her long dark grey hair gently floating behind her, as if gently swayed by the wind. The rough, red scales on her cheeks led your gaze to the rest of her body. Her fingers resembling more claws than hands. More rough, red scales trailed down her arms, and legs. Chains were dangling from her wrists, as if she had been chained down to a wall or something. But what caught your most attention was the tail, swinging behind her. It could only be compared to a dragon's tail, covered in none other than the now rather familiar rough red scales.

"Yeah, she just showed up all of a sudden. She did save my life though." you told him.

Avdol nodded, understanding. "This vision is called a stand. She is a reflection of your soul and a physical manifestation of you fighting spirit. Only stand users can see stands. I also have one called The Magician's Red, represented by the Magician's card." He stopped, calling forth his own stand. A humanoid figure with a bird's head. It let out a cry, eyeing your stand curiously. They started interacting, getting to know each other, it seemed.

You nodded, accepting what Avdol had just said, just like that.

"You don't seem too surprised, that something like this exists."

You instinctively touched the choker around your neck, you never took it off. A pentagram was dangling on it. Avdol noticed. "You seem to be attached to that."

"Ah yes. It was a gift from a dear friend," you paused for a second, wondering how much you could reveal, without risking anything, "You could say I have rather .....unique.... connections. It seems surprising that I was so stunned, seeing my stand for the first time. .... Well ,I guess, I did not know that stands existed. Bus as you probably can guess, I am not entirely new to such subjects."

He nodded, seeming to understand what I wanted to get across. "Well, would you like me to give her a name. As a renowned fortune teller-" "Yes, please." you interrupted. He smiled, getting out a tarot deck and shuffling the cards. He held them out you, telling you to choose one. You did, showing him the card afterwards. He looked mildly surprised. "The Siren card. It represents temptation. Therefore I shall call your stand Black Siren."

"Black Siren" you repeated, "I like it. It sounds...intriguing." Avdol chuckled at your choice of words. You suddenly gasped:"Oh my god! I'm so sorry I haven't introduced myself yet!" Avdol just chuckled again:" Well, I failed to ask you for your name, therefore I think we are even. So, what is your name miss?"

"My name? I'm Kate. Kate Adler."