CROSSFIELD TRILOGY : Volume No. 01

Chp 5.5: Fairies and Angels

"So, it's you."
Assem stopped and turned behind, his fists clenched tightly.
For a moment however, he was not sure what he saw. A tall lady about 9 foot tall, with greenish skin and hair stood before him. She wasn't wearing any dress but her body was covered by vines and flowers up till her breasts.Her ears were long and pointed just like those of an elf but her facial features resembled a human. Atop her neatly combed hair she wore a crown which gave Assem the feeling of being in the presence of nobility.
The most startling feature though, which seemed to have caught Assem off guard were her eyes, pitch black and a vertical green slit between them which, somehow suited her perfectly.
"Wh....who are you?" Assem stammered as he experienced a dry throat.
"Well, I consider it rather rude of someone to question my existence in my own garden." The lady said, her gaze  tightly fixed on Assem.

"I'm...sorry." Assem muttered slowly.
The lady smiled. "Well, it's only natural of you. You are a human after all aren't you, Assem Joshi?"

"How do-"
"How do I know your name?" The woman completed his sentence.
"Assem, I know everything about you. You have got my attention in the most unusual way now haven't you? You did save Janet after all. I must say, when I saw a man helping her, I was taken aback quite a bit. Even greater was the surprise when you fought the demon for a stranger who you barely knew. Most would have passed out from fear or sold out the stranger. Ever since then, I'm thankful to you."
The woman took a step closer to Assem, her eyes fixed on his, lips slightly opened. She placed her hand on his cheek and gave him a small peck on his forehead. Assem stood in complete disbelief. To receive a kiss from an unknown women in such a place was something he hadn't even dreamt of.
"For the concern of your first question, my name is Yamani. I'm the fairy that rests in this card and the one who created this garden."
Assem blinked for a moment. The words processing in his mind. "You...mean to say that I'm.....inside the card!?"
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Smack!
Daniel lifted his palm off the table. A disgruntled body of a mosquito was smashed on the skin of hand. It was this particular little pest that was giving him a tough time for the past 10 minutes.' Got you now.' The doctor thought to himself. Giving a sigh, he turned to look at the clock. It had been about 30 minutes now, since Assem had suddenly fallen down on the floor. Usually, Daniel would have rushed to help Assem but today something was a bit different. The card was still in the teenager's hand and was emitting a warm aura. Perhaps it was this, that told Daniel to not worry about what was happening.
The doctor shifted his gaze from the clock to the unconscious body of Assem.
"I hope everything is going alright. If only Mac could've come here earlier. That bastard is probably drinking at some filthy bar again." The doctor muttered under his breath. For now, all he could do was wait. Just wait.
                           
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"Well... I wouldn't exactly say 'you', rather it is your soul that is inside the card. Your body is still intact in the human world.  However, weren't you prepared that something like this would happen?"
Yamani asked looking at the shocked expression Assem wore on his face.
"The thing is....I had doubts about doing this and had absolutely no idea what was gonna happen to me. The decision was just-"
"Rash?" Yamani completed Assem's statement as the teenager simply shook his head.
"But if you take a moment and think about it, aren't most of the decisions you make rash? The one to fight the demon surely was and the fact that you readily agreed to become the card carrier just to save Janet was pretty rash too, don't you think?" 
Assem gave a sigh. "Its just that....I dont think I can let anybody die on me. If I can take the burden from Janet, maybe...." Assem stopped talking as the fairy had held up her hand. She gave Assem a smile and motioned him to walk with her towards the fountain.
"You talk about taking the burden away from Janet but, have you even thought about yourself once? Being a card carrier is no simple thing. Especially now that the world is changing its tide."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Never mind, it's just an ability of mine, to sense the danger that lurk far ahead in the future. Coming back, do you think you are ready to become an official carrier? Are you familiar with the dangers that may befall on yourself and your friends? Are you willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of a card? Do you not even value your life that you ready to place yourself as my carrier? Are you willing to die?" Yamani turned around suddenly, her chest expanding and contracting, which indicated that the fairy was taking deep breaths now.
Assem stopped walking, his fists clenched, gaze directly focused at Yamani's face.
"For a creature who stays alone in a garden, you sure have a lot to talk, don't you think?"
Yamani's facial features tensed up.
"Am I familiar with the dangers? Am I ready to sacrifice everything? Am I willing to die you ask? Do I value my life? Woman,it's not that I don't value my life,just that I choose to value everybody else's too. For me, it dosen't matter if you are a fairy, a doctor, a newborn baby or a regular human. I'll protect those who I have to. When I say, I'm ready to accept the position of being the card's carrier, it means I'm adding you as well as Janet to the list of people I have to protect."
"You think you are powerful enough to protect me, the guardian of the Ace of Hearts?" Yamani gazed at the boy sternly. In the past 70 years of guardianship, she had never met any individual that piqued her interest as much as Assem did.
"I know. I know that I'm not powerful enough as of now. I know that a fairy like you contains much more power than I can ever dream of. Even though I only touched the card, the aura that started pouring into my body was immense and filling. That is proof itself of how powerful you are. However, from whatever I have calculated in these past few hours, your power's are being binded down by the boundaries of this card aren't they? That's why, I beg of you please lend me your power!" Assem fell on his knees, head bend down and touching the ground.
Yamani eyes grew wide, her breathing became harder and a delicate sense of admiration grew in her heart for the teenager in front of her.
"You know?" She asked.
"Ofcourse. A being as powerful as you would never need me or Janet as your protectors, if there wasn't a catch." Assem looked up at the fairy, a smile on his face.
'I knew it.' Yamani thought to herself as she motioned Assem to get up. 'He really is different.'

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"Ouch" Assem murmured as felt pain in his sinuses. Rubbing his temples, he opened his eyes to be greeted by the familiar ceiling of Daniel's restaurant.
'So I'm finally back.'
He got up and stretched his arms, giving a long yawn.
"So how did it go?"
Assem turned to his side, expecting the usual curious face of Daniel. However, there were not one but 3 faces staring back at him: Daniel, Janet and a lion in a beige coloured suit.
For a moment, Assem thought he must be hallucinating, probably one of the side effects of traveling to the card and back. He rubbed his eyes once and looked again, the lion was sitting there as usual.
"Is...is that?"
"Yes, Mr. Assem Joshi. Allow me to introduce myself. Alphonse Kuzex, Chairman, Angelic Department For Human Safety." The lion said standing up and handing Assem a card which carried the details about the man.
"So you are an angel?" Assem asked eyeing the lion.
"Yes."
"How do we know you aren't some imposter?" Assem asked almost ready.
"Dont worry kid. I've splashed Grade B holy water on him almost twice. There is no way he is a demon impersonating to be an angel." Daniel said calmly.
"Anyway, how did it go? Your little meeting?"
         
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"So now, both you and Janet are the card carriers?" Alphonse asked eyeing Assem suspiciously.
"Yeah. Both me and Janet get equal share of her power as well as regenerative abilities. She took some convincing but eventually agreed to me signing a contract.
"So, you signed it too , huh?" Alphonse muttered.
"Guess we're partners now." Janet gave Assem a nudge.
"Yeah, I guess so. How are you feeling now btw?"
"Good. There isn't much pain thankfully. Yamani's healing magic really is something is guess."
"Enough with the chitchat." Daniel's words stopped Assem. "Alphonse, I have some questions, that I would like answered." Daniel turned to the Angel who gave him a curt nod.
"I have some too but no problem, ask what you have to."
Daniel waited for a moment, his thumbs rubbing against each other, then took one look at the card in Assem's hand. "Is Satan really behind the card?"
Alphonse's eyes widened and his gaze grew harder. "How do you-"

"Just answer the question."

Gulp!
Assem could sense the tension slightly rise in the room.
"Yes. It is true that Lucifer is behind the cards." Alphonse spoke in a quiet tone. "Infact, that's exactly why Assem was found by Janet in a dark gully. As the threat to card carrier's increased day by day, we decided to switch the card with a fake one. That's why Janet was supposed to meet me here in India, approximately 7000 miles away from her home near the head office of the Indian Branch of the GEA: The Bombay Exorcist Company.  However, there was an uncalculated mishap due to which we had to avert plans at the very last moment. Demons, though comparatively weaker ambushed us at the meeting in huge numbers. We had decided to keep the exchange team low in numbers so as not to attract much attention. That seemed to backfire on us as most of the guard was involved in fending off the attack. The one who chased Janet, seems to be the chief of the entire plan carried out tonight. He was the only who could've put up any sort of resistance. That is what brings me to a question of my own." Alphonse stopped and turned his gaze to Assem."Just how? How did a meager human teenager fought and won against an upper stage 3 demon?"

Assem felt the sudden focus of the room shift on him. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "I won't lie, it wasn't as easy as you make it seem. There were moments where the line was almost about to snap and I could've been literally sliced up. However, I was kinda lucky. From the actions of the demon, I realized he wasn't much used to fighting in close spaces. I tried to use that information for my advantage and luckily, had a bottle of Double distilled Class 1 Holy Water which by God's grace, I remembered to use at the correct time."

'Well, this has certainly been worth my time. Who knew coming to the Human realm would make things so interesting. A second card reader, an ambush, a leak of information and the death of Damascus. Humans sure are getting stronger day by day.' Alphonse thought to himself as he eyed Assem a final time.

"Janet." Alphonse said, getting up.
"Yes sir?"
"How would feel,if Assem were to come to Crossfield this semester?"

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