(Part I)
Simeon was always Asuka's favorite.
In fact, she would go as far as to say she had fallen in love with him.
Well, as "in love" an angel could get; being symbols of purity and innocence, and all that.
Although she was known for her almost supernatural ability to find loopholes in rules and commandments, she knew that the rule of never falling for what anyone considered as an "earthly desire" was something even she couldn't step around.
Yet, she couldn't stop her heart from skipping a beat when she looked at him; she couldn't stop her breath from hitching whenever he laughed; and she couldn't stop that ache in her chest when she remembered it was never meant to be. He was both out of her league and, in a way, forbidden. He was perfect in nearly every way, and she was a sharp-witted troublemaker. Though they were equal in rank, she was fully aware of the distinct difference between their obedience to God.
Asuka couldn't help but feel a bit sad about it. She adored everything about him, but was held back by the risk of falling to a painful transformation to a demon, or being wiped from existence; worse, indirectly making him fall. So, she settled for being as close as possible with the angel, and soon grew content with being nothing but a "close friend" in his eyes.
With how often she was seen walking at his side, it was no surprise that, when the Celestial War came upon the realm, she was standing beside him.
The war was chaos; wings were cut, angels fell, feathers flew, and agonized screams filled the air as blood stained the ground. Asuka herself took a few lives, causing two of her former friends to fall from grace. However, a loud scream-laugh from across the battlefield caught her attention, and she turned in the direction of the sound out of instinct.
That was the mistake that cost her grace.
One of the first rebels, an archer, took advantage of her lack of attention, and whipped an arrow at her. A shriek erupted from the angel's throat as the metal head dug into her spine, right by her left wing. The rebel wasted no time in shooting the brunette once again, this time landing a hit in the back of her shin. The second hit was enough for her to lose her balance and fall.
Before she could fully register what had happened, she was already plummeting through the familiar misty clouds that held up heaven.
Terror and agony overtook her entire being; fear couldn't even begin to describe the feeling in her chest the moment she realized what was happening. That single mistake cost her everything. And all she could do was tearfully watch as her entire life as an angel slipped away, plummeting to her inevitable fate.
She would never have imagined she'd see the day she lost her halo.
...
It seemed that she blacked out for half the fall (who could blame her; falling from the sky to the Devildom must be terrifying), for all she remembered was hitting what felt like hundreds of jagged spears stabbing through her body.
In reality, she had been unfortunate enough to land in the vast forests of the Devildom. She had just hit the treetops at full speed, and fell through layers and layers of leaves and branches. In the end, she was caught on vines and long, winding limbs, bloody and mangled.
So there Asuka lay, half-suspended near a forest trail. Black and dusty gold wings, once pure white, splayed across tree limbs, stained with red and broken from the force of the fall; the helpless figure of a former angel sprawled over a network of branches, suffering from fatal wounds, yet unable to die. All she could do was try to stay as still as possible, and ignore the agony that had taken over her entire body, while staring at the black sky above.
It seemed to take forever for her to be found. By the time a demon came across her wounded form, she had already blacked out. If it weren't for her chest still rising and falling, the royal butler would have assumed her deceased.
When she awoke, she found herself in the infirmary of the Demon Lord's castle. With her brain still foggy, she attempted to sit up- only to be stopped by a piercing agony in her stomach. That was all Asuka remembered before everything went black once again. It seemed she had a habit of doing that now.
To her, the rest was history. Having fallen at the same time as the seven brothers, and rescued by the same Demon Prince, she ended up growing close with the seven- and forgiving them. It took a few weeks of healing for her to so much as walk more than a few steps, but considering how badly she was injured, it was a relatively fast recovery. It was tough adapting to the life of a demon, though. It was so drastically different from the familiar warmth of the Celestial Realm...
Although her demonic appearance was foreign to her, she slowly grew to accept it, and soon love it. The fifth of the seven even took her on a shopping spree across the Devildom, simultaneously exploring their new home. But, as fun as this new, free life as a demon was, it came with a curse. Each of the seven were cursed to be the Avatars of the Deadly Sins; Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth.
Asuka was cursed with being the Avatar of Despair. It made sense, considering the amount of terror and despair she felt upon being thrown from the heavens. Yet, when she was offered a throne beside the brothers, she had to decline. Now that she had the chance to be truly free, she didn't want to take major responsibility. Besides; she'd be about as useful as the Avatar of Sloth.
Hundreds upon thousands of years had passed since then. It had been so long since the fall, the former angel almost forgot about it. That is, till the exchange program was put in motion.
The only reason she knew about such a thing was, when returning from a trip with the fifth-born, she had to do a double-take upon seeing a familiar brunette chatting with a group of students. She froze in place, staring at the archangel for a few moments.
"Excuse me?" was the first thing out of her mouth, out of pure bewilderment. She turned to look at her friend to ask for answers, but he had walked off to flirt with some succubi, leaving the girl to stand there awkwardly.
Asuka decided she would confront this later, turning and walking out of the entryway. She could easily make up an excuse to escape the eldest's wrath if he found out she skipped school.
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It's Obey Me! Bird's turn to suffer-
