*Nori*

Mister Emon escorted Nori and Yuko to the gym below the 'Room of the Watchers'. It was just this morning that Yuko was training here with Shiomi, but even that felt like days ago.

"Shall we begin?" Emon asked as he curled his fingers as if he were about to strike at me.

"Huh, a fight?" Yuko said.

Emon nodded. "This is the best way to learn."

Mean mister used to say the same thing, but Nori didn't like fighting. Nor did Yuko.

Nori closed his eyes and recalled how he was sent flying in the forest by Camio. Nori couldn't do anything against the demonic Mr. Itou imposter.

"Nori, okay?" Yuko asked.

Nori opened his eyes and saw the staff in his hands was shaking.

Emon lowered his hands. "Are you nervous? If you want, I can just give you a demonstration."

Nori gulped. "No. Nori must become strong if he wishes to be of further help to Lady Xime!" Nori said as he pointed his staff at Emon. "Please, don't go easy on Nori."

The Seven-Flame Knight smiled. "You got it, kid." He reached into his shirt and pulled up a necklace with a dream catcher-like pendant decorated with feathers and beads. "Lauma!"

Flames erupted from the palm of Emon's hand as the necklace transformed into a long wooden staff with seven branches spiraling outward. Bulbs of different colors dot each of them, from purple in the lowest one up to red on the highest one.

"It's like a rainbow!" Yuko remarked, smiling.

Nori smiled as he remembered the first time he saw one. It was on the day he'd met Priest Miki and decided to go into the priesthood.

"Ready when you are, my cat-friend!" Emon said as he pointed the colorful staff at me.

Nori took a deep breath. This man is a Seven-Flame Knight, Nori will need to be cautious around him.

Emon grinned. "I heard you defeated my big sis. Suzu isn't a weak woman, so you must be a strong kid."

Nori's face warmed up. "T-that's was only because she was being influenced by a demon. My attacks dealt more damage than they otherwise would."

"Did you manage to deal any damage to the demon in the forest?"

Nori shook his head. "No. Nori was quickly dispatched..."

Emon snickered.

Nori lowered his head. "Nori's weak."

"You're not. While I wasn't there to see it, I could feel the demon's power even from the edge of the forest where I stood. He was strong. Kohri himself could barely deal with it."

"Really? Nori isn't weak?"

He laughed. "Nah. Even if you holy powers, I know you have to have skills to survive against my big sis. Based on what I've heard about you, I think you need to work on your durability."

"How does mister figure?" Yuko asked.

"I heard he fainted after he had defeated Suzu, and he couldn't tank a hit from that demon."

Yuko directed her chocolate eyes at Nori. "That's true. Yuko was worried Nori might've died."

Nori sighed. "Nori is weak then."

Emon scratched his head. "If only Ki had come with us, he's usually better at giving pep talks than I am." He sighed. "And I'm supposed to be a priest..."

Nori raised his head and smiled. "Nori is ready." Nori pointed his staff at Emon as the tip became covered in flames.

"Fire, huh?" Emon said with a grin. "Alta Flamma!" A giant fireball formed on the tip of his staff and flew at Nori.

Nori held out his free hand and absorbed the fire into his body like he had done against Suzuki's flames long ago.

Emon gasped. "So, you could absorb even that."

"Ignis Angelus!" Nori yelled at the top of his lungs as he raised his wand at Emon. Wings sprouted out of the flame at the tip of Nori's staff as it flew away and gradually transformed into an angel.

Emon laughed. "The spell based on my ancestor, huh? How ironic."

Nori laughed. "Koukyuu had taught Nori this technique during his training sessions with her!"

"I see. The princess is a strong mage, this has to be something," Emon said as he brought his angel tool in front of him to block the fire angel's sword. He grimaced as his staff yanked on the flames making up the spell. "Yup, it's a tight construct. If this were a mana construct, I might have better luck."

Emon jumped back and flipped his staff around, directing the pointed end at Nori and his angel spell. With a flick of his wrist, he flung his weapon at the angel-like spell, piercing through it as if it were nothing.

Nori threw himself on the floor, narrowly avoiding it and watched as it made its way toward the gym's southern wall. The way it moved in the air reminded Nori of a top. And just like a top, the angel weapon ran across the wall and spun back over toward Nori.

Nori jumped up while maintaining an eye on Emon. Nori closed his eyes, and once he had opened them, chains darted out of his hands and toward the spinning staff.

Emon gasped. "You can use your clan's ability?"

Nori smile as he swung Emon's weapon back at him.

Emon jumped and grabbed hold of the top of the staff. With a simple tug, he pulled it out of the chains' grip.

"Not bad! I take it you used these to stop my big sis, huh?" Emon asked as he spread out his wings. "Seems I need to turn things up a notch! Dance of Lavender!"

Nori covered his nose and backed away. Nori disliked lavender. Mean mister always smelled like it as did the dungeon in the palace.

Nori gasped as the ground underneath his feet rumbled. Something was coming up. Nori leaped into the air and struck the ground with his chains, revealing stalks of lavender.

"Burn!" Nori yelled as he channeled fire down the chains. The lavender burst into flames, but the intoxicating smell got worse. Nori landed on all fours and charged at Emon who stared curiously at Nori.

"How did you figure out its effects?" Emon asked as Nori rose up and swung his staff at him. He jumped back and brought his angel weapon up, shielding against Nori's attack.

"No, Nori just hates that smell!" Nori yelled as he wrapped his chains around Emon's staff. Nori yanked it back, but Emon wouldn't let go. Instead, the knight pulled back on it.

Nori dug his feet into the ground. Suzuki had used Nori's chains against him; he couldn't let Emon do the same!

"Ignis Catus!" Nori yelled. Flames ran up Nori's chains and took on the form of an average-sized house cat.

Emon let go of his angel weapon and dashed around Nori. His eyes were set on Nori's neck.

Nori jumped into the air and threw the staff as far as he could. Nori has to finish this fast.

Nori's nails grew, turning into sharp silver claws.

Nori gasped and glanced up as branches fell down from above. He gasped. The branches were coming from Emon's staff.

Nori waved his arms, slapping the branches away, but they twisted around the chains like vines twisting on vines. Nori let out a cry as the seven colorful branches wrapped themselves around him.

Nori glanced at the floor and gritted his teeth. Nori didn't have much time left.

He extended the chains further to escape the grasp of Emon's staff and propelled the chains mentally toward the Kasai no Kian priest.

Emon jumped out of their way all while smiling even as they smacked the floor repeatedly like an octopus attempting to catch a runaway prey. Sadly, Nori's moves were too sluggish. If only the branches weren't in the way.

Nori pulled his head back and took a deep breath before unleashing fireballs on Emon to draw his attention away from my chains.

Emon held his hands up and waited for the chains to draw near to him before blocking and grasping them, preventing Nori from landing safely.

Nori yelped as he landed on the gym floor, head first.

"Nori, you okay?" Yuko yelled as she ran toward me.

Nori sniffed. "Yeah, but Nori lost..."

"You did pretty well," Emon said as the branches of his staff retreated. "For a moment there, I thought that you might escape."

"Yeah! Nori was cool!" Yuko said as she extended her hand out to Nori.

Nori took Yu-yu's hand and stood up.

"Well wasn't good enough," Nori said, hanging his head low.

"Cheer up. Well, now that we've warmed up, I should teach you some actual techniques to use against demons."

"Why didn't mister use any?" Yuko asked, tilting her head at him.

Emon rubbed the side of his neck and laughed. "That's because most of the ones I know are fire or are healing spells. None of them would've been effective against the little guy."

Nori put his hand on his head and then looked over at Emon. "Huh? We're the same height."

"Yeah, but you just have that vibe of a kid brother. Not that I would know, as I'm the youngest, but how I imagine it to be like."

"You should know since you are a kid brother," a familiar voice called out. Jumping down from the Room of the Watchers was Suzuki. Accompanying her was Reno.

Yuko tensed up.

"Relax, we aren't your enemies this time," Suzuki said.

"Can Yuko trust you this time?" Yuyu asked.

Suzuki's eyes widened. She turned away and laughed.

"Why is rebel girl laughing? Is she plotting something against Yuko and friends?" Yuko asked, raising her arms.

"No. It's just, you reminded me of princess Rosalba there for a moment. I almost thought I was standing in front of her."

"Ohh. Well, Yuko is her doppelganger."

"What?" Reno said. "Her doppelganger? I used to think they looked nearly identically, like twins."

Yuko placed a hand on her chest. "Yuko and princess share the same soul."

Emon gasped. "What? How can that be possible?"

"Yuko's not sure. That man, the demon, he claimed Yuko and Nori were ancient souls."

Suzuki crossed her arms. "Interesting. Wonder if Mom would know anything about this. She is more proficient about souls than we are."

"I know a few things," Emon said. "But, I've never heard of such a case. One soul, inhabiting two bodies..."

"It's actually more than one. There's about five at least," Yuko said.

Emon jumped. "Five parts? What in heaven's name happened to your soul?"

Yuko blinked. "Yuko already said she doesn't know."

He laughed. "I meant that as a rhetorical statement. But five... that's incredible. Normally, a soul that has been splintered should be unable to reside within an awakened body."

"So, does one usually sleep?" Nori asked.

"Exactly."

"A splintered soul, just like my nephew," a voice called out. Making their way toward Nori and Yuko was the siblings' mom.

"Which one?" Yuko asked.

"Dante."

Nori and the others gasped.

"I didn't pay much attention to it at the time I had extracted it. It wasn't until I looked into restoring Dan to the state that he was in before I removed it, that I realized it. Think it being fractured might have had something to do with why he appeared soulless at first after it had been restored to his body. Not to say that I don't share the blame for his condition after the kidnapping."

"Wonder who has the other parts of his soul."

"I'm not sure. But I did uncover a few things about it by going back to look at what info my angel tool had gathered while it was under my occupation. His soul is one with a tragic fate. It appears to be that of the first man to have been murdered."

Chills ran down Nori's spine.

"Abel," Emon whispered.

"That's correct, the ancestor of all non-pure blooded angels in Zionia. A gentle young man with a heart of gold who was loved by the divine couple. It was because he was so beloved that his descendants were allowed to stay in Zionia. Unfortunately, those same blessings provoked his brother to kill him in a fit of jealousy."

Nori lowered his head as he thought back to Silas. Poor Dan. He had to suffer in the previous life and in this one. Hopefully, his doppelgangers had better experiences. Abel deserved to be happy in at least one life.

"Does miss rebel leader really think we can save him?" Nori asked, raising his head.

"To be honest, I don't have the same high hopes as my brother, but I won't rest until every possibility has been exhausted. If he is dead, at the very least, we can retrieve his soul from the pit."

Yuko sighed.

"Calling out to him will be tough based on what Dine told Reno and me. For that, we will need the princess, Mom, and you two," Suzuki said, looking at Emon and me.

"Nori?"

"Yeah, you said you wanted to be a priest when we met back in the palace, or is that no longer your dream?"

"No, it's still Nori's dream! B-but Nori's powers aren't up at the level of priests like Miki and Emon."

"That might be, but you have something that makes up for it," Reno said.

"Nori does?"

"You're a part of the cat branch of this clan?"

Nori bit his lip. That was supposed to be kept a secret from dodgy allies and strangers. Though, Nori guessed Suzuki had already let it slip that he was one to Reno and the others. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with saving Dan?"

Emon's lips curled into an o shape. "I get what she means."

Nori gave him a sideways look. "Well, Nori doesn't."

"Nor does Yuko," Yuko muttered.

Emon laughed. "I heard members of your branch can use spirit magic. That would help a lot in making contact with Dan's spirit."

Nori smiled. "Nori understands now." Nori sighed. "But Nori knows no spirit magic. Only fire and some darkness spells."

"You can use darkness? Why didn't you used any such spells against me?"

Nori glanced at his bare feet. "Nori doesn't like using darkness magic. Nori knows it's not evil, but Nori prefers the light." Not that Nori got the chance to use those in this battle either.

"Then, we should try to find a spirit-mage," Reno said.

"Unfortunately, we have to head out to Xian tomorrow," Zaki said, sighing.

Emon laughed. "Don't fear, Emon knows what to do!"

Suzuki narrowed her eyes at her brother. "Ignoring the third person reference to yourself, what do you mean by that?"

"I heard from Maki that the cat-branch's home is toward the north. Surely, someone there must know spirit magic."

Nori's ears wiggled. That was the same area Nori's escaped family was said to live in. Nori didn't get the chance to look for them last time he was here.

"That's a great idea!" Nori exclaimed.

Emon smiled. "I'll be sure to bring it up to the royals to see if they can arrange a meeting with a master."

Nori smiled and nodded.

Yuko giggled. "Yuko knows why Nori's happy."

Nori laughed. "Yuko knows Nori well!"

Yuko giggled.

"Actually, I should probably do it now while we got time to make preparations. Hey, Suzu, Re, can you train with Nori and Yuko while I go find Maki and his siblings?"

"No problem," Suzuki said, stepping forward. "I've been itching for a rematch against the furball."

"How about a rematch?" Reno suggested.

Nori gripped his staff. "Nori accepts the challenge."

Yuko glanced at Reno. "Yuko does too!"

Yuko and Nori exchanged glances and smiled. Nori and Yuko's journey to higher power would begin here!

**Solar Note: This chapter is to celebrate 50K reads on Rise of a Guardian Angel (which it reached on the 27th of February) and 15K on The Shadow of Justice (same day) ^_^. Speaking of milestones, this book is about to reach 3K reads. So, thank you all for reading this far (this book will be past the halfway mark with the next chapter!). Hope that you've enjoyed the journey thus far!**