DxD : Emiya Shirou

"Have you ever seen an Angel with a broken heart before? Be grateful that you did not have the misfortune to. In all my years I have never seen a more tragic sight, and I hope to never do so again. 

When something as pure as an Angel loves they cannot hold back, they give everything into their love. And when that love is betrayed, they die."

...

"After Azazel's Fall, Heaven's hall was filled with the echoes of Hadraniel's weeping. For a hundred days and a hundred nights her tears did not stop. And when the hundredth night came to an end, so did poor Hadraniel.

"There is a reason that Azazel is one of only two Fallen that God has never offered the chance for redemption. Some sins are to grave to ever forgive. That is why I hate the Fallen. That is why I hate all the Factions.

"The three-faction are no longer needed in the world. They are a relic of an age long gone, leaches who only continue to survive by sucking the life blood of others. Have you not wondered why human's prospered over the years but the three factions number continues to dwindle? Even centuries after the end of the Great War the Three faction continue to shrink while the rest of the world grows.

"It is because the Three Factions are nothing but the rotting corpse of a great beast that refuses to accept its demise. And in its desperation to survive it clings to whoever happens to be nearby, and by doing so they drag them down with them with them into their doom.

"That is why I cannot allow the abomination that the Three Factions have become to continue to exist. They are a diseased limb that needs to be amputated before they infect the rest of the world with their poison. That is why I planned to kill the two Heirs and bring era of the Three Faction to a proper end before they cause any more harm."

"But you changed your mind." I added.

"But I changed my mind." He nodded in agreement. "As something rather unexpected occurred. Something… that was truly remarkable. A Devil with a human soul had been discovered.

"Such a thing was unheard of, an impossibility. When a human is reincarnated into a Devil they must accept a Devil's magic into their body and no soul, not even man's, can accept so much of their foul magic into their being and remain untainted and yet, there you stand before an impossibility made real. A soul so whole and pure that is shines with all the brightness of a sun.

"Once again, the human spirit has achieved the impossible. Once again your kind as surpassed anything I could have dream of you achieving. It was then that I began to wonder, could I have been wrong? Was there perhaps another way? I didn't know, so I decided to make sure."

"And that's how we met for the first time, you came looking for me."

Kokabiel nodded, "I confess that it wasn't due to serendipity that we met, because as you had correctly guessed I actively sought you out. But can you truly blame me? How could I not look for you when all of my guards," he waved his hand toward the four fallen he remained silently kneeling the entire time.

"Swore to me that they had seen a Devil enter the sacred ground of a church yet grew no weaker for it, as if the church had welcomed his presence."

I cast my eyes on the silent four, and even now I still had trouble realizing that they were there, "They were still in the church when I got there, weren't they?"

"Yes. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that they were able to trail you the entire time you were there without you noticing. But having a second-hand report is not the same as seeing it with my own two eyes, and when the fate of the world hangs on the balance of my decisions I needed to make sure.

"But it was after out meeting that I began to have doubts in my course of action.

"I did not foresee a Devil with a human soul and yet there you stand before me. So I had to question myself, if I could not predict such a development was there something else I did not foresee as well? Was it possible for mankind to still prosper even in the grips of the Devils? Could your kind's potential bring about another miracle, one that I, a mere Angel cannot even comprehend?

"Father had wanted the world to be free from the influence of both Heaven and Hell. He wanted to see a world crafted by man and man alone. That is why he fought the Great War, that is what he died for. Not out of hatred but love, not to destroy the Devils but to protect the humans from their influences.

"Yet here I am deciding the course of humanity, as if I was the almighty himself. How does this make me any better than the Devils? I could not help but wonder if my pride had gotten the best of me. That in my hubris I believed I knew what was best for the world. Did I even have the right to decide such a thing? And yet I cannot simply sit back and do nothing while the innocent suffer all around me.

"It was after many days of contemplation that I had stumbled onto an answer. One that can determine the fate of the world in a way that would not betray Father's will."

"Emiya Shirou," He turned his imploring eyes towards me, "Will you please kill me?"

…What?

Not even giving me enough time to gather my scattered wits he carried on, "I cannot stop, not after going so far, not while so many continue to suffer all around me. Yet I no longer believe I have the right to decide the fate of the world. Or at least, not by me alone. That is why the future will be determined between us, a Son of Heaven and a Son of Man.

"Tonight, I will enact a plan that will reignite the Great War. And this time, I will not stop until I had brought about the end of the Three Faction. And it will be at that moment, just before the point of no return, I shall give you a chance to kill me.

"I will not make it easy for you of course. I intend to fight you with all of my might; I shall call upon all of my magic and forces to strike you down Child of Man. I will hold nothing back and I expect you to do the same. And with that, I will let the potential of man determine the fate of the world. Just like father intended.

"Will the spirit of man that burns inside you emerge victorious and prove that even in the world's current hardship humans can still prosper, or will you prove that your existence was nothing but a fluke, a product of chance and that the future of mankind is doomed so long as the Faction continue to exist and exploit them.

"No matter what the outcome may be, I will make sure that man will have a hand in shaping in its own future." He folded his hands over his laps and calmly relaxed into his bench.

"And what's," I began when it became apparent that he had nothing else to add, "stopping me from ending you right now?"

His lips curved into a tiny smiled and he indicated with hands to the empty space on either side of him. I just stared at the spot for a few seconds before I raised an eyebrow at him. What exactly was I supposed to be looking at?

Wait a minute. What happened to the guards?

A blade was place on the right side of my neck. Ah, never mind, found them.

"What's stopping you? Simple, if you wait for tonight I promise you that I will fight you out in the open. No subjection or traps, just a clean open battle. And while I'll not be alone, my elite guards will not participate in our fight. They will sit it out and observe our battle as witness. Does that seem fair to you?"

"Fair enough." I would have nodded if I weren't sure I'd cut my throat on the guard's blade. Fortunately the blade disappeared the next second, but I still had no idea where his guards was hiding and I wasn't willing take my eyes off Kokabiel to turn around and look for them.

"Then it appears we have an accord." Kokabiel raised from his seat and gave me a single bow before leaving. "I wish you best of luck tonight Emiya Shirou."

"I won't need it. There is no way you're going to end up winning tonight. Not just for the sakes for the people I'm protecting but for yours as well." He stopped in his track and turned to look at me. "Kokabiel let me make one thing clear, I don't believe that you are wrong about the three Factions nor do I believe that you are a bad person. However that doesn't mean I'm going to sit back and watch you commit mass genocide, no matter how justified you believe it to be."

"Oh?" He didn't seem upset about my declaration, just curious, "And why is that?"

"Do you know what a hero is?" I asked instead, "I once met a man who thought himself a hero. He wanted to so badly save everybody. Even though he knew it was impossible, he tried to save everyone he could see anyway. 

No matter the cost he threw himself into the line of fire time and time again to save as many lives as he could. It did not matter to him if they friends, enemies or complete strangers, he would risk his life to save theirs without thought of loss or gain.

"Yet he could still not save everybody no matter how hard he tried, so he had to choose who to save. Should he save the three people to his left or the ten on his right? The decision may appear to be an easy one but to him, who wanted to save everyone, it tore into his soul. But the same situation propped again then again, and each time he choose to the save the many over the few.

"Then came the time where he had to face the same decision again, where he had to choose who to save, the many or the few. Only in this case among the few that needed saving was one of his dearest friends. In such a situation anyone would have hesitated on what to do but not him, oh no. 

He was a hero and to him a hero is someone who saves as many people as he could. And that was why he abandoned his single friend to save the lives of a dozen strangers.

"But that's wrong, completely and utter wrong. That's not being a Hero, not even close.

"A hero is not someone who simply saves lives, he is far more than that. Nor is he someone who defeats evil, that's what we have soldiers and the police for. To fight back the darkness is not enough to become a hero, a hero needs to be the bringer of light as well.

"What is the point of living for hundred years of misery? Wouldn't it be better to live a single day full of joy instead. What is the point of saving one's life if they end up crying to the end of their days? Would it not be better to the let them die happy instead.

"Listen Kokabiel, no matter what you do death comes to us all in the end. Whether it is a single day from now or a million, all of our time is limited. 

And when our time comes, and we look back upon our lives, we do not judge whether our life was a good one or not by the number of days that we lived but the number of times we laughed, the number of times we had smiled. That is how we decide if our lives were worth living.

If a Hero is simply someone that just stalls the inevitable that is death then what's the point of him? A Hero must be more than that. A true Hero is not someone who simply saves a life but someone who makes that life worth living, someone that bring joy to that existence. Or else there would be no point to it all.

"That is why Kokabiel I'm gonna save you. Tonight I will come and kill you, but when I do I'll make sure you fulfill your promise to Asia. I'll make sure you'll die with a smile."

"And why is that Son of Man?" He looking at me strangely, as if he was expecting to see something in particular but found himself being confronted by something else entirely.

"Simple," I jerked a thump at myself, "it's because I'm a hero. The real thing."

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