(Apparently character descriptions have character limits! Oh the irony!)

This decision caused Abe and Kumo to have to talk again, and while Abe still clearly had romantic feeling for Kumo, Kumo still was unable to return them. Their relationship was tenuous until something truly magical happened. Kotaro, the former tanuki kami that Abe had fallen in love with, was just like any other kami. He was distrustful of demons by nature, and was incredibly afraid of Kumo. On the day that Kotaro died, he did something that was not typical for a child. He broke his fears when he learned that Kumo had been in love with Kaworu for almost all of Kaworu's life, and when he escaped to seek solace and think over his feelings that he couldn't display, Kotaro followed him to attempt and console him.

Unfortunately for Kotaro, being the son of Yaku who had been banned from Japan by the now former tanuki kami elder Minato, Minato wanted nothing more than for Kotaro to die. Kotaro had been temporarily made human by Abe in hopes that their relationship and bond would strengthen, to the benefit of Kaworu's heart. Minato was made aware of Kotaro's temporary humanity a few moments before he went to console Kumo, and came to try and draw him out to destroy him. At the very end, knowing that he was a human and stood no chance, he tried his best to protect Kumo. Kumo wasn't able to forgive himself for allowing Kotaro to die, even though that wasn't his fault.

As soon as Abe heard what happened, Kaworu being unaware of it, he put Kaworu into a three day sleep to see if there was anything he could do to remedy the situation. Learning that there was nothing, and feeling and expressing tears for the first time since he was a child, he returned to Kaworu, woke him up, and tried to explain what had happened as best he could. Kaworu, of course, took the news poorly and resolved to become a demon, simply so he could personally kill the Okami for not protecting Kotaro when he was at his most vulnerable. As a result he called the Dark Prince forward, but the Dark Prince had some news to provide before he would allow Kaworu to make that decision. He let Kawooru know that as soon as Kotaro left the shield and followed Kumo he knew he was going to die. Naturally one would expect a lot of fear from that, but Kotaro was never afraid. His only concern was helping Kumo if there was anyway possible. By distracting Minato for just a moment and sacrificing himself as a result, he unknowingly gave Kumo the advantage that let him kill Minato. As Kotaro saw Minato fly at him, and he knew his death was coming, he thought to himself, "I hope that this means I don't cause anymore trouble, and maybe this means that Kumo and Kaworu can be happy together now."

However there was a minor complication with Kotaro's hopes. None of the hopes he spoke had any chance of coming true. His death had caused Kaworu a considerable amount of trouble, and Kumo would never accept Kaworu's love because he knows how much Kaworu loves Kotaro. As mentioned previously, as was the case for Abe, when humans die for a noble deed, they become a kami. Kotaro was a human temporarily, but the rules of death for humans weren't a part of his fate. He was still bound to the same rules that kamis have. When kamis die they are allowed to see their hopes come true. He never had any hopes until those last moments, and he fudged them both considerably. He wasn't thinking of himself, however his hope of not causing Kaworu trouble could only come true if he wasn't dead. So the moment that Kaworu became aware of his death and broke down, Kotaro was brought back to life as the tanuki kami he had always been.

Kaworu, at that moment, vowed to become a demon under the condition that Kotaro and Abe would become demons as well. He did this because, with Minato dead, an impending civil war between the tanuki kami and the kitsune kami was on the horizon. Despite how horrible of an elder Minato was, she had no desire for war so with her death the fragile peace between the two kami clans had been broken. Despite the fact Kotaro had been brought back from the dead, being a kami would still put him in danger. He would have eventually been dragged into the civil war and since he wasn't particularly gifted at combat, would have likely died. He also chose to make Abe a demon because Kaworu knew that Abe hated his life as a shinigami, and wanted to achieve freedom again. With all parties in agreement, all three became demons.

With Abe's new found freedom as a demon he remains a loyal friend to both Kotaro and Kaworu and lives with them, the two young demons considering him a big brother. Unfortunately Abe now has the desire to seek vengeance against Kuro for the way he was treated, and is trying his best to find a way to make it happen.