Chapter Nine - Sis Cross Kiss

"Why didn't you just kill those guys?" Reginleif questioned Cebrail after they introduced themselves to one another.

Cebrail found her to be curious, cute in a smart looking way. The young Valkyrie to her really gave the same sort of vibe as Sona. She had neck length black hair, greenish blue eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses, and she wore a long one piece white dress which stopped just before her knees with a matching large white beret looking hat.

"I don't like killing people." Even back in her past life Cebrail had only killed one person and the feeling it brought was so overwhelming she swore not to kill again. She was known as being the only enforcer to never kill criminals and only capture them, this in the end added to her being a beacon of hope to the people. They often misunderstood her as wanting to give people a chance to reform.

"Even still, if you just leave them they'll end up doing that again." Reginleif warned the princess while pushing up her glasses.

"You make a good point, however I get the feeling that they won't show up again."

"You're banking your decision on a single hope?"

Cebrail stays quiet as the two continue onward clearly not wanting to speak on the subject any longer.

"Wait." Reginleif stops Cebrail just as the two reach the end of the alleyway and turn to the right. They understandably had been met with a wall.

(I'll show her that I'm not deadweight.) Reginleif was resolute in her thought. She believed due to having to be saved by her Cebrail considered her to be nothing but a bother. She believed this because of Cebrail claiming she wasn't a babysitter before attempting running away.

She wrote a Norse rune over the wall but before she could even finish the path opened as a man stepped through.

"Hm?" He looked at the two girls then looked at the men laying collapsed in the alleyway and smiled lightly. "Right..."

He stepped back and closed the path behind him awkwardly.

"..."

"..."

The two girls looked at the wall and Cebrail let out a sigh before coating herself in light power and stepping through the path easily.

As Reginleif followed behind her shoulders dropped in disappointment, she should have known that Norse runes wouldn't be needed to enter a neutral area for a multitude of supernatural factions.

As they got to the other side of the wall the two were met with a large plaza, perhaps twice the size of the regular one, with various Youkai, Ghosts, Devils, and Fallen Angels walking around shopping together happily.

Standing nearby was the man that had been exiting earlier leaning against a wall with one of his hands in his pocket. He was tall, perhaps even around the same height as the nearly 7 foot Michael. He had a fedora on, with a red scarf, and heavily tinted shades. His hair was a dark silver bordering on grey making him look a bit older than he probably actually was.

"That man is a Devil... and a strong one at that." Reginleif whispered to Cebrail, she warned Cebrail because she thought the Angel might try attacking him outright however to her surprise Cebrail didn't seem to care all that much.

(Strong? She must be really young...) Cebrail though hearing the Valkyrie's warning, she very clearly couldn't tell that strong wasn't nearly enough to describe the man in front of them. If Cebrail had to guess he was probably in the range of Serafall or perhaps even her mother.

"How do you do on this fine day, little ladies?" The man greeted taking off his hat and bowing to the two girls respectfully, one of his hands still inside of his pocket. Reginleif made sure to take note of this suspicious behavior and prepared for the worst, her finger tip already glowing with magical energy.

"I'm doing pretty well personally though this woman kept insulting the size of my breasts earlier..." Cebrail responded truthfully, surprising Reginleif who quickly stepped in.

"What she means is, what do you want?" Reginleif asks daringly as she steps in front of Cebrail protectively.

"..." Cebrail simply stared at her like she was stupid though she couldn't see that with the Angel princess behind her.

"Ah straight to the point I see. I simply wanted to apologize for the actions of my friends behind you." Rising from his bow he put his fedora back onto his head in a smooth manner.

"I see. Well just make sure they don't do it again." Cebrail responded only to get a look from Reginleif.

"No, no, no, we can't possibly leave it on that!" The man exclaimed, "I must compensate you for this. My men had no reason to be attacking others in a neutral area such as this!"

"I see... then-"

"Why would we accept anything from you?" Reginleif interjected, stopping Cebrail's next words. By now she could tell that the girl was just going to accept whatever the man was trying to give her.

(Is she just naive or arrogant?) Reginleif couldn't help but think, (Or maybe she's just crazy...)

"Because it could prove quite helpful!"

"He's right. Free stuff is always good." Cebrail commented.

"That's not true at all!" Reginleif yelled at the white haired Angel in exasperation, "Haaa~ Look, you're shady, so we're not going to be accepting anything from you!"

"That's understandable, however is our meeting here truly fate? Or perhaps something else?" The man stepped to the side slightly so that his view of Cebrail wasn't being blocked as much by Reginleif. "My first bit of help you will be a warning young lady. That ring of yours, anyone knowledgeable enough to know what it is may try and hassle you if they see it."

Cebrail looked at her ring and seemed to understand his words, she had been thinking it would be good to hide it however she was lazy, since she was running away from Puriel and felt that she was only going to the Human World.

"My second bit of advice will be about that Sacred Gear of yours." The man pointed to her head and as if on cue Epis popped out of her hair to give a puzzled look. "Sacred Gears are quite interesting in the fact that only humans can be born with them and only humans can bring out their full power."

The man sounded a bit like a teacher as he spoke and Cebrail looked at him with obvious interest, Reginleif knew she wouldn't be able to stop this exchange but also felt that if it was just words it wasn't too bad.

"As an expert in Sacred Gears I've come to the conclusion that this is because of the 'human heart' as odd as it sounds. The very concept of the Balance Breaker proves it as it is activated by powerful emotions." He reaches out with his free hand and pokes Epis in its cheek. "Living Sacred Gears are particularly tricky since even if they are connected to your soul they may not be connected to your heart."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that the reason your Sacred Gear is so weak currently is because you have yet to open up your heart to it. It has nothing to draw power from."

"Open my heart..."

"Indeed!" The man seemed prepared to say more however suddenly from behind the two girls came a woman.

The woman was quite beautiful with long white hair tied low in the back, and icy blue eyes which pierced the silver haired man with an unveiled annoyance.

"If you take any longer sir you'll be late for your meeting." The girl warned of an icy tone which made Reginleif shiver in a bit of fear. She could see it rather clearly, based on the woman's energy; she was a Dragon, the most fearsome beast in the supernatural world! To make matters worse she wasn't a regular one at that. Reginleif couldn't tell what rank the woman would be at but it definitely wasn't any lower than the Five Great Dragon Kings.

"Ah damn. Looks like that's it for me~" The man begins walking past Cebrail but stops to reach into his suit and takes out a small card. "If you want to talk again I'll be here in a year's time."

Handing over the business card to Cebrail he proceeds to leave with his Dragon associate.

"Let me see that card." Reginleif demands holding out her hand.

(Isn't she getting too comfortable...) Cebrail complains in her head but believes arguing wouldn't be worth the effort and hands over the card.

(No magic on it besides the normal stuff to hide it from regular humans...) Reginleif thinks while inspecting it carefully.

"An auction in a year." She mumbled to herself, the card not only told about the auction but also held a special pass on the back for the night auction. It seemed that far more precious and expensive things would be sold there.

"It's probably for selling illegal things." Cebrail commented taking back the card and stashing it away in her dimensional storage.

"Will you be going?" Reginleif asked a bit curious.

"Probably." Cebrail with this simple comment continued forward out of the second alleyway into the plaza properly. Directly in front of them was the store she was looking for though she kind of wished it wasn't.

The store front looked far closer to that of a strip club or something rather than some regular shop belonging in the middle of a public plaza. It had a large sign with bright neon lights reading "Sis Cross Kiss" and around it were weapons blinking as well.

The two girls stared at the sign with deadpanned expressions.

"...I think someone might be playing a trick on us..." Cebrail said, she was really contemplating just turning around and forgetting all about that alcoholic blonde she had spoken to before.

"N-No... maybe it's different on the inside..."

"I see... as a wise man once said, 'don't judge a book by its cover' however... I'm not sure how right he was." Cebrail mumbles but still continues forward anyways entering the store along with her new companion.

The store was... normal? Well it looked kind of like a small general goods store, but with weapons and various potions and miscellaneous objects all exuding some magical power.

"Are those phoenix tears? And look at that, a mock invisibility cap! And-And..." Reginleif was in awe at the variety of items within the store as most of them were quite valuable.

"You like what you're seeing? Well that stuffs only the beginning!" The woman behind the counter said seeing the black haired Valkyrie's wonder.

Cebrail looked around but didn't find anything particularly interesting, a few unnamed holy swords here and there but nothing that she could personally really use.

The shopkeeper stared at Cebrail, her eyes squinted as if she were trying to see something far away.

"Hey kid... who gave you that weapon?" The lady asked Cebrail.

"You mean Rance?" She took out her whip and presented it to the woman.

"Yeah... this thing..." The woman seemed to hesitate before taking the whip in front of her.

"My mother gave it to me."

"And... who might that be?"

Reginleif, feeling that Cebrail was once again being far too trusting of strangers, stepped in, "Why are you asking so many questions? And why did you give her your weapon?!?"

She directed her second question to Cebrail herself who just shrugged as if she didn't see the problem.

"I was just asking so I could warn you about accepting thoughtless gifts. This whip is... not a tool you should wave around as if it were nothing." The woman inspected the item further, her red eyes glowing with an unknown magic. "This 'weapon' was designed specifically to inflict as much pain on Devils as possible without killing them, that is to say it's a torture device."

"Well I guess that makes sense. It is a whip after all." Cebrail didn't seem particularly surprised by this information and simply took the whip back.

"I'm telling you kid, the younger generation may not notice but their parents and grandparents will. You'll be making enemies out of the Devils using that." The shopkeeper warned pushing a bit of red hair out of her face.

Reginleif thought about it for a bit, if the woman was right about the origins of the weapon then she wasn't exaggerating about making enemies out of the Devils by using it.

(Maybe I could get her a blessed dagger or something to use instead then? It could be a thank you gift for her saving me before.)

Cebrail looked at Reginleif from the corner of her eye already guessing what the Valkyrie was thinking and let out a long sigh.

"...Ms..."

"Anna, just call me Anna."

"Anna, I don't doubt your words but I'm not an idiot."

Anna Gave a business like smile in response to this, "I never took you for a fool dear customer~"

The two stare at one another and Reginleif deciding that Cebrail did in fact need a new weapon chose to leave the scene heading deeper into the store. She went to the holy section of the store and browsed seriously until she happened upon a very odd item.

A diamond like object that was around the size of a person's palm. Inspecting it, Reginleif could tell it had holy properties but... it was strange. It almost looked as if it were a heart, likely because it had the same kind of aura as a human soul.

Curious and wanting to ask the shopkeeper about it she picked it up along with a simple looking blessed dagger before heading back to the storefront where she found Cebrail sitting on the counter with a catalog in hand.

"Umm, Ms. Anna, can you tell me what this is?" Reginleif put the diamond on the counter and Anna didn't even take a second before responding.

"The church calls it a 'Light Container' supposedly it can give regular humans the ability to use holy swords." Anna being a very respectable and prideful shop owner of course knew everything in her shop, though this object in particular was a bit new and mysterious.

"Supposedly?"

"Well it seems to vary in its reliability. Sometimes you may only be able to use mock holy swords but other times you may even get someone that can use an excalibur fragment." She tapped her finger slowly on the table and her eyes glowed once again. "The thing is the whole thing is pretty suspicious and the church is being particularly hush hush about this so it must be a scandal waiting to happen..."

As she said those words an idea flashed through Anna's mind and she smiled mischievously, "Actually how about you two kids do me a favor?"

"No thanks." Cebrail responded before Reginleif could even think about it.

"Now hold on there, I'm not asking you to do it for free~"

"Still-"

"W-Wait! Let's hear her out!" Reginleif exclaimed, she thought that perhaps this was a part of Odin's plans and would be her next step towards completing her quest.

"I want you to do some investigating. Specifically a certain church in the 'Necessary Evil' branch of things, it seems like they're going to be transferring something related to these 'Light Containers' soon." Anna picked up a set of expensive black gloves from behind the glass counter and set them down, "In exchange I'll give you these~"

"E-Eh?" Reginleif could tell instantly what kind of gloves they were. They had to have been created by a master craftsman with how mana conductive they were and it even seemed like she could use permanent runes on them! If she had them she would ever need any magic weapon or wand again!

"D-Does this by chance have anything to do with Avalon?" Reginleif asks, trying to regain her composure.

"Funny that you ask that, since it seems it does~"

"Then I'll help you!" Reginleif puts the dagger on the counter, "I'd also like to buy this for my friend here!"

"Haha~ no need to pay, just consider it a gift~"

(No need to pay my a*s.) Cebrail thought in annoyance, giving out a rare swear as well.

In truth Anna was a very VERY skilled business woman, when she gave Cebrail that warning in such a dramatic fashion she already knew the cold faced girl that hadn't given anything in the store a second glance since entering wouldn't fall for it and buy something. Reginleif however? The curious and logical looking child that had been looking around in awe since she had entered? Well... Anna knew all she needed was an excuse to buy something. Cebrail upon seeing the young Valkyrie scurry off gave Anna a full stack of cash but made no further comment besides an annoyed look.

"Thank you." Reginleif gave a polite bow then handed Cebrail the blessed dagger, "Cebrail, thank you for saving me earlier, but it seems like this is where we part ways."

"I'll be coming with you."

"Huh? Why?"

Cebrail hopped off the store counter before responding casually, "Why not?"

Reginleif blinked a few times but decided that it was fine, this too was probably just another part of Odin's plan. With an Angel at her side the church might even be more amicable than usual.

After getting information on the location of where they had to investigate the two girls left, leaving Anna sitting at her counter.

"Haaa~ what has my life come to~ two king candidates in a single day, one after another at that! At least this one was a cute kid instead of that sh*tty old Lucifer."