Chapter 16: Surprises
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 16: Surprises.
- Damien –
Two months have passed since the events of that night.
These two months have been eventful.
First of all, Kuroka went to Sun Wukong, as decided. He was surprised but took her in anyway. Nurarihyon had been on point.
Sun Wukong had been very enthusiastic about teaching her too. There were questions about me which she had confessed to but he didn't mind. He did say that he would like to meet me once, which I had her agree to. I will meet him but only when I am ready.
Second thing that happened was that Merlin got the Innovate Clear from Helena after she completed her research and has successfully created a Time Dilation Space. The ratio of time in the outside world compared to the inside world is 1:4 but it is still a LOT.
The only thing is the power needed to maintain and run such a dimension. He can maintain such a dimension for around two days before he needs to rest for another two.
It could count as a form of training for him and he is actually enthusiastic about it. I sometimes wonder if the guy's a masochist or just plain crazy.
It seems like I need to make a power source for this, a battery of sorts.
The other part of our research was on the right track.
The Negative Fruits as we had come to call them over time. These cheeky little buggers were a lot more interesting than the simple Chakra Fruit. We had to separate its power into several smaller pieces and then test it on the subjects we had gathered.
The first batch of subjects were Ayakashi, the most obvious ones.
The result was a mixed bunch.
Some went mad while some were empowered, the key was the amount of power in the fruit.
Thankfully all of these subjects were the ones who were either caught by the Old Satan faction or by Hihi, the previous leader of Kuroka's territory and were mostly insane or criminals.
They were thrown back to the not so Chakra Tree again.
The second was the use of very tiny portions of these fruits to create intense emotions in Sacred Gear users and let them awaken their Balance Breakers. It was a project Helena was working on. This project was a massive success. It took us some time to get the ratio correct and I had to use my 'Denial of the Divine' to calm them down and extract the negative fruit's power from them to stop them from going on a rampage but among the nineteen test subjects, everyone of them had awakened their Balance Breakers.
I took this opportunity to teach Vienna the basics of 'Denial of the Divine' too. She however was very reluctant to learn it because it was not flashy enough for her.
In hindsight she has been getting too overconfident. Kuroka being here actually helped a lot because she could fight her on an equal ground and keep her cockiness in check. Now with her gone, I feel like I need to create a suitable opponent for her.
Maybe Akeno could become her rival… In fact I would have done that if it hadn't been for the current situation.
I watched as the girl was covered with the red colored flames of the Vermillion Bird. This headache came to me around a month ago.
I wanted Akeno to remain a half fallen to master her power properly before making her a half devil or something.
It had come suddenly and I had to inform Nurarihyon to arrange for a meeting with the Himejima clan to propose a trade. The youkai in question however suggested that I wait.
The Himejima Clan was in an uproar right now but they were keeping it a secret so as to not let the other factions know of it. Their leaders were killed in a 'rebellion'. Who would have thought that the Ketchup-head had it in him? Then again I shouldn't be so surprised as he did fight in the Civil War.
Thus the one month wait. In the meantime, I had Celine, who had recovered considerably, study it to enhance her own Holy Flames.
Akeno had been going to Ophelia regularly for her therapy and was recovering well. Celine had actually helped her understand that grouping all the people of a Race was stupid because there were all kinds of people in a race.
Moreover as two girls more or less abandoned by their fathers, they developed a kind of a bond. She however followed Vienna like a lost puppy at times and the said girl relished in having a close friend her age.
The Himejima had been stewing in their own sweat by the end of the month. The new Head, Suzaku Himejima, the person who was the lead in inheriting the Vermillion Bird had somehow taken control of the clan which was breaking apart due to several people not accepting her due to her not inheriting the Vermillion Bird.
Some wanted her to step down for 'losing the Vermillion Bird' while others were just pushing their own agendas.
A fifteen years old could barely keep the clan afloat and that too was due to another elder who was supporting her not for pure reasons obviously but to marry her to his twenty six year old grandson and establish himself as the leader behind the scenes.
It was time to offer her a Deal. I mean it's only in desperate times that even people like these would make a 'Deal with the Devil'.
I called for Gretel and Akeno(or is it currently Suzaku?) to accompany me to the Himejima Clan.
- Scene Change -
The grey mist subsided from around us as Akeno, Gretel and I stepped into the Himejima Clan's inner compound. I had covered us under my illusion as we walked towards the house at the center of the compound. Unlike normal when the compound was surrounded by several guards, it was vacant with barely any people around.
I sensed three auras inside the place. Two in the same room while one in a different room. The aura that was alone was strong. An Ultimate Class although only the lower reaches, it was still a bit surprising that this place had someone like this even now.
The room near the garden was Suzaku's room.
As I got closer, I recognized the one who Suzaku had in the room with her and a small smile lit my face.
The world really is a small place.
I sensed that Akeno stiffened when she realized the place we were in but I patted her head and reassured her. Gretel grabbed a hold of her hand to show her support too and we stepped forward towards Suzaku's room.
I knocked on the door.
"Yes." came a cold voice from the other side.
I just knocked again.
This time one of the people got up and came to the door, sliding it open. "What do you need at this time of the night…" Her words got stuck in her mouth as she recognized me.
"Well hello there. It's been a while and I would say I am here to meet you but that would be lying and I don't lie. That said, nice to meet you again, Momiji Nakiri. Are you enjoying your freedom?" I smiled at the former host of my Telos Karma, greeting her.
"Why are you here? " She asked cautiously.
"Hey there. I don't think our meeting was bad enough to warrant such caution. As for your answer, I am here to offer a deal, just like I did with you but to the other girl here. What can I say, I am a sucker for pretty faces." I joked and it did have the intended effect as she blushed slightly.
"I liked the serious you better."
"Really? I thought this cheerful personality was more popular. I guess girls are more into the mysterious types."
By then the other occupant of the room had arrived at the door as well and saw us, her eyes stuck to Akeno but she maintained her caution towards me. There was a slight blush on her face too. My charm is increasing every day from the Asmodeus trait as well as the Essence of the King.
Long black hair, red eyes and a budding figure. She looks like an older, curvier version of Akeno with red coloured eyes.
"Hello Suzaku Himejima…." I greeted her before stopping. "It's still Suzaku, right?"
Her eyes twitched slightly but she didn't comment so I continued. "As you have already heard, I am here for a Deal. I mean no harm to you or your company."
"What kind of deal?" she asked curtly. I have to say that for a fifteen year old, she really bags that ice cold beauty troupe to the T. Even rivaling my cute Maid in this aspect.
"Suzaku-chan….call him inside. Others might notice the strangers. As much as I would like to speak against this person, it is a fact that he keeps his word. He will not harm us."
She looked at us for a moment but called us inside.
We took our seats with Akeno sitting beside me while Gretel sat behind me. By now, she had become adept in Japanese customs and was sitting in a proper way.
"Well now that we are all seated properly, I will go ahead and propose my deal. The deal is simple, I or rather Akeno will trade back the Suzaku, before you interrupt me, yes, Akeno is the new Host, yes, she was blessed by the Shinto deities qualified for the station as was her mother, the main reason why she was killed by your Clan members."
Akeno clenched her fingers and teeth while Suzaku withered, looking down to avoid Akeno's gaze.
Momiji surprisingly looked stunned but soon enough a look of realization came over her face.
"The deal is simple, Akeno will give you the Vermilion Bird back, you can keep it, roast it, eat it whatever you want, but in return you will return the body of Shuri Himejima as well as the copy all the Magical and Martial Knowledge that the Himejima Clan possesses. They should have been Akeno's by right for being the True host of the Vermilion Bird. She is giving up the Bird but no one can and will deny her the other Perks."
"Shuri-san was a member of our Clan." Suzaku started only to be interrupted….
"YOU PEOPLE KILLED MOTHER!" the little girl broke down. Thankfully I had put a barrier around the place.
Gretel went ahead and put a hand on her shoulder.
"As already stated by Akeno, she might have the blood of this clan this is also the clan of her murderers. There is no way we will allow her body to stay here."
Razevan had taken Aria's body along with the bodies of his two previous wives out a long time ago and we had no idea about where Gretel's mother's body was kept. I guess we'll just have to rip it out of Euclid's bloodied body.
She bit her lips but stayed quiet so I decided to push a little.
"Please think carefully, Suzaku-san."
She looked at Akeno this time. "You can take the position of the Clan Head. The Vermilion Bird has chosen you. You are the new Head. That's the rule our Clan follows."
….
This girl was truly naive.
Naive people are good to make deals with.
Akeno obviously rejected it flat-out.
"You really think that your racist clan would accept someone with Akeno's heritage as a Clan Head? Your previous Clan Head exiled his own sister for practising Buddhist Arts and his brother for not being blessed by the Shinto Gods, and since then many other members have faced the same situation, your Clan Members more or less chased her around for a year while they made a deal to sell her to the peerage of a Devil and that was after killing her mother, even at the risk of starting a war… Do you really think such people will just bend over backwards and accept her as a leader? Oh my, I pity the future of the Himejima Clan with a leader like you."
Her mouth opened and closed without any words to reply.
"Please tell me you answer Suzaku-san." I implored.
"I cannot make the decision about the Knowledge of the Himejima Clan."
"You are the Clan Head and after you get the Vermilion Bird, no one can question you. On the other hand, without the Vermilion Bird, your clan becomes a mid ranked Clan of common priests and let's not forget the enemies you have made in all this time. For how long do you think you can hide the disappearance of the Vermilion Bird? I mean isn't that why you called Miss Momiji here and her brother, ah right guess from your expressions, to talk to."
I didn't say anything further.
She looked at Momiji who didn't answer.
A few minutes passed away in silence and then she nodded.
"Very well, now we are talking."
"Can you really transfer the Vermilion Bird?"
"Miss Momiji here can attest to that. I am kinda adept in such stuff."
A look of realization flashed through her eyes as she eyed the other girl who nodded. In the meantime, I passed her the contract to read.
She took up the contract to read and soon pointed out the same thing as Momiji had back then. "If any of my Clan Members, including me, attack Akeno or you, directly or indirectly, with the intention of causing harm, I will become Akeno's servant."
"It's the same thing I offered Miss Momiji. I can't have you or anyone from your Clan coming after or hiring anyone to come after Akeno to kill her to retrieve the knowledge or come after me to annoy me."
"You really think that the Five Principal Clans cannot kill you?" Momiji asked me curiously this time.
"I don't think so… I know it for sure. You people are too narrow-minded and hamper your own potential with your bias. I mean your clans are biased against anything not their own. To be honest, at this point, your clans could rename themselves the Hyuga and no one would blink an eye. These kinds of people will never defeat me. I refuse to let that happen."
"So power is everything to you?" she countered.
"I didn't hear these words from you when I offered you a deal back then."
That shut her up.
Suzaku, on the other hand, had made up her mind by then. She walked up to a desk in the room and brought a pen and I sent a smirk towards Momiji who looked red in embarrassment.
She returned and signed the contract. I guess she was under a lot of pressure.
"Akeno, sign the contract." The girl followed my instructions without any questions and signed it.
A bright flash of light later, Suzaku Himejima became the new host of the Vermilion Bird.
She looked wide-eyed at herself as a wisp of purifying flame lit up in her hand.
"Now time to keep your side of the deal."
"I will need a few days to prepare everything. You have my word that I will fulfill my side of the contract." she bowed or rather did a dogeza to Akeno.
"A week. I will return in a week to collect everything."
She then looked at Akeno and touched her head to the floor, "I know what the people of this clan have done to you is unforgivable but I will work hard to make sure that one day you can forgive us."
Akeno, for her part, didn't snap this time but simply turned away and left the room.
"In that case, have a good day, Miss Suzaku, Miss Momiji.
- Scene Change -
We retrieved Shuri's coffin and moved it to a place in Kuroka's territory and received all the Knowledge from her personally a week later.
From the news that I had received, some people had actually questioned Suzaku's leadership if she had lost the Vermilion Bird once, what's keeping her from losing it once more. Surprisingly it was the same elder that was supporting her. He put forward the reasons that Suzaku needed to be given proper guidance and tried to force her into a marriage with his son. Too bad, this Suzaku had experienced quite a lot of stress and was not in the mood to accept the bullshit of anyone. She directly summoned the purifying flames and burned both that elder and his son to ashes, completely shutting up everyone who had any questions about her.
With the Clan having lost most of the stronger fighters in the squabble against us, no one dared to question her anymore.
They could only vent their frustration on something else and I being a good friendly devil, decided to give them a proper target, namely… myself.
It wasn't even hard work. I just had to make a Shadow Clone and put myself under illusion to inform them of a devil in the compound.
One of the idiots attacked me when I had completed the deal with Suzaku.
Things happened so fast that she had no chance to react at all.
In just two visits, I had all the knowledge and the Head of the Himejima Clan in my hands. She obviously burned the guy to ashes before she could ask him anything so there was no chance to ask anything anymore.
I did give the girl some hope by not interfering with her Clan and even offering my support as it was an accident.
Akeno didn't want anything to do with it so she just left once more leaving Suzaku actually even more grateful.
We all decided to keep this a secret from her Clan.
What can I say, she made a Deal with the Devil. She should have thought things through.
I returned and started to work on the massive reserve of knowledge they had accumulated over their long history.
They might have been fucking biased towards other arts but that didn't prevent them from gathering everything they could get their hands on.
Merlin was having a blast.
Other than Akeno, he was the one who benefited from it the most. I for one wanted to see if they had something that would help with the situation of my soul.
There was however another person who was very grateful when Akeno agreed to share these with her, Tsubaki Shinra.
She couldn't learn the heritage spells and techniques of the Shinra Clan but that didn't mean she couldn't learn anything from the Himejima Clan either.
To be honest, in terms of Spiritual Arts, Tsubaki was even more talented than Akeno. In fact she was leaning more towards the martial aspect of training. The Shinra Clan taking on the traits of their patron Divine Beast, are more focused on close quarters fighting, a martial clan as compared to the spell casters of the Himejima. That didn't mean their clans don't know of the other arts, it was just a preference.
In fact there were several spells that belonged to the Shinra Clan as well. Some of the previous Clan Heads must have collected those when they had a chance. I appreciate their hard work.
Unfortunately, there were mainly spells to harm souls, very few about healing but they were of the holy aspect and would injure me even more.
I am currently working on a technique to help me solve these problems. A technique from my previous life, the Cursed Technique Reversal of the Juijutsu Sorcerers. Theoretically the curses were quite similar to the Ayakashi, born out of human malice. Technically anyone who can use Negative Emotions like these can use Curse Techniques.
Although I looked the part for it, I didn't have a way to go complete Gojo due to not having a way to control my power so precisely for the time being but there were other things I could work out.
I mean it could be a completely new branch of techniques that the Ayakashi could use and I could just buff them up with the negative fruits.
The Cursed Technique Reversal was a healing technique which was extremely useful as well as the basis of a technique that could turn negative energy into positive energy. I did observe that Cleria's Ten Tails could be modified to just collect Malice in the world and make negative fruits indefinitely. Nature Energy and lifeforce cannot be harnessed so easily. Even in these three months since the first fruit was harvested, we have only managed to make two more of those and had barely spotted any other dimension suitable to plant the Ten Tails.
There was something like this in the future which was invented by the Fallen Angels as well. Another thing to look into.
Merlin was working on his fake dimension and all the life inside it but that was basically him pouring in his power to create everything. It would take him around a year to make a dimension suitable enough to produce a fruit with the Ten Tails and that was unacceptable since he was using it for the Time Dilation chambers for our training.
In such a case, if a way is found to change the Negative energy into positive energy, we could technically have an infinite supply of energy and make as many fruits as we want.
It's one thing after another. I just couldn't catch a break.
The only thing that kept me going was the thought of an army of Ayakashi with Curse Techniques and Domain Expansions supporting me.
The Cursed Technique Reversal could technically be used to change positive techniques to negative techniques too. So maybe I could reverse the Holy Flames into demonic flames or my own Demonic Flames into Holy Flames?
So while my main body trained, the Shadow Clones worked hard to create curse techniques from scratch.
To be honest, mastering chakra was worth it just to use the Shadow Clones. They are probably the best Technique from the Naruto world.
- Rias -
Rias closed the door behind her and let out a sigh.
Akame hadn't eaten a single bite of food even today.
She was starting to worry about the girl. It had been three days since Onii-sama brought her here after he saved her from being executed.
She had rarely seen him so angry or tired for that matter.
After hearing everything, she found out the reason for his anger.
Akame's brother had killed his King and peerage when he had lost control over his powers and fled. The other devils had declared that Akame was also a danger and thus was to be executed.
That was plain stupid.
What did that even have to do with Akame?
Although she did hear her Onii-sama speak about someone when she was listening in about him complaining about the relations with the Youkai and how 'He' seemed to be quite close to the Youkai faction which would cause further problems.
Akame, who was let go only because her Onii-sama had vouched for her and had Akame join her peerage to keep anyone from attacking her, had completely closed herself off from the whole world. She didn't talk to anyone or eat anything. Even her eyes looked… dead.
Rias had tried many things. She tried to tell her about Mangas and show them to her. It was a bad idea. Naruto, while one of her favourites, had a Kyuubi rampaging in the first chapter and that was probably not a good memory for a young four tailed Kitsune. She had removed all her Naruto collection the very next day. It was only Bleach and One Piece on her bookshelves now.
She had tried showing her anime and bringing different types of food for her to try, even talking to her till late into the nights to get her to open up… nothing worked.
Mother told her to keep on trying and she will respond.
Maybe she should ask someone else for advice… maybe her new friend?
She returned to her room and closed the door after checking that no one was looking and went to her bed, under her blanket, closing her eyes, with both her hands clasped on her heart, she called out to him in her mind. "Damien, I need your help. Can you hear me?"
It happened a while ago. Two days after her talk with her Mother and when she started her training, she was wondering if her Mother's words were true and if she really didn't have a chance? It was disheartening and even if she wouldn't give up without trying, she still felt a bit sad at the thought….and that's when she heard his voice.
It had been her… no, it had been their secret since then.
"Hello Princess. What can I do for you today?"
"Hello Damien. I… I need your help with something."
"Oh, a Deal? How interesting."
She pouted a little. What was with all the Devils and their fetish with deals?
"I don't know what to offer you for a deal though."
"Oh, that's easy. I take anything I have an interest in, a favour, a useful piece of information… your first kiss. I mean we did the soul and all but that's outdated nowadays. I don't like virgin sacrifices either. So that's the only one left, right?" he said the last part casually and Rias felt her cheeks heat up at the very image.
"A… My… a favour. I will owe you a favour." She kept herself from getting lost in her fantasies.
"Ah, so sad. I seemed to have missed the first kiss." She felt her heart skip a beat but it was much better than the first time they had talked. Apparently his sister had been correct about one thing, Damien Lucifer was an incorrigible flirt. And then she heard his muffled chuckle and realised that he had been teasing her again.
"Are you making fun of me again?"
"Yes."
"Don't say that so nonchalantly!" she gritted her teeth. "Just you wait, one day, I will make you eat your words."
"Whatever you say Princess. So what were you saying?"
"A… anyways," she cursed her stutter. "I need a favour from you too."
"Sure, go on, I'm listening."
"Recently I have gained my first peerage member, a Queen piece. Her name is Akame and she is a four tailed Kitsune."
"My congratulations on gaining your first peerage member, Princess. That's your first step towards becoming the future Champion of the Rating Games. Kitsunes are very loyal once they accept you but it is extremely hard to gain their allegiance though. A Nine Tailed Kitsune could even rival a Satan with proper training and resources. The Fox Fire of Yasaka, the leader of the Kyoto Youkai can almost rival those of a Dragon King. Add to that the extra potential from her newly acquired Devil side and you have yourself a very great first piece. Just make sure that she doesn't neglect any of her sides or herself. That would hamper her potential greatly."
She listened to those points and marked them for later. First she needed to solve the problems of her Queen. "T-thank you. A-anyways, my queen has a problem. Her brother, Akira, apparently went mad with power and had killed his King and Peerage members so many devils wanted to execute her too which was extremely stupid. She has been very depressed and I messed up too because when I was trying to cheer her up, I accidentally showed her the Naruto Manga and she became even more depressed and wouldn't even talk to anyone. I need your help to cheer her up once more. I have heard that you are familiar with the Youkai….so can you help me find her brother? I want to help my Queen out of her depression and become cheerful again."
"Mmh, that's quite a story, Princess. Sure. I will help you out. I did make a deal after all. As for you messing up when cheering her up, we still don't know the Nine Tailed Fox's side of the story so we don't know if it was bad. We shouldn't just believe in everything people say. I mean, Mizuki was pretending to be nice too. You did a good thing. Your intentions were good and that's what matters the most. You should keep on trying to help her and I will help you find her brother. As I have already said, you are a very kind girl, Princess and that's what I love about you the most."
Rias felt her blush brighten with each word. "I-I will hold you to that."
"Obviously Princess. My words are my bond." He whispered again.
Good. At least she had someone helping her out with this other than what Onii-sama was doing.
"What do you want for the favour?" she asked.
"It's something very important."
"Tell me."
"I want you to take your new Queen to a psychiatrist. The experiences like the ones she has been through leave a mark on the minds of people. It would help both you and your Queen if you did that. You can ask your family to arrange for that."
"Really?"
"Absolutely. I had Akeno go through the same. You are looking for a good lifelong friend and confidant not a lackey. You should take care of both their physical and mental health."
"I didn't know that."
"Well now you know."
"Okay, I will do that anyway. Tell me what favour you want?"
"I already did that Princess."
"But that doesn't count. That's something for my Queen. I would do that anyway. You are not getting anything out of this."
"But I am, Princess. I am getting you to help out the first Peerage member of my friend. That does sound like something I get out of this."
"T-that doesn't even make sense."
"Oh, so you are not my friend?"
"Wha… I didn't mean that."
"Then I am getting everything I want. If you really want to do something extra for me, train hard, become stronger and I will be much happier. Oh, but do remember to rest as well. I would hate it if you got sick because of me"
"Really?"
"Absolutely."
"Then I promise you."
"I will hold you onto that too, Princess.So tell me how you have been doing." he continued and Rias also relaxed in her bed and started telling him about her days, her training with her Mother, her trying to get her Queen to open up, Millicas being an adorable kid, the new volume of Naruto manga and Natuto in the Chunin Exam fight against that stuck-up meanie, Neji and the attack on the stadium.
She always had fun discussing Manga with him.
And just like that, in time she felt sleepy and dozed off.
- Damien -
She's adorable. Especially the crush that she has on me. Devil children can be really promiscuous as is evident by the actions of many young devils but her actions are more adorable than anything.
The girl needed a friend after being stuck with her family and servants for so long, that when I offered her a chance, she latched onto me. We talk about our lives and manga, her hobbies that she had no one to talk to about, and it does remind me of my discussions with my friends in my previous life. A very refreshing change of pace compared to what I normally do.
I am really starting to enjoy teasing her like this and getting her flustered. Apparently the Gremorys are having an aneurysm about her crushing on me. As for if something develops between us, that will have to wait until she's old enough to reasonably think for herself.
She did provide me with some useful information so I guess I will do her this deal as a favour.
Who would have thought that Sirzechs was actually wary of my relationship with the Youkai and solved the matter before they could actually pass on the decision to execute her or even bring it to the council.
Well, it did solve the trouble of having to rescue her myself.
I got up from my seat and walked towards our newest recruit. Blonde, almost white hair, golden pupils and two fox ears on his head. How are you holding up? I hope the people here are treating you well, Akira?"
"M-Master… I have been good"
"Don't force yourself to use that word, I know you have many bad memories attached to it. You can just call me by my name." I patted his shoulder.
"I-I couldn't." he stuttered in reply and I smiled.
"Then call me Boss. Sean does that too. This place is not like your previous King's. We protect our people like family."
"Yes. I owe my life to you all. If it hadn't been for you, I…" he let his words die out and lowered his head to look at the ground.
"Don't think about that past. I have some news about your sister." His head snapped up. "She was in trouble but as I had assured you, she was saved in time. She is currently the Queen of Sirzechs' little sister, Rias Gremory… who happens to be a secret friend of mine." I saw his eyes widen and so did my smile. "What, surprised? Anyways, your sister is… depressed and has cut herself off from everyone so my cute friend has requested me to find a way to find you to help her… and guess what? I just found you. Now tell me a way to cheer your sister up." I questioned.
"I… I want to bring her back."
"That's near impossible for now. I assure you that she is very safe where she is now. I will arrange for you two to meet soon enough but for now, think of something, a message to send to your sister. I suggest telling her everything."
He clenched his hands, gritting his teeth. "I ran away. I left her alone there."
"You ran away to separate her from your so-called crimes so that she will not become a target for anyone. You were injured and would have died had I not found you at the right time. Your choice was the right one. It's just that you underestimated the pettiness of the devils."
"I… you are a devil too you know?" he countered, finding no words.
"And that's where you are mistaken. I am 'The Devil'." I smirked as he rolled his eyes. Akira was a feisty guy and didn't hesitate to state his opinions which was quite refreshing.
"Did Merlin go over your health? Did the removal of the Evil Piece leave any sequelae on you?"
"No. I feel just fine. Mr. Merlin said that he didn't observe anything wrong with me either. The experiments had harmed me but it will recover in a month at best. The medicines that Lady Helena provided me with, were very good for healing all my injuries."
"Good to know. Recover well. I need the message in two days. You can think of it in your free time. Your sister will be safe and well where she is now."
"Thank you Boss… for… for everything."
"You are now a part of my family Akira. I take care of my people."
He hesitated a bit and then spoke up either way, "I… had heard a lot of things about the Lucifer House… so when I found out you were a Lucifer I was not expecting… this."
"You heard a lot about the Naberius too and look how that ended. Don't believe in everything you hear, Akira. As for the crazy Lucifer thing, it did have a certain truth to it. There are bad apples in every family. I won't say anything more than that."
He nodded and I took this chance to leave.
- Kuroka -
Kuroka picked up the fish snacks from the shop and walked through the streets of the market. This place was in the countryside where the old monkey had brought her to train. Sure the training had been pretty good and her skills had progressed by leaps and bounds in a single month. She had gained another tail and was now able to control the Nature Energy inside her own body as well as blending herself in with Nature.
Shadow Clones were such cheats. That's why her master was the best.
And unlike the old monkey, she didn't need to rip out her hair as well.
The old monkey had tried to imitate her skill but was completely unable to do so because this type of Chakra could only be taught due to her Master's power and not easily imitated by anyone. He had been put off for an entire month after that and had also increased Kuroka's training several fold because she could take it. What the hell was that supposed to mean? You shouldn't beat people just because they can take it? That's just plain stupid. Then again she had her doubts about the old timer's sanity anyways. Yu Long, the Dragon King often lazed around the place and he told her the same thing. Her new teacher, Sun Wukong walks a fine line between a genius and completely batshit crazy, often swinging on either side of it.
Still… she missed everything back home. She missed Shirone, she missed her Master, she even missed the little gremlin Vienna and their spars… *sigh* but this was also necessary. A Sage would be greatly beneficial for their Organisation and the entirety of Youkai kind.
She heard about the recent debacle of the kitsune and the devils and the new member who had joined them. She needed to learn everything she could from the old monkey so that she could teach them to everyone else. Shirone and now Akira.
While walking back to the mountain where she lived, she sensed a massive aura with her senjutsu. The old monkey told her to make it a habit to sense her surroundings at all times. It will help her integrate herself with Nature more. It was covered, not hidden but rather… unawakened. She knew this sort of feeling. This was a Sacred Gear, a massively powerful Sacred Gear on par with Vienna's, Cleria's or Gretel's… a Longinus.
She looked for the source and found herself looking at a black haired boy with tattered clothes, looking at the food stalls with hunger in his eyes.
Master always paid the people for their Sacred Gears. Maybe she can take him as a lackey for it.
He will get food and care and she will get the Longinus and a surprise for her Master and maybe another date. She already had one date reserved because she had to come to this place before they could go on that one.
Her smile widened as she went forward.
- Damien -
I looked at the scroll in front of me that was sent by Kuroka. She had encountered a Sacred Gear user while in her training and she said that this was a surprise and that she wanted another date for this one. Other than that she said nothing. I was with Merlin, Sean and Gretel to check the Sacred Gear she sent us.
Well it won't do us any good to just keep on guessing.
Sean went ahead and signed the contract. It was one of my contracts that all my direct subordinates carry to transfer Sacred Gears.
The reason why Sean was the one to sign it was because he was human and some Sacred Gears can be harmful to Devils or other races and Kuroka didn't know which one this was either, so we were taking some precautions for this.
"So how do I do this? Imagine the strongest thing I can and will for it to awaken, right?" he asked and Merlin nodded.
"Well here goes nothing." He closed his eyes facing towards the empty training ground and took a stance in the form of his usual spearmanship and thrust forward with a shout, "Gae Bolg."
It happened in an instant. I caught the attack in my future sight and flashed away with Gretel and Merlin while putting a barrier in front of us.
Sean on the other hand was thrown backward while a golden flash of light left a crevice in front of us, dividing the entire training ground into two.
….
A moment of silence prevailed as we all looked at the golden spear in Sean's hand and the mile long crevice interchangeably.
"Well that was….what's the word for it." Merlin looked lost, trying to figure out the words himself.
"Fuck." Sean cried out.
"Fuck indeed." Merlin replied without noticing.
I might or might not have nodded myself.
Gretel who would have normally punted Merlin into the ground for such language, didn't act because she was also just as much at a loss of words as us.
I bet everyone was thinking of the same thing right now… how in the nine hells did Kuroka snag the True Longinus of all things?
Sean turned and showed us the spear and I could see the astonished look on his face but something else soon caught my attention.
The Spear itself. It was as if it called out to me. There were no voices or any mental commands and yet I was drawn towards it. That was odd in itself because Gretel seemed to detest being in the Spear's presence and was clenching her hand nearby. I walked forward very slowly.
It wasn't a mental attack or if it was then my mental defenses didn't work at all.
"Boss." Sean asked but I didn't know what he was saying, I just didn't pay any attention to him.
I raised my hand and touched the spear.
And darkness took over me.
The last thing I heard was Gretel's worried shout, calling out my name.
- Interlude -
- Sun Wukong -
Sun Wukong watched as his apprentice and her….lackey(her own words, not his) sat down meditating to sense their surroundings.
It was quite a surprise when she came home that day with a new lackey and that too, the inheritor of Cao Cao.
He almost did a spit-take on Yu Long's face.
That said, the boy was quite easy to get along with. The main thing was that he treated Kuroka as a Goddess on earth.
Sun Wukong chuckled thinking about what he knew about his new apprentice, it might not even be much different from the truth.
He had noticed the difference between himself and Kuroka, the moment they met.
Kuroka was somehow made attuned to Nature Energy. While he didn't know how and the girl didn't say a word about it, this was done by the new Lucifer that he heard about.
Magari had opened up to him about the Lucifer child.
The only things that even she knew about him was that he or his people found both Shirone and Kuroka and brought them to Magari after their mother's death. Before that they stayed with some devils and were taken care of. Their Master seems to have no problems with people of other races unlike his predecessors and had even helped Nurarihyon and proposed to ally with him as well as saved a half Fallen Angel girl which was unthinkable to most of the Devil kind let alone the kin of their creator. It did show that he was unlike his family, not that Sun Wukong ever cared about that in the first place. This did give him hope.
The Devils have been running rampant and the recent news about the Kitsune child killing his king was spreading around like wildfire. They even had the audacity to claim that a Kitsune had gone mad from Nature Energy. The sheer foolishness of that statement was more funny than enraging.
It was clear that something else was afloat with how much they tried to spread their version of the story or even how they had tried to execute the twin sister of the child, who was still a full blooded Kitsune for being a danger.
Yasaka had been incensed about her kin being smuggled to the Underworld in the first place and now this incident was just just testing her patience even more.
Although the girl was saved due to the intervention of the Crimson Satan, the Youkai faction of West Japan had banned the devils from being allowed in their territory as well as ceased all their connections with them which led to several of the properties of the Devils in the area to be relocated or be sold out. Sirzechs had been very active in trying to solve this matter and it to some extent quelled the anger of the irate vixen allowing him to retain one hotel of the Gremory House in Kyoto because of his protecting the child but Sun Wukong knew why exactly the Crimson Satan was forced to move.
He was afraid.
He was afraid to provoke the new player who had suddenly appeared and could upset the entire balance of things at will….and seemed to be particularly chummy with the Youkai.
He sighed. In a way owed the boy whom he hadn't even met before for keeping matters from getting worse….and giving the Youkai all over the world, a new sage….or whatever Kuroka was.
As someone born from Nature itself, he realized that Kuroka's connection with Nature was not like his own. While he was favoured by Nature as its child, Kuroka….she was fawned over by the Nature Energy as if their Queen, or a God.
This meant that she could possibly achieve more than him in time if she continued training….and the Devil could reproduce such an effect.
A part of Sun Wukong hoped that whatever happened to Kuroka was just an accident because the very thought of someone being able to replicate such a feat chilled his very spine. While the other part was hoping that he did this to a few more young children so that the Youkai all over the world may have a strong backing to avoid being exploited by anyone.
He was at least sure that if he could repeat this feat, then Shirone would probably be the same as Kuroka very soon and if Nurarihyon could get a bite in, then maybe one of his subordinates too.
Either way he had to train the new generation of Sages.
Now if only his own stupid grandson was half this talented or even a quarter this enthusiastic in training.
Well, you can't have everything.
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