29 chapter 25

Castiel P.O.V.

Well, that happened.

After that fat 'priest/crazy bastard' retreated Miku got much more silent.

Normally she would keep berating me as if I personally offended her, but now she just keeps her distance.

It is almost as if she is more afraid of me than the people trying to kill her.

But at this moment her reaction to me is not that important. What is important is to think about what we should be doing.

I took advantage that she was at a meeting to first and foremost, summon my familiars, except Jirachi as he is too conspicuous.

"Eevee, Cosmoems come forth." And with this shout, the tree came out of a magic circle.

Eevee was jumping in my direction as soon as he discovered where I am, he always was the one the most affection among my familiars. He jumped into my arms and started licking my face as much as possible.

Imagine a small furball that jumps into your arms and starts to show how much it loves you with big doe eyes looking like he wants to be like this as long as possible and missed you. Yep, he is just criminally cute.

The two Cosmoems were much more quiet on the other hand, they just floated to my side and started rubbing on my back. They never had much in the way of how to show emotions, but as they are naturally psychic they can transfer happy emotions to me.

I always loved my familiars because of this sort of moments, it is not just because they are strong, which they are, but because of how they act. They are companions that are always there for me no matter what.

I decided to take things seriously now that I finished showing them how I feel. I turned to Eevee and said.

"Eevee can you turn into shadow mode and go into Miku's shadow? I need you to help protect her if I am to be separated with her for some reason." I said with a gentle but firm tone.

Eevee nodded affirmatively and the black jewel on his neck shinned. He turned sleeker and all his usual brown fur turned black and very short with golden rings on his thighs, forehead, ear tips, and tail. His tail and ears also got a different format, turning pointy like spikes. His eyes turned from his usual brown to blood red.

"Umbreon!" And then the dark mode of Eevee, also called Umbreon, jumped on Miku's shadows when she was not looking.

His abilities are centered in three skills he can use. One is his shadow stalk where he can dissolve himself in the shadow of others; another one is barrier where he makes a barrier around himself in a 2 meters' radius; and the final one is moon blast where he launches a concentrated beam of concentrated moonlight at someone, imagine a beam of light reaching a few thousand degrees that lack the holy element. Very useful against those who believe that light attacks are holly and decided to focus their protection against holy energy. Killed some magicians that were too full of themselves with this small trick.

I decided to not tell Miku of this because she could react negatively to my decision. She could say that I am not going to protect her myself or that I am trying to spy on her changing clothes or something (which I would never do, part because I am not Issei and part because if Sakura finds out I did something like that… not a happy future would await me).

Umbreon then went to a shadow beside the wall where the door was, this way as soon as she leaves the room he will transfer to her shadow.

"Cosmoems, do your thing." After I said that the two space orbs used one of its few abilities Minimize to, well, minimize. They both became the size of earrings and glued to my ears as such to look like jewelry.

It is not really my style to use jewels, but this way the enemies will not know that the two earrings I have are actually my familiars and that they have their own skills to help me out.

Miku finally ended the reunion and was ready to leave and go home. She canceled most of her schedule by my request. Surprisingly enough she did not fight much against it when I explained that having her moving like that would make protecting her difficult. Too many blind spots and opportunities for ambush.

After getting on the apartment I decided to go wait outside, as she had shown many times that she did not like my presence.

"Where do you think you are going?" She said coldly as soon as I opened the door to let her alone.

"You had shown yesterday that you did not want me near you when in this room after I complimented you, so I thought you preferred that I wait outside." I explained.

"I see, so that is how you intend to keep your promise." She had a small smile on her face when she said that. "'as long as you are on my side I will protect you with everything I have', so if you leave my side because I said so before you can leave me unprotected and if something happens it will not be your fault. You are just as bad in the end." She said with a smile on her face.

It is the same smile she has most of the time she is around her fans.

I do not like that smile. It may be just my instinct with females (I mean seriously any guy living with many girls that are scary as fuck would develop it), but they are screaming at me that this smile is not good.

If it is for me or for someone else I don't know, but I don't want to see it regardless.

"You want me to stay? Fine." I then went to the couch and sit there. Took out my homework (Sona sends me daily doses, her stance is 'no matter where a student is he must follow the protocol') and started making it. Not the most exciting thing to do, but necessary nonetheless.

As I started doing my homework Miku was reading a magazine about fashion. She looks pissed with something (probably me) and seems to want to talk. It is contradictory but so is being young and most girls anyway (it may sound sexist but it is a truth that most 17 years old girls are contradictory sometimes).

"What?" I asked after the fourth time she sneaked a peak in my direction.

"Nothing. I just want to ask something." She said.

"*sigh* If you want to ask me something then ask already." I said tiredly. Dealing with this sort of situations is really tiring, I mean she wants to talk but does not want to. Acts like she wants me to go away but wants me close at the same time. She says I am lying but seem to want to believe me at the same time.

What is wrong with this girl?

"Why are you doing this? Protecting me at the possible cost of your life, why do you do it?" She asked me with a serious face, but I can see on her eyes some insecurity.

"Because it is my mission" She seems to deflate a bit at that, her shoulders drooped but she showed that same smile from before. "And because I want to." I explained to her.

That gave her a shock if her eyes widening a bit was any indicator. But the shock quickly ended as that smile returned.

"So you just feel like it huh. It must be because I am pretty and you want to do 'things' to me later. Or you want something from me. Well, whatever it may be as long as you protect me is enough." She said in an even tone as if commenting on the weather.

A tick mark must be on my forehead now as this last comment is making me pissed off.

"Would you not act as if I am trying to take advantage of you. I said it before and will repeat it, I am protecting you because it is my mission and because I want to. Simple as that." I said with an irritated voice.

"Liar. There is no way that it is the truth. What do you want, divinity energy? Or maybe sell me later for experimentation? Maybe the payment to protect me is just that good, or maybe you want my bod-"

"Would you shut up." I said making her mute at that instant. "I do not care one fucking bit about what you believe or what you think, but I will tell you once again. I am doing this because this is my job AND because I want to. So shut your mouth and accept my help already, either that or go annoy someone else as I don't want to hear any more nonsense out of you." I said.

She had the same smile on her face while she doesn't move a single muscle for a whole minute. Then she simply lay down on her bed again and keeps reading her magazine.

"Liar." Was the last word she told me then.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After about half an hour I decided to inform in more details to the rest of the team about what happened with that fat priest and my decision.

"We need reinforcements." Was what I told them. Most look fine with that, I mean if it was just a few enemies it would be manageable but right now it is way too just too few of us here.

The only one that looks annoyed at my suggestion was Kanda, but he is always mad and annoyed so he doesn't count. The guy really needs some help to relax, if I had some I would give him some joint but I don't have any as it doesn't work on me (my left leg spirit bone ensured that).

Right now there are exorcists that turn into monsters; possibly a drug that, according to Okuyasu, raises the amount of holy power someone can launch at once; soulless soldiers that are not afraid of dying; possible more fallen angels under Kokabiel; and last, but not least, Serenity, Lugh and that Big guy that shoots thunder.

There are just too many variables right now so help is more than welcome. Not asking for help when you can and need is stupid, it is just useless pride and knowing when to stick to it and when to put practicality first is something I understand well.

I then made the call for reinforcements.

"Rin-sensei, we got a situation." I started like that when I called her.

"*sigh* What did you do this time? The mission was supposed to be simple enough so how did you screw this up? Please don't tell me you managed to destroy some landmark or accidentally released some beast on the middle of the streets." She said tiredly. She was used to me calling her just when the situation was quite dire.

"The Iscariot's are after Miku."

"WHAT?" She screamed on the phone. She knew them and knew that they were a serious problem.

"And they seem to have Kokabiel help."

"HOW CAN YOU GET YOURSELF IN THIS SORT OF SITUATIONS EVEN IN SIMPLE MISSIONS!?" She asked still screaming. "Is it the fault of your father genes? It must be an inherited characteristic, there is no other way for two people to be such boneheaded idiots that can screw up on the simplest of things despite being capable and having such shitty luck." She then took a deep breath and asked. "Was that all the problem you found?"

"*GULP* There are also three powerful enemies here, one being… Lugh."

For a moment Rin was quiet. Not a single sound the sound came back

"THAT LITTLE BITCH IS THERE?" She screamed even louder somehow. If I was not reinforcing my ears to make them more resistant I would be deaf by now. "I will send you an extermination squad so you do what must be done, but bring her back what she stole from me. Understood?" The malice on that last word was enough to make devils cower, I would know as she used the same tone with Lucifer once and he trembled a bit under that tone out of sheer instinct.

"Sir, yes sir!" I answered.

I would like to think that I was not shaking like a leaf but it would be a lie.

Now I just need to wait for the reinforcements to arrive.

Miku was beside me the whole time I was talking with Rin, and it was irritating that her first true smile that she showed the whole day was of amusement for my reactions. If anyone else was in my place you'd be shitting themselves to.

Hideout of the enemies

3° person P.O.V.

It has been a few hours since the fat man arrived to help with his entourage. It should have been a welcome reinforcement as he arrived with more than 30 modified exorcists and about 50 'special weapons', but when you consider his attitude…

"How can this great me be here in such a dirty place is beyond me. If Maxwell did not ask me to come, I would never even think about putting my precious feet in this dirty land and breath the same air as such lowly creatures such as yourselves." That last bit was looking at the ones he was sent to 'help'. It was visible that he was a self-entitled asshole. But afterward, his eyes changed from disgust to something else, not an improvement. "At least you guys seem to have interesting bodies. Wouldn't you be interested in being my next experiments? I promise one meal every three days and body modification treatments just once every few hours, it is VIP treatment. So who would like to accept this chance of helping me advance SCIENCE!?" His eyes were now filled with the purest madness that seemed to see everyone else as lab rats (Writer's note: imagine the mid-point between Mayuri from bleach and Nazis' scientist, he is that much of a crazy bastard).

Seeing his personality and way of acting three of the individuals there lost their interest. Bolic went back to munching a lollipop of strawberry flavor, Lugh went back to appreciating her collection of treasures and Serenity simply stayed in her corner, far from everyone else.

"While I have no doubt the results would be more than interesting" The one to answer him was the leader of the mission, his robes were in pristine fashion as always and he talked with such a gentle tone that anyone that did not know the man would think him to be a good person. "what matters now is not the advancement of science but the mission to be completed. You understand this don't you, Doctor Blank."

The now named Doctor Blank was obviously not pleased by this but he understood where it was coming from.

"Fine, but can I make a small request?" The 'good' doctor said.

"Ask away." Was the answer that came from the priest.

"Would it be possible to give me the corpse of that girl and the others after we kill them? They would make incredible materials." He said with almost drool dripping from his mouth, he was just excited by the mere thought of what he could do with those bodies. The new weapons he could create for the 'greater good'.

"That will depend on how things turn out, but I see no problem with this request. Although, wasn't it you that gave most of them a way out earlier today?" the priest said in mild amusement.

"That was just to measure their responses. If they accepted we would just block teleportation and plant some bombs in their transportation to get out, I believe 50 kilograms of C4 should make some damage and it would be easier this way as we would most likely kill some of them without any real expense. For us, C4 is cheap after all." The Doctor explained.

"But how would you know in what way they would be leaving town?" The priest asked. He was always interested in understanding the way his colleges thought and to see if he could help in any way. He was a 'good Christian' and 'helping the others' was part of that.

"Oh, that wouldn't be hard, we just need to put C4 in the plains leaving town and all trains and roads to make sure. They would be in some of them so it just might work." Was the answer that the 'good doctor' said, no different than someone reading a boring book out loud.

Everyone in the room shivered a bit hearing of this plan. The civilians would get involved and the damage would be absurdly high, but if the end result would be favorable in the end for the Iscariot Organization anyway. For them, the civilians would simply be going to meet God first, sent by their rightful envoys at that.

Such 'honor' is hard to come by. They would surely be grateful on the afterlife, or so the priests and exorcists believed.

The priest smile got even a bit wider hearing this, humming a happy tune at the prospect. 'Working with real 'men of God' was truly so much better', such was his thinking at hearing that plan.

"Good thinking. Exceptional even, you truly are a man with a mind blessed by our great God." He then looked at the others in the room and asked. "What did you bring to this mission exactly, dear Doctor?"

"Ahh, good that you asked. These here," he pointed to all the fifty men with empty eyes. "are fifty processed machines, they each have the magic energy of a high mid-class individual. While it is true that they can't really make complex magic or anything of the sort but using them as meat shields or heavy magic-artillery is completely possible, really well made and sturdy as I replaced some of their bones with carbon fiber." The doctor was clearly happy with these… 'beings' that once were human that he transformed.

"Magnificent. Truly great additions to this mission. And the humans beside you?" The priest asked, clearly treating those modified beings as un-human anymore as he knew that they were no more than empty shells at this point.

"These here are the work of my brother, Shu." When he mentioned his brother there was a mix of respect and hate in his tone. It was clear that their relationship must not be that harmonious, and if it was competitiveness or envy was anyone's guess. "They were modified to be capable of getting transformed into especial lifeforms, each with different characteristic. But the most special are these three right here" He pointed to three of them that had a skin yellow almost golden and seemed to be almost unable to think anymore. They still counted as humans because their souls were still normal, but the body was clearly a different story. "These three are a squad of their own, always must be kept together and could reduce almost any enemies to nothing in instants. They came just as a 'test drive' of sorts as we want to see these models in action." The fat doctor explained. His excitement about these modified exorcists was clearly much less than the modified humans from before due to the humans being his project and the exorcists being his brother's.

"Good, good, really good reinforcements. Now I need to ask, but and the fallen? Will those insults to our supreme God come as the allies they are supposed to be?" The priest asked. The Iscariots and Kokabiel may be on an alliance but there is no love there. Not even deep bonds just one using the other when it is convenient.

"No, they won't be coming." The doctor said like he was telling about the weather or some other unimportant thing. For him, the fallen are nothing when compared to his creations after all. "They said they will be busy due to some mission to do with the fragments."

"Humph, useless as expected. We really cannot trust those who betrayed God." The priest said, ignoring the people in the room that had their souls destroyed by his organization.

And then the two monsters in religious clothing kept talking about more of their plans. On the side Serenity was looking at all of this and had only one thing on her mind:

'Just one more mission, then I will go back to being myself. Castiel, as the only one that could survive me, I will make sure to destroy your body after the fight. It is best than ending in the hands of these monsters'.

If it was not for her mask and years learning how to hide her emotions she would have shown her disgust. For the aberrations that were these monster, for the priest, for the doctor and especially for herself for getting used to this.

At night

Castiel P.O.V.

We are bored. No other way about it, waiting for the enemy to attack is boring as all hells put together (and I do mean including the nobility party's that I sometimes have to attend, those are just awful).

At least something will happen now. I reunited everyone in the room so as to welcome our reinforcements. Seryu is hanging by my side locking arms with me (she said she just wanted to do it for no reason, but as Yuno could come as reinforcement I doubt Seryu reason was anything less than gloating), the Sister is eating some chips in a chair, Kanda simply is looking at a distance, Emily is eating ice cream (that she bought with my money when she beat me on a bet… I am probably the only person that Lancer could beat on a luck contest, huh), Okuyasu is looking nervously to see who will come (he is conflicted between wanting to see Asia and wanting her to be as far away from here as possible) and Miku, well, she is just staring at me from a distance.

She has been doing that a lot since her panic attack.

Suddenly a magic circle appeared on the floor, a teleportation circle connected and from it, some people came out.

The first is a girl of approximately 14 years old. She had shoulder-length blond hair and blue eyes, her attire consisting of a sorceress-like dress with a huge red hat (she used to use blue but she doesn't dare to use it anymore) with a black bow, yellow stars, and a matching cape.

"It has been too long, Castiel-sama, Emily-sama, Sister-sama. And nice to meet you all as well." The girl said turning her eyes to the other members in the room. "My name is LeFay Pendragon, the disciple of Rin-sama." LeFay said giving an almost 90 degrees bow to everyone in the room. She is what could only be called overly educated.

The next one to go through teleportation was a Nekoshou. She had an extremely well-developed body (even if slightly less than Miku) with long black hair split in bangs and hazel-gold eyes with cat-like pupils. She also had two cat ears, two black tails and a black kimono with a yellow obi that she manages to position in a way to show as much of her chest and legs without showing the critical areas.

"We came to help, Nyaa~. Hope we are not late." Kuroka said entering the room. She then looked at me and gave a smile. "Thank you for giving me the chance to do something to Shirone, Cas-kun Nyaa~. If I had not had a mate I would consider you just because of it, Nyaa~." She said that with a flirtatious wink to me. Seryu was growling at that (she may be spending too much time with Koro).

The final one was a man that I knew well enough.

"It has not been long, my friend." That were the first words of my old friend, Arthur Pendragon.

"Yeah, it is good to see you again too." I said with a smile, but then a question appeared on my mind. "But if you are here, who is taking care of Yuto's training?" I asked.

His answer was a smile and saying ho is now responsible for him and that everything is in order, no need to worry about that.

… I suddenly feel like praying for the poor bastard soul, if my guess is right he might need it.

At least now the team is complete, tomorrow will be the showdown between the two sides.

Now we just need to see what will happen next.

Omake

Kiba's personal hell

This must be what they imagined in the bible as hell.

"Try harder. Your movements are too wasteful, do it again."

"But Sensei, these weights on my arms are too much. I can barely move." I said to my teacher.

"Not my problem. I just want to see if I can groom you as a worthy foe, but as you are you are now you are far from enough. Again, do it till I feel tired." Was the answer of his new teacher. This teacher did not care about anything except his sword, reaching the apex (which for Kiba he must already be) and…

"Assassin darling, when are you coming back? The next raid will start soon and I need my gallant protector to help me." His girlfriend.

"I am coming Vert dear, just one more minute." Assassin then turned to me and said. "Keep doing this set of movements till I come back. It will probably take just one or two days. Remember, no slacking or the room will warn me. If you get in the way of my time with my dear I will show you how Tsubane Gaeshi can hurt even with a wooden sword." Assassin said with considerable killing intent.

He then turned back and went to play 4goddesses online. He was turned into a professional gamer due to the game thanks to the nagging of his girlfriend, Vert the youngest daughter of Odim. The one caring title of Gaming Goddess.

Apparently, he was the number one sword guardian in the whole game, specialized in guarding fixed spots. In his own words, 'I want to leave a mark and fight the best in all forms'.

And so Kiba stayed on the room, alone, repeating the same set of movements over and over again. He was using a Rock Lee, from Naruto, style weights to help his training on getting more strength. But, what he could not understand was why?

Why did he need to wear green spandex and use a bow cut wig to match?

Just WHY?