Meeting the Devil Lord.

------------(Ichigo's-POV)------------

We were led to a surprisingly simple looking office with only a large desk and a few sofas for guests. The man sitting behind the desk was very similar to Rias. With the exact same crimson hair and bluish green eyes and a slightly feminine face. He looked quite calm, friendly and approachable. But from what I heard, this man was the most vicious and ferocious during the devil's civil war. Someone who was completely against his predecessors way of life and their view of other races. A young activist turned rebel turned revolutionary leader. He took his job quite seriously and cut down the more violent response to his views.

It didn't matter if the one rejecting was a close friend the day before. He killed them. He killed the more corrupted devils in order to give his race a chance. A chance to survive. The way they were before, they would have died. They would have made common enemies of nearly the entire supernatural world and yet thought themselves invincible. When the remaining relatives of the old demon lords wanted another war, with the entire world, he and those who shared his views stood up against it. They were rejected and they retaliated harshly.

This man and his closest friends managed to gather a large following, made war with the old faction and won after a lot of casualties. He became the Lucifer due to his immense power and ruthlessness. Power said to be greater than the original Lucifer. Something I really wanted to find out if it was true or not. But that could come later. Basically the man sitting in front of me was amazing. He saw the wrongs his race was doing and took a stand against it. While it was done forcefully, he managed to make something better out of the devils. Someone I could respect. He stood up as we came inside.

"Welcome to my little manor. I apologize for not greeting you as you came in, but as you can see, I have quite a bit of work to do." He said with an easygoing smile and waving at the desk filled with paperwork. I had seen how handling a small city state like Kyoto was hard work and this guy was handling a lot more than that. I didn't even know what exactly he did so I just asked while looking at the mountain of paperwork.

"What do you even do?" He gave a small chuckle before motioning us to sit on one of the sofas.

"As you know, including me, we are four 'Demon Lords'. Due to having the most individual strength, I was given the honour of handling domestic affairs." He said all the with a smile, but his voice told me how much of a pain in the ass it probably was.

"That doesn't sound all that fun to be honest." I said while Rose started pinching my side, probably telling me to shut up.

"Oh it is quite a pain in the ass. You must know that devils are quite proud and arrogant creatures, even in things and places where it is absolutely unnecessary. It creates a lot of work for me." He had said all of that with a cheerful tone and smile.

"Thankfully, I'm not incharge of our public relationships. That is an utter nightmare." He continued with a slightly haunted look.

"Lucifer-sama." Grayfia coughed from behind him.

"Ah, have you met my wife, Grayfia? For some nonsensical reason she always introduces herself as my maid first and my wife never." He introduced his wife happily. I was looking at this cheerful looking, absent-minded feeling man and was having difficulty connecting him with the stories of the man I've heard. He was so different from the rumours.

"Ah, yes. She introduced herself as the head maid." Thankfully, Rose was also there to pick up my slack.

"See! I have told her so many times-" He was getting started on a rant when his wife interrupted him.

"Lucifer-sama. They are here for a reason." He stopped with an exasperated sigh and said.

"Yes. You came here to know why you were invited were you not?" He said looking at me. Seeing the dynamics between the two, this was not the first time this had happened, nor do I think it will be the last time. I don't know if I should be offended or applaud them for practically ignoring us. I decided to not care.

"Yes. I was a bit curious about why you invited someone who's practically a stranger to something unofficial and what I think is mostly private." I told him with a frown.

"Apologies Kurosaki-sama. It was not our intention to ignore your question." Grayfia said with a bow, but before she could go any further, I interrupted her.

"No need for apologies, just get to the point. Why was I invited?" I said with my frown getting deeper. He kept on smiling.

"Did you not already help my sister and her peerage with their training? Can you not be considered an acquaintance of theirs?"

"That was more of a personal curiosity towards the Red Dragon Emperor than anything else. Which, by the way, turned out to be highly disappointing." I frowned thinking about that idiotic boy.

While he acted and behaved like a pervert, he never once took advantage of the girls around him, which was good. But the idiot also didn't know what kind of world he was getting into. The kind of people that lived in this world and the things they would do to reach their goals. He lived in his own world of boobs, which I couldn't beat out of him, no matter how hard I hit him. I even started to wonder if the frustration I felt with him was similar to what old man Zangetsu and the others felt when they tried to beat the stubbornness out of me.

"Hahaha. I can guess what you are thinking about. That boy is indeed a bit of a disappointment, but I believe he has a good heart." Lucifer said smilingly.

"I'm sure he has, but you still haven't answered my question." I said to him. He sighed before he started talking again.

"Ichigo, can I call you Ichigo?" He asked. I shrugged.

"Ichigo, what do you know about the devils current status."

"Pretty bad. Number, strength and trust wise." I answered honestly. These are the things I was told and somewhat observed myself. Not many factions were willing to trust the devils. They were still thought of as the cunning, lying, deceiving sort. With their own numbers so low and not many willing to trust them, they were slowly getting cornered. They also had old enemies still out for blood, but that was a common theme in this world. All of that aside, the devils themselves couldn't, or rather wouldn't, unite under one rule. They were further divided into their own little factions as well, that vastly differed in their opinions.

"Right, it's quite bad." His smiled wryly as he said that.

"We are basically cornered with a lot of enemies and little to no friends. We have been trying to make more connections and some of them have been successful, but we, ourselves as a faction, are heavily divided. Now, how does that tie into you? Well, we, that is, me, Azazel and Michael, we want to properly ally ourselves into one faction." He said that quite seriously and with conviction, but.

"Again, how does that involve me?"

"We want you to act as a mediator between us, a neutral party since we were planning to hold the meeting in Japan, one of the only nation willing to ally with us, though we had to give away a lot of things." That last part was said under his breath. I'll have to ask Yasaka about what he was saying. That aside, Japan was not exactly 'my' place, though many seem to think that way, most likely due to the strength based mindset of this world, but before that.

"Why me? What do you guys even want me to do?" I asked with confusion. I knew I was powerful but... that's about it. The only thing I currently had in abundance was power. I only had a handful of friends and acquaintances with only one proper connection that I could bring with me. Why did they want me, someone they barely knew, to meddle with their affairs. I knew strength was important in this world, but was it really this important? Sirzechs sighed before saying.

"Ichigo, Azazel told us about you. Especially the amount of power you have under your control. He didn't hesitate to compare you to the likes of the dragon gods in terms of raw power. That amount is power and what have you done with it? Practically nothing." I made to protest but he cut me off with a shake of his head.

"Helping a few thousand people doesn't count Ichigo, simply because how many hundreds of millions more there are in similar situations."

"That still doesn't explain why you want me to be near such a sensitive issue." I argued.

"I have talked to Azazel myself and had my people talk to Thor as well as the thousands of people that you have helped and I have heard only compliments. Even Odin agreed that you had no reason to listen to his ludicrous 'request', but you did." He briefly looked at Rose before he started to tap his fingers on the table as he kept talking.

"The ability to listen to others and give them a chance when you have no reason to, when you have absolute advantage over them, in every aspect, is a very rare thing Ichigo. It's one of the things, I believe, that strongly separates us from our predecessors." Here he gave a rueful chuckle at my slightly flabbergasted expression.

"To you who most likely grew up as a human, it may sound extremely strange, but to us, it has been our way of life since our birth. The strong have been able do anything they want with little to no repercussions. It was one of the main reasons why I stood up against the old satans. You, someone with so much power, chose not to abuse them and that alone is praiseworthy in my opinion." He said, looking like he was lost in his thoughts. I shook my head and said.

"That's a bit too much praise Sirzechs. You are making me out to be some sort of saint, when I'm clearly not." Before he could say anything, Rose spoke up.

"Um, Ichigo. Relative to many others that are and have been in your position, you are basically a saint." She said with a smile. The other two occupants also cracked a smile.

"Ugh, not helping Rose." The room descended into silence for a while as I digested what I was just told. I sighed before opening my mouth.

"So what? You just want me to act as a witness so none of you go back on your words?" I said with a scowl.

"I'm pretty sure none of us leaders will go back on our words, though there are some subordinates, but that is a personal problem and we will try to solve it ourselves. Basically, we want you to act as the representative of the Japanese supernatural as they are already an ally. Because we will be conducting this meeting on their grounds, they are entitled to their own representative in it." He said with a smile.

"Not exactly a decision I can come by myself." I said slowly.

"Of course. The actual first meeting is still months away. I just wanted to let you know sooner. Azazel could have informed you, but I wanted to meet you personally." He said with beatific smile.

"I still don't know whether I should trust you or not, but like a few others, I will give you a chance." I got up and offered him a handshake.

"Let's start this over shall we?"

"My name is Ichigo Kurosaki and I'm a Shinigami." I introduced myself. His smile widened as he introduced himself.

"Well met Ichigo. I am Sirzechs Lucifer, the demon lord incharge of domestic affairs." He said happily.

"Now that that's over with, where is this game taking place." I said after a few seconds of silence.

"Of course. Grayfia will lead you to the place. Grayfia, if you would." He nodded towards his wife.

"Please follow me."

------------(Break)------------

After leading us to a large coliseum like arena that was completely empty, Grayfia went back and soon came back with a few more people. They were obviously the Gremorys and the Phenex. After greeting each other, they sat away from us and started talking amongst themselves. Soon Sirzechs also showed up with a green haired fellow. I didn't really know who that was but apparently all the others did, including Rose. Both the Gremorys and the Phenex stood up and greeted the two of them. Satan Lucifer and Satan Beelzebub, two of the strongest devils in the underworld.

Now that Sirzechs was acting as the Satan rather than the host, I could feel power tightly bound inside of him. His control was freaking crazy. When he was playing the nice host, I barely felt anything from him, but now, it seems like he was actively broadcasting how much power he had under his control. It was huge of course but the main thing was that it was dense. Now I was even more tempted to ask him for a fight, but just like how this urge came naturally, the ability to control it came with it. Though Zangetsu was somewhat miffed.

Not even a few minutes later, the participants showed up. On one side was Rias and her little group and on the other side was Riser Phenex and his all female peerage. It was my first time seeing him and I already disliked him. He sauntered out like a proud peacock, his head held high, his hands roaming the bodies of the girls around him.

Did these devils really give the evil pieces to every high class devil? These were life altering items, they should be treated as such. But it seemed they were treated as just another privilege, something they took for granted. That didn't really sit well with me, but I don't think I would be able to do anything about it, so I set it aside for now.

Right now, the game was starting and the arena was covered by a barrier as it started to change. The empty arena transformed into a large expensive looking school complete with different courtyards, an obstacle course, a swimming pool and multiple buildings. Both teams started at different edges of the arena and got busy. Rias quickly divided her peerage into teams of two. Kiba and Issei, Koneko and Akeno, while she remained with Asia. The other party also divided into smaller teams but the king remained alone and sitting in a throne one of his peerage member had conjured.

Rias and her peerage did quite well. They were six against sixteen. Kiba and Issei managed to take down anyone that came for them, that included six pawns and two knights before Kiba took a blow meant for Issei and Issei finished two more pawns after that. Koneko and Akeno managed to take down the two rooks and one bishop that came after them before being bombarded my explosions from above. Akeno lost immediately but Koneko managed to survive and that was the scene Issei stumbled upon. Seeing a battered Koneko angered Issei enough to somehow take down the enemy queen before limping towards where Rias was.

I won't talk like I know what the hell they were supposed to do or what they did wrong because my modus operandi has always been just charging straight in and overwhelming the enemy with extreme fire power. That's how I have always done things. When those didn't work, I finally had to learn a few tricks, train proper techniques, understand new methods, but in the end, I usually just charged in, trying my best to win with fire power. I don't know shit about strategies and whatnot so I won't even pretend that I do. Whatever Rias is doing, she probably knows it better than me. So, I just kept watching in silence.

While there are a few things that were supposed to be common sense in a battlefield, most important being, not losing your focus, which all of them did. But it was something that I personally learned through trial and error, even after warnings, so I wasn't one to talk. In my opinion, they did well, considering their circumstances, even Issei, with that ridiculously stupid spell of his. I think he called it dress break? I knew I was somewhat stupid when it came to the E.Q department but still, this guy was on another level of stupid.

Anyways, the three of them made their way to the final opponents, the Phenex siblings. The younger Phenex retired willingly while the older started to taunt Rias and Issei, easily managing to anger Issei and making him blindly charge. I had to hold my head and groan at that. Is this what it looked like to others when I did the same thing? It was fucking embarrassing! Having the outsider perspective really changes your views. My embarrassment at my behaviour aside, Issei was subdued and riser proceeded to beat the poor idiot. The look on Riser's face was very annoying. He looked like he was enjoying the whole thing immensely. Just when Rias was about to surrender, Issei stood up and punched Riser.

He transferred the boost he had gathered to Rias before being retired. Rias told Asia to retire as well before she started to slowly blast away pieces of Riser as he kept regenerating. She looked pretty pissed and surrounded by her power of destruction, she finally looked a little like her nickname, the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess. How did I know that nickname? It was announced. This world as a whole seemed to like titles a lot.

The back and forth went on for a while before Riser also started to attack Rias. None of the attacks reached her because she destroyed them, but she was visibly getting tired as it went on. Riser on the other hand, still looked quite peachy, even as a hole was punched through his face and his arm completely destroyed. I wondered how that regeneration even worked? How were you supposed to fight against it? As I hummed aloud, Rose answered my questions.

"It's said that as long as they have magic power left, the Phenex can keep regenerating. The best method of fighting against it is of course, Light and Holy magic or weapons. But I personally think that lightning magic or water and even ice magic would be effective as well. Water magic would be best probably. You could simply drown him if his fire isn't hot enough to flash boil the water. Or you could...." She descended into her own little world of theories and experiments. She was probably thinking aloud rather than answering my questions, I thought with a twitch on my lips.

I looked back at the fight as Rias slowly started to sweat and breathe heavily. Riser also looked quite annoyed with a scowl on his face. They seemed to be at a stalemate but looking closer, Riser still had energy left while Rias was running on fumes. It wouldn't take much longer for the fight to end and sure enough, Rias fell in exhaustion not even five minutes later. Riser had a pensive look on his face, most likely not having expected so much resistance from amateurs. The fight ended with Rias' loss. It was a good effort nonetheless. There were smiles and handshakes shared between the two families as they made their way towards their children.

I sat there for a while before Grayfia showed up once again, this time with an invitation to the wedding. I shrugged my shoulders and accepted it. Sirzechs seemed like a good person for the little while I talked to him and I also wanted to meet the other demon lords. For now, we went back to the human world, where I had to talk to Rose about what she wanted and to Yasaka about what she thought of all of this. It didn't really feel like I would be having a good time for the next few days.