Helping Asia

Sitting in an undisturbed silence that would make even Ophis jealous. Zieg continued to stare across the basement room with his intimidating gaze.

Emiya for his part, just stood there unfazed with his arms crossed. The little nun to his side seemed to be breaking down in confusion due to being stared at so intensely for no apparent reason.

Raynare just stood behind Zieg, unsure of how her life came to this point.

After a few more moments of awkward silence, Zieg finally opened his mouth.

"You know Emiya. I didn't think Harem protagonist EX carried on after you became a Counter Guardian. What would your harem think about this?" Zieg deadpanned.

"Since when did I have a harem!?" Emiya immediately retorted.

"Saber, Rin, Sakura, Rider and Illya." He listed out in quick succession.

"Why is Illya in there?! She's my sister!"

"Don't you know Shirou? Illya route is the best route." Zieg stated while nodding as if it was the fact of the universe.

"Getting back on subject, this girl is-"

"I know who she is. Asia Argento. Discomunicated from the church after healing a devil. Said devil is actually Diadora Astaroth, dude who has ties with the Old Satan Faction. He gets nuns kicked out of the church, only to take them for himself because he has a kink of breaking down holy women." Zieg explained in a completely bored tone.

"Eh?" Asia actually understood all that, due to the bounded field automatically translating everything because Zieg hates language barriers.

"...You seem to know a lot. I'm guessing she's part of your plans at some point?" Emiya blinked at the incredibly detailed information.

"Actually to be honest, I completely forgot about her. You just reminded me of her existence." Zieg just forgot about her until now. Now that he knows of her existence, and realized that his actions caused her to go off track of her fate.

"Well for certain reasons of fate and karma, I will assist you miss Asia." Zieg stated his intentions. It's not like it would be difficult for him.

"Originally, she was supposed to meet up with Raynare here." Zieg pointed at the fallen behind him who was surprised to be called out. "She was going to get her sacred gear stolen, then the devils would swoop in with the current Red Dragon Emperor and save her."

"On that note, seriously what were you thinking? What was the plan after stealing a sacred gear that could only heal? How do you plan on healing yourself if the person is strong enough to just erase you with just a flex of their power?" He asked the girl, because he honestly didn't understand why she was originally so obsessed with twilight healing.

"Um, well..." Raynare tried to think of a logical answer to that question but failed. "I don't know?" She responded unsure as her original plans were a bit shallow now that she thought of it.

"Well whatever. Asia Argento." He called out to the girl.

"Ah, yes?"

"Currently you are being stalked and watched by Diadora Astaroth. Your current choices are, join the devils that rule Kuoh, they have enough sway to protect you but you will most likely be incarnated as a devil. Or I could just open a portal to some other country so you can escape his sights for awhile." he offered the choices.

Asia went silent for a moment, mulling over her options. They weren't that great. Becoming a devil as a believer of god is a tough decision. And running away again would only be a temporary solution. She wasn't dumb enough to not understand the gravity of her situation.

"Couldn't we just quietly eliminate the devil?" Emiya offered. He had experience with quietly dispatching targets.

"Even if we managed to quietly take him out. There's still the possibility of it leaking out. It's a dangerous game, and we would have the entire Devil faction against us if the truth came out." Zieg would rather avoid making enemies until he could at least talk to Kokabiel to continue his plans.

"If he's being so secretive about this, it must mean that it wouldn't be good for him if this slips out as well." Emiya's word made Zieg think about it for a moment.

"That's true. The relationship between the Old, New and King faction of the devils are on thin ice. It wouldn't be good for the New Satan faction if the church learned of Diadora's little hobby." Zieg hummed in thought.

Emiya nodded. "Right, so if we played our cards right. Would it really be that difficult to shield her?"

"Hm, Raynare. Were you in contact with Diadora Astaroth before this?"

"No, I only received information about a user of Twilight Healing heading here." She shook her head. She wasn't high enough in hierarchy to be privy to specifics.

"Wow, so everyone really was using your group as scapegoats. Honestly I'm sort of pitying you now." Zieg blinked at that and honestly felt bad for this two-bit villain. Basically all the blame would go to Raynare's group if everything happened the way it was supposed to happen.

Raynare began to look depressed and indignant, now that the situation was made more clear to her. But there wasn't much she could have done to begin with.

"Well Shirou, I guess you really want us to save her right?" Zieg smiled at the man who's expression seemed to twitch at the accusation.

"If it's too much hassle, then I can understand abandoning her if we must." Was his only response.

"Now don't be like that." Zieg smiled at the man before turning back to the nun. "Asia Argento. Do you know the reason why Kokabiel fell?"

"Um, no? The church was never specific on the reason for an angel's fall." She replied sincerely.

"Kokabiel, Angel of the Stars. Fell due to how much he loved humans." Zieg stated as if it were fact. And perhaps it was, because this was the version of Kokabiel that he sought for when going through the parallel timelines.

"Since he wishes to stand for and with humanity, then it is only natural that I save my fellow human." Zieg gave a calculating smile at the girl.

∞

"Okay, why is there a freakin sun inside my inner world?" I asked out loud.

After some meditation, I was able to delve into my inner world where all my summons were located. Oddly enough, every house, appliance, building and weapon that I've traced are here too.

It was an odd sight, seeing ethereal headless soldiers and other spirits from the Lands Between. Going about their business, having tea and just generally relaxing in the structures that I've traced.

But back on topic. For some reason, there's a day and night cycle here now. Which makes no sense. There was only supposed to be a giant chill moon over the horizon while the sky was littered with countless stars. But now I'm clearly staring at a freakin giant orange ball of fire in the sky. Where did it come from!?

I looked over the horizon the see the Chill Moon slowly beginning to come back into view. I guess it's getting close to night-time in here.

Turning back to the setting sun I stared at the blazing inferno for so long that it started to hurt. Which made no sense, because these weren't even my physical eyes, technically.

"Wait a minute... is that what I think it is?" I squinted and looked really closely at the offending ball of fire. "Is that Cthugha!?" I exclaimed in honest to god horror.

Oh my non-existent god, how and why is Cthugha in here!? Why is there a Great Old One in here and how did it get inside!?

I'm genuinely beginning to freak out.

I thought I was done with freakin eldritch entities after leaving the Nasuverse, but apparently it decided to follow me somehow!

"WHY ARE YOU HERE!?" I shouted at the blazing inferno in the sky.

Apparently it took exception to my shouting and decided to incinerate my spiritual body from my own inner world.

I found myself snapped out of my meditation and feeling slightly singed.

"Is something burning?" Raynare seemed to notice the burning smell.

"Only my soul!" I cried out indignantly. To which she wisely decided to back away in my moment of madness.

∞

"I have returned!" Slane's triumphant voice echoed throughout the basement. He had been gone for the entire weekend, which was 3 days counting Friday.

"Welcome back. You... look like you had fun." Emiya commented at the bipedal lizard man's appearance.

Currently Slane was sporting a pair of glasses that fit neatly on his snout. He had a flowing red cape and a crown with the words 'Kyoto Fest King'. His arms were filled with plastic bags, stuffed with random merchandise and his smile was easy to notice despite having a lizard face.

"Indeed! For I have returned as a King!" Slane pounded his chest with pride. "I see we have a new arrival here. Greetings young lady, I am Slane the Dragon Knight! and now Kyoto Fest King!" He introduced himself to Asia who was just staring at the clearly non-human lizard man.

"Oh, Nice to meet you. I'm Asia Argento." She bowed to him politely.

"What a lovely young girl. Much better than that Witch Radeka!" He declared before moving to dump all his merchandise on the table.

"Dear gods, where did you get the money for all this?" Zieg looked at the pile of stuff oddly. He didn't remember giving Slane any money. He was pretty sure Emiya took all his money earlier.

"During the Fest, I made allies and rallied with them so we could be victorious against the competition! They also didn't mind providing me with funds, naturally I didn't hold any reservations for friendship is worth more than any currency!" He spoke dramatically.

"So basically you just made friends and mooched off them." Raynare stated as that was what she understood from his manner of speech.

"Yes, I suppose you could call it that..." At least Slane had the decency to be a little embarrassed about it.

"Well pack it up for now, at least until we get a new residence from Azazel. He still hasn't contacted me about it yet." Zieg sighed as he was honestly hoping Azazel would be more quicker about it.

"By the way, I don't think it's healthy to have the girl stay cooped up in this place for so long." Emiya stated as they had literally made Asia stay in the basement for the past 3 days.

"Well what can we do? Even if I can manipulate one of the devils that rule the area to do what I want. I don't even have any method to get into contact with them. It'd be really awkward to just walk right up there and just start making requests, you know?" Zieg didn't like the idea of just walking into the school and start negotiating. It just seemed so... unprofessional.

"Be that as it may, we still need to deal with this."

"Look, if you can get me Rias Gremory's contact information. Then I'll handle the rest." Zieg rolled his eyes.

"I have her phone number." Slane stated to which everyone in the room literally turned their heads to the bipedal lizard.

"What?" Zieg bluntly asked with a deadpan expression, unsure of what he just said.

"Rias Gremory, I have her phone number here." Slane stated again, taking out a cell phone that he had apparently acquired from his trip.

"How?" Emiya looked at Slane as if he was some sort of alien.

"Well we are Fest comrades of course!" Slane turned the phone around, revealing a screenshot background of the entire Occult Research Club posing with Slane at the Kyoto anime and manga Fest.

"...Slane, sometimes your charisma astounds me." Zieg stated as he was honestly baffled that their lizard friend had made contact with the devils already.

"Well, can you call her to set up a meeting?" Emiya asked the lizard man.

"Very well, it would be nice to meet them again!" Slane began to make a phone call while Emiya turned his eyes back to Zieg.

"Yeah, yeah. I know what I said. I'll handle it." Zieg rolled his eyes and decided to let Asia attend school.