38

"What part of that teleportation was long?" Suzaku asked curiously.

Onari hummed, pretending to stroke an imaginary sagely beard, "The hours of the little gnomes that work the ticket system."

"Pure nonsense," Yu Wu interjected, shaking her head. "That was bad and you should feel bad."

The trio walked into the high-rise building that they had appeared behind. The lobby they entered was sparsely populated. A buff man stood near the elevator, and a woman sat behind the front desk. The woman was pretty in a way that didn't draw attention to her looks. Both of the people were instantly identified as Fallen Angels by Onari, Yu Wu, and Suzaku, even if they were hiding their wings for obvious reasons.

"Hello, how can I help yo-... Ah, Miss Himejima," the woman at the desk greeted politely. "It's lovely to see you visit again so soon. Shall I inform the usual people that you've arrived?"

Suzaku returned the greeting with a polite smile of her own, "Hello again, Christine. Actually, if you wouldn't mind seeing if you can contact Azazel, that would be very helpful. Tell him that a representative of the Youkai faction is here for their yearly 'check up'."

"Yo," Onari waved casually. "Tell the old man that Onari's here to educate him on memes."

The woman, Christine, smirked at his playful disrespect of Azazel. Onari took it as a good sign that the first person someone would talk to wasn't one of Azazel's bootlickers. Christine then phoned… someone. Onari wasn't sure if she was talking to Azazel directly or if she was talking to someone acting as his handler for today.

The distinction turned out not to matter. In a matter of minutes, the trio was invited into the elevator and taken upwards through the building. Onari and Yu Wu both felt as the elevator hit a barrier and transitioned from reality to a pocket dimension, but having been here once before, they ignored it.

The elevator doors eventually opened and they were led down a long hallway. The hallway was longer than the building was wide, but once again, everyone ignored the strange feeling of spatial distortion. The door they ended up at was just one of many. It swung open, revealing four people.

In contrast, Suzaku's greeting was much less enthusiastic than her earlier reaction to Onari, "Hello, cousin…"

The only woman in the room squealed and rushed to hug Suzaku, "Suza-chan! It's so good to see you!"

The woman looked to be about 20 years of age. She had long golden hair and sapphire blue eyes. Her figure was slim and curvy in all the right places. She even managed to outshine Suzaku in the breast department. Watching the two titanic pairs of breasts smash against each other put both Onari and Yu Wu into a trance.

"Lavinia, please let her go. She needs to be able to breathe," said a silver-haired young man who looked to be about Onari and Yu Wu's age.

The one Suzaku had initially addressed just stood awkwardly off to the side. He had medium-length black hair and pale eyes. Onari could see the familial resemblance to Suzaku in his face.

At first glance, Onari couldn't say he was impressed. The silver-haired boy at least had an aura of pride and strength that he carried with him. This guy just seemed kind of… meh. Like he was supposed to be special but always fell short of excellence because of his own decisions.

The last person in the room was someone that Onari and Yu Wu were already familiar with. They had only met him once, but it was impossible to forget the Fallen Angel Azazel after you had met him. His aura just never failed to make an impression. He carried this feeling of ancient power that had mellowed out over the years, but was still just as dangerous as the day his creator had breathed life into him.

Azazel grinned when he saw Yu Wu and Onari, "Well, well, if it isn't my favorite youngsters!... How did you say it again? Ahem. What's popping, my based buddies?"

"... That was foul. Your mutilation of slang literally made me sick to my stomach…" Yu Wu cringed. Onari immediately nodded his agreement.

"Bah! Whatever, you know I'm cool. I'm hip. I'm down with the youths."

"If you're 'down with the youths', then I'm socially well-adjusted…" the silver-haired boy said.

Azazel gasped faux-dramatically, "Et tu, Vali?"

Vali ignored his foster father in favor of introducing himself to Yu Wu and Onari, "You two are strong… My name is Vali Lucifer. Fight me…"

Onari and Yu Wu exchanged glances, "Like… both of us?"

"I do not care," Vali said, shaking his head. "You. What is your name?"

"Onari. Nice to meet you, Vali…" Onari said, extending his hand to Vali.

Vali looked down at the extended hand and took it before nodding, "Likewise… Now we fight…"

Onari shrugged, "Sure, we can fight. Let me just meet the rest of your group first. I'm sure Azazel has somewhere for us to duke it out."

Seemingly satisfied with Onari's acceptance, Vali stepped aside, allowing Onari and Yu Wu to introduce themselves to the other young man in the room.

"Hey. I'm Onari and this is Yu Wu. We're representatives of the Youkai faction. Nice to meet ya."

"I'm Tobio Ikuse. It is nice to meet you as well, Onari-san. Yu Wu-san. I'm surprised you managed to handle Vali so easily…"

"He's not the first battle maniac I've interacted with, and he certainly won't be the last… Hell, Yu Wu can get worse than that when she's in the mood," Onari said, playfully poking Yu Wu in the ribs with his elbow.

Yu Wu turned up her nose haughtily, "This young mistress has no idea what you are referring to. Perhaps you are mistaking this young mistress' habits for your own."

"Anyway," Onari rolled his eyes. "Suzaku called you 'cousin' earlier. Are you a member of the Himejima Clan? Why are you with the Grigori?"

Tobio awkwardly chuckled and scratched the back of his head, "That's kind of a long story. I was exiled from the clan at birth because of my Sacred Gear: Canis Lykaon. It was sealed for a while by my grandmother, but it activated again a couple of years ago. There was a whole incident following that, but I won't go into that…

"Still, the Grigori ended up helping me, and I transferred to the Nephilim Institute to learn to control my Sacred Gear. Since then, I've just been working for the Grigori…"

"Hmm," Onari hummed, nodding along to Tobio's story. "How do you like it here?"

"It's a living. I'm thankful for Azazel and Barakiel for helping me with my Sacred Gear. Really though, what I want from my life is for the supernatural world to leave me alone so I can open a bar and restaurant."

Onari and Yu Wu scoffed at the same time, "That's never gonna happen. You have a Longinus. You literally have a god-slaying weapon in your soul. My advice is to just accept that and grow stronger because of it…"

For some reason, Tobio's awkward laughter and the ignorant 'Harem-protagonist' smile on his face invoked a feeling of scorn within Onari. This man was willingly choosing the path of 'ignorance is bliss'. The utter lack of self-awareness just rubbed Onari the wrong way.

"If you say so, Onari-san," Tobio said.

Luckily, Onari was saved from showing his disdain by Suzaku and the previously named Lavinia. Suzaku had managed to pry her blonde friend off of her slightly. With her sliver of freedom, she managed to direct Lavinia over to meet Onari and Yu Wu.

"Lavinia? I'd like you to meet my first friends, Onari and Yu Wu," Suzaku introduced the two.

"Hello!" the bubbly Lavinia exclaimed, waving at the two Dao Companions. "Thank you for taking care of Suza-chan! I'm Lavinia Reni!"

Yu Wu puffed herself up in the way she usually did when she was about to unleash her greatness upon the world, "Hohoho! This young mistress greets you, Lavinia! Your beauty is extraordinary, only surpassed by this young mistress herself! You must join this young mistress to watch the boys fight!"

Lavinia giggled at Yu Wu's speech for a bit before tilting her head cutely, "Va-kun is fighting again? Against who?"

"Why, he has challenged this one's darling to a friendly duel, of course! Come, come, I believe they shall be starting any moment now."