Chapter Seven - One Eyed King

"What are you fighting for Melissa?" A jovial voice echoed throughout the darkness of the misty streets in the night.

Melissa Wargrave knew this voice. The voice of the rebel leader Mary Sue, she was one of the few people that Melissa simply could not catch no matter how hard she tried.

"The people." Melissa responded coldly, her eyes moving slowly around in an attempt to scan for her enemies whereabouts.

"I see. It's no wonder you're so popular~" Melissa taking a few steps forward through the mist only found it getting thicker and thicker the further she went.

"I wonder though, do you really love the people?" Mary questions in a childish tone.

"Love is a very strong word." Melissa stopped in her tracks, at this point the mist was so thick she couldn't even tell where the edges of the street were. "I can safely say I've never loved anyone nor anything in my life."

"Is that why you work alone?" Mary shot out another question taking Melissa's answer completely in stride. She always did this, always picked at Melissa's brain as if she were trying to find a weak point. Unfortunately for her Melissa was anything but weak.

"Not exactly. People are difficult to deal-"

"You always seem to find a way to say that, don't you Melissa? Is it some kind of catchphrase?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You say it so often but you don't notice? 'People are difficult to deal with' seems to be your answer for everything involving others. Not everyone is difficult to deal with~"

"Well you definitely are..." Melissa tightened her grip on her pistol waiting for Mary's response.

"Hehe ahh shucks-" The moment Mary spoke again Melissa aimed her gun to the left of herself and fired twice producing a deafening noise and the sound of bullet shells hitting the floor.

Silence followed for a few long moments but Melissa wasn't a person of hope, no even if the people considered her to be a symbol of hope she herself had none. This is to say that she wasn't under the illusion that Mary had been killed or incapacitated. That is why when the rebel leader spoke again she wasn't surprised at all.

"Maybe you're the one who's the problem, have you ever thought of that Melissa?"

(Me?)

"Impossible."

"See it's the fact that you use words like 'impossible' that's holding you back you know?" Mary's voice sounded genuinely sad for Melissa, however the cool headed enforcer couldn't understand why this was at all. Why did Mary always stay behind to talk to her? Why did she always ask her such prying questions? Why was she always so persistent against things that were impossible?

Melissa couldn't understand why.

However what she did know was that this was exactly why she disliked people. People are so very difficult to understand...

–

"Cheep! Cheep! Cheep~" Epis yelled at Cebrail, stirring her awake from her dream.

After being reborn she hadn't gotten all of her memories of her previous life, Solomon had told her that it would overload her soul if she got everything at once so she slowly reacquired them in her dreams. It of course wasn't every time she slept or else she would have already regained everything, she didn't know what triggered it yet though.

"Ughh... can't I just sleep a bit more Epis?" Cebrail groaned but the green hedgehog slammed its forehead into the bottom of her chin waking her up completely.

"Haa~ as a wise man once said, 'ain't no rest for the wicked' I guess..." Cebrail threw her legs over the side of the park bench she had been laying on and sat up straight while rubbing the rest of the sleep out of her eyes.

Why was the famed "Seraphim Princess" sleeping on a park bench in the Human World?

"Forty-Five times in forty-five days, that girl has challenged me to a fight every single day for over a month..." The person Cebrail was speaking of was none other than Puriel the King of Spades.

She had barged into Cebrail's house for forty-five days straight to challenge Cebrail to a fight. Over and over and over again, day after day after day. The kid just wouldn't stop!

Worse still it turns out Puriel is actually a genius! Every time they fight her skills become more sharp and her hits get harder. What was an effortless victory, in the beginning, had become far more strenuous. Of course Puriel was still a long way away from actually beating Cebrail, it was just that she could see the trajectory of their fate and knew it would only become more annoying to deal with as the days went by.

Cebrail was not about to make more work for her future self so she borrowed a Gate Key from her uncle Michael allowing her to travel easily between Heaven and the Human World.

So she made like a leprechaun with lucky charms and ran for the hills, ending up as if by fate in Kuoh Town, since it was the middle of the night however she decided to simply take a nap on a park bench to pass the time.

"Cheep. Cheep."

"Right~ right~ I'm going..." Cebrail said lazily. In truth she didn't know where she was going nor even properly where she was or even what she was going to do, all she knew was that Epis didn't feel like staying where they currently were.

Standing she held Epis in her arms and it only took her a few steps to realize where she was.

"Isn't this the fountain where Issei is murdered by Raynare... that's pretty interesting." Though she did look at the fountain for longer than the scenery due to its significance to the story of High School Dxd she still didn't care too much for it and simply turned to leave.

However as she took a step towards the gate something felt... off.

"Cheep. Cheep."

"So this is why you were being so pushy, normally you don't have the balls to hit me."

"Cheeeeep... Cheeeep..." Epis didn't want to admit it but her master was right, Epis would never hit Cebrail since she as the closest person to the princess knew that Cebrail might actually roast her over a fire if she proved too annoying to take care of.

Cebrail took a few more steps towards the exit gate and found that she was actually even further from the gate than when she started.

"Oh that's actually kind of cool. I wonder how long it'll go for..." Cebrail kept walking and walking and walking until sweat was visible on her forehead and her heart was beating like crazy.

She was seriously unfit physically, perhaps she'd have to work on that in the future.

"Despite that cold face you must be the stubborn type kiddo~" A young woman's voice suddenly rang through the area alerting Cebrail. "Or wait... maybe you're just curious? How strangeee~"

Turning around, what Cebrail saw was a young woman with long blonde hair a black eye patch covering one eye and a sparkling green one staring at her with intrigue. The woman was sitting on a bench in a very unlady like manner, with her arms spread out along the back of it and her legs completely open and outstretched in front of herself.

"Yo~" She greeted Cebrail casually by holding up a bottle of alcohol.

"...Hello..." Cebrail greeted the woman reluctantly, obviously the woman was the one to create the barrier so her acting all nice and carefree was far more suspicious than her outright attacking Cebrail.

"You seem tired kiddo, how about sitting with me and having a drink?"

(Ah.. I see... this is one of those situations my mother warned me about.) Cebrail though as she glared at the woman in front of her. Slowly she took out Rance and instantly struck out with it towards the woman without mercy.

A bit surprisingly the whip connected with a defensive barrier and bounced off harmlessly.

"Oh..." The hook end of the whip fell flaccidly to the ground in such a disappointing manner Cebrail actually felt a bit embarrassed.

Silently she collected her whip and took a seat next to the woman right under one of her arms.

"..."

"..."

The woman stared at Cebrail in silence and Cebrail sat staring forward not giving away a single emotion, however the faint blush on her cheeks was definitely telling.

"You uhhh... gonna explain that kiddo."

"I understand what kind of world this is. You're obviously stronger than me so just get it over with!" Cerebral turned rapidly towards the blonde woman with an intense stare, "I warn you though I will have my revenge for this. So enjoy it while you can."

"Oh I see, you must think I'm some kind of child predator. What kind of stuff did that Gabriel shove into your head eh kid?" She poked Cebrail's forehead with the hand that wasn't already behind the princess. She sat obediently and took the pokes with dignity but her eyebrow visibly twitched, she wasn't used to taking disrespect from people, whether in her current or past life.

"You really think I'm gonna eat you up huh? Hehe unfortunately kid, I'm into women with a bit more meat on them~" The woman mocked Cebrail very openly, not even trying to hide the meaning behind her words.

Hearing this insult Cebrail's face turned completely red and her eyes widened as her ahoge struggled against the pink bow which kept it confined. Her expression didn't change much but the mixture of embarrassment and anger was clear for anyone to see.

"I see that I was foolish. If you were a predator you would have probably let me hit you."

The woman stopped poking Cebrail and seemed to think about that statement for a bit. "Ohhhh I get it, you're calling me a disgusting pervert hm~?"

"It's not funny when you explain the joke." Cebrail pouted looking away from the blonde woman.

"HAHAHAHAHA! As I thought, everyone who possesses Solomon's ring is interesting in one way or another!" The woman laughed joyfully and took a large gulp of her alcohol. To do this she had dragged Cebrail closer to her bringing the young Angel straight into her modest breasts.

(Hers aren't so big either... what a hypocrite.)

"So kid, why is someone as important as you hanging out in a small town like this?" The woman asks with Cebrail still stuck in the crook of her arm.

"I was running away from a little girl with a baseball bat and the tenacity of a police officer chasing after a box of donuts."

"Wow, you mean that half breed kid Michael has been taking care of? To think she grew so much~"

"Half breed? You mean she's a Miracle Child like me?"

"Miracle Child?" The woman paused for a bit and took a light sip of her drip before responding, "I guess you could call it something like that."

"That sounds interesting."

"Indeed it is~"

The two sat in a somewhat peaceful silence for a few moments before Cebrail spoke up once again.

"You aren't going to elaborate?"

"Why didn't you use the Ark kiddo?" The woman ignored Cebrails question and instead asked her own while letting go of Cebrails head allowing her to move away a bit.

"You mean the literal apocalyptic super weapon in my pocket? It really isn't that serious..."

"Didn't you think you were about to fall into the hands of a child molester?" The woman asks, raising her eyebrow suspiciously.

"I'm just one person. Me avoiding being assaulted isn't enough to justify endangering the entire world. Unlike my mother... I am very rational after all."

"I see... to be honest I had thought, like the other two, you might be here to acquire the next Red Dragon Emperor. Seems like even this old man can be wrong every once in a while~" She took another long sip from her bottle.

(Old man?) Cebrail had thought it was a bit suspicious that this woman seemed to know so much, however looking at her hands there was no golden ring, she wasn't a king candidate. (How does she know about Issei Hyoudou?)

"Your expression, you must be wondering how I know about 'the next Red Dragon Emperor' right? How could I do that without Solomon's wisdom?" She took another long sip from her bottle and as she gulped it down another question came to Cebrail's mind.

(How is that bottle not empty yet?)

"Haaa~ that's so good~ but nothing made nowadays can beat good ol' mead!"

"So you aren't going to explain anything?" Cebrail was getting a bit impatient with this alcoholic woman, she had already made a mockery of her and now she was actively wasting her time. Time is a valuable expense for people like Cebrail, how will she laze around for hours if she doesn't even have hours to spend?!?

"If you head to the shopping plaza now you'll run into a girl surrounded by thugs, past that alleyway you'll find a second plaza. Look for the store Sis Cross Kiss."

Cebrails fingers twitched upon hearing of a girl being attacked by thugs, her instincts as a former enforcer were yelling at her like an annoying step mom, screaming at her to get going. "What makes you think that I'll go to some shady place for you?"

"Hehe kiddo, you seem pretty smart so I'm sure you can guess that if I wanted to do something to you it would have already been done~ Now shoo shoo, hurry up and go save the damsel in distress~" The blonde woman waved Cebrail off casually as if she were dealing with a house cat on the kitchen counter.

"Tsk! This isn't over you alcoholic danger to society!" Her voice held far more emotion than normal and the instant her words came out she was already gone.

"Hahaha! Oh I know kid, I know!" As the woman laughed loudly her form shifted and changed to that of an old man with long grey hair and a matching long grey beard which reached all the way to his stomach.

"Lord Odin! Lord Odin!" A woman's voice called upon hearing the old man's laughs.

"With her now around that makes all ten of the king candidates accounted for. It seems we old timers are truly in for a time of great change!" While Odin was wise even he wasn't able to predict who might end up as the final victor in the end. However no matter who won he knew that the time for the next generation had officially begun. "BWHAHAHAHAHA! BWAAAHAHAHAHAHA!"