chapter 21

Kurumi's P.O.V.

Move to the side. Dodge the sword slash from overhead. Pull back.

This fight is more of an annoyance as I would have liked. Before me, were three cosplayers (because I refuse to call them anything else), one was dressed as a sexy knight showing a lot of skin, the other was dressed like a sexy adventurer with a huge sword that was completely impractical (it was more a meat cleaver than anything else, who even use such a weapon?), and the third one was a girl in a miko outfit but was not wearing any underwear.

What? This is a fight and I like to use wind spells and her clothes are not exactly good to be kept in place against the wind.

Seriously, is this even a fight or is it a costume fest with girls with no sense of self-esteem or pride?

From what I can see the sexy adventurer and the sexy knight cosplayers should be Riser Phenex's knights, they certainly have the speed fighting style for that. Moving to avoid their strikes I analyze how they fight, both use speed and their strikes are not heavy enough. The adventurer one uses more physical strikes while the knight having flames over her sword.

Neither is overly complicated to beat, but the support from the back via that shameless miko is what makes this more complicated than it had to be. She doesn't really attack, but she can cast reinforcement magic and create some barriers.

Overall, if I was not in a hurry I could easily dismantle them in thirty seconds and be done with it. I DID train a lot before this and, compared to sis, these three girls combined are nothing.

As I finish analyzing their attack patterns I sigh inside, these girls lack actual combat experience. Like, a lot. Because of sis and mine's upbringing we had to fight a lot, we trained lots and lots and had to fight to survive inside the orphanage. People back there were not nice for those like me and sis, everyone there was unique in some way but none was as unique as me and sister.

Me and sis, we were unique even amongst the unique ones, not able to fit in well at all.

Moving to the side as the sexy knight attacked I moved my right hand, commanding the air around my hand I order it to disperse quickly, creating an area void of oxygen for but a moment. However, that was enough as it meant that the fire on the knight's sword was snuffed out.

She looked on shocked at this, she would have moved back but I did not give her a chance to do so, moving in close I entered close-quarters combat when in an extremely close distance, delivering several strikes in her body and aiming for debilitating areas. My hands covered in spiritual power as I did so, causing internal damage to the enemy quite easily.

Spiritual power, that is something we inherited from our father even if we could never truly do all he can with it, or at least what mom said he could do with it. Personally I barely even remember him beyond a smiling face full of care whenever he looked at me. This power we inherited from him is a big part of the reason why the other kids and even adults treated me and sis as if we were aberrations since they could not understand this power that is fundamentally unusable for mystical beings unless granted to them in specific circumstances.

This power, I can honestly say I don't know how others use it but, for those like me and sis, it is not like for those like dad, I guess. Ours is less direct, able to cause damage to the opposition's soul directly which disrupts their capacity to fight and cause internal damage. I and sis have different ways to use them with me using mine together with my knowledge over magic to control nature around me and sis uses hers to direct combat using a sword. I never really understood why she took that path as it is not nearly as practical to master as the one I've taken, but she said over and over again that she wanted to be strong to defend what she wants to defend no matter what.

As I see the knight fall I notice the adventurer one looking with wide eyes and moving in to face me head-on, I don't give her the time as I control light around me to create several illusion clones of myself and bypass her who only hits those clones. She is not able to perceive the sounds of my foot hitting the ground which is another sign they lack training, if compared to sis they are fully incompetent, I've seen how much sis trained and we spared against one another and others plenty of times, both of us are strong.

However, it annoys me a bit that the number of clones I created is more than I planned which mess up some of them. This contract, it had in fact made me have more powerful than before, but my extremely fine control has suffered a hit from it as I need to remaster the techniques with the new amount of energy I possess. T-That man not only took advantage of me, he also made me lose my fine control! I want to hit him for i-

A pleasant sensation flared up and I feel myself heating up, damn this curse, always activating whenever I think of beating him up. Covering my body in cold air, I feel my body shiver slightly but it is enough to stop the curse from becoming a hazard for this fight. Inside I know it is not that pervert's fault for what happened, but it still annoys me that someone touched me like that even before a d-d-d-date or a k-k-k-k-kissss. Ah, damn him! Don't make me think embarrassing stuff!

I will put my anger down on you, going commando miko! Getting to her after passing by the adventurer one I point my hand and a blast of thunder emerges from my hand, blasting her away. As she is on the floor I see her trying to take out a vial of something from an inner pocket, it must be phoenix tears. I don't let her take it as I instead send her a blast of fire that burns her clothes and boil the tears inside the vials.

Finishing this I turn to the adventurer girl with the oversize sword and crack my knuckles. Now that she doesn't have her little allies it is time to show her who is boss.

But first I take note of what was happening around me to see how Mio-sama is doing. Huh, who'd say that those little thingies that Ace created are so useful? Well, even if he is a pervert he seems to at least not be completely useless, but I still will need to make him pay for doing all that embarrassing stuff to me when I was like that.

... At least ask me on a date after that, idiot.

///---///

Maria's P.O.V.

This is, not ideal.

Why did this dumbass flaming chicken decide to come and make everything even more troublesome?

I already am on very thin ice as is after the problem with the Master-Servant contract I made. I can't screw up any more otherwise... no, I just can't. No matter what, I can't let things become any worst. I need to show that I am useful no matter what!

Knowing this, why did that red bastard allow this idiot to come here? Does he WANTS Mio-sama to be taken by force? Or is it just a plan of his to get the excuse he needs to not need to hold his side of the deal?

Does he hate mom this much? She didn't have any choice, she did it for a good reason, so why can't he understand that? Why can't all those devils understand that?

As I look at my opponents the first thing that comes to mind is, breasts.

Seriously, why do these weaklings already boast the figure I want in a few years? Ain't I the succubus here? Why do they get the nice bodies I wanted to have already?!

That pisses me off.

"Don't worry, little girl. Master Riser can still use a little succubus whore, he is open-minded like that." The purple-haired one, if memory serves me right she is Riser's Queen Yubelluna, says this.

You know, I really don't like how people think all succubus are whores and easy to get. We are not all like that, I mean sure we love sex and after our seventeenth birthday we need a regular dose of semen to survive, but that by no means signifies we all work in that area.

And besides, even if I was starved (which I am still a bit too young for it, the youngest point a succubus gets this hunger is at 15 and my birthday is still two months away) and needing a dose of semen or I would die, I would rather slit my wrists than letting someone like Riser to have his way with me. I heard from aunty Sephie that he visited the red light district a few times now and his behavior there and what he did, it is just wrong.

I am all for being kinky, any play I am in (if my internet history is any indication of that), but the way he acted and the fact he actually actively burned a woman's vagina while having sex with her just because he felt he could, because it turned him on, that was unacceptable.

You know what? Even if Lucifer-sama doesn't want to intervene and stop this stupidity I will not allow it to happen either way. He can't complain publicly if what I am doing is following his instructions of protecting Mio and I would not allow for the girl to possibly have to go through what that girl went through.

Looking at the other girls besides Riser's Queens I see that they are his two Rooks, Isabella and Xuelan. I have watched one of Riser's matches before when I didn't have anything else I could do and, to be honest, neither is all that good. If it is against all those three together it will not be too easy but far from impossible.

Before I moved one of them, Isabella, moved in first. Pulling her fist back she punches ahead, trying to pummel me to the ground.

I barely feel the hit as I use my right arm to block it. As I do so I slid my right arm and grab her wrist with it, with it in my hand I pull her and break her center of gravity, making her slid away just as Xuelan moves closer to strike. I leave Isabela out of my grip after clenching her wrist as strongly as I could, hearing a definite crack there, and instead of continuing on my position, I squat low, avoiding Xuelan's kick. In my new position, I push the ground and tackle the leg Xuelan had firm on the ground.

It is not enough to break her leg but it definitely damaged her knee and she falls to the ground. I would have continued but I sensed the energy close by changing so I jumped back and thus avoided an explosion from Yubelluna. The explosion got Xuelan that was on the ground, but the Queen didn't seem to mind as she continued to send multiple explosions my way.

My grandmother was born from a succubus and a Yokai, to be more precise the Nurarihion that commands the Yokai from outside of Kyoto is my grand-grandfather. Thanks to being a descendant from that my sensitivity to the energy around me are very high so sensing her explosions is a piece of cake. It is a bit of a shame I didn't inherit the ability to sneak in whenever I want undetected (fingers crossed I unlock it by the time I get older, so much secret sex scenes I could film with it HAHAHA), but even then I managed pretty well with what I had already.

However, even with me being able to avoid the explosions, I still got hit by the heat of the explosions and I don't want to give Xuelan and Isabela time to recover. I can already see that Isabela is up but still clutching her broken wrist.

I punch the ground as hard as I can, breaking a big slab of the concrete in the ground and pulling it up before throwing it at Yubelluna.

"How cute, the little girl thinks she can harm me with such petty tricks." Yubelluna taunts as she blasts the rock to pieces, but that was fine for me since I only really needed a chance to get close.

With the rock covering her view Yubelluna couldn't see the smaller rock I kicked with all my strength at her. By the time she realized it the rock hit her in the stomach and made her release some bile from her mouth. Seeing this I moved in close, trying to pull on the inheritance I got from my grandfather, a white glow surged on my hand as extremely concentrated demonic energy appeared in it and I punched Yubelluna's face.

The demonic power I have is extremely dense, it is an inherent aspect of my granfather's blood really, and thanks to that the energy is especially destructive. It is not to the point of the Power of Destruction, but I still have extremely large reserves of demonic power and it is more than sufficiently corrosive. Mom, as someone who also inherited this bloodline from her father, is not considered amongst the strongest succubus for nothing. For her, facing a normal God is super easy, barely an inconvenience, and I hope to also reach that level soon.

As Yubelluna falls down I did not hesitate, kicking her flying away and feeling the sound of something breaking there. She is gonna need some Phoenix Tears for that one.

However, I did not have the time to bask in this victory as a blast of fire came down from up high. I tank it and turn to look only to see Riser there, glaring daggers down at me.

It seems like Yubelluna is his favorite little whore (I smelled her perfume, it is the same as some of the 'classier' whores of the Red Light district use, a pale imitation of the natural alluring smell that a mature succubus of Amazones can produce when they want). I wouldn't doubt it if this guy found these girls there, they certainly are dressed the part and he does visit the place more than it should be healthy.

Oh well, if he wants to get revenge on me then I can take it. Better he aims at fighting me than try to hurt or capture Mio-sama. I don't want anything bad to happen to her, better it be me to take it.

I am used to being hated, anyway.

///---///

Mio's P.O.V.

Looking at the fire Nehan created I sweat a bit, this little thing that stuck on my side as if normal has a lot of fire in it. Like, really a lot.

However, I can't just let others protect me. I don't want to be a damsel in distress! I have been training and studying every day since I found out about my situation, I read a lot about magic and even have part of my powers unsealed, I can be of use too.

As I look at the girls in front of me, I point my hand at them and concentrate. I pull on the energy inside me and order it to concentrate in my hand. Quickly a ball of energy starts to form and it is modified into a sphere of power of destruction that I inherited from my father.

"Take that!" I yell as I launch my attack. Maria told me how the power of destruction's most important aspect is not that it has great explosive power, but that any small part of it can be dangerous as it can corrode the enemy's defenses much easier than most other energies.

Hearing that I practiced many hours until I learned how to do a simple trick. I turn that blast of power of destruction and 'detonate' it when close to the enemy, turning that blast into something akin to a grenade that releases power of destruction in all directions in much smaller amounts. According to Maria when she watched my power of destruction my energy is very similar to that of my father, being of a higher destructiveness than most other users of this power.

Thanks to this I figured that I don't need to hit my enemy with extremely powerful blasts all the time, as long as I hit I should get some damage. When practicing with Ace he told me that, while big flashy attacks are nice, sometimes it is better, and safer, to dwindle an enemy during a fight. If the opposition can't fight then I win all the same.

It is actually funny he would say that when it seems like his favorite form of fighting is exploding others with overwhelming force. Oh well, he was always a bit of a liar and hypocrite anyway, no news there.

As I see the downed enemy I focus and create several other small 'grenades' of Power of Destruction and send them to the three girls still standing.

"Promotion, Queen!"

"Promotion, Queen!"

"Promotion, Queen!"

The three shouted together and speed up away from the blasts. Damn it, so this is what Maria told me of the promotion ability of pawns that let them emulate other pieces of the Evil Piece system. This is not good at all.

"Sorry, little girl, but orders are orders." I heard someone speaking from behind me and I quickly turned and launched one of the blasts in that direction, but the person avoided it thanks to the increase in speed. It was a catgirl with pinkish hair that then proceeded to pounce at me with her fists.

Shit, she is too close, I can't avoid it.

ZAP

Suddenly a blast of thunder came from my side and hit the cat girl, sending her flying back.

I look and see the cloud homie, Raiton, that Ace left to protect me beside me now. He looks at the girl he sent flying and seems like he just shrugs and speaks up.

"You girls are annoying, let me go back to sleep."

I barely could remember that he was also here to protect me seeing as it just stood floating beside me. Before I can process what to think of it I see the small sun, Nehan, comes flying at all speed and laughing maniacally.

"You tried to interfere with my job, burn! Burn! Burn! Pay for being so irritating!"

... You know, I heard from Ace that the homies are created from a person's soul and that both Nehan and Raiton were created from Ace's own soul. Is it just me or they represent the sloth and wrath of Ace?

You know what, I won't question it. No point in thinking about useless things during combat.

The other three Pawns of Riser seem to be trying to get closer but with the three homies around me there is little chance they can properly reach me at all. They fear the homies too much, and I don't blame them. These little guys are scary. As the three are unsure of how to move I manage to observe them more carefully now.

One is extremely similar to the catgirl that is twitching on the ground from the shock just now, only with blue hair instead of pinkish red. They must be twins, I guess. There is also a second pair of twins, both having green hair and looking like they should be just entering middle school at most.

Maria once told me that devils can manipulate their appearance subconsciously, but I don't see how any woman would choose to look this young. They must be actually kids and, if so, then it is disturbing that they are using chainsaws of all things as weapons.

I concentrate, what I need to do right now is making sure to protect myself. The more I can do that, the less Kurumi and Maria have to worry about me and focus on their own fights.

I create a magic circle, while the power of destruction is good I didn't want to over depend on this one thing, Maria, Ace, and Kurumi always stressed that over-dependence on any single skill makes one too predictable. Knowing this I learned the basic forms of several elemental spells using demonic energy, they might be basic spells but when used with enough strength and creativity they can still be extremely potent.

I create some sand that I launch at one of the smaller girls. She could have easily avoided it but Raiton intervened. As he was made of a storm cloud it was not hard for it to send a gust of wind out, it accelerated and spread the sand, blinding the girl who could not see any more thanks to it. Seeing a chance I launch one of the 'grenades' made out of Power of Destruction at the girl and hit her perfectly, sending her flying.

"Nel!" The girl's twin shouted and tried to reach her sister but it was a mistake as Hakai took advantage of the girl's distraction and hit her with a powerful blast of Power of Destruction.

With two more down there was only the blue cat girl left. The said blue cat girl looks at me and the defeated ones and looks nervous before she smirks and the three that were previously serving the flaming jerk rushed in.

Even worse, these new girls all have a few vials that look like an item Maria showed me, Phoenix Tears, and they all move to the downed enemies.

Damn, this is not looking too well.

///---///

3° Person P.O.V.

About ten minutes into the fight and a problem became clear to see, Mio and the others were being pushed back. In the end, they could have greater power than any in Riser's Peerage but the simple fact that Riser's Peerage was not on a rating game, thus carrying multiple vials of Phoenix Tears, really made the situation terrible.

Well, even if they were being pushed back it was not like they weren't doing damage. Riser, after getting a powerful punch to the stomach and a kick that broke his leg (courtesy of Maria), stood back and instead focused on giving support fire while standing as far away from Maria as possible. Unfortunately, as this was not a rating game, every single pawn of Riser had used promotion Queen.

Kurumi, after taking a powerful explosion from Yubelluna, was sent flying exhausted. She could not stand to fight any more considering she had taken not only the two knights and the Bishop but also two of the pawns turned Queen, her falling caused a great problem as even more pressure descended on Mio, the three homies, and Maria. Thankfully Kurumi managed to force Riser's Peerage to use a considerable part of their's phoenix tears.

Mio's forehead was covered in sweat and her heartbeats were echoing in her ears, the smell of burnt flesh (courtesy of Nehan) waved through the air and she could feel her legs were like noodles. This was her first real fight and she was getting physically very tired already. However, her energy reserves were still as potent as when she started, the seals on her limited how much of her mana she could access at any given time, but her total amount remained the same.

Mio's magic reserves were large, absurdly large in fact. Her still being sealed for the most part was a necessity due to just how much she had, until she fully learned to control her energy it was not safe for her to have full access to her own energy as she could accidentally create great damage accidentally if she didn't know how to control her full energy properly. With such mana amount, she was far from being tired and with low reserves, but still, she was having it tough.

She was tired, her mind strained from the fighting, and she was hit a few times even if indirectly (she managed to create magic shields before, but they were not made tough enough and they only really cushioned the blows.

"Won't you give up now? I don't want Riser's new toy to be damaged before Riser has a taste." Riser said while standing tall, fire all around him and looking slightly disheveled thanks to Maria getting close to him.

Mio snarled at him.

"I'll kill you a hundred times!" She said, her anger at the thought that this guy was trying to forcefully take her away making her see red.

She was not a random object that one can just take away as they please, she would not just let someone she didn't even know come around and act like is she was just a thing. That he hurt Kurumi and Maria, two girls Mio knew and was starting to befriend, was only making her even more decisive in not taking this approach.

In anger she created a huge blast of power of destruction, concentrating all the power she could unleash at any given time, and blasted that ball of pure destruction at Riser. Riser blasted back with a huge amount of fire, but the fire was consumed by the power of destruction.

Riser's eyes widened in shock and he opened his wings and flew out of the way, his legs were consumed by that power but he still managed to escape. He grimaced in pain but quickly took out a vial of phoenix tear from the inner pocket of his jacket.

He was about to use it when-

BANG

The vial was shattered before his eyes by something. He looked confused by this and turned to search for the responsible for this. The city of Kuoh being what it was there were many buildings all around. Even with the barrier that Kurumi deployed to make the regular humans avoid and be far from their location (as well as not seeing anything wrong with the area), the supernatural beings could still see through the barrier.

Riser's tried to expand his senses, trying to see if either Sona, Rias, or their respective peerages noticed what was going on but he could not sense them at all. A smirk flashed on his lips, the 'trick' that Zolgear told him to bypass the basic security system used on devil territory was as useful as he had hoped. With this trick he could come and go to any territory of the other devil houses of the New Satan faction without being detected by the wards of those houses.

However, his smirk vanished as he noted that there still was someone the shot his vial of phoenix tears. He could, however, not sense any magical energy from anywhere close by whatsoever beyond the ones fighting close to him.

Riser's eyes widened further when he heard multiple more shots, Riser's peerage screamed in pain as blood flew everywhere as they all got multiple shots in quick succession.

"Who dares?!" Riser yells in anger but no one answers for a moment until he notices a motorcycle entering the area and crashing on a tree that, miraculously, was intact previously. No one was on it so Riser got confused only to receive a powerful kick from above, crashing him to the ground at all speed as he bounced on the ground a few times from the impact.

When he stopped it and managed to look up he saw the figure of Ace, he was on his human-beast form with his arms replaced by big wings made of blue fire. Looking down at Riser Ace's eye narrowed in anger as the forms of Mio, Maria, and Kurumi presented themselves.

"Oh, you know," Ace started before fully transforming into a Phoenix and diving at Riser. Riser's eyes widened in shock as his body felt weaker than before, as if it recognized a superior version of itself. It is the same type of suppression that Riser felt whenever he faced his oldest brother, the strongest Phenex ever, and the closest to having a perfect Phoenix Bloodline. But, even then, it was not the same, the pressure, it was as if. "A real fucking Phoenix, bitch."

As he said so he got to Riser and kicked him again, sending him down once again but, this time, with a phoenix's leg. The contact leaving a sizable burn mark on his chest as he clutched it in pain, this was something he was not used to seeing as normally he could not be hurt. However, the power of Haki allows one to touch, or in this case burn, that which should not be tangible.

Ace was the perfect counter for Riser.

When he touched the ground several explosions rang out as Yubelluna sent multiple strikes at Ace. However, they were all ultimately pointless.

After several experiments Ace came to understand that a Logia can completely negate any purely physical attack, magical attacks are more complicated though seeing as, if you tried to use the same element against a Logia then it would be useless, if it was another then there would be some effect (small mostly), and if it was the opposite element then it would do regular damage as if it was hitting a non-Logia user.

Yubelluna's explosions were, ultimately, fire-based. With Ace currently using the fire Logia Yubelluna's attacks only caused mild annoyance for Ace due to the blasts themselves, and even then, whatever damage was caused was healed faster by the Phoenix fruit.

Seeing the others from Riser's Peerage that were still able to move to try and get to him Ace's eyes hardened. He did not know precisely the powers of these girls, the only ones he could tell with some certainty were Riser, Yubelluna, and perhaps one or other, but the rest was an enigma for him.

As such he moved first, changing his Paramecia for one he was not really used to using much but he felt could be useful right now as he was fighting a large group of enemies with unknown capacity.

Soru Soru no Mi (soul fruit) - Horo Horo no Mi (spirit fruit)

The soul fruit works best for support for Ace right now, even if he hopes to see if he can mimic soul beings' attacks and abilities with it in the future, but right now what he needs is crowd control.

The Horo Horo no Mi, the spirit fruit, was the one used by Perona, and as such.

"Negative Hollow!" He says as multiple ghost-like beings with silly smiles that a child would draw appeared and advanced to Riser's peerage all at once.

They tried hitting them with... less than stellar results.

"I wanna become a flea."

"Sorry, sorry for being alive."

"I wanna become a snail."

This and more were the results of those who were hit by the attack. All crouched down on the floor in a deep state of depression.

Riser, seeing this, begins to fear what was going on but Ace just approaches him.

"W-who are you to do this to this me, the great Riser Phenex!" Riser asked, trying to pump himself up and get some confidence back even as his legs were still finishing regenerating.

"Fuck, I have heard of you before and all, but reality really suppresses fiction. Honestly, if you keep saying stuff like that, you are gonna give everyone a headache out of sheer stupidity, fried turkey." Ace said, his emotions going a bit rampant as he REALLY didn't like the state of how Mio, Maria, and Kurumi were. Strangely enough, it was especially so with Kurumi, almost as if he couldn't accept seeing her injured even if they were not even that close.

"F-fried turkey?! I'm a noble Phenex! I am an imortal bird!" Riser yelled in anger, flames appearing around him as his legs finally finished regenerating.

"So, a knock-off fiery chicken that thinks itself the true phoenix. Very well, so? Why should I care for whatever you are when all I see in trash?" Ace asked without care.

"Why you?!"

"You know what, with all these flames around you I can almost say you are useful as a self-cooking chicken. Well, not that anyone would want a piece of that if they are not being paid or forced to, which I assume is all sexual experiences you ever had." Ace said mockingly.

"I'll fucking burn you to ashes!" Riser yelled in anger at the insult, launching a torrent of fire at Ace with everything he had. "I will burn you, and then burn everything you ever held dear as payment for this insult to the great Riser Phen-"

And that was as far as he went as Ace's hand appeared from the torrent of fire and clasped in Riser's head.

"You know, pissing off someone who you have just seen turning into an actual fucking Phoenix instead of the knockoff you are really doesn't sound like the smartest thing to do. But then again you are not very smart. Now, why don't you taste what an actual fire of a phoenix is like?" Ace said and blue fire, the fire of the Phoenix fruit, surged in his hand. Ace even went ahead and used his armament Haki as an extra push, he wanted to punish Riser for what he did to Kurumi who was now laying on the side with some blood flowing down her lips.

Riser screamed in pain as Ace burned his face, the place where Ace was holding burning brightly as the smell of burnt flesh spread as black marks spread around Riser's face.

By the time Ace stopped Riser had already passed out from the pain. His face had a clear imprint of Ace's palm as a huge burn mark was presented for the world to see. Riser's regenerating didn't even kick in, the fire of an actual phoenix being the type of injury that a phenex, a devil house with some diluted Phoenix blood due to the many generations since an actual phoenix interacted (read fucked) with the first member of this noble family.

Riser's Peerage finally managed to slowly stand back up, the effects of the negative hollows stopping after a time and they were all in fear and terror as they saw their king on the ground, terrible burn marks on his face.

"Take him away and don't come back. Next time I won't be as forgiving." Ace said, hiding the fact that he had to spend a whole lot of his Haki there to ensure that the burn marks on Riser stayed in place.

They all scurried off, taking Riser and running away as fast as possible back to the Underworld, Riser (and them) needed immediate medical care (they did get shot with bullets made of holy metal which was like poison to them).

Ace didn't give them a second thought as he moved to Mio, Maria, and Kurumi. Mio and Maria were mostly fine, just very tired and, in Maria's case, with some bruises, but Kurumi was more seriously injured by comparison. Seeing Kurumi's state Ace used Soru and moved to Riser's peerage then captured the first one he got and pulled her away just as the teleportation happened.

The girl in question widened her eyes and was about to scream when Ace glared at her and spoke.

"Phoenix tears, have any?" He said and the girl shook her head, she had spent all of them already.

Cursing under his breath Ace let the girl go and instead went to Kurumi. Taking her bridal style he called the others and moved to Ace's bike. It was not an ideal way of transport for multiple people but it was big enough if they all squeezed a bit with Ace holding onto Kurumi while Mio sat behind him with Maria in between the two.

No one spoke as they set off to home.

///---///

AN:

So, this took a bit longer than I wanted. But, to be fair, it is over 6k long.

Any comments or reviews are appreciated, I read all of them and, if there is any question or request, I try and answer back.

Also, if anyone is wondering who Ace captured, the answer right now is undecided. If you want someone from Riser's peerage to get closer to Ace or just join some other peerage then say in the comments (please note that Yubelluna is out as I just don't like her). Anyway, until next time and, for those who want more Bleach, please be a bit more patient as I will get to that soon enough.