chapter 7

Updated at 04/10/2020

The staredown was intense for a few moments as Ace's back was covered in a cold sweat as Sirzechs glared at him with intensity due to Mio being so close to Ace.

It took a few moments before he coughed on his hands and started talking, trying to show a more friendly smile but still seeing to be extremely angry at the display of what the satan thought as affection.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Sirzechs Lucifer, one of the four Satans and the father of Mio. And, as a father, I must say my thanks for what you have done, thank you for protecting my daughter." Sirzechs said and Ace stiffly nodded, in his head, he was swearing like crazy from this whole situation.

Don't get him wrong, he knows he can get a lot of cash from Sirzechs based on how much the guy obviously had, but he remembered the position he is in right now and the glare Sirzechs sent him from the moment Mio hugged him.

'Don't tell me, he is not just a siscon but also a daughtercon? The fuck?!' Ace screamed in his head as he decidedly didn't like this fact. He didn't want to annoy the man in front of him, he was probably someone who could face Aizen head-on in at least energy levels (Ace would still put his vote in Aizen beating Sirzechs because of his Shikai, much less whatever his Bankai may be, but that was still scary as all hell).

Deciding he should speak Ace let out his answer.

"Well, fuck." The eloquence of Ace was not to be underestimated. His words completely broke the mood and caused Mio to get a bit away from him, looking at him as if she was really looking at him for the first time.

"... You know, for someone who acted like a prince saving a princess, you really don't speak like it." She commented and Ace shrugged.

"Never planned to be any savior or anything, I am just me. Ace of Odd-Jobs Ace, anything you need I do for the right price." Ace said with a smirk that made Mio chuckle.

"What is up with this? Not cool at all." She said and Ace shrugged.

"Hey, at least let me do my thing here. If we are lucky I just might manage to do that I mentioned to you earlier." Ace said and she froze as her mind seemed to remind herself of what he had told her beforehand.

The fact that there is a possibility he might be able to save her parents, her real parents as despite what Sirzechs might say she doesn't consider him her father. Regardless of whatever he might say, her parents were the ones who just died, not Sirzechs.

"Well, anyway I wanted to talk with you, Ace-kun, about something quite important." Sirzechs said and Ace nodded at him respectfully, acting like he didn't just curse a few moments prior in front of Sirzechs.

Sirzechs nodded and decided to, before telling Ace about what he really wanted to say, he had to explain the background of the whole situation.

"How much do you know of devil society, Ace?" Sirzechs started, he had noticed that Ace didn't really reach to him calling himself a Satan and he had faced at least a few devils earlier so he at least knows that the devil race exists. However, the extent of his knowledge is something that he still was not quite sure.

"I know you guys have gone through two stupid and mostly pointless wars that could and should have been avoided, lost many people, and decided to enslave other races and turn them into others of your race to solve the lacking personal problem. You also are divided in two camps, the New and Old Satan factions, the Old Satan faction is filled with scum that I wouldn't like working for as most are, as I mentioned, scum while the New Satan faction has people with lots of money and also have some people I wouldn't like working for as they can be counted as scum just as well." Ace explained, not explaining everything he knew of both sides but enough to show that he honestly doesn't like their race for the most part.

Sirzechs, hearing this, narrows his eyes at him slightly.

"I see, so you don't like my race then?" He asked, internally debating if what he was planning was even feasible if Ace thought like that.

"For the most part, not really. I mean, I make it a point that I usually avoid working with slavers, you see, and your race is filled to the brim with them." Ace said.

"And how you feel knowing you helped save my daughter? And also, why did you save her and helped her even after you realized that this was most likely something related to devils?" Sirzechs asked.

"I saver her initially because I saw her about to get raped, and I hate anyone who does that unless it is, says, a consensual roleplay or something (for each their own). And about why I still helped her after I realized that this was to do with devil business, that is simple. She had already agreed that she would pay me for saving her, as such it counted as a job for me, so I have to do my damn best in completing my job. Service of quality at a right price, that is my motto." Ace said and Sirzechs actually smiled at that.

"I see. Well, continuing the conversation I must explain some details of this whole situation so you can understand why I want to talk to you." Sirzechs said before turning to Mio, his eyes showing a regretful expression as he began explaining. "20 years ago I met a very special witch. She became my contracted magician and she was so interesting to be around. So full of life and unique, we were quite close together in many ways and we ended up in a relationship in secret. You see, while devil society accepts harems quite easily, Satans are forbidden to do that. We can only ever have one partner at any given time and I am already married. My wife is a wonderful woman that I would never leave for the world, but I couldn't deny I was also equally attracted to that witch.

"On our love, Mio was born, but there were some complications during the birth. She died and I couldn't reincarnate her even if I wanted to, I was unable to do anything about it. And so I had Mio with me, and I feared for her and what she would mean.

"You see, the Old Satan faction and some members of my own faction are constantly on the look for any chance to force me to resign since talks of a peace treaty started. If I were to appear with a daughter that was not from my marriage, it would be a proof that I have not followed the law regarding relationships for Satans. If any political squabbles start at this point there is no way I can continue the talks for peace."

As Sirzechs finished his explanation Ace nodded.

"I see, I see, so you put work before your kid and chose to pretend you never had her instead of a man and shutting up all those who disagreed with it." Ace summarized and Sirzechs winced and really wanted to deny it, but Ace was undoubtedly right on that one.

"For the devil race as a whole, to stop this useless fight and tension, any sacrifice is acceptable." Sirzechs said and Ace had to really hold himself back to not laugh at the idiocy that Sirzechs just said. If any sacrifice is acceptable for the general well being, then why did he and the other Satans didn't decisively dealt with the Old Satan faction instead of their indecisive wishy-washy way of doing things.

"Then? Why did you call me here? I don't see why all this should concern me." Ace said. Mio looked up at him and pinched his sides hearing his callous words and he winced. "Damn girl, you have one pair of strong hands."

"Humph, I don't have strong hands. You are the one that started talking stupid so I had to make you stop doing that." She said.

"Oi, Oi, last I checked you still owed me a lot of cash for saving your life back there. Don't go expecting I will do all that for free just because you have a cute face. I need to eat here and don't come cheap." He said and Mio blushed a bit at the cute face comment.

Sirzechs, seeing their interaction, clenched one of his hands firmly.

One must understand, he might have left her in the human world with some guards, but there should be at least 20 guards around her and a magical defensive system and barriers all over Mio's house. For there to even BE an attack should be completely impossible, yet it happened all the same. He could honestly only assume there was a leak somewhere, especially since most of the guards Sirzechs have put in place were either found dead or missing when he checked.

For the last 16 years, Sirzechs has watched Mio through the distance. He couldn't go to her even once for fear of someone following him and finding her, but that didn't stop him from watching her every step of the way. Whenever she wanted anything, no matter what it might be, he would find a way to give it to her. Whenever there was any special day for her, like birthdays or holidays, he would make absolutely sure to have dozens of photos taken and store them carefully for him to enjoy seeing later.

He was so proud of her, he lost count of how many times he wanted to just drop all his worries and be there for her. Oh, how he cried when he saw her trying to walk a bike for the first time and ending up falling, how he wishes he could be there to treat her wound and see that she was well.

But he had a duty, and he could not shrink away from it.

He sometimes wondered if he was so doting to his sister because of how alike the two were in looks and age.

"Anyway, back to business." Sirzechs said, making Ace and Mio turn to look at him. "At any rate, until the treaty is signed I can't publicly admit to having a daughter from out of wedlock. As such I wonder if you could protect her at least until then, Ace-kun."

"No." Ace said immediately, "This is too dangerous and you are one of the freaking Satans. You can get other people to protect Mio against your enemies." Ace said and Sirzechs nodded at that.

"True, I have multiple possible ones for that. However, there are very few that are human. I intend for Mio to continue living in human society, for now, I believe that at most half a year should suffice. After that time I am confident that I can get this treaty done with and I will be able to give Mio all that she deserves properly." Sirzechs said and Ace understood. In truth, there were some more he could trust, but there were very few of those and he had to be watchful of possible spies as someone clearly betrayed him, otherwise an attack would not have happened.

As such he wanted someone who certainly wasn't a spy to watch over Mio, and also watch over the bodyguards that would be sent.

"I see, but still no. I am not nearly strong enough to be able to make sure of the safety of Mio if someone were to come seriously after her. And I have my own business to take care off as well, if I were to be a bodyguard for a long period of time I wouldn't be able to take many jobs that could be quite profitable." Ace explained.

Sirzechs looked at him and spoke.

"How about four million dollars a month and an extra 20 by the end of the contract?" Sirzechs gave this number but he was honestly willing to go further.

"... What are the exact terms of contract?" Ace asked and both Sirzechs and Mio had to fight not to point out that some saliva started coming out of the side of Ace's mouth at the thought of that money. Sirzechs could only wonder if Ace wasn't, in reality, a devil who delved in the sin of greed, but he at least didn't request for anything absurd so there was that.

However, Ace was truly too greedy inside.

"Each month, at the start of the month, I will give you the required amount. You must make sure that she is safe and unharmed to the best of your abilities." Sirzechs said and Ace nodded but raised his hand.

"I understand, but I have some conditions. First, if I am to protect Mio then you must provide us with housing as I don't want to risk putting my family in danger by living with them in case someone tries to come after Mio, but it must be close enough to my family as well."

"Understandable, and I was thinking of doing that anyway." Sirzechs said, already thinking what style of mansion should it be. Let it never be said that Sirzechs didn't intend to spoil Mio in every single possible aspect he possibly could.

"Second, I want more people capable of protecting her to be close by with at least one truly strong one. I can deal with most sneaky ones that try anything but if someone truly strong shows up I might not be able to do anything as I am right now." Ace said and Sirzechs nodded in understanding.

"I already have a few in mind that could work well enough for this." Sirzechs said easily.

"Third, I will still do my jobs and Mio will accompany me during them whenever they are not overly dangerous. She has her own debts to pay and it is not like by having to protect her I shouldn't do other things." Ace said and this time Sirzechs was about to say no but Mio spoke up.

"That works for me too." Mio said. "I, I have something I need you to do and I need to be the one to repay you for what I want. You still must do your best to bring my parents back to life."

Sirzechs winced at how Mio thought of those two that he contracted to protect her as her parents instead of him, but he did not complain about it and instead reinforced the idea that he would do his very best to make her see him as her family in the future.

"I understand, but I will want at least one extra escort for protection." Sirzechs said, even if he was really thinking about the escort being about the protection for Mio against the 'evil clutches' of Ace.

He might have not been able to be close to her for her entire life, but he very much was a jealous father who would only think about accepting someone for his daughter if he was at least Ultimate-Class in strength.

"That is fine by me, but if it must be that then make it a cute girl." Ace said and when Mio gave him a strange look he just scoffed at her face. "It is good publicity, everyone loves cute girls. Better than a giant hairy macho old man for publicity, that is for sure." Ace said and this time Mio actually chuckled.

"You really like money, huh?"

"No, I don't 'like' money, I love it." Ace said shamelessly and Sirzechs sweatdropped thinking if leaving someone like Ace close to his daughter really was a good idea.

"Anything else?" Sirzechs asked and Ace nodded.

"Yes, I want to ask you something before my request though. Why is it that Mio doesn't have any energy signature despite being connected to you by blood?" Ace asked and Sirzechs sighed.

"The truth is that she is too strong." He said and Ace and Mio both look at him confused. Seeing this Sirzechs continued. "You must understand, it is not just my own blood that runs through Mio's veins, her mother was a daughter of Hecate, the Goddess of magic from the Greek Pantheon. Due to this Mio was born with abnormally high energy levels that her body couldn't sustain properly, so as to make sure that no accident would happen I had to put several seals on her energy and the end result was that she can't access any of her energy. Her power is simply far too destructible so it had to be done at the time."

"I see, so my next request be that whoever you send to protect Mio together with me also can help her in training as well as unlock at least part of her energy. It would certainly be easier to make sure she is safe if she is able to protect herself too." Ace said and it was truly a reasonable request.

"I will see what I can do."

"Good, and my next request is that you send us back to Karakura Town as there are some things I need to solve there." Ace said and it was a simple enough request for Sirzechs.

"Very well, is there anything else?" Sirzechs asked and Ace gave a nod.

"I want copies of tomes of all forms of magic you can possibly obtain. As many as possible as I want to obtain as much knowledge of magic as I possibly can." Ace said and Sirzechs nodded, he wouldn't mind if Ace wanted this knowledge, after all, he would be working to protect Mio, and the more he knew the more secure she would ultimately be.

"Anything else?" Sirzechs asked, thinking that this was already quite a bit.

"Just a final one, did you capture the devil that was hunting us down earlier?" Ace asked.

"Yes, we have her in interrogation right now." Sirzechs said. "She is quite tight-lipped right now but I am confident she will speak eventually. Also, please don't call that thing a devil, she is a chimera with some devil parts, not a true devil in the slightest." Sirzechs really didn't like chimeric devils like Zest, they were used in mass during the civil war by the Old Satan faction and he lost many friends to them.

In his eyes beings like Zest should never have been born, to begin with. He could still remember some of his own family, even a cousin he saw almost like a brother and that he even named his son after, that brave young man having his heart ripped out of his body by those chimeric devils.

"Let me talk with her. If you will just keep her imprisoned or something then I prefer if she works for me instead as a bonus. However, I will not force her, I will talk with her and if she agrees then I want her to work for me." Ace said and Sirzechs shook his head.

"That is too dangerous. What if she tries anything against Mio?" Sirzechs said and Ace decided to try his luck on something.

This was something that he had no idea if it existed or not, but it was worth a try.

"Isn't there something like a contract that ensures the loyalty of the other side? That should be good enough to make sure she doesn't betray me, but it would be best if this contract is possible to be broken if we both agree to it." Ace said, thinking of the master-servant contract from Shinmai Maou no Testament.

If it existed in this world he, by all means, wanted it for the power boost. Any and all viable power boosts are to be acquired by all means in Ace's eyes.

"There is something that can work like that, but it will only be possible to set it up later since we first need to obtain any and all viable information regarding the attack from that woman. After that we can allow what you asked." Sirzechs said, thinking that if he had that chimera to vent whatever carnal desires he wanted then his precious girl would be safer anyway.

If he wanted her, then he could get her in Sirzechs' eyes, he didn't care for whatever is done to that being anyway.

Ace nodded in appreciation, knowing that this was a good enough result.

"Then, can you give me the cash now?" Ace asked and Sirzechs nodded, sending a message to one of his peerage members to bring in the cash.

After a little while, four million dollars in cash were given to Ace who took it all away and put it in his System. Sirzechs raised an eyebrow at this but thought that this was another one of the strange abilities that his bishop, MacGregor Mathers, said he saw when he went to rescue Mio.

As for Ace, despite the situation he could not resist and activated his Gacha, turning half of it, two million dollars, into summon tickets and started rolling.

And the result out of all those rolls are honestly not all that bad.

///---///

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Paramecia type Soru Soru no Mi: (soul human)]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Paramecia type Guru Guru no Mi: (Rotation human)]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Paramecia type Beri Beri no Mi: (berry human)]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Paramecia type Mato Mato no Mi: (Mark human)]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Paramecia type Supa Supa no Mi: (blade human)]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Paramecia type Doru Doru no Mi: (Candle human)]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Paramecia type Noro Noro no Mi: (Slow human)]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Zoan type Mushi Mushi no Mi, Model: Desert Locust]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Zoan type Mushi Mushi no Mi, Model: Sleeping chironomid]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Zoan type Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Penguin]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Zoan type Ushi Ushi no Mi, Model: Zebra]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Zoan type Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Buddha]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Zoan type Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Logia type Mera Mera no Mi]

[You obtained Akuma no Mi, Logia type Hie Hie no Mi]

///---///

Besides that, he got many other skill books, many haki and also vitality beads and so, so, so many useless stuff that it is not even funny. But, Ace was still very satisfied with it overall.

With great pride, he finally, finally had a logia to equip!

Sirzechs and Mio were quite disturbed with how he suddenly looked like he could start weeping right there and then. But Ace didn't care, he finally was confident he would not need to fear everyone and everything so much all the time.

Being a logia in a world where people did not know what that even means or had Haki, as long as he wasn't facing someone to overwhelming he could at least confidently run away!

Life was good.

///---///

Reviewed stats:

Name - Hyoudou Ace

Age - 17

Race - Human

Haki - 1500/2400

Muscle Density - 452

Cell Vitality - 342

Reaction Speed - 350

Mental Capacity - 300

Intelligence - 148

Charisma - 1030

Available points - 430

Akuma no Mi (Zhoan type) - (Neko Neko no Mi: mode Lion) (Lion fruit)

Akuma no Mi (Paramecia type) - (Biri Biri no Mi) (Static human)

Akuma no Mi (Logia type) - (Mera Mera no Mi)

Kembushoku Haki Lvl 2

Busoshoku Haki Lvl 3

Haoshoku Haki Lvl 1

martial arts:

Swordsmanship (42/100)

Fishman Karate (51/100)

Black Leg Style (40/100)

Boxing (56/100)

Newkama Kempo (26/100) [New!]

Rokushiki (32/100) [New!]

Hashoken (20/100) [New!]

Teitoku (28/100) [New!]

Seimei Kikan (30/100) [New!]

Ninjutsu (28/100) [New!]

miscellaneous:

Cooking (63/100)

Inventor (45/100)

Doctor (60/100)

Sniping (53/100)

Cleaning (80/100)

Musician (76/100)

Navigator (40/100)

Gardener (70/100)

Strategist (30/100) [New!]

Dancer (18/100) [New!]

Instructor (12/100) [New!]

Chemist (18/100) [New!]

///---///

Hope you all enjoyed this. Ace just gained a huge boost for his skills in this chapter, a truly huge one, but he still is limited by his own basic stats.

With this Ace can be expected to be able to protect Mio better and I hope everyone could see a bit better Sirzechs' position. He wanted to keep Mio by his side, but he feared that admitting to have a child outside of marriage would lower his prestige as Lucifer when they are in the midst of discussing a true peace treaty. For Sirzechs nothing is as important as that.

About Zest, I can have her working for Ace from next chapter forward or just wait for a later time. It is honestly up to you guys.

Also, if you guys noticed Ace only used half of his current resources as he fully intends on buying many things with Urahara who is something of a dealer for the whole supernatural world.

And finally, Ace is now finally a proper Logia!

But, will becoming one be so simple to master? And will Mythical Zoans have any possible side effects?

Guess we will find out soon enough XD