Chapter 17

Momo was furious during lunch break at school, which was a relatively normal thing these days. The reason? The same it was every other time, her cousin Soma.

Momo was asked by Sona to invite her cousin for lunch since he apparently was now her boss' potential fiance (and ain't this an interesting piece of news, Momo's parents were shocked when they found out). As such, Momo decided the best way to invite him was face to face, seeing as he would probably ignore her if she just called, but would fold if it was face to face.

She went to his class hoping he would be eating lunch there. Once she arrived at his class she couldn't find him, but she did find someone she knew. So she asked one of the students to call Ravel out for her to ask about Soma.

"Hey Ravel, sorry to interrupt your lunchtime like this, but have you seen my cousin? I wanted to talk to him." She asked Ravel once she came outside to the corridor.

"Your cousin?" Ravel replied, confused why Sona's Bishop would ask her about her cousin.

"His name is Soma, he is also in this class. He has white hair and a shitty attitude. You can't miss him"

Ravel was surprised that Soma was related to a devil, but she replied all the same.

"No, he didn't come to class today."

'That damn cousin of mine, can't he just come to class normally at least once in a while?' Momo thought in irritation before apologizing to Ravel for taking up her time and leaving to call him.

On her fourth attempt calling, he finally picked up.

"... What is it, calling me so early?" Soma said, a sleepy tone in his voice.

"Early? It is lunch time and you didn't come to classes AGAIN! Where even ARE you?" Momo asked in furry.

"... What do you mean I am missing classes? Today is Monday, a holiday, thus no classes." Soma said in doubt and Momo could only stare at her phone in shock before asking.

"... Soma, today is Tuesday, not Monday. How can you even confuse that? What was you even doing to lose an entire day just like that?"

"Well, I got into a competition with Ravel's brother over who can drink more."

Momo, hearing this, felt like she wanted to bang her head, or possibly Soma's head, against the wall. What was he even doing getting into competition with one of the two Kings of the city?

"Okay, so you got too drunk during the competition and-"

"Nah, nothing that big really. We got drinking and after around the first dozen bottles we began talking and before we knew it we were cool with one another. Riser is surprisingly a very cool guy, he even invited me to go with him to a private party that's being arranged sometime in the next few weeks, very exclusive stuff as it seems like it might be something to do with his family. Well, he did say it was his engagement party with some bitch he is being forced to marry, but it would be an open bar with plenty of booze and a lot of hot girls so there is that and according to him the after-party will be quite crazy so I have my hopes up for that. Anyway, after we had reached an agreement to our differences and declared each other as friends he went to the dance floor to see if he could find some chick to fuck. I was feeling kinda bored just by myself so I went around and met this hot woman and decided to try my luck. And I was lucky."

Okay, Momo definitely wanted to bang HIS head against the wall now, beat it until perhaps the screw loose in his head goes back into its proper position. Apparently, her cousin now was friends with a member of devil nobility without really understanding it and was invited to Riser and Rias' engagement party. Considering he was also currently the ONLY fiance candidate for Sona, the Sitri heiress, and that party would likely have Serafal going as well, that would be all amount to a giant disaster. Fuck.

Taking a deep breath and trying to push all the negative thoughts about the future away from her mind Momo decided to focus on all the negative thoughts regarding the past instead.

"I get that, but how did you go from there to you not realizing so much time passed?"

"Well, long story short, she got ditched at the bar by her asshole of a boss who she is the secretary of. She was pretty down so we talked, and flirted a bit, and a while later we were doing other things with our tongues. And after we started it she was really enthusiastic in bed. I even tried to say that we should stop after what must have been at least four to five hours, but she looked as if I was throwing her out or something. So, obviously, I decided to show her the best time possible and stepped up my game. We just kept going at it until, well, I don't know how long really. No clue when we actually went to sleep." Soma admitted in a very blasé fashion. For him, having sex for an entire day was nothing to write home about, having done that several times over the years back in the Throne (his personal record was 4 days nonstop).

Momo sighed, her cousin really got strange after the coma, he was weird all around and sometimes she even had trouble connecting the current him with the sweet kid she remembered from the past. But, he was here now so she would just have to adapt to it.

"... Please tell me you used protection at least."

"Uhm, pretty sure at some point she put on some armor for some kinky play, saying crazy stuff like she is a valkyrie that wants to please her chosen hero. It was quite fun actually, doing it in armor is always an experience, so I guess there was some protection then." Soma admitted and Momo growled.

"That is NOT what I meant. What I want to know is, did you use a condom?"

"... The fuck is a condom?"

At this Momo dropped her phone, shock all over her face at the absurdity of what she just heard and now fearing her cousin might have just expanded the family line by accident.

As for Soma, he should be excused for not knowing what a condom is. After all, he spent thousands of years in the Throne where the mere idea of protected sex means sex using armor, he couldn't remember details of the normal world if he didn't even hear of it for thousands of years and never had any reason to think about it during that period of time.

"Hey, we can catch up more about this later and you tell me what the fuck you mean by a 'condom' or whatever. She is getting out of the bathroom now so, bye." Soma said, hanging up on Momo who felt like she should perhaps hit Soma on the head really hard. He was easier to deal with while he was in a coma.

///---///

Meanwhile, on Soma's side, he looked on as the woman he spent the last day having sex with nonstop came out of the bathroom and he had to admit, she was beautiful.

She is a beautiful young woman with long, straight silver hair and aqua-colored eyes who appears to be in her late teens or early twenties. She had a glorious body with curves in all the right places and all just the right amount as well with a degree of muscles beneath the skin that was just enough to make her body be very fit while also being soft to the touch.

As she looked at Soma she showed a bright and gorgeous smile on her face.

"So, did you like it?" She asked, a bit of doubt and apprehension in her tone as she did so.

Soma picked up on that but chose not to comment, instead simply just smiling back.

"Of course, last night, and day, and the night before that again was just perfect." Soma said and she opened her eyes wide.

"... Did we spend so long together?"

"Yep, it seems so. We kinda lost track of time there at some point, huh. Probably after you decided to ride me with the armor to see who would win in endurance, we got really into it that we must have lost track of time."

She just looked surprised and a bit embarrassed at her actions. To be fair this was her first time with a man and she couldn't believe she had gone at it with so much vigor like that. By the Gods, what would her dear grandmother say if she knew?

... Probably tell her to do it again until she had been able to produce at least a few kids for her to pamper.

She wanted to talk some more but she suddenly remembered what she was supposed to be doing and her eyes widened.

"Dammit, I gotta go. I need to go find my boss before he does something stupid again." She says as she moves to put on her clothes in a hurry. As she does so Soma just watches on as she dresses and thinks that, while her taking off her clothes is great, seeing her get dressed again also has its own charm.

As she finished putting on her clothes she asked.

"How do I look?"

"You look gorgeous." Soma said, knowing how most women did not want to be criticized when it comes to their appearance no matter what and that doing so wouldn't go well for any man who does it. Besides, she does look nice in this tight-fitting suit that shows off her legs, ass, and sizable breasts.

She smiles and is just about to leave when she realizes something.

"Can, can you tell me your number? So we can talk more later, you know." She says hesitantly.

"This is my phone number," Soma shows her his number without hesitation. This was just casual sex anyway and if she wants another ride, especially another as animated as this one, then who is he to say no?

"Great. I will send you my contact information later as well." She says as she opens the door of the hotel room. "Thanks for this, Soma. You just made my day."

"No problem, it was just as great for me, Rossweisse." He says as he waves her off as she goes to meet with her boss. After she left Soma got out of bed as well, he had a lot to do today to compensate for not working out the day before.

He would also need to talk with Mittelt today, no more pushing this off. He had already investigated Twilight Healing enough to understand that it had a fairy of all things inside, which was quite shocking since the fairies he had met before were all quite strong and wouldn't just become a prized trinket for God. They were prideful beings that were very hard to please and were complicated to the extreme, and held a lot of knowledge. Soma had even spent a few centuries amongst them learning from them forging as to help understand the production of Divine Constructs (though even with Soma's capabilities he would need damn good materials to attempt such a thing).

An item like Twilight Healing, which houses such an innately powerful being like a fairy, but can only heal is not anything Soma is interested in. He could produce much better Mystic Codes anyway that were immensely less wasteful in terms of capacity and capabilities. Really, besides the capacity to 'grow' using the gaps the whole thing was little more than a glorified failed product.

As such, he had no need for it and he would need Mittelt to enter in contact with Azazel about an exchange to get something actually usable. Preferentially as soon as possible before he draws too much attention to himself.

Soma had everything planned out for this meeting for a while now (basically since he heard about the supernatural from Mittelt), but only now was Soma truly confident enough in actually being able to live through this meeting without dying. Well, not that he could actually survive if he were to fight someone who was that powerful, but he now had the means needed to ensure his own personal survival.

He had a good enough plan now and with the materials prepared by the Ringa family he now had the confidence to execute his plans properly.

///---///

After the call ended Momo returned to the Student Council room. Considering that she always got teased by the other members when she called her cousin in the clubroom, she took to going somewhere else to talk taking advantage of some empty classrooms that were left open.

Entering the clubroom Momo was still cursing her stupid cousin who was far too irresponsible, actually sleeping with some woman he didn't even know and doing it raw, was he not afraid of STDs or pregnancy?

"Look at them go!"

"I never expected that."

"Wow, wish I was there."

Momo looked surprised as she saw all the members of the peerage grouped behind Sona, all watching something on the computer. Momo didn't know what they were watching and the chatter of the members was such that she couldn't hear whatever it was the others were listening to.

"What are you watching?" Momo asked and Sona moved to pause the video they were all watching.

"Nothing, just something my sister sent me." Sona said and Momo nodded, not seeing any need to go and take a look. She still had a lot of paperwork to do and she wanted to deal with it as soon as possible so she could go to Soma's house and show him all her displeasure caused by his stupidity.

As she sat down Momo decided she might as well tell her king about why Soma would not be coming and make it clear that she will bring her cousin tomorrow.

"Kaichou, about Soma, it seems like he got into some sort of party Sunday and got too drunk during it, waking up from all of it just a short while ago."

"I imagined as much." Sona said, surprising Momo. Seeing her Bishop's surprised expression Sona shook her head and gestured for her to come watch what they were looking at.

Standing behind Sona, Momo could see that they were watching a video on Devitube, the youtube of the devil race's internet.

Returning the video to the start Momo could only watch on at what was being presented to her.

It was clearly a club, a piano in the center of it with none other than Soma sitting on the piano with Riser beside him on the drums, the two with bottles of clearly expensive brandy already half empty. Taking a sip from their drinks they both started to play.

Nodding to each other they started to play Billie Jean from the king of pop, Michael Jackson. And damn, they were good.

Momo looked at the list of comments below with a whole lot of devils commenting on the video. By the time the song ended the two actually got up and bowed to the audience around with a lot of people cheering and the two laughing loudly, one arm around the other's shoulder as they did so.

But that wasn't the most shocking part. The most shocking thing was the white-haired beauty that came to Soma's side after that and she began telling him something, she seemed very drunk, much like Soma clearly was, before Soma literally took her in his arms and kissed her deeply before throwing her on his shoulders like if he was a caveman and moved away with her giggling, While Riser and many others were all laughing.

That is when Momo remembered some of the words of the song, the fact her cousin spent a full day with this woman in bed without using protection, and she then saw the title of the video.

'Billie Jean – cover by Phenex and friend that has his own Billie Jean'

Momo grunted at this, she could already see her friends wanting to know the details about what had happened. She did not want to deal with any of this crap. When she gets to Soma's house she SO will strangle him, she will definitely do it.

///---///

Getting home Soma went in search of Mittelt. Getting to her room he looked at her watching something on her computer. Soma raised a brow and appreciated the sight, she might not be anywhere as mature looking as Rossweisse but with her using booty shorts and an oversized shirt she had quite the appearance that had its own unique charm.

Not that Soma would do anything about it, he already released his pent-up sexual stress the day before and was not horny right now.

"Knock, knock, can I come in?" Soma said, the door already open with him reclining on the door frame.

"Oh sure, just a sec." Mittelt said, quickly pressing the pause button on the movie she was seeing.

"What you watching?" Soma asked, wanting to make some small talk.

"Oh, it's just Twilight."

"Twilight? Never heard of it." Soma said honestly.

"Really, never? It is quite famous."

"Really, I never heard about it. Is it good?"

Mittelt actually waved her hand on a sign for 'so so'.

"It could be better, but it is not awful."

"What is it about?" Soma questioned, wondering if he should watch it if only to know what other teens were into.

"It is about a teenage girl, that is very boring, to be honest. She falls in love with this vampire and-"

"She is suicidal and wants to die from becoming a tasty snack, got it." Soma completed the sentence, earning an eye roll from Mittelt.

"No, she isn… Okay, she kinda is suicidal but not because of wanting to be with Edward. And anyway, the two end up falling in love with one another but his nature as a vampire makes him want to drink her blood but he as a person doesn't want to do that."

Soma nodded his head, it wasn't really an impossible story as far as he could tell in this world that the supernatural beings acted quite 'human'.

He then looked at the image on the computer and pointed.

"Fine, but who is this guy covered in glitter over there?"

"Oh, that is the vampire. In this movie, vampires shine like that under the sun."

"And just like that, you lost me." Soma said and shook his head. He had to wonder if the producers of this movie would stay alive once some real vampires learned about it.

"Whatever, I only watch these movies for Jacob anyway." Mittelt said.

She was quite a fan of the werewolf. Well, he might be a pedophile, creepy stalker with an allergy to shirts, but, then again, six-pack.

"Anyway, I wanted to ask you something. I need to know if you decided to stay and work for me, or if you will leave and return to Grigory." Soma said and Mittelt actually showed a slightly embarrassed face as she answered.

"… I would rather stay." She admitted. "I can imagine my fate if I were to return to Grigory after my last operation ended so badly."

"Yeah, you and your friends were sent to kill a human who had a powerful Sacred Gear while being in a city controlled by the devils and being effectively close to them due to being in the same school as the two Kings in town. Oh, and taking the healing gear from a nun."

Hearing him say it like that, Mittelt winced. She knew by now how Soma was somewhat protective of the innocent and she most certainly did not want to get onto his shit list. He may not be the most powerful person she ever met, but he was certainly amongst the scariest. Seeing her expression, Soma waved his hands dismissively.

"Honestly speaking, I can understand both orders from your superiors if you are in a state of war as you mentioned. A powerful Sacred Gear user that lives so close to the devils could easily be convinced to join them if they are as capable of seducing humans as you mentioned, which would not be anything good for you guys. Taking him away would be the best option but that is up to the decision-making of those at the top. As for the nun, from what you told me about her, she was still extremely devout to Heaven and the Church even though she was excommunicated. Even if the fallen took her she would most likely betray them at the first prodding of Heaven and who knows if prayers are actually listened to by the Big G anyway so she could likely work as an informant and could never be truly trusted by the Grigory. If the only thing about her that the Fallen cared for was her gear then taking it away without the potential spy that is attached to it would make sense."

Mittelt actually opened her eyes wide at Soma's explanation since, despite it being a cold and detached way of seeing things, it made a lot of sense. Frighteningly so, she has never really seen it this way but this way of thinking and acting is one expected in a war, especially a cold war like the one that the three factions of Christianity were in.

… And she was just a disposable pawn in the grand scheme of things, if she even qualified to be that, she realized. If the operation succeeded, great, if not then it would be an acceptable loss. This was a world of 'might makes right', where the strong are the ones calling the shots and they played with the lives of the weak like toys, experiments, and pawns.

And Mittelt knows she is weak. Extremely weak. She was a low-rank Fallen Angel, she was made by God long ago as just a foot soldier and even during the Great War she was only able to survive due to working as support instead of the frontlines where she would have likely lost and been killed, if not raped before being killed by a devil.

Gulping she looked at Soma, her mind racing. She had decided before to follow him, but with what little she knew of him she could still tell that he was no less dangerous than her bosses at the Grigory. The main difference between working for him and for Grigory would be that, in the Grigory, she was one low rank fallen amongst the masses of fallen and thus completely disposable, to Soma she would be his only low rank fallen and he only had one more subordinate right now in the form of the Stray Exorcist Rintaro, who also wasn't exactly a powerhouse. Even if she is weak, her importance for Soma would be much higher than for Grigory, as such the choice was obvious.

Soma coughed in his hand, attracting her attention back to him to make her stop ruminating.

"Anyway, if you prefer to work for me then that is fine. But, before I accept you properly I will have you sign a Geas. In it, you will swear that you will listen to me when I have some form of mission or action I need you to take, of course, there will be a clause stipulating that you can deny or run away from any assignment if it is deemed a significant risk for your life and I cannot demand sexual services from you as part of the job, unless you would like that so that would be negotiable. I will also provide you with ways to make you stronger via training or many other ways including weapons and equipment."

Hearing his explanation Mittelt actually froze after a certain point. A certain hope, one deep within her that she normally would never let bloom, actually surfacing right now.

"You, you can make me stronger? C-Can you actually do that?" She questions, hoping beyond hope that he could.

"Why wouldn't I be able to? There are surely ways to make you stronger." Soma said and Mittelt shook her head.

"You don't understand. God, when he made us angels, he made us the perfect beings. We were made with powers perfectly developed with no chance for growth, perfect in our own little ways as he would say." Mittelt said with venom in her tone. Oh how she wanted to be strong, to not be afraid to offend others with every step she took and have to pray that no stronger being would notice her.

She survived the great war, but a half-breed fallen who hasn't even reached her twenties was already so much stronger than her that Mittelt wasn't even able to kill herself to stop the pain during the torture. A half-breed who was lucky enough to be the daughter of someone strong like Barakiel, but still flaunted the fact she did not use her full power while humiliating and stepping upon Mittelt and killing the other two fallen that worked with her for so long.

"Perfect being? Well, I hate to tell you the honest truth as I see it, there is absolutely nothing that is perfect. It may sound like a cliché, but it is the truth. If something was truly perfect, then that was it. What would be the point of having feelings, being able to learn from your surroundings, or being able to die or reproduce if angels were truly perfect? Perfection means there is no need to change, to grow, to improve, and nothing would change. You are far from perfect, so don't go around saying that you are a perfect being." Soma said with disgust at the concept of perfection.

It may not look like it at times but Soma was far from being perfect, he had to struggle for thousands of years to learn things that others could learn much easier. What some of the heroes had learned in their time in mere months he took decades to learn and even then it wouldn't necessarily be as good as what the heroes had learned. And yet her continued training, steadily growing and continuing to march on, never satisfied with his strength and what he learned, never satisfied with what others might call 'perfection'.

Noticing the doubtful expression on Mittlelt's face at his expressing he did not think angels perfect beings he continued.

"You fuck up, you make mistakes all the time, you are a giant tease, a flirt, an annoying person, weak, like weird movies with terrible premises, is lazy, and just another person with more flaws than I would ever bother counting. If you were never able to grow and change from birth, then were you born this messed up? No! You learned and evolved into your own flawed person and thus was never perfect. If you are weak now that just means you weren't trying to do it in the correct way. If you sign this contract I will make sure you become strong, that you will be powerful. So, do you want to sign or not?"

This time Mittelt lowered her head, she did not want to show her eyes right now due to knowing they must be red.

She was a fallen angel, she was made to look the way she did so no matter how old she got she would always be treated as a child. She was made weak, only able to obey the strong and survive by doing whatever was necessary to do so. She never got a choice, not a single thing in her life was fully her decision. Even becoming a fallen, it was just her following orders and feeling guilty over being part of operations to exterminate those who made deals with devils, even if they only made those deals to survive a plague sent by God via Moses.

So, having a chance, any chance, of becoming stronger was simply amazing. It was the best, no, the only, way to make sure that she would not be stepped on by anyone even remotely powerful. That she wouldn't have to cower and pray before any enemy that might come her way.

"Then I will work for you. Whatever you need, no matter what, if you make me stronger then I will do it all." Mittelt said, deep emotion in her tone as Soma nodded, walking close to her and extending his hand.

"Welcome to the team, Mittelt." Soma said and Mittelt smiled widely as she took his hand and shook firmly. She was glad that she now had a place where she would feel safe while Soma was happy that he now had one more loyal worker that also would help him with plenty of experiments he had in mind.

Sure, he would make her stronger, but for that, he would need to understand her body better than just how to put it together and he couldn't help but smile at the thought of what he could uncover from her. While Soma was a firm believer that 'perfection' was idiotic even as a concept he would admit that Angels seemed like fascinating beings and he wondered how different they were compared to homunculus and if he could make some angels of his own as well.

Deciding to ignore the fascinating prospects of study and research for now Soma thought back to his plan. His original plan was to send Mittelt back to Grigory with a request for a meeting in a place of Soma's choosing to make the exchange he desired. Of course, he would only send her after she had signed a contract that would forbid her from being able to divulge in any way who he was and where he lived with her memories of him modified using hypnosis to ensure that they would be blurry at best and no one would be able to find out who he is through her, but her working for him had plenty of benefits as well and he wouldn't say no to someone willing to help him just because of a minor inconvenience.

Thinking for a bit he asked.

"Are you able to send things to the Grigory without going yourself?"

"I think so, I still have a few friends there who could be a messenger for me." Mittelt said.

"Good, then by the end of the day I want you to contact one of your friends to send through them a package to Azazel himself." Soma said and Mittelt nodded.

"Sure thing, boss."

Nodding to her he moved to leave.

"You can go back to watching this glittery trash, I have something to do now."

"Oh, and what will you do now boss? Something I can help with?" Mittelt questioned.

"Nah, what I am gonna do is quite simple. I will just be making a copy of sorts, of Twilight Healing, nothing great." Soma said and shrugged, completely losing the dumbfounded expression of Mittelt as he walked away.

///---///

On a suite at the topmost floor of the fanciest hotel in Kuoh, one could find Odin reclined on a comfortable sofa.

The last few weeks had been quite troublesome for him. Loki, that trickster god, has started to try and make a push to make war against Christianity once again, indicating 'signs of the Great War restarting' as an excuse. Of course, Odin was not dumb enough to think that the simple killing of a few exorcists in such a gruesome manner was enough to reignite the war, but Loki was being his usual nonsensical self and kept trying to push for preparations for war.

Odin wanted nothing to do with that, he would not jump into war for no reason like what Loki would have him and the rest of the Pantheon do. Not that Loki himself would go to the frontlines, he would do as he always did and look for the best way to entertain himself as possible or just show up when victory was certain as to claim more of the spoils.

The leader of the Norse Pantheon was actually secretly having talks with the leaders of the Three Christian factions for a time now, talking about entering into a peace treaty with them after they themselves made one amongst themselves. The talks were going well, and Odin wanted to talk with representatives of the three sides to see if the Peace Treaty was still underway.

For this secret talk, the Christians decided to have the talk right here in Kuoh since no one would think that they would do such talks in this place where a possible spark for the fighting happened just a short while ago.

Odin had arrived a few days earlier than the day for the meeting, mostly due to being tired of hearing Loki blabber on and on and acting like he was big shit. The town had a lot of exotic beauties and Odin quite liked that, but Rossweisse was the same nuisance as ever and always stopping his fun.

So, last Sunday, Odin ditched her in a club and was just about to leave when he saw someone actually approach her. One of Odin's skills was the ability to see through and understand anything he looks at, and when he looked at the one who approached the forever single Valkyrie Odin saw that this young male was quite interesting. His body was quite unique and Odin had trouble believing him as a normal human, but what caught his attention the most were the runes etched in some of his bones.

They were quite profound and Odin felt like they were similar to his own runes used in magic, but also somewhat different and the Norse God couldn't help but secretly continue to spy on those runes. Even his fabled ability to comprehend anything he sees was having some trouble understanding everything and what he managed to understand he began to extrapolate into his own magic circles to see the differences and Odin was shocked at the results. All his magic attacks were at least 30% stronger and his defenses were 50% stronger.

For a God such as Odin, this was no small matter, with what little he had managed to see from these unique runes he always felt like his knowledge and understanding of magic grew and the power he could exert now was much greater. His curiosity made Odin follow the couple around while invisible with his absolute best stealth magic, and by the time Odin had finished understanding the runes already etched into the male's bones, said male was rutting into Rossweisse as if the two were wild animals.

Shrugging Odin actually decided to stay and watch for a while, he was an old pervert who loved all kinds of sexual acts, and voyeurism was quite normal all things considered (just ask Heimdal who was always looking at everyone, the perverted old God).

After feeling pent up himself Odin left the room and went to a brothel in town, taking five girls with him to bed, and enjoyed all of them thoroughly. And right now Odin was in bliss, happy with life and relaxed.

He looked on as Rossweisse entered the suit, he looked amusedly as she had a slight limp despite her best efforts and Odin knew he now had a whole new way to tease the girl. He made a note to himself to meet the young male before leaving town, if only to congratulate the kid from taking the stick up Rossweisse's ass and replacing it with something else.