Chapter 21: Turning point part 5

"Fear not, for I, Jeanne have come to save the day!"

"..." 

'Who the heck is this weirdo?' What else could I say besides weirdo? Her get-up was odd, to say the least, a school gakuran with gold plated armour on top? I confess I couldn't speak too out of turn since I had a similar chuuni black chest plate at my old home, and my current Vritra [Balance Breaker] as well.

Her attire screamed to me of one of those regular-looking high school teenagers, who seem to have an ordinary life, just like the rest. But when trouble arises, they transform through the use of magic and fight off the forces of evil!

"...!"

Panties! Pink! Unexpected! 

…she has quite the mature taste for her age, despite the garish colour. At least she isn't going commando, unlike someone I know. My poor heart wouldn't be able to take such a forbidden sight. 

Wait… is that? Huh, didn't pick her for a lace kind of girl

"Espéce the sale pervert, THEY WERE THE LAST ONES IN STOCK!"

Oh, I said that out loud. 

"Yes, you did. But first let's deal with this monster, non?" The blonde-haired woman replied with a slight blush.

'Partner, you're getting distracted.' Pointed out Virtra.

Shit, I was in the middle of a deadly fight and was a few seconds away from being heavily wounded from a sneak attack. 'I need to focus.'

"Thanks...Ummm...Jeanne?" I was in Paris yet somehow this person was speaking perfect Japanese, which I heavily doubted was because she was familiar with the language.

'It must be a universal translation spell I was looking for.'

"No worries there! Our faction had gotten news of some mysterious kidnappings around this area so we decided to look further into this case." She answered me with a smile, waving off her previous rescue.

'A faction, I wonder which one she belongs to...' depending on the answer, she could be either an enemy or an ally if she finds out I'm allied with the devils.

"It also does help that this is also my birthplace, so keeping it safe is my duty just like my ancestor Jeanne D'arc did so before me." 

Wait a minute, why did that name sound awfully familiar? 

I scoured my brain for any scraps of memory with the name Arc, till it hit me full force!

'The Gacha Goddess!' I screamed in realisation only to have my head metaphorically hit by Vritra.

'You fool, she's talking about the maiden of Orleans. The so-called witch who got burned to the stake.' For a dragon stuck in a gear for millennials, he certainly was well informed on our history.

But yeah, aside from her commonly known story, I wasn't that in-depth with her history. In the end, she still ended up becoming a very important person in the history of France.

Considering I was in a magical version of my past reality, I can say for certain that this world's Jeanne D'Arc was someone even more significant.

"I see, that must be impressive...I guess. By the way, my name is Hiki, a wandering tourist who had the misfortune to stumble upon this scene." Just like with Vali, I didn't give her my full name. While I'm grateful for the save, it didn't mean I'll trust her completely.

She may seem all heroic as one of your run-of-the-mill protagonists, I still couldn't trust her just yet.

"A pleasure to meet you Hiki! I am Jeanne D'Arc, descendent of the maiden of Orleans, member of the Hero faction and a fellow human just like you." She gave me a slight bow which I awkwardly returned. 

Why did she repeat herself? She already told me who she was a few seconds ago? Does she have a short-term memory?

"SCREEEEEEE!" 

""...!""

Oh right, we forgot about the abomination with our introduction.

Somehow the monster found a way to free itself from my [Restrict], probably due to that last sneak attack disrupting my concentration this taking down [Delete Field]. Thus returning the monster to its full strength.

I guess this became a two-on-one fight.

We clashed, I flew at the monster, confident at the newcomer to protect my back. I traded blows with my wings and magical spells, cutting off even more of those dangerous tentacles.

Jeanne dashed forward at inhuman speed, her rapier thrusting forward multiple times in a second, increasingly injuring the mister. In its moment of weakness, I kicked its knee caps full force, a sickening crack sounding from my strike. Earning a pained cry from the creature, I used my wings as a battering ram and punched it in the guts, sending it flying away.

Jeanne did not miss out and used an ability I only heard rumours about.

[Blade blacksmith!]

[Light rapier]

The rapier in her hand got replaced by a new one made of gold and light. It's attribute having a similar feeling to Akeno's [Holy Lightning], the band of all devils, holy energy. 'A sacred gear!'

The blade pierced the monster's red core. "SCREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" Its scream was way worse than before, it jumped away, creating a distance between us while trying to lose us and run away. But it couldn't since Jeanne pinned its legs and tentacles with even more swords.

The beast now no longer under the influence of my [Delete Field] moved faster and dodged most of the swords. Fortunately, Jeanne was even faster and successfully pierced the monster many times. I joined in with a few more blunt damage from my kicks and punches, the idea of owning a sword or any weapons, in general, kept increasing.

'Another sneak attack from below!' Warned Vritra.

"Jeanne! Another attack from below!" As soon as I said that, the ground light up with a green coloured magical circle forming with a particular sigil.

"...!"

"That sigil..." I recognized it immediately. "Look out!"

I took Jeanne into my arms not waiting to see if she had a way to escape or not and used my [Prison Wings] to soar high in the sky.

*Boom!*

The entire apartment complex with the half of the neighbourhood exploded in a dome of fire! I had a hard time stabilizing myself from the shockwave but did it in the end. We flew in the air for a bit more, watching the aftermath of our battle, I took in how greatly the numbers of death would have been if this was in a normal area.

"Wow, that was close. Thanks, Hiki, you saved my life there!" Jeanne still in her chipper mood, thanked me for the save.

"No problem," Yeah, I still wasn't used to gratitude from girls yet. Not to mention when I looked at Jeanne's face closer, with remembered her personality and her choice of undergarments, she kinda reminded me of Miura.

A friendly Miura? That's a common sight. But a Miura thankful and friendly towards me? Now that's funny and weird.

Thankfully it was just a small resemblance, they weren't twin-faced in any way...must be the blonde hair as well.

"As a maiden, I should reward you for your endeavour." Wait what? 

"Whu-" 

She showed me a sly smirk before pulling my head close and giving me a chaste kiss on the cheek.

"Darn it, the monster escaped! I'll have to track it down, and be sure it doesn't kill more people." She glared at where the beast once was as the dust settled and it showed that it retreated by going underground. Her rapier disappeared in motes of light after we landed back to the ground, and turned to give me a dazzling smile, as my face still felt hot, "We make a good team Hiki, meet me again here tomorrow, I'll have gathered enough info on the whereabouts of the creature."

"Till then...see ya!" Jeanne jumped off the rooftop and gracefully landed on the streets before disappearing in the shadows of the night. 

. 

. 

. 

"What...the fuck." I was still flustered over that kiss, for god's sake! 

I like keeping my distance from strangers, but to have one suddenly kiss me on the cheeks out of nowhere was a bit too much for me.

"What just happened?" I asked no one but myself.

But I didn't expect a voice to reply from out of nowhere. "Hot damn! You got lucky, kid!"

I turned around to see Azazel sporting a grin on his face. "Not even a day away from your girls and here you are getting close with another one, a sacred gear holder no less. Gotta say, colour me impressed."

After this, I'm going to cleanse myself at a Buddhist temple cause I was surely cursed by protagonist-level misfortune and bad timing. 

... 

Baraquiel's mansion.

Our walk back home felt like I was a kid caught doing something bad, which leads me to be summoned by the principal. Only in this case, I have to deal with Azazel, our last encounter didn't go that well.

"Baraquiel is still busy with some foreign affairs, so it's just you and me tonight." 

Why did you say it like that!?

I feel like I'm am next to a creepy old man planning to do unspeakable things to poor old me. Unless you don't want a kick to the nuts, you better stay at a distance old man.

"Oi, you got that disturbed face again, trust me we're just gonna have a talk over some booze." 

When we returned back to the mansion, joined Azazel in the office room where he had a bottle of expensive-looking liquor prepared with two glasses. "I don't drink."

Though I may be at the age of consent for drinking mentally, I still chose to stay away from it. Their sole purpose is to loosen up people and their emotions, I didn't want to lose control over mine.

"You're no fun, kid." He sounded disappointed, but sorry dude, I ain't changing my decision. "Alright, I got some tropical juice here."

He poured me a glass, I tried a small sip. It was nice, certainly tasted different from those cardboard box juice I bought at the store. The bottle itself looked as fancy to the whiskey one. Another case of supernatural wealth.

"I remembered promising you about the details of why I sent Vali at you, right?" I nodded my head, eager to finally have my answer. "Well, seven years ago, back in our Grigori HQ, a strange event took place."

Seven years? But that's about the time when...

"Of the 3 Vritra gears we had in our possession, I used them for research purposes. The process of how God created these artefacts really fascinated me for a long time. So I wondered, why not try to create an artificial one?"

So the rumours are true, they indeed had the rest of the major pieces while I held the fourth. So then how was I involved in this?

"I performed experiments on Blaze Black Fire, Shadow Prison and...Delete Field." He said the last part while looking at me.

"Pffft!" I spurted out my drink from my mouth in bewilderment! "How is that possible?" I couldn't help but ask.

All sacred holders are born with their gears locked inside their souls. Only through training or high emotional state can they manifest them in real life.

I always believed I just saw happened to be born with [Delete Field]. But if what Azazel said was true, then...

Azazel stare continued on for a few more seconds before he relaxed. " *Sigh* we don't know kid, we seriously don't know. We never heard of a case of an individual naturally gaining a sacred gear they weren't born with."

'Vritra you knew about this?' I asked the Dragon.

'No, I'm afraid this is as much of a shock to me than it is for you. I always thought that my soul remained dormant inside you for years before awakening.'

So even he didn't know about this.

"You must understand my surprise when we tracked down our missing piece in Kuoh of all places. At first, we assumed that it was stolen by our enemies but this was quickly disproven. Instead, I planned to send Vali to recon the area and search out the current wielder, you." Giving a slight swirl of his whiskey, Azazel continued on with his story. "I had explicitly told him to not engage anyone in a hostile manner, but of course, that brat disobeyed my orders. I wanted for you to join us, if possible."

So that is why, but that still didn't explain how I got [Delete Field].

"Another reason why I'm here beside my work is to propose to you an offer." That was unexpected. "I still want to find out how you acquired the gear naturally, in return we will offer you training and resource. On top of that, you'll not be forced to join our faction and stay with the Gremory heiress."

That...that was too good to be true. 

"I'm not lying if that's what you're wondering. We fallens or at least my group, don't want any more conflict between the races, my goal has always been of a peaceful relationship. You still being on the side of the devil while working with us will be the first step." I fiddled with my fingers in contemplation.

This was a lot to take in, I needed time. "Can you give me some time to think over this?" I asked to Azazel.

"Sure no problem, I'm not in any sort of rush."

*Ring* 

*Ring*

The Gurren Lagann opening song ringtone came back and elicitated a snort from Azazel. "Really?" He asked me in amusement.

"It was for a friend!" Try as much to deny it, that smirk still remained plastered on his face.

Not bothering to talk any longer, I checked the caller's ID and nearly had a heart attack. 

Akeno-chan, it showed on the screen.

'Shit! I forgot to talk to her before!'