New Home? (2/2).

Up in Takamagahara, Amaterasu was thinking about the young man that had suddenly shown up in her garden. When he first arrived, she had felt an extremely powerful presence coming from him. It had vanished when he entered Sage Mode, but she had definitely felt it. It was as similar to her own powers as it was different. All the leaders of the pantheons were the lord of their realms. What most of the supernatural didn't know was that becoming a lord wasn't that simple.

You either had to be chosen by the realm itself, defeat the previous lord at their strongest thus proving yourself to the realm or the previous lord transfer their lordship to you by killing themselves. Takamagahara, Asgard, Mount Olympus, Heaven, Hell/Underworld were all examples of such realms, with heaven and hell being the largest and were divided between different pantheons.

The God of the christian pantheon had taken the largest part of heaven under his rule after becoming the lord. He had such great control over it that he had divided it into 7 sub-realms and made some of his seraphims the pseudo lords of these sub-realms and Michael, his only arch-angel into a vice lord. There was also Indra, the Hindu God King, who had near perfect control over his realm.

The only one else who had anywhere near such control over a realm was Helel or Lucifer. He did similar thing to Yhwach and while he couldn't divide hell into seven parts, he did create an upper and lower layer. The upper layer, called underworld, was where all the supernatural species lived and the lower layer, called hell, was where the sinners of different pantheons were sent to be punished.

Besides that, he also created the Seven Lords or Seven Sins. He himself became the Sin of Pride, with Leviathan, Beelzebub and Asmodeus being the Lust, Greed and Sloth. No one was sure why the other three sins were left alone.

Basically, what she had felt from the young man was a power similar to a lord of a realm. There were still many other realms out there besides the ones already occupied. Many of them didn't have a Lord. No one knew how these unclaimed realms chose their lords, but it was possible that the young man had been chosen without his knowledge. It was simply impossible for one lord to mistake another lords power and the one that chose him was powerful.

That is why, after some deliberation, she had decided to ask Yasaka to keep him close. She had simply told her that he had the potential to become a god level being and having an ally like that was always good. Inari had also taken a liking to him. She had been actively trying to get to know him better, she didn't stop that of course. She had already given Inari permission to leave Takamagahara to stay with him permanently. Inari had sputtered for a few minutes before agreeing that she had been taken with him.

Of course she had asked Inari why she was so taken with Ichigo and why it had happened in such a short time. Inari had answered. It was a well known fact that due to being the goddess of smithing, she could understand at the slightest touch what a sword was used for. According to Inari, when she had examined his weapon, it had been created to protect, wielded to protect and in the end it broke to protect. Even though he had failed to protect his people, he still wanted to restore the weapon to protect anyone he might come to love in this new place. Apparently having such devotion to protecting others had won her heart.

Inari would soon leave Takamagahara after delegating her duties to someone else. That was also good. If she succeeded, Takamagahara would have a direct relation with another Realm Lord, even if he was still a fledgling. Having such a connection could prove to be a problem, but the benefits far outweighed whatever problems it could cause. Besides, she wanted some nieces and nephews to spoil. Now the only thing remaining was to find what realm had taken a liking to him.

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After nearly a month of visiting him, Inari had simply started staying with him in a guest room besides his own. He also learned a lot about this world from her and he wouldn't hesitate to call her a friend. He learned about the different pantheons, their gods, the different monsters, the realms, angels, fallen angels, devils. The great war, the devil's civil war, their evil piece and peerage system. Top ten strongest beings in this world. The topic he was most interested in though were the dragons. The five dragon kings, the evil dragons.

The first two spots of the strongest beings were also taken by dragons. Great Red, the Dragon of Dragons or the Dragon of Dreams and Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon or the Dragon of Infinity. The god of Christianity who had created something called Sacred Gears that were only 'bestowed upon' humans. In his opinion, the sacred gears made humans an even bigger targets than they already were. He had heard about how humans were treated before their population exploded. The few humans strong enough were already affiliated with a group.

The more he heard about this world, the more his desire to travel and find a place for himself increased, even though he had been here for only a month and would stay for another two, he would be a bit sad to leave the few people he had come to know here but it was something he wanted to do. He had already talked to Yasaka, Kunou and Inari about it. Yasaka had wished him luck for when he leaves, Kunou was sad and he had to promise her that he would return once in a while to make her talk to him again. Though he was already sure that he would come back, because even if this wasn't his Japan, it was still Japan.

Inari had, on the other hand, said that she would go with him. He was of course surprised and had asked her about her duties but she assured him that it would be taken care of by the time he, rather they would leave.

Just a few days later, Yasaka had informed them that a few devils would be coming soon to negotiate for a piece of land and possibly a peace treaty. She had asked for both of them to be there when that happens and since Kunou would be there with her, Ichigo would be fulfilling his part of the deal. They agreed and, formed a simple plan, well Yasaka and Inari did, he was just a spectator. A few hours later, one of her guards announced the arrival of Maou Lucifer and Maou Leviathan. They came alone without any escorts. They probably didn't need escorts. Both of them were strong and Sirzechs Lucifer was on the top ten list.

As the guards escorted the two maous to the office, Ichigo and Kunou made themselves comfortable behind Yasaka and Inari. The two that entered the office were surprisingly young and beautiful. Even the male devil could be described as beautiful, let alone the female one. The male had long and straight red hair with blue green eyes, wearing a formal white three piece suit and had a courteous smile on his face.

The female on the other hand was more cute than beautiful. She had long black hair tied in twin-tails with pink ribbons. She had large blue eyes that were wandering everywhere. She was wearing a tight green top with a ribbon on her collar and a black skirt reaching just above her knees. Her smile was also more childish and happy than the male devil's.

It was hard to believe just by seeing them that these two, with two more, had led a civil war against their own, more violent and blood-thirsty, brethren. Before he had anymore time to think, Yasaka welcomed them.

"Sirzechs-dono, Serafall-dono, welcome to the Youkai Capital of Kyoto. It is nice to finally meet you two." Yasaka said with a smile.

"Thank you for the warm welcome Yasaka-hime. It is nice to meet you as well. I believe that this meeting has been long overdue, so let us not waste each other's valuable time." Sirzechs replied with the same smile.

"Yes, I believe that you and your family members have occupied a small town and made a few changes without a proper agreement." Yasaka replied happily.

Yasaka had already been told to give them the town to promote better relationship between them by Amaterasu. But the devils didn't know that and Inari had proposed a simple plan to gain slight benefits.

"Ah yes. We got a little impatient. We had sent a request to tell you about the changes we wanted to make, but we never received a reply. So, we had believed that you wouldn't care about some small changes happening in a small town." Sirzechs replied. They were devils. They wouldn't outright accept that they had made a mistake.

"Right Yasaka-chan. I especially sent one of my own to deliver the request directly to you. Did you perhaps not receive it?" Serafall replied cheerfully.

"I did receive your request, but the ownership of a whole town is not something I can simply give others, I do not have the authority. The request had to go up and approved by Takamagahara. To make up for such a delay, we even have a representative from Takamagahara here with the answer to your request." Yasaka replied with a sigh, but it was clear to all of them that it was fake.

The devils appeared surprised for a second before composing themselves. They probably hadn't expected someone from Takamagahara to appear in front of them. Inari was here for a completely different reason, but she had agreed to help Yasaka, so she would. She slid forward and introduced herself.

"I am Inari-Okami, the Japanese Goddess of Rice, Wine, Fertility and everything prosperous. Takamagahara has a simple request in return for allowing you full ownership of Kuoh town. That means you may do whatever you want with it besides killing or disturbing the humans that already live there. That also means that should you find a sacred gear user in Kuoh, you may recruit them in your peerages." Inari replied quickly and precisely.

The devils seemed to think over it before replying.

"What does Takamagahara want in return?" Sirzechs replied seriously.

"We would like monthly access to the familiar forest as well as some metals mined from the Astaroth clan. Two kilos of each would suffice." Inari replied. The devils once again seemed surprised.

"That is a surprisingly low price. Is Takamagahara really happy with just that?" Sirzechs asked. The access to familiar forest was very easy. They could cut some time for their own families and allow them to use their time. While the metals mined from Astaroth clan were rare, both their families and they themselves had collected a lot of them over the years. If this was all they wanted, then they wouldn't even have to bring the other maou into this.

"Yes and no. We would like one more thing." Inari spoke up.

"Of course. What would you like." Sirzechs replied.

"We would like two permits to enter and exit any devil territory at any time." Inari stated. Sirzechs seemed to think for a while before looking at Serafall.

"That is doable, but it will take some time and I would like whoever you send to not cause too much trouble." Ah, if he had kept his mouth shut, they would have gotten their way with a very small, near insignificant price. The second part of the deal was also easy, but if the ones they send cause trouble, it will be on them to clean that mess up.

"Ah, you don't have to worry about that, we have some time before we leave, the ones using those permits will be me and Ichigo-kun here." Inari replied with a smile. All the things they had gained from this deal were extras. Amaterasu had already told Yasaka to give them the town to increase devil and youkai relationship.

Even though they had gotten an extremely good deal, all things considered. For some reason, Sirzechs felt like he had lost. Serafall on the other hand was paying more attention to the young man introduced as Ichigo. To her, it was clear that Inari had gotten the permits for him rather than herself. That and her eyes had constantly drifted towards the young man. She wanted to know who he was, to be able to charm a goddess, that was not a small feat.