DxD : A New Hero : Chapter 4

I just gave her a shrug in response. "Why are you asking me a question whose answer you already know?"

She stilled for a moment before asking, "My sister sent you here, didn't she?"

I didn't bother replying, I doubt she expected me to anyway.

...

Sona didn't seem to surprise by my response, or lack of it, just upset. She removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose, before exhaling loudly. Though I kept my eyes on her, I noticed from the edge of my eyes how the rest of the Council froze at her reaction.

Sona held her position for several seconds longer before, with one last exhale through her nose, she returned her frames to its proper place, folded her arms and stared straight at me.

"When I persuaded our parents to allow me to attend Kuoh Academy, my sister promised me that she wouldn't interfere. As much as I love her, I will never be able to grow if she tries to hold my hand at everything I do, and Kuoh was supposed to be an opportunity for me to experience life on my own. 

To learn how to take care of myself without my family backing me every step of the way or for my sister to save me the moment something goes wrong." When she first started, she spoke in her usual calm manner, but slowly her control started to slip.

She didn't shout or even approached anything near that level but considering how even-tempered Sona usually was, for her, this was the equivalent of throwing a temper tantrum.

"I am the sole heir of the Sitri Clan, one of the last few remaining Pillars of the Underworld, and one day I'll be expected to lead the entire Clan and all its territory. Yet how does she expect me to do that if she won't even trust me to run one little school?

"When I first informed her about coming here, she told me she understood. The while she didn't like the idea of me so far away from her, she'd respect my decision and wholeheartedly support me. So far, except for sending an occasional familiar to check up on me, she has kept that promise."

"Until now.

"So tell me, Emiya Shirou, why has my sister decided to back out of her promise!"

"Whoa, wait a second. I think you're misunderstanding something here." I quickly stopped her before this mix up gets any further out of hand than it had already had. I knew teenage girls could get a little bit emotionally fickle at times, but I always thought Sona was an exception to that particular rule.

I swear, these two sisters will be the death of me. Even if they appeared to be complete opposites, they had even more in common. That both of their hot button topics were each other just proves it.

"While it's true that your sister sent me here on a mission, I promise you that other than the fact that it's happening in your territory, it doesn't have anything to do with you at all."

"If that's the case then tell me what your mission is."

"I can't tell you—NO, wait, I really can't," I quickly interject as soon as I noticed her face beginning to darken. "It's classified, other than those who are directly participating in it, only the Maou and their Peerage are authorized to know about it."

Which was the honest truth, I wasn't supposed to let anyone know exactly what I was doing here unless I absolutely had to.

Sona scrutinized me through her glasses, no doubt looking for even the slightest hint of deceit. After what felt like a small eternity, she relented.

She seemed to almost physically deflate, slumping over slightly as she relaxed back onto her chair. After a brief moment, she glanced back up at me and, with a slightly embarrassed look on her face, gave me a weary smile.

"Sorry," She mumbled out, "It's just..."

"Don't worry," I said as I waved her apology away, "I understand."

And I really did. I could completely understand where she's coming from. From her point of view, it must have been a minor miracle for her sister to leave her alone for this long, especially when you consider how incredibly overprotective Serafall can be.

Then to have me, a member of her Peerage, arrive out of nowhere without any warning or reason, it's no surprise that she jumped to conclusions. It was only natural for her to be suspicious of how compliant Serafall has been of her demands so far.

Unfortunately for her, her paranoia is well-founded.

At any given time, there are approximately two dozen highly skilled devils that were assigned by both Sirzechs and Serafall to patrol the borders of the city and prevent anything too dangerous from wandering in.

Really, that Sona was willing to believe that both she and the Gremory girl would have been left entirely unguarded even for one single moment just went to show that for all of her intelligence she could be quite naïve at times.

Even if you were willing to ignore that they were both the sole Heirs to two of the most important families in the Underworld, they were still the beloved sisters to the leaders of all Devilkind, the Maou. 

And they honestly expected themselves to be left unguarded while they remain on earth? That's the equivalent of leaving the President's daughters unprotected in a politically unstable country. It's just not going to happen.

Still, I have no intention of letting her find out about this, not from me at least. No way I'm gonna let myself be dragged into that particular mess.

"Anyway," I began after of a quick clearing of my throat, "while I can't give out any details, I can at least assure you that I'm not here to babysit you. I was in fact given explicit orders not to interfere in any way unless it was a matter of life or death. Anything short of that and I'm not allowed to get involved."

"I see." Despite the near-perfect poker face she wore, it was clear that Sona was rather pleased with this particular bit of news. "Yet that doesn't explain why you're here in particular, as in this school. I doubt whatever assignment you're on required you to pose as a high school student."

I nodded my head at that, "That true, but I wasn't lying when I said I never had the chance to graduate."

That had always irritated me for some reason. While it's true that neither my past ambition of becoming a Hero or my current reality of living as a Devil would benefit from me formally getting my high school diploma, the thought of never graduating, especially after all the years of work I put into it, just irks me. 

Especially since I only had a few more month of my formal education left.

Plus, there was only so many times I could take Serafall teasingly calling me a high school drop out before I started to get the hint. You couldn't tell by looking at her, but Serafall takes education quite seriously.

"Part of the reason why I'm actually here is as a cover. Anyone looking will most likely come to the same conclusion as you did when they realize that I was attending the same school as my master's sister and not dig any deeper after that."

"That's a likely assumption." Sona nodded her head in agreement only to pause. She tilted her head in thought, "You said 'part', so is there another reason why you're attending Kuoh?"

"Ah, well." I couldn't help but scratch my cheek in embarrassment at that, "Apparently Serafall wanted us to get to know each other better."

There was a brief moment of silence.

Then, whether at my words or my obvious embarrassment, Sona gave me a faint smile. "I'd like that."

Before the moment could become any more awkward, or embarrassing, I quickly changed the subject.

"Anyway," taking a moment to clear my throat, I subtly tried to scan the room for something to talk about and found one as my eyes landing on the chess set before me. 

"I heard that you're almost old enough to qualify for the rating games. Do you plan on participating in this year's Young Devils Gathering?"

The knowing smile on her face told me she knew exactly what I was trying to do, but decided to play along anyway. "As a matter of fact, I do. I'm not sure if you've heard, but there is going to be an unusually high number of heirs qualifying for this year's gathering. 

It will be the perfect chance for me to test myself and prove my worth to the rest of the underworld. Plus Rias definitely plans to enter and there is no way I'm going to allow her to get one up on me."

Despite Sona's surprisingly childish attitude when it comes to her well-known rivalry with the Gremory heir, I couldn't fault the rest of her reasoning. "And what do you think your odds of winning are?"

"Truthfully?" she asked which I nodded. "Zero."

"Oh~?" Despite my questioning tone, I couldn't help but smile in approval at her response. Unlike many of the younger Devils or even the older ones, Sona has no delusions of grandeur when it comes to her combat capabilities. 

"Why would you say that? Don't you have any confidence in your Peerage's strength?"

"Not at all," There was no hesitation in her replay, "I have the utmost confidence that my Peerage is more than capable of handling anything that they end up facing."

Around us, Sona's Peerage practically preened from her praise, even as they continued to pretend they weren't listening and maintain their charade of working.

Masking my smile at their hijinks, I asked, "So, what's the problem then?"

"The 'problem', as you put it, is the competition." She pushed her glasses by the bridge of the frame-up her nose as she spoke, causing it to flash as it reflected the light.

"I already mentioned that this year's gathering will be unusually large, well, consequently it's also going to be unusually fierce."

Pausing, she shut her eyes and gathered her thoughts, before continuing, "Like every gathering, there are several strong Devils among this year contenders, but there are two that stand out head and shoulders above the crowd."

Lifting one finger in the air, "First, there's Riser Phenex. Despite being well-known as a playboy and minor troublemaker, Riser is undeniably a genius when it comes to using his family's flames. 

His regeneration is at the level that would have taken most Phenex's the better part of a century to reach, and yet he's barely over twenty years old.

"The matches he's participated in this year only solidified that fact. Despite that the majority of his Peerage consist of members with substandard combat abilities, he has won all eight of the matches he's fought in and emerged without a single wound to show for it. 

Three out of the eight opponents he's faced simply resigned when they realized that none of their attacks were able to harm him even after he invited them to freely hit him.

"That doesn't even take his sister into the equation. While less talented in her control over the Phoenix flames than her brothers, she more than makes up for it with her intelligence. Ravel Phenex is a first-class tactician with a gift in small-scale strategy that I can honestly say rivals mine."

I raised an eyebrow at that. Coming from Sona that was quite a high praise indeed.

"While Riser has a more laissez-faire approach to managing his Peerage in battle, which basically consists of him just sitting back and doing nothing, Ravel takes a more hands-on approach.

"Though she doesn't directly participate in the fight, she often leads a part of the Peerage to combat the enemy and helps them coordinate, as all the while she stands back and assesses the enemy's battle style for threats and weaknesses. 

Under her leadership, they were able to win two matches without having Raiser get involved at all.

"Together they form a formidable team that covers each other's weak points rather well.

While they do have some rather large flaws that can be exploited, the raw power of two High-Class Devils in one team makes it almost impossible for any team in their age group to take advantage of it."

I nodded my head in agreement with her assessment. I knew most of this information already, but I had a feeling she was explaining this to her Peerage just as much as she was to me. 

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