Why Angels Fall (part 1)

=======Chapter 7 (part 1)==========

The egg batter sizzled and popped as I poured it onto the heated frying pan. While the omelets were being cooked, I turned my attention to other pan and with a wooden spoon steady stirred the chopped up bell pepper, onion and mushrooms it contained.

It surprised me how much I missed cooking breakfast. I used to do it all the time back home but I didn't have the time since arriving in the city and even in the Underworld I wasn't able to cook as much as I wanted to. I lay the blame on Serafall's household staff.

I swear her Head Chef looked like he was about to have a heart attack when he caught me cooking one morning. Whatever respect or deference he had for as a higher class Devil went out the window the moment I set foot in his kitchen.

Naturally I ignored his repeated pleading and attempts to stop me until one day the poor guy just broke down crying. I think hearing Serafall absently mention that she loved my cooking better than anyone else's was the final straw for him. Turns out he had been cooking for Serafall ever since she was a little girl. There was nothing more awkward than watching a seven foot tall, five hundred year old Devil sobbing like a toddler.

Ever since, I had mostly avoided the kitchen. But now that I have moved into my own place that was no longer a problem. And seeing as today was a weekend I decided to make an extra-large breakfast as a welcoming present for Gasper moving in.

"Asia," I called out to her over my shoulder, "can you please set up the table? The food is almost ready."

"Sure thing Shirou. Table for four coming right up." She cheerfully replied.

I absently nodded as I checked the eggs again. I wasn't sure what kind of food Gasper liked so I decided to play it safe and make a western breakfast, he'd most likely prefer it to a Japanese one seeing he was raised in Europe.

It wasn't my specialty but it was a relatively simple dish so I was confident it would turn out fine. I also made sure cook extra-large portions just in case Gasper was a big eater so there was more than enough to feed him, Asia and me…wait a minute, table for four? There was only three of us.

My spatula froze just half-way through flipping the omelet as I turned and looked over my shoulder into a pair of amber colored eyes that were glittering with suppressed excitement as they stared back at me.

"Koneko, what are you doing here?"

"Hungry." She answered as if that explained everything. Really, what more did I expect?

She was seated on the table next to Gasper, while she held a fork in her right hand and knife in her left. She was wearing a black and violet shirt with a white skirt spotted with violet colored paw prints. A thin chocker was wrapped around her neck with a small plastic flower hanging off it.

Now that I think about it this is the first time I had seen her outside of her school uniform. I had gotten so used to it that I had trouble recognizing her out of it.

"Gasper," if I didn't have my hands full at the moment I would have pinched the bridge of my nose to stave off the building headache, "what are you wearing?"

"A paper bag!" He chirped excitedly. A pair of eerie pink glowing sphere shone out of two eyeholes cut into a brown paper bad that he had placed over his head. It gave the normally childlike Gasper such a malevolent appearance that I had to restrain myself from reflexively smashing him with one of my frying pans. "Koneko gave it for me! Isn't it neat?"

I just deadpanned towards Koneko who gazed back at me with her usually blank face –

Huh?

-Just for sec, I could have sworn that Koneko flashed me an evil looking smirk before it instantly disappeared. No, no I must have imagined it. There is no way Koneko could have made such a face.

After all, Cats aren't evil…right?

"And how do you expect to eat anything with that thing over your head?" I asked.

In reply, Gasper held out a fist before slowly extending his index finger upwards. He rotated his hand to that finger was pointed towards his face, in the direction of where his mouth was. With a quick thrust, he stabbed his finger through the paper bag and poked out a hole over his mouth.

"There," he said after setting down his hand, sounding rather pleased with himself, "now I can eat without taking it off." The newly made hole was being dragged in and out every time he spoke.

Why was every Devil I met insane? Cosplaying Maous, locker teleporting kittens and now cross-dressing paper bag wearing vampires. They just keep getting worse.

After flipping the eggs, I set everything down for the moment and approached Gasper. As I did so my imagination conjured a mini-Serafall, almost like one of the Angel/Devil conscious that you see in cartoons, over my left shoulder and she began to whisper something into my ear.

As I approached Gasper, I held out my hands and projected a particular set of clothing with a matching mask onto them. Crouching down once I reached him so I was eye level I held out the newly made bundle, "Here," I nodded towards my arms, "wear these instead. I'm sure you'd feel more comfortable in it than a paper bag."

Even through the paper bag I could see the way his eyes widened as he recognized what I was holding out. Quickly, he snatched the cloths out of my hands and rushed into one of the side rooms to change while throwing a quick 'Thanks Shirou' over his shoulder.

As the sound of the door slamming shut reached me I turned back to my cooking. Once I was sure Gasper wasn't to return for some reason I asked, "So Koneko, is food the only reason you're here?"

From the corner of my eyes I caught her shrugging as I prepared a new batch of eggs and bacon for Koneko. "Buchou wanted someone to checkup on Gasper," She answered, "I volunteered."

I grinned at that, "And I'm sure that it was Gasper's wellbeing that made you volunteer, not your hunger."

She simply pointed to herself in reply, "Devil. Not Angel."

A chuckle escaped me at that while I thought back to the events of last night. Truthfully what I did was reckless and stupid to say the least and I could have gotten into a lot of trouble for it. But I simply couldn't bring myself to care, consequences be damned.

I'm still surprised that I didn't get into any real trouble as it is. Rias Gremory was surpassingly tolerant once she got over her shock at the situation. Having caught me red-handed, all she needed to do was report me and I'd have been in a shit-storm of trouble.

Yet the worse she did was to give me a stern talking to about what she'll do to me if I mistreated Gasper even the slightest. She didn't outright say it but I had a feeling she felt more than a little bit guiltily for Gasper's situation and blamed herself for her lack of power to look after him.

Well, either that or the way she kept muttering how she was used to the Leviathan's brand of madness after all her sleepovers at Sona's and should have expected it from her Queen. What did Serafall do to those poor girls?

In hindsight I can clearly see her point. While interfering with someone else's Peerage is a serious offence, doubly so when said Peerage member was sealed away because he was too dangerous, can you image everyone's reaction when she reports this? Considering how much her reputation had taken a hit after the Boosted Gear fiasco, how will the council respond when she complains 'He broke his way into my Bishop's room to play video games with him. I caught him red-handed in the act as my bishop was in the process of teabagging him, repeatedly'.

Still I ended up a dodging a bullet there as even in the best case scenario I would have been pulled out from the city and both Serafall's and my reputation would have taken a hit, something we cannot afford right now, if she reported me.

"The table's ready Shirou." Asia called out from where she had been silently setting up the table.

"Perfect timing as I'm just about done." I turned and hollered over my shoulder, "Gasper, foods ready. You better get out here or else Koneko's likely to steal you share." The girl in question didn't even have the decency to look ashamed as she gave a nod of agreement.

A black blur streaked thought the kitchen's entrance and leapt onto the back of Gasper's chair where it perched there like a bird. A black cape that was being held in place by his hands covered Gasper's form from view for the moment before he yelled out and threw his cape wide open, "I AM THE NIGHT!" And revealed his Batman costume

Yes, I gave the Bat-boy a Bat suit.

The imaginary little Serafall that I still had sitting on my shoulder was cackling so hard she ended up falling over backwards causing her to slip off of my shoulder. Even as I heard the imaginary little thump as she hit the ground I could still hear her manic laughter all the way down.

===========x============x============

"Ah~, that's better," she sighed out as she settled down on the sofa, "I apologies for being the first to sit down young Sitri, but these old bones of mine aren't what they used to be."

"It's quite alright," Sona sat across from her as she replied, "I don't believe that now is the time to worry about such things as protocol."

"Ha!" The old nun barked out, "If I was dealing with the old Sitri Heir, protocol would have been thrown out the window no matter what the circumstances may be." She turned towards one of her two companions that were standing on either side of her, "It's a shame you didn't get a chance to meet her Irina, I have a feeling you two would have gotten along."

"Whatever you say boss." The light brown hair girl replied with a cheery smile, though her hard violet eyes never relaxed as she watched the rest of the Council room's occupants. She stood next to the right of the nun and though there was more than enough room on the sofa for her and the other girl, neither opted to sit down. Instead both remained watchful and alert, a contrast to the nun's relaxed and amiable demeanor.

Despite being female, both of the girls that bracketed the nun like book ends were dressing up in black suits with dark blue dress shirt and neckties giving them a mature and professional look in spite of their young age.

The girl on the nun's left side was carrying a golf bag over her left shoulder, although going by how she made sure to keep her gloved hand near its open flap I'd wager that she was had a weapon of some kind hidden inside.

This second girl had chin-length blue hair with a streak of green on the right side of her bangs similar to my white one. Her yellow eyes calmly scanned the room while her entire demeanor projected self-confidence even though she was outnumbered three to one.

However it was the nun that stood out the most of three. Locks of hair, turned snow white with age, escaped her habit and fell down her face. Wrinkles edged her deep blue eyes and the corner of her lips, yet the rest of her face was remarkably smooth. Her hands that gripped the wooden cane before her was strong and hardened with callouses.

Despite her earlier words, it was clear that her age did little to slow her down. One just had to watch how she moved to see the obvious strength she still held within her small frame. And while her grandmotherly smile was genuine, it did little to mask how dangerous she was.

"You know my sister?" Sona politely asked.

"You could say that lass. I and my old friends ran into her a few times when I was just a little bit older than you are now. Of course more often than not we soon ended up running away from her as she started to rain down hails of spikes on our heads. We had an idiot in our group that couldn't resist comparing her to Gabriel and finding her lacking, of course he had to make sure to mention it to her each time we met." Though she was chuckling it was clear that she was being serious.

"Anyway, enough about ancient history. I'm sure you're wondering what we're doing here." Her smile faded a bit as the conversation began to take a more serious turn but it didn't disappear completely.

Sona ignore the tea that Tsubasa placed on the table as adjusted her glasses, "Yes, I admit I'm quite curious," She leaded forward and steepled her hands as she spoke, "for the church to send an exorcist into my territory is not a common event by any means, let alone one of your repute. Even in my generation the name Griselda Quarta holds more than a little weight."

While not as active as she used to be, Griselda Quarta was once of the most feared humans of her generation. Born with neither a Sacred Gear nor high magical potential, she was able to fight her way to the top with her sword skills alone, making her among most powerful exorcist in the Church's history.

Though that alone would have made her dangerous, the real source of her fame occurred about forty years ago when she and three of her comrades, fellow exorcists from the church, were able to take down a powerful Ultimate-Class Devil without a single loss on her side. That all four of them were only human beings without a Sacred Gear between the lot of them only made the accomplishment even more remarkable.

When the guards informed me of her arrival into the city, I drop everything I was doing and made sure to track her every movement from the sky. While I'm far from a skilled flyer and would be hopeless in an aerial battle of any kind, I was good enough to stay afloat from high-up and watch them, though I made sure to maintain my distance in case anyone one of them could sense me.

It quickly became apparent that they were heading towards the school so I decided to get here ahead of them and inform Sona that I happened to spot a couple of exorcists on their way here. And that's how we ended up here in the Student Council room, filled with Sona's entire Peerage, myself and three exorcists.

"Thank you dear." Griselda told Tsubasa as she took her offered tea and took a quick sip before setting it down. "Well, let's get straight to the point shall we? We came here as representatives of the Church to make a request. Well, two requests actually. The first and foremost we require any information you may have pertaining to the missing Excaliburs."

What? From the ripple of surprise that ran through the rest of the Devils in the room, it was clear that I wasn't the only one who was caught off guard.

"The Excaliburs?" Sona, recovering quickly questioned. "What makes you believe we know anything about them? Other than four of them being stolen a few days earlier we have no further knowledge about them."

Though Griselda's little smile was still in place she observed Sona with an almost frightening intensity when she was speaking, before she shut them and physically appeared to relax as some previous hidden tension seemed to leave her body. "So it's true then, looks like you Devils didn't have anything to with it after all." Though she muttered it under her breath is was loud enough for most of the Devils in the room to hear her, if barely.

Opening her eyes again she gave Sona an amiable nod, "In that case we retract the first request, and we'll move straight onto the second one." She paused to take another sip of her tea before continuing, "While I apologize if this sounds rather presumptuous of us, we the Church officially request permission to scout this city, including your territory of course."

"For the Excaliburs," Sona having quickly put the pieces together, "you think they're here?"

"Did you think that this was the first time an Excalibur went missing?" Griselda countered Sona's question with one of her own, "It is only natural for a valuable sword to be stolen if it's wielders were ever to be slain in battle, and yet the Church still fields the Excaliburs instead of storing them in the great vault underneath the Vatican, like all the other valuable but impractical treasures. Have you ever wondered why we do so?"

Sona didn't even need a moment to answer, "You can track them."

"Correct," Griselda beamed at her as if she was a student how got a right answer, "in the last one and a half millennia that the Church has possessed the Excaliburs we have lost them dozens of times yet never for long as you can see we still have all seven pieces. Well," she added with a sheepish smile, "had anyway."

"And you tracked them all the way from Europe to Japan, how?"

She simply gave her a cheesier smile, "We have our ways."

Makes sense why they wouldn't want anyone to know how they tack down the swords. You can't prevent it from working if you have no idea how it worked. Considering that no one has figured it out for over a thousand years it's possible for Griselda herself not to know and is only receiving instructions from the higher ups back in Church.

Sona remained silent for a minute as she digested all this before asking, "Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if I refuse your request?"

"Then the Church will declare you an accessory to the thief." She shrugged, "Sorry dear, but we're pretty sure that the swords are here and the higher ups are desperate to get them back after the embarrassment of having four of them stolen at the same time. Now I can tell you that has never happened before."

If Sona was upset over the implied threat she hid it well, "And you're confident that you can get the Excaliburs back, with just the three of you?"

"Oh don't worry dear," her perpetual smile never wavering, "we have our own trump cards just in case. Permit me to demonstrate you. Irina, Xenovia show them."

At her command the two girls on either side of her withdrew they weapons. The blue haired girl, Xenovia, reached into her golf bag and withdrew a sword. It was long two-handed sword, easily reaching the girls shoulder in length. A pair of axe-like guards bracketed its cross shaped pommel and the tip of the blade ended in three points. The steel of the sword was colored an ash black, with red designs carved into the blade.

The other girl, Irina, simply held out her right hand. A black band that was wrapped around her wrist rippled then slithered down onto the palm of her gloved hand like a snake. Once she took a firm grip on it, it began to shift again. This time it transformed into a golden hilted katana.

Griselda also took the opportunity to reveal her sword. Gripping her wooden cane with both hands, she gave it a quick twist then a pull. The top was of the cane was easily retracted, revealing the naked steel of the blade concealed within the heart of the wood, a sword-cane then.

All around me the Devils in the room visibly flinched and took a step back at the mere sight of the blades. Those of them that were seated pushed themselves back deeper into their chairs in an effort to get as far away from the swords as they could, even Sona was no exception, as entirely primal instinct within them urged them to run and flee. To get away from the things that could end them with so much as a single cut.

"It has always been the Church's policy to hunt down stolen Excaliburs with other Excaliburs." Griselda continued speaking with same friendly smile on her face, as if she hadn't noticed the reactions of the Devils in the room. "After all lass, even if they have gotten their hands on a couple of Holy Swords it doesn't mean that they have anyone capable of wielding them. Holy Sword wielders don't grow on tree you know."

"Pfft!" I clamped a hand over my mouth in an attempt to keep quite but it was no use. Even through my hands the sound of my muffled laughter was loud enough to capture everyone's attention, though I barely noticed. I tried I swear I tried, but I simply couldn't hold it in, "Bwahahahahahahaha!"

For the first time since entering, Griselda completely lost her smile as she shot my chortling frame a bemused look. I was seated on my own over to her left, perpendicular to Sona and herself. "Is something amusing lad?"

"I-I'm sorry," I managed to squeeze out between fits of laughter as I finally began to calm down, "I really am, I didn't mean to laugh. It's just that the way you all look so serious as you refer to those toys in your hands as Excalibur, I could not help but laugh."

It's true. Ever since I heard of the broken Excaliburs, I was worried how I'd react. The very idea of her sword being broken sent shaft of pain through me. What the sight of the fragmented remains would do to me I did not know. Would I break down at the sight of them, be angered at their angry fate or react in a completely different way entirely, I did not know.

But when I set my eyes upon these toys, and they were toys, what else could I do but that laugh at the absurdity of it all. That this entire mad universe I had found myself in would refer to these things as Excaliburs was ludicrous.

They were D rank Noble phantasm at best and that was if I was being extremely generous. Oh sure, their abilities were reasonably impressive and may have earned them a C rank if it weren't for the swords themselves being so very fragile. Strikes that even Kanshou and Bakuya, C- ranked Noble Phantasm, can endure with nothing more than a scratch would cause these toys to shatter in a single blow.

What can I do but laugh at a world that would name these Excalibur?

"Oh," She cocked her head to one side as she gave me the same scrutinizing look she gave Sona a moment ago, "and what makes you call them toys lad?"

"It's just that those swords you are holding are so fragile that I can crush them in the grip of a single hand. That the Church is so desperate for such meaningless toys that it sent some of its best exorcist to traverse half the globe for a weapon I can snap in two with nothing but my own bare hands, and to name such toys Excalibur on top of it all is so utterly ridiculous that I could not help but laugh."

"Stop bluffing Devil." A voice growled out at me. I looked up to find the blue haired exorcist glaring down at me. While the girl had reminded quiet and calm the entire meeting, her temper had clearing been building up since I first broke down laughing and it looked like it a had finally gotten the better of her. "No matter how hard you try to hide it behind false bravado, your kind can't do anything but cower in front of the might of these swords."

Then she swung her sword at me. It was clearly wasn't meant to hit me, the strike would fall short of my face by several inches at least. It was a feint, a weak but fast one-handed blow that was meant to make me recoil and scurry back in fear.

I can already see from the edges of my vision how the rest of the Devils tensed or jumped in reaction to her swing and even Griselda narrowed her eyes in disapproval but didn't otherwise react. Me, I didn't even bother to do anything but raise my right hand and snatch the blade just as it passed my face.

"Bluffing?" I questioned, ignoring her the way her eyes widened with disbelief and instead gave my entire focus to the naked blade I gripped in my hand. "Oh no, I wasn't bluffing. For you see, all I have to do to crush this mockery of a sword is squeeze." I then proceeded to do just that.

A horrible screeched reverberated within the walls of a Student Council room when the metal of the blade screamed under the mounting pressure of my ever tightening grip as hairline fractures began to form. With a single glance I could tell that the blade will shatter entirely if I squeezed just a little bit-

"Shirou!" a voice yelled out to me at the same moment a hand clamped into my shoulder. I turned to see Sona starting at me with half worried and half unsettled eyes, "Shirou," she spoke the words slowly, almost as if she was talking to a particular dull witted child, "would you please not destroy the very valuable and very important sword that our guests from the Church are willing to kill over."

I looked away from her towards the sword in my hand, and then up towards the wide eyed stares of not only the exorcists but the rest of Student Council. "Oh," I muttered lamely before letting go of the sword which was quickly pulled away by its unsettled wieldier.

Alright, it appears that I may have been a tiny bit angrier over the Excalibur issue than I originally thought.

A slight stinging sensation drew my attention to the long but shallow cut that ran through the palm of my hand. I quickly disregarded it however after noticing how the cut had already begun to heal, no doubt a result from them combination of a Devil's mild natural regeneration and the passive effects of Avalon still inside of me kicking in.

I looked up to find most of the room still sending me unsettled stares, Xenovia's was especially wide eyed, expect for Griselda who sent me another of her analytical looks.

"I see," and just like that, her grandmotherly smile returned, "you must be Emiya Shirou. It seems like I have you to thank for being here."

"I don't understand," Sona jumped into the conversation, apparently happy to have a distraction from what happened, "what does Shirou have anything with being here?"

"It's quite simply really. The Church you see is quite aware that both you and the Gremory Heir reside in this this city, and that left the higher ups in a precarious position. As much as they wanted the Holy Swords back, they were unwilling to needlessly risk triggering an entire War over it.

"And that was exactly what they would have been risking if they sent a powerful and large force to a territory owned by not one but two heirs of Pillars and the little sisters of the Maous' to boot. At first some of the higher ups were actually planning on sending just Xenovia and Irina here. One to match you and the other Rias Gremory."

She shook her head in exasperation at that, "Not that I would have let them of course. While I have confidence in the skills of my girls here, sending two wet behind the ears teenager without back up or supervision against an enemy of unknown strength and capabilities would have been the height of insanity. Which meant it was also the most likely scenario to occur seeing that politics was involved.

"Fortunately the solution to our problem fell into our lap when it became apparent that there was another Devil in the city. An Ultimate-Class one at that. Thanks to you presence here I was given the green light to join this little expedition of ours." She finished while giving me a nod.

"Oh? I'm surprised that the Church was even aware I was here, I have been trying to keep a low profile."

Griselda chuckled at that, "Sonny, after all the things you've done since your arrival in the stage of the Three Factions, it would be almost impossible for us not to be on the constant look out for you. Setting aside your completely unknown past before you established yourself as the Leviathan's new Queen, your actions with returning the kidnapped children alone would have been enough to capture our attention." Sona shot me a questioning look at that.

"They were the victims of a Cthulhu Ritual that I stopped." I answered with a shrugged, "While most of them were the children from either from the Extra-Demon Clans and few from among the Low-Class Devil families, several among them were kidnapped human children. I just made sure to return them home afterwards, nothing worth taking note of."

"You'd be surprised sonny on how few Devils would have even gone through the bother of returning them to the human world, let alone personally delivering each child to their family." Amusement coloring her smile for some reason. "And you forgot to mention the fate of the Devils involved."

"Cthulhu Rituals are completely illegal in any form in the Underworld. By law anyone involved in or caught committing such a ritual is automatically outlawed, making them no different than Stray Devils. Again exterminating them was a part of my duty and is nothing worth taking note of."

"If our reports were in anyway accurate, there were almost three hundred Devils that were involved in the incident. Whether in the ritual itself or the kidnapping of the children. And unless all of our sources were mistaken, you personally hunted every last one of them while raining swords upon their heads."

Well, she wasn't wrong. They were already preparing to slice the throat of the first child when I interrupted. It was only thanks to pure luck that none of the children ended up dying. I felt no need to be merciful for those who were willing to commit mass kidnapping and murder for power, doubly so when I discovered a well-established child trafficking ring to be involved.

"A rain of swords huh? I guess your title of 'The Lord of Swords' isn't just for show."

My ear perked up at that. What did she call me? I could have sworn that I heard something really awesome. Does this mean for once I will have title I can be proud of?

"Actually," A voice that I was quickly beginning to learn to hate interrupted the conversation between me and Griselda, "Aniki's called the 'The Queen of Swords' not 'The Lord of Swords'."

"Oh, my apologizes. It seems that there was an error in one of the reports. I'll be sure to correct it and inform the rest of the Church of your proper title when I return."

Saji, you son of bitch!

"Still, to think that old Serafall would have finally gotten herself a Queen, I couldn't believe it when I first heard." She eyed me up and down for a second, "But I guess it was a good thing in the end. That girl needed to get laid for the longest time; I'm glad someone finally came around and popped her cherry."

Poor Sona had just begun to take a sip of her tea when Griselda's words hit her and she ended up doing a perfect spit-take as a result. After sputtering and coughing for a few seconds she managed to crocked out a, "What?"

Which was at least more than I could do, as all I did was gape at the sweet little old lady that just implied I was sleeping with my King. The two Exorcists were in no better state as they just stared incredulously at their superior.

"Boss/Griselda!" They exclaimed, red-faced.

"What?" Griselda didn't seem to be the slightest bit disturbed by how the rest of the room's occupants were staring at her as she calmly enjoyed her tea, "It's true. I don't know if Serafall ever had a man before but if she did it sure as hell was a long time ago. So long that I wouldn't be surprised if she grew her virginity back."

"Still," the twin tailed exorcists tried to reprimanded her, though the effect was ruined by her cherry red blush she was sporting, "you shouldn't talk about such things. You're a nun for Christ's sake."

"So? I wasn't always a nun you know. Did you think I came out of my mother's womb old or something? There once was a time when I was young and boy crazy too. Hell, I think it's you two with the problem here. You're going to be taking your vows soon; you girls need to live a little before them. Trust me there is nothing like riding a man or three to utter exhaustion to make you feel alive. One of the most enjoyable experiences in my old life I tell you." She finished with a nostalgic smile on her face and her eyes lost their focused as she lost herself in old memories.

…I am never going to be able to look at sweet little old ladies the same way again.

"Anyway!" Sona voice sounded a little bit too loud to be natural as she attempted what was a clearly blatant effort to change the topic, "you have my permission to enter my territory as long as you don't interfere in anything unrelated to your hunt for the Excaliburs and leave as soon as you're finished."

"Ah," Griselda nodded cheerful at that, "that's more than fair. Thank you dear for co-operating with us." Using her cane as a crutch, she pushed herself up to a standing position. "Before we leave, you wouldn't happen to know where we can find Rias Gremory. We expected to find her here in the school with you but as you can see she's nowhere to be found."

"If you head to the back of the school you'll find a patch of woods, in the middle of it is the old school building. You should find her there."

She nodded towards Sona, "Thank you again for hospitality. We'll get this whole mess settled out and be out of your hair as soon as we can." She was about to turn to leave before she looked like she remembered something.

"Oh and sonny," She turned towards me, "I'm sorry for how little Xenovia here acted. But don't worry, I promise you she'll be properly disciplined so that she'll never make the same mistake again." Xenovia froze rigid at her words and sweat actually began to breakout on her faces despite the coolness of the room.

"Still, I admit that this has gone a lot better than I hoped." Griselda stated as she began to make her way out of the room with the two girls trailing behind her, though Xenovia was walking far too stiffly to be natural. "If the meeting with Gremory goes just as smoothly we may have time to visit that boy of yours Irina. What was his name again? Is-shat?"

"It's Issei Boss." Irina corrected.

"Issei?" I interrupted when I heard the familiar name, "You wouldn't be talking about Hyoudou Issei by any chance?"

Irina turned and locked her violet eyes onto me. "Yes," she spoke cautiously, "do you know him?"

Well, this was gonna be awkward. While I wasn't sure about the details it was clear that this girl knew Issei and it was equally clear than she was unaware of his new statues as a Devil. How do you tell a girl that a friend of hers has been turned to one of the very creatures she has dedicated her life to slaying?

"Let's just say that you'll be seeing him sooner than you expect." I replied, decided that there was no point in hiding it, "Issei was reincarnated as Gremory's new Pawn a couple of weeks ago."

"…I see," Though she tried to hide it, it was clear she was saddened at the news, "What about the others? Did the same thing happen to them?"

I had no idea who she was talking about but I waved my arms to indicate the entire room, "As far as I know the only other humans that were reincarnated in this city are in this room."

She let loose a sigh of relief at that, "That's good, at least the others are OK." She turned back to Griselda, "Well boss, looks like I won't be able to hang out with Issei but my other friends should be fine. Maybe I'll go see how Kara-nee is doing after we're done."

"Sure we will, it's not often you get to visit your hometown in our line of work. You better enjoy it while you still can." Tsubasa trailed after them and shut the door behind them as soon as they stepped out of the Council room. The remaining occupants of the room physically relaxed and the atmosphere became less strained as soon as the unexpected guests had departed.

They weren't allowed to navigate the school unsupervised of course. Sona had already sent her Peerage's familiars to track them ever since they set foot on school ground and will continue to do while they remain in the city. I had no doubt that they, or at the very least Griselda, were aware of them but they could do a thing about them, not if they wanted things to stay peaceful between us.

"You know," Sona took off her glassed and massaged her eyes as she spoke, "this wasn't what I expected to do when I woke up this morning."

"That's what makes life interesting Sona," I tried to cheer her up, "can you imagine how boring life would be if you knew how your entire day would be the moment you open your eyes in the morning?"

"Better than waking up to find something like this dropped into my lap." She replaced her glasses and faced me, "And despite her cordial manner it was clear that Griselda was trying to warn us off."

"So you caught that too did you? Yeah, they wouldn't have revealed the swords to us so eagerly if they didn't want to scare us away. Though I have to admit that was perhaps the most polite way I had ever been told to back off before."

"Be truthful with me Shirou, how dangerous are they and what are our chances on taking them if they decide to get hostile? I couldn't get a good enough read on them from the swords they were carrying."

"They were strong Sona, Griselda far more than the other two." I decided to be frank with her. Sona was the type who functioned better with more information than less, no matter how unfavorable the situation was. "The two girls, you and the rest would have probably been able to take with little difficulty if they had ordinary swords. However going by how all of you reacted just by standing in the presence of the Excaliburs, you might only be able take one of them on at once, even then you'd risk losing a member or two of your Peerage at very least."

She grimaced at that before nodding, "And Griselda?"

"Run," I told her, "I'm not joking Sona just run. She isn't someone you can ever hope to face in battle and live. Old or not, as long as she had that sword in her hands she could take on both your and Gremory's entire Peerage at the same time and win without so much as a single wound to show for it."

I wasn't even exaggerating. Out of the three of them she was the only one to have truly mastered her sword, the other two have barely learned to use it beyond the basics. And the things she could do with that blade were almost frightening, even for by my standards. In some ways she reminded me of assassin, her speed of her strikes were simply that fast. Combined with the powers of Excalibur Rapidly and she was a speed demon.

Then there was the Xenovia, there was something off about that girl. As far as I can tell, the first time she had ever held that sword of hers was less than four days ago. Yet from what little practice she was able to squeeze in with it, it looked like she was already familiar with how her sword worked to an almost instinctive level. Even for a skilled swordsman you can't reach that level of familiarity with such an unusual sword unless you put in dozens of hours' worth of hands-on training, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

"I see." She shut her eyes as she processed this, "And what about you? How would you fare against them if the worst occurs?"

I snorted at that, "Sona, as long as I'm not caught off guard I could take all three of them at once." Unlike the others I wasn't handicapped by the presence of the Holy Swords, so to me they are little more than ordinary humans.

Even before my transformation into a Devil I could have physically outperformed any one of them with reinforcement alone. As a Maou's Queen the gap in pure physical abilities would have made it almost impossible for them to have a chance. Factor in that they were swordsmen with blades inferior to my own and it'll be a massacre.

"We have that going for us at the very least. Still, what I don't understand is why the Excaliburs would even end up here. The influence of the Church may be weaker in Japan than the rest of the world but that applies to the rest of three-factions as well. Which means outside of Kyoto, there is nothing preventing the Church from sending its hunters here.

"So why did they try to hide out here. Politically there is nothing in Japan that can protect the thieves from the Church's wrath. That's not even tackling the issues of who stole the swords and why?"

I said nothing as I only half-heartedly listen to the rest of what Sona was saying as I came to a realization, one that I should have made days ago. I may not know why the swords were stolen, the who on the other hand was an entirely different matter.

===========x===============x=============

Really?

I mean really? I know it was my fault for asking if it were possible for my life to get anymore insane that it already was but I didn't expect the universe to take it as a personal challenge. I swear if I didn't know God was dead I'd have been convinced that some higher power was trying to screw with me.

There sitting in the park bench before me was Asia, laughing and talking animatedly with the person she was sharing the bench with. She was so immersed in the discussion that she hasn't even noticed that I was here. Now that in itself wouldn't have been a strange occurrence. Asia always had a knack for starting up conversation with complete and utter strangers and in a matter of minutes they would end up talking like old friends.

No, it wasn't what she was doing that surprised me but who she was doing it with that was the problem

I turned to look at the person sharing the bench with Asia. Kokabiel. The Fallen Angel himself Kokabiel was sitting right next to Asia, less than an arm's length away. And the guy looked like he was having the time of his life. Have you heard an Angel laugh? No, not laugh but giggle. That was what Kokabiel was doing, giggling his little Fallen ass off as he swapped stories with Asia.

As Asia gestured enthusiastically with her arms, something that she held in her hands caught my attention. Is that a –

"Yahoo~, Shirou." She cheerfully called out to me, waving her hands in an attempt to catch my attention even though I was less than six yards away and staring right at her.

Yup, that was definitely a can of beer alright. And going by the other one in Kokabiel's hand it looks like she decided to share. Oh Joy.

=======Chapter End========

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