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Kuroka

Author's Note:

Yo, so I've been gone for a month. I happen to live where both hurricanes hit, so just been dealing with all of that stuff. Lost power for a while, and then I've got work to deal with so it's been a long month. Anyways, the time off gave me a little while to think, and I wanna shake up cannon more in this story, so this arc is going to go in a fun direction I think.

----

"Motohama, get away from her, she's the SS-Class Stray Devil Kuroka," Akeno called out as lightning began to spark around her body. Murayama saw their reactions and summoned Murasame as well, holding the sword at the ready.

"Why so jumpy?" Kuroka asked, unbothered despite his arm barring her neck and everyone preparing for a fight. Koneko was borderline catatonic at this point as she kept trembling, and Motohama, whose attention was solely focused on Kuroka, could see the slight shake in her body language as she noticed how distraught Koneko was.

Akeno was the first to attack, sending a blast of regular lightning directly at the two of them. She was well aware that he was immune at this point, so she didn't bother to hold back on account of him. The lightning landed, and Motohama had a close-up view as an aura surrounded Kuroka and prevented it from damaging her in the slightest.

Seeing this, he followed up by launching a quick punch right at her face. She confidently took it head-on, but when the punch made contact her head shattered the wall behind her and her face became slightly bruised. That caused her to take him a little more seriously and a blast of energy sent Motohama skidding backward, his chest lightly singed but he was otherwise unhurt.

"We can't afford to fight her with Toujou like this, she could get caught in the crossfire. I'll stall, you guys bail," Motohama said to the group.

"We aren't leaving you," Murayama denied. "We can take her together."

Akeno shook her head, a grim expression on her face. "We aren't leaving you here, but we definitely can't take her right now. She's at least Ultimate-Class and none of us are in the weight class yet."

Kuroka let them talk, looking at them with amusement. "Why so serious, I just came here to see what all the fuss was about. A human going a killing some fallen angels draws attention."

That caused Motohama some confusion. "They were small fry, why would that get someone unrelated like you involved?"

"And who says I'm unrelated," Kuroka said coyly.

Motohama considered her body language for a moment, trying to get a read on what her goal was with all of this. She didn't seem to be particularly aggressive at the moment, so he tried to handle this in the easiest way first.

"Fine, you saw me, so we're gonna take our leave now."

Akeno had an arm around Koneko as they tried to slowly back away from Kuroka. Motohama made sure to keep himself in between Kuroka and the rest, so he could be ready to react to any action.

Kuroka tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Well, I wasn't supposed to engage you guys, but somehow you went and figured out who I was."

'Someone is giving her orders, then. If it's related to the Fallen, did she join up with them after she became a Stray?'

She seemed to settle on something in her mind though as she suddenly looked resolved and her body language became aggressive. "Well, since I got found out anyways I might as well take dear Shirone away with me."

Motohama only had a moment to wonder who Shirone was before Kuroka blurred into action. The ground beneath them turned to mud, entrapping most of their feet in the ground, but Motohama had been prepared and jumped off the ground in time to avoid it. 

Kuroka took his opportunity to angle for Koneko, who was staring up at her with wide eyes. Motohama moved, pushing off the side of the building that formed the alleyway and sent himself rocketing at Kuroka to intercept her. Unfortunately, he passed straight through her and realized after a moment that it was an illusion as the girl reappeared a few feet to the side.

Motohama spun on his heel, twisting around and reassessing the situation rapidly. Murayama was completely trapped, as was Asia, neither having any real way to free themselves. Akeno had freed one of her feet, but the other hadn't been free yet and Koneko was completely absent mentally at the moment, with Kuroka reaching out to grab her.

His mind worked overtime, quickly assessing everything and coming to the best course of action.

'Koneko's the target, I need to focus on grabbing her to bring Kuroka to me. She's strong, and I don't think I can beat her in a straight-up fight right now, so I've got to stall for the rest to escape.'

Motohama moved, slamming his fist into the side of the building and collapsing a part of the wall. Grabbing a large chunk of stone, he used his Sacred Gear to make sure his aim was exact as he threw it, sending it sailing through the air with incredible force due to his enhanced strength. The chunk of stone passed right by Koneko, knocking into Kuroka who'd been hidden by an illusion, and shattered on her skin, but the force still sent her skidding away from her target.

He used the opportunity to close the distance, making it to Koneko while Kuroka was temporarily dazed. He swept her up in his arms and looked briefly around him to find that Akeno had managed to free herself and the other two.

"Let's go," he called out and moved with Koneko. He quickly made his way out of the alley, carrying the smaller girl as Asia, Murayama, and Akeno followed him. When he glanced back, he found Kuroka standing silently looking at him, the same teasing grin present on her face. She didn't seem to be giving chase, but the group booked it down the street, ignoring the stares from passersby as they quickly gained some distance.

"We need to alert Rias and Sona," Akeno said as they moved in the direction of the school.

"Got it. I don't think she's interested in chasing us, so we should meet up with everyone and you guys can tell me who the hell that was."

Koneko, in his arms, continued to mutter to herself about the girl. Motohama had easily been able to gather from the conversation that Kuroka was her sister, but he didn't know why she referred to her as Shirone, or why the very sight of the girl sent Koneko spiraling.

----

The group quickly arrived at the Occult Research Club, the door swinging open as they crowded in. Rias had been sitting behind the desk looking over some papers, but when she saw the state they were in, she took one look at Koneko and came over quickly, taking her from Motohama's arms and putting her on the couch as she muttered to her soothingly.

Akeno, meanwhile, summoned a magic circle and got in contact with Sona, asking her to come to them immediately. A teleportation circle formed, and from it, Sona and Tsubaki walked out as well.

"What happened," Sona asked.

"That's what I'd like to know. Who did this to one of my family members?" Rias asked, her aura started to appear due to her emotions.

"Stray Devil Kuroka was here," was all Akeno had to say when Rias' expression grew stricken, while Sona and Tsubaki both had pensive looks.

From there, Akeno detailed everything that had happened while Rias listened, still soothing Koneko. Asia, Murayama, and Motohama found seats on the opposite couch and sat quietly. Muryama was looking down, gripping her skirt tightly as she listened to the account.

"You know there's nothing you could've done right?" Motohama asked her quietly while Akeno talked.

Murayama sighed. "I know, I just felt so useless. You were the only one who could really do anything not stop her, and Akeno helped us all get free, but I just stood there, unable to do anything."

"You stayed near Asia, that's all we needed you to do there," Motohama said. "She's our healer, you always protect the healer. Even if you couldn't help in the fight like that, as long as you were near her Asia was safer. One knick of your sword isn't anything to laugh about."

Asia nodded along as well from her spot next to Muryama. "Yeah, I was scared but it felt a lot safer knowing you were next to me."

'She's surprisingly perceptive despite how naive she is.'

It was then that Akeno finished her story, and the room fell into silence as everyone contemplated what they should do. 

"Can someone give me a rundown on what Kuroka's whole deal is and her relation to Toujou?"

The devils in the room shared a look, but it was the member who had been silent the entire time that chose that moment to speak. "She's my older sister."

Everyone's eyes were drawn to Koneko, who was sitting up and looking grim. "My older sister, Kuroka, murdered her master and massacred his entire house."

Rias took it from there, giving us a brief rundown. Kuroka had gotten drunk on the power of Senjutsu, which was the power Koneko had been asking for help with, apparently, it was an ability possessed by youkai such as Koneko and Kuroka who were Nekoshou. Senjutsu absorbed the world's energy, which included a lot of malice and she'd ended up going mad and killing the Naberius clan member who'd been her master.

Motohama mulled over that information for a moment as he considered what he'd seen from the girl. "She seemed relatively in control from what I could tell. Nothing about her body language was bizarre, and all her actions seemed intentional."

"It's possible that she's gotten better control of it since then, but she's still clearly very dangerous," Rias said grimly.

"So anyone got a plan then?" Motohama asked.

The room fell silent once again as they considered their options. It was Akeno who put forth a suggestion. "We should contact one of your siblings," she said to Sona and Rias.

"Even if I wanted to contact my brother, with my Rating Game in ten days it could be considered a way for him to secretly give me help," Rias answered.

"My sister should be a last resort if we want Kuoh to still be standing afterward," Sona said, but from her body language, he could tell that she really did not want to have to ask her sister for help here. 

"Who exactly are your siblings," Murayama asked the question he was just about to.

"Oh, my brother is Lucifer and Sona's is Leviathan, two of the four Satans," Rias said like it was everyday news.

"What!" Muryama yelled out. 

"Not the original ones mind you. After the original four died, the new Satans were chosen to replace them. My brother, Sirzechs, and Sona's sister, Serafall, are two of those new Satans," Rias continued to explain.

'That is information that seems extremely pertinent and I can't believe I'm just finding out about this now.'

"Well, she said she was here to observe me, so just focus on your Rating Game and I'll handle it," Motohama decided. That immediately drew protests from Akeno, while Koneko looked at him sharply.

"She's too strong," Koneko spoke softly.

Sona took this time to chime in as well. "I agree, she is stronger than any of us and it's our duty to handle this as Kuoh is our territory."

Motohama could see where they were coming from, but wasn't it just easier to have her focus on him? It was his problem, even if Koneko was clearly connected to the woman, and they had bigger fish to fry. Rias' freedom was hanging in the balance, they didn't have the spare time to worry about Kuroka.

"Fine, I'll work with Sona then." He said, before turning to address the Gremory peerage. "You guys have too much going on right now to worry about this. Honestly, I'd just get out of the city for now and focus on training, it looks like I'm going to be preoccupied so you're going to have to keep working on your own."

Rias looked down for a moment, biting her lip as she considered his words. "I did plan to have us go to one of my family's villas to train, but it wouldn't be right to leave it all to you guys. It's my territory too."

"No, he's right Rias. Focus on your problem, I'll work with Motohama's group to deal with it," Sona said.

Akeno clearly didn't look happy with that outcome, and neither did Rias for that matter. Koneko was clearly torn, unsure how to handle the emotional whiplash of the day's events. Right as she resolved to start working past her trauma, the source of her trauma decided to show up and send her spiraling.

Motohama looked up at the time and cursed lightly under his breath. "It's getting late and your dad's going to be wondering where you and Asia are Muryama. I'll walk you guys home and then come back to work with Sitri."

Asia and Murayama shared a brief look and shook their heads. "We want to help, we're not going to just leave it to you," Muryama said.

"What if someone gets hurt? I should be here to heal them," Asia added as well.

Motohama considered their words for a minute, albeit grudgingly. The unfortunate reality was that Murayama simply didn't have the physical stats to do anything to Kuroka, even if her sword would possibly do some damage. Asia's healing would definitely come in handy, but that still meant keeping her away from all the fighting.

"Then why don't Murayama and Asia go with Gremory's group? If someone needs healing then they can go over to you guys, and the two of them have already been training with Akeno anyways," Motohama suggested.

Asia quickly nodded her assent, while Rias agreed as well, the prospect of having a healer while they trained was a good one. Murayama, though, could clearly see what he was trying to do and had a frustrated look on her face.

"Murayama can I talk to you outside before everyone goes off," Motohama said and got up to leave the room. Asia wanted to follow them, but he shot her a pleading look and she quickly relaxed in her seat, allowing Murayama and Motohama to go off on their own.

The two walked in silence as they made their way out of the building and back onto the grounds surrounding it.

"Listen, I know I'm not strong enough yet. I get that, but it just feels crappy to have to hide out while you go off and fight some mad devil," Murayama said.

Motohama considered his words for a moment before he responded. "Frankly, I'd rather not have to deal with any of this at all, but she came after me. It's possible she'd track you guys to your house anyway, so it's for the best that you go with Grmeory."

"Then promise me, next time, when I'm stronger, you'll let me help."

He really didn't want to give that promise. Who knew what the next big opponent would be, but it was also obvious that Murayama really needed something to work towards. Humans just didn't have the same advantages the rest of the supernatural society had. Motohama got by due to being a Heroic Spirit Inheritor, but anyone else was going to struggle to keep up.

"Okay, next time you can help," he agreed after a moment. "I've also got something I need you to do while you're with Gremory."

"What?" Murayama asked confused.

"No matter what, at least for now, don't join her peerage, and don't let Asia join either. I know you want to be stronger, and becoming a devil might help that, but you'd be doing it off a rush of emotions instead of considering the decision. And if you do it, Asia might do it too and that would be forsaking her entire faith."

Going by the way Murayama bit her lip, he could tell she had been considering the option. He didn't necessarily have anything against her joining a peerage, but as her friend, he'd like her to actually think before throwing away her life to serve someone, instead of doing it just because she felt like she was getting left behind.

After a few moments, Murayama resolutely nodded her head. "Okay, I promise."

He gave her a grin and grabbed her hand, beginning to lead her back inside. Murayama began to blush as she looked at him, before shyly looking away. "Good, then let's get inside and get all of this over with."

Unknown to any of them, the very target of their discussion was hidden a way away, and they were watching the building. Kuroka had been using Senjutus to enhance her hearing even further, which allowed her to hear their entire discussion.

"All that worrying, and I'm not even here to cause trouble. They're the ones who blew my cover."

She considered her options for a moment. Her mission was just to observe the kid who killed Raynare's little group, but now that she was here and they'd found her out, maybe it was time to switch gears.

'I can't Shirone's future be taken over by some idiotic marriage. Maybe it's time I sneak back into the Underworld.'