The Red Eyed Queen (Rewrite)

[siddharth1998m]

Chapter-2
Market Area in Kuoh

"Thank you for your patronage customer" the cashier thanked Akane on her way out. The shop's automatic door closed behind her back, leaving her outside with a new cellphone in one hand, and a plastic bag in another.

It was evening time in Kuoh, and the market area was bustling with people. Akane happened to be one of them, shopping for groceries and other items she was going to need back at her apartment. She was about to wrap up her little shopping spree, only one position was left on her list, she'd get it and head back to her apartment.

All things considered, Akane couldn't have asked for a better apartment, she really needed to thank Ms. Yamada the next time she met her. While small, the apartment suited her needs perfectly. At first, she was a little afraid about other occupants of the apartment complex, but none of them bothered her or tried to welcome her in, it was great. The location was nearby Kuoh Academy something she guessed sold Ms. Yamada on renting it out for her, it was also conveniently suited to her current needs.

"Good evening Miss. What can I do for you?" The shopkeeper of the flower shop greeted her when she entered

"I want two bouquets made, one mixed with Festive red poinsettias, white roses, and pinecones, and the other with bright white, pink and yellow daisies mixed in with some yellow daffodils" Akane gave the shopkeeper her order, behind the counter the shopkeeper immediately started preparing the bouquets for her with more energy than could have been expected from an old lady like her. Akane busied herself with browsing through the shop.

RING!!RING!! Her new cellphone went off stopping her in her tracks. She slowly pulled out her cellphone from her pocket. She just got the number, and she didn't recognize the caller's number beside. Who could it possibly be?

"Hello?" Akane said picking up the call, suspicion laced in her voice

"So you finally left huh.." the familiar charismatic voice of a certain fallen angel greeted her "Can't say I'm surprised but you should have at least called me first" he added

"What do you want Azazel?" Akane asked, not even bothering to ask how he got her number

"Now Now, I'm just… calling to check up on how you're doing? It must've been hard for you to leave your friends and colleagues behind for your pursuit for power" Azazel replied in an artificial sympathetic tone

"Don't waste my time with your inane phoniness Azazel. Get to the point." Akane asked, trying to ignore his snide remarks

"I have a job for you" Azazel replied after a brief moment of silence, it only made Akane laugh a little

"I've not even been out of the church's sights for a few days, and you are already asking me favors Azazel." Akane said in amusement "Are you still mad at me for leaving?"

"Miss, should I add a greeting card to the bouquets," the shopkeeper asked, she looked like she was mostly done. Akane waved her hand and mouthed a silent no.

"Well, now I have to jump through fewer hoops to get in contact with you, so that's kind of less annoying. But I'm not asking you to do me a favor, it's a job, for which you will be paid handsomely"

"Money is of little use to me Azazel. I thought you knew that by now." Akane replied, hoping her tone annoyed the Governor General "If you want me to do the job you already know my price," She smiled hearing a low annoyed growl from the other side.

"Fine, I'll have them moved to your apartment once the job is done. Deal?" Azazel asked

"Deal." she replied while paying with her credit card "So what's the job Azazel?" She asked as she received both the receipt and the bouquets. A thank you and a small bow and she was out of the shop.

"Well your job is to keep an eye on a few fallen angels I have sent to Kuoh" Azazel informs

"Azazel.." Akane groaned dreading the mission already "Please tell me you're not asking me to babysit your fallen angel"

"No No No, anybody could have done the job if that was the case. No, this job requires your ah peculiar expertise" Azazel said in a dubious tone, it caught her off guard "My peculiar expertise? An assassination contract then" Akane thought to herself

"…Go on," She told him her apartment building was drawing near

"Not on the phone, get back to your apartment a package will be waiting for you in your mailbox" And with that Azazel ended the call, leaving Akane alone to wonder what kind of job Azazel had for her that required that many precautionary measures.
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She got back to her apartment within the next ten minutes. After locking all the doors and shutting down all the curtains present in her apartment. She sat on her living room sofa, the black box was laying on the tea table in front of her. No buttons, no switches, no way to open it from any side.

"Goddamnit Azazel, what am I supposed to do here? Does your all of your inventions have to be so god damn complicated?" Akane growled in frustration and placed the box back at the table, not being able to find a way to activate it.

"Voice recognition confirmed: -Subject- 03071998 Akane Orimura" A voice spoke from the box before its top started to move in a circular motion outwards, an orb started to rise from inside a slowly stopped in mid-air.

"You're here, good" a tall man appearing to be in his twenties with an average build, black hair, golden bangs and black goatee dressed in a knee-length dark blue blazer with a light blue dress shirt, a black waistcoat, and a red tie. He wore faded-purple slacks and black dress shoes appeared by the side of Akane's sofa he looked like he was present in the room but a few flickers in his image made it clear that it was a hologram.

"So tell me, what's so important about this job that you have to do all this nonsense," Akane asked him picking a soft drink can out of the plastic bag she had brought home.

Azazel sighed "In the last few months dead bodies of potential sacred gear users have been found all around the world, all of them have one thing in common, all of them were being followed by fallen angels" he informed her while pulling up full-body scans of the dead bodies, making them appear before her. All of them were around the age of seventeen to twenty-three, with no visible signs of trauma.

"Cause of death?" She took a sip of her drink while scrolling through the dead bodies

"Well some of them have GSWs and some died from stab wounds," Azazel said as the case files started to separate into three categories. Akane took out a body of a stab victim and placed the hologram next to the other body she was going through.

"Well, this is not a light spear wound" Akane remarked, "Whoever killed this guy did a really sloppy job, something a fallen angel would never do. You tend to go for sweet spots like larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidney or heart you don't stab your victims repeatedly in the stomach like that, yeah it works but it's sloppy."

"So, you're suspecting the bodies with no visible trauma present died because they got their sacred gears extracted," Akane asked him as she sat back

"It would explain the cause of death" Azazel replied stroking his goatee

"So why are you not tracking those sacred gears. There were rumors of you building a machine that could track down sacred gears for years' now, this report just cements those rumors for me"

"You really need to learn about keeping your ears to yourself" Azazel said, his eyes twitching in annoyance "the machine was made to track potential sacred gear users, not sacred gears themselves. Mostly because it's impossible to track down sacred gears individually, after being extracted from their fated user they start to wither away until they're back in the Law of Cycles waiting for their new user" Azazel explained

"How long does the withering process take?" she asked throwing away the now empty soft drink can in the dustbin.
"By my estimates, a year and a half and that's what concerns me, all these murders were unnecessary, especially because gathering sacred gears is useless if you don't take their user with them. Yes, it's a slow process training them, but it wields long-lasting results later on. This, on the other hand, looks like a quick gathering of arms and ammunition" Azazel explained his concerns

"Someone's preparing for a possible conflict, for a war" Akane theorized getting a nod from Azazel

"That's the same conclusion Baraqiel and I came to as well. Although seeing the situation at hand a mutiny amongst the Fallen is much more likely" Azazel replied, making Akane massage her head as she tried to soothe the headache this job was causing her.

"Do you have a suspect, a possible culprit?" Akane asked

"The Fallen are a family both in figurative and literal ways. How can I suspect someone from my own family?" Azazel replied, his voice showing the pain suspecting someone from the Grigori caused him

"Did you at least question the Fallen who have been involved in these cases?"

"We did, but it gave us nothing, none of them knew anything regarding the situation. Now, whether they were lying or not only time will tell" he replied

"So what do you want me to do here Azazel? From the looks of things, this is some serious Grigori business, and I'm an outsider here"

Azazel snapped his finger, and four profiles appeared in front of Akane "These four are coming to Kuoh Tomorrow, all have been involved with the murdered in some capacity and while we do not suspect them we also haven't exonerated them yet" Azazel added

"So they're coming here to follow a sacred gear user right?" Akane asked as she read through their leader's profile, a female fallen named Raynare

"Not just any sacred gear, Longinus class. They've been ordered to follow and get a feel of the guy, they're cleared to study and even recruit him if they find him suitable for the Grigori" Azazel informed her "Your job is to follow them around without being noticed and see if they are following my orders, if they do, good, it narrows down our search, but if not you're to tail them until you have enough evidence and capture them so I and Baraqiel can interrogate them in private, find out who is responsible for this mess" Azazel told her, a pair of glasses black-framed appeared from the side of the black box.

"Use those to gather evidence on the case, there's a button placed in the frame which will let you take photographs of anything you are seeing, don't worry about the lighting or focus just point and click and the glasses will do all that work for you. A copy of all the photos taken will be sent to me directly so you don't have to worry about dropping of the evidence either" she heard pride in his voice, sort of like a soccer mom talking about her little boy's newest field accomplishment "It's not all they can do, of course, play around with them see which settings work for you" the Governor-General of the Grigori continued to gush about his invention

"Do you have any idea about where they will be staying?" She asked putting the glasses away

"No, it's not a high profile mission for them so I don't know where they will be staying. Though there is a high chance they will choose a place close to the Longinus user." Azazel answered

"Okay, who is the Longinus user exactly and which Longinus he carries, if I know who they are and where they live my job will be far easier don't you think?"

"How the hell would I know that? The machine doesn't tell me the user's identity, if I knew that I'd snatch them up before the pigeons or the bats would have the chance to lift a finger, oh and before the murderer would be able to act, that too. But no, it just lets me know that user lives in Kuoh, and come on, it's a Longinus user you will know exactly who he is when you find him" Azazel replied

"Yeah about that machine Azazel. You are going to destroy it as well as burn its plans after this is over right?"

"Hehehe, looks like that has been a popular opinion today, first Baraqiel, now you" Azazel said in an amused tone

"Well, you creative sorts need someone to reign you in otherwise the Frankenstein's monster would become a reality" Akane replied sarcastically "That machine is a disaster waiting to happen Azazel, you know what would happen if the machine falls into the wrong hands. Destroy it while it's in yours" Akane warned him

"Yeah nobody would like a re-run of Frankenstein, it breaks an inventor's heart to destroy his babies but I already decided to get rid of it beforehand you've nothing to worry about Akane, anyway I gotta go so…, sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite and all that jazz" she only noded for goodbye before his hologram disappeared.

"The Black Box will self-destruct in five seconds" the message from the box made Akane chuckle. After the five-second countdown was over the box disintegrated on the tea table leaving no trace of ever being there.

"He really needs to stop watching Mission Impossible" She got up from the sofa to check what time it was.

"8:00 pm I guess I should get things done tonight. Don't know if I will get any free time after today" she muttered, taking the two bouquets with her she left the Apartment.
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Beta Reader:- Polkxe

 

[siddharth1998m]

Chapter-3
Kuoh Cemetery
10:30 P.M

The cemetery in Kuoh was situated at the foothills of the Hilly areas in Kuoh, it was a beautiful place which attracted the people of that area to use it for Strolls which kept it bustling with people all day.

At the moment it was deserted mostly because the handler of cemetery tends to close the gate after 7:30 PM. Thought at the moment the Handlers can be seen lying headfirst on the ground knocked near the gates of the cemetery.
Inside the cemetery, the lone figure of Akane can be seen standing before two graves, where on each one she had placed two beautifully made bouquets she had bought earlier in the evening.

Her family had been serving the Kuoh shrine form the day this town was founded and thus they had a special area in the cemetery where the members of her family's remains where put to rest It was where her Father and Grandmother remains where put to rest after their deaths.

Akane was not sure how she should feel or what she should do in front of her Father and Grandmother's Grave. She had seen people interact in front of their family members or loved one's grave, some tended to cry or Smile sadly and reminisce about their time spent together with the deceased individual some would either try to talk with them. She once even encountered a Guy having a barbeque with even a small portable TV in front of his father's Grave when she asked him what he was doing he simply answered "Just watching the Superbowl with my Pops like always" before offering her a hotdog and having her join them for the game.

She envied them as to her standing before the grave of her father and grandmother did not bring sorrow she couldn't reminisce about her time spend with them heck she couldn't even remember what activities or traditions she and her father used to do for fun before his death.

No, to her standing before their graves only brought out the anger. While she couldn't have done anything to save her father from the house fire as it was a miracle that she survived that fire. No, it was her grandmother's murder that could have been avoided if she bothered to train her in fighting rather than in healing and how to be a shrine maiden. This was the fact that made her angry towards her Grandmother, she knew that her father's death in that house fire was no mere accident and culprit may come after her next. But No!! she was convinced that she would live a peaceful life of a shrine maiden something even convinced Akane to pursue something she in childish naivety followed through and Look where Her Grandmother peaceful ways resulted in, her murder where Akane could not do anything but cry tears of blood and despair.

A beeping noise coming from Azazel's glasses draw her attention she takes the glasses out of her pocket puts them on to see why is It making those noises. The beeping noise stops as she puts them on she finds out that the glasses had an inbuilt transparent screen of sorts that registered her ocular movement to operate the system which was showing her some feeds, one feed that drew her attention was a possible disturbance in Purgatorio near her location.

"My My Azazel you really are a genius to minimize the function that requires Exorcists to use a whole bevy of equipment's that can fill a room into a single pair of glasses" Akane muttered to herself as a former exorcist herself she knew how useful and revolutionary this technology was, as while Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils could sense the disturbance in Purgatorio near them. Exorcists themselves could not sense these disturbances that why for every hunt or investigation every Team of Exorcists had a lesser Angel with them who worked as their sensor and guide.

Akane wasn't sure whether she wanted to go and check out what was causing the disturbance. As there were two possible causes for the disturbance One could be a fight taking place inside the Purgatorio other it could be a Stray devil or it can be a mixture of both of them.

In the End, she decided to check it out anyway not wanting whoever causing that disturbance to interfere tomorrow while she was spying on the fallen angels.

She glanced one last time at the grave of her father and grandmother before leaving the cemetery and moving towards the location where the disturbance was taking place which was a few blocks away from the Cemetery.

Line break

Akane arrived at a construction site where the disturbance signal was coming from and decided to get a high vantage point to scan out the location which looked seemingly empty there was a guard booth but she couldn't see anybody in there. The neighboring four-story building looked like a great Vantage and from there she could enter the upper areas of the construction building quite easily if she needed a quick sneaky entry point.

By focusing some chakra in her legs she was able to enhance her muscles and made the jump to the roof of the four-story building quite easily.

"Let's see what the causing the disturbance in the Purgatorio" Akane said to herself as she kneels at the edge of the roof as her glasses scan the entire area

"No signs of life aside from the one who has been causing this ruckus..." Akane mutters as the as she reads through the results of the scan "A Stray devil thought its quite humongous in size with another heat source beside him which is clearly not humanoid. Hmmm maybe it's a Qliphoth it would explain the stray devil's abnormal size as well as seemingly abandoned construction site" Akane theorized further.

She looks at her watch to check what the time was "Hmm... 10:52 PM, If I remember correctly It takes approximately an hour or so for the Blood Fruit to be harvested from the Qliphoth and it hasn't been that long since the stray has moved here" Akane Thinks to herself

"Still where are the Gremory's or the Sitri's, this is supposed to be their territory; they should have been here by now taking care of the stray" she questions herself "Maybe it's an S-Class Stray Devil as I have rumors that a devils of that power level can Remove the Evil Piece from their bodies making it harder for Other Devils to track them down Though if that's the case why is the stray using a Qliphoth?" she thinks as she tries to make sense of what's the situation was

"If the Gremory and Sitri don't arrive by 11:12 PM then I will have to take care of the Stray Myself before he eats another Blood Fruit" Akane decided as she takes a seat and waits for the Devils to Arrive
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Construction Site
11:15 PM

An Unnatural tree can be seen glowing as it emanates power tree had no leaves and the bark of the tree and its branches gave it the Appearance of a dead tree even though one of those branches boasted a blood-red flower growing from it. The tree had been planted upon a heap of dead bodies, few of its roots gone completely through the dead bodies and made a hole in the concrete which had caused cracks to appears in that entire floor of the construction site.

Near the tree A huge creature with hideous horns was standing beside the tree and shrieking as if he was in agony although at first glance the creature appeared to be malnourished and almost had a skeletal body, there is long fur covering mostly his back and his right hand which looked slightly longer than his right he was standing in an in a crouched fashion as his knees were bent. The closed thing that beast's appearance can be compared to is of a Demonic Goat with a humanoid body. An ironic Appearance for a Stray Devil.

"Soon" A disturbing mix of shrieking and giggling came from the Stray Devil "Soon I will get my…." But he was interrupted when a small Spear of light passed by him and it hit the blood-red flower burning it instantly. It happened so quickly that The stray couldn't even react.

"WHOO DIDD THISSS" The Stray shouted with a deafening Roar which was interrupted when again a spear of light passes through his snout and jaw forcing his mouth shut

"Sorry for the inconvenience, but I cannot in Good conscious have let you eat another Blood fruit I am mean look at yourself hasn't eating one done nearly enough" Akane said to the stray as she comes out of the shadows holding a Glowing Light purple Bow in the shape of a fancy Celtic cross.

She drew her bow to launch another light spear launching it towards the Qliphoth Destroying the entire tree this time in the process, As the Stray Devil was busy trying to remove that spear from his mouth while making Agonizing sounds in the process.

"AKANE ORIMURA," The Stray says after removing the light spear from his mouth a bit of smoke was still coming out of his wounds as well as his hands who had been also burned in the process.

"Do I know you by any chance Stray?" Akane asked with a little interest

"You really don't remember me," The Stray said in a small tone that was barely heard by Akane. She was about to ask for his name but stopped as she saw Raw power radiating throughout his whole body "YOU DON'T REMEMBER ME YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE FAMILY YOU KILLED" He roared before chucking a steel beam towards Akane Direction

Akane takes out a card form her Battle Deck and throws it up in the air before jumping as well in order to dodge the beam. The card she had thrown become a bright glowing rectangle through which Akane passes and when she came out from the other side of that Rectangle and landed back on the floor her civilian clothes were gone as she was now wearing Her Exorcist Uniform.

A uniform which consisted of a white leather mini-jacket which adorned a Cross as well as Epaulettes that gave the jacket a militaristic look, like something a colonel of the 60s would wear. Beneath the short jacket, a short tight dress sprawled down her torso. With a belt wrapped around the waist area, the dress nicely displayed some of the slimness of her figure. Gossamer black thigh highs covered her smooth legs like dark second skin. Finally, she had leather boots, the fabric of which reached her even her knees. It was an outfit some fashion designers would be envious of, as it managed to put intimidation and elegance in sync.

The Stray Demon quickly attacked her while she was putting away the card that had her civilian clothes in it back in her Battle Deck forcing her quickly dodge and start with setting up the usual trap set up used by exorcist in Stray Devil Hunts. Something that generally involves a team of three members which she did not have, she could use clones but that divide in her magic would be more of a hindrance in a hunt like this.

"Is It a demon of Wrath or Pride?" Akane thought to herself as she was maneuvering around his wide swipe attacks "He did get enraged when I didn't recognize him so maybe Pride" She thinks as she launches another spear which this time goes through the demon's right hand and get stuck to the pillar behind him and for a good measure shot the ceilings near him as well making it its structural integrity so weak that it starts to fall on the demon when he tries to get his unstuck buying her more time.

Akane raised her hand and started reciting the incantation "Beyond the ends of a thousand hands, the hands of darkness out of reach, the archer of heaven that goes unseen, road that guides the way, wind that ignites the embers converge where I point." soon a few points started to appear beneath the stray in a pattern reminiscent to Big dipper constellation "Bullets of light, Bodies of Eight, rays of nine, hands of heaven, treasures of speed, wheels of immensity and canons of grey. The Bow is drawn and fades in the light" The endpoints of her left hand's fingers and those of her right hand's middle and index fingers started to glow and she placed them on top of each other. As with a loud Angry Roar, the Stray came out of the debris that he was buried under and inadvertently steps on the Seven points which started quickly turning into bright magic seals. "May the Seven Stars bring judgment upon you …Grand Chariot" with this the incantations of the spell were finally finished and seven magic seals appeared above the stray and started firing light attacks nonstop who was standing above the seals adjacent to the seals above.
The ensuing nonstop attack hid the Screaming Stray's body within the light as well as created a large dust cloud which covered the entire area. The attack continued on for 20 secs before the seals faded away, the stray had stopped screaming which would mean he is dead thought Akane can't confirm that fact until she sees his body which was hidden with the Dust clouds which will take a while to settle down seeing no options left Akane quickly raised both of her hand in the air "Wind Style – Air Current Wild Dance" which created air currents in the palms of her hands which she started to use to whip up dust clouds in the area.

As Akane was whipping up the dust cloud the Stray hand came out of the think clouds and punched her point blank in the mid-section with enough force that she was thrown backward to the concrete wall which created cracks in the wall because of the resulting impact.

Akane fell to her knees as she landed back in the floor and was coughing up blood She had felt some of her ribs crack when the stray punched her "Of Course my Spell didn't finish the job" Akane though bitterly as she gets back in her feet while still feeling the effects of the attack "You don't have Faith" She remembered what Griselda always told her when she practiced spells with her and she was right in a way as when Irina and Xenovia casted the same spell without the Incantations their result were pretty much similar to hers but the main difference was they didn't use incantations which are generally used to make spells stronger which meant their spells were much stronger than hers.

"Still the spell should have killed the stray, weak or not it was still light magic. I would have understood if I was fighting Stray Devil but he is a Stray demon now they are more vulnerable to light than a normal devils" Akane thinks to herself as she saw the Stray came out of the dust cloud while he was very much alive he did look like he was in a very good condition pretty much all of his body was emitting smoking which was caused mostly by the light spell one of his horns were now broken off from his head and his fur looked like it was it in fire.

"Well, at least it did some damage," Akane said to herself "Still I am pretty much out of mana at the moment. Looks like I have to finish this beast as an Orimura rather than an Exorcist of True cross" she said out loud with a chuckle as she wipes the blood from her mouth.

As she was contemplating a plan on how to fight the stray who liked he was getting stronger by every minute she felt a slight chill in one of her hands when she checked it was the hand she had wiped her blood with and it was picking up the wind that was coming from her back Through the entrance of the construction site she chuckled and quickly started making a few hand seals. And spat out a thick smokescreen from her mouth which started covering the whole area thanks to the wind she felt earlier. The smokescreen was so thick that the stray tried to use his hands to blow it away but couldn't as even more smoke came in.

"I generally don't get to use this Jutsu more often mostly because even a slight miscalculation can come to bite me back in the arse, but unfortunately for you Stray our current situation is ideal for the use of this Jutsu" Akane told him with as she raised her hand so it could slightly touch the small amount of smokescreen which was in front of her and was slowly moved away by the wind "Fire Style – Burning Ash Pile" and with a snap of her fingers the whole smokescreen lights up instantly resulting in a violent explosion which hits the Stray point black who was standing in the middle of the smokescreen.

The Explosion brought a Bright smirk out of Akane who had been dying for a chance to use this Jutsu in the field for years but because of the specific conditions that were needed for the safe use of this Justus she never used it before. Still she knew the job was not over yet as while this Jutsu might have killed a lesser Stray, the one she was currently fighting was easily in the higher B or lesser A-Class range a class which generally a team of 4 or 5 Exorcists and Only way to kill him permanently without the use of any light-based weapons or spells would be cutting off his head.
Akane Took a card out of her battle deck which disappeared in light and soon a katana with an ornate bronze guard with, the Tsuka ("handle") having a traditional gold wrapping, with black ornaments, and the Tsuba ("guard") of the blade being octagonal. The tsuka-ito ("warping") seems to be braided from white and dark blue material. The blade features several intricate ornaments, most notable is a relief of a dragon at the endpoint of the hilt. The scabbard of the blade is black, made of traditional lacquered wood, and features several metallic ornaments on its far end. it also features a yellow sageo, the cord used to tie the katana to the waist.

Akane raises her left hand holding the sword with her fingers one scabbard and her thumb trying to push the sword out its handle "Of course you won't come out" she thinks before she softly recites "Rest in this, my bruised and weary soul:
I was a wretch, chosen to be a beauty;
a Whore, chosen to be a bride;
an orphan, chosen to be an heir;
an enemy, chosen to be a friend.
I deserved nothing but wrath and death
yet received everything of life and grace.
Come forth and Be our salvation Bakuya Masamune" and with that her thumb pushed sword slightly out of its sheath. The explosion had now subsided and her nose was picking up the smell of charred flesh coming from within the residual Dust Cloud caused by the explosion. She was sure that this smell was coming from the stray as the dead bodies used in Qliphoth when burnt don't smell mostly because they are generally Dry husks with nothing left inside. While the smoke limited her vision of what going on inside she is really not going to try and whip the dust cloud away via a wind Jutsu again, the Best thing she can rely on was her sense of smell and as well as her reflexes.

As she pumped chakra in both her nose and Eyes to enhance them Her eyes quickly turned red and was now sporting three tomoe's which connected by circular black line revolving around the black irises which were reading the movements in the Dust cloud quite keenly. Her nose also seemed to pick the direction from where the smell was coming from and with her sword in hand she slowly and quietly enters the dust cloud hoping to get a Surprise drop on the stray if possible.

Following the smell through the Dust cloud seems to be doing its job as she felt like she was getting closer and closer to the stray by every step she takes but prediction his position was tricky as there are chances she might appear before his face first and she really can't do anything about it. What she did not expect was stray jumping towards her direction head first something she saw coming from a mile and quickly offed his head from his shoulders with a quick slash of her sword. The Strays whole body dropped near her feet while his head rolled away. The whole thing felt rather Anti-climactic in Akane opinion as Even she has never encountered a demon of wrath who would attack is such a sloppy way, Yeah their Berserkers Rage tends to diminish they thinking capabilities they still have excellent Fighting instincts that made them dangerous.

"Well, I guess you will be the first Dumb demon I have ever hunted." She said with a slight chuckle present in her voice as she kicks the demons overgrown hand "Hmm…. the body is not disintegrating? that would explain why the devils are not here" Akane said to herself as checks the time "11:45 PM yup they are not commahhhh" the stray's overgrown hand quickly grabs Akane by her waist locking both of her hands which made her drop her sword on the ground the stray slowly got back in his feet still headless which shocked the hell out of Akane "AAHHH HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE!!" Akane screamed as the demon started to squeeze her as she tried to wiggle her arms out the Demon's grasp but failing miserably.

While she could make any hand signs with her hands she could control her sword and with a slight movement of her fingers started to guide it towards the arm of the stray and when the sword was in position she gave it the command to stab it through which did lessen the pressure a bit but she still couldn't get out.

Soon the pressure started to increase again and this time he was applying even more force than before. Akane could only scream in Agony as she started loose conscious she felt that there was no choice left, The Tomoe's in her eyes quickly rotated in itself and formed an intricate pattern "Amaterasu" Akane strangely whispered as her left eye started bleeding and soon black flames appeared on the stray's hand and quickly released Akane out of his grasps and she fell flat on concrete floor where she saw the Black Flames consuming the strays entire body as he tried to put the fire out before everything blacks out.

Unknown Location
11:50 PM

"Well That was something" an Alluring voice said in amusement though if concentrated well enough the gravel can also be heard present in her voice "I really didn't expect her to find him first" she said while looking at a screen which showed the construction site, as well as destruction caused by the battle and Akane, can be seen lying in middle of the black flames unconscious.

"True" Another voice commented "Still we got what we wanted, he severed his purpose well" She added as she got up from her chair from which she was watching the battle

"Should I go and bring her here" the voice from before asked

"No, She is much more useful there" another voice replies before leaving the dimly lit room through the door

Construction site
2:34 AM

With a loud groan, Akane wakes up "Shit that Fucker really did a number on me" she said to herself as she calls her sword back and uses it as a support as she gets back to her feet. Looking around the construction site she only found Amaterasu Black flames still burning thought with no active target it was now spreading outwards slowly. Her eyes catches something lying on the ground near her it was chess piece and Pawn piece at that, with a single hand sign she dispels Amaterasu whose flames fade away immediately as she picks chess piece up.

"What the hell is going on? If the devil still had a piece why are the devil's not here?" She thought to herself as she examined the Evil Piece not sure what to make of the situation. She had encountered a few strays before who still had their pieces in them and sooner or later a devil will always arrive to retrieve that piece so it could be given back to the master of the stray. It's a common protocol shared amongst Devils and Exorcist when hunting strays in the territory that not owned by a devil.

"I will deal with this tomorrow for I need to back home and heal" she this as she puts the Evil piece away and brings out her Limbo card and card that contained her civilian clothing of her Battle Deck and throws both of them forwards. The Limbo Card she threw turns into a bright rectangle with the size of a door right and the second cards containing her cloths passes through the door and become another door right in front of the previous one. Once both the doors are in place Akane passes through the first one and instantly She was out of the Purgatorio and was back in the Mortal realm and when she passes through the second door her Exorcist uniform changes back into her normal civilian clothing, once done both cards return back her whereas she places them back in her Battle Deck. She would have just used Shunshin no Jutsu to get back at her apartment but she needed the little chakra she has left for healing the wounds once she reaches her apartment and with her sword, in hand she heads back to her apartment.
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Beta reader- NoLifeFaction
Art done by the lovely https://www.reddit.com/user/GjaPetronas​

 

[siddharth1998m]

Chapter-4

"Oh not this again grandma!" Akane whined as she saw another one of those dreadful fish scrolls lying on the table, surrounded by decontamination seals. She'd been hoping grandmother would have her do something different for training today, it was always Kenjutsu followed by Medical Ninjutsu "I've been doing these basics for years now, can we do anything that doesn't involve Iryō Ninjutsu for a change?" she begged her grandmother who was sitting on a tree stump behind the table, contently smoking her pipe.

"You doing this for years does not change the fact that you are often careless and sloppy when you are operating. Iryō Ninjutsu is a field that demands precision, precision which you lack, remember the case from last week, that fish died while you were operating on it" her grandmother calmly stated and gave her pipe another pull.

"But it was so small, and you put even smaller cuts on its organs, and then you asked me to fix the internal bleeding. How was I supposed to do that?" she asked her grandmother as she crossed her arms and took a seat at the table.

"How? By precise use of Iryō Ninjutsu, obviously." Her grandmother replied "While you can deal with any normal-sized wounds or cuts you tend to miss the minute detail cuts and injuries that I've left behind. That is something you need to work on and perfect" she stated.

"Can you at least teach me another fire style Jutsu? I mean come on, I saw Jutsu scrolls gathering nothing but dust downstairs in the library" She begged her grandmother finally

"Now what use would that be off? You are supposed to be a healer, teaching you more fire style jutsu is pointless, the ones you already know plus your Kenjutsu training are more than enough. Now get to work, I even left small ounces of poison in them for you to remove" She said making Akane sigh in disappointment "Well at least that'll be a little bit fun" she replied dejectedly

"That's the spirit. There's more than a couple of fish inside the scroll, after you're done with them come back home, I'll have lunch ready for you. Oh by the way, isn't Irina supposed to pay us a visit today? " Her grandmother asked
"Yeah, her dad will drop her off here within an hour" She replied as she picked up a bowl of water, gently placing it on the table beside the scroll.

"I guess I'll make lunch for her as well," her Grandmother said before leaving Akane alone beside the lake in the forestry area behind their family shrine.

"Might as well get on with it" she mumbled to herself as she released the first fish out from the scroll. She placed both hands on the damned thing to keep it from moving and started the diagnostic process of the jutsu. She focused "find the injuries, check for the poison, remove it first then heal all of its injuries, I got this"

Time started flying by as she got to work on her scaly patient. She worked with practised ease drilled in her by constant repetition it wasn't exactly as boring as healing a fish might sound, but she'd take learning techniques with more… pizzazz over it any day of the week.

As she was wrapping up the healing process for the first fish, she heard some noises coming from the area where her family's shrine stood. "Strange," she thought to herself, people went there only during festivals. She decided to go check where the noises were coming from before coming back to heal the rest of the fishes.
The noises got louder the closer she got, when she finally reached the shrine the noises stopped. She looked around trying to find the source, after a moment of searching she zeroed on a trial of blood "Maybe some animal got hurt?" She might get a chance to heal something that wasn't a fish for a change! Not wanting to waste any more time she quickly followed the trail of blood, it did not lead to an animal.

"Grandma??!!" Akane exclaimed as she saw her grandmother, covered in blood and leaning against a tree for support. Her… her right arm was missing at the elbow, she was bleeding heavily from the stump! Akane rushed towards her, she needed to stop the bleeding! "Grandma are you all right!?" her grandmother just stood there, there wasn't any life left in her eyes. Fearing the worst she checked her heartbeat, thank god it was still there. She was alive, she was even holding her sword Masamune in her left hand, though the scabbard was nowhere to be seen.

Akane tried calling out to her a few more times, but to no avail, she tried to make her grandmother lay on the ground, but she wouldn't budge. The healing process would have to be performed with her grandma standing, which meant she had no way of healing any of the injuries above the waistline, her grandma was much taller than her. She desperately focused on stopping the bleeding of her grandmother's stump and prayed that she hasn't lost too much blood.
She was still trying to stop the bleeding, her hands and sleeves soaked in blood, when she heard a sharp sound behind her. With great speed and force something slashed above her head, wood started snapping as she heard something fall to the ground next to her.

When Akane's gaze travelled downwards, a suffocating sense of dread and terror passed through her, grandmother's head was slowly rolling away staining the forest floor red. It happened so fast she couldn't even react. She felt dizzy, a pressure that refused to let up descended on her entire being. Her mouth was left wide open, she started hyperventilating, the air felt like molten metal in her lungs. A burning sensation was taking over her eyesight as she looked away from the head. Her eyes filled with horror as she saw a figure standing before her, holding up a black blade, smiling maniacally at her.

"AHHHHHHHHHH-


Akane's Apartment

7:22 AM

"-HHHHHHHHHHH" She woke up screaming, her onyx eyes were gone again, and in their place, the intricate patterns of red and black were now present. She was frantically looking around her bedroom while taking deep breaths to calm herself down as the cell phone's alarm kept ringing in the background. She took one more deep breath, held it in for five seconds and exhaled slowly. Calmed down, she moved to turn off the alarm and noticed a message left from Azazel. The message showed a few plane tickets and some text under the picture."Hmm, this could help out if I were to catch them at the airport" She said to herself after reading it.

She got out of bed and quickly moved to pick a card out of her battle deck, soon a scroll appeared in place, she opened it on a part which showed several seals. She bit her thumb in the usual place, a small bit of skin paler than the rest of the finger, hard enough to draw just the right amount of blood for drawing seals. A couple of hand sings and a "Blood Clone Jutsu" vocalization later, and her clone appeared in front of her with a little puff of smoke. The only difference between the two was their attire, her clone was wearing her usual day clothes, while she was still in her shorts, covered in bandages from waist up.

"What the hell happened to you?" Akane's clone asked as her eyes swept over the bandages curiously.
"It's a long story which is not important at the moment," She said and went to retrieve the glasses from Azazel as well as some other equipment her clone might need for the mission.

"You need to follow a group of fallen angels who should arrive at Haneda Airport within an hour, don't let them notice you, obviously" She handed her clone the glasses as well as a wireless in-ear receiver. "Use this to take pictures of them, there's a button at the side of the frame that lets you take pictures, give me updates on the radio on regular intervals. You have enough chakra to perform a few D to C level Genjutsu if needs be" Her clone put on the glasses, made sure the receiver was concealed, and in an instant vacated the apartment through the balcony.

"Hmmm looks like I'll have to make more almost ready clones this weekend," She thought to herself as she looked at the scroll "Only one seal left". After Warping the scroll up and placing its card back in her battle deck she left for her washroom to freshen up and start getting ready for her first day at school.

After finishing up with the morning routine she put on the uniform provided for her by the Kuoh Academy. She had to look her best. Well, the best one could wearing a school uniform and no makeup, she'd rather not attract unwanted attention with her appearance. She chuckled slightly, considering her goal was to draw the eye of the Devil population of Kuoh Academy maybe she was trying to attract attention some would describe as unwanted. Once more checking the school uniform for any creases she gave herself one last look in the mirror, 'you can do everything right, but the smallest misstep, the tiniest mistake, can undo all your hard work' her grandmother used to tell her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath "All right, time to go", she opened her eyes, onyx spheres stared back at her from the mirror. She picked her bag up and went out the front door. After closing up she started heading towards the academy at a steady pace.

Even if she didn't know the exact location of the academy, she could easily find her way there just by following other teens wearing school uniforms just like hers. Many of her fellow students travelled towards the academy's destination on foot or by bicycle.

Akane was walking amongst a crowd that consisted of mostly girls with only a few boys in-between, she's heard Kuoh used to be an all-girls private school before it went co-ed, so the boys to girl's ratio was understandable.
She still couldn't believe that the Devils in charge of Kuoh used the academy as their headquarters. It really wasn't in the Devils' style. She expected a club or a pub or even some lounge, a place with privacy that allows them to operate without interruption. A school, while being a good location to scout out future members for their peerages, really left them much too open to the public. Akane wondered how beings that were defined by their immense amounts of power, and inhuman beauty, managed to blend in among bundles of self-loathing and insecurities commonly referred to as high school students. It was easy to spot both Devils, and the Fallen due to their ethereal beauty, it made any stealth operations in the human world especially tricky for them to pull off. While studying this phenomenon, she came upon a rumor about the current Lucifer's wife, supposedly she was so beautiful that she had to wear a special veil to hide her looks while she was out, even amongst the Devils as it tended to cause… problems.

"Hmmm, maybe they're working there as teachers? It could work as a cover for a devil who's looking for potential recruits," She thought to herself. "Though they could as well be posing as students but why would the Gremory and Sitri heiresses waste time in a human academy?, normal human education is nothing compared to what pure-blooded devils are taught well before they are even given their Evil pieces"

"I've reached Haneda airport waiting for the targets to arrive. Over" Her clone's voice informed her on the radio.

"Roger" Akane replied, making sure to keep her voice down. Her placement in the crowd made it difficult to spot her, still, she noticed a girl with white hair and hazel eyes staring at her blankly, absentmindedly eating a bar of chocolate. She was sitting on a bench under the shade of some trees beside the entrance of the school building, she didn't fill out her school uniform like most other girls "small or is petite more accurate?" she thought to herself "Probably a first year".
The girl was a devil for sure, but there was something else going on with her. There was something… different about the girl, and it made Akane curious, curious enough to check what it was. With a slight surge of chakra to her eyes, they turned red, and the three tomoe's started spinning as she studied her body. It seemed the girl noticed what was going on, she tensed, and became a bit alert.

Akane chuckled slightly as her eyes turned back to normal. While her eyes couldn't check every minute detail of someone's physiology, they could give her a general idea of how it functioned, and If she focused enough she could even glimpse the furnace of power inside every person. The girl before her was... well, apparently a Neko Youkai before she got reincarnated as a devil, her chakra system, as well as the subtle illusion she used to hide her ears, were clear signs of that. She's never had an encounter with a Youkai before, mostly because they never really left their territory of Ribāsu Kyoto. But now that she had one right in front of her, she very much would want to try and coax her into giving her knowledge of Senjutsu. Maybe a mutual exchange of knowledge like she did with Azazel? Though Akane very much doubted the girl would be interested in studying her bloodline, still, she had things to offer that no Youkai in good conscious would refuse.

The sound of the school bell brought her out of her musings. She was late and she needed to meet her homeroom teacher before she could start school. She quickly rushed inside the school building paying no attention to the girl who by now had been approached by a beautiful young woman with a voluptuous figure, very long black hair and violet eyes.

"So, what do you think Koneko," Akeno asked her as she took out a paper bag and passed it to Koneko, the Youkai took a whiff of the bags' contents, quickly grabbed it out of her friend's hands and started munching down on its sweet contents.

"I don't like her" Koneko graciously gave her insight, she had to show gratitude for the sugary offering somehow.

"Of course you don't" Akeno replied with a knowing smile "You don't like anything new, Kiba and I still have scars from all the scratches you gave us when you joined the peerage" she said with a giggle and tried to take one of the chocolates out of the bag only to be stopped by a hiss coming from Koneko.

Seeing Koneko's antics, Akeno could only shake her head in amusement "Come on, go to your class, you shouldn't be late for homeroom twice in a row" Akeno told her before leaving


Haneda Airport

Akane's clone was sitting at a café with her disguise and the glasses on, sipping on a cup of coffee, the café gave an overview over every exit in the airport which made its location an ideal place for her goal. It was a good thing they had disguises with IDs and credit cards ready on hand for missions like this. Acquiring them was quite expensive and a major pain in the ass, but once you've got them and use them responsibly they can last you a lifetime.

"These glasses are truly amazing..." she thought to herself as she looked through the files of the Fallen, she took another sip of coffee and let out a content hum.

She still found it hard to believe that a Coup d'état amongst the Fallen Angels might now be a real possibility. Amongst the three factions, the Fallen were the easy-going bunch, always enjoying the best of both worlds.

Their position was stable compared to Angels and Devils, the Fallen could breed with humans, they didn't need things like the Evil Pieces system, or Brave Saints to recoup their losses after the Great War. When a Fallen and a human have children the offspring will generally be capable of match its Fallen parent's power, Devils, on the other hand, had to avoid such unions altogether to save the bloodline from… thinning. Add to that the gestation periods of hybrid Fallen versus pure blood Fallen and you have a force to be reckoned with, and an explanation as to how a splinter group like the Fallen could rival the might of Haven and Underworld.

An alert on her glasses drew her attention towards four individuals who looked like they have just arrived, it was her Fallen targets "The Targets have arrived at the airport three females, one male Fallen Angels. Over" she gave Akane an update as she got up from her seat and started following them from a safe distance.

"Roger" Akane acknowledged her message on the radio, her clone saw her quarry getting into a cab. "I can get a cab myself, but the traffic might cause me to lose them, it's best I follow them on foot," she thought to herself and started following the cab


Meanwhile at Kuoh Academy


Akane stood outside of the classroom, waiting for her homeroom teacher to call her in to politely introduce herself to the rest of the class. Japan was a land of proper interactions like that, and whether she wanted to or not she had to adhere to its customs. It was bizarre really, giving away personal data to a group of total strangers? In a normal school, you only get to know another person's name if you asked them for it head-on or if you were paying attention during attendance. At least that's how it was in her previous one…

"You can come in now" Her Homeroom called her inside, while entering she noticed that among 40 students, only a dozen of them were male.

"A girl again! We could have used another guy in our class"

"Yeah the ones we have are either perverts or on their way to becoming one"

The girls mumbled amongst themselves "Hey doesn't it feel like we've seen her somewhere before?" that last comment genuinely made her flinch.

The teacher waited another second before telling her to introduce herself

Akane nodded to her teacher before giving a hopefully respectful bow to her new classmates "Hello, my name is Akane Orimura. I hope we get along."She introduced herself

She expected a couple of questions but was not prepared for the verbal equivalent of a battering ram she got instead. "Where are you from? ", "What's with the accent?" "What's with the glove on your arm?" It made her grimace a bit in annoyance. She didn't enjoy being the centre of attention, but hopefully, her fellow students will let her blend in with the rest of the faceless masses at Kuoh Academy after she satiates their curiosity.

Thankfully the questions were quickly quelled by the sound of a loud slam as her homeroom teacher slammed his book on the podium "Okay Okay, calm down, you can ask Orimura-san all of your questions during the break. But for now, we need to get our class started" he turned towards her and said "You can take the seat next to Kiryuu-san" he pointed towards the empty seat.

Akane turned her head towards a girl with green eyes and brown hair done up in twin braids on each side of her face, the girl sported a pair of pink glasses with unusually large ovals. Nodding once, she leaned down to pick up her bag and moved towards her seat all the while trying to tune out all the murmuring around her. Once she took her seat the teacher started the class.


Lunch Time

Akane's Classroom

"Pssst, hey Issei, what do you think about the new emo-chick in our class huh? Can't say we've ever had that type in school before" Matsuda asked Issei in a hushed tone, Akane was still in the classroom, talking to a couple of students who wanted to introduce themselves.

"Now that you mention it, Koneko-Chan is more stoic, and Sona-Senpai is more strict than emo" Motohama added though they didn't get a reply from Issei who was sitting still on his seat, a small frown present on his face.

"Yo, Issei!" Matsuda gave him a light slap to the back of the head, "You with us man?" he asked in an annoyed tone

"Ah, sorry guys, I spaced out a little" he apologized while rubbing his head "What were we talking about?"

"The new girl in our class duh, what do you think about Orimura-san?" Motohama asked curious about his thoughts on the girl

"Well, she's another addition to Kuoh's long list of beautiful girls, but there's also something… familiar about her, I feel like I kind of know her, but can't point out from where, what about you guys?" Issei replied sneaking a glance at Akane.

"Maybe she was an idol or a model? Can't say I've ever seen her before" Matsuda replied

"No way she was any of those. If she was, I would have known trust me" Motohama shot down Matsuda's theory while adjusting his glasses.

"You're right pervs, but she did use to live here" Another voice added from behind them, when the boys turned around they saw Aika Kiryuu standing there with a smirk on her face.

"Aika" Motohama hissed, instantly on guard in the presence of a rare female pervert "Weren't you supposed to give Orimura-san a tour of the entire school? Shouldn't you two be leaving, like right now?" Motohama Asked her

"Yeah I was gonna do that but Tomoe from the student council told me that Souna-senpai would be sending some firstie to give Orimura-san a tour" Aika replied as she grabbed a chair and took a seat in front of Issei's table
"Erh, umm, Orimura-san used to live here? How come I've never seen her before?" Motohama wondered while trying to hide his unease

"You couldn't have, You moved to Kuoh after she left to study abroad. But you should've been able to remember her Issei" Aika said "She used to hang out a lot with your neighbour Irina" she added

"Oh yeah, I guess she did live here," Issei said to himself "and um thanks for the info, I guess" he replied to Aika and turned to his friends "Anyway, guys, where do you want to hang out after school? I was thinking my place, I got my hands on a DVD of Shiniest Robotan Alisa and Neighbour's Thulu Tentacly sec-"


Line break

"The cab has stopped in front of Arisaka hotel. All the targets are entering the building with their luggage at the moment" Her clone's report went through the radio

"Well, at least we know where they'll be staying. Find out in which room, and book a room right next to them, you will be staying there until this mission is complete. I'll send another clone, you can divide the work between yourselves," Akane muttered the instructions to her clone in the middle of physics class

"You won't be joining us?" Her clone asked

"No, I'm afraid it will be too risky and might blow the cover you need for the mission. It's best you two handle the stakeout yourself while I handle the situation here at the academy" Akane replied

"Roger Over and out" her clone acknowledged her message

Akane sighed while she was looking out the class' window, admiring the academy grounds. She was wondering when the Devils will come to escort her. It wasn't a surprise when Kiryuu-san informed her she won't be giving her the school tour, the student council president will send someone to do that instead. Nothing out of the ordinary there, giving the tour of the entire academy was one of their responsibilities. She just hoped they'd come faster and save her from this physics lecture, seriously, she felt like Argus Panoptes being talked to death by Hermes.

Fortunately for Akane, her ticket out of class had just arrived as the vice president of the student council, Tsubaki Shinra entered the classroom "Akane Orimura" she called her out

"Yes" Akane answered getting up from the seat

"Souna-Kaichou would like to see you. If it is not a big problem, can she leave the class early Tsushima-Sensei?" She asked her physics teacher who responded with a nod "Sure sure, Orimura you can leave"

"Thank you Tushima-Sensei," the vice president gave him a nod and turned to Akane" If you would follow me" Akane grabbed her bag, thanked the teacher, and exited the classroom with the vice president

"Fuku taichō-san are you by any chance part of the Shinra-clan?" Akane asked her while the vice president guided her towards their destination.

Tsubaki gave her a side glance before replying "Yes I am, Why do you ask?"

"Nothing, it's just… it is surprising to see a member of one of the noble houses of Kyoto being employed by a devil" Akane replied, curious about her story though she didn't get an answer from Tsubaki who just stayed silent as they moved towards their destination.


Arisaka Hotel

Clone Akane had been sitting in a very crowded waiting lounge of the hotel waiting for her targets to get keys for their room form the looks of things a few rooms were going through a cleaning process. The entire time they've been sitting there none of them had uttered a single syllable out of their mouths, even the midget Mittelt was quite even though Akane could clearly read the expression of annoyance on her face.

The files of Information that Azazel's glasses provided on her targets contained pretty much everything she needed to know of their background, their mission success rate, parentage as well as how many sets of wings each of them had.
Mittelt was the youngest in the group and as such the weakest of the group with only two sets of wings, following her was Dohnaseek and Kalawarner with four sets each respectively. Fallen angels with four sets were akin to younger officers in the Fallen's power structure, ideal second in commands and mostly in charge of smaller missions. Things wouldn't have looked out of the ordinary if only the three of them were there but the presence of Raynare was making the entire thing smell fishy.

Raynare, the leader of the group, was a fallen with five sets of wings, a set away from being a Seraph. Fallen Angels like her were considered to be elites. Rookie fallen were encouraged to pursue that rank as unlike the Seraph rank it was actually achievable for every fallen. A small mission like this was way below her paygrade. Files did mention that she was being reprimanded for the failure of her last mission. What was even stranger was the location of Raynare's mission, sending a powerhouse like her could be perceived as a provocative move towards the Underworld. It was bad enough that two prominent members of 72 Pillars were in charge of the territory but then you factor in who their older siblings are and you have a recipe for a clusterfucks of gargantuan proportions.

"Maybe her mother pulled some strings to get her on the mission?" She thought to herself as she saw one of the hotel staff distributing the key cards for their rooms.

"We have taken a room under Shinonono and Huang" Akane saw Raynare ask for their keys from the staff member
"Of course miss let me check it for you" The staff member said to himself as he looked through the names in the list he was given "Oh, here you go, miss," he picked out two key cards from the bundle and gave them to Raynare "We hope your stay at Arisaka hotel will be pleasant" Raynare gave him a dazzling smile "Thank you and I'm sure there will be lots of things for us to do here" without waiting for his response she turned her bright smile disappearing in an instant now replaced with that certain feeling you get when a bug just wasted your time with his existence. With the keys to their rooms finally, in their hands, Akane saw them leaving the Lounge.

With them gone Akane Got up from her seat and moved towards the staff member "Would you be so kind and tell me the room numbers of Shinonono and Huang" Akane asked the staff member gently tapping 10,000 yen note on her lips.
His gaze travelled to the note and a hungry look came over his face. She stealthily passed him the note, he looked at it before sneaking the note inside his pocket "Shinonono is staying at room 345 and Huang.." he paused looking at her pointedly, with an eye roll she took out another 10,000 yen note and repeated her previous action "..is staying at 346" he finished and left unceremoniously as if nothing just happened

"I think we gonna need to book both room 344 and 347 just to be safe. Who knows which room they might use to discuss their plans" she thought as she moved towards the reception counter

"Welcome to Arisaka. What can I do for you?" The receptionist asked all fake smiles

Akane lowered her glasses revealing her red eyes and immediately put the receptionist under her compulsion "Please book room number 344 under Nagisa Aoi and Room 347 under Shizuma Hanazono"

The receptionist's eyes dilated as she nodded dumbly and started the registration for the rooms "How long would you be staying with us?" she asked in a blanc emotionless tone

"Maybe for a month or so" She replied as she passed the credit card that was made under the name Shizuma Hanazono

"Room 347 has been booked under Shizuma Hanazono but Room number 344 will not be available for a week" She informed her as she gave her the keycard

"Hmm, can you move the occupants to another room?"

"I can try" she replied as she picked the reception phone

"Here give that to me" Akane took the phone from the receptionist's hands

"Hello?" Somebody replied at the other side

"Hello, am I speaking to room 344?" Akane asked, trying to sound professional

"Yes?" The person replied

"Good afternoon I am.." Akane adjusted the receptionist name tag to read her name "Tamao Suzumi. Sir, we have been receiving complains about seepage from the room directly below you. Our plumber staff has found one of the pipes from your room is leaking water downstairs. So we have to move you to a new room in order to stop the seepage" Akane Informed him

"Ohhh ok do you have a room ready?" the person asked

Akane covered up the receiver "Do you have a similar room ready?" She asked "Yes Room 450 is empty," was the receptionist response

"Yes sir we have room 450 ready for you. why don't you pack up your luggage we will send you the key card to 450 immediately" Akane told him

"Sure sure" The person replied

"Again we are terribly sorry for the inconvenience sir,"

"Ehhh d-don't worry about it, I'll just get my luggage ready good bye-" she opened her mouth to respond "Tetsuo get your shit we're moving to anoth-" and it looks like he just ended the connection
"Well Now that room 344 is empty please book it under Nagisa Aoi and keep the key card she will be arriving later on" Akane Instructed the receptionist who nodded and booked the room as well as completed the money transaction before returning her the credit card

Akane snapped her fingers and soon receptionist's eyes turned back to normal she shook her head a little and looked at Akane "Please enjoy your stay here Hanazono-sama"

"Eiji please go to room 344 and give this keycard of room 450 to them and transfer their luggage to the same room" Akane heard the receptionist inform a staff member

"Sharingan's Genjutsu ability may be handy but I think I should avoid using it, after all who knows how long this mission might last," the Clone thought to herself as she waited for the lift


Occult Research Club Building

Shinra-san eventually led her to a school building that was notably isolated from the rest of the academy, they had to cross the sports ground to reach it. White paint, black roof, two storeys high with a clock tower at the top, a fancy building all things considered, and all the trees and vines gave it somewhat of a mystical vibe.

It may have looked normal-ish on the outside but once they entered, she felt magic, magic everywhere. Lock seals, scanning seals, guard seals, seals on seals on seals. This place was overflowing with magical energy, perfect spot for a devil's headquarters. "In other words they know I'm here already, and they can lock this place up in an instant"

Once inside, they were greeted by a handsome boy with short blond hair. His brilliant smile reached his eyes when he greeted the vice president "Ahh Shinra-senpai, welcome, we have been waiting for you"

Akane was amused to see Tsubaki blush slightly while trying to hold her stoic expression. She looked towards him "I'm sure I've seen his face somewhere," she thought to herself

"And you must be Orimura-san, please come on in" He invited her inside

He led them farther into the building, Akane noticed the interior was filled with Victorian-style furniture an wood paneling. They stopped in front of a door and the boy gave it a light tap "Ah, Kiba, come in come in" He opened the door for her and Tsubaki "After you," he said with a smile. Once she entered she was greeted with the sight of Gremory and Sitri heiresses. Little sisters to the most powerful beings in the Underworld were sitting on Victorian couches opposite to each other.

"Orimura-san please take a seat" Gremory heiress pointed her towards the empty sofa placed in front of her

"Ah thank you" Akane replied taking her seat

"Well it's good to see that True Cross teaches their Exorcists to be polite, even to a supposed enemy" the Sitri heiress stated her voice strict and firm

Akane shrugged the comment off with a wave of her hand "Please Sitri-san, times have changed. That's sort of an old notion you are harbouring there" Akane replied

"Yes, they may very well have changed, but not enough to ignore an Exorcist, an Exorcist of the True Cross no less, roaming around in a Devil's territory freely. Rules are there for a reason Orimura-san" the Sitri heiress growled out.

"Looks like they found out about the stray" Akane thought to herself in Annoyance. It seems like it was too much to expect the devils to be thankful to her for taking care of that mess.

"Hey, I am following every rule here. It's not my fault you couldn't be bothered to take care of a stray demon in your territory that I was forced to take down" Akane replied in annoyance as she took out the chess piece she had collected from the stray and thrown it to the Sitri heiress

Sona caught the piece in her hands. The mention of a stray demon caught everyone's attention

"A stray demon? What are you talking about?" Sona asked her in confusion, while Rias took the Evil piece off her hands and gave it a quick look over

"What were you talking about?" Akane shot back, now confused as she assumed they were angry about her hunting in their territory.

"Ok ok let's calm down for a moment" Rias tried to diffuse the situation "Orimura-san let me apologize in Sona's place. She's always been a stickler for rules" Rias said with a nervous smile "But please can you tell us more about this stray you encountered?"

"Wait, you two really did not know about this stray? " Akane asked them in a surprised tone

"No, we did not. Generally, we're informed ASAP when a stray enters our territory. But we didn't get anything for the past week" Rias replied, "Was this stray causing a big problem?" She asked in an apologetic tone, seemingly a little guilty about her and her peerage's absence.

"Honey, You have no idea how much of a pain in the arse he was" Akane replied before continuing "It's a good thing I caught him early otherwise he would have been a disaster" she added as she saw a familiar-looking young woman with long hair tied in an Orange ribbon placing a cup of tea in front of her. "Thank you" she got a smile and a soft laugh in reply

"Where and when did you encounter this stray?" Sona asked

Akane took a sip of her tea and responded "Hmm, I would say around 10:50 PM last night. I found the Stray demon on a construction site near Kuoh cemetery. I did not approach him till 11:15 Pm as I was waiting for you two to come with your Peerages and deal with him" Akane informed them

"Sona, I did hear reports about some construction site worker going missing last night on the local news channel. Police have started investigating" Tsubaki informed her Master

"Well, they aren't going to find anything, I don't know about any other workers, but the security guard was taken inside the Purgatorio to be used for a Qliphoth. By the time I arrived to destroy the blood fruit he was a dry husk.

"Looks like I'll have to deal with that later," Rias said as she massaged her head

"So he had already eaten a blood fruit before he came there," Sona asked Akane for confirmation

"Yeah, you might want to keep an eye on any missing person reports near Kuoh. You might want to cover that up as well" Sona gave her a nod

"What threat level do you think this stray falls under?" Rias asked Akane

"Can't say for sure" she replied

"Please elaborate," Sona asked

"Well, I have hunted many demons, stray demons, and stray devils alike, so I sort of know what to expect when I fight them. The stray I fought was a wrath demon they are fast and hit like a truck but this one fought like a moron, his attacks too open and easy to dodge" Akane explained

"So, a low C or high D rank?" Kiba piped in

"No" Akane shook her head "Stray demons of D and lower C rank tend to die instantly after being hit by even a weak light spell. I blasted him at point-blank range with a light spell that should have been enough to kill a B or even A rank demon, he didn't seem that bothered by it. When I used fire, it burned him up for sure, but it didn't kill him, that calls for an A rank. Here's the best part, I cut off his head, and he just gets up and keeps on fighting, even though his fucking head's missing."

"How'd you kill it then?" Rias asked

"I was forced to use one of my family's techniques based on our bloodline. That got the job done though I lost consciousness after that. When I woke up I was the only one there with that evil piece lying beside me" Akane replied, pointing towards the chess piece

"Now I'm curious, can you tell me more about this ah 'family technique'?" Rias asked intrigued, she was certain her Power of Destruction would have been enough to deal with the stray but if Akane Orimura had a bloodline like that she might be a highly valuable ally to the Gremory

"Well, how about I tell you about it sometime later when we have more time" Akane offered

"Of course, don't feel pressured on my behalf" Rias said smiling

Rias' gaze swept over everyone assembled in the occult club "Well, I guess that covers everything we needed to know" She turned to Akeno "We might have to inform Lord Beelzebub about what happened"

"But that still does not explain why are you here with your fellow stray exorcists" Sona asked, her strict voice back

"Hate to break it to you Sitri but I'm not an Exorcist. We're trained a little different at True Cross, we don't take our Vows until the end of our training. I left one year before mine was complete" Akane explained it to her

"So you do not know any of them?" Sona asked

"No, the only exorcist I knew were my teachers at the academy and let me assure you none of them would ever go rogue" Royal Devils, the Fallen, and now stray exorcists all converging on Kuoh. She'll have to keep an ear out for any information.

"So, why are you here?" Rias asked her

Akane smiled a little at the question "Why am I here? Well I was going to offer one of you my services" She snuck a glance at Rias, failing miserably to hide a smirk slowly forming on her face

"You are not offering us your services for selfless reasons are you?" Sona said, her voice dryer than her sense of humor

"The reasons are strictly selfish my dear. You see, I'm at a point that my human body has reached its limit, it can't grow any further. And I am in no way satisfied with what my human body is capable of. I know I can develop further; my bloodline can develop further. That's the reason I came to you two" She studied their expressions

"I offer you my Service, my body and my bloodline, in return you make me a Devil. A win-win situation don't you think" Akane said with a smile

She noticed that every person in the room was now looking at Rias intently. "Looks like both heiresses made a deal about who potentially gets me even before I came here. Oh, How charming"

"I accept your offer," Rias said getting up from her seat "Let's see how many pieces I have to sacrifice in order to make you a Devil. Orimura-san , please give me your hand " She offered Rias her right arm

Rias took her hand and made a small cut, deep enough for blood to slowly trickle out. It divided itself into three parts that soon started forming into shapes of chess pieces.

Even Koneko who had been busy this entire time munching down her chocolates was looking intently as the chess pieces were taking form.

The result was something that Rias was dreading since the moment she saw Akane's blood divide into three parts, but even she did not think Akane's price would be this high.

Sona, on the other hand, could not help but smirk at the result. She was regretting agreeing to let Rias have Orimura but now after the results, it simply wasn't possible for Akane to join Rias' peerage and with that, the deal between them was now void. And she had a candidate in mind that would be perfect for Akane.

After all, not many Devils had pieces that were worth 3 Queens

Author note:- The art for the cover is done by the lovely https://www.reddit.com/user/GjaPetronas
Beta Reader:- Polkxe

 

[siddharth1998m]

Author note: -
Readinglover3 - Fascinating. I look forward to see which peerage and king Akane is assigned to. She's not going to take the place of an already established queen in cannon, is she? Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing how this goes and am enjoying your story so far! Can't wait for the next chapter!
Response – I hope this chapter answers your questions Readinglover3 and thank you for leaving a review

Chapter-5

"Sorry for being late, I came as quickly as I could," The Current Satan Beelzebub Ajuka said as he quickly stepped over a green magic circle, leftovers from his teleportation technique. Taking a seat at the round table he exchanged quick greetings with his three colleagues.
"Don't sweat it Ajuka, we've barley sat down ourselves" Sirzechs Lucifer responded with a smile
"So, why did you call this impromptu meeting Sirzechs? Weren't we scheduled to meet tonight for my report anyway?" Ajuka asked his best friend "I've even had that game Millicas was interested in prepared, and gift wrapped. I was hoping to give him that tonight" He said with a smile.
Sirzechs shared looks with Serafall Leviathan and Falbium Asmodeus before summoning an evil piece to his hand, which immediately wiped Ajuka's smile off his face.
"Another attack took place last night. Similar to previous ones we've been getting reports about. A stray demon entering a devil's territory unnoticed." Sirzechs informed them
"And why is some stealthy stray getting too big for his boots grounds for calling this meeting early?" Falbium was the first to respond, his right temple resting against his hand closed in a fist
"It took place in Kuoh" his friend continued while putting the chess piece on the table
"Shit" Ajuka cursed under his breath "Is everybody okay? Did someone get hurt?"
Satan Green snorted, "If by someone you mean who I think you mean Beelzebub then I'd wager no. I'd be halfway through mobilizing our forces for war if that were the case" he said, gently stroking his pristinely cut goatee.
"You know it Fal-chan! " Serafall added, her voice a well-known to Ajuka mix of cheer and something dangerous, usually reserved for veiled diplomatical threats but mostly used when talking about little Sona's wellbeing. "But no Aju-chan, fortunately, a third party took care of the stray before he could hurt anybody. My Sona and little Rias didn't even know there was a stray in their territory. They found out about it today when they were approached by a third party who also provided them the Evil piece she collected from the stray" Serafall continued in a more level tone.
"Good, good, good, that's… a relief" Ajuka let out a breath he didn't even know was keeping in, and picked the evil piece up to examine it
"Indeed, but moving on, addressing your previous question Falbium, I deemed four attacks in a single month a sufficient enough reason for an early meeting. We hope you've had enough time for the investigation Ajuka" Sirzechs told him while he himself was busying himself with summoning his equipment
"Don't worry about it Sirzechs, I'm done with the last three, just give me a minute to work with this piece. " His friend nodded
"Hmmm, this one is the same as the other Evil pieces you provided me with,"
"Okay, but can you tell us why we can't track these like usual?" Falbium asked
"Well, Falbium, it's because these pieces are not "ours", to begin with," is his response
"Not ours? Someone's trying the replicate the Evil Pieces?"
"Yes, and to be frank doing a very piss poor job at it" Ajuka adds looking a bit annoyed
"Piss poor How Aju-chan?"
"Well, what's the most basic function of an evil piece?" he asked Satan Pink
Serafall gave Ajuka a quizzical look before responding "Making a new devil, right? Unless you're about to pull a big reveal on us with the actual nefarious goal of the system?!" she exclaimed
Taking her antics in stride Ajuka responded "Yes to the first question no to the second," looking at the piece on the table his face contorted in disgust "these things can't even do that right, they don't turn you into a devil. No, they turn you into a stray demon without even the use of a Qliphoth" He explained
"Well, that would certainly explain why the stray in Kuoh was trying use a Qliphoth" Sirzechs said while rubbing his chin
"Did he now? hmm Interesting, if we could capture one of this strays, I might be able to find out more"
"What part of undetectable don't you understand Ajuka? " Falbium snarked "It's no longer a more or less organized hunt for a stupid stray, and on top of that these rats are difficult to put down. Couple all that with our boys underestimating strays and we end up with our scouts at best barely able to survive their confrontation with these bastards. We sustained losses from just fighting them. But taking one of the bastards alive? You're asking me to throw a lot of bodies on the sacrificial pyre for a long shot here."
"What do you want me to do then Falbium? These pieces can only provide us with limited information, faint traces of genetic data aren't enough. I need a live specimen to give us some answers here" Ajuka shot back
"There must be something we could salvage form these pieces Ajuka. Maybe a way to track their movements or even their last known location. It might help us set up an ambush to capture one of them alive" Serafall piped in trying to calm them down
"That would be easier said than done Serafall. There is nothing there we could use to track them as I am pretty sure even the person that created these cheap knock offs can't. The most I could do is create… an alarm system. It could, in theory, detect that a stray is inside its range but it won't be able to tell you its exact location" Ajuka replied
Serafall nodded absentmindedly as she looked at the piece placed at the center of the table "Hey Sirzechs-chan did little Rias mention anything about how that Orimura girl was able to find this stray? Reports say she attacked first, she did destroy the Qliphoth right?"
"She did; hmmm how could I have missed this?" Sirzechs muttered
"Wait, Orimura as in Akane Orimura? She's the third party that took care of the stray?" Ajuka asked
"Yes, if it's the same Orimura you're thinking about of course, do you know her Ajuka?"
"No, I don't know her but I do know of her. Girl's one of the reasons why development of the Brave Saints was such a slog," Ajuka responded a little bit annoyed
"Ohhh I do remember you being grumpy about someone wasting your time. Though you never really told us the full story. Did she delay the Development process on purpose?" Serafall asked
"Okay, first of all, I wasn't being "grumpy" just… mildly displeased. As for Orimura, she didn't delay the development on purpose but she was one of the reasons why it took so much time." Ajuka replied "She was a fresh exorcist at the time I was developing the Brave saints for the Angels. Supposedly she had an unknown sacred gear. Azazel was helping me out at the time, mostly with angel physiology, and he was asked to take a look into Orimura's potential sacred gear"
"And Let me guess, after that the project started to move at a snail's pace," Sirzechs asked while cracking a smile
"Yes, well no, it started moving at a snail's pace but someone stepped on that snail and it fucking died. Azazel's obsession with sacred gears paralyzed the project for a time. Oh and the absolute best part about all this is that the supposed sacred gear turned out to be some blood ability or bloodline or whatever. So yeah, not only Azazel wasted his time, he wasted my time as well, all for nothing" Ajuka sighed while Sirzechs and Serafall assumed thoughtful expressions
"She was just a kid back then, looks like she's gotten strong over time if she was able to take down the stray on her own"
"And from the look of things, she might know how to track these strays down. We should send someone to talk to the girl" Falbium suggested
"Oh oh I will go!" Serafall volunteered immediately getting up from her seat a broad smile on her face
"Should have expected this" Falbium thought to himself as he rubbed his temples in annoyance "I know you want to visit your sister but ah, volunteering to go on a mission like this is a bit much. You are a Satan for Lucifer's sake send a scout or something" he scolded her
"Calm down Fal-chan, it's not what you think it is. Sona asked me to come to recruit the Orimura girl to my peerage" Serafall explained
"For your peerage? You don't have… Ohh you have got to be kidding me! You are going to waste your queen on this girl just because your sister asked you too?!" Falbium asked incredulously, his right brow threatening to shoot off and start its journey to outer space, as he looked at her nod in response
"It's not like I'll be wasting my queen piece Fal-chan, she's worth three queens and has a bloodline. I get a new queen, the Sitri get a potential new bloodline, my Sona is happy, It's a pretty sweet deal in my opinion" Serafall explains her reasoning to a gradually more resigned Falbium
"Fine do what you want, not like I could ever prevent any of you whippersnappers from doing something stupid. Just keep us update on the situation, okay?" Falbium said getting up from his seat
"I will" Serafall replied and with a nod to his colleagues, Falbium left them via Summon seal.

"Three queens huh... It might be the first time I have ever heard of that high of a price, then again we never really tried to recruit an experienced Longinus user, theoretically they would be costlier" Ajuka commented "Still, Three queens is impressive. I should have asked Azazel about how her bloodline worked. He did a pretty in-depth study on it" He added getting up from his seat as well
"Well, I guess good luck on your recruitment pitch Serafall. Please inform me immediately about your findings when you return," Ajuka said "Sure thing Aju-chan and thanks!" he nodded
"And Sirzechs tell Lucretia to visit her brother sometimes" Ajuka said before leaving through the summon seal as well, leaving Sirzechs and Serafall alone
Sirzechs keeping quiet for a while spoke up "Serafall…er, I think you should let Grayfia recruit her" he suggested
"What? Why??"She complained
"Serafall, you hardly have time for your sister nowadays, what makes you think you will have time to train a potential queen? You are always busy and your work is important. Let Grayfia take her in, she is relatively free nowadays" he explained
"Hmmm, nope, however I think about it it just seems like you are trying to snatch her up for your family" Serafall quickly turned towards Sirzechs with her fingers pointing accusingly at him
Sirzechs held both of his hands up "Now now Serafall you know I don't care about family politics. The only reason I am suggesting this is that Grayfia would be able to both train and keep an eye on her at the same time. Plus, after her initial training with Grayfia is done you two could always trade" he said
"Okay let's say I accept. Do you think Grayfia will agree to take her in? You know how she is on matters like these" she said
"Why wouldn't she? This isn't a permanent arrangement, she just needs to train her as well as screen her. After that, you could take her Serafall. We can't have some girl we picked up from nowhere as a Satan's queen. The veritable shitstorm of complaints and the sheer responsibility of such a position require us to make sure that we can trust her" Sirzechs explained
"You do realize that this might be the first time Sona asked for something from me for ages, right?" Serafall asked him she understood the reasoning behind Sirzechs suggestion but she also did not want to disappoint her little sister.
"Sona will understand the reasons behind this decision" Sirzechs reassured her
"Fine then, call Grayfia, let's get this over with" Serafall grumbled
Sirzechs nodded and send a summon to his queen and within a few seconds, a blueish white summoning seal appeared before them and the queen of the Underworld emerged before them. Appearing no older than twenty-five, but it never was a tell with devils, back-length silver hair that enveloped the most beautiful face in the Underworld had long braids on each side with small blue bows at the ends. Instead of her usual maid outfit, she opted for more casual wear "Do you need something of me. Master?" she asked bowing before them
"There's no need for you be so formal dear, especially when today's your off day, I apologize for interrupting it" Sirzechs remarked sheepishly
"Fine" Grayfia replied with a sigh as she stood up straight and crossed her arms "What Is it?"
"Again, terribly sorry for interrupting your free time my dear but you see, in the report about the stray in Kuoh both Rias and Sona happened to mention that a third party one Akane Orimura caught the stray off guard in a surprise attack. Thanks to Ajuka we now know that the stray in Kuoh is pretty much similar to the other one we didn't track. So I want you to go and talk to her about the stray and how she was able to track the beast. It might provide us a way to tackle this growing problem"
While Grayfia understood what she needed to do she still couldn't understand why she was chosen for the task "While I have no problem with doing this job. I must ask why are you sending me there and not just some messenger? It's an easy enough mission" She asked them both, Sirzechs and Serafall shared a look.
After a few moments of awkward silence, it was Serafall who replied "we also need you to recruit Akane Orimura as a member of your peerage" She answered without beating around the bush much like Sirzechs would have done.
************************************************
Beta Reader:- Polkxe

 

[siddharth1998m]

Author note: - The Red Eyed Queen just hit 130 followers and 91 favorites with 5,190 views and I am truly grateful to the people who are following along the story.

This is going to be a small chapter thought don't worry as the next chapter is the longest chapter I have written to this point filled history and backstory about the Orimura clan so stay tuned.

Now for my responses to the reviews

Readinglover3:- Nice chapter. I don't think I've read a story of Grayfia having a peerage before. I've only read stories where Grayfia is mentioned as Sirzech's queen and wife. I look forward to seeing how Akane does with Grayfia and their interactions together. I also look forward to seeing how Akane and Serafall do with each other. Handling a major sis-con must be taxing.

Response :- Thanks for leaving a review mate I truly appreciate it and yes even I have not read a story with Grayfia having her own Peerage. I am also not sure that the fact that she owns a prototype set is canon or fandom idea. Still its canon here in my story so don't worry about it. As for her interaction with Grayfia, after the next chapter you won't see her at least until the Riser arc and Serafall is even later so stay tuned.

sona queen of ic: - Please do the pair Akane and Grayfia

Response :- [Maniacal laughter]

Anyways guys if you like the chapter please leave a favorite and a follow as well as give me your thoughts on the chapters in a review I will truly appreciate it

Also a big Thanks to my Beta Polkxe

Chapter-6
Orimura Shrine
Evening

The Orimura family shrine was a typical example of a Shinto shrine, designed not to stand out in comparison to any other shrine of its time. The first gate of the shrine stood at the foothills near Kuoh Cemetery and the second gate just near the top of the hill both of them connected via rock steps. After the second gate, there were still a few flights of stair left which severed as this shrine's Worshipper's path guarded by the stone lion-dog statues situated at each side of the stairs.

The shrine compound was similar in size to the sports grounds of Kuoh Academy; the whole compound was surrounded by the sacred fence with the hall of worship right at its end followed by the main sanctuary.

The center grounds of the shrine were currently illuminated by a bright crimson teleportation seal in the shape of a rose. After a couple of seconds, Rias stepped forth out of her seal to the sight of her queen waiting for her.

"I see you didn't have time to change your clothes" Akeno's voice greeted her

"The thing with the police took more time than I expected, and their air conditioner was busted, I'm drenched with sweat" She sighed as she replied to her queen who was currently dressed in her shrine maiden uniform with a broom in her hands. She chuckled slightly, the sight of Akeno in her shrine maiden garb always brought a smile to her face. It was not the look itself but rather the fact that the uniform really gave her friend an aura of innocence her friend that was a literal devil and on top of that a devil with a rather… unabashed disposition.

She knew Akeno did this to try and connect with her late mother in some way. It was the reason why she agreed to her queen's request to live at the shrine grounds and it was why she asked her brother to buy the shrine for her.

"Well, we still have some time left. Why don't you go inside and freshen up while I finish sweeping? "

"Yeah, I'll do that" she told her friend and headed towards the monk house on the right side of the hall of worship, it was where Akeno was currently living. It was a two storey building with a backyard garden that stretched all the way to the stone fence wall surrounding the compound grounds.

The house always seemed a little off to her, it was a generational house it should have felt more… lived in yet it was very Spartan, no decorations, no personalization or any trace of previous inhabitants, even the leftover furniture was painfully bland. At first, she thought her posh upbringing was making her think that way but even Kiba and Akeno gave the same remarks as her with Koneko adding that the whole house lacked a Family smell.

It made the Orimura's look suspicious to her even before Akane Orimura returned to Kuoh. For a family that predated the first hut build in where Kuoh was now there was little to none information available on them. The family was very private and didn't mingle with the rest of the populace aside from the time they came to visit the shrine or during the festivals.

"At least now I know for sure that they were a supernatural family," Rias thought to herself as she entered the shower with her school clothes now getting a much-needed wash inside the washing machine. Despite the pleasant feeling of warm water on her skin her thoughts wandered towards darker matters.

"Looks like Issei is my only hope left now. How the hell did I get into this point in my life where my entire future lies in the hands of a perverted human who won the sacred gear lottery" Rias thought bitterly "Thought from the luck I'm having with strong sacred gears I'll be happy enough if he can control his powers and my brother doesn't have to come and lock him like Gasper"

By the time she got out, Akeno was done cleaning and was waiting for her with a cup of tea ready at the porch of the house which had a beautiful view of the Koi pond. With her was an unexpected guest.

"Grayfia? What are you doing here? Oh no no-no-no… please tell me mother and father didn't move the dates closer" she asked Grayfia dreading her answer

"What? "Grayfia replied in a confused manner, caught off guard by Rias comment "No I am not here for that reason" "Well Not today anyway" she thought to herself as she had been hearing the rumor about dates being moved earlier. Though she though its best she didn't mention that fearing that Rias might do something stupid.

"I need to question Ms. Orimura about the stray she fought last night" Grayfia's response prompted her to let out the breath she was holding in

"Oh, then you have come to the right place, Akane should be arriving here any moment now" she replied with a nervous laugh

"I know, your rook informed me about that when I went to your house" Grayfia replied taking a sip of her tea

"So, what did Lord Beelzebub say? Why didn't we get any warning about the strays" she asked sitting down

"I didn't attend the meeting Rias, so I don't know much about what was said. I think it would be best if you call tonight to get the whole story" her brother's Queen recommended

"Yes, of course, but in the meantime what do you think I should do? The thought of a stray demon running around my territory undetected is not a pleasant one" Kuoh was her home, her territory, her responsibility. The thought of not being able to protect everyone living in her territory made her stomach churn. If there was anyone who could give insight into dealing with a situation she now found herself in it was her brother's queen

"Don't roam around at night for starters, travel via summoning seals. If you're out doing contracts always carry a Trigger bond with you and If you find a stray demon, run, don't bother fighting them and call backup immediately."

"How about we just give our familiars some Trigger bonds and tell them to patrol the area?" her queen suggested. Yes, Akeno's idea could work but…

"I highly doubt you have enough familiars to patrol the entire area. Though it's not a bad idea Akeno" Grayfia complimented her friend "I think it would be best if you hire the services of Sona's Beastmaster"

"Kiyome huh… I think that would work" She muttered to herself "I'll talk to Sona about this tomorrow" It was a good idea, perhaps a little bit more of collaboration with her fellow king is called for in light of recent events.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, she remembered she still hasn't asked Grayfia about Akane's potential recruitment. thought she did not know whether she should ask her about it "Hey Grayfia did my brother asked you take Akane in as your Queen?" She asked rather timidly not knowing how Grayfia might feel about this topic

"He did" Grayfia replied with steel in her voice which made the hair at the back of her neck stand

"And are you going to do it?" she asked carefully

"I will think about it" Grayfia replied "He did give me a month to decide so I am not in a rush. Until then you two are not allowed to tell Orimura about this." She added

Arisaka Hotel

Being the only four-star hotel in Kuoh Arisaka tended to get crowded during the evening as its restaurants served as a perfect destination for hotel guests and residents of Kuoh. A young woman with cherry red hair entered the hotel through its main entrance after she and her luggage got through the checking process without any problems she moved towards the reception area navigating through a crowd of people seemingly waiting for something
"Welcome to the Arisaka Hotel. What can I do you miss?" the receptionist inquired
"Yes, I have a room booked here Under the name of Aoi Nagisa" she replied
"Just a moment miss let me look through the records" the receptionist told her before he started to look through his computer
"Yes miss, we do have a room under Aoi Nagisa, room 344" he replied as he gave her the key card to the room "Please enjoy your stay" He said to before bowing
"Thank you, I'm sure I will" Nagisa replied before moving toward the lifts
"I have the keys to my room. How are things at your front Shizuma?" She asked her fellow clone through the radio

"Nothing out of the ordinary. No signs of the rogue Exorcists that mistress mentioned. They are just shopping for clothes, it looks deceptively mundane" her fellow clone replied, She could hear distinct… clanking noises? coming through the speaker

"Everything alright? What's that noise" she asked while entering the lift

"Ohh, It's just the sound of the clothes hangers. Seriously!" her growl came through the radio after another loud clank noise "Who the fuck uses Plastic hangers?" Shizuma growled out

"Everybody, they're cheap" She replied in humor

"They also make too much noise" Shizuma countered before taking a sigh "Regardless, did you bring all the equipment we needed?"

"First of all, the fact that you get mad at the material used in clothes hangers is super weird, I just wanted you to know that, Second, yes, I have the spy seals ready, also, Azazel was kind enough to provide us two pairs of his special glasses. Mistress gave me one and kept the other for herself" She replied as the lift reached the floor where her room was

"Noted, good, I have slipped an envelope containing the spare key cards of room 345 and room 346 to your room. Get to work immediately, I don't know if we will get this good of an opportunity again"

"Roger roger" she replied smiling while she used the key card to open the door of her room. Entering she found the envelope Shizuma's been talking about lying on the floor.

"Got the envelope. Give me the quick rundown of the security of this floor" She asked as she dropped her luggage and started to take off her boots.

"The surveillance of the entire floor has been divided between two security cameras that can see who is entering and going out of the rooms. I suggest using the EMP's on both the cameras but don't go above 5% percent setting as it would knock out the lights of the entire floor and you would be locked out of their rooms" Shizuma explained

"Roger" She acknowledged quickly picking out the card containing the EMPs and taking two of them out. The supernatural generally doesn't have to worry about getting in and out of secured human owned areas. It moves through the realm of Purgatorio and bypasses all mundane traps and surveillance methods with ease.

But this gets complicated when someone supernatural is involved. When you are inside the Purgatorio you are undetectable but when you enter or leave, it tends to leave traces behind, traces that don't go away for a while and most supernaturals can pick up those traces without much hassle. Thus making the method of infiltration with the Purgatorio null against any supernatural.

EMPs like the ones in her hand are not generally issued by the Exorcists as most of their operations don't require them, but someone like them who tend to take the stealthier approach, this equipment is a must-have. Of course, these methods aren't perfect if someone skilled is monitoring the surveillance grid they would know instantly that something is wrong. They would have to count on the mediocrity of Arisaka's security

Without wasting any time, she got out of her room checked if she was the only person left in the corridor and threw the EMPs at the cameras separately. With the cameras now out of the way she quickly moves toward Room 345 and thanks to the key card provided to her by Shizuma enters the room immediately.

She already knew what would be the best hiding spot in the room where she can place the spy seal. She had the option to either stick them under the bed or behind the portrait or the clock. In the end, deciding the stick them under the bed as you can check the portrait or clocks but nobody bothers to check the underside of the bed while they're in a hotel. After she was done
she moved on to room 346.

"The seals have been placed" She informed Shizuma over the radio as she got out of Room 346 and moved towards her room

"Good because they are done shopping. If anything happens I will inform you. In the meantime, set up the equipment." Shizuma informed her

"Roger" she replied

The Orimura shrine

"Well, she is… late" She said looking at her wristwatch with a nervous smile, Grayfia was sitting silently at the steps of the main shrine looking steadily at the main entrance in silence.

"Orimura-san is not helping out her chances by pulling this" she thought to herself if she had kept her and Akeno waiting they really wouldn't have minded much but that keeping someone waiting is not a thing you do to the strongest queen of the Underworld. "Though I guess I really can't blame her, she didn't know that her future master might pop by"

A strong gust of wind carrying some leaves drew her attention as it started to move in a circular motion forming a small tornado. When it eventually dissipated it revealed Akane standing where the center of the tornado was.

"Cool, erm informative as well… yeah… that answers at least some of my questions" She thought to herself, she'd seen Tsubaki do something similar on several occasions. Unfortunately, Sona was rather strict when it came to divulging information on her peerage's abilities. She, of course, knew the what but didn't know the how. All she knew about this ability is that it was chakra based. She probably wouldn't even think about asking about something like that, she was much more interested in what abilities Akane's blood granted her.
"Though I guess our questions have to wait" she thought while looking at Grayfia. Her brother's Queen needed some answers from Orimura-san as well. Much more important than hers at the moment. Grayfia was looking at Akane with steely eyes, she gave up years ago with trying to read the strongest queen's expressions.

"Rias would you kindly introduce me to your guest here" Grayfia asked her shaking her out of her musings, she looked to Akane who was looking mildly amused and intrigued about the stranger. She could reckon a guess to what Akane found so funny, a stranger sitting at the stairs to your house giving off an aura like she owned the place and demanded your attention. Humor in absurdity really.

"Of course. Akane, this Grayfia Lucifuge she has a few questions regarding the stray you fought last night that she needs to ask you" Rias Introduced her

"Ah, So you are the Strongest queen huh? It is nice to meet a living legend "Akane replied while she looked at Grayfia as if she was measuring her up. "Well I had hoped that I had given the entirety of the information regarding the stray I fought last night to Rias, but if you still need to ask me questions you are very much welcome to do so. But please join me for a walk while I check something out at the shrine, I'll be happy to answer your questions on the way" she said,

Grayfia just nodded to Akane and got up from her position at the stairs to make way for Akane.

********************************************

 

[siddharth1998m]

Chapter-7

Inside Orimura Shrine

"So what do you want to check inside the shrine Orimura-san?" Rias saw Akeno ask Akane with a smile, to a stranger it would look completely genuine but Rias knew her friend well enough to know there was a tone of uneasiness there. And she sort of understood why Akeno was uneasy, she had been living on the grounds that Akane's family lived on for decades.

Akane didn't seem to register Akeno's question as she was busy looking around the interior of the shrine with a distant look in her eyes. "Stand behind me," Akane told them as she knelt before the center of the shrine a stocky structure adorned with a heavy stone slab covered in intricate ornamentations.

Rias had seen the shrine interior a few times before and she always thought the decision of placing that rectangular slab at the center was just a design decision made by the Orimuras. As no builder, especially at the time this shrine was built, would make a floor of solid stone slabs which was who knows how thick. And place them in a way that some of the tiles were out of the building and would have been needed to cut it with damaging it which would have been a near-impossible task.

The sudden appearance of a knife in Akane's hands brought Rias out of her musing as she, Akeno and Grayfia saw her deliberately cut the palm of her right hand. Soon enough little droplets of blood started falling on the carvings of the center slab. The next thing Rias saw Akane do frankly amazed her.

Knowing two chakra users in Tsubaki and Koneko Rias knew what hand seals were and had seen them being used from time to time. She'd even seen Tsubaki use a series of hand seals needed to perform a high level technique in quick succession. She had always wondered how fast one could do a series of hand seals.

Well, that question of hers was just answered when she saw Akane perform them in such speed her hands were just a blur of motion to her eyes. Rias was barely able to keep count yet alone recognize any individual one.

After… she didn't know… 70 hand seals? Maybe more? Akane slammed her hand on the slab with her blood on and the carvings started to glow red as it started to slowly rise in the air revealing a set of stairs that went downwards.

Standing up Akane took a step down the stairs and the moment her foot touched the first step the torches on the walls ignited one by one illuminating the path downwards. "Come on, follow me," Akane said looking back at them before taking the next step.
After sharing a look with her queen and Grayfia she followed suit.
Their slow descent underground was interrupted by a loud grinding noise from behind them, Akeno and Grayfia looked back to check what that noise was and they found out that the entrance had closed itself sealing them inside.

"Don't worry about it, the entrance can be opened from inside" Akane's voice reached them from below, the girl didn't skip a beat and continued going down, they went down after her quickly catching up with her.

"So… do you have to do that every time you want to enter this place," She asked Akane while pointing to her still bleeding hand

"The drawing my blood part?" She chuckled a little before continuing "Yes every time, though we really don't come to this place often, besides, it's not that inconvenient" She finished, her left hand started to glow a dim warm green and she brought it to the palm of her right hand the cut wound began to close itself up

"That technique you just used isn't that supposed to be known only by the members of the Shinra clan?" Rias remembered this particular technique well, Koneko once asked Tsubaki to teach her and was met with a quite staunch refusal on the part of Sona's queen. In fact, the lack of a proper chakra trainer has become a big problem for Koneko. No chakra user she was aware of was willing to teach Koneko anything and as wealthy and as powerful as Rias' family was it had no servants with chakra abilities to speak of.

"Yes, it is" Akane replied to her as she removed her hand off her other hand which was now healed

"So care to explain how you learned the technique used by one of the Shinto Royal Clans?" Grayfia asked her

Akane chuckled at the question "It's a long story. Maybe I will tell you about it some other time"

"Why not now? Didn't you agree to answer all of our questions" Grayfia kept pushing for an answer

"I told Rias that I would be happy to tell her about my bloodline and I agreed to answer your questions regarding the stray. I never said I will answer your every question" Akane replied
"Fine, then tell me how did you track down the stray you fought last night?" Grayfia asked Akane who gave her a curious look

"It Couldn't have been the Guides helping you. You have left the order so they have no reason to offer you their help. And Without their help, it should have been impossible for you to track the stray. Yet you did and caught the stray off guard" Grayfia added

"Ask Azazel. I really can't say much more on this topic at the moment" Akane replied

"Why?" Grayfia asked though Akane did not give her a reply and just kept moving forward

"Why can't you tell me?" Grayfia moved forward and blocked Akane's way "Answer me". Rias was surprised to see the ever calm and collected Grayfia acting so pushy "well, I've never seen her work before" Rias thought to herself

"Don't you have any other questions to ask me? Because as far as I'm concerned I have already answered your first question" Akane responded unfazed

"I have but none are as important as this one," Grayfia told her standing her ground
"And why is that? Shouldn't you be able to track the Stray easily, thanks to the tracking devices you have inside those chess pieces of yours?" Akane asked her.

"I am not allowed to say much about this topic but I can say that we are having trouble tracking them using our regular method," Grayfia told Akane who just looked at her in amusement
"Why can't you tell me about it?" Akane asked in an amused tone "Answer me"

"Because this is an official Devil matter and telling you about it would be unprofessional at best and treason at worst" Grayfia started out and soon as she uttered those words she stopped "Ohh," she said as if some realization has come to her Before she stared giving Akane a suspicious look

"Ohh? Come on don't give me that look." Akane replied, "I'm just doing a job for him which doesn't involve Rias or Sona." She said with a shrug and moved passed her

"I kind of wonder what kind of job required Azazel to hire you?" Grayfia said out loud as if she wanted to get something out Akane

"I guess you should go ask him yourself. Though I doubt he'll answer after all its official Fallen business" Akane Replied in a mocking manner

Rias had no idea what the two were talking about but she picked up on the fact that Akane is apparently doing a job for Azazel. She really didn't know what to feel about that while there was really not that much friction between the two factions they still kept to themselves and maintained their distance.

"Well if you can't answer any of my questions then I would go to someone who would," Grayfia said

Akane Didn't reply just smiled as if Grayfia had said something funny
Rias saw Grayfia raise her hand but nothing happened no magic seal appeared in her hand like usual "Grayfia? What's wrong?" She asked her confused about Why Grayfia was not summoning a magic seal

"I….." Grayfia began with her eyes closed "can't use my magic" she said to her opening her eyes and bringing her hands down

"I can feel my mana inside so I know my magic is still there, I am not able to release my magic… outside, it is as if something is actively stopping it" Grayfia explained. She and Akeno both shared a look before deciding to check out themselves if what Grayfia was talking about was the truth. Rias and Akeno called their magic out but like what Grayfia was saying some force was stopping it from coming out of their bodies.

"You know anything about this?" Grayfia asked Akane with suspicion. Who was looking at them as if she was studying them

"Well yes, sort of. This entire place is built in a way that it actively stops elements that a humanoid body can release mostly chakra never knew it will also work with magic" Akane mused out loud

"But that's impossible, to stop someone from using Magic the most common method used is a binding that eats away people's mana so that they are not able to use their magic. But this is unheard of, to be able to make someone's magic useless even without them knowing about it. How does this work exactly?" Rias asked

"I don't know" Akane replied with a shrug

"Wait? Are you saying that because you don't wanna tell me? Or you genuinely don't know how this works?" Rias asked

"What do you want me to say here Rias?. I'm already showing you my clan's vault, that should be enough. You are not my master, I won't share my clan's secrets with you" Akane told her "Now come on let's get this thing done so I can go back home and get some rest" she added
"And what am I supposed to do here? From the looks of things I am stuck here until you open the entrance" Grayfia asked

"If I had known you only had one question to ask of me I wouldn't have invited you here. Follow along, I guess. We won't be here for that long" She told her before signaling them to follow her they could see the end of the stairs was not far

"Is this what I think it is?" Rias asked looking at wide a library that took half of the space present on the floor filled with nothing but scrolls. She had heard legends about places like these existing used by the old families to keep their knowledge and secrets safe. Though the clans, as well as their members understandably, tend to deny the existence of places like this existing.

"Yes, Welcome to the Orimura Clan vault." Said Akane before looking them right in their eyes "Consider yourself lucky, as you three might be the only outsiders who have entered this vault in its entire history"

Even Grayfia was looking around the library with interest it's not every day you get an opportunity to enter a place such as this "So why are you showing this to us? Clans tend to get secretive when it comes to vaults like this. Aren't you afraid we might steal some scroll or leak the location of the vault to someone else" Grayfia asked Akane as they were slowly following her through the library

"Even if you now know the location of the vault you really can't do anything about it. To only way to enter and exit the vault is through the shrine and for that you will need my blood and even if you have somehow acquired my blood you will need the perform the 120 hand sign opening technique correctly to open the seal" Akane replied "And you have seen what happens when you try to use magic." She added later

"120?! Dear Satan my guess was way off" Rias thought to herself

"But why are you showing it to us?" Grayfia asked

"I wanted to check something out inside the vault and this vault just happened to contain the story behind my bloodline which Rias was so eager to know about. So I said fuck it lets kill two birds with one stone" She replied

Rias who had been busy looking around the library asked "Can you tell me about scrolls present here what they contain? You don't have to tell us which contains what? Just answer us in generalization" Rias worded her question in a way that Akane could reveal something without revealing everything

"Well some of the scrolls present here are Jutsu scrolls that my family has collected, Most of the scrolls present here are memoirs of each clan member dating back to the initial beginning of the War Amongst the Mythologies. That's where our clan story began" Akane tells them
"Which side did your clan support?" Grayfia asked

"Lady Amaterasu's of course. Now how we came to make a deal with her or Our Clan's History before the war is a bit murky. Some say we were one of the vassal clans under the jade emperor before defecting to Amaterasu's side. Other say we were barbarians who had come here from a different isle raiding and pillaging" Akane tells them

"Form the way I see it your Clan wasn't interested in that part of their history" Said Grayfia in a weirdly sympathetic tone which came from where Rias wasn't sure
"Hmmm I guess you are correct" Akane answered absentmindedly as she was looking through a shelf of the library

"So does the memoirs contain the happenings of the war?" Rias asked. She couldn't hide her excitement. In-depth knowledge about what happened during the war was hard to come by especially for the members of Christian Mythology as they joined the war at the very last moment. Most of them had no idea what was happening on the other fronts.

"If its politics and high profile secret war meetings you are looking for, I am afraid you would be disappointed." Akane told her "Aside from a few mentions of those meetings made by the clan heads during that time you would not find anything else. Most memoirs recount what happened in the front lines of the battles" She explained

"wait your clan heads memoirs don't mention what happened in those meetings? They'd have to be a part of those meetings right?" Rias asked getting a nod form Akane in response "So why did they not write about it? Was there some kind of rule forbidding them from writing about that" she asked

"Well at the time when the meetings were held, Sure there must have been a rule placed in order to stop spies from getting their hand on our strategy. But this is a memoir we are talking about not a journal" Akane told them

"From the way I see it, they didn't find what happened in those meetings important and must have tuned them out. And, understandably, those meetings are famous for clan politicking amongst each other. My clan never was interested in that. In our entire history even at our worst moment, we have been straight and upfront about our issues" She explained
"And from the looks of things your clan paid the price for not getting involved there. As no one has ever heard about your clan, even though they helped the Shinto Gods. Your clan is not nobility like the other clans that helped" said Grayfia

"Harsh but kind of true" Rias thought about Grayfia comments but was surprised by a chuckle coming from Akane "I can see how you came to that conclusion but that's not how the clans got their nobility. If your clan contributed during the war they are viable for nobility as that was the offer Lady Amaterasu gave to the clans to join her side" Akane replied
"So why is your clan not nobility?" Rias asked

"Lady Amaterasu offered us something different as the offer for nobility wouldn't have interested my ancestors. She decided to offer us something different" Akane told her
"And that's where your bloodline comes from?" asked Grayfia

"Sort of, at first Lady Amaterasu's gave us divine weaponry straight out of lord Susanoo's collection that can be only used by a few family members that the weapon itself chooses" Said Akane

"So a few sacred gears?" Asked Akeno

"Yeah, though at that time the term Sacred Gears was not used. Remember this was before even the war started a good few years before they made their debut" Akane replied
"Your Clan didn't accept that offer did they?" Grayfia commented

"Generally they would have happily accepted that offer but the Clan head at the time recognized that there is a possibility that at a later date those weapons might skip a few generations. Plus, these weapons might also cause some infighting between the clan at a later date. So he refused the offer" Akane told them "Not knowing what would appease the clan head now as she was hoping that he would have accepted the first offer lady Amaterasu promised that she will fulfill any wish he asks form her after the war has ended" She added
"Anything?" Rias asked in surprises

"Well, there were some rules of course. The wish couldn't threaten the life of any gods under her rule but other than that they could have asked anything and she would fulfill that wish" Akane replied

"After that promise was made to our clan we happily accepted that offer joined the war and fought alongside the other clans, Youkai, and the Gods. Until your God and his children ended the conflict." She told them "When the war ended and everyone who fought for Lady Amaterasu was being compensated for their efforts. We as a clan decided to take a month to heal and discuss amongst each other what wish we were going to ask for" she told them
"So what did your clan finally decided to ask for," Grayfia asked

"Power, and to be exact they asked the gods to give our family a fragment of their power," Akane told them.

"And they granted that wish?" Grayfia asked as she couldn't believe someone would ask for such a bold gift from the gods

"Of course she did but there was a catch of course" Akane replied before she quickly started making hand seals "Don't Worry about it lower your guard for a moment and just let me show you," she said as finished making seals "Demonic Illusion: False surroundings technique," she said under breath

Akane's entire body flickered out for just a moment which made Rias rub her eyes a little and before she knew it Rias found her outside the vault and in a courtyard. Though when Rias looked around carefully she found out there was something wrong with her surroundings as the trees and the house before her cast no shadow even though the sun was right above her.
"Don't worry about it you are under an illusion Rias" She could hear Akane's voice coming from behind when Rias turned around she found Akeno and Grayfia standing in front of her. "This illusion is a rather low-level one as you can see. But it gets the job done" She heard Akane voice again but she really could not find her anywhere
"Rias, come we might wanna see this" Grayfia called her as she saw her point towards a few individuals standing still a few steps away from them, amongst them was a beautiful woman with long silky black hair dressed in a Regal looking kimono and had red… commas? floating behind her.

"Those are tomoe, not commas" Akane's voice interrupted Rias' train of thought and as soon as her voice came it was gone.

"Grayfia who are they?" Rias asked her as she saw her looking at the people who were standing still seemingly frozen in time

"While I don't know who are the people standing there in the group are. My guess is they are Akane's Ancestors" Grayfia told her

"You are correct Strongest queen" Again Akane's voice chimed in

"And who are the individuals standing before the group," she asked

"The woman in the middle is Amaterasu the man on her right dressed in a kimono is Tsukuyomi and to her left standing in full body armor is Susanoo" she replied and took a couple of steps further to get a better look at them. The moment she did that, the figures standing there started talking
***********************************************************
"What treachery is this Amaterasu" Growled the Orimura clan head "Where is the power of the Gods that you promised" he demanded of the Goddess who was standing before him with her brothers to answer

"If I were you I would lower my voice," Susanoo warned the Orimura

"Calm down brother" Amaterasu melodic voice stopped her brother

"Orimura Dono The power of Gods flows through you and your family's veins but time and effort are needed to awaken it. Even I and my siblings had to put in the effort to achieve our powers" Amaterasu replied to the clan head

"How would we know that we had achieved that power," The clan head asked in suspicion

"You Doubt me Orimura-dono? Is my word not enough" Amaterasu asked felling insulted

"Your word won't grant my family and their legacy greatness. You have not allowed us to join your Court" The Clan Head Answered

"And for that, I have awarded your family with power that I and my brothers poses" Amaterasu replied thinking that would calm down his suspicion yet he was still standing there looking straight into her eyes

"Fine" the Goddess growled as tablet appeared in her hands

"Sister that..." Tsukuyomi said with a shocked expression

"Our mother's Tablet " She finished her twin brothers sentence

"That's the only thing we have as a remembrance of our mother Amaterasu, it contains immense knowledge which only we could decipher as her children," Susanoo asked puzzled by her sister action

"Yes but after their powers have awakened so could they" She answered, "Orimura dono look into this tablet can you see any writing?" She asked the clan head as she gave him the tablet so he could examine it

"No" He answered after checking its every nook and cranny

"This is one of the tablets written by our late mother Izanami that contains knowledge within it. Once you have awakened your powers you will be able to read the tablet and that will serve to tell you that you have that power awakened." Amaterasu explained before she leaves the courtyard they were standing in leaving her brother behind.

"I suggest you lot leave and never show your faces again" Susanoo growled at them before leaving Tsukuyomi looked at the tablet that the clan head was now holding before leaving as well.
**************************************************
As Tsukuyomi left the three of them found themselves back at the vault thought they were now standing at a very different room. When Rias turned back she saw the library behind her "this must have been the place where she was leading us towards" Rias thought to herself as she looked around

The room they were in at the moment while not being that massive when compared to the library area of the floor was still big or it looked big as the room had only two tables present there. Something the clan members probably used to study their scrolls.

It was the walls of this room which looked more interesting as they consisted of a tapestry. The main tapestry which was surrounded by burning candles and had the Stone tablet that they saw in the illusion placed under it can be seen through the way they came. The main tapestry had three naked women sitting on three rocks discussing something amongst each other. At first glance it looked very dull as the color used was very bland. The surroundings were mostly black though there were some red, brown and yellow colors mixed in the middle where the three women were. The walls to the sides on the other side looked like they contained a family tree the details of which were very hard to see from where she was standing the room was very dimly lit. Under the family tree, she had also seen two wooden sword stands. Old and worn out the wood was stained but also smoothed out probably by generation after generation of Orimura hands polishing it with usage. As small as they were compared to everything Rias has seen in the Orimura vault it was obvious they were of great importance to the clan, probably built to when the Orimura clan received their Gift from the Shinto gods.

The experience of being under an illusion was a bit disorienting for her but she recovered quickly. "So what was that? I would compare this experience to be similar to that of Memory tears" Rias asked her

"Isn't that what familiars use to share memories?" Akane asked her

"Yes, most familiars can't speak so they use this as a way to share information with their master. It's quite similar to what you just used right now, like with Memory tears we entered and experienced firsthand what happened in the memory" Rias explains this to her

"hmm, I can see why you felt the similarities but in all honesty, it's not a memory. Instead, it's a recollection of that event or a sort of stage play we create that has been passed down in the clan for generations" She explains

"So this is how your family got the bloodline?" Grayfia asked she looked at the stone tablet which like Amaterasu said she wasn't able to see any writing

Akane nodded as they saw her Onyx colored eyes morphed red and was now sporting three tomoe's which connected by a barely noticeable circular black line revolving around the black irises. "This is my bloodline. It's called Sharingan" She revealed the name of her bloodline

"Copy wheel eye? Did you come up with this name?" Rias asked

Akane chuckled as she shook her head "No, It was the tablet that showed me the name" She told them pointing towards the stone tablet in front of them

"So you can see the writing on the tablet," Grayfia asked

"Yes, sort of. When I first woke up my bloodline I was able to read what's written in the tablet but not all of it. But me being able to read even a single line from the tablet was enough for my gran at that time. Never knew the old coot was capable of smiling like that" she said in a way as if she was reminiscing

"As I trained my bloodline further and furthermore writing appeared and by the time I left Kuoh I was able to read half of the tablet," she told them. As Rias knelt down to check what the tablet was and to check if the tablet emitted any energy that could be traced. She heard Akeno ask Akane "So what other things did the tablet's writing revealed?". A good question though Rias very much doubted Akane would answer it.

"You never heard the tale of Izanami's will?" Akane asked. Rias turned around to see her looking at them strangely.

"Izanami is a very reclusive hell realm God. So information on her is pretty sparse. Aside from the tales of her "Apparent death" Grayfia said making air quotes "And the later conflict with her husband in Yomi We don't know that much about her" she continued

"Well this tale of Izanami's will be naturally connected to her Apparent death" Akane replied back with the air quotes "It is said that from the moment of his conception Kagutsuchi's heat started to kill Izanami from the inside, she knew she would not survive the childbirth which was a big problem as at that time Lady Amaterasu, Lord Tsukuyomi and Lord Susanoo where very young and had not even started training and It was her who was supposed to help them realize their potential. So in order to help her children realize their powers, she created these tablets and had her servants hide them all over the world"

"When the time came and the Gods came of age they were supposed to embark on a journey to find one of these tablets. When Lady Amaterasu, Lord Tsukuyomi, and Lord Susanoo finally got their hands on this tablet they found out that the tablet revealed different knowledge to different individuals and the knowledge revealed only suited that individual. And that's how the Shinto gods learned about their powers" Akane finished the story

"So this is not the only tablet that exists?" Akeno asked

"Yes, though the number of these tablets varies from tale to tale" Akane replied

"I guess that explains why we have never heard about this. If other Pantheons knew about this tablet they would want to get their hands on it. It's not a weapon sure but it contains the knowledge on how the Shinto Gods trained themselves and Gods tend to be very secretive about this knowledge." said Grayfia

"Akane would you be in trouble of sharing that knowledge with us?" Rias asked with concern
Akane laughed softly at Rias' question "Of course not, I'm pretty sure the Shinto Gods don't even know that my clan still exists."

"Anyway the official tour of Orimura clan Vault is now over. You can look around for a while if you want, the entrance is now open for you." Said Akane as she made a few hand seals

"But you didn't tell us how your bloodline works?" Rias moaned she had been dying to know more about her bloodline

"My bloodline is very instinctual Rias. It's hard for me to tell you how it works as to me it comes as naturally as breathing." She replied, which made Rias sigh in disappointment "Look If you really want in-depth knowledge about the ins and outs of my bloodline You can go and ask Azazel about it. He did a very thorough study on it.
"
She looks towards Grayfia "I am pretty sure Grayfia can get that info for you from Azazel when she goes to see him for the Stray situation" she said

"Can you do that for me Grayfia?" Rias asked Grayfia who nodded in reply

"So would you be staying here late?" Akeno asked Akane

"I don't know how long it will take. That's why I open the entrance for you three to leave. As I would be just standing there like a stump until My talk with our clan very grumpy Fairy Godmother is over" She replied

Before Rias could ask her anything "Not now, I will tell you about her some other time Rias" she replied to her before Rias saw her cutting her hand open once again with a knife and then placing her hand on the tapestry. The moment she did all the candles in the room started to flicker and Akane's eyes went white as her body posture relaxed.

Three women present there watched what happened closely "Do you think She just got possessed or something?" Akeno asked not sure what just happened

"I highly doubt that's the case here Akeno. This, in my opinion, looks like an old summoning ritual to me" Grayfia replied before turning towards Rias "Should we leave?" she asked her
"Let's look around this room first. Don't know if we will ever get the chance to enter this vault once again" she replied before they started to look around the room. There wasn't anything interesting there aside from the tapestry on the walls of the room.

"So what do you think? Are you interested in her yet?" Rias asked Grayfia as they looked around the room

"I can't say anything until I get the full details from Azazel" Grayfia replied,

"hmmm I'm pretty sure brother wou.." Before Rias could finish Akeno's voice interrupted them

"Guys I think you might wanna see these" She told them and pointed towards one of the tapestries on the walls of the room.

When they got near they found out the tapestry contained a family tree that had a picture of every member drawn on it. Though there were a few things wrong with it: first none of the people there had surnames written and two it wasn't a family tree as it did spread out as any normal family tree would have.
"Fuck" Rias swore under her breath when she finally found out why the branches of the family were not spreading out

"Inbreeding" Grayfia muttered as she saw the family line go from sibling to sibling "And from the looks of things they have been practicing it for a long time" She added as she saw the same pattern a few generations down

"They would have stopped at some point. I mean they are still humans even if they are blessed by the gods at some point their children would have started to be born deformed" Rias said baffled by what she was seeing

"They didn't" They heard Akeno say who was standing before the tapestry present on the other side of the room pointing towards something. When Rias went there they found Akane's lone image present after a couple who also were siblings

"How the hell is this possible?" Rias said out loud bewildered by what she was seeing

"How the hell is what possible dearie?" A raspy voice called them out. The three of them immediately turned around ready for a possible fight. But they found the person calling them out was none other than Akane though something was off. Her hand was still connected to the tapestry and her eyes still did not have any pupils but the whites of her eyes were looking at the directly.

"Akane?" Rias called her out

"The Girl will be busy for a while. Didn't she tell you that?" The raspy voice came out of Akane's mouth, It was making Rias' skin crawl.

"Who are you then and what are you doing with Akane's body" Grayfia asked. Grafiya's normal cold tone that she used when she was on duty, something Rias was accustomed to hearing, was back.

"Who am I? I have many names and identities Dearie. But for Now let's just say I am the guardian of this vault shall we. And for what I am doing with the Girl's body? Nothing harmful actually, it's pretty similar to what a puppeteer does with his puppets" She replied as Rias saw Akane's hands move the janky movements looked creepily accurate to what the voice said it was doing.

"But why are you using her body as a puppet?" Grayfia asked

"I thought you needed some answers regarding what you saw there, and I was bored so I decided take her body for a moment and answer some of your queries" she replied as they saw Akane hand point towards the family tree

"Now why would you tell us that? Even Akane seemed to be dodging questions regarding her family history" Grayfia asked

"The reason she didn't tell you was because it was not important at the moment. Don't think she is ashamed of her family's practices. She understands the reasons behind them, had she a sibling she would have continued the practice" She replied

"But why? It's a miracle that her family has continued that practice for so long without facing repercussions of Inbreeding." Rias asked. A question she hoped she would get an answer for. It would be very awkward asking Akane about it

"Hmmm? Didn't the girl show you how their clan got the power of the gods?" She asked

"Yeah? She told us that's where her family's bloodline comes from" Rias replied not sure where she was going

"Family's bloodline?? hehehehehehahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH" she started laughing softly but it quickly turned into a deranged manic laughter

She calmed down after a few uncomfortable minutes "Ohhh I haven't had that good of a laugh for a while, now, I think I should reward her for this" She said to herself as wiped the tears off Akane's face before she looked at Rias "Do you think everybody in her family had these fancy eyes?" She asked her with a wide unsettling grin

"Hate to break it to you dearie but she is the first one in her family to ever awaken her bloodline" she tells them

"It took that long?" Rias asked in shock

"We are talking about a god's power here dearie. Human body is not made to harness that kind of power. That is why they inbreed as not only it stopped their blood which was now carrying this power from thinning out but it also mutated their bodies generation by generation so their bodies were able to harness that power" She replied "Not everybody gains power right after they are gifted with them like you devils did" She said to them with spite.

"Thought I think her joining the devils would be best for the clan's survival now. That's why I am supporting her decision of becoming a devil" She added.

"Anything else you wanted to ask? Hey Fallen, I see you want to ask me something too." She said, pointing towards Akeno.

Akeno who has been observing from the sideline this whole time, visibly flinched "How did you know?" she asked silently.

"Ohh I didn't. But the girl knew about you. Apparently, she and Your father were close hehehehe." She replied to her with a cackle. Her tone, as well as her body language, showed that she knows about something which she is finding absolutely hilarious.

"But that was not the question you wanted to ask me, was it? So ask it and don't waste my time."

Akeno looked as if she wanted to know more but decided that she would ask Akane later. But for now, pointed towards the tapestry

"What material are these tapestries are made out of? I can feel a bit of magic coming from them." She asked.

"Ohhh the tapestry, It's made of hair and to be more exact it's made of the hair of Orimura clan members over the years. It's sort of a tradition that pretty much every member partakes once in their lifetime and that hair is then added here in the tapestry, which updates the family tree on its own. The magic you are feeling is blood magic that is used in making these tapestries."

She replied to Akeno's question who was still looking at the family tree with suspicion as if something was not right.

"Anything else?" She asked them

"Yeah, when would Akane be done here?" Rias asked her

"That dearie would take some time. She did tell you that. Now it's time for you three to leave." she said to them before she raised her hand towards them and with a wave.

The three of them felt as they could not move a muscle and some powerful force has picked the three of them up and chucked them towards the entrance of them.
It happened so fast that Grayfia did not even have time to react and had to watch herself being thrown helplessly. The force eventually kicked them out of the shrine where they evenly fell on the ground.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" Rias Exclaimed, finally being able to move as well as speak "It felt like I was a toy being thrown into the air by a kid..." she added

"Something strong and something dangerous. Whoever it was the guardian of the vault or their clan fairy godmother. She was strong and could have killed us very easily if she had wanted to." Grayfia said, as she got up from the ground and dusts off her clothes. Rias noticed that Akeno who still hadn't gotten off the ground.

"Hey Akeno, is everything all right? Are you hurt or something?" Rias asked her with a concerned look.

"Hmm… Oh yeah, I am fine just thinking about what that Guardian said." Akeno replied.

"Ohh! About Akane and your father being close?" Rias asked her though she saw a scowl appear on Akeno's face as soon as she mentions her father "No! Not that... It's the tapestries, something that she said did not make sense to me." Akeno replied.

"Ohh! You noticed as well. Huh.." Grayfia replied as she gave her an approving look.

"What are you two talking about?" Rias asked confused at what were the two of them talking about

"Something that the guardian said did not make sense. She said that the tapestries are made by the hair of the Orimura clan member. But if that was the case there shouldn't have been any color other than black present in the tapestry." Grayfia explained.

"Orimura's inbreed which meant the red, the brown and the blond hair should not be present there but they were." Akeno added.

Rias thinks about what the two of them just said it sort of made sense why it didn't make sense to them. "So do you think she was lying?" Rias asked.

"I don't think she lied to us. It just feels like she left a few things out purposefully." Grayfia replied.

"Either way I want you two to be careful around her. It would be foolish to blindly trust her at the moment, so keep your eyes on her." she tells them before she calls out her magic seal.

"Finally." she said to herself as she saw it appear.

"If I get the information about the Akane's Bloodline off Azazel I would be sure to send it to you Rias." and with that, she left.

"You wanna stay here for the night? A good night's sleep might help you process what you saw tonight." Akeno offered Rias.

"Yeah, sure." She replied, accepting Akeno's offer and they started walking towards Akeno's home.
-----------------------------------------------------------------x-----------------------------------------------------------------
Beta- Polkxe
Author note:- Well how did you like this lore heavy chapter folks? Tell me in the reviews as I would love to hear your feedback.
Anyways here are my responses to the last chapter reviews
Iceborn Fenrir - Thanks for the chapters/updates. I'm really interested to see where this goes as well with Akane potentially joining Grayfia's peerage as well as the shenanigans that may happen
My response- Stay tuned. She would be joined Grayfia peerage by the end of the fourth arc in my story.
Sakaewmatsui - please make akane x grayfia as the main pair
My response- hehehehhehehehehe

 

[siddharth1998m]

Author Note- There are two important announcements I would like to make

1. My beta reader/editor for this fic Polkxe has sadly informed me this chapter would be his last. Due to increase in work load on his job he would be able to edit my story any longer.

Now I would like to personally thank for edit these previous chapters. He is the only reason this story is in a reading condition. SO THANK YOU POLKXE

1. Now for the second announcement. With Polkxe now gone I am in a need for a new Beta reader.

So IF you are interested please contact me here or on my discord - Siddharth1998m#4024
What I am looking for in a beta is someone who is good with grammar as well as can brush up my dialogue. As I am not a native English speaker I such at both of them and don't worry you will have more than enough time to edit as I tend to write chapters in advance
Again thank you Polkxe for your services. Now on with the chapter
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Chapter-8

Occult Research Club

"Rias, I have your clothes ready here," Akeno said placing Rias's school uniform on the dressing table attached to the sink.

"Thanks," Rias replied from the shower her blurred figure visible through the glass

When Akeno exited the bathroom to prepare tea for Rias She saw Sona and Tsubaki enter the clubroom.

"Sona? Tsubaki? Is something wrong?" Akeno asked concerned as It was unlike them to just barge inside the clubroom without even knocking

"We might have a big problem on our hands. Where is Rias?" Sona asked there was urgency present in her voice with a hint certain edge

"She is taking her usual shower at the moment and would be out in a minute or two. Why don't the two of you take a seat in the meantime while I go get some tea ready for you and by the looks on your faces you could use some" said Akeno

"I…" It seemed she was about to refuse her offer but instead she took a deep breath "Yeah Sure" she gave her a deflated response before plopping down on the sofa with Tsubaki following her suit.

Akeno did not know what was wrong but the least she can do is get them some tea ASAP.

After a few minutes Rias emerged from the shower dressed in a fresh set of school clothes and immediately noticed Sona and Tsubaki sitting on the sofa. "Sona? What are you doing here? Do you need the notes from the classes you and Tsubaki missed today?" Rias asked and took a seat opposite to them

"No… well not now at least maybe later you can give us your notebook. But that, is not the reason why we are here" Sona waved her hand and in a flash images started floating above the little coffee table they were sitting at. "Our familiar came across four fallen angels inside our territory last night"

Rias saw the images of four fallen in the market area of Kuoh. The only male of the group was sitting on a bench looking bored out of his mind, exuding an air of arrogance that was intensified by his coal like eyes looking with contempt at the crowd of humans surrounding him. The short blonde girl was at the moment sporting a wide smile while listening to an elderly lady, it could've even look cute if one were to ignore the shortstack's hands clenched into fists behind her back and her blue eyes trying to erase the old lady out of existence. The woman with dark blue hair was playing with a teenage boy manning a takoyaki food stand by folding her arms under her breasts while ordering food. The boy completely encaptuated by the sight in front of him didn't even ask for payment when he handed over the takoyaki only coming to his senses when the woman was long gone and the next person came up to order. The last fallen of the group was a raven haired beauty that didn't look much older than Rias. She looked tense and on guard, her eyes were scanning the area around her. "Maybe she felt someone was watching her but couldn't pinpoint from where exactly?" Rias thought.

"First the rogue exorcist's and now this" Rias muttered "were you able to find out where they are staying at?"

"No, they disappeared from our familiar's viewpoint. They weren't able to keep up with them," Sona answered "that's why I came here. We need to gather both of our peerages and hunt them down. The Fallen are inside our territory without our permission"

"Don't bother, I know where they're staying" A voice interrupted their conversation when they turned around they saw Akane leaning against the door of the clubroom "and I can even tell you where they are at the moment,"

"Akane, what are you doing here?" Rias asked her

"Don't you remember? You invited me to be a part of your occult research club?" Akane said to her

"Yeah, I do remember that, I can also remember you saying that you won't be participating in any extracurricular activities" Rias replied back with her hands crossed

"It's not like she will have a say in this." Sona joined in "taking at least one extracurricular activity is mandatory and that's non-negotiable." She added

"hmmm… Yeah, my homeroom teacher did say something like that" Akane replied "But that is not important at the moment. It's the fallen angels in your territory that had got your panties in a twist, right? Well, I know where they're staying" She told them as she entered the room and took a seat at the sofa

"And how do you know where they are staying?" Sona asked, her eyes squinted in suspicion

"The day I arrived at Kuoh I got offered a job to keep an eye on a group of fallen angels that would be arriving at Kuoh. Seeing that the job would not be conflicting with my interests with you guys, I accepted the job. That's how I know where they are, I have been following them from the moment they arrived at Kuoh" Akane Tells them

"Wait….. this is the Job you're doing for Azazel?" Rias asked remembering Akane's and Grayfia's exchange last night and her mention that she was doing something for him

"Yeah" she replied as Akeno arrived with a few cups of tea on a tray and started placing them on the table.

"So, why would you give us their location? You do realize what we would do with them, right?" Sona asked

"Yeah, the mission would be a bust, and I would lose out on the rewards but it's not that big of a deal. The people who'd be suffering the biggest loss here would be you two" Akane said, pointing towards Rias and Sona

"Why would we be at a loss here?" Rias asked

"There are four fallen present in your territory who might have also hired some rogue exorcist. If they do attack or harm you and your peerage, you are liable to ask the Fallen Angels anything as indemnification and by law, they can't say no to that. You would have Azazel by the balls essentially" Akane explained it to her

"Fallen angels are known to do recon missions like this all over the world. And if those agents do get caught the fallen angel brass always decries the culprits as rogue elements and denies any involvement. The same thing will happen here if we go to them demanding compensation" Sona replied

"Hehehehe, I'm afraid they won't be able to deny their involvement this time" Akane replied before looking towards Akeno "Akeno, do you remember a cousin of yours by the name of Raynare?"

"I have a lot of cousins Akane-san. Some are even a good few decades older than me. So forgive me but I don't remember everyone's name." Akeno replied, her voice carried an air of nostalgia, and her face was set in an expression Akane found hard to read. There was anger there but also sadness and a deep longing.

"Hmmm, that explains why you didn't warn them about her" Akane said before she took out a pair of glasses from her pocket "Now, how did that work?" she said and started to tinker with them

Rias, Akeno, Sona and Tsubaki had no idea what she was doing "ahem ahem.. Can I help you with something?" a distorted voice asked, when she looked towards where it came from she found a Letter G with a speech graph beneath it floating above the table

"Who are you?" Akane asked

"That's my bishop Gasper" Rias introduced him "He's a bit shy and tends to operate through distance" she informed her

"You didn't answer my question. I said can I help you with anything as I felt you were trying tamper with magic seals present here" the distorted voice now recognized as Gasper asked

"Yeah I was trying to connect this" Akane began showing gasper the glasses "With a magic seal so I could show Rias and Sona the info I have in these" She explained

"Ohh? Put it on the tea table I might be able to help you with that" Gasper replied

"Ok" Akane said before putting the glasses on the tea table and as soon as the glasses touched the table a magic seal formed under the glasses and vague symbols that Akane had seen before started creating a see through wall around the glasses. "Rias? Is your bishop by any chance an Archive user?" She asked as she observed strands of symbols forming from the magic seal moving up creating a sea through moving wall before disappearing into thin air

"Yes, you know about that type of magic?" Rias asked

"I know that you have to be pretty God damn smart in order to learn even the basics of that magic" she replied. She didn't notice everybody in the room flinching or the magic seal flickering a little when she mentioned the name of god

"Here, it's done" Gasper replied as she saw a few files appear above the magic seal with a few pictures on them. "Though I must say, whoever designed these glasses is a genius. If you don't mind Ms. Orimura, I would love to take a deeper look on their design someday" He asked

"Sure, I'd love to know how these glasses work myself." She replied and the letter G disappeared

"Sorry for the delay" she apologized "Anyway meet Raynare" she said as picture of an attractive young woman with violet eyes and long silky black hair appeared before them "she is in charge of the group that's currently in Kuoh, a fallen with 4 sets of wings" She introduced them to their target first "oh and she's also a daughter of Kokabiel" Before she added the kicker

"Crap!" the four of them cursed at the same time which only make Akane chuckle "and these are the files containing info on the fallen angels that are working under her at the moment," she told them as the four of them started to look through the files and photographs

"Has any of them made any contact with Rogue Exorcists" Sona asked after looking through the files and photos

"They haven't met nor mentioned them yet" Akane replied

"Well, Sona this complicates things. Don't you think?" Rias asked

"Yeah, even though the fallen angels are the ones that are breaking the rules here. We really can't harm Raynare without causing unnecessary conflict between fallen angels and devils, especially knowing who her parent is." Sona replied back with a sigh

"Her hatred for Devils is legendary after all" Tsubaki added in with some mirth

"A few weeks back she actually tried to kill me when I mentioned that I would be offering devils my services," Akane said "And she would have succeeded had not Shemhazai and Azazel restrained her" she added with a shudder

"I have noticed that you say the names of high-level figures in a way that suggests you are very familiar with them. Its rather strange for someone your age" Sona commented as she adjusted her glasses

"Well I did train at True cross, remember? Students there tend to go on diplomatic missions as an understudy with their masters so we do get familiar with important figures. My partners were especially notorious amongst the brass and me having a never seen before bloodline did not help the matters." Akane reminisced with a chuckle

"A bloodline that allows the user to copy anything whether it's a fighting style, spell or a chakra technique bar other bloodline abilities," Rias said. Sona who did not know about that looked at Akane with peaked interest. While Tsubaki looked a little alarmed by the reveal "It would be foolish to ignore someone with abilities like that where it's an ally or not" she commented

"Ahhh so Grayfia was able to retrieve the Info from Azazel?" Akane asked

"She did. It was ahem.. an interesting read" Rias said with a little nervousness which the other members of the room caught upon immediately
Akane chuckled expecting that reaction "You really have nothing to worry about Rias, I am not stupid enough to use those on an ally" she assured her

"What are you two talking about?" Sona asked them

"Nothing that's important at the moment Sitri-san. From what I remember we were talking about the fallen angels, let's get back to that topic" Akane replied changing the topic of the conversation "So what are you two gonna do? This is your territory after all, your word is law" she asked them

"Aside from their leader's parentage and the info on the members of her group we still don't have enough information to make a decision here. Akane, can you tell us about their motive for being here? Why did the fallen angel brass send them here in Kuoh?" Sona asked

"They were sent to locate and keep an eye on a Longinus user living in Kuoh. Now, why did the brass send them here? I don't know" Akane lied keeping the crucial fact about a possible Mutiny amongst the fallen a secret.

Both Sona and Rias shared a look when she mentioned a Longinus user "By the looks on your faces it seems that you two know the Longinus user" said Akane

"We do or to be more accurate suspect that he might have a Longinus but this is pretty much a confirmation" Rias replied, Akane noticed that there was a certain excitement present in her voice for some reason while Sona looked visibly annoyed about something

"Can you tell me the users identity?" Akane asked being a little interested herself about the Longinus user

"His name is Issei Hyoudou he is in your class. I am sure you either have seen him or have been warned about him and his perverted habits" Sona told her

"Hyoudou Issei now that's a name I haven't heard for a while now. Wasn't that the guy Irina had a crush on?" Akane thought to herself.

"I've heard his name before, I might have even seen his face in my class though I have never met him met him personally." She replied "So you two were looking to recruit him into your peerage as you two already knew about the sacred gear?" she asked

"Yes, I was hoping to recruit him" Rias answered

"Hmm let's hope they don't- "Boss.." Akane was interrupted by one of her clones on the radio

"Yeah, what is it?" She asked as she gestured the rest of them to keep quiet for a moment

"Raynare is at your school she just entered through the main gates and is dressed in a Kuoh student Uniform" her clone informed her.

"Akane what is it?" Rias asked her

"Raynare is at the school, she just entered though the main gates." Akane informed them "Do you guys have surveillance around the school so we can get a live feed on what is she doing here?" she asked them.

Rias nodded "Yes, Gasper had Surveillance Lacrima installed all around the campus grounds when we moved here," she told her as a live feed from all around the campus started to appear before them thanks to magic seals on the tea table

"Shizuma where is she now?" Akane asked her clone as she looked through all the live feeds from all the areas

"She heading towards the entrance of the main building of the school" Her clone informed

"where is the feed from the entrance of the main building?" Akane asked them

"ahh…. here" Rias maximized that feed's window

"hmmm… there she is" Sona points out the target

"Traitor or not the girl sure has balls," Akane thought to herself as she saw Raynare enter the main building of the school. "Can we get audio on the feed?" she asked Rias

"No, but I can send Koneko to tail her" she offered

"Don't" She stopped Rias "Shizuma change into me with a school uniform on and follow her closely this time," She ordered her clone

"Already on it"

"She's going into a crowded area. Will the lacrima around the school be able to follow her?" Akane asked

"we have calibrated the entire surveillance lacrima to focus only on her every movement. When installing these Gasper made sure there were no blind spots present, and they are placed in a way that even if she walks out of the range of one lacrima there is always another one that will catch up on her" Sona informed her

"Hmmm inform every member of your Peerage to stand down. I know it's already impossible to find out that she is a fallen angel. But the student council can stop her if they don't recognize her." She said

"I will go do that" Tsubaki replied as Akane looked at the clock only 15 min left before lunchtime is over. "What's her angle here" Akane wondered as she observed Raynare every move with Rias and Sona

She knew that Rias and Sona would not have even noticed the fallen angels if it wasn't for the incident that happened in the last few days. Devils don't have the ability to sense whether a foreign hostile individual has entered their territory. They can track stray devils and demons sure but that's possible only as long as they have the Evil piece still inside of them and even that method is not perfect as she had encountered multiple cases before where the stray demon did not have an Evil piece in them. And from what her more experienced exorcist's masters told her that sort of thing does happen quite often.

But like many supernatural groups Devils can sense the presence of something supernatural in their close vicinity. It's not perfect but it does alert them and enough so they can send out familiars who can sense immediately what their masters just felt.

Which sort of made what Raynare was doing now something Akane could not find an accurate word for, not stupid… mule headed came to her mind and those words would have made sense if she was dealing with just a grunt. But this is a high-level fallen angel they were dealing with, a daughter of one of the generals of Grigori. They can't be that stupid, at least she hoped they are not.

"Wait how are you there as well?" Rias' question brought her out of her train of thought as she saw her pointing towards footage of her dressed in the Kuoh school uniform going through the crowd.

"It must be a chakra clone" Tsubaki commented

"It is a chakra clone, a blood clone to be more accurate. Two of my blood clones have been following them from the moment they arrived" She informed them

"Hmmm…. I guess they would be suitable for missions like this thanks to their durability. Still, aren't you worried that they might run out of chakra and disappear?" Tsubaki asked

"Not really, these aren't basic blood clones, the one I use is a modified version of the technique that my clan developed years ago for hand to hand combat training. Their chakra reserves are much bigger when compared to regular blood clones so you can modify the amount of chakra one clone carries. The downside of this upgrade is that you can't make these clones on the fly. It takes me an entire afternoon to make just two of them" Akane explained

"So how long can one clone be operating?" Tsubaki asked

"It depends on how much chakra you're using when you create them. Think of it as a car tank the more fuel you provide the longer they can go. When I create two blood clones I tend to give them 45% of my chakra each. And if they're not doing anything major they can stick around for two and a half maybe three weeks" Akane replied all the people were listening keenly while they keeping their eyes on Raynare.

"Giving away 90% of your chakra sound suicidal to me no matter the advantages this technique would provide. If it was up to me I would have chalked it as a forbidden Jutsu and thrown it somewhere where no can ever find it" Tsubaki gave her matter of fact opinion. It made Akane smile.

"Raynare is entering the second year wing" Sona gave an update as they saw her go through the crowd of students hanging out of the class during the break "And she just entered a classroom" she added

"She's in my class. Go talk to the brunette with braids and glasses sitting near the windows her name is Aika Kiryuu. The seat next to her is mine start talking notes regarding the physics class she knows I was not paying attention but keep your ears on Raynare, I want everything" Akane quickly informed her clone

"Roger" her clone replied

The four watched Raynare slowly head towards Issei who looked way too busy talking with his friends. At this point, Akane's clone had also entered the classroom and she went towards Aika as she was instructed to. When Raynare finally reached Issei they saw Motohama pointing his fingers towards her and giving Issei a little kick under the table. Raynare and Issei started talking with each other. They talked for a good while before they saw Raynare bow down towards Issei. What she said made every student in the class shocked, it was almost cartoonish the way everybody's jaws were trying to hit the floor and brows trying to reach orbit. The most shocked one of the all was Issei himself, to his credit he collected himself after a couple of seconds and gave his reply to Raynare. The fallen angel smiled beautifully upon hearing his it gave one back and promptly left the classroom. The moment her hair disappeared behind the door Issei's friends started to beat him while crying, Issei didn't seem to notice neither to blows nor his friends' anguish, he was much too busy looking at nothing with a huge grin on his face while the entire classroom was still looking on in bewilderment still not registering what they've just witnessed. Akane's clone left the class following Raynare out.

"Well that was a weird watch" Akeno commented

"What do you think she said to get that kind of reaction out of everyone?" Tsubaki asked

"She asked him out on a date this Sunday" Akane answered her question "My clone also mentioned some bullshit reason she gave on why she doesn't attend school regularly" She added

"Well that explains a lot of things," Rias said while chuckling into her hand

"Joking aside. What do you think is her true motive here?" Sona asked

"Well as far as I knew her mission was to observe the Longinus user. I can see why you would go on a date with your target as it allows you to gather more info on him. It is still a bit on the nose here"

"Well, you were looking to recruit Issei so I think it should be your peerage who keeps an eye on him." Sona Informed Rias

"So we are waiting for them to make a move?" Rias asked Sona who nods "We are. As Akane mentioned it might be profitable for us if they do attack us first. Still, be on your guard as I was not able to locate the rogue exorcists" she replied before getting up from her seat and started to leave with Tsubaki.

"Sona" Akane called after her and the Sitri heiress stopped "I didn't give you the info on the fallen. Got it?"

Sona and Tsubaki shared a look with each other before "I do" Sona replied and they left the room

"The same thing applies to you two as well," she turned to Rias and Akeno and took a sip of her tea

"Sure" Rias replied before looking out of the window of the room "So where is your clone now?" she asked

"Must be following Raynare. I don't know their exact location and they don't call unless they want to tell me something important" She replied as the bell for next period started to ring. "Break already over. Fuck! Thanks, Raynare for ruining my chance to take a nap" she thought to herself and with a deep sigh got up from her seat but both Rias and Akeno stayed where they were "Are you two not going to class?"

"Our chemistry teacher is sick so the period is free today" Rias replied, hearing that a part of Akane wanted to ask them if she could stay but eventually she decided to suck it up and head back to the class.

"For a moment there It looked like she wanted to stay" Akeno said before taking a sip "it's a pity, I wanted to ask her about last night"

"Me too. Thought I highly doubt she'd answer all of our questions." Rias replied before looking at Akeno "I think it would be best if we do what Grayfia asked us to do. We might get some answers that way"

Akeno nodded "I'll inform Kiba to pick her up after the classes are done for the day"
-----------------------------------------------------------------x---------------------------------x-------------------------------

Somewhere else in Kuoh

"Where is he? We've been sitting here for fifteen minutes. Wasn't he supposed to be here by now?" Mittelt asked her fellow fallen angel companions. They were sitting at an open café near a shopping complex.

"Calm down now Mittelt, it not like we have anything else to do today." Kalawarner chided from her seat "Enjoy the free time you've got now. It won't last for much longer"

"What Kalawarner is saying is true. Once we get those packages we will be at the final stage of our plan and we won't be taking any breaks until we have completed it" Dohnaseek added

"Then I guess you three should enjoy this lovely day to its fullest, once we are done with our little meeting" a voice greets the three of them as they turn around to see a man with white hair and red eyes dressed in a fine tailored suit "Sorry to keep you three waiting there was a situation with one of our boys hehe rambunctious little scallywags they are" he replied with a chuckle
Dohnaseek narrowed his eyes a little "Is it something we need to be concerned about?" he asked

"Oh its nothing to worry about. I was expecting something like this to happen before we came here. Being inside such a tainted territory is making my men anxious to perform their duties I am afraid Hehehe" he replied

"Then control your men. They need to stand ground and do nothing until you are given specific orders from Raynare" said Mittelt reminding him who was in charge here

"Calm down little lady, this is not mine and my men's first rodeo we know how to control ourselves it's just sometimes my men tend to go a bit overboard when they are trying to entertain themselves." He replied though Mittelt looked like she was not at all pleased with him calling her little lady "Regardless, let's get back the topic of our meeting yes? I was hoping to meet and discuss things with your captain but from the looks of things she wasn't able to attend the meeting it seems"

"Something urgent came up which required her attention" Kalawarner replied "I hope the three of us are good enough for you"

"Of course of course. Well, I have come bearing good news, I and my men were successful in retrieving the Packages our lady asked for" He informed them

"And where are they?" Dohnaseek asked

"Well, one of the packages would be arriving here on Monday while the others have been placed somewhere well-hidden until the heat caused by the retrieval simmers down. And It's not like you'd be able to use them immediately. Preparing them will take time, those were father's words" He informed them

"Hmm, I can understand. The live package, has it sustained any damage?" Kalawarner asked

"No, the job went without a hitch. She doesn't even have an idea that something has happened" Freed replied

"Well this is good news. Raynare will be most pleased by your progress. Tell your men to be ready to answer our calls when we need them. Until then, disappear from the public eye" Kalawarner ordered him as all of them got up from their seats

"We will. Good day to you three" He replied with a nod before leaving

Not that far from the café, from the second story of the shopping complex a young woman with cherry red hair and glasses dropped her can of empty soda in the dustbin "Freed Sellzen. Fuck… could this mission get any more complicated?" She said to herself after witnessing the exchange.
-------------------------------------------------x----------------------------------------x-------------------------------------------
Beta reader- Polkxe

Author note- Here are my responses for the review form the last chapter

Sakaewmatsui - you know, for a second I thought that you stopped writing this story! man when I see the notification I'm hellla happy to see you're updating the story! anyway good chapter dude! it's interesting to see akane's family history

My response- I follow a monthly update schedule where I will always post the chapter around 10-15. You don't have to worry about this story being abounded as I am writing further chapters in advance. With Chap-13 the being the current one I am writing.
& Akane family is a major part of this story so I am happy that you found it interesting. Also thank you for leaving a review

Readinglover3- Great chapter! Fascinating to learn more about Akane's background and the lore of this story. Wonder how everything is going to turn out? I look forward to seeing how everything proceeds! Will Grayfia receive information about Akane's bloodline? Will she recruit Akane to her peerage? Who will be in Grayfia's peerage? Will it just be Akane? Will Rias be interested in recruiting Akane to Gremory? Will Akane join Serafall's peerage eventually? What will Akane do for Grayfia as part of her peerage? Will the two get along? How will Akane interact with Sona? We are seeing how she interacts with Rias and partly with Akeno, but if Akane is recruited into Serafall's peerage as her Queen, she will have to interact with Sona quite a bit more. What about the mysterious individual replicating the evil pieces? Akane is obviously being targeted by said individual, so what do they want with her? Who exactly will Akane be involved with? There are so many questions I look forward to see being answered! Good luck and I can't wait for the next chapter!

My response- You will get the answers to your questions as the story moves forwards so stay tuned and thank you for the review


blau92- this chapter was awesome, the lore is really well constructed, please keep up the good work!
My response- I am happy that you liked the chapter it is the one that took me My most time to write. And thank you for leaving a review

 

[siddharth1998m]

Chapter-9
Hyoudou Residence
"Issei! Issei, wake up."

Mrs. Hyoudou's voice can be heard through the door. After not getting any answers from her son, she opened and was immediately greeted by a slightly muted ringing sound from Issei's mobile phone. She entered the room carefully, not wanting to break any CDs which were littered around the floor along with his manga, only to find that her son was still asleep with his head smooshed into his pillow.

"Issei, wake up or you will be late for your date", she said loudly, as she shook him a bit to wake him up.

"Mommm.. it's still too early let me sleep." Issei's muted voice can be heard through the pillow

"Mom!" Issei yelled, his face and hair both drenched with water. "I said it is still too early too -" he took out his mobile phone that was below his pillow and found out he overslept. It was 12:30 and he had to meet Yuma in half an hour.

"Oh crap!" He muttered before immediately getting out of his bed and quickly skips over to the bathroom

"Jeez! That boy is just like his father" Mrs. Hyoudou said to herself, before she went over to the wardrobe to pick out some clothes for her son to wear for his date. It was a special occasion. The fact that a girl actually asked her son out truly filled her heart with hope for him. He was a good kid but it's a pity his kind hearted nature was foreshadowed by his perverted behaviors.

Mrs. Hyoudou sighed as she places the clothes she picked on his bed.

"Issei, I have placed your clothes on your bed", she said loudly so that he was able to hear her from the bathroom. "When you are dressed, come down. I will have breakfast ready for you".
Downstairs, her husband was sitting at the breakfast table, busy reading the day's newspaper.

"Did you wake Issei up?" He asked as he turned to the next page.

"I did, though I am afraid I think he will arrive a few minutes late for his date", she replied with a bit of a worry present in her voice.

It made him laugh a little, and he put away his newspaper. "Oh, don't worry dear. A few minutes late is nothing. Remember our first date? I was an hour late."

"You really shouldn't be boasting about that, Gorou" she scolded her husband, who just laughed in a self-deprecating manner.

"I still can't believe that our son is going on his first date today. I guess he is really growing up huh..." he replied in with a bittersweet smile.

"He is. Though, I hope he grows out his perverted phase soon". There was some hope present in her voice

"Crap, crap, crap, crap…" Issei muttered as he tried to hastily put on his socks, skipping down the stairs on his one leg going where he saw that his mother already had placed the breakfast on the
table. She was waiting for him at the table with dad.

"Where are you planning take Yuma on date Issei?" his father asked.

"The movies, then we take a walk around the shopping mall to see if she finds something she likes" he replied, his mouth still filled with food.

"Do you need some money for the date?" his dad offered, reaching for his pocket

"No dad. I was saving some of my pocket money to buy a new console. I will be using that" Issei replied as he put down a now empty plate. "Thanks for the meal, mom" he thanked her before getting up.

"Good luck on the date, and please… try to keep your perversions in check."

"Yeah"

As he left his house he was welcomed by a soft sunlight hitting his face. It was a lovely day for a date, he thought to himself. He was then greeted by a cute girl who seemed to be cosplaying as a bat, and she was distributing some sort of paper. She was giving it to anybody who passed her by and when she saw him, she gave him a paper as well.

The paper had some sort of an intricate design drawn on it, as well as something written below the design.

"'We grant you wish huh...'" he read out loud, "sounds like a scam to me. Still, maybe I will take a look at it later" he said to himself as he put the paper inside his pocket and leaved for the shopping district.

-x-

Kuoh Shopping District

"You don't have to be here you know, Nagisa and I have things under control" Said Shizuma

"I know that. But I was bored so decided come help you out a little" Akane replied her as they both were sitting in a café with disguises on, keeping an eye on Raynare who was standing across, waiting for Issei to arrive. "Speaking of Nagisa… what are those three up to?" she asked her other clone on the radio.

"Hmmm from the way I see it they are thinking about setting shop at the old church. The three of them are currently throwing all the broken benches out" Nagisa replied

"The old church huh… from what I remember after the old priest died, the exorcists where able to get their hands on that church. Irina's father was one of the priests' who moved here to work there, though apparently the plans fell through the last moment. But I don't know if they were able to set up the armory."

"Maybe they did. It would explain why our fallen friends has taken interest in that building" Nagisa mused.

"If that is the case, we might have some problems getting in there to take a look at what they are doing", Akane said.

"They will leave at some point of the day it's not like they would be living their form now on. Maybe then I can enter" Nagisa replied

Akane shot down her clone's idea; "Even if they do that, they might leave behind some detection seal that might catch someone entering the building. Remember, the building is out in the open. Anyone can get inside there - they will take necessary precautions. If you enter the building now there is a risk they might relocate"

"Our best chance to infiltrate is to use Freed's men or to be more precise disguise as one. We know some of his men are arriving tomorrow with some sort of package if we intercept them on the way we might be able to enter the building disguised as one" Akane continued.

"Ok. So which one of us would be the mole?" Shizuma, who had been listening in to the entire conversation, asked.

"None. You two are needed here. I will be sending out a new clone that I made yesterday" Akane replied.

"This plan is good but it still has a fatal flaw. What are we gonna do when they ask us something that the person we are disguising as knows, but we have no chance of knowing." Nagisa wondered

"Oh. Don't worry my dear Nagisa - I have some plans for that" Akane replied as Shizuma gave her a look of suspicion, "but first, in order for this plan to come fruition, I need some help. Luckily, I happen to know someone who would be happy to provide me just that" she said, picking out her cellphone from her pocket. She dialed a number and called it.

After a few tones, someone picked up. "Hello?"

"Sitri, it's me" Akane told Sona.

"Orimura-san" Sona, who recognized her voice, replied shortly. "Do you need something?" She asked without wasting time

Akane smirked at her response, thinking; That is why I like you, Sitri. You are always so direct and right to the point.

"Yes, actually. Are you still searching for Rogue Exorcists in Kuoh?"

As she asked that, she felt Shizuma shake her a bit. When she looked at her, she saw her pointing towards Raynare who seemed to be talking about something with the newly arrived Issei. She nods at her clone as she leaves the money they owed for the coffee at the table. Then they, hand in hand.

"Yes. Me and my peerage's familiars are searching all around Kuoh Nonstop, though we still haven't found any of them" Sona replied.

"Then we might be able to help each other out" she replied as they followed Raynare and Issei through the crowd.

"Pardon me?"

"You see, while spying on a fallen one of my clones, I came across a meeting that took place between the fallen angels and the leader of the rogue exorcists -"

"So they are working together?" Sona interrupted.

"Yes they are, though it seems they are only doing Grunt work for the fallen. As during the meeting, the leader of the Rogue Exorcists mentioned that they were successful in retrieving the packages for them. I am interested in finding out what these packages are" She told her as she felt Shizuma leaning her head against her shoulder; they were, after all, masquerading as couple.

"Ok... so what do you need my help for here?"

"The leader mentioned that some of his men would be arriving here in Kuoh with one of the packages tomorrow. That's what I need your help with. I need you and your peerage to be on the lookout for these exorcists at every entry point to Kuoh".

"So you want us to capture them?" Sona asked

Akane elaborates her plan, "No, no, no, I want you all to cause an accident so that in midst of the chaos, I can capture one of them and leave my clone in his place to act as a mole"

"Magical or man-made accident?" Sona asked

"Man-made, and make sure that the accident is severe enough that it might cause someone an temporary amnesia. As that would excuse my clone's unawareness during the beginning until I have tortured all the information she need out of him".

It was quiet for a few seconds before Sona said, "Hmm… an interesting plan you have here,
though we might need Rias and her peerage help in order to execute it smoothly"

"Sure, sure. So… where do you think we should meet?" Akane asked.

"Let's meet at Akeno's place tonight where we will discuss the details with the rest of them. Was that all?"

"Yeah. See you later tonight" Akane said before putting away her cellphone .

"It seems like the two of them are heading to see a movie" Shizuma whispers to her as she saw Issei standing in a small line at the ticket counter with Raynare at his side.

"Well, then we should get a ticket as well. Wait here". She joins the line, and she got a stand a few people behind Issei, but she let out a breath of relief, as she still could hear him loud and clear from that distance.

"Two tickets for Your name" Issei asked at the counter, and as he left, Akane quickly used her sharingan to take a quick look at the seat numbers. Trying something similar to what she did in the hotel to get a seat near them was really an unnecessary risk. Just knowing which seat they were in was enough.

She approached the counter. "Two tickets for your name, please" she asked.

After giving the booking clerk the money, Akane looked at the tickets pressed in her hand. She then went on to join her clone that was standing beside the entrance of the theater, keeping a keen eye on the target that had moved to stand in a line going through the security checkpoint on the entrance.
They both quickly joined the line as well, and after a few minutes, they passed through the checkpoint and enter the building. There was still a few minutes left of the last show on the screen. They watched as Issei took advantage of the time to get some popcorn and drink for himself and his date.
She wraps her hands around Shizuma's waist and hugs her while burying her head in her neck. She kissed a few times which resultant in a moan coming out from her clone's mouth. It also embarrassed some bystanders enough to avert their eyes from them.

"Their seat is to the middle left of two rows in front of us, while our seats are in the corner" she mumbles to her clone between kisses.

"I would have preferred to sit a row behind them, but we will manage" Shizuma whispered into her ear, warm breath tickling her skin "Hmmm we still a have ten minutes left . Let's go take a seat" she said, a bit louder than before.

-x-

Near the Abandoned Church

Nagisa was hiding amidst the branches of a tall tree which lent her a full view of the abandoned church. Like she had informed her boss before, she was there keeping an eye on the fallen who - for the first time under her watchful eye - were doing something blatantly suspicious.

"Ahh! Why do we have to do this busy work? They should be doing this for us", Nagisa heard the midget fallen complain, loudly enough so that she could hear her even without any chakra enchantments. They were still in the middle of the process of dumping damaged and decayed furniture out of the abandoned church.

"Stop complaining and get to work! You know very well why they can't come here right now", Kalawarner scolded her.

Dohnaseek seemed to be inspecting the place from the inside as she had not seen him for a while. The only thing that told her he still was there, was the occasional calls to him from his fellow fallen, and Dohnaseek's annoyed replies.

As she observed the two fallen bickering an alert notification popped in her glasses.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." she said to herself as she read through the info. A stray demon had appeared just a kilometer away from where she was standing.

She quickly gazed down to check up on the fallen who looked like they still were unaware of the news. Good, she thought as she sighed of relief, though if that demon comes anywhere near this area they will catch up on him. They might change their location if they think the church is compromised.
Nagisa knew she had to stop that from happening, so she decided to take out her cellphone to call someone who could deal with this situation for her.

"Hello" Rias Replied

"Gremory-san, it's me, Akane… or to be more accurate, one of her clones speaking", Nagisa introduced herself.

"Ah, yes, Akane mentioned that her clones were keeping an eye on the Fallen for her"

"I still am doing just that, though there is a bit of a problem for which I need your assistance" Nagisa tells her

"Ok what can I do for you?" Rias asked

"A stray demon has just appeared in an area one kilometer to the north from my current position, the abandoned church, and I wondered if you could take care of him before he comes near me".

Another stray demon? Crap! We were not informed about this one either. We were just in the middle of installing the new device that would help us tracking down these stray demons all around Kuoh. Well, there goes the perfect opportunity to test these bad boys out" Rias replied. She sounded more annoyed than concerned

"I am pretty sure other opportunities to test those devices will come, Gremory-san. Now, can you deal with this stray for me?" she asked.

"Sure. Let me contact my peerage. It will take a minute or two. In the meantime, tell me what are our fallen buddies are up to in the abandoned church?" she asked, somewhat nonchalantly.

"You can ask Akane about that later. I updated her about the situation, and it seemed as if she had some plans ready" she said, knowing that her mistress had told her and Sitri a few but she also knows that she would have kept a few things a secret

"Well then…", Rias began, sounding a bit disappointed. "Happy hunting" she then added before abruptly ending the call, leaving Nagisa alone with the dial tones.

Let's hope that the stray demon is not a pain in the ass like the one Akane mentioned she fought on the night she arrived, she thought to herself as she put away her cellphone.

-x-

Inside the Theater

The movie was at its half-way point and most of the people in the crowd watched the scenes intently. Except from Akane and Shizuma, who was keeping an eye on Raynare and Issei.
Oh - and there was also the pervert who sitting beside Akane who looked more interested in them than the movie.

"You know…", Shizuma began, "whether it's for the mission or not this might be our first date" she tells her, smiling, "I didn't believe we would ever cross this line, but we did".

"Does this really surprise you after we all have had sex?" Akane asked, playfully nudging her.

"I know it's stupid but it kind of does surprise me a bit", she said. "I have always thought you were just taking comfort in us, or it all was something you did out of boredom. But now… I am not so sure".

"While it's true that our escapades started out as a way for me to evade my boredom… and to relieve some of my stress, it has now evolved into something that I now appreciate dearly. It's the only relationship I am in where I am not actively pursuing to gain something in return" Akane replied, as she let her one arm wrap around Shizuma's shoulders, pulling her closer.

"Hm, it just a shame we can't go back to my room after this to properly celebrate our first date" said Shizuma.

"We will get plenty of opportunity to do that later my dear, though…" Akane replied but a sparkle of mischief appeared in her eyes, "that doesn't mean we can't have some fun now", she said, lowering her voice as her eyes darkened with lust. "Hop on me" She whispers, patting her thigh.

Shizuma wastes no time and straddles her. She leans forward and kisses her passionately. The second their lips meets, Akane lets out a rumbling moan.

Their make out session was, however, soon interrupted by a huffing noise. When both of them turned around to see where that noise was coming from, it was the pervert who was sitting beside Akane's seat who had his dick out in the open, his hands stroking it. His eyes were glazed with desire and he did not fret as their eyes locked.

Akane, who would have messed with the guy if it was some other day - or even given him more material to masturbate to, was not in the mood.

"Enjoying the view there?"

"Yeah…" he answered, his hands dropping its pace as a hint of uncertainty was heard in his voice. He was not used to this response.

"You wanna see my girlfriend's breasts?"

"Uhm…". He cleared his throat. "Yeah, sure". His smile had returned, and curled his damp lips.
Shizuma, who knew what Akane were doing, put on a seductive smile and started to teasingly play with her shirt. Akane invites the guy to come closer, and when he does, Akane wraps her one arm around his neck, he gasps.

"Oh", she said quietly, "we are going to have some fun with you tonight". His eyes widened and she caressed his stubbled cheeks before she twisted his neck in an unnatural angle, immediately killing him. She then placed his head back against the headrest, making it look like he had just fallen asleep. When she was done, she returned to Shizuma who wasted no time taking up where they left.

-x-

"This would be the area that Akane must have been talking about. The distance and direction does
checks out" Akeno says out loud.

"Well then be on your toes. Everyone on accounts of recent events the stray we are looking for might be similar to the Akane fought be on your guard the moment we enter purgatorio" Rias warned her peerage. "Akeno, can you open the Limbo Gate?" she then asked her queen who nodded before she summoned a large magic seal in front of them, and they started to go through the seal one by one.
Once inside the Purgatorio, the magic seal closed itself.

"Ok, Koneko, can you catch the stray's scent?" Rias asked her rook who nodded in response. "Good. Lead us to its source".

Koneko nodded again as she quickly started to follow the stray's trail with the rest of them following her.

"Two strays in one week? Oof. This might be a new record" said Kiba as they moved towards their target.

"Yeah I surely hope this doesn't become a weekly occurrence", Akeno chimed in. "Rias?" she then called out to her king who seemed to be busy thinking through something.

"Yeah?" Rias replied.

"Is there something on your mind?" Akeno asked.

"There is, but it's not important right now. Look" Rias said, pointing towards something in the distance.

"Wait, is that…?" Akeno began, not finishing what she was going to say.

"Yes. Get ready" Kiba replied, summoning his swords as he was getting ready for the serious fight.
They were facing not one but two stray demons, and they seemed to be heading their way.

-x-

Evening

Akane and Shizuma on the other hand was following Issei and Raynare. They had left the theater, and the duo had first gone shopping, and then led them to a BBQ restaurant, were the two of them had their late lunch. The couple finished their meal, and now it seemed as if Raynare was leading Issei towards a public garden.

There were very few people present in the area of the Garden, which complicated things for Akane and Shizuma. After a quick survey, they slid inside crown of the trees, following them in the shadows.

"It is sort of surprising that there are so few people here" said Shizuma.

"From what I can remember, this area is mostly used for picnics during the daytime. But during the night its only home to youngsters who want to make out in private... and hobos, of course, which most people don't really want to deal with" Akane replied.

"So what? Raynare wants a quiet place to make out with her date" Shizuma jokingly replied.

"If she wanted to do that she would have taken him to a love hotel. She is, after all, a fallen. Remember? No, whatever her plans are for Issei, she wants it done quietly".

"Like… killing him?"

After a short moment of silence, Akane puts forth another possibility. "Perhaps. Or, kidnapping him to be taken to Azazel for possible recruitment".

"What are we gonna do if that happens?" Shizuma asked

"If that does happen, then we know Raynare is not the traitor as she is following Azazel's orders... Which mean our job is done and I can go and stop her" Akane said.

"Does that mean we will be making enemies with Azazel and fallen?"

"Our interests lie with Rias and the devils now, not the fallen angels, my dear", Akane chides her gently. "Rias wants that boy in her peerage and if we help to make it a possibility, she would be grateful to us. Since she is a devil, she would want to give us something back in return" she explains
to Shizuma who nodded with a somber expression. Akane did not notice it.

"Look. They stopped" Akane informed her, pointing towards Issei and Raynare who now were standing in front of a water fountain, talking.

Before Akane even got an opportunity to listen into the conversation by enhancing her hearing. Both of them witness her stabbing Issei in the stomach with a light spear.

"Crap!" both of them cursed in unison.

"What do we do now?" Shizuma asked her quickly as she saw Issei fell down onto the ground, with blood freely flowing out of his wound.

"Nothing. Rias knows Issei was going on a date fallen angel. She would have planted a summon seal on him. She should be arriving here at any moment after what has just happened..." Akane said as they saw Issei crawling away from Raynare who mercilessly fired another spear. Issei choked on a scream, and slowly, the light in his eyes went out, forever darkened by the spear that ended his life.

"Or, I can just take his body back to her" Akane mused.

The moment she spoke, she noticed that Raynare started to prepare a spell, probably in order to destroy the dead body. Akane could not let that happen, and she quickly jumped out from the tree.

"Oh, no, you fucking don't" she hissed.

The surprise in Raynare's face vanished the moment Akane kicked the side of her head, making her body slung away from the body and onto the ground.

As A trail of dark blood trickled down Raynare's head, she turned around to look at her assailant and
fire was burning in her eyes.

"YOU", Raynare growled as she stared at her.

-x-

Beta reader-Raquiesha

Author Note:- There you go folks. If you had enjoyed the chapter please leave a comment. I would be very thankful.
Also I have a new editor for this chapter and hopefully the further chapter as well. Raquiesha she is awesome and is currently writing a Dragon age fic on AO3 "Flowers of the Dead" its was an amazing read for me and i hope u guys would like that story as well

 

[siddharth1998m]

Chapter-10


"YOU!" Raynare spat out as she sees who had attacked her.

"Oh, so you know me. Good that saves me some time," said Akane as she quickly throws two cards from her battle deck in front of her. A large gate of light was created then, and as she passed through it, she came out on the other end dressed in her exorcist uniform, holding her sword "Leave before I get in a mood to pluck your wings on one by one Fallen" She warns her as she takes Bakuya out of its sheath and points it towards her

"This has nothing to do with you Orimura. Leave at once" said Raynare getting up before she ditched her civilian dress and revealed her four sets of wings as well as her fallen angel uniform. Black leather boots, jeans, corset, and a jacket. It was their standard uniform, which Akane had seen countless times. She thought it looked like a gimp suit with a jacket – just shy of a mask, though.

"Oh! That's where you are wrong Fallen, You see not only are you here trespassing in my Masters territory but you also now just killed the boy she wanted to make her servant" Akane explains to her. "That, my dear, carries a death sentence, but fortunately for you this situation is still salvageable. Just leave Kuoh and I won't kill you" she said giving her the options to back. Akane was of course was lying through her teeth and just was trying….

"So you did become a devil huh…" Raynare said menacingly "Good! now I can finish the job my mother started" She said as a light spear formed in her hand "And this Time, my uncles won't come to save you" and chucks that spears at her direction

Akane quickly kicks Issei's body to the side before dodging the light spear herself only for Raynare to launch herself at her after forming another light spear. Akane deflected the tip of the spear using Bakuya's sheath and attacks Raynare who now left open with her sword though she dodged the attack by using her wings to get away.

Akane wasted no time to go after her to close the distance knowing she really can't afford to turn this fight into a long range affair without risking damage to Issei's body. "I am gonna kill that man when I get my hands on him, He promised he would keep you devils busy today" Raynare growled out as they were clashing their weapons

"So that's the reason why Rias hasn't arrived yet. Clever plan" Akane thinks to herself "Well jokes on you my master made sure to leave me behind as standby and looks like her intuitions were right" She replied back before she bashes her in the head with the sheath which she had reinforced with chakra which threw Raynare sideways a bit.

The impact of that attack while not being deadly still did some damage as she can saw Raynare cheeks have swollen a bit and a bit of blood was coming out of her mouth. Akane again went after her closing in quickly and attacked her with a swords slash though before she could hit Raynare she went airborne

"Well crap I guess I don't have a choice left" She sheaths her sword and quickly run towards Issei's body while Raynare start bombarding her Fire and lighting spell remnants of whom reaches the trees in the surrounding area which catches fire as a result.

As Akane gets near Issei's body she brought out some smoke bombs out of her pockets and threw them towards Raynare's direction. Obscuring her vision for moment, giving Akane enough time to pick his body up and putting it over her shoulder before bailing out of there.

Raynare as Akane expected blew away the smoke with the help of her wings and quickly started to look around for her. "Jump high to your left" Shizuma ordered her through the radio which she immediately followed as she did that a huge ball of fire hit the area where she just was. "She is coming through your left noo jump to your left" she warned again

"FUCKING DIE ALREADY!!!!" Akane heard her shout from the behind as she jumped to the right and again another big fire ball hit the ground.

"Man she is really going overboard with this" Akane thought to herself as she was now out of the gardens heading towards the shopping district.

As she was running towards the shopping district she noticed that Raynare was not following her anymore. "Shizuma! Is she still following me?" She asked

"No. She stopped following you the moment you escaped the garden. After throwing a temper tantrum she is currently on route back to the hotel, I guess, thought if she changes route I will inform you"

"Ok. thanks for the help back there"

"Oh?" Akane could hear her smile. "Should I expect a reward after the mission is done?"

Akane laughed quietly "Sure, my dear," She said cutting off the connection before stopping at a rooftop of a building in shopping district knowing that Raynare was not chasing her anymore and she takes out her cellphone to call Rias

"The number you are trying to call is outside the coverage area. Please try again later"

"Fuck! No!" She cursed knowing soon Issei's spirit would pass on, and reviving him would become impossible.

After trying one last time to call Rias Akane Dialed Sona's number. She answered immediately, and for that, Akane was grateful. "What is it Orimura?" Sona asked

"Issei's dead and Rias hasn't arrived to revive him yet. I even tried to call her cell but it's out of the coverage area" Akane informed him

Sona stayed silent for a while before replying "……. Well that's strange, maybe the summon seal didn't activate. Akane, try to find a pamphlet with a magic seal on Issei. I am sure
Rias would have planted one on him you can summon her using that" Sona replied

"Ok hold for a moment while I look for it" She put the call on speaker places the ground before dropping Issei body as well and she started to look for the pamphlet on him.

"He doesn't have a pamphlet on him Sitri." Akane tells her as she looks at his pant pockets and shirt pockets "Just tell me Where is Rias so I can just take the body to her" she asked

"Rias went out to hunt a stray demon with her peerage. If you hadn't been able to contact her it means She still is inside the purgatorio. You never will be able to reach her in time" Sona informs her as well as shots down her idea "Where are you at the moment?" She asked

"On top of some building in the shopping district. Don't know where I am actually standing through" Akane replied

"Well then you are not far from the Academy, meet me there in front of the student council room I have a plan" Sona informed her "You can enter through the roof right?" She asked

"Of course I can do that" Akane replied as she cuts of the call putting her cell back in her pocket Before picking up Issei body and leaving for the Academy.
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After running from roof to roof for a full 5 minutes Akane could see that she had reached the academy. She just had to reach the roof so she could just drop-in in front of the Student Council Room. Directly jumping to the roof by supplying chakra to legs would have been something she would have done if she wasn't carrying something on her back as the school the school was four story building and she was currently standing on a two story. It's not like she can't do it she can but wasting all her chakra to perform just one action is not how she was raised. Chakra conservation was an important lesson her grandmother taught her when she was teaching her how to use Fire style techniques

Flashback

A younger Akane can be seen standing on the fishing plank with her grandmother as they were facing the lake which was not far from their house, placed in the hilly areas of Kuoh.
"Think of today's lesson as a test of sorts" Her grandmother said

"Please tell me it does not involve those fishes again Grandma" she asked, Whining

"No," her grandmother said, smiling. "But when this test is done, you are to be practicing iryo ninjutsu." Her voice grew sterner. "Young lady, I will not be hearing any excuses." She put her foot down. "Not being able to save even a single fish, is unacceptable."

"Now back to the topic at hand." Her grandmother thought for a moment. "Ah, yes, the reward! I almost forgot about that." Something flickered, and Bakuya appeared in her grandmother's hand. "This, my dear, is the reward. If you pass the test, Bakuya will be yours and I will start teaching you kenjutsu. But – if you fail – then say goodbye to both the sword and the lessons."
Akane, who had been getting bored of healing fishes, was almost jumping at the possibility of learning something new. Her eyes sparked with excitement. "Ok," she asked, "what do I have to do to pass this test?"

"It's good to see that you are excited. Now activate your Sharingan and watch me closely" she instructs her Akane who channeled chakra into her eyes which quickly morphed revealing red eyes with two tomoe in her left eye and one tomoe in her right

As instructed, she watched her grandmother as she performed a few hand seals. "Fire Style- Great Fireball jutsu" she said before she bellowed Flames out of her mouth which took the form of a huge orb and hit the center of the lake creating a small shockwave

After the small waves of water had stopped her grandmother again started to perform hand seals "Fire style- Dragon fire jutsu" her grandmother fires out a fire which takes the shape of a dragon head on its way and hit were the pervious techniques hit resulting in an another shock wave this time it was a little bit stronger than before as it created waves of water that hit the fishing plank and wetted their feet.

Again After waiting for the waves to calm down she started to perform hand seal this one being much longer than before there were 22 hand seals in total when she counted them "Fire style- Fire Dragon Bullet jutsu" she said before taking in a large amount of air and spit a continuous stream of fire at a straight line which was getting hotter by every second. This jutsu when it hit the water in didn't cause any explosion on impact as it was a continuous steam of fire it did however caused steam to cover a large area if the lake

"This is your test Akane, You need to use one of the jutsus I showed you just now at an acceptable level and take Bakuya of my hand to pass this test" She informed her "Do you have any doubts or a question you need to ask me before starting?" she asked

"yeah just one. Would you fight back or run away when I come to retrieve Bakuya from you" She asked

Her grandmother chuckled after hearing her question "the moment you are done showing me the jutsu. I would not move a bit from my spot I promise" she said to her

"Ok then" Akane replied satisfied with her grandmothers answer she steps forward and stands were she was standing while using the Jutsus. Thought it was her first time seeing those Jutsus being performed thanks to her sharingan she knew how to perform them right away as it one of the primary functions of her bloodline so she can understand the theory behind the use any jutsu she sees being performed but whether she can use that jutsu or not depended upon two factors one being the nature of technique being used, is it a fire style jutsu? or a water style jutsu? and second factor is how much chakra is she going to need to perform the jutsu. If a jutsu meet these factors, then she can use that jutsu and the three she just saw her grandmother perform met those factors.

Firstly, all the Jutsus she just saw her grandmother perform were Fire Style Jutsus and if what she had read in their family scrolls was correct then Pretty much every member of her family had an affinity for fire style Jutsus which helped them learn and master them quickly and she wasn't an exception to that.

Second, was the chakra cost how much she needed to perform each jutsu. Due to her training with her Grandmother she had enough chakra to any of them she wanted for the test. Of course the chakra cost for each jutsu was different and knowing that she decided to do the dragon bullet jutsu as it seemed the toughest one of the three she just saw and she wanted to impress her Grandmother so that she would start teaching her more jutsu like that.

And so she started to perform the hand seals for the jutsu Ox → Monkey → Hare → Rat → Boar → Bird → Ox → Horse → Bird → Rat → Tiger → Dog → Tiger → Snake → Ox → Ram → Snake → Boar → Ram → Rat → Monkey Fire style- Fire Dragon Bullet jutsu and with that she fired out a stream of fire from her mouth. "Ok this is ridiculous not only is this jutsu emptying out my tank but I am not even able to keep it in the target area I decided upon" Akane thinks to herself as she was using the jutsu while sweat drips down her face.

After seeing that she while not have used it perfectly like her grandmother but she did it at an acceptable level and that's what her grandmother asked her to do, Also if she doesn't stop now she might pass out from chakra exhaustion and so she stops. "Looks like you have something of mine Grandma" Akane said as she turned around to see her grandmother only to find out she was not there

"It's not yours until you can take it off my hands sweetheart" her grandmother greeted her from behind. When Akane turned around she found that she was standing a few meter away from where she was on the surface of the water "And as I promised I won't move So come take Bakuya off my make it yours" She said and placed the sword in her hands and present it to her

"Carp!" Akane cursed inside her mind in order to reach where her grandmother was standing. She had to water walk which required chakra that she had all but used up for that jutsu
The confidence in which she usually walks, runs or jumps on the surface of water every morning is now gone. As she tentatively took the first step on the surface of the water which reminisced of baby trying to walk on her feet for the first time and like a baby she falls after taking just another step falling through the surface of water, only to be greeted by the fish who were swimming below the surface without any care of the world.

"Do you realize what was your mistake here?" her grandmother asked her as she was swimming back to the fishing plank

She rose from the water and took a seat on the plank her shoulders dropped "I Don't know, Have larger chakra reserves I guess"

"Did you say something sweetheart? It's hard to hear you with that pity dick in your mouth" She said to her "Now give me a proper answer" she barked out

"I said have larger chakra reserves." She was cut off as her grandmother's palm scoured her cheek, leaving it as well as her heart burning. "Ouch," she moaned weakly.

"Your mistake was to show off. You could have passed the test easily by using the other two lesser Jutsus…. But no. You used the harder one and emptied your chakra reserves in the process. What would have happened if you were in a life or death scenario and you pulled something like this against your opponent? What would have happened if that opponent managed to dodge that attack or had someone hiding in shadow to strike you from behind" She scolded her

"An Orimura doesn't show off. We don't fight with honor as That's for the dogs. We are the blood of Gods. We don't seek Glory as it is for the dead and we Survive at all costs. Remember these words.."
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"As they have helped our ancestor to survive long enough till we had you and You don't want that to go to waste" Akane remembered her grandma words from that day that made her smile softly as she wall walking up to the roof of the building.

When she reached the top of the building the Student council room's door can be seen Cleary and she saw Sitri standing there waiting for her arrival. It didn't take Akane long to reach her
"Sitri" She greeted her

"You are here Good let take him inside" she told her as she opened the school council room and entered with Akane in tow.

"Lay him on that table" Sona said, pointing

"So what are you going to do here?" Akane asked as she was laying Issei body down on the table

"We don't know when will Rias would return from her hunt and we don't have much time left before reviving Issei would be not possible. That's why I am turning him into a devil." Said Sona as she brings out a velvet box when opened it revealed her evil pieces inside of it.

"Ohoh, Naughty, naughty stealing a potential servant away from Rias huhh?" Akane asked as in general she didn't care who got Issei at the end. She did what something for them that saved Issei and she now just expected to be rewarded with one of them. And if they if they try to back out from finding someone who can turn her into a devil she would use this as a leverage as devils are famous for being fair in a deal as if you did something for them they will after reward you in return. Though she would be lying if she said backstabbing and political intrigue did not entertain her.

"if you have the opportunity to make something yours and you do it it's not considered stealing but taking advantage of a situation. Though rest assured you don't have to worry about me taking him away from Rias as I promised her that I will not take Issei and I intend to keep that promise" Sona replied

"Wait how does that work? Shouldn't you turning him into a devil make you his master?" Akane asked

"It would through Devils can trade servants from each other so I can give Issei to Rias and in return she would give back the pieces I would use to resurrect him." Sona answered before places her one hand over the stab wound "Now let see how much are you worth Issei?" She said as Akane saw a similar sight of blood taking a shape of a chess piece which finally revealed itself to be a queen piece.

"Ohh Rias you owe me big for this" Akane heard Sona say it to herself as picked up all the pieces present inside the box and places them on Issei stomach

"I, Sona Sitri, Hereby order You, Issei Hyoudou, to heed me. Bring your soul back to this world and serve me as my servant devil. You shall be my pawn" Akane saw Sona say those words while a pale blue magic seal formed under Issei which was big enough to cover his entire body started to rotate. As the pieces started to glow as they turned translucent and entered his body the stab wound quickly started to heal itself leaving no signs behind of that injury.

"Is it done?" Akane asked

"Yeah his injuries are now healed and his body went through the resurrection process with any problem. Though he will still be unconscious for a while" Sona replied

"Hmm. Do you mind if can take a look?" Akane asked her she was interested in knowing how far did the resurrection process healed his injuries

"Sure. Help yourself out"

Akane nodded and bended her knees. Her hand started go glow green as she began the diagnostics jutsu on his body while she was not super familiar with devil physiology. In fact, she needed to ask Rias if she could get her hands on some medical journals written for devil physiology as her normal venom and gas based weapons might not work on them as she needed to find alternatives as using holy water would be overkill, while she was busy doing that Sona was observing her.

Sona was informed about her abilities by both Rias as well as by Azazel research which she had given a through read and she was conflicted about Akane. One on hand she was thrilled such a powerful bloodline exist and after her initial training with Grayfia she would be joining her sister's peerage and by extension joining the Sitri which also meant that if marries someone inside the Sitri her children and subsequent clan that she wanted reform would be Sitri's vassals.

But on the other hand she also knew that bloodline might also cause in fighting between the pillars. And she knew that would happen as it already does happen when two devils want to recruit someone with a strong scared gear. In fact, a few months ago she and Rias did fight each other in order to decide who gets Issei and that fight was for a scared gear you know a thing that would disappear once the wielder is dead. A Bloodlines on the other hand don't disappear and thus are very popular amongst pillars, it was one of the reason why Rias was being wed to Riser as both families wanted to evolve their bloodlines.

Akane's bloodline the Sharingan was too powerful and if the other pillars get a whiff of its abilities they would try get their hand on it and if that not they would be stupid. As Even if Sona ignores the Holy fire ability which can kill any devil if it touches them, her bloodline was still very strong without it, the power to copy any spell and fighting she sees being performed as long as that ability is not another bloodline is an ability which most devils would kill to get their hands on. And that was her concern as whichever family gets hold of that bloodline and successfully breeds in those abilities, which they would do even though breeding with half devil is something most pure blooded families frown upon she knew they would swallow their pride for that power, similar to when they swallowed their pride to accepted Evil pieces' system in order to survive. Well that family while it will get very powerful it will as become a target of the other pillars and Sona did not want that for her family.

"Hey Sitri" Akane called her out after finishing her diagnostic on Issei which brought Sona out of her train of thought

"Yeah what is it?" she asked

"Do you know how these Evil pieces work as I have not seen anything like this before, there are no tears in the tissue, the skin in not delicate like you would expect after an injury it is as if the wound never existed in the first place." Said Akane with wonder

"That is something only Lord Beelzebub knows about only thing we know that one of the components required to make an evil piece is a devil's blood" Sona answered though she can see her that answer just confused her even more so she elaborated "Whenever someone get Evil piece set they need to provide their blood in order for the production of that set to be complete. It's a popular theory amongst the devils that blood acts as a catalyst for the resurrection process as well as binding the potentials devil to their masters Thought it's just a theory"

"Hmm. So what do we do now that is Issei is safe?" Akane asked as she got up

"We will be going to Akeno's house as Before Rias went out for the hunt I informed her about the meeting. My peerage will also be arriving there once they are done performing their duties" Sona informed them "I will also trade Issei away their so pick him up we gonna need him to be there"

"Ok" Akane replied picking Issei up on her shoulder and both her and Sona leave through transportation seal.
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Akeno house, Orimura shrine

When the two of them arrived they saw that Tsubaki was already there, waiting for them. The moment they entered the living room another magic seal appeared. This time it was crimson from which seal Rias, Akeno Koneko and Kiba came out covered in blood

"Kiba are you okay? What happened?" Tsubaki quickly moved to see him which made Kiba laugh nervously.

"Don't worry Tsubaki this is not our blood, It's just that the hunt got a wee bit messy. We just have some brushes here and there but it's nothing serious" Rias replied calming her worries before she noticed Akane who had Issei on her shoulder "Akane what's Issei doing here?" She asked pointing towards him

Sona Sighed before replying "Why don't you go clean up first? Then I will can tell you in peace" Sona suggested as she pointed towards the state they were in which made Rias laugh nervously "Sure sure, Akeno can you show Kiba the bathroom he would be using?" Rias asked her queen

"Yeah follow me Kiba" Akeno replied as they four of them left to themselves cleaned up

"Orimura-san please lay him there on the sofa so I can give him a general check up to see everything is running smoothly as possible" Tsubaki tells Akane who nods and does just that. "So how many pieces did it take?" Tsubaki asked her master

"8 Pawns" Sona replied taking a seat on the sofa "and before you say anything. No, we are not keeping him"

"I didn't say anything" Tsubaki replied back which her usual stoic tone thought Akane saw her lips curl up just a little a bit before she moved towards Issei

"Ohh the talk of pawns reminded me Sitri why you still haven't used any of your pawn pieces?" Akane asked her taking an opposite seat to Sona "I expected the Pawn pieces to be used first by the devils but you are the second devil I have seen after Rias who still have their pawns left. Is there something that I am not catching up on here?"

"Yes actually, while pawns are the weakest pieces in a set not counting the mutated ones of course they have the ability be just as strong as any other piece under the right circumstances." Sona tells her

"wait is this related to how in theory you can have nine queens, ten knights, ten bishops or ten rooks in chess with the help of promotions?" Akane asked

"Yes, though it's a bit different here you see a devil with a pawn piece when enters an enemy territory it can like in chess turn into any other chess piece via promotion and how it works here is that the powers of that piece whether its physical or magical stack up on the pawn. Making him strong or stronger than a rook." Sona explains it to her

"Now why we keep the pawn for the last is simple the stronger your other pieces are the stronger the pawn becomes. Let's take a rook for example if I turn a human using a rook he has let's say an ability to punch through a tree that the base powers of a rook piece this base power grows with user if at the point when that rook can put through 5 tree at once I resurrect another human as a pawn, well when that pawn promotes into that rook he can also punch through 5 trees at once without any training. There are limitations of course but this is a trump card most devils use"

"But how does the enemy territory work? In chess that is the area where the opponent's king start but how does that work here?" Akane asked

"A king can declare any territory an enemy territory I for example if need be can declare this shrine as enemy territory and if I had pawn they can now use promotion" Sona answered
As the two of them where talking they noticed Rias came down the stairs now clean and dressed in new clothes. Her head was still was from the shower "It will take them 10 to 15 minutes to come out" she said before slumps down on the sofa moaning "Man those stray demons where a pain in the ass to deal with"

"Demons? as in more than one?" Sona asked

"yeah there were two of them" Rias replied

"Are you nuts?" Sona scolds her "why didn't you called for backup" She asked

"Ohh Sona they weren't that tough. The only reason it took us that long to deal with them was when we went kill one the other always interrupted the killing blow" Rias replied
Akane who had been watching the conversation going silently "it's like someone placed them there deliberately to distract you for a while" She commented

"What are you talking about?" Sona asked

Akane sighed before she started telling them what happed with Raynare and Issei as well as tell them about their confrontation.
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Beta reader-Raquiesha

Author Note:- There you go folks. If you had enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review. I would be very thankful.
Also this chapter is again edited by the lovely Raquiesha. Who thankfully was kind enough to edit my jumbled mess. She is awesome and if you hadn't already checked her Dragon age fic on AO3 "Flowers of the Dead" plz do. Its was an amazing read.